Protests In L.A., Blocking A Flotilla, & A Poop Pill
June 9, 2025
Hello, readers – happy Monday! Today, we’ll be talking about the LA protests, the Middle East, violence in Colombia, Russia vs. Ukraine, bad eggs, an ABC suspension, and a poo pill.
Here’s some good news: In California, roughly 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) of homelands have been returned to the Yurok, more than doubling the tribe’s land holding. Also, the Neralu shelter, winner of a design contest in the southern city of Bengaluru, is a new, cheap way to help workers escape the heat in India.
It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Friday, June 13, will be the last edition of Daily Pnut. We’ve had a wonderful time sending you all the news every day, and we’ll miss you dearly.
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” – Epictetus
Putting In A Shift Shooting Civilians
ICE agents, backed up by National Guard troops and LAPD officers, clashed with protestors in Los Angeles over the weekend after Trump’s immigration agents invaded the city. The pressure began building on Friday, when ICE agents began sweeping up allegedly undocumented immigrants at a Home Depot in the heart of LA. When protestors clashed with unidentified ICE agents and the LAPD officers “just doing their jobs” to protect them, Trump chose to escalate the situation by sending in 2,000 National Guard soldiers against the wishes of the state and local governments.
National Guard troops – also “just doing their jobs” – fired tear gas and “less than lethal” weapons at protestors. We’ve written before about these weapons, but if you need a refresher, rubber bullets can fracture skulls and cause blindness or deafness if they hit eyes or ears. Tear gas can cause chronic lung problems in people with asthma and has also been linked to increased chances of miscarriage. Beanbag rounds can also permanently take out eyes and break bones.
On Sunday, protests shut down LA’s 101 freeway, a major artery that flows through the center of the city. California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially requested that Trump rescind his deployment of National Guard troopers in LA, though Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are apparently considering sending active duty Marines into the city instead. Surely that will keep things nice and peaceful.
Sinking Civilians In “Self-Defense”
A group of peaceful demonstrators, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, attempted to break Israel’s siege of Gaza by sailing an aid boat to the Palestinian enclave over the weekend. The IDF, “the most moral army in the world,” was ready to keep the vessel from reaching its destination by “any means necessary,” according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“To the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propaganda spokespeople, I say clearly: You should turn back — because you will not reach Gaza,” Katz wrote on Telegram yesterday. “Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or aid terrorist organizations — at sea, in the air and on land.” Before the ship departed for Gaza last week, Thunberg issued her own statement. “We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” she said. “Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide.”
Late yesterday, the IDF took action. The ship was first surrounded by drones, which sprayed the demonstrators with a white irritant liquid. Soon after, it had its communications jammed, and Israeli naval forces boarded the vessel, instructing the passengers to throw their phones overboard and hold their hands over their heads. The ship was then forced to land in Israel, where the government said its passengers would be sent back to their home nations. Thunberg posted a video on Instagram with a slightly different story – “If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces,” she said.
Trading Drones And Words
- The Russia-Ukraine war is clearly not ending anytime soon. The two countries traded drone attacks over the weekend, with most of the flying robots failing to hit their targets, while Kyiv lashed out at Moscow for only pretending to half-participate in ongoing peace talks.
- “No form of pressure on Russia can be eased,” said Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. “The Russians are preparing to continue the war and are ignoring all peace proposals. They must be held accountable for this. We are aware that the Russians are now trying to show that they are allegedly immune to any pressure but it is very important for the world to understand: just as pressure forced Russia into the negotiation process, pressure can force Russia to become realistic in negotiations.”
- His speech came with yet another plea for Western nations to provide Ukraine with even more air defense systems. More specifically, Zelenskyy thanked European countries for their recent contributions to Ukraine’s defenses, but prodded the U.S. for more aid. “We urgently need positive signals from the United States – concrete signals regarding air defense systems,” he said. “We are still waiting for a response to our request to purchase systems that can help — concrete signals, not words.”
Two Bullets In Bogotá
- Miguel Uribe Turbay, a far-right candidate in Colombia’s upcoming presidential election, was shot twice in the head on Saturday. The presidential hopeful was quickly airlifted to a hospital in Bogotá following the shooting and is currently recovering in intensive care after undergoing neurosurgery. Authorities arrested one suspect on the scene – a 15-year-old who actually fired the shots – but are still searching for possible co-conspirators.
