Nick Fuentes JD Vance Scandal Got Worse & House Votes To Release Epstein Files, BUT There's a Catch
PDS Published 11/18/2025
-
The House has officially voted xxx-xxx to release the Epstein files.
But the path to get here has been incredibly bumpy, and the future is going to be just as chaotic.
So let’s break it all down, starting with where Trump stands on all this.
Right, for months he has been calling the Epstein issue a Democrat hoax, trying to distance himself from any ties he had to him, trying to go after Republicans aiming to release the files.
But over the weekend, he told House Republicans to support the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
And just yesterday, he said if the legislation makes it to his desk, he would sign it.
But that does not mean he is all of a sudden open and willing to talk about the issue, right, last night we saw him be hostile to reporters asking about it, trying to pivot the blame to democrats.
“Mr President, what did Jeffrey Epstein mean in his emails when he said you knew about the girls?...I know nothing about that. That would have been a long time ago. It’s really, what did he mean when he spent time with Bill Clinton?” (0:01-0;14)
“Sir, if there’s nothing incriminating in the files…[crosstalk]...quiet, quiet piggy!” (0:46-0:51)
And so this morning, when members of congress and survivors spoke outside of the capitol about the importance of releasing the files, there was a lot of tension around Trump.
With survivor Haley Robson saying:
“And to the president of the United States of America, who is not here today, I want to send a clear message to you. While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files, and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is. So with that being said, I want to relay this message to you. I am traumatized, I am not stupid.” (12:50-13:18)
With her then slamming the president for dragging out the process of getting these files out, arguing him trying to kick this down the road only put the survivors through more unnecessary stress and pain.
And she was far from the only one to go after how Trump has handled this:
“First the administration said it would release everything, and applauded president Trump for that, then it fought to release nothing.” (19:10-19:18)
“We are hearing the administration is going to investigate various democrats that were friends with Epstein. I beg you President Trump, please stop making this political. It is not about you, President Trump. You are our president, please start acting like it. Show some class.” (19:28-19:45)
“I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment.” (19:51-19:58)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is in the midst of a major fallout with Trump herself largely because of the Epstein files, also brought him up while speaking:
"That's what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president.”(6:51-6:56)
“He called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is, a traitor is an American who serves foreign countries.” (7:27-7:41)
And tons of people elsewhere just questioning why it has been so hard to get to this point, right, with people all the way over on the right like Candace Owens writing:
“I feel like it really wouldn’t be that difficult for governments to stop empowering pedophiles and to stop trafficking drugs and children, like is this really to steep of an ask?”[]
And then people like Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia saying:
“Donald Trump didn't reverse course on the Epstein files out of the goodness of his heart—he was about to lose a major vote. We’re going to get the truth and justice for survivors. Release the files, NOW.”[]
Some pointing to people like Speaker Mike Johnson as to why this process has been so difficult,
And even though the effort got Republican support ahead of the vote, including from the president, this morning he still continued to blast the issue as a democratic distraction:
“Clear, this is a political exercise for democrats and a few others, sadly, and it is as deceitful and dishonest as their effort to shut down the government.” (29:50-30:02)
With him trying to argue that this legislation is not cautious enough with sensitive information, even pulling out some posterboard to lay out his issues with it.
Right, saying it does not do enough to protect victims’ privacy and arguing its haphazard nature could implicate innocent people.
But the thing is, the survivors support it, right, we just showed you clips of them on Capitol Hill calling for this legislation to pass to release the files, they and many other lawmakers believe it has plenty of protections.
But still, ahead of the House vote, Johnson called on the Senate to amend it, right, saying he talked to Majority Leader John Thune and:
“so I am very confident that when this moves forward in the process, if and when it is process in the Senate, which is no certainty that it will be, that they will take the time methodically to do what we have not been allowed to do in the House, to amend this petition and make sure that these protections are there.” (42:33-42:52)
And lawmakers are just furious about this, especially the ones that have been leading the Epstein files efforts in the house.
