Weekly Review
The Food and Drug Administration approved genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. Ethiopian Airlines operated its first flight staffed entirely by women, Salt Lake City elected its first openly gay mayor, and two 35-year-old men became the first gay couple to wed in Ireland. The National Institutes of Health announced that it would end its use of chimpanzees in biomedical experiments, and an animal-rights group sued a Louisiana amusement park for allowing a chimpanzee named Candy to smoke cigarettes and drink Coca-Cola. Read More...
French police carried out 793 raids across the country, arresting 90 people, seizing illegal drugs and weapons, and killing Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian member of the Islamic State suspected of organizing the recent attacks in Paris.[1][2] French legislators extended a nationwide state of emergency for three months, enabling the government to conduct warrantless searches, prohibit assembly and protest, and restrict press freedoms.[3][4] Thirty-one U.S. governors said they would block the White House’s efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in their states, despite having no authority to do so.[5] Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush called for the United States to prioritize refugee status for Syrian Christians, provoking questions about how applicants would be vetted. “You can prove you’re a Christian,” said Bush.[6] Islamist fighters stormed a Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali, taking more than 170 hostages and killing 22 people.[7] Suicide bombers attacked open-air markets in the Nigerian cities of Yola and Kano, killing 47 people and injuring at least 130 others.[8][9] It was reported that 2,043 people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list have legally purchased a gun in the United States within the past 11 years.[10] A mosque in Ontario was set ablaze, a Toronto woman wearing hijab was punched and harassed while picking up her children from school, and a shop in Colorado called Isis Books & Gifts was vandalized for the fifth time. Those responsible, said the owner, are “people believing that somehow the terrorists have a store, a gift store, in the middle of Denver.”[11][12][13]
In Antalya, Turkey, the Group of 20 nations agreed not to engage in cyber espionage for commercial purposes.[14] President Obama called for a halt to China’s island construction in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, and China began shutting down mobile service for Xinjiang residents who evaded government firewalls.[15] Explosives detonated at two electricity pylons on the Crimean peninsula caused an outage that affected almost 2 million people.[16] Russia resumed nuclear trade with Iran.[17] A poet in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to death for apostasy.[18] Vatican prosecutors indicted five people in connection with a leak of confidential papal documents, and the pastor of a Singaporean megachurch was convicted of fraud for diverting $36 million in church funds to advance his wife’s singing career.[19][20] Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced a deal to acquire the Irish drug manufacturer Allergan for $160 billion and move from the United States to Dublin.[21] The Food and Drug Administration approved genetically engineered salmon for human consumption.[22] Ethiopian Airlines operated its first flight staffed entirely by women, Salt Lake City elected its first openly gay mayor, and two 35-year-old men became the first gay couple to wed in Ireland.[23][24] The National Institutes of Health announced that it would end its use of chimpanzees in biomedical experiments, and an animal-rights group sued a Louisiana amusement park for allowing a chimpanzee named Candy to smoke cigarettes and drink Coca-Cola.[25][26]
A 1,111-carat diamond was unearthed in central Botswana, and a landslide near a jade mine in Myanmar buried 100 workers.[27][28] A Japanese man broke the world record for the fastest 100 meters running on all fours, and participants in Bangkok’s half-marathon were promised free T-shirts after a route error caused them to run an extra four miles.[29][30] In Philadelphia, a pair of zebras escaped from a circus.[31] A Massachusetts woman won the lottery for a second time, and a Florida mayor tried to pay an ethics fine with 360,000 pennies and nickels.[32][33] A man sued Pennsylvania state police who detained him for 29 days when they mistook his homemade soap for cocaine, and a Florida police officer was fired for singing with a death-metal band while on duty.[34][35] Audience members at Zimbabwe’s fourth annual Mister Ugly competition protested after the reigning champion was dethroned by a 42-year-old man with several missing teeth. “He is ugly,” said a rival, “only when he opens his mouth.”[36]
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