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MAY 21 - 28, 2021 _ VOL.176 _ NO.15

FEATURES CONSUMER POWER

The pandemic has reshaped Americans’ relationship to credit cards. Balances are down and credit are scores up. Card issuers are competing hard for your business.

COVER CREDIT

GETTY

Zhengshun Tang/Getty

The Winter of Discontent

A Vaccine for All Occasions

Best Credit Cards of 2021

Even though America is preparing for a summer reopening, the coronavirus will still be around to dog us when the temperatures fall.

Scientists are working on a “universal vaccine” that would protect us from anything the coronavirus can throw at us.

Companies pumped up their rewards to keep consumers spending. Newsweek’s ﬁrst card ranking will help you pick the best offer.

BY FRED GUTERL

BY ADAM PIORE

For more headlines, go to NEWSWEEK.COM

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Periscope 08 Too Little, Too TIME’S UP

“Entire swaths of nations, even continents, could become uninhabitable.”

Slow, Too Late Is Not an Option Marianne Williamson on the Global Warming Crisis

CREATIVE

12 Winning at Wall

Street–and Life! Lessons From the World’s Greatest Investors Culture 42 K-Drama on Netﬂix

A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Shows

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In Focus

IRELAND

CONTENT FROM COUNTRY REPORTS

Ireland: Small nation, big impact The Irish economy was the only one in the European Union to expand in 2020, and that against a background of pandemic, serial lockdowns and preparing for the exit of its closest neighbor from the bloc in January 2021. How did the Celtic nation buck the global trend to achieve 3.4 percent growth? “That’s largely down to the strength and resilience of our export sector and multinational sector, which includes medical devices, pharmaceutical and digital companies that have all done very well during the pandemic,” reveals Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Additionally, Ireland was among the first to emerge from 2008’s global financial meltdown and went into 2020 fiscally strong. Government bonds have gone from sub-investment grade to AA- ratings, budget deficits have become surpluses and interest rates on its debt have fallen, notes Conor O’Kelly, CEO of the National Treasury Management Agency that oversees the state’s assets and liabilities. “We’ve had to borrow, as other nations have, and we’re comfortable we can sustain that. In the 2008 crisis, Ireland put its foot on the brakes. This time, it’s more like it’s putting its foot on the accelerator.” Such cushions helped the nation of 5 million people finance the social and health spending needed during the pandemic, support businesses in sectors most adversely affected by it or Brexit, and continue to lay the groundwork to move the economy forward sustainably.

“Companies want to have a presence in the eurozone and Ireland has a really strong proposition in that regard” Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Ireland’s economic strategy leans on three pillars. One is attracting and supporting foreign direct investment (FDI), which is coordinated by IDA Ireland. FDI inflows, particularly from multinationals, have boomed in recent years, helped by open and pro-business policies and a highly qualified English-speaking workforce. “Companies want to have a presence in the eurozone and Ireland has a really strong proposition in that regard,” explains Varadkar. “We have global leaders in a lot of sectors here, like Google, Facebook, Apple, Intel, every top name in pharma and many in medtech, microelectronics and financial services,” adds IDA’s CEO Martin Shanahan. “FDI has been resilient in 2020. As an example, IDA won 246 investments, only marginally down from 2019’s 250.” The second strand of Ireland’s industrial strategy, enabling domestic businesses to start, grow and export, falls under Enterprise Ireland’s

SHUTTERSTOCK: POM POM

The Irish economy withstands the double shock of Brexit and pandemic

The Ha’penny bridge is one of Dublin’s most admired landmarks

scope. In 2020, companies backed by the agency created 16,496 new jobs, with particular gains in life sciences, cleantech and construction. The final pillar is pumping investment into already impressive research, development and innovation capabilities, which is guided by Science Foundation Ireland. “Our strategy is about growing the research ecosystem, attracting the best people, providing opportunities for people within the system, supporting excellent cutting-edge research, collaborating and using our funding to catalytically drive performance,” states its director general, Mark Ferguson. Ireland is also continuously investing in its world-beating education system, in order to nurture its next generation of talent. The country is home to a number of prestigious, highly-ranked institutions such as University College Dublin, Trinity College, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, University College Cork, National University of Ireland Galway, Technological University Dublin and Dublin City University. “In many ways our higher education reflects the values we have as a country: outward looking, inclusive and collaborative,” asserts Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris. He is enthusiastic about Ireland’s prospects: “We entered 2021 in a time of extraordinary worry, but also with more opportunities to shape our world and rebuild it than probably any generation has in decades.” To learn more about Ireland’s vibrant, innovative and forward-looking economy, access our full-length special with the QR code or visit www.newsweek.com/newsweek-country-reports.

Read our exclusive full-length special on Ireland on Newsweek.com, brought to you by:

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Rewind

The Archives “Singing with a tortured passion that has become her trademark,” Newsweek reported, “Janis Joplin blew the rock world wide open.” She was “the first female superstar of rock music,” and “hard singing and hard living are her hallmark.” Joplin was a key figure in the movement identified as the “rebirth of blues,” bringing the style back to popularity among both Black and white audiences. She would have turned 78 this year, and her short career continues to influence the musical world, with prominent artists like Stevie Nicks and Pink claiming Joplin as a major influence.

1969

1993

After declining two proposals, Newsweek said that Masako Owada “gave in to her prince.” The diplomat had to “become as familiar with the antiquated ceremonial roles her new position requires as she is today with Japan’s trade positions.” After 25 years of marriage, the couple became Japan’s Emperor and Empress in 2019.

In the election for L.A. mayor, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa “won with what will now become a much-imitated game plan of mobilizing Hispanics.” The Republicans also skillfully courted the group, “with appeals to religion and conservative ‘values issues.’” This trend continued in 2020, with Hispanic votes shifting toward Trump compared to 2016.

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M AY 28, 2021

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“The question behind every fraud, big or small, is why? Read Jim Campbell’s wonderfully reported book, and you’ll actually get some answers.” —Bethany McLean, New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room

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“Campbell provides valuable and fresh insights into Madoff’s enterprise and the man himself.” —Gregory Zuckerman, New York Times bestselling author of The Man Who Solved the Market

Available everywhere books are sold.

In Focus

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THE NEWS IN PICTURES

M AY 28, 2021

MEXICO CITY

Train Wreck An aerial view, on May 3, of the scene after an elevated section of metro track carrying train cars collapsed onto a busy road. The Line 12 accident happened as the metro train was traveling between Olivos and Tezonco Metro stations, reportedly killing at least 20 people and injuring another 70. According to Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, quoted in The New York Times, children were among the victims. She vowed an investigation.

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H E C T O R V I VA S

Periscope

OUT OF TIME?

The author and former presidential candidate argues that the Earth needs all the help it can get it and needs it right now.

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M AY 28, 2021

“Regardless of our age...we need to think ﬁrst about not losing.” » P.12

O PI N IO N

Too Little, Too Slow, Too Late Is Not an Option

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On climate change, it is a lot later than a lot of us want to admit

on april 22, we celebrated earth day. thing our systems would be able to absorb. Once more we honored the Earth, talked about Imagine the equivalent of today’s southern border our environmental challenges, felt good for having crisis happening pretty much all over the developed done so, felt depressed about climate change and world at once, at the same time as once-in-a-century moved ahead to another year of doing...well, we’re storms occurring throughout the world, at the same not quite sure yet. time as a global collapse of our food supply, at the But we better do something, and we better do it same time as all the humanitarian crises that would fast. result from any one of those, and you begin to grasp According to climate scientists (although they the enormity of the threat that stands before us vary in their appraisal of how long this could take), should we not act boldly, and act now. there’s no doubt that the trajectory we’re on could President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure lead to social upheaval the likes of which we’ve nevplan devotes ﬁve times more ﬁnancial resources to er seen in the modern era. Entire swaths of nations, mitigating the effects of climate change than did even continents, could become unformer President Barack Obama, but inhabitable due to heat. Such a prewe really need to get this: That is not dicament would create massive food enough. We should face the challenge BY shortages and the implosion of entire of climate change with a mobilization economic systems. That in turn would no less massive than that with which MARIANNE create hundreds of millions of climate we faced World War II. No one put a WILLIAMSON refugees, a number vastly beyond any@marwilliamson price tag on how much we were will-

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ing to spend to win that war, and we shouldn’t be putting a price tag on how much we’re willing to spend to win this one. The answer should be, “Whatever it costs.” Right now, it’s not just that we’re not spending enough to combat the problem; we’re still spending tens of billions in tax breaks and corporate subsidies to companies that create more of it. After Pearl Harbor, no American doubted that the U.S. would be going to war. Today’s congressional climate change deniers are like someone trying to argue that Pearl Harbor was just a Japanese training exercise gone wrong and that making a big deal about it is ridiculous. But no, millions of people in the streets all over the world demanding action on climate change are not “making too big a deal about it.” They’re right, and the protectors of our market-based economic establishment are wrong. Business as usual poses a threat to our very existence. The biggest problem we have today is the failure among too many to recognize the urgency of the times in which we live. Business leaders who could and should be leading the charge, heading the transition to a sustainable planet, are some of the ones doing the most to delay it. And too many politicians, in exchange for their corporate donations, are only too happy to oblige. The CEOs of the world’s biggest fossil fuel, food, chemical and agricultural companies are not stupid; they’re just trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the current system before they have to switch over to a green economy. BP doesn’t mind pledging an investment in green energy; big agricultural companies don’t mind pledging an investment in regenerative agriculture. “See what we did?! See what we did?!” But it’s all a cover for our biggest, most dangerous trend to date: the too lit-

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OPINION

tle, too slow, too-late-ism with which we are facing too many of our global challenges. The reality is, our current business model got us into this mess, and it cannot get us out of it. A slower form of self-destructive behavior is still self-destructive behavior. It appears that some people, and some civilizations, would rather die than change their ways. Biden’s $400 billion proposed investment to combat climate change is, according to most experts, a triﬂing compared to the minimum of $10 trillion that many consider necessary. We need to end all funding to the fossil fuel industry, invest heavily to ensure universal access to clean, renewable energy, build our drinking water infrastructure, build 100 percent clean electric public transportation and weatherize, electrify and modernize our buildings. Pretty much everyone knows all this by now; the word has gotten out. For whatever reason, however, we have yet to create the public outcry or political will to overwhelm an intransigent establishment arrayed against fundamental change. America is like an addict who just won’t give it up. We get it that the drug addict can overdose, and the alcoholic can drink himself to death, but for

We should face the challenge of climate change with a mobilization no less massive than that with which we faced World War II.

whatever reason we think that doesn’t apply to us. So many Americans have either said, or heard someone say, “Do you think we ought to do something?” when Tiffany fell down the stairs again or John was too loud at his sister’s wedding. They get that such addictions don’t just inconvenience; they kill. They get that someone better intervene. But when it comes to our country, we are not intervening; we’re still at the stage of trying to negotiate with our addiction. Or we’re clinging to the increasingly unreasonable belief that

