“A bakery where enslaved people were imprisoned and exploited to produce bread has been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as the most shocking example of slavery in the ancient Roman city. The cramped bakery with small windows barred with iron was part of a home that emerged during excavations in the Regio IX area of the Pompeii archaeological park in southern Italy. The discovery provides more evidence on the daily life of Pompeii’s enslaved people, often forgotten about by historical sources but who made up most of the population and whose hard labour propped up the city’s economy as well as the culture and fabric of Roman civilisation. The home is believed to have been undergoing renovations when it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. But the remains of three victims were found in one of the bakery’s rooms in recent months, indicating the home still had occupants. Markings used to coordinate the movement of enslaved workers and blind-folded animals were found on the bakery’s floor. The home was divided into a residential part adorned with lavish frescoes, and the bakery, where enslaved people were forced to grind the grain needed to produce bread. The bakery was cut off from the outside world, with the only exit leading to the main hall of the house.” (Angela Giufrida/TheGuardian)
“Guyana was propelled into international headlines in the last few weeks due to its would-be annexation by Venezuela. On 3 December, Venezuela carried out a non-binding referendum to revise the disputed border with Guyana – specifically over the ownership of the Essequibo area – which passed with over 90 per cent approval. In the next days, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro warned all international oil companies operating in Essequibo to leave within three months. He also ordered Venezuelan companies to prepare to enter Guyana’s internationally recognised territory to explore for fossil fuels. While the Venezuelan armed forces claim to have begun ‘infrastructure’ work ‘in Guyana’. Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali called these moves a ‘direct threat’ to the country. Indeed, Guyana’s armed forces are on ‘high alert’ and have also engaged the US Southern Command. Guyana’s attorney general warned that the country would invoke Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter to defend itself from Venezuela’s threats. These articles would (arguably) empower the United Nations Security Council to take military action against Venezuela, as was the case during the Korean War or the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Venezuela’s foreign minister called Guyana’s recent moves ‘erratic, threatening and risky’. On 6 December, Brazil’s foreign minister stressed the risk of war.” (Ivan Klyszcz/IPS Journal)
“‘President Xi goes to have a meeting with American CEOs who give him a standing ovation, though he hasn't yet said anything,’ recounted Ambassador Emanuel. ‘The President of the United States goes to an event, and all the heads of state are there. That tells you about alliances, that tells you about the interests of China.’ Bremmer then noted that it also tells you something about the interests of American CEOs. to which Emanuel responded: ‘I think the American CEOs are way too influential in American foreign policy in this region, way too influential.’” (GZero)
“A senior Israeli defense official told Axios Israel expects to end its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in three to four weeks. The high-intensity phase of the war would likely last another three to four weeks, the official said.
Why it matters: The Biden administration has backed the Israeli operation in Gaza and says it supports Israel's stated goal of ousting Hamas in Gaza but the White House is under mounting international and domestic pressure to tell Israel to end the war.
More than 17,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the ministry of health in Hamas-run Gaza.
Driving the news: A senior Israeli official said Israeli Defense Forces ‘have made significant progress’ in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but that the operation in the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel believes Hamas leadership is located, ‘has just started.’
President Biden spoke on Thursday to Prime Minister Netanyahu about the Israeli military plans and the operation in Khan Younis. A similar call was held last night between U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant.
Behind the scenes: The senior Israeli official said the U.S. isn't ‘pulling the brakes’ or giving Israel a firm deadline to stop the operation but pointing to the fact that time is running out.
