A year of war, tumult, and seismic change |
It’s the first anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that left 1,200 Israelis dead and set off a chain reaction of events that have reshaped the region, the world, and many of our individual lives in ways large and small.
The attack sparked an unrelenting Israeli military offensive against Palestinians in Gaza that has left more than 40,000 people dead and a subsequent global conversation about military aggression. Turmoil and accusations of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism on college campuses across the US quickly followed, culminating in resignations of top administrators. Employers have grappled with free speech issues in the workplace. Arab American voters are parting with the Democrats over Gaza policy. And more recently, violence has spilled over into other parts of the Middle East, with Israel invading southern Lebanon.
As Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp wrote this week, we are now “living in a world fundamentally reshaped by Hamas’s October 7 murder spree and Israel’s bloody reprisal, with no sense on the horizon that what’s broken will be repaired.”
Today, we’re highlighting two new pieces reckoning with the past year and re-sharing coverage of some of the big moments that defined it.
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How Hamas’s attack and Israel’s response broke the world
"To call the past year a global tragedy is not to distract from the most immediate victims, the Israelis and Palestinians killed and immiserated by bullets and bombs," writes Zack Beauchamp. "Rather, it is to put the full range of consequences into view: to show that events that might seem contained to the Middle East have come to hurt people around the world in ways that we may not yet fully understand or even be capable of predicting. This is not a world war, but it is a global tragedy."
Is the Israeli military ever leaving Gaza?
"A ceasefire in Gaza remains elusive. Multiple rounds of US-led talks aimed at securing a pause in the fighting and a return of hostages have come to naught, with Netanyahu repeatedly insisting on maintaining an Israeli military presence in Gaza after the war," writes Joshua Keating. Is the conflict transforming into a “forever war”? |
Fatih Aktas/Anadolu/Getty Images |
The growing global support for a Gaza ceasefire, explained
By December 2023, a UN vote saw 153 countries in the body’s General Assembly, an overwhelming majority, voting in favor of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The ICJ orders in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, explained
The following month, South Africa brought a case against Israel accusing it of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in its war in Gaza. That case has yet to be decided.
TikTok isn’t creating false support for Palestine. It’s just reflecting what’s already there.
Lawmakers last fall accused TikTok of pushing pro-Palestine videos into users’ For You pages, quietly indoctrinating America’s young people against the state of Israel. But as Rebecca Jennings wrote, to accuse TikTok of indoctrination is to misunderstand its users. "It is an app dominated by young people, and young people happen to sympathize with Palestine."
Most of Israel’s weapons imports come from the US. Now Biden is rushing even more arms.
Israel has received about $3 billion annually, adjusted for inflation, for the last 50 years, and is the largest historical recipient of US security aid. The war increased that figure. |
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images |
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| Puberty hits different now |
Kids are going through puberty earlier, and scientists think they have found another reason why. Pediatrician Dr. Cara Natterson and puberty educator Vanessa Kroll Bennett explain why it should also change the way we talk about puberty. |
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Florence Panoussian/AFP via Getty Images |
An Ebola-like virus outbreak strikes Rwanda: Marburg is a severe and often fatal disease, and according to the World Health Organization, a total of 36 cases and 11 deaths have been reported, making it one of the largest Marburg outbreaks in history. While there is no approved treatment, scientists are working to identify an effective vaccine that could protect millions of people.
How health care suffers at the hands of private equity: Private equity takeovers in health care have steadily increased in the last 25 years, converging with factors like poor hospital budgets and a lack of legislative reform to leave doctors burnt out and patients confused about treatment and billing.
SNL, but the N stands for nostalgia: Season 50 of Saturday Night Live is sure to be full of self-referential moments, relying on its audience to want to reminisce and stick around for the inside jokes. Executive producer Lorne Michaels clearly is enjoying his victory lap — but will viewers feel the same way?
Hotober, explained: The western United States is experiencing record warm temperatures right now. Palm Springs, California, hit a staggering 117 degrees last Tuesday, setting a new October record. This October-specific heat is caused by a “heat dome” — an effect of climate change that involves a high-pressure system trapping heat closer to the Earth’s surface.
A musical Joker? Following a trend of movies like Mean Girls, Wonka, The Color Purple, and this November’s upcoming Wicked film, the marketing team behind Joker: Folie à Deux did not make it clear that the movie is a musical. While the choice may be an effort not to alienate Joker’s original audience, the strangest part of the film is not that it’s a musical. It’s that it’s a ... courtroom procedural?
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Bible study, with Trump’s bible: Oklahoma schools superintendent Ryan Walters wants to bring bibles into classrooms across the state. But according to criteria from the state’s Department of Education, only a few bibles are eligible, including Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and often referred to as “the Trump Bible.” [The Oklahoman]
Could crypto’s biggest mystery be solved? Tomorrow night, Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery is set to premiere on HBO. The documentary claims to have uncovered the truth behind the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the likely fake name adopted by the creator (or creators) of bitcoin. [Politico]
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Janos Kummer/Getty Images
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Rethinking animal autonomy |
One of the core reasons for the controversy around Turkey’s stray-animal law — which in 2004 gave all animals domesticated or ownerless the right to protection and a comfortable life — is that street animals play a significant part of the country’s history and culture, unlike what we see in the United States. (I wrote about the law, which included provisions on neutering and vaccinating stray animals before returning them to where they were found.)
Documentaries like Stray and Kedi are good showcases of how cats and dogs in Istanbul survive and cohabitate in a human-dominated world. It can be unusual for some of us to think of domesticated animals like these being unclaimed. But my colleague Kenny Torrella wrote a strong case against pet ownership that raised questions of what more autonomy and agency for these creatures could look like. His story and the films may complicate your view of street dogs and animal welfare, as it did mine, but it has also given me a much richer lens through which to view these issues.
—Sam Delgado, Future Perfect fellow |
Elena Zaretskaya/Getty Images |
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Today’s edition was produced and edited by senior editor Lavanya Ramanathan, with contributions from staff editor Melinda Fakuade. We'll see you tomorrow! |
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