M AY 28, 2021

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surely something or someone will save us, when in fact the only something or someone that can save us is us. America remains stuck in our magical thinking, apparently choosing to believe that what we all know is happening perhaps isn’t really happening. Unless we break through our denial—realizing that great civilizations before us have crashed and burned, that species have gone extinct and that ours could too—perhaps we will not be ready to override the obstructions to saving ourselves in time. Until then, we’re a species at

risk and the signs are everywhere. Traveling the country, I routinely ask audiences the following question: “How many of you are young people who have said—or someone who has heard a young person say— that they’re not going to have kids because they think the world is so messed up they don’t want to bring a child into it?” In places throughout the country, a surprising number of hands go up. Silence ensues as people look around, absorbing the signiﬁcance of what this means. We have literally taken the world to such a place that young people think it would be irresponsible to bring a child into it. What could be more of a blinking red light than that? What do we have to do to break through the absurd economic arguments that still keep us from saving our one precious world? Half-measures—applied too little, too slow and too late—will be the death knell of something too beautiful to put into words. Perhaps if enough of us preemptively grieve, then enough of us will preemptively act. Ơ Marianne Williamson is a NEWSWEEK columnist, best-selling author, political activist and spiritual thought leader. She is founder of Project Angel Food and co-founder of the Peace Alliance, and was the ﬁrst candidate in the 2020 presidential primary to make reparations a pillar of her campaign. She is the author of 13 books, among them HEALING THE SOUL OF AMERICA and A POLITICS OF LOVE. The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

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BETTER A Li

Periscope

nkedIn Live Se ries with Dorie Clar k Thursdays at 12 p.m. ET at newsweek.c om/ linkedinlive

where I talk with business leaders, authors and founders about their latest innovative ideas and trends. Here are some takeaways and highlights, with a bonus post-interview question or two thrown in, from my conversation with Green. His answers have been edited for clarity.

Reduce Your Fragility

Winning at Wall Street—and Life!

Dorie Clark, star of the Newsweek/LinkedIn Live show, Better, asks author William Green what lessons the world’s greatest investors have for the rest of us who doesn’t want to be richer and wiser and happier? We all do, sure. But getting there ain’t that easy. So, it is a good thing author/ journalist William Green has come along with his new book called, well Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life (Scribner/Simon & Schuster). The book, available now in all forms of media, takes lessons from some of the more famous money folks and

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shows us how to apply them to our own everyday lives. “It is remarkable,” Green says. “how consistently the greatest investors talk about…the importance of just avoiding catastrophe, staying in the game (and) surviving dips.” I got to the bottom of that and more with BY William as part of my Newsweek/LinkedIn DORIE CLARK interview series, Better, @dorieclark

Teach Kids Compounding Get your kids to start investing early because once you show them what will happen to, say, $100 or $1000 over 10, 20, 40 years, it’s amazing. I went to India with this extraordinary guy, Mohnish Pabrai, who is talking to these poor, yet high I.Q kids, about his daughter who had $4800 from a summer job. If at 17 she invested the $4800, it could turn into millions in 60 years. The kids were wide-eyed and he said: “Are you going to remember the power of compounding?” And they all go, “Yes sir.”

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Instead of trying to predict the future, try to consciously reduce your fragility. Think about your exposure. One of the simple things I would encourage people to do is ask themselves the simple questions, “Where am I fragile? Do I have all my money in one bank? In one country? With one investor? Do I have it all in one stock and, do I understand that stock? The less speculative you can be the better because you really want to position yourself as Matthew McLennan said, “To survive the dips.” COVID is a spectacular reminder that there are dips in any lifetime whether it is a pandemic, or a problem marriage or you get laid off. You need to live within your means and not have too much leverage and too much debt. It’s remarkable how the greatest investors talk about the importance of just avoiding catastrophe, staying in the game and surviving the dips.

Clone Your Way to Success Cloning is an incredibly powerful tool that most people don’t use. Pabrai, for example, is at an airport and he’s reading a book by legendary investor Peter Lynch, and he sees Warren Buffett’s returns. He asks, “What if I could figure out exactly what Buffett did, if I could reverse engineer it, replicate it and relentlessly apply those rules in life and the way I invest. He calls this cloning. You could call it mimicry or modeling or whatever you want. He went and really figured out the laws of investing that have been revealed by Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger, really by just reading and then going for 20 years running to the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. This idea of actually reverse engineering what people who are wiser and smarter than us have already figured out, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, is incredibly powerful. When I was originally trying to figure out how to write this book, I went to books from Michael Lewis, Malcolm Gladwell and other nonfiction writers who were extraordinary. Gladwell starts with an idea and then he takes characters and stories to illustrate the idea. (But) cloning is not blind replication. It’s not stupid, senseless replication. It’s taking the habits, the insights and the principles that really smart people have figured out—

All of these great investors I interviewed have beaten the market by a mile. And most of them end up saying, ‘Yeah, most people should buy index funds.’

and ﬁguring out how it applies to your circumstance. It has to be aligned to your own talents. There’s no point in my trying to clone Tiger Woods. It’s just not going to work.

Know Your Inner Investor Self All of these great investors that I interviewed are people who have beaten the market by a mile. And most of them end up saying, “Yeah, most people should buy index funds.” There’s great strength in being self-aware enough to ask, am I wired to win this game? Do I have the informational advantage? Do I know more than other people? Do I have a temperamental advantage? Or do I tend to get carried away when things are tough and the market’s falling apart? Do I get panicked when its going up massively and I want to jump on the bandwagon? Knowing yourself and knowing whether you are actually equipped to win this game is a very powerful thing. And the wonderful thing about investing is there’s this great default option, you can go to a company like Vanguard and buy something like a total market fund. Look, if you think you’re someone who can win this game, there are principles in my book where I show you how people like Buffett, Pabrai and Munger do it. But for most of us, it’s very wise to just invest in index funds in a fairly diversiﬁed way.

Can You Build a Nest Egg When You’re Older? How? Depending on your age, I think it’s especially important to focus first on preserving your capital instead of taking wild risks by speculating too aggressively, which could easily put you further behind. The last thing you want to do is lose money that you can’t afford to live without, and then have

to start rebuilding without that much time to catch up. In order to achieve ﬁnancial resilience, it’s also really important and helpful to reduce or eliminate debt and beware of excessive expenses. I think those relatively mundane moves of living within your means and keeping your expenses down give you much more latitude to invest for growth in the stock market in a patient, long-term manner, so you won’t suddenly need to cash out of stocks at precisely the wrong time because you’re short on cash. In my book, I also quote a legendary investor named Irving Kahn, whom I interviewed when he was 108, a few months before he died at the age of 109. Kahn said to me that the secret of investing could be expressed in one word: “safety.” He explained: “Considering the downside is the single most important thing an investor must do. This task must be dealt with before any consideration can be made for gains.” I think that’s the case for all of us, regardless of our age—that we need to think first about not losing. But that’s all the more important when you’re coming to the game relatively late because you don’t have as much time to recover from your mistakes. You don’t want to take so much risk in your attempt to catch up that you do something reckless and self-destructive, especially at times when the mood in the market is relatively bullish, as it is now, and too many people are throwing caution to the wind. Ơ Dorie Clark, author of entrepreneurial you and Duke University Fuqua School of Business professor, hosts newsweek’s weekly interview series, better, on Thursdays at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m, PT at newsweek.com/ linkedinlive. Sign up for updates at dorieclark.com.

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The Winter of Discontent

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THE LONG WAR

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As long as the coronavirus infects millions of people around the world, it will continue to mutate into dangerous new forms. It’s in the interests of all nations to vaccinate the rest of the world as quickly and completely as possible. Right: funeral pyres in Bangalore, which has been hit hard by COVID-19.

M AY 28, 2021

Fred Guterl PHOTOGRAPH BY

Manjunath Kiran

T H E C O R O N AV I R U S W I L L ST I L L B E A R O U N D TO D O G U S W H E N T H E T E M P E R AT U R E S FA L L .

PUBLIC HEALTH

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The Numbers Game when dr. fauci announced at the end of 2020 that vaccines would be distributed in the spring, he was optimistic that the U.S. would achieve herd immunity—a level of immune resistance in a population that eliminates, or sharply curtails, the virus’ ability to spread—by the fall. “If we do it correctly, we could have 70 percent-to-85-percent of the population vaccinated. When that occurs, there will be an umbrella of protection over the entire country TWO WORLDS As tragedy unfolds abroad, Americans

agitate for a lifting of restrictions. Below: U.S. Representative Jim Jordan. Right: In New Delhi, COVID-19 patients (top) and funeral pyres (below).

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s india descended into a covid-19 tragedy that dwarfed anything the country had experienced in the pandemic so far, with hospitals inundated, oxygen supplies short and vaccines reportedly being stolen from warehouses, American politicians seven thousand miles away were clamoring to end pandemic restrictions. Representative Jim Jordan railed at Dr. Anthony Fauci in the House chambers, “You don’t think Americans’ liberties have been threatened the last year, Dr. Fauci? They’ve been assaulted!” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey told Fox News, “We have been at this for more than a year now, and we have simply got to move forward. Endless government mandates are not the answer.” Many Americans are looking forward to a summer of quasi-normal human interactions, where it’s okay to invite your friends for a barbeque, belly up to a crowded bar, attend a concert or eat dinner in a popular restaurant. Texas and Florida have already allowed beaches and bars to open to capacity. The mayor of New York City, a year after its catastrophic outbreak, announced a lifting of restrictions on businesses on July 1, only to be oneupped by the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, who will remove restrictions on May 19. As vaccinations reduce the virus’ ability to spread, new cases are now expected to begin dropping exponentially. The summer of love is at hand. But the pandemic is not over. In the U.S., the nation is still divided in its willingness to accept vaccines or heed precautions against infection. Vaccination rates have peaked and herd immunity now seems unlikely before next winter, almost guaranteeing that pockets of people will remain vulnerable to the coronavirus in the fall, as the cold weather closes in. So will millions of people throughout the world, who are still vulnerable to infection and have little prospect of getting shots anytime soon. As long as the coronavirus circulates widely, it will have plenty of opportunities to mutate into troublesome new forms that chip away at the effectiveness of vaccines. The prospect that dangerous new variants will trigger fresh outbreaks—with the accompanying lockdowns, travels restrictions and calls for

social distancing and mask-wearing—is a dark cloud over hopes of a return to pre-pandemic normal in 2021 and 2022. Public-health messages in the U.S. have been confusing at times. The Centers for Disease Control’s revised guidance for masking and distancing requires a color-coded chart to follow. Even as some scientists and public-health ofﬁcials celebrate the considerable progress the U.S. has made in its battle against COVID-19, others insist that the U.S. is not yet out of the pandemic woods. “We’re by no means in a post-pandemic phase that some sections of America would wish we were,” says John Moore, a virologist at Cornell’s Weill Medical College, echoing a common sentiment. If the ﬁrst phase of the pandemic was characterized by the clear and present danger of a pandemic virus to more than 7 billion people whose immune systems were totally unprepared for the new pathogen, the second phase we’re entering now is full of ambiguity, uncertainty and division.

