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The Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Editor’s letterWhen is it legal to bribe a public official? Most of the time, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2016. That’s when the court overturned the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who’d been caught taking $175,000 in cash, loans, a Rolex, and other goodies from businessman Jonnie Williams. While enjoying Williams’ generosity, McDonnell used his state office to promote and seek official approval for Williams’ quack dietary supplement. Although McDonnell’s behavior was “tawdry,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, there was no evidence of an explicit quid pro quo, and his advocacy did not qualify as an “official act.” That new high bar helped the cartoonishly crooked Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez beat his first corruption indictment, and may help him escape his latest. It has gotten numerous…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Trump clashes with judge in fraud trialWhat happenedThe trial that will determine the fate of Donald Trump’s business empire opened in combative fashion this week, with Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron imposing a limited gag order on the former president for targeting a law clerk online. Trump appeared in person for opening statements in the New York civil case, which will establish the exact penalties for what Engoron last week deemed his “persistent and repeated fraud.” The judge has already found that Trump massively overstated the size and value of his properties—including inflating the value of Mar-a-Lago by 2,300 percent—to receive favorable terms on loans and insurance deals. Trump’s attorneys rejected that partial summary judgment, saying the overvaluations had “no nefarious intent,” and they filed an appeal this week. In the remaining portion of the…3 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Only in AmericaA North Carolina public radio station is refusing to broadcast six performances from New York’s Metropolitan Opera, citing “inappropriate” content. WCPE’s general manager Deborah Proctor says the contemporary operas—which include X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X—have “adult themes” and “plainly audible” offensive language. “What if one child hears this?” Proctor said. “When I stand before Jesus Christ on Judgment Day, what am I going to say?” An Ohio high school football coach has resigned after his team repeatedly used “Nazi” as a play call. Tim McFarland, formerly of Brooklyn High School, says it “didn’t even occur” to him that “Nazi” might offend players at Beachwood High School, located in a majority-Jewish suburb of Cleveland. The Beachwood school district said McFarland’s comments have only made “a terrible situation” worse.…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The U.S. at a glanceLansing, Mich.Parents to face trial: The Michigan Supreme Court allowed prosecutors last week to pursue an unprecedented case against the parents of a 15-year-old who killed four people and injured seven at Oxford High School in 2021. James and Jennifer Crumbley, jailed while awaiting trial, will become the first parents of a U.S. school shooter to face criminal charges. Prosecutors say they bought their son, Ethan, a handgun despite his mental illness. They didn’t disclose the gun to the school, which had summoned them just hours before the shooting, after Ethan drew a bloodied body and a gun with the words “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” After the massacre, investigators found his journal, which included, “My parents won’t listen to me about help or a therapist.” The Crumbleys say…4 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023A billionaire’s lucky breaksAt age 32, Mark Cuban was ready to leave the world of work behind, said Alex Kantrowitz in GQ. The entrepreneur had just sold a software company he co-founded for $6 million and celebrated by buying a lifetime pass on American Airlines and plotting a life of leisure. “I partied with as many people as I possibly could,” says Cuban, 65. “That lasted for four years, maybe.” Then he started another business, a pioneering audio streaming service, which was snapped up for $6 billion in 2000. “I got right back into it,” he explains of his brief retirement, “because I was bored just having fun.” With his new fortune, he bought the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and became a celebrity investor, through his long-running role as a panelist on ABC’s Shark…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Crossing the Darién GapRecord numbers of U.S.-bound migrants are trekking through this remote jungle. Many don’t survive the journey.What is the Darién Gap?A 66-mile-long stretch of dense, mountainous jungle on the border between Colombia and Panama, the Darién Gap is the only land path connecting South and Central America. This roadless region has become a major transit route for migrants heading to the U.S. in recent years, a result of rising turmoil in Venezuela, Haiti, and Ecuador, and tougher visa rules that stop migrants flying north to Mexico and other countries. More than 360,000 people—including some 60,000 children—have walked the gap so far this year, shattering the record 250,000 who made the journey in 2022. Last year’s number was almost double that of 2021, and 20 times higher than the annual average from…5 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023‘Medicines’ that waste your moneyRandy C. Hatton and Leslie HendelesThe New York Times“It’s an open secret” among doctors and pharmaceutical scientists that many over-the-counter medicines don’t work, said Randy C. Hatton and Leslie Hendeles. As far back as two decades ago, we did research that proved that phenylephrine, a common ingredient in cold medicine, is ineffective as a decongestant. We petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to take phenylephrine off store shelves, but it wasn’t until an independent committee recently confirmed our findings that the FDA is finally considering the removal of a medication on which Americans spent $1.8 billion last year. Other decongestants and cough and cold medicines also contain ingredients that don’t do what drug companies claim. “It boggles the mind,” and “this is only the tip of the iceberg.” The FDA…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Loosening Corsica’s leashPierre NegrelCorse MatinIs France finally willing to offer Corsica “real autonomy”? asked Pierre Negrel. In a “historic speech” delivered last week in Ajaccio, the island’s regional capital, President Emmanuel Macron said he favored “building a form of autonomy for Corsica”—within France, of course. Corsica, an idyllic Mediterranean vacationland 56 miles from Italy and 105 from France, was sold to the French by the Genovese in 1768, and Corsican nationalists have clamored for independence since. Last year, violent riots erupted after a jailed Corsican separatist was strangled to death in prison; unrest intensified earlier this year when France’s high court banned Corsicans from teaching school in the local Italianate language. That’s forced Macron, who has ignored the issue for years, to finally admit he can’t “leave things as they are.” But…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Where doctors are driven like donkeysUgoji EgbujoPremium TimesNigeria is working its young doctors to death, said Ugoji Egbujo. On a recent Sunday, Michael Umoh, a medical resident at a Lagos teaching hospital who had just done a 48-hour shift in the neurosurgery department, slumped down at church and died in the pew next to his parents. In a widely published open letter, Umoh’s colleagues said that he, like they, barely ever had time to sleep or eat and was frequently on call on his supposed days off. Yet instead of taking those allegations seriously, “the hospital jumped into crisis-management mode to deny culpability.” Administrators accused the residents of spreading misinformation, while older doctors clucked that it was all much worse in their day. We can’t know for sure that overwork caused Umoh’s fatal heart attack.