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The Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Editor’s letterI feel like I owe some apologies. At the start of the week, this Englishman and his English wife stood in a room with a couple hundred strangers in downtown Manhattan and renounced all “allegiance and fidelity” to any foreign prince (sorry William), potentate (beg pardon Charles III), and state (forgive me Britannia) of which we had “heretofore been a subject or citizen.” And after pledging to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the U.S. against all enemies, foreign and domestic, something magical happened: We became Americans. Now, outwardly expressing my joy at this metamorphosis was difficult, because a certain British stoicism—I believe the scientific term is “emotional stuntedness”—is encoded in my DNA. My natural impulse in such moments of wonder is to mutter, “Well, this is a…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Prosecutors tie Trump hush money to 2016 electionWhat happenedThe case of The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump began in earnest this week, with prosecutors pledging to prove that hush-money payments and falsified business records were part of an attempt to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. During the campaign, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo argued in his opening statement, Trump spearheaded “an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election” by buying up unflattering stories about himself. And when repaying fixer Michael Cohen $130,000 for hush money given to quash porn star Stormy Daniels’ story of a tryst, Colangelo said, Trump fraudulently recorded the sum as “legal fees.” Former National Enquirer owner David Pecker, the first witness, testified that in an August 2015 meeting Trump directly asked him to find ways…3 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Only in AmericaAn Ohio high school student has been suspended and barred from her senior prom for bringing a bag of chips to school. Amber Guy said her daughter Ali knew a school staff member has a serious corn allergy, but didn’t realize corn was an ingredient in the chips a friend gave her on the morning school bus. Ali is heartbroken at missing prom, said Guy. “They’re taking away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” A Texas man is suing Cinemark for false advertising, alleging that the theater chain’s 24-ounce beer cups hold only 22 ounces of liquid. Plaintiff Shane Waldrop said at-home measurements confirmed his suspicions about the size of a beer Cinemark served him on Valentine’s Day. “While two ounces may feel inconsequential to the seller,” said Jarrett Ellzey, one of Waldrop’s…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The U.S. at a glanceEast Lansing, Mich.Restitution: The Justice Department will pay nearly $140 million to settle accusations that the FBI failed to promptly investigate sexual abuse by former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Among the 139 claimants are medal-winning Olympians Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman. Members of the national team told FBI agents about Nassar’s assaults in 2015, but for more than a year they took little action. Nassar continued his predatory behavior until news stories spurred a proper inquest. Restitution has been “a long time in coming,” said Rachael Denhollander, the first gymnast to publicly detail Nassar’s acts. She also noted that in sexual abuse cases, “most survivors never see justice.” The DOJ payments follow ones from Michigan State and sports authorities totaling more than $880 million.…4 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024How Bon Jovi lost his voiceJon Bon Jovi’s best singing days may be behind him, said Emily Lordi in The New York Times. While touring in the late 2010s, the Bon Jovi frontman noticed that his vocal range was shrinking. In March 2022, a specialist determined that one of his vocal cords was atrophying. “I thought I could get my voice back in shape if I just did enough shows,” says Bon Jovi, 62, “so I went back on the road.” The results of that U.S. tour weren’t pretty. Normally friendly local rock critics blasted his dismal vocals. After a show in Nashville, he told his wife, Dorothea, that he thought his performance was “pretty good.” She gave him a flat no—a major wake-up call. So that June, Bon Jovi underwent vocal cord surgery; he…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Project 2025’s radical agendaConservative groups have crafted a sweeping plan to remake the government—and the U.S.—in a second Trump term.What is Project 2025?Drawn up by the Heritage Foundation and a network of more than 100 other conservative groups, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project is an elaborate and painstakingly detailed agenda for a second Donald Trump administration. In a 920-page manifesto titled Mandate for Leadership, Heritage head Kevin Roberts says Project 2025’s goal is to combat “cultural Marxism” and “rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American Left.” To do that, the initiative calls for thousands of conservative activists to be placed in federal agencies, an aggressive expansion in presidential power, and the imposition of pro-life, pro-religion, anti-immigrant, anti-environmental policies on the nation. In essence, Project 2025 is a…5 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Turning schools into fortressesSonali RajanLos Angeles TimesSchool shootings aren’t inevitable, “yet schools are forced to treat them like they are,” said Sonali Rajan. Ever since two armed students killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado 25 years ago this week, the threat of mass murder has hung over our nation’s schools. There have been more than 400 school shootings, and more than 370,000 K-12 students have been exposed to gun violence in some form. In response, more than $14.5 billion is now being spent each year on school security personnel alone, and lockdown drills that frighten kids are commonplace. Some states, such as Texas, Michigan, and Alabama, have invested in physical protections like bulletproof windows and whiteboards that can be turned into safe rooms. But the real crux…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Don’t joke about Catholic dogmaBruno BallardiniIl Fatto QuotidianoA cheeky potato chip commercial set in a convent? For Catholics in Italy, it’s no laughing matter, said Bruno Ballardini. The Amica Chips spot shows a young novice receiving communion. As the priest places the wafer in her mouth, there’s a loud crunching sound. “Panic!” The nun’s eyes widen. “The wafer must never be chewed,” only swallowed! Cut to the Mother Superior sitting nearby, munching away from a bag of chips—it was she who issued the unholy crunch. Funny, right? “But no, the heavens have opened up.” Pronouncing the ad “blasphemous,” a Catholic media watchdog wants it yanked off the air. “Christ reduced to a potato chip,” proclaimed an outraged editorial in the Catholic newspaper Avvenire. “Debased and vilified like 2,000 years ago.” Some Catholics are steamed…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Israel: A mild response to Iran’s shock-and-awe barrage“The era of Israeli deterrence is over,” said Ben Caspit in Maariv (Israel). For decades, Iran has battled Israel through proxy militias it funds in Syria, Lebanon, and beyond, not daring to strike Israel directly. But now it has done just that. Retaliating for an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate in Syria that killed a top Iranian general in early April, Tehran hurled some 300 ballistic missiles and killer drones at Israeli territory. While the barrage was stopped by our airtight missile defense systems, Iran had to be punished for its unprecedented assault. So how did the Israel Defense Forces respond? With “a single, pinpoint bite”: a strike on an Iranian air base in Isfahan. The lopsided exchange makes clear that the two enemies’ strategic calculations have been flipped.