Home//The Week Magazine/March 13, 2020/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Editor’s letterAfghanistan in 2020 is starting to look a lot like Vietnam in 1973. That year, with no input from South Vietnam’s pro-U.S. government, President Richard Nixon signed a deal with North Vietnam to speed America’s exit from a deeply unpopular “forever war.” The Trump administration struck a similar accord with the Afghan Taliban this week, also with minimal buy-in from our local allies. (See Talking Points.) In return for vague Taliban promises to shun al Qaida and talk power sharing with the government in Kabul, the U.S. will withdraw its 12,000 troops over the next 14 months. History tells us what’s likely to happen next. Two years after Nixon inked his accord, the North Vietnamese overran Saigon and sent hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese to re-education camps. Should the…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020It wasn’t all badHarold Storelee, 88, prides himself on his manicured lawn. But while mowing the grass last week, the Washington state resident fell and broke his hip. An ambulance raced to the scene and three EMTs took Storelee to the hospital. After a hectic day responding to car accidents and other emergencies, the medics clocked off at 5 p.m. But rather than go home, the trio went to Storelee’s house and spent an hour finishing tidying the yard. “We knew he’d be down for a while,” said EMT Alexander Trautman. “The least we could do was go back and help out.”Two years ago, Finn Lanning was stunned to hear that one of his middle-school math students wouldn’t be returning to school. Damien, then 12, had an autoimmune disease that was causing his…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Only in AmericaA blind Chicago man has been denied U.S. citizenship because he is “unable to read a sentence in the English language.” Mexican immigrant Lucio Delgado, 23, taught himself English by listening to the radio. But officials refused to provide the reading portion of his naturalization test in braille. “To receive such negative news shattered all of my dreams in one second,” Delgado said.A New Jersey couple says their Catholic church is refusing to give their son Holy Communion because he’s autistic. Anthony LaCugna, 8, has been studying to receive Communion, but the church told the LaCugnas that because Anthony is largely nonverbal and cannot express “contrition” for his sins, he cannot receive the sacrament. “It is absurd,” said Anthony’s mom. “My son is a child of God.”A second try for…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020How Taylor overcame addictionJames Taylor knew he was in trouble the first time he tried heroin, said Jenny Stevens in The Guardian. “One of the signs that you have an addiction problem is how well it works for you at the very beginning,” says the singer-songwriter, 71. “It’s the thing that makes you say, ‘Damn, I like my life now.’ That’s when you know you shouldn’t do it again.” He’d grown up in a family haunted by addiction and mental illness, and at 16 spent nine months in a psychiatric hospital; two of his siblings later checked in for treatment. When Taylor came out, he set out for New York City and formed a band. It was then that he began using heroin, finding that it “took the edge off” his darker moods.…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020In the newsLiberal political commentator Chris Matthews announced he was retiring and walked off the set of his MSNBC show this week, after a female guest accused him of making “creepy” comments to her in 2016. The network and Matthews, 74, reportedly agreed that he should step down. Journalist Laura Bassett said last week that while getting made up to appear on the show, Matthews, who’s married, asked, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” Before another appearance, Bassett says Matthews complimented her dress and asked, “You going out tonight?” Matthews has faced several accusations of sexual harassment and alluded to that in his final monologue. “Compliments to women on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK, were never OK,” he said.…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Mayor Pete’s trailblazing presidential runTim TeemanTheDailyBeast.comPete Buttigieg’s “historic” candidacy has forever changed America’s political landscape, said Tim Teeman. The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination this week, after becoming “the first openly gay person” to win a primary state (Iowa) in U.S. history. With his characteristic eloquence, the 38-year-old Buttigieg candidly addressed his sexuality “in a way no other public figure has done.” He spoke lovingly about his husband, Chasten, whom he “kissed and embraced” at campaign events. He invoked his Christian faith to gracefully rebuff attacks from hom*ophobic “bigots” like Rush Limbaugh. Sadly, it was fellow gays who were most openly critical of Buttigieg, scorning him as “too guarded,” too “nerdy,” and too eager to please heterosexuals. Mayor Pete, these detractors said, wasn’t “gay enough.”…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020I read it in the tabloidsA man with a tattoo on his forehead reading “Crime Pays” has been arrested and jailed in Indiana after leading police on a car chase for the second time in three months. Donald Murray, 38, was slapped with a raft of charges after this latest pursuit, in addition to those held over from his first, when he sped away from cops, crashed into a tree, and fled on foot. “He shouldn’t be hard to spot,” said a Live PD host at the time. “Look at this guy. That’s an outlaw right there.”A dog with an off-kilter face named Picasso has become a social media darling for his resemblance to the famous artist’s cubist style. The 3-year-old pit bull–chihuahua-Pomeranian mix was born with “wry mouth,” a condition that slants his nose…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Europe: Lockdowns spread with coronavirusThe “sense of emergency is growing,” said Chiara Baldi in La Stampa (Italy). In a matter of days, the number of coronavirus cases in Italy more than tripled to at least 3,000 this week, and the death toll rocketed above 100. The outbreak—likely sparked by travelers from China—began in the north but has now spread as far south as Sicily. Hundreds more Covid-19 infections have sprung up across the European Union, many of which have been traced back to Italy. The coronavirus has upended daily life here. At least 11 northern Italian towns have been placed under quarantine, and nearby hospitals say they are overwhelmed. In Milan, which isn’t officially locked down, bars and restaurants have been shuttered and public offices closed. Coronavirus is sickening our economy, said Guido Fiorini…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020This isn’tMerrie OldeEnglandCANADAHeather MallickToronto StarOntario Premier Doug Ford is gleefully trying to start political fights by being “pointlessly annoying,” said Heather Mallick. Ford’s Progressive Conservatives recently forced through a rule change that requires all state lawmakers to sing “God Save the Queen” in the legislature on the first Monday of each month. The rule took effect this week, and several indigenous members refused to sing along. New Democrat Sol Mamakwa said the revival of the British national anthem was an attempt to glorify “a hurtful and violent colonial past,” an era that “sought the destruction of cultures, languages, and communities.” Ford, of course, was delighted by the refusal, because it gave him and his cronies an excuse to huff, “Oooh, look, he’s insulting our queen.” But in fact most Ontarians agree with…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020NotedAd spending on the 2020 presidential primary has already surpassed $1 billion—the most money spent in U.S. history this early in an election cycle. Democratic candidates have spent a combined $969 million—with $724 million of that total spent by the campaigns of billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. Experts predict that candidates of both parties will spend a total of $10 billion on political ads before Election Day.Axios.comThe Justice Department is creating a new arm focused on revoking the citizenship of