…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023GOP: Seeking a new Trump challengerThe candidates who took part in last week’s second GOP presidential debate are “not leaders,” said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. They are “opportunists who are letting an opportunity slip away.” Sure, the seven Republicans on stage at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., happily “tore into each other.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott squabbled with Nikki Haley over the price of drapes in a government office. Haley knocked down entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, declaring, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber.” And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his state’s six-week abortion ban. But no one gave more than a “dainty slap on the wrist” to former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s runaway front-runner who yet again skipped the debate. The candidates were silent…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Impeachment: The GOP’s botched inquiry“Witnesses Say No Evidence Against President.” That was the headline nearly everywhere last week, said Charles P. Pierce in Esquire, after the House Oversight Committee embarrassed itself in its first, farcical impeachment inquiry into President Biden. It’s been previously established that Hunter Biden called his father on speakerphone during business meetings with foreign clients and that Biden appeared at a dinner with his son and associates—but there’s zero evidence that the then–vice president received any money or made any policy decisions to benefit those clients. The Republicans’ witnesses admitted as much, with forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky saying there was no clear evidence linking Biden to “any improper or illicit activities.” Lacking evidence, the committee relied on “convoluted attempts to make connections through supposition and suspicion,” said Chris McGreal in The…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Innovation of the weekAfter some false starts for kitchen robots, there’s a new one that can actually cook an excellent meal, said Rhodri Marsden in the Financial Times. Moley is a one-armed private chef for $50,000 that’s fully “installable in a domestic kitchen” and will follow a set of pre-programmed recipes. Moley won’t wield a knife—for “understandable health and safety” reasons—so you still have to act as “sous chef, chopping the veg, preparing the stock,” and putting ingredients and utensils in place. But the robot does the cooking, with “movements closely modeled on those of a real chef.” I assigned it a risotto, so the robot could “endure the kind of stir-heavy drudgery that I slightly resent.” From the splash of wine to “the gradual addition of stock,” Moley’s technique was flawless—and the…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023New hope for heart transplantsLast year, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a pig’s heart into a human for the first time, only to see the patient die two months later. Now the same team has performed the procedure for a second time, reports Wired, and though it is still early days, the recipient appears to be recovering well. “Nobody knows from this point forward,” patient Lawrence Faucette, a 58-year-old Navy veteran who had been facing near-certain death from heart failure, said before the operation. “At least now I have hope and I have a chance.” The pig donors in both transplants were the product of the same genetic modification, with edits to some of the genes responsible for immune rejection. Doctors still aren’t entirely sure why the first patient died,…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023A new pangolin in AsiaThe discovery of a new species of pangolin could help conservationists fight the bizarre mammal’s extinction. The pangolin, which sports armored scales like a reptile, is the most trafficked mammal in the world because its meat and scales are prized in traditional Chinese medicine. Eight species were known, four in Asia and four in Africa, but after carrying out detailed genetic analysis on trafficked scales confiscated in China, scientists now say a ninth species has been hiding in plain sight. Manis mysteria looks very similar to its cousins and is nearly impossible to distinguish on appearance alone. Study co-author Huarong Zhang, a conservation geneticist, says it could well be that a specimen is “already stored in a museum or natural history collection.” The discovery will be useful in the fight…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Caitlin MoranCaitlin Moran is launching her own men’s movement, said Vivian Manning-Schaffel in Shondaland. The feminist author has made a career of writing hilariously about women’s concerns, in best-sellers such as How to Be a Woman and in columns for London’s Times. But she couldn’t help noticing at talks she gave that young white men are struggling. “I could see how angry and misunderstood these boys felt,” she says. In her view, today’s teenagers have heard nothing for the past 10 years except that women are the future and straight white males stand in the way. “If you cannot name the category you’re in without associated shame or guilt,” she says, “that’s when you start getting these very angry, radicalized young boys.” Her new book, What About Men?, aims to offer…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023CousinCousin is the first Wilco album in 16 years helmed by an outside producer—“and it shows, in the best possible way,” said Will Hermes in Rolling Stone. Pivoting from the throwback Americana of 2022’s excellent Cruel Country, the beloved Chicago alt-rockers resurrect the avant-garde impulses they first cultivated in the 1990s. Serving as producer, Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon meshes well with frontman Jeff Tweedy. “Her musicianship shadows the curveball melodies and clipped watchmaker beats scattered through Cousin,” while Tweedy applies his “companionable” voice to channeling flawed figures and a faith in the power of love. “Infinite Surprise,” the opening track, “begins with a burst of gauzily abstract guitar and grumbling distortion,” said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. “A Bowl and a Pudding” is another highlight whose “fabulously disorienting” folk…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The Royal HotelTwo outsiders endure unwelcome male attention.Kitty Green and Julia Garner make quite a team, said David Ehrlich in IndieWire. The Australian filmmaker and the Ozark actress rattled moviegoers with The Assistant, 2019’s “deeply unnerving” portrait of a young woman working for a Harvey Weinstein–like movie bigwig. The Royal Hotel, their second collaboration, turns out to be “another masterfully constructed pressure cooker about the perils of being a woman on planet Earth.” Garner and Jessica Henwick play Hanna and Liv, two cash-poor American backpackers who detour to a remote Australian mining town to take a bartending gig at a pub where the sex-starved male patrons circle them like predators. “Few movies have ever so palpably conveyed the violent pall of male attention.” Though some of the local roughnecks are harmless