…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024NotedThe National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received some 36 million reports of online child abuse in 2023, up 12 percent over the previous year. Most reports related to the circulation of photos and videos of child sexual abuse; 4,700 of those images and videos were created with the use of generative artificial intelligence.The Guardian Complaints of pregnant women being turned away from emergency rooms spiked after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A month after the decision, a woman in Texas miscarried in an ER lobby restroom after front-desk staff refused to check her in. In North Carolina, a woman gave birth in her car after being refused an ultrasound; the baby later died. Fears of legal liability in states with strict abortion bans have…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Homelessness: Should it be illegal?Can municipalities make it a crime to sleep outdoors? That’s the question the Supreme Court debated this week in what could lead to its “most significant ruling” on homelessness in decades, said Ann E. Marimow and Reis Thebault in The Washington Post. The case centers on three ordinances in the town of Grants Pass, Ore., that ban camping or sleeping on public property and using blankets or cardboard for warmth. Punishments include a $295 fine, with additional fines and jail for nonpayment. Lawyers for homeless residents argued that since Grants Pass doesn’t offer adequate shelter space, the ordinances criminalize homelessness itself and thus violate the constitutional prohibition on “cruel and unusual” punishment. During oral arguments, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority expressed reluctance to “micromanage” local laws on the homeless, but…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Streaming: At 270 million, Netflix stops countingNetflix has declared an end to the streaming wars, said Oliver Darcy in CNN.com. The streaming pioneer last week said it added 9.3 million new subscribers last quarter, bringing its total to 270 million—and is calling an end to the count. Netflix said it will no longer report quarterly subscriber numbers from next year, asking Wall Street to “stop obsessing over pesky membership numbers and instead focus on other metrics,” such as profitability and revenue. That’s a pretty “significant turning point in the streaming revolution,” which saw “legacy media companies burn endless piles of cash” in order to show investors they were adding subscribers every three months. Wall Street prefers transparency; despite strong earnings, investors sent Netflix shares down nearly 10 percent. But the company is “a trendsetter,” and other…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Hot oceans are killing corals worldwideRecord-high ocean temperatures have triggered a mass bleaching event in coral reefs around the world. It’s the fourth such event on record, and on track to be the worst. Over the past 14 months, bleaching has been documented in every major ocean basin, from the Florida coast to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. In some places, the water has been so hot that the corals haven’t had time to bleach; they’ve simply died, as if cooked. Corals are stationary animals that get their bright colors from the symbiotic algae they depend on for nutrients. When they are stressed from overheating, they release that algae, turning the reefs white. Usually, such bleaching doesn’t mean the coral is dead, but it is a warning sign that it will perish unless conditions improve. Unfortunately,…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Kids’ noses fight CovidWhy are children so much less likely than adults to develop Covid? It may be because their noses are better at fighting the virus, reports BBC.com. In a new study, scientists analyzed cells from the nasal lining of people in three different age groups: kids under 13, adults between 30 and 50, and those over 70. After growing the cells in lab dishes, they infected them with the novel coronavirus and watched what happened. The children’s cells were quick to mount a defense against the virus by increasing production of interferon, an antiviral protein. But cells of the middle-aged group had a much slower response, while the over-70s actually produced more infectious viral particles. Study leader Claire Smith, from University College London, says nasal cells deteriorate with age—possibly because they…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The Familiar“Is there anything Leigh Bardugo can’t do?” asked Lacy Baugher Milas in Paste. Known for her best-selling young adult fantasy series Shadow and Bone, Bardugo could have churned out sequels for years. Instead, she continues to try new things, the latest being a best-selling stand-alone novel for adults that blends fantasy and history and proves “haunting in a way that will stay with you.” In 16th-century Madrid, housemaid Luzia hides two related secrets: an ability to cast spells, which she uses for small tasks such as mending torn clothes, and her Jewish heritage, which could make her a target of the Inquisition. But when Luzia’s mistress discovers Luzia’s magical powers, she pulls Luzia into a scheme to win favor with the king. “At times, the two halves of The Familiar…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Also of interest…in wedding plotsFunny Storyby Emily Henry (Berkley, $29)Emily Henry’s latest romantic comedy “checks both the ‘romantic’ and ‘comedy’ boxes,” said Chris Hewitt in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. When children’s librarian Daphne gets dumped by her fiancé for another woman, she winds up as housemates with Miles, the other woman’s ex. Once Miles and Daphne start faking a romance, it’s no surprise that sparks fly, and while their unconventional love story could be about 50 pages shorter, it’s also “a breeze to read,” fueled by “nuanced characters, brisk set pieces, and Henry’s deft wit.”The Wivesby Simone Gorrindo (Gallery/Scout Press, $30)It’s not news that military wives make great sacrifices, said Susan Barton in The New York Times. In Simone Gorrindo’s “engaging, evocative” memoir about living outside Fort Benning with her Army Ranger husband, “what…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024New and notable podcastsMind the Game(Uninterrupted/ThreeFourTwo Productions)“Something’s inherently appealing about hearing the best talk about their craft,” said Marcus Thompson II in The Athletic. This series, from LeBron James’ media outfit, joins James—basketball’s “foremost hardwood intellectual”—with former NBA shooting guard and veteran podcaster JJ Redick. Together, they discuss the art of the game “intimately and expansively.” Redick’s efforts anchor the duo’s analysis. He offers definitions of key tactical basketball terms and, in the podcast’s video version, sketches plays “with the excitement of a devoted professor.” Though he and James can seem full of themselves, “you’ll walk away feeling like you took an ‘Intro to Basketball’ course.” The series’ technical hook differentiates it from myriad shows that simply recap recent NBA action, but even as a “fairly devoted” NBA fan, “I could barely keep…3 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024ChallengersThree top tennis players fall into a love triangle.“In Challengers, tennis is sex, and sex is tennis,” said Coleman Spilde in The Daily Beast. When any of the movie’s three main characters talk about one of those subjects, they’re also talking about the other, and that turns their years-long love triangle into “a bona fide buffet of sexy, sweaty danger.” Zendaya, a two-time Emmy winner for Euphoria, has “never been better” than she is as the triangle’s apex figure, yet it’s her charismatic co-stars, Josh O’Connor (The Crown) and Mike Faist (West Side Story), who’ll “leave knees weak.” Zendaya’s Tashi cares more about tennis than anything, said David Ehrlich in IndieWire. When she first meets O’Connor’s Patrick and Faist’s Art, she’s a teenage prodigy who’s already a celebrity, and she…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The VeilIt’s fitting that Elisabeth Moss should be cast as a chameleonic MI6 agent. In her many screen roles, including as an innocent but ambitious secretary in Mad Men and as an enslaved surrogate turned revolutionary in The Handmaid’s Tale, the multi-award-winner has demonstrated captivating range. This spy series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight casts Moss as Imogen Salter, an agent who’s deft with her gun and fists and is now charged with foiling a terrorist attack on the U.S. by reeling in a woman based in Istanbul who could be part of the plot. Yumna Marwan and Josh Charles (The Good Wife) co-star. Tuesday, April 30, Hulu• All listings are Eastern Time.