(1) The International Red Cross made an animated movie about a refugee from Afghanistan whom they considered a very sympathetic character. But he’s been arrested for murder in Greece, the country that took him in.

The case looks strong, and it was his American wife who gave police much of the evidence. From the Daily Mail:

The Red Cross has deleted a film tracking the journey of an Afghan migrant who is now accused of killing a British woman and hiding her body in a suitcase in Greece.

Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, was arrested on Monday over the murder of Scottish Christian Elisabeth-Jane Ross, in Athens.

Ahmadzai, a professional boxer who arrived in Greece on a small boat in 2016, is accused of killing Ms Ross before stuffing her body into a suitcase and ditching it in a derelict building.

The 38-year-old’s body was found by a homeless man on July 18, three days after she is believed to have been killed. …

Officers started probing Ahmadzai after his wife allegedly reported her husband had been behaving suspiciously on July 30.

She allegedly said she woke to find him missing on the evening of July 15 and checked his shared location which showed him at Ms Ross’s apartment.

Ahmadzai’s wife grew suspicious when it was announced Ms Ross’s body had been found. She left the family home with their baby and stayed in a hotel.

Ahmadzai gave her the sum of 2,550 euros and a new Apple iPhone 17 Pro but she refused them.

He used the dead woman’s credit cards. There’s much more to the story; you can read it at the link if you’re interested, but his excuse is that the woman was already dead when he arrived, and he panicked and stuffed her into a suitcase.

Sure thing.

(2) There’s no love lost between the NYC police and Mayor Mamdani:

Mamdani attempted to address about 3,500 residents and families attending the New York Police Department’s 43rd Patrol Borough National Night Out Against Crime event on Tuesday. His remarks, however, lasted less than a minute as loud boos, jeers and chants of “get out of here” and “nobody wants you” drowned out his voice.

The mayor attempted to continue speaking for a short time, but the jeers drowned him out. After the boos continued, Mamdani thanked the crowd with his signature hand-over-his-heart gesture, waved and walked offstage smiling. As he exited, the crowd continued to berate him, with some yelling expletives. An organizer attempted to regain control of the event, but the crowd persisted, booing and shaking their fists at Mamdani.

To be fair, the event occurred on Staten Island, a NY borough that is Republican and has been for quite some time. It is also the home of many NY police and firefighters, and lost a disproportionate number of residents on 9/11. For example, the borough has about 5.6% of New York City’s population but a quarter of the deceased firefighters lived there:

On Staten Island, 274 residents were killed, including 72 people who resided within two adjacent ZIP codes, 10312 and 10314.

The island has long been known as a blue-collar borough, home to first responders and office workers who enjoyed a quick commute to Lower Manhattan by the ferry.

“For Staten Island, 9/11 is a visceral part of our historical record,” said City Councilmember Joe Borelli, who was a 19-year-old Marist College student on Sept. 11, 2001.

Staten Island has a multitude of reasons to detest Mamdani.

(3) I don’t really think that praising Hasan Piker in any way is a good look for Democrats in Michigan. Debbie Dingell faces that quandary:

Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI-06) is one of the more well-known establishment Democrats in Michigan. A year or so ago, she warned against a looming “proxy battle” between the Democrat candidates over the issue of the Israel-Hamas war, something that ended up playing out throughout the primary between El-Sayed, Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

Though Dingell didn’t endorse in the Senate primary, one got the impression that she wasn’t a fan of El-Sayed’s campaign, perhaps because she’s fond of reminding people that Michigan is a purple state, and far-left candidates like El-Sayed are not exactly what one would describe as “purple state material.”

But now we have this effort from Dingell. Although she is practically stuttering here and saying she doesn’t agree with Piker, she emphasizes how popular he is on social media::

“I guess he works out and when he works out he looks really good and some people follow him for that. Not you or me.”

Debbie Dingell says she only watches the Hasan stream for the articles. pic.twitter.com/2u69ecNK9w

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) August 5, 2026

If you don’t get X, she’s saying to Greta Von Susteren, among other things: “I guess he [Hasan Piker] works out and when he works out he looks really good and some people follow him for that. Not you or me.”

Democrats, and especially Democrats of Michigan, have some decisions to make about whether or not to support El-Sayed. I think almost all of them will fall in line behind him, and that may involve trying to explain away his closeness to the abominable Piker.

(4) Meanwhile, Democrats such as Julian Epstein are saying no to El-Sayed and casting their lot with his opponent Mike Rogers. They’re also putting their money where their mouths are. He wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Post entitled, “I’m a longtime Democrat — fighting for GOP’s Mike Rogers, and my party’s soul, in Michigan.” An excerpt:

President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address, may have said it best: “In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

It was a warning to those who tolerate the rise of authoritarian communism that they will inevitably end up next on the dinner menu.

Michigan Democrats, in nominating Abdul El-Sayed for Senate on Tuesday, seem to be riding the back of that tiger.

That’s an interesting JFK quote. It puts me in mind of the red-green alliance, which I first noticed in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The leftists in that country thought they could ride the Islamist tiger. How’d that work out for them?

(5) Does Palestine have a distinct culture? Yes, violence:

There is no nation called “Palestine” and no “Palestinian” language, but there is a Palestinian culture. It was forged mostly by Yasser Arafat, the PLO’s leader for five decades, and is singularly defined by violence. Unique among all other Arab cultures and national identities, Palestinian culture and the Palestinian identity are predicated on a single political goal – the unceasing desire to destroy an existing country, in this case Israel.

Take away the resistance, and there’s nothing left of a distinctly Palestinian culture.

Cultures take centuries or millennia to form organically, but Palestinian culture, or “Palestinianism,” sprang into being quickly and artificially.

Historians might not agree on the precise date of the new Palestinian identity and its concomitant culture, but no serious scholar claims it to be much more than a century old.

Their violence is not limited to Israel as a target. They’ve wreaked havoc in every country that has taken them in in significant numbers.