MAIN STORIES
CUOMO’S ‘TOXIC’ WORKPLACE p.7
BRIEFING
Are stores and malls doomed? p.13
TALKING POINTS
The power of Biles saying ‘no’ p.18
THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
The Delta blues As a new surge halts a return to normal, should vaccination be required? Pages 6, 8
AUGUST 13, 2021 VOLUME 21 ISSUE 1040 ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS
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Contents
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Editor’s letter When Sunisa Lee won gold in the all-around gymnastics final at the Tokyo Olympics last week, her family and supporters back home in St. Paul, Minn., erupted in a burst of hugs and cheers (see Main Stories, p.7). The 18-year-old is the first HmongAmerican to compete for Team USA, and her victory is a source of immense pride for a community that has long felt forgotten. In the early 1960s, the Hmong—an ethnic group from Laos, Vietnam, and parts of China—were recruited by the CIA to keep the communist North Vietnamese out of Laos. Up to 40,000 Hmong soldiers died in the so-called Secret War, and when the U.S. pulled out, communist forces launched a brutal crackdown. Initially denied asylum in the U.S.—some officials regarded the Hmong as illiterate tribespeople who wouldn’t be able to adapt to modern life—thousands of Hmong families fled on foot to neighboring Thailand. Many died of disease, exposure, and starvation during the treacherous journey. In the late 1970s, Hmong refugees finally
began arriving in the U.S. Lee’s parents were among them. The U.S. is now exiting another war, and more allies will be left behind. With the American pullout from Afghanistan almost complete, the Taliban are advancing rapidly and the collapse of the government in Kabul seems inevitable. An estimated 70,000 Afghans who have worked for the U.S. over the past two decades, as well as their family members, are at risk of being slaughtered by the militants. The Taliban “don’t shoot us like they do Afghan soldiers,” one former interpreter told The Washington Post. “If they catch me, they will behead me.” The Biden administration has launched an evacuation program, but it is woefully insufficient: Some 200 Afghan interpreters and their families arrived in the U.S. last week, and another 700 are expected soon. Like the Hmong, the Afghans we leave behind will have to escape to neighboring countries, and hope that America one day reTheunis Bates members their sacrifices and opens its doors. Managing editor
NEWS 6 Main stories The Delta variant surge; dazzling feats at the Tokyo Olympics; Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal 8
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Controversy of the week Has the coronavirus stolen another summer? The U.S. at a glance Special congressional primaries in Ohio; two more cops who responded to the Jan. 6 insurrection commit suicide The world at a glance A state of terror in a Mexican city; China bolsters its nuclear arsenal People Aly Raisman’s gymnastics trauma; a trans pastor fights to be seen Briefing How the pandemic accelerated the “retail apocalypse” Best U.S. columns The “time tax” paid by the poor; rethinking the nursing home Best international columns Tunisia’s Arab Spring democracy on the edge Talking points Simone Biles’ Olympic show of strength; the end of the eviction moratorium; a bipartisan infrastructure deal
Editor-in-chief: William Falk Managing editors: Theunis Bates, Mark Gimein Assistant managing editor: Jay Wilkins Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Senior editors: Nick Aspinwall, Chris Erikson, Danny Funt, Dale Obbie, Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller Art director: Dan Josephs Photo editor: Mark Rykoff Copy editor: Jane A. Halsey Researchers: Joyce Chu, Ryan Rosenberg Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, Bruno Maddox
Athing Mu and Raevyn Rogers: Won gold and bronze in the 800m (p.7)
ARTS 23 Books Mark Zuckerberg’s destructive pursuit of growth at all costs 24 Author of the week Omar El Akkad refuses to look away 25 Art & Music A slower, more somber Billie Eilish 26 Film Scarlett Johansson’s legal battle with Disney
Aly Raisman (p.12)
LEISURE 28 Food & Drink A Vietnamese-inspired fish dish; three award-worthy canned wines 29 Travel Paris roars back to life; Michigan’s bucolic Leelanau Peninsula BUSINESS 32 News at a glance A #MeToo reckoning for the video-game industry; regulating cryptocurrencies 33 Making money A costly college extravaganza; are we in a housing bubble? 34 Best columns Robinhood’s stock takes off; why we all owe a big thank-you to Big Pharma
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6 NEWS
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Vaccination mandates gathering momentum vaccination mandates by local governments and private employers claim to be protecting holdouts’ essential freedoms, but that’s “absurd”—nobody has the right to put their fellow citizens at risk of serious illness and death.
The nation finally hit President Biden’s July 4 target of at least partially vaccinating 70 percent of American adults this week, but the milestone arrived without celebration as the highly transmissible Delta variant surge pushed daily cases “Time and again in this pandemic, the to numbers not seen since February and CDC has been a source of confusion or red-state hospitals were deluged with the ineptitude,” said The Wall Street Jourseriously ill. New U.S. cases reached a nal. The latest “fiasco” is their recomseven-day average above 92,000—a sevenmendation that even the vaccinated mask fold increase over the past month—and up indoors in public places. Why? “The hospitalizations topped 50,000 for the first time since February. The epicenter A Covid testing site in Florida: New cases exploding vast majority of people who are hospitalized are unvaccinated,” and the latest remained Florida, which hit record highs data shows the vaccinated continue to have 88 percent protection for both infections and hospitalizations, and accounted for 1 in 5 of the nation’s new cases. Hospital officials in the state reported un- against symptomatic illness, even against Delta. It’s little wonder “Americans have lost confidence in Covid experts.” precedented numbers of young people, including an average of 35 new pediatric hospitalizations daily. “It is a much younger population,” said Mary Mayhew of the Florida Hospital Association, who What the columnists said We may be “reaching a tipping point with vaccine mandates,” said said 96 percent of patients are unvaccinated. “We have 25-yearolds on ventilators.” Still, Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down on his Max Boot in WashingtonPost.com. “Reckless people will not listen vow to prohibit local mask mandates and business restrictions, and to reason”—but mandates may give them an excuse to give in. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 40 percent threatened to cut funding from school districts that require masks. of those “taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude” would roll up their “These interventions have failed time and time again,” he said. sleeves if it was needed to fly, shop, or work, and even some ardent Throughout the country, a growing number of employers and local anti-vaxxers “might grudgingly comply.” And polls show most Americans support mandates. governments were responding to Delta by imposing vaccine and mask mandates. In Louisiana, where Covid hospitalizations hit a pandemic high, Gov. John Bel Edwards reinstated a mask mandate Tell that to labor unions, said Jim Geraghty in NationalReview .com. Mandates are being fought by some unions representing in schools and indoor public spaces. San Francisco did likewise, health-care workers, nursing-home workers, and teachers. Why while Denver and San Diego announced vaccine requirements should office workers or restaurant servers and patrons be required for public workers. New York City announced a plan to require proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, gyms, and entertainment to get vaccinated but not people who work with unvaccinated venues, beginning Aug. 16. Tyson Foods and Microsoft became the children, sick patients, and vulnerable elders? latest major employers to adopt vaccine mandates for workers, folUnfortunately, the CDC is delivering “a narrative that no one lowing Google, Facebook, Disney, Walmart, and Morgan Stanley. understands,” said Sonny Bunch in TheBulwark.com. Much hoopla was In one bright spot, new vaccinations What next? made over a study the CDC released last rose in numerous red states as holdouts This fourth wave “will get worse before it gets week documenting 900 cases among apparently reacted to surging cases. In better,” said Ben Guarino and Dan Diamond mostly vaccinated July 4 partiers in Louisiana, the seven-day average of in The Washington Post. The closely watched Provincetown, Mass.—but all but seven new vaccinations quadrupled commodel at the University of Washington’s Institute were mild. Rather than “vacillating pared with three weeks ago; it more for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts “a back and forth on mask mandates” that than tripled in Mississippi, Alabama, rise through mid-August, leveling off at about many will ignore, the CDC’s message and Arkansas. “We have had to bring 300,000 cases daily,” followed by a September should be simple: “If you get vaccinated in more vaccine,” said Robert Ator, peak of 1,500 daily deaths. With infections now you have a roughly zero percent chance coordinator of Arkansas’ vaccination hitting younger people, experts don’t expect of dying.” program. “People are scared.” Despite “hospitalizations and deaths to rise to the levels reports of thousands of breakthrough experienced in the winter.” Britain’s and the The Delta variant’s rapid spread and infections, new CDC figures showed Netherlands’ experience with Delta suggests “ever-changing pandemic messaging” by that just 0.004 percent of 163 million the U.S. surge may rapidly fall off in September, federal, state, and local officials have left fully vaccinated Americans had gotten said David Wallace-Wells in NYMag.com. In both Americans with “pandemic whiplash,” an infection requiring hospitalization. countries—which have “roughly comparable vacsaid Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael cination rates” to the U.S.—new infections have Shear in The New York Times. The crisis What the editorials said plunged dramatically, for reasons epidemiologists the White House thought it had “under can’t entirely explain, “suggesting that such a turn As the highly infectious Delta variant control is changing shape faster than the here is possible—or even quite likely—within a rips through America’s unvaccinated, country can adapt.” A few months ago, few weeks.” It’s a reminder that Covid is “driven “mandates are more essential than by a much wider and more mysterious range of President Biden promised a “summer of ever,” said Bloomberg.com. Appeals factors” than “we tend to acknowledge.” joy,” but “the nation is instead caught in to reason and civic duty have hit a a summer of confusion.” wall. Republican officials who oppose THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Illustration by Fred Harper. Cover photos from AP, Wikipedia, Getty
AP
What happened
... and how they were covered
NEWS 7
Athletes shine at Tokyo Olympics What happened
What the columnists said
The isolation bubble designed to prevent the Female athletes are “asserting themselves” on spread of Covid-19 at the 2020 Tokyo Olymthe world’s biggest stage, said Nicole Hemmer pics appeared to be largely holding even as in CNN.com. The U.S. women’s soccer team cases in Japan hit new highs this week, giving defiantly took a knee before games to protest athletes from around the world a chance to racism, sparking a predictable backlash from shine at the pandemic-delayed Games. Despite American conservatives, who cheered when fears that a lack of spectators would harm aththe squad lost to Canada in the semifinals. letes’ performance, a string of world records Germany’s gymnastics team, meanwhile, wore were broken in Tokyo. In the men’s 400-meter leg-covering unitards rather than high-cut hurdles, Norway’s Karsten Warholm took gold leotards in what they called a protest “against with a 45.94-second run, slicing 0.76 seconds sexualization in gymnastics.” We are witnessBarshim and Tamberi: A golden friendship off the world record. In the women’s 400-meter ing “a movement coming of age.” hurdles, American Sydney McLaughlin won gold and smashed her own world record by nearly half a second. Team USA notched other Sunisa Lee’s all-around gold was more than a personal triumph, impressive wins. Gymnast Sunisa Lee claimed gold in the all-around said Nancy Yang in NBCNews.com. Like me, Lee is a member of after the withdrawal of Simone Biles (see Talking Points, p.18). And the Hmong people, an ethnic group from Southeast Asia that fought swimmer Katie Ledecky cemented her status as an all-time great by alongside the U.S. during the Vietnam War, only to be brutally winning gold in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle events. persecuted when U.S. forces withdrew. Most people “have no idea the role we played in American history.” Now that a daughter of Hmong refugees is a national icon, “things are hopefully changing.” In one of the most heartwarming displays of sportsmanship, high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar opted to share a gold rather than engage in a tie-breaking “There are all sorts of reasons the Tokyo Olympics should have been “jump-off.” “He is one of my best friends,” explained Barshim. “We canceled,” said John Feinstein in The Washington Post. There’s the work together.” In another display that caught attention, U.S. shotfact that Covid cases are rocketing in Japan, and that the Internaputter Raven Saunders lifted her arms above her head in an X-shape tional Olympic Committee “insisted on holding the Games for one while accepting her silver medal, defying an Olympic ban on podium reason: money.” Still, I’m glad these Olympics are taking place. protests. Saunders, who is Black and gay, said the symbol represents Another delay would have deprived many athletes of the “once-inthe “intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” As a-lifetime experience” of becoming an Olympian, especially those The Week went to press, China was leading the medal table with 32 in sports “that don’t produce dozens of multimillionaires.” For the golds, with the U.S. in second place with 25. archers, kayakers, and fencers, “this is the pinnacle.”
Scathing harassment report spurs Cuomo criminal probes
Getty
What happened
What the columnists said
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced four criminal investiga“The report is packed with alarming and previously unreported tions and widespread calls for his resignation after a bombshell details,” said Eric Lach in NewYorker.com. One of Cuomo’s first report released this week by State Attorney General Letitia James accusers, Lindsey Boylan, said that he invited her to play strip detailed allegations that he subjected at least 11 women, including poker and kissed her on the lips. The state trooper, who was not nine state workers, to unwanted touching, suggestive comments, named, detailed Cuomo’s comments about her love life. Perhaps and intimidation. The result of a five-months-long probe that “the most telling and dismaying” revelation was about witnesses’ began after the first accusers came forward, the report unearthed fears of retribution, and how well-founded those fears were. After an allegation from a female state trooper in her 20s on Cuomo’s Boylan came forward, she was allegedly targeted by a leak of security detail who said the governor repeatedly groped her neck confidential personnel documents from the governor’s office. and midsection and made “creepy” comments, leaving her feeling “completely violated.” It also offered evidence for earlier accusaCuomo’s videotaped defense revealed a man in the grip of an “alltions, including that Cuomo grabbed the breast of one staffer and encompassing narcissism,” said John Podhoretz in Commentary made another, who was wearing a skirt, bend over in front of him. .org. He wants us to believe that his actions have been woefully misunderstood, and that his asking a 25-year-old assistant who’d Political leaders lined up to condemn the three-term governor, survived a sexual assault about whether she’d consider dating with President Biden, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both an older man stemmed from a concern for her well-being. With New York senators, and every member of the state’s congressional leading members of his own party and 63 percent of New York delegation demanding he resign. Cuomo responded with a prevoters wanting him out, how much longer will it be until “the recorded video in which he denied any impropriety and claimed Mad King of New York” is dragged from his throne? that any physical gestures were “meant to convey warmth, nothing more,” with images of him kissing and embracing con“We do not expect Cuomo to resign from office; he is clearly stituents and colleagues. Having dominated New York politics beyond shame,” said the Albany, N.Y., Times Union in an editofor a decade, Cuomo is now battling for political survival amid rial. Instead, we urge the state legislature to wrap up its investigathe investigations launched by prosecutors in four counties, an tion and vote to impeach as quickly as possible. “New Yorkers impeachment inquiry, and a separate FBI probe into his handling deserve a governor who can devote himself to the job instead of of nursing-home deaths during the pandemic. to his own appetites.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
8 NEWS
Controversy of the week
Covid’s return: Are the vaccinated entitled to be angry? hospitals are still unvaccinated—not a group “Vaccinated America has had enough,” said that generally takes its “marching orders David Frum in TheAtlantic.com. If the U.S. from Tucker Carlson.” had kept up the galloping vaccination pace of this spring, “this pandemic could’ve been over Nonetheless, vaccinated Americans “are by now.” Even with the super-infectious Delta losing patience,” said Roni Caryn Rabin in variant, life could be returning to near normal The New York Times. In June, “a sense of if the petulant, selfish children of “pro-Trump celebration was palpable,” as case counts America” hadn’t decided to embrace vaccine plummeted and we seemed on our way to a refusal as their latest pathetic symbol of tribal summer without restrictions or fears. “Now membership. Vaccination rates are 30 percent many of the vaccinated fear for their unvaclower in states that voted for Donald Trump Unvaccinated and hospitalized in Utah cinated children and worry that they are than in states that voted for President Biden, at risk themselves for breakthrough infections.” Many share the and with the return of in-person school, office reopenings, and views of Elif Akcali, 49, an engineering professor at the University maskless indoor dining and entertainment now in jeopardy, all of Florida—a state where Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned vaccine of us are “suffering the consequences of their bad decisions.” By and mask mandates and new infections are soaring. “If we’re justifying and reinforcing skepticism about science and vaccines, respecting the rights and liberties of the unvaccinated,” Akcali said, Republicans and right-wing media are also giving the coronavirus “what’s happening to the rights and liberties of the vaccinated?” “time and space to continue to mutate,” said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. That raises the possibility of a new variant That is the now the central question of this pandemic, said Colin that defeats our vaccines and puts us all back in deadly risk. “It’s Dickey in TheAtlantic.com. “Vaccines offer us the freedom to parnot fair, and we have every right to be angry about it.” ticipate, the freedom to circulate back in the world, the freedom to be human again.” Yet the very same vaccine holdouts who frame Those “emotions are not helpful” right now, said Peggy Drexler their actions in terms of freedom and personal choice insist that priin CNN.com. If we shame and insult the unvaccinated, or “make them feel attacked and blamed for the pandemic continuing,” they vate businesses and employers do not have the freedom to require them to wear a face mask, or to mandate that their workers or will only “dig in” and become more stubborn. It’s more effective customers be vaccinated. It’s time to “call their bluff,” said Andrew to ask questions and listen respectfully as they explain their misSullivan in AndrewSullivan.Substack.com. If the unvaccinated want givings about the vaccine—which may be more complex than we assume. Besides, it’s a liberal canard that only Fox News–watching to be “free” from our efforts to protect them from this virus, let’s just “let it rip.” Perhaps “a sharp rise” in red-state hospitalizations conservatives are wary of the vaccines, said Dan McLaughlin in and deaths can bring the holdouts to their senses. Sooner or later, NationalReview.com. The Black and Hispanic communities, both they will “experience what everyone in denial eventually experiheavily Democratic, are lagging in vaccination rates, and fully ences: reality. And reality is the most tenacious influencer I know.” 40 percent of employees of New York City’s public schools and
Q Doctors in Covid-ravaged Missouri say that antivaccine sentiment runs so high that some patients are wearing disguises to get their shots. Dr. Priscilla Frase of Ozarks Healthcare says patients have begged her, “‘Please, please, please don’t let anybody know that I got this vaccine.’” The hospital now offers shots in a “private setting” to protect patients from being shunned. Q A shopper at an Omaha
grocery store was shot with a BB gun for wearing a face mask. The unnamed victim was leaving the store when an unmasked assailant spat at him and then shot him multiple times, causing injuries to the victim’s face, neck, and shoulder. “I asked him why he would do that,” the victim said, “and he said: ‘You’re on the other team.’” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Good week for: Mandates, with a report in Rolling Stone that some professional
dominatrices are ordering their submissive clients to get the Covid vaccine—and are being obeyed. “It’s gratifying to know I’ve done something that Goddess Snow approves of,” said client “Bob.” Adaptation, after American adults managed to average nine hours of sleep during the pandemic in 2020, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure includes naps and “periods of sleeplessness” while tossing and turning in bed. Swingers, after an entrepreneur opened a trailer park in Mamou, La., for couples who like to walk around nude and trade partners. The park’s slogan is “Bring Your House and Share Your Spouse.”
