CONTROVERSY TALKING POINTS MUSIC BARRETT’S What if A new choice JUDICIAL he won’t for pop’s VIEWS leave? best album p.6 p.16 p.24 Marvin Gaye

THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA Shell game Trump’s tax returns reveal how he stiffed the IRS and amassed a mountain of debt p.4

OCTOBER 9, 2020 VOLUME 20 ISSUE 996

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Editor’s letter As further proof that our tax system is broken, consider this re- ernment and who enjoy precious few deductions or options for cent revelation by reporters at ProPublica.org: If you’re a mem- cheating. The other is for the self-employed, owners of limited- ber of the working poor—people who earn less than $20,000— liability companies, hedge-fund managers, and the very wealthy. you are nearly as likely to be audited as people whose earnings For them, the tax code is like a Christmas tree laden with shiny put them in the top 1 percent. It might seem foolish of the IRS baubles and surrounded by ribboned presents—deductions, tax- to chase after low-paid taxpayers for a few hundred bucks rather avoidance schemes, and loopholes of all kinds. In the deep forest than, say, a reality TV show host claiming a suspect business loss of a 400-page tax return, it is easy to hide questionable claims, of $72.9 million. But years of withering budget cuts by congres- like classifying your daughter—an executive in the family firm— sional Republicans have left the IRS so stripped of experienced as a “consultant” so you can write off her $747,622 salary as a staff that it can only audit 1.56 percent of the richest Americans’ business deduction. Fraud, the IRS estimates, will cost the gov- returns. Auditing the poor is simpler—they can’t afford tax ernment $7.5 trillion in taxes not paid over the next decade. lawyers—and is thus “the most efficient use of IRS’s limited ex- Every dollar that cheats do not pay, of course, is either paid by amination resources,” the agency says. the “losers and suckers” or added to the trillions in debt we are As we’ve been reminded this past week (see Main Stories), the handing off to our children. Americans deserve a much fairer U.S. does not have one income tax system, but two. One is for and simpler tax code, but we will not get one William Falk salaried schmucks whose income is reported directly to the gov- until we demand it. Editor-in-chief

NEWS 4 Main stories Revelations from Editor-in-chief: William Falk President Trump’s tax returns; a chaotic fi rst Managing editors: Theunis Bates, presidential debate Mark Gimein Assistant managing editor: Jay Wilkins 6 Controversy of the week Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell The case for and against Senior editors: Chris Erikson, Danny Funt, Trump’s Supreme Court Michael Jaccarino, Dale Obbie, Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller nominee, Judge Amy Art director: Dan Josephs Coney Barrett Photo editor: Mark Rykoff Copy editor: Jane A. Halsey 7 The U.S. at a glance Researchers: Joyce Chu, Alisa Partlan Brain-eating amoeba Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, Bruno Maddox found in Texas city’s water; the NFL’s Chief sales and marketing officer: Covid-19 outbreak Adam Dub SVP, marketing: Lisa Boyars 8 The world at a glance Executive account director: Sara Schiano Barrett and Vice President Mike Pence at the U.S. Capitol (p.6) West Coast executive director: Tony Imperato An ISIS impersonator Head of brand marketing: Ian Huxley arrested in Canada; ARTS LEISURE Director of digital operations & Amnesty International advertising: Andy Price 22 Books 27 Food & Drink hounded out of India Chief executive: Kerin O’Connor The bumbling tech fi rm Getting maximum fl avor Chief operating & financial officer: 10 People that foresaw the future into water-packed tofu; Kevin E. Morgan Erno Rubik on his famous classic Oktoberfest brews Director of financial reporting: 23 Author of the week Arielle Starkman cube; Sharon Stone on Consumer marketing director: getting a second shot at life Allie Brosh’s 28 Coping Leslie Guarnieri disappearing act How the pandemic might HR manager: Joy Hart 11 Briefi ng change the American Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo President Trump’s agenda 24 Music family for the better for a second term Debating the 500 Chairman: Jack Griffin greatest pop albums Dennis Group CEO: James Tye 12 Best U.S. columns Joe Biden’s ethical blind 25 Art & Film BUSINESS U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell Should museums ever 32 News at a glance spot; should liberals give Company founder: Felix Dennis up on Roe v. Wade? sell artworks? JPMorgan’s “spoofi ng” 15 Best international settlement; supermarkets columns stockpile for a Covid surge Russia sees democracy in 33 Making money decline in the U.S. A superheated housing Visit us at TheWeek.com. 16 Talking points market; the secret world of For customer service go to www Amazon “fi xers” .TheWeek.com/service or phone us Trump’s plan to challenge at 1-877-245-8151. election results; Breonna 34 Best columns Renew a subscription at www )

2 Taylor; alarm at the CDC Airlines beg for a new .RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift ( s r at www.GiveTheWeek.com. e over the president’s new Erno Rubik bailout; Harley Davidson’s t u e

R pandemic adviser (p.10) accelerating woes

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 4 NEWS The main stories... Trump’s taxes: Massive losses and looming debts What happened benefit “game-players at the In a blockbuster story on Donald expense of average taxpayers.” Trump’s long-hidden tax returns, The New York Times revealed What laws were broken? asked this week that the president is The Wall Street Journal. It’s deeply mired in debt and has hardly a scandal that Trump over the past 18 years claimed “legally exploited the tax code” massive business losses while to lower his tax bill. Congress paying next to nothing in fed- has “littered the code with eral income tax. Working from loopholes aimed at assisting extensive tax data provided by real estate businesses, among an unrevealed source, the paper others,” and Trump has made reported that Trump paid only no secret of putting them to $750 in federal income tax in use. Democrats lard the tax both 2016 and 2017, and in 11 code with these legal dodges of 16 prior years paid no federal “to please their corporate income tax at all. To reduce donors, and then selectively at- his tax bill, Trump wrote off tack CEOs or businesses” that not only hundreds of millions A huge money-loser: Trump and family at his golf course in Scotland use them. in business losses— including $315 million hemorrhaged by his golf courses—but extensive What the columnists said personal expenses he claimed as business deductions, including the “Trump is either a tax fraud or the world’s worst businessman,” cost of private planes and $70,000 in hairstyling for his televi- said Elie Mystal in WashingtonPost.com. Trump’s returns show he sion appearances. Trump also deducted $26 million in unspeci- blew the $435 million made from his Apprentice run and licensing fied consulting fees, and in one case appeared to funnel nearly deals on terrible new purchases, proving he’s “as bad at running his $750,000 to his daughter Ivanka as a consultant, even though she businesses as he is running the country.” It’s also possible that “he’s was an executive at his organization. During the period in ques- defrauded the government.” There’s plenty here, including Ivanka’s tion, Trump drew the bulk of his income from selling his image “consulting fees” and Trump’s claim that a family compound was as a self-made billionaire on the reality show The Apprentice and a business expense, that points to “felony tax evasion.” through endorsements—even as his hotels, conference centers, and golf courses ran deeply in the red. Trump’s foreign entanglements are most alarming of all, said Timo- thy Carney in WashingtonExaminer.com. He reportedly earned The Times revealed that the cash-strapped president owes some $73 million from overseas businesses his first two years as presi- $421 million on personally guaranteed loans that largely fall due dent, including $3 million from the Philippines and $1 million from within four years—and whose creditors are unknown. He’s battling Turkey. Both countries are run by “brutal strongmen” known for the IRS over a $72.9 million refund he claimed in 2010 that was “their offenses against human rights.” Trump “speaks glowingly” subject to an audit; if he loses the judgment, with interest he may of both and is reaping these millions with their “tacit approval.” If owe more than $100 million. Trump’s tax data paint a picture, the U.S. foreign policy upset them, what might happen to those profits? Times reporters wrote, “of a businessman-president in a tightening financial vise.” The Times’ report backs up what his former lawyer Michael Cohen told us, said Max Boot in The Washington Post: As his Apprentice Trump dismissed the report as “totally money began to dry up, Trump ran fake news.” He repeated an oft-made What next? for president to “revive his flagging for- claim that he can’t release his tax returns “Will these new revelations affect the presiden- tunes.” When he “unexpectedly won,” because they’re under audit—an asser- tial race?” asked Geoffrey Skelley at Five Thirty he set about leveraging the presidency tion with no legal basis. “I paid a lot,” Eight.com. If they “put a dent in how the public for every dollar he could. Now he’s he said. “It will all be revealed.” Demo- views Trump’s business acumen,” it’s a real pos- “desperate to stay in office” so he can crats seized on the story, which Rep. Bill sibility. There’s reason to believe Trump’s “image avoid prosecution and prison. Pascrell of New Jersey, chair of an over- as a business maven” played a role in his 2016 sight subcommittee, said confirms that win “and may continue to undergird some of Worst of all, there’s “a time bomb of Trump “is a cheat, a fraud, and perhaps his support today.” Trump’s core supporters will debt” in Trump’s near future, said the worst businessman in the world.” probably shrug off these revelations, said David David Atkins in WashingtonMonthly Smith in TheGuardian.com. When he asserted .com. He owes more than $400 mil- What the editorials said in a 2016 debate that avoiding taxes “makes lion, with “no means of repaying” Now we know why Trump didn’t want me smart,” he paid no obvious price, perhaps it—and we don’t know who holds his to release his tax returns, said the Los because some voters would likewise “delight in IOUs. “Whoever they are, they have Angeles Times. Instead of a genius deal- getting around the rules in order to save a few the capacity to be directly dictating to maker, Trump has been revealed as “a bucks.” But while his base won’t be swayed, Donald Trump and he would be in no con man setting up a three-card monte learning just how little he’s paid “might chip position to say no.” The possibility table in Times Square to fleece the gull- away” at more tentative supporters. And “the that bad actors might hold that kind ible.” The report makes one other thing of leverage over a U.S. president is Times has promised more stories to come.” y t t e clear: The U.S. tax code is rigged to “beyond comprehension.” G Illustration by Howard McWilliam. THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Cover photos from Reuters, Getty (2) ... and how they were covered NEWS 5 An ugly first presidential debate

What happened Trump missed repeated chances “to The first presidential debate between damage Biden,” said Washington President Trump and Democratic chal- Examiner.com. He could have explained lenger Joe Biden deteriorated into a how Biden’s plan to add a government- chaotic melee of interruptions and insults run “public option” to Obamacare will this week, during which Trump appeared set America on the path to a socialized to offer encouragement to a far-right health-care system. “Instead, Trump just hate group and invoked the possibility of started shouting about socialism.” To a “fraudulent election.” Trailing in na- save his campaign, Trump will have to tional and swing-state polls, Trump tried change his strategy in the next two de- to dominate the conversation, repeatedly bates and “make focused and substan- talking over Biden, who at one point tive attacks on Biden.” If Trump can’t, snapped, “Will you shut up, man?” The he’ll likely be a one-term president. former vice president lambasted Trump’s What the columnists said handling of the pandemic, saying that Watching the debate in West Hollywood, Calif. even after 205,000 Covid-19 deaths the “Trump completely controlled the president “still doesn’t have a plan,” and that Trump should “get pace and style of the debate,” said Jonathan Chait in NYMag out of the sand trap” and come up with a bipartisan strategy to .com, “but in a way that ultimately backfired.” His determination save lives and the economy. Seeking to paint Biden as a tool of the to rattle Biden distracted Trump from any strategy, “like a losing “radical left,” Trump insisted the former vice president would end boxer in the 15th round hurling wild haymaker punches.” By the private health insurance and weaken law enforcement if elected. end, Trump was blurting zero-context digs about Hunter Biden, “Everything he is saying so far is simply a lie,” said Biden. Michael Flynn, and Hillary Clinton—a message “unrecognizable to anybody but a Fox News addict.” Trump knows he’s losing, said Asked if he was willing to condemn white supremacists, Trump Ryan Lizza in Politico.com, that’s why he “resorted to strapping on replied, “Sure,” and asked for the name of a group he should de- an explosive vest.” Undecided voters are surely unimpressed. nounce. When Biden mentioned the Proud Boys, who often engage in violence at protests, Trump said the group should “stand back In a normal year, Biden’s “evasive” performance would’ve been and stand by.” The president again refused to commit to honoring disastrous, said Noah Rothman in CommentaryMagazine.com. the election result, claiming without evidence that mail-in ballots Asked whether he supports the idea of “packing” the Supreme were being dumped in rivers and that fraud was rampant. “This is Court with new liberal justices, Biden said, “Whatever position I not going to end well,” he said. A post-debate poll by Ipsos found take on that, that’ll become the issue.” Then there was the multi- that 60 percent of viewers rated Biden’s performance as good, while trillion-dollar Green New Deal, which Biden said “will pay for it- 66 percent said Trump’s was poor. But the poll found that few peo- self” exactly 49 seconds after insisting “the Green New Deal is not ple had changed their minds about who they’d vote for on Nov. 3. my plan.” If only Trump had been focused enough to call him out.

What the editorials said Trump’s refusal to clearly condemn white supremacy “was no ac- Trump’s crude, belligerent performance “was an insult to the Ameri- cident,” said Emma Green in TheAtlantic.com. While the president can people,” said the Los Angeles Times. Biden mostly managed has disowned racists in prepared speeches before, “in unscripted to ignore Trump’s “insult-comic shtick” and focus on the biggest moments” he equivocates. And white nationalists take notice: After issues: Trump’s “epic mismanagement” of the pandemic, his efforts the debate, the Proud Boys—a thuggish gang of self-declared “West- to repeal the Affordable Care Act without producing a replacement ern chauvinists”—posted a version of their logo online surrounded health-insurance plan, “his stoking of racial divisions.” Still, “Ameri- by the words “stand back” and “stand by.” An unrepentant egoist, cans could be excused for turning off the television in disgust.” Trump coddles hate groups for a simple reason: They like him.

It wasn’t all bad QChristian Bagg became paralyzed from the waist down QAn Italian couple is celebrating when he broke his back snowboarding in Canada in 1996. their engagement in a pandemic- QAn African pouched rat is being re- A nature enthusiast, Bagg, 45, didn’t let his limitations stop era Romeo and Juliet story. Michele warded for saving lives in Cambodia him. In 2008, he designed a mod- D’Alpaos, 38, first saw Paola Agnelli, by sniffing out dozens of land mines. ified bicycle that allowed him to 40, from his window in mid-March Magawa is the first rat to be award- traverse difficult terrain. Later as she walked out onto her balcony ed the prestigious gold medal from on, Bagg let a young girl with for her sister’s 6 p.m. violin perfor- the charity People’s Dispensary for cerebral palsy try his bike, and mance to honor emergency workers. Sick Animals (PDSA). At 2.6 pounds, she said it was the “best day” of D’Alpaos found her Instagram profile Magawa is larger than the average her life. “It was the moment I re- through his sister, and the two start- rat, but still light enough to step alized, this shouldn’t be just for ed communicating—long distance. over mines without setting them me,” Bagg said. So he launched Trapped at home by the lockdown off and able to get through a tennis Bowhead Corp. two years ago in the town of Verona, the home of

. court–size field, searching for the to make custom bicycles for the Romeo and Juliet, D’Alpaos sent p r o scent of explosives, in 20 minutes. physically disabled. “Anyone flowers and even hung a sheet with C d a the name “Paola,” all without getting e He has helped clear nearly 35 acres who wants to ride a bike,” Bagg h w

o of land, discovering 39 landmines said, “we will endeavor to figure nearer than 650 feet until the two B

, y t and 28 unexploded bombs. A bike to transcend limits out how they can.” finally got to meet up close in May. t e G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 6 NEWS Controversy of the week Amy Coney Barrett: What are her judicial beliefs?

Republicans’ shamelessness in ramming through a Supreme cal,” said Adam Freedman in NYPost.com. She would prob- Court nominee this close to the election is bad enough, ably vote to uphold state abortion restrictions, but is on said Barbara McQuade in NYMag.com. But Senate record saying that overturning Roe is “very unlikely,” given Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “hypocritical power the disruption it would cause. play” will be even harder for liberals to swallow since President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, is a Don’t be fooled, said Elie Mystal in TheNation.com. far-right conservative “more extreme than Antonin “Barrett will not disappoint conservatives when it comes Scalia.” Barrett, who will likely replace the to abortion.” In an article about Catholic judges and late feminist champion Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the death penalty, she “argued that she cannot and, belonged to a Notre Dame Law School group more important, should not enforce secular laws called “Faculty for Life,” and at 48 could sit on that go against her religious beliefs.” At Barrett’s the court for the next half-century. Like Scalia, earliest opportunity, Roe is toast. So, probably, is the Affordable Care Act, said Ronald Brownstein Barrett is both a legal “originalist” and a devout An ‘originalist’ disciple of Scalia Catholic, said Ruth Marcus in WashingtonPost in TheAtlantic.com. In 2012, Barrett accused .com. “Your legal career is but a means to an end— building Chief Justice John Roberts of distorting the ACA “beyond its plau- the Kingdom of God,” she told a graduating class at Notre sible meaning” to uphold the law’s constitutionality. Democrats are Dame. More than any nominee in memory, Barrett has “openly planning to focus on the health-care law during her confirmation endorsed” the view that justices can overturn established legal hearings, which “could really work in swing states,” where millions precedent, writing in 2013 that it’s “more legitimate” for a judge of Americans rely on Obamacare for coverage. Democrats hope “to enforce her best understanding of the Constitution rather than that Republicans filling Ginsburg’s seat with a right-wing ideologue a precedent she thinks clearly in conflict with it.” Her presence on so close to the election will turn off independent and moderate vot- a 6-3 conservative court may put Roe v. Wade on the “chopping ers, and give Democrats control of the Senate. block,” along with other hard-won rights and protections, from same-sex marriage to laws on guns and discrimination. “The rush to install Barrett before Nov. 3 is all about the election,” said Amanda Carpenter in TheBulwark.com, so that should be the Democrats “are in a tough spot,” said David Harsanyi in National Democrats’ focus. Trump and his allies have been “brazenly up- Review.com. Now a federal appeals court judge, Barrett earned front about their belief that Barrett should be confirmed to resolve a reputation for legal brilliance as a summa cum laude student any disputes over the 2020 elections in Trump’s favor.” Democrats and then a professor at Notre Dame. A Kavanaugh-style personal should ask her if she’ll recuse herself from that case. They should attack on the likable, hardworking mother of seven children—two also press for her views on past voting-rights cases and about of them adopted from Haiti and one with special needs—could Bush v. Gore, the 2000 ruling in which five conservative justices backfire disastrously with women, Catholics, and evangelical cut off a recount in Florida. Will Barrett reward Trump by giving Christians in the looming election. Nor is Barrett a “judicial radi- him a second term? That’s the biggest question facing her.

