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Editor’s letter “Best wood for a fence.” “Rainbow mermaid Barbie.” “MacBook All this wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it just meant a few battery problems.” You can tell a lot about people by what they more annoying ads for laptops and children’s dolls following search for on the internet. Those phrases, for instance, all of me around the web—though that’s creepy enough. But no one which I’ve Googled in the past few hours, could tell you that thinks that’s where this ends. After all, it’s not just advertisers I’m hoping to spruce up the backyard, that I live with a young who would pay top dollar for insights into our web habits; so kid, and that I might be in the market for a new computer. And would political parties, insurance companies, and more. What if soon, that web-surfing history of mine could be available for health insurers want to know if you search for chronic illnesses sale to the highest bidder, thanks to a bill that President Trump like diabetes, heart disease, or cancer online? Will employers vet signed into law this week. (See Technology.) The new law al- job candidates by buying their browsing history? And will pub- lows internet providers to sell advertisers our personal data, in- lic officials or celebrities—or any of us—be open to blackmail if cluding the words we search for and the websites we visit, with- someone purchases access to their secret web proclivities? We’ve out our permission. Coupled with what internet companies al- now opened the door to that future, and privacy experts say ready know about us—where we live, our Social Security num- there’s not much we can do to protect our data, save going off- bers, when we watch TV and go online—it’s easier than ever for line. Perhaps it’s time to Google “off-the-grid properties.” companies to paint an incredibly detailed portrait of who we are Carolyn O’Hara and how we live. Managing editor

NEWS 4 Main stories The battle over intelligence Editor-in-chief: William Falk revelations; chemical Managing editors: Theunis Bates, Carolyn O’Hara attack in Syria; the Senate Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie weighs a “nuclear” change Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Senior editors: Harry Byford, Alex 6 Controversy of the week Dalenberg, Richard Jerome, Dale Obbie, Hallie Stiller, Frances Weaver Mike Pence won’t dine Art director: Dan Josephs Photo editor: Loren Talbot alone with a woman who Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins isn’t his wife. Is he a sexist Chief researcher: Christina Colizza Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, or a good Christian? Bruno Maddox 7 The U.S. at a glance VP, publisher: John Guehl VP, marketing: Tara Mitchell North Carolina repeals Sales development director: “bathroom bill”; traffi c Samuel Homburger Account director: Steve Mumford chaos in Atlanta Account managers: Shelley Adler, Alison Fernandez 8 The world at a glance Detroit director: Lisa Budnick Midwest director: Lauren Ross Devastating mudslides A young victim of the Syrian government’s gas attack (p.5) Southeast director: Jana Robinson West Coast directors: James Horan, in Colombia; suicide Rebecca Treadwell bombing in Russia Integrated marketing director: Nikki Ettore ARTS LEISURE Integrated associate marketing director: 10 People Betsy Connors 22 Books 30 Food & Drink Integrated marketing managers: Meghan Markle’s racial Were Baby Boomers the Tastes from remote lands at Matthew Flynn, Caila Litman education; Michael J. Research and insights manager: worst generation? three U.S. restaurants Joan Cheung Fox laughs at Parkinson’s Marketing designer: Triona Moynihan 23 Author of the week 31 Travel Marketing coordinator: Reisa Feigenbaum 11 Briefi ng Digital director: Garrett Markley A former White House Discovering Slovakia’s Senior digital account manager: Has the West’s craving Yuliya Spektorsky insider demystifi es life at majestic medieval sites Digital planner: Jennifer Riddell for sugary treats caused a 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Chief operating & financial officer: public health crisis? 34 Consumer Kevin E. Morgan 26 Stage & Music Must-have accessories for Director of financial reporting: 12 Best U.S. columns fans of farmers markets Arielle Starkman Medicare for all suddenly John Leguizamo gives EVP, consumer marketing & products: a lesson in Latin Sara O’Connor looks more likely; why Consumer marketing director: history BUSINESS Leslie Guarnieri business doesn’t prepare Production manager: Kyle Christine Darnell people for government 27 Film 35 News at a glance HR/operations manager: Joy Hart Adviser: Ian Leggett 14 Best European A spooky school More scrutiny for H-1B Chairman: John M. Lagana columns tale in The visa program; “cyborg” U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell Blackcoat’s Company founder: Felix Dennis Britain and the EU begin workers in Sweden Daughter their diffi cult divorce 36 Making money 16 Talking points Why robot stock pickers Visit us at TheWeek.com. are beating human traders For customer service go to www Jared Kushner’s ever- .TheWeek.com/service or phone us growing to-do list; 38 Best columns at 1-877-245-8151. California’s tough line on The corporate battle over Renew a subscription at www anti-abortion activists; Meghan a U.S. border tax; Silicon .RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift at www.GiveTheWeek.com.

Getty (2) Getty Trump’s energy plans Markle (p.10) Valley’s bro woes

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 4 NEWS The main stories... Trump team’s allegations against Susan Rice What happened Sorry, but Rice is not credible, said The Wall Street Republicans this week accused former Obama Journal. Two weeks ago, she was denying any administration national security adviser Susan knowledge of surveillance of Trump associates. Rice of using intelligence information to spy on By asking for the “unmasking,” she may not have President Donald Trump’s associates—a claim broken the law, but she was clearly motivated by Democrats insist is designed to distract attention “political curiosity.” Investigators looking into from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s Trump’s Russian connections must also determine links to Russia. Rice reportedly asked intelligence whether the Obama administration “abused do- agencies in her final weeks in office to provide mestic surveillance for its political purposes.” her with the names of some Trump associates who had been mentioned in surveillance reports What the columnists said about foreign nationals. The identities of U.S. Of all the diversionary tactics Trump and his back- citizens caught up in “incidental” collection are ers have deployed, this “ranks among the most des- typically concealed in internal intelligence reports, Rice: ‘Unmasking’ was necessary. perate,” said Fred Kaplan in Slate.com. Unmasking but high-level officials can ask for them to be requests by senior White House officials aren’t “unmasked.” In an interview on NBC, Rice said “unmasking” unusual—former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden was sometimes “necessary to do my job,” and insisted that she had calls them “somewhat routine.” As for motive, Rice’s alleged request never leaked names or used intelligence for “political purposes.” came when investigators were looking into whether Russia had in- terfered in the election, and whether Trump’s cronies were trying to The Rice revelations came amid a fierce partisan struggle over the “undermine U.S. foreign policy” by promising to lift Obama’s puni- FBI and congressional investigations into whether Trump loyalists tive sanctions on Putin. In other words, she was just doing her job. colluded in Russia’s meddling in the 2016 campaign. The inves- tigation by the House Intelligence Committee essentially ground Sorry, but “that won’t wash,” said Andrew McCarthy in National to a halt in rancor, after its Republican chairman, Devin Nunes of Review.com. Rice, who disgraced herself trying to cover for the California, privately met with two White House officials, and then Obama administration during the Benghazi scandal, asked for the announced he’d seen reports showing Trump aides were “inciden- names so they’d spread “down the dissemination chain” to people tally” swept up in surveillance. In other developments: Russian who might leak them. Lo and behold, national security adviser spies targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page after Michael Flynn later lost his job when details of his wiretapped con- meeting with him in 2013, BuzzFeed.com reported. Trump cam- versation with a Russian ambassador were leaked. The media can’t paign donor and adviser Erik Prince, a founder of the security firm afford to ignore this story, said Peter Wallison in RealClearPolitics Blackwater, had a secret overseas meeting in January with a Rus- .com. If there’s any evidence Obama officials encouraged intel- sian close to President Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to establish a ligence agencies to surveil Trump’s campaign or transition team, it Trump-Moscow back channel, The Washington Post reported. The would be a “Watergate-level scandal.” White House denied any knowledge of the meeting. The legal “unmasking” of names during a legitimate investiga- What the editorials said tion is irrelevant, said Jennifer Rubin in WashingtonPost.com. Don’t fall for these “diversionary stratagems,” said The Washing- What should disturb every American is the mounting evidence that ton Post. Ever since evidence started mounting that Trump’s team numerous Trump associates—including Flynn, former campaign may have been working with the Russians, the president has been manager Paul Manafort, and former adviser Carter Page—got “doing his best to confuse the public.” His ludicrous claim that money from Russia and had secret meetings with Russians, and then–President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower then worked for “the only candidate pushing a pro-Putin line.” was an attempt to shift the focus toward leaks, and away from Maybe it’s all “lots and lots of smoke,” with no fire. But Trump and his ties to Russia—and now Nunes and other water carriers have his loyalists are doing a good impression of “panicked people trying taken up that mission. to hide something very damaging.”

It wasn’t all bad QSean “The Champ” McCarthy packs a mean punch. The QKatie Blomquist has many fond 46-year-old former park ranger was born with cerebral palsy, memories of riding a bicycle as a QWhen 7-year-old Brady Duke which affects body and muscle coordination, but just over child. But the first-grade teacher heard that a local police officer a decade ago he decided to challenge himself by taking up recently realized that such experi- had been shot dead in the line of boxing. Since then, the Milton, Mass., resident has worked ences were out of reach for many duty, he knew he had to help. The with a trainer three times a kids at her South Carolina school, Wisconsin boy packed up his prized week and focused inten- because their low-income families Nintendo Wii and his favorite video sively on his core strength couldn’t afford bikes. So Blomquist, games, and donated them to the and balance to help counter 34, launched an online campaign Wausau Police Department with a his unsteady legs. Underes- to raise $65,000 to buy bikes and note thanking the officers for keep- timated by many opponents, helmets for all 650 students at North ing his family safe. Touched by his McCarthy has clocked an Charleston’s Pepperhill Elementary. generosity, the department invited impressive series of wins in She ended up raising $82,000, and Brady to play Wii with the officers. the ring. His record is 11-0, all the new wheels recently arrived When Brady showed up, the boys knockouts. “I can be normal at the school, much to the delight in blue gave him a new Xbox 360 in the ring,” McCarthy says. of the young students. “It’s about console. Brady “just has a really big “I got a left, right hook, bringing happiness,” says Blomquist. heart,” said his mom, Jessica. The Champ: Undefeated that’ll take you down.” “All children deserve that.” Getty, The Boston Globe/Getty Boston The Getty, On the cover: Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner. THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Illustration by Howard McWilliam. Cover photos from SANA/AP, Newscom, Getty ... and how they were covered NEWS 5 Trump shifts on Syria after chemical attack What happened said Jonathan Tobin in NationalReview President Trump hinted at a change in U.S. .com. U.S. inaction allowed Assad to gain policy toward Syria’s civil war this week after the upper hand in the country’s six-year-old he accused the regime of Bashar al-Assad of civil war with the help of his allies Russia crossing “many, many lines” by killing dozens and Iran, and left ISIS looking like the only of civilians in a chemical weapons attack on defender of Syria’s Sunni Muslim major- a rebel-held town. Survivors said residents of ity. But this is Trump’s mess now. And if he Khan Sheikhoun began choking and foaming doesn’t abandon his dream of closer relations at the mouth not long after suspected govern- with a Moscow that enables Assad, he’ll find ment warplanes had roared overhead and himself complicit “in one of the great human dropped several bombs—which experts be- rights catastrophes of the 21st century.” lieve could have carried the toxic nerve agent Rescuing civilians in Khan Sheikhoun sarin. At least 72 civilians died in the attack, Trump “is discovering that every big problem Syrian activists said; videos from the scene showed volunteer med- he faces is like Obamacare,” said Thomas Friedman in The New ics piling up the bodies of lifeless children. Trump called the attack York Times. “If there were a good, easy solution it would have been an “affront to humanity” and said that, following the atrocity, “my found already.” Should the U.S. focus solely on ISIS in Syria, Assad attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.” will keep trying to restore his control over the whole country, which “will mean endless massacres.” A negotiated power-sharing deal Before the gas attack, administration officials had repeatedly said between Assad and the rebels is impossible, because there’s no trust. they would not continue President Obama’s policy of pushing for The least bad solution is to partition the country, but such a plan Assad’s removal. The dictator’s fate, Secretary of State Rex Tiller- would require hundreds of thousands of international peacekeepers. son said last week, “will be decided by the Syrian people.” Trump has not detailed his new policy toward Assad, but did criticize This latest gas attack is a threat to “the very heart of foundational former President Obama for failing to use military force follow- international norms,” said Thanassis Cambanis in TheAtlantic ing a similar attack in 2013, a year after declaring that the use of .com. Yet nobody should be surprised if Trump does nothing but chemical weapons by Assad would “cross a red line.” “That set us issue empty expressions of outrage. The president has so far prac- back a long ways,” said Trump, who in 2013 tweeted that Obama ticed an “unabashedly transactional foreign policy”—look at his should “not attack Syria—if you do very bad things will happen.” “warm words” for brutal Egyptian dictator Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi during his Washington visit this week. But if the U.S. no longer re- What the columnists said sponds forcefully to acts of barbarity, more tyrants will feel free to It’s true that Obama “bears responsibility for the horror in Syria,” slaughter innocents. “Today, Syrians suffer. Tomorrow, the world.” Senate showdown over Gorsuch nomination What happened What the columnists said Republicans vowed to enact a historic rule change in the Senate Neil Gorsuch may soon be on the Supreme Court bench, and he this week in order to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge “is more dangerous than he appears,” said Nancy Gertner in The Neil Gorsuch, after Democrats said they would mount an Boston Globe. Though he appears mild-mannered, his approach is unprecedented single-party filibuster against Gorsuch’s confir- staunchly pro-business and “far out of the mainstream.” He once mation. As The Week went to press, the Senate had begun a sided with a company that fired a trucker who abandoned his formal debate on the 49-year-old federal appeals court judge. If broken-down rig in minus-14-degree temperatures. If Republicans Democrats use the filibuster to stop that debate from proceed- have their way, Gorsuch could be on the bench in time for this ing to a confirmation vote, as expected, Republicans will need term’s biggest case, said Adam Liptak in The New York Times. It 60 votes to break the blockade. But Majority Leader Mitch involves the separation of church and state in Missouri, and the McConnell (R-Ky.) said Republicans would instead trigger the new conservative justice “is likely to cast the decisive vote.” “nuclear option,” changing long-standing Senate rules to allow Supreme Court picks to advance with a simple 51-vote majority. Democrats made their bed and now they have to lie in it, said “What I can tell you is that Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed this the Washington Examiner in an editorial. In Gorsuch, they op- week,” said McConnell. posed an “obviously qualified” nominee and pushed Republicans toward the nuclear option by destroying every other Senate norm Republicans and Democrats traded bitter blows over the loom- in their path. That includes the filibuster, which Democrats were ing rule change. In a marathon 15-hour speech on the Senate the first to abolish to smooth the way for Obama’s appeals court floor, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said that Republicans had and executive branch nominees in 2013. driven Democrats to filibuster Gorsuch by picking an outside- the-mainstream judge to fill a “stolen” seat—a reference to the Both parties may have damaged the Supreme Court forever, said GOP’s refusal to consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Jennifer Rubin in WashingtonPost.com. The threat of a filibuster Garland, President Obama’s pick to replace the late Justice An- used to guarantee that presidents picked moderate nominees. tonin Scalia. Republicans said Gorsuch was more than qualified Without that threat, presidents with a Senate majority can nomi- and accused Democrats of dragging the Senate “into the abyss” nate any “political hack” they want. So prepare yourself for “a pa- by forcing them to deploy the nuclear option. “This is going to rade of partisans” in the coming years. “Are we ready for Justice haunt the Senate,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Keith Ellison?” Or “Justice Steve King, anyone?” Newscom

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 6 NEWS Controversy of the week Pence: When does Christian virtue become sexism?

It turns out President Trump and his straitlaced VP Mike inhibitions.” Infidelity is easily stumbled into, which is Pence have something in common, said Jia Tolentino in why cheating—and divorce—are so rampant. The Pences’ NewYorker.com: They share “a stated inability to model may not be for everyone, but every married couple resist women.” Trump, of course, is on videotape that wants to stay that way should “develop their attesting to his lack of self-control in the pres- own guidelines to protect their marriages.” ence of beautiful women. Thanks to a profile last week in The Washington Post, however, Men can take whatever steps they need to we’ve learned that Pence, too, is evidently help- defend their marriages, said Jill Filipovic in less in the face of female temptation. A devout Cosmopolitan.com, but “it crosses a line Christian, the vice president refuses to eat when those steps handicap the women you alone with a woman not his wife, or work work with.” Pence’s view of women as sirens late with a female aide, or attend any party and his fear of his own sinful nature put the where alcohol is being served unless Karen women who work beneath and around him Pence, his spouse of 31 years, is at his side. Karen and Mike Pence: No butting in. at a huge, albeit very familiar, disadvantage. The Pences are entitled to run their marriage as Like “women across America,” his female they see fit, said Heather Schwedel in Slate.com. But their embrace staffers are excluded from the bonding and mentoring that occur of “the Billy Graham rule”—named for the evangelical leader who when the boss grabs a beer or dinner or golf game with the boys came up with it—does “point toward a pretty radically retrograde or an individual male protégé. This is one big reason why “it’s mindset” about women in the workplace. Pence, who calls his still men who run the show” in our society. Pence’s “‘No Girls wife “Mommy,’’ seems to see women “primarily as sexual tempta- Allowed’ dining rule” would ensure it’s kept that way. tions,” rather than as peers whose ideas might be worth discussing over a sandwich, or even—heaven forbid—a glass of wine. This liberal outrage rings hollow, said Jonah Goldberg in NationalReview.com. If Pence were Muslim and followed the “Good for Mike Pence,” said Charles Cooke in NationalReview same rule, “as devout Muslims indeed might,” would liberals be .com. Despite a loud, collective “Yuck” from the liberal media, so open in expressing their scorn? What if he were an Orthodox Pence’s personal code makes sense in a town where marriages Jew? I suspect the negative reaction to the Pences is less about fem- and careers are routinely destroyed by the explosive mixture of inism than about anti-Christian bigotry, and liberals’ “self-loathing alcohol, long hours of close collegiality, and lust. Far from being of America’s traditional culture.” Nevertheless, said Olga Khazan a sexist oddball, Pence clearly just thinks that in Karen “he has in TheAtlantic.com, treating people in workplaces differently a great thing going,” and he’d rather err on the side of caution based on their gender inevitably hurts women’s careers. Besides, to minimize the risk of messing it up. In case you hadn’t noticed, Pence should be aware that in 2017, forgoing cocktails with oppo- “men and women are sexually attracted to each other,” said site-sex co-workers is no longer a guarantee of fidelity. In the age Mollie Hemingway in TheFederalist.com, “and alcohol lowers of sexting, you can always just “hit her up on Snapchat.”

