Weekly Review

Moderate to major flooding—which has killed three people, caused at least $3 billion in damages, and required the National Guard to airdrop hay to cattle in Nebraska—continued in the Midwest and South; the Senate failed to pass an emergency aid bill that would offer relief after hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters.^{1 2 3} Donald Trump, who once described the rolls of paper towels he threw to a crowd of Puerto Ricans 13 days after Hurricane Maria hit the island as “these beautiful, soft towels, very good towels,” criticized the U.S. territory’s leadership during a private luncheon with Republican senators and later tweeted, “Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money.”^{4 5 6 7} South Carolina, which has received $1.5 billion in federal storm-relief funds, was named the second most likely state for women to be murdered on the job, and Texas, which has received $29 billion in federal disaster funds, was named the highest carbon-dioxide emitter in the nation.^{8 9 10} San Juan Mercantile Bank & Trust International, a custodian bank that offers services for fiat money and cryptocurrency, opened in Puerto Rico, which has received approximately $11 billion of its $41 billion of announced disaster-relief funding.^{11 12} A GoFundMe titled Safe Embarcadero for All has raised more than $80,000 to oppose a proposed homeless shelter that would replace a parking lot in San Francisco.¹³ 

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, mocked a woman who was protesting mercury poisoning in the Grassy Narrows First Nation at a fund-raising event, and two students who called U.S. Border Patrol agents “Murder Patrol” and “an extension of the KKK” during a presentation to a campus club at the University of Arizona were charged with misdemeanors.^{14 15} In a letter to students, the university president called the protest “a dramatic departure from our expectations of respectful behavior and support for free speech on this campus.” Brunei began enforcing sharia law.¹⁶ The European Parliament voted to end daylight saving time in 2021.¹⁷ The British Transport Police believe devices left on train tracks near Yaxley, Cambridgeshire, and Netherfield, Nottinghamshire, were an attempt at sabotage by pro-Leave Brexit campaigners, and the U.K. Parliament rejected four Brexit alternatives on April Fool’s Day, five days after voting against eight Brexit alternatives and three days after rejecting the prime minister’s third Brexit plan.^{18 19 20 21} “The thing is satirical now,” said Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, of Theresa May’s announcement that she would create a plan with the Labour Party and extend the deadline for leaving the European Union.^{22 23} It was revealed that Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, oversaw the purchase of a $15.9 million apartment in New York City for a senior British civil servant who would create new trade deals post-Brexit.²⁴ Wow Air, a budget airline based in Iceland, abruptly ceased operations, leaving its passengers stranded at airports on both sides of the Atlantic.²⁵

NASA’s first all-female space walk was canceled because “essentially the shirt[s] of the spacesuit[s]” were too large.²⁶ Senator Mike Lee of Utah railed against Communism and the Green New Deal on the Senate floor by showing images of, among other things, former president Ronald Reagan riding a velociraptor and stills from Super Friends and Sharknado 4.²⁷A didgeridoo left at a Melbourne train station during the morning rush hour was mistaken for a rifle.²⁸ The mayor of Baltimore took an indefinite leave of absence after it was revealed that a health insurance company had paid her $114,000 for roughly 20,000 copies of her children’s books.²⁹ Japan’s government announced that the new imperial era will be called “Reiwa,” but have not specified its meaning.³⁰ Germany’s armed forces have begun recruiting rabbis for the first time in a century.³¹ Donald Trump misidentified his father’s birthplace as Germany for the third time, and mispronounced the word “origins” as “oranges” while discussing Robert Mueller’s investigation.^{32 33}—Violet Lucca