The gap between the Biden administration and the Israeli government is about the one-month timetable Israel is giving for ending the high-intensity phase of the Gaza war, the official said.” (Barak Ravid/Axios)
“U.S. Rapper Kendrick Lamar played a sold-out concert in Kigali, Rwanda this week, part of a pan-African tour hosted by Global Citizen’s Move Afrika program, which seeks to bolster local economies and entertainment infrastructure. Kigali is set to serve as the ‘anchor city’ for the project. Rwanda has often flexed its soft power in the region through entertainment contracts and sporting events, and the BBC described Lamar’s Wednesday night headline show as ‘an exercise in gaining soft power.’ Rwandan President Paul Kagame ‘wields soft power to deal with international criticism of his authoritarianism and human rights abuses,’ political scientist Keith Gottschalk writes in The Conversation. While Kagame’s administration enjoys a level of deference in the West, he has faced increasing criticism over the government’s persecution of opponents and the disappearance of activists. Rwanda’s soft power plays out in its influence over the region. For years, Kigali has taken an active role in the Central African Republic becoming one of the United Nation’s primary peacekeeping forces in the nation. That presence means that Kigali is able to ‘burnish its image as a guarantor of stability,’ the International Crisis Group noted in July. The intervention also gives Kagame’s government something of a shield at home against ‘growing anger at its backing for the M23 rebellion in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.’” (Jenna Moon/semafor)
“There was never any doubt that America’s influential band of Christian Zionists would embrace the Gaza war with enthusiasm. Three days after Hamas committed its infamous October 7 atrocities, the most prominent Christian Zionist of all, John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, delivered an ecstatic YouTube sermon. ‘Good morning, America and the world,’ he boomed in his finest Cronkite, ‘Israel is at war.’ This was a battle between good and evil, Hagee said, before vowing to “lift up their warriors and leaders in prayer.’ But some evangelical Christians are looking to uplift with far more than cosmic invocations. Overwhelmingly supporters of Israel both politically and spiritually, some of the most strident of these advocates are using the war to proffer something that is more often left unsaid: In order to fulfill the prophecies these Christians hold most dear, Jews must convert to Jesus. And while the idea of bringing Jews into the tent is as old as Saint Paul the Apostle, it’s not simply American Jews that some of the more nefarious evangelicals are seeking to convert—it’s Jewish people in Israel, the ultimate supersoldiers for their holy mission.” (Elle Hardy/TNR)
“On 20 December 2023, Africa’s second-largest country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), will hold presidential and legislative national, provincial, as well as municipal elections under challenging conditions. For many countries worldwide, elections are a time in which tangible tensions go hand in hand with hopes for a better future yet to come. In the Eastern DRC, this hope is deeply connected with a longing for peace and a more prosperous future. Despite a multitude of local, national, regional and international peace efforts, the security situation has recently continued to deteriorate. This development evokes severe problems for the upcoming elections, with challenges emerging on multiple fronts at the same time. Firstly, the persisting occupation of certain areas in North Kivu by the Mouvement du 23-Mars (M23) excludes many Congolese from participating in the upcoming elections. M23’s offensive started at the end of 2021. Officially, the group, which is allegedly backed by Rwanda, demands the implementation of the 2013 peace deal (a revised version of the initial 2009 peace agreement) and claims to defend Congolese Tutsi from ethnic-based violence. In reality, however, it has also been ‘leaving behind a growing trail of war crimes against civilians’. In areas under its control, it has successfully set up parallel administrations and blocked activities by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), which is preparing the electoral process. Consequently, carrying out elections in these areas remains elusive. In a recent report published by the International Crisis Group (ICG) the authors warn that more than a million citizens are excluded from the elections.” (Stephanie Jänsch/IPS Journal)
“Thanks to court filings and news reports, from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and others, the list of prominent people who were associates of Jeffrey Epstein continues to grow. For many, their ties to the notorious sex trafficker and longtime high-society hobnobber were not previously known, as they did not appear in Epstein’s infamous black book or in the public flight logs of passengers who traveled aboard his private jet before his jailhouse death in 2019 while awaiting trial. We’ve also learned about deeper ties between Epstein and some boldfaced names with whom he had already been associated, including how frequently Epstein met with his high-flying pals.” (NYMag/Intelligencer)
