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Editor’s letter When the Boston Red Sox went to the White House last week to get and even transcend race. But our games have always been a be honored by President Trump for their 2018 World Series vic- mirror of society, showing us where race relations stand—and tory, about 10 of the 25 players boycotted. All were H ispanic what we see today is not pretty. The Trump presidency has been or African-American. “It’s personal, bro,” catcher Christian like a magnitude-8.0 earthquake that has widened fault lines of Vazquez explained to The Washington Post. Like Red Sox man- race, class, and culture into chasms. Across these rifts, Ameri- ager Alex Cora, who also didn’t go, Vazquez is from Puerto Rico cans view each other with growing disdain and mutual incom- and doesn’t appreciate how Trump has treated the U.S. island prehension. How can you show such disrespect to our president? devastated by Hurricane Maria. In the Trump era, these boycotts shouts the tribe on one side. How can you not see how delib- have become the norm. The University of Virginia men’s basket- erately divisive your president is? responds the other. You have ball team recently refused a White House invitation. Trump an- to wonder how much uglier this will get, and how it ends. At a grily disinvited the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and the Phil- rally in Florida last week, the president pointedly noted that bor- adelphia Eagles in 2018 after black players said they would not der security agents can’t use weapons on the migrants asking for show up. They did not want to shake the hand of the presi- asylum at the border. “How do we stop these people?” Trump dent who demanded that the NFL fire the mostly black “sons of asked. “Shoot them!” one rallygoer shouted. The crowd erupted bitches” who knelt in protest during the national anthem. in cheers and laughter, and the president of the William Falk Sports, in its finest moments, can enable Americans to for- United States grinned. Editor-in-chief

NEWS 4 Main stories

U.S.-China trade war Editor-in-chief: William Falk intensifi es; President Managing editors: Theunis Bates, Trump meets with Mark Gimein Hungary’s autocratic Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie leader; Barr investigates Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Senior editors: Alex Dalenberg, the investigators Danny Funt, Michael Jaccarino, Dale Obbie, Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller 6 Controversy of the week Art director: Dan Josephs Will new red-state anti- Photo editor: Loren Talbot Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins abortion laws result in Roe Researchers: Joyce Chu, Alisa Partlan v. Wade being overturned? Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, Bruno Maddox 7 The U.S. at a glance Chief sales and marketing officer: Russians hacked two Adam Dub Florida election systems; Executive account director: Sara Schiano Senior account director: Dana Matesich illegal arsenal seized from Midwest director: Lauren Ross Bel-Air mansion Southeast director: Jana Robinson Abortion rights protesters outside the Georgia State Capitol (p.6) West Coast director: James Horan 8 The world at a glance Associate marketing director: Kelly Dyer The far right marches Integrated marketing manager: ARTS LEISURE Lindsay LaMoore in Poland; tensions rise Marketing designer: Maureen Dougherty between the U.S. and Iran 22 Books 27 Food & Drink Research and insights manager: Joan Cheung Jared Diamond’s advice Three U.S. wine bars where Programmatic revenue and ad operations 10 People for countries in crisis the truly hip can sip director: Isaiah Ward Ali Wong on outearning Digital planner: Maria Sarno her husband; Howard 23 Author of the week 28 Travel Chief executive officer: Sara O’Connor An epic, end-to-end road Chief operating & financial officer: Stern’s shock-jock shame How Jayson Greene Kevin E. Morgan wrote his way through trip through New Zealand Director of financial reporting: 11 Briefi ng grief Arielle Starkman How the internet has 29 Consumer Consumer marketing director: 24 Art & Music Great gifts for groomsmen, Leslie Guarnieri fueled the rise of white HR manager: Joy Hart supremacism in the U.S. A chronicle of and not a cuff link in sight Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo camp at New 12 Best U.S. columns Chairman: Jack Griffin York City’s Dennis Group CEO: James Tye Harvard’s surrender to BUSINESS Metropolitan “woke” students; a green 32 News at a glance U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell Museum light for U.S. war crimes Supreme Court OKs an Company founder: Felix Dennis 14 Best European 25 Film & Stage Apple antitrust case; columns Keanu Reeves Amazon’s delivery push An exposé of pedophile adds to his 33 Making money kill count in Visit us at TheWeek.com. priests shakes Poland Is it time to shrink CEOs’ For customer service go to www John Wick: 16 Talking points massive paychecks? .TheWeek.com/service or phone us Chapter 3 at 1-877-245-8151. 34 Best columns Trump’s foreign policy Renew a subscription at www struggles; Florida arms Uber’s IPO skids way .RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift )

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A recruitment woes (p.10) presenteeism

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 4 NEWS The main stories... The deepening U.S.-China trade war What happened Trump’s tariffs “may well take a toll The trade war between the United States on the U.S. economy, but the price and China escalated dramatically this of not confronting Beijing would week, with both nations preparing to im- be higher,” said the New York Post. pose new tariffs on hundreds of billions of China has been a serial trade cheater dollars’ worth of goods after a breakdown for decades, using its ill-gotten gains in negotiations. The Trump administration to build itself up as America’s chief raised tariffs from 10 percent to 25 per- geopolitical rival. Sure, the stock cent on $200 billion in Chinese goods, market doesn’t like tariffs. But “the including seafood, luggage, furniture, and Dow isn’t the U.S. economy.” America bicycles. In retaliation, Beijing announced is enjoying robust growth and record- that higher tariffs on $60 billion worth low unemployment. “If the country of American products, including beef, can’t afford to stand up to China now, vegetables, batteries, and electric saws, will it never will.” go into effect starting June 1. The salvo A soybean farmer in Ohio: Hard times came after months of trade talks abruptly What the columnists said deteriorated last week. American officials have accused China of Rural America was desperate for a trade deal, said Michael Hiltzik backtracking on key commitments, including changing its laws in the Los Angeles Times. Besides soybeans, prices for corn and to eliminate what the U.S. calls “market-distorting subsidies” for other commodities have also fallen to their lowest levels in decades. Chinese companies. Last year, farm bankruptcies in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas hit their highest level since 2010, and they’re The Trump administration is threatening to tax an additional expected to keep rising. “Trump’s trade war is wrecking America’s $300 billion in Chinese products, putting tariffs on virtually every farm economy.” How ironic, said Paul Krugman in The New York product China sends to the U.S., including electronics and toys. Times. Rural areas are the only parts of the country where the The trade turmoil unsettled global markets, with the Dow Jones in- president enjoys positive approval ratings. “Trump’s biggest sup- dustrial average and S&P 500 suffering their worst one-day losses porters are his biggest victims.” since January. Trump promised $15 billion in aid to farmers who have been hit hard by retaliatory measures from China, the nation’s “Trump didn’t start this trade war,” said Marc Thiessen in The second-largest agricultural market, praising the sacrifices of “our Washington Post. China did, through its years of unfair trade prac- Great Patriot Farmers” on Twitter. But Roger Johnson, president tices, such as forcing American companies to turn over their pro- of the National Farmers Union, said that the new tariffs “could not prietary technology to do business there. Trump, however, now has come at a worse time” and that temporary aid won’t undo “the the leverage in this struggle. The Chinese economy just reported its permanent damage” to agricultural export markets. slowest economic growth since 1990—a fact that must be panick- ing President Xi Jinping. China relies much more heavily on selling What the editorials said things to the U.S. than America does on exporting to China. “In Let’s call Trump’s tariffs what they are: “a new tax on Americans,” this game of chicken, Trump is not going to blink.” said The New York Times. The president continues to publicly insist that China pays the tariffs imposed on products it sends Trump is, in fact, making a high-stakes gamble that China will to the U.S. In reality, those costs are imposed on importers, who buckle, said Doug Palmer in Politico.com. But Xi will be reluctant pass them on to consumers. The price of washing machines, for to accept a lopsided pact that makes him look as if he caved too example, has increased 12 percent, or $86, since Trump slapped easily to U.S. demands, which could “jeopardize his standing as the a tariff on imported washers last year. China’s retaliatory tariffs, country’s paramount political leader.” If Trump can’t reach a deal, meanwhile, are badly hurting Midwestern farmers, “who have lost he’ll have raised prices for consumers and damaged the economy. a major market” for soybeans, pork, and other products. By slowing growth, he may “lose his best ticket to re-election.”

It wasn’t all bad QFrom Monday to Friday, Lotay Tshering works as prime QGabe Castellanos was celebrating minister of Bhutan. But on Saturdays, the elected leader his 38th birthday next to New York QAn Australian family out for a of the tiny Himalayan kingdom puts on a white coat and City’s East River when he spotted a Mother’s Day walk quite literally heads to the operating room at the National Referral dog struggling in the water some struck gold last week. The father Hospital. Tshering, 50, who was elected in November and is 250 feet from shore. The pooch, was with his two daughters and regarded as one of the country’s top surgeons, says being named Harper, had jumped in after their dog, appropriately named a prime minister is much her dog walker was lightly hit by a Lucky, when one of the girls kicked like being a doctor: in one taxi, spooking the animal. Castella- what looked like a yellowish rock. role he tries to improve nos stripped down to his underwear, “She then goes, ‘Dad, is this gold?’” the nation’s health; in the put on a life vest, and swam out to said the father, who asked to remain other, the health of pa- Harper. But as he reached for the anonymous. “I said, ‘I think it might tients. The prime minister scared dog, it bit him on the jaw, be.’” They took the 20-ounce nugget says he can’t imagine cracking his two front teeth. Unde- to be valued and discovered it was ever giving up surgery, terred, the birthday boy wrapped his worth more than $24,000—enough which he says is a great arm around Harper and brought her y t t

to help the family with some current de-stresser. “Some safely back to land. Castellanos didn’t e G

,

financial difficulties. “It couldn’t be people play golf,” he said. begrudge Harper for nipping him, m o c better timing,” said the dad. Tshering: Political operator “I like to operate.” joking, “I needed teeth work anyway.” s w e N Illustration by Howard McWilliam. THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Cover photos from AP, Newscom (2) ... and how they were covered NEWS 5 The warm White House welcome for Hungary’s autocrat What happened said Rick Wilson in TheDailyBeast.com. In President Trump heaped praise on Hungar- less than a decade, this “bijou strongman” ian Prime Viktor Orban during his visit to has turned Hungary into a tightly controlled the White House this week, shrugging off autocracy. He’s helped his cronies take over concerns about the Central European leader’s 400-plus news sites, newspapers, and TV increasing authoritarianism. Sitting alongside and radio stations—which now pump out Orban in the Oval Office, Trump praised the 24/7 pro-Orban propaganda. He’s cowed the Hungarian as “a tough man” who has “done courts, expelled troublesome NGOs, used his the right thing” on immigration. Presidents office to enrich himself, and built an actual George W. Bush and Barack Obama chose not border wall. Orban “is the authoritarian to give Orban an audience. During his three creep Trump wishes he could be.” straight terms in office, the nationalist prime Trump and Orban: ‘It’s like we’re twins.’ minister has called Syrian refugees in Europe Actually, Orban “is a much more complex “Muslim invaders” and erected razor-wire fences to keep migrants and interesting figure” than such one-sided portraits suggest, said out. He has also advocated the idea of “illiberal democracy,” Rod Dreher in TheAmericanConservative.com. He started out as chipped away at the independence of the judiciary and media, and a liberal, but in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of Syrian and invoked anti-Semitic tropes to attack the Hungarian-American fi- other Muslim migrants began arriving at his country’s borders, nancier George Soros. At the end of the meeting, said U.S. Ambas- wisely recognized that the European Union’s embrace of multi- sador David Cornstein, Trump told Orban, “It’s like we’re twins.” culturalism would be a death sentence for Hungary’s Christian national identity. As for his opposition to Soros, well, the Jewish bil- Trump administration officials said the visit was part of a strategy lionaire really has worked behind the scenes to undermine Orban’s to counter Russian and Chinese influence in Central Europe. Pro- government and promote open borders. government media in Hungary hailed the visit as an endorsement of Orban ahead of European Parliament elections next week, in At this point, nobody should be surprised when “Trump gets which his party and those of other European populists are expected chummy with an authoritarian leader,” said Joshua Keating in to do well. Orban thanked Trump for his friendship, saying Hun- Slate.com. After all, he’s repeatedly praised North Korea’s Kim Jong gary was “proud to stand” with the U.S. in the fight against “illegal Un and China’s Xi Jinping. But what’s different about Orban is that migration” and terrorism and in defense of Christian communities. he didn’t inherit an autocracy; he created one out of a thriving de- mocracy. Critics of Trump often accuse him of using the presidency What the columnists said to boost tyrants and foes of America. “In this case, however, the Sitting next to Orban must have “stoked a jealous rage in Trump,” bigger concern is that he’s taking notes.” A new investigation of the investigators What happened What the columnists said Attorney General William Barr answered the GOP rallying cry Barr is going to staggering lengths “to indulge and validate to “investigate the investigators,” assigning a U.S. attorney to the president’s most corrupt impulses,” said Paul Waldman in examine the origins of the probe into Russian election interfer- WashingtonPost.com. Despite the “copious misdeeds” reported ence, The New York Times reported this week. John Durham, by Mueller, Trump and his allies still insist “there should never the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, was tapped to assess have been an investigation in the first place,” and want Durham intelligence-gathering methods used on the Trump campaign; the to prove that. Even if Durham is not a partisan hack, he will Justice Department inspector general will soon deliver findings probably turn up “a few instances of minor sloppiness” that Re- on a similar topic. Durham is—for now—conducting a review, publicans can use to bolster their “insane conspiracy theories.” not a criminal inquiry, meaning he can’t subpoena documents or witnesses. The Times reports that Barr will take a “personal It’s Democrats who are peddling a new conspiracy theory every role” in Durham’s work, a chief focus of which is the FBI’s court- day, said William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal. Even approved surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows the Democrats’ case is weak. Page. “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr That’s why instead of calling a vote to hold Barr in contempt, has told the Senate. Pelosi is waiting to build “an omnibus contempt bill.” She’s using hysterical language like “constitutional crisis,” claiming Trump is Trump now faces at least 29 state or federal investigations and is “goading us to impeach him.” This is just a way to avoid account- working to block all of them. Donald Trump Jr. threatened to defy ability. If what she says is true, “Go ahead, impeach Trump.” a subpoena from the GOP-controlled Senate Intelligence Commit- tee to testify about campaign contacts with Russia, finally agreeing That’s exactly what the House needs to do, said Michelle Gold- this week to address a limited number of topics. House Democrats berg in The New York Times. Democrats need to bring to bear say the Trump administration has refused at least 79 oversight re- all powers of their own “in the face of an administration that is quests, and U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta voiced skepticism this trying to amass dictatorial powers.” Just listen to Trump’s own week in a case addressing Trump’s authority to block his account- lawyers, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. Their “official ing firm from complying with a congressional subpoena. Accord- position is that Congress has no business looking into whether ing to Trump’s logic, Mehta said, “the Whitewater and Watergate the president has broken the law.” If this theory prevails, Trump y t investigations were beyond the authority of Congress.” will get his wall—“a wall of legal impunity.” t e G

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 6 NEWS Controversy of the week Heartbeat bills: An invitation to overturn Roe

“At least Republicans have stopped pretending on perform abortions, and state courts have already abortion,” said Paul Waldman in The Washington ruled that abortion laws “cannot be used to pros- Post. Last week, Georgia became the fifth state ecute a woman for ending her own pregnancy.” since 2017 to pass a so-called heartbeat bill, mak- ing it a felony punishable by 10 years in prison to It’s possible that Roe will not be overturned and abort a fetus once a heartbeat has been detected. these laws will never go into effect, said George That usually happens around six weeks—a time Will in The Washington Post. Nonetheless, the when many women don’t even know they’re preg- heartbeat bills are “wholesome provocations.” nant. When Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the All parents-to-be who view an ultrasound think Supreme Court, “it was like a switch flipped,” said they’re viewing “a baby,” not “a cluster of cells.” Christina Cauterucci in Slate.com. “Abortion abo- There’s real value in confronting the often glib litionists” stopped pretending to use fake concerns pro-choice lobby with “the moral dimension of about “women’s health” to saddle abortion clinics An embryo at six weeks extinguishing a being with a visibly beating heart.” with impossible-to-meet regulations and began Except that it isn’t a heart, said Adam Rogers in passing these “blatantly unconstitutional” heartbeat bills. The Wired. At six weeks, an embryo is pea-size, with no developed goal: to spark lawsuits that will give the court’s new conservative organs; the rhythmic “beating” that sonograms detect is an electri- majority the chance to overturn Roe v. Wade. Listen to Rep. Terri cal pulse in a primitive group of cardiac cells. To insist that this Collins of Alabama, where 25 male legislators this week passed a wholly dependent, developing embryo is a full human being, with bill outlawing nearly all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. the same rights as a 2-year-old child, is not “science.” Doctors who perform abortions would face 99 years in prison. “This bill is about challenging Roe v. Wade,” said Collins. “This is And despite what anti-abortionists contend, the new heartbeat bills the way we get where we want to get.” would inevitably be used to prosecute women, said Mark Joseph Stern in Slate.com. Georgia’s bill “grants full legal personhood to Aren’t Democrats supposed to revere science? said Georgi Boor- fetuses” and specifically redefines illegal abortion to include using man in TheFederalist.com. We know vastly more about fetal a “substance” such as misoprostol, a widely available abortion development than we did when the court decided Roe, and no one drug. It’s absurd to insist that zealous prosecutors will not charge who has heard “the distinct womp-womp-womp” of their unborn women who take black-market misoprostol to evade the law. child will ever believe the lie that “a fetus is just ‘part of the “Self-induced abortion no longer looks like a coat hanger; it looks woman’s body.’” These laws simply declare “the scientific, philo- like a pill,” said Moira Donegan in The Guardian. So if these sophical, and theological truth that an unborn child is a ‘natural abortion bans go into effect, authorities will be powerless to stop person,’” said David French in NationalReview.com. And don’t desperate women from ordering misoprostol on the internet. Every believe the “lurid headlines” about women being jailed under these miscarriage will be suspicious—and investigated “as a potential laws. Georgia’s heartbeat bill is aimed squarely at doctors who homicide.” Is that America’s dystopian future?

