News briefs

Tribune News Service on Jul 11, 2025

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As the jokes fly, Alligator Alcatraz evokes racist trope of ‘gator bait’

MIAMI — On Sunday, two men stood in front of Alligator Alcatraz to show support for the detention center. One held a sign that read, “Welcome to Paradise. Don’t feed the animals.”

The jokes about alligators attacking immigrants while in detention have been casually tossed around by President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservative and far-right influencers. The Florida GOP and Attorney General James Uthmeier are cashing in on “Alligator Alcatraz” merchandise, some that prominently feature alligators, to fundraise for campaigns.

The ‘gators, in this case, are the good guys. The folks inside the detention center, no matter their story or status, are tempting treats for Florida’s newly deputized reptilian law enforcement.

The mocking of immigrant detainees harks back to “the worst parts of our history” when similar jokes and tropes, such as “gator bait,” were used to dehumanize Black people and desensitize people to the harm and violence inflicted upon them, says ACLU Florida Executive Director Bacardi Jackson.

—Miami Herald

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims ‘rapist’ Trump has complicated release of Epstein files

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Friday that having a “rapist” president in office has muddied the Justice Department’s handling of matters involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” the New York representative asked on X.

In 2023, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll, but was not found liable for rape and wasn’t charged with a criminal offense. As many Trump supporters noted on the congresswoman’s post, ABC News was sued last year when anchor George Stephanopoulos used similar verbiage to characterize the president’s alleged actions.

Ocasio-Cortez has summarized Trump as a “rapist and criminal” at rallies as well. While the president was convicted in a cover-up conspiracy to defraud the voting public, those crimes were not sexual in nature. Trump has come under fire from his own supporters this week after Justice Department officials he appointed stated that Epstein kept no “client list” linking celebrities and public officials to his alleged sex trafficking activities.

—New York Daily News

Joro spiders attack and eat each other sometimes: ‘Nonsexual cannibalism’

BOSTON — Excited for the joro spider invasion?! Well, if you’re an arachnophobe, this probably isn’t for you. But if you’re interested in wildlife and nature, you may have a chance to watch the large black and yellow spiders attack one another as their population grows.

Researchers in a new study found that the world-infamous parachuting joro spiders will attack and eat each other in certain conditions.

“We watched what would happen if the spiders were together in a container, and it sometimes would lead to a battle to the death,” leading joro researcher Andy Davis, at the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, told the Herald.

“It’s odd because we initially thought joros were pretty shy based on our previous work,” he added. “So we believe they have a shy personality, but they apparently can be aggressive to each other.”

—Boston Herald

Kurdish militants burn arms to mark end of war with Turkey

The Kurdish militant group PKK started laying down its weapons, marking the beginning of a disarmament process aimed at ending one of the Middle East’s longest-running insurgencies.

A group of 30 fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party burned their weapons at a ceremony in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region attended by observers from Turkey, Iraq’s central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, local TV channels showed.

The handover will be the first concrete step toward disarmament since the PKK’s May announcement that it would disband, ending four decades of conflict with the Turkish state and easing security concerns in the region.

Peace could also boost Turkey’s economy, with policymakers saying that the conflict has cost the country around $1.8 trillion including lost opportunities due to military spending. Bloomberg Economists estimated the cost of the conflict as $500 billion.

—Bloomberg News