With Democrat Ro Khanna writing:
“The Swamp is trying to get it amended in the Senate. Anyone who tried to amend a bill POTUS says he will sign is betraying the survivors.”[]
And Republican Thomas Massie adding:
“This is how @SpeakerJohnson plans to protect perverts who went to the rape island from embarrassment. Do not let the Senate add an amendment to avoid disclosing those rich and powerful men who have evaded justice for so many years.”[]
With people noting that there are already other concerns about the public ultimately getting very little information even if this passes.
Right, some thinking Trump ordered the DOJ to investigate Democrats to block access to certain files.
So we still have a long, long way to go on this one, but I would love your thoughts on the hurdle cleared today.
-
JD Vance is diving head-first into the MAGA civil war to defend… Tucker Carlson’s son. And all of this is quickly becoming the most chaotic, petty, and genuinely consequential party divide yet.
In case you didn’t know, Tucker’s son Buckley was actually hired back in January to work for JD Vance’s press team, so he works in the VP’s orbit.
And for some background on this story, you also need to know who Tucker’s brother is, as he frequently posts about politics online, and is confusingly also named Buckley.
And he actually recently shared a clip of white nationalist Groyper leader Nick Fuentes saying “we didn’t vote for Trump because he was an obnoxious boomer. We voted for Trump because he was going to put America first.” []
And Tucker’s brother agreed with Fuentes here, writing:
“100%. Where within this clip is he wrong?”
And this obviously stoked some of the MAGA civil war flames, because Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes is what kicked things off in the first place, right, it really divided the right side of the aisle, tons of people think he should not have given Nick a platform because of his very vocal antisemitism.
And so now that Tucker sat down with him, and Tucker’s brother seemingly posted in support of him, you had conservative commentator and journalist Sloan Rachmuth (Rack-mooth) posting about the family, claiming that Tucker’s brother “idolizes” Nick Fuentes, then writing:[]
“Racism and antisemitism is a Carlson family trait. Is Tucker’s son Buckley, who serves as JD Vance’s top aide also a vile bigot? America deserves to know how deep the Carlson’s family ethnic and religious hatred runs.”
And while some people thought it maybe was not fair to project the views of the two elder Carlsons onto the younger Buckley, in a follow up post she continued:[]
“The fact that Tucker, and now his brother, are prominently platforming Fuentes, it’s reasonable to wonder about other Carlsons. Do the people at the highest levels of our government who influence policy share noxious views of Jews?”
But the person to come loudest to Buckley’s defense here was JD Vance himself, who wrote:[]
“Sloan Rack-mooth is a "journalist" who has decided to obsessively attack a staffer in his 20s because she doesn't like the views of his father. Every time I see a public attack on Buckley it's a complete lie.”
With him then continuing to argue with the journalist in a thread, noting that her bio says she defends “Judeo-Christian Values,” but JD argued:[]
“Is it a "Judeo-Christian value" to lie about someone you don't know? Not in any church I ever spent time in!”[]
“I have an extraordinary tolerance for disagreements and criticisms from the various people in our coalition. But I am a very loyal person, and I have zero tolerance for scumbags attacking my staff.”[]
And in response, you had people like Megyn Kelly applauding JD for this defense, arguing that “They can’t bring down Tucker so they’re going after his son.”[]
Candace Owens retweeting his message and likewise slamming attacks against Tucker. [][]
But, for the most part, JD’s remarks only elicited more backlash.
Because he notably hasn’t really commented on the whole Nick Fuentes problem that the right has since this infighting began.
Trump sort of has, right, he actually just told reporters the other day that he had no problem with Tucker interviewing Nick, saying:
“We’ve had some great interviews with Tucker Carlson, but you can’t tell him who to interview. I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes — I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out, let him. You know, people have to decide. Ultimately, people have to decide.” (0:01-0:14)
And while JD has touched on the infighting, mostly to dismiss it as a stupid distraction, he has not really weighed in on where the party should draw the line with Nick Fuentes.
And this has kind of shocked people, because Fuentes has just said some plainly awful things about JD and his family.