enough,…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The Week’s guide to what’s worth watchingBig Vape: The Rise and Fall of JuulThey looked like flash drives, were packed with nicotine, and were supposedly a safer alternative to cigarettes. But Juul electronic cigarettes turned out to be just as unhealthy and devilishly addictive. Worse, regulators found evidence that the company intentionally marketed them to minors, compounding a public-health epidemic. This searing documentary tells the story of the company’s rise and fall. Wednesday, Oct. 11, NetflixFrasierKelsey Grammer’s endearingly pompous Frasier Crane is back, in a revival series that follows the beloved 1990s character from Cheers as he moves from Seattle back to Boston, in part to be closer to his son, Freddy, who dropped out of college to become a firefighter. Sadly, Niles and Daphne won’t be making the trip, but Bebe Neuwirth is returning as…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Cheese-crisped pinto bean quesadillasReady to up your quesadilla game? asked Courtney Hill in Milk Street magazine. We make ours by quickly doctoring canned beans, doubling the cheese, and cooking them on a baking sheet in one batch. Once they hit the oven, “the outer layer of cheese becomes deliciously crisp.” Feel free to sub in canned green chiles for the chipotles.3 tbsp neutral oil • 2 15½-oz cans pinto beans or black beans, rinsed and drained • 1 tbsp chili powder • kosher salt and ground black pepper • 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped, plus 1 tsp adobo sauce • 2 tbsp lime juice or cider vinegar • 2 cups (8 oz) shredded pepper jack or queso Oaxaca, divided • 8 6-inch flour tortillas• Heat oven to 475 with a rack…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023This week: Homes in apartments abroad1 Paris The 1915 building housing this three-bedroom apartment is in the 6th arrondissement’s Raspail–Notre-Dame-des-Champs neighborhood. The south-facing home features a curved living room with multiple balconies, decorative crown molding, plaster wall details, and herringbone floors; a study with dark wood paneling and built-ins; a formal dining room; and a modern galley kitchen. The Luxembourg Gardens are walking distance; Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Pont Neuf are a short drive. $3,260,000. Carole de Vellou, Daniel Féau Conseil Immobilier/Luxury Portfolio International, +33-18-479-68072 Amsterdam From an 1888 building in Amsterdam Oud-West, this street-level duplex condo looks out on two canals. The recently renovated three-bedroom home has an open layout, oversize windows, white herringbone floors, two baths and a laundry, a living room with gas fireplace, an ultramodern chef’s kitchen, and French doors opening…3 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Employment: Surprise jump in job openingsThe number of available jobs in the U.S. jumped unexpectedly, said Alicia Wallace in CNN.com. “There were an estimated 9.61 million open jobs in August,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week, an increase of about 5.8 percent from the month before. The uptick “bucks a three-month decline,” a sign that the Federal Reserve’s massive interest-rate hiking campaign to lower inflation has not crippled the labor market. There are still 1.5 open jobs for every unemployed person looking for one, a number that is above pre-pandemic levels.Race: Tesla faces discrimination suit from regulatorsTesla was accused of racial discrimination against Black employees by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said Jack Ewing in The New York Times. The federal agency filed a lawsuit against the carmaker last week. It says Black…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023What the experts sayDeclining wages for new gradsNew college grads today are earning much less than their parents did, said Jessica Dickler in CNBC.com. Forty years ago, “graduates earned $23,278, on average, or $68,342 in today’s dollars” in their first job out of college. That’s “roughly $7,254 more than 2023 graduates, according to a recent report by Self Financial.” The peak for new college grad salaries, adjusted for inflation, came way back in 1969, with average starting salaries equivalent to $79,870. They dropped dramatically after that, reaching a nadir in the mid-1990s and recovering only moderately since. The costs of college and student-loan balances, meanwhile, have gone up sharply.JPMorgan bids to keep wealthy clientsJPMorgan Chase is finally sweetening its interest offers, but only for a select few, said Rachel Louise Ensign in The…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Ukraine’s vibrant Etsy economyMark DentThe HustleThere’s one American marketplace that’s giving Ukraine a surprising lifeline, said Mark Dent. It’s Etsy. Ukraine is a nation of knitters and crafters. In the past 19 months, those pastimes have turned into a crucial means of support—“one of the surest ways to make money in an economy ravaged by war.” Olena Hryhorenko, a 19-year-old college student living in southwestern Ukraine, has knitted since she was 12. Not long after the war started, she relaunched an Etsy store, Toysknit, though she wasn’t sure that “anyone would want to deal with long shipping times.” Within two hours, somebody had already purchased a pair of her knit bunnies. She’s hardly alone. “Despite having a smaller population than Spain or Italy, Ukrainian sellers have nearly double the number of Etsy listings.”…1 min
The Week Magazine|October 13, 2023House in turmoil as McCarthy voted outWhat happenedThe House was thrown into chaos this week after eight GOP hard-liners joined with Democrats to oust Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a first in the 234-year history of the chamber. The 216-210 vote was triggered by chief McCarthy antagonist Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who accused the Californian of selling out Republicans by using Democratic votes to pass a funding bill and avoid a shutdown—rather than holding out for steep spending cuts. Gaetz’s move enraged many Republicans, who booed him as he argued his case on the House floor and who rallied to save McCarthy’s speakership. But after internal deliberations among Democrats, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) instructed his conference not to rescue McCarthy, sealing the speaker’s fate. “We’re not voting in any way that would help Speaker McCarthy,” said…4 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023It wasn’t all badAt age 104, Dorothy Hoffner has broken a Guinness World Record by doing something many younger people wouldn’t dare: skydive from 13,500 feet. The Chicago native, who survived both the Spanish flu and the Covid pandemic, first skydived when she was 100 years old. This week, she left her walker on the ground, leaped out of a plane, and landed in Ottawa, Ill. The adventurous centenarian, who used to drive across the country in her Dodge Coronet, suggested that a third jump and a hot-air balloon ride might be on her horizon. “Age is only a number,” she said. When Clare Runacres told her boyfriend, Mike Ramsden, the aggressive cancer she’d been diagnosed with at age 20 had returned after nine years, she believed she only had six months left…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Good week/bad weekQuiet devotion, with a new poll showing that Republican voters regard Donald Trump as more religious than any other presidential candidate. Fully 53 percent said they consider Trump a “person of faith,” more than the pious Mike Pence (52 percent) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (47 percent), who says he lives in a “Christ-centered household.”Spider-men, after Brazilian researchers revealed