Friday News Roundup
Trump Nomination Watch
There are many takeaways from Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense. The hearing included discussion of a 2017 report released by the Monterey, CA police department by a woman who reported that Hegseth had committed a sexual assault against her. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who has pushed bipartisan legislation to combat sexual assault in the military, has caved in to support Hegseth after a dark money campaign from Elon Musk spent $500,000 on ads attacking her. Ernst is a former sexual assault survivor, and the dynamic of forcing such a woman to capitulate and betray her values must have appealed to a domineering authoritarian like Trump.
In her confirmation hearings to become Attorney General, Pam Bondi refused to rule out retaliating against Special Counsel Jack Smith or to stop making false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Otherwise, Trump’s picks for executive nominations show how Trump prizes loyalty, while holding any competence or expertise in contempt. To quote from this USA Today column,
his pick to run the nation’s intelligence agencies is a midlevel reserve officer with limited intelligence experience, his pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation are former congressmen not known for expertise in those fields and his selection for health secretary is an environmental attorney and health activist turned longshot presidential candidate.
Pandemic Watch
According to a report this week from California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, California has confirmed cases of H5N1 in 65 different dairy farms in the last 30 days, in addition to another 580 dairy farms that still remain in quarantine. The Biden Administration released a report on “pandemic preparedness and response,” but it has a self-congratulatory tone on the administration’s past successes in mitigating COVID, while devoting less space to the threat of H5N1 avian flu. I suspect Donald Trump will disregard this Biden report on pandemic preparedness out of spite, much like he disregarded a previous “pandemic playbook” provided to him by the Obama Administration before COVID.
Mass Deportation Watch
Texas journalists foresee that Donald Trump will lean heavily on pro-Trump local law enforcement in Texas to conduct mass deportations quietly without the consent of the federal bureaucracy. Anti-immigrant Republicans are also pushing a strategy to implement Trump’s mass deportation plan by sneaking it into a budget reconciliation bill (what Trump calls “one big beautiful bill”) that can pass with a simple majority, immune to any filibusters. According to an NPR report, the private prison company GEO Group is planning to make investments of $70 million dollars to expand immigrant detention facilities.
Wildfire Watch
According to an ABC News update, at least 24 people are confirmed dead due to the California wildfires. Over 12,000 structures have been destroyed over an area of 60 square miles, with multiple fires still raging, including the Palisades fire (11% contained), the Eaton fire (27% contained), and the Hurst fire (89% contained). Due to the return of high Santa Ana winds, a Potentially Dangerous Situation red flag remains in place, which warns of wind gusts that could range from 50 to 70 miles per hour.
The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service has detective has detected via satellite massive spikes in air pollution due to carbon emissions released by the wildfires. These carbon emissions contribute to a negative feedback loop, which scientists at Penn State argue will lead to warmer temperatures, which in turn will cause future wildfires. The Penn State scientists also predict that the wildfires will exacerbate a process leading to non-native species overtaking native California wildlife species. Another analysis argues that wildfires may be an example of “climate whiplash” characterized by rapid fluctuations between wet and dry weather conditions. Negative health consequences, including increased PTSD by Californians experiencing wildfires and the birth of more low-birth-weight babies among women pregnant during the wildfires, are expected to continue for years to come.
Global News Roundup
Acclaimed film director David Lynch died at age 78.
South Korean authorities finally arrest President Yoon Suk Yeol after he attempted to establish a dictatorship via martial law.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party has signed a 100-year security pact between the UK and Ukraine, an indication that our British allies may no longer trust the Trump administration in protecting the security of Ukraine from Russian invasion.
New French Prime Minister Bayrou survived a no-confidence vote after the French Socialists defected from the vote called by the left-wing New Popular Front coalition.
Bulgaria has approved a new coalition government. The new government will be center-right and remain aligned with both EU and NATO. In addition, it is likely the new government will resist anti-immigrant policies due to the government including a minority Turkish party in its coalition.
Iglesia ni Cristo, a right-wing Filipino religious group that has supported past authoritarian regimes such Ferdinand Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte, hosted a nationwide rally to oppose the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter.
Up to 12,000 protesters in Vienna shouting “No to Nazis” blocked the far-right Alternative for Germany party’s convention to select Alice Weidel as their candidate for chancellor. Elon Musk has already expressed support for the Alternative for Germany Party in a broadcast with Weidel on his X platform.