“Now they are all in favor of a fat race mixer who is married to a J– and who named his son Vivek.” (0:08-0:15)
“Your guy is literally a fat gay race traitor who married a j–.” (0:30-0:37)
So you have some, including plenty of people on the right, seeing JD rushing to Buckley Carlson’s defense over this and, saying:
“Seeing our VP attack a small reporter over serious and legitimate concerns about Carlson’s son working for him tells me everything I need to know about where he stands. It should be pointed out that he didn’t even defend his wife this strongly after groypers viciously attacked her.” []
“Whatever happened to “just asking questions” like Tucker Carlson does? And I’m just asking questions here. Why can’t the random internet woman just ask questions?”[]
People like conservative commentator David Rubin adding:[]
“You are totally right, nobody should be judged for their parents words or actions. But (and I think you know this), the very people relentlessly attacking Jews now, have Indians next up on the docket, and that includes your wife, even if she eventually converts to Christianity.”
“So yes, Tucker can interview whoever he wants, his brother can post garbage memes all day, and his son, who may be just fine, can work for the vice president, but I think people are asking you to stand up when you see something evil.”
Some saying they will not support any potential presidential run from him because of this, explaining that:
“Supporting groypers and woke-right will destroy his career. Yesterday, Vance demonstrated his priorities.”[]
People on the left weighing in too, wondering why JD won’t say something specifically about Nick Fuentes. []
Though, it is worth noting, it is not like he has never ever addressed Nick, in fact, over a year ago, he did disavow him:
“Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite, went after your wife, he had previously dined at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump, does this have any room in your movement, in the MAGA movement?...of course it doesn’t have any room in the MAGA movement….do you disavow him?...And of course Trump has criticized him, look, I think the guy is a total loser. Certainly I disavow him.” (15:47-16:10)
The issue is, that was August 2024.
And since the MAGA civil war began over the last few weeks, Nick’s position on the right has changed, he has become more prominent, and people think the Vice President should be willing to address the figure causing such a major fracture in the party.
Which is why some believe all this suggests that JD is coming down on the Nick Fuentes Groyper side of the war.[][][]
And some have been concerned that he might be falling there for a while now.
Right, after election day when he merely just called on his party to stop the “stupid” infighting, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed calling that response “revealing,” adding:[]
“Mr. Vance’s breezy dismissal of the struggle to extirpate extremists from the right-wing coalition as “infighting” is a mistake. What he belittles as intramural squabbling is the difficult and necessary work of moral and political hygiene for the conservative movement.”
Right, with the piece arguing this war is not just Twitter memes, it is carving out the path of the future of the Republican party, and if JD Vance is the assumed heir apparent to this party, it matters where he stands.
So that was a lot, I had to introduce you to two people named Buckley Carlson so thank you for sticking with me, but I would love to know your thoughts on this, on where JD Vance stands here, on the broader implications of this infighting.
Just go to Zocdoc and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today!
-
About 20% of the internet went dark this morning after the web hosting service Cloudflare went down: reminding everyone that the internet is essentially held together with duct tape and sticks.
The company provides services that help protect websites against hackers and fake traffic, as well as optimize how webpages load.
Meaning that while it doesn’t directly host sites, an outage here has the same effect and crashed everything from social media sites like X to AI models such as ChatGPT.[][]
(These graphs would look even worse if it wasn’t for the fact that Downdetector.com itself was affected by the outage).
Cloudflare says they first noticed issues early this morning with a spike in “unusual traffic.”
Not too long afterwards the company noted:
“Cloudflare is experiencing an internal service degradation. Some services may be intermittently impacted. We are focused on restoring service. We will update as we are able to remediate. More updates to follow shortly.”
And they weren’t kidding about updating us, with about 20 coming out as of recording.[]
An outage like this is a pretty massive deal and led to speculation of whether there was a cyberattack.
However Cloudflare said that wasn’t the case and seems to have been caused by a software problem on their end.
After a few hours they said they had implemented a fix, and right as we were prepping this piece CTO Dane Knecht said that all services were back up and running. []
He was also deeply apologetic for the issue earlier and wrote:
“I won’t mince words: earlier today we failed our customers and the broader Internet when a problem in @Cloudflare network impacted large amounts of traffic that rely on us. The sites, businesses, and organizations that rely on Cloudflare depend on us being available and I apologize for the impact that we caused.” []
He went on to say that an investigation was being conducted and, “That issue, impact it caused, and time to resolution is unacceptable. Work is already underway to make sure it does not happen again, but I know it caused real pain today.” []
In the grand scheme this outage was relatively benign and short-lived, but outages like this can be a MAJOR problem for companies and the economy as a whole.
