PolitiSage Mid-Week News Summary
World, Environmental, and Human Rights News
Norway Joins NATO.
After months of stonewalling by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—who wanted cooperation from Nordic countries in tracking down and extraditing Kurdish rebels for him—the parliament of Türkiye ratified the accession papers of Norway, which became the 31st member nation of NATO. Both Sweden and Norway had held off joining the defense enclave out of fear of infuriating Russia. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was, in part, at attempt to dilute the influence and power of NATO, but now it has resulted in an immense blow to Putin’s power. As would be expected, Putin railed against the move, brandishing more threats.
7,000+ Nashville Students Protest School Shootings, Bad Gun Laws.
On the one-week anniversary of the Covenant School shooting that killed three nine-year-olds, a substitute teacher, the head of school, and a custodian, more than 1,000 Nashville students walked out of school to protest for gun control laws at the state capitol. Inside the Tennessee House, Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson staged a raucous protest. All three have now been targeted for expulsion from the House by a group of three Republicans. Republicans hold a super-majority in the state government. According to Chalkbeat:
Gov. Bill Lee proposed another $155 million to place an armed security guard at every Tennessee public school, boost physical school security at both public and private schools, and provide additional mental health resources for Tennesseans.
Absolutely no mention of any intention to curb gun ownership or the type of guns that may be owned. The assailant in the attack on Covenant School was trans and anti-trans rhetoric has flared from conservative lawmakers and media personalities while they simultaneously support “gun rights.”
Violence Flares at Al-Aqsa Mosque
On Wednesday, Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque for a second time after arresting and removing 350 worshippers hours earlier in a Ramadan raid that sparked a cross-border exchange of fire. Six people were injured in the second raid, in which the IDF deployed stun grenades and fired rubber bullets. The US has appealed to both sides to maintain peace and calm.
The Taliban Bans Afghan Women from Working with UN Agencies.
In yet another blow to already-gutted women’s rights in Afghanistan, the Taliban notified the UN that Afghan women would no longer be allowed to work for UN relief agencies inside the country. The UN promptly told all Afghan employees—female and male—to stay home from work for two days while the aid agencies tried to work with the radical Islamic government. The UN says it is critical that it have native in-country female staff to report on and service the needs of Afghan women. The move not only strips Afghan women of one of their last places to work at all—it also threatens to leave Afghan women will severely limited resources to lodge complaints of mistreatment and depleted access to medical care and legal assistance. It also pulls a curtain over abusive treatment by their husbands, their families and the Taliban government itself. The UN hopes to meet with the Taliban over the issue in the next several days.
Democrat Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat, Shifting Majority.
It was the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history—and one of the most critical elections of 2023. Janet Protasiewicz, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, giving liberals their first majority since 2008—and hence advantage in deciding abortion rights, in directing the administration of elections, and in drawing the state’s gerrymandered legislative maps. And as one of the most critical battleground states in all the presidential polls of the last decades, Wisconsin may decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential race, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court will have final say over challenges to fair balloting.
Trump Calls for Defunding the DOJ and the FBI—and Threatens Judge Juan Merchan and His Family.
Following his arrest and arraignment on 34 felony counts, conviction of which could result in 136 years in prison, Trump called on Republicans in Congress to defund the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Were his calls heeded, such action would effectively stop the myriad of investigations into the January 6th debacle and the Mar-a-Lago classified files case. On April 3rd, while Trump was being arraigned in New York, an appeals court rejected Trump’s appeal to block testimony before the January 6th grand jury by ideologue Stephen Miller, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and other top White House aides present during the insurrection.
Meanwhile, Trump included in his post-arraignment remarks this statement regarding judge Juan Merchan and his family:
I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family whose daughter worked for [Vice President] Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign.
Newsweek points out that Merchan's daughter Loren is president of Authentic Campaigns, an agency that has worked a number of Democrats including Biden and Harris and that both conservatives and progressive attorneys have said her work does not constitute a conflict of interest for the judge.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissman commented,
You do not have this behavior from a mob boss. There is a rule in organized crime. You do not do this with respect to prosecutors. You don't do this with respect to the judge. You certainly don't go after their families. It's bad business to do that.
And Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez remarked,
Nothing says “innocent” like threatening a judge's family. Let's be very clear: intimidation and stochastic terror are the core tools of Trump and the fascist movements that support him. They rely on it to skirt consequence and silence others—and each time it works, they grow more brazen. One reason why accountability is so important.
In Other News
The Chinese spy balloon that overflew several U.S. military installations before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina gathered and transmitted military intelligence in real time.
In India, arrests have been made in the sacrificial beheading of a woman at a Hindu temple in Guwahati for the purpose of appeasing the soul of a dead man thought to be enraged with one of the perpetrators. Twelve people were involved in the murder of the 64-year-old. In another case, two men sacrificed a 6-year-old boy to the goddess Shiva “for riches.”
A Missouri tornado killed five people yesterday. Reports of tornadoes, which strike mainly upstate New York, the Midwest, and the South, now total 478, double the average for this point in a single year. At least 63 people have been killed this year, compared with an annual average of tornado-related deaths of 71.