Good week for: Only in America Housing rule would Licensed cabs, with a new study showing that the back seats of evict legal resident kids QThe city of Dunedin, Fla., ride-sharing cars, such as those affiliated with Uber or Lyft, carry The Trump administration’s has foreclosed on a retiree’s 35,000 times as many germs as the average toilet seat, and 219 plan to bar undocumented home for failing to pay fines immigrants from public hous- imposed for neglecting his times as many as the back seat of the average licensed cab, which is required to get regular cleaning. ing could displace more than lawn. Jim Ficken, 69, admits 55,000 children who are legal that his grass briefly grew Voyeurs, after a traffic jam on the Courtney Campbell Causeway U.S. residents, the Depart- beyond the allowed 10 in Tampa Bay was caused by motorists gawking at a “mating ball” ment of Housing and Urban inches while he was visiting of male manatees trying to get it on with a female in heat. Development reported last his dying mother, but was Autocrats, with a remarkable eight-goal performance by Russian week. The agency’s analysis, shocked when he was told announced last month, found the daily $500 fines added President Vladimir Putin in an exhibition hockey game with both officials and real professional players. The nimble, 66-year-old that about 25,000 house- up to $29,833.50. “Nobody holds representing 108,000 should lose their house for Putin had defenders and goalies so wrong-footed that in slow- motion replays they almost appeared to be letting him score. people would be affected, and having tall grass,” Ficken’s 70 percent of those people are lawyer says. Bad week for: legally eligible for benefits. QA San Francisco primary- Conquistadores, with new archaeological research suggesting Current rules already prohibit school teacher on sick leave that many of the Spanish invaders captured by Aztecs were fattened undocumented immigrants with breast cancer has been up for six months, then ritually slaughtered one by one and eaten. from receiving federal housing forced to pay the wages of subsidies, though families her substitute. A 1976 rule Donald, the once popular boy’s name, which dropped 39 places can live in public housing if at requires teachers to pay for in popularity between 2017 and 2018. The name’s current rank- least one member is eligible; their own substitutes after 10 ing of No. 526 is its lowest since Social Security Administration the new rule would require days of sick leave, but a pub- records began in the 1880s. they all be. “Fear of the family lic outcry may spur action by Responsibility, when Australia’s central bank admitted that the being separated would lead lawmakers. “Candidly, I think word “responsibility” is misspelled “responsibilty” three times to prompt evacuation by that times have changed,” in tiny print on the new $50 banknote, of which 46 million are most mixed households,” the said Democratic State Sen. m agency said, and could push o c

already in circulation. So far, the bank is withholding the name of s

Connie Leyva. some into homelessness. w e

the specific official responsble. (Note: That’s a joke, not a typo.) N

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7

San Francisco Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Protecting sources: Police 10,000 migrants targeted: The White Trump vs. FBI: armed with guns last week House planned a blitz operation to arrest President Trump handcuffed journalist Bryan 10,000 migrants in 10 U.S. cities, The berated FBI Director Carmody and spent six Washington Post reported this week. The Christopher Wray this hours searching his home, proposal, pushed by President Trump’s week for disagree- after he refused to immigration adviser Stephen Miller, ing with the reveal the source of a was intended as a show of force after claim that fed- leaked police report. Trump’s “zero tolerance” crackdown eral investigators Wray: Trump’s new target Carmody, 49, says failed to stop families from crossing the “spied” on members of Trump’s 2016 police first came to U.S.-Mexico border. The plan, which campaign. In testimony to the Senate, his home and asked would have focused on migrant families Wray was asked whether he agreed Adachi him to identify how he who had missed hearings or were rejected with Attorney General William Barr’s got a confidential report on the Feb. 22 for asylum, reportedly drew objections assertion that “spying did occur” after death of San Francisco Public Defender from Homeland Security Secretary the FBI acquired a warrant to conduct Jeff Adachi, who died of a cocaine-and- Kirstjen Nielsen and 30-year Border surveillance on former Trump campaign alcohol overdose. The freelance videog- Patrol veteran Ronald Vitiello. They felt adviser Carter Page, who had frequent rapher, who covers police stories for TV coordinated raids in New York, Chicago, contact with Russians. The FBI director news, refused, and a week later 12 offi- and Los Angeles would divert resources demurred, saying, “I believe that the FBI cers returned, ready to break down his and provoke public outrage. Vitiello’s is engaged in investigative activity, and gate with a sledgehammer and battering nomination to serve as director of the part of investigative activity includes sur- ram. They showed Carmody a search Immigration and Customs Enforcement veillance.” Trump called Wray’s answer warrant, drew their guns, handcuffed agency was rescinded on April 5, and “ridiculous,” adding, “I thought the him, and scoured his home, cart- Nielsen was ousted two days later. attorney general answered it ing away laptops, notebooks, perfectly.” On Twitter, Trump cameras, and his fiancée’s old quoted a conservative pundit, iPod. They also seized about Tom Fitton, who’d said, “The $40,000 worth of office equip- FBI has no leadership. The ment, plus the police report director is protecting the same from inside a safe. Carmody gang that tried to overthrow the says his source’s identity president through an illegal coup.” remains protected.

Los Angeles Washington, D.C. Bel-Air armory: Staying out of Ukraine: Rudy A cache of more Giuliani, President than 1,000 guns Trump’s personal was discovered by Florida lawyer, can- police last week at Election software intrusion: Russian celed a trip to a mansion owned military hackers successfully breached Ukraine, where by Cynthia Beck, software security to access voter data he’d planned the former mistress in two counties ahead of the 2016 elec- to lobby the Staying home of the billionaire tions, Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week. president- Gordon Getty. It was the first public confirmation of elect, Volodymyr Zelensky, to pursue Beck’s current Neighborhood find the hack referenced in the report from probes into the Ukrainian activities of companion, Girard special counsel Robert Mueller. DeSantis, Hunter Biden, son of former vice presi- Saenz, was arrested and faces federal a Republican, said the voter data was dent Joe Biden, and into the origins of charges for selling firearms without a already public, and no vote tallies were the special counsel’s Russia investigation. license. Responding to an anonymous affected. The FBI found that Russian Trump has claimed Ukrainian officials tip, 30 federal and local investigators hackers employed a “spear-phishing tried to aid Hillary Clinton in 2016 by required more than 15 hours to remove campaign,” using fake email addresses leaking damaging information about all the weapons, which included rifles, to trick officials into providing access to his since- convicted campaign manager, shotguns, machine guns, and pistols, their networks. Mueller’s office said more Paul Manafort. Before bowing to public along with dozens of boxes of ammuni- than 100 phishing emails were sent to pressure to cut the trip, Giuliani said the tion. Saenz, 57, was released after post- organizations and officials throughout probes could be “very, very helpful” to ing a $50,000 bond. The five-bedroom Florida. In last year’s U.S. Senate race in Trump, adding, “We’re not meddling in house, in a ritzy neighborhood where Florida, Democrat Bill Nelson warned an election, we’re meddling in an inves- )

2 celebrities like Jay-Z and Beyoncé live, ( that Russia had “penetrated” Florida’s tigation.” Democrats asserted Giuliani

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, resembled a “hoarder’s dream,” authori- voter registration systems. His oppo- was, in fact, seeking Ukraine’s help to m o c ties said. A police spokesman called it nent, then–Gov. Rick Scott, vehemently sway the 2020 election, with Rep. Adam s w e “beyond comprehension” that someone N disagreed, saying Nelson’s claims “only Schiff (D-Calif.) calling the trip “immoral,

, s r e could have so many weapons “in a serve to erode public trust in our elec- unethical, unpatriotic.” Giuliani said there t u e

R neighborhood like this.” tions.” Scott won the Senate seat. was “nothing illegal” about his plans.

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 8 NEWS The world at a glance ...

Warsaw Stockholm Nationalist anger: Thousands of Assange wanted: Sweden reopened a rape case against far-right Poles marched on the U.S. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week and says Embassy in Warsaw last week to pro- it may seek his extradition from the U.K. While test a U.S. law aimed at helping Jews out on bail for that case—based on allegations seek compensation for property their made by a Swedish woman—in Britain in 2012, families lost during the Holocaust— Assange took asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy Accused of rape some of which is now owned by Poles. in London, saying he feared that Sweden would It was one of the biggest overtly anti- extradite him to the U.S. to face espionage charges. Ecuador kicked Protesting U.S. law S.447 Jewish demonstrations in Europe in him out last month, and he is now serving a 50-week prison term recent years. The protesters held up signs reading “This is Poland, in the U.K. for jumping bail. Swedish prosecutors say they may not Polin,” using the Hebrew word for Poland, and “No to the seek to interrogate him in prison, but if they do seek extradition, Holocaust industry.” In 1939, Poland was home to about 3.5 mil- their case will likely take precedence over the U.S. extradition case. lion Jews; more than 90 percent of them were killed during World The U.S. wants Assange on a charge of helping former Army intel- War II. Poland’s government says that Poles were also victims of ligence officer Chelsea Manning steal U.S. secret documents. the Nazis and should not have to pay compensation. Passau, Germany Crossbow deaths: A maid found three people killed by cross- bow in a Bavarian hotel room this week—the grisly aftermath of an apparent murder-suicide pact. A man, 53, and a woman, 33, were discovered on a bed with crossbow bolts in their head and heart; their wills were in the room. The body of the couple’s presumed killer, a 30-year-old woman identified only as Farina C., was found on the floor with a bolt in her neck. All three were medieval combat enthusiasts, and the man owned a shop that sold medieval-style swords, axes, and clothing. The police subsequently went to Farina’s home in Wittingen, some 400 miles north, and found two more dead bodies: those of her female partner, 35, and another woman, 19, both killed earlier but not by crossbow.

Mexico City Smoke chokes streets: Residents of Mexico’s sprawling capital are being told to stay indoors this week because the smoke from massive wildfires has rendered the air toxic. Many of those who do go out are wearing surgical masks. More than 100 wildfires are burning across the country, mostly in south- Wildfire haze ern and central Mexico. If the smoke drifts northward into the U.S., it could make tornados more likely, since smoke allows clouds to form closer to the ground. “Air pollution doesn’t recognize jurisdictional boundaries,” said Kevin Cromar, an air-quality expert at New York University. “There’s no question that these fires will impact Central America, and if the wind is blowing upward, the United States as well.” Havana Rationing bites: The Cuban government announced that it was implementing widespread rationing of basic goods last week, a Caracas consequence of the Trump administration hardening the trade Guaidó wants Pentagon’s help: embargo and of the loss of aid from its socialist ally Venezuela. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Supermarkets will now restrict sales of products including chicken Guaidó has instructed his political and soap, and many foods—including rice, beans, eggs, and envoy in Washington to open relations sausage—will be available only on a monthly ration card. Cubans with the U.S. military in a bid to bring have posted photos on social media of long lines at grocery stores. more pressure on President Nicolás Courting the U.S. military Shipments of subsidized oil from Maduro to resign. Guaidó, who is recog- Venezuela to Cuba have shrunk by nized as Venezuela’s president by the U.S. and scores more coun- nearly two-thirds as that country’s tries, says he has the right to invite foreign military help because economy has imploded. Cuba used independence hero Simón Bolívar hired 5,000 British mercenaries y t t

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THE WEEK May 24, 2019 The world at a glance ... NEWS 9

Moscow Faking the news: The TV channel of the Russian Tehran Defense Ministry has been ridiculed for publishing U.S.-Iran tensions rise: Iranian offi- a purported interview on its website with an opera cials claimed this week that singer who died several years ago. The Zvezda station the Trump administration is claimed to have spoken to Elena Obraztsova as she trying to gin up a war against attended the funeral of journalist Sergei Dorenko their country. U.S. officials said this week. Dorenko, 59, a supporter turned critic Iranian combat divers were likely An Iranian gunboat of President Vladimir Putin, died of an apparent responsible for sabotage attacks heart attack while riding his motorcycle in Moscow. on two Saudi Arabian oil tankers and two other vessels near the Zvezda quoted Obraztsova as saying that Dorenko Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. At least one of the ves- was an “uncompromising journalist” and truth teller. sels had a small hole blown in its hull near the waterline; Iran In fact, the singer died in 2015 at age 75, and if she denied involvement. The incidents occurred just days after the were alive she would not have been at the funeral, U.S. announced it was dispatching warships and bombers to the because it was canceled. Dorenko’s family suspects region to deter Iranian threats. Trump’s national security adviser, foul play and has asked for an autopsy. Obraztsova John Bolton, has ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans to send up to 120,000 troops to the region if Iran attacks U.S. forces or resumes work on nuclear weapons, The New York Times reported this week. President Trump called that story “fake news,” saying that if a deployment were needed, “we’d send a hell of a lot more troops.” Iran said that Trump, who has railed against U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, was being hoodwinked into another war by the hawkish, bewhiskered Bolton. “That’s what happens when you listen to the mustache,” tweeted Iranian presidential adviser Hesamodin Ashna. Meanwhile, the State Department ordered all nonessential U.S. government employees in Iraq, which borders Iran, to leave at once, heightening fears of imminent conflict. The Trump admin- istration said it has “specific and credible” intelligence indicating that Iran or its proxies may be preparing attacks. U.S. allies dis- agree. British Maj. Gen. Chris Ghika, deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, said “there has been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria.”

Pyongyang Anger over U.S. ship seizure: North Korea this week demanded the return of a cargo ship that was impounded by the U.S. for violating internatio nal sanctions. Indonesian authorities intercepted the Wise Honest, North Korea’s second-largest cargo ship, off the Indonesian coast last year and found it to be carrying a load of coal intended for export. After months of international negotiations over the ship’s fate, it was transferred to American Samoa last week. North Korea now has 60 days to respond in a New York court to the allegations of sanctions busting. North Korea’s foreign ministry said the U.S. “must mull over what repercussions its gangster-like act will entail and must return our vessel without delay.”

Sanaa, Yemen Kiniyama, Sri Lanka U.S. knife bomb: The U.S. military has a new missile designed to Anti-Muslim riots: Buddhist mobs torched Muslim-owned shops reduce civilian casualties in pinpoint airstrikes on terrorist leaders, and vandalized mosques in southwest Sri Lanka this week, kill- The Wall Street Journal reported last week. A modified version of ing at least one person, in a wave of violence sparked by anger the Hellfire missile, the R9X doesn’t explode when it hits a target. over the Easter church and hotel bombings. The rioters ransacked Instead, six long blades pop out of the missile’s skin seconds before homes and shops, burned Qurans, and urinated in the water used impact, shredding the target without harming nearby individuals for sacred rituals. Police arrested more than 70 people, includ- or property. The “flying Ginsu,” as it’s been nicknamed, was devel- ing the leader of an extremist Buddhist group. Muslims said the oped under the Obama administration, which wanted to reduce attacks were organized and the civilian deaths from drone strikes rioters bused in to their towns in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and else- from elsewhere. “We cannot allow where. The missile has been used at innocent people to be victimized s r e t

u least twice: to kill al Qaida leader like this,” said Prime Minister e R

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) Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri Ranil Wickremesinghe in declaring 2 ( y t t in Syria two years ago and to kill a curfew. Extremists “cannot be e G

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N Minimizing collateral damage USS Cole, in Yemen in January. killed more than 250 people. A ransacked mosque

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 10 NEWS People

Stern’s new self-awareness Howard Stern is sorry he’s been such a jerk, said Lacey Rose in The Hollywood Reporter. In 2017, the shock jock had a life-changing health scare when doctors told him they’d detected a growth on his kidney they’d have to investigate through surgery. “All I’m thinking is, ‘I’m going to die,’” Stern says. “And I’m scared s---less.” It turned out to be just a harmless cyst, not cancer, but the experience rocked Stern, now 65, to his core. For most of his radio career, he had felt invincible and was willing to say or do literally anything to entertain his audience. Now he is filled with regrets, unable to listen to many of his old interviews without cringing over his narcissism. “Now I find it gross,” he says. “I was a child. I didn’t know what was up and what was down, and there was no room for anybody else on the planet.” He regrets being a lousy husband to his first wife and an absentee dad to his three daughters, now grown and living elsewhere. He squirms over how he treated celebrities he interviewed on the air, including the late Robin Williams. “I loved Robin Williams, but there I am beat- ing him over the head with, like, ‘Hey, I hear you’re f---ing your nanny?’ I could have had a great conversation, but I’m playing to the audience. I was so completely f---ed up back then.” He says he is trying to be a much better person. “I’d feel really s---ty if I hadn’t evolved,” he says. Why Nelson lives the high life Wong’s fa mily circus Willie Nelson credits marijuana with saving his life, said Patrick Ali Wong is the principal breadwinner in her family, said Julie Miller Doyle in Rolling Stone. The country music legend smoked his first in Vanity Fair. The 37-year-old comedian, who filmed two block- joint in 1954 and switched over to using pot exclusively in 1978. buster comedy specials while heavily pregnant with each of her He’d been drinking heavily and smoking several packs of ciga- daughters, now travels with both of them and her husband, Justin rettes daily, suffering through brutal hangovers and multiple bouts Hakuta, in tow. Hakuta is a constant source of support with both the of pneumonia. “I wouldn’t have lived 85 years if I’d have kept child care and his wife’s career; on her early tours, he even worked drinking and smoking like I was when I was 30, 40 years old,” he the merchandise booth. “My mom is very concerned [my hus- band’s] going to leave me out of intimidation,” Wong says. “I had to says. “I think that weed kept me from wanting to kill people. And explain to her that the only kind of man that would leave a woman probably kept a lot of people from wanting to kill me, too—out who makes more money is the kind of man that doesn’t like free there drunk, running around.” Weed, he says, lets him “delete and money.” Wong’s success has brought her many famous fans, includ- fast-forward” through tough times, helping him forgive and forget. ing Keanu Reeves, Kobe Bryant, and singer Lauryn Hill, so Hakuta “You don’t dwell on s--- a lot,” he says. “The short-term [memory has to deal with having his spouse join the ranks of celebrities. “He loss] thing they talk about is probably true, but it’s probably good is very proud,” she says, “but...I think he finds it more surreal.” She for you.” Nelson is gratified to see marijuana gaining mainstream doesn’t mind admitting that regular couples therapy helps keep the acceptance. But he gets angry when he thinks about all the people marriage working. “People are worried about other people thinking behind bars for marijuana. “A lot of it is because people get in something’s wrong in your relationship. And it’s like, something is there who don’t even have the bail money to get out,” he says. wrong in every relationship. So, if you’re not willing to admit that “Let those guys out and start working and paying taxes.” something is wrong, then something is wrong with you.”

facing Jamie, 66. Now Spears reportedly as he tried to get at the men. Porzingis wants adjustments made to the conser- reportedly did not suffer additional injuries vatorship, imposed 11 years ago after she after being hit with a chair. QBritney Spears has joined her suffered a widely publicized mental health fans’ #FreeBritney movement, QAlyssa Milano drew mixed reviews last going to court in an attempt to crisis. Spears and her parents agreed last week after responding to the wave of states’ modify the conservatorship that week to have an expert evaluate them and anti-abortion laws by calling for a “#Sex gives her father, Jamie, control their relationship. Strike” on Twitter. The 46-year-old actress over many aspects of her life, QNBA star Kristaps Porzingis was involved turned activist popularized the “Me too” TMZ.co m reported this week. in a physical altercation involving sev- rallying cry and now says, “Until women Spears, 37, accused her father in a eral people this week outside a club in his have legal control over our own bodies we closed-court hearing last week of hometown of Liepaja, Latvia. A bystander’s just cannot risk pregnancy,” adding, “JOIN committing her to a mental health video shows the Dallas Mavericks’ 7-foot-3 ME by not having sex until we get bodily au- facility where she was forced to forward with a bloody cut on his forehead tonomy back.” The tweet quickly drew more take prescription drugs against her and a torn T-shirt, reportedly after a handful than 40,000 “likes,” though many women will, the website said. Spears spent of Russians jumped Porzingis, 23, and a objected. “Bribing men for equal rights with 30 days at the Los Angeles facility group of his friends. In the resulting brawl, access to our bodies is not how feminism last month to help her cope with an one of Porzingis’ friends was punched in the works,” one tweeted. Milano’s husband, P A

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emotional downturn, which the singer face and temporarily lost his pulse. “I’ll send agent David Bugliari, said the #SexStrike ) 2 (

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attributed to the serious health issues your asses back to Russia,” Porzingis yelled was “working just fine.” t t e G

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Briefing NEWS 11 The return of white supremacy Right-wing racists are behind a surge in domestic terrorism. Why is this toxic ideology spreading?

