The 'shock and awe' of Trump's Border Security Redux
… plus curiosities from The Oscars, Afghanistan, and more.
Welcome back to another edition of The Detour — a weekly U.S. and global-affairs newsletter that explores underreported regions and uncovers the ripple effects of major news events. Here’s what’s on deck this week:
🔬 Lawyers help me decode the immigration pledges of Trump 2.0
👮 Inside the Taliban’s ICC arrest warrant
🎞️ What it’s like to moonlight as a photo double for an Oscar-nominated role
The Detour is published in partnership with Frame Media, a creative software tool that evolved out of a multimedia journalism publication. Frame allows anyone to create visual, engaging stories in minutes that can be hosted online or published to social media. If you’re interested in trying Frame, join the waitlist here.
13 — The number of Oscar nominations for 'Emilia Pérez,' the Spanish-language crime thriller musical (a singularly unique genre) by French director Jacques Audiard. The film received the highest number of nominations announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The 97th Annual Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on March 2.
You may be receiving just a portion of this newsletter. You can support this labor of love and receive 100% of The Detour’s incisive analysis of U.S. and global affairs for less than the cost of a coffee. ⬇️
2 — The number of high-ranking Taliban officials that, as of today, have a warrant out for their arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Chief Justice of the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds,” ICC Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan said in a statement.
Can gender apartheid become recognized as a crime under international law?
While gender apartheid is considered a crime against humanity, it is not currently subject to indictment under international law — but this could soon change. The Taliban's arrest warrants align with efforts by international bodies seeking to indict those responsible for gender persecution in Afghanistan. In September 2024, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands announced their intention to take Afghanistan to the International Court of Justice over gender discrimination. Throughout 2024, the ICC hosted global proceedings, inviting women's rights advocates to advance accountability for gender persecution. This initiative produced comprehensive principles to guide prevention, protection, and survivor participation. These efforts could signal a historic shift toward greater legal accountability for countries that inadequately serve women and girls.
78 — The number of executive actions carried out by former U.S. President Joe Biden that were rescinded this week by current U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump also signed dozens of orders, memorandums, and proclamations of his own. In The Cover Story this week, I sat down with immigration lawyers who have been burning the midnight oil since Trump’s inauguration to help members of the press make sense of Trump’s flood of immigration pledges. They tell me his executive orders are “more sophisticated” than those of his first term. Stick around to find out what they mean.
What’s an EO?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Detour by Kelly Kimball to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.