This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza - Ben Rhodes

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By Ben Rhodes

Mr. Rhodes is a contributing Opinion writer. He was a deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/opinion/democrats-israel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E8.xA3B.S4NEju6LRINu&smid=url-share

"Less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, President Joe Biden traveled to Israel and held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an embrace. The image captured the solidarity Americans felt with Israelis after they suffered such horrific violence. It also symbolized a political and governing reflex within the Democratic Party.

During the Biden presidency, it was short-handed the “hug Bibi” strategy — the idea that smothering Mr. Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the U.S. leverage to influence his actions. Over the final 15 months of the Biden presidency, this approach led the White House to provide a flood of weapons for Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians, veto United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire, attack the International Criminal Court for pursuing charges against Mr. Netanyahu, ignore its own policies about supporting military units credibly accused of war crimes and blame Hamas for not accepting cease-fire terms that the Israeli government was also rejecting.

This approach made Democrats hypocrites when defending a “rules-based order,” racial equality and democracy. It alienated elements of their base and placed them out of step with younger voters. And in an age of authoritarianism, fealty to an Israeli strongman who routinely humiliated them made Democrats appear weak: Mr. Netanyahu was hugged all the way into the arms of Donald Trump.

Today, with a tenuous cease-fire, it may be tempting for the party to memory hole what has happened in Gaza. After all, Democrats just won some resounding electoral victories focused on affordability, and there is no easy consensus on the Middle East. Yet this would compound the mistake of ignoring, or rationalizing, an intolerable reality....."

CNN investigation points to Israel bulldozing bodies

Sudan's top general rejects US-led ceasefire proposal, calling it 'the worst yet'

Source: WaPo

".... The RSF said it has agreed to the truce, following global outrage over the paramilitaries’ atrocities in the Darfur city of el-Fasher. In a video speech late Monday, the paramilitary commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo reiterated the group’s commitment to a three-month humanitarian truce and called for mediators to pressure the military to accept the proposal.

Burhan, Sudan’s top general, said however that the proposal “is considered the worst document yet,” since it “eliminates the Armed Forces, dissolves security agencies and keeps the militia where they are” — referring to the RSF.

... He lashed out at the U.S. adviser and accused him of attempting to “impose some conditions on us.”

... In his comments, Burhan also took aim at the UAE. He said that since the Quad includes the Gulf country as a member, the mediation group was “not innocent of responsibility, especially since the entire world has witnessed the UAE’s support for the rebels against the Sudanese State.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/24/sudan-war-military-rsf-ceasefire/cc789036-c96f-11f0-ac2a-e98510180900_story.html

In Russian-Occupied Mariupol, Everything Ukrainian Must Go

Source: NYT

Full/gift article at link, look at the pictures

"... More than three years after Russian troops captured Mariupol in May 2022, after a brutal three-month siege, the Kremlin is pouring billions of dollars into remaking the city, constructing scores of sparkling new apartment buildings and rebuilding some neighborhoods.

... The 2022 siege devastated Mariupol. Up to 90 percent of residential buildings and 60 percent of private homes were damaged, according to a United Nations report. The estimated death toll, never confirmed, started in the thousands.

Before the war, the city’s population was more than 450,000. About half of its residents fled, with mainly older ones staying.

Capturing Mariupol was crucial for the Kremlin’s war strategy. The second-largest city in southeastern Ukraine, it anchors the land bridge linking Russia to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014..."



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/world/europe/russia-ukraine-mariupol.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3k8.sLjL.n3pbZvWF0C47&smid=url-share

Saudi Arabia Backs Elon Musk's xAI With Data Center Deal

Source: NYT

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"... The project was part of a package of military and tech deals announced on Wednesday during Prince Mohammed’s visit to Washington. The United States and Saudi Arabia appear to have reached an agreement that clears the path for the kingdom to buy the U.S. semiconductors needed to power artificial intelligence, as the United States has used A.I. chips as part of geopolitical diplomacy.

... The Washington trip has been a victory for Humain, an A.I. company created by Prince Mohammed in May with backing from the kingdom’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund. On Wednesday, the company said it had reached deals with Nvidia and Amazon that include putting up to 150,000 top-end A.I. chips in data centers in an “A.I. Zone” in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The Saudi company also announced a venture with Cisco and AMD to develop up to one gigawatt of A.I. infrastructure by 2030. (A gigawatt is equal to one billion watts, or the capacity of a large power plant.)

... Human rights issues, once a deterrent for many companies to working with Saudi Arabia, no longer appear to be a major concern. On Tuesday, executives from many of the biggest tech companies attended a dinner hosted by Mr. Trump honoring Prince Mohammed, including Mr. Musk."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/technology/saudi-arabia-elon-musk-xai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2k8.eXFx.RaZcfqc3YZ1V&smid=url-share

Russian Missile Kills at Least 25 in Ukrainian Apartment Building

Source: NYT

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"Russia launched a deadly barrage of missiles and drones against Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to revive long-stalled peace talks on Wednesday with negotiations in Turkey.

