Trumpdate (8.15.24):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
NEWS NEWS
Thai PM Dismissed: Court removes Srettha Thavisin for constitutional violation.
Sudan Famine Crisis: US-led talks for cease-fire as famine worsens; only one side attends.
Nord Stream Sabotage: Germany issues arrest warrant for Ukrainian suspect in pipeline attacks.
US Inflation Cools: Annual inflation rate drops below 3% for the first time since 2021.
Iranian Hacking Threat: Google reports Iranian-linked group targeting US officials' emails.
NOT NEWS NEWS
Disney Lawsuit Controversy: Company cites streaming service terms to avoid wrongful death suit.
UCLA Jewish Student Access: Judge orders equal campus access for Jewish students amid protests.
JD Vance Podcast Stirs Debate: 2020 interview comments on family raise eyebrows.
MDMA Therapy Setback: FDA declines approval for MDMA-based PTSD treatment.
MDMA Studies Retracted: Three studies on MDMA therapy retracted due to protocol violations.
1.) BBC: Thai court dismisses PM for violating constitution
Thai PM Srettha Thavisin dismissed by court for cabinet ethics violation. He's the 3rd PM removed in 16 years. Interim leader to take over until new PM elected. Critics see political motive. Move Forward party recently dissolved by same court. Thailand's political turmoil continues amid economic struggles.
[TS] He was dismissed after less than a year.
2.) NYT: As Famine Deepens in Sudan, U.S. Leads New Push for Cease-Fire
The American-backed talks in Switzerland, which started on Wednesday, aim to halt a catastrophic civil war. But only one side has turned up.
Famine was officially declared in Sudan’s western Darfur region, and other areas are expected to follow.
As many as 2.5M Sudanese could die from hunger by the end of September.
Sudan’s military, one of the war’s two main belligerents, has said it will not attend the negotiations in Switzerland, stymying hopes of a quick cease-fire in a fight between the forces of rival generals that has now lasted 16 months.
Warring parties refuse to attend peace talks
Ten million people have been forced from their homes and tens of thousands are estimated to have died
3.) FT: Germany issues arrest warrant for Ukrainian over Nord Stream gas pipeline attacks
Investigators said to believe Ukrainian man was one of team that planted explosives on pipelines in September 2022
German authorities seek Ukrainian suspect for Nord Stream pipeline explosions. He allegedly dived to plant explosives in Sept 2022. Two others implicated. Suspect fled Poland to Ukraine. Investigation linked to yacht with false identities. No evidence of Ukrainian state involvement. Russia and West deny responsibility.
4.) Positive July CPI/inflation news
Annual inflation cooled to 2.9% — the first time it’s been below 3% since early 2021. Falling car prices and flat energy costs helped bring inflation down.
Graph per Heather Long:
5.) GOOGLE’s TAG: Iranian backed group steps up phishing campaigns against Israel, U.S.
Google's security teams say they saw a hacking group linked to Iran's IRGC target in May and June the personal email accounts of "roughly a dozen individuals" affiliated with Biden and Trump, including current and former officials and campaign staffers.
QUICK BITES:
UK Riots: Around 70% of those arrested have previous convictions for serious offenses.
[TS] This is true of basically any riot. If the protest gets big enough to overwhelm authorities, career criminals take advantage of the chaos. These people are not ideologically driven.
Sean O’Brien, Teamsters president, spoke at the GOP convention. Now after Trump and Elon Musk laughed about firing workers on strike, he tells
Rachael Bade:
“Firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism.” [TS] He’s looking pretty silly here.
[UPDATE-RELATED] The UAW has filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk. Under federal law, workers cannot be fired for going on strike, and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.
Newsweek: Trump Campaign Forced to Pay North Carolina City $82k in Advance for Rally.
Trump’s venue in Asheville:
[TS] Oof. Max capacity < 2,500.
FT: China’s Hesai to be removed from US defence department blacklist. Pentagon is removing Hesai Tech (Chinese laser sensor LIDAR maker) from the Chinese Military Companies blacklist following concerns that the original listing would not withstand legal scrutiny.
In 2023, Hesai admitted to the SEC that the PRC “may influence or intervene in our operations at any time,” including “data security.” Now, Hesai is arguing in court that they aren’t a Chinese military company — and they’re winning. [TS] Not a great look.
On Friday in North Carolina, Vice President Harris intends to announce a plan to prevent corporations in the food and grocery industries from unfairly jacking up prices on consumers, by imposing the first-ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging in these industries.
[TS] Doesn’t seem like it will be a good law. Sounds good in theory, I just don’t see how it would work in practice.
The head of the Israeli Mossad Dadi Barnea, head of Israeli Shin Bet Ronen Bar, and Major General Nitzan Alon will go today to Qatar meeting on a hostage deal
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) parrots anti-US propaganda from the Iranian regime in order to score political points.
WaPo: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought a meeting last week with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration, perhaps as a Cabinet secretary, if he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins. Harris and her advisers have not responded with an offer to meet or shown interest in the proposal.
6.) [TS] Absurd Disney lawsuit per NY Post
[TS] Here is the short version:
Doctor dies from anaphylaxis due to allergens at Disney restaurant after being assured it’s allergen free
Widow sues
Disney responds: you signed up for the Disney+ free trial and therefore agreed to our terms of service that says you can’t sue us
Disney is arguing that the arbitration clause of the TOS the decedent agreed to when signing up for a Disney+ free trial covers a wrongful death claim relating to food served at a Disney restaurant.
7.) [TS] It’s election season, so you know what that means…
8.) LA TIMES: Judge orders UCLA to ensure equal campus access to Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protests
[TS] Read directly from the ruling:
In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.
9.) 2020 Podcast with JD Vance raises eyebrows.
[TS] I honestly don’t think this is a big deal, but it’s certainly making the rounds. It’s just a strange way to talk about what a big help it was for your mother-in-law to help with your newborn.
10.) REUTERS: US FDA declines to approve first MDMA-based PTSD treatment
The same day the FDA made this decision, it came to light that several MDMA studies involved protocol violations trial runners were aware of.
Result? Three retractions in one day.
NUMBER ONE
Protocol violations trial runners were aware of, and failures to declare potential conflicts of interest.
NUMBER TWO
NUMBER THREE
Critical reaction:
You cannot submit a paper with results from a trial you knowingly conducted incorrectly without saying so, whether the reason was error or intent.
So retraction is warranted.
However, I think the much worse thing for the whole PTSD-MDMA enterprise is the lack of openness.
You can ask MAPS for their data and, in theory, they should readily provide it. After all, why not?
But no: they are very hesitant to let people access trial data, even when they're made aware that they *used inappropriate methods for their analyses*
It's not clear how much misanalysis matters, but it should be something they address. Too bad it might not matter anyway, because they flubbed the trials in other ways and made themselves seem ethically suspect and untrustworthy.
If you think MDMA is likely to work, you should be upset with these proponents of MDMA therapies since they've made for an embarrassing situation for everyone involved.
To be frank, there is no good evidence this therapy works at all since the trials are basically open label.
[TS] Here’s a ‘Science Friday’ episode on the numerous problems of the Lykos/MAPS studies specifically from the perspective of 1) lived experience, 2) psychotherapy, and 3) clinical trial design.regarding the FDA Panel’s rejection of MDMA therapy.