immigrants who lied or omitted information on their applications. The new Denaturalization Section will target “terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters,” the department said.CNN.comAntarctica tourism is booming. More than 56,000 tourists visited the remote region during the 2018-19 season, and above 78,000 are expected for the current…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Wit & Wisdom“What exists, exists so that it can be lost and become precious.” Poet Lisel Mueller, quoted in BrainPickings.org“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” George Orwell, quoted in TheBulwark.com“Two errors; one, to take everything literally; two, to take everything spiritually.” Mathematician Blaise Pascal, quoted in TheGuardian.com“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” Philosopher Montesquieu, quoted in The Washington Post“The particular charm of marriage is the duologue, the permanent conversation between two people who talk over everything and everyone till death breaks the record.” Critic Cyril Connolly, quoted in ArtsJournal.com“We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Innovation of the weekA new 3D printer can produce a model in seconds, said Ron Amadeo in ArsTechnica.com. Existing 3D printers have proven to be great for prototyping and other pursuits, “but they sure can take a while”—often hours or days. That’s because they work in a “layer-by-layer process” in which a 3D model is effectively “sliced into hundreds of 2D horizontal layers and slowly built up, one layer at a time.” But a new technique developed by researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland can “build the entire model at once” through a technique called rotational printing. A “photosensitive resin” inside a sealed rotating container is blasted by a laser from multiple angles simultaneously to harden portions of the resin into the desired shape.…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Mars gets the shakesTen months after NASA announced that its InSight lander had detected seismic activity on Mars, the space agency has revealed this “Marsquake” was far from a one-off. Since then, InSight has recorded more than 450 significant seismic events, including 24 with a magnitude of 3 or 4. That means Mars is less seismically active than Earth but more so than the moon. “The larger quakes at this point seem to be less frequent than we had expected,” InSight chief investigator Bruce Banerdt tells New Scientist. Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates, so the quakes are likely caused by the Red Planet losing heat. This makes it contract, which causes Mars’ outer skin to fracture. The NASA team says there is no pattern to the quakes but that they have noticed a…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success(Avid Reader, $27)“It’s hard to think of a current book that is as insightful about the way we live now as is this one,” said Rod Dreher in TheAmericanConservative.com. “Offering provocative thoughts on almost every page,” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat brushes aside the popular notion that America and the rest of the industrialized West are in crisis. Instead, he says, we are living in an age of decadence, a condition he defines as creative and economic stagnation experienced by a prosperous society. Decadence isn’t hedonism, in other words, and catching it isn’t fatal. The Roman Empire, he points out, lasted 400 years in a state of decadence. Besides, stagnation and stability often go hand in hand. But stasis does generate a malaise, caused by the loss of a…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Chosen by Glennon DoyleGlennon Doyle’s new memoir, Untamed, describes her life today with her current spouse, soccer star Abby Wambach. Below, the ex–mommy blogger and best-selling author of Love Warrior recommends ‘soulful, life-changing’ works of nonfiction.Know My Name by Chanel Miller (2019). I sat down to read this memoir intending to bear witness to the story of a survivor of sexual assault. Instead, I found myself falling into the hands of one of the great writers and thinkers of our time. Miller is a philosopher, a cultural critic, a deep observer, a writer’s writer, and an artist. If we are lucky, this will be the first of many world-changing pieces of art that this woman produces.Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (2014). Just Mercy affected me more deeply than anything I’ve read in the…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Onward(PG)Two elf brothers learn to move past regret.Pixar’s first original feature since 2017’s Coco is a “touching, lovingly crafted oddity,” said Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times. An unlikely mashup of “an ancient storybook quest, a rowdy ’80s-flavored buddy comedy, and an out-and-out male weepie,” it finds “glimmers of real enchantment and honest feeling” in its tale of two brothers trying to reconnect with their dead father. In a contemporary suburban landscape populated by trolls and other mythic creatures, Ian, an awkward teenage elf, and his goofy older brother are bequeathed an enchanter’s staff that they use to restore their father to life—but wind up getting only his bottom half. In search of a fix, they set off on an adventure. Though Tom Holland and Chris Pratt handle the…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020SuddenlyDan Snaith, the Canadian-born, London-based dance-music guru who records as Caribou and Daphni, “has spent 20 years now mixing festival-tent ecstasy with heartfelt interiority,” said Rob Harvilla in TheRinger.com. Still, his first Caribou album in five years feels like his most personal yet. It’s also “extravagantly rewarding whether you think about it way too hard or hardly think about it at all.” It provides close listeners with magician-like cuts between piano arpeggios and thundering EDM, yet it’s also loaded with pop earworms. The album’s signature move is a sudden warping of the music, said Alexis Petridis in TheGuardian.com. But Snaith has also pushed his “fragile, unshowy” vocals to the forefront, and doing so “turns out remarkably impactful.” His unpredictable career has ended up in an exciting niche—a place “where electronic…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Movies on TVMonday, March 9Blue ValentineMichelle Williams and Ryan Gosling do all they can to break your heart in this drama about the demise of a once beautiful romance. (2010) 8 p.m., the Movie ChannelTuesday, March 10Monterey PopJimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, and the Who kick off a new rock era at the 1967 festival that inspired Woodstock. And filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker was there. (1968) 6:30 p.m., TCMWednesday, March 11SpotlightRachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, and Mark Ruffalo lead a top ensemble cast in the Oscar-winning drama about the team of reporters who exposed widespread child abuse in Boston’s Catholic archdiocese. (2015) 8 p.m., the Movie ChannelThursday, March 12SnatchBrad Pitt leads a tough-guy cast in Guy Ritchie’s stylish caper about London gangsters vying for a rare diamond. (2000) 9:35 p.m., EpixFriday, March 13First…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Houston’s best: The three new restaurants you have to tryIn our state as much as in any other, “restaurants are becoming more and more like bars,” said Patricia Sharpe in Texas Monthly. In our new list of Texas’ best new restaurants, Houston dominates the top five with three venues, and all three exude at least a little of the casual, party-like air that diners seem to crave these days.Squable At Justin Yu and Bobby Heugel’s latest hit venture, the easygoing setting and the reasonable prices belie the sophistication of the cooking, and the food, though unpredictable in style, is “deliciously on-target.” Rising talents Mark Clayton and Drew Gimma call it a European menu with American influences, which somehow explains why they serve succotash with a chicken-based “sauce espagnole” and why the mussels are marinated, shelled, and served on grilled…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Utah’s Goblin ValleyBryce Canyon National Park gets more attention, but Utah’s own Goblin Valley