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The Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Editor’s letterWe live amid a proliferation of laws. This is an international phenomenon. In my home state, New York, the legislature passed a ban on plastic bags—a potentially justifiable disincentive to pollution that the city, in its even greater wisdom, may now accompany with an inexplicable 5 cent charge for paper ones (see Talking Points). On the other side of the Atlantic, Brussels, the world’s most important native habitat for faceless bureaucrats, has passed a raft of new internet regulations. Among them is a “link tax” that Google would pay for tiny snippers of text in search results. It’s a plan that could cripple internet searches—and similar to a German rule that failed so badly that publishers were left begging Google to restore its links (see Best Columns: Business). As often…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019May struggles to break Brexit deadlockWhat happenedWith the U.K.’s Brexit deadline only days away and Parliament unable to agree on how Britain should leave the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May stunned members of her Conservative Party this week by seeking to forge a “softer Brexit” deal with opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. “I am taking action to break the logjam,” May said, after Parliament voted for a third time to reject the divorce deal she negotiated with the EU and shot down a series of alternate Brexit plans proposed by lawmakers. (See Best Columns: Europe.) If Parliament fails to approve any agreement with the EU, Britain will crash out of the bloc on April 12. Economists, business leaders, and politicians from all parties have warned that the sudden imposition of trade barriers between…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Anti-corruption triumphBratislava, SlovakiaAn environmental and anti-corruption activist was sworn in this week as Slovakia’s first female president. Zuzana Caputova, 45, is a liberal lawyer nicknamed “the Slovak Erin Brockovich” for her successful 14-year lawsuit to block a toxic landfill in her hometown. Her first act after victory was to light a candle at a shrine for murdered reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova; they were shot dead last year as Kuciak worked on a story about corruption in the ruling center-left party, Smer. Five people have been charged with the murders, including a millionaire linked to Smer, and the uproar over the deaths sparked anti-government protests that brought down the prime minister. Caputova said the killings spurred her to run.Erdogan weakensIstanbulTurkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week suffered…7 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Lang’s piano practiceLang Lang is one of the world’s most celebrated living pianists, but the process of getting there was brutal, said Elizabeth Grice in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). He started playing at age 3 and gave his first performance in his northern China hometown two years later. His father quit his job as a policeman so that his son, then 9, could study at a prestigious conservatory in Beijing. Lang remembers practicing endlessly while his father repeated, “You must be number one, you must be number one.” One day he returned late from school and his father erupted, saying, “You’ve missed nearly two hours of practicing and you can never get them back. Everything is ruined! Dying is the only way out.” He told his son to take an overdose and,…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Why Mueller couldn’t be a saviorFrank BowmanSlate.comThe Left is now brokenhearted, but Robert Mueller “was never going to solve our national political crisis,” said Frank Bowman. Despite how liberals idealized the special counsel as a superhero, it was highly unlikely that Mueller could find such damning proof of conspiracy between Trump and the Russians that even Republicans would impeach him. Yes, the Russians hacked Democratic emails and gave some Trump associates advance word they would be released. Yes, the Russians mounted a large-scale social media effort to boost Trump and damage Hillary Clinton. Trump welcomed the help—but did Vladimir Putin’s operatives ask Trump’s amateurish campaign team if they should do any of this, or involve them in the process—necessary components of a criminal conspiracy? The Russians are far too shrewd for that. Hardly the “Deep…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Viewpoint“Robert Mueller conducted himself impeccably. How thrilling to hear absolutely nothing from him. I don’t even know what his voice sounds like. The lack of leaks or grandstanding; the efficiency and obvious rigor of the process; the resistance to becoming the Resistance: Mueller single-handedly showed that the norms of liberal democracy and the rule of law can be upheld even as most of the political actors, especially the president, have been behaving like bit players in a banana republic. Give it up for old-school WASP Republican values!”Andrew Sullivan in New York magazine…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019This hopeless envoy isn’t helping TrumpGERMANYChristiane HoffmannDer SpiegelIf you thought U.S. President Donald Trump was bad, his chosen ambassador to Germany is “unbearable,” says Christiane Hoffmann. Since Richard Grenell arrived here last year he’s strutted around like a “governor-general,” scolding those who fail to do his master’s bidding. He’s threatened firms that ignore U.S. sanctions on Iran or get involved in the new Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia. Last month, he told Economics Minister Peter Altmaier that the U.S. would stop sharing intelligence with Berlin if it allowed Huawei or any other Chinese tech firm to help build Germany’s 5G mobile internet network. Then he sent tweets griping that the German government’s latest budget allocates far too little to defense, infuriating lawmakers in Berlin, many of whom already wanted him sent home.…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Selling out to America’s gun lobbyAUSTRALIATory ShepherdThe AdvertiserIn public, Australia’s far-right One Nation party supports our country’s popular and effective gun control laws, said Tory Shepherd. In private, it’s willing to do the bidding of America’s National Rifle Association for “cold, hard cash.” In footage recorded by an undercover Al Jazeera reporter, party official James Ashby tells an NRA representative that One Nation could “own” the Australian Parliament with $20 million in donations. The NRA loathes the firearms restrictions that Australia introduced after a 1996 massacre because they are held up as a model of success by U.S. gun control advocates. At another point in the video, the NRA official says his organization tries to “shame” gun control advocates with lines like “How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Health care: Does the GOP have a plan?Republicans have “a spectacular” plan to provide better, cheaper health care for everyone, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. What is it? You’ll just have to wait at least two years to find out. President Trump renewed his administration’s quixotic assault on the Affordable Care Act last week by asking the courts to throw out the law in its entirety, while swearing Republicans are working “on something really spectacular” to replace it. Congressional Republicans, however, were aghast over Trump’s decision to revisit the health-care issue, since their doomed 2017 repeal crusade helped cost them 40 House seats in the midterm elections. When Republican leaders this week begged Trump not to revisit health care now, Trump announced he’d unveil his spectacular plan after the 2020 election.The White House has already given us…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Museums: Should they reject ‘dirty money’?John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, John Paul Getty—there’s a long list of super-rich capitalists who used philanthropy to “wash blood” off their billions, said Kelsey Piper in Vox.com. But is the money of the Sackler family of Purdue Pharma so bloody that museums, hospitals, and universities should refuse to accept it? The Sacklers amassed an estimated $13 billion fortune partly by introducing and heavily pushing the opioid painkiller OxyContin on the U.S. and the world. Over the years, the Sackler family has given hundreds of millions to art museums, hospitals, and universities. Now, with the opioid epidemic still raging, activists have staged “die-ins” and angry protests at London’s National Portrait Gallery and New York City’s Guggenheim Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art, bearing such signs as “200 dead each day.”