#is the other security officer or a representative of the bank

[saddayfordemocracy]

How the Watermelon Became a Symbol of Palestinian Solidarity

The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol is not new. It first emerged after the Six-day War in 1967, when Israel seized control of the West Bank and Gaza, and annexed East Jerusalem. At the time, the Israeli government made public displays of the Palestinian flag a criminal offense in Gaza and the West Bank. 

To circumvent the ban, Palestinians began using the watermelon because, when cut open, the fruit bears the national colors of the Palestinian flag—red, black, white, and green.  

The Israeli government didn't just crack down on the flag. Artist Sliman Mansour told The National in 2021 that Israeli officials in 1980 shut down an exhibition at 79 Gallery in Ramallah featuring his work and others, including Nabil Anani and Issam Badrl. “They told us that painting the Palestinian flag was forbidden, but also the colors were forbidden. So Issam said, ‘What if I were to make a flower of red, green, black and white?’, to which the officer replied angrily, ‘It will be confiscated. Even if you paint a watermelon, it will be confiscated,’” Mansour told the outlet.

Israel lifted the ban on the Palestinian flag in 1993, as part of the Oslo Accords, which entailed mutual recognition by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and were the first formal agreements to try to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The flag was accepted as representing the Palestinian Authority, which would administer Gaza and the West Bank.

In the wake of the accords, the New York Times nodded to the role of watermelon as a stand-in symbol during the flag ban. “In the Gaza Strip, where young men were once arrested for carrying sliced watermelons—thus displaying the red, black and green Palestinian colors—soldiers stand by, blasé, as processions march by waving the once-banned flag,” wrote Times journalist John Kifner.

In 2007, just after the Second Intifada, artist Khaled Hourani created The Story of the Watermelon for a book entitled Subjective Atlas of Palestine. In 2013, he isolated one print and named it The Colours of the Palestinian Flag, which has since been seen by people across the globe.

The use of the watermelon as a symbol resurged in 2021, following an Israeli court ruling that Palestinian families based in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem would be evicted from their homes to make way for settlers.

The watermelon symbol today:

In January, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir gave police the power to confiscate Palestinian flags. This was later followed by a June vote on a bill to ban people from displaying the flag at state-funded institutions, including universities. (The bill passed preliminary approval but the government later collapsed.)

In June, Zazim, an Arab-Israeli community organization, launched a campaign to protest against the ensuing arrests and confiscation of flags. Images of watermelons were plastered on to 16 taxis operating in Tel Aviv, with the accompanying text reading, “This is not a Palestinian flag.”

“Our message to the government is clear: we will always find a way to circumvent any absurd ban and we will not stop fighting for freedom of expression and democracy,” said Zazim director Raluca Ganea. 

Amal Saad, a Palestinian from Haifa who worked on the Zazim campaign, told Al-Jazeera they had a clear message: “If you want to stop us, we’ll find another way to express ourselves.”

Words courtesy of BY ARMANI SYED / TIME

[mariacallous]

Ukraine faces a precarious future amid waning Western support. The immediate peril comes from the 2024 US presidential election, but the fundamental problem has been the failure of Europe to commit to the defeat of Putin’s invasion.

The new NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, lost no time in visiting Kyiv after he assumed office, where he ‘pledged continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia’. Doubtless his words were sincerely intended, but he knows there are serious political headwinds across Europe and the US.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky senses this too as he briefs his ‘Victory Plan’ around European capitals following a mixed reception in Washington.

The forthcoming presidential election in the US represents the point of maximum danger. A win by Donald Trump could see him placing a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as 6 November. Any such call would set expectations of a negotiated settlement, with discussions possibly beginning in the early months of 2025. 

Nobody should want this war of ‘meat grinder’ savagery to continue a day longer than necessary. However, Zelensky would have much to fear from a deal negotiated by Trump. The 2020 Doha Accords with the Afghan Taliban have been described as the worst diplomatic agreement since Munich in 1938. Fortunately, Trump was prevented from reaching a similarly disastrous deal with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. 

In any such deal, Zelensky would be unlikely to secure the recovery of Crimea and the Donbas, reparations for the massive damage to his country, war crimes trials or membership of NATO. He might be able to bargain the Kursk salient in return for control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. But, without NATO membership and its Article 5 guarantee, there would be nothing to stop Putin from continuing the war after a couple of years of recovery and rearmament. 

For Europe, too, there would be peril. Both Georgia and Moldova look particularly fragile and vulnerable to Russian active measures or hybrid warfare. Even the Baltics would be justifiably nervous, in spite of their NATO status.

However, it would be misleading to blame everything on Trump. There have been plenty of prior indications of trouble ahead.

US support has always been too little, too late. Given the sheer scale of Washington’s military support this might sound absurd, but President Joe Biden’s hesitancy in allowing Storm Shadow missiles to be used against targets inside Russia is indicative of a general trend. As the head of a global superpower, Biden has always had one eye on ensuring that the war does not get out of hand and become nuclear. The result has been that Ukraine feels it has been given enough not to lose but not enough to win. 

In Europe the support has been varied. Some countries, such as the Baltics, the Scandinavian states, the UK and Poland, have done better than others. Hungary has been hostile, and may soon be joined by Slovakia and Austria. Germany has provided the most weapons but has been politically unreliable. Its refusal to supply Taurus missiles and its public debate about reducing its defence budget have sent all the wrong messages. German companies continue to retain significant interests in Russia, and the advance of Alternative for Germany in elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg reminded Chancellor Olaf Scholz that there is little support for the war in Eastern Germany. President Emmanuel Macron of France, having been mercurial about Ukraine from the outset, received a similar jolt from the far left and far right in legislative elections in July. 

The most visible sign of a failure of collective determination to defeat Russia was the decision not to seize Russian financial assets frozen in Western banks, but instead to use them as collateral to raise a much smaller loan. Yes, there would have been a theoretical risk of undermining faith in the Western-dominated financial system, but few countries are yet ready to entrust their savings to Chinese or Indian banks. Furthermore, it would have sent a message to Putin not to invade other countries. 

Meanwhile, the crisis in the Middle East has diverted foreign policy and public attention. In Iraq and Afghanistan 20 years ago, the West demonstrated that it does not have the policy bandwidth to cope with two simultaneous campaigns. The events since 7 October 2023 have done untold damage to Ukraine’s prospects and to the West’s much-vaunted rules-based international order.

A newly elected President Trump would rightly claim that, once again, the US has shouldered the main burden of Western interests with inadequate support from its NATO allies. He would point (correctly again) to the mounting military pressure on Ukraine, its difficulties in replacing front-line soldiers, and the effects on global food and fuel prices. With the war raging in the Levant, he would refer to the US being over-extended once again in ‘forever wars’.

A newly elected President Kamala Harris could be expected to follow the path trodden by Biden. She would inherit his caution at unduly provoking Putin and his reticence about Ukraine joining NATO. Furthermore, her freedom to supply Ukraine with additional weaponry could be restricted by the make-up of the two houses of Congress. 

There could be a third outcome to the election: a Harris victory that is contested by Trump. In such circumstances, we could see an absence of US foreign policy for a period of weeks or months. 

Barring a mutiny by Russian forces or a crisis in Moscow, the prospects for Ukraine (and therefore Europe) look grim. The irony is that Putin would claim victory in spite of his campaign having been a costly disaster.

What would a betrayed Ukraine look like? At least it would retain some 82% of its territory. A guilty West would doubtless provide aid to rebuild infrastructure. It might be given a pathway to eventual EU membership (unless that option had been bargained away at the negotiating table), but joining the Western club may have lost its appeal at that point. Ukraine’s corrupt oligarchs would re-emerge from hibernation. The old post-Soviet cynicism would replace the youthful enthusiasm of the Maidan generation. There would be antagonism towards those returning from abroad after avoiding the fight, and – of course – thousands of grieving families.

This should have been Europe’s war to manage. In spite of decades of discussion about European defence, it proved too convenient to rely on US largesse. This made Europe a prisoner of US electoral factors. It also caused Europe to shirk the difficult decisions that helping win the war entailed: the big increases in defence expenditure, the 24-hour working in ammunition factories, the hikes in food and energy costs and the political risks such as seizing frozen assets. What remains now for Europe is to secure a place at the negotiating table and to argue for NATO membership for Ukraine as part of any settlement.

Failing that, the West will have years to repent the betrayal of the courageous Ukrainians, whose only crime was their wish to join the Western democratic order.

[depressedgarbages-stuff]

News/Reports and other contributions on Gaza:

Report of Yanis Varoufakis on the current situation in Gaza, with video clips, pictures and statistics - TikTok

Norm Finklestein schools zionist using Shoa legitimacy for ethical displacements of 🍉

UN: Isreal dumps nuclear waste in the West Bank, poisons Palestinians

POV: you support Palestine and live in Cork

Melanie Martinez asking her fans at a concert of hers to chant "Free Palestine"

Sideshow comics of the current situation in Gaza

The International Criminal Court prosecutor's office has requested arrest warrants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh for all alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"Suddenly, tanks came. As two fishermen fled, they were shot. They were shot on the beach. I know that because I saw that. These are not unique events on the Gaza Strip." - UNICEF spokesperson, James Elder

Self-report of Fatima on her current situation, if you want to help her go to this post and donate to Mohammed Al Hobe's GoFound.Me

Corey Balsam, the national coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, addresses Canada's "deep complicity in Israel's crimes".

A video from a palestian family, documenting their horrific living situation, voiced over and translated by @pumpkinheadgirl on TikTok

John Oliver's take on the university protests

James Elder, a representative of UNICEF, provides a firsthand report of the indiscriminate murder of two men in Gaza

Scenes from a medical tent where Palestinian children tremble in shock and fear after being wounded by an Israeli airstrike west of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Aid items that were not let into Gaza - TikTok

The link tree of @gracevenus93 on tiktok who asks for donations for different relief-funds and palestian families in need.

Dutch protester giving an interview while being physically dragged away by police/security forces (minute 0.5 til 0.20)

[eretzyisrael]

by Hugh Fitzgerald

For some reason, the international media is entirely uninterested in reporting about how some Israeli Muslims — Arabs and Druze — have rallied to help defend their country against Hamas. Bassam Tawil has more on this subject here: “‘Like…wtf’: Israel’s Arab Citizens Feel Lucky,” by Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute, January 25, 2024:

IDF Sergeant First Class (reserve) Ahmed Abu Latif, 26, a husband and father to a one-year-old baby, was killed on January 22 during the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Abu Latif, a Muslim citizen of Israel, embodied the spirit of unity and patriotism in Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israelis. He also represented a shining example of coexistence and unwavering love for Israel. In a message on Facebook at the beginning of the war, Abu Latif, who was working as a security guard at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, wrote:

Two days after the massacre, Israeli Arab blogger Nuseir Yassin, popularly known as “Nas Daily,” posted the following on X (formerly Twitter):

The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 — among the victims were also some Israeli Arabs — have pushed some Israeli Arabs who previously self-identified as “Palestinian-Israelis” to instead identify more closely with the Jewish state, declaring themselves to be “Israeli Arabs” or, as in the case of this popular blogger, Nuseir Yassin, shedding the modifier altogether, and now call themselves “Israelis.”

The Hamas atrocities did not drive a wedge between Jewish and Arab Israelis, as Yahya Sinwar may have hoped. Instead, the events of October 7 led to greater identification by Israeli Arabs and Druze with the Jewish state. Three-quarters of Israeli Arabs reported having “good relations” with Jews; almost as many — 70% — identify with the Jewish state, and far from wishing for its disappearance, recognize how lucky they are to be citizens of the only decently run government in the Middle East.

In Israel, Arab soldiers, both Muslim and Druze, have been fighting against the Hamas terrorists; some have been killed in Gaza, defending the Jewish state. Others were killed in Israel by Hamas on October 7; some Arabs, especially Bedouin, were taken hostage on that day. Druze have a long history of joining the IDF; the highest-ranking IDF officer who has been killed in this war was a Druze, Lt. Col. Salman Habaka. Another Druze casualty was Major Jamal Abbas, whose father and grandfather had both served in the IDF. Another Druze who answered the call on October 7 was a woman, Nisreen Yousef, who immediately volunteered to interrogate captured Hamas terrorists to discover where others were hiding; she passed on the information to the IDF, that promptly located and captured them.

