Home//The Week Magazine/June 7, 2024/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Editor’s letterWhat a coincidence. The same “Appeal to Heaven” flag that has flown outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s New Jersey shore home, Rolling Stone reported last week, also proudly flutters outside the Maine mansion of his close friend, Federal Society co-founder Leonard Leo. The most powerful American most Americans have never heard of, Leo is the primary architect of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority. He gave Donald Trump the Federalist Society–vetted names of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, and fought to get Alito, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas confirmed. It’s no exaggeration to call Leo, an ultra-conservative Catholic, a theocrat. His mission, he says, is to defeat the “unchurched” and “vile and immoral current-day barbarians, secularists, and bigots” whom “the devil” is using to move society away…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Outcry after Israeli strike kills refugees in RafahWhat happenedIsraeli forces stepped up their push into Rafah this week, even as global outrage grew over an Israeli air attack on a refugee tent camp in the southern Gaza city. The strike set off an inferno that burned whole families alive in their tents, killing at least 45 Palestinians, including children, and wounding 200. Israeli officials said the strike was targeted at two Hamas leaders and used two small bombs that may have inadvertently ignited a fuel tank or ammo stockpile; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the blaze a “tragic accident.” But Israel did not slow its incursion into Rafah, which is sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of them displaced from elsewhere in Gaza. Instead, it sent several tanks into the city center and launched an airstrike…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Only in AmericaThe Colorado Republican Party is urging all parents in the state to pull their children out of public schools. In a mass email, the state’s GOP slammed a new law requiring schools to respect students’ preferred pronouns as an attempt to “break down the family unit” and “turn more kids trans.” The party says it will fight these “woke laws” in court, but that win or lose all parents should aim “to remove their kids from public education.” Lawmakers in Illinois have passed a bill that would reclassify some “offenders” as “justice-impacted individuals” under state law. The redesignation would apply to convicted criminals who have enrolled in a rehabilitation program meant to keep them out of prison. “Carrying a label of offender for life,” said Democratic state Rep. Kelly Cassidy,…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The U.S. at a glancePortland, Ore.Progressive defeat: Multnomah County voters rejected their liberal district attorney for his tough-on-crime opponent last week. Portland’s top prosecutor, Mike Schmidt, was elected in May 2020, during Covid lockdowns and just before widespread racial justice protests. In Portland, pitched battles between protesters and police in riot gear lasted into 2021. During Schmidt’s tenure, Portland murders more than doubled, hitting records of 92 in 2021 and 101 in 2022. Part of a wave of “progressive prosecutors” in cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, and St. Louis, Schmidt promised a reform-oriented approach to drugs, crime, and homelessness. But many residents grew disillusioned. Nearly 800 people in Schmidt’s jurisdiction died of overdoses last year, and Oregon repealed Measure 110, its drug-decriminalization law, this year. Nathan Vasquez, Schmidt’s deputy, ran against him as…4 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Latinos’ rightward shiftOnce solidly Democratic, Latino voters are increasingly moving toward Republicans—with big implications for both parties.What do the numbers show?A steep rise in the number of Latinos who identify as Republican. In 2016, Hispanic Americans were 36 percentage points more likely to say they were Democrats than Republicans. That gap narrowed to 28 points in 2020 and to 12 points in 2023. The shift was apparent in the 2020 election, where Joe Biden won Latino votes by far smaller margins than Hillary Clinton had in 2016. In Miami-Dade County—which is 70 percent Latino, mostly Cuban-American—Biden won by 7 points, down from Clinton’s 29. “The firm hold that the Democrats had on Hispanics in Florida seems to have given way,” said Eduardo Gamarra, a political scientist at Florida International University. In Texas’…5 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Why a gun can get you killedJonathan V. LastThe BulwarkSenior Airman Roger Fortson is dead because we have chosen “the worst of all worlds” on guns, said Jonathan V. Last. When police recently came to an apartment complex in Florida in response to a domestic disturbance report, they pounded on Fortson’s door and shouted for him to open it. The 23-year-old active-duty airman was alone, and answered the strange knock with his pistol at his side. A sheriff’s deputy immediately shot the young Black man six times—even though Fortson’s pistol was lowered and facing down. “What good is the Second Amendment if you can be in your home, peacefully existing, and using a firearm exactly as intended for personal protection—and still be shot dead by police?” The proliferation of guns has left police on “a hair…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The populists want us to leave the EUDiederik SamsomDe VolkskrantThe Netherlands’ most right-wing government in decades hasn’t even formally taken power yet, but it’s already antagonizing the European Union, said Diederik Samsom. The incoming coalition, led by xenophobe Geert Wilders, has published a governing plan touting a “strictest-ever asylum regime” that would effectively bar refugees. Since such a heartless policy would flout EU rules, the new government will seek “an opt-out clause for European asylum and migration policies.” Reading this document, officials in Brussels probably thought that “the AI translator” had gone on the fritz. An opt-out clause? EU members can arrange exceptions for themselves only while a treaty is being negotiated, not after it’s been signed—and only four have ever been granted. Wilders knows this but is purposely testing the EU’s limits. He’s doing the same…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Myanmar: A motley rebel alliance takes on the junta“Myanmar is ablaze with violence,” said Arunima Chakraborty in Ei Samay Sangbadpatra (Bangladesh). When its notoriously brutal military, the Tatmadaw, overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, a “Spring Revolution” of armed protest movements swept across the country, and the civil war has raged ever since. “Day by day, the heat of the fire of rebellion is increasing,” and in recent months the rebels have made major gains. But the Tatmadaw isn’t their only target. In many places, the conflict has turned sectarian, with ethnic militias turning on one another—or on civilians. Over the past two weeks in Rakhine state, one of those militias, the Arakan Army, has torched thousands of homes of Rohingya Muslims, sending 200,000 fleeing for their lives. The scorched-earth attack recalls…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024NotedFor the first time, the number of Americans who use marijuana just about every day has exceeded the number who drink alcohol that frequently, according to national survey data. Nearly 18 million Americans reported using marijuana daily or near daily in 2022, compared with 15 million daily or near-daily drinkers. In 1992, fewer than 1 million people said they used weed daily.Associated Press Illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border were down by 54 percent in the first three weeks of May, compared with the record highs reported in