State Park is “every bit as impressive and Mars-like,” said Kastalia Medrano in Thrillist.com. Known for its thousands of goblins, or hoodoos—“those bizarre-looking rock spires that we’ve come to associate with Bryce Canyon”—Goblin Valley can hold its own with any national park. Those hoodoos, which are created when a rock column erodes more quickly than its cap, seem to stretch to the horizon in every direction, and you’re free to wander among them. The park, four hours south of Salt Lake City, is open year-round, but it’s best to visit this desert in cooler months. Skilled canyoners can get backcountry permits for $2 to rappel into the Goblin’s Lair, a natural sandstone cave, and hikers and mountain bikers…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The 2020 Hyundai VenueThe Detroit NewsCars like the new Hyundai Venue are “increasingly rare.” At a time when the average price of a new vehicle sold in the U.S. is $39,000, Hyundai has just rolled out a “tasty” little subcompact crossover that’s priced well below the $20,000 mark. “As Mini Cooper–cute as it is utilitarian,” the Venue is now the lowest-priced SUV in America, yet it’s “peppered” with modern electronics and—especially if you opt for the manual transmission—perfectly willing to play.Consumer ReportsNot that the Venue is fast: Its 121-hp four-cylinder engine struggles to reach highway speed when merging. But this attractive front-wheel-drive runabout is “poised in around-town driving” and feels “pretty sprightly” on country roads. What’s more, it averages 35 mpg with its standard transmission, it’s surprisingly roomy for its size, and it…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020For taking measurementsDimensions: Rough measurements of rooms and objects can be taken using Google Play or Apple’s free augmented-reality apps, both called Measure. Android’s comparable app is Moasure, while Ruler for Android or iOS makes the screen a ruler.Distances: Strava excels at measuring distances you’ve walked and plotting your path on a map. When driving, try MileIQ, and turn to Polarsteps if you’re trying to track distance traveled by land, sea, and air.Altitude: Your phone is equipped to calculate altitude, but you need an app to show you the results. For iOS, try My Altitude or My Altitude and Elevation GPS; for Android GPS, try My Elevation or Altimeter Ler.Speed: You can always use Google Maps to see your current speed. For more functionality, try Cyclemeter for cycling and SpeedView or Speedometer…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Apple: Compensation for phone slowdownsApple will pay certain iPhone users $25 per phone to settle litigation accusing it of intentionally slowing down older phones, said Jonathan Stempel in Reuters.com. For years, customers had “contended that their phones’ performance suffered after they installed Apple software updates,” particularly after the release of newer iPhone versions. In 2017, the company admitted to the slowdowns, which analysts call “throttling,” though Apple denied that it intentionally “misled customers into believing their phones were near the end of their life cycle.” Under the proposed settlement, Apple could pay up to $500 million.Waymo: Alphabet gets funding for ‘other bets’Alphabet-backed self-driving car startup Waymo raised $2.25 billion from outside investors this week, said Jennifer Elias in CNBC.com. The extraordinary sum, from investors including Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and AutoNation, is the latest…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020What the experts say‘Pandemic bonds’ fail to provide aidDespite a worldwide total of more than 3,000 deaths from coronavirus, bonds designed to provide aid in case of pandemic are yet to be triggered, said Mark Baker in Euromoney. So-called pandemic bonds were created by the World Bank after “a slow and ineffective reaction to a bad outbreak of Ebola in 2014.” The bonds are held by investors who bet that their high interest payments outweigh the chances of paying out in case of a global epidemic. If a severe epidemic strikes, investors’ money is taken to aid the medical response in developing countries, based on a complex formula; for instance, some of the bonds will lose 75 percent of their value “in the event of a global outbreak” with more than 750 deaths.…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Computers make harsh bossesJosh DziezaTheVerge.comThe robots have arrived, said Josh Dzieza, except they’re working in management. In many fields, jobs haven’t disappeared, but automation is flourishing “in the form of the supervisor, the foreman, the middle manager.” And these bosses aren’t kind. For the humans under them, “jobs are becoming more intense, stressful, and dangerous.” Few companies have embraced automated management as completely as Amazon, where “every aspect of management at the company’s warehouses is directed by software, from when people work to how fast they work to when they get fired for falling behind.” Workers there say that “little breaks and minor freedoms get optimized out” of their jobs, leaving them no chance to “rest or recover.” The pace is enforced with the help of only two or three human managers for…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The GE boss who popularized ruthless managementAs the hard-charging CEO and chairman of General Electric from 1981 to 2001, Jack Welch rewrote the playbook on corporate management. Under his famous “rank and yank” policy, GE managers were forced to identify the top 10 percent and bottom 10 percent of their employees every year. Top performers got hefty bonuses, while the bottom 10 percent got pink slips—no matter how well the company was doing. Welch eliminated some 100,000 jobs in his first five years, earning the nickname “Neutron Jack”—a nod to the neutron bomb that was designed to kill people but leave buildings intact. Similarly, he spun off old divisions with no remorse and raced into promising sectors with bold acquisitions. The results of this ruthless approach to business were undeniable: During his 20 years at GE,…3 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Scenes from a pandemicReports on the advance of Covid-19, in the U.S., Italy, and South Korea.QUARANTINE IN OMAHAI caught the coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, said Carl Goldman in The Washington Post. Now the fever’s subsided and I’m waiting out the illness.I have the coronavirus. And it hasn’t been that bad. I am in my late 60s, and the sickest I’ve ever been was when I had bronchitis several years ago. That laid me out on my back for a few days. This has been much easier: no chills, no body aches. I breathe easily, and I don’t have a stuffy nose. My chest feels tight, and I have coughing spells. If I were at home with similar symptoms, I probably would have gone to work as usual.I caught the virus…10 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Biden’s historic comeback transforms raceWhat happenedIn a stunning turnaround, Joe Biden catapulted to the front of the Democratic presidential race this week with a powerhouse Super Tuesday showing that effectively narrowed the primary to a two-person race between the moderate former vice president and democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. It was an extraordinary comeback for a candidate who’d stumbled in early debates and performed poorly in the first three primaries and caucuses. Biden’s campaign was revived after African-American and suburban voters gave him an unexpectedly decisive win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg both then dropped out and endorsed Biden, and their backing made Biden the clear choice for moderate Democrats panicking at the thought of putting the far-left Sanders up against President Trump. On Super Tuesday, Biden won…5 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Covid-19: Is Trump up to the challenge?President Trump survived impeachment and the Mueller investigation, and has “waved away dozens of lesser scandals as though they were nothing more than gnats,” said Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes in TheAtlantic.com. In the rapidly spreading coronavirus, though, he “faces a challenge unlike any he has confronted before”—one that he can’t