The F*ckin' Newsletter 6.23.24

Welcome to The F*ckin’ Newsletter. I’m your host Kellerman, and a lot of sh*t happened this week…

WEEKLY RECAP

Ok, let’s see... the places that made The F*ckin’ News this week were Honduras, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Cuba, Israel, Gaza, Thailand, North Korea, India, Italy, Chad, Kenya, England, and the United States. And what a week it was.

MONDAY, JUNE 17 (Click here to watch on TikTok)

Monday’s report covered Honduras’ government crackdown on gang violence. A mudslide in Ecuador. A fake ‘petro-dollar’ deal between the US and Saudi Arabia. Russia’s military drills in Cuba. Israel dissolving its war cabinet. And the daily pauses in Gaza fighting for humanitarian aid to pass through a specified route.

NOTES/UPDATES: 

• Honduras is already putting their new crime policies into action, arresting an associate of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking in a New York City court a few months ago.

• France24 made a great summary of the situation that includes a piece of the current President Xiomara Castro’s speech announcing the crackdown with an English translation.

• When I reported on the mudslide in Ecuador, the numbers were 6 dead, 19 injured and 30 missing… those numbers have since been updated to 8 dead, 22 injured, and 11 missing.

• The information in the video below is outdated, but it’s a compilation of some of the destruction caused by the mudslide.

• Though everything I’ve read points the ‘petrodollar’ deal between the USA and Saudi Arabia being false (or at the very least - misunderstood), a number of commenters seems to think it’s real and the media is covering it up. So… which are you?

• Sooooo many people messaged me to cover Russia’s military drills in Cuba. And obviously… I understand why people were concerned, but I try to keep my reports to the events that ARE happening… not events that COULD have larger meanings. The fact is that I was keeping an eye on the reports, but this isn’t the first time Russia has done this. In fact they did it just last year, and nothing bad happened. Countries run military drills all the time, I don’t consider it particularly notable UNLESS something out of the ordinary happens (like when China was running drills outside of Taiwan and the military leaders were making overt threats when discussing why they were doing it).
  Obviously, I understand people on Florida beaches seeing Russian ships near the coast being scared. That is scary. Russia and the United States are not on great terms right now, divided by the U.S.’s support of Ukraine. And… I don’t like to accuse the media of fear-mongering… but there was a LOT of speculation about what Russia’s drills in Cuba COULD mean. And to be fair… could Russia have been flexing or trying to intimidate the US with this? Yes, of course. But they made no such claims and so it did not seem as important as some of the other things going on.
  And ultimately my decision not to report it was vindicated when… nothing happened! So I made my report about the fact that they were just routine drills that passed without incident.

• The Associated Press released some video of the Russian ships with little commentary:

• There have been reports of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu disagreeing with the IDF’s decision to pause operations along a designated humanitarian route every day… and though they seem to have been implemented anyway… it’s being reported that it has not made a significant difference in how much aid is making it into Gaza.

KELLERMAN’S FAVORITE COMMENTS:

You can get the news with cussing anywhere.

Oh… they’re coming in, they’re just not showing on camera yet!

I remain hopeful for peaceful resolutions to the conflicts around the world, and yet… the violence continues. (Deep sigh.)

TUESDAY, JUNE 18 (Click here to watch on TikTok)

In Tuesday’s report, I covered U.S. President Joe Biden’s new immigration policy, a new marriage equality bill recognizing same-sex marriage in Thailand, and Russian President Vladimir Putin flying to North Korea to meet with their leader Kim Jong Un.

NOTES/UPDATES: 

• I don’t know why this episode ended up being so goofy, but my voice cracked when I saw that the video of Joe Biden behind me, was just perfectly placed to appear like his hands were on my shoulders and I had to re-take the story. You also may have noticed that I had a difficult time saying “citizens’ spouses”!

• I also recorded this little watch-along video, for Biden’s speech about this decision and regardless about how you feel about the legislation… it was a bit difficult to understand him at times. Unfortunately, the mechanism I use to add captions to my videos… isn’t working so… you’ll just have to listen really hard.

• Originally, this video was going to START with the Vladimir Putin/Kim Jong Un story, but I accidentally said the word “treaty” in kind of a funny way, and realized that would give a natural pause leading into “follow me if you give a shit.” Here’s that original opening segment:

• Biden’s plan to not require immigrants applying for citizenship to leave the country during the process will affect 500,000 spouses who have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years. This always seemed like an oddly unnecessary part of the process to me anyway, but what do I know? I’m no immigration expert. A few days after this, the Supreme Court ruled that in the event a citizen’s spouse is denied a visa, the decision cannot be appealed.

• If you watched on TikTok, I included this blooper already, but I had a really hard time saying “Putin plans to propose what he calls a comprehensive strategic partnership”…

• Thailand’s marriage equality bill still awaits approval by the King (though I’ve read this is merely a formality) and then it will go into effect after 120 days. The Associated Press released a video of the Senate vote and its… oddly calm… supporters waiting outside.

• And at the time of my reporting, it had only been announced that Putin was “planning” to introduce the ‘comprehensive strategic partnership treaty’… and the next day it was reported that the two countries had, indeed, signed the Treaty. Though the exact text in the treaty has not been released, Russia and North Korea did release the key provisions:

  

• This story sparked a few branching stories… it’s been reported/speculated that part of the reason for this treaty is so that North Korea can supply arms to Russia and vice-versa, but Putin has denied this. Later in the week, South Korea announced that they would consider sending arms to Ukraine in what seems to be a direct response to the treaty news. Putin, as you might have expected, warned South Korea against providing munitions to Ukraine.

KELLERMAN’S FAVORITE COMMENTS:

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19 (Click here to watch on TikTok)

On Wednesday I reported on the 900 deaths during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, a train collision in India, two shipwrecks off the coast of Italy, and a deadly explosion in Chad.

NOTES/UPDATES: 

• The Hajj death toll is now being reported as over 1,100 with some sources saying it’s upwards of 1,300. From what I’ve read it sounds like there simply was not enough medical personnel along the route. Wikipedia is referring to this as the “2024 Hajj Disaster”.