Komunitas
piefed.world
The Black Death (bubonic plague) that devastated Europe and Asia in the 14th century did not occur on the American continent. However, a later, separate outbreak of the bubonic plague was introduced to the Americas around 1900, resulting in the following recorded deaths: United States (1900-1904): The first major outbreak in San Francisco killed at least 119 to 172 people. United States (1900–2015): A total of 1,036 human plague cases were reported in the U.S. during this period. United States (1900-1942): Before antibiotics, there were 511 cases, of which 336 were fatal (66% mortality rate). United States (Recent): In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases are reported in the U.S. each year. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov) Key Facts on Plague in the Americas: Origin: The plague arrived in the US on rat-infested steamships from Asia, primarily affecting West Coast port cities. Endemic Status: The disease established itself among wild rodents in the Western US (especially New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado). Location: While rare, modern plague cases in the Americas occur primarily in the United States and Peru. Smithsonian Magazine
Komunitas
lemmy.world
It is subservient to trump. Former Giuliani office. Scandal-plagued. The Southern District of New York (SDNY) has faced significant scrutiny due to various scandals, including high-profile resignations of top officials and ongoing investigations into corruption and misconduct. Recent events have drawn comparisons to historical moments in the DOJ, highlighting the challenges and controversies within the district. ABC7 New York Wikipedia Overview of the SDNY Scandal The Southern District of New York (SDNY) has recently faced significant turmoil, leading to a series of high-profile resignations and investigations. This situation has been referred to as the “Thursday Afternoon Massacre,” drawing parallels to the historical “Saturday Night Massacre” during the Watergate scandal. Key Events Resignations Several top officials within the Public Integrity Section of the SDNY have resigned. This mass resignation has raised concerns about the future of ongoing investigations, including a notable case involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Investigations The SDNY is currently dealing with multiple cases, including allegations of bribery and campaign finance violations involving public officials. A recent case involves Joshua Wander, co-founder of 777 Partners, charged with a $500 million fraud scheme, highlighting issues of financial misconduct within the district. Implications The fallout from these events has created uncertainty regarding the SDNY’s ability to effectively pursue its investigations. The directive from Washington, D.C., to drop the Adams case has particularly drawn attention, as it limits the district’s options moving forward. The situation continues to evolve, with potential impacts on public trust and the integrity of the judicial process in the region.
Komunitas
lemmygrad.ml
I saw someone on reddit complain about linking to a tweet because Twitter is a right-wing shithole, and someone replied “And reddit isn’t?” But then someone replied to that with “Seriously? Right-wingers don’t plague Reddit.” Ahahahahaha users have negative self awareness
Komunitas
lemmy.ml
The motif of death and a maiden began during the black plague. It eerily reminds the viewer that death comes for all, even the young and pure. Marianne Stokes, however was part of a movement called “Pre Raphael”. This began in the late 1800’s and saw a resurgence of popularity for Renaisance realism (Itself a resurgence of Classical Realism). At the time, in the late 19th century, art schools were pushing the ideals of Raphael as what artists should aspire to, however, the Pre-Raphaelites believed only the most serious subjects should be painted, and only in the most realistic way. It has been compared to the Emo movement of the late 90’s and early aughts in music, literature and film. Here, in Stokes’ work, we see the angel of death visiting a young woman. The angel has the face of a woman, a large departure from renaissance and gothic depictions of Death and the Maiden, where death is a skeleton or other frightening thing. Death seems to be comforting the girl , rather than frightening, with her outstretched wing. There is sadness in both the faces showing even death has a conscious about the fragility of life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Stokes https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pre-raphaelite http://vasari.com.hk/pages/article/death_and_the_maiden https://www.arthistoryproject.com/timeline/industrial-revolution/pre-raphaelite-brotherhood/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_art#Renaissance
Komunitas
hexbear.net
“There is NO EVIDENCE that drinking the plague juice, or working around the animals that produce it, will harm you or create another global pandemic that will make COVID look like a blip on the radar!” “And we’ve been well payed so that it’ll stay that way!”
Komunitas
lemmy.world
Well… not according to the '25 election returns. But they’ve accrued a whole lot of very sick-in-the-head GenX / Millennials with the same toxic nostalgia that poisoned the Boomers. What they didn’t anticipate was the voter burnout that’s plagued Democrats since the 90s coming for their new flaky, disgruntled, hyper-individualist base.
Komunitas
hexbear.net
how did they survive Bro, they’re the farmers, the producers of food, and chances are they only worked in those cities and didn’t live in them. Most of history prior to the bubonic plague had like 90% of the work force as farmers.
Komunitas
hexbear.net
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/990830 ::: spoiler spoiler On Tuesday, March 10, a massive explosion shook the city of Beit Shemesh, just outside Jerusalem, in yet another Iranian ballistic missile attack during the ongoing war. Rescue services scrambled to the scene in search of possible casualties, though as it turned out, the projectile had struck a forested area just outside the city, around 500 meters from homes. On The Times of Israel’s liveblog that day, I reported that the missile had hit an open area and no injuries were caused, citing the rescue services, as well as footage that emerged showing the massive explosion caused by the missile’s warhead. But what I thought was a seemingly minor incident during the war has turned into days of harassment and death threats against me. The saga begins Later Tuesday, I received an unusual email, in Hebrew, from someone named Aviv. “Regarding your Times of Israel report that described today’s launch as an ‘impact’ — Beit Shemesh Municipality and MDA (Magen David Adom) later corrected their reports to clarify that what fell was an interceptor fragment, not a full missile,” he claimed. “I’d appreciate it if you could update your article, as in its current form it does not reflect reality. Alternatively, if you have information that it was indeed a full missile that was not intercepted, I would be glad to be corrected.” I told Aviv that, from what I know from the Israeli military, the impact outside Beit Shemesh was indeed a missile warhead and not just fragments. I added: “The footage also shows a massive explosion of hundreds of kilograms of explosives from the warhead. Normally, a fragment does not produce such an explosion.” A day later, on Wednesday, I received another email, also in Hebrew, regarding the impact just outside Beit Shemesh, from someone identifying themselves as Daniel. “Sorry for reaching out without a prior introduction, but I assume we will get to know each other well,” he wrote, in a somewhat threatening manner. “I have an urgent request regarding the accuracy of your report on the missile attack on March 10. I would really appreciate a response if possible. There is an inaccurate report from you about the missile attack on March 10, and it’s causing a chain of errors,” Daniel’s email continued. “If you could reply to me tonight… you would be helping me, many others, and, of course, the State of Israel. And along the way, you would gain a good source.” It was indeed a little strange to receive the same question, about something relatively inconsequential, from two different people within a day. But I responded, naively: “Hi Daniel, can you elaborate on what the problem is?” He replied: “In the article and in your tweet you wrote, ‘One missile struck an open area just outside Beit Shemesh.’” “However, it appears that this was a missile that was intercepted, and its debris and interceptor fragments fell at the scene. No security authority so far has confirmed that it was a missile that was not intercepted and fell in an open area,” he claimed. “If you could correct this tonight, you would be doing me and many others a great favor,” Daniel added. Why does such an inconsequential detail matter to these people, I wondered. Half an hour later, Daniel sent me another email: “If one of you could change everything to interceptor debris, or missile fragments even tonight, it would help a lot,” he persisted. I went to sleep without answering. By Thursday morning, Daniel had sent me another email. “I would appreciate an update from you as soon as possible, because in the meantime you are already being quoted in The Economist, saying that the IDF confirmed that most of the missiles on Tuesday were intercepted except for one that fell in the Beit Shemesh area,” he said, attaching a screenshot from The Economic Times, an Indian English-language business-focused news site, and not The Economist. “I ask again, if you could handle this as soon as possible, it would help us a lot. It’s really important, if possible, still this morning,” Daniel demanded. As I read through Daniel’s veiled threats, I received another email from an anonymous user: “Is the article about March 10 interception gonna get updated?” Moments later, I received a message on the Discord online platform: “In regards to March 10th. Some sources are saying all the missiles were intercepted on March 10th per IDF. Is that true?” The Polymarket connection Meanwhile, on X, I saw a user reply to a recent tweet of mine: “There are people saying that they have received word from you that the missile strike in Beit Shemesh on March 10th was in fact intercepted, is this true or did no such interaction occur?” Another X user responded to my post with the video showing the Iranian ballistic missile impact in Beit Shemesh with: “was there any video of the actual impact.” (Clearly, he didn’t watch the video.) Checking those X accounts, both appeared to be involved in gambling on the Polymarket betting site. As far as I now understand, the emails I received were intended to confirm whether or not a missile had hit Israel on March 10 in order to resolve a prediction on Polymarket. Polymarket is one of the largest prediction markets in the world, where users can wager their money on the likelihood of future events, using cryptocurrency, debit or credit cards, and bank transfers. However, there are accusations that the site has been plagued by manipulation and insider trading. The event that these people had bet on was “Iran strikes Israel on…?” More than 14 million dollars had been wagered on March 10. The rules of the bet state: “This market will resolve to ‘Yes’ if Iran initiates a drone, missile, or air strike on Israel’s soil on the listed date in Israel Time (GMT+2). Otherwise, this market will resolve to ‘No’.” However, there is a clause: “Missiles or drones that are intercepted… will not be sufficient for a ‘Yes’ resolution, regardless of whether they land on Israeli territory or cause damage.” My minor report on a missile striking an open area was now in the middle of a betting war, with those who had bet “No” on an Iranian strike on Israel on March 10 demanding I change my article to ensure they would win big. More emails arrived in my inbox. “When will you update the article?” one was titled. The email had no text content, only an image — a screenshot of my initial interaction with Daniel. Except it did not show my actual response to Daniel, but a fabricated message that I had not written. “Hi Daniel, Thank you for noticing, I checked with the IDF Spokesperson and it was indeed intercepted. I sent it now for editing, it will be fixed shortly,” I supposedly wrote. (To be clear, I wrote no such thing.) I then received a WhatsApp message from someone named Shaked: “Can I ask one question about the impact in Beit Shemesh on the 10th?” Meanwhile, I saw a reply on X to a recent post of mine, with the same fake screenshot of my email exchange with Daniel: “There’s someone quoting that you replied to their email about making corrections to the below news article about all missile attacks being intercepted by Israel on March 10th. Is this actually true? Are we going to make this correction?” By this point, it was clear to me why these people were asking about the missile impact, and I took to X and told the gamblers to get a better hobby. This did not stop them. A colleague makes contact A few hours later, a colleague from another media outlet messaged me. He said that someone he knew asked him to ask me to change the report on the missile impact in Beit Shemesh, and that it would be “negligible” for me if I did make the change. The journalist had no idea why his acquaintance was demanding the change to the article until I told him what I understood was going on. He then confronted the acquaintance, who admitted to placing bets on Polymarket and confirmed my theory. Going further, the acquaintance even offered the journalist compensation, from his winnings, if he managed to convince me to change my report. The threats escalate After a quiet weekend, things escalated further. Shortly after midnight between Saturday and Sunday, I started to receive threatening messages in Hebrew on WhatsApp from someone called Haim. “You have exactly half an hour to correct your attempt at influence,” he wrote. “Despite the fact that you received countless inquiries — you insist on leaving it that way.” “If you do not correct this by 01:00 Israel time today, March 15, you are bringing upon yourself damage you have never imagined you would suffer,” he threatened, in a very lengthy message. Haim also attempted to call me via WhatsApp multiple times during the night, before sending me more messages. “You have no idea how much you’ve put yourself at risk. Today is the most significant day of your career. You have two choices: either believe that we have the capabilities, and after you make us lose $900,000 we will invest no less than that to finish you. Or end this with money in your pocket, and also earn back the life you had until now.” After I didn’t respond, as I was asleep, Haim sent me another series of messages: “You are choosing to go to war knowing that you will lose your life as you’ve grown accustomed to it — for nothing.” On Sunday morning, he messaged me again: “You have exactly a few hours left to