The stories of these Muslims who volunteered to defend the Jewish state, and some who died in that struggle, should be more widely known. They undermine all the stories about Israel as an “apartheid state,” where Muslims are supposedly oppressed. These Arab and Druze volunteers for the IDF know otherwise; they are fighting for what they know is “their” country.

The stories about the Israeli Arabs whose rise to the summit of their professions also fatally vitiate the claims that Israel is an “apartheid” state. These stories need to be told. There is Samer Haj Yehia, the Chairman of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi. And Judge Khaled Kabub, who in 2022 became the first Muslim, though not the first Arab, Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court. Jewish and Arab physicians work side by side in Israeli hospitals. Arab and Druze women have risen high in the medical profession and in academia. Prof. Mouna Maroun, Vice President and Dean of Research at University of Haifa and the former Head of the Sagol Department of Neurobiology, is the first Arab woman to hold a senior faculty position in natural sciences. Another is Prof. Mona Khoury-Kassabri, who in 2021 been elected Vice President of Strategy and Diversity at the university. It was the first time that a member of the Arab community was appointed to a senior position of vice president. “I am deeply honored to be the first Arab to serve as a Hebrew University Vice President,” Khoury-Kassabri said. 43% of Israelis who have just become doctors are now Arabs and Druze, a staggering statistic, given that Arabs and Druze are only 20% of the population. Compare that fact with the way Palestinians in most Arab states are prohibited from practicing certain professions, including engineering, law, and medicine.

Perhaps someone in the media will devout a program, full of human interest, to the Arab and Druze in Israel, some of whom have given their lives for the Jewish state. Others were victims of Hamas terrorists on October 7. And the program should explain the fact — never mentioned in the mainstream media — that 70% of Israeli Arabs now say they identify with the Jewish state as their country too, a place where they receive equal treatment before the law and where it is possible for Arabs to rise high in Israeli society — in law, banking, and especially, medicine. That might startle some of those mindlessly chanting about “apartheid” Israel, if not to change their chant, at least to keep quiet.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Noah Hurowitz at The Intercept:

Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire for revenge.

On the campaign trail, he joked about being a dictator on “day one” in office, pledged to jail journalists, and threatened to retaliate against political foes who he felt had wronged him. Now, just days after he secured a second term in the White House, Congress is already moving to hand a resurgent Trump administration a powerful cudgel that it could wield against ideological opponents in civil society. Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, would grant the secretary of the Treasury Department unilateral authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be a “terrorist supporting organization.” The resolution has already prompted strong opposition from a wide range of civil society groups, with more than 100 organizations signing an open letter issued by the American Civil Liberties Union in September.

[...]

No Evidence Needed

Under the bill, the Treasury secretary would issue notice to a group of intent to designate it as a “terrorist supporting organization.” Once notified, an organization would have the right to appeal within 90 days, after which it would be stripped of its 501(c)(3) status, named for the statute that confers tax exemptions on recognized nonprofit groups. The law would not require officials to explain the reason for designating a group, nor does it require the Treasury Department to provide evidence. “It basically empowers the Treasury secretary to target any group it wants to call them a terror supporter and block their ability to be a nonprofit,” said Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action, which opposes the law. “So that would essentially kill any nonprofit’s ability to function. They couldn’t get banks to service them, they won’t be able to get donations, and there’d be a black mark on the organization, even if it cleared its name.”

The bill could also imperil the lifesaving work of nongovernmental organizations operating in war zones and other hostile areas where providing aid requires coordination with groups designated as terrorists by the U.S., according to a statement issued last year by the Charity & Security Network. “Charitable organizations, especially those who work in settings where designated terrorist groups operate, already undergo strict internal due diligence and risk mitigation measures,” the group wrote. “As the prohibition on material support to foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) already exists, and is applicable to U.S. nonprofits, this proposed legislation is redundant and unnecessary.” If it proceeds, the bill will go to the House floor in a “suspension vote,” a fast-track procedure that limits debate and allows a bill to bypass committees and move on to the Senate as long as it receives a two-thirds supermajority in favor. [...]

Pro-Palestine Groups at Risk

In the past year, accusations of support for terrorism have been freely lobbed at student protesters, aid workers in Gaza, and even mainstream publications like the New York Times. In unscrupulous hands, the powers of the proposed law could essentially turn the Treasury Department into an enforcement arm of Canary Mission and other hard-line groups dedicated to doxxing and smearing their opponents as terrorists. With very few guardrails in place, the new bill would give broad new powers to the federal government to act on such accusations — and not just against pro-Palestine groups, according to Costello. “The danger is much broader than just groups that work on foreign policy,” said Costello. “It could target major liberal funders who support Palestinian solidarity and peace groups who engage in protest. But it could also theoretically be used to target pro-choice groups, and I could see it being used against environmental groups.

HR9495 needs to be opposed, as this civil liberties-violating bill could broadly define any organization a “terrorist supporting organization”, such as pro-reproductive rights/abortion access, pro-LGBTQ+, pro-Palestine, and progressive groups such as Indivisible.

[dertaglichedan]

More than 100 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday after concluding that their party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, is “unfit to serve again as president.”

In a letter to the public, the Republicans, including both vocal longtime Trump opponents and others who had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, argued that while they might “disagree with Kamala Harris” on many issues, Mr. Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.” Those include, they said, “unusual affinity” for dictators like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.”

“As president,” the letter said, “he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests and betrayed our values, democracy and this country’s founding documents.”

The letter condemned Mr. Trump’s incitement of the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aimed at allowing him to hold onto power after losing an election, saying that “he has violated his oath of office and brought danger to our country.” It quoted Mr. Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, who has said that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

The letter came not long after former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, both said they would vote for Ms. Harris. Democrats featured a number of anti-Trump Republicans at their nominating convention last month, including former Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Mr. Pence has said he will not endorse Mr. Trump but has not endorsed Ms. Harris.

The 111 signatories included former officials who served under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush. Many of them had previously broken with Mr. Trump, including two former defense secretaries, Chuck Hagel and William S. Cohen; Robert B. Zoellick, a former president of the World Bank; the former C.I.A. directors Michael V. Hayden and William H. Webster; a former director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte; and former Gov. William F. Weld of Massachusetts. Miles Taylor and Olivia Troye, two Trump administration officials who became vocal critics, also signed.

But a number of Republicans who did not sign a similar letter on behalf of Mr. Biden in 2020 signed the one for Ms. Harris this time, including several former House members, like Charles W. Boustany Jr. of Louisiana, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Dan Miller of Florida and Bill Paxon of New York

*** What the?!?!?!

[helpjuju]

Dear humanity

I am Ahmed from Gaza. I am married and have three children: Jumana, 8 years old, Suhad, 6 years old, and Muhammad, 3 years old. Although they are young, they have survived previous wars, but this current war is the most difficult because I am not with them and cannot provide water, food or a safe place.

Our lives changed on October 7, when my children were home with their mother. The sounds of bombing were getting louder everywhere, and with every missile strike, my children’s bodies were shaking. My wife and children left our house in a hurry and moved to another house, then to school. Later, our house was surrounded, burned and completely destroyed. It wasn't just the loss of our home, it was the loss of safety and security and our dreams, including those of our children. They destroyed our home and ruined years of our lives.

I also lost my job. Job opportunities in Gaza are extremely scarce due to the blockade that has been in place for more than 17 years.

Despite my persistent attempts and improving my skills through education and traininig, I was able to open an office for vocational education and training. But I lost my office after its infrastructure was destroyed. I also had a store that sold electronic games, and that was destroyed and burned as well. As a result, my family and I no longer have any way to earn a living. I went to Egypt before the war to take some courses for my business, but I am now stuck in Egypt while my children are with their mother in Gaza due to the closure of the road from Egypt to Gaza due to the war.

I have not seen my children for 8 months due to road closures, and I am desperately searching for a way to save them from the ravages of war. Being away from my children, I feel tremendous pressure and feel extremely responsible for every moment my children and wife spend in fear and devastation. I dream of bringing my children and my wife to Egypt to a safe place where I can build a better future for them, full of safety and hope. They deserve life in all its meanings, including comfort and peace.

I appeal to the whole world to hear my cry, the cry of my wife, and the cry of my children in Gaza. We need a helping hand to wipe away our tears and build a bridge of safety for us.

Perhaps this fundraising campaign represents a beacon of hope amidst the darkness. It is truly the only hope we cling to so strongly.

The aim of the fundraiser is to save my children by traveling to Egypt. Travel costs per person are $5,000, and I also need to cover transportation costs, renting a house in Egypt, and meeting my children's clothing, healthcare, and other humanitarian needs for several months up to a year.

Approximately $1,000 to cover GoFundMe transaction fees (%2.9+$0.30 per transaction)

To learn more about me, please visit my

TikTok account www.tiktok.com/@help.juju

Donations campaign details: 

Travel fees for the mother = $5,000 

For children: 3*2,500$=7,500$

 Total travel fee = $12,500

Passport issuance fees = $1000 

Visa fees for Canada and plane tickets for the family are $8,000

Accommodation in Egypt, including renting a house, buying clothes and toys for the children, entertaining them, and conducting a medical examination for the children to check on them. My family of four in Gaza and me alone in Egypt, we are all facing unimaginable challenges. To give us a chance for a better life, we are seeking to raise 58,000 Euros.

There are taxes on money in banks as well as on the crowdfunding fund (GoFundMe) which also has a percentage.

[moontyger]

Up for a potential fast-track vote next week in the House of Representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, would grant the secretary of the Treasury Department unilateral authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be a “terrorist supporting organization.”

The resolution has already prompted strong opposition from a wide range of civil society groups, with more than 100 organizations signing an open letter issued by the American Civil Liberties Union in September.

With Trump set to return to office, it’s more urgent than ever to beat the legislation back, said Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel at the ACLU.

“This is about stifling dissent and to chill advocacy, because people are going to avoid certain things and take certain positions in order to avoid this designation,” Hamadanchy told The Intercept. “And then on top of that you have a president-elect who’s spent a lot of time on the campaign trail talking about punishing his opponents and what he wants to do to student protesters — and you’re giving him another tool.”

...

No Evidence Needed

Under the bill, the Treasury secretary would issue notice to a group of intent to designate it as a “terrorist supporting organization.” Once notified, an organization would have the right to appeal within 90 days, after which it would be stripped of its 501(c)(3) status, named for the statute that confers tax exemptions on recognized nonprofit groups.

The law would not require officials to explain the reason for designating a group, nor does it require the Treasury Department to provide evidence.

“It basically empowers the Treasury secretary to target any group it wants to call them a terror supporter and block their ability to be a nonprofit,” said Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action, which opposes the law. “So that would essentially kill any nonprofit’s ability to function. They couldn’t get banks to service them, they won’t be able to get donations, and there’d be a black mark on the organization, even if it cleared its name.”

The bill could also imperil the lifesaving work of nongovernmental organizations operating in war zones and other hostile areas where providing aid requires coordination with groups designated as terrorists by the U.S., according to a statement issued last year by the Charity & Security Network.

“Charitable organizations, especially those who work in settings where designated terrorist groups operate, already undergo strict internal due diligence and risk mitigation measures,” the group wrote. “As the prohibition on material support to foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) already exists, and is applicable to U.S. nonprofits, this proposed legislation is redundant and unnecessary.”

If it proceeds, the bill will go to the House floor in a “suspension vote,” a fast-track procedure that limits debate and allows a bill to bypass committees and move on to the Senate as long as it receives a two-thirds supermajority in favor.

Pro-Palestine Groups at Risk

In the past year, accusations of support for terrorism have been freely lobbed at student protesters, aid workers in Gaza, and even mainstream publications like the New York Times. In unscrupulous hands, the powers of the proposed law could essentially turn the Treasury Department into an enforcement arm of Canary Mission and other hard-line groups dedicated to doxxing and smearing their opponents as terrorists.

