The Week USA 03.4.2022

MAIN STORIES BRIEFING THE LAST WORD

THE WORST The next When Covid
OLYMPICS generation strikes in
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p.5 Kamila Valieva p.11 p.36

THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Erasing
Ukraine

Putin’s unhinged attempt
to reverse the fall of
the Soviet Union p.4

MARCH 4, 2022 VOLUME 22 ISSUE 1068 WWW.THEWEEK.COM
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Contents 3

Editor’s letter

Russia just took another bite out of Ukraine by trucking “peace- Ukraine, making that country briefly the world’s third-strongest
keepers” into the eastern provinces—a clear act of aggression. (See
Main Stories, p. 4.) But to hear Vladimir Putin tell it, it’s always nuclear power. Ukrainians never actually controlled the warheads,
the Russians who are the victim, forever betrayed by the West.
The Russian president’s immediate pretext for his escalation was but their leaders did debate whether to appropriate them or give
a fictional Ukrainian “genocide” of Russian speakers. The un-
derlying reason, though, was his fury at what he sees as NATO’s them back. With the West strongly pushing disarmament, Kyiv
breach of promise. Putin purports to believe that German reuni-
fication in 1990 came with the understanding that East Germany agreed to hand over the nukes in exchange for a written guaran-
was the only ex–Warsaw Pact member that would join NATO.
The Baltic states’ accession in 2004, he says, was in bad faith, and tee of its security. The 1994 Budapest Memorandum, signed by
Ukraine’s would be utter treachery. In the real world, there was no
such deal, as the U.S. turned down Russia’s attempts to get one. Russia, the U.S., and the U.K., bound those countries to respect

A better case for Western betrayal can be made by Kyiv. When Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders and to seek immediate UN in-
the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, some 5,000 of its nuclear
weapons were stationed in the newly independent nation of tervention to repel any attack. Yet 20 years later, Russia grabbed

Crimea and smuggled nonuniformed “little green men” into the

Donbass. The promised security guarantee was exposed as worth-

less. Washington and London did impose sanctions on Russia, but

we’ve seen how little that deterred Putin. One might cynically con-

clude that giving up nuclear capability leaves a country vulnera-

ble—a lesson that North Korea and Iran are Susan Caskie

surely studying. Managing editor

NEWS A kindgarten in eastern Ukraine after Russian shelling (p.4) Editor-in-chief: William Falk

AP, Getty 4 Main stories ARTS LEISURE Managing editors: Susan Caskie,
Russian troops move Mark Gimein
into Ukraine; Beijing’s 22 Books 27 Food & Drink Assistant managing editor: Jay Wilkins
troubled Olympics Cost of Living takes on A vegan twist on chicken Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell
American healthcare Marbella; the 2022 James Senior editors: Nick Aspinwall,
6 Controversy of the week Beard “American classics” Chris Erikson, Danny Funt, Scott Meslow,
What San Francisco’s 23 Author of the week Dale Obbie, Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller
school board recall means Silvia Vasquez-Lavado’s 28 Consumer Art director: Nami Ahn
for Democrats nationwide trauma-defying climb After 15 years, Toyota Photo editor: Mark Rykoff
upgrades the Tundra; apps Copy editor: Jane A. Halsey
7 The U.S. at a glance 24 Art & Music to bring order to your life Researchers: Anand Mathai, Nick Gallagher
Q’s real identity; federal Gillian Wearing Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin,
conviction for Arbery’s rethinks what BUSINESS Bruno Maddox
killers; a pay hike for U.S. a portrait
women’s soccer means 32 News at a glance Group publisher: Paul Vizza
Consumer spending is on ([email protected])
8 The world at a glance 25 Film & the rise; Carl Icahn goes Associate publisher: Sara Schiano
Dominican Republic Home after McDonald’s ([email protected])
builds a wall against Media West Coast executive director:
Haitians; Australia is A musical 33 Making money Tony Imperato ([email protected])
finally open Cyrano; a The incredible used car Media planning manager: Andrea Crino
very grand buying frenzy Direct response advertising:
10 People PlayStation Anthony Smyth ([email protected])
Stevie Nicks gets quest 34 Best columns
spiritual; George Takei’s How corporate sponsors Chief Executive, The Week: Kerin O’Connor
childhood years in an Stevie looked away from Beijing’s SVP, finance: Maria Beckett
internment camp Nicks abuses; when women out- Director, financial reporting:
(p. 10) earn their husbands Arielle Starkman
11 Briefing Consumer marketing director:
The next generation of Leslie Guarnieri
Covid vaccines. Senior digital marketing director:
Mathieu Muzzy
12 Best U.S. columns Manufacturing manager, North America:
Letting kids go hungry; Lori Crook
how Mexico relies on HR manager: Joy Hart
migrants to the U.S. Operations manager:
Cassandra Mondonedo
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4 NEWS The main stories...

Putin’s assault on Ukraine—and history

What happened democratic experiment” on

Ukraine braced for war this week, Russia’s border.

after Russian President Vladimir “The new Cold War” has

Putin sent troops into separatist- arrived, said The Wall Street

held areas in the country’s eastern Journal, and Biden needs to

Donbass region and declared the meet the challenge. The White

Donetsk and Luhansk regions House hopes holding back

were now independent republics. on sanctions might forestall

“This is the beginning of a Rus- an assault on Kyiv. But Putin

sian invasion of Ukraine,” said “responds only to strength.”

President Biden. Putin’s action Sanctions should be leveraged

came after an emotional televised against all Russian banks and

speech in which he claimed that dozens of Russian oligarchs

Ukraine was “created by Russia” “stashing their wealth abroad.”

and remains “an inalienable part” For years, “a complacent West”
has erred by treating Putin like
of it but has become “a colony” A distanced Putin, left, meeting with his Security Council
of the West. He accused Ukrai-
a “reasonable geopolitical part-
nian President Volodymyr Zelensky of running a corrupt “puppet
regime” hostile to Moscow and asserted Russia’s right “take retalia- ner.” But he’s made clear he doesn’t want a place in the international
order—“he wants to blow it up.”
tory measures to ensure its own security.” Ukraine’s Parliament

declared a state of emergency as the country was hit with a wave of

cyberattacks and Russia’s 190,000 troops moved into battle position What the columnists said

on Ukraine’s borders. The Russian Parliament approved the use of If Russia launches a “swift, brutal” blitzkrieg to take Kyiv, the results

military force abroad, and Putin issued Kyiv a set of demands. He could be catastrophic, said Jonah Shepp in New York magazine.

said Ukraine must recognize Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, U.S. analysts predict more than 50,000 could be killed, with up to 5

as Russian territory, declare it will never join NATO, and relinquish million refugees fleeing Ukraine. But a drawn-out Russian occupa-

advanced weapons supplied by the West. tion will trigger fierce guerrilla resistance by Ukrainians and could

become “a politically disastrous quagmire” for Putin. If he’s still

Biden called Russian troop movements into eastern Ukraine “a rational, he might settle for annexing Donetsk and Luhansk the way

flagrant violation of international law,” and announced a round he did Crimea in 2014, which could still meet his goal of “destabiliz-

of sanctions. The measures froze the assets of two Russian banks ing Ukraine politically” and undermining Zelensky.

and cut off the Russian government’s access to new U.S. financing.

European leaders imposed similar sanctions, and Germany halted Putin’s rationality is in question, said Anton Troianovski in The New

certification of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, built to carry York Times. His isolation during the pandemic—which he’s spent

natural gas from Russia to Europe. Some Republicans criticized ensconced “in a virus-free cocoon,” more isolated than ever—has

Biden for not immediately unleashing the full arsenal of U.S. sanc- left him “more paranoid, more aggrieved, and more reckless.” A

tions, but Biden said he was holding some in reserve, and vowed to full-on invasion of Ukraine, analysts agree, would not be in Putin’s

turn up the heat “if Russia goes further.” interest, but is he too obsessed with

Zelensky called up military reservists, What next? long-standing grievances to realize that? Getty
and some citizens vowed to take up arms
to defend against an attack. “We will do American intelligence officials believe Putin’s His “unhinged” speech suggests “he is
anything to rescue Ukraine,” said Maria most likely gambit is to “take the whole country not as stable as we would hope,” said
Skoropad, a 20-year-old law student. in a single blow,” said David Sanger in The New Tom Nichols in The Atlantic. Putin
Zelensky urged Ukrainians to “keep a York Times.The assault would begin with several made clear that he refuses to accept los-
cool head” and prepare to fight. “We are days of “overwhelmingly intense fire” yielding ing the Cold War and that “none of the
on our own land,” he said. “We are not “tens of thousands of casualties,” followed by new states that emerged from the Soviet
afraid of anything or anyone.” rocket attacks, street fighting, and “ultimately a collapse are real countries.” It’s now
hunt for anyone who supported” the Zelensky clear that this will be his “forever war,
What the editorials said government. U.S. officials told the U.N. they and Russia will be fighting it” as long
believe Russia is compiling a list of Ukrainians as he remains in power.
“This is the way the postwar world “to be killed or sent to camps,” including Russian
ends,” said The Washington Post. “With and Belarusian dissidents, journalists, anti- “We are all Ukrainians now,” said Max
a rant.” In his “extraordinary soliloquy” corruption activists, and “vulnerable popula- Boot in The Washington Post. As Putin
Putin declared illegitimate not only a sov- tions such as religious and ethnic minorities and pursues his fantasy of rebuilding Rus-
ereign Ukraine, but the entire “security LGBTQI+ persons.” It’s also possible Putin will sia’s lost empire, Ukrainian resistance is
architecture” that’s maintained peace in pause a full invasion indefinitely, said Nick Paton “the only thing holding back a lawless
postwar Europe. It was an unmistakable Walsh in CNN.com. No slave to “a 24-hour news new phase of world history.” That
attempt to justify a war to the Rus- cycle,” he may hold his next move for months, means their fight “is our fight too.” If
sian people, though it obscured the real like a “judo player adjusting his grip, rather than Putin prevails in erasing Ukraine, “we
reason Putin has Ukraine in his sights: a heavyweight slinging a punch.” He’ll try to di- will be entering a dangerous new world
to maintain his grip on power, “which vide and exhaust NATO, while savoring the fear where dictatorships hold sway and
would be threatened by a successful and confusion “his every move generates.” democracies cower.”

THE WEEK March 4, 2022 Illustration by Fred Harper.
Cover photos from Getty (3)

...and how they were covered NEWS 5

Scandal-clouded Olympics end in Beijing

What happened medalist Anna Shcherbakova saying the

A truncated closing ceremony at Beijing’s win left her with “emptiness inside.”

Bird’s Nest stadium this week capped off There were “some moments” of old-

an Olympic Games marked by scandal and fashioned Olympic glory for the U.S. team,

harsh Covid-19 restrictions. China kept the said The Washington Post. Erin Jackson,

Olympic Village in a bubble, strictly seques- who first stepped onto the ice in 2016,

tering athletes, testing them daily for Covid, became the first Black woman to win gold

and confining the infected to bleak quaran- in speed-skating. After failing to medal in

tine hotels with no training equipment or 2018, figure skater Nathan Chen took gold

palatable food. Only 100,000 Covid-vetted with the highest score ever. And while retir-
ing five-time Olympic snowboarder Shaun
spectators were allowed in over the two Valieva after a disastrous performance
weeks of events, compared with more than
White won no medals, competitors hugged him after his final run.
1 million at the last winter games. As pushback against a U.S.-led
diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights abuses, particularly Still, these Games were stained by “unsavory conduct and scandal.”

its genocide of Uighur Muslims, authorities selected a Uighur to bear What the columnists said
the opening torch. They also brought out tennis star Peng Shuai,
who disappeared last fall after saying a senior Communist Party of- Given its atrocious human rights record, China “should never have
ficial had sexually assaulted her, for a tightly monitored interview in been allowed” to host this Olympics, said La Velle E. Neal III in the
Minneapolis Star Tribune. But the high costs and the IOC’s inane
which she recanted her accusation.
demands—including separate traffic lanes for its dignitaries—make

Late lab results showed Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva posi- democracies increasingly reluctant to host. It’s mostly “authoritarian-
run nations such as China and Russia” who want the gig, so they
tive for a banned heart medication after she had already skated a
can “sportswash” their crimes. The IOC is happy to ignore the
stunning short program. The International Olympic Committee’s
cheating and the abuses, if only it can “fatten its accounts.”
announcement that the 15-year-old could still compete but with

no medal ceremony caused an international outcry, and a clearly
distraught Valieva repeatedly fell in her final skate, finishing fourth. China’s control-freak stage management couldn’t pretty up “the
worst Olympics in history,” said Jim Geraghty in National Review.
Cameras captured Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze berating the
Everything seemed “absurdly dystopian.” A ski-jump event was held
sobbing teenager, a scene that IOC President Thomas Bach called
by the looming towers of an abandoned steel mill that “reminded
“chilling.” Two fellow Russians took first and second place, and
the Russian Olympic Committee had the second-largest medal haul, American audiences of nuclear reactors.” Bartenders wore full
behind Norway. The U.S. ranked fifth overall, with 25 medals, and hazmat suits to serve guests. And a Dutch correspondent was inex-
plicably “dragged away” by security during a live broadcast.
racked up the most golds in women-only events.

What the editorials said That all became “background noise” after Valieva’s positive test
for trimetazidine, said Dan Wolken in USA Today. Suddenly the
“Whatever that was in Beijing,” said The Wall Street Journal, it conversation centered on Russia’s history of doping and how its
wasn’t “the Olympic spirit.” China threatened visiting athletes with skating coach subjects skinny teens to 12-hour training days with
punishment if they criticized the regime, and most kept quiet. The limited food and water. For China, that was “the ideal distraction”
FBI warned American teams to bring only burner phones because of from questions about repression. President Xi Jinping was primarily
surveillance by the Chinese “police state.” And U.S. viewership was concerned with selling Chinese state might to the Chinese people,
historically low, with 11.4 million tuning in nightly. Those who did and the coverage that aired on domestic television featured plenty of
watch endured the “grim spectacle” of the women’s figure skating foreign athletes duped into praising their hosts. While outsiders fix-
finals, which featured not just the shattered Valieva, but also silver ated on scandal, for Xi, the Games were “a tremendous success.”
medalist Alexandra Trusova shouting, “I hate this sport!” and gold

It wasn’t all bad Q Stela Borbas’ yoga instructor told her “to do good for Q Identical twin sisters in St. Peters-
burg, Fla., recently celebrated an
Q After suffering a stroke eight years someone that day.” She got the chance right away: Driving extraordinary joint milestone: their
ago, Kevin Eubanks was devastated 100th birthday. Norma Matthews and
that weakness in his arm meant he to work at 8:30, Borbas saw a car stopped on a busy Miami Edy Antoncecchi were inseparable as
could no longer hug loved ones. His kids growing up in a suburb of Bos-
daughter, Emily Sisco, an occupa- street, with a couple standing beside it. Borbas pulled ton, where they shared clothes, se-
tional therapist and adjunct professor crets, and a bed and pranked teach-
in Arkansas, recently recruited her over and found that the young woman was in active labor. ers by sitting in each other’s classes.
students to help design a solution. They first lived apart when they got
They came up with a strap — aptly The 911 operator told her married, within three months of
named HugAgain — that allows each other. But when both of their
Eubanks to guide his weakened arm there was no time to lose. husbands died in the mid-1990s, the
around a person using his opposite twins sought a fresh start in Florida
hand. He tried it out on his grandson, “She told me,” Borbas said, and decided to live together again.
and their tear-filled embrace, which “Edy was always there for me, and I
Sisco filmed and posted, has been “‘I need you to deliver this was always there for her,” Matthews
viewed more than 4 million times. said. “She’s my everything.”
baby.’”At 8:45 a.m., the baby

dropped in Borbas’ hands

and uttered its first wail.Two

days later, Borbas visited the

couple, Haitian immigrants

Getty, Stela Borbas named Roche andTatie, in

the hospital. All were doing

well, including the 5.2 pound

Stela, visiting Darlie baby, named Darlie.

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

6 NEWS Controversy of the week

School board recalls: A warning for Democrats?

“San Francisco experienced a moderate energy from Asian-Americans, “who came out

earthquake” last week, said The Wall Street in force,” said Jay Caspian Kang in The New

Journal in an editorial, and the “seismic York Times. They were understandably upset by

waves” spreading across the nation could changes in admissions criteria at Lowell aimed

portend a “bigger quake in November.” In a at their children, and their anger deepened when

citywide special election, more than 70 per- activists dug up Alison Collins’ old tweets call-

cent of citizens in that liberal bastion voted ing Asians “house n-----s” who rely on “white

to recall three ultra-progressive members supremacist thinking to assimilate and get

of the city’s school board for putting their ahead.” The school board richly deserved this

“woke obsessions” ahead of children’s educa- rebuke, but it hardly portends “catastrophe for

tions. The ousted members—Alison Collins, An Asian-American rally before the vote Democrats” on a national level.
Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga—
You may be whistling past the graveyard, said Gary Kamiya in The
belonged to a board that, faced with the unfolding disaster of
remote learning, kept schools closed for most of 2020 and much of Atlantic. Yes, San Francisco’s school board angered parents with
2021, focusing instead on renaming 44 local schools to expunge the its “maximalist” position on closing schools. But polls show that
legacies of such notorious white supremacists as Abraham Lincoln, “school closures nationwide are associated with Democrats, so
George Washington, and Dianne Feinstein. Many parents were also that’s hardly cause for progressive relief.” As for the board’s “sym-
bolic excesses” in the name of racial “equity,” they were very much
enraged that the board scrapped merit-based admissions at elite
Lowell High School, installing a lottery system with the explicit goal rooted in the “anti-racism” beliefs in vogue among progressive
of reducing the number of white and Asian students. San Francisco’s teachers and administrators in many cities and states. From Virginia
to San Francisco, a full-blown “parents’ movement” is gaining
far left is defiant, said Byron York in the Washington Examiner,
blaming the recalls on the racism of “closet Republicans”—a dubi- momentum, said Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, and it’s
ous claim in a city that gave Joe Biden 85 percent of its vote. Along “going to make a difference in our politics.”

with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s upset victory in Virginia last year, these San Francisco’s recall was a victory for “reason over radicalism,”
recalls were part of a “wider revolt against wokeism” that in the said David French in The Atlantic, and let’s hope it becomes bipar-
2022 elections may see Democrats swept from power nationwide. tisan and widespread. Both sides of our political culture are now

Sorry, but this was a “plea for basic competence,” not a “rejection “ruled by radicalized wings,” who wield threats and insults—such
of progressive politics,” said the San Francisco Chronicle in an as “racist!” and “woke!”—to try to bully moderate, commonsensi-
editorial. Most parents support narrowing the “racial achievement cal voices into silence. Polls indicate that as many as two-thirds
gaps,” but the board’s stubborn refusal to reopen schools even when of Americans are disgusted with extremism in all its forms. This
Covid case numbers fell made those gaps “markedly worse” for “exhausted majority,” if it chooses to mobilize, “has the numbers
Black and Latino students. The recall campaign drew much of its and the latent power to transform American politics.”

