Plus: A T. rex against monarchy, the Left surges in Germany, Trump covers up police misconduct, more Hitler salutes at CPAC, and a large moth's sneaky disguise
February 25, 2025 ❧ Big Oil tries to bankrupt Greenpeace, Israel rolls tanks into the West Bank, and Bernie takes on ‘oligarchy’
Plus: A T. Rex against monarchy, the Left surges in Germany, Trump covers up police misconduct, more Hitler salutes at CPAC, and a large moth's sneaky disguise
You don’t know what it’s like to love somebody… the way I love news
❧ The energy company that owns the Dakota Access Pipeline is trying to sue Greenpeace into bankruptcy. On Monday, a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Energy Transfer against the decades-old environmental organization went to trial. The lawsuit claims that Greenpeace broke the law when it supported the thousands of protesters who blocked the construction of the DAPL, which threatened the water and land sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The protests went on for nearly a year, despite extreme violence from police.
Greenpeace says it only provided “nonviolent, direct-action training” to protesters. But Energy Transfer’s lawsuit seeks to hold the entire organization—including its international wing, which had no involvement with Standing Rock—responsible for any illegal actions that may have happened over the entire protest, like vandalism and trespassing. Greenpeace lawyer Deepa Padmanabha spelled out the danger of this lawsuit quite clearly: It seeks to impose “collective protest liability” by making everyone involved responsible for the actions of everyone else. “It’s pretty easy to see how, if successful, this kind of tactic could have a serious chilling effect on anyone who might consider participating in a protest,” she said.
Energy Transfer has demanded that Greenpeace pay out a ludicrous $300 million in damages, an amount far greater than it can afford to pay. Many legal experts have described the lawsuit as a classic “SLAPP” or “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” which large corporations launch against critics to drown them in legal fees in hopes of shutting them up. Many states have adopted anti-SLAPP laws in recent years to prevent such frivolous cases from being filed, but North Dakota has not. And in such a conservative state, there is reason to worry that the jury in the case may not rule in Greenpeace’s favor. If that happens, it would be a massive blow to one of America’s longest standing environmental organizations. (New York Times)
Protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 (Photo: Flickr)
❧ A grand jury has recommended that an entire Alabama police department be abolished after a high-profile corruption scandal. The jury said last Thursday that the Hanceville Police Department “operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency,” with cops routinely misusing official computer networks, taking drugs and other items from the evidence room, and “using [the] office for personal gain” in various ways. The scandal came to light after a police dispatcher died on the job in 2024, apparently of an accidental drug overdose.
Five officers, including Police Chief Jason Marlin, have been arrested, and the entire department has been put on leave, with county sheriffs taking over. Now, the grand jury in the case says the Hanceville PD should be “immediately abolished.” Assuming all the allegations are true, that certainly sounds like the right idea—and it’s a valuable reminder that any police force which abuses its power can and shouldbe disbanded. All it takes is the political will to do it. (CBS)
In an amusingly low-tech twist, the Hanceville cops are accused of using a missing cinderblock to access the evidence room and remove drugs, a bit like Winnie the Pooh sticking his head in the honey tree. (Image: Cullman County District Attorney via KKTV)
FIGHTING BACK
In response to Elon Musk’s destruction of the federal government, rallies broke out at Tesla showrooms in dozens of cities around the U.S. on Saturday. Demonstrators urged passers-by to resist Musk by attacking the source of his power. They are urging a nationwide boycott of Musk’s company, calling on Americans to sell their Teslas and dump their stock. There are more than 65 events nationwide planned through the end of March.
❧ Israel has moved tanks into the West Bank for the first time in more than two decades. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes following an escalation of Israeli raids and attacks over the past month. Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, has stated plainly that they “will not allow the return of residents” and has told Israeli troops to prepare for an “extended stay” in refugee camps to prevent their return. Israeli settlers, meanwhile, have been launching attacks on Palestinians with impunity—reports have emerged in recent days of settlers setting fire to Palestinian homes and stabbing a disabled Palestinian man.
Video: Al Jazeera
Since Trump retook office, Israeli officials have become far more open about their goals to conquer and annex the remaining Palestinian territory. At CPAC this past week, Republicans passed a resolution calling for the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over “Judea and Samaria,” the Biblical name for the West Bank. This, along with Trump’s plan to forcibly evict the remaining Palestinians from Gaza earlier this month, is being taken as a green light for Israel to press ahead with the ethnic cleansing of the occupied territory.