…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019What’s new in techNational security threatThe U.S. government has ordered a Chinese firm to sell the gay-dating app Grindr on national security grounds, said David Sanger in The New York Times. “It appears to be the first case in which the United States has asserted that foreign control of a social media app could have national security implications.” Grindr, based in West Hollywood, Calif., and with more than 27 million users, sold its majority stake to a Chinese company, Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd., in 2016. While the U.S. didn’t try to block the acquisition, it has become increasingly concerned “about China’s ability to gain access to critical American technology.” Grindr owns potentially sensitive user data and has already drawn backlash for “sharing users’ HIV status, sexual tastes, and other intimate personal details.”Combating…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Fossil treasure troveA “mind-blowing” haul of fossils that includes dozens of species never seen before has been discovered in China, offering a glimpse at the sheer diversity of life on Earth some 500 million years ago. The new site, called Qing jiang, sits on the banks of the Dan shui River in southern China. It is one of only a handful of sites worldwide that offer a glimpse into the Cam brian explosion, the massive burst in animal diversity at the dawn of animal life. Paleontologists have so far unearthed 4,351 fossils, representing 101 different species, 53 of them new. The creatures, which were likely entombed and preserved by an underwater mudslide 518 million years ago, include primitive forms of jelly fish, worms, and arthropods. The animals are so well preserved that…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Early trauma and the brainTrauma suffered during childhood may cause physical changes to the brain that make the victim more susceptible to depression later in life. That’s the conclusion of a new study by scientists at the University of Münster in Germany, reports USNews.com. The research involved 110 adults, ages 18 to 60, who had been hospitalized for serious depression. The participants completed a detailed questionnaire about early life trauma—including physical or emotional abuse or neglect, or sexual abuse—and received an MRI scan to assess their brain structure. The scans revealed that those who had experienced some form of childhood abuse tended to have a smaller insular cortex, a part of the brain connected to emotion and stress. Researchers also monitored the patients for further bouts of serious depression over the next two years…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Giraffes on Horseback Salad: Salvador Dalí, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made(Quirk, $30)“It’s long been a sorrow, for those who’ve known about it, that the surrealist Marx Brothers movie that Salvador Dalí pitched to MGM was never produced,” said Wayne Alan Brenner in The Austin Chronicle. The proposed project, Giraffes on Horseback Salad, “would’ve been a doozy of mind-blowing spectacle.” But now, at last, we have the next best thing: a graphic novel that realizes the berserk vision of Dalí and his friend Harpo. The book is “a riotous romp”—“a sort of Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Girl’s Head Turns Into a Fish romantic comedy.”The original venture was, frankly, doomed to fail, said Etelka Lehoczky in NPR.org. Dalí and Harpo became close friends when they met in Paris in 1936, but the film idea devised by the artist proved “a…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Maura RooseveltNot every first-time author has the advantage of a last name like Roosevelt, said Rachel Rosenblit in The Washington Post. But being Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s great-granddaughter hasn’t always been easy for novelist Maura Roosevelt. At 10, she was sitting through a fourth-grade history class when the lesson suddenly turned embarrassing. “My teacher said to the class, ‘You know, Eleanor Roosevelt was considered to be a very homely child,’” the author recalls. “And not five, 10 minutes later, she said, ‘You know, Eleanor Roosevelt is Maura’s great-grandmother, and Maura actually looks a lot like her.’” When she got home, she was upset, but her parents gently made clear they’d tolerate no complaints about being a Roosevelt. “They’re of the mind of, ‘This is not a problem. It is unacceptable…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Pet Sematary(R)A burial ground blurs the line between life and death.The new Pet Sematary “nails the tone of one of Stephen King’s most sinister tales,” said Ryan Oliver in ThePlaylist.net. As in the 1983 novel—and 1989 adaptation—a family of four moves to Maine and discovers a pet cemetery on their wooded property, used by children in the small town. But the Creeds soon learn that anything buried there in the right way—starting with the family cat—returns to life, albeit in twisted form. That knowledge weighs heavily on the father when the household suffers a graver loss. The film’s co-directors “do a decent job of creating atmosphere,” but fall short elsewhere, said Peter Debruge in Variety. Because the streamlined screenplay “sacrifices the kind of eccentric personal details King uses to connect us…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?“Attention, 2020 Grammys: The future still isn’t quite done being female,” said Chris Willman in Variety. With her full-length debut, 17-year-old pop phenom Billie Eilish has delivered a record “that should be a shoo-in for an album-of-the-year nomination.” The homeschooled Los Angeles teen, who has scored billions of streams with the singles she and her brother have been writing, recording, and releasing since 2016, styles herself as a goth but contains multitudes: “She’s funny, depressed, wicked, a wallflower, aggro, sweetly vulnerable, and kind of ridiculously crafty, too.” Her album has moments of rebellion, of empathy, of brattiness, of wisdom—and no matter the mood, “she can’t stop sounding beautiful.” A typical track “uses just a handful of parts, nearly all of them electronic: a bass line, a beat, only enough keyboard…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingFosse/VerdonGet ready for all that jazz, and then some. This eight-part drama series dives into the fevered creative and romantic relationship between choreographer Bob Fosse and stage legend Gwen Verdon, showing how their passion and pain played out over a quarter century in musicals that revolutionized the form, both on Broadway and the big screen. Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams co-star in a series jammed with big, sexy stage numbers from Sweet Charity, Cabaret, Chicago, and the duo’s other major works. Tuesday, April 9, at 10 p.m., FXYou vs. WildHave you always believed you’d be brilliant on a survival show but preferred not to leave your couch? Netflix, which recently had great success when it gave viewers the chance to steer the plot of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, might have a…3 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Art and history in Fez’s ancient medinaAs the desert sky bloomed rose-pink, said Bob Drogin in the Los Angeles Times, my wife and I sat on a roof listening to the calls to evening prayer as they echoed from dozens of minarets. We were staying at a 600-year-old guesthouse in the Fez medina, once the cultural and religious center of much of the Muslim world, and we knew to expect the return, moments later, of a different symphony: “the tap-tap-tapping at fiery forges in the copper and brass market, the braying of donkeys as they clattered down stone steps, and the cries of hagglers in the herb and spice stalls.” Fifteen years ago, the ancient walled core of Morocco’s second-largest city was a forbidding place, crime-ridden and impoverished. But tourism has changed that. The medina today…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Schloss ElmauKrün, Germany“Lots of hotels put on music, but there’s something different about the musicians at Schloss Elmau,” said Harriet Green in The Observer (U.K.). Some of the world’s top classical performers play to stay at the mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps, and guests can catch free concerts in a magnificent 300-seat hall. During my visit, I bumped into a renowned cellist, and at one point overheard a violinist practicing while on my way to the hotel’s enormous Turkish bath. In between shows, guests swim in outdoor pools beneath the peaks, and songbirds provide the music.schloss-elmau.de; doubles start at $540Last-minute travel dealsChoose your resortDestination Hotels is offering up to 20 percent off at many of its hotels and resorts nationwide. Two nights in June at the Orchards Inn in Sedona,…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019How to repot your plantsChoose the right pot. Early spring is the ideal season to repot your plants. The new pots should be only slightly wider