❧ Rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, from the Northern Irish group Kneecap, has been charged with a “terrorism offense” by the British government. If convicted, he could face “up to 6 months in prison and/or a fine not exceeding £5,000.” And what act of “terrorism” is he accused of committing, you might ask? Well, Ó hAnnaidh apparently waved the flag of Hezbollah, a “proscribed” or forbidden organization under British law, at a concert in November 2024. That doesn’t really meet most people’s definition of a “terrorism offense,” which tends to involve violence of some sort; it’s more like controversial political speech, especially since Hezbollah is a duly elected political party in Lebanon as well as a militant group. But as Kody Cava wrote for Current Affairs last year, the definition of “terrorism” is increasingly becoming anything the government doesn’t like, and Kneecap has attracted a lot of attention recently for condemning the Gaza genocide from the stage at Coachella. So it’s not surprising that Keir Starmer’s government, which hates protest and dissent in general, is now seizing on any pretext to crack down on them. (Irish Independent)
In bad taste? Arguably. Terrorism? No. (Image: BBC)
❧ Speaking of the Gaza genocide, it has ramped into a new phase this past week, with Prime Minister Netanyahu openly declaring that, as a precondition for peace, Trump’s plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians from the strip must be carried out. “It’s a brilliant plan,” Netanyahu said of the proposed ethnic cleansing. As Gaza starves, Israel is now insisting that it and the U.S. jointly control the distribution of the meager humanitarian aid currently being allowed into the strip. This aid was previously distributed by international organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). But Israel now wants to use aid operations to herd nearly 2 million Palestinians into four small “sterile zones.” Netanyahu insists that Israel is doing this to prevent aid from being stolen by Hamas, but the restrictions on aid entering the strip has caused far more devastation than Hamas ever could.
As Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, told Middle East Eye, the real strategic purpose seems to be to use humanitarian aid as “an instrument of a forced displacement of the population” from Gaza, which Israeli leaders say they plan to occupy indefinitely. And notably, Jake Wood—the former U.S. Marine and humanitarian who had previously agreed to lead the new aid effort—seems to agree, because he resigned on Monday, saying that “it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.” For that to happen, the plan hadto be really bad.
❧ India has deployed more than 10,000 soldiers to “wipe out” Maoist “Naxal” rebels. Since the beginning of this year, India’s ruling BJP party has killed more than 200 Naxals, who have been active in India’s mineral-rich tribal areas for decades. The group formed in opposition to the exploitation of the rural poor by landlords and has periodically launched attacks, often in response to the forced displacement of tribal communities to make way for mining operations. Though the Naxals have used violent methods themselves, the government has responded with extreme brutality of its own to crush them. They have indiscriminately jailed Naxalite “sympathizers,” and human rights groups have found evidence that fake encounters have led to the killing of innocent locals. (Al Jazeera)
❧ Just about everybody hates Peru’s right-wing president, Dina Boluarte. According to a survey published this weekend by the Peruvian polling firm CIT Opinión, Boularte received just 1.6 percent approval across the nation and more than 97 percent disapproval. Some of this revulsion stems from her personal conduct, which has included allegedly accepting gold Rolex watches as bribes and taking unannounced time off from being president to get cosmetic surgery. But more consequential has been her total fealty to the world’s oligarchs: Launching a DOGE-esque “deregulatory shock” and offering up the nation’s natural resources to multinational conglomerates. And in response to protests, the military has carried out extreme, indiscriminate violence, which multiple human rights groups have called crimes against humanity.
❧ Africa’s “forgotten antelope”—one of the world’s rarest large mammals—has been photographed for the first time. The species is known as the Upemba lechwe, and only 100 of them are believed to remain in the wild. Their population has tanked in recent decades due to hunting and is now on the brink of extinction. Manuel Weber, of Upemba National Park’s department of research and biomonitoring, is the only person to snap a photo of the elusive creature since it was first identified as a subspecies in 2005. His study was the first update of the population in 50 years and showed how dire the situation is. Weber says he hopes that the release of the photo will galvanize conservation efforts. “This may be our only chance to save this species,” he said. (The Guardian)
We could never forget this antelope.
(Photo: Parc National de L'Upemba, via The Guardian)
AROUND THE STATES
❧ The U.S. Senate has blocked a California law that would have banned the sale of gas-powered cars after 2035 and allowed other states to do the same. The measure was predicted to reduce the state’s total carbon emissions by 35 percent and lead to significant improvements to air quality in the famously smoggy state. Roughly a dozen other states—totalling about a third of the American car market—had planned to adopt a similar standard, including New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, and New Mexico. But Congress has voted to stop them in their tracks, nullifying the Environmental Protection Waiver granted to California under the Biden administration.
The effort was, of course, led by Republicans, who have sought to kill any and all legislation that even modestly addresses climate change. But a prominent Democrat dealt the final blow. That was Michigan’s Senator Elissa Slotkin, who became the 51st vote that pushed the legislation through. She defended her vote by pointing to her “special responsibility to stand up for the more than one million Michiganders whose livelihoods depend on the U.S. auto industry.” This is not only untrue, but the opposite of true. The auto industry will not only still exist, but will need more workers to transition from producing combustion vehicles to electric ones. (One study, ironically by researchers at the University of Michigan, shows that the transition to electric vehicles in factories that have done it has led to tenfold increases in labor intensity, and employment remained three times higher for a decade after going electric.)
