If you’re like me, you are frustrated by the current status of the news to adequately cover the major events of the week. We are inundated with a constant flow of punditry but little substance. The goal of this newsletter going forward will be to provide a “mid-week” recap somewhere between Tuesday and Thursday to provide an outline of the major stories of the week. I will do all I can to keep this nonpartisan and short and sweet. Deeper dives on the news items of the week can be found below.
Mid-Week ReCap
· Widespread protests are occurring throughout Iran this week in response to the death of a woman in police custody.
· In a national address this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced partial military mobilization to support the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Around 300,000 reservists will be drafted for the war.
· Fallout continues to mount over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ chartered flights of about 50 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard. The governor has doubled down on the policy, migrants have launched a class action suit alleging deception and the sheriff of San Antonio has opened a criminal investigation.
· Hurricane Fiona caused significant damage to Puerto Rico over the weekend.
· The Federal Reserve enacted its third consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase and signaled more to come in an effort to control inflation.
· A Federal appeals panel with the 11th Circuit granted the Department of Justice’s request to resume reviewing classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago for its criminal investigation into former President Trump.
· A county judge in Indiana temporarily blocked the state’s near-total abortion ban that had been in effect for a week.
· New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a civil lawsuit against former President Trump, Eric Trump, Don Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and the Trump business on accusations of fraud such as artificially inflating assets and net worth.
· The State Funeral for Queen Elizabeth II occurred this week in the United Kingdom.
· The United Nations General Assembly opened this week as well for its annual meeting of world leaders.
· Florida will appeal an 11th Circuit ruling that the state cannot regulate social media to the Supreme Court.
President Biden Says
· On Sunday, President Biden was the subject of a 60 Minutes interview. Some of the takeaways:
o The president stated “the pandemic is over”, an off the cuff statement that allegedly caught some of Biden’s health officials by surprise
o Biden confirmed that U.S. military forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
o It is Biden’s intention to run for reelection in 2024 but he has not made a firm decision since that election is over two years away.
o Biden confirmed his commitment to supplying Ukraine with military equipment for “as long as it takes”.
o On inflation “It’s basically been even. And in the meantime, we created all these jobs, and prices, have gone up, but they’ve come down for energy. The fact is that we’ve created 10 million new jobs. The unemployment rate is about 3.7%, one of the lowest in history. Were in a situation where manufacturing is coming back to the United States in a big way. So look, this is a process.”
Some fact checks of note.
§ On Covid: 450 Americans are dying from COVID-19 daily with tens of thousands of new cases reported weekly as well. The White House itself requested more than $22 billion in emergency COVID prep funding several weeks ago, which Republicans firmly rejected.
§ On Taiwan: Biden confirmed defense commitments to the island in May, October 2021 and August 2021. Take him at his word.
§ On inflation and the economy: Job growth is strong and unemployment is historically low but the economy has shrunk two quarters in a row. The Federal Reserve approved an interest rate increase of at least 75 basis points with the intention of continuing these efforts until inflation reduces. The Fed, in its own right, has been criticized for attempting to trigger a recession and mortgages are starting to top 6% for the first time since 2008.
· This all while China and Europe have had very shaky economic data and Europe is embroiled in an energy crisis stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent economic sanctions.
Considerations
· After a last-minute deal between railroads and labor unions avoided a strike last week, the timeline for next steps has emerged. In mid-October the union membership will vote on the deal. If that deal is rejected, a fresh round of negotiations will begin again. A rejection likely kicks a potential strike deadline until the holidays. Acceptance, extends the operating agreement until 2025/2026.
· Tesla may move its battery production from Germany to the U.S. to take advantage of new expanded tax incentives in the new clean energy law.
· The American Library Association released data on Friday that 681 different efforts were made between January and August of this year to pull 1,651 different books from school, university and public libraries. PEN America, a literary advocacy group, calculated that 138 school districts and 32 states have made efforts to remove books from library and classroom shelves.
Deep Dives
· On Iran
o Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran’s morality police for not wearing a headscarf and died in their custody.
o Seven protesters have allegedly been killed with hundreds injured in the ongoing demonstrations.
o Iran has restricted the internet and mobile networks, has claimed no one has died in the protests, and states “foreign agents” are fueling the protests.
· On Russian Mobilization
o This comes on the heels of a recent Ukrainian counter offensive that pushed back Russian gains around Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s northeast.
o Russia claims 6,000 Russian soldiers have died in the fighting which began in February. U.S. officials estimate that number is closer to 15,000.
o Protests against mobilization have occurred around Russia with 1,300 arrests made in the demonstrations.
· On DeSantis and the Flights to Massachusetts
o Texas Governor Abbott began the policy of sending migrants beyond the border by bussing over 7,500 asylum seekers to cities like New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC.
o DeSantis has now joined the fray with these chartered flights. His communications director stated “States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administrations open door policies.”
o Considerable evidence has arisen that DeSantis’ conduct was misleading, possibly violating federal law against human trafficking.
§ The migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard have filed a class action lawsuit alleging that they were promised cash assistance, employment services and housing assistance, and were told they were destined for Boston, not Martha’s Vineyard. An “official-looking brochure” was allegedly created by Florida officials and given to the migrants to facilitate their cooperation.
