Weekly Review
The United States and the United Kingdom launched strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen, killing five people.1 Houthi militants, who have been attacking ships they say are Israeli or heading for Israeli ports since the war began, attacked a U.S.-owned container ship; there were no injuries reported.2 The International Court of Justice heard arguments from South Africa, whose lawyers claimed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and from Israel, whose lawyers claimed that the country is acting in self-defense.3 4 5 “No one will stop us,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the war reached its 100th day, “not the Hague, not the axis of evil, and no one else.”6 Israeli forces killed five Palestinians, at least three of whom were children, in the West Bank.7 Two Palestinians rammed a car into a crowd in Ra’anana, Israel; one person was killed and 17 more were injured.8 Six members of the activist group Palestine Action were arrested for attempting to disrupt the London Stock Exchange, and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that federal employees who walk out of their jobs in protest of the war in Gaza deserve to be fired.9 10 It was reported that Germany’s far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland, met with other far-right extremists and neo-Nazis to discuss a “masterplan” for mass deportations should the party come into power.11
A cyclone hit Mauritius, a volcano erupted in Iceland, and at least four people were killed in severe storms in the southeastern United States.12 13 14 More than 100 million people in the U.S. were under windchill alerts, and nearly 80 percent of the country experienced temperatures below freezing.15 It was reported that a church in Illinois was fined for sheltering people overnight, a pastor in Ohio was arraigned for opening his church to the homeless, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in a case on whether cities can punish people for sleeping on public land.16 17 18 Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses, and Vivek Ramaswamy endorsed Trump’s run after dropping out of the race.19 20 “It’s time to leave this country and go very far away,” said a TV producer after being held at gunpoint by men who broke into her studio in Ecuador during a live broadcast; shortly thereafter, the president declared “war” on the country’s drug gangs.21 22 The musician Jelly Roll testified in Congress in support of an anti-fentanyl bill that would enforce financial sanctions against drug traffickers, an FDA review found that marijuana should be reclassified as a lower-risk drug, and a man who had been brought back to life twice over the past two months was arrested in connection with a drug-related death.23 24 25 Tunnels were discovered beneath a Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn; a rabbi called the group of men who had dug the illegal structures and later clashed with police “rogue, and, frankly, unwell youths.”26
An Italian minister was accused of possessing a painting stolen from a castle, and two British men who robbed a Swiss museum of Chinese Ming dynasty-era artifacts told a court in Geneva they did it to clear a debt.27 28 “I do feel bad about this,” said an Englishman who posed as the CEO of a Thai company that defrauded investors out of more than one billion dollars in exchange for roughly $5,000 and a free suit.29 A macaque monkey ripped up a woman’s passport in Bali, a crowd of people chased a macaque monkey into a laundry room in Puerto Rico, and an invasive macaque monkey population in Florida tested positive for herpes.30 31 32 EBay will be forced to pay $3 million to a couple who wrote a newsletter critical of the company after its employees sent them live cockroaches, live spiders, a fetal pig, a bloody pig mask, and a funeral wreath.33 34 Kim Jong Un may have turned forty.35 —Megan Evershed
