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Contents 3 Editor’s letter Vladimir Putin is a fortunate man. One hundred days into his In a ruthless world, realpolitik is sometimes unavoidable. In this genocidal assault on Ukraine, many important people in the West are fretting not that he’ll win his war—but that he’ll lose. It’s case, it requires shrugging acceptance of the unprovoked slaugh- quite a diverse club. French President Emmanuel Macron, who fancies himself a Putin whisperer, warned again last week that ter of tens of thousands of civilians, the remorseless razing of “we must not humiliate Russia.” Instead, we must reward Putin’s pitiless efforts to erase a peaceful, democratic neighbor from the dozens of cities, and the more than 1,000 credible reports of map by awarding him a nice chunk as a consolation prize: the Donbas and southern Ukraine along the Black Sea. Henry Kiss- war crimes. After these atrocities, we should be concerned that inger, the ancient guru of realpolitik, has joined Macron in urg- ing Ukrainian concessions. So has The New York Times edito- the butcher gets to save face? It is, in fact, not realistic to believe rial board, which recently advised Ukraine it will need to make “painful territorial decisions” in exchange for peace. On the iso- any concessions will end Putin’s messianic ambitions to absorb lationist right, America Firsters from Sen. Rand Paul to Tucker Carlson to Donald Trump have denounced U.S. military aid to Ukraine into “holy Russia.” A deeply cynical, KGB-trained liar, Kyiv as a waste of money for a fight that is not ours. he will happily violate any treaty naïve “realists” force Ukraine to sign. If there is a brief peace, Putin will use it to rebuild his battered army and reinvade until Kyiv succumbs. He is count- ing on nuclear blackmail, high gas prices, and food shortages to erode the West’s resolve to stand with Ukraine and democracy against predatory autocracy. It’s critically important to prove Putin wrong, even if he finds it humiliating. William Falk Editor-in-chief NEWS A Ukrainian woman in front of her destroyed home in the Donbas (p.5) Editor-in-chief: William Falk Getty (2) 4 Main stories ARTS LEISURE Managing editors: Susan Caskie, An endless tide of gun Mark Gimein violence; S.F. boots a 23 Books 31 Food & Drink Assistant managing editor: Jay Wilkins progressive prosecutor; Secret City’s history of Drinking establishments Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Ukraine war grinds on closeted Washington move beyond the bar; a Senior editors: Nick Aspinwall, sweet-savory summer salad Chris Erikson, Danny Funt, Scott Meslow, 6 Controversy of the week 24 Author of the week Dale Obbie, Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller In the Depp-Heard trial, David Sedaris comes to 32 Travel Art director: Paul Crawford a MeToo backlash gave terms with his father Cruising around Maui on Deputy art director: Rosanna Bulian Depp the advantage electric bikes; a day on the Photo editor: Mark Rykoff 26 Art & Music water in Boston Copy editor: Jane A. Halsey 7 The U.S. at a glance A closer look at Paul Researchers: Nick Gallagher, New Covid variants Cézanne BUSINESS Rebecca Nathanson threaten the Northeast; Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, Oz vs. Fetterman; a judge 28 Film & 36 News at a glance Bruno Maddox is murdered Podcasts Fears of a global The slowdown; Musk trolls Group publisher: Paul Vizza 8 The world at a glance Phantom Twitter, again ([email protected]) Migrant convoy heads of the West Coast executive director: through Mexico; China Open, 37 Making money Tony Imperato ([email protected]) puts a base in Cambodia; a golf How SPACs took investors Media planning manager: Andrea Crino Turkey gets a new name dramedy for a ride; ever-rising Direct response advertising: subscription bills Anthony Smyth ([email protected]) 10 People Guy Fieri Guy Fieri leaves the critics 38 Best columns SVP, Women’s, Homes, and News: behind; an Olympic (p.10) Sheryl Sandberg’s Meta Sophie Wybrew-Bond skater’s life off the ice burnout; is all of crypto Managing director, news Richard Campbell built on sand? SVP, finance: Maria Beckett 11 Briefing Consumer marketing director: The assault rifle, from Leslie Guarnieri military hardware to Senior digital marketing director: mass-shooter instrument Mathieu Muzzy Manufacturing manager, North America: 12 Best U.S. columns Lori Crook Worshipping the almighty HR manager: Joy Hart gun; the future is not an Operations manager: apocalypse Cassandra Mondonedo 15 Best international Visit us at TheWeek.com. columns For customer service go to India’s politicians insult TheWeek.com/service. Muslims; Mexico’s water Renew a subscription at shortage RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift at GiveTheWeek.com. 16 Talking points A frustrating slog for THE WEEK June 17, 2022 Biden; readying a quiet coup for 2024; should we see photos of dead kids?

4 NEWS The main stories... Bipartisan Senate group seeks gun agreement What happened some of them “see there is peril in doing In the wake of the massacre of 19 students nothing.” and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old with an assault rifle, a One shouldn’t “let the perfect be the bipartisan group of senators this week enemy of the good,” said the New York inched toward consensus on a package of Daily News, but the changes the GOP measures aimed at reducing gun violence. will even discuss are “almost meaning- But Republicans declared that key re- less.’’ Large majorities of Americans forms sought by Democrats were off the back universal background checks (81 table, and final passage of any legislation percent in a CBS News poll), raising the remained in doubt. Negotiators zeroed in age for semiautomatic rifle buyers to 21 on proposals to extend background checks (77 percent) and an assault-weapons ban for gun buyers under 21, provide incen- Uvalde survivor Miah Cerrillo testifies via video. (62 percent). But the ineffectual package tives for states to establish red-flag laws to under consideration in the Senate includes prevent the sale of guns to people judged to be dangerous, and to none of these measures. “Maybe the next time we bury a classroom increase funding for school security and mental health programs. full of children, the politicians will start catching up to the people.” Not in consideration were universal background checks, banning assault rifles or large-capacity magazines, or raising the minimum What the columnists said age for buying a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21. Democrats said American gun violence has become a “form of terrorism” that’s they were seeking any points of agreement that might draw 10 Re- “tearing apart the very fabric of life,” said Will Bunch in The publican votes to overcome a filibuster. “I think there’s a pathway Philadelphia Inquirer. In Philadelphia, three were killed and 11 to do something meaningful,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), wounded last weekend when a gunfight broke out on bustling who was leading the negotiations. South Street. In Chattanooga, Tenn., three were killed and 14 wounded outside a bar; in Phoenix, a 14-year-old girl was killed The House was poised to pass a package of gun control measures— and eight wounded in a mall parking lot. Millions of Americans none of which held hope of Senate approval—following wrench- want “real action,” but the GOP and its “sick culture” of gun ing testimony from gun violence victims, including an 11-year-old fetishization won’t allow it. Uvalde survivor, Miah Cerrillo, who smeared herself in a class- mate’s blood and played dead during the rampage. Cerrillo said she Democrats are actually losing ground on guns—and it’s their own is now afraid to go to school. “I don’t want it to happen again,” fault, said Zachary Faria in the Washington Examiner. With their she said. An Uvalde pediatrician, Roy Guerrero, described seeing unwillingness to condemn Black Lives Matter rioters in 2020 and children at the hospital “whose bodies were pulverized” and “de- toothless district attorneys who treat “criminals as victims,” they’ve capitated,” and criticized lawmakers for doing nothing to stop gun fostered “a lawless environment in cities.” The result is surging violence. “We’re bleeding out,” he said. “And you are not there.” gun sales among women, Hispanics, Blacks, and Asian-Americans What the editorials said who’ve “decided to take their safety into their own hands.” Nearly halfway into 2022, America has already suffered 248 mass Trying to halt America’s “orgy of death” with the weak measures shootings of four or more people, said The Washington Post. “It under discussion is akin to “trying to stop a rhinoceros with a does not have to be this way.” The “commonsense measures” flyswatter,” said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. Still, President Biden called for last week, including a ban on assault- if 10 Republicans are willing to vote for any gun restrictions at all, style weapons and large-capacity magazines, would prevent at we’ll have to call it a win. But if Republicans think “such carnage is least some mass shootings, but Senate Republicans “refuse to even acceptable,” they should “come out and say so,” rather than insult debate” them. We can only hope that amid growing public outcry our intelligence with talk of locking doors and arming teachers. It wasn’t all bad QTexas 14-year-old Harini Logan was crowned champion last QCalifornian Vicky Umodu was Getty, AP week in the first in-person Scripps National Spelling Bee in searching for home goods online QCassandra Ridder was heart- three years. Following an eight-way tie in 2019, Scripps imple- when she came across a listing broken when her son Brody came mented a new lightning-round tiebreaker system, which made for a furniture set being given home from school with a nearly Harini especially nervous. “I go slow,” Harini said. “That’s my away for free. A family told her empty yearbook.The Colorado they were clearing out the house sixth-grader had asked classmates thing.”The event was not of a relative who had passed to sign his book, but only two or without drama: Harini was ini- away. After hauling the set home, three did.To fill the empty space, tially eliminated for defining Umodu gave the cushions a close Brody scrawled a note to himself: “pullulation” as the nesting of inspection and pulled out an enve- “Hope you make some more mating birds.The judges later lope stuffed with cash. It was one friends!” When older students reversed their decision and of several stashes hidden in the heard about Brody’s yearbook, over ruled her definition accept- furniture, totaling $36,000. Umodu 100 gathered at his homeroom, able, letting Harini continue immediately returned the money leaving messages of encourage- to the tiebreaker round. “In to the family. As a way of saying ment, phone numbers, and invita- the end, it’s all been worth it,” thanks, they gave Umodu a $2,200 tions to hang out. “It made me feel said her coach, Grace Walters. reward, though Umodu says she like I was not alone.” Brody said. “Every second place, every “was not expecting a dime.” Harini: Conquering nerves ding, every tear. All of it.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022 Illustration by Howard McWilliam. Cover photos from Reuters, Getty (2)

...and how they were covered NEWS 5 Ukraine falters in the east What happened What the columnists said Ukraine struggled to hold on to its remain- Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently ing eastern territory this week, as President thinks he “can still win the war” by waiting out Volodymyr Zelensky conceded that Russian the West’s resolve, said Max Boot in The Wash- forces had captured one-fifth of his country. The ington Post. Some leaders, alas, “have given Kremlin said Russia had “liberated” 97 percent him encouragement.” French President Em- of Luhansk province in the eastern Donbas manuel Macron recently urged the West not to region and had restored roads and rail so that “humiliate” Russia—meaning Putin “should be “full-fledged traffic” could flow between Russia rewarded for his unlawful aggression?” Instead and the territories it has occupied. Ukrainian of giving Kyiv just enough aid to avoid defeat, forces did take back half of the Luhansk city Zelensky visits the troops at the front. we should boost it to victory. It needs weapons, of Sievierodonetsk, which had mostly fallen to especially rocket systems, and far more of them Russia a week ago, but their control was tenuous. To boost morale, than the four units President Biden agreed to send. Zelensky visited the front lines and met with relocated refugees from the destroyed port of Mariupol. Russian forces, meanwhile, Putin’s stubbornness “offers little evidence” that any kind of peace put those Ukrainians who were still living in Mariupol’s ruins under settlement is feasible, said Ross Douthat in The New York Times. quarantine because of a suspected cholera outbreak. They returned But the “Ukraine hawks” who insist on supporting Kyiv until it 210 bodies of defenders of the city’s steelworks, in the conflict’s gets back every inch of Ukrainian soil are misguided. Divided inter- first swap of military dead, but they also transported to Russian nally and challenged abroad, the U.S. can’t keep “writing countless territory more than 1,000 of the roughly 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers checks.” We’d do better to “push Ukraine toward its most realistic, captured in Mariupol, possibly to use as bargaining chips. rather than its most ambitious, military strategy.” The Russian naval blockade of Black Sea ports has stranded 20 mil- The so-called realists forget that Putin has “blown past at least a lion tons of grain in Odessa, worsening a global food shortage. dozen” agreements since December, said Julia Ioffe in Puck. Ask Moscow insisted that Western sanctions, not the blockade, were re- Ukraine to cede some territory, and he will eventually gobble more sponsible for the crisis, and it said it would guarantee safe passage until the state isn’t viable. Worse, he “has already signaled that to departing ships. But Ukrainian leaders scoffed at the Russian the war won’t stop in Ukraine.” Kremlin-backed TV pundits now offer and said Ukraine would only de-mine its coastline if another call this a war against “the collective West.” We’re already directly powerful nation provided escorts for the cargo ships. involved; “the only ones who don’t realize it, it seems, are us.” California voters turn tough on crime Getty What happened What the columnists said Voters in two of the country’s most liberal cities rallied behind It’s not every day conservatives get good news from “Nancy law-and-order messaging this week, sending a stark warn- Pelosi’s backyard,” said Jim Geraghty in National Review. But by ing to Democrats about police reform’s diminishing appeal. In a 20-point margin, voters deemed Boudin’s experiment of defang- San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled ing police in favor of so-called restorative justice a disaster. Boudin by a 60-40 margin, just three years after his election energized took office and unveiled a “radical agenda of de-emphasizing the the “progressive prosecutor” movement as Boudin promised prosecution of drug cases and property offenses.” As a result, to send fewer people to prison. His reforms drew mounting San Francisco’s jail population is down, while the streets are a backlash as homelessness, burglaries, car thefts, drug use, and dangerous, drug-infested nightmare. Even the Bay Area’s far left overdoses soared. Liberals signaled a similar change of heart in concluded Boudin’s approach is “failing them.” Los Angeles, where Rick Caruso, a billionaire mall developer who ran as a crime fighter, forced a runoff in a mayoral race Even “deep-blue” San Francisco has competing interests, said against Rep. Karen Bass, once on the short list to be President Philip Bump in The Washington Post. Boudin was blamed for Biden’s vice president. Outspending Bass 10 to 1, Caruso, who by-products of the homelessness crisis, which is largely the result recently switched parties from Republican to Democratic, vowed of increased housing costs—not exactly a DA’s purview. Since his to add 1,500 police officers. election, San Francisco’s crime rate hasn’t gone up “exceptionally compared with other big cities.” Yet “wealthier residents” want Several House GOP incumbents appeared to have resisted poor people and the homeless policed aggressively, and propo- Trump-aligned primary challengers from the Right when The nents of the recall outspent Boudin’s supporters 3 to 1. Week went to press. Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota overcame a challenge sparked when he voted to certify the 2020 Boudin himself might be a “scapegoat,” but the votes in San Fran- presidential election results. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey cisco and Los Angeles “were clear rejections of a certain strain bested a group of opponents despite criticism from Trump. And of liberalism that buoyed reform-oriented prosecutors across the Rep. David Valadao of California, one of only 10 House Repub- country and sought to defund the police,” said Ross Barkan in licans who voted to impeach Trump, was leading against a GOP New York magazine. Caruso built a coalition by championing challenger. In a House race in Montana, the former president more cops and “broken-windows policing” while promising to endorsed his former interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, who resigned build 30,000 shelter beds to replace L.A.’s tent cities. Bass could in 2018 amid an ethics investigation. Early returns showed Zinke still win the November runoff, but the message for Democrats is with a slim lead. clear: “2022 could be a very precarious year.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022

6 NEWS Controversy of the week Depp vs. Heard: What the verdict revealed “One of the most common things abusers Police officers and employees testified that say to victims is that ‘nobody will believe Heard appeared uninjured at times when she you,’” said Charlotte Colombo in The Daily claimed to have been battered and bruised. Beast. Sadly, Amber Heard just found that Let’s hope this serves as a useful lesson for to be true “in the most public, humiliating the MeToo movement, which in recent years way possible.” A Virginia jury ruled last week “got drunk on its own reckless and absolute that the actress had defamed her ex-husband power,” demanding that we should automat- Johnny Depp in a 2018 Washington Post ically “believe all women” and destroy men’s op-ed in which she described herself as a lives on an accusation. Truth is, life is more “public figure representing domestic abuse.” complicated than that, said Kaylee McGhee In a televised, seven-week trial, Heard gave White in the Washington Examiner. As this harrowing testimony that the Pirates of the Heard, Depp: A Pyrrhic victory trial demonstrated, “women can and do lie.” Caribbean star had headbutted her, strangled This trial had nothing to do with facts, said her, ripped chunks of her hair out, and sexually assaulted her A.O. Scott in The New York Times. Depp won because his legal with a liquor bottle. In a text to a friend that became evidence, Depp said he wanted to kill Heard, adding, “I will f--- her burnt team turned a seemingly “clear-cut case of domestic violence” into a “‘both sides’ melodrama.” A British court had already ruled that corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.” Despite damning evidence of Depp’s “control and humiliation” of Heard, the trial Depp had physically abused Heard on at least 12 occasions, and Heard provided numerous videos, texts, and photos corroborating descended into “an orgy of misogyny,” said Moira Donegan in her claims. But because she wasn’t as charismatic as her “lovable The Guardian. Each time she took the stand, a band of Depp- rogue” ex-husband, and because she wasn’t a “perfect victim,” worshipping TikTokkers jumped on social media to mock the Heard was deemed unworthy of sympathy. This ruling will have 36-year-old actress, calling her a lying gold digger and making grave consequences for other domestic violence victims, said Jill memes of her crying face. Now a jury has “compounded that Filipovic in The Guardian. Abused women have learned that if cruelty” by ruling that Heard owes Depp $15 million in dam- they try to speak up, they can be “financially gouged into silence.” ages, while awarding her $2 million on her countersuit. “The backlash to MeToo has long been underway. But this feels like a In the end, there are no real winners in this case, said Amy Polacko tipping point.” in NBCNews.com. Depp will likely never see the millions in dam- Heard certainly “put on a great show,” said Andrea Peyser in ages Heard now owes him. And while he claimed his career was the New York Post. But the jury saw through her “wild claims,” damaged by her op-ed, this trial exposed the 60-year-old has-been which were littered with contradictions and inconsistencies. Depp, as a volatile, insanely jealous alcoholic and drug addict. Like meanwhile, testified that Heard had taunted him, punched him, Heard, he’ll probably never work for a major studio again. Depp and thrown a vodka bottle at the star, severing a piece of his finger. may be claiming victory—but it will prove to be “a Pyrrhic one.” Only in America Good week for: In other news Getty QA California court has ruled Cortisol levels, after new CNN boss Chris Licht informed staff Novavax could be that bees are fish. Seeking to that the network’s “Breaking News” banner will be reserved for fourth U.S. Covid shot have bumblebees protected actual breaking news. CNN has used the banner so routinely, Licht by the Endangered Species said, that “its impact has become lost on the audience.” A panel of vaccine experts Act, environmental lawyers urged the Food and Drug argued that because the law The inked, with Virgin Atlantic’s announcement that it will no Administration this week to defines “fish” to include any longer require cabin staff to cover up their tattoos, as part of “our authorize a Covid vaccine “invertebrate,’’ this should focus on inclusion and championing individuality.” developed by Maryland-based include bees, who lack spines Novavax, paving the way for a and are therefore “inverte- Mellowing, after “Johnny Rotten” Lydon of the Sex Pistols, 66, fourth shot to come available brate.” A state appeals court said he was “really, really proud” of Queen Elizabeth II for “doing in the U.S. One of six candi- agreed—while conceding that so well” as she celebrated 70 years on the British throne. In the dates backed by theTrump ad- “the term fish is colloquially Sex Pistols’ 1977 hit, “God Save the Queen,” Rotten sang that the ministration’s Operation Warp and commonly understood to queen headed a “fascist regime” and “ain’t no human being.” Speed, the two-dose Novavax refer to aquatic species.” vaccine is already being used Bad week for: in dozens of countries and QElvis Presley’s estate is appeared to be 90 percent cracking down on Elvis- Catharsis, after Brian Hernandez, 21, allegedly broke into the effective against symptomatic themed Las Vegas weddings. Dallas Museum of Art and destroyed $5 million worth of vases infection before the Omicron The estate has warned and other artifacts, many from Ancient Greece. Hernandez report- variant surge. After significant several Vegas chapels to stop edly explained the rampage by saying he was “mad at my girl.” manufacturing stumbles, the using the late singer’s name vaccine could ship several and likeness in their branding Frankness, after Blake Masters, a Republican U.S. Senate can- million initial doses. It uses and ceremonies. “This could didate in Arizona, told a conservative podcast that America’s a more traditional, protein- be very damaging to our gun violence problem can be mostly blamed on “Black people, based vaccine technology, industry,” said Melody Willis- frankly.” unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s Williams, president of Viva Covid vaccines, which use Las Vegas Weddings. “We’re Fair fights, after Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota messenger RNA to trigger an up against a superpower.” defended the sale of military-style assault rifles designed to shred immune response. human beings because “in my state, they use them to shoot prairie THE WEEK June 17, 2022 dogs and, you know, other types of varmints.”

