Following months of protests prompted by his refusal to leave office and his employment of gangs to support his rule, President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was assassinated at home by a group of 26 Colombians and 2 Haitian Americans posing as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.1 2 3 The United States—which replaced Haiti’s democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide with a Florida man in 2004; illegally excluded major parties from Haiti’s 2009 parliamentary election; interfered in Haiti’s 2010 election and then removed an OAS observer who objected; and declared support for President Michel Martelly, even after he had to rule by decree following a low-turnout, sham election in 2015—has sent a group of government officials to assist with the murder investigation.4 5 6 Claude Joseph, the acting prime minister of Haiti who also claims he is the new president, requested that U.S. troops act as a peacekeeping force in the country; the Pentagon has not made a decision.7 8 “Maybe I don’t say no enough,” Kamala Harris said when asked whether she had been given too many responsibilities by Joe Biden.9 The president called protests in Cuba—spurred by a lack of food, medicine, and other essential items that are extremely difficult to obtain because of the 63-year-long U.S. embargo—a “clarion call for freedom.”10 Fifteen tons of dead fish washed ashore in Florida’s Tampa Bay after a red tide.11
“We are there because we were asked to be,” said President Emmanuel Macron of France while addressing the removal of more than 2,000 troops from countries across the Sahel; Macron also vowed that France would never abandon Africa.12 In anticipation of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized more provinces, and a retirement ceremony was held for Austin S. Miller, a former member of Navy SEAL Team 6 who was the top commander in charge of U.S. and NATO troops in the country.13 “It’s not the end of the story,” said General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., one of the two high-ranking U.S. military officials who will be assuming Miller’s duties. “It’s the end of a chapter.” A Saharan dust plume reached Texas, and a military jury sentenced a Marine to six months in prison and 90 days of hard labor for strangling a Green Beret to death while attempting to take sexually compromising photos of the victim as part of a hazing ritual in Mali.14 15 The Ukrainian military defended its requirement that female soldiers march in high heels.16 The European Commission spoke out against a law signed by Vladimir Putin that will require all French champagne to be labeled “sparkling wine.”17 After seven years, Remington released pretrial data to the families of Sandy Hook victims that included thousands of irrelevant materials such as cartoons, stock images, gender-reveal videos, and duplicate photographs of dirt bikes.18 A 53-year-old Japanese woman was arrested for shooting a water pistol at the Olympic torch in protest of the games.19 South Korea forbade gyms from playing music faster than 120 beats per minute in group workout classes.20
Tickets for a punk show to be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the small business in Philadelphia where Rudy Giuliani hosted a press conference contesting the ballot-counting process after the 2020 presidential election, sold out in 17 minutes.21 President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines announced that he was seriously considering running for vice president in the country’s upcoming election.22 In Uttar Pradesh, the state home to India’s largest Muslim population, the BJP proposed a two-child policy, and a mother beat her son and daughter-in-law with a shoe as they sat atop a large rotating lotus at their wedding ceremony.23 24 25 Professors at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea invented a toilet that converts feces into an energy source and rewards defecators with 10 units of digital currency, a new study showed that fish exposed to human waste can become addicted to meth, and football-size goldfish were discovered in Minnesota waterways.26 27 28 It was reported that a former Survivor contestant who finished 13th is employed by the conservative organization Project Veritas to act as a honeypot for Democratic aides.29 An Iowa man accused of running guns and ammunition to Chicago proposed to his girlfriend when she came to pick him up from jail, and a Michigan man found 160 bowling balls manufactured in the 1950s beneath his house.30 31 A woman was bound and gagged with duct tape on an American Airlines flight after she attempted to open the plane’s front door mid-flight.32 After returning to earth, the billionaire Richard Branson wished fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos well on his upcoming spaceflight.33—Violet Lucca