Bad week for: Air rage, after Maxwell Berry, 22, allegedly groped two
flight attendants and punched a third on a Frontier flight from Philadelphia to Miami. The crew and passengers duct-taped Berry into his seat until landing, when he was arrested. Trust, with a new University of Oklahoma study revealing that 63 percent of people in relationships admit they have re-established contact with former partners during the pandemic, with a view to having someone on the “back burner” just in case. American tourists, after a group of them failed to recognize Queen Elizabeth II when they ran into her near Balmoral, her Scottish estate. One tourist asked Elizabeth if she’d ever met the queen, to which she replied, “No, but this policeman has,” gesturing at a member of her security detail.
In other news Trump fights to shield taxes from Congress Former President Trump’s lawyer this week said he will fight “tooth and nail” to block the Treasury Department from releasing Trump’s tax returns to House Democrats. The new legal battle follows a ruling by the Justice Department that the Treasury Department must comply with a House committee’s request for six years of Trump’s returns. Treasury planned to comply, but the case could still take months to resolve. In 2019, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin refused the House’s request, saying it “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.” Trump’s lawyer said nothing has changed since and argued that the real aim of the House inquiry—said to be undertaken to examine how the IRS audits presidents—is to embarrass Trump.
Kim Raff/The New York Times/Redux
Only in America
The U.S. at a glance ...
AP (3), Fox
St. Louis Pardoned: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson this week pardoned Mark and Patricia The McCloskeys, sans guns McCloskey, who pleaded guilty in June to misdemeanor charges for waving guns at racialjustice protesters marching outside their mansion. Republicans had cheered the McCloskeys after photographs went viral of Mark brandishing an AR-15–style rifle and Patricia toting a semiautomatic pistol. A special prosecutor found that the protesters had been peaceful, and initially brought felony charges against the McCloskeys, both personal-injury attorneys in their 60s. “I’d do it again,” Mark, who plans to run for the U.S. Senate, has said. “Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury, because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family.” Parson, a Republican, declined to pardon Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson, two Black men serving life sentences who prosecutors now say were wrongfully convicted. Nashville Fighting words: Democrats cried foul last week after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said it would be “hard not to hit” Speaker Nancy McCarthy Pelosi with a gavel if he’s sworn in as speaker after the 2022 midterm elections. At a Tennessee GOP fundraiser with more than 1,400 guests, McCarthy was gifted an oversize gavel with “Fire Pelosi” imprinted on it, and he told the crowd that if Pelosi hands him the gavel after he wins the speakership, “It’ll be hard not to hit her with it, but I will bang it down.” Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, tweeted, “A threat of violence to someone who was a target of a #January6th assassination attempt from your fellow Trump supporters is irresponsible and disgusting.” A McCarthy aide said he was “obviously joking.” Late last month, after McCarthy said Pelosi’s renewed mask mandate in the House meant Democrats want “to live in a perpetual pandemic state,” Pelosi called him “such a moron.”
Ohio Bellwether votes: A Democrat backed by the party establishment and a Republican endorsed by former President Trump won primary races for two open House seats this week, giving clues about the shape of next year’s midterm elections. In the darkblue district between Akron and Cleveland, Shontel Brown, chair of the local Democratic Party, defeated Nina Turner, a prominent campaign surrogate for Bernie Sanders. Turner gained support from leftwing Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but Brown, racked up endorsements from national party leaders. Turner antagonized the party in the 2020 presidential race, saying that choosing between Biden and Trump was like deciding whether to eat a full bowl or half bowl of excrement. Trump’s pick for the GOP race in the Columbus area, energy industry lobbyist Mike Carey, bested a crowded Republican field.
Washington, D.C. Toll of anguish: Two police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were confirmed last week to have died by suicide, bringing the total number of officers who have taken their lives after the insurrection to four. Officer Gunther Hashida, an 18-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, was found dead at his home hours before the department confirmed that Officer Kyle DeFreytag, 26, killed himself last month. Last week, several officers testified to Congress that they were still suffering physical and mental trauma from the riot, which left about 140 officers injured, including Brian Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical substance during the attack and died the next day of natural causes. Three days after the attack, 16-year Capitol Police veteran Howard Liebengood committed suicide. Officer Jeffrey Smith was hit on the head with a pole during the attack, causing him constant pain before he fatally shot himself on Jan. 15, just one day after he was ordered back to work.
NEWS 9
Boston Sex-abuse charges: Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was charged Ex-Cardinal McCarrick this week with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a 1974 wedding reception, making McCarrick the first U.S. cardinal ever to be criminally charged for a sex crime against a minor. Defrocked by Pope Francis after a Vatican trial found that he had sexually abused minors and adult seminarians for decades, McCarrick, 91, evaded several criminal charges because of statutes of limitations, but per Massachusetts law, the clock stopped running when McCarrick left the state. An accuser, now in his 60s, says that at his brother’s wedding at Wellesley College, McCarrick sexually assaulted him in a coat room, then told him to say prayers before returning to the party, “so God can redeem you for your sins.” The accuser says McCarrick, a family friend, continued to abuse him into adulthood. A once powerful archbishop of Washington, D.C., McCarrick was made a cardinal in 2001 despite the church knowing that he routinely demanded to share a bed with seminarians. Washington, D.C. Unmasked: Mayor Muriel Bowser was accused of breaking her own mandate last week after she was photographed indoors at a wedding without a mask. Just hours after Bowser’s indoor mask mandate for everyone Bowser over age 2 took effect, the Democrat officiated at a wedding on the rooftop of a high-end hotel. A Washington Examiner journalist—who was not at the wedding—reported that at the indoor reception Bowser did not sit at her designated table and didn’t mask up. Bowser’s office said she was in the middle of eating when the photographs were taken. Other guests at the reception danced without masks. A day earlier, Bowser was also photographed sans mask, celebrating her birthday with comedian Dave Chappelle. With D.C. Covid cases up 33 percent over the past week, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) tweeted, “If Muriel Bowser can’t even follow her own rules, why should others be forced to?” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
10 NEWS
The world at a glance ...
Toulon, France Not amused: French President Emmanuel Macron is suing the owner of a billboard that depicted him as Adolf Hitler. The poster, which was meant as a protest against Macron’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, features a photoThe anti-Macron billboard shopped image of the president with a Hitler mustache and a swastika-like armband. Michel-Ange Flori, who owns the street advertising business, said it was absurd that Macron defends the right of French newspapers to print cartoons that mock the Prophet Mohammed but declares it “blasphemy” to “make the president look like a dictator.” Last year, Macron gave a stirring speech to honor Samuel Paty, a schoolteacher who showed Mohammed cartoons in a class on free expression and was beheaded by a Chechen terrorist. “We will cultivate tolerance,” Macron said, and “continue the fight for freedom and reason.”
Edinburgh Overdose capital: Overdose deaths reached an Deadly high all-time high in Scotland last year, according to figures released this week, with almost four Scots overdosing every day. Of the 1,339 drug deaths last year, most involved opiates and “street”—not prescription—benzodiazepines. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the deaths were “a national disgrace”; opposition lawmakers accuse her ruling Scottish National Party of fueling the tragedy by cutting drug rehab and addiction programs. Scotland has the highest drug-death rate in Europe, one that is more than three times higher than England’s or Wales’. Still, England and Wales also set records last year. “We’re living in a parallel pandemic,” said Eytan Alexander, chief executive of U.K. Addiction Treatment Centres, “a drug, alcohol, and mental-health pandemic that has only worsened due to the virus.”
Manavgat, Turkey Raging wildfires: More than 10,000 tourists and residents were evacuated from resorts and villages across southern Turkey this week as wildfires ripped through the region. At least eight people have died in the infernos. Many Turks criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government for its failure to buy firefighting planes and for initially ignoring offers of help from Greece and other Western nations. After a few days, it accepted firefighting planes from Croatia, Spain, and other countries. Experts say a searing Mediterranean heat wave is to blame for the blazes: Temperatures in the southeastern city of Cizre hit a record 120 degrees Fahrenheit on July 20. Fighting a blaze
Lima Radical pick: A day after being sworn in as Peruvian president last week, Marxist former schoolteacher Pedro Castillo alarmed many members of his country’s establishment by nominating a far-left lawmaker as prime minister. His pick, Guido Bellido, is under investigation for “apology for terrorism” over an April interview in which he defended members of Shining Path, the Maoist rebel group that killed tens of thousands of Peruvians in the 1980s and ’90s. Several hundred Peruvians protested Bellido’s nomination, carrying signs calling him a terrorist. Castillo did calm fears that he would attempt to abolish private property, or drag the country far to the left, when he chose former World Bank economist Pedro Francke to be his finance minister. Castillo’s party has only 37 out of 130 seats in congress, and centrist and Castillo right-wing parties could block Bellido’s appointment. THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Brasília Bolsonaro predicts fraud: Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court has opened an investigation into far-right President Jair Bolsonaro over his repeated claims that there will be fraud in next year’s elections. Bolsonaro has been telling supporters that Brazil’s electronic voting system will almost certainly be hacked to deny him re-election, and he said last week that he might not hold an election at all unless the country gets new election machines that can print paper receipts. “Bolsonaro is lying shamelessly in order to be able to challenge the election result in case he is defeated next year, just as Donald Trump did in the U.S.,” leading newspaper O Globo warned in an editorial. Bolsonaro’s popularity has plunged because of his mismanagement of the pandemic, which has killed 557,000 Brazilians. Polls show him trailing leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by 49 percent to 23 percent.
Facebook, Getty, AP (2), Getty
Fresnillo, Mexico State of terror: More than 96 percent of the residents of the mining and farming city of Fresnillo say they live in fear, according to a new national survey—the highest perception of insecurity in all of Mexico. Fresnillo has descended into a nightmare of violence in recent years, as the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels have battled for control of the surrounding Zacatecas state. The state has the highest murder At a murder scene rate in Mexico, with at least 122 deaths in June. Children have been kidnapped and shot in their homes, and in the past few weeks, bodies have been found hanging from trees and bridges or dumped, wrapped in black plastic, in the streets. “We’re living in hell,” said Victor Piña, who ran for mayor of Fresnillo in June and saw an aide gunned down beside him at a campaign event.
The world at a glance ... Tehran Attacks on ships: Iran this week denied responsibility for two attacks on commercial vessels off the coast of Oman. In the first attack, the oil tanker Mercer Street—owned by an Israeli-linked company—was hit by a suicide drone that killed two crew members, one British and one Romanian. The U.S., U.K., and Israeli governments accused Tehran of launching the strike. Days later, five or six suspected Iranian gunmen stormed an asphalt tanker, briefly taking command of the vessel. An Iranian military spokesman claimed the attacks were Western provocations aimed at “preparing the ground for new adventurisms.” Iran and Israel have been in low-level conflict for years, with Israel assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists and sabotaging Iranian facilities and Iran harassing and attacking Israeli-affiliated ships in and around the Persian Gulf. Mercer Street: Hit by a drone
NEWS 11
Tokyo Asylum for Olympian: Poland has granted asylum to a Belarusian sprinter who said she feared for her safety after Belarusian officials pulled her from the Olympics and tried to fly her home. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, had complained in an Instagram video that her coaches wanted her to compete in an event she hadn’t trained for—the 4x400-meter relay—and Headed to Poland weren’t testing other athletes for performance-enhancing drugs. Soon after, Belarusian officials hustled her to the airport and told her that she would “definitely face some sort of punishment.” She refused to board a flight, appealed to Japanese authorities, and took refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo. Her husband, back home in Belarus, quickly decamped for neighboring Ukraine and will eventually join her in Poland. Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has a history of punishing athletes harshly for dissent.
Reuters (2), Wikipedia, AP
Hami, China Nuclear buildup: China appears to be bolstering its nuclear arsenal, building hundreds of new nuclear missile silos in the country’s west. For decades, China had about 200 nuclear warheads—about the same as the U.K. and France, but far less than the U.S. stockpile of 5,800—and some 100 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles split between 20 silos. But in the past two months, satellite images have revealed 230 new silos in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. U.S. analysts aren’t sure whether China intends to shift its existing missiles frequently among the new silos, so that enemy forces will not know which silos to target in a first strike, or to build more missiles. Chinese media suggest the latter: The state-run Global Times this week lauded “China’s strengthening of its nuclear deterrent.”
Abuja, Nigeria ‘Super cop’ accused: Nigerians reacted with shock this week after the U.S. indicted the country’s most famous police officer for allegedly colluding with a notorious Nigerian cybercriminal. Abba Alhaji Kyari, deputy commissioner for the Nigeria Police Force, won Kyari: Taking bribes? the nickname “Super Cop” for his headline-making arrests of high-profile killers, terrorists, and bank robbers. But wealthy Nigerian scammer Ramon “Hushpuppi” Abbas, who in April pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a U.S. court in California, told the FBI that he paid Kyari to arrest and beat an underling who had betrayed him. Kyari adamantly denies the charge, but the allegation has dominated Nigerian TV news and social media. Nigeria has a history of dirty cops. Thousands of people took to the streets last year to demand the abolition of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a police unit accused of killings, beatings, and rampant extortion. Kyari once headed the unit in Lagos.
Kabul Get out while you can: Some 30,000 people are fleeing Afghanistan every week, fearing the coming Taliban takeover and the reimposition of harsh sharia law now that most U.S. and coalition forces have exited the country. While many Afghans are lining up patiently in Kabul to get passports that will allow them to leave legally, others are running for their lives. The Taliban this week were close to capturing Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern Helmand province, as well as their former stronghold of Kandahar. As bodies piled up in the streets, families tried to escape to safety. “The Taliban told us if we didn’t leave the house in half an hour, we would be counted among the police and Afghan forces,” one Lashkar Gah resident told the BBC. Many refugees are heading west on a grueling journey that will take them through Iran to Turkey, the Afghans crowd a passport office. gateway to the European Union. Jerusalem Booster shots: Israel this week became the first country to start administering a third Covid-19 shot to boost immunity in alreadyvaccinated patients over age 60. Demand is high: On the first day of the rollout, all 30,000 slots were taken, and phone lines at clinics crashed as people tried to schedule their appointments. About 60 percent of Israelis are fully vaccinated, but the infection rate is creeping up, from lows of about 10 cases a day in early June to about 2,500 now. Still, daily Covid deaths remain in the single digits, a sign of the vaccines’ effectiveness in preventing serious disease. Germany said this week it would soon offer Pfizer or Moderna boosters to the elderly and immunocompromised, as well as to anyone who got the two-dose AstraZeneca or single-dose Johnson & Johnson shots, which aren’t as effective as mRNA vaccines. THE WEEK August 13, 2021
12 NEWS
People
How Damon maintains mystique Despite being a Hollywood star for a quartercentury, Matt Damon is still—somehow— something of an enigma, said David Marchese in The New York Times Magazine. The actor makes a concerted effort to keep a low profile, which he thinks helps audiences suspend belief when watching him onscreen. “If people see 16 pictures of you drinking coffee or walking your dog,” he says, “it dilutes the desire to see you in a movie.” Damon, 50, gained some of that wisdom by observing the struggles of his friend Ben Affleck. Following the success of the pair’s breakout movie, 1997’s Good Will Hunting, Damon had high-profile relationships with actresses Minnie Driver and Winona Ryder, then vanished from tabloid covers, living a quiet family life with his wife, Luciana Damon, and their three daughters. Affleck, meanwhile, spent years being defined by his very public relationships with Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Garner. Around 2003, Damon says, Affleck confided in him: “I’m in the worst place I can be. I can sell magazines but not movie tickets.” Damon sees himself as “in the last of that line of people who want to maintain privacy. There’s this new line of people inviting everybody into their daily lives: Hey, I’m at the gym! There’s something tactically brilliant about controlling the narrative, but it’s the exact opposite of how I’ve always thought.” In 2012, the Rev. Paula Stone Williams publicly came out as a transgender woman, said KK Ottesen in The Washington Post. The backlash was swift: The evangelical pastor was fired from the Boulder church-planting organization that she’d led for 20 years, and she was shunned by thousands of former congregants and friends. “I was so naïve,” says Williams, 70. “The last thing I expected was for them to say, ‘Oh, my goodness, we’ve been wrong about Paul for 40 years.’ And yet, that’s what the vast majority [did].” The pain is still raw. She recently had a “delightful” dinner with a megachurch pastor who is still a friend. “But then I sat in my hotel room and cried, because he [updated] me on all the huge things that have happened. I thought surely someone would have told me, you know, ‘So-and-so died,’ but they hadn’t. It is as if I don’t exist.” Now an activist, Williams hopes to influence the way evangelicals view the LGBTQ community, and doesn’t care about the hate that is often thrown her way. “I’ve been a part of the problem for too long,” Williams says. “You know, that poor teen should not have to leave the state of Arkansas—or somewhere else—to get estrogen. That kid can’t handle it. Let the attacks come against me.”
Q Former President Barack Obama
canceled a lavish 60th birthday blowout this week on Martha’s Vineyard after receiving significant criticism for planning a 475-guest party amid a surge of coronavirus cases. Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, and Oprah Winfrey were among the guests originally invited to the Obamas’ $12 million, 29-acre oceanfront home on the Massachusetts island. Pearl Jam was set to perform at the outdoor event, where all guests would be required to be vaccinated and tested beforehand. But with a Covid breakout at a packed July 4 celebration in Provincetown, THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Raisman’s gymnastics trauma Aly Raisman is learning to like gymnastics again, said Eren Orbey in The New Yorker. The six-time Olympic medalist, who captained the gold-winning women’s teams at the 2012 and 2016 Games, is among the more than 200 young women who say they were molested by Larry Nassar—USA Gymnastics’ disgraced former physician. Raisman, who retired from competition last year, calls USA Gymnastics “rotten from the inside out.” After the 2016 Rio Games, she says, the sporting body canceled her health insurance without telling her. Teen gymnasts are trained to be subservient. “I had the stomach flu once and was up vomiting all night.” When she got to training camp the next day, instead of telling her to take it easy, her coaches said, “You have to do everything like everyone else.” They were also happy her illness had made Raisman lose weight. “They were telling me, ‘You look so good.’” Raisman, 27, has no plans to return to the mat. But she recently designed and helped coach the summer gymnastics program at Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania, and went go-karting and horseback riding with the kids. “It reminded me of when I was younger, of how much fun gymnastics is. It’s cool to be able to fall in love with the sport again.”
Mass., about 100 miles north, Gov. Charlie Baker said Obama’s party was “not a good idea.” Obama scaled the party down to family and close friends, with his spokeswoman saying, “He’s appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon.” Q Fox News fired legal analyst Andrew
Napolitano this week after a male producer accused him of sexual harassment. John Fawcett, 27, alleges in a lawsuit that after he got on an elevator with Napolitano, 71, the former judge stroked Fawcett’s arm and told him about his maple syrup farm, saying suggestively, “You see these hands? They look clean, but they get really dirty.” Fawcett says Napolitano then invited him to his apartment or farm. When Fawcett told his co-workers, he alleges, they started laughing because
Napolitano was known for sexually harassing young men. Napolitano, who faced two other sexual misconduct lawsuits last year, has called the allegations “pure fiction.” Q Comedian Kathy Griffin revealed this week that she’s been diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer that will require surgery to remove half of her left lung. “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked!” she wrote, adding that doctors are “very optimistic” about her prognosis. Griffin, 60, whose career stalled after she posed with a bloody model of then–President Trump’s head in 2017, also revealed that she became addicted to painkillers and amphetamine last year and attempted suicide in June 2020. “The irony is not lost on me that, a little over a year ago, all I wanted to do was die,” Griffin said. “Now, all I wanna do is live.”