The U.S. at a glance... NEWS 7 New Lisbon, Wis. Pennsylvania The Northeast Senate showdown: Celebrity physician Revenge killing: A retired circuit judge Mehmet Oz prevailed last week in the Reinfection threat: Infections from the lat- state’s GOP Senate primary recount, was assassinated in his home last week, as former hedge fund executive David est Omicron subvariants, known as BA.4 McCormick failed to close a deficit of and law enforcement said the alleged fewer than 1,000 votes. Oz, 61, will com- and BA.5, pete in a crucial race for control of the murderer had a list of suspected future Senate against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. have peaked in The Democrat’s landslide primary victory targets in his car, including Wisconsin has been overshadowed by disclosures the Northeast about a primary-week stroke. While his Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan wife initially described the stroke as a but are rising “hiccup,” Fetterman says it almost killed Democratic Gov. him. Hours before polls closed, the cam- in the South, paign said Fetterman, 52, would undergo Gretchen Whitmer surgery to have a pacemaker with a defi- with new cases brillator installed. Now the campaign says (who was the target the defibrillator will treat a previously adding up to undisclosed cardiomyopathy, first diag- of a separate alleged nosed in 2017. The 6-foot-8 Fetterman 100,000 a day. weighed 418 pounds in 2017 before los- kidnapping plot in ing 148 pounds in a year, but says he did The variants New Covid wave? not take his prescribed heart medication. now account 2020), and Senate Minority Leader for 13 percent of new U.S. Covid cases in Mitch McConnell. the U.S., up from 1 percent a month ago, John Roemer, 68, the Centers for Disease Control reported was found in his this week. The variants have raised fears house shot dead and that people who were previously infected Roemer zip-tied to a chair, with the original Omicron strain will be and after an hours- easily reinfected. That’s what happened long standoff, police found Douglas in South Africa, where cases surged in Uhde, 56, in Roemer’s basement with a the spring. But deaths there did not rise self-inflicted gunshot wound. Roemer sharply, and evidence doesn’t suggest the had sent Uhde to prison for subvariants cause more-severe armed burglary in 2005. Uhde disease. In Arkansas, Louisiana, escaped from prison briefly a New Mexico, Oklahoma, and year later and was released in Texas, BA.4 and BA.5 account 2020. On Facebook, he fre- for more than 20 percent of quently posted profane pro- new cases. More than 29,000 Trump and anti-Democrat people are hospitalized with Covid memes, along with con- nationwide. spiracy theories about “FEMA camps” and gun confiscation. Baton Rouge Chevy Chase, Md. Gerrymandering: Federal judge Shelly Justice targeted: A man Dick ruled this week that Louisiana’s who was arrested outside new congressional map likely violates Supreme Court Justice Brett the Voting Rights Act by strategically Kavanaugh’s home this limiting the week with a pistol, influence of Washington, D.C. extra ammunition, Kavanaugh Jan. 6 hearings: Former President Trump a tactical knife, pep- Black voters, coordinated with top House Republicans and other allies to plan wall-to-wall coun- per spray and zip ties was charged with and ordered terprogramming during this week’s block- buster opening hearings by the House attempted murder after telling police he the state to Jan. 6 panel, Axios reported. The pro- Trump messaging was slated for Fox News had traveled from California with plans redraw the as well as Facebook and right-wing plat- forms such as former Trump adviser Steve to kill the justice. Nicholas Roske, 26, map before the Bannon’s podcast. A GOP memo urged Republicans to “brand these as rigged arrived at Kavanaugh’s home in a taxi fall elections. hearings” and “define Democrats” as “the real election deniers.” But Democrats shortly after 1 a.m. After seeing U.S. Though Black are banking on as many as eight planned hearings through June to dominate sum- Marshals in front of the house, Roske Gov. Edwards residents are mer headlines, as the bipartisan com- roughly a third mittee airs highlights from hundreds of called 911 and told authorities he was interviews and more than 100,000 pages of Louisiana’s population, the new map of documents. The New York Times having suicidal thoughts, had a gun in his reported last week that before the Capitol includes only one district, out of six riot Vice President Pence’s chief of staff briefcase, and intended to kill a Supreme warned the Secret Service that Trump in the state, in which they make up a was going to turn publicly against Pence, Court justice. After being taken to the creating new security risks for the VP. majority of voters. Democratic Gov. John police station, Roske allegedly told a Bel Edwards, whose veto of the new map detective that he was upset about the was overridden by the GOP-controlled recently leaked draft of a decision that legislature, said a second majority-Black could overturn Roe v. Wade, and also Wisconsin Legislature, Getty, AP, Getty district would reflect “basic fairness and that he believed that Kavanaugh “would basic math.” Lawmakers have ample side with Second Amendment decisions time to redraw lines, Dick wrote, so that that would loosen gun control laws.” Black voters have a greater chance of Roske’s arrest elicited quick condemna- electing their preferred candidate in a tion; Attorney General Merrick Garland second district. The state plans to appeal said that threats of violence against a the ruling, and the case could end up at Supreme Court justice “strike at the the Supreme Court. heart of our democracy.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022

8 NEWS The world at a glance... London Tallinn, Estonia Pro-Russians booted from government: Estonia’s governing Boris survives, for now: Boris Johnson coalition shattered last week when Prime Minister Kaja Kallas dismissed the foreign minister and six other pro-Russian cabinet narrowly survived a confidence vote called ministers. The seven were members of the Center Party, which has historic links to Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, and Kallas by his own Conservative Party this week, said it was “actively working against Estonia’s core values.” Kallas, of the liberal Reform Party, often sparred with Center leaving him clinging to power but severely lawmakers after forming an uneasy coalition with them last year. While Kallas said she was motivated by domestic legislative dis- weakened. The prime minister claimed putes, analysts said the true breaking point was Center’s implicit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Many Estonians, that the vote, 211-148, was a vindication. including myself,” tweeted prominent Estonian author Rein Raud, “fear that political players sharing the Kremlin’s interests are But his allies privately conceded that the attempting to take over the Estonian government.” internal opposition to him was far higher Johnson: Diminished than expected. Johnson has been under fire for the ongoing scandal over parties thrown in his Downing Street offices in defiance of Covid restric- tions during the deadliest months of the pandemic. While he is now protected against another such vote for a year, his days in high office are likely numbered: His predecessor, Theresa May, resigned just six months after winning a similar confidence vote. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Cabinet minister assassinated: Orlando Jorge Mera, the Dominican Republic’s environment and natural resources minister, was shot and killed in his office this week, allegedly by a businessman who was a longtime friend. Officials said Fausto Miguel de Jesús Cruz de la Mota used his friendship with Jorge Mera, 55, to gain access to his office and shoot him as others in the office screamed and fled in panic. Cruz was arrested at a nearby church after confessing his crime to a priest. Jorge Mera came from a powerful family: His father was former President Salvador Jorge Blanco and his sister serves in the administration. He had recently forwarded more than 2,000 cases of environ- mental permit violations to the judiciary, risking the ire of the military, police, and many business owners. Tapachula, Mexico Huge migrant caravan: At least 11,000 people, many of them from Venezuela, left the border city of Tapachula and headed for the United States, timing their journey to coincide with this week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Migration activists say the caravan could become the larg- est yet seen. Mexican authorities usually intercept migrants and hold them in southern states, but the government has indicated it may let this group Migrants on the move pass. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had announced he would skip the summit, hosted by President Biden, because leftist countries Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua were not invited. Caravan members said they hoped for international attention. “We want a future for our children,” said Colombian migrant Robinson Reyes, 35. Istanbul Owo, Nigeria Call it Türkiye: The United Nations confirmed Massacre in church: At least 50 last week it had accepted Turkey’s request to people were shot dead this week change its official name in the international during Mass in a Catholic church in arena to “Türkiye,” the Turkish-language southwestern Nigeria, the latest in a string version. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip of religion-based attacks. Gunmen stormed Erdogan began pushing heavily last Owo’s packed St. Francis Xavier Catholic year for the original name, pronounced Church, set off explosives, and shot at wor- Treating the wounded shippers as they tried to flee. “They killed Erdogan TURK-ee-yeh, saying it “expresses the culture, civilization, and values of to their satisfaction before leaving,” choir member John Nwovu the Turkish nation in the best way.” Turkey’s economy has been told the BBC. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the killings, floundering, with high inflation and a plummeting currency, and and police have named no suspects. Nigeria has been gripped by the government said the name change would help the country re- religious tension for years, and just last month Deborah Samuel, a Reuters (2), Getty, AP establish its international brand. Others offered different motives: Christian student, was lynched by Muslim classmates. But most of “The main reason why Turkey is changing its name,” said Sinan the religious violence in Nigeria has been in the northeast, where Ulgen, chairman of Istanbul-based think tank EDAM, “is to the Islamist group Boko Haram is active, while the southwest nor- eliminate the association with the bird.” mally sees clashes between herders and farmers. THE WEEK June 17, 2022

The world at a glance... NEWS 9 Moscow Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan Diplomat turned back: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was forced to cancel his planned trip to Serbia this week after Nazarbayev is out: Kazakhstan has finally ended Balkan countries refused to open their airspace to his plane. NATO members Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro its founding leader’s three-decade grip on the declined to let Lavrov pass overhead. “The unthinkable has hap- pened,” said Lavrov. “A sovereign state has been deprived of its country. Voters overwhelmingly approved con- right to conduct foreign policy.” The Kremlin called the flight ban “hostile” and Lavrov said it was further proof that the main goal stitutional changes this week that will eliminate of expanding NATO was to isolate Russia. Still, he was able to travel this week to Turkey, another NATO country, because he the special privileges that allowed Nursultan could fly directly over the Black Sea. Serbia is a key European ally for Russia, the only European country apart from Belarus that Nazarbayev to remain deeply influential has not sanctioned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Last month, Russia agreed to continue supplying natural gas to Serbia; other after he stepped down as president in 2019. Nazarbayev countries have been cut off for refusing to pay in rubles. More than 75 percent of Kazakhs voted for the amendments. The change follows the “Bloody January” protests earlier this year, when demonstrations over a sharp rise in fuel prices gave way to violent clashes. Some 230 people were killed and nearly 10,000 arrested. Nazarbayev’s handpicked successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, blamed “terrorists” for the violence, but many analysts believe it stemmed from a power struggle between the two men. Seoul Missiles fly: South Korea and the U.S. launched eight missiles into waters off the coast of North Korea this week, a day after North Korea let loose its own barrage of eight missiles into waters east of the Korean Peninsula. Seoul said Pyongyang’s launches were a “serious provocation.” North Korea has held three missile tests since South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office last month, and it has conducted experiments indicating it could be preparing to test a nuclear bomb for the first time since 2017. Yoon has adopted a much tougher stance toward North Korea than his Joint maneuvers predecessor Moon Jae-in’s. South Korea and the U.S. last week staged combined military exercises for the first time in more than four years, while this week they held a joint air exercise involving 20 fighter jets. Khartoum, Sudan Sihanoukville, Cambodia Secret Chinese base? China is reported to be secretly establishing a naval facility in Cambodia. Chinese and Cambodian officials attended a ceremony for the expansion of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand this week, but both coun- tries denied that the enlarged facility was intended mainly for Chinese use. Unnamed Western officials told The Washington Post, though, that the two countries had been hiding Chinese involvement by having Chinese military personnel wear either plain clothes or uniforms that resemble Cambodian uniforms, and by barring foreign delegations from the area. A base in Cambodia would allow China to vastly extend its presence in the vital sea lanes of the South China Sea. It would be China’s second foreign military base, after the one in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Russian mercenaries mine gold: The Kremlin-affiliated Nakhon Sawan, Thailand mercenaries known as the ‘Joe Ferrari’ put away: A super-wealthy Wagner Group are mining gold police chief known as Joe Ferrari was in Sudan and sending it back sentenced to life in prison this week after Russian warship in Port Sudan to Russia to fund the war in he was caught on camera torturing a Ukraine, Western officials say. suspect to death. A leaked video showed One of Joe’s Ferraris Since Sudan’s military seized power in a coup last fall, the Wagner Thitisan Utthanaphon, 41, and five sub- Group has been giving military aid to coup leader Gen. Mohamed ordinates smothering drug suspect Jirapong Thanapat, holding a Hamdan, and in return it has obtained lucrative gold conces- plastic bag over his head and demanding that he pay $60,000 to Getty (2), Royal Thai Police, AP sions in Sudan’s scorched, resource-rich north. Now it controls a have the charges against him dropped. Jirapong died of asphyxia- plant there that processes mounds of ore into bars of gold to be tion. Thitisan had earned his flashy nickname because of his col- smuggled back to Russia on planes or ships. The Wagner Group lection of more than 40 luxury sports cars, including an ultra-rare is also supporting Kremlin efforts to build a naval base on Sudan’s Lamborghini Aventador Anniversario worth about a thousand Red Sea coast. Russia is under punishing sanctions from the U.S. times more than his official salary of $1,225 a month. The court and EU, and is desperate for hard currency. Sudan denies that any spared Thitisan the death penalty, noting that he tried to revive Russian mercenaries are operating on its territory. the suspect and that he paid for the family’s funeral expenses. THE WEEK June 17, 2022

10 NEWS People An Olympic hero’s return to obscurity How Fieri won over the snobs Erin Jackson has found Olympic glory to be Guy Fieri didn’t wait around for the culinary world’s respect, said fleeting, said Bryan Armen Graham in The Matt Flegenheimer in The New York Times. The spiky-haired, Guardian (U.K.). A onetime inline roller skater red Camaro-driving host of the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins who first stepped on the ice in 2016, the Ocala, and Dives has gained wide popularity as the nation’s champion Fla., native became the first Black woman to of unpretentious eating in hole-in-the-wall restaurants, which he win a Winter Olympics individual gold medal, lauds with exclamations such as “flavor jets, activate!” Raised on in Beijing last February. Her victory in the 500- macrobiotic food by Northern California hippies, Fieri says he ate meter race earned her a burst of media attention, “enough bulgur and steamed fish to kill a kid.” He went into the including interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. restaurant industry and developed a taste for the homey ethnic But since then, even with two World Cup wins in March, she has food he features on his show. His 2005 audition tape for The Next received no new sponsorship offers. “How do I say it diplomati- Food Network Star offered an apt introduction: After promising cally? People don’t care a whole lot as soon as the Olympics are to craft a convoluted terrine, he broke into laughter, said, “No, over,” said Jackson, 29. “It’s tough. Where’s the money coming seriously, folks. Real food for real people,” and made barbe- from? How are we going to keep paying rent? Because it does go cued pork, rice, avocado, and fries. Fieri was initially scorned by kind of dark.” She remains devoted to winter sports, partnering establishment foodies, and critics mocked his now-defunct Times with a nonprofit, Edge Sports, to make the field more inclusive of Square restaurant. But his affable enthusiasm and decency—he people of color. She has also supplemented her materials-science helped raise more than $20 million for a restaurant workers’ pan- degree from the University of Florida with coursework in kine- demic relief fund—have won over well-known chefs and restau- siology, hoping to help develop prosthetics for the Paralympics rateurs. “I guess I’m kind of becoming one of the guys now,” he movement. She’s already begun preparing for the 2026 Winter says. Fieri doesn’t take his success seriously but is enjoying the Olympics, in Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy. “I feel like I ride. “There will be a time when the light doesn’t shine as bright can’t really stop now,” she said. “It’s only the beginning.” on the golden locks,” he says. “Which is cool.” Why Selma Blair craved oblivion Selma Blair finally understands why she’s been in pain much of her life, said Wendy Kaur in Elle. The actress, 49, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis only four years ago. But her body hurt since childhood, and as the youngest daughter of a Jewish family in Michigan, she began sneaking sips of seder wine at age 7 to blot out the pain. By eighth grade, she started experiencing crushing headaches and fatigue, and her binge drinking worsened. “As sad as it sounds, I think that maybe I wouldn’t have survived those years without alcohol,” she said. “Now I know I had MS symp- toms and that I was trying to self-medicate with booze.” She man- aged to keep her drinking in check when her acting career took off in her 20s, but the problem never went away—nor did her myste- rious symptoms. After she got sober in 2016, they only got worse. When she posted about experiencing chronic pain on Instagram in 2018, friend and fellow actress Elizabeth Berkley urged her to see her brother, a spinal neurologist, and tests revealed she had MS. In 2019, she received a stem-cell transplant that has halted her MS flares, although she still has problems with balance and energy levels. “I am taking care and don’t crave that feeling of oblivion anymore,” she says. “Now I want to be awake for everything.” QPrince William and Kate Middleton’s seemed amused while chatting with Louis, porter last week, Parker said Cattrall wasn’t Getty (3) youngest child, 4-year-old Prince Louis, stole but Kate took him away after he tossed a invited to co-star in the reboot because her the show for much of Queen Elizabeth II’s seat cushion. “We had an incredible time,” contract demands in 2017 sank a potential Platinum Jubilee in London this week, his parents wrote on Instagram, “especially third Sex and the City movie. As for Cat- as his antics and histrionic faces tested Louis,” which they punctuated with the eye- trall saying Parker is difficult to work with, his parents’ patience. The boy, wearing roll emoji. He is fifth in line to the throne. Parker said, “There just isn’t anyone else the sailor suit his father wore at age 2, who’s ever talked about me this way.” entertained spectators by covering his ears QSarah Jessica Parker returned fire in an dramatically and screaming during a mili- escalating feud with former Sex and the QColombian pop star Shakira and Spanish tary flyover; at another point, he dragged City co-star Kim Cattrall, saying it pains soccer standout Gerard Piqué announced his hands across his face in exaggerated her to hear they’re involved in a “catfight” last week that they’ve split after 12 years because “there has only been one person together. Shakira, 45, and Piqué, 35—a boredom. In his cheekiest talking.” Cattrall has been outspoken about defender on FC Barcelona—have two sons. moment, he thumbed his being left off the iconic HBO series reboot, They met when Piqué appeared in the nose and stuck out his and began taking shots at Parker after she music video for Shakira’s “Waka Waka,” tongue at his mother sent a condolence note following the death the 2010 World Cup anthem that has over as she tried to hush of Cattrall’s brother in 2018. “Stop exploit- 3 billion views on YouTube. In a new song, him. The queen, 96, ing our tragedy in order to restore your “Te Felicito,” Shakira sings, “For complet- ‘nice girl’ persona,” Cattrall said at the time. ing you I broke into pieces / They warned In an interview with The Hollywood Re- me, but I did not pay attention.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022