December. In May, the border patrol apprehended about 3,700 undocumented migrants each day. U.S. officials attribute the drop to a crackdown on migrants by the Mexican government, as well as stepped-up enforcement on this side of the border.CBSNews.com There were 11 near-collisions…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Poll watch30% of Americans get their news from mainstream media, including CNN and newspapers; 10% from conservative media, including Fox; 11% from local news; and 15% from social media. Among conservative media consumers, 83% believe that President Biden has opened the border to all undocumented migrants, and 44% think Donald Trump won the 2020 election.Ipsos 62% of people say inflation is one of the biggest problems facing the country, while 60% cite the cost of health care, and 53% point to gun violence.Pew Research Center…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Bytes: What’s new in techPizza by Google: Just add glueGoogle’s AI search summaries are getting answers hilariously wrong, said Ina Fried in Axios. Users on social media have been posting examples in which Google’s AI results were way off. In some cases, Google suggested “using glue to keep cheese on pizza—a comical notion seemingly taken from a Reddit post.” It recommended eating a rock every day, advice that came courtesy of the satirical site The Onion. It also said that President Obama was the country’s only Muslim president (a baseless conspiracy theory). “Google has spent 25 years defending its reputation for informational integrity,” but it has recently come under threat from OpenAI, which has reportedly been working on a search engine with ChatGPT. The messy rollout of its own AI-powered search results, however, could…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Cancer prevention breakthroughScientists have managed to preserve living breast tissue outside the body for more than a week, which could be a game changer in research to prevent breast cancer. When placed in a special hydrogel solution, the tissue remained viable for days, maintaining its structure, cell types, and capacity to respond to drugs. The development could significantly boost researchers’ ability to develop new preventive drugs or therapies—without the need to test on animals. “There are various risk-reducing options for women at high risk of developing breast cancer,” such as tamoxifen, co-author Hannah Harrison, from the University of Manchester, tells The Guardian (U.K.). “However, not all drugs work for all women. This new approach means that we can start to determine which drugs will work for which women by measuring their impact…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Best books…chosen by R.O. KwonR.O. Kwon is the best-selling author of The Incendiaries, a 2018 novel that was a National Book Critics Circle finalist. Her acclaimed new novel, Exhibit, follows two women artists who explore hidden desires after beginning an extramarital affair.Black Women Writers at Work edited by Claudia Tate (1983). I love this book of fascinating, in-depth interviews Tate conducted with foundational Black women writers such as Audre Lorde, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Toni Morrison. Black Women Writers at Work, as Angela Davis has said, “serves as a much-needed reminder that the imagination always blazes trails that lead us toward more habitable futures.” It’s a volume of treasures, one I revisit again and again.Girlhood by Melissa Febos (2021). This brilliant essay collection has helped me to think more deeply and truthfully about listening to…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of SolidarityMuseum of Modern Art, New York City, through Sept. 7“The art world needed LaToya Ruby Frazier,” and she continues to show us why, said Sebastian Smee in The Washington Post. Raised in the hollowed-out former steel town of Braddock, Pa., Frazier first picked up a camera in her teens and began documenting the life she knew, starting in the home she shared with her grandmother and mother, then branching out to the predominantly Black community they belonged to. When the photo series, “The Notion of Family,” first appeared roughly a decade ago, it showed a way for art to “break out of its solipsistic bubble” and begin addressing urgent real-world concerns, such as many Americans’ fight for shelter, clean water, medical care, and dignity. Frazier’s new mid-career survey at MoMA…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024EzraDirected by Tony Goldwyn (R)A divorcé fights for his autistic son.It’s rare to see a big-screen portrayal of autism as true to life as Ezra, said Nate Richard in Collider. The “irresistibly charming” comedy-drama, inspired by screenwriter Tony Spiridakis’ experiences with co-parenting an autistic child, never sugarcoats the challenges of raising a kid on the spectrum, and unlike most movies with autistic characters, Ezra features a neurodivergent actor in the title role. As 11-year-old Ezra, newcomer William Fitzgerald “steals your heart,” and despite a few hokey scenes, the familial strife captured by co-stars Bobby Cannavale, Robert De Niro, and Rose Byrne “feels genuine and raw.” Cannavale, 54, “knows he’s landed a great role and really runs with it,” said Michael Rechtshaffen in The Hollywood Reporter. The Boardwalk Empire actor is…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Animal Well(Bigmode)Looks can be deceiving, especially with video games, said Elijah Gonzalez in Paste. Take Animal Well, the “uniquely enrapturing” brainteaser that this season has become the new obsession of puzzle addicts. With its 8-bit pixel art and ominous synth soundtrack, the $25 indie sensation resembles 2D platforming games from the late 1980s and early ’90s. But beneath those retro trappings is a game that “profoundly understands how to encourage and pay off curiosity.” Animal Well’s many-layered puzzles “range from quick and easy challenges to world-spanning enigmas that will have you drawing up a convoluted evidence board full of half-solved riddles.” Perplexing in a good way, the puzzles “frequently generate revelatory ‘aha’ moments,” said Lewis Gordon in the Financial Times. Playing as a gelatinous blob, you hop around a subterranean world…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Hit ManEveryone seems to love a good hitman story. But what about the story of a fake hitman? Richard Linklater’s latest movie is a romantic action comedy in which Glen Powell portrays a professor who moonlights by working undercover to help cops nab ne’er-do-wells who aim to hire a contract killer. He’s masterful at assuming new personas and ensnaring his marks until he falls hard for a beautiful married woman, played by Adria Arjona, who wants to off her husband. Hit Man could have been forgettable nonsense. Instead, it so deftly blends humor, action, and romance that it’s one of the most entertaining movies of the year. Friday, June 7, Netflix• All listings are Eastern Time.