Is white supremacy on the rise? Why does racism flourish online? This year, there’s been a horrifying spate Feeling safe because of the relative ano- of killings driven by racial and anti- nymity of the internet, participants—most Semitic hate. In February, prosecutors of them young white men—seek attention said, a white Coast Guard lieutenant in by saying shocking things in these online Maryland stockpiled an arsenal of weap- forums. A culture of crude one-upmanship ons and researched how to get access to encourages them to talk about rape, rac- Democratic lawmakers, liberal Supreme ism, and genocide—desensitizing one Court justices, and TV journalists; the another to violent ideologies. White nation- alleged perpetrator had also done an alists are known to recruit lonely internet internet search for “white homeland” gamers and fans of music genres like death and “when are whites going to wake metal, by encouraging them to villainize up.” In April, the 21-year-old son of a “normies”—or people who buy into social deputy sheriff was charged with burning norms. That escalates into violent fanta- A neo-Nazi rally in Georgia in 2018 down three black churches in Louisiana. sies about getting even with women who Later that month, a white man shot up a synagogue in Poway, won’t date them, and about mass shootings of Jews and nonwhites. Calif., after posting a manifesto online that said “Every Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned genocide of the European What’s their recruitment pitch? race.” He cited as among his inspirations the white supremacist On Twitter, the most popular hashtag among white supremacists who in March killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand. is #whitegenocide. This is the conspiracy theory that Jews are plot- President Trump has downplayed white supremacist killing sprees ting the extinction of American white Christians by replacing them as the work of a few bad apples—“a small group of people.” But with immigrants and refugees. Last October, shortly before killing the FBI says otherwise, announcing last week that it has 850 ongo- 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh—the deadli- ing investigations into possible domestic terrorists, including both est attack on Jews in U.S. history—the shooter used a far-right anti-government and white supremacist individuals and groups. social media platform to vent hatred of “invaders” in migrant caravans, which he blamed on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Is that a big increase? “HIAS likes to bring invaders that kill our people,” the 46-year- The number of investigations into white supremacists and nation- old said. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. I’m alists has grown with great “velocity” in recent months, says going in.” The Poway synagogue shooter said he was inspired Michael McGarrity, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism by the right-wing forum 8chan. “What I’ve learned here is price- division. Several organizations report surges in hate groups and less,” the 19-year-old allegedly wrote hours before his attack. The hate crimes: The Anti-Defamation League says right-wing extrem- first commenter encouraged him to “get the high score,” as these ists were behind at least 50 killings last year, the deadliest toll since online extremists describe a mass shooter’s kill count. the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The most dangerous domes- tic terrorist threat today, McGarrity said, is “the lone offender What is law enforcement doing? who self-radicalized online [and] has access to a weapon.” That Law enforcement officials say they’re underfunded and handcuffed also makes it harder to measure the in dealing with this threat. For reasons scope of the threat. White supremacists The social media problem it has not explained, the Trump admin- today mostly congregate on obscure web It’s hard to deter a group that thrives on feel- istration cut funding for the federal forums, making their identities deliber- ings of persecution. After the Daily Stormer was Office for Community Partnerships, ately hard to trace. booted by its domain host, it quickly re-emerged which works with local governments under the name Punished Stormer and raised and organizations to prevent the How popular are those sites? more than $150,000 for a legal defense fund. radicalization of Muslims and white Stormfront.org, founded by a former The site releases image files that can be shared nationalists, from $21 million in 2016 KKK leader in the 1990s with the motto on social media without alerting censors. It’s to less than $3 million in 2017. The “White Pride, World Wide,” grew to also difficult for companies that run social media Department of Homeland Security has 300,000 members by 2017. Another sites to differentiate white supremacists from disbanded a group of intelligence ana- highly trafficked white supremacist some far-right conservatives; Rep. Steve King lysts who focused on domestic terror- forum, Daily Stormer, was booted from (R-Iowa), for example, has said, “White national- ism. Civil rights advocates are calling the internet after the 2017 “Unite the ist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how on Congress to pass a domestic ter- Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. The did that language become offensive?” House rorism statute; without one, the white Republicans took away King’s committee assign- ban came in response to the site calling supremacist Coast Guard lieutenant ments after that comment, but he remains in the murdered counterprotester Heather Congress. Facebook declined for years to purge who allegedly was making plans to Heyer “a fat, childless 32-year-old slut.” users calling “for an exclusively white state,” but kill prominent Democrats and media The “politically incorrect” message reversed course in March and banned “praise, figures could only be charged with board on 4chan is another major hub support, and representation of white national- illegal firearms possession. “If you’re for far-right-wingers, all done anony- ism and separatism.” That’s led to accusations of using violence as a way to intimidate mously through posts that quickly dis- partisan censorship. “This is the United States or coerce,” said Mary McCord, former appear. In January 2018, the N-word of America,” Trump tweeted, “and we have deputy assistant attorney general for s r e t appeared 115,000 times on 4chan, a what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH!” national security, “then that should u e

R fivefold increase since 2015. just be called terrorism. Period.”

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.

America has put its young people on “the front lines” of the battle Kids shouldn’t against gun violence, said Helen Ubiñas. In recent weeks, two students It must be true... charged at school gunmen, sacrificing their lives to save their classmates: I read it in the tabloids need to be Kendrick Castillo, 18, who died May 7, just three days before he was tragic heroes set to graduate his Denver-area high school; and Riley Howell, 21, who QA North Carolina teen has died a week earlier while trying to take down a shooter who’d opened not been able to remember Helen Ubiñas fire in a University of North Carolina–Charlotte lecture hall. These acts what happened the day be- The Philadelphia Inquirer of heroism shouldn’t be necessary in a civilized nation, but rampant gun fore for the past 20 months. violence has turned our schools into battlegrounds. C astillo and Howell On Oct. 12, 2017, Caitlin Little died because “in America, we’d rather make tragic heroes of our chil- of Greensboro suffered a dren than protect them.” In this ongoing national emergency, teenagers concussion during track and even first-graders must think about what they’ll do if “they are practice. Now—as with the confronted with an active shooter.” Nate Holley, 12, a schoolmate of character played by Drew Barrymore in the movie Fifty Castillo’s, said, “I had my hand around a metal baseball bat. If I was First Dates—her mind resets going to go down, I was going to go down fighting.” It’s heartbreak- overnight and purges memo- ing that our kids have to make such a calculation. But something that ries of that day. Her father, “breaks our hearts” should “move us to act, shouldn’t it?” Chris, tells Caitlin what day it is each morning—and directs Harvard University has “capitulated” to a student mob, said David her to a journal and notes Harvard’s she’s written about events French. This week university officials notified the residents of an un- she’s forgotten. “I’m always surrender dergraduate dorm that their faculty deans, Ronald Sullivan and his very hesitant every day, but wife, Stephanie Robinson, were being forced out of that role. Their it’s my job,” her dad said. “I crime? Sullivan, a distinguished African-American lawyer who teaches have to tell her.” to students at Harvard Law School (as does Robinson), had agreed to join Harvey A Long David French Weinstein’s defense team. In our system of justice, even a defendant Q Island motorist NationalReview.com accused of heinous crimes is entitled to a robust defense, and vilifying was caught lawyers for representing unpopular clients threatens the due process in a high- rights of everyone. Sullivan has represented thousands of poor, power- occupancy- less clients, including Michael Brown’s family in a lawsuit against the vehicle city of Ferguson. That was all of no concern to Harvard’s woke activ- lane with a ists, who claimed to be “traumatized” by Sullivan’s decision to defend mannequin in Weinstein. They staged demonstrations and sprayed graffiti on campus his passenger buildings attacking Sullivan and the university. Cowed, the university seat. Police decided through a “climate review” that Sullivan’s leadership at the say James Britt, 34, outfit- dorm had become toxic, and so he and his wife have been banished. ted his fake companion in a “The students are in charge now, and they want to teach us their own cap, sunglasses, jeans, and intolerance. It’s a lesson our culture is learning all too well.” a sweatshirt to speed past traffic on the notoriously con- gested Long Island Express- President Trump has just sent a disturbing message about war crimes, way. But an eagle-eyed traffic A green light said Michael Cohen. Last week, the president pardoned former Army officer detected the ruse and 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi pulled him over. “I would for U.S. prisoner in 2008—stripping him naked, putting a gun to his head and have to give that motorist demanding information, and then shooting him in the head and chest some credit for ingenuity,” war crimes and dumping his body in a culvert. Behenna claimed self-defense, but said a police official. Michael Cohen he told other soldiers “he didn’t feel bad about it because he just lost QTwo Florida swimmers The Boston Globe two guys.” Republicans in Behenna’s home state of Oklahoma lob- swept out to sea by a strong bied Trump to pardon him, saying he’d admitted to his mistakes and current saw their prayers for deserved “to move on from this incident.” Trump, naturally, agreed. rescue answered by a boat During the 2016 campaign, he endorsed waterboarding and torture of called Amen. High school seniors Heather Brown and suspected terrorists, and even called for killing their family members. Tyler Smith are now both He’s offered public support for several U.S. soldiers accused of war crediting the Almighty for crimes, including Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL whose fellow SEALs their deliverance. “While I say he boasted of killing more than 100 Iraqi civilians. The military was laying on my back, the makes great efforts to police its own. But by excusing war crimes, the best I could, floating,” said commander in chief is making it known “that he has little problem Smith, “I just called out, with soldiers committing heinous and illegal offenses.” ‘God, please don’t let this be the end. I still want to see my Viewpoint “I have never talked to a Trump supporter, and my world is thick with them, family.... Send someone to who thought he had a high personal character. They did not hire him to be save us.’” When the passing a good man. They hired him as an insult to the political class, as a Hail Mary pass—we’ve tried boat spotted and rescued everything else, maybe this will work—and because he agreed with them on the issues. Supporters them, Smith was sure his prayer had been answered.

give him high marks for not looking down on them as they believe most members of the media do. D P

“There’s no other explana- C Their attitude is: ‘Don’t try to understand me, like you’re the anthropologist and we’re the savages. S

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tion,” he said. t

I’m an American, what are you?’” t Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal i w T

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UNITED KINGDOM The University of Cambridge has announced a so long as the investigation examines the parts in two-year research inquiry into its historic links to which Britain looks good. Yet this inquiry is not the slave trade, said David Olusoga, and Conserva- about “self-flagellation” or wallowing in blame. It The history tives are indignant. Right-wing pundits are falling will both determine whether the university made over themselves to “make the case for academic money off slavery and also examine how genera- nobody wants incuriosity.” Some claim that delving into a racist tions of dons may have reinforced and validated past will trap today’s black Britons “in a culture racist thinking. The project acknowledges that to learn of victimhood,” others that it would be better Britain’s oldest universities did not just benefit simply to hire more black professors. Of course, financially from slavery and colonialism, but also David Olusoga had the university chosen a project focusing on its “played a role in the creation of the racial theories The Observer famous abolitionist graduates who helped end the that underwrote both of those grim projects.” Con- slave trade, “there would have been back-slaps all servatives who accuse students of being snowflakes round.” It’s OK to look at the history of slavery should be willing “to face uncomfortable facts.”

GERMANY Germans are so hyperprotective of their prosperity able climate, or ultimately our own values.” After that they can’t imagine new ways of living, said all, everyone is affected by the damage that indus- Why not Nils Minkmar. The head of the Social Democrats’ try inflicts on the environment, but the profits go youth wing, 29-year-old Kevin Kühnert, recently to just an elite few. Is that just? We have allowed collective unleashed a storm of protest from the entire po- capitalism to “colonize areas in which it has no litical class—including his own party—when he business,” such as education and health care. Why ownership? suggested that major German firms such as BMW should a school cafeteria turn a profit? Do we should be collectively owned for the greater good. want a doctor to rejoice over her patient’s can- Nils Minkmar “Socialism!” everyone screamed. But that’s not cer diagnosis because the treatment will line her Der Spiegel necessarily what he meant. The system we’ve lived pockets? According to Germany’s constitution, the under since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, “the highest goal of our society is not prosperity, but uninhibited rule of capital,” may have made the human dignity. Capitalism is failing us, and while country rich, but it is “not particularly compatible we don’t want full-blown socialism, we do need with the goal of a livable environment, a sustain- “something new.” Poland: The film Catholics can’t look away from Polish Catholics have just been con- get politicized, coming as it does just fronted with indisputable proof of their six months before a parliamentary bishops’ “moral bankruptcy,” said Jacek election. While the ruling Law and Gadek in Gazeta.pl. The first evidence Justice party emphasizes Catholic val- emerged two months ago, when the ues, its supporters should understand Roman Catholic Church in Poland pub- that this film “is not an attack on the lished its first study of child sex abuse church,” but rather “a cry for truth by priests. It revealed that from 1990 and consequences.” to 2018, church authorities received re- ports concerning 382 priests who abused Oh, it’s political, all right, said Jacek 625 minors. Even as they revealed Karnowski in WPolityce.pl. The Pol- their shame, Polish bishops sought to ish Left “hates the church” because of downplay it, saying children need to be the family values that Catholic priests protected from many dangers, not just Archbishop Polak: Apologizing for abuse by priests preach, and leftists are trying to de- pedophile priests, and speaking “about stroy it as an institution. We can’t let the need for mercy for the perpetrators.” But the extent of the that happen. The Catholic faith is the very essence of Poland, rot became clear last week with the release of Tell No One, a and without it this country would be “hell on earth.” Maybe we documentary by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski that fol- have to destroy the church—or at least, its hierarchy—in order lows Polish victims confronting their clerical abusers and the to save it, said Jakub Kralka in Bezprawnik.pl. In Poland, it has bishops who covered for them. The film—financed through a become a “mafia institution.” The church has built a network crowdfunding campaign—shows in appalling detail how church of political connections that “lets its employees operate outside leaders reassigned molester priests to new parishes, giving them the law.” Now that they have been exposed in Tell No One, the no punishment but an admonition to “go and rape no more.” entire episcopate should resign. Even now, with all of Poland seething at them, some church leaders are unrepentant. Archbishop Slavoj Leszek Glodz, of Yet the church’s reaction has mostly been encouraging, said Gdansk, who comes off poorly in the film, said he had better Andrzej Gajcy in Onet.pl. Wojciech Polak, the archbishop of things to do than watch the documentary. Gniezno and primate of Poland, thanked the Sekielski brothers for making the film. “I apologize for every wound inflicted by Poles can talk of little else, said Jacek Nizinkiewicz in Rzeczpos- the people of the church,” he said, promising that “no one in the polita. Two days after the film was put on YouTube, it had been church can shirk responsibility.” If the rest of the bishops, too,

watched an incredible 8 million times—and this in a country of “ask the victims for forgiveness and offer them help,” Poland m o c only 38 million people. But let’s hope that Tell No One doesn’t can begin to heal. s w e N

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Best columns: International NEWS 15

How they see us: China plays waiting game in trade war The arrogant U.S. has launched an un- trade war on Washington’s “risky provoked trade war, “believing tariffs and impetuous” strategy of maxi- are enough to crush China,” said the mum pressure. Since President Trump Global Times (China) in an editorial. prefers bullying to cooperating, said Faced with a few sticking points in David Dodwell in the South China otherwise productive trade negotia- Morning Post, China should look tions, the Trump administration last for new ways to punch back. Beijing week raised import tariffs on $200 bil- could severely curtail the $14 billion lion worth of Chinese goods from 10 a year its people spend on U.S. tour- to 25 percent. Beijing responded with ism and education simply by limiting more-measured and targeted tariffs visas for U.S. travel. It could also open on $60 billion of U.S. goods starting bilateral trade talks with the European June 1, with more to follow. The U.S. Union and Japan, using the same is gambling that China can be cowed, draft deal it had been negotiating with Chinese shipping containers in Portsmouth, Va. but it will lose that bet. Threatened by the U.S. to give foreign businesses a foreign bully, China will pay any price “to safeguard its sover- improved access to the Chinese market. The U.S. will likely back eignty and dignity.” Our leaders’ strategy is informed by “the tai down when it sees “international competitors reap benefits from chi philosophy,” which emphasizes balance and rootedness, and liberalization that they hoped would be exclusively their own.” turns an opponent’s raging and flailing against himself. As time will show, the biggest victims of this tariff war will be Ameri- At this point, many analysts believe the two sides are “negotiat- can farmers, who are seeing their exports to China shrink, and ing a divorce,” said Jane Cai, also in the Morning Post. A report American consumers, who are paying more for Chinese-made published by the Pentagon earlier this month claims that many products. We are still willing to reach a deal with the U.S., but of Beijing’s major initiatives pose a security threat to the U.S. we will “never make concessions on issues of principle.” They include not just Beijing’s military moves—such as building bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea—but also its Washington’s approach is all stick and no carrot, said the People’s cultural exchanges and its infrastructure investments in Asia and Daily. It claims to be seeking fair trade, but the principles of such Africa. The U.S. is even trying to organize a global boycott of trade are “mutual benefits, win-win results, mutual understand- Chinese tech giant Huawei on an imagined threat of spyware. ing, and mutual accommodation.” Instead of pursuing gain for If Washington seeks a rival, Beijing is willing to play that role. all, the U.S. said it wouldn’t eliminate its anti-China tariffs even if China “views itself as a linchpin of the global order,” said ana- a deal were completed, and demanded that Beijing give in. That’s lyst Jude Blanchette, “with an inherent right to occupy super- why the international community and U.S. businesses blame this power status.”

Russia has twisted its commemoration of the end sion to remind Russians of the “triumph of Stalin’s RUSSIA of World War II into something ugly, said Gleb USSR” as well as to confirm “the military status Morev. For decades, Victory Day—May 9—was a of today’s Russia, the heir to the victorious Soviet Glorifying solemn, almost holy, occasion, meant to honor the state.” Of course, by explicitly honoring a Soviet sacrifice of the fallen and the brotherhood of the achievement, we are also honoring all that came Stalin on veterans. After President Vladimir Putin took of- with it—including “the enslavement of Eastern fice, though, that changed. His increasingly author- Europe” by Stalin’s totalitarian Communist regime. Victory Day itarian state needed a festival to unite the nation, Where once we honored the men who fought the one that would bestow historical legitimacy on his Nazis, now we honor the brutal state whose flag Gleb Morev regime. Over the nearly two decades of Putin’s rule, they fought for. “Such a state had no right to win.” Vedomosti Victory Day has become increasingly militarized, As the reality of 1945 fades from view, “the pomp with tanks in Red Square and children dressed in of the festivities increases, and the meaning of the Soviet-style military uniforms. It is now an occa- celebration becomes more and more problematic.”

TANZANIA Kiswahili may be Tanzania’s official language, tones and becomes harder, more glottal.” Not all said Elsie Eyakuze, but that doesn’t mean we have of us embrace Kiswahili. One Gogo woman from Do we really all mastered it. It is a language “full of subtleties central Tanzania spat on the floor when I tried to and triple entendres, threats and assurances, disses interview her in Kiswahili, saying she wouldn’t understand and praise.” Depending on the tone and context, speak “the colonial language.” She shocked me, a word like usijali, for example, can mean “you but she had a point. It was the first wave of each other? made a mistake but it’s cool, no beef” or “you colonizers from Germany who, with “Teutonic made a mistake for which you will pay in misery.” efficiency,” encouraged the spread of Kiswahili to Elsie Eyakuze With 120 ethnic groups in Tanzania, there are facilitate trade. Only later did the British arrive and AfricanArguments.org many regional variations of the language, some all give us our other common tongue, English. Kiswa- but unintelligible to other Kiswahili speakers. Head hili keeps evolving—an online version has emerged inland, for example, and the language—which with shorthand such as ck for day or mpnz for P

A originated on the coast—“loses its lilting sandy love. Kiswahili 3.0 is the “next frontier.”

