July 21, 2026

Photo credit: KidStock / Photodisc via Getty Images

Between 2016 and 2023, one in 240 teen girls in Oregon were on testosterone by age 17, according to a new study, while one in 630 boys were on estrogen. The national average for cross-sex hormone use by age 17? One in 1,000.

The study authors note that the percentage of teens who received a “transgender-related diagnosis” during that time (1.51 percent of girls and 0.46 percent of boys) was only “slightly lower” than the percentage of those who socially identify as transgender.

This “suggests that a social identity is a short step from a diagnosis,” Leor Sapir writes, “which opens the door to a variety of insurance-covered medical interventions including surgeries.”

Sapir decided to look back at a national insurance database the Manhattan Institute obtained a few years ago, covering the years 2017 to 2023. The data show that diagnoses in adolescents were higher and rose faster in Oregon relative to the national average.

This weakens the claim that gender-affirming care advocates often make about cross-sex identity having a biological component. “If it did,” Sapir points out, “we would expect to see a more even distribution of diagnostic prevalence. Instead, minors in Vermont and Oregon were, respectively, 18 times and 16 times more likely than minors in Mississippi to have gender-related diagnosis, to give one example.”

Read more about the findings.

Last week, Washington Representative Adam Smith explained why he had voted to cut American aid to Israel: “My family and I have had our home vandalized, a fire has been set in my driveway, my neighbors’ lives have been disrupted by demonstrations in the middle of the night, town halls meant to be forums for dialogue have been shut down, and a staff member has been physically assaulted.”

These anti-Israel vandals wanted Smith to give up his longtime support for the Jewish state. And they were right in assuming that tormenting him would get him to do so.

“Shameful as it is that Smith had to suffer threats and violence against his family, it is even worse that Americans are choosing to tolerate a systematic, lawless effort to circumvent the proper channels for political change,” Tal Fortgang writes. “Civil terrorism is an assault on our democracy.”

Read more.

The Iran War and its disruptions to oil and natural gas supplies continue to foster the argument that the world is on the verge of a total energy transition—that solar and wind will soon replace oil, natural gas, and coal for energy.

Not so, Mark P. Mills argues.

Today, oil is the world’s largest energy source. Global oil use per capita is about the same as it was two decades ago, while its overall use continues to rise as the global population grows. And it’s unlikely to slow down, given rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

“Improved energy efficiency is associated with—arguably stimulates—continual increases in overall energy demand because efficiency has the intended effect of reducing the cost of using the associated service or product,” Mills writes, “which in turn stimulates demand. More importantly, a critical net effect of technological progress is that it drives wealth expansion which, in turn, also creates more energy demand.”

Read more.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to study the environmental impacts of major projects before approving them. But even if an agency approves a project, third-party opponents can sue later on to block the permit.

The result is that building anything in the U.S.—from housing to transmission lines to power plants—takes way too long and costs way too much. The solution? Change permit law.

Jennifer Hernandez has helped her clients obtain permits to build for more than four decades. She offers five suggestions on how the law should change. “None of these proposals weakens a single environmental standard,” she writes. “Rather, they rebuild the legal infrastructure of permitting around qualities the current system doesn’t deliver: objectivity, transparency, and accountability.”

Read her proposed changes here.

A new poll of 750 Muslim Americans finds that 95 percent of them feel proud about America, while 85 percent believe in the American dream. Even so, 47 percent say they feel stronger ties with a foreign country.

Here’s where the numbers really get disturbing: 33 percent say they support Iran in its war with the U.S.; 35 percent support Hamas; 47 percent believe Jews are too often portrayed as victims; and 66 percent hold a favorable view of the Muslim Brotherhood (certain chapters of which were recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations).

“Many have embraced the American dream and moved from the margins to the mainstream through hard work, cultural mixing, and patriotic gratitude,” Zainab Al-Suwaij writes. “Yet today, a toxic alternative encourages some Muslim Americans to embrace identity politics and adopt a victimhood mindset.”

Read more about the poll and what it says about American society.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani often makes vague claims about international law as a reason to ignore domestic law. Back in May, he condemned Jews who gathered inside a synagogue that was hosting a real-estate fair—not the violent mob that had gathered outside. That same week, he denounced Israel’s flotilla of vessels to block Gaza, calling it “a brazen violation of international law.”

But blockading an enemy is a basic part of naval warfare, Eugene Kontorovich points out. And Israeli real-estate fairs don’t violate international law, either. “Mamdani’s numerous invocations of international law against other countries have an obvious pattern—all have been directed at Israel,” Kontorovich writes. “International law, by definition, means a set of rules that apply across countries. If it applies to just one country, it is neither international, nor is it law, but rather a judgment (and likely a highly biased one) about a particular dispute.”

Read more.