…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Wine: Earthy Beaujolais“Beaujolais wants to show you its serious side,” said Dave McIntyre in The Washington Post. The region, best known in the U.S. for Beaujolais nouveau, has recently filed the necessary paperwork to potentially win premier cru status for many of its top vineyard sites. Evidence that the crus’ gamay wines are age-worthy will be crucial, but it’s already obvious that the current releases from Moulin-à-Vent, one of the region’s top crus, are earthy and delicious.2020 Château des Jacques ($29). This wine from an estate now owned by Maison Louis Jadot “impressed with its classic velvety profile.”2020 Château du Moulin-à-Vent ($45). Produced at the estate near the cru’s namesake windmill, this wine “takes a softer approach, expressing comfort and quiet confidence.”2020 Domaine de Colette ‘Le Mont’ ($22). The vintner who makes…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Five fixes for aging hairGray blending offers a way to gracefully transition to gray hair. Instead of fully coloring your hair to darken it, a colorist adds both light and dark hues, helping gray strands blend in. Purple shampoo, which is often used to combat brassiness in blond hair, also counteracts yellowish undertones in gray hair, making it look more vibrant. Use it just once or twice a week. A texturing spray can temporarily add volume to thinning hair. Volumizing shampoos or conditioners, by contrast, have little effect. Topical minoxidil, the medication found in Rogaine and other over-the-counter products, does stimulate hair growth. You have to apply it twice a day, though. Minoxidil pills are available by prescription, but possible side effects include changes in heart rate and blood pressure. An anti-frizz spray can…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The bottom lineAmazon’s Prime subscription service hit a new high of 180 million U.S. shoppers in March, an increase of 8 percent from a year earlier. U.S. consumers pay Amazon $140 a year or $15 per month for a Prime subscription.Bloomberg The lowest salary that U.S. job seekers are willing to accept to take on a new job reached a record high of $81,822. This time last year, that figure was just under $76,000. On average, it takes about $95,500 to persuade men to take a new job, whereas women said they would accept roughly $66,300.Money Americans spent nearly $73 billion on flowers, seed, and potted plants last year, up 48 percent from 2019 after adjusting for inflation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.The New York Times Donald Trump’s stake…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Tune in, turn on, get on ZoomMore C-suite executives are touting the mind-expanding business value of psychedelics, said Callum Borchers in The Wall Street Journal. Silicon Valley has long promoted ketamine and magic mushrooms “as a creativity and productivity hack,” and the idea is finding new adherents. James Whitcomb, the chief executive of insurance brokerage Frontier Risk, “initially turned to ketamine to treat depression” but says it gives him work inspiration, too. He credits a $1,000 ketamine trip as the inspiration for Frontier Risk’s silent video calls at which staffers watch each other work. One executive coach is organizing a three-day retreat for female tech executives in California “that includes daily ketamine injections supervised by a doctor.” Not everyone is on board with the program. One cybersecurity consultant says that some companies are sending the message…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Charity of the weekIn 2011, just a few years after retiring from the New Orleans Saints, NFL safety Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS. Facing a degenerative neuromuscular disease with no known cure or treatment, Gleason endeavored still to create hope for those with ALS, by founding Team Gleason (teamgleason.org). In keeping with Gleason’s own love for travel, the New Orleans–based organization sponsors memory-making “Adventures” for those with ALS—ranging from trips to Hawaii to a ride in a wheelchair-accessible hot air balloon. The nonprofit also provides critical accessibility equipment, such as wheelchair accessories and shower chairs, and covers costs for hands-free communication devices with voice outputs, which become critical as patients lose vocal control. Since its founding, Team Gleason has donated more than $40 million worth of services, technology, and equipment to 30,000…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Amazon’s black ops departmentDana Mattioli and Sarah NassauerThe Wall Street JournalFake websites. Fake emails. Reports distributed only on paper, with code numbers. Amazon pulled out every stop in its cloak-and-dagger project to gather intelligence on the competition, said Dana Mattioli and Sarah Nassauer. Since 2015, Amazon has been spying on rivals’ online platforms through a fake company called Big River Services International, which sells products under a variety of brand names, such as Atlantic Lot and Rapid Cascade. Big River was actually part of an Amazon initiative called Project Curiosity. Its entire staff consisted of Amazon employees. “They disseminated their reports to Amazon executives using printed, numbered copies rather than email,” and had prepared responses to questions in the event of a leak to the media. Undercover “benchmarking” research on competitors is a…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The ‘New South’leader who fought racism and the IRSOver three decades as an elected official, Arkansas governor and U.S. senator David Pryor was the rare Southern Democrat who relentlessly advocated for reform and remained popular. In the Little Rock governor’s mansion of the late 1970s, he swept aside decades of resistance to civil and women’s rights to appoint Blacks and women to positions of power. In the Senate, he championed the elderly, pushing for nursing-home reform and lower drug prices. He also fought IRS overreach, crafting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a law granting citizens due process and representation during audits. “The role of the reformer is no task for the faint at heart,” he said he’d read in law school. “I took that advice. It’s carried me a long way.”Pryor grew up in Camden, Ark., in a…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Congress passes long-delayed Ukraine, Israel aidWhat happenedA $95.3 billion aid package including desperately needed weapons and munitions for Ukraine was signed into law by President Biden this week, after a bipartisan alliance of lawmakers overcame months of resistance from isolationist Republicans. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defied threats to his speakership from GOP hard-liners by bringing four bills to the floor, which collectively mirrored a $95 billion aid bill passed by the Senate in February—one that Johnson had refused to bring up for a vote. The bills included $60.8 billion for Ukraine, $26.4 billion for Israel and Gaza humanitarian aid, and $8.1 billion to counter Chinese threats against Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. A fourth bill, added to draw conservative support, includes a provision giving the Chinese owner of the social media site TikTok nine…4 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024It wasn’t all badScientists last week reported a finding of the largest-known marine reptile ever—and the discovery was made by an 11-year-old English girl. Ruby Reynolds, now 15, had been fossil hunting with her father for years around their home when, in 2020, they found several fossilized pieces of bone along the River Severn estuary. Paleontologists concluded they came from an 82-foot long, 202-million-year-old ichthyosaur and named the specimen Ichthyotitan severnensis. And there’s a historical bonus: The very first ichthyosaur fossil was discovered in England in 1811—by a 12-year-old girl. In 2016, Luis Escobar, then the cross-country team coach at California’s St. Joseph High School, was thinking about ways to motivate his runners when his wife came up with an idea: Get some shelter dogs to train with the teens. After a Santa…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Good week/bad weekSafe sex, after New York City lawmakers began considering a bill to dose the metropolis’ booming rat population with a new contraceptive named ContraPest. The drug’s inventor, Dr. Loretta Mayer, says the birth-control pellets taste “better than pizza.”Metal, after Metallica’s James Hetfield unveiled a new tattoo made from ink infused with the ashes of late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. Hetfield says the tattoo, an ace of spades on his middle finger, will ensure Lemmy can still “fly the bird at the world.”Undrafted free agents, after New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson gave Pope Francis a personalized jersey during a visit to the Vatican. Francis, 87, has a history of knee issues, but the Saints badly need depth behind oft-injured right tackle Ryan Ramczyk.Bad week for:Specimens, after Australian health officials pleaded…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The