Briefing NEWS 11 Mass shooters’ favorite gun The assault rifle, America’s most popular gun, has become the preferred instrument for mass murder. What defines an assault rifle? the new, American-made AR-15, which Assault rifles, often called AR-15–style used unusually light .223 caliber rounds weapons, have been used in many mass (the same caliber used by the Uvalde shootings, including the recent massacre shooter). The results were astonishing. of 10 Black people in a Buffalo super- The AR-15 mutilated enemy soldiers, market and the slaughter of 19 elemen- leaving many looking as though they tary school students and two teachers had simply “exploded,” a military in Uvalde, Texas. These weapons are report said. identifiable by three features: They’re What makes them so lethal? semiautomatic, meaning they can be repeatedly fired with the squeeze of the Unlike a heavier handgun bullet, which trigger; they have detachable magazines punctures the body like a nail, a high- for easy reloading; and they have com- velocity round from an AR-15 delivers ponents, such as a pistol grip, that allow A photo the Uvalde shooter posted of his weapons a payload of kinetic energy that radiates shooters to fire continuously with their outward from the wound, obliterat- rifle trained on the target. The AR-15 is the civilian counterpart ing organs, pulverizing bones, and causing massive bleeding. It of the U.S. military’s M16, which has a shorter barrel and can fire can leave a jagged exit wound the diameter of a soda can. When three-round bursts with one pull of the trigger. These marvels of radiologist Heather Sher examined a teenage victim of the 2018 engineering are stunningly efficient and easy to use, earning the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., she says she found that one title “America’s Rifle” from the National Rifle Association and the organ looked like “an overripe melon smashed by a sledgeham- nickname the “iPhone of firearms.” mer.” The victim could not be saved. After the Uvalde shooting, Why the term AR-15? DNA samples were needed to help identify victims, many of whom were left unrecognizable by horrific wounds. AR-15 was originally named for the gunmaker ArmaLite and How are assault rifles marketed? trademarked by Colt after it bought the manufacturing rights to the weapon. But the patent is long expired, and about 500 gun- Gunmakers call the AR-15 a “modern sporting rifle,” and its fans makers sell similarly designed weapons. There were about 400,000 insist it just has cosmetic differences from other semiautomatic assault weapons in circulation when a federal ban on them was long guns. But marketing strategies have grown increasingly passed in 1994, but sales exploded when the law expired a decade unsubtle. After the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, com- later. Today, there are about 20 million AR-15s in the U.S. One in mercial AR-15s began appearing in the same desert tan used on five gun purchases is now an assault weapon. the battlefield. Advertisements for Daniel Defense, which sold the How deadly are they? weapon used by the Uvalde shooter, show images of U.S. troops with the slogan “Use what they use.” Appeals to masculine inse- The AR-15 was engineered to cause “maximum wound effect,” as curity are common, such as a Bushmaster ad for the rifle that one of its designers put it. It fires needle-nosed bullets that travel said “Consider your man card reissued.” Gunmakers increasingly three times faster than handgun rounds and fragment when slam- advertise their weapons as necessary tools if and when the U.S. ming into flesh, causing enormous descends into anarchy or tyranny. The damage. Features such as second-hand The assault weapon’s role in massacres NRA’s magazine advised that a 5-year- grips and thumb-hole stocks make old boy could fire an AR if taught the the weapon easy to aim and hold For years, semiautomatic handguns were the pre- “two-finger trigger-pull method.” with both hands while firing dozens ferred weapon of mass shooters. But assault rifles of rounds with little recoil. “It’s the have emerged over the past decade as the weapon Would restrictions be effective? of choice, and large-capacity magazines ranging perfect killing machine,” says Dr. Peter from 30 to 100 rounds enable gunmen to increase That’s the subject of fierce debate, with gun enthusiasts arguing that Rhee, a former Navy trauma surgeon. their kill count without having to pause to reload. A study of mass shootings from 2000 Adam Lanza attacked Sandy Hook Elementary restrictions can be circumvented by to 2017 found that killers who used School in Newtown, Conn., with a Bushmaster determined criminals. Still, a 2019 assault rifles caused 97 percent more assault weapon, firing 154 rounds in 264 sec- Columbia University study found that Instagram deaths and wounded 81 percent more onds. James Holmes opened fire in an Aurora, banning large-capacity magazines victims than those who used handguns. Colo., movie theater in 2012 armed with Smith & resulted in a 206 percent drop in the Wesson’s “Military & Police” AR-15 outfitted with fatality rate of gun massacres. One How did assault rifles originate? a 100-round drum magazine, killing 12 people and inescapable irony is that any time wounding 58 as he fired roughly 240 rounds. Omar there is renewed discussion of banning Adolf Hitler coined the term Mateen stormed Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in 2016 assault weapons, it triggers a boom in Sturmgewehr—“storm weapon”—to armed with Sig Sauer’s “next-generation” AR-15, gun sales. In fact, says Josh Koskoff, describe a new gun with a shorter firing about 200 rounds as he murdered 49 people an attorney who represented victims’ barrel than the standard Nazi rifle, and injured dozens more. Stephen Paddock fired families after the 2012 Sandy Hook making it easier to control because it more than 1,000 rounds from his Las Vegas hotel Elementary School shooting, gunmak- kicked less. The Soviets followed with room in 2017, killing 60 people and wounding 411. ers know mass shootings help sell the AK-47. When American troops Assault weapons, a NewYork University School of more assault weapons. “They cashed encountered Viet Cong troops armed Medicine study found, accounted for 85 percent of in on that imagery,” he said. “And with AKs, they decided to go against mass-shooting deaths from 1981 to 2017. muscularity. And violence.” conventional military thinking and try THE WEEK June 17, 2022

12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S. When guns American gun culture is no longer focused on the right to defend your- It must be true... are objects self, said David French. Instead, it has devolved into belligerent and of idolatry grotesque “gun idolatry.” My wife and I are gun owners and support- I read it in the tabloids ers of the Second Amendment, but the “gun fetish” that dominates David French our politics bears little resemblance to the gun culture that I grew up QA man sank to one knee with, which emphasized the grave responsibilities of firearm owner- to propose to his girlfriend The Dispatch ship. Today, pandering politicians flippantly pose with AR-15s and fire in front of Disneyland’s weapons in campaign ads, and label themselves “pro-life, pro-God, and Sleeping Beauty Castle, only pro-gun.” A disturbing number of gun owners have adopted a “black to be interrupted by a staff gun” or “tactical” lifestyle, dressing in camo and tactical gear and bran- member who grabbed the dishing the weapons they love wherever they go. At certain protests, ring. In a now-viral video, “it’s now common to see men and women armed to the teeth,” delib- the prospective groom is erately displaying assault rifles to make their political opponents feel kneeling when the staffer a “palpable, physical fear of armed violence.” There are still millions runs over and seizes the ring of responsible gun owners in this country, but “the idolatrous fringe box from his hand. “Yes, is fringe no longer.” These gun rights absolutists “bear arms with reli- that’s great, but it’ll be even gious intensity,” and their increasingly overt threat to use their weapons better over here,” the staffer against anyone who disagrees could “destabilize our democracy.” says, motioning the couple to move. “We regret how Humanity Is it moral to have children in a warming world? asked Ezra Klein. It’s this was handled,” Disney is not a question I hear constantly, and a growing number of people are decid- said in its apology. doomed ing that it’s not. But “nothing in our near future looks so horrible that it turns reproduction into an immoral act.” That’s not to dismiss the QThrill seekers at a Pennsyl- Ezra Klein very real suffering that climate change will unleash, and that today’s vania amusement park got children will confront. But there’s growing reason to hope humanity more than they bargained The New York Times will avert “apocalypse,” and limit warming to 2 to 2.7 degrees centi- for when a ride malfunc- grade rather than the 5 degrees predicted just a decade ago. Costs for tioned and stopped midair, solar energy are plummeting, and both government policies and the free leaving them hanging upside market are leading to the rapid development of green energy and inno- down. “We were like, ‘Holy vation. In the zero-emissions future, it is possible that no one will have crap, this is actually happen- “a carbon footprint.” To get there, we need the energy and idealism ing,” said rider Alexandra of the young. For perspective, let’s remember that for much of human Schneider. “Hopefully our history, abject poverty was the norm, life was brutish, and nearly half harnesses won’t come off.” of children “died before puberty.” Bringing a child into this troubled The riders, on Kennywood world “has always been an act of hope.” I can’t say “whether it’s the park’s Aero 360, were stuck right choice for you, but no climate model can, either.” upside down for about five minutes, but Schneider said Hollywood’s With “great sorrow and reluctance,” Hollywood is finally starting “to it felt like an eternity. “It is a breakup detach its tongue from the Chinese Communist Party’s boots,” said story you can joke about,” with China Kyle Smith. For years, major movie studios have censored any images she said, but she’ll never get or themes China’s government deems forbidden, so as to have access to on the ride again. Kyle Smith the lucrative Chinese audience. But “under the increasingly dogmatic rule of Xi Jinping,” China’s censorious demands have escalated to an QA student in Freiburg, National Review absurd degree, even to the point of banning depictions of “sissy” men. Germany, created a fake So Hollywood has come to “the sad realization that pursuing Chinese Covid screening center and money is not worth the creative and moral cost.” The new Top Gun was paid 5.7 million euros sequel, starring Tom Cruise, will not be released in China; Beijing ap- (over $6 million) by insur- parently found the film “too jingoistic about the U.S. military.” In an ance companies for tests early trailer for the film, moviemakers scrubbed out a Taiwan patch he never performed.The on Cruise’s flight suit, but it’s back in the actual movie. In recent student, now 20, who said years, China has blocked a Spider-Man film because it focused on the he came up with the idea Statue of Liberty in its final scenes, and a host of Marvel movies over while partying, claimed to unknown objections. Hollywood should never have kowtowed to “an be performing about 4,000 evil empire” that oppresses its citizens and tortures its Uighur Muslim tests a day at a testing site minority. This “breakup is long overdue.” that didn’t actually exist. His scheme was uncovered by Viewpoint “Two days after the school massacre in Uvalde,Texas, we had a 15-minute bank officials who flagged his ballooning account.The lockdown at the Los Angeles high school where I’m a teacher.The school money was confiscated, and he was put on probation and administrator sent a text to us saying there was possibly a student with a gun at the school next fined 1,500 euros. door.Your heart pounds because there have been 27 school shootings this year. And you see the fear in your students’ eyes. Why does a teacher now have to figure out how to protect and save 30 kids because at any moment a gunman could walk into our school? It is too much. It is too much Tina Talley of a burden on all of us.” Marisa Crabtree in the Los AngelesTimes THE WEEK June 17, 2022



14 NEWS Best columns: Europe SPAIN Spain has a policy of refusing to sell weapons Isn’t that exactly what happened when a white that may kill civilians in war zones, said Miguel supremacist terrorist “shot indiscriminately” at Stop selling González. But what about in a country not techni- Black supermarket shoppers in Buffalo? Yet Spain weapons to cally at war? More than 17,000 people, includ- still allows the U.S. to be our “best customer” for the U.S. ing nearly 650 children, have died from firearms Spanish carbines, shotguns, barrels, cases, and so far this year in the U.S., a daily rate five to cartridges, selling America some $29 million in Miguel González 20 times those of European countries. If any arms in the first half of 2021 alone. A European African country had so much domestic carnage, arms embargo on the U.S. would hardly stop the El Pais the EU would surely be considering “an embargo violence, but it would show Americans they are on arms sales.” Spanish and EU law limit foreign not among the “civilized nations” where the use SWEDEN arms sales that might “aggravate tensions or exist- of force is reserved for security and military bod- ing conflicts in the country of final destination,” ies. They have reverted to “the law of the jungle, Yes, Swedes including ending up in the hands of terrorists. where the best armed survive.” really are so unhospitable The internet recently discovered the Swedish cus- dined. Not me, though. As an Eritrean growing up tom of refusing to feed their guests, said Meryem in Sweden, “I felt ashamed when I had to wait in Meryem Yebio Yebio, and the resulting furor brought back “parts the room.” At home, my mother always insisted of my childhood that I had buried deep.” It all on sharing what we had with my visiting friends, Aftonbladet started two weeks ago, with a Reddit post from a whether it was “a lot or a little.” In Eritrea, we Swede who mentioned that when the kids have a always say no at first when we’re offered food, friend over and dinnertime rolls around, the visit- even when we’re hungry, and we are “more com- ing child isn’t offered a plate but is told to go wait fortable with giving than receiving.” Perhaps that’s until the meal has ended. To Swedes, this is merely why #Swedengate went viral: Swedish practicality sensible: Parents have only budgeted for their own goes against the instinct of care that, in my culture family, and they assume the other family has its and many others, feels simply human. While the own dinner plans. And while foreigners on Reddit online kerfuffle dredged up unpleasant childhood and Twitter were appalled, most Swedes said they memories, it also made me feel “incredibly proud had no problem playing alone while the family and grateful for my Eritrean upbringing.” U.K.: Celebrating 70 years of Elizabeth on the throne “The sudden thunder of a thousand child, did not attend, ostensibly be- guardsman standing to attention.” The cause of a bout of Covid but likely be- Union Jacks, “so big, so beautiful, so cause of the credible accusations that many.” The glorious Wedgwood blue he molested a teenage Virginia Giuffre sky matching the queen’s Wedgwood years ago. Meanwhile, her grandson blue coat. Yes, the national party last Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, week for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum did make a rare joint London appear- Jubilee was “glorious,” said Allison ance, their first since that explosive Pearson in The Daily Telegraph. After Oprah Winfrey interview accusing the the traumas of Brexit and the pandemic, royals of racism—but it only served here was a chance to “feel proud to be to remind everyone that the family is British.” Seeing the queen preside over falling apart. We can’t escape the fact the celebrations for her 70th anniversary that making “babies born to rule” has as monarch was both an inspiration and With heir Charles at her side, the queen made it fun. an “infantilizing influence on Britain’s a relief. At 96, she is “increasingly frail,” political psyche.” and she had to skip the church service. But of course she did her duty, and Britons were treated to the touching sight of the queen Many in the Commonwealth greeted the jubilee with shrugs or looking down at her great-grandson, 4-year-old Prince Louis, open disdain, said Barbara Blake-Hannah in iNews. In April, and gently pointing out the planes roaring overhead. “This is the Prince William and his wife, Kate, were sent to Caribbean for- way we replenish our national story.” The four-day event was mer colonies on a pre-Jubilee “charm offensive,” only to be met the perfect balance of “solemnity and fun,” said The Times in an with protesters disrupting their appearances to call for slavery editorial. The queen even took a marmalade sandwich out of her reparations. Barbadians already ditched the queen as head of handbag and gave it to Paddington Bear—a gesture that “punc- state last year, and Jamaicans are now openly discussing the idea. tured the pomposity of the ceremonies.” Neither Caribbeans nor many British want a handful of elites placed “above everyone else,” said Harriet Williamson in The Sure, even some “good republicans” like me watched the festivi- Independent. Taxpayers shell out about $100 million a year to ties, said Polly Toynbee in The Guardian, but don’t fool yourself support these parasites, while a quarter of British children live in that this implies some grand rejuvenation of the monarchy. More poverty and food banks are approaching their “breaking point.” than half of all Brits said they had no interest in the jubilee, and It’s simply not sustainable. After the disastrous Caribbean trip, a plurality of youth want an elected head of state. While nobody Prince William said the royal slogan “Never explain, never doubts the “public admiration and affection for the queen her- complain” must be retired. Yes—and let the entire concept of the self,” the monarchy is wobbly. Prince Andrew, the queen’s third monarchy join it in “the dustbin of history.” Getty THE WEEK June 17, 2022

Best columns: International NEWS 15 India: Muslim world in uproar over insult to the Prophet India is facing “a chorus of diplomatic trol, the BJP says we shouldn’t take outrage” from Muslim countries, after the words of “fringe elements” as two Indian government officials made government policy. Yet these were “insulting remarks” about the Prophet the BJP’s own spokespeople, not Mohammed, said Sanjay Kumar in a couple of crackpots unaffiliated Arab News (Saudi Arabia). Nupur with the government! And if we are Sharma and Naveen Jindal, both to look at deeds rather than words, spokespeople for the ruling Bharatiya well, the repression of Muslims Janata Party, sneered about the youth continues: In India’s Uttar Pradesh of Aisha, Mohammed’s third wife, at state, police recently charged around her marriage—Sharma on television 1,500 people with fomenting riots, and Jindal in a tweet that even ac- which is a common “euphemism for cused the Prophet of rape. Tarring the Muslims protesting.” Prophet as a pedophile is a common Protesters want Sharma arrested for the slur. In truth, said Nabeela Jamil in Scroll Islamophobic smear, and it sparked an explosion of anger among Muslims both “in India and (India), Aisha’s age is not relevant to any discussion today. The overseas.” The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal, but Prophet Mohammed lived during the 600s, at a time when only after Saudi Arabia and more than a dozen other Muslim what is now Saudi Arabia was tribal and women were chattel. states condemned the insult. India could stand to lose billions if The advent of Islam actually gave women far more rights than, it can’t rein in such “sectarian hotheads,” said Taniya Dutta in say, Hindu women enjoyed at the time. Aisha would have been The National (UAE). India’s trade with Arab countries and Iran allowed to divorce the Prophet, for example—a right Indian stood at about $189 billion last year, and the 9 million Indians Hindu women weren’t given until 1955. Perhaps Aisha was a living in the Middle East “send home billions of dollars in remit- child at her betrothal, but most texts say her husband did not tance.” All of that could be at risk. consummate the marriage until years later. And she ultimately grew up to be one of the most powerful people in the region, a Desperate to fend off boycotts of Indian products, the BJP is major scholar of Islam and influential political adviser. In any now “praising India’s secularism and hugging the constitution,” case, it is highly ironic that India’s Hindus should be so exercised said Jawed Naqvi in Dawn (Pakistan). Don’t be fooled. Since about a marriage that took place 1,450 years ago, when today’s he took office in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi India “accounts for a third of the global total of child mar- has openly favored Hindus in officially secular India and incited riages.” Ultimately, “the actual looming question” isn’t about Hindu nationalists as they attacked Muslims. His party “thrives Aisha’s age. It is why, in an ostensibly secular country, does the on hate and polarization.” Now, in an attempt at damage con- Indian government insist on insulting and persecuting Muslims? MEXICO Mexico’s water shortage is becoming a “national access to this basic need is already causing Mexi- emergency,” said Gibrán Ramírez Reyes. It is cans to turn on one another. Last week, an armed The coming worst in the border state of Nuevo León, which group stormed a wine production facility in Nuevo civil unrest is in the thick of an extreme drought. The capital León “to seize its water distribution network.” It’s over water city there, Monterrey, has now restricted daily easy to condemn such violence, but think of how water access to just a six-hour window, from these communities have been neglected for years, Gibrán Ramírez Reyes 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. But in at least 10 other states, their water looted for use in commercial projects more than 80 percent of cities are also suffering that do not benefit them yet “devastate the eco- Milenio moderate to severe droughts. There, poorer people system.” Mexico must create a society that treats are already reusing water in ways that are “still water, food, and energy as human rights. That unthinkable for the privileged classes”—some of may seem utopian now, but it will be simply pru- them bathe, do laundry, then do dishes with the dent in the near future, when water becomes “the same tubful of water. The unfairness of unequal main problem of governance in Mexico.” RUSSIA Think ordinary Russians are angry about the inter- erty. Anyone old enough to recall that period can national sanctions targeting their countrymen’s now only “rejoice” at the sight of oligarchs getting Why sanctions yachts? Think again, said Anastasia Mironova. their comeuppance. Similarly, ordinary Russians don’t bother Most of us are actually delighted by Western ef- are “hooting triumphantly” at the exodus of the most of us forts to financially “disembowel our oligarchs.” professional class that has fled abroad since the That’s because we’re still traumatized by the eco- invasion of Ukraine. Those relatively affluent liber- Anastasia Mironova nomic chaos the oligarchs helped unleash follow- als insisted that the 1990s were “a time of oppor- ing the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. A tiny tunity” and that those unable to rise to the middle Gazeta minority of Russians used that period to acquire class had only themselves to blame. Had these huge wealth, buying up state assets at knock-down well-fed groups shown more solidarity with those Reuters prices. For most Russians, though, the 1990s were who endured pain back then, we might feel more a time of desperation, when people were “killed in sympathetic watching them lose their homes and the alley for a fur hat” or driven to suicide by pov- their wealth. As it is? Not so much. THE WEEK June 17, 2022