fix with his “usual tool kit” of bullying, lies, and claims of a “witch hunt.” As the deadly virus started to spread within our borders, Trump repeatedly made it clear he views the epidemic in purely political and selfish terms, as a threat to the stock market and his re-election. Virtually every day, the president and his aides have used public statements to praise the “incredible job” they are doing, to minimize the threat, and to blame Democrats for…3 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Brewery shootingMilwaukeeA longtime employee at the Molson Coors brewery fatally shot five co-workers last week before killing himself. Anthony Ferrill, 51, worked for 17 years as an electrician at the campus famous for its red “Home of the High Life” Miller beer sign. Ferrill showed up in his company uniform with two handguns, one equipped with a silencer, and killed co-workers ages 33 to 57. Although police were silent on a motive, a co-worker says Ferrill was involved in a long-running dispute with colleagues, contending he was discriminated against because he was African-American. Colleagues say a noose was found on Ferrill’s locker five years ago, leading managers to call a brewery-wide meeting. Racial tension and taunts were said to be common at the workplace. “The culture of the company was very,…4 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Samin Nosrat’s ‘superpower’Samin Nosrat feels like she spent most of her life being invisible, said Helen Rosner in The New Yorker. As the child of Iranian immigrants who fled their country in 1976, the renowned chef and author of best-selling cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat says she grew up “a brown kid in a super-white world” in the affluent La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. Nosrat, 40, says that during her formative years, she came to feel a profound sense of isolation. “I was called a ‘terrorist’ in second grade. I have never once been made to feel that I fit in among white people. I was always very aware that I was different, but I was also always trying very hard to fit in by being the nicest, the smartest, the…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The housing crisisMillions of Americans can no longer dream of buying a home. Rental apartments are also unaffordable. Why?What’s gone wrong?From cities to suburbs to rural America, the cost of housing has far outpaced increases in salaries. Home prices are growing at twice the rate of wages, and there are fewer houses on the market than in any year since 1982. The single-family house, with a garage and a front lawn, remains a bedrock of the American dream, even as it recedes from many people’s reach. Young adults are one-third less likely to be homeowners than the previous generation was at the same age, and nearly two-thirds of renters say they can’t afford a house. The median single-family house costs about $280,000, with demand driving prices at the lower end of the…5 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Open partisan conflict on Supreme CourtElie HonigCNN.comOne of the unwritten rules of the Supreme Court is that you “never accuse your fellow justices of playing politics,” said Elie Honig. Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently broke that rule with “a blistering dissent” in an immigration case that was the equivalent of “a 96-mile-per-hour fastball buzzed under the chins of her conservative colleagues.” Sotomayor accused the court’s five conservatives of favoring “one litigant over all others” in agreeing 20 times to Trump administration requests to issue “emergency” rulings staying lower-court decisions. President Trump reacted by calling on Sotomayor and fellow liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to recuse themselves from any case involving him. That won’t happen, but “the partisan divide” on the court is now out in the open. In coming months, the Roberts court is expected to…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Panic over pedophilia wrecked livesUNITED KINGDOMDavid AaronovitchThe TimesThe U.K. is just emerging from a witch hunt that saw dozens of innocent people smeared as child sex abusers, said David Aaronovitch. It all started in 2012, when Tom Watson—a senior member of the opposition Labour Party—told the House of Commons that there was “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful pedophile network linked to Parliament.” What followed was a spree of dubiously sourced, hysterical articles in our irresponsible tabloid media with headlines such as “I supplied underage rent boys for Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet ministers.” Many stories were based on the “florid fictional accounts of murders and rapes by senior political and military figures” supplied by Carl Beech, a former pediatric nurse. The government ordered an investigation that took years and cost more than $3 million. It concluded…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Middle East: Turkey and Russia clash in SyriaThe humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in northwestern Syria “is fast becoming a geopolitical one as well,” said Jonathan Marcus in BBC.com. In a brutal attempt to end the country’s nine-year-old civil war, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been battling to retake Idlib, the last rebel-held province. Two years ago, it seemed as if Russia and Iran (Assad’s main supporters) and Turkey (the main supporter of the rebels) had come to an understanding in the province, with all parties observing a cease-fire while keeping troops deployed in the area. Assad blew up that pact late last year, launching an offensive “backed by Russian air power and Iranian proxies” that has sent some 950,000 people fleeing toward the Turkish border. An alarmed Turkey took immediate action to halt the slaughter, adding thousands of…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Afghanistan: A real peace deal?The “truly momentous” deal the U.S. and the Taliban signed this week could mean America’s longest war is nearing an end, said Kathy Gilsinan in TheAtlantic.com. But the U.S. will come away with nothing close to victory—just the beginning of a new process that will give the Taliban a share of power in Afghanistan. In the deal, the Taliban agrees not to harbor al Qaida or other terrorist groups and to enter talks with the U.S.-backed Afghan government. The U.S. will reduce its forces from more than 12,000 troops to 8,600 in the coming months, and aim for a full withdrawal by spring 2021. Signed 18 years after we set out to “annihilate the Taliban,” after $2 trillion spent and more than 3,500 American and allied lives lost, the deal…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Border shooting: Mexican nationals can’t sueThe U.S. Supreme Court just “shut the courthouse door” on the family of a 15-year-old Mexican boy shot dead by a Border Patrol agent, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court’s conservative majority ruled that the parents of Sergio Adrián Hernández had no standing to sue. Since the 2010 incident occurred at the border, Alito said, it was “an international incident” with “a clear and strong connection to national security,” which is the province of Congress and the president. Hernandez’s family says he and friends were playing in a dry culvert of the Rio Grande and posed no threat. The agent, Jesus Mesa Jr., claimed the teen “had pelted him with rocks” before he fired two shots across…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Repression: Big Brother’s internet shutdownIf you’ve ever wondered how daily life would go on without access to email, social media, GPS, or any internet service at all, said Pranav Dixit in BuzzFeedNews.com, it’s happening now in Kashmir. Since Aug. 5, Indian authorities have kept the people of Kashmir in a nearly total “digital blackout.” They flipped the switch to “prevent public opposition from turning into open rebellion” after the Indian government split the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir into two territories and curbed its autonomy. “Overnight, mobile phones and landlines stopped working, broadband lines were frozen, and text messaging stopped.” Despite a ruling from India’s Supreme Court that the blackout