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A trans pastor fights erasure
Briefing
NEWS 13
The ‘retail apocalypse’ Big retailers and malls were already struggling when the pandemic hit. Now they’re shuttering stores at alarming rates.
Jesse Rieser/The New York Times/Redux
Why is retail in such trouble?
fortunes by bringing in “experiential retailers,” including gyms, movie theaters, and restaurants—but those businesses hit a brick wall during the pandemic. In addition to lost jobs, dead malls have an outsize impact on communities where they’ve gone from a tax-generating “social space” to “an eyesore,” said Vicki Howard, author of From Main Street to Mall. “It’s quite a big economic and social and cultural phenomenon.” And online shopping and the pandemic are not the only causes.
A decade ago, consumers began turning in larger numbers to Amazon and other online retailers. The steep, nationwide drop in sales for brick-andmortar stores has been accelerating in recent years, but the pandemic put their decline into overdrive. Major retailers closed 12,000 stores in 2020, after an already devastating 2019, when more than 9,300 stores closed. Another 80,000 stores—9 percent of the nation’s total—will close in this “retail apocalypse” over the next five years as e-commerce sales grow, preA mall in Glendale, Ariz., that closed in June 2020 What are the other factors? dicts a report from financial services Even before the pandemic, the U.S. had 40 percent more shopping company UBS. More than 60 major retailers filed for bankruptcy space per capita than Canada and 10 times more than Germany. last year, including Brooks Brothers, J. Crew, Guitar Center, and Industry analysts widely agreed that this retail surplus was unsusPier 1; other recent bankruptcies include Sears, Lucky Brand, tainable. Department stores have been hurt by the shrinking of Forever 21, and Circuit City. In 2019, Payless shut down all of the middle class that made up their client base, while discountits 2,100 stores, and a year earlier Toys R Us closed all of its 735 ers who cater to lower-income consumers, such as TJ Maxx and stores. Bed Bath & Beyond is in the midst of eliminating 200 Dollar General, have actually seen growth. The demise of many stores, and Victoria’s Secret has shuttered dozens. Department retailers—including Nieman Marcus, J.Crew, and Toys R Us—has stores have been particularly hard-hit. been hastened by their acquisition by private-equity firms such as Bain Capital and KKR that suck up their revenues and saddle What’s happened to department stores? them with debilitating debt. A 2019 report by the nonprofit The entire sector has been devastated as consumers have lost the United for Respect tallied nearly 600,000 retail jobs lost over habit of shopping and browsing in person. It’s “just a format 10 years at companies owned by private-equity firms. that does not work anymore,” said Chris Kuiper, an analyst at CFRA Research. “People don’t want to wade through a fourstory megastore to find a couple of items.” Roughly 40 percent of Do stores and malls have any chance of surviving? The consumer trends behind the shift aren’t going to turn around, the nation’s department stores have closed since 2016, including so stores and malls are trying to adapt. Many retailers are increasevery Lord & Taylor store and nearly all Sears and Kmart stores. ing their focus on online sales and Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney have looking for new ways to bring in filed for bankruptcy; Macy’s has shutConverting malls into Amazon hubs customers. Kohl’s is opening Sephora tered dozens of stores and will close The shopping mall’s demise has led to beauty shops in 200 locations this fall. 125 more by 2023. No end to the a dilemma in communities across the nation: Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s are movcarnage is in sight: Roughly half of all what to do with millions of square feet of ing toward smaller stores; this month remaining mall-based department stores abandoned retail space. Some former retail a “Bloomies” store opens in Fairfax, will close by the end of 2021, predicts outlets have become medical offices, comVa., that will offer a “highly curated, the real estate research firm Green Street munity colleges, Covid vaccination centers, ever-evolving” selection, personal Advisors. That will have a devastating senior residences, and even public schools. shoppers, and a Cuban-themed resimpact on the nation’s malls. In Burlington, Vt., a high school temporarily taurant. Malls are diversifying as well, shifted students to a former Macy’s, where incorporating grocery stores and office How are malls doing? teens take elevators to classes. “It’s weird but and residential space and increasingly A growing number of malls are either cool at the same time, ” said Moses Doe, a leaning on “experiential” offerings dead or on life support. Hundreds freshman. A former Sears in an Idaho Falls mall such as ice rinks and climbing walls. have closed over the past decade, and is becoming a charter school; director Michelle The massive $5 billion American Coresight Research estimated last year Ball notes that the mall’s remaining businesses Dream mall, touted as the future of that a quarter of the roughly 1,000 “could get more traffic because of it. ” And in retail when it opened in New Jersey remaining will close in the next three to an ironic twist, a growing number of stores in 2019, boasts an indoor ski slope, a five years. “The whole business model are being repurposed by the very e-commerce water park, and a roller coaster. But has just unraveled,” said Neil Saunders giant that helped doom them. Amazon turned three of its intended retail anchors— of the consultancy GlobalData Retail. some 25 shopping malls into distribution wareBarneys New York, Lord & Taylor, Without department stores as anchors, houses between 2016 and 2109, according to a and Century 21—went out of business foot traffic has plummeted. “The departCoresight Research analysis. Over the past eight during the pandemic. Kurt Hagen, an ment store genre has been taking the months, Amazon has begun setting up distribuexecutive with mall owner Triple Five, great American shopping mall down with tion centers in former malls in Baton Rouge, said “it would have been much better it,” said Mark Cohen, director of retail Knoxville, and Worcester, Mass. if American Dream had burned down studies at Columbia Business School. or a hurricane had hit it.” Mall developers have tried to revive their THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Will Harris ever be president? Matthew Yglesias
SlowBoring.com
America’s corrosive ‘time tax’ Annie Lowrey
TheAtlantic.com
Giving seniors alternatives to nursing homes Michelle Cottle
The New York Times
Viewpoint
Best columns: The U.S. It’s “the worst-kept secret in Washington,” said Matthew Yglesias: Many Democrats “are terrified of the prospect of Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic Party presidential nominee.” Whether President Biden decides to leave office in 2024 or 2028, the vice president seems “overwhelmingly likely” to win a Democratic primary. But Harris’ approval ratings lag far behind his, and Democrats fear “she’d lose a general election.” That fear is well-founded. As a California Democrat, Harris appeals to hard-core progressives, but to win the presidency, “she needs to be popular with swing voters.” Unlike Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Tammy Baldwin, Amy Klobuchar, and other nationally popular Democrats, she doesn’t even try. The median voter in the U.S. is still a 50-something white person who didn’t go to college. To win over some of them, Harris could embrace the same “hokey patriotism” that Biden does so effectively. As a child of immigrants who became vice president, Harris is perfectly positioned to say, “This is the greatest country on Earth.” She can talk about her experience as a prosecutor in San Francisco, and what it taught her about “the excesses of big-city liberalism.” Pandering? Sure. But without it, Harris may never be president. Need help from the government? Prepare to pay an onerous “time tax,” said Annie Lowrey. Voluminous forms, call lines with endless waits, and unnecessary means-testing requirements make it “difficult and sometimes impossible” for eligible people to receive benefits. Some 9 million eligible Americans never received unemployment checks during the pandemic, in part because unemployment insurance is a convoluted patchwork of 53 different systems. Many of the 40 million recipients of food aid must submit continuous, detailed work- or job-seeking logs; losing computer access can cut off benefits. Moms receiving aid for children must take time off from work to go to numerous in-person appointments. Getting medical bills paid through health insurance or Medicaid can require cutting through “obscene amounts of red tape.” Much of the social safety net is frustratingly complicated “by design”— to discourage and punish people for seeking help. Poor, Black, and Hispanic people pay a higher time tax than the wealthy: “You do not need to urinate in a cup” to get a giant tax write-off on a boat, but at least 15 states require it of welfare recipients. The time tax demoralizes people, denies them dignity, and leaves them destitute. “It needs to end.” “Nobody wants to live in a nursing home,” said Michelle Cottle, but where will Americans spend their final years? The prospect of being warehoused in a nursing home has always created “existential dread” for most of us, and Covid’s rapid spread through these institutions—at least 133,000 died—made that fate seem “all the more terrifying.” Surveys show that most Americans hope to age at home, and 90 percent of those over 65 are doing just that. But when professional care is needed for seniors at home, it can put enormous financial and logistical strains on families. President Biden’s “human infrastructure” bill would provide $400 billion for home care—a big step forward. Still, with Boomers aging and the number of Americans 85 and over projected to top 19 million by 2050, there will be a continuing need for higher levels of care. That need is giving rise to a new model of “smaller, more self-contained, unconventional facilities” where up to 12 residents live in private rooms in houses clustered in communities, with aides in each home. For the sake of our loved ones and ourselves, “innovation and reform” like this is urgently needed.
“Something very strange has been happening in Missouri: A hospital in the state, Ozarks Healthcare, had to create a ‘private setting’ for patients afraid of being seen getting vaccinated against Covid-19. [Some people] are seeking vaccination in disguise. They want to save face within the very specific set of social ties that sociologists call ‘reference groups’—the neighborhoods, churches, workplaces, and friendship networks that help people obtain resources they need to live. The price of access to those resources is conformity to group norms. In Missouri and other red states, getting vaccinated is a betrayal of that group norm.” Brooke Harrington in TheAtlantic.com THE WEEK August 13, 2021
It must be true...
I read it in the tabloids Q A Florida man returned home from a doctor’s appointment to find a woman skinny-dipping in his pool. A trail of discarded clothing on the veranda led the man to 42-year-old Heather Kennedy, who allegedly refused to leave even after he called police. “Imagine returning home to find a naked woman swimming in your pool. To top it off, she refuses to get out,” the Charlotte County sheriff’s office posted on Facebook. When officers arrived, she became “hostile,” authorities said, but eventually got out, got dressed, and was booked for trespassing and resisting an officer. Q A man attempted to “run” by sea from St. Augustine, Fla., to New York in a floating cylindrical contraption outfitted with a running wheel, but washed ashore just 30 miles into his trip. Iranian-born endurance athlete Reza Baluchi, 49, calls his device—which combines flotation buoys with a hamster wheel–like cylinder—a “hydropod.” He claimed he had to give up because some of his safety and navigation equipment had been stolen, and vowed to try again. “I will show people anything you want to do, do it,” he said. “Chase your dreams.” Q A 36-year-old Texas man woke up one morning thinking he was 16, with all memories of the past 20 years vanished. Daniel Porter of Granbury recognized neither his wife nor his 10-yearold daughter, and when he looked in the mirror, he asked why he was “old and fat,” said his wife, Ruth. Doctors diagnosed transient global amnesia, usually a temporary condition—but a year later, Porter’s memory hasn’t returned. “He’s more friendly and sociable,” said Ruth. “He loves going out, but he didn’t used to.”
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office
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16 NEWS UNITED KINGDOM
Extremists have freedom of speech, too Rod Liddle
The Sunday Times
ITALY
Our coffee is a national disgrace Massimiliano Tonelli
La Repubblica
Best columns: Europe Welcome back, Anjem Choudary, said Rod Liddle. The radical Islamist preacher was barred from public speaking in 2018 as part of his terms of release from prison, after serving two years for inciting people to join ISIS. His speech ban was lifted last month, and politicians and pundits are predictably furious that Choudary is now free to return to street corners and indulge in his “cut-price I Can’t Believe It’s Not Jihad rabble-rousing.” Now, I’m no fan of Choudary, who is a “smirking, freeloading, self-publicizing quasi-fascist.” When he announced that he wanted to fight in Syria, I contacted Choudary and offered to drive him to the airport. Better
he find “a nice, quiet spot in the desert” to blow himself up in than do it in London, I thought. But gagging this fool only bestows on him the “samizdat mystique” of a victim. It’s always better for speech to be aired out, no matter how “fantastically deranged” it may be. Silencing an opinion only drives it underground, “where it festers and might later explode.” Freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, “the two totems of a liberal democracy,” must be upheld for everyone, even clowns like Choudary. You may find his words dangerous, but it is far more dangerous to silence him. First they gag Choudary; “next it’s you.”
We Italians are fiercely proud of our espresso, said Massimiliano Tonelli. In contrast to the “undrinkable soup” served in places such as France and Britain, we tell ourselves, our coffee is the best in the world. Who are we kidding? In truth, our coffee is the most “mediocre” in the West. Why? Start with price. We are wedded to the idea that a cup of coffee shouldn’t cost more than $1, way below the $2.40 most Europeans pay. This encourages producers to buy low-quality and unripe beans. As a result, we roast our beans black to “eliminate all defects”—and also all “merits.” Beans ought to
be roasted to a light brown complexion, at which point they give off flavors ranging from the “juice of red fruits” to citrus notes to the “fermented aromas of wine.” Our coffee, by contrast, tastes mostly of burnt beans and coal. That explains why we always drink it with sugar. We must learn to be more discerning, as we have about other Italian specialties. Twenty years ago, “a pizza was a pizza”; now we know every detail of the flour used and the “life, death, and miracles of yeast.” If we really want espresso worth boasting about, we should start showing coffee beans the same respect.
a “totalitarian state.” Conspiracy The anti-vaxxers are on the march in theories are rampant in France, France, said Jannick Alimi and Rosaid Chloé Woitier in Le Figaro. salie Lucas in Le Parisien. They are Facebook and other social media furious that the state has demanded companies say they have deleted that everyone present a Covid-19 millions of misleading posts, but “health pass”—providing proof millions more remain, and the lie of vaccination or a recent negative that children are more likely to die test—to enter most public indoor of the vaccine than of Covid is easy spaces in France. When the health to find. The algorithms, meanwhile, pass was first introduced for cinemas, still push people toward extremism. museums, and other cultural venAs an experiment, I watched one ues last month, more than 110,000 TikTok video that questioned vacpeople took to the streets to protest. cine safety. Within minutes, my feed That program is now being extended was “flooded with videos ranging to restaurants, cafés, and shopping Anti-vaxxers on the streets of Paris from conspiracy to fake news.” malls, and opposition is swelling. Some 200,000 protesters marched in cities across France last week, including 14,000 in Paris, where demonstrators built bar- But anti-vaxxers remain a minority in France, said Olivier Baccuzat in L’Opinion. The thousands of demonstrators who ricades and hurled stones at police, who responded with tear marched were vastly outnumbered by the 533,000 French resigas. At least 19 people were arrested. The anti-vaxxers are didents who got a shot that same day. This “silent majority” may recting their rage equally at President Emmanuel Macron, who be “much less noisy” than the anti-vaxxers, but we are the true spearheaded the health pass, and at the media, which largely supports it. At a Paris rally headed by Florian Philippot, the for- voice of the French. Already, 62 percent of all citizens have remer right-hand man of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, “spitting ceived at least one dose of a vaccine, a greater percentage than in the U.S., and more sign up daily. The problem, said Olivier and cursing” protesters actually attacked a group of reporters. Bargain and Florence Jusot in Le Monde, is that the stubborn minority could keep us from herd immunity. Given the greater The protesters are a motley group, said Pierre Plottu and Maxime Macé in Libération. Some are members of the far right who transmissibility of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, we’ll need nearly 90 percent of the population vaccinated to be safe, believe the vaccine disinformation spread by Philippot. Others and that’s just not possible when some 17 percent of us are are the same demographic that joined the 2018-19 Yellow Vest protests against Macron’s economic reforms: middle-aged subur- absolutely opposed to the shot. Like the U.S., France now has a banites who aren’t poor but “feel marginalized and victimized.” hard core of anti-government radicals who believe internet lies and reflexively distrust the government and the press. How long And the far left, too, has taken up the anti-vax cause, saying that mandates are an authoritarian overreach that could lead to before we see a “storming of the Capitol” here? THE WEEK August 13, 2021
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France: Mass protests against vaccine mandate
Best columns: International
NEWS 17
Tunisia: Backtracking on democracy, or reforming it? land on Europe’s southern shores unTunisia’s democratic revolution has less Westerners came to his aid. Such entered its second stage, said Najat a betrayal of our nation is “a humiliAl-Habbashi in Essahafa (Tunisia). In ating end for the last representative 2011, Tunisians poured into the streets of political Islam.” The truth is that to launch the Arab Spring and topple Tunisians have been “flooding into our dictator, President Zine El Abidine Europe” for years because of EnnahBen Ali. And last week, on July 25, we da’s failed policies, said Faisal Abbas rose up again, protesting en masse the in Arab News (Saudi Arabia). The mismanagement of our country by the Islamists have been a dominant force political elite, some of us even attackin parliament since the 2011 uprising ing the offices of Ennahda—the biggest and have indulged in cronyism ever party in parliament—as if “demolishsince. In fact, when Saied dissolved ing the fortresses of the corrupt.” President Saied waves to supporters in Tunis. parliament, Ennahda was trying to That night, President Kais Saied took block a corruption investigation into its election finances. temporary control, dismissing the prime minister and suspending parliament, which had been led by Ennahda stalwart Rached Ghannouchi. Foreigners watched with dismay, claiming our young Saied calls his consolidation of power a temporary “correction” democracy was dying. But Tunisians greeted Saied’s takeover with to Tunisia’s democratic path, said Larbi Sadiki in AlJazeera.com “an outpouring of joy as great as their disappointments had been (Qatar). The 2011 revolution “did not lead to as radical a rupture from the old regime as initially expected,” because many of the over the past 10 years.” Saied, after all, was elected in 2019 as a old elites kept their power and privileges. Ennahda in particular political outsider on a pledge to restore dignity and work to the people, but his efforts have been blocked by legislators who greed- consorted with dictatorship-era figures and became involved in scandal after scandal. Yet the “obvious problem” with Saied’s ily amassed power and wealth for themselves and the elite. take-charge remedy is that you can’t fix a democracy by antidemocratic means. Watch out for “authoritarian drift,” said Saied’s takeover was a “courageous act” of patriotism, said Chokri Ben Nessir in La Presse de Tunisie (Tunisia). The Islamist Sophie Bessis in Le Monde (France). Ben Ali, the dictator that Tunisians overthrew a decade ago, also initially took power semiEnnahda and the other parties have failed for years to deliver legally, in what was called a constitutional coup—and then ruled jobs and prosperity. The pandemic only worsened our plight, as for 23 years. Is Saied’s power grab “a temporary breakdown in tourism—the engine of the economy—vanished and Tunisians began dying of Covid-19 at the highest rate in Africa. Ghannouchi the chaotic but stubborn construction of Tunisian democracy,” or was quick to denounce Saied’s act as a coup, and he openly asked its abolition? If Saied retains his extraordinary powers beyond the 30 days he requested, Tunisia will have its answer. for foreign intervention, warning that a wave of refugees would
ISRAEL
No, actually Ben & Jerry are not Nazis Haaretz
Joshua Shanes
RUSSIA
Scrubbing the opposition from the internet Kirill Martynov
AP
Novaya Gazeta
Israel is waging a cold war against Ben & Jerry’s, said Joshua Shanes. The American ice cream firm announced plans last month to stop selling its ice cream in “Occupied Palestinian territories”—the West Bank and contested east Jerusalem—saying that operating there would be “inconsistent with our values.” The decision provoked a “swift and furious” reaction. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the boycott “morally wrong” and labeled Ben & Jerry’s “anti-Israel ice cream,” the foreign ministry called it “economic terrorism,” and one right-wing pundit even blasted Ben & Jerry’s, founded by two American Jews, as “Nazi
collaborators.” Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Gilad Erdan, said the company was dehumanizing the Jewish people. By this warped logic, refusing to sell your products to Jewish settlements “that the entire world considers illegal is not just an attack on Israel but actually constitutes an anti-Semitic attack” on all Jews. How strange that the ongoing dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians provokes so little outrage, but making Israelis who live in the occupied West Bank “have to buy a different brand of ice cream,” or else “drive 15 minutes to buy Ben & Jerry’s in Israel proper,” is apparently an unacceptable disgrace.