Right, last month there was an outage at Amazon Web Services, which is an even bigger web hosting service.
It was down for 24 hours, with some estimating that it cost Fortune 500 companies BILLIONS.
(some sites claim that this can be ridiculous numbers, such as billions lost PER HOUR stuff is down).[]
And then earlier this year Google’s web hosting services had a similar issue, leading to major sites falling apart and coming down.
For some this is the latest failure is a reminder that A LOT of the internet relies on just a handful of companies to keep going, so what happens if something were to take them offline more permanently?
Like say, a dedicated cyberattack?
It’s an issue that the industry as a whole is struggling to tackle, but hopefully we never have to find out.
-
Imagine having a badge and a gun, and fearing for your life when confronted by a deaf, blind, 13-pound Shih Tzu.
I think the only dumb cop story that could top this was the one where the guy lit up his own patrol car with a handcuffed man inside because he got spooked by an acorn.
Man, that dude was on some shit.
Anyway, this story takes place in Sturgeon, Missouri, a small town of little more than a thousand residents, though it soon became the target of righteous fury all over the country.
We’re talking death threats, doxxing, protests, mass resignations, calls to change laws around police training — but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Because while Nicholas Hunter was out having dinner, his adorable little five-year-old, 13-pound, deaf and blind Shih Tzu named Teddy escaped his fenced-in kennel. [Image]
So when a neighbor spotted Teddy wandering around her yard, she posted on Facebook, trying to identify his owner.
But after noticing he seemed confused and at least partially blind, she called the authorities, worried he could wander off or hurt himself.
Thing is, Sturgeon had no dedicated animal control, so the cops responded instead.
With half of the entire police department arriving on scene, meaning a single officer, because this department was so small it only had two cops.
So Officer Myron Woodson shows up, finds Teddy scampering around this idyllic field like a good boy, and tries to grab him with a “catch pole.” [B roll, 02:29]
[Clip, 02:53 - 02:57, 03:01 - 03:07] Caption: [Myron Woodson:] “There you go. Put your head in there. Put your head in there. … There you go. I’m not gonna let you bite me. You’re looking all afraid.”
With him at one point muttering to himself that he should just throw a blanket over it and pick it up, but for no clear reason he doesn’t.
And then, just three minutes into the encounter, Woodson decides that what this situation really calls for is lethal force.
And yeah, I know that may sound weird, but believe me, if you watch the moments leading up to that decision, nothing visibly changes.
It’s actually shocking the first time you see it because you expect the dog to attack him or something, but it doesn’t; it’s still just wandering around.
[Clip, 05:17 - 05:24]
So the dog keeps walking away, and then, seemingly without any provocation whatsoever, the cop draws his gun. [Connect B roll from last clip to next clip]
[Clip, 05:31 - 05:34]
And that’s all I can show you because right then, he fires a shot, pauses for about five seconds, fires another shot, and then just casually strolls away like …
[Clip, 05:52 - 05:54, 05:57 - 05:59] Caption: “Had to dispatch it. … I’m gonna pick it up.”
And even the neighbor’s like, damn dude, that was pretty nonchalant.
[Clip, 06:01 - 06:10] Caption: [Neighbor:] “We have children here though, like don’t you think you should warn folk before you fire shots?”
Yep… just no answer.
And then later on Hunter, the dog’s owner, shows up, and Woodson’s literally just like, whaddup, bro?
[Clip, 09:39 - 09:44] Caption: [Myron Woodson:] “What’s up? You the Nicholas Hunter of the dog?”
