Weekly Review

Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless New Yorker whose mother was murdered and then stuffed into a suitcase by her boyfriend in 2007, was murdered aboard an F train by Daniel J. Penny, a 24-year-old former Marine, after Neely threw his jacket down and shouted that he was hungry, thirsty, and tired of having nothing, and allegedly threw trash at fellow riders.^{1 2} Penny held Neely in a choke hold, a move banned or restricted by most U.S. police departments, for about 15 minutes while other straphangers watched; two other men helped pin Neely down.^{3 4 5 6} Police arrested then freed Penny without charges, and only released Penny’s veteran status, not his name, to the public after the incident.⁷ “I’m going to refrain from commenting any further,” said Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer who implemented a measure that allows cops to involuntarily hospitalize anyone they deem mentally ill and proposed closing public libraries on Saturdays in order to fund a budget shortfall created by stationing police inside subway stops.^{8 9 10} “There had to be consequences,” said Kathy Hochul, who governs a state with 135 billionaires, the second-largest population of billionaires in the United States, and nearly 92,000 unsheltered people on any given night.^{11 12 13} The house of Jair Bolsonaro, who once claimed that COVID-19 immunizations would turn Brazilians into crocodiles, was raided as part of an investigation into forged vaccine cards that may have helped him enter the United States.¹⁴ The Biden Administration announced the end of most federal coronavirus vaccine requirements, and patients in a long COVID study at Stanford were reported to have dropped out after staff members stopped wearing masks.^{15 16} The CDC investigated an outbreak of COVID cases tied to its annual conference in Atlanta and announced that the coronavirus had dropped to the fourth leading cause of death in the United States last year, just behind shootings.^{17 18} In Texas, at least eight people were fatally shot at a mall in Allen, and eight people were killed after a man drove his Range Rover into a crowd who were standing near a center that assists asylum-seekers in Brownsville.^{19 20} Lawyers for the board of the school where a first-grade teacher was shot by her student were criticized for claiming that the teacher’s wounds were a “workplace injury.”²¹ A 20-year-old Missourian was charged with the murder of a man who laugh-reacted to a photo he had posted on Facebook.²²

King Charles III of the United Kingdom was formally invested with his regal powers in a ritual dating back to the eighth century, during which he received two scepters and a golden orb from the 17th century, sat on a chair from the 13th century, and was anointed with oil using a 12th century spoon.^{23 24} In an effort to make the occasion more modern and inclusive, Charles, who as part of the ceremony swore that all future kings would be Protestant, included leaders from other faiths and invited common folk to join in pledging their allegiance to him, an offer that more than 85 percent of people polled said they would reject.^{25 26} It was reported that the coronation would cost roughly $125 million in public money, and the head of the London stock exchange called for bosses to be paid more.^{27 28} “Among the very rich is a higher percentage of unpleasant and not very attractive people,” said the president of Bard College, defending his attempts to raise funds from Jeffrey Epstein.²⁹ A report from Amnesty International revealed that Israel has increasingly been using AI-powered facial recognition to restrict the movements of Palestinians, and Amnesty International was criticized for using AI-generated images, purportedly of protests, to promote its reports on social media.^{30 31} After workers at an eating disorder helpline unionized, they were replaced by a chatbot, and a study was reported to have found ChatGPT’s answers to medical questions more empathetic than those of doctors.^{32 33} Scientists announced that the supply of research monkeys is nearing a crisis point and that giraffes are capable of reasoning with statistics.^{34 35} A study found that 44 percent of U.S. residents cannot name a famous living Asian American.³⁶

A Canadian who opened the Drugs Store, a shop selling untainted heroin, cocaine, and meth, was arrested after less than 24 hours.³⁷ Pornhub blocked all users from Utah in protest of an age-verification law, and searches for VPNs from the state spiked.^{38 39} A Minnesota state lawmaker cast a vote over Zoom while shirtless in front of a Schoolhouse Rock–themed background.⁴⁰ The North Dakota state legislature accidentally passed the wrong version of a budget bill, and the Oregon GOP blocked votes on proposals concerning abortion, gun control, and gender-affirming healthcare by arguing that the text was at too high a reading level.^{41 42} “Oh, I was just kidding, anyway,” said a Texas woman who finished her shopping after her efforts to rob a grocery store with a knife were rebuffed by a clerk.⁴³ It was reported that a South Korean art student had eaten a ripe banana that had been taped to a museum wall as part of an installation.⁴⁴ “Damaging an artwork could also be seen as an artwork,” he said. A semitruck crashed in Florida, releasing one million bees.⁴⁵ It was reported that an estimated 500 pounds of pasta had been dumped near a stream in New Jersey, and the U.S. Postal Service released a Strega Nona forever stamp.^{46 47} South Africa’s only machine for making driver’s licenses was revealed to have been out of order since April, and Hamas stopped accepting donations in Bitcoin.^{48 49} The public defender of a man accused of having sex with a horse while standing on a five-gallon bucket and feeding it apples was reported to have argued for lower bond.⁵⁰ “He is as low-risk as anybody could possibly come,” she said. “He has stable housing.” —Jon Edelman