Japan’s Quake & What’s Entering The Public Domain
January 2, 2024
Welcome to 2024, everyone! Today, we’re talking about Japan’s earthquake, what’s going on in Gaza, Israel’s judicial reforms, how people in the U.K. feel about Brexit, a Mississippi court ruling, migrant bussing, and what’s entering the public domain.
Here’s some good news. This week, many new laws are going into effect in the United States. The minimum wage increased to $16 in New York City and some of its suburbs. Fast food workers and health care workers will get a pay increase in California, and doctors and pharmacists in California who mail abortion pills will be shielded from prosecution or fines. Also, in Illinois, public libraries will become ineligible for state funding if they ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval.
New Year, New Crisis
On New Year’s Day, a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s west coast, with the epicenter of the quake located under the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. Just after the quake, officials issued a major tsunami warning for parts of the country’s west coast, warning that waves could reach heights of 5 meters (or 16 feet). That warning was eventually downgraded to just an advisory by Tuesday morning local time.
Currently, the earthquake is estimated to have killed at least six people with more trapped under rubble. Local authorities say they’ve received dozens of calls about buildings destroyed by the shaking, but there has been no damage to “important facilities” despite the earthquake’s shallow depth.
While the earthquake didn’t create any massive waves, it did have officials worried about damage to nuclear facilities, much like 2011’s 8.9 magnitude quake which disabled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Luckily, Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency said that there were no signs of damage at the Shika nuclear power plant, located near the epicenter.
Israel Decides To Play The Long Game
On Monday, the IDF announced that five of its military brigades would be withdrawing from the Gaza Strip this week. You might think that this signals a turning point in the conflict (maybe the IDF made some peaceful New Year’s resolutions?) but you’d be mistaken. Instead, Israel says its troop withdrawals are part of a larger plan to reorganize its military campaign in Gaza for “prolonged fighting” throughout 2024.
“These adaptations are intended to ensure the planning and preparation for continuing the war in 2024,” said an IDF spokesman. “The IDF must plan ahead out of an understanding that there will be additional missions and the fighting will continue the rest of the year.” Gaza’s health ministry says that 21,978 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF since October, with 56,697 more injured. The U.N. says 85% of Gaza’s population has now been displaced – that’s about 2 million people.
This Supreme Court Reigns Supreme
- On New Year’s Day, Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a judicial reform pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The reform, part of a series of attacks on the judiciary by Israel’s far-right government, limited the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down laws that it found to be “extremely unreasonable.”
- Israeli justices voted 8 to 7 to overturn the law, saying it would create “severe and unprecedented damage to the basic characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state.” Israeli justice minister Yariv Levin criticized the Supreme Court for “taking into their hands all the powers,” and called the vote undemocratic.
- Critics of Netanyahu’s regime (including the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who protested the measures) say that his judicial reforms were an attempt to steamroll one of the few checks on the prime minister’s power in Israel.
Brexit Is Bad For Business
- According to a new nationwide poll conducted almost four years after Brexit’s initiation, a majority of British citizens say that the measure has been bad for the country’s economy. The poll, which asked over 2,000 U.K. voters about the U.K.’s withdrawal from the E.U., showed that just 22% of Britons saw the referendum as a good thing for the U.K. as a country.
- 63% of respondents said that Brexit was the cause of the country’s current inflation and cost of living crises, 35% said the measure was bad for their financial situations, and 49% said it was bad for Britain’s international trade – one of the key selling points for the referendum was that it would allow the U.K. to make its own, stronger trade deals.
- The poll is another bad sign (among a sea of bad omens) for Rishi Sunak’s regime – the sitting prime minister was one of Brexit’s biggest proponents, and the U.K.’s economic struggles ever since have all taken place under the Tory government.
Additional World News
- China’s Xi, US President Biden exchange congratulations on 45 years of diplomatic ties (Reuters)
- Danish Queen Margrethe announces surprise abdication after 52 years on the throne (CNN)
- Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws (Guardian)
- Xi Jinping rings in 2024 with rare admission that China’s economy is in trouble (CNN)
- German police arrest three more over alleged Cologne Cathedral attack plot (Reuters)
Middle East Reads
- The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is returning home after extended deployment defending Israel (AP)
- As Palestinians pushed south in Gaza, some fear they will be forced out (NBC)
- South Africa files genocide case against Israel at International Court of Justice over Gaza war (CNN)
- As death toll mounts in Gaza, veterans of past negotiations weigh in on possibilities for peace (NBC)
- Israeli officials: Qatar says Hamas “agreed in principle” to resume hostage deal talks (Axios)
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Definitely Not The People’s Court
- The NAACP sued on behalf of Jackson, Mississippi residents to try to prevent the creation of a state-run court in part of the majority-Black capital city. A federal judge has ruled, in spite of objections from the civil rights group, that the state can move forward with creating the court. However, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary administrative stay, blocking the court’s creation until at least Jan. 5.
- The new Capitol Complex Improvement District Court will have a judge appointed by the (mostly white and conservative) state Supreme Court chief justice and prosecutors appointed by the state attorney general, which raised concerns with the NAACP. However, the judge said that “None of the Plaintiffs has alleged that he or she is in actual or imminent danger of experiencing any concrete and particularized injury resulting from” the creation of the court.
Greg Abbott, Human Trafficker
- This weekend, over 350 asylum seekers sent from Texas arrived in Chicago. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Sunday that “there was no communication from Texas” about the incoming group. Texas has bused more than 90,000 migrants to “sanctuary cities” run by Democrats like D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, and L.A. since April 2022.
- “This is the second recorded instance of the Texas governor transporting asylum-seekers via private plane,” Johnson added. Texas Governor Greg Abbott also chartered the buses that picked everyone up and “dropped [them] in various surrounding suburbs, left to find their way to the city.”
Additional USA Reads
- A Colorado mother suspected of killing 2 of her children makes court appearance in London (AP)
- Man killed in shark attack in Hawaii (Guardian)
- Trump’s Most Ambitious Argument in His Bid for ‘Absolute Immunity’ (NYT, $)
- Trailblazing former Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who served nearly 30 years in Congress, dies at 88 (CNN)
- John Fetterman: social media made battle with depression more difficult (Guardian)
- The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2024 (CNN)
Oh Mickey, You’re So Fine, I Hope Disney Doesn’t Sue Me For Using Your Likeness
- It’s a whole new year, which means another group of media properties is making its way into the public domain. The roster this year includes thousands of copyrighted works published in 1928, including the version of Mickey Mouse found in the cartoon Steamboat Willie and the version of Peter Pan from the play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. Other copyrighted properties freed into the universe include Tigger from House at Pooh Corner, the musical composition for Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love),” and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.
- While some of the works unleashed from copyright are free to be used in new media – think the horrific Winnie the Pooh monster from 2023’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – other characters, especially Disney’s iconic mouse, will likely need to be handled with kid gloves. Peter Pan and Mickey Mouse are still used in media properties with their own unique copyrights, meaning Disney (which owns versions of both characters) might feel the need to start firing off lawsuits like fireworks this year.
Additional Reads
- Warnings grow about risky IV drips and injections at unregulated med spas (NBC)
- 24 things we think will happen in 2024 (Vox)
- It’s over: 2023 was Earth’s hottest year, experts say. (USA Today)
- Flooded tunnels force cancelation of Eurostar trains linking UK to Europe (CNN)
- These Rogue Worlds Upend the Theory of How Planets Form (Wired, $)