05/27/25
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, May 27th.
National Kim Got More Than Three Hours of Sleep Day
I… did you know you were supposed to sleep more than three hours at a time?
Sorry about the sudden lack of shows. I was tasting colors! But I’m back now, baybee. My body doesn’t know what day it is!
And now, the news.
Israel-Hamas
-via NPR, Axios, NY Times, and AP News
The bummer about taking a break from the news when I did is that a lot of news broke. So let’s do a catch-up. Starting with the Israel-Hamas war, where Israel launched a new ground offensive in Gaza two weeks ago. In the last 60 hours or so, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed, including many women and children.
It’s just been absolutely nonstop and comes after Israel’s declaration that, if no ceasefire deal was reached by May 15th, they would literally flatten Gaza. An area that Palestinians had lived in for generations. Gone. Simply because Israel had just… decided.
No ceasefire deal has been reached, but talks are continuing. I will note that, on Monday, a senior Hamas official said that the group agreed to the latest draft of the plan, but the Israeli government said it would be rejected. So negotiations continue.
Of course, that’s all kind of a technicality because Hamas, the militant group inside of Gaza, still has Israeli hostages inside of Gaza; while the Israeli Defense Forces are launching an all-out assault on Gaza.
Hard to hold serious peace talks under those conditions.
Nevertheless.
Israel said they will resume limited aid to Gaza (I can’t stress this enough – that limited is doing some heavy lifting there), but there is no plan to actually make that happen. By Monday afternoon, none of the promised aid had gone into Gaza.
On that same day, the Prime Minister again encouraged what he called “voluntary emigration,” which is not a real thing in this case. Israel has bombarded Gaza. They have withheld aid. They have been doing this for years. There is nothing voluntary about any of it.
Russia and Ukraine
Over to Russia and Ukraine, where Monday saw Russia launching its largest overnight drone attack against Ukraine on the third night of significant aerial attacks.
On the ground, Russia continues to push the 620-mile front line, assembling forces for a summer offensive and dashing hopes of a ceasefire.
France’s President Macron called the attacks further proof of, “the extent to which President Putin has lied to the Europeans and to the Americans,” and said Ukraine’s allies, America included, should put Putin on a deadline and impose more sanctions.
And just to show you how serious things are now with Russia and Putin’s actions – even Trump is putting out his Trump version of thinking Putin has gone too far.
On Sunday, he took to his ironically titled Truth Social and tweeted, “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia! Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop. This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not ‘Trump’s,’ I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.”
I… he… Putin hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s getting worse, sure. But he hasn’t gone crazy. He’s just a genuinely bad, bad, dangerous, horrible, dude. Also “and I’m not just talking about soldiers.” So soldiers are okay? Look, I’m not pulling apart his tweet (also we know he doesn’t care about military members anyway so what are we going here, acting surprised?) I’m just saying… for the moment – Putin’s even lost Trump.
What does that mean? Who knows, because Trump’s not going to move America back over to Ukraine (even though that is firmly where our support should be), but Putin does need people like Trump to be on his side. So losing his support but force Putin to back off.
Hopefully.
Despite the aerial attacks, the two countries did complete their largest and final prisoner swap of the war, with more than 1,000 prisoners on each side going home.
Liverpool Crowd Attack
-via CBS News
A 53-year-old man has been detained after allegedly driving his car into a crowd of people in Liverpool, which is about 200 miles northwest of London.
Police believe the man acted alone, and it is not being treated as an act of terrorism.
27 people have been taken to the hospital, including four children. Three are being treated for serious injuries.
The crowd was gathered to watch Liverpool Football Club players celebrate and display the Premiere League trophy for the first time since 1990 (they won in 2020 but Covid prevented an in-person celebration).
Everyone’s just there to love a sport. To love their team. Maybe it’s because if there’s one thing I’m going to do, it’s love a team that’s rich in love and not so rich in, you know, post-season wins. But here’s a group of people who might not have anything else in common but this one team, and for this one stretch of time, one afternoon, they’re hanging out together while the rest of that stuff doesn’t matter.
And a motive is still being investigated, and the last thing I’m going to do right now is jump to conclusions, but can we not just have one thing? You know? Can footie fans not just have their day drinking and their Liver Bird and their feeling superior to every other footie fan in the league? And I don’t know what it feels like to get to feel superior to other teams in your sport, but here’s what I know: when this guy is found guilty, however much time he gets, toss five more years on top of it for taking the joy of feeling smug out of the day.
And Liverpool fans – I sincerely hope you get out there and reschedule another day soon.
Because on top of everything else, this guy does not get to win.
Trump v Harvard
-via NPR
While I was not sleeping (ugh, now I want to watch While You Were Sleeping), the drama heated up between Trump and Harvard (ugh, now I want to watch Good Will Hunting!).
As you may recall, the Trump administration is going after colleges and college students for using their First Amendment rights. Thus far, most schools are folding because the administration threatens their funding. However, once they do that, the administration turns around and then asks for more, more, more.
Harvard, so far, has been the only school to refuse the administration’s demands. In return, the administration has threatened to withhold funding. The university has sued the administration. It’s been a lot of back and forth.
The latest in this story happened two weeks ago, when the Department of Justice said it would terminate the school’s certification that allows it to enroll international students and teachers.
Huh.
I wonder why international students and teachers only.
Jkjk we know why.
Harvard’s nearly 7,000 international students comprise almost 27% of the student body.
Last Friday, luckily, a federal judge blocked the move.
By the way, if you’re thinking yeah, sure, that makes sense.
You’re not wrong.
Per the university’s response, this is a, "blatant violation of the First Amendment."
When Harvard lawyers are using the word blatant in a retort, that’s a sick burn! (ugh. Now I want to watch Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde)
In response, Trump tweeted on his Twitter knockoff site that the administration wants to know exactly who these international students are. Considering how they’re treating other international students, I would suggest, maybe… not. Maybe don’t tell them.
Because the administration is, you know, kidnapping people.
Budget Drama
-via The Hill
Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill (which was embarrassing enough when he called it that, and is now more embarrassing now because that’s the actual real name for this budget because Republicans cannot fall over themselves fast enough to embarrass themselves for him) has passed the House and is now with the Senate. It’s the future in the Senate is kind of TBD? Some Republican Senators are pretending like they’re going to vote against it, but that group includes Mitch McConnell and what do I always say about McConnell? He will always be against Trump until being against him would actually cause Republicans to lose. Then he’ll fall in line.
Since Trump likes alliteration so much, here’s something – this Budget Bill Be Bad!
It forces states to cover SNAP benefits. You may know them as food stamps. States with higher numbers of SNAP recipients also have less ability to cover those benefits. Those states, by the by, statistically speaking, voted Republican.
These people, these Republican House Reps and Senators, have been very clear in their lack of caring about their constituents when it comes to putting their power, and especially Trump’s power, over their constituents’ literal survival. But this is a new low.
It also has significant Medicaid benefit cuts, which will cause significant problems on its journey to get out of the Senate.
Medicaid is that thing that covers about 71.3 million Americans. It also happens to be the thing that all those Republicans, including Trump, said they wouldn’t touch when they were trying to get elected.
And I know, I know, we shouldn’t be surprised when they lie. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t not call it out.
ANYWAY.
That’s the Big Dumb Bill.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Most of it.
A lot of news happened while I was working. I’m sure I’ll remember and I’m going about it this week.
I’m proud of… sleep. Sleep is so nice.
Also footie! And the Angel City Football Club. Middle of the table. Just like I like my teams. Rich in love.
But more than that, because ya stuck with me through a mostly unannounced break, and because you know the power of sleep… I’m proud of you.