Extremism, Diplomacy, A Shorter Workweek, & Python Meat
March 15, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’re talking about the Middle East, extremist groups in the U.K., Denmark’s draft, China and Taiwan working together, Trump’s hush money case, the four-day workweek, and python meat.
Yesterday, we shared a story about TikTok getting banned. We were curious how many of our Daily Pnut readers would miss the app if it were to go away, so, we thought we’d ask! Please fill out our survey, and feel free to share it with your family and friends. We’ll share the results of the survey on Wednesday!
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana
Attacks On Aid
On Wednesday, the IDF launched an airstrike at a UNRWA aid warehouse in Rafah in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said that the bombing targeted a Hamas commander, while the U.N. said the attack killed at least one aid worker and injured 22 others. That same day, the IDF fired an airstrike into southern Lebanon, which it claimed killed a senior Hamas operative.
On Thursday, an attack in northern Gaza killed at least 20 people and wounded 155 more as they waited for food aid at a delivery location in Gaza City. At the time of writing, it’s unclear which group executed the attack – Gaza’s health agency has declared that the mass killing was “a result of the Israeli occupation forces targeting” civilians, while the IDF has denied its involvement entirely.
Meanwhile, Israel’s support from the U.S. government seems to be waning. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, America’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for a new government to take the reins. Also on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions against two Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank used by extremist Israeli settlers as a base for attacks on Palestinian civilians, marking the first time the U.S. has sanctioned entire settlements, which are regarded by the vast majority of the international community as illegal.
The Tories’ Take On Extremism
On Thursday, the British Tory government announced a new definition of extremism, which has raised criticism from rights groups who say that the new definition may be used to attack campaigners’ rights and curb free speech in an election year. A government spokesman says the new definition will “protect democratic values” by being “clear and precise in identifying the dangers posed by extremism,” and the government says it will be used to cut ties or funding to groups that exhibit extremism under its new definition.
“The definition remains extremely broad,” said one British lawyer who reviews legislation for the government. “For example, it catches people who advance an ideology which negates the fundamental rights of others. One can imagine both sides of the trans debate leaping on that one.” Rishi Sunak’s government is expected to publish a list of groups it’s deemed to have run afoul of its new extremism threshold in the next few weeks, so we’ll see the results of this new policy relatively quickly.
The One Where Enemies Become Friends, Temporarily
- China and Taiwan are getting back together! For a joint rescue mission! On Thursday, Taiwan and China both dispatched coast guard boats to help save a Chinese fishing vessel that had capsized near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands. The head of Taiwan’s coast guard said that the rescue mission was requested by Beijing.
- “The waters are narrow around the Kinmen-Xiamen (area) and co-operation between Taiwan and China is very important,” he said. Taiwan sent four coast guard boats to help save the fishing vessel, while China sent six of its own coast guard boats. China has recently stepped up its coast guard patrols near the islands, though Taiwan has warned Beijing against changing the “status quo” in the area.
This Draft Is For The Ladies
- Denmark has announced plans to expand its military draft – the country, which normally drafts only men into its military, will extend conscription to women in an attempt to shore up its capabilities as Europe seems heading for a long-term conflict with Russia.
- The country currently has about 9,000 professional troops and 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training – it’s looking to expand its armed forces by 300 conscripts in the future, bringing the number to a nice, round 5,000.
- Luckily, Denmark has enough volunteers that it doesn’t require all able-bodied people to serve. Instead, conscripts are called up from the pool of volunteers via a lottery system. Currently, women make up 25.1% of all of the country’s conscripts.
More Mixed Nuts
- Dozens feared drowned crossing Mediterranean from Libya, aid group says (CBS)
- 50 killed in anti-sorcery rituals after being forced to drink “mysterious liquid,” Angola officials say (CBS)
- Putin set to sweep to fifth term as Russians head to polls (CNN)
- Spanish parliament approves controversial amnesty for Catalan separatists (AP)
- AI-created election disinformation is deceiving the world (AP)
- Nigeria hit by another mass kidnapping, with more than 300 now believed missing (CBS)
Feel Free To Read, But You’re Still Going To Trial
- On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s legal team said they would not oppose the request to give Trump’s team up to 30 days to review 31,000 records that were recently provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. However, the team stressed that they were still prepared to move forward with the March 25th start date.
- If you’re trying to keep track of which criminal case against Trump is which, this is the one where he faces a 34-count indictment for hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Bragg hopes to prove that these payments violated campaign finance and tax laws.
This Act Does Exactly What You Think It Does
- Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the “Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act,” which would – you guessed it – create a four-day workweek over the next four years without any coinciding decrease in pay. “Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s,” Sanders said of the idea during a hearing yesterday, “And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change.”
- Sanders pointed to other countries with four-day workweeks that have seen success, including France, Norway, and Denmark. The move would also lower the maximum hours required for overtime compensation, and require time and a half pay for workdays that last more than eight hours and double pay if a workday is longer than 12 hours. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Bill Cassidy said this would hurt restaurants, trades, and small businesses.
More Nuts In America
- Severe storms bring baseball-sized hail to the Midwest and heavy snow to the Rockies (NBC)
- Republicans take aim at new move by judiciary to curb ‘judge-shopping’ (NBC)
- Estranged wife of Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann says he’s not capable of murders (ABC)
- Dems launch 11th-hour meddling operation in Ohio GOP Senate primary (Politico)
- US firm that paid indicted FBI informant tied to Trump associates, records reveal (Guardian)
- E.P.A. Sets Limits on Carcinogenic Gas Used to Sterilize Medical Devices (NYT, $)
Sowing Snakes For Sustenance
- You’ve probably read all kinds of stories about lab-grown meats, which might one day make industrial farms full of pigs, chickens, and cows obsolete. Unfortunately, the technology to grow a quarter pounder with cheese in the lab is just getting started, but some researchers might have discovered a new source of more sustainable meat — farming pythons.
- According to a new study published in Scientific Reports on Thursday, python meat is a less carbon-intensive and more resilient source of meat than chicken or beef thanks to the snakes’ “extreme biology and evolutionary slant toward extreme resource and energy efficiency,” a feature of their biological niche as an ambush predator. Pythons will eat very cheap sources of food, including rodents and fish meal, and can grow quickly while only being fed once a week. This makes python farming operations resilient to supply chain disruptions, and they’re also able to survive extreme weather conditions “without suffering any ill effect,” according to the paper.
- Farmers in southeast Asia have historically incorporated pythons into their household livestock as a source of meat, with each butchered snake yielding “two enormous slabs of white meat similar to a chicken filet,” which can be fried to have a “nice crispy crunch.” Obviously, most people in the West might not be too open to eating snakes (though people seem fine with eating frogs, snails, and alligators), but this research might be the first step in making meat a little more climate-friendly.
More Loose Nuts
- ‘Polio Paul,’ who spent most of the past 70 years in an iron lung, dies at 78 (CNN)
- SpaceX Starship lost on return to Earth after completing most of test flight (Reuters)
- Supersonic Concorde airplane floats down New York’s Hudson River (CNN)
- Fishermen using sonar equipment find car at bottom of Illinois river connected to 1976 cold case disappearance (NBC)
- Native groups sit on a treasure trove of lithium. Now mines threaten their water, culture and wealth (AP)
- Air defense for $13 a shot? How lasers could revolutionize the way militaries counter enemy missiles and drones (CNN)