It’s the sixth annual Black Blockchain Summit, and organizers are quietly removing a couple rows of chairs from the room. The Howard University auditorium we’re in looks a third empty. There are at most 100 people in the crowd today—a far cry from the 1,500 who attended the summit over three days last year, when Sam Bankman-Fried was still hailed as crypto’s boy wonder. Now, in late September, he’s weeks away from being convicted for an $8 billion fraud scheme. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin has been staggering back up from post-FTX fallout. The public reputation of crypto and its promoters has not recovered.
Attendance was sparse at this year’s Black Blockchain Summit, held at Howard University.
Photograph: Jared Soares
Despite this, the mood in the room is cheery, like a crypto homecoming weekend. There’s a table with free T-shirts reading “Satoshi Is Black.” If the summit’s agenda is to be trusted, crypto and blockchain still have formidable power to financially liberate Black people. Also to potentially end poverty, disrupt the prison-industrial complex, mitigate environmental injustice, and supercharge political dissidence.
The music switches from soft elevator tunes to Usher, signaling that the day’s events are about to begin. Brother Sinclair Skinner, the Summit’s cofounder, enters the auditorium, and the stragglers in the room snap to order. Skinner is one of those people who’s never met a stranger in his life. He’s wearing his usual “I ♥️ Black People” T-shirt—it’s his version of a black turtleneck. His cat-eye glasses, lenses tinted pink, are giving Clark Kent meets P-Funk Mothership. He says a few words of welcome, and we stand up to receive libations from Priest Nana Akua N. Zenzele: “Bless us abundantly. We ask that you continue to support our people in this blockchain summit and that we are supported in using this technology throughout the world.” We sing along to a Howard student’s beautiful rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Brother Sinclair Skinner, a cofounder of the summit.
Photograph: Jared Soares
I’m here as a nonbeliever. I worry that the Black-utopian narrative of a crypto-fied future leaves out how many of us will survive to the end of the story. With Skinner onstage, though, my mood swivels toward optimism. It helps that he’s an unusually credible narrator: a Howard alum, with a storied history in organizing protests on that campus and for the 1995 Million Man March, as well as forming the first Black super PAC for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. He was turned on to crypto when he helped organize a DC Occupy encampment and saw how a Bitcoin wallet was used to distribute resources. In 2017, he launched the remittance company BillMari by embarking on a bus tour of historically Black colleges and universities, spreading the gospel of this new tech to young Black minds. The tour ended in Zimbabwe, where it was abruptly stopped by the uprising against Robert Mugabe. (“When people tell their startup launch stories, I say mine included a coup,” Skinner tells me later. “If you can’t top that, I’m not impressed.”) The idealistic ethos of crypto—anarcho-populist protest meets decentralized network, as Skinner saw it—convinced him it could be a way to build a pan-African movement.
The next year, in 2018, Skinner created the Black Blockchain Summit to hash out with other Bitcoin disciples, currency creators, artists, and government reps what the future could look like for Black communities globally. This was during crypto’s early wave, when Nipsey Hussle was evangelizing the digital revolution. Then, as the market inflated, scams proliferated, and Black investors started to get crowded out, Skinner envisioned the summit as a “safety net” by which Black people could learn from and protect one another. He still sees it that way. When I ask him what he thinks of the FTX crash, he replies that no one should be surprised. The company’s founder may have used the language of altruism, but “it’s still the same white elites moving money around,” he says. What about the risks for the average investor? Skinner acknowledges that crypto is a gamble—but the promise of the future it might deliver seems, to him, magnitudes better than sticking to the status quo. When you have nothing to lose, and no sign that TradFi or Silicon Valley will show up for Black people, gambling on crypto starts to look like a necessity.
Crypto holds a certain appeal for Black people. Black Americans are significantly more likely to invest in cryptocurrency than white Americans and to buy crypto as their first investment. A definitive picture of the current moment is hard to capture, but last year an estimated 25 percent of Black Americans owned cryptocurrency; for those under 40 years old the portion jumped to 38 percent. At the same time, Black people are significantly less likely than white people to think of cryptocurrencies as risky. They are about twice as likely to believe, falsely, that cryptocurrency is both safe and regulated by the government—a perception helped by Black celebrities paid to lend cultural cred to white-led crypto companies.
All this might start to form a picture of a Black populace that is uniquely vulnerable to crypto’s deceptions. But the Black Blockchain Summit insists on troubling this assumption. As the debris settles from last year’s crash, the energy in this room continues to be bullish. I want to know: What’s left to buy into?
It doesn’t take long for me to realize that I’m surrounded by legends of the Black crypto movement. These are the folks who’ve been here through every crypto winter and are still working toward spring. One of them is Arthur Hayes. Even in virtual attendance from Singapore, he looks precisely the part of the renegade crypto bro, his turquoise shirt popping against his skin. Outside the summit, Hayes is a divisive figure. But here, he’s revered. He is the credentialed cofounder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, and at the company’s peak he was the country’s most recognizable Black crypto billionaire. Last year, he pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and received house arrest, probation, and a $10 million fine. Ask around and people will say that the difference between him and the SBFs of the world is that Hayes is the son of Detroit autoworkers. Also, he didn’t cheat people—he was taken down for skirting rules that, in his view at least, locked everyday people out of finance’s cutting edge. He has become a symbol of how to make it in crypto while maintaining integrity for the cause.
Najah Roberts, the founder of Guidefi, talks to Charlene Hill Fadirepo, a cryptocurrency consultant.
Photograph: Jared Soares
Across the auditorium, I spot a woman in a sky-blue dress. This is Najah Roberts, a founder of one of the few brick-and-mortar cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. She’s talking to Lamar Wilson, a software developer and fintech business owner who I’d seen explaining the basics of Bitcoin to Charlamagne Tha God on The Breakfast Club. Wilson’s business partner Isaiah Jackson, a former public school teacher, stands nearby in a smart green blazer. Jackson cohosts a popular YouTube show called The Gentlemen of Crypto. He nods at me, acknowledging a new face.
