Red Sea, Swatting, Silent TikToks, & Long-Nosed Dogs
February 2, 2024
Hello, readers – enjoy your weekend! Today, we’ll be talking about aid for Ukraine, the ongoing Red Sea debacle, Indian mosques, the West Bank, a swatter, Universal’s battle with TikTok, & man’s best friend.
Here’s some good news to hold you over through the weekend: The city of Derby in England is creating dozens of “bee bus stops” featuring native plant-covered roofs to attract bees, offset climate change, and bring some greenery back to urban areas. If you’re into doomsday prepping, grab the seaweed – a new study found that seaweed will likely survive a nuclear winter and could make a good food source “due to its ability to grow quickly in a range of conditions.” Julien Navas, who was visiting the U.S. from France, went to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and found a 7.46-carat brown diamond – he’s splitting it in half to give a piece to his fiancé and a piece to his daughter. Finally, Indian police cleared a suspected Chinese spy pigeon after detaining it for eight months and released it into the wild.
“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.” – Anaïs Nin
Help Thy Neighbor (With $54 Billion)
On Thursday, the European Union supplied Ukraine with a much-needed (and much-contested) aid package. The E.U.’s 27 leaders agreed to a 50 billion euro ($54 billion) non-defense aid package to support the country’s economy and help it rebuild from the conflict. The aid is roughly two-thirds loans and one-third grants to help the country stay afloat as most of its resources are being channeled to its war with Russia.
You might remember that Hungary has been threatening to veto the aid package in recent weeks due to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s close ties with the Kremlin. It appears that E.U. diplomats were able to strike an incredibly good deal with the Hungarian leader – French President Emmanuel Macron said that Hungary “didn’t receive a gift” in exchange for not vetoing the funding. “It simply got the guarantee that the approach toward it will not be discriminatory.”
E.U. officials noted that the aid is part of the bloc’s ongoing seven-year budget, which the European Commission will review in two years if necessary. Orbán, of course, twisted this review as a victory, saying, “Mission accomplished,” on X. “Hungary’s funds will not end up in Ukraine and we have a control mechanism at the end of the first and the second year. Our position on the war in Ukraine remains unchanged: we need a ceasefire and peace talks.”
But Your Honor, I Fired Off That Missile In Self-Defense!
Have you ever heard of a missile strike in “self-defense”? Well, apparently the White House has. On Thursday morning, the U.S. military launched a “defensive” missile strike against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The missiles hit ten unmanned aerial vehicles and a ground control station, destroying all of their targets. Central Command said that the UAVs “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region.”
The same day of the U.S. strikes, the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at a Liberian-flagged ship passing through the Red Sea. “I don’t think the adversaries are of a ‘one and done’ mindset. And so they have a lot of capability. I have a lot more,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in his first press conference since he was hospitalized due to complications from prostate cancer (and lied to his boss about it). “We’re going to do what’s necessary to protect our troops.”
Indian Mosques Are At Risque
- India continues its shift towards Hindu nationalism under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Wednesday, an Indian court ruled that Hindus could worship within a mosque, a decision expected to raise religious tensions and expand Hindu claims on other Muslim places of worship.
- The site in question is the Gyanvapi mosque, which was built in the 17th century and has been used as an Islamic site of worship ever since. Local Hindus, who are behind the suit, say that it was built on the site of an ancient Hindu temple, and that Hindus worshipped in the mosque’s cellar up until 1993. According to an archaeological survey ordered by the court, “there existed a large Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure” in the 17th century.
- Hindu worshippers will now be allowed to pray in the mosque’s basement, and barriers around the mosque will be torn down by the end of the week. Last week, a Hindu temple was built on the site of a mosque illegally torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992 – combined with yesterday’s decision, Indian Muslims have become increasingly concerned that the country’s large Hindu majority might begin trying to take down more mosques.
West Bank Settlers Wake Up Sleepy Joe
- In a surprising turn of events, President Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank, threatening financial sanctions and visa bans on any settlers accused of attacking Palestinians or Israeli peace activists in the Israeli-occupied territory.
- The order’s first targets will be four settlers who conducted acts of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The executive order will freeze any assets they hold in the U.S. currently, and also block American businesses and citizens regulated by the State and Treasury Departments from doing business with those sanctioned. This is a significant punishment given the White House’s unwavering support for Israel. If you’re wondering why Biden released the order yesterday, he made a campaign stop in Michigan (a state with a strong Arab-American population) last night. You do the math.