❧ In the shore town of Toms River, New Jersey, an Episcopal church had planned to set up a small homeless shelter on its land. Then the mayor announced plans to use eminent domain to seize the church’s 11-acre plot, bulldoze it, and build a park full of pickleball courts instead. Toms River is a quintessential case of gentrification. As the New York Times describes:
[The town] is within 15 miles of some of the state’s most desirable Atlantic Ocean beaches. As property values have soared, coastal motels that once offered inexpensive lodging and seasonal work have been replaced in many Jersey Shore towns by multimillion-dollar homes, straining an already limited supply of affordable housing.
The region’s homeless population has doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And its wealthier residents, as they so often do, pitched a fit. Shortly after the Leaders of Christ Episcopal Church announced its plan to build a 17-bed homeless shelter on its private land, the town’s Republican mayor, Daniel T. Rodrick, sprang into action, announcing the plan to seize it. In addition to the park, he says the land offers “a great opportunity for parking, for recreation,” and has also said it could contain a jet ski rental shop and a tiki bar. Rodrick offered to buy the land, but after the church refused, he resolved to seize it using eminent domain, which the city council approved by a 4-3 vote. The effort to seize the land will surely face a strenuous legal challenge, and it has already brought severe backlash, both from supporters of the homeless and advocates for religious freedom.
Pickleball’s reputation as the sport of the white gentrifier continues apace.
CROOKS vs. SICKOS (or, “What’s going on with our politicians and oligarchs?”)
❧ In addition to destroying the social safety net to give more money to the rich, the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will also help Trump further consolidate dictatorial powers by allowing him to defy federal courts. The bill, which passed the House last week and is now on its way through the Senate, would prevent judges from issuing “contempt citations for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining orders.” In plain English, this means that if Trump and his underlings refuse to comply with orders given to them by a court, the courts will have no way to punish him unless the plaintiffs post a financial bond. If the bill passes, this means that anyone seeking to challenge Trump’s lawless behavior would have to be willing to pay a hefty sum, which would stop much of the litigation against him in its tracks. (USA Today)
❧ Trump also threw a big party for the investors in his “$TRUMP” cryptocurrency this week, and it proved to be an even bigger scam than the investment itself. The people given access to the lavish event at Trump’s D.C. golf club were the people who held the largest amounts of $TRUMP coin between April 23 and May 12—a “contest” Trump advertised on social media. According to an analysis by The Guardian, the 220 attendees spent $148 million collectively, and nearly half of the lucky patrons at the gala wound up losing money by holding onto the volatile currency, losses totaling nearly $9 million.
But at least Trump gave them something good to compensate, right? What…are you new here? Attendees said they were served basically the equivalent of airline food. 25-year-old Nicholas Pinto, whose father drove him to the event in a Lamborghini, said, “The food sucked. Wasn’t given any drinks other than water or Trump’s wine. I don’t drink, so I had water. My glass was only filled once.” While it’s an atrocity to see Trump raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from the presidency, at least there’s a small comfort in knowing that part of it comes from ripping off his own rich supporters. (Wired)
A grand total of four carrots? Millions of dollars well spent. (Photo: Wired)
❧ New York’s mayoral primary happens in less than a month. But top progressives—including Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—are still not getting behind democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani in his uphill battle against former governor Andrew Cuomo. As we’ve discussed before, Zohran has a lot of good ideas, including freezing skyrocketing rents, building more affordable housing, creating fare-free buses, and introducing community-owned grocery stores—policies that his fellow New Yorkers Bernie and AOC should have no trouble getting behind. But they haven’t. And now, time is running out. Cuomo, a corrupt serial sexual harasser who has pledged to maintain Eric Adams’ business-friendly status quo, currently leads the distant second Mamdani by 30 points—although the gap gets smaller in a projected final round of “ranked choice” voting, where Mamdani has 44 percent of the vote to Cuomo’s 56 percent. While we can’t personally endorse Mamdani, we can say that the lack of support he’s getting from fellow progressives is bewildering.
Given that Keith Olbermann, of all people, has endorsed Mamdani,
it’s just weird that self-declared socialists haven’t.
Found in the jungles of Malaysia, Wallace’s Flying Frog is the only species like it on the planet. To say the frogs are capable of flying is perhaps a bit of an overstatement. They don't have wings like birds or bats. They are closer to sugar gliders. Just like these aerial possums use flaps of skin to traverse the treetops, Wallace’s frogs have a special webbing between their toes that creates wind resistance as they fall. For this reason, they have been fittingly nicknamed the “parachute frog.” Using this cutting-edge frog technology, they can travel more than 50 feet through the air in one leap!
Video: Blue Orangutan
Writing and research by Stephen Prager. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Alex Skopic. 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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