Encroaching Lawlessness And Violence, Shocking Departures, And Legal Judgments On Former Leaders

A detailed recount mixed with meme comedy to mark our times at Week 37 of 2025 featuring source material from Gundam Gquuuuuux, Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld, Star Trek Lower Decks, and Hailey’s On It

Sep 14, 2025

The Trump Show: Series 2 - A Horrific Assassination

Kicking off with some legal news, Trump officials made an emergency request to the Supreme Court, asking it to allow the administration to freeze billions in foreign aid. Soon enough, the Supreme Court gave the president two temporary victories. The Court allowed Trump to fire a Democratic FTC commissioner while the case continues, before giving the administration the green light to carry out ICE immigration raids and indiscriminate stops in Los Angeles under broad criteria. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court upheld the $83.3 million judgment in the E Jean Carroll defamation case. DHS announced it is launching “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago as part of the regime’s effort to crack down on illegal immigrants and crime, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced trip to Puerto Rico as the officials seek to use the island as a stepping stone for further drug cartel crackdown operations. Following last week’s Hyundai plant raid, border czar Tom Homan said more immigration raids against businesses and workplaces are coming. Back in South Korea, the government is trying to calm concerns by Korean businesses that have investments in the US, as such corporations exploiting loopholes in the US visa system is an “open secret.” The House Oversight Committee received files provided by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including the infamous birthday book compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell that features Trump’s cryptic letter to the disgraced financier. Soon enough, the lewd Trump birthday message was released to the public, as well as other disgusting details like a letter from a longtime Mar-A-Lago member that includes a photo of Epstein selling a “fully depreciated” girl to Trump for $22,500. One letter from an unidentified woman wrote, “Before Jeffrey, I was a 22-year-old divorcee working as a hostess in a hotel.” After meeting the disgraced financier, the woman said she met celebrities including Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, the Sultan of Brunei, Kevin Spacey, and Michael Jackson. All the best people… Speaking of the best people, Politico reported US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had a testy confrontation with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, telling him: “Why the fuck are you talking to the president about me? Fuck you. I’m gonna punch you in your fucking face.” According to NBC News, the Trump campaign has been sharing a small but notable sum of fundraising money with JD Vance’s PAC. In the petty news department, Trump attacked Tom Hanks for being “woke” after the West Point military academy snubbed a ceremony honoring the actor.

In the latest adjustment to economic data, the embattled Bureau of Labor Statistics revised jobs reports that said there were 910,000 fewer jobs created for the year ending in March, indicating a weakening US labor market before and during Trump’s second term. In a legal win for Trump and his allies, a judge threw out charges against the 15 Michigan Republican fake electors after the 2020 election, while Chief Justice John Roberts kept in place the regime’s decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in foreign aid. Hours later, the Supreme Court agreed to review Trump’s tariff case on a fast-tracked schedule. In a loss for Trump, a federal judge ruled against firing Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook. On public health, RFK Jr’s latest “Make America Healthy Again Report” called for more scrutiny of vaccines and autism, while the fired CDC Director Susan Monarez will testify to the Senate next week. Sparking a new front in the redistricting wars, Missouri’s state house passed its Trump-backed congressional map that gives the edge to Republicans. In a win for Democrats, James Walkinshaw won the special election to fill the former Representative Gerry Connelly's seat, narrowing the GOP majority. Texas State Representative James Talarico, a rising star in the Democratic Party, announced his bid for the US Senate on a promise to take on Republican billionaires and heal political divides. Oh, and Trump got relentlessly booed and protested during a visit to a DC restaurant to illustrate how safe the capital is.