With very few guardrails in place, the new bill would give broad new powers to the federal government to act on such accusations — and not just against pro-Palestine groups, according to Costello.

“The danger is much broader than just groups that work on foreign policy,” said Costello. “It could target major liberal funders who support Palestinian solidarity and peace groups who engage in protest. But it could also theoretically be used to target pro-choice groups, and I could see it being used against environmental groups.

Costello added, “It really would be at the discretion of the Trump administration as to who they target, with very little recourse for the targeted organization.”

An earlier version of the bill passed the House in April by a vote of 382-11.

[thesalemwitchtries]

Dreaming of a Grave: Prologue

Word Count: 780

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Named! Fem! Enhanced! Reader

Warnings: depersonalization (vague), use of she/they pronouns (not really a warning, but just so you know), probably wrong tech speak (my dad is a software engineer and my mom has 4 degrees in CS, ranging from network security to a double masters in machine learning and robotics, so obviously my teenage rebellion was to be an arts major)

Masterlist

Thank you for reading, I hope you see a very cute animal soon :)

Charlotte called it Syncing: taking an imaginary leash off of her consciousness and allowing it to float away, dissolving from physical sensation, from her emotion and identity, she became it, more than Charlotte and less than human. 

There was no real feeling to it at all. She was, then it was, and together they were, no pause or breath between states, but Syncing seemed like the closest anyone could come to knowing what death felt like. The body stayed behind, just enough electricity to keep the meat fresh and responsive, cardio-vascular systems operating at a typical resting capacity. 

The soul though, transformed, ascended into Cyberspace and stretched itself wide and far, the way they were meant to be. 

World Wide Web was a shockingly apt name to come from people who couldn’t see this dimension the way that they could. Beams of light flashed the binary patterns of ones and zeros, altogether making up the vastness of human existence as it could be known so far.

Governments, banks, every old lady posting photos of their grandchildren on Facebook, it all was there, tangled together through pathways like wires, data connections forming junctions in a large spider's web. 

For the most part, Charlie experienced the Cyberspace as a place beyond both tangibility and sense, there wasn’t anything to see or hear unless they traveled to a connection that represented a camera or microphone in the Real world. Instead they operated through feeling, a superior knowing that they had always had within the Cyberspace. 

In the Real, it took Charlie years to learn code, here they wove it together like Arachne, no doubt or struggle, chains of code and subroutines molded exactly as they wished. They were the sole inhabitant and queen of an entire universe, this dimension of information, where they could create and do without limit. 

It was here, a place of life beyond breath, that they had found it. 

Charlotte had wanted a copy of some schematics, so she Synced and they began to search through data connections of the inventor, routing the plans away to her own meticulously guarded network to study back in the Real. Just as they were about to De-sync, they found it— a data connection that felt wrong. 

Hastily tied and weak, like it didn’t belong and was ready to disappear without a trace at a moment’s notice. 

Wires, strands, and connections often reflected the way that they were created outside of the Cyberspace, viruses and bugs had a particular way that they were knotted and attached to the main web, and this wire was a classic Shadow. Shadows were fairly common, almost every system had a few things locked further away from the Main Web than usual. They required caution though, as many belonged to the Law, and others to people operating Illegally.

Creating a subroutine to follow the strand of information to its other possible connections, they found it was something illegal, leading to various husks and shells— empty connections that were meant to fool anyone searching. That would work for others, accessing the Cyberspace from the Real, but they couldn’t be fooled, not here. 

More subroutines spun from their fingers, traveling down the strands and across numerous connections, dipping through security feeds and into microphones. They found empty offices, an upscale apartment, warehouses with people all in rows, a group of women screaming by the docks. 

While they couldn’t feel or sense while Synced, the part of them that was her identified what was as close to a sinking sensation as could exist outside of the Real. This was bad, evil, rotten. This Shadow was just one fragile part of a larger section of the Web, one that twisted and decayed, spreading flesh-viruses across the Real. 

Charlotte had to stay hidden, couldn’t let others notice that she was here, that they could do so much. Still, they could do so much, they could help, and so they must help. They refused to be like others that they had known, who looked at her with pity and remorse and yet never helped.

They would do something, just a little at first, and then keep an eye on things. 

Searching through the Shadow they dissolved the extra subroutines, coming across the perfect piece of bait. One file, loosely tethered but linked to all of the wrongness built here. They made a copy, innocuous, and tacked it to an email from one of the flesh-viruses to an account that was unconnected to all the wrongness. The date and time were modified, all traces of their tampering erased, and they De-synced, returning to the weary body.

The next morning, Karen Page checked her email, and opened the attached file labeled ‘Pension_Master’.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Langston Hughes

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 20, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 20, 2024

Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House. 

“By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th,” Trump told the audience. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people. Soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.”

Observers have been saying for a while now that once Trump had to start appearing in public, his apparent cognitive decline would surprise those who haven’t been paying attention. 

That certainly seemed to be true on Wednesday, January 17, when he told a New Hampshire audience: “We’re…going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to debank you from your—you know, your political beliefs, what they do. They want to debank you, and we’re going to debank—think of this. They want to take away your rights. They want to take away your country. The things they’re doing. All electric cars.”

His statement looks like word salad if you’re not steeped in MAGA world, but there are two stories behind Trump’s torrent of words. The first is that Trump always blurts out whatever is uppermost in his mind, suggesting he is worried by the fact that large banks will no longer lend to him. The Trump Organization’s auditor said during a fraud trial in 2022 that the past 10 years of the company’s financial statements could not be relied on, and Trump was forced to turn to smaller banks, likely on much worse terms. Now the legal case currently underway in Manhattan will likely make that financial problem larger. The judge has already decided that the Trump Organization, Trump, his two older sons, and two employees committed fraud, for which the judge is currently deciding appropriate penalties. 

The second story behind his statement, though, is much larger than Trump.

Since 2023, right-wing organizations, backed by Republican state attorneys general, have argued that banks are discriminating against them on religious and political grounds. In March 2023, JPMorgan Chase closed an account opened by the National Committee for Religious Freedom after the organization did not provide information the bank needed to comply with regulatory requirements. Immediately, Republican officials claimed religious discrimination and demanded the bank explain its position on issues important to the right wing. JPMorgan Chase denied discrimination, noting that it serves 50,000 accounts with religious affiliations and saying, “We have never and would never exit a client relationship due to their political or religious affiliation.”  

But the attack on banks stuck among MAGA Republicans, especially as other financial platforms like PayPal, Venmo, and GoFundMe have declined to accept business from right-wing figures who spout hate speech, thus cutting off their ability to raise money from their followers. 

The attempt to create distrust of large financial institutions is part of a larger attempt to destabilize the institutions of democracy. Trump is the figurehead for that attempt, but it is larger than him, and it will outlast him. 

The news media is often called the fourth branch of government because it provides the transparency and oversight that hold leaders accountable. But as soon as he began to campaign for office in 2015, Trump responded to the negative press about him by attacking the press, calling it the “fake news” media. In 2016, 70% of Republicans said they trusted national news media; by 2021 that number was 35%. 

Once elected, Trump and MAGA Republicans started to undermine faith in the rule of law that underpins our democracy. Less than four months after he took office, Trump fired the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, for investigating the connections between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, and his attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice under which the FBI operates have been relentless ever since. 

Those attacks now involve the entire judicial system, which Trump and his loyalists attack whenever judges or juries oppose him, while judges like Aileen Cannon, who appears to be protecting Trump from the federal criminal case against him for mishandling classified documents, have escaped his wrath.

Trump and his supporters have also challenged the U.S. military, insisting that it is weak because it is “woke.” He has called its leaders “some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

But it is not just the banking,  justice, and military systems MAGA Republicans are undermining. They are sowing distrust of our educational system, claiming that it is not educating students but, rather, indoctrinating them to embrace left-wing ideology. Public education is central to democracy because, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, it enables a voter to “understand his duties to his neighbours, & country,…[t]o know his rights…[a]nd, in general, to observe with intelligence & faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.”

Extremists in Congress are undermining even that body, the centerpiece of our democratic system. They have ground business there to a halt, weakening the idea of Congress as a deliberative body that can pass legislation to represent the wishes of the American people. 

In addition, they are now trying, quite deliberately, to end the country’s traditional system of foreign policy that protects the nation’s national security. Instead, they are trying to politicize foreign policy, standing against further aid to Ukraine although it has strong bipartisan support, thus tipping the scales in favor of Russia’s authoritarian leader in opposition to U.S. national security.

Over all, of course, is the Big Lie that undermines the nation’s electoral system by insisting that the 2020 presidential vote was “rigged” against Trump. Although there has never been any evidence of such a thing, 30% of Americans think Biden won the presidency only through “voter fraud.”  

This weakening of our institutions threatens the survival of democracy. 

Tearing apart the fabric of democracy invites an authoritarian to convince his followers that democracy is weak and that only a strongman can govern. 

Three years ago today, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office, vowing to restore faith in our democratic institutions.

“This is a time of testing,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “We face an attack on democracy and on truth. A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.

“Now we must step up. All of us. It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And, this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?”

“Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation,” Biden said. “If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Our Shadow Government

From time to time in my writings, you have seen me refer to “Our Shadow Government” or to the “Power Elite”. Originally, I came up with the former title, borrowing it from the Final Report of President Obama’s National Commission on the Financial and Economic Crisis of 2008, wherein the report referred to our Shadow Banking System (I have since seen it in book titles and other places, however). I thought that title to be very appropriate because, although I couldn’t see or clearly understand what was happening at any given time, I could see their shadows.  

Ultimately, I borrowed and came to use the latter title from the book, Who Rules America, by G William Domhoff, an in-depth study of who really wields the power in America–an excellent book which should be used in our schools. The title, Power Elite, is much more definitive in defining the real power governing our nation. It is referring to the very powerful, very wealthy, and the elite; who, in one combination or another (they don’t always agree among themselves) exercise almost complete control over the direction of our nation. They finance our elections, and they even write many of our laws, sometimes going so far as to, through their special interest representatives, sit down in the offices of our elected representatives and write the laws themselves. They are among those behind the infamous tax cuts for the wealthy enacted during the administration of George W. Bush and recently renewed. Their greed and “screw-ups” are behind the financial crisis of 2008. Their greed and desire for even more power has contributed to our huge national debt and their desire to do away with safety nets for our people, i.e. Social Security, Healthcare, etc. Their greed is behind the massive redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich in the past thirty plus years, including the diminution of the Labor Sector of our populace.

Mr. Domhoff tells us that the power elite have ruled us since the beginning of our nation. They wrote our Constitution and, after agreeing with its content among themselves, put it to the people for their approval. For the most part, they ran our government then and they run our government now. Mr. Domhoff goes on to tell us, also, that corporate and business interests are those most usually pursued and agreed upon–interests that protect and perpetuate the wealth and power of the power elite.

Our elected government has the complete power and authority of our Constitution to govern our nation, but they have relinquished their power to the moneyed interests–the power elite. Elections are enormously expensive and they need the money. Where this is obvious in our government, where it comes from the shadows or from under the table is seen in the exercise of power by their representatives, the special interest lobbyists on K Street in our capital. These people buy and control our politicians through campaign contributions, threats and intimidation, luxury travel, jobs after they leave office, and on and on. How many of the candidates for the presidency in the primaries of 2012 went on to work for special interest groups on K Street afterwards? Think about it. We are told our elected representatives spend half their time on the telephone raising money in order to finance their campaigns and get re-elected. Wow! If you take that time spent out of their schedules, how much more time would they have to get work done for their constituents?  Maybe, even, we would see them in the chambers of the House and Senate during debate time for a change. Doesn’t the word debate mean or imply that all parties to the debate are present for the process? The only way we the people can ever take back our government from these people so that it can become what it is supposed to be, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is to take the money out of our politics. We need federally financed elections. All support toward the election of political candidates, federal, state and local, should be government financed and controlled. No political support of any kind (personal, family, business, friends, or acquaintances) should be allowed under any circumstance, whether in the form of money, assets of any kind, jobs, privileges, or whatever, should be allowed. Campaign expenditures should be capped, and campaigns should be significantly shortened. In conjunction with this, we should develop uniform voting laws in every state throughout the nation which will readily enable a multi-party system as opposed to the two-party system we now have. Obviously, strict internal controls and penalties should be enacted to insure enforcement and accountability. All candidates should be elected based upon the issues in conjunction with their abilities and character–not their wealth. Maybe even a qualified poor man can be elected. It’s past time to put truthfulness and veracity back into government. It’s past time for our government to represent the good of all the people.