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 16 NEWS Talking points

Noted Trump’s foreign policy: What’s the plan? QLeaked National Rifle “Bluster-based foreign policy is backfiring,” year, making it harder for the ruling mul- Association documents said Eric Lutz in VanityFair.com. President lahs to bankroll terrorism. Hard as it is show that CEO Wayne Trump entered office thinking he could to step back from the day-to-day “chaos” LaPierre billed the orga- “bully” foreign leaders into succumb- of the Trump presidency, said Robert nization’s ad agency for ing to his demands. How’s that working Blackwill in ForeignPolicy.com, his $39,000 of shopping at out? North Korea’s Kim Jong Un hardball tactics are mostly effec- a Beverly Hills clothing launched two short-range ballistic tive, especially considering the boutique, $18,300 for a missiles this month—another indi- “d eteriorating world order that he car and driver in Europe, cation that Trump’s fawning sum- inherited.” He’s “calmed” situa- and $40,000 for a one-way mits with Kim will never lead to tions where escalation would be flight to the Bahama s. The NRA has also been paying an actual denuclearization deal. disastrous—North Korea, Syria, Trump is reportedly “fuming” Saudi Arabia—and adopted a $100,000 in fees to its law Bolton: Itching for a fight firm per day. that his hawkish national security more “clear-eyed” approach to The Wall Street Journal adviser, John Bolton, pushed him into support- adversaries—China and Iran—who’ve walked ing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó. over the U.S. for decades. QThe number of Trump hates backing a loser, and President college-educated Mexi- Nicolás Maduro remains firmly in power. Now What world are you looking at? asked Tom can immigrants in the the Trump administration has moved its “saber Nichols in USA Today. With his toothless bluster, U.S. has risen more than rattling” to Iran, with the U.S. Navy deploying a Trump has created needless conflict with China 150 percent since 2000, to carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf. But Iran’s and Iran, “insulted our allies, and generally made nearly 700,000. NBCNews.com Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the U.S. into a laughingstock.” Bolton is a reck- ruled out negotiating with Trump’s “poisonous” less hawk eager to provoke a war somewhere, administration. Khamenei knows he’ll “likely still but he’s not in charge of foreign policy. The be in power once Trump is gone.” reality is that “no one is charge.” Trump lurches from crisis to crisis, motivated by his warped Actually, Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” perception of his own political self-interest. The is producing results in Iran, said Henry Olsen only reason he hasn’t stumbled into a major con- in WashingtonPost.com. The U.S. continues to flict is that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and toughen sanctions against Tehran, last week other adversaries are content to watch Trump extending them to Iran’s metal sectors after flail away. “There is no need, after all, to destroy recently ending exemptions for oil. As a result, American power and prestige if the White House QAmazon CEO Jeff Bezos last week unveiled his Iran’s economy should shrink by 6 percent this is willing to do all the damage by itself.” private space company’s lunar lander, Blue Moon, in Washington, D.C. T rump: What that $1.2 billion loss reveals He said that his space company, Blue Origin, will The myth of Donald Trump, business genius, has why Americans need to see Trump’s tax returns, begin testing the lander been killed for good, said Karen Tumulty in The said David Cay Johnston in TheDaily Beast.com. this summer and plans Washington Post. In a blockbuster report pub- “A man or woman in financial stress is just the to send astronauts to the lished last week, The New York Times revealed kind of person spy agencies target.” In 1989, with moon by 2024. that Trump’s businesses lost nearly $1.2 billion the Trump Organization “hurtling toward col- Wired.com between 1985 and 1995—with Trump losing lapse,” Trump abruptly reported $52.9 million in more money than virtually any other American interest income, 110 times more than what he’d QMore than half of moth- taxpayer. During that time, Trump presided over reported just three years earlier. Nobody knows ers in 1975 stayed home a string of spectacular business failures. An air- where it came from. What was the source of this with their kids. Today, both parents work in 70 percent line shuttle he bought from Eastern Airlines for payment, and “was it benign or sinister?” of families with children. $365 million never turned a profit. He managed Meanwhile, child-care to run three Atlantic City casinos into bankruptcy. All of this is “old news,” said Joe Concha in costs an average $12,350 All the while, Trump promoted himself as a busi- TheHill.com. Trump himself admitted on The to $13,900 a year. ness savant. Even now, he is claiming he inflated Apprentice that he was nearly ruined in the mid- USA Today his epic losses to avoid paying taxes. Apparently, ’90s. His comeback story is part of his appeal to “Trump would rather be thought of as a tax his supporters, so the Times story “changes abso- Q About 2.5 million cheat than a loser.” lutely nothing.” Don’t be so sure, said J ordan women are sent to jail Weissmann in Slate.com. Many swing voters every year. In 1983, about Trump’s losses weren’t mere “tax dodges,” said won over by Trump bought his claim that he was 9 percent of jail admissions a self-made man who understood their struggles; were of women, but in John Cassidy in NewYorker.com. It’s true that 2016, that had risen to 23 “depreciation” write-offs for real estate developers polls show that only 51 percent of all Americans percent. The increase is be- are generous, but he lost money the old- fashioned know he was born rich. When told that Trump ing driven by drug arrests way: through mismanagement and borrowing so inherited about $400 million in today’s dollars and the fact that many much money he couldn’t pay it back. After his from his father, who also later bailed out his P

businesses went bankrupt, he had to plead with businesses, supporters’ opinion of Trump fell. A

women can’t afford bail. , s r e

The New York Review of Books the banks for $65 million in additional credit so as Democrats should troll Trump on his business t u e

not to go into personal bankruptcy. This is exactly losses “from now until eternity.” R

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Talking points NEWS 17

School shootings: Florida arms its teachers Wit & It’s now official, said Katie cupied teacher’s holster and Mettler in The Washington shooting his tormentors. Or Wisdom Post: “Florida teachers can an accident, like the one in “Inside most people carry guns at school.” Under a Tampa last month, in which you read about in bill signed into law last week an armed school resource history books is a child over the strenuous objection officer’s holstered gun fired who fiercely resisted toilet training.” of most Democrats, Parkland while he was “leaning Journalist George Packer, activists, and educators, teach- against a wall in the crowded quoted in The Washington Post ers who volunteer to join cafeteria”—fortunately, hit- “To pay attention, Florida’s “Guardian” program ting no one. The “good guy this is our endless and can undergo a background with a gun” fantasy behind Training teachers in Colorado proper work.” check, psychiatric evaluation, this law “is a crock,” said the Poet Mary Oliver, quoted in and 132 hours of training. They will, at least in Palm Beach Post in an editorial. During firefights TheAtlantic.com theory, provide a line of defense against school with criminals, studies have shown, even cops “Virtue by calculation is shooters. A commission formed to investigate the have a shooting accuracy rate of about 20 per- the virtue of vice.” Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting cent. Imagine what could happen if a teacher tried Essayist Joseph Joubert, in Parkland that left 17 dead in February 2018 to play Clint Eastwood and take out “a deter- quoted in Forbes.com recommended arming teachers. Proponents of the mined psycho with a high-powered rifle.” “We make out of the new law argued that it took cops 11 minutes to quarrel with others enter the school, during which time the shooter “Arming teachers is not the answer” to school rhetoric, but of the quarrel was free to mow down students. shootings, said David Whitley in the Orlando with ourselves, poetry.” Sentinel, but it should be “part of the answer.” W.B. Yeats, quoted in File this new law with the “What Could Possibly Bob Gualtieri, the Pinellas County sheriff who The Times (U.K.) Go Wrong? Department,” said Carl Hiaasen in led the investigation into the Parkland shoot- “Don’t look back. the Miami Herald. Gun enthusiasts fantasize ing, changed his mind about arming teachers Something might be about “a social studies teacher turned marksman, while putting together a 458-page report. What gaining on you.” coolly whipping out his Glock and taking down he found was that “a lot of times, teachers are Pitcher Satchel Paige, quoted in the Lake an active shooter,” but the reality could be far the only ones in position to confront a shooter.” County, Ill., News-Sun uglier. Imagine a teacher—“scared and jacked Think of it this way: As the Parkland shooter on adrenaline”—firing wildly and accidentally spent long minutes stalking and shooting his “Forever—is composed killing fleeing students. Or a kid, “bullied to the defenseless classmates, “what would a teacher on of nows.” Emily Dickinson, quoted in breaking point,” grabbing the gun from a preoc- the inside have given to have a gun?” Independent.co.uk “Even I don’t wake up looking like The Senate: Disinterested Democrats Cindy Crawford.” “Senate Democrats’ bid to take back the majority Kilgore in NYMag.com—especially for Demo- Model Cindy Crawford, quoted in OprahMag.com is running into a big roadblock,” said James Arkin crats from red states, like Abrams and O’Rourke. and Burgess Everett in Politico.com. “Some of Senate races have become so overshadowed by their most coveted recruiting targets are refusing national political polarization that ticket split- to run.” Rising star Stacey Abrams, who fell just ting has become rare. “In 2016, all 34 races were Poll watch shy of Georgia’s governorship in 2018, declined won by the party that won the state in question Q43% of Americans think despite “a sustained and public recruitment” by in the presidential contest. That’s never hap- that imposing new tariffs Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). pened before.” Given that Trump is popular in on China is a bad idea. Iowa Rep. Cindy Axne and Texas Rep. Joaquin their states, it’s not hard to see why Bullock and 26% approve, and 31% Castro both rejected opportunities to challenge O’Rourke don’t want to run for the Senate. don’t know. the GOP’s Senate incumbent. Colorado Gov. John YouGov Hickenlooper, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Nonetheless, the stakes for controlling the Senate and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock all spurned their are high, said Paul Waldman in The Washington Q50% of Americans sup- port their state enacting a party’s calls to make Senate runs, and are running Post. If the Democrats win the White House, but bill that would ban abor- for president instead. “We really need to get some not the three seats necessary to seize the Senate, tions once a “fetal heart- good recruits,” fretted one Democratic strategist. they “could face an opposition party that acts beat” is detected, while as though the president has no legitimacy what- 44% oppose it. But when You really can’t blame high-profile Democrats soever.” Remember, Republicans tried to do this told that such a law would for their lack of interest, said Eleanor Clift in The when Barack Obama was in office, and Trump ban abortions six weeks Daily Beast.com. Once the world’s most exclu- has only emboldened the party to adopt more out- into pregnancy, 56% sive club, the Senate is “mired in gridlock” and rageously partisan antics. If a Democrat became would oppose it. 65% do “not the stepping-stone to the presidency it once president, McConnell could refuse to fill Supreme not want the Supreme was.” In this bitterly partisan era, Senate Major- Court vacancies until 2024. “Cabinet confirma- Court to overturn Roe v. ity Leader Mitch McConnell “has stripped away tions? Sorry, we’re not going to let a bunch of Wade, while 32% want to many of the rules and traditions that made the socialists govern.” And if you think “Republicans see the ruling overturned. Kaiser Family Foundation y Senate a club politicians wanted to join.” It’s also would never go that far, you haven’t been living t t e

G a smart career move to skip the Senate, said Ed on this planet for the past decade or two.”

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 18 NEWS Pick of the week’s cartoons

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons.

Pick of the week’s cartoons NEWS 19

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 20 NEWS Technology

Social media: Is it time to break up Facebook? “It’s time to break up Facebook,” said ity of Snapchat and TikTok, while Apple Chris Hughes in The New York Times. “It’s and Google “remain the front doors to been 15 years since I co-founded Facebook smartphones.” Breaking up Facebook at Harvard” with Mark Zuckerberg, and would just create “fiercer wars for our at- a decade since I left the company. In that tention and data,” said Ezra Klein in Vox time, Mark’s power has become “unprec- .com. The problem is not that “Facebook edented and un-American” and his com- is blocking competition in its sector.” It’s pany a “leviathan that crowds out entre- that the social networks compete to cap- preneurship and restricts consumer choice.” ture our attention and data with addictive Sen. Elizabeth Warren has advocated for algorithms and toxic content. Breaking up policies that would bust up Big Tech, and Facebook doesn’t solve the real issue: The I’m joining the growing choru s calling for “incentives that shaped Facebook—and the government to step in. Mark’s “focus Instagram, and Twitter, and Snapchat, and on growth led him to sacrifice security and Zuckerberg and Hughes, in college days YouTube—lead to dangerous products.” civility for clicks.” Most worrisome is the control he exerts over the algorithms that determine what gets displayed on the News Sure, everyone is disappointed with Facebook, said Nick Gillespie Feed: “There is no precedent for his ability to monitor, organize, in Reason.com. That’s how things go with new technologies. and even censor the conversations of 2 billion people.” The gov- First, the utopian stage, “when we’re all jazzed up about the ernment needs to unwind the mergers of Facebook, Instagram, possibilities of a new innovation.” Next, the dystopian period, and WhatsApp before they become too intertwined. “when we attribute all our ills to the new thing—TV, or the web, or social media.” Last comes the stage “when we put the technol- Rooting for Facebook is like rooting for the New England Pa- ogy in its proper place.” With social media, “we’re clearly in the triots, said Shira Ovide in Bloomberg.com. “But I worry that second phase and almost certainly heading to the third.” We’re ‘Break up Facebook’ has become a catchall.” We need to better all growing tired of how much these sites demand our attention. understand the root problems and prescribe appropriate fixes But the idea that government will do a better job of fixing what’s “before we all back a Standard Oil–style dismantlement” of the wrong with them is “risible.” Many of Facebook’s users have tech giants. The argument that Facebook, for instance, can squash already found a way to battle all-powerful Zuckerberg and his all rivals doesn’t really hold true: Facebook missed the popular- “unstoppable” Death Star: They’re “simply walking away.”

Innovation of the week Bytes: What’s new in tech Blue Origin gets closer to the moon guests, and snippets of Downton Abbey.” But Jeff Bezos’ private space company has its first there was also more sensitive material, like lunar lander, said Brad Stone in Bloomberg my family discussing medication. I also found .com. The world’s wealthiest man “made his dozens of times when my Alexa “recorded case for going back to the moon” with his without a legitimate prompt.” Apple and space exploration startup, Blue Origin, by Google also keep recordings from their smart A “waterborne version of the 2024, and says his new Blue Moon lander home devices. Amazon does let you delete Roomba” vacuum cleaner is going will make it possible. The vessel is “powered your recording history, and Google’s Assistant to help clean up debris in the by liquid hydrogen, in part so it can refuel can be set not to store recordings. Apple, Chicago River this summer, said from ice water on the moon’s poles,” and in- unfortunately, doesn’t give you the ability to Luke Dormehl in DigitalTrends.com. cludes a small rover vehicle. Blue Origin has review what it has kept—or the option not to TrashBot is a remote-controlled raft lagged behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has store recordings. the size of a kickboard that is able completed more than 70 missions, including “to pick up trash in its immediate A good phone for a better price vicinity, and then ferry this to a “ferrying supplies to the International Space collection point on the riverbank, Station.” But trips with a reusable rocket “de- The new Google Pixel3a smartphone “should where it can be later removed.” signed to take six paying tourists to the edge of make Apple and Samsung nervous,” said But the TrashBot is not completely space for a few minutes o f weightlessness” are David Pierce in The Wall Street Journal. autonomous. B ecause “teaching a expected to start later this year, with the first There’s a simple reason why: its $400 price computer to understand what con- orbital rocket scheduled for launch in 2021. tag. At a time when most new smartphones stitutes trash isn’t easy”—and could will set you back upward of $1,000, Google be problematic for wildlife—the Listening to Alexa is offering a “surprisingly good” device at a river vessel will be piloted through “I listened to four years of my Alexa archive substantially lower price. The phone’s proces- the website of the company that created it, Urban Rivers. Anyone and found thousands of fragments of my sor and polycarbonate body hold up well, who logs on will be able to search life,” said Geoffrey Fowler in The Washing- although the screen is not quite as sharp or the river for trash. Letting ordinary ton Post. Many people don’t realize it, “but impressive as that of some other devices. But

people take control, said one of the Amazon keeps a copy of everything Alexa here’s one thing it does boast: The camera, t o B

robot’s creators, “makes for a really h records after it hears its name”—and you can often the biggest difference between low-end s a r T

cool experience.” ,

listen to the archive. For me, that included a and high-end devices, is “as good as the cam- y t t e

lot of “spaghetti-timer requests, joking house- era on any smartphone I’ve ever used.” G

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Health & Science NEWS 21

A man-made extinction epidemic One million of the planet’s 8 million plant a rate “unprecedented in human history,” and animal species are on the verge of the researchers warn. This accelerating extinction because of human activity. That loss of species will hurt human well-being. is the bleak conclusion of a 1,500-page The decline of wild bees and other insect United Nations report, compiled over pollinators is jeopardizing up to $577 bil- three years by nearly 150 experts from lion in annual crop production, reports The 50 nations. The study notes that in most New York Times. Overfishing could remove major land habitats—from the savannas a key source of protein from the diets of of Africa to the Arctic tundra—the abun- billions of people. And the disappearance dance of life has dropped by an average of of mangrove forests and coastal coral reefs An orangutan in a deforested area of Borneo 20 per cent or more, mostly over the past could place some 300 million people at century. Activities such as farming and pes- increased risk of flooding. “For a long time, the research. “This report makes clear the ticide spraying, logging, mining, and urban people just thought of biodiversity as sav- links between biodiversity and nature and growth, as well temperature rises caused ing nature for its own sake,” says Robert things like food security and clean water in by climate change, are altering the world at Watson, chair of the U.N. division behind both rich and poor countries.”

has found that antiretroviral drugs can com- altitude environments, when their cave was pletely prevent the sexual transmission of only 2,300 feet above sea level. The new the HIV virus. The research involved nearly discovery in Tibet suggests that Denisovans 1,000 gay male couples with one partner roamed widely across central and eastern who was HIV-positive and receiving anti- Asia, including its great mountain ranges, retro viral treatment. Over the eight-year and likely interbred with prehistoric Homo study, none of the men transmitted the dis- sapiens. Study co-author Frido Welker, from ease to their HIV-negative partner during sex the Uni ver sity of Copen hagen, hopes to re- without a condom. (Fifteen men did become examine other Asian fossils that share char- infected, but genetic tests showed this was acteristics with the 160,000-year-old Tibetan because they had slept with someone other jawbone. “Maybe they, too, will one day Pregnancy is more perilous for black women. than their partner.) The study builds on turn out to be Denisovans,” he says. earlier research that proved anti retro viral More pregnant women dying drugs’ efficacy among heterosexual couples. Health scare of the week Pregnancy-related deaths are on the rise If everyone knew their HIV status and had Sunscreen in your blood in the U.S., according to the Centers for access to treatment, the authors say, the The chemicals in sunscreen don’t just sit on Disease Control and Prevention—and disease could be completely eliminated. John the skin after application—they are quickly a majority of the fatalities are prevent- Frater, an infectious disease expert at the absorbed into the bloodstream. In an able. The federal agency found that about Uni ver sity of Ox ford who wasn’t involved ex per i ment by the Food and Drug Admin- 700 women die each year from cardiovas- in the research, tells the Finan cial Times that i stra tion, 24 volunteers applied one of four cular conditions, hemorrhages, and other the findings “add to the argument that anti- common brands of sunscreen four times a pregnancy-related complications, which retro viral therapy is the most effective tool day for four days on the parts of their body can occur up to a year after birth. Some we have at the moment to bring about the that wouldn’t be covered by a swimsuit. 60 percent of those deaths could be pre- end of the global AIDS epidemic.” The researchers then tested their blood for vented with proper medical intervention levels of four of the products’ active ingredi- and better access to care, the CDC notes. Our high-altitude ancestors ents: avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, While death from pregnancy remains rare Four decades ago, a Tibetan Buddhist and ecamsule. After the first day, levels of in developed countries, the rate in the U.S. monk found what he thought was part all four chemicals exceeded the toxicology has been rising for decades. “An American of a person’s jawbone in a limestone cave threshold, the level above which the FDA mom today is 50 percent more likely to some 2 miles above sea level, reports recommends additional research. Three of die in childbirth than her own mother The Wash ing ton Post. Now scientists the ingredients were still in the bloodstream was,” Neel Shah, from Harvard Medical have discovered that the mandible in fact after a week, with levels of oxybenzone— School, tells the Associated Press. There are belonged to a 160,000-year-old Denisovan: which has been linked to low testosterone stark racial disparities in maternal mortal- a member of a mysterious extinct species levels, hormone changes, and shorter ity. Black women, Native Americans, and of Neanderthal-like humans. Until recently, pregnancies—40 times the FDA’s threshold. Alaska natives are about three times more the only known remains of the species— The chemicals are among a dozen that the P A

, likely to die from a pregnancy-related issue which disappeared 50,000 years ago—came agency said needed to be examined by man- y t t e

G than white women. That difference could be from a single site, the Denisova Cave some ufacturers before they can be considered

, x u d partly because certain minority groups have 1,400 miles away in Siberia. Scientists had “generally safe and effective.” But research- e R / s less access to care, researchers say, but also puzzled over why the Siberian Denisovans ers urge people to keep using sunscreen, e m i T because implicit bias may cause health pro- had a gene mutation—also present in mod- which can help prevent skin cancer, while k r o Y fessionals to overlook worrying symptoms. ern Sherpas and further research is carried out. “Just because w e N Tibetans—that [the chemicals] are absorbed,” e h T / i The end of AIDS?

r would help them co-author Theresa Michele tells f u J l In what could herald the beginning of the live in low- NBCNews.com., “doesn’t mean a m e

K end of the AIDS pandemic, a major study oxygen, high- they are unsafe.”