was unconstitutional, mobile data and social media—except for a few “government-approved websites”—remain blocked for almost everyone. The digital dead zone has led to…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The animal that doesn’t need oxygenScientists have discovered the first known animal that doesn’t require oxygen to survive, reports USA Today. Closely related to jellyfish, Henneguya salminicola is a common parasite that lives within the muscle tissue of salmon. When a team of Israeli researchers sequenced the genes of this creature, they were stunned to find that—unlike every other known multicellular organism on Earth—these parasites don’t have the DNA machinery needed to perform aerobic respiration. They’re missing mitochondria, the powerhouses that sit inside cells and use oxygen to generate energy. The researchers believe that because H. salminicola live inside fish, they have evolved to survive without traits common to most multicellular species. “They have lost their tissue, their nerve cells, their muscles, everything,” says study co-author Dorothée Huchon, from Tel Aviv University. “Now we find…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Mystery methane emissionsNew research suggests that the oil and gas industry is a far greater contributor to climate change than previously thought because the sector’s methane emissions have been seriously underestimated. Methane’s warming effect is 80 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, so it’s of particular interest to climate scientists. Researchers have long debated whether the main source of rising methane levels in the atmosphere is the extraction and burning of fossil fuels or natural emissions from geologic sources—leaks from the ocean floor, for example. To resolve the question, scientists dug up more than 2,000 pounds of ice cores from Greenland’s ice sheet and then sucked out methane-containing air bubbles that had been trapped in the ice from before the Industrial Revolution. Levels of geologic methane…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line(Random House, $27)This brilliant new novel “announces the arrival of a literary supernova,” said Lorraine Adams in The New York Times. It’s easy to link Deepa Anappara’s storytelling genius to her background as a reporter in Mumbai and Delhi, but to talk solely of her eye for detail misses “the heat and mystery” of her prose, and the way the voice of her street-raised 9-year-old protagonist “somersaults on the page.” Jai, who lives in a smog-shrouded shantytown, is a crime-show buff who upon learning that one of his classmates has gone missing decides to investigate, enlisting two friends. The novel’s courageous and cheeky young narrator “keeps you on the edge of your seat,” said Sana Goyal in the Los Angeles Review of Books. He doesn’t understand everything around him and…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020In justice and liesThe Triumph of Doubtby David Michaels (Oxford, $28)Big Tobacco was only the first, said Sheril Kirshenbaum in ScienceMag.org. In this “tour de force” history, epidemiologist David Michaels trots out “account after account” of how findings about public health dangers have been undermined and obscured by corporations and wealthy individuals. Michaels “pulls no punches”—castigating Volkswagen, the NFL, and others for their deceits. Though it’s all true, “there are moments when The Triumph of Doubt feels more like fiction than reality.”The Professor and the Parsonby Adam Sisman (Counterpoint, $26)The titular parson in this nonfiction work “emerges as a quite despicable, though endlessly fascinating, character,” said Patricia Hagen in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Robert Parkin Peters—an ordinary Englishman on the surface—spent 60 years inflating his credentials, marrying multiple times, and jumping from church…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The Burnt Orange Heresy(R)An art collector enlists a critic in a silk-glove crime.Yes, that’s Mick Jagger in a supporting role. But this new art-fraud thriller “works best as a kind of screen test” for its paired co-stars, said Guy Lodge in Variety. Claes Bang plays a Milan-based art critic who toys with tourists to pay the bills; Elizabeth Debicki follows him home and into bed one day and proves his equal in clever banter. Indeed, when this film darkens halfway in, “you may wish Bang and Debicki had been around to make elegant little mystery capers with Alfred Hitchco*ck.” Jagger plays an art collector who invites the couple to his Lake Como estate, and his Cassidy is “an extraordinary figure—wicked, wrinkled, flute-thin, with a smile too big for his head,” said Anthony Lane…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Miss AnthropoceneGrimes’ latest “sounds like a pulled punch from an artist whose superpower used to be her sonic and conceptual fearlessness,” said Judy Berman in Time. “By no means a bad album,” Miss Anthropocene presents itself as a deliberately perverse celebration of global warming, and it contains several strong tracks of arty electronic pop that again prove the 31-year-old singer-producer who records as Grimes “could bend and meld genres in her sleep.” Still, the 10-song set doesn’t hang together “as tightly as a concept record should,” and the lyrics don’t meet the concept’s ambition. “Even if it’s not always as vivid as some of her earlier albums,” said Heather Phares in AllMusic.com, “Miss Anthropocene is often fascinating.” Its opening track “begins by rolling in like a blanket of smog,” and much…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020WestworldGoodbye, Westworld; hello, real world. As Season 3 of this puzzle-box sci-fi series begins, the android played by Evan Rachel Wood has escaped the cowboy theme park where she was created and gained sentience. Now Wood’s Dolores is at large in a near-future Los Angeles and about to recruit a construction worker played by Aaron Paul to assist in a revolution. Their target: a data collection firm that is making humans no freer than the androids who populate Westworld. Lena Waithe, Vincent Cassel, and NFL star Marshawn Lynch add three more new faces. Sunday, March 15, at 9 p.m., HBO…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Wine: A prickly TuscanRosso di Montalcino can be frustrating, said Eric Asimov in The New York Times. At its best, it’s an “easy, delicious” Tuscan sangiovese akin to Chianti classico. But because the Montalcino region also produces brunello, a wine aged at least four years, some winemakers use the cheaper rosso as a dumping ground for lesser grapes. The three below are not those.2016 Uccelliera ($29). The wine that our panel enjoyed most at a recent tasting balances earthiness, bittersweet fruit flavors, and lively acidity. Its structure suggests it will age well.2017 Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona ($25). An even better value, this rosso is “sweet, spicy, and floral,” offering “clear, balanced” mineral and bittersweet red fruit flavors.2017 Mastrojanni ($27). Another fine product of southern Montalcino, the Mastrojanni is “lively, pure, and structured, with earthy…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Quality time with the Golden GateEven “the quintessential 21st-century city” has pockets of windswept natural splendor, said Helen Carefoot in The Washington Post. During a recent trip back home, I joined my mother and brother for a hike in San Francisco’s Lands End, a park within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area that provides “many of the Bay Area’s most jaw-dropping vistas.” Our trail followed the path of a defunct rail line and took us past Point Lobos (a favorite spot for sea lions) and through “a dark green canopy of cypress and eucalyptus.” The Golden Gate Bridge isn’t exactly close, but glimpses of it are constant, and Eagle’s Point and the beaches offer unobstructed views. We stopped at the stone labyrinth that an artist built on one open bluff, and at Cliff House, an…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Drinks to goStojo 12 oz CupThis reusable silicone cup—available in a rainbow of colors—flattens to a 2.5-inch disk that’ll fit in a pocket. “It’s truly that small.” And it will pay for itself if you buy your coffee at a café that offers a bring-your-own-mug discount.