❧ We have the first images of Trump’s migrant internment camp in Guantánamo Bay from the New York Times,which referred to it in rather anodyne terms as a “tent city.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the camp on Friday and was photographed inside one of the tents, revealing the meager accommodations inside. (We can’t republish the photos due to copyright, but you can view them on theTimes website.)
The Trump administration says it has moved 30 migrants to Guantánamo. The Pentagon has said that, as a “temporary measure,” the detainees are being held in the military prison—which is notorious for its long history of extrajudicial torture—but will be moved to the tent city later. The administration has said that the camp has “30,000 beds…to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens” and has claimed that the men currently being held in Guantánamo are all members of the Tren de Aragua gang. But, it has not released any of their identities, so there is no way of knowing who they are. Even more unnerving, Trump has suggested they may be detained indefinitely because they “are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and more than a dozen other civil rights groups sent a letter requesting access to the migrants to ensure that they are given legal counsel. They also demanded to know who was actually being detained and who the administration planned to hold there in the future. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin responded with derision, saying in an email that “If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens that include murderers and vicious gang members than they do about American citizens then they should change their name.” In other words, We can’t give them a fair trial! They’re criminals!
So what we have here is the government rounding people up without trial and concentrating them in a remote camp famous for crimes against humanity, far away from where anyone can contact them. When asked, they refuse to tell the public who is there or who they plan to send there in the future. As Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson wrote this weekend on X, “There's no reason to build this in Guantánamo unless you want to do things you don't think you could get away with on the U.S. mainland. It's easy to put tents in Florida. But they're putting them in Cuba. Ask yourself why.”
❧ [CONTENT WARNING: Violent imagery, specifically a painting of a severed head]
Emmanuel Macron has filed a criminal complaint against an anti-colonial artist from Guadalupe. The artist goes by the name “Blow,” and he’s part of a group called Kolèktif Awtis Rézistans (Collective Artists’ Resistance) that specializes in protest art. Recently he participated in an exhibition called Exposed to Chlordecone, a reference to the French government’s use of deadly cancer-causing pesticides in colonies like Guadalupe and Martinique—a practice that Macron has defended as recently as 2019. Blow’s contribution was a painting of Macron as a severed head being held aloft by a warrior figure wearing the flag of Guadalupe’s independence movement:
As it turns out, President Macron didn’t like this very much. He’s filed a legal complaint against Blow with Guadalupe’s prosecutor, calling the painting an “incitement to violence,” and the artist was summoned to the Pointe-à-Pitre police station on Friday—although that order has since been delayed. It’s an obvious attack on artistic expression and anti-colonial politics, but Blow doesn’t seem overly concerned, calling the charges “good advertising” for his work. (Day FR Euro)
Blow (left, in snazzy hat) with a graffiti project.
❧ Elsewhere in attacks on free speech and expression, Israel raided two Jerusalem bookstores for selling pro-Palestinian books. They were both branches of The Educational Bookshop, a long-established and well-loved chain of stores in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. On Sunday, plainclothes agents of the Israeli security forces raided two of the chain’s three locations, scoured the books for any content they didn’t approve of, and took some of them away in trash bags, engaging in atrocity denial along the way:
Finding an English-language copy of Haaretz showing photographs of captives being released from Gaza on the front page, they claimed to have found “incitement material”. Upon being told that Haaretz was an Israeli newspaper, they were disappointed. “It was as if they were trying to find anything against the shops,” said a witness[…]
The Israelis showed special interest in any book with a Palestinian flag or containing a Palestinian map. MEE understands that they took away All That Remains, Walid Khalidi's account of villages destroyed in the 1948 Nakba. The agent who seized the book was heard explaining: “You see, Israel didn’t destroy villages.”