that the level of virus will be so low that you will essentially have been able to establish herd immunity,” Fauci told WebMD in December. It’s now clear that this is not likely to happen. In February, epidemiologist Ali Mokdad and his colleagues at Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a non-profit research group in Seattle, were sifting through data that his group collects from all over the world and uses to make mathematical simulations of how things like seasons, mask-wearing and vaccinations will affect the course of the pandemic. “We were looking at these numbers and were like, ‘Oh, no. No’,” he recalls. That night, Mokdad couldn’t sleep. He called his mother in Beirut, Lebanon, who is in poor health and whom he hasn’t seen in a year and a half; he decided that night to buy a ticket and go visit her, because he thinks it may be his last chance to see her for a while. “There will be lockdowns next winter,” he says. “Travel will be restricted. We are in a bad position.” The calculations that upset Mokdad clearly showed that herd immunity was not in the offing in the U.S. For one thing, children below the age of 12 won’t be eligible because vaccines won’t receive emergency-use authorizations in time to administer them before the end of the year. (Pfizer recently announced that it will seek authorization for a vaccine for children under 12, but it’s not likely to be approved and administered in time.) All told, only about 75 percent of U.S. citizens and residents will even be eligible for vaccination before the cold weather starts to set in, he says. Of course, not everyone who is eligible will roll up their sleeves. Surveys suggest that the number of adults who plan to refuse a vaccine remains stubbornly at about 30 percent. IHME’s model assumes that 12-to-15 year-olds will be vaccinated in time and that refusal rates will also be 30 percent, but that may be optimistic: parents could be more riskaverse with their children than themselves.

“ W E ’ R E BY N O M E A N S I N A 3 2 67ʝ 3$ 1 ' ( 0 , & P H A S E T H AT S O M E S E C T I O N S OF AMERICA WOULD WISH WE WERE.”

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“ T H E R E W I L L B E LO C K D OW N S N E X T W I N T E R . T R AV E L W I L L B E R E ST R I C T E D. Vaccine uptake is already beginning to slow. The 7-day average peaked on April 11 at 3.3 million doses per day and is dropping fast, according to the CDC. Surveys and interviews show a variety of reasons: people are busy, lack a sense of urgency about COVID-19, have safety concerns about vaccines, subscribe to conspiracy theories that exaggerate the risks of vaccines and downplay the risks of COVID-19, to name a few. Mokdad and other scientists are convinced the current trajectory of vaccinations will bring the nation up short. “We’re not going to reach herd immunity by winter,” he says. “The math doesn’t add up.”. This is not likely to be problem this summer, when people naturally move outdoors, where breezes tend to carry the airborne coronavirus harmlessly away; new cases will likely continue to drop, and a nation of cloistered citizens will re-ac-

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quaint themselves with the joys of socializing unfettered by masks and social distance. The worry is what happens when cool weather drives everyone back into crowded rooms, where viral particles tend to collect like cigarette smoke, raising exposure to the virus. Come winter, pockets of vaccine-hesitant people in the U.S. will still be vulnerable to any strain of SARS-CoV-2 (also called SARS2), the virus that causes COVID-19, that comes along. They could serve as a welcome party for variants, including those that can evade protection that more than 100 million Americans have already acquired through vaccinations. With vaccination programs just getting started in many countries, variants will likely make trouble for many months, perhaps years. The best protection against variants, public health experts say, is to keep the levels of virus circulating in the population low, through a combi-

SUMMER BREAK

Vaccines and outdoor activities may help tamp down outbreaks this summer, but a leveling off of vaccinations has publicKHDOWK RIɿFLDOV ZRUULHG about the winter. Left to right: warm-weather walkers in Las Vegas; a COVID-19 vaccine syringe; administering a shot; Epidemiologist Ali Mokdad and colleagues.

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PUB LIC H E A L T H

W E A R E I N A BA D P O S I T I O N . ” nation of precautions and herd-immunity through vaccination. In winter, because of higher concentrations of people indoors, vaccination levels have to be higher than they would be in summer—85 percent would be about right, says Mokdad. IHME expects about 200 million to 225 million Americans will be vaccinated by the fall, which falls short. “What many people don’t understand is that the herd immunity required to contain a virus like COVID-19 is much lower in summer,” he says. “It requires higher immunization coverage during winter, simply because the virus is circulating [at] much higher [levels]. That’s the biggest problem we’ll face.”

Staying Ahead of Evolution new variants from india and elsewhere have captured headlines recently. But to attribute the uncertainty about the next year or two of the pandemic to this or that variant is to miss the complex

and dynamic nature of our battle with the virus. The variants are only a snapshot in a continuous story of SARS2 adapting to changing circumstances. When the pandemic broke more than a year ago, scientists began taking virus samples, sequencing their genetic codes and sharing them with one another by logging them into databases. The most prominent, called GISAID, holds the genome sequences of more than 1.4 million SARS2 viruses sampled from 172 countries. Since the virus is constantly mutating, these are, in a sense, all variants. The important question is, which ones should we worry about? Answering that question is an obsession of Bette Korber, a computational biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. Prior to the pandemic, she worked for decades on AIDS, the ailment caused by HIV, a virus that mutates far more readily than SARS2, resulting in an AIDS vaccine that is now in clinical trials. When the pandemic

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PU BL I C HE AL T H

struck, Korber put her retirement plans on hold and instead now works long days sifting through the influx of SARS2 genomes. Public health officials reassured the public in the early days of the pandemic that SARS did not mutate quickly, which is technically true. The virus has a genetic mechanism that “proof reads” copies of itself made during replication, which greatly reduces the rate it otherwise would mutate. But SARS2, like HIV and influenza, is an RNA virus, which means it is no slouch in the change department. It came as no surprise to Korber that SARS2 has been making up for its slowness in mutating with sheer volume: The more than 100 million infected people give it a big evolutionary runway to evolve into new forms. Beginning in March 2020, Korber began building tools to track the evolution of the virus as it spreads, allowing scientists to construct a gigantic family-tree of viral offspring and identify those variants that thrive. The next step is to find out what characteristics they possess that make them win against other variants in the daily battle for survival. The effort paid off early. In the spring of 2020, she and her colleagues used these tools to identify a “variant of concern” known as D614G, nicknamed “Doug,” that was increasing in relative frequency compared to the original ancestral form that first

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arose in Wuhan. Three months later, it had become the world’s dominant strain. Laboratory studies uncovered mutations that made it more infectious. By November 2020, the role of variants in the pandemic has becoming widely appreciated among scientists. “The more you look, the more you ﬁnd, and the more you realize the implications,” says Cornell’s Moore. Now that a year has passed since Doug was ﬁrst identified, a growing number of people, either through vaccination or prior infection, can now summon effective immune responses against this variant. The same goes for other variants, such as B117, the so-called UK variant, which recently punished Michigan and has become the dominant strain in the U.S. and elsewhere and plays a big role in India’s outbreak as well; and B1617, the Indian

A GLOBAL WAR

The battle against the coronavirus is complex and dynamic, with potentially dangerous new variants arising around the world. Left to right: Bette Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory; pipettes in a coronavirus research lab; a package containing the AstraZeneca vaccine.

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variant that recently made headlines. This rise of immune resistance in the population is a roadblock to the coronavirus, but it is also a challenge that new variants could potentially overcome. A variant with the ability to infect vaccinated people will have a big evolutionary advantage over its rivals. The South African variant, B1351, and the Brazil variant, P1, have some ability to evade the immune protection of current vaccines; and they blow right past the defenses of AstraZeneca’s. As the coronavirus butts up against populations of fully-vaxxed people, it will look for a way in. Vaccine-resistant variants have already gained a foothold in the U.S. Strains of the virus found in California and Oregon have the same mutations as P1. Variants in the southeastern U.S. have mutations of B1351. As more and more people are vaccinated effectively against B117, these variants will gain a relative evolutionary advantage and may predominate.

“We human beings have to be clever enough to stay ahead of that adaptation,” says Korber. “So far we have these incredible vaccines that are effective even as the virus is beginning to explore some immunological resistant mutations. That has to be resolved in the laboratory. It has to be understood. Over the next year or two we’re going to have to be trying vaccines that address the variants and maybe boosters, and we have to evolve our response.” It’s not likely that a future SARS2 variant will hit the genetic jackpot and turn the clock back to a world of 7 billion immunologically naïve individuals such as existed back in January 2020; chances are, vaccines would provide some protection against even a seriously challenging variant. And even if the improbable happened, the Bette Korbers of the world would be watching and waiting to set the gears of vaccination in motion. The more likely scenario is that variants keep the

“ W E ’ R E N OT G O I N G TO R E AC H H E R D I M M U N I T Y BY W I N T E R . T H E M AT H D O E S N ’ T A D D U P. ” embers of pandemic burning longer than anyone would like. The recent case of Chile offers a sobering case. Despite a robust vaccination effort that has reached more than 40 percent of the population, Chile is experiencing its worst outbreak yet. The crisis is due in part to complacency among people who are only partially vaccinated, who relax on precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing. But the presence of the P1 variant, which has some ability to evade vaccines, may also play a role. The situation in Chile suggests that a partially-vaccinated population is less safe against potentially dangerous variants.

Worst Case given these realities, how would a partiallyvaccinated nation best protect its citizens? The ﬁrst step, epidemiologists say, is to keep the amount of virus in circulation as low as possible. Vaccination is an important part of such a strategy because it ensures that outbreaks don’t have anywhere to go in

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“ WHAT MANY PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND IS THAT THE HERD IMMUNITY REQUIRED TO CONTAIN A 9,586 /,.( &29,'ʝ ,6 08&+ /2:(5 ,1 6800(5 Ť

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the larger population, and what outbreaks do occur can be quickly identified and suppressed. It keeps variants at bay by not giving the virus much opportunity to mutate. It doesn’t protect from variants that occur outside a nation’s borders—unless, of course, the borders are sealed—but by requiring tests and tracking outbreaks abroad it gives public health authorities a fighting chance to contain outbreaks. “The more we can limit the spread of the virus, the less evolutionary space it has,” says Korber. “So vaccination and continued good behavior with masks and social distancing is the way we can limit the playing field for the virus in terms of its

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lish formal mechanisms for keeping watch over new viruses and variants. So far during the pandemic, a loose network of virologists have been taking virus samples, sequencing their genomes and logging them to the GISAID and other databases, where they can be tracked. But despite their often heroic efforts, coverage has been spotty. The $1.7 billion the Biden administration has set aside to ﬁnd and track variants in the U.S. will help, but containing the virus is going to take a vast international effort. The outbreak in India, to take only one of many examples, is only a 15-hour plane ride away.