fix your attempt at influencing [the market]. It would be stupid of you to ignore this.” Hours later, more messages: “I am requesting a response from you in the next 10 minutes. We offered you to end this quietly with a profit in your pocket and everything disappears. But it seems you think you can stall for time.” “You made a fatal mistake and you’d better respond to us.” “I expect a response from you within 9 minutes from now.” “We will not give up on sums [of money] like these.” “One minute remains…” I then received a WhatsApp message from another number, someone posing as a lawyer called Vered. I ignored the message. Then they called me, though the person on the other end sounded awfully like a young man, and not a middle-aged female lawyer. On the phone, the “lawyer” told me that they were contacted by a company in the United States to look into my supposed manipulation on Polymarket. I hung up and contacted the police. Later in the afternoon, Haim messaged me again, this time with the most explicit threat yet. “You have 90 minutes left to update the lie. If you do this — you solve in a minute the most serious problem you have caused yourself in life. And you won’t remember me anymore in a week.” “If you decide not to correct it, and leave the lie intact, you will discover enemies who will be willing to pay anything to make your life miserable — within the framework of the law.” “And as far as I know, there are also some people who don’t really care about the law, and you’re going to make them lose about 50 times what you’ll ever make.” “86 minutes left. You are the only one responsible for your life.” Giving testimony to the police My time ran out shortly before I headed to the police station to give testimony and provide evidence. The police are now investigating. In the early hours of Monday, as I ran to a bomb shelter amid yet another Iranian missile attack, Haim sent me another series of messages. “You will pay the full price for your irresponsible act.” “You have 9 more minutes to save your career. But not a stupid and disturbed child like you will take advantage of it.” “I wish you not to fall asleep tonight and not any night. In any case, it’s not going to be too easy for you in the coming months.” I did not respond. The attempt by these gamblers to pressure me to change my reporting so that they would win their bet did not and will not succeed. But I do worry that other journalists may not be as ethical if they are promised some of the winnings. An Israeli military reservist and a civilian were indicted last month for using classified information to place bets ahead of Israel’s war with Iran in June 2025. Similarly, journalists could easily exploit their knowledge for insider trading on the platform. I dearly hope that’s not been happening, and won’t happen, in this unnerving new arena, where reality, gambling and criminality intertwine. :::
Komunitas
jlai.lu
Sérieux ? J’ai changé l’heure sur ma cuisinière hier soir car ça faisait trop longtemps qu’elle était restée à l’heure d’été 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻 Edit: il est 11h25 sur mon téléphone. FFS ma vie est une blague 😭
Komunitas
lemmy.world
Nine people hospitalised and airport closed after landing plane hits fire truck responding to separate incident The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional jet have been killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport, in an incident that closed the airport. The collision also caused serious injuries with nine people in hospital. It happened as a firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane, operated by its partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, based on a preliminary passenger list that remained subject to confirmation. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.
Komunitas
sh.itjust.works
New York (AFP) – A plane carrying dozens of people collided with a fire truck late Sunday on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport, killing the pilot and co-pilot and forcing a halt to flights, authorities and US media reported. AFP pictures showed the heavily damaged nose and cockpit section of the Air Canada Express plane, which had arrived from Montreal, on the tarmac flanked by emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. The pilot and co-pilot were killed in the collision, US media including CNN and NBC reported. Another 13 people, including 11 passengers and two first responders, were taken to the hospital with injuries, according to broadcaster ABC. The aircraft operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck a firefighting truck on Runway 4 at around 11:40 pm on Sunday (0340 GMT Monday) as the vehicle drove to a separate incident, New York’s port authority said. A preliminary passenger list showed 76 people on board, including four crew members, Jazz Aviation said in a statement. US aviation authorities ordered all flights at the airport to be grounded, adding there was a “high” likelihood of an extended suspension. “The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation,” the port authority said in a statement to AFP. Emergency response protocols had been “immediately activated,” it said. The National Transportation Safety Board said it had sent a “go team” to the scene to investigate the collision. Jazz Aviation said the crash involved a CRJ-900 aircraft that had flown into LaGuardia from Montreal as flight AC8646. Flight tracking platform FlightRadar24 said the plane “was rolling down the runway when it struck” the rescue vehicle as it crossed its path. New York’s emergency management authority warned people to “expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays & emergency personnel,” and use alternate routes near the airport. LaGuardia had already been suffering from flight disruptions due to poor weather, the airport said Sunday on X. Passengers were also waiting longer to pass security due to “staffing impacts” from a federal funding lapse, it said last week. Located in the New York borough of Queens, LaGuardia is New York’s third-busiest airport, serving 33.5 million passengers in 2024, according to port authority figures. It completed an $8 billion redevelopment in 2024, upgrading its aging infrastructure with new terminals and roadways. Deadly air crashes in the United States in recent years include a collision between a passenger jet and an army helicopter near Washington in January 2025 that killed 67 people. Other incidents and close calls have taken place while aircraft were on the ground.
Komunitas
news.abolish.capital
As Senate Republicans on Saturday voted against advancing a Democratic bill to pay Transportation Security Administration workers during talks over Department of Homeland Security funding, GOP President Donald Trump tried to pin the blame for the partial DHS shutdown on Democrats and threatened to flood US airports with immigration agents. The conduct of immigration agents under DHS—which oversees Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement—in US communities, particularly Minnesota’s Twin Cites, led to the partial shutdown last month, with Democrats demanding reforms after CBP and ICE agents killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good. While CBP and ICE can use the extra money they got last year in Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, other DHS agencies are more impacted by the shutdown, including TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Secret Service, and the Coast Guard. Some essential government employees have been working without pay for over a month. Congress’ April recess is rapidly approaching. The largest federal workers union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), warned Friday that “on March 27, about 47,000 TSA officers, 22,000 FEMA employees, 8,900 Coast Guard civilian staff, and hundreds of Border Patrol administrative personnel will miss another paycheck.” AFGE national president Everett Kelley said that the House of Representatives and Senate “have had weeks to fix this, and they have barely been in the same building.” “Members of Congress have walked past our TSA members at airport security checkpoints more often than they’ve met to negotiate an end to this stalemate,” he continued. “Those officers deserve to be paid for the work they do to keep those members safe. The least Congress can do for these patriotic American workers is act before legislators leave town for the weekend, or, worse, head off on a weeks-long recess.” The Senate did meet on Saturday, when Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) argued that “it is unacceptable, unacceptable to say we will only pay TSA workers if it is attached to a bill that funds ICE with no reforms. But that’s what Republicans have done. Democrats want to pay TSA workers ASAP, no strings attached. A yes vote on my motion would start doing that.” The vote was 41-49, with every GOP senator present voting “no.” In response, Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) declared that “Senate Republicans voted against paying TSA agents because they insist on tying TSA funding to their push to give even more money to ICE—without basic reforms.” “That is not how this should work—and it is just plain wrong that Republicans are preventing TSA agents from getting paid while airport lines grow longer across the country,” she said. “We could fund TSA and other important parts of DHS today—while we press ahead with negotiations on ICE and Border Patrol—if Republicans stopped standing in the way.” Meanwhile, as Americans at various airports contend with long lines due to TSA workers quitting or calling out, Trump said on his Truth Social platform Saturday that “the Radical Left Democrats have hurt so many people with their vicious and uncaring ways. What they have done to the Department of Homeland Security, our fantastic TSA Officers, and, most importantly, the great people of our Country, is an absolute disgrace. If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!” “The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will,” he added. “Just like the Radical Left allowed millions of Criminals to pour into our Country through their ridiculous and dangerous Open Border Policy, the Republicans closed it all down, and we now have the Strongest Border in American History. Likewise, I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” Responding in a statement, Congresswoman Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said: “Republicans, we need you to speak up now. This is a national security nightmare. Democrats have been trying for weeks to get TSA funded. The votes to get that done have been there since before the shutdown began. ICE has continued to have access to a massive slush fund throughout this entire shutdown, which is why they’re so readily available. Stop trying to tie additional funding for ICE to funding the rest of DHS.” “Trump’s paramilitary army of ICE agents does not belong in our airports and is not properly trained to do this work,” added Balint. “I ask my Republican colleagues: Stop submitting to the whims of this out-of-control president. You are risking national security by your silence and complicity. YOU can put an end to this. Say something. Fund TSA. For the sake of our country, show some damn courage!” Apparently undeterred, Trump added Sunday that “on Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all. But watch, no matter how great a job ICE does, the Lunatics leading the incompetent Dems will be highly critical of their work. THEY WILL DO A FANTASTIC JOB. The great Tom Homan is in charge!!!” From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Komunitas
news.abolish.capital
Left: Dr. Lisa Littman, Center: Dr. Kenneth Zucker, Right: J. Michael Bailey Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Dr. Lisa Littman self-identified as “pro-LGBT” during her speech at a conference for Genspect—an anti-LGBT hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. She was the very first presenter on the two-day itinerary for the event held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in September of last year. Genspect’s founder called Littman “the greatest hero of the movement”—the movement, it seems, against transgender youth. The topic of Littman’s presentation was AYAGDOS—the Adolescent and Young Adult Gender Dysphoria Outcomes Study. You or your trans child may have stumbled upon ads for the initiative on Reddit, Facebook, Google, X, or Instagram. They’re recruiting people with gender dysphoria between the ages of 13 and 25 who “think” they “might be trans” to participate in a study from Northwestern University, as the ads plastered with the university logo prominently announce. At first, they targeted demographics more sympathetic to the cause, like users of r/detrans on Reddit. Now they’re expanding to more politically diverse audiences, Littman told the Genspect convention. But trans community leaders have issued a strong warning against participating. Critics cite the researchers’ long and tumultuous histories with trans research subjects, which are rife with retractions and reported misconduct, as well as ties to organizations designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Genspect is just one of those groups, although they ardently reject the hate group label. “The people drawn to Genspect aren’t extremists,” founder Stella O’Malley said of the nearly 300 Albuquerque conference attendees, 40% of whom self-identified as TERFs (anti-trans radical feminists). “We come from all sides, all backgrounds, all belief systems.” Meanwhile, researchers leading AYAGDOS—Littman, Dr. Kenneth Zucker, and Dr. J. Michael Bailey—have promoted pseudoscientific and pejorative ideas about trans people (such as that trans women are the product of a sexual fetish); relied on controversial methodologies that skew study outcomes; and reportedly used unwitting trans women as “original research” subjects, to name just a few scandals that have plagued one or more of the trio. Bailey, a principal investigator and tenured Northwestern professor, also allegedly had sex with one such subject and used nonconsensually testimonies from others who had sought out his care as a clinician in his book. Bailey denied allegations of misconduct. He, Littman, and Northwestern spokespersons did not reply to requests for comment. Caption: An X post showing AYAGDOS investigators Dr. J. Michael Bailey and Dr. Kenneth Zucker alongside other academics promoting the “autogynephilia” movement, which seeks to pathologize trans women’s gender identity as a fetish. Post via @ProfJMB on X. Although the AYAGDOS ads are newly making the rounds, the beginnings of the study emerged in 2018, when Littman published a now-notorious paper on “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” also known as ROGD. The paper plucked the term from the backwaters of anti-trans internet forums, launching it into the mainstream. The new name gave credence to classic moral panics about the “social contagion” of queerness with a