16 NEWS Talking points Biden: Can he pull his presidency out of a tailspin? “Frustrations are mounting” for President “have quietly started to poke around for Biden, said Jonathan Lemire in Politico. His alternatives.” Vice President Kamala Harris administration faces “a cascade of challenges,” would be the natural choice, but her popular- with inflation reaching a 40-year high, gas ity has tanked even further than Biden’s and prices soaring to nearly $5 a gallon, the war their relationship has grown cool and distant. in Ukraine, a baby formula shortage, a still- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and unpredictable Covid pandemic, and a dead- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are on the locked Congress unable to pass meaningful list of other possibilities, but the party’s bench gun legislation in response to “an onslaught is not deep, and most Democrats don’t want of mass shootings.” Inside the White House, to publicly break with Biden—at least not yet. morale “is plummeting,” as the administration Mired at 41 percent approval Every modern president has struggled in his struggles to address the many problems that have Americans in a sour mood. Biden has “expressed exaspera- first term, said Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg. Ronald Reagan, tion” that his approval rating, which first crossed into negative Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama all saw their approval sink amid territory after last August’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, crises, only to win re-election. But Biden is discovering the “weak remains stuck at 41 percent—lower than Donald Trump’s at this relationship” between a president’s policies and events that can point in his presidency. The angst has been “rippling through shape public perception of his effectiveness. Voters blame Biden the party,” said Carol Lee in NBCNews.com, with congressional for the country’s 8.3 percent inflation rate, even though Europe Democrats “blaming the White House for their dim prospects in has similar inflation, and they do not credit Biden’s Covid relief November.” Biden “used to say about President Obama’s tenure package for rescuing the economy from free fall. Unemployment that everything landed on his desk but locusts,” said one White is currently at 3.6 percent, near a 50-year low. Americans “told House official. “Now he understands how that feels.” pollsters that they were willing to pay more for gas to constrain Russia” soon after it invaded Ukraine, but when gas prices rose as “Whatever happened to ‘The buck stops here?’” asked Matt Lewis Russian oil was banned, they blamed Biden anyway. The economy in The Daily Beast. Yes, Biden got dealt some tough cards, but is actually quite strong, said Andrew Egger and Esther Eaton his own choices—and lack of “leadership and communication in The Dispatch. Another “solid jobs report” in May revealed skills”—have made his problems worse. His pullout from Afghani- 390,000 new hirings, with wages still rising and millions of avail- stan was badly botched. He approved trillions in spending while able jobs. Plus, “inflation seems to have peaked, at least for now.” administration officials dismissed the rise of inflation as “transi- Yet none of that has punctured the gloomy outlook shared by vot- tory.” And now he is complaining that he can’t “click a switch” ers and the markets. to bring food and gas prices down. Americans crave affirmative, optimistic leadership, but Biden’s “not providing much hope.” At Biden could point to a host of major achievements: Vaccinating an increasingly frail 79, his “advancing age is worsening his prob- two thirds of Americans against Covid, passing an infrastructure lems,” said Jim Geraghty in National Review. He “can’t speak bill, uniting NATO behind Ukraine, and reviving the economy, off-script” without blurting out something off-message. Aides had said Michael Tomasky in The New Republic. But his messaging to make humiliating walk-backs after Biden stated that Vladimir has been “defensive and unimaginative.” Democrats are at a dis- Putin “cannot remain in power” and that the U.S. would militarily advantage in winning over popular opinion, because only 25 per- defend Taiwan against China. He’s “increasingly irritated” with cent of Americans identify as liberal. That means Democrats “have his staff for correcting him, yet he won’t fire them. Republicans to do a lot more reaching beyond their base than conservatives are not wrong in suggesting that the nation’s leader “is not fully in do,” and they often get tied up in complex policy wonkery that command of his White House”—and not up to the job. seems detached from ordinary Americans’ problems. If anyone can reverse this impression, it’s Biden, “an old-school, Truman-type Still, Biden’s camp insists “there isn’t any ambiguity” about Democrat” who is “more unambiguously on the side of working his determination to run for re-election in 2024, said Gabriel people than any Democratic president in a very long time.” But he Debenedetti in New York magazine. But major Democratic donors “looks tired,” and he’d better get a second wind soon. Noted QAbout 100 Americans die on average rights group had revenues of $282 million. they show up at court hearings. Getty, Reuters every day from gun violence. Currently 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are dying daily Popular Info CNN.com in the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently estimated. QAbout 1,000 migrants a day who are QMore than 82 million Covid vaccines— allowed into the U.S. to await immi- over 11 percent of the total distributed The NewYorkTimes gration or asylum hearings are being throughout the U.S.—were discarded be- issued a special phone and an app that tween December 2020 through mid-May QIn the first eight months of 2021, require them to regularly check in with 2022, according to the Centers for Disease the NRA spent just $13,900 on Control and Prevention. Last February, the School Shield, the program it the government and respond to CDC reported that 65 million doses were launched to promote school safety monitoring calls from authori- thrown away.The doses are being dis- after the 2012 mass shooting at ties. Nearly 250,000 migrants carded mostly because of lack of demand, Sandy Hook Elementary School are currently being tracked by inefficiencies, and expiration. in Connecticut. Last year the gun these digital monitoring devices or ankle monitors to ensure NBCNews.com THE WEEK June 17, 2022

Talking points NEWS 17 2024: The GOP plan to nullify election results Wit & Wisdom The GOP’s strategy for 2024 areas should be presumed “Plans are worthless, but is now clear: challenge all illegitimate.” Most Republi- planning is everything.” election losses and “cause cans now insist that “voting Dwight D. Eisenhower, quoted in The Washington Post chaos” in heavily Democratic is pure and unsullied” in “Ambition is at the very districts, said Heidi Przybyla rural areas dominated by core of success and in Politico. A top Republican Republicans, but “marred extraordinary achieve- ment. Unlike greed, it’s operative in Michigan was by widespread fraud” in a powerful, creative, and recently recorded discussing cities with lots of nonwhite constructive force.” plans to recruit “an army” of Democrats. To ensure a Entrepreneur Jim Rohn, quoted in Kenyans.co party-trained poll workers, Republican victory in 2024, “Fake news is bad, but a who, unlike poll watchers, Bannon: He has a new plan. Trumpists have even created Ministry of Truth is worse.” have direct influence over an “America First” slate of Estonian lawmaker Andrus vote-counting procedures. Thousands of MAGA 2020 election deniers running for various state Ansip, quoted in Noema followers have volunteered for this task, most of offices, said Alexandra Berzon in The New York “It’s utterly ridiculous that powerful, resilient whom believe Donald Trump’s Big Lie of rampant Times. America First candidates have a good shot women are portrayed as dangerous, whereas voter fraud in 2020. If installed as poll workers, at winning powerful offices in Nevada, Arizona, in my experience it’s the predatory men who are they would be connected with GOP lawyers and Pennsylvania, and Michigan—four swing states the real threat.” “party-friendly district attorneys who could inter- “where a relatively small number of ballots have Joan Collins, quoted in vene to block vote counts” in Democratic-leaning decided presidential victories.” The Times (U.K.) districts across the country. Then Republican “Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky state legislatures would have an excuse to ignore The 2020 insurrection has become an “insti- who created the universe, and the vast majority will election results and choose a slate of Republican tutionalized” movement, said Jonathan Chait believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have electors. This sophisticated “precinct strategy” in New York magazine. Tellingly, the Bannon to touch it to be sure.” is being led by Steve Bannon, the Machiavellian operation “has met virtually no intraparty resis- George Carlin, quoted on Next Draft former Trump strategist, said Eric Lutz in Vanity tance,” with GOP officials widely agreeing that “The person who does Fair. Bannon took part in the failed effort to all “Democratic election victories are inherently best is the one with the panic button furthest from overturn 2020’s results, but this time he plans to illegitimate.” In 2020, Trump’s efforts to overturn his keyboard.” “hijack the infrastructure of the election system.” the election “spectacularly failed,” and culmi- Hedge-fund billionaire nated in the Jan. 6 violent assault on Congress. Chase Coleman, quoted in The GOP’s anti-democratic efforts are based on a The next time, the goal is to “successfully and MoneyWeek simple premise, said Greg Sargent in The Wash- legally contest and overturn an unfavorable elec- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you ington Post: “Much of the voting in Democratic tion outcome.” And it just may work. gotta put up with the rain.” Mass shootings: Should there be photos? Dolly Parton, quoted in The Sun Reuters After his 6-year-old son was murdered at Sandy in The Boston Globe. For every example of a Hook Elementary School in 2012, Lenny Pozner shocking photo that led to major change, there Poll watch wondered if images of the horrific damage an are dozens of others that changed nothing. Con- assault rifle did to his child might change minds sider the wrenching 2019 photo of the bodies of a Q72% of Americans say about gun laws. “It would move some people,” father and his 2-year-old daughter who drowned that mass shootings he thought—followed by “Not my kid.” After trying to cross the Rio Grande River into the could be prevented “if another school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left U.S. It had zero impact on immigration policy. In we really tried,” but 44% the nation embroiled in another debate over gun the case of school shootings, said Kara Voght in of Republicans say “we violence, said Elizabeth Williamson in The New Rolling Stone, “weaponizing” gruesome photos have to accept’’ them “as York Times, some advocates of gun restrictions would re-traumatize parents already copying with part of a free society.” are asking: Would images of child victims “jolt overwhelming grief. Nelba Márquez-Greene, the 72% of Democrats say the nation’s gridlocked leadership into action?” mother of a Sandy Hook victim, recently said of banning assault weapons Throughout history, shocking photos have served renewed calls to allow publication of her daugh- would “do a lot.” 60% to sway public opinion and create political pres- ter’s autopsy photo: “I don’t think people truly of Republicans say the sure for major change. In 1955, published photos understand the consequences of an ask like that answer is better mental of 14-year-old Emmett Till’s mutilated face helped for a family.” health screenings. launch the civil rights movement. In 1972, a photo of a naked “napalm girl” helped turn pub- Such photos would be unlikely to alter the gun CBS News/ YouGov lic opinion against the Vietnam War. The endless debate anyway, said Jelani Cobb in The New accounts of school shootings have left Americans Yorker. Till’s photo, and the video of George THE WEEK June 17, 2022 numbed, said Timothy O’Brien in The Washing- Floyd’s murder by police, “served to dispel offi- ton Post, and “horror may spur people to action cial denials that such brutality had ever existed.” more directly than sympathy.” Americans already know children are being massa- cred by gunmen. Photos of their mutilated bodies Do we really need “a grisly photo of a child “would not change the minds of the men and blown to pieces by a high-velocity assault rifle to women who have already accepted their deaths as spur people into action?” asked Marcela García the price of a warped vision of freedom.”

18 NEWS Pick of the week’s cartoons THE WEEK June 17, 2022 For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons.

Pick of the week’s cartoons NEWS 19 THE WEEK June 17, 2022

20 NEWS Technology Guns: Can technology help prevent shootings? Could Uvalde be the catalyst that finally makes machine learning” to flag concerning posts, “smart guns” a reality? asked Jordan Winters but apparently “those alarms weren’t con- and Ken Dilanian in NBCNews.com. Like nected to effective enforcement mechanisms.” something out of a James Bond film, smart The gunman used Yubo, “to threaten rape and guns “are designed to be fired only by an school shootings” in posts that were reported authorized user, employing fingerprint detec- “dozens of times,” and nothing happened. In tion, Bluetooth links, and other technology schools, tech companies are promoting algo- that locks the gun to anyone else.” Two firms rithms that monitor students’ online activity, say they’re close to bringing the technology to said Corin Faife in The Verge, but here again market, although efforts in the past—including there’s not much evidence the approach works. a 2002 New Jersey law that would have re- The Uvalde school district contracted with quired ID features—have been quashed by gun one such social media monitoring tool, called rights lobbyists. The technology in all likeli- Identilock’s fingerprint trigger guard Social Sentinel, “which claims to identify and hood would not prevent a mass shooting, but alert schools to threats based on social media with individual gun ownership on the rise, it could prevent the conversations.” The company monitors only public posts, and loss of lives in accidental shootings, like that of the 3-year-old so missed private messages from the shooter that could have who shot and killed himself in Florida when he found a loaded provided a warning. weapon in his home. “Firearms safety group Everytown for Gun Safety counted nearly 400 unintentional shootings by children Identifying potential killers by using computers to analyze vast last year alone, killing 163 people.” amounts of data for subtle signs is another area of investigation, Jeremy Kahn in Fortune. One approach combines data about America’s gun violence problem won’t be solved until it’s past violent incidents from schools with other data, such as gun “harder for people to acquire and use guns,” said Casey Newton purchase records. Another sifts through transcripts of sessions in his Substack newsletter but, barring that, we are stuck with with psychiatrists. “I think it is possible that this kind of AI monitoring social media. Unfortunately, tech platforms keep could help flag troubled individuals who are at risk of commit- failing at that. The Uvalde shooter, Salvador Ramos, favored a ting violence.” But in the end, we’ll be left with the same prob- social media app called Yubo that “allows users to broadcast lem that afflicts most “predictive policing”: Just what do we do themselves live to a small group of friends.” Yubo “says it uses with the information that someone might carry out a shooting? Innovation of the week Bytes: What’s new in tech A Canadian company has devel- Musk: Get to the office, or quit spot, with names like Calming White Noise, Identilock, Aurea Technologies oped a portable wind turbine and Deep Sleep Sounds. One white-noise small enough to fit in a backpack, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told employees they podcaster, Todd Moore, quit his cybersecurity said Elissaveta Brandon in Fast must return to work in the office full-time job to launch a “sleep sounds” app, which he Company. “Called Shine, it weighs if they want to keep their jobs, said Chris turned into a Spotify podcast in 2019. Moore’s just 3 pounds, it’s about the size of Isidore in CNN.com. In emails to Tesla execu- show now gets roughly 50,000 listeners per a water bottle, and it can charge tives last week, Musk said Tesla’s office work- day. Advertisers pay him $12.25 per thousand any USB device, or up to four ers could no longer work full-time from home listens, or about $18,375 per month. phones (though not at the same and that the office “must be the employee’s time).” Designed with campers primary workspace” for “at least” 40 hours Senators press for Big Tech bill in mind, the contraption contains a week. When asked about the policy on a tripod that can be stabbed into Twitter, Musk said workers who disagreed The first major piece of legislation in years the ground and “held down with “should pretend to work somewhere else.” aimed at Big Tech firms could reach a floor tensioned cables—a bit like setting Twitter, which Musk agreed to buy, told its vote in the Senate by early summer, said up a tent.” The blades then unfold employees they could work from home “for- Lauren Feiner in CNBC.com. Lawmakers are from the zeppelin-shaped turbine to ever,” but that could change under Musk. In pushing forward with the American Innova- reveal “a micro version of a regular April, he joked that he might turn the com- tion and Choice Online act (AICO), which wind turbine.” The company behind pany’s headquarters into a homeless shelter “would prohibit dominant tech platforms it, Aurea, said the mechanism “since no one shows up anyway.” like Amazon, Apple, and Google from giving sets up easily on uneven terrain preferential treatment to their own services.” and “works at wind speeds up to The quiet business of calming sounds If passed, “it could prevent Google from 28 mph.” having its own travel recommendations at White-noise podcasters have built a surpris- the top of search results,” or make it harder THE WEEK June 17, 2022 ingly lucrative genre on Spotify, said Ashley for Amazon to compete with its own sellers. Carman in Bloomberg. “The top of the pod- Supporters, who include both Democrats cast charts is still dominated by garrulous, and Republicans, are eager to move the bill jawboning hosts” like Joe Rogan. But there through in this legislative session, because it are other hit shows that are “soothing and will have a much tougher road to becoming sedating, maybe with the sound of static or law if Republicans win control of the House falling rain” to aid relaxation or sleep. These in November. hours-long tranquil programs are easy to



22 NEWS Health & Science La Niña’s bizarre staying power American weather is growing more 28 percent of winters, but in the past 25 Hurricane Ida soaked Philly during La Niña. extreme, thanks to an unwelcome mete- years they’ve brewed up in nearly half. orological visitor: the climate pattern That increase roughly coincides with the and Atmospheric Administration forecast La Niña. While its better-known twin, 22-year megadrought in the American office for La Niña and El Niño, tells the El Niño, warms up parts of the equato- West, the worst in at least 1,200 years. If Associated Press. “But it’s really important rial Pacific, La Niña cools them—causing La Niña does continue this winter, the trend because of regional conditions. We need to knock-on effects that include more hur- will become statistically significant—a key get this right.” ricanes in the Atlantic, increased drought scientific threshold. Scientists believe the and wildfires in the western U.S., and agri- main reason for the new pattern is that the cultural losses in the middle of the country. eastern equatorial Atlantic is not warming The current La Niña is mystifyingly persis- as fast as the western—the larger the dif- tent. It set a record for strength in April and ference, the more likely La Niña forms. But is expected to be around for an extremely they aren’t sure why there’s a discrepancy. rare third straight winter. Between 1950 “At this point we just don’t know,” Michelle and 1999, La Niñas happened in about L’Heureux, head of the National Oceanic Morning reps target belly fat. they were warm-blooded, like birds and Slow gait could mean dementia mammals. A new study suggests that both Timing your workout are correct, reports The New York Times. Many people slow down somewhat as Researchers analyzed the remains of more they age, as joints get creaky or achy. Men and women may get more out of than 50 extinct and modern vertebrates, But new research shows that those who exercise depending on what time of day including mammals, lizards, birds, and 11 both walk slower and perform worse on they work out, reports The Times (U.K.). non-avian dinosaurs. Using new technol- cognitive tests are more likely to develop In the first trial of its kind, researchers put ogy, they identified a molecular marker of dementia. These “dual decliners,” who 30 women and 26 men, all healthy and metabolic stress that correlates with how lose both speed and mental acuity, are at between ages 25 and 55, on a 12-week much oxygen the animal breathed, and thus greater risk than those who lag in either diet-and-fitness program. Roughly half the the speed of its metabolism. As expected, category alone. The study, reports CNN, participants exercised for an hour before they found that most dinosaurs—including followed a group of Americans over 65 8.30 a.m.; the other half between 6 p.m. long-necked sauropods and Tyrannosaurus and Australians over 70 for seven years. and 8 p.m. Both groups followed the same rex—were warm-blooded. Yet they also Every other year, the participants took cog- set meal plans, and everyone saw improve- found that some herbivorous dinosaurs, nitive tests, and twice every other year they ments in fitness and overall health. But such as Stegosaurus and Triceratops, were assessed for the speed of their gait. the extent of those improvements differed evolved over tens of millions of years to be The results are so convincing, said Dr. Joe depending on sex and timing. For women, cold-blooded. Like modern reptiles, the ani- Verghese, a professor of geriatrics at New working out in the morning reduced belly mals would have had to adapt their behav- York’s Albert Einstein College of Medi- fat and blood pressure, but evening ses- iors to maintain core temperature—basking cine who was not involved in the study, sions increased upper body strength, power, in the sun, say, or wintering in warmer that screening for dementia should include and endurance. Men who exercised in the climes. It’s unclear why this evolution took analysis of a patient’s walk. And there’s evening saw greater reductions in blood place. Stephen Brusatte from the University hope for the sluggish: Because gait decline pressure, risk of heart disease, and fatigue of Edinburgh, who wasn’t involved in the is likely both a cause and consequence of compared with the male morning group— study, says it may be because maintaining dementia, Verghese said, it’s worth “devel- and burned more fat. Lead researcher Paul a high metabolism requires a lot of food, oping interventions to improve walking Arciero, from Skidmore College in Saratoga which may have been “too much of a abilities in individuals with dual declines, Springs, N.Y., cautions that more research liability for some dinosaurs.” with the aim of reducing downstream risk is needed—and emphasizes that “the best of cognitive decline.” time for exercise is the best time you can do it and fit it into your schedule.” The world’s largest plant making clones of themselves—the grass in lawns, for example. But such clonally Dinosaurs ran both hot and cold If you think your garden’s out of con- reproducing plants are often less resilient Older adults were taught in school that trol, spare a thought for Shark Bay off dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like modern than those that mix their genes, because reptiles, while following generations learned the west coast of Australia, says New they can’t adapt as quickly to changing Scientist. That area is home to what conditions. Researcher Elizabeth Sinclair, scientists say is the world’s largest plant, from the University of Western Australia, a variant of Posidonia australis seagrass says the seagrass in Shark Bay may that has been cloning have “cheated the system,” itself for 4,500 years and because this P. australis now stretches a stagger- formed a hybrid with ing 112 miles along the another species—meaning it coast.The previous record already has two lots of chro- AP, Getty, Royal Society holder, another seagrass mosomes. It is now, she living in the Mediterranean, says, “the largest known spanned a paltry 9 miles. example of a clone in any Many plants expand by More of the same for miles environment on Earth.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022