…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Getting the flavor of…The Texas–New Mexico borderlandsTo see three wildly different Western landscapes in four or five days, fly to El Paso, said Graham Averill in Outside. West Texas’ largest city is “an ideal starting point” for a 300-mile road trip that loops in a trio of national parks, each with its own climate and terrain. Texas’ tallest peaks can be found at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and from the windy 8,751-foot summit of Guadalupe Peak, “the views stretching east over the plains are endless.” Across the New Mexico border, Carlsbad Caverns National Park leads visitors out of the desert scrublands and into “the cold, dark underground.” You’ll feel the temperature plunge if you descend via switchbacks to the Big Room, the largest cave chamber in North America. Spelunkers can venture deeper to…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Music: U.S. files suit against Live NationAntitrust enforcers says it’s “time to break up Live Nation–Ticketmaster,” said Stefania Palma and Anna Nicolaou in the Financial Times. A landmark suit, filed last week by the Department of Justice and joined by 29 states, aims to unwind the concert empire, which it says has “a chokehold on the live entertainment ecosystem” since a 2010 merger. Live Nation owns hundreds of concert venues and “locks up” artists in exclusive promotion deals, while its subsidiary Ticketmaster controls more than “80 percent” of the ticket-selling market. Its system has come under fire from fans frustrated by “exorbitant fees” and service fiascos.The case against Live Nation isn’t just about disgruntled music fans, said Alex Kirshner in Slate. The Biden administration’s antitrust approach concerns “a much more sprawling group of stakeholders than just…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Real estate: A plan to unlock home equityFreddie Mac’s plan to buy up second mortgages could be a trillion-dollar boon to homeowners, said Felix Salmon in Axios. The government-backed mortgage guarantee agency is appealing to regulators to let it backstop second mortgages, which it believes “could stimulate more lending and funnel more money to consumers” looking to tap the equity in their homes. A second mortgage is useful for homeowners who have significant equity but don’t want to refinance their entire mortgage, especially if they locked in attractive terms when mortgage rates were close to rock-bottom. Second mortgages apply the new interest rate “only to the increase in principal amount,” leading to lower payments than refinancing. Freddie’s plan would apply only to homes for which Freddie already holds a first mortgage, limiting its reach. But extended across…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024NCAA: The end of the amateur sports charadeIt’s about time college athletes started getting paid, said the Houston Chronicle in an editorial. College sports haven’t been the “paragon of amateur endeavor” for decades, and the NCAA is finally admitting it. The NCAA and its five most powerful conferences agreed last week to a proposed settlement of a class-action suit that pays $2.8 billion to college athletes from past years, and lets each Division I school pay athletes about $20 million a year in the future. Here in Texas, gargantuan stadiums and state-of-the-art gyms are the pride of the universities. They were constructed for paying fans to watch the “ambitious, hardworking employees who are selling tickets and generating revenue for their university.” That student athletes are employees has been clear for years; only the 118-year-old governing body of…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The Week ContestThis week’s question: A luxury airline catering to dogs has taken its inaugural flight, with owners paying $6,000 each to have their pooches ferried from New York to Los Angeles by BARK Air. In seven or fewer words, come up with a job listing for a flight attendant at this high-class canine carrier.Last week’s contest: An attempt to break the world record for the largest gathering of people with the same name failed when only 706 Kyles congregated in Kyle, Texas—far short of the 2,325 Ivans who got together in Bosnia in 2017. In seven or fewer words, come up with a caption for a mass selfie of disappointed Kyles.THE WINNER: Next time, go the extra Kyle Krista Primrose, Avon, Ind.SECOND PLACE: We joined the Kyle sigh club John Parry,…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Decision time in Trump’s hush money trialWhat happenedAfter more than a month of testimony that involved claims of infidelities, tabloid payouts, and a conspiracy that reached into the White House, the jury in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial this week began deliberations in the first criminal case against a former U.S. president. Prosecutors have charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to a $130,000 payment to p*rn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty and who denies having sex with Daniels, could face up to four years in prison if convicted. During closing arguments, Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche told the 12 jurors that his client’s actions weren’t crimes, just typical business practices. And he attacked prosecutors for relying on the testimony…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Alito rejects calls for recusal in flag disputeWhat happenedSupreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spurned Democratic demands that he recuse himself from Jan. 6–related cases after reports that a second flag with extremist associations had been flown at his vacation home. Last summer, a white flag with a green pine tree and the slogan “An Appeal to Heaven” was raised at his New Jersey beach house, two years after neighbors saw an upside-down Stars and Stripes at his Virginia home. The inverted flag is a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement, and the pine-tree flag is linked to Christian nationalists; both were carried by Jan. 6 rioters. Alito said earlier that the U.S. flag in Virginia was hoisted by his wife, Martha-Ann, during a spat over anti-Trump signs. However, The New York Times reported this week that…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Good week/bad weekOlive branches, after Donald Trump magnanimously wished a “Happy Memorial Day” to the “Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country,” singling out the two “Trump Hating” judges who have presided over his New York trials.American exceptionalism, after the World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. first in its annual survey of the planet’s “travel and tourism” destinations. The U.S. was the only North American nation in the top 10; Canada finished a lowly 11th.Diplomacy, after Beijing announced it will send a pair of giant pandas—Bao Li, 2, a male, and Qing Bao, 2, a female—to Washington’s National Zoo. The zoo’s Panda House has been empty since November, when its last three bears were shipped back to China.Bad week for:Motivated sellers, after a San Francisco realtor…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The world at a glanceLondonAccused spy found dead: A former Royal Marine charged with spying for China was found dead last week in a London park in what investigators believe was a suicide. Matthew Trickett, 37, was one of three men arrested late last month and accused of conducting surveillance to help Chinese authorities keep tabs on Hong Kongers in the U.K. More than 185,000 Hong Kong residents have relocated to Britain since 2019, when Beijing began a crackdown on civil liberties in the formerly autonomous region. Prosecutors had requested pre-trial detention for Trickett for his own welfare after a suicide attempt, but he was released on bail last week and found dead days later. China, which offers large bounties for information leading to the arrest of leading Hong Kong activists living abroad, called…7 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Turner finds girl power at homeSophie Turner credits her daughters for showing her how to be courageous, said Chioma Nnadi in Vogue. The British Game of Thrones actress was 23 and on a retreat in Bali when she discovered she was pregnant with her oldest, Willa. She waited to tell her then-husband, pop star Joe Jonas, until she got back to Los Angeles. “I remember throwing the pregnancy test at him, saying, ‘What do you think we should do?’ When you’re in your early 20s, life is so frivolous. But something changed that day. I just knew I had to have her.” Another daughter, Delphine, followed two years later, as did an acrimonious, very public divorce, and tabloid claims that she was out partying while Jonas stayed home with the girls. Turner, now 28, had…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The GOP’s ‘unified reich’ generationDavid Austin WalshThe New York TimesThe GOP’s extremism problem “goes far beyond” Donald Trump, said David Austin Walsh. There’s a new “generation of young Republican staff members” who are openly embracing white nationalism and neo-Nazi symbols and terminology. A Trump aide posted a video on Truth Social last week featuring fake headlines about Trump’s re-election, with one mentioning the “creation of a unified reich”—a suggestion that his second term would put us “on a glide path toward Nazi Germany.” Trump’s campaign claimed that a supporter created the “reich” headline and that it had slipped by, but this excuse only revealed the extent to which young white nationalists have infiltrated the Republican Party. Last summer, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had to fire a star speechwriter for making a campaign video with…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Viewpoint“How do you memorialize the dead of a failed war [in Afghanistan]? This year, when I remember the dead, I will remember why they died. All the reasons they died. Because they believed in America. Because America forgot about them. Because they were trying to force-feed a different way of life to people from a different country and culture. Because America could be a force for good in the world. Because Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden didn’t have much of a plan. Because it’s a dangerous world, and somebody’s got to do the killing.”Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay in The New York Times…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Blame Russia for dwindling tourismArunas KaraliunasLietuvos RytasThe city of Vilnius just spent half a million euros on a splashy new PR campaign that will convince precisely zero tourists to visit, said Arunas Karaliunas. Its latest video ad is meant to reverse West European stereotypes of the Lithuanian capital as a post-Soviet wasteland, and it goes about that task in cheeky fashion. First it shows a dreary montage, with images of “ancient cars, dilapidated buildings, a man urinating on a brick wall,” street brawls, and “potholed roads.” Then, the picture brightens: Now we see modern-day Vilnius with its medieval architecture cleaned of grime, its parks bustling with happy locals, its cafés overflowing with lively chatter. The problem is, tourists aren’t staying away because they think we’re still a Soviet-style backwater. They’re staying away because we’re…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The runners forced to race in sandalsCarmen Morán BreñaEl País (Spain)The Juárez marathon’s obsolete rules are hurting Indigenous runners, said Carmen Morán Breña. To compete in the special Indigenous category, marathoners have to wear traditional native dress, which for women includes floral skirts and sandals. That’s not ideal gear for running 26 miles on hard, paved roads. One runner, Verónica Palma, said she ran the first few miles in the sandals during the 2022 marathon but swapped them out for sneakers once her feet started bleeding—and when she got to the finish line she found herself disqualified. She and other Indigenous runners are now pushing for authorities to amend the marathon rules, saying requiring sandals amounts to the “folklorization” of Indigenous identity. The Indigenous category was originally established in the race as a way to highlight…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Bird flu: Failing to stop the next pandemic?“It was bound to happen again,” said Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic. A Michigan dairy worker was diagnosed last week with bird flu, the second confirmed human case linked to an outbreak in U.S. dairy herds. Like the first case—in a Texas dairy worker in April—the Michigan infection “has at least one reassuring element”: Exposure in both cases involved repeated contact with infected cows, and both patients suffered only mild and brief eye infections. But “the true case count is almost certainly higher.” Anecdotal reports of sick farmworkers have trickled in from across the U.S., where the H5N1 virus has been detected in at least 63 herds and in raw milk and meat from infected cows. Yet only 40 people nationwide have so far been tested for H5N1. Health…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Haley: A half-hearted Trump endorsem*ntWhat “a missed opportunity” by Nikki Haley, said Noah Rothman in National Review. The former South Carolina governor, who had articulated “an alternative vision to Trumpism” during a surprisingly strong run in the Republican primaries, made a “uniquely tepid” endorsem*nt of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump last week, saying she would reluctantly vote for him because re-electing President Biden would be a “catastrophe.” Haley had the leverage to extract some policy concessions from Trump; even after she dropped out of the race in March, between 13 and 22 percent of Republican primary voters continued to check her name at the ballot box—a clear indication they agree with her sharp criticism of the former president. During the primaries, Haley called Trump “totally unhinged,” an agent of “chaos,” and mentally “unfit” for…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Media: Will publishers regret their AI deals?News publishers are getting bought off by OpenAI and making a deal with the devil, said Jessica Lessin in The Atlantic. It’s no secret that AI firms need journalism. “Accurate, well-written news is one of the most valuable sources” for their chatbots, which “need timely news and facts to get consumers to trust them.” OpenAI has shown an increasing willingness to pay for this news, which sounds like a good deal for publishers. News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, just agreed to a five-year licensing agreement worth $250 million; the Financial Times, Associated Press, and Axel Springer have worked out individual deals as well. But signing a licensing agreement is the wrong answer to this moment. Publishers should know that “technology companies aren’t in the business of news.”…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Extraordinarily detailed images from EuclidBright magentas, hazy oranges, and deep maroons swirl in stunning new images of the universe captured by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. Launched last July to orbit a spot a million miles from Earth, Euclid has now produced images four times more precise than terrestrial telescopes, revealing clusters of galaxies billions of light-years away in unprecedented sharpness. Euclid’s mission is to create a precise map of the universe so that scientists can begin to understand the two greatest mysteries in astrophysics: dark energy and dark matter. Though we can’t see them, those substances are thought to make up 95 percent of the universe. Astronomers believe dark energy exists because something is accelerating the expansion of the universe, while they know dark matter is out there because its gravitational…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Weed that’s too strong for seniorsWhile most of the conversation around legalizing cannabis centers on the health risks to teens, seniors are also at risk, reports The New York Times. In a new study, researchers found that the number of people age 65 or older going to the hospital for cannabis poisoning doubled after Canada legalized marijuana in 2018, and then tripled when it legalized the sale of edibles 15 months later. Some of those cases resulted from accidental ingestion, such as when people mistook their adult children’s THC-laced gummy bears for sweets. But in many cases, the seniors intended to take the drug but simply didn’t realize how much stronger the modern stuff is than the joints they rolled in their youth—up to 10 times more potent. And some may have simply been unfamiliar…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The Second Coming(Knopf, $32)Garth Risk