- Uribe, a senator, is the grandson of former Colombian president Julio César Turbay Ayala, who led violent government crackdowns against trade unions and university students. His grandfather was also included in Jimmy Carter’s Colombia Blacklist, a list of top Colombian officials who illegally profited off of the country’s massive drug trade.
- Uribe is also a staunch supporter of another far-right former Colombian president, Álvaro Uribe. The former president outsourced most of his regime’s political violence to paramilitary groups, and was described by U.S. intelligence agencies as a “close personal friend of Pablo Escobar” who was “dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug] cartel at high government levels.”
More Mixed Nuts
- Thousands protest in Madrid against Pedro Sánchez’s government (Guardian)
- Italians vote on citizenship and job protections amid low awareness and turnout concerns (AP)
- Pope Leo criticises ‘exclusionary mindset’ of nationalist political movements (Guardian)
- Iran extends ban on dog-walking for ‘public order, safety and health’ (Guardian)
- Rwanda pulls out of regional bloc over DR Congo row (BBC)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- U.S. hits International Criminal Court judges with sanctions over investigation into Israel (NBC)
- Palestinians say at least five people killed by Israeli gunfire near Gaza aid centers (NPR)
- Iran claims without evidence that it took Israeli nuclear files (AP)
RFK’s FDA At Work
- The CDC and FDA are investigating a multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to at least 1.7 million eggs. So far, the outbreak has sickened 79 people, with 21 people hospitalized but no deaths. The CDC advises anyone who has recalled eggs in their home to throw them away or return them to the retailer that sold them.
- The brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs were distributed by the August Egg Company from Feb. 3 through May 15 to retailers in nine states (California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana, and Wyoming). They were sold at retailers including Walmart and Safeway.
ABC = Aggressively Backs Conservatives
- ABC News suspended its senior national correspondent, Terry Moran, after he called White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world-class hater” in a post on X that’s since been deleted. Moran also said Miller is “one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy,” and operates on “bile” rather than “brains”.
- “ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. There are concerns that his commentary on Miller could be seen as undermining ABC News’ objectivity in coverage of White House matters.
More Nuts In America
- San Antonio mayor live election results: Gina Ortiz Jones wins race (Axios)
- Recaptured Arkansas prison escapee known as ‘Devil in the Ozarks’ sent to SuperMax prison (AP)
- The questions raised by the new charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia (NBC)
- Trump and Musk aides have spoken amid pause in hostilities (Politico)
Stay Healthy, Eat Poop
- According to new research, you might just be able to force “superbugs” – antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria – out of your body with the help of a good poop…and a new pill. The “poo-pill,” as the BBC has taken to calling it, is a capsule filled with a helping of healthy gut bacteria sitting in a substrate of, well, freeze dried (and cleaned) poop. When administered to people facing “superbug” infections, the pill was shown to significantly reduce the population of drug-resistant bacteria in their guts – researchers said this was likely due to the poop-pill bacteria competing with the superbugs for resources.
- The bowel, according to one of the researchers, is “the biggest reservoir of antibiotic resistance in humans,” meaning it’s where most of the superbugs in your body are probably hanging out. If they’re allowed to chill out down there for long enough, the bugs can cause problems elsewhere in your body, including UTIs or bloodstream infections, so “there’s a lot of interest in ‘can you get rid of them from the gut?’,” added the researcher. As for those of you questioning the process of swallowing someone else’s poop, the best thing we can tell you is that the pill dissolves once it reaches your intestine, which is partially filled with poop anyway…so it’s probably fine?
More Loose Nuts
- Inside OpenAI’s Plan to Embed ChatGPT Into College Students’ Lives (NYT, $)
- More bodies of executed civil war-era prisoners uncovered under Greek city park (AP)
- A New Law of Nature Attempts to Explain the Complexity of the Universe (Wired)
- Tool to identify poisonous books developed by University of St Andrews (Guardian)
- Scientists at Loughborough University create ‘world’s smallest violin’ (BBC)
- Lawyers could face ‘severe’ penalties for fake AI-generated citations, UK court warns (TechCrunch)
- Prince William calls for protection of world’s oceans in Monaco (BBC)