Good week for: Only in America Boring but important Complicity, after President Trump gave his daughter Ivanka an QA Northern Arizona Uni- official though unpaid White House position as a senior adviser, Bannon off NSC versity student had her grade with a security clearance. In a TV interview, Ivanka said that President Trump removed chief reduced on an English paper strategist Stephen Bannon for using the term “mankind” “when I disagree with my father, he knows it” and that if “being complicit is wanting to be a force for good...then I’m complicit.” from his seat on the National rather than a gender-neutral Security Council this week, in alternative. Cailin Jeffers ap- Pink diamonds, after the most expensive jewel ever sold was a demotion that was report- pealed, saying the term clearly auctioned off at Sotheby’s. The 59.6 carat Pink Star diamond was edly pushed by senior White refers to all people. Her profes- bought for $71.2 million by a Hong Kong jewelry retailer. House aide Jared Kushner. The sor, Dr. Anne Scott, countered A quiet repast, after an Italian restaurant in North Carolina saw original decision to elevate that it is “sexist” and “does not business double when it decided to stop serving children under Bannon to the council caused mean ‘all people’ to all people.” age 5. Owner Pasquale Caruso said it ruins his customers’ dinners controversy in January; critics She urged Jeffers to “look said his presence risked politi- beyond her preset ideologies” “when there’s constantly food on the floor, loud electronic devices keeping kids entertained, and small children screaming.” cizing foreign policy. Kushner and resubmit the paper. was increasingly concerned QA Pennsylvania business- Bad week for: that Bannon’s confrontational man who voted for Donald Separate bedrooms, influence was hurting the pres- after more than 250,000 people signed an ident, according to Politico. Trump says he has to hire online petition demanding that Melania Trump move to the White immigrants because too many Trump’s decision was seen as native-born workers take House from New York City, to save taxpayers about $150,000 a a vote of confidence for his drugs. Sterling Technologies day in security costs. “This expense yields no positive results for new national security adviser, president Craig Quigley says the nation,” the petition says, “and should be cut.” H.R. McMaster, who replaced that about 20 percent of local The gender gap, after The Washington Free Beacon reported Michael Flynn. A White House applicants fail drug tests, forc- that equal-pay champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren on average pays official said Bannon had been ing him to hire immigrants, her female staffers $20,000 less than her male staffers. pla ced on the NSC to “baby- sit” Flynn and to ensure the including Syrian refugees, “to Dunkin’ Donuts, which agreed to give three free buttered muffins fill the void.” Quigley says he’d council was “deoperational- gladly hire more Americans, or bagels to 1,400 Massachusetts customers, to settle a class-action ized” under Trump. “That job but only if they “get off drugs.” lawsuit from a man who was repeatedly served a “butter substi- is done,” the official said.

tute.” Jan Polanik’s lawyer said, “He just really prefers butter.” Getty

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7

Louisville Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Rally violence lawsuit: A federal judge Extreme vetting: The Trump administra- Trump greets el-Sissi: President Trump ruled last week that three protesters tion is considering security measures vowed to could move that would force tourists from the U.K., help Egyptian ahead with France, and other long-standing U.S. allies President Abdel- their lawsuit to reveal their cellphone contacts and Fattah el-Sissi accusing social media passwords when they enter fight terrorism as President the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported he welcomed the Trump of this week. President Trump promised as hard-line leader inciting a candidate to implement “extreme vet- to the White violence at ting” procedures to combat terrorism. House this a Louisville The changes might apply to visitors from week, in a meet- A warm hello for el-Sissi Protesters at the March rally campaign 38 countries that participate in the visa ing that was criticized by human rights rally. The protesters said they were peace- waiver program. The aim is to “figure advocates. The visit marked a departure fully protesting Trump at the March out who you are communicating with,” a from U.S. policy under President Obama, 2016 event when they were physically Department of Homeland Security official who didn’t extend a White House invite attacked by three Trump supporters—one said. “What you can get on the average to el-Sissi after the general seized power in of them a member of a white national- person’s phone can be invaluable.” Trump a 2013 coup. The Obama administration ist group. Moments before the attack, is also considering an “ideological test” also briefly froze military aid to Egypt Trump had pointed at the protesters and for visa applicants that would ask them when el-Sissi’s military killed more than said, “Get ’em out of here.” One of the their opinions on the treatment of women 2,000 people in a c rackdown on support- demonstrators, an African-American and the “sanctity of human life.” Travel ers of former president Mohamed Morsi, woman, said she was subjected to sexist experts said the measures would be disas- the Muslim Brotherhood leader who was and racist slurs by rally attendees. trous for the U.S. tourism industry. elected in 2012. Trump and el-Sissi Trump had sought to dismiss the discussed designating the Muslim lawsuit on free speech grounds, Brotherhood a terrorist group arguing that he didn’t intend and working together against for his supporters to use force. violent extremism. Trump told But Judge David Hale said el-Sissi he was doing a “fantastic the protesters’ injuries were a job,” adding, “You have a great “direct and proximate result” friend and ally...in me.” El-Sissi told of Trump’s words. The three Trump he “had a deep admiration of are seeking unspecified damages your unique personality.” for incitement to riot and negli- gence against the Trump campaign. Washington, D.C. Police reforms delayed: Atlanta Attorney General Jeff Bridge collapse: A massive fire under an Sessions ordered a Atlanta review this week of bridge all Obama-era agree- allegedly Raleigh, N.C. ments to overhaul started by ‘Bathroom bill’ repeal: North Carolina troubled police a homeless lawmakers last week voted to undo the departments, in Sessions man caused controversial “bathroom bill” that caused order to see whether those reforms fit a portion nationwide outrage in March 2016— with the Trump administration’s agenda of Interstate though critics said the new legislation fails of promoting officer safety and morale. 85 to col- to fully repeal the original act. Businesses, Since 2009, the Justice Department has Commuting nightmare lapse last sports groups, and entertainers boycotted enforced 14 reform agreements, known week, creating traffic chaos in one of the the state when it passed the earlier law, as “consent decrees,” with police depart- nation’s most congested cities. Authorities known as HB2, which required transgen- ments accused of racial discrimination accused the homeless man of causing the der people to use public restrooms corre- and excessive force—including a sweep- blaze by setting fire to a chair under the sponding to their sex on their birth certifi- ing overhaul of the Baltimore Police expressway. The fire spread to a stock- cates. The compromise repeal bill, signed Department. The Baltimore agreement pile of construction materials, igniting a by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, elimi- was reached after the death of Freddie fireball that melted the bridge’s steel rein- nates that requirement—though it also Gray, a black man who was fatally forcements and caused the concrete struc- states that only state legislators, not cities, injured in police custody, and called for ture to collapse. No one was hurt, but can make rules for public restrooms in the changes to officer training. Sessions’ evening-rush-hour drivers were stuck for future. It also blocks local governments memo also covers a pending agreement hours. The damaged section of I-85 usu- from passing ordinances that expand with the Chicago Police Department. ally carries about 250,000 vehicles a day; LGBTQ protections for nearly four years. Baltimore and Chicago officials expressed officials said it wouldn’t reopen until June. The NCAA lifted its ban on holding dismay at the delay. But Sessions has long Some residents said beleaguered motor- championship events in the basketball- criticized consent decrees and federal ists needed to consider other commuting mad state following the repeal. But gay investigations into police departments— options anyway. “I think Atlanta needed a rights groups said that Cooper had made arguing they endanger officers’ lives and

AP (4) little kick in the butt,” said one. a “dirty deal” with GOP lawmakers. “undermine respect for police officers.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 8 NEWS The world at a glance ...

Lampedusa, Italy Bucharest, Romania Refugees drown: Nearly 150 Measles spreads: A measles outbreak centered in Romania and Italy people, including children and is spreading across Europe, and the World Health Organization pregnant women, are believed to is urging countries to get their people vaccinated. Romania, the have drowned last week when worst-hit nation, has reported more than 3,400 cases and 17 deaths a boat loaded with migrants since January 2016, while Italy is thought to have had more than capsized in the Mediterranean. 450 cases since the start of this year. The outbreaks have partly The sole survivor, a 16-year-old been caused by mistrust of vaccines and partly by the fact that Rescuing Europe-bound migrants Gambian boy who held on to vaccines are difficult to obtain in some countries. In France, for a floating fuel can until he was example, people need to make an appointment with their doctor rescued by a Spanish ship, said the boat had left Libya with 147 to get a prescription, then pick up the vaccine at a pharmacy and people from sub-Saharan Africa on board. So far this year, at least revisit their doctor to receive the injection. “Outbreaks will con- 600 migrants are believed to have died trying to reach Europe tinue,” said WHO’s Zsuzsanna Jakab, “until every country reaches from Libya. Last month, a humanitarian vessel rescued some the level of immunization needed to fully protect its population.” 400 migrants who were found drifting in a wooden boat without power some 10 miles off the Libyan coast.

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico Journalism under siege: Three reporters have been shot dead in Mexico in the past month, an unprecedented attack on the country’s free press. In the most brazen killing, journalist Miroslava Breach, 54, was shot eight times while sitting in her car with one of her three children. A note left at the scene called her a “tattletale.” Breach had reported on the links between politicians and drug cartels in Chihuahua state for La Jornada, a national newspaper based in Mexico City, and Norte de Ciudad Juárez. In a front-page letter headlined “Adios!” Norte’s owner Oscar A. Cantú Murguía this week announced he was closing the paper. “I am not pre- pared for any more of my collaborators Protesting Breach’s murder to pay [with their lives],” he wrote. Mocoa, Colombia Flood and mudslides: A deluge of rain caused devastating flash floods and landslides in a Colombian city overnight last week, sending tons of mud and debris crashing through the streets and sweeping away houses, cars, trees, and bridges. At least 270 people were killed and hundreds more injured. “To see how some people screamed, and others cried, ran, tried Rescuers look for bodies. to flee in cars, on motorcycles, and how they were trapped in the mud,” street vendor Marta Ceballos told Agence France-Presse, “I don’t want to even remember.” President Juan Manuel Santos apologized for delays in getting water and supplies to survivors and promised to rebuild Mocoa “better than before.” Quito, Ecuador Asunción, Paraguay Leftist wins: Bucking a political shift to the right across Latin Riots over term limits: Paraguayan America, Ecuadorean leftist Lenín Moreno was declared this week lawmakers this week suspended a the winner of his nation’s presidential election. Moreno, 64, a para- controversial bill that would allow plegic and a former deputy to outgoing President Rafael Correa, President Horacio Cartes to run for took 51.2 percent of the vote, but his rival, right-wing former re-election, after a protester died in banker Guillermo Lasso, said the election was marred by fraud. clashes with police. Paraguayans The Organization of American States, endured 35 years of dictatorship under Angry in Asunción which monitored the vote, said it had General Alfredo Stroessner, and when his rule ended in 1989, they found “no discrepancies.” The result limited their presidents to one five-year term each. But last week was likely a relief for WikiLeaks founder the country’s senate approved a measure that would let presidents Julian Assange, who has been holed up run for a second five-year term. When news of the vote broke, in Ecuador’s embassy in London since hundreds of protesters stormed the capital’s congress building and 2012 to avoid being deported to Sweden set fires. Police shot dead a 25-year-old activist, Rodrigo Quintana. to answer allegations of sexual assault. Street protests continued this week, and the bill was suspended by Lasso had vowed to boot Assange from the legislature’s lower house—a key condition set by the opposition

Moreno: Victorious the building. before talks aimed at ending the political crisis could start. (5) Newscom

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 The world at a glance ... NEWS 9

St. Petersburg, Russia Grozny, Russia Terrorist attack: A jihadist from the Anti-gay purge: Authorities in the Russian republic of Chechnya former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan are rounding up, torturing, and killing gay men, Novaya Gazeta blew himself up on the St. Petersburg reported this week. Some 100 people—including two well-known subway this week, Russian and Kyrgyz local television personalities—have been detained, and at least authorities said, killing 14 people and three have been killed. The purge seems to have been motivated bringing transport in Russia’s second- by a request from a Russian LGBT group to hold pride rallies in largest city to a near halt. “Children were cities across the country. Chechen authorities denied the report, saying there are no gays in Chechnya. “You cannot detain and torn to pieces,” said witness Konstantin A memorial to the dead Kolodkin, describing a blast that hurled persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,” said nails and screws into passengers. The suspected suicide bomber, Chechen spokesman Alvi Karimov. If there were gay Chechens, he Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, 22, had lived in Russia since 2011. Several added, “their own relatives would have sent them to where they Islamist terrorist groups, including ISIS, are active in Central Asia, could never return.” Russia outlawed “gay propaganda” in 2013, but no group claimed responsibility. Conspiracy-minded Russians banning public discussion of gay rights and relationships. had been speculating on social media that a terror attack might occur soon to distract the country from recent protests Pyongyang, North Korea against President Vladimir Putin. Missile test: North Korea test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile off its east coast this week, one day before President Trump was set to host his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The launch was seemingly intended to ratchet up tensions between the two leaders: China is North Korea’s closest ally, and the White House says Beijing is not doing enough to rein in dictator Kim Jong Un, who it believes is trying to develop a nuclear- armed intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,” Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times. A senior White House offi- cial later declared that “the clock has now run out” on Pyongyang’s nuclear program and “all options are on the table,” presumably including sanctions against Chinese firms that do business with North Korea, as well as cyberattacks and military action.

New Delhi Attacks on Africans: African students have been told to stay indoors after a wave of mob attacks on Africans in a New Delhi suburb. The violence began when a teenage boy went missing and his family accused Nigerian neighbors of kill- ing and eating him. The boy returned home a few days later and died of a suspected drug overdose, but by then rumors of cannibalistic Africans had swept the neighborhood. Mobs of Indian men were beating African students, Endurance: Beaten pulling them out of cabs and stomping and hitting them. “They attacked him with bricks, sticks, belts,” Nigerian student Precious Amalawa, 23, said of the brutal assault on his 21-year-old brother, Endurance. Some 25,000 Africans are studying in India. Pretoria, South Africa Baghdad Standing by Zuma: The African National Congress said this Kushner goes to Iraq: Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, week it would continue to back President Jacob Zuma despite met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad this a chorus of calls for his resignation. Several top party officials week to discuss the fight against ISIS. Kushner, a White House had joined trade unions and opposition parties in demanding adviser who has no foreign policy background, is the first top Zuma’s ouster after the president abruptly fired the internation- Trump administration official to visit Iraq. Speaking at a military ally respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, prompting credit base 10 miles south of heavy fighting in Mosul, Kushner said ISIS’s rating agency Standard & Poor’s to lower South Africa’s rating to impending defeat in the city would “be a victory for the American junk status. The rand plummeted against the U.S. dollar following and Iraqi troops” and “for the the downgrade, but ANC officials dismissed the new rating and world.” His warm words were railed against the West. “The West part of an effort by U.S. officials can’t dictate to us,” said Sanitation to reassure Iraq that the U.S. is a Minister Nomvula Mokonyane. reliable ally. Trump said in January “These junk ratings have nothing to that the U.S. should have taken do with financial ratings—it’s politi- Iraq’s oil after the 2003 invasion, cal ratings.” South Africa’s economy and still might do so, and the pres- has stagnated over the past year, debt ident included Iraq on his first list has piled up, and a quarter of the of countries whose citizens were

AP, Getty, Newscom (2) Newscom Getty, AP, Zuma: Under pressure workforce is unemployed. barred from travel to the U.S. Kushner flies over Baghdad.

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 10 NEWS People

Why Fox laughs at Parkinson’s After living with Parkinson’s for 26 years, Michael J. Fox has found the humor in his condition, said Andrew Corsello in AARP The Magazine. “There comes a point where I literally can’t stop laughing at my own symptoms,” says Fox, 55. The actor has confounded expectations of what a Parkinson’s sufferer can do: He’s kept working, earning an Emmy nomination last year for his turn as a Machiavellian lawyer on The Good Wife, and has raised than more $700 million for research into the debilitating disease. Yet he says the shakes he suffers can turn a simple morn- ing ritual into pure slapstick. Fox describes what happened when he recently decided to get his wife, Tracy Pollan, some coffee. “I pour a cup—a little trouble there. ‘Can I get that for you, dear?’ ‘Nah, I got it!’ Then I begin this trek across the kitchen. Hot java’s sloshing onto my hands, onto the floor, and Tracy’s watching calmly, going, ‘Darling, why don’t you [expletive] let me get it?’ Of course, by the time I reach the table, the cup’s all but empty. ‘Here’s your coffee, dear—enjoy!’” Fox erupts in laughter. “There are times when I love these things.’’ Humor, he says, is a path to acceptance. “My happiness goes in direct proportion to my accep- tance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.’” The Syrian boy who began a war Mouawiya Syasneh never meant to start a revolution, said Josie Ensor in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Six years ago, inspired by Markle’s racial awakening the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, Syasneh and Growing up in Los Angeles, Meghan Markle never thought twice some friends in the southern Syrian city of Deraa sprayed a slogan about her racial identity, said Marissa Muller in Allure. Born to a bashing dictator Bashar al-Assad onto their school building. “It’s black mother and a white father, the actress and current girlfriend of your turn, doctor,” the graffiti read, referring to Assad, a trained Britain’s Prince Harry has vivid childhood memories of visiting her ophthalmologist. Then 14, Syasneh didn’t expect the adolescent grandmother with her mom. “There were the three of us, a family scrawl to have any lasting impact. “It was more of a joke,” he tree in an ombré of mocha next to the caramel complexion of my says. Yet Syasneh and his friends were arrested, beaten, and tor- mom and light-skinned, freckled me,” says Markle, 35. “I remember the sense of belonging, having nothing to do with the color of my tured by security forces, igniting a wave of protests that precipi- skin.” But while studying at Northwestern University, she took an tated a nationwide “day of rage”—and, ultimately, a catastrophic African-American studies class. “We explored colorism. It was the conflict. Syasneh joined the rebel Free Syrian Army at 16 in 2013 first time I could put a name to feeling too light in the black commu- after a rocket attack killed his father. Four years on, Deraa lies in nity, too mixed in the white community.” After launching an acting ruins and half the population has fled. “Most of my classmates career, Markle became even more aware of her biracial identity— have been imprisoned or killed.” Overall, the Syrian civil war has largely because it caused such confusion in Hollywood. “For cast- claimed up to 500,000 lives so far. If he could go back, would ings, I was labeled ‘ethnically ambiguous.’ Was I Latina? Exotic Syasneh do it again? “If I knew what I know now, I don’t think I Caucasian?” It frustrates her that people still want her to conform to would,” he says. “I never expected that my father would be killed, a particular look. Photographers often lighten her skin or airbrush or that thousands of other boys’ fathers would be, too. I regret out one of her favorite features, her freckles. “My dad told me when that so many innocent people had to die.” I was younger, ‘A face without freckles is a night without stars.’”

reported. Newly revealed payouts went to to J.Lo as her “sister-in-law.” In an appear- junior producer Rebecca Witlieb; former host ance on The View, Rodriguez, 41, called Rebecca Gomez Diamond, who reportedly Lopez “one of the smartest human beings QBill O’Reilly and Fox News have shelled out more than $13 million to settle cases taped phone conversations with O’Reilly in I’ve ever met, and also an incredible mother.” 2011; and another ex-host, Laurie Dhue, who with five women who accused the star QBob Dylan finally accepted his 2016 Nobel anchor of making sexual comments was awarded $1 million after claiming sexual Prize for literature last week at a small private and advances, The New York Times harassment. At least 22 companies, including ceremony in Stockholm. The folk-rock icon, reports. O’Reilly, 67, has denied the BMW, Lexus, Bayer, and Allstate, announced 75, caused a stir when he declined an invita- allegations, but personally paid they were canceling ads on O’Reilly’s show tion to attend the official awards banquet in out $10 million “to put to rest any in light of the harassment scandal. December, citing previous touring commit- controversies,” he said, and “to QIn a sign things may be getting serious ments. So Nobel officials presented Dylan spare my children” embarrassing between Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, with the award in a private gathering at a publicity. Over a 15-year span, the the singer last week introduced the retired hotel next to the venue where he performed lawsuits claim, O’Reilly offered baseball slugger to her mother, ETOnline later that night. “It went very well indeed,”

selected female staffers career .com reports. The couple was seen strolling says academy member Klas Ostergren, call- Getty , Newscom, counseling and advancement, hand in hand in Manhattan, with Lopez’s ing Dylan “a very nice, kind man.” In order then pursued them sexually; mom, Guadalupe, tagging along. The outing to collect the $895,000 that accompanies the plaintiffs said they feared retribu- occurred shortly after Lopez, 47, spent a day prize, Dylan must give a Nobel lecture by tion if they refused him. Two of the out in Miami with A-Rod’s realtor sister, Susy June 10. He’s indicated he’ll videotape his five settlements were previously Dunand—who in an Instagram post referred presentation. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Evan

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Briefing NEWS 11 Sugar, the new food villain Many experts believe that sweetened foods have caused a global health crisis. What’s so bad about sugar?

