Israel’s Marketing Plan, Classified Documents, & RFK and The Whale

August 27, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about Israel’s advertising plan, Russia and Ukraine, Germany’s knife attack, violence in Pakistan, the classified documents case, voter intimidation, and another weird RFK, Jr. story.

It’s kind of a heavy edition today, so here’s some good news: The official nonprofit organization of the National Park Service is set to receive a $100 million gift, the largest grant in its history, from Indianapolis-based foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. Also, Deion Sanders, along with the Colorado Buffaloes NIL collective, partnered with Elevation Credit Union to open bank accounts for the children of eight players on the school’s football team.

“Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.” – Jacob Bronowski

A War Over Internet Fundraising

(Netanyahu by Jacquelyn Martin via Getty Images)

Israel, after unleashing rockets, hunger, and disease into Gaza, has now decided to use a new tactic – the government has begun buying up Google search ads to draw users to a new webpage full of allegations against the UNRWA, the main U.N. agency in charge of aid in Gaza. The move is a response to UNRWA USA pulling in donations via its own Google ads at a rate of $25 per $1 spent. In 2023, the organization raised $32 million from about 73,000 donors, a sixfold increase in donations compared to 2022, which it used to educate, feed, and provide care to Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli website to which the ads link claims that UNRWA essentially acts as a front for Hamas in Gaza, letting the group operate out of its facilities in the enclave and employing Hamas operatives. Outside reviews have shown that UNRWA inspects its facilities for military use and requires independence from military interests. The agency lost donors thanks to Israeli allegations that some of its workers had participated in the October 7 attacks, but most have resumed their donations (and even increased their contributions). The only major power that hasn’t resumed its relationship with UNRWA is the U.S. Despite this, the Israeli government ads are featured in 44% of searches for UNRWA-related terms, while UNRWA USA ads were displayed 34% of the time.

Russia On A Rampage

Yesterday, Russia sent over 100 missiles and 100 drones into Ukraine, hitting targets across half of the country, killing four people, injuring over a dozen more, and hitting multiple energy facilities. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russian drones were aimed at targets in the eastern, northern, southern, and central regions (for our vigilant readers, yes, that’s pretty much every region).

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. “In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched. We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

Regional governments nationwide have announced blackouts in the Sumy region in the east, the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions in the south, and the Rivne region in the west. Kyiv also experienced power and water shortages due to the attacks, though one of Ukraine’s private energy suppliers said that “energy workers throughout the country work 24/7 to restore light in the homes of Ukrainians.”

This Chancellor’s Ready For A Crackdown

(Olaf Scholz by Ina Fassbender via Getty Images)

According to German prosecutors, the main suspect in Friday’s knife attack that claimed the lives of three people has possible links to the Islamic State. The attack took place at a local festival in Solingen in western Germany. Police said the suspect, 26, turned himself over to authorities on Sunday. He is from Syria, according to officials, and was living in a refugee residence near the site of the attack. He allegedly “shared the ideology” of the Islamic State and “joined the group at an undeterminable” time ago.
In response to that news, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that his government would do “everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and should not stay here in Germany are repatriated and deported,” threatening to increase deportations if necessary. Scholz and his center-left SPD party have been wrestling with growing anti-immigrant sentiment from Germany’s right wing, which might push the government to be harsher in its crackdown.

A Bad Day In Baluchistan

An armed group of separatists has been on a spree of violence in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, leaving at least 38 people dead in the province over just 24 hours. The group, known as the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), is looking to break off the southwestern region from Pakistan’s central government in Islamabad.
Pakistan has struggled to deal with a rise in violence by insurgent groups operating within its borders over the past few years. That’s thanks, in part, to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to gain control of the country. The new Taliban government has been trying to push out an Islamic State affiliate from its borders, forcing that group and some associated militants into bordering Pakistan.

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Are Classified Documents Back On The Docket?

Yesterday, special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal appeals court to reinstate the classified documents case against former President Trump, saying Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon made a mistake when she ruled earlier this year that Attorney General Merrick Garland unlawfully appointed Smith.
In a brief filed with the Atlanta appeals court, Smith’s team said Cannon “deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.”

Paxton Practices Poor Judgement

Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered raids last week on the homes of several Democrats, including chair of the Tejano Democrats Manuel Medina, several members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a state House candidate, and a local mayor, to look for evidence of violations of the Texas election laws regarding vote harvesting and identity fraud.
Medina reported that police woke up him and his family early in the morning and tore apart his home. According to one search warrant, authorities were allowed to take all electronic devices, open documents that were business-, organization-, or election-related, and swab for DNA.
Yesterday, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) leaders, state legislators, activists of other Latino groups, and others protested outside Paxton’s office in San Antonio. “This is point blank voter intimidation, and LULAC will fight for the right of every Latino to exercise the right to vote,” said Roman Palomares, LULAC’s national president.

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Bennifer, RFK, And Another Dead Animal

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have broken up… again. While you might be mourning (or celebrating, or simply ignoring) the breakup, we’re happy about it for another reason – somehow, the tabloid drama has managed to surface another story involving former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and an animal carcass!
The link between Affleck, JLo, and RFK Jr. comes in the form of Kick Kennedy, the daughter of the former presidential candidate. A story about the celebrity breakup published on Page Six involving some testimony from JLo’s friend circle alleged that Affleck had spent his now-ex’s birthday at a lounge with Kennedy instead of celebrating with Lopez.
Where does the dead animal come in? Well, while internet sleuths were trying to dig up more dirt on Kick Kennedy, they discovered an article where she recounts going to the beach with her dad (equipped with a chainsaw) to chop the head off of a whale carcass. “Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kennedy recalled. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.” Slightly nauseating, but amazing nonetheless.

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