Good week for: Only in America Democrats offer new Making stuff up, after a federal judge threw out a defamation suit stimulus compromise QWith universities cracking against Fox News host Tucker Carlson, agreeing with the network’s House Democrats and the down on parties to fight the lawyers that “no reasonable viewer” takes what he says seriously. coronavirus, Florida Gov. Ron Trump administration remained $700 billion apart DeSan tis has proposed a Finders keepers, after a visitor to the Crater of Diamonds as they advanced dueling pro- “bill of rights” for college State Park in Arkansas found a 9-carat raw diamond lying on posals for another round of students. DeSantis says the ground. “It looked kind of interesting and shiny,” said Kevin coronavirus stimulus funding. that the surge in cases on Kinard, 33, adding he “honestly teared up” when informed his House Speaker Nancy Pelosi some campuses, and nearly find was the second-largest diamond in park history. and Treasury Secretary Steve 700,000 Covid-19 cases and Getting a bigger boat, after four Arkansas alligator hunters Mnuchin resumed talks this 14,000 deaths in Florida, do caught a record-breaking 13-foot-11-inch, 800-pound gator. “It drug week, seeking a compromise not justify restrictions on so- the boat around for almost two hours,” said hunter Travis Bearden. after a much smaller Repub- cial gatherings. “It’s dramati- lican package died in the cally draconian that a student Bad week for: Senate. Democrats unveiled could get potentially expelled Feedback, after U.S. citizen Wesley Barnes faced years in a Thai jail a $2.2 trillion plan that would for going to a party,” he said. send a new round of $1,200 “That’s what college kids do.” for posting negative TripAdvisor reviews about a resort there. Under Thailand’s strict anti-defamation laws, Barnes’ comments about the checks, restart the $600 en- QOfficials in the tiny hamlet resort’s “unfriendly staff” could result in two years behind bars. hanced unemployment ben- of Swastika, N.Y., have voted efit, and provide money for to keep the name of their Schoolkids, with the news that by entrenching remote learning, restaurants, airline workers, town. Supervisor Jon Doug- the pandemic may make snow days a thing of the past. Philadelphia schools, states, and child care. lass says he understands the teacher Denis Anglim said kids may never again feel the excitement Mnuchin said he’d counter name is controversial, “due “of waking up at 5 a.m. and looking at the ticker at the bottom of with a $1.5 trillion package, to the Germans and every- the television to see if your school will be closed.” but would still demand thing,” but insists the town The will of the people, after Ion Aliman was overwhelm- protection for businesses and is named after the ancient ingly elected to a third term as mayor of the Romanian village of schools from lawsuits related to the pandemic—a measure Hindu symbol and shouldn’t Deveselu, despite having died of Covid-19 10 days earlier. Aliman change it “just because Hitler that Democrats have rejected

may be dead, said his deputy Nicolae Dobre, but “none of the other y t tried to tarnish the meaning.” as a deal breaker. t e

contenders got the same trust from the voters.” G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7

Great Falls, Mont. Nashville Washington, D.C. Judicial heave-ho: NFL outbreak: Four players and five Probing the FBI: U.S. A federal judged staff members of the Tennessee Titans Attorney John Durham removed the tested positive for the coronavirus this will likely not reveal Trump adminis- week—the first serious outbreak in the findings of his tration’s acting the National Football League, three investigation into the Bureau of Land weeks into its season. The Titans and Justice Department’s Management the Minnesota Vikings, the team’s last handling of the Russia Pendley: Ousted head from his opponent, shut facilities and suspended probe—or issue more post last week, ruling that he had illegally in-person contact, and the Titans’ sched- indictments—until after Durham served in the position for 424 days with- uled home game Sunday against the the presidential elec- out the required Senate confirmation. U.S. Pittsburgh Steelers was postponed to tion, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo District Judge Brian Morris issued the Monday or Tuesday, pending the results reported this week. She cited unnamed rebuke to the administration’s oft-used of further testing. NFL Commissioner sources in reporting that Durham now tactic of relying on acting agency heads Roger Goodell called the development believes it is “too close to the election” after Montana’s Democratic governor “not unexpected” in a memo sent to all to issue his report without it being and frequent Trump foil, Steve Bullock, teams. The Vikings have not reported seen as “politically motivated.” Senate challenged former oil industry attorney any cases and were still expected to play Homeland Security Committee Chairman William Perry Pendley’s tenure in court. in Houston. NFL teams have mostly Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) slammed Earlier in September, Trump had with- been playing in empty stadiums, while Durham’s decision as “incredibly dis- drawn Pendley’s formal nomination to testing players and staff daily, aside from appointing” and called for an interim lead the department overseeing some game day. Prior to the Titans’ outbreak, report; Attorney General William Barr quarter of a billion acres of federal land. only two players had missed games said earlier that he could disclose results But Pendley, the deputy director of because of Covid-19. before the November vote. A sepa- the BLM, continued to serve as de rate news report in The New facto head of the agency. Bullock York Times said that Durham had noted in court filings that had expanded his inquiry to Pendley approved two sweeping look at the FBI’s handling of land management plans that its investigation into the Clinton opened up 95 percent of public Foundation. A years-long fed- lands in Montana to drilling. eral review of whether donors to the He called the ruling “a win for Clintons’ charity were promised favors the Constitution,” while the ended with no finding of wrongdoing. administration vowed to appeal.

La Plata, Md. Lake Jackson, Texas Maximum sentence: A man was sen- Brain-eating amoeba: Tests this week tenced to a year in prison last week confirmed that a deadly pathogen that for holding two large parties, five days killed a 6-year-old boy in September had apart, around the height of the corona- infected the water supplies of eight com- Fort Lauderdale virus’ spring surge. Tattoo artist Shawn munities. The family of Josiah McIntyre Turn of fortune: President Trump’s for- Marshall Myers, 42, was convicted after said he devel- mer campaign manager Brad Parscale a bench trial with no jury on two counts oped flu-like was detained and taken to a psychiatric of failure to comply with an emergency symptoms in ward after his wife, Candice, fled their order for having defied police demands September $2.4 million waterfront home and told that he tell his guests to depart. His first before quickly police that he was a waving a revolver party, attended by some 50 people, was losing the abil- and threatening to kill himself. The bizarre held on March 22, after Gov. Larry ity to stand incident unfolded some 2½ months after Hogan issued social-distancing orders Naegleria fowleri or speak. the 44-year-old was demoted in the wake preventing gatherings of more than The amoeba that killed him, Naegleria of a poorly attended Trump rally in Tulsa 10 people. Cops described Myers as fowleri, destroys brain tissue and causes a and allegations of inflated spending by the “argumentative” when they arrived at usually fatal swelling of the brain. Mayor campaign. Cops recovered 10 guns from his Charles County home, but added Bob Sipple issued a disaster declaration his home after an acquaintance on the that he ultimately told his for his town of 27,000, located 56 miles police force persuaded Parscale to leave invitees to leave. Five from Houston, while Gov. Greg Abbott his house. A SWAT officer tackled the days later, he held an e c i f f did the same for the whole of Brazoria shirtless and shoeless Parscale as he held a even bigger party with O s ’ f f County. Residents were told to boil their beer and moaned, “I didn’t do anything.” a bonfire, but was not i r e h

S drinking water and keep all other water Candice, according to cops, had bruises as cooperative with y t n

u from getting in their noses. The single-cell from earlier marital confrontations and police. He claimed the o C

s parasites will take two to three months to said Parscale had been “stressed out for the cops were trampling on e l r a h flush out. “Feels like we’re living in hell,” past two weeks.” The Republican National his rights and told C

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C said Johanna Grice as she hauled five Committee denied a report that Trump had his guests to stay. D C

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2 large jugs of water to her car from a local ordered an audit of millions of dollars of Myers has already (

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A supermarket. expenditures authorized by Parscale. filed an appeal. Myers: Party spoiled

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 8 NEWS The world at a glance ...

Montreal Paris Ricin plotter: A Canadian woman accused of Islamist attack: A Pakistani immigrant who stabbed and wounded mailing letters containing the poison ricin to two people outside the former Paris office of Charlie Hebdo last President Trump and six people in Texas was week has said that he wanted to take revenge on the satirical this week declared a “continuing danger” newspaper for its publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet to the president by a judge in Buffalo Mohammed. Zaher Hassan Mahmood hadn’t realized the news- and ordered to remain in federal paper had moved, and told police he had intended to set its former custody. Pascale Ferrier, 53, was office on fire. But when he saw two people smoking outside the arrested last week while trying to Ferrier: Poison letters building, he wrongly assumed they were journalists and attacked. enter the U.S. with a loaded gun and In 2015, jihadist terrorists burst into the Charlie Hebdo offices and knife. Days earlier, a White House mail-sorting facility intercepted killed 12 people, shouting “The Prophet is avenged!” during the an envelope addressed to Trump that contained a powdery sub- attack. The paper recently republished its Mohammed cartoons, stance and a letter calling the president an “Ugly Tyrant Clown.” sparking protests in Pakistan by hard-line Islamists who said Fingerprints recovered from the letter matched Ferrier’s. Traces of Hebdo staffers should be killed. Associates of Mahmood said he ricin, which can be extracted from castor beans, were found during had repeatedly watched videos of those protests. a search of her Montreal home by Canadian authorities. Burlington, Ontario ISIS impersonator: A Canadian man who said he was an execu- tioner for ISIS has been exposed as a fraud and charged with concocting a terrorist hoax. Shehroze Chaudhry, 25, was the sub- ject of the award-winning New York Times podcast Caliphate, in which he gave his nom de guerre as Abu Huzayfah and said he’d taken part in beheadings, crucifixions, and other atrocities in Syria. His account fueled public outrage and debate among lawmakers over why such a killer was allowed to return to Canada and was not arrested. In fact, police say, Chaudhry, the son of a kebab-shop owner, made the whole thing up. “Hoaxes can generate fear within our communities and create the illusion there is a potential threat to Canadians,” said police Superintendent Christopher deGale. The Times has declined to disclose its sourcing for the podcast. San Salvador, El Salvador Beauty diplomacy: El Salvador’s new ambassador to Washington is a former beauty queen who met President Trump dur- ing his time running the Miss Universe pageant. Milena Mayorga, 44, was elected to the legislature in 2018, but has no diplomatic experience. A photo circulated on social media shows Trump with his arms around her and two other con- testants at the 1996 pageant. Her appointment is seen as an attempt by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to curry favor with Trump; he has already backed Trump’s hard-line immigra- tion policies. Bukele is less popular with members of Congress, who have criticized his increasing authoritarianism. In a letter last week, six GOP lawmakers said Bukele’s crackdown on the press and defiance of judicial rulings marked the “slow but sure departure from the rule of law and norms of democracy.” Mayorga

Rio de Janeiro Bolsonaro son charged? State prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro have charged Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Flávio, Buenos Aires with embezzlement, money laundering, and running a criminal Spy scandal: Argentina’s intel- organization, the O Globo newspaper reported this week. Flávio, ligence service spied on the families a federal senator, has been under a lengthy investigation over an of the 44 Argentine submariners who were alleged scheme while he was serving in the Rio de Janeiro state lost at sea in 2017, officials said this week. legislature in which he pretended to pay phantom employees and The accusations were made as part of an Relatives of the missing then pocketed their salaries. O Globo said it had seen the 300-page

investigation by the country’s new leftist ) 2 (

indictment. The Rio prosecutor’s government into the agency’s role during the previous right-wing y t t e G

office, though, says the case is still

government. At the time the spying took place, family members of , P A

under seal, and it refused to confirm , the San Juan crew were complaining that the government was giv- e c i f that charges had been filed. Flávio’s f ing them the runaround on the submarine’s fate. Family members O

s ’ f f i

former top aide, Fabrício Queiroz, said they suspected they were being surveilled because their phones r e h S was arrested in the same case in would suddenly restart and officials seemed to know their protest y t n

June after going on the run. He u plans. The spying continued even after the sub’s wreckage was o C

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was captured at the home of a g

found in 2018, as families pressed for the bodies to be recovered l a d i

Flávio and Jair Bolsonaro lawyer for the Bolsonaro family. and the government balked at the cost. H

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 The world at a glance ... NEWS 9

Geneva Baghdad 1 million Covid deaths: More than 1 mil- U.S. may close embassy: Secretary lion people around the planet have now of State Mike Pompeo has warned died from the coronavirus, the World Iraq that he will shutter the U.S. Health Organization announced last Embassy in Baghdad within weeks week—more than have lost their lives unless the government stops to malaria, influenza, HIV, dysentery, Iranian-backed militias from shoot- Targeted by Iran-backed militias Burying the dead in India cholera, and measles combined over ing rockets at the huge, fortified compound. Iraqi Foreign Minister the past 10 months. About half of those deaths were in only four Fuad Hussein reacted with alarm, saying the pullout threat was countries: the U.S. (205,000), Brazil (142,000), India (96,000), and “dangerous” and would embolden the militias and ISIS. It would Mexico (76,000). Some countries—including China, New Zealand, also signal swift U.S. abandonment of Prime Minister Mustafa al- and Thailand—have weathered the pandemic comparatively well, Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief who was praised by the Trump thanks to a combination of early restrictions, face-mask mandates, administration as a bulwark against Iranian aggression when he and massive investment in testing and contact tracing. “A lot of took office four months ago. Analysts said Pompeo wants to avoid people were going to get sick and many of them were going to die,” a Benghazi—a reference to the 2012 attack on American facilities Tom Inglesby of Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said of in Libya that killed four Americans—before the U.S. election. the pandemic, “but it did not need to be nearly this bad.” Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea Official killed by North: North Korea has apologized for killing a South Korean government worker who, while apparently trying to defect, drifted into the North’s waters clinging to a piece of flotsam. The government of dictator Kim Jong Un said in a letter to Seoul that its military fired on the floating man after he failed to identify himself and that Kim “asked to convey that he feels very sorry.” The South Korean military gave a different version of events. It said a North Korean civilian ship initially rescued the man—a worker with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries—who said he wanted to defect. But then a North Korean warship arrived. Acting on “orders from a superior authority,” North Korean sailors shot the man dead, poured oil on him, and lit his body on fire. New Delhi Amnesty International hounded out: Amnesty International said this week that it was halting its activities in India after its bank accounts in the country were frozen and its executives interrogated. The human rights organization said the Hindu nationalist govern- ment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been conducting a “witch hunt” against activist groups that have exposed crimes by authorities, particularly abuse of the country’s Muslim minority. “This latest attack is akin to freezing dissent,” said Avinash Kumar, head of Amnesty International India. In the past year, the group has documented the use of mass arrests and torture in Kashmir after the central government stripped the Muslim-majority region of its semi-autonomous status, as well as the complicity of New Delhi police in riots in which dozens of people were killed—most of them Muslims. The government claims Amnesty broke local laws against receiving foreign donations.

Kano, Nigeria Jerusalem ‘Blasphemy’ boy outrage: The director of a major Young Americans welcome: With few countries willing to accept Holocaust memorial in Poland has offered to serve American visitors because of the pandemic, Israel has emerged as part of the 10-year prison sentence given to the top destination for American high-school graduates taking a a 13-year-old Nigerian boy for blasphemy— gap year before college. Masa Israel, which oversees nonreligious a punishment that has triggered outrage gap-year programs in the country, says it has registered a 40 per- around the world. In August, a sharia court cent increase in gap-year participants compared with 2019, and in the northern state of Kano convicted two-thirds of them are American. There’s a catch, though: Under the boy, Omar Farouq, of insulting Allah Israel’s visa rules, only Jewish Americans during an argument with a friend. Piotr can stay in Israel a full year. And because Cywinski of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State the coronavirus is again spreading rapidly Cywinski: I’ll go. Museum wrote a letter this week to Nigerian in Israel, forcing a new nationwide lock- President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to pardon Omar. If no down, it’s unclear whether the programs a e a pardon is issued, wrote Cywinski, he and 119 other adult volun- will continue. “I fear that the whole thing d u J

g teers are willing to each serve a month in prison on Omar’s behalf. can kind of be in jeopardy if they decide to n u o Y

“I cannot remain indifferent to this disgraceful sentence for human- test a couple of kids,” said Matt Cooper, , ) 3 (

y ity,” said Cywinski. Buhari has so far refused to intervene in what 18, a gap-year student from Harrison, N.Y. t t e

G he calls a matter of state justice. “Social distancing has been super lax.” On gap year in Israel

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 10 NEWS People

Stone’s second act Sharon Stone is grateful to have a second life, said Celia Walden in The Telegraph (U.K.). In 2001, the actress suffered a stroke and nine-day cerebral hemorrhage. Given a 1 percent chance of survival, Stone had 22 coils inserted into her brain—a procedure she’s called “brutally unkind.” It happened as her second marriage, to journalist Phil Bronstein, was falling apart, and after the operation, Hollywood wrote off the actress as “damaged goods,” she says. “It was like I’d been this very bright and shiny thing, and then I got a ding in my fender.” It took her seven years to fully recover. The experience taught her to focus on “fighting the big fights” instead of getting angry over slights or sexist comments. “Maybe it’s because I’m 62 and have been through so much that I’m able to sort out what really needs my attention.” She thinks the narrative that “looks don’t matter” is “a big, fat, stupid lie,” adding, “You don’t even realize how much they matter until they start to go.” In recent months, her grandmother and godmother died from Covid-19, and her sister and brother-in-law were hospi- talized. Stone says she is able to cope with this partly because her stroke taught her how to deal with loss. “Big moments change you exponentially,” she says. “And then a new life starts: a rebirth.” Why Rather keeps reporting Dan Rather is still chasing stories, said Ryan D’Agostino in Esquire. Soon to be 89, the former anchor of the CBS Evening Rubik and his cube News now runs his own investigative journalism production com- Erno Rubik thinks of his famous cube as his child, said Alexandra pany, News and Guts. He’s been at it for more than six decades, Alter in The New York Times. “I’m very close to the cube,” he plucked from KHOU in Houston after his standout coverage of a says. “The cube was growing up next to me, and right now it’s horrific hurricane in 1961. Courage, he says, is in short supply in middle-aged, so I know a lot about it.” In 1974, the Hungarian today’s news media. “I ache to have courage,” he says. “I regret architecture professor invented a wooden cube with an internal those times when I had the opportunity to stand up and have cour- pivot mechanism that allowed the sides to twist and turn, but age and didn’t do it.” Covering the civil rights movement for CBS, after giving it a few twists, Rubik realized he couldn’t restore the Rather was thrilled to be assigned to such a big story but admits cube to its original state. “There was no way back,” he says. It took him a month to get all nine stickers of the same color on he was unprepared. “We’re around these dangerous people, Klan the same side: Mathematicians have calculated that there are rallies, cue stick–bearing crowds. At the beginning, when people 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 ways to arrange the squares on a would ask where I was from, I would seldom say CBS, because Rubik’s Cube, but just one combination is correct. The logic toy CBS was sometimes called the Communist Broadcasting System, became a sensation, selling 100 million cubes worldwide in the Colored Broadcasting System.” Today he worries that journal- its first three years, and after a revival in the 1990s, sales have ists are afraid of challenging people in power because they don’t topped 350 million. Over this time, Rubik has avoided the spot- want to be labeled biased or unpatriotic. Rather says pursuing the light. “The cube loves attention,” he says. “I don’t.” Now he can truth should be the sole “navigation star” for a reporter. It’s why solve a Rubik’s Cube in about a minute, an eternity compared with he’s continued working into his late 80s. “I’m still trying to be a the “speedcuber” competitors, who only need seconds. “The ele- great reporter,” he says. gant solution,” Rubik says, “is much more important than timing.”

warmed to Mike Pence after Pence delivered home and was arrested. “Scary situation, a “vicious and extended monologue” about but thankful that everybody is doing well,” Q Ivanka Trump had to talk her father Bill and Hillary Clinton, says Gates. The for- Montana, 64, said on Twitter. mer campaign official pleaded guilty to lying out of making her his running mate Q Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2016, President Trump’s former to investigators in the Russia probe and was denied reports this week that they will be deputy campaign manager Rick Gates sentenced to 45 days in prison, but says he featured in a Netflix reality show about their says in his new memoir. As the Trump still supports Trump. glamorous new life in Montecito, Calif. The campaign brainstormed potential vice Q NFL legend Joe Montana and his wife, former British royals were pilloried back in presidential candidates in June 2016, Jennifer, stopped a home intruder from Britain after The Sun (U.K.) reported that Trump floated Ivanka—a fashion and kidnapping their 9-month-old grandchild Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, would give full real-estate executive, then 34, with last week. A woman police identified as access for a “tasteful” docuseries so that no political experience. “She’s bright, Sodsai Dalzell, 39, allegedly entered the Markle could reveal “the real her.” British she’s smart, she’s beautiful, and the Montanas’ house in Malibu, Calif., and had pundits said it was hypocritical of the couple, people would love her!” Trump said, taken the infant from a playpen when she who fled the House of Windsor because of according to Gates. Trump kept push- encountered the Montanas. The former San invasive media coverage. Harry and Meghan ing the idea, and the campaign con- Francisco 49ers quarterback and his wife signed a megadeal with Netflix last month s r

ducted two polls to gauge voter sup- tried to “de-escalate the situation,” authori- reportedly valued at $100 million. But their e t u e

port for Ivanka. Finally, Ivanka told her ties said, before Jennifer pried the child from spokesman said, “The Duke and Duchess are R

, ) 2 (

father it was a bad idea, and Trump Dalzell’s arms. Dalzell allegedly then fled the not taking part in any reality shows.” P A

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Briefing NEWS 11 The Trump agenda for a second term What the president says he will do if he’s re-elected. Next week: The Biden agenda.