Why is sugar in the spotlight? Why is sugar so bad for us? For years, dieticians have warned us to steer clear Scientists have found that refined sugar, which is made of fat and cholesterol—the two food evils long up of fructose and glucose carbohydrates, is harder believed to be fueling the West’s obesity, dia- to metabolize than the purely glucose-based carbo- betes, and heart disease epidemics. But hydrates found in potatoes and other starches. a growing number of nutritionists are While glucose is converted into energy by now pointing the finger at sugar, argu- every cell in the body, fructose is mainly ing that our overconsumption of sodas, metabolized in liver cells. When a person candy, cookies, and other sweets and consumes too much fructose, many nutrition- processed foods is the real cause of our ists say, the liver becomes overwhelmed and health crisis. Some go even further, argu- begins converting it into fat, some of which ing that sugar is an addictive “poison” that gathers in the liver. An accumulation of fat in the causes a whole host of degenerative ailments— liver can cause insulin resistance, which disrupts including cancer—even in thin people. Evidence the body’s ability to maintain stable levels of blood sugar has emerged that shows the sugar industry and fat, leading to heart disease and diabetes. may have downplayed those risks for profit— A sugar-heavy diet can harm the heart. Anti-sugar advocate Gary Taubes contends that turning the modern Western diet into the sweetest in human his- insulin resistance is a primary driver of obesity, and can also give tory. “We’re in a whole new world of sugar consumption,” says rise to dementia and some cancers. “If I’m right about sugar,” says Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at the University of North Taubes, “then it’s more harmful ultimately than smoking.” Carolina. “We don’t really know what that means for our health.” Do all nutritionists agree? How much sugar do we consume? No. Some, including Fred Brouns, professor of Health Food The average American adult downs 22 teaspoons of the stuff a Innovation at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, argue that day, the average child 32. The World Health Organization recom- sugar’s effects remain “poorly investigated and highly controver- mends just six teaspoons a day. Added sugars—those not found sial.” The problem with all nutritional science is that it’s difficult naturally in fruit and vegetables, like table sugar and high-fructose to monitor diets over the years-long time span needed to track the corn syrup—began to proliferate in the Western diet in the mid- causes of degenerative diseases. But there’s no doubt that we’re lac- 20th century, just as scientists were starting to discover links ing modern supermarket food with concentrated sugar in a way that between sugar and heart disease. The sugar industry decided to isn’t replicated in nature. (See box.) Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional push back against this research, adopting the aggressive tactics of biologist at University of California-Davis, ordered her staff to eat Big Tobacco. First, as memos uncovered last September reveal, an enough fruit to get 25 percent of their daily calories from sugar— industry group paid three Harvard nutritionists $6,500—about the quantity she has shown raises the level of artery-clogging triglyc- $50,000 today—to divert the blame. In a 1967 New England erides in the blood. Four out of seven of the subjects had to quit. “It Journal of Medicine article, the nutritionists discounted the evi- was more fruit than they could bear to eat,” says Stanhope. Yet you dence against sugar and concluded there was “no doubt” the best can easily get that same amount of sugar by washing down a couple way to prevent heart disease was to reduce cholesterol and satu- of brownies with a can of Coke. rated fat. “This is quite what we had in mind,” one sugar industry executive said when he saw the article. What can be done? Individuals can choose to limit their sugar intake—but that requires What did Big Sugar do next? avoiding nearly all processed foods. Public officials are also try- The industry launched an aggressive advertising campaign in the ing to nudge society at large toward making healthier choices. In 1970s to convince Americans that sugar actually helps you lose the 2016 election, three California cities passed ballot measures weight by suppressing the appe- imposing taxes on sugary sodas. But tite. “Sugar can be the willpower America’s favorite drug conservatives largely oppose these so- you need to undereat,” one ad Sugar is everywhere. Eighty percent of supermarket called sin taxes, arguing that people asserted; another recommended foods contain it—and purportedly “savory” foods should have the freedom to do what eating a cookie before lunch each often contain more sugar than sweet treats like ice they want to their bodies. To cut down day. That campaign, combined with cream. Whole-wheat bread can have a teaspoon on sugar, some people have switched to work by the Harvard researchers, of sugar per slice; Heinz tomato ketchup contains zero-calorie artificial sweeteners, like the helped muddy the scientific waters 22.8 percent sugar, twice as much as Coca-Cola. saccharin-based Sweet ’N Low. But little enough to keep dietary sugar guide- As we swamp our bodies with sugar, we only is known about the long-term effects of lines vague. The American Heart become more addicted. A 2016 study in Nature these chemical substitutes on the body. Association approved of added sugar Neuroscience suggested that sugar hijacks the brain And because such products can be up as part of a healthy diet, and mil- by triggering its reward system, pushing the body to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar, they lions of Americans embraced low- to ask for more and more. Sugar might even be can trick the body into craving even more addictive than recreational drugs, says cardio- fat, high-sugar diets. Consumption more calories. Don’t be fooled, says vascular research scientist James DiNicolantonio. of added sugars soared 30 percent “When you look at animal studies comparing sugar metabolism researcher Susan Swithers. between 1977 and 2010. It’s no to cocaine, even when you get the rats hooked on “We were once led to believe that ‘light’ coincidence, many nutritionists say, intravenous cocaine, once you introduce sugar, and ‘low tar’ cigarettes are better choices that obesity rates more than doubled almost all of them switch to the sugar.” than regular cigarettes,” she says.

Alamy over that same period. “Neither choice is actually healthy.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.

“The president is this presidency’s worst enemy,” said Jonah Goldberg. Trump’s My panicky fellow conservatives are full of suggestions for how Presi- It must be true... dent Trump can salvage his first 100 days, but no new policy direction I read it in the tabloids biggest or political strategy will address the fundamental cause of the chaos and dysfunction. Even Trump’s self-destructive tweeting “is just a symptom.” problem QA Chinese man has be- The real problem is Trump’s impulsive, thin-skinned personality—his come the nemesis of arcade Jonah Goldberg obsession with counterattacking critics and saving face. “His presidency owners by mastering the NationalReview.com doesn’t suffer from a failure of ideas, but a failure of character.” Many notoriously difficult “claw” Republicans hoped the grave responsibilities of the presidency would machine—and winning humble Trump and force him to act more responsibly. But “septuage- 15,000 stuffed toys in 18 narian billionaires who’ve won so many spins of the roulette wheel of months. Chen Zhitong, 35, life” don’t change. Though his failures and mistakes are multiplying, found he could successfully Trump refuses to apologize or back down; “he’d rather just change the pluck a toy every time by subject or attack.” But that strategy is already wearing thin. His ap- carefully studying the claw’s proval ratings have sunk to 35 percent in several polls, with 57 percent grip strength, rotational po- disapproving. For a new president, that’s abysmal. If Trump were smart, sition, and the placement of he’d admit he’s had a rough start and ask the American people to give toys in the machine. Arcade owners now dread his ar- him a do-over. But he won’t. “Character is destiny.” rival. “Some buy me meals,” he says, “and beg me not to play their machines.” “Repeal and replace is not quite dead,” said Charles Krauthammer. If GOP failure congressional Republicans want to revive their hopes of replacing Obama- QSoccer fans reacted care, they should wait until September, when insurers announce their with gasps and guf- may lead to premiums for the coming year and trigger “our annual bout of Obama- faws last week after care sticker shock.” A new replacement bill tailored to conservative prin- a bizarre statue single payer ciples, which strips out Obamacare’s expensive coverage mandates and of the famously handsome player Charles Krauthammer includes tort reform and the selling of health insurance across state lines, Cristiano Ronaldo The Washington Post might get through the House. If a second repeal attempt fails, however, was unveiled in Republicans may be paving the way to “a government-run, single-payer his Portuguese system.” Thanks to Obamacare, “a broad national consensus is develop- hometown. ing that health care is indeed a right.” The “historically new” expecta- Social media tion that government should guarantee health coverage to everyone leads users mocked the inexorably to “Medicare for all.” It’s what President Obama and most bust’s bulging eyes Democrats wanted all along. And as their “Rube Goldberg wreckage” of and crooked grimace, a health-care plan falls apart, the Republican failure to devise an alterna- saying it looked nothing like tive will embolden liberals to propose their own. Don’t be too surprised the Real Madrid star, a heart- if President Trump—a populist at heart, not a conservative—sees where throb who has modeled the wind is blowing “and joins the single-payer side.” underwear for Armani. But sculptor Emanuel Santos defended the likeness, say- “Financial success does not easily transfer into other realms,” said Jo- ing that great art is never Getting rich seph Epstein. If that wasn’t obvious before, President Trump has proved universally appreciated. “It the ability to amass money does not qualify you to run the federal is impossible to please the isn’t the same government. In his first months in office, Trump rushed out an immi- Greeks and Trojans,” he said. gration order that was “neither well thought out nor even quite legal,” “Neither did Jesus please as governing had to fire improperly vetted national security adviser Mike Flynn for everyone.” Joseph Epstein lying about his secret contacts with Russians, and botched the repealing QRussia’s foreign ministry The Wall Street Journal and replacing of Obamacare while proving he has no clue about the has produced an etiquette complexities of health-care policy. The negotiating talents he bragged guide that spells out how about in The Art of the Deal have failed him; in business, people are Russian tourists can avoid motivated by the promise of profit, but in politics, motives are not so offending the locals. It notes that Canadians don’t easily discerned. To get legislation through a factionalized Congress, appreciate “obscene male” “an understanding of varied, often subtle human motives is required.” anecdotes or being com- Trump’s Cabinet of plutocrats is also struggling, amid policy incoher- pared to Americans, that Uz- ence and vicious infighting. Moneymaking has nothing to do with beks react badly when their governing; let’s hope the proof of that reality “will soon humble even so mothers are insulted, and arrogant a man as our new president.” that Mongolians think it’s a bad omen to carry a shovel into a yurt. The guide, which Viewpoint “Is the American Dream killing us? The main causes of rising death rates among non-Hispanic whites 50 to 54, men and women, are so-called ‘deaths offers cultural insights on 52 of despair’—suicides, drug overdoses, and the consequences of heavy drinking. American cul- nations, also suggests that ture emphasizes striving for and achieving economic success—homeownership, modest financial tourists avoid mocking lesbi- and job security, and a bright outlook for our children. When striving accomplishes these goals, it ans and gay men in France, strengthens a sense of accomplishment and self-worth. But when the striving falters and fails— and observes that poking a when the American Dream becomes unattainable—it’s a judgment on our lives. We become hostage Kenyan with your finger can to unrealized hopes.” Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post “instigate aggression.” AP

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HUNGARY Hungary’s far-right government is waging a war on and fight corruption. So the government wrote a thought itself, said Reka Kinga Papp. Prime Minis- bill to shut down the university, on the grounds ter Viktor Orban has “already robbed the state uni- that foreign-funded institutions present a danger to Trying versities of their autonomy.” His government has se- national security. Many Hungar i ans reject this anti- verely cut those social science disciplines that would intellectual claptrap, and thousands of them pro- to silence be most useful in dealing with the massive refugee tested in the streets to keep the university open. But crisis on our borders—such as studies of other the bill passed parliament this week and now looks the scholars cultures—and replaced them with state-sanctioned set to become law. Orban’s government exhibits political science. Now “these thugs” want to “bring “many elements of classical fascism,” and thought Reka Kinga Papp down the last academic bastion”: the Central control is key to its survival. I would say it is trying Heti Vilaggazdasag Euro pean Uni ver sity. The university is funded by to return us to the Middle Ages, but that “would U.S. billionaire George Soros, the Hungarian-born be an insult to medieval emperors like Barbarossa,” philanthropist who is Orban’s nemesis because he who valued universities. Orban, by contrast, wants finances organizations that promote human rights to keep his people ignorant.

FRANCE The killing of a Chinese citizen by French police French goods and demands for an official apology has unleashed rage in China, said Manon Dognin. from the French government. Some social media Facing The Chinese are furious over the killing of Liu users are even demanding the destruction of the Shaoyo, a 56-year-old father of five who was shot Eiffel Tower. This outpouring of anger has contin- the wrath dead by French police in his Paris apartment last ued for days, and given that China heavily censors week. And they have every right to be. Police say the internet, that means Beijing is permitting its of China Liu threatened them with a blade, but family mem- people to demonize the French. Four days after the bers say Liu had scissors in his hand because he shooting, a Frenchman was stabbed walking on Manon Dognin was preparing fish for dinner. It’s the latter theory the streets of Shanghai. It’s unclear whether the at- Marianne that the Chinese believe. “French police officers tack was meant as revenge for Liu, but the French treat Chinese residents like dogs,” say posts on consulate has warned French people in China to Chinese social media sites. “They have slaughtered be careful. Beijing apparently has “no intention” our compatriot!” There are calls for a boycott of of discouraging anti-French sentiment. United Kingdom: The battle over Brexit terms “There’s no going back!” said The While the EU says it won’t be Sun in an editorial. Now that Prime “punitive” with Britain, in fact it Minister Theresa May has triggered must, said Markus Becker in Der Article 50, the formal mechanism for Spiegel (Germany). The U.K. can’t leaving the European Union, Britain be allowed to emerge with a better is rocketing toward full sovereignty deal than it has now, “if only to by 2019. A “better, more prosperous avoid encouraging EU skeptics in future” awaits a U.K. with control other EU countries.” May’s fantasy over its own laws and borders. Of involves the U.K. getting all of the course, negotiating with a petulant perks of an open market with total Brussels won’t be easy. EU Council domestic control over borders and President Donald Tusk has thrown regulations. But if Britain wishes to up “huge stumbling blocks” by insist- trade with the EU, its companies ing that the terms of Britain’s exit— must continue to adhere to EU like the multibillion-dollar bill we’ll standards—while, as a nonmember, be handed for EU spending that our it will have zero input on how those Gibraltar faces an uncertain future after Brexit. government committed to but now regulations are drawn. won’t fulfill—must be agreed to before any new trade pact can be negotiated. May will have to play hardball to get a good deal. Yet most Britons are still in denial, said Sam Leith in the London Evening Standard. We need to discuss trade, but talk mostly There’s simply not enough time to reach any deal, good or bad, of swapping our EU-mandated red passports for the blue ones said Christopher Booker in The Sunday Telegraph. Brussels says we had before 1988 and “the restoration of good old imperial it can’t negotiate an agreement “covering not just trade but count- measures.” Now there’s chatter of “an invigorating expedition- less other issues, from foreign policy to agriculture,” in two years. ary war with Spain over the status of Gibraltar.” That rock off Yet to leave the single market with no new trade deal means that Spain’s southern coast was ceded to Britain by Madrid in 1713 commerce with our Continental neighbors will have to be done and is today home to 30,000 mostly U.K. citizens. But the EU under World Trade Organization rules. We’ll go from a system says no Brexit deal can include Gibraltar without Spain’s say-so. where British goods can flow freely throughout the EU to one May was forced to laugh off a suggestion from a former leader that involves high tariffs plus “a devastating thicket of paper- of her Conservative Party that the U.K. send warships to enforce work, checks, and inspections” at the border. Those new barriers its claim. I know and love many people who voted for Brexit will create a “catastrophe beyond imagining” for British firms, and are delighted by this jingoism, “but I also look at them and because 44 percent of their exports go to other EU nations. think: You people are completely off your onions.” Newscom

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Best columns: International NEWS 15

Venezuela: Maduro makes a grab for total power President Nicolás Maduro has been time ago, said José Miguel Vivanco foiled in his attempt to become Ven- in El Comercio (Peru). The National ezuela’s supreme dictator, said Xabier Electoral Council, which Maduro Coscojuela in Tal Cual (Venezuela). also stuffed with loyalists before he Ever since his defeat in December 2015, lost his parliamentary majority, im- when the opposition won a supermajor- properly stopped a recall referendum ity in the National Assembly, Maduro against him last October, claiming has been trying to strip the legislative without evidence that the opposition body of power. He used his lame-duck had rigged a signature drive. And legislature in late 2015 to stack the Su- election officials have failed to call the preme Court with justices loyal to his local elections that were due last year. Socialist Party. That compliant court Opposition leaders, such as Leopoldo recently issued two bombshell rulings López, have been “arbitrarily im- taking “galactic leaps toward authori- prisoned” with “no due process,” Maduro’s plot to shut down the legislature failed. tarianism,” all but abolishing the Na- journalists and activists arrested, and tional Assembly and stripping lawmakers of immunity, paving protesters detained en masse and tortured. Yet so long as Ven- the way for opposition legislators to be charged with treason. ezuela remains a petro-state, Maduro has a source of income to But after massive street demonstrations, an international outcry, dole out to loyalists, allowing him to hold on to power. and condemnations from Maduro’s own attorney general, Luisa Ortega Díaz, “who courageously denounced these violations of This political crisis, in fact, was really about oil—and it has the constitution,” the court revoked its rulings. Still, Maduro ramifications for the U.S., said Robin Mills in The National has shown us that he is willing “to walk the road toward pure, (United Arab Emirates). Maduro wanted to strip the legislature of harsh dictatorship,” and we must redouble our opposition. “We power because it refused to rubber-stamp his oil deal with Rus- Venezuelans want to live under democracy.” sia, in which Russia’s state-owned Rosneft acquired 40 percent of a major Venezuelan oil company. Russia is now the Maduro Maduro may have backed down this time, said El Mundo regime’s “key financier,” and in exchange for Russian loans, (Spain) in an editorial, but “it is essential to redouble foreign Venezuela has pledged half its shares in its U.S.-based refining pressure on the Bolivarian regime.” Maduro already has nearly and gas retail company, Citgo. If Venezuela were to default on its total power, having seized control over the economy and de- loans from Russia, Rosneft would own American refineries, and fense, and is “ruling practically as an autocrat.” Now he has that “would be political dynamite in Washington.” So far, Presi- demonstrated “how far he will go to perpetuate himself in dent Trump has named no ambassador to Venezuela and has no power.” Venezuela lost any claim to being a democracy a long clearly defined Venezuela policy. That has to change, and soon.

An outspoken Islamophobe is surely the last per- erect statues of Hindu deities, and has said that if INDIA son a great Indian political party would choose to a Muslim man marries a Hindu girl, “we will take run a state containing some 44 million Muslims, 100 Muslim girls.” The BJP, which has moderated Putting a bigot said the Deccan Herald. Yet that’s exactly what its own Hindu nationalism in recent years, has pre- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata viously shrugged off such statements as the ravings in charge is a Party has done. It has appointed Yogi Adityanath, of the fringe. But with this appointment, it has “le- a Hindu nationalist priest with a vile reputation for gitimized all the outlandish and dangerous views” huge mistake hate speech, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh— of the bigots that it once insisted were not official India’s “most populous and politically important policy. The BJP seems to have calculated that put- Editorial state.” The priest has been named in several ting a rabble-rouser in charge is the way to win Deccan Herald ongoing legal cases related to “his hostile and ob- votes. Forget about all the talk of “inclusive devel- jectionable statements against Muslims”: He has opment” that Modi has so often mouthed. After threatened to force every mosque in the state to this, who could possibly take him at his word?

RUSSIA For a long time, Russian President Vladimir Putin shrinking wages, and the elite’s flagrant corruption. seemed like “one of those fairy-tale dark princes Of course, none of this means that Putin—who Putin no whose every intrigue is crowned with success,” has ruled as president or prime minister since said Ilta-Sanomat. He stole Crimea from Ukraine 2000—will disappear anytime soon. He has longer looks without firing a shot, used airpower to change the spent years preparing for mass protests, creating course of Syria’s civil war, and appears to have a 350,000-strong National Guard that is directly invulnerable helped Donald Trump win the American presi- under his control and tasked with quelling dissent. dency. But a crack appeared in Putin’s all-powerful They might not be needed. Many Russians fear that Editorial image last week, when up to 150,000 protesters Putin’s overthrow would “result in bloody chaos” Ilta-Sanomat (Finland) demonstrated in dozens of cities across Russia as rival factions battled for power, and so they re- and denounced his kleptocracy. The world has sist rising up. Still, the sight of so many angry peo- seen that beneath its seemingly calm surface, Rus- ple on his nation’s streets last week should remind

Getty sia is bubbling with fury over rising food prices, Putin “that no one remains in power forever.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 16 NEWS Talking points

