Home//The Week Magazine/August 2, 2024/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Editor’s letterEven before Vice President Kamala Harris took over as the likely Democratic nominee, the 2024 election was shaping up to be a battle of the sexes. Last week’s Republican National Convention was deliberately planned as a chest-beating affair that would contrast Donald Trump’s macho bona fides with President Biden’s more female-friendly, reproductive rights–focused campaign. Big-game hunter Don Jr. introduced JD Vance—a “pro-natalist” who calls women without kids “childless cat ladies”—as Trump’s running mate. Dana White, CEO of the testosterone-jacked Ultimate Fighting Championship, got the honor of introducing the GOP’s alpha male. “I’m in the tough-guy business,” White said of Trump, “and this guy’s the toughest, most resilient guy I’ve ever met.” And pro-wrestling star Hulk Hogan praised Trump for surviving his attempted assassination like “a warrior”—before ripping off his T-shirt…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Secret Service head out after Trump security failureWhat happenedSecret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week amid bipartisan outrage over security failures that allowed a gunman to open fire on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign event, wounding the former president and killing a rallygoer. Cheatle’s position became untenable after a fierce congressional hearing in which she offered little information about what went wrong and was assailed by lawmakers for widespread security lapses. At Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to perch atop a warehouse roof with an AR-15–style rifle, some 450 feet from the stage and outside of the Secret Service’s security perimeter. Twenty minutes passed between a Secret Service sniper noticing Crooks using a gun rangefinder and the shooting, and even rally attendees alerted police to a suspicious…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Only in AmericaThe Country Bear Musical Jamboree, a popular attraction since 1971 at Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park in Florida, reopened last week without “Liver Lips McGrowl,” an animatronic bear deemed potentially offensive to alcoholics. The term “liver lips” is “associated with excessive alcohol consumption,” Disney said in a blog post, adding that the company is committed to “rectifying outdated or culturally insensitive elements within its attractions.” Florida’s commissioner of education, Manny Diaz Jr., has raised eyebrows by including Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice on a list of books that “impart a sense of American pride.” The English author’s novel concerns a group of English characters in 1800s England, and does not touch at all on what Diaz calls the “heroic patriotism of the many Americans throughout history who fought in the…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The U.S. at a glanceSpringfield, Ill.Failure to protect: Public outrage erupted last week after bodycam footage was released of a white officer shooting an unarmed Black woman in the face. On July 6, sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, 30, responded to a call from Sonya Massey, 36, a woman reportedly suffering from schizophrenia, who believed an intruder was in her home. After entering Massey’s house, Grayson asked her to move a pot boiling on the stovetop. When she lifted the pot, Grayson and his unnamed partner backed away, fearing she would burn them. “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” she told the officers. Grayson drew his gun, warning,“I’ll f---ing shoot you right in your f---ing face.” Massey apologized—“I’m sorry”—and began kneeling behind a counter when Massey shot her. “That’s a headshot. She’s done,”…4 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024A prison consultant to the rich and famousInmates don’t get concierges, said Josie Ensor in The Sunday Times (U.K.). But for a hefty fee, they can get Sam Mangel. The self-declared “federal prison consultant” works for what he calls the “criminal 1 percent”: His behind-bars clients have included FTX crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried as well as former Donald Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon. “My clients are used to getting what they want,” said Mangel, who served two years in prison for fraud, “so it’s a difficult adjustment becoming just an eight-digit number.” But that doesn’t mean they have to live like everyone else. On any given day, Mangel’s email will be filled with lists of his clients’ demands: One might want a quieter cell; another some phone credit; a third might be after a cushier…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The dinosaur tradePrivate buyers are paying record sums for dinosaur fossils. Is science getting left by the wayside?How big is the private market?There’s no accurate figure, but interest from wealthy collectors has sent prices spiking in recent years. A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Stan sold for an unprecedented $31.8 million at a Christie’s auction in 2020; the buyer was later revealed to be Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism. In 2022, a mystery buyer snapped up the skeleton of a Deinonychus antirrhopus—the inspiration for the velociraptors in Jurassic Park—for $12.4 million at another Christie’s sale. Last week, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin splashed $44.6 million at a Sotheby’s auction on the largest and most complete stegosaurus fossil ever found; it had been expected to sell for up to $6 million.…5 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Another Covid summerLisa JarvisBloombergCovid’s “summer surge is officially here,” said Lisa Jarvis. Unlike the flu, which “typically goes underground” in warm weather Covid has “become a summer tradition.” President Biden was among the tens of thousands infected last week, with very high levels of the virus in Florida, Texas, and the West Coast. But “thanks to vaccines and previous exposure,” Covid’s symptoms—coughing, fever, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems—are milder, producing few hospitalizations and fewer deaths. The latest variants, from the FLiRT strain, are largely responsible for the spike in cases, and vaccine manufacturers will tweak their upcoming booster shots to match the newest version of the virus. Immunity fades about four months after each booster, but that doesn’t mean we should forgo another shot this fall. Vaccines still lessen the chance of serious illness…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Muzzling the mouthpiece of the far rightMichael GötschenbergTagesschauShould Germany really be in the business of banning media? asked Michael Götschenberg. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser last week ordered the closure of the far-right magazine Compact, saying it was a “platform for extremist agitation,” not a normal press operation. Nobody questions that: Compact’s editor-in-chief, Jürgen Elsässer, once said outright that the magazine’s “goal is to overthrow the regime.” And while Elsässer and his crew masqueraded as journalists, they made no effort to follow standards of “balanced reporting.” They offered a soapbox for “genuine right-wing extremists” such as Martin Sellner—an Austrian ultra-nationalist who has been banned from entering Germany—and gave the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party a place to spew its bile unchallenged. Still, none of that means it was politically astute to “pull the plug.” A ban won’t…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Israel: Yemen forms third front in proxy war with Iran“Israel’s multifront war just got tougher,” said Amos Harel in Haaretz (Israel). Last week, Houthi militants in Yemen launched a new drone that flew some 1,100 miles, skirted Israel’s air defenses, and hit a building in the center of Israel near the U.S. Embassy’s Tel Aviv location. The explosion killed a 50-year-old man in his apartment and injured 10 others, the first casualties inflicted in Israel by the Houthis since the Gaza war erupted in October. The Israel Defense Forces responded by sending dozens of military aircraft to bomb Yemen’s vital Hodeidah port, killing several people, blowing up a fuel depot and a power plant, and causing fires that burned for days. It also shot down another Houthi missile heading for an Israeli port. This attack on Israel’s center is…3 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024NotedSpeakers