At least 25 people were killed and some 73 wounded in Ternopil, in western Ukraine, when a Russian missile hit an apartment building, according to Ukraine’s emergency service. The top three floors of the building were hit, the first time that a Russian missile had struck a residential complex in the city. Emergency workers searched for people who might be trapped in the rubble, as priests prayed over the bodies of victims.

“This fragile sense of safety has been destroyed and there’s no longer any feeling that Ternopil is even a little bit safe,” Tetyana Dolishna, a 55-year-old resident, wrote on Facebook.

Mr. Zelensky said on social media that Russia had launched 470 attack drones and 48 missiles in the overnight attack, hitting energy, transport and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine..."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/world/europe/ukraine-russia-strikes-peace-talks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2k8.rtpT.3NW7mbYtq6SD&smid=url-share

The 'Donroe Doctrine': Trump's Bid to Control the Western Hemisphere

Source: NYT

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"President Trump opened the year with pledges to seize the Panama Canal, take control of Greenland and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

He is ending it by bombing boats from South America, stationing the world’s largest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean and exploring military options against Venezuela’s autocratic leader.

In a sharp shift of decades of U.S. foreign policy, the Western Hemisphere has become the United States’ central theater abroad. In addition to military threats and action, the White House this year has carried out punishing tariffs, severe sanctions, pressure campaigns and economic bailouts across the Americas.


... Stronger control of the hemisphere, and particularly Latin America, promises major benefits. Ample natural resources, strategic security positions and lucrative markets are all in play..."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/world/americas/trump-latin-america-monroe-doctrine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E8.pEKH.9ROgurH7dc_r&smid=url-share

The Fed Is Cutting Bank Oversight. Critics See Risks.

Source: NYT

Full/gift article at link.


"Top officials at the Federal Reserve’s Washington headquarters and 12 reserve banks received a short memo on Oct. 29 with an unmistakable message. The way the central bank had long monitored and addressed risks across the financial system was in for a drastic overhaul.

The memo, which was reviewed by The New York Times, contained a list of directives for Fed examiners and supervisory staff across the country that significantly curtailed how closely they scrutinized lenders. It followed a host of changes made by Michelle W. Bowman, a Fed governor, who since becoming vice chair for supervision at the start of the summer had been providing regulatory relief to banks. One day after the memo was sent, Ms. Bowman announced a 30 percent cut in staff across her division in Washington.


... The Fed is not the only financial regulator undergoing upheaval to align with the Trump administration’s vision. The president wants more sway over how the central bank and other independent institutions, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, oversee Wall Street. In January, Mr. Trump signed an executive order establishing more authority over rule changes.


... Before Mr. Vought arrived, the bureau’s supervision department was its largest division, with nearly 500 analysts and examiners. The group scrutinized financial companies’ handling of products like checking accounts, car loans, mortgages and credit cards, and exposed improper fees, charges for services never provided, errant auto repossessions and wrongful foreclosures. The agency forced banks and other lenders to return nearly $20 billion to customers..."



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/business/fed-bowman-bank-oversight.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E8.bGRm.rMRnSFP-BRO5&smid=url-share

After Hundreds of Gazans Arrive on Mystery Flights, South Africa Asks How

Source: NYT

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/world/africa/gaza-palestinians-south-africa-flights.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E8.OVh2.RCJtlAP5_ZzW&smid=url-share

".... The man on the phone said he worked for a humanitarian organization that could arrange to fly Ahmed Shehada and his family out of war-ravaged Gaza if he paid $1,600 per person to a crypto account. He demanded the money upfront.

Mr. Shehada thought it was a scam and declined. But after he learned of a friend who escaped Gaza through the same group, he decided to take a chance.

That decision led Mr. Shehada, 37, his wife and their two young children on a jittery 24-hour journey in two separate bus convoys, through tense Israeli checkpoints, onto a flight with an unknown destination and eventually to South Africa, a country to which he had never been.

.... They made it to the Kerem Shalom border post, where Israeli troops told them to leave all their belongings behind. They walked through several security checks and onto new buses that took them to Ramon Airport in southern Israel to board a charter flight, he said. They were not told until mid-flight that they were going to Nairobi, Kenya..."



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/world/africa/gaza-palestinians-south-africa-flights.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E8.OVh2.RCJtlAP5_ZzW&smid=url-share

Is the Market Tired? 15 minutes ...

FWIW, not a short term trader, but would would like to avoid any major pitfalls, such as the tech bubble and financial bubble.