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 22 ARTS Review of reviews: Books

Book of the week determine an individual’s ability to deal with crisis. When he starts talking about the need Upheaval: Turning Points for for nations to face their troubles, accept responsibility for fixing them, and be flex- Nations in Crisis ible in their responses, “Diamond’s advice is by Jared Diamond (Little, Brown, $35) as useful as an umbrella in a hurricane.”

Jared Diamond’s new book is “fascinating His worries about the world extend far reading for anyone anxious about the state beyond U.S. borders, said David Wallace- of the republic,” said Michael Schaub in Wells in NYMag.com. When pressed in a NPR.org. The author of Guns, Germs, and recent interview about the threat of wide- Steel believes that America’s widely revered spread environmental collapse, he declared form of democratic government is gravely there’s a 49 percent chance that civilization endangered by economic inequality and as we know it will be in ruins by 2050. political polarization, but he argues that A boy watches as a coup unfolds in 1973 Chile. In his book, said The Economist, his pro- deliverance is possible if we learn from crisis nouncements are more modest: He even moments faced by other countries and even in Bloomberg.com. Before turning to 1853 admits that the idea of there being a set of from what therapists know about guiding Japan, 1965 Indonesia, and 1973 Chile, best practices for nations in crisis won’t individuals through rough patches. Because for example, he proposes that post–World be established until other scholars take Diamond is “an endlessly engaging writer,” War II Finland shouldn’t be criticized for up the idea and test it. The scheme itself, well-versed in history, geography, and several knuckling under to the Soviet Union but unfortunately, “depends upon a flawed other disciplines, “reading Upheaval is akin praised for its wise balance of resistance and understanding of what history is.” History to taking a college course from a professor accommodation. Though “his little stories” is an interpretation of complex events, not who’s as charming as he is polymathic.” can be entertaining, much of Upheaval is a repeatable laboratory experiment. “And “decidedly amateur” history, “quite shock- yet, as a meditation about a world on Diamond offers seven case studies of ingly naïve,” said Gerard DeGroot in The edge,” this book is “well worth reading.” nations in upheaval, and his versions of Times (U.K.). What’s more, it’s illogical to History does teach us lessons, after all, those episodes “run refreshingly counter assume nations can learn anything from though each lesson “comes as a parable, to conventional wisdom,” said Peter Coy psychotherapy and the 12 factors thought to not an algorithm.”

K: A History of Baseball in read, said Paul Dickson in The Wall Street Novel of the week Ten Pitches Journal. Kepner details how each pitch is fingered and spun, taking his lessons from The Farm by Tyler Kepner (Doubleday, $29) 22 Hall of Famers and many other greats. by Joanne Ramos (Random House, $27) Steve Carlton shares how he threw his When a reader closes Joanne Ramos’ “For those who seek slider; Roy Halladay explains the cutter, a provocative debut, “the stage is set for a to understand the pitch he learned from Mariano Rivera. The lively book chat,” said Jen McDonald in sublimity of base- fastball, curve, screwball, and changeup The New York Times. Ramos, a former ball,” Tyler Kepner’s all get turns in the sun: “each is accorded investment banker, has imagined a spa- new book is “a its own biography and character sketch, like rural retreat outside New York City treasure trove,” said including its evolution and how, over the where young women are both pampered Patricia Lenihan in years, it has gone in and out of fashion.” and closely monitored throughout preg- the Santa Fe New nancy as they carry to birth the children Kepner develops special affection for Mexican. Kepner, knuckleball specialists, a distinct fraternity. of the ultrarich. Two P hilippine-A merican the New York Times’ women—one a surrogate and single “They are all Jedi knights,” he writes, “pos- mother and the other the ambitious di- top writer on the sessors of a shadowy power few can under- rector of the f acility—wind up exposing game, has cracked stand or believe.” the hazards of pursuing surrogacy as a open baseball’s code capitalist endeavor even as The Farm re- by focusing on a place on the field where “What is the best pitch of all? It’s hard to mains a breezy book “that veers, not al- the action never stops: in the head of the say,” said David Holahan in CSMonitor .com. ways successfully, from earnestness into pitcher, who initiates every play. The job “No less an authority than Ted Will iams satire.” But Ramos “ably toggles between of the man on the mound is to bamboozle voted for the slider,” but there’s also a case hardworking Philippine immigrants who the batter, and Kepner makes every reader to be made for the old-fashioned curve- can’t seem to get a foothold on Ameri- a student of the craft by focusing on ball. When Hous ton Astros pitcher Lance can prosperity and the monied elite who 10 pitches and some of the players who’ve McCul lers Jr. threw 27 in a row during take advantage of the widening class di- been the very best at throwing each of the 2017 play offs, his daring helped carry vide,” said Barbara VanDenburgh in USA them. “Humans striving for excellence is the his team to the World Series. Kepn er, who Today. Though the debating points can point of both the game and the book,” and become too obvious, “what’s so striking clearly loves the game, eventually casts his about The Farm isn’t that it imagines a you might be surprised what you can learn own vote for the well-placed fastball, but frightening dystopia. This isn’t a hundred about life by paying close attention to them. that doesn’t settle the matter in the least. years in the future, this is next week.” “Like most baseball arguments, this one, P

You’ll want a baseball handy while you thankfully, will never end.” A

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 The Book List ARTS 23

Best books...chosen by David Maraniss Author of the week The Washington Post’s David Maraniss is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and a best-selling biographer. His new book, A Good American Family, revisits the Red Jayson Greene Scare era by telling the story of his father’s blacklisting. Jayson Greene began writing his first book simply to sur- Spain in Our Hearts b y Adam Hochschild Inside Out, a moving memoir by screenwriter vive, said Nathan Goldman in (2016). Hochschild offers a vivid and heart- Walter Bernstein, who endured the blacklist. The Nation. Greene and his breaking history that evokes the idealism and wife had suffered an unimag- High Noon b y Glenn Frankel (2017). Frankel violence of the Spanish Civil War through stories inable loss. Their only child, takes readers inside the making of the classic of American volunteers and journalists. This 2-year-old Greta, had just 1952 Western about a sheriff who stands alone been killed by a random brick largely forgotten war is essential to understand- when his town’s citizens are paralyzed by fear. that fell from ing the ideological struggles that played out Made during the height of Red Scare hysteria, a building in during World War II and the Red Scare. Read the movie starred Gary Cooper, who despite his Manhattan. Hochschild’s account in tandem with George own anti-Communist views refused to disparage a “It was a way Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. screenwriter called before HUAC and blacklisted. not to die,” The Crucible b y Arthur Miller (1953). The he says of playwright’s dramatic re-enactment of the Salem Stalin: Volume II—Waiting for Hitler, 1929– those initial witch trials is a study in the manipulation of 1941 b y Stephen Kotkin (2017). Kotkin’s latest jottings. “I fear and hysteria, which he saw recurring dur- installment of his multivolume biography is a didn’t know ing the McCarthy era. Years after Miller wrote deeply reported and vividly written account of how to make it from one the timeless play, he was cited by the House the Soviet despot’s leading role in turning the hour to the next without my Un-American Activities Committee for refusing egalitarian ideal of communism into an appara- daughter in the world, with- to name names—life imitating art imitating life. tus of paranoia and murder on a massive scale. out being a parent anymore.” Writing wasn’t his only ref- Naming Names b y Victor Navasky (1980). A The Fifties b y David Halberstam (1993). A uge. He also talked by phone troubling account of why witnesses called before kaleidoscopic look at postwar American politics with a therapist, screamed HUAC informed on friends and associates, and and culture during the decade that brought this into a pillow, punched things. how that affected their lives and the lives of country the fearmongering of Joseph McCarthy His grief journal was still those they named. I also recommend Witness, and the promise of Martin Luther King Jr.— growing six months later the memoir of perhaps the most famous ex- along with the comfortable conformity of Holi - when his wife became preg- Communist informer, Whittaker Chambers, and day Inn and McDonald’s. nant again, changing the stakes of fully reckoning with his loss. “It was unspeakably Also of interest...in big ideas important to me,” he says, “that our child not be born Falter The Second Mountain into a haunted version of the by Bill McKibben (Holt, $28) by David Brooks (Random House, $28) life we gave to Greta.” In the 30 years since he wrote The With his latest book, New York Times Greene’s son, Harrison, is End of Nature, author Bill McKibben columnist David Brooks has chosen nearly 3 now, and Greene’s “has seen nearly all his worst fears “a dauntingly broad topic,” said grief journal is now a power- about climate change come true,” said Benjamin Wallace-Wells in The New ful, wise memoir, Once More Meara Sharma in The Washington Yorker. Trying to describe what it We Saw Stars. In a recent Post. In this follow-up, he has boldly means to live a virtuous life, he exalts essay published in The New distilled the bad news, arguing that humans have people he knows who seem to have reached life’s York Times, the 37-year-old put their own existence in peril. Yet McKibben “second mountain,” where their goals involve editor and music writer shared that the passage of time has has also grown more hopeful that activism and helping others. Alas, he acts as if he’s writing helped. He no longer crosses technology can avert doomsday. Unfortunately, about a national spiritual crisis while describ- the street to avoid every con- his trust in the spread of solar power “feels a bit ing something else. “The bait is that the book is struction site, and he doesn’t too credulous for such a sober book.” about us; the switch is that it is about him.” panic if Harrison stumbles. A Decent Life Everything in Its Place But he hasn’t told the boy how his sister died and isn’t by Todd May (Univ. of Chicago, $25) by Oliver Sacks (Knopf, $27) sure when, if ever, the time “Put simply, I am a better person for The essays in this posthumous collec- will be right. “The accident will teach Harrison lessons I having read this book,” said John tion are “a wonderfully odd lot,” said never want him to learn,” he Warner in the Chicago Tribune. Its Daniel Menaker in The New York writes. “It represents every- author, a philosophy professor and Times. Neurologist Oliver Sacks “was thing that is meaningless, consultant for NBC’s The Good Place, and will remain a brilliant singular-

e malevolent, and terrifying n e

e argues that it’s inadvisable to try to be ity,” incapable of dull writing whether r about the universe.” For now, G i

n morally exemplary and better to thoughtfully aim musing on Tourette’s syndrome, 19th-century

o Greene makes decisions J

,

d for what he terms decency. “Conversational, and chemist Humphry Davy, or buckets of rotting i about such matters moment v a D frequently funny,” A Decent Life “is not prescrip- cuttlefish. Included here is his reflection on a to moment, as circumstances s n i k r tive but is actually something better: a meditation “truly serious” question relevant to most of his demand. “I wait,” he says, “for e P n

a on how striving for decency is a route toward oeuvre: whether the trust of a mental patient is signs from Greta.” i c u

L personal satisfaction.” betrayed any time the doctor shares the story.

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 24 ARTS Review of reviews: Art & Music

Exhibit of the week a circa-1630 bronze of a young man in Camp: Notes on Fashion flirtatious contrapposto, in photographs of Oscar Wilde, and in a sampling of museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Sept. 8 objects that Sontag cited in her essay. But where is the attempt to engage with the You don’t have to know what “camp” is to homophobia, and other forms of discrimi- delight in it, said Eliza Brooke in Vox .com. nation, that gave rise to camp as a form of A year after New York’s Metropolitan resistance, a way to parody heterosexual Museum set an all-time attendance record grandeur? Camp “didn’t just come from with a show about Catholicism’s influence high society,” but you wouldn’t know on fashion, this year’s big fashion exhibit that from this exhibit. “It’s a rich person’s is tackling “quite possibly the most slip- clothes show, with some history and quotes pery, hard-to-define concept the curato- to scratch your chin over.” rial team could have chosen.” The first recorded use of the word appears in a 1671 Especially in its antiseptic second half, the Molière play about a flamboyant trickster show “resembles a town square gone com- who uses “camp” as a verb meaning to pletely retail,” said Roberta Smith in The flaunt or strut, creating an association New York Times. Visitors are bombarded with a hip-forward contrapposto pose that by “an undue amount of Moschino”: dates to ancient Greece. Three centuries 15 dresses or ensembles in all, including a after Molière, in an influential 1964 essay, “monstrous” gown with sleeves made to critic Susan Sontag wrote that camp is A 2018 flamingo ensemble by Bertrand Guyon look like the portions of a frozen TV dinner “deadly serious” even though it’s all about and a latex sheath dress printed to look like superficial style over content. This 250- TheDailyBeast.com. By contrast, the Met prosciutto. Wandering amid the flashy or item exhibit doesn’t pretend to nail down Gala, held three nights before the show’s jokey garments that crowd the final room, a definitive meaning, but that’s fine. The opening, had its share of thrills: “There you’re also struck by how few designers of show is “overwhelming in the best way,” was glitter everywhere, and feathers too,” color are represented. But this show was inviting viewers to enjoy the antique finery with Bette Midler, Janelle Monáe, and bound to be polarizing, and it at least offers and over-the-top contemporary ensembles, Ezra Miller among the subset of celebri- substance as it traces the long history of and to draw their own conclusions. ties who displayed a sure feel for the form. design that plays with our notions of good The museum’s sumptuous displays do taste. “Even if you have moments of hating Here’s mine then: This exhibition is “too provide some historical grounding. Camp, it,” the Met’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion” polite to be camp,” said Tim Teeman in in the show’s first section, is embodied in will keep you engaged throughout.

The National Jamila Woods Vampire Weekend I Am Easy to Find Legacy! Legacy! Father of the Bride ++++ ++++ ++++ “The National are in Chicago’s Jamila Woods Vampire Weekend’s a peculiar place as a has come up with a latest Billboard chart- band,” said Ryan Leas new kind of protest topper is “an album in Stereogum.com. music, said Aimee Cliff filled with gentle On their eighth studio in TheGuardian.com. surprises,” said Josh album, the Grammy- Her style of modern Modell in AVClub winning indie rockers soul is “built both for .com. The band’s find a way forward by marching and for recu- first record in six owning their strengths while mixing in new peration, when you need to recover from years (and the first since the departure of voices. The band still specializes in “a kind the fight.” On her “frequently extraordinary” multi- instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij) of patient fire”—artful anthems for “a disen- second album, said Mark Richardson in The won’t be as universally praised as the chanted and listless generation.” But while Wall Street Journal, she offers idiosyncratic Columbia grads’ tightly constructed first the songs still center on Matt Berninger’s tributes to 12 past greats. But the songs are three albums. But it’s “adventurous, joyful, calm baritone and lyrics about missed con- not about funk pioneer Betty Davis or writer weird, and familiar in all the right ways.” nections, he now steps back frequently to James Baldwin or painter Frida Kahlo as Across 18 tracks, singer-songwriter Ezra let female vocalists take over. The result is much as they are about an aspect of each Koenig often ventures beyond guitar-based a collection that “somehow simultaneously hero’s character or work, transposed into indie pop into folk, flamenco, lounge, and feels like another assortment of well-made more personal, contemporary context. country—“Married in a Gold Rush,” a National ballads and something that is Woods sounds a bit like Erykah Badu; she duet with Danielle Haim, deserves to be occasionally, quietly more avant-garde.” “mostly sings and sometimes raps, and her a Nashville hit. A couple other tunes even Co-produced by movie director Mike Mills, voice is most effective when it hovers in the incorporate “alarmingly professional-sound- who has created an accompanying short space between the two.” The music, like ing string sections.” So think of Father as film, the album is “marked by a cinematic the artists Woods sings about, cannot be the band’s White Album, said Alexis Petridis quality,” said Siobhan Kane in The Irish pinned down, said Greg Kot in the Chicago in TheGuardian.com. Like the Beatles’ 1968 Times. “There are choral arrangements and Tribune. “These are songs that elude double record, it’s “a crowded, loose scrap- strings on nearly every track,” and as always genre—a blend of trip-hop, rap/spoken book of ideas.” What’s more, the missteps with this band, the anxieties that the lyrics word, R&B, gospel.” Woods is tapping into here are “vastly outweighed” by moments evoke are “leavened with a sense that the a rich heritage, and knows it. “My wings,” in which we’re hearing a band push past its sun must always rise.” she sings, “are greater than walls.” boundaries, “with striking results.”

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Review of reviews: Film & Stage ARTS 25

John Wick: The latest John Wick shoot-’em- played by Halle Berry. Though up is “the most giddily brutal spectacularly cast, Chapter 3 is Chapter 3 and bananas film in the series basically a series of over-the-top Directed by Chad Stahelski to date,” said Chris Nashawaty fight sequences, said Richard (R) in Entertainment Weekly. In Roeper in the Chicago Sun- fact, “as gorgeously choreo- Times. Would-be assassins are ++++ graphed, gratuitously violent dispatched with swords, antique An army of assassins gangs action movies go, it’s high art.” knives, even a library book. up on one of its own. Keanu Reeves returns as Wick, After a while, numbness sets in, a virtuoso hitman who here has Reeves and Berry: Two dog-loving killers said Andrew Barker in Variety. just been excommunicated from On “a level of pure craft,” the a shadowy global assassins guild after violating a work of director Chad Stahelski is unimpeachable. rule about offing a target on neutral territory. With But after you’ve seen too many people die without hundreds of killers on his trail, Wick seeks out old any dramatic stakes, “it’s tough not to wish he’d associates for help, including a crime boss played by start applying these obvious talents to scenes that Anjelica Huston and a Casablanca-based assassin have actual emotional weight.”

Pasolini For an Abel Ferrara movie, biopic,” Ferrara’s portrait also Paso lini is “startlingly dramatizes scenes from a novel Directed by Abel Ferrara restrained,” said Peter Bradshaw and movie that Pasolini never (Not rated) in TheGuardian.com. Italian completed, said A.O. Scott in ++++ poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo The New York Times. “The A film rebel’s portrait of a Pasolini was a Ferrara hero, splendor of Pasolini” is that kindred spirit and usually the acolyte displays it becomes a collaboration “the same authentic flair for between its subject and Ferrara, transgression.” Here, Willem the director of Bad Lieutenant. Dafoe plays Pasolini during his Dafoe’s quiet revolutionary Still, it’s “more interesting in final days: He gives a forebod- theory than achievement,” ing interview, lunches with his mother, and tends to said David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter. the completion of a film marked by sexual violence. Unfortunately, “Pasolini will be both a chore and a Finally, after picking up a young man for a tryst, bore for anyone not already versed in this singular he is murdered, at 53. “More of an essay than a artist’s history.”

