Ukraine, Airplanes, Heavy Rains, & More Planes
April 18, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Thursday! Today, we’re talking about the war in Ukraine, what’s going on with airplanes, a U.S. Navy flight, Dubai’s rains, Mayorkas’ impeachment, DeSantis limiting book bans, and an NBA ban.
Here’s some good news: James McCartney and Sean Ono Lennon, the sons of former Beatles members Paul McCartney and John Lennon, respectively, have released a new single called “Primrose Hill” together. Also, Google Maps is making itself friendlier for electric vehicles by adding information about where chargers are located and how fast they are to the app.
“Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age.” – Booth Tarkington
Sugar, We’re Boeing Down
At about 10:50 a.m. ET yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an order to ground all Alaska Airlines flights due to a computer issue at the massive air carrier. The ground stop was lifted about an hour later. “This morning we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance,” Alaska Airlines told CNN.
The nationwide pause took place during a particularly rough period for America’s air industry. Boeing, the third-largest defense contractor in America and the undisputed king of commercial air travel worldwide has seen its reputation crumble since the beginning of 2024 thanks to multiple incidents involving its planes. The company was involved in two Senate hearings yesterday, where multiple whistleblowers described the contractor as a hostile workplace that has increasingly cut corners and ignored issues to pursue better profits.
“I was sidelined. I was told to shut up. I received physical threats,” said one whistleblower, a quality engineer at the company who’d spoken out against the company’s lack of quality assurance checks. “My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said in the meeting.’” Not a good look when you consider the suspicious death of another Boeing whistleblower earlier this year.
Ukraine’s Unenviable Position
As Boeing continues to spiral out of the air, things are also taking a nosedive in Ukraine. On Wednesday, a Russian airstrike in the city of Chernihiv killed at least 14 people and injured 61 others. In response to the grim news, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the tragedy could have been prevented if his country had better air defenses, which Western allies have been withholding. “The Ukrainian determination is sufficient. There must be equally sufficient determination from our partners and, as a result, sufficient support,” Zelenskyy said.
While Ukraine struggles to defend itself against air attacks, things are looking dire on the ground, too. Moscow’s forces are reportedly gathering for an offensive on the Ukraine-held city of Chasiv Yar, a key city in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk region. “If the Russian occupiers manage to capture this city, they will have the opportunity to launch an offensive on Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn. “This is the dominant height in the region, and its control will allow the Russian invaders, if they achieve it, to significantly simplify the advance in the direction of Kostiantynivka and the direction of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk,” he added. Russia says its troops are within 500 meters of Chasiv Yar.
Just A Casual Military Flight Near Your Borders, No Worries!
- The U.S. Navy took a flight for freedom (or to escalate tensions with China) on Wednesday, just a day after a U.S.-China defense talk – the first time the two powers held a military-to-military discussion since 2022. The U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, a patrol and reconnaissance plane, took its flight over the Taiwan Strait, a 100-mile-wide body of water that separates China from Taiwan. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,” said the Navy in a statement.
- China scrambled fighter jets in order to “monitor the U.S. plane’s passage” in a response that was also “in accordance of laws and regulations,” according to a Chinese Navy spokesman. “Theater troops are on high alert at all times to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” he added.
Wait, No, That’s Too Much Rain
- Rain has come to the deserts of the United Arab Emirates, but the waters have brought more chaos than growth. According to the UAE’s state-run news agency, rains on Tuesday surpassed any “documented since the start of data collection in 1949.” The floods were so strong that they took Dubai International Airport out of commission, disrupting service at the busiest international travel airport in the world.
- Between Monday and Tuesday, Dubai saw a total of 142 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall. On average, Dubai International Airport experiences a total of 94.7 millimeters (3.73 inches) per year. Some have blamed the UAE’s controversial cloud-seeding program, which involves planes flying above the country to disperse clouds of chemicals that give moisture in the air something to form clouds around – the clouds then continue to grow until they drop rain. While flight-tracking data shows that multiple cloud-seeding flights were run over Dubai on Monday, experts say that the torrential rainfall was forecast a long time ago.
More Mixed Nuts
- Attack by Hezbollah Injures 14 Israeli Soldiers in Border Village (NYT, $)
- Venezuela orders closure of its embassy in Ecuador (NPR)
- Trudeau delivers ‘Gen Z budget’ (Politico)
- Days-long eruption of Indonesia’s Ruang volcano forces hundreds to evacuate as sky fills with red ash (CBS)
- Georgia presses on with ‘foreign agents’ bill opposed by EU (Reuters)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- Israel blames Gaza starvation on U.N. as UNICEF says a third of Gazan infants and toddlers acutely malnourished (CBS)
- At least 13 killed, including 7 children, after strike on Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp (CNN)
The Most Predictable Vote Ever
- Yesterday, to nobody’s surprise, Senate Democrats dismissed the impeachment case brought by House Republicans against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Both articles of impeachment were shot down along party lines, though on the first article, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted “present.”
- Democrats then voted 51-49 to adjourn the trial, just one day after House Republicans presented the articles to the Senate. “It is beneath the dignity of the Senate to entertain this nakedly partisan exercise,” Schumer said in a floor speech opening Wednesday’s session.
The Written Word Gets A Win
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is going rogue now that he’s not running for president. DeSantis headed to the left side of the aisle (barely) when he signed a bill Tuesday to restrict challenges to books in school libraries and “protects schools from activists trying to politicize and disrupt a district’s book review process,” the governor’s office said in a release.
- The new legislation will enforce a limit of one objection to a book per month for people who don’t have children in a given school district, but those who do have children in a district get unlimited challenges to library books. The news comes on the same day that PEN America released a report that found “There were over 4,000 instances of book bans in the first half of this school year – more than all of last school year as a whole.”
More Nuts In America
- Michigan special elections flip control of lower chamber in Democrats’ favor (Guardian)
- Sen. Bob Menendez may blame wife in federal corruption trial, court filing shows (ABC)
- Russia-linked hacking group suspected of carrying out cyberattack on Texas water facility, cybersecurity firm says (CNN)
- Voting equipment company Smartmatic settles defamation lawsuit with far-right network (Guardian)
- 1 man dead, 3 injured after men on scooters open fire on corner in the Bronx (ABC)
Locking Down The League
- The NBA looks to be cracking down on the league’s gambling problem, a growing topic as online sports betting becomes more popular across the U.S. The league has issued a lifetime ban on Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. Porter had allegedly placed bets on multiple games, passed on information to other gamblers, and even faked an illness to check out of a game early, influencing one of his bets.
- “There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams, and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
- Porter’s wagers include 13 bets on NBA games while he was playing with the Raptors’ G League affiliate team, with a total of $54,094 spent through “an associate’s online betting account,” according to the NBA. He profited $21,965 from those wagers. However, the biggest bet was an $80,000 wager that Porter would underperform in an NBA game, prior to which he’d disclosed his health status to a known NBA bettor. That bet would have paid out $1.1 million, but the large amount of money led to the bet being “frozen” and “not paid out” according to the NBA. Now when will the league investigate Scott Foster?
More Loose Nuts
- Rise and grind? Working late, volatile hours may lead to depression, illness by 50 (NPR)
- Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk (NBC)
- Beijing half marathon results under investigation after runners appear to hand win to Chinese star (AP)
- Huge Disneyland expansion to add new rides, restaurants and hotels wins OK (LAT, $)
- Mammoth mayhem: elephant escapes circus and roams Montana streets (Guardian)