Forest rangers help ICE abduct campers in Snoqualmie National Forest midnight raid: The rangers pretended there was a “garbage issue” in order to approach five families and photograph IDs for potential citations, KING 5 reports. Around midnight, the rangers returned with ICE agents who arrested 5 men, who are now held in Tacoma’s notorious immigration jail.
Beth’s Cafe went back to being open 24 hours this summer ICYMI: No city has truly bounced back from the pandemic, what with a million Americans dying and the government deciding they were tired of spending money to fight it. Seattle remains in a worse position than most, with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and the technospeculators closing down many of the old haunts that defined the city, particularly the after-hours scene. But now, six years since we all started masking up, Beth’s Cafe is back open 24 hours. It’s a start.
More countries are banning products from illegal Israeli settlements: After the UK foreign minister announced their boycott yesterday, they were followed by Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, Al Jazeera reports. Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Belgium already banned such products. The surprising thing? It’s crickets so far from the US. No freakouts from Marco Rubio.
Netanyahu knew of October 7 attack in advance and did nothing: Haaretz reports Israel’s longtime leader was warned in September 2023 by the president of the United Arab Emirates in a long phone call that Yahya Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas, was planning something big in Gaza. Instead of warning the country’s defense and intelligence agencies, Netanyahu did nothing, and now he’s suing Haaretz for reporting it.
Israeli American Council wants Macklemore kicked off Ed Sheeran’s tour for “Free Palestine” stage speech: The least annoying thing about Macklemore is his good politics. The Israeli American Council is exactly what it sounds like. I cannot name a single Ed Sheeran song. You can read IAC’s petition against the local rapper if you are so inclined.
Hitler returns: In Actually Existing Antisemitism news, the German far-right won their first big election since the Holocaust this weekend, with Nazi-successors Alternative für Deutschland handily sweeping state elections in Saxony. Saxony used to be part of communist East Germany, which has fared poorly after annexation by West Germany at the end of the Cold War. So poorly that they’re voting for the far-right in droves.
AfD’s leader comes from a Nazi family: Although this is not uncommon for German (or Canadian) politicians, an investigation by German newspaper Welt am Sontag revealed the AfD’s far-right lesbian girlboss leader Alice Weidel’s pop pop was a top Nazi judge appointed directly by Hitler and responsible for “sentencing opponents of the Third Reich,” Politico reports. He also served in the Waffen-SS as a “legal advisor,” which is either the most difficult job in the world or the easiest.
You know who else was in the Waffen-SS? Lots of Canadians: The Canadian government covered up the exact details of just how many Nazis settled there after the war, but a judge ruled last week the government has a release a previously secret report on a “U.S. program set up after the Second World War to secretly settle large numbers of Nazi war criminals in Canada, often with the support of Canadian officials.” A Jewish group sued for the report after the Canadian government declined to release it, claiming that doing so would harm US-Canada relations “at a time of ongoing tension” the Ottawa Citizen reports. Arguing that you can’t tell the truth about Nazis because there’s a trade war is really funny.
US finally sends diplomats to Ukraine: We sent the big guns for once, AKA the president’s son-in-law and a real-estate investor he likes. But in all seriousness, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are the negotiators the Trump administration sends when they mean business. Despite going to Moscow eight times, the Terrible Two have never visited Kiev, Al Jazeera reports, which should tell you a lot about Trump’s relationship with Ukraine. He never fully cut them off from weapons shipments and cash like he threatened (though the Ukrainians aren’t getting any missile interceptors) but they’re still losing the war badly and Trump may just be looking for an offramp.
US submarine drone captured by Iran: Remember when the AI and robotics company founded by the far-right Oculus Rift guy was going to make autonomous warships down by the ship canal? Well the company, Anduril, pulled out of the Port of Seattle deal after the Navy cut the contract, but they’ve still been working. You can see the fruits of their labor on Iranian state television, because one of their submarine drones was just captured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. What does this mean for you? Gas prices aren’t coming down.
I hope everyone had a good International Workers’ Day:
I missed Bumbershoot* this weekend, the way I always do, which means I missed De La Soul, the way I always do. One of my favorite things they’ve ever done is their Wizard of Oz music video for 2000’s Oooh, where Posdnuos does not just play the Scarecrow, he becomes the Scarecrow.
*Editor’s note: Bumbershoot was misspelt as “Bumpershoot” in a previous version of this post. The editor thought it was a joke about traffic. It was not.
More in NEWS
Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.