Only in America Good week for: In other news Getty

Q A woman is suing the city Cheap eats, after a new survey found that 39 percent of pet own- Biden halts new drilling
of Lakeway,Texas, claiming ers admit to having sampled their pets’ food before serving it to on U.S. land
officials closed her home them, with 29 percent saying it tasted surprisingly good.
day-care center because it an- The Biden administration last
noyed nearby golfers. Bianca Normalcy, when Karex, the Malaysian firm that produces 20 per- week put a freeze on decisions
King started taking care of cent of the world’s condoms, informed shareholders that it expects about federal oil and gas drill-
kids at her home, with the to see a sharp growth in sales this year as “societies begin to adapt ing leases, after 10 GOP-led
full approval of state officials, to post-pandemic life.” states persuaded a Louisiana
after being laid off during the federal judge to block the fed-
pandemic. City officials later Introverts, after a new British study of 17,000 kids ages 8 to 18 eral government from assess-
shut her down, however, found that one third actually reported feeling happier during the ing the social cost of climate
after golfers reportedly com- pandemic. They got more sleep and exercise, suffered less bullying, change.That metric—which
plained about “noise” and and because of online friendships felt less lonely. includes the impact of extreme
“toys” in King’s yard. weather brought on by burn-
Bad week for: ing fossil fuels—influences
Q An Illinois gunmaker has everything from pollution
introduced a version of the Useful idiocy, after former President Trump lavished praise on regulations to infrastructure
AR-15 designed expressly for Vladimir Putin for his “genius” seizure of eastern Ukraine, calling spending. But Judge James
children. WEE1Tactical says the Russian autocrat “very savvy” and boasting, “I know him very, D. Cain Jr., aTrump appoin-
its JR-15 is 20 percent smaller very, very well.” tee, said those calculations
than an adult assault rifle and “artificially increase the cost
fires .22 caliber ammunition, Consenting adults, after all three Republican candidates to be estimates” of oil and gas drill-
less deadly than the .223 Michigan’s attorney general expressed opposition to Griswold v. ing.The Biden administration
rounds that have made AR- Connecticut, the 1965 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing a mar- plans to appeal. For now, the
15s the weapon of choice for ried couple’s right to use contraception. The candidates agreed that administration is delaying the
mass shooters. Otherwise, banning birth control is a “state’s rights” issue. sale of all oil and gas leases,
the company boasts, the included an anticipated sale of
JR-15 “operates just like Mom Extremities, after Finnish skier Remi Lindholm suffered a frozen drilling rights on 179,001 acres
and Dad’s gun.” penis during the men’s Olympic Cross-Country event, held in howl- in Wyoming.
ing, icy winds. Lindholm, who needed to apply a heat pack after the
THE WEEK March 4, 2022 race, said “the pain was unbearable.”

The U.S. at a glance... NEWS 7

Pasadena, Minneapolis Washington, D.C.
Calif. Sentenced: Kim Potter, the former subur-
Equal pay: ban Minneapolis police officer who said Rights cases: The Supreme Court this
American she confused her handgun for her Taser
women’s soccer when she fatally shot Black motorist week agreed to hear two cases that could
players settled Daunte Wright last year, was sentenced
their gender last week to two years in prison. Judge have major implications for the rights of
Vindicated off the field discrimination Regina Chu said Potter’s “tragic error”
lawsuit with the U.S. Soccer Federation resulted in “one of the saddest cases” Chu religious conservatives and migrants. The
this week for $24 million, resolving a had ever seen. Potter’s sentence of two
legal fight that overshadowed the national years was far less than the state’s recom- court will hear the case of Lorie Smith,
team’s 2019 World Cup championship. mended guidelines of six to eight years for
The deal calls for U.S. Soccer to divide first-degree manslaughter. Advocates for a Denver-based web designer who wants
the settlement among 61 past and present Wright’s family said Chu was going easy
national team members. U.S. Soccer also on a white cop; Wright’s mother said, to refuse to design
pledged to equalize pay between the men’s “the justice system murdered him all over
and women’s national teams in their next again.” Wright, 20, was pulled over for wedding websites
collective bargaining agreements. Doing expired license tags and an air freshener
so would require the men’s team to sur- hanging from his rearview mirror. When for gay couples,
render millions of dollars in prize money officers learned he had an outstanding
from world soccer’s governing body, warrant for a weapons possession charge, citing her Christian
FIFA, which allocates much more for Wright tried to drive away. Potter shouted
the men’s World Cup. The six-year legal “Taser!” several times, then fired her gun beliefs. Colorado
battle enraged fans, as U.S. Soccer before yelling “Holy shit, I just shot him.”
claimed the American women, says she would be
despite vastly outperforming their
male counterparts on the world violating an anti- Ready for arguments
stage, were less skilled and mar- discrimination law.
ketable. Reacting to the settle-
ment, women’s star Megan The court will review strictly whether
Rapinoe said, “We really do
feel like we won in so many a law affecting artistic expression vio-
ways, but to even have to go
through this is unacceptable.” lates the free speech clause of the First

Amendment. In 2017, the Supreme Court

ruled in favor a Colorado baker who

refused to bake wedding cakes for gay

couples, but the justices dodged the larger

issue of whether the religious beliefs of

merchants can supersede anti-dis-

crimination laws. The court will

also decide whether the Biden

administration can end the

Trump-era Remain in Mexico

program, which forces asylum

seekers to wait south of the border

for their hearings. Lower courts have

said the Biden administration arbitrarily

and capriciously sought to terminate

the policy.

Arizona Brunswick, Ga.
Federal convictions: The three white
The real Q: men convicted of murdering Ahmaud
Arbery were also found guilty this week
Two teams of committing a hate crime, delivering
a symbolic victory for Arbery’s parents
of linguistic and the Justice Department, which said
the 25-year-old was gunned down while
detectives Austin jogging in 2020 because he was Black.
Officers charged: A grand jury indicted Gregory McMichael, 66, his son Travis,
have inde- 19 Austin police officers last week on 36, and their neighbor William Bryan,
charges of aggravated assault with a 52, have already been sentenced to life on
pendently deadly weapon, marking one of strongest state murder charges. A woman testified
crackdowns nationwide for alleged exces- that the younger McMichael, who fatally
Watkins (l.); Furber identified the sive force by police. Austin saw heated shot Arbery, called her a “n----- lover” for
likely authors clashes in the summer 2020 protests set having dated a Black man; on Facebook
off by the death of George Floyd. Central he responded to a 2018 video of a Black
behind the QAnon conspiracy theory: to the indictments is the use of “beanbag” man pranking a white person by writing,
rounds—cloth bags filled with lead shot— “I’d kill that f---ing n-----.” A woman testi-
Paul Furber, a South African software that wounded dozens of demonstrators. fied that McMichael’s father said in 2015,
The city recently agreed to pay $10 mil- “All those Blacks are nothing but trouble.”
developer, and Ron Watkins, a mes- lion to settle cases involving two severely Four days before Arbery’s murder, Bryan
injured men. Police Chief Joseph Chacon sent a text mes-
sage board operator who is running for said the beanbag rounds malfunctioned, sage using a
and officers shouldn’t be prosecuted for slur to describe
Congress as a Republican, The New York following crowd-control measures to tame his daughter’s
“riotous and violent” protesters. Among Black boy-
Times reported last week. Both men deny the indicted is Justin Berry, a Republican friend.
candidate for a Texas House seat. District
being Q. They were among the first to Attorney José Garza, a member of the Bryan (center); the McMichaels
Democratic Socialists of America, won in
draw attention to the writings of Q, a a landslide in 2020 after campaigning on THE WEEK March 4, 2022
police accountability.
supposed U.S. military insider who began

warning anonymously in 2017 of a “deep

state” of Democratic pedophiles and

Satan worshippers. Furber, 55, is a fre-

quent disseminator of American conspir-

acy theories; Watkins, 34, and his father,

Jim, ran the message board 8chan. Swiss

and French experts in linguistic analysis

Getty, Reuters, AP believe Furber created the first messages

and Watkins took over as Q in 2018.

Two vocal GOP supporters of the QAnon

theory were elected to Congress in 2020.

8 NEWS The world at a glance...

Ottawa London

State of emergency: After the opposition Queen has Covid: Queen Elizabeth canceled

hurled accusations of dictatorial over- planned virtual engagements this week after

reach, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau contracting Covid, raising fears that her

revoked the emergency powers that he case is worse than initially believed. When

used last week to clear blockades by it announced her diagnosis, the palace said A mild case?
the queen would continue her duties. Her
“Freedom Convoy” protesters. Police

Towed away had already routed most protesters heir, Prince Charles, tested positive for the coronavirus for the sec-
from Ottawa and reopened key border
ond time on February 10, two days after meeting with his mother,

crossings, but Trudeau had said that he needed to maintain the but the palace said he may not have been the disease vector, as

powers because of “real concerns” over copycat demonstrations. a few staffers were also positive. The queen, 95, has had several

Parliament authorized Trudeau’s use of the 1988 Emergencies Act health scares since the death of her husband, Prince Philip, last year,

this week, giving the government authority to suspend civil liberties and spent a night in the hospital in October. The Omicron surge is

and override provincial jurisdiction. But the Conservative and Bloc abating, though, and England this week lifted nearly all remaining

Québécois parties voted against the measure, and Alberta Premier pandemic restrictions.

Jason Kenney promised to challenge it in court as “unnecessary”and

“disproportionate.” Just two days later, Trudeau backtracked.

Paris
Epstein associate dead: Jean-Luc Brunel, a former modeling
scout who faced charges of rape, was found hanged in his Paris jail
cell last week, an apparent suicide. Brunel, 75, had been accused of
using his position to procure girls as young as 12 for his friends—
including the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who had an
apartment in Paris. Brunel also faced his own accusations of abuse
from several women, including Thysia Huisman, a former Dutch
model, who said Brunel drugged and raped her in 1991 when she
was 18. Huisman had hoped to encourage other victims to come
forward. She said she was “in shock” and “angry” that the criminal
case she’d spent years fighting for had not been aired in court, and
that Brunel had died awaiting trial just like Epstein.

Dajabón, Dominican Republic

Keeping Haitians out: Dominican President Luis Abinader

poured the first concrete this week to begin construction of a

border wall intended to stop migration and drug smuggling

from Haiti. The wall—which will come complete with cam-

eras, radar, motion sensors, and drones—will cover almost

half of the two countries’ 244-mile border across the island of

Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic is a rapidly developing

tourist destination, while Haiti has sunk into a cycle of gang

violence and poverty, particularly since the assassination last

year of President Jovenel Moïse. Many Haitians have crossed Border fence
illegally to the Dominican Republic to seek work. But

Abinader said Haiti’s problems “must be overcome by the Haitians

themselves.” Haitian officials have accused Abinader of wrongfully

expelling migrants, including those with legal status. Members of

Abinader’s government have referred to them as invaders. Petrópolis, Brazil

Bogotá, Colombia Deadly flooding: Search crews

Abortion legalized: Colombia has decriminalized abortion during continued sifting through rubble

the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, becoming the third Latin American this week, seeking survivors of

nation to relax restrictions since December 2020. After the consti- last week’s mudslides and floods

tutional court ruling, large crowds celebrated outside the Bogotá in the Brazilian hill city of Petrópolis. The

courthouse, waving green scarves—the symbol of Argentina’s abor- death toll has reached 176, with more than Removing the dead

tion rights movement—and shouting, “It’s legal, it’s legal, abor- 110 still missing, and authorities said it is

tion in Colombia is legal!” Hundreds of thousands of Colombian unlikely more survivors will be found. Torrential rainfall sent mud

women had obtained illegal abortions and water surging through the streets, destroying houses and leav-

each year despite the ban. Since 2006, ing huge gashes in the region’s scenic mountainsides. Petrópolis, a

nearly 350 people have been convicted colonial-era city and popular tourist destination, has grown rapidly

of procuring or assisting in abortions, in recent decades, and many newcomers live in small mountainside

some of them in cases involving girls as homes packed tightly together and built without the proper per-

young as 11. Argentina legalized abor- mits. Petrópolis authorities said five years ago that some 20,000

tion up to 14 weeks just over a year households lived at high risk of flooding. Climate change has made Reuters (5)

ago, and Mexico decriminalized the heavy rains a more frequent hazard across South America; similar

Celebrating a new right procedure last September. mudslides hit Ecuador earlier this month.

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

The world at a glance... NEWS 9

Mecca, Saudi Arabia Wagah, Pakistan
All aboard: An advertisement seeking 30 women to drive bullet
trains drew more than 28,000 female applicants in Saudi Arabia Allowing Afghan aid: Pakistan and
last week, revealing massive demand for jobs as the kingdom
loosens restrictions on women’s employment. Until recently, India struck a rare agreement this
Saudi women were limited to professions such as teaching and
health care because of strict gender segregation laws, and they week to let a shipment of food aid
only gained the right to drive cars in 2018. Successful appli-
cants will conduct trains between the holy cities of Mecca and from India travel through Pakistan
Medina, a route traveled by millions of Muslim pilgrims each
year. The Spanish railway operator Renfe, which posted the ad, to Afghanistan. The first 50 trucks
said it would work through the massive pile of applications by
mid-March. “I think they have seen an opportunity to do a dif- of a 55,000-ton shipment left India
ferent job,” said Renfe representative Rosalina Reyes Ges,
“a job that is normally done by men.” and crossed to Wagah, Pakistan, as Desperately needed wheat
Indian and Afghan officials looked

on. Pakistan suspended all Indian transit trade to Afghanistan

three years ago after India abolished the autonomy of Kashmir,

which India and Pakistan both claim. But the bitter rivals made

an exception because of looming starvation in Afghanistan. The

Afghan economy is entirely reliant on international donors, who

suspended aid when the Taliban took power last August. In a

tweet, Farid Mamundzay, Afghan ambassador to India, thanked

the Indian government “for the generosity displayed at a time

when more than 20 million Afghans are facing crisis.”

Kathmandu, Nepal
Outcry over U.S. ‘gift’: A protest against a U.S.-funded infrastruc-
ture project turned violent this week, as demonstrators hurled
rocks at police and officers beat them with batons and fired tear
gas. The project, under consideration by the parliament, involves
$500 million in nonrepayable grants that the Millennium Challenge
Corporation, a U.S. government aid agency, has offered for new
roads and power lines. Two Communist parties in the governing
coalition that are traditionally close to China say the grants will

undermine Nepal’s sovereignty because the
government won’t have enough oversight.
They also worry that the U.S. is trying to
drive a wedge between Nepal and China.
Nepalese media said American officials have
warned that rejecting the funds could prompt
a “rethink” of U.S. policy, and Beijing con-
Police vs. protesters demned the grants as “coercive diplomacy.”

Butaro, Rwanda Kampala, Uganda
No opting out: Ugandans who don’t get vaccinated against Covid
Renowned humanitarian dies: Dr. Paul Farmer, a global health could face fines or jail time under a proposed new law. Uganda
has 45 million people but has so far administered only 16 million
giant who brought medical care to some of the world’s poorest, doses, and officials blame the low uptake on widespread vaccine
skepticism. The draft law would impose a fine of some $1,100 on
anyone who refused inoculation, and some resisters could get a
six-month prison term. Activists, though, urge caution. “We have
to ensure that the vaccine is widely available” and free to all, said
Allana Kembabazi of the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights.
“Compulsory vaccination must be a last resort.” Uganda has
recorded just 163,000 cases of Covid-19 and 3,500 deaths, thanks
to a nearly two-year lockdown, lifted last month.

died of a heart attack in his sleep this week at a hospital and Sydney

university he helped establish in Rwanda. The Harvard-trained Come visit: Families joyfully reunited and the tour-

physician, 62, the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Award” and ism industry prepared for a rebound as Australia

many other accolades, wrote extensively on inequality and human reopened its borders to vaccinated travelers this

rights. His global nonprofit, Partners in week for the first time in nearly two years.

Health, significantly influenced the public- At Sydney Airport, a young girl identified as

health responses to HIV, Ebola, and tuber- Charlotte tearfully hugged her grandfather and

culosis. Farmer argued that the social roots told the local Nine Network, “I’ve missed him

of illness must be addressed along with its Together again so much and I’ve looked forward to this trip
for so long.” Most Australians living abroad,
symptoms. He often lived among the people

he treated, moving his family to Haiti and as well as foreign nationals in Australia, have been stranded since

Reuters, Getty (3) Rwanda for years at a time and walk- the pandemic began. The country instituted some of the world’s

ing hours to deliver medicines to strictest travel bans, including restrictions on domestic travel, but

remote communities. (Full obituary it was forced to reconsider its “zero Covid” policy in January

Paul Farmer in next issue.) after the Omicron variant caused a spike in cases.

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

10 NEWS People

Lynch’s visit from the ‘sober fairy’

Jane Lynch is done lying to herself, said Emine
Saner in The Guardian (U.K.). The late-blooming
actress, 61, spent decades in denial about her
alcoholism. As a teenager, Lynch felt ashamed of
her attraction to other girls, and took to drink-
ing—something she did almost every day into her
30s. The first time she had a drink, she remem-
bers thinking, “Ah, I found it. I feel happy in my
body, this feeling of bliss.” That magic quickly wore off, but Lynch
kept chasing it. She worked in theater as a functioning alcoholic,
sometimes staying at the bar until 7 a.m., or waking up to find
vomit in her bathroom. Then one day she poured her glass of wine
down the sink and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. She remained
sober until five years ago, when Lynch decided she could handle a
glass of wine if she drank only after 5 p.m. “I fooled myself,” she
says. “I’m telling myself I’m drinking one glass at night, and I’m
drinking five.” She’d recently gotten divorced from her wife, and
realized once again that drinking was a way of avoiding an inner
emptiness. “The sober fairy,” she says, gave her “one more chance.
And it was over. Five o’clock would come and I didn’t notice it.”

When Takei was behind barbed wire Nicks’ bond with other musicians

George Takei spent four years of his childhood in Japanese- Stevie Nicks feels a deep connection to the spirit world, saidTavi
American internment camps during World War II, said KK Ottesen Gevinson in The NewYorker. Her life has been shaped by “taps
in The Washington Post Magazine. The activist and Star Trek actor, on the shoulder” that have guided her choices and her songwrit-
84, says one morning soon after his fifth birthday is “burned into ing, and she regards other musicians as soul mates and allies.
my memory.” He remembers his Japanese immigrant father rush- When Fleetwood Mac formed, she and bandmate Christine McVie
ing in to say they were moving. “Suddenly we saw two soldiers could have been rivals, but instead they bonded. “We were very
marching up our driveway,” Takei says. “They carried rifles with protective of each other,” says Nicks, 73. “We made a pact that we
bayonets on them. My father answered the door, and they pointed would never be treated with disrespect by all the male musicians
the bayonet at him.” His American-born mother came out with in the community.” Anytime they felt uncomfortable, they’d turn to
tears “streaming down her cheeks.” His family was taken to the each other and say, “This party is over for us,” and leave. Her close
Santa Anita racetrack in Los Angeles. “Each family was assigned friendships with Prince,Tom Petty, and others helped Nicks avoid
a horse stall to sleep in, temporarily, while the barbed-wire camps feeling jaded about fame (she still asks Prince for strength and
were being built in some of the most desolate, godforsaken places peace before she performs), but she realizes today’s stars are often
in the United States.” Soon they were put on a train for the swamps pitted against each other by social media. About a decade ago,
of southeastern Arkansas. “Can you imagine my parents’ sense of she had a long talk with Katy Perry during which Perry asked, “So,
degradation and humiliation?” His father negotiated for a baseball Stevie, who are your rivals?” When Nicks replied that she didn’t
diamond to be built at the camp. Resilience, his father told him, is have any, she says, Perry’s “big blue eyes got bigger and bluer.”The
“the strength to find beauty in an ugly situation. To be able to make younger pop star started talking about Taylor Swift and her rival
our joy behind barbed wires.” He’s been reminded of that history “army” of fans. “No, Katy,” Nicks said. “I’m Stevie Nicks, I do what I
by the rash of attacks on Asian people during the Covid pandemic. do and I’m great at it. We don’t have rivals.That’s just ridiculous.”
America’s ideals, he says, are based on “noble words,” but “the
people have to give meaning to those words.”

Q CNN’s claim of being “the most trusted York being placed under lockdown. “Done,” ronmental activism and progressive politics. Getty (2), Shutterstock
name in news” took yet another blow Gollust replied. CNN President Jeff Zucker She and Rodgers reportedly butted heads
last week, after chief marketing officer also resigned recently after his undisclosed about politics. A source told People recently
Allison Gollust was forced to resign for romantic relationship with Gollust came to that they had to “agree to disagree” because
violating CNN’s journalism standards. light. A spokesperson for Gollust said that they “disagreed on a lot of things.”
An internal investigation triggered her discussions with Cuomo did not include
by the firing of former network host any agreement that “the interview should be Q Lawyers for Prince Harry told a British
Chris Cuomo uncovered a trove of limited to these subjects.” court last week that he “does not feel safe”
communications between Gollust, bringing his family to the U.K. without
49, and NewYork’s then–Gov. Andrew Q NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers and actress government security. Harry, who lives
Cuomo. Gollust briefly worked as Cuo- Shailene Woodley called off their engage- with Meghan Markle and their two young
mo’s spokeswoman in 2012 and 2013. In ment last week, barely a year after the Green children in California, has offered to pay for
one exchange from March 2020, Cuomo Bay Packers quarterback announced they police protection, which he lost out on after
reportedly requested that three topics be planned to marry. Rodgers became the he moved to the U.S. in 2020.The British
covered during his upcoming CNN inter- center of controversy this year after he re- government says it will determine security
view, including his conversations with fused to get the Covid-19 vaccine and made on a “case-by-case basis” due to Harry’s
President Trump and the threat of New misleading statements about his vaccination “exceptional status.” Harry, who already pays
status, leading the 38-year-old to complain for private security, says his family needs
that he was being attacked by the “woke additional protection from “neo-Nazi and
mob.” Woodley, 30, is known for her envi- extremist threats.”