Noted Kushner: The White House’s ‘princeling’ QPedestrian deaths “In a White House where Presi- belief that wealth is the ultimate soared by 25 percent dent Donald Trump commands proof of competence and intel- between 2010 and 2015, reverence,” only one man gets ligence. Actually, Kushner is well according to a new to call him “Donald,” said Josh suited to help Trump bring busi- report by the Governors Dawsey in Politico.com. That’s ness efficiencies to our bloated, Highway Safety Asso- Jared Kushner, Trump’s 36-year- bureaucratic government, said ciation. More than 28,000 old son-in-law, who has both the Cheryl Chumley in The Wash- pedestrians were killed by president’s ear and his “implicit ington Times. Who better to do cars n ationally during that trust.” Trump has handed Kush- that than “a former real estate period. The distracting use ner a vast portfolio that includes and media executive with a string of smartphones by both pedestrians and drivers forging a peace deal between Israel of financial accomplishments”? is believed to be a major and the Palestinians, negotiat- factor in the increase. ing with China and Mexico, and “I worked for Jared Kushner,” NBCNews.com reinventing government according said Elizabeth Spiers in The to business principles. This week, Washington Post, and from what QIn 86 percent of U.S. Kushner even traveled to Iraq to I saw of his skills in publishing Kushner: A very broad portfolio counties that voted for evaluate the war on ISIS. Resentful and real estate, the nation is in Donald Trump, the total White House sources complain that Kushner, who trouble. In 2011, Kushner hired me as editor-in- annual income of the has spent his life running his inherited real estate chief of The New York Observer, a newspaper he entire population is less company, “does essentially what he wants” but is bought at the tender age of 25. During my tenure, than the collective $2.3 bil- lion net worth of 27 of utterly out of his depth. The “princeling,” as the Kushner reversed his pledge to me to expand President Trump’s closest Chinese now view Kushner, has only one quali- the staff and pursue growth, and embarked on aides. His Cabinet is the fication for his vast new powers, said Jeet Heer a “nihilistic” cost-cutting spree that badly dam- wealthiest in U.S. history. in NewRepublic.com. “He’s married to Trump’s aged the once respected newspaper and website. The Washington Post beloved daughter, Ivanka.” He later shut down the print edition and put the website up for sale. In real estate, Kushner QDrone purchases are Trump’s decision to rely on Kushner should not almost “destroyed the family’s fortune” by going booming, with more than be surprising, said Michael D’Antonio in CNN deeply into debt to acquire 666 5th Avenue for a 770,000 drone registra- .com. While running his private real estate com- Manhattan record price of $1.8 billion. I worry tions pany, Trump has long depended on “the extreme that Kushner’s time in government is yet another in the past loyalty of the family.” Kushner, the son of a “vanity project”—one where his “expertise isn’t 15 months. billionaire, also plays into Trump’s overriding just low, but nonexistent.” The number of small hobbyist drones in the Anti-abortion videos: A partisan prosecution? country is expected to triple to about 3.55 million “A hidden-camera investigation reveals corpo- illegally sells fetal tissue for profit. Several subse- by 2021. rate wrongdoing. The managers are caught not quent investigations have found no evidence that CNN.com only describing unconscionable acts but also this is true. As a result of Daleiden and Merritt’s joking about their victims.” In most cases, said lies, Planned Parenthood clinics were firebombed, QSince 2007, the DEA has the Washington Examiner in an editorial, such and at a Colorado clinic, three people were killed seized about $3.2 billion videos would raise “holy hell” and bring demands “by a gunman raving about ‘baby parts.’” The in cash from people not for prosecutions. But when that corporation is crusading filmmakers may have also violated a charged with a crime, Planned Parenthood, count on Democrats to California criminal statute, said Mark Joseph although they were “crack down on the whistleblowers.” Last week, Stern in Slate.com. They used hidden cameras in a suspected of involvement state that prohibits recording “confidential” con- with the drug trade. These California prosecutors charged anti-abortion seizures, for which no judi- activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with versations without both participants’ permission. cial review ever occurred, 15 felony counts for publishing undercover videos were all legal under the in 2015 that show Planned Parenthood executives That’s a ridiculous argument, said Noah Roth- controversial practice of flippantly discussing the harvesting of fetal tis- man in CommentaryMagazine.com. California civil asset forfeiture. sue. The footage showed officials discussing how prosecutors filed no charges when the animal WashingtonPost.com they “dismember” the unborn so as to harvest rights group Mercy for Animals secretly recorded as many organs as possible. But prosecutors say footage of poultry slaughterhouses in California in QAlmost one in four mar- the videos represented an invasion of the partici- 2015. Or when the mistress of former Los Angeles ried couples sleep in sepa- pants’ privacy. “To say that this is outrageous is Clippers owner Donald Sterling illicitly recorded rate bedrooms, according him making racist comments. Yet California’s to a new survey from the an understatement,” said Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry National Sleep Founda- in TheWeek.com. Yes, the activists’ actions were Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra tion. Many cited snoring, politically motivated, “but they are still being has thrown the book at Daleiden and Merritt. In different sleep schedules, prosecuted for doing the work of journalism.” recent months, liberals have been apoplectic about or restless leg syndrome supposed threats to the First Amendment. Yet as the reason. This wasn’t journalism, said The Sacramento Bee. here “is a real, genuine example” of the govern- USA Today The videos were “far-right fake news” deceptively ment trying to “criminalize standard journalistic

edited to make it look like Planned Parenthood practice”—and they all look the other way. (2) Newscom

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Talking points NEWS 17

Climate change: Can Trump revive coal? Wit & “Climate change doesn’t mat- away from dirty, inefficient ter.” That’s the “devastating” coal and toward natural gas Wisdom message President Trump sent and renewable resources. “When one tugs at a out with his executive order The number of coal-fired single thing in nature, he on “energy independence” power plants dropped from finds it attached to the rest of the world.” last week, said David Roberts 619 in 2005 to 427 in 2015, John Muir, quoted in in Vox.com. Trump ordered and just 65,000 coal miners MontrealGazette.com the Environmental Protec- remain. Even coal execu- tion Agency to review and tives admit their industry is “Without lies, humanity would perish of despair rewrite the Clean Power Plan, in permanent decline. But if and boredom.” an Obama-era edict to cut A coal-fired power plant in West Virginia the market forces pushing us Poet Anatole France, carbon emissions from exist- toward clean energy are so quoted in TheHindu.com ing power plants. He also asked the EPA to relax “potent,” said Holman Jenkins in The Wall Street “Human madness is often- carbon rules for new power plants; loosen limits Journal, then surely we don’t need all the costly times a cunning and most on methane emissions in oil and gas production; Obama-era regulations in the first place. feline thing. When you and rescind a moratorium on new coal mining think it fled, it may have but on federal land. “You’re going back to work,” The market is changing, but not fast enough, said become transfigured into the president told the coal miners he had invited Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. It’s still cheaper some still subtler form.” to the executive order’s signing ceremony. Trump to run an old coal-fired plant than to invest in Herman Melville, quoted in didn’t “formally withdraw” from the Paris climate building a new, cleaner one. To protect our planet The Wall Street Journal accords, the landmark 194-nation agreement to from the “dire effects of climate change,” we have “The future is already reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Amy David- to “accelerate the pace of decarbonization.” There here; it’s just not evenly son in The New Yorker. But by killing the Clean are also “sound business reasons” for Trump distributed yet.” Power Plan, which is currently stuck in the courts, to rethink his energy agenda, said the Financial Novelist William Gibson, quoted in Recode.net Trump has made it impossible for the U.S. to ful- Times in an editorial. Propping up a declining fill its emissions targets—and ended our “partici- coal industry will inevitably reduce U.S. invest- “Great people do things pation in the fight against climate change.” ment in renewable energy—“opening the way for before they’re ready.” China and others to dominate” the industries of Amy Poehler, quoted in Mashable.com “Everybody needs to calm down,” said Kurt the future. Rather than trying to return the U.S. Eichenwald in Newsweek.com. Trump can’t revive to its coal-fired past, Trump should be “aiming “If you think you’re great, the coal industry by signing orders. For market for the U.S. that could exist 20 years hence—a then something is seri- reasons, energy companies have long been shifting global leader in clean technology.” ously wrong with you.” Artist Marina Abramavic, quoted in NYMag.com “You will know that it’s GOP: A circular firing squad a true romance between Republicans are “on the verge of civil war,” said thorny policy details, and was unable to address A-Rod and J.Lo if they Jonathan Lemire in the Associated Press. In the the objections of House members. He “has little decide to share a publicist.” Publicist Sy Presten, wake of the GOP’s failure to repeal and replace interest in the art of governing; he craves person- quoted in the New York Post the Affordable Care Act, President Trump last ally fulfilling political victories.” Weakened by this week blamed the conservative House Freedom major defeat and facing difficult legislative battles Caucus for the embarrassing defeat. “The Free- ahead, he “needs the Freedom Caucus more than dom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican it needs him.” To salvage his presidency, said Poll watch agenda if they don’t get on the team & fast,” Jamelle Bouie in Slate.com, Trump also needs “a Q55% of white Repub- he tweeted. “We must fight them, & Dems, in hefty dose of humility.” He has to realize he’s not licans say that black 2018!” Trump even threatened to throw his a king, negotiate in good faith, and “essentially Americans are economi- weight behind primary challengers to caucus unlearn the habits of his entire adult life.” cally worse off because members. Unintimidated by a scandal-plagued they “just don’t have the president with “approval ratings hovering below It’s not all Trump’s fault—there’s plenty of blame motivation or willpower 40 percent,” Freedom Caucus members fired to go around, said Noah Rothman in Commentary to pull themselves up out back. Michigan Rep. Justin Amash called Trump, Magazine.com. Republicans wield “total control of poverty.” 26% of white the self-styled Washington outsider, just another of the levers of governmental power,” yet their Democrats agree. The gap establishment sellout, tweeting, “It didn’t take schisms and squabbles threaten to squander “an between the two parties long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump.” opportunity to leave a lasting mark on history.” on this question is the It’s not too late to turn it around. Democrats have biggest since 1977. GSS-NORC/University of If Trump “can’t even pressure his core supporters, passed sweeping legislation with an unruly coali- Chicago it’s a clear sign that his presidency is shrinking,” tion of machine politicians, blue-collar workers, 20% of people ages 18 said Josh Kraushaar in NationalJournal.com. The minorities, progressives, and Dixiecrats. Under Q to 34 identify as LGBTQ, a GOP has split into three factions: “pragmatists, George W. Bush, divided Republicans passed tax big increase from Genera- Trumpian populists, and hard-right maximalists.” relief, Medicare reform, and a partial-birth abor- tion X (12%) and the Baby To be an effective president, Trump has to serve tion ban. But if Trump and Congress don’t change Boomer generation (7%). as “the glue” to hold these factions together. But course soon, their only legacy will be “the disgrace GLAAD/Harris

Newscom Trump showed no grasp of the health-care bill’s of the Republican moment lost.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 18 NEWS Technology

Online privacy: Telecoms mining your search history “What if your telecom company tracked for “free,” but “there’s no built-in the websites you visit, the apps you use, expectation that your providers will the TV shows you watch, the stores you ‘double dip’ by selling your data and shop at, and the restaurants you eat at, collecting advertising fees.” To be hon- and then sold that information to adver- est, this brouhaha feels like “shouting tisers?” asked Jack Marshall in The Wall at the horse to come back long after Street Journal. Thanks to Congress, he’s left the barn,” said Stephen Carter AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast can now in Bloomberg.com . Why is it disturb- do just that. The House of Representa- ing that Verizon and AT&T suddenly tives voted last week to dismantle strict want to act like Google and Facebook? online privacy rules set up by the Obama We traded away our online privacy administration that would have required long ago. internet service providers to get custom- Your browsing history could be up for sale. ers’ permission before selling their data For now, “you probably won’t notice to third parties. The legislation, which President Trump signed any difference,” said Brian Chen in The New York Times. The into law this week, is a huge boon to the major telecoms, which rules that Congress overturned were so new that they hadn’t even hope to build billion-dollar online ad businesses to rival those taken effect yet. But while ISPs have always been able to monitor of Facebook and Google. what websites you visit and then share some of that data with third parties, they are now likely to become much “more aggres- If those Silicon Valley giants can turn data into profit, “the sive with data collection and retention.” There’s only so much logic goes, why can’t the cable companies?” said Klint Finley you can do these days to protect your digital data—short of going in Wired.com. It’s a decent pitch, but it doesn’t hold up under off the grid, said Timothy Lee in Vox.com. One option is to use a scrutiny. The telecoms have a huge advantage, since they pro- virtual private network, which hides your browsing information vide both wired and wireless networks—seeing nearly every- from your internet provider, but those can be pricey and hard thing a user is doing on the web from multiple devices. They’re to set up. And most internet users can’t be bothered with such a also already squeezing money from us in the form of monthly complicated work-around. The advantage of the just-overturned bills. It’s understood and accepted that we give up some per- rules was that consumers would “get privacy by default.” Now sonal data and privacy in order to use Facebook and Google the burden is on us.

Innovation of the week Bytes: What’s new in tech

“Qualcomm wants your gadgets Samsung’s smartphone mulligan in the brain to enhance cognitive function. to look out for you,” said Stacey “Samsung is ready to try again,” said Mike Some day, the technology may even be used to Higginbotham in TechnologyReview Murphy in Qz.com. The South Korean elec- “upload and download thoughts,” enabling .com. The mobile chipmaker is work- tronics giant last week unveiled its first new humans to compete with artificial intelligence. ing on a tiny, smartphones since last year’s recall of the The operational details are sketchy so far, but low-power explosion-prone Galaxy Note 7. The new Gal- the company is said to be focusing its early ef- module that axy S8 and S8+ “have just about everything forts on treating brain disorders like epilepsy could add computer you’d expect” in a premium smartphone, and depression. Simpler electrodes are already vision tech- including “powerful processors, 4GBs of used in some Parkinson’s treatment. nology to everyday devices, from memory, 64 GB of storage, large batteries, and toys to home appliances. The tech- beautiful high-definition screens.” The S8 and Need cash? Try Facebook nology, called Glance, “isn’t quite S8+ displays are 5.8 and 6.2 inches, respec- Facebook is getting into personal fundrais- a camera, but it can gather more tively, making them both bigger than the 5.5- ing, said Sarah Perez in TechCrunch.com. The detailed information than a simple inch iPhone 7 Plus. The added screen real es- social network has given users the ability to motion sensor.” It contains a lens, an tate comes from the lack of a physical “home” raise money for “personal crises and other image sensor, and a low-power pro- button. The two phones are also the first to campaigns,” taking a page from crowdfunding cessor that allow it to detect people and recognize specific gestures. It’s feature Bixby, Samsung’s new virtual assistant. sites like GoFundMe. Users can launch per- cheaper and uses far less energy sonal fundraisers in six categories: education, than a built-in camera would, mak- Elon Musk’s cyborg future medical, pet medical, crisis relief, personal ing some smartphone security fea- “Building a mass-market electric vehicle and emergencies, and funeral costs; more catego- tures more practical. Phone makers colonizing Mars aren’t ambitious enough for ries are in the works. To cut down on fraud, would like to use iris scans to unlock Elon Musk,” said Rolfe Winkler in The Wall campaigns are subject to a 24-hour review phones, for instance, “but a device’s Street Journal. The billionaire tech mogul’s process. Facebook will charge a 6.9 percent fee camera can’t be constantly active newest company hopes “to merge computers on every gift, which comes out of the recipi- without draining the battery.” Glance with human brains to help people keep up ent’s cut, plus a 30-cent fee to cover security offers a low-power way to detect when a person is facing the screen, with machines.” Neuralink, which registered and payment processing. “GoFundMe, by triggering the camera to turn on and in California as a “medical research” company comparison, takes 7.9 percent, plus $0.30.” conduct a scan. last July, is working on “neural lace” technol- Facebook is also adding Donate buttons to live

ogy that involves implanting tiny electrodes video broadcasts. Alamy

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Most cancers caused by chance mutations Scientists are always telling us what we in 69 countries, researchers at Johns can do to lower cancer risk: Exercise more, Hopkins University found that 29 per- stay out of the sun, eat more of this and cent of cancer-causing mutations are the less of that. But new research suggests result of environmental factors, such as that two-thirds of cancer-causing genetic smoking and sun exposure; 5 percent are mutations are the result of random and caused by inherited genetic mutations; and unavoidable DNA errors—“bad luck,” 66 percent are completely random. They as the authors put it. Mistakes occur note that arbitrary mutations are more every time a cell divides and copies its common in cancers involving tissues with Each time a cell divides, mutations occur. DNA to produce two new cells. Most of higher rates of cellular “turnover,” such steps that reduce their cancer risk. But the those mutations don’t cause any harm, as the colon. Critics of the study contend authors say their findings offer comfort reports NBCNews.com, but a small num- that cancer is a complex disease whose and reassurance to the millions of people ber affect so-called cancer driver genes. causes cannot be separated and simplified, who have been diagnosed with cancer After analyzing genome sequencing and and that people shouldn’t be discouraged despite living a healthy lifestyle. “It’s not epidemiologic data from 32 cancer types from quitting smoking and taking other your fault,” says co-author Bert Vogelstein.

Beating paralysis with the brain cells. The therapy restored the rodents’ A quadriplegic man can now feed himself kidney function, stimulated the growth of again after a breakthrough procedure that their fur, and improved their stamina. The has allowed him to control his hand with researchers are now studying whether the the power of thought. Bill Kochevar, 56, mice also live longer. They believe the pro- suffered a severe spinal cord injury in a cedure could potentially be used to treat bicycle accident eight years ago and was left age-related disorders in humans and even to completely paralyzed from the neck down, kill cancer cells, which share certain features reports NPR.org. In order to circumvent his with senescent cells. “It’s definitely a land- damaged spine, researchers at Case Western mark advance,” University of Montreal biol- Reserve University in Cleveland surgically ogist Francis Rodier, who wasn’t involved implanted two electrodes in the motor in the study, tells Science. “This is the first Did a slower jet stream cause Texas’ heat wave? cortex region of his brain, and 36 inside time that somebody has shown that you can his arm. The brain implants are linked to get rid of senescent cells without having any Climate change stalls jet stream a computer, which translates brain signals obvious side effects.” Climate scientists have long understood that into electrical impulses that trigger move- global warming can make extreme weather ment in Kochevar’s hand, wrist, elbow, and Health scare of the week events like the Texas heat wave of 2011 shoulder. After four months of training the Marathons tax the kidneys and last year’s floods across Europe more system to recognize the signals that cor- Running a marathon may be about as common. But new research suggests this relate with his desired actions, Kochevar traumatic for the kidneys as heart surgery, rise in extreme weather isn’t simply due is now able to drink from a cup and eat reports CNN.com. To assess how run- to increasing atmospheric temperatures: with a fork. “I thought about moving my ning 26.2 miles affects kidney function, Climate change might also be altering the arm and I could move it,” he says. “I’m researchers from Yale University collected flow of planet-scale air patterns like the still wowed every time I do something.” blood and urine samples from a group of jet stream. Normally, the jet stream moves The system is not yet ready for use outside people just before they ran the Hartford from west to east across the Northern a lab, but the team hopes to streamline the Marathon, and then immediately after- Hemisphere, with ribbon-like air currents technology so that it becomes routine treat- ward. They found that after the race that undulate from the equator to the North ment for paralysis. 82 percent of the runners had signs of acute Pole. A large temperature difference between kidney injury—likely due to dehydration— the tropics and the Arctic causes the winds Aging-reversal treatment as well as reduced blood flow to vital to blow faster. But when the difference is Scientists studying age-related disease organs and a rise in core body tempera- smaller, the jet stream slows and whole may be one step closer to a therapy ture. “Almost everybody had a significant regions can be left under the same weather that could help reverse the ravages of increase in the novel markers of injury, for long periods, turning hot days into heat time. Researchers in the Netherlands inflammation, and repair,” says waves, dry spells into droughts, and wet have been investigating senes- study leader Chirag Parikh. conditions into floods. Using temperature cent cells, “zombie” cells The researchers found these records and climate model simulations, an that have stopped dividing effects were only temporary, international team of researchers found and that can contribute and reversed within 48 hours. that such stalls are increasing in frequency, to illnesses such as heart But they warned that the largely because climate change is causing disease, arthritis, and dia- long-term impact of running the Arctic to warm faster than the rest betes. For a new study, marathons remains unknown, of the planet.“Human activity has been the team designed and said their findings empha- suspected of contributing to this pattern a molecule to selec- size that runners should stay before,” study leader Michael Mann tells tively kill these cells well hydrated and avoid The Guardian (U.K.). “But now we’ve in mutant mice that age medications that are toxic to

uncovered a clear fingerprint.” rapidly, without harming healthy the kidneys. Newscom AP, Newscom,

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Pick of the week’s cartoons NEWS 21

For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons. THE WEEK April 14, 2017 22 ARTS Review of reviews: Books

Book of the week indiscriminate that both evangelical leader Pat Robertson, born in 1930, A Generation of Sociopaths: and Marco Rubio, born in 1971, How the Baby Boomers are portrayed as accessories to the Boomers’ idiotic narcissism. If Gibney Betrayed America looked closer, he might realize that the by Bruce Cannon Gibney Boomers created a mess because they’re (Hachette, $27) so divided—not because they’re all the At long last, “the backlash to the same. Counterculture types and their Boomers is at hand,” said R. Emmett opposites have been at war for decades, Tyrrell Jr. in The Washington Times. unable to compromise on any issue. Decades after it ought to have become clear to all that my Baby Boomer A Generation of Sociopaths shouldn’t generation was destroying America, be treated as sober social science, said a sharp Gen X writer has arisen to The Me Generation: Making debt, and perpetual war John Semley in the Toronto Globe and finally take my birth cohort to task. In Mail. “The book feels most useful as A Generation of Sociopaths, Bruce Cannon At times, Gibney’s indictment goes a “just a forceful, polemical riposte to a decade’s Gibney, a 42-year-old venture capital- a wee bit” too far, said Dana Milbank in worth of risible op-eds about Millennials ist, paints “a persuasive and frequently The Washington Post. Sure, it’s true that being lazy, narcissistic, unmotivated, and hilarious portrait” of the horde of white since fellow Boomers Bill Clinton and blasé.” Boomer thought leaders have had Americans born between 1940 and 1964, Newt Gingrich rose to power in the early their say; now comes the younger set’s said Timothy Bracy in Men’s Journal. 1990s, the whole generation of leaders has retort. Still, given the politics of resentment Raised in comfort and certain of their righ- failed to act on global warming or runaway that govern today’s America, “one won- teousness, the Boomers in Gibney’s account entitlement spending; watched inequality ders how useful the widening of intergen- are forever running up debt and rigging the spike; and presided over declining faith erational divides really is.” Unless people tax code to benefit themselves. And though in virtually every institution. “But Gibney under 52 are ready to launch a revolution, even Gibney concedes not every member blames the Boomers for everything,” includ- they have to work with America’s graying of the Me Generation is a sociopath, “the ing abortion, divorce, inflation, crime, and cohort of “sociopathic” leaders until the overall critique feels eerily on the mark.” even adjunct professors. His disdain is so Boomers all die off.