For the record, Zionist settlers definitely did destroy villages in the 1940s—but now, owning a book that says so is enough to get you branded a peddler of “incitement material” and detained by an increasingly authoritarian Israeli state, as the owners of The Educational Bookshop have been. Thankfully, both of the booksellers have now been released, but international attention to Israel’s censorship and repression is still vital. (Middle East Eye)
❧ In the first round of Ecuador’s elections, the leftist candidate pulled off a much better result than expected. Conservative president Daniel Noboa was expected to cruise to re-election with a majority, but he finished in a virtual tie with socialist challenger Luisa González, which means a runoff election will be held in April. Noboa, the scion of a banana fortune and one of the wealthiest men in Ecuador, has been met with backlash over high rates of unemployment, poverty, and energy shortages. Noboa has also deployed the military to police Ecuador’s streets amid a surge in gang violence. But the violence has only gotten worse while the military has been accused of horrific abuses of innocent people, including four young boys whose charred remains were found after they were hauled away by police vehicles.
González, who was mentored by Ecuador’s long-serving democratic socialist President Rafael Correa, has been able to seize on Noboa’s failings to mount an impressive challenge. She’s managed to address the issue of crime in a way few politicians do—contrasting herself with the heavy-handed tactics of her opponents, she’s called for greater social spending in the most crime-ridden areas of Ecuador. “We can’t talk about controlling violence without thinking of social justice, of building an Ecuador with peace, not with war,” González said in a recent speech. The message seems to be resonating. (Al Jazeera)
González speaking at a rally last week, English translation from the Associated Press: “We are going to change this country, we are going to change lies for truth. We are going to change sadness and fear for hope of better days. We are going to change violence for peace, that is what we are going to do. And they have left us in abandonment, of course they have, they have left us alone, but I tell you we are not alone, we are millions of Ecuadorians who today
[let them know.]”
❧ Australian scientists have successfully produced the first kangaroo embryos using in vitro fertilization (IVF), a process that could help save lots of endangered marsupials. Kangaroos themselves are not an endangered species, but lots of other marsupialson the Australian content—including koalas, Tasmanian devils and northern hairy-nosed wombats—are. The scientists hope that in the case that other conservation efforts fail, freezing the embryos of these species could allow their populations to be replenished. (The Guardian)
Australia’s eastern gray kangaroos, whose high population has made them a good species for testing out IVF. (Photo: Animalia)
CURRENT-EST AFFAIRS
It's almost time for the Nom de Plume open mic!
As a reminder, the event is tomorrow at the Columns Hotel in New Orleans, and writers of all kinds are welcome to show up and read something, or just listen. If you're interested, just use the link below to RSVP:
❧ New York City Mayor Eric Adams got off scot-free from his corruption charges after Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to drop its case against him. Since September, when the Democratic mayor was indicted for accepting bribes from the Turkish government in exchange for political favors, he’s been shamelessly sucking up to Trump—defending him from critics, loudly championing his immigration policy, and even ordering his subordinates to only say nice things about the president publicly. It appears to have paid off! But now, Adams will face pressure to carry out Trump’s deportation agenda lest he be charged again for failing to follow orders. As Noah Shachtman writes for Rolling Stone:
Legal observers tell me they’ve never seen a deal quite like it before. And while Adams may have been the most obvious and immediate beneficiary, he’s not the only one. If you’re a foreign government or a corrupt company trying to turn a public official into your toady, Monday’s move sends a powerful signal — one of many — that America is open for business. Everything and everyone is up for sale. Just name your price, and start the negotiation.
❧ A group of neo-Nazis went to Lincoln Heights, Ohio and quickly learned why that was a bad idea. Lincoln Heights is a majority-Black suburb of Cincinnati, and on Friday a group of white supremacists called “The Hate Club 1488” decided to drop a swastika flag and a banner that said “America for the White Man” from the I-75 highway overpass nearby. A few months ago, the same group held a march in Columbus where they were reportedly “free to harass members of the community for two and a half hours before there was any police intervention”—and this time, the police were useless again, trying to keep angry residents of Lincoln Heights away from the neo-Nazis and even issuing a press statement saying that “while very offensive,” the swastika demonstration “was not unlawful.”