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

Briefing NEWS 11

The next generation of vaccines

How are vaccine researchers and developers responding to Covid-19’s evolution?

Are Covid vaccines working? that their vaccine produced neutral-

Yes—amazingly well. The vaccines have izing antibodies against Covid and

remained highly effective in preventing SARS in monkeys. That research team

serious illness and death, despite the recently completed the first phase of

evolution of the coronavirus into more testing on humans. Other researchers

infectious, immunity-evading new vari- are searching for a “conserved site,”

ants. British data indicate that the risk of a common feature that coronaviruses

death between last July and December keep throughout their mutations and

was 81 percent lower for people who that could be targeted by a universal

had two doses of a Covid vaccine— vaccine. Researchers at Duke have

including Pfizer’s and Moderna’s shots— isolated an antibody that binds to

and 93 percent lower for those who both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-Cov-2.

received a third. An unvaccinated adult How likely are such vaccines?
is 68 times more likely to die from

Covid than a boosted one. But the The new Corbevax vaccine will be sent to developing nations. Many hurdles remain, and
Omicron variant, which has more than Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s

30 mutations in its spike proteins, has rendered vaccines less effec- chief medical adviser, has warned that they will “take years to

tive at preventing breakthrough infections, and recent evidence develop.” The Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness

suggests boosters’ protections against symptomatic infection wane Innovations has allocated $200 million for pan-coronavirus research

after 10 weeks. The subvariant BA.2 is now spreading in at least and aims to see one distributed by 2024 or 2025. But the supply

10 countries in Europe and Asia, and new variants are likely to chain for vials and other vaccine equipment is under unprecedented

emerge after that, especially since undervaccinated communities strain, with many manufacturers prioritizing supplies for already-

help incubate new mutations. existing vaccines over experimental ones. And because most people

What about boosters? now have at least some immunity via vaccines, previous infection,

or both, it has become much harder for researchers to find people

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends them with no previous exposure to serve as control subjects.

for all adults, and in January it approved a fourth dose for people What can be done in the meantime?
with severely weakened immune systems. Scientists are studying

emerging data on the effectiveness of another booster, and the Food Developed countries will continue to promote boosters; only 28 per-

and Drug Administration said this week it is possible one will be cent of the U.S. population has had one. Pfizer chief executive

recommended in the fall, at least for people over 65. Moderna and Albert Bourla said in January that he hopes to develop once-a-year

Pfizer are both developing Omicron-tailored vaccines, and Pfizer ini- boosters, but other experts disagree on how frequently they will

tially predicted its version would be available in March. But produc- be needed, or if three shots will provide lasting protection against

tion has hit delays, and with one University of Washington model serious illness. With under 11 percent of people in low-income

suggesting that 73 percent of Americans have some immunity to countries even partially vaccinated, the World Health Organization

Omicron, it might not be necessary to target that variant alone—or and many virologists are urging governments and drugmakers to

to play catch-up with those that follow. It takes four to six months focus on vaccinating the rest of the world. The U.S. and other G-7

to get new batches of variant-specific nations have fallen short of the 1.4 bil-

vaccines ready for distribution, and new A vaccine in a nasal spray lion vaccines they pledged to donate by
variants can spread much more quickly. 2022, but some vaccine innovators are
“Relying on new boosters every time Not all 330-plus Covid vaccines currently in trying to fill in the gap. Novavax and
we have a new variant of concern,” said development are shots. Injected vaccines gener- Corbevax recently produced inexpen-
MIT immunologist Padmini Pillai, “is not ate antibodies in the blood—but don’t provide sive vaccines that rely on recombinant
a viable strategy.” much protection in the nose, which is the virus’ protein technology to mimic spike
most common entryway. So scientists are work-
proteins. These vaccines can be stored
What would work better? ing on vaccines that can be sprayed into the in regular refrigerators instead of the
nose. At least 12 such vaccines are currently

Vaccine developers are now taking a in development, with one produced by India’s super-cold storage required for the

variety of approaches to outpace viral Bharat Biotech already in a Phase 3 trial. Nasal Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, mak-

Texas Children’s Hospital evolution. The holy grail would be a Covid vaccines would target the source of most ing them more easily distributed in
pan-coronavirus vaccine, which would infections, allow patients to self-administer, and poor, remote areas. The developers of
protect recipients against all forms of make for an attractive alternative for those who Corbevax, Drs. Maria Elena Bottazzi
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes fear needles—including children.Yale immunolo- and Peter Hotez of Texas’ Baylor
Covid, and possibly even against all gist Akiko Iwasaki, who led a study on nasal vac- College of Medicine, were funded by
beta-coronaviruses. That means it cines, predicts they’ll be most useful as boosters $7 million in private philanthropy and
could fight highly deadly viruses such as for vaccinated people. “Then you can leverage are not patenting their vaccine. They are
SARS-CoV-1—the virus that caused the the existing immunity,” she said. “It’s really like working with an Indian firm to produce
2003 worldwide SARS outbreak—and putting the guard outside the door as opposed 1 billion shots for developing nations.
MERS, as well as the four viruses that to inside the door.” If effective nasal vaccines can “Global vaccine equity,” they wrote in
cause a quarter of all common colds. In be developed and widely adopted, scientists say, a recent Scientific American article, “is
December, scientists at the Walter Reed it could dramatically reduce transmission and the only thing that can bring the Covid
Army Institute of Research announced bring the pandemic to an end. pandemic to an end.”

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.

Betraying Taking the food out of millions of children’s mouths is “a sin against It must be true...
America’s humanity,” said Will Bunch. A year ago, the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief
poorest kids plan included an expanded child tax credit that had a miraculous impact: I read it in the tabloids
It helped the country “cut child poverty in half” almost overnight. The
Will Bunch subsidy of up to $300 a month per child gave the nation’s poorest work- Q Michigan State Police are
ing parents a cushion that enabled them to buy more food, afford child looking for an unusual stolen
The Philadelphia Inquirer care, and get better jobs. President Biden included an extension of the item: an entire house.The
credit in his Build Back Better bill, but after that legislation succumbed owner of a 12-by-28-foot
to congressional gridlock, the credit expired in January. “The impact was cabin in northern Coldsprings
immediate—and massive.” A Columbia University study found that 3.7 Township reported it missing,
million kids have fallen back below the poverty line since then. No one and has no clue where it
but the affected parents seems to care. “Shame on Joe Manchin” of West went or why anyone would
Virginia, who represents the state with the nation’s fourth-highest pov- have taken it. “It’s kind of a
erty rate, yet privately argued that parents would use the subsidy to buy weird situation,” saidTrooper
drugs. Shame on the Republicans who also doomed attempts to make Matthew Scott. “At this point,
the expansion permanent. Letting 3.7 million kids tumble back into pov- the cabin is definitely not
erty should be “the biggest scandal in America.” where it’s supposed to be.”
The owner, who previously
Why Mexico If the U.S. really wants to stop illegal immigration, said Ruben Na- resided in the cabin but has
varrette Jr., “we can’t count on Mexico to be a partner.” Various moved, reported it stolen.
will never “You don’t see this happen
Mexican presidents have pretended to help the U.S. keep people from too often,” Scott noted.
streaming across the border, but the Banco de Mexico—the nation’s
halt migration central bank—recently revealed that in 2021, Mexican migrants sent Q An upstate
a staggering $51.6 billion back home to relatives. That’s a jump of 27 New York
man has
Ruben Navarrette Jr. percent in a year—during a pandemic in which legal and illegal migrants launched a
legal battle
The Daily Beast did “essential” jobs. These remittances have grown from 2 percent of to keep his
“emotional
Mexico’s GDP in 2010 to 3.8 percent in 2020. “The river of money” support” pig.
Wyverne Flatt of Canajoha-
sent home by Mexican farmworkers, construction workers, landscapers, rie says his 110-pound Viet-
namese pot-bellied pig, Ellie,
cooks, dishwashers, elder-care workers, and nannies helps keep Mexico’s helped him through a divorce
and his mother’s death, but
economy afloat. Their strenuous, low-paid labor, at jobs very few native- village officials say he’s keep-
ing a farm animal at home
born Americans will do, also keeps the American economy humming. in defiance of local zoning
laws. Flatt could now face a
So while Americans argue endlessly about immigration, “let’s get real.” criminal trial—but he won’t
yield. “I could never dream
Mexico won’t block its people from crossing the border, and the 20,000 of giving away somebody
who’s part of my family,” said
Border Patrol agents, drones, fences, walls, and electronic sensors can’t Flatt, who called the pig “very
smart” and sensitive. She
stop them from coming. A steady stream of migrants from Mexico serves senses “when you’re feeling
bad” and wants “to come in
both nations’ interests—whether our leaders admit it or not. and snuggle,” he said.

Trump’s luck Throughout his scandal-stained business and political career, Donald Q A Catholic priest in Phoenix
may have Trump has shown a “superpower” for “wriggling out of accountability,” used a single incorrect word
run out said Stephen Collinson. But the former president is sinking deeper and in baptism ceremonies over
deeper into “a legal swamp” that threatens his viability as a 2024 presi- his 20-year career—invalidat-
Stephen Collinson dential candidate. Last week, a judge in New York ruled that Trump, ing the rite for thousands
Donald Jr., and Ivanka must sit for depositions in the state attorney gen- of people. As he poured the
CNN.com eral’s probe into the Trump Organization’s possibly fraudulent business holy water, the Rev. Andres
practices. The Westchester County, N.Y. district attorney is conducting Arango said “We baptize
another probe of the firm’s tax practices. Trump’s longtime accountants, you” rather than “I baptize.”
Mazars, recently disavowed the accuracy of years of financial documents BishopThomas Olmsted of
they prepared for him—“a very grave development.” At the same time, the Diocese of Phoenix sent
Trump’s White House documents and call logs have been turned over out a message to parishion-
to the Jan. 6 committee, which is digging deep to determine his role “in ers notifying them they will
planning or inciting the insurrection.” A prosecutor in Fulton County, need to be re-baptized. “If
Ga., has empaneled a grand jury to examine Trump’s role in trying to you were baptized using the
overturn that state’s election results. Behind the scenes, Republican lead- wrong words, that means
ers are questioning whether Trump will be too damaged by multiple your baptism is invalid,” he
indictments to be their nominee in 2024, and rivals are jockeying for said. Arango apologized and
position. Trump’s superpower may have finally failed him. asked for “forgiveness and
understanding.”
Viewpoint “The pandemic may have alerted new swaths of people to their distaste for

their jobs—or exhausted them past the point where there’s anything to enjoy

about jobs they used to like. Essential or nonessential, remote or in person, almost no one I know

likes work very much at the moment.The office is where it shouldn’t be—at home, in our intimate

spaces—and all that’s left now is the job itself, naked and alone. And a lot of people don’t like what

they see. It’s as if our whole society is burned out.”

Noreen Malone inThe NewYorkTimes Magazine AP

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

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14 NEWS Best columns: Europe

GREECE A “shocking” elder-care scandal here in Chania, It’s a repugnant example of the unscrupulous prof-
Crete, is emblematic of a problem sweeping Eu- iteers grubbing for the “gray gold” of elder care as
Greed fuels rope, said Agonas tis Kritis. In a case that has European populations age. Private businesses rake
Europe’s neglect rocked this Greek island, the owner of a nursing in billions in government funding, only to hire
of its elders home and six other defendants face charges in- skeleton workforces of unskilled staff and hide
cluding homicide and fraud as part of an investi- their profits in offshore tax havens. Meanwhile,
Editorial gation into dozens of deaths at a care facility they conditions within elder homes are dire, “creating
turned into a “hell.” Authorities have confirmed serious risks to the health of those living there.”
Agonas tis Kritis 30 deaths, but they believe that nearly 300 resi- The Greek government, desperate for beds to
dents may have succumbed to neglect. Residents house its growing cohort of seniors, “turns a blind
were rarely fed meat or fruit, force-fed to the point eye to violations.” It’s sickeningly likely that the
of choking, and made to share towels and razors; Chania facility is not the only Greek nursing home
some were strapped to beds and heavily sedated. where residents are being left to die.

FRANCE Valérie Pécresse is releasing a “slow poison” into screeds, but they’ve mostly avoided using the actual
France, said Laurent Sagalovitsch. Blatantly pan- term. Pécresse—the candidate for the respectable
Anti-Muslim dering to far-right voters, the center-right presi- Republicans, the party of former Presidents Nicolas
conspiracies dential candidate peppered a major speech with Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, and a chief rival to
go mainstream racist attacks against Muslims and immigrants. incumbent President Emmanuel Macron—has
France, she said, must not be doomed to the “great thrown such scruples aside. Worse, she drew a line
Laurent Sagalovitsch replacement”—a racist conspiracy theory that between the “French of the heart” and the “French
nonwhite immigrants are intentionally replacing by papers,” a derisive phrase nationalists use to dis-
Slate France white Christian populations. The theory, which parage naturalized citizens. Using these terms “im-
originated in France, has become popular among mediately gives them a respectability, an authority,
white supremacists throughout the world, inspir- a status they lacked.” Remember, it was through
ing mass killings in New Zealand and the United “tireless repetition” that Nazi leaders presented
States. Pécresse’s far-right rivals, Marine Le Pen Jews as “a mortal danger for the German nation”
and Éric Zemmour, frequently allude to replace- and justified the atrocities of the Holocaust.
ment theory during their own anti-immigration Pécresse is treading a dangerous path.

Ukraine: Zelensky wilts under pressure

With Russian tanks trundling across oc- tary allies, the only guarantee of our se-

cupied eastern Ukraine, we need a leader curity “is our own army.” This escalation

who can rouse us to resistance, said in the Donbass may not be a “lightning

Alexey Bratushchak in Ukrainska Pravda capture of Kyiv,” but it’s still terrifying,

(Ukraine). Instead, President Volodymyr said Anton Fedortsiv in Postup (Ukraine).

Zelensky gave a “meaningless outburst,” Vladimir Putin intends either to render

bemoaning the lack of a strong Western Zelensky impotent by slicing off chunks of

response and warning he will impose eastern Ukrainian territory, or to replace

martial law if the Russians cross from the Zelensky’s government with a “puppet

Donbass region into the rest of the coun- pro-Russian regime.” The end goal is to

try. Days earlier, against the wishes of the leave Ukraine as “an insolvent state with a

United States, he showed up at a Munich weak economy” so it stagnates and returns

security conference, where he ranted about to “the orbit of Moscow’s influence.”

Western “appeasement” and said NATO

has used Ukraine as a “shield” against NATO can no longer hold back, said

Russia. He also demanded to know why Zelensky: Blaming the West Jacques Schuster in Die Welt (Germany).
the West insisted upon waiting for Russia When Russia promised to “guarantee the

to invade further before imposing sanctions. Look, we all wish independence of Ukraine,” NATO agreed not to station stand-

Ukraine had more generous friends. But whining to the West ing armies in the newer NATO states. But Russia’s current con-

won’t help; our people want to be exhorted to fight in the fields duct means “this pledge can no longer be kept.” Germany this

and on the beaches. Alas, it’s abundantly clear that our comedian week dealt a painful blow to Putin—and to itself—by canceling

turned president “is no Churchill.” No wonder his popularity has his prized Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. NATO can do the same

plunged from 70 percent after he was elected to 23 percent now. by ensuring that if Central and Eastern European states “want

a permanent NATO presence,” they will get it. The Western

What was Zelensky hoping for? asked Dmitry Shulga in Evropey- democracies have so far kept a “commendable unity in the face

skaya Pravda (Ukraine). In Munich, he accused Russia, the U.S., of Moscow’s challenge,” said El Pais (Spain) in an editorial. We

and Britain of violating the terms of the 1994 Budapest Memo- must maintain that cohesion, because in this crisis “not only the

randum, in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons and the lives of Ukrainian citizens are at stake, but also the very world

others promised to respect its sovereignty. But that agreement order.” The sanctions we’ll together impose on Russia will hurt

wasn’t an actual treaty, so the U.S. had only a “moral commit- Europeans more than Americans. But we’ll have to swallow those

ment,” not a binding military one, to help us. Until we have mili- losses if we want “a world governed by law and not by force.” Getty

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

Best columns: International NEWS 15

India: Should hijabs be allowed in schools?

A Muslim student defiantly raised her autonomy.” That, of course, is exactly

fist, and the hijab became India’s “test what the BJP is so afraid of. Allowing

case for living with pluralism,” said educated women to make their own

Valerian Rodrigues in The Hindu. Ever choices challenges the dogma of those

since student Muskan Khan refused to who want women silent and obedient.

remove her hijab two weeks ago after This hijab controversy is even more

being accosted by Hindu men wearing sinister than the one that’s been perco-

saffron scarves—the color of the ruling lating in France, said Jyoti Malhotra in

Bharatiya Janata Party—a nationwide ThePrint. The European Union’s top

debate over the Islamic head cover- court permitted workplace hijab bans

ing has raged throughout the country. last year, and the French government

Hindu supremacism has been growing seeks to ban headscarves for children

under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under 18. But France’s rigid version of

and Hindu mobs have attacked and Khan: Standing up to her harassers secularism applies to all religious garb
even lynched Muslims for alleged blas- equally. In India, by contrast, secular-

phemy, for alleged desecration of cows, or even for no discernible ism “has not meant an end to religion in the public sphere,” but

reason. Khan’s moment of protest came after government-run rather tolerance of different religious practices. Now, though,

high schools in two districts in Karnataka state barred students while Hinduism is still welcome in public, Islam is not.

from wearing the hijab in class, forcing pious Muslim girls to

miss crucial university entrance exams. Both districts have sizable Still, there is no denying that hijabs in classrooms are “a very

Muslim minorities but are run by BJP nationalists intent on push- retrograde idea,” said Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express,

ing Hindu identity. These officials maintain that hijab bans are a and one that does have the backing of radical jihadists. A prime

“progressive measure” to protect women from forced veiling. To minister with “moral authority” would vow to protect Islam

Muslim women, though, they are “an assault on their self-worth while condemning the intolerance of Islamists. Sadly, Modi has

and dignity.” The dispute has even attracted international atten- let India become “so tainted by its open discrimination against

tion, as Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai has taken up the Islam and Muslims” that he could never credibly deliver such

women’s cause. a message. Modi has disingenuously adopted “the attitude that

Muslim women need saving,” said Ali Khan Mahmudabad in

The Muslims pushing for hijab are activists, but they’re no radi- The Quint. He insists that he respects Muslim women so much,

cals, said PK Yasser Arafath in Scroll. While the hijab was once he must take it into his own hands to save them from oppres-

seen as “an instrument of oppression,” it is now embraced by sion. But students like Muskan Khan don’t need anyone’s help to

Muslim feminists as a symbol of “authority, political voice, and “fight for their rights.”