M AY 28, 2021

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evolutionary potential.” Moore puts the matter this way: “If a signiﬁcant fraction of America simply refuses to be vaccinated because they’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and get their information from QAnon and crazy Republican politicians, then that compromises the entire nation’s ability to return to normal.” Ultimately, the safety of the U.S. depends on the status of the world population. The more people the coronavirus infects, the more room it has to mutate into dangerous new forms. It’s in the interests of the U.S. and all nations to get the rest of the world vaccinated as quickly and completely as possible. Efforts of COVAX, the international organization that is aiming to vaccinate 20 percent of the poorest nations by year’s end, has fallen behind schedule due to challenges of manufacturing and distribution. COVAX’s problems started earlier, however. When wealthy nations were making deals last with vaccine makers, COVAX was scrounging for cash. Better funding ahead of time would have saved time. “I hope when we come out of this, we keep in mind that with global warming, desertiﬁcation, intense urbanization and population growth, we are certain to have more outbreaks,” says Dr. Seth Berkley, a co-leader of COVAX. “And if we know that’s true, then let’s prepare for it.” Another important measure would be to estab-

M E D ICI N E

SCIENTISTS ARE DEVELOPING A “UNIVERSAL VACCINE” THAT WOULD PROTECT AGAINST ANYTHING THE &2521$9,586 &$1 7+52: $7 86ʡ AND MAYBE EVEN THE COMMON COLD.

by Adam Piore

it took barney graham, jason mclellan and their collaborators just a weekend in January 2020 to design a novel vaccine they believed would be capable of protecting people against COVID-19. Their design formed the basis for the vaccines that Moderna, Pfizer and others would eventually use to inoculate millions of Americans a little more than a year later, a pace of development unprecedented in the annals of modern medicine. By then, however, the two pioneering virologists were already thinking about future pandemics— and how they might get ahead of them. Graham and McLellan are part of a corps of researchers hoping to take the technology they used on COVID-19 vaccines and apply them to an even more futuristic creation: an arsenal of off-the-shelf premade vaccines that could be easily modified to attack new pathogens as they arise—a kind of “pan” or “universal” coronavirus vaccine capable of protecting against many different strains of the virus at the same time. Even as scientists race to develop booster shots and tweak existing vaccines to work against new variants to SARS2, they’re looking ahead to future pandemics caused by entirely new pathogens from the same coronavirus family, one of just 26 known to infect humans. But SARS-CoV-2 is the third novel, deadly coronavirus to cross over from animals to humans in the last 20 years, and many scientists warn more will inevitably follow. Even though a “universal” vaccine that can protect against any new coronavirus that nature throws at us probably won’t be available this year or next, development has become a high priority. “We want to be proactive rather than reactive to coronaviruses,” McLellan says. “The idea is to develop a single vaccine that could protect against all different coronaviruses, including ones that are still in bats and haven’t emerged yet.” The idea isn’t new. Many scientists were already working on pandemic preparation projects before the coronavirus hit, including several experimental pan-coronavirus vaccines. Approaches that show promise include efforts to identify distinct protein molecules common to all coronaviruses that could attract virus-killing antibodies and custom-made nanoparticles studded with viral fragments from a number of different varieties, to name two. Scientists have also been working for years on a universal influenza vaccine that would do away with the need for a yearly shot that only protects against some common strains.

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MED I CINE

FUTURE TECH

To make a “universal” coronavirus vaccine, researchers hope to adapt technology used on COVID-19 vaccines. Below: President Biden talks to Dr. Barney Graham during an NIH tour. Top right: ResearcherJason McLellan and a graduate student. Bottom right: CDC headquarters.

Scientists have long complained that these efforts—particularly those geared toward coronaviruses—have been hampered by low funding and a lack of urgency. Now that may be changing. Over the last six months, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a notice of “special interest” calling for research labs to apply for funding to develop a universal coronavirus vaccine. Democrats have introduced legislation that would allocate a $1 billion investment for the project, and private foundations and public health officials have promised to contribute, too. The scientific establishment, meanwhile, has been stepping up its lobbying efforts. In recent months, leading public health officials and scientists have penned editorials in leading scientific journals, including Nature and Science, and begun to make the case for a major investment. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, has used his platform to argue the case. “I believe that we have the capability scientifically to develop one that really covers at least all of the SARS-CoV-2 mutations, but also the entire spectrum of the family of coronaviruses,” Fauci said at a public event in February. Then, referring to MERS,

which killed about one-third of those who caught it, SARS1, which killed up to 10 percent of its victims, and COVID-19, which has so far caused more than 3 million deaths around the world, he warned: “We got hit with three in 18 years that have been either pandemic or pandemic potential, so shame on us if we don’t develop the universal coronavirus vaccine.” Humans develop immunity to an invading virus when the body learns to recognize unique shapes formed by the proteins on the pathogen’s surface, and then starts producing cellular-level sentinels, known as antibodies, that seek out those speciﬁc shapes, glom on to them and keep them in check until other immune cells can arrive to destroy the pathogen they belong to. Only certain parts of a pathogenic virus are visible to the immune system. Most viruses consist of a piece of genetic material wrapped in a protein and encased in a protective soap-bubble-like membrane. Protruding from this membrane is a grappling hook-like spike used to ensnare and hijack vulnerable host cells. These grappling hooks have distinct shapes, designed to allow them to ﬁt into the protruding target proteins, and bind to them,

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“THE IDEA IS TO DEVELOP A SINGLE VACCINE THAT COULD PROTECT AGAINST ALL DIFFERENT &2521$9,586(6 ,1&/8',1* 21(6 7+$7 ARE STILL IN BATS AND HAVEN’T EMERGED YET.” like a key in a lock. These protruding parts of a virus used to attack the cells are also its Achilles heel In the early 2010s, Graham, who oversees two dozen scientists focused on developing vaccines for a wide array of respiratory viruses at the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, began collaborating with McLellan, then a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Peter Kwong, to develop a vaccine that would target a deadly pathogen known as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It was difﬁcult to develop a vaccine against this virus, which caused a sometimes fatal respiratory condition in children, because the proteins it used to glom onto cells were capable of shape-shifting—engaging in what one structural biologist describes as a form of “crazy protein yoga” that made it difﬁcult for antibodies to recognize them. To combat this, McLellan and Graham developed

a technique that allowed them to engineer synthetic versions of the grappling-hook-like proteins found on the surface of the respiratory syncytial virus. These synthetic proteins had a few carefully chosen changes to their genes that prevented them from bending and shape-shifting, effectively locking them into a single position so the body had a chance to develop strong antibodies against them. When Graham created a vaccine using the technique and injected it into macaque monkeys, it elicited among the most potent immune responses he had ever seen. “The body will make antibodies against whatever shape you show it,” explains McLellan. “But you need to show it the right shape.” Adds Graham: “We thought we already had potent monoclonal antibodies or neutralizing antibodies for RSV but these ones were 100 to 1000 times more potent.” They two scientists published a paper detailing their success in 2013, showcasing their new technologies and how they could help usher in a new age in vaccine development that involves creating custom-made antibody recipes and turning them into vaccines that can be mass produced. The vaccine entered human Phase III clinical trials in late 2020, and results are expected next year. By the time the RSV paper was published, Graham, McLellan and their collaborators had already begun modifying their approach to prepare for pandemics. When a virus capable of sparking a deadly new respiratory infection broke out in the Arabian Peninsula, called the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Graham and McLellan used their new technique to create a vaccine that attacked the spike-like proteins on the MERS virus. It was never approved for human use—MERS had died out before human trials could begin—but it later formed the basis for their work on the COVID-19 vaccine. After the MERS outbreak, Graham also approached his boss, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about developing a blueprint for an arsenal of new tools to protect against future pandemics. His plan—which he ofﬁcially unveiled in a paper published in the summer of 2019 titled a “Prototype Pathogen Approach for Pandemic Preparedness”— called for the NIH to develop vaccine prototypes and stockpile the materials needed to make them for at least one representative pathogen in each of

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the 26 viral families known to infect humans—including influenza and coronaviruses. By the time the paper came out, Graham had already begun a collaboration with Moderna to demonstrate the feasibility of a prototype vaccine for coronavirus. Then the pandemic hit. When Chinese researchers published the genome of COVID-19 in early January, McLellan and Graham quickly pulled out their plans for the MERS vaccine and copied the genetic instructions used to stabilize the virus’ grappling-hook protein. Then they incorporated these spike-stiffening genetic tweaks into a vaccine they believed would work against COVID-19 and shipped it off to colleagues at Moderna and some other drug manufacturers. “We started all this before we had the first case in the United States,” Graham says. Graham is hoping the success of the COVID-19 vaccine will create momentum to move ahead with a unified effort to develop prototype vaccines that protect against future pandemics. In the meantime, the battle to keep pace with the current virus, SARSCoV-2, and prepare for new unrelated coronavirus pathogens has continued. The new tools of structural protein design continue to play a key role. Last spring, McLellan published a second-generation version of his stabilized spike protein vaccine design which makes even more changes in the structure of the synthetic spikes that makes

“THE BODY WILL MAKE ANTIBODIES AGAINST WHATEVER SHAPE YOU SHOW IT. BUT YOU them even more immobile—and seems to create an even more potent immune response against the COVID-19 virus. The added potency makes it easier to manufacture using the existing infrastructure than developing nations rely upon to make annual ﬂu vaccines, which could help solve the supply bottleneck that has many nations lagging behind the United States in vaccination efforts. Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil and Mexico all have launched clinical trials to test out the new techniques. Meanwhile, western pharmaceutical companies manufacturing vaccines have begun exploring ways to ensure their existing COVID-19 immunizations are effective against newly emergent variants. Andrea Carﬁ, head of infectious disease research at Moderna, says the company has been closely

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monitoring variants. “Among all the variants that we have looked at so far—the variant in California, the variant from New York, the variant from the UK and the South African variant—the one that raises most of the concerns is the one that was identiﬁed in South Africa,” he says. The South African variant is the one most likely to develop the ability to escape the immune protection of the initial vaccine, due to the way its genetic mutations change the shape of the spike proteins antibodies use to identify it. Moderna currently is testing three different approaches against it: one is to inject subjects with a third dose of the original vaccine in the hope of increasing the number of antibodies in circulation that will neutralize it; a second approach uses a vaccine based on a separate spike structure of South

MULTIPLE WARHEAD

Neil King of the University of Washington has developed a technique to make nanoparticles that can trigger immune responses to many different viruses. Top to bottom: King; a 9-monthold baby gets an RSV shot to prevent bronchiolitis and pneumonia; a coronavirus, with its protruding spike proteins.