Charlie Kirk, the leader of the pre-eminent rightwing youth activist group Turning Point USA, was fatally shot during a campus event at Utah Valley University. Political figures from across the spectrum condemned the act of political violence, with Trump posting on Truth Social that “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me.” In a follow-up post after Kirk’s death, Trump condemned the "heinous assassination" and said, "This is a dark moment for America.” Pouring gasoline on the fire, Trump and some rightwing figures have blamed “the radical left” for the shooting, despite nobody knowing the motives of the shooting as of Wednesday night. One elderly man who was apprehended at the scene was later let go after identifying that he was not related to the case. FBI Director Kash Patel later said on social media that the bureau had released a “subject in custody” who turned out to be an Arab Charlie Kirk fan and the investigation would continue, just hours after claiming they had arrested the “shooter” involved in the case. In another dark note, 3 students were shot in a Colorado high school shooting, while the shooter was killed by self-inflicted injuries. On Wednesday, The Atlantic published the first excerpt from Kamala Harris’s memoir 107 Days. Many in the media have seized on Harris’s reflection on whether Biden should run, writing, “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.” At the same time, Harris wrote of Biden’s age: “Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president.” Harris adds that if she believed her then-boss was incapable of carrying out the duties of the president, “I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.” In a lawsuit by 3 former FBI leaders, the officials sued Kash Patel for obeying White House instructions to fire anyone involved in investigating Trump in an act of rampant politicization. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said some out-of-state National Guard would remain in DC through November, following a request by the Trump administration, while the president’s emergency order was set to expire. As the AP reported that more than 40% of DC arrests were immigration-related instead of tackling crime, the Washington Post reported internal documents by the National Guard found their mission is perceived as “leveraging fear” and promoting “shame” among some troops and veterans. In other headlines, the Senate Banking Committee advanced Trump's economic adviser Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve, the Supreme Court would not block a lower court’s decision that allows a transgender student’s use of their school bathroom, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth talked to his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun in their first call.

As America deals with the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a manhunt is underway to find the shooter of the heinous act. Officials say they believe they have recovered the weapon used to kill Kirk, adding the FBI has images of the suspect, who is of college age and blended in with the crowd. Released photos of the person of interest showed a person wearing dark jeans, a black long-sleeved shirt, a black hat, and black sunglasses, while a later press conference featuring Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Kash Patel showed new footage of the shooter fleeing from a rooftop after the assassination. Trump announced he would posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom as he honored the activist during a 9/11 memorial address, while VP JD Vance escorted Charlie’s body with Kirk’s family and relatives aboard Air Force 2. Signalling an escalation of political violence, Capitol Police had to respond to non-credible bomb threats targeting the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and similar threats against HBCUs (Historically black colleges and universities). At the US Naval Academy, a false report of a shooter sent the campus into lockdown and prompted real-life gunfire. In the US economy, inflation rose by 2.9% while weekly jobless claims saw a jump. After last week’s Hyundai raid, South Korean workers who were detained during that operation were flown back to their home country, while the company’s CEO admitted the ICE raid would delay Hyundai's construction plans in Georgia for months, as the move had already soured US-South Korea relations. As the NYT reported how the bank JP Morgan spent years profiting from Epstein’s crimes, the UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, was sacked over his connections to the disgraced financier. Meanwhile, a federal judge temporarily blocked the government’s efforts to remove some immigrant Guatemalan and Honduran children, Venezuelan officials say none of the 11 killed during a US boat strike were members of Tren de Aragua, while health concerns about Trump grew as some suspected the president of suffering a stroke.

In a morning post, Trump announced the shooter who killed Kirk is in custody. The suspect is identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson from Utah. During a press conference, Utah’s Governor Cox said Robinson grew more political and was opposed to Kirk’s views. Following the release of the FBI photos, the shooter’s father recognized his son, and reports say Tyler confessed to his dad that he did it. Robinson initially didn’t want to turn himself in and said he would rather take his life. The father then called a youth plaster and family friend, who both helped calm down Robinson before contacting a sheriff. After Robinson was arrested in Washington County, three to four hours away from the university, markings from his bullet casings had what some describe as anti-fascist inscriptions, indicating he was steeped in online culture surrounding antifa. However, as David Frum told The Bulwark Podcast: ”The classic American political murderer is a mentally disturbed loner acting for no conventionally recognizable political purpose.” Further interviews with Robinson’s family indicate he came from a family of Trump supporters, while the messaging in the shooter’s shell casings also includes Groyper messaging, typically associated with the far-right. Delivering an impassioned message to the American people, Cox urged Americans to take an “off-ramp” from political tensions, warning that social media is a cancer and tells citizens “to log off, turn off, touch grass, go hug a family member, go out and do good in the community.” Easier said than done, especially as mentions of “civil war” surged after the apprehension announcement. Erika Kirk, wife of Charlie, described her husband as a “martyr” and said his movement will never die in her first public remarks since the assassination. Concerning other US news, in the latest move between the US and China, the two countries announced they were set for high-level economic talks in Spain. Health officials in the administration plan to link the deaths of 25 kids with COVID vaccines as part of a presentation to the CDC vaccine advisory committee, alarming career scientists who say it is unvetted data. Alarm bells also came from the EPA, which proposed that companies no longer be required to report their planet-warming emissions. On immigration, a man was fatally shot by an ICE agent after allegedly resisting arrest. Inflaming the redistricting wars, the Missouri Senate approved the pro-Republican redistricting bill. During an interview with the AP, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that he is willing to risk a government shutdown if the Republicans accept the Democrats' healthcare demands. Continuing the trend of troops in the streets, Trump said he will send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, with the support of the Mayor and the Governor.

In a phone interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump accused “a radical left group of lunatics” of standing in the way of national unity after the Kirk assassination, before quickly changing the topic to his slightly larger White House ballroom. During his tour of the Sunday shows, Spencer Cox said the alleged Kirk shooter was not cooperating with authorities, but those around the suspect are, including his trans roommate with whom Robinson has a romantic relationship. In Madrid, Spain, representatives from Beijing and Washington kicked off the fourth round of trade talks as their tariff truce is set to expire in November. According to Pentagon documents, the government plans to use 1000 National Guard troops for the Louisiana policing mission, a significant expansion of the military’s role in law enforcement. On Fox News, host Brian Kilmeade proposed “just kill ‘em” when discussing how to deal with mentally ill homeless people. In California, state lawmakers voted to ban law enforcement officials from wearing face masks during operations, particularly targeting ICE agents.

Global Political Shocks - Bye Bye (Some) World Leaders

The French minority government faced judgment day on Monday as the country’s embattled Prime Minister François Bayrou faces a confidence vote over a proposed €43.8 billion budget squeeze that has embroiled the French Parliament in political gridlock and chaos. Barring a sudden change of heart by opposition lawmakers, many were already predicting Bayrou was almost certainly going to lose before the vote. And lose they did, with the National Assembly voting 364 votes to 194, forcing Bayrou to resign. Leaving in a defiant note, Bayrou warned France’s debt problem would not disappear unless there was government action. Following the latest toppling, French President Emmanuel Macron began the hunt for a fifth head of government in less than two years. On the same day, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s graft conviction appeal trial would start in January 2026. By Tuesday, Macron picked close ally and former armed forces minister Sébastien Lecornu to take over the PM role, noting his first task is to consult other political parties to adopt France’s new budget. Less than an hour after entering office on Wednesday, Lecornu vowed to work with his political opponents and rule in a new way, saying, “It will require a clear change — not just in the style, not just in the method, but a clear change in substance as well.” On the streets of France, mass “Block Everything” protests caused major disruption, in a sign of growing discontent within the country over its political instability.

In Nepal, the government backtracked on a social media ban after ”Gen Z” protests erupted in the worst unrest the country has seen in decades. The social media ban imposed just last weekend bars Nepalese users from accessing platforms like Facebook and YouTube due to failure to register with the government. The outrage further evolved into discontent against government corruption and “nepo kids,” the children of the wealthy who have flaunted their enormous wealth on social media. Police in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the protestors, while some demonstrators stormed the parliament complex and hurled objects at riot police. At least 19 people from 2 cities died in the protests, and more than 100 were injured before the government backed down. Authorities pledged to open an investigation to prevent similar incidents from happening again and announced they would provide relief for the families of the dead and free treatment for those who were injured. Despite the government backing down, protests continued in the capital and across the country, with the residences of several high-profile politicians being attacked and vandalised. Then, in another plot twist, Nepal’s PM KP Sharma Oli has resigned, joining several lawmakers in announcing their resignations over the social media ban fiasco. Despite the lofty goals of some protestors, the lack of concrete leadership caused a vibe shift after Oli’s resignation into violence and destruction, with some Gen Z protestors arguing that their movement was "hijacked" by "opportunists.” The Nepalese army was dispatched to enforce calm amid vandalism and destruction of government buildings, as some protest leaders met with military authorities to discuss a path forward. After negotiations and a vote on Discord, it was announced on Friday that former chief justice Sushila Karki was selected to become Nepal’s interim leader, becoming the country’s first female PM. With Karki’s interim government taking charge, Nepal set the next election for March 5, 2026, as the 275-seat parliament was dissolved. Then on Sunday, Karki urged calm and for the country to “get together to rebuild the country” after recent protests, promising to meet protestors’ demands on ending corruption in her first public address since becoming leader.