modern, scientific-sounding spin. Mere weeks after the ROGD paper went live, the journal had to republish it with corrections to the title, abstract, introduction, discussion, and conclusion sections. But the damage was already done. ROGD is “a pseudoscientific phrase made popular by Dr. Lisa Littman and others that is used to legitimize the claims of anti-LGBTQ+ activists and parents who rejected their trans kids,” as per the Southern Poverty Law Center. Over 60 psychological organizations condemned the concept, saying in a joint statement that “the proliferation of misinformation regarding ROGD is also infiltrating policy decisions.” At the time that letter was penned, there were 100 bills under consideration across the country that sought to limit the rights of transgender young people, many of which “were predicated on the unsupported claims advanced by ROGD,” the letter said. That was in 2021—the number has only increased. But for Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a psychologist who now works in private practice, Littman’s paper on ROGD was an inspiration. He told Erin in the Morning that, after reading it, he pitched the concept of AYAGDOS to Bailey at Northwestern. Littman was brought onto the project later. As for Bailey, in 2023, his own survey on “ROGD” was retracted from Springer Nature for failing to obtain ethics approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), purportedly ignoring data that challenged ROGD, and violating principles of informed consent. This time around, Zucker told Erin in the Morning, researchers behind AYAGDOS are going through Northwestern’s IRB and are at least attempting to incorporate the input of actual trans people living with gender dysphoria. (None of the lead researchers themselves are transgender.) “One of the criticisms of Littman was that Littman only collected information from parents, and, obviously, in developmental, clinical psychology and psychiatry, using multiple ‘informants’ as they’re called, is a pretty standard practice,” Zucker said. “A better study, looking at different facets of gender dysphoria, would involve collecting information from both parents and youth.” Zucker, too, is no stranger to controversy—his studies back in the 1990s on the “attractiveness” of gender variant children have been the source of great ostracization, as was his handling of youth at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, where he was a pediatric gender specialist for years. There, he deployed what some have compared to conversion therapy on trans and gender nonconforming youth—including instructing parents to confiscate “feminine” objects like dolls and dresses from children assigned male at birth. (He vehemently denies his work was conversion therapy.) Zucker remains adamant that AYAGDOS is motivated by the pursuit of free inquiry, reducing suffering, and sound science, not ideological values about gender. He said the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group classification of organizations like Genspect was “politically and intellectually unwarranted,” and that the Southern Poverty Law Center is “stupid” and “wrong.” “Our goal as clinicians is that we want people to get to a certain point that they’re comfortable with, and they don’t regret where they’ve landed,” he said, emphasizing that he thinks many of these youth could regret undergoing medical transition later on down the line. Erin in the Morning asked how he might address the opposite: the overwhelming majority of trans youth who are so encumbered by a lack of familial support, by institutional barriers, and by anti-trans laws that prohibit gender-affirming medicine, that they can’t access or lose access to care. Young people who grow up and undergo the drawn-out process of puberty for a gender at fundamental odds with who they are. Who, as adults, have to seek out extensive medical interventions, including surgeries, to undo the physical changes they were forced through as minors, because they were denied access to gender-affirming care. “Sure,” Zucker said. “All of those things are important.” Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber. From Erin In The Morning via This RSS Feed.
Komunitas
ibbit.at
Democratic voters in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District chose Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss as their nominee to replace retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky Tuesday night, dealing a simultaneous defeat to progressives who rallied behind Palestinian American activist Kat Abughazaleh and pro-Israel interests that pushed to elect state Sen. Laura Fine. Biss’s victory came amid mixed results for outside spending groups representing pro-Israel, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency interests — with crypto regulation supporter and state Rep. La Shawn Ford winning in the 7th Congressional District while the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s favored candidates, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller and former Rep. Melissa Bean, won in the 2nd and 8th. In the closely watched Senate race, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton received AIPAC’s congratulations for her win over Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly. With five open House seats and one open Senate seat heavily favored for Democrats, the Illinois primaries presented a test for the future of the party — and became a top target for outside groups that poured more than $50 million into races throughout the state. The infusion of outside cash included more than $35 million in spending from groups linked to the AIPAC and the cryptocurrency and AI industries. Dozens of super PACs in Illinois sought to influence the competitive Democratic primaries, often while concealing both their donors and broader intentions. In the 9th District, AIPAC used groups with uncontroversial titles like “Elect Chicago Women” and “Chicago Progressive Partnership” to boost its pick, Fine, and pit progressive candidates against one another. The spending appeared to come up short Tuesday night, when Fine finished in third. The groups’ competing ads at times inflamed and at times distracted from voter concerns over civil liberties, the economy, bipartisan fealty to corporations and wealthy donors, and now the unfolding war in Iran. The Illinois primaries presented a test for AIPAC in particular, which with its affiliated groups spent more than $22 million in races in and around deep-blue Chicago while obscuring the pro-Israel lobby’s involvement amid growing criticism. In several races, AIPAC donors have funneled money to candidates where it did not officially endorse, including in the U.S. Senate race, The Intercept reported. The crypto industry spent more than $13 million in Illinois races through the super PAC Fairshake, including close to $10 million against Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in the Senate race and more than $3 million in two races attacking candidates who have voted for consumer protection regulations on cryptocurrency. The AI industry poured in another $2.5 million into two House races. Detailed results from the Senate race and the 2nd, 7th, 8th, and 9th districts are below. Senate: After Laying Low, AIPAC Congratulates Stratton Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton defeated Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly in the highly anticipated Democratic primary to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin. The often bitter race was defined by debates over dark money, establishment endorsements, and race and identity. Stratton won just shy of 40 percent of the vote in the crowded 10-way race. While AIPAC publicly stayed out of the contest, suggesting that the group had become politically toxic with Democratic primary voters, reporting from The Intercept found that at least 27 AIPAC donors gave to Stratton’s campaign. On Tuesday night, AIPAC publicly congratulated Stratton for her primary win over Kelly, writing on X that Kelly’s “most recent actions have undermined the U.S.-Israel alliance,” and that the group looks “forward to continuing our long-standing partnership” with Stratton. [ Related AIPAC Is Staying Out of Illinois Senate Race — But Its Donors Back Juliana Stratton](https://theintercept.com/2026/03/12/aipac-illinois-senate-stratton-kelly-krishnamoorthi/) Neither Stratton nor Krishnamoorthi have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide or said they would push to condition aid to Israel, as Kelly repeatedly pointed out in her attempts to carve out a lane to their left. Stratton’s victory does represent an early defeat for the crypto industry, which spent millions against her candidacy. The industry’s main PAC, Fairshake, spent nearly $10 million against Stratton, in a move that likely favored Krishnamoorthi. The Illinois congressman is known as a top fundraiser, with a massive $30 million war chest. In addition to concerns over the influence of money in politics, the race was also plagued by questions over the role of establishment endorsements. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker endorsed Stratton, his longtime running mate, and donated $5 million to Stratton’s super PAC, spurring controversy about the perception of establishment Democrats throwing around their political weight. But Stratton’s most controversial endorsement of the cycle was an alleged posthumous endorsement from the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose family later said he did not come to a decision about the race before his death. The fight for support from Black voters was already a highly contentious issue within the primary, with concerns that Kelly and Stratton, who are both Black, would split the Black electorate in Illinois. Kelly took offense to those comments, arguing at a recent campaign event that “no one talks” about spoilers “when two white men are running.” Illinois has not sent a Republican to the Senate since the 1990s, and Stratton is expected to easily win her general election in November. 2nd District: AIPAC Beats AI PAC Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller fended off a comeback attempt from former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in a race that pitted AIPAC against the artificial intelligence industry. Miller was backed heavily by a PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel group, while Jackson drew support from an AI PAC funded by tech leaders. Jackson had the star power of his civil rights activist father’s name but was tarnished by a federal fraud conviction for misusing campaign funds over a decade ago during his previous stint as a U.S. representative. AIPAC’s role in the race made headlines in February, when retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, vacating her 9th Congressional District seat, withdrew her endorsement of Miller over the group’s support for her. Meanwhile, the progressive standardbearer in the race — state Sen. Robert Peters — was trailing far behind on Tuesday night, despite endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Peters made the involvement of outside groups ranging from AIPAC to cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence PACs a theme of his campaign, blasting his opponents for relying on their support. 7th District: AIPAC and Crypto Lose Despite Heavy Spending State Rep. La Shawn Ford beat Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin the primary to succeed retiring longtime Rep. Danny Davis Tuesday night, despite the nearly $5 million AIPAC spent to boost her and nearly $2.5 million a crypto PAC spent against him. Conyears-Ervin conceded early in the night, before the Associated Press called the race for Ford. [ Related Crypto Spends Big in Illinois House Races to Say Consumer Rights Supporters Are Corrupt](https://theintercept.com/2026/03/15/crypto-spending-illinois-house-primaries/) Ford was the target of heavy spending from the cryptocurrency industry PAC Fairshake because of his support for state-level consumer protections. Ford told The Intercept earlier this month that the money spent against him underlined the need for campaign finance reform. “We are a grassroots campaign that is struggling to get our message out and make sure that people know that our experience and our platform is out there,” he said. “We don’t have a budget to counter lies.” The crowded race made polling difficult, and the heavily Democratic nature of the district, which stretches from Chicago’s Loop and South Side to leafy suburbs to the west, meant that several candidates were competing for the progressive lane. AIPAC donors backed former real estate mogul Jason Friedman early in the race, but the pro-Israel group’s campaign arm later spent nearly $60,000 opposing him and $4.8 million boosting Conyears-Ervin, according to a tally by political consultant Frank Calabrese. Ford and Conyears-Ervin both brought ethical baggage to the race: He successfully fought off a raft of federal bank fraud charges more than a decade ago, pleading to a single misdemeanor count, while she was forced to pay a $30,000 fine to settle two ethics cases, including one involving the firing of two whistleblowers who warned her not to use city resources to organize prayer events on Facebook, according to WTTW Chicago. Anthony Driver, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Illinois State Council, drew heavy spending support from his union and an endorsement from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He finished well behind the leading candidates. 8th District: Former Blue Dog Beats Would-Be Squad Member Former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean took a big step closer to a comeback Tuesday night by defeating Junaid Ahmed, a progressive backed by the group Justice Democrats. Bean, a previous member of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, drew a big assist from more than $4 million in spending from AIPAC-affiliated PACs, as well as spending from crypto and AI PACs. Both candidates were vying to replace Krishnamoorthi. 