Passage On other stages... Soho Rep, New York City, (212) 941-8632 ++++ Cornucopia The Shed, New York “exquisitely theatrical” moments “explode City, through June 1 the prevailing, contemplative calm,” remind- ++++ ing us that the issues of cultural collision “This isn’t your ordinary show,” said that Chen treats so abstractly “can assume a Rob LeDonne in The violent, visceral charge.” Guardian.com. But, of course, “Björk Chen’s scheme “allows for some lovely isn’t your ordinary d performances,” said Elisabeth Vincentelli Björk in costume e artist.” In a concert h S in The New Yorker. Both K.K. Moggie and e performance that helped christen the main h T / n Linda Powell—“as an X doctor and a Y stage at a new waterfront arts complex in a i d n I

expat who develop a charged bond”—are Manhattan, the idiosyncratic Icelandic singer e l Yair Ben-Dor and Andrea Abello, outside history t t i is creating a psychedelic wonderland of L excellent. But the play “nosedives” when e n sounds and images inspired by nature. The

O one of the actors announces halfway

/ Christopher Chen’s new play about e p

i concert features selections from her 2017 l

e xenophobia “sometimes feels more like through that Passage is a reworking of E.M. F album, Utopia, plus a 52-member Icelandic o g a therapeutic workshop than a narrative Forster’s A Passage to India, suddenly bring- a i t youth choir and an all-female flute septet. n a drama,” said Ben Brantley in The New ing in, unwelcomed, too much of the his- S

, “Dwarfed by the giant projections, Björk s e t York Times. Audience members are asked torical background of that 1924 novel. But

n was often lost among them”—except when a v r to remove their shoes before entering an the question that animated Forster’s book e she appeared on screen as an animated C a t austere performance space, and at times also animates this play, said Sara Holdren warrior-sprite or when she stepped to the e i l u J

they are asked to close their eyes or told in New York magazine. “Passage is balanc- very front of the stage, said Will Hermes in , r e b r to let a preconception go. The characters, ing right on the edge of a really terrifying RollingStone.com. But “this seemed to be o L

o part of the point: the human being alter- n meanwhile, are identified by single letters kind of despair”—the idea that true friend- i K

, nately empowered and subsumed by tech- y ships or personal connections cannot bridge

h only: A young woman, Q, meets another, F, p

a nology.” Near the end, Björk hands over the r g as they are traveling from Country Y to one divides created by cultural power imbal- o t show to a 16-year-old activist who issues a o h of its colonies, Country X, where the cast ances. Is that what Chen is telling us? I tend P

taped plea for arresting climate change, put- s r e grows. “Most of the scenes might be given to think he’s not. “You don’t write plays if g ting the fecundity of the evening into “stark, o R you truly believe in the futility of human k classroom-study titles, such as ‘Political cor- simple, fittingly scary” perspective. r a

M rectness: annoyance or necessity.’” But two relationships.” THE WEEK May 24, 2019 26 ARTS Television

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

Monday, May 20 Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman The Wife Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons Glenn Close flirted with a Some network experiments just have to be Best Actress Oscar play- applauded. In a 90-minute special, a classic epi- ing the silenced mate of sode of both All in the Family and The Jeffersons a writer tapped for litera- will be performed and broadcast live by a pair ture’s highest honor. (2018) of star-studded casts. Woody Harrelson and 5:45 p.m., Starz Marisa Tomei will play Archie and Edith Bunker, Tuesday, May 21 while Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes step into the Sunday in New York shoes of George and Louise Jefferson. The series’ Jane Fonda stars in a romp creator, Norman Lear, will co-host with Jimmy about a young woman who Kimmel, both eager to make the case that the must choose between her two iconic 1970s sitcoms are timeless. Look for longtime boyfriend and Ellie Kemper and Will Ferrell in supporting roles. a man she’s just met on Wednesday, May 22, at 8 p.m., ABC a Manhattan bus. (1963) The Name of the Rose: Turturro spies conspiracy. 10 p.m., TCM The Wrestlers Wednesday, May 22 How do you say “Let’s get ready to rumble!” in lies as federal aid runs out. Available for stream- Secretary Swahili? Pro wrestling, with all its spandex and ing Friday, May 24, Netflix An attorney’s submissive pyrotechnics, may seem a uniquely American typist finds a role that affair—until you’ve seen this new series. Punk Game of Thrones: The Last Watch pleases her in a smart, rock singer Damian Abraham serves as host The battle for the Iron Throne will be over on erotic comedy-drama fea- for a global tour that reveals there are as many May 19, but one more Sunday night of Game of turing Maggie Gyllenhaal wrestling subcultures—female wrestling in Japan, Thrones entertainment awaits. Filmmaker Jeanie and James Spader. (2002) “voodoo wrestling” in the Congo, lucha libre Finlay spent a year on the set of TV’s biggest 10:25 p.m., Cinemax wrestling in Mexico—as there are bandannas in drama, shadowing cast and crew in Northern Thursday, May 23 Hulk Hogan’s wardrobe. Wednesday, May 22, at Ireland as they plotted the massive final battles Gods and Monsters 10 p.m., Viceland and the fates of some of Westeros’ most beloved Ian McKellen plays James characters. Sunday, May 26, at 9 p.m., HBO The Name of the Rose Whale, the director of Other highlights Frankenstein, as the retired An assassin is once again loose among the monks in a secluded, 14th-century Italian abbey. In this Private Lives of the Monarchs auteur rages against his Queen Victoria leads the way in a series focused physical decline while eight-part adaptation of Umberto Eco’s hefty on the fetishes and peccadilloes of England’s past courting a young gardener. 1980s best-seller, John Turturro is excellent as Brendan Fraser co-stars. William of Baskerville, a visiting Franciscan friar rulers. Monday, May 20, at 8 p.m., Smithsonian (1998) 8 p.m., Flix who undertakes an investigation that expands as Frontline: Supreme Revenge Friday, May 24 the body count mounts. Eco’s novel needs space A look at how the two major political parties The Little Foxes to unfold its tale of corruption at the heart of the have been fighting a long war for control of Bette Davis torches the church; this adaptation seems to provide it. With the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1987 defeat screen as a Southern belle Rupert Everett and Michael Emerson. Thursday, of nominee Robert Bork. Tuesday, May 21, at whose ruthlessness stands May 23, at 10 p.m., SundanceTV 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings out in an avaricious planta- tion family. From a play After Maria Rim of the World by Lillian Hellman. (1941) Hurricane Maria’s devastation continues. In this Four teens who meet at summer camp team up 8 p.m., TCM short documentary, three Puerto Rican women to fight off a global alien invasion in this fun Saturday, May 25 forced to flee their native island in 2017 become new action series from the director of the Char- Halloween friends and allies at a FEMA shelter in the Bronx lie’s Angels movies. Available for streaming After many weak sequels, while struggling to secure stability for their fami- Friday, May 24, Netflix this one did it right— picking up the story 30 years after Michael Myers’ initial killing Show of the week spree and bringing back The Perfection Jamie Lee Curtis as a survi- Allison Williams is carving out her own niche vor facing the psychopath as a horror villain. The former Girls star be- once again. (2018) 8 p.m., came a coldly deadly enabler in Get Out, and HBO she creates similar chills here as a former cello prodigy who develops a Black Swan–style Sunday, May 26 rivalry with a younger rising star from her There Will Be Blood x i

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THE WEEK May 24, 2019 • All listings are Eastern Time. LEISURE 27 Food & Drink Critics’ choice: Wine bars as barometers of hip

Verjus San Francisco Aus tria, Por tu gal, and Slovenia—plus a Lindsay and Michael Tusk’s new wine snack of orange trout roe with house- bar “feels like a very of-the-moment crisped potato chips and a chile-infused Bay Area establishment,” said Soleil Ho crème fraîche. 1832 Frankford Ave., in the San Francisco Chronicle. Like a (267) 875-1832 bistro in Manhattan’s SoHo, back in that neighborhood’s circa-2000 heyday, Aviary Wine & Kitchen Austin Verjus “has all the easy sophistication of Like the neighborhood around it, a Vespa,” including the classic scooter’s Aviary Décor has really evolved, “ability to show you a good time.” said Matthew Odam in the Austin Unlike Quince, the Tusks’ Michelin- American-Statesman. Once a funky starred flagship restaurant, Verjus accepts décor shop that doubled as a place walk-ins only, then lets them choose: to sip wine, on a commercial street perhaps just a glass of orange wine and The back room at Verjus: Grandly casual crowded with garage mechanics, a couple of tinned sardines in the bar up Aviary is now a legitimate wine bar front; if not, there are tables in back and deceptively deep new seafood restaurant– and restaurant that rubs elbows with a hip- an open kitchen serving a dinner-worthy wine bar,” Aether serves a $28 lobster roll ster barbershop and an Asian smokehouse French-leaning menu. The “pride of the you shouldn’t bother with but offers plenty run by two James Beard Award winners. kitchen” is the pithivier, an elegant French of alternative grazing options that “made Chef Andre Molina can work magic in the meat pie, but you could also pair skate wing me happy as a razor clam splashed in tiny kitchen, offering a seared cauliflower Bordelaise with an assortment of seasonal smoked buttermilk and dill.” The woman steak in an almond mole or black radish vegetables (Michael’s specialty). And do ask in charge, Fia Berisha, is a 33-year-old and scallops in a dark garlic aguachile— for help with wine pairings, because the sug- workaholic: She set up Aether under her perfect with a glass of organic Mocine gestions are always spot-on. Before Verjus, own apartment as a place to chill when Alba Bianco. Aviary’s list of boutique and the Bay Area had plenty of wine bars, but she’s not commuting to Prince ton to run organic wines is playfully divided into cat- “nothing as dialed-in or grand as this.” two of that college town’s premiere res- egories named after such pop-culture stars 528 Wash ing ton St., (415) 944-4600 taurants. Meanwhile, she’s brought in an as David Bowie (“twinkly and sparkly”) ambitious chef from that same network and Etta James (“sultry, rich, and sexy”). Aether Philadelphia and endorsed his house-made shrimp sau- Pours of by-the-glass selections can be It’s a measure of Fishtown’s growing sage and his curries. The raw bar’s oysters shockingly skimpy, but that service quirk sophistication that a place like Aether and scallops are big assets, as is the burger, can be overcome. The new Aviary gets could set up in the neighborhood’s north- made with dry-aged beef and bacon jam. most things right, and “brims with an ern reaches, said Craig LaBan in The Phila- But you might also stop in just for the energy bumping right up to taking flight.” del phia Inquirer. “A slender, sleek, and wines—mostly “indie” natural wines from 2110 S. Lamar Blvd., (512) 916-4445

Recipe of the week Wine: California gewürtz Believe it or not, the secret ingredient in the best green salad I’ve ever “Of all the world’s great wine grapes, had is water, said Samin Nosrat in The New York Times Magazine. At Via Carota, gewürztraminer may be the least under- a charming restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village, chef Jody Williams fi rst triple- stood,” said Tom Hyland in Forbes.com. washes the carefully selected greens (in cool, then cold water). A quick rinse of the In Alsace, the wine is slightly sweet. In shallot matters, too, but fi nally, and “perhaps most surprisingly,” she adds a Italy’s Alto Adige region, it’s quite dry. tablespoon of warm water to cut the acidity of the vinaigrette. And California’s versions can lean either Via Carota’s insalata verde way. All, though, are wonderfully aro- 2 heads butter lettuce, such as Boston or Bibb • 1 romaine heart • 1 large Belgian matic and pair well with many comfort endive • 1 bunch watercress • ½ small head frisée • 1 large shallot, minced • 2 tbsp foods—including roast pork or turkey. plus 1 tsp aged sherry vinegar, plus additional as needed • 1 tbsp warm water • 2017 Stony Hill ($39). This nicely 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil • 1½ tsp each Dijon and whole-grain mustard • 1½ tsp balanced Napa Valley wine offers honey ( optional) • 2 sprigs thyme, washed, leaves only • 1 large clove garlic, “delicate aromas of pear, orange fi nely grated • salt and freshly ground black pepper rose, and quince,” along with a x u “cleansing acidity.” d e R / • Trim and wash greens. Place minced shal- • For each serving, pile a handful of 2018 Cartograph Starscape Vineyard s e m i lot in a fi ne-mesh strainer and quickly rinse greens into an individual bowl; sprinkle ($26). “Dry without being bitter,” T k r o with cold water. Allow to drain, with salt, pepper, and a gener- this Russian River Valley gewürtz is Y w e then place in a medium bowl; ous drizzle of dressing. Con- made for food, with aromas more N e

h add vinegar and warm water. tinue with another handful of fruity than fl oral. T / y t r Allow to sit for 2 minutes, then salad and more seasoning and 2018 Gundlach Bundschu ‘Estate e h o whisk in oil, mustards, honey (if dressing, repeating until you Vineyard’ ($25). A “lightly sweet” D y b using), thyme, garlic, and a large have a gravity-defying mound b fi nish makes this wine a good o B

, pinch of salt. Taste; adjust salt of salad. Top with a fi nal drizzle pairing for mild Thai cuisine. It’s n o s

e and vinegar as needed. of dressing. Serves 6 to 8. “uncomplicated, but appealing.” l l o T

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 28 LEISURE Travel

This week’s dream: Driving New Zealand from tip to tip

There’s no better way to see New ber for one of his army buddies, he Zealand than on a long, easygo- sent me on my way with a crayfish ing road trip, said Carrie Miller in lunch wrapped in newsprint. National Geographic Traveler. “There is a feeling throughout this land— I’ve lived for 15 years in New a warmth, a welcoming, a sense of Zealand and still marvel at how being looked after—that is difficult to everyone seems to know everyone put your finger on,” yet it defines the else. While paddling with a kayak- experience. Not long ago, I drove the ing guide toward Hahei’s Cathedral length of the country, from the bottom Cove—another destination recom- of the South Island to the top of the mended to me by a stranger—my North Island, and I let the gracious guide and I shared a laugh when we people I met along the way decide my realized we’d both once lived in the itinerary. And of course it all worked The lighthouse at Cape Reinga same distant tiny town. Days later, out— beginning with a wrong turn I stood on Cape Reinga, roughly that led me to a remote oceanfront ham- village of Jackson Bay. Before long, I was New Zealand’s northernmost point. An let, Bluff, and an invitation to join a small hiking the island’s rugged west coast, a ancient pohutukawa tree, “enduring and birthday party. landscape so wild, “I was expecting to cross beautiful,” marks this sacred spot, said to paths with a T. rex.” When I found Merv be the place from which a Maori person’s Over beers at a restaurant looking south Velenski, the stone carver and fisherman spirit departs on its way to the next world. over the ocean, a fisherman, his wife, greeted me politely, offering “a handshake To me, the tree speaks of manaakitanga, and I dined on spiny rock lobster and that could crush bricks.” He was the very the reason I’m glad that I’ve made New muttonbird, as I listened to stories of embodiment of manaakitanga—a Maori Zealand my home. the sea and promised to seek out a local word for hospitality—and after he’d shared At Bluff’s Lands End Hotel (landsendhotel character when I passed through the quiet his fascinating life story and a phone num- .co.nz), sea-view doubles start at $295.

Getting the flavor of... of Confederate apologias; the American Civil Hotel of the week War Center had a dynamic black female CEO The new American Civil War Museum who faced pushback from white supremacists Richmond, Va.’s newest cultural attraction “aims when she became the leader of the merger, to shatter expectations of what a Civil War but was endorsed by her counterpart, a white museum looks like,” said Gregory Schneider in Southerner with three great-grandfathers who The Washington Post. Created by merging two fought for secession. Fittingly, the new $25 mil- local institutions that once offered dueling per- lion facility, which incorporates the ruins of the spectives on the conflict, the American Civil War riverfront foundry where the South’s cannons Museum shows how the 1861–65 conflagration were manufactured, “redefines the war’s legacy touched everyone in the divided nation, whether as perpetually bound to our always-fraught Rustic living with a view Northern or Southern, male or female, white, present.” In the “breathtakingly inventive” first gallery stands a reconstruction of a Virginia Blackberry Mountain black, Native American, or Hispanic. “Yes, there are all the artifacts you’d expect”: tattered battle house that was blown to splinters during the Walland, Tenn. flags, Robert E. Lee’s hat, and scores of similar First Battle of Bull Run, killing the widow who Blackberry Farm now has an objects. But the emphasis is on individuals, repre- lived there. The display “demonstrates how the adventure-oriented sibling, sented in letters, diary entries, and oversize color- war came to the literal doorstep of each and said Nicole Schnitzler in every American,” and prepares the way for an TravelAndLeisure.com. At ized photos. “The result is surprising, like seeing Blackberry Mountain, a Relais modern people cast back into historical settings.” accounting that incorporates multiple perspec- & Chateaux property located tives. Given the arguments the war still gener- near the original backwoods “The merger of the two institutions is the stuff ates, its stories are perhaps best heard this way, retreat, guests can expect of Hollywood,” said Andrew Davenport in and the message really sinks in when you exit the same caliber of service Smithsonian.com. The 120-year-old Museum the galleries into a city studded to this day with and locavore cuisine, but of the Confederacy was once the chief purveyor Confederate monuments. with more emphasis on rock climbing, mountain biking, and similar activi- Last-minute travel deals ties. You can start any stay Austria by rail A taste of Spain Summer in the Berkshires with a hike from the Lodge Tour palace gardens, see Explore Spain’s many high- The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, to your luxury cabin or cot- Mozart’s birthplace, and lights on an eight-day tour Mass., is offering 20 percent y h

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THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Consumer LEISURE 29

The 2019 Volkswagen Arteon: What the critics say Autoweek four-cylinder, but it generates 268 hp and Volkswagen’s new fl agship has fi nally ar- “enough oomph for almost every driving rived in the U.S., and “it was well worth the situation.” Though the Arteon isn’t as fun to wait.” The Arteon won’t sell in big numbers, drive as a sports sedan, it’s not meant to be, but the near-luxury sedan that Europ e ans and ride quality “strikes a good balance be- have been driving for two years is a well- tween isolating comfort and actually feeling rounded package. Roomy, feature-laden, the road.” Cabin materials, meanwhile, are and classically styled, this fi ve-seat four-door “hit or miss”: You can opt for Nappa leather can feel “downright sporty” on winding, but not eliminate all the hard plastics. As open roads. And because it has generous gorgeous as it is from the outside, “this is cargo space, a liftback rear, and split fold- no bargain Audi.” VW’s new fl ag bearer, from $35,845 down seats, it’s “almost as co nvenient as a crossover.” Automobile levels of legroom.” So what if the Arteon You can imagine the buyers, though— won’t be a blockbuster? “Think of it as the Motor Trend people who want a handsome car, a solid artisanal sedan”—“distinctively styled, and The only engine available is a turbocharged value, and, in this case, “positively palatial carefully curated for its target audience.”

