Jimmy Lai’s trial on national-security charges began Monday in Hong Kong under a heavy police presence. You’d think he was the leader of Hamas rather than a former newspaper owner. But in the three years that he’s spent waiting for his day in court, the trial has become something the authorities never anticipated: a global stage for Jimmy’s witness for freedom.
This witness includes his stand for free speech, as he watched an alleged world finance center seize his publication, Apple Daily, without a court order or judgment. It includes his role as a champion for the economic liberty that turned Hong Kong into the most prosperous Chinese society the world has known. And it includes his argument that Hong Kong’s people are as worthy of democracy as any.
While the stop-oil view was popular at Dubai, there were enough adults in the room to keep the conference from committing to it. “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phaseout of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5 C” (the Paris Agreement’s proposed limit on 21st-century temperature increases), said conference president Ahmed al Jaber, “unless you want to take the world back into caves.” Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman dared countries to try to choke off the oil supply: “Let them do that themselves. And we will see how much they can deliver.”
Vance Ginn decries the weaponization of antitrust. [DBx: One correction, though: Antitrust statutes were not enacted for a “noble purpose.” They were enacted as measures to protect politically influential producers from the competition of more-efficient rivals.]
Who’d a-thunk it? “Georgia Taxpayers Lose $160,000 for Every Job Created by Film Tax Credits.”
Chris Edwards reports on the high costs of low-income housing.
Here’s Noah Rothman on progressives with an occasional clue and progressives utterly clueless.
The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board justly criticizes the Biden administration’s Trumpian trade policies. Two slices:
Is anybody left in Washington who will speak up for free trade? Nearly four years after Britain left the European Union and sought a trade deal with the U.S., the Biden Administration has put even an incremental trade pact with the United Kingdom on ice at least through the 2024 election. What a way to treat one of America’s closest and most stalwart allies.
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One hope for President Biden was that he’d be better than Mr. Trump on trade, but three years later his record is hardly distinguishable from his predecessor’s, and that’s no compliment to Mr. Trump.
