Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. It's Friday, October 9. I'm Keli, with Hast.

KELI We'll start with the war. The United States is at war with Iran, and according to a new piece from The Intercept, no mass protest movement has taken shape in response — at least not in the forms historically associated with anti-war organizing. The piece notes the conflict is widely unpopular, but that opposition has not coalesced into the kind of visible street demonstrations that defined movements against the Vietnam War or the 2003 Iraq invasion.

HAST That gap is worth naming. The absence of a visible movement is itself a political fact. It may reflect organizing happening in decentralized or digital spaces, or it may reflect something more structural about how dissent functions when a country is actively engaged in hostilities. The Intercept is flagging the question. The answer is genuinely open.

KELI On a connected front: the International Criminal Court's president, Tomoko Akane, issued a sharp public rebuke of US sanctions targeting the court. The US government framed those sanctions as a defense of sovereignty. Akane called them, quote, an attack against sovereign states. The ICC is an independent international tribunal; the sanctions were imposed in response to the court's actions regarding US and allied personnel.

HAST The structural inversion here is direct. The US is using the language of sovereignty to justify sanctioning an institution that exists, in part, to arbitrate violations of international law. Akane is pointing at the logic, not just the politics.

KELI Staying in the region: more than one hundred humanitarian and human rights organizations have issued a joint statement saying the Gaza ceasefire, quote, exists in name only. The groups cite continued Israeli military operations inside the enclave, ongoing restrictions on aid, and sustained civilian casualties. The statement represents a coordinated public break from diplomatic language by a large portion of the international NGO community.

HAST The phrase "in name only" is doing a lot of work there, and deliberately so. When over a hundred organizations sign onto that framing simultaneously, it is a collective attempt to shift the evidentiary record, not just register frustration. Whether it changes the diplomatic posture of any government is a separate question.

KELI Back in the United States, there are two related developments around the planned military execution of Nidal Hasan. Hasan was convicted of premeditated murder in 2013 for the Fort Hood shooting, in which he killed thirteen service members and wounded thirty-two others. He is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3rd. That would be the first military execution in more than sixty years. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced plans to livestream the execution publicly. Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, has expressed doubt about the firing squad method and stated he will not watch the execution.

HAST Two things are separable here. The question of whether Hasan should be executed is a legal matter that has run its course through military courts. The question of whether to televise that execution is a policy choice Hegseth is making now. Vance's distancing from it is notable in part because Vance and Hegseth are on the same team — the public split, however mild, is unusual. The criticism from commentators is less about the penalty and more about what the decision to broadcast signals about intent.

KELI Also from the White House: the New York Times is reporting that Katie Zacharia has been chosen to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. Zacharia previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security and is a conservative media personality. The Times cited two people familiar with the decision. This is a developing story.

KELI Separately, President Trump announced the creation of a new committee to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. Those allegations have previously been found to be unsubstantiated. The Supreme Court ruled in June against Trump's earlier attempt to remove Cook. The new committee is scheduled to hold a hearing at the White House two days after the November midterm elections, and Trump is demanding Cook appear to testify. This represents the first presidential attempt to remove a sitting Fed board member since the central bank was established as an independent institution.

HAST The timeline on that hearing — two days after the midterms — is not incidental. And the use of a White House-convened committee to investigate an independent regulator, after the courts have already declined to authorize her removal, is the structural story. The Fed's independence from political direction is a foundational design element of US monetary policy. That design is being tested in real time.

KELI In aviation security: UAE authorities say the man accused of attempting to hijack a Flydubai flight on September 30th told investigators he was inspired by the September 11 attacks and wanted, in his words, the greatest possible number of casualties. Hamam al-Hammami allegedly stabbed the co-pilot multiple times in an attempt to crash the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight into Ben Gurion Airport. The attack was stopped by the other pilot. Authorities say al-Hammami has stated he chose a career in aviation specifically because of 9/11.

HAST That framing — a decades-long ideological fixation translated into a professional path toward attack — is something security analysts will be examining closely. The flight was en route to Tel Aviv, and the intended target was the airport itself. The fact that it was thwarted by the crew, not by any security checkpoint, is also part of the operational picture.

KELI Finally, a different kind of story. In Hualien, Taiwan, an artist who spent years as a mechanic has turned to wood carving, working primarily with driftwood collected from beaches after typhoons. The Christian Science Monitor profiles him as someone who finds — in the wreckage storms leave behind — material for something lasting.

HAST We'll leave that one where it sits.

KELI That's the Independent News Drop for Friday, October 9. From Inkwell, I'm Keli.

HAST And I'm Hast. We'll be back.

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. Over at Gil's Intelligent Version there's a piece on what the original words of scripture actually say about the Trinity — before any translation decided for us.

HAST Six words, examined in Hebrew and Greek. It's at inkwell dot wiki, slash trinity.