and deeper than the old: Small plants need a pot that’s 1 or 2 inches wider. Bigger plants need 2 to 4 inches.Start a day early. Water each plant a day beforehand to prevent the root ball from crumbling. The new pots will need a base layer of potting mix. A coffee-filter liner will keep it from spilling out the drainage holes.Be gentle. Don’t yank at the stem. Turn the pot on its side, tap it, and rotate the plant until it slides out, then use your fingers to gently loosen the root ball. After setting the plant in its new pot, fill the space around the root…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Oil: Saudi Aramco’s stunning profitsThe world’s most profitable company in 2018 wasn’t Apple or Amazon but Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, said Rory Jones and Summer Said in The Wall Street Journal. The kingdom-owned Saudi Aramco said its income was $111 billion, which dwarfs that of Apple ($60 billion) and of Exxon Mobil ($21 billion). Despite taxes of roughly 50 percent, Aramco’s figures “painted a picture of a company with unmatched financial heft.” The details were revealed for the first time this week in a prospectus for a $10 billion bond sale. But some believe the disclosures were a “coming-out party” before Saudi officials list the world’s largest oil producer publicly.The “eye-watering” profits still leave plenty of questions, said David Sheppard and Robert Smith in the Financial Times. The bond sale should help pay…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Lyft: Worrying signs for coming IPOsLyft, in the “highest-profile stock sale of the year,” slipped below its offering price this week amid Wall Street “concerns about how fast the ride-sharing company can start making money,” said Esha Day in Bloomberg.com. Though the much-hyped company is still valued at around $20 billion, it’s a disappointing debut. Lyft is an early entrant in a long line of highly valued tech companies preparing to go public this year, said Stephanie Stamm in The Wall Street Journal. Lyft’s IPO sets the course for Uber, Pinterest, and Palantir—all “unicorns” valued at over $1 billion as startups—to follow in the coming weeks. “Despite their years in existence, most of these companies aren’t making money and are far from becoming profitable.” It’s by no means unheard-of for money-losing companies to sell shares…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Banking: Wells Fargo can’t outrun its scandalsThe abrupt retirement of Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan last week left the country’s fourth-largest bank scrambling, said Deon Roberts in the Charlotte, N.C., Observer. Wells Fargo’s 2016 fraud scandal—in which employees were pressured into opening millions of fake deposit and credit accounts—continues to haunt the company, and last year the Federal Reserve put a cap on Wells Fargo’s growth after additional reports of consumer abuse. Sloan had just testified on Capitol Hill, and clearly failed to mollify congressional critics. “No sooner had the bank announced Sloan’s departure than consumer advocacy groups and lawmakers pounced,” calling for further sanctions and “a culture shift.” The bank’s reputation is now so damaged that Wells faces calls to “change the bank’s name and rebrand itself” to regain trust. The bank now might as…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The French pilot who became a hero at EntebbeAir France pilot Michel Bacos had just commenced on the second leg of a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris on June 27, 1976, when the unthinkable happened. Eight minutes after taking off from Athens, Bacos heard screams coming from the passenger cabin. At first, he thought there was a fire on board, but when the chief engineer opened the cockpit door to investigate, he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Two Palestinian and two far-left German hijackers forced Bacos to fly the plane and its 248 passengers and 12 crew members to Benghazi, Libya, and then on to Entebbe, Uganda, where they were held in a decrepit airport terminal. Three days later, the hijackers released 150 passengers, but kept the Israelis and those with Jewish-sounding surnames…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The B-movie director who made schlock with a purposeLarry Cohen delighted in shocking audiences with his B movies—and maybe making them think a little, too. His 1972 directorial debut, Bone, a social satire about a home invasion, played with racial stereotypes. Two years later, he obliquely addressed questions of nature vs. nurture with his biggest hit, the low-budget horror It’s Alive, in which a razor-toothed newborn goes on a killing spree as soon as it emerges from its mother’s womb. In 1985’s The Stuff, he skewered consumerism with a tale of a yogurt-like dessert that turns people into mindless zombies. His favorite shtick, Cohen said, was “taking something which is considered benevolent and turning it into some kind of monstrosity.”Born in Manhattan, Cohen “exercised his imagination” as a child by drawing his own comic books, said The New…1 min
The Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Trump’s threat to close the southern borderWhat happenedFrustrated by a growing surge of Central American migrants applying for asylum, President Trump this week threatened to close the border with Mexico and ordered the State Department to slash $500 million in humanitarian aid to three Central American nations. About 76,000 migrants were intercepted or surrendered to authorities along the border in February, a 31 percent increase from January. Border apprehensions were on pace to exceed 100,000 in March, the highest level in a decade. With holding pens running at 400 percent capacity, immigration officials fenced in hundreds of migrants under an El Paso highway bridge; later, more than 2,000 migrants were simply released into Texas border towns. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the influx has stretched the agency’s resources to the “breaking point.”Trump…4 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Democrats fight for complete Mueller reportWhat happenedDemocrats threatened this week to subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller’s full, unredacted report in a mounting battle to make public the results of his Russia investigation. The House had set a deadline of April 2 for Attorney General William Barr to submit the full report to Congress. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), did not indicate whether he intended to follow through with the subpoena, but argued that Congress needs the full, nearly 400-page report to fulfill its “duty under the Constitution to determine whether wrongdoing has occurred.” Nadler said the big question is whether Congress sees Mueller’s findings, “or does [Barr] redact it so it’s meaningless?”Mueller filed his report on March 22, and two days later, the attorney general summarized his findings in a four-page letter. Barr…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Only in AmericaPennsylvania’s Dickinson College has removed wall signs encouraging students to “take the stairs and become more fit!” after accusations of “fat shaming.” One student said the signs made her feel “guilty every time that I took the elevator.” Another said that by glorifying weight loss, the signs “feed into eating disorders.”Some cannabis growers in California are paying Jewish rabbis to certify their products as kosher. Because the federal government still considers marijuana illegal, growers cannot apply for labels such as “Organic” or “GMO free.” That’s why growers are asking for kosher certification from rabbinical authorities, said Josh Drayton of the California Cannabis Industry Association. “Folks deserve to know that what they’re consuming is healthy.”NRA opposes Violence Against Women ActThe National Rifle Association announced last week that it would oppose reauthorizing…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Why Evans is hanging up the capeChris Evans is ready to be done lugging around Captain America’s shield, said Alex Pappademas in The Hollywood Reporter. He certainly isn’t complaining about having made $15 million from the past two Avengers movies, but with seven Marvel films behind him, he’s hungry for a change. Evans was a theater nerd growing up in Boston, and as a teen he landed a summer internship on ABC’s Spin City, where his boss would pick from “a stack of envelopes 2 feet tall” from actors desperate for bit parts like “Janitor No. 2.” Undeterred, Evans finished high school and moved into Hollywood’s “freshman dorm” for aspiring actors, the legendary Oakwood Apartments complex. “It’s exactly what you think,” Evans says. “A lot of, uh, debauchery. It was a great time. It’s like the…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019GossipMick Jagger postponed the Rolling Stones’ upcoming tour in order to have heart