Trump Tanks Border Bill & Amazon Won’t Hand Over Your Footage
January 26, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Friday! Today, we’re talking about U.S./Iraq relations, Trump tanking a border bill, France’s immigration laws, Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Biden’s infrastructure investment, Peter Navarro, & Amazon’s surprisingly nice announcement.
Here’s some good news to hold you over through the weekend. Buffalo Bills kicker Tyler Bass missed a field goal attempt, which earned him a lot of hate on social media. Fans rallied around Bass and started making $22 donations to Ten Lives Club, a cat rescue group that Bass is involved with. 99-year-old swimmer Betty Brussel broke the existing world record in the 400-metre freestyle, knocking nearly four minutes off the previous time in the 100- to 104-year-old age class. The Biden administration is allocating nearly $700,000 to update the Girl2Girl sexual education program to make it more trans-inclusive. Finally, the E.U. emitted 8% less carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels it burned in 2023 than it did in 2022, bringing these emissions down to their lowest level in 60 years.
Please Stop Firing Missiles Out Of Our Country
According to CNN’s sources, the U.S. and Iraq are planning talks about America’s future in the country. The talks will take place amid a hostile environment (at least, more hostile than usual) for the U.S. in the Middle East, between the Israel/Gaza conflict and the White House firing missiles at Iran-backed groups from Iraq bases.
Voices within the Iraqi government have begun calling for a U.S. withdrawal from their country, and the two countries set up a commission to discuss a U.S. drawdown last summer. On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that the commission would begin talks “in the coming days.”
There are currently about 2,500 American troops in Iraq, who’ve been stationed there as part of an anti-ISIS operation since late 2021. With the group’s downfall, Iraqi politicians have called for the troops to get out of their country, with one government spokesman saying that U.S. missile strikes launched from military bases in Iraq are “undermining agreements and various sectors of joint security cooperation,” and that the two countries will need to work to “reshape the future relationship.”
“There will be some cosmetic changes, but I don’t think the Iraqis want us to leave,” said one former U.S. military official. “I think they recognize it will be difficult for them to survive without significant U.S. assistance.”
Trump Twists The GOP’s Arm
In one of the least surprising (but still kind of surprising) developments of Donald Trump’s political career, the former president appears to have blocked a bipartisan compromise on a key immigration bill to give him leverage against Joe Biden on the campaign trail. GOP sources familiar with the conversations say that the former president has been telling Republican lawmakers to abandon the border compromise talks, saying he wants the border to remain an issue as he seeks to regain the presidency in elections later this year.
“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is … really appalling,” said GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. “This proposal would have had almost unanimous Republican support if it weren’t for Donald Trump,” added an anonymous GOP senator. The prospect of a legislative compromise would be a strong bolster for other Republicans on the campaign trail, but are we really surprised that Trump is putting his own success ahead of his political allies?
The Council Will Decide Your Bill’s Fate
- In December, French lawmakers passed a controversial immigration bill that included clauses restricting family reunifications, attacking student residency permits, and making residing in France illegally a crime. The bill was passed as a compromise between the centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron (which wrote most of the bill’s text) and right-wing lawmakers (who introduced most of the controversial clauses).
- On Thursday, France’s constitutional council ruled that most of the contentious parts of the bill were unconstitutional, dismissing 32 out of 86 amendments on the basis that they weren’t relevant to the original law. Luckily for Macron’s government, the council didn’t label most of the government’s text unconstitutional. The leader of one far-right party called the decision a “coup by the judges, with the backing of the president.”
The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
- On Thursday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said that the IDF had attacked a crowd of people waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City, killing over 20 people and injuring over 150 more. Israel denied the claims, stating that the government had confirmed that the strike did not come from Israeli aircraft or artillery fire – but didn’t rule out that the fire had come from tanks (the IDF is the only party in the conflict with access to tanks). The government instead suggested that the explosions had been caused by a Hamas rocket.
- That same day, families of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza protested at a border crossing into the Palestinian enclave in an attempt to block humanitarian aid from reaching those in need. The families staged a similar protest yesterday, which the U.N. claims blocked over 100 trucks for hours. The aid trucks were forced to reroute all the way to Egypt’s border crossing into Gaza.
