BREAKING: Houthi Rebels Attack Cargo Ships & US Navy This Morning, 100K Minors Harrased DAILY on Facebook, Sweden Can't Join NATO Until this Russia-Friendly Country Approves (The Five for 01/24/24)
Plus, this issue now #1 to 2024 voters, over inflation.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
For not being “at war” with Iran, we sure are fighting with their proxy forces a lot. More ship attacks today in the Middle East.
PBS reports:
Two American-flagged ships carrying cargo for the U.S. Defense and State departments came under attack off Yemen on Wednesday, officials said, with the U.S. Navy intercepting some of the incoming fire. Suspicion immediately fell on Yemen’s Houthi rebels for carrying out the assault.
The attacks on the container ships Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake further raise the stakes of the group’s ongoing attacks on shipping through the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The U.S. and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes seeking to stop the attacks.
Meanwhile, Qatar, one of the world’s top exporters of liquified natural gas, warned that its deliveries were affected by ongoing Houthi attacks over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Danish shipper Maersk, in a statement to The Associated Press, identified two of its vessels affected by the attacks as the U.S.-flagged container ships Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake. It said the U.S. Navy was accompanying its ships at the time.
“While en route, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the U.S. Navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles,” Maersk said. “The crew, ship, and cargo are safe and unharmed. The U.S. Navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden.”
Houthi forces have been in the news a lot recently, but it’s less well known that the rebel forces in Yemen originally took Iranian money and weapons to overthrow their own country and give Iran more territory and influence in an ongoing competition with Saudi Arabia for supremacy of the region.
Now, they mostly don’t bother with control of Yemen, because Iran has turned it’s attack dog to the seas, because, hey, free stuff.
Unlike the Taliban and ISIS, which are highly ideological movements, the Houthis are pretty much the boneheaded drunk at the bar who wants to scrap.
Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse Upon the Jews. Victory to Islam. -Official Slogan of the Houthi movement.
Thus far, the Biden administration has been quite tepid on dealing with the problem, first removing the terrorist designation and economic sanctions in February 2021 that Trump originally put in place against the group.
Currently, the Biden administration is re-imposing sanctions on the terrorist group, but giving them a 30 day heads up before the sanctions kick in, which is plenty of time for the group to move some money around.
[two]
Yesterday, the Supreme Court made a surprising move and ordered Texas to cut down razor wire that the state had installed to stem the flow of illegal migrants, with more than 225,000 people crossing into Texas just in the month of December.
CNN reports:
Razor wire is still up along a contested section of the US-Mexico border a day after the US Supreme Court voted to let federal Border Patrol agents remove the barrier installed there as part of Texas’ Republican governor’s security initiative while the state’s legal challenge to the wire-cutting plays out.
A CNN team in Eagle Pass, Texas – recently the epicenter of the migrant crisis and near where three migrants drowned this month – spotted the razor wire Tuesday morning. The high court ruled 5-4 on Monday in a victory for President Joe Biden in the ongoing dispute with Texas over whether Border Patrol has the legal authority to cut concertina wire installed by Texas on the banks of the Rio Grande.
The day after the ruling, the Department of Homeland Security demanded Texas gives it “full access” to the border by January 26, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
Texas has said Eagle Pass’ Shelby Park area is open to the public, but US Customs and Border Protection have been blocked from accessing it, according to the letter.
The head of US Customs and Border Protection told CNN Tuesday the Supreme Court ruling “allows us to have access to the border so we can begin to gain access like we did before,” noting “the rest of the case is still under active litigation.”
There is currently “no timetable” on removing the wire, Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said.
Now, federal Customs and Border Protection agents stand ready to “swiftly” cut through the fencing in response to any life-saving or critical operational matters, a law enforcement source told CNN. They would promptly breach the fencing to render aid to any individual in distress or if otherwise deemed “operationally necessary,” the source added.
Texas (formerly an independent nation, as a reminder) says it won’t back down, so there’s a major political standoff here. But the loser may be Joe Biden come November, as a recent poll showed that immigration is the #1 issue for voters in this election cycle, narrowly edging out inflation.
[three]
Turkey, a nation that REALLY hates Russia, has flipped their stance and now support Sweden’s efforts to join NATO.
Turkey's parliament ratified Sweden's NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance after 20 months of delay.
Turkey's general assembly, where President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling alliance holds a majority, voted 287-55 to approve the application that Sweden first made in 2022 to bolster its security in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
All NATO members need to approve applications from countries seeking to join the alliance. When Sweden and Finland asked to join in 2022, Turkey raised objections over what it said was the two countries' protection of groups it deems terrorists.
It endorsed Finland's membership in April last year but, along with Hungary, had kept Sweden waiting.
"We support NATO enlargement to improve the alliance's deterrence efforts... We hope Finland and Sweden's attitude towards fighting terrorism sets an example for our other allies," Fuat Oktay, head of parliament's foreign affairs commission and a ruling AK Party member, said during debate.
Sweden can’t join unless Hungary votes yes…but about 10% of the Hungarian population favor close ties to Russia, not NATO, so the outcome is still TBD.
[four]
In case you forgot, there’s still a Presidential primary going on, because Nikki Haley, coming off back-to-back defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, is staying in the race.
NBC reports:
On Tuesday night, fresh from a loss that followed a third-place finish in Iowa, Haley said she had too much fight in her to throw in the towel, despite Donald Trump’s attempts to turn his sights on a general election contest.
On the night of her second-place finish in New Hampshire, Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and governor of South Carolina, pledged to plow forward to her home state, insisting she still had a path.
“I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last,” Haley said to cheers. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
Uhh, New Hampshire is technically second in the nation to the Iowa primary…where Haley finished second…from last. According to the Wall Street Journal this morning, Trump is polling at 70% in South Carolina, the state where Haley previously served as governor.
[five]
The Attorney General for New Mexico is suing Meta, parnent company of Facebook and Instagram, over claims the tech giant encourages pedophilia.
Last December the state of New Mexico sued Meta for failing to protect children, claiming that Facebook and Instagram algorithms recommended sexual content to minors. Now, an unredacted internal Meta presentation has been revealed, with the company's own employees estimating that 100,000 child users were harassed daily, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to a 2021 internal document, Facebook's "People You May Know" (PMYK) algorithm was singled out as a primary connector of children to predators. When employees reported those findings to Meta executives, they reportedly rejected recommendations that the algorithm be redesigned to stop recommending adults to minors.
The feature was responsible for 75 percent of all inappropriate adult-minor contact, according to one employee. "How on earth have we not just turned off PYMK between adults and children?" another employee said. "It's really, really upsetting," added another.
The issues were particularly insidious on Instagram, according to an internal 2020 memo, with "sex talk" 38 times more prevalent on that platform than Facebook Messenger in the US. In one case an Apple executive reported that his 12-year-old child was solicited on Instagram. "This is the kind of thing that pisses Apple off to the extend of threat[en]ing to remove us from the App Store," said an employee charged with addressing the issue.
Until the next one,
-sth