9th District: Anti-AIPAC Candidates in Top Slots Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss prevailed in a crowded Democratic primary race largely defined by outside spending from groups associated with AIPAC, which spent millions targeting Biss and Palestinian American activist and journalist Kat Abughazaleh, who came in second. Biss, a former math professor who stressed his anti-war bonafides on the campaign trail, sought to define himself as the tested progressive favorite while Abughazaleh’s campaign gained steam. Initially, AIPAC-affiliated groups focused their attacks on Biss, who is Jewish, because of his support for conditions on aid to Israel. The AIPAC-affiliated group Elect Chicago Women spent nearly $1.5 million to oppose Biss and over $4 million to boost state Sen. Laura Fine, who came in third. But as the race heated up, Abughazaleh, who drew a harder line on Israel, surged forward in the polls and became their central target. In his victory speech Tuesday night, Biss said he had been pressured to move away from what he called a nuanced view on Israel and Palestine. He also took a direct swipe at AIPAC. “This district understands nuance and wants someone who accepts the reality of competing, even contradictory-sounding priorities and values and realities,” Biss said. “Now, that point of view is not the point of view of AIPAC. AIPAC spent an unbelievable amount of money — over $7 million — to try to buy this seat, to support the idea that we can’t accept nuance.” The district is deep blue, and Biss is expected to handily win his general election. He becomes the Democratic nominee on the heels of a scandal that broke in the final hours of the race, after his former student, Megan Wachspress, went public about a past relationship with Biss on Monday in a Bluesky post. “If he’s going to get a national profile on the strength of a younger woman’s campaign,” wrote Wachspress, who is now a lecturer at Stanford Law School, referring to Abughazaleh, “I’m going to come out and say it: during his short-lived tenure as a math professor, Biss had an inappropriate romantic relationship with one of his undergraduate students. I was that student.” Biss acknowledged the relationship on Tuesday, calling it “ill-advised.” [ Related Kat Abughazaleh on the Right to Protest](https://theintercept.com/2025/11/01/briefing-podcast-kat-abughazaleh-indictment-protest/) Though Abughazaleh earned key progressive endorsements, including from the group Justice Democrats and Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, Biss pulled Schakowsky’s support, as well as that of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Chicago Progressive Partnership, another AIPAC-affiliated group, spent roughly $1.2 million in the latter half of the race to counter Abughazaleh. The former journalist also faced alleged “dark money” spending from the PAC Democracy Unmuted, which she claimed was paying influencers $1,500 to push negative rhetoric about her on social media. AIPAC also spent money boosting Bushra Amiwala, a progressive Muslim activist, who was seen as a potential spoiler for Abughazaleh. When the race was called, Amiwala was in sixth place and had received just over 5 percent of the vote — a share larger than the difference between Biss, at just shy of 30 percent, and Abughazaleh, slightly under 26. AIPAC, for its part, put a positive spin on the results Tuesday night. “While disappointed that Laura Fine did not prevail, voters rejected two anti-Israel candidates in this race,” the group posted on X. “We were especially proud to help defeat Abughazaleh.” In his victory speech, Biss said he would fight for self-determination and justice for everyone in the Middle East and beyond. “AIPAC found out the hard way: The 9th District is not for sale,” he said in his closing remarks. Biss also thanked J Street, which was founded as a liberal counterweight to AIPAC, for wading into the race to back him. J Street’s President, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said in a statement that the group had bundled more than $200,000 for Biss’s campaign while an affiliated super PAC spent $150,000. “AIPAC and its affiliates poured more than $7 million into a Democratic primary to stamp out opposition to Netanyahu’s policies — using shell PACs to obscure their involvement — and the voters rejected that effort,” Ben-Ami said. “Tonight’s results should send a clear message to candidates across the country: you do not have to fear AIPAC’s spending or intimidation.” This developing story has been updated. The post Illinois Results: Daniel Biss Beats Kat Abughazaleh in Blow to Left and AIPAC Alike appeared first on The Intercept. From The Intercept via this RSS feed
Komunitas
hexbear.net
(credit to RomCom1989 for the title) A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like “in Minecraft”) and comments containing it will be removed. Image is of an Iranian soldier exulting in the launch of a ballistic missile aimed towards the imperialists. short summary this week: US doing pretty bad and Iran doing pretty good all things considered, Strait of Hormuz is closed and will almost certainly remain so until the end of the war, Trump has no idea what to do, global economic crisis from strait closure is basically guaranteed at this point but who will ultimately benefit most and who will ultimately lose most is still up in the air. longish summary is below in the spoiler tags ::: spoiler longish summary While there are still major debates raging about how badly things are actually going right now and what the post-conflict map may look like, as we blaze past the two week mark on this conflict, it’s becoming ever more obvious to almost everybody involved that this war is not going according to plan, if there ever was one. US airstrikes are, from what I can best determine, still mostly done with relatively less powerful (but still very dangerous!) and much less plentiful standoff munitions launched from bombers, though certain border and coastal areas are being struck with more powerful and more plentiful short-range guided bombs. This indicates that Iranian air defense is still sufficiently functional throughout most of Iran that the kinds of true carpet bombing done against Korea and Vietnam in the past (and Gaza very recently) is still too risky, though their airspace is still very much under assault, as we appear to have images of small groups of Western fighters breaching relatively deep into the country. Under some kind of Iranian pressure (drones? missiles? speedboats?) one aircraft carrier has retreated to a thousand kilometers from Iran, hiding behind the mountains of Oman; the other is sitting in the Red Sea, rather pointedly out of range of Yemen. As such, the ranges that Western aircraft must travel to bombard Iran is increasing, which reduces their frequency and increases strain on maintenance and logistics in the medium and long term. While there is tons to say about the current social, economic, and military state of Iran, I don’t think I have a reliable enough picture to give a good summary beyond “they aren’t close to defeat or regime change”. What has instead captured much of the world’s attention is the continuing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has inspired some of the most delusional statements I have seen so far in my life, which is sincerely a profound achievement. For those out of the loop: the strait is currently closed to all shipping except those going to very particular countries (I’ve seen China and Bangladesh mentioned, and apparently India is in the process of working something out and may succeed or fail). This is because most ships are not risking the trip due to the ~20 tankers and container ships that Iran has already struck and disabled in the strait and in the Persian Gulf. Additionally, the threat from Iran’s military to Navy ships is such that attempting to create a convoy to guide tankers through it is suicidal to both the Navy and merchant ships. Right now it cannot be done, and it very well might be the case that it could never be done, simply due to the combination of Iran’s naval forces (hundreds, perhaps thousands, of armed, specialized speedboats designed for exactly this purpose), their drones (in the tens of thousands), their torpedoes, and if all else fails, their naval mines. The Western reaction to this has been so moronic that it has almost integer underflowed into being philosophical: what does it truly mean for a passage to be “closed”? Has Iran truly “closed” the strait, or is the risk of traversing it simply too high for these cowardly sailors (who, for some strange reason, seem to care about their “lives” and “families”)? How is it possible for Iran to have closed the strait if, according to the West, Iran’s military has been totally obliterated? All these questions and more plague the minds of those who cannot accept the now-proven fact that there are indeed military forces on this planet that the US Navy with all its aircraft carriers and destroyers and submarines cannot defeat; and one of those minds is, rather hilariously, Trump himself. His thrice-daily positive affirmations that Iran has been defeated are taking on an increasingly deranged and almost pitiable tone; the lamentations of a man who has finally found a situation where him merely stating that something is true is insufficient to change the situation one iota. Despite stating that some kind of naval compact or alliance is being established to protect shipping, every Western country so far - from the UK, to France, to Japan, to Australia - has publicly stated that they will not risk their ships to do so. All this as the continued blockade yet further guarantees a worldwide energy, production, transportation, and food crisis that will have major global ramifications for at least the rest of the decade and almost certainly beyond. If the anti-imperialists play their cards right, the US could lose much from this crisis, and others, like China and Russia, could gain a great deal. To quote Nia Frome (co-founder of Red Sails): “An effective Marxist has to be enough of an accelerationist/pervert to treat the obviously bad things that are going to happen as the political opportunities they are.” ::: Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here. Please check out the RedAtlas! The bulletins site is here. Currently not used. The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used. ::: spoiler The Zionist Entity’s Genocide of Palestine If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so. Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on: UNRWA reports on the Zionists’ destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank. English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here. English-language twitter account that collates news. Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting. English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad. English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth. English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here. Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship. ::: ::: spoiler Russia-Ukraine Conflict Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict Sources: Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis. Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good. On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side. Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches. Pro-Russian Telegram Channels: Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage. https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits. Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels: Almost every Western media outlet. https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord. https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing. :::
Komunitas
news.abolish.capital
At least 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are on board with Trump’s new military alliance. They are calling it the America’s Counter Cartel Coalition. Latin America’s top right-wing leaders are involved, including El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei. They met in Florida for the event, on March 7. The United States has promised to use lethal force to destroy cartels and narco-traffickers in those nations. Kristi Noem, the former head of Homeland Security, is the new special envoy for the coalition. This is a new phase of Trump’s plan for Latin America. Trump’s Donroe Doctrine—Monroe 2.0. The first was the offensive against his enemies in the region. Now Trump is shoring up his allies, and building a coalition where the US military can continue to take action, now in collaboration with countries allied with Trump. We’ve already begun to see this unfold in Ecuador. This is Episode 8 of Under the Shadow, Season 2. Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present. Season 2 responds in real time to the Trump administration’s onslaught on Latin America. Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox. Many thanks to Belly of the Beast for the interview with Liz Oliva Fernandez and the use of the sound from several of their videos. This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA. Theme music by Michael Fox’s band, Monte Perdido. Monte Perdido’s 2024 album Ofrenda is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to music. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions. Script editing by Heather Gies. Hosted, written, produced, mixed, and edited by Michael Fox. Guests Alexander Main from the Center for Economic and Policy Research Alexis Ponce Resources You can read Alex’s excellent analysis of the Shield of the Americas summit here. Please also check out CEPR’s Americas Live Update Blog, with all of the latest from the region. Under the Shadow, Season 1: The Beginning: Monroe and migration | Under the Shadow, Episode 1 Panama. US Invasion. | Under the Shadow, Episode 13 The legacy of Monroe | Under the Shadow, Bonus Episode 4 Support Under the Shadow Please consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews. Transcript MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Here’s the scene: Donald Trump sits at a wooden desk with the presidential seal on it. He’s wearing a dark blue suit. White shirt. Red tie. He has a big black marker in one hand as he talks to someone off screen. Eleven men and one woman walk onto the stage behind him and get into place. They’re soon joined by Trump’s Cuban American Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. They are all smiling. These 12 men and woman behind Trump are his dream team of allies in Latin America and the Caribbean. His Avengers… The conservative and right-wing presidents who have been invited into Trump’s new exclusive club in the Americas. In return they are promising to do his bidding in the region and open their borders to the US military. This is their coming out party. Their debutant ball. The summit was called the Shield of the Americas. It was held on Saturday, March 7, in Miami, Florida, at Trump’s National Doral Golf Club. Flanked by allies like Argentina’s Javier Milei, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Trump looks down and signs a document committing to fight drug cartels in these countries and to “train and mobilize partner nation militaries to achieve the most effective fighting force necessary.” PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: But on this historic day, we come together to announce a brand-new military coalition to eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region … We’re calling this military partnership the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Trump spoke before the signing. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: For decades, leaders in this region have allowed large swaths of territory of the Western Hemisphere to come under the direct control. And transnational gangs have taken over, and they’ve run areas of your country. We’re not going to let that happen. We’ll help you. And bloodthirsty cartels that impose their will through murder, torture, extortion, drug trafficking, bribery, and terror. And some of you are in danger. I mean, you’re actually in danger. It’s hard to believe. But we’re working with you to do whatever we have to do. We’ll use missiles. If you want us to use a missile, they’re extremely accurate. Right into the living room. And that’s the end of that cartel person. But we’ll do whatever you need, if you want. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: This is a new phase of Trump’s plan for Latin America. Trump’s Donroe Doctrine — Monroe 2.0. The first was the offensive against his enemies in the region: threaten and attack his political adversaries. Unleash boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. Invade Venezuela. Kidnap the president. Strangle Cuba. Threaten Mexico and Colombia. Tariff war on Brazil. And now it’s all happening in the shadows of war as the US bombs Iran. Now Trump is shoring up his allies in the region and building a coalition where the US military can continue to take action, now in collaboration with countries allied with Trump. We’ve already begun to see this unfold in Ecuador. US Southern Command posted this video on X on March 3. It shows a chopper taking flight, and then gray footage shot from a helicopter or drones with a bullseye on the screen under the words “unclassified.” The text reads, “On March 3, Ecuadorian and US military forces launched operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador. The operations are a powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narcoterrorism.” On Friday, March 6, the US and Ecuadorian military announced that they had carried out joint strikes on a drug traffickers’ training camp in northeastern Ecuador. “We are advancing alongside our partners in the fight against narcoterrorism,” Southcom posted on X. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate ISIS in the Middle East, we must now do the same thing to eradicate the cartels at home. ALEXANDER MAIN: I think basically they’re trying to find any excuse to get militarily involved in as many countries as possible in the region using the pretext of the threat of the cartels and drug trafficking. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Alexander Main is the director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research based in Washington, DC. We will hear from him throughout this episode. ALEXANDER MAIN: And of course, they’ve been inventing cartels, including the Cártel de los Soles, which was the whole pretext for Venezuela and abducting President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. So when they say cartels, I think they use that term very loosely. In the case of the Cártel de los Soles, there’s no evidence that it is any kind of an organized drug trafficking cartel. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: This is a new game plan in the region, one which we have not seen in a very, very long time. ALEXANDER MAIN: To my knowledge, we haven’t seen this in recent times, this kind of level of collaboration in carrying out military attacks within a country, at least publicly. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: And this is just the beginning. At least 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are on board with Trump’s campaign. The United States has promised to use lethal force to destroy cartels and narcotraffickers in those nations. Kristi Noem, the former head of Homeland Security, is the new special envoy for the coalition. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke to the audience just before Trump’s signing ceremony. PETE HEGSETH [CLIP]: And at the War Department, we look forward to working with all of your countries and more that are not here to say, with our shared assets and our intelligence and our capabilities with American leadership, we will go on offense against the cartels. They will know that we’re just around the corner. Whether it’s drug boats or on land, we look the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, the ACCC, will be a force for good, for peace through strength in this hemisphere. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: All of that in a minute… [THEME MUSIC] This is Under the Shadow — an investigative narrative podcast series that looks at the role of the United States abroad, in the past and the very present. This podcast is a co-production in partnership with The Real News and NACLA. I’m your host, Michael Fox — Longtime radio reporter, editor, journalist. The producer and host of the podcasts Brazil on Fire and Stories of Resistance. I’ve spent the better part of the last 20 years in Latin America. I’ve seen firsthand the role of the US government abroad. And most often, sadly, it is not for the better: invasions, coups, sanctions. Support for authoritarian regimes. Politically and economically, the United States has cast a long shadow over Latin America for the past 200 years. It still does. This is Season 2 of Under the Shadow: “Trump’s Attack.” “The Donroe Coalition: Trump’s New Right-Wing Military Alliance for the Americas.” So… If you have been following this podcast, you know that most of this season I’ve been looking at Trump’s onslaught on the region, in particular against his political adversaries. I’ve looked at the boat strikes, the invasion of Venezuela, the US oil blockade against Cuba and resistance against these and other threats across Latin America Today, I’m diving into Trump’s Shield of the Americas summit. I’ll dig into his increasing ties with right-wing governments across Latin America and the US military plans to use force inside those countries under the pretext of the so-called drug war. But it’s not just about drugs. As guests on previous episodes have underscored, Trump’s doctrine is spinning together the war on drugs and the war on terror into a frightening new militarized agenda in the name of combating narcoterrorists or cartels in Latin America, even when those cartels are a fabrication. ALEXANDER MAIN: So they’re talking about fighting cartels, and we can expect them to pull cartels out of thin air right and left so everything is a cartel, and then anything that’s a cartel is a terrorist organization too. And that’s something we’ve been seeing since the beginning of this administration, this Trump administration. They’ve been referring to cartels and gangs as terrorist organizations. And as terrorist organizations, that makes them military targets. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: I’m going to be joined most of today by Alex Main. He followed this Shield of the Americas summit closely and wrote about it for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, where he’s the director of international policy. Alex says even just a few weeks ago, the summit wasn’t really on people’s radar. ALEXANDER MAIN: Well, it’s something that no one really knew about until fairly recently. And until it actually happened, we still didn’t know much about it because the White House, contrary to other big events, multilateral events that happened that the US administration organizes, there are no fact sheets, there were no press releases, there was nothing to really explain what this was. And in fact, we first found out about it, essentially through leaks, some leaks to the media, and mostly from heads of state themselves that were proudly sharing the invitations they got to this summit. Of course, dealing with foreign interference has always been the big pretext for US intervention of all kinds in the region. That’s what the Monroe Doctrine is based on, initially to keep out European powers and to help Latin American and Caribbean independent nations keep those European powers out, but in practice, of course, becoming fairly quickly a pretext for trying to exert direct control over those countries and eventually invading and occupying those countries in a lot of cases. And so you know we’re now dealing with um a Monroe Doctrine that’s on steroids, and it’s being called the Donroe Doctrine. It sounds like a joke, Don for Donald Trump. But it’s actually a term that’s being used seriously by people, cabinet officials, Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Hegseth and others. PETE HEGSETH [CLIP]: President Trump has reestablished the Monroe Doctrine, the Trump Corollary of the Monroe Doctrine, or if you’d like, for short, you can just call it the Donroe Doctrine. ALEXANDER MAIN: So it’s the Donroe Doctrine. And, we’ve had an indication of what that is over the last year or so, particularly since the US began to really militarize the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific and carry out military actions that have gone far beyond anything that a recent US administration has done in the region. So it’s elicited a lot of concern. But the countries that were invited to this summit were actually those countries, and it’s a minority of countries in the region, that have basically been cheerleaders for the Trump approach, the Donroe Doctrine, and particularly this militarized approach that we’re seeing. They’ve not only gone along with it, they are doing the same thing in their own countries in a lot of cases. They’re labeling gangs and cartels and so on as terrorist organizations, just as the administration started doing at the beginning of last year. And, of course, by calling these crime organizations, by referring to them as terrorist organizations, they then make those organizations military targets. And it gives them a pretext to mobilize the military and to involve the US in a lot of cases, like we’ve just seen in Ecuador. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Like we have seen in recent weeks in Ecuador. We’ll get to that in a second. But first I want to go to Miami. This is where Trump held his Shield of the Americas meeting. It’s not an accident that it was in Florida, rather than in Washington, the US capital. Alex explains why this was a no-brainer for Trump. ALEXANDER MAIN: It is his own territory. It’s his golf resort. He has two big resorts down there. One is Mar-a-Lago, and then the other in Miami is the Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort. And we can expect, just as Mar-a-Lago has gotten a lot of revenue from a lot of visitors that want to see President Trump, that want to hobnob with him since he’s there all the time, similarly with the location of this summit, we can clearly see that there’s also a profit motive behind the choice of the place. But beyond the fact that it’s at the resort, there I think it’s also significant that it’s in Miami, in South Florida, because this is where you have the most enthusiastic audience for Trump’s approach to the region, to this Donroe Doctrine, and particularly his and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s attacks against the left. And this came up a lot during the summit. I mean, attacks against Cuba in particular. This is what the administration has been focused on quite a bit since the intervention in Venezuela. They’ve set their sights on Cuba with a veritable oil blockade that’s been really asphyxiating the country economically. Of course, the country has been suffering economically for a long time as a result of US sanctions, the US embargo that’s been in place since 1960, but this has reached a whole new level, and it really appears that they’re pushing hard for regime change. And yeah, this has an enthusiastic audience among Cuban American exiles in South Florida, sort of the old guard that still exerts a lot of influence over politics and the media and the economy of South Florida. And so I think this was the perfect stage for this kind of a gathering. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: The Latin American leaders at Trump’s summit were a who’s who of the right and far-right leadership in the region. Among them were the heads of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago. ALEXANDER MAIN: We’ve seen a lot of political change in the region over the last few years, and that change has generally been towards the right, and more and more towards the far right. A lot of these leaders that were present from 12 countries in the region at this summit, a lot of them can be really characterized as far-right and very aligned with President Trump. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: People like Nayib Bukele. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: Nayib Bukele, he is a man who we’ve gotten very close to. I saw him as a young man my first time. You were young and handsome. Now you’re older and handsome. You’re older and handsome. But he runs a good operation. That’s all I care about, right? MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Bukele is El Salvador’s 44-year-old president, who’s been in power since 2019. His name has become synonymous with power grabs and an iron fist crackdown on gangs in Latin America. He literally has called himself the “world’s coolest dictator.” He has opened the country for real estate, tourism, and tech business while imposing an ongoing state of exception that has locked up more than 90,000 alleged gang members since 2022. But thousands of people are innocent. And they’re languishing in El Salvador’s high-security prisons without habeas corpus or the rule of law. Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding free-market economist president Javier Milei was also present. He’s become famous for shouting “Long live freedom, damn it!” at his rallies. “Viva la libertad, carajo!” ALEXANDER MAIN: He characterizes himself as an anarcho-libertarian. And I think that sounds more benign than it really is because he is also a big admirer of the military dictatorship in Argentina. And he’s engaged in a war on the left, on social movements. And of course, he’s trying to reduce the welfare programs that exist in Argentina. And he’s really been engaged in an onslaught against some of the achievements, the social and economic achievements of Argentina, over the past few decades. And he’s gotten a lot of support for Trump, and Trump has intervened heavily in his favor, in particular with a $20 billion bailout last year that occurred shortly before the elections. The Trump administration also supported a major loan from the International Monetary Fund, one that a lot of the membership of the International Monetary Fund objected to because it was so enormous and because the levels of debt in Argentina are so high. These moves helped stabilize the currency and stabilize the economy before the congressional elections last year and allowed Milei to have a real victory there. And he’s now able to ram through some of his more radical reforms through Congress. And then you have Daniel Noboa from Ecuador, who has also aligned himself very strongly with Trump and who’s also attacking the left, not only at home where he’s basically outlawed the major opposition party. That was his latest move. It just happened a couple of days ago, actually. But he has also been involved in really really heavy repression of the left in Ecuador. And he’s also helping serve as a proxy to try to weaken the left-wing government that’s next door, which is that of Gustavo Petro of Colombia, where he has been imposing very, very high tariffs. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Chile’s then-President-elect José Antonio Kast also attended Trump’s summit. He was inaugurated this week. Kast is perhaps the most radically far right president in the region today. And he is extreme even by Trump standards. ALEXANDER MAIN: His father himself was a Nazi. There’s evidence for that. And it’s not something that Kast has tried to distance himself from. Kast is a big defender of the Pinochet dictatorship which involved so many victims, so many forced disappearances, so much torture and killings and so on. So, you have a lot of individuals of that nature in the region now. And I think more and more that are going further than they would otherwise. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Alex says one example is Kamla Persad-Bissessar… ALEXANDER MAIN: The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who used to be considered somewhat progressive when she was leader of the opposition in Trinidad. Today she is joining the Trump administration in attacking Cuba, and she’s very supportive of the blockade against Cuba that’s occurring at this moment. She was very supportive of the attacks on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific last fall. Even though a lot of these attacks probably involved Trinidadians, we know that there were Trinidadian victims. And she supported the invasion of Venezuela. She went against basically all the other countries in the Caribbean to do this. And it’s become quite clear that she believes that the winning ticket is to go along with Trump and his policies. She was one of those who was very proudly telling the world that she’d been invited to this summit, even though it only happened recently. She was only invited at the last minute, really, in the last two weeks. When Caracom held a summit, she took some positions against the rest of the Caribbean community, including on Cuba and Marco Rubio, who rewarded her with an invitation to this summit. So basically, if you want to be part of the club, you have to go along with the extreme agenda of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the region. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Marco Rubio spoke to the leaders assembled at the summit. MARCO RUBIO [CLIP]: These are countries that have been there for us, and these are leaders that are not just allies. They are friends, and they are always willing to work and cooperate with the United States. And we’re grateful for that. We want to be a partner with you in that. We want the world to see that when you are a friend and an ally of the United States, it is a good thing. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: It’s reciprocated. It comes back the other way as well. And so the fact the president is here today and making this a priority is so critical. Clearly, Trump’s allies represent a growing proportion of leaders across the region. And he’s thrown his weight around to help make it so. On the eve of the presidential election in Honduras in November 2025, Trump threatened to cut off aid to the country if voters did not choose his preferred candidate, the right-wing former mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry “Tito” Asfura. Trump’s allegiances are clear: before Honduras had finished a long, drawn out vote count, Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted drug trafficker and Honduran former president, who also happened to be an important ally of Asfura, who ultimately won. Elsewhere in the region, Trump expressed support for Bukele’s 2024 reelection bid in El Salvador. Noboa in Ecuador in 2025. And he’s already endorsed Argentina’s Milei for another term ahead of presidential elections in 2027. And Trump embraced Chile’s Kast before he had even entered office. The list goes on. But the region’s three most populous countries — Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia — are clearly not on board. And Alex says the majority of the region isn’t going along with Trump’s agenda. ALEXANDER MAIN: One litmus test is right after the attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro you had a meeting, an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states, CELAC. And there was agreement apparently between two-thirds of those countries on a statement denouncing the intervention and saying that it violated international law, which of course it did. But you had this group of countries, and I think it was eight or nine at the time, that blocked it. And again, the numbers are growing. But at the moment, you still have the majority of the region. I wouldn’t call them necessarily progressive, all these countries, but at least wanting to defend sovereignty. They see what happened in Venezuela and think, this could happen in my country, what’s going to prevent the US doing the very same thing? And so, they have pushed back, but I would say they don’t offer a very united front. And so that’s, I think, one of the dangers of this summit is that they’re really trying to consolidate a bloc of countries that are closely coordinated. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Trump has appointed the former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to lead the coalition. Remember, she’s been largely responsible for the crackdown across the United States over the last year, and in particular the chaos of Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. She spoke to the leaders assembled at the Shield of the Americas summit. KRISTI NOEM [CLIP]: This Shield of Americas will be a powerful example to the rest of the world about what’s possible. There’s nothing like this happening today anywhere else in the world, and the way that we cooperate on our shared ideals of freedom and of democracy and safety and security will be a shining light to all of those who wish to be more like all of us. Our objectives are going to be to destroy the cartels, to go after these narcoterrorists that are destroying our people, killing our children and our grandchildren. We’re also going to keep our adversaries at bay. Those adversaries that wish to change our way of life and our values that are outside of our hemisphere, we want to ensure that we’re continuing to keep them out of our hemisphere and focus on building alliances amongst ourselves and our strengths. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Kristi’s choice of words here is striking. It’s reminiscent of George W. Bush’s language in the wake of 9/11, as the US launched its war on terror. GEORGE W. BUSH [CLIP]: Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists. Today our way of life. Our very freedom came under attack. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Bush said those words often. In one press conference the month after September 11, 2001, he told press: “The object of terrorism is to try to force us to change our way of life, is to force us to retreat, is to force us to be what we’re not. And they’re going to fail.” Today again the language of the war on terror is being combined with the war on drugs to create a new justification for intervention in the region: the cartels, or so-called narcoterrorists. I spoke with Alex Aviña about this a few weeks ago. He’s an associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University. ALEX AVIÑA: We have an affirmation of power, and we can do things because we can. And if you’re not with us, we are going to destroy you. And I think that’s the logic. That connects Gaza to the US-Mexico borderlands, to Cuba, to Venezuela, to anybody who’s in the crosshairs right now, to Iran. And it’s a powerful sovereign who gets to decide who must live and who must die, who deserves to die. I think the “deserves” part is really important. And that’s what also connects someone like Alex Pretti’s extrajudicial assassination with the more than a hundred of Latin Americans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Venezuelans that have been extrajudicially executed in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. It’s not just that they must die, it’s that they deserve to die. And there’s no legal process. There’s just an execution because these people were marked as deserving to die because they are narcoterrorists in the case of these individuals in the Caribbean. Or in the case of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, they’re domestic terrorists. So of course they have to die. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: And now more than a dozen countries in Latin America are opening their doors to lethal action inside their borders by the United States… A dozen leaders attended the Shield of the Americas Summit, but the defense ministers of 17 Latin American countries participated in the Americas Counter Cartel Conference two days before. It was held at the headquarters of the US Southern Command in Doral, Florida, near Trump’s golf course and the Miami airport. The five additional countries included the Bahamas, Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Peru. STEPHEN MILLER [CLIP]: Good morning, welcome to the America’s Counter Cartel Conference hosted by the Secretary of War the Honorable Pete Hegseth and the Commander of the United States Southern Command General Francis Donovan. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller spoke to the countries present. He did not mince words when it came to conflating the war on terror with the war on drugs. STEPHEN MILLER [CLIP]: The cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS and the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere and should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly as we treat those organizations. Just as we fought Al Qaeda and fought ISIS with the tip of a very lethal spear, the reason why this is a conference with military leadership and not a conference of lawyers is because these organizations can only be defeated with military power. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Military power. PETE HEGSETH [CLIP]: Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my distinct pleasure to introduce our Secretary of War the Honorable Pete Hegseth. Well, good morning, everybody. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: At the event, Hegseth took strides to find common ground and history with the participating nations. PETE HEGSETH [CLIP]: All the nations represented in this room are offsprings of Western civilization. Our nations are and always will be united by our heritage, our history, and geography in this New World. We share the same interests. And because of this, we face an essential test, whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God, proud of our shared heritage, with strong borders and prosperous people ruled not by violence and chaos but by law, order, and common sense. Or whether we are permanently torn apart by something else, led astray by competing forces, radical narcocommunism and anarchotyranny which threaten our people, borders, and sovereign lands in the name of a false sovereignty or a false peace. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Alex Main…. ALEXANDER MAIN: So I think just as the summit at the Trump resort in Miami was a Trump show, other leaders didn’t get much of a chance to speak. In fact, what most of them managed to do was just get a selfie with Trump. And this is just a show that involved mostly a speech by Trump. Well, similarly, we saw this with Pete Hegseth, who put on a big macho, militaristic show as well to these defense ministers from 17 countries in the region, basically saying we need to get tougher on these cartels, and basically is encouraging these governments to both give their militaries a blank check in going after organized crime, or maybe not even organized crime, having their way in these countries in terms of law enforcement. And also encouraging them to seek the US’ aid. And if they don’t seek the US’ aid, it might be forced upon them. PETE HEGSETH [CLIP]: President Trump understands that today’s threats to border security and key terrain in our hemisphere are existential questions for our nation and for all of yours. When adversaries conduct incursions in this hemisphere off the coast of a US state, Alaska, or off the coast of Greenland, or in the Gulf of America, or the Caribbean, that is a direct threat to the United States homeland and to peace in this hemisphere. When adversaries control ports or infrastructure along strategic choke points for US and hemispheric trade such as the Panama Canal, or install military facilities just miles off our shore, that is a threat to the United States homeland and peace to this hemisphere. When terrorist killers and cartels capture strategic infrastructure, resources, and entire towns or cities close to US borders and US shores or profit from mass illegal migration, that is a threat to the United States homeland and a threat to all of you as well, to the Americas. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Alex Main… ALEXANDER MAIN: So, yes, I think it was a Hegseth show. Of course, we know he was a Fox News host, and he’s continued to play a similar role as defense secretary. And this whole idea that they are now going to focus on the cartels, I come with a lot of skepticism because, for one, they do make up cartels out of thin air, as we saw in the Venezuelan, the Cártel de los Soles. And two, it’s pretty clear that they are very selective in how they want to combat drug trafficking. We saw President Trump pardon Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, who is apparently involved, and there’s evidence of this, in enabling an enormous amount of trafficking of cocaine to the US, more than 400 tons of cocaine, apparently. And so if you’re going to release somebody like that, that suggests that maybe you’re not all that serious about drug trafficking or that you see the drug trafficking problem very selectively. And another indication of this is how deep they’re getting into cooperating with Daniel Noboa of Ecuador in fighting drug gangs there, or at least that’s what they say they’re doing. When there are reports that his family’s business, one that he’s been very involved in in the past, and has been shipping cocaine to Europe. At the very least, you would think that before going in deep with Daniel Noboa and fighting drug trafficking that they might want to look into this just a little bit, but there’s no indication the Department of Justice in the US is in the least bit interested in trying to find out more about how the Noboa family business could be involved themselves in major drug trafficking. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: That’s for a good reason… Born in Miami, Florida, and raised in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Ecuador’s 38-year-old President Daniel Noboa is a friendly sidekick for the Trump administration. Noboa has been bucking public opinion in Ecuador to build increasing ties with the United States and the US military. ALEXANDER MAIN: I think the US sees Ecuador as a model in this regard, and Ecuador signed a status of forces agreement which allows US military personnel to be mobilized in the country and gives them immunity from prosecution. Paraguay just signed a similar status of forces agreement, and I think we’re going to be seeing more of that and just more involvement in these countries. And when the US gets very deeply involved in the military and intelligence apparatus of the state, it gives them enormous leverage, leverage including over the politics and the policy agenda of those countries. And so it is an instrument of control, and it’s one that I think the Trump administration is very interested in using more and more. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Ecuador. This is a country I know pretty well. I lived there in the mid 2010s. I covered Daniel Noboa’s presidential reelection last year. And both before and after that reelection, Noboa has ordered the country’s armed forces to carry out military operations against so-called “terrorists” or gangs. In January 2024, he declared an “internal armed conflict” in the country and classified 22 criminal gangs as “terrorist organizations.” “We are in a state of war,” he said in a 2024 interview, “and we cannot give in to these terrorist groups.” He used this narrative to get reelected last year. In early March, this year, as I mentioned at the top, Ecuador became the first country in the region during Trump’s second term to invite in US forces to collaborate on a violent raid on a drug traffickers’ training camp. This is significant for multiple reasons. For one thing, this move came less than four months after Ecuadorians voted down a national referendum proposed by Noboa to change the constitution to allow foreign military bases in Ecuador. Remember that, for 20 years, the United States controlled the Manta military base, northwest of Guayaquil along the Ecuadorian coast. But in 2009, former President Rafael Correa shut down the base and kicked US troops out of the country. I spoke with Ecuadorian human rights defender Alexis Ponce about the impact of the Noboa-Trump joint military raid and Noboa’s increasing US military ties. He spoke over Zoom from his home in Quito. Alexis says that when Ecuadorians voted against allowing foreign military bases and a number of other proposed constitutional changes, movements in other countries said, “Wow, the Ecuadorian people are on the forefront of the fight against military intervention in Latin America.” And this amidst a continent where the US was already bombing the Caribbean, threatening Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and Colombia. Alexis says he hoped Ecuadorians and their Latin American neighbors could build on the victory. Stay united and gain inspiration. But Noboa disregarded the popular will and instead pushed ahead with his militarization agenda. ALEXIS PONCE: The people feel that it is a shame. They voted against the US bases, and yet Noboa is advancing with the US military on top of us. But at the same time the people are afraid, as in 1930s Germany. Why? Because with fear you win the ideological, cultural battle of thought, because people are afraid that Noboa and his allies can do whatever they want. They can do anything, and they don’t have to tell anyone because it’s classified. No one has the right to know how many US soldiers are here and what they’re going to do. Though, we can guess what they’re planning from what they’ve already done. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Alex Main… ALEXANDER MAIN: To my knowledge, we haven’t seen this in recent times, this level of collaboration in carrying out military attacks within a country, at least publicly, because we know that privately the US has been involved in a lot of intelligence sharing. There could at times be special forces on the ground that we don’t know about. For instance, during the presidency of Álvaro Uribe in Colombia, there was actually a military strike on a camp of a guerrilla insurgency group, the FARC, that was close to the Colombian border. And they went in and violated Ecuador’s sovereignty. And afterwards, it became clear that these attacks were carried out with a lot of help from US intelligence and so on. So I think that sort of thing has probably been going on for a while, and and far more than what’s on the public record. But doing this overtly, one, it hasn’t been seen, I think, in a very long time, but two, it also can have a chilling effect on other countries in the region. Ecuador has Colombia on its border. It’s very close to Brazil as well. Two countries with progressive governments that the Trump administration doesn’t get along with. And there could easily be fears that if tensions grow between the Trump administration and some of these progressive governments, and they’ve been quite intense in recent months, that there is the possibility of military action. The US military is right there. They effectively have bases in a place like Ecuador, even though that’s unconstitutional. And so if we see this in more countries, and particularly in these very far-right areas, these countries with very far-right governments, neighboring progressive governments, I think these progressive governments are going to be feeling more and more surrounded by a hostile US. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: One theme was sounded again and again by US officials at both the Shield of the Americas summit and the Counter Cartels Conference: The need to use lethal military force against their enemies… foreign and domestic. Donald Trump. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: Every leader here today is united in the conviction that we cannot and will not tolerate the lawlessness in our hemisphere any longer. The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries. We have to use our military. You have to use your military. You can’t fight these people with — And you have great police. You have some great police, but they threaten your police. They scare your police. You’ve got to use your military. In many cases, our forces have already been working closely with yours. And the United States looks forward to deepening and expanding that cooperation in the months ahead. And it’s so good that we got to know so many of you. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: I want to underscore something that is really important. What Trump is demanding here is really concerning, and a complete about-face for the direction Latin America has tried to head into since the end of the Cold War. Remember that throughout the 1960s until the ’80s, South America was ruled by US-backed dictatorships and Central America was in the grips of US-backed authoritarian governments and bloody civil wars. Throughout the region, militaries were unleashing violence on their own civilian populations, as I looked at in depth in Season 1 of this podcast. But the late ’80s and ’90s ushered in a redemocratization effort that attempted to separate out the role of the police and military forces. It wasn’t always successful. But the idea was to ensure that the countries of Latin America would not use lethal military force on their own citizens under the guise of national security… or in the name of protecting the nation against a so-called internal threat. Trump is turning the clock back on this policy to a Cold War era in which governments once again deploy their militaries on citizens inside the country… in Latin America and even in the United States. And his policies are pushing deadly force with no accountability. Alex Main… ALEXANDER MAIN: You are seeing more and more the police pushed to one side and the military taking over law enforcement. That’s become the big thing. And then in some cases, a militarization of law enforcement. We’ve seen this in Honduras over the years. It started under Juan Orlando Hernández, actually, where they created you know militarized units of the police. And so the lines are getting completely blurred between the police and the military and what is what. It’s all becoming extremely militarized. And the military has no training in human rights or restraint. They’re trained for combat. That’s part of the issue with deploying the National Guard all over the US. Thankfully, to date in the US, the National Guard haven’t actually been involved in clashes with protesters and so on, but that’s happened with ICE, which is a similar militarized law enforcement unit here in the US. But yeah, this is becoming the new paradigm. And as you mentioned, it’s kind of hearkening back to what we were seeing under the dictatorships.” And you know basically, again, this idea that anybody can be labeled part of a cartel, if the government says, oh, you’re a drug trafficker, that’s it. But then they don’t necessarily provide any evidence. And suddenly, you’re a military target. And I think that’s the real danger as well. We’re going to see, we are seeing, a growing backlash to these far-right governments in the region. And the best way to deal with a strong backlash, as we saw into the dictatorships, is to mobilize the troops and to violently repress dissent internally. And now there is a new paradigm that I think is gonna really enable that more and more. So, t’s a real danger. And I think in the US, we have to think when we’re fighting the militarization of law enforcement in the US, think about how it needs to be fought elsewhere and how the US is backing this same model that we’ve been seeing in the US in other countries in the region. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: The meetings over the last week in Miami were just the beginning. The 17 members of the new Counter Cartel Coalition have their marching orders from Washington. And if Trump has his way, they will be following in the footsteps of Ecuador, actively collaborating with the US military. Think School of the Americas 2.0, but with US soldiers taking flight alongside foreign militaries and dishing out lethal action up and down the hemisphere, with the consent of local governments. But with one country actually calling the shots — The United States. This new coalition is also a symbol of how Trump is trying to circumvent multipolar institutions with parallel institutions that will do his bidding. Instead of working through the UN, Trump founded his so-called Board of Peace to allegedly manage the so-called reconstruction of Gaza. Instead of working through the Organization of American States — Which the US already controls but where there would be clear dissent — Trump has launched his Counter Cartel Coalition with his closest allies clearly on board and zero resistance to his agenda. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: We will join and work together to end the pandemic of the cartels and all the criminal actions associated to them. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Chile’s incoming minister of defense spoke at the Counter Cartels Conference. FERNANDO BARROS [CLIP]: The great difference between them and us is that this alliance is against criminals and we will fight them, and we will be tough. We will fight. We will be in a war because the law is with us. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Costa Rican Minister of Public Security Mario Zamora Cordero. MARIO ZAMORA CORDERO [CLIP]: We are thankful that the doctrine of the United States of the year 2026 gives priority to this continent because, Mr. Hegseth, you come in the moment that the Americas really need the support of the United States. Today you’re commanding as in the past Colonel Custer commanded the 7th Cavalry, supporting the democracies in the continent at the moment in which we really need it. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Those words are pretty shocking — Especially from a representative of Costa Rica, a country that abolished its army more than 70 years ago. Colonel GeorgeCuster was a Civil War hero for the Union Army, but he is better known for leading the 7th Cavalry on a US genocidal campaign against Native Americans, pushing the Lakota from their land in the present-day Western US in the 1870s. He was killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn in an event that would be known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” The Costa Rican representative’s comparison is both chilling and revealing. Historian and activist Nick Estes has described the Monroe Doctrine as the extension and expansion of manifest destiny across the continent. Manifest destiny, of course, was the 19th century idea that justified US western expansion and violence against Indigenous people. The Monroe Doctrine, and more specifically the Roosevelt corollary that Trump’s actions harken back to, took up that campaign for ever-expanding annexation and control abroad. And it’s clear that Trump is also lifting this flag of manifest destiny again like no US president in recent history. From threatening to take Greenland, to transforming Canada into a 51st US state, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and all of his threats across Latin America. He even referenced manifest destiny on the inauguration of this second term. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [CLIP]: The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation — One that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars. MICHAEL FOX [NARRATION]: Once again the justification for most of this intervention and expansion in Latin America is the Monroe Doctrine. It’s clearly the guiding light for the Trump administration, and apparently even for some of Trump’s allies. Alex Main. ALEXANDER MAIN: When Trump came back, it wasn’t only the Monroe Doctrine. It was like a new extreme version of the Monroe Doctrine that was going to be applied. They talked about it in the National Defense Strategy, they talked about having a Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which also brings back some very bad memo
Komunitas
beehaw.org
Who needs affordable PCs and oil, anyway? Chromebooks, the low-cost computing option popular with education buyers, will be squeezed hardest this year as memory prices spiral out of control. According to the mystics at Omdia, total global PC shipments are on track to decline 12 percent in 2026: desktop PCs by 10 percent to 53.2 million units and laptops by 12 percent to 192.2 million units. Why? For readers with their heads in the clouds, an AI-driven memory shortage is plaguing the entire industry by inflating the price of the vital components, with a knock-on effect on systems. The price of mainstream memory and storage configurations jumped between $90 and $165 since the start of last year, a financial pressure that forced PC brands to ditch promotions, hike purchase prices, and adjust specs, Omdia says. Memory prices are estimated to rise a further 60 percent in Q1.