Not content with locking up opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin is now silencing his supporters, said Kirill Martynov. The state internet watchdog, Roskomnadzor, last week blocked 49 sites linked to the anti-corruption campaigner. They range from Navalny.com, the personal site where Navalny posted investigations of President Vladimir Putin and his cronies, to RosYama.ru, a service for filing complaints about potholes. The Kremlin is obviously looking to prevent any embarrassing revelations from appearing on the sites in the run-up to the September parliamentary elections—a vote that Navalny and other Putin
opponents have been barred from running in. Muting the opposition online is incredibly easy. Prosecutors simply label politicians and a certain number of their supporters as “extremists,” and then Roskomnadzor can shut down their sites. There are still blind spots: Roskomnadzor has not blocked Navalny’s Smart Vote site, which advises people how to vote tactically, because it’s hosted on a Google-owned domain and blocking it could disrupt Google services. But this crackdown is sure to continue after the election, perhaps with techsavvy Russians being persecuted for circumventing the blocks and “visiting the wrong sites.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Talking points
Noted
Biles: What she showed the world
Q Pandemic-related government aid cut the number of poor Americans by 20 million from 2018 numbers—a drop of nearly 45 percent, a new Urban Institute analysis finds. The decline will bring the number of Americans living in poverty to its lowest level on record, at a time when 7 million jobs have been lost.
who pitched with his “No. What a small and simple famous bloody sock in word,” said Kurt Streeter in the 2004 playoffs, or U.S. The New York Times. Simgymnast Kerri Strug, who one Biles, the most decorated “blew out her leg in the gymnast of all time, used it to 1996 Olympics but stuck “ultimate effect at the Tokyo the landing anyway,” Olympics” last week, shaking are rightly idolized for the Games, USA Gymnastics, their sacrifices. Biles has and the entire world of sports performed through “all when she decided not to parmanner of physical injuticipate in the team gymnastics ries and emotional traucompetition “to protect her Coach Cecile Landi embracing Biles mas, and that is what we mental and physical health.” Biles, 24, had been struggling with depression and should praise her for.” trauma as a result of sexual abuse by Larry NasStrug was a victim, not a “hero”—pressured by sar, the team physician later convicted of molestthe U.S. gymnastics team coach, Bela Karolyi, to ing numerous female gymnasts. Biles decided go for gold at age 19 despite a broken ankle, said to perform at one more Games, but found Ashley Stoney in NYMag.com. Strug never com“the wires just snapped,” and developed “the peted again. By refusing to give in to the prestwisties”—a disorienting feeling when airborne sure to ignore her own well-being, Biles made “a gymnasts can’t tell up from down. Not surprisingly, Biles was immediately denounced as a cow- major statement” for all athletes and is “the true ard and a quitter by “the knuckle draggers” who hero of the Olympic Games.” Karolyi and his insist athletes should be supreme stoics, willing to wife, Marta, fostered a sick culture of total subservience in U.S. gymnastics, said Olivia Neistat risk everything for team and glory. in TheBulwark.com. The Karolyis forced 15-yearold girls to lose weight, ignore “high-impact trauWe shouldn’t boo Biles for benching herself, said mas,” and silently accept emotional, physical, and Dan McLaughlin in NationalReview.com, but sexual abuse by coaches and Nassar. “If there’s let’s not “glorify quitting.” She had an “entirely anyone who can turn this culture around,” it’s defensible reason” for pulling out, but overcomBiles, and she took a brave first step—“not by ing nerves and self-doubt is part of what makes winning, but by walking away.” sports so inspiring. Athletes like Curt Schilling,
The New York Times
Q Donald Trump raised $82 million in the first six months of 2021, bringing his political war chest to $102 million. The former president has aggressively used false claims that he was robbed of the 2020 election to solicit donations and has urged supporters to give money directly to his PACs rather than to other Republican fundraising channels. The Wall Street Journal
Q Pork may be both scarce and expensive in California next year, because only 4 percent of the nation’s pork producers comply with state animal-welfare rules set to go into effect in 2022. The rules, which voters overwhelmingly passed in a ballot proposition, require that any pork sold in the state come from pigs housed in pens big enough for them to turn around. Associated Press
Q Police officers shot and killed 1,021 people in 2020—the most on record. Though many of the 15,000 police and sheriff’s departments in America have instituted policy changes since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., University of Pennsylvania criminologist Richard Berk says, “There’s enormous inertia to the police practices that lead to shooting.” The Washington Post THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Housing: End of the eviction moratorium? “Rent is due” for millions of Americans, said Maryam Gamar in Vox.com. The federal eviction moratorium, instituted in September 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect renters unable to make payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, expired last weekend after Congress failed to pass legislation to extend the ban. President Biden said this week he hopes to get the CDC to issue a 60-day extension, but its legality is in question. Landlords lost “a large part of their own income” after months of not collecting rent, and about 15 percent of renting households owe back rent. That has sparked fears that a wave of evictions is coming. Over the past year, Congress allocated $46 billion in rental assistance, “a welcome relief to tenants and landlords alike.” But due to “confusion” in government agencies over how to give out the money, and renters not knowing it’s available, only $3 billion has been distributed. Now “renters are in danger.” “Democrats are in a panic,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, but they have no one to blame but themselves. The Biden administration pointed its finger at the Supreme Court, which last month agreed with lower courts that the CDC exceeded its authority in banning evictions. The
moratorium was “perhaps justifiable” during last year’s lockdowns. But now as the economy recovers and plenty of jobs are available, it’s an example of “how bad policies distort behavior and are difficult to end.” Relieving renters from their obligations was “harebrained socialism,” said Andrew McCarthy in NationalReview.com, and the federal government never had that legal authority. Hopefully, the ban’s expiration will get renters to “shake off the pandemic-emergency doldrums,” resume working, and pay their rent. The eviction rate was already sky-high before the pandemic, said Kathryn Reynolds and Abby Boshart in CNN.com. A dire shortage of affordable housing has forced many Americans to pay rents they can’t afford. Making pandemic-era rental assistance permanent would create “a strong housing safety net.” Biden wants to target “housing inequality” with Housing Choice vouchers, said Dani Isaacsohn in Politico.com. But many landlords refuse to rent to recipients of the vouchers, formerly known as Section 8, because of racism, below-market payouts, and other bureaucratic hassles. To ease the ongoing “affordable housing crisis,” it’s critical to make it “easier and more lucrative” for landlords to accept vouchers.
Getty, Reuters
18 NEWS
Talking points Jan. 6: A coup attempt or just a riot? that turned into a riot, and Most congressional despite Trump’s “grossly Republicans would have irresponsible rhetoric,” us believe that “there’s there’s no evidence he had nothing of value left to an actual plan to overlearn” about the Jan. 6 throw the government. Capitol riot, said Dan Balz Trump had neither the in The Washington Post. Justice Department nor the But new evidence sugmilitary on his side, and gests that “there is likely his allies in Congress could much more that still needs only delay the inevitable unearthing”—especially certification of Joe Biden’s about former President ‘Fight like hell’: Trump’s Jan. 6 rally win. Trump did ask RepubTrump’s role in engineering lican state legislatures to throw out the results— it. Notes taken in late December by the deputy but they refused, said Ross Douthat in The New to then–Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen York Times. The ultimate test of Trump’s grip on reveal that Trump pressured Rosen almost daily the Republican Party will be whether it nominates to find election fraud, and when Rosen told him there was none, Trump replied, “Just say the elec- him again in 2024, with state legislatures this tion was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the time “actually acting to overturn results” to reinR [Republican] congressmen.” These revelations, stall him in the White House. first reported in The New York Times, demonTrump may have failed “to pull off a coup,” said strate why the Jan. 6 House investigators must Andrew Sullivan in AndrewSullivan.Substack delve deeply into what role Trump—and elected .com, but it’s undeniable that he tried to use his Republicans—played in the insurrection. If not presidential power “to prevent Joe Biden from for Trump’s relentless rejection of the election’s succeeding him.” Jan. 6 gave the GOP an excuse validity, “it is doubtful the Capitol would have to divorce itself from this “despicable cult leader,” needed defending.” but instead it has doubled down on defending Jan. 6 was “an embarrassing day for the nation,” him. Republicans will line up behind Trump if he runs again in 2024 “in a campaign of unfiltered said David Harsanyi in NationalReview.com, rage and revenge.” The pitched battle “to protect but to characterize the attack as a coup or an our democracy” did not end on Jan. 6. insurrection is “preposterous.” It was a protest
Infrastructure deal: Why it came together
AP
President Biden ran as “an insider who regarded compromise as a virtue, rather than a missed opportunity to crush a rival,” said Jim Tankersley in The New York Times. And this week’s release of a long-awaited infrastructure bill appears to be “a vindication of his faith in bipartisanship.” With the support of a filibuster-proof total of 17 Republicans, the bill that was sent to the Senate floor includes $550 billion in new spending for physical infrastructure, broadband, electric vehicle development, and pollution cleanup, and owes its existence to painstaking Senate negotiations and relentless lobbying from the White House and Biden himself. Some obstacles remain, said David Axelrod in CNN.com. Progressive Democrats, “who have the numbers to sink any close vote,” are unhappy that some of their priorities were jettisoned. But “the final scene is coming into focus” in this months-long saga, “and for Biden and those who yearn for a functioning democracy, it will play to loud applause.” “Sorry if we don’t cheer” for this wasteful, unwieldy 2,702-page bill, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Republicans may have successfully kept out tax increases and a new $40 billion boost in IRS funding, but the remain-
ing pay-fors are “typical Beltway gimmicks” such as the presumed recovery of fraudulent unemployment-benefit claims and $56 billion in presumed economic growth. Worse yet, Republican compromisers have essentially given Democrats bipartisan cover to push forward their $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” behemoth through budget reconciliation, which requires no Republican support. It’s “a myth” that there are two separate pieces of legislation—one reasonable, one crazy, said the National Review in an editorial. For Democrats, “the two bills are clearly linked,” and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already said that she will not even allow a vote on the bipartisan bill until after the Senate passes the reconciliation bill. What “a pathetic Republican surrender.” Mitch McConnell knows repairing roads and bridges is highly popular, said Michael Tomasky in NewRepublic.com, and many GOP senators want to take credit for the bipartisan bill. But it’s possible the Senate minority leader may kill it in September, and blame Democrats for tying it too closely to the reconciliation bill. Still, right now the door is open for a level of public investment not seen since the New Deal. For Biden, “it would be an amazing first year.”
NEWS 19 Wit & Wisdom “Autobiography is an unrivaled vehicle for telling the truth about other people.” English barrister and writer Philip Guedalla, quoted in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
“I have never been modest enough to demand less of myself.” Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in TheBrowser.com
“It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree but smiles.” Novelist Muriel Spark, quoted in GoodReads.com
“The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.” Pete Seeger, quoted in Parade
“Isn’t it possible that to desire a thing, to truly desire it, is a form of having it?” Poet Galway Kinnell, quoted in the San Francisco Examiner
“The past is never where you think you left it.” Writer Katherine Anne Porter, quoted in The New York Times
“I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.” Margaret Thatcher, quoted in INews.co.uk
Poll watch Q 79% of vaccinated Americans blame the unvaccinated for rising cases of the coronavirus’ Delta variant. 36% also think former President Trump is to blame, and 33% point to Fox News and conservative media. Among the unvaccinated, 37% blame people traveling into the U.S. from abroad, 27% blame the mainstream media, and 21% say it’s President Biden’s fault. Overall, 77% of Americans now say they’ve either gotten vaccinated or are likely to do so—up 2 points in two weeks. Axios/Ipsos THE WEEK August 13, 2021
20 NEWS
THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Pick of the week’s cartoons
For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons.
Technology
NEWS 21
Spyware: A mysterious phone list sets off a scandal to be nearly impossible to stop. Apple has New revelations about spying with softan “emphasis on privacy and security in ware developed by an Israeli company its product design and marketing,” but have led to an expanding diplomatic 34 of the 37 devices that the coalition incident, said Elaine Ganley and Josef tested and found with Pegasus spyware Federman in the Associated Press. Last were iPhones. Investigators with Amnesty week, French and Israeli officials met International and the news consortium “to get to the bottom of allegations that actually found that Apple’s iPhones ofin 2019 French President Emmanuel fered more opportunities for hacking Macron and members of his government attacks than stock Android handsets. Primay have been targeted” by a Moroccan vacy and security researchers have pushed agent using Pegasus spyware, developed Apple and Google for more access to by NSO Group. Pegasus enables NSO’s their operating systems, saying that as big clients to infect a target’s phone, stealing Outside NSO’s secretive operation as they are, the tech giants are “unlikely messages, photos, and even location data, to solve the threat posed by private spyware vendors alone.” said Mitchell Clark in TheVerge.com. The company supposedly “sells the software only to specific government agencies” approved by Israel’s defense ministry. But there are serious questions NSO has denied links to the mysterious list of 50,000 numbers, said Daniel Estrin in NPR.org. The company says that it has about how widely Pegasus software—linked to spying directed scoured the list and with “almost everything we checked, we against Saudi dissidents and Mexican activists—is used. A coalition of news outlets last month uncovered a list of 50,000 phone found no connection to Pegasus.” But, under scrutiny, NSO has “blocked several government clients around the world from using numbers that may have been targeted, including “at least three its technology as the company investigates their possible misuse”; presidents, 10 prime ministers, and a king.” But information Saudi Arabia and Dubai were already suspended after earlier alabout what the entire list means “remains frustratingly unclear.” legations. Taken all together, the evidence against NSO “suggests that gross violations of privacy are becoming the norm,” said Pegasus is extremely potent, said Lily Hay Newman in Wired Martin Ivens in Bloomberg.com. NSO’s “products are weapons .com, and Apple’s and Google’s security systems seem to be of mass repression and surveillance.” Democratic nations need to no match for it. So-called zero-click exploits, which amazingly “don’t require any taps or downloads from victims,” are proving starting treating spyware like the serious security threat it is.
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Innovation of the week Vending machines are upgrading their offerings in the touch-free era, said Greg Nichols in ZDNet .com. Basil Street raised $10 million last year behind its idea for “Automated Pizza Kitchens,” a stand-alone kiosk that can deliver a hot, brick-oven style pizza in about three minutes. The machine uses flash-frozen ingredients that are cooked in a “patented three-element nonmicrowave speed oven.” Basil aims to place about 50 of the pizza-making machines at “universities, airports, and other high-traffic areas” by the fall. Pizza isn’t the only meal coming via machines today. “Depending on where you live, you may already be able to get a fresh-tossed salad from a robot named Sally and a really good espresso from one of Café X’s robotic baristas.”
Bytes: What’s new in tech ‘Link rot’ puts porn on news sites Several prominent news websites have learned the downsides of embedded content after an adult-entertainment company bought a defunct video-hosting domain, said Kim Lyons in TheVerge.com. Websites—including those for New York magazine, The Washington Post, and, yes, even TheVerge.com—that had previously embedded videos from a user-generated video platform called Vidme have discovered pornography appearing alongside past articles. “It’s a very extreme example of link rot, which happens when online content or images are deleted or otherwise broken.” News sites frequently embed images or videos from elsewhere on the internet to “help illustrate a blog post or news item online.” But Vidme shut down in 2017 and was bought by a porn company, and instead of the original content the links now play hard-core porn videos.
China takes aim at video games China has widened its attack on video games in a growing campaign against gaming addiction, said Diksha Madhok in CNN.com. A business newspaper run by China’s official news agency likened video games to “spiritual opium” and “an electronic drug,” specifically calling out the game Honor of Kings,
developed by Tencent, a technology giant that is China’s most valuable company. Tencent quickly announced it would “limit the ability for minors to play Honor of Kings to an hour on non-holidays and two hours on holidays.” It also called for an industrywide discussion on “the feasibility of banning children under age 12 from playing games.” With investors fearing a further crackdown, Tencent lost $100 billion in value in just 48 hours.
Zoombombing settlement Zoom agreed to pay $85 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit related to “Zoombombing,” said Jonathan Stempel in Reuters.com. The video-chat platform came under scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators last year after outsiders began to “hijack Zoom meetings and display pornography, use racist language, or post other disturbing content.” U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh had already pared down the lawsuit’s claims, saying the company is “‘mostly’ immune under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from liability over user content.” But Zoom agreed to bolster its security measures, including “alerting users when meeting hosts or other participants use third-party apps in meetings.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
22 NEWS
Health & Science
Fighting malaria with gene-edited mosquitoes
Trying to cool off in Vancouver
More heat waves to come Deadly heat waves like the one that scorched the Pacific Northwest in late June, breaking temperature records by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit, will become increasingly common and severe in the near future. That’s the worrying conclusion of a new study that used computer simulations to see how warming affects the likelihood of extreme temperatures, reports ABCNews .com. The researchers concluded not only that climate change makes heat waves more likely but also that the rate—rather than the total amount—of warming is a key factor in determining the likelihood and severity of these events. That distinction is important because the rate of climate change has increased rapidly in recent decades as human activity has released ever more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere: Some two-thirds of the warming that has occurred since the 19th century has taken place since 1975. The study found that if climate change continues at its current pace, recordshattering heat waves will be up to 21 times more likely toward the end of this century compared with the past 30 years. “The takehome message of our study is that it really is no longer enough to just look at past records or past measurements of weather,” says coauthor Erich Fischer of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. “We need to prepare for something different.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
modified mosquitoes were then placed together with hundreds of natural mosquitoes in lab cages designed to simulate sub-Saharan conditions. Within a year, the entire population had collapsed. Malaria kills some 400,000 people a year, but tackling the disease with gene-edited mosquitoes is controversial, because of fears over how they might disrupt delicate ecosystems. Scientists have previously inserted a genetic self-destruct code into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—which spread Zika, dengue, and other diseases—and released the bugs in Florida, Brazil, and other tropical locations without apparent harm to the environment. The benefits of genetically
altering mosquitoes “are so great,” Harvard bioethicist Jeantine Lunshof tells NPR.org, “and I have not found convincing arguments that this would have considerable detrimental effects.”
