The Man in the Arena

“It wasn’t the first time that several of the roughly two hundred and fifty hostages seized by Hamas terrorists on October 7th had been killed. Just this June, four other hostages were pronounced dead, including two over the age of eighty; their bodies are still being held in Gaza. I went to the vigils that followed those deaths. They were sizable, charged, and emotional—but nowhere near the outpouring of public fury unleashed this time around.” Ruth Margalit in The New Yorker: Grief and Fury in Israel. “Hamas’s killing of six hostages in Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly delayed a ceasefire deal, has provoked major protests and a renewed sense of crisis.”

+ Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Hamas’s Devastating Murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. “After his kidnapping, Hersh became the best-known of the hostages in the U.S. His American parents were unafraid of confronting their pain over and over, in conversations with whichever reporter or politicians agreed to meet them. Like mythological characters, they were doomed to relive their worst day—and doomed to experience it with clarity that never dulled. And despite their pain, they eloquently expressed empathy for the suffering of Palestinian parents too.”

+ CNN: “With its announcement that militants guarding Israeli hostages in the buildings and tunnels of Gaza had ‘new instructions’ to kill them If Israeli troops closed in, Hamas signalled the opening of a chilling new chapter in an already brutal war.”

In Springfield, Ohio, about 20,000 Haitian immigrants moved into a town of about 58,000. “They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole.” But immigration stories, even seemingly good ones, are never more than one event away from stirring up a heated debate. And those debates rarely remain local. “On a recent Saturday, about a dozen Nazi sympathizers — masked men in matching red shirts, black pants and boots — waved swastika flags as they marched in downtown Springfield near a jazz festival. At least two of the men, who authorities said were outsiders, carried rifles.” NYT (Gift Article): How an Ohio Town Landed in the Middle of the Immigration Debate. “Jobs attracted thousands of Haitians to Springfield, and employers were ecstatic. But then an immigrant driver was involved in a fatal school bus crash. And JD Vance entered the fray.”

“In the last decade, a mysterious illness called stony coral tissue loss disease has been ravaging coral in reefs across the Caribbean. The disease—which is likely caused by a bacterium or virus—targets a number of hard, reef-forming coral species. It essentially pulverizes the soft coral tissue, killing centuries-old colonies in a matter of weeks. The plight has now spread to at least 30 countries and territories in the Caribbean, where corals were already suffering from pollution, climate change, and other threats.” One thing that seems to help: antibiotics. MoJo: Coral Reefs Are Getting Sick, and This Human Medicine Might Help.

Psych Path: “Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary.” NYT (Gift Article): How a Leading Chain of Psychiatric Hospitals Traps Patients. “Acadia has exaggerated patients’ symptoms. It has tweaked medication dosages, then claimed patients needed to stay longer because of the adjustment. And it has argued that patients are not well enough to leave because they did not finish a meal. Unless the patients or their families hire lawyers, Acadia often holds them until their insurance runs out.”

+ More Putin Mayhem: “At least 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured Tuesday in a Russian missile strike on a military training facility and nearby hospital in central Ukraine.”

+ Sleeping with the Enemy: “Her husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had been crushing sleeping pills into her food and drink to put her into a deep sleep, the police said, and then raping her. He had ushered dozens of men into her home to film them raping her, too, they said, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.” Like the crimes, the case has been going on for years. NYT (Gift Article): France Confronts Horror of Rape and Drugging Case as 51 Men Go on Trial. “She had no memory of being raped, by him or the other men, only one of whom she recognized, she told the police, as a neighbor in town.”

+ Coming to America: “While there was aggression from both sides, the most extreme violence was instigated by pro-CCP activists and carried out by coordinated groups of young men embedded among them, verified videos show. Anti-Xi protesters were attacked with extended flagpoles and chemical spray, punched, kicked and had fistfuls of sand thrown in their faces.” These tactics deployed by the Chinese government may not surprise you. Until you realize that they were deployed in the US. WaPo: How China extended its repression into an American city. And from Semafor: New York governor’s former aide accused of being a Chinese government agent.

+ Very Fine Candidates on Both Sides: “Editors and reporters, with a few exceptions, really don’t see the problem as they normalize Trump. Nor do they appear to listen to valid criticism. They may not even be aware of it, or may think, ‘well, when both sides are mad at us, we must be doing it right.’ Maybe they simply fear being labeled liberal.” It’s truly incredible and incredibly upsetting that top trusted media sources continue to treat this like just another election between two candidates who have opposing policy views. Margaret Sullivan has been sounding the alarm for a long time. An ugly case of ‘false balance’ in the New York Times.

+ Brothers: “The night before their youngest sister’s wedding, two brothers and soon-to-be groomsmen from a tight-knit hockey family rode their bikes down a county road not far from their southern New Jersey hometown. Instead of celebrating this weekend, their family now has two funerals to plan as the sports world mourns.” A tight-knit hockey family planned to celebrate with loved ones. Instead, they’re planning two funerals.

+ Dot Plot: An Iranian writer is sentenced to 12 years after tweeting a dot at the supreme leader.

The upset-filled US Open has been exciting this year. The only sure-thing winner is the cocktail everyone can’t get enough of. “The drink’s sales alone could cover the combined championship prize money for both the male and female singles winner — $3.6 million each this year.” The $10 million cocktail everyone is drinking at the US Open.

+ “Police said the claw machines defraud users who believe scoring stuffed animals to be a test of skill. In fact, they are games of chance — just like slot machines — and therefore illegal, according to their press office.” Claw machine games are Rio de Janeiro’s new public enemy.

+ “A Spanish craze encouraging single people to seek partners in supermarkets by using a fruit-based code has caused some chaotic scenes and even led to the police being called to restore order.” Spain’s ‘pineapple-gate’ sparks hopes of romance and shop chaos.