ARTS 23 Review of reviews: Books Book of the week Gay rights protesters in 1965 But that hardly excuses the main justifica- tion for the so-called Lavender Scare, which Secret City: The Hidden lives “makes for very good and suspenseful, produced a sweeping 1953 ban on federal History of Gay Washington if occasionally ponderous, reading.” employment of homosexuals. As Kirchick notes, of the 117 U.S. citizens who engaged by James Kirchick “Secret City is full of high-grade gossip, and or sought to engage in espionage against I mean that as a compliment,” said Walter their country during the Cold War, only six (Holt, $38) Olson in Reason. “But Kirchick is up to were gay, and none of those were black- serious business as well”—such as the inter- mailed into their treachery. James Kirchick’s history of a troubling rogation of myths. Were gay Americans era in Washington politics is “rewarding overrepresented in the upper tier of the Kirchick is less successful in his attempt in the extreme,” said Alexandra Jacobs in nation’s diplomatic corps, as critics alleged? to present Washington as one of the birth- The New York Times. “A luxurious, slow- The high count of scandals that erupted places of the gay equality movement, said rolling Cadillac of a book,” it chronicles in those precincts suggests they were, but Michael Waters in The New Yorker. Yes, he a several-decade period, not so long past, Kirchick points out that this could be a can cite a worthy hero in Frank Kameny, when the nation’s capital was a particu- natural outcome in any field that favors who became a gay rights pioneer after he larly punishing place to be gay. Disclosure socially adept individuals with few family was fired by the U.S. Army Service in 1957. frequently meant the end of a career and obligations that would discourage travel. But Kameny didn’t start fighting until he social banishment; disturbingly often, it was out of government. What’s more, the triggered violent suicide. “And yet the majority of the gay insiders profiled by very skills gay people had to develop to Kirchick come across as having been “more survive—studiousness, compartmentaliza- compromised by their proximity to power tion, discretion, itinerancy—made them than emboldened by it.” Contrary to his uniquely skilled to sensitive tasks like intentions, “the truth most clearly revealed espionage or high-level advising.” Focusing by Kirchick’s focus on Washington is one on the 1930s through ’90s, Kirchick fills that queer historians have emphasized for more than 650 pages with detailed portraits years: that change was prompted not by of dozens of queer men and women who those in the halls of power but by activists attained positions of influence in D.C. His working well outside of them.” thorough excavation of their harrowing Getty Novel of the week Everybody Thought We “That this book reads almost like a magical- Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, realist fairy tale is not surprising,” said Tracy Flick Can’t Win Brooke Hayward, and Patrick Brennan in the Chicago Review of 1960s Los Angeles Books. Hopper and Hayward’s world must by Tom Perrotta itself have felt like fiction, as they made by Mark Rozzo (Ecco, $30) in-the-beginning connections with a string (Scribner, $27) of icons that included Andy Warhol, the Dennis Hopper and Beatles, Jane Fonda, and Miles Davis. But Tom Perrotta’s sequel to Election is Brooke Hayward were, for all the “dizzying glory” of their eight- “even more piercing than its predeces- throughout most of year union, it was rarely less than rocky, sor,” said Molly Young in The New the 1960s, “the hipster and it ended sadly, with Hopper descending York Times. That 1998 Perrotta novel power couple,” said Ty into substance abuse and violence before introduced readers to Tracy Flick, an Burr in The Wall Street scoring his first screen comeback, with unpopular high schooler who was run- Journal. Though the 1969’s Easy Rider, just a month after the ning for class president and would soon two young Hollywood- couple’s divorce became final. be immortalized by Reese Witherspoon based actors didn’t in the film adaptation. In the new make many movies “To wish for a different ending is precisely book, Tracy is an assistant principal or bankroll many cre- the point,” said Matthew Specktor in who aspires to the open top job but, ative ventures of any The Atlantic. Hayward never reached her despite her obvious qualifications, has kind during those years, they occupied the potential on screen because of Hopper’s no support. She remains, in short, “an hub of the era’s counterculture, making jealousy; Hopper never reached his because underdog cursed to be construed as an the introductions that spun out endless he was so combative. Each of them did infuriating alpha,” an intriguing char- innovations and provocations in film, art, great work in other fields—Hopper in pho- acter surrounded here by “exquisitely music, and photography. He was a mercu- tography and Hayward as a memoirist. But drawn” secondary figures. Perrotta is rial Method actor from Kansas; she was the sense of what might have been is one more clearly on Tracy’s side this time, the cool, confident offspring of Hollywood of the bittersweet pleasures of this book. It said Judith Shulevitz in The Atlantic. royalty, and in this “exceptionally well- enables you to feel all this potential “before He’s most interested, in fact, in examin- researched and well-written book,” they it evaporates, and before this improbable, ing bro culture—the world of boys and are the VIPs who usher readers into every fleetingly beautiful union—just like that men that puts Tracy at a disadvantage. corner of the decade’s cultural revolution. period of promise that would occur for the The way this book ends is “both shock- “Who isn’t in this book?” It’s hard to say, movies merely a year or two later—goes ing and inevitable,” given the abuses of because Hopper and Hayward “seem to shooting down in flames.” power we witness. Tracy is stymied, but have known everyone.” many of the men are stunted, “often in THE WEEK June 17, 2022 ways that lead straight to disaster.”

24 ARTS The Book List Best books…chosen by Sloane Crosley Author of the week Sloane Crosley’s new novel, Cult Classic, follows a New Yorker whose encounters David Sedaris with multiple exes lead her into a Lower East Side cult. Below, the best-selling author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake recommends books seeped in downtown culture. David Sedaris isn’t ready to give his father the benefit of Low Life by Luc Sante (1991). This should be The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell (1962). the doubt just because the required reading for anyone who signs a lease Powell is one of those major New York writers old man is now dead, said below 14th Street. I like to think I have a unique who keeps getting lost and found again. This is Terry Gross in NPR.org. Lou connection to this book, having discovered it her last novel. Her earlier work is magnificent— Sedaris, according to his son, after nearly moving into a former brothel, once so start anywhere—but, in this instance, come told outrageous lies, beat known as McGurk’s Suicide Hall, that Sante for the shout-outs to Chumley’s and The White his kids, cheated them the details. The building was never granted land- Horse, two historic downtown watering holes. mark status. It’s a community garden now. same way The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner (2013). he cheated Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis (1998). This In this book, set in the 1970s, Kushner captures other people is a controversial recommendation because the a Soho chockablock with artists, activists, and who worked “correct” answer to Ellis’ Best Portrait of New fabulists like no one else. It’s so vivid. (And, if I for him, and York is American Psycho. But the string of may squeeze in a less popular recommendation, made sexual proper nouns in Glamorama, a gloriously over- Molly Prentiss’ 2016 book, Tuesday Nights in comments the-top ’90s New York satire, has stuck with me 1980, feels like a distant but deserving cousin of about his own for life. I just adore it. The Flamethrowers.) daughters. “My father was a perfect prep- The Colossus of New York by Colson What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg aration for having Donald Whitehead (2003). The essays in this book are (1941). If novels had taglines, this one would Trump as president,” David not confined to downtown, though many hover be, “You can take the boy out of the Lower East says. “It’s been the driving there. The opening and most heavily quoted Side, but…” Schulberg’s portrait of a man— force in my life: the animosity, piece in it, written shortly after 9/11, is a stun- based on his father—who climbs out of dog-eat- the war that my father and I ner: “The city knows you better than any living dog poverty on Rivington Street, finagling his started when I was young and person....” Some part of me thinks of it every way into mogul status in Hollywood, is a gem. fought every day of our lives.” time I put my key in my door. It’s a California novel with tenement roots. But when Lou died last year, at 98, David didn’t celebrate. Also of interest...in the life of the mind As certain as the best-selling humorist was that his father Desperate Remedies Nasty, Brutish, and Short was not truly a good man, he also didn’t hate him. “It’s by Andrew Scull (Belknap, $35) by Scott Hershovitz (Penguin, $28) more nuanced than that,” he says. “You can still love a Andrew Scull’s fascinating history of It turns out that Scott Hershovitz’s mean person.” psychiatry in America suggests that two young sons are “ideal avatars the field may have hit a dead end, for philosophical ruminations,” said Several of the essays in said Richard McNally in The Wall Thuy Dinh in NPR.org. A professor Sedaris’ new book, Happy- Street Journal. We tried asylums that of law and philosophy, Hershovitz Go-Lucky, address that devolved into prison-like institutions, devotes his first book to showing fraught relationship, said Tyler scored one true breakthrough with a syphilis cure, how philosophy comes naturally to children and Malone in the Los Angeles and then recklessly experimented before turning how instructive it can be to entertain their ques- Times. “It’s tricky because decisively to pharmacology, which has proved of tions and observations. Though the jokey title you don’t want to be a 65-year- limited use. To Scull, it’s not clear that psychiatry evokes Thomas Hobbes’ grim view of human old man whining that your even has a future, but his account of where it’s existence, Hershovitz’s inquiry is “driven by dad was mean to you,” he been is “an indisputable masterpiece.” openness and compassion.” says. “So here I am, 65, and hopefully it’s not whining.” He The Ceiling Outside Two Heads knows he could have chosen Getty (2) to end the book with the title by Noga Arikha (Basic, $29) by Uta, Chris, and Alex Frith (Scribner, $30) piece, in which he describes how his father became Consciousness remains such a mys- Though this graphic novel–style guide a cheerful pleasure after terious phenomenon, said Claire to the brain is “easy to read and dementia struck. “It’s kind of Messud in Harper’s. In this “wide- often very funny,” said Rachel Cooke a lovely essay—the best thing ranging and engrossing” book, his- in The Guardian, “you finish it with I’ve written,” he says. Instead, torian of ideas Noga Arikha strings your mind blown.” Uta and Chris he followed it with a piece together case studies of patients in a Frith are cutting-edge married neuro- that includes the line, “I think hospital’s neuropsychiatry unit to examine how scientists who have teamed with their writer son I’ll miss him the same way I the body and mind interact to determine the and illustrator Daniel Locke to summarize all missed getting colds during sense of self. Hallucinations, amnesia, and spatial that’s currently known about our gray matter, the pandemic.” A compli- disorientation become windows on consciousness and the resulting tour is “packed with visual met- cated subject, obviously. “I generally, as does the Alzheimer’s-driven decline aphors and witty, meta footnotes.” When you’re could easily spend the rest of of Arikha’s mother. done, you’ll see yourself and others differently. my life,” he says, “trying to sort through the feelings that I had for my dad.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022



26 ARTS Review of reviews: Art & Music Exhibit of the week favorite subject of the earlier artist that is showcased in this retrospec- Cezanne tive’s final room. The figures in these works “often have an impas- Art Institute of Chicago; sive quality, leading many critics to through Sept. 5 wonder if he imbued his celebrated apples with greater emotion than “When it comes to Cézanne, how do you his human subjects.” That char- say something new?” asked Taylor Dafoe acteristic, too, can apparently be in ArtNet. For more than a century, Paul excused by his focus on conveying Cézanne (1839–1906) has been celebrated sensation through his brushwork. as an artist’s artist. For nearly as long, the banker’s son from Aix-en-Provence has been Cézanne’s influence has clearly credited with laying the groundwork for the 20th-century avant-garde. But the curators carried on into the 21st century, of the largest Cézanne retrospective since 1997 decided that more could be learned said Hannah Edgar in the Chicago about the great French post-impressionist simply by looking more closely at his paint- ‘Still Life With Apples’: Quietly defying gravity Tribune. To prove it, the curators ings. Of the 80 oil paintings in this show, which will later travel to London’s Tate invited 10 contemporary artists, Modern, eight have been subjected to infra- red X-ray and other imaging technologies building a picture,” said Kyle MacMillan including painter Kerry James Marshall to determine how he made each mark. The and sculptor Phyllida Barlow, to contribute curators’ conclusion: What made Cézanne in the Chicago Sun Times. In paintings a pioneer and enduring inspiration is that in such as Still Life With Apples (1893-94), essays about individual works in the show. every landscape, still life, portrait, and fig- Perhaps Cézanne did have fellow artists ure painting, he was trying to communicate “standard rules of perspective are over- emotion with every brushstroke, building thrown and the objects look like they are in mind as he painted, but this exhibition each image sensation by sensation. about to slide off the table.” But the impact suggests more strongly that he painted for that Cézanne had is obvious in this show, himself and no one else. The curators even Always, Cézanne seems “less concerned which “goes to great lengths” to highlight chose to remove the accent from the con- about what he is depicting than how he is which works were collected by fellow art- ventional spelling of his name because the artist didn’t use the accent until Parisian ists, said J.S. Marcus in The Wall Street Journal. Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and conventions demanded it. Not that the show tells you how to interpret every such Henri Matisse all owned Cézannes, and Jasper Johns has loaned the show one of complication. “It’s up to you to wind your own way. It’s what Cézanne did, after all.” Cézanne’s drawings of female bathers, a Angel Olsen Fantastic Negrito Horsegirl Big Time White Jesus Black Problems Versions of Modern Performance ++++ ++++ ++++ Though Angel Olsen The new Fantastic This debut album could easily become Negrito album “can “doesn’t just revive a a breakout indie star, best be described certain sound; it revives “she seems to have as a combination the idea of mystery and other things on her of Frank Zappa and tension in rock ’n’ roll,” mind,” said Mark Prince,” said Hal said David Browne in Richardson in The Wall Horowitz in American Rolling Stone. Though Street Journal. The Songwriter. While the singer-guitarists Nora restless singer-songwriter, now 35, makes three-time winner of the Grammy for Best Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein and a stylistic detour with each new album. Contemporary Blues Album has always drummer Gigi Reece are still in their teens, But her sixth turns out to be an “excel- been hard to nail down, this audacious their music will make you feel as if you’re lent” entry point to her catalog, because record addresses a weighty subject with “standing in a crammed basement club half of it appealingly evokes “the lush and music that “whiplashes around like a fran- circa 1993, immersed in beautiful sonic atmospheric sound of early-’70s country- tic amusement park.” The songs address squalor.” And this Chicago trio isn’t just politan” and the other leans toward the his ancestry, starting with a white Scottish goofing around: “There’s nothing cute or “tense chamber pop” of 2019’s acclaimed indentured servant who lived in an illegal even borderline novelty” about songs like All Mirrors. Altogether, it’s “a bighearted common-law marriage with an enslaved “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty),” a record that achieves thrilling grandiosity Black man in 1750s Virginia, and every “thunderous” tune whose typically ellipti- and cheek-warming intimacy, sometimes track is more interesting than the last. cal half-buried lyrics sketch a portrait of a in the span of a single song,” said Katie Musical genres “crash together with spec- fractured family. This promising 12-track Presley in NPR.org. “Olsen is no stranger tacular narrative-enhancing results,” said set “strings together the best bits of shoe- to grappling with grief in her music,” and Ellie Rogers in Total Guitar. “Venomous gaze, jangle, grunge, and alt-rock,” said she recorded this album shortly after both Dogma,” for example, “transitions from Rachel Aroesti in The Guardian. The of her parents died and not long after she’d dreamy pop to ominous blues rock riffage” sweetness of the vocal melodies is consis- revealed to them that she’s gay. “Maybe to capture the trauma of his forebears’ tently offset by “what seems like the scien- country is where Olsen’s sound was always transition to bondage. “Trudoo,” which tifically optimal amount of sour, grinding headed,” because this record’s big feel- arrives later, “pairs Nashville country blues dissonance.” Granted, the lyrics aim for ings feel most at home in that mode. If with funk to create a celebratory ode to the surreal and “end up sounding under- you don’t love the title track, “you simply freedom.”The result feels both vintage and cooked.” But such a flaw is forgivable on a do not have enough country and western experimental, and “there’s simply nothing first album. “The rest is a masterclass in a music in your life.” to be gained from trying to categorize it.” new kind of classic rock.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022