Donald Trump has broken the mold as replace” the Affordable Care Act—an president, and that extends to his second- effort that failed in Congress—and has term agenda. In August, the Republican continually promised that he will unveil Party dispensed with long-standing a health-care plan that will cost less tradition and did not formulate a policy than Obamacare while offering better platform, instead issuing a statement coverage. But he has never released declaring that the party will “enthusiasti- such a plan, even as his administration cally support the president’s America has joined a lawsuit by 20 Republican- First agenda.” The Trump campaign led states seeking to repeal the ACA later issued a list of “core priorities” for as unconstitutional, which will reach a second term, offered in bullet points the Supreme Court in November. If the that included “Build the World’s Greatest lawsuit succeeds, at least 21 million Infrastructure System” and “Stop Endless Americans will lose their coverage. Last Wars,” but did not offer any detail about week, Trump issued an executive order how it would achieve them. Still, Trump’s stating that the estimated 133 million Still no plan: Signing an executive order on health care stated priorities and his first-term record Americans with preexisting conditions offer a sense of what policies he might pursue in a second term. should be protected from losing their health insurance. He offered no specifics on how that might be achieved if Obamacare is revoked. Covid-19 Trump has suggested repeatedly that we are “rounding the corner Climate change and the environment of the pandemic” and that the coronavirus may just “go away” Trump moved early in his first term to withdraw the U.S. from on its own. He has declined to have the federal government take the Paris climate agreement, and maintains that the science on an active role in building a testing system or putting in place other climate change is unsettled. His administration has aggressively public health measures, telling states that the response is their pursued rollbacks of environmental protections—rollbacks that responsibility. He has been a vocal opponent of state lockdown have benefited the fossil-fuel industry by weakening fuel-efficiency efforts, remote schooling, and other social-distancing measures standards for cars, loosening limits on power-plant emissions, and aimed at stemming viral spread, and has questioned the value opening up public lands for gas and oil extraction. In his second of wearing face masks. Recently, he has focused on developing term, Trump has promised, he will continue his “deregulatory a vaccine and initiated the public-private partnership Operation agenda for energy independence.” Warp Speed to fast-track vaccine development, manufacture, and distribution. He has pledged that a vaccine will be available within Education months, “maybe even before a special date.” Experts involved in Trump has said that education will “be a big factor for me” in a the vaccine efforts say that’s unlikely. second term, and he’s a strong propo- Trump’s foreign policy nent of school choice. His administra- Ta xe s Trump has pursued an “America First” doctrine tion has pushed policies favoring char- Trump campaigned in 2016 on a plat- that has led to a cooling of relations with long- ter schools and vouchers, which allow form of lowering taxes, and he deliv- standing allies, curtailment of international families to use tax dollars for private- ered with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs cooperation, and calls to reduce overseas troop school tuition, and he has promised Act, which lowered the corporate tax deployments. He has questioned the worth of to “rescue kids from failing schools rate and cut income tax rates across the international alliances such as NATO—which by helping their parents send them to board, with most of the benefits going he says relies too heavily on U.S. defense a safe school of their choice.” He has to corporations and upper-income spending—and the World Trade Organization, proposed a $5 billion tax credit that earners. Extending those cuts, which and has announced his intent to withdraw the would reimburse private donations to are slated to expire in 2025, would U.S. from the World Health Organization. He also state-based scholarship funds. almost certainly be a second-term pri- pulled out of the nuclear deal President Obama ority. Trump has said he may pursue struck with Iran, pursuing economic sanctions The economy a reduction in capital-gains taxes and that he predicts will force Tehran back to the Trump embarked on a trade war additional tax cuts for middle-income negotiating table. He has made the Middle East a with China in his first term, imposing families. By executive order, Trump priority, and successfully brokered deals to estab- tariffs on hundreds of billions of dol- deferred the collection of payroll lish diplomatic ties between Israel and two Arab lars in imports. Aiding the American nations, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. taxes for many workers through the economy by reducing our dependence And he has taken a much friendlier approach to end of the year, and he has vowed to Russia than previous administrations, communi- on China is a key focus of his second- eliminate the payroll tax, which funds cating regularly with Russian President Vladimir term agenda. He has promised to pass Social Security and Medicare, if he is Putin and pushing last summer to readmit Russia tax credits for companies that shift re-elected. But Congress has shown no to the G-7 group of Western nations. Trump has operations from China to the U.S., interest in eliminating the tax. declined to confront Putin over Moscow’s interfer- deny federal contracts to companies ence in the 2016 and 2020 elections or its offering that move jobs there, and increase Health care of bounties to Taliban militants for killing U.S. deductions “for essential industries Trump’s health-care plan could best be troops in Afghanistan. “I like Putin, he likes me,” like pharmaceuticals and robotics who described as a plan to make a plan. He Trump said last week. “We get along.” bring back their manufacturing to the P

A vowed in his first term to “repeal and United States.”

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.

Joe Biden may have done nothing illegal, but a new Senate report on Biden’s ethical his family’s “foreign profiteering” reveals “an ethical stench,” said the It must be true... WashingtonExaminer.com. While Biden was vice president, his son I read it in the tabloids blindness Hunter “received a remarkable amount of money from highly suspect about his son foreign entities,” including people connected to China’s Communist QFirefighters combating a Party, a female Russian billionaire, and a Ukrainian energy company, the huge fire at an Australian WashingtonExaminer.com report found. “Rather sickeningly,” Hunter Biden also made payments cattle- breeding facility had Editorial to women connected to an “Eastern European prostitution or human- to duck exploding cylinders trafficking ring.” Joe Biden’s brother James and sister-in-law Sara—who of frozen bull semen. Fire along with Hunter have been dubbed “Biden, Inc.”—also “cashed in,” Commander Chris Loeschen- making lucrative deals worth millions with shady entities and individu- kohl said that, as the crew als abroad. Joe Biden himself did not profit, and did the right thing in tried to extinguish the blaze, pushing anti- corruption measures in Ukraine, but he “showed woefully “pro jec tiles” of semen kept deficient judgment.” The vice president took his wheeler-dealer son on a shooting out of the building. “The liquid inside the cylin- diplomatic mission to China, where Hunter pursued a private business ders was rapidly expanding,” deal, and raised no objection when Hunter accepted a $50,000-a-month he explained. “So firefighters board membership with Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. That role went into a defensive mode.” created “significant headaches for U.S. diplomacy” in Ukraine. Joe The fire was eventually Biden’s ethical blindness “should concern every voter.” put out, and Loe schen kohl praised his team for “a mag- nificent job.” Polls show that President Trump’s “base appeals have backfired,” said Why Trump Harry Enten. A new national Quinnipiac poll taken before this week’s debate found Democrat Joe Biden leading Trump 52 to 42; averages is trailing of polls show Biden with a lead of about 7 points. These are larger leads for Biden than Hillary Clinton had at this point in 2016, and in the polls they’ve remained remarkably steady for months. Trump’s problem is Harry Enten that while he is more popular among Republicans than ever, his “2020 CNN.com campaign and, indeed, his entire presidency has been about rallying the Republican base.” But by constantly throwing red meat to that base, “he has lost his ability to appeal to those outside of it.” Four years ago, Quinnipiac showed Trump up by 7 points among independents. Today, he’s losing independents by 8 points—a 15-point swing. Democrats QHalloween trick-or- treating are more unified in opposing him than they were in 2016, favoring may be curtailed this year Biden 96 to 2. Since independents and liberals together make up about because of the pandemic, 65 percent of all voters, Trump can’t win with Republicans alone. To but the hottest mask for overtake Biden in the last month, Trump will need to expand his ap- those who plan to celebrate peal. So far, he “seemingly has no interest in doing that.” anyway is the “Karen.” The mask pays mocking tribute to the entitled, angry women Are progressives “too focused on protecting Roe v. Wade”? asked law who refuse to wear face Should liberals professor Joan Williams. The question may seem shocking, but the real- coverings in stores and call ity is that “we’ve basically lost the abortion fight.” If Roe is overturned, the cops on black neighbors, give up access to abortion will depend on where you live—but that is already who are generically called true. There is no abortion clinic in 90 percent of U.S. counties, as a “Karens” on social media. To on Roe? result of Republican legislatures’ “death-by-a-thousand-cuts s trategy”— accent the mask, shirts that imposing punitive restrictions on clinics and women seeking to end say “I want to speak to the Joan Williams manager” are also available. The New York Times pregnancies. If Amy Coney Barrett replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court, the conservative majority is likely to approve even more state QFlorida school officials are restrictions, and perhaps overturn Roe. Progressives should remember complaining that parents that RBG herself decided that Roe was a m istake—a turning point in stressed out by at-home which the gradual liberalization of state abortion laws gave way to an learning can be seen smok- ing weed or drinking in the all- consuming cultural struggle. Opposition to Roe has led tens of mil- background of their kids’ lions of Americans to support Republican candidates whose economic Zoom classes. “Sometimes policies heavily favor the rich. Defusing this culture war must occur the joints are as big as through dialogue and persuasion; in heavily Catholic Ireland, “young cigars,” Boca Raton Elemen- people knocked on grannies’ doors and persuaded them to legalize tary teacher Edith Pride said. abortion.” The same may need to happen here on a state-by-state basis. “You can’t do that!” Another teacher said the father of Viewpoint “The English novelist E.M. Forster argued that the difference between a fic- one of her students could be tional character and a real person is that it is possible to know everything seen “drinking a beer at 11:45 about a character in a novel; real people, however, see one another through a glass, darkly. And yet in the morning” without a while it may not be possible to know every hidden detail of Donald Trump’s life, it is trivially easy shirt on. Others parents have made cameos in bras and to understand everything about his personality. If he were a character, Forster would call him flat, k c o

underwear. “This is a school,” c

unrealistic: He does not, as Forster requires, have the capacity to surprise. The president is a man d A

Pride said, “not a party.” n

without depths to plumb.” o

Quinta Jurecic in TheAtlantic.com s a J

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American Cruise Lines AmericanCruiseLines.com Best in US & Canada 14 NEWS Best columns: Europe

Has Belgium just given up in its fight against the the limits on social interactions, saying Belgians BELGIUM coronavirus? asked Thomas Gutschker. Cases are should “learn to live with the risk of the virus.” still exploding in Brussels, yet the government has Before, each household could have a bubble of Getting on decided to ease restrictions. When the numbers five people outside the home, but now each in- first began to spike, in August, the capital region dividual’s bubble is five people, meaning that a with life mandated mask wearing everywhere, even while family of four can be exposed to 20 nonmembers. bicycling, but that was about it. “Cafés and res- Weddings can now have an unlimited number unmasked taurants were still packed, and hardly anyone was of guests. Even the quarantine period has been social distancing.” In two weeks in September, the slashed in half: Belgians need isolate for only one Thomas Gutschker infection rate nationwide shot up by 62 percent, week after exposure to a C ovid- positive person. Frankfurter Allgemeine to 1,425 daily cases. In response, Prime Minister “Better a lighter measure that is observed,” said Zeitung (Germany) Sophie Wilmès has scrapped the o utdoor-mask Wilmès, “than a drastic one that no one follows.” mandate—masks are still required in shops and Virologists, though, disagree, and Belgium’s neigh- cinemas and on public transport—and lifted bors can only watch with alarm.

UNITED KINGDOM The people of Kent did overwhelmingly vote to pandemic—is that locals trying to drive to a hospi- leave the European Union in the Brexit referen- tal will get stuck in backups. So to smooth things, When Kent dum, said Fay Schopen, but we didn’t vote to leave the government will make truck drivers obtain a the U.K. Yet now the government tells us there “Kent access permit” that shows their papers are becomes will effectively be a border between our county in in order. Vast “lorry parks” will also be created the southeast of England, home to the entrance in our towns where thousands of trucks will idle a car park to the Eurotunnel and several major ferry ports, as they wait to gain access to ferries or the tunnel. and the rest of the country. When the U.K. leaves The sight of all that tarmac will be depressing, Fay Schopen the single market next Jan. 1, the government the scent of all that exhaust disgusting. “We’re The Guardian expects traffic jams stretching up to 100 miles on supposed to be the garden of England,” says law- the highways leading to English channel ports, as maker Rosie Duffield, “but we’re going to be the French officials check cargo truckers’ export docu- car park of England.” Kent as a polluted, cut-off ments. “A particular w orry”— heightened by the enclave is not what we expected from Brexit. The Caucasus: Could a border war go regional? A long-stalemated war between Armenia petent. For Aliyev, who succeeded his and Azerbaijan has exploded “at the gates father as president in 2003, “this was of Europe,” said Francesco Battistini in a warning sign.” And the international Corriere della Sera (Italy), and the conflict situation now seems favorable to military now threatens to draw in neighboring action. Unlike in 2016, Azerbaijan has powers. The two former Soviet republics the explicit support of Turkey. Russia, began battling over N agorno- Karabakh, meanwhile, has little interest in defend- an Armenian- populated territory located ing Armenia. Two years ago, a peaceful inside Azerbaijan, in the last years of the revolution ousted Armenia’s pro-K remlin USSR. Some 30,000 people died before a “Karabakh clan” from power, and the Russian- brokered cease-fire was signed in new leadership is not close to Moscow. 1994. That deal left ethnic Armenian sepa- The head of Russian propaganda outlet ratists in control of the mountainous bor- RT, Margarita Simonjan, called Arme- der region, which declared independence in Azerbaijani artillery fires on Armenian positions. nia under its new leadership a “parade 1991 but is still recognized as part of Azer- ground for anti- Russian forces,” and said baijan by the international community. Both sides have continued “Moscow has the moral right to spit on you.” to use Nagorno- Karabakh to stoke patriotic passions. Azerbaijan attacked the territory in 2016 but was repelled by Armenian de- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is actively fueling the fense forces. The four-day war left 230 dead. Azerbaijan struck conflict, said Jürgen Gottschlich in Die Tageszeitung (Germany), again this week with drones, armor, and heavy artillery, claiming sending air support and even flying Syrian mercenaries into Azer- it was simply responding to shelling. Dozens on both sides have baijan to serve as “cannon fodder” on the front lines. In an alarm- been killed and fears are rising that Russia, a historic supporter ing escalation this week, Armenia said, a Turkish jet shot down of Orthodox Christian Armenia, and Turkey, an ally of Muslim, one of its fighter planes in Armenian airspace, a claim Ankara de- Turkic- speaking Azerbaijan, might come to blows. nies. After deploying troops to war-torn Syria and Libya and butt- ing heads with Greece over drilling rights in the Mediterranean, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev went on the offensive because “Erdogan now seems to want to plunge into an armed conflict in of “domestic pressure,” said Christian Esch in Der Spiegel (Ger- the Caucasus as well.” NATO must rein in the self-a ggrandizing many). “The country is an oil- and gas-fueled dictatorship, but Erdogan, said The Sunday Times (U.K.) in an editorial. The Aliyev has to watch out for public opinion.” After Azeribaijani southern Caucasus is a vital “conduit for oil and gas pipelines ser- and Armenian forces fought a border skirmish in July, tens of vicing world markets.” While U.S. disengagement has emboldened thousands of Azerbaijanis demonstrated in Baku, the capital, for Erdogan, other NATO allies can apply political and financial pres- y t war with Armenia and denounced their own officials as incom- sure. We must get a cease-fire before this war spreads. t e G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Best columns: International NEWS 15

Russia: Predicting a crisis of democracy in America The United States “might not survive that the outcome of the election will its presidential election as a single be decided not at the ballot box but in nation,” said Ivan Danilov in RIA the courts. And in America, “it is clear .ru, “and certainly will not survive to everyone” that the justices won’t it as a single society.” Members of render their verdict based on a fair the country’s two political tribes are reading of the law, but will be “guided right now “preparing the ground to only by party discipline.” Trump’s lat- declare falsifications and a conspiracy est nominee, “the exemplary Catholic against themselves.” The coronavirus Amy Coney Barrett,” will tip the court has become a partisan issue in the in his favor. This situation “devalues U.S., with Republicans ignoring it and the very vote of hundreds of millions Democrats playing it up as a public of Americans.” Rather than try to win health threat. That’s why most sup- votes, Trump “needs only to create a porters of President Donald Trump conflict”—suing to stop the vote count plan to vote in person while most sup- The Russian media expects a rigged election. in a Midwestern state, for example— porters of his Democratic challenger, that will have to be resolved by the na- Joe Biden, intend to cast their ballots via the mail. What looks tion’s top court. Then he can sit back and let the justices install him. like a Trump victory on election night could turn into a Biden win over the following days as mail-in ballots are counted. Trump has Because Trump won’t commit to stepping down if he loses, already said he will declare those votes to be “rigged” and invalid. the Democrats are using big money “to try to buy their way” The president will cite an anonymous Democratic operative in to a convincing Election Day win, said Alexander Gasiuk in New Jersey who told the New York Post how local elections are Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, an Ameri- routinely won with fraudulent mail-in ballots. Meanwhile, Hillary can oligarch with a media empire who once ran New York Clinton, the loser in 2016, has already said that Biden should not City, has pledged to spend $100 million to help Biden in the “under any circumstances” concede defeat on election night. Nei- swing state of Florida. A chunk of that money will be used to ther side will believe in the other’s victory, and “a violent conflict” re- enfranchise thousands of felons by paying off their court fees is frighteningly likely. and fines. Yet this is the country that presumes to lecture us about free and fair elections! said Mikhail Demurin in Regnum The system has become ridiculously anti-democratic, said Denis .ru. The U.S. presidential election system “is dishonest and dis- Davydov in Vesti.ru. Down in the polls, Trump isn’t even trying gusting,” determined not by voters but by the elite. Americans to win America’s Electoral College. Instead, he says he needs to fill criticized the recent election in Belarus as fraudulent, but their a vacancy on the Supreme Court right away because he expects own election “will certainly be less legitimate.”

Canadians are getting mighty comfortable with industries, like oil and gas.” Petroleum engineer CANADA receiving money for nothing, said Nadine Yousif. Mark Taylor, for example, is using the payments to When hundreds of thousands lost their jobs prepare for a new career in policing. Once opposed The lure through the pandemic, the government created the to government assistance, he now favors a basic Canada Emergency Response Benefit, a $1,500-a- income—and he’s not alone. Some 62 percent of of guaranteed month boost for people whose income has been af- Canadians approve of UBI, up from 46 percent in fected by the coronavirus. A staggering 22 percent 2013. Conservatives oppose the idea, saying that all income of the population has applied for this “economic this free money will rob people of the motivation to salve,” which has “reignited the slow-burning work. But their concerns may be moot: Canadians Nadine Yousif debate over a universal basic income (UBI).” Such might well decide that UBI’s annual price tag of up Maclean’s a safety net, Canadians are finding, is useful in to $150 billion is prohibitive. After all, the same catching not only coronavirus unfortunates but also proportion that supports basic income also says we people “desperate to transition out of struggling shouldn’t raise taxes one penny to pay for it.

