Weekly Review

“I am not considering [a] $50,000 debt reduction,” said President Biden on the subject of student loan debt; later, the president asked Congress for $33 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine, a figure that is more than half the State Department and USAID’s respective annual budgets.^{1 2} A report found that successful federal prosecutions of corporations have reached a record low during the Biden Administration, a continuation of their decline during Trump’s tenure.³ A civil rights probe into the Minneapolis Police Department revealed that prosecutors have difficulty using body cam footage in court as evidence because officers so frequently say offensive and disrespectful things to suspects, witnesses, and bystanders.⁴ In the first court-martial and conviction of a general in U.S. Air Force history, William T. Cooley was sentenced to a reprimand and five months’ docked pay for forcibly kissing a woman, and Hassan bin Attash, who is the youngest person in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and has never been charged with a crime, was cleared for release after 20 years behind bars; bin Attash will remain in Cuba until the United States can find a country that will accept him.^{5 6} It was reported that Iran’s capital punishment count increased by 25 percent to 333 people in 2021, the former head of the Oklahoma Republican Party called for the execution of Anthony Fauci by firing squad, and the Oklahoma Election Board ruled that a lawmaker cannot use the moniker “The Patriot” on the ballot.^{7 8 9} Madison Cawthorn, a congressman from North Carolina, was stopped at an airport in possession of a loaded gun for the second time, and an American family nearly caused an evacuation of Tel Aviv’s busiest airport when authorities discovered an unexploded shell from the Golan Heights in their luggage.^{10 11}

Claiming it was in the interest of national security, federal prosecutors in Miami sealed evidence about the activities of former FBI and DEA informants who are suspects in the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s former president.¹² German, Austrian, and Italian energy companies agreed to pay for Russian oil and gas in rubles.¹³ A report found that the climate crisis is forcing wild mammals to find new habitats, increasing the risk of novel virus transmission to humans.¹⁴ A Bogotá suburb was beset by noxious foam overflowing from a polluted river, and it was reported that Freshii, a Canadian fast-casual restaurant, implemented a video cashier system that enables the company to outsource labor to countries with lower wages; one Nicaragua-based employee earns $3.75 per hour.^{15 16} Italy’s highest court ruled that children born there can take their mother’s and father’s last names at birth, Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked and revealed that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, and a Turkish court upheld a public office’s refusal to register the common Kurdish name “Ciwan,” which contains the non-Turkish letter w.^{17 18 19} “The ideas we represent have reached new heights,” Marine Le Pen told supporters about her performance in the second round of France’s presidential election.²⁰ “This result itself represents a brilliant victory.” “Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy,” Elon Musk tweeted at Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, in response to the congresswoman’s concerns over the Tesla CEO’s acquisition of Twitter. Citing its own unpublished research, the British Foreign Office said that Russia was spreading misinformation with a large-scale troll farm.^{21 22}

It was reported that a New York City subway conductor stopped to let a chicken cross the tracks and that San Francisco is disseminating liquid birth control in city parks to curb its rat population.^{23 24} Fearing her fourth feline expropriation by landlords, a woman in Wales married her cat.²⁵ The actor Alan Cumming offered a $10,000 reward for information about the chimpanzee who co-starred with him in the 1997 comedy Buddy.²⁶ “You don’t know me, I got your number from a Facebook group, but I need you to go to the airport to rescue my bees,” a woman in Alaska texted an apiarist outside Atlanta, after thousands of her bees were flown to Georgia by mistake.²⁷ A study revealed that honeybees are the only non-human animals that can distinguish between odd and even numbers.²⁸ “Methamphetamine does not discriminate and neither do we,” a Florida sheriff posted on Facebook after his office charged his daughter with trafficking meth.²⁹ New York University threatened to delay degree issuance to students who scalp tickets for Taylor Swift’s commencement address.³⁰ The Canadian parliament considered legislation to punish astronauts for crimes committed on the moon.³¹ —Sam Needleman