❧ Israel has abruptly broken its ceasefire with Hamas, launching airstrikes that have killed more than 400 Palestinians in just one day. The truce was already basically a “ceasefire” in name only, with repeated violations by Israel since January 19 that have resulted in at least 155 Palestinians being killed through sporadic airstrikes. Israel was also publicly refusing to move to Phase Two of the planned three-part negotiations and was still blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Hamas responded by postponing the promised release of Israeli hostages. But what passed for peace has now collapsed entirely, as the IDF has unleashed a new wave of bombardments across Gaza, striking Khan Younis, Rafah, Gaza City, and several other sites early Tuesday morning.
At least 404 people have reportedly been killed, the majority of them women, children and other civilians, and that’s likely an incomplete count as others remain trapped under rubble. Now, it looks like war and destruction are going to break out again, with no end in sight—and the whole world should note that it’s the Israeli leadership, not Palestinians, who wanted it that way. (Associated Press)
❧ In Serbia, historic protests rocked the capital of Belgrade on Saturday. Estimates vary as to how many people turned up, but even the government of President Aleksandar Vučić admits there were at least 107,000 demonstrators, while other sources put the count closer to 325,000. From that total, 22 people have reportedly been arrested and 56 injured. There are also allegations that Vučić’s security forces used an illegal sonic weapon as a form of crowd control.
The protests began in response to the collapse of a railway station last November that killed 15 people but have snowballed into a movement to see Vučić ousted from power. For his part, Vučić still rejects any suggestion that he should leave, but now says that “we will have to change ourselves” in response to the protests. It’s unclear what “change” he has in mind, but he sounds more subdued than before. The country’s opposition parties have also proposed an interim “government of experts,” something Vučić has condemned as “fraudulent.” But if he doesn’t deliver real reform soon, the president can expect more resistance from both the political front and the streets. (BBC)
(Video: Reuters)
❧ In Nepal, socialists are attempting to thwart a movement to bring back the monarchy. Nepal overthrew its monarchy and became a secular republic in 2008. But in recent months, amid dissatisfaction with the current democratic government’s corruption and persistent poverty in the country, momentum has been growing for the restoration of Nepal as a Hindu kingdom. The country’s former king, Gyanendra Shah, has spent the last few months touring the western part of the country, culminating in a rally in the capital of Kathmandu on March 9, which drew a massive crowd.
Video: Associated Press
The country’s major socialist parties have begun making plans for a pro-democracy counter-demonstration on the 28th, with the goal of countering “conspiracies of the reactionary forces.” Nepal’s Communist Party, which launched the decade-long armed struggle that overthrew the king in the first place, has been particularly vocal in its opposition to his return. They’ve accused him of having ordered the infamous massacre of his brother, the former king, and called him a “statue thief,” referencing accusations that he swiped historic artifacts and sold them abroad.
After being deposed in 2008, Gyanendra Shah also refused to give back his crown, which is admittedly pretty understandable. Look at that thing! He should come to Mardi Gras! (Photo: Associated Press, via the Telegraph)
Whether those specific accusations are true, they are rooted in the truth that Gyanendra Shah was a ruthless and corrupt authoritarian. Whatever the faults of the democratic government, restoring an iron-fisted theocracy to power is not the solution. Good luck to the people of Nepal in resisting it! (Kathmandu Post)
And speaking of anti-monarchy protests…
🍀 HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY TO KNEECAP! 🍀
Fresh off winning their court case against U.K. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, the Irish nationalist rap group rang in St. Patrick’s Day with a special concert guest: the severed head of King George V, from a large statue that was vandalized in Melbourne, Australia during a series of anti-colonial protests last year. (A statue of Captain Cook also got knocked over, but kept its head.) The rappers are now under investigation by the Melbourne police for the symbolic regicide, and might end up in trouble with the courts all over again. But according to them, it’s worth it to send a message: “Remember every colony can fall.”
❧ WHAT YOU CAN DO: Sign the petition to stop experiments on baby octopi in Spain! Last month, the seafood company Grupo Profand got approval for a new facility in Galicia, where they plan to conduct experiments to “optimize” the life cycle of the common octopus. The ultimate goal is to get octopi to reproduce in captivity, making it possible to factory-farm them on a massive scale. That’s a horrifying idea, since octopi are some of the most intelligent and emotional creatures in the sea, and shouldn’t be held captive for slaughter under any circumstances. There’s a new petition from the nonprofit group Ekō to shut down Grupo Profand’s plans, which already has 54,000 signatures—but let’s get those numbers up!