The Cubs Way: The Zen Epstein has learned that numbers aren’t Novel of the week of Building the Best Team everything, said Jena McGregor in The The Twelve Lives in Baseball... Washington Post. In Boston, he watched his 2011 team disintegrate when tested by a of Samuel Hawley by Tom Verducci (Crown, $28) late-season losing streak, and so in Chicago by Hannah Tinti When the hardest- he put new focus on character. He ordered (Dial, $27) luck franchise in scouts to prepare reports that looked into Hannah Tinti “knows how to cast the baseball ended every aspect of players’ makeup, including old campfire spell,” said Ron Charles a 108-year title what friends and rivals said about them, in The Washington Post. Drawing from drought last fall, and how they’d responded to adversity. “If the tale of the 12 labors Hercules per- the story “almost we can’t find the next technological break- formed as penance for killing his family, demanded that through,” Epstein told Verducci, “maybe the author of 2008’s The Good Thief Tom Verducci has created an engrossing coming-of- we can be better than anyone else with how weigh in,” said Ed we treat our players and how we connect age tale that’s also “a master class in Sherman in the literary suspense.” The gun-toting title with players.” character, a former career criminal, is as Chicago Tribune. tough as they come, but he also cares The longtime Sports “Hooray for good intentions,” said Steven deeply for his precocious 12-year-old Illustrated scribe Goldman in Slate.com. Fans shouldn’t daughter, who’s eager to learn about is “arguably the forget that midway through the 2016 her deceased mother and about the best baseball writer of his generation,” and season, however, the Cubs compromised 12 bullet scars that pockmark Samuel’s he’s delivered in a big way with his new on character when they acquired pitcher torso. Flashbacks eventually reveal “deep, deep dive” into the Chicago Cubs’ Aroldis Chapman, a standout closer who’d the origins of all dozen wounds, said enchanted 2016 season. The suspenseful previously been suspended by baseball for a Michael Berry in the Portland, Maine, opening chapter, set just before the first pitch domestic violence violation. Epstein is proud Press Herald. Though it’s a risk to keep is thrown in Game 7 of the World Series, that his staff and players share genuine interrupting the main storyline—and to puts the drama in motion. But Verducci affection for one another—but will senti- mix violent action with a teen’s typical proves equally adept at analyzing how team mentality interfere with management’s need rites of passage—the strategy pays off. president Theo Epstein, who’d previously to be ruthless about players whose perfor- “Tinti has set herself a Herculean liter- ary task, and she accomplishes it, not worked his magic with the Boston Red Sox, mance fades? As the Chapman deal proved, with brute force, but with wit, aplomb, has tweaked the data-driven approach to having shared ideals only gets a team so far. and a love of adventure.” team building that was outlined in Michael “To succeed against tough competition, you

Lewis’ seminal 2003 book, Moneyball. have to be willing to shelve your ideology.” AP

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 The Book List ARTS 23

Best books...chosen by Rebecca Skloot Author of the week Rebecca Skloot is the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a best-selling account of how one 1950s cancer patient unwittingly spawned many medical break- Alyssa Mastromonaco throughs. A film adaptation, starring Oprah Winfrey, premieres April 22 on HBO. No one has ever written a White House memoir like Love at Goon Park by Deborah Blum (Basic, footnoted story of scientists who hoped to Alyssa Mastromonaco’s, $18). This is a wonderful and compulsively read- “improve” the human race by eliminating minori- said Rebecca Nelson in able character study of Harry Harlow, the scientist ties, “immorality,” and “inferiors,” by means of Cosmopolitan.com. A long- whose amazing, often disturbing, research on pri- selective breeding and much worse. It’s an essen- time aide to Barack Obama, mates provided crucial insight into child-rearing. tial chapter of American history that we should the Rhinebeck, N.Y., native never forget. was once was labeled “one of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (Houghton Washington’s Mifflin Harcourt, $16). Carson’s book is one of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat most pow- the most important pieces of science writing ever by Oliver Sacks (Touchstone, $16) I love any- erful, least published. The author was fearless in her pursuit thing by Sacks, but especially this collection of famous of scientific truth, and with this book, she helped essays about his patients and their fantastical people.” shape our modern understanding of environmen- array of neurological ailments. He transports But the for- tal science and activism. himself and his readers into the minds and lives mer deputy chief of staff The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down of his patients, reminding us that there are always human beings behind the scientific mysteries. wanted to by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $15). demystify the White House In an incredible story of cultural miscommunica- And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts workplace experience. So tion and of a tragic clash between scientists and (St. Martin’s, $22). And the Band Played On is in Who Thought This Was nonscientists, a girl born to a Hmong refugee up there with Silent Spring as one of the most a Good Idea? she tells tales family in California meets a heartbreaking fate. influential pieces of science writing. Published in about being caught with her It’s a dramatic and important story that Fadiman 1987, it changed the way AIDS was understood shoes off, about hunting des- tells without demonizing either the doctors or and treated in the U.S., and did so by combining perately for a bathroom while the family, and it was an early model for me as I powerful investigative journalism with beautiful visiting the Vatican, and about wrote The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. storytelling. The first piece I read by Shilts was a making operational decisions that would earn an email In the Name of Eugenics by Daniel J. Kevles follow-up essay to the book. I finished it and said from the president asking the (Harvard, $32.50). I devoured this meticulously to myself, “I want to write like that guy.” ribbing question she chose as the book’s title. A 2008 outdoor campaign speech Also of interest...in artists’ muses during a hailstorm? That was Mastromonaco’s idea. “This Portraits of Courage Lara book, hopefully, makes gov- by George W. Bush (Crown, $35) by Anna Pasternak (Ecco, $28) ernment a little more relatable, a little less scary,” she says. Former President Bush has “Sometimes when you read a novel, “improved drastically” as a painter you just know that the love story at its Mastromonaco consistently since his awkward first efforts heart has to be based on a real rela- presents a cartoon version of became public in 2013, said Peter tionship,” said Martin Rubin in The herself, said Caitlin Flanagan Schjel dahl in The New Yorker. Washington Times. In Boris Paster- in The Washington Post. But Working from photographs of U.S. nak’s Dr. Zhivago, the real relation- the former grocery clerk was war veterans, Bush painted 98 portraits for this ship was the author’s affair with Olga Ivinskaya, also helping run the country volume, and though the book is “maddeningly” a fellow writer who typed the manuscript, which by the time she was 32, and self-comforting, the quality of the art is “astonish- was eventually smuggled out of the Soviet Union. her book shows how she ingly high” for someone so new to the discipline. Pasternak’s great-niece has finally convincingly made the climb mostly by throwing herself enthusiasti- Bush’s brushwork is confident, and his subjects established that Ivinskaya—who paid dearly for cally into every task along the “look honestly observed and persuasively alive.” assisting Pasternak—was the original Lara. way. The White House she A Piece of the World Birds Art Life describes sounds like it was a pretty good place to work, by Christina Baker Kline (William Morrow, $28) by Kyo Maclear (Scribner, $25) but she doesn’t pretend it was The subject of Andrew Wyeth’s iconic This “profound little book” is only always a well-oiled machine, 1948 painting Christina’s World could partially about an author’s year of and that gives her a bit of seem a wholly tragic figure, said Jenny therapeutic bird-watching, said Laurie sympathy for the new team at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “I Sawyer in CSMonitor.com. But this Hertzel in the Minneapolis Star remember when Hurricane new historical novel “paints her dif- Tribune. Though the Toronto-based Katrina happened, and I was ferently,” showing readers a Christina author sought solace in birding after like, ‘F--- George Bush! This is who’s undaunted in the face of a crippling mus- her father suffered a debilitating stroke, her long terrible,’” she says. “And then cular disease. In these pages, Wyeth is a sensitive walks also afforded time to meditate on her mar- you get in the White House, young man who coaxes middle-aged Christina riage, her favorite books, and the ways that past and you take a beat, and out of her shell. Like Wyeth, author Christina creative greats have embraced the natural world. you’re like, ‘God. I can under- Baker Kline “has an artist’s eye,” and a gift for A fair amount of ornithological language creeps in, stand how that can happen.’”

Manda Townsend, courtesy of the author Townsend, Manda revealing inner beauty. but those allusions “feel natural, never forced.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 24 ARTS Review of reviews: Art

Exhibit of the week against a wall at dusk.” The Louis Kahn: play of light became a focus of The Power of Architecture his work, as did the simplest geometrical shapes. At La Jolla, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Calif.’s Salk Institute, another through June 25 of Kahn’s masterworks, mono- The Louis Kahn retrospective in lithic concrete slabs frame the Fort Worth begins well before view west across a wide central you set foot in its first gallery, plaza, and the vista at the far said Michael Hoinski in Texas end is bisected by a horizontal Monthly. The approach to the ribbon of distant ocean, making Kimbell Art Museum is “like a the whole complex feel as eter- walk in the park,” a progres- nal as nature. sion through a grove of trees and past cascading water; it clears A thorough assessment of the mind. The Kimbell is inargu- Kahn’s work appears to be ably one of Kahn’s architectural Kahn’s Salk Institute: Classicism for a new age underway, said Christopher masterpieces, “a case study in Hawthorne in Architect maga- symmetry” that creates a soothing inter- Street Journal. While many other modern- zine. In the old view, reflected by this exhi- play between landscape and building, ists were distancing their work from “all bition, Kahn was a singular creative force, sunlight and shade. Visiting the Kimbell that was old, massive, and portentous,” “a man who stood apart from both other has long been “a journey all architects feel Kahn was mining the lessons of the clas- architects and the cultural zeitgeist.” But compelled to make at least once in their sical world to create buildings of timeless contemporaries showed a similar interest lifetime,” and no time could be better than monumentality. Born in 1901 Estonia and in classically inspired monumentality, and now to make that pilgrimage, said Gaile raised in Philadelphia, Kahn was trained in a new generation is turning away from the Robinson in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. the Beaux Arts tradition before embracing showy sculptural structures of Zaha Hadid For the next three months, the Kimbell is modernism, and this exhibition shows how and Frank Gehry and finding inspiration in hosting a traveling Louis Kahn exhibition in his early 50s he finally found his path. Kahn’s respect for history and its simpler that’s “a lovely valentine” to a modernist During travels to Rome, Greece, and Egypt, forms. In a statement about the upcoming genius, and the first major Kahn retrospec- he visited many ancient structures, and in Chicago Architecture Biennial, that show’s tive in 25 years. the pastel sketches displayed in this show, curators promised to celebrate buildings “you can see the vigorous application of that make history new and turn away from Kahn “made architecture new in utterly dis- a purple pastel stick as he tried to capture architecture that insists on being unprec- tinctive ways,” said Julie Iovine in The Wall exactly how light changes when it falls edented. “Kahn would surely approve.”

The Mysterious Landscapes of of the dreamiest, most immersive presenta- Where to buy Hercules Segers tions of the year.” A select exhibition in a private gallery The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, If only the exhibition’s curators weren’t through May 21 Mary Weatherford paints sunsets in a such killjoys, said Christopher Benfey in whole new way. For five years, the Los The 17th-century Dutch artist Hercules NewYorkReviewOfBooks.com. Studying Angeles–based artist has been filling Segers “had only a passing interest in real- Mossy Tree, an “absolutely stunning” mammoth ity,” said Roberta Smith in The New York circa 1625 print, “I couldn’t kick the canvases with bold Times. At a time when realism was the impression that Segers must have been color rage among his peers, this contemporary of looking at Chinese prototypes.” Yet the fields, Rembrandt was dream- show’s catalog rejects then affix- ing up surreal landscapes the possibility of Chinese ing to each while turning printmak- influence outright, even painting Animals (2017) ing to purposes it had though Segers was prob- a strip or two of illuminated neon—all never served before. ably the first artist in in the service of capturing a particular Instead of seeking to Europe to work on paper feeling. The series came to mind one duplicate monochrome imported from the Far evening when Weatherford was driving in Bakersfield and the sky was turning images over and over, East. And why should otherworldly colors just as businesses’ Segers boldly varied the we listen to so-called neon signs were clicking on and begin- colors of both his inks experts who claim Segers and his paper, playing ning to buzz. The paintings evoke a A circa 1625 Segers landscape avoided depicting the twilight feeling, the feeling of time with emotional effects human figure because he running out. Without the neon touch, while producing images that could be sold struggled to do so? “I think he deliberately Weatherford’s swaths of subtly shifting as one-of-a-kinds. Rembrandt himself was attributed character, even personality, to color might evoke merely the soothing a fan, but because most of Segers’ works seemingly inanimate objects,” like trees power of a beautiful sky at dusk. The were lost, “his audaciousness has yet to and ruins and the stack of books in a circa humming neon layers in a frisson of danger. At David Kordansky Gallery, receive its due.” The Met is trying to right 1618–22 print that might be Europe’s first 5130 W. Edgewood Pl., Los Angeles. that wrong, and its new Segers show, which still life. It’s “a work of audacious original- (323) 935-3030. Prices upon request. gathers 102 of the 182 or so of the artist’s ity,” by an artist who by now really should

known surviving prints, emerges as “one be familiar to us all. Nicolais John

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ShopHonda.com 26 ARTS Review of reviews: Stage & Music

Latin History for Morons The week’s other opening The Public Theater, New York City, (212) 967-7555 ++++ Harlequino: On to Freedom The Actors’ Gang Theatre, Culver City, Calif., be forgiven for mistaking the chalk dust (310) 838-4264 that swirls around him for smoke from ++++ his firing synapses. Off he goes, “churn- Even the bawdiest ing up hot waves of improbably connected farce can make seri- ous noise, said Philip ideas” and dispensing some hilarious—and Brandes in the Los unprintable—one-liners as he attempts to Angeles Times. That’s help his son identify a Latin hero to profile the message of the for a middle-school assignment. “inventive and infor- mative” new stage Lamont In Leguizamo’s 95 brilliant and fast-paced show written and directed by film star minutes onstage, “the best he can do is Tim Robbins. In a bid to sketch the his- take the rough edges off us morons,” said tory of the commedia dell’arte tradition, Allison Adato in Entertain ment Weekly. Robbins has pitted two groups against He races through the pre-Columbian each other: a pair of academics trying to civilizations—with shout-outs to the deliver a lecture and a troupe of com- media players determined to hijack the Leguizamo in professorial mode potato, chocolate, and the mambo—and spotlights Latin heroes in every major proceedings. Amid a barrage of songs, slapstick, and dirty jokes, we eventu- Thank goodness John Leguizamo hasn’t American conflict, including a Cuban- ally learn that commedia dell’arte was mellowed with age, said Ben Brantley in American woman who dressed like a once deemed so radical that actors were The New York Times. In his new one-man man to fight in the Civil War. Leguizamo sometimes executed for performing it. show, the 52-year-old actor and comedian “knows how to pace a monologue,” so The title character, a black servant played “registers as hyperkinetic even on the rare he spices up his talk with dance breaks, by a masked Joshua R. Lamont, finally occasions he’s standing still.” Sure, he’s accents, physical gags, and, alas, “a few utters the show’s core message about no longer the brash young barrio kid you dated stereotypes.” But he also provides the need for self-determination after two- might know from his 1990s routines; here, something beyond history: “the image of a plus hours, said Deborah Klugman in he’s the father of two sulky teenagers with father desperate to get it right as a parent.” CapitalAndMain.com. The first-night audi- little patience for Papi’s history lessons. That struggle is one all audience members ence spontaneously applauded, and why But though the writer-performer adopts can relate to. “Here’s hoping there’s more not? “These days, we can use as much the role of a bespectacled professor, you’d of Leguizamo’s own family saga to come.” theatrical subversion as we can get.”

Father John Misty Bob Dylan Aimee Mann Pure Comedy Triplicate Mental Illness ++++ ++++ ++++ The new Father John Let’s stop treating Bob Aimee Mann’s first solo Misty album is “some- Dylan’s current Great album in five years thing of a miracle,” said American Songbook is “mood music for a Jeremy Winograd in phase as a lark, said single intractable mood: SlantMagazine.com. Tom Moon in NPR.org. a lingering doldrums, Singer-songwriter With his new three-disc a daylong drizzle under Josh Tillman, who first collection of standards, overcast skies,” said adopted the Misty per- the 75-year-old Nobel Jon Pareles in The sona five years ago, is telling listeners in no laureate has recently released five albums’ New York Times. “An exquisite wallow,” uncertain terms that the world is a mess, worth of Frank Sinatra–era tunes, and the the record finds the former lead singer but his “captivating” voice, his sly humor, effort suddenly looks like “an act of radi- of ’Til Tuesday departing from her usual and a raft of “heartbreakingly beautiful” cal conservation.” Dylan’s voice has gone midtempo rock to deliver a clutch of more melodies make Pure Comedy a challeng- ragged, of course, but he “sounds deeply stately folk hymns and waltzes. Singing ing but deeply rewarding listen. Tillman’s committed to this music,” and to the task in her “glumly levelheaded voice” about voice, these days, is “pure honey,” said To m of memorializing its signal traits: sophis- broken relationships and broken people, Breihan in Stereogum.com. “Even in his ticated lyrics, winding chord sequences, Mann sounds completely at home amid darkest lyrical moments, he delivers every- and challenging, meandering melodies that the songs’ pleasant pop structures. “But thing with a soul singer’s sense of tender- “somehow burrow into the ear.” Though nothing interrupts the air of elegant futil- ness,” and on a production scale, “it’s been Dylan can’t pull off every melody, Triplicate ity.” In one sense, this is just another Aimee years since I’ve heard anyone attempt this draws listeners in, and across 96 minutes Mann album full of character sketches and level of unapologetic grandeur.” Tillman’s “casts a hypnotic musical spell,” said Neil personal laments, “all branded by a kind of overriding message is that human beings McCormick in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). urgent hyperliteracy,” said Craig Dorfman in are so dumb and selfish that they may “But enough already.” A Nobel winner PasteMagazine .com. But in its dependence destroy the planet, and he “sees all this as should be writing new material, not croon- on spare guitar and piano accompaniment, inherently funny”—the ultimate tragic com- ing oldies. That’s a legit complaint, said this album highlights Mann’s melodies and edy. Still, when he sings that it’s a miracle Randy Lewis in the Los Angeles Times. Still, candid lyrics. Like a collection of short sto- to be alive, he means it. Pure Comedy is the world is “undeniably richer” for having ries that rewards repeated readings, Mental too long and too self-congratulatory, but it’s Dylan’s guided tour through the songs that Illness rewards repeated listens, revealing

also “an absolutely stunning piece of work.” laid the foundation for American music. “ever more intricate” emotional textures. Randall Ashley Marcus, Joan

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Review of reviews: Film ARTS 27

The Blackcoat’s The Blackcoat’s Daughter going, said Jordan Hoffman is “the kind of film that fol- in TheGuardian.com. Shipka Daughter lows you home, that makes and her co-stars Lucy Boynton you scared to enter a dark and Emma Roberts “do their Directed by alley or go in the basement,” best with the lackluster mate- Osgood Perkins said Randall Coburn in rial,” but having people mope (R) ConsequenceOfSound.net. At about until a supernatural force ++++ an isolated all-girls Catholic emerges is “no way to keep an A dark force haunts an boarding school blanketed in audience entertained.” Still, the empty girls’ school. snow, two students are left Shipka, living a freshman’s nightmare film is “so perfectly acted and behind during winter break gorgeously filmed” that you when their parents fail to pick them up. Dread might not mind its coyness, said Jeannette Catsoulis builds from the moment the younger girl, played in The New York Times. More than scares are at by Kiernan Shipka, begins experiencing disturbing stake in this directorial debut from the son of actor visions, and though the movie’s a slow burn, it’s Anthony Perkins. The Blackcoat’s Daughter has its “never dull.” To me, only the late explosion of vio- share of bloody murder scenes, but “even its most lence relieves the “impenetrable tedium” of the early brutal acts pulse with inchoate sadness.”

Ghost in Remaking Ghost in the Shell “isn’t a liability in Ghost in the couldn’t have been easy, said Shell,” said Stephanie Zacharek the Shell Leah Greenblatt in Entertain- in Time. “She’s its great Directed by Rupert Sanders ment Weekly. The Japanese strength.” A machine with a (PG-13) sci-fi franchise that spawned human’s brain, her Major Mira one of anime’s greatest films Killian leads a counterterrorism ++++ has a lot of hardcore fans, so unit that takes up pursuit of A cyborg reckons with it’s a shame that British director a shadowy figure called Kuze her past life. Rupert Sanders “doesn’t quite (Michael Pitt). The android know what to do with the back- Johansson as a latex-suited killer remembers little of her human story he’s been handed.” Set in life, and Johansson mixes steeli- a future where the line between humans and robots ness and misty-eyed doubt to convey the resulting is blurring, this big-budget reboot is “visually stun- identity crisis. In a few emotional moments, this fun ning” but doesn’t tackle the 1995 original’s dense action film becomes “something more than a flashy mythology and deep moral quandaries. Though cash-in,” said Stephen Whitty in the Newark, N.J., casting Scarlett Johansson as the lead instead of a Star-Ledger. Mostly, “it’s a gorgeous copy of an Japanese actress provoked controversy, Johansson original, but a safe copy all the same.”