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ME DI CI N E

African variant designed to elicit antibodies against its unique shape; the third approach combines the old original vaccine with the South African variant. In the long run, however, a universal coronavirus vaccine is perhaps the best way to protect against new strains, since it would also work against novel strains. In his lab, McLellan has identified a portion of the spike protein that appears to be highly conserved in multiple coronaviruses. But he has only just begun experimenting with ways of creating a stable protein structure that will stay in one shape long enough to elicit the desired antibodies. Researchers in other labs have also identified promising targets. In 2014, a pair of scientists at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh identified a portion of an enzyme present in all known human coronaviruses. Researchers at the University of Virginia have found a part of the SARS2 spike protein that appears to persist among many of the variants. A vaccine that targets this part was able to protect pigs from both COVID-19 and another coronavirus that gives pigs diarrhea. And researchers at the University of North Carolina, isolated antibodies in the blood of an individual who had survived SARS1 that appeared to offer protection against SARS2, suggesting molecules common to viruses. One of the most clinically advanced efforts is being developed by VBI Vaccines Inc., a biotechnology

NEED TO SHOW IT THE RIGHT SHAPE.”

firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In recent months it has received tens of millions of dollars in research grants to develop a mechanism of delivering custom-designed proteins to the immune system that closely resemble native pathogens. They are preparing to test new vaccines in humans that would protect against the South African variants and would only require one dose—human trials could begin later this year. The company has demonstrated in mice that a single vaccine also in development using this technology can provoke an immune response against SARS2, SARS1 and MERS virus and had the added benefit of protecting against a coronavirus that is responsible for 42 percent of common colds. “If you think about those spike proteins as being the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, we showed that exposing mice to them could also produce neutralizing antibodies of orange,” says Jeff Baxter, the company’s CEO. At the NIH, meanwhile, Graham is also working to develop a pan or universal COVID vaccine. For the last five years, he has been collaborating with Neil King, a University of Washington structural protein biologist, who has developed a technique to make custom designed, self-assembling nanoparticles that resemble microscopic soccer balls. Instead of a mosaic of black and white pentagrams, however, their surface displays 20 different varieties of distinctly-shaped, spike-like proteins, which resemble those present on different varieties of coronaviruses. When introduced into the human body through a vaccine, the nanoparticles will hopefully train the immune system to recognize and attack all of the proteins in the mosaic, and many in between. King relies on computational techniques to determine which varieties are most likely to elicit a response that will work against viruses with different shapes on their spikes. Prior to COVID-19, King and Graham had already begun testing one version in mice, complete with six different varieties of coronavirus spikes—one from SARS, MERS and four other common varieties. The hope is that any new varieties of novel coronaviruses to arise in the years ahead will prove sufficiently similar to at least one of the six different inoculated strains for the body to recognize them as dangerous and attack. “If this approach works, we’ll have made a broadly protective coronavirus vaccine,” says King. “We’re going to get it. It’s just a matter of blood, sweat and tears. And money.”

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M AY 28, 2021

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METHODOLOGY he pandemic has dramatically reshaped americans’ relationship with credit cards—surprisingly, for the better. Instead of the increased delinquencies, ballooning balances and falling credit scores that might have been expected as the economy struggled and unemployment spiked, the opposite has happened: Balances are down, credit scores are up and credit card issuers are rolling out a red carpet of enhanced rewards to keep consumers spending. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, balances dropped an average of 10 percent from March to June of last year, and the trend continued through 2020, proving true even for people who had been struggling financially before the pandemic. New delinquencies on loans and credit card accounts also fell, after being flat or increasing gradually in 2019. Experts attribute the improvement to a combination of stimulus payments, expanded unemployment insurance benefits and reduced spending on activities like dining out, entertainment and travel, which left many people with extra cash to pay down debt. That in turn pushed credit scores higher: The average score hit 711 in 2020, Experian reports—up eight points from 2019. “A significant group now find themselves in a much better position than they were a year ago,” says Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. “A lot of Americans need credit cards less than they have for quite some time.” To keep Americans charging and paying annual fees, credit card companies have been tweaking and enhancing their rewards to reflect changing needs. Most now reward spending on takeout and delivery services and added or boosted payouts for buying groceries and subscribing to streaming services. And experts say you can expect those lockdown perks to continue, along with more generous offers on traditional rewards categories such as travel, gas, restaurants and entertainment, as issuers compete for your post-pandemic spending. “Card issuers all want to look like the best option for when people feel comfortable going out and spending again so we’re going to see potentially bigger sign-up bonuses, longer periods for introductory purchase and balance transfer rates, and lower interest rates and fees,” says Schulz. Another plus: With banks relaxing credit standards again and accepting more credit card applications, you shouldn’t have any trouble accessing these new offers later this year either. To help you take full advantage of this credit card competition and find the perfect card for your needs, Newsweek partnered with LendingTree, the online loan marketplace and comparison site for financial services, for our first-ever credit card ranking. From a universe of more than 1,030 credit cards offered by 195 financial institutions, we evaluated 36 different factors about each to find the best-in-class option in 31 different categories. One or more of them may be just right for you. Ơ Kerri Anne Renzulli, Senior Reporter

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To identify America’s Best Credit Cards, LendingTree in consultation with Newsweek collected data on candidates from more than 1,030 FUHGLW FDUGV LVVXHG E\ ɿQDQFLDO institutions and credit unions. LendLQJ7UHH WKHQ DSSOLHG ɿOWHUV WR FUHDWH D short list of eligible candidates in each category, based on the most salient features for each card type. LendingTree supplied the data and made recommendations about the feature ZHLJKWLQJV IRU HDFK FDWHJRU\ WKH ɿQDO scoring system used was developed by Newsweek, based on the factors editors deemed most important to consumers for that type of credit card. Data sources included MagnifyMoney.com, DepositAccounts.com and information published by each credit card issuer. All together, 36 factors were assessed, covering a wide variety of fees, current interest rates, balance transfer details, introductory purchase offers, introductory sign-up offers, rewards rates for purchases and other special perks. For consideration in the best big EDQN FDUG FDWHJRULHV ɿQDQFLDO LQVWLWXtions needed to have at least $10 billion in assets; for small bank cards, institutions with less than $10 billion in assets were evaluated. Only credit unions that allow anyone to join were considered. For all business card categories, only cards designated for businesses were considered. For best student offering, FDUGV KDG WR FDWHU VSHFLɿFDOO\ WR VWXdents. For best card for military members, only credit cards offered by banks that cater to military members and their families with at least $10 billion in assets, or by credit unions available to military members and their families, were considered. For best credit card for people with poor credit, cards needed to be either secured or designated as being for low credit score applicants. All other winners were selected from all available personal cards offered E\ ɿQDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV RI DQ\ VL]H Newsweek H[HUFLVHG ɿQDO HGLtorial judgment when selecting the winners. Current interest rate information and introductory offer details are accurate as of May 6, 2021.

M AY 28, 2021

TOP CARDS

The

Among the more than 1,030 offerings that Newsweek analyzed, these picks, ranked by size and type of issuer, provided the best combination of all the key features consumers typically look for in a credit card: reasonably generous and easy-toredeem rewards for spending; low interest rates, in case you occasionally carry a balance; no annual fee; and enticing introductory perks to make switching cards worth your while.

best big bank card Cards from banks with at least $10 billion in assets dominate the market, and their greater ﬁnancial clout typically allows them to offer the most generous payouts. Our winner makes it especially easy to accrue and redeem rewards, plus offers a longer-than-usual period when you won’t be charged interest on balance transfers.

Citi Double Cash 13.99%-23.99% BALANCE TRANSFERS: 0% interest for 18 months REWARDS: 1% cash back when you buy, 1% when you pay INTEREST RATE:

best small bank card Smaller banks with less than $10 billion in assets typically can’t compete with the big boys on rewards but make up for it with better rates and introductory features. Our winner excels on both those fronts, and also gives more generous rewards than commonly found in this category.

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Rewards Credit Card from Dollar Bank 12.24% INTRO OFFER: 0% interest for six months on new purchases, balance transfers REWARDS: 1.25% cash back INTEREST RATE:

best credit union card Federal laws cap the interest credit unions can charge, making them the place to ﬁnd low rates. Our winner excels on that score and also offers great extras like refunds for the cost of TSA PreCheck and Global Entry and no foreign transaction fees. (Only cards offered by credit unions anyone could join were considered.)

Summit Credit Union Ultimate CashPerks 11.15% INTRO OFFER: 0% interest for 12 months on new purchases, balance transfers REWARDS: 3% cash back on airlines; 2% on hotels, dining; 1.5% on all other purchases. Plus, a concierge service to book travel, tickets or dinner reservations. INTEREST RATE:

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best for business travel Flying to woo clients, meet suppliers or attend conferences might not have been on the books last year, but, as pandemic restrictions ease up, those delayed travel plans can soon come off standby. In addition to solid rewards for hotel stays, ﬂights, car rentals and meals out, the winners (Capital One is best for smaller spenders, Chase for bigger ones) offer large sign-up bonuses, free employee cards, and integration with bookkeeping software.

Capital One Spark Miles for Business 50,000 miles if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW PRQWKV REWARDS: 2 miles per $1 spent on all purchases PERK: $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck INTRO OFFER:

BEST

Business Cards

Chase Ink Business Preferred best for small businesses (overall winner)

best for start-ups

Lucrative rewards on all spending, a generous sign-up bonus, plus tools to help business owners keep their operations running smoothly make this Capital One card a standout. Free employee cards, integration with bookkeeping software and the ability to purchase above your credit limit with no fees, when needed, are appealing extras.

Small business entrepreneurs often need access to low-cost borrowing to help cover start-up costs and beneﬁt from generous rewards in the business categories where they initially spend the most. The winner excels on both counts, plus provides a hefty $750 signup bonus if at least $7,500 is spent in the ﬁrst three months, no annual fee and free cards for other employees.