MOROCCO When 5-year-old Rayan Oram was pulled dead tion.” Moroccan authorities say they are working
from a dry well, the hopes of many Moroccans to close these dangerous old wells, but “there is so
The child were “extinguished with him,” said Moroccan much more to be done.” The “disproportionately
who died journalist Aida Alami. We had all watched, an- poor” Rif region, where Rayan died, has long been
in the well guished, on TV as rescuers toiled for days digging “neglected by the central government and mar-
a tunnel to reach the little boy, who had fallen 100 ginalized.” It lacks access to basic services and has
Aida Alami feet to the bottom. The news that the effort was received none of the development money that flows
in vain was “crushing.” While many of us hoped to other regions. When the people there do rise up
Al Jazeera (Qatar) that the saga would show Moroccans the need for in protest—as they did in 2016, after a fishmonger
wholesale reform, it looks distressingly as though was crushed to death inside a garbage truck—they
ARGENTINA our countrymen will simply grieve and move on. aren’t listened to, they’re imprisoned. If we are to
After all, “another boy died the same horrific way honor Rayan’s memory, we must fight for “better
Kneeling only days after,” and that tragedy “got little atten- protections for our most vulnerable people.”
at the feet
of dictators Alberto Fernández must have been “dazzled by the Jinping by praising only aspects of the Chinese
power” of Russia and China on his recent visits, system, such as its growth. Fernández, though, an-
Claudio Fantini said Claudio Fantini. In Moscow, the Argentinian nounced his admiration for a regime that “killed
president bent over backward to please Russian millions of Chinese” during the time of Mao Ze-
Perfil President Vladimir Putin by “insinuating a desire to dong and now has “poorly paid workers and no
break with the United States and offering Argentina union rights.” There’s nothing inherently wrong
YouTube as ‘Russia’s gateway to Latin America.’” He then with making overtures to the new Moscow-Beijing
swept into Beijing to announce Argentina’s inclu- axis—in today’s multipolar world, “monogamy
sion in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, where— is a bad idea.” But Fernández and his allies have
standing right by the site of the 1989 Tiananmen always treated Putin as if he were a progressive left-
Square massacre—he proclaimed he “identified ist, rather than the “ultra-nationalist, homophobic”
with the philosophy of the Chinese Communist religious conservative he is. Do they now want us
Party.” Wiser foreign leaders wooed President Xi to believe the same fantasy about Xi?

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

16 NEWS Talking points

Noted Covid: Those who remain vulnerable

Q Seventy-three percent When 10-year-old Jack pandemic—and they’ll do
of Americans have some
immunity to the Omicron Nelson heard the news that the same now that the virus
variant, either through
infection or vaccination Virginia was lifting mask is becoming endemic. We
or both, according to
the University of Wash- mandates, said Christina simply cannot expect “every-
ington’s closely watched
model.That number could Maxouris in CNN.com, he one else in society to wear
rise to 80 percent by mid-
March. But that still leaves nearly broke down in tears. masks or social distance
about 80 million Ameri-
cans with no immunity to “Mom, does that mean I can’t indefinitely.” It’s important
the virus.
go to school anymore?” he to remember, however, that
Associated Press
asked. Jack has cystic fibrosis, SARS-CoV-2 is much dead-
Q Nearly a quarter of U.S.
counties gave a presi- a genetic disease that causes lier than normal respiratory
dential candidate at least
80 percent of the vote in persistent lung infections and pathogens, said Ed Yong in
2020, a huge jump from
6 percent of counties labored breathing, making The Atlantic. Compared with
in 2004, according to
an analysis by political him acutely vulnerable to the general public, organ-
scientist Larry Sabato.The
trend of political “self- Covid even though he’s been transplant recipients are
sorting” into “super-land-
slide” counties appears to vaccinated. With Omicron Jack Nelson with his mom “82 times more likely to get
be accelerating as conser- still circulating, Jack’s life will breakthrough infections and
vatives move away from
places with Covid-19 mask be at risk if his classmates take off their masks. 485 times more likely to be severely ill.” What
or vaccination mandates.
Jack is far from alone, say Amanda Morris and are these people supposed to do? By acting as if
NPR.org
Maggie Astor in The New York Times. More the deaths of vulnerable people are unavoidable—
Q The percentage of
Americans who identify than 7 million Americans are immunocompro- while doing little to lessen the risks—we are
as LGBTQ has doubled
over the past 10 years, mised because of genetic diseases, cancer treat- “implicitly assigning lower value” to their lives.
from 3.5 percent to 7.1
percent, a Gallup survey ment, and other medications. Tens of millions
found.The shift is driven
by younger people, with more have conditions such as asthma, lupus, The “political reality” is that even in blue states,
21 percent of “Genera-
tion Z adults”—ages 18 to or diabetes or disabilities that put them at high the momentum for restoring normalcy continues
25—saying they are non-
heterosexual, with most risk of serious illness or death if they contract to grow, said Eric Levitz in New York magazine.
identifying as bisexual.
Covid—even if they’re vaccinated. They cannot But that doesn’t mean policymakers shouldn’t still
NBCNews.com
help but feel like “collateral damage” in the quest “do more to protect those most at risk.” Greater
Q Only 13 of the 143
Republicans running for for “normalcy.” access to antiviral medications, better ventilation
38 congressional seats in
Texas say that President in public buildings, the continuation of remote
Biden really beat Donald
Trump in 2020. At least 42 Sorry, but that’s “horse pucky,” said Jim Geraghty work and school options—these are all measures
have said the election was
stolen or that they would in National Review. People with weakened that would make life much safer for the vulner-
have voted against certify-
ing the results. immune systems or chronic illness lived with a able with “no significant burden on normal life”

Houston Chronicle “greater level of risk to their lives” before the for everyone else. Is that too much to ask?

THE WEEK March 4, 2022 Elections: Plugging a dangerous loophole

It’s high time for Congress to amend the Elec- “trying to ‘Trump-proof’ the 2024 election,” AP
toral Count Act—the muddled 135-year-old law but if their effort is seen by the party’s base as
that governs how Congress certifies state elec- targeting Trump, “the harder it might get for 10
tion results, said The Dallas Morning News in Senate Republicans to support it” and reach the
an editorial. The “byzantine” law, passed after filibuster-proof 60-vote threshold. That bar may
the disputed 1876 election, is full of ambiguities not be cleared, said Burgess Everett in Politico. A
that Donald Trump and his allies tried to exploit bipartisan group of 16 senators agree that some-
in their bid to overturn his 2020 loss—and they thing should be done. But there’s debate over
need fixing to “help prevent a rerun.” There’s how broad the effort should be, with Republicans
bipartisan support for revisions, which must complaining that Democrats are “trying to shoe-
address several key points. First, it must be made horn in” election reforms unrelated to the act.
clear that the vice president has only a ceremonial
role in tallying the vote, with no right to reject a My fellow conservatives must not let ECA reform
state’s results—a power Trump claimed for Mike die, said former federal judge J. Michael Luttig in
Pence in 2020. Second, currently only one senator The New York Times. Under this defective law,
and one House member are needed to challenge Congress can step in and choose the president in
a state’s slate of electors. Lawmakers should set the event of a dispute; for a party that believes
a higher number to prevent renegade lawmakers in limiting the federal government’s power, it
from disrupting the count, and establish “a list of “would be the height of political hypocrisy” to
valid grounds for bringing an objection.” allow Congress to overturn state election results.
Trump’s vow to exploit the act “to seize the
The law also needs provisions for a scenario presidency” if he runs and loses in 2024 presents
where a rogue governor sends “sham electors a “clear and present danger to our democracy”—
for the losing candidate,” said Greg Sargent in and Republicans and Democrats must “put aside
The Washington Post. Republicans who back their partisan differences” and address it. “The
reform, however, are walking a fine line. They’re future of our democracy” depends on it.

Talking points NEWS 17

Durham: What he’s actually saying Wit &
Wisdom
Special counsel John Durham had used a tech company
“Everybody thinks it’s
just dumped “a small bucket with a government contract going to be different
for them.The dinosaurs
of water on the forest fire he to legally dig up internet
thought so, too.”
sparked,” said Philip Bump in metadata in 2016 suggesting
Novelist Kathryn Davis,
The Washington Post. Dur- someone with a Russian- quoted in LitHub

ham, who is examining the made smartphone was “An error is always the
more dangerous in pro-
investigation into Russia’s 2016 connecting to networks at portion to the degree of
truth which it contains.”
election interference, set off a Trump Tower. The data also
Philosopher Henri-Frédéric
frenzy in the right-wing media suggested that a server in Amiel, quoted in Forbes

with a recent, vaguely worded Trump Tower seemed to be “Without optimism,
we’ve already failed.”
court filing. Fox News claimed Durham: Media reports were ‘overstated.’ communicating with one at
Durham had found evidence Russia-based Alfa Bank. The George Takei, quoted in The
Washington Post
that Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid a tech com- bank communications were later found to be inno-
“Being around accom-
pany to “spy” or “listen in” on Donald Trump, cent, but not before this supposed link was leaked plished people will not
make you accomplished
even after he became president. But in a new court to the press, leading the Clinton campaign to claim yourself, or make anyone
take you seriously.You
filing last week, “along comes Durham to ruin the Trump had a “secret hotline” to Moscow. This have to do the work.”

fun.” He said it was not his fault if some media political dirty trick was probably not illegal, but Candace Bushnell, quoted in
The New Yorker
outlets “overstated” his original document, said who can look at it without feeling “disgust”?
“Our knowledge can
Charlie Savage in The New York Times. Durham only be finite, while our
ignorance must neces-
never said the tech company researched Trump’s Durham seems to be on to a “real-life scandal”
sarily be infinite.”
internet activities while he was president, or that involving the Clinton campaign, said Andrew
Karl Popper, quoted in The
anyone tried to “listen in” on his conversations. McCarthy in The Hill. But thus far, only Sussman Sunday Times (U.K.)

has been indicted, for allegedly failing to disclose “We love because it’s the
only true adventure.”
The right-wing freak-out was indeed “overbaked,” his Clinton ties to the FBI. Durham is not accusing
Poet Nikki Giovanni, quoted
said Andrew Egger in The Dispatch, but the the FBI or CIA with conspiring to smear Trump in The New York Times

conduct Durham described is “absolutely news- in a grand, Deep State conspiracy; instead, after “Nothing is at last sacred
but the integrity of your
worthy.” Durham has accused lawyer Michael three years of digging, Durham seems to believe
own mind.”
Sussmann of lying to the FBI about working for “well-meaning government officials” were duped
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
the Clinton campaign when he told the bureau by Clinton operatives into investigating Trump. quoted in The New York

that Trump had ties to Russia. In the filing that Trump supporters waiting for a Durham bomb- Review of Books

caused a recent firestorm, Durham said Sussman shell “are going to be deeply disappointed.” Poll watch

Sandy Hook: A gunmaker’s $73 million payout Q 47% of U.S. adults said
that it’s a “very serious”
AP “They were told repeatedly they couldn’t win,” and because Remington declared bankruptcy in problem that Donald
said E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post, but last 2020, the payout comes from the company’s four Trump reportedly took
week families of nine Sandy Hook Elementary insurers. Gunmakers without Remington’s “bleak classified materials with
School shooting victims secured a $73 million financial status” might prove more willing to fight. him to Florida after leav-
payout from Remington Arms. Seven years They should fight, said Brian Doherty in Reason, ing office, including 75%
before 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire at the because “the overwhelming majority of the nearly of Democrats and 16%
Newtown, Conn., school, a Republican-controlled 400 million privately owned firearms in the U.S. of Republicans. 43% of
Congress passed a law granting gunmakers broad never harm anyone at all.” Manufacturers can’t adults said it was a “very
civil immunity from lawsuits. But the law con- prevent criminals from misusing their product. serious” problem that
tained a small exception for lawsuits alleging a Hillary Clinton used a
gun’s marketing violated state laws. The families’ Still, the makers of assault weapons now have personal email address
lawyers seized on that exception, citing Connecti- reason to worry, said Robert Spitzer in NBCNews to conduct government
cut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, said Elizabeth .com. Since 2018’s Parkland, Fla., shooting, major business while working as
Williamson in The New York Times. They argued retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods have secretary of state, includ-
that Remington marketed the Bushmaster XM15- stopped carrying them. New York enacted a law ing 72% of Republicans
E2S, one of Lanza’s military-style weapons, as similar to Connecticut’s last year, with New Jersey and 19% of Democrats.
a way for insecure young men to reclaim their and California mulling similar measures. The set-
masculinity through violence. The “checkmate tlement requires that the company hand over thou- YouGov
moment” was a crime scene photo of two ammuni- sands of internal documents to the Sandy Hook
tion magazines duct-taped together so that the gun- parents, who will soon release damning details of THE WEEK March 4, 2022
man didn’t have to reload—a trick used in Call of how Remington targeted “couch commandos”
Duty, a video game Lanza compulsively played with aggressive advertising. “Consider your man
that features a shooter armed with a Bushmaster. card reissued,” one Bushmaster ad promised;
another gloated, “Forces of opposition, bow
The mammoth settlement “may not be the water- down.” These revelations may make other gun-
shed moment gun-safety advocates have been makers rethink their advertising campaigns—and
aching for,” said Melissa Chan in Time. Not reconsider “whether want to continue in the busi-
many states have laws such as Connecticut’s, ness of making and selling assault weapons.”

18 NEWS Pick of the week’s cartoons

THE WEEK March 4, 2022 For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons.

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20 NEWS Technology

Android: Google’s bid to beef up privacy

Google says it has a plan to “keep the move as a way to cut off advertising

good parts of digital advertising while competitors, not bolster privacy.

removing some of the bad,” said Corin

Faife in The Verge. Last week, the search Google isn’t likely to go as far as Apple

giant announced it wants to begin “over- here, said Ron Amadeo in Ars Technica.

hauling ad-tracking on Android phones,” As part of the announcement, Google

following in the footsteps of Apple’s App criticized “other platforms” (read: Apple)

Tracking Transparency feature on iOS. for their “blunt restrictions” on advertis-

Introduced last spring, Apple’s privacy ers. You can take that as “a reassuring

update derailed the digital-advertising statement to advertisers that Google is

economy (and platforms like Facebook publicly committing to keep the cash

that rely on ad revenue) by giving users flowing” for another two years. Part of

the choice to opt out of allowing apps Is Google hoping to beat regulators to the punch? its $150 billion ad business is “built on
to track their activity across other apps tracking users virtually everywhere they

and websites, a main source of data for targeted advertising. The go,” said Shoshana Wodinsky in Gizmodo. Behind its promises

key change for Google involves phasing out the “advertising ID.” about “privacy enhancement” is the winking pledge not to put

Each Android device is assigned a unique identifier to build a pro- “access to free content and services at risk.” The signal to Face-

file of the user that allows developers to target in-app ads. Google book chief Mark Zuckerberg is “don’t worry.”

says it intends to replace those IDs with “more private” solutions.

Translation: Developers will probably still have ways “to tap into If that’s the case, it won’t be enough for Google, said Parmy

data about user preferences.” Olson in Bloomberg. Europe thought it was introducing the

world’s strictest data privacy laws two years ago, but by click-

There’s one “obvious potential beneficiary” to its ad-tracking ing a simple “consent” button on a pop-up, users have opted in

plan, and that’s Google itself, said Eric J. Savitz in Barron’s. If to ad targeting anyway. European regulators are tightening the

ad targeting on platforms like Facebook and Snapchat becomes rules now, and if Google doesn’t get serious about privacy, there

less effective, “ad dollars could flow to other formats less reliant will be more changes to come. That might be a fine solution any-

on tracking consumer activity,” such as Google search. Google way: Consumers “deserve a break from” being followed on their

should tread carefully, because regulators might regard this phones and “stalked around the internet.”

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

The hoped-for growth of the air-taxi Apple’s big Mac push Early adopters raved about the technology. But Getty
and no-emissions plane markets Second Sight ran into financial troubles and
has attracted a bevy of unusual Apple is “planning a massive slew of upgrades has now left users with an orphan technology,
designs. But Odys Aviation’s entry is this year,” said Mark Gurman in Bloomberg. highlighting the potential risk of cutting-edge
“completely unique,” said Loz Blain The iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad will get medical tech. “As long as nothing goes wrong,
in New Atlas.The plane’s wings form refreshes, but most attention will likely be I’m fine. But if something does go wrong with
a kind of diamond-shaped box, with devoted to the Mac line. Apple started its it, well, I’m screwed. Because there’s no way of
“16 props spaced out along” them. transition to its custom chips to rave reviews getting it fixed,” said Terry Byland, who has
While some other aircraft rely on in 2020. “This year, the transition to Apple Second Sight implants in both eyes.
turning motors to launch vertically, Silicon will shift into high gear.” An M2 chip
the planned Odys craft “will develop will follow up on the M1 in Apple’s MacBook Jammer wipes out town’s cell signal
vertical lift at a standstill by extend- Air, with faster performance and more graph-
ing large flaps from the back of each ics cores. The biggest changes may be at the A man in France is facing a hefty fine after
wing to redirect the airflow and high end, with a “super-powered” version he used a signal jammer to stop his kids from
thrust” downward. As it lifts, the air- of the already powerful M1 Max. Look for using the internet and wound up wiping out
craft hovers with its nose pointed up the M2 chip to be in Apple’s 24-inch desktop his entire town’s connection, said Charlie
about 15 degrees—close to the take- Mac, and for Apple to introduce a larger, pro- Osborne in ZDNet.com. Claiming his teen
off angle of a conventional plane. level desktop model. “Just a few years ago, children were “addicted” to social media, he
So far, Odys has flown a small-scale the Mac business looked like it was waning.” purchased a multi-band jammer to cut his
prototype and soon hopes to move Now “it’s safe to say that Apple Silicon has home’s internet services “from midnight to
on to a larger prototype with an turned that around.” 3 a.m. every day.” But the Agence Nationale
18-foot wingspan. des Fréquences, which manages radio frequen-
A surprising risk of bionic implants cies in France, received a complaint from a
THE WEEK March 4, 2022 mobile phone carrier that “had detected odd
A company that provided technology for a signal drops that were impacting the telephone
“kind of bionic vision” has abandoned 350 and internet services” of the French town of
users who may have no one to turn to if their Messanges. Walking streets at night with a
implants fail, said Eliza Strickland and Mark spectrum analyzer, a member of the ANFR
Harris in IEEE Spectrum. Second Sight’s surgi- traced the problem to the father’s jammer—an
cal implants use electrodes to “take the place illegal device in France.
of the photoreceptor cells in a healthy eye.”