In all reality, our elected representatives have the power to do this on their own if they would. As a matter of law, they are the only one(s) who can affect such a change, but they haven’t. Without our insistence, I don’t really think they will. Do you? It is up to “we the people” to exercise sufficient political action to bring about change. There are more of us than there are of them. Do you really think we can remain on our present course and remain a Democratic Republic if we don’t act?

[thatstormygeek]

Things are looking bad for Biden’s chances in the fall, and his handling of both the Gaza crisis and the related campus protest movement across the United States are both playing a major role. This is not a good thing. If Trump gets back to the White House, and I cannot repeat this enough, there is no reason to be confident that democratic institutions will survive, nor that he will ever willingly leave office again. More narrowly, Trump will further enable Israel’s worst behaviors and deepen Palestinian suffering. Trump, who has repeatedly described himself as the “most pro-Israel president” in American history, broke with decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. As president, he announced a “peace proposal” (at a White House ceremony with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and no Palestinian representatives) that would hand Israel even more of the West Bank, and create a rump, subservient Palestinian state whose borders, airspace, security forces, electromagnetic spectrum, and foreign relations would all be controlled by Israel. Since Oct. 7, Trump’s main advisors on the region — his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former ambassador to Israel, David Melech Friedman — have promoted the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, followed by a re-colonization of the land by Israeli settlers and U.S. and Israeli corporations. As Kushner put it: "Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable.” That should make my preferred outcome clear. The problem is — and I will keep banging this drum as long as I have to — Biden’s incoherence on Israel and Palestine is both morally unforgivable and bad political strategy. He is bleeding support not only from young people, Arab-Americans, and others incensed with his continued support for a genocidal war machine, but also from pro-Israel moderates and Never Trump conservatives who are enraged at his furtive and contradictory efforts to ever-so-slightly rein that war machine in. I’ll give more details about that incoherence below. For now, I’ll just say that by trying to make everyone a little happy, he is making no one happy, as the pile of Palestinian corpses grows at his feet.

Biden famously came out of semi-retirement to run for president because of the 2017 Nazi riot in Charlottesville — a riot whose white-nationalist participants Trump very clearly supported at the time. He declared in his 2020 election victory speech that “in this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed.” In other words, he ran what was in large part an antifascist platform, and won. Four years later, his rhetoric and examples are almost exactly the same. At that White House event last month to which I was inexplicably invited, Biden again invoked Charlottesville. And again he warned of Trump’s uniquely authoritarian impulses. The only sign that time had passed were new references to liberal internationalism, mostly about helping Ukraine “fight off Putin.” The juxtaposition was telling. Biden’s vision of antifascism seems to be twofold: 1) Keep electing Democrats, and him in particular. 2) Arm America’s allies to the teeth and use them to defeat anything that smacks of the emerging Russian-Chinese-Iranian “axis.” That seems to be it. There is no step three. That isn’t an antifascist politics in any sense worthy of the term. The fact that Trump is still the undisputed leader of a major political party — not only running in his third straight election but showing good odds of winning his first-ever national popular majority — is proof enough that the approach has failed. You can blame the kids and those “so vehemently opposed to Israel” as much as you want. But by monomaniacally focusing on electoral outcomes and a battle of personalities against Trump, Biden and those who unreflexively support him don’t just ignore the real causes of the rising wave of right-wing authoritarianism. They far too often concede the false premises on which that wave feeds itself. ... The question above was a response to my May 10 newsletter, in which I noted that Israel’s plans to barrel forward with an assault on Rafah — the refuge of half of Gaza’s population — had pushed Biden to take the rare and diplomatically aggressive step of “pausing” a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs and other ammunition to the IDF. To the specific issue of whether that symbolic action was enough to “appease” opponents of the genocide, clearly not: First because the slaughter has continued. And second, Biden almost immediately reversed himself: This week, he authorized the transfer of $1 billion worth of additional tank rounds, mortars, and “tactical vehicles” to the Israeli military, accompanied by advisors’ assurances that, indeed, “arms transfers are proceeding as scheduled.” That incoherence was further underlined by the overdue State Department report on Israeli human-rights violations to Congress last week. The assessment, delivered in a Friday evening news dump, revealed “serious concerns” that Israel had violated international humanitarian law in both the killing of civilians and aid workers, had created obstacles for the delivery of humanitarian aid (up to and including literally bombing aid convoys from the sky), and was providing “limited information” as to “whether U.S. munitions were used in incidents involving civilian harm.”

The campus protests would have been another opportunity for Biden to show his commitment to democratic and pro-social ideals. I’m not saying he had to support the protesters or their aims — they are, after all, in large part protesting him. But no one made Biden take the further step of employing reactionary talking points about the protests being fonts of antisemitism and supposedly genocidal rhetoric, or repeating memeified claims about “Jewish students” being “blocked, harrassed, attacked, while walking to class” — questionable claims that have been weaponized to justify state and vigilante violence against demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights. [2] Biden repeated those claims on May 7, Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet he said nothing about the weeks of wanton anti-demonstrator violence by both police and unhinged pro-Israel counterprotesters. In fact, instead of condemning the episodic police state, he is pushing a new plan to funnel $37 billion more to police departments and hire 100,000 more cops. The political problem here should be obvious. How do you explain to a student who just watched, say, the NYPD throw their friends down a flight of stairs for participating in a nonviolent protest — acts committed without so a peep of condemnation from the president — that a vote for him is a vote against fascism? Nor is Gaza the only place Biden and the Democrats keep undermining their claim to being the antifascist party. The president has repeatedly pleaded with Trump to work with him in passing a MAGA-like immigration bill: one that prioritized enforcement, detention, and “shutdown” measures over, for instance, pathways to citizenship for undocumented migrants or those who came as children. When Trump didn’t take Biden’s obvious political bait, the president tried running even further to his right. Biden can insist, as he did at the State of the Union, that he “will not demonize immigrants” or endorse Trump’s Hitlerian cant about “poisoning the blood of our country.” But by adopting reactionary fearmongering about the need to “secure the border” above all else, all that remains of a message to voters is that even squishy libs think the fascists have a point about immigration — it’s just that they aren’t willing to do more to stop it. ... Biden had many chances to consolidate his gains over authoritarianism in the last four years. He could have expended his political capital in ending the undemocratic filibuster and pushing through the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, could have operated on a timetable that would have ensured that Trump faced justice for his attempts to steal the 2020 election and, having failed those, attempting to violently disrupt Congress to prevent the certification of his defeat. He could have denounced crackdowns against student protesters as a violent abrogation of democratic ideals. Instead, Biden’s signature legislative accomplishment in what could be the last year of his presidency is a $95 billion package to further implicate himself and the country in deadly foreign wars, including Gaza, as well as ban the most popular social media app used by young people to inform themselves about the world, in probable violation of its users’ civil rights. In short, defeating Trump in November may be a necessary step in the effort to stem authoritarianism. But it will not be a sufficient one. And until the sitting president and his liberal base start to understand and act on that realization, the tide will only continue to rise.

[mariacallous]

In the days before South Africa’s May 29 election, there was a euphoric atmosphere in parts of the cosmopolitan but largely Zulu port city of Durban. People who would usually pass each other anonymously could be overheard telling each other, “We are going to fix the country!” There was, though, an ugly underside to this, with current President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is from the smaller Venda ethnic group, often dismissed in vulgar ethnic terms.

The African National Congress (ANC), after 30 years of comfortable rule, took a heavy blow in this election. It secured only 40.2 percent of the vote nationally and took its hardest hit in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where Durban is located. There, it came in far behind the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party—whose figurehead is former President Jacob Zuma. MK finished first with almost 46 percent of votes for the national assembly, taking a large number of votes from the ANC—which won around 17 percent—and many from the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party.

KwaZulu-Natal is South Africa’s second-most populous province—and it is notorious for political violence—including open armed battles fought through the late 1980s and early 1990s, assassinations, and major riots in July 2021.

The electoral success of Zuma’s new party in the recent election has raised fears of further violence.

Organized around the charisma of Zuma, who was the staggeringly corrupt president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018, the MK party takes its name, meaning “spear of the nation,” from the armed wing of the ANC formed by Nelson Mandela and others in 1961. The party lays claim to that history and has adopted a militaristic posture.

Apartheid was, of course, not brought down by that army, which was, in military terms, a failed project. Before Western opinion turned at the end of the Cold War, apartheid was rendered nonviable by the mass democratic politics that began with a series of strikes in Durban in 1973, a popular movement that does not appear in Zuma’s militaristic misrepresentation of political history.

MK endorses an extreme version of the authoritarian populism that has surged in elections around the world. It is best described as ethnically inflected nationalism; while the party has an anticolonial dimension in so far as it seeks to build a counter-elite, it is also socially predatory and deeply conservative on social issues. Zuma has suggested doing away with same-sex marriage, which has been legal in South Africa since 2006; elevating aristocratic tribal authorities over elected representatives; holding a referendum on the death penalty; hiring more police officers; and introducing conscription.

Like other authoritarian populist parties in South Africa and elsewhere, Zuma’s party also takes a hard-right line on immigration. This is a matter of serious concern in South Africa, where African and Asian migrants are often targeted by the state and, periodically, by violent mobs.

MK also has a clear ethnic dimension. This is in sharp contrast to the ANC, which was founded in 1912 with an explicit commitment to build a national sense of African identity that eschewed the politicization of ethnic identities. It remains an ethnically diverse organization led by a member of an ethnic minority group.

Like figures such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, MK is also enthusiastically pro-Putin. Some MK supporters have been seen wearing T-shirts with side-by-side images of Zuma and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But unlike forms of right-wing populism elsewhere, MK also promises economic inclusion in a country where impoverishment and inequality are rampant, along with the effective provision of basic services. It proposes nationalizing banks, mines, and insurance companies; expropriating land and placing it under the control of the state and traditional authorities; and providing free education and full employment.

Due to this platform, newspapers outside South Africa have sometimes referred to Zuma’s party as being “far left.” But the left in South Africa has not rallied in support of MK’s proposals for expropriation and nationalization—largely because Zuma’s record during his nine years as president was dire in terms of creating jobs; providing basic services, decent health care, education, and public housing; and achieving long-promised land reform.

Indeed, corruption during Zuma’s presidency did massive damage to the state, its institutions, and its publicly owned companies and was so extreme that a single family took in just under 50 billion rand (then around $3.2 billion) from public budgets in what came to be known as “state capture.” Zuma’s presidency was also marked by a sharp increase in state repression, including the massacre of 34 striking miners by South African police in 2012 and frequent assassinations of grassroots activists.

A number of commentators across the political spectrum have reduced Zuma’s popularity and electoral success in KwaZulu-Natal to “tribalism,” sometimes with the implication that atavistic forces are at play. The recourse to this deeply colonial idea of the “tribe” is unfortunate. But the ethnic element in Zuma’s politics cannot be overlooked either.

Zuma has sought to stoke ethnic sentiment since he was tried for rape in 2006, when, along with chanting, “Burn the bitch,” in reference to his accuser, some of his supporters wore T-shirts with the slogan “100% Zuluboy.” In the lead-up to the recent election, it was common to hear people in Durban speak of the need to achieve the unity of the Zulu people.

