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HERE & ABROAD
❧ DEEP DIVE: Ceasefire in Gaza ❧
After more than two years of bombing and devastation in Gaza, there’s finally a ceasefire—of sorts. All 20 remaining living Israeli hostages and four bodies of 28 deceased hostages were released yesterday as part of an agreement between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on Friday. In return, Israel released approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, mostly people captured since October 2023, along with 96 political prisoners, and pulled back their military forces to a “yellow line” within Gaza. (However certain high-profile political prisoners, most notably Marwan Barghouti, are not part of the deal and remain behind bars.) Both Israelis and Palestinians cheered and celebrated the respective homecomings of their loved ones.
As the indiscriminate aerial bombing has stopped, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have begun returning to home, and what they’re finding is mostly rubble; Israel has destroyed over 90 percent of residences. Israel also says it will lift the bottleneck on aid, with 600 trucks planned to be allowed into Gaza daily, delivering much-needed food, medical supplies, and more to a decimated landscape and a population currently experiencing famine (which is true even if Bari Weiss, the new head of CBS news, doesn’t think the photos of starving children are legit).
“The war is over,” President Trump said on Sunday as he boarded Air Force One on his way to Israel. It’s an optimistic overstatement — Trump desperately wants to end the conflict and to be able to say that he is the one who ended it, but the ceasefire is only the first phase of negotiations that will likely prove complex. Still, a ceasefire in a midst of a genocide is a huge deal.
Art by Maxwell Singletary from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 5
The ceasefire could only be achieved because negotiators put off discussion on some of the most consequential and controversial items on Trump’s 20-point plan, including the demilitarization and governance of Gaza. Deep disagreements endure: Israel and Trump both want to see a demilitarized Gaza, while Hamas views demilitarization as surrender. Hamas wants Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state; Trump wants a technocratic board, led by himself and including Tony Blair, ex-Prime Minister of a country that had a significant role in creating this conflict, to temporarily govern Gaza.
Hamas has good reason to be wary. Israel has a history of breaking ceasefire agreements, and by giving up hostages, they’ve given up their greatest leverage in negotiations, Drop Site News writes. Palestinian leadership has placed enormous trust in Trump to enforce the ceasefire and hold back Israeli aggression in the future. Trump has made plenty of verbal assurances that he will do so, but as of this writing, he has not offered up any concrete actions, such as the withholding of funds or weapons from Israel.
Though there are still many steps between today and lasting peace, this ceasefire is being treated as if it will last. World leaders convened in Egypt to discuss the future of Gaza with Trump (who said some very trumpy things) and to codify the ceasefire in writing.
Negotiations are ongoing.
Art from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 5
BREAKING:
As Current Affairs prepared to send this newsletter, reportsemerged that Israel is delaying the opening of a border crossing to Egypt and the arrival of aid in Gaza. Israel claims that Hamas violated the terms of ceasefire by not returning all of the bodies of the deceased Israeli hostages. Hamas has said they don’t know where all of the bodies are; some of them are buried under rubble. J.D. Vance told Fox News on Sunday, “The reality is that some of the [deceased] hostages may never get back.” Furthermore, Drop Site News reports that the Israeli military has not, in fact, ceased firing, killing at least 5 Palestinians since Friday. Israel said some of the Palestinians its military killed were approaching troops stationed behind the “yellow line,” and considered the act another violation of the ceasefire—although, notably, they did not clarify how people merely “approaching” would constitute a “threat” that had to be met with bullets.
❧ In Other News ❧
❧TEXAS TROOPS ARRIVE IN CHICAGO.Despite a series of legal challenges attempting to limit Trump’s use of the national guard, 500 Texas and Illinois National Guard troops have arrived at a base outside Chicago and are awaiting deployment to protect ICE agents—who are definitely not the ones under attack. To the contrary, ICE activities in the city have reached the level of military assault, with agents repelling out of helicopters, destroying an apartment building, pulling residents, children included, from their beds, and holding them in the back of UHauls. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has reached his limit, saying that not enough Democrats are standing up to Trump, and calling the deployment of troops in his state an “unconstitutional invasion.” In response, Trump said Pritzker should be in jail. The legal and verbal back and forths continue. As of this writing, the troops are allowed to remain at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, Ill., but cannot move into the city. Trump, growing frustrated with holdups in court, has said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act.
