The birth of a child is life’s greatest joy – unless a dictator is asking you to have children to increase his personal power base, and he has destroyed the economy so badly that you can’t feed yourself. That is the situation in Venezuela. “Every woman should have six children for the good of the country,” said Bolivarian socialist Nicolás Maduro in March. He urged the nation’s women to “give birth, give birth” in order to “grow the country.” In...

The final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention included powerful lines promoting the Trump administration’s drug price policies. President Donald Trump claimed that his recent executive orders on drug prices “will massively lower the cost of your prescription drugs.” His daughter Ivanka likewise said that her father “took dramatic action to cut the cost of prescription drugs.” In 2015, U.S. Americans spent more than twice the OECD average on prescription drugs. Trump signed a price control-based executive order in...

On February 4th, 2004, a sophomore at Harvard University by the name of Mark Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook. At the time, the social networking website was limited to only students at Harvard. And while other social networking platforms like MySpace and Friendster predated the launch of Facebook, it was that February day in Cambridge, Massachusetts that the age of social media was truly born. Today, Facebook boasts 2.5 billion active users, is available in 111 languages, and is the 4th most...

After months of facing the coronavirus, Americans now face a spreading virus of evictions. More than 5,845,000 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 since it reached the United States. As a result, almost 18 million people have lost their jobs or were forced to remain at home in order to protect themselves and their families from the novel coronavirus. Beginning at the end of March, the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act, passed by Congress and signed into...

Like his fellow Hong Kong citizens, Jimmy Lai faces a date with destiny. A Chinese judge will decide on Thursday whether the Catholic dissident publisher goes to jail for up to five years over trumped-up intimidation charges. Lai stands accused of purportedly intimidating a reporter at a Tiananmen Square memorial in 2017. But the evidence shows Lai should have felt threatened. The Apple Daily founder says the reporter has stalked him for years on behalf of rival Oriental Daily News,...

Perhaps the only positive thing e from the COVID-19 global pandemic has been the way it exposed a raft of never-needed regulations imposed by every level of government. Unfortunately, rather than repealing one such ordinance which could contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, the UK’s Conservative government has literally doubled down. The government-mandated cost of single-use plastic bags at groceries and stores will double, from five pence each to 10, beginning next April. Environment Secretary George Eustice also announced...

Before the COVID-19 crisis began, America was already facing a severe loneliness epidemic – marked by decades-long increases in suicide and chronic loneliness and declines in marriage munity attachment. Now, amid flurries of sweeping lockdowns, the struggle has e harder still, pushing any remnants of munity deeper into the confines of social media. We are facing a “social recession,” argues the Manhattan Institute’s Michael Hendrix, driven by a mix of stress over public health, economic anxiety, and the isolating effects...

Kellyanne Conway likely gave her last public speech in her role as White House adviser on Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention. The Conway clan’s political divisions mirror the growing bitterness that has e ingrained in families nationwide as America es more politicized, more secular, and less tolerant of philosophical diversity. The Conway family’s carnage has played out painfully on social media. Kellyanne Conway distinguished herself as a pollster before guiding Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign. She has served...

A court has found Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai not guilty of intimidation. But that does not mean he, or Hong Kong, can rest easy – especially as he faces the prospect of life in prison without any public support from the most important institution in his life: the Vatican. As global political and thought leaders denounce Beijing’s encroachments, Pope Francis remains uncharacteristically silent. Lai, the self-made billionaire publisher of the Apple Daily newspaper, could have been sentenced to five...

Widespread civil unrest, social media fueled hysteria, and political polarization have infected our public life. Vice President Joe Biden suggested on Monday that these problems have been fomented by his opponent. President Donald Trump likewise suggested that it is his political opponents, including Vice President Biden, who are responsible. Both answers are politically convenient for the candidates but fail to take into account the international nature of the revolt of the public against elites of all parties and cliques. Our...