Law And Political Disorder - Locked Them Up!

Thailand’s former PM Thaksin Shinawatra faced another legal issue this week, this time with the country’s Supreme Court deciding whether he should serve time in jail. After a coup in 2006, the former Thai leader faced an eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power. Thaskin fled the country in self-imposed exile for 15 years, until he returned to Thailand in 2023. The Thai king commuted the sentence to 1 year, and Thaskin was released on parole after just six months, the entirety of which he spent in the hospital after complaints of heart trouble and chest pains barely hours into prison. Hence, the judges would have to rule on whether Thaskin’s hospital stay counts as serving his sentence, and if not, whether he has to go to prison again. Thaskin was seen entering the Supreme Court alongside his daughter Paetorntarn, who was removed from office by the Constitutional Court last week. By Tuesday noon, the Supreme Court ruled Thaskin has to serve one year in prison, arguing the hospital stay was an attempt to avoid his prison sentence. The Court explained the decision by noting Thaksin's health condition at the time did not require serious treatment, saying, “The defendant himself realized that his condition was not an urgent matter, and the time he stayed in the hospital cannot count as a prison term."

In Brazil, the country’s Supreme Court deliberated whether former President Jair Bolsonaro plotted a coup to stay in power after his loss in the 2022 election to current President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro was accused of plotting to plunge Brazil back into dictatorship through special forces assassins and a vast disinformation campaign, charges he denies. The Court’s 5 justices began the deliberations on Tuesday, following massive protests the past weekend by Bolsonaro supporters during Brazil’s Independence Day. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads the court panel and faces US sanctions by the Trump administration, was the first to vote to convict, arguing there is no doubt that “There was an attempt to abolish the democratic rule of law, that there was an attempted coup, and that there was a criminal organisation that caused damage to public property.” Soon after, Justice Flávio Dino also found Bolsonaro guilty by saying his level of guilt is “rather high.” On Thursday, Justices Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha and Cristiano Zanin also ruled to convict Bolsonaro, reaching a majority among the Court that finds the former Brazilian leader guilty of plotting a military coup. Delivering the deciding vote, Rocha said Bolsonaro’s attempt sowed “the malignant seed of anti-democracy” and warned of the spread of “the virus of authoritarianism.” Hours later, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison. The former president vowed to appeal to the wider Supreme Court, while US officials condemned the decision.

Voterama 2025 - Milei’s Stinging Defeat

Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, and the young ruling Freedom Advances (La Libertad Avanza) Party suffered a disappointing defeat in a provincial election in Buenos Aires province. Ahead of the vote, polls have expected a narrow government loss or a tight race between the ruling party and the Peronist Fuerza Patria coalition. This influential and ideologically flexible populist movement has dominated the country’s politics for decades. However, when the results came out, the Peronist coalition won decisively with 47% of the vote. In comparison, the Freedom Advance Party only got 37% of the vote. The vote in Argentina’s largest province was seen as a litmus test for the government’s popularity as it heads to the midterm elections next month, especially Milei’s controversial reform program and a corruption scandal that has dragged in key government officials. Milei admitted defeat but vowed, “The economic course for which we were elected will not change.”

Meanwhile, the Norwegian Labour Party won its election, guaranteeing four more years for incumbent PM Jonas Gahr Støre. After the polls closed, the results show the Labour Party winning just above the 85 seats needed for a majority. But at the same time, the results show rising support for the populist rightwing Progress party, dubbed the “MAGA-fication” of Norwegian politics, doubling in size in the past four years. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party faced its worst defeat in 20 years. In a close-fought election dominated by mundane local issues like the cost of living and wealth taxes, foreign policy issues were also on voters' minds. Setting aside Norwegians’ concerns about the country's relationship with Trump, strong criticism over Norway’s oil fund investment in Israel has mired the incumbent party and could pose an obstacle when it negotiates with smaller leftwing parties to form a government.