Wilson and Jackson lead the first conversation of the day, discussing Black youth empowerment. They talk about putting computers in the hands of Black children to produce the next Bill Gates, about creating conditions for new Black Wall Streets on the blockchain where, unlike in Tulsa, they can’t be burned down. Wilson was an instructor at Bitcoin Academy, a controversial series of educational workshops funded by Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey for young residents of Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects, and gives a preview of the project’s plans to expand to other locations. He drops a well-worn Frederick Douglass quote: “It’s easier to build strong children than repair broken men.”
Isaiah Jackson and Lamar Wilson lead a conversation about teaching technological literacy.
Photograph: Jared Soares
The Marcy Projects have been immortalized by former residents Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek as the land that time and money forgot. If you make it out of there, you can make it anywhere, or so the story goes. Bitcoin Academy popped up in the face of government neglect to provide one way out, by granting $1,000 in bitcoins to every graduate. But just before the academy launched, in June 2022, Bitcoin sank in value, and a number of residents were left feeling like they’d been sold volatile magic beans by Jack and Jay. They wanted parks and better housing, not digital currency—or, at least, they didn’t want to depend on digital currency to get parks and housing.
I’m about to hear a more robust case against crypto, because Skinner, in a tradition of inviting dissenters to share the mic, welcomes outspoken critic Jared Ball to the stage. Ball is a professor at Morgan State University, a firebrand leftist, and author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power. He urges the audience to reject the bootstrap narrative that Black people can achieve the American dream by buying their way into it. The problem, he says, is not a lack of financial or technological literacy. The problem is policies that draw wealth forever upward while everyone else scrambles for the leftovers. He cites the stats: Black people make up about 14 percent of the population but own just 4 percent of national wealth. Families with generational wealth never need to resort to get-rich-quick schemes, he says, while “we’re told to go back and invest our savings in Bitcoin.”
Ball’s words spark the most rousing reaction of the day. What few grumbles I hear are drowned out by cheers and amens. For a minute, it feels like I’m in church.
“Well right on,” Skinner says, giving Ball a good-natured ribbing. The two men laugh, hugging as they leave the stage. It’s a moment I see playing out throughout the summit: Everyone seems to disagree on what the best solutions might be, but they all share an understanding of the problem. When it comes to wealth generation, Black people are moving in the wrong direction. According to one study, if the current trajectory holds, the average Black family will have zero wealth by 2053. Crypto may not be the disruption we want—but disruption is what we need.
I move into the hallway. The most interesting conversations, as always at these things, are offstage, and I catch Wilson confronting Ball just after his talk. As they go head-to-head, a crowd forms a circle around them. There’s a rattan throne chair positioned off to one side, recalling the ghost of Huey Newton and the original Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Wilson launches the accusation that Ball lacks the imagination to believe the future can change. As proof, he calls up his own life story: He grew up in Kentucky, with few opportunities. But then he taught himself to code and got rich on bitcoin. “The moment you have one seed that can do it, inside of that seed are many other seeds,” he says.
Jared Ball, a crypto skeptic and professor at Morgan State University, has a sidebar discussion with Lamar Wilson, founder of Black Bitcoin Billionaire Club.
Photograph: Jared Soares
Ball isn’t swayed. Anecdotal success stories, he counters, are the mythology of capitalism at work. “Capitalism tells you that because one did it that anyone else can do it,” he says. “But that’s exactly the ruse.”
Suddenly the authoritative voice of an elder statesman enters the chat: “It doesn’t matter.” Ball lets out an exasperated sigh. This is Reggie Middleton, creator of the Veritaseum coin. Some months back I’d watched all 11 minutes of Middleton’s hype video. (Imagine a classic And1 tape, but instead of slam dunks and behind-the-back passes, it serves clips of Middleton dunking on financial analysts.) In case I’d skipped it, though, I could just as well have read the shirt he’s wearing, which is imprinted with his face and the title “Father of DeFi.” In addition to founding DeFi, he claims to have predicted numerous global financial events, including the European sovereign debt crisis, the 2008 global banking collapse, the fall of Blackberry, the collapse of Apple stock, and the rise of Google. Some people have called his self-promotion shameless. The Securities and Exchange Commission has called him dishonest; in 2019, he settled with the agency for $9.5 million following a troubled initial coin offering for Veritaseum.
“Offensively honest,” he calls himself.
This is not Middleton and Ball’s first round. They’ve spoken at a previous summit and debated on YouTube. This time, the crowd pulls out their phones, ready for a rematch. “Break it down for him, Reggie,” someone adds to the rap battle vibe.
Middleton simplifies the argument: The only real question that people want to know is, “Where does the wealth come from? How are you making money?” Wealth doesn’t come from policy reform, he says. It comes from ownership.
Reggie Middleton, creator of the Veritaseum coin, debates with Ball.
Photograph: Jared Soares
Middleton’s words track with what he’d told me of his origin story. He grew up a good kid in a middle-class family in Long Island. Chuck D from Public Enemy lived on one side of the block, Eddie Murphy on the other. Howard Stern and his parents were the only white people around. Then, in his early twenties, Middleton told me, he suffered a series of harrowing run-ins with police that instilled in him a conviction that the only reliable way to navigate the justice system, the schools, the banks, is by not only gaining economic leverage but by actually owning the economic infrastructure.
I leave before the conversation between Middleton and Ball ends, though I don’t expect it to be easily resolved. In it I hear echoes of the talks delivered by Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois a century earlier on this same campus. The question at stake is an evergreen one within Black communities: Do we focus on collective political power or individual economic success as a means to liberation? It’s not lost on me that Howard is an appropriate host for these seemingly contradictory ideals. The university has long been a site of radical Black student protests against white supremacy and economic oppression. Simultaneously, it has served as a pipeline to Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Congress, Hollywood—the premiere institutions of capitalism.