“After visiting the Varner-Hogg plantation an hour south of Houston, amateur historian Michelle Haas was incensed by what she had seen. At an exhibit that details the farm’s use as a sugar plantation worked by at least 66 slaves in the early nineteenth century, she’d watched an informational video. To her mind, it focused too much on slavery at the site and not enough on the Hogg family, which had turned its former home into a museum celebrating Texas history. She’d also seen books in the visitor center gift shop written by Carol Anderson and Ibram X. Kendi, two Black academic historians who have been outspoken on the issue of systemic racism. Outraged, she emailed David Gravelle, a board member of the Texas Historical Commission, the agency that oversees historical sites at the direction of leaders appointed by Governor Greg Abbott. ‘What a s—show is this video,’ Haas wrote on September 2, 2022. ‘Add to that the fact that the activist staff member doing the buying for the gift shop thinks Ibram X. Kendi and White Rage have a place at a historic site.’ Over the next eight months, Haas continued to email Gravelle, advocating for such books to be removed. In turn, Gravelle, a marketing executive based in Dallas, took up the cause internally at the Historical Commission, calling on agency staff to do away with the titles Haas didn’t think belonged at the gift shops. By November of this year, it appeared Haas’s demands were met.” (Steven Monacelli/TexasMonthly)
“In the aftermath of this year’s dual strikes, television faces a radically altered landscape, and probably a much smaller one: It’s unlikely we’ll ever revisit the Peak TV production heights of 2022, which boasted nearly 600 original series. But while the bubble may have burst, there was still a bounty of new and noteworthy programming in 2023 – to the point where Variety TV critics Alison Herman and Aramide Tinubu overlapped with a single show in their picks for the best shows of the year. There’s a good chance you’ve seen some of these shows, and a great chance you haven’t even heard of others.” (Variety)
“THE FIRST VOICE you hear on the recording is mine. ‘Here we are,’ I say. My tone is cheerful, but a catch in my throat betrays how nervous I am. Then, a little grandly, I pronounce my father’s name: ‘John James Vlahos.’ ‘Esquire,’ a second voice on the recording chimes in, and this one word—delivered as a winking parody of lawyerly pomposity—immediately puts me more at ease. The speaker is my dad. We are sitting across from each other in my parents’ bedroom, him in a rose-colored armchair and me in a desk chair. It’s the same room where, decades ago, he calmly forgave me after I confessed that I’d driven the family station wagon through a garage door. Now it’s May 2016, he is 80 years old, and I am holding a digital audio recorder. Sensing that I don’t quite know how to proceed, my dad hands me a piece of notepaper marked with a skeletal outline in his handwriting. It consists of just a few broad headings: ‘Family History.’ ‘Family.’ ‘Education.’ ‘Career.’ ‘Extracurricular’ … We are sitting here, doing this, because my father has recently been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. The disease has metastasized widely throughout his body, including his bones, liver, and brain. It is going to kill him, probably in a matter of months. So now my father is telling the story of his life. This will be the first of more than a dozen sessions, each lasting an hour or more. As my audio recorder runs, he describes how he used to explore caves when he was growing up; how he took a job during college loading ice blocks into railroad boxcars. How he fell in love with my mother, became a sports announcer, a singer, and a successful lawyer. He tells jokes I’ve heard a hundred times and fills in biographical details that are entirely new to me.” (James Vlahos/The Atlantic)
“The fourth GOP presidential debate offered an instructive demonstration on what sort of lies are beyond the pale, in contrast to those falsehoods that remain perfectly respectable. Vivek Ramaswamy, running a flailing insurgent campaign, was rightly chastised in the media for his endorsement of bizarre conspiracy theories—including the claim that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was an ‘inside job’—and his endorsement of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory (the racist fantasy there is a deliberate plot to dispossess white Americans by bringing in non-white immigrants). Slate justly rebuked Ramaswamy for ‘proudly pushing outlandish and dangerous far-right conspiracy theories.’ Yet one of Ramaswamy’s rivals, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, told a whopper that was as divorced from reality as anything Ramaswamy said without provoking anything more than a mild ripple on social media. Unlike Ramaswamy, whose strategy is to win over the alt-right, Haley is the candidate of the Republican establishment, treated with deference by the mainstream media and showered with donations by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and other billionaires. Haley’s disinformation isn’t aimed at frothing Internet trolls; she caters to the fantasy life of comfortable suburbanites who fancy themselves moderates.” (Jeet Heer/The Nation)