Health & Science NEWS 21

Another step toward a cure for HIV

A mixed-race woman, age 64 and suffer- only, were men, one white and one Latino. Stem cells could clear these tiny HIV cells.
ing from leukemia, has become the third The presumed success of the umbilical cell
person to be apparently cured of HIV. The treatment raises the hope that eventually a scalable intervention” for general use.
unidentified patient received a transplant a wider array of people can be cured, says “This is like sending someone on a rocket
of stem cells taken from a relative and The Washington Post. However, all three to the moon,” he says. “It’s great science,
from the umbilical cord of a baby with a patients received their transplants as part but it’s not the way we’re going to travel.”
rare genetic feature, typically seen in just of treatment for blood cancers. Such trans-
a few people of European or Caucasian plants have failed in others, and experts on
descent, that provides resistance to HIV. medical ethics consider them too risky to
The woman had been diagnosed with the be used on people with HIV who are other-
virus in 2013 and received the transplant wise healthy. Carlos del Rio, from Emory
four years later; since then her viral load University School of Medicine, says that
has been undetectable. The previous two while the breakthrough is “critical science
patients, both treated with adult stem cells to eventually get us to a cure,” it is “not

California’s Lake Oroville is shrinking. say this sharp increase will lead to major the rates of new cardiovascular issues
Eastern cities being hit by costly “nuisance” among 153,760 Covid patients who were
Megadrought in the West floods even on sunny days. “It’s going to treated by the Department of Veterans
be areas that haven’t been flooding that are Affairs before vaccines were available.
The megadrought currently parching the starting to flood,” co-author William Sweet Compared with people who hadn’t had the
western United States is the region’s driest tells the Associated Press. “Many of our virus, says NBCNews.com, the patients
22-year spell in at least 1,200 years. That’s major metropolitan areas on the East Coast had more heart muscle inflammation, heart
the conclusion of a new study of climate in are going to be increasingly at risk.” Worst rhythm irregularities, and potentially fatal
southwestern North America dating back to hit will be parts of Louisiana and Texas, blood clots in the legs and lungs. They had
the year 800, says the Los Angeles Times. where waters are projected to be 18 inches a 72 percent higher risk of heart failure,
The researchers calculated that 42 percent higher; at the other end of the scale, Seattle 63 percent higher risk of a heart attack,
of the current drought’s severity is the can expect an increase of about 9 inches. and 52 percent greater chance of a stroke.
result of global warming—and that these Overall, sea levels around the nation will Strikingly, the effect was the same across
dry conditions could persist for years to rise as much in the next 30 years as they all demographics, regardless of the severity
come. “The results are really concerning, did in the previous century—whether green- of the patient’s bout with Covid. “Younger
because it’s showing that the drought condi- house gases decrease or not. The cause is adults, older adults, Black people, white
tions we are facing now are substantially climate change, which is melting ice sheets people, people with obesity and those with-
worse because of climate change,” says lead in Antarctica and Greenland. If warming out,” says lead author Ziyad Al-Aly, from
author Park Williams, a climate scientist continues at current rates, the NOAA says, Washington University in St. Louis. “The
at UCLA, noting that there is quite a bit of sea levels will rise by 2 feet by the end of risk was everywhere.” He warned that
room for them to continue to worsen. By the century. the damage will “last for a lifetime.’’ The
examining the growth rings of trees from study didn’t examine whether being vac-
some 1,600 different sites, Williams and his Covid can damage your heart cinated lowers the risk, but doctors suspect
colleagues were able to compare the current it might. Steve Nissen, a cardiologist at the
dry spell to seven megadroughts between Even a mild Covid case leaves people with Cleveland Clinic, says the “vast majority”
the 800s and 1500s. He says that although a much higher risk of many kinds of heart of Covid patients he has treated for heart
the region previously yo-yoed between dry problems and stroke for at least a year, a problems were unvaccinated.
and wet periods, climate change has created new study suggests. Researchers examined
a more permanent drying trend.
We overlapped Neanderthals rapid demise of Neanderthals,” co-author
Sea levels are rising fast Chris Stringer, from the Natural History

Sea levels on America’s coastlines will surge The discovery of a child’s tooth in a Museum in London, tells CNN.com. “But
by an average of about 1 foot by 2050,
much higher than previously thought, cave in France has revealed that early this new evidence suggests that both the
government scientists are warning. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin- modern humans lived in Europe at least appearance of modern humans in Europe
istration and six other federal agencies
54,000 years ago—about 10,000 years and disappearance of Neanderthals is

earlier than previously thought. What’s much more complex than that.” The tooth

more, the ancient molar and hundreds was discovered in Grotte Mandrin in the

of human tools were Rhone Valley. While the

sandwiched between researchers have found

layers of Neanderthal no evidence that humans

remains, showing that and Neanderthals shared

the two groups of homi- the cave at the same

nins coexisted in the time, the two groups

region. “We’ve often probably encountered

Getty (2), Alamy thought that the arrival each other somewhere in

of modern humans in the area—even if not in

Europe led to the pretty Humans might live here next. the Grotte Mandrin.

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

22 ARTS
Review of reviews: Books

Book of the week finds fault with doctors and insurance
and pharmaceutical companies while
Cost of Living: Essays pointing out that the system is operating
just as it’s designed to do. “Health care
by Emily Maloney is both the most personal experience and
the most dauntingly and infuriatingly
(Holt, $28) impersonal, and Maloney puts both reali-
ties into clear view.”
“This isn’t just a thoughtful, compassion-
ate book; it’s also an essential one,” A system that works miracles—at a cost Several of Maloney’s essays, including the
said Michael Schaub in the Minneapolis one about her medications, “put too much
Star Tribune. Author Emily Maloney, “Cost of Living is an early entry on my list faith in the power of showing, not telling,”
besides being an exceptional writer, of most memorable reads in 2022,” said said Kristen Martin in NPR.org. She’s bet-
has a unique perspective on the crisis Michael Welch in the Chicago Review of ter when probing an issue, such as why
in American health care. At 19, she Books. In one standout essay, Maloney women’s medical complaints are so often
attempted to take her own life and simply lists each of those 26 medications dismissed, or whether or not doctors should
emerged from the hospital with a five- and what it cost her financially, emotionally, share more information with patients who
figure debt. “Suicide should be cheaper, I and physically. She would learn, at the end may be close to death. Maloney, if she had
remember thinking,” she writes. By then, of the whole ordeal, that her illness wasn’t her druthers, would establish a single-payer
she had been prescribed 26 medications psychiatric but caused by hypothyroid- system and make health insurance compa-
and quit them all; she didn’t need them. ism, a developmental disorder, and vitamin nies illegal, because she believes that such
In an attempt to pay off her medical bills, deficiency. When she widens her view to middlemen players simply drive up every-
she subsequently worked as an emer- address who’s to blame for such waste, she one’s costs. But she doesn’t dwell on hypo-
gency room technician, pitched in with theticals. Indeed, Cost of Living is “never
hospital billing decisions, and organized less than bracingly real,” said Chris Vognar
pharmaceutical industry trade shows. in USA Today. “The book is sure to haunt
Her 15 essays on what she’s seen at every your imagination the next time you enter
level “put into sharp relief the cost of try- the labyrinthine health-care system and face
ing to feel better in a country dedicated the expenses, financial and otherwise.”
to capitalism.”

Novel of the week Heiresses: The Lives of the The book is “packed with rich women who Getty
Million Dollar Babies can buy everything but love,” said Daisy
Moon Witch, Spider King Goodwin in The Sunday Times (U.K.). At 41,
by Laura Thompson (St. Martin’s, $30) Woolworth’s heir Barbara Hutton was mar-
by Marlon James ried for only 53 days to a notorious playboy
The heiress, for but had to pay almost $700,000 a day in
(Riverhead, $30) centuries, “has been 2022 dollars to divorce him. More than a cen-
an unfair object tury earlier, Catherine Tylney-Long rejected
The new Marlon James book is “a rare of ridicule,” said the courtship of a future king of England to
sequel that is better than its predecessor,” Alexandra Jacobs wed a rake who burned through her fortune
said Alex Brown in NPR.org. Revisit- in The New York and, Thompson suggests, may have poisoned
ing certain events in Black Leopard, Times. Author her, causing her death at 36. “Again and
Red Wolf but from the perspective of Laura Thompson again, the reader feels like shouting, ‘What
the Moon Witch—an antagonist in that wishes to defend on earth were you thinking?’ as heiress after
2019 National Book Award finalist—this the honor of this heiress willfully marries Mr. Wrong.”
second book in a planned trilogy set in a cohort, at least up
mythical Africa introduces its title char- to a point. Her Not every story here is about heartbreak, said
acter when she is a nameless girl impris- “well-informed but Charlotte Gray in The Wall Street Journal.
oned by her brothers. She develops, over slightly breathless” In the book’s final section, Thompson moves
time and despite brutal suffering, into a book surveys four centuries of high-profile into the 20th century and finds plenty of
formidable woman. James, all the while, British and American women who stumbled women who exercised the greater agency
“toys with the common traits of epic in one way or another after being born into they were afforded. Winnaretta Singer, of
fantasies, giving readers a journey with immense wealth. “With proper indigna- the sewing machine family, supported art-
no destination” and characters who defy tion,” Thompson points out that for too ists including Kurt Weill and Pablo Picasso,
traditional story arcs. Given the violence long, women born to wealth lost it all on while her wealthy niece Daisy Fellowes
in its pages, the book “requires a trigger the day they married. They were fat targets chose a life of pure hedonism instead. A few
warning for those accustomed to G- for schemers; “men were gaslighting them of Thompson’s subjects, including Charles
rated fantasy,” said Natashia Deón in the before gaslight was even invented.” But even Dickens’ friend Angela Burdett-Coutts,
Los Angeles Times. The richness of the as she begs sympathy for them, Thompson actually proved faultlessly generous. “But
writing can also become too much. Still, can’t help making a spectacle of their extrav- heiresses such as these are not so fun to read
“every step in this novel is worthwhile.” agance and seemingly incurable ennui. That about. They certainly don’t give us the same
Deeply imagined but relevant to our makes the book “a complicated romp,” a delicious shiver of schadenfreude.”
world, the book is “the bridge of a trilogy brush-off paired with an air kiss.
and also a creation that, like James’ tal-
ent, stands alone.”

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

The Book List ARTS 23

Best books…chosen by Sheila Heti Author of the week

In Sheila Heti’s new novel, Pure Colour, sexual metaphor is invoked regularly as the Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
protagonist, a woman in mourning, fashions a personal theology. Below, the author
of How Should a Person Be? offers a critical survey of sex in American literature. Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
once seemed like the last
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934). Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt (2011). This person who’d ever become
Henry Miller is perhaps the most joyous and is the funniest book on the list—a satire on het- a celebrated mountaineer,
exuberant American writer of the 20th century. erosexuality, capitalism, and the entrepreneurial said Jessica Zack in the San
His books are filled with a lust not just for sex, spirit, in which attempts to fix the world only Francisco Chronicle. Growing
but for life, freedom, escape, and the city. Tropic make it worse. The protagonist comes up with up in Peru, the future Silicon
of Cancer, first published in the U.S. in 1961, is a bizarre and unlikely idea for how to reduce Valley executive was so afraid
his utterly strange and messy masterpiece. sexual harassment in the workplace, only to end
up enshrining it. of heights
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956). that she cried
This is one of the most moving novels I have Cleanness by Garth Greenwell (2020). the first time
ever read, and the sexuality in it is furtive, Cleanness tells of an American expat living and she saw the
tender, filled with confusion and guilt and self- teaching in Sofia, Bulgaria. The depictions of ice-covered
loathing, and a sense of twilight. It’s concerned gay sex and love in this book are so various, and high range
with being lost in one’s own self, and the beauty are exquisitely rendered in beautiful sentences. of the Andes.
of another. This book contains one of my favorite sex scenes But years
ever—involving nothing more than kissing. later, after
Corregidora by Gayl Jones (1975). Gayl Jones taking the hallucinogen aya-
was a primary inspiration for Toni Morrison. Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman (2022). This huasca during a personal low
Her shadowy novel Corregidora is about a brilliant debut novel, which will be published in point, she became convinced
female singer searching for beauty and whole- May, is about a woman in a committed relation- that she could begin to heal
ness, having been hurt by a lover and hobbled ship with her girlfriend who finds herself drawn from past traumas, including
by a whole lineage of women whose lives were into a secret affair with a man and his girlfriend. childhood sexual abuse, by
ruined by the man who enslaved and impreg- The experience twists her ideas about her own training her body and mind
nated them. The book is plotted like a beautiful, desires, safety, love, what trust is, and where one to climb Everest and other
tear-filled song. can find it. towering peaks. From her
first summit, she was hooked.
Also of interest...in Hollywood yesterday and today “More than anything, it just
felt so peaceful,” she says of
Camera Man Red Carpet her first trip to the Himalayas.
“I’ll never forget it. I felt this
by Dana Stevens (Atria, $30) by Erich Schwartzel (Penguin, $28) sense of belonging that I had
never felt. When climbing, I
Buster Keaton holds center stage, but Erich Schwartzel’s snapshot of could become the woman I
wanted to be.”
Dana Stevens’ terrific new book is “a today’s Hollywood is “both a movie
Vasquez-Lavado’s new
triple biography of sorts,” said Rien nerd’s dream and nightmare,” said memoir, In the Shadow of
the Mountain, details how
Fertel in The A.V. Club. Slate’s film Joshua Axelrod in the Pittsburgh far she’s come since her days
of alcohol abuse and other
critic contends that the talented, inno- Post-Gazette. In chronicling how self-destructive behavior, said
Ikya Kandula in Condé Nast
vative screen star and filmmaker makes moviemaking has adapted to exploit Traveler. In 2018, she became
the first gay woman to climb
a fine guide to the emergence of cinema and of the China’s huge market, the Wall Street Journal the tallest summit on each of
the seven continents. One of
American Century. Camera Man is “an essential reporter digs up plenty of gossipy production those climbs had triggered
an emotional breakdown.
read if you’re interested in any of these topics,” details but also may make it impossible to watch “Nature showed me it’s OK to
be vulnerable, it’s OK to feel
and because it excels at parsing Keaton’s work, a new blockbuster with innocent eyes. “The grief,” she says. “It allowed
me the space to let go.” She
it’s also “a terrific starting place for the budding author has a knack for revealing how China has since started a nonprofit,
Courageous Girls, that orga-
Busterphile.” exerts its influence in the most bizarre places.” nizes climbing expeditions
for survivors of violence and
Margaux Williamson, Getty Putting the Rabbit in the Hat From Hollywood With Love abuse. “I think if I have a pur-
pose for the rest of my life, it’s
by Brian Cox (Grand Central, $29) by Scott Meslow (Dey Street, $28) to try to get as many people
[as I can] to come and join me,
Brian Cox comes across in his new Romantic comedies have long been and to be able to experience
memoir as “a seasoned workhorse undervalued, said The Economist. In for themselves the beauty of
finally able to enjoy a victory gal- this “enjoyable” survey of the genre’s what is there.”
lop,” said Alexandra Jacobs in The recent ups and downs, Scott Meslow,
New York Times. HBO’s Succession a senior editor at The Week, assem- THE WEEK March 4, 2022
has won Cox a new level of fame bles behind-the-scenes histories of
at 75, and he’s using his spotlight to revisit When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually, and sev-
his humble Dundee roots, his rise to leading eral other hit movies while arguing that all merit
man of the British stage, and his decades as a greater critical attention. At times “the reader
sought-after Hollywood character actor. Cox longs for more contemplation of what these films
“can ramble a bit,” but he has many good say about the attitudes and anxieties of their
celebrity stories, and he “salts all the idolatry times.” Still, the anecdotes sparkle, and Meslow
with disdain.” is right that the rom-com has much life left in it.

24 ARTS Review of reviews: Art & Music

Exhibit of the week Wearing’s Me as O’Keeffe (2018) transgressions or childhood traumas.
Both series blur the line between confes-
Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks series, she invited strangers to write what- sion and performance while illuminat-
ever was on their mind on a sheet of ing the misalignment of the public and
The Guggenheim Museum, New York City, paper, then photographed them holding private self. The results “can be moving
through June 13 it. In 1994, she asked strangers to disguise and deeply unsettling, a smorgasbord of
themselves in masks and wigs, then filmed humanity.”
Gillian Wearing’s mid-career retrospec- them sharing intense stories about sexual
tive “will have visitors wondering if they “In the second half of her career,” said
can ever trust the neutrality of a camera Sebastian Smee in The Washington Post,
again,” said Richard Woodward in The “Wearing’s work has become more explic-
Wall Street Journal. Throughout her itly about herself, or, more accurately,
career, the 58-year-old British artist “has about dramatizing the possibility that her
sought to undermine complacent axioms self, as such, may not exist.” In one photo
about portraiture by incorporating series, she looks out at the camera from
masks and makeup, as well as actors and behind masks that depict other members
crowds, into the making of her provoca- of her family as well as herself at ages as
tive art.” Consider 1996’s 60 Minutes young as 3. In another, she wears masks
Silence, a video that won Wearing her depicting artists she admires, so that
nation’s prestigious Turner Prize. The we see her as Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy
piece shows 26 men and women in Warhol, and Marcel Duchamp. These pol-
police uniforms arranged for a formal ished series have a “creepy, claustrophobic
group portrait and saying nothing as intensity,” but their solipsism makes them
they sit and stand in place for a full less successful than Wearing’s “lo-fi and
hour. They do fidget, though, display- democratic” early work. Still, it’s clear
ing discomfort that individualizes and that Wearing, who was once counted
humanizes them. But don’t assume the among the celebrated Young British
point is straightforward. Though the dis- Artists, “has a lot more to give.” In recogniz-
comfort was real, the subjects were not ing how much people yearn for permission
police officers but hired actors in costume. to reveal emotions, even ugly emotions, that
they hide in public, she was precociously
“If there is one idea that unites Wearing’s prescient. “It’s past time American audiences
projects, it’s that the self is fundamen- got to know her—whoever she may be.”
tally unknowable,” said Anna Furman in
NYMag.com. For a celebrated 1992–93

Beach House Raveena Leon Bridges & Khruangbin Gillian Wearing
Once Twice Melody
Asha’s Awakening Texas Moon
++++
++++ ++++
“Beach House seems
to be making the same Raveena’s sophomore Not all Texas music is
very good album over album “feels like a spiri- honky-tonk brash, said
and over,” said Mark tual rebirth,” said Vrinda Kristin Robinson in
Richardson in The Jagota in NPR.org. The Billboard. When Leon
Wall Street Journal. Los Angeles–based Bridges collaborated
For nearly 16 years, singer-songwriter has with Khruangbin to
the Baltimore duo previously specialized create the 2020 EP
has been churning out “icily cinematic” in R&B lullabies that Texas Sun, the neo-
dream-pop characterized by “patient tem- “bordered on monotonous” when strung soul crooner and the hip Houston groove-
pos, ethereal synths, and lots of reverb.” together. For her major-label debut, though, rock trio scored an unexpected global hit
You register a lack of growth, yet it’s “hard she has invented a Punjabi space princess with the feel-good title track, “a warm,
to complain” when the music sounds as an alter ego, and that has freed her. easygoing ode to the Lone Star State.”
as good as it does on this eighth album. “It’s thrilling to hear her embrace a lusher, Now the foursome has returned, deliver-
There are some minor refinements, such more effervescent sound,” one that weaves ing a five-track sister project that “acts as
as the heightened use of warm electron- together disco, Bollywood instrumentation, a sultrier, cooler yin to Texas Sun’s yang.”
ics.The opening title track “courses with and 2000s R&B. She’s also “singing with At times, the subdued music “sounds as
thick and lush keyboard gurgles that turn a newfound confidence and imaginative spiritual as a Sunday morning service,”
your brain into an ultrasoft down pillow.” wonder.” The back half of the album comes starting with the quiet opener, a portrait
When you listen closely, this 18-track, across as a tribute to 1970s Indian jazz and of Bridges’ grandmother in her final
84-minute record “gradually unveils more disco singer Asha Puthli, said Alexis Petridis moments as Bridges’ father held her hand.
and more detail, like an intricate painting in The Guardian. But the entire project is Three tracks later, “Father Father” sounds
viewed from different perspectives,” said “both dazzling and impressively eclectic,” so penitent that “listening to it seems
Jem Aswad in Variety. It’s Beach House’s with ambient interludes set beside warped intrusive,” said Andy Kellman in AllMusic.
best work yet, and it’s “also the kind of beats and straightforward pop bangers. The tempo picks up slightly for the single
album you can put on and leave on: viv- Even the 13-minute guided meditation that “B-Side,” a “precise funk groove.”This is
idly atmospheric, melodically beguiling, closes the album signals that Raveena is the sound fans expect of Khruangbin, who
and seductive enough to keep you com- blazing her own path. “Mainstream pop keep the drums, guitar, and bass “eco-
ing back over and over.” music should make room for her; it would nomic at a stringent level—as if they’re
make things infinitely more interesting.” trying to see how little they can play.”
THE WEEK March 4, 2022

