Weekly Review

Ed Buck, a prominent white Democratic Party donor and activist in California who is known for regularly offering financial assistance to young black men who are homeless, financially struggling, or sex workers, bringing them back to his home, shooting them up with drugs or other substances against either their knowledge or will, and then pleasuring himself as they clung to life, was charged with one count of distributing methamphetamine leading to death after a third black man overdosed at his West Hollywood home this month.^{1 2 3} In Sacramento, a group of protesters stormed the California State Capitol, sang “We Shall Overcome,” and chanted “No segregation, no discrimination, yes on education for all,” to oppose mandatory vaccination laws in the state, while an estimated four million young people participated in a worldwide climate strike.^{4 5} During a series of 2020 fund-raising events in California, Donald Trump, owner of the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, complained about the state’s homeless population, criticizing the “tremendous pollution” that homeless people were creating in San Francisco, and threatened EPA action against the city as well as a special task force on generally eliminating homelessness.^{6 7 8 9} It was later reported that his administration was planning to mobilize the police to raze tent cities and move the homeless on Los Angeles’s Skid Row into government-run facilities, as a pilot program for other cities.¹⁰ Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary who called concentration camps “Holocaust centers,” announced that he will auction off the neon-green shirt he wore during his performance on Dancing with the Stars to benefit injured veterans.^{11 12} A Republican aide and former chief of staff for New York state senator Daphne Jordan filed a complaint alleging that she had violated his “basic human rights” by asking him to dress as a leprechaun and pull a wagon full of candy during a parade.¹³

U.S. forces in Afghanistan killed at least 30 pine nut farmers and injured 40 more with a drone in eastern Nangarhar province while attempting to target an Islamic State hideout.¹⁴ A new study showed that the number of birds in North America has declined by 29 percent since 1970, and the U.S. Navy confirmed that footage of “unidentified aerial phenomena” that had been leaked to a private research firm cofounded by Blink 182’s former guitarist was real and should never have been made public.^{15 16} An activist in Siberia used a drone to send hard drives containing politically sensitive information to a friend after police officers attempted to break down his door; the police have conducted approximately 200 raids across Russia in response to the United Russia Party’s loss of seats in the Moscow city legislature.^{17 18} The U.S. intel inspector general refused to reveal the nature of a whistle-blower’s complaint related to communications the president had with a foreign leader; later, Trump acknowledged that he had talked with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky about the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who, as vice president, allegedly used his influence to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor in order to benefit an energy company that his son Hunter was working for as a consultant.^{19 20 21 22} The U.S. Justice Department sued another whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, for profits from his memoir because he did not submit it to the agency for review before publication.²³ A man whose daughter hadn’t seen a doctor for hours while in intensive care criticized Boris Johnson, who was touring the ward, for seeking a press opportunity; after the prime minister told the man the press wasn’t present, the man yelled, “What do you mean there’s no press here, who are these people?” and gestured toward journalists using cameras to record their exchange.²⁴ It was reported that researchers at the M.I.T. Media Lab—who failed to produce a functioning “personal food computer,” a box that could grow any crop—have been dumping wastewater with elevated nitrogen levels into the groundwater, violating Massachusetts environmental regulations.²⁵ A doctor filed a lawsuit against former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, who repeatedly farted in the doctor’s face and laughed about it, for $11,500 in unpaid fees.²⁶

In the United States, Southeastern Grocers issued a recall of packages of peanut butter cookies because peanuts were not listed as an ingredient, and in Canada, the Société québécoise du cannabis issued a recall because a marijuana product wouldn’t get users high, as the package claimed.^{27 28} A Somalian woman who aspires to follow in the footsteps of the country’s first female camel trader said, “If a woman can raise children, which everyone agrees is a very tough work, we can easily look after camels.”²⁹ In Grosse Tete, Louisiana, a woman chasing after her blind dog at a truck stop bit the testicles of a camel in self-defense.³⁰ Men in Virginia experienced extreme hypoglycemia after taking over-the-counter male enhancement pills, and Argentine police officers arrested gang members who used fake penises to smuggle cocaine.^{31 32} A second man was arrested in connection with the theft of a solid gold toilet from Winston Churchill’s birthplace.³³—Violet Lucca