Schizophrenia and marijuana
A tipple for your ticker?
A growing proportion of schizophrenia cases are linked to excessive marijuana use, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed data from Denmark’s national health registry, including records for everyone who was 16 or older at some point between 1972 and 2017. They found that in 1995 some 2 percent of schizophrenia diagnoses were associated with cannabis use disorder—a heavy and problematic use of the drug—and that this figure rose to 4 percent in 2000 and to 8 percent more recently. The link between the mental disorder and marijuana is relatively well established. Many researchers think cannabis use is a “component cause”: something that, when combined with other risk factors, can trigger the condition in certain people. “Of course, our findings will have to be replicated elsewhere before firm conclusions can be drawn,” co-author Carsten Hjortshoj tells CNN.com. “But I do feel fairly confident that we will see similar patterns in places where problematic use of cannabis has increased, or where the potency of cannabis has increased.”
Good news for people with heart disease: Drinking a small amount of alcohol each day is linked to a lower risk of another heart attack or stroke—or early death. In the largest study of its kind, researchers looked at data from more than 48,000 people who had suffered a heart attack, stroke, or angina, reports Reuters .com. They found that drinking up to 105 grams of alcohol each week—the equivalent of a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer—lowered the risk of a second cardiovascular event compared with drinking none at all. The sweet spot was about 8 grams a day, roughly half a glass of beer or wine; people who drank that much had a 50 percent lower risk of a repeat episode compared with nondrinkers. Study author Chengyi Ding, from University College London, says the findings suggest that people with cardiovascular problems “may not need to stop drinking” in order to prevent future issues, but notes that “they may wish to consider lowering their weekly alcohol intake.”
Anopheles gambiae: Targeted for elimination
researchers noticed that certain features of auroras glowing around Ganymede’s NASA scientists have detected poles could be explained only water vapor in the atmoby the presence of water vapor. sphere of Jupiter’s moon Knowing that water from the Ganymede, the largest moon moon’s underground oceans in the solar system. About couldn’t have broken through 2.4 times smaller than our the ice crust, they concluded planet, Ganymede is thought that the vapor must have come to contain more water than all from sublimation—when a of Earth’s oceans put together. solid turns straight to gas, Because the moon is so bypassing the liquid phase. Ganymede: Frozen crust chilly—surface temperatures Sure enough, they calculated can reach minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit— that at around noon on the moon’s equator the water on its surface is frozen comthe icy surface warms up enough for subpletely solid. You have to go 100 miles limation to take place. Lead author Lorenz below the moon’s icy crust to find liquid Roth tells CBSNews.com the discovery water. After analyzing new and archival “shows that often one needs to know what data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the to focus on when analyzing data.”
Water vapor on an ice moon
Getty (2), Newscom
Scientists have shown for the first time that genetic engineering can wipe out populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes. In the landmark study, researchers used the gene-editing technique CRISPR to alter the genetic makeup of the Anopheles gambiae species, which is responsible for most cases of the parasitic disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, they introduced a mutation that deforms the females’ mouths—making it impossible for them to bite and spread the parasite—and their reproductive organs. They combined this with a “gene drive,” a genetic element to accelerate the spread of the mutation in mosquito populations. Dozens of these
ARTS Review of reviews: Books
false political ads. Meanwhile, because Facebook’s algorithms “reward emotion, the more heated the better,” news about Donald Trump dominated Facebook throughout the year. When Facebook entered Myanmar, the results were ghastly. The United Nations found that Facebook’s spread of hateful bigotry played “a determining role” in the genocide that cost the lives of 24,000 Rohingya.
Book of the week An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang (HarperCollins, $30)
Many volumes have been already written about Facebook, said John Naughton in TheGuardian.com. “This book is different.” Award-winning New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang interviewed 400 people, mostly current or former Facebook employees, to assemble their “gripping” account of how various crises of the past five years have revealed the true nature of the social media giant. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds nearly absolute control over the $1 trillion company, which now has nearly 3 billion active users, puts the goal of world domination above any concern about the misinformation and deadly hatreds its services spread, and has repeatedly shown an unwillingness to address such malignant effects. Other critics have said the problem with Facebook is Facebook. “Wrong. The problem of Facebook is Zuckerberg. And
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Novel of the week A Song Everlasting
Zuckerberg testifying before Congress in 2019
the question posed by this splendid book is, What are we going to do about him?” Today, the company Zuckerberg created in 2004 is “one of the world’s most dangerous monopolies,” said Jill Lepore in The New Yorker. It went into the news business in 2006, and in some countries as many as two-thirds of people now get their news from Facebook. Social media was the main source of news for just half of Americans in 2016, but Facebook’s refusal to police misinformation facilitated Russia’s effort to sow dissent through fake accounts and
Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley
by Ha Jin
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28)
(Pantheon, $28)
At this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, a history of quarantines is unlikely to strike anyone as light beach reading, said Annalisa Quinn in NPR.org. But “there is something counterintuitively comforting in a deeply considered book that contextualizes and justifies the seclusion and uncertainty of the past 18 months.” Authors Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley began their research into the topic years ago, and not because the architecture blogger and New Yorker contributor were “freakishly prescient.” Rather, the pair were fascinated by how quarantine has been an effective but fraught response to fear and uncertainty for centuries. In Until Proven Safe, they “make the case that diseases and the quarantines they inspire have in fact shaped much of the modern world, from international borders to passports to trade and agriculture.”
With his latest novel, Ha Jin “seems finally to have lost the plot,” said Jane Hu in The New York Times. Since he won a 1999 National Book Award for Waiting, Jin has mostly set his novels not in his native China but in the U.S., his adopted home, and he has had to work too hard to invent stories that show the superiority of the American way. In A Song Everlasting, a prominent opera singer from Beijing throws his career into turmoil when he inexplicably takes a lucrative side gig during a U.S. concert tour. From there, the singer’s life goes from bad to worse, “each turn prompted by an impulsive decision or event more random than the last.” The uneven but generally downward trajectory of the hero’s life actually makes the moving story feel real, said Priscilla Gilman in The Boston Globe. He doesn’t find unfettered contentment in the U.S., but “by the novel’s end, we are deeply bonded to its protagonist, who emerges from one setback after another with his dignity, idealism, and essential goodness intact.”
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An Ugly Truth provides all these details, yet “the book is as much a feat of storytelling as it is reporting,” said Karen Hao in MIT Technology Review. “The pacing of each chapter guarantees fresh revelations with every turn of the page,” and though I was already aware of Facebook’s darkest chapters, “the degree to which the company sought to protect itself at the cost of others was still worse than I had previously known.” Frenkel and Kang “keep their own analysis light,” making clear that Facebook values the growth of its global audience above all else but declining to recommend what should be done to rein in its widening power. “Between the lines,” though, “the message is clear: Facebook will never fix itself.” The story the authors share is “ambitious yet seamless,” said Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times. The first recorded quarantine occurred in 1377, when Dubrovnik, a port on the Adriatic, protected itself against a resurgence of the bubonic plague by admitting no visitors until they’d spent a month in a town or islet just outside the city. A half-century later, Venice built the first of Europe’s many hospitals dedicated to quarantining, a word derived from the Italian for “40 days.” The tactic has been among humanity’s most effective methods of combating the spread of disease, but it has been easier for people to impose quarantines on others than to submit to quarantine themselves. The authors are well aware of the many perils posed by quarantines, said A. Roger Ekirch in The Wall Street Journal. “As history has shown, they have been used by nations to redraw the borders of contested territories, by corporations to gain mineral rights, and by nativists to persecute immigrants.” But Until Proven Safe also demonstrates why quarantines will be a necessary feature of modern life for the foreseeable future. From its cataloging of past epidemics’ effects to its insights about the myriad challenges ahead, “this is an exceptionally powerful book.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
The Book List
24 ARTS
Omar El Akkad It’s hard to think of anyone better qualified than Omar El Akkad to write an action-packed but literary novel about a child refugee, said Christopher Bollen in Interview. Before he wrote his acclaimed debut, the futureset American War, the Egyptian native spent 10 years as a Toronto Globe and Mail reporter covering major geopolitical events at ground level. “I had a front-row seat to so much of history,” he says. But it’s the 39-year-old’s burning compassion that might be most unusual. What Strange Paradise, his widely praised new novel, was in part prompted by the way news consumers responded in horror to a 2015 photo of a drowned child refugee on a Turkish beach, then quickly forgot the ongoing crisis. “I write against the privilege of instantaneous forgetting,” he says. “All my books are in some way related to that idea of asking the reader to simply not look away.” What Strange Paradise opens with another child lying prone on a beach amid the bodies of other refugees, said Marsha Lederman in The Globe and Mail. But 9-year-old Amir wakes up and ventures inland before happening upon a girl who’s eager to help. Amir and 15-year-old Vänna intentionally evoke Peter Pan and Wendy, children who still harbor hope in a world where callousness reigns. Though rave reviews are piling up, El Akkad doesn’t feel comfortable celebrating. “I am by disposition drawn to writing about the things that make me angry in this world,” he says. “I can’t celebrate these books. It’s not how I think about them. I want to exist in a world where I didn’t feel compelled to write about what I write about.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Best books... chosen by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore Miranda Beverly-Whittemore’s new novel, Fierce Little Thing, follows five friends as they return to the Maine commune where they grew up. Below, the author of June and Bittersweet recommends other books that explore the complex quest for home. Love and Trouble by Claire Dederer (2017). In this propulsive memoir, Dederer hungers for meaning during what some might call a “midlife crisis,” recalling a parallel era—her adolescence— when she felt similarly undone. The memories of her expanding mind and burgeoning sexuality during that time give her hope that she has the capacity to once again remake herself.
Good Talk by Mira Jacob (2019). Jacob’s intimate graphic memoir chronicles the questions her young son, who’s half Jewish and half Indian, has about race, color, and love. Her answers are found in a handful of conversations from her past. The book, as it unfolds, becomes both a map to the American experience in the age of Trump and a moving exploration of motherhood.
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge (2021). This beautifully written novel starts in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn and follows Libertie Sampson—who is constantly compared with her mother, one of America’s first Black female physicians—first to college in Ohio, then on to married life in Haiti. Throughout, Libertie quests to find a place where she can be herself, not despite who she is, but because of it.
Searching for Zion by Emily Raboteau (2013). This whip-smart memoir follows Raboteau, a young, biracial American woman, on her personal quest for home as she learns from various people who’ve searched for the Promised Land. Raboteau’s journey from Israel to Jamaica, Ethiopia, Ghana, and through the southern United States is both a thrilling human adventure and an impeccably researched travelogue.
Arcadia by Lauren Groff (2012). In Groff’s luscious second novel, we’re introduced to Arcadia, a commune in upstate New York, through the eyes of Bit, a child who has never known another home. But as the interests and passions of the adults splinter and as Bit grows, he must survive and navigate the outside world.
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (2013). In this decades-spanning novel, six teenagers become inseparable at summer camp—and then grow up. As they navigate varied adult lives and a shattering secret, the shared space of their friendship can sometimes seem sacred, sometimes cloying, but it is never to be ignored.
Also of interest...in summer heat Appleseed
Breathing Fire
by Matt Bell (Custom House, $28)
by Jaime Lowe (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27)
Matt Bell’s “cerebral” sci-fi folktale is “unpredictable to the last page,” said Morgan Forde in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Bell’s “incredibly unique” take on the climate crisis ties together three stories, set centuries apart, that draw inspiration from Greek mythology, magical realism, and American folklore. But the disparate plot threads are thematically united by the urgency of a central question: “Faced with the end of the world, would you bet on humanity to finally come together and avert disaster?”
“The front lines of the fight against climate change are peopled with those society has forgotten,” said Lorraine Berry in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Up to 30 percent of the firefighters battling wildfires in California each year are prison inmates performing backbreaking labor while earning a 40th of what a civilian crew member makes. Jaime Lowe’s “deeply empathetic” book follows six female inmate firefighters and their worried families, delving into the human cost of environmental crisis.
She Who Became the Sun
Something Under the Sun
by Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor, $28)
by Alexandra Kleeman (Hogarth, $28)
Shelley Parker-Chan’s “inventive, powerful” debut novel puts a twist on Chinese history, said Greer Macallister in the Chicago Review of Books. In 1345, a peasant girl who has survived a deadly drought assumes her brother’s identity, then matures into the “clever, stubborn, and relentless” ruler of a united China. Parker-Chan shrewdly reworks the origin of the Ming dynasty to create an “action-packed and thought-provoking” historical fantasy that explores questions of gender and sexual identity.
Climate change turns out be “the ultimate noir subject,” said Piper French in High Country News. In Alexandra Kleeman’s new novel, a novelist new to Los Angeles teams with a former child actor to investigate a conspiracy that’s part Raymond Chandler, part Thomas Pynchon. But this is an L.A. where wildfires burn all year long and the rich hoard water while everyone else drinks a sad substitute. Human weakness is pushing the city toward “a fate as sure as an incoming asteroid.”
Kateshia Pendergrass, Rubidium Wu
Author of the week
Review of reviews: Art & Music Exhibit of the week
ARTS 25
provides a 1943 battlefield shot of two soldiers hurling grenades. Eiko Yamazawa’s moving series of photographs of Japanese actress Yasue Yamamoto “didn’t so much blow my mind as take it away and begin to replace it with a better one.” The show offers almost too much for a viewer to take in. “At certain points, having heedlessly given myself over to too many compelling items, I had to sit down.”
=The New Woman Behind the Camera The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Oct. 3
Ilse Bing Estate
In her time, the so-called New Woman was “one of the modern world’s most striking creations,” said Blake Gopnik in The New York Times. As the 1920s dawned and women “took on roles and responsibilities they’d rarely had before,” If the show’s intent is to explore the the New Woman became a figure of rise of the New Woman, “the deciinterest in multiple cultures around sion to exclude men is curious,” said the globe, and one particular way Richard Woodward in The Wall that women manifested the part was Street Journal. “Male photographers by picking up cameras and sharing (and film directors) were equally their perspective. In an “inspired and responsible, if not more so, for creatinspiring” new exhibition at New German photographer Ilse Bing in a 1931 self portrait ing the image in the popular mind of York City’s Metropolitan Museum women in the modern era as strong, of Art, nearly 200 images created by daring, talented, and independent.” This resented by a single photo, and even the professional female photographers of the show, which travels to the National Gallery big names are awarded no more than six. 1920s through ’50s usher us back to those of Art in October, seems likely to be rememBut nearly every one of these women “did heady days. The New Woman was used to bered not for its thematic power, though. tip-top work in genres that include reportbeing “objectified and observed as few men “Designed to redress omissions in the canon age, ethnography, fashion, advertising, and were likely to be. But thanks to photogdeterminedly avant-garde experimentation.” and to celebrate unheralded women from raphy, she could begin to look back, with nations that photo historians have comMargaret Bourke-White, a star photogpower, at the world around her.” monly ignored,” it does exactly that. Many rapher for Life magazine, contributes an of the photographers showcased here are image of Mississippi flood victims backed “The show is less a survey than an index,” bound to garner greater attention soon in by a sign that reads “There’s no way like said Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker. the American Way.” Galina Sanko of Russia various spin-off exhibitions. Most of the 120 photographers are rep-
Billie Eilish
Prince
Los Lobos
Happier Than Ever
Welcome 2 America
Native Sons
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++++
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Billie Eilish, by the time she’s done, “could do practically anything,” said Carl Wilson in Slate.com. The young superstar comes across as that kind of artist on her second album, which is “slower and more somber” than the defining hits from her Grammysweeping 2019 debut, but finds her working through the challenges of being perhaps the most visible 19-year-old on the planet. “It is grounded in a determination to testify,” to share what it’s like to be 19, to be a woman, to be watched, to be criticized. On the musical front, “there’s a lot less trap and a lot more jazz,” said Quinn Moreland in Pitchfork.com. Eilish has cited torch-song singers Peggy Lee and Julie London as influences, and though “some of the quieter tracks drag,” the entire record feels “effortlessly melodic.” Often the beat shifts halfway through, as on “Oxytocin,” which “starts off sultry before it launches itself out a window in a blitz of abrasive synths.” The title track, another highlight, “escalates from a detached critique of an ex to an eruption of hellfire.”
“If nothing else, this record is evidence that Prince’s one-of-a-kind genius never really dimmed,” said Noel Murray in AVClub .com. Recorded in 2010 and then shelved for unknown reasons, Welcome 2 America is the first posthumous Prince release that’s being presented as essentially a lost album. And though it doesn’t rank among the artist’s top five, “it may be in the top 10,” opening with a couple of stripped-down, “softly swinging” numbers before settling into a run of “relaxed, almost breezy” funk, pop, and R&B. Given how few good albums Prince was making at the time, his main trouble must have been in selecting the right material. Some of the social commentary in the title track is mildly corny, said Kory Grow in Rolling Stone. “But the album isn’t all so serious,” and with bass virtuoso Tal Wilkenfeld backing Prince, “the chemistry is undeniable from the first song.” Welcome is “instantly more likable than everything he released between 2009 and 2014. The grooves are funkier, the sex jams sexier, and the Curtis Mayfield homages superflyier.”
You can’t pigeonhole Los Lobos, said Hal Horowitz in AmericanSongwriter .com. For nearly 50 years, the rootsrock veterans from East Los Angeles have been making music “as eclectic as the inhabitants of the city that birthed them.” That’s why the bilingual band’s “delightful, heartfelt” new tribute to the music of L.A. sounds like an “audio travelogue of sorts.” Among its 13 cover songs, you’ll hear 1970s soft-rock classics by Buffalo Springfield and the Beach Boys as well as some soul, blues, Chicano rock, and Latin jazz. Los Lobos’ eight-minute take on War’s “The World Is a Ghetto” is an odyssey, but one that “sounds like it was a blast to record,” said Jim Shahen in NoDepression.com. Another of the record’s pleasures is hearing David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, and company honor lesser-known Chicano musicians such as Lalo Guerrero and Thee Midniters. Those expertly performed covers “serve as excellent entry points into further exploring a part of the American roots tradition that is often overlooked.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
26 ARTS The Suicide Squad Directed by James Gunn (R)
++++ An expendable force takes on a deadly mission.
Nine Days Directed by Edson Oda (R)
++++ A steward of souls faces a test of his own.
