Crisis Phase

U.S. and Iran back at it: It looks like the ceasefire is off, given that the U.S. and Iran traded heavy strikes all weekend and Iran stopped several ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps launched missile and drone strikes at U.S. military bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain and claimed to have successfully hit missile, drone and fuel facilities,” reports The Washington Post. “Iran has claimed full control over the strait and on Sunday declared that it was closed—an assertion that the U.S. military denied.”

Only 14 ships passed through the Strait yesterday, reports The New York Times—the lowest amount in a month. Damage from Iran’s strikes has been relatively minimal so far: “Jordan’s air defense systems intercepted four missiles from Iran on Monday, the official Petra news agency reported, citing Jordan’s armed forces, which said there were no casualties or material damage in the attacks. Kuwait’s army said its air defenses intercepted hostile aerial targets and Bahrain said it also fended off Iranian missile and drone attacks on Monday morning.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters that the ceasefire is in “a crisis phase” but that delegations, along with mediators, are still meeting. It’s possible there are divisions within the regime about the proper approach to the ceasefire, and to the war more broadly. These divisions are proving costly: “Iran has not issued an official death toll since large-scale tit-for-tat attacks resumed last week, but reports by state media and official statements on individual incidents suggest about 20 people have been killed by renewed U.S. strikes,” reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Houthis, operating out of Yemen, have now “accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out airstrikes targeting Sanaa International Airport,” per Reuters. (“Yemen’s defence ministry said its armed forces had targeted the runway at Sanaa International Airport to prevent an Iranian plane from landing. Sanaa is under the control of the Iran-aligned Houthi group, while the internationally recognised government, which has the backing of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, operates out of Aden in southern Yemen.”)

Scenes from New York: From Gothamist: “NYC to babysit 500 kids for ‘Parents’ Night Out.'” This will happen for one night only—August 16—at rec centers in each of the five boroughs, though it is very explicitly targeted toward poor families, given the locations of the sites. Interestingly, only kids ages 6–13 are eligible for it. Sign of the times, I suppose: Are people really not letting their 12- and 13-year-olds stay home alone for a bit while they run errands?

QUICK HITS

• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) died over the weekend at 71 of “aortic dissection, a tear in the main artery that carries blood from the heart, caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” reports The New York Times. On Saturday night, Graham—a proponent of interventionist foreign policy, and a Trump ally—felt unwell, according to Axios, but joked: “I can’t die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli-Saudi normalization.” (Meanwhile, the state of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was widely suspected to be dead, may be…improving?)
• “For decades, people across the United States have generally known what to expect from the ticks in their area. In the Northeast, where rates of E.R. visits for tick bites are the highest, for example, the blacklegged tick and the Lyme disease it spreads have long posed the greatest threat. And the lone star tick, which can cause the red meat allergy known as alpha-gal syndrome, has historically been a problem in the Southeast,” reports The New York Times. “But some of those risks are changing as booming deer populations, shifting land use and rising temperatures bring different species of ticks—and their diseases—into new places.”
• “The Family Federation of Finland, has proposed what they are calling the Intergenerational Baby Fund, or vauvarahasto,” writes Patrick T. Brown on his Substack. “The approach mixes a little bit of upfront spending with a focus on the ‘desired/realized fertility gap,’ and applies the magic of compound interest to supersize a ‘baby bonus’ approach to increasing birth rates. Under this proposal, the Finnish state would create a €5,000 account ($5,710 in current US dollars) for every child born in Finland, which would then be invested in an index fund, not dissimilar to the newly-launched Trump Accounts. But whereas the Trump Accounts are, essentially, a retirement account…the vauvarahasto would be directly tied to fertility. When that child grows up, and one day gives birth to their own child (so long as they still reside in Finland), they unlock access to the accumulated balance of the invested funds. If they do not have a child by age 45, the money gets recycled into the investment pool.In other words, even assuming a conservative real rate of return, a couple from Rovaniemi expecting their first child a few decades hence would be sitting on a €26,000 ‘baby bonus.’ That’s half of the current median household income in Finland (a comparable payment in the U.S. would be equivalent to about $40,000).” Most libertarians still won’t support this, but it is at least a different and interesting approach to baby bonuses.
• “New York has always had lines for the sorts of experiences you can’t get anywhere else: Broadway tickets, skyscraper observation decks, Cronuts,” writes Brock Colyar for Curbed. “This summer’s lines, though, can seem borderline ludicrous: three to a street, blocks long, often for the types of things you can get almost anywhere in the city, like bagels, pizza, and pastries. They emerged slowly over the past few years and then like a flood, a cumulative effect of TikTok constantly showing all of us what we are missing out on in our very own boroughs.” But, hey, markets in everything: “A company called Same Ole Line Dudes (tagline: We Wait for Your Wants!) will even wait in line for you, starting at a price of $55.”