New Wars in the Middle East, Deportations Without Due Process, and Senate Democrats Give Trump More Power
Also, the DHS crackdown on green card holders expands, Chinese EV developments continue to dazzle, and student loan borrowers and Social Security recipients feel the pain of DOGE.
This article is part of a digest series delivered every Thursday, highlighting what I find to be the most interesting stories covering politics, working class struggles, and international current events of the week, along with my own brief commentary.
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This week’s collection of stories is a bit of a doozy in both number and magnitude, so bear with me. I thought about splitting the digest into two pieces for this week, but by the time I had considered it, it was already probably too late.
Without further ado:
🇻🇪🇸🇻 U.S. deports hundreds of potentially innocent undocumented Venezuelans to brutal El Salvador prison
Trump has invoked a 1798 wartime law in order to justify deporting hundreds of Venezuelans to one of the most brutal prisons in the world without due process. The Alien Enemies Act was previously employed to justify Japanese internment. The Trump Administration has attempted to justify the deportations by baselessly alleging that all of the deportees are associated with the gangs Tren de Aragua and MS-13. Without due process, it’s impossible to know for certain, though easily available evidence already appears to be disputing these sweeping claims:
President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, known for anti-democratic mandates and widespread punitive crackdowns involving torture, disappearances, and death, agreed to jail people on behalf of the U.S. earlier last month. The prisoners are being housed in the country’s mega prison, CERCOT, and are facing brutal and humiliating treatment.
🇾🇪 "Anti-war" Trump launches war on Yemen on Israel’s behalf
Earlier this week, the U.S. struck eight provinces in Yemen as the first stage in what they are describing as a large scale military operation against the Houthis, otherwise known as Ansar Allah. The strikes reportedly killed 53 people and injured 100 others. A Yemeni health ministry official cited that most of the victims were women and children. Graphic scenes from the aftermath of the strike seem to corroborate this.
These strikes come as retaliation against Yemen’s naval blockade of trade ships in the Red Sea, a vital trade route for Israel, as well as their largely futile efforts to lob missiles at Israel to basically no avail. Ansar Allah has been exercising this blockade since Israel began pummeling Gaza. On Truth Social, Trump posted:
To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!
Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, has suffered an immense humanitarian crisis over the years at the hands of the U.S.-backed Saudis. It is estimated that U.S.-supplied weapons have aided Saudi Arabia in killing over 377,000 people in the country since the start of their war. Now, Trump appears to be trying to take the fight directly to these besieged peoples over their protest against genocide in Gaza.
🇵🇸 With sign-off from Trump, Israel breaks the ceasefire and carpet bombs Gaza in the dead of night, killing hundreds
Around 2 A.M. on Tuesday, Israel carried out a massacre against Gaza, killing hundreds of innocents, including children. Scenes of the incident posted on social media paint a chilling and hellish image of the event.
It appears that Israel intentionally carried out the attack to sabotage an imminent breakthrough between Hamas and American negotiators. Netanyahu is calling these strikes “only the beginning”.
🫏🤕 Senate Democrats effectively give up the power to overturn Trump’s tariffs
Under the counsel of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ten Senate Democrats broke away from party consensus to provide Republicans with the keys to pass their spending bill.
The bill was being blocked from being brought to the floor by cloture, a legislative process requiring 60 votes to end a filibuster. Republicans’ narrow majority meant that they needed enough Democrats to break away to give them the 60 votes required.
After the Democrats awarded them this, the actual funding bill set to be brought to the floor only required a simple majority (50 votes), which Republicans comfortably secured. The funding bill effectively allocates billions of dollars away from agencies like the NIH and IRS and towards defense spending. Perhaps most importantly, a provision in the bill strips the ability of Congress to block some Trump tariffs.
Not passing the bill would’ve put the government at risk of a shutdown (a risk that Trump was likely not comfortable with), and yet the Democrats were willing to entirely cede their only leverage for virtually nothing in return. In response to Schumer’s flimsy rationale about a hypothetical government shutdown giving Trump and DOGE carte blanche to sabotage government agencies, one should wonder, how exactly is that any different from what is currently happening? Any agencies with the power to intervene that would be impacted by a potential shutdown aren’t really doing much to begin with.
Understandably, both the Democratic base and many elected officials are not happy about their party’s feckless capitulation to Republicans, with many floating potential replacements for party leadership. The Democratic Party has recently reached an all-time low in the polls, with only 7% of respondents feeling very positive about the party.
🪦💸 People report missing Social Security payments after falsely being declared as deceased
Americans are already beginning to feel the pain of DOGE’s disingenuous assault on Social Security, as live and well individuals like Ned Johnson from the article linked above report having their payments frozen after erroneously being marked as dead.
✈️⛓️ Green card holders continue to be arbitrarily detained and tortured
In addition to the ongoing case of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card carrying Columbia student who was detained by ICE for his outspoken views on Palestine, others are beginning to report being arbitrarily detained. From the story linked above, Fabian Schmidt, upon returning from a trip to Luxembourg, was allegedly detained, stripped naked and showered, interrogated, and made to bear deplorable conditions by border patrol, all while ill and with minimal food, water, and sleep.
🇨🇳🚗 Chinese EV firm BYD unveils battery tech that can charge 300 miles in five minutes
Chinese electric vehicles continue to impress with cutting edge developments, as bad news continues to mount against Tesla, who has seen nearly a 40% reduction in their stock’s value since the beginning of this year. Lack of access to charging infrastructure has been a major hurdle for EV adoption in the States, so anything to improve the experience markedly by reducing friction like faster charging speeds would be a boon to the industry.
BYD’s new vehicles are set to go on sale in China next month.
🏦📈 People report up to 10x increases in student loan payment amounts under Trump
After pausing applications for all income-driven student loan plans, the Trump Administration has caused some student loan monthly payments to surge in price, with some citing the difference being 10x as much. With Trump intending to shutter the Department of Education entirely, the worst is likely yet to come.