Capital One Spark Cash for Business

Chase Ink Business Cash

20.99% SIGN-UP BONUS: $500, if $4,500 LV VSHQW LQ ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 2% cash back on all purchases, including by employees; spending of, say, $25,000 per month earns about $6,000 in annual rewards INTEREST RATE:

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$95 INTRO OFFER: 100,000 points if you VSHQG LQ ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: SRLQWV SHU RQ ɿUVW $150,000 spent a year on travel, shipping, social media and search engine advertising and phone, internet and cable services; 1 per $1 on all other purchases ANNUAL FEE:

13.24%–19.24% INTRO OFFER: No interest on purchases for 12 months REWARDS: FDVK EDFN DW RIɿFH supply stores and on phone, internet and cable services up to $25,000 a year; 2% at gas stations, restaurants up to $25,000 a year; 1% on all other purchases INTEREST RATE:

M AY 28, 2021

best business hotel card If you or your employees routinely travel for work, it can pay to become loyal to a speciﬁc hotel chain that will often reward your spending to the tune of 6 percent or more. The category winner doubles that already generous reward at its properties, plus offers a free weekend night stay perk for spending, no foreign transaction fees and complimentary entry to airport lounges.

Hilton Honors American Express Business $95 INTRO OFFER: 130,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW PRQWKV REWARDS: 12 points per $1 spent with Hilton hotels and resorts; 6 per $1 spent on gas stations, wireless telephone services, shipping, restauUDQWV DLUOLQH ʀLJKWV DQG FDU UHQWDOV per $1 spent on all other purchases

best business airline card For frequent business fliers, adding an airline-branded credit card can result in better returns for travel expenses, flight upgrades and other perks. The winners both give users a hefty sign-up bonus, free checked bags, discounted food and drink on flights and no foreign transaction fees. JetBlue, though, flies primarily to U.S. destinations and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean; Delta’s routes include parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

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ANNUAL FEE:

Adding an airline card can result in better returns, ﬂight upgrades, free checked bags and other perks.”

JetBlue Business by Barclays $99 INTRO OFFER: 50,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V 10,000 points if a purchase is made on DQ HPSOR\HH FDUG LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V REWARDS: 6 points per $1 spent with JetBlue; 2 per $1 spent at restauUDQWV RIɿFH VXSSO\ VWRUHV SHU spent on all other purchases. 5,000 bonus points every year you renew ANNUAL FEE:

Delta SkyMiles Gold Business American Express ANNUAL FEE: IRU WKH ɿUVW

year, $99 after that INTRO OFFER: 50,000 miles and a $50 statement credit if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW PRQWKV REWARDS: 2 miles per $1 spent with Delta; 2 per $1 spent on restaurants, shipping, advertising; 1 per $1 on all other purchases; annual $100 ʀLJKW FUHGLW LI \RX VSHQG

best for military families

BEST

By Cardholder Type best for students Students typically need low interest rates, in case their budget goes sideways at school; low fees and an extended no-interest introductory period so they don’t have to stress about repaying the cost of that new laptop or dorm furnishings in a single month. The winning card offers all this plus generous cash rewards and bonuses.

Discover it Student Cash Back 0% interest on purchases for six months BONUSES: Unlimited dollar-for-dollar match of the cash back you earn WKH ɿUVW \HDU SOXV D DQQXDO credit if your GPA is 3.0 or higher REWARDS: 5% cash back on up to $1,500 a quarter on rotating categories that can include restaurants, grocery stores or Amazon; 1% on all other purchases

best for new homeowners Renovations, new furniture and decorations don’t come cheaply, so you want a card that will reward you generously for those big-ticket purchases. The winner is a rare cash back card that lets you choose the categories in which you earn 5 percent back each quarter, which can include furniture, department and electronics stores as well as utility bills.

Being a member of the armed services gives you access to a host of military-speciﬁc cards from banks and credit unions with great returns. The winner provides a unique blend of perks: solid rewards for everyday spending, an introductory bonus, no annual fee, no balance transfer fee and no cash-advance fee.

Navy Federal More Rewards American Express 9.65%-18.00% INTRO OFFER: 10,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V REWARDS: 3 points per $1 spent on restaurants, supermarkets, food delivery, gas and transit; 1 per $1 spent on all other purchases INTEREST RATE:

INTRO OFFER:

13.99%-23.99% INTRO OFFER: $150 if you apply online and spend LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V REWARDS: 5% cash back on up to $2,000 a quarter on two categories of your choosing; 2% on restaurants, grocery stores or gas stations (your choice); 1% on all other purchases INTEREST RATE:

best for commuters Considering many people moved further away from their ofﬁces during the pandemic, returning to in-person work may come with higher travel expenses. The winning card offers generous rewards for typical commuting expenses, plus a nice sign-up bonus, though it does impose an annual fee after the ﬁrst year.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred No interest on purchases for 12 months SIGN-UP BONUS: $150 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW VL[ PRQWKV plus 20% back on up to $1,000 in Amazon purchases (worth $200) REWARDS: 6% cash back on up to $6,000 a year spent on groceries; 6% on some streaming services; 3% on taxis, rideshares, parking, tolls, trains, buses, gas and other transit costs; 1% on all other purchases INTRO OFFER:

M AY 28, 2021

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U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature

best for engaged couples Brides and grooms can expect to fork out $22,500 on average this year for a ceremony and reception, according to TheKnot.com. Add in a honeymoon and it’s easy to see why some couples may need help with ﬁnancing from their credit card in order to pull off the perfect day. The winning card offers an especially long no-interest period, generous travel rewards and no annual fee.

Chase Freedom Unlimited 0% interest on purchases for 15 months SIGN-BONUS: $200 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards; 3% on restaurants, takeout, food delivery and drugstores; 1.5% on all other purchases INTRO OFFER:

best for people with bad credit If your credit score is low—typically under 600—you can still ﬁnd a great card with low fees and solid rewards, especialy if you’re able to plunk down a relatively modest cash deposit to open the account (known as a secured card). The winner charges no annual fee, offers a refundable security deposit and will “graduate” you to a regular unsecured account after as little as eight months, if you’ve used your card responsibly.

BEST

Travel Cards best for frequent travelers If you take trips often—a possibility again as pandemic restrictions ease— it’s worth paying an annual fee for a card that rewards travel more generously than no-fee alternatives. For $95 a year, our best-in-class options also offer hefty sign-up bonuses, no foreign transaction fees, solid rewards in non-travel categories and the ability to transfer rewards to airline, hotel or other loyalty programs.

Capital One Venture Rewards 100,000 miles if \RX VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW year or 50,000 miles if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 5 miles per $1 spent on hotel and car rental purchases through Capital One Travel, 2 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases PERK: $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck

INTRO OFFER:

Chase Sapphire Preferred 80,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH months; $50 statement credit toward grocery store purchases REWARDS: 2 points per $1 spent on dining, takeout and travel; 1 point per $1 on other purchases PERK: Discounts on DoorDash, Peloton services

INTRO OFFER:

Discover it Secured INTEREST RATE:

22.99%

$200 REWARDS: 2% cash back on up to $1,000 a quarter at restaurants and gas stations, plus an unlimited dollar-for-dollar match of the cash EDFN \RX HDUQ GXULQJ WKH ɿUVW \HDU MINIMUM SECURITY DEPOSIT:

Brides and grooms spend $22,500 on average so may need ﬁnancing help to pull off the perfect day.”

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best airline reward card Frequent fliers will see big payoffs by becoming brand loyal with an airline-specific card, earning reward miles faster, along with perks like free checked bags and priority boarding. The winners—choosing between them depends on which carrier offers more flights to the places you’re most likely to go—both offer nice sign-up bonuses, 20 to 25 percent off on in-flight purchases and don’t charge foreign transaction fees.

best for occasional travelers You don’t have to forego outstanding travel rewards if you’re more of a one-trip-a-year type or just hate fees. Our no-annual-fee winners offer travelers different but equally great returns: the Discover card has an unparalleled introductory bonus for a free card but limited acceptance outside the U.S.; Bank of America’s card is more widely taken abroad and doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.

Discover it Miles INTRO OFFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ

purchases for 14 months BONUS: Unlimited miles-formiles match of the total you HDUQ LQ WKH ɿUVW \HDU REWARDS: 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all purchases, redeemed as cash or a statement credit toward travel

Bank of America Travel Rewards INTRO OFFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ

purchases for 12 months BONUS: 25,000 points if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V REWARDS: 1.5 points per $1 spent, redeemed as a statement credit toward travel or dining

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best hotel reward card If you’re willing to stick with a particular hotel chain, getting a branded card can pay off in free-night stays, room upgrades and other perks. The winners also offer attractive sign-up bonuses, rewards for non-travel spending and free access to airport lounges or a free night’s stay when you renew the card.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass $95 BONUS: 130,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH months, plus another 50,000 points if you spend $10,000 LQ WKH ɿUVW VL[ PRQWKV REWARDS: 12 points per $1 spent at Hilton properties; 6 per $1 for groceries, gas, restaurants, takeout; 3 per $1 on all other purchases

Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express INTRO OFFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ

purchases for 14 months BONUS: 40,000 miles if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV plus up to $50 back at restaurants REWARDS: 2 miles per $1 spent on Delta purchases, groceries, restaurants and takeout delivery; 1 per $1 spent on all other purchases; $100 annual ʀLJKW FUHGLW LI \RX VSHQG

ANNUAL FEE:

United Explorer

IHG Rewards Club Premier

40,000 miles if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV plus an extra 25,000 miles if you spend $10,000 in six months REWARDS: 2 miles per $1 spent on United purchases, restaurants and hotels; 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases PERKS: $100 reimbursement of Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fees, two free United Club passes/year

$89 BONUS: 125,000 bonus points plus one reward night if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW PRQWKV REWARDS: Up to 25 points per $1 at IHG properties; 2 points for gas, groceries, restaurants; 1 point on everything else

BONUS:

ANNUAL FEE:

Card issuers are rolling out a red carpet of enhanced rewards to keep consumers spending.” M AY 28, 2021

BEST

Introductory Offers best no-interest period

best sign-up bonus (small bank)

When you’ve got a sudden emergency or big purchase you need help ﬁnancing, opening a card with a stellar introductory offer gives you a grace period to save for the repayment without incurring additional fees or penalties. The winner doesn’t offer fancy rewards or sign-up bonuses but it makes up for it with the longest intro period in our universe.

Cards from credit unions and ﬁnancial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets can’t compete outright with bigger issuers on the size of their bonus. But they can deliver a winning combo of features to complement a solid bonus, including lower interest rates than the big boys for those with good credit and no annual fee, as does our best-in-class pick here.

