Greenpeace and other anti-biotech activist groups have logged a win in a crusade that could ultimately blind and kill thousands of children annually. How? By persuading the Court of Appeals of the Philippines to issue a scientifically ignorant and morally hideous decision to ban the planting of vitamin A–enriched golden rice. The objective result will be more children blinded and killed by vitamin A deficiency. The World Health Organization estimates that 250,000–500,000 children who are vitamin A–deficient become blind every year, and half of them die within 12 months of losing their sight ..read more

Back in August 2023, I wrote about a potential Seventeenth Amendment conflict in Kentucky. Under Kentucky law, in the event of a Senate vacancy, the Governor could only appoint a temporary Senator of the same political party as the former Senator. The Kentucky Legislature has a Republican super-majority with a Democratic Governor. And the Governor indicated that he thought this constraint on his powers to appoint a Senator violated the Seventeenth Amendment. Vikram Amar suggested there were indeed problems. As history played out, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky remains in office, so this i ..read more

In a recent newsletter, I fretted that disinformation experts keep failing upward into ever greater positions of prominence, even when their underlying research comes under serious scrutiny. This week, The New York Times commented on—and contributed to—the most compelling example of this phenomenon: Nina Jankowicz, who has returned from exile to launch a new disinformation-tracking organization called the American Sunlight Project. Jankowicz, readers will recall, was hired by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2022 to head its short-lived Disinformation Governance Board. The dystopi ..read more

Cash infusion still not enough: Despite the $60 billion in Ukraine aid that was just authorized by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, U.S. government officials are quietly voicing their skepticism that this chunk of change will be effective at helping Ukraine beat Russia. "Russia maintains a manpower and weapons advantage, and it would take a lot to reverse months and years of territorial losses," reported Politico. It's not just a question of winning or losing, in other words, but also whether Ukraine is able to seize back the parts of its territory that Russia had seized ..read more

4/25/1938: United States v. Carolene Products decided. The post Today in Supreme Court History: April 25, 1938 appeared first on Reason.com ..read more

The latest trend in anti-sex action is carding people to watch porn online. After years of passing resolutions to declare porn a "public health crisis," state lawmakers are coalescing on age-verification measures as a way to address this alleged scourge. At issue is minors' ability to access online pornography. Even when porn platforms technically require visitors to be age 18 or older, all minors usually have to do is check a box saying they're adults and they're in. Some parents and politicians want more stringent age-verification measures. Enter laws requiring porn platforms to verify ..read more

A Belarusian court has sentenced the members of dissident rock band Nizkiz to two years of prison labor after finding them guilty of "organizing and plotting actions grossly violating public order." After President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in the country's disputed 2020 election, mass protests broke out. Nizkiz released the song "Rules," which became a protest anthem, and filmed the song's music video at the site of one of those demonstrations. The government also placed the band on its official registry of extremists, effectively banning its music and making its fans targets for ..read more

The post Thursday Open Thread appeared first on Reason.com ..read more

This week, Congress moved closer to passing four separate bills with $95 billion in funding for Ukraine, Israel, Indo-Pacific allies, and the domestic submarine industrial base. This funding has been debated for months, with much of it intended for wars that have been going on—and likely will continue—for a while. In other words, it's not new or surprising. Yet once again, it will be labeled "emergency spending," a tool allowing legislators to double down on their fiscal irresponsibility. Before I explain my objection to their behavior, I would like to make two points. The first one might be ..read more

(NA) CBS News recently published an article reviewing the impressive success of the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allows Americans to sponsor Ukrainian migrants fleeing Russia's brutal invasion of their country. Ukrainians with such sponsorship can live and work legally in the US for up to two years. Since it began two years ago, the program has enabled some 187,000 Ukrainians to come to the United States, begin working and contributing to our economy, and all with little controversy or opposition: In April 2022, the Biden administration created an unprecedented program known as "Unitin ..read more