The Weekly Lift: November 21, 2024

Dear Subscribers

It is hard to believe that the U.S. presidential election has finally come to an end after a year and a half of trials and tribulations and billions of dollars spent. This cycle witnessed the last-minute withdrawal of a sitting president, a scramble by a new Democratic candidate to gain momentum, and, most notably, the political resurgence of Donald Trump. Once considered politically dead in 2021 after the insurrection of January 6th, Trump—now a convicted felon—has returned to dominate the political stage and secured a decisive victory two weeks ago.

The Democratic Party is licking its wounds and is trying to make sense of the outcome. However, in hindsight, this defeat seemed almost inevitable. Despite polls suggesting a close race, dissatisfaction with the economy, inflation, and immigration—key pillars of Trump’s campaign—topped voters’ concerns. Meanwhile, Democrats focused on issues like reproductive rights and identity politics, which ranked low on many voters’ priority lists.

Minority voters, once a reliable Democratic base, played a crucial role in Trump’s victory, coupled with lower-than-expected Democratic turnout. Vice President Kamala Harris, who had just three months to mount her campaign, struggled to inspire voters and overcome widespread discontent with the current administration—an uphill battle few could have won.

Now, attention turns to Trump’s cabinet appointments, which underscore his preference for loyalty and disruption over conventional expertise. Key names include Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, RFK Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Pete Hegseth, a Fox News anchor for Defense Secretary —figures likely to face significant opposition during Senate confirmation unless Trump succeeds in bypassing the vetting process.

On the foreign policy front, Trump’s selections reveal his continued support for Israel, a hardline stance on China, and an isolationist agenda. This could translate into reduced aid for NATO and Ukraine, and a withdrawal of U.S. support for international organizations like the United Nations.

What stands out in this unfolding scenario is how it mirrors Trump’s campaign promises and his voters’ expectations. Dissatisfaction with the economy and frustrations with the status quo paved the way for his victory, with supporters now counting on his policies to deliver rapid results.

Interestingly, one critical position remains unfulfilled: Treasury Secretary. While Trump has named most of his key officials at lightning speed, rumors suggest he is still deliberating this particular choice. His hesitation may reflect an understanding of the stakes involved. The Treasury role is pivotal to addressing economic concerns and fulfilling the promises that secured his victory.

Swing voters, whose late support tipped the scales in Trump’s favor, may have pinched their noses while voting for Donald Trump and are unlikely to extend much patience. The administration must move swiftly to restore confidence in the economy or risk losing the goodwill that propelled him back into office.

Saad

Creator and Editor

This week's selection of headlines and articles*:

Israel-Palestine Conflict: U.S. Imposes Sanctions On Israeli Settler Group Over West Bank Violence

The Globe and Mail (Canada) reports, "The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on Israeli settler group Amana, accusing the organization of helping perpetrate violence in the occupied West Bank, which has seen a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians.

Amana provides support to unauthorized settler outposts that are used to expand Jewish settlements and seize Palestinian land, the Treasury Department said in a statement announcing the sanctions, calling the group “a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement.”

The sanctions also target a subsidiary of Amana called Binyanei Bar Amana, described by the Treasury as a company that builds and sell homes in Israeli settlements and settler outposts.

The sanctions block Americans from any transactions with Amana and freeze its U.S.-held assets. The United Kingdom and Canada have also imposed sanctions on Amana.

The Treasury Department said Amana maintained ties to other people targeted in previous rounds of U.S. sanctions, including by providing loans to settlers who set up farms in the West Bank from which settlers commit violence.

“More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land,” it said.

The latest measures taken against Israeli settlers by the Biden administration could be quickly reversed under President-elect Donald Trump, whose incoming administration is expected to be pro-settler.

Israel has settled the West Bank since capturing it during the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians say the settlements have undermined the prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel views the West Bank as the biblical Judea and Samaria, and the settlers cite biblical ties to the land.

Settler violence had been on the rise prior to the eruption of the Gaza war, and has worsened since the conflict began over a year ago.

Most countries deem the settlements illegal under international law, a position disputed by Israel which sees the territory as a security bulwark. In 2019, the then-Trump administration abandoned the long-held U.S. position that the settlements are illegal before it was restored by President Joe Biden.

Last week, nearly 90 U.S. lawmakers urged Biden to impose sanctions on Amana, as well as on two ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank. The ministers have not been sanctioned."

Human Rights: In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Releases Dozens Of Incarcerated Prisoners After His Re-election

Le Monde (France) reports, "Scenes of embrace and moving reunions circulated on social networks after the Venezuelan prosecutor's office confirmed on Sunday, November 17, the release of 225 people arrested after the contested re-election of Nicolas Maduro on July 28.

