Weekly News Roundup - 9/27/24
Social media companies back down // Francis acknowledges church's "shame & humiliation" // Hurricane Helene // NYC mayor indicted // Israel vs Hezbollah
Welcome to the 39th Weekly News Roundup of 2024. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here.
In 2024, the Border Stalkers Substack is featuring one news update a week, and one book a month, with weekly posts on each book. The book of the month schedule is here.
These weekly dispatches are designed for people who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
"To turn a blind eye toward or make excuses for weak character from someone we propose to confer awesome power and responsibility on is to abrogate our role as citizens. We will get — and deserve — what we elect." - retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal
Big Stories this Week
The presidential contest remained neck and neck, and multiple commentators pointed out that we've never had a race this close, this locked in, for at least half a century. There's not a whole lot changing, and it's likely to come down to the wire. Kamala Harris has a small lead in polling, but the Electoral College advantages Republicans. This raises concerns about a repeat of 2020, where some of the most crucial states like Pennsylvania are unlikely to have all their votes counted for a few days, due to rules that prevent them from preparing mail in ballots to be counted that could speed up the process. That leaves room for claims of victory or cheating — however baseless — to take root in a restive electorate.
Israel and Hezbollah engaged in an increasingly violent back and forth, with Israeli military officials warning of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon. Israel hit the Beirut suburbs with several airstrikes targeting Hezbollah leaders. Over 600 people in Lebanon were killed. Several people in Israel were wounded by Hezbollah attacks.
Congress once again came close to a government shutdown, and House Republicans refused to vote for government funding, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, to rely on Democratic votes to pass a short-term funding bill.
Hurricane Helene battered the Gulf Coast with severe storm surge, destructive winds, heavy rains, and flooding, making landfall Thursday evening. It then moved inland toward Atlanta, bringing major flooding. Several deaths had been reported as of Friday morning.
New York Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on five counts of accepting bribes, defrauding the public, and accepting illegal gifts and campaign contributions from foreign sources.
Week in Review
Friday, Sept. 20
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, says that a new political party may need to be launched to replace the Republican Party. "It’s hard for me to see how the Republican Party, given what it has done, can make the argument convincingly or credibly that people ought to vote for Republican candidates until it really recognizes what it’s done," Cheney tells Peter Baker.
"Georgia’s State Election Board on Friday voted to approve a new rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand after voting is completed, a change that critics worry could delay the reporting of election night results," the AP reports.
A targeted Israeli airstrike in Beirut kills several Hezbollah leaders, and 45 people in all.
Elon Musk backs down in a confrontation with Brazil's highest court, acceding to demands that his Twitter/X platform block users that the court says are posting content it doesn't like.
Saturday, Sept. 21
Vice President Kamala Harris says she has accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former President Donald Trump a second time. But Trump continues to decline a second debate. "It's just too late," Trump says at a rally in North Carolina. "Voting has already started." The Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, is conspicuously absent from the rally after reports surfaced two days earlier that he was an active participant in porn site message boards.
A Times investigation documents 10 cases in which when Trump was president, he "made repeated public or private demands" for critics or political enemies "to be targeted by the government," and "they faced federal pressure of one kind or another."
"Protesting just doesn’t get results anymore. Not the way it used to. Not in that form. It can’t," writes Zeynep Tufekci.
"Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that nearly 100,000 residents whom officials could not verify were U.S. citizens because of an administrative glitch would remain eligible to vote in state and local elections in November ... An analysis by the secretary of state’s office found that the glitch threatened to affect roughly 98,000 voters, including more Republicans than Democrats," the Times reports.
Sunday, Sept. 22
More than 700 former U.S. national security leaders and former military officials endorse Kamala Harris for president, saying in a letter that the election is "a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness ... between democracy and authoritarianism."
Hezbollah launches more than 100 rockets into Israel, with some hitting near the city of Haifa.
Monday, Sept. 23
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill at least 560 people, a massive escalation of the conflict between Netanyahu's government and Hezbollah.
Vice President Kamala Harris says she supports ending the filibuster to reinstate Roe vs. Wade's legal protections for abortion access.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durak, who was arrested by French authorities a month ago, acknowledges that his messaging service has been used for illegal activity and says the company has updated its terms so that "the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be disclosed to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests.”
A Nebraska Republican state senator says he will not go along with the state GOP's effort to change the way the state rewards electoral college votes in the presidential contest, blocking an effort to take one potentially crucial or even decisive electoral college vote away from Democrats.
Tuesday, Sept. 24
World leaders voice alarm about the state of the globe at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. "I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this," Jordan's King Abdullah says. "We are edging towards the unimaginable – a powder keg that risks engulfing the world," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres says. President Biden, however, strikes a more hopeful note. "I’ve seen a remarkable sweep of history. I know many look at the world today and see difficulties and react with despair but I do not. We are stronger than we think," Biden says.