§ DeSantis’ communications director responded that Massachusetts activists should care about the Biden Administration’s border policies “that entice illegal immigrants to make dangerous and often lethal journeys through Central America and put their lives in the hands of cartels and coyotes.” she also produced a redacted consent form instating the flight was a voluntary program.
§ DeSantis has doubled down and state he intends to spend millions on chartered flights.
§ Lawyers for the migrants have called on Massachusetts and Federal officials to open criminal investigations.
§ The Sheriff of San Antonio as opened a criminal investigation
§ Immigration Policy:
· Border officials have had over 2 million encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border so far this year.
o That number dipped in 2020 to a little under half a million due to the pandemic but recent years have seen large surges in migrants journeying north.
o Many migrants come from Central and South American countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
· The sheer number of encounters are bolstered by the fact that migrants are sent back under Title 42, a public health policy implemented at the start of the pandemic by the Trump Administration, a policy the Biden Administration has continued. This means the same migrants make multiple crossing attempts.
o Biden has made changes to Trump immigration policies but there has been no substantive chance to immigration laws in years over multiple presidencies.
o Executive changes largely pertain to logistical concerns, namely reducing reliance on border detention facilities.
§ There are nearly over 200,000 undocumented immigrants in the U.S. being monitored with ankle bracelets and other trackable devices.
§ The Administration seeks to expand a home confinement and curfew pilot program to decrease use of detention space, largely in an effort to fulfill his campaign promise of ending the use of for-profit detention centers.
· The goal is to give migrants options and alternatives while they await backlogged immigration court proceedings.
· The pilot program first launched in Houston and Baltimore.
§ It should be noted that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement actions have decreased. From 2008 through 2016, ICE removed nearly or just over 400,000 aliens and never less than 230,000. In 2021, ICE removed 55,598 aliens.
· Migrants fleeing violence and political persecution are not illegal immigrants but rather legal asylum seekers.
· On Hurricane Fiona and Puerto Rico
o President Biden approved a major disaster declaration opening up considerable federal aid to assist with recovery efforts.
o Heavy rains, flooding and mudslides have damaged infrastructure, knocked out the island’s power grid, and made rescue operations especially risky.
o Over 1M people remain without power and over 450,000 have no running water.
· On the Federal Reserve
o Inflation remains stubbornly high with the August Consumer Price Index numbers showing 8.3% inflation from this time last year.
o The Fed has been blasted in some circles for trying to engineer a recession.
o Practical effects include mortgage rates over 6% and a volatile stock market.
· On the Classified Documents
o District Court Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily blocked investigators from examining the documents and subsequently sided with Trump’s legal team in their request for a “special master” to review the documents.
o Cannon’s rulings have come under considerable criticism within legal circles for stretching reasonable discretion of her jurisdiction to hear the case, block the investigation and appoint a special master.
o Former Judge Raymond Dearie, recently appointed the special master, appeared skeptical of the Trump team’s arguments at a hearing on Tuesday. Dearie pressed the former president’s lawyers to provide proof that Trump declassified documents.
§ Department of Justice attorney’s point out that the markings on the documents contain highly sensitive national security secrets. Trump’s lawyers refuse to provide evidence of declassification, arguing that doing so would disclose a defense to a potential indictment in the future.
· Dearie: “as far as I’m concerned that is the end of it, you cannot have your cake and eat it too”
o The crux of Trump’s legal defense is that as president he had de-classified the documents and had the authority to simply declare, or even think them, de-classified.
§ De-classification procedures involving the president can be a little tricky but there are standard processes that every other president has followed. Furthermore, classified information on nuclear intelligence cannot be de-classified by the president under Federal Law. While the public does not know what is in the classified documents, news sources have reported that the documents did contain classified nuclear documents.
· On the Indiana Abortion Case
o Indiana officials will likely appeal the ruling. The judge’s opinion states “there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana constitution.”
· On the New York AG’s Financial Case
o James alleges that between 2011 and 2021 the Trump Organization created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on annual financial statements.
o James had also referred its factual findings to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York which could lead criminal investigations.
· On the UN General Assembly
o The state funeral has complicated travel plans for the UN as has the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is being given a special exemption to prerecord his speech to the UN.
o The Israeli delegation walked out of President Biden’s speech
o Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid expressed his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
§ This would be the first time since 2017 that an Israeli prime minister backs the proposal.
§ It is unknown what actionable steps would occur to accomplish the proposal.
§ Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas doubts movement on peace talks and is expected to give his own UN speech on Friday on this topic.
· On Florida’s Social Media Law
o Signed by Governor DeSantis in May 2021, the Florida law could prevent platforms from removing content from news outlets, allow individuals to sue platforms if they believed content rules were not consistently applied, and could fine social media services that ban political candidates in the state.
o The 11th Circuit rules unanimously that this law violated the First Amendment.
o A similar Texas law, HB 20, was upheld last week by the 5th Circuit in a ruling widely panned by the legal community for upending long established precedent on the First Amendment.
On last thing, today marks the start of autumn