at the Republican National Convention said the word “Trump” 1,049 times, using it more than “president” (905), and “America” (663). “God” was mentioned 310 times, more than “family” (243) but less than “Biden” (393).The New York Times The planet clocked its hottest day on record this week, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The average global temperature hit 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit on July 21, the highest since at least 1940.CNN.com Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is the first candidate on a major-party presidential ticket to sport facial hair since 1948, when mustachioed Republican Thomas E. Dewey made a losing presidential bid. The last vice-presidential candidate with facial hair was Republican Charles Curtis, who unsuccessfully ran with Herbert Hoover in…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The GOP: A spectacle of Trump worshipWe were promised a “unity” speech, said Jeff Greenfield in Politico, but for Donald Trump, “even a near-death experience” could not produce “a wider, more profound message for the American people.” When he accepted his third presidential nomination at last week’s Republican National Convention, Trump did open with “as intensely personal an account as any presidential nominee has ever delivered”—a powerful, “step-by-step retelling” of being grazed by an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pa. He warned that “we must not demonize political disagreements.” But when he departed from his scripted remarks, he returned to his usual hyperbolic attacks on his “crazy” political enemies and hordes of migrant “killers and criminals,” and said Democrats “used Covid to cheat” in the 2020 election. In droning on for 92 meandering, self-pitying minutes, the longest…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Poll watchAfter he survived an assassination attempt and was nominated at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump’s personal favorability rating rose to 40%, his highest rating in four years. 51% still view Trump unfavorably.ABC News/Ipsos 55% of Americans would like to see a decrease in immigration, the highest percentage since 2005. 76% of Americans support hiring more border patrol agents, 53% favor expanding the U.S.-Mexican border wall, and 47% support deporting all migrants living in the country illegally.Gallup…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Bytes: What’s new in techThe end of the endless data buffetQuality AI training data is drying up fast, said Kevin Roose in The New York Times. A study by an MIT-led research group called the Data Provenance Initiative said there is an “emerging crisis in consent” for access to the quality data needed by companies to improve their artificial-intelligence models. “Publishers and online platforms have taken steps to prevent their data from being harvested.” In three of the most commonly used AI-training datasets, the researchers estimate that “5 percent of all data, and 25 percent of data from the highest-quality sources, has been restricted” by a firewall against web crawlers or the websites’ terms of service. It’s a growing threat for AI firms that have “treated the internet as an all-you-can-eat buffet.”Cracking a would-be…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Global warming affects timeClimate change is making our days ever so slightly longer, a new study suggests. Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are sending hundreds of billions of tons of water flowing into the oceans toward the equator. This shift in mass is changing the shape of Earth itself—making it more oblate, or fatter—which in turn is slowing its rotation speed. Scientists compare the phenomenon to a spinning top that wobbles as its rotational axis is altered. With our planet, the effect on the length of a day is minimal: only a few milliseconds every 24 hours. But scientists say that increase may be enough to affect GPS, telecommunications, and even space travel. The servers that run the internet, for example, work on extremely precise timing. And “even if the Earth’s…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Autocracy Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World(Doubleday, $27)“Autocracy, Inc. is deeply disturbing; it couldn’t be anything else,” said John Simpson in The Guardian. Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum, who won a Pulitzer for her 2003 book on Soviet gulags, is warning us now that corrupt tyrants around the globe have recently learned to work in concert to undermine liberal democracies everywhere. Vladimir Putin has been so good at spreading lies about moral corruption in the West that other despots are imitating him. Xi Jinping is meanwhile modeling how to use intermediaries such as Dubai to control weak countries that are up for sale. Little else binds together players such as Russia, China, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Hungary besides their leaders’ focus on enriching themselves and shared belief that liberal democracy is the enemy. Because Applebaum understands the…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Best books…chosen by Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the best-selling author of Wicked Plants, The Drunken Botanist, and several other nonfiction works about the natural world. Her new book is The Tree Collectors, a tribute to people whose arboreal obsessions have beautified the world.The Sakura Obsession by Naoko Abe (2019). I was astonished to learn that the great majority of cherry trees in Japan are just one variety, and that many rare varieties that existed in past centuries have been lost. Naoko Abe, a journalist, gained access to a rich archive that told the story of how a passionate English gardener helped save many of them from extinction a century ago. It’s a remarkable story of international friendships.Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (2023). This was the best novel I read last year. Everything Patchett writes…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Georgia O’Keeffe: ‘My New Yorks’Art Institute of Chicago, through Sept. 22“You think you know an artist,” said Lori Waxman in the Chicago Tribune. Georgia O’Keeffe, “the mother of American modernism,” is most widely celebrated for her “disarmingly sensuous” paintings of skulls, flowers, and other wonders of the New Mexico desert where she lived for decades late in life. But before she relocated to the Southwest, O’Keeffe was a New Yorker who, after having already won renown as an artist, began painting images of Manhattan’s skyscrapers and skyline during one of the city’s great building booms. A blockbuster exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago revisits this frequently overlooked chapter of O’Keeffe’s career, gathering more than 50 paintings, including about two dozen that make New York their subject. Though the show would have been stronger…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024When I’m CalledJake Xerxes Fussell’s new album reaffirms that he’s “one of the 21st century’s greatest folk interpreters,” said Timothy Monger in AllMusic. Raised on traditional music by his folklorist father, the 42-year-old North Carolina–based singer and guitarist has an unusual talent for making American folk songs, some of which date back centuries, feel new. His “endearingly laid-back attitude” and “amiable, rumbling baritone” give each of his records “a vibe that is unmistakably his own,” and his latest finds him even more assured in the ways he enhances existing tunes. The charming title track yokes an old folk song to lyrics taken from a found scrap of paper apparently written by a child who was instructed to forswear further classroom mischief, said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. “The sheer beauty…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024OddityDirected by Damian McCarthy (R)A blind psychic seeks her twin’s murderer.