The recurrence of the Black autonomy debate in 2023 is also a result of a certain impatience with political action, a loss of belief in the power of government and traditional philanthropy to deliver transformative justice. I think back to 2013, during the first wave of #BlackLivesMatter, when there was a forceful push to find alternatives to state-controlled justice. This was an era of digitally enabled global revolution: Occupy, Euromaidan, Arab Spring. If the crypto bull market had happened at that time, perhaps more people fighting for racial and social justice would have been open to pursuing its possibilities. But after the global wave of authoritarian leaders were elected to office, racial justice resources went toward electoral politics and hashtag resistance. Meanwhile, Occupy failed to lead to systemic change, and wealth inequality only worsened. This is the landscape of disillusionment from which cryptocurrency and decentralized finance emerged.
The previous day, Skinner had hosted a virtual fireside chat with “Brother Cameron” Winklevoss, who owns, along with his twin brother, the crypto exchange Gemini. Gemini is a major sponsor of the summit. Listening to Winklevoss, it was easy to maintain my crypto skepticism. He talked about discovering crypto while partying in Ibiza. He dropped quotes from Gandhi and Winston Churchill and complained about the “empire building” of the SEC. (A month later, the state of New York would file a lawsuit against Gemini for allegedly deceiving customers.)
He compared the crypto space to the Wild West. There were “bad actors” in those days, he said, but there were good guys too, the ones who built lasting businesses. His example: Wells Fargo, which started as a stagecoach company and gold-transfer service before expanding into national banking. The reference was a meaningful one for his audience, though not in the way he intended. Wells Fargo’s century-plus streak of prosperity was propped up by the failures of Freedman’s Savings Bank and other alternative banking institutions whose fraudulent practices robbed Black families of the chance to accumulate multigenerational wealth.
I’d listened to Winklevoss’ talk through headphones while traveling to the Howard campus from my home in Baltimore, and it was hard not to make a connection to the vacant city blocks I saw through the scratched-up train windows. A 2008 city lawsuit against Wells Fargo revealed that the bank targeted Black customers in Baltimore with predatory high-interest loans and higher refinancing rates than for white customers. When, later that year, a historic housing crisis arrived, the result was mass displacement. Nationally, Black people’s wealth was cut in half. Now, I see a proliferation of Bitcoin ATMs in Black and Latino neighborhoods. New blockchain firms are setting up shop, primed to take advantage of residents who carry a deep-seated mistrust of the financial and government institutions that harmed them.
For me, it hits differently when the Winklevosses, who made their first bitcoin investments after netting $65 million from Facebook, talk in the language of revolution. Because I know that Skinner knows it’s not the Winklevosses of the world taking risks. It’s the people he’s organizing in DC and Zimbabwe, the people putting in their life savings, the people who can’t weather losses. The weight of this is not something he takes lightly. In this way the Black Blockchain Summit, at its core, is about minimizing risk.
The last panels are wrapping up, and the day’s end is approaching. Dead Prez is setting up to perform the finale. As they do their soundcheck, I notice Tavonia Evans, the founder of a currency called Guapcoin, in the corner. I ask her to sign a copy of her book Crypto for My People, which she does graciously. Evans grew up a Panther cub. “I guess I was always an undercover revolutionary,” she says with a slight smile. She lost her home during the 2008 housing crisis. In her book, she shrugs the incident off: “Black people are always in an economic crisis. Many of us are unaware just how real the crisis is.”
Evans minted Guapcoin six years ago because, as she puts it, “we all need money.” But we don’t all have equal access to the US dollar. By creating a “Black dollar” in alternative cryptocurrency, she hopes that Black communities will be able to track, and bolster, the flow of their own wealth. “It also allows us to participate in the build process and develop trust,” she says. Her coin attempts a solution to a challenge Ball had articulated earlier in the day: How, he’d asked, can we collectively define and actualize Black economic power? For Evans, the answer to that question will necessarily come from a Black-owned company whose protocols are based on social equity and human rights. A company that closes the gap between who’s buying into crypto and who gets to take the money and run. Admittedly, this is a tough ask, given that Black entrepreneurs receive less than 2 percent of venture capital dollars every year.
Evans’ Guapcoin has not yet taken hold. That would require the buy-in of her peers, and most of the folks at the summit are convinced that Bitcoin is the only way forward. Not unrelatedly, many had bought up Bitcoin early and held onto it, putting them in a prime position to benefit from a Bitcoin-governed future.
As of 2021, the top 10,000 Bitcoin investors together owned 5 million bitcoins, or approximately $230 billion—replicating the unequal wealth distribution outside of Bitcoin. Not exactly the utopia Brother Sinclair Skinner’s going for. But he’d say our true Bitcoin future hasn’t yet arrived. In his vision, Africa and its diasporic communities will adopt Bitcoin as a de facto global currency, displacing corporate banks. The US dollar will no longer be the primary reserve currency. The nation-state will no longer be the appointed guardian of political and economic stability. Monetary freedom will lead to a revolution for a pan-African global diaspora and will alleviate social ills anchored in anti-Blackness and xenophobia. It’s an ambitious goal to be sure. But when I see Skinner sitting side by side with the Winklevosses of the world, it’s a goal I want to place my trust in.
Trust is what all these conversations come down to. Not trustlessness, crypto’s famous founding ideal. What I mean is the way Evans, and Skinner, bring trust back into the room for Black people, while bankers and corporations and politicians still prove untrustworthy. After spending a day pinballing between wariness and excitement, I can say that I believe in the commitment of many of the people I met. Whether crypto and blockchain can actually deliver what they’re going for is less certain. In any case, as this story is published, a month after the summit, Bitcoin is back up.
John Travolta’s home in Jumbolair, via Florida State Archives
Jumbolair, near Ocala, is a gated enclave for the wealthy owners of private planes. It boasts of having “the largest licensed, private runway in North America.” Its most famous resident is onetime Sweathog and cross-dressing musical star John Travolta, who parks his Boeing 707 right in his own driveway.