PAKISTAN Pakistan will do its children no favors by forcing because most teachers don’t speak the language them to learn in English, said Zubeida Mustafa. well themselves. And putting kids into poorly Kindergartners The National Curriculum Council has been dith- run English-only schools will give them “a sense ering for months over whether to make English of alienation and inferiority.” Let children begin don’t need the medium of instruction for elementary school. school in their local language—be it Punjabi, Many Pakistanis support the idea, believing that Pashto, Sindhi, or what have you—and then start English “without fluency in English one cannot get a learning Urdu a few years later. “When they learn job”—even though Urdu, the national language, in a language they understand,” and from a com- Zubeida Mustafa is the second language of far more Pakistanis than petent teacher, children will enjoy their lessons Dawn English is. But our greatest challenge in educating “and above all start thinking and communicat- our children isn’t language, it is teacher training. ing.” We can wait until Grade 6 to teach in Eng-

y If we force primary classes to be conducted in lish. If we don’t, we’ll end up with students who t t e

G English, the quality of education will be abysmal, are illiterate in three languages.

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 16 NEWS Talking points The election: How Trump plans to challenge the results America, “this is not a drill,” said John provide official cover for Trump to declare Avlon in CNN.com. President Trump “just himself the winner on or just after Election told us our democracy is at risk—from Day.” That will give Trump and a Repub- him.” When asked during a White House lican legal team time to invalidate mail-in briefing last week, “Will you commit to balloting on “an unprecedented scale.” making sure that there is a peaceful transfer The legal battle to come may “make 2000 of power after the election?” Trump’s reply look like a mere skirmish,” said Jeffrey was chilling. “Well, we’re going to have to Toobin in The New Yorker. Republicans see what happens,” he said, before repeating plan to challenge mail-in ballots on a vari- his unfounded contention that mail-in bal- ety of grounds: late postmarks, question- loting will result in widespread fraud. “Get able signature matches, and ballot collec- rid of the ballots,” he said, “and you’ll have tion or “harvesting” by activists. America a very—there won’t be a transfer, frankly. A voting site in Virginia: Will courts decide? has the advanced world’s “most decen- There’ll be a continuation.” All of this came tralized” election system, with 10,500 as The Atlantic quoted a campaign legal adviser as promising that separate voting jurisdictions and each state holding its own “sepa- millions of mail-in ballots counted after the polls close Nov. 3 “will rate contest” with unique rules and procedures. Throw in real or be challenged as being inaccurate, f raudulent—pick your word.” rumored election interference by Russia or China, and the potential Barring a Joe Biden landslide, “an unprecedented constitutional for weeks of chaos and violence in the streets is high. crisis” is inevitable, said Philip Rucker in The Washington Post. Trump told Fox News that the mailed ballots would create a “hor- The idea that Trump would overstay his term is nothing but ror show” that he will challenge in court, and that he’d only con- “Democratic hysteria,” said The Wall Street Journal in an edito- cede if his newly refashioned Supreme Court—with a 6-3 conserva- rial. After Trump’s admittedly intemperate remarks last week, both tive majority—ruled in Biden’s favor. “We want to make sure the the GOP-controlled Senate and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell election is honest,” Trump said, “and I’m not sure that it can be.” (R-Ky.) reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful transition on Jan. 20. Trump will have no choice but to leave if he loses. Biden, Trump is telling us that he knows “he can’t win at the ballot box,” however, has joined other Democrats in claiming Trump plans to said Aaron Rupar in Vox.com. Polls show him trailing Biden by steal the election. “Who’s really plotting the coup?” about 7 percent nationally and by varying amounts in key swing states. The president is hoping for a repeat of 2000, when a con- Let’s look at the evidence, said Suzanne Gamboa in NBCNews servative Supreme Court majority cut off a recount in Florida and .com. In Trump’s first term, he’s dismantled myriad checks on his gave George W. Bush the presidency despite his having lost the power. He’s muffled scientists from the Centers for Disease Con- popular vote. Trump’s plan has a big flaw, said Ben Mathis- Lilley trol for contradicting his talking points on the pandemic; hijacked in Slate.com. The Supreme Court’s conservatives might be willing the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies and defend his to intervene if the margin between the two candidates is a razor- cronies; branded the media “the enemy of the people”; fired a thin 537 votes in one state, as it was in 2000. But overturning host of inspectors general for investigating his aides; and filled clear election results in a host of swing states may be a bridge too key jobs with unqualified loyalists and family members. He used far even for a post-G insburg court. Nullifying millions of votes the White House as a prop for the Republican National Conven- would severely undermine both Trump’s and the court’s “perceived tion and steered millions in taxpayer and campaign funds into legitimacy,” and probably would “provoke national unrest.” his own hotels and businesses. Americans who immigrated from Latin America say Trump reminds them of dictators who came That wouldn’t stop Trump, said Greg Sargent in WashingtonPost to power by democratic means and then established themselves .com. He has repeatedly expressed admiration for dictators who as authoritarian rulers for life. America, says Tony Jiménez, a respond to uprisings with “strong” crackdowns. Attorney General Cuban- American who served in the George W. Bush administra- William Barr “will likely announce some kind of investigation to tion, is in real peril of succumbing to “Trumpismo.” Noted

QNearly 43,000 American meatpacking taken out of service earlier this year can’t be extent to which smoke has contaminated workers have tested positive for the brought back because they were stripped their harvests. Noah Dorrance, owner of corona virus, and at least 203 have died. for parts. The judge had ordered the Postal Reeve Wines, said that in every grape he’s Federal regulators recently cited for safety Service to reverse some operational changes sampled, “you could already taste and violations a Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux made by DeJoy, in response to a lawsuit smell this ashy, barbecued flavor, kind of Falls, S.D., at which nearly 1,300 workers brought by Democratic state attorneys who like a campfire.” had tested positive and four died, and a allege the changes were made to under- San Francisco Chronicle JBS USA plant in Greeley, Colo., where 290 mine mail-in balloting. QPeople in their 20s accounted for more had tested positive and six died. The fines Bloomberg.com than 20 percent of Covid-19 cases between totaled $29,000 on two companies that QCalifornia’s historic June and August, according to the Centers jointly have $65.7 billion in revenue. wildfire season has for Disease Control and Prevention. Young The Washington Post thrown the state’s people are less likely to be hospitalized or y

QPostmaster General Louis DeJoy told a winemaking industry die, but they can drive community spread t t e G

judge last week that hundreds of high- into chaos, as vineyards to more vulnerable people. , s r e Axios.com t

speed mail- sorting machines that were scramble to assess the u e R

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Talking points NEWS 17

Breonna Taylor: Was justice done? Wit & “Those seeking justice for endangerment” for blindly Breonna Taylor’s death were shooting 10 rounds into Wisdom denied it” last week, said ZZ Taylor’s apartment, though “Women will have Packer in NewYorker.com. A none hit her. The grand jury’s achieved true equality Kentucky grand jury declined decision “was proper,” said when men share with to bring murder charges David French in TheDis- them the responsibility of bringing up the against three Louisville police patch.com, but it also high- next generation.” officers who broke down lights a dire need for reform. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Taylor’s door after midnight Supreme Court rulings have quoted in USA Today on March 13 and emptied 32 given police departments “There are only two rounds into her apartment, “wide latitude” to execute industries that call their killing her. Taylor, 26, an Taylor’s family reacting to the decision “surprise, late-night violent customers ‘users’: illegal “ebullient and bubbly” EMT, entries into private dwellings drugs and software.” became a rallying cry for the police-reform move- for the sole purpose of preserving evidence.” Since Statistician Edward Tufte, ment. But Republican Attorney General Daniel many states allow citizens to use a firearm against quoted in The Denver Post Cameron said the o fficers—searching for evidence intruders, “a gun battle can commence with both “I am full of self-pity connected to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Jamarcus parties acting completely lawfully.” and I need it—it will come Glover, an incarcerated drug dealer—were entitled from nowhere else.” to return fire after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Taylor’s death “was not a tragedy for which Painter Stanley Spencer, Walker, fired a shot as they charged into the apart- no one is to blame,” said Radley Balko in quoted in The Spectator (U.K.) ment. Who could fault Walker? Just one of 12 WashingtonPost.com. She died because of “der- “God gave us memory neighbors interviewed said they heard the cops eliction of duty” by police. They did not know so that we might have identify themselves. Walker was in the apartment, and he called 911 roses in December.” because he didn’t know the invaders were cops. J.M. Barrie, quoted in Parade “Kentucky was right not to opt for mob justice,” Police found no drugs or cash, and 20 minutes “Real generosity toward said Andrew McCarthy in NationalReview.com. passed before Taylor received medical attention. the future lies in giving all Murder charges would have been grossly inap- Despite becoming a “national cause célèbre,” said to the present.” propriate for officers executing a legal search Zak Cheney-Rice in New York magazine, Taylor’s Albert Camus, quoted in warrant. Taylor maintained ties to Glover, who case ended like so many others, with a black BrainPickings.org was recorded saying he kept $14,000 of his drug person dead and police unpunished. Clearly, the “Between two evils, money at her apartment. Det. Brett Hankison, “existing legal framework” serves the police’s I always pick the one since fired, was rightly charged with “wanton interests “over people like Breonna Taylor’s.” I never tried before.” Mae West, quoted in GoodReads.com “Fame is proof that The coronavirus: Dangerous new messages people are gullible.” President Trump’s newest health adviser is spark- ington say the U.S. “could see an explosion of Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted ing growing alarm at the Centers for Disease Covid-19 cases in the fall and winter,” with up in Commentary Control, said Monica Alba in NBCNews.com. to 3,000 daily deaths, as restriction fatigue grows CDC head Robert Redfield is among those and people move indoors. Amid “increasingly “increasingly concerned” that Scott Atlas, who ominous” case numbers, “governors long resistant Poll watch joined Trump’s coronavirus task force in August, to Covid-19 safety measures continue to insist on Q37% of American voters is now shaping Trump’s pandemic response. aggressively reopening,” said Justin Rohrlich in think the Senate should Atlas, a Fox News commentator and radiologist TheDailyBeast.com. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirm Amy Coney with no infectious-disease expertise, has ques- last week allowed restaurants, bars, and strip Barrett to the Supreme tioned the efficacy of masks, asserted that chil- clubs to reopen at full capacity, and banned local Court, including 71% dren “almost never” pass the coronavirus, and fines on those who refuse to wear masks. of Republicans, 28% of argued that “when younger, healthier people get independents, and 14% infected, that’s a good thing,” because it may lead “Trump is destroying the CDC,” said Bloomberg of Democrats. 34% do to herd immunity. “Everything he says is false,” a .com in an editorial. The once globally respected not want her confirmed, frustrated Redfield was overheard saying. Atlas’ agency is now “in danger of losing the public’s including 59% of Demo- influence on Trump is “nightmarish,” task force trust entirely.” Under White House pressure, the crats, 31% of indepen- coordinator Deborah Birx has told confidants, agency has discouraged testing asymptomatic dents, and 7% of Repub- said Jim Acosta in CNN.com. Trump “has finally people, “against the advice of nearly all experts.” licans. 29% don’t know if found somebody who matches what he wants to It was revealed this week that the administration she should be approved. believe,” said a Birx ally. leaned hard on the CDC to downplay the risk of 40% of all voters say the sending children back to school. Redfield needs Senate should confirm This is no time to become complacent, said to push back harder, but “he is not principally to Barrett only if President Madeline Holcombe and Dakin Andone, also in blame.” The culprit is Trump, who has demanded Trump wins re-election; CNN.com. Twenty-one states currently report that the agency “echo his false message that 39% say the vote should proceed regardless of a rise in cases, and infection rates are surging in the crisis has passed, that it’s safe to go back to whether Trump wins.

y South Dakota, Wisconsin, and other Midwestern school, to work, to church, to political rallies— t t Morning Consult/Politico e

G states. Forecasters at the University of Wash- maskless and carefree.”

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 18 NEWS Pick of the week’s cartoons

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons. Pick of the week’s cartoons NEWS 19

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 20 NEWS Technology

Online speech: Trump targets tech platforms The Trump administration is escalating its said the tech platforms’ work “to take war on Twitter, Facebook, and Google, down patently false information” needed which it believes are “slanted against con- to be supported—not questioned—ahead servatives,’’ said David McCabe in The New of the election. The Justice Department is York Times. Attorney General William Barr really just pushing to conform to Trump’s sent proposed legislation to Congress last “erroneous interpretation” of federal law, week that would narrow Section 230, the said Elizabeth Nolan Brown in Reason part of the 1996 Communications Decency .com. The president mistakenly believes Sec- Act that shields companies from lawsuits tion 230 applies only if tech platforms mod- “over the content they host or the way they erate content in a way that is explicitly laid moderate it.” The draft bill would limit out in their terms of service. In a section protection for networks that don’t swiftly titled “Good Faith,” the DOJ proposal tries remove material that promotes terrorism or Tech faces new threats from Barr and Trump. to code this into law. But Section 230 was exploits children. More controversially, it written precisely to avoid creating a “mod- would also make tech platforms liable when they inconsistently erator’s dilemma.” Without it, Facebook and Twitter “would be apply moderation guidelines. That’s a frequent complaint of con- better off filtering no user content, for any reason” than risk con- servatives, including Trump, who has stepped up his attacks on stant accusations of violating the criteria set out in their rules. Facebook and Twitter with “anecdotal examples of the removal of conservative content.” Some Democrats, including presidential It’s not a bad thing that lawmakers are asking tough questions nominee Joe Biden, have also called for Section 230 to be re- about the technology that runs our world, said Shira Ovide voked. But the rare legislative push from the DOJ gives the cause in The New York Times. “Underneath a truckload of partisan a conservative spin. hooey,” it’s useful to ask if Section 230 has “outlived its use.” The question of “how should U.S. laws balance protecting Republican senators may subpoena the CEOs of Google, people from online horrors with giving them room for expres- Face book, and Twitter if they don’t voluntarily testify about sion online” is a worthy one. Yes, many of the attacks on Sec- Section 230, said John Hendel in Politico.com. Maria Cantwell, tion 230 are motivated by partisan interests. But there is a glim- the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, “cau- mer of hope—“a tiny one”—that reconsidering the law will spur tioned against what Democrats see as a political ploy.” Cantwell a genuine debate.

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

Amazon intro- Wrist tech falls short on promises locking or returning information, are on the duced a security Don’t count on the new Apple Watch or rise, and school districts that have become drone that flies FitBit Sense to accurately measure your blood “heavily reliant on online learning and technol- around inside oxygen level, said Geoffrey Fowler in The ogy” during the pandemic are increasingly vul- while you’re Washington Post. Oximeters were the head- nerable targets. Other districts have paid ran- not home, said line addition to the Apple Watch Series 6 and soms ranging from $25,000 to $200,000. The Kellen Browning the new $330 FitBit. The measurements can 320,000-student Clark County, Nev., district in The New York Times. show signs of sleep apnea, pulmonary embo- is the largest known to have had its systems The unveiling lism, and Covid-19. But while FDA-approved locked in a ransomware attack. The public of the “Always oximeters use sensors on the fingertip, these posting of the stolen information “demon- Home Cam” smartwatches try to read results from your strates an escalation in tactics” among hackers. by Amazon’s Ring wrist. “Just the slightest bit of movement— division included a even breathing too heavily—“distorted my A new social network with many rules promotional video of Apple results. Sometimes the Apple Watch A new social network called Telepath is try- a burglar “breaking told me my lungs and heart were “the picture ing to take advantage of the social media into a home and getting spooked backlash with a “more aggressive and more as the drone flew straight at him.” of health.” Other times, however, it said “my Some viewers, though, were blood oxygen was so low I might be suffering constructive” approach to moderation, said spooked by the idea of an Amazon from emphysema.” FitBit seemed less erratic, Casey Newton in TheVerge.com. The app— device “flying around houses film- but that’s mainly because it only measures your invitation-only for now—“requires users to ing everything” for a different blood oxygen while you sleep. use their real names,” which means no bots or reason. Amazon promises that trolls. “Perhaps most importantly, you have to the drone will record only while Hackers ramp up school attacks act the way Telepath tells you to act.” The rules flying; it has a 5-minute run time, “A hacker published documents containing include staying “on topic and tone,” and Tele- which Ring said is perfect for check- Social Security numbers, student grades, and path warns that it might “lock the thread” of ing “whether a homeowner left the stove on or a window open.” other private information” in a ransomware any conversation that involves “anyone repeat- Drone buyers set its flight path in attack on a large public-school district in Las ing the same points” or seeming too “focused advance, and can watch it through Vegas, said Tawnell Hobbs in The Wall Street on having the last word.” Never mind disinfor-

a live video feed in the Ring app. Journal. Ransomware attacks, in which a mation and hoaxes; moderators here will even y t t e

hacker demands money in exchange for un- be on the lookout for “mansplaining.” G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Health & Science NEWS 21

Face shields don’t stop viral spread Japanese scientists have warned that plas- these microscopic d roplets—which can tic face shields might be almost completely float in the air for minutes—when they ineffective at blocking the spread of the cough, sneeze, speak or breathe. Larger coronavirus. The visors are being marketed droplets were blocked by the face shields as an alternative to face masks and are about 50 percent of the time, reports The increasingly prevalent in businesses where Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Simulations on employees have close contact with the Fu ga ku, which can perform 415 quadril- public, such as grocery stores, hair salons, lion computations a second, have also and restaurants. But simulations run on determined that face masks made from Not effective at blocking respiratory aerosols the world’s fastest supercomputer, Fugaku, nonwoven fabric—such as the kind used show that face shields allow nearly 100 per- in disposable medical masks—are more masks can help reduce the emission of cent of respiratory aerosols emitted by the effective than those made from cotton droplets and the spread of the virus. “What wearer to escape through the gaps at the and polyester at containing spray when is most dangerous is not wearing a mask,” bottom and sides of the visors. Infected a wearer coughs. Still, research leader says Tsubo kura. “It’s important to wear a people can release virus-laden clouds of Ma ko to Tsubo kura emphasized that woven mask, even a less effective cloth one.”

