Weekly Review
At least 100 masked Israeli settlers entered the village of Jit in the West Bank, where they burned homes, threw Molotov cocktails at cars, and shot at Palestinians, killing one man and critically injuring another.1 2 “The fact that soldiers are not given backing to shoot stone-throwing terrorists leads to incidents like this evening’s,” said the Israeli Minister of Defense Itamar Ben-Gvir.3 “Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else,” wrote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement, saying he was taking the riots “seriously.”4 One resident of Jit who was sprayed with tear gas and whose car was torched by settlers said that the army arrived an hour after the attack began and “took their time,” letting the settlers “do whatever they wanted.”5 In New York, pro-Palestine protesters demonstrated at a rally for Kamala Harris; “Hold onto all the anger until after November,” said Mayor Eric Adams, describing the American election as “the real fight.”6 Columbia University’s president, Minouche Shafik, resigned over her handling of campus protests for Gaza and was immediately hired by the British government to work on “international development”; and the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, and the University of South Florida passed new “guidelines” for protests that include curfews, bans on encampments, and rules around how long a poster may stay up.7 8 9 “It is an extremely concerning assault on the First Amendment,” said the lawyer for a New York photojournalist who was arrested on hate crime charges for filming pro-Palestine demonstrators and whose home was twice raided by police.10 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra canceled a pianist’s show after its premiere because he introduced a piece titled “Witness,” originally composed as a tribute to the Palestinian press, by saying that more than 100 Palestinian journalists have so far been killed by the Israeli military; the MSO said that it “does not condone the use of our stage as a platform for expressing personal views.”11 12 13
Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose 49-day premiership was outlived by a head of iceberg lettuce, alleged that a group of “far-left activists” had “suppress[ed] free speech” after they unveiled a poster of the victorious vegetable behind her during a stop on her pro-Trump speaking tour.14 Donald Trump described himself as a “really smart guy” at a rally in Pennsylvania, a British pro-foxhunting group announced that they were seeking legal recognition for hunters as an “ethnic minority,” and an Arizona court ruled that fetuses can be called “unborn human beings” on ballot leaflets ahead of a state referendum on whether abortion should be constitutionally protected.15 16 17 In Russia, a woman was jailed for 12 years for donating $51 to a charity supporting Ukraine; in Iowa, a man shot his father in the face after they argued about the shooter’s “stinky feet”; and in Detroit, a judge forced a 16-year-old girl to wear handcuffs and a jail uniform and asked her peers to decide whether she should be sent to juvenile detention after she seemingly fell asleep in his courtroom during a recreational field trip.18 19 20 “I am ashamed to have witnessed this situation,” said a Turkish politician following a bloody brawl that embroiled dozens of the country’s parliamentarians.21
A large bust of Elon Musk was photographed being moved by a Cybertruck in Brownsville, Texas; Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a seven-foot-tall blue statue of his wife on Instagram; and Jeff Bezos took a holiday near the Spanish island of Menorca on his superyacht, which features a female figurehead that resembles his current girlfriend.22 23 24 25 26 The mayor’s office in Seville, Spain, announced that it was considering cutting off the water supply to illegal holiday homes in the city, a powerful typhoon disrupted holiday plans in Japan, and the governor of New Jersey announced a transit “fare holiday” to make up for a summer of problematic service.27 28 29 Nicole Holliday, a professor of linguistics, described Kamala Harris as “so California,” and the former U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak, who lost the premiership after his government suffered a crushing defeat last month, holidayed in the Golden State.30 31 32 “He got set free. No one got bit,” said the manager of a frozen custard shop in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, after a groundhog was found in a claw arcade game.33 —Megan Evershed