that the venom of the deadly banana spider could be used to treat erectile dysfunction. The research was inspired by banana-spider-bite victims showing up at hospitals in a state of both mortal danger and physical arousal.Elephants, after the city of Ojai, Calif., became the first in the nation to recognize the jumbo mammals’ “fundamental right to bodily liberty.” No elephants currently reside in Ojai.Bad week for:The art of the deal, after…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The world at a glanceNorthumberland National Park, U.K.Iconic tree chopped down: English police have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the felling of the Sycamore Gap Tree, a beloved landmark that dated back three centuries. The picturesque, 100-foot sycamore stood next to Hadrian’s Wall in an otherwise treeless English moor and was made famous after being featured in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Last week, Northumberland National Park rangers discovered it lying next to its stump, apparently sheared by a chainsaw. “I can’t even describe how distressed everybody here is,” local resident Catherine Cape told the BBC. “It became a beacon of hope for everybody that it should grow in such a cold and exposed place.”Port-au-Prince, HaitiU.N. authorizes peacekeepers: The United Nations voted this week to send an international peacekeeping…7 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Caine’s closing actAfter more than 70 years in the movie business, Michael Caine is ready to make his exit, said Mick Brown in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Granted, the now 90-year-old actor has long spoken of his desire to retire—in 1968, he talked of giving up work at 45 and moving to a farmhouse where he could “grow old gracefully.” But this time, he seems to mean it. Since making his screen debut as a tea boy in 1950’s Morning Departure, the London-born star has appeared in more than 120 films. His last, he says, will be The Great Escaper, based on the real-life story of a World War II veteran who snuck away from his retirement home to attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France. Caine’s wife in…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The challenge of covering TrumpBrian KlaasThe AtlanticFew Americans know that Donald Trump stated last week that Gen. Mark Milley, the retiring chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deserves to be executed for “treason,” said Brian Klaas. Nor did most people hear that the likely Republican presidential nominee in 2024 called for shoplifters “to be shot” and killed on the spot, or that to the delight of a cackling crowd of supporters, he once again mocked Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, for having his head smashed with a hammer by a deranged MAGA follower. Trump also suggested he’d prevent California’s rampant wildfires by “dampening” millions of acres of forest floors. The fact that Trump’s lunatic policy ideas and frequent incitements to violence no longer shock people or generate alarmed, highly visible coverage “shows just how…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023It must be true…A 10-year-old Florida boy who ran away from home with his 11-year-old sister was pulled over while driving his mother’s car on an interstate highway, 200 miles from home. The pair, who left in a huff after their mother took away the girl’s electronic devices for misbehaving, were headed for California. Police spotted the car at around 4 a.m., and since it was reported stolen, approached it with guns drawn, only to see two preteens step out. They were returned to their mother with no charges pressed. A man was refused entry to a Philadelphia Phillies game after he tried to bring in his 6-foot-long emotional support alligator, Wally. Joie Henney of Harrisburg, Pa., had been invited by players eager to meet Wally, an affectionate pet who loves chin rubs…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Slovakia: Will the new populist leader abandon Ukraine?Slovakia, a pro-Western stalwart, will now “turn its rudder toward the east,” said Zola Mikes in Aktuality (Slovakia). The pro-Russia, leftist-populist Smer party won parliamentary elections this week, compelling our progressive president, Zuzana Caputova, to give its leader Robert Fico—who has viciously attacked her as an American puppet—the first chance at forming a coalition to become the country’s next prime minister. Fico, 59, is a former communist who’s been prime minister twice before, from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, when he was forced to step down following the murder of a journalist who was investigating his alleged mafia ties. During his nasty, mudslinging electoral campaign, Fico called Ukraine “the perpetrator,” not the victim, of the war with Russia and even threatened to withdraw Slovakia from NATO.…3 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Once-beloved sport is in a death spiralDavid CampeseThe AgeWhat happened to Aussie rugby? asked David Campese. For the first time in history, our national team might not make the World Cup playoffs this year, having played pathetically in group matches. Fans who had traveled to France to cheer the Wallabies on “were visibly furious” after a recent 40-6 thrashing by Wales, and some of them even booed. How have we gotten to this point, where fans are so demoralized? Kids don’t even want to play rugby these days. As a former player and now a youth coach, I’ve seen an alarming “decline in skills” and interest. Asked to tell me their favorite Wallaby, most boys “can’t name one player.” This general lack of enthusiasm for a formerly popular sport is partly the fault of the Wallabies’…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Feinstein: A trailblazer’s complicated legacy“To appreciate what Dianne Feinstein accomplished,” said Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, “you need to know how male Washington was in 1992.” The California Democrat, who died last week at age 90, was elected to the Senate in the “Year of the Woman” when—buoyed by women’s anger over the rampant misogyny on show at the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill hearings—the female ranks in the upper chamber grew from three to six. At the time, Congress was such a “good ol’ boys club” that women were unofficially barred from wearing pants on the Senate floor and there was no women’s restroom off the House floor—a situation only rectified in 2011. Feinstein “showed the possibilities of women in power” by mastering subjects seen as men’s bailiwick, including defense and intelligence policy,…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Bytes: What’s new in techSearching for ‘electronic fingerprints’Police are increasingly issuing search warrants to obtain Google location and search data, said Julia Love and Davey Alba in Bloomberg Businessweek. Google says it received a record 60,472 search warrants in the U.S. last year, more than double the number in 2019, and it provides at least some information about 80 percent of the time. The warrants “turn up only devices that have Location History enabled,” covering about one-third of Google users. Apple says that it’s unable, technically, to provide the kind of data that law enforcement gets from Google, which can include “a detailed inventory of whose personal devices were present at a given time and place.” Police liken the value of the data to “an electronic fingerprint,” but “officers frequently have to rummage through…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Does fast food make you sad?Ultra-processed foods—such as chips, candy, pizza, and even packaged bread—may be linked to depression, a new study shows. Harvard