Ukraine/Russia War Watch - The Attacks Spread To Poland

Following a brutal Russian drone attack, Trump said he is ready to begin “phase two” of Russian sanctions and claimed he will speak with Putin soon. Concerning relations between the US and the EU, the American president has pressured European allies to stop buying Russian oil, while European Council President António Costa said the bloc and Trump had “turned the page” in their rocky relationship. Moving to Tuesday, Zelensky said a Russian aerial bomb attack had directly assailed and killed at least 20 elderly civilians in the rural village of Yarova, located in the eastern Donetsk region. In other Ukraine news, the FT reported that Trump phoned in during a meeting with EU officials, telling them to slap China and India with 100% tariffs as part of a broader effort to pressure Putin. In the US, the repeat criminal offender Decarlos Brown was federally charged for the fatal stabbing of the Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week. Before major media reports, far-right figures from the US and Europe have exploited Zarutska’s death as a way to promote their hateful, racist, and xenophobic policies (While not caring about Ukrainians or refugees in general).

In an escalation of the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders, Polish and NATO jets scrambled to respond to Ukrainian reports of Russian drones in Poland’s airspace, the first time since the war began. The Warsaw airport was temporarily shut down, as Polish authorities later confirmed they had shot down some of the 19 Russian drones that flew over its airspace. The Polish military’s Operational Command said the drones pose “a real threat” to Polish citizens, while its President Donald Tusk said a “huge number of drones” have violated Polish airspace in a “large-scale provocation.” After the Polish government held an emergency meeting on Wednesday morning following the attacks, Poland formally triggered Article 4 of NATO, which allows joint consultations between allies “whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.” While Poland warned it’s “closer to conflict than at any time since World War II,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: "What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!" Russia denied targeting Polish territory. At a UN Security Council meeting, some allies voiced their support for Poland, while others questioned whether Russia had launched a deliberate strike.

Following Trump’s comment that Russia’s drone raid “could have been a mistake,” Tusk tweeted on social media, “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn't. And we know it.” Bloomberg reported the US has proposed broad sanctions on Russian oil with G-7 allies, as well as a legal pathway to seize immobilized sovereign assets and use them to fund Ukraine. On Friday, Russia and Belarus launched the main phase of Zapad-2025, a major military exercise designed to test the readiness of both countries. By the weekend, Romania and Poland had to scramble their aircraft in response to a Russian drone breaching Romanian airspace during attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. As Russian drones threaten the airspaces of NATO allies, Trump issued an ultimatum to… NATO… The US President said he will sanction Moscow, with the condition that all NATO allies stop purchasing Russian oil. Further providing fodder for Putin, he claimed the conflict is Biden and Zelensky’s war.

Middle East War Watch - Revenge Strikes Doha

Leading into the week, Trump issued his latest and “last warning” to Hamas, saying the militant group must accept a hostage release deal. It follows reporting by Axios that US Envoy Steve Witkoff had sent a new ceasefire deal to Hamas last week. In a statement soon after, Hamas said it was ready to “immediately sit at the negotiating table.” Then on Monday, a shooting in eastern Jerusalem killed at least six people and wounded several others, as Hamas claimed responsibility for the act. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled the country’s government is depriving Palestinian prisoners of food, noting the detained people were being deliberately starved in harsh prison conditions. Moving to pressure the Israeli government, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced a ban on Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from coming into the country, while at the same time increasing funding for UNRWA. Sanchez also ramped up the rhetoric against the Israeli government, accusing it of “exterminating a defenceless people” by “killing innocent boys and girls with hunger” and bombing hospitals. On the cultural side, hundreds of actors, directors, and film industry professionals pledged not to work with Israeli film groups “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” Some of the signatories include Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay, Olivia Coleman, Ayo Edebiri, and Riz Ahmed. As a global aid flotilla organized by the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) continued its journey to the Gaza Strip, the group reported on Monday that a drone struck and caused a fire at the Family Boat, which carried Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Nobody was injured in the incident, and Tunisian authorities denied the drone claims.

