Weekly Review
The Uvalde school police chief was sworn in to his new city council seat in a private ceremony one week after a school shooting that killed 19 children and two adults, and, without explanation, did not attend his first council meeting.1 A mother who, after being unhandcuffed by police, rescued her two children from Robb Elementary and then told members of the media there was no police presence inside the building, received an anonymous phone call from law enforcement threatening to charge her with a probation violation for obstruction of justice; a judge reassured her that no court would rule against her.2 3 Following public outcry over an event in Dallas, a Texas state representative announced legislation that would ban children from attending “drag shows and other inappropriate displays.”4 5 “On behalf of us all, I wanted to pay my own tribute to your lifetime of selfless service,” said Prince Charles, a friend of the deceased pedophile Jimmy Savile, during Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee celebrations; his brother Prince Andrew, a friend of the deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, did not attend the festivities, which included a hologram of the queen driven around London in a gilded coach, because he tested positive for COVID-19.6 7 8 9 10 The queen reportedly felt humbled by the cheering.11 Researchers at Cardiff University found that the shame of obtaining food bank vouchers and collecting food often dissuades the struggling from getting meals, and 17 asylum seekers at a U.K. detention center who are set to be deported to Rwanda ended their hunger strike after guards ceased providing them with sugar to put into their water.12 13 Boris Johnson, who said that cheese distracts him when he’s working at home, survived a no-confidence vote.14 15 “But what are they protecting by taking Elvis away from the public?” asked an Elvis impersonator and Las Vegas chapel owner of the recently imposed ban on unlicensed usage of “Presley’s name, likeness, voice image, and other elements of Elvis Presley’s persona in advertisements, merchandise and otherwise.”16
The United States banned Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba from the Summit of the Americas because, according to a spokesman for the State Department, they “are not exemplars, to put it mildly” of democracy; when the White House press secretary was asked if Jair Bolsonaro, an outspoken supporter of Brazil’s military dictatorship who has questioned the viability of his country’s voting system during the lead-up to this year’s presidential election, was issuing demands before agreeing to meet with Joe Biden, she responded that she could not confirm the report, but that “the United States continues to recognize Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela.”17 18 19 20 “So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” President Biden said of Elon Musk, who announced he wants to cut 10 percent of Tesla employees and may pull out of his agreement to buy Twitter because the company understates the number of bots on its site.20 21 22 23 The U.S. Embassy’s acting chargé d’affaires met with Kuwaiti officials who were prohibiting pro-LGBTQ+ tweets after the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait’s Twitter account posted “All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love.”24 “If there is something bad,” wrote Adolf Hitler to an ENT in a newly public letter, “I absolutely have to know.”25
“We think age was a contributing, if not major cause of it,” said a spokesperson for New York’s MTA of a 60-year-old subway cable that burst into flames.26 Plans to create a Taser drone were abandoned after nine members of the company’s ethics advisory board resigned in protest.27 In France, the trial began for 18 people accused of participating in a horsemeat scam.28 “Even if I admit it can’t be pleasant to learn that your horse has ended up at the abattoir, a priori, nobody died poisoned,” said a lawyer for one of the defendants. The Albany City Court was closed for fumigation after a defendant was chastised for attempting to film the trial and an audience member released hundreds of cockroaches.29 Spain banned loot boxes in video games to prevent “thoughtless, compulsive, or even pathological” behavior.30 Michigan’s correctional facilities banned Spanish and Swahili dictionaries to prevent inmates from organizing without the guards’ knowledge.31 A new study based on nighttime jellyfish censuses found that three shipwrecks that took place in the latter half of the 20th century may have contributed to an increase in their population.32