Review of reviews: Film (a fun-to-hate John Cena), “After 2016’s ugly, bludgeonand Polka-Dot Man (David ing Suicide Squad, I couldn’t Dastmalchian) are among the imagine liking another movie colorful newcomers who join called Suicide Squad,” said fan-favorite Harley Quinn Justin Chang in the Los Angeles (Margot Robbie), said Brian Times. “I’m delighted to be Truitt in USA Today. Also, proven wrong.” Guardians Sylvester Stallone voices a walkof the Galaxy director James ing shark, which is “pretty much Gunn has brought his “insouciant swagger” over to the DC Polka-Dot Man (left) and three of his pals as awesome as it sounds.” Don’t fall in love with any these misComics cinematic universe for fits, though, because half the movie’s characters are a violent yet winningly outlandish do-over. Once killed off before the action is over. “Thank goodness again, Viola Davis plays a government taskmaster for that,” said Katie Rife in AVClub.com. “Now who chooses to fight evil with evil by sending a that superhero movies have gone from entertainment group of supervillain convicts on a deadly misfor children to global events ushered in with awed sion. The antiheroes’ irreverent antics work this reverence, it was time for someone to come along time, though, “thanks to a terrific ensemble and a and pop the balloon. The Suicide Squad does so deft balance of brains, heart, and other viscera.” with a smile.” (In theaters or on HBO Max) Bloodsport (a grumpy Idris Elba), Peacemaker lives of his past picks via a wall Watching Nine Days “has an of TVs, and when one of his immediate effect on how you favorites dies early, he obsesses feel inside your reality,” said over why. But while Oda manJacob Oller in PasteMagazine ages conceits like the auditions .com. Writer-director Edson expertly, they demand such deliOda, with his first feature, has cate handling that “at times the imagined a liminal realm where movie almost sinks under their a caretaker figure, played by weight.” When the screenplay a quietly compelling Winston takes chances, “the actors help, Duke, decides across nine days Duke (left) questions a potential lifer. approaching the material with which of several unborn souls vulnerability and intelligence,” said Sheila O’Malley will be granted life. Given that the movie is thus in RogerEbert.com. Zazie Beetz plays a freethinker a lengthy group audition held in a simple dwellwho both frustrates and enthralls Duke’s gateing, Nine Days “could’ve easily felt like a series of keeper, showing empathy that opens him up. In acting exercises.” Instead, it proves “shatteringly a film that asks whether it’s even possible to fully bittersweet.” The film is “more about questions appreciate life while we’re here, “the catharsis, than answers,” said Glenn Kenny in The New when it comes, is exhilarating.” (In theaters only) York Times. Duke’s character observes the ongoing
ScarJo vs. Disney: A titanic clash over Hollywood’s future
“Disney should know it’s never a good idea to battle a superhero,” said Tara Lachapelle THE WEEK August 13, 2021
disregard” for the horrific effects of the pandemic. As a kicker, Disney disclosed that ScarJo had already been paid $20 million upfront. Time’s Up and two other advocacy groups united to denounce the company’s response as a “gendered character attack.”
Johansson: The $20 million underdog
in Bloomberg.com. Similar disputes erupted when Warner Bros. announced that its full slate of 2021 movies would be simultaneously released on HBO Max owing to Covid-19’s impact on moviegoing. But Warner wisely settled with its stars behind closed doors. Disney, “a brand known for expertly averting scandal,” responded to last week’s suit by issuing a statement blasting Johansson for showing a “callous
Whether or not Johansson prevails in court, her anger “speaks to a number of weightier issues,” said Benjamin Lee in TheGuardian .com. Hollywood observers are aware that it took 11 years and eight movies before Johansson, as the only female Avenger, finally got her own standalone film, and Disney’s snub fuels talk that the studios have asked for greater financial sacrifices during Covid from women and minorities than from white male stars. Ultimately, the legal fight is about what role any stars will play as the studios chase the growing market for home entertainment and shift focus away from big screens. The revolution is nothing new, “but the endgame remains a mystery.”
Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Classics, AP
“Epic legal battles almost never get this massive,” said Brent Lang and Gene Maddaus in Variety. Last week, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars sued the biggest entertainment company in the world, “sending shock waves across an entertainment landscape already reeling from months of disruptions.” Actress Scarlett Johansson alleges that Disney breached its contract with her in early July when it released Black Widow on its Disney+ streaming service the same day that the long-delayed superhero picture finally debuted in theaters. Because Johansson’s pay was to be based largely on box-office returns, her lawyers argue that Disney’s move cost the actress up to $50 million. Johansson’s lawsuit “appears to be emboldening other stars” too. If they also sue, the battle “could fundamentally reshape the way that actors are compensated.”
Television Streaming tips Athletes under pressure...
Naomi Osaka A three-part documentary portrait, released in mid-July, opens a window into the psyche of a young tennis star who withdrew from May’s French Open, citing mental health issues. Tracing her story, the series explains more about that decision than any press conference could. Netflix
Tiger If ever there was an athlete who could have used a mental health break, it was midcareer Tiger Woods. This recent two-part documentary is best when it puts aside Woods’ golf feats to focus on how his personal development was hindered by the Atlas-level expectations placed on him. HBO Max
Over the Limit In a documentary that’s been likened to Black Swan and Whiplash, Russian rhythmic gymnast Margarita Mamun battles injury and sadistic coaching as she prepares to chase gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. $2 via Amazon Prime
Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story Branded a thug after attacking a fan during a 2004 NBA game, Ron Artest has since changed his name twice and emerges in this 2019 documentary as a man of depth whose candor about his mental health struggles opened a door for other athletes. Showtime Now
A Kid From Coney Island A surprisingly uplifting documentary profiles Stephon Marbury, an enigmatic point guard who never quite lived up to his “Starbury” billing in the NBA but achieved basketball enlightenment in China. Netflix
The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching Reservation Dogs Eat your heart out, Quentin Tarantino. This new comedy series from Taika Waititi and director Sterlin Harjo follows a crew of four indigenous teens in Oklahoma who are feeling stuck in a rut. Following a friend’s death, the wannabe toughs decide to string together enough thefts to escape their town for California. But first, they have to contend with a rival gang, local crazies, and a lawman, Lighthorseman Big, who seems wise to their spree. Available Monday, Aug. 9, Hulu Untold Netflix jumps into the sports docuseries game with the first of five 80-minute films from Chapman and Maclain Way, who created the series Wild Wild Country. The weeks ahead will bring stories that spotlight 1976 gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, boxer Christy Martin, and former tennis pro Mardy Fish. The debut entry will revisit 2004’s “Malice at the Palace,” a melee that broke out at an NBA game when the Indiana Pacers’ Ron Artest charged into the stands in pursuit of a Detroit Pistons fan. Available Tuesday, Aug. 10, Netflix Misha and the Wolves Misha Defonseca had an incredible tale to share about surviving the Holocaust. In the 1990s, the Belgian native published a memoir about trekking alone toward Germany at age 7 and being taken in by a pack of wolves. The book spawned a movie and drew interest from Disney before Defonseca was forced to admit her account was fabricated. This new documentary makes the true story, and the effort of various people to bring it to light, as enthralling as the fiction. Available Wednesday, Aug. 11, Netflix Beckett Last summer he was a secret agent in Tenet. This summer, John David Washington is an everyman on the run in a thriller from a young Italian director. Waking up in a Greek hospital after a car accident in which he lost his girlfriend, Washington’s Beckett, an American tourist, discovers that local law enforcement wants him dead because he has stumbled upon a conspiracy.
• All listings are Eastern Time.
FX, Apple TV
Reservation Dogs: The new trouble in town
His only hope: making his way to the U.S. Embassy in Athens before his pursuers catch him. Available Friday, Aug. 13, Netflix Modern Love Love is in the airwaves again. The anthology series based on a popular New York Times column returns with eight new half-hour romantic dramas populated by big stars. This season splits time between New York City and Ireland, with Kit Harington and Lucy Boynton co-starring in one episode as strangers who meet on a train to Dublin at the onset of the pandemic. Sophie Okonedo, Tobias Menzies, Dominique Fishback, Minnie Driver, and Garrett Hedlund carry subsequent episodes. Available Friday, Aug. 13, Amazon Prime Other highlights Fantasy Island In a reboot of the pulpy 1970s series about being careful what you wish for, Roselyn Sánchez of Devious Maids assumes the Ricardo Montalbán role. Tuesday, Aug. 10, at 9 p.m., Fox Hard Knocks: The Dallas Cowboys A new season of the series that goes behind the scenes with one NFL club embeds with “America’s Team,” which now hasn’t been to the Super Bowl since 1995. Tuesday, Aug. 10, at 9 p.m., HBO Brooklyn Nine-Nine Potentially the last of the great network police sitcoms begins its final season with back-to-back episodes. Thursday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m., NBC
Show of the week CODA
The Australian Dream Adam Goodes, a star of Australian football, was pilloried for having a young fan ejected when she called him an “ape.” His story offers surprising insight about the dynamics of racism everywhere. WatchESPN
ARTS 27
Jones as Ruby, a ‘CODA,’ or child of deaf adults
Sometimes a movie comes along that makes you feel like part of a family you’ve only just met. So it is with this charming Sundance Film Festival winner about a close-knit and boisterous Massachusetts fishing family in which three members are deaf and the fourth—17-year-old Ruby—is a talented singer. Emilia Jones’ performance in the title role will remind you how hard it can be for a young person to break away from the only life she has known. Co-stars Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant help ensure that you’ll laugh and cry along the way. Available Friday, Aug. 10, Apple TV+ THE WEEK August 13, 2021
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LEISURE Food & Drink
Turmeric-marinated cod: Worth naming a street after ½ tsp kosher salt Large handful dill sprigs Large handful small cilantro sprigs 3 juicy limes, cut into wedges
“There are stories behind everything delicious,” says chef Gregory Gourdet in Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health (Harper Wave). The story behind the recipe below is that it’s my riff on the signature—and only—dish served at a century-old restaurant in Hanoi that goes by the same name, Cha Ca La Vong, and has also inspired such a cluster of imitators that the city has renamed the entire stretch Cha Ca Street.
Recipe of the week Turmeric-marinated cod with ginger and lots of dill For marinating the fish: 3 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped 3-inch knob fresh turmeric, peeled and roughly chopped
Bright, funky, and unforgettable
1 medium shallot, roughly chopped 2-inch knob ginger, peeled and roughly sliced against the grain 3 tbsp fish sauce 2 pounds cod, hake, or halibut fillets, preferably center cut, cut into 6 similarsize pieces For finishing the dish: 3 tbsp avocado oil 2 large baby bok choy bulbs, gently pulled apart into individual leaves 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces, whites halved lengthwise 1 large serrano or medium jalapeño chile, thinly sliced
Preheat broiler and position a rack 6 inches from the heat. Remove fish from marinade, but don’t wipe any marinade off. Rub 1 tbsp avocado oil onto a sheet pan, arrange fish in a single layer, and broil until fish is a vivid yellow color and just cooked though (the center will be milky white and flake easily with the poke of a finger), 8 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet over high heat until shimmery. Add boy choy, scallions, and chile and cook, stirring occasionally, until bok choy is bright green and slightly wilted but with a tender crunch to the stems, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and turn off heat. When fish is done, transfer it to a platter, scatter on bok choy mixture, and shower everything with the dill and cilantro. Arrange lime wedges on the side. Serves 6.
Wine: Award-worthy cans
California barbecue: A rich tradition hiding in plain sight
“The rise of canned wine happened fast,” said Zachary Sussman in the online magazine Punch. The first premium canned wines appeared about a decade ago, and in just the past few years, “the category has exploded into a full spectrum of styles that pull from all pages of wine’s postmodern playbook.” Below are a few of the best. Una Lou Rosé ($10 for 375 ml). “The Platonic idea of pink wine,” this crisp California rosé tastes of “white peaches and pickled watermelon,” with “a delicate floral aspect.” Prisma Pinot Noir ($5 for 250 ml). This Chilean pinot “bursts with crunchy sour fruit and juicy acidity” while steering clear of excessive tannins—a pitfall for canned reds. Leitz Out ($6 for 250 ml). Made by a top producer in Germany’s Rheingau region, this “zippy” off-dry Riesling features “bracing acidity and a pop of wetslate minerality.”
California barbecue doesn’t garner much fanfare, said Tejal Rao in The New York Times. But the tradition runs back well before the 1830s rancheros and vaqueros who cooked on open fires. The story since then follows no straight line, but “swirls and zigzags and folds back onto itself—layers and layers of styles branching and overlapping in a great big cloud of sweet red-oak smoke.” Diversity is the tradition’s strength, as these standout purveyors prove daily. The Hitching Post Casmalia “Part time capsule,” part restaurant, The Hitching Post is known for “Santa Maria–style” barbecue, which has roots in the 19th century and here means sirloin steak seasoned with garlic salt and cooked on a grill over a red-oak fire. 3325 Point Sal Road Barbakush San Gabriel Valley Indigenous cooks are barbecue’s Yee-Lakhani, smoke queen true originators, which gives special standing to California’s many variations on barbacoa. Petra Zavaleta makes hers Puebla-style, wrapping lamb in maguey leaves and roasting it slowly in a rock-lined pit. instagram.com/barbakush Smoke Queen Greater Los Angeles Self-taught pitmaster Winnie Yee-Lakhani puts a new spin on barbecue at her three pickup sites, serving sausages seasoned with lemongrass and pork belly char siu that’s redolent of fennel and star anise. smokequeenbbq.com A’s Barbecue Los Angeles Outside Alan Cruz’s East L.A. childhood home, there’s often a line stretching around the corner for his “Chicano barbecue”: al pastor pork bellies, ribs sweetened with piloncillo, and slow-smoked cochinita pibil. eastlossoulbarbecue.com Horn Barbecue Oakland Matt Horn serves “exquisite” hot links and delicious Texasinspired brisket, but he also ages duck and even roasts plums as he invents a barbecue style that’s unmistakably Californian. 2534 Mandela Pkwy.
THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Eva Kosmas Flores, Adam Amengual/The New York Times
“Like so many eager eaters before me, I, too, ascended the stairs at Cha Ca La Vong to sample the turmeric-marinated fish, served with dill and scallions, noodles, and peanuts.” At home, I leave out the peanuts and rice noodles for health reasons and substitute cod for the snakehead fish. Fresh turmeric root, I’ve learned, can be found not just in Asian markets but also in Whole Foods. And when the dish comes together, “the earthy turmeric and funky fish sauce and heaps of herbs bring me right back to Vietnam.”
Combine garlic, turmeric, shallot, ginger, and fish sauce in a blender and puree until smooth, stopping and stirring if necessary. Transfer mixture to a medium mixing bowl. Add fish and toss to coat pieces well. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
Travel
LEISURE 29
This week’s dream: Back in Paris as the dazzling city reawakens “In Paris, life is lived on the street,” said Mary Winston Nicklin in The Washington Post. Couples kiss and quarrel publicly. Wandering musicians busk for coins tossed down from balconies. “In the parks— de facto living rooms—retirees gossip on benches and feed the swans morsels of stale baguette.” During lockdown, the City of Light was “almost unrecognizable, because the streets were empty of this human theater.” But when Covid restrictions eased, the French capital came “roaring back to life.” In June, the Rue des Petites Écuries was packed and music filled the air. “Giddy on a few glasses of crémant de Bourgogne,” my friend and I walked to Place de la République. “We were surprised to find that the square had been converted into a dance floor, with couples spinning around in the euphoric summer night.” Outdoor dining has permanently expanded in the past year, and the city’s “host of exciting new offerings” only begins there. The newly restored Hôtel de la Marine—a
Hotel of the week
sandwiches at Sâj. Meanwhile, the historic department store La Samaritaine has “gone luxe in a big way.” With 12 on-site eateries, including a coffee shop by Brûlerie des Gobelins and Street Caviar by La Maison Prunier, “it’s a destination for eating as much as designer shopping.” Vaccinated U.S. travelers don’t even have to leave their hotel to enjoy the city’s new energy. In another growing trend, hotels are becoming “lively hangouts” for Parisians themselves. Locals work on laptops, then linger for aperitifs, or meet up with friends for weekend brunch. Le Grand Quartier, Expanded dining on the Rue du Château d’Eau a four-star hotel near Canal Saint-Martin, “embodies this zeitgeist.” It houses a café, palatial structure commissioned in 1755 a pop-up store, gallery space, and a roofby King Louis XV but closed to the public top terrace for yoga classes. Chouchou, for centuries—is now “a must-visit monua stylish new hotel in the Opera district, ment” on the Place de la Concorde, the city’s largest square. The Musée Carnavalet, attracts a fun crowd with its bar and live “a beloved Paris institution,” has been dra- stage. “Whatever night of the week, the restaurant is a happening scene.” matically refreshed, too. Nearby, on Rue At Le Grand Quartier (legrandquartier de Montmorency, Michelin-starred chef Alan Geaam now serves delicious Lebanese .com), doubles start at $130.
