Some Republicans Furious at Trump Labor Pick, Haitian Warlord May Fall...to Haitian Vigilantes, NATO Prepares for "Wartime Secenario,"Boy Band Suicide...Was Murder?! (The Five for 11/26/24)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
No podcast this week (due to Thanksgiving), but the Culture & Commentary edition will drop on Black Friday.
With that being said, let’s dive into the news.
[one]
The warlord running Haiti at the moment (who, for the record, has murdered multiple Americans working in the country) came up
For months, Haitian warlord Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier has been in the habit of announcing on social media the next targets of his brutal foot soldiers.
Seemingly drunk on his own power in a shattered society where the rule of law and government institutions are notable only for their absence, the gang leader has issued death threats against everyone from the country’s interim government to international peacekeepers.
But telegraphing his next operational move in a public video this week proved disastrous for him and his Vivre Ensemble alliance of trigger-happy thugs, after it gave police and vigilantes a chance to prepare their fightback.
In the video, Cherizier said that his men would target any hotels in Petionville, an affluent suburb in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, hosting members of the transitional council, a panel charged with organising the country’s first elections in a decade. Describing them as “oligarchs”, he said the only way they could save themselves would be by stepping down.
A few hours later, in the small hours on Tuesday, two trucks carrying dozens of his heavily-armed men swung into Petionville, one of them parking across the main road into the suburb to block residents from fleeing.
Dawn revealed a scene of carnage. Yet it was the gangsters who had paid the heaviest price for their attempts to terrorise the suburb.
Their mutilated corpses littered the streets. Some had been decapitated. Others had had their feet hacked off. There was also a pile of smouldering bodies which neighbours had set alight. At least 28 Vivre Ensemble members are confirmed to have died.
Well, as cliche as it is to end this segment by pointing out that “live by the sword, die by the sword” applies…it does.
[two]
In the last 30 days, President-elect Trump has drawn the ire of Democrats over hard-right nominees Pete Hegseth and Matt Gaetz (who has already dropped out, due to lack of Senate support). Now it’s Republicans' turn to be upset, about a heavily pro-union pick for Labor Secretary.
Chavez-DeRemer is a one-term congresswoman, having lost reelection in her competitive Oregon district earlier this month. But in her short stint on Capitol Hill she has established a clear record on workers’ rights and organized labor issues that belie the Republican Party’s usual alliances with business interests.
She was an enthusiastic back of the PRO Act, legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level. The bill, one of Democratic President Joe Biden’s top legislative priorities, passed the House during Biden’s first two years in office, when Democrats controlled the chamber. But it never had a chance of attracting enough Republican senators to reach the 60 votes required to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored another piece of legislation that would protect public-sector workers from having their Social Security benefits docked because of government pension benefits. That proposal also has lingered for a lack of GOP support.
Chavez-DeRemer may give labor plenty to like, but union leaders are not necessarily cheering yet. Many of them still do not trust Trump.
The president-elect certainly has styled himself as a friend of the working class. His bond with blue-collar, non-college educated Americans is a core part of his political identity and helped him chip away at Democrats’ historical electoral advantage in households with unionized workers.
Whatever your assumptions were about the rules of politics going into 2025…might as well scrap them. We’re in uncharted territory.
[three]
A top NATO leader is telling European business leaders to prepare for war.
The chair of NATO’s military committee warned business leaders to prepare for a “wartime scenario” and bring their production lines back home, rather than relying on China or Russia, to avoid blackmail or sabotage — as former and future US President Donald Trump has vowed to restore his “America First” agenda.
Speaking at an event Monday for the European Policy Centre think tank, Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer said instability in global politics could leave businesses at the mercy of foreign governments, especially if war were to break out.
“Businesses need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly,” Bauer said. “Because while it may be the military who wins battles, it’s the economies that win wars.”
The NATO military chair said Europe has already gotten a taste of this over the tumultuous Gazprom fuel deal, the terms of which Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped in to change following the European Union’s backing of Ukraine in 2022.
“We thought we had a deal with Gazprom, but we actually had a deal with Mr. Putin,” Bauer said.
One guy’s opinion doesn’t mean Europe is going to erupt in a larger war…but it’s also not nothing.
[four]
Major corporations are rolling back DEI…with Wal-Mart now joining the trend of reversing it’s corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
The changes, confirmed by Walmart on Monday, are sweeping and include everything from not renewing a five-year commitment for an equity racial center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, to pulling out of a prominent gay rights index. And when it comes to race or gender, Walmart won't be giving priority treatment to suppliers.
Walmart's moves underscore the increasing pressure faced by corporate America as it continues to navigate the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June 2023 ending affirmative action in college admissions. Emboldened by that decision, conservative groups have filed lawsuits making similar arguments about corporations, targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.
Separately, conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe's and Tractor Supply.
But Walmart, which employs 1.6 million workers in the U.S., is the largest one to do so.
"This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America," Starbuck wrote on X, adding that he had been in conversation with Walmart.
[five]
Liam Payne, formerly of the boy band One Direction, who allegedly died by suicide or accident in Argentina, may have died from something more sinister.
The latest report into the death of former One Direction member Liam Payne leaves more questions than answers following his fatal fall from the balcony of his hotel room on October 16. He was 31.
According to surveillance video footage from the hotel, witnesses, a 911 call and the police, the singer may not have been trying to end his life, but rather could have been using the balcony as a means to escape his Buenos Aires CasaSur Palermo Hotel, TMZ reported.
In one video from the hotel, minutes before his death, the singer is being carried out of the lobby by three men. In a second video, those same men use their key to get the singer inside his room while he struggled to get free.
The outlet also learned that Payne’s hat was located close to where his body was found in the hotel courtyard and strapped to his shoulder was a bag, leading some to speculate that he was trying to leave via the balcony.
After his death, a brown leather bag was found on a second floor balcony leading the outlet to suggest that Payne may have only been attempting to get from the third floor balcony to the second when something went wrong. A note inside the bag read “for Liam,” and the bag also contained various pills and a bottle of alcohol.
Multiple 911 calls made by the hotel staff minutes before the singer’s shocking fatal fall appear to support the idea.
Until the next one,
-sth