Additional World News
- Man gets death sentence for killing 36 people in arson attack at anime studio in Japan (CBS)
- Gangs, gunmen and cartels running amok. As terror grips the streets of Ecuador, even the armed forces live in fear (CNN)
- Russia jails ultra-nationalist Putin critic and woman convicted of bomb attack (Guardian)
- South Korean ruling party lawmaker attacked in Seoul, aide says (ABC)
- Pakistan accuses Indian agents of orchestrating the killing of 2 citizens on its soil (AP)
Middle East Reads
- Congressional Dems intensify their pushback against Netanyahu with public defense of Palestinian state (Politico)
- Death of Israeli soldiers in explosion highlights friendly fire accidents in Gaza (NBC)
- A jobs crisis in India is driving workers to Israel (BBC)
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” – Hans Christian Andersen
Biden Bets Billions On Bridges
- President Biden announced a $5 billion investment in 37 major infrastructure projects throughout the country across at least 12 states, “including bridges, highways, ports, [and] airports.” Among the investments is $600 million to replace the I-5 bridge that connects Washington and Oregon and $372 million for the Sagamore Bridge in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- The investment would also provide $1.06 billion to replace the Blatnik Bridge that runs between Wisconsin and Minnesota, near the campaign stop where Biden made the announcement. The new projects add to the over $400 billion for 40,000 infrastructure projects that the White House previously announced.
Nice Try, Navarro (Not)
- Peter Navarro, a former trade official in the Trump White House, was sentenced to four months in prison yesterday. Navarro refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol related to his actions after the 2020 election, leaving him with two counts of contempt of Congress.
- Prosecutors sought six months in prison and a $600,000 fine, but Navarro will only have to pay $9,500, a much more lenient sentence. Navarro had claimed former President Trump had asserted executive privilege over the material sought by the committee, but Trump was no longer president in 2022, so the argument didn’t pan out.
Additional USA Reads
- 33 million under flood watches as South drenched with another day of heavy rain (NBC)
- Ohio bans gender-affirming care and restricts transgender athletes despite GOP governor’s veto (AP)
- Maine’s top court won’t review Trump ballot eligibility for now (CNN)
- Texas teen birthrate rose for first time in 15 years after abortion ban, largely affecting Latinas (NBC)
- Nearly 65,000 pregnancies from rape have occurred in states with abortion bans, study estimates (CNN)
- White House gas export review to freeze new projects for more than a year (Politico)
Amazon Does Something Decent For Once
- It feels like it’s been years since Amazon’s last PR win, with stories about bottles full of pee and anti-union tactics stealing headlines. But thanks to a blog post released on Wednesday, the tech giant might be able to win back a handful of people – the blog post announced that Amazon’s Ring doorbells would no longer freely share their surveillance footage with police and other government officials. Now, authorities must submit official requests to view Ring footage in a win for the average citizen’s privacy.
- Prior to the decision, police had been able to solicit footage from people’s Ring doorbell cameras through public posts on the company’s Neighbors app. This allowed authorities to impede people’s privacy rights by, say, asking a neighbor to show them footage of a person taken from their doorbell cam. Privacy groups say this policy has likely contributed to racial profiling and invasions of privacy by authorities. Forcing them to go through proper legal channels will cut down on those issues, but privacy advocates say that more steps need to be taken in the future.
Additional Reads
- Amateur archaeologists uncover a mysterious ancient Roman artifact in England (NPR)
- Florida Eliminates Sociology as a Core Course at Its Universities (NYT, $)
- Florida advances law banning children under 16 from using social media (Guardian)
- Where are the wolves? Colorado Parks and Wildlife debuts map tracking the new residents (CBS)
- An Iowa bill would make students sing the national anthem every day. One lawmaker sang it (USA Today)
- Feds kick off National AI Research Resource with pilot program live today (TechCrunch)
- British zoo has new plan to rehabilitate its potty-mouthed parrots (CNN)