Weekly Review

The Israeli government launched dozens of airstrikes on Gaza, killing at least 212 Palestinians, and Hamas launched several thousand rockets on Israel, killing at least 10 Israelis, as violence prompted in part by a police raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem broke out across the region.^{1 2 3} Israel destroyed a 12-story tower that housed Associated Press and Al Jazeera offices, claiming that the building was also used by Hamas intelligence.⁴ The AP said that there was “no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building,” Al Jazeera described the attack as “a clear act to stop journalists from conducting their sacred duty to inform the world and report events on the ground,” and Reporters Without Borders called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the bombing as a potential war crime.^{5 6 7} The Biden Administration approved the sale of $735 million in weapons to Israel and voiced support for the country’s “right to defend itself”; the United States blocked several UN Security Council statements condemning Israel’s actions; Instagram and Twitter blamed technical glitches for the removal of posts and accounts documenting the eviction of Palestinians; and graffiti at Bates College in Maine that read, in part, stop ethnic cleansing, was being investigated as a hate crime.^{8 9 10 11} A Virginian was seen filling water bottles with gasoline, a Georgian was caught siphoning fuel out of UHauls with a drill, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned people to “not fill plastic bags with gasoline” following a ransomware attack by the DarkSide that disabled an oil pipeline that supplies the East Coast with nearly half of its gasoline.^{12 13 14 15 16} “Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for society,” the hacker group posted after receiving the equivalent of $5 million in bitcoin as ransom.¹⁷ State legislators in Texas proposed a bill mandating a minimum of $250 in annual fees for owners of electric cars.¹⁸ Chick-fil-A began rationing dipping sauces amid a nationwide shortage.¹⁹

Engineers in San Francisco were attempting to silence a loud hum emitted by the Golden Gate Bridge that could be heard 10 miles away.²⁰ Indian officials installed a net in the Ganges to catch the bodies of COVID-19 victims, hundreds of whom have been cast into the river or buried in shallow graves because of overcrowding in crematoriums, and a 76-year-old Indian woman who had tested positive for COVID-19 awoke just as her family was about to begin her cremation.^{21 22 23 24} A rock climber who was crushed by a boulder “the size of a refrigerator” was rescued from a region of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Utah called Certain Death, and a host on Good Morning Britain mistakenly announced that the queen was dead.^{25 26} Canadian psychologists reported that “bullshitters” are more intelligent, and Japanese researchers who discovered that mice, rats, and pigs can breathe through their anuses suggested that humans might have the same ability.^{27 28 29}

Sand samples from Cerne Abbas revealed that the chalk pictograph of a man with an enormous penis wielding a club dates to the late Saxon period.³⁰ “Formal graffiti charges” were filed against an Auckland man who drew colorful penises around potholes to highlight poor road conditions.³¹ “I’ve tried other ways, you know,” said the man. “Quite often I feel like they simply ignore me.” Indian scientists concluded that a deceased herd of 18 Asiatic elephants had been killed by lightning, and an Oklahoma woman teaching an online class was shocked after lightning struck her house and traveled through its electricity system to her laptop.^{31 32} “You wouldn’t think that a laptop would do that,” said the local fire chief. In Chicago, which has held the top ranking on Orkin’s list of America’s “rattiest” cities for six years in a row, a humane society announced that it would be releasing 1,000 feral cats to combat infestations.³³ An English veterinarian performed the first ever corneal surgery on a Sumatran tiger.³⁴ “It’s like we might do with any domestic cat,” said the doctor. “But with a lot more anesthetic.” The actor Vincent D’Onofrio confirmed that he was once mugged by a monkey, the government of the United Kingdom announced legislation formally designating certain animals as sentient, and the U.K. health minister declared that it was once again okay to hug.^{35 36 37}