world at a glanceTorontoGold heist solved: Canadian police arrested nine people last week in connection with the theft of $14.5 million in gold bars from Toronto’s international airport last April. The heist was caught on security cameras: A driver presented a fraudulent shipping document that gave him access to an airport warehouse, where a container of 6,600 gold bars had just been unloaded from a flight from Switzerland—then loaded it all onto his truck and drove off. Last September, the driver was arrested in Pennsylvania with 65 guns, and U.S. and Canadian officials say he was part of a larger plot to use proceeds from the gold to smuggle weapons into Canada. “This isn’t just about gold,” said local official Nando Iannicca. “This is about how gold becomes guns.”Dresden, GermanySuspected spy for China:…7 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Rhimes’ search for securityShonda Rhimes is terrified by some of her fans, said Decca Aitkenhead in The Sunday Times (U.K.). The creator of hit series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Bridgerton, Rhimes used to tell interviewers how much she enjoyed interacting online with her show’s devotees. Not anymore. “Fans have passionate feelings, and I was always fine with that,” says Rhimes, 54. “I understand that the characters felt like their friends. They were my imaginary friends too. That’s why I was writing them.” But about a decade ago, “it became weird.” After each season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, she had to have a police cruiser parked outside her Los Angeles home because of death threats from viewers who were angry about the ending. Eventually, Rhimes needed 24-hour security. “I wanted to just…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The media’s failure on trans issuesJesse SingalThe DispatchThe media has failed miserably in its coverage of “gender-affirming” medical treatments for teens, said Jesse Singal. Most news organizations responded to the legitimate debate over these treatments with “credulous, activism-infused journalism,” adopting the mantra that it was “settled science” that minors with gender dysphoria should be treated with puberty blockers, hormones, and even surgery. But in a recent study, British pediatrician Hilary Cass found “no good evidence” to support giving powerful, life-altering hormones to preteens and teens with gender-related distress. Cass doesn’t oppose such treatments in all cases; she argues simply that the skyrocketing number of minors requesting them should “receive the proper screening and assessment before medical interventions are undertaken.” In Europe, progressive countries like the U.K., Finland, and Sweden have already turned away from medical…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Viewpoint“The character of our leaders seems to me a national-security issue. At the exact moment America’s foes decided to become more public in their antipathy and deadlier in their calculations, our leaders in the West were becoming more frivolous and unfocused, more superficial. I’m not saying once we had Henry Clay and now we have Marjorie Taylor Greene but—well, I guess I am saying that. Leaders of other nations extrapolate from our leaders. They think that as they are, we are. It contributes to the power of the argument, in their councils of state, that the West has lost its way.”Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Taking comfort in petty corruptionAlexander AndreevDnevnikBulgarians are still wallowing in communist-era levels of corruption because we like it that way, said Alexander Andreev. Sure, plenty of us complain that our leaders have “ruined the country” and demand to know if Bulgaria will “ever recover.” But these same people readily admit that they like being able to just slip the cop a few twenties anytime they get pulled over for drinking and driving. In the communist decades, we saw such rule breaking as a survival strategy and dubbed it “petty justice”—the authorities were against us, so we had to get away with whatever we could. Yet in truth this mentality is “neither socialist nor purely Bulgarian.” It is the mark of a go-it-alone society with no shared values and little concern for the common good;…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The rise of Arab manfluencersFiras DalatiDarajThe “men’s rights” trend came late to the Arabic-speaking internet, said Firas Dalati, but Egyptian social media is now crawling with toxic manfluencers. It started when YouTube began offering Arabic translations of content by Andrew Tate, the misogynistic British-American kickboxer turned provocateur. After Tate ostensibly became a Muslim in 2022, he began twisting Islam to justify his caveman take on gender roles, and local copycats sprang up across the Arab world. All profess the same rags-to-riches story, and Jordanian TikToker Jalal Abu Muwais even sports the same alpha male look: bald head, trimmed beard, toned body, tight shirt, “sunglasses that never leave the eyes.” Many of them hawk courses teaching “males (and males only) how to become rich and powerful” like them. Their perverse appeal reflects a real social…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 20242024: Will Biden and Trump debate?President Biden must ignore the network news execs pushing him to debate Donald Trump, said David Frum in The Atlantic. In a joint statement, 12 news organizations last week called on the two candidates to commit to a pre-election debate, saying the televised event would be a “competition of ideas” where they could argue their policies “with each other, and before the American people.” That’d be fine if both men were normal candidates—but one is an aspiring autocrat willing to use violence as a political tool. After losing the vote in 2020, Trump incited a mob to attack the Capitol, hoping his supporters would “terrorize, kidnap, or even kill his own vice president” to stop Biden’s victory from being certified. This “conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution” is the only issue…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Trump trial: Why the jurors are nervousIf you’re asked to serve on the jury “in the first-ever criminal prosecution of a United States president, what could possibly go wrong?” asked Andrew Couts in Wired. “The answer, of course, is everything.” The high-stakes election-interference trial of Donald Trump got underway in a Manhattan courtroom this week, and to protect the 12 jurors and six alternates from “harassment, intimidation, and threats,” Judge Juan Merchan ordered that their names and addresses be withheld from the public. But in this viciously polarized era, social media mobs frequently find personal information on just about anyone and make it public—a tactic called “doxxing.” Because of credible fears of being publicly identified, one juror was excused. On Fox News, Jesse Watters listed the jobs, races, and other identifying information of the 12 Manhattan…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Innovation of the weekA new Chinese SUV is like something out of a Bond movie, said Alistair Charlton in Wired. The Yangwang U8 from Chinese electric-vehicle maker BYD is what happens “when you cross a Land Rover Defender, a Bentley, and a boat.” It features four electric motors that “combine to produce a frankly absurd 1,200 horsepower, making the U8 the world’s most powerful SUV.” But where it really stands out is off-road. BYD says the U8 “can wade through water up to 1 meter deep.” Then, if things get really wet, it floats in “boat mode.” In deeper water, the U8 automatically “shuts down the engine, closes its windows, switches the air conditioning to recirculate, opens the sunroof as an emergency exit,” and can “sail at 1.8 mph by simply spinning its…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Why tardigrades are so toughTardigrades—the microscopic, eight-legged creatures also called “water bears”—can shrug off blasts of radiation hundreds of times greater than the amount that would kill a human. A new study suggests that this freakish resilience may be because the animals have become experts at molecular repair, enabling them to quickly reassemble shattered DNA. The process itself is nothing unusual, reports The New York Times. The strands of DNA in a human cell are broken about 40 times a day, and each time that happens the cell has to fix them by producing repair proteins. What sets the tardigrade apart is the vast amount of these proteins it produces—a level unseen in humans and other animals, and seemingly high enough to prevent radiation from causing permanent damage. It’s unclear why the barrel-shaped