Weekly Review

In the greatest challenge to President Vladimir Putin during his two decades in power, mercenaries from the Wagner Group, who have fought alongside Russian troops in the invasion of Ukraine, seized a military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and began a march to Moscow, demanding the firing of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.^{1 2 3 4} “If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything,” said the Wagner Group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog vendor who had previously described top military officials as “fucking bitches” who “will fucking eat [fallen soldiers’] guts in fucking hell!”^{5 6 7} Less than 24 hours after the crisis began, the Wagner fighters-for-hire halted their march when Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal in which charges against Prigozhin would be dropped in exchange for his entering exile in Belarus, the participating Wagner forces would not be prosecuted, and the Wagner fighters who did not take part would be offered contracts with the Russian defense ministry.⁸ “The conversation was hard, and as I was told, masculine,” said a Belarusian analyst of talks between Lukashenko and Prigozhin.⁹ “They immediately blurted out such vulgar things it would make any mother cry.” “The state of Israel is a state of law. The citizens are all obligated to respect the law,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced plans to build 1,000 new homes in the West Bank.¹⁰ Former U.S. president Donald Trump claimed that papers that he had described as “like, highly confidential,” which he showed to a book publisher, were actually news clippings.¹¹ It was revealed that Prince Harry had hoped to do a podcast with Trump and Putin in which they discussed childhood trauma.¹²

Following the deaths in the Mediterranean Sea of approximately 500 migrants who were attempting to escape Pakistan, Syria, and Egypt after their overcrowded ship, the Adriana, capsized and sank, the Greek coast guard came under scrutiny for not attempting to rescue the fishing boat.^{13 14} Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose anti-migrant stance bolstered his latest election victory, blamed smugglers, whom he referred to as “wretched…scum.”¹⁵ Following a loss of contact with the submersible’s mother ship, the U.S. Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, U.S. Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, a French rescue team, and private vessels searched for the Titan, which was carrying five people, three of whom had paid the deep-sea exploration company OceanGate $250,000 each to visit the wreckage of the Titanic.^{16 17 18} Rescuers scoured an area twice the size of Connecticut and 2.5 miles deep for the craft, which had not been certified as safe and had drawn warnings from more than three dozen industry leaders, explorers, and oceanographers, and was piloted by OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, an American millionaire who had said, “at some point, safety is pure waste.”^{19 20 21 22} After four days, debris from the Titan was found and it was concluded that the vessel had suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing everyone aboard, including Rush, who had written, “We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult.”23 24 “Our hearts are with these five souls,” wrote OceanGate in a statement.²⁵

A Des Moines meteorologist resigned after receiving death threats for his coverage of climate change.²⁶ Six days after the Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a repeal of rules requiring rest breaks and water for construction workers, a utility lineman died of heatstroke.²⁷ After Australia vetoed plans for a Russian embassy in Canberra, a man believed to be a Russian diplomat was found squatting on the construction site.²⁸ It was reported that a Harvard researcher who studied dishonesty had been accused of fabricating data.²⁹ FedEx was accused of odometer fraud, and it was revealed that Boeing had charged the military nearly $52,000 for a trash can.^{30 31} A South Korean teen who tried to open the emergency door of an airplane while it was in flight was lassoed by crew, and a Nashville woman was reported to have found an adult stranger sleeping between her children in their short-term rental.^{32 33} An Indianapolis man accused of robbing a woman and forcing her to add him on Facebook was reported to have later asked her on a date.³⁴ Psychologists found that partnered sex improves sleep but that masturbation doesn’t.³⁵ An Ohio bill to ban spousal rape remained stuck in committee.³⁶ “I don’t think it’s a good idea. But I don’t think I want to vote to stop it,” the Delaware speaker of the house was reported to have said about a proposal to let corporations vote.³⁷ “She has genuinely been a nasty little bitch to me,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene while explaining why she called her fellow Freedom Caucus member Lauren Boebert “a little bitch” on the floor of the House of Representatives.^{38 39} Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agreed to a cage fight.⁴⁰ —Jon Edelman