With new innovations in machine learning, medicine, and other fields coming at a bewildering pace, Michael Toscano, Brad Littlejohn, Clare Morell, Jon Askonas, and Emma Waters consider how to prevent these advances from hurting family life and eroding morals without inhibiting economic freedom or the benefits of scientific progress. They have to this end devised ten “guiding principles,” among them:

Respect the natural cycle of mortality by healing or mitigating chronic disease rather than pursuing radical life extension, and palliate the suffering of terminal illness rather than artificially accelerating death.

Protect human sexuality from ongoing commodification and dehumanization by violent pornography, digital prostitution, child sexual-abuse material, deepfakes, AI sexual companions, and sex robots.

Work to wrest childhood from the grip of social media and smartphones and encourage free play and personal interaction in their place; hold companies accountable for designing platforms to undermine human well-being and exploit the most vulnerable phases of childhood development; and remove screens from the center of the classroom while restoring physical books and the mechanical arts.

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.