"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller
In the week we were shown light at the end of the long, dark tunnel we currently find ourselves in, events around the world continued to happen at a blistering pace.
Having announced the end of lockdown restrictions, Boris visited a secondary school and gave us our moment of the week:
“…the trouble is that you sometimes find yourself always abusing people or attacking people”. Usually ethnic minorities in your case, Prime Minister…
In other xenophobic news, king of the racists Nigel Farage made headlines this week after claiming that 12 asylum seekers who arrived in Dover “all tested positive” for COVID-19. The Home Office, which (aside from Priti Patel) is now my favourite government department, replied with a blunt and brutal statement that read, “This is incorrect. None of these 12 people tested positive for Covid-19”. Brilliant stuff.
In Exeter, an unexploded WWII Hermann bomb was discovered just outside the university campus, forcing the evacuation of around 2600 properties. When the bomb was detonated, one student commented, “Rah, that noise reminds me of my gap yah in Thailand. Did I ever tell you about that?”.
In the courts this week, it was decided that Shamima Begum cannot return to the UK to face trial, after she left in 2015 to join ISIS. The ruling essentially revokes her British citizenship, which, according to British and international law, is illegal, given this renders her effectively stateless. It is a highly complex and controversial case, and one which I will be revisiting soon.
Over in the US Supreme Court, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump’s efforts to shield his tax returns have been rejected, allowing a prosecutor to obtain the records. As the legal investigations start to rack up against him, we can only hope that they nail him down well enough that he can’t buy his way out.
Also in the States this week, the current President took his first military action since taking office, retaliating against Shia militia groups in Syria, who claimed responsibility for attacks on US facilities in the region. Pax Americana at its finest…
Elsewhere in the Middle East, a US intelligence report found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Naturally, the claim was denied by the Saudis, who are, of course, famed for their spotless human rights record.
In Qatar, The Guardian reported this week that some 6500 migrant workers have died in the construction of stadiums for the upcoming 2022 football World Cup in the country. The FIFA executives who were ‘persuaded’ to vote for Qatar as the host have the blood of those workers on their hands.
And finally, in the most ridiculous new of the week, Potato Head (formerly Mr Potato Head) is now gender neutral, as decided by the toy’s makers Hasbro. In what is blatantly a bullshit corporate PR stunt, it serves only to undermine the nonbinary community, by trivialising their experience and drawing unnecessary negative attention. This is the kind of ‘socially responsible’ nonsense that corporations try and use as their claim to liberal values. It’s a fucking toy, Hasbro. If you actually wanted to help nonbinary people, shove Potato Head up your arse and give some of your profits to charity instead of your executives.
#justiceforpotatohead