“Alfred Hitchco*ck would have been proud to put his name on this lean and unsettling thriller,” said Kyle Smith in The Wall Street Journal. The second feature from Irish director Damian McCarthy, “Oddity is everything a horror film should be—creepy, exciting, unpredictable,” with an ending that feels “both shocking and inevitable.” Carolyn Bracken plays the movie’s first victim, a woman who’s alone one night at the spooky country manor that she and her husband have been restoring when a knock comes on the door. A year later, the victim’s blind twin sister, also played by Bracken, arrives seeking to unmask the true killer with the help of her psychic powers and a creepy life-size doll. The doll has several holes…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 20242024 Paris Olympic GamesThe Summer Olympics’ first full week will be a big one for gymnastics, swimming, and track and field. All eyes will be on Simone Biles when she returns to her sport’s biggest stage after pulling out of the Tokyo Games in 2020. She’ll compete in Tuesday’s women’s team final, followed by Thursday’s all-around final and Saturday’s vault competition. U.S. swimmers to watch include seven-time gold medalists Caeleb Dressel, who competes in Thursday’s 50-meter freestyle, and Katie Ledecky, whose run begins with Tuesday’s 1500-meter freestyle. On the weekend, watch for top U.S. sprinters Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles. NBC and affiliated channels• All listings are Eastern Time.…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024When to pass on premium gasMaybe always. Some manufacturers stipulate that premium gas must be used in their vehicles, but no manufacturer Consumer Reports has questioned has tied the use of premium gas to a vehicle’s reliability, only to its performance. We suggest using premium only if the alternative leaves your engine pinging or seeming sluggish. When it’s not required. Premium is merely a recommendation for many vehicles, and recent track tests of two of them showed no difference in performance when regular gas was used. Fuel economy and 0-to-60-mph times were identical. When you choose ‘Top Tier.’ Though octane levels appear to matter little, quality does. Many major gas station brands sell only ‘Top Tier’ detergent gasoline. Avoid anything but Top Tier to keep your engine clean and running smoothly. When savings matter. For…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The bottom lineMore than a year after a right-wing boycott, Bud Light has dropped to No. 3 behind Modelo and Michelob Ultra in domestic beer sales. Bud Light represented 6.5 percent of beer-dollar sales in U.S. stores last month, compared with 7.3 percent for Michelob Ultra and 9.7 percent for Modelo.The Wall Street Journal Netflix added 8.05 million net paid customers in Q2, bringing its global base to 277.6 million. The company reported revenue of $9.56 billion (up 17 percent) and net income of $2.15 billion up from $1.49 billion a year ago.Variety General Motors sold 53,785 Corvettes worldwide last year, just 22 shy of its top sales year in 1979. Americans bought about 34,000, including Stingray coupes that start at $66,000—nearly twice the U.S. sales in 2019.The New York Times Electric…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024This $80,000 truck welcomes road rageTesla’s Cybertruck is the perfect armored vehicle for the culture wars, said Joseph Bernstein in The New York Times. “Since the electric behemoth started rolling out last November, its hard-edged geometric form has proved to be a love-it-or-hate-it proposition.” In some circles, the $80,000 car has become a status symbol; “celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams have both been spotted in Cybertrucks.” In others, it’s a lightning rod for social media criticism and occasional explosions of road rage—or at least plenty of “middle fingers and passing guffaws.” The truck’s “fortress-like appearance” was reportedly inspired by dystopian fiction and designed to “tap into contemporary anxieties around social disorder.” It draws comparisons to the tank-like Hummer H2 that debuted shortly after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. However, “so much attention…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Charity of the weekMore than two-thirds of all toxic waste in the U.S. comes from improperly disposed electronics. Instead of tossing old laptops and phones into a landfill, the Portland, Ore.–based nonprofit organization Free Geek (freegeek.org) invites individuals and businesses to donate these devices for reuse. Donated items that can’t be refurbished are disassembled and their parts are properly recycled by Free Geeks’ staff. Others are given a second life and granted to in-need nonprofit organizations and schools for free. Free Geek is also trying to close Oregon’s “homework gap”—the void in computer access for completing at-home assignments for 75,000 Oregonian students. Through their Plug Into Portland program, low-income students from kindergarten to 12th grade can receive a free or reduced-cost desktop computer.Each charity we feature has earned a four-star overall rating from…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Musk, the man behind the curtainZeeshan AleemMSNBC.comElon Musk’s X is a powerful political weapon in Donald Trump’s arsenal, said Zeeshan Aleem. Since purchasing Twitter in 2022, the billionaire’s posts “have become clearly identifiable as sympathetic to right-wing nationalist ideas.” After Trump was shot in Pennsylvania, Musk made a “showy endorsem*nt” of the Republican candidate in a post that was reshared more than 400,000 times. He’s also planning to spend millions as GOP donor. Musk’s very public turn as a “right-wing activist” makes him a hugely important and worrisome figure in this election, and not just because he is the world’s richest man. We all know social media “can play a game-changing role in the political news ecosystem.” As the owner of X, Musk controls the algorithms that shape the content people see, and they could…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The anchor who peddled conspiracy theoriesLou Dobbs’ career rose and fell along with the tides of American conservatism. The cable news host gained prominence fronting CNN’s Moneyline during the 1990s dot-com boom, then began spreading conspiracy theories in the 2000s on Lou Dobbs Tonight. He was a strong proponent of the birther theory, falsely claiming that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. After his show moved to Fox Business Network in 2011, Dobbs morphed into one of Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters—and an informal adviser. He rebranded himself as a populist, using his folksy demeanor to give voice to economic anxiety and often scapegoating immigrants. When Trump lost re-election in 2020, Dobbs amplified claims of election fraud, and that proved his downfall. Voting-machine company Smartmatic sued Fox for defamation, naming Dobbs as a defendant, and…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The Week ContestThis week’s question: An English soccer fan said he had “no regrets” after getting “England Euro 2024 winners” tattooed on his leg—two days before the team lost to Spain in the Euro final. In seven or fewer words, come up with another message for a tattoo about a recent event that might not stand the test of time.Last week’s contest: An Indiana mechanic who remodeled his car to look like a flying saucer was recently stopped by bemused police on his way to a UFO festival in Roswell, N.M. If a major car manufacturer were to design a similarly out-of-this-world vehicle, what name should it give the auto?THE WINNER: Pontiac GT3PO Steve Menzel, Stevens Point, Wis.SECOND PLACE: Ford UFOcus John R. Bregoli, Braintree, Mass.THIRD PLACE: Honda Space Odyssey Christine Mack,…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Democrats flock to Harris as Biden exits raceWhat happenedDemocratic officials, donors, and voters rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris as their presumptive presidential nominee this week, after President Biden bowed to mounting pressure and exited the race just 107 days before the election. Biden’s announcement followed weeks of rising panic among Democrats that the 81-year-old incumbent—who set off alarms with a disastrous June 27 debate performance—would lose in a landslide to Donald Trump, threatening down-ballot candidates. Biden held firm as a growing number of lawmakers and party leaders urged him publicly and privately to quit. But while recovering from Covid at his Delaware beach house, he abruptly changed course, and announced he was standing down. “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country,” Biden wrote on X; soon after, he threw…4 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Netanyahu defends Gaza war in strident speech to CongressWhat happenedIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast the war against Hamas as “a clash between barbarism and civilization” in an address this week to a U.S. Congress sharply divided over the Gaza conflict. Speaking in the House chamber, Netanyahu described the brutality of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack at length and said it was part of Iran’s proxy war against the U.S. and Israel. Praising President Biden’s “half a century of friendship to Israel,” he called for more military aid to achieve “a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza” under Israeli security control. “Our enemies are your enemies,” he said. “Our fight is your fight. And our victory will be your victory.” Vice President Kamala Harris, who would normally preside over a joint session, did not attend the speech, citing a scheduling conflict.