Weekly Review
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s terms for the release of 136 kidnapped Israelis and reiterated his opposition to the prospect of a Palestinian state.1 2 “In the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea,” Netanyahu said.3 Israeli ground forces desecrated at least 16 cemeteries, disinterred Palestinian cadavers, and appeared to set up military outposts in what the IDF said was an effort to locate the remains of hostages; they failed to locate any.4 In the West Bank, an off-duty Israeli soldier shot and killed a Palestinian American teenager for what Israeli officials cited as his “purportedly engag[ing] in rock-throwing activities.”5 Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a resolution stipulating investigation into human rights abuses before additional U.S. aid is disbursed to Israel; the measure was rejected.6 7 Scores of Palestinians fled Nasser Medical Center in Khan Younis, Gaza, where some 7,000 people were believed to be sheltering, as the IDF bombarded and converged on its grounds; the hospital, the largest remaining facility of its kind, had been operating at 300 percent capacity.8 9 10 A coordinator for Doctors Without Borders called Gaza’s public health status “catastrophic”; the organization has been unable to deliver aid to the north of Gaza since November, and its requests to access areas throughout the Strip have often been declined or unanswered.11
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman signed a deal to write a memoir about his experience with depression; the book is to be titled Unfettered.12 New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that an account from his memoir, titled Don’t Let It Happen, in which he aimed and fired a gun at a crowd in a school demonstration, never happened.13 “The co-author of the book may have misunderstood,” Adams said; the book does not credit a co-author.14 Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, terminated his campaign for the Republican nomination for president and endorsed former President Donald Trump.15 “He’s probably finished. Sad. May he rest in peace,” Trump said the day before DeSantis’s concession.16 Because of new rules within the Democratic National Convention, President Joe Biden’s name did not appear on the ballot for the New Hampshire state primary, voters in the state had to write in his name to vote for him, and the co-chairs of the DNC dismissed the contest as “meaningless.”17 18 Trump submitted a brief to the Supreme Court for the hearing that will determine if his name will be listed on election ballots; his case rests on the president’s not being an “officer of the United States,” the brief said.19 The Supreme Court agreed to hear Starbucks’s challenge to a ruling requiring the retailer to rehire seven Tennessee employees who were fired for supporting unionization.20 Sports Illustrated announced impending layoffs to the majority of its staff; the Los Angeles Times detailed plans to lay off a “significant” number of its writers; and Pitchfork, in a merger with GQ, laid off members of its workforce.21 22 23
Iceland’s recent volcanic eruption marked a “new chapter” of seismic activity. “A daunting period of upheaval has begun,” said the country’s president.24 Scientists predicted occurrences of earthquakes in most American states over the next century, the Federal Emergency Management Agency unveiled plans to better facilitate payouts to survivors of disasters, and DeSantis said that the media was wrong to blame former President George W. Bush for his handling of Hurricane Katrina.25 26 “Do not rely on FEMA,” he said.27 The National Football League’s Buffalo Bills paid volunteers $20 per hour to shovel snow from the field and stadium in advance of their game against the Kansas City Chiefs; the team lost by three points.28 29 A heat-stricken Jack Draper retched courtside during his first-round match at the Australian Open; he defeated his opponent in five sets.30 “I think we’re getting close to the expiration of pickleball,” said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.31 32 —Lake Micah
