Weekly Review
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter announced he would begin radiation therapy for brain cancer and said he hoped to see the eradication of the guinea worm before he dies. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held a rally that drew at least 20,000 people in Mobile, Alabama; and poll found that 81 percent of North Carolina voters are unsure how they feel about Deez Nuts, a 15-year-old presidential candidate. “Anyone,” said Deez Nuts, “can run.”
A severe downturn in the Chinese stock market led to declines in stock prices across the globe. In one trading day, London’s FTSE index fell 4.6 percent, Shanghai’s SHCOMP fell 8.5 percent, and the Dow Jones lost 1,000 points within minutes of opening. “We see this,” one market researcher said, “as a very nasty correction.”[1] Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation, French National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was ousted from his party, and a gunman who boarded a Paris-bound train with an AK-47 was thwarted by two American servicemen, a British consultant, and a Frenchman.[2][3][4] North Korea and South Korea agreed to talks after the two countries exchanged artillery fire in an escalation of tensions prompted by South Korean audio propaganda and the maiming of South Korean border guards by the North’s land mines.[5] The White House announced Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, a deputy leader of the Islamic State, was killed in an airstrike; and the Islamic State beheaded Khaled al-Asaad, a prominent Syrian archaeologist, for refusing to disclose the location of antiquities in Palmyra. [6][7] Sierra Leone reported no new Ebola cases for the first time since 2014, beginning a 42-day countdown until the country can be declared Ebola-free.[8] Transportation officials in Idaho replaced mile-420 highway markers with mile-419.9 markers in order to curb thefts, and a Batman was killed on a highway in Maryland after his Batmobile broke down and he was struck by a Toyota Camry.[9][10]
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter announced he would begin radiation therapy for brain cancer and said he hoped to see the eradication of the guinea worm before he dies.[11][12] Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held a rally that drew at least 20,000 people in Mobile, Alabama; and a poll found that 81 percent of North Carolina voters are unsure how they feel about Deez Nuts, a 15-year-old presidential candidate. “Anyone,” said Deez Nuts, “can run.”[13][14][15] The personal information of at least 30 million users of Ashley Madison, a website designed to facilitate extra-marital affairs, was released online by hackers.[16] The White House announced it had hired its first transgender staffer, and imprisoned transgender Army private Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 21 days of restricted recreation for possession of Vanity Fair and an expired tube of toothpaste.[17][18] In Indiana, Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle pleaded guilty to distributing and receiving child-pornography and engaging in sex acts with minors.[19] In New York City, Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced he was considering eliminating Times Square’s pedestrian areas to combat the presence of topless women, and a plumber suffered burns on 90 percent of his body after accidentally sparking an explosion in a high school science lab. “He lit a match to check the gas line,” said an anonymous source affiliated with the fire department. “Not a safe way to do that.”[20][21][22]
In Florida, a sinkhole that swallowed a sleeping man in 2013 reopened.[23] The artist Banksy opened a theme park called Dismaland in England.[24] A giant panda gave birth to twin cubs at the National Zoo in Washington, a parrot was arrested in India for cursing, an Israeli dolphin was detained by Hamas on suspicion of espionage, and researchers announced that 30 dead whales have mysteriously washed ashore in Alaska since May.[25][26][27][28] A white supremacist in New York was found guilty of plotting to attack Muslims with a remote-controlled X-ray device that he referred to as “Hiroshima on a light switch.”[29] In Boston, two men were arrested for attempting to attack the Pokémon World Championships.[30] The Norwegian caviar company Mills announced it would livestream 11 months of caviar aging on YouTube, a chef and former porn star in Japan created “poop curry,” and a vomiting machine was created by American researchers to study the spread of norovirus. “There’s nothing odd about that,” said one of the researchers.[31][32][33]
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