Weekly Review

A Christian martyr.

A U.S. government panel announced that since April 20 between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil (1.7 million gallons) have leaked from a BP wellhead into the Gulf of Mexico every day. (The government’s original estimate, made a week after the spill began, was 5,000 barrels a day.) The size of the BP spill now exceeds that of the “Exxon Valdez” disaster by a factor of eight, and several experts on the panel acknowledged that the actual rate of leakage could be even higher. After its first effort to install a containment cap failed, BP successfully installed a second cap but still could capture only a fraction of the gushing oil. “This is an ongoing crisis,” said White House adviser David Axelrod, “much like an epidemic.” BP’s stock had lost half its value since the spill began, though stocks rallied on news that the company was “not aware of any reason” that shares were down. Obama suggested that BP open an escrow account to pay the billions of dollars in anticipated claims from affected Gulf Coast residents. “There isn’t enough money in the world to clean up the Gulf of Mexico,” said one financial commentator. “Once BP realizes the extent of this, my guess is that they’ll panic and go into Chapter 11.” PBSCNNCNNCNNWashington PostABCGuardianNew York TimesOcean conservationists celebrated the 100th anniversary of Jacques Cousteau’s birth. “The oil industry has tried to prevent some of the possible consequences of ocean drilling,” Cousteau said in 1973. “But they are ineffective!” The ExaminerArchaeologists found the world’s oldest leather shoe.BBC

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina won the Republican Senate nomination in California, and Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old unemployed military veteran who was recently charged with a felony for showing pornography to a university student, became South Carolina’s Democratic Senate nominee. “The people of South Carolina have spoken,” Greene said. “The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina.” Democrats questioned how the unknown candidate could have beat his opponent, a former legislator and judge, and some speculated foul play. “I don’t know if he was a Republican plant,” South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn said. “What is an unemployed guy doing paying $10,000 to run for the United States Senate? That just doesnâ??t add up.”Los Angeles TimesWashington PostPoliticoAn inquiry at Arlington National Cemetery found that the remains of more than 200 veterans had been mishandled, with some graves incorrectly identified and burial urns dumped onto piles of dirt. CNNIn a coordinated raid on a Mexican drug cartel, U.S. law-enforcement officials seized $5.8 million in cash, 2,951 pounds of marijuana, 247 pounds of cocaine, and 429 people. “This interagency cross-border operation has been our most extensive, and most successful, law-enforcement effort to date targeting these deadly cartels,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. The day following the raid gunmen associated with the cartels killed 19 people at a drug-treatment center in Chihuahua.NYTimesCNNFormer lobbyist Jack Abramoff entered a halfway house, and the people of Scotland were found to be almost universally unhealthy.Washington PostBBC

World Cup referees learned English swear words in preparation for the Englandâ??U.S. match, which ended in a tie.The Jakarta PostA 44-year-old Philadelphia woman was sentenced to one year’s probation for offering sex in exchange for tickets to see the Phillies play the World Series last year.BBCA southern California couple married in a Home Depot; a woman in North Carolina was struck by lightning minutes after her boyfriend proposed to her; and India’s government contemplated easier divorces.Christian Science MonitorCitizen TimesBBCAn estimated 75,000 Uzbeks had fled southern Kyrgyzstan after Kyrgyz gangs raided and torched Uzbek villages in a wave of ethnic violence reportedly prompted by an argument over a restaurant bill.Washington PostApple banned an iPhone app for a cartoon version of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” and South Korea ended a six-year ban on state-sponsored propaganda by blasting the pop song “Huh (Hit Your Heart),” by the Korean pop group 4minute, across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea. “Baby, you’re kidding me?” sing 4minute. “I do what I want and I do it my way.”The Big MoneyNew York Daily News