Komunitas
mander.xyz
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7891951 cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/33780 Palestinians walk through roads surrounded by rubble and collapsed buildings in Al-Zahra, northwest of Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 19, 2025. Photo: Hassan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Images In Gaza, movement is no longer a mundane part of daily life. Israel’s military assault and prolonged siege have dismantled Gaza’s transportation system so thoroughly that journeys that once took minutes by car now require hours of walking through rubble and grotesque debris. What used to be an ordinary act — leaving home, reaching a clinic, visiting kin — has now become a form of physical labor, a calculation of pain, and a risk weighed against necessity. By late 2025, Gaza’s Ministry of Transport and Communications reported that approximately 70 percent of registered vehicles — more than 50,000 cars, taxis, buses, and trucks — had been destroyed or rendered inviable. Between 68 and 85 percent of the road network suffered damage or total destruction, with some areas such as Khan Younis losing more than 90 percent of their routes. Israeli forces repeatedly bombed, cratered, and bulldozed major roads and intersections, instigating chaos that fragmented the Strip into isolated zones where movement between neighborhoods requires long detours or hours on foot. [ Related Trump’s War to Nowhere](https://theintercept.com/2026/03/06/podcast-trump-iran-israel-war/) While the world turns its attention to Iran, daily life in Gaza has not returned to pre-genocide conditions. Since the U.S. and Israel began their joint assault on Iran, Lebanon, and the broader region, prices in Gaza have risen sharply as people rushed to buy essential goods and fuel. The sudden surge in demand and limited supply spiked the cost of food, water — and transportation. Border crossings were closed for 48 hours, further exacerbating shortages and contributing to the rapid rise in prices. In recent days, prices have begun to gradually decrease and stabilize, but the overall economic burden remains heavy for most households in Gaza, where many people are still struggling to cover basic needs. Roads no longer connect neighborhoods, and transportation no longer guarantees access to health care, work, or sustenance. Even streets that remain technically passable are obstructed by rubble, vehicles, or collapsed infrastructure beneath the surface. Water and sewage lines burst under bombardment, flooding streets and turning mobility into an endeavor plagued by biohazards. In many areas, roads have become indistinguishable from ruins. This collapse did not result solely from airstrikes. Israel’s blockade — which continues to restrict fuel, spare parts, tires, batteries, and heavy machinery — has undermined Gaza’s ability to repair or recover. Vehicles that survived bombardment often remain immobilized due to mechanical failures no workshop can fix. Even basic parts and equipment — filters, belts, brake systems — have become hard to find. Fuel scarcity has driven prices far beyond the reach of most families, while mechanics resort to dangerously improvised substitutes that destroy engines and emit toxic fumes across densely populated areas. [ Related Plans Call for “New Rafah” Built in Israel’s Image — Without Palestinians](https://theintercept.com/2026/01/21/gaza-ceasefire-phase-two-rafah-project-sunrise/) As formal transportation disappears, residents rely on unsafe alternatives: tuk-tuks with no safety standards, animal-drawn carts, overcrowded cargo trucks not designed for passengers, or walking long distances across shattered streets. Asphalt has collapsed and fractured, mingling with rubble, sewage, twisted metal, and remnants of destroyed buildings, forming uneven, dirt-like paths. Movement through these spaces turns the act of walking into a physically punishing routine. The clatter of collapsing buildings and distant bombardment is constant, and the air feels opaque with dust and smoke. Municipal authorities cannot clear the wreckage. The fuel shortages and lack of functioning equipment affect them too, preventing large-scale removal of debris. The result is a form of enforced immobility: Entire neighborhoods remain effectively cut off, not by checkpoints but by devastation. Residents plan their days around how far their bodies can carry them. Residents plan their days around how far their bodies can carry them. I have experienced this reality repeatedly. Over several weeks, I traveled with my brother, Mohammed, four times to reach a dentist in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, nearly 10 kilometers from our home. There is no reliable transportation between the two areas. The distance became an ordeal measured not in maps but in muscle fatigue, time lost, and pain that intensified with every uneven step. On one of those days, rain fell heavily. Broken roads turned to mud layered over shattered asphalt and sharp stones. Water pooled in craters left by bombs. At times, I sprinted across short safe patches, only to be slowed again by mud and debris. Transportation carried us only part of the distance. We always completed the journey on foot, adjusting our pace to the condition of the road and to the limits of our bodies. Without severe tooth pain, I would not have left my room. The road drained me more than the dental procedure itself. Each step felt like a negotiation between necessity and collapse. I tried to make the walk bearable by searching for fragments of beauty along the way. I tried to make the walk bearable by searching for fragments of beauty along the way: a flowering tree growing beside rubble, a rose bush somehow still nourished, a building that had not yet fallen, the faint radiant glow of children playing in a distant schoolyard. I photographed the clouds, took pictures of myself simply to pass time, and paused whenever my body demanded it. These small acts were my survival mechanisms, attempts to assert that Gaza still contained something worth noticing. This experience is not exceptional. It reflects a broader reality in which access to health care depends not on medical need alone, but on physical endurance. Patients miss appointments or abandon treatment altogether because they cannot reach clinics. Parents carry children for kilometers to medical points. Elderly people and those with disabilities remain trapped in place, dependent on others or forced to forego care indefinitely. The ability to walk through rubble for long distances has become a filter that determines who receives care and who does not. The ability to walk through rubble for long distances has become a filter that determines who receives care and who does not. Economic consequences intensify the crisis. Tens of thousands of drivers have lost their livelihoods as taxis, buses, and trucks were destroyed or immobilized. Commercial transport has slowed dramatically, disrupting supply chains and inflating the cost of basic goods. Workers arrive late or not at all. Students walk for hours or drop out entirely. For displaced families, transportation costs have reached apocalyptic levels, with some paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to move belongings short distances. Those without money walk, scavenge what they can, and leave the rest behind. In the absence of regulation and fuel availability, informal transport operators dictate prices brazenly. Gaza’s local authorities acknowledge the exploitation, but under siege conditions, they have limited options to protect residents. Scarcity governs movement more than public need, reshaping social relations around access, endurance, and pent-up anger. Western‑run aid organizations vow to “maintain a steady and predictable flow of supplies,” yet recent reports note that while some aid has entered Gaza, the overall volume remains insufficient to meet basic needs, fueling frustration and despair. The pattern of destruction reveals intent. Israeli attacks have repeatedly targeted intersections, bridges, and key road junctions, severing connections between neighborhoods and governorates. These actions obstruct ambulances, humanitarian convoys, and civilian movement, amplifying the effects of injury, hunger, and displacement. Gaza’s government estimates that losses in the transport sector exceed $3 billion, including the destruction of more than three million linear meters of roads. Mobility itself has become a casualty of war, leaving residents lurking between hazards and temporary shelters, pleading for safety. [ Related Gaza’s Civil Defense Forces Keep Digging for 10,000 Missing Bodies](https://theintercept.com/2025/11/28/gaza-palestine-ceasefire-rubble-bodies/) Local officials have proposed emergency rehabilitation plans focused on reopening critical routes linking hospitals, shelters, and aid distribution centers. These efforts prioritize survival rather than reconstruction. Without access to fuel, spare parts, and heavy machinery, even minimal recovery remains largely theoretical, constrained by political decisions beyond Gaza’s control. Transportation in Gaza is not a technical issue or a matter of convenience. It defines the limits of daily life. It determines who can reach a doctor, who can work, who can study, and who must stay behind. As long as movement itself remains under siege, life in Gaza will continue to contract, measured not by distance but by pain, exhaustion, and loss. In the 21st century, Palestinians in Gaza navigate a landscape where walking through ruins has replaced the most basic promise of mobility, ceaselessly testing endurance, resilience, and the abiding human spirit. The post Israel Destroyed Gaza’s Roads and Transit. Now, We Walk Everywhere. appeared first on The Intercept. From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.
Komunitas
dormi.zone
The following is an automatically updated live recap of the devstream, brought to you by Cephalon_Zelgius and Kliuqard. Preparing for the recap as usual, don’t mind me. the crew? Housekeeping Watch to earn a built forma s twitch drop The quest to conquer cancer is running until october 31st Gift of the lotus alerts after the stream: orokin reactor & catalyst Gotva prime from tennocon coming to baro next week #Plague Star: Returning november 7th on all platforms Leeching problem: only one person adding stuff to the mixer entire mixer step is removed different mission tiers Tier 1 equals nobody adding phylaxis / catalysts Tier 2 automatically consumes phylaxis / catalyst from inventory Steel path version Abyss of Dagath first soundtrack to feature ~~woodwinds (?)~~ (was used in orchestral peices before), and an italian horror machine ^^tm Feedback Keysharing testing the waters for possible future content (premades vs matchmaking) Pet Rework Grant is a pet guy now making pets immortal was the first priority bond mods to make pets more interactive (bond buffs coming soon btw) a lot of changese to specific pets were too much for a single rework --> part 2 soon^^tm (not this year) includes charm changes Hydroid Pablo is happy :) some descriptions might get tweeks to be more accurate Whispers in the Walls new fog system originally developed for soulframe real-time, does not need to be baked should improve performance classic renderer will be gone on PC with this update Skin shaders used to look a but plastic-y will be more natural coming this year (steve-promise) design theme: sci-fi meets gothic meets eldritch (frankensteins lab vibes) concept art from qtcc miltesone new reveal Slinky (should originally move like a slinky) concept art from TennoVIP Albrecht Entrati 1999 infested enemy Clan Operation: Gargoyle’s Cry involves the dojo likely no leaderboards balanced around solo clans for ghost tier clans Sevagoth Deluxe: Glaucus tie in with the hydroid deluxe skin comes with a sleeping in the cold below remix playing when using shadow also unlocked as a somachord song when purchasing the skin tombstone Epitaph skin gillychap armor piece ~~hovers~~swims over your shoulder ~~aka gillychad~~ Potential feature: Story Skip attempt to solve the problem that to creat new content that follows up on older content will not be accessible to new players some potential players might be interested in the big new thing ^^tm but bounce off on the way there story skip for platinum (the negative reaction in chat was acknowledged) skip quests, instantly get the rewards feedback on this idea is being monitored very closely story catch-up for free (basically a story recap) Cross-save november devstream will be “the cross-save stream” cross-platform clans and friends lists are live prime access changes bigger accessories packs in the future 3 prime access packs all prime access gear all prime accessories both tennogen being worked on artists should be affected as little as possible account merging being worked on trading being worked on
Komunitas
lemmy.ml
Yeah the framing there is kinda silly, but it does seem like the whole fab reshoring thing has been plagued with problems. The more interesting parts of the article were that the time to build fabs is increasing, especially in recent times Things look even worse when you look at specific decades. In the 90s and 2000s, the U.S. was pretty fast and saw average construction times of about 675 days. In the 10s, that number dramatically increased to 918 days. Meanwhile, China and Taiwan were going at a much faster pace that decade, with an average completion time of 675 and 642 days, respectively. and the number of fabs overall is at all time low Naturally, the amount of fabs the U.S. is making at all has also declined. In the 90s, 55 fabs were constructed in the U.S., dropping to 43 in the 2000s and then to 22 in the 10s. At the same time, China is massively accelerating its fab construction, from 14 in the 90s to 75 in the 2000s to 95 in the 10s. It’s also not just a month difference for the delays The findings aren’t surprising, as many high-profile fabs have missed their original targets for production. TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona recently added a one-year delay, Intel’s Ohio fabs are apparently slipping from 2025 to late 2026, and Samsung delayed a Texas-based foundry to 2025 due to not receiving its CHIPS Act funds. And there are a couple of related data points from TSMC and Samsung regarding fab construction https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/us-government-doles-out-paltry-dollar35-million-of-the-dollar52-billion-chips-act-warns-of-possible-delays-in-intel-and-tsmc-fab-buildouts https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/us-govts-sluggish-chips-act-payouts-slam-the-breaks-on-samsungs-fab-company-delays-mass-production-at-texas-fab-to-await-further-chips-funding-report So, while I agree that EPA regulation isn’t the core problem here, I think it’s pretty clear that US is having trouble with the whole reshoring idea.