Weekly Review

At the Salute to America, an Independence Day celebration on the National Mall that was organized by the White House and had a V.I.P. section for Republican donors, the president spoke for 47 minutes from behind a bulletproof barrier and incorrectly stated several facts about American history, including that, in an unspecified battle during the Revolutionary War, “our Army manned the air [inaudible], it rammed the ramparts. It took over the airports.”^{1 2 3 4} Registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who once said that he wanted “to set up my modeling agency the same way Trump set up his modeling agency” and who signed a plea deal in 2008 that was in part drafted by the current U.S. secretary of labor, was charged in New York with sex trafficking; on Saturday, FBI agents found hundreds of photographs of underage girls in Epstein’s Manhattan residence, which he had received from the CEO of L Brands, the company that owns Victoria’s Secret.^{5 6 7 8 9 10} “I’m still a victim, and I just wish I would have chose [sic] better representation than I did,” said a woman who abruptly dropped her sexual-assault lawsuit against California Representative Tony Cárdenas.¹¹ The police in Lufkin, Texas, arrested a 17-year-old girl who licked the inside of a tub of Blue Bell ice cream at a Walmart and then put it back in the freezer, and at a Walmart in Wichita Falls, Texas­—the same store from which a woman had been banned for riding in an electric shopping cart while drinking wine out of a Pringles can—a customer ate half a cake while walking around the store and then refused to pay its full price.^{12 13} Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House who has repeatedly declined to begin an impeachment inquiry, despite 80 fellow congressional Democrats publicly calling for one, said during an interview, “The thing is that, he every day practically self-impeaches by obstructing justice and ignoring the subpoenas.”^{14 15}

Choe In-guk, the 73-year-old son of a South Korean foreign minister who defected to North Korea, defected to North Korea.¹⁶ Princess Haya of Dubai sought political asylum in London.¹⁷ The former president of Kyrgyzstan, who was stripped of his immunity by Parliament a month ago, was summoned for questioning by the police.¹⁸ Protesters in Kazakhstan who were calling for the national leader—the 79-year-old former president who installed a devoted successor and retained many powers for himself—to cede authority were arrested on his birthday, a national holiday.¹⁹ In Israel, over 111 police officers and dozens of protesters were injured in demonstrations amid response to the death of an Ethiopian-Israeli teenager who was shot by an off-duty police officer.²⁰ In Peoria, Arizona, a white man fatally stabbed a black teenager who was listening to rap because he found the music threatening; in Honolulu, a white man who stabbed another driver wore blackface to court before being sentenced to life in prison for attempted murder; and in Freeport, Illinois, a black man who was walking with an I.V. around the grounds of the hospital he was being treated was arrested for attempting to steal medical equipment.^{21 22 23} When asked about the death of a three-year-old girl in a drug sting, Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a former police chief who first led President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war in the Philippines, told reporters at a press conference that “shit happens”; later, following criticism, dela Rosa said, “Please, I will recall my words, instead of shit, let us replace it with ‘unfortunate incident happens.’”^{24 25} An 18-month-old girl on a cruise ship died after she fell from a window that her grandfather had sat her on.²⁶

An Asian-American couple who allegedly spent more than $100,000 on in vitro fertilization sued a fertility clinic after they gave birth to two children who are not Asian.²⁷ “I’ve been breeding him for this,” said a man in Sudbury, Massachusetts, who pulled his son out of high school so that he could become a professional Fortnite player.²⁸ In Ontario, Lisa MacLeod, the minister of tourism, culture, and sport in Doug Ford’s cabinet, apologized for allegedly telling the owner of the Ottawa Senators that “you’re a fucking piece of shit and you’re a fucking loser” during a Rolling Stones concert.^{29 30} At Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol confiscated and destroyed 32 pounds of African rat meat that a man from the Ivory Coast was attempting to bring into the United States.³¹ The Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital discovered that what appeared to be an injured exotic bird was a seagull covered in either turmeric or curry powder; once clean, the animal was able to fly normally.³²—Violet Lucca