28 ARTS Review of reviews: Film & Home Media Rylance’s blue-collar hero lovable bumbler, sure, but you may wish Dashcam,” said Sam Adams in Slate. for more time with the secondary char- Musician and podcast host Annie Hardy The Phantom acters. Jake Davies superbly conveys the plays a loudmouthed, Covid-denying con- of the Open shame of Flitcroft’s adult eldest son, while spiracy theorist whose online audience Sally Hawkins serves up “toasty-warm encourages her most obnoxious behavior. ++++ empathy” as the dreamer’s supportive wife. When a supernatural menace shows up, “A decent portion of the movie’s appeal lies the “chaotic, sometimes aggravating” The trailer for this modest British dramedy in the strands of rumination it inspires,” said found-footage horror movie “practically “might lead you to roll your eyes,” said Brent Simon in The A.V. Club. Rylance’s forces you to root against its protago- Michael O’Sullivan in The Washington duffer doesn’t strive to be the best. He nist,” yet “might leave you feeling a little Post. “But just hang on, and give this sly competes simply because doing so makes unsettled about that.” (In theaters or $6 on little gem of a film a chance.” Mark Rylance him happy, and there’s something “a bit demand) R is fantastic as Maurice Flitcroft, a real-life radical” about an underdog sports movie British shipyard worker who picked up that embraces those undramatic stakes. The Tsugua Diaries golf on a whim and then crashed the 1976 “It is a portrait, and a soft endorsement, of This sun-dappled Portuguese film about British Open, posting the worst score in quotidian joys.” (In select theaters) PG-13 pandemic-era moviemaking “doesn’t just history. Flitcroft snuck into pro tourna- break the fourth wall, it demolishes it,” said ments by wearing disguises and using silly Other new movies Beandrea July in The New York Times. pseudonyms, and Rylance portrays him The movie “plods at first,” as three friends as an affable father of three who won’t be 18½ build a butterfly house on a seaside farm. discouraged by golf’s snooty gatekeepers. Part satire, part political thriller, and nearly But as the story moves backward through “The Phantom of the Open is a smidge too a romance, this winning wisp of a movie 21 August days, it expands to include the cuddly,” said Guy Lodge in Variety. The “doesn’t have a vision, it has a vibe,” movie’s production crew, “and remarkably, “insistently smiley” script turns its protago- said Matt Zoller Seitz in RogerEbert.com. it succeeds.” The result is “a work that nist into a human Paddington Bear. He’s a Reacher’s Willa Fitzgerald stars as a gov- possesses both the whimsy of a student ernment stenographer who at the height project and the technical vibrancy of a vet- of the Watergate scandal stumbles on the eran’s opus.” (In theaters only) Not rated missing 18½ minutes of President Nixon’s White House tapes. As she tries to share Poser them with a reporter, the film “morphs in The old Single White Female plot “isn’t and out of multiple genres,” and part of done chilling audiences just yet,” said Kate its charm is that “there seems to be little Erbland in IndieWire. Set in the Columbus, rhyme or reason to the choices it makes.” Ohio, underground music scene and fueled (In theaters only) PG-13 by a pair of breakout performances, this “spiky, funny” debut thriller about an aspir- Dashcam ing podcast host proves “more than a little “If you’ve ever watched a slasher movie nail-biting.” (In select theaters) Not rated and rooted for the killer, you’re ready for New and notable podcasts Sympathy Pains Sounds Like a Cult Batman Unburied (Neon Hum/iHeartRadio) (All Things Comedy) (Spotify) The very latest reimag- The new podcast from Sounds Like a Cult Sony Pictures Classics ining of the Batman Dr. Death host Laura “gets at something fun- myth landed in “a very Beil “explores the damental about mod- fitting new home: audio unique distress of being ern society: No matter drama, where audi- subjected to deeply where you are, you’re ences have an endless unethical behavior for never too far from the appetite for grisly mur- which there are no for- brink of cultishness,” der,” said Gavia Baker- mal avenues of punish- said Nicholas Quah in Whitelaw in The Daily Dot. In Spotify’s hit ment,” said Kat Rooney in PodcastReview NYMag.com. Each episode of the podcast, 10-episode series, Bruce Wayne is a foren- .org. The six-episode series focuses on co-hosted by author Amanda Montell and sic pathologist who’s hunting an organ- the victims of Sarah Delashmit, an Illinois comedian Isabela Medina, explores a cul- stealing serial killer named the Harvester. woman, now 37, who for years infiltrated tural phenomenon with cultlike aspects— And while many have played the Wayne/ communities of the disabled or gravely from “obvious” targets such as motiva- Batman character before, Black Panther ill by falsely claiming to be disabled or tional speaker Tony Robbins and multilevel star Winston Duke “quickly makes the sick herself. In the early episodes, several marketing schemes to unexpected candi- role his own,” creating “a gruffly amused women recall developing friendships with dates including academia. “The result is a loner” who helps freshen up a battle of Delashmit that ended disastrously, and thoroughly interesting yet breezy take on wits that’s otherwise derivative of similar while their stories are profoundly troubling, what can often be a heavy subject.” It’s such thrillers. Fortunately, the series “experi- Beil’s “detached, television-news approach” a relief to put aside Charles Manson and ments in ways that previous adaptations of limits the emotional impact. Because David Koresh to hear instead about groups the character haven’t,” said Kai Grady in the Delashmit declined to be interviewed, said of fervent adult Disney fans or Elon Musk Los Angeles Times.The majority of the cast Amanda Woytus in St. Louis magazine, devotees, said Gabrielle Bruney in Jezebel. is nonwhite, including Hasan Minhaj as listeners rely on Beil to suggest a form of “They’re phenomena that many of us who the Riddler. And because fight sequences mental illness as the cause. Still, “a bigger probably swear we could never be corralled are difficult to create using audio only, the question for Beil is: After Delashmit realized into a commune, heads shaven and wear- series is “far more focused on Batman’s the level of harm she was causing, why did ing nothing but unbleached linen, still man- psyche than Batman’s physical brutality.” she continue?” age to be sucked into.” THE WEEK June 17, 2022



30 ARTS Television Streaming tips The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching The latest in horror... Pete Davidson Presents: The Best Friends ‘Old Man’ Bridges: Alone and on the run Pete Davidson may never be great at stand-up, Mad God but he’s a comic people want to watch. In his oners at a cushy island facility where the inmates Special effects guru Phil latest special, the Saturday Night Live star tests have been promised reduced sentences for par- Tippett spent three decades the waters of his post-SNL career by riffing on ticipating in studies of mind-altering drugs. Chris on his dialogue-free stop- his feud with Kanye West before handing over Hemsworth plays the smarmy mastermind who motion magnum opus, which the mic to other young comedians and bring- wants everyone to believe that they’re lucky to follows a character known ing on Machine Gun Kelly for a three-song have him as their overseer. Available Friday, as the Assassin through an set. Available Monday, June 13, Netflix June 17, Netflix insane hellscape. Its stream- ing premiere arrives June 16, Love, Victor Other highlights a week after the theatrical Who will Victor wind up with as he finishes his Father of the Bride debut. Shudder time at Creekwood High and the series about his First it was Spencer Tracy, then Steve Martin. In love life enters its third and final season? Fans this new take on the classic comedy, it’s Andy Evil know that Season 2 ended with star Michael Garcia playing the lovable curmudgeon paying The series about a skeptical Cimino ringing a doorbell. But had Victor chosen for his daughter’s home wedding. Adria Arjona psychologist and a Catholic his longtime love-interest Benji, or Rahim, who’d and Gloria Estefan co-star. Available Thursday, seminarian who team up to just revealed his feelings at a wedding? Available June 16, HBO Max investigate paranormal ac- Wednesday, June 15, Hulu tivity shed some inhibitions Cha Cha Real Smooth and grew stronger when it The Old Man Cooper Raiff, the writer, director, and star of moved from CBS to stream- Some isolated seniors are better left alone. Jeff Shithouse, plays charmingly aimless again in his ing last year. Season 3 arrives Bridges proves that in this new thriller series new comedy about a recent college grad who’s this week. Paramount+ about a grizzled former CIA operative who fights a perfect bat mitzvah sparkplug until he falls back when an attempt on his life proves he hasn’t for one of the teenagers’ mothers. With Dakota The Sadness escaped the repercussions of his government Johnson. Available Friday, June 17, Apple TV+ Buckets of gore and black career. John Lithgow plays an old colleague at humor mark this recent Tai- the CIA who heads the team attempting to hunt Rutherford Falls wanese horror flick, which the wily survivor down, and back-to-back epi- Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding return for follows a young couple try- sodes get the cat-and-mouse off to a stirring start. Season 2 of their delightful comedy series ing to reunite while a virus is Thursday, June 16, at 10 p.m., FX about a town grappling with a complicated turning everyone in their city history. Available Thursday, June 16, Peacock into sadists. Shudder Jerry and Marge Go Large In a lighthearted new movie that celebrates a Blood Conscious different sort of plucky senior, Bryan Cranston In this twist on the cabin- stars as a middle-class retiree who’s facing a in-the-woods trope, three cash-strapped future until he discovers a flaw in young Black urbanites a state lottery game. Annette Bening plays his arrive at a weekend lake wife, who’s also soon enjoying raking in riches house to discover two and sharing the wealth with neighbors—until family members murdered. a group of MIT students try to cut in on the Finding and subduing a action. Available Friday, June 17, Paramount+ crazed gunman doesn’t even begin to resolve their Spiderhead troubles. Tubi In a trippy George Saunders short story brought to life, Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett play pris- Shining Vale The first word in the title Thompson learns to let go. Show of the week FX, Searchlight Pictures/Everett of this hit horror comedy series should clue you in to Good Luck to You, Leo Grande its arc. Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear co-star as a It’s never too late for a sexual awakening. couple who buy a house in Emma Thompson was 62 when she made this Connecticut hoping to repair surprising dramedy about a recently widowed their marriage. She’s a writer, teacher who, having never experienced an or- communes with a demonic gasm, books a sex worker to learn what she’s spirit, and well, you know. been missing out on. Thompson’s co-star, Mira Sorvino fills the super- Daryl McCormack, makes Leo Grande seem natural role. Starz.com a dream hire: patient, empathetic, and chis- eled, too. Written by Katy Brand and directed Feria: The Darkest Light by Sophie Hyde, Leo Grande is too smart to In this bingeable series from track only its heroine’s growth. But it may be Spain, two teenage sisters remembered for that, particularly because of growing up in an idyllic town the bravery Thompson mustered for the final learn that their suddenly scene. Available Friday, June 17, Hulu missing parents may have been the leaders of a suicide cult and walked away from the bloody endgame. Netflix THE WEEK June 17, 2022 • All listings are Eastern Time.

LEISURE 31 Food & Drink Critics’ choice: Redefining what a drinking establishment can be Alpana Chicago Alpana’s namesake, at her new wine refuge century might have fed on cake and exis- “Step into Alpana, and the first person tentialism” and you’ll regret it if you don’t you’ll probably see is Alpana Singh,” start a conversation,” said Pete Wells in try the charcuterie or that salad, known as said Nick Kindelsperger in the Chicago The New York Times. Though just three celery Victor. “Salads at Inga’s are never an Tribune. “One of Chicago’s beloved months old, the Brooklyn Heights cor- afterthought.” 66 Hicks St., no phone culinary figures,” Singh was the young- ner spot is “already a local hangout,” est woman ever to become a master and the food that chef Sean Rembold is Black Lodge Richmond, Va. sommelier before becoming the longtime serving reaches a level beyond comfort- Chef Brittanny Anderson apparently has a host of the review show Check, Please! ing. Rembold is “something of a Johnny dark side, said Justin Lo in the Richmond But she’s clearly putting time and effort Appleseed figure in the local food scene,” Times-Dispatch. Just to the left of Brenner into her newest restaurant, where she having helped bring nose-to-tail cooking to Pass, her light-filled Alpine restaurant in the has lined the walls with framed portraits Williamsburg years ago. Here he’s cooking Scott’s Addition district, is a dark doorway of strong women such as Liz Taylor, traditional American and continental dishes that looks like the entrance to an empty Tina Turner, and Rihanna. “Turns out with thoughtful twists, such as an Irish coffee shop. “Step inside; the super-secret what Singh wanted most at Alpana was lamb stew with Japanese turnips and fresh world of Black Lodge awaits”—a playful control”—choosing the menu herself and mint or polenta topped with grated Comte, mix of gas-station convenience store and sometimes even selecting dishes because roasted mushrooms, and a warm egg yolk. fancy speakeasy bar where the cocktails they complement certain wines. To bring Though the bar is separated from the dining are pro level, the hot dogs are topped with out the best of a bracing white such as room just enough that you can drop in for trout roe and fondue cheese, and a typical Merga Victa Posip from Croatia, the menu just cocktails or wine, both spaces feel “like meal feels like “the start of a very good offers tender braised octopus, with crushed a tea salon where bohemians of the last night and the end of one, too.” A $30 cav- Turkish chile and a salsa verde. Salads are iar service pairs sturgeon roe with potato “the surprise hit of the menu,” while some chips, sour cream and chives, and two tiny entrées, such as the steak au poivre, “don’t chalices of gin. Past that opener await per- quite measure up.” Still, this “gorgeous” fect fish and chips, a reimagined patty melt, Gold Coast wine refuge is off to a great and a fennel-rich meatball sub. I’ve never start, and with sustained commitment been to an underground party, but Black from its namesake, it will only get better. Lodge sure feels like one. “Unassuming 831 N. State St., (312) 624-8055 location? Check. Playful sophistication with a hint of irony and vice? Check. Inga’s Bar Brooklyn License to indulge your deepest, darkest Inga’s is the kind of bar where even the desires? Double check.” 3200 Rockbridge arrival of a braised celery salad “could St., (804) 965-3331 Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Content Agency, David Malosh/The New York Times Recipe of the week Bitters: The new standards The salad below delivers “a classic Southeast Asian flavor combination”: sweet, hot, The bitters revival has gotten out of and savory, said J. Kenji López-Alt in The New York Times. Feel free to swap out hand, said Brad Thomas Parsons in Punch. Every cocktail enthusiast should the watermelon for other summer fruit. But try to use palm sugar rather than brown still stock the two major brands that and make the effort to find fried shallots at an Asian store. Fried shallots are a staple once were all you could find: Angos- condiment of Southeast Asian cuisine, and keeping the ready-made variety on hand tura and Peychaud’s. But with dozens of brands now producing hundreds is “a move that can infuse so many dishes with flavor and crunch.” of flavors, there’s “need of a serious culling.” Below, three that have become Watermelon salad with fried shallots and fish sauce deserving bartender staples: 4 medium garlic cloves • 2 to 12 fresh Thai bird’s-eye chiles, stems trimmed • 3 tbsp Regans’ Orange Bitters No. 6 ($12). You do need an orange bitters, and Gaz palm sugar • ¼ cup fish sauce • 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice • ½ cup store- Regan’s concoction has become the bought fried shallots • 3 lbs seedless watermelon, rind removed, cut into 1-inch benchmark. Its spicy profile “helped chunks • ½ small red onion, thinly sliced • 1 small cucumber, halved lengthwise and ignite the bitters boom.” cut into ½-inch slices • large handful of roughly chopped mint leaves • large handful Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters ($19). of roughly chopped cilantro leaves • ½ cup crushed or chopped roasted peanuts Bartenders love Bittermens products, including the brand’s mole bitters, • Combine garlic, chiles, and sugar in Season generously with salt and transfer which feature cacao and cinnamon, bowl of a large mortar and pestle. Pound to a small bowl. and are “at home among dark spirits, into a paste. Add fish sauce rum, and tequila.” and stir with pestle until • In a large bowl, combine Scrappy’s Celery Bitters ($20). Add sugar is dissolved. Add lime melon, onion, cucumber, a vegetal snap to a tequila, gin, or juice and stir with pestle to mint, cilantro, peanuts, half vodka cocktail with Scrappy’s, with incorporate. the fried shallots, and ¼ cup its notes of celery seed and dill. • Toast shallots dry in a large dressing. Toss to combine. skillet over medium-low heat Taste and add more dressing until deep caramel brown and as desired. Transfer to a serv- aromatic, about 3 minutes. ing platter and sprinkle with remaining shallots. Serves 4 THE WEEK June 17, 2022

32 LEISURE Travel This week’s dream: Touring Maui and Lanai by e-bike The twisting coastal road that circles the E-bike riders cruise the Maui coastline. between our bikes and Lanai City, but western half of Maui can be hairy for driv- when I cranked up the electric assist, my ers, said Tim Neville in The New York ride to Lahaina. Lahaina is an old whaling bike surged “like a dragon stirred awake.” Times. Fortunately, “on an e-bike, it is port where “music poured from open-air Once we reached town, we refueled with bliss,” as a friend and I recently discovered restaurants.” We checked into the Pioneer chicken katsu and fresh-baked sticky buns when we tackled the West Maui Loop Inn, Maui’s oldest hotel, and “I could at the Blue Ginger Café. during a spring-break trip to Maui and have stayed there a lifetime.” Instead, we neighboring Lanai. As the 60-mile route grabbed a morning ferry to Lanai, the Back on Maui, we rode north the next day rings 5,788-foot West Maui Mountain, it sparsely populated island west of Maui, from Lahaina to Ironwood Ranch, where “heaves and falls and curls around cliffs” and snorkeled among clouds of trigger- we strung hammocks in a gazebo and, as while climbing a total of 4,100 feet. “John fish in Hulopo’e Bay. A big climb stood payment for an overnight, lent the owner and I weren’t super athletes, but dads a hand with his horses. The next day’s on electric bikes,” and our rentals from 22-mile stretch—often uphill and against RideSmart Maui made relatively easy the wind—was as difficult as it was spec- work of hauling our luggage and eating up tacular. Our legs and batteries both were miles while we soaked up views of “wave- tested, but we also rounded blind corners battered cliffs, lava-rock-ringed coves, and that revealed “thundering bays and craggy lush hillsides flittering with zebra doves.” cliffs,” and we passed farms, banana bread stands, and timeless villages. The re-entry We started in Kahului, where the traffic to the commercial sprawl of Kahului came was stressful. Though the loop itself can as a shock the next day, but we did our be completed by top cyclists in four hours, best to adjust, ending our adventure with we chose to spread our journey across mai tais at the airport. five days and began enjoying it as soon as At Lahaina’s Pioneer Inn (pioneerinnmaui we left the city on the mostly flat 27-mile .com), doubles start at about $300. Hotel of the week Getting the flavor of... One of three outdoor pools America’s Great Plains Getting out on the water in Boston Fairmont Taghazout Bay There’s no such thing as flyover country, said Boston rewards exploration, said Christopher Taghazout, Morocco Rebecca Powers in The Washington Post. Last Muther in The Boston Globe. There’s nothing Morocco’s surfing capital finally has a luxury resort, year I drove coast to coast, and of all the dra- wrong with popular attractions such as the and the beachfront property “cuts a striking figure,” said matic landscapes I saw, “the plains, prairies, and Freedom Trail, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Alexandra Kirkman in Condé Nast Traveler. Its sand- grasslands are what have stayed with me.” Wide- Newbury Street. But you could spend a whole colored buildings occupy 45 “artfully landscaped” open spaces “put things in perspective,” and the day exploring the city’s waterfront attractions, acres studded with gnarled olive trees, while floor-to- broad vistas of the Great Plains “offer opportu- starting with a stroll on the Boston Harborwalk, ceiling windows offer guests a pleasing blurring of the nities for tourists to feel the essence of the land “a great place to get your bearings in the Seaport indoors and out. Whether in your room or the spa—which and its history.” The 350-mile Native American District and downtown Boston.” If you’re with is now Morocco’s largest— “don’t be surprised to see an Scenic Byway follows the Missouri River through kids, you might stop along the way at the Boston occasional camel sauntering along the beach.” Fittingly tribal lands in the Dakotas, taking travelers Children’s Museum. At the nearby Institute for a surfing haven, the top- notch service at the hotel past monuments, museums, and sacred sites. of Contemporary Art, the water shuttle to the blends comfortably with “a distinctly laid-back vibe.” In Nebraska, pioneers’ museum’s seasonal East fairmont.com; doubles Boston exhibition space from $360 wagon ruts still scour the A new hotel cleaning policy THE WEEK June 17, 2022 earth at the California Hill Hotel guests everywhere are starting to is “one of the best boat rides in town” and puts National Historic Trail. notice that at least one routine service The Great Plains “offer has vanished since Covid struck, said you near Day Square’s lessons in ecology” too. Allison Pohle in The Wall Street Journal. great Peruvian restaurants “Prairies are alive with At many hotels, “daily room cleaning is near lunchtime. If kayak- native plants.” Some 2,500 no longer a given.” Instead, guests must ing’s your thing, rent at bison roam Oklahoma’s request it, and the unions that represent Paddle Boston’s Allston/ Joseph H. Williams Tall- hotel housekeepers are now urging that Brighton location, where grass Prairie Preserve—the you do. The switch to by-request-only the Charles River has no cleaning began in the early days of the planet’s largest tallgrass current and affords views pandemic, when health risks were high from the water of local prairie. “Visitors who drive for both guests and staff. But many hotel groups are still enjoying the cost or hike the preserve are colleges, the Esplanade, savings, while housekeepers face more rewarded with expansive challenging cleanups, trimmed hours, and the Boston skyline. RideSmart Maui views, 700-plus plants, 300 and reduced pay. If you don’t like having And don’t forget South birds, and 80 mammals.” staff enter your room, current policies Boston’s long stretch of Wildflowers bloom widely should please you. But if you want to sandy beaches, where mid-May to mid-June. keep the staff’s earnings steady, do ask a long stroll should Switchgrass reaches peak that your room get a daily freshening. end with fried clams at height in September. Sullivan’s Castle Island.



