Sleeping Astronauts and the Week’s Other Big Stories

In the past seven days, a British politician threatened to go to war with Spain over Gibraltar, Republicans in the US threatened to go “nuclear” and force through the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch, and Pepsi threatened to offend everyone’s sensitivities with a deeply unpleasant ad campaign. In short: it was a strange, violent week. But all of that was overshadowed by the US airstrike on Syria, a response to the chemical attack on civilians earlier in the week, which has been linked to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

It can be hard to sift through the bombast, the threats, and the unsettling headlines, so here is a helpful roundup of everything worth remembering from the week.

Trump This Week

An awkward double date Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, and given Trump’s earlier criticism of China, the summit may have been a little tense. Melania was there too, in a rare public appearance with her husband.

North Korea has behaved very badly. For many years they have been “playing” the United States. China has done little to help!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2017

Syria strikes The China summit was overshadowed by news that President Trump had authorized airstrikes on Syria. The strike divided Democrats and Republicans and was a response to a suspected chemical attack on Tuesday in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. At least 70 people, including children, died, and the attack was widely blamed on the Syrian government. Trump called the strike a “blatant affront to humanity” and added, “When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, little babies... that crosses... many, many lines.”

In and out Keeping track of the comings and goings inside the White House has become almost impossible. Controversial former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon lost his seat on the National Security Council, a post many critics thought he should never have held in the first place. House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has temporarily stepped back from the investigation into alleged Russian hacking. He is facing mounting criticism over his handling of the issue and is now also under investigation by the House ethics committee.

Not everyone in Trump’s world had a bad day, however. Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court after Republicans went “nuclear” and lowered the number of votes needed to approve his nomination from 60 to 51.

Black Lives Matter

I submitted this answer on my @Stanford application and, yesterday, I got in...#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/R5YxM77bWL

— Ziad Ahmed (@ziadtheactivist) April 1, 2017

How to get into Stanford How would you answer Stanford University’s application question, “What matters to you, and why?” Eighteen-year-old Ziad Ahmed decided to take a different approach: he wrote the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter 100 times. His bold attempt worked, and to his surprise, he was admitted to the prestigious university. You might wonder how he managed it, after all, Stanford is hard to get into, but Ziad’s strong record clearly played a major role in his admission. He had met Hillary Clinton, founded his own international organization, Redefy, and been invited to the White House. Not bad for a teenager.

How not to make an ad Kendall Jenner and Pepsi came under heavy fire on social media for Pepsi’s latest ad, which was pulled on Wednesday. The ad borrowed from the #BlackLivesMatter movement and even suggested that police brutality and violence could be solved with a can of Pepsi. As if that were not enough cultural appropriation for one week, Kendall Jenner then thought it would be a good idea to share a “throwback” photo of braids with her sister Kylie. Honestly, these people. *shakes head

Big Brother Is Watching You

An Orwellian nightmare India is now requiring all 1.2 billion of its citizens to register for the national identity scheme, which critics say will have serious implications for security, surveillance, and civil privacy. Aadhaar was first launched in 2009 as a voluntary identification system designed to help the government combat identity fraud, and it is now widely used for banking, benefits claims, internet services, international travel, and marriage registration.

Sleeping in Space

Get paid to lie in bed for two months This may sound like a dream job for lazy students: scientists at the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology in Toulouse are looking for 24 young, healthy men (sorry, ladies) to spend 60 days in bed in order to study the effects of virtual weightlessness. The pay is 16,000 euros. Tempted? Note that you will be required to eat, wash, and carry out all bodily functions in bed.