Weekly Review

Following an attack by a suicide bomber that left more than 40 Indian troops in Kashmir dead, an Indian airman, who said in a 2011 TV interview that a “bad attitude” was required to become a fighter pilot, was shot down over the disputed region, parachuted into Pakistani territory, tried to eat his documents, was beaten by a mob, and was then captured by Pakistani forces, who took him into custody, interrogated him, and filmed him drinking tea.^{1 2 3} After the pilot was released by Pakistan, Naxalites demonstrated for peace between the two countries in Kolkata.⁴ Iran’s foreign minister announced his resignation in a cryptic Instagram post but returned to the job two days later.⁵ In Hanoi, Vietnam, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un held a second summit to discuss North Korean disarmament, but the US president abruptly ended negotiations without reaching an agreement; Russian officials confirmed that Kim will visit Moscow sometime in the future.^{6 7 8} Trump blamed the summit’s failure in part on the public testimony of Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; Cohen attested that Trump had told him, “You think I’m stupid? I wasn’t going to Vietnam.”^{9 10} Canada’s former justice minister and attorney general testified that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others in his office had pressured her to halt a criminal case against the construction firm SNC-Lavalin, and Israel’s attorney general announced plans to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for reelection, for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, in three separate cases.^{11 12} “So have at it, go ahead, waste your money, waste your time, and go ahead and lose,” said Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel in response to a question about potential Trump primary challengers.¹³ A black man became the director and president of a white-supremacist organization in the hopes of disbanding it.¹⁴ In Oakland, California, a private school discovered that donated paintings they had borrowed against for funding were fakes.¹⁵

The governor of Washington and the former governor of Colorado announced that they were running for president as Democrats.^16 17 The first lady of Virginia has apologized for handing out raw cotton to black children during a tour of the governor’s mansion.¹⁸ A poster that hung in the West Virginia State Capitol as part of a “Republicans Take the Rotunda” event that juxtaposed a photograph of a plane hitting the World Trade Center accompanied by the text “never forget” – you said… with a photograph of Representative Ilhan Omar and the text i am the proof – you have forgotten caused a verbal and physical fight between Republican and Democratic lawmakers.¹⁹ A church in Springdale, Arkansas, denied that their sign, which read heaven has strict immigration laws, hell has open borders, was political.²⁰ A Trump campaign adviser called Representative Omar “filth” and “rooted in anti-Semitism” during an interview, and it was revealed that Psy-Group, an Israeli intelligence firm, had investigated and smeared supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.^{21 22} In Arizona, a congressman who opposes the Green New Deal said that climate change wasn’t a problem because of photosynthesis, and the mayor of the town of Patagonia read an apology to a 12-year-old journalist who had been threatened with arrest by a police officer.^{23 24} The FDA has condemned the use of plasma transfusions from young people as a treatment for illness and aging.²⁵

Walmart announced that it will replace greeters with “customer hosts,” who must be able to lift at least 25 pounds, climb ladders, and stand for long periods of time.²⁶ An elderly tourist posing for a photograph on an iceberg floated out to sea and was rescued by a sea captain.²⁷ A police officer in Ellenville, New York, accidentally shot himself in the chest while fleeing a rabid fox, and the police in Jordan, Minnesota, were called to check on a man standing outside in the cold and holding a pillow that was actually a cardboard cutout of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.^{28 29} The Utah House passed a bill allowing drivers to ignore red lights in “extremely low” traffic; the failure to yield accounts for approximately 12 percent of automotive fatalities in that state.^{30 31}—Violet Lucca