KwaZulu-Natal has a long history of violent ethnic mobilization. Mpondo people from the neighboring Eastern Cape province have been sporadically attacked and driven from their homes for more than a century, including when ethnic sentiment escalated as Zuma ascended to the presidency in 2009.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was open war between Inkatha, then a conservative Zulu-nationalist organization backed by the apartheid state, and the United Democratic Front, a popular anti-apartheid organization that allied itself with the ANC in exile. It is estimated that around 20,000 people were killed between the late 1980s and early 1990s. The apartheid state saw Inkatha as a conservative ally against the Soviet-linked ANC and an ally equally opposed to the ANC’s vision of a unitary democratic state.

The war came to an end when, in secret negotiations between the last apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, and Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on the eve of the first democratic election, huge concessions were made to Inkatha, most notably via the massive transfer of land in KwaZulu-Natal—around 11,000 square miles, almost the size of Belgium—to the Zulu monarchy. This boosted the power of what is termed “traditional authority” over democratic authority, as people living on the land must pay rent to a trust headed by the Zulu king and are governed by customary law administered by traditional leaders.

The end of the war did not bring peace, though. The province swiftly became notorious for political assassinations within the ANC, between the ANC and other parties, and against grassroots activists. Many hundreds of people have been killed. The problem of assassinations was never seriously dealt with in the province and, as a result, has been steadily making its way into other parts of the country.

In the latter years of Zuma’s presidency, he sought to protect himself against mass outrage at brazen corruption by cynically spinning his government’s kleptocracy as “radical economic transformation.” This was taken up outside of the state by armed so-called business forums that shook down established businesses at gun point and by local party gangsters who appropriated public land for private profit. The capacity for violence developed in this milieu includes access to professional assassins and, in some cases, local militias.

In July 2021, when Zuma was briefly jailed for being in contempt of court, KwaZulu-Natal was ripped apart by riots in which 354 people were killed. The riots were sparked by a breakdown in the social order as supporters of Zuma, some dressed in military fatigues, openly attacked migrants from elsewhere in Africa in downtown Durban while the police stood down. There were also more covert attacks on trucks on the main road to Johannesburg, and many were left burnt. Again the police stood down.

The riots began with the mass appropriation of food in a carnival atmosphere. In the main, there was not much sense that this was a political event, and many participants were clear that they were not motivated by support for Zuma. But the riots soon took on a more ominous tone, and infrastructure was systematically destroyed by groups of armed men acting with military precision. Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla celebrated the destruction on social media.

Now that the country is suspended between an election result that fundamentally changes its politics and the outcomes of the ongoing high-stakes negotiations to form national and provincial governments, the atmosphere in Durban is more febrile than euphoric.

False claims are being pushed through social media with a startling velocity, with Zuma-Sambudla taking a leading role in the promotion of conspiracy theories. There has been a particular focus, repeated by Zuma in various public statements, on the Trumpian move of declaring, without evidence, that the elections were rigged. The general view is that Zuma and his supporters are making this claim to set the stage for violence, although it is not quite clear what their intentions are.

It is common to hear people say that when the new provincial government comes into power, migrants will be “dealt with” and ethnic minorities will “know their place.” It is not uncommon to hear talk of secession, of an independent Zulu kingdom. There are widespread fears of coming violence, something that a number of grassroots activists say is inevitable. Mqapheli Bonono, one of the most prominent grassroots activists in Durban, said: “There will definitely be violence. We don’t know when or where, but for sure it’s coming.”

Migrants have already been threatened and intimidated. Last Wednesday, an MK organizer was gunned down in Durban. Although there is not yet any evidence of a specific motive, it is being reported by some media as a political killing. It is widely assumed that this is the beginning of an internal struggle for positions and power within MK. Some ethnic minorities fear that they may have to move out of the province. Some have returned to rural family homes outside the province while they wait to see how things play out.

Ramaphosa wishes to establish a national unity government so the ANC can continue to govern the country. It is not yet clear if this will work or if MK will participate in such an arrangement. In KwaZulu-Natal, it is possible that a deal between other parties could keep MK in opposition despite it winning the largest share of the vote. If MK is not part of the deal struck to form a national government, tensions will inevitably escalate. This will be dramatically compounded if the party is kept out of government in KwaZulu-Natal by an alliance of other parties.

If MK does form a government in KwaZulu-Natal, the country will have its second-most populous province governed by a political force directly opposed not just to the national government but to the principles and legal foundations on which the country was founded.

The militaristic posture of Zuma’s party escalates fears of violence, and Zuma himself often makes implicit threats of violence via dog whistles. Speaking in English, he has warned that he should not be “provoked.” Speaking in Zulu, he has said: “Abasazi singo bani” (They don’t know who we are).

The idiomatic meaning here is clear, but, in literal terms, South Africans know exactly who Zuma and his party are.

[beardedmrbean]

Annalisa Lombardo, Haiti country director at Welthungerhilfe, a non-governmental aid agency, has been living in the Caribbean nation for 15 years. Asked why she is still in Haiti considering the many crises it has faced over the years, she told DW: "I call this country home, fell in love with its people, they are my people, moun pam, as they say in Creole, and I am not ready to turn my back on them."

Lombardo did, however, close the Welthungerhilfe office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, earlier this week for security reasons.

"I decided that, as a matter of precaution, none of our colleagues should take the risk to traveling the road," she told DW.

"Taking the road used to be risky because of kidnappings, hold ups, stray bullets when there are clashes between gang members and the police, but lately — as the tension has grown, also because if you happen to cut through a neighborhood that is not yours and somebody believe[s] you look suspicious — you risk being lynched for no further reasons."

UN issues stark warning

Over a dozen suspected gang members were lynched in Port-au-Prince by a mob on Monday. The attack happened in public and in broad daylight. According to Haitian media, an enraged mob forced individuals off a bus before stoning them and ultimately burning them alive.

The incident marks yet another level of escalation to the violence that has rocked the Haiti for months. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has gone so far as to call for international forces to be dispatched to Haiti to restore order. In the latest UN report on Haiti, Guterres even warned that insecurity in Port-au-Prince "has reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict."

Lombardo sees no way out of the crisis. Several weeks ago, Welthungerhilfe in Haiti joined other organizations such as Care, Plan International and World Vision in publishing a desperate appeal calling on the international community to send help.

Lombardo told DW they want to see humanitarian intervention. "The re-establishment of the state of law is a necessity, she said, adding that the security of the city neighborhoods, of strategic points such as the fuel terminals and major roads, also needs to be ensured."

A desperately poor country

Lombardo can rattle off countless figures that illustrate the full extent of the misery that is blighting the impoverished country. Nearly half of Haiti's 11.5 million people depend on humanitarian assistance. Some 90% of Haitians in rural areas live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, with almost one in four living in extreme poverty.

Cholera has flared up again, too, with 670 deaths and 35,000 suspected cases so far — mostly among children. Only about half of households in rural areas have access to clean drinking water, and open defecation is still practiced by about a third of the rural population, exposing people to significant health risks.

As if the humanitarian situation were not worrying enough, the country is experiencing ever more extreme violence. Marauding gangs have a chokehold on Port-au-Prince in particular.

The UN's Special Representative for Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, even flew to New York to brief the Security Council on the current situation and present the UN report. 

Gang violence is surging at "an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe" in Port-au-Prince, she said at the briefing on Wednesday. Compared to the first quarter of 2022, criminal incidents — homicide, rape, kidnappings and lynching — more than doubled in the same period in 2023 to 1,647, she said, citing figures from Haitian police and the UN.

According to the report, rooftop snipers "frequently fired at people in their residences or in the streets." It also cites attack in which a 16-year-old girl was raped by multiple gang members in broad daylight, one of dozens of documented attacks.

The report finds children are often abducted near schools, then forced to shuttle munitions to warring gang members, load weapons or carry out attacks.

The gang violence is also affecting people's access to essential services. For example, the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which serves about 700,000 people, had to suspend services two months ago due to security risks, according to the UN report, released on April 14.

Around 130,000 internally displaced people are currently scattered throughout the capital city, the report says, which also documents the fates of hundreds of pregnant and nursing women deported back to Haiti after fleeing east to the Dominican Republic.

Gangs in charge

In 2010, Haiti endured what remains the most devastating earthquake of the 21st century. According to official figures, 316,000 people lost their lives. Today, the country finds itself in yet another catastrophic situation: One that started when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his private villa in July 2021. The interim government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who also serves as acting president, lacks popular support and protests have become a daily occurrence.

Moreover, seven large gang associations have banded together to take advantage of the resulting power vacuum, according to Haitian authorities. The UN estimates gangs control 60% of Port-au-Prince whereas locals say they are in charge everywhere. The situation led Henry to call for an armed foreign intervention six months ago.

"The latest president in particular has been fiercely opposed during his entire mandate. The president, on his side, did very little to find a compromise, but, on the other side, he had a quite diverse, incoherent and anarchic movement opposing him," said Lombardo from Welthungerhilfe. "Unfortunately, that kind of movement cannot express clear leadership, on the contrary, its anarchy opened the way to a common practice in Haiti, to arm gangs to impose oneself, to the point that the situation went out of control."

Nation breaking up

Lombardo said she has been unable to get much sleep lately because she is repeatedly woken up by nightly gunfire. Such fighting has almost become the new normal in Port-au-Prince. Not long ago, Lombardo received a video showing a primary school near the capital whose walls riddled with bullets and with students lying on the floor in complete panic.

Hait's future looks bleak, Lombardo said. "I feel we are already racing full-speed towards my worst-case scenario. Somebody has already used the noun 'Somalia-ization' to describe the current situation in which we witness the process of territorial fragmentation and a government's failure to establish authority — with all the consequences that has for poverty and human rights violations."

[news4dzhozhar]

Israel holds female Palestinian rights lawyer without trial or charge

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Two days before her arrest by the Israeli army, 28-year-old Palestinian human rights lawyer Diala Ayesh had been visiting Palestinian detainees in Israel’s Ofer Prison.

Little did she know that the next day, she would become one of the people she has spent her life’s work defending – a prisoner.

On January 17, Israeli forces arrested Ayesh at a checkpoint near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank at about 2pm. One week later, Israeli authorities issued an “administrative detention” order against her, meaning she will be held without trial or charge for four months.

News of Ayesh’s arrest spread quickly across the occupied West Bank. She has worked for years – often pro bono – defending Palestinian political detainees in both Israeli or Palestinian Authority (PA) prisons.

Her family are still in shock over her arrest.

“We feel that it is getting harder every day. The feeling of loss and of missing someone only increases – it doesn’t get easier,” her 26-year-old sister, Aseel, told Al Jazeera.

“Whenever I cry at night in bed, or feel like I miss her, I try to remember how extremely strong she is,” continued Aseel, sobbing. “We feel that we are the ones who are weak, and she is the strong one. We derive our strength from her.”

Targeted by Israel and the PA

Even while behind bars, Ayesh’s top concern is the other prisoners.

After October 7, when Israel launched its ongoing assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, Ayesh formed a volunteer collective of female lawyers to follow up on the unprecedented numbers of Palestinians being arrested by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“She would train these female lawyers to conduct visits to the occupation’s Ofer prison, particularly amid this information blackout about prisoners,” Muhannad Karajeh, her former colleague and head of Lawyers for Justice, where she used to work, told Al Jazeera.

Ayesh and her team’s visits to these inmates in the only Israeli jail in the occupied West Bank were a small flash of hope as visits to prisoners in prisons in Israel were stopped after October 7.

“This group would act as the link between the prisoners and their families,” he continued.

A few weeks into her arrest, she told Aseel through her lawyer, to communicate with the families of the prisoners she had been following up with and to give them the latest updates on their sons, which she had written onto a notepad.

“She’s in prison, and we don’t know anything about her – whether she’s eating or not, sleeping or not, or what conditions she is being held in,” said Aseel. “Yet, all of her worries are to pass on a message from a male prisoner to his fiancee outside.

“That’s Diala for you.”

During her arrest, Ayesh was subjected to assault, threats, and insults by Israeli soldiers, according to the Addameer human rights organisation. She was transferred to Israel’s Hasharon Prison before being later taken to Damon Prison, where she is now being held.