Now Jumbolair’s owners want to expand it. They want to build 241 houses and 205 townhomes on about 380 acres. They want to add commercial businesses. They may even open the runway to non-residents.
“There is a desire to build hangars on common areas of the property and commercial areas of the property and rent those hangars out to residents and possibly people who do not live in the subdivision,” one Marion County official wrote in a memo about the proposal.
To nearby residents, that means even more planes and helicopters thundering over the surrounding pastures, scaring the livestock, polluting the air, and occasionally dumping the fuel into their “springs protection area,” tainting the aquifer and waterways.
You can see why local ranchers don’t think this is so super, man. You could even call them “neigh sayers.”
“There are people out here who have lived on their property for generations,” said one neighbor, Jonathan Rivera-Rose Schenck, who’s a comparative newcomer. Expanding Jumbolair so dramatically “doesn’t really fit in the community at all.”
Amy Agricola via Facebook
“There are so many safety concerns, it isn’t even funny,” another of the neighbors, Amy Agricola, told me this week. What’s worse, she said, “they tried to push it through under the radar and get it approved.”
It’s another twist in the history of a parcel of land that already has a pretty wild backstory — one that involves everything from elephants to exercise machines to buried bags of cash.
A lair for Jumbo
Jumbolair’s list of past occupants tells you a lot about how bizarre life can be in Florida.
Early on, the place was a horse farm owned by socialite Muriel Vanderbilt of the fabulously wealthy Vanderbilt family. She used the property to train her thoroughbred racehorses. Desert Vixen, born on the ranch, later was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame.
Another owner, briefly, was Jose Antonio Fernandez of Miami, whose drug-smuggling operation was so large he had to buy his own bank to hide his profits. He pleaded guilty in 1985 to racketeering, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and fraud. Workers later discovered bundles of crumbling $100 bills buried on the property and (allegedly) turned them all over to the FBI.
Next up was Arthur Jones, who made his fortune creating and selling the Nautilus exercise machine. An avid aviation fan, he built the 7,550-foot runway for his fleet of planes.
In 1984, Jones used one of those planes to rescue 63 baby elephants from a scheduled cull of the herd in Zimbabwe. As a result, he turned the property into an elephant sanctuary. There were also rhinos, a silverback gorilla named Mickey and, after while, quite a few crocodiles.
The elephants were the source of the name. since the land was now a lair for Jumbo.
Arthur and Terri Jones with an elephant, via YouTube
Jones, in his 50s, had married a Revlon “Charlie Girl” model named Terri, then 18, who grew up in Seffner. She was his fifth wife (out of six, if you’re keeping up with the Joneses) and regularly flew to Tampa to get her hair done.
The couple even appeared on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” where, by one account, the cantankerous Jones pulled a gun on host Robin Leach.
In 1989, the couple divorced. Jones’ ex-wife retained custody of Jumbolair and remarried, this time to a jewelry store owner. Terri Jones Thayer, as she was now known, then created Jumbolair Aviation Estates: 38 residential lots with deeds that provide access to her ex-husband’s runway and taxiways to every back door.
In 2013, a new owner took over: Frank Merschman, founder of Big Top Manufacturing, an airplane hangar and fabric structure maker in Perry and a resident of Jumbolair since 2007.
A year later, Merschman bought another parcel of Jumbolair from a holding company owned by a member of the Qatar royal family. The broker: Donald Trump’s longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, who received a $100,000 brokerage fee. He failed to pay taxes on it, which was one of the reasons Cohen wound up behind bars.
By 2019, Merschman was ready to be rid of Jumbolair. He asked for $10.5 million and, two years later, agreed to sell for $1 million less.
None of the neighbors knew what a drastic change the Bulls had in mind for Jumbolair until the signs went up.
Reversal of fortune
Alyson Scotti was driving by Jumbolair one day near the end of last month when she noticed a row of yellow signs along the property boundary. But the lettering on the signs was too small to read from the road.
“I pulled over and went to read them,” she told me. When she saw they were about a proposed rezoning, she looked up on the county’s website what the Bulls wanted to do. Her reaction to what she read: “Holy cow, they’re building a city!”
Alyson Scotti via X
This was on a Friday afternoon, Oct. 27. The signs said the rezoning was scheduled to be voted on at the next Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Monday, Oct. 30.
In other words, only a weekend stood between the Bulls and what seemed like a definite slam dunk.
Upset at what she saw as an attempt to slip something past Jumbolair’s neighbors, Scotti started using her phone and computer to alert everyone about what was going on. She managed to round up quite a few people, many of whom emailed county officials about their objections and signed a petition against Bull’s plans.
At that point, the county staff was recommending a yes vote on both the rezoning and change in land use.
“Mr. Bull and his wife wish to integrate the upscale aviation neighborhood with our beautiful equestrian community to create a premier aviation equestrian oasis, supported with some limited commercial uses,” the county staff’s report said, making it sound like the Bulls would create a haven for flying horses like Icarus.
But by the time the meeting opened on Monday, the staff had changed its tune. They told commissioners they recommended denial. One major concern: increased traffic on the narrow local roads.
Rob Batsel, Jumbolair attorney, via Marion County video
Bull’s Ocala attorney, Rob Batsel, started off his presentation by thanking the county staff for a comprehensive report but then added, “I preferred the staff report that came out on Friday and recommended approval.”
Batsel played down the changes the Bulls had proposed, telling the commissioners, “We’re not asking for too much. We think the property owner is entitled to the highest and best use of the property.”
Meanwhile, the opponents had packed the meeting room. When it was their turn to speak, they did not hold back. They, too, worried about the roads. But many more mentioned their concern about the increased aerial traffic thundering overhead and the environmental consequences.
One of them, James Nelson, called Bob Bull “a noise bully” who frequently flies his copter over his neighbors’ property just above treetop level. He accused the Bulls of planning to ruin a quiet area “just so a millionaire can make more money.”
