Weekly Review
At least 112 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops southwest of Gaza City as they waited for food and supplies.1 Israeli tanks reportedly drove over the wounded, adding to the death toll, and injured people were transported to hospitals on donkey carts because ambulances were unable to reach the site.2 3 Initially, Israel claimed that the dead were killed in a stampede to get food; military officials later said the army shot at Palestinians because they felt “threatened.”4 5 6 Local elections in Israel saw gains for Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right minister of national security, said that a Donald Trump presidency would be better for Israel than another term under President Joe Biden.7 8 9 Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid said Ben-Gvir’s comments proved he “does not understand foreign relations.”10 11 In Moscow, thousands of people attended the funeral of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, after his body was kept from his mother for eight days because the state had to conduct “post-mortem tests.”12 Navalny’s family struggled to find a hearse driver who would transport his body, and at least one funeral director was “forbidden” to work with them.13 At least 91 people across the country were arrested for taking part in events held to honor Navalny’s memory, and his supporters were banned from holding a public memorial.14 Navalny, whose death has been blamed on President Vladimir Putin by multiple world leaders, was buried to music from Terminator 2.15
President Biden said the U.S. would begin airdropping food and supplies to Gazans, but twice confused Gaza with Ukraine during his announcement.16 At a rally in Virginia, Trump confused Biden for former President Barack Obama for the third time in six months.17 Biden visited Brownsville, Texas, where he said he wanted to increase border agents as a “serious deterrent” for those seeking asylum in the United States.18 During his visit to the border at Eagle Pass, Texas, Trump described migrants as “fighting-age men” who looked like “warriors,” and compared illegal immigration to a “war.”19 The Supreme Court ruled that states could not remove Trump from presidential ballots, and the former president won the Republican caucuses in Idaho and Missouri, as well as the Michigan primary.20 21 A hazmat team was sent to the Florida home of Donald Trump Jr. after he received an envelope that included white powder.22 An envelope containing white powder was also sent to the judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s civil fraud case, and another envelope containing white powder was sent to the office of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.23 24 “I admit that it was a bad idea,” said a Russian expat who planned a “white party” in Sri Lanka; the event’s invitations specified a white dress code and included the line “Face control: white.”25
An electricity company in Ghana cut power to parliament during a state of the nation speech because the building hadn’t paid its bills.26 In Pennsylvania, two fire trucks collided on their way to a blaze, injuring six firefighters.27 In Ohio, two escaped police horses ran down the longest highway in the United States.28 “Go back to where you came from, please,” said a Texas police officer attempting to wrangle a herd of escaped goats.29 The U.S.’s privately built Odysseus robot snapped a leg upon its touchdown on the moon, a Tennessee convenience store clerk broke a leg trying to defend beer from a thief, and an elephant broke a tourist’s leg in India.30 31 32 A fish that measures no more than half an inch was found to produce a sound louder than an elephant, and a new species of sea slug was discovered off the coast of the United Kingdom.33 34 Two male humpback whales canoodled off the coast of Hawaii in the first instance of photographed humpback sex.35 In Ohio, a pilot drew a penis in the sky.36 —Megan Evershed