Ayesh’s work as a human rights defender rose to the fore during her time at the Ramallah-based Lawyers for Justice, representing Palestinian political detainees in PA prisons. In July, she attended a session on behalf of the group at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

“She was like a power engine to her whole team and all the lawyers,” said Karajeh. “She has a big soul for volunteering, and people love her on the personal and professional level.”

Her efforts to monitor and document abuses against Palestinian detainees have made her a target for both the Israeli occupation and the PA.

During popular protests in the occupied West Bank against the killing of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat by PA forces in June 2021, Ayesh was “exposed to physical assault” by security officers, said Karajeh. She was among dozens of other women who were violated at the time.

Her family said, despite the difficulty of Ayesh’s arrest, they have been showered with love by people who came to support them.

“We were very shocked by how many people reached out to us after Diala was arrested,” said Aseel. “She is a social person, but it was so surprising to realise how many people were following her work.”

“This gave my parents a moral boost – it helped them to push forward and be patient,” she added.

Female prisoners

Tala Nasser, from the Addameer prisoners’ rights group, explained that Ayesh’s arrest comes amid a “violent mass arrest campaign” carried out by Israel since October 7.

The fact that the vast majority of the more than 6,900 Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7 have been transferred to administrative detention highlights the arbitrariness of Israel’s arrests, she said.

“This campaign includes activists, human rights defenders and political leaders,” Nassar told Al Jazeera, noting that it is “an attempt to silence them and prevent the exposure of the occupation’s crimes across the whole country”.

In December, Israeli forces also arrested political and civil society leader Khalida Jarrar, who was similarly transferred to administrative detention.

Despite releasing all but three Palestinian female detainees during the latest prisoner exchange with Hamas at the end of 2023, the Israeli army rearrested dozens. Some 80 female prisoners are being held today, all of whom are in the Damon Prison.

Among the 80 are dozens of women from the besieged Gaza Strip, but lawyers are forbidden from visiting them or knowing anything about them.

Several reports have emerged of female detainees from Gaza being physically beaten and abused, including an unknown number of them being held at Israeli military bases and not in prison.

Lawyers say conditions for all Palestinian detainees, including women, are unprecedentedly difficult. Eight Palestinian male prisoners have also died or were killed in Israeli custody since October 7, most of them in the days and weeks after their arrest.

Over the past few months, many videos have emerged of Israeli soldiers stripping, torturing and abusing male prisoners from both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“It is important to note that every female that is arrested is violated in one way or another,” said Nasser. “They are all facing threats, intensive strip searches, verbal assault and physical violence.”

[soranihimawari]

Break-In

Word Count:6.4K Pairing:timeskip!iwazumi x reader Warnings: mentions of stalking; break & entering; security breach; 🔞nsfw ending scene

『Good evening Mr Iwazumi. My name is unimportant, but I thought you might like to know I have access to all your media accounts, bank records, oh? and your personal schedule...

Hmm, who is YLN, YN?』

No one had wanted to be part of the security breach from Human Resources. The department had received multiple e-mails and phone calls from various public relations teams when the news spread to the general public via media outlets. Unfortunately, you were working at the time with a Parisian bound Olympic team. You were suggested to assist the sports medicine team in your home country of Japan. It had been years since you had visited home, however since your parents later in life chose to separate legally, you’ve been making trips to visit your mother and her parents over the course of your university years. Your father chose to remain back in the states due to being granted tenure and department head promotion for his university job. The same university where he was employed was the one with a fellowship program where you were able to continue your education in sports medicine. Always an avid track and field participant, you have overcome both physical and mental hurdles to be accepted into the program where your degree hails from. 

Currently, you are at the center of the concerned team members, assisting in passing out water bottles. You’re listening to the captain and the coaches talk about current travel plans for practice matches around the city, only contributing here and there until your fellow sports trainer, Iwazumi Hajime, is called a little later into the coaches' office. A representative from the Human Resources department along with a social media public relations consultant is present. You’re assisting in the clean up routine for now as you wonder what is going on in that office. Surely, you've been invited out by a few members to the local pub down the street for a post-practice outing. You mention you’ll text Iwaizumi later tonight before packing your items, heading out with the ace and vice captain of the team. 

Hours later, while in the comfort of your home your phone vibrates with a melody attached. You had just boiled some hot water for your nightly cup of chamomile tea dressed in nothing but a simple camisole and shorts. Picking up your phone, you see you have several missed calls from a few members of the team (whom, your mind thinks, were a bit more drunk than others) and a few texts from… 

“Iwazumi-san?” you mumble while the kettle begins to whistle. 

All the message has is an emoji (you and the team had introduced the keyboard to his phone the other day) of the Red Cross (❌) on it. There is no mention of whether or not it was a typo, but alas you decide as your tea seeps, to give him a call instead. 

“He always said I should call,” you muse. “Maybe I should tell him the team might be dealing with a hangover tomorrow…”

Down the road, a baffled and irate Iwazumi had just parked his car in the underground parking structure of his apartment complex. He recalls the words of caution the HR Rep and team social manager had said. As far as the athletic trainer can remember, he hasn’t met anyone, romantic or otherwise, who would have developed a delusional idea of cloning his phone. The only one he could think of in recent terms was your recent camaraderie and partnership with him because of the work you two signed up for. A stalker for the team or a deranged fan might have had more information tucked away elsewhere and it’s that particular wavelength he is apprehensive of. Sure, in high school he had a taste of the fan-lifestyle thanks to Oikawa being the pretty boy setter he was (and still is). However, Iwazumi Hajime, twenty-seven years young, head trainer for an Olympic bound team, is about to learn the ramifications of having his personal information leaked. What does that entail, he wouldn’t know. Perhaps that’s why, as he enters the elevator to proceed in going to retire for the night, he receives a peculiar call from you. 

“Hey,” his voice is tired, he claims this as you hum mentioning you made tea. 

“Are you ok?” 

Your question almost has Iwazumi fumbled his keys out of his hands. You clear your throat justifying your answer in the veil of co-workers’ friendship. He chuckles at that and he is reminded of the first time he had met you…in the office of the advisor at Irvine. 

Once inside his residence, he slips off his shoes and you hear his bag slide off his shoulder. 

“Iwa,” you place your half empty cup back on the counter. “You don’t have to tell me the details of you don’t want to…”

This makes his heart rate pick up just like in the office hours, or what seems like days ago now.

“What was that meeting about?”

“…”

You close your eyes and pinch the bridge of your nose with your free hand. He hears you sigh on the other end. 

“Tell me when you’re ready. I should go, it’s late.”

You withdraw by a centimeter and until he is advised to break his silence on the issue (it’s still in the observation stages of the investigation), he keeps up the facade in this call. He bids you good night, unsure if he will do the same.

Morning comes with the news chimes in the neighborhood going off. Your phone buzzes with back to back notifications from the group chat: five names is all you see. Five names, all of which you know because you saw them yesterday. One of which shocks you because of the nature of his keeping personal and professional life separate or as separate as can be. Suffice to say you knew Iwazumi was pretty popular amongst the female student body and the boys while you think about it. Your mind races in fleeting pocket memories and for all that is holy, some poor sap in a tabloid magazine probably had (somewhere along the way) misconstrued your relationship. “We’re friends” or “we met in university” conversations always ended with the players, even coaching personnel, wondering when you two would be honest with yourselves. Truly, the secretive romance rumors were not so lucrative since the vox populi seemed to take to social media scrutinizing the way you’re never more than a few feet apart during interviews even going so far at one point you two wore similar colors to a function hosted by the JVA. The stylists thought it would be fun since the theme of the party was “mirror.” You had dismissed the idea of going until Miya opened his mouth to ask if he can take you as a date. Iwazumi is within earshot when he says you can’t because, ‘yn is going with me.’ You stutter, yet recover quick when you read through your prickly friend’s sentiments. Playing along, Iwazumi can’t help the cough that comes out of his mouth when you make a mention of remembering he said in passing: ‘we were going to wear teal, ivory, and mint green, right?’ 

That was the last social function of the spring you think, minus the press tour for the Parisian games and even at world championships. Iwazumi couldn’t have made any enemies since then, right? This wouldn’t be a publicity stunt by anyone on the team either…

“Fuck me,” you sit up in a jolt, immediately dialing your partner in the training department. Your phone’s email counter now begins to rise to an alarming high as your texts keep getting flooded by family and players alike. 

“I know,” is all that is said when you hear him pick up on the other side. “Stay there, I’m almost at your place.”

“Bring coffee asshole,” you grit your teeth and though you say it affectionately, he is ultimately reminded he has truly never seen you lose your composure. Sure, he’s seen you stress cry, but when you open your door roughly fifteen minutes later, your eyes are glazed out of frustration. Holding up the drink carrier holding a peace offering of trenta sized hazelnut espresso concoction and an everything bagel with blueberry cream cheese, you do not dial back your anger. 

The door is closed behind him and the deadbolt is secured. He walks into your kitchen, sitting himself on a barstool facing the counter. You stand between the counter and the stove, sharp bonsai leaf green eyes observe your casually dressed attire: the white polo with red shorts and black belt was similar to the one you wore on beach trips in university. You noticed he came dressed still in the dry-fit undershirt and newly washed jeans from earlier that week. 

“Iwazumi,” your voice is scarily monotonous. “Sit and explain.”

He listens like an obedient pet. If you could draw, you’d make a caricature of him as a hedgehog with a deflated expression. On the other hand, he might be bold enough to call you a tiger’Now he knows why your father is a docile man—your temper is inherited from your mother. 

“Now,” you growl before taking a bite of said bagel, sliding your phone with the breaking news articles plastered everywhere on the site. 

“One chance to tell me everything from the top, Hajime,” you raise a finger before taking your first sip of the hot beverage he brought. 

“We’ve been through a lot worse,” you finally take a good look at your first friend from abroad—iwazumi looks like a psychopomp ready to rue the day: the lack of sleep is evident in the dark circles under his eyes, his jaw is tense, and for what it’s worth, you can tell your tactful (or rather inefficient, but justified rage) onslaught of a greeting was perhaps not a good call. He seemed to be blindsided by the media hoopla catching wind of the fact there was a security breach in high profile athletes’ information. Sure, breaches were created to test the waters of firewall security systems in an OS. Somehow, a tech savvy bot was able to unzip and reallocate specific targets, ie Olympic status athletes. Your friend explains this to you as calmly as he could, apology on the tip of his tongue before you lean forward to silence him with a finger to his lips. You’d think you’ve gone mad, but when you shake your head, you say something a bit more provoking: “so what’s the play Haji?”

He scoffs when you retract your hand. The bagel is nothing but crumbs at this point and your coffee is almost gone when you come round your kitchen counter. He watches as you lean your back against the edges, arms crossed while he swivels around to turn at least three quarters toward you. 

“I just told you everything,” he hands you your phone back. “And your immediate response is ‘what’s the play?’”

“Don’t be so surprised,” you turn off your phone entirely now before sliding it in your back pocket. “I’ve known you for better half of seven years, heh.”

Leaning down to knock your temple against his, gently in the form of trying to let your brains catch up with this impertinent information. 

“And this is not the worst thing that's happened in those years?” 

He is dumbstruck, almost pulling away from you to show you his phone with his own messages and emails with counters almost in the hundreds by now.

“No,” you are suddenly face to face with him. You were honestly trying to bring some lighthearted humor back, but alas this is a grave breach in personal privacy, unaware of what would happen when you see your reflection in his rather glazed eyes.

Dangerously too close if you think about it; his pretentiousness loosens to give into curiosity. Iwazumi and you can’t recall who initiated locking lips with the other, both of you sort of let it happen. 

“Ha-hajime,” you cup the sides of his face, gently yet firm when you pry him away from you. 

His voice murmurs your name back and you’re unprepared for the ramifications his tone does to your heart. Iwazumi studies your flushed features before coming back to his senses like an Icarus falling into the sea. His eyes flutter close, lashes tickling your palm; mind you, he is trying to think of any excuse really, yet he comes up with none. Seven years is a long time to look at love in the face and just ignore whatever underlying pretense there was. It becomes suddenly apparent to both pirates once he readjusts himself to hold you properly by your natural waist. He wants nothing more than the world to disappear, even now as the perplexed look on his brow gives way to witnessing his typically sharpened features melting away—you do now know why the lines are so easily blurred. You hear him hum tiredly, exasperated by the shit-show that is about to occur once you return to work. 