Hallberg’s 900-page previous novel, City on Fire, “deserved most of the hype and some of the scorn it received,” said Thomas Mallon in The New Yorker. Even so, grand ambitions suited his talents, and his new New York City novel pulls back too much on its aspirations. In its opening, a troubled 13-year-old makes the cover of the New York Post after leaping onto a subway track to retrieve her dropped cellphone, prompting her estranged father, a washed-up actor and drug addict, to attempt a reconciliation. But while Hallberg retains his “spot-on” wit, he has too few surprises to share about the central father-daughter dynamic to merit nearly 600 pages. Though he’s an intelligent writer, said Dwight Garner in The New York Times, “he’s a wild and…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Also of interest…in summer chillersYou Like It Darkerby Stephen King (Scribner, $30)Stephen King’s latest story collection “proves once more that his smaller-sized tales pack as powerful a wallop as the big boys,” said Brian Truitt in USA Today. His new best-seller is a 12-pack assortment of “tried-and-true King staples,” offering cosmic horror, crime drama, a harrowing survival tale, and even a novella featuring a character from 1981’s Cujo. Given the stories’ range, You Like It Darker is “like a big bag of Skittles: Each one goes down different, but they’re all pretty tasty.”Butcherby Joyce Carol Oates (Knopf, $30)Joyce Carol Oates “has always been interested in intimations of the sinister, the way it suddenly hoves into view on an ordinary summer day,” said Daphne Merkin in The New York Times. The author’s 63rd novel, inspired…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The Lonely FewMCC Theater, New York CityThough Lauren Patten and Taylor Iman Jones are both veteran Broadway stars, they make “damn convincing rockers,” said David Cote in the Observer. In a musical that’s new to Broadway and “tries to balance drama with the sweaty ecstasy of a concert,” Patten plays Lila, the “mighty-voiced” frontwoman of an undiscovered Kentucky grunge band, while Jones plays a more successful singer-songwriter who falls for Lila the night she first sees her. Jones’ Amy soon invites Lila and the band, the Lonely Few, to join her on tour. Though the show winds up having “too many songs and not enough book,” Patten and Jones throw off “so much talent and charisma” that it’s impossible not to get caught up in Lila and Amy’s “messy, passionate love story.”“The…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Robot DreamsDirected by Pablo Berger (Not rated)A lonely dog befriends a mail-order robot.“If any further evidence were needed to support the theory that we are enjoying a new boom time for quality animation, this is it,” said Wendy Ide in The Guardian. A hand-drawn, nearly wordless film that was nominated for an Oscar and is only now reaching U.S. theaters in a slow rollout, Robot Dreams uses gentle humor to tell the story of a lonely dog in 1980s New York City who buys a mail-order robot who quickly becomes his best friend. But bring tissues, because Pablo Berger’s bittersweet buddy movie “matches Spike Jonze’s Her as one of cinema’s most devastating and profound studies of loneliness and the fragility of emotional connections.” To me, it works best as a tribute…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Dusted chicken skewers: Bite-size fun for the season’s cookoutsPerfect for spring or early summer barbecue season, these lively skewers “pack a lot of flavor,” say Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson in Kismet: Bright, Fresh, Vegetable-Loving Recipes (Clarkson Potter). “Taking a cue from Northern Chinese barbecue, we dust the skewers in a fennel seed–y spice blend when they come off the grill,” and the asparagus-and-fennel salad offers “a fun contrast to the meaty, smoky skewers.”Feel free to save time by buying boneless, skinless thighs. “But you get extra points for deboning skin-on thighs and getting a little crispy skin in the mix.”Springtime chicken skewers with asparagus and fennel saladFor the fennel sprinkle1 tbsp ground toasted fennel seeds¼ tsp kosher salt¼ tsp sugar½ tsp onion powderFor the chicken1½ lbs chicken thigh meat, cut into 1-inch cubes1 yellow onion, quartered2 garlic…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024This week’s dream: Driving the Alaska HighwayRoad trips don’t get much more scenic than a springtime drive along the Alaska Highway, said Elaine Glusac in The New York Times. The nearly 1,400-mile roadway that connects Alaska to Canada “takes motorists through some of the most stunning landscapes in North America.” Last year, my family drove all the way from Alaska to Idaho, passing through British Columbia, Alberta, and a total of five national parks on a trip “so packed with sights that I never cracked the novel I brought.” The Alaska Highway got us roughly two-thirds of the way there, and photo ops continued to pop up as we headed southeast into the Canadian Rockies and onward to the Lower 48.Our nearly 2,200-mile journey began in Alaska’s Wrangell–St. Elias National Park, which at 13.2 million acres…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024This week: Houses in Connecticut coastal towns1 Branford Belden Island is part of the Thimble archipelago in Branford’s Stony Creek harbor. The property includes a circa-1912, fully furnished four-bedroom house with original hardwood floors and wainscoting, stone fireplace, and country kitchen with butler’s pantry. The island is irrigated, solar-powered, and walled in native pink granite, and includes 2 acres of shellfish beds, a big lawn, trees, and a dock; the mainland is seven minutes by regular ferry. $2,750,000. Kiara Rusconi, William Raveis Real Estate/Luxury Portfolio International, (860) 573-33822 Fairfield This restored Queen Anne Victorian in Stratfield Village is 10 minutes’ drive from Seaside Beach and 30 minutes from New Haven. The 1907 five-bedroom house has rich period details, including two ornate fireplaces, a parlor, dining and living rooms, and award-winning chef’s kitchen with copper and slate…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024AI wars: Musk raises $6 billion for xAI startupElon Musk’s artificial-intelligence startup raised $6 billion in a new funding round, said Berber Jin in The Wall Street Journal. “Musk has been playing catch-up” with AI rivals, most notably OpenAI, the nonprofit startup he co-founded but left in 2018. But he’s gained ground quickly, with the just-ended fundraising round last week valuing the company at $24 billion. “He launched xAI publicly in July,” and the startup released its first chatbot, Grok, in November. “One selling point for xAI, according to investors, is Musk’s other businesses, which collect valuable data that could be used to train” the AI models.Oil mergers: ConocoPhillips bids for MarathonA deal frenzy continues in the U.S. oil sector, said Ben Geman in Axios. ConocoPhillips said this week it will acquire Marathon Oil in a $17 billion…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024‘Nonprofit’ doesn’t mean ‘doing good’Jonathan IrelandAmerican AffairsWhoever came up with the term “nonprofit” was a marketing genius, said Jonathan Ireland. It leads to the assumption that an organization “is trustworthy and the people running it are driven by a charitable agenda.” Please. There is a notorious organization in San Francisco called the Tenants and Owners Development Corp., or TODCO, supposedly devoted to “helping poor people afford housing.” But in the past 20 years, it has “produced no additional units of affordable housing.” In fact, it has spent millions lobbying against the construction of affordable units, shaking down actual builders of housing for “donations” to end its obstruction. Tenants at the properties TODCO manages are plagued with vermin, while TODCO’s executive pay quadrupled in just over a decade. Another San Francisco–based affordable-housing