The helicopter that repeatedly buzzes opponents of the Jumbolair rezoning, via Jonathan Rivera-Rose Schenck
In the end, the planning commissioners voted 3-1 to recommend the county commissioners deny the Bulls’ proposal. Seeing the reversal of the Bulls’ fortunes happen so quickly, Schenck told me, he almost felt sorry for Bob Bull — until later that evening.
“He flew his helicopter over my house for 20 minutes starting at 10 p.m.” he said. “My wife told me, “I feel like I’m in ‘M*A*S*H.’”
He said Bull has repeated the noisy visit every day since then.
“It drives the horses nuts,” he said.
The elephant in the room
The Marion County Commission is scheduled to discuss the Jumbolair rezoning and land use change next week, on Dec. 5. The commissioners are not bound by what their Planning and Zoning Commission recommended. They could hand the Bulls everything they want on a silver platter.
But the Bulls are apparently nervous about what’s going to happen. I say this because they had their attorney invite all the opponents to a convivial little get-together in one of Jumbolair’s hangars on Tuesday night.
“We understand it can be unsettling to receive a letter about development ‘in your backyard,’ but assure you that our goal is to create a wonderful addition to the neighborhood,” Batsel wrote in his invitation.
Jonathan Rivera-Rose Schenck via subject
Schenck said he saw about 75 people in the hangar. Bob Bull was there too, he said, but never spoke, not even when Schenck tried to ask him questions. Instead, Bull’s attorney and engineer ran the show.
Schenck said the main message the pair delivered was: This massively disruptive development, much like the Marvel movie villain Thanos, is inevitable. Therefore, you should stop fighting it. (If you watch Marvel movies, you know this approach did not work out well for Thanos.)
Batsel also insisted that Bull isn’t pushing this project for the money. According to Schenck, that bizarre assertion prompted a lot of people to ask, “If he’s not in it for the money and the neighborhood doesn’t want him to do it, then why exactly is he doing it?”
They got no answer. I suppose you could say Batsel and Bull didn’t want to address the elephant in the room.
Robert Bull via Team CMS Racing
Finally, Schenck said, he and a friend had enough of that Bull — um, I mean hearing about what Bull wanted. They left about 20 minutes before the scheduled end.
But then they stuck around outside the hangar door. They did that so they could buttonhole everyone else as they left, asking them to sign the petition to be submitted to the Marion County commissioners next week. They all did, he said, and now the number of signatures has hit 500.
That suggests that the hangar hangout was much less effective than the Bulls expected.
I’ve tried repeatedly this week to pry a comment out of Batsel or the Bulls, without any success. I kept thinking, “Surely they’ll want to respond to the angry neighbors.” But no, they didn’t even tell me to not call them Shirley.
I wouldn’t count Bull out at this point. He seems determined to win permission from Marion County to expand Jumbolair, no matter what. But as he tries to bring this unwieldy craft in for a landing, he better expect a LOT of turbulence. And he should probably end his helicopter harassment. Otherwise, thanks to Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, he might face some serious anti-aircraft fire.
By Nosmot Gbadamosi, a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief.
Incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi (C) addresses his supporters at the Stade des Martyrs during his first campaign rally as the electoral campaign officially kicks off in Kinshasa on Nov. 19.
Incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi (C) addresses his supporters at the Stade des Martyrs during his first campaign rally as the electoral campaign officially kicks off in Kinshasa on Nov. 19. Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images
November 29, 2023, 1:00 AM
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: A coup attempt in Sierra Leone, severe floods hit Ethiopia and Somalia, and Germany makes a gas deal with Nigeria.
Congo’s Looming Democratic Test
In July, amid a tense political climate, the body of an opposition legislator was found in his car with gunshot wounds on a main highway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. Cherubin Okende was a former transport minister-turned-spokesman for leading opposition party Ensemble pour la République (Together for the Republic), whose leader Moise Katumbi is set to compete in Congo’s presidential election in less than a month, on Dec. 20.
Katumbi, a former governor of the mineral-rich province of Katanga and owner of Congolese football club TP Mazembe, claimed at the time that the killing was “a political assassination” and an attempt to silence the opposition. Okende resigned from the government last year when Katumbi left the ruling coalition led by President Felix Tshisekedi.
The murder is part of a series of troubling events leading up to the election, including several arrests of opposition figures that have left critics questioning whether Congo can deliver credible elections at a time when Africans are weary of sham ballots, and when coups in West and Central Africa are on the rise. The last election in 2018, which brought Tshisekedi to power, was heavily disputed.
In total, 23 candidates are in the running against Tshisekedi, including 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a renowned gynecologist known for helping victims of sexual violence, and former oil executive Martin Fayulu of the Commitment to Citizenship and Development party, whom many local and international observers consider the true winner of the last election.
The Catholic Church—seen as one of Congo’s most trusted civil society organizations—deployed around 40,000 observers to polling stations during the 2018 election and said that votes counted showed that Fayulu had won. A Financial Times data analysis also alleged that electoral fraud had occurred and that then-President Joseph Kabila may have sought to cling to power through a deal with Tshisekedi, whom the analysis showed should have been the runner-up.
In September, Jean-Marc Kabund, the former head of Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, was sentenced to seven years in prison for “insulting the head of state.” Kabund was arrested last year about a month after creating his own party, called the Alliance for Change. He had denounced Tshisekedi’s government for “mismanagement characterized by carelessness, irresponsibility, enjoyment, and predation at the top of the State.”
As Stephen R. Weissman and Anthony Gambino wrote in Foreign Policy in September, “there is every reason to believe that the grand corruption that marked the earlier Joseph Kabila regime has continued.”
Congo’s electoral commission, known under the French acronym CENI, faces the daunting task of organizing ballots across a vast country with limited infrastructure and widespread violence in the eastern region, where more than 100 armed groups are vying for power.
CENI has always been viewed with a degree of cynicism regarding its independence. In October, CENI President Denis Kadima met with U.S. officials in Washington as part of a “rebranding” campaign to dispel what he referred to as “a very bad reputation.” But criticism persists: Opposition candidates have complained of flaws in the voter registration process during this election cycle.