And this guy is distraught, he’s just as confused as you and me, and he starts telling the cop what the neighbor told him. [Continue B roll]
[Clip, 10:01 - 10:10; Clip, 10:49 - 10:53, 10:58 - 11:07, 11:10 - 11:19, 11:22 - 11:25] Caption: [Nicholas Hunter:] “I have spoken with her, and she has stated that the dog, she fed him, gave him water, and he was not a threat. And she was just waiting, which nobody ever contacted her after she called.” … [Myron Woodson:] “What does that say right there? That say no contact? She said don’t call her.” … [Nicholas Hunter:] “If a dog is a threat to a person and harm’s a person or shows immediate threat, that’s when you use force. There is many other tactics you would use.” [Myron Woodson:] “Do you want to talk, or do you want to tell me how to do the job?” … [Nicholas Hunter:] “There’s no talking. You already took care of it, and you handled it very poorly. Also I’d like to be on the record that you told me ‘whatever’ on the phone when I called about the situation.” [Myron Woodson:] “When did I say ‘whatever?’ … Do you want me to respond to anything, or do you just want to sit here and lecture me?”
So they go around in circles like that for close to eight minutes, more than twice the amount of time Woodson spent actually trying to catch the dog.
With Hunter arguing that the dog was deaf and blind and clearly not a threat, but Woodson countering that he didn’t know anything about the dog going into it.
[Clip, 12:31 - 12:35] Caption: [Myron Woodson:] “How am I supposed to know the dog’s condition?”
Then Hunter argues that he could’ve used other means of subduing the dog, such as a taser or a lasso, but Woodson counters that he had no taser and tried using a lasso.
So Hunter says, well you’re supposed to catch it and bring it to a pound, not just shoot it.
But Woodson replies that they don’t have a Humane Society there, and says that even if he did put the dog somewhere, if it had internal bleeding, then it would be suffering and people would get mad at him for that instead.
So Hunter’s like, well wouldn’t the dog be squealing if it was in pain? And Woodson comes up with the most lawyer response I’ve ever heard.
[Clip, 15:02 - 15:07] Caption: [Myron Woodson:] “You think all dogs squeal when they’re in pain?” [Nicholas Hunter:] “Most dogs squeal when they’re in pain.” [Myron Woodson:] “Most. See, not all, but most. Okay.”
So Hunter argues that the dog showed none of the signs of aggression and all the signs of confusion.
But Woodson argues back that without all the information, it’s impossible to discern if a dog is peaceful.
So Hunter points out that all you’d need to do is grab an object, touch the dog with it and see how it responds, whether it bites or not.
And to that, Woodson has no answer, so they just stand there in awkward silence for 15 seconds, and then say their goodbyes. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 17:28 - 17:33] Caption: [Myron Woodson:] “I’m still sorry that happened to you, brother.” [Nicholas Hunter:] *Inaudible* “Still not good.” [Myron Woodson:] “Alright. Have a good, have a better night.”
Now when news of this broke, people were pissed.
They held meetings, protested, started a petition, demanded the officer be fired. [Image and webpage]
And when the video was released, many alleged that Woodson wasn’t threatened; he was just lazy.
Right, saying it looked like he got tired of trying to catch the dog after three minutes of lackluster effort and just shot it instead.
With some calling him a sociopath, though as Woodson put it that day:
[Clip, 12:16 - 12:18] Caption: [Cop:] “I don’t enjoy shooting dogs.”
So pretty quickly, the city posted on Facebook that Woodson shot Teddy because he feared that it had rabies. [Quote, find “rabies”]
And from the body cam footage, it’s clear Woodson believed the dog was injured, with him at one point wondering out loud if it has a broken neck, but he never mentions rabies, even during his argument with Hunter.
Then, the city added in a follow-up post that officials had reviewed the body-cam video and found the officer’s actions justified. [Same quote]
But the public outrage grew and grew, and after initially defending Woodson, Sturgeon’s mayor resigned.
With the new mayor, Seth Truesdell, suspending Woodson, who eventually left the department. [Quote, find “suspended”]
And Truesdell telling ABC that after the shooting, the city was inundated with hundreds of calls a day from all over the world. [Quote, find “hundreds”]
Explaining, “We were getting death threats, bomb threats, city officials doxed to their home address, their kids’ pictures blasted all over Facebook. I lost my entire city staff. So I had to replace everybody that was working for the city twice.” [Quote same link]
Eventually, Sturgeon disbanded its police department, and now it contracts with the county’s sheriff’s office and animal control instead. [Quote, find “contracts”]
But Hunter wasn’t satisfied; he still had a million-dollar civil rights lawsuit pending, and the news now is that the city has settled.