The NGO Foro Penal has certified 131 releases. On Monday, dozens of families of inmates were still waiting in front of the four prisons in the country where the demonstrators were incarcerated, accused of "association of criminals", "incitement to hatred", "terrorism" and "betrayal of the homeland".

The leader of the opposition, Maria Corina Machado, reacted on Saturday by saluting, on the social network X, "the love and courage of families, as well as the rigorous work of the human rights defenders who allowed [these liberations]". Two days earlier, an activist from his party had died in detention. Jesus Martinez Medina, 36, had been an electoral observer for the opposition coalition, which supported Edmundo Gonzalez's presidential candidacy.

As soon as the technically inconsistent results of the July 28 vote were announced, opposition voters were convinced that there had been fraud. The next day, tens of thousands of them took to the streets throughout the country to demand the departure of Nicolas Maduro. The police arrested more than 2,000 demonstrators in three days, including several dozen teenagers. Other opponents were sent to prison in the following weeks. At the end of August, Edmundo Gonzalez was exiled in Spain. Remained in her country, Maria Corina Machado lives in hiding.

The National Electoral Council has never provided details of the results of the vote. The opposition, for its part, published on the Internet the minutes of thousands of polling stations that had been legally handed over to accredited observers. These documents confirm the overwhelming victory of Mr. Gonzalez The United States, Europe and most Latin American countries did not recognize Mr. Maduro

According to Foro Penal, 1,976 political prisoners (compared to 305 before the presidential election) were still incarcerated on November 14, including 69 under the age of 18. "A huge figure," says the organization's president, Alfredo Romero, denouncing "unprecedented repression". Relatives' families, human rights organizations and opposition parties have continued to be concerned about the "inhumane" conditions of detention inflicted on prisoners.

The liberations of recent days have apparently been decided by the Head of State himself. On November 11, referring to possible "procedural errors", Nicolas Maduro publicly called on Prosecutor Tarek Saab to re-examine a number of files "so that justice is done".

Observers wonder about the reasons for these releases. Is the government making a gesture to try to appease Donald Trump? Supporter of a policy of "maximum pressure" to obtain the departure of Mr. Maduro, the first Trump administration, imposed, in 2017 and 2019, sanctions that continue to heavily penalize the Venezuelan economy.

Mr. Maduro cautiously welcomed the victory of the American billionaire. He said he hoped that Donald Trump's "return to historic power" marks "a new beginning" for relations between the two countries. Unless surprised, Nicolas Maduro will be invested, on January 10, 2025, for a new six-year term."

Humanitarian Assistance: Morocco Sends Help To Flood-Hit Valencia: "They Are Soldiers Of The Sahara Who Work Without Stopping To Eat Or Rest"

El Pais (Spain) reports, "Drief Elkramar’s crew never stops. Their tanker truck has travelled almost 500 miles from the port city of Tangier, in Morocco, to Spain’s eastern Valencia province, where flash floods caused by record rainfall on October 29 left a trail of over 200 deaths and large-scale destruction. Now, residents of Calle Cruz Roja street in the municipality of Alfafar — just south of the city of Valencia — can breathe a sigh of relief.

Elkramar, 49, does not speak a single word of Spanish, but that is not a problem for the work that he and his crew are performing: cleaning the sewers without pause. One of his colleagues introduces a black hose an inch and a half wide into a drain pipe inside the courtyard of the house located at No.9 and starts pumping in water.

“The pressure is so strong it could pierce your leg,” explains Abselam Abbel-lah, who works for Civil Protection in the city of Ceuta and is acting as the interpreter for this Moroccan contingent specializing in unclogging drainage systems.

A few feet away, another worker locates the sewer that connects to the drain of the house and sticks in a wide suction hose that sucks up the mud and assorted trash clogging the pipes. The remains end up inside the tanker of the truck, which flies the Moroccan flag. From time to time, the truck departs to get rid of the mud and returns to start the process all over again.

Morocco has sent 36 tanker trucks and nearly a hundred workers to speed up the cleanup of the drainage systems, whose poor condition is now one of the biggest public health problems facing the towns most affected by the flash floods, which destroyed homes, carried away vehicles and filled everything with a thick mix of water, mud and debris.

The cleanup work in this corner of Alfafar is proving complicated because all the pipes in the neighborhood converge on the 30 feet of road that make up Calle Cruz Roja, where around 20 families reside, explains Juan Sebastiá, coordinator of the cleanup operation in Alfafar.