Although Kadima is an election expert with decades of experience, he is viewed as being handpicked by Tshisekedi’s government to lead CENI (the head of which is meant to be chosen by consensus). The opposition and the Catholic Church did not approve of him, which led to protests in late 2021. Critics accused Kadima of being too close to the president.
“The CENI knows the challenge it faces, and that its credibility is at stake,” political analyst Jean-Luc Kong told France 24 earlier this month. “But what really scares people is the crisis in the east.”
Almost 7 million people have fled their homes in North Kivu province due to a resurgence of fighting between Congo’s army and an armed group called the March 23 Movement (M23). More than one million citizens have been left without voter cards, and some eastern towns will be excluded altogether from voting due to the security concerns.
Some opponents believe that the only realistic chance of beating Tshisekedi, whom analysts predict will secure a narrow reelection since there is only one round of voting, is to form a coalition under a single candidate. Five leading opposition groups met last week in South Africa and chose to throw their support behind Katumbi.
Those supporters include Congo’s former Prime Minister Matata Ponyo Mapon; Seth Kikuni, who was the youngest candidate in the 2018 election; and Franck Diongo, who was imprisoned under Kabila and freed by Tshisekedi’s government only to be jailed again in June for more than a month. All have withdrawn their own presidential bids. (Mukwege, however, has not yet responded to calls for a united opposition.)
“Urgency dictates a single opposition candidate,” Matata said in Pretoria, South Africa, accusing the government of preparing “massive electoral fraud.”
As part of his campaign manifesto, Katumbi has pledged to “consolidate peace, democracy, and fight corruption.” In a statement, he said that “the current cohort of corrupt leaders cannot be trusted to change their ways.” Mukwege launched his campaign from his hometown in the eastern city of Bukavu, promising to end the country’s reliance on aid and foreign troops. (U.N. peacekeepers are resented by Congolese for failing to stop armed violence). “Internationally, we are going to do everything we can to ensure that foreign armies leave Congolese soil, and that the Congolese people learn to take responsibility for their own security,” Mukwege said.
There are some Congolese voters who question whether an election would bring about any change and are intending to stay home. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has said that it is on watch for any signs of fraud and urged Congolese citizens to vote.
Worryingly, experts suggest that given the potential for a volatile election outcome in Congo, neighboring countries within the Congo Basin could possibly be next in line for a coup.
The Week Ahead
Wednesday, Nov. 29, to Saturday, Dec. 2: The Marrakech International Film Festival, which began on Friday, continues in Morocco. It is being attended by actors Jessica Chastain and Willem Dafoe following the country’s earthquake in September. Other festivals in Egypt and Tunisia have been canceled due to the Israel-Hamas war.
Thursday, Nov. 30: A postponed OPEC+ meeting is scheduled to take place.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube presents the 2024 national budget amid concerns over the impact of weak global economic growth.
Thursday, Nov. 30, to Tuesday, Dec. 12: The U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mohamed Nasr, Egypt’s lead climate negotiator, and the U.K.’s King Charles III are expected to attend.
What We’re Watching
Sierra Leone coup attempt. Sierra Leone on Monday lifted a nationwide curfew imposed after what the government said was an attack by “renegade soldiers” who attempted to break into a military armory in the capital city of Freetown on Sunday, leading to gunfire and explosions across several neighborhoods home to military outposts and killing at least 20 people, including 13 soldiers. Information Minister Chernoh Bah said on Tuesday that “the incident was a failed attempted coup.”
The assailants also attacked a police station and released 2,000 inmates from the central prison. The political situation in Sierra Leone has been tense since President Julius Maada Bio was reelected in June with just over 56 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff. The election result was rejected by the main opposition, the All People’s Congress party.
Global tax vote. African nations secured a historic win on international tax negotiations after developing economies overwhelmingly voted to give the United Nations more say on global tax rules and move the discussion out of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a body largely formed by richer nations. A proposal presented by the group of 54 African countries for a U.N. framework on global tax cooperation was backed by 125 countries on Nov. 22 and opposed by 48 mostly high-income countries, including the United States and EU member nations. Kenyan U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani called the outcome the “clearest Global North vs Global South vote I have seen in recent times.”
Horn of Africa floods. Flooding across the Horn of Africa, which has killed at least 100 people and forced 700,000 from their homes, is expected to last into December. Up to 1.2 million people in Somalia have already been affected. According to the U.N., 4.3 million people—a quarter of Somalia’s population—will face “crisis-level hunger” by the end of the year. In Kenya, at least 70 people have been killed and more than 150,000 displaced from their homes. Meanwhile in northern Ethiopia, 50 people and 4,000 cattle have died in the Tigray and Amhara regions because of severe drought. In the country’s south, 370,000 people have left their homes due to flash floods.
Nigeria’s election challenges. Despite the main petitions against President Bola Tinubu’s election win being dismissed, Nigerian courts are overwhelmed by more than 1,000 cases related to this year’s presidential and regional elections, reports the Nigerian Guardian. Nigeria’s chief justice, Olukayode Ariwoola, said judges would not be intimidated by the “loud voices of the mob” over accusations that judgements have so far favored the governing All Progressives Congress party.
This Week in Natural Resources
Mali and Russia go for gold. Mali’s military government signed a four-year deal with Russia to build a gold refinery in the capital Bamako. The refinery is expected to process 200 metric tons of gold annually. The project will allow Mali to control all gold production in the country and “correctly apply all taxes and duties,” Finance Minister Alousseni Sanou said last Tuesday on state TV. The Russian private military contractor Wagner Group has been accused of gold smuggling and human rights abuses during Mali’s fight against armed groups allied with al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
More German gas deals. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany has been on a spree to secure gas and oil contracts with several African nations. Nigeria will supply natural gas to Germany at 850,000 metric tons per year in 2026, expanding afterward to 1.2 million metric tons per year. The German firm DWS Group will invest $500 million in renewable energy projects in Nigeria. Germany has faced criticism for investing in environmentally harmful African gas supplies for export to Europe while maintaining African nations’ focus on renewables for their domestic needs.