The best of...gifts for groomsmen

Leatherman Free P4 Blue Bottle at Home L.L. Bean Waxed Ray-Ban Original The people who Timex Marlin Set your boys up for the Canvas Duffle Wayfarer Classic invented the multitool A classic watch will help year with a coffee sub- Make a gift of this clas- Everybody needs a good have just comprehen- your groomsmen stay scription that will bring sic duffl e and you’ll pair of sunglasses—at sively reinvented it. on schedule and serve back memories of the “send them home with least between wedding- Some of Leather man’s them well for many wedding every time they a bag that’s better than party photos—and you beloved older models years beyond. The Marlin brew a cup. Blue Bottle the one they arrived can’t go wrong with are cheaper, but the is a reissue of a hand- specializes in single- with.” Cotton webbing Ray-Ban’s most time- Free P4 packs in 21 tools wound 1960s model that origin beans but also and reinforced body tested style. The specs and, thanks to magnets, features a silver face offers an assortment of increase durability, and can also be engraved or can “genuinely be used and an embossed calf- high-quality blends. the handles are full- customized. one-handed.” leather strap. From $144 for 12 shipments, grain leather. $153, ray-ban.com $140, leatherman.com $200, mrporter.com bluebottlecoffee.com $159, llbean.com Source: MensHealth.com Source: OutsideOnline.com Source: NYMag.com Source: Men’s Journal Source: GQ.com

Tip of the week... And for those who have Best apps... Which Amazon sellers you can trust everything... For beauty services on demand QStart with Amazon. “These days, almost “There’s some- QBeautyLynk is a standout among several anyone can sell items on Amazon, but Ama- thing satisfying apps that are making booking in-home zon does not vet everything on its virtual about chewing on a beauty services “as easy as ordering an shelves thoroughly, if at all.” To avoid the toothpick”— especially Uber.” The app vets all of its listed makeup, site’s third-party sellers, look for the phrase when it’s fl avored with hair, and skin-care professionals. Schedule “sold by Amazon.com.” You can also filter a 12-year-old single- an appointment and an “amazing” pro will search results to see only such items. malt scotch. Dan e son show up at your door ready to handle all QVet the seller. Only a fraction of sellers Tooth picks, sold in your hair, nail, and makeup needs. would scam customers, but try to weed small, pocket-ready bottles QbeGlammed is “like TaskRabbit for beauty them out. If a product listing says “Fulfilled of 12, are available in four artisanal natural pros.” Search among top-rated hairstylists by Amazon,” you at least know that Amazon fl avors. Each mint toothpick, for example, is and makeup artists near you. They, too, will will deliver the item. For other vendors, infused with a blend of the essential oils of travel to your home, hotel room, or office. seek signs they’re legit: Click on the vendor peppermint, wintergreen, sweet fennel, and QPriv likewise offers top-notch beauty name to see what else the vendor sells. And juniper, while “Cinna Mint” delivers notes services at home—“but why limit yourself?” look for positive reviews by the thousands. of cinnamon, peppermint, clove, and honey- You can also use the app to book a massage, QVet the product. Double-check the item suckle. The picks fl avored with Islay scotch training session, or custom chemical peel. you’re purchasing to avoid a simple order- or a six-year-old Ken tucky bourbon hold QPrete partners with high-end salons across ing mistake. And don’t blindly trust five-star their own in that company, though, and any the country to tell you when there’s an ap- reviews. Go to ReviewMeta.com, paste in corked bottle of Dane son toothpicks can fi t pointment available within a 5-mile radius. the product’s Amazon URL, and the site will in the company’s leather pocket holders. “Desperately need a last-minute blowout?” weed out the product’s fake reviews. $186 for 288, daneson.com Prete is here to help. Source: Wired.com Source: HiConsumption.com Source: RealSimple.com

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 30 Best properties on the market This week: Penthouse homes

1 W Brooklyn About a block from the Williamsburg water front, this three-bedroom, full-floor penthouse offers 1,507 square feet of private outdoor space: a balcony off the master bedroom, a terrace, and a rooftop deck with East River and Manhattan views. The apart- ment, built in 2017, also has floor-to-ceiling triple-pane windows and exposed concrete ceilings, wide-plank oak floors, and a gourmet kitchen. $3,000,000. Ryan Serhant Team, Nest Seekers International, (646) 480-7665

6 1 3 7

4

2 5

2 X Miami Walls of windows in this condo’s lofty, open-plan main space frame views of the city, the ocean, and Biscayne Bay. Housed in the Echo Brickell, a “smart” building down- town designed by Carlos Ott + Yoo, the three-bedroom apart- ment is fully furnished and features marble floors throughout. Building amenities include a gym, infinity pools, and compli- mentary daily poolside breakfast. $3,499,000. Allan Kleer, ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, (305) 798-8205

3 X Boston Built in 1850, this two-bedroom home has three levels: a first- floor master suite, a second- floor main space with a balcony offering city views, and a lofted third floor. Details include exposed- brick walls and beamed ceilings, a fireplace, and an eat-in kitchen. The building, on a tree-lined street down- town, is walking distance from the waterfront and cultural and historic sites. $1,349,000. Jeffrey Goldman, Coldwell Banker Residential Broker- age, (617) 840-8332

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Best properties on the market 31

4 X Marina Del Ray, Calif. This three-bedroom spread is on the top two stories of a 1972 building in the Marina City Club, a private community. Recently renovated, the open- plan, furnished apartment features white stone floors, white quartz counters, and floor- to-ceiling windows framing ocean and city views. The complex includes tennis courts, three pools, a fitness center, dog parks, and a restaurant. $1,850,000. Stephanie Percy, Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty, (206) 962-1620

5 W Austin Three balconies and walls of windows give this two-bedroom corner penthouse city and big-sky views. The open-plan space, built in 2004, has sapele-wood cabinetry and wall panels, Brazilian rosewood floors, travertine-clad bathrooms, and a kitch- en with black granite counters and SubZero and Wolf appliances. The building provides two parking spaces, a pool and hot tub, a spa, and a health club. $1,390,000. Elsa Decker, Moreland Properties, (512) 771-6831

Steal of the week

6 T Chicago F rom the top of the 1913 Crane Building, a registered historic landmark, this four-bedroom condo overlooks Lake Michigan and the Cultural Mile. The full-floor apartment features a keyed eleva- tor opening to a private foyer, a kitchen with island and peninsula, a living-dining area with gas fireplace, bedrooms retaining ceiling details 7 S Worcester, Mass. City and and ornate crown trees can be viewed through large molding, and a roof porthole windows in this apartment deck with 360-degree in the clock tower of Kettle Brook Lofts, a former textile mill built in views. $3,975,000. 1890. The four-level, one-bedroom home has exposed brick walls, Melinda Jakovich, ductwork, and beams; a spiral staircase to the master suite; and a Coldwell Banker lofted bonus space, and comes with two parking slots and storage. Residential Brokerage, The building abuts almost 40 acres of conservation area. $205,000. (312) 953-3425 Amanda Pearce, RE/MAX Professional Associates, (781) 392-8281

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 32 BUSINESS The news at a glance

The bottom line Courts: Apple antitrust suit moves forward QDespite Uber’s IPO The Supreme Court ruled this “Apple’s detractors still troubles, the $500,000 initial week that consumers can “sue have a fight ahead” investment the venture Apple for forcing them to buy to prove that Apple is capital firm First Round Cap i tal made in Uber in 2010 apps exclusively from the tech actually a monopoly, is now worth $2.5 billion— giant,” said Brent Kendall and said Jennifer Saba a 4,996-fold return. That’s Tripp Mickle in The Wall Street and Gina Chon in among the most lucrative Journal. In a 5-4 vote, the court BreakingViews .com. But VC investments ever, though reversed a 1977 antitrust decision incremental defeats like the total gain is not as large and “rejected Apple’s arguments this can add up, open- as that on the $14.8 m illion that consumers can’t sue because ing the door for more Accel Part ners invested in it is the app developers, not the lawsuits from consum- Face book, worth $5.7 billion company, that set app prices.” Breaking Apple’s hold on the App Store ers down the road. Big in Face book’s IPO. The Wall Street Journal Apple typically imposes a 30 percent fee paid by Tech com pa nies are “under antitrust attack on the developers—a cost that gets passed along to a growing number of fronts,” and the Supreme QCostco sold 650,000 cars last year—a 25 percent consumers. Justice Brett Kavanaugh broke from Court had no obligation to hear this case—yet increase from 2017— making his conservative colleagues, writing that Apple’s did so anyway. “There are many ways to peel an it a bigger car retailer than arguments “provide a road map for monopolistic Apple, and one way is to do it one small strip AutoNation, the country’s retailers” to “evade antitrust claims.” at a time.” largest automotive dealer- ship group, which sold Airlines: Boeing ignored pilot calls for a 737 Max fix A problem balloons 548,561 cars. for Party City BusinessInsider.com Boeing executives resisted urgent calls from American Airlines pilots A worldwide helium QSugary drink sales dropped to fix a software flaw in the 737 Max jet after the Lion Air crash last 38 percent in Philadelphia fall, said David Gelles and Natalie Kitroeff in The New York Times. shortage is drag- ging down sales at after the city imposed a The aircraft maker’s executives “didn’t want to rush a fix, and said 1.5 percent per ounce tax on Party City, said David they expected pilots to be able to handle problems.” Less than four Goldman in CNN.com. soda in 2017. But months later, the malfunctioning anti-stall software played a role in an while bever- Helium is the second age sales inside Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people. The pilots’ warnings most abundant ele- the city limits were revealed in recordings uncovered this week by the Times. ment in our galaxy, but dropped 51 per- Amazon: $10,000 to start a delivery business here on Earth supplies cent, they were Amazon said this week it would pay employees as much as $10,000 have been dwindling. Most helium has to be partially offset if they quit to form new companies to deliver Amazon packages, said by an increase in extracted in minuscule sales in neighbor- Leslie Albrecht in MarketWatch.com. Workers who sign up “will amounts from natural ing locations. also get discounts on Amazon-branded vans customized for delivery, gas drilled by energy CNBC.com branded uniforms, and comprehensive insurance.” The competition for companies, and while QThe number of bachelor’s faster delivery is heating up, and Amazon is now offering Prime mem- there are pockets of degrees awarded for health bers free one-day shipping on many items. A brochure says that deliv- helium buried through- professions has grown erers who run 20 to 40 vans “can expect to bring in annual revenues out Earth’s crust, “it’s 213 per cent since 2000–01. of $1 million to $4.5 million, with profits of $75,000 to $300,000.” notorious ly hard to cap- Women are a primary driver ture, because it, well, of the increase: They account Chemicals: Monsanto loses another cancer case floats.” That brings us for 84 percent of health- A California jury awarded more than $2 billion in damages this week to Party City. “Filling profession degrees. to a couple who say the Roundup weed killer caused their cancer, said balloons with helium is Bloomberg.com Patricia Cohen in The New York Times. Three juries have now con- among the company’s QThe U.S. flower industry cluded that Roundup’s developer, Monsanto, “failed to warn consum- most profitable ser- generates $26 billion annu- ers of its flagship product’s dangers.” Last month, the Env ironmental vices” and a big reason ally, but 80 percent of the Protection Agency issued an interim review stating that the active why customers visit cut flowers sold in America ingredient in the herbicide is not a carcinogen. But the couple, Alva its stores instead of are imported, including the and Alberta Pilliod, “used Roundup on their Northern California “buying on Amazon.” bouquets and arrangements property for decades,” and both have been diagnosed with non- But the recent short- used inside the White House. Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Monsanto was bought Bayer in 2018. age deflated balloon Qz.com sales by 8 percent QNew robots at Amazon Trade: Trump holds off on auto tariffs last quarter. Party City warehouses are capable of The Trump administration will likely delay its decision to impose high announced last week assembling 600 to 700 boxes tariffs on cars and auto parts for an additional six months, said Kayla that it would shutter 45 per hour. The machines, Tausche and Jacob Pramuk in CNBC.com. Facing a weekend deadline, stores “to boost overall which cost $1 million each, President Trump has been “mulling whether to use a national security profitability,” and the could be installed in 55 U.S. justification to slap tariffs as high as 25 percent on cars,” a rationale he company may have to fulfillment centers. One robot ) 2

raise prices after agree- ( already used to impose duties on steel and aluminum imports. But law- would replace 12 employees. m ing to a deal with a o c Reuters.com makers from both parties have urged Trump not to move forward, and s w

new helium supplier. e

the European Union has already prepared a list of retaliatory tariffs. N

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Making money BUSINESS 33

Executive pay: How many millions does one CEO need? Thanks to a new disclosure rule, we know But investors still need more “transpar- that “Elon Musk was paid 40,668 times ency on how pay is tied to performance,” more than a median Tesla worker,” said said Robert Jackson Jr. and Robert Pozen Andrew Edgecliff-Johnson in the Financial in The Wall Street Journal. Many execu- Times. The rule requires American compa- tives are paid through incentives based on nies to “disclose the relationship between adjusted earnings that require “accounting their chief executive’s compensation and that gimmicks” to meet. And while the SEC of their median employee.” Musk is an out- requires earnings releases that reconcile lier, but the new rule reveals that the typical the adjustments, “those requirements do CEO made 254 times the pay of a median not apply to the reports that compensation employee at his company; more than 1 in 10 committees of corporate boards disclose to made more than 1,000 times as much. The investors.” “issue of massive CEO paychecks is likely to Abigail Disney: CEOs are overpaid. be front and center during the [presidential] Bashing Big Business is in vogue, said Tyler campaign,” said Ted Johnson in Variety. The debate gained Cowen in Time.com, but today’s executives aren’t just there to steam when Abigail Disney, Walt’s grandniece, called out Disney “run the company.” The main driver of the increase in CEO pay CEO Bob Iger’s pay of $65 million—1,424 times the pay of “has been the blossoming of superstar firms that sell an innova- the typical Disney worker. She urged Iger to give half his bonus tive product and have global reach.” Think Google, Faceb ook, to lower-paid Disney workers. What difference would halving Ver i zon, and, yes, Disn ey. There’s a limited pool of individuals CEOs’ bonuses make in their quality of life? she asked. “None. talented enough to handle the demands of such enterprises. “It’s Zero. Maybe they can’t afford a third home.” not popular to say, but one reason their pay has gone up so much is that CEOs really have upped their game.” Take Iger, Unfortunately, pay ratios tell us “virtually nothing” about said Jeffrey Son nen feld in Fortune.com. He’s “masterfully in- a company’s actual practices, said Steven Bank and George tegrated the creative engines of Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm,” Georgiev in the Los Angeles Times. Do Disney employees own and his purchase of 21st Cent ury Fox “has transformed the some company stock? “Do they receive benefits, training, and entertainment industry.” He’s added 70,000 jobs and raised retraining opportunities?” Some investors, like BlackRock, “have Dis ney’s stock price to historic highs. Sure, some boards “con- started to demand information about human capital manage- sistently reward poorly performing CEOs.” But in this instance, ment practices as a way to assess how well a company is run.” “Ms. Disney has chosen the wrong target.”

What the experts say Charity of the week Skip those extra broker services buyers, the startups are looking for more afflu- The Archaeological Conservancy As financial-services companies step up efforts ent Millennial clients who want “nice furniture ( archaeological conservancy.org) acquires to offer lower-cost retirement plans, some are they can’t necessarily lug from apartment to and preserves important sites in the finding new ways to offset the losses, said apartment.” Both companies let customers U.S. Headquartered in Albuquerque, the conser- Anne Tergesen in The Wall Street Journal. buy the furniture if they want to keep it, at the vancy works Falling 401(k) plan fees have “meant millions regular retail price. By comparison, “a $148 throughout of dollars in lost revenue for asset managers subwoofer would cost a customer $779 if they the United and record keepers.” To replace the income bought it through a one-year rent-to-own con- States to save sites from the fees, some companies “are push- tract from Rent-A-Center.” that contain ing higher-cost advisory services”; others are crucial parts of the country’s history, “promoting ‘wellness’ services—programs that Be careful of ‘10-year’ market returns ranging from sacred Native American combine financial education with guidance You should take the 10-year stock market re- sites to early European settlements to prehistoric sites with fossils dating to from apps and advisers.” But recent lawsuits turns with a grain of salt, said Jeff Sommer in the Pleistocene era. The sites preserved have challenged these efforts as unfair to con- The New York Times. The standard long-term by the conservancy include the 2,000- sumers. In April, participants in two Vander- metric used by financial-services companies room, 27-tower Yellowjacket Pueblo in bilt University 403(b) plans announced a on your quarterly statements is 10 years. But Colorado; burial mounds built by the pre- historic Hopewell people in what is now proposed $14.5 million settlement that would “recall that before stocks began rising with Ohio; and Stallings Island, Ga., home to require the school to bar its record keeper, the start of the long bull market on March 9, the oldest documented pottery in North Fidelity Investments, from using data about 2009, they had fallen sharply.” The S&P 500 America. The conservancy also publishes plan participants to market other products. plummeted more than 50 percent in the previ- a magazine, American Archaeology, that documents historical breakthroughs and ous two years. But—poof! Thanks to “the ar- discoveries in North America. Furniture rental goes upscale bitrary logic of the calendar,” those miserable New startups are hoping to persuade more bear market figures are no longer incorporated Each charity we feature has earned a people to rent their furniture instead of buying in the 10-year returns. Don’t be misled by four-star overall rating from Charity it, said Gaby Del Valle in Vox.com. “Two such great-looking numbers that can provide an Navigator, which rates not-for-profit companies, Fernish and Feather, both promote incomplete picture. “Taking longer views—say, organizations on the strength of their

k finances, their governance practices, c 20 years or more—will give you broader per- o themselves as flexible, affordable alternatives to t

s and the transparency of their operations. r e t furniture ownership.” Unlike older stores such spective,” even though few investors tend to t Four stars is the group’s highest rating. u h

S as Rent-A-Center, which target low-i ncome stick with the same approach for 20 years.

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 34 Best columns: Business

IPOs: A sobering lesson for Silicon Valley It didn’t take long for Uber’s much- the company has grown too big. Of anticipated public offering to skid course, Uber’s own executives love off track, said Corrie Driebusch and the Facebook comparison, said Alex Maureen Farrell in The Wall Street Wilhelm in Crunchbase .com—just Journal. The mood around Uber soured don’t take it too far. The history of shortly “after a celebratory bell-ringing companies like Alphabet, Google’s ceremony at the New York Stock Ex- parent, and Facebook don’t point to a change” last Friday, as the ride-hailing “historical precedent for the Uber turn- giant raised $8.1 billion to become the around.” There’s one difference be- largest IPO since Alibaba, in 2014. By tween Facebook and Uber that’s really market close, “the total money lost by easy to see: In the 12 months before investors”—$655 million—“was the its IPO, Facebook had $1.75 billion in most since at least 1975” for a company profits; Uber had $3 billion in losses. in its debut. Shares in Uber fell 7.6 per- Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi cent below Uber’s already conservative $45 listing price, then fell Uber’s IPO could mark a “problematic moment in financial his- another 11 percent the next day. Across Wall Street, investors tory,” said Richard Waters and Shannon Bond in the Financial played the “blame game,” arguing over who was responsible Times. This offering could “define the era of the ‘unicorns’—the for the disastrous offering, said Eric New comer in Bloomberg large number of tech startups valued at $1 billion or more that .com. Uber was hit with “a lot of bad luck, including the abrupt have been pumped up by money flooding into the private financ- flare-up last week in U.S.-China trade negotiations that drove ing markets.” For investors in other unicorns, Uber’s inauspicious markets down around the globe, as well as the recent dismal per- debut is sobering. For Silicon Valley, that “may signal a welcome formance of Uber’s main rival, Lyft Inc.” But questions are flying turning point,” said Matt Rosoff in CNBC.com. Uber’s disastrous about how Uber’s bankers had miscalculated last year, when debut is the capstone to “an era characterized by big investments they widely suggested a $120 billion valuation for Uber that they in relatively small ideas and an almost stubborn unwillingness” could never deliver. to wake up to social realities. Startups such as Uber rode the “rise of mobile computing” and “solved problems for wealthy “Uber is hardly the first company to stumble in its first days, young people inhabiting major cities.” Worse, few of them were weeks, or months of trading,” said Stephen Grocer in The profitable, and they exploited the gig workers that relied on them. New York Times. In 2012, Facebook shares opened for trading Fortunately, “the tech industry seems to be going through a phase 11 percent above their IPO price, but the stock fell 13 percent a of serious introspection,” and investors’ pushback on Uber offers week later and 31 percent a year later. Now, “its shares currently more “reason to hope that Silicon Valley can return to tackling trade at about five times” the price of its IPO amid worries that big problems and building sustainable businesses.”

The Trump administration’s plan to throttle en- tests that would show if companies violated environ- Trump’s war forcement of laws regulating polluters, banks, and mental laws. The agency collected just $69 million in corporations has been a “devastating success,” said penalties from polluters last year, the lowest total in on health Mekela Panditharatne. While every White House a decade, and “referred the fewest new criminal cases administration shuffles enforcement priorities, this to the Justice Department in any year since 1988.” and safety one has overseen the “slow bloodletting and bureau- Corporate fines and penalties imposed by the Justice Mekela Panditharatne cratic sandbagging” of the Environmental Protection Department are down 72 percent; penalties ordered Slate.com Agency and the Justice Department. “Staffing reallo- by the Securities and Exchange Commission have cations, buyouts, and mass resignations” account for fallen 62 percent. The “scale at which the Trump ad- part of the damage. In addition, traditional reporting ministration is pulling back on enforcement actions” relationships “have, at times, been replaced by com- would be shocking under any other administration. mands to seek approval from political appointees.” This will only embolden more companies “to violate The EPA, for instance, now instructs its regional of- with greater impunity laws meant to protect public ficers to get permission from Washington for some health, safety, and financial well-being.”

