Weekly Review
Israel’s invasion of Gaza entered its seventh week, and the UN estimated that more than 80 percent of the region’s population has now been internally displaced.1 2 Gazans who had been told by Israel to evacuate to Khan Younis were ordered to evacuate to Rafah, where an increase in air strikes was subsequently reported.3 4 The UN secretary general and the World Health Organization director general each described the Gazan health-care system as “collapsing,” the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Biden Administration was “trying to do everything” to limit civilian deaths, and the United States vetoed a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire and then approved the sale of more than 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel.5 6 7 8 9 Israeli forces blocked access to a desalination plant that had provided water for 350,000 Palestinians, assembled a system of pumps capable of moving thousands of cubic meters of seawater per hour, and then dropped leaflets over the city of Khan Younis that quoted a Qur’an verse about the coming of a Great Flood.10 11 12
House Republicans opened an investigation into Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania after accusing the presidents of the three schools of failing to address what the lawmakers called “rampant anti-Semitism” on their campuses.13 The president of Harvard said she “failed to convey” her “truth,” and the president of the University of Pennsylvania resigned.14 15 A woman in Texas who had sued the state to obtain an emergency abortion prevailed in a lower court, but a day later was blocked from having the procedure by the state Supreme Court.16 Hunter Biden was indicted on nine counts of tax evasion, and House Republicans threatened to hold the president’s son in contempt of Congress if he fails to appear at a closed-door deposition next week.17 18 A day before a scheduled court appearance at his New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump decided not to testify, issuing a statement that he had “nothing more to say”; and Trump’s campaign website began selling wrapping paper printed with the former president’s mug shot and the caption “Never Surrender!”19 20 The other candidates for the Republican nomination for president debated for a fourth time in Alabama, where the biotech businessman Vivek Ramaswamy called former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley “lipstick on a Dick Cheney,” and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called Ramaswamy “the most obnoxious blowhard in America.”21 In Rainier, Washington, a candidate for city council did not cast a ballot in his own election and then lost by one vote.22
NASA celebrated the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station, and astronauts living on board found a tomato that had been missing for more than eight months.23 24 Panera Bread was sued when a second person died after drinking its caffeinated lemonade, and an Ohio woman convicted of assault for throwing a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker was sentenced to work a fast-food job for two months.25 26 In Bologna, officials worked to secure a leaning tower, and in Nova Scotia, a 220-ton hotel was moved with the help of 700 bars of soap.27 28 Mattel released a new Barbie modeled after the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, but language on the doll’s packaging translated to “Chicken Nation.”29 A pig in New Jersey named Albert Einswine led cops on a 30-minute foot chase, and a kangaroo in Canada escaped while being transferred between zoos, hopped down a highway, evaded authorities for four days, and then punched an officer in the face.30 31 —Rachel Anne Cantor