organisms,…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Giant kangaroos of yoreAustralia was once home to massive mammals that are now extinct, including giant wombats and oversize koalas. Now scientists have added another to the list, reports The Guardian: a kangaroo twice as large as the biggest modern specimen. The new species, Protemnodon viator, is among three ancient kangaroos newly identified from fossils taken from Lake Callabonna in southern Australia. It is thought to have lived between 5 million and 40,000 years ago, probably around the big lakes and creeks that were scattered across central Australia at the time. Each one weighed up to 375 pounds and stood more than 6½ feet tall. More muscular than modern kangaroos, Protemnodon viator likely roamed the continent in large bands called mobs. “People often think we have a pretty weird modern ecosystem in Australia,”…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook“Until recently Captain James Cook was not a particularly controversial figure,” said The Economist. Britain’s most celebrated 18th-century explorer was, after all, “neither a slave trader nor much of an imperialist.” When he encountered indigenous peoples in lands that Europeans had never before seen, he often showed a sincere interest in protecting them from disease and exploitation. At the same time, he was no saint. Hampton Sides’ “excellent” new book, which focuses on Cook’s fatal third voyage, is a current U.S. best-seller that gently pushes back on a recent wave of villainizations of Cook. “As the author makes clear, there is a balance to be struck between admiration for Cook’s seamanship and a resentment of the colonialism that followed Indigenous peoples’ first contact with Europeans.”Sides’ “superbly crafted” book picks up…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Alua ArthurA conversation about death radically redirected Alua Arthur’s life, said Lauren Mechling in The Guardian. More than a decade ago, Arthur, who at the time was a Legal Aid attorney, was battling depression while backpacking in Cuba. Then she booked a long bus ride and was seated next to a woman about her age who was dying of uterine cancer. Arthur recalls their chat going deep quickly. “It was strangely intimate and comfortable and hilarious,” she says. And it woke her up. “Up until then, I was just kind of waiting for my life to write itself,” she says. “Thinking about my mortality really created action.” Within months, Arthur had launched a new career as a death doula, helping people prepare for the end of life. She has since founded…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024StereophonicGolden Theatre, New York CityIt’s been more than a decade since a new American drama this good has graced Broadway, said David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter. David Adjmi’s play about a 1970s rock band laboring to record a reputation-making album “somehow manages to be fluidly cinematic, richly novelistic, and bracingly theatrical.” It’s “an immersive plunge into the fraught process of artistic collaboration” whose “searing emotional heft creeps up and grabs you by the throat.” The same seven-member cast that made the show an off-Broadway hit last year has remained intact, with five portraying the members of a Fleetwood Mac–like group who meet daily in a California studio to wrest magic from their given assemblage of egos, ambition, and talent. The actors perform the music live, and the songs, written…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Streaming tipsAnselmWim Wenders’ superb documentary surveys the astonishing world that German artist Anselm Kiefer has created on a 40-acre property in southern France. Fashioned from earth, straw, concrete, metal, and thick paint, Kiefer’s massive installations address a German past that his countrymen are discouraged from confronting. $6 on VuduClose to VermeerJourney to Amsterdam and step behind the scenes of the largest-ever exhibition of paintings by Johannes Vermeer. The experts who assembled the show can’t help but reveal their adoration of the Dutch master. $5 on PrimeNam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TVKorean-born artist Nam June Paik all but invented video art in the 1960s and ’70s, stacking TVs in galleries and manipulating screens with his “video synthesizer.” This beautifully executed 2023 portrait gives the artist his due. NetflixThe Melt Goes…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Critics’ choice: New burgers of note in three citiesHamburger America New York CityNew York City has gone wild for Oklahoma-style burgers, said Pete Wells in The New York Times. You can now find several spots that make them well, but Hamburger America is “something different.” Created by hamburger scholar George Motz, who’s produced books and documentary series on burger history, the SoHo storefront is “a shrine to roadside America” that regularly draws long lines for its two smash burgers. Motz faces his counter customers from the central griddle, using a heavy-gauge spatula to flatten the balls of salted ground beef to pancake height. And while Motz’s standard cheeseburger is excellent, his fried-onion burger, modeled after those made in El Reno, Okla., is “deliriously” delicious. A mop of thin-sliced onions are heaped atop the patty before the first flip.…3 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The 2024 Ford Ranger: What the critics sayEdmunds“The midsize truck segment might have a new front-runner.” Though the Toyota Tacoma and Chevy Colorado tend to outsell the Ford Ranger, Ford has just upgraded every aspect of its already-capable midsize pickup. “Improved cabin? Check. New tech features? Check. Smoother ride? Yep.” Sure, the price you’ll pay has also risen. Overall, though, “we think you’re getting your money’s worth.”Car and DriverWith its widened stance, the Ranger “now looks more like a downsized F-150.” Yet Ford’s middle child “still maintains the tidy dimensions necessary to negotiate tight parking lots and ease into a garage.” With its improved suspension, the Ranger now feels “infinitely more stable and buttoned-down,” and its wider frame allows Ford to offer V-6 alternatives to the returning standard engine, a 270-hp turbo four. The $55,470 off-road-ready 2024…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024For spring-cleaning motivationTody makes a game of cleaning. The simple interface motivates you with graphs and other visual representations of your progress. You can also compete against an in-app character. Sweepy likewise gamifies cleaning. “Widely beloved by cleaning geeks around the internet,” the $9-a-month premium version generates a cleaning schedule based on your availability. It also lets you add family members to the app, share chore assignments, track progress, and compete for a spot on the family leaderboard. Spotless helps you create to-do lists for each room and also keeps track of which rooms need the most attention. Toss focuses on decluttering. Each day, you’ll get a task assignment such as clearing out the medicine cabinet. When you’re done, you can add to an in-app list of things you’ve thrown away. Soon…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Tech: U.S. passes law to force TikTok saleCongress delivered TikTok’s Chinese owners a “historic rebuke,” said Cristiano Lima-Strong in The Washington Post. After years of “failed attempts to tackle the app’s alleged national security risks,” the House and Senate passed legislation to ban the video-sharing platform in the U.S. if its Beijing-based creator, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it within nine months. President Biden signed the measure, which was tucked into an aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. TikTok made a “frenzied” lobbying push, but didn’t “dissuade lawmakers” worried that the data of its 170 million American users is “vulnerable to surveillance” by China. This is where the process really gets “complicated,” said Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe in The New York Times. TikTok is likely to keep fighting by “challenging the measure in the courts.” Beijing could…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Workplace: The right to be left alone“Just imagine: You end your workday at 6 p.m. and when the boss Slacks you at 8 p.m., you ignore them,” said Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times. Not only that: That boss “could face fines” for not respecting your “right to disconnect.” For a lot of workers, it sounds like a fantasy. But employees in California could have such rights enshrined into law. A Democratic assemblyman from San Francisco, Matt Haney, proposed new legislation earlier