Weekly Review

In Gaza, at least five Palestinians were killed while attempting to access an Israeli- and U.S.-backed aid site, the latest in a string of attacks at or near aid centers.^{1 2} Greta Thunberg and other activists embarked from Catania, Italy, aboard the Madleen, a humanitarian aid vessel named after a Gazan fisherwoman, that aimed to break Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip; days later, the ship encountered thirty to forty Sudanese refugees on a deflating boat and rescued four of them who had jumped into the sea to avoid arrest; and about a week after the aid ship set sail, Israeli forces seized it and detained those onboard.^{3 4 5 6} Satellite imagery captured roughly 40 balloons of mysterious function floating around a 5,000-ton North Korean warship that capsized in late May, and a Mylar balloon caused a power outage at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport.^{7 8} The Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported due to what a senior ICE official called an “administrative error,” returned to the United States from a Salvadoran mega-prison to face criminal charges; the U.S. president deployed 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles in response to protests that erupted over citywide ICE raids; senior immigration officials ordered ICE officers to “turn the creative knob up to 11,” “push the envelope,” and to interrogate and apprehend “collaterals” during arrests; and an ethics columnist addressed the question, is it OK to earn rental income from an ICE holding facility?^{9 10 11 12} The United States instituted a travel ban to seven African nations, and a second group of white South African Afrikaners arrived under the U.S. president’s new refugee resettlement program.^{13 14} A Pentagon investigation into conspiracy theories regarding UFO programs uncovered that some theories were promoted by members of the Pentagon itself, in an attempt to cover-up real secret-weapons programs; and at least eight states have introduced legislation to investigate or mitigate chemtrails, which some conspiracy theorists believe shower toxins, perform mind control, sterilize people, and manipulate the weather.^{15 16} The World Meteorological Organization predicts that global average temperatures may reach two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for the first time within the next five years, and it was reported that Earth’s atmosphere now has more carbon dioxide in it than it has in millions of years.¹⁷ “Another year, another record,” said a professor of climate sciences. “It’s sad.”¹⁸ 

Economists questioned the integrity of U.S. inflation data after staffing shortages at the Bureau of Labor Statistics impeded its ability to conduct its massive monthly survey, and the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics admitted that its April headline inflation rate had been too high due to its receiving inaccurate road tax data from the Department for Transport.^{19 20} Following the breakdown of the U.S. president and Elon Musk’s relationship, Department of Government Efficiency employees worried about their job security; several government agencies rushed to rehire employees fired by DOGE; Tesla’s stock price dropped 14 percent in a single day; and it was reported that the president decided to sell his red Tesla Model S, which he purchased in March, and which is typically parked on West Executive Avenue at the White House.^{21 22 23 24} In suburban Detroit, employees on the beta production line of an “anti-Tesla,” Jeff Bezos-funded EV startup assembled cars to Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You” and Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”; and in Newark, the U.S. president proceeded to his cageside seats at a UFC fight as Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” played.^{25 26 27} The world’s largest arms dealer, Lockheed Martin, launched an “AI Fight Club” that simulates head-to-head matchups between AI systems; and World, an iris-scanning identification project from the OpenAI CEO, launched in London, with an orb that “confirms humanness” to help distinguish real people from AI impersonators, including those created by OpenAI’s own technology.^{28 29 30} The TSA reminded flyers that Costco Gold Star membership cards do not suffice as a form of identification; and it was reported that the U.S. president has at least two cell phones, including one whose lock-screen wallpaper is his own face.^{31 32}

The Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent purchased a nearly 10 percent stake in the South Korean agency SM Entertainment, streams of Taylor Swift’s catalogue jumped by 55 percent after she bought back her first six records, and physicists claimed to have created the world’s smallest violin.^{33 34 35} A cow attempting an escape from an Arkansas livestock auction scaled the bleachers and tore down ceiling tiles; a runaway pet zebra was located in central Tennessee and airlifted to an animal trailer; and San Diego activists protested the cruelty of goldfish races.^{36 37 38} A study deemed Llama the best AI chatbot for assessing the reliability and quality of information regarding penis enhancement, and Amsterdam’s Rijkmuseum acquired a twenty-centimeter condom dating from around 1830 that is printed with an image of a half-naked nun holding court with three men displaying erect penises and is likely made from a sheep’s appendix.^{39 40} “We suspect,” the curator said, “it was never actually used.”⁴¹  —Jasmine Liu