$15, stojo.coSource: TravelAndLeisure.comPopBabies Personal Blender“The true definition of portable,” this single-serving blender can be charged with a USB cord from your desktop computer and will also operate unplugged. Just be ready to cut fruit small, and your smoothies will always be fresh.$37, amazon.comSource: Shape.comStanley Stay Hot French PressWhen traveling, “think like a construction worker to always have great coffee.” Pack this Stanley thermos in your bag with your choice of dry grounds. Hot water can always be accessed—even from a flight attendant.$65, stanley-pmi.comSource: Bloomberg.comFinal Straw 2.0Forget the…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Homes near hiking trailsBurnsville, N.C. Perched on 2 acres on a bank of the South Toe River, this three-bedroom home is also close to six hiking trails and Mount Mitchell. The 1992 house is anchored by a great room with a 24-foot vaulted ceiling, a central fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside are a covered porch with a fireplace; a two-bedroom guesthouse with a balcony; garden space; river frontage; and golf course access. $850,000. Debora Roldan, June Jerome Realty, (828) 208-0112Rockport, Maine Rockledge, built in 2015, is a five-bedroom New England–style farmhouse overlooking Penobscot Bay and close to multiple trailheads and a state park. The contemporary, light-filled interior has a great room with a balcony, a chef’s kitchen, and a master bedroom with a wall of windows. The 1-acre property includes a one-bedroom guesthouse,…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The bottom lineFemale-founded companies got just 2.7 percent of all venture capital funding in 2019, for a total of $3.54 billion. That’s up from 2.2 percent in 2018, but remains less than WeWork alone received in funding ($5 billion) in the same period.Fortune.comShares of Zoom Technologies (ZOOM) went up 96.4 percent last week even though the company hasn’t reported revenue since 2011. Investors confused the stock ticker symbol with Zoom Video (ZM), the conferencing service favored by many remote workers. ZOOM went up 52 percent last year on the day of ZM’s IPO.MarketWatch.comEmployees at Goldman Sachs left behind precisely 525 suits and 256 donatable items of women’s clothing at their old U.K. headquarters when they moved into a new office last summer.Financial News (U.K.)Americans paid almost $64 billion less in federal income…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Charity of the weekIn 1988, three conservationists came up with a bold vision to save rain forests and endangered species by purchasing land and converting it into private nature reserves. Thus, the Rainforest Trust (rainforesttrust.org) was birthed. The charity partners with organizations in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia to identify sites that are under threat by loggers, miners, or ranchers and raises funds to acquire the land to stop the trend of deforestation, with an estimated total forest area the size of Switzerland getting destroyed annually. The trust then trains locals to safeguard the reserves by removing traps and stopping illegal logging. Since its inception, the Rainforest Trust has protected over 23 million acres of rain forests worldwide and is working on securing 50 million acres more.Each charity we feature has earned…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Brand newThis week’s question: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have reluctantly agreed to drop their plan to market the “Sussex Royal” brand after the queen forbade them from using the word “royal.” Please come up with a snappy new brand name that the couple could use to exploit their ex-royal status.Last week’s contest: Astrophysicists are trying to identify the source of mysterious radio signals that are being emitted at regular intervals from a galaxy 500 million light-years away. Please come up with the important message that an alien civilization far, far away might be trying to send us.THE WINNER: AMAZING Opportunity! Send Username and Password NOW! —Norm Carrier, Flat Rock, N.C.SECOND PLACE: Oops, did I click “reply all”? Max Goldstein, Weston, Fla.THIRD PLACE: Hawking was right. See you soon. Jason Feltner,…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020U.S. coronavirus cases mountingWhat happenedThe U.S. braced for a surge in the number of new coronavirus infections this week, with reported cases now spanning at least 16 states, including an outbreak at a Washington state nursing home and cases in New York City and Los Angeles. In all, health officials reported 153 American cases and 11 deaths (eight linked to the Seattle-area nursing home). Los Angeles declared a state of emergency and warned of potential school closures. The World Health Organization said the respiratory illness, or Covid-19, had infected 92,000-plus people and killed 3,200 in more than 70 countries. The mortality rate (3.4 percent) in reported cases was higher than in early estimates, though experts say less serious cases may not have been caught by testing. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National…3 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Good week/bad weekGood week for:Woke epidemiology, after the World Health Organization urged against saying that people are “transmitting Covid-19,” “infecting others,” or “spreading the virus,” because that wording “assigns blame.” Instead, we should refer to people “acquiring” the virus.American Samoa, whose profile was briefly raised when Mike Bloomberg won the South Pacific island chain’s caucuses with 175 total votes. It was the only jurisdiction Bloomberg won after he spent $500 million on his campaign.Computer literacy, after Fox News anchor Brit Hume tweeted out a screenshot of his computer, forgetting to close a browser tab on which the 76-year-old had evidently been researching a “Sexy Vixen” set of vinyl lingerie, retailing for a hard-to-resist $15.37.Bad week for:Eco-anxiety, with a new BBC survey of 8- to 16-year-olds showing that 73 percent are worried about…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Insulting GretaEdmonton, AlbertaAn Alberta oil-field company has apologized after one of its managers approved the distribution of hard-hat stickers featuring a graphic cartoon that appears to show 17-year-old climate-change activist Greta Thunberg being sexually assaulted. The stickers given to workers showed the X-Site Energy Services logo along with an image of a naked woman from behind—her back stamped “Greta”—with hands pulling on her braids. “They are starting to get more and more desperate,” Thunberg said of the sticker. “This shows that we’re winning.” Last year, Thunberg led a rally against fossil fuels in oil-rich Alberta a month after her rally in Montreal drew half a million people. Meanwhile, in the English city of Bristol, where Thunberg led a rally last week, the Bristol Post newspaper ran the names and photos of…7 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Staying alive in a war zoneDavid Nott has seen humanity at its worst, said Jessamy Calkin in The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.). As a humanitarian war zone surgeon for nearly 30 years, the British doctor has treated the victims of barrel bombs in Syria, snipers in Bosnia, and child rape in Sudan. He once removed a detonator from a woman’s leg; another time the nurse standing next to him was killed by a bullet. “Conflict work was the only thing that made me feel alive,” he says, describing the experience as “joyous.” The key to staying safe in the middle of a war zone, says the doctor known as “The Indiana Jones of Surgery,” is developing ties to the embattled people in these communities. “You can’t stop bullets or bombs,” he says, “but you can develop…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The truth about ScandinaviaFareed ZakariaThe Washington PostBernie Sanders insists his proposals are “not radical” and would simply refashion the U.S. into a Scandinavian-style social democracy, said Fareed Zakaria. But his depiction of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is “highly misleading,” and “seems to be stuck in the 1960s and 1970s.” In that era, these countries’ social spending and economic regulation did soar. That experiment failed, with Sweden creating no new net jobs for 25 years. After major market reforms, Sweden and Norway today have vigorous, lightly regulated market economies, with no minimum wage and more billionaires per capita than the U.S. Yes, the Scandinavian countries still have a generous safety net, but funding it requires high tax rates on the middle class and the poor. Denmark, for example, has a top tax rate of…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Viewpoint“Even though we commonly assume that independents make up roughly a third of the electorate, the pool of persuadable independents is actually quite small, just 7 percent of the total electorate. This is because most independents admit to being ‘leaners’—bringing them into fairly reliable affiliation with the Republicans or the Democrats. Research shows these leaners think like, feel like—and, most important, vote like—’soft partisans.’ In fact, many leaners are what political scientists Samara Klar and Yanna Krupnikov call ‘embarrassed’ partisans—people too ashamed to admit their partisan dispositions even to themselves.”Rachel Bitecofer in NewRepublic.com…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Migrants overwhelm our islandsGREECEKostas GiannakidisProtagon.grThe migrant crisis is now causing “civil unrest” in Greece, said Kostas Giannakidis. On the Aegean islands of Lesbos and Chios, where most migrants land after setting sail from Turkey, locals protesting against the construction of more refugee camps fought pitched battles last week with Greek riot police. Dozens of civilians and officers were injured in the melee. The sight of the Greek state using violence against Greek protesters should chill us all. These islanders have seen “their lives partially destroyed” by a tidal wave of desperate newcomers from Syria, Iraq, and Central Asia. At first, locals pitied and welcomed the migrants, but as months have turned into years and Greek authorities have failed to tackle overcrowding—one Lesbos camp built to hold 2,800 people now houses more than 20,000,…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Bloody riotsinevitableunder ModiINDIAEditorialTheWire.inThree days of anti-Muslim rioting left more than 40 people dead in northeast New Delhi last week, said TheWire.in, and the blame for those deaths lies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sectarian bloodshed began when Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modi’s Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party, warned Indian Muslims protesting a discriminatory new citizenship law to clear the streets or face “dire consequences.” Armed Hindu mobs quickly went on the rampage, beating and shooting Muslims and burning their stores while police stood on the sidelines. It’s true that Mishra was the lead instigator of the violence, but it is Modi’s poisonous ideology that allowed a riot to turn into a massacre. His Hindu supremacism has permeated the capital’s police, and it’s now a habit of the Delhi force…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Covid-19: How to reduce your risk“It’s not overreacting to prepare for the coronavirus,” said Kelsey Piper in Vox.com. With the number of cases in the U.S. escalating, health-care professionals recommend a number of sensible steps that can reduce your risk of infection. First—and most importantly—wash your hands frequently. Studies have shown coronaviruses can survive on surfaces for two hours to nine days. The Centers for Disease Control recommends a vigorous, 20-second wash with soap and water; if a sink isn’t available, you can use hand sanitizer. And, for goodness sake, stop touching your face, said Colleen Kraft in CNN.com. As an infectious-disease physician, I know that we touch our face “an average of 15 to 23 times an hour,” mostly unconsciously; and since we “also touch door handles, subway poles, handrails, saltshakers, other people’s hands,…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Sanders: His fondness for leftist dictatorsBernie Sanders sure is “consistent,” said Jonah Goldberg in the New York Post. The socialist senator has been finding the bright side of authoritarian regimes for 50 years, and continues to defend them as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Asked on 60 Minutes about his praise in the 1980s for Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Sanders doubled down, saying, “He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?” Last week, Sanders credited Communist China for taking “more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history,” adding, “That is the fact. End of discussion.” Not quite. China adopted market-economy reforms only after Mao Zedong’s central planning failed, and “an estimated 45 million died from a man-made famine.” When Castro came to power in Cuba, said David Harsanyi…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020What’s new in techSilicon Valley naming and shaming“A parody Twitter account is getting under the skin of some Silicon Valley venture capitalists,” said Biz Carson in Protocol.com. Since starting in November, the account, @VCBrags, has amassed 39,000 followers with a simple “shtick”: “Retweet boastful posts from VCs, and top them with three withering hand-clap emojis.” The account really took off after the new year, when “VC Twitter went predictably wild doing grand lookbacks about the decade and their achievements.” The account’s popularity has spawned a handful of unrelated “cousins,” such as @CEOBrags, @FounderBrags, and @VCComplaints. Some venture capitalists with a sense of humor have even begun tagging @VCBrags in their own tweets. Others are less amused. One angry VC who blocked the account said it is “basically shaming people who were celebrating wins.”No…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Death and the elephantsWildlife books and documentaries are full of accounts of elephants mourning their dead, a human behavior that it is almost impossible for us to confirm in another species. But a study into how these giant beasts react to loss has concluded that elephants appear to feel something when a fellow tusker dies—even one they’re not related to. Researchers examined elephant reactions to 32 different carcasses across Africa, reports The Washington Post. They witnessed elephants touching corpses with their trunks, trying to lift them with their feet, and performing dominance behaviors typically used to protect sought-after resources such as plentiful fruit trees or shady groves. Scientists also observed a 10-year-old elephant walking away from the body of her mother with liquid streaming from her temporal glands, a sign of stress, fear,…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Western food makes you stupidEating a Western diet for as little as a week can harm brain function and encourage you to overeat, a new study suggests. Previous research on animals has shown that junk food can affect the hippocampus, the brain region associated with memory and appetite control. To explore whether the same was true in humans, researchers recruited 110 volunteers, all in their early 20s and with a generally good diet. They told half the participants to keep eating their normal diet, and put the other half on a Western diet high in saturated fat and added sugar—predominantly fast food and Belgian waffles. After seven days the subjects on the Western diet scored worse on memory tests and were more likely to want to eat unhealthy foods when full, reports The Guardian…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz(Crown, $32)“There are countless books about World War II, but there’s only one Erik Larson,” said Michael Schaub in NPR.org. In his new 600-page best-seller, the author of The Devil in the White City once again has taken the myriad parts of a complex true story and fashioned them into a narrative that’s “nearly impossible to put down.” His subject is Britain’s darkest hour—the year spanning May 1940 to May 1941. Germany invaded three European countries on the very day that Winston Churchill was named the nation’s prime minister, and eight months of German bombing soon followed. Churchill is the book’s central character, but Larson circles outward to deepen our understanding of both the protagonist and his country.