Coughing up 500,000 dollars in damages, just over 280,000 of which goes to Hunter and the rest for his lawyers, who said: [Headline and Quote, find “282”]
“Mr. Hunter is relieved this matter is concluded but nothing can ever bring his Teddy back. Teddy was a good dog who did not deserve this.” [Quote]
Now, they’re hoping Missouri will pass legislation mandating training for law enforcement officers encountering people’s pets.
Because as James Crosby, the guy who wrote the National Sheriffs’ Association’s Law Enforcement Dog Encounter Training course, explains to ABC:
Police shooting pets “is way more common than people think. One of the reasons is that police departments, sadly, are not required to report to any central government entity or anybody when they use deadly force against an animal. Most jurisdictions consider it to be no different than if they shot a suitcase.” [Quote]
And adding, “It’s very rare for a healthy adult to be killed or even seriously attacked by a dog. … In fact, more police officers are killed by horses and cows than have ever been killed by dogs. … No police officer has died kind of related to a dog attack since 1932. And that officer was allergic to the rabies vaccine.” [Quote same link]
But regarding this specific case, Crosby calls it potentially the “least justifiable dog shooting I’ve ever witnessed in my 30-plus years working with law enforcement.” [Quote]
-
The UN Security Council has approved Donald Trump's plan for Gaza.
The resolution passed by a vote of thirteen to zero – with Russia and China abstaining (BROLL: 1:35:52, 1:45:25)
And now, the twenty-point framework Trump announced in September is enshrined in international law.
Right, that plan? It has been partly implemented since last month’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect.
With this involving the release of those held captive in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel, a pullback of Israeli forces, and the increased flow of humanitarian aid.
And while there’s been a number of issues – some of which we’ll get into in a bit – it is generally seen as having held.
But there are a lot of questions about what’s left to be implemented – including not only how it will be done, but also if it can be, and if it should be.
But with all that said, let’s start with what we do know, including that under the now UN-backed plan, the highest authority in Gaza until at least the end of 2027 will be a “board of peace” chaired by Trump himself.
The other members, according to him, would “include the most powerful and respected Leaders throughout the World."
And while this board will have to report to the UN it won’t be bound by the wishes of the UN or by the Palestinian Authority.
It will also have supervisory authority over a yet-to-be established Palestinian technocratic committee responsible for “day to day operations of Gaza’s civil service and administration.” []
Similarly, the board would oversee an “international stabilisation force” tasked with facilitating "the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip" as well as "the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups." []
But Hamas has already rejected what it described as an imposed “international guardianship mechanism” – insisting it will not disarm and saying in a statement:
"Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation." []
Now, with that, the resolution authorises the force to "use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate." []
And U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Michael Waltz claimed that Indonesia and Azerbaijan have already agreed to take part (BROLL: 23:20).
But no country has publicly committed to sending peacekeepers, and it’s not clear who’s going to want to if they might find themselves in direct confrontation with Hamas.
And this ultimately is set to be one of the biggest obstacles to the plan’s implementation.
With Israel’s ambassador to the UN making clear yesterday;
“The demilitarization of Hamas is a basic condition of the peace agreement” – and adding:
“There will be no future in Gaza as long as Hamas possesses weapons.”
And connected to that, the plan leaves a lot of leeway for Israel to maintain its military presence in Gaza long-term.
Saying its withdrawal will be “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarisation…agreed between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the United States.”
Also carving out an exception for an indefinite “security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.”[]
And similar vague and conditional language is tied to the issue of Palestinian “self-determination and statehood.”
Right, the mere mention of statehood was reportedly a late compromise to secure the backing of Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
But the plan only allows for that as a possibility once the Palestinian Authority has reformed itself and the rebuilding of Gaza is under way, saying:
“...“the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” []
And with that – after facing outrage from extremists in his governing coalition – Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu reaffirmed his government’s long held objection to the creation of a an independent Palestine, saying:
“...our opposition to a Palestinian state on any territory has not changed.”
But with all that, Trump celebrated the vote as “a moment of true Historic proportion” in a social media post – adding that “the members of the Board, and many more exciting announcements, will be made in the coming weeks.”
And so we’ll have to see where all that goes, this is all coming more than two years after Hamas killed more than 1,200 on October 7th.
