Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’re talking about Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing, Palestine’s Cabinet, India’s disappointment, tension between China and the Philippines, New York’s congestion pricing, new census options, and a very stinky plant.
Here’s some good news to hold you over through the weekend: this week, the Food and Drug Administration approved Winrevair, a drug that may help stop pulmonary arterial hypertension. Girl Scout Troop 6000 in New York City is welcoming hundreds of young asylum seekers with the help of donations. Waterton Park, regarded as the world’s first nature reserve, has been given a Grade II listing, which essentially means it’s a protected site. And, finally, in Oregon, the governor signed the first right-to-repair law in the nation, which will push manufacturers to provide more repair options.
“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Big Fraud Gets A Big Sentence
(Sam Bankman-Fried by Fatih Aktas via Getty Images)
“Anyone who believes they can hide their financial crimes behind wealth and power, or behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand, should think twice,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. Judge Lewis Kaplan noted that Bankman-Fried had never uttered “a word of remorse for the commission of terrible crimes.”
FTX was valued at over $30 billion at its peak. The empire came crumbling down when rumors of fraudulent inter-company transfers between the exchange and Bankman-Fried’s own crypto trading firm began swirling, which eventually triggered a spike in customer withdrawals FTX couldn’t cover, forcing it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At this point, Bankman-Fried had already used billions of company and consumer dollars to fund his lifestyle.
Prodigious Alterations At The PA
While Israel’s leadership remains the same despite international calls for a regime change, things are shifting in the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Palestinian government in charge of sections of the Israel-controlled West Bank. PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Thursday that his government would be handing power over to a new Cabinet amidst international pressure for the organization to reform.
The new government’s foreign minister will be Mohammad Mustafa, a longtime adviser of Abbas. Mustafa is a U.S.-educated economist who’s promised to set up a technocratic government in the West Bank, as well as a trust fund to rebuild Gaza. Most of the other 23 ministers are aligned with the Fatah, the secular movement that runs the PA.
The U.S. hopes that the PA will play a key role in rebuilding Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war, but Israel has laid out its ambitions to keep control over the territory while building up a partnership with Palestinians not affiliated with the PA or Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas has called for a power-sharing agreement with the PA and other Palestinian groups and declared that any Palestinians who cooperate with Israel will be labeled Israeli collaborators – a title understood as a death sentence.
Don’t Dog On New Delhi
(Arvind Kejriwal by Vipin Kumar via Getty Images)
India has heard that the U.S. has been talking smack – and it’s called in a U.S. diplomat to apologize. Last Thursday, Indian authorities arrested opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal, a fierce critic of sitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on corruption charges just a month before national elections begin on April 19. The U.S. State Department responded to the arrest, calling on India to ensure a “fair, transparent and timely legal process” that will see Kejriwal released before the elections.
“We take strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the U.S. State Department about certain legal proceedings in India,” said India’s Ministry of External Affairs in response to the State Department’s statement, adding, “In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies.” India was so incensed by the comments that a U.S. diplomat was called in by the exterior ministry for a dressing-down yesterday. Amnesty International has warned that the Modi regime’s crackdown on opposition parties has reached a “crisis point” ahead of April’s elections.
Things Are Going Further South On This Sea
Things are tenser than ever on the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines are butting heads over yet another naval incident. The latest round of bad blood came out of an incident last weekend, where the Chinese coast guard shot water cannons at Philippine Navy crewmen near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.
The Philippines Navy claims that the spray injured multiple crewmen and damaged their boat, even knocking one man off his feet. In response to the incident, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ratcheted up his rhetoric, warning Beijing that “Filipinos do not yield.” Following a meeting with his country’s top military officials, Marcos released a statement saying that the Philippines’ response to Chinese actions would be “proportionate, deliberate and reasonable in the face of the open, unabating, and illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous attacks by agents of the China coast guard and Chinese maritime militia.”
While it’s unclear what this will actually mean on the ground (or on the water in this case), officials allegedly floated the idea of using military vessels to deliver supplies to soldiers on the disputed shoal. Again, though, Marcos has not outlined any actual policy here, so we’ll just have to see what happens.
New York City has instituted “congestion pricing,” which is supposed to help the environment by taking polluting cars off the road – and it has the added benefit of raising a little cash for upgrades to the bus and subway network. Now, a lawsuit against that pricing has been filed using the 2021 “green amendment,” which ensures every New Yorker has a state constitutional right to clean air, clean water, and “a healthful environment.”
A state and federal environmental assessment shows that the congestion pricing will change traffic patterns as drivers (particularly commercial truck drivers who have to pay more than the $15 charged for cars) take routes around Manhattan through “environmental justice communities” like Staten Island, the South Bronx, and Chinatown. “The law says that environmental justice communities are supposed to get special attention and protection, not be treated worse,” said Alan Klinger, an attorney who is representing those trying to stop the tolls.
Census Selections
It was announced yesterday that the Biden administration has approved proposals for a new response option on the U.S. Census and other government forms. The question, which will now read “What is your race and/or ethnicity?”, will have new options for “Middle Eastern or North African” and “Hispanic or Latino.”
The process to change up the forms has been in limbo for a decade now – the Obama administration introduced the changes, which were then shelved under Trump. Advocates for the change say they could help strengthen the racial and ethnic data used to redraw maps of voting districts.
It’s spring cleaning season, but things in Arizona are getting stinky. The Grand Canyon State has been overrun by the invasive plant known as the globe chamomile, which is also nicknamed “stinknet” – you can probably guess where this is going. When the stinknet is crushed underfoot, the plant’s yellow ball-shaped flowers can release a noxious liquid that smells like turpentine.
When it burns (the plant grows in dense, dry thickets that are easily flammable in the Arizona heat), stinknet can produce even more caustic fumes, and its seeds are easily tracked around by hikers or picnickers. Things have gotten so bad in Arizona that the state was forced to shut down parts of the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument on Wednesday. “We also ask that visitors avoid walking near or stepping on this flowering weed in other areas of the park to avoid spreading it,” park staff said in a statement.
Stinknet is listed as one of Arizona’s top eight most invasive plants, and the state park agency says the weed “has rapidly spread across the desert landscape, displacing native vegetation and altering fragile ecosystems.” The plants require lots of manual weeding and herbicide applications to root out, and landowners are encouraged to get rid of the stinky visitors ahead of flowering season when their population often booms.