“Presenteeism is the curse of the modern worker,” work: “Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking Staying late said The Economist. While studies show that em- around purposefully with a clipboard, and sending ployee productivity declines steeply after about out emails at odd hours are three of the best-known doesn’t mean 50 hours a week, some managers still insist that tricks.” Presenteeism is an artifact of the industrial workers “stay chained to their desks.” The bosses era, when big, new machines required large numbers you’re busy stay late, watching to see if their underlings are still of workers to operate, requiring employees to clock The Economist there, while the underlings try to look busy, feeding in and out. But today, “modern machinery, like a pointless cycle. “If bosses do not like to go home smartphones and laptops, is portable,” and work can before their underlings, and underlings fear leaving be done at home as easily as in the office. Creativity before their bosses, everyone is trapped.” There are is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine

inevitably days when there just isn’t much to do and tasks get automated. “To be productive you need y t t e

there’s no reason to stay, so you fake being hard at presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.” G

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 Obituaries 35 The sunny film star who became America’s girl next door

Doris Doris Day’s on-screen presence was to Day, explaining that “Kappelhoff was a little Day so wholesome that it became a joke. too long for the marquee.” 1922–2019 “I’m so old, I knew Doris Day before Day’s “sinuous, molten singing voice” dazzled she was a virgin,” went the well- listeners, said TheAtlantic.com, and her first big worn quip, variously attributed to Oscar Levant and hit, 1945’s million-selling “Sentimental Journey,” Groucho Marx. But in the exuberant years between “became the anthem of returning World War II World War II and Vietnam, the blue-eyed, buttery- servicemen.” That success led to a contract at blond actress and singer was America’s undisputed Warner Bros., where she starred in musicals, sweetheart, with theater owners giving Day the including 1950’s Tea for Two and 1953’s Calamity No. 1 spot four times in their annual poll of box- Jane—her “androgynous, buckskinned perfor- office draws in the early 1960s. Audiences flocked to mance” in that movie made her a gay icon. But see her in romantic comedies such as 1959’s Pillow Day found her greatest success in stylish sex Talk and 1962’s That Touch of Mink opposite the comedies, starting with Pillow Talk. Those mov- likes of Rock Hudson and Cary Grant. Day typically ies, tame by today’s standards, “were considered played the role of a spunky professional woman daring at the time,” said The New York Times. who fends off the advances of a callow p layboy—and invariably In Pillow Talk, Day’s character shares a telephone line with the tames him. But her sunny public persona belied a difficult personal lothario next door, played by her real-life close friend, the closeted life. Married four times, Day survived physical abuse at the hands Rock Hudson. A famous split-screen scene shows the pair soak- of her first husband, was walked out on by her s econd—who said ing in separate bubble-filled baths, their feet appearing to touch he didn’t want to be Mr. Doris Day—and discovered that her third through the wall. Hudson and Day were both convinced the visual had embezzled her fortune. “My public image is unshakably that of metaphor could end their careers. America’s wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brim- ming with happiness,” Day wrote in her memoir. “An image, I can “Yet her insistence on making mostly sunny, upbeat films earned assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played.” the rancor of some feminists in the 1960s,” said the Los Angeles Times. Day’s films, they argued, “glorified an ideal woman who She was born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, said never really existed.” Her career faded as Hollywood pivoted to The Times (U.K.), named after her homemaker mother’s heroine grittier, increasingly realistic fare in the late 1960s. She rejected Doris Kenyon, “the early film star who appeared opposite Rudolph more modern star vehicles, turning down the role of the middle- Valentino.” The young Doris showed great promise as a dancer, but aged seductress Mrs. Robinson in 1967’s The Graduate, saying had to give up those dreams at age 15 when a car she was riding in “it offended my sense of values.” When her third husband, pro- was struck by a freight train at a poorly marked crossing. “She was ducer Martin Melcher, died in 1968, she learned that he had lost dragged from the wreckage with her legs shattered.” Her mother $20 million of her earnings through bad business investments and encouraged her to take up singing during her 18-month recovery, left her $500,000 in debt. “Despite hating the idea of doing TV,” said The Guardian (U.K.). Doris spent hours singing along to jazz she managed to recoup some of her losses by starring in The Doris legend Ella Fitzgerald on the radio, trying, she later recalled, “to Day Show, which ran for six seasons. As the years went on, Day catch the casual yet clean way she sang the words.” At age 17, hav- increasingly shied away from the spotlight, devoting most of her ing traded her crutches for a cane, she began singing with big bands time to animal-rights causes. “I’ve never met an animal I didn’t in a local club. The owner persuaded Doris to change her last name like,” she said. “I can’t say the same thing about people.” The daredevil naturalist who hosted Wild Kingdom Jim For 25 years, Jim Fowler brought exotic ary and in 1955 headed to the Amazon to study the Fowler wild beasts into the homes of millions harpy eagle—one of the world’s largest raptors. He 1930–2019 of Americans. As the co-host of Mutual returned with three of the birds, “one of which joined of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with zoolo- him for an episode of the Today show.” That appear- gist Marlin Perkins, the naturalist traveled the world ance impressed Perkins, who was developing a new to educate viewers about the wonders of nature. The wildlife show with Mutual of Omaha, said The New 6-foot-6 Fowler was the series’ man of action: He dove York Times. Perkins hired Fowler as “his sidekick,” with sharks, lassoed alligators, and tracked polar bears and in the first episode of Wild Kingdom, Fowler while the older Perkins often narrated the scene from flew a harpy eagle in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. At one a safer spot. The NBC show, which debuted in 1963 point, the massive bird dove at a woman walking her and clocked up to 30 million viewers a week, could poodle; Fowler pulled the line tight just in time. “Had get scarily wild. Fowler was knocked unconscious by the eagle grabbed the woman or the dog,” he said, a punchy chimpanzee named Mr. Moke; had a whole arm swal- “my career would have been over before it started.” lowed, then spat out, by a 22-foot anaconda; and was charged by Fowler was a relentless advocate for conservation, said The a female elephant—and the rest of her herd—who thought he was Hollywood Reporter. He made “more than 100 appearances on threatening her calf. “You can bluff a male elephant” by standing The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”—typically with an still, Fowler said. “Not a female. That cow tried to kill me.” unusual beast—and when Wild Kingdom wrapped in 1985, he Born to Quaker parents in Albany, Ga., Fowler spent his childhood joined Today as a wildlife correspondent. His son, Mark, who t s e f catching snakes and training kestrels on the family farm, said The works in wildlife protection, said he is constantly amazed by his o t o h Washington Post. After studying zoology and geology at Earlham father’s influence. All the heads of NGOs “that are out there saving P

, P

A College in Richmond, Ind., he worked at a Florida raptor sanctu- wildlife,” Mark said, “they all tell me, ‘He’s the reason I do this.’”

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 36 The last word How your DNA could solve a murder Genetic informatio n from ancestry databases is being used to solve murders and identify bodies, said journalist Heather Murphy in The New York Times. Is this the end of DNA privacy?

N THE YEAR since the arrest by various genealogists of the man believed to be and investigators. the notorious Golden State I Some question the eth- Killer, the world of criminal investigation has been radically ics and legality of the transformed. technique. They point out that customers of Using an unconventional tech- genealogy companies did nique that relies on DNA sub- not realize they would mitted to online genealogy sites, be signing up to help investigators have solved dozens criminal investigations, of violent crimes, in many cases although GEDmatch dis- decades after they hit dead ends. closes that profiles could Experts believe the technique be used to investigate vio- could be used to revive investi- lent crimes. A recent deci- gations into a vast number of sion by FamilyTreeDNA cases that have gone cold across to pivot from secretly the country, including at least cooperating with the FBI 100,000 unsolved major violent to marketing itself as a crimes and 40,000 unidentified means to catch killers has bodies. also left many alarmed. Many have called it a revolution- Cook and Van Cuylenborg killed Some want to see the same in 1987; a forensic family tree; ary new technology. But credit regulations for family- Talbott, scheduled for trial in the genealogy sites that states for this method largely belongs 32-year-old case to a number of mostly female, have imposed on the use mostly retired family-history lovers who of government DNA data- 26 counts of murder bases, such as the FBI’s Codis system. tried for years to convince law enforcement and kidnapping in connection with scores officials that their techniques could be used of rapes and killings that were committed Charles E. Sydnor III, a state legislator in for more than locating the biological par- across California in the 1970s and ’80s. Maryland, said, “When we’re not going ents of adoptees. In interview after interview, Paul Holes, according to the law, I think that makes us

no better than lawbreakers.” In Maryland, e c a determined investigator who had spent i One was Diane Harman Hoog, 78, director f f O

police are banned from identifying suspects s of education at DNA Adoption, who real- decades chasing false leads, rejoiced in his ’ f f i through relatives in criminal DNA data- r e

ized in 2013 that she could apply the tech- decision to involve Rae-Venter. h S

bases. Despite the law, police departments y t

niques she was using to identify two bodies n

“Barbara really braved the pass,” said u in two counties have done precisely that o C she had read about in a Seattle newspaper. h

CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist who s with GEDmatch. i

“This is too complicated,” she said she m o

was also among the first to see the poten- h o was told when she reached out to a detec- The law aside, individuals have little n S

tial in the technique. Within a few weeks of , ) 3 tive. Four years later, Margaret Press, 72, a recourse to protect their genetic data. If (

the announcement, she began working with s b a retired computer programmer and skilled you are an American, it is likely that your l o

Parabon, a forensic-consulting firm. n a

family-tree builder in California, tried to N

name can be extrapolated even if you have n o help her local sheriff with a similar case. In rapid succession, Parabon’s work led b never taken a DNA test. In the hands of an a r a P

to 49 genetic identifications, reopening No one would return her calls. advanced genealogical sleuth, often all that , P A / d a number of cold cases: the 1987 double is needed to identify someone from a drop l a Fast-forward to April 25, 2018, the day r e

killing of a young Canadian couple, six H of saliva, blood, or semen are the DNA y

that a gaggle of California prosecutors e l l

rapes in North Carolina, and the slay- profiles of two third cousins. a V

announced that an “innovative DNA tech- t i

ing of a Stanford University graduate 46 g a k

nology” had been used in the Golden State What is a third cousin? It is someone S /

years ago. The technique resulted in at s e l Killer case. who shares a set of your 16 great-great- i B least 17 arrests, including people who had s e l

grandparents. We all have at least 800 of r a

The innovator was Barbara Rae-Venter, never been under any suspicion, such as h C

them out there somewhere, and there is a , a genetic genealogist who had uploaded a well-established party DJ and children’s y m a good chance that some were once excited l A

entertainer in Pennsylvania. The National crime scene DNA to GEDmatch.com, a : s

enough about genealogy to join GEDmatch h p

low-key genealogical research site run out Center for Missing and Exploited Children e s

or FamilyTreeDNA. Several recent cases o J of a little yellow house in Florida. Rae- is revisiting about 700 cases involving l e i

show what this technique could mean for n Venter, 70, and her team soon found a unidentified children’s remains and has a D

the future. y b suspect by using the genetic and family-tree identified about 15 in the past year. n o i t a data provided by his cousins. A woman in Washington is surprised when r t

An additional 300 cases are in the works: s u l l

her DNA leads to a cousin’s arrest in Iowa. I

o

And that was how a former police officer, old killings, serial sexual assaults, and t o h Joseph DeAngelo, came to be charged with unidentified bodies, according to estimates The Facebook message did not make sense P

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 The last word 37 at first. In March, a stranger congratulated across the country to Massachusetts and 90 percent of Americans of European Brandy Jennings of Vancouver, Wash., for back to Spencer Glen Monnett, 31, who descent will soon be identifiable using helping to solve a 1979 killing in a small was arrested in Utah. He pleaded guilty in genetic genealogy. (Americans with that town in Iowa. Her second cousin once February. background are overrepresented on sites removed, Jerry Lynn Burns, a 64-year-old like GEDmatch.) The case raises questions that the police, small-business owner and widower, had genealogists, and victims’ families have In the case of the woman on the trail, Press been charged. They had never met. mentioned in interviews: Why choose one said, she got lucky, spotting a first cousin “It teaches me to read what I agree to,” case over others? Should the priority be once removed. Alas, one of the next key Jennings said. new cases? Easier cases? Those in the media matches had been adopted, so they located spotlight? Are older cold cases worth pur- the cousin’s biological parents. Within a She had uploaded her Ancestry.com file to suing, even if the people who committed few months, the woman on the trail had a GEDmatch but had never returned to the the crimes are likely dead? name. It has not been announced, because site, finding it too confusing. A search war- investigators are now trying to figure out rant revealed that investigators had found who killed her. her profile useful. Jennings said she wished that she had been given a heads-up or that A trial in a 1987 double murder in the Pacific she had been eligible for the long-standing Northwest could be legally important. $10,000 reward, though she feels positive A case that could result in legal precedents about her contribution. involves William Earl Talbott II, 55, who “Any murder deserves to be solved,” she is scheduled to go on trial on June 3 in said. Snohomish County Superior Court in Washington for a double killing committed A young mother was stabbed to death in nearly 32 years ago. 2009. Nine years later, a neighbor confessed. He is accused of killing a Canadian On Nov. 1, 2009, Holly Cassano, 22, who couple, Jay Cook, 20, and Tanya Van lived in a mobile home park in Mahomet, Cuylenborg, 18, who were last seen alive Ill., failed to pick up her baby girl from her on the ferry to Seattle from their home on mother’s home. The worried grandmother Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Van went to check on Holly and found she had Cuylenborg was found dead in a ditch in been stabbed to death after her evening the woods in Skagit County in November shift as a supermarket cashier. 1987. Cook’s body and van were found a Last May, after the publicity over the Moore: Seeing the potential of familial DNA week later. Golden State Killer arrest, Parabon began After tracing DNA evidence to second Yes, says Bill Thomas. His sister Cathy was offering its hundreds of clients a $3,500 cousins on GEDmatch, Moore drew a con- among eight people who were killed in add-on service in which Moore or another nection to a couple who lived 7 miles from southeastern Virginia in the late 1980s in genetic genealogist builds a series of inter- the crime scene. Their son was Talbott, a series of slayings that came to be known locking family trees. The Champaign who was 23 at the time of the killings. County Sheriff’s Office was a client. as the Colonial Parkway murders. “For me and for my family it’s never been about The judge could decide to treat clues Getting from cousin to great-grandmother a prosecution,” he said. “I’m not seeking from genealogical sites the same way that to suspect can be complicated. The case closure. It’s not like the sun will come out evidence from Codis or a social media did not look promising when Moore began tomorrow. I don’t care if he is dead. I want site such as Instagram is handled, said working on it last summer. But then, during to know who he is.” Blaine Bettinger, a genealogist and intel- a root canal, she said, “I was lying there in a lectual property lawyer who works with A Jane Doe, found shot to death on a trail in chair and something popped into my head.” GEDmatch. Or the judge might find the Nevada, finally has a name. Other experts describe similar epiphanies technique to be a violation of Fourth when building family trees. In this case, A week before the Golden State Killer Amendment protections against unlawful DNA extracted from a discarded cigarette arrest, a tiny piece of a bloody shirt was search and seizure. headed to a lab. A month later, Press, the reinforced her hypothesis. In August, the Leah Larkin, who runs a DNA analysis retired computer programmer, and Colleen neighbor who had smoked that cigarette service called The DNAGeek, believes that Fitzpatrick, 64, a retired rocket scientist, back in 2009, Michael Henslick, confessed it is. “I don’t think that the cops should be uploaded the genetic file to GEDmatch. to the killing. able to look into any home they want with- They were seeking relatives of an unidenti- It’s not just about old cases, as a sexual out a warrant,” she said. “There is much fied woman whose body was found on a assault case in Utah shows. more private information in my DNA than hiking trail outside Reno, Nev., in 1982. there is in my underwear drawer.” In April 2018, a man broke into the house x

u The pair had been using genetic genealogy d At stake are thousands of criminal cases e of Carla Brooks, 79, in St. George, Utah, R

/ to identify bodies for nearly a year through s e beat her, and sexually assaulted her. In July, and perhaps the future of genetic privacy m i their organization DNA Doe Project. T

k the police department there became one of in general. “It could end there, or it could r o Several changes in 2017 and 2018 had Y keep on going to the Supreme Court,” w the first agencies to apply genetic genealogy e led to a boom, Press said. DNA sequenc- N

e to a recent case. Bettinger said. h

T ing had gotten better and cheaper. More / k n a r “When there’s the potential to stop some- important, she said, the size of genealogi- F

. L one in their tracks, it’s a different feel- cal databases had grown rapidly. In fact, This story originally appeared in The New n a i r

B ing,” Moore said. The trail of cousins led according to a recent study, the DNA of York Times. Used with permission.

THE WEEK May 24, 2019 38 The Puzzle Page

Crossword No. 505: Sports Authority by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest 12345 6789 10111213 This week’s question: An Ohio brewery worker who gave 14 15 16 up food for Lent and drank only hearty craft beer claims he lost 44 pounds on his diet and has never felt better. If Del Hall were to write a beer-only diet book, what title 17 18 19 could he give it? 20 21 22 23 Last week’s contest: Norwegian fishermen recently found a tame beluga whale wearing a camera harness 24 25 stamped with “Equipment of St. Petersburg.” Officials suspect the creature escaped from a secret Russian mil- 26 27 28 29 30 31 itary facility. If Hollywood were to make a thriller about a whale that spies for the Kremlin, what would the film 32 33 34 be called? THE WINNER: “The Spy Who Came in for the Cod” 35 36 37 James Pearson, Anaheim, Calif. SECOND PLACE: “The Blowhole Ultimatum” 38 39 40 Ivan Kershner, Salem, S.C. THIRD PLACE: “License to Krill” 41 42 43 Suzanne Brooks, Quechee, Vt.

44 45 For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. 46 47 48 49 50 51 How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to c ontest @ theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and 52 53 54 55 daytime telephone number for verification; this week, type “Beer diet” in the subject line. Entries are due by 56 57 58 noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, May 21. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page next issue 59 60 61 and at theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, May 24. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received ACROSS 43 Helen on Alabama’s 11 President Obama gets credit. 1 ___.com (dating state quarter gave this 90-year-old WThe winner gets a one-year service) 44 Apply, as balm slugger the Medal in subscription to The Week. 6 Julius Caesar 45 Body part with a cap 2011, calling him by his reproach 46 Prince Albert’s place, nickname “the Man” 10 Org. with a Click-N- per an old joke 12 Model’s stance Ship option 48 Purslane, crabgrass, or 13 Zoomed 14 Luau hello dandelion, e.g. 18 Have on Sudoku 15 Some undergarments 49 Coffee cubes 23 Muchly 16 Word on red-and- 52 Classroom piece 24 Tori or Wally Fill in all the white signs 53 Basketball coach 25 Sen. Collins of Maine boxes so that 17 On May 6, President called the Wizard 26 Bend the rules, and each row, column, Trump made him the of Westwood, who then some and outlined youngest athlete ever received the Medal 27 Retriever restrainer square includes to be awarded the from President 28 The only athlete all the numbers Presidential Medal of George W. Bush President Clinton from 1 through 9. Freedom 56 Island where Jason awarded the Medal 19 Lack of trouble Momoa was born to, he received it Difficulty: 20 H, on Crete 57 Sea greeting posthumously in 1993 medium 21 Dispute 58 Evil spirit 29 “The Crow and the 22 Used Coppertone 59 Move on the dance Pitcher” author products floor 30 Like the goddesses 24 Out of town 60 It lost Best Picture to Frigg and Freya 25 City between Eugene Green Book 31 “Come right on in!” and Portland 61 Some Jimmy Choos 33 Second showing 26 Racket 36 Classic container 29 Device that can make DOWN 37 Proofreader’s mark someone’s voice 1 Companion 39 Singing Swedes sound funny 2 Landed (on) 40 Drove on a course Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. 32 Bird with an S-shaped 3 Loose threads? 42 Botch neck 4 Michael of Saturday 43 “Who ___?” 33 Stopwatch button Night Live 45 Country with a Maasai ©2019. All rights reserved. 34 III, to Jr. 5 Achieved only with shield on its flag The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly except for one week in each 35 Food great effort 46 Wedding-day pledges January, June, July, and September. 36 Hills that are difficult 6 Magazine with an 47 Super-cool The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 55 West 39th Street, New to climb annual Power 100 list 48 Oft-misused pronoun York, NY 10018. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box 37 Embarrassing 7 2004 epic with Brad 49 Thought 37252, Boone, IA 50037-0252. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $75; Canada $90; information Pitt as Achilles 50 Word on pennies all other countries $128 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement No. 38 Stuff tapped off a cigar 8 Tiny amount 51 Machiavellian concerns 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses 39 “___ Burr, Sir” Four of them border 54 “Caught you red- to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. 9 S

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