valve replacement surgery this week in New York City. Jagger, 75, suffered a “physical injury” while preparing for the band’s nine-week tour across the U.S. and Canada, The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) reports. “A big disappointment for everyone but things need to be taken care of and we will see you soon,” bandmate Keith Richards said on Twitter. The Stones have been touring across Europe and already sold more than 1 million tickets for 17 upcoming sold-out shows in North America. Jagger, who has eight children with five women and is a great-grandfather, reportedly expects to make a full recovery. He said he will return to the stage “as soon as I can.”Nicolas Cage filed for an annulment…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Why let a hoaxer off the hook?Noah RothmanCommentaryMagazine.comBy fabricating “an elaborate hate crime,” Jussie Smollett inadvertently did the country “a great service,” said Noah Rothman. The actor’s assault in January at the hands of two “MAGA hat–clad racist homophobes” was quickly outed as a hoax, focusing public attention on the scourge of “false hate-crime reports.” The media circus typically leaves town by the time such allegations are debunked, creating the false impression that the U.S. “is awash in hatred.” Now Smollett, who co-stars on Fox’s Empire, has provided a further service by exposing “the hypocrisy of the justice system.” In a “bizarre” move last week, Chicago prosecutors dropped charges against Smollett for filing a false police report. Prosecutors maintain Smollett is guilty but say that they’re satisfied with his community service and decision to forfeit his…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019I read it in the tabloidsA Missouri man allegedly spiked his co-workers’ water bottles with LSD because he thought they were “too uptight” and “needed to have better energy.” Police were summoned to the Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Arnold after two employees complained of dizziness. After the manager told them she’d seen one worker “messing with” her water bottle that morning, police say, the 19-year-old confessed to using a dropper to lace the drinks. He told police his colleagues had “negative energy.” He now faces charges of assault and drug possession.A 363-pound man known as the Dumpling has been crowned champion of Russia’s first amateur “male slapping” contest. Vasily Kamotsky, a 28-year-old farmer, defeated all comers at the contest in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, to win a 30,000 ruble ($460) prize. Male face slappers must…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019United Kingdom: May’s disastrous failure to leadThis was supposed to be the week that British lawmakers finally broke the Brexit deadlock, said Kate Devlin in The Times. Yet after a succession of votes and “acrimonious scenes,” Parliament still can’t decide how, or even whether, the U.K. should leave the European Union. The divorce deal that Prime Minister Theresa May negotiated with the bloc is effectively dead, having been voted down three times in a row. Hard-line Brexiteers in her own party have refused to support the plan because it would keep Britain bound by EU tariffs and regulations indefinitely, while a way is worked out to avoid a hard border and checkpoints going up between Ireland—an EU member—and the U.K. province of Northern Ireland. With May unable to persuade the hard-liners, lawmakers broke with parliamentary tradition…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Mr. Modi goes to BollywoodINDIAAmulya GopalakrishnanThe Times of IndiaThe world’s largest democracy is preparing for elections, said Amulya Gopalakrishnan, and India’s film industry is taking sides. For decades, Bollywood steered clear of politics, preferring blandness to controversy. But a pack of high-profile actors and filmmakers have become cheerleaders for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and they and Modi are keen to milk their mutual admiration. The entire A-list of Bollywood—big-screen hunks Ranveer Singh and Ranbir Kapoor, the glamorous Alia Bhatt, and many more—crowded into a mass selfie with Modi in January. The photo instantly went viral. And now, just days before the election, a laudatory new biopic of the prime minister is to be released, billed as showcasing his “remarkable courage, wisdom, patience, [and] dedication to his people.” All this reflects a deeper change in…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019NotedAbout 70 percent of U.S. produce has pesticide residue even after being washed, a new study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found. Strawberries, spinach, and kale had the highest levels of pesticides, the advocacy group said.TheHill.comIn a new book, sportswriter Rick Reilly quotes dozens of golf partners of Donald Trump as saying he routinely and flagrantly cheats at the game, giving himself a do-over for shots he hits into water hazards, having his caddie move his ball from the rough into the fairway, and even kicking an opponent’s ball off the green and into a bunker. “In golf, he’s definitely not exonerated,” said Reilly.Associated PressNew York City is poised to become America’s first city to implement so-called congestion pricing—a fee for vehicles to enter its most traffic-choked streets. The…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Wit & Wisdom“Every family is a war but some are more civil than others.” Novelist Namwali Serpell, quoted in The Washington Post“Just because things are the way they are, doesn’t mean they stay that way.” Playwright Bertolt Brecht, quoted in the Los Angeles Review of Books“There’s many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.” Flannery O’Connor, quoted in The Paris Review“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” Writer G.K. Chesterton, quoted in The New York Times“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Carl Sagan, quoted in the Lewiston, Maine, Sun Journal“Happiness is not an absolute value. It is…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Innovation of the weekJaguar Land Rover is testing an in-car ventilation system that uses germ-killing ultraviolet light, said Jake Holmes in CNET.com. The technology, called UV-C light, would be integrated into “hidden vents and ducts inside your car’s dashboard” and would be more effective at sterilizing the cabin air than the ionization systems that exist today. UV-C light has been used in hospitals to sterilize surfaces by neutralizing bacteria and other pathogens, and Jaguar thinks “your car could be doing more to keep you healthy.” The company has a partnership with Google’s sister company Waymo to develop autonomous vehicles for a ride-hailing service, and has launched a “subscription” car-sharing service in the U.K. A car with the technology could prevent illnesses from passing between passengers and make riding in shared cars more attractive.…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019A better breast cancer scanAn innovative 3D mammogram technique could halve the number of women who have to undergo potentially painful biopsies to check for breast cancer, new research suggests. Unlike a conventional breast scan—which captures two X-ray images from top to bottom and side to side—digital breast tomosynthesis takes multiple scans from different angles, which are used to build a 3D image of the tissues where cancer is suspected. In a trial at Leeds Teaching Hospital in England, nearly 31,000 women underwent both a conventional breast scan and a 3D mammogram. Armed with only the conventional scans, doctors recommended that 571 women receive a biopsy; 75 percent of those showed the abnormality that prompted the biopsy was benign, reports ScienceDaily.com. With the 3D images, the doctors determined they would have sent only 298…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System(Morrow, $29)If you don’t understand the human immune system, don’t feel too bad, said Dan Friedman in the Los Angeles Review of Books. “After all, you’re no different from most scientists until the very recent past.” But that’s why Matt Richtel’s new book is so useful. Immunology has been transformed in the past decade by discoveries that may soon enable medical professionals to outsmart cancer, AIDS, and other deadly diseases. Richtel, a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter, “has exactly the right set of tools” to demystify the science. And because Richtel focuses on four people who were gravely afflicted or miraculously saved by their immune systems, the learning arrives alongside “deeply affecting” drama.Richtel begins by introducing Jason, a friend of his since childhood, said Matt McCarthy in USA Today.