The A Holocaust movie shouldn’t better grounded in real details, be this tidy, said Stephanie said Joe Morgenstern in The Zookeeper’s Merry in The Washington Post. Wall Street Journal. One change When the Germans invaded the movie makes proves “flat- Wife Poland in 1939, a husband- out foolish”: turning Hitler’s Directed by Niki Caro and-wife team at the Warsaw already villainous chief zoologist (PG-13) Zoo really did hide Jews in into a gun-toting creep with an the facility’s underground tun- unhealthy interest in Antonia. ++++ nels and shuttled hundreds of The dialogue sounds, unfor- A couple shelters Jews in them to safety. But the movie Chastain cuddles two lion cubs. tunately, as if “every last line” wartime Warsaw. makes the title character “per- were written in highlighter, said fect beyond plausibility” and the villains pure evil. Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. The movie does have Jessica Chastain’s Antonia is presented as such a some strengths, like an uncommon focus on the fairy-tale figure that “you can practically imagine ways women suffer during war. If nothing else, this the animals gathering to help her get dressed every “well-intentioned and plushly mounted” drama morning.” Diane Ackerman’s 2007 book was far “may send movie goers back to Ackerman’s book.”

New on DVD and Blu-ray Silence 20th Century Women Paterson (Paramount, $30) (Lionsgate, $20) (Universal, $20) Making a film about religious faith can be “Sterling performances” elevate this pica- In Jim Jarmusch’s latest idiosyncratic a challenge, “but that didn’t deter Martin resque comedy about a 1970s single mother drama, Adam Driver stars as a bus driver Scorsese,” said The Miami Herald. The who enlists help to raise her teenage son, who writes poetry on the side. “Composed director’s deliberately paced drama about said the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Elle Fan- almost entirely of quiet reveries” and chats two 17th-century Jesuits who travel to ning plays the boy’s enigmatic crush and with “quirky neighborhood folks,” the film, Japan to find their mentor “feels like a Greta Gerwig his punk-scene mentor, while said Newsday, “perfectly captures the trans- career summation.” Annette Bening is “as good as ever.” portive pleasure of a creative pursuit.” Petr Maur, Paramount Pictures, Anne Marie Fox/Focus Features Anne Marie Fox/Focus Pictures, Paramount Maur, Petr THE WEEK April 14, 2017 28 ARTS Television

Movies on TV The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

Monday, April 10 American Experience: The Great War Tales of Manhattan The America we all know was born a century A cursed tailcoat is passed ago this month, when the U.S. entered World from one unlucky wearer War I. This three-part series, airing on consecu- to another in an anthol- tive nights, leans in to hear the voices of soldiers, ogy film featuring Rita nurses, and aviators, as well as the trailblazers Hayworth, Henry Fonda, back home who during the war era established Ginger Rogers, and new roles in American society for women, Edward G. Robinson. African-Americans, and immigrants. The first (1942) 8 p.m., TCM two-hour episode begins with a focus on the Tuesday, April 11 lengthy pre-1917 debate over whether to main- The Lady Eve tain neutrality or leap in. Monday, April 10, at Barbara Stanwyck stars as 9 p.m.; check local listings a card sharp who falls for an awkward brewery heir Brooklyn Nine-Nine Pinto takes up arms in Guerrilla. she’d hoped to con out of Things are getting even wackier in the 99th Guerrilla millions. Henry Fonda co- Precinct. Taking a page from big serial drama In early 1970s London, a young mixed-race stars. (1941) 8 p.m., TCM series, Fox’s Andy Samberg–led cop comedy couple drift toward militancy and become targets ended its previous season with a cliffhanger that of a police crackdown on all Black Panther–style Wednesday, April 12 put a major character’s life in the balance. Now, Notting Hill groups. Freida Pinto and Babou Ceesay star in following a three-month break, it’s time to learn this powerful six-part limited series, which was Julia Roberts and Hugh if Chelsea Peretti’s salty Gina Linetti can walk Grant co-star in a charming written by John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and romantic comedy about a away from a direct hit by a New York City bus. executive-produced by co-star Idris Elba. The Hollywood actress courted Tuesday, April 11, at 8 p.m., Fox show has the intensity of a thriller without ever by a bookstore owner. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return losing sight of its moving central love story. (1999) 7 p.m., Ovation A cult hit from the ’90s finds new life, with its Sunday, April 16, at 9 p.m., Showtime Thursday, April 13 creator, Joel Hodgson, still aboard as producer. Other highlights Tootsie Comedian Jonah Ray now occupies the key seat, Angie Tribeca An Oscar-nominated Dustin playing a space janitor forced by two mad sci- A punny new season begins for the Police Squad– Hoffman plays a struggling entists to watch bad B movies. The good news: style spoof starring Rashida Jones. Season guest actor who scores a role on He has two robots to keep him company and stars will include Natalie Portman and Chris a soap opera by pretend- add snarky commentary while flicks like 1961’s Pine. Monday, April 10, at 10:30 p.m., TBS ing to be a woman. (1982) Reptilicus test the protagonist’s sanity. Felicia 5 p.m., Starz Day and Patton Oswalt co-star. Available for Saturday Night Live Friday, April 14 streaming Friday, April 14, Netflix Jimmy Fallon hosts as the 41-year-old sketch Unforgiven show broadcasts “live from New York” coast Doctor Who to coast for the very first time. That’ll mean the Clint Eastwood plays an After a year off, the longest-running sci-fi series aging outlaw who takes on usual 11:30 p.m. cold opening on the East Coast one more job in a revision- in history returns for a new season of adven- and early starts in the Mountain and Pacific ist Western that won him a tures. Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who will be time zones. Saturday, April 15, NBC Best Picture Oscar. (1992) traveling with a new companion, played by Pearl 7:45 p.m., HBO Mackie, while many familiar faces return, includ- Veep ing Michelle Gomez’s villainous Missy. Capaldi, As the Emmy-winning comedy series returns, Saturday, April 15 who’s been great as the 12th Who, vows this Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Selina Meyer faces a Brooklyn season—his fourth—will also be his last. new challenge: how to be the first female ex- A 1950s Irish immigrant Saturday, April 15, at 9 p.m., BBC America president. Sunday, April 16, at 10:30 p.m., HBO is torn between her new life in New York and the life she left behind. Show of the week Saoirse Ronan stars, oppo- Better Call Saul site Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson. (2015) He’s not yet Saul Goodman—the unscrupulous 6:05 p.m., Cinemax lawyer who abets a meth kingpin in Break- ing Bad. But in the third season of this slow- Sunday, April 16 evolving but excellent prequel series, Jimmy Ben-Hur McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is clearly heading for a Charlton Heston is a rebranding as his admirable traits fade away. Jewish prince sold into He has put himself in a bad spot with a recent slavery during an epic confession he made to his brother. Meanwhile, life that includes bearing his fixer, Mike, is searching for a mystery char- witness to Jesus’ crucifix- acter who seems to know everything he’s up ion. The film garnered 11 to, including an aborted assassination attempt. Oscars. (1959) 2 p.m., TCM Could that someone be Breaking Bad villain Odenkirk with co-star Rhea Seehorn Gus Fring? Monday, April 10, at 10 p.m., AMC Sky UK Limited/Showtime, Robert Trachtenberg/AMC/Sony Pictures Television Pictures Trachtenberg/AMC/Sony Sky Robert UK Limited/Showtime,

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 • All listings are Eastern Time. before anything else, we’re all human rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com 30 LEISURE Food & Drink Critics’ choice: From remote lands to America’s tables

Sahib New York City larvae to add to a taco. Less daring din- Because it gives fine Kashmiri cuisine ers can steer instead to crudo of scallop a foothold in Manhattan, this five-month- and avocado drizzled with a prickly old Curry Hill restaurant “deserves all pear syrup. Every dish is “deeply and the stars that can be bestowed upon enthusiastically” Mexican, yet no one it,” said Robert Sietsema in Eater.com. should feel intimidated. The barba- Though the menu at Sahib tours all of coa de res de Zaachila, for instance, India, the kitchen’s most inspiring dishes “reminded me a lot of an American hail from the northern land of mists and Sunday supper.” 1777 Walker St., mountains that Led Zeppelin sang about Suite A, (713) 400-3330 in 1975. Chef Hemant Mathur visited Kashmir while gathering ideas for Sahib, The Gundis Chicago and his best work couples a reverence The food at the Gundis is “unlike toward tradition with a willingness to what you’re probably used to from innovate new pleasures. Fenugreek, an your average Turkish restaurant,” earthy, aromatic herb, appears again and Sahib’s Hemant Mathur: Pushing beyond tradition said Mike Sula in the Chicago Reader. again—including in a delicious sauce that Created by two Turkish Kurds who accompanies a meaty lamb shank. Rogan the middle of nowhere as a boy, he might met in Chicago after emigrating from a josh, a signature Kashmiri dish, combines never have dreamed up his latest venture, small city called Nusaybin, it’s this town’s tender braised lamb with a yogurt sauce fla- said Pat Sharpe in Texas Monthly. Ortega, only Kurdish eatery—a modern-looking vored with cumin and caramelized onions. the acclaimed Houston chef who already storefront space where the dominant ingre- Mathur “plays fast and loose” with Punjabi captains Hugo’s and Caracol, was 10 when dient is isot—a raisiny, crimson pepper specialties too, stuffing eggplant curry into his family left Mexico City for a small farm that provides a slow-building sweet heat to a smoked eggplant skin and creating an outside Puebla. There, he gravitated to the everything from the lentil soup to the fried “unforgettable” vegetarian dish from green kitchen, grinding corn and toasting cacao potatoes. You might think you’re in New chiles, tomatoes, and minced cauliflower. beans with his grandmother. Though Xochi Orleans when you try the peppery shrimp, A run-of-the-mill chicken vindaloo only is surely Ortega’s most ambitious effort yet, if not for lamb dishes like the Mardin tells you to opt for unfamiliar paths at its Oaxacan menu feels as if it sprung from special—braised lamb wrapped in fried Sahib. “May it be the precursor to many lessons he learned in that kitchen. A tast- eggplant set between a tomato sauce and a other restaurants splurging on fenugreek.” ing menu of moles brings, among others, a yogurt sauce. “Gundis is a small door open- 104 Lexington Ave., (646) 590-0994 mole made with the elusive chilhuacle negro ing onto a part of the world where most of chile and a puya chile mole flecked with us have never been,” and “the food that’s Xochi Houston crunchy flying ants. Order queso del ran- come through is something to embrace.” If Hugo Ortega hadn’t once moved to cho, and you’ll get grasshoppers and agave 2909 N. Clark St., (773) 904-8120

Wine: Alexander Valley Recipe of the week Not every great California cabernet A great marinade “hits every single taste bud,” balancing sweet, salty, savory, and sauvignon comes from Napa Valley, spicy flavors, said Ellie Krieger inThe Washington Post. With this Asian-inspired said Patrick Comiskey in the Los Angeles recipe, the sweetness derives mostly from mango, not sugar, and the marinated Times. Alexander Valley is a highly re- chicken needs just 20 minutes under a broiler to develop mouthwatering tenderness, spected appellation in adjacent Sonoma plus “the alluring char that happens when food gets near fire.” County, and its cabs are “among the Mango-lime marinated chicken thighs sturdiest in California,” characterized by 1 cup mango chunks • 3 tbsp fresh lime juice • 1½ to 2 tbsp Thai fish sauce • 2 tbsp robust tannins, “a warmth and generos- canola or other neutral-tasting oil • 1 tbsp light brown sugar • 2 tsp Sriracha • 3 large ity of fruit,” and a consistency across cloves garlic, coarsely chopped • ½ tsp kosher salt • 1½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken vintages. They exude classicism, and at thighs • fresh cilantro leaves, for serving • lime wedges, for serving a fraction of Napa’s prices. 2012 Jordan ($50). Give this “intrigu- • Combine mango, lime juice, fish sauce, Place chicken on a broiler pan, allowing ingly savory” wine some air and a oil, sugar, Sriracha, garlic, and salt in a some marinade to cling. Broil for about “cherry core of fruit” emerges. blender; puree to form a smooth mari- 8 minutes, then use tongs to turn chicken 2013 Lancaster Estate ($70). “Warm nade. Transfer to a quart-size zip-top bag. over and spoon a bit more marinade on and deep,” this cab tastes of dark Add chicken and seal, second side. (Discard plum, with a background savory pressing as much air out any remaining mari- note and supple tannins. of the bag as possible. nade at this point.) Broil 2013 Stonestreet ($45). In this high- Massage to coat, then re- until chicken is cooked end Kendall Jackson product, scents frigerate at least 4 hours through and lightly of bay leaf and cedar give way to and up to overnight. charred around the edges, red plum and wild cherry, a grippy • Position an oven rack 4 about 9 minutes. Garnish mouthfeel, and “a foresty wallop of to 6 inches from broiler with cilantro and lime mountain tannin on the finish.” element; preheat broiler. wedges. Serves 4 to 6. Brie Passano/The New York Times/Redux, The Brie The Times/Redux, Washington Post Passano/The York New

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Travel LEISURE 31

This week’s dream: Soaking in Slovakia’s medieval charm

Slovakia gets scant coverage in most taking in the views and exploring the travel volumes, but “maybe it’s time those grounds. At Slovak Paradise National Park, guidebooks got an overhaul,” said Erica we spent another day hiking the popular Rosenberg in The Washington Post. Few Sucha Bela trail, which climbs a gorge cut Americans visit this former Soviet satellite, by a stream and its waterfalls. After hours despite its rich culture, great food, beauti- of hoisting myself upward on chain holds ful national parks, and perfectly preserved and climbing 90-foot ladders just inches medieval towns—all of which can be expe- from falling water, I was delighted to find rienced at little cost and with no tourist rentable mountain bikes awaiting us for the crowds. To be honest, when my husband trip down the canyon’s back side. and I arrived in Kosice, Slovakia’s second- largest city after Bratislava, I felt dismayed “The best was yet to come.” Farther west, by all the drab Communist-era apartment Banska Stiavnica is a centuries-old village buildings and the dowdy pension house whose charms, culture, and food “rival that awaited us. Right around the corner, those of any Italian hill town.” Set in a though, sat the “lovely and lively” town A view from Spis Castle mountain valley, Banska Stiavnica is book- center, anchored by a stunning Gothic cathe- ended by two castles, both with panoramic dral and packed with bustling shops, cafés, be a great base for exploring castles and views. We skipped the mining museums, and restaurants serving dumplings doused nearby national parks. Spis Castle, the larg- but enjoyed a Bach concert played on the with a sour cream–and-mushroom sauce. est fortress complex in Central Europe, organ at a 15th-century church. One day is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the town square was taken over by a medi- While Kosice exceeded modest expectations, its 12th-century main structure overlooks eval festival—complete with blacksmiths, Levoca proved to be “a small-scale medi- “multihued fields,” red-roofed villages, and armored knights, and stilt walkers. eval marvel by any standard.” Founded “rolling hills with a backdrop of snowy At Levoca’s Hotel U Leva (uleva.sk/en), in 1249, this walled town of 14,500 can mountain ranges.” You could spend hours doubles start at $60 in season.

Hotel of the week Getting the flavor of... A land of ancient giants Artsy Tucson While roaming recently in California’s Sequoia There’s a lot more to do in Tucson than play National Park, I often found myself “expel- a round of golf, said Jim Byers in DallasNews ling a quivering, involuntary Whoa,” said Jon .com. “Increasingly known as an urban hot Mooallem in The New York Times. We have spot,” the desert city’s downtown has a lively all seen photographs of the immense sequoias restaurant scene, tons of outdoor art, and, in the park’s Giant Forest, but the images don’t because it’s so flat, a big biking culture. I took a do the trees justice. Some are 300 feet tall, with two-wheeled tour of the hodgepodge of neigh- branches that dwarf the largest trees on the East borhoods that compose the city center, pedaling A journey back to the ’30s Coast. What’s more, the delirium triggered by from Exo Roast Co.’s mural-covered coffeehouse The Queen Mary the sequoias’ size is amplified when you think to Hamilton Distillers, where the owners malt Long Beach, Calif. about their age. To walk among giant sequoias is barley over mesquite to create a distinctly smoky A night on this historic to share the air with organisms older than most craft whiskey. Along the way, I was surprised to decommissioned ocean liner major religions. At one point, I noticed that the see one storefront sign that read “No Guns” and “needs to be approached distant branches were gray but that each mam- a cultural center advertising a “women, trans, with a spirit of adventure,” moth trunk “hums with a dreamy reddish-orange and femme workshop.” Another potential sur- said Moira Macdonald in The glow.” Veering away from my small hiking prise for visitors is “how strong the winemaking Seattle Times. Built in 1930 group, I reached out to touch the rutted bark and scene is in southern Arizona.” Just 30 minutes and once the largest, most luxurious passenger vessel was surprised by its sponginess. “That’s crazy,” outside town at Charron Vineyards, I savored a crossing the Atlantic, the said the hiker closest by, and for a moment, we crisp viognier as I sat on a sunny patio, enjoying Queen Mary has fallen into stood side by side, kneading the tree’s epidermis. lovely views of the surrounding valleys. disrepair, but it’s “still a mag- ical place.” The staterooms are small but “utterly charm- Last-minute travel deals ing,” and guests are free An India twofer Angling in Scotland Hip digs in Mexico City to explore, soaking in the Through April 15, On the Go Through April 30, the River All this month, Mexico City’s “glorious” art deco detailing Tours is offering two-for-one Tweed Fishing Lodge outside Galería Plaza Reforma is offer- while imagining that film rates on trips across India. Edinburgh is offering 20 per- ing 25 percent off or more on stars are still wandering the With the discount, the 11-day cent off fishing packages. A stays through September, if halls. “See it while you can,” Taj and Raj tour, which stops four-night package, including the booking is made at least 60 though: The rusting hull at Jaipur and the Taj Mahal, meals and guides, starts at days in advance. With the dis- won’t last 10 years if major is $1,028 per person, double $2,600 per person. Use promo count, doubles at the four-star repairs don’t begin soon. occupancy. code Scotland Week. Zona Rosa hotel start at $93. queenmary.com; doubles from $124 onthegotours.com albagamefishing.com galeriaplazareformahotel-mexico.com Erica Rosenberg/The Washington Post, courtesy of The Queen MaryThe courtesy of Post, Washington Erica Rosenberg/The

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 32 Best properties on the market This week: Ho mes for large families

1 S Austin Built in 1982, this house underwent a gut renovation in 2003. The six-bedroom home features two master suites, oversize walk-in closets, six bathrooms, and a two-story children’s play- room with built-ins. Additional amenities include a four-car garage, a covered outdoor dining area, and a pool with a spa. $3,995,000. Cord Shiflet, Moreland Properties/Christie’s International Real Estate, (512) 751-2673

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2 X Salt Lake City This eight-bedroom home lies along the tree-lined streets of the Federal Heights neighborhood. Inside there are hardwood floors, a brick fireplace, a main suite with a balcony, and an oversize kitchen with a breakfast nook. The secluded yard has a flat grass area as well as a patio with a fire pit. $1,385,000. Cody Derrick, CityHome Collective, (801) 718-5555

3 X Portland, Ore. Lying on 1.1 acres in the Raleigh Hills neighbor- hood, this five- bedroom house was built in 2014. Unique features include a geo- thermal system, a family room with tongue-and-groove wood-paneled walls, a quartz built-in children’s desk, hand-painted Moroccan tiles, and a master bedroom with a marble fireplace and a spa bathroom with heated floors. Outside there’s a pool, a sound system, and a sport court area. $3,950,000. Suzann Murphy, Where Real Estate, (503) 789-1033

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Best properties on the market 33

4 X Montecito, Calif. Set on 1.6 acres, this six- bedroom, six-bathroom house provides views of the surrounding moun- tains. The home features a chef’s kitchen, hardwood floors, multiple balco- nies, and a living room that opens to a covered patio and an outdoor kitchen. The property boasts a two-bedroom guesthouse, a bocce court, and a pool with a gazebo. $6,495,000. Ron Brand and Bob Lamborn, Sotheby’s International Realty, (805) 565-8654

Steal of the week

6 S Tucson This currently config- ured four-bedroom house on an 5 S Pittsburgh This seven-bedroom home is in the borough of elevated lot can Fox Chapel, which offers multiple top-rated schools. Interior easily be expanded into a six-bedroom with two master suites. details include a library, a family room with a fireplace, and The home has an open floor plan, a recreation room, and a large an open-concept kitchen with two dishwashers, a prep sink, living room with a flagstone fireplace. The property includes a and a six-burner stove. The house’s lower level has a wet bar, a four-car garage, covered patios, landscaping with large cacti, and playroom, and an expansive game room with an exercise area. views of the Catalina and Rincon mountains. $438,900. Alan $1,450,000. Barbara Bolls, Howard Hanna, (412) 496-5361 Aronoff, Long Realty Co., (520) 631-7222

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 34 LEISURE Consumer

The 2017 Mazda CX-5: What the critics say Autoblog.com behind the wheel is just how much more “It would seem that the Society of Persnick- upscale the interior looks.” Throw in better ety Engineers is well represented at Mazda noise insulation, improved ergonomics, HQ.” The CX-5 was already arguably the best- and an upgraded suspension, and life in a driving compact SUV on the market last year CX-5 becomes “a far more serene experi- when once again it was Mazda’s best-selling ence” than it was before. Mazda still needs vehicle. But that didn’t stop the engineers to modernize the infotainment system, from obsessing over refi nements on the though, and the 187-hp four-cylinder engine second-generation edition. Though the new isn’t exactly a powerhouse. “A vehicle this CX-5 doesn’t include any headline-grabbing great deserves something more exciting.” changes, it has emerged, after many smart A driver’s SUV, from $24,045 tweaks, as a crossover that “thoroughly Jalopnik.com trounces the majority of its competition.” “The CX-5 is not going to be the car to even banality, rule. If you need an affordable blast adrenaline into your heart at every compact SUV and “want to feel like you’re Autoweek on-ramp.” But it remains “a shining light of driving, not just steering,” the CX-5 seems “The fi rst thing you’ll notice as you slide artistry” in a segment where practicality, “hard to beat.”