nonprofit was run…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The damaged author who wrote The AlienistCaleb Carr wrote about human darkness because he’d grown up steeped in it. The novelist and military historian was the son of Lucien Carr, a poet and journalist who was a catalyzing force in the 1950s Beat movement—but was also a violent drunk who’d done time for manslaughter and repeatedly beat his son, often knocking him down flights of stairs. That abusive past drove Carr to interrogate the origins of violence and cruelty through his fiction and nonfiction works, most notably The Alienist, a best-selling 1994 historical thriller about a forensic psychiatrist investigating the murders of young male prostitutes in 19th-century New York. Other books include the sequel The Angel of Darkness (1997) and Surrender New York (2016), a crime novel about the deaths of four teens. “I write out…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The songwriter who made the medicine go downIn writing songs, Richard M. Sherman focused on the three S’s: “simple, singable, and sincere.” Those tenets, taught to him and his older brother Robert by their songwriter father, gave rise to a catalog of classics. In a career spent mostly at Walt Disney studios, the Sherman brothers wrote hundreds of songs for films such as Mary Poppins, The Aristocats, and The Jungle Book, as well as songs used at Disney theme parks. Each song both moved the plot along and stood on its own. In “A Spoon Full of Sugar,” for instance, “we were saying that a happy attitude makes a difficult job easier, but we said it with a metaphor,” Sherman said. “That’s what Walt loved about the way we wrote.”Born into a New York City showbiz family,…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024It wasn’t all badAndreas Pernerstorfer, a winemaker, was renovating his cellar in the village of Gobelsburg, Austria, when he found what looked like a piece of old wood. Remembering that his grandfather had found teeth there decades ago, he reported the discovery to the authorities, who unearthed 300 mammoth bones. The remains, between 30,000 and 40,000 years old, belonged to at least three mammoths from the Stone Age, most likely ensnared by human hunters. “I’ve worked in many parts of the world and have never seen so many mammoths in one place,” said archaeologist Hannah Parow-Souchon. During her second year of medical school at Rowan University in Camden, N.J., Keri Cronin learned she had stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and that her prognosis was not favorable. Disease was no stranger to the now 28-year-old…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Johansson vs. Altman: A defining moment for AI?This is “the most interesting tech scandal in recent memory,” said Reed Albergotti in Semafor, and it could be the most consequential. Actress Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last week of stealing her voice and giving it to “Sky,” the new voice assistant for its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot. In a statement, Johansson said she was approached by Altman twice about licensing her voice—which she declined to do—and was “shocked, angered, and in disbelief” when OpenAI debuted a “Sky” voice “so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.” OpenAI has now “paused” the voice, and Altman apologized to Johansson “that we didn’t communicate better.” But he insists Sky’s voice “was never intended to sound like hers” and that a…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024In other newsJudge Cannon rejects Trump gag orderThe federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida this week denied prosecutors’ request to place a gag order on the former president. After Trump baselessly claimed Biden had authorized the FBI to kill him during a search of his Mar-a-Lago property (see Talking points, p. 17), special counsel Jack Smith asked that Trump be barred from making statements that could pose a “danger to law enforcement agents.” But Judge Aileen Cannon said Smith hadn’t properly informed Trump’s lawyers about the request, calling his communication with them “lacking in substance and professional courtesy.” Prosecutors can seek a gag order again if they give Trump’s team “sufficient time” to respond, Cannon said. A gag order was imposed on Trump in his New York hush…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The self-doubt of Seinfeld’s KramerMichael Richards has spent a lot of time thinking about the rant that wrecked his career, said Gillian Telling in People. In 2006, the Seinfeld star—who won three Emmys for his portrayal of Cosmo Kramer—was performing at a stand-up club in Hollywood when a heckler shouted that he wasn’t funny. Richards shot back with a torrent of racist slurs. “I was immediately sorry,” says Richards, 74. “I have nothing against Black people. The [heckler] just said what I’d been saying to myself for a while. I felt put down. I wanted to put him down.” Richards’ managers pushed him to do damage control. “But the damage was inside of me.” He has spent the past 18 years largely out of the limelight, and in therapy for his anger and insecurities.…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024In the newsComedian Dave Chappelle accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza during a sold-out show in the United Arab Emirates last week. Before Chappelle took the stage in Abu Dhabi, the song “My Blood Is Palestinian” boomed throughout the Etihad Arena. Halfway through the set, Chappelle—a Muslim—referenced the war between Hamas and Israel, leading an audience member to shout “Free Palestine!” Chappelle then called on Americans to do more to fight against antisemitism, saying that if American Jews felt “loved and supported” then they wouldn’t “have to support a country that is committing genocide just to feel safe.” Last October, just days after Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, several people walked out of a Chappelle set in Boston after he reportedly referred to Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza and accused the Jewish…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024A ‘plot’ that’s in the openNoah RothmanNational ReviewHave you heard about the conspiracy by “a shady cabal” of monied Jews to defeat a member of “The Squad”? asked Noah Rothman. Rep. Jamaal Bowman and his far-left allies are blaming the Jews for the fact that he’s facing a Democratic primary in his district in the Bronx and Westchester County, which is heavily Jewish. Like other progressive House members who call themselves The Squad, Bowman has veered into antisemitic rhetoric while denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza after the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians. Bowman called reports of Hamas’ sexual assaults of Israeli women a “lie” and Israeli “propaganda,” backing off after being confronted with evidence. Bowman has allied himself with pro-Palestinian extremists’ use of the phrase “from the river to the sea.” Not surprisingly, many…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024It must be true…A Florida priest was charged with biting a woman during a fight that erupted as he was administering communion. Father Fidel Rodriguez, pastor of a Catholic church in St. Cloud, refused to give the woman a communion wafer; a witness speculated the priest was bothered by the woman’s revealing clothing. When the woman grabbed for the plate of wafers, Rodriguez bit her hand, saying he was “defending myself and the sacrament.” After Rodriguez’s arrest, the local diocese said he was “trying to protect the Holy Communion from this sacrilegious act.” The first airline catering to dogs has taken its inaugural flight. BARK Air, which promises to “revolutionize flying for dogs” with “a positively luxurious, curated experience,” flew six canines and 11 people from New York’s Westchester County to Los Angeles.