Unlike their counterparts in Columbus, though, the people of Lincoln Heights took matters into their own hands. They got past the police lines, chased the Hate Club out of town, and burned their swastika flag live on Instagram—and since then, they’ve formed armed community defense patrols to make sure they don’t come back. As open racism and even neo-Nazi politics become more common in Trump’s second term, this is a perfect example of how a community can come together to keep each other safe when the police and local government refuse to. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Somebody get the marshmallows. (Image: @timmyutw513 via Twitter)
❧ A protester for Palestine and Sudan crashed Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. During the performance, one of Lamar’s backup dancers broke from the script and climbed on top of the rapper’s iconic Buick GNX, waving a double flag with “GAZA” and “SUDAN” written on it. You couldn’t see it very well on the TV broadcast, but for people in the stadium—including Donald Trump, who left soon after the halftime show—it would have been unmissable. The protester, who has since identified himself as New Orleans artist and activist Zül-Qarnaįn Nantambu, was tackled by stadium security and “detained” by the NOPD for a bit, but ultimately didn’t face charges. (After all, he was hired to be there, so he wasn’t trespassing.) He says he was inspired by both his Muslim faith and Lamar’s music, and that he hopes other people follow his example:
As a practicing Muslim, our Prophet Mohammad teaches us: if you see a wrongdoing, or you’re aware of a wrongdoing, you must stop it[…] And [Kendrick] talked about ‘the revolution being televised,’ and he talked about consciousness. [...] Maybe we don't have the military prowess to stop the war, but we can at least do what we can to help those who are afflicted by these different atrocities in these countries. (Truthout)
The real MVP. (Image: Associated Press via YouTube)
❧ While the world was focused on professional football, there was a major development in professional hockey: The players unions for the National Hockey League and several minor leagues joined the AFL-CIO. The two unions combined represent more than 2,500 players, who will now join America’s largest labor union—which already represents the players for the NFL, the WNBA, and Major League Baseball. The NHL has seen its share of labor disputes in recent years over salaries and free agency rights, so this is a big move by players as they prepare to negotiate a new contract at the end of the next hockey season. (Associated Press)
❧ In a classic oopsie, Alabama’s state legislature has introduced an immigration bill that re-uses language from the Fugitive Slave Act. The bill introduces penalties against anyone who “conceals, harbors, or shields” someone who they know or “reasonably shouldhave known” was in the country without legal permission. Jerome Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center pointed out that the language bore a striking resemblance to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which forced people in free states to cooperate with owners who tried to track down their escaped slaves. That law contained a passage stating that to “harbor or conceal” runaway slaves could result in fines or jail time. Republican State Senator Wes Kitchens, who introduced the bill, has denied that the language of the bills was made similar on purpose. That may be the case. But even so, accidentally recreating one of the most infamously cruel pieces of legislation in American history is a cause for shame. (Alabama Reflector)
What do you mean? The bills are completely different!
CROOKS vs. SICKOS vs. THE OCCASIONAL DECENT PERSON (Or, “What are our politicians and oligarchs up to?”)
❧ Trump, Musk, and the Project 2025 gang just killed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This agency was created by Congress following the 2008 financial crash, to more fiercely regulate banks and other financial institutions—like payday lenders, private student loan issuers, and credit card companies—that routinely rip off their consumers. Since its creation in 2011, the Bureau has clawed back more than $21 billion in relief for Americans by forcing banks to reduce their overdraft fees, requiring student loan issuers to pay back borrowers they misled, demanding greater clarity from mortgage lenders, and requiring transaction services like CashApp to compensate victims defrauded by their company.
Wall Street and the Right, of course, hate the CFPB and have wanted to destroy it for years. During Trump’s first administration he stocked it with flunkies that turned it into a useless shadow of its former self. Now they appear to have finished the job. This weekend, Musk tweeted “RIP CFPB,” with a tombstone emoji and hours later the agency’s site was down. Members of his DOGE cabal have reportedly been granted access to its internal systems. Project 2025 architect Russ Vought, who was appointed acting head of the agency, has shut down all operations, telling consumers to stop all their activities. Vought accused the agency of being “woke and weaponized against disfavored industries.” We suppose that’s technically true if you consider it “woke” to go after corporate fraud and exploitation.
As is the case with everything DOGE is doing, it’s flagrantly illegal for the executive branch to unilaterally shut down agencies created by Congress. But saying it’s illegal is about all congressional Democratic leadership seems willing to do, which is about as useful as shouting “A dog can’t play basketball!” while Air Bud does a sick windmill dunk right in all our faces.
Stop!!!! Noooo!!! He can’t do that!!!!!