Several pharmaceutical companies are racing Coffee vs. colorectal cancer to develop a monoclonal a ntibody—a man- People with advanced colorectal cancer may ufactured copy of a virus-f ighting antibody have a better chance of survival if they drink produced by patients who have survived coffee, reports USA Today. Researchers the disease—but the process is challenging studied 1,171 patients who had the disease and expensive. U.S. firm Eli Lilly last week and could not be treated with surgery, over announced early results from a clinical trial an average follow-up period of five years. involving 452 newly diagnosed Covid-19 Compared with those who drank no coffee, patients, 302 of whom received its monoclo- the patients who had a cup a day had an nal antibody and the rest a placebo. Six per- 11 percent increased survival rate and a 5 per- cent of those who took the placebo ended up cent increased rate of living p rogression-free, being hospitalized, compared with 1.7 percent Summer sea ice is disappearing rapidly. meaning their cancer didn’t get worse. of those who received the drug—a 72 per- Those who drank four or more cups a day Arctic sea ice near record low cent reduction. The patients on the drug also fared even better, with a 36 percent jump With temperatures continuing to rise at the had fewer symptoms and saw their virus lev- for overall survival and 22 percent for non- top of the world, Arctic sea ice this summer els plummet. The findings haven’t yet been progression. The reason for this apparent shrank to its second-lowest level on record. peer reviewed, but if they are confirmed, link is unclear. Caffeine doesn’t seem to play The minimum extent was likely reached it would be a major breakthrough in the a role—the effect was the same for decaf on Sept. 15, with 1.44 million square miles search for a Covid-19 treatment. So far the and regular coffee—but some compounds in covered in sea ice, about 1 million square drugs shown to help patients—the antiviral coffee are known to have anti-i nflammatory miles fewer than the 1981–2010 average. remdesivir and the steroid d examethasone— properties. Study co-author Dr. Kimmie Ng, In four decades of satellite measurements of are only used on those already hospitalized. from the Dana-Farber Cancer Instit ute in sea ice, only 2012 had a lower minimum, Daniel Skov ron sky, Eli Lilly’s chief scientific Bos ton, says that while it would be prema- when 1.32 million square miles of ocean officer, says the new drug’s results “reinforce ture to recommend coffee as a treatment were covered in sea ice. “It’s been a crazy our conviction that neutralizing antibodies for colorectal cancer, “drinking coffee is not year up north, with sea ice at a near-record can help in the fight against Covid-19.” harmful and may potentially be beneficial.” low, 100-degree heat waves in Siberia, and massive forest fires,” Mark Serreze, director earlier. This latest discovery signals that of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Ancient footprints in Arabia these sorties took a different path than pre- tells The New York Times. “We are headed Archaeologists have viously assumed. “This is toward a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean.” found seven fossil- a story about the expan- Arctic sea ice hits its maximum coverage in ized human footprints sion of Homo sapiens fall and winter, and melts in spring and sum- that were pressed into into the heart of Arabia at mer. Declining sea ice creates what scientists a muddy lake bed in an early date,” Michael call a feedback loop for global warming. the Ara bi an Penin sula Petraglia, of Germany’s The ice reflects most of the sunlight that 120,000 years ago, a Max Planck Institute, tells strikes it, whereas the ocean’s darker surface discovery that could alter TheGuardian.com. “It absorbs more of the sun’s rays and re-emits our understanding of is not a story of coastal how Homo sapiens left that energy as heat. So when ice melts An early human walked here. migrations, which has Africa. Genetic studies been the hypothesized

and exposes more ocean, it leads to more . l

a suggest the first mass migration out of the route.” The footprints, found in Saudi

. t warming—which in turn means more ice loss. e

continent took place some 60,000 years t Arabia’s Nefud Desert, likely belonged r a w ago. But the unearthing of older human to at least two individuals. However, the e t S

Hope for new Covid-19 treatment , remains in Greece and Israel has led some absence of any signs of butchery or stone s r e t A single dose of an experimental drug has u researchers to argue that smaller groups tools suggests these ancient humans e R

, markedly reduced levels of the coronavirus in ventured outside Africa thousands of years y made only a brief stop at the lake. t t e

G newly infected patients, reports CNBC .com.

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 22 ARTS Review of reviews: Books

researcher labeled by a former friend as “the Book of the week most corrupt social scientist I ever met.” If Then: How the Simulmatics Lepore includes that line while crediting Pool with authoring the founding political Corporation Invented the Future theory of the internet. And though the firm by Jill Lepore often failed, said Philip Delves Broughton in (Liveright, $29) The Wall Street Journal, it “galvanized dis- cussion of the role of technology in predict- “Before Cambridge Analytica, before ing and guiding our behavior.” Facebook, before the internet, there was Simulmatics,” said Shannon Bond in NPR During its 11-year run, Simulmatics “played .org. In her engaging new book, historian minor parts in major events, appearing and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore makes Zelig-like at crucial moments of 1960s his- a case that the largely forgotten 1960s tory,” said James Gleick in The New York data-crunching firm planted the seeds of The dawn of Big Data: Technicians of the 1960s Review of Books. The company parlayed today’s craze for data-based prediction and 1960 presidential election that Simulmatics’ its post- election notoriety into govern- consumer manipulation. Her conversational predictive computer, “the People Machine,” ment contracts, including one for counter- prose brings the players, along with their had been instrumental in identifying and insurgency research in Vietnam and another fights and affairs, to vivid life. “But at the winning voters for John F. Kennedy. But that for predictions of which U.S. cities would heart of the book is a dissonance that Lepore story turned out to be written by a friend of endure race riots. Both projects flopped. never really resolves”: Are we meant to view Simulmatics’ founder, and the Kennedy cam- The British magazine Punch was soon Simulmatics as trailblazing or bumbling? paign quickly dismissed the company’s work satirizing Simulmatics, suggesting that the as “ineffective and duplicitous.” And maybe company’s people sorters expand their array Simulmatics “failed at almost everything it that was fair. Created by a huckster named of categories to include “doughnut dunker” tried to do,” said Seth Mnookin in The New Ed Greenfield, Simulmatics consisted almost and “flat-earther”and then calculate which York Times. A year after it opened shop, the entirely of suspect, but colorful, characters. type might buy a certain brand of ball- Manhattan-based company made a major Eugene Burdick was a dashing Berkeley point pen on a Wednesday. “Which is all splash when Harper’s magazine spooked professor who also wrote best-selling politi- very amusing, and exactly what Facebook, the country by reporting shortly after the cal thrillers. Ithiel de Sola Pool was an MIT Amazon, and Google do today.”

Wagnerism: Art and Politics in “No previous writer has so copiously chron- Novel of the week icled the sheer ubiquity of Wagner in impor- the Shadow of Music tant novels, poems, and paintings,” said Jack by Alex Ross Joseph Horowitz in The Wall Street Journal. by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $40) The result is “an indispensable work of (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27) “Contemplating cultural history” driven by a “bravura” nar- Marilynne Robinson’s latest addition to Wagner, trying to rative. Ross’ roaming survey of writers and her revered Gilead series “feels more like sum up what his art artists listening and responding to Wagner’s a morality tale than her other novels,” means, puts one in music “becomes a history of consciousness— said Jordan Kisner in The Atlantic. Jack mind of the ancient and ultimately collides with a history of poi- Boughton, the bad-seed son of a white Hindu parable of the sonous hatred and genocidal violence,” said Iowa minister, has been given center blind men and the Geoffrey O’Brien in Bookforum. Wagner’s stage, and Robinson appears most elephant,” said com- music was many things to many listeners, concerned with answering a question poser John Adams including aphrodisiac and mystic healing about him tied to her Calvinist faith: Can in The New York force. To Adolf Hitler, it was a strident call a person be unsalvageable? Though Jack Times. “The object to arms in a quest for racial purity. has been a vivid side character before, here he’s “the dullest bad boy in the his- itself is so huge that tory of bad boys,” said Dwight Garner each person groping Measuring Wagner’s share of blame for in The New York Times. We hear that to comprehend it Hitler becomes a major concern, said The he’s a clever thief and party animal, but comes to a radically different conclusion of Economist. Wagner was a fierce anti-S emite, as we watch him chastely court Della, a what it is.” Richard Wagner (1813–83) was but Hitler admired him more for his art black schoolteacher in 1940s St. Louis, he “the monoculture event artist of his age,” than for his thinking. And Hitler was a poor mostly complains about being doomed. said Ashley Naftule in AVClub.com. The listener. He “seemed to overlook Wagner’s He’s stuck in Robinson world—“a remote, German composer’s operas, Parsifal, Tristan preoccupation with love” and how Wagner’s airless, vaguely pretentious universe” und Isolde, and the Ring cycle among them, heroes often struggle with r emorse— “hardly where people are always rehashing the introduced new dramatic images, tech- a Nazi virtue.” The music cultivates delu- same religious arguments. Still, Robinson niques, and motifs that reshaped artistic cul- sion, perhaps, said Philip Hensher in The remains “a singular figure in American ture across Europe and North America. In Spectator (U.K.). In the end, though, “what fiction,” said Mark Athitakis in USA Wagner created in pure sound is of such Today. After a long, weak opening scene, his new book, New Yorker music critic Alex she goes deep with these characters, and Ross is “mercifully light” on music theory power that it will always survive the worst of its creator’s character, and the characters lingo as he devotes 700 pages to Wagner’s y t

“writes about faith without piousness.” t e

vast influence beyond music. of the worst of his admirers.” G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 The Book List ARTS 23

Best books…chosen by Tim Weiner Author of the week Tim Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and the author of Legacy of Ashes, a history of the CIA that won the National Book Award. The Folly and the Glory, his Allie Brosh new book, examines Moscow and Washington’s rivalry since 1945. Not many people would recognize Allie Brosh on Eat the Buddha b y Barbara Demick (2020). The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman the street, said Stephanie Demick is an exceedingly rare combination of (1984). Why did the Trojans take in that McNeal in BuzzFeedNews fearless journalist and soul-stirring writer. The horse? How did Renaissance popes provoke .com. But her bug-eyed, stick- breathtaking degree of difficulty in reporting that the Protestant secession? And why were we in armed avatar is a different was required to create this book about a remote Vietnam? Folly. Self-deception. The deliberate story. Brosh’s “make-you-cry- Tibetan town is excelled only by the power and pursuit of policy against self-interest. This book one-minute, laugh-out-loud- precision of her prose. This and her book on is a key to understanding why history, as Edward the-next” North Korea, Nothing to Envy, are masterworks Gibbon wrote, is “little more than the register of webcomic Hyperbole that will be read 100 years from now. crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” and a Half Why I Write b y George Orwell (2005). Turn Libra by Don DeLillo (1988). DeLillo’s key- drew millions to this Penguin collection of Orwell’s essays board is like Thelonious Monk’s—the rhythms, of readers a for “Politics and the English Language,” which the triads, the backbeats, and bent notes. Libra decade ago, proves more vital than ever in the age of Trump: delves into the black hole of American history: and her 2013 “Political language is designed to make lies the JFK assassination. A retired CIA analyst book of the sound truthful and murder respectable, and to reviews the secret files and sees no conspiracies, same name was a No. 1 New give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.” only blind fate and chance. Probably the greatest York Times best-seller. Even American novel of my lifetime. Bill Gates was an ardent fan. Dog Soldiers b y Robert Stone (1974). The great But then her cartoon persona Vietnam War novel takes place almost entirely in The Man Who Kept the Secrets b y Thomas went missing, generating America. The war comes home in the form of a Powers (1979). The first real history of the CIA: widespread worry. Brosh’s kilo of pure heroin. The wave of the ’60s surges scrupulously fair-minded, utterly brutal, and a trademark is being funny and crests in the ’70s. It breaks. And it swamps model for Legacy of Ashes. I devoured Powers’ about her own depression, the land with blood, sweat, and tears. Stone was book when I was 24, and I resolved that I would and her bipolar sister killed our Conrad, the master of the political novel, become a reporter who covered the CIA. Seven herself soon after the book taking the thriller into the astral plane. years later, I was. was published. Brosh was working almost the entire time, though, just privately. “I needed to learn how to be a Also of interest...in uses of artificial intelligence better space probe,” she says. “I’m the thing that goes really Set My Heart to Five Sex Robots and Vegan Meat far away for a really long time, by Simon Stephenson (Hanover Square, $28) by Jenny Kleeman (Pegasus, $28) and comes back with pictures of what it’s like out there.” “I have a new literary hero,” said Every effort to invent the future Paul Di Filippo in The Washington reveals a lot about who we are today, Brosh’s new book, Solutions Post. The protagonist of this “laugh- said Amanda Hess in The New York and Other Problems, shares out-loud-funny” debut novel from an Times. Journalist Jenny Kleeman much of the journey, said ex-Pixar screenwriter is an android knows that, and so when she meets Ailsa Chang in NPR.org. She dentist who in 2054 decides after various innovators who are work- lost her sister. Her parents home-screening Blade Runner that he must travel ing to develop the perfect lab meat, suicide pod, divorced. She split with her to Hollywood to help make a movie that cures artificial womb, or sex bot, she questions both own husband and moved out humans of anti-bot bias. Like Voltaire’s Candide, the how and the why. Though her “capacious” of Oregon before remarry- Jared is a perpetually hopeful soul bamboozled by curiosity “sometimes leads her into the weeds,” ing. But those events don’t the world he encounters. And Simon Stephenson more often it “opens up a kaleidoscopic view” arrive in a simple chronology or uninterrupted by, say, funny may be Kurt Vonnegut’s “first true protégé.” and makes her insights feel earned. moments with pets. “I wanted The Mother Code The Big Door Prize it to be a little bit more of a chaotic but real reflection of by Carole Stivers (Berkley, $26) by M.O. Walsh (Putnam, $27) how these things actually This debut novel from a former bio- This novel opens with such a strong felt,” she says. Now that the chemist “couldn’t be more timely,” Twilight Zone vibe “you can almost book is out, Brosh is vowing said Eric Brown in TheGuardian.com. hear the theremin in the background,” not to vanish so completely When a U.S. bioweapon unleashes a said Michael Ray Taylor in Chapter16 again and can even admit n that being a focus of public o s r virus that puts human survival at risk, .org. A photo booth–like machine e

d attention isn’t so bad once n

e scientists race to develop genetically materializes in a town’s grocery, offer-

H in a while. “If I’ve learned h a altered children who can survive the plague with ing DNA readings that detail each user’s poten- r a anything from the last seven S

,

v the help of maternal robot AIs. “After some early tial. Like songwriter John Prine, who inspired the

o years,” she says, “it’s that k o

b info dumping, and characters relaying what they title, author M.O. Walsh comes across as “a wise a I’m capable of withstanding N

e already know for the benefit of the reader,” author omniscient narrator peeking into various bars, u way more than I would have q i n i Carole Stivers “delivers a gripping techno thriller cars, and bedroom windows, a twinkle in his eye expected.” m o

D that offers hope despite its bleak premise.” as he brings some mischief to the lives within.”

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 24 ARTS Review of reviews: Music A new canon: Rolling Stone rethinks pop’s best albums start from scratch by gathering and tabulating personal Top 50 lists from The revised top 10 300 critics, industry leaders, and top 1. Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On artists, including Beyoncé, Taylor 2. The Beach Boys, Swift, and Billie Eilish. The revised Pet Sounds ranking includes 154 new additions 3. Joni Mitchell, Blue and 86 albums released since 2000, 4. Stevie Wonder, Songs in the led by Kanye West and Kendrick Key of Life Lamar at Nos. 17 and 19. It’s also 5. The Beatles, Abbey Road “full of little details to argue over: 6. Nirvana, Nevermind Led Zeppelin out of the top 50? No 7. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours St. Vincent? Harry Styles better than 8. Prince and the Revolution, Arcade Fire? Six Kanye albums?” Purple Rain The biggest shake-up happened in 9. Bob Dylan, Blood on the top 10, beginning with Marvin the Tracks Gaye’s soulful 1971 protest album 10. Lauryn Hill, The What’s Going On leaping from Miseducation of Lauryn Hill No. 6 to the top spot, dethroning the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts margins. Some curmudgeons will be upset Gaye’s chart-topper: Love in a time of strife Club Band—which fell to No. 24. that the Beatles no longer have four albums in the top 10, but those records’ demotions “As if there wasn’t enough to argue about “Good on Rolling Stone,” said Matt Melis “made room for the likes of Joni Mitchell, in the world right now,” said Justin Curto in ConsequenceOfSound.net. The magazine Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Lauryn Hill.” in NYMag.com, Rolling Stone last week list has been as good an authority as we Granted, “I can’t begin to figure out quite published a new 500 Greatest Albums have on what’s essential in popular music, how all this shook out the way that it did.” of All Time, and pop music’s de facto but to be a “living and breathing resource,” But the new RS500 does what a canon canon ain’t what it used to be. The origi- a canon has to change to reflect the society should, reminding us where we’ve been as a nal list—published in 2003 and tweaked it purports to speak for. If those of us who culture that values music while inspiring the in 2012—remained relevant enough that make these lists truly believe that women’s next chapter. “Don’t worry: Sgt. Pepper’s 63 million people viewed it online last year. voices need to be heard and that black lives will be OK. Music seekers just have more But the 53-year-old magazine, aiming to matter, we can’t duplicate processes from paths to go down and explore; in music, reflect how tastes have changed, chose to the past that pushed so many people to the that’s a good thing.”

Fleet Foxes Public Enemy Sufjan Stevens Shore What You Gonna Do... The Ascension ++++ ++++ ++++ Fleet Foxes’ fourth “If there was ever a Sufjan Stevens’ eighth album represents “a time for a new Public album is “a harrowing reinvigorating return Enemy album, it’s 2020,” record for frighten- to form,” said Charlotte said Jacinta Howard in ing times,” said Mark Krol in NME.com. PasteMagazine.com. Richardson in The After a downcast turn The legendary hip-hop Wall Street Journal. on 2017’s ambitious group’s first album in The 45-year-old singer- Crack-Up, Seattle native 25 years with the Def songwriter, who Robin Pecknold and his bandmates are Jam label turns out to be “equal parts unfet- became a critics’ favorite in the early aughts again making folk-rock that lifts its face tered urgency and nostalgia,” offering lis- with the concept albums Michigan and toward the sun. The resulting 15-track set teners no-nonsense advice on standing up Illinois, has now expanded his scope to the delivers “all the hallmarks of what made amid crisis times while reminding us that planet and is “horrified by what he sees.” Fleet Foxes so great in the first place: rich P.E. has been urging folks to “do the right The result is “the darkest record of Stevens’ and studied folk compositions, unrivaled thing” forever. Consider the album’s rework- career,” with his whispery voice often harmonies, stories that strike to the core of ing of “Fight the Power,” the group’s 1989 layered as it floats above electronic beats human existence, and a dedication to art hit, said Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone. “Rather and hazy synthesizers making despairing that emotionally lifts you off this planet.” At than a retread,” the track offers an inspiring pronouncements. Given the album’s mood the same time, Shore might be “a perfect manifestation of a rich and enduring culture, and 81-minute run time, it’s “hard to endure synthesis of old and new Fleet Foxes,” said combining its bedrock James Brown beat in a single listen, though Stevens’ convic- Ryan Leas in Stereogum.com. It marries and Chuck D’s brawny rapping with new tion makes you want to try.” But if The accessibility with musical ambition and verses from voices of a younger generation. Ascension feels daunting at times, “that’s complexity. “If Crack-Up was arid badlands And while Chuck has much to say about the partly because it’s supposed to,” said Grant and lava flows, Shore is water rippling over Trump era, “the most heartening thing about Sharples in ConsequenceOfSound.net. smooth stones in a creek bed or light pass- this record isn’t the critical takes, it’s the guys Despite the record’s length, “every minute ing through the canopy of a forest.” The bringing the noise.” Flavor Flav remains is well spent, every moment of catharsis warmth of its music and lyrics “feels like a a comic wonder, and on the best tracks, earned,” and listeners might find solace in fragile happiness that has been sought out Chuck’s verses “rumble with mountainous Stevens telling them what they already feel: and must be protected.” authority over DJ Premier’s cracking beat.” “Simply put, everything sucks right now.”

