Weekly Review
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service released a report alleging that Russia sent a forged letter from Greenland’s foreign minister to the U.S. senator Tom Cotton that appealed for financing for a referendum on independence from Denmark, a cause that earned Cotton’s support.1 2 3 “Today, we are not wise,” Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan wrote in their joint dissenting opinion after the Supreme Court struck down a regulation requiring workers at companies with 100 employees or more to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or take tests at least weekly.4 5 In New York, homeowners were protected from insurance discrimination based on the breed of their dog, and in the Twin Cities, the Progressive Insurance Minneapolis Boat Show replaced a COVID test site inside a massive convention center.6 7 Organizers in Ironbound, a neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, successfully urged Gov. Phil Murphy to delay a vote on the construction of a gas-fired power plant there.8 “We had no choice but to organize a large mobilization to send a strong message to the government,” said one of the tens of thousands of teachers in France who went on strike to protest COVID policies.9 Nearly a third of New York City public school students missed class, and in Chicago, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot is under fire for allegedly using federal COVID-19 relief funds to pay off city debt, students organized mass walkouts and a rally to protest in-person school conditions amid the omicron surge.10 11 12 13 “It is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day,” said Vice President Kamala Harris about the administration’s pandemic response.14
It was reported that Coloradans whose houses burned in the record-breaking fires in December were told by their homeowners’ association that they still owe their dues, and New York Mayor Eric Adams attributed the cause of last week’s fire in a Bronx apartment building, which killed at least 17 people, to a malfunctioning space heater, then gave $2,250 in immediate financial relief to each household in the building, enough to pay the median rent for a two-bedroom in the borough and still have $6 to spare.15 16 17 18 19 President Biden faced pressure to release the $9 billion in Afghan assets that his administration froze this summer, and the Taliban dismissed nearly 3,000 members who were “giving a bad name to the Islamic Emirate.”20 21 Sixteen top colleges and universities were sued for violating antitrust laws by colluding while determining students’ financial aid packages.22 Novak Djokovic, the highest-ranked men’s tennis player in the world, was deported from Australia after a court unanimously struck down his challenge of his visa cancelation, which was issued because of his refusal to get vaccinated.23 “The player stays and then goes, and other players are coming,” said Rafael Nadal, who is currently ranked fifth.24 25 Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin continued to stymie the modification of the filibuster, which would allow landmark voting rights legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority.26 “They do it to brag to their peers,” said a Dutch ecologist, referring to a viral photo of a goose flying upside down.27 28 “Like, look at me!”
The head of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority was killed by a train.29 Hamilton, Ontario, was covered in soybean husks after a filter at a local factory malfunctioned, the West Coast was put under a tsunami advisory, and because of a technicality in California law, Robert Durst, the real estate magnate suspected of killing multiple people close to him, had his lone murder conviction vacated after he died during the appeal process.30 31 32 33 Two Floridians were charged with burglarizing a man’s house and throwing glitter containers at him, and a woman in China destroyed 32 wedding dresses with scissors after a payment dispute.34 35 Over 20 years after the Association for Dressings and Sauces petitioned for the deregulation of French dressing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced they would revoke their official standards.36 37 The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a grant to students of Louchébem, the language of Parisian butchers that has been spoken since the 13th century, and doctors successfully transplanted a pig heart into a man who stabbed someone in the 1980s.38 39 40 “We asked for magic,” said Megan Fox, before announcing that she and her fiancé, Machine Gun Kelly, drank each other’s blood as part of their engagement.41 “Since we have inaugurated it, it will be constructed too,” said an official in Uttar Pradesh, India, referring to a rural road for which his party, the BJP, is trying to take credit even though it does not exist.42—Sam Needleman
