Diplomacy, Diplomacy, Diplomacy…Oh, & Big Tech Secrets
November 21, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Thursday! Today, we’ll be talking about the Middle East, Iran’s nuclear weapons, America’s support for Ukraine, China’s diplomacy, the Matt Gaetz thing, California’s minimum wage, and Google’s sneaky tactics.
Here’s some good news: Australian businesses selling essential goods and services like groceries, medicines, and fuel will be forced to accept cash from their customers. Also, Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang will gift $30 million to U.S. Soccer, marking the largest donation ever directed at the organization’s girls’ and women’s programs.
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem
No Good News In Gaza
Yesterday, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza (we’ve lost count of how many times we’ve run this story). 14 out of the 15 U.N. Security Council members were in favor of the measure, but the body requires unanimous approval of all resolutions. U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said that his country chose to veto the resolution because it didn’t call for the release of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza. Meanwhile, the U.N. said that Palestinians in the parts of northern Gaza being held under siege by the IDF are “facing diminishing conditions for survival” as they haven’t received aid for almost 40 days.
After ordering policies leading to the displacement of 90% of all Gazans, the deaths of almost 44,000 people (70% of them women and children), and the destruction of 80% of the area’s health facilities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally stepped foot in the Palestinian enclave, where he recorded a video telling Palestinians that the IDF would hunt down and kill anyone who harmed the Israeli hostages and offered a $5 million bounty for the return of each hostage.
A Tax On Tehran?
The U.S., Britain, France, and Germany have put forth a motion to condemn Iran for repeatedly stonewalling the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). If that resolution passes a vote by the IAEA’s governing board, Iran will be forced to write up a comprehensive report answering all unanswered questions about its nuclear program. If Tehran fails to do that, it will likely face international sanctions that have been suspended since 2015, when the country promised to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
The motion is, in part, a signal by the European countries that they plan to be tough on Iran even as the U.S. changes presidents. In 2018, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal, claiming it was ineffectual, before unilaterally reinstating U.S. sanctions on the country. This time around, London, Paris, and Berlin want to be included in the negotiations to put wider pressure on Iran.
The resolution is a response to a recent report by the IAEA showing that Iran’s nuclear stockpiles are technically not weapons-grade, but are very close to that threshold. Iran is also looking weaker on the international stage – its recent exchanges with Iran have not really made anyone scared about its military capabilities.
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Kerfuffles In Kyiv
- No, things in Ukraine have not calmed down. Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv temporarily shut down after receiving warnings about potentially “significant” air attacks. Saying it had received “specific” information about a possible strike, the embassy warned U.S. citizens in Ukraine to “be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”
- That same day, the Biden White House decided to send shipments of anti-personnel land mines to Ukraine – the White House previously pledged to limit the use of the weapons in 2022. Humanitarian groups criticized the reversal, calling anti-personnel land mines “indiscriminate weapons that kill and maim civilians, and especially children, for generations after wars end.” The White House says the mines it plans to provide Kyiv are “non-persistent” and battery-powered, meaning they won’t explode once their batteries run out of juice.
Swooping In On The Lame Duck
- As the Biden White House enters its lame-duck phase, China is looking to capitalize on the U.S.’s shaky diplomatic standing. At the recent G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands with Argentinian President Javier Milei and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, securing deals with two of the most important leaders in South America.
- Despite Milei’s campaign trail promises to never “make deals with communists,” he found himself agreeing to increase trade with China. While it’s not likely that Milei was happy about the agreement, China is an important purchaser of Argentinian soybeans and other crops, and his country’s struggling economy is in no position to turn down any sources of income at the moment.
- Meanwhile, Xi and Lula agreed that the China-Brazil relationship had become a “Community with a Shared Future for a More Just World and Sustainable Planet” – Chinese government jargon for “best buds.” On top of that friendship announcement, the pair announced 40 cooperation agreements across various sectors to drive over $150 billion in bilateral trade between their two countries. They also agreed to figure out how Brazil might participate in China’s Belt & Road infrastructure initiative, which Lula bowed out of last year. Hey, even really good friends have disagreements sometimes.
More Mixed Nuts
- Milei plan to privatise Argentina river sparks fears among local communities (Guardian)
- Deadline looms for negotiators seeking a deal for cash to curb global warming (AP)
- Media publisher Jimmy Lai defiant as he takes the stand in Hong Kong (WaPo, $)
- Swedish police focus on Chinese ship after suspected undersea cable sabotage (Guardian)
- Residents in Haiti’s capital stand with police in a battle to repel gang attack (NPR)
The Most Predictable Conclusion Is No Conclusion
- The U.S. House Committee on Ethics met behind closed doors for about two hours yesterday and concluded that they have no conclusion as to whether or not they want to release the report on former Representative (and current nominee for Attorney General) Matt Gaetz. The report, as you likely already know, investigates allegations that Gaetz participated in sex parties, used illegal drugs, and had sex with a minor.
- Ranking Member Susan Wild noted that, because the committee is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, “in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side … that did not happen in today’s vote.” The committee will revisit the issue on December 5. Because Gaetz resigned before the report was released, some are arguing that he’s now a private citizen and therefore not under the committee’s purview.
The People Yearn For Lower Wages
- California’s Proposition 32, which would have raised the state’s minimum wage to $18/hour, failed to pass. That’s the first time in almost 30 years that a statewide minimum wage increase on the ballot has failed.
- Voters in Massachusetts rejected an initiative to raise the minimum wage for service workers this year, but more conservative states like Missouri and Alaska appeared to approve statewide increases.
More Nuts In America
- Trump lawyers seek dismissal of hush-money case on immunity grounds (Guardian)
- Trump names former top DOJ official to serve as ambassador to NATO (NBC)
- Texas board advances plan to allow Bible material in elementary school lessons (AP)
- Republicans renew push to expand federal powers to punish non-profits (Guardian)
- Texas land commissioner offers 1,402 acres to Trump for ‘deportation facilities’ (ABC)
Not Deleting Your Messages? That’s Not Very Googly.
- Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, and its services like Google Search and YouTube are used by literally billions of people. As such, the company often finds itself on the receiving end of a lot of lawsuits – naturally, it’s taken some steps to defend itself from its legal battles, but some of the tech giant’s tactics have made regulators (and regular old people) raise an eyebrow.
- First, the company has its own internal chat tools. That’s not particularly alarming – other companies like Microsoft and Amazon have their own internal communication tools too – but Google’s chat is set to automatically delete messages after a day unless employees fiddle with their settings. The company has also encouraged workers to label emails as “attorney-client privileged” and always CC legal teams on all emails (even in conversations unrelated to legal issues), in the hopes that those messages would be protected from external investigations.
- One judge presiding over a case between Google and Epic Games (the makers of Fortnite) described Google as having cultivated “an ingrained systemic culture of suppression of relevant evidence.” A different judge said the tech giant’s policies were “not the way in which a responsible corporate entity should function,” adding that, “An awful lot of evidence has likely been destroyed.”
More Loose Nuts
- Creator of ‘suicide capsule’ rejects Swiss allegation that its first user may have been strangled (AP)
- Pope to make late Italian teenager Carlo Acutis the first millennial saint on April 27 (AP)
- Scientists map out the human body one cell at a time (ABC)
- In a first, U.S. moves to list many giraffes as endangered (Yahoo)
- British carmaker Jaguar reveals glossy rebrand that features no cars, confuses the internet (NBC)