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Review of reviews: Art & Film ARTS 25 Masterpieces for sale: Why some museums are cashing out An alarming trend is spreading zations, we can expect many more such among America’s art museums, said attempted fire sales, not a few of which Christopher Knight in the Los Angeles will, like this one, be speciously justi- Times. Next week, the Everson fied by the seductive-sounding goal of Museum of Art in Syracuse, N.Y., will wider racial representation.” complete an “inexcusable” betrayal of the public trust when it sells a Jackson “Maybe the art world should join the Pollock painting to the highest bidder at real world,” said the Syracuse Post- an auction at Christie’s. The small but Standard in an editorial. Keeping our irreplaceable work, Red Composition, city’s “tiny yet mighty” art museum is expected to fetch $12 million to financially afloat is a struggle, and $18 million, money that the museum the sale of the Pollock will allow the aims to use for a worthy purpose: pur- institution to stay relevant by featuring chasing more art by women and artists more artists that reflect the diversity of of color. But the Everson is now the Syracuse’s population. Such thinking is third museum in recent years, following great for private collectors, who also peers in Baltimore and San Francisco, Pollock’s Red Composition: Birth of a movement must have been cheered by recent news that has chosen to sell blue-chip art to out of Brooklyn, said Jasmyne Keimig that can draw distant visitors to a poor create diversity funds—and those moves in TheStranger.com. In mid-September, upstate city and its small I.M. Pei–designed “do real damage.” Each sale robs the pub- the Brooklyn Museum became the first museum. No other modern piece in the lic of a priceless artifact and places it in the major institution to take advantage of a collection is “remotely as beautiful,” and it hands of a wealthy collector who’s likely to pandemic-inspired loosening of industry couldn’t be a better fit for the Everson—the never show it again. standards that allows for sales to finance oldest museum in the country dedicated the ongoing care of a collection. This The work in question is not a typical cast- exclusively to American art. Even a cash- month, the museum will sell 12 works, off, said Terry Teachout in The Wall Street strapped museum can diversify its collection ranging from a Renaissance nude to a Journal. The second drip painting Pollock over time by other means, but the Everson Gustave Courbet landscape, at another ever created, the 1946 canvas has been is instead advancing a sorrier precedent. Christie’s auction. The great sell-off seems “by far the most important painting in the “Given the financial havoc that the corona- to be gaining momentum, and “we’ll be Everson,” the only piece in the collection virus pandemic is wreaking on arts organi- worse off for it.”

the script doesn’t deliver. Instead of offering Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. And substance beneath the banter—a reckoning yet “the most fascinating life of all was his over Felix’s failures as a father, perhaps—the own,” as this “majestic” Ric Burns docu- movie feels mired in “a kind of negligent mentary reveals. Born in Britain, Sacks was unseriousness.” Jones is “a low-key delight a San Francisco pill addict wrestling with to watch,” though, and Murray is doing far his homosexuality before he discovered his more than mailing it in, said David Ehrlich in calling. In footage filmed months before his IndieWire.com. In a breezy movie that’s “less 2015 death, he revisits his ups and downs interested in how people change than it is in “with great satisfaction and verve.” ($12 on what they cling to,” Murray delivers a perfor- demand at kinomarquee.com) Not rated mance “steeped in the bittersweet recogni- tion that Laura is the love of Felix’s life—that Spontaneous Jones and Murray out on the town he’d rather they shipwreck together than sail There are hidden depths to this teen-focused apart on their own.” (In select theaters Oct. 2; black comedy—and that’s refreshing, said on AppleTV+ Oct. 23) R Allie Gemmill in Collider.com. Knives Out’s On the Rocks Katherine Langford stars as a high schooler ++++ Other new movies whose classmates inexplicably start spon- Misbehaviour taneously exploding, and a “fairly snappy, Oh, to traipse around a pre-pandemic This enjoyable period film about the stormy sensitive script” uses that absurd premise to Manhattan with Bill Murray, said Johnny 1970 Miss World pageant in London “tries explore the ways people cope with sudden Olek sinski in the New York Post. “In the to do too much,” said Ty Burr in The Boston tragedy. Though platitudes creep in, Lang- pantheon of perfect Bill Murray roles,” Globe. Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha- ford and co-star Charlie Plummer “bounce the reckless bon vivant he plays in Sofia Raw lead a stellar cast as the event is roiled off each other with ease,” making their every Coppola’s charming new comedy “ranks as by clashes over race, class, and gender. The moment together “a true delight.” (In select one of the best.” When art dealer Felix learns interweaving of several women’s stories is theaters or $15 on demand) R that his daughter Laura, played by Rashida “almost more than the movie can handle,” Jones, has hit a marital rut, he presumes yet it honors a complicated moment “in The Artist’s Wife her husband is cheating and ropes her into messy and generous fashion.” (In select t he- Lena Olin is “incapable of giving a so-so a fact-finding tour of New York City’s posh- aters or $12 on demand) Not rated performance,” said Jeannette Catsoulis in

V est old-school bars. Murray ably reprises the The New York Times. But Olin and co-star T e l p “witty man-of-the-world ennui” he brought Oliver Sacks: His Own Life Bruce Dern are better than the material in p A

, to Coppola’s Lost in Translation, said Peter In his books, neuroscientist Oliver Sacks s this “pulpy” drama about the self-sacrificing ’ e i t s Bradshaw TheGuardian.com displayed a singular knack for making i in . “But like spouse of a painter slipping into dementia. r h

C any great comic, he still needs material,” and his patients’ lives read like novels, said ($12 on demand at afisilver.afi.com) R

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 26 ARTS Television

Streaming tips The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

Women of stand-up who One Day at a Time tear it up... Critics have abundantly praised the reboot of Norman Lear’s 1970s sitcom, but unlike its char- Nanette acters, the Alvarez family, the show hasn’t had It’s been two years since a stable home. Canceled by Netflix, it moved Hannah Gadsby’s genre- to CBS’s Pop TV in early 2020, and now that annihilating comedy special most recent season arrives on CBS proper, where was released, and it has only gained in power. Over a sin- Justina Machado, Rita Moreno, and the rest gle hour, Gadsby brilliantly of the cast just might find a larger audience. constructs and deconstructs Monday, Oct. 5, at 9 p.m., CBS personal stories, faces her Soulmates own anger, elicits shatter- In the future, finding that special someone will ing empathy, and tells some be easy. Or so it seems in this mind-bending new pretty good jokes. If you anthology series from Black Mirror and Stranger haven’t seen it, prepare to be floored. Netflix Things writer Will Bridges. Each episode will tell The Right Stuff: A new Mercury Seven a new story set in a future in which science is Leslie Jones: able to identify every person’s soulmate. Malin from Tom Wolfe’s seminal 1979 book about the Time Machine Akerman and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton astronauts of NASA’s Mercury project. Now Jones never won huge min- co-star in the first episode as singletons who meet comes a series-long adaptation from National utes on Saturday Night Live, at a church that supports people who have dis- Geographic and Leonardo DiCaprio’s produc- but she was c ombustible covered that their one true love is dead. Monday, tion company. If nothing else, it has the look in every minute she got. Oct. 5, at 10 p.m., AMC as it promises a deep dive into the lives of John Here, she gets to stretch 2020 Vice Presidential Debate Glenn, Alan Shepard, and the five other first U.S. out and deliver a high- astronauts. Patrick J. Adams, Jake McDorman, energy, highly physical Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala hour of comedy built on Harris meet for a 90-minute showdown that will and Colin O’Donoghue co-star. Available for the challenges of reaching be watched mostly for its production of potential streaming Friday, Oct. 9, Disney+ middle age. Netflix social media memes. Harris, the ex-prosecutor, Other highlights will arrive carrying greater expectations and Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones Maria Bamford: more to lose. But Pence, remember, forever A lost segment of Doctor Who’s history is recov- Weakness Is the Brand aspires to establish himself as a top-of-the-ticket ered in an animated re-creation of the British If you’ve seen any of Bam- 2024 option. Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 9 p.m., most sci-fi series’ six-episode 1967 season. Begins ford’s stand-up specials or watched her whacked-out major networks Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m., BBC America series, Lady Dynamite, you The 40-Year-Old Version Wild Card: The Downfall of a know that mental instability Who says rap is a young person’s game? In a Radio Loudmouth is the bedrock of her offbeat debut feature film from Radha Blank that won A gasp-inducing documentary tracks the rise and humor. In her latest special, honors at Sundance, the writer and director fall of Craig Carton, a New York sports radio she’s a comedian in total plays a once-touted black playwright who’s fad- shock jock who detonated his career with side- command. Amazon Prime ing into obscurity when she decides to launch lines in gambling and ticket scams. Wednesday, Yvonne Orji: Momma, a rap career. Turns out the genre could use the Oct. 7, at 9 p.m., HBO I Made It sly truths spat out by a black woman who’s had Charm City Kings Best known as Issa Rae’s time to clock who the gatekeepers are and how Rapper Meek Mill and newcomer Jahi Di’Allo sidekick on Insecure, Orji they shape representations of blackness. Available Winston co-star in a coming-of-age tale set emerges onstage as every for streaming Friday, Oct. 9, Netflix against the backdrop of West Baltimore dirt- bit a star in her own right. The Right Stuff bike culture. Available for streaming Thursday, Her special mixes stand-up An excellent 1983 movie has already been made with equally funny, but also Oct. 8, HBO Max heartwarming, footage of a journey to Lagos, in her na- Show of the week tive Nigeria. HBO Max The Haunting of Bly Manor Mike Flanagan, mastermind of Netflix’s horror hit Ali Wong: Baby Cobra The Haunting of Hill House, knows his Am Lit. Ali Wong is surely the For a follow-up, he moves from Shirley Jackson only comedian who has to Henry James, basing his new nine-part series recorded two stand-up spe- on James’ The Turn of the Screw while setting cials in late pregnancy. The the action closer to our time. Victoria Pedr etti first is the slightly better of plays an American au pair who arrives at an the two. Wong’s raunchy, English manor to look after orphaned siblings unfiltered comedy at times Miles and Flora Wingrave. She begins seeing seems intended to prove apparitions, of course—spirits tied to the home’s x

that a person can simulta- i l f

troubled history. Hill House alums Kate Siegel t e

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and Oliver Jackson-Cohen help fill out the cast. , +

uncontrollably. Netflix y e

Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, minded by Pedretti Available for streaming Friday, Oct. 9, Netflix n s i D

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 • All listings are Eastern Time. LEISURE 27 Food & Drink Tofu with peanut noodles: Finding the joy in pan-fried soy “The biggest surprise of this year’s While tofu marinates, cook and drain Covid-19 public health crisis may be a udon noodles, following package sudden outpouring of love for tofu,” directions. said Kristen Hartke in The Washington Post. Following years of steady mea- When tofu is ready, sprinkle corn surable decline in America’s interest in or potato starch into a large shal- bean curd, sales jumped 40 percent in low bowl. Working in batches, use the first half of 2020, and the South a slotted spoon to transfer tofu Korean company behind Nasoya, from marinade to starch, tossing to this country’s No. 1 tofu brand, says coat. Reserve extra marinade. 16 percent of U.S. households now purchase its products, up from 5 per- Heat oil in a large skillet over cent just two years ago. medium-high heat. When oil shim- mers, add tofu and fry, tossing fre- If you’ve never cooked with water- quently, until brown and crisp all packed tofu before, said Joe Yonan, over, about 6 minutes. Use a slotted also in the Post, the recipe below offers spoon to transfer to a bowl, and dis- a good starting point. It also helps dis- Imagine a crackly crust and soft, flavorful insides. card skillet’s excess oil. till my tofu advice to this: “Drain and press out as much of the moisture from the tofu 1¼ cups vegetable broth Return skillet to medium-high heat and as possible so it can soak up the flavors of ½ cup smooth peanut butter add spinach. Cook, stirring, until it wilts a good marinade, then coat it in cornstarch 2 tsp low-sodium tamari (or soy sauce) completely, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a and pan-fry it. Or skip the marinade in separate bowl. favor of an after-frying glaze. Or do both.” Wrap tofu in paper towels, set on a plate, and lay another small plate on top. Place a Add broth, peanut butter, and tamari to skil- Recipe of the week 28-oz can of tomatoes or similar weight on let and stir. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to Fried hoisin tofu with peanut noodles the top plate. Let tofu sit for 20 minutes, medium-low, and cook to form a thickened 8 oz extra-firm tofu, drained then unwrap and discard excess liquid. sauce, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in udon, then ½ cup hoisin sauce spinach. Taste, and add tamari, as needed. 9 oz dried udon noodles Cut tofu into ½-inch cubes. Place in a bowl ½ cup cornstarch or potato starch with hoisin sauce, toss to coat, then let sit Divide udon among individual bowls. Top 2 tbsp coconut, peanut, or sunflower oil for at least 30 minutes (or up to overnight, with fried tofu and a drizzle of marinade. 10 oz fresh baby spinach, chopped covered and refrigerated). Serves 4 to 5.

Kitchen tip: How to make smart use of expired milk Beer: Classic Oktoberfests Milk that has just started to sour doesn’t have to If you’re an Oktoberfest traditionalist, be poured down the drain, said Stephanie Loomis said Jay Brooks in the San Jose Mercury Pappas in Bon Appétit. “The fi rst step to using News, you’ll know that the signature up the expired milk is to reconsider it.” That sour beer of the celebration is named after smell is just fermentation at work—as it would be the month of March. A few classic in a sourdough starter or buttermilk, which is just examples of Märzen can be found here, milk that’s had bacteria added to speed fermenta- all once brewed in March in Munich to tion. So use it like buttermilk—in pancakes and be ready to drink in the early fall. sweet or savory baked goods and in meatballs Though not as light-bodied as the or marinades. You can even use it to make tasty newer “Festbiers,” a Märzen, too, vegetable snacks by frying squash, eggplant, or delivers “malty fl avors, a light hop green tomatoes that have been dipped in the character, and a dry fi nish.” Baking should be Job 1. milk and smothered in breadcrumbs. Spaten Oktoberfestbier Ur-Märzen The “Ur” here means “original.” When the milk’s expiration date arrives, you don’t even have to stop drinking it, said When brewer Josef Sedlmayr Megan Schmidt in Discover magazine. Depending on laws in your state and the rolled out the fi rst Märzen in temperature of your fridge, pasteurized milk might last two weeks past the printed 1872, “it caught on in a big way.” date. “Draw the line when milk starts to get chunky, though,” because at that point the Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest fermentation has gone too far. Milk that has only slightly soured has uses beyond the “Slightly sweeter than the oth- kitchen as well, said Laura Caseley in LittleThings.com. “The lactic acid in milk is also ers,” this Märzen is made by one great for your skin, making it smoother and fi rmer.” Just dilute some with water and of the breweries that supplied splash it on your face, rubbing it in. Or add a cup or two to a warm bath for smooth suds for the 1810 royal wedding skin all over. In moderation, expired milk can benefi t your vegetable garden too, said that launched Oktoberfest. Kerry Michaels in TheSpruce.com. Plants like calcium and B vitamins as much as your Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier Expect

) body does. Use only low-fat or reduced-fat milk, though, and always dilute it by half. “a touch of honey” here, and “a 2 ( y t You can spray the solution directly on the leaves or pour it into the soil. t little more spicy bitterness.” e G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 28 LEISURE Coping

Moving home: Covid and the new American family “Young adults are squeezing back into family, and especially with Andrea’s their childhood bedrooms in unprec- grandparents, who still live next edented numbers,” said Martha White door. And the trial run was successful in Money.com. A recent Pew Research enough that the couple is now mov- report estimated that 52 percent of the ing into Nick’s parents’ nearby house, nation’s 18- to 29-year-olds were living which is divided into apartments and with at least one parent in July—the where Nick’s sister’s family occupies highest share recorded since tracking of another floor. There, “everyone pitches the number began near the end of the in, whether it’s helping with child care Great Depression. Multigenerational or grabbing groceries.” living had been on the rise since 1980, said Rachel Feintzeig in The Wall Street Maybe more Americans will learn that Journal. But the pandemic dialed up multigenerational living makes good the figure as young adults lost jobs, sense, said Sarah Todd in Qz.com. “For fled Covid hot spots, or coped with col- The dream today: A grown-up in every room much of U.S. history,” after all, “adult lege and university closures. Some 2.6 million had moved home children living with their parents was the norm.” Large family by mid-year, and the optimistic ones among them viewed the households were practical when many Americans lived on farms. change “not as a financial setback, but a way to build commu- But a new focus on romantic marriage arose in the 19th century, nity,” to strengthen family ties. and Sigmund Freud’s dark view of the family led experts of the 20th century to promote leaving home as the path to mental Take Andrea Martinez Allen, a 29-year-old program manager health. A booming economy made the new norm possible, but at a health-care nonprofit, who grew up in an extended fam- the detached nuclear family remains an ideal that makes individ- ily that occupied two neighboring San Francisco houses. When uals more vulnerable to life’s unexpected blows and works best Covid disrupted her plan to spend the year traveling with her for people of means. Every parent has been conditioned to worry husband, Nick, the couple moved in with Andrea’s parents in if Johnny turns 30 and is still playing video games in the base- her childhood home. Sometimes close was too close, as when ment. But the purpose of life isn’t autonomy. It might be to sup- Andrea’s dad’s snoring could be heard through the bedroom port one another, as Covid is teaching us. “Perhaps Johnny just wall. But Andrea and Nick valued the unscheduled time with likes living with his parents—and what’s so terrible about that?”