34 Best properties on the market This week: Homes in California wine country 1 Santa Rosa Command- 2 Calistoga This three-bedroom home at the edge of the ing 58 private acres of hills, new Four Seasons Napa Valley resort can be used as a family meadows, ponds, forests, residence or a resort-managed vacation rental. Built in 2021, and vineyards, this three- it features an open gourmet kitchen with marble counters, bedroom modern farmhouse island, and wine refrigerator; a vaulted dining area and great is also 10 minutes from room with clerestory windows; and a primary bedroom with downtown. The home, built a glass wall and outdoor access. The lot includes a lawn in 2004, has a sunken living with a firepit and a patio with vineyard views. $6,000,000. room with vaulted ceiling, Joshua Dempsey, Vanguard Properties/Luxury Portfolio clerestory windows, walls International, (707) 637-6123 of glass doors, and a woodstove, stepping up to a chef’s kitchen with slate floors and a bi-level stone-topped island with an embedded wine rack. Outside are a large deck, a lap pool, and views of the wooded hills. $4,500,000. Eric Drew, Healdsburg Sotheby’s International Realty, (707) 217-9415 3 Kelseyville Across the road from Clear Lake’s Konocti Bay, this four-bedroom house has views of the lake, vine- yards, and Mount Konocti. The 2005 Pueblo-Spanish revival, sustainably built of reinforced masonry, has unique copper, wrought-iron, timber, glass, and slate accents and organic-form sculptural detailing. The 30-acre property includes 5 acres of old-vine zinfandel, a walnut and fig orchard, hiking and horse trails, and outbuildings including a chicken coop, barn with loft and kitchenette, and two cottages. $1,500,000. Mara Eichelmann, Engel & Völkers Healdsburg, (707) 485-2922 THE WEEK June 17, 2022

Best properties on the market 35 4 Mendocino This five-bedroom home is in the northern com- mercial wine country near Big River Estuary and Mendocino Bay. Built in 1978, the three-story redwood-clad house features cathedral ceilings and Dutch doors; a large chef’s kitchen; a vaulted great room with dining area, floor-to-ceiling windows, and fireplace; a finished lower-level den; two wrap- around decks; and ocean views. The 0.6-acre lot is surrounded by state parks and a nature preserve and is walking distance to town and the beach. $2,150,000. Jim Eldridge, Mendo Sotheby’s International Realty, (707) 813-8134 5 Napa Set on a hilltop a short drive from downtown, this 2.33-acre wooded property offers mountain and vineyard views. The two-bedroom open-plan main 6 house, built in 1983, has vaulted ceilings 4 with roofline clerestory windows, living room with central fireplace, kitchen with 5 Wolf stove and walk-in pantry, exercise 3 room, office area, and wraparound deck. Outside are a hot tub, picnic area, gar- 2 dens, chicken coop, one-car garage, and guesthouse with half-bath and its own 1 California garage. $1,780,000. Agi Smith, Engel & Völkers Napa, (707) 363-9896 Steal of the week 6 Guerneville This two-bedroom town- house is in a 1989 condo in Dubrava Village, beside the Russian River and near downtown and Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. The three-level end-unit includes a main floor with vaulted ceilings, large skylight, dining-living room with wood-pellet stove, kitchen with laundry stack and breakfast area, and wood deck looking out on the trees. Community amenities include a fitness room, canoe and kayak storage, sauna, clubhouse, and private river access. $489,000. Abby Tanem, Coldwell Banker Realty, (415) 497-9542 THE WEEK June 17, 2022

36 BUSINESS The news at a glance The bottom line Forecasts: Warnings of a global slowdown QHousing affordability fell The world economy is in dan- There’s no question the world 29 percent between March 2022 and the year earlier, the ger, said William Horobin in is in a precarious position, said sharpest decline on record, according to the National Bloomberg. That was the message Steve Goldstein in MarketWatch, Association of Realtors. With mortgage rates soaring and this week from two international but there are diverging views home prices staying ele- vated, the monthly principal organizations, the Washington- on how bad things will be. The and interest payment on an average-priced home, by a based World Bank and the Paris- OECD doubled its inflation buyer who puts 20 percent down, has gone up by based Organization for Economic projection from December to roughly $600—44 percent— since the start of the year. Cooperation and Development 8.5 percent in 2022. However, Axios (OECD), both of which said the The Ukraine war has snarled trade. it offered some reasons for cau- QThe average sales price of manufactured homes world will pay a “hefty price for tious optimism that the current has risen nearly 50 percent during the pandemic, the war in Ukraine.” The World Bank warned of situation is not like that of the 1970s. “Advanced from $82,900 to $123,200, compared with a 22 percent stagflation reminiscent of the 1970s and cut its economies are far less energy intensive—in the increase for average new homes. About 20 million projection for growth to 2.9 percent; at the start U.S., that reduces the impact of an oil shock Americans live in mobile homes, which make up about of the year, it had predicted growth of 4.1 per- by half.” Falling union membership has made 6 percent of U.S. residences. The Washington Post cent. The OECD, a policy group with 38 member advanced economies less susceptible to a wage- QIn addition to $385 mil- countries, also cut its forecast and cautioned price spiral, which can pressure higher inflation. lion in career earnings in about “long-lasting damage to supply chains” And “higher savings accumulated during the pan- the NBA, LeBron James’ business after the abrupt cutoff of Russia’s economy. demic” should keep consumer demand strong. interests have made him a bil- Twitter: Musk renews threats to abandon deal The chicken deals Reuters, Getty lionaire; he is the aren’t flying away second basketball Elon Musk reiterated his threat to walk away from his planned Twitter player (along with purchase over Twitter’s fake accounts, said Kurt Wagner and Maxwell One item in the grocery Michael Jordan) Adler in Bloomberg. Musk filed a letter to regulators this week asserting cart still feels like a to reach the milestone. that the company is committing “a material breach” of its obligations discount, said Rachel Forbes under the $44 billion takeover deal “by not meeting his demands for Treisman in NPR.org: more information” about bots, and he reserves the right “to terminate rotisserie chicken. As QThe median launch price the agreement.” But legal experts say the filing “wasn’t necessary” and inflation causes costs of a new drug in the U.S. was likely done to put public pressure on Twitter. Behind the scenes, to rise on food across soared from $2,115 in 2008 to “both sides have been meeting regularly and sharing information.” the board, including $180,007 in 2021, with aver- poultry, wholesalers age prices rising 20 percent Tariffs: U.S. opens door to more solar panel imports “Costco, BJ’s, and per year. Over 47 percent Sam’s Club are keeping of new drugs introduced in The Biden administration declared a two-year freeze on tariffs for solar their rotisserie chicken 2020 and 2021 cost more panels imported from four Southeast Asian countries, said Jeff Mason prices low—$5 or less.” than $150,000 per year, com- in Reuters. The move this week comes after state governors, lawmak- Grocery stores Publix pared with just 9 percent of ers, and environmentalists expressed concern about a Commerce and Giant Eagle have drugs introduced from 2008 Department investigation that has “effectively halted the flow of solar also held their cooked to 2013. panels” to the U.S. The agency has been looking into whether solar poultry prices stable. Fortune panels primarily made in China were being routed through Cambodia, The reason, accord- Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam to circumvent existing tariffs. ing to food-marketing QSome 83 percent of experts, is “loss-leader respondents said the state Amazon: Consumer chief leaves after over-building pricing,” a strategy of of the economy was “poor” “selling some prod- or “not so good” in a poll Amazon’s consumer CEO, Dave Clark, resigned last week after the ucts below cost to get from The Wall Street Journal company admitted it built too much warehouse space during the pan- shoppers in the door.” and NORC at the Univer- demic, said Dana Mattioli in The Wall Street Journal. Clark, who over- Rotisserie chickens sity of Chicago. That’s the saw Amazon’s logistics operation, “led an unprecedented hiring spree are a popular choice. highest dissatisfaction level and build-out of its sprawling delivery network” last year. Declining If shoppers are “filling since NORC, a nonpartisan demand led to Amazon’s first quarterly loss in seven years in April, and their carts with other research organization, began the company is now trying to renegotiate leases and “seeking to sub- goods that have gone asking the question in 1972. lease at least 10 million square feet of warehouse space.” up in price,” they might The Wall Street Journal feel better knowing Trade: Ports wait on dockworker negotiations “they’ve saved money THE WEEK June 17, 2022 on at least one highly “The immediate future of the global supply chain rests on a bargaining visible item.” That is, if table in San Francisco,” said Sam Dean in the Los Angeles Times. The you can find it. Stores union representing all West Coast dockworkers met this week with the tend to stash their bosses of maritime shipping firms before the current contract expires rotisserie selections in July 1. A backlog of ships waiting to unload at the ports has added the back so that cus- urgency to the negotiations, which historically have been fraught. “West tomers have to “pass Coast dockworkers are the highest-paid logistical workers in the U.S.,” lots of other products with average full-time salaries of $195,000. But union leaders contend along the way.” that shipping companies are increasing automation at workers’ expense.

Making money BUSINESS 37 SPACs: Wall Street leaves investors holding the bag Investors are starting to see the full cash dwindling, it may be “the worst costs of the SPAC investment craze, said deal of the SPAC era.” And the cast of Eliot Brown in The Wall Street Journal. big Wall Street names involved in selling Beginning in 2020, we witnessed a this turkey to investors—Goldman Sachs, boom of flashy startups choosing to Cantor Fitzgerald, and Credit Suisse— merge with special-purpose acquisition “reads like a game of tech-bubble bingo.” companies (SPACs) to go public instead of following the traditional IPO process. Indeed, all the familiar names on Wall Companies—and their backers—eagerly Street fed the SPAC frenzy, said Jessica took advantage of loose regulations DiNapoli in Reuters, and they have that allowed them “to entice investors raked in billions. With a traditional IPO, with projections of revenue and profits” “underwriters can be held responsible with minimal scrutiny. Now SPACs under securities law for any misleading have lost an average of 59.5 percent of Lilium: Crashing to earth after raising $584 million forecasts.” But banks advising on a SPAC their value since they offered shares for earn a fee as soon as an acquisition target investors. At least 25 of the 232 companies that listed through is announced. What happens after is of little concern to them. In SPACs between 2020 and 2021 “have issued so-called going- 2020 and 2021, banks booked $8 billion in SPAC-related fees. concern warnings,” indicating auditors have determined “there is ‘substantial doubt’ about the ability to stay afloat for the next Regulators have moved to crack down on SPACs, and a bill pro- 12 months.” These include high-profile startups such as the elec- posed in Congress last week takes aim at the small number of in- tric airplane maker Lilium, which has raised $584 million. siders who make up the “SPAC mafia,” said Matthew Goldstein in The New York Times. The legislation, drafted by Elizabeth The “smart window” maker View might tell you all you need Warren (D-Mass.), would prevent sponsors from cashing out to know about the SPAC boom and bust, said Chris Bryant in before a SPAC meets the projections it made to investors. But it’s Bloomberg. Since its founding back in 2007, the SoftBank-funded really too late: The big profits have already been made and Wall company View has lost about $2 billion, and still its “windows Street has moved on. “Of the roughly 600 SPACs still out there cost more to build than they sell for”—a less-than-smart business scrambling to find targets, 270 have been looking for at least a plan. Nonetheless, in 2021 View raised a staggering $815 million year.” If a merger isn’t completed within two years, the money through a SPAC merger. With shares now down 93 percent and raised goes back to investors. Game over. Lilium What the experts say have exploded over the past decade—“for just Charity of the week media and entertainment offerings, the average Individual investors flock to bonds number of paid subscriptions per consumer More than a was 12 in 2020.” That’s a lot to keep track quarter of India’s Government bonds are the new meme stocks, of. “Most people (86 percent) have put some, 1.3 billion–plus said Sam Goldfarb in The Wall Street Journal. if not all, of their subscriptions on autopay.” people are Seeking safety from a turbulent market, from But nearly half of respondents said they “were under age 15, the end of April to late May investors poured still being charged for a subscription” they had and many of $20 billion into mutual and exchange-traded forgotten about and no longer used. those young funds that focus on buying ordinary U.S. Trea- people lack the surys, “the largest infusion over a four-week Debt relief for Corinthian students resources needed to succeed at school. span in at least 29 years.” So many orders Founded in 1991, Asha for Education have been placed for inflation-linked “I bonds” The Biden administration wiped away (ashanet.org) sees education as a prereq- paying an initial interest rate of 9.62 percent— $5.8 billion in loans for former students of a uisite to socioeconomic change and aims available only to individual investors, through defunct for-profit school, in the largest stu- to increase access for underprivileged the Treasury Department—that the agency dent debt cancelation yet, said Katie Lobosco children throughout India. The California- had to shift staff to a call center. Purchases in CNN.com. The Department of Education based charity, whose name means of these bonds, which are limited to $10,000 announced last week it would clear the debts “hope” in Hindi, has over 50 chapters per investor, have totaled “$14.9 billion since of 560,000 students who attended Corinthian and 1,000 volunteers in India, the United November, about $6 billion more than the schools from 1995 through 2015, when regu- States, Canada, and Europe. Asha chap- previous 20 years combined.” lators shut down the network of colleges for ters join with local community groups to “misleading prospective students about the support projects that range from voca- Undercounting subscription bills ability to transfer credits and falsifying its job tional training and internships to provid- placement rate.” Onetime Corinthian students ing special-needs resources and funding Most people underestimate how much they have pressed for relief for years; many had al- emergency Covid relief. Since its found- spend on subscriptions by a hefty amount, ready been “refusing to make their payments” ing, Asha for Education has contributed said Sarah O’Brien in CNBC.com. A new sur- as part of the nation’s first student debt strike. to more than 400 projects in 24 of India’s vey from market research firm C+R Research The announcement brought the total student 28 states. found that “consumers’ offhand guess of how loan relief approved under the Biden adminis- much they spend monthly on subscriptions tration to $25 billion. Each charity we feature has earned a averaged $86.” The actual amount was $219 four-star overall rating from Charity on average, a difference of $133 per month. Navigator, which rates not-for-profit The confusion is understandable. Subscriptions 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 June 17, 2022

38 Best columns: Business Leaning out: The most powerful woman in tech moves on How will history judge the onetime tech super- lation about her leaving.” Meanwhile, the job star who told American women to “lean in” to weighed heavily on her; she postponed a sab- their careers? asked Shira Ovide in The New York batical several times and was caught up in a Times. Well, it’s complicated. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook investigation of her “use of corporate Meta’s departing chief operating officer, “shares resources to help plan her upcoming wedding.” in the credit (or blame) for developing two of By the end, the woman who told other women the most successful, and perhaps least defensible, to lean in was “increasingly burned out.” business models in internet history.” Before join- ing Facebook (now Meta)—which she announced Still, we shouldn’t lose sight of that lean-in legacy last week she is leaving after 14 years—Sandberg for working women, said Sarah Green Carmi- helped Google build a digital ad business that be- chael in Bloomberg. Her monumental 2013 book came indispensable to every marketer. When she has “become decidedly uncool” in certain femi- was hired by then-23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg Sandberg: Burned out by Meta nist circles where Sandberg’s “wealthy, white, in 2008, she designed an even “more sophisti- capitalist, cisgender, and heterosexual” perspec- cated” and precise system that could be scaled to reach billions tive is met with skepticism. But Sandberg “changed the conver- of users. Now we know the darker side of this strategy, which sation” about women and power. It was rare for women in the enabled personal data to be harvested and exploited by bad ac- C-suite “to talk about demanding pregnancy parking,” because tors. But “Facebook wouldn’t be what it is today—both good there was a fear “that admitting to femaleness would cause them and bad—without Sandberg’s partnership with Zuckerberg.” to be taken less seriously.” Sandberg helped dispel that myth and encouraged other women to discuss their experiences. It was inevitable that Sandberg and Zuckerberg would reach a fork in the road, said Steven Levy in Wired. Zuckerberg “gave Zuckerberg’s difficulty now is that he has no business model her tremendous autonomy” over everything from selling ads to other than the one Sandberg created, said Gina Chon in Breaking communications, lobbying, and policy. Zuckerberg knew that he Views. Her approach was imperfect, but you “could sell it to didn’t have the “life experience” to run all of those. The price, investors.” Facebook’s move into the metaverse “is visionary though, was that “troubles in Sandberg’s world were slow to but highly uncertain,” and Sandberg’s replacement “is an expert find their way to Zuckerberg,” and the “consequences were in products, not finance.” Zuckerberg “has always been in the disastrous.” Zuckerberg’s relationship with Sandberg never driver’s seat,” but he needed a trusty co-pilot “taking many more recovered after Zuckerberg told her that “he blamed her and slings and arrows than he,” said Kara Swisher in The New York her teams” for getting Facebook embroiled in scandals around Times. He is a “talented techie,” but I am dubious that Zucker- the 2016 elections, said Salvador Rodriguez in The Wall Street berg “can do what needs to be done to make his virtual world a Journal. While Sandberg stayed on, there was “persistent specu- success without another Sandberg type at his side.” What if all Last week, the Federal Trade Commission reported dollar, have lured in investors because they “seem of crypto that cryptocurrency scams now account for “about high-tech and futuristic.” To me, what they resemble is a scam? 1 of every 4 dollars reported lost to fraud,” said is the “wildcat” paper currency circulated by banks Paul Krugman. That’s underselling them—by a huge before the Civil War. Now we have dollars issued Paul Krugman amount. Those are just the losses to outright fraud by the U.S. Treasury, so what is the point of a pri- reported to the FTC. It doesn’t count “the money vate version? Better, why not ask the same question The New York Times invested in assets that existed, sort of, but were fun- about crypto in general? When you do ask about damentally worthless,” a situation we’ve seen again real-world uses for crypto, in my experience “the Trump’s and again in the crypto world. A recent example is answers are always word salad.” Few investors were worst trade TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin that collapsed last willing to bet against the housing bubble in 2008, mistake month and lost $18 billion in value, “in some cases because it just didn’t seem plausible that a market consuming people’s life savings.” Stablecoins, which that big could be built entirely on sand. It turned out Scott Lincicome are supposed to be pegged to a currency like the that it could. The Dispatch Withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was access to its vast market. This has increased China’s Getty “the most boneheaded U.S. policy move of the last influence in the region while reducing the “obvious THE WEEK June 17, 2022 decade,” said Scott Lincicome. The 2008 free-trade enticement with which Washington can sway other agreement between the U.S. and 11 other nations countries toward adopting its preferred set of trad- was a political lightning rod. But since former Presi- ing rules and standards.” President Biden’s recent dent Donald Trump abandoned TPP on his first trip to Asia established the “Indo-Pacific Economic day in office, “we’ve unfortunately re-learned why Framework for Prosperity” (IPEF) with 12 other people supported TPP in the first place.” The rest of countries, but while the details are fuzzy, it is clear the TPP parties “moved on without us and inked” what IPEF won’t be: a trade agreement. Biden’s trade their own trade agreement, cutting the U.S. off from officials are reportedly too “haunted” by the lashing increasing trade with “large, up-and-coming Viet- TPP took to bring back anything similar. As a result, nam and Malaysia.” China grabbed the chance to we’ll be “competing for influence with China with forge its own regional trade deal, offering improved one hand tied behind our back.”