Review of reviews: Film & Home Media ARTS 25

Dinklage: If only he could sing. which musicals traffic.” Especially not when debut, Channing Tatum plays an Army ranger
Haley Bennett, who plays Cyrano’s romantic who comes to terms with his PTSD with the
Cyrano interest, Roxanne, is confidently belting out help of a canine battered by similar combat
her songs, all written by members of the rock traumas. The road-trip comedy “isn’t wholly
++++ band the National. Still, Dinklage is a wonder. free of hokum,” but “watching Tatum is pure
When Roxanne confesses that she’s fallen pleasure.” He’s “an actor filled with easy, laid-
“Hollywood may have been slow to recognize for a handsome cadet, not knowing that his back grace.” (In theaters only) PG-13
it, but Peter Dinklage truly merits leading-man love letters were composed by Cyrano, it’s
status,” said Peter Debruge in Variety. The “almost physically painful” to watch Din- Catch the Fair One
Game of Thrones star, now 52, brandishes klage’s “richly human” reaction. Director Joe “A pulse of righteous anger” animates this
his usual wit and charisma in this “splendid” Wright meanwhile has mounted “his boldest- rescue-revenge drama, said A.O. Scott in
musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. In looking film since Anna Karenina,” said The New York Times. Boxing champion Kali
the classic 1897 play, a 17th-century French David Sims in The Atlantic. “The landscape Reis, who is half Native American, half Cape
nobleman feels unworthy of the woman he of cinema doesn’t have enough maximalist Verdean, is magnetic as a fighter past her
loves because of his physical appearance. costumed epics.” In Wright’s hands, “even a prime who decides to hunt down the sex traf-
Dinklage, who has dwarfism, first played the conversation in a local bakery has more cin- fickers who kidnapped her younger sister. A
titular soldier and poet in an off-Broadway ematic sweep to it than most Marvel movies.” thriller that targets an underreported crisis
production written and directed by his wife, (In theaters only) PG-13 among Native American women and girls,
Erica Schmidt. Here, as on stage, the bespoke the movie, unfortunately, flattens out into “a
script “plays to many of the star’s unique Other new movies series of blunt, brutal scenes of reckoning.”
strengths.” Unfortunately, Dinklage “isn’t It remains moderately effective, but “might
much of a singer,” said Mike D’Angelo in Uncharted have been something more.” (In theaters or
The A.V. Club. His voice “just isn’t powerful Despite spending nearly 14 years in develop- $7 on demand) Not rated
enough to convey the heightened emotions in ment, the new big-screen adaptation of a
popular video game “never fully achieves Ted K
liftoff,” said Katie Walsh in the Los Angeles Many films have been made about Ted
Times. Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland co- Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated terrorist
star as a thief and the protégé he’s recruited who spurred the largest manhunt in FBI his-
into a hunt for ancient treasure, and though tory. “This one is different, though,” said
they banter ably, their “oddly neutered and Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal.
bloodless” adventure plays “like a Da Vinci The Unabomber is played brilliantly here by
Code with abs.” (In theaters only) PG-13 Sharlto Copley in “an enthralling, even vision-
ary drama” that tracks Kaczynski’s growing
Dog rage over industrial society and regards him
You can almost guess the plot of this one: “with empathy and horror.” As a study of
“Man rescues dog as dog rescues man,” said delusional thinking, Ted K “ranks with the
Stephanie Zacharek in Time. In his directorial best I know.” (In theaters or $7 on demand) R

Video games: A grander quest in Horizon Forbidden West

MGM/Everett, Sony Interactive Entertainment In this new blockbuster PlayStation Aloy at large in a 31st-century America put its visceral combat ahead of the
sequel, “the world needs even more sav- narrative, though. “It’s the rare action
ing than it did the first time around,” Hughes in The A.V. Club. Voice actor Ashly game where the battles and the story
said Ben Lindbergh in The Ringer. Burch employs “a winning mixture of sin- challenge each other to see which can
Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn was “an cerity, sarcasm, and exasperated sensibility” engage the player more.”
instant franchise-starter” when it as the red-headed heroine—a character
arrived in 2017, racking up critical originally inspired by Alien’s Ripley and “What Aloy is really contending with
accolades and selling more than 20 mil- Game of Thrones’ Ygritte. Meanwhile, each here are the earthly problems of this
lion copies. Following it up required of the dinosaur-like robots that roam the world: environmental blight, tribal fac-
providing more of everything that made mountains, deserts, jungles, and ruined cities tionalism, and the long-term political
the role-playing game a hit, and that’s of the game’s universe has its own strengths consequences of atrocities committed
what players get. Again, the protagonist and weaknesses, and “one of the abiding in wartime,” said Benjamin Frisch in
is a young hunter named Aloy who thrills of the game” is in learning how to Slate. In Zero Dawn, she learned how
lives in a post-apocalyptic far-future take them down with a bow, spear, or other old-world tech billionaires attempted
world where deadly machines run makeshift weapon. Forbidden West doesn’t to flee the calamity they had created.
rampant and humans have regressed Here, Aloy and her companions are
to living in small, scattered tribes. But this more focused on building a better future for
time Aloy knows she has an ancestral his- humanity. As you journey across the for-
tory that makes her humanity’s only hope, mer American West to investigate a plague,
and as she chases a solution, the scope and you’ll encounter warring tribes whose
beauty of the world she inhabits feel “as peoples have different customs and beliefs
bracing and breathtaking—and, at times, but ultimately want the same things: “to
overwhelming—as a gale-force gust to the honor their dead, heal their land, and just
face.” Most open-world role-playing games try to survive.” That’s their shared reality,
this big succumb to bloat; Forbidden West and in many ways, Forbidden West critiques
“stays wondrous all the way.” the folly of escapism. “It’s concerned with
living through the cyclical nature of human
That’s partly because Aloy “reads as a per- conflict, and how running away from one’s
son, not a mere player avatar,” said William problems dooms us to repeat them.”

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

26 ARTS Television

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

Grifters and cons... Better Things Seyfried as Elizabeth Homes in The Dropout
Sam Fox, marginally employed screen actress and
The Sting middle-aged single mom, may just be stumbling and Laurie Metcalf help lend the telling credible
onto a growth path. As Pamela Adlon’s unusually suspense. Available Thursday March 3, Hulu
The best con-man movie honest and tremendously funny comedy enters its
of all time won a whopping final season, Adlon’s Sam is still being routinely Pieces of Her
seven Oscars. Paul Newman humiliated by the day-to-day of her chosen work. Some moms keep very big secrets from their
and Robert Redford co-star But she is also watching her three spirited teenage children. In this adaptation of a Karin Slaughter
as charismatic 1930s grift- daughters take meaningful steps toward maturity thriller, Toni Collette plays a middle-aged mother
ers who pair up to pull off and is gaining new perspective by digging into her who, while sharing a meal at a diner with her
a high-stakes long con on a family history. Monday, Feb. 28, at 10 p.m., FX adult daughter, springs into action to take down
powerful crime boss. an active shooter. Without explaining why the
$4 on demand My Brilliant Friend media attention has put them both in danger, she
Elena and Lila’s fiery friendship meets the 1970s sends her daughter, played by Bella Heathcote, on
Six Degrees of Separation in the third season of the beautiful Italian adapta- a quest that reveals layers of surprises. Available
tion of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. Elena, Friday, March 4, Netflix
Will Smith put the world on who’s restless despite the success of her first novel
notice with his stellar perfor- and the arrival of her first child, returns to Naples Other highlights
mance as a young con man, to find Lila cast out of the girls’ old neighborhood, State of the Union
based on a real person, who working at a sausage factory, and bucking against A lingering pandemic, high inflation, possible
slipped into the 1980s New the brutal patriarchy she confronts at every turn. war in Ukraine—President Joe Biden will have no
York City elite by claiming to Monday, Feb. 28, at 10 p.m., HBO shortage of topics to cover as he delivers a once-a-
be the son of Sidney Poitier. year status report to Congress. Tuesday, March 1,
Stockard Channing and Don- Against the Ice at 9 p.m., most major networks
ald Sutherland co-star. Hulu It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
In a feature-length drama co-written by Nikolaj After Yang
The Wizard of Lies Coster-Waldau, the former Game of Thrones A girl’s android companion breaks down, throw-
star looks perfectly matched to the role of real- ing a family of three into mourning in this festival
Bernie Madoff remains life Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen, author hit that’s simultaneously debuting in theaters.
unrivaled among 21st- of a gripping tale of Arctic survival. In 1909, Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Justin H.
century confidence men in Mikkelsen and one naïve volunteer set off across Min co-star. Friday, March 4, at 9 p.m., Showtime
the success with which he Greenland’s permafrost to retrieve a map left by a
separated rich people from doomed expedition. The movie can’t quite make Outlander
their money. Robert De Niro 865 days on the ice thrilling, but it does deliver Claire and James’ time-traveling love story crosses
delivers a masterfully con- sled dog horror, a polar bear attack, and solid paths with America’s Revolutionary War as
trolled portrayal of the Ponzi performances from Coster-Waldau and co-star Joe Season 6 begins for co-stars Caitríona Balfe and
scheme mastermind in this Cole. Available Wednesday, March 2, Netflix Sam Heughan. Sunday, March 6, at 9 p.m., Starz
2017 HBO original, allowing
Michelle Pfeiffer, as Madoff’s The Dropout
wife, to provide the story’s You have to wonder what possessed Elizabeth
spark. HBO Max Holmes to build a $10 billion startup on lies. In
this new series, Amanda Seyfried throws herself
The Imposter into the role of the Stanford dropout who founded
Theranos at 19 and quickly convinced investors
Frédéric Bourdin took fakery that her blood-testing business would revolu-
to a new level. This jaw- tionize health care. Seyfried plays Holmes as a
dropping documentary dreamer who conned herself into crossing lines.
recounts how the French Co-stars Naveen Andrews, William H. Macy,
trickster, who, despite hav-
ing an accent and the wrong 1951’s favorite American couple Show of the week Hulu, Getty
eye color, convinced a Texas
couple that he was their Lucy and Desi
long-missing teenage son.
Peacock America still loves Lucy. If Aaron Sorkin’s Being
the Ricardos left any skeptics, Amy Poehler’s
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels new documentary should bring them aboard.
Poehler does a cracking good job as director,
Michael Caine and Steve adding fresh life to the familiar beats of Lucy and
Martin generate 1980s-style Desi’s showbiz love story, from their meeting on
slapstick comedy playing the set of a 1940 Hollywood musical, through
two con men on the French the rise of I Love Lucy, the building of their TV
Riviera who wager on who empire, and their eventual split. Audio record-
can be the first to extract ings of a candid Lucy set the tone, as does com-
$50,000 from a young heir- mentary from daughter Lucie and admirers such
ess. Hulu as Carol Burnett and Norman Lear. Available
Friday, March 4, Amazon Prime
The Lady Eve

Barbara Stanwyck stars as a
con artist on an ocean cruise
who takes two shots at se-
ducing a naïve brewing scion
played by Henry Fonda. As
Eve, she gets the last laugh
in this 1941 screwball com-
edy. $4 on demand

THE WEEK March 4, 2022 • All listings are Eastern Time.

LEISURE 27
Food & Drink

Cauliflower Marbella: A savory-sweet vegan crowd pleaser

“Food needs love. The more love you put 1 tsp fine pink Himalayan salt, or to taste
into it, the better the results,” says Charity ½ tsp ground black pepper
Morgan in Unbelievably Vegan: 100+ Life- ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Changing, Plant-Based Recipes (Clarkson 6 cups cauliflower florets (about 1 large
Potter). Almost since the day I started
cooking a strictly plant-based diet for my head)
husband, NFL linebacker Derrick Morgan, ¼ cup (packed) light or dark brown sugar
I have looked at tofu, vegetables, and ¼ cup dry white wine
legumes as blank canvases for bold, soaked- 3 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for
in flavors. “To me, a marinade is like the
first step of dating—it’s intense and sets the garnish (optional)
stage for the rest of the relationship.”
In a large bowl, combine prunes, olives,
The recipe below is my vegan version of a A 1980s classic reimagined olive oil, vinegar, capers, bay leaves, garlic,
famous chicken recipe that appeared in The oregano, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper,
Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and from games. I soon joined him, as did our and red pepper flakes. Whisk until well
the late Sheila Lukins. The cauliflower first two children, and 18 other members of the combined. Add cauliflower and toss until
soaks in a “savory-sweet” marinade made of Tennessee Titans I was soon cooking for. coated. Cover and marinate in refrigerator
olive oil, vinegar, garlic, sweet prunes, briny You can start with just this one meal. for 1 to 6 hours, stirring halfway through
capers, and green olives. The marinade is the marinating time.
then baked with the cauliflower and a splash Recipe of the week
of wine to create a rich pan sauce. The Cauliflower Marbella Preheat oven to 400. Transfer cauliflower
result is “a beautiful family-style meal that 1½ cups pitted prunes and marinade to a roasting pan or glass
can be served straight from the gratin dish 1 cup pitted green olives casserole dish. Sprinkle brown sugar, ½
it’s baked in, with creamy mashed potatoes ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil tsp salt, and ¼ tsp black pepper over
on the side.” To make traditional mashed ½ cup red wine vinegar cauliflower (no need to stir). Pour wine
potatoes vegan, all you have to do is swap ¼ cup capers, drained around cauliflower. Bake for 35 to 45
in plant-based milk, butter, and sour cream. 6 bay leaves minutes, until cauliflower is tender with
To increase their savoriness, I stir in garlic, 10 garlic cloves, crushed browned edges and sauce has thickened
nutritional yeast, and sometimes truffle oil. 2 tbsp fresh oregano, coarsely chopped, or and caramelized.

Derrick changed the way he ate to reduce 2 tsp dried Remove from oven and let cool for 10 min-
inflammation and recover more quickly utes. Discard bay leaves. Serve over mashed
potatoes, topped with pan sauce and sprin-
kled with parsley, if using. Serves 6.

‘America’s Classics’: The James Beard Class of 2022 Wine: Natural winners

The James Beard awards aren’t all “the glitz and glam of haute cuisine,” said Jessica Su- Natural wine can no longer be dismissed
lima in Thrillist. The organization that hands out the so-called Oscars of the food world as a fad, said Eric Asimov in The New
has been designating modest restaurants as “America’s Classics” for almost 20 years, York Times. The audience for unadulter-
and the first honorees since 2020 reveal a new focus on celebrating culinary diversity. ated wines made from organically grown
grapes keeps growing, as do the number
The Busy Bee Café Atlanta Founded in 1947, this soul food institution was a regular of excellent examples. Producing wine
pit stop for leaders of the 1960s civil rights movement, and thanks to its famous fried this way is risky, “but the results can be
chicken, “it has been able to transcend generations with ease.” thrilling,” as with these bottles.
2020 Roberto Henríquez Rivera del
Florence’s Restaurant Oklahoma City Florence Jones Kemp likes to say that all she had Notro Blanco ($23). Produced in
when she opened in 1952 was “two chickens and a prayer.” Today, she and her daughter Chile’s Itata Valley, this orange wine
Victoria are still serving up braised oxtail and “yam fried chicken,” and theirs is the first- blends the juices of three grapes. “It’s
ever Oklahoma restaurant to win a Beard award. intensely floral, lightly textured, and
altogether delicious.”
Corinne’s Place Camden, N.J. Corinne Bradley-Powers’ cozy pink dining room has been 2019 Absentee Winery Red ($26).
an oasis in Camden since 1989 and a great place for pigs’ feet and Cajun turkey wings. The label and name are minimalist,
but this red blend from California’s
Wo Hop New York City The second-oldest restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown occupies Mendocino County is “fresh and
an unassuming basement location, but it’s “the alive, direct and to the point.”
place to go for any seafood delicacy,” including salt 2020 Ca’ de Noci Sottobosco
and pepper squid with egg gravy. ($27). A reliable organic producer
in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, makes
Emily Dorio, Erik Meadows Casa Vega Sherman Oaks, Calif. L.A. celebrities in this sparkling red, and it’s “simply
the know have been heading to the Valley for 65 wonderful—bone-dry, moderately
years for Ray Vega’s enchiladas and tostadas. tannic, fruity and stony.”

Busy Bee owner Tracy Gates Solly’s Grille Milwaukee Other Wisconsin restau-
rants can claim to have invented the butter burger.
Solly’s “put it on the map,” creating an iconic combo
of sirloin, stewed onions, and Wisconsin butter that
it has been serving since 1936.

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

28 LEISURE Consumer

The 2022 Toyota Tundra: What the critics say

Consumer Reports which creates a superior ride compared The Tundra Platinum, from $57,320
with the many half-ton pickups still using
The first new Tundra in 15 years outclasses old-fashioned leaf-spring suspensions. and now features walnut trim and a “beau-
its predecessor “in just about every facet The new engine in the Tundra’s volume tiful” 14-inch touchscreen that’s great at
you look at it.” Toyota’s full-size pickup, model is a 389-hp twin-turbo V6, which displaying maps and camera images. The
though admirably reliable, had elsewhere increases combined fuel economy from Tundra still doesn’t match high-end Rams
fallen behind its innovative U.S. rivals. 14 to 19 mpg and pushes the truck’s tow- for creature comforts, but Toyota loyalists
But the boldly styled new Tundra arrives ing capacity to 12,000 pounds. Also new looking to trade in their old pickups “will
bearing new tech, an upgraded cabin, for 2022 is a hybrid powertrain good for undoubtedly be wowed.”
and a “silky smooth” new powertrain that 437 hp and 583 lb.-ft. of torque. The hybrid
features a 10-speed automatic transmis- is heavy, though, and slower than the
sion and plenty of muscle. Though the comparable Ford and Chevy.
Tundra feels as big and heavy as it is, “it’s
a fantastic truck to drive.” Motor Trend

Car and Driver At the top of the line, the Tundra’s cabin
has made “a quantum leap in opulence,”
Credit the new coil-spring rear suspension,

The best of...early spring gardening

Garrett Wade Soltech Solutions Carrot Design Muck Boot Co. Felco 200A-60
Grow Bags Aspect Grow Light Newspaper Pot Maker Muckster II Pruning Shear

Mesh fabric pots allow Get a head start on Make your own biode- These durable rubber Tame shrubs and
roots to breathe better growing season with gradable starter pots small trees this prun-
than plastic or ceramic a hanging grow light boots were made for ing season with the
planters do, and that’s “sleek enough to using newspaper and this mud but are comfortable best loppers around.
they’re easy to store, double as a decorative simple hardwood tool. enough to be a go-to Felco sets the industry
too. Garrett Wade’s overhead light.” Even There’s no need for tape walking boot. They’re standard for prun-
American-made grow the smaller, 20-watt or glue, and you can plant lined with a breathable ing shears, and the
bags are machine version “adds serious the paper pots directly mesh, and their outsoles Swiss company’s two-
washable and can be natural-looking light to in your garden once the quickly shed grass, mud, handers slice cleanly
left outside or used the room.” seeds sprout. through branches up
indoors on a tray. and dirt. to 13/8-inch thick.
From $150, thesill.com
$42 a set, garrettwade.com $23, amazon.com $120, muckbootcompany.com $119, felco.com
Source: The Spruce
Source: Epicurious Source: BobVila.com Source: NYMag.com Source: NYMag.com

Tip of the week... And for those who Best apps...
How to prevent ‘smartphone pinkie’ have everything... For bringing order to chaos

Q Know the risks. One of the most natural “Racing simulators Q Simplify Gmail makes emailing “a more
ways to hold a phone can lead to acute pain have truly come of serene experience.” The $24-a-year browser
in the hand and beyond. It often originates age.” When motor- extension gives the Gmail website “a much-
in the habit of resting the phone on the sports professionals needed facelift” by streamlining menus and
pinkie while the thumb types or scrolls. But need to learn a new adding white space. It also adds new sorting
the pain can run from the pinkie to the hand circuit, they now options and keyboard shortcuts.
and wrist and right up to the elbow. train virtually with Q Mela can compile the recipes bookmarked
Q Use both hands. Two hands are better high-tech kits such in your favorite cookbooks and cooking web-
than one in reducing repetitive stresses. The as the Axsim For- sites. The mobile and desktop app ($5 for
tendon in the pinkie isn’t strong enough to mula Simulator. iOS) presents the recipes at full-screen size.
hold a heavy phone for long periods, and Built by a company Q Super Agent automatically fills in cookie
use of two hands keeps your wrists in a that has designed fighter-jet simulators, this consent pop-ups using preferences you’ve
neutral position and minimizes the distance “outrageously realistic” machine recreates given the free browser extension. “This ap-
that the thumb must stretch. the adrenalizing sensations Formula One proach makes websites less likely to break
Q Accessorize. Attach a PopSocket or other drivers feel when they whip around a track. from having their pop-ups hidden, and you
phone grip to the phone’s case if you can’t “It’s potent enough to give your upper body can still tell them not to use tracking cookies
quit one-hand use. The attachments create a pretty serious workout while reminding for ad targeting.”
less stressful hand positions. you of the major talent deficit that exists Q Brickit can scan a jumble of Lego bricks
Q Take breaks. Never use a phone for long between even a competent driver and a pro. spread across a floor, catalog each piece it
periods without stopping to stretch your The result is hugely addictive.” sees, then suggest ideas for what you could
fingers and wrist. From $54,100, axsim.racing build with your collection.

