Weather Report #52: Puerto Rico's blackouts, Ukraine's drone kill zone, and an oil company's tax haven

Hello, dear reader! Welcome to your Weather Report, a (sometimes) weekly column where I recommend a plethora of media – like good journalism, books, movies, and music – for readers to consume.

Here's what you're getting this week:

1. Watch my latest documentary about Puerto Rico's Palestinian community.
2. Essays, articles, and columns about: Puerto Rico's blackouts, Ukraine's drone kill zone, and oil company tax havens.
3. A gothic novella about a bad family, vacation properties, supernatural disappearances, and the structures that force us to be oppressed or become oppressors.
4. A semi-forgotten 80's classic about the fragility of mutually assured destruction.
5. Three very good songs to listen to with the volume turned all the way up.

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What I Did This Week:

The third and final mini-documentary I've been working on with the good folks over at 9 Millones was published on Monday. This one focuses on the Palestinian community in Puerto Rico: why they moved out of Palestine, how they got here, and how they've built a home here.

The full video is available on YouTube.

Compared to the other two documentaries, this one was a real bear to make, which is why it took way longer to get out than the rest. The first real challenge was finding Palestinians that wanted to speak with us. There's not that many Palestinians in Puerto Rico, and most of the ones we got in contact with did not want to speak with us for a variety of reasons. However, we ended up connecting with two very kind Palestinian families that were happy to share their stories with us. The second challenge necessitated changing some things at the last minute, just to include more context and film a bit with the mother from one of the families who we didn't get to interview the first time around. But thankfully, it came out as an overall success. People have been responding to it really well. In fact, I think all three of them came out really good. You can find the Dominican one here and the Chinese one here.

You can find the written article where we go a little more in depth on the history of Palestinians in Puerto Rico here:

Las familias palestinas que encontraron un segundo hogar en Puerto Rico | 9 millones

Los palestinos empezaron a llegar a Puerto Rico en la década del 60, según la historiadora Soraya Asad Sánchez

9 millonesPor:Carlos Berríos Polanco

That's it for this week's free stuff. If you want to see the media recommendations and the link roundup, you can become a paid subscriber today.