Hello, and happy Friday.
This correspondence comes to you after a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week in news—one that started with reports of an impending Israeli military incursion in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah (where more than half of the Strip’s population is sheltering because they were told it would be safe) and ended with the shock news (as yet unconfirmed by his family) that Russian opposition leader and anticorruption activist Alexei Navalny has died in an Arctic penal colony, aged just 47.
More on Rafah, and what the situation in Gaza tells us about U.S. leverage in the region, below. But as for Navalny: At the time of his purported death, he was facing decades in prison with little to no prospect of release. That the Kremlin may have opted to kill him anyway suggests that even behind bars, Navalny was influential—and thus still a threat to Vladimir Putin. Navalny, who survived previous attempts on his life, foresaw that this day might come. “If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong,” he said in the 2022 Oscar-winning documentary Navalny. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good people to do nothing. So don’t be inactive.”
What I’ve written
The Biden administration wields considerable leverage over Israel. And yet, amid reports of growing frustrations within Washington over the Israeli government’s handling of the war in Gaza, it appears seemingly unable, or unwilling, to use it. I wrote about why that is:
Public pronouncements by U.S. officials about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza (which Blinken referenced when he told Israeli leaders that Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7th attack “cannot be a license to dehumanize others”) or the mounting civilian death toll (Biden warned Israel against going forward with its planned invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah absent a “credible and executable plan” for protecting the Palestinian population sheltering there) haven’t been met with notable shifts in Israel’s strategy. And while the administration has pointed to an increase in humanitarian aid as evidence of its impact, critics argue that it isn’t nearly enough to meet the needs of the enclave as it faces mass starvation. Indeed, an effort as seemingly straightforward as securing the delivery of a U.S.-funded flour shipment to Gaza—a commitment that Netanyahu reportedly made to Biden personally—was ultimately scuppered by Netanyahu’s ultranationalist coalition partners. Keep reading here
There are no safe havens in Gaza. That much has been clear since the early weeks of the war, when more than a million Palestinians were ordered to flee to the south of the Strip amid unrelenting bombardment in preparation for Israel’s ground invasion. That invasion has followed them ever since—first to the southern city of Khan Younis, and soon to Rafah, where more than half of the Strip’s population has been crammed into just 23 square miles. I wrote about the dire situation in the city, and what an Israeli incursion would mean for those sheltering there:
So congested is the city that its shelters have spilled out onto the streets, where tens of thousands of families have been forced to set up makeshift shelters using plastic and nylon. Disease has become rampant amid the overcrowding. Essentials such as clean water and medicine are scarce. Against this backdrop, the prospect of an Israeli military incursion on the city is “crazy even to think about,” says Hammash. “People are terrified.” Keep reading here
You’ve probably heard about the Gaza-inspired boycotts of multinational companies such as Starbucks and McDonald’s, both of which have reported slower sales that they each attributed to the war and misconceptions about their position. My colleague Astha Rajvanshi and I broke down why these companies have being targeted, how they fit into the broader Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and what impact the boycotts stand to have. You can read all about it here
What I’ve read
This essay on why Russia killed Navalny (The Atlantic)
Even behind bars Navalny was a real threat to Putin, because he was living proof that courage is possible, that truth exists, that Russia could be a different kind of country. For a dictator who survives thanks to lies and violence, that kind of challenge was intolerable. Now Putin will be forced to fight against Navalny’s memory, and that is a battle he will never win.
This viral story about a personal finance writer being scammed out of $50,000 (The Cut)
Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money. It took me years to save, stashing away a few thousand every time I got paid for a big project. Part of it was money I had received from my grandfather, an inheritance he took great pains to set up for his grandchildren before his death. Sometimes I imagine how I would have spent it if I had to get rid of it in a day. I could have paid for over a year’s worth of child care up front. I could have put it toward the master’s degree I’ve always wanted. I could have housed multiple families for months. Perhaps, inadvertently, I am; I occasionally wonder what the scammers did with it.
This delightful story about a white-naped crane who loved a human man (The Atlantic)
Walnut was a graceful, strong-willed bird, if a tad antisocial. That year, she’d spurned the affections of the males of her species, and instead bonded with Crowe, her keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. Walnut’s love for Crowe lasted 20 years, until she died last month, at the age of 42. Theirs was a strange bond, of course; it’s rare for a female crane to select a human boyfriend. But it is not without precedent. This unusual relationship could help save Walnut’s threatened species—such a thing has happened before.
What I’m thinking about
My colleague Billy Perrigo has recently launched a newsletter! Do subscribe if you’re interested in keeping up with great reporting about how AI and social media platforms are reshaping our world.
Until next time,
Yasmeen