researchers examined the eating habits and health outcomes of more than 31,000 women between ages 42 and 62, none of whom had depression symptoms when the study began. They found that those who ate nine servings of ultra-processed foods a day were 50 percent more likely to become depressed than those who ate no more than four daily servings. The link was particularly strong for foods and drinks containing artificial sweeteners, such as diet soda—although there was no way to determine whether the fast-food diet was a cause of the depression or a symptom of it. “We don’t have a lot of energy when we are feeling depressed,” Susan Albers, a…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Best books…chosen by Ben FountainBen Fountain’s new novel, Devil Makes Three, is a political thriller set during Haiti’s 1991 coup d’état. Below, the author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award, recommends other books about Haiti.Love, Anger, Madness by Marie Vieux-Chauvet (1968). This incendiary trilogy of novellas brought the wrath of the Duvalier regime down on its author, who was forced to flee to New York after the book’s publication. Vieux-Chauvet is unsparing in her depiction of Haiti, presenting characters who are pushed to the limits of sanity by the racism, economic duress, and state terrorism that constrain their lives.Moonbath by Yanick Lahens (2014). Winner of both the Prix Femina and French Voices Award, Lahens’ incantatory novel cuts across four generations of a rural Haitian family. Their…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the FrickFrick Madison, New York City, through Jan. 7Barkley L. Hendricks’ love for the Frick “has come full circle,” said Stephanie Sporn in Vogue. The Philadelphia-born painter (1945–2017) adored the work by European masters that the uptown Manhattan museum showcased, using the collection as inspiration for the portraits of Black people that he began painting in the late 1960s. This fall, 14 of his paintings hang in the museum’s temporary space on Madison Avenue, making him the first person of color to be awarded a solo exhibition in the museum’s 87-year history. Seeing his decades-old portraits today, “one is quickly struck by their modernity” even as their allusions to centuries-old European images remain inescapable.Hendricks’ portraits seamlessly meld “Old Master virtuosity” with “street-smart contemporaneity,” said William Spiegelman in The Wall Street Journal.…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Softscars“Few artists in recent years have been on a creative streak as exciting and original as Yeule,” said Margaret Farrell in Stereogum. With 2019’s Serotonin II and 2022’s Glitch Princess, the nonbinary singer, songwriter, and producer used ambient electronic pop music to convey vulnerable lyrics about “breaking free of bodily imprisonment.” Previously, the Singaporean’s struggles with gender dysphoria found expression and release in the transhumanist concept of becoming a cyborg. Yeule’s “electrifyingly urgent” third album, on the other hand, “feels alive, like blood is pulsing through it.” You can hear the influence of ’90s alt-rockers Smashing Pumpkins and the Pixies on the lead single, “Sulky Baby,” said Ryan Dombal in Pitchfork. Elsewhere, on “Cyber Meat,” Yeule adopts an “unmistakably emo” tenor and “continues to explore the infinite spaces between flesh…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Purlie VictoriousMusic Box Theatre, New York City“Every piece of theater that’s not a product of the Disneyverse feels like an especially perilous leap of faith these days,” said Sara Holdren in NYMag.com. Perhaps that’s why so many years passed without Broadway hosting a revival of Ossie Davis’ “audaciously funny firecracker of a play,” an anti-racist satirical comedy as relevant today as when it debuted in 1961. “Fast, fierce, and bighearted,” the show is finally back, and it “feels wittier, braver, and more caring” than much contemporary writing. “Both unflinching and generous, it’s just about as sharp as satire gets.”“Of course, a Broadway show almost always needs a star,” said Peter Marks in The Washington Post. Director Kenny Leon has enlisted an exceptional one in Leslie Odom Jr., the Hamilton alum who…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The Fall of the House of UsherMike Flanagan has made his name by deftly adapting such classic horror tales as Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. He strikes again with this terrific jump-scare ode to Edgar Allan Poe. The author’s 1839 short story about the happenings inside the cracked manor of Roderick Usher is a launch point for the series, whose depraved Ushers are a Sackler-esque family that has lived large on ill-gotten pharmaceutical gains. Mysterious deaths ensue, with each tale drawing on elements from “The Raven,” “The Black Cat,” and other Poe works. Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino, and Mary McDonnell co-star. Thursday, Oct. 12, Netflix• All listings are Eastern Time.…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The bottom lineThe average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 7.72 percent this week, a high not seen since 2000. For a borrower purchasing a $400,000 home with a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year fixed loan, the monthly payment today is about $930 more than it was when rates were at 3 percent.CNBC.com The U.S. lost more than 7 million workdays because of labor disputes this year through August, more than any full year since 2000. Eight strikes involving more than 1,000 workers each affected employers in August, matching the highest number since 2005.The Wall Street Journal The Dish Network was ordered to pay a $150,000 fine for failing to properly decommission a satellite, leaving it as a potentially dangerous piece of floating junk. It’s the first…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The AI future is being built by pod peopleTech workers looking to cash in on San Francisco’s AI boom are sleeping in private bed pods to afford the rent, said Nathan Rennolds in Business Insider. “The pods, which are made by a startup called Brownstone, can only fit one twin bed” and are arranged in stacks of two in a dormitory of other “pod-dwellers,” most of them young tech workers seeking jobs in artificial intelligence. “Those staying will have to make do without a full kitchen or laundry machines” while sharing bathrooms. Brownstone, which says that all 28 of its San Francisco pods are rented for October, notes the beds offer “40 percent more room than typical bunk beds.” Tech workers pay up to $900 a month for the accommodations, but in a city where the median price…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Charity of the weekThis fall, nearly 50 million American public-school students began a new academic year; at least a million of them are projected to drop out by the end of it. Communities in Schools (communitiesinschools.org) helps keep kids in school until graduation by working with at-risk students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The nonprofit places trained coordinators in more than 3,000 schools nationwide to provide wraparound services for students. That includes socio-emotional and academic support as well as the basics: clean clothes, school supplies, and food. In 2021, 95 percent of the high school seniors in the program graduated or received their GED. Last year, the organization served more than 1.8 million students, with more than 180,000 getting intensive support to keep them from dropping out.Each charity we feature has earned a…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023How much cash can this truck burn?Sean McLainThe Wall Street JournalThe “Tesla of trucks” keeps spinning its wheels, said Sean McLain. When Rivian went public in 2021 on a wave of hype around its glitzy electric pickups, it was temporarily worth more than Ford and General Motors. Three years later, it is on track to hit estimates of 52,000 deliveries for the year. But to do so, Rivian is burning through cash. Its vehicles “are so expensive to build that the company lost $33,000 on every one it sold” in the past three months, even though each one sells for an average of over $80,000. Launching a new automaker was never going to be easy, but Rivian has also made questionable choices that have added time and cost. The front end of the vehicle, for instance,…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The steely centrist who was the longest-serving female senatorOver her six decades in politics, Dianne Feinstein broke barrier after barrier. She was the first woman mayor of San Francisco, thrust into office in 1978 when her predecessor was murdered in City Hall. She was the first woman to stage a major-party run for California governor in 1990; two years later, she and Barbara Boxer became the state’s first woman senators. In D.C., she was the first woman to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee and ultimately became the longest-serving woman senator, with a 31-year tenure. Major achievements included spearheading a 10-year assault-weapons ban in 1994 and overseeing the 6,000-page “torture report” that detailed the CIA’s post-9/11 program of holding terrorism suspects in secret prisons and subjecting them to waterboarding and other torments. Feinstein, whose pearl necklaces and regal demeanor…3 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The Baltimore legend who set the standard at third baseOne of the most beloved athletes in Baltimore history, Brooks Robinson was also one of the greatest third basemen ever to patrol the hot corner. Over a Major League career spanning 1955 to 1977, all with the Baltimore Orioles, Robinson was an 18-time All-Star and won the Gold Glove award as the top fielder at his position an unprecedented 16 straight years. His often miraculous defense led the Orioles to championships in 1966 and 1970. Against Cincinnati’s menacing “Big Red Machine” in the 1970 World Series, Robinson earned his nickname “the human vacuum cleaner,” robbing opponents of an improbable number of would-be hits while slugging two home runs and batting .429. “I’m beginning to see Brooks in my sleep,” Reds manager Sparky Anderson said afterward. “If I dropped this paper…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Anything but deathAddicts call Jessica Blanchard as they get ready to shoot up, said Aymann Ismail and Mary Harris in Slate. Her goal: To stay on the line and keep them alive, no matter what.SHORTLY AFTER SHE realized she might soon die, Kimber King reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card. There was a phone number on it, and a few promises: “NO Preaching. NO Shaming. NO Judgement.”She was skeptical, she later told me. “I was wary to call. I didn’t know what was going to happen with the police and stuff,” she said. But she did dial the number.When she called, a warm voice answered: “Let me get my book, Kimber. I’ve never talked to you before. I’m glad you called. Have you called us before?”“No. This is…9 min
The Week Magazine|October 13, 2023What next?“House lawmakers now find themselves in uncharted territory,” said Nik Popli in Time. The chamber is on recess until Oct. 10, at which point acting speaker McHenry plans to hold a forum where candidates for the speakership can make their pitch to the House GOP. The plan is to hold a vote for a permanent speaker the next day. Good luck with that, said Rachael Bade in Politico. Many House Republicans doubt they can overcome their “bitter divisions and coalesce around a new speaker anywhere near that soon.” The early front-runner is Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who “has long eyed the big gavel.” But he’s undergoing treatment for blood cancer, and “some Republicans worry whether he’s up for such a taxing job.” Meanwhile, combative former Freedom Caucus chair Jim Jordan…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Supreme Court: Will it dismantle the ‘administrative state?’Welcome to “year three of a constitutional revolution,” said Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern in Slate. The new Supreme Court term began this week—the third since Republicans’ rushed installation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett created a 6-3 right-wing supermajority—and the next item on the conservative bloc’s radical agenda is a “wholesale assault on the administrative state.” The first federal agency in the crosshairs is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, established after the 2008 financial crisis to protect citizens from predatory lending practices. A group of payday lenders is now challenging the agency’s very existence, arguing that its funding mechanism—the Federal Reserve’s budget—usurps Congress’ power of the purse. If the Supreme Court swallows this “cockamamie theory,” it could defund the CFPB, which would upend the mortgage industry and plunge the…3 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023In other newsJustices won’t hear bid to disqualify TrumpThe Supreme Court declined this week to hear a long-shot legal challenge arguing that former President Trump should be prohibited from running in 2024 because he incited the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. The justices didn’t record a vote on the challenge, which has drawn support from some prominent legal scholars. John Anthony Castro, an obscure GOP presidential candidate, sued to disqualify Trump from running, citing the 14th Amendment’s Civil War–era provision that bars office holders who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort” to insurrectionists. A lower court found Castro lacked standing to sue under this provision. Challenges to Trump’s candidacy citing that provision are scheduled for trials in Colorado and Minnesota later this year.…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Abramovic’s embrace of painMarina Abramovic has spent much of the past half-century torturing her body in the name of art, said Tim Adams in The Guardian (U.K.). At various points, the performance artist, now 76, has lain naked on ice blocks, lived on raised platforms for 12 days without food, and almost burned herself alive. Even her famous 2010 performance at New York’s Museum of Modern Art—for which she sat motionless for eight hours a day in a chair for three months while museumgoers gawked—became “excruciating,” she says. She’d chosen a chair without arms, and after a while, sitting upright became nearly unbearable. In May, her body exacted revenge: While in the hospital for a minor knee operation, Abramovic suffered a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. She needed three operations and nine blood transfusions, and…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023In the newsMelania Trump has quietly renegotiated her prenuptial agreement with former President Donald Trump, sources tell the New York Post—at least the third time she has revisited the marital agreement since the couple wed in 2005. The latest deal took a year to finalize and includes more money for Melania and an increased trust fund for Barron, her 17-year-old son with Trump. A source told the Post that the former first lady has no intention of leaving Trump, but was concerned that his “mounting legal bills and judgments”—which include four criminal cases and a $250 million civil suit in New York—could drain his fortune. Should the couple ever split, the source said, the new prenup will “provide a more solid future” for Melania and Barron. Las Vegas police arrested a self-described…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The false promises of ‘anti-racism’Caroline DowneyWashington ExaminerThe “anti-racism” industry has always been based on fraud, said Caroline Downey, and now the proof is in. Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, founded in 2020 by historian and critical race theory activist Ibram X. Kendi, recently revealed it was laying off about 40 percent of its staff amid charges of mismanagement. The center received $43 million from corporate and wealthy donors seeking to align themselves with the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” complex, but seems to have done little research or meaningful work. Employees say Kendi “ruled with an iron fist yet was routinely missing in action,” and no one is sure where the $43 million went. But the problem with “the DEI racket” goes beyond Kendi. Anti-racism has spread throughout academia, with colleges launching majors and…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Sometimes, police need to carry a gunPeter BleksleyThe TelegraphLondon police laid down their arms for nearly a week in protest over one of their own being charged with murder, said Peter Bleksley. The officer, whose name wasn’t released, fatally shot an unarmed Black man through the windshield of his car last year and has just been indicted. The killing prompted protests across the U.K., particularly among Black Britons, who’ve long complained of police racism. Now, though, the murder charge has also sparked outrage, this time among police. Some 2,500 of the 34,000 Metropolitan Police officers carry weapons, and of those, several hundred refused to conduct armed patrols—and as a former cop myself, I don’t blame them. Armed Met officers are “world leaders in terms of equipment, training, and discipline.” London is a safer city because of…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Israel: How a Saudi deal with the U.S. could bring peaceCould we really be about to make peace with the Saudis? asked Ruth Wasserman Lande in The Jerusalem Post (Israel). After months of U.S. diplomacy, Israel and Saudi Arabia are on the cusp of “normalizing relations,” which would establish trade, tourism, and diplomatic ties between the two longtime foes. That would be a “complete game changer” for this tiny nation surrounded by enemies. Saudi Arabia is the biggest player in the Sunni world, and its oil riches buy it unparalleled global influence. Befriending it would “legitimize Israel in the eyes of a long list of Muslim countries,” with all the benefits that brings. Just look at what happened when the Trump administration brokered the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel’s ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and several other…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023NotedOn average, teachers took home 73.6 cents for every dollar that similarly educated professionals made in 2022. That’s the widest pay gap on record, and a sharp drop from the 93.9 cents on the dollar that teachers made in 1996.Axios Satellite imagery and flight data indicate that Russia may be preparing to test, or may recently have tested, an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile with a theoretical range of 14,000 miles. At least seven people are thought to have died when a Burevestnik missile, nicknamed the Flying Chernobyl by Western experts, exploded during a test launch in 2019.The Hill With average police response times up by as much as 50 percent in dozens of cities, private security has become one of the nation’s fastest-growing industries, with annual revenues of more than…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Swift and Kelce: Rocking the NFL’s worldIt’s hard to imagine a more all-American romance, said Helen Holmes in The Daily Beast. The world’s biggest pop star, Taylor Swift, is dating Travis Kelce, the 6-foot-5 superstar tight end on the Kansas City Chiefs. Swift showed up at Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium recently for the Chiefs’ victory over the Chicago Bears, and “a whopping 24.3 million people” tuned in. Afterward, Swift and Kelce literally drove off into the sunset in his Chevy convertible. This week, Swift and her A-list pals showed up to watch the Chiefs squeak out a win over the New York Jets. During both games, the broadcasts frequently panned to the smitten Swift cheering her new man’s on-field exploits, hugging his mom, and mouthing to actress pal Blake Lively, “Look at him.” It was the most-watched…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Workplace AI: The chatty new colleagueMeet your new co-worker, the chatbot, said Alex Kantrowitz in Slate. A new wave of corporate AI tools from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google is hitting the market, with promises to “change the workday for the better,” perhaps even make it possible to essentially “be in two places at once.” Microsoft’s Copilot “will live prominently in Windows 11, Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365,” where it will automatically “simplify and automate some of the worst parts of office life.” Copilot can transcribe meetings, summarize long emails, or create snappy header images for a slide deck. Google, too, is connecting its AI program, Bard, to Gmail to function almost like a personal assistant. Used properly, these innovations can really “help cut down on the meaningless work that fills the typical workday.”Just make sure…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023What NASA can learn from asteroid rubbleAfter a journey of more than seven years and 3 billion miles, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has delivered a capsule of pebbly dust from an ancient asteroid that could hold clues about the origins of life. The craft, which had orbited the asteroid Bennu and sampled its surface, returned last week, flying close enough to fling the tire-size capsule toward Earth at thousands of miles an hour. The capsule, containing some 250 grams of asteroid dust, parachuted safely down to land in a Utah desert. Scientists chose Bennu because it dates back to the earliest period of the solar system, around 4 billion years ago, and learning about its makeup can offer insights into how the planets were formed. Were compound proteins such as amino acids, for example, brought to the…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Carbon on EuropaThe huge subterranean ocean of Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, appears to contain carbon, a vital component for life. Scientists knew there was carbon dioxide on Europa’s surface, but they weren’t sure whether it had come from external sources, such as meteorites, or from within the moon itself. The new finding, based on images relayed from the James Webb Space Telescope, suggests it is from the moon. “We’re carbon-based life,” NASA planetary scientist Geronimo Villanueva tells NPR.org. “Understanding the chemistry of Europa’s ocean will help us determine whether it’s hostile to life as we know it, or if it might be a good place for life.” Of course, “good” is a relative term: Europa is not particularly hospitable. Sunlight is about 25 times fainter there than at Earth, and the moon’s…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Wellness(Knopf, $30)Nathan Hill has written “a perfect novel for our age,” said Michael Schaub in NPR.org. Twenty-one years after they met at an indie-rock show, Jack and Elizabeth are married, raising a son, renovating a Chicago-area condo, and coping with middle-age malaise. In this “funny and heartbreaking” work, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, the