Source: The Washington Post Source: Wired Source: Fast Company

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

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30 Best properties on the market

This week: Homes in Los Angeles

1 W Sherman Oaks Known as the Round
Valley Tree House, this three-bedroom home
looks out on the city and mountains from
a wooded hillside. Built in 1935 in modern
farmhouse style and recently gut-renovated,
the house features an open living area with
eat-in chef’s kitchen and retractable glass
wall leading to the viewing deck, and a
principal suite with accordion doors to the
upper deck. The landscaped property in-
cludes terraced gardens, a dining patio, and
a street-level garage. $2,595,000. Shamon
Shamonki, Sotheby’s International Realty–
Brentwood Brokerage, (310) 481-4372

2 SVenice “Radius House,” built 3 SWestside Set on the slopes of Mandeville Canyon, this four-
this year, was designed by the L.A.- bedroom home has views of the forest and the Santa Monica
based architecture studio Pentagon. Mountains. The 1960 midcentury-modern house, designed by ar-
The sculptural four-bedroom home chitect Bernard Zimmerman in cantilevered glass and steel sections,
has European white oak and radiant- features a living room with double-
heat cement floors, Venetian plaster sided fireplace, primary suite with
walls, curved walnut-clad shelving, picture windows, and an fireplace, family room, and wine
angled grand staircase circling an atrium, lit by a walkable cellar. The 3.4-acre lot is wooded
oculus skylight embedded in the rooftop terrace. A landscaped with sycamore and eucalyptus and
central courtyard surrounds a basalt slab set with a swimming includes decks, multilevel gardens,
pool, sundeck, and firepit. $7,200,000. Sandra Miller, Engel & pool, and guesthouse. $5,000,000.
Völkers Santa Monica, (310) 616-6213 Simon Beardmore, Sotheby’s
International Realty–Brentwood
THE WEEK March 4, 2022 Brokerage, (310) 892-6454

Best properties on the market 31

4 X Melrose Photographer Gray Malin
designed this five-bedroom home
in Melrose Village’s Design District.
The Southern Colonial and coastal–
inspired house has living and dining
rooms open to a chef’s kitchen with
island; principal suite with soaker tub,
sitting area, and patio; and roof deck
with outdoor kitchen and views of the
Hollywood sign. Outside are a front
courtyard with
pepper trees and
olive bushes, a
sun porch, and
a backyard with
lawn, pool, hot
tub, and cabana.
$4,495,000.
Joshua Gaunya,
DPP Real Estate,
(310) 275-2223

Westlake: Eric Charles; Melrose: Christopher Amitrano California 6 XWestlake This two-bedroom 5 W Pacific Palisades
apartment is on the top floor of a
1949 Spanish-style building between This Spanish-
Westlake North and Historic Filipi- inflected Tuscan-
notown. Recently renovated, the home style farmhouse in
has white-oak engineered flooring, high Castellammare was
ceilings, windows framing sky and city designed by architect-
views, an updated kitchen with brass to-the-stars Paul R.
finishes and butcher block counters, Williams in 1927.
a main suite with a windowed office Recently refurbished,
nook, and a balcony. On the fenced the three-bedroom
and gated lot is a home features beamed ceilings, wide-plank
single-car garage oak floors, arched doorways, built-ins, Juliet
included with the balconies, and picture windows with views
unit. $499,000. of mountains, pines, and the Getty Villa; the
Elizabeth McDon- furnishings are also for sale. The property
ald, TRG Realty includes a walled brick courtyard and a
Company, Inc., guesthouse with a kitchen and bedroom with
(323) 313-5780 fireplace. $3,988,000. Zackariah Neeley,
Keller Williams World Class, (805) 559-2209

Steal of the week

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

32 BUSINESS
The news at a glance

The bottom line Consumers: Spending rises despite worries

Q In the third quarter of 2021, “Massive savings,” high household The paradox here is that mea-
life insurance claims were up
37.7 percent. Roughly half the wealth, and a tightening labor mar- sures of consumer sentiment
excess deaths were the direct
result of Covid; others may ket are pushing Americans to spend, have plunged to their lowest
be tied to deferred medical
treatment.Total death benefit said Lucia Mutikani in Reuters. point since 2011, said Robert
payments in 2020 were 15
percent higher than in 2019, Retail sales in January rose a season- Burgess in Bloomberg. The
the biggest jump since the
1918 flu pandemic. ally adjusted 3.8 percent according to conventional thinking is that
The Wall Street Journal
data released last week, close to dou- “Americans’ views about their
Q European banks have
some $76.9 billion in ble the increase economists expected. Sales beat expectations personal finances were deterio-
outstanding Russian loans. The strong sales reversed the trend rating” because of inflation con-
Since late 2009, 11 major
European banks have paid a reported in December, which saw a decline of 2.5 cerns. But watch what consumers do, “not what
total of $19.6 billion in fines
for violations of U.S. sanc- percent, and showed that Americans are willing they say.” Household net worth has surged by $34
tions rules.
Bloomberg to brave economic uncertainty to shop. But infla- trillion since the start of the pandemic. Spending

Q The tion played a part, too, with sales “lifted by higher on interest as a share of income is the lowest it has
invest-
ment bank prices because of shortages amid strained supply been in data going back to 1980—the opposite
Barclays
froze ex- chains.” One weakness: “Sales at sporting goods, of the situation in 2008. Yes, rising prices can eat
CEO Jes
Staley’s hobby, musical instrument, and book stores fell into earnings, but for now the strong sales num-
$29 mil-
lion bonus 3.0%” suggesting that inflation is making “con- bers confirm that Americans “are in a pretty good
as it
investigates his ties to sex of- sumers cut back on discretionary spending.” position financially to weather faster inflation.”
fender and onetime financier
Jeffrey Epstein. Energy: Frackers return to abandoned fields There’s no business Getty (2)
CNN.com like snow business
“Spurred by the highest oil prices in years, shale companies are mov-
Q Mortgage applications fell ing drilling rigs back into oil fields that were all but abandoned a few The Winter Olympics
13.1 percent last week to years ago,” said Collin Eaton in The Wall Street Journal. With prices have put a spotlight
their lowest level since 2019. hovering around $95 a barrel, they are returning to places like the on a growing niche
The average rate for 30-year Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma and the DJ Basin in Colorado that they business, said Jessica
fixed-rate mortgages with had abandoned as unprofitable. Burned by overextending in other flush Karl and Adam Minter
conforming loan balances times, frackers told investors this week they would be careful about new in Bloomberg: making
($647,200 or less) was 4.06 spending. But producers are eager to catch a moment of opportunity for fake snow.The Beijing
percent. unusually high profits in the cyclical energy business. Games needed “400
CNBC.com autonomous snowmak-
Investing: Morgan, Goldman face hedge-fund probe ing machines to create
Q Reversing a pandemic the perfect conditions
trend, wage gains by white- Securities regulators and the Justice Department have launched a probe for each racing venue.”
collar professional workers of “block trading” on Wall Street, said Susan Pulliam and Juliet Chung Worldwide, only three
are outpacing gains in lower in The Wall Street Journal. First reported by the Journal last week, the or four companies are
tiers. Pay for finance, infor- investigation is said to look at “whether bankers might have improp- capable of creating
mation, and professional em- erly tipped hedge-fund clients in advance of large share sales.” Morgan snow for major events,
ployees is up 4.4 percent in a Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and several large hedge funds have been served and their business is
year—greater than the gain with subpoenas by investigators who are examining if the banks dis- booming.The Olympics
for other workers, but still closed major sales to favored clients, who could have profited by trading has magnified interest
below the rate of inflation. on information not available to ordinary investors. in winter sports in Asia,
The Wall Street Journal with the number of ski
Activism: Icahn pushes for McDonald’s changes resorts in China up 40
Q Big tech companies are percent, to nearly 800,
betting the office is not dead. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn this week nominated two people for since 2015. Entry into
Tech industry office space McDonald’s board, said Lauren Hirsch in The New York Times, with the business is difficult,
leasing in the last three an unusual goal: securing “better treatment for the pigs whose meat because planning takes
quarters of 2021 was up 76 goes into McDonald’s sausage patties and other pork products.” While years. Climate change
percent. Google spent $2.1 Icahn’s stake in McDonald’s is tiny, activist investors have been suc- creates new opportuni-
billion to buy a Manhattan cessful in pushing through changes for social causes, and Icahn’s own ties, but snowmakers
office building. reputation gives him an outsize influence. McDonald’s sources about can only adapt so much.
The NewYorkTimes 1 percent of the pork in the U.S. Icahn has singled out the use of small “I really hope that, let’s
crates “in which sows are housed while pregnant.” say in 50 years, we
THE WEEK March 4, 2022 still have winter some-
Disasters: Ship filled with luxury cars burns in Atlantic where,” says Michael
Mayr, the Asia manager
A cargo ship that left Germany with 4,000 Porsches, Bentleys, and other of TechnoAlpin, the
luxury cars caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic last week, said biggest snowmaker,
Aurora Almendral in Quartz. The “22-person crew abandoned ship “Because if we don’t
and was rescued,” but the fire, fed by lithium-ion batteries in electric have a winter some-
vehicles, burned for days. Such fires “burn hotter and release noxious where, we have a very
gases,” and can only be put out by specialized dry chemicals. The lost big problem.”
vehicles are likely to cost maker Volkswagen at least $155 million.

Making money BUSINESS 33

Auto prices: Nightmare at the dealership

Car prices have gotten so out of consumers would have paid on

whack that drivers are going to great a new vehicle two years ago.”

lengths to keep their old cars run-

ning, said Michael Sasso and Raeedah It’s crazy to think you can actu-

Wahid in Bloomberg. The average ally make money by selling your

price of a used car now exceeds car, said Sean Hollister in The

$28,500, a staggering 40.5 percent Verge. But that’s exactly what’s

increase from the year before. New happening. I paid $20,814

cars are roughly 12 percent more ex- in December 2014 for a new

pensive than they were in early 2021, Honda Fit, and seven years

but inventory is so limited, it is driving later Carvana cut me a check

more buyers to the used-car lots—and for $20,905 for it, sight-unseen.

“changing kitchen-table economics.” Some used cars are selling for more than they cost new. Carvana uses an algorithm that
It’s been good for business for mechan- “combs through public databases

ics, who find themselves “inundated with ailing high-mileage that record insurance, registration, mileage, accidents, and more”

vehicles” and requests to “overhaul engines on autos once bound to determine the condition of the car. It then factors that against

for the junkyard.” In Athens-Clarke County in Georgia, garage the current market and “which cars Carvana needs to stock in its

owner Kevin Thain said, “It isn’t unusual to see fixes running inventory.” That last part might explain the aggressive bid for my

over $10,000.” aging hatchback. But Carvana told me that while I may be lucky,

it wasn’t a bug: “At that moment in time, Carvana’s algorithm

Teens are getting priced out of “a rite of passage,” said Nora believed it could pay me that much and still make a profit.”

Eckert in The Wall Street Journal. The number of 16- to

25-year-olds who purchased a pre-owned vehicle fell 35 percent Many economists suspect that fixing the supply chain problems

between 2019 and 2021, “more than for any other age group.” will ease the car inflation, said Conor Sen in Bloomberg. “Sorry,

There had been some resistance to driving among younger demo- but no. That’s not how automakers see it, nor is it what they

graphics, who primarily lived in urban areas, but “Gen Zers had want.” They are investing billions of dollars in new production

been showing more interest in automobiles before the health facilities for electric vehicles, and for a while, shortages and higher

crisis.” Now sticker shock is holding them back: The average prices will be a “cost of leaping into an electric future.” So don’t

monthly payment on a financed used car is $540, “close to what hold your breath waiting for things to “normalize.”

Getty What the experts say mortgage rates will correspond with a soften- Charity of the week
ing in demand.” Buyers have been pushed to-
Workers resist office return ward new construction by a shortage of older Studies have shown that children are far
homes; “however, newly built homes are more more likely to read books that they can
“Companies and workers are living in two expensive, and with interest rates soaring, that pick for themselves and keep in their
different realities when it comes to returning may give buyers pause.” Those seeing rising homes. Book Trust (booktrust.org) works
to the office,” said Erica Pandey in Axios. rates are rushing to lock in their terms, but to build children’s interest and sense
Return-to-work dates are popping up again that will soon ebb. of agency by giving elementary school
as America moves past Omicron, but there’s children from low-income homes the
a growing “disconnect between leadership Will index funds rule the boardroom? opportunity to choose and buy their own
and the rank-and-file.” A recent poll by Pew books. Each month of the school year,
Research found that “61 percent of telework- Charlie Munger is wary about the shift toward BookTrust teachers help their students
ers are working from home because they’re passive investing, said Orla McCaffrey in The select books that connect with their inter-
choosing to.” That’s a big difference from ear- Wall Street Journal. The 98-year-old vice chair- ests, turning reading into a regular habit
lier in the pandemic, when most offices were man of Berkshire Hathaway and longtime in the hope of instilling a lifelong love
closed. Just 42 percent of respondents said fear business partner to Warren Buffett warned last of literature. For many kids, BookTrust
of infection was their reason for remaining week that index funds now hold the power books are the first childrens’ books they
home, compared with 57 percent in October to “sway corporate decision making.” Pas- have ever gotten to take home and keep.
2020. “Executives are three times as likely as sive investment funds, which track indexes In 2020 alone, BookTrust served about
employees to want to return” to the office. rather than specific stocks, have “delivered 58,000 students, who picked out and took
better returns than many active funds during home more than 765,000 books.
Homebuilders prepare to pull back the market’s decade-long rally,” increasing
their popularity among investors. With that Each charity we feature has earned a
A slowdown in home construction in January growth in assets, they have also become “the four-star overall rating from Charity
“could reflect a number of headwinds for biggest investors in most large stocks,” with Navigator, which rates not-for-profit
home builders,” said Jacob Passy in Market corresponding voting power belonging to the organizations on the strength of their
Watch. Part of the 4 percent decline might managers of those funds. “I think the world finances, their governance practices,
be attributable to shortages in supplies; nota- of Larry Fink,” Munger said, referring to the and the transparency of their operations.
bly “the number of homes completed fell in leader of index-fund giant BlackRock, “but Four stars is the group’s highest rating.
January, while the number of homes under I’m not sure I want him to be my emperor.”
construction rose”—a sign that in some places THE WEEK March 4, 2022
construction is at a standstill. But homebuild-
ers are also trying to gauge “whether a rise in

34 Best columns: Business

Olympic business: Did corporate sponsors help Beijing?

The Beijing Olympics were the perfect ex- Visa—simply didn’t respond at all. Noth-

ample of the “minefield” the U.S.-China re- ing is new here. “Activists rallying for

lationship has become for business, said Ana Uighur and Tibetan rights protested in the

Swanson in The New York Times. Take the streets of San Francisco ahead of the 2008

consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. Beijing Olympics. Yet the Games still took

Like the 12 other premier Olympic spon- place.” Access to China “has become a

sors, P&G shelled out heavily for prominent rote excuse for businesses to avoid action,”

placement in the games that ended this said Rui Zhong in Wired. And businesses

week. But it ended up spending “even more have not just stood by and tolerated Bei-

to try to prevent any negative fallout from jing’s abuses. Companies such as Coca-

being associated with China’s repressive and Cola and Nike have participated in them,

authoritarian government,” investing in a Outside China, sponsors kept a low profile. actively lobbying against U.S. sanctions.
lobbying campaign to beat back calls for

the U.S. government to stop buying products from Beijing Games Corporations will increasingly need to choose sides between the

sponsors. That demonstrates the dilemma of doing business in U.S. and China, said Eric Sayers and Ivan Kanapathy in Foreign

both the U.S. and China: “What is good for business in one coun- Policy. While U.S. companies may have sponsored the Beijing

try is increasingly a liability in the other.” The backlash goes both Games, looking ahead they will be subject to “a raft of restric-

ways; in the West, companies face the ire of human rights groups, tions.” China may have expected the U.S. to temper President

while those that stop operating in the country’s troubled Xinjiang Trump’s confrontational approach, but in fact “the Biden ad-

region have been pilloried in China. Business groups say they are ministration has signaled its general agreement” with Trump’s

stuck between the laws of two countries. Human rights advocates policies. In some cases, it has even expanded the Trump rules,

say that’s just as it should be. When you are at the Chinese Com- for instance by expanding an investment ban “to include Chinese

munist Party trough, says one, “you will have to turn into a pig.” surveillance technology companies.” While Washington was ini-

tially focused on “defensive measures,” Congress is turning to “a

Indeed, the lack of interest in human rights that Olympics spon- more offensive agenda,” seeking to bring control of technologies

sors have evidenced is truly telling, said Samantha Masunaga back to U.S. shores. The next trade front may be China’s ef-

and Sarah Parvini in the Los Angeles Times. We asked every one forts to introduce a “digital yuan” and gain control of electronic

of the 13 Olympic sponsors how they felt about sponsoring the payments—something the U.S. increasingly sees as a national

games amid the genocide in Xinjiang. Two said that they don’t security issue. A Republican-controlled House of Representatives

comment or get involved in political issues. One, Intel, gave us could be even more aggressive on China, and the “traditional

a blanket “no comment.” And 10—Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, economic relationship between the United States and China” is

Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota, and set for even greater disruption.

Women still “Successful men used to marry their secretaries,” to avoid making him feel emasculated”—claiming
face penalties said Kara Alaimo. “Now people choose spouses with she earns less than she does, or even doing extra
for success similar levels of education and earnings,” but career housework. And, still, when women are the main
success is still a minefield for women. Women who breadwinners, couples are more likely to be unhappy
Kara Alaimo are successful in their careers still say it hurts their or get divorced. There is a solution to this problem,
relationships. One Pulitzer Prize winner called the and it doesn’t start with women. It starts with men.
Bloomberg columnist Maureen Dowd in tears because it would “Men privately say they feel pressured to live up to
kill her romantic prospects. “Sonia Sotomayor con- our society’s conceptions of masculinity, even when
sidered turning down her nomination to the Supreme they don’t like or agree with them.” If we want to
Court because she knew it would hurt her dating make modern relationships work, we need to recog-
life. To state the obvious, successful men don’t tend nize the hurdles that successful women face—and the
to have this problem.” A woman who earns more masculinity of men who are not threatened by their
than her husband will often “jump through hoops partners’ achievements.

There is no Not long ago, we used to ask about when work life nucleus of our work lives anymore. Many compa- Reuters
return to the was going back to normal, said Derek Thompson. nies won’t like this, because “when the office be-
old office Now it is—it’s just not the office life we remember. comes a group chat punctuated by Zoom all-hands
“Tech, media, and finance companies have basi- meetings, switching jobs is practically as easy as
Derek Thompson cally stopped talking about their full return-to-office logging out of one Slack account and logging into
plans.” That’s because almost all of these com- another.” The scariest thing about the new office,
The Atlantic panies are sticking with hybrid work—except for though, may be that “downtown areas will experi-
the few that are going all-remote. And if the office ence an extended ice age.” That’s why politicians,
THE WEEK March 4, 2022 is changing, so is work. The traditional “five-day not CEOs, have become the most active boosters
workweek is dying.” Fridays and Mondays are of an office return. But that won’t change things,
spent largely out of the office, “occupying a murky because “Americans really, really don’t want to go
space between weekday and weekend.” And on the back to the office,” and we will just have to learn
days when we are in the office, it still won’t be the to live with that.