Harris' comments about the filibuster spark a backlash from two U.S. Senators who until recently were Democrats. Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent from West Virginia, says he will not endorse Harris for president because of her position on the filibuster. "Shame on her. She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It's the only thing that keeps us talking and working together," Manchin says. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema calls Harris' proposal "an absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea." She adds: "To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide."
Rupert Murdoch's plans to change the succession plan for media empire rest in the hands of a probate judge in Reno, after arguments in a private legal proceeding wrap up.
Wednesday, Sept. 25
Residents along Florida's Gulf Coast evacuate ahead of Hurricane Helene, one day out from its projected landfall.
Congress passes a short-term funding bill to keep the government open into December.
Hezbollah launches rockets deep into Israel, including Tel Aviv. But the Israeli government says it has intercepted all of the missiles. And an Israeli general tells troops to prepare for a possible ground invasion into Lebanon.
The U.S. and France, along with other allies, release a proposal at the U.N. meetings in New York for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon to allow for negotiations.
New York Mayor Eric Adams is indicted by a federal grand jury, though charges have not yet been made public. Initial reports say the charges are related to his "taking actions in his official capacity after receiving donations from foreign sources."
Russian President Vladimir Putin issues a warning to Western countries aiding Ukraine that leave room for Russia to use nuclear weapons in a broader set of scenarios.
Thursday, Sept. 26
New York Mayor Eric Adams is indicted on five charges. Federal prosecutors allege that Adams took illegal contributions from foreign sources, that he accepted free or deeply discounted air travel, luxury hotels, expensive meals, and "lavish entertainment" on his foreign trips. And in return, the indictment says, Adams pressured the New York Fire Department to allow the new Turkish consular building — "a 36-story skyscraper" — to open without a fire inspection, which it "would have failed," so that Turkey's president could visit the building. The indictment also says that Adams defrauded the public of $10 million in taxpayer funded campaign contributions.
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting and dismisses talk of a ceasefire. The Israeli military, he says, is "continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.”
Hurricane Helene makes landfall in the evening as a Category 4 storm, on the coast of Florida in the Big Bend region between Tampa and Tallahassee, as the Gulf Coast braces itself for what experts predict will be the biggest storm in years. Experts say Helene is the fourth-biggest storm in the last 36 years.
Alabama executes death row inmate Alan Eugene Miller, 59. He is the fifth U.S. prisoner killed by execution in a week, each in a different state. It marks the first time in 20 years that five or more prisoners have been killed.
Friday, Sept. 27
Hurricane Helene moves inland, bringing major flooding to Atlanta. More than two million households are without power in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. At least six people in Georgia are reported dead.
Belgium's Prime Minister, as well as its King, both greet Pope Francis with extraordinarily strong rebukes over the Catholic Church's abuse scandals in their country, as the pontiff arrives in Brussels for a visit. A 2010 report found over 500 victims, which advocates say is the tip of the iceberg, and then a documentary last year brought victim perspectives into the light. “Today, words alone do not suffice. We also need concrete steps ... Victims need to be heard. They need to be at the center. They have a right to truth. Misdeeds need to be recognized,” Belgium Prime Minister Alexander de Croo says. “When something goes wrong we cannot accept cover-ups. To be able to look into the future, the church needs to come clean on its past.” Pope Francis improvises a response that is also noteworthy: “This is our shame and humiliation,” Francis says. “The church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation with Christian humility and put all the possibilities in places so that this doesn’t happen again ... Even if it were only one (victim), it is enough to be ashamed.”
Interesting Reads
A Concert Celebrates Jimmy Carter’s 100th Birthday, With Music and Thanks, by Rick Rojas for The New York Times
Neil King Jr., who walked the byways on his ‘American Ramble,’ dies at 65, by Brian Murphy for The Washington Post
‘There Will Be Music Despite Everything’: A Tribute to Neil King Jr., by Jon Ward for Border Stalkers
America Is Polarized. Why Are New York’s Suburbs Undecided? by Eric Lach for The New Yorker
Israel’s Pager Attacks Have Changed the World, by Bruce Schneier for The New York Times
The Deserter: He didn’t want to fight in Putin’s war — he just wanted to survive. But to make it back to his family and live in peace, he would have to run, by Sarah Topol for The New York Times Magazine (gift link)
How One Man’s Vote in Nebraska Could Change the Presidential Election, by Jonathan Weisman and Reid Epstein for The New York Times
He Makes Less Than $15,000 and Is Trying to Hold Springfield, Ohio, Together, by Mattathias Schwartz for The New York Times
Trump favors huge new tariffs. What are they, and how do they work? by Paul Wiseman for The Associated Press
Harris blasts proposals for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia during Zelenskyy meeting, by Chris Megerian for The Associated Press
Los Angeles area sees more dengue fever in people bitten by local mosquitoes, by Jaimie Ding for The Associated Press