The best of…must-haves for a farmers market regular

Baggu Bag Kuhn Rikon Baggu makes more- ChicoBag Vita Oxo Good Grips Vegetable Peeler Norpro Herb Keeper elaborate totes, but its An upsized shoulder- Salad Spinner Though “wildly inexpen- “Looking to extend the classic reusable grocery friendly version of the Easy to use, store, and sive,” this Swiss-made longevity of fresh, fra- bag is “nowhere near original ChicoBag, the clean, the sturdy Oxo implement is “by far the grant herbs?” The best plain or boring.” The Vita “weighs practically bests all other spinners preferred peeler in pro- herb keeper around sack holds up to 50 lbs. nothing” but can carry for all-round perfor- fessional kitchens.” The has a deep base and and “comes in so many up to 40 lbs. Made of a mance. Even parsley handle could be sturdier easy-to-see water-level fun colors and prints washable fabric, it folds dries without bruising in and the blade more rust markings. Sturdy and you won’t be able to into an integrated pouch its coddling basket, and resistant, but the edge spacious, it’s also slim pick just one.” that will fi t in a large the spinner’s pump eas- cuts like a dream and enough to fi t on a $10, baggu.com pocket. ily outlasts a string pull. never dulls. refrigerator door. Source: Better Homes From $8, chicobag.com $30, target.com $5, surlatable.com $13, amazon.com & Gardens Source: RealSimple.com Source: TheSweethome.com Source: TheSweethome.com Source: Cooks Illustrated

Tip of the week... And for those who have Best apps... A healthy lawn made easy everything... For job hunting QWatering: A typical lawn needs only an Forget all the QIndeed Job Search is the most compre- inch of water a week, rain included, and the creams, masks, hensive job search engine, with more than roots will be happiest if that inch comes in and peels. The 16 million listings in over 60 countries. one soaking. LightStim LED QLinkedIn Job Search is a job-searching QMowing: Let grass grow to about 4.5 inches Bed invites you app created by LinkedIn, the business net- before trimming it down to 3 or 3.5 inches, to take a nap working website. The app helps you quickly never cutting off more than a third of the on a bed of find opportunities based on location, and blade. Long grass is heartier and needs therapeutic notifies you of relevant new postings. With less water. Sharpen your mower’s blade lights that, a premium subscription, you’ll know how three times a year so that it slices the grass if the manu- you compare with other applicants. instead of tearing it. facturer’s claims are true, can kill acne and QGlassdoor offers the usual job-search QFertilizing: No lawn is easy to care for reduce wrinkles from head to toe. Developed tools but also provides reviews of compa- if the soil isn’t healthy. You can smell by Dangene, a New York–based clinic that nies, details on their salaries and benefit healthy soil, and if you have worries, you also calls itself the Institute of Skinovation, packages, and even office photos. should send samples away for testing. the bed is the fi rst of its kind to be cleared by QSnagajob focuses on hourly employment, Regular fertilizing should occur when roots the FDA as safe for use. Like Dangene’s more covering more than a million full- and are growing—meaning autumn in cooler affordable LED wands, it uses a NASA tech- part-time positions in restaurants, retail, climates and late spring in the South and nology developed to stimulate the healing of hospitality, and similar industries. Southwest. Avoid fast-release fertilizers, wounds. Non-purchasers can enjoy time on QZipRecruiter makes it easy to view hun- which can burn your grass. Instead, use the bed at $300 for a 40-minute session. dreds of different job boards at once. The compost or slow-release or organic options. $65,000, lightstim.com app sends you the best matches daily. Source: Consumer Reports Source: Jezebel.com Source: PasteMagazine.com

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 BUSINESS 35 The news at a glance

The bottom line Tech: More scrutiny for skilled-worker visas QAs of this week, electric- The Trump administration is For now, “the changes are more car company Tesla is worth making it harder for Silicon cosmetic than substantive,” said more than the 113-year-old Valley companies to hire Vindu Goel and Nick Wingfield Ford Motor Co. Tesla now has a market capitalization of workers from overseas, said in The New York Times. Still, $47 billion, compared with Jing Cao and Joshua Brustein bigger reforms could be on the Ford’s $45 billion. Last month, in Bloomberg.com. U.S. way. Applications for entry- Tesla sold 4,000 vehicles in Citizenship and Immigration level programmers have already the U.S.; Ford sold 234,000. Services issued new guidelines been getting more scrutiny in Recode.net last week for the H-1B work recent years, but the Justice QGillette plans to cut prices visa program, increasing scru- Department warned employers on its razors by as much tiny for applications from entry- Trump to tech: Hire more Americans. this week not to discriminate as 20 percent in order to level computer programmers. against American workers when compete with online startups Tech and outsourcing companies are the biggest making hiring decisions. While the biggest tech like Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s that specialize in sell- users of the roughly 85,000 H-1B visas issued companies like Google and Facebook aren’t likely ing cheap blades. Gillette’s each year and often say they can’t find Americans to be affected much in the short term, because share of the men’s razor with the right skills to fill the jobs. President they rely on H-1Bs for higher-skilled workers, the business has shrunk from Trump promised to crack down on the visa pro- industry is bracing for more changes, possibly in more than 70 percent in 2010 gram during the campaign. the form of an executive order. to 54 percent in 2016. The Wall Street Journal Aerospace: Boeing’s Iran deal tests Trump ‘Cyborg’ workers QAmazon is expected in Sweden to spend $4.5 billion on Aerospace giant Boeing has agreed to sell 60 jets to Iran’s third-largest television and film content airline, a deal that will test President Trump’s “avowed hostility toward “What could pass for a dystopian vision of for Prime Video this year, that country,” said Rick Gladstone in The New York Times. The the workplace is almost roughly twice what HBO will $6 billion transaction, announced this week, is the first major deal by spend. But so far, streaming routine at the Swedish an American business with Iran since Trump took office, and must be startup hub Epicenter,” video isn’t winner-take-all. approved by the U.S. government. Trump has repeatedly denounced the Some two-thirds of subscrib- said James Brooks in ers to American Prime also 2015 nuclear accord, which allows for commercial aircraft sales to Iran, the Associated Press. subscribe to Netflix. but he has also pledged to protect American manufacturers. Boeing says Since January 2015, The Economist the deal will create 18,000 U.S. jobs. the Stockholm co- working space has been QThe Retail: Payless files for bankruptcy U.S. coal implanting employees Payless ShoeSource has joined the “growing list” of chains driven into and members with industry bankruptcy by online and discount retailers, said Krystina Gustafson in employed microchips that allow 76,572 CNBC.com. The Topeka-based shoe chain filed for Chapter 11 bank- them “to open doors, workers in ruptcy protection this week, announcing that it will immediately close operate printers, or buy 2014, fewer nearly 400 of its 4,400 global stores as part of the reorganization. The smoothies with a wave people than company blamed “its crushing debt load and weak sales” for the move. of the hand.” The chip, Arby’s (80,000), Dollar Gen- Payless’ parent company was purchased in 2012 by private equity firms, which isn’t manda- eral (105,000), or J.C. Penney leaving it “saddled with debt.” tory, is about the size (114,000). Even if there were of a grain of rice and as many coal workers as Autos: Car sales down, discounts up injected via syringe into there were 25 years ago “The U.S. auto industry turned in an underwhelming performance in the fleshy area between (131,000), the coal industry March,” said Nathan Bomey in USA Today. Automakers sold 1.56 mil- the thumb and index would still employ fewer lion vehicles for the month, according to Autodata, down 1.6 percent finger. The technology people than the retail shoe from a year earlier. Most analysts had expected “a modest upturn.” isn’t new; similar chips sales industry (224,000). Automakers have begun offering heavy discounts to clear out their have been used to track The Washington Post growing backlog of unsold vehicles, especially of small cars. “Sales pets and packages for years. At Epicenter, the QSome airlines make as incentives rose 13.4 percent in March, compared with those of a year much money selling miles chips have become so earlier, to an average of $3,511 per vehicle.” Even so, the industry is still popular that employees to credit card companies as in “decent shape,” coming off two consecutive years of record sales. they do selling seats to pas- hold monthly “chipped” sengers. The card companies Economy: Productivity down for first time since 2009 parties for new employ- pay airlines anywhere from The U.S. economy just got “a disturbing piece of bad news,” said Jeff ees getting the implant. 1.5 cents to 2.5 cents per Guo in The Washington Post. “Americans actually became less produc- “The biggest benefit I think is convenience,” mile, which they then dole tive in 2016, the first time since 2009.” Overall efficiency fell roughly said Patrick Mesterton, out to customers. Airline 0.2 percent in 2016, even though the economy grew 1.7 percent. That miles now account for more Epicenter’s CEO. “It than half of all profits at means any growth in the economy came solely from firms hiring more basically replaces a American Airlines, the larg- workers and buying more equipment, “not from improvements in tech- lot of things you have, est U.S. carrier. nology or organization.” It’s a warning sign for the U.S. economy, which whether it be credit Bloomberg.com faces a shrinking workforce in the decades to come and will “need to cards or keys.”

Getty, Newscom Getty, find ways of doing more with fewer people.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 36 BUSINESS Making money

Investing: BlackRock bets on robot stock pickers “Score one for the machines,” said Landon Thomas Jr. The reality is that BlackRock is “giving in to mar- in The New York Times. BlackRock, the world’s ket forces,” said Rachael Levy in BusinessInsider largest money manager, with some $5 trillion in .com. Last year alone, global investors pulled assets, is shifting away from human stock pickers $423 billion from actively managed stock funds in favor of computer models that use complex algo- and poured $390 billion into index funds. To rithms to make investing decisions. The firm is taking stay competitive, active managers have been try- baby steps, initially shifting a relatively small $30 bil- ing to keep their fees as low as possible while tap- lion in funds to the machine-led system. But it’s perhaps ping into new technologies to improve their chances the biggest attack yet “on the cult of the brainy mutual of beating the market. Hedge funds especially have fund manager.” In recent years, investors have increas- been making use of so-called alternative data for guid- ingly fled actively managed funds, which charge hefty ance on which stocks to buy. Rather than just looking fees for the expertise of their handsomely paid portfolio at a company’s balance sheet, they are beginning to managers, and turned instead to low-cost, passive options tap “data that comes from the apps we use, the online that simply track the market’s performance. Not only are shops we buy from, and the GPS tracking within our these funds cheaper, they’ve also been leaving human stock smartphones”—anything that gives them more insight into pickers “in the dust.” Since 2009, only 11 percent of “which companies will continue to rake in cash, and which BlackRock’s actively managed stock funds have beaten ones are likely to flop.” their market benchmarks. Higher returns, lower fees “You may benefit from BlackRock’s move even BlackRock is hoping that “relying more on robots” will be a hit if you aren’t a client,” said Tom Anderson in CNBC.com. with cost-conscious customers, said Sarah Krouse in The Wall BlackRock’s embrace of low-fee funds should prompt other firms Street Journal. One selling point is that the rebranded unit will to bring down their fees as well, which benefits everyone except begin offering Main Street customers computer-driven invest- high-flying portfolio managers. Alas, human stock pickers now ment strategies that were “previously available only to large find themselves in the same hot seat as taxi drivers and truckers, institutional investors.” The revamped funds will also charge whose livelihoods are being threatened by self-driving technology. considerably lower fees than BlackRock’s active funds have in Automation “just hit asset management people who make half the past—which BlackRock admits will eat into its bottom line. a million dollars a year,” said Laura Varas, founder and C EO of BlackRock says it initially expects to lose $30 million annually financial research firm Hearts & Wallets. “What BlackRock is from the planned price cuts. doing is huge, and there will be more to come.”

What the experts say Charity of the week Lower credit-card fees 20 years “could be worth more than $21,000 “Annual credit-card fees aren’t set in stone,” extra,” compared with what a traditional IRA said AnnaMaria Andriotis in The Wall Street would have been. One big advantage is that Journal. More than 80 percent of people who the original Roth owner doesn’t have to take asked their card company for a break on required minimum distributions. And because Seventy percent of the world’s poor are their annual fees got one, according to a new the tax on the inheritance is prepaid, the heir rural farmers, many of them concen- survey from CreditCards.com. Most of those can take tax-free required distributions and re- trated in eastern and sub-Saharan Africa. In those areas, one in 10 children dies who asked got their fee waived entirely. Fierce invest that money as he or she sees fit. Mean- before the age of 5, often from hunger. competition between credit-card issuers means while, “the money still sitting in the inherited The One Acre Fund (oneacrefund.org) companies are doing whatever it takes to hold Roth continues to grow tax-free” over the helps small farmers thrive by offering on to customers. But that doesn’t mean your heir’s own lifetime. them the resources and training they card issuer is guaranteed to bend. “Those who need to build sustainable businesses have the best luck tend to be those who are Building Junior’s credit score and, in turn, take care of their families. The organization uses a four-pronged on time with their payments and threaten to “Handing over your credit card to your teen- approach: Finance resources like seeds stop using the card or to close it if the fee isn’t ager might not seem like a good idea. But it and fertilizers on credit; deliver those waived.” Other terms are usually negotiable might actually be a smart financial move,” items directly to farmers’ doors; teach as well. Nearly 70 percent of borrowers who said Kathryn Vasel in CNN.com. Parents who farmers how to best use those tools; asked for a lower interest rate got it. have good credit can help children start build- and then help farmers sell their harvest. ing their own strong credit history by adding Since its founding in 2006, the organiza- Roth IRAs are inheritance friendly tion has helped 420,000 farming families them as authorized users. On-time payments, a in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, If you’re already planning to leave a tradi- good credit utilization ratio, and a long credit Uganda, and Malawi. tional IRA to an heir, it might make sense to history “are likely to have a positive impact on convert it to a Roth IRA now, said Rachel an authorized user’s credit score.” It can also Each charity we feature has earned a Sheedy in Kiplinger.com. That’s “because be an opportunity to talk about proper credit four-star overall rating from Charity the Roth can grow tax-free not only over use. Parents should set strict rules about how Navigator, which rates not-for-profit your lifetime, but your heir’s lifetime too.” much their child can spend, and who will pick organizations on the strength of their In a recent analysis, Vanguard found that up the tab. “Keep in mind that parents don’t finances, their governance practices, and the transparency of their operations. if a 65-year-old converts a $100,000 tradi- have to hand over the card at all” for their kid Four stars is the group’s highest rating.

tional IRA to a Roth, the heir’s inheritance in to reap credit benefits. Shutterstock

THE WEEK April 14, 2017

38 Best columns: Business

Issue of the week: Businesses battle over border tax Corporate America almost uniformly com. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Ar- craves tax reform. But businesses are kansas, whose state is home to Walmart deeply split over whether to support the headquarters, is a “vocal opponent” of “centerpiece of the Republican tax over- the border tax and gearing up for a fight. haul effort,” said Nicholas Confessore and Consider also that manufacturers typi- Alan Rappeport in The New York Times. cally have to entice only executives to House Speaker Paul Ryan has proposed a buy their products, while retailers “are “border adjustment tax” that would put extremely good at selling stuff” directly a 20 percent tax on imports coming into to the public. “Which do you think is the U.S. “In theory, this would buttress do- going to be better equipped to persuade mestic manufacturing and make American voters to call their senators and represen- products more competitive with foreign tatives about the border-adjusted tax?” goods.” The revenues generated by the tax—as much as $1 trillion over the next Ryan’s proposal has the backing of big exporters. “Just saying ‘no’ to the border adjust- decade—would also make possible the Republican dream of low- ment tax will not work,” said Derek Scissors in TheHill.com. ering the corporate tax rate without adding to the federal budget Everyone agrees that our corporate tax code needs “profound deficit. Major U.S. manufacturers like Boeing and Caterpillar are change.” A border tax would allow us to meaningfully lower behind the idea. But retailers like Target and Ikea, as well as other the corporate tax rate from the current 35 percent without companies that import most of their goods, are lobbying furi- blowing up the deficit, and encourage companies “to locate and ously against it. So are several deep-pocketed conservative groups, hire in the U.S.” It also puts the U.S. on more even footing with including the political network backed by billionaire businessmen countries that impose value-added taxes on American goods. Charles and David Koch, who see it as anti–free trade. So opponents “need to do more than object; they should offer a replacement.” We can debate the border tax all we like, but “Imposing a 20 percent tax on imports would have a chilling ef- it’s dead on arrival, said Peter Coy in Bloomberg.com. The op- fect on job creation and the budgets of working families,” said position to it is just too powerful and united. And without the Judson Phillips in WashingtonExaminer.com. Not only would it added revenue, Republicans are going to have to settle for much drive up costs for small retailers and manufacturers that rely on smaller tax cuts. So instead of the 15 percent corporate tax rate imports but also “the cost of big-ticket items like cars, electronics, President Trump has promised, companies might face something and appliances would all rise.” The National Retail Federation more like 28 percent—“the same corporate rate that President estimates that the average American family will pay $1,700 more Obama sought.” Trump desperately wants a major legislative per year in higher prices on goods. It’s also never smart to anger win after the health-care debacle. But it looks as if whatever he retailers, said Dylan Matthews and Matthew Yglesias in Vox. manages to get done on taxes “is likely to be small-bore.”

“The tech industry has a problem with ‘bro cul- partying” by their overconfident young founders. Tech’s ture,’” and it’s ruining Silicon Valley startups, said People have been complaining about the Valley’s Dan Lyons. Consider Uber. Its chief executive, bro culture for years, saying it sidelines women and jerk Travis Kalanick, is the prototypical “CE-Bro”: a encourages employees to openly ignore rules in order “good-looking, cocky, and slightly amoral” young to achieve breakneck growth. The behavior has been problem alpha male who has long answered to no one but tolerated because “sometimes it works,” making in- Dan Lyons himself. As investors threw billions of dollars at him, vestors a lot of money. But other examples, proving The New York Times Kalanick created a toxic work environment where that “toxic workplace culture and rotten financial sexual harassment and blatant flouting of govern- performance go hand in hand,” are starting to pile ment regulations appear to have been openly toler- up. Perhaps if enough investors get hurt, “this poi- ated. Now, amid a wave of scandals, the $69 billion sonous state of affairs will get fixed.” Because “the company “is in free fall.” Once high-flying startups real problem with tech bros is not just that they’re like Quirky and Zenefits have similarly crashed and boorish jerks. It’s that they’re boorish jerks who burned, thanks to “reckless spending and excessive don’t know how to run companies.”

