Ceasefire now: The United States drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages” in Gaza. You'll remember how the United States blocked previous efforts to pass a ceasefire resolution, so this seems like a pretty significant shift, likely prompted by the ongoing, anti-genocide protest movement and perhaps more specifically the campaign to vote "uncommitted" in the Presidential Primary.

Is it enough? Al Jazeera Diplomatic Editor James Bays seems a little skeptical of the latest draft of the US's ceasefire resolution. It amounts the strongest message from the United States yet, but Bays said the resolution is somewhat ambiguous: "Is it what the rest of the Security Council wants in terms of a demand for an immediate ceasefire? Or is it just a resolution where the Security Council would say an immediate ceasefire is something that’s very important?” The UN has not scheduled a vote on the resolution, but I'm sure the Slog will keep y'all in the loop.

A little more Seattleish: You’ve probably read Charles Mudede’s rant from earlier this week about how sad we all should be when we see the sun. If that freaked you out, then you'll be comforted to know that today's weather should give off slightly less climate-catastrophe vibes in my humble opinion. You can expect temperatures in the low 50s this morning with cloudy skies. The sun should peak out a little bit and temperatures will rise to the mid 50s at around 1 pm. Then its back to cloudy skies in the late afternoon and some showers in the evening. According to extremeweatherwatch.com, that’s pretty much in line with average conditions historically for this time of year. 

Enjoy the beauty of nature, while it lasts:

Axe murder: The 25-year-old man charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing an unhoused man with an ax pleaded not guilty in court yesterday. 

Twitter beef: Are you even a reporter at The Stranger if you don’t get mocked online for doing your job? I texted infamous Twitterer Jonathon Choe last night for comment after hearing accusations that he egged on protests at a tenant's house last weekend. Then he posted my text to Twitter as some kind of own. I’ll forgive him since he may not follow these guidelines in his own practice, but it’s industry standard to allow people to respond to allegations. I think he’ll be disappointed to see how little my story mentions him specifically. After all, he is but a cog in the right-wing media machine driving us closer and closer to destruction everyday. Oh well! At least One of The Good Twitterers came to my defense:

Big spenders: Congress unveiled a new $1.1 trillion spending package designed to avoid a looming shutdown. According to NPR, Republicans and Democrats both scored wins in the package after loooooong negotiations. House Speaker Mike Johnson boasted about winning cuts to "wasteful agencies," saving gas stoves, stopping aid to Palestinians until March 2025, and scoring more ICE detention beds, border patrol agents, and funding for border protection tech. Democrats won a $1 billion increase for child care and authorization of 12,000 Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans. Kinda sounds like a W for Republicans, but we will see tomorrow if they even pass it before the deadline, Friday at midnight.

Happiness: How are you? No, how are you really? Just kidding. Could you imagine if I actually asked you that? Like some douche in a rom com. Lol. Anyway the The Gallup World Poll just released its findings about global happiness. The researchers declared Finland the happiest country on the planet. Good for them! However, we aren’t doing so hot over in the United States. We used to rank 15th, but this go-round we plummeted to 25th. What’s interesting though is that the dissatisfaction is not equal. Older people are actually super happy in the United States, and the youngins drag down the average. Maybe its because we buy too much avocado toast and can’t afford property. Sad! 

Speaking of life: I found this data kinda interesting.

So long: Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said he’s “not the best person for the job anymore.” He resigned from his position as leader of the Fine Gael party effective immediately and will resign from office as soon as his center-right party finds a replacement. According to NPR, that won’t happen until after Easter. 

Abolish the death penalty: Georgia executed 59 year-old Willie Pye last night in the state’s first time using the death penalty since 2020. Pye got sentenced to life back in 1993 for killing his ex-girlfriend. Advocates against state-sanctioned killings tried to stop the State from executing Pye, arguing he showed signs of intellectual disability or that he didn’t get a fair trial in the 90s because the court-appointed lawyer allegedly used a racial slur in another Black man’s case. 

City Council would suggest this:

Highly unusual, perhaps unprecedented: PubliCola reported that the Seattle City Council voted unanimously and without discussion to reverse 20 bills the previous council passed in the last budget to impose checks and balances on executive departments. In the meeting, Council President Sara Nelson said that the bills dealt with policy proposals from council members who were no longer on the body and that they caused a burden to the executive departments. PubliCola highlighted a few of the most interesting reversals, including former Council Member Teresa Mosqueda’s statement of legislative intent (SLI) directing the City Budget Office to come up with a plan to make the Office of Police Accountability independent from the Seattle Police Department, former Council Member Alex Pedersen’s directive to collect data on rentals, and Council Member Tammy Morales’s request to study a four-day work week for City employees. Maybe this would be a nothingburger if someone else did it, but Nelson has really made it impossible to see her actions as council president as anything but authoritarian. See here, here, here, and here. 

New prez just dropped: Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto won the Indonesian Presidential election despite accusations that he committed a fuck-ton of abuses under the recent dictatorship. NBC wrote that he’s allegedly linked to kidnappings and torturings of activists, which he denies. Solidarity with the Indonesian people because we are also about to elect an evil little freak to be our President this year! 

War sucks: Russia injured at least 10 Ukrainians in its latest missile strikes against Kyiv early this morning. The three-hour attack comes after a 44-day pause in the two-year long war. 

Last chance: Voters have until 4:30 pm today to cure their ballots in Washington's Presidential Primary. The latest data from King County Elections shows there's still 14,000 ballots stuck in limbo because the voter failed to select a party affiliation on the envelop. You already went through the effort to cast a ballot. Login here to see if it got counted. If it did not, then fix it here.

Me when people are mean to me online: