Trump has spent millions creating a giant swamp in DC<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a busy week for the US\u2019s birthday boy. First, there was the cage fight<\/a> on the White House lawn, in honour of the United States\u2019 250th anniversary and Donald Trump\u2019s 80th. Then, after watching sweaty men fight, the president flew to France to try to sort out<\/a> the mess he\u2019d helped create in the Middle East. I regret to inform you that despite Trump signing what Jimmy Kimmel called \u201cthe retreaty of Versailles\u201d, it does not really look<\/a> like the Iran war has been sorted out. Still, the president seems happy with himself. After Axios asked what his takeaways from the Iran war were, Trump said he believes there are \u201cno limits<\/a>\u201d to his power.<\/p>\n The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool<\/a> would beg to differ. In between the cage fights and a catastrophic war, Trump has been waging a very expensive battle with the algae in the famous monument, which was the scene of Martin Luther King\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech<\/a>. The president has spent $14.2m trying to make the \u201cfilthy\u201d and \u201cdirty\u201d pool into the resort-like water feature of his own dreams. Alas, he has proved quite powerless against the algae blooms.<\/p>\n To be fair to Trump, algae is an aggressive adversary. Ever since the Washington landmark was built in 1922, the 2,000ft reflecting pool has been plagued with leaks and algae blooms that turn the water green. There have been various attempts to fix these issues, including a $34m renovation<\/a> of the monument in 2012, during the Obama administration, but the problems keep coming back. Enter Trump, a walking case study in the Dunning-Kruger effect, who vowed to fix the problem once and for all. During an event in April, Trump explained<\/a> that he\u2019d \u201cprobably built more than 100 swimming pools\u201d and had \u201ca guy who\u2019s unbelievable at doing swimming pools\u201d. The reflecting pool is not actually a swimming pool but forget about that little detail. According to Trump, he\u2019d do what no other president had been capable of doing and clean up the whole thing in \u201ctwo weeks\u201d. He reiterated this \u201ctwo week<\/a>\u201d timeline at events on 7 May and 11 May.<\/p>\n About eight weeks later, a firm employed via a dubious no-bid contract<\/a> has painted the bottom of the pool \u201cAmerican-flag blue\u201d and turned on some nanobubblers. The renovation is over and Trump has declared victory in the Trumpiest way possible. \u201cThe advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae \u2026 ,\u201d the interior department press team wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cThe Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool \u2013 just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s Iran or a reflecting pool, Trump seems to think you can just ignore all the inconvenient facts on the ground and unilaterally declare victory. Alas, the world doesn\u2019t actually work like that. Iran is now arguably stronger than it was before Trump waged war, and the reflecting pool does not look much better than before the president started his renovations. Indeed, the pool is green again<\/a>, and peeling paint has been seen floating in the water<\/a>. The algae appear to be very much undefeated. According to the Washington Post: \u201cWithin days of the renovation\u2019s completion, the Reflecting Pool had more algae in it than at any recorded point in the month of June for at least five years<\/a>.\u201d Trump has effectively spent a lot of money creating a giant swamp in DC.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all just a little bit too on-the-nose, isn\u2019t it? There are obviously more important things going on than the president\u2019s ill-fated attempts to clean up the reflecting pool but the entire endeavor is a perfect reflection of the Trump administration\u2019s dangerous hubris.<\/p>\n Giorgia Meloni says Trump \u2018totally invented\u2019 story that she begged him for photo<\/p>\n \u201cShe wanted a picture with me so badly,\u201d Trump told the media after chatting to Italy\u2019s prime minister at a G7 summit. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.\u201d Meloni, who was once a big Trump fan, is fuming<\/a> about these remarks, and the Italian foreign minister announced he was cancelling a planned visit to the US next week.<\/p>\n Japanese mayor takes maternity leave \u2013 and starts a debate<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t expect it to be so controversial,\u201d Shoko Kawata, Japan\u2019s youngest female mayor, told the Guardian<\/a> after her decision to take maternity leave in May caused a national brouhaha. \u201cIf more women are involved in leadership and decision-making,\u201d she said, \u201cwe will be able to implement more social systems to support balancing a career with family life.\u201d<\/p>\n HPV vaccines massively cut the risk of dying from cervical cancer<\/p>\n A new study funded by Cancer Research UK estimates<\/a> that a girl who gets the HPV jab when she\u2019s 12 or 13 has an almost-zero chance of dying of cervical cancer before the age of 30.<\/p>\n Nearly 160 people sick with flu at military base after Pete Hegseth ends mandatory vaccines<\/p>\n In April, the defense secretary announced he\u2019d end mandatory flu vaccination because of the importance of bodily autonomy. \u201cYour body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable,\u201d the defense secretary said<\/a>. Unless you\u2019re a woman, I guess: Hegseth\u2019s self-identified Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson has opposed a woman\u2019s right to vote<\/a> and said<\/a>: \u201cWomen are the kind of people that people come out of.\u201d<\/p>\n Shania Twain is afraid of using the F-word<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see myself as a feminist,\u201d she told the Times<\/a> in a recent interview. \u201cI see myself as a very independent thinker and not necessarily because I\u2019m a woman.\u201d A few days later, she wrote to the Times to say \u201cfeminist\u201d is \u201ca tricky word for me\u201d but she aligns with \u201cthe values and morals\u201d of feminism. This is not the first time the Canadian singer has walked back an awkward comment. Back in 2018, she apologized<\/a> for telling the Guardian she would have voted for Trump if she could have.<\/p>\n Medication abortion restored in Missouri<\/p>\n This comes after<\/a> a long legal battle.<\/p>\n \u2018The British state has redefined civil disobedience as terrorism\u2019<\/p>\n Last week, four Palestine Action activists<\/a> who smashed military equipment at an Israeli arms manufacturer\u2019s UK factory were sentenced as terrorists. This is a chilling ruling that opens up<\/a> the path for direct-action protest targeting property to be classified as terrorism. Writing in the Key, Geoffrey Robertson, a renowned lawyer and founding head of Doughty Street Chambers, proclaims that the<\/a> \u201cBritish state has redefined civil disobedience as terrorism \u2013 lengthening sentences, stripping prison privileges, and marking dissenters for life \u2013 as a result of a finding made in secret by a judge\u201d.<\/p>\n The week in pawtriarchy<\/p>\n