Weekly Review
In Cairo, ceasefire talks have ended at an impasse after Israel rejected Hamas’s demand to end the war in exchange for the release of hostages.1 2 “Nobody needs to tell me what to do or how to do it,” Netanyahu reportedly told his cabinet.3 In Tel Aviv, Al Jazeera has been ordered to shut down all local operations.4 The Israeli military ordered an evacuation in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population currently resides, including more than 600,000 children, and the UN warned of potential impending “slaughter,” as Israel prepares for an expanded offensive after a recent air strike that killed at least 19 Palestinians in the area.5 6 7 8 Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa hospital, died after four months in Israeli prison; the population of Palestinians in detention has risen from 5,200 to 9,100 since the start of the war.9 10 For the first time since October 7, food aid trucks were permitted to pass through the Erez crossing in Northern Gaza, a region where “full-blown famine” has now set in, according to the director of the UN World Food Program.11 12 “It’s like living in a greenhouse,” a Red Cross spokesperson said of the conditions in plastic refugee camp tents; two children have already died of heat-related deaths as temperatures begin to rise.13 The destruction of housing in Gaza, which so far has damaged 370,000 units, with 79,000 units completely destroyed, was determined to be the most severe global loss of housing since World War II and will take an estimated 80 years to rebuild.14 “How many signs does it take for a prime minister to go home?” an Israeli protester yelled at Netanyahu during a ceremony in Jerusalem commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.15
Pro-Palestine encampments on college campuses spread to 24 countries, and protests reached all seven continents, including a demonstration at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.16 17 More than 2,100 protesters have been arrested at campus demonstrations, with reports of police use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs.18 19 20 At UCLA, pro-Israel counterprotesters shot fireworks into the students’ pro-Palestine encampment.21 The CEO of Palantir, whose AI technology is reportedly used by Israel to kill targets within minutes of their selection, called the protests at Columbia University “a pagan religion of mediocrity and discrimination and intolerance, and violence,” in comments at a tech event where he also advocated for sending student protesters to North Korea and admitted to “fantasies” of drone-striking other “Silicon Valley venture people.”22 23 At Columbia, the NYPD cleared out student-occupied Hamilton Hall, with one officer firing his gun, another pushing a student down the stairs, and another student left unconscious on the steps; following this operation, the NYPD conducted mass arrests at City College, where there were reports of “blood and broken teeth on the ground,” and in response, more than 300 members of the college’s staff union went on a May Day strike, the first strike in the union’s 52-year history.24 25 26 27 28 “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” said President Biden in response to the student protests.29 At University College London, protesters were met with terrorism charges for their banner of a dove flying under the word “free,” because, according to police, the banner “depicted a clear blue sky with no clouds, and on October 7 there was clear blue sky with no clouds.”30
A blue-rock thrush bird, normally found in Southeast Asia, was spotted for the first time in the United States by the amateur photographer Michael Sanchez in Oregon. “Oh, well, what a cute little bird, why don’t I practice shooting that bird?” said Sanchez of his artistic process.31 China launched a lunar probe with the intent of gathering the first-ever rock samples from the dark side of the moon. “It is a fact: We’re in a space race,” responded a NASA administrator.32 Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix while simultaneously achieving the first win of his Formula 1 career.33 “If I’m lucky, I can go on for six or seven years, or it might end tomorrow,” said Warren Buffet during his 60th meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.34 Donald Trump hand delivered pizzas to firefighters amid his hush-money trial.35 “A lot of people talking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—you know, I’m a fan of his father and, you know, his uncle—rest in peace. I remember where I was the day he was killed. I mean, it was a tragic day. The entire country wept,” said JFK’s only grandson, Jack Schlossberg, while performing as a non-descript Boston man named Jimmy in one video from a series he posted to Instagram, which also included his impressions of a southern horse farmer named Wade, and Vladimir Putin.36 37 38 39 40 —Chloe Arnold
