The Sunday Fix: January 28th

Iran Escalation, Gen Z, Dogs and More

Jan 29, 2024

Good evening, everyone! Happy Sunday. Hope you got to watch some football and had a nice weekend. Crazy things happening around the world. Let’s get to it.

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Sunday Selection

News worth knowing about.

US and Iran

Things are getting hot in the Middle East. A drone attack on a base in northeast Jordan killed three US service members and injured 25 others. The strike, orchestrated by an Iranian-backed militia, targeted Tower 22, a small outpost in Jordan that is near the Syrian border.

The strike is part of a broader pattern of aggression by Iranian-backed militias - since October, there have been over 150 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. Biden issued several statements after the attack, noting “America’s heart is heavy.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said the US will “hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.” Iran has denied any links to the drone attack

The question now becomes: what will the Biden Administration’s response be? Historically, Biden has avoided conflict with Iran, but it seems that he is getting more pressure to respond more aggressively given the most recent attack. According to Politico, a US official told the publication that response options were being drawn up “as we speak”.

Some of the more hawkish GOP lawmakers called for a swift and aggressive response.

Senate Minority Mitch McConnell called for "serious, crippling costs" to Iran
"The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran's terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East," said Sen. Tom Cotton. "Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief."
Senators John Cornyn and Lindsay Graham had similar messages via Twitter

I do enjoy following “intel” Twitter (as I will call it). It’s a mix of accounts that follow military movement and (speculatively) comment on evolving situations. I find them to be helpful in these moments:

Certainly a couple of interesting weeks (or months) ahead for Biden and the US.

Go Deeper

WSJ: Biden, Iran and Three Dead Americans
Axios: GOP hawks press Biden to target Iran directly over soldiers' deaths
Atlantic Council: Experts react: Three US servicemembers were killed in Jordan. Will the US strike back at Iran?

Nitrogen Gas

Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith was executed Thursday night with nitrogen hypoxia, the first known use for the death penalty in the US. Smith, who received the death penalty for his role in a 1988 murder-for-hire, previously survived an execution attempt in 2022.

According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, the execution process began at 7:53pm CT, and Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25 pm. Alabama’s state corrections commissioner, John Hamm, said nitrogen flowed for about 15 minutes during the procedure.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told reporters on Friday, “What occurred last night was textbook.” He went on to say, “as of last night, nitrogen hypoxia as a means of execution is no longer an untested method. It is a proven one. It’s the method that Kenneth Smith ultimately chose, along with 43 other death row inmates in our state.”

According to YahooNews, Smith’s spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeff Hood witnessed the execution and described it in more graphic terms, saying it was “the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen.” Hood said Smith “popped up on the gurney” repeatedly, and gasped, heaved, and spat.

Lethal injection has been a point of contention for some time. Not only are the chemicals hard to procure, but there are also concerns about how humane the execution method is. I was reminded this weekend (by Fixer Kai Jones) of a podcast about execution methods in the US. The most interesting learning: the firing squad is a legal execution method used in four states and is arguably more humane than lethal injection. Worth a listen.

Go Deeper:

Montgomery Advertiser: Nitrogen gas execution: Kenneth Smith convulses for four minutes in Alabama death chamber
NBC News, Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith put to death in first U.S. nitrogen gas execution
WVTM: ‘Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards’: The final moments of Kenneth Smith

Mona Lisa

Two climate activists threw soup on the glass protecting the Mona Lisa on Sunday at the Louvre in Paris. They reportedly were advocating for a sustainable food system.

The Fix’s Picks

Summarizing and linking to some of my favorite reads, podcasts, photos, and clips from the weekend.

Gen Z

The Public Religion Research Institute put out an interesting report on trends for Gen Z. Born between the mid-90s and mid-2010s, Gen Z represents a growing portion of US adults. Some of the key takeaways from the report:

With the exception of millennials (24%), Gen Z adults (28%) are notably less likely than other generational cohorts to identify as conservative.
Gen Z adults are notably less likely to identify as white Christians and more likely to identify as religiously unaffiliated than older generations, with the exception of millennials.
Gen Z adults are significantly more likely than older generations to identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or something else, with 28% identifying as LGBTQ, compared with 16% of millennials, 7% of Generation X, 4% of baby boomers, and 4% of the Silent Generation

You can read the full report here

Gene Therapy for Hearing

Cool story from the NYT. Aissam Dam, an 11-year-old from Morocco, became the first person to get gene therapy in the US for congenital deafness. Dam was born deaf but was introduced to the idea of gene therapy after visiting a hearing specialist in Spain.

Dam has a rare form of deafness, caused by a mutation in a single gene, otoferlin. The goal of the gene therapy is to replace the mutated otoferlin gene in patients’ ears with a functional gene. On October 4th of last year, Dam was successfully treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“There’s no sound I don’t like,” Aissam said, with the help of interpreters during an interview last week. “They’re all good.”