Distancing season: Making the most of it And if you’re bored... Time for your flu shot night out, perhaps, knowing the sum may go Getting a flu shot this year may be “more cru- elsewhere. Offer concrete help, such as busi- cial than ever,” said Katherine Harmon Cour- ness contacts, skills you can bring to the job age in Vox.com. Covid-19 is still going strong search, or a couple of hours of weekday child as flu season arrives, and the collision of the care. If you have a spare laptop or other office viruses could overwhelm hospitals and testing gear, offer it, and if you drop off flowers or a sites while creating complications for anyone meal, add reassurances of your friend’s worth. who falls ill. The diseases’ overlapping symp- Plan to regularly check in, because joblessness toms can confuse both doctors and patients, can last months. Don’t ask how their search A High Fidelity pool party setting and some might even contract both viruses. is going; ask what they’ve been up to. Often, “How do you throw a virtual party But we all should also care about reducing “the best thing you can do is just offer an ear.” that isn’t a bust?” asked Anna Russell the burden on a health-care system that in a in The New Yorker. High Fidelity is normal year can see half a million flu-related The rise of the citizen scientist an online platform that might be hospitalizations. Obtaining a flu shot may When America went into lockdown, many the answer. Wisely, it scraps video require more effort this fall, but plan a visit to people did more than sit at home, said feeds and instead sets each party at a doctor, urgent-care center, or pharmacy. Aim Christine Peterson in National Geographic. a virtual villa or similar space, makes for late October so your immunity will remain “They went outdoors and began to document each guest a colored dot that can strong into March. “Contrary to popular be- their surroundings,” advancing conservation move about at will, and then lets the audio-only conversations flow. “The lief, the flu shot cannot give you the flu,” but efforts by contributing their findings via such delightful part” is that the audio is it can save your life or others’. online portals as eBird.org, SciStarter.org, and spatialized: You hear nearby guests Zooniverse.org. In the grasslands of northern clearly while others are background. How to help after a layoff Virginia, citizen scientist Jim Waggener has You might feel awkward at first. But Losing a job is always hard, but “there are been leading masked volunteers on weekly field once enough guests arrive, it buzzes ways to reach out to newly unemployed surveys of butterflies, dragonflies, and other in- like a real party, with all the expected friends and make the experience slightly sects. Such work “can lead to lasting change,” possibilities for gossip and whis- less awful,” said Dorie Chevlen in The New which Waggener proved when the biodiversity pered asides. “You could, in theory, York Times. If you suspect money is a con- he documented helped justify the creation of tell a witty anecdote in the lounge, and then repeat the same one in the

cern, find ways to provide help that won’t be a wildlife preserve. “You don’t know what’s y t

garden, and no one would know.” t e

uncomfortable—Venmo money tagged for a there until you know it’s there,” he says. G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020

Marketplace

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© The Royal Horticultural Society 2020. Endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Registered Charity No 222879/SC038262. rhs.org.uk 30 Best properties on the market This week: Homes built in the 1930s 1 W Pasadena, Calif. This 1932 four-bedroom cottage was just remodeled this year. Features include hard- wood floors and trim; a living room with fireplace and exposed-beam barrel ceiling; a main bedroom with a custom door and stained-glass casement window, and a gourmet kitchen with soapstone counters. French doors open to a backyard with a patio, garden beds, and a strawberry tree. $1,299,000. Linda Seyffert, Deasy Penner Podley, (626) 712-5194

2 W Mocksville, N.C. Boxwood was built in 1934 by Delano & Aldrich, the architects who built Kykuit for the Rockefellers. The eight-bedroom house, com- pletely restored in 2007, has a chef’s kitchen with scullery, a wood-paneled library, an up- stairs guest pantry, and fireplac- es in most bedrooms. On the 48-acre property are pastures, woods, and a two-bedroom log guest cabin, also from 1934, fea- turing its own great room with stone f ireplace. $3,450,000. Tom Fisher, HM Properties, (704) 213-1556

3 X Chester, N.J. Built in 1932, this seven- bedroom stone mansion anchors 54.7 acres of pasture and woodland. The house fea- tures five fireplaces, a grand staircase, ornate mold- ings, Palladian windows, a two-story cherry library with circular stairs, an owner’s wing with private courtyard, a game room, and a wine cellar. Outside are a pool, stone terraces, a tennis court, a six-stall post- and-beam barn, a riding ring, a pond, and a stream. $4,499,999. Flor de Maria Thomas, Coldwell Banker Realty, (973) 214-7553

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Best properties on the market 31

4 X Miami Beach This fully renovated four-bedroom home was built in 1938 on Di Lido, one of the Venetian Islands in Biscayne Bay. The house has the original curved wrought-iron staircase, marble and wood floors, a media room with custom bar and smoked mirrors, and a main suite with Juliet balcony. The lot is landscaped with manicured lawn and hedges, mature shrubs and palm trees, and a new swimming pool. $2,990,000. Eloy Carmenate and Mick Duchon, Douglas Elliman, (305) 673-4808

5 3

2 1 6 4

5 W Melville, N.Y. Architect Wallace K. Harrison designed this four-bedroom 1930s summer house centered on three circular rooms; the round living room with terrazzo dance floor was the model for Rockefeller Plaza’s Rainbow Room. Other details include five fireplaces, glass walls, walnut floors, multimedia the- ater, gym, wine cellar, and a spa bathroom in the main suite. The 3.6-acre landscaped lot has a saltwater pool, tennis court, 8-hole mini golf course, and waterfall. $5,999,000. Philip Laffey, Laffey Real Estate/Luxury Portfolio International, (516) 625-0944

Steal of the week

6 X Tucson Built in 1938, this two-bedroom adobe home in Early Ranch style retains many historic features. Inside are refinished hardwood floors, original wood doors with glass knobs, an ornate fireplace, and a tiled, screened patio room. Updates include a tankless water heater and new plumbing, roof, air-conditioning, and electrical panel. The property has front and back yards and is near busi- nesses and the University of Arizona. $350,000. Alan Aronoff, Long Realty Co., (520) 631-7222

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 32 BUSINESS The news at a glance

The bottom line Banks: JPMorgan pays to settle criminal charges QAt the onset of the pan- JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay JPMorgan is absurdly casting demic, 140,104 businesses $920 million this week to settle the deal as “a triumph of good were marked temporarily charges tied to market manipu- governance,” said Michael closed on Yelp.com. Since then, according to Yelp, more lation, said Dave Michaels in Hiltzik in the Los Angeles than 97,966 businesses have The Wall Street Journal. The Times, because the traders permanently shut down. agreement resolves a multiyear involved are “no longer with Fortune.com investigation by the Justice the firm.” Kudos, JPMorgan, QSo far, the Small Business Department and federal regu- “for allowing the criminality to Administration has received lators focusing on the bank’s Yet another bank settlement continue for only eight years.” 96,000 loan-forgiveness precious-metals desk. For eight years, traders The problem with the deferred prosecution agree- applications from 5.2 mil- engaged in “hundreds of thousands of misleading ment the bank got is that the bank was already lion business that borrowed orders,” a practice known as “spoofing,” or send- on a three-year probation for manipulating the $525 billion through the ing fake orders to the market to trick computer foreign-exchange market in 2015. “In that deal, Payroll Protection Program. models and drive up prices by the appearance the bank was forbidden to commit” another fed- None has yet been approved or denied. of demand. “Congress outlawed spoofing in eral crime. Yet this alleged spoofing took place Politico.com the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law,” even as “the earlier settlement was being negoti- QThe cosmetics company and four ex-JPMorgan traders have so far been ated.” Five years later, all we have is another Estee Lauder will pay NASA charged with related crimes. “sweetheart deal” with three years’ probation. $128,000 to send 10 bottles of its “advanced night re- A conference room pair” serum to the Interna- Social media: TikTok gets more time inside the matrix tional Space Station for a “A federal judge granted TikTok’s request for a temporary injunction Virtual reality is offer- 4.5 hour photo shoot. against a push by the Trump administration to ban the app,” said Brian BusinessInsider.com Fung in CNN.com. The ruling this week from Judge Carl Nichols in ing remote workers Washington, D.C., gives TikTok’s Chinese owner more time to finalize a a chance to escape back to the office, deal with Oracle and Walmart that would satisfy White House demands said Joanna Stern to put its U.S. operations in American hands. Trump gave his “tentative in The Wall Street blessing” to that agreement last week, but then went ahead with a ban Journal. A number of on downloads of the TikTok app. companies, includ- ing Spatial, Mozilla Disney: Workers cut as theme park outlook dims Hubs, and Microsoft’s Disney said this week it would lay off 28,000 workers at its U.S. theme AltspaceVR now allow parks, said Brooks Barnes in The New York Times. “About 67 per- you to “slip into a 3D cent of the layoffs will involve part-time jobs.” Many of the workers holographic self” and QArt collective MSCHF had already been furloughed, but Disney had hoped they could be wander around virtual (pronounced “mischief”) called back. In a statement, Disney put the blame partly on California offices, meeting co- created oil paintings of three Gov. Gavin Newsom, who “has not allowed theme parks in the state workers along the way. actual medical bills and sold to restart operations.” Disney World in Florida opened “on a limited “Think Zoom but with them for $73,360.36, using basis” in July, but “attendance has been weaker than Disney expected.” holograms.” You can the proceeds to pay off the invite others to join the original bills. Stock market: Palantir’s long-awaited debut meetup; all you need Mashable.com Data-mining company Palantir started trading on the New York Stock is a VR headset for the QIn August, the value of five Exchange, “ending a 17-year tradition of secrecy surrounding the soft- fully immersive expe- companies in the S&P 500— ware business,” said Lizette Chapman in Bloomberg.com. Eschewing rience. With Spatial, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, the traditional public-offering process, Palantir proceeded with a so- upload a photo of your- Facebook, and Alphabet— called direct listing, which gives backers more freedom to sell their self and “out pops a 3D was 9 percent greater than shares quickly. Valued at $17 billion in its debut, Palantir has a contro- hologram” that actu- the total market cap of the versial governing structure that put “super-voting” shares in the hands ally looks like you—“a bottom 300 companies in creepy, tweaky, robo- the index. The five firms’ of CEO Alex Karp and early Silicon Valley backer Peter Thiel. Palantir’s phantasmic version market-cap weight repre- direct listing skipped much of the pomp of the usual IPO, such as the of you.” For now, the sents almost 24 percent of ritual ringing of the New York Stock Exchange bell. the entire S&P 500. company allows you Axios.com Supermarkets: Stocking up for a second wave to rendezvous with col- leagues in virtual meet- QApplications for the Supermarkets are starting to stockpile supplies in preparation for ing rooms—though employer identification another coronavirus surge, said Jaewon Kang and Annie Gasparro if that starts feeling a numbers that entrepreneurs in The Wall Street Journal. Retailers say they “want to be ready” need to start a business have this time and are gathering “months’ rather than weeks’ worth of little too much like your F

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THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Making money BUSINESS 33

Real estate: As prices soar, buyers should beware A scorching summer for real estate ing firm on prices because of concerns has turned into the strongest housing about uprooting to a new location or market in more than decade, said Katia even letting strangers in for a tour amid Dmitrieva in Bloomberg.com. Sales of the Covid epidemic. The leap in asking new single-family homes climbed for prices is “effectively canceling out the the fourth month, rising 4.8 percent in increased purchasing power that buyers August after a nearly 15 percent surge are getting from lower interest rates.” in July. “Driven by low borrowing costs and a desire for new property during a Media reports are euphoric, but as of pandemic that’s led to many more Ameri- July, the number of new and existing cans working from home,” buyers aren’t U.S. home sales overall was only 5 per- even waiting for inventory to come on cent higher than a year ago, said Keith the market. More than 340,000 proper- Jurow in Market Watch.com. How long ties “for which construction hadn’t yet this frothy market lasts is still a crucial started” were sold in August alone. No Home sales have been strongest at the high end. question. In multiple metros, including doubt it is a seller’s market, said Diana Olick in CNBC.com. Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and New York, more sellers are being On average nationwide, “it took just 22 days to sell a home in “compelled to reduce their asking price,” a sign of market weak- August, matching the fastest on record.” Prices are going up at ening. And by the end of the year, “several million borrowers who an annual rate of more than 11 percent. have received mortgage forbearance will have gone nine months without making a mortgage payment.” When the foreclosure They’ve gone up even more in Southern California, said Andrew moratoriums end, we could see a flood of homes on the market. Khouri in the Los Angeles Times, where people are flocking on a hunt for “larger homes with bigger backyards.” But the “uneven I’d caution against buying a home now, said Teresa Ghilarducci effects of the economic downturn” are also on display. “Homes in Bloomberg.com. “You don’t know whether bosses will make that sold for $1 million or more accounted for 22 percent of all work-from-home permanent or who will be targeted for down- homes sold in California last month,” up 6 percent from a year sizing,” and even the tax advantages to homeownership could earlier. By contrast, homes selling for less than $500,000 fell diminish as Congress looks to new revenue. With so many un- 8 percent. At the high end, demand has quickly overtaken supply, certainties today, “you may come to rue buying at a time when said Nicole Friedman in The Wall Street Journal. Sellers are hold- inventory is so low and prices so high.”

What the experts say Charity of the week Conned? Venmo still wants payment get more business while their competitors got Trying to recoup money from canceled pay- shut down.” Other scammers “got products ments, “Venmo has threatened to dispatch debt Amazon removed for safety reasons put back on collectors against victims of scams,” said Peter the site.” The enterprise “flourished for years” Rudegeair in The Wall Street Journal. Rachel without Amazon’s detection, revealing a “Wild Founded in 1982, Housing Opportunities Karpen-King discovered she’d been scammed West atmosphere rife with cutthroat tactics” on & Maintenance for the Elderly uniquely after sending $2,500 via the popular payments the world’s largest online retail platform. One offers low-income seniors affordable app to imposters pretending to sell her software Brooklyn-based “e-commerce consultant” alleg- housing in Chicago and services to help for a new job. Her bank stopped the payment. edly sent $8,000 in a suitcase to accomplices in them stay independent and live socially connected. To help seniors stay comfort- But Venmo threatened to report her to a collec- exchange for confidential Amazon information. ably in their own homes, the charity tion agency if she didn’t pay back the amount provides free repairs and installation the app had already forwarded. Part of Ven- Premature rumors of her demise... services, as well as a bus that brings the mo’s appeal is that “transactions appear instan- A woman in Oregon was told by Wells Fargo elderly to markets and grocery stores. H.O.M.E. also offers private affordable taneously in the app,” even though the actual that she had died, said Mike Rogoway in apartments and intergenerational hous- bank transfers take longer. Venmo fronts the the Portland Oregonian—and that the bank ing for those who want a community payment, and some recipients pay a small fee had “taken it upon itself to tell three credit- close at hand or need assistance with to get it in their bank account more quickly— reporting agencies.” When Judy Cashner got daily life. H.O.M.E.’s Good Life Senior Residences provide two daily home- potentially leaving PayPal, which owns Venmo, a letter addressed to her estate saying, “We cooked meals, social activities, exercise, on the hook when transfers are stopped. are sorry for your loss and understand this is and outings. In 2018, H.O.M.E. housed a difficult time for you,” she thought little of more than 100 people, completed The secret world of Amazon ‘fixers’ the “computer-generated snafu.” But it turned 885 home repairs, and made more than 2,000 shopping trips. In what “sounds like a made-for-Netflix crime out that the bank had been reporting her dead drama,” six people were charged after alleg- since 2019. “Cashner and her husband were Each charity we feature has earned a edly bribing Amazon workers to access com- in the process of refinancing their home,” and four-star overall rating from Charity pany secrets, said Spencer Soper and Isabelle their lender couldn’t verify her income. It took Navigator, which rates not-for-profit Lee in Bloomberg Businessweek. According weeks to resolve the problem, ultimately set- organizations on the strength of their to the prosecutors, the ring “stole terabytes of tled with a form called a “declaration of life.” finances, their governance practices, and the transparency of their operations. confidential company data and devised ways Still unclear: “how Wells Fargo got the notion Four stars is the group’s highest rating. P

A to game the system so some merchants would that Cashner had died.”

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 34 Best columns: Business

Airlines: Crisis grows as passengers stay away The airline industry is hoping to avoid One reason the airlines are so public a crash landing as its bailout funds end, about their woes is that they see the said Ian Duncan in The Washington prospect of more help, said Lauren Post. After a near-shutdown in March, Silva Laughlin in BreakingViews .com. If the industry is still caught in a crisis as the U.S. is “handing out cheap money, travelers continue to stay away from American Airlines is ready to take it.” the skies. “Air travel is stuck at around The situation may not be equally dire 700,000 passengers a day, a third of its for every airline: Delta and Southwest normal rate,” and more than 1,800 U.S. Airlines are avoiding layoffs for the planes are still parked because of ser- time being. American Airlines, on the vice cuts. In March, lawmakers gave other hand, “took almost $11 billion airlines $25 billion in loans and another in government aid and state-subsidized “$25 billion in aid on the condition Aviation workers call for an extension of federal aid. loans” and raised another $2 billion in that they would not lay off workers debt and equity. “Considering Ameri- until October.” They expected the virus to be under control by can was burning through $30 million a day as of the end of June, then, or at least another economic stimulus package to be secured. that’s enough to last it nearly five quarters.” Instead of trying to Neither has happened. American Airlines, having already lost get back on its feet in that time, American is turning to extortion: 23,000 workers through voluntary buyouts and furloughs, is ready “Give us the money or we will lay people off.” to lay off another 19,000 of its 107,000 employees as soon as this week; United Airlines expects to add another 12,000 to the jobless Unfortunately, the exhaustion of the government’s aid pack- count and has scheduled work reductions for 2,800 pilots. age doesn’t just hurt the airlines, said Brooke Sutherland in Bloomberg.com. The first bailout stipulated that companies had The airlines’ appeals to fliers and lawmakers are growing increas- to “maintain minimum service levels on the routes they were fly- ingly insistent, said Nikki Einstein in Bloomberg.com. American ing before the pandemic.” Losing those guarantees means “more Airlines chief information officer Maya Leibman said that of all pain ahead for the maintenance and repair work” that aerospace the travails her company has endured, including 9/11, this “takes suppliers rely on. There is also growing concern about the long- the cake, in terms of crises.” One recent study—sponsored by the term impact on business travel, said Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson airline industry—found that “the combined benefits of indoor in the Financial Times. As more frequent fliers adjust to working mask wearing and HEPA air filtration systems” give passengers a at home, as much as 25 percent of corporate travel might never less than 1 percent risk of getting Covid-19 on a flight. Convinc- return. A permanent pullback of “road warriors” could be devas- ing the public of that, however, “could be a five-year battle,” ac- tating: While business fliers “account for as few as 1 in 10 airline cording to the International Air Transport Association. passengers,” they bring in up to three-quarters of the profits.

One of President Trump’s favorite brands is in an supporting his trade policy. The brand trauma came at The end of “ accelerating death spiral,” said Seth Stevenson, the same time Harley “started paying the price for its thanks in large part to Trump himself. Harley- longtime romance with the Baby Boomer generation.” Harley’s Davidson’s “quintessential Americanness” was em- With a new, German CEO—the first non-American braced early by the president, who invited Harley’s to ever run the company—Harley is now trying to open road executives to the White House. But the trade wars “reach beyond white guys with tattoos” before it’s Seth Stevenson quickly turned Harley’s biggest strength into a too late. Younger customers have been asking for Slate.com liability. When Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on cheaper and sportier bikes, even for electric motorcy- European steel in 2018, Europe’s threat of retaliation cles that forgo Harley’s iconic growl. The beginning of against American imports prompted Harley to start 2020, before the pandemic, saw the company’s worst making more bikes in Thailand. Suddenly, being “a sales numbers in 16 years. Harley is suddenly seeing treasured piece of Americana” wasn’t so valuable it can’t survive just by appealing to Boomers who when Trump started insulting the company for not still “long to take to the highway with Peter Fonda.”