this month “that would require a public or private employer to ‘establish a workplace policy that provides employees the right to disconnect’” from workplace communications during nonworking hours. Haney says the idea is based on a “better work-life balance” law recently passed in Australia, and similar practices in “at least a dozen other…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Union battles: A big Southern victory for the UAWBefore last week, “the phrase ‘union victory at Chattanooga’” would have sounded like a Civil War reference, said Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times. Not anymore, after workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers union. It’s a milestone victory for organized labor in the South, following two defeats of the same union at that same plant in 2014 and 2019. Even better for unions, it “comes on the heels of the UAW’s success in negotiating impressive new contracts with the Big Three domestic automakers in October.” The outcome was particularly significant because Tennessee has “right-to-work laws” that have “kept unions weak.” It’s “a strong rebuke to the GOP political establishment,” which came out forcefully against the organizing effort, and a win…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The journalist who spent six years in captivityTerry Anderson had just finished a Saturday morning game of tennis when they came for him. It was March 1985, and the former Marine was the Beirut bureau chief for the Associated Press, and one of the few Westerners remaining in Lebanon as the civil war reached its 10th year. As Anderson dropped off his tennis partner, three armed men jumped from a green Mercedes, grabbed him, and sped off. He’d spend the next 2,454 days in captivity, held by Islamists from the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Kept in dimly lit cells, where he slept on a thin mattress on a concrete floor, he was chained, blindfolded, and beaten. During his long stretches in solitary confinement, he said after his release, only his Catholic faith—and innate “stubbornness”—kept him from going…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The Week ContestThis week’s question: Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist have split only three months after they wed in a televised ceremony watched by some 5 million Americans. If the pair were to star in a follow-up reality show about their search for perfect divorce lawyers, what should the series be titled?Last week’s contest: A German museum fired an employee who secretly hung his own painting alongside works by Picasso and Dalí in hopes of achieving an “artistic breakthrough.” If the ex-worker were to paint a new work based on his foiled bid for greatness, what would it be titled?THE WINNER: “Unhung Hero”Patty Oberhausen, Fort Wayne, Ind.SECOND PLACE: “The Scream (for Attention)”Peter Hasby, Rapid City, S.D.THIRD PLACE: “Guernican’t”Ellen Skagerberg, Santa Rosa, Calif.For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 3, 2024What next?If Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene follows through with her threats to attempt to remove Johnson from the speaker’s chair, he “will almost certainly need to rely on Democrats to bail him out,” said Veronica Stracqualursi in CNN.com. Greene has already filed a motion to remove Johnson, and Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have said they’ll support it. That’s enough to sink Johnson if Democrats all vote for his ouster. Whether Democrats will “throw him a lifeline” isn’t yet clear, but senior Republicans who back Johnson believe they can “count on support across the aisle.” Meanwhile, U.S. aid is now moving toward Ukraine, said Jordan Fabian in Bloomberg. The first $1 billion shipment will include air defense interceptors, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-tank weapons. U.S. officials have…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Colleges: Cracking down on antisemitism or on free speech?When New York police cleared a “Gaza solidarity encampment” from the grounds of Columbia University last week, arresting some 100 peaceful protesters, Columbia president Minouche Shafik likely thought she’d saved her job, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. A day earlier, Shafik had appeared before a House committee investigating campus antisemitism—the same GOP-led panel whose December grilling of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resulted in both women being “driven from their jobs.” Unlike the defensive Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, Shafik readily agreed with her Republican inquisitors that some pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia had crossed the line into antisemitic harassment of Jewish students, and said she was cracking down. Soon after, she invited the NYPD onto campus. It wasn’t enough for Republican lawmakers, who…3 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024In other newsWarantless surveillance law renewed for two yearsPresident Biden last week signed a bill reauthorizing a key U.S. surveillance law after a clash over privacy protections nearly caused the statute to lapse. As the law hit a midnight deadline, the Senate passed a two-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Enacted in 2008, Section 702 lets the government collect the data of noncitizens abroad without a warrant. A provision also lets intelligence agencies sweep up communications between U.S. citizens and foreigners abroad. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) pushed for an amendment to the House-passed measure that would have required warrants to review Americans’ communications, “just as our Founding Fathers intended.” But that amendment and five others failed to pass; the Senate voted 60-34 to renew Section 702.…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Imperioli’s first big shotMichael Imperioli bled for his breakthrough role, said Zach Helfand in The New Yorker. The actor was 23 when he was cast in Goodfellas as Spider, a mafia associate who gets whacked by Joe Pesci’s hotheaded Tommy while serving drinks. Director Martin Scorsese had hired a stunt double for the murder scene. “I said, ‘I could do that,’” recalls Imperioli, 58. “Marty said, ‘Yeah, let the kid do it.’” So Imperioli was fitted with squibs, tiny explosives filled with fake blood, and handed a glass. “I did the stunt fine, but when I hit the ground, the glass broke and sliced open two of my fingers really badly.” Imperioli was rushed to a New York City ER, where his Hollywood getup duped medics. “They’re coming at me with stretchers because…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024In the newsSoccer star David Beckham is suing his former Beverly Hills neighbor Mark Wahlberg over a $10 million business deal gone sour. In the lawsuit—filed in California last year but revealed this week by TMZ—Beckham alleges the actor “duped” him in 2021 into becoming “global ambassador” for F45 Training, a fitness studio chain part-owned by Wahlberg. Beckham, 48, claims the deal should have seen him receive F45 shares in early 2022 but the stock wasn’t delivered until months later—when its price had fallen from $12 a share to $3. The former LA Galaxy player says he lost some $10 million in profits as a result. Wahlberg, 52, and his two co-defendants say Beckham’s claims of “fraudulent conduct” are baseless. F45 shares are now worth 15 cents apiece. Chris Pratt and Katherine…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024A curious way to save democracyE.J. Dionne Jr.The Washington PostIn a recent poll, 7 out of 10 Americans agreed that “democracy is currently under threat,” said E.J. Dionne. Is this a rare moment of “kumbaya” bipartisan consensus? Quite the opposite. Drill down a bit more, and what concerns Republicans is that it’s become too easy to cast ballots, with 82 percent of them saying they’re worried about widespread voter fraud. Among Democrats, 76 percent are concerned about laws and practices that Republican-run states have adopted to make it harder to vote. To pander to the Trumpist right, House Speaker Mike Johnson recently called for federal legislation requiring proof of citizenship from every voter. But it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote, and “there is no evidence—zip—that fraud is a problem in our system.” Multiple studies…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024It must be true…A British couple was accidentally divorced when a lawyer hit the wrong button on his computer. The lawyer intended to process a divorce for another client, but accidentally selected from a drop-down menu a couple still negotiating financial