…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Good week/bad weekSacrifice, after Australian field hockey star Matt Dawson had part of a finger amputated so he could make the Olympics. The broken finger would have healed slowly in a cast, but with the Paris Games starting this week, Dawson thought amputation “the best option.”Political unions, after the gay-male dating app Grindr crashed last week, reportedly because of a sudden surge in traffic in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention. “Just come out of the closet boys,” said former GOP Rep. George Santos. “It’s fun.”Acronyms, after Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) introduced a bill that would bar federal agencies from disqualifying job applicants because of marijuana use. It is titled the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment Act, or DOOBIE Act.Bad week for:The written word, after a poll found that…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The world at a glanceJasper, AlbertaFire on the mountain: Canada this week ordered the evacuation of Jasper National Park and the town of Jasper, forcing 25,000 people to flee as a raging wildfire roared toward the area. The flames pushed to about 7 miles south of the Canadian Rockies town, filling the air with dense smoke and ash as cars and RVs jammed roads out of town. Joe Gentile, a tourist from Calgary, said it felt like “being in a campfire.” More than 160 active wildfires were burning in Alberta, fueled by a heat wave scorching much of western Canada. Dozens of the blazes were classified as “out of control,” including one of the biggest—the Semo Complex fire, which has burned 96,000 acres. Canada is bracing for a wildfire season that could rival last…7 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Cage’s battle with the meme machineNicolas Cage has an uneasy relationship with social media, said Susan Orlean in The New Yorker. Many of the actor’s most over-the-top movie moments—a bug-eyed Cage exclaiming “You don’t say!” in Vampire’s Kiss or screaming “Not the bees!” in The Wicker Man—have gained a second life online after being turned into memes. A YouTube compilation called “Nicolas Cage Losing His S---” has clocked several million views. Cage, 60, was unprepared for his online mythos. “When I signed up to be a film actor, we didn’t have the internet,” he says. “We didn’t have cell phones with cameras. I didn’t know this was going to happen to me in such a pervasive way—the so-called memes.” He believes those viral clips and compilations present a skewed snapshot of his performances. “It is…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The shooter’s nihilistic motiveMichelle GoldbergThe New York TimesNo “conventional ideological” motive has been found to explain a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, said Michelle Goldberg. Instead, the ongoing investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed after he fired eight shots at Trump with an assault-style rifle two weeks ago, suggests he was a conservative-leaning, bullied loner, and gun enthusiast. No clear political motive has been found: He also did online research on Joe Biden and the Democratic National Convention, and one of his last searches, the FBI says, was for online p*rn. Crooks seems to have been one of our country’s many “lonely and disconnected young men” who’ve “been radicalized into pure nihilism.” Like many mass shooters, Crooks had a history of “humiliation and obsession with firearms”; his assassination…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Viewpoint“When I first saw the shot of Donald Trump’s blood-smeared face as he pumped his fist in the air post–assassination attempt, I wondered how long it would be before it ended up on a T-shirt. It was only a few hours before Barstool Sports’ Instagram account posted a T-shirt celebrating that photo. An assassination attempt on a former president and the eventual 2024 Republican nominee—and one in which a rally attendee was brutally killed in front of his family—should be, in my opinion, at least met with a certain amount of…decorum? Even still, this was exactly what I expected, because this is America now: land of the free market and home to a population that will monetize…anything.”Pat Brothwell in Slate…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Sticking with the robot we knowJean QuatremerLibération (France)Ursula von der Leyen is a cipher of a leader, said Jean Quatremer. The head of the European Union’s executive, effectively the EU president, was just re-elected by the EU legislature for a second five-year term, but she spent the first one hiding from the public. She comes across as “an avatar, created by an AI that was asked to generate the blandest, most reassuring politician possible.” A former German defense minister, von der Leyen, 65, is “conservative, but not overly so, slender, blonde, and impeccably dressed.” In front of the camera, she’s always smiling, but she spends most of her time “fleeing at all costs from the press whose embarrassing questions she fears.” Exhibiting “a distrust bordering on paranoia,” she sleeps in a windowless studio next to…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Echoes of American-style election denialPhilile NtombelaAfrica CheckUnsubstantiated claims of election fraud nearly derailed South Africa’s elections, said Philile Ntombela. The May vote proved “pivotal,” stripping the African National Congress of a majority after 30 years and forcing it to work with opposition parties. But ahead of election day, “social media was awash with allegations of election fraud.” Some posts claimed that ballots were “pre-filled” with ANC votes, others that polling station pens had evaporating ink, still others that the electoral body was biased. None of it was true, but the lies “deepened skepticism of the electoral process” and discouraged turnout. The bogus claims of vote rigging “have been credibly linked” to the uMkhonto weSizwe party, formed last year by former President Jacob Zuma, but were also echoed by certain news outlets. We all know…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024National mood: Fears of a gathering darknessAround the country and across party lines, Americans are “on edge,” said Emily Cochrane in The New York Times. This unease is not simply a result of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. “Roiled by culture wars, reeling since the pandemic, broiling under biblical heat, and besieged by disinformation,” voters say they worry what horror could come next. “It’s like this dark cloud is looming over us, and it’s just not ending,” said Fredes Asuncion, 34, a small-business owner in Sacramento. Adding to it all is the unrelenting partisan hostility, “and the sense, for a third straight presidential election, that something essential is broken in our politics.” Some 80 percent of Americans think the country is spiraling out of control, according to a poll taken after the attack on Trump,…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Biden: Assessing a one-term legacyI was wrong about Joe Biden, said Timothy Noah in The New Republic. During his numerous runs for the presidency over three decades, I was one of many Beltway reporters who wrote him off as a “lightweight” with “more ambition than talent.” But as he prepares to exit from the White House, it must be said: “Biden has not just been a good president—he has been a transformative one.” Demonstrating “enormous political gifts,” he wrangled through Congress a “remarkable series of game-changing spending bills” that rescued the economy during and after the Covid pandemic. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan cut child poverty to its lowest rate ever. His $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill finally made good on decades of efforts to upgrade America’s roads, bridges, high-speed internet, and other public…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Meltdowns: A software bug unleashes global chaosAll it took was a single routine cyber-security software update to knock out computer systems worldwide, said Ryan Browne in CNBC.com. The global outage last week practically shut down the air, causing 4,400 flights to be canceled and more than 40,000 delayed as computers used to check in customers and operate call centers stopped working. It blacked out everything from the screens in hospital operating rooms, which lost access to patient records, to 911 call centers to Times Square billboards, but this was not a cyberattack. The root cause was an unfortunate mistake by CrowdStrike, a company charged with protecting computers running Microsoft Windows against cyberattacks and other intrusions. That “requires deep access to a computer’s operating system to scan for threats,” so when an update to CrowdStrike’s software went…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Where humans might live on the moonIf humans want to establish permanent settlements on the moon, we’ll need protection from the radiation that bathes the lunar surface. That means building bases underground. Now scientists have found a cave that could serve as such a shelter, reports BBC.com. Radar from a NASA satellite orbiting the moon reveals that the largest lunar plain, the Sea of Tranquility—where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon in 1969—has a deep pit leading to a cave some 150 feet wide and 260 feet long, the equivalent of 14 tennis courts. This large hollow, around 500 feet beneath the surface, is probably an empty “lava tube” formed hundreds of millions of years ago when the moon was volcanic. It may be difficult to access, because it’s so deep that…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Night owls are smarterConventional wisdom holds that early risers are more alert than those who sleep in. But a new study suggests that the night owls may in fact be sharper, reports New Atlas. Researchers looked at U.K. Biobank data on more than 26,000 people who had completed several cognitive function tests and grouped them by when they hit the hay. They found that those who always stayed up late, and those with a mild preference for either day or night, exhibited cognitive function superior to that of devoted early risers. While the study didn’t account for education or include the time of day when the tests were completed, the results were compelling. Lead author Raha West, from Imperial College London, says they suggest that people’s chronotype—the body’s natural inclination to sleep at…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The Heart in Winter(Doubleday, $28)“This short, tight novel pulls one so swiftly along that it can be read on a summer’s afternoon,” said Michael Gorra in The Wall Street Journal. But the “real force” of Kevin Barry’s first Western “lies in the mordant wit of its language.” Barry, an Irish writer, is “drawn to characters in the process of ruining their lives,” and he and his “raucous prose” have two good ones to play around with here in ex-pats Polly Harrington and Tom Rourke, a mail-order bride and an opium fiend who begin an illicit affair in 1890s Butte, Mont. “The Heart in Winter is not top-shelf Kevin Barry,” said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. The author of 2019’s Night Boat to Tangier “never quite gets a handle on these characters,”…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Also of interest…in missing persons and lost loved onesThe God of the Woodsby Liz Moore (Riverhead, $30)Liz Moore’s best-selling new thriller “has the kineticism of a well-crafted miniseries,” said The New Yorker. At an Adirondacks summer camp, the disappearance of a 13-year-old who’s the daughter of the family that employs most locals plunges readers into a layered mystery. The girl’s family, “a shady bunch,” suffered the disappearance of another child years earlier, and as Moore plays “dexterously” with the tension between the Van Laars and their neighbors, rumors spread that a killer is loose.JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biographyby RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil (Gallery, $31)“Sprawling and fascinating,” the new oral-history-style biography of John Kennedy Jr. “certainly provides the fullest portrait of Kennedy ever written,” said Allison Stewart in The Washington Post. Co-author RoseMarie Terenzio was Kennedy’s executive…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Sing SingDirected by Greg Kwedar (R)Inmates in an acting group tap hidden strengths.“A film like Sing Sing is a rare, precious achievement,” said Katie Walsh in the Los Angeles Times. “Hewed from the heart” and “quietly captivating,” this drama set in upstate New York’s Sing Sing prison focuses on a group of inmates working to stage their first original play, but it’s also “about so much more,” including the hope, heartbreak, and chance at personal growth that exist wherever human lives unfold. The star, Colman Domingo, provides the film its “beating, bleeding heart.” But the recent Oscar nominee is surrounded by men who’ve actually participated in Sing Sing’s theater program, and Domingo gives them space to shine when their big moments arrive. “The discovery here is Clarence Maclin,” one of several…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Streaming tipsBrewster McCloudBegin at the beginning. In 1970, the first of Duvall’s many performances for director Robert Altman introduced the world to a most unusual actress—all eyes, cheekbones, teeth, and innate magnetism. She plays a tour guide with a crush on the title character, a young man who lives under the Houston Astrodome and aspires to fly like a bird. $4 on demand3 WomenAny of Duvall’s other Altman movies (Nashville, Thieves Like Us, McCabe and Mrs. Miller) is worthy of this list, but she shines brightest in this Bergman-esque 1977 psychological drama as Millie, a nurse who invites a co-worker to room with her, leading to a surreal merging of identities. Apple TV+The ShiningIf Jack Nicholson hits the pinnacle of onscreen menace in Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece, Duvall reaches the apogee…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Critics’ choice: Instagram-worthy dining destinationsAmar BostonGeorge Mendes’ new Portuguese restaurant, perched on the 17th floor of the Raffles hotel, offers diners a visual feast, said Devra First in The Boston Globe. Gorgeous fresh flowers stand tall amid circular booths lined with plush blue velvet while a colossal chandelier of glass and gold hangs overhead. And as the sun sets, “it is all upstaged by the view out of the windows.” At times, Mendes, formerly of New York City’s Aldea, matches the setting with “moments of surprise, delight, and pure pleasure.” But his menu is “filled with highs and mehs.” On the plus side: the “beautifully prepared,” lightly spiced lobster with white asparagus and Azorean pineapple. But then: a tender but “flavorless” lamb loin or an “impeccably tender” charcoaled octopus paired with a heap of…3 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid: What the critics sayMotor 1“It’s the perfect car for our time.” After a decade away, the Honda Civic Hybrid has returned this summer in an impressive new iteration that averages 49 mpg and “laughs in the face of inflation.” Yes, the entry-level model is slightly more expensive than a Toyota Prius. But the Civic Hybrid that debuted in 2003 would cost $34,000 today, and the reborn edition beats both that price and the original’s fuel efficiency while also packaging good looks with up-to-date tech and “engaging” road manners.AutoblogThe Civic Hybrid “certainly feels much sportier” than its true Toyota counterpart, the sub-$24,000 Corolla Hybrid. That’s not surprising, given that the Civic has “consistently been one of the best cars for sale in America,” and the hybrid, with its 200-hp power train, “may be the…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Four ways to get more from WazeFind affordable gas. Waze, the popular navigation app, offers side features you may not know about. For example, its gas-station finder includes fuel prices. Hit the search bar at the bottom of the screen, then tap “gas stations.” You’ll see how to reach nearby stations and the prices users have paid recently. Choose an ideal departure time. Tap “My Waze,” then “Plan a drive,” and you’ll see when you should leave, given traffic delays, to reach your destination at a particular time. Waze can notify you if the ideal departure time changes. Share your route. Keep others informed of your progress by tapping “Share drive.” The feature allows the people of your choice to track your location and monitor your ETA. Get help. After tapping Waze’s orange “Report” button, choose…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Retirement: Even GenX is catching up on savings“Two new and surprising studies show that the future may not be so bleak” for America’s retirement picture, said Kerry Hannon in Yahoo Finance. A report from Vanguard found that “Americans set aside funds for retirement at the highest rate ever” last year. The average savings rate for participants in Vanguard-managed retirement plans was a record 11.7 percent, well above rates in the recent past. “Combine that with the rebounding stock market last year, and average account balances at Vanguard increased 19 percent” to $134,128. Another spot of optimism comes from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which found that “71 percent of Gen Z workers are saving in an employer-sponsored plan.” These kids must be listening to the doomsayers on retirement.Unfortunately, the “Slacker generation,” has lived up to its…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Trumponomics: Another round of tariffs and tax cutsAs he pursues a second term, Donald Trump is doubling down on “his protectionist America First agenda,” said John Cassidy in The New Yorker. He has proposed taking a “sledgehammer” to current trade policy, floating “a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods and a 60 percent levy on those from China.” He wants to deport millions of undocumented workers, which would exacerbate the labor shortage. “And he has pledged to extend the 2017 Republican tax cuts,” which would increase the near-record budget deficit. These proposals would be “a new inflationary shock” for an economy that is “just getting over a period of rapidly rising prices.” It would probably also trigger an “all-out trade war” that will “undermine the U.S. economy.”Yes, we can expect Trump to continue the policies of…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The singer who gave civil rights a soaring soundtrackBernice Johnson Reagon dedicated her life to transforming society through song. The founder of two influential a cappella groups, the civil rights–era Freedom Singers and the Grammy-nominated Sweet Honey in the Rock, she combined a deep knowledge of Black history with uplifting harmonies that showcased her contralto. She used these gifts to inspire and educate, whether singing to groups of activists, organizing exhibits at the Smithsonian, or touring with Nelson Mandela after his release from prison. “You cannot sing a song,” she said, “and not change your condition.”The daughter of a Baptist preacher, Reagon grew up the third of eight children in small-town Georgia. While studying music at Albany State College in 1961, she joined the civil rights movement and was arrested, leading to her expulsion. Her friend Pete Seeger…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024What next?As Harris moves toward the Democratic nomination, “questions remain on how she sews up” the needed delegates, said Sareen Habeshian and Natalie Daher in Axios. Under Democratic National Committee rules, pledged delegates are bound to vote for the candidate they’re assigned. But with Biden out of the race, there’s no “formal, rule-based structure” for transferring his delegates to Harris. One potential scenario is for delegates to hold a “virtual vote” before the convention to lock in Harris as the nominee. But “we’re in uncharted territory here and a lot of this stuff hasn’t been tested,” said political consultant Josh Putnam. Meanwhile, Republicans are puzzling over how to take on Harris, said Tim Alberta in The Atlantic. Team Trump planned on running against an incumbent perceived to be too infirm for…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Harris: Can she defeat Trump in November?“‘Decide in haste, repent at leisure’ is an old expression,” said Bret Stephens in The New York Times, and it’s one that Democrats should have heeded before rushing to coronate Kamala Harris as their presidential nominee. It’s true that in Harris, 59, the party suddenly has a candidate with the cognitive apparatus to debate and give speeches, and that Donald Trump, 78, is now the oldest major-party nominee in U.S. history. But when the relief and euphoria subside, Democrats will find they’ve backed a candidate with a dismal 38 percent approval rating—a blue-state politician who actually polls worse than Biden did against Trump in swing states, from a 5-point deficit in Michigan to a daunting 6 points in Arizona and 10 in Nevada. As vice president, Harris will have to…3 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024In other newsCourt puts Biden’s student loan relief plan in limboA federal appeals court in St. Louis temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s latest student loan relief plan last week, leading the Education Department to place the SAVE program’s 8 million participants in an interest-free forbearance as it defends the plan against legal challenges. The year-old SAVE ties monthly payment amounts to a borrower’s income and family size, and wipes the debt clean after 20 years. The plan was challenged by Missouri—whose state-linked MOHELA loan authority is a major national servicer of student loans—and 16 other GOP-led states. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called the ruling a win for “every American who still believes in paying their own way.” The Supreme Court last year struck down an earlier Biden plan designed to eliminate…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Retton’s Olympic body shamingMary Lou Retton knows what it means to be held to an impossible standard, said Gillian Telling in People. Before she won gold in the women’s all-around at the 1984 Olympics—becoming the first American gymnast to take the title—the 16-year-old Retton was punished for looking strong and muscular. “I was starved,” she says, explaining that her coaches, Bela and Marta Karolyi, as well as the media thought she needed to look more like her ultra-thin Eastern European rivals. “I was 4-foot-9 and 94 pounds. I was considered ‘the fat one.’ And I wasn’t fat in any shape or form.” At the 1984 Games, Bela Karolyi upped his demands of Retton, insisting that her next vault be a perfect 10. “He’d never said that before. I was like, ‘You’re putting pressure…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024In the newsAdidas apologized last week for hiring the Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid as the face of its relaunched SL72 shoe, a sneaker first released for the 1972 Munich Olympics, during which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists. The state of Israel slammed the choice of Hadid—a vocal supporter of Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war—posting on X that the model has a “history of spreading antisemitism and calling for violence against Israelis and Jews.” Adidas pulled the ads and apologized for “upset or distress caused,” saying any connection between the ad campaign and “tragic historical events” was “completely unintentional.” A source told Us Weekly that Hadid is planning to sue Adidas for associating her “with the death and violence” of the 1972 Games, adding, “Violence is not consistent with Bella’s…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Trump to Taiwan: Drop deadJonathan ChaitNew York magazineIf Donald Trump returns to the White House, it will embolden “China to invade Taiwan,” said Jonathan Chait. America has long maintained “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan, supporting its defense capabilities but not formally committing to going to war on its behalf. The arrangement, while imperfect, has enabled Taiwan to flourish independently a mere 80 miles from mainland China and its vast military. But in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview last week, Trump indicated the U.S. would be “stupid” to defend an island “9,500 miles away.” To justify cutting off protection, Trump employed “familiar gangster logic,” saying, “Taiwan took our chip business from us.” Taiwan, of course, is a democracy, like Ukraine, but Trump does not see any point in defending free nations from predatory