…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024United Kingdom: Bleak outlook for Tories after 14 yearsDid Rishi Sunak just want to get his inevitable “appointment with defeat” over with? asked Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. “Hunched and drenched” in the pelting rain, the Conservative prime minister stood outside 10 Downing Street last week to announce an early election, his words nearly inaudible thanks to a protester blasting the theme song for the opposition Labour Party on a boombox. He didn’t come across as a leader rallying supporters to victory—he looked like a “drowned ferret.” And why set the election for July, months before it was due, at a time when the Conservatives are trailing Labour by 20 points in polls? After all, “no governing party has ever started that far behind and gone on to win,” and Sunak’s Tories have to campaign on a legacy…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Proudly open borders, too little planningLoly RicoMacleans.caCanada is taking in record numbers of refugees with no way to house them, said Loly Rico. An “explosion in global conflicts,” from Ukraine and Sudan to Haiti and Afghanistan, has sent migrants streaming into this country for refuge. Last year, we accepted nearly 144,000 refugees, up from just 92,000 the year before. That’s an astonishing number—more than twice as many as the U.S. accepted, even though our population is one-eighth the size—and it has utterly overwhelmed our facilities. With no federal system set up to match arrivals with resources, the refugees are on their own, and they often end up on the streets. In Toronto, where I run a refugee welcome center, we’re “seeing things I have never witnessed in my 34 years of advocacy.” People show up…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Supreme Court: Diluting the Black voteThe Supreme Court “just made it far more difficult to challenge racial gerrymandering,” said Matt Ford in The New Republic. In a 6-3 decision last week that fell along partisan lines, the justices reversed a lower court ruling that had struck down South Carolina’s 2022 congressional map as a “stark racial gerrymander.” To strengthen the GOP’s hold on a Charleston area district, the state’s Republican legislature shunted 30,000 Democratic-leaning Black voters to a neighboring, solidly blue district. Writing for the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito noted that the 14th Amendment only bars the government from making decisions based on race, and so the redistricting was permissible because it was likely driven by partisan political motives. Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurrence went further. The courts, he wrote, should have “no…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Innovation of the weekA semi-enclosed e-bike is turning heads on the streets in Germany, said Ben Coxworth in New Atlas. “The pedal-electric, bicycle-car hybrid” from Hopper Mobility is a “three-wheeler with an open-sided body that provides a fair bit of weather protection while also placing the rider in a comfortable car-like driving position.” The rider can pedal, however, and the bike is “augmented by a 250-watt rear hub motor, taking the Hopper up to a top speed of 16 mph.” And because it’s legally considered an e-bike, the Hopper can both travel in bike lanes and go on roads with other vehicles. About 30 prototypes have already been built and are in use in Germany, and a first-edition commercial version is now available for preorder in Germany for 13,500 euros (about $14,700).…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Ozempic’s scary side effectAppetite-suppressing drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic are remarkably successful in helping people lose weight. But new research—which is based on real-world data but has yet to be peer-reviewed—suggests that users of these GLP-1 agonists may be increasing their risk of stomach paralysis, or gastroparesis. One study involving data from millions of patient records found that people who took these medications had a 50 percent increased risk of developing the condition compared with those who didn’t, reports CNN.com. Another put the figure at 66 percent. Fortunately, even that elevated risk is still extremely low: In the first study, just 10 out of every 10,000 people given the drugs, or 0.1 percent, were affected, compared with 4 out of 10,000 similar people, or 0.04 percent, in a control group. In most…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024co*ckroach evolved in the kitchenThe German co*ckroach is the world’s most prevalent household pest, but scientists weren’t sure where it came from—until now. After studying the genomes of nearly 300 co*ckroaches from 17 countries across six continents, researchers concluded that the hardy species evolved from the larger Asian co*ckroach as recently as 2,100 years ago, in either India or Myanmar. The reason was us humans: The roaches adapted their diet to the crops we planted, then moved indoors to the kitchen, where those foods were readily available. The new species then spread westward, first hitching a ride to the Middle East with soldiers some 1,200 years ago, then traveling to Europe with returning colonials about 270 years ago. The findings could help scientists work out how the insects have been so successful at overcoming…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches From the Wrong Side of History“Nellie Bowles fashions herself as a dissident chafing against orthodoxies in pursuit of truth,” said Kate Knibbs in Wired. Her wife, Bari Weiss, another former New York Times writer, has gone so far as to declare Bowles “the love child of Tom Wolfe and Joan Didion.” But in Bowles’ first book, a best-seller in which the Free Press co-founder explains why she turned against the orthodoxies of today’s Left, her writing is, “too often, simply not good enough,” and the criticisms she slings at the tribe she left behind are “meant to confirm biases rather than complicate them.” While Bowles “has a talent for identifying forthrightly goofy ‘woke mind virus’ moments,” her arguments about the damage the Left has wrought “often do not stand up to scrutiny.”At best, the book…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Jenny ErpenbeckJenny Erpenbeck still feels a need to defend the vanished world she grew up in, said Lisa Allardice in The Guardian. The revered German novelist has just been awarded the 2024 International Booker Prize for Kairos, a novel set in East Berlin just before and after the fall of the wall that once divided the city. When the wall came down, in 1989, Erpenbeck was 22—close to the age of the novel’s protagonist, who at the same moment had recently entered into a heated, toxic six-year affair with an older married man. The book grew out of Erpenbeck’s desire to render East Germany visible to readers who view it as having been merely a totalitarian state dominated by its secret police. “I try to make people aware that almost nothing…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Problems Between SistersStudio Theatre, Washington, D.C.Be forewarned: “This is in-your-face theater,” said David Friscic in Broadway World. Julia May Jonas’ “joltingly immersive” new play offers a feminist riff on Sam Shepard’s True West, relocating the action to Vermont and swapping Shepard’s warring brothers for two pregnant sisters who spar over their conflicting approaches to life and the making of art. Annie Fox and Stephanie Janssen co-star, and “the physical stamina required of both actors is almost impossible to convey.” Problems Between Sisters makes “a slow-burn start” before it really gets going, but “when it does, there is an apocalyptic quality to the sisters’ showdown,” said Alan Zilberman in the Washington City Paper. Unlike the brothers in True West, however, these mothers-to-be eventually storm right up to a line they’re unwilling to cross.