The Stranger’s morning news round-up.

by Nathalie Graham

Zebra nabbed: All illegal frolics must come to an end. On Friday, a group of “ordinary folks” and animal control wrangled the North Bend zebra, who had been on the loose for about a week after escaping from a trailer. Apparently, the zebra, who locals dubbed Z, is actually named Sugar, or Shug, for short. Shug’s off to Montana now, the place she and her zebra friends were headed when they broke loose from the trailer transporting them last week. 

Israel ground invasion seems imminent: Israel ordered the evacuation of around 100,000 Palestinians living in Rafah, the southern city in Gaza where 1.4 million Palestinians originally fled to avoid conflict with Israel. Now, Israel is telling people in parts of Rafah to evacuate to Muwasi, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone already packed with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in squalid conditions. With these evacuation orders, an Israel ground invasion into Rafah seems imminent despite warnings from Israel’s international allies. 

Al Jazeera shut down in Israel: Just before the new evacuation orders, Israel shut down Qatari-based news organization Al Jazeera within its borders and seized communications equipment. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet, “The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.” Al Jazeera has been largely responsible for dogged on-the-ground coverage and the world’s understanding of the actual goings-on of the war. Al Jazeera called the closure of its Israeli operation a “criminal act.” Banning the press and stifling speech is not something a democracy does. 

No campus-wide commencement for Columbia: The university announced Monday it was canceling its main commencement ceremony on May 15 and instead will focus on smaller “school-based celebrations,” according to NBC News. The commencement pivot comes after weeks of high-tension protests on the campus. Columbia said security concerns were a main factor in the decision. 

A hopeful weather week: This week will start off colder and wetter. Each day, however, should get progressively warmer and drier until, around Saturday, we hit the 80s in Seattle. Wow, summer already! 

We are going to go from winter to summer weather in the span of 6 days. The Sunday high of 51° in Seattle is the normal high for February 18th to 25th. The forecast high of 79° Friday is the normal high in Seattle for July 21st through August 9th. Today, showery and cool. #wawx pic.twitter.com/0t7Yyodypp

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) May 6, 2024

Harrell adds $100 million to transportation levy: Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed eight-year transportation plan initially drew complaints because the $1.35 billion plan didn’t increase funding for transportation investments, rather, the plan maintained the same investments as the prior transportation levy. The initial draft focused on bridge maintenance and road repair. Hearing the disappointment in the public, Harrell added $100 million to the plan’s budget, money which will focus on building out sidewalks, and further pedestrian and transportation improvements. Do we… gotta hand it to him here? 

Semi truck crashes on Aurora Ave: An overloaded semi truck smacked into three power poles along Aurora Avenue and knocked out power for around 800 people on Sunday evening. 

France reclaims important title: Finally, the French can claim they have baked the world’s longest baguette. For five years, Italy held the coveted title. Now, after baking a 461-foot baguette, French bakers have reclaimed the title. Since scale is important here, I’ll tell you that this behemoth baguette is around 235 times longer than a typical baguette. Maybe the French should consider making baguette length an official unit of measurement. A different issue for a different time.  

Shame on you, evil chicken nugget company: Tyson Foods, which it turns out produces more meat than just chicken nuggets and is the world’s second-largest meat producer, is dumping its toxic waste into America’s rivers and lakes. According to The Guardian, over the last five years, Tyson dumped “millions of pounds of toxic pollutants… including nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil, and cyanide” into American waterways. Tyson’s toxic wastewater could fill “132,000 Olympic-size pools.” Tyson’s actions are a symptom of historically lax environmental regulations on the meat industry, a legislative softness that is in itself a symptom of effective lobbying efforts on behalf of that industry. 

Floods in Brazil: Heavy rains in the southern Brazil state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 78 people so far and have displaced more than 115,000 people. 

“We never thought we would go through this.”

The death toll from floods in southern Brazil has increased to 75, with more than 88,000 people displaced after days of torrential rain, local authorities say. pic.twitter.com/LrjqfNh95E

— DW News (@dwnews) May 5, 2024

Car crashes into White House gate: A car crashed into a White House barricade at around 10:30 pm on Saturday. The driver was killed on impact. Security Service determined there was no threat and the crash was merely a traffic incident. 

Trump’s weak gag reflex: Donald Trump violated the gag order in his hush money case once again and was fined $1,000. Last week, he violated the gag order—”which bars him from making incendiary comments about jurors, witnesses and other people closely connected to the case”—nine times. He paid $9,000 for those fines. The judge reprimanded Trump Monday and said more violations could result in jail time. 

A song for your Monday: Listen, I didn’t realize the Kendrick vs. Drake beef would turn into multiple diss tracks when I linked one here on Friday. The discourse is now too thick for me to wade into with any authority, so I will not be linking any more diss tracks. So, let’s see, um. How about this song? Do you like this song?

The Stranger