Art by Maxwell Singletary from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 5
❧ MADAGASGAR PRESIDENT FLEES THE COUNTRY. Last week, this News Briefing wrote about a wave of Gen-Z protests across the world. One of those protests is in Madagascar, where a series of electric and water shortages quickly unraveled into calls for President Andry Rajoelina to step down. Longtime News Briefing readers might remember Rajoelina from 2023, when a furor erupted against him in Madagascar after people discovered he held French citizenship, making his entire presidency arguably illegal. Well, yesterday, he fled the country on a French military plane after units of the army sided with the protesters, Reuters reported.
❧ THE UNITED STATES BAILS OUT ARGENTINA.On Oct. 10, the Trump administration purchased $20 billion in Argentinian pesos, bailing out a government that, mere months ago, was heralded as libertarian “miracle.” That so-called miracle was delivered by President Javier Milei, whose familial corruption has made him a previous subject of this News Briefing, and who has gone on record saying “he takes telepathic advice from his dogs, who are clones of his previous dog.” In the name of libertarianism, Milei implemented a ruthless cost-cutting program that took lumps of flesh out of the country’s education, healthcare, transport and infrastructure. However, as Current Affairs Associate Editor Alex Skopic writes, libertarianism is “the intellectual equivalent of huffing paint” and by following its tenets, Milei has sent his country into “a spiraling series of crises, from unemployment to homelessness to the basic ability to manufacture anything.” Trump’s intervention in this situation may seem an odd move for a man who has upended the world economy in the name of “America first,” but in Argentina, Trump has something to prove (and of course, something with which to line the pockets of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s friends). Meili’s “defunding spree was one of the main inspirations for Elon Musk’s disastrous DOGE initiative to gut the federal government, which saw Musk waving a chainsaw gifted to him by Milei.” Apparently, the financial aid is contingent on Argentina not drifting too far leftward in the next election. Read Skopic’s “This is Why You Don’t Let Libertarians Run Your Country” for more.
Dr. William Bruno is only an emergency medicine physician today because when he “was a 19 year old blue-collar kid with a middling educational track record” he enrolled in Santa Barbara City College. What he found was “a lively intellectual environment with an incredibly diverse student body” that changed the course of his life. In his piece for Current Affairs, Dr. Bruno argues that community colleges can help fill the gap left by the legal kibosh on affirmative action, but only if we give these institutions the right support.
❧ In More News ❧
❧ PERU GETS A NEW PRESIDENT, TOO. Another one of those aforementioned Gen-Z protests is in Peru. Unwanted change to pension reforms was the tipping point amidst an accruing sense of dissatisfaction with the government, crime, and corruption. President Dina Boluarte—whose approval rating was reportedly in the single digits—was impeached last week and replaced by 38-year-old conservative Jose Jeri. The new president’s ascendance was driven by protocol, not popularity: Jeri was congressional president, and with no sitting vice president, was next in the line of succession. The new president, who has been accused of sexual assault and taking bribes, has decided to declare a war on crime. It remains to be seen whether protests will subside. Peru is a country, after all, that forced interim President Manuel Merino, another elevated head of congress, to resign after only five days in 2020.