Rustin’s Zimbabwe. In Africa Is a Country, Brooks Marmon explores the legacy of the American civil rights icon Bayard Rustin and his involvement in African independence movements during the late 1970s following the release of Netflix movie Rustin by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. Marmon argues that Rustin’s “controversial relationship with the final stages of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle” is largely overlooked in U.S. discourse, particularly his strong opposition toward Zimbabwe’s main independence movements in favor of groups “willing to collaborate with Rhodesia’s white settlers.”
Napoleon’s pillaged Egypt. Ridley Scott’s new movie Napoleon depicts troops led by Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor firing cannons at the pyramids of Giza, but Napoleon never actually took “pot shots” at Egyptian pyramids, Becky Ferreira reports in the New York Times. However, France’s invasion of Egypt did lead to many of the country’s greatest treasures ending up in overseas museums and private collections. Napoleon’s troops were the original looters of the Rosetta stone (now in the British Museum after British forces defeated the French in Egypt) and unleashed an insatiable Egyptomania in the West, which gave rise to “outright criminal channels” for the country’s antiquities, Ferreira writes.
Nosmot Gbadamosi is a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief. She has reported on human rights, the environment, and sustainable development from across the African continent. Twitter: @nosmotg
The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account. Usernames may be updated at any time and must not contain inappropriate or offensive language.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
By Nosmot Gbadamosi, a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief.
Incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi (C) addresses his supporters at the Stade des Martyrs during his first campaign rally as the electoral campaign officially kicks off in Kinshasa on Nov. 19.
Incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi (C) addresses his supporters at the Stade des Martyrs during his first campaign rally as the electoral campaign officially kicks off in Kinshasa on Nov. 19. Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images
November 29, 2023, 1:00 AM
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: A coup attempt in Sierra Leone, severe floods hit Ethiopia and Somalia, and Germany makes a gas deal with Nigeria.
Congo’s Looming Democratic Test
In July, amid a tense political climate, the body of an opposition legislator was found in his car with gunshot wounds on a main highway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. Cherubin Okende was a former transport minister-turned-spokesman for leading opposition party Ensemble pour la République (Together for the Republic), whose leader Moise Katumbi is set to compete in Congo’s presidential election in less than a month, on Dec. 20.
Katumbi, a former governor of the mineral-rich province of Katanga and owner of Congolese football club TP Mazembe, claimed at the time that the killing was “a political assassination” and an attempt to silence the opposition. Okende resigned from the government last year when Katumbi left the ruling coalition led by President Felix Tshisekedi.
The murder is part of a series of troubling events leading up to the election, including several arrests of opposition figures that have left critics questioning whether Congo can deliver credible elections at a time when Africans are weary of sham ballots, and when coups in West and Central Africa are on the rise. The last election in 2018, which brought Tshisekedi to power, was heavily disputed.
In total, 23 candidates are in the running against Tshisekedi, including 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a renowned gynecologist known for helping victims of sexual violence, and former oil executive Martin Fayulu of the Commitment to Citizenship and Development party, whom many local and international observers consider the true winner of the last election.
The Catholic Church—seen as one of Congo’s most trusted civil society organizations—deployed around 40,000 observers to polling stations during the 2018 election and said that votes counted showed that Fayulu had won. A Financial Times data analysis also alleged that electoral fraud had occurred and that then-President Joseph Kabila may have sought to cling to power through a deal with Tshisekedi, whom the analysis showed should have been the runner-up.
In September, Jean-Marc Kabund, the former head of Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, was sentenced to seven years in prison for “insulting the head of state.” Kabund was arrested last year about a month after creating his own party, called the Alliance for Change. He had denounced Tshisekedi’s government for “mismanagement characterized by carelessness, irresponsibility, enjoyment, and predation at the top of the State.”
As Stephen R. Weissman and Anthony Gambino wrote in Foreign Policy in September, “there is every reason to believe that the grand corruption that marked the earlier Joseph Kabila regime has continued.”
Congo’s electoral commission, known under the French acronym CENI, faces the daunting task of organizing ballots across a vast country with limited infrastructure and widespread violence in the eastern region, where more than 100 armed groups are vying for power.
CENI has always been viewed with a degree of cynicism regarding its independence. In October, CENI President Denis Kadima met with U.S. officials in Washington as part of a “rebranding” campaign to dispel what he referred to as “a very bad reputation.” But criticism persists: Opposition candidates have complained of flaws in the voter registration process during this election cycle.
Although Kadima is an election expert with decades of experience, he is viewed as being handpicked by Tshisekedi’s government to lead CENI (the head of which is meant to be chosen by consensus). The opposition and the Catholic Church did not approve of him, which led to protests in late 2021. Critics accused Kadima of being too close to the president.
“The CENI knows the challenge it faces, and that its credibility is at stake,” political analyst Jean-Luc Kong told France 24 earlier this month. “But what really scares people is the crisis in the east.”
Almost 7 million people have fled their homes in North Kivu province due to a resurgence of fighting between Congo’s army and an armed group called the March 23 Movement (M23). More than one million citizens have been left without voter cards, and some eastern towns will be excluded altogether from voting due to the security concerns.
Some opponents believe that the only realistic chance of beating Tshisekedi, whom analysts predict will secure a narrow reelection since there is only one round of voting, is to form a coalition under a single candidate. Five leading opposition groups met last week in South Africa and chose to throw their support behind Katumbi.
Those supporters include Congo’s former Prime Minister Matata Ponyo Mapon; Seth Kikuni, who was the youngest candidate in the 2018 election; and Franck Diongo, who was imprisoned under Kabila and freed by Tshisekedi’s government only to be jailed again in June for more than a month. All have withdrawn their own presidential bids. (Mukwege, however, has not yet responded to calls for a united opposition.)
“Urgency dictates a single opposition candidate,” Matata said in Pretoria, South Africa, accusing the government of preparing “massive electoral fraud.”