couple’s attempted salves include a fad diet and sexual adventurism, and Hill’s chronicle of their misadventures is “filled with a deep awareness of the marketing-driven emptiness of modern times, but also a compassionate optimism about our ability to find and maintain love.” Hill’s impressive storytelling abilities have a downside, said Andrew Martin in The New York Times. Here, as in 2016’s The Nix, “he’s less interested in getting to the bottom of the modern predicament than…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Also of interest…in the dramas of parentingLoved and Missedby Susie Boyt (New York Review Books, $18)Raising a child can be bliss, said Hillary Kelly in The Atlantic. In Susie Boyt’s “beautifully humane” new novel, a London teacher takes custody of her infant granddaughter because the child’s mother is an addict. What lies ahead, surprisingly, is love and joy for the girl and her genteel guardian. The troubles of the girl’s mother never recede from view. Still, “it’s outrageous how engrossing this novel can be even when its two main characters defy narrative convention and bask in their contentment.”The Unsettledby Ayana Mathis (Knopf, $29)The new novel from the author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie “makes a strong case that the past can never be shaken off,” said Honorée Fanonne Jeffers in The New York Times. In…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The CreatorA soldier dares to protect a childlike android.“Gareth Edwards’ new blockbuster couldn’t have picked a better moment to arrive on the big screen,” said David Sims in The Atlantic. In this science-fiction epic from the director of 2016’s Rogue One, artificial intelligence has evolved to the point where androids are integral to society—until, that is, an AI detonates a nuclear bomb in downtown Los Angeles, sparking a global war between humans and sentient machines. “It’s unfortunate that the story is overflowing with familiar tropes,” because “The Creator is undeniably cool on a big screen.” The movie deserves some credit for its boldness in casting America as its villain, said Mark Jenkins in The Washington Post. In its campaign to eradicate AI, the U.S., in an echo of its aggressive intervention…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Streaming tipsFair PlayThe erotic thriller enters the MeToo era with this brilliantly twisty tale from first-time director Chloe Domont. Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich play co-workers at a hedge fund whose hidden relationship is tested when she’s promoted over him. NetflixThe HandmaidenPark Chan-wook’s rapturous 2016 Korean thriller begins with a con man enlisting a handmaiden in his scheme to snare a wealthy heiress. When the women’s relationship becomes sexual, attention turns to the men pulling their strings. PrimeSwimming PoolIn this languid 2003 thriller, Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier play a crime novelist and a younger free spirit who become accidental housemates at a villa in southern France. Things take a disturbing turn when a waiter fancied by both becomes a conquest for one. $4 on demandThe Last SeductionFrom Basic Instinct to…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Critics’ choice: New directions in Japanese cuisineYess Los AngelesFive-month-old Yess is serving “some of the most quietly ambitious cooking to emerge in Los Angeles this year,” said Bill Addison in the Los Angeles Times. In a former bank building whose interior has taken on an “otherworldly” minimalist beauty, diners sitting at pale wooden tables pass dishes laden with sashimi, grilled fish, and colorful fruits and vegetables. A 42-seat bar made of cypress looks onto an open kitchen that “gleams like a starship.” Chef Junya Yamasaki, who made his name in London, runs the show, and prizes simplicity. “Dinner might begin with a collage of peaches, nectarines, and apricots in a cooling pool of dashi.” Yamasaki made as deep a study of sustainable California marine life as he did Japanese Buddhist temple cuisine, and pours that knowledge…3 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Crypto: Fraud trial starts for Bankman-Fried“A noticeably leaner” and spruced-up Sam Bankman-Fried arrived in court this week for the start of his multibillion-dollar fraud trial, said Ava Benny-Morrison and Yueqi Yang in Bloomberg. The “crypto prince” is facing seven criminal charges linked to last year’s collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX. The government has labeled the case “one of the biggest financial crimes in the country’s history.” Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried, whose bail was revoked over evidence of witness tampering, “used FTX as a vehicle to steal billions in customer funds” for his hedge fund, Alameda Research. He faces a maximum prison term of 20 years for each of the five most serious charges.The people rooting hardest for justice are those who remain in crypto, said Erin Griffith in The New York Times. “Bankman-Fried’s trial is…1 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Kicking back: New calls for a four-day workweek“Americans spend too much time on the job,” said Binyamin Appelbaum in The New York Times. A shorter workweek would give us better health and more family time. And more and more experiments are showing that it would even be better for “employers, who would reap the benefits of a more motivated and better-rested workforce.” Supporters of a four-day workweek are usually painted as entitled, lazy young desk jockeys. But the calls gained new currency when the United Auto Workers union floated a reduction of its standard hours to 32 per week—with full 40-hour pay. That demand may have been just an opening gambit, but there is history here: Ford famously “was one of the first major employers to commit to a five-day workweek,” at a time when the standard…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023Amazon: The ‘everything store’ goes to courtIf you want to understand the big Amazon antitrust trial that started last week, said Dave Lee in Bloomberg, start with a small section of Amazon’s website: the “Buy Box.” That box, on the right side of the screen, “displays just one seller at a time.” When there are multiple sellers for an item, that essentially makes one the default, and Amazon says it goes to the cheapest and best-reviewed sellers. Behind the scenes, however, Amazon actually prioritizes the Buy Box for “sellers that store their goods in Amazon warehouses and use Amazon trucks to deliver their products.” Its fees for doing so have risen 30 percent since 2020. The Federal Trade Commission argues that Amazon also punishes “sellers that offer cheaper prices elsewhere by denying them the Buy Box,”…2 minThe Week Magazine|October 13, 2023The Week ContestThis week’s question: President Biden’s German shepherd, Commander, recently bit another Secret Service agent at the White House—the dog’s 11th biting incident. In seven words or fewer, come up with an advertising slogan for an animal-training school that specializes in unruly presidential pets.Last week’s contest: Hurricane Idalia caused flamingos to scatter far from their habitats in Florida and the Caribbean, with some birds appearing as far north as Ohio and Wisconsin. In seven words or fewer, come up with a welcome-banner message that residents of colder climes could use to greet these unexpected visitors.THE WINNER: “Please Don’t Mate With Lawn Ornaments” Barbara James, Bedford, Mass.SECOND PLACE: “Sanctuary for Floridian Pinkos” Mark Spahr, Anacortes, Wash.THIRD PLACE: “Stick Around, It’s Getting Warmer” Daniel Hicks, Randolph, Mass.For runners-up and complete contest rules, please…1 min
