Weekly Review

According to the French Interior Ministry and trade union leaders respectively, either 1.1 million or 3.5 million protesters flooded the streets after President Emmanuel Macron forced a law through parliament that raised the nation’s retirement age from 62 to 64.^{1 2 3} Demonstrators set over 900 fires, burning uncollected garbage, a giant wooden spool, and the door to the Bordeaux City Hall.^{4 5} King Charles III canceled a visit, and a woman reportedly had part of her hand blown off by a tear gas grenade.⁶ “Listen to the voice of your people and avoid violence against them,” advised a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Iran.⁷ In Israel, where the retirement age for men is 67, hundreds of thousands protested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to give the legislature greater control over the judiciary, and after a significant portion of the nation’s air force pilots said they would not report for duty, the defense minister called for the plan to be paused and was fired by Netanyahu.^{8 9 10 11 12} The Israeli parliament grew chaotic as its constitution committee sped through hundreds of objections with only seconds to consider each, and an opposition lawmaker compared members of the governing coalition to Minions from the Despicable Me films.¹³ Chinese officials, who have maintained a nearly decade-long ban on all social media posts about Winnie-the-Pooh after memes comparing Xi Jinping to the cartoon bear circulated online, announced that Hong Kong screenings of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey were canceled because of “technical problems.”^{14 15} An Indian parliamentarian who was a prominent opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was found guilty of defamation for a campaign speech in which he compared Modi to thieves that share his name and was sentenced to two years in prison, the minimum penalty that makes a sitting MP ineligible for office.¹⁶ The Canadian parliament adjourned because of a bad smell.¹⁷

A 65-year-old with a meth conviction and no military experience and a man who lied about  having been both a U.S. Marine and an assistant manager at LongHorn Steakhouse were revealed to be among the Americans who have volunteered to help the Ukrainian military.¹⁸ The governor of Bali was reported to have asked Indonesia to revoke Russian and Ukrainian access to its visa-on-arrival program after an increase in motorbike collisions and the desecration of sacred objects.¹⁹ It was reported that asylum seekers who complained about poor conditions in English hotels had been threatened with deportation to Rwanda, and London’s Metropolitan Police Service was found to be systematically racist, misogynistic, and homophobic.^{20 21} Uganda passed a law imposing a life sentence on anyone trying to engage in gay sex, and the death penalty on anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes same-sex acts involving children or by HIV-positive people.²² In Nebraska, a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors advanced despite a lawmaker’s three-week filibuster, which had blocked the legislature from passing any other bills.²³ “I will burn the session to the ground,” she had said.²⁴ Idaho Republicans blocked a proposal to provide free menstrual products in school bathrooms, describing it as “woke,” and Florida lawmakers considered a bill that would ban girls from talking about their periods in school before the sixth grade.^{25 26} A civil rights lecture at Eastern Florida State College was reported to have been canceled after a student felt uncomfortable, and a Florida school principal was forced to resign owing to parent complaints after students were shown Michelangelo’s David.^{27 28} Scientists predicted that a band of brown seaweed twice the width of the United States, which will release the odor of sulfur as it decays, will hit Florida in late spring.²⁹

It was reported that loyal workers are more likely to get exploited by their bosses, that sniffing body odor may help treat anxiety, and that potatoes are more effective than blood or urine for making concrete in space.^{30 31 32} A megachurch pastor in Missouri was reported to claim that he had regrown a woman’s toes through prayer.³³ “I can stand on my tippy-toes,” said the woman. “I didn’t have toes to tippy on.” A Leicester man was reported to have lost the Tesco bag containing his father’s ashes while on a pub crawl, and a man who had removed his leg, nipple, and penis appeared in Westminster court on charges of filming the castration of dozens of others.^{34 35} The CEO of the Regina, Saskatchewan, tourism agency apologized after introducing “Show Us Your Regina” as a slogan.³⁶ “The prairies are way sexier than most people make them believe,” he had said. Levi Strauss and Co. announced plans to use AI-generated avatars to increase the diversity of its models.³⁷ It was reported that two African American teenage girls from New Orleans had proved the Pythagorean theorem without using trigonometry, a goal of mathematicians for nearly 2,000 years.³⁸ A Denver high schooler who had agreed to be searched each day as part of a safety plan shot two administrators who were patting him down, and an emotional support dog for police retired after five months because of stress.^{39 40} A sheriff stopped posting mug shots online amid rumors that his daughter is under investigation, and a driver tried to use a “Get Out of Jail Free” card from Monopoly during a traffic stop.^{41 42} Two men who had tunneled out of prison using a toothbrush were found at an IHOP, and it was reported that the universe may be shaped like a doughnut, not a pancake.^{43 44} —Jon Edelman