Obituaries 39 The woman who gave Gerber its baby face The Freud grandchild who became his Ann Turner Ann Turner Cook Her sketch competed against “lav- severe critic Cook carried a secret ish paintings done in oils,” but Gerber’s judges “were captivated Sophie Freud was decidedly 1926–2022 almost from birth. As by its innocent immediacy.” The not a Freudian. Sigmund image proved so popular that it Freud’s last surviving grand- a high school English became Gerber’s trademark in child studied human behav- 1931, said NBCNews.com, and ior as a social worker and teacher in Tampa, Cook feared was subsequently “used in all packaging and advertising.” Smith psychology ridicule if her students learned the moved to Florida, married, earned a master’s degree, and became a Sophie professor at truth: that her infant likeness was schoolteacher, but all she earned Freud Simmons from her ubiquitous image was the most recognizable baby face $5,000 from a settlement in 1951. “It was 1924–2022 University enough to make a down payment on a modest in Boston. on Earth. Cook was the Gerber house,” she said, “and to buy a first car.” But she forcefully rejected baby, a fame she gained when a Gerber’s insistence on keeping the baby’s identity her famous grandfather’s secret, said the Associated Press, ended up “spur- approach to therapy, calling neighbor in Connecticut submit- ring rumors” that the model must have been psychoanalysis a “narcissistic Shirley Temple or Elizabeth Taylor, or—the most indulgence” and saying his ted a charcoal sketch of her at five popular theory—Humphrey Bogart. Only when theories about transference Gerber celebrated the drawing’s 50th anniver- between male therapists and months in response to a 1928 con- sary did it reveal the baby to be Cook. After she female patients whitewashed retired from teaching, Cook wrote mystery nov- a harmful phenomenon. She test seeking an image for a marketing campaign. els and fielded the occasional interview request. even once compared him to The appeal of the drawing, she told CBS in 2013, Adolf Hitler, saying both men The neighbor, Dorothy Hope Smith, promised was that it was generic enough to stand in for were “false prophets of the nearly any newborn. “I can’t think of anything 20th century.” Still, the pro- to complete the illustration if it were chosen, but nicer than to be a symbol for babies,” she said. fessor, who escaped Austria “And that’s what I think I became.” in 1938, acknowledged that Gerber executives took one look at the picture the family name probably saved her life. Her brother, of the cherubic, wide-eyed infant and said that she recalled, once told her, “Without Grandfather, the no embellishment was necessary. Over the next Nazis would have made lampshades with your skin.” 90 years, the image would be reproduced billions Sophie was raised in Vienna of times on products from strained peaches to in the “turbulent household” of Sigmund Freud’s eldest infant formula, while Cook walked supermarket son and his estranged wife, said The NewYorkTimes. aisles unrecognized. “I was really no cuter than She remembered her grand- father as a “protective pres- any other baby,” she said. But Smith “had won- ence,” if not especially warm. In 1938, the family fled the derful artistic talent and was able to draw a very Gestapo, and 13-year-old Sophie endured a “harrow- appealing likeness.” ing pursuit for sanctuary” that included a 400-mile Turner grew up in Westport, Conn., where her bicycle trip across France. father “was a well-known illustrator” who drew She arrived in NewYork in syndicated comic strips, said The New York 1942 “virtually penniless,” Times. Neighbor Smith was a commercial artist. but an uncle paid for her to attend Radcliffe College, and The songwriter who struck gold with ‘Itsy Bitsy’ she earned a doctorate from Brandeis in 1970. Paul In 1960, songwriter a music-publishing company.” Vance Paul Vance pleaded He made up the showbiz name Freud inherited her grandfa- with his 2-year-old Paul Vance, said The Telegraph ther’s “precise attention to 1929–2022 daughter to come out (U.K.) and with Pockriss wrote time,” said The Boston Globe, a hit in 1957, “Catch a Falling keeping an old-fashioned of the changing room at a beach Star,” for Perry Como. The clock in her classroom. “lilting” and “childlike” song After 40 years of marriage, near their home on New York’s became the very first record to she divorced engineer Paul go gold, with more than a mil- Loewenstein in 1985 because, Long Island. She was shy about lion copies sold. Vance was sud- she said, “I could not imag- denly a full-time songwriter. ine becoming old with a her new two-piece swimsuit, and man.” And she never under- He and Pockriss wrote for Johnny Mathis went psychoanalysis, boast- when she summoned the courage (“What Will Mary Say”) and Frank Sinatra ing, “I’m still patting myself (“Then Suddenly Love”), and had nearly a on the shoulder for that.” to run into the water, her bottom dozen songs on the charts when “Itsy Bitsy” was released, said The Times (U.K.). His last big hit THE WEEK June 17, 2022 came undone and floated away. came in 1975 with “Run Joey Run,” sung by David Geddes. But he continued earning a for- With his partner, Lee Pockriss, Vance banged out tune in royalties from “Itsy Bitsy,” which hit the charts again in 1990, sung by British broadcaster a lighthearted, slightly suggestive song, recorded Timmy Mallett, and was also used in films and a yogurt commercial. In 2006, newspapers nation- by teen Brian Hyland, about an anxious wearer wide reported Vance’s demise, after a Florida man who falsely claimed to have written “Itsy of “an itsy bitsy, teenie weenie, yellow polka-dot Bitsy” died. Vance urgently notified publishing companies that he was very much alive. “Believe bikini.” It reached No. 1, boosted bikini sales, me,” he said, “if they think you’re dead, they ain’t going to send the money.” and inspired several hit covers. Songs by Vance and Pockriss went on to sell more than 50 mil- lion copies. “Everybody knows my songs, but they don’t know me,” Vance said in 2015. “If you told them the songs I wrote, they’d say, ‘Get outta here!’ I look like a regular truck driver.” AP, Alamy Vance was born Joseph Florio in Brooklyn, the son of Italian immigrants, said The Washington Post. “I was supposed to have become a Mafioso,” he once said. A professional boxer in his youth, Vance served in the Army and ran an auto salvage business “before he connected with

40 The last word The testosterone question Lia Thomas is in the top ranks of women’s swimming and at the center of a rancorous debate about trans athletes in women’s sports, said Michael Powell in The New York Times THE WOMEN ON the Princeton “misogyny to perpetuate transphobia.” University swim team spoke Not long afterward, a Princeton eating of collective frustration edg- club barred a female swimmer from ing into anger. They had watched joining, saying her “transphobia” Lia Thomas, a transgender woman might bring it into disrepute, according who swam for the University of to a Princeton swimmer. Pennsylvania, win meet after meet, Inescapably, America’s hyperpartisan beating Olympians and breaking politics has electrified this debate. records. Librarians have been told to remove On Jan. 9, the team met with Robin books with transgender themes from Harris, executive director of the shelves. And Republican-dominated Ivy League athletic conference. The legislatures in 18 states have intro- swimmers, several of whom described Some swimmers say Thomas has an unfair advantage. duced restrictions on transgender the private meeting on condition of participation in public-school sports anonymity, detailed the biological in recent years, according to data advantages possessed by transgender female Even nomenclature is contentious. from the Human Rights Campaign, an athletes. To ignore these, they said, “was to Descriptive phrases such as “biological LGBTQ advocacy group. undermine a half-century fight for female woman” and “biological man” might be equality in sport.” seen as central to discussing differences MICHAEL JOYNER, A doctor at the in performance. Many trans rights activ- Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Harris had already declared her support ists say such expressions are transphobic studies the physiology of male for transgender athletes and denounced and female athletes. He sees in competitive transphobia. In an interview, she said she and insist biology and gender identity are swimming a petri dish. It is a century old, and the sexes follow similar practice and had replied that she would not change rules largely social constructs. nutrition regimens. Since prepubescent in midseason. “Somehow,” a swimmer Some trans activists try to silence critics, girls grow faster than boys, they have a recalled, “the question of women in sport whom they derisively call TERFs, which competitive advantage early on. Puberty has become a culture war.” stands for trans-exclusionary radical washes away that advantage. “You see the feminists. A spokesperson for a gay rights divergence immediately as the testosterone The battle over whether to let female group urged a reporter not to “platform”— surges into the boys,” Joyner said. “There transgender athletes compete in women’s that is, not to quote—those she said held are dramatic differences in performances.” elite sports has reached an angry pitch, a objectionable views, including Martina collision of competing principles: the hard- fought-for right of women to compete in Navratilova, a retired tennis legend, a The records for elite adult male swimmers high school, college, and pro sports versus champion of liberal and lesbian causes. are on average 10 to 12 percent faster a swelling movement to allow transgender Navratilova argues that transgender female than the records of elite female swimmers, athletes to compete in their chosen gender athletes possess insurmountable biological an advantage that has held for decades. identities. Although the number of trans- advantages. “So I’m a ‘TERF’—OK, that’s Little mystery attends this. Beginning in gender athletes on top teams is small—a the way you want to go?” Navratilova the womb, men are bathed in testosterone precise count is elusive, as no major said in response. “I played against taller and puberty accelerates that. Men on aver- athletic association collects such data— women, I played against stronger women, age have broader shoulders, bigger hands, disagreements are profound. They center and I beat them all. But if I faced the male and longer torsos, and greater lung and on science, fairness, and inclusiveness, and equivalent of Lia in tennis, that’s biology. I heart capacity. Muscles are denser. “There cut to the core of distinctions between would have had no shot. And I would have are social aspects to sport, but physiol- gender identity and biological sex. been livid.” ogy and biology underpin it,” Joyner said. The rancor stifles dialogue. At meets, Former allies are split so bitterly as to make “Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla.” Thomas has been met by stony silence and reconciliation a distant prospect. Half of When a male athlete transitions to female, muffled boos. College female athletes who Thomas’ University of Pennsylvania team the NCAA, which governs college sports, speak of frustration and competitive dis- sent a letter to the school, released by a requires a year of hormone-suppressing advantage are labeled by some transgender lawyer, saying the swimmer had “an unfair therapy to bring down testosterone levels. activists as transphobes and bigots, and are advantage.” Brooke Forde, an Olympic The NCAA put this in place to diminish the reluctant to talk for fear of being attacked. silver medalist with Stanford, however, sup- inherent biological advantage held by those David Walter Banks/The New York Times Thomas has chosen silence. In March, ported Thomas. “Social change is always born male. Thomas followed this regimen. after winning the 500-yard freestyle in the a slow and difficult process, and we rarely But peer-reviewed studies show that even NCAA women’s championship in Atlanta, get it correct right away,” she said. after testosterone suppression, top transgen- she skipped a news conference. Of late, der women retain a substantial edge when she has spoken only to Sports Illustrated, Griffin Maxwell Brooks, a transgender racing against top biological women. nonbinary diver at Princeton who competes saying, “I’m not a man. I’m a woman, so I on the men’s team, released a TikTok video When Thomas entered women’s meets, belong on the women’s team.” accusing “cisgender women” of leveraging she rose substantially in national rankings. THE WEEK June 17, 2022

The last word 41 Pete Kiehart/The New York Times Among men, she had ranked 32nd in the at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on sexual orientation and gender identity in 1,650-yard freestyle; among women, she the tour, no genetic woman in the world housing, education, employment, and credit. ranked eighth and won a race this season would have been able to come close to by a margin of 38 seconds. She had ranked me,” she said in an interview. “I’ve recon- It potentially places biology and gender 554th in the men’s 200-yard freestyle; sidered my opinion.” identity on the same footing in sport. she tied for fifth place in this race in the Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a Duke women’s 2022 NCAA championship. TO WANDER THE stands in March at University law professor and former top the women’s swim championships track runner, supports legal protections And she ranked 65th in the men’s 500-yard at Georgia Tech and ask about for transgender people but foresees havoc freestyle but won the title as a female. Thomas was to draw shakes of the head in the arena of sports. The legal rationale from parents and grandparents, sisters and for keeping women’s sports sex-segregated “Lia Thomas is the manifestation of the brothers of swimmers. Many emphasized would fall away. “We are bringing a male scientific evidence,” said Dr. Ross Tucker, a that transgender people should have the body into a female sport,” Coleman said. sports physiologist who consults on world same right to housing, jobs, marriage, and “Once you cross that line, there’s no more athletics. “The reduction in testosterone did happiness as any American. rationale for women’s sport.” not remove her biological advantage.” Navratilova: ‘So I’m a TERF? OK.’ BY WAY OF solution, some point to Testosterone levels are crucial but do not golf, where in amateur competitions invariably predict performance in every But they talked of the thousands of hours a superior golfer takes a handicap— sport. Chris Mosier is a 41-year-old elite the young women put into their sport. docking herself strokes—when competing athlete who transitioned to male in 2015 From early childhood, they swam hundreds against lesser players. Applied to swimming, and had no testosterone-fueled develop- of laps daily, nursing injuries and watching a panel might examine Thomas’ race times mental advantage. Yet, he has beaten elite nutrition. Why, having reached the pin- and subtract seconds and let her swim. racewalking biological men. “Athletic nacle, should they race against a swimmer performance depends on a lot of factors: who retains many biological advantages The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a policy access to coaches and nutritionists and of a male athlete? “We have a biological organization based in Ottawa, argues for technical skill,” Mosier said. “We are mak- male taking over women’s sports,” said an “open category” for men, transgender ing broad generalizations about men being one mother. “I don’t understand why those athletes, and biological females—anyone bigger, stronger, faster.” on the left politically are not supporting who cares to try her/his/their hand. An cis women.” exclusively female category would remain Still, most scientists view performance dif- for biological women. This solution would ferences between elite male and female Equality for women in sports followed forestall the need for transgender women to athletes as nearly immutable. Israeli physi- decades of struggle. Fifty years ago, take hormone-suppressing drugs. cist Ira Hammerman in 2010 examined President Richard Nixon signed Title IX, 82 events across six sports and found which banned discrimination in higher Some transgender activists argue such women’s world record times were 10 per- education. This opened the doors of pre- distinctions would be insulting, notwith- cent slower than those of men’s records. viously all-male classes and led to many standing the decision of those who race in more female teams and scholarships. In their former gender. The solution, a balance “Activists conflate sex and gender in a way 1972, 1 in 27 girls played sports; today of gender and biology, looks distant. And that is really confusing,” said Dr. Carole 2 in 5 do so, according to the Women’s yet, no end of anguish accompanies the Hooven, lecturer and co-director of under- Sports Foundation. The 1972 U.S. Olympic status quo. graduate studies in human evolutionary team featured 90 female athletes alongside biology at Harvard University. She wrote 339 male athletes. Last year’s American In Atlanta, a father, who declined to give the book T: The Story of Testosterone. team in Tokyo had 284 male athletes and a his name, sat in the stands and watched “There is a large performance gap between record 329 female athletes. Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle. She was, healthy normal populations of males and he noted, far taller than her competitors, females, and that is driven by testosterone.” Some transgender activists are challenging with long legs and arms, big hands, and aspects of Title IX, specifically its implicit broad shoulders. A day earlier, his daughter Sprinter Allyson Felix won the most acknowledgment of biological difference. had lost to Thomas in the 500-yard race, world championship medals in history. And supporters, not least the Biden admin- and nothing about that race felt fair to him Her lifetime best in the 400 meters was istration, say transgender girls should be or his daughter. 49.26 seconds; in 2018, 275 high school permitted on girls’ sports teams. They have boys ran faster. pushed for a federal Equality Act, which The father was polite as Thomas was would prohibit discrimination based on announced, and he clapped twice. Renée Richards was a pioneer among transgender athletes. An ophthalmologist Thomas lost by a broad margin. She and accomplished amateur tennis player— slipped out of the pool, picked up a towel, she played in the U.S. Open and ranked sidestepped embracing swimmers and 13th in the men’s 35-and-over division— walked out, a solitary figure. she transitioned in 1975 at age 41. She joined the women’s pro tennis tour at age The father watched and shook his head. 43, ancient in athletic terms. Richards then “In fairness to Lia, man, the emotional made it to the doubles final at Wimbledon toll,” he said. “I look at her and see the and ranked 19th in the world before retir- pressure she’s under. And I think: She’s a ing at 47. 22-year-old kid.” Richards has said she no longer believes it A version of this story originally appeared is fair for transgender women to compete in The New York Times. Used with at the elite level. “I know if I’d had surgery permission. THE WEEK June 17, 2022

42 The Puzzle Page Crossword No. 652: Mixtape by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest ACROSS 64 No. 1 hit for the 28 “You sure about that?” This week’s question: In a survey of 500 delivery drivers, 1 My Left Foot Oscar- subject of the new 32 Cynical revenue 4 out of 5 admitted to eating part of customers’ orders winner Fricker biopic Elvis—and like at some point. What would you call a delivery app that 7 Half a dance the letters in ELVIS source acknowledges this unsavory reality? 10 Fun-to-walk-on carpet in one word of each 33 Butchers trim it theme entry 35 Word after junk or fan Last week’s contest: Flocks of jackdaws have been 14 9,896-line tale 36 Ms. Macpherson observed squawking their way toward consensus on 15 Casual greetings 66 Political commentator 37 Oriole’s home where to collectively fly and roost next. If these loud, 16 John Deere rival Klein 40 Wins every game in a crow-like birds were to form a movement to spread 17 Pants since 1873 their democratic values, what should they call it? 19 Dismounted 67 ___ shot series 20 Poem about nature 68 Hun head 41 Spring festival THE WINNER: “Flock the Vote” 21 Hitchhiker’s goal 69 Harsh sound 44 “Why did you have to John Parry, Eldersburg, Md. 22 Dunder Mifflin unit 70 Iris’ place 23 Enjoys fancy clothes 71 Vein insertions tell me that...” SECOND PLACE: “Common Caws” 46 Gould of Capricorn Mike Reiss, New York City and cars, say DOWN 26 Buddy, in southern 1 Indonesian island One THIRD PLACE: “Freedom Flies” 2 Marsh plant 48 ___ at Any Speed (1965 Joe Ayella, Wayne, Pa. Belgium 3 Be jealous of 29 Barbie’s beau 4 Sam of Jurassic Park Ralph Nader book) For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go 30 North Carolina ___ 5 Now-disabled YouTube 51 ___ Works (Monopoly to theweek.com/contest. button How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to Heels 6 Word like “weird” space) [email protected]. Please include your name, 31 With 45-Across, wise (abbr.) 52 Doolittle or Dushku address, and daytime telephone number for verifica- 7 Spiced drinks 53 Active types tion; this week, type “Delivery scroungers” in the sub- choice when faced 8 Source of the words 54 “Wowzers!” with a dilemma “mantra” and 55 Assessor’s concern ject line. Entries are due by 34 Third-to-last country “mogul” 56 Struck, archaically noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, alphabetically 9 Permission 60 Similar (to) June 14. Winners will appear 38 Odyssey 10 ___: The Final Frontier 61 Creepily insular group on the Puzzle Page next issue 39 Overflowing (with) (1989 William Shatner 62 Relaxing businesses and at theweek.com/puzzles on 42 ___ chips (baked movie that was the 65 Holds Friday, June 17. In the case of snack) fifth installment of its identical or similar entries, the 43 The planets of our series) first one received gets credit. HMRS solar system, e.g. 11 Like old socks, often 45 See 31-Across WThe winner gets a one-year 47 It’s feathered but 12 Sans serif typeface subscription to The Week. flightless 13 “I was totally fooled!” 49 Letter after “kay” 18 Before the present, Sudoku 50 “___ me get this straight...” poetically Fill in all the 51 Chapel covers 24 Fashionista Wang boxes so that 57 More than expected 25 For example each row, column, 58 Dove or Dial 26 One voice and outlined 59 Apple options 27 Soldier-for-hire, briefly square includes 63 Level all the numbers from 1 through 9. Difficulty: hard Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. ©2022. All rights reserved. The Week (ISSN 1533-8304)) is published weekly, except January 7, January 14, July 15, and September 16. The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 135 West 41st Street, 7th Floor, 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 $269 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. The Week is part of Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House,The Ambury, Bath BA11UA. THE WEEK June 17, 2022 Sources: A complete list of publications cited inThe Week can be found at theweek.com/sources.



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