Raid in Gaza: News broke this morning that the Israeli military is beginning its raid of Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, in the Gaza Strip. The BBC reported that one trauma surgeon said, from inside the building, that "tanks and snipers" currently surround the hospital from "all directions."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have told all people inside the hospital to evacuate immediately so that it can begin its raid.
The Israeli military reports that it has intelligence—including testimony from now-released hostages—that indicates that Hamas is using Nasser Hospital as an important spot for its military operations, which would be in keeping with the well-established pattern of Hamas using civilians, including the sick and wounded, as human shields. There is some belief among the Israeli military that either living captives or the bodies of hostages might be located at Nasser Hospital.
Meanwhile, Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry officials claim that the IDF's operation has destroyed critical areas of the hospital, crippling its operations and harming displaced people who were sheltering there.
Both could be true, and Israel must continue weighing whether raids like these are worth the cost—a situation it's been forced into in part due to Hamas' callous disregard for human life.
Meanwhile, on the Israel-Lebanon border, things are heating up. Israel reportedly killed 10 Lebanese civilians in strikes overnight, while Iran-backed Hezbollah has been launching more and more rockets (including one that killed an Israeli soldier on Tuesday).
Climate activists wreaking havoc on D.C. this week: In case you missed it—and I dearly hope you did—climate activists dumped red powder on the case holding the U.S. Constitution, in the rotunda of the National Archives, yesterday. "We are determined to foment a rebellion. We will not be held account to laws in which we have no voice or representation," said one of the activists. "This country's founded on the conditions that all men are created…and endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," said the other. "We're calling for all people to have all these rights, not just wealthy white men. We all deserve clean air, water, food, and a livable climate."
They were promptly arrested, but they weren't the only vandals on the loose.
Climate activist group Declare Emergency has activated several groups this week (the Constitution-desecraters are purportedly affiliated), with one set of protesters blocking traffic on D.C.'s George Washington Parkway. Some drivers got confrontational with them, including one woman who said her son was in the hospital. "I don't got time for this shit," she added.
In recent years, climate activists have seemingly grown emboldened, throwing cans of soup on the Mona Lisa at the Louvre; gluing themselves to Johannes Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring at Mauritshuis museum in The Hague; and gluing themselves to Vincent van Gogh's Peach Trees in Blossom at London's Courtauld Gallery. Just yesterday, climate protesters targeted Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus in Florence's Uffizi Gallery:
#DeclareEmergency allies @UltimaGenerazi1 were also active this Valentine's Day!
Climate activists target Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' in Florence's Uffizi Gallery @a22network #NoArtOnADeadPlanethttps://t.co/jYkEfSC7rh
— Declare Emergency (@DecEmergency) February 14, 2024
It's not clear who is helped by all this—having cars idle in traffic, due to human street blockages doesn't really seem to help stop climate change—but the incidents do seem to be growing in frequency.
Scenes from New York: "A Plush Dog, Samurai Sword and 42,439 Guns: Inside an N.Y.P.D. Basement," from The New York Times, is worth your time.
QUICK HITS
- Tucker Carlson is now releasing the strangest short videos, set to classical music, praising Moscow's subway system, which was built by Joseph Stalin in order to…impress foreigners. But even if you concede that the Moscow subway system is beautiful, Carlson seems to take this as airtight proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin knows how to govern. I do not take the same lesson from this. It is possible that Putin, following in the footsteps of Stalin, merely prioritizes devoting state resources (and harsh enforcement) to maintaining the opulent stations at the expense of many other priorities.
- "Zoning shifted the focus of city planning from stewarding the public realm to managing private development," wrote M. Nolan Gray in The Atlantic. "The forebears of professional planners were unconcerned with land uses and densities, allowing mixed-use neighborhoods to emerge. But zoning remade cities into a fragmented landscape of malls, office parks, and residential subdivisions."
- This is, uh, not the right takeaway from the Fani Willis scandal, by The New York Times:
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— Kmele ???? (@kmele) February 14, 2024
- Rachel Dolezal, who made headlines years ago for identifying as black despite being born to white parents, recently lost her teaching job over her OnlyFans account.
- Does Tom Suozzi's Long Island congressional seat flip tell Democrats how they ought to message on immigration?
- Japan's economy is in trouble.
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