Art by Maxwell Singletary from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 5
❧ U.S. RAMPS UP MILITARY PRESSURE IN THE CARIBBEAN. Today, the U.S. attacked a boat off the coast of Venezuela that it accused of carrying drugs, killing six, AP News reports. It’s the fifth such boat the U.S. has attacked, this time on the heels of the Pentagon announcing “a new counter-narcotics joint task force overseeing operations in Latin America.” The taskforce is its own kind of escalation in what Trump has called “an armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean, and it comes after, as the New York Timesreports, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “offered to open up all existing and future oil and gold projects to American companies, give preferential contracts to American businesses, reverse the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China to the United States, and slash his country’s energy and mining contracts with Chinese, Iranian and Russian firms,” — but to no avail. Trump has accused Maduro of having links to the drug cartel Tren de Aragua, though the United States’ own National Intelligence Council contradicts this claim. Venezuela is not one of the region’s largest producers of cocaine, and many officials believe that what the Trump administration really wants is to remove Maduro from power.
❧ A GOOD WAY TO CELEBRATE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY. In a previous life (last year), I was a travel editor for Fifty Grande magazine, and one of its many wonderful interns wrote a piece on ways to explore the country “through the eyes of those who have been here the longest and know the most.” Here’s Sara Luzuriaga’s round up of U.S. tours led by Indigenous people. On the list: the only Indigenous-owned cruise line in the United States.
Art by Maxwell Singletary from Current Affairs Magazine Vol. 5, Issue 5
❧ MAJORIE TAYLOR GREENE AGREES WITH DEMOCRATS. In what may be one of the only instances of a one-time QAnon supporterpublicly siding with Democrats, U.S. House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she is “disgusted” by the prospect of health care premiums doubling, as they will if the Republicans get their way and Affordable Care Act tax credits are allowed to expire at the end of the year. The issue at the heart of the government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1: Democrats are refusing to sign any funding legislation that does not extend tax credits. Rather than meet Democrats’ — and now MTG’s — demands, Trump has opted to set “Trump 2028” hats on his desk in the during his Sept. 29 Oval Office meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, lay off 4,000 federal workers in a manner that union leaders say is illegal, target “democrat programs” that Trump admits are “very popular” for cuts, and as part of furloughing all nonessential federal employees, furlough the staff of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Detention Oversight. The office ensures immigration detention centers meet basic standards of living, so with it shut down, there’s now nobody tasked with making sure ICE’s prisoners have decent food, water, or medical care. Most of ICE’s other functions, such as arresting and detaining immigrants, have been deemed essential. Construction of Trump’s privately financed $200 million ballroom also carries on, along with the political stalemate.
❧ NEW ORLEANS HAS A NEW MAYOR. Over the weekend Helena Moreno won the Crescent City's municipal election for mayor, defeating state senator Royce Duplessis and city council member Oliver Thomas—all Democrats—with a commanding 55 percent of the vote. Moreno's predecessor, LaToya Cantrell, is under federal indictment for a variety of corruption charges, so new leadership will almost certainly be an improvement (if only because the bar is so low). However, there are reasons to be skeptical of Moreno, from her statements on AI-powered police surveillance (vague but generally positive) to her ties to the real estate industry. Watch this space…
— a late dispatch from Associate Editor Alex Skopic
ANIMAL FACT OF THE WEEK
Baby numbats bring good news!
Numbats (no relation to dingbats) are one of the rarest marsupials in the world. That’s why it’s a big deal that numbat joeys have been spotted at not one, but two wildlife sanctuaries in Australia. Habitat destruction, along with feral foxes and cats who hunted the tiny animals, made the once common numbats functionally extinct in New South Wales. But a reintroduction campaign appears to be succeeding as families of numbats have been spotted numbatting in the wild. “It felt surreal seeing four siblings in the one location,” Michael Daddow, Australian Wildlife Conservancy land management officer, told the Guardian. “They were just cruising around, falling asleep and playing with each other. The bravest of the lot even ran up to me to check me out before scurrying back – it wasn’t scared at all.” Check out the video in the article to see the joeys of note. They have a tongue that you will not see coming.
Writing and research by Emily Carmichael. Editing and additional material by Alex Skopic and Nathan J. Robinson. 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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