The Week Magazine March 25, 2022

After two years of successfully avoiding Covid (as far as I know), I have lowered my mask. Not everywhere, but my wife and I have returned to our favorite restaurants, and in The Week’s office, my colleagues and I no longer are required to cover up. It’s liberating to have a naked face again, but a bit unsettling, too, like your first day in a nudist colony. Even in cautious blue states, normalcy is tiptoeing back. But no matter how desperately we crave being done with Covid, the pre-pandemic world we once knew is gone. The virus has insinuated itself into our culture, our consciousness, and even our politics. And no one knows whether the relief we're now experiencing will last, or is just a pause. We've had nearly 1…

What happened Stalled in its efforts to advance on Ukraine’s major cities, the Russian military this week stepped up aerial bombardments that destroyed residences, schools, government buildings, and hospitals, killed thousands of civilians and left others without food, power, or heat. In Kyiv, the mayor imposed a 35-hour curfew amid intensified shelling that killed dozens and damaged and set ablaze numerous apartment buildings. In Kharkiv, city officials said more than 500 residents had been killed by heavy shelling that has destroyed museums, libraries, and government buildings. In northern Chernihiv, Russian troops who’ve circled the city “are annihilating civilians,” said Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko. A withering Russian assault in southern Mariupol killed an estimated 2,500 civilians, many of whom were rolled into mass graves, and left dozens of buildings—including a maternity…

What happened Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ratcheted up the pressure on the U.S. and NATO this week to give more military aid to help his increasingly desperate country fend off Russian bombardment. In a virtual address to Congress, he pleaded for a no-fly zone and said his military needs fighter jets and an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. “In the darkest times for our country,” he said, “I call on you to do more.” President Biden announced a fivefold increase in aid to Ukraine, from $200 million to $1 billion, and the White House said the U.S. has already sent about 2,600 Javelin anti-tank missiles, more than 600 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and nearly 40 million small-arms ammunition rounds. The administration is also considering equipping the Ukrainians with Switchblade “killer” drones,…

After EMTs in a New York town quit amid the pandemic, an unlikely group of locals stepped in to fill their roles: a pack of high school friends. In Sackets Harbor, 17-year-olds are eligible to become EMTs, but teens can start assisting on calls at an even younger age. Some of the volunteers got their certification before receiving their driver’s license. When callers see a group of teens in their driveway, they often wonder when the real ambulance crew will show up, said volunteer Niklas Brazie. “We just explain to them—we are the ambulance.” When Nigerian mom Virtue Oboro rushed her newborn to the hospital for jaundice treatment several years ago, she discovered there were no phototherapy units available to treat her baby. He had to undergo a risky blood…

Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill might sound reasonable on the surface, said Kara Swisher in The New York Times, but “don’t be fooled.” The “Don’t Say Gay” law is an attempt by Sunshine State Republicans, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, to cynically tap into fears that kids are being indoctrinated into being gay or transgender. Using “vague but menacing language,” the new law bans any classroom instruction about “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade, “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate” for other grades. Parents are authorized to sue any school district they believe is violating these prohibitions. One GOP lawmaker, Sen. Dennis Baxley, said the law would address a “real trend change” in which too many young people were coming out as…

Good week for: The union, after the New Hampshire House voted 323 to 13 to reject a Republican legislator’s proposal for the Granite State to secede from the U.S. and form its own “sovereign nation.” Nonetheless, said State Rep. Matthew Santonastaso, “National divorce is going to happen.” The Eiffel Tower, which grew by 6 meters when a helicopter lowered a new communications antenna onto the top of the 133-year-old landmark, making it 330 meters (1,083 feet) tall. New Zealand, which is reopening to tourists after two years of pandemic isolation. The Kiwis were hit by the Omicron wave in January, but by then had an 81 percent vaccination rate and have suffered just 102 Covid deaths since 2020. Bad week for: Empty threats, after Kremlin mouthpieces on Russian state TV demanded…