Arrest Warrants, Airports, & Alarming Robot Voices
May 21, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’re talking about arrest warrants, gun control, Georgia’s law, Haiti’s airport, Trump’s trial, the FDIC’s resignation, and OpenAI’s rollercoaster week.
Here’s some good news: Disneyland’s performers (those who act as the characters or perform in parades) have voted to join the Actors Equity Association. Parade and character workers announced their plans to unionize in February to address safety concerns and scheduling, among other issues. Also, according to a new study of sea otters in Monterey Bay, California, some otters are getting by with the help of tools to allow them to access new foods. What’s cuter than an otter learning to use tools?
“I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.” – Florence Nightingale
Benjamin Netanyahu, (Almost) International Criminal
The International Criminal Court’s prosecution will pursue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza. They’re being charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in Israel’s deadly war in Gaza and the bloody October 7 attacks in Israel, respectively.
What will these arrest warrants mean if the ICC actually issues them? Well, not much in the short term – neither Israel nor the U.S. recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, but most other countries are under the jurisdiction of the court. This means that Netanyahu would be arrested and extradited to the Hague if he stepped foot in a country outside of Israel.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” said U.S. President Joe Biden in a statement. “And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.” Meanwhile, Israel says the war effort in Gaza will last another six months.
Dueling Second-Amendment Decisions
Judges have been playing with guns recently. While the Supreme Court recently blocked a challenge to a controversial Maryland law banning assault-style weapons, a federal judge blocked a key Biden administration law that would enhance background checks at gun shows. Let’s take a deeper look.
Maryland’s ban on assault weapons has been a hotly contested point in the national Second Amendment debate. The court’s decision to not hear another challenge against the ban means it will remain in place in Maryland, but similar laws in other states may be challenged in court. Maryland’s law was enacted in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting and survived multiple challenges over the years.
While gun control advocates might have scored a victory in Maryland on Monday, gun enthusiasts won their side of the duel on Sunday. Over the weekend, a federal judge blocked Biden’s attempt to close the “gun show loophole,” saying that the law contradicts 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said that the new law would not allow gun owners who purchase firearms for self-defense to resell their guns, even though they didn’t purchase the firearms for a “personal collection.”
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No Veto Can Stop The Dream
- Over the weekend, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed a controversial law that would require media outlets and non-governmental organizations to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive 20% of their income from foreign sources. While opposition leaders have described the legislation as “the Russian law,” Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party claims it’s necessary to curtail the power of foreign influences in the country.
- In response to Zourabichvili’s veto, Georgian parliamentary speaker (and Georgian Dream member) Shalva Papuashvili said that the country’s parliament would override the veto. Georgian Dream has enough votes to do so, and the speaker claims that over 60% of the country’s population supports the bill. “The common sense of the majority of the population should prevail,” said Papuashvili after announcing his plan to override the veto.
Hallelujah For Haiti
- Things are finally looking up in Haiti after a months-long wave of gang violence forced a regime change in the Caribbean nation. The Toussaint-Louverture airport, located near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, has finally reopened after a three-month closure due to gang violence, allowing people to leave the island and much-needed supplies to flow in. While Haiti’s Sunrise Airways is the only airline operating out of the airport for the time being, U.S. airlines are expected to begin service later this month.
- U.S. military planes have been dropping off supplies and personnel at Toussaint-Louverture over the past few days, but civilians have been unable to evacuate the island by air outside of a few helicopter flights. Kenyan police forces are expected to arrive in Haiti soon in order to provide backup to their Haitian counterparts, with officers from the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Chad, and Bangladesh also headed to the Caribbean.
More Mixed Nuts
- China launches its own anti-dumping probe following Biden’s monster tariffs (CNN)
- Revealed: Meta approved political ads in India that incited violence (Guardian)
- US reaches agreement with Niger to withdraw military forces by September 15 (CNN)
- Julian Assange wins right to appeal against extradition to US (Guardian)
- Diplomatic row deepens after Javier Milei calls wife of Spanish PM ‘corrupt’ (Guardian)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- In Knesset speech, GOP’s Elise Stefanik calls for unrestricted U.S. war aid to Israel (NPR)
- At least 27 killed in central Gaza airstrike as U.S. envoy visits the region (CBS)
Closing The Case On Another Courtroom Drama
- Prosecutors rested their case against former President Donald Trump on Monday after another day of testimony from his former lawyer Michael Cohen. Despite Trump’s assurances that he would “absolutely” testify in the case, it’s looking like he won’t get the chance to take the stand.
- The case came with the level of drama we’ve come to expect from Trump’s court appearances. Judge Juan Merchan briefly kicked the public out of the courtroom after first scolding defense attorney Robert Castello for his audible and visible reactions. Cohen, who maintained throughout all of his testimonies that Trump signed off on the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, also admitted that he conned Trump and his company out of money.
The Best Job Insurance Is Being A Good Boss
- Head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Martin Gruenberg resigned from his post this morning, saying he will “step down from my responsibilities once a successor is confirmed.” The news comes just a few hours after Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who leads the Senate Banking Committee, called for “new leadership” at the FDIC.
- The FDIC has been under a microscope in recent weeks after a report by law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton confirmed a November Wall Street Journal investigation revealing substantial culture problems. Gruenberg himself was mainly responsible for his bad temperament, but he also allowed rampant sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination to proliferate at the agency.
More Nuts In America
- Republicans want Menendez’s Senate seat. Trump devotion is getting in the way. (Politico)
- Supreme Court won’t hear Maryland school district gender identity case (NBC)
- Trump claims he wants to testify at his trial. No one else thinks he should. (Politico)
- Mayor defends NYPD response after officers seen punching pro-Palestinian protesters (ABC)
- Biden courts battleground state Black voters with two big speeches (CBS)
She’s Her, But She’s Not Her
- OpenAI’s new ChatGPT-4o chatbot is simultaneously on fire and taking heavy fire. The company released a new feminine voice for ChatGPT last week that, according to users, sounds suspiciously similar to Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in the Spike Jonze film Her. At the same time, ChatGPT’s mobile app saw a spike in revenues following the announcement of ChatGPT-4o, which is only accessible to mobile users via the ChatGPT Plus subscription service.
- While comparisons to Johansson’s character swirled around the internet as soon as Sky’s voice was aired in the ChatGPT-4o announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made things worse by tweeting just the word “her” following the presentation. The hubbub got so loud that OpenAI felt pressured into making a press release, stating, “Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice.”
- Unfortunately for Sky, her voice has been shut down by OpenAI following the controversy, coupled with criticism that the voice was too fawning and overly-feminine. On top of that, several top researchers from the company’s safety team have also resigned in the past week, with one leader saying that OpenAI has increasingly prioritizes “shiny products” over creating a safer product, even as Altman issues constant warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
More Loose Nuts
- Why BORG drinks are dangerous for you (CNN)
- ‘Portal’ installation linking Dublin and New York reopens after ‘inappropriate behavior’ (NBC)
- Giant oddball planet has the density of fluffy cotton candy, study finds (CNN)
- Gold earring found in burned ruins of an Iron Age village may reveal ‘moment in time,’ archaeologists say (CNN)
- Comet Fragment Explodes in Dark Skies Over Spain and Portugal (NYT, $)
- Eagles shifting flight paths to avoid Ukraine conflict, scientists find (Guardian)