And the problem is aggravated because the main drainage corridors are full of all kinds of trash. “Yesterday we pulled a toilet out of the sewer,” explains this official, jumping on an uncovered sewer topped by a solid mountain of rubble. The help provided by the Moroccan contingent has been vital.

These workers parked their first tanker truck on Friday morning. For most of the locals, their arrival was a complete surprise. Since then, a team of six people has been working tirelessly; from time to time a neighbor comes over to ask for a favor that has nothing to do with the muddy sewers, such as opening a jammed lock or moving a vehicle to clear the way. “They are warriors of the Sahara who work without stopping to eat or rest,” says Ayman, the interpreter who accompanies the team.

Virginia Barcones, Spain’s Director General of Civil Protection and Emergency, explains that this Moroccan contingent has been joined by around 100 more volunteers from France and Portugal who have brought along excavators, backhoes and cargo trucks. These are in addition to the 94 Spanish sewer dredging trucks working in the area.

Barcones, whose department answers to Spain’s central government, said that Morocco offered to help “from the first day after the tragedy” but that regional authorities in Valencia did not inform the National Centre for Monitoring and Coordination of Emergencies (CENEM) that the help was being accepted until midday on 12 November, almost two weeks after the flooding.

“We insisted every possible way, but the system is like that, whoever is in charge makes the decisions, in this case, the [Valencian] regional government,” said Barcones, reflecting the ongoing political wrangling over who was supposed to have dealt with the emergency that day. Affected residents have complained that they were left to fend for themselves in the days following the tragedy, and that the only significant help came from thousands of self-organized volunteers who flocked to the area from all parts of Spain.

Inside the home of Juan Madrigal, a water mark on the wall indicates how high the floodwaters reached, about 60 inches. Madrigal says that the cleanup work has not stopped since then, and that all the progress achieved has been thanks to the help of volunteers.

“The first week we had cars in the streets, the next week, there was furniture, and now we have muddy water that we cannot drain.” In Madrigal’s garage, which is directly connected to the house via a staircase, there are almost four inches of mud covering everything.

Communication with the Moroccan workers has not been a problem, says Madrigal. “If you want to understand each other, you can always find a way, even if you don’t speak the same language,” he says, calling their assistance “wonderful.” For other neighbors, the cleaning problems are compounded by the fact that the mud has been mixed with fecal waste from downpipes destroyed by the flooding.

Sebastiá, the coordinator of the area, explains that they have had problems cleaning these buildings because this type of contaminated mud must be transported to locations far away from urban centers, and they have not yet received authorization to transport it.

“In this neighborhood, we’ve had to wear facemasks almost from day one,” explains Laura Hernández, who lives at No. 14 and remarks that some volunteers who came to help returned home with respiratory and skin problems. The regional government has warned that strong winds expected in the coming days may generate dust, and the use of masks has been recommended.

The smell has improved as the drainage work has progressed. But the magnitude of the challenge has exceeded the expectations of Elkramar, who has been working in drainage system cleaning for 25 years. This expert from Tangier admits that these have been the most difficult days he can remember. Unblocking the sewage system of the entire street has taken him and his team almost two days, with working days that begin at 7 a.m. and end when darkness falls, at around 6 p.m.

Abbel-lah explains that there are six other groups working in the affected municipalities, and that each day a coordinator assigns them a different street. Elkramar notes that they have arrived without a return date. He believes that, given the magnitude of the problem, they will spend several more weeks in the town.

Jesús Sonera, manager of the sewage cleanup company Desatranques Jaén, explained to EL PAíS that there are nearly 500 miles of blocked pipes in the towns south of the city of Valencia. According to his calculations, each truck could clear approximately 1300 feet a week, working in 12-hour shifts. With a fleet of 100 trucks dedicated to the task, it would take around five months of continuous work to complete the cleanup job.

Laura Hernández, from No. 14, says that Spanish workers from the regions of Guadalajara, the Canary Islands, Alicante and Galicia arrived in the area earlier, but without tanker trucks or machinery to help with the cleanup. She smiles with relief, because thanks to the help from abroad, with every passing day the situation on her street is getting closer to normal."

Climate: Everything About Climate Change May Seem Grim. It Isn’t

The Economist (UK) reports, "If the field of global warming seems to offer little that is new, there is good reason. Very little in climate change is actually changing. Not every year is warmer than the previous one, as this year is; not every year sets a global temperature record, as this one will. But the trend is inexorable.

With each of these years come familiar disasters, terrible for those affected, frightening—and sometimes guiltily fascinating—to those looking on. This year it was flooding in Brazil, Nepal, Spain and elsewhere; heatwaves first in Asia and the Sahel, and then America and Mexico. Autumn brings the annual rounds of diplomacy at the unGeneral Assembly and the inevitable diplomatic-roadshow-cum-trade-fair for the climate: cop, held this year in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital.