“The entire book comes at the reader with breakneck speed,” said John Reinan…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Color TheorySophie Allison’s leisurely paced, guitar-based songs are “as intimate as journal entries,” said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. On her second album, the young songwriter who records as Soccer Mommy often makes anxiety, depression, and her mother’s illness her subjects, yet “her unerring ear for melody makes each track feel like an open door that invites listeners in.” Clean, her 2018 debut, wound up on many critics’ Top 10 lists; this record is “even stronger.” As a lyricist, Allison “has a skill for following winding syntax to a sharp point,” said Jayson Greene in Pitchfork.com. But here her music, though brighter and fuller, lacks the surprising strum patterns and one-to-one immediacy of Clean. The songs feel anthematic, except that they lack a voice shouting from the rafters. The…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingCosmos: Possible WorldsIt’s time to travel billions and billions of light-years through the universe again. Forty years after the PBS docuseries Cosmos made astrophysicist Carl Sagan a global star, co-creator Ann Druyan has dreamed up a 13-part third season that also brings back a Sagan protégé as host. Neil deGrasse Tyson, who starred in the series’ 2014 return, will once again board the Ship of the Imagination, but with a new mission: to place us in the history of the cosmos in order to speculate about our distant future. Monday, March 9, at 8 p.m., National GeographicBloodBeing up to date on this award-winning Irish crime series isn’t a St. Patrick’s Day requirement, but maybe it should be. As Season 2 begins, ex-doctor Jim Hogan returns to the small town where…3 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Baked fishcakes: Elegant minimalism by way of RussiaPeople in Russia eat better than you probably imagine, says Darra Goldstein in Beyond the North Wind (Ten Speed Press). Far from bland and heavy, traditional everyday Russian cooking “jibes beautifully with our current dietary trends.” Think foraged mushrooms and berries, pickled vegetables, fresh catch from a cold sea, and the tang of sourdough rye. In a land with poor soil and a harsh climate, these have been staple components of a healthily balanced diet, and the old foods “feel new again in their elegant minimalism.”Consider these “lemony, herb-strewn” fishcakes, made with rye flour and cooked using a distinctively Russian method: They’re sautéed on the stove, then steamed in the oven, which approximates the effect of finishing them in the moist heat of one of the masonry stoves that still…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Chasing the counterculture on Mexico’s Pacific coastCosta Chica isn’t like other Mexican beach regions you might know, said Freda Moon in The New York Times. Because there are no direct international flights, “the outsiders who end up on this stretch of Pacific coastline are here for a reason.” Many are surfers, drawn to the dangerous waves that also help explain why this region of Oaxaca has remained immune to “Cancún-esque” overdevelopment. Instead, it’s home to coastal Mexico’s “few remaining pockets of weirdness and eccentricity.” During a five-day visit that took me from a world-class artists’ retreat to a party town to a boutique hotel created out of a former nudist resort, “I was struck again and again by how different these countercultural enclaves are from each other.”Casa Wabi, the artists’ retreat, wasn’t the showy gallery complex…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Twin FarmsBarnard, Vt.“If you want to stay at the best hotel on the planet, just head to Vermont,” said Kristi Palma in The Boston Globe. Twin Farms, a bucolic adults-only getaway, was last week named Hotel of the Year by Forbes Travel Guide, the outfit that awards star ratings based on incognito visits. The property’s record-breaking score owes much to personalized service, including custom-prepared meals. But all starts with the setting. The 10-room main building and 10 cottages, including one for modern art connoisseurs, are scattered across 300 rolling acres once owned by novelist Sinclair Lewis.twinfarms.com, from $2,000 for a two-night stayLast-minute travel dealsSpring skiing at WhistlerSki Whistler, the British Columbia resort that hosted 2010’s Winter Olympics, and enjoy slope-side luxury at the Fairmont Chateau. The hotel is offering free lift…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020How to be a self-checkout masterKnow your limits. Choose the self-checkout line at your supermarket or discount store only when you have 15 items or less. Beyond that number, it ceases to be the most efficient option, and because the counter space is limited, you’ll struggle with bagging.Anticipate complications. If you’re using coupons or loyalty cards, consider asking an attendant if the sequencing will matter. And know that tobacco or other age-restricted items can create delays.Slow down. When you start scanning purchases, don’t try to be faster than the computer system. Because it needs a moment to recognize each item and calculate the price and discounts, a more deliberate pace can actually speed your checkout.Respect the weight sensor. Don’t let a purse, coattail, or child touch the bagging area, because the system will think you’ve…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Investing: Robinhood kidnaps customer cashNot everyone caught the stock market’s record rally this week, said Jeff John Roberts in Fortune.com. Just before the Dow climbed nearly 1,300 points in one day, the popular brokerage app Robinhood experienced a “systemwide outage” hindering access to “all of Robinhood’s apps and trading and banking services.” The system remained down for most of the next two days, a disruption “unheard of in the brokerage industry, where outages that last minutes are enough to cause a hubbub.” Some of Robinhood’s 10 million customers pledged to take their business elsewhere; others said on Twitter they would seek legal advice. Robinhood blamed the crash on “a surge in volume spurred by investors spooked” by the market’s gyrations.Ouch, said Felix Salmon in Axios.com. Just last summer, Robinhood was valued at $7.6 billion…1 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020Covid-19: The price of precautionCoronavirus has already hit many Americans in their wallets, said Jaewon Kang in The Wall Street Journal. Shoppers are stocking up on what they can to prepare for the possibility of a quarantine, and initial tallies aren’t cheap. A couple from Denver spent $250 at Target last week “on canned soup, pasta, granola bars, and other dry foods,” as well as over-the-counter cold medicine and dog food. “Grocers are working to prevent shortages,” but masks and hand sanitizer are in short supply—leading to scams and rip-offs. Last week, Amazon purged tens of thousands of items off its e-commerce platform because of price gouging, said Jon Porter in TheVerge.com. Some purveyors of masks and respirators were “tripling or even quadrupling the price,” with one (since removed) 10-pack of face masks, usually…2 min
The Week Magazine|March 13, 2020The scuba-diving writer who launched a paperback empireClive Cussler chased thrills in life and in writing. The multimillion-selling author hooked readers around the world with tales of his idealized alter ego, Dirk Pitt, head of the fictional National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). The square-jawed Pitt is forever saving the world—and beautiful women—from the schemes of evildoers, typically by retrieving lost artifacts from shipwrecks. The books earned Cussler an estimated $80 million, which he used to start a real-life NUMA and locate some 60 shipwrecks, including a lost Confederate ironclad and a steamship belonging to Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cussler never found critical success; reviewers deemed his work both underwritten and overstuffed with fantastical plot twists. Sahara (1992) managed to combine a treasure hunt on the Nile, a mysterious epidemic that begets cannibalism, an environmental catastrophe that threatens to…2 min
