Weekly Review

Russia launched what Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” into Ukraine from the east, south, and north.¹ “When you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime,” said Condoleezza Rice, who served as U.S. national security adviser from 2001 to 2005.² “It’s a communist country, so [Putin] can’t feed his people, so they need more farmland,” said the Republican senator Tommy Tuberville.³ “Putin ain’t woke,” said Steve Bannon to Erik Prince, who both voiced their support for the Russian president.⁴ “Go fuck yourself,” said a Ukrainian soldier stationed on Snake Island to a Russian warship; the soldier was confirmed to be alive and well by the Ukrainian navy after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed the solider and his unit fought to the death rather than surrender to the Russians.⁵ “Now, that framing is complete nonsense,” said Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia.⁶ “There’s no Nazis in power in Ukraine.” “Azov fighters of the National Guard greased the bullets with lard against the [Chechen Muslim] orcs,” tweeted the National Guard of Ukraine along with a video of far-right militia members, who frequently wear Nazi Wolfsangel insignia; Facebook lifted its ban on posts praising the Azov Battalion, which were formerly prohibited as hate speech.^{7 8} “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed,” said Ukraine’s deputy chief prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze.⁹ “But this isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades,” said a foreign correspondent reporting from Ukraine.¹⁰ “You know, this is a relatively civilized, relatively European—I have to choose those words carefully, too—city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.” “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in line with its foreign policy of neutrality, calls on both sides of the conflict to resolve the crisis through dialogue and peaceful means,” read an official statement from the Taliban.¹¹ It was reported that footage of combat in Syria, Libya, Lebanon, and Palestine had been widely shared as updates from Ukraine, and one video of the “Ghost of Kyiv,” a Ukrainian fighter pilot who has allegedly shot down six Russian planes, was taken from a video game.^{12 13}

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops fatally shot a 14-year-old Palestinian who they alleged was part of a group of people throwing firebombs at cars; Israel, which has demolished the homes of more than 1,000 Palestinians since Biden’s inauguration, has continued to withhold the bodies of nine other Palestinian children killed by its armed forces.^{14 15 16} On lands formerly inhabited by the Piscataway, Anacostan, Pamunkey, Mattapanient, Nangemeick, and Tauxehent that are currently occupied by the United States, the Supreme Court agreed to review a law that gives Native Americans preference in adoptions of Native children.^{17 18} The United Arab Emirates announced that they would purchase fighter jets from China to assist their campaign in Yemen, where an estimated 20,000 people have been displaced since the start of the year and 13 million face starvation.^{19 20 21} In Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, the journalist Fahad Shah was arrested hours after making bail for a different case with identical charges, and new reporting revealed that decades of news stories about violence in the territory have been wiped from physical and digital archives, or made unsearchable.^{22 23 24} The European Union nearly doubled its peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Bosnian Serb president, Milorad Dodik, has downplayed the severity of the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs and publicly advocated for the Serb-run part of the country to join neighboring Serbia.^{25 26} Hundreds of Libyans gathered in Tripoli to call for elections and the dissolution of the transitional government, whose head, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, has refused to cede power to his appointed successor.^{27 28} In response to angry messages sent during the trucker convoy protests, Canada’s governor general reminded citizens that she could not dissolve the federal government at their request.²⁹ “I’ll get away with it ’cause I’m white,” said a Nashville woman who was arrested by a black officer on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.³⁰

“I have the reputation of being the biggest racist in the country,” said Joe Arpaio at the America First Political Action Conference.³¹ “What are you clapping for?” Three white supremacists accused of conspiring to attack U.S. power grids pleaded guilty, and neo-Nazis stormed into a special reading of The Communist Manifesto at a library.^{32 33} The trial began for a man who allegedly refused to unclench his buttocks during a police search, and for the first time, the FDA approved a condom for anal sex.^{34 35} Scientists discovered that bees fatally, explosively ejaculate during heat waves.³⁶ The brain scan of a dying man gave credence to the notion that our lives flash before our eyes when we die.³⁷—Violet Lucca