Weekly Review

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would seek approval from Turkey’s parliament to send fighters to aid Libya’s Government of National Accord, which was established by the United Nations, in its fight against forces led by Khalifa Hifter, a warlord and former resident of Langley, Virginia.^{1 2} Turkey, which has outstanding contracts in Libya worth almost $18 billion, has already sent weapons and, reportedly, 300 Syrian soldiers to support the anti-Hifter forces, which include Islamist militias and Russian mercenaries.^{3 4 5} In Istanbul, hundreds demonstrated outside of the Russian consulate in protest of intensified attacks by Syrian and Russian forces, which have forced tens of thousands of civilians out of Idlib, caused traffic jams on the road to Turkey, and overwhelmed aid workers, and a Liberian cargo ship ran aground near an Ottoman fortress, closing the Bosporus Strait; no one was hurt.^{6 7 8} President Erdogan, who had unveiled prototypes of a line of domestically produced electric automobiles in Gebze, repeated that his plan for a $12.6 billion, 28-mile wide canal project which, among other environmental repercussions, would destroy a third of the city’s freshwater supply, would avoid future shipping accidents.^{9 10} A police officer in Herington, Kansas, resigned after it was revealed that he was the one who wrote “fucking pig” on a coffee he had purchased from McDonald’s.¹¹

Police in Nagina, a city in western Uttar Pradesh, have been accused of torturing children as part of a larger clampdown on protests against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, which actively discriminates against Muslims.^{12 13} “They coerced us to drink water and urinate—during which they’d thrash us,” said one 17-year-old who was detained for three days. Public gatherings across the state were banned by law enforcement following the interfaith demonstrations, and its government issued at least 230 notices for repayment of damages during the protests under threat of repossession of property, primarily to Muslim residents.^{14 15} At least 19 people have been killed in Uttar Pradesh, including an eight-year-old boy and a Muslim man who was smoking outside of his house, since the protests began.^{16 17} Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who has at least 140 nuclear warheads at his disposal, has condemned the destruction of property and other political parties for “telling lies and spreading misinformation.”^{18 19} Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who green-lit the development of one nuclear-powered submarine at the start of his term, removed disciplinary detention for military police and firefighters.^{20 21} Joe Biden, formerly the vice president of a country with at least 6,185 nuclear warheads, reasserted that he would not testify in the Senate impeachment hearings of Donald Trump; later that day, at a campaign stop in Fairfield, Iowa, Biden said that he “would obey any subpoena that was sent to me.”^{22 23}

A candidate for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party cosplayed as a character from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion at the Taiwan Grand Triumph concert, and a board of education member in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and his wife were arrested after the couple dressed up as a police officers and attempted to kidnap a man at gunpoint.^{24 25} The chocolate manufacturer Hershey’s announced that the company would retire its Kissmobile.²⁶ “It has become increasingly difficult to safely maintain the Kissmobiles due to their aging condition and the increasing difficulty sourcing suitable replacement parts for these custom vehicles,” a spokesman said. A Massachusetts woman crashed her car into a Stop & Shop, and an investigation revealed that an Amazon executive was killed when she collided with a van that was delivering Amazon packages.^{27 28} President Trump, who jokingly accused Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau of cutting his cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York for a recent CBC rebroadcast of the 1992 film, accused Iran of backing an attack on the U.S. embassy that left one American contractor dead.^29 30 The city of Sydney announced that, despite a total fire ban and temperatures ranging between 95 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit, its New Year’s Eve fireworks display would go on as planned.³¹ Police departments around the United States requested that guns not be fired at the stroke of midnight.³²—Violet Lucca