…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Chosen by Ruth ReichlRuth Reichl, author of three beloved food memoirs, has just expanded the series with Save Me the Plums, which covers her decade as editor of Gourmet magazine. Below, she recommends the recent novels she’s most enjoyed listening to while cooking.Circe by Madeline Miller (2018). Miller’s subversive retelling of the Circe myth is hypnotic and spellbinding. Listening, I found myself transported to a timeless and magical place, but also thinking about what it means to be a mortal woman. The prose is so poetic, the story so compelling, that I wished it would never end.The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish (2017). A modern-day scholar discovers an ancient manuscript, and as she ponders its many mysteries we find ourselves transported to London’s Jewish community during a 1660s plague year. Two women…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Shazam(PG-13)A foster kid is granted a superhero’s powers.Finally, the battle between DC Films and Marvel “feels like a fair fight,” said Scott Mendelson in Forbes.com. The big-screen debut of Shazam, a superhero long locked into Saturday-morning schlock, gives DC “a marvelous adventure fantasy” that’s “an achingly real family melodrama first and a comic-book flick second.” Any movie fan should enjoy it. Asher Angel plays Billy Batson, a 14-year-old foster kid who unwittingly proves himself superhero material after defending Freddy, his disabled new foster brother, from bullies. A wizard soon grants him the ability to transform, with one magic word, into Shazam, a muscular full-grown do-gooder played by a “perfectly cast” Zachary Levi. Levi displays an “infectiously naïve, gee-whiz charisma that calls to mind Tom Hanks in Big,” said Chris Nashawaty…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Unplanned: The pro-life hit insiders didn’t see comingIt looks like the experts have badly underestimated the audience for graphic anti-abortion dramas, said Pamela McClintock in The Hollywood Reporter. Unplanned, a movie about a Planned Parenthood clinic director who turns pro-life activist after witnessing an abortion at 13 weeks, pulled in $6.4 million on its opening weekend, leaving it far behind the new Dumbo’s $46 million but more than doubling industry predictions to finish fourth in the box office rankings. Viewers gave the film an A-plus CinemaScore, and Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that it’s “deeply inspiring,” but mainstream critics abhorred it. Nick Schager of TheDailyBeast.com called it “a leaden, self-righteous, and wholly rancid affair.” THR’s own Frank Scheck labeled it “proselytizing agitprop” that “demonizes Planned Parenthood to such a degree that you expect the organization to be…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019You’re the ManThe new Marvin Gaye album is “a snapshot of an artist in flux,” said Andrew Chow in Time. In 1972, the then 32-year-old soul legend stood at a crossroads. Though he was coming off the huge success of What’s Going On, his marriage had crumbled and he was feuding with his label, which opposed Gaye’s turn toward political music. When the singer’s new protest song, “You’re the Man,” flopped—with Motown working to bury it—Gaye shelved the rest of the album he’d recorded. Those songs, along with several others, have now been released as a collection that’s “too confused to be a great lost album,” said Alexis Petridis in TheGuardian.com. Gaye didn’t know whether to be a protest artist or meek hitmaker, and the result is a “fascinating jumble of ideas”…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Movies on TVMonday, April 8The Lady VanishesThis gem of a thriller, from Alfred Hitchcock’s British years, turns on the disappearance of a governess from a cross-continental European train. (1938) 11:15 p.m., TCMTuesday, April 9BraveA redheaded princess’ refusal to marry brings a curse on her mother in an Oscar-winning animated fairy tale from Pixar and Disney. (2012) 6:25 p.m., Starz EncoreWednesday, April 10Darkest HourGary Oldman won his own Oscar by transforming himself into Winston Churchill for this World War II drama set mostly in the prime minister’s cabinet room. (2017) 8 p.m., CinemaxThursday, April 11WitnessHarrison Ford delivered one of his best performances playing a detective who embeds in an Amish community to protect a boy who witnessed a murder. (1985) 10:15 p.m., EpixFriday, April 12The HelpBlack maids in 1960s Mississippi stand up against…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019A twist on guacamoleGuacamole is great, but if you want a new twist, try this Levantine dip, known as Gazan salad, said the editors at Milk Street. “Spices, yogurt, and lemon juice add layers of earthy flavor and bright acidity,” while roughly mashed avocados and sesame seeds add texture missing in the salad’s Mexican cousin. You can serve it with pita chips, or try it as a side with grilled meats or seafood.Mashed avocados with sesame and chile2 ripe avocados, halved and pittedplain whole-milk yogurtextra-virgin olive oil2 medium garlic cloves, finely grated1 serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and minced, optional3 tbsp lemon juice1 tsp ground coriander¼ tsp ground cumin¼ tsp sweet paprikakosher salt and ground black peppersesame seeds, toasted, to servepita chips, to serve• Scoop the flesh from the avocado halves into a medium…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Idaho’s hidden hot springs“Idaho? Hot springs? Yes!” said Matt Gross in Bloomberg Businessweek. The Gem State is home to 130 natural hot springs suitable for human soaking—more than any other state—and dozens of them lie just off highways. Using Doug Roloff’s Complete Guide to Idaho Hot Springs, I poached myself with three friends in 12 of the springs along the roads leading north from Ketchum into the Salmon-Challis National Forest. “Just driving to a hot spring in Idaho, I realized, was part of the thrill: I gawked at hills upon hills, sparkling sunlight limning the fractal edges of the evergreens.” Our favorites were Frenchman’s Bend and, especially, Goldbug Hot Springs, “the crown jewel of Idaho’s hot-water treasures.” The dance we had to do each time we dried off and dressed in the snow…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019For improved communicationsLoom is a Chrome browser extension that lets you instantly create short, shareable videos when you need to explain something that would take forever with texts or a phone call. Loom records whatever’s happening on your screen, in your webcam, or both at once. As soon as you’re done recording, a link to the video is copied to your clipboard.GeniusScan makes it easy to digitize and email any type of paper document. Simply open the free, cross-platform scanner app and use it to photograph the document. GeniusScan corrects any perspective distortion and can turn multiple scans into a single multipage PDF document.Canva is a $12-a-month graphic design app that can help you throw together beautiful graphs, logos, posters, invitations, email headers, and various social media posts. You can either start…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Aerospace: Boeing still working on a fixBoeing was forced to delay the software update for its troubled 737 Max jetliners this week, said David Gelles in The New York Times. “The company deemed further work was needed” on a fix to the plane’s anti-stall system, which has been implicated in two fatal crashes of the Max jetliner in five months. It is not clear why the update wasn’t ready, but the decision came after a review in which various employees vetted the work. The Federal Aviation Authority grounded the planes in mid March, and the company has halted deliveries of new jets.Housing: Homeowners rush to lower ratesA sizable one-week mortgage-rate drop “unleashed a run on refinances last week,” said Diana Olick in CNBC.com. Refinancing applications surged 39 percent in the past week after the average interest…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019What the experts sayDealing with an airline bankruptcyThe first thing to do if your airline goes out of business is “call your credit card company and ask for a chargeback,” said Mike Cetera in ThePointsGuy.com. The collapse of WOW Air, an Icelandic airline that offered round-trip flights between the U.S. and Europe for as little as $200, has put a spotlight on travelers stranded at the airport by an airline bankruptcy. As WOW canceled flights without notice, for many travelers the most pressing questions were “How do I get home and how can I get reimbursed?” A chargeback is a “reversal of charges” for a service you never got. “There’s no guarantee your issuer will reverse the charge, but it’s definitely worth trying.” Another option: Some credit cards offer coverage of as much…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019An internet tax on the little guyKenan MalikThe Guardian (U.K.)We’re all worried about tech companies that are “too powerful, too irresponsible, too intrusive.” But the European Parliament’s new copyright