True, there are novelties. The climate establishment throws up its arms at the re-election of Donald Trump, and it has its reasons: his second term is unlikely to be good for Americans afflicted by climate-related disasters, or climate scientists seeking funds. American emissions may rise, diplomatic engagement will fall. But graphs of global temperature and global emissions do not respond to shifts in administration in single countries.?All remains as it is.

One final fixed feature, though, inspires hope rather than dread or resignation. Every year renewables get cheaper—especially solar panels; every year the installed base grows. Last year China added more solar capacity at home than the whole world could boast in 2015, when the Paris agreement was signed.

As roll-outs get bigger, prices drop lower and larger roll-outs become feasible. This is the change that you can rely on. It provides reason to believe that the world is not as stuck as it seems. Emissions can and will fall.

Technology has always been a vital part of the fight to regain control over the climate. At the moment it is close to the whole story. Economic modelling has routinely underestimated the rate at which solar panels, batteries and wind turbines can get cheaper.

That is one of the reasons why, as our Briefing reports, estimates of the cost of decarbonising the energy system are routinely too high. The difference between the annual investment needed to meet new energy demand with clean technology and without it appears to be under 1% of all countries’ gdp.

Acknowledging the centrality of technology does not mean simply leaving it to get on with the job. The history of energy shows that new technologies do not sweep old ones away. They tend to be additions, not replacements, and often provide new ways of using old fuels. To get a more thorough displacement this time means rearranging the world so that renewables make even more sense.

Grids need to be expanded to the sites where these new sources of energy are best exploited. They need to be re-engineered, through storage and demand management, to deal better with renewables’ intermittency.

Grids must also be ready to take on new sources of constant power. Ambitious schemes to achieve these goals, like those of Ed Miliband, Britain’s minister for climate change, are welcome. But they are not enough.

A disproportionate share of the necessary technology comes from China. A huge internal market, a lack of domestic oil and gas, world-class manufacturing networks and lavish subsidies have seen it grow into the dominant force in solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and more. If the transition to a clean-energy world is to be cheap, these goods need to be able to find all the markets they can. A global trade war would do terrible damage.

Poor countries in which capital is costly need help. Renewables have higher capital costs and lower operating costs than technologies which have to buy fuel, and that hurts people without ready access to finance. Rich countries have moral and pragmatic reasons to provide financial help to the global south.

They could, for example, guarantee loans so as to lower their cost. There is also a case for programmes to help countries ditch coal, the dirtiest fuel. Alas, the “Just Energy Transition Partnerships” meant to bring this about have not lived up to their promise."

Peace & Reconciliation: "No Use for Hatred": A Village Seeks to Move On From a U.S. Massacre

The New York Times (US) reports, "The strawberry ice cream for sale by the ticket booth seemed out of place at the museum to the My Lai massacre, one of America’s most ghastly crimes of war. The parking lot held a single car. Only a wide sign near the entrance explained the significance of the location.

It showed a map of the area as it looked on the morning of March 16, 1968, when a company of American soldiers showed up and killed more than 500 women, children and older men, raping girls, mutilating bodies and burning homes with families still inside.

One of the massacre’s survivors, Nguyen Hong Mang, would tell me later that he had met the soldiers with a smile, shouting, “Welcome, Americans!” He was 14.

Retelling such horrors, to visiting strangers and with a museum right where you live, takes a special kind of courage. Most war memorials in Vietnam focus on revolutionary heroes. My Lai is pure tragedy. And the way the affected hamlets deal with one of the war’s worst atrocities says a lot about how to honor trauma without becoming defined by its scars.

Over two days in Son My, the village 95 miles south of Danang that includes My Lai and other rural hamlets, I was often struck by efforts to treat hatred like a virus, to suppress its power, to avoid passing it on or letting it grow.

Five decades ago, weary American soldiers angry about recently killed colleagues took out their murderous frustration on helpless villagers. This year, the most bloodthirsty platoon commander, William L. Calley Jr., who was convicted of killing at least 22 people, died, spurring obituaries and bouts of reflection in the United States.

Yet survivors in the village mostly did not even know he was dead; instead, they spoke of those who did not kill, or who tried to stop the slaughter.

My experience of such generosity began with a museum video offering only a brief mention of Lieutenant Calley. It noted that while 25 soldiers were charged with murder, only he was found guilty, with a sentence that amounted to house arrest for a little more than three years.