Getting the flavor of... The Native American night sky
The new seaside pool
Mary Winston Nicklin/Washington Post
The Claremont Southwest Harbor, Maine The view from the porch of the Claremont generates “an instant sense of calm,” said Everett Potter in Forbes.com. When my wife and I stayed at the 1884 hotel a few years ago, “we loved its classic coastal atmosphere” and its “painter’s view” of Mount Desert Island’s Somes Sound. Still, the Claremont was “clearly in need of a face-lift,” and a new owner has now provided it. The luxury additions, including a spa and heated outdoor pool, haven’t spoiled the experience. Guests can also enjoy painting classes, and croquet or yoga on the lawn. “As for that amazing porch, it remains, as do the striking views.” theclaremonthotel.com; doubles from $325
Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula
Some places were made to foster family tradi“Greek constellations aren’t the only stories tions, said Maggie Shipstead in Condé Nast scattered among the stars,” said Stephanie Traveler. My family has been visiting Leelanau Vermillion in Outside. For more than 10,000 years Native Americans have looked to the night Peninsula—the pinkie finger in Michigan’s mitten—ever since my grandfather, a World sky “for everything from weather prediction to War II veteran, returned from Burma in need navigation.” Where you might see the Greek of a retreat. “Poppy would sit on the deck and hunter Orion, “the Ojibwe of North America’s Great Lakes region see the Wintermaker, a figure sip his drink and look out over his rocky beach that signals that cold weather is on the horizon.” at the water that his descendants still cross and recross.” Known for cherry orchards and winerToday, rangers at several national parks are integrating indigenous astronomy into stargazing ies, the Leelanau is “bucolic in the summer,” and its roadside farm stands sell “the sweettours. They’re inspired by the work of Lakota est, fattest, red-black astrophysicist Annette Lee, cherries you’ll ever eat.” whose Native Skywatchers Need a passport? Get in line Lake Michigan is the movement gathers and “An appointment to obtain a passport is main draw, though. At shares indigenous star an elusive proposition these days,” said Debra Kamin in The New York Times. In Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes stories. At Colorado’s March 2020, the U.S. State Department National Lakeshore, the Mesa Verde National downsized passport operations, and dunes tumble 450 feet Park, a recent Dark Sky today renewals by mail often take up to down to the water, which certification has set the 18 weeks—or 12 if you pay $60 extra. stretches to the horizon. stage for indigenous-led People needing a passport in less than Signs warn beachgoers astro-tourism. “If you look four weeks have few options, even those about the exhaustup, you have this whole willing to pay $170 to $205 for sameing climb back up the immense universe,” says day in-person service at one of 26 offisloping sands, “but the park ranger and Laguna cial passport centers. Appointments are restricted to “life-or-death emergencies” thrill of descending with Pueblo member TJ Atsye. or to leisure travelers who can show huge leaping strides is “The sky is alive, and proof they’re crossing a border within worth it.” At the water’s the cosmos are another 72 hours of the appointment. Some edge, keep an eye out aspect of the park. They travelers are booking an extra internafor Petoskey stones— hold meaning for contemtional flight just to meet that requirefragments of fossilized porary indigenous people ment and driving thousands of miles to coral deposited by glaciers just like they did for our take any appointment they can secure. 350 million years ago. ancestors.” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
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Best properties on the market
This week: Homes for golf enthusiasts 1 X Rockport, Maine Twin
Gables, constructed a century ago from two different buildings dating to 1855, overlooks the 1899 Megunticook Golf Club. A two-year renovation updated the structure and systems of the five-bedroom house, which is listed by the Rockport Historic Landmark Commission, while preserving its carved-wood stairs and fireplace, French doors, and other original details; rooms include a library, conservatory, and dining room seating 14. The nearly half-acre wooded property is a five-minute walk from downtown. $2,145,000. Michael Kevin Lynch, Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty, (207) 558-3131 2 W Madison, Wis. This 1927
four-bedroom brick house is near the Nakoma Country Club, home to PGA and LPGA major champions Andy North and Sherri Steinhauer. The house has French and pocket doors, arched doorways, a stone fireplace, a remodeled kitchen, a master suite with three closets and dressing area, and a large walk-up attic. The landscaped lot, featured on the city’s 2016 Olbrich Garden Tour, is also close to the Odana Hills Golf Course and university arboretum. $1,100,000. Kristine Jaeger, Sprinkman Real Estate, (608) 217-1919 3 X Santa Fe The Club at Las Campanas has two Jack Nicklaus signature golf courses, sports courts, pools, and a spa. This three-bedroom house at the 11th hole of the Sunrise course features high ceilings with vigas, arched windows, Arizona-flagstone floors, roof deck, chef’s kitchen, workout/art room, and main bedroom with spa bath, fireplace, and patio. The 2.9-acre property includes a guest casita and outdoor dining area, grills, and fireplace. $3,280,000. Neil Lyon, Sotheby’s International Realty, (505) 660-8600
THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Best properties on the market
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4 X Moorestown, N.J. This six-bedroom 2008 stone
Colonial stands on 1.4 acres overlooking the 1892 Moorestown Field Club golf course. Details include custom millwork, grand entrance hall, chef’s kitchen, wine room with bar, sunroom, principal suite with sitting area and balcony, guest suite, and lower-level sauna and wet bar. Outside are mature garden beds and trees, lawns, a carriage house, and a stone patio with gazebo arbor, pool, and spa. $4,850,000. Vickie Sewell, Coldwell Banker Realty, (609) 504-5449 2
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5 W Wellington, Fla. This five-bedroom house sits inside the Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club, home to the Cypress course designed by Pete Dye. The recently renovated house features limestone floors, a formal dining room, two main-floor bedrooms, a billiard room, and a bar. On the 0.55-acre lot are a lush backyard with pool and Jacuzzi, a cabana with full spa bath, a large porch for outdoor dining, and established palm trees and tropical plantings. $4,950,000. Martha Wachtel Jolicoeur, Douglas Elliman, (561) 797-8040
Steal of the week
6 X Bushkill, Pa. More than five golf courses are an easy drive
from this 1987 three-bedroom contemporary in Saw Creek. The renovated house has smart-home elements, high ceilings, a fireplace, a family room with sauna, a main bedroom opening on the deck, and a dining room leading to a screened porch. The 0.77-acre property is near the Appalachian trail; the Saw Creek community offers swimming pools, tennis, a fitness center, a summer camp, and a private ski mountain. $398,000. Ed McKeown, Keller Williams Real Estate, (570) 421-2890 THE WEEK August 13, 2021
The bottom line Q U.S. gross domestic prod-
uct grew at an annual rate of 6.5 percent in the second quarter of 2021, bringing the economy back to its prepandemic size. It’s the second consecutive quarter in which the annualized growth rate exceeded 6 percent. The New York Times Q Investors who opted to
track the stock market rather than invest in actively managed funds have collectively saved themselves $357 billion in fees over the past 25 years. Axios.com
BUSINESS The news at a glance Video games: An ugly pattern of harassment Unfortunately, “the pattern of The video-game industry is underbehavior described in the lawsuit going a serious #MeToo reckoning, is one that will be uncomfortably said Kellen Browning and Mike familiar to many people,” said Isaac in The New York Times. Rob Fahey in GamesIndustry.biz. “More than 1,500 workers for the Gaming companies have long video-game giant Activision Blizzard decried “requests for professionwalked out from their jobs” last alism or basic workplace courtesy week to protest the company’s as the shrill haranguing of killjoys dismissive response to an explosive Workers walk out at Activision and bores.” The source is usually lawsuit by California regulators the same: “people approaching the management detailing routine harassment of women and “a of a company or studio with the notion that this frat boy workplace culture.” The intense reaction won’t be like a normal company.” These founders among workers at the $65 billion company was “imagine themselves running a treehouse for their unusual for an industry that has “long stood out mates” rather than a proper company. But the for its openly toxic behavior and lack of change.” This may be a turning point, as the protests forced absence of the “boring” aspects of workplace professionalism has left people employed in this industhe exit of J. Allen Brack, the head of the Blizzard try “alienated, harassed, and downright unsafe.” studio, site of much of the worst misconduct.
Labor: Amazon may face new union vote Q With the success of his new
movie, Space Jam, basketball superstar LeBron James has now earned over $700 million in his off-the-court endeavors in addition to $346 million in contracts from the NBA. He is first U.S. athlete in the four major sports to accumulate $1 billion in earnings while still active in the game. MarketWatch.com Q Per the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Team USA Olympians and Paralympians in Tokyo will earn $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. Olympians who make less than $1 million in gross earnings can pocket their winnings tax-free. Sports.Yahoo.com Q About 407 billion square
feet of corrugated cardboard was produced in the U.S. last year—enough to completely cover the combined land area of New Jersey, Connecticut, and a bit of New York. Fast Company Q One out of every 350
Americans—or one out of 153 workers in the U.S.—is now employed by Amazon. The company’s total of 950,000 U.S. employees exceeds the 873,000 workers of the entire residential construction industry. BusinessInsider.com THE WEEK August 13, 2021
A National Labor Relations Board officer this week recommended overturning the results of a closely watched Amazon union vote in April, said Sebastian Herrera in The Wall Street Journal. The effort among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Ala., ended with roughly 71 percent rejecting the calls to form a union. But the results were immediately contested. “A central issue in the appeal was a mailbox near the facility” for ballot submissions, which could have led workers to “incorrectly believe Amazon was conducting the election.” A regional NLRB director will make the final decision on whether to require a new vote.
Lending: Square joins buy-now, pay-later boom The payments company Square agreed to buy Australia’s buy-now, pay-later provider Afterpay for $29 billion, said Kurt Wagner in Bloomberg.com. The deal, announced this week, gives Square—run by Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of Twitter—a chance to step into consumer lending while also “capitalizing on a shift away from traditional credit, especially among younger consumers.” Buy-now, pay-later firms like Afterpay, which offer instant approvals for installment purchases, have boomed during the pandemic.
Downfalls: Nikola founder charged with fraud Trevor Milton, founder of the electric-truck maker Nikola, was charged last week with three counts of criminal fraud for lying about “nearly all aspects of the business,” said Michael Wayland in CNBC.com. Prosecutors said the 39-year-old built “an intricate scheme designed to pump up the company’s stock by lying about its products, technology, and future sales prospects.” He allegedly specifically targeted amateur investors with his pitches. “At one point last summer, Nikola’s valuation surpassed Ford Motor, topping $31 billion.”
Bitcoin: Top regulator asks for more powers The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission called on Congress to give his agency more power to regulate cryptocurrencies, said Gary Silverman in the Financial Times. In a speech this week, Gary Gensler compared the digital currency market to the “Wild West” and said investors needed more extensive protections in a market that he called “rife with fraud.” Gensler, who once taught classes on cryptocurrencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wants Congress to “create clear rules of the road for platforms that engage in crypto trading or lending.”
Still a tough room to get a laugh in The funeral home business is getting livelier, said Charles Passy in MarketWatch.com. In response to the demand from families looking to “coordinate separate events—meaning a funeral service, a burial, and a gathering at a restaurant—in the same day,” parlors built additional event spaces. The expanded spaces, in turn, have prompted entrepreneurial undertakers to consider ways to “create a new income stream” by renting out the locations for other functions. The Flanner Buchanan Funeral Center, with 17 locations in the Indianapolis area, hosts about 500 nonfuneral events annually, including weddings, meetings, and recently even a jazz concert. New York City’s Frank E. Campbell funeral chapel, where celebrities like Joan Rivers have been eulogized, is even hosting a “pure night of stand-up comedy” this month. The performers are unfazed by the surroundings. “A room is a room,” veteran comic Elyse DeLucci said.
Getty, Warner Bros.
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Making money
BUSINESS 33
Tuition: For some schools, more is never enough over 10 years, “faces resistance from It’s not just private schools finding new Republican politicians who say comways of getting students on the hook munity colleges consistently underfor outsize bills, said Josh Mitchell in perform, with only about a third of The Atlantic. “A generation ago, public students graduating.” The debate is colleges received the large majority of complicated by a lack of data, since their funding from state legislatures and “few studies have looked at how comwere thus relieved of the need to charge munity colleges affect students’ earnstudents high tuition.” Over the years, ings in the long term.” that changed. As state governments cut higher-education funding, state schools Congress provided a total of $76.2 bilturned to consultants, who “help schools lion last year to colleges and universidetermine how much to discount for ties to help them weather the paneach student in order to make as much demic, said Danielle Douglas-Gabriel money as possible overall. The firms take A pricey wonderland at the University of Alabama in The Washington Post. Now about hundreds of variables into account and then suggest, down to the dollar,” the maximum a school can get 150 colleges and universities have taken up the Biden adminisaway with charging. Campuses are planned with high-end ameni- tration’s offer to let them “use those grants to pay off outstandties to make a perfect first impression on high-paying out-of-state ing student-loan balances dating back to last March.” Some are small private institutions like Trinity Washington University, in students. The University of Alabama studied Disney World for Washington, D.C., “which is providing a clean slate to nearly ideas on how to transform the campus into a “wonderland of education,” replete with “a lazy-river pool complex” and “steaks 400 undergraduates owing more than $1.8 million.” Bigger schools are joining in, too; the City University of New York is cooked to order in the campus dining hall”—all of it largely deforgiving $125 million in past-due bills. Go ahead and forgive all signed to lure students’ families into taking on six-figure debt. that debt, said Gene Marks in TheHill.com. But that permission should come with requirements for institutions, such as eliminatIt’s no wonder, given the cost, that college enrollment fell draing tenure, capping salaries, or “making college degrees three matically last year, said Jenny Gross in The New York Times, years instead of four, like in the U.K. and Canada.” Don’t let particularly among low-income and minority students. The schools off the hook for their “careless behavior, wasteful spendWhite House’s proposed tuition fix is to make community ing, and extravagant overhead.” college free for all. The plan, which would cost $109 billion
What the experts say Skip the AmEx Platinum card Do you really need to spend nearly $700 a year for an American Express Platinum card? asked Alexis Leondis in Bloomberg.com. AmEx’s decision to bump the fee from $550 to $695 should give you some pause if you “continue to be wary of frequent travel or big trips due to Covid-19.” AmEx Platinum’s edge over competitors has always been the premium lounge access at airports. “But the lounges have had problems with overcrowding and are going to start requiring additional fees to bring guests or family members.” Other than that, “Platinum’s existing benefits are pretty much in line with other cards of its ilk, despite its higher fee.” The AmEx Gold card offers “much better rewards points for spending in general” and has an annual fee of $250.
University of Alabama
Is this now a housing bubble? Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that the housing boom is beginning to look like a bubble, said Jeanna Smialek in The New York Times. Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said last week that he was becoming “nervous” about the conditions of the housing market. “Several of Kaplan’s colleagues harbor similar concerns.” Home prices are rising at a double-
Charity of the week digit pace this year. Some feel that the central bank’s big purchases of mortgage bonds “could be helping to inflate” the market by keeping mortgages cheap, “inspiring people to borrow more and buy bigger.” That’s leading to bidding wars and frustration among buyers eager for more space. Reining in the Fed’s spending because of housing specifically, however, could “slow the overall economy” and lead to job losses.
More big firms invest in startups Giant money-management firms are on pace to double last year’s record in startup financing, said Heather Somerville in The Wall Street Journal. In total, $150 billion was invested in startups in the first half of 2021—more than the amount in any full year before 2020. Most of that cash has not come from traditional venture-capital firms. Threequarters of it has been invested by “hedge funds, mutual funds, pensions, sovereignwealth groups, and other nontraditional venture investors” who have been left with “massive pools of capital” thanks to the IPO boom. Some old-line VC firms are now feeling more pressure to move quickly, “cutting back on audits and customer checks, and taking a startup’s word on profit and losses.”
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has long struggled with political instability. Beyond Borders (beyondborders.net) is working to empower Haitians and help them break the cycle of poverty. Using an understanding of the country’s rich history and the importance of implementing community-led initiatives, Beyond Borders works to end child slavery through specific, dialogue-based education; provide universal access to education; and dismantle violence toward women by mobilizing communities. In 2019, the organization worked with 600 survivors of child servitude and helped 220 families rise out of extreme poverty. Beyond Borders also filed three legal cases against perpetrators of human trafficking, to both end the abuses and bring justice to the victims. Each charity we feature has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which rates not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their governance practices, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest rating. THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Best columns: Business
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Investing: Robinhood surfs the retail trading wave
Time to give Big Pharma some thanks Walter Russell Mead
The Wall Street Journal
Stop the drip of endless hidden fees Max Sarinsky
The New York Times
THE WEEK August 13, 2021
“Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson succeeded where the internationalists failed,” said Walter Russell Mead. The World Health Organization has been a disgrace, “from its initial silence over China’s cover-up of early data” to “its collusion with Beijing’s efforts to discredit the lableak hypothesis.” Also falling abysmally short has been Covax, the much-touted international vaccination effort that is supposed to help poor countries acquire doses. “What’s worked in the pandemic so far has been the dog everyone wants to kick: Big Pharma.” But the Biden administration “seems to believe that the best response to this dishearten-
ing state of affairs is to sabotage the American pharmaceutical industry.” The State Department’s coordinator for global Covid response, Gayle Smith, said last week she wants pharmaceutical companies to share their technology with foreign competitors so they can build their own low-cost manufacturing hubs. “One wonders how President Biden squares subsidizing cheap overseas competition for one of the most successful industries in the U.S. with promoting jobs for the American middle class.” There are better ways to help the world meet the demand for vaccines than punishing the very pharmaceutical companies that “have given the world hope.”
Hidden fees have got to go, said Max Sarinsky. I recently saw tickets for a game between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners advertised on Ticketmaster for $15. But after “a $4.20-per-ticket ‘service fee,’ plus a $3.30 ‘order processing fee,’” the final cost was actually $22.50—an increase of 50 percent. This sneaky surcharging strategy is called “drip pricing,” and consumers familiar with buying tickets for concerts or booking hotel rooms know it well. What they might not know is that the Federal Trade Commission “has the authority it needs to ban the practice.” Drip pricing harms consumers in two ways. Yes, customers can “in theory walk away once the
true price is revealed.” But “given the time and effort they have already invested,” many people complete the transaction anyway. Drip pricing also “severely complicates efforts to compare actual prices of competing offers.” The marketplace will never correct itself “unless all sellers are required to disclose their full price upfront.” Several states have sued corporations, including Marriott and Hilton, over their pricing practices; the Department of Transportation banned drip pricing in the airline industry in 2011. But the FTC, with its broader regulatory mandate, is better equipped to “protect consumers nationwide from hidden fees in all industries.”
Reuters
its long-term plan to make money, said After a rocky initial public offering, the Madison Darbyshire in the Financial app-based brokerage Robinhood roared Times. The company’s business model is back this week, splitting the firm’s own heavily dependent on payment for order loyal customers, said Aaron Pressman in flow, a controversial practice of selling The Boston Globe. Robinhood, the maker clients’ orders for shares or options to of an app that has defined stock trading other trading firms. Several large instifor many Millennials, offered its clients the tutional investors sat out the IPO last chance to get IPO shares at a price usually week, worried that Robinhood faced reserved for large institutions—only to see “an ‘existential threat’ to its business” its stock plunge in its first day of trading. as regulators scrutinized that practice as That initial decline last week added to a well as “game-like features”—including series of outages and other indignities that confetti explosions and lottery-like Robinhood’s customers have endured. scratch-off graphics—that have been likBuyers who held on to their stock for Main Street crowds onto Wall Street. ened to casino gambling. just a few days, though, saw a substantial profit. “After using the Robinhood app to trade stocks for about For now, Robinhood’s business has been “jacked up by the specthree years, starting when he was in high school,” Northeastern ulative fervor of the moment,” said John Foley in BreakingViews University student Caio Almeida bought shares in the IPO and .com. A bet on Robinhood is also a bet on continued stock“isn’t too worried about the early struggles.” Almeida plans to market fever. In that way, it’s similar to its dot-com forebear stay with the stock for the long term. “There’s been a gap in our financial system for years, which the founders of Robinhood have E*Trade, which also “threw the staid world of investing into disarray” in the late 1990s. But when the market turned, its value truly disrupted,” he says. “fell precipitously.” The inherent problem with Robinhood’s approach is that “the more people trade, the worse their returns,” “Robinhood has become a divisive company for many individual said The Economist. All the tricks Robinhood uses to keep its cliinvestors in the meme-stock era,” said Caitlin McCabe in The Wall Street Journal. Some, upset with Robinhood’s trading restric- ents coming back may well mean that they end up poorer. Equally tions on a few popular stocks like GameStop earlier this year, even worrisome is that Robinhood’s profits rise as its customers take “vowed in advance of Robinhood’s trading debut that they would greater risks. “Its profit margins are slimmest for the vanilla stuff, like stock trading, but rise as its customers dabble in riskier, avoid the stock—or even make bearish wagers against it.” As the more complicated markets, such as trading derivatives or buying days went on, though, the tide turned in Robinhood’s favor, with cryptocurrencies.” Nonetheless, the lingering questions don’t seem market commentator Jim Cramer praising Robinhood’s “army of to have dampened retail investors’ enthusiasm. 22 million users.” The question for Robinhood is what exactly is
Obituaries The long-serving senator who grilled CEOs With his rumpled suits, comb-over, and spectacles perched on the end 1934–2021 of his nose, Carl Levin looked more like an amiable librarian than one of the U.S. Senate’s most imposing and respected figures. A liberal Michigan Democrat who served 36 years in the Senate—longer than any senator in his home state’s history—he had a talent for grilling and terrifying business leaders in public hearings. At a 2010 hearing looking into Goldman Sachs, which appeared to have taken bets against its clients before the 2008 financial crisis, he barked at the assembled executives: “You knew it was a shitty deal and you didn’t tell your clients. Does that bother you at all?” Levin also spent 18 years as chairman or ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, where he drafted bipartisan defense bills. “He was a model of what a legislator was supposed to be,” said Loren Thompson of the right-leaning Lexington Institute. “He was intellectual, and he was not reflexively ideological.” Carl Levin
Levin was born to a Detroit family “steeped in civic affairs,” said The Washington Post. His father was a lawyer and a member of the Michigan Corrections Commission; his uncle was a federal judge. The young Carl worked as a taxi driver and on a Chrysler assembly line
before heading to Harvard Law School. After graduating, he returned to Motor City, serving as the first general counsel of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. In the wake of Detroit’s deadly 1967 riot, Levin helped found a Public Defender’s office, and later served two terms on the City Council. He handily defeated a Republican Senate incumbent in 1978, said the Detroit Free Press. In 1983, his older brother, Sander, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and for the next 33 years the siblings “would play a large role in helping to set trade policy, auto standards, and more.” The senator “didn’t fear speaking his mind,” said Politico.com. He was in the minority—even among his Democratic colleagues—when he voted against sending U.S. troops to Iraq in 2002. He fought against extravagant weapons systems and other wasteful spending, while helping end the ban on gays serving in the military. His scholarly approach to legislating earned him the deep respect of colleagues who didn’t share his progressive philosophy. “We all listen to him,” Republican Sen. John McCain said at a 2014 tribute on Levin’s retirement. “And we listen closest to him on the occasions when we disagree with him.”