This is a sentient being, not a food product. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
AROUND THE STATES
❧ The Trump administration’s deportation agenda is ramping up, with several horrifying developments in the last few days. In the most recent incident, ICE agents arrested a green card holder named Fabian Schmidt, originally from Germany, at the Boston airport. It’s unclear why they did that, as Schmidt has no criminal record other than a misdemeanor for marijuana possession in 2015. But according to his mother, the agents subjected him to a form of interrogation that can only be called torture: he was reportedly “stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and [...] put back onto a chair,” along with being denied his anxiety medication and even proper sleep, which led him to collapse and be sent to Massachusetts General Hospital. Schmidt is now being held at an ICE detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, but the agency still hasn’t commented on why he’s been targeted in this way, sparking an outcry from the German government about his treatment.
Meanwhile, a woman from Milwaukee named Ma Yang has been deported to Laos, a country she’s never visited before. Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, and like Schmidt she was convicted of a marijuana-related criminal charge, which landed her in prison for 30 months back in 2020. But two years after she finished serving her time, the Trump administration revoked her green card and deported her to Laos, where she’s reportedly being held by military guards and has no access to her insulin or blood pressure medication. She says that “the United States sent me back to die,” and it’s hard to disagree with her assessment.
Fabian Schmidt (left) and Ma Yang (right)
As if those cases weren’t bad enough, the Trump administration has also deported around 250 immigrants to the dystopian CECOT prison in El Salvador. Trump invoked an archaic law called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to do it, claiming the deportees were members of the Tren De Aragua gang. But, notably, the administration has not proventhis is true, let alone that the people in question were guilty of any specific crime. In a new episode of his War Room podcast, Steve Bannon summed up just how little the MAGA movement cares, saying: “If there's some innocent gardeners in there? Hey, tough break for a swell guy. That's where we stand.”
Noticing the lack of due process, a federal judge issued an order for the flights to El Salvador to be halted and returned to the U.S. soon after they took off. But Trump’s officials ignored the order, and Trump himself was soon posting horrifying footage to Truth Social of the prisoners being unloaded and marched into CECOT with their heads shaved. Lawyers for the Department of Justice have made a variety of arguments for the decision, claiming both that the judge’s order didn’t count because it was verbal and not written and because it was given when the planes were already in international waters. But border czar Tom Homan was more honest, declaring onFox and Friends that “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care.” He’s speaking for a dangerous and increasingly authoritarian government, one that believes it can just extrajudicially get rid of any non-citizen it disapproves of. If Trump and his henchmen aren’t resisted on that, they may well turn their sights on U.S. citizens next.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is really leaning into the fascist aesthetics. (Image: Office of the President of El Salvador via New York Times)
❧ FIGHTING BACK: As ICE raids ramp up, a group of activists has created an app to track them. According to the New Republic:
ResistMap, a project of TurnLeft PAC that launched Thursday, offers immigrants and their communities an opportunity to monitor and track ICE via text updates and a national map. The group hopes that through reports made by people witnessing ICE raids, they can create a live nationwide registry of ICE activity. With time, that could provide archival data on which areas of the country have faced increased scrutiny from the deportation agency under Donald Trump’s helm.
❧ A Texas Republican has introduced a horrifying bill that would make it a felony to identify as transgender. The bill, introduced by State Rep. Tom Oliverson, would charge trans people with the new crime of “gender identity fraud” if they identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. Texas is already one of the most repressive states in the country for trans rights. Thankfully, as of now, the bill has no other sponsors and little chance of passing. But the fact that it was introduced at all does illustrate how overtly eliminationist the Right has become towards transgender people. This was never about protecting children or ensuring fairness in sports, but about erasing an entire group of people from society. (Chron)
CROOKS vs. SICKOS (Or, “What are our politicians and oligarchs up to?”)
❧ A leaked memo has revealed Elon Musk’s latest plot to sabotage Social Security. He has spent recent weeks spreading a number of exaggerated or outright false claims that the retirement program is a “Ponzi Scheme” that is rife with fraud. The memo, authored by Acting Deputy SSA Commissioner Doris Diaz, uses many of Musk’s justifications about “fraud risks” to create new hurdles for seniors to claim benefits.
The biggest change it announces is “internet identity proofing” for “benefit claims… made over the phone.” If you’ve ever tried to teach an older relative how to use the computer, you can probably immediately spot the problem with this. The memo does outline an alternative option, which is for Social Security claimants to visit offices in person. But Social Security offices are already horribly short-staffed—a problem that Musk and co. are making worse by instituting mass layoffs and shuttering dozens of offices around the country.