authoritarian states. In fact,…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024It must be true…A New York animal shelter advertised a foulmouthed parrot for adoption, and more than 400 people applied. Pepper, a white-fronted Amazon, is “potty-mouthed” and needs a “humor-loving home,” said the Niagara SPCA on Facebook. The parrot’s lexicon includes such sentences as “Do you want me to kick your [expletive]?” People responded “from all over the country,” said director Amy Lewis. “It seemed like everyone wanted a cursing parrot.” The winning applicant, a teacher from upstate New York, already has a bawdy parrot, so her “home is like a regular truck stop,” said Lewis. “It seemed a perfect fit.” Mexican authorities are calling for the removal of a seaside statue of the Greek sea god Poseidon in the Yucatan, after complaints it was an insult to local Maya indigenous groups and…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024How they see us: What Vance could do to UkraineShould we be panicking? asked Petro Gerasimenko in LB.ua (Ukraine). Donald Trump, the possible next president of the U.S., has picked as his running mate an enemy of Ukraine, JD Vance. The Ohio senator could hardly be more hostile to the Ukrainian cause. When Russia first sent its tanks and troops into our democratic and free country in February 2022, Vance scoffed, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine.” In the Senate, the first-term Republican led the charge to block desperately needed military aid for our beleaguered troops. He has argued it would be in America’s best interest for Kyiv to “cede part of its territory to the Russians” to make peace. He even parroted Russian disinformation, claiming that Ukrainian government ministers might use U.S. funds to “buy a…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024A newfound sense of vulnerabilityKim Seong-konThe Korea HeraldEverything was looking up for South Korea, said Kim Seong-kon. The “cutting-edge technology” of industrial giants like Samsung and Hyundai and the Korean Wave in pop culture bolstered our reputation “as a country of economic success and democratization.” South Korea was the darling of the free world, while North Korea was a pariah. But “things have changed drastically since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Now that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who needs ammunition, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who needs allies, have clinched a defense agreement, “North Korea has become an untouchable sanctuary protected by Russia as well as China.” Suddenly, South Korea is the vulnerable one, “a Ukraine in Asia.” If the erratic North picks a fight with us, nuclear-armed Russia will come to its…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Vance: Trump’s divisive veep pick“Who is JD Vance really?” asked Ian Ward in Politico. It’s a question that has dogged the Ohio senator “along his peculiar path to power,” which began with the publication of his 2016 best-seller Hillbilly Elegy—a memoir of his ascent from a dysfunctional working-class family to Yale Law—and culminated last week with Donald Trump picking Vance as his running mate. Over those eight years, Vance has undergone a radical transformation: from venture capitalist to firebrand populist, and from “self-described ‘Never Trump’ conservative to hard-edged MAGA loyalist.” Trump knows exactly what he’s getting in Vance, said Frank Barry in Bloomberg—a “mini-me” opportunist. Vance has even said he would have done what Mike Pence refused to do on Jan. 6, 2021: ignore the Constitution to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. Trump “drives…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Innovation of the weekAn experimental air taxi made a 523-mile test flight, leaving “only a trail of water vapor in its wake,” said Mack Degeurin in Popular Science. Joby Aviation says it was the first flight of a vertical take-off-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen. “Joby has focused on creating fully electric battery–powered aircraft with a range of roughly 100 miles,” but it started developing hydrogen as a fuel source in 2022. The company “took a pre-production prototype of one of its battery-electric aircraft and outfitted it with a liquid hydrogen fuel tank and fuel system.” The aircraft finished its maiden voyage above Marina, Calif., with 10 percent of its fuel remaining. One downside: Hydrogen “is still far more expensive to produce than its electric or fossil-fuel alternatives.”…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Why we blush at our dorkinessIs blushing an automatic response to an embarrassing situation or a more complex neurological process? To find out, Dutch scientists asked 40 adolescent girls to undergo the ultimate embarrassment: watching themselves perform karaoke. Researchers had each participant sing a difficult song, either “Hello” by Adele or “Let It Go” from Frozen, then watch the playback while in an MRI scanner. The researchers amped up the mortification factor by making each participant believe the others were also watching the video. The scans showed that while the teens were blushing, they had more activity in areas of the brain linked to emotional arousal than to higher-level thinking. This suggests that blushing isn’t a complex cognitive process, in which the blusher realizes they’ve done something totally cringe and thinks about how it will…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The bird that chases hurricanesMost birds try to avoid hurricanes by flying around them or finding somewhere to shelter. But the Desertas petrel does the exact opposite: It heads straight for the storm, following it for up to five days over hundreds of miles. The black-and-gray seabirds, which live on Portugal’s uninhabited Bugio Island in the Atlantic Ocean, aren’t just thrill seekers. They track hurricanes because the winds churn up the ocean in a way that pushes their prey—squid, small fish, and crustaceans—to the surface. Biologist Francesco Ventura and his team made the discovery after tying GPS trackers to 33 petrels to learn more about their migratory movements. His initial findings, published in 2020, revealed that they were willing to travel vast distances to search for food. It was only when he compared the…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice(St. Martin’s, $27)“What Are Children For? might seem to be an exercise in overthinking,” said Katha Pollitt in The Washington Post. Written by two young philosophers, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman, the book gathers insights from surveys, interviews, literature, pop culture, and the authors’ own experiences to probe why so many women their age feel ambivalent about having kids. Fortunately, our guides have distilled all those data points into “a smart, fascinating look at one of the most vital questions women face.” Their first order of business is addressing the worries that Millennials and Gen Zers often cite, such as a lack of finances, loss of freedom, the strains of overpopulation, and imminent apocalypse. Still, “something deeper is at work,” as the authors grasp.The book is aimed at a small…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Yasmin ZaherYasmin Zaher doesn’t blame herself; she blames New York City, said Anu Khosla in The Millions. In her buzzy debut novel, The Coin, Zaher creates a portrait of a privileged young Palestinian woman who moves from Israel to Manhattan and unravels before the reader’s eyes. Zaher was similarly disillusioned when she made the same hopeful journey, and she doesn’t think her experience was unique. “There are a lot of women unraveling in the big city,” she says. “It’s a defining characteristic of our time.” The unnamed narrator of The Coin manifests her discomfort with the mores of America by obsessively scrubbing her skin, feeding revolutionary ideas to the underprivileged middle-school students she teaches, and enlisting in a scheme to procure and resell Birkin bags. Zaher simply left New York, moving…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The Death of Slim Shady“Eminem is a shadow of his former self,” said Dash Lewis in Pitchfork. During his Y2K-era prime, the rap superstar “could be arrestingly clever, sometimes issuing a line as meticulously written as it was shocking.” Now 51, the artist born Marshall Mathers remains highly popular. But his chart-topping 12th album “mostly just feels sad.” The title promises a record that will put an end to Mathers’ caustic alter ego, Slim Shady. Yet the rapper spends two-thirds of the album inhabiting that persona, complaining about cancel culture and making crude jokes about women, trans people, and the disabled. “It would all be outlandishly offensive if it weren’t so tired, dated, and developmentally arrested.” Years ago, Shady credibly represented the suppressed anger of many young Americans, said Sheldon Pearce in NPR.org. What’s…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024DìdiDirected by Sean Wang (R)A Fremont, Calif., teen comes of age.