If anything is going to stop this, it’s probably the Arab League, which is attempting to broker an alternative to wholesale slaughter and ethnic cleansing. The question is whether Gulf states like Saudi Arabia would actually be willing to stand up to Trump and step away from his efforts to broker normalized relations with Israel, which the president is hoping will be a major part of his foreign policy legacy. Trump obviously does not care about human rights or the fate of Palestinians. But he does care about winning a Nobel Peace Prize, which would be highly unlikely if his Middle East deal falls apart. (Al Jazeera)
Video: The National
PAST AFFAIRS
Today, February 25, marks one year since U.S. Air Force service member Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in protest for the people of Palestine at the height of the U.S.-backed Israeli bombing campaign against them. Last year, Keira Havens—also an Air Force veteran—wrote a moving memorial for Bushnell for Current Affairs:
Bushnell did not give up in despair. He made a deliberate choice, one calculated to maximize the impact of his protest, to give appropriate weight to the atrocities being perpetrated in his name as an American and as a servicemember. He explained his thinking, chose his last words, set up adead man’s link to ensure his sacrifice would not be censored or lost. To deny this is to deny him his agency and his humanity in his very last act[...]
This is a long, long fight we are in. Let Bushnell’s final act draw you closer to your convictions and to the people that share them. Let his cry echo through you and your actions for all the years to come.
❧ Trump’s freeze on foreign aid is proving disastrous for Ethiopia. The country has been ravaged by drought and civil war in recent years. The removal of $1 billion in U.S. aid has taken away the country’s largest source of humanitarian assistance. Now, asthe Guardianreports, “A vast shipment of food stranded in containers risks rotting before it reaches millions of hungry people. Deliveries of life-saving medicines to remote rural clinics are paused. And thousands of HIV patients and sexual violence survivors are abruptly cut off from support.”
❧ Germany’s elections on Sunday went about as expected: A new center-right government is set to take power, and the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party doubled its representation. But despite this broad shift to the right, there is also some cause for celebration.
The left party, Die Linke received 8.7 percent of the vote. This may not seem significant, but it’s actually a very big deal because, after the last elections in 2021, the party was essentially pronounced dead. It had failed to achieve 5 percent support and was therefore shut out of the Bundestag entirely.
Now it has come back with a vengeance, in large part thanks to the popularity of its parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek, whose confrontations with conservative figures—including presumptive chancellor Friedrich Merz, whom she called out for collaborating with the far right on immigration policy— have gone viral among young voters on TikTok.
Video: DRM News Global
Because of the Left’s better than expected showing, they will now be able to serve as a meaningful voice of opposition to beat back the resurgence of fascism. (New York Times)
After the election, the LGBTQ branch of Die Linke thanked its supporters on social media with a Disco Marx cartoon. (Image: Die Linke Queer on X)
❧ A new study on animal conservation finds that if a species wants to get funding, it helps if they have a spine and humans think they are cool. The $1.9 billion that has been raised by animal conservation organizations over the past 25 years was overwhelmingly spent on “larger, charismatic animals,” most of which were vertebrates. This includes mammals like rhinos and elephants and many species of birds. But other creatures, like amphibians and reptiles, get just a fraction of the funding despite being endangered as well. Rodents, kangaroos, and wallabies also get the short end of the stick.
Not only is this a problem for conservation efforts, but also for research. Many scientists who study less prominent species end up switching to ones that already get a lot of attention because there are more opportunities for funding. At a time when extinction risk is at an all-time high, it is important to spend time educating the public about creatures that are under the greatest threat, rather than just the ones we like the best. (The Guardian)
❧ Anti-monarchy protesters in the U.K. are set to deploy a 15-foot dinosaur puppet for their cause. Called “Chuck the Rex,” the ersatz dinosaur is a satirical likeness of King Charles, and of monarchy in general, which the Republica movement describes as “a relic of a bygone age and a fossil that belongs in the museum.” Chuck made his debut at a Republic Day demonstration in Trafalgar Square last year, but now the protesters have a more ambitious plan: to wheel him out at the official Commonwealth Day ceremony at Westminster Abbey next month. The organizers are also looking for volunteers to help work the huge puppet, if you happen to be in the area. (Morning Star)
This guy is an evolutionary ancestor of Scabby the Rat, surely.
CROOKS vs. SICKOS (Or, "What are our politicians and oligarchs up to?")
❧ Donald Trump just shut down the national police misconduct database. Ironically enough, it was also Trump who urged the creation of the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database back in 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd. But now, apparently, he’s decided he doesn’t want information about cops’ abuse of power to be tracked after all. On January 20 he ordered NLEAD shut down, and the government webpage that used to house it now takes you to a 404 error.