…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Hades II(Supergiant Games)Back in the first year of the Covid pandemic, “playing Hades was exactly the balm I needed,” said Moises Taveras in Kotaku. The hit 2020 video game inspired by Greek mythology “remains one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever played,” yet the new sequel—currently available as an unfinished early-access release—is “somehow even more gorgeous,” introduces a compelling new protagonist, and demands a more tactical approach to fighting. In the first game, Hades’ surly son, Zagreus, tries to break from his unloving father by hacking and slashing his way out of the underworld. In Hades II, you play as Melinoë, Zag’s sister, a blade- and magic-wielding sorceress whose determination to reunite with her family “strikes a far more resonant chord.” Melinoë meets a huge pantheon of gods, goddesses, and…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingThe AcolyteDisney’s expansion of the Star Wars universe continues with a series built around a spree of mysterious murders. Sol, a Jedi master, investigates the killings, tracking them to a former student of his who has been coaxed to the Dark Side. Soon, the forces behind the killings become a major threat to peace in the galaxy. Lee Jung-jae, Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Carrie-Anne Moss co-star. Tuesday, June 4, Disney+ClippedWhat’s the opposite of Winning Time? On the heels of that entertaining Lakers series comes a new show about the most embarrassing moment in the history of Los Angeles’ other NBA franchise. Just as the Clippers were turning a corner, having lured in a championship coach and top free agents, team owner Donald Sterling was outed for racist comments recorded…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Ashland, Ore.: Where dinner and theater meetAshland, Ore., a pretty little city just north of the California border, is “the theatrical gateway to the Northwest,” said Susanne Robertson in Eater. For eight months each year, the college town set in the foothills of the Siskiyou and Cascade mountains hosts the world-famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival and visitors flock in for the top-flight productions of the Bard’s best. But “there’s plenty to keep palates entertained,” too, including these top spots for pre- and post-curtain meals.MÄS Josh Dorcak’s multicourse tasting menus “tease, challenge, and entertain.” Secure a seat at his small restaurant in a quaint alley and your meal might include grilled lobster chawanmushi or aged duck breast with acorn miso and maple blossoms. Dorcak calls it Cascadian cuisine, and it’s made him a finalist for the 2024 James…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The WestonWeston, Vt.The Weston opened late last year, and already it’s “the best little thing going on in Vermont,” said Tori Latham in Robb Report. Operated by a hotelier family that once owned the Carlyle in New York City and the Beverly Wilshire in L.A., it combines five star–level service with New England village charm. All eight rooms and suites, many with gas fireplaces, are luxuriously furnished with art and antiques. A small gym, spa, and yoga studio sit on site, and the inn’s “quintessential” French restaurant “roars with activity,” because it’s already become a favorite dinner destination of many locals and weekenders. westonvt.com; doubles from $405…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The bottom lineAbout 4 in 10 recent college grads are currently “underemployed,” meaning they’re working in a job that doesn’t require a college degree, according to data from the Federal Reserve.CBSNews.com The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 440,000 full-time real estate agents and brokers in 2023, about 72,000 less than the year before. As of mid-April, the National Association of Realtors had about 1.5 million agents registered. That’s down more than 100,000 from 2022.The Washington Post TSA officers screened 2,951,163 people at checkpoints nationwide the Friday before Memorial Day, surpassing the previous single-day record from Thanksgiving 2023. Five of the top 10 busiest travel days in TSA history have already occurred in 2024.CNN.com T-Mobile announced a deal to buy most of U.S. Cellular’s wireless business for $4.4 billion. The deal gives T-Mobile…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Big Fruit bets big on a $400 pineappleAfter a decade and a half of growing and experimentation, Del Monte may have achieved the ultimate in “luxury fruit,” said Danielle Wiener-Bronner in CNN.com: the $400 pineapple. Fruit growers have been trying to move up in price since the introduction of the honeycrisp apple three decades ago proved there was a market for premium fruit. While the honeycrisp now sells for a reasonable $1.70 a pound, pricy offerings have gone way, way beyond. Oishii introduced specialty strawberries “grown indoors in a climate-controlled vertical farm” in 2018. Priced at $50 for a pack of just eight, the berries gained cult status and the waitlist for the carefully constructed packages grew into the thousands. But even that’s peanuts compared with Del Monte’s Rubyglow red pineapple currently priced at $395.99. So far,…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024Charity of the weekRehabilitation Through the Arts (rta-arts.org) was founded in New York’s Sing Sing prison in 1996. Now serving hundreds of inmates across six New York state prisons, the nonprofit seeks to unlock inmates’ creative potential and abilities though the transformative power of art. RTA workshops—including dance, music, creative writing, visual arts, and theater—are led by professional artists who teach life skills and prepare inmates for the social and emotional challenges of re-entry. RTA is known for theater programs that involve inmates in everything from improvisation to Shakespeare, and dance performances that fill prisons with visitors. Participation in the program has been shown to dramatically reduce recidivism. Alumni of the program include Lawrence Bartley, host and executive producer of The Marshall Project’s Inside Story video series.Each charity we feature has earned a…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The Super Size Me director who fell from graceDocumentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock had a hunger for the spotlight. He rose to fame in his 30s with 2004’s Super Size Me, chronicling a full month in which he ate nothing but McDonald’s and said yes whenever asked if he wanted to “supersize” the meal. By the end of the 30 days, he was puffy, depressed, and 25 pounds heavier, with a low sex drive and a damaged liver. The film, which made $22 million and earned an Oscar nomination, sparked a backlash to the fast-food industry. Yet Spurlock’s acclaim proved fleeting: Researchers couldn’t replicate his health results. His career disintegrated in 2017, when he revealed he’d been drinking heavily during the filming—which likely contributed to his poor health—and admitted he’d once committed rape. But he said he had to…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 7, 2024The 269-269 scenarioAn Electoral College tie in November would likely put Donald Trump in the White House, said Joshua Zeitz in Politico. In 1824, a similar outcome changed American politics forever.SIX MONTHS OUT from the presidential election, voters are caught up in what-ifs. What if Joe Biden proves the pollsters wrong and clinches a second term? What if Donald Trump retakes the White House, squashes his criminal charges with the power of the chief executive, and rewrites the strictures of American government in the image of MAGA?But there’s one what-if Americans aren’t paying enough attention to: What if they tie?It sounds outlandish. It was literally a plot point in HBO’s political satire, Veep. It hasn’t happened for 200 years, not since the House clawed the presidency from Andrew Jackson, who won the…9 min
