Embedded Files
Written by Max Balzer, 03/30/2025
March wasn’t a busy month at York, but it sure was all around the world. I’m back to round up everything that happened around the world this month in the news!
Reporter accidentally added to U.S.-Yemen war plan group chat
Starting off strong with perhaps the most shocking and dramatic story of the month, a reporter from The Atlantic — in fact, their editor-in-chief — was accidentally added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal with high-profile U.S. officials to discuss attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen. Among the high-ranking officials in the chat titled ‘Houthi PC small group’ were Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who added the journalist, Jeff Goldberg, to the group chat.
This group chat was based around U.S. attacks in Yemen against the Houthis, an Iran-based organization designated by the United States as a terrorist group. The Houthis are a pro-Islam group trafficking in primarily anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments and have played a central role in Yemen’s civil war. The strikes were successful, beginning on March 15, but these messages existing on an unclassified commercial texting app posed a real threat to national security.
The blowback to this breach has been profound. Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg used language I cannot include here in emphasizing just how problematic this breach is. Many of the members of the group chat were questioned on Capitol Hill the next day in an unrelated, previously scheduled hearing, which ended up with a barrage of questions from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle about this breach. Whether Signalgate will have true implications for the future of U.S. war against the Houthis, with SecDef Pete Hegseth texting specific war plans in Yemen in texts now published by The Atlantic, remains to be seen, but we can rest easy now knowing that nobody is making group chats for top-secret war plans in the future (hopefully).
Canada’s new Prime Minister
Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s new Prime Minister on March 14, ringing in a new era of Liberal leadership after nearly 10 years with Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister. This came after mounting criticism of Trudeau from many on the Liberal side, culminating in his resignation in early January. Carney picked up supporters across the country and is now poised to use this support and popularity to sail to an electoral victory for the Liberals in a snap election he called on April 28.
The release of Disney’s Snow White
The live-action version of Snow White was released in theatres this past week, to criticism and controversy left and right. It stars Rachel Zegler from West Side Story as Snow White, and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. The film was doomed from the start, with Zegler, the film’s star, making fun of it shortly after she was announced to be playing the titular character. The movie was introduced to the public alongside comments from her saying she was scared of the film as a kid, and that the film’s original storyline, including a “love story with a guy who literally stalks her,” was ‘weird’ and that they “didn’t do that this time.”
The live-action remake of the film doesn’t follow the same storyline as the original cartoon, with Snow White instead “dreaming of being the leader she knows she can be.”
Trump’s government rampage
President Donald Trump continued his rampage on the government this month, with more executive orders and comments landing him in hot water, but what’s new? Trump started off the month with an hour and 40-minute address to a Joint Session of Congress, the longest address to Congress in 60 years. The speech contained, shockingly, many inaccuracies and falsehoods, including that there were lots of dead people over 120 years old collecting Social Security payments. He also named a 13-year-old with brain cancer as an honourary Secret Service agent, and welcomed a suit-clad Elon Musk as one of his special guests.
President Trump got his spending bill passed in Congress, with the surprising support of Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. If the bill hadn’t passed, the government would have shut down with no spending, something Schumer stated he was trying to avoid by voting for the bill to get a vote. Schumer came under fire for the decision to vote for the bill many Democrats saw as aggressive, with some even threatening to fight for his top job.
Trump’s most disturbing comments of the month came this past weekend, when he discussed possible strategies to allow him to serve another term as President. In a Sunday morning phone call with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump confirmed one of the strategies they were considering was him running as Vice President JD Vance’s running mate, and should he win, stepping in after Vance’s resignation. These were the most in-depth comments Trump has made so far about his plans to run for a third term, something currently prohibited under the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
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