arrangements for a potential split. The lawyer tried to have the divorce reversed, but was denied by a judge who said the “certainty and finality” of divorce orders must be respected. An exasperated Ayesha Vardag, the head of the law firm that made the mistake, said “the state should not be divorcing people on the basis of a clerical error.” An elephant who escaped from a circus surprised local residents by strolling the streets of Butte, Mont., for about 20 minutes. Viola, of the Jordan World Circus, was getting a bath outside…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Britain: A damning report on treatment for trans youthBritain has failed our most vulnerable children, said Sonia Sodha in The Observer. A “devastating” new inquiry into trans medicine for minors has found that for years, the National Health Service put large numbers of gender-questioning kids on “an irreversible medical pathway” based on “little more than professional hunches.” Following a now-discredited Dutch protocol, doctors at the NHS’s trans youth care center prescribed puberty blockers to under-16s experiencing gender dysphoria to buy them “time to think” about transitioning, and started over-16s on “cross-sex hormones”—which can endanger their bone health and fertility and render them lifelong patients. The inquiry says the clinic ignored evidence that gender dysphoria in adolescents often “self-resolves naturally.” Yet the 388-page report is no transphobic hit job. Author Hilary Cass, a renowned pediatrician, spent four years researching…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Too many elite runners, too few racesCharles Onyango-ObboThe NationWhy are East African marathoners just letting other athletes win? asked Charles Onyango-Obbo. Spectators at the finish line in Beijing’s recent half-marathon were bemused to witness two Kenyans and an Ethiopian suddenly slowing down to let He Jie, China’s best marathoner, catch up to them to finish first—Kenya’s Willy Mnangat actually waved He ahead. “The East African trio may as well have carried” their Chinese competitor “legs first across the finish line.” Mnangat initially said he let He win out of friendship, then said he’d been running as a pacesetter—though in fact he and the other Africans were entered as competitors. There’s a more devious reason for deliberately finishing second, though: It can pay. Kenya has so much long-distance talent that most Kenyan runners find “there is little…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024NPR: An insider’s claim of liberal bias“Has National Public Radio become too left-wing and mired in progressive dogma?” asked Cathy Young in Newsday. So contends a veteran NPR editor, Uri Berliner, who ignited an uproar with a recent Free Press essay slamming the network for its ultra-liberal bias and fixation on “progressive identity politics.” With no “viewpoint diversity” among the leftist staff, he wrote, NPR has become a “polemical news outlet serving a niche audience.” As evidence of this leftward slant, Berliner cited NPR’s supposed embrace of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories, along with its failure to engage with revelations from Hunter Biden’s laptop and the idea that Covid may have originated in a Chinese lab. NPR CEO Katherine Maher defended the network last week, saying it was “profoundly disrespectful” that anyone would question employees’ integrity based on…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Wit & Wisdom“Why do we need to make the rich richer to make them work harder, but make the poor poorer for the same purpose?” Economist Ha-Joon Chang, quoted in The New York Times“Regret is an appalling waste of energy: You can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.” Writer Katherine Mansfield, quoted in The Knowledge“They say housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?” Phyllis Diller, quoted in Duluth News Tribune“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” David Brinkley, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle“I just filled out my income tax. Who says you can’t get killed by a blank?” Milton Berle, quoted in the Canton, Ohio, Repository“We cannot always build the future for our youth,…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Bytes: What’s new in techFacebook keeps dialing down newsMeta’s breakup with politics is taking shape, said Naomi Nix in The Washington Post. The company said it would start “reducing the amount of political content appearing in people’s news feeds” shortly after Jan. 6, 2021, though not everyone believed it would stay true to its word. So far, it has: “Comparing March 2020 to March 2024, both the Biden and Trump campaigns saw 60 percent declines in their average engagement per Facebook post,” along with “double-digit declines on Instagram.” The Biden campaign has countered the pullback by “posting more frequently,” while the Trump campaign has posted much less. “The 25 most-cited news organizations in the United States” have also “lost 75 percent of their total user engagement on Facebook” since 2022 thanks to the visibility…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Evening exercise is bestWorking out in the evening rather than the morning may help you live longer. That’s the conclusion of a new study by researchers in Australia, reports the New York Post. The researchers looked at the health data from nearly 30,000 obese people over eight years. The participants wore activity trackers for seven days nonstop, which allowed the researchers to group them into those who tended to move more in the morning, afternoon, or evening. After accounting for lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and sedentary time, they found that the evening exercisers were less likely to suffer from everything from minor heart problems to death. It didn’t have to be a full workout, either: Any type of movement showed benefit, as long as it got the heart rate up…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Knife: Meditations After an Attempted MurderSalman Rushdie’s new memoir is a book he had to write, said George Packer in The Atlantic. In August 2022, the Satanic Verses author was about to participate in a public discussion of artistic freedom when a knife-wielding Shiite Muslim man—inspired by a fatwa issued against Rushdie in 1989—rushed the stage and stabbed the 75-year-old novelist 10 times. Somehow, the brutal assault didn’t kill Rushdie. But it cost him an eye and most of the use of his left hand, and “he had to will himself through an agonizing recovery—pain, depression, disfigurement, the awful recognition that the fatwa was not behind him after all.” The attack also precluded his continuing work on his next novel until he’d fully addressed the experience. Sharing his version of events, Rushdie writes, “would be…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Best books…chosen by Daniel WallaceAlabama native Daniel Wallace is the author of eight novels, including Big Fish, the 1998 best-seller adapted into a Tim Burton film. Wallace’s memoir This Isn’t Going to End Well, about his brother-in-law and mentor, is now out in paperback.The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino (1957). Cosimo, an 18th-century Italian nobleman, rebels as a boy one day by climbing into a tree and telling his parents he will never come down. And he doesn’t—not for the rest of the novel or his life. Calvino makes this so much fun and utterly believable. Even Voltaire makes an appearance.The Dolphin People by Torsten Krol (2006). I have never met anyone else who has read this novel. I don’t know if it’s still in print. I don’t even know who wrote…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Taylor Swift’s latest: Does pop’s empress need an editor?The Tortured Poets DepartmentAs a pop recording artist, Taylor Swift is, at 34, “too practiced, too masterly, to swing and really miss,” said Amanda Petrusich in The New Yorker. Still, her latest album—another instant commercial phenomenon—“suffers from being too long and too familiar.” Once again, Swift is writing about breakups: Despite how busy she’s been with world tours, pop-culture domination, and her new romance with NFL star Travis Kelce, she has been through two breakups since 2022’s Midnights. And “in Swift’s universe, love is often a battlefield,” just as it mostly has been since she was a teenage songwriting phenom. “Interest in Swift has yet to diminish or fully sour,” but it’s time that she moved on, both musically and thematically. “These days, she is too omnipresent and powerful to…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Broadway: The April crushThe past two weeks on Broadway have been “the equivalent of the theatrical Super Bowl,” said Sarah Bahr in The New York Times. Following tradition, a wave of openings arrived just before the April 25 cutoff date for Tony Award eligibility. But the rush this year was unprecedented. In the final 11-day stretch, 14 plays and musicals opened, which is, “to put it plainly, absurd,” said Adam Feldman in Time Out. But the packed calendar does make for a busy spring. Besides the debut of Stereophonic (see review), the final nine days before the Tony deadline have seen Broadway openings of Suffs, a musical about America’s early-20th-century suffragists and Hell’s Kitchen, a musical based on the life and songs of Alicia Keys that had debuted off-Broadway last fall. Also bowing…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingThe ContestantAnd you thought reality in America was depraved. This new documentary revisits the troubling saga of Nasubi, a young aspiring comedian who in 1998 was left naked in a small room as more than 15 million Japanese home viewers regularly tuned in to watch live as he attempted to clothe and feed himself solely by entering his name in magazine sweepstakes contests. His ordeal lasted 15 months, turning his declining mental health into a marathon spectacle. Thursday, May 2, HuluHacksWelcome back, Deborah Vance. Following a two-year break, the acclaimed series about an aging celebrity comic returns with Jean Smart’s diva riding high after releasing a hit stand-up special. But the Millennial writer who helped Deborah pull off the career comeback isn’t part of the celebration—until Deborah and Hannah Einbinder’s…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Armenian-style rice pilafRice-a-Roni won Americans’ hearts decades ago, but “homemade rice pilaf is far superior to anything you can find in a box,” said Andrew Janjigian in Serious Eats. A dish that’s fundamental to diasporic Armenian cuisine, pilaf “takes barely more than 30 minutes, most of it hands-off,” and once you’ve repeated the steps a few times, you won’t need a recipe.1 cup long-grain white rice • 3 tbsp unsalted butter • ¾ cup thin pasta (such as vermicelli or fine spaghetti), broken into 1-inch pieces, or ½ cup of small, non-tubular pasta, like orzo • 2 cups homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt • ½ tsp black pepper • 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley or dill (or a combination), optional, divided• Place rice in a…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The best of…Mother’s Day giftsOwala FreeSip Water BottlePersonal hydration’s current “It bottle” comes in more than a dozen fun color combinations. Its innovative two-way mouthpiece allows for both sipping and gulping, and the leakproof lid locks securely in place.$28, owalalife.comSource: Refinery29Kuretake Gansai Tambi WatercolorsThese aren’t cheap drugstore watercolor paints. They’re imported from Japan, and pros and amateurs alike love them because they “have the opacity, pigment, and impressive vividness of acrylic.”$57, dickblick.comSource: WirecutterBellocq Tea SamplerA sampler of teas from Bellocq, a Brooklyn atelier, “will delight the mom who prefers leaves over beans.” The Signature Blends collection includes five green, black, and white blends, plus 25 filter bags. An herbal sampler is also available.$38, bellocqtea.comSource: VogueNodpod Sleep Mask“A cute caterpillar of a thing,” the Nodpod is “so soothing and effective” it will convert sleep-mask skeptics.…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024This week: Homes in Arizona1 Sedona This 2024 three-bedroom in West Sedona is minutes from shopping, dining, and hiking. The Dan Jensvold–designed home has owned solar panels, Douglas fir ceilings, art lights, a glass elevator, wood and polished-concrete floors, white-oak cabinetry, a chef’s kitchen with a farmhouse sink, a great room with a wall of windows; a primary suite with a kiva fireplace; and Arhaus furnishings sold separately. Outside are balconies, a roof deck wired for a hot tub, a desert-scaped lot, and red-rock views. $2,895,000. Paul Galloway, Galloway Realty, (928) 821-30002 Litchfield Park Glendale is 45 minutes from this six-bedroom traditional home, and several desert nature areas are nearby. Built as a model in 2021, the open-plan house features exposed beams, shiplap walls, an airy kitchen with an eat-in quartz island, and a…3 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Reversals: Tesla profits drop amid steep sales declineTesla this week reported a “dreary” first quarter, with a 55 percent plunge in profits from last year, said Lora Kolodny in CNBC.com. Profits for the quarter came in at $1.1 billion, and a 13 percent decline in sales “was even steeper than the company’s last decline in 2020,” when the pandemic disrupted production. The news followed a rough patch that prompted the company to cut prices on U.S. models in response to weak sales. However, shares rose after CEO Elon Musk eased Wall Street’s concerns with promises of a new robotaxi network and plans to move up the introduction of a cheaper EV model.Protests: Google cracks down after Gaza war sit-inGoogle this week fired 50 workers accused of disrupting its offices in New York and California with protests over…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024What the experts sayGold bugs find selling is not easyCostco is selling as much as $200 million in gold bars a month, said Katherine Hamilton in The Wall Street Journal. The wholesale retailer where shoppers go for bulk orders of laundry detergent and toothpaste started selling 1-ounce slabs of bullion last October, and they’ve become “a huge hit with a new wave of gold buyers.” Younger investors have “taken an interest in precious metals to protect their wealth against inflation and economic disaster.” But while Costco, which offers the metal at very close to the world market price, makes buying gold easy, selling it is difficult. “Costco won’t buy back the bars or accept returns,” and online dealers charge fees. There are always pawn shops, but they almost never offer market value.Hidden fees…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The GE way ends in a fire saleBeth KowittBloombergThe shuttering of GE’s CEO factory was overdue, said Beth Kowitt. For decades, the “house that Jack Welch built” had its foundation in Crotonville, “its storied leadership academy nestled along the Hudson River in the suburbs of New York City.” There, “executives would disappear for a few weeks at a time to the bucolic campus to learn all about Six Sigma and cost cutting.” Upon graduating, the theory went, they would be ready to lead just about any company by applying the “GE way.” Indeed, Crotonville graduates went on to take charge of companies like Albertsons, Home Depot, and Intuit, companies that “have seemingly little resemblance to GE.” But after leaving it more than a year on the market, GE finally managed to offload Crotonville last week, and it…1 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024The guitarist who was born a ‘Ramblin’ Man’Dickey Betts was such a quintessential rock star—his hair long, his talent electric, and his attitude rebellious—that they modeled the guitarist in the 2000 film Almost Famous explicitly after him. As co-lead guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, he helped shape its blend of rock, jazz, blues, and country into a new genre, Southern rock. He wrote and sang several of the band’s most popular songs, including 1973’s “Ramblin’ Man,” the ode to an unencumbered life on the road that was the Allman Brothers’ biggest hit. The band played hard and often butted heads, breaking up and getting back together multiple times. “When five or six guys are together working intensely, they can really get into some duels,” Betts said in 1989. “We had our spats and fights and knock-’em-down-drag-outs.”Born…2 minThe Week Magazine|May 3, 2024Abortion goes back to the shadowsWomen seeking abortions in states where the procedure is banned must now rely on mail-order pills and volunteer hotlines, said Caroline Kitchener in The Washington Post. The experience is often traumatic.ANGEL TUCKED TWO white pills into each side of her mouth, bracing herself as they began to dissolve. Her deepest fears and anxieties took over. Angel had wanted to talk to a doctor before she took the pills to end her pregnancy, worried about how they might interact with medication she took for her heart condition. But in her home state of Oklahoma, where almost all abortions are banned, that wasn’t an option.The pain kicked in after about an hour, around midnight on a Sunday in January, eventually becoming sharp enough that the 23-year-old said she struggled to stand. While…10 min
