Sleeping Astronauts and Everything Else Important This Week

By Sabrina Collier and Mathilde Frot

The last seven days has seen a British politician threaten to go to war with Spain over Gibraltar, American Republicans threaten to "go nuclear" and force through Judge Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court and Pepsi threaten to offend everyone's sensibilities with a distasteful, Kendall Jenner-starring ad campaign. In short, it's been a strangely aggressive and violence-tinged week. Overshadowing everything, however, is the US air strike in Syria in response to a chemical attack on civilians earlier this week which has been linked to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. 

Cutting through the bombast, bluster and troubling headlines can be a tricky task, so here's our helpful run-down of everything worth remembering from this week.

This week in Trump

Awks double date Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, a summit which is likely to have been slightly tense given Trump's previous criticisms of China. Melania was also there, making a rare joint appearance alongside her husband.

North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help!

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

Syria attack The Chinese summit was overshadowed by news President Trump had authorised air-strikes on Syria. The strike, which has split both Democrats and Republicans, was launched in response to a suspected chemical attack in the north-eastern town of Khan Shaykhun on Tuesday. At least 70 people, including children, died and the attack was widely blamed on the Syrian government. Trump called the attack an "affront to humanity", adding "when you kill innocent children, innocent babies, little babies... that crosses... many lines."

Ins and outs Keeping track of the comings and goings in the White House is becoming almost impossible. Steve Bannon, the controversial former head of Breitbart, lost his place on the National Security Council, a position many critics felt he never should have had in the first place. Rep. Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, has temporarily stepped down from an investigation into alleged Russian hacking. He has faced mounting criticism over his handling of the investigation and is now under investigation himself by the House Ethics Committee. 

Not everyone is having a bad day in Trumpland though. Judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed for the Supreme Court, after the Republicans invoked the "nuclear option" and changed the number of votes needed to approve his nomination from 60 to just 51.

#Blacklivesmatter

I submitted this answer in my @Stanford application, & yesterday, I was admitted...#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/R5YxM77bWL

— Ziad Ahmed (@ziadtheactivist) April 1, 2017

How to get into Stanford How would you answer Stanford’s admissions essay question “What matters to you, and why?”? 18-year old Ziad Ahmed decided to go with something a bit different: writing the #Blacklivesmatter hashtag 100 times. His bold gamble paid off as, much to his surprise, he was offered a place at the prestigious university. You might be wondering how he managed to pull this off – after all, Stanford is pretty tough to get into, but it seems likely that Ziah’s impressive resume had a big part in his acceptance. He’s 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 advert Kendall Jenner and Pepsi faced a torrent of criticism on social media for the latest Pepsi advert, which the soda company scrapped on Wednesday. The advert co-opted the #Blacklivesmatter movement, and even went so far as to suggest police brutality and violence could be solved by a can of Pepsi. As if that wasn't enough cultural appropriation for one week, Kendall Jenner then thought it was a good idea to share a “throwback” picture of her and her sister Kylie with cornrow braids. HONESTLY, THESE PEOPLE. *Facepalm*

Big Brother is watching you             

Orwellian nightmare India is now forcing all 1.2 billion citizens to enroll in a national identification program which critics have said would have serious implications for security, surveillance and the privacy of its citizens. Aadhaar was originally rolled out in 2009 as a voluntary identification system that would help the government clamp down on identification fraud and is now widely used for banking, welfare claims, internet services, international travel, and marriage registration. 

Sleep in space

via GIPHY

Get paid to lie in bed for two months  In what could be a lazy student’s dream job, French scientists at the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology (Medes) in Toulouse are looking for 24 young, fit and healthy men (sorry girls) to lie on their back for 60 days to study the effects of virtual weightlessness. The wage is €16,000. Tempted? Be warned: you’d be expected to eat, wash and do all bodily functions in bed.