The TV pitchman who blanketed late-night cable Ron Popeil knew what consumers needed before they did. The 1935–2021 onetime street hawker earned a fortune with his impassioned pitches on late-night TV ads and infomercials for an endless parade of products that combined practicality and improbability in varying measures—all sold at an unbelievably low price. There was the Pocket Fisherman (“the biggest fishing invention since the hook!”), the Veg-O-Matic, the Food Dehydrator, and sprayon hair to cover bald spots. Many were his own inventions; all were marketed through his company Ronco and sold with a stream of breathless quips—“Now how much would you pay?”; “But wait, there’s more!” “Call now!”—that became part of the pop-culture lexicon. “I’ve gone by many titles: King of Hair, King of Pasta, King of Dehydration, or to use a more colloquial phrase, a pitchman or a hawker,” he said in 1995. “I don’t like those phrases, but I am what I am.” Getty, Ron Popeil
Ron Popeil
Born in the Bronx, Popeil was 3 years old when “his parents divorced and essentially abandoned him,” said the Los Angeles Times. He spent several years at a boarding school before going to live with his paternal grandparents in Chicago.
There he worked weekends at a business started in part by the father he barely knew, a creator of kitchen gadgets such as the Chop-O-Matic. Selling his father’s inventions on the street, Popeil said he discovered “a form of affection and a human connection through sales”—something that had been lacking in his loveless childhood. He dropped out of college and “worked the fair circuit,” claiming to clear $1,000 a week. Popeil took to TV in the late 1950s, offering viewers a chance to “buy straight from the source with a simple phone call,” said the Associated Press. His first spot was for the Chop-O-Matic (“the greatest kitchen appliance ever made”). That led to the Veg-OMatic, whose success Popeil claimed brought his annual earnings to $8 million within four years. Buying “as much as $1 million in advertising a week,” Popeil “became a familiar figure on latenight programming,” said The Washington Post. A resident of Beverly Hills—where “he dined at Denny’s and shopped at Costco”—he sold Ronco in 2005 for some $56 million. But to the end of his life he “continued inventing new products.” “I can’t stop,” he said in 1997. “If there’s a need for these things, I can’t help myself.”
35 The long-bearded bassist who gave ZZ Top its rumble In 1969, Dusty Hill was living in Houston and playing bass with blues singer Lightnin’ Hopkins when he was invited to audition for a hotshot guitarist named Billy Dusty Gibbons. He Hill got the gig, 1949–2021 joining drummer Frank Beard, an old high school friend, in ZZ Top. The trio would spend 52 years together and sell more than 50 million albums. With a raw sound steeped in blues and Texas boogie and a distinctive visual style— from the late ’70s, Hill and Gibbons sported matching 20-inch beards, sunglasses, and Stetsons—ZZ Top reached global stardom in the 1980s, with hit singles including “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man.” Hill was never flashy, but he anchored the band with a fearsome rumble. It’s “like farting in a trash can,” he said of his bass sound. “Raw, big, heavy, and a bit distorted.” Born in Dallas, Hill started out playing cello, “which made for an easy transition to electric bass,” said Variety .com. His guitarist brother, Rocky, recruited 13-yearold Dusty for his bar band, and Hill spent his teens working the “Texas touring circuits” before signing up with Gibbons. ZZ Top scored its first hit with 1973’s “La Grange,” a grooving ode to a Texas bordello. By the end of the decade, the band was “one of America’s top concert attractions.” Propelled by a series of videos featuring hot rods and short-skirted nubiles, the 1983 LP Eliminator “turned ZZ Top into MTV superstars,” said Rolling Stone. While “their success began to fizzle out in the ’90s, the band never stopped touring.” After Hill’s death last week, Gibbons announced that the band would continue with longtime roadie Elwood Francis playing bass. “We are following Dusty’s wishes,” Gibbons explained. “He said that ‘the show must go on.’” THE WEEK August 13, 2021
The last word
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‘Does skin color matter?’ When students held a virtual slave auction on Snapchat, it set off a bitter debate in Traverse City, Mich., about what schools should teach about race in America, said Hannah Natanson in The Washington Post.
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City schools social equity task force and heads an anti-racist group known as E3 Northern Michigan, whose triple E stands for “Educate, Elevate, Engage.”
EVAEH WHARTON WAS
busy with homework one evening in late April when her phone pinged with a warning. A friend had texted to say something disgusting was happening in a private Snapchat group chat.
The equity resolution When the 16-year-old woke the stated that the school next morning, another message system condemned “racwas waiting for her: She had ism, racial violence, hate been discussed in the group. speech, bigotry, discrimiPretty soon the whole story nation, and harassment.” trickled out. A group of mostly It called for holding more white students attending two “comprehensive” trainhigh schools in Traverse City, ing for teachers, adding Mich., including Nevaeh’s, had marginalized authors held a mock slave auction on to school libraries, and the social media app, “trading” reviewing the district’s their Black peers for money. “I “curriculum and instrucTraverse City West, one of two high schools embroiled in the city’s race debate know how much I was sold for: tion [to] address gaps... In interviews, students in Traverse City one hundred dollars,” said Nevaeh, who from a social equity and diversity lens.” said casual racism, sexism, and homophois half Black. “And in the end I was given Its genesis dated to Traverse City’s first bia form part of daily life. The Snapchat away for free”—to the friend who first Black Lives Matter rally, which Collins incident was unsurprising to them: “I was warned her about the group. helped organize over the summer in a more surprised that somebody found out The Snapchat group, titled “slave trade,” pretty lakeside lot downtown. Afterward, about it and it got to the news,” said Eve also saw a student share the messages “all he said, school staffers had contacted him, Mosqueda, 15, who is Native American blacks should die” and “let’s start another asking, “Can we talk?” Collins was more and Mexican, adding that other kids holocaust.” than willing. He wanted to make his almost throughout elementary school had asked exclusively white hometown more welcomIt spurred the fast-tracking of a school her if she lived in a teepee. ing to families that looked like his own. equity resolution that condemned racism But white parents say their hometown was One of the first steps, he believed, required and vowed Traverse City Area Public never racist—at least not until an obsession eradicating the everyday racism still directed Schools would better educate its overwith race began infecting the school system toward students of color. Collins knew this whelmingly white student body and teachthrough its embrace of CRT, an allegation firsthand: His son was recently called the ing staff on how to live in a diverse country. school officials have denied. “We were N-word by a classmate, the child of his But what happened over the next two all brought up not to take someone’s race son’s favorite teacher. months revealed how a town grappling into consideration,” said Sally Roeser, 44, with an undeniable incident of racism can Although disheartened by the “slave trade” white mother of two who graduated from serve as fertile ground for the ongoing Traverse public schools. “That’s what we’re Snapchat, Collins was feeling fairly optinational war over whether racism is embedmistic when he got the flurry of messages guaranteed in America.” ded in American society. from school administrators on a Monday HE SNAPCHAT SCANDAL drew intense morning in May. They asked if the social The equity resolution was unprecedented in local media coverage, widespread equity task force could introduce the Traverse City, an idyllic lakeside vacation outrage, and, pretty soon, invesequity resolution at a board meeting that spot with a population of 16,000 that is tigations from Traverse City Area Public evening, May 24. more than 90 percent white and politically Schools and the Grand Traverse County split between red and blue. Although at Not too long after that meeting, 11-yearfirst it drew vocal support—especially from prosecutor’s office—which culminated in old Eden Burke and her best friend, Estelle the recommendation that the students in the families and children of color—it has since Young, 12, were picked up after school by “slave trade” chat receive counseling and inspired equally vehement opposition, led their mothers, who had something to tell empathy training. by mostly white, conservative parents who them. Estelle’s mother explained what hapcontend that the resolution amounts to It also meant that Marshall Collins Jr., pened on Snapchat. She said the adults at critical race theory in disguise. The theory, 44, an African-American father of two school were trying to fix it by putting out a known as CRT, is a decades-old academic children in the school system, received an statement that would let everyone know that framework that holds racism is systemic in urgent message from Traverse City school sort of behavior is not OK. Eden’s mother America, but which has become a catchall officials. “It was like, ‘We need to speed up gave a similar summary. She said the adults phrase conservatives wield to oppose equity the equity resolution and get it there now,’” were now “deciding whether or not to talk work in schools. said Collins, who serves on the Traverse about racism in school,” Eden remembered. THE WEEK August 13, 2021
Brittany Greeson/Washington Post (2)
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The last word Estelle, who is white, recalls feeling horrified. She could not understand why anyone would think it was funny to suggest owning their Black classmates. Then she thought about the girl at school—one of the only students of color in Estelle’s grade—whom kids called “Lilo” instead of her real name, because they said the girl’s dark skin made her look like the Hawaiian protagonist of the movie Lilo and Stitch. Eden, who is also white, thought about the boys in her math class. The ones who sat behind her and whispered “niagra” to each other as a stand-in for the N-word, to avoid getting in trouble with the teacher. She thought about the kid who used “gay” as an insult, and the students who asked her why she was wearing rainbow colors, then put their thumbs down when she explained it was Pride Month and she wanted to support her LGBTQ friends. On the day of the next board meeting, June 14, Estelle and Eden sat together. More than 100 people were packed into the red-brick building downtown that housed Traverse City’s school administrative offices. Most of them—like Eden’s and Estelle’s mothers— had read about the Snapchat group chat and the equity resolution and decided to share their support during a public comment session, even though the resolution was not on the board’s meeting agenda. When her mother’s name was called, Eden walked to the podium and tucked her long brown hair behind her ears. Her voice muffled slightly by a black mask, she told the listening adults about the boys whispering “niagra.” She told about the kids who refuse to sit next to LGBTQ students on the bus. The audience clapped and cheered. Eden and Estelle, relieved, headed with their mothers to grab smoothies at Panera Bread.
exactly were they teaching him in school? For Lori White, a 41-year-old mother of two who has lived in the area her entire life, it started during virtual learning amid the pandemic, when she overheard a teacher asking students, including her teenager, to come up with their own version of the American flag. White could not understand the point of the assignment: “With all of the history, there is a reason why the American flag is the way it is.” Dozens of opponents of the equity resolution gathered outside the administrative building before a June 28 board meeting, hoisting signs and alleging the district
Nevaeh Wharton exposed the Snapchat ‘auction.’
was indoctrinating children. More than 200 people then crowded into two rooms to listen to 55 people speak during a public comment session.
By that time, school board members, wary of the building backlash, had already reworked the document. The second version lacked the line about applying a “social equity and diversity lens.” It also no longer suggested the district will add “marginalized” authors to their libraries, nor that They left before Hannah Black, a white par- Traverse City schools will give students more opportunities to learn about “diverent and at that point one of a small handsity, equity, inclusion, and belonging issues.” ful of dissenting voices, approached the Officials deleted the terms “racism” and podium. She stepped to the mic and asked, “Does skin color matter?” before urging the “racial violence” from a list of things the board to “share publicly why this resolution school district condemns. Also deleted was a passage stating “racism and hate have no is needed,” when she believed all it would place in our schools or in our society.” do is reduce children to their race. Many white parents in Traverse City agree. All the edits, though, have not mollified the critics. “‘Diversity, equity, inclusion, belongThey say their hometown, although impering,’ all of those words sound great,” said fect, is not a racist place, and they are not Nicole Hooper, a 42-year-old mother of racist people. Several women in Traverse three. “But when you drill back and actuCity said their outrage with the school ally look at the meaning of the words...they system—or “awakening,” as many called are interlaced with critical race theory.” it—developed over months, progressing from issue to issue. STELLE, THE 12-YEAR-OLD who spoke For Roeser, it started when her teenage son came home from school with a new catchphrase: “That’s racist, Mom.” He would repeat it automatically whenever she mentioned race. She wondered: What
E
at the May board meeting, said she has heard a lot of adults warning lately that white children are going to feel scared or ashamed because of what they’re learning in school. “But this is coming
37 from people who probably let their kids watch horror movies sometimes,” she reasoned. “And life is kind of like a horror movie sometimes. And we have to recognize that.” Nevaeh, who was “traded” to a person she thought was a friend in the Snapchat group, has another reason for thinking her peers should be ready to hear the difficult truths about America’s past, especially its history of enslaving Black people. “I feel like if I’m old enough to experience this kind of thing,” she said, “I feel like other people are old enough to learn about this entire thing.” Sixteen-year-old Adeyo Ilemobade, meanwhile, thinks the parents opposing the resolution “don’t like the truth.” The teen, who is half Black, is not optimistic they will change their minds. “If they’ve grown here,” he said, “then they’ve only really grown to know white.” He is focused on persuading just one white person who has spent most of her life in Traverse City: his grandmother, 77-year-old Sharon Jennings, who is originally from Ohio and said she did not meet a Black or Jewish person until she went to college. The debate now consuming Adeyo’s town is fought almost nightly around his kitchen table. Adeyo tells his grandmother that he believes CRT means recognizing minorities are “pushed to be separated” in America— how this fits with his experiences growing up in a small white town, where other kids fling the N-word at him in school and where police once handcuffed and held him against a car after mistaking him for another Black adolescent. Jennings tells him how she thinks CRT means teaching white and Black children that their race means they are, and always will be, fundamentally different. How she fears he will grow up believing there is no opportunity for him in America, which she has always seen as “the most amazing country” in the world. Jennings wishes she could convince her grandson that “people aren’t as racist” as he thinks they are. Adeyo wishes he could convince his grandmother that “racism is still there” in America. “It’s not that I don’t know that,” Jennings said, “it’s just that he thinks it’s so much more than I do because obviously—” “Because I’ve had to experience it,” Adeyo said, finishing his grandmother’s sentence. Jennings nodded. “I haven’t experienced what he has,” she said. A version of this story originally appeared in The Washington Post. Use with permission. THE WEEK August 13, 2021
The Puzzle Page
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Crossword No. 611: Site Inspection by Matt Gaffney 1
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This week’s question: A Massachusetts man’s romantic marriage proposal at a minor-league ballpark turned into a cringeworthy disaster when his girlfriend rejected him and ran off, leaving him alone on bended knee in front of a stunned crowd. If Hollywood were to make a rom-com based on this ballpark love fiasco, what should it be titled? Last week’s contest: With incidents of sky rage rocketing, flight attendants are being offered free training in how to subdue unruly airline passengers with eye pokes, double ear slaps, and groin kicks. If a self-defense expert were to create a new martial art to be used by flight attendants, what could the fighting style be named? THE WINNER: Fly-kwondo
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Rebecca Burgan, Petaluma, Calif. THIRD PLACE: SkyMaul
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ACROSS 1 Religious devotion 6 Lake where Fredo Corleone got offed 11 S.W.A.T. network 14 Big state led by Gov. Brad Little 15 Pico de gallo ingredient 16 Stat for Shohei Ohtani 17 UNESCO designated 34 new World Heritage Sites late last month; Russia’s Karelia region is on the list for these 6,000-year-old rock drawings 19 ___ milk 20 Simplicity 21 Pod dwellers 22 “I give up!” 24 “Would you repeat that?” 26 Reacts to pics in food magazines 27 Depression-era wanderers 30 Facebook acquisition? 32 Place for a hockey game 33 Even scores 34 Sesame and coconut, for two 37 Spike who served as jury president at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival 38 Bologna is on the list for this architectural feature, of which there are 62 kilometers’ worth in the city THE WEEK August 13, 2021
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41 Lucy who did a spot with Grover of Sesame Street last month 42 Sure thing 44 Utterly destroy 45 Carolyn who wrote the Nancy Drew books 47 To Catch a Predator host Chris 49 Believes in 50 Art created in a parlor 52 Fruit used in tarts 53 Blunder 54 Acting Arkin 56 Region 60 Era 61 Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, was designated for this aspect; highlights include its iconic Triple Bridge 64 Feel remorse about 65 Perform at peak level 66 Judge Cowell 67 “No doubt about it!” 68 Concierge’s employer 69 Formerly hip DOWN 1 Item in a Magritte painting (or is it?) 2 “What’s the big ___?” 3 Uber ___ (delivery app) 4 Quickly got dressed in 5 “___-hoo!” 6 For rent, for Brits 7 Actress Taylor-Joy 8 Pair shaken by dancers 9 “So amazing!” 10 Leave no doubt about
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11 Gabon’s Ivindo National Park, known for a rare species of these animals, made the list 12 Sport played by the T-Wolves 13 They have URLs 18 Stats on college applications 23 Forbidden act 25 Messy pile 26 ___ golf 27 Banquet location 28 Cookie since 1912 29 Forests of the Carpathian Mountains, covered with these, were also designated 30 Mesh with the group 31 ___ in (get control of) 33 “Good point” 35 Dryer detritus 36 Takes to court 39 Roughly 40 Cajun cuisine ingredient 43 O.J. trial figure ___ Kaelin 46 Landmass from Portugal to Pyongyang 48 “Take your time” 49 Be in charge of, as a bar 50 About to cry 51 Make a scene 52 Assembly of experts 54 Ever so slightly 55 “Stay in your ___” 57 Canyon edges 58 Senses of self 59 Heche or Hathaway 62 Greek P 63 Eerie ability
How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest @theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, type “Striking out” in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Aug. 10. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page next issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, Aug. 13. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received gets credit. W The winner gets a one-year subscription to The Week.
Sudoku Fill in all the boxes so that each row, column, and outlined square includes all the numbers from 1 through 9. Difficulty: super-hard
Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle.
©2021. All rights reserved. The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly with an additional issue in October, except for one week in each January, June, July, and September. The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 155 East 44th Street, 22nd fl., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box 37252, Boone, IA 50037-0252. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $199; Canada $229; all other countries $267 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. The Week is a member of The New York Times News Service, The Washington Post/Bloomberg News Service, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, and subscribes to The Associated Press.
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