Weekly Review

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a report revealing that hundreds of heads of state, celebrities, religious leaders, and drug dealers have hidden their investments in property, yachts, and other assets, and that they hold massive, tax-sheltered accounts that are registered in, among other places, the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles, Dubai, Monaco, Switzerland, and South Dakota.^{1 2} “[Governor Kristi Noem] won’t allow bureaucratic red tape to get in the way of South Dakota’s sustained economic growth,” said spokesman Ian Fury, responding to reports that Noem had secured a real estate appraiser’s license for her daughter by summoning to her office the official who intended to deny the license and, the following week, having her cabinet secretary pressure the official to resign.^{3 4} Jason Ravnsborg—the South Dakota attorney general, who is investigating allegations of Noem’s abuse of power—pleaded no contest and paid $1,000 plus court fees to resolve a case concerning the death of Joseph Boever, whom Ravnsborg hit while driving at such speed that Boever’s face penetrated the windshield; Ravnsborg first reported the incident to police as his striking a deer.^{5 6} The United States, which ranked number 66 on the Global Organized Crime Index, surpassed a total of 700,000 deaths from COVID-19; a federal appeals court upheld Title 42, a provision that allows the mass expulsion of asylum seekers without due process in order to prevent people infected with COVID-19 from entering the country; and a veteran living in San Antonio authored Viaje, a book for migrant children being held in shelters.^{7 8 9 10} “The best we can do is offer them help, offer them the American dream, and that’s what the book entails,” said the author. A new study found that babies have at least 10 times more microplastic in their feces than adults do.¹¹

It was announced that pieces of a bridge on which A. A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh books, played with his son will go up for auction at the same house that sold 20 tons of the Berlin Wall.¹² A 96-year-old German woman whose trial for Nazi war crimes is being held in juvenile court was captured several hours after attempting to flee.¹³ After Emmanuel Macron described a decision to limit the number of visas granted to Algerians as a way “to annoy people” from Algeria’s ruling classes for promoting “a discourse based on a hatred of France,” the country recalled its ambassador from France and forbade French military planes from entering its airspace.^{14 15} An investigation estimated that French Catholic clergy and laypeople had sexually abused an estimated 330,000 children over the past 70 years, and a separate investigation found more than 80 incidents of sexual abuse during the World Health Organization’s response to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^{16 17} “I’m fielding calls day in, day out from farmers all over the country who are in a perilous position, where they have just got far, far too many pigs on their farm,” said the chairman of the U.K.’s National Pig Association; a nationwide pig cull looms.¹⁸ Rodrigo Duterte announced his retirement from politics as well as the candidacy of his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, in next year’s presidential election; Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the dictator who brutally ruled the Philippines for 21 years, also announced his candidacy.^{19 20 21} Lawyers requested fewer court hearings for former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she was tired; supporters of former president Donald Trump chanted “lock him up!” in reference to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; and teddy bears commemorating Angela Merkel, the soon-to-be ex-chancellor of Germany, sold out.^{22 23 24}

A clown shortage was reported in Northern Ireland.²⁵ “A clown actually can be the loneliest place because you’re in there on your own and you have to be able to read your audience, in a short couple of minutes you have to be able to get a rapport going with them and interact and feed off them,” said David Duffy, the owner of a circus. The International Chess Federation drew criticism after partnering with the makers of Motiva, a brand of breast implant, in “the first-ever corporate sponsorship agreement specifically aimed at supporting women’s chess events.”²⁶ It was revealed that police found 26 special-operations soldiers hiding in an airplane hangar after a sword-wielding ninja attacked them, and activists filmed Senator Kyrsten Sinema washing her hands as they told her about the deportation of a protester’s grandfather.^{27 28} Scientists found that Glastonbury festivalgoers who used MDMA, cocaine, and other drugs and then urinated into the Whitelake River have endangered eels and other wildlife.²⁹ In Middlesex, New Jersey, a man confessed to the interstate sale of carvings made from sperm-whale ivory.³⁰ In Turkey, a man who had been out drinking with friends joined a search party that was looking for him.³¹ “Don’t punish me too harshly, officer. My father will kill me,” he told rescue workers.—Violet Lucca