❧ The White House now has a “faith office,” which will be run by an unhinged televangelist preacher. The office will be tasked with “defending religious liberty” and rooting out “anti-Christian bias” in the United States. These goals don’t sound bad on paper, but in practice, the Right’s pushes for “religious liberty” have tended to mean giving Christians religious exemptions to laws that everyone else has to follow. (For instance, one example of “anti-Christian bias” they cited were the Biden DOJ’s prosecutions of Christian protesters who physically obstructed women who were attempting to get lawful abortions.) Moreover, Trump has made clear that he’s not just trying to make sure that everyone can worship however they please (or choose not to) but has said Americans “can’t be happy without religion” and need to “bring God back into our lives.”
To make matters worse, the faith office will be run by a very kooky TV minister, Paula White. A preacher of the so-called “prosperity gospel,” she is controversial even in Christian circles for telling viewers that God will reward them if they give her money. (Though she’s hardly the only televangelist to do so.) She and her husband are fabulously wealthy and have used funds from their tax-exempt church to purchase a massive waterfront mansion, a private jet, and other lavish indulgences.
Formerly Trump’s “spiritual adviser,” White briefly gained national attention during the 2020 election for a creepy sermon in which she shouted that “demonic confederacies” were trying to steal the election from Trump, said that “angels are being dispatched from Africa right now” to help him achieve victory, and spoke in tongues. She later appeared as a speaker at the rally before the January 6 Capitol insurrection, during which she told attendees that the election would “be overturned right now in the name of Jesus.” She’s also publicly said that “To say no to President Trump would be to say no to God” and called for “every demonic network that has aligned itself against… President Trump” to be “broken” and “torn down.” Something tells us she’s not exactly a libertarian when it comes to freedom of worship. (Daily Beast)
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
❧ Pam Bondi, the newly confirmed attorney general, wants to reverse Biden’s capital punishment commutations. In a rare good move on his way out the door, Biden had commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 people who were on federal Death Row. But shortly after getting into office, Bondi announced she plans to overturn the decision and execute all 37 after all. This is just going out of your way to be cruel for no legitimate public safety reason—and in particular we can thank Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), the only Democrat who voted to confirm Bondi, along with other Democrats who failed to do everything they could to hold up the process, for making it possible. (Newsweek)
❧ As if the U.S. didn’t have enough tacky monuments, Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL, of course) has introduced a bill to put Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore. This would be oddly fitting, since Mount Rushmore is a ghastly monument to two slaveowners and two presidents who committed horrifying violence against Native Americans—yes, even Lincoln. It's built on stolen Lakota Sioux land and carved by a card-carrying member of the KKK. Trump would fit right in. But we’d really prefer they demolish all the stupid carvings and return the Black Hills to their original inhabitants. (Florida Phoenix)
We’ve reached the point where Facebook boomer memes are attached to actual legislation.
Palmerston the cat has taken a job as a British colonial official.
No, that sentence isn’t raving nonsense. The U.K. actually has a cat called Palmerston who used to be the official mouse-hunter of the foreign ministry offices in Whitehall; he has his own Wikipedia page and everything. (And that’s not even the silliest position in the British government. Don’t get us started on the Gentleman Usher to the Sword of State.) Palmerston retired in 2020, but he’s coming back for a new role as the “feline relations consultant” to Andrew Murdoch, the British governor of Bermuda.
Governor Andrew Murdoch—no relation to Rupert, but can you imagine being governed
by someone wearing this hat? (Image: Government of Bermuda via Facebook)
Ordinarily any cat-related news is charming, but there’s a problem here. Palmerston is being used in a form of “puppaganda,” the practice where a politician uses a delightful pet to distract people and garner a little undeserved goodwill. But instead of an individual leader, Palmerston has become a PR front for British colonialism itself. Although the official term is “overseas territory,” Bermuda is still very much a colony—and as Perry Blankson has written for Tribune, the British state has a nasty history of suppressing Black Power movements and other dissidents on the island who object to that arrangement. It’s not Palmerston’s fault, of course. But it’s bad enough to live under colonialism, and living under cutesy colonialism with a cat mascot is just adding insult to injury.
Let’s face it, he doesn’t know what that sign says. (Image: Palmerston via Twitter)
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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