The memo acknowledges that the plan will create “service disruption” and “operational strain,” but that all seems to be part of the plan. Musk has made no secret of his desire to slash “entitlements,” and this is his way of doing it without Republicans needing to deal with the political fallout of actually cutting the most popular safety net program in the country. (Popular Information)
CHART OF THE WEEK
Elsewhere in Elon’s dysfunctional fiefdom, Tesla’s stock price dropped by a further 6 percent today, led by increased competition from Chinese electric cars and “sales woes” related to Musk’s politics. Looks like telling everyone it’s illegal to boycott hasn’t worked very well!
❧ Lee Zeldin is destroying the Environmental Protection Agency. Last week, the EPA head announced that he was shredding 31 key environmental rules and fundamentally reframing the agency’s focus away from protecting the environment and towards “lower[ing] the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.”
Zeldin has announced that the EPA will re-write its 2009 finding that climate change is a threat to public health and welfare, a legal underpinning he described as “the holy grail of the climate change religion.” Climate change is, of course, not a “religion.” It’s a fact that is threatening to make many parts of Earth uninhabitable. But all must be sacrificed in order to let businesses do whatever they want, damn the consequences. As a result, the New York Times reports:
Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. would unwind more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. It would overturn limits on soot from smokestacks that have been linked to respiratory problems in humans and premature deaths as well as restrictions on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. It would get rid of the “good neighbor rule” that requires states to address their own pollution when it’s carried by winds into neighboring states. And it would eliminate enforcement efforts that prioritize the protection of poor and minority communities.
In addition, when the agency creates environmental policy, it would no longer consider the costs to society from wildfires, droughts, storms and other disasters that might be made worse by pollution connected to that policy, Mr. Zeldin said.
❧ Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) have introduced a bipartisan bill to cap credit card debt. If passed, the legislation would limit the interest rate on U.S. credit cards to 10 percent, a dramatic decrease from the current average of 28.7 percent. That would save Americans millions of dollars in interest payments, and it’s a proposal both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have endorsed in the past. However, Luna is also the sponsor of the ludicrous plan to put Trump’s head on Mount Rushmore, so her involvement doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. (Fox 13 Tampa Bay)
❧ Democratic voters seem to have finally had it with Chuck Schumer after his pathetic capitulation on the GOP budget last week. The Senate minority leader announced on Monday that he would need to cancel a scheduled book tour for “security reasons.” The real reason for this is that he is facing widespread protest from his own party, where the momentum is growing for him to resign or face a primary challenge.
In a New York Timesinterview on Sunday, Schumer made it even more crystal clear that he is totally committed to the long-dead notion of Republicans coming to their senses and embracing bipartisanship, which he revealed in a rather unsettling fashion:
“I am hopeful that our Republican colleagues will resume working with us. And I talk to them. One of the places is in the gym. When you’re on that bike in your shorts, panting away next to a Republican, a lot of the inhibitions come off.”
We’ve talked about centrist Democrats “fetishizing” bipartisanship, but this is ridiculous!
As Jeet Heer notes in the Nation, this sweat-drenched reverie about “panting next to a Republican” is not the first time Schumer—who by virtue of his status rarely interacts with regular people—has retreated into the realm of fantasy to explain politics. In order to understand regular old middle class voters, he often tells anecdotes about a fictional New York couple he invented called “the Baileys,” who, he explained in his Times interview, “Probably voted for Trump. But if you ask them why, I think they’d say, ‘Above all, crime.’” The man is living in a mind palace of his own delusions and keeping us all prisoners there with him. As Heer writes, it’s time for him to resign so he can spend more time with his imaginary friends.
A cartoon drawn by Jesse Rubenfeld from Issue 27 of Current Affairs (Sept/Oct. 2020) depicts Schumer’s mastery of negotiation.
Honeyguide birds scavenge cooperatively with humans!
Also known as “indicator birds,” honeyguides live across sub-Saharan Africa. They don’t look particularly remarkable; from a distance, you might mistake one for a common brown sparrow. But they have a way of interacting with humans that’s unique. For thousands of years, honeyguides have been deliberately leading human foragers—especially from indigenous African societies like the Boran, Hadza, and Yao people—to the trees and logs where bees have made their nests. Each human community has a specific call to attract the honeyguides (the Yao reportedly use “a trilling sound followed by a low grunt, which sounds like brrr-humph,”) and the birds seem to understand that it’s time to go hunting when they hear it.
When they find a hive, the humans chop up the tree and extract the honeycomb, while the birds fly around snatching up the bees themselves. They’re so effective at it that one anthropological study estimates foragers guided by a bird have a 54 percent chance of finding bees, while those without have just a 16 percent chance!
Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.
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