The economic recovery has split into two paths, since the depth of the crisis in April, but “the pace No recovery said Greg Iacurci. For the wealthy, white, and more of that progress is stalling.” Employment among the highly educated, the pandemic recession is already lowest earners has only slightly recovered after more for many over. The stock market, which needed four years to than 35 percent of their jobs evaporated by mid- recover from each of the last two recessions, is al- April. By comparison, those making at least $60,000 Americans ready back in positive territory for the year. Housing a year “fully recovered their jobs by mid-June.” Greg Iacurci prices have soared, marking “the first time that the More than 60 percent of black and 72 percent CNBC.com national median home price surpassed $300,000.” of Latino households have reported experiencing All told, those with financial assets “remained un- “serious financial problems since the start of the scathed, keeping the wealth of the rich intact.” But pandemic,” compared with just a third of white and it is a far different story for “lower earners, people Asian-American households. “Inequality is a marker

of color, women, and workers with less education.” of all recessions,” but the vast differences in the toll y t t e

Their economic fortunes have bounced back a bit of this one may be unique. G

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 Obituaries 35

The editor who exposed scandals and spies The Gore-Tex inventor who helped Harold Harold Evans’ life a community weekly, “chronicling waterproof the world Evans was split into two darts winners and blushing brides,” 1928–2020 distinct chapters. In he later wrote. After serving in the In fall 1969, Robert Gore the first, he was the air force and earning a political sci- was working late at his par- crusading British newspaper editor ence degree, he returned to newspa- ents’ plastics company in whose investigative zeal and pas- per work, and by 1961 was editor Delaware, experimenting sion for pithy writing revitalized of a small paper in northeastern with a polymer called PTFE. the prestigious Sunday Times in the England. There “he attained a repu- The chemi- Robert cal engineer 1960s and ’70s. Under his watch, tation for his campaigns on a range Gore wanted to the paper outed British intelligence of issues,” and won a posthumous 1937–2020 stretch the officer Kim Philby as a Russian spy reprieve for a man wrongly hanged material— and successfully fought for com- for a series of murders. Hired by better known as Teflon—and pensation for the victims of thalido- The Sunday Times in 1966, Evans turn it into a lower-cost mide, a morning-sickness drug that caused birth took over as editor the following year. plumber’s tape. But each defects in thousands of children. In his second time he heated and extended Made editor of the daily Times in 1981, he was chapter, Evans was an expat in New York City, a rod of PTFE, it snapped forced out the following year after clashing with where he headed Random House—publishing in two. Exasperated, Gore new owner Rupert Murdoch. Evans’ caustic edito- took a rod from the oven books by Norman Mailer, William Styron, and rials about Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—a and gave it a violent yank. the then little-known Sen. Barack Obama—and Murdoch ally—“were the source of the rift,” said “It stretched the whole became half of a media power couple with his Reuters.com. He moved to Manhattan in 1984 length of my arms,” he said. wife, New Yorker and Vanity Fair editor Tina with Brown, and the couple soon became famous The sudden tug had cre- Brown. “News is whatever someone wants to ated billions of microscopic for the star-studded parties thrown at their “bijou suppress,” he said of his journalistic philosophy. air pockets in the polymer. duplex,” said FT.com. In addition to his publishing “Everything else is advertising.” Lightweight and waterproof work, Evans wrote books, founded Condé Nast yet breathable, that new Evans grew up in a rowhouse in Manchester, Traveler, and served for over a decade as editor-at- material—Gore-Tex—is today where his father was a train engineer and his large for The Week, pursuits to which he applied used in products as diverse mother “ran a grocery shop out of their home,” the same curiosity and drive he brought to muck- as heart stents, spacesuits, said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). A fan of mov- raking. “My greatest strength,” he said, “is reck- and ski jackets. And W.L. ies about heroic reporters, he took a job at 16 at less insensitivity to the possibility of failure.” Gore & Associates, the fam- ily firm that Gore headed from 1976 to 2000, clocks annual sales of $3.8 billion. The surgeon who tackled the toughest transplants Born in Salt Lake City, Gore moved to Delaware as a John John Najarian was a heart surgeon in the Air Force in the teenager when his engineer Najarian 6-foot-3 former college 1950s, Najarian became fascinated father was hired by DuPont, 1927–2020 football star with hands with the emerging field of transplant said The Philadelphia the size of shovels. Yet surgery, said The New York Times. Inquirer. Chafing “at the as head of surgery at the University “To take somebody who is going limits placed on corporate of Minnesota Hospitals from 1967 to to die simply because his organ researchers,” his father 1993, he performed pioneering opera- doesn’t function,” he said, “and put founded his own company in tions with the delicacy of a miniaturist. in another one and keep him alive— 1958. That same year, Gore earned his first patent—for Najarian took on the toughest trans- well, that’s fantastic.” Najarian a wiring strip that became plant cases and the patients who were joined the faculty at the University widely used in computers. regarded by other doctors as too frag- of California, San Francisco in ile, sick, or old to survive going under 1963, establishing a transplantation Gore-Tex would be his the knife. In 1968, Najarian performed the first service there before relocating to Minnesota. greatest invention, said kidney transplant on a patient with diabetes. Two The Washington Post. “Perhaps his most famous patient,” said The “Each square inch of the years later, he gave a new kidney to a 6-week- Washington Post, “was 11-month-old Jamie substance contained about old boy, using magnifying lenses to view the tiny Fiske,” who in 1982 became the youngest success- 9 billion tiny pores,” let- veins. In 1981, Najarian stitched a new liver into a ful liver transplant recipient. Najarian’s surgical ting air and perspiration 64-year-old man, then one of the oldest patients to achievements were aided by an anti–organ rejec- through but keeping liquid undergo such a surgery. “When that kidney goes water out. W.L. Gore now tion drug he helped develop in the 1970s, anti- in and makes the first drop of urine, when the has 11,000 employees, and lymphocyte globulin (ALG). But in 1992, federal liver goes in and makes the first drop of bile,” he Gore encouraged his staff to authorities accused the University of Minnesota of said in 2010, “I’ll never get tired of seeing it.” embrace the kind of creativ- violating drug-testing rules and illegally profiting ity that led to the discovery “Born in Oakland to Armenian immigrants, from sales of ALG. Najarian was forced to resign of Gore-Tex. “I push us to Najarian became interested in medicine after los- and was later indicted on 21 charges. Six were try quick and dirty experi- ing his father to the flu,” said the St. Paul, Minn., dismissed by a judge, and a jury “acquitted him ments,” Gore said in 2006. y t

t “If I hadn’t been frustrated, I e Pioneer Press. He played offensive tackle for the on the other 15.” After his acquittal, Najarian G

, don’t think I would’ve given m University of California in the 1949 Rose Bowl went back to work doing transplants. His son, o c such a hard jerk.” s

w but declined a chance to join the Chicago Bears Peter Najarian, said his father told him, “It’s what e N in favor of studying medicine. While serving as a I do. It’s what I’m good at.” THE WEEK October 9, 2020 36 The last word The cello chase Concert cellist Christine Walevska’s stolen childhood instrument disappeared for almost forty years, said Stacy Perman in the Los Angeles Times. Then a surprise email offered an unexpected chance to get it back.

T WAS SEPT. 14, 2013, when a dren’s parents say, ‘Well, I’ll buy them mysterious email bearing the sub- a cheap instrument and if they do well, Iject line “Is this your first cello?” then I can buy a better instrument.’ ... landed in Christine Walevska’s inbox. He realized the great value of a child The renowned cello virtuoso, how- falling in love with the sound of the ever, checked her emails infrequently. instrument.” Walevska prefers more personal contact. Hermann, the son of a royal cabi- Decades spent touring the world had netmaker from England, opened taught her that you could really only Westwood Musical Instruments in take the full measure of someone’s inten- 1947 and catered to its diverse and tions by speaking with them—also, she luminous population of professionals didn’t like to type. And so six months and students. His arrival coincided with passed before she clicked on the missive a golden age in classical music in Los sent by strangers living in Chico, Calif. Angeles. Hermann, Walevska said with a note of pride, “sold more Stradivarius “Maybe you will recognize this cello,” instruments in the last 10 years of his the note read, describing the instrument life than all of the dealers in the world made by the 19th-century French luthier put together.” Auguste Sébastien-Philippe Bernardel. Three photographs were attached. The family’s home frequently played Walevska scanned the first two, showing host to the city’s finest musicians. the front and back of the instrument. During these gatherings Walevska often When she pulled up the third, her heart performed on the Bernardel. When nearly leaped from her chest. Ennio Bolognini, the great Argentine cellist, and his wife heard Walevska The image revealed the luthier’s label, play, she whispered in his ear, “This visible through one of the curlicued little girl is going to be a great cellist.” f-holes. Across it was a note inscribed in He whispered back, “She already is.” the feathery pen of the master himself: Pour la petite Comtesse Marie 1834. At 12, Walevska performed the “For the little Countess Marie.” Walevska now—and as a child, with the Bernardel haunting Saint-Saëns Concerto with the National Symphony. At 18, she “I could hardly believe it,” she recalled. classical instruments in Los Angeles. He became the first American to win the first The cello had been given to her as a child presented the little cello to her in 1953. She prize in cello and chamber music at the by her father; nearly 40 years earlier, it had was 8 and a half. Paris Conservatoire. The pianist Arthur been stolen. Custom-made for the daughter “I kissed it,” she recounted from the living Rubinstein described her as having “the of a French aristocrat two centuries ago, it room of her Manhattan apartment over- most sensuous tone I have ever heard on was a spectacular, rare one-eighth-size cello looking Central Park. On a wall hangs an the cello.... She is the only cellist who takes produced by Bernardel, protégé of Nicolas oil portrait of her as a young girl playing my breath away.” Lupot, violin maker to King Louis XVIII. the Bernardel. “From that first moment, Still, she remained stubbornly attached “Can you imagine?” she gasped in disbe- I wanted to be a great cellist. My parents to the Bernardel. Hermann mounted the lief. “My precious little Bernardel had sur- never had to ask me to practice.” little cello on a wall in his store, telling her, faced after all these years!” More than just HE EARLIEST CELLOS date to the 16th “You will hand this down to your daugh- her first cello, “it was my first love!” And century. They are soulful, vibrating ter, and her child after that.” she had grieved its loss as one does; she Tinstruments. The music swells and never forgot it. Walevska responded to the recedes on a tide of bow strokes. The com- When Hermann died in 1967, his son Fred email with alacrity: “Please phone me as poser Ernest Bloch likened the cello’s sound took over the music shop and transformed it soon as you can! Anxiously awaiting your to a human voice, “vaster and deeper than into a rock ’n’ roll mecca—the place where phone contact.” any spoken language.” everyone from the Beach Boys to the Rolling Stones went to buy guitars and have them Walevska had originally set her sights repaired. Then one day in 1976, two men in on the violin. At 7, she studied with her But it is also a large instrument. From their 30s walked into the store. “Wow, what mother, Marion, a conductor and music the tip of the scroll to the bottom, a cello a far-out store,” Fred remembered one of teacher, but she chafed under her “over- measures 4 feet long, obliging players to them saying. “You must have a lot of expen- bearing” tutelage. Frustrated, Walevska sit down and cradle it. By necessity, a child sive things. What are the most valuable?” tore up her sheet music. “And so that learns to play on a scaled-down instrument. was the end of the violin.” A year later, But few masters produced superbly crafted Without thinking, Fred immediately instruments for children. s a French dealer offered the Bernardel to pointed to his sister’s cello on the wall, as i m o o L her father, Hermann Walecki, an interna- “My father was a smart man,” Walevska well as a custom-made guitar with mother- k c i tionally respected dealer of fine and rare said. “He knew that many of these chil- of-pearl inlay. That night, after closing, the R

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 The last word 37 store’s windows were smashed, setting off ess and nobody knows about it.” So she ropolitan cop dedicated to art crimes. the alarm. By the time the police arrived, searched the internet looking for clues. Over the course of his career, Hrycyk the cello and the guitar were gone. When she typed in “Bernardel” and “Pour hunted down stolen Picassos, found the la petite Comtesse Marie 1834” she came Scarecrow’s tap shoes from The Wizard of N 2011, DUSTIN BRESHEARS was a young across an interview that Christine Walevska Oz, and retrieved O.J. Simpson’s Heisman piano teacher managing Chico’s youth had done with the Internet Cello Society. Trophy. He had also proved proficient in Iorchestra, living with his wife, Julie, The Breshearses decided to reach out to the niche specialty of rare instruments. and their three young children. He always her. They typed up an email, attached three Hrycyk spent six months attempting to brought the kids to the orchestra’s weekly photos and waited. rehearsals, and two were drawn to the reconstruct what happened. The 1976 violin, Dustin Jr., then 4, and Valery, the T WAS SHORTLY after Walevska’s birth- police report couldn’t be found, and the youngest at 2. day, March 8, 2014, when she spoke to detective had just Walevska’s word that Ithe Breshearses. Walevska bristled when the instrument had been stolen, and a But 3-year-old Starla gravitated to the cello. they told her that the Bernardel came from mountain of photographs and testimoni- “I liked that it was big and it just sounded the Hans Weisshaar shop. Weisshaar, she als. The detective didn’t put a lot of stock so much nicer than the squeaky violin,” said remembered, was a not-so-friendly compet- in Walevska’s theory that her father’s and Starla, now 12. “I don’t remember asking itor of her father’s. Before they ended the Weisshaar’s rivalry might have played a my parents. I just wanted to play.” All three part. He thought the cello might have were gifted. “Not only were they technically traded hands multiple times before it perfect, but they played with feeling,” said wound up with Weisshaar. “I think that if Dawn Harms, who sits on the music faculty he had any crooked intentions he wouldn’t at Stanford University and began teaching have prominently displayed it at his violin them at the San Francisco Conservatory. shop,” he said. “They literally tell a story.” Still, Hrycyk was fairly certain the Despite the family’s modest finances, when Bernardel belonged to Walevska, even if Starla turned 4, her parents began search- under the law he couldn’t prove it. He ing for a fine, antique one-eighth-size cello. suggested she make the case to Eittinger The Breshearses refused to settle for a herself, in person. By then it was the sum- Chinese factory-made one. “Everybody just mer of 2016. Walevska arranged with the thought I was ridiculous,” Dustin recalled. Breshearses to fly to Los Angeles and arrive After a year of searching, Julie heard at the shop right after they returned the from a Los Angeles dealer named Georg Bernardel in August. Starla has moved on from the little Bernardel. Eittinger, who said he had just the instru- Fairly quickly, Walevska sized up that ment. It was made in 1834 by the luthier Eittinger knew nothing about the theft. Bernardel and, as far as he knew, hadn’t phone call, Dustin told her, “You should have your cello back.” “He was presented with all of this informa- been played for at least 30 years. tion, which was a shock to him.” Then she Eittinger told them he would only consider “We’ve got to figure out how to handle made her appeal: “I said, ‘You know this lending it out if “there was a student of this properly,” she replied. The Breshearses can be a win-win situation for you because exceptional ability.” He said he needed to sent Walevska videos of Starla playing the it speaks highly of you to cooperate and to hear Starla play. So the family set out to cello, and as she watched Starla perform, return the cello to its rightful owner.’” The meet him at the shop that Eittinger had Walevska saw herself. “I knew immediately, two had a private conversation and, within purchased in 2004 from Hans Weisshaar, she was a big talent,” she said. “This little days, Walevska provided more documents a buyer, seller, and restorer of stringed girl’s name, Starla, is well chosen.” at his request and to his satisfaction. They instruments. The Breshearses packed up Walevska told the Breshearses that Starla took a photograph of the two of them and the family, which had by then expanded to should continue to play the Bernardel the cello. “I gave him a kiss on the cheek,” five children (there would be six in all) and until she was ready to move on to a larger she said. drove 12 hours through the night, arriving instrument. Once that day came, she would As happy endings go, this might suit- on the afternoon of Sept. 7, 2013. contact the police. Until then, she cautioned ably have ended right there. But in many Oblivious to the adults, Starla, wearing a everyone to keep its existence to themselves. ways this is where the story begins. When pink party dress with a white ribbon in her As 2015 drew to a close, it was time. Dustin Walevska met Starla for the first time, hair, sat down in a folding chair and placed Breshears informed Walevska that Starla Walevska hugged her and called her “my the tiny cello between her legs. It was was ready to move up to a one-quarter- little star.” She now referred to the cello as nearly as big as she was. For two hours size cello. While still in New York, she “our little Bernardel.” Walevska got her she tore through her repertoire: Bach’s dispatched her nephew to visit the LAPD’s cello and a protégé; Starla got a mentor Cello Suite No. 1, concertos by Georg West L.A. Division to get the ball rolling. and a friend. Walevska needed to show that the cello was Goltermann and Jean-Baptiste Bréval. Walevska estimates that there have been indeed the same instrument stolen from five great female cellists. “My belief is that s Eittinger and the Breshears made an

e Westwood Musical Instruments. Secondly, m

i this little girl could be in line to be the T arrangement. The family would rent the she had to prove she was its legal owner. s e l sixth.” Starla says her dream is to play a e instrument for $150 a month. Starla fell in g n

A The LAPD assigned Det. Don Hrycyk, duet with Walevska, but she hasn’t mus-

s love with the little Bernardel immediately. o L

/ who ran the Art Theft Detail, to the case. tered up the courage yet to ask her. r

a “It felt like a part of me,” she said. v i d

l Hrycyk, who had once worked homicide a S

e Julie found the label intriguing. “I thought in South Los Angeles’ 77th Street Division, A version of this story originally appeared in v e t

S it was crazy that this belonged to a count- had emerged as the country’s only met- the Los Angeles Times. Used with permission.

THE WEEK October 9, 2020 38 The Puzzle Page

Crossword No. 570: Together Again by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest 1234 5678 910111213 This week’s question: Florida school officials are com- 14 15 16 plaining that parents stressed out by at-home learning can be seen smoking weed, drinking beer, and walking around 17 18 19 in undies in the background of their kids’ Zoom classes. If Hollywood were to make a comedy about parenting disas- ters during remote schooling, what could it be titled? 20 21 22 23 Last week’s contest: The Guardian recently published an 24 25 26 27 essay written by GPT-3, an artificial intelligence program. GPT-3 assured readers that “eradicating humanity” is “a 28 29 30 31 rather useless endeavor” for AI machines, since humans do such a good job of “hating and fighting each other.” If 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 the AI program were to write a book detailing its obser- vations about humanity, what could it be called? 39 40 41 42 43 THE WINNER: “I, Robot; You, Idiot” Joe Ayella, Wayne, Pa. 44 45 46 SECOND PLACE: “Artificial Intelligence on Genuine Stupidity” Mike Reiss, New York City 47 48 49 50 51 52 THIRD PLACE: “The Trouble AI Seen” Ed Overmyer, San Rafael, Calif. 53 54 55 56 For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to 57 58 59 60 61 62 theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to c ontest 63 64 65 66 67 @theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, 68 69 70 type “Zoom school” in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Oct. 6. Winners will 71 72 73 appear on the Puzzle Page next issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, Oct. 9. In the case of identical or similar entries, ACROSS 50 Most unpleasant, 10 Night before the first one received gets credit. 1 “Guy walks into ___...” as meat 11 Peninsula on the WThe winner gets a one-year (joke start) 53 2003 tragi comedy Red Sea subscription to The Week. 5 Curves about a socialist who 12 “Silence!” 9 Joe of The Irishman falls into a coma in 13 Nonreactive, like 14 Gallbladder fluid East Germany in 1989 xenon 15 Remove, to an editor and wakes up after the 18 Catch word of 16 Brand in a clear bottle Berlin Wall has fallen; 22 ___ hunch (intuitively) Sudoku 17 East and West Germany her family can’t bear 25 Floor square reunified 30 years ago to tell her 26 Tudyk of Rogue One Fill in all the this Saturday; West 57 Adorable 27 Vera of wedding boxes so that Germany’s capital was troublemaker dresses each row, column, Bonn, proud birthplace 58 Lover 28 Surname for the and outlined of this beloved 59 “The Fox and the Bee Gees square includes musician Grapes,” e.g. 29 Food often fried all the numbers from 1 through 9. 19 Alternative to farfalle 63 Birth-related 30 Cryptonomicon author

20 Sign of a neglected 65 Band that fittingly Stephenson Difficulty: pool played its album 34 Peaky Blinders airer medium 21 Sitting on The Wall at the former 36 Bogus 23 Broadcast site of the Berlin Wall 37 Baritone Williams 24 Time dubbed this East in the summer of 1990 38 Landlord’s demand German figure skater, 68 Form an alliance 40 Aficionado, amusingly who won Olympic 69 Water, to Juanita 41 Avoids a traveling call gold in 1984 and 1988, 70 Sit ___ by (take no 42 Impulse “The most beautiful action) 43 Seacrest on screens face of socialism” 71 Needle producers 48 Legislature shout 28 King Lear’s eldest 72 Wee 49 Seize, as an opportunity 31 County northeast of 73 Pair with lids 51 Irritate Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. San Francisco 52 One way to get caught 32 Gen. Eisenhower DOWN 53 Create out of nothing 33 Test place 1 “Fernando” foursome 54 Saudi’s neighbor 35 About to get, as a 2 Jessica with a baby 55 Decide to participate ©2020. All rights reserved. The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly with an additional issue in surprise boy born in July 56 One of the Mario Bros. October, except for one week in each January, June, July, and September. 39 The flag of reunified 3 “Break ___!” (words to 60 Main part of a text The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 155 East 44th Street, 22nd fl., Germany was raised an actor) 61 ___ Lovett (1986 New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional for the first time over 4 Get back country album) mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box 37252, Boone, IA 50037-0252. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $150; Canada $180; this Berlin landmark 5 Fuss 62 Frozen brand all other countries $218 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement on Oct. 3, 1990 6 Gun, as an engine 64 Had for brunch, say No. 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian 44 Farm machine 7 Find not guilty 66 Woman in black and Addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. S

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