“Lay low,” you advise. 

You run a hand through the back of his head when he presses himself more into this simple embrace with you. 

“Stay out of sight,” he frowns when he says this against the fabric of your shirt. 

“We can talk about this later,” you continue, tapping his lips with your other hand. 

This time, you feel his muscles twinge upwards into a small smirk. 

“I’ve got your back,” you remind him kindly when he lets you break free of his gentle grasp. He chortles a bit before making the move to wrap up this morning greeting.

“Don’t look so surprised,” you tease when you escort him to your door. 

“I’m not,” shoving his hands in his pockets, he turns abruptly before you unlock the door. He bends down to press his lips to your cheek, whispering a secret loud enough for you to hear. With that, Iwazumi departs from your place, a little more confident in his steps.

A team meeting is called immediately at noon. You’re included in the must-attend listing as though you’re the one about to receive the scolding of a lifetime. However, you’re the odd one out considering you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with not only Iwazumi, but Miya, Ushijima, Hinata, and one more you’re not yet familiar with, but you choose to pick your battles wisely for now. 

“You too?” seems to be the general consensus while everyone stands awaiting further instructions or rather, for whomever called this internal meeting to begin with. You all find your answer once the doors open and in walks the coach, their assistant, three representatives?: one from the JVA, the other two were from HR and the media manager. Now it occurs to Iwazumi why you might have asked the question, “what’s the play?” to him. His stomach knots on itself almost as much as Hinata’s when the meeting is called to start by the coach. 

Before going into much more detail, Ushijima and Miya glance at each other because though they are single at this point in time, they had been known around the rumor mill as a hot and cold duo more so than another certain jackal this year; yet if Hinata was here as well, then it is also because of the outlying ramifications of one series of people all tied to them–family. Families outside of this room are no longer safe, go figure. All this talk and legal jargon could make your head spin, yet it doesn’t. 

“Ms YLN, you’re awfully quiet,” the coach’s assistant points out. The boys were already holding files of the information that was leaked about their privatized personal records. Clearly the boys beside you are going through all the documents there and some of it is pretty damning from women being photographed at games to private dates outside the purview of the public to even travel tickets. Hinata is quite young, but the horrified faces of Ushijima; Miya’s color drains from his sunny disposition; to finally Iwazumi’s trembling fists. There was something on all of them and the only reason why you don’t speak up is because you’re about to say something extremely stupid (or brilliant).

“Just because I have no files in my hand, doesn’t mean I am unaware,” your voice seems to snap the boys’ attention real quick. “Truth be told, I knew something was afoot when Iwazumi-san was called into the office yesterday.”

The assistant is about to say something when you decide to not give anyone else a chance to speak, planning to thwart the insinuations any farther.

“If you think I had something to do with it since I am the only common denominator, then I will do you all a favor,” you take your phone out of your pocket to turn it on.

As the tech comes to life, your phone sounds off with different tonalities of various degrees, however when one particular chime goes off, you don an expression that is seldom let out. 

“I’ll sit this one out if you get internal affairs involved,” you are eerily calm as your words carry the weight of a block of dried ice. “The athletes have a lot of stress placed on them once it was made known they would be representing their home country for the games, so whose brilliant idea was this to leak the story to the press?”

Your question raised a valid point, one that perhaps might not have crossed the minds of everyone in that meeting, yet here you were presenting a fact outside of the normal wheelhouse. In the later half of the meeting your refusal to say anything further than what you had said is a true neutral ground. You don’t budge, rather you repeat the question you asked any opportunity you can:

“Clearly if this was one of those publicity stunts, we would have made it known to the players, Ms. YLN.”

“And yet I find it rather interesting that none of you thought of involving internal affairs in this matter from the start, and since you’re so bright, mind telling me whose idea it was to leak this information to the associated press?”

This goes on until the meeting is adjourned with you coming too close to being either fired or suspended for a time, much to the dismay of your friends behind you. They know you didn’t do anything, hell Hinata, Miya, and Ushijima vouch for you being at their little pub crawl the night before, so they swear on your sobriety you had nothing to do with this if that was what the assistant was trying to do. For now, the contingency plan is to have the guys keep their distance away from you and your hours were going to be reduced (at least while the investigation is underway to make sure nothing else was leaked) until the case draws to a close. The coach reminds the athletes themselves they have the world watching when returning home while Iwazumi learns the basics of managing his time with each of them individually for the remainder of the off season/pre season conditioning training going on. 

Things go pretty quiet after that: Miya, though he was young and up and coming as he is, might have sacrificed a relationship outside of work, but he bounced back eventually; Hinata chose to spend time with his family outside of volleyball for a little while; Ushijima stayed to do what was expected of him; and Iwazumi chose to take the path of least resistance and adhere to the proposed schedule of training. You were mostly put to use the gym in the early mornings or well into the night once main practice was over to observe and make notes of individual practices. Though it was a rough couple of months, you all along with the team don't really interact with each other the same way you used to. You’re mostly left out of the team dinners, the social media pages go ahead with contractual rumors and affiliations for sportswears once more, and for the most part you become like a living breathing poltergeist. 

You’re in the gym one night, body now attuned into working out late, a half empty ball rack is at the side of the court you’re standing on. Empty water bottles line the opposite side of the net. A few scattered balls roll away with each serve you had successfully aced. Your hands weren’t as calloused as before, but since you decide to go back to your roots as they say, you learn to hone your anger in a different light. It’s not until you’re a third of a way deep in the new ball bag you hear him call out to you.

“You never told me you played,” Iwazumi steps into the court.

Shrugging your shoulders, you give the ball a good bounce or two before tossing it high in the air–that’s when he sees the surgical scar on the back of your heel. It pokes out of the socks you wore and Iwazumi can’t place what’s worse: knowing you had to give up the sport or resigning to prove you can play again. Your serves are powerfully direct when gravity takes over and the speed gun clocks your serve around 115mph. You’re not just good, you’re on par with some of the best servers out there. Peacefully your feet touch the ground and Iwazumi approaches you, only to hug you from behind. 

“We never really had a chance to talk,” is how he opens this side of the conversation. “And I know it’s killing me and you with both of us trying to upkeep this schedule.”

“I know,” you bow your head a bit. “I know, Iwa, but you really have to stop coming here—”

“To convince you otherwise?” He holds you a bit tighter now. 

“When you know the answer?” An aggravated sigh leaves your lips. “Hajime, listen. You and I both love and respect this team from day one, right?” 

You feel him nod when you lean back to look up at him. 

“But we both know we can’t go public unless one of us leaves and,” you glance back at the empty court. “I won’t let you lose them.”

“YN.”

You hand him the ball that was about to be in your hands. 

“I resigned this morning.”

“You’re kidding. C’mon,” he tries to see if you’re actually joking, yet your silence is all he needs. It’s not long before you’re handing him the ball from the other side of the court. 

“Seriously?” he seemed so despondent the more you began to clean up. You explain as you go telling him how you’ve started receiving texts from him, most of which were not from him. Some of the messages were pretty illicit in terms of the content, none of which you know he would never send, yet when it was brought up, your concerns were brushed aside. When you tried again and failed, you decided to start flagging the messages. 

“And you never thought to tell me?” 

Iwazumi isn’t upset, you didn’t speak up, you did. It was the actions of those who would rather save face for the athletic department for an internationally revered country for their continued contribution to the growing interest in a sport. 

“I tried,” you pick up a volleyball and place it amongst the bag at your feet. 

You showed him your call log from a few weeks ago to be exact. He remembers that call, yet it was the end of a rough day and he recalls asking if you want to go for a bite before your shift started. However you were stuck waiting at the appointed place for over an hour when he was held up by the new juniors under his supervision. The assistant coach finally pulls them away to speak to him privately for a short while. 

“So excuse me for trying to interrupt whatever life has in store for you,” you are bitter when you twist your face into a forced smile that never reaches your eye. “But you weren’t there for me, Iwa. Do better.” 

The night janitor was heard whistling down the halls. His shift must have just started when he saw you and Iwazumi taking down the net. You kept your back to the door because though you may be a proud person, you don’t have the capacity to let anyone else know how a breakup before a relationship could even start wounds you both. 

“Is everything alright?” 

Clearing your throat, you speak up. “Y-yeah. Just talking to an old friend. I’ll be going soon, ok?” 

Your acting is sublime as the janitor reminds the athletic trainer he needed to sign in all visitors who don’t have a badge, yet when you hear the old man say, “they’re quite a catch Iwazumi-san. You’re lucky to have found your match so young.” 

Iwazumi doesn’t have the heart to disagree which truth be told, but he corrects the old man.

“They’ll come around sonny,” the janitor says. “People do crazy things when they’re in love.”

Iwazumi glances back at the door, apologizes to the old man (he makes a mental note to get his name say after tomorrow) over his shoulder as he runs off to find you. 

YLN, YN, twenty eight and three quarters old, ex-athletic trainer for the Olympic bound Japanese Men’s Volleyball Team, is a person of great importance in his life, the internal workings of Iwazumi’s mind finally sees you in the world of black and white. So when he sees you half a city block ahead of him, the man sprints fast enough to a) startle you and b) tells you to be quiet so he can remind you. 

“Remind me of what?” You ask, more wittily delivered if you were being honest. 

Iwazumi rolls his eyes before shaking his head when he pulls your body protectively over to his. 

“Comfortable?” 

You nod, your face is unabashedly flushed the more his intensity radiates off of him. 

“Good.”

One final word of warning is the last thing you know of before you’re caught in a silencer of a kiss: it is a ruggedly formed one until you quit overthinking for a time. 

You remembered that time the day the news blew up your phones, the whirlwind meetings that went on and all this goes on while you both try to protect your images both on and off the court. Your friends notice the change in Iwazumi going so far as to ask him by proxy how you were doing these days; you don’t go to team functions anymore because your name was not added to the list (Hinata finds this out at the end of practice a couple weeks before sports fashion gala was announced and Iwazumi declines attending); self practice hours held with you had Miya and Ushijima vying for your attention until Ojiro and Sakusa join for a more balanced two on two match and it’s then you decide to showcase your little secret when Miya provokes you to “try an’ get a service ace against me” (and you do much to his dismay, four times over to prove it wasn’t a fluke); all those stolen glances Iwazumi did when his new juniors walked through those doors as if you’d pop in at any moment was the final straw for him. 

It’s not until you reciprocate his affection you catch him by surprise. There is something refreshing about the way his warmth balances your rage filled blood, believe you me, he understands more than he lets on. Although you pull away with eyes closed, you take a fist full of his shirt and pull him back to you. You don’t break, not yet, because there will be time for that too. 

“Don’t cry,” his voice soothes your anger until you feel a coarse curled finger flick away a stray. 

“Don’t give me a reason to,” your voice cracks a little more than you thought. You’re about to crumble back because you tried everything in your original playbook, so you’re left with the only path you thought was plausible. Iwazumi finally pieces it together in his mind’s eye and he can only imagine the horrified slap in the face look you give your collective superiors who brush your claims aside. No wonder you’re on the precipice of a spiral, yet just as you’re about to drown, you maintain your tactfulness, hoping to bid the place you’ve come to love to work in a final goodbye. 

Iwazumi reacts to the rigidness of your body as you let him try his luck in comforting you: he readjusts his hold from earlier–his hand that held you by the shoulders earlier slides down to the small of your back. Meanwhile with the other, the same one he used to flick away the tear, he invites you to hide away from the very real world around you. A car or two passes, for all you know this might be one of the last times you’d get to spend together, so as you calm yourself down, you make a small request. 

“Give them hell,” you kiss the corner of his mouth, pressing your phone on to his chest. 