As part of his campaign manifesto, Katumbi has pledged to “consolidate peace, democracy, and fight corruption.” In a statement, he said that “the current cohort of corrupt leaders cannot be trusted to change their ways.” Mukwege launched his campaign from his hometown in the eastern city of Bukavu, promising to end the country’s reliance on aid and foreign troops. (U.N. peacekeepers are resented by Congolese for failing to stop armed violence). “Internationally, we are going to do everything we can to ensure that foreign armies leave Congolese soil, and that the Congolese people learn to take responsibility for their own security,” Mukwege said.
There are some Congolese voters who question whether an election would bring about any change and are intending to stay home. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has said that it is on watch for any signs of fraud and urged Congolese citizens to vote.
Worryingly, experts suggest that given the potential for a volatile election outcome in Congo, neighboring countries within the Congo Basin could possibly be next in line for a coup.
The Week Ahead
Wednesday, Nov. 29, to Saturday, Dec. 2: The Marrakech International Film Festival, which began on Friday, continues in Morocco. It is being attended by actors Jessica Chastain and Willem Dafoe following the country’s earthquake in September. Other festivals in Egypt and Tunisia have been canceled due to the Israel-Hamas war.
Thursday, Nov. 30: A postponed OPEC+ meeting is scheduled to take place.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube presents the 2024 national budget amid concerns over the impact of weak global economic growth.
Thursday, Nov. 30, to Tuesday, Dec. 12: The U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mohamed Nasr, Egypt’s lead climate negotiator, and the U.K.’s King Charles III are expected to attend.
What We’re Watching
Sierra Leone coup attempt. Sierra Leone on Monday lifted a nationwide curfew imposed after what the government said was an attack by “renegade soldiers” who attempted to break into a military armory in the capital city of Freetown on Sunday, leading to gunfire and explosions across several neighborhoods home to military outposts and killing at least 20 people, including 13 soldiers. Information Minister Chernoh Bah said on Tuesday that “the incident was a failed attempted coup.”
The assailants also attacked a police station and released 2,000 inmates from the central prison. The political situation in Sierra Leone has been tense since President Julius Maada Bio was reelected in June with just over 56 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff. The election result was rejected by the main opposition, the All People’s Congress party.
Global tax vote. African nations secured a historic win on international tax negotiations after developing economies overwhelmingly voted to give the United Nations more say on global tax rules and move the discussion out of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a body largely formed by richer nations. A proposal presented by the group of 54 African countries for a U.N. framework on global tax cooperation was backed by 125 countries on Nov. 22 and opposed by 48 mostly high-income countries, including the United States and EU member nations. Kenyan U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani called the outcome the “clearest Global North vs Global South vote I have seen in recent times.”
Horn of Africa floods. Flooding across the Horn of Africa, which has killed at least 100 people and forced 700,000 from their homes, is expected to last into December. Up to 1.2 million people in Somalia have already been affected. According to the U.N., 4.3 million people—a quarter of Somalia’s population—will face “crisis-level hunger” by the end of the year. In Kenya, at least 70 people have been killed and more than 150,000 displaced from their homes. Meanwhile in northern Ethiopia, 50 people and 4,000 cattle have died in the Tigray and Amhara regions because of severe drought. In the country’s south, 370,000 people have left their homes due to flash floods.
Nigeria’s election challenges. Despite the main petitions against President Bola Tinubu’s election win being dismissed, Nigerian courts are overwhelmed by more than 1,000 cases related to this year’s presidential and regional elections, reports the Nigerian Guardian. Nigeria’s chief justice, Olukayode Ariwoola, said judges would not be intimidated by the “loud voices of the mob” over accusations that judgements have so far favored the governing All Progressives Congress party.
This Week in Natural Resources
Mali and Russia go for gold. Mali’s military government signed a four-year deal with Russia to build a gold refinery in the capital Bamako. The refinery is expected to process 200 metric tons of gold annually. The project will allow Mali to control all gold production in the country and “correctly apply all taxes and duties,” Finance Minister Alousseni Sanou said last Tuesday on state TV. The Russian private military contractor Wagner Group has been accused of gold smuggling and human rights abuses during Mali’s fight against armed groups allied with al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
More German gas deals. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany has been on a spree to secure gas and oil contracts with several African nations. Nigeria will supply natural gas to Germany at 850,000 metric tons per year in 2026, expanding afterward to 1.2 million metric tons per year. The German firm DWS Group will invest $500 million in renewable energy projects in Nigeria. Germany has faced criticism for investing in environmentally harmful African gas supplies for export to Europe while maintaining African nations’ focus on renewables for their domestic needs.
Rustin’s Zimbabwe. In Africa Is a Country, Brooks Marmon explores the legacy of the American civil rights icon Bayard Rustin and his involvement in African independence movements during the late 1970s following the release of Netflix movie Rustin by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. Marmon argues that Rustin’s “controversial relationship with the final stages of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle” is largely overlooked in U.S. discourse, particularly his strong opposition toward Zimbabwe’s main independence movements in favor of groups “willing to collaborate with Rhodesia’s white settlers.”
Napoleon’s pillaged Egypt. Ridley Scott’s new movie Napoleon depicts troops led by Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor firing cannons at the pyramids of Giza, but Napoleon never actually took “pot shots” at Egyptian pyramids, Becky Ferreira reports in the New York Times. However, France’s invasion of Egypt did lead to many of the country’s greatest treasures ending up in overseas museums and private collections. Napoleon’s troops were the original looters of the Rosetta stone (now in the British Museum after British forces defeated the French in Egypt) and unleashed an insatiable Egyptomania in the West, which gave rise to “outright criminal channels” for the country’s antiquities, Ferreira writes.
Nosmot Gbadamosi is a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief. She has reported on human rights, the environment, and sustainable development from across the African continent. Twitter: @nosmotg
The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account. Usernames may be updated at any time and must not contain inappropriate or offensive language.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
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