Obituaries 35

The conservative humorist who skewered all sides The Olympic rower
who invented
P.J. P.J. O’Rourke might and earned a masters in English Books on Tape
O’Rourke have been the funni- from Johns Hopkins. There the
est conservative ever. then-hippie wrote for “a rock’n’roll Duvall Hecht couldn’t stand
1947–2022 In scores of articles Marxist student journal called the tedium of his hour-long
Harry.” But the constant “socialist commute to and from a
and 20 books, the humorist married diatribes” soured him on leftism, banking job in Los Angeles.
and he ditched his bell bottoms. He The radio offered only the
his caustic wit to a gonzo writing moved to New York and wrote for
the humor mag National Lampoon, same few
style that drew comparisons with where he became known for “rau-
cous, politically incorrect articles,” Duvall pop songs
Hunter S. Thompson, as he targeted said The Washington Post. After Hecht interspersed
serving as editor-in-chief from 1978
liberal pieties, smug elitism, and to 1980, he freelanced a bit and landed as foreign 1929–2022 with endless
affairs chief for Rolling Stone, “filing dispatches commercials.
hypocrisy wherever he found it. The about his misadventures” in the Philippines, the
Soviet Union, Nicaragua, and other locales. Fed up, in the early 1970s
libertarian O’Rourke opposed “gov- Hecht sold his 1965 Porsche
O’Rourke evolved to be “a familiar presence as and recorded a college
ernment spending, Kennedy kids, a writer and on-air pundit,” said the Associated drama coach reading George
Press. He did a stint on 60 Minutes in 1996 as the Plimpton’s football tale Paper
seat-belt laws...and jewelry on men,” conservative for the “Point/Counterpoint” seg- Lion. A new medium was
ment; in later years he was a regular panelist on born, and within five years,
he wrote in Republican Party Reptile (1995). the NPR news quiz Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me! tens of thousands of custom-
During a 2016 appearance on that show, he reluc- ers were listening to Hecht’s
Among his other best-sellers were Holidays in Hell tantly declared he was voting for Hillary Clinton, Books onTape. “It never once
asserting she was “wrong about absolutely every- seemed like a wacky idea to
(1998), a collection of pieces about visiting war- thing,” but that Donald Trump must be stopped. me,” he said in 2001, soon
Still, it rankled him. “I mean, my whole purpose after selling his startup to
torn countries, and Parliament of Whores (1991), in life, basically,” he said, “is to offend everyone Random House for an esti-
who listens to NPR.” mated $20 million.
subtitled A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain
Born in L.A., Hecht attended
the U.S. Government. A frequent talk-show visitor Stanford University, where he
hoped to make the football
partial to scotch, cigars, and pinstriped oxfords, team, said InsideTheGames
.biz. At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds,
O’Rourke cast his aim wide, and was quick to he was deemed too small
and advised to try crew
puncture his own team’s foibles. Democrats prom- instead. He went on to
become an Olympian, rowing
ise “government will make you smarter, taller, at the 1952 Summer games
in Helsinki and winning gold
richer, and remove the crab grass on your lawn,” four years later in Melbourne.
He later founded and coached
he wrote. Republicans tell you “government the rowing program at the
University of California,
doesn’t work and then get elected and prove it.” Irvine.

O’Rourke was born in Toledo, Ohio, where To liven up his drive, said
his father was a car salesman and his mother a the Los AngelesTimes, Hecht
school administrator, said The Telegraph (U.K.). first tried listening to reel-to-
He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, reel books recorded for blind
people. When cassette tapes
The ‘Candy Bomber’ who delighted Berlin’s kids arrived, he could only find
motivational recordings. His
Gail Lt. Gail The son of Utah sugar beet start-up initially struggled to
Halvorsen Halvorsen’s mis- farmers grew up under a com- secure rights from publish-
sion initially mercial flight path, said The ing houses, but eventually
1920–2022 looked dreary. The Salt Lake Tribune. “Halvorsen he amassed a 6,000-book
would find himself looking catalog. After leaving the
cargo pilot was one of hundreds up” at the planes. He earned company, he was sad to see
his Army Air Corps wings in the classics replaced with
who participated in the Berlin 1944 and was deployed to best-sellers, saying had he
West Germany in July 1948, known that would happen he
Airlift, the U.S. and British effort one month after the Berlin might not have sold. In later
blockade began. Halvorsen life, Hecht got back behind
to subvert the Soviet blockade of tried to keep the candy drops secret at first, as they the wheel, this time as a
were against regulations, said Bloomberg. But his long-haul trucker, often with
West Berlin in 1948 and 1949. commanders quickly “realized the goodwill that his wife tagging along. “On
Halvorsen was generating” and made Operation those trips,” Hecht said, “of
Berlin—divided into French, Little Vittles official. A stateside press tour gener- course, we would listen to
ated nationwide interest, and candy manufacturers Books onTape.”
American, British, and Soviet began donating goodies, while American school-
children sewed mini parachutes. THE WEEK March 4, 2022
sectors—was in the Soviet occupation zone, and
Halvorsen became an engineer in the space pro-
the Soviets wanted the Westerners out, so they gram in the 1950s, said The Washington Post, and
eventually retired as a colonel. “A ‘candy bomber’
choked off land access to the Western sectors of to the end,” he delivered sweets to war-ravaged
Kosovo in the 1990s and to reunified Berlin for
the city. Flying in the 8 million pounds of food the airlift’s 50th anniversary. His drops, he said in
1998, were about more than treats. “Somebody
and supplies West Berliners needed each day was out there realized you were under siege,” he said.
“I think hope is the thing, not the candy bar.”
a nonstop endeavor, and Halvorsen initially felt

uneasy about helping a recent enemy. But one day,

he saw some scrawny German kids by an airport

fence and gave them the two sticks of Doublemint

gum he had in his pocket. Moved by their joy, he

promised to airdrop more, saying they’d know it

was him when he dipped his plane’s wings. Young

Berliners began calling Halvorsen “Uncle Wiggly

Wings,” and over 15 months, he and dozens of

other pilots dropped 23 million tons of candy by

Getty, AP parachute to both sides of Berlin. “I was happy

because of the look on the faces of the children,”

he recalled in 2009. “They would just go crazy.”

36 The last word

Pregnant and sick with Covid
Diana Crouch was 20 weeks along and unvaccinated when she fell seriously ill, said Ariana Eunjung Cha
in The Washington Post. Doctors worked for 139 days to save her and the baby she carried.

KINGWOOD, TEXAS—CHRIS CROUCH As soon as they returned, however,
had had low expectations for she developed a low-grade fever and
online dating. He was a police exhaustion unlike anything she had
officer in his 30s, almost a year out known. Late on Aug. 6, she cried out
from a painful divorce and, he said, the that she was having trouble breathing.
women he had met had been “playing Chris called 911, reminding himself
games” in ways that left him dispirited. that in his line of work, he’d seen a

Then he met her. lot of people go to the hospital for

Diana Garcia Martinez was 24 and a Covid—with most recovering fine after
busy single mom whose sister had set a little oxygen.

up her profile without her knowing. She Diana’s case would turn out to be far

was intelligent, empathetic and upfront, less simple. The emergency doctors at

and by the third date, he was in love. “It the local hospital immediately trans-

was just a feeling.... I felt like I knew her ferred her to Texas Children’s Hospital

my whole life,” he recalled explaining in Houston, which had created a

to his cousin Gilbert, knowing it was a special unit for pregnant women with

cliché but also true. Covid. Chris remembers Diana scream-

Now, four years later, he was in a ing when doctors told them she needed
hospital intensive-care room remem- a ventilator: “I have kids. I can’t die.”
bering their courtship as his wife lay He held her and made a promise he
unconscious, hooked up to a tangle of wasn’t sure he could keep: “You are
machines keeping her alive. Diana was not going to die,” he vowed.

20 weeks pregnant, and he had a deci- Diana named her baby Cameron, after her doctor. From the start, Diana’s case weighed
sion to make. If doctors delivered the on Cameron Dezfulian, a critical-care

baby now, they told him, she would have exaggerated and they wanted to get back to specialist supervising or consulting on doz-

the best shot at surviving. But the baby was their lives. ens of pregnancies. “She was unusual,” he

so premature that it would almost certainly When the vaccines came along, Chris recalled. Most of his other patients had pre-

die. If Chris waited, he could lose them became outspoken against them, espousing existing conditions such as obesity and were
views that were common in his workplace close to full term at 36 to 40 weeks. Diana
both. had been healthy, about 110 pounds, and
at 18 weeks when she first arrived at the
Chris and Diana were married in the sum- and much of Texas, but that put him at hospital, still in the second trimester of her
mer of 2019 in a small garden ceremony, odds with his mother, sister, and the close pregnancy. She had at least a month before
and life had been pretty close to perfect friends who had grown up with him in the fetus would be considered viable—a situ-
since then. They were opposites, but in the Heights, a liberal bastion in Houston. ation that complicated treatment options.
ways that complemented each other. Born Despite his family’s pleading, Chris and
in Monterrey, Mexico, and raised in North Diana were adamant they did not need to be

Carolina, Diana was quiet and tended vaccinated. They did wear masks, but only Pregnancy does extraordinary things to the

to choose her words carefully. He was a when required. body, and the interaction of those changes

gregarious Texan with a quirky way of Chris felt vaccine mandates infringed on per- with Covid is something scientists are only
sonal liberties, and he and Diana also wor- beginning to understand. Doctors are still
recalling dates, numbers, and interesting
facts about everything from football to legal ried that the shots had been developed too baffled about why pregnant women appear
to be especially likely to get seriously ill with
statutes, a habit that sparked lively conver- quickly. As Chris liked to say, “God gave
sations with strangers wherever they went. us our immune system, and we could fight Covid. It could be that pregnancy causes
They agreed on conservative values—he was the viruses with our own immune system.” the immune system to be in a heightened
state of alert to protect the baby, so when
raised Baptist and she was Catholic. And Diana, meanwhile, was leery of anything
they shared a sharp sense of humor, enjoying that might hurt the developing baby she car- exposed to a virus, it may overreact.

shows like The Office together. ried. She knew that early stories linking the Another theory suggests the opposite—that

They had a boy, Cain, and Chris was pro- vaccines to miscarriage and infertility were pregnant women are immunosuppressed so Mark Felix/Washington Post
moted to sergeant at the Harris County false, but thought avoiding them was the that their bodies don’t reject the developing
Sheriff’s Office, a job that provided a steady prudent thing to do, like skipping wine, raw fetuses. Fetuses also pull oxygen and blood
enough income that Diana could stay home fish, and unpasteurized cheese. to the placenta. When combined with a
and take care of their blended family. He virus like Covid that can cause lung damage
had two boys from his previous marriage; IN THE SUMMER of 2021, the couple and blood clotting, the body’s balance may
she had a girl from hers. The family was decided to go to Las Vegas to celebrate. be upset. Whatever the cause, Dezfulian
young, healthy, and happy, and when the They stayed at the Trump hotel, walked said, “there is no doubt pregnancy and the
pandemic hit, they were worried like every- along the Strip, and caught a showing of coronavirus are a setup for more illness.”
Cirque du Soleil. Diana had a headache, but

one else. Before long, though, they started it didn’t keep them from going out and hav- For Chris, the next 10 days blurred together.

feeling the dangers of the virus had been ing fun. He wasn’t allowed to leave the room

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

The last word 37

Courtesy of Chris Crouch because he was also assumed to have coro- DOCTORS HAD EXPECTED Diana to be The infant was healthy. But Diana’s body
navirus. Chris had never lost anyone close on the machine for up to about 21 seemed exhausted from the ordeal: She
to him. And as he stared at his wife and saw days. When that marker came and developed an infection, an air leak in her
her suffering, he couldn’t shake the question went, Chris told himself to be patient as he lungs, and one eventually collapsed. Doctors
that kept popping into his head: “Was this stared at the tubes of blood swirling around began preparing for a lung transplant.
my fault?” his wife’s body. On Day 30, it seemed like
their ordeal might be over. Diana woke up It was in this dark moment that things
During those long hours alone, he struggled and was even able to get on her phone and began to shift. Without the added stress of
with how strongly he had held to beliefs text her family hello. Chris remembers the carrying the baby, Diana’s body began to
about the vaccines without really examining whole staff smiling and making plans for repair itself, and by the end of November,
them. He began writing to friends, family, next steps. doctors were able to wake her up. She was
and even strangers on Facebook, urging The happy moment was all too brief. It tremendously weak and at first, didn’t know
them to get the shots. Somewhere along wasn’t long before Diana started seeming Chris. His heart felt like it was disintegrat-
the way, he got vaccinated himself. “When confused. Soon, she could no longer see even ing. But then, when a nurse told Diana he
you sit there and you see your wife on life though she was still talking to Chris. An was her husband, she pointed to a picture
support because of Covid, you throw out of them on the beach that Chris had posted
politics,” he said later. “None of that Diana and Chris on their wedding day in 2019
matters anymore.” on the wall and said, “No, that’s my
hour later, she slipped into a coma, and the husband.”
Dezfulian’s team had hoped that the somber three walked to the room again.
oxygen they were pumping into Diana’s Diana was suffering from “an embolic Slowly, against all odds, Diana’s memo-
lungs through a ventilator would enable shower,” in which blood clots burst and ries came back and she began asking
her to fight off the virus. Instead, things scatter, the doctors explained. Three had about her two other children and won-
were going in the opposite direction. gone to her brain, causing strokes, and dering how it could be that she was
“Every day we were losing a little bit of another had lodged in a wall of her heart, no longer pregnant. She asked Chris,
ground,” he said. resulting in a heart attack. It was a known “Why didn’t anybody tell me I was
complication of ECMO, but they had not going to have a C-section?”
Fourteen days after Diana arrived at the been able to put her on blood thinners
hospital, the group concluded it was because she had had bleeding in her gastro- Shortly before Christmas, on Dec. 23,
time to move Diana to another machine intestinal tract and in her throat, where doc- Diana was able to return home, after
called ECMO, or extracorporeal mem- tors had cut a hole for the ventilator. 139 days at the hospital, 101 on a ven-
brane oxygenation, in which the blood Now the doctors told Chris that even if tilator, 51 of those also on ECMO. As
is pumped outside the body to give the Diana woke up, she might “not be the soon as they arrived, Chris scooped her
lungs and heart a chance to rest. The same,” that she might not remember him or up and put her in a bed he and Diana’s
decision to put a patient on ECMO is the children. Chris crumpled into the chair father had set up downstairs and Cain,
not taken lightly. The therapy, devel- next to her and wept. Dezfulian came by 1, and their daughter, Miranda, 7, piled
oped in the 1970s, is lifesaving in the right and prayed with him. “That’s when I prayed onto the blankets. Chris cradled their
circumstances. But it can also lead to bleed- the most,” Chris said, “because at that newborn Cameron, plump and healthy,
ing, stroke, seizure, blood clots, and infec- point, even the doctors were like, ‘We don’t whom they had named after Dezfulian,
tion. Moreover, the equipment is scarce, the really know what to do next.’” Diana’s doctor.
staffing intensive, and the treatment can run Diana went back on ECMO and as the
up hospital bills in the millions. days slowly passed, Chris could see her belly Physically, doctors are optimistic Diana will
growing. Through everything, the baby’s make a full recovery, but it will take time,
On the day his team recommended ECMO heart rate held steady and was growing and she’s still weak on her left side because
for Diana, a somber trio of staff members nicely. On Nov. 10, when Diana had been in of the strokes. Emotionally, she’s struggling.
appeared in her room to visit Chris. He the hospital more than three months and the She has anxiety about seeing people and
doesn’t remember the exact words they used, baby was 31 weeks along, doctors delivered leaving her home for fear of her or her loved
but they seemed to speak in euphemisms. a baby boy by C-section. He was 4 pounds ones being infected with the virus. “Things
“They would ask how you were” and then and 12 ounces. I used to do before, I can’t do anymore....
throw in a question, like what would he And so it’s hard for the kids and it’s hard for
want done if his wife’s heart stopped. “They me, because you want to do so much more.
were giving you hints,” he said. And they want you to do so much more,”
she said.
Chris was worried about putting Diana
on the new machine. When he Googled Most of their extended family who had
ECMO, he said, he found “it’s a bad, bad resisted vaccines has now gotten them after
deal.” Using ECMO during pregnancy learning of Diana’s ordeal, but a few remain
is extremely rare. One study from the reluctant. In January, they got word that
University of North Carolina detailed what Gilbert, one of Diana’s favorite relatives on
happened in nine cases from 2008 to 2017: Chris’ side who was also unvaccinated, had
Only three of the women lived and only five Covid. He was one of the first people Chris
of the babies, for a survival rate of 33 per- had told about Diana, and he was always
cent and 55 percent, respectively. Still, Chris joking to Chris that he had done well for
decided he had to try to save both Diana himself in finding her.
and the baby. “I didn’t know if one or the
other was going to live, or both were going He died in late January, and Diana cried all
to die,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was night.
going to go back home without anybody.”
A version of this story originally appeared in
The Washington Post. Used with permission.

THE WEEK March 4, 2022

38 The Puzzle Page

Crossword No. 637: Current Films by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest

1234 567 8 9 10 11 12 This week’s question: A “bored” security guard at an art
gallery inYekaterinburg, Russia, used a ballpoint pen to
13 14 15 16 add eyes to two faceless people in a $1 million painting.
The painting’s original name wasThree Figures; what
17 18 19 should it be called now?

20 21 Last week’s contest: The Razzie Awards, which recognize
the cinematic world’s least impressive efforts, created the
22 23 24 category “Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021
Movie” and awarded Willis eight trophies. Please come
25 26 27 28 29 up with a new Razzie category honoring the worst of
Hollywood.
30 31 32 33 34 35
THE WINNER: “Worst Reboot of a Rebooted Reboot”
36 37 38 John Smigelsky, Holmdel, N.J.
SECOND PLACE: “Seth Rogen Same Character EveryTime
39 40 Award”
John Holler, Clearwater, Minn.
41 42 43 44 THIRD PLACE: “Best Reason to Read a Book”
Jeff Cox, Shawnee, Okla.
45 46 47 48 49
For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go
50 51 52 53 54 to theweek.com/contest.
How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to
55 56 [email protected]. Please include your name,
address, and daytime telephone number for verification;
57 58 59 this week, type “Painting Eyes” in the subject line. Entries
are due by noon, EasternTime,Tuesday, March 1. Winners
60 61 62
will appear on the Puzzle Page next
ACROSS 43 Suffix for real or ideal 21 Beethoven dedicatee issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on
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destination 46 Pen filler 26 The Simpsons grunt or similar entries, the first one received
5 Interior Secretary 47 Towing org. 27 Do a few laps gets credit.
Haaland 50 With 56-Across, 1957 28 PlayStation 5 maker W The winner gets a one-year
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David Lean drama that
13 Chemical compound won seven Oscars, (NBA star) Sudoku
that sounds like a including Best Picture 30 “___ just thinking the
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56 See 50-Across same thing!” boxes so that
15 “___ little teapot...” 57 Comic legend 31 Take out a Sunfish each row, column,
16 Area behind the house Youngman 32 “Let me have ___!” and outlined
17 See 34-Across 58 ___ whim (without 33 German exclamation square includes
19 Make very happy forethought) 34 Range peaks (abbr.) all the numbers
20 Agatha Christie 59 Killed, as a dragon 35 Unit of resistance from 1 through 9.
60 Artistic Edgar 37 Like Gen-Xers, vis-à-vis
remake, starring 61 A lousy one is a Difficulty:
Kenneth Branagh and “lemon” Millennials hard
Annette Bening, that 62 Commits a blunder 38 State Department
finished atop the box Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle.
office in its opening DOWN spokesman Price
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27 Toronto-to-D.C. dir. 7 ___ mi (Vietnamese Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6.
30 Violinist Stern sandwich) twisted The Week is a member of The New York Times News Service, The Washington
34 With 17-Across, 1984 8 Taboo subject 48 Fighting Post/Bloomberg News Service, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, and
comedy with Robin 9 Acceptable, as an 49 Win by ___ (eke out the subscribes to The Associated Press.
Williams as a Russian excuse The Week is part of Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885), registered
immigrant in New York 10 List-ending abbr. victory) in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House,The Ambury, Bath BA11UA.
36 1943 spy drama for 11 Communion, e.g. 50 You, long ago
which Paul Lukas won 51 ___ Kong
Best Actor 12 Body part sometimes 52 Classic Camaro
39 Ventilation features stubbed 53 Hosp. areas
40 The Crown won seven 54 Number before “zwei”
last year 14 “___-roh!” (Scooby- 55 Psychologist’s deg.,
41 Machiavellian Doo catchphrase)
42 Atypical often
18 Numskull
HMRS

THE WEEK March 4, 2022 Sources: A complete list of publications cited inThe Week can be found at theweek.com/sources.

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