“There’s something magical that happens to most people around the age of 13,” said Charles Barfield in The Playlist. “That’s why coming-of-age films are timeless. And that’s why Dìdi is such a delightful film.” First-time director Sean Wang clearly based the story on his own experience as a Taiwanese-American growing up in Fremont, Calif. Izaac Wang (no relation) stars as Chris, who’s known among his friends as “Wang-Wang” and at home as “Dìdi,” a Mandarin word for “little brother.” As he tries to figure out how to be himself while making prank videos, sparring with his older sister, and courting an older girl, his 2008-set story feels both specific and universal, and the movie has so much heart it’s “nearly…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingMountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa SherpaShoppers at the Whole Foods in West Hartford, Conn., no doubt failed to recognize produce stocker Lhakpa Sherpa as a world-class mountaineer. Yet Sherpa, the daughter of Nepalese yak farmers, has summitted Mount Everest more than any other woman—and endured multiple hardships, including domestic abuse, along the way. Inspiration flows from this breathtaking documentary, which follows Sherpa as she returns to Everest in 2022 to make her 10th ascent. Wednesday, July 31, NetflixA Good Girl’s Guide to MurderPip Fitz-Amobi is a new kind of Nancy Drew. In this six-episode series based on a hit novel, Wednesday’s Emma Myers stars as Pip, the determined high schooler who becomes fixated on a murder-suicide that had rocked her small English town five years earlier. Suspecting it might…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024Chilled peach and cucumber soupRipe peaches, jalapeños, and cucumbers meet in this “cooling, summery alternative to traditional gazpacho,” said the editors of Cook’s Country. The flavors need about 20 minutes to meld, but we’ve suggested using ice water to “jump-start the chilling process” and get this weeknight-friendly soup to the table quickly. It’s particularly great when enjoyed alongside goat cheese–topped toasted baguette slices.1½ lbs yellow peaches, halved and pitted (1 lb cut into 2-inch pieces, remainder cut into ¾-inch pieces) • 1½ lbs cucumbers, peeled and seeded (1 lb cut into 2-inch pieces, remainder cut into ¾-inch pieces) • 2 cups ice water, divided • 1 scallion, chopped • 2 jalapeño chiles, stemmed, halved, and seeded (1 chopped coarse, 1 chopped fine) • 1½ tsp table salt • 1 tsp sugar • 1 cup…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The best of…co*cktail accessoriesco*cktail Kingdom Koriko Shaking Tin“Pretty much every expert recommends these.” With a weighted base for sturdiness, this pair of stainless-steel shakers is “the default equipment in co*cktail bars”—and suitable for any home mixologist.$27, co*cktailkingdom.comSource: NYMag.comVerve Culture Artisan JuicerPut more “oomph” into your juicing routine with this stylish countertop companion. It’s easier on the wrists than a handheld juicer, and it’s also designed to catch seeds and pulp.$120, verveculture.comSource: CNETFrigidaire Countertop Ice MakerFor “the best style of ice for most drinks,” this is the machine to get. It produces 40 lbs. a day of consistently clear cubelets, and you can adjust their thickness to suit your preferences.$150 walmart.comSource: Wall Street JournalBarillio Hard Maple Muddler“Material matters” when it comes to muddlers, and Canadian maple “can withstand a healthy amount of force without…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024This week: Homes in Wisconsin1 Hudson This modern three-bedroom sits on a hillside about 10 minutes’ drive from downtown Hudson and the St. Croix River. Designed by Michael Huber Architects, the house has a double-height living room with a wall of windows, a wood-burning fireplace, and a connected sunroom, and a lower level with a wet bar and billiards. The wooded 1.67-acre property includes a garage with flex space and a sweeping lawn with a stone-walled firepit circle. $775,000. Mike Lynch, Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty, (612) 619-82272 Milwaukee River Renaissance Condominiums stands on the waterfront in the historic Third Ward, walking distance from shops and dining. This 2008 two-story, three-bedroom penthouse features floor-to-ceiling windows, a double-height main room with decorative arches, a sleek chef’s kitchen with eat-in island, and an upstairs primary suite, office,…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024EVs: Tesla profit declines as sales and production fallTesla’s profit fell 45 percent in the second quarter, said Neal Boudette in The New York Times, dropping to $1.5 billion on revenue of $25.5 billion in the second quarter, versus $2.7 billion for the same period a year ago. Tesla’s car sales fell 4.8 percent to 444,000, while production also declined 14 percent. Tesla’s shares had been on a tear recently, up 40 percent since May, “in large part because investors are betting” that Tesla’s AI technology will propel its self-driving software.Sports: NBA signs 11-year, $77 billion media dealThe NBA has unveiled a massive $77 billion rights deal with NBC, ESPN, and Amazon, said Isabella Simonetti and Joe Flint in The Wall Street Journal. The league rejected a bid from Warner Brothers Discovery “to keep basketball games on its…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024We’re not ready for an aging worldJohn AuthersBloombergOne lesson of President Biden’s swift decline is that the world has to confront the realities of a graying population, said John Authers. “We don’t have the institutions, medical techniques, financial products, or—it now appears—the political structures to deal with the problems that can come with longer lives.” Over the next decades the share of the U.S. population over 65 will rise to close to a quarter. And America is far younger than nations like Japan and Italy. “Can societies possibly continue to make generous guarantees to the elderly when they comprise such a large share of the population?” Right now, it’s political poison if they don’t. In France, there’s been deep discontent with President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. A “breakdown…1 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The comedy legend who was the king of deadpanBob Newhart was no one’s idea of a stand-up comedian. He came along just as old-school vaudeville patter was giving way to edgier, politically aware material, but he fit neither style. Instead, the balding, soft-spoken former accountant was the calm in the comic storm: a befuddled everyman enduring wacky situations. That was his persona in his chart-topping 1960 debut album of one-sided conversations. In one bit, a commander of a nuclear submarine gingerly addresses his crew: “Uh, looking back on the mutiny…” And it was his role in his two hit sitcoms, The Bob Newhart Show (1972–78) and Newhart (1982–90). His fidelity to the character was absolute. When one TV producer asked him to make his delivery smoother, he replied: “This stammer got me a home in Beverly Hills, and…2 min
The Week Magazine|August 2, 2024The bird-strike detectivePlanes hit more than 18,000 birds a year in the U.S., said Andrew Zaleski in Washingtonian. Carla Dove’s job is making sure such collisions don’t turn into aerial catastrophes.IT WAS LATE afternoon, Carla Dove recalls, when the lines on her telephone “started lighting up like Christmas trees.” Co-workers barged into Dove’s office on the sixth floor of the National Museum of Natural History, breathlessly reporting the news: A passenger airplane had gone down into the Hudson River in New York.The date was Jan. 15, 2009. As the world would later learn, a flock of birds had flown into the engines of a US Airways flight taking off from LaGuardia Airport, causing them to lose power. What happened next eventually became the basis of a Hollywood movie: Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger…10 min