The Israeli military officially ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate on Tuesday, marking the precursor to a full-scale invasion of the city. In Doha, explosions were heard as Israeli officials confirmed they had targeted senior Hamas leadership living in Qatar’s capital. Qatar condemned the act, calling it a violation of international law. Despite reports that Trump gave the green light for Israel to conduct the Doha strikes, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made a rare condemnation of Israel’s actions and said Trump “feels very bad” about the strike. In a statement, Hamas claimed its top members of the group’s negotiating team had survived the Israeli strike, but five lower-ranking members died from the attack, including the son of top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya. Meanwhile, the UK government determined Israel’s war actions do not constitute genocide, but condemned the “appalling” casualties and destruction, while the GSF was attacked again in Tunisia a day after the drone incident.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to sanction Israeli officials during her State of the European Union speech. Israel launched a new round of attacks on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, killing more than 30 people in response to a Houthi attack on an Israeli airport days earlier. In a testy phone call, the WSJ reported Trump expressed his frustration at the Israeli leader over the Doha strikes as an unwise act, while Netanyahu said Israel only had a brief window to launch the strikes and they took the opportunity. Actor Jerry Seinfeld accused the “Free Palestine” movement of being like the KKK, saying, “Just say you don’t like Jews. By saying ‘Free Palestine,’ you’re not admitting what you really think. So it’s actually — compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”

During an interview with CNN, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani called Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders “barbaric” and “killed any hope” for the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. At the UN, Al-Thani accused Israeli leaders of not caring about the hostages in Gaza and said the country has “gone beyond any borders” in its strikes. During an event where Netanyahu signed an agreement to approve a settlement plan that bisects the West Bank, the Israeli leader said, “We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state. This place belongs to us.” In the US, Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley said they have reached the “inescapable conclusion” that the US is complicit in Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza population. Divisions on Gaza continue to play out in Europe, with some former EU diplomats urging the bloc to suspend a cooperation agreement with Israel, while Ireland and the Netherlands make their participation in Eurovision conditional and threatening to pull out if Israel is allowed to compete in next year’s competition. On Saturday, the Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra said his West Bank home was raided by Israeli authorities.

Local News - A Legislative Blow & Legal Win For LGBT Rights

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (Or LegCo, Hong Kong’s legislature) voted down the proposed Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill on Wednesday, which provides limited rights to same-sex couples with overseas registered marriages or civil unions. Only 14 out of 86 lawmakers voted in support of the bill, while 71 legislators voted against and 1 abstained. Among the lawmaker highlights when they deliberated on the bill, Maggie Chan displayed a sign that read “resolutely opposed to the Registration of Same-sex Bill,” Junius Ho (A lawmaker famous for his fiery comments anti-LGBT rights) said “When there are only mums in your home and no dads, or some have only dads and no mums, how do we celebrate Father’s Day and Mother’s Day? … we already have a lot of problems on our plate today,” while Holden Chow claimed the proposed law would open “a Pandora’s box” that subverts “Hong Kong’s marriage system between one man and one woman.”

Apart from the traditionalists’ “family values” talk, Maggie Chan said she doesn’t believe any failure to pass this bill would have consequences for the rule of law. For context, Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (The city’s top court) issued a landmark ruling in 2023, ruling that the government should develop a framework to recognize same-sex relationships. If no framework is established before October 27, which lawmakers and the government currently don’t seem to have a backup plan for yet, some have argued it would undermine the authority of Hong Kong’s top court.

Back in August, authorities say around 80% of the over 10,700 submissions expressed opposition to the bill during its consultation period. It sounds like a lot, but do take into consideration that the NGO Hong Kong Marriage Equality notes that about half of the submissions came from 9 particular templates, which suggests a “mobilization by specific groups rather than broad-based sentiment.” Not to mention, polling conducted by three Hong Kong universities shows about 60% of respondents are supportive of same-sex marriage.

Despite the legislative blow, the day before saw the latest legal challenge win, giving more rights to members of the LGBT community. On Tuesday, a Hong Kong judge ruled in favor of a lesbian couple seeking to include the names of both mothers in the birth certificate for their son, who was born from reciprocal in vitro fertilisation (RIVF). In his ruling, Judge Russell Coleman (Eagle-eyed readers may remember him from last month’s ruling that backed a transgender person’s right to use toilets that match their chosen gender identity) said the exclusion of the non-birth mother from the birth certificate could cause “inconvenience” and “embarrassment.” In Coleman’s judgment, he wrote the now nearly four-year-old son is a “lucky little boy” being raised by two “loving and caring parents.”