Declining homeownership doesn’t mean the Ameri- in rural areas, and most of them owned a home on a Ahistorical can Dream is dying, said Stephen Mihm. Renters farm. In the cities, however, people “rarely bothered now dominate more than half of the nation’s largest to purchase a home”; homeownership rates varied American cities, and only 31 percent of adults under age 35 little from class to class. For many wealthy Ameri- are homeowners. “It’s tempting, perhaps, to read cans, employing servants was actually considered a Dreams this trend as yet another sign of national decline.” higher priority. Now stagnant incomes and high debt Stephen Mihm But homeownership only recently became a symbol have pushed many people back to renting. “But the Bloomberg.com of the American Dream. “In fact, homeowners did slide may also reflect a growing awareness that in- not eclipse renters until after World War II.” His- vesting most of your wealth in a single, immovable, torians estimate that the homeownership rate was illiquid asset isn’t such a good idea after all.” There’s around 50 percent in 1860, which sounds high until no shame in that. “The U.S. was once a nation of

you factor in that 80 percent of the population lived renters. It could be again.” AP

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 Obituaries 39

The radical who wrote The Anarchist Cookbook The domestic violence victim who inspired William In 1969, William when the family returned to New The Burning Bed Powell Powell went to the York in 1959, said The New 1949–2016 New York Public York Times. Powell was work- On the night of March 9, 1977, Library and began ing at a bookstore in Manhattan Francine Hughes reached her studying declassified military docu- when he started compiling The breaking point. Earlier that ments, survivalist guidebooks, and Anarchist Cookbook; his motiva- day, her ex-husband James electronics manuals. Within a tion, he said, was his anger at had beaten her, threatened her with a few months the 19-year-old had receiving a draft card during the Francine knife in front compiled a comprehensive how-to Vietnam War. When the book Hughes of their chil- guide for aspiring insurrection- was published in 1971—“Not Wilson dren, and ists, with detailed instructions and for children or morons,” read the 1947–2017 ordered her to illustrations on everything from making dynamite disclaimer—Powell was studying English litera- have sex with to converting shotguns into grenade launch- ture at Windham College in Putney, Va. “I don’t him—abusive behavior that ers to cooking up LSD. Published in 1971, The see myself as crazed or bomb-throwing,” he said. had become routine over the Anarchist Cookbook would go on to sell more “Though I could be if driven into a corner.” past 13 years. But this time, than 2 million copies and would also be used by she struck back. After James With his name forever tied to the Cookbook, went to sleep, she poured the perpetrators of such atrocities as the 1995 Powell “struggled to find work,” said The gasoline on his bed and set it Oklahoma City bombing and the 1999 massacre Washington Post. He left the U.S. in 1979 to alight. “Only then,” she said, at Columbine High School. Powell—whose death work as a teacher in schools across the Middle “did it hit me. ‘My God, what last year only recently became public knowledge— East, Africa, and Asia, and later co-founded a are you doing!’” She grabbed came to regret writing the Cookbook. “The her children, drove to a nonprofit to help children with developmental central idea to the book was that violence is an county jail, and turned herself and learning disabilities. “He described the effort acceptable means to bring about political change,” in. Hughes was charged with as a form of atonement.” The Cookbook “never he wrote in an author’s note that has accompanied first-degree murder, but a made him rich,” because Powell had given the the book’s listing on Amazon.com since 2000. “I jury found her not guilty by copyright to his first publisher, said the Los reason of temporary insanity. no longer agree with this.” Angeles Times. In 2013, he asked the publisher The high-profile case would Born on Long Island, N.Y., Powell was 3 when to permanently pull the book. Its continued inspire a best-selling book, his family moved to London for his father’s publication “serves no purpose other than a com- The Burning Bed, and a 1984 work as a United Nations press officer. He was mercial one,” he wrote. “It should quickly and TV movie of the same name starring Farrah Fawcett, bring- bullied and caned at school and “felt alienated” quietly go out of print.” ing national attention to the issue of domestic violence. Born in Stockbridge, Mich., The gay activist who created the rainbow flag Hughes left high school at 16 to marry James, said The Gilbert Gilbert Baker city’s gay rights movement,” proudly called him- said The Washington Post. Washington Post. “The abuse Baker began on their honeymoon, 1951–2017 self the “gay Betsy He bought a sewing machine, she recounted, when her hus- Ross.” In 1978, the which he used to make the band accused her of dressing artist and activist was approached gowns “he wore in occasional too revealingly and tore off by Harvey Milk, a member of appearances as a drag queen.” her clothing.” The couple San Francisco’s board of supervi- Those dressmaking skills were divorced in 1971, but James sors and a gay rights campaigner, “really how I ended up making continued to live with her and asked to make an emblem of the first flag,” he said. “I was and their four children, and empowerment for the city’s Pride the guy who could sew it.” The doled out regular beatings. festivities. Baker hand-dyed the cotton muslin original rainbow banner measured 30 by 60 feet, Her murder trial and acquittal in trash cans and stitched together brilliantly and each horizontal strip had special significance: became national news and colored strips of fabric, creating the rainbow pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yel- “helped transform the public’s flag that has since become the international sym- low for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, understanding of domestic bol of gay liberation. When the U.S. Supreme indigo for peace, and violet for spirit. “When it violence,” said The New York Court legalized gay marriage in 2015, more than went up and the wind finally took it out of my Times. “Burning-bed syn- 26 million people on Facebook changed their hands,” Baker said, “it blew my mind.” drome” entered the national profile picture to include the flag, and the White lexicon, and the number of Five months later, Milk was assassinated, and the shelters for battered women House was lit up in its colors. “The rainbow flag he had marched under “became a symbol in the U.S. grew from a hand- is so perfect because it really fits [the gay com- of pride within the gay community,” said The ful in 1977 to nearly 700 in munity’s] diversity in terms of race, gender, ages, Miami Herald. Baker would tweak its design, 1984. But Hughes, who mar- all those things,” Baker said. “Plus, it’s a natural dropping pink because the fabric was too expen- ried again in 1980 and later flag—it’s from the sky!” became a nurse, shied from sive and blending turquoise and indigo into royal publicity and refused to see Born in rural Chanute, Kan., Baker “always blue. But he never made any money from the herself as a feminist heroine. thought of himself as an outcast because he was banner, instead supporting himself as a freelance “I don’t need pity or sympa- gay,” said The New York Times. After serv- designer. “The rainbow flag is a symbol of free- thy,” she said. “I’m just an ing two years in the Army, Baker settled in San dom and liberation that we made for ourselves,” ordinary person.”

JP Laffont/Polaris, AP JP Laffont/Polaris, Francisco in 1972 “and soon became active in the he said in 2003. “We all own this flag.”

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 40 The last word Tipping the scales America’s obesity epidemic is fueling a boom in expensive weight-loss surgery, extra-wide hospital beds, and supersize grave plots, said journalist Beth Baker. The costs of the crisis are overwhelming our society.

N AN OPERATING room at researchers and policymakers Baptist Memphis Hospital, sur- are trying to figure out just Igeon George Woodman stood what the obesity epidemic is over a sedated patient, preparing going to cost the nation. There to insert a 5-inch needle into her are the direct medical costs huge abdomen, draped with yards of treating obesity-related of blue surgical cloth. The 30-year- diseases, including type 2 dia- old patient weighed 330 pounds, betes, heart disease and stroke, with a body mass index of 46—so high blood pressure, arthritis, heavy she’s considered “morbidly” and related cancers, among obese. Woodman made five small others. And then there are the incisions and slowly inserted indirect costs: lost productivity, the instruments he would use more illness, extra infrastruc- to remove most of her stomach. ture to handle heavier patients As he and his team worked, the and residents. patient’s organs—stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, pulsing heart— These bills are already com- could be seen on a video monitor. ing due in Memphis. Last Two gaping hernias became vis- year, extra health-care costs ible, holes torn in the abdominal from obesity were $538 mil- sac that holds the body’s major lion—more than half the organs. “The belly wall is not budget of the city’s public school system, according to designed to hold this much Bariatric weight-loss surgeries can cost as much as $25,000. weight,” Woodman observed. He Gallup-Healthways Well- pointed out the many tiny blood vessels in more)—the kind most harmful to individual Being Index. For the state of Tennessee, the the stomach lining. “The stomach has a lot well-being and expensive to society—is annual excess health costs of obesity were of blood supply. That’s why it’s so good at rising at an alarming rate and may affect $2.29 billion—equivalent to more than absorbing terrible foods,” he said. 11 percent of U.S. adults by 2030. 6 percent of the entire state budget. No matter how many surgeries Woodman con- By the operation’s end, most of the Dieting and exercise are the prescription for ducts, he won’t make a dent; many more patient’s stomach was trimmed away, leav- most Americans who want to lose weight, Americans are tipping the scales into the ing a much smaller “gastric sleeve” that but only a minority succeed. Woodman obese range each year. would allow her to feel full after eating estimates that just 3 percent of his mor- bidly obese patients could lose their excess Endocrinologist Jay Cohen, who treats only small amounts of food. Removing many patients with obesity-caused diabetes, a portion of the stomach also suppresses weight on their own, so for most, bariatric surgery is a last-resort option. With luck, estimates that the average diabetic patient the hormones that stimulate hunger. The costs the health-care system triple what a operation (known as a laparoscopic sleeve this patient will lose about 75 percent of her excess weight, putting her on track to a healthy person costs. Add in their lost pro- gastrectomy) is now the most common ductivity and the price tag skyrockets. type of weight-loss surgery performed healthier future. in the U.S. “People say that obesity is self-induced,” “It’s politically imperative to reduce the obesity rate,” said Cohen. Nationally, “it Woodman has conducted 6,000 bariatric Woodman said. “But it doesn’t matter. We have to do something about it.” costs literally trillions of dollars to treat surgeries, and did three more that morn- these conditions.” ing. Memphis is the heaviest metropolitan Every five days, Woodman holds a semi- city in the country, with an adult obesity nar for prospective patients. On a recent S COSTLY AS the obesity problem is rate of about 36 percent—approaching the Saturday, 60 people showed up. Perhaps now, it’s set to get worse. The Baby rate of more than 40 percent that research- one-third would ultimately get surgery. For ABoom generation is the fattest on ers say we’ll reach by 2030, if current some, Medicare, Medicaid, or private insur- record, and they are just reaching the age trends continue. ers would pay, calculating that the price of where health problems begin to mount. the surgery is less than the cost of a lifetime Federal and state officials are growing “There is an unlimited number of patients,” of chronic disease. At Baptist Memphis, increasingly worried about the steep price he said. the operation costs $14,000. Elsewhere it is the country will pay for its weight problem. Memphis may be the heaviest city in the often higher—$25,000 or more. In West Virginia, one of the most obese country, but it isn’t much of an outlier. That may seem expensive, but it’s a bargain states, public health commissioner Rahul From the trimmest state, Colorado, to the compared with the estimated $200,000 in Gupta says the preventable direct medi- most obese, Mississippi, the entire nation excess medical costs obese Americans can cal costs of obesity are $1.4 billion to has been on a perilous—and costly— rack up over their lifetimes. $1.8 billion a year, with an additional upward track when it comes to extreme $5 billion in indirect costs, such as lost

weight gain. Severe obesity (a BMI of 40 or As American waistbands continue to expand, productivity. Obese patients submit up (2) Mahaskey/Politico M. Scott

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 The last word 41 to seven times the number of medical because of the number of heavier passengers. of their elders. To that end, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital created a pediatric obe- claims normal-weight patients do, he said. Obesity also affects the bottom line of sity program aimed at low-income children. “At the state and federal levels, chronic- employers. Obesity contributes to absentee- For some kids, it may already be too late. disease burden is among the largest drivers ism and “presenteeism,” when people show “We’re seeing adolescents who are more of health care costs,” Gupta said, “and up but are less productive. Based on current than 500 pounds,” said program director among chronic diseases it comes down to trends, the cost of obesity in lost economic Joan Han. the consequences of obesity and tobacco.” productivity by 2030 will be between And then there are the national costs. Zhou $390 billion and $520 billion annually. At the end of a workday, she and Yang, a professor at Emory University who Obese employees may suffer financially pediatrician-in-chief Jon McCullers sit studies the impact of obesity on the medical as well. A 2010 study found that white in his office to reflect on the obesity epi- system, found that obese older males spent women had 9 percent lower wages because demic. McCullers was an infectious disease $190,657 more on lifetime health-care of obesity, “equivalent in absolute value to researcher until five years ago, when he expenses than their normal-weight peers, the wage effect of roughly 1.5 years of edu- was recruited to Le Bonheur. “It was obvi- while older obese women spent $223,629 cation or three years of work experience.” ous that my research wasn’t what they more. A 2016 meta-analysis by University A study in the Journal of Health Economics needed,” he said. High poverty levels in of Washington researchers found that Memphis had led to a host of urgent prob- annual medical spending attributed to obe- lems. Topping the list was obesity. With sity nationally was nearly $150 billion— an infusion of state and hospital funding, more than four times the federal budget for he launched the obesity program, which foreign aid and nearly enough to fund the combines research, community outreach, entire U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. and a Healthy Lifestyle clinic. Most of the program’s $3.5 million annual budget is Other potential costs are harder to quantify not covered by patient insurance. but no less worrisome, for patients, tax- payers, and society at large. For example, What is the goal? “Not to be the worst in researchers are discovering that vaccines the country,” McCullers said wryly. may not be as effective in those who are The clinic has served 650 high-risk kids obese. Studies have found that obese since opening in October 2014, the major- patients do not respond as well to the HIV ity African-American girls. For these chil- vaccine and the flu vaccine, leaving them dren, a healthy lifestyle can be a new con- more vulnerable to infection—and to pass- cept. Through surveys, Han’s team found ing those diseases on to others. Over time, that two-thirds of the families they serve are it’s possible that a community’s “herd immu- At Le Bonheur’s pediatric obesity program considered “food insecure,” despite their nity” could suffer, creating the conditions found that some employers pay lower obesity. “So it’s the types of foods they’re for the return of diseases that were once eating—high in fat, high in sugar,” she said. controlled through immunization—and that wages to obese workers to cover higher insurance costs. As for exercise, said Han, gym class is held could affect us all, according to an analyst at in school hallways, if at all. the Union of Concerned Scientists. Even the cost of dying is higher for obese people. Companies like Goliath Caskets Despite the immensity of the problem, Even the military is affected, as recruit- Han and McCullers try to be hopeful. ers struggle to find enough soldiers who specialize in funeral products for the obese—for a price. Everything from wider Nationally, the prevalence of obesity has meet fitness requirements. The percent- remained stable for children and teens, age of overweight and obese young men grave plots to specialized hearses with rein- forced chassis and heavy-duty lifting equip- and the rate decreased significantly among doubled over a 50-year period and tripled preschoolers in 2013–14, according to the for young women. According to a study by ment must be used. Crematories are widen- ing furnace doors and chambers to accom- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. the National Bureau of Economic Research, “We know we can make the obesity rate Navy recruits who were overweight were modate very large bodies. A “supersize” funeral costs between $800 and $3,000 plateau,” said Han. “Now we need to make more likely than their normal-weight it reverse.” peers to fail semiannual physical readiness more, notes U.S. Funerals Online. tests. In all, overweight and obese active- “The costs are not just related to health Ultimately, they said, it’s clear obesity has duty military personnel cost the taxpayer care,” said Gupta. “There’s a cost for peo- stopped being a problem that’s only one $105 million a year in lost productivity, ple who can’t reach their full potential in for those affected and is now a national and $1 billion annually in treatments for terms of education, employment, mobility, crisis. The country literally cannot afford obesity-related illness—more than treat- physical activity, and productivity.” the impending costs. Shifting investments ments for tobacco- and alcohol-related ill- toward encouraging healthy environments RIVING AROUND MEMPHIS, as in ness combined, NBER estimated. and behaviors rather than paying for expen- many American cities, it’s easy to sive, life-threatening chronic disease is the Transportation costs, too, are rising, and not Dfind cheap fatty food—Church’s only affordable—and humane—response. only for obese passengers who must pur- Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Crumpy’s chase two seats to fly. Researchers at the Hotwings. Barbecue joints abound. “[Obesity] costs everybody,” said Yang. University of Illinois estimated that 1 billion “Nobody can escape. Someone has to pay “Memphis is the hub of diabetes,” said additional gallons of gasoline are consumed the bill.” endocrinologist Cohen. “We fry Twinkies.” in the U.S. each year to ferry overweight and obese car passengers from place to place. If Memphis is to avoid an unaffordable fat Excerpted from an article that originally One study estimated that U.S. airlines pur- future, it has to prevent the younger gen- appeared in Politico.com. Copyright 2017 chased 350 million more gallons of jet fuel eration from adopting the lifestyle habits POLITICO LLC. Reprinted with permission.

THE WEEK April 14, 2017 42 The Puzzle Page

Crossword No. 403: Let’s Review by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest 12345 678 910111213 This week’s question: The CEO of a Connecticut mar- 14 15 16 keting company has developed a “snowflake test”—in which he asks job applicants when they last cried and whether they’re afraid of guns—to screen out Millennials 17 18 19 who have “an entitled attitude.” If he were to write a management book based on his hiring philosophy, what 20 21 22 23 24 would it be called?

25 26 27 28 29 Last week’s contest: A perfume for women who admire Vladimir Putin has gone on sale in Moscow. The scent is 30 31 32 called Russian Woman, but please come up with a name for a perfume for either gender that better captures the 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 macho magnetism of Russia’s dictatorial president. THE WINNER: Old Spyce 40 41 42 Burt Snooks, Gulf Breeze, Fla. SECOND PLACE: BRUTal 43 44 45 Patty Oberhausen, Fort Wayne, Ind. THIRD PLACE: Eaupression 46 47 48 Rob Joiner, Carson City, Nev.

49 50 51 52 53 54 For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. 55 56 57 58 59 60 How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. Please include your name, 61 62 63 64 65 address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, type “Snowflake test” in the subject line. 66 67 68 Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, April 11. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page 69 70 71 next issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, April 14. In the case of iden- tical or similar entries, the first one ACROSS 44 AL MVP of 2003, 2005, 6 The Taming of the received gets credit. 1 Lethal and 2007 Shrew city The winner gets a one-year 6 Record store section 45 Noted form of oxygen 7 Be behind W 9 Candy bar in a red 46 NBC newsman Richard 8 Legal subscription to The Week. wrapper 48 “How’ve ya ___?” 9 Money back 14 South American spitter 49 “It’s a crummy secret, 10 On the ___ (fleeing) 15 Wonderment about one step up the 11 French farewell 16 Hosted, as an out-of- ladder of narrative 12 Brightest star in Orion Sudoku town guest originality from It Was 13 The grassy ___ 17 “It was inevitable that All a Dream.” (2004, 18 Coy response to Fill in all the a great film would 1 star) “Nicely done!” boxes so that come along, utilizing 53 Letters on Cardinals 23 Playwright Chekhov each row, column, the motorcycle genre...” caps 26 Dance great Rudolf (1969, 4 stars out of 4) and outlined 55 Bewitch 28 Venetian vessel square includes 19 Puerto Rican pal 56 Vast amount 29 Pleasant winds 20 Gallery pieces all the numbers 57 Xanadu band 31 Future syrup from 1 through 9. 21 Poker great Ungar 59 “Voila!” 33 Fishy story, probably 22 Isle of ___ (it’s between 61 Immigration island 34 Tiny crawler Difficulty: Ireland and Great 35 Not kin 63 “Here is one of the medium Britain) most entertaining films 37 Calming words 24 Slippery type in many a moon... 38 Bolted 25 All U.S. presidents, because of the sly way 39 Watch closely so far it plays with being 41 Animal with 27 “[This film] remains silent and black-and- outstanding vision close to its three 42 2012 Olympics basic elements: a white.” (2011, 4 stars) man, a woman, and 66 Sporty Mazda organizer Sebastian ___ prizefighting.” (1980, 67 Syllable shouted while 47 Pathfinder automaker 4 stars) standing on a chair 48 Fleck on banjo 30 Working hard 68 Silences (the TV) 49 Crossword feature 32 Amusing animal 69 It merged with Mobil 50 Corkscrew’s shape Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. 33 Predecessor of 70 ENTs and such 51 Medicine made by Melania and Michelle 71 Critic who wrote his Novartis 35 “Render ___ Caesar...” first review in the 52 Freaks and ___ (NBC ©2017. All rights reserved. 36 Cork’s country, to locals Chicago Sun-Times sitcom with a cult The Week is a registered trademark owned by the Executors of the Felix Dennis Estate. 50 years ago this week following) The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly except for one week in each 40 “Why are the aliens January, July, August and December. using hours and —and whose reviews 54 Powerful beam The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 55 West 39th Street, New minutes? Does their are cited herein 58 “It’s either him ___!” York, NY 10018. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional 60 ___ Helens (1980 mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box home planet have 62290, Tampa, FL 33662-2290. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $75; Canada $90; exactly the same DOWN erupter) all other countries $128 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement No. length of day and year 1 Jumping insect 62 Judge in 1995 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses as ours? How very 2 Red flag headlines to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. The Week is a member of The New York Times News Service, The Washington Post/ nice.” (1996, 2½ stars) 3 Tongue features 64 That gal Bloomberg News Service, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, and subscribes 43 Website for sellers and 4 Senator Klobuchar 65 It may have claw feet to The Associated Press.

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