U.S. Bank Visa Platinum 14.49%–24.49% INTRO OFFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ purchases for 20 months BALANCE TRANSFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ transfers for 20 months, 3% fee INTEREST RATE:

Great Lakes Credit Union Visa Rewards ANNUAL FEE:

30,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V REWARDS: 2 points per $1 spent on every type of purchase

SIGN-UP BONUS:

best sign-up bonus (big bank) Competition in this category was tight as the biggest lenders typically give the grandest enticements to open an account. Our two winners, one offering cash back rewards and one offering points, deliver the best bang for expanding your wallet, without requiring exorbitant spending to earn the sign-up bonus. BEST FOR CASH BACK

Discover it Cash Back

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ANNUAL FEE:

Unlimited dollarfor-dollar match of the total cash EDFN \RX HDUQ WKH ɿUVW \HDU REWARDS: 5% on up to $1,500 a quarter on rotating categories that can include restaurants, grocery stores or gas stations; 1% on all other purchases SIGN-UP BONUS:

BEST FOR POINTS

Chase Sapphire Preferred $95 SIGN-UP BONUS: 80,000 points if \RX VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH months; $50 statement credit for grocery store purchases REWARDS: 2 points per $1 spent on dining, takeout, travel; 1 point per $1 on all other purchases ANNUAL FEE:

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best overall rewards, with an annual fee

BEST

Rewards Cards best overall rewards, with no annual fee To earn the top rewards that issuers dole out, you typically need to pay an annual fee and spend big bucks ($3,000 to $4,000 or more) within the ﬁrst few months of opening an account. But moderate spenders don’t have to miss out on stellar returns with these two no-fee winners, which both offer generous rewards for common purchases and a decent sign-up bonus, while only requiring charges of $1,000 or less during the introductory period. Which card is better for you depends on where you spend the most—Capital One may have the edge on everyday spending and online shopping; Chase, for consumers who travel often.

Capital One SavorOne Rewards INTRO OFFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ

purchases for 15 months SIGN-UP BONUS: $200 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 3% cash back on dining and entertainment; 2% at grocery stores; 1% on all other purchases. Rewards can be used on purchases at online stores made via PayPal

Chase Freedom Unlimited INTRO OFFER: ɿQDQFLQJ RQ

purchases for 15 months SIGN-UP BONUS: $200 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW PRQWKV REWARDS: 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards; 3% on restaurants, takeout, delivery, drugstore purchases; 1.5% on all other purchases

To ﬁnd the winner, we looked for the highest rewards in the categories that matter most to consumers, along with a generous sign-up bonus to more than offset the annual fee. The AmEx card has the highest reward rate going for groceries and streaming; Bank of America’s card is a standout for travelers.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred ANNUAL FEE: IRU WKH ɿUVW

year, $95 after that SIGN-UP BONUS: $150 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW VL[ PRQWKV plus 20% back on up to $1,000 in Amazon purchases (worth $200) REWARDS: 6% on groceries, up to $6,000, and streaming services; 3% on rideshares, gas, parking, other transit; 1% on all other purchases

Bank of America Premium Rewards $95 SIGN-UP BONUS: 50,000 points if you spend $3,000 LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 2 points per $1 spent on dining, travel, plus groceries for 2021; 1.5 per $1, all other purchases. Up to $100 credit on some travel-related purchases ANNUAL FEE:

The typical credit card balance dropped 10 percent last year, while credit scores rose eights points, making it easier to qualify for a new card.” M AY 28, 2021

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best premium rewards Attention, big spenders: If you’re shelling out more than $100 a year for a credit card—and, often in this category, $250 to $500 or more—you better be sure the sign-up bonus and rewards are outstanding. That’s the case with these two winners, which both offer outsized perks compared to competitors but in different spending categories—the AmEx card is best for everyday spending, Chase makes more sense for frequent travelers.

American Express Gold

Chase Sapphire Reserve

$250 SIGN-UP BONUS: 60,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW VL[ PRQWKV REWARDS: 4 points per $1 spent on restaurants, takeout, delivery and up to $25,000 worth of groceries D \HDU SRLQWV RQ ʀLJKWV SHU $1 on all other purchases. Plus: $120 Uber cash annually for Uber rides or Uber Eats food deliveries; $10 statement credit each month you use the card at Grubhub, Seamless, Boxed or other partners

$550 SIGN-UP BONUS: 60,000 points if you spend $4,000 LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 3 points back per $1 spent on travel, restaurants, takeout and delivery; 1 point on all other purchases; annual $300 credit for travel (gas and grocery purchases also count in 2021); $100 credit for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck; access to more than 1,000 airport lounges; no foreign transaction fees

ANNUAL FEE:

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best gas rewards Road trippers, long-distance commuters and other gas guzzlers need a card that will cut the price of fueling up. The two no-fee winners, one for those willing to become brand loyal and one for those who want the freedom to shop around, will both knock serious money off your gas costs and offer solid rewards in other common spending categories.

Shell Fuel Rewards Mastercard 26.49% SIGN-UP BONUS: 30¢ off every gallon (up to 20 gallons per transaction) on \RXU ɿUVW ɿYH 6KHOO IXHO SXUFKDVHV REWARDS: 10¢ off every gallon; statement credits for Shell gas offered as rewards for spending: 10% on up to $1,200 in Shell non-fuel purchases; 2% on $10,000 in dining, groceries; 1% on all other purchases INTEREST RATE:

best grocery rewards The typical American family spends upwards of $4,600 a year on groceries—and that total, from 2019, has likely gone higher during the pandemic. The winner offers the highest rewards for this spending, hands down, for a modest annual fee; AmEx offers a no-fee version too—Blue Cash Everyday— but the rewards are half as much.

best for maximizers (rotating rewards) You can earn as much 5 percent cash back on your spending, if you’re willing to try timing your biggest purchases to when an issuer offers its biggest payouts in rotating categories. It’s a hassle, but with a potentially great payoff—and the winner in this category makes it easier by offering good rewards on ﬁxed categories as well, along with an easy-to-earn sign-up bonus.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred

Chase Freedom Flex

ANNUAL FEE: IRU WKH ɿUVW

ANNUAL FEE:

year, $95 after that SIGN-UP BONUS: $150 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW VL[ PRQWKV plus 20% back on up to $1,000 in Amazon purchases (worth $200) CASHBACK: 6% on up to $6,000 a year on groceries; 6% on certain streaming services; 3% on taxis, rideshares, parking, tolls, gas, public transit; 1% on all other purchases

$200 if you spend LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV SOXV ɿQDQFLQJ IRU PRQWKV REWARDS: 5% on up to $1,500 spent on bonus categories each quarter; 5% on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards; 3% on restaurants, takeout/delivery, drugstores; 1% on all other purchases

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PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature 13.49%–17.99% SIGN-UP BONUS: $100 credit if you spend $1,500 LQ ɿUVt 90 days REWARDS: 5 points per $1 spent on gas; 3 per $1 on groceries; 1 per $1 on all other purchases

INTEREST RATE:

SIGN-UP BONUS:

M AY 28, 2021

best dining rewards Don’t want to taste your own cooking for the rest of 2021? Newsweek has you covered. The two winners, one with an annual fee and one without, practically give you an excuse to go out, rewarding dining handsomely and dishing out a solid introductory bonus for dessert.

Capital One Savor Rewards $95 SIGN-UP BONUS: $300 if you spend $3,000 on purchases LQ WKH ɿUVW WKUHH PRQWKV REWARDS: 4% cash back on dining, entertainment; 2% on groceries; 1% on all other purchases ANNUAL FEE:

U.S. Bank Altitude Go Visa Signature ANNUAL FEE:

20,000 points if you VSHQG LQ WKH ɿUVW GD\V REWARDS: 4 points per $1 spent on dining, takeout, food delivery; 2 points on groceries (including delivery), streaming services, gas; 1 per $1 spent on all other purchases

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SIGN-UP BONUS:

best for simplicity (flat cashback rewards) Not a big spender in any one area or just prefer a simple-to-use card that will give you a decent, steady return for all your purchases? Cards with a ﬂat cash back rewards rate are for you. No rotating categories, no annual fee, no headaches—and Citi’s offering is the best of the bunch.

Citi Double Cash ANNUAL FEE:

0% ɿQDQFLQJ IRU PRQWKV REWARDS: 1% cash back when you buy, 1% when you pay BALANCE TRANSFER:

BEST

For Borrowers best if you carry a balance

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Culture

HIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

FACES OF THE WAVE

Clockwise from top left: Kim Soo-hyun (It’s Okay to Not Be Okay), Bae Doo-na (Kingdom) Park Bo-gum (Record of Youth), Jo Byung-gyu (The Uncanny Counter), Seo Ya-ji (It’s Okay to Not Be Okay), Jeon Yeobin and Song Joong-ki (Vincenzo) and Park Sodam (Record of Youth).

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M AY 28, 2021

GHOST TOWNS “These abandoned places immediately evoke feelings of eeriness and curiosity.” » P.46

T EL EV I SI ON

K-Dramas on Netﬂix: A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Shows

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The South Korean culture pop culture wave that has been taking over the world conquers the small screen

movies like parasite and minari have became hugely popular in Japan. This year, Netflix been critical and commercial international announced it would be investing nearly $500 milhits and K-pop artists like BTS have broken records lion in Korean content “to add more variety and around the world. Now its K-drama’s turn. Accorddiversity to our growing slate.” ing to Netflix, South Korean-made shows like KingHere are five of the most compelling Korean dom and It’s Okay to Not Be Okay are being watched shows on Netflix now. on the streaming service in more than 30 languages, including English, German, French, Swedish, Hindi, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay Portuguese and Bahasa Indonesia. The critically acclaimed romantic drama was hailed K-dramas have been one of the driving forces of as one of the “best international television shows of 2020” by The New York Times. South Korea’s entertainment industry for decades. In recent years, their quality has improved tremendousThe series follows a budding relationship between ly with bigger budgets and more varied characters antisocial children’s author Go Moon-young (played and story lines than ever before. by Seo Ye-ji) and Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun), a The international success of Kocaretaker at a psychiatric ward who rean TV actually predates the K-pop has spent his entire life looking after explosion. The word hallyu (“Korean his autistic older brother. BY wave”) was coined in the late 1990s. Moon-young aggressively pursues The trend picked up steam in 2003, Gang-tae, resulting in heated clashSOO KIM when the K-drama Winter Sonata @MissSooKim es that ultimately bring the couple

Photo-illust rat ion b y G L U E K I T

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TELEVISION

closer together. The filterless and fearless heroine might remind some viewers of Villanelle, the psychopathic assassin from Killing Eve, and a literal translation of the show’s Korean name is “You’re a psycho but it’s OK.” Moon-young doesn’t have the same killer instinct, however, and her strong personality is balanced by the glimpses of vulnerability drawn out by Gang-tae, who is unwaveringly patient yet stubborn. Several scenes have a dark fairytale feel, similar to the children’s stories written by Moon-young, with snowy fields, forest backdrops and the heroine’s fairytale princess outfits and long flowing hair. Other sequences switch between fantasy and reality, such as a trippy scene where a VIP psychiatric patient walks viewers through how he sees the world. The show marked the highly anticipated return of Kim, one of South Korea’s highest-paid actors, to the small screen following his obligatory military service.

Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Jihoon) stumbles on the mysterious illness while investigating the rumored death of his father, the king, who— mini spoiler alert—died but became a zombie after being vaccinated with a “resurrection plant.” The widowed, pregnant queen and government ofﬁcials looking to oust Lee hide the truth about the king (and the zombie plague) from the people in a bid to secure the vacant throne for the queen’s unborn child. Seeking the truth behind his father’s illness, Lee sets out to ﬁnd the doctor who last treated the king. He comes across Seo-bi (Bae Doona), the doctor’s assistant, who is also trying to discover what is causing the masses to become zombies by night. The series is set in an interesting point in the country’s history: the 500year Joseon dynasty. The Joseon era planted the seeds for modern Korean society, from provincial governments

Kingdom Another show that made the Times list of best international shows last year, Kingdom is about a nation plagued by an unknown disease that spreads like wildfire among its people and later mutates into a more virulent form. Sound familiar? Kingdom was Netflix’s first original Korean series when it premiered in January 2019. The second season began on March 13 last year, just days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Political corruption and conspiracy meet over-the-top blood and gore in this riveting sageuk (period drama) with a zombie twist. Viewers with weak stomachs won’t enjoy its scenes of decapitations and zombies noisily chowing down.

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Record of Youth is more than just a love story, touching on themes of class, family values and relationships in Korean society.

and social classes to the establishment of Hanyang, modern-day Seoul. In the first season, Lee and his allies attempt to fight the zombies and contain the outbreak. The second season shows them learning more about the illness and ends with a cliffhanger. A special stand-alone episode, “Kingdom: Ashin of the North,” exploring the backstory of a mysterious character who appeared at the end of season 2 is due to air this year. A third season is reportedly in the cards, but an official announcement has yet to be made.

Vincenzo The gripping crime drama Vincenzo, which premiered on Netflix in late February, has moments of lighthearted relief, not least from its main character Vincenzo Cassano, played by Song Joong-ki, a household name in South Korea. Vincenzo is the adopted son of the head of a maﬁa clan in Italy, and eventually becomes a lawyer/consigliere for the family. He visits his birthplace of South Korea in a bid to recover tons of gold hidden below a building that has been illegally seized by another company. The series follows his attempt to reclaim this site as the gangster forms an unlikely alliance with a neighborhood family law ﬁrm. From the first episode, viewers see multiple sides of Vincenzo that break the conventional image of a ruthless consigliere, played out in his comic exchanges with the building’s troublesome tenants. Between some surprising plot twists and glimpses of a troubled past, viewers will want to stick around to see whether Vincenzo is a good guy turned bad or a bad guy turning good.

The Uncanny Counter This engrossing sci-ﬁ action drama,

M AY 28, 2021

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Periscope

POPULAR SIGHTS

Left: Kingdom actors Ju Ji-hoon (left) and Kim Tae-hoon. Bottom left: Park So-dam, who stars in the movie Parasite and the TV series Record of Youth. Below: Kim Soo-hyun one of the stars of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.

Record of Youth

which premiered on Netflix in November 2020, follows four seemingly ordinary people who in fact have extraordinary powers, and secretly work as “counters,” tracking down and fighting demons who prey on humans. Three of the counters work at a noodle shop, while the group’s youngest and newest member, So Mun (Jo Byung-gyu), is a high school student. Each counter works with a partner spirit from Yung, a purgatory-like space between the living world and the afterlife. All the counters are physically stronger than other humans and each has a unique gift, such as the power to heal or to read and erase memories. So Mun’s “boy-next-door-turnedsuperhero” persona will be familiar to fans of Spider-Man. Like Peter Parker, So Mun lost both his parents as a child

and was raised by extended family (his grandparents). The series is packed with satisfying, high-adrenaline ﬁght scenes as the counters battle increasingly stronger demons, as well as heartfelt moments between the four who become like a family. As their stories unfold, the counters also ﬁnd themselves taking on school violence, police corruption and difficult questions about their pasts.

This hip, stylish and sweet romantic drama follows a group of 20-somethings trying to make it in the fashion and acting industries. A make-up artist assigned to work at a fashion show suddenly meets her longtime celebrity crush and the pair form an unexpected friendship. The celebrity crush is Sa Hye-jun, played by Park Bo-gum, another of the country’s best known actors. Hye-jun is a model/actor from a working-class family who found breakout success seven years earlier. But now he juggles several part-time jobs while hustling for his next big break. Won Hae-hyo (Byeon Wooseok), one of Hye-jun’s best friends since childhood, is also a model and actor. Coming from a wealthy family, Hae-hyo has had better luck in the industry, partly thanks to his mother doing whatever she can to boost his success. The two men meet makeup artist Ahn Jeong-ha at a fashion show. Jeong-ha is played by Park Sodam, now best known as the daughter “Jessica” in Parasite. Dotted with heartwarming exchanges, fateful encounters and cute/ witty banter, Record of Youth is in many ways a quintessential romantic K-drama. But the series is more than just a love story, touching on themes of class, family values and relationships in Korean society. Several scenes offer a glimpse into modern life for young people in South Korea, from the characters’ stylish clothes and fancy technology to the realities of celebrity culture.

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Culture

02 City Hall Station

New York This beautiful subway station was in use until 1945, but it closed down because the curve of the platform was too sharp for newer, longer trains. Decorated with stained glass skylights, colorful tile and brickwork and chandeliers, this work of art is sadly no longer accessible to commuters and passersby, but the New York Transit Museum does offer tours to this underground treasure box.

Maunsell Army Sea Forts England These forts on stilt off England’s east coast were originally World War II gun towers to defend against German aircraft. Now rusted out and decaying, they were decommissioned in the 1950s and have not been used since. They hark back to some of the darkest days of the war, and what is left of them can still be viewed today from passing boats.

Eastern State Penitentiary Philadelphia This prison operated from 1829 to DQG ZKHQ LW ZDV ɿUVW EXLOW LW was the largest building in the country. Notoriously, inmates were often tortured there. Now the deserted penitentiary is considered one of the most haunted places in the world; reported sightings RI ɿJXUHV DQG WKH VRXQGV RI IRRWVWHSV crying and screaming abound.

Whaler’s Bay South Shetland Islands, Antarctica 'DULQJ ZKDOHUV ɿUVW VHWWOHG LQ WKLV community on Deception Island as early as 1906, but the harsh conditions were QR ORQJHU SURɿWDEOH ZKHQ RLO SULFHV plummeted during the Great Depression. All that remains are rusted pieces of equipment, rotting boats and buildings buried almost entirely under snow.

04 3

The Great Train Graveyard Uyuni, Bolivia In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, transportation was a major industry in the region. But by the 1940s, these windy VDOW ʀDWV ZHUH ZKHUH WUDLQV went to die. The area’s harsh conditions deteriorated the trains rapidly, quickly giving them the haunting appearance of ancient relics—albeit ones that visitors can climb on for share-worthy photos.

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Wanli UFO Village Taiwan These pod-shaped rooms, originally designed as ski chalets, were once destined to be part of a cheerful beachside vacation resort. +RZHYHU DIWHU ɿQDQFLDO VWUXJJOHV the project made of lightweight ɿEHUJODVV )XWXUR KRXVHV ZDV abandoned. Today, rather than a relaxing vacation destination, the combination of whimsical architecture, pastel coloring and decades of decay is unsettling.

Star Wars Sets Tozeur Desert, Tunisia 7KH PDMRULW\ RI ɿOPLQJ IRU WKH SODQHW RI Tatooine took place in Tunisia, and several sets were abandoned deep in the Sahara Desert after production, including Luke Skywalker’s iconic childhood home from Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope. Now, some of the sets are deteriorating and becoming buried beneath the sand.

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Newnes Glow Worm Tunnel New South Wales, Australia In the early 1900s, this IRRW ORQJ WXQQHO ZDV built as part of a railway used by miners. Now, the long-abandoned tunnel in Wollemi National Park a few hours outside Sydney is a damp and dark footpath, and it is illuminated by the magical green-blue light of countless glow worms.

Gunkanjima Island 1DJDVDNL -DSDQ Less than one square kilometer of rock sits on top of a massive, 1950s undersea coal mine. The miners needed a place to live, so an entire city arose on the tiny island. Nearly 6,000 people lived there—the world’s highest population density. But when the coal ran out, the micro-city was deserted.

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Cool Abandoned Sites to Visit As time goes on, some places stay in use, but some get left behind—due to unforeseen circumstances, changing times or other reasons. These abandoned places immediately evoke feelings of eeriness and curiosity, no matter where they are. Their remains are testaments to their fascinating histories, and they are perfect destinations for those who love history, adventure and even stories of the supernatural. From old mining tunnels covered in glow worms to haunted prisons to ’70s movie sets decaying in the desert, here are some of the most fascinating abandoned sites to explore around the world. —Sarah Dreher M AY 28, 2021

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Culture

PA R T I NG S HO T

Thuso Mbedu

“This history they think is so far removed is a reality for people in the present day.”

What’s it like to be part of such a highly anticipated project? I don’t think it has really sunken in. I hear people talk and it feels like they know something that I don’t. I’m just excited for people to see the story because it’s an important story that needs to be told. How do you think your experiences in South Africa LQʀXHQFHG KRZ \RX DSSURDFK D role like Cora? Barry sent me links to audio tapes of formerly enslaved people. The English I heard in those tapes is an English that if I were to go to South Africa today to a township or rural area, that’s how people speak. In that moment, I realized that the story is closer to home than I thought it was. How did you balance self-care and PHQWDO ZHOOQHVV ZKLOH ɿQGLQJ WKH rawness of Cora? I have different tricks and ways of detaching. I choose to walk through the set with my eyes down, because taking in the environment is too heavy. I’ll only lift my eyes when I want to see the world through Cora’s eyes and experience it as Cora. What’s one thing you hope people take away from the series? I hope it’s the realization that this history they think is so far removed is a reality for people in the present day. The pain and the trauma that has gone on for generations is still very much alive. —H. Alan Scott

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for most actors, getting the lead in a highly anticipated project like Amazon Prime’s The Underground Railroad (May 14) from Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins would be intimidating, but not for Thuso Mbedu, who plays Cora, the series lead. “Stuff like that doesn’t actually register. I hear it, I get it, but when I’m at work, I’m here to be my best.” Just to add to the project’s weightiness, the limited series is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Colson Whitehead novel of the same name and is Mbedu’s ﬁrst American project after getting her start in South Africa. Even though it’s a historical project, Mbedu says it’s still very relevant, particularly for Black Americans. “It’s closer to home than people realize.” In many ways, Mbedu was able to see parts of herself in the character. “Cora healed parts of me that I didn’t know were wounded.” Even when she had doubts, all she had to do was look to Jenkins. “Barry saw in me something that I don’t quite see in myself. And for me, all I can tell myself is to be my best at every given moment. The rest will handle itself.”