Additional World News
- Three years after Myanmar coup, junta leader’s hold on power is weaker than ever (NBC)
- World Court dismisses much of Ukraine’s case against Russia (CNN)
- Plans for U.S. strikes on Iranian personnel and facilities in Iraq, Syria approved after Jordan drone attack (CBS)
- Catalonia declares drought emergency, extending restrictions to Barcelona (Guardian)
- Norway’s most powerful storm in over 30 years rips roofs off houses, cuts power (AP)
- Climate activist Greta Thunberg goes on trial in London for blocking oil conference (ABC)
Middle East Reads
- Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds (Guardian)
- Israel’s Controlled Demolitions Are Razing Neighborhoods in Gaza (NYT, $)
- Diseases spread in overcrowded Rafah as Gaza’s population forced south (Guardian)
The Swatter Gets Hit
- Alan Winston Filion, the 17-year-old suspected of being behind a score of swatting incidents, was arrested last month at his home in Lancaster, California, and extradited to Florida on Tuesday. Filion is allegedly behind hundreds of swatting incidents across the country targeting high schools, historically Black colleges, the homes of FBI agents, and even his own home across Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
- In May of last year, deputies responded to a caller who said he was armed with a handgun and explosives and was entering the Masjid Al Hayy Mosque in Sanford, Florida, to carry out a mass shooting. Officers said after they arrived they saw a woman and her two children at the building’s entrance and identified the call as a hoax after speaking with them, records show. Fillion apparently has a pattern of referring to the same weapons, like AR-15s and pipe bombs, in his calls, in addition to making references to Satan.
Who’s The Bad Guy Here? We Can’t Choose.
- Universal Music Group announced this week that, after its licensing deal with TikTok expired on Wednesday, it would no longer allow its music on the social media platform. Among Universal’s artists are Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Drake, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, and…well, a lot more. “Universal Music Group is literally the largest record label … in the history of the music industry,” said professor Andrew Mall.
- An “uncountable number of tracks and sounds” were impacted, significantly limiting options for creators. Old videos will either be taken down or muted – from what we’ve seen, it looks like TikTok is going with the “muted” option, which leaves a lot of creators with awkwardly silent videos of them dancing. While this seems like it’ll have a major effect on TikTok and its creators, it’s also not great news for UMG’s artists – musicians signed to UMG can’t promote their new music on the app anymore.
- UMG said that it had been pressing TikTok on three issues: “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.” TikTok, meanwhile, said, “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
Additional USA Reads
- California braces for heavy rain and flooding from back-to-back ‘pineapple express’ storms (NBC)
- House passes $79 billion bill to enhance child tax credit and revive key tax breaks (AP)
- Embattled Georgia prosecutor Willis will not recuse from Trump election case amid affair allegations, sources say (CNN)
- Viral video captures Indiana lawmaker flashing holstered gun at student gun control advocates (CBS)
- Biden’s money machine, Trump’s legal bills and other takeaways from the 2024 money race (Politico)
- Trump’s critics hope that Antonin Scalia can sway the Supreme Court in 14th Amendment fight (CNN)
The Longer The Nose, The Longer The Life
- Some dogs are bred to herd animals, others are bred to hunt, and others are bred to sit in a purse and go berserk at every other dog they see. But which ones are bred to live the longest? According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, small, long-nosed canines are the pups with the longest lifespans.
- The study examined data from 584,734 dogs, including purebreds and crossbreds. “Whilst previous research had identified sex, face shape and body size as contributing factors in canine longevity, no one had investigated the interaction between the three or explored the potential link between evolutionary history and lifespan,” said the study’s lead author.
- The researchers found that the median lifespan of all dogs observed by the study was 12.5 years, with female dogs living slightly longer than males. They also found that dogs with longer noses lived longer than those with shorter noses, and smaller dogs lived longer than bigger ones. For a comparison of nose sizes, mini dachshunds had a median lifespan of 14 years, while French bulldogs, which are bred to have noses that look like they’ve run into a wall, live just 9.8 years. The moral of the story? Maybe we should breed dogs just to be healthy and happy instead of selecting for aesthetic traits.
Additional Reads
- Judge dismisses Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies (CNN)
- ‘A way to build on our ancestral legacy’: artists reclaim a major center of Black culture (Guardian)
- YouTube, Discord, and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Led Police to a Teen Accused of a US Swatting Spree (Wired)
- Aircraft laser strike reports soar to record high in 2023, FAA says (CBS)
- This is the world’s rarest passport (CNN)
- Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce conspiracy theories abound on political right with K.C. Chiefs in Super Bowl (CBS)