The video mostly featured the museum’s director, Pham Thanh Cong, another survivor, meeting an American soldier involved in the massacre, and staying calm. A second video, in Vietnamese, was even more magnanimous. A narrator highlighted a handful of humane soldiers: one who intentionally shot himself in the leg to avoid taking part in the violence, a helicopter crew that eventually intervened to stop the killing.

On the way out, I flipped through a book of visitors’ comments. “That Calley is free, that no one paid, is all wrong,” wrote an American from Seattle in 2003. A few pages later, a Vietnamese official, Nguyen Dang Vang, described the village’s resilience as “an inspiration for future generations,” barely mentioning the United States.

It was the sign of a resilient nation — Vietnam often tops Gallup’s ranking of the most optimistic countries — eager to seek prosperity with past enemies. “One of the first things that many Americans notice when they go to Vietnam is that Americans are not just welcomed, not just tolerated — there is genuine enthusiasm,” said Edward Miller, a historian of modern Vietnam at Dartmouth.

In part, he noted, that is because the war’s atrocities have been countered by time. More than half of Vietnam’s population was born after the conflict ended. Many Vietnamese also hold fast to an idealized version of the United States, shaped by relatives who moved there.

But Americans tend to oversimplify Vietnamese good will. In the streets around the museum, forgetting was impossible, forgiveness earned.

At a one-story house just beyond the museum’s outer walls, two graying women were chatting outside. Pham Thi Tuong, 64, was just a young girl when the Americans landed. She and her family had hid near where she was sitting, in an underground shelter, shaking with fear at the sound of helicopters, screams and bone-shattering gunfire.

“When I finally got out of the shelter around noon, there were so many dead bodies,” Ms. Tuong said. “I was so small I didn’t know what to think.” Her friend, Truong Thi Son, 67, said her husband’s family was killed. “I carried a lot of hatred for a long time,” she said.

And now? “So many people go to the U.S. to study, and so many Americans come here,” Ms. Son said. “If we feel hatred now, what’s the use? There’s no use for hatred.”

Upon hearing that Lieutenant Calley had died, Ms. Son felt neither relief nor anything else: He did not deserve a second of her attention. Ms. Tuong longed for accountability. “It was so brutal,” she said. “They destroyed everything. They burned the houses, the banana trees, the animals.”

She suggested we keep going, past the rice fields, to see Mr. Mang, the one who had shouted, “Welcome, Americans!” He was 71 now, a farmer who raised cows and coconuts. He guided us into his kitchen, where new tiles with white flowers brightened the walls. “I don’t like to talk too often about what happened because it touches old wounds and the hatred that we once had,” he said.

Deep wrinkles encircled his eyes. “I survived because the Americans shooting everyone ran out of bullets,” he said. For nearly an hour, he recounted a day that seemed to never end as he hid under bodies seeping blood, so much blood, he said, “it was like pouring water from a bottle.”

At one point, I tried to shift the conversation, to give him an off-ramp. He insisted on continuing. His voice rose — “they killed pregnant women, small children, I will not forget” — as if wanting the world to hear. By the end, as his tears dried, he landed where the museum tried to guide people: to a place where remembering was vital but rage was not.

He and his neighbors, like Tran Thi Diep, 67, who smiled as she greeted her grandson returning from school to a new home with white marble floors, had worked tirelessly to break the cycle of darkness, to put children through universities. “I sold pigs and rice,” she said.

Her son was now an electrical engineer at a nearby factory. She envisioned a time when My Lai would mean more than horror. “I want everyone to remember the pain, the brutality, the blood and bone — the losses,” she said. “But I also want this village to be known for transformation, for moving from hardship to prosperity.”

The museum has also evolved. It started out with grisly photographs. A more recent design features a diorama of armed Americans looming over villagers — still frightening, but less graphic.

The longtime director, Mr. Cong, 67, the only survivor in his family after an American soldier threw a grenade where they were hiding, said the museum existed to remind people what happened “and to cherish and protect peace.” He approved the cooler of ice cream.

He said he had been touched by what he had witnessed over the years, especially when a few remorseful American soldiers returned and spent hours on their knees, repenting.

Lieutenant Calley was not among them. “I always kept the door open, welcoming him to return,” Mr. Cong said. “Now he is gone. I am not angry.”

In the museum’s gardens, mud footpaths between rows of reconstructed thatched-roof huts have been turned into concrete showing bike tracks, footprints and the distinctive marks of American military boots. It made me think of young Vietnamese fleeing young Americans. Much of Vietnam now wants to imagine them walking together."

*Please note that certain headlines and articles may have been modified or summarized to fit the format of the newsletter.

All feedback and comments are welcome.