Which was then followed by Israel killing tens of thousands of Palestinans in an assault that has been described by experts, rights groups, and a UN commission as genocide.
And while the ceasefire is now seen as holding, it’s not without issues, to say the least.
Israeli strikes and gunfire have continued to take lives in just the past few week– and there have also continued to be reports of Israel blocking humanitarian aid.
Right, with that, it was only last week that Israel finally re-opened a key border crossing in the north that had been closed for months.
And since then, the first heavy winter rains of the season have only made the situation more dire.
Right, because according to the UN, Israel has destroyed 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza – and so now many people are living in makeshift shelters.
But many items, including tent poles, are classed as "dual-use" by Israel, meaning they have a military as well as civilian purpose, and their entry is banned or heavily restricted. []
And you’ve had one collection of NGOs saying that 4,000 pallets of aid containing non-food items – including tents and bedding – have been blocked from entering since the ceasefire came into effect. []
Also, outside of Gaza, we’re continuing to get more and more evidence of how bad conditions are in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
With a new report from an Israel-based human rights group finding that at least 94 Palestinians have died in custody since October 7th, 2023.
Which is even more notable when you consider that fewer than 30 Palestinians reportedly died in Israeli custody in the 10 years preceding the war. []
Though, with that, you also have the organization claiming the actual death toll over the past two years is "likely significantly higher" – noting that Israel has refused to provide information about hundreds of Palestinians detained during the war. []
WIth the director of the group’s of the Prisoners and Detainees Department arguing:
"The alarming rate at which people are killed in Israeli custody reveals a system that has lost all moral and professional restraint.”
And with that, another issue that you have rights groups speaking out about right now is settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Right, we saw a well-documented surge in these types of attacks after October 7th, but it’s reportedly gotten even worse since the ceasefire took effect in Gaza.
With the UN logging more than 260 attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or damage to property in October alone – the highest monthly count since they began monitoring in 2006. []
And with that, activists say settlers operate with virtual impunity – noting that investigations into settler violence rarely result in charges and almost never lead to convictions.
Although, lately, it’s been so bad that you’ve even had Netanyahu coming out against it – even if he downplayed the issue and many doubt he’ll really do anything.
Plus, any push to take action may now be undermined by Palestinian attackers today stabbing an Israeli to death and wounding three more in the West Bank before being shot down by troops.
And really, it just seems like this never ending cycle of violence just continues.
But to finish this up, there is one more thread we need to follow connected to all this – and it’s kind of a strange one.
Right, basically, hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza have recently been showing up in South Africa on chartered planes without the proper documents– and no one really knows who’s behind it or why.
But you’ve had South Africa’s foreign minister suggesting that Israel is enabling the flights as part of “a clear agenda to cleanse the Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank.”[]
While the Israeli military has said it received approval from a third country to send the Palestinian families to South Africa – but it didn’t name the country.[]
And so otherwise what we know is that the flights have been linked to a shadowy company run by an Israeli-Estonian national.
And you’ve had outlets like The New York Times speaking to some of these Palestinians to get an idea of what happened – with one explaining that he had been contacted by a man on the phone claiming to work for a humanitarian organization.
He said this man offered to fly him and his family out of Gaza – but only if he paid 1,600 dollars per person upfront to a crypto account. []
And months later – after paying more than 6,000 dollars – he said he got a call telling him to be in Khan Younis in four hours.
There, they boarded a bus, and they were told to tell anyone who asked that they were part of the French Embassy evacuation.[]
With Israeli troops reportedly processing them through checkpoints and telling them to leave all their belongings behind.
They then flew out of an Israeli airport – not even being told until mid-flight that they were going to Kenya.
And once there, they flew to South Africa, where this Palestinian man said received one last message
Which said that a guesthouse had been booked for his family — but for only a week, even though the group had promised a month. []
But with that, South Africa says it will help those who have already arrived but won't accept any more flights.
And we’ll have to see if we get any clarity about what exactly went on there.
But that’s where I’ll leave it and I’d love to hear your comments and reaction to any and all of what we talked about here down below.
Go to brain.fm to get 30 days of free access to science-backed music that really works.