It’s hard to imagine any legitimate reason for this action. In an official statement, the White House said NLEAD had been “full of woke, anti-police concepts that make communities less safe.” But it was literally just a compilation of data about actions police have taken, including when they’ve been suspended or otherwise punished, in the interest of public transparency. Removing it leaves the public in the dark, and gives abusive police more room to operate without the same level of scrutiny—like every cop in the country just covered the lens on their bodycams at once. (The Guardian)
❧ Trump has also endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy, formerly of DOGE, in the Ohio gubernatorial race. If past state-level races are anything to go by, this effectively scuttles the candidacies of Dave Yost and Heather Hill, and brings Ohio closer to a regime based on the tenets of Urkel Thought. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Art by Nick Sirotich for Current Affairs Magazine, Issue 52, January-April 2025.
❧ A lot of readers have probably seen by now that Trump advisorSteve Bannon gave a Nazi salute at CPAC last week, mimicking Elon Musk’s on inauguration day. (Strangely, Bannon called Musk one of “the most racist people on earth” just a few weeks ago, but he appears to have gotten over it.)
Video: CBS 19
Bannon’s Sieg Heil was widely covered in the media. But he made comments shortly afterward that are equally frightening, but received virtually no coverage. A reporter from an Israeli news outlet asked Bannon a question about foreign aid to Israel. Bannon responded:
“People in Israel have got to understand something: The number one enemy to people in Israel are American Jews that do not support Israel and do not support MAGA. MAGA and the Evangelical Christians and the traditional Catholics in this country have Israel’s back. They have the Jews’ back… The biggest enemy you have is inside the wire.”
Video: Middle East Eye
On some level, this is more honest than most on the right are willing to be: Israel doeshave more support from American Christians than Jews. But rather than make the reasonable conclusion that Israel and Judaism are not synonymous, Bannon instead deems any non-Trump supporting Jew (i.e. the vast majority of them) as an enemy subversive. Combined with a salute for the guy who quite famously persecuted Jews on the grounds that they were part of a communist conspiracy, this is quite harrowing and shows how totally fictitious the right’s supposed concern about “antisemitism” really is.
Art by C.M. Duffy from Current Affairs Magazine, Issue 12, March/April 2018
❧ Literal hours after saying he would not support cuts to Medicaid, President Donald Trump endorsed the House GOP’s budget proposal, which calls for hundreds of billions of dollars to be cut from the program. Specifically, it calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in spending cuts, which will likely come almost entirely from Medicaid and result in potentially millions of people losing their benefits. They also proposed massive cuts to food stamps and federal student loans for good measure.
The House GOP is using these cuts to pay for a gargantuan $4.5 trillion tax cut that will mostly benefit the wealthiest Americans—extending the ones they passed in 2017 and introducing new tax breaks for corporations. A major reason for the cuts is also that Republicans want to further reduce the inheritance tax paid by the super wealthy when they pass their estates down to their children. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities puts it in stark terms:
Of the tax cuts for wealthy households, nearly $200 billion is for an estate tax giveaway that showers some $6 million per estate on the 1 in 1,000 wealthiest estates. In contrast, the average SNAP benefit is $6.20 per person per day, which helps struggling families put food on the table.
❧ Bernie Sanders’s Midwest tour is starting off well. So far Sanders has made two stops, in Iowa and Nebraska, where he’s been railing against “oligarchy” and a government “of, by and for the billionaires.” Both states went for Trump in last November’s election, but Bernie has gotten huge crowds in both, drawing an estimated 2,500 in Omaha and having to turn more people away at the door. It’s a reminder of how effective simple left-wing messaging can be, even in places where you might not expect it—and it’s a stark contrast to how pathetic the rest of the Democratic Party is right now. (Common Dreams)
He’s still got it. (Image: Bernie Sanders via Instagram)
MOTH FACT OF THE WEEK
One of the world’s largest moths disguises itself as two snakes!
By itself, the sheer size of the Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) would be notable. As Carl Linnaeus noted when he met the species back in 1758, its wingspan can be up to 9.4 inches from tip to tip—roughly the width of a human head. But the Atlas moth is also a master of disguise. Thanks to millions of years of evolution, the edges of its wings bear an uncanny resemblance to two glowering cobras, which makes birds and other predators hesitant to approach. In fact, their Cantonese name literally means “snake’s head moth!”
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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