It takes less than seventy-two hours for the following to occur: first, on behalf of the team, a press conference had been scheduled with the intent of the investigations coming to a close. Second, the majority of those who are involved are asked to wait until the end to answer any and all questions the news outlets needed to know. Third, and this one was the piece de la resistance, a zip file containing all text exchanges between the person claiming to be ‘Iwazumi, H.’ had been sent to all reporters on the roster for the day. You’re at home, typing up an updated version of your resume and reviewing it one more time before deciding it was time for a break. You received a new phone graciously bought by an old friend who just came back from Sendai to cheer on her former classmate, unbeknownst to you said friend passed along your new phone number to a certain athletic trainer. You recognize the phone number when you’re asked to turn on the local city news no later than five-forty in the afternoon. 

The conference room was abuzz with flashes here and there, microphone reverb was cut to a minimum when the floor was open for questions.

“I'm with the Orange City News, this question is for your athletic trainer: Iwazumi-san, how has your life changed since the leak? Are there any new developments you can speak freely of as of right now?” 

Iwazumi places what seems to be a phone on the table and you nearly drop the glass you’re about to pour some apple cider in. Leaning back in his chair, there is an air of nonchalant business about him, you hear him decide to go through with this. It was the answer to your question which seemed so long ago, “what’s the play?”

“A few months ago, when the initial news of the leak was made known to me, I found out the same morning you all did,” chuckles were heard everywhere but it soon died out the moment it was made clear the young man was deathly concrete in his demeanor. Whispers of, “wait, really? You didn’t know at all?”

“I didn’t know what was leaked or how much information was already made known to everyone, but I try to keep my work life and private life separated. And yes being well known as the athletic trainer for this stellar team is a bonus, but when you try to hurt me, you instead inflict trust issues onto my person, nearly causing them to spiral into an unhealthy mindset you can’t just apologize and recant,” he flips over your phone which he had kept up with charging and whatnot, even called in a favor to a friend in the city precinct to backlog your messages. “Not when I’ve had to pacify their worries over take out, or practice attempting to receive their killer serves, who knows how to prioritize the needs of the team usually putting in the work even when they were stuck with the flu for two weeks, or,” and now he’s a bit more reserved before he continues. “Or bribe them to open their door with their favorite breakfast meal I’ve memorized since sophomore year abroad, all because some idiot thought they had the high ground in taking pleasure at tearing down an important member of our team.” 

Your phone rings and though you pick up, you have a sly grin of approval. 

“You’re bold, I’ll give you that,” you turn your tv off once you hear several chimes go off. 

The zip file and backup evidence of the messages that clear your participation in all this is sent privately to those journalists attending. Back carbon copies are sent to the managers, the board of directors of the JVA, and even a baffled coaching staff. Following Iwazumi’s answer, though he never says your name explicitly, he bids everyone good day, pressing the phone he used to call you to his ear.

“You still there?” 

“Mmhm.”

“Good because I’m due for a vacation.”

You chuckle into the receiver. The commotion surrounding the files that were airdropped as a power move resulted in more legal action than originally thought. 

“I hear Argentina is fabulous this time of year.”

Iwazumi hums approvingly before saying a quiet, ‘start packing now love’ when he ends the call. He walks into the gym away from the brewing shitshow only to be ambushed by two familiar faces. 

“Sawamura,” the former ace nods at the first-year detective. “Didn’t think I’d see you here.”

“Eh, well,” the former captain has this shy smile. “Don’t tell me you think I’d miss the opportunity to right a wrong for an old rival…pro bono as they say?” 

“Oya?” Another voice calls not too far behind the detective. “Send me a postcard when you see Oikawa-shenshu. Tell the pretty bastard to pick up his phone every once in a while!”

“Yeah yeah,” Iwazumi waves the two former captains off (one known for instilling a firm foundation, the other known for scheming) as he crosses the empty court with a victorious smile. He’s driving back to you with the future becoming more promising than before. Sure the team will make do for a few weeks as their athletic trainer(s) set off on a much deserved break. Iwazumi sends a final text to the team while he’s sitting in his car: ‘rest assured hell week is coming’ is cryptically sent to everyone. A smiley emoji is tacked on courtesy right after he sends a ‘and don’t worry, I’ll send your greetings to yn when I see them.’

The drive from the stadium does not take longer than twenty minutes, so when your door opens, you are greeted much like before. With your preferred blossoms in hand, Iwazumi’s unmistakable hair protrudes behind it, all of which you find amusing. 

“Flowers?” you question while taking a hold of the bouquet. “Does your significant other know you buy me flowers?”

“I hope so,” he smugly says. “I just think they’re neat.”

You roll your eyes before kissing his cheek when he walks through the door frame. Without giving it much thought, he toes his shoes off at your entryway before heading to the living room. His suit is still pressed from before the press conference and he does fill you in on what his old friends had said. You’re listening intently as you fill a nearby cubed vase with water. 

“Sawamura said he’d call once there are more developments on promising leads,” Iwazumi reassures you when you come round to join him on the couch. He holds your hand as if you’re going to pass him by. You give yourself a moment to pause before shaking free from his grasp. 

“Not good enough,” three words that would stop the world, his world, from spinning.

“Excuse me?”

Iwazumi glances up at you bewildered as your demeanor seems to wilt a bit. 

“YN, they’re going to do the best they can to find–”

“How come you get to stay and I was asked to resign?” 

Your interjection came with a fiery ferocity which you expanded upon. You go through the motions of talking it out with Iwazumi by your side to listen to rambles and go off as you’re pacing the living room. The fact that someone was delusional enough to have a mark on you whether it was intentional or not, the team still kept all of their players and out of fairness thought it was best to see if they could force you to resign, yet you are a boulder unwilling to move. 

“Genius comes in many forms I suppose,” you stop in front of Iwazumi for the nth time. “But if this turns out to be a stunt, contractually or not, I resign for no reason and I don’t know what’s worse than that.”

Whatever you just said made Iwazumi’s face contort in a sort of conspiracy theory way. If what you say is true, then it is plausible the members of the committees who had you all under surveillance minus internal affairs, would have access to what had been leaked. You might have stumbled upon the answer around the same time, give or take a few seconds, as the both of you exclaim the name of one of the common denominators: the assistant coach. 

“Can you prove it?” you whisper to him. 

Iwazumi scoffs as he pats the empty space beside him on your couch. 

“For you, I will,” he answers you, a tired smile and all. You sit down beside him, resting your head against his arm, almost leaning into his shoulder. He rests his cheek atop your head with a delightful hum; his hand rests palm up on your knee and this time, when you take it, you intertwine your fingers. 

“Would you like to stay like this for a while?” you ask, although you know the answer.

“As long as we remain stalker-free for the rest of our days, sure, why not?” you could feel his fond smile through every word.

Elsewhere, the names of the tertiary parties involved have less than a half days time to gather all necessary documents because slander is added amongst the charges of breaching the laws of privacy. Your phone records as well as Iwazumi’s are kept sealed until the trial is set to begin. It’s been a wild two-three months since dealing with the damage control for this security breach, and luckily those who were questioned did face irrevocable jail time for slander and stalking. To this day, you and Iwazumi are thankful to have supported each other throughout the ordeal especially since it drew you together.

.

.

.

𝔸𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕒, 𝟚 𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕤 𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣

Considering the generous offer of one Oikawa Tooru, you wake up, in a shirt not your own. Strong coffee, as you’ve learned to love during your stay here, has been brewed just to your liking. You are lazily flipping over in bed as the wind caresses put face and a slight chill is sent down your spine; you hiss at the absence of company you kept, the same person who and you quote, ‘fuck like you love me.’ Oh, after a few drinks after dinner, did Iwaxumi do that. Four times, four times?! You sat up quickly, throwing the blanket over your legs. Your thighs, littered in teeth marks and firm bruises made you let out a shaker breath. You feel so sore the higher your eyes and hands climb toward your core. There, unmistakenly, is a dull ache from where you remember you embarked on the physicality of this relationship—“god damn it, yn,” you inarguably stifle a laugh. He wore you out, you don’t even remember half the pet names he called up, but up until yesterday, you thought your college friend was a serial monogamist, and you knew why now.

As you let the memories of last night’s tumble in the sheets with Iwazumi blind your memories, he knocks on the door. The bastard has this pot on his lips asking if you’re ok or if you woke up too sore after something you both consented to.

“‘M fine,” you pat the space next to you. “You?”

He sits down, kissing the spot behind your ear, teasing you with a gruff, “mmhm.” The guest room still smells of sex and candied sin, but that doesn’t stop you nor Iwazumi from exploring each other with the intent of making another mess. You turn three quarters of the way to rest comfortably in the space of his lap, clothed erection you can graze by and feel he’ll become hard the longer you’re on him like this. Teasing him by tracing your hands over his chest, down his defined abs, then the waist band of his boxers had you greedily mumble, “already? hajime, we haven’t had breakfast yet…”

“Don’t care,” He sighs back into your mouth, hands supporting the small curve of your back. “You started this, we’ll pause after one round, eat, then come back.”

“Mm, sounds promising,” you tilt your head to one side. The buttons where the shirt was clasped together easily pop off the second you push iwazumi’s compliant body down. You settle yourself at an angle you know you could take him as you feel him drag down his waist band.

“So pretty boy,” The bold name makes him almost buck up into you. You feel the raw aching tip graze your uncovered sex. Leaning down to kiss his clavicle, your expression darker than his, you squeeze his member with one hand the other on his shoulder. Your hand adjusts the grip until you almost easily slip him into you. His eyes roll a bit as he feels you pump him just a smidge. “Think you could let me ride you for a few hours?”

A shaky breath followed by a most haste kiss has you continue preparing yourself to take him, all of him, at once. You groan from the slight, but pleasurable sting as does he. Your breathing is shallow like his as you let him set a steady rhythm that works for you both. His hands hold your waist while gently telling you encouraging words, “It’s better if you do it like this,” and a hip stuttering, “didn’t think I’d get to see you so fucked out this early.”

“Waking up alone sucks,” You breathe as you lace your fingers around iwazumi’s own. Prying his grip off your hip this time, you press a kiss to his palm before placing it on his neck. He’s a bit surprised, but now that he knows you like being choked a little, he presses down a bit.

“Nngh!” The very same cry from you as he is mercilessly curling up into you had your head in a tizzy. He’s come alive and you can feel his member pulsating at how your gummy walls stick him back in. His fingers still on your pulse point when he squeezes it again, another blissful cry has him wiping away glossy tears from your face.

“Keep making noises like that and I’ll fuck you from behind in the bathroom so you can watch your pretty face see what I do to your body,” It’s a beautifully prompted threat. Your orgasm has you in a metaphorical choke hold as your stamina increases with every pull and push of Iwazumi’s free hand. The one that holds you against him is not not dominant hand; that one sneaks between where you two are joined, locating a spot where if given enough attention, you’re driven off the metaphorical edge. You’re sinking your teeth into his shoulder and you feel him tense up.

“S-shit, ‘m close too, hol’d on, yeah?” You wearily nod. “Where?”

“Fuck! Inside,” you don’t have time to worry about the consequences. (It’s not like you don’t plan on birthing this man’s children, but if you two keep going at it like this, you just might. He’s just that good in the sack.)

Breathing like you both ran a marathon, your abused center still pulsates as the combined fluids never threaten to spill out. You confess you don’t care what happens in the future as long as you’re in it together. Iwazumi’s, catching his breath, sort of laughs into your shoulder.

“If you wind up with a scare, we’re at least know how to fuck again to make you a mommy,” He hears you laugh. It’s the purest one he’s heard since this vacation began.

“Be careful what you wish for.”

Iwazumi kisses your temple. “C’mon princess, coffee awaits.”

You concur, lazily draping the used sheets around your shoulders once Iwazumi reluctantly leaves the room. Glancing around you, despite the updates of the court case, you’re glad to rest in a paradise all on your own doing. Who knows? Maybe you’ll come back here with a family all your own—with the silly athletic trainer dancing in his boxers to “last Christmas” on the pop lite station.

Iwazumi is many things to you, but right now, a thief of your heart seems to be the most accurate.