The F*ckin' Newsletter July 8-14, 2024

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

WEEKLY RECAP

Busy week! France, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, Barcelona, Cape Town, Merafong, India, Japan, the Philippines, Central and South America, Bulgaria, Copenhagen, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and in the United States: Texas, Baltimore, Delaware, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania all made it into the F*ckin’ News. Watch it all in this week’s round-up below:

MONDAY, JULY 8 (Click here to watch on TikTok)

On Monday I reported on France’s run-off election, Iran’s new President, Hurricane Beryl hitting Texas, and Russia’s missile bombardment in Ukraine that hit a children’s hospital.

NOTES/UPDATES: 

• A few days after France’s parliamentary election, President Emmanuel Macron wrote a letter to French citizens, which was published in the local press, expressing his dissatisfaction with the results. "No one has won.” He said in one part of the letter. “No political force has obtained a sufficient majority on its own, and the blocs or coalitions that have emerged from these elections are all in the minority." You can read his full letter HERE. (It’s in French so if you don’t read French, you’ll have to translate.)

• Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian made a victory speech… which Al Jazeera broadcast with English translation here. You can watch that here:

• The new Iranian President also wrote this “Letter to the New World” in which he reconfirmed Iran’s stance against nuclear weapons, support for Russia and China, and a warning to the United States about its various sanctions around the world, which he deems unlawful. You can read it HERE.

• Almost a week after Hurricane Beryl touched down in Texas, some are still without power. A FEMA emergency has been issued for some counties. The storm dissipated significantly as it moved into Arkansas… you can watch the Hurricane’s full run in this satellite footage:

• The death toll from Monday’s Russian attack on Ukraine has risen to 41 civilians. Russia claimed that were not responsible for the strike and instead that the children’s hospital had been struck by a Ukrainian defense missile. (I had a number of people in the comments say this was true.) But Russia provided no evidence to back its claim. Meanwhile, multiple news outlets and the UN did their own investigations and concluded that the hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile. What do you think? (Remember, polls are anonymous, and only for fun.)

• There were also reports of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wife buying a multi-million dollar Bugatti. But that turns out to have been not true. A disinformation campaign (supposedly generated by Russia) that used fake documents and deep fake technology to push the made-up narrative.

KELLERMAN’S FAVORITE COMMENTS:

“Hung Parliament” is by no means a new phrase… but this may be a new pick-up line.

I get this a lot. And it’s understandable. Who wants to put a “heart” on all these terrible things going on around the world? Still… liking the posts keeps me in the algorithm so it’s important.

This is dumb. But it made me laugh.

It’s true, I do get shadow banned fairly often on social media platforms because I don’t use “algo-speak” phrases like “unalived” instead of killed or “SA” instead of Sexual Assault. I just say the actual words because… well, fuck that! I also talk about Israel, and Gaza, and Russia, and who knows how many places that opposing countries have blocked in their regions.

TUESDAY, JULY 9 (Click here to watch on TikTok)

Tuesday I caught everyone up on some of things going on in the Greater Middle East, including Pakistan deporting Afghan migrants until Amnesty International asked them to stop, Israel volleying missile attacks with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the US House barring the State Department from citing the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll numbers in their reports, the Lancet Medical Journal essay estimating a much higher death count, and the recent events in Gaza that have killed Israeli soldiers, Hamas soldiers, and Gaza civilians including a school that was being used for Gazan refugees being struck by the IDF.

NOTES/UPDATES: 

• First, I should say that I was corrected by MANY commenters that Pakistan is not part of the “Middle East”. And it’s true, more accurately, Pakistan and Afghanistan are part of the “Greater Middle East” and are not traditional Middle Eastern countries.

• The day after Amnesty International called for Pakistan to stop deporting Afghan migrants, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended its delay on deportations for another year, allowing 1.45 million Afghans to stay in the country until June 30, 2025.

• The Lancet Medical Journal essay was a bit controversial. And before I continue, I should clarify that it was technically an open letter, and not study or something of the like. I thought I had made it clear that this estimate is a POSSIBLE death toll, but I still had a lot of people come at me in the comments as if I was concluding that it was THE accurate death toll. So to clarify… it is not. It is, in fact, an estimate of deaths that INCLUDES future deaths related to malnutrition and a calculation that essentially just multiples the deaths caused directly by violence by 4. If you’re so inclined, you can read the letter HERE.

• As for the IDF strike on the school in Gaza housing refugees… some people wanted me to make a clearer distinction that even though it is a school building… is it not as though school is in session and the IDF targeted children. (Though the refugee encampment built onto the school building was also hit by the blast.) And there was a viral video of people playing soccer outside just as the building was struck… but I believe the context of that video is a bit misleading because… according to reports, they had been warned and told to evacuate. There are, of course, reports of people being shot as they evacuate… though that is not always the case… so I guess I can understand people NOT evacuating/taking that risk. But the video of the soccer game creates the impression that they had no idea this was coming… and that… is not true. And I mean no disrespect to any of these people, I’m simply speaking as a Westerner that sees A LOT of videos with assumed context.

KELLERMAN’S FAVORITE COMMENTS:

WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 (Click here to watch on TikTok)

Wednesday’s report covered the anti-tourism protests that have been happening in Barcelona and the mayor’s plans to curb tourism, Boeing’s multi-million dollar plea-deal, NASA’s Mars simulation crew emerging from their habitat after over a year, and new study that raised concerns about the amount of toxic metals found in a majority of tampons currently on the market.

NOTES/UPDATES: 

• Spain’s Tourism Minister condemned the actions of the protestors harassing tourists in Barcelona, but the “Tourists-Go-Home” movement continues spreading across European holiday spots across Spain.

• This Mars simulation that NASA conducted was it’s first… you can see the emergence of its crew along with their speeches here:

• Here’s an outtake where I gave my 2 cents on this whole Mars simulation… and besides just being unnecessary, I also misspoke so… it was left out of the episode.

• And I included a little joke/snippet after the episode where I said that I had not been prepared for my TikTok video search of “tampons”… If you didn’t see it, it was this:

KELLERMAN’S FAVORITE COMMENTS:

I was also surprised that this was the first study to measure this the toxic metals in feminine products…

I’M SORRY, BUT FOR THE REST OF THIS WEEK’S UPDATES, OUTTAKE VIDEOS, AND POLLS, YOU GOTTA BE A PAID SUBSCRIBER! (AND I KNOW THAT SUCKS BUT ALSO, LIKE, GIVE ME A BREAK. THIS TAKES A LOT OF TIME!)

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