directive only makes them stronger, said Kenan Malik. The worst parts of the “dreadful piece of law” are Articles 11 and 13: The former, dubbed the “link tax,” requires that search engines and platforms pay to license the short excerpts that they aggregate from publishers. Article 13 holds them accountable for any material posted without copyright permission. “The trouble is that the EU directive will do little for ‘content creators’ like me,” other than asking the tech giants to surveil and restrict my use. Germany and Spain have already tested a link tax. It hasn’t gone well. Google stopped citing the link snippers for German articles; referrals…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The postmodernist who brought joy to designWhether designing a museum entrance or a kitchen utensil, Alessandro Mendini always sought to imbue his creations with a cheerful exuberance. A leader of Italy’s Radical Design movement in the 1970s and ’80s, Mendini with his playful postmodernism stood in opposition to the then-prevailing functionalist design school, which embraced the mantra “less is more.” His most famous designs include the Anna G corkscrew for Alessi—inspired by his friend and fellow designer Anna Gili, it has a smiling face, arms, and powder-blue dress—and the Proust armchair, an oversize baroque piece decorated with pointillist brushstrokes. That 1978 creation is today displayed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, fitting for a designer who aspired to make works of art. “Besides being functional,” Mendini said, “an object…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019An addiction that states encourageLotteries depend on the poor and gambling addicts for most of their revenues, said journalist Bryce Covert in Topic.com. But 44 states still actively promote them as the fastest way to realize the American dream.Adam Osmond lived and lost the American dream by gambling on lottery tickets that often promise to take players from rags to riches.In 1984, at the age of 17, Osmond came to the United States from Somalia to attend Central Connecticut State University, a college in New Britain, Conn. While in school, he worked at a local convenience store part-time, eventually moving up to store manager. Back then, scratch-off lottery tickets in the state typically cost $1, so Osmond would play them at work every so often for fun. “I’m always into numbers,” says Osmond, who…10 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Slap cinemaThis week’s question: A 363-pound man has emerged as champion of Russia’s “male slapping” contest, in which two competitors take turns forcefully slapping each other’s faces, until one gives up. If a film studio were to make a Rocky-like movie about a face slapper’s inspiring journey to the championship, what would it be called?Last week’s contest: Lawyer George Conway, husband of White House spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway, is locked in a vitriolic Twitter feud with his wife’s boss. Please come up with the title of a romantic comedy about George and Kellyanne’s unusual home/work dynamic.THE WINNER: “Crazy Rich Partisans” Laurel Rose, PittsburghSECOND PLACE: “MAGAbout You” Loren Woodson Noblitt, Zionsville, Ind.THIRD PLACE: “The War of the Rose Garden” Scott Barlow, Pequannock, N.J.For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest.How to…1 min
The Week Magazine|April 12, 2019It wasn’t all badA British man has completed a 100-mile ultramarathon across a frozen Mongolian lake while wearing brogues and jeans. Peter Messervy-Gross, 47, had bought specialist gear for the race, but on arrival he found the airline had lost his bags, so he had to run in the clothes he had on—with only a pair of borrowed running spikes strapped to his soles to help him on the ice. Some runners dropped out, but Messervy-Gross persisted, completing the subzero race in four days. His brogues, he says, are still in “good order—worn in nicely.”A Kenyan educator who uses 80 percent of his salary to help students at his poor rural school has been named the world’s best teacher. Peter Tabichi, a Franciscan brother who teaches math and science in the remote village…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Biden: Too ‘handsy’ to be president?Before last week, all the polls said former Vice President Joe Biden was the Democrat “with the best chance of beating President Trump” in 2020, said Kyle Smith in NationalReview.com. But now it’s very likely that “Joe Biden is done.” Last week, Lucy Flores, a former Democratic candidate in Nevada who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, published an essay recounting how the then–vice president came up behind her at a 2014 campaign event, grabbed her shoulders, smelled her hair, and planted a “big slow kiss” on her head. Biden’s “handsy behavior with women” is the stuff of Washington legend, with plenty of photographic evidence. But in the #MeToo era, Flores’ first-person account of what it’s like to have “Creepy Joe sneak up behind you” surely dooms his presidential hopes.…3 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Foreign agentsSeattleSaudi Arabian officials seeking to retaliate against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos hacked his phone “and gained private information,” Bezos’ security adviser Gavin De Becker asserted last week. The Saudis have allegedly sought to harm Bezos since last October, when The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, began aggressively investigating the role of Saudi leaders in the murder of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. De Becker recently finished an investigation into how the National Enquirer obtained intimate text messages between Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez. He said it was “very unusual” that the tabloid seemed eager to reveal its source, Sanchez’s brother. Michael Sanchez says the Enquirer had already seen text exchanges between his sister and Bezos when he was contacted last July, although De Becker could not confirm whether the Enquirer…4 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019A refugee in CongressIlhan Omar wasn’t fazed by her rough few first months as a congresswoman, said Benjamin Wallace-Wells in The New Yorker. The outspoken Minnesota Democrat was widely criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for comments about congressional support for Israel, but she’s accustomed to adversity: She was a child in Somalia when a brutal civil war broke out in 1991 and vividly recalls hiding as mortar rounds exploded around her family’s home. That experience has a lot to do with her passionate opposition to conflict and violence. “I have PTSD around, like, guns and ammunition and bombs,” Omar, 37, says. “I see conflict that has violence, and I think deeply about what the little children are going through. What we seek to do is good. But what we end up doing…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The enduring legend of BigfootSixty years ago, a California logger found a set of enormous footprints—and a star was born.How did Bigfoot get its name?On Aug. 27, 1958, a bulldozer operator for a Northern California logging company made a discovery. Jerry Crew was clearing away brush and stumps near Bluff Creek, about 300 miles north of San Francisco, when he found enormous, manlike footprints in the mud. Shocked, he relayed the news—and discovered his colleagues had also spotted mammoth tracks several times. News of their sighting was published in the local Humboldt Times. “Giant footprints puzzle residents along Trinity River,” read the Oct. 5, 1958 story, which contained the first recorded use of the name “Bigfoot.” The Sunday story went out over the newswires, and “on Monday, Tuesday, and for the rest of many…5 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The coming collision on abortionMichelle GoldbergThe New York TimesOur abortion divide is only going to get deeper, said Michelle Goldberg. Emboldened by President Trump’s reshaping of the federal judiciary, Republicans have been pushing through “a barrage of anti-abortion measures at the state level.” Mississippi and Kentucky have passed bills this year banning most abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, at about six weeks’ gestation. Similar legislation is moving forward in Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio, and Georgia. Although the courts have rejected “heartbeat bills” in the past, sponsors hope that one of the new bills ends up before the new-look Supreme Court, giving conservatives an opportunity to “eviscerate or overturn Roe v. Wade.” Rather than “ease culture war hostilities,” having “radically different abortion regimes” in the states “will further rip America apart.” Blue states…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Voters seduced by a false messiahNETHERLANDSStevo AkkermanTrouwThe Netherlands’ new populist “messiah” is “as fascinating as he is frightening,” said Stevo Akkerman. Thierry Baudet won a stunning upset victory in Senate elections last week. His Forum for Democracy party—founded only three years ago—went from zero to 13 seats and is now the biggest party in the legislature’s upper house. A former academic, the telegenic Baudet, 36, is remarkable for his total self-confidence: He once described himself as the Netherlands’ most important intellectual. And unlike fellow populist Geert Wilders, who relies mainly on hate speech, Baudet has the ability to inspire his followers with soaring philosophical rhetoric. Few would have picked up on the literary and biblical references in his victory speech, but his lament about a spiritual vacuum clearly touched a chord with citizens disillusioned by…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Mexico: Can it stop the wave of migrants heading north?Donald Trump has reverted to his “incendiary and provocative rhetoric against Mexico,” said Federico Berrueto in Milenio. The U.S. president warned last week that if the Mexican government didn’t stop Central American migrants from crossing into the U.S., he would shut all 330 ports of entry along our two nations’ 2,000-mile border. His administration also said it would terminate some $700 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the three countries that have sent the most migrants north. The threats are preposterous. Cutting aid to Central America will further hurt these already impoverished, crime-ravaged countries and increase the exodus of desperate people; closing the U.S. border will damage both our economies. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has refused to address Trump’s threats directly, merely saying that he…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Mayor Pete: Democrats’ new dark horsePete Buttigieg “is having a moment,” said Nathaniel Rakich in FiveThirtyEight.com. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., is the first “breakout” contender in the Democratic presidential primary, placing third in a recent poll of Iowa voters and raising an impressive $7 million. Most Americans haven’t heard of Mayor Pete, who’s still explaining how to pronounce his Maltese name (BOOT-edge-edge). Yet he wins supporters with every TV appearance, said Alex Shephard in NewRepublic.com. In an absurdly crowded primary, his profile “is unlike any other presidential candidate, ever.” He’s a married gay man, “a devout Episcopalian,” a Harvard graduate, a Rhodes scholar, and a Navy veteran who took a six-month leave of absence as mayor to serve in Afghanistan. Though left of center, he’s primarily an earnest pragmatist who claims he’s…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Plastic bags: The bans are spreadingA global movement to “bag plastic bags” is gathering momentum, said Joseph Curtin in The New York Times. New York state last week imposed a ban on single-use plastic bags—due to take effect March 1, 2020—joining with California and more than two dozen counties and dozens of cities across America that either prohibit them outright or charge a fee for their use. It’s about time. One estimate shows the average American throws away 10 such bags per week. In New York state, 23 billion a year are chucked—enough “when tied together, to stretch to the moon and back 13 times.”The effect of discarded bags on marine life can be staggering, said the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger in an editorial. When they are dropped as litter or blow off garbage piles, they…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Media: Apple tries to get beyond the iPhoneHow badly does Apple need to sell something other than the iPhone? asked David Goldman in CNN.com. Badly enough that it just held its splashiest event ever and didn’t even bring up the iPhone. Instead, Apple CEO Tim Cook is “getting into show business.” The company enlisted celebrities like Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey to introduce its new streaming video service to compete with Netflix, as well as a news subscription service, video game platform, and credit card. It’s betting—big—that these services will make up for lost iPhone revenue. “The iPhone accounted for nearly two-thirds of the company’s revenue last year,” but sales fell by 15 percent in the fourth quarter. This is a major transition that’s going to take time, said Michael Simon in Macworld.com. “Selling pretty hardware is…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The dangers of edible marijuanaPot-infused brownies, gummy bears, and other cannabis “edibles” are often portrayed as a fun and harmless way to ingest cannabis, but a new study suggests that eating weed may be more dangerous than smoking or vaping the drug. Researchers looked at thousands of marijuana-related emergency room visits in Denver from 2014, when the drug was legalized in Colorado, to 2016, reports The New York Times. While edibles represented only 0.3 percent of the total weight sold of THC—the psychoactive compound in weed—they accounted for 10 percent of cannabis-linked ER admissions. Patients displayed markedly different symptoms depending on how they’d consumed the drug. Nearly half of the patients who’d taken edibles complained of intoxication, compared with less than a third of those who’d smoked marijuana. Those who used edibles were also…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Our regenerating brainsFor decades, neuroscientists have argued over whether or not humans can make new neurons after their brains stop developing in adolescence. Now a team of Spanish scientists has found evidence that we do keep making fresh neurons well into our 90s, reports BBC.com, and that production drops rapidly in people with Alzheimer’s—even when the disease has only recently taken hold. The researchers examined the brains of 58 people who died at ages 43 to 97, focusing on the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory and emotion. The researchers were able to spot immature, or “new,” neurons and noted that their production declined slightly with age in healthy brains. “I believe we would be generating new neurons as long as we need to learn new things,” says co-author…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The Old Drift(Hogarth, $28)Namwali Serpell’s audacious debut work is “a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel this decade,” said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. A “supremely confident literary performance,” it spans four generations as it weaves together the stories of three families in Zambia, and though Serpell “seems to want to stuff the entire world into her novel,” all the action happens at a human level: “It is filled with love stories, greedy sex, comedy, inopportune menstruation,” and, in the role of a comic Greek chorus, a swarm of mosquitoes. At 566 pages, the book is “a little overstuffed, a little too long,” said Caroline Leavitt in The Boston Globe. Still, “it overflows with staggering brilliance.” Beginning in 1904, when an Englishman wanders into a settlement near Victoria…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019In spies real and imaginedAmerican Spyby Lauren Wilkinson (Random House, $27)Marie Mitchell is not a typical fictional spy, said Michael Schaub in NPR.org. A young Caribbean-American who leaves the FBI to go undercover for the CIA, she winds up in 1980s West Africa trying to seduce the left-leaning president the agency wants to overthrow. “An expertly written spy thriller as well as a deeply intelligent literary novel,” American Spy “marks the debut of an immensely talented writer.” Like the best of John le Carré, this novel is “extremely tough to put down.”An Impeccable Spyby Owen Matthews (Bloomsbury, $30)“History is full of what-ifs,” said Victor Sebestyen in the Financial Times. The question of what would have happened if Josef Stalin had acted on Richard Sorge’s bombshell discovery—the plans for Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019High Life(R)Prisoners in space peer into the void.If Robert Pattinson is aiming to establish himself as a serious actor, “the plan is working,” said Caryn James in BBC.com. Following his impressive turns in Good Time and Damsel, the former Twilight heartthrob delivers just the humane, understated performance needed to ground Claire Denis’ “provocative, eerie, and above all weird” new film. Pattinson plays one of several death-row inmates (alongside Mia Goth and Outkast’s André Benjamin) who have agreed to travel into deep space for a government experiment. The close quarters provide Denis a petri dish for probing the essence of human behavior. Juliette Binoche, “the world’s finest actress,” plays a mad scientist obsessed with reproduction, said David Ehrlich in IndieWire.com. She uses the other passengers as guinea pigs, but because sex isn’t…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The Lehman TrilogyThe Park Avenue Armory, New York City, (212) 933-5812Get ready for a “genuinely epic” American story, said Ben Brantley in The New York Times. The U.S. debut of Stefano Massini’s “magnificent” play about Lehman Brothers recounts the rise and fall of a Wall Street juggernaut founded in the mid 19th century by three immigrant brothers from Bavaria, and it captures so much aspirational energy and eventful history that “you’re left reeling by the scope and vitality of it all.” Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles, and Adam Godley play every role and deliver “three of the most virtuosic performances you’re ever likely to see.” They’re aided by a dazzling glass-box set, by the inventive stagecraft of director Sam Mendes, and by Massini’s dialogue, which “has the resonance of a work by…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019GuySteve Earle won a Grammy for his last album-length tribute to a late songwriter, but “Guy is a much better record than Townes,” said Dan DeLuca in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Guy Clark, a mentor of Earle’s who died in 2016, “isn’t quite so revered as a doomed, tragic figure” as Townes Van Zandt, but Clark’s songs “have greater musical and emotional range, kicking harder with sharp detail and crusty joie de vivre.” They’re also “suited to the feisty and cantankerous Earle,” who, along with his band the Dukes, is “fully engaged” here, “whether singing the sentimental masterpiece ‘Dublin Blues,’ flipping the bird to the big city on ‘L.A. Freeway,’ or digging into the lusty ‘Rita Ballou.’” Guy is “all the more intriguing” because Earle and Clark, who met in 1970s…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Game of ThronesWho ya got for the Iron Throne? After two years of anticipation, Game of Thrones returns with a final season that promises unrivaled TV spectacle. Oddsmakers have the clairvoyant young Bran Stark as the favorite to seize power, with his sister Sansa and bastard brother, Jon Snow, running close behind. But counting out Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen, or unscrupulous queen Cersei Lannister, would be ill-advised. Though it may be spring outside, it’s full-on winter in Westeros, as the Night King’s legions of undead walkers prepare to wreak havoc. Sunday, April 14, at 9 p.m., HBO…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Wine: Hello, hybridsHybrid grapes are creating “a whole new world of wine flavors,” said Elin McCoy in Bloomberg.com. For years, snobs avoided any grape produced by crossing the European vitis vinifera vine with a wild American species. But the hybrids are cold-resistant—great for the Northeast—and disease-resistant, too. Now, even France wants in on the action.2016 La Garagista Damejeanne ($45). This “bright, floral, spicy” Vermont red features the Marquette grape, developed at the University of Minnesota. Think gamay with more personality.2015 Keuka Lake Vineyards Gently Dry Vignoles ($17). A cross between pinot noir and a white hybrid produces this “crisp, zingy,” and beach-perfect white.2015 Hudson-Chatham Casscles Vineyard Baco Noir Reserve ($26). Baco noir is big in New York’s Hudson Valley. This one offers complex black cherry and savory flavors.…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The Library of Congress“The world’s largest library is on its way to becoming another one of Washington’s acclaimed museums,” said Peggy McGlone in The Washington Post. Credit current Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who promised in 2016 to make America’s “palace of knowledge” more welcoming to nonscholars. Last year, Hayden added a major collection of comic books to the library’s 170 million holdings, and she also opened a splashy exhibition on baseball. But she has bigger plans. If her proposal is approved, the 1897 library building, an “architectural wonder” known for its Great Hall, would undergo a $60 million renovation to create public spaces where visitors could see more highlights of the collection, including a display of books that Thomas Jefferson donated to start the library. The grand Main Reading Room will remain…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Home gym essentialsXYLsports Jump RopeWho needs a treadmill? A jump rope is “simply great” for all types of cardio, “from warming up to high-intensity interval training.” This “highly durable” rope has comfortable foam grips and can be shortened from 10 feet to any length you prefer.$7, amazon.comSource: OutsideOnline.comBowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbbells“An oft-recommended cult favorite,” Bowflex’s adjustable dumbbell set is like having 15 different pairs of weights. Turn the dial on the dumbbell’s side to select the total weight of the plates you lift—from 5 to 52.5 pounds.$299, bowflex.comSource: BusinessInsider.comProsource Exercise Puzzle MatFloor padding is a must, and these interlocking 2-foot-square foam tiles will do the job for floor-based workouts such as sit-ups, lunges, or Pilates. If you need padding under weights or heavy equipment, use rubber instead.6 for $21, prosourcefit.comSource: MensHealth.comPerfect Fitness…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Homes in VirginiaBerryville George Washington would ride from Mount Vernon to this 400-acre estate, known as Clinton Farm, to visit his cousin Warner Washington. The five-bedroom main house was built later, in 1834, and features high ceilings, arched doorways, crown molding, seven fireplaces, and oversize rooms. The property includes a pool, an outdoor kitchen, the original ice house, a three-bedroom stone guesthouse, tennis courts, and multiple barns. $4,700,000. Scott Buzzeli, Middleburg Real Estate, (540) 687-6321Urbanna This four-bedroom home, built in 2017, stands on a 6-acre property with views of the Rappahannock River. The open-concept house has a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace, mahogany doors, white-oak floors, a gourmet kitchen, a screened-in porch, and a first-floor master suite. Outside are mature trees, a patio, a nine-zone irrigation system, and a 250-foot pier on the river…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019The bottom lineThe Federal Communications Commission has fined robocallers $208.4 million since 2015 but has only collected $6,790. The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates telemarketing, has also been awarded $1.5 billion through court judgments involving civil penalties for robocalls since 2004, but has collected just 8 percent, or $121 million. The Wall Street JournalOf the 469 recessions in 194 countries since 1988, only four were predicted by economists at the International Monetary Fund by the spring of the year before the downturn. Private-sector economists are not much better. One study found that of 153 downturns in 63 countries between 1992 and 2014, just five had been anticipated by the preceding April. Bloomberg BusinessweekTwo Simpsons-themed paintings sold for $17.4 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong, part of a $28 million haul…2 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019Charity of the weekFounded in 1999, Project Sunshine brings educational and creative activities directly to children in hospitals. Volunteers facilitate arts and crafts lessons for patients; arrange book readings and parties for holidays and birthdays; and tutor children missing school. Children’s imaginations run free with one-of-a-kind “Star for a Day” celebrations for kids going through particularly difficult medical challenges. Project Sunshine also works internationally, adapting its programs to each community’s specific needs. In Kenya, the charity works to combat HIV, and in China, volunteers focus on the emotional and social well-being of patients. Project Sunshine has partnered with 325 medical facilities worldwide and reached 150,000 children.Each charity we feature has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which rates not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their governance practices, and the…1 minThe Week Magazine|April 12, 2019$70,000 a year to save capitalismNicholas KristofThe New York TimesGravity Payments, a credit-card payments company for small businesses in Seattle, made headlines in 2015 when it announced it was raising the minimum yearly salary for its 120 employees to $70,000, said Nicholas Kristof. The news stoked a national debate. Some lauded the founder, Dan Price, who was lowering his $1.1 million salary to help the company raise others’ wages. Pundits on the right decried the move as a gateway to socialism. So, how’s Gravity doing now? Well, there were some bumps. A few upper-level employees left, “apparently feeling less valued when new hires were close to them in pay.” But eventually the gamble paid off. Gravity processed $10.2 billion in payments last year, more than double the total in 2014. It has grown to 200…1 min
