The Week Magazine September 9, 2022- September 16, 2022

The contention that climate change isn’t real has gone poof! in a wisp of smoke, like a piece of paper held under a magnifying glass on a 100-degree day. But there are still those who contend that rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels would be too painful a price to pay, and that rather than succumb to “alarmism,” humanity should learn to “adapt” to a hotter planet. The summer of 2022 has put the adaptation option under the magnifying glass. Unprecedented heat and drought have scorched China for months, and dried up so many rivers—including the mighty Yangtze—that authorities are instituting rolling blackouts because of lost hydropower. (See International columns, p.15.) In Europe, 104-degree days and prolonged drought baked a shocked Britain brown, revealed long-submerged relics in the Tiber…

What happened Donald Trump’s legal jeopardy deepened this week when the Department of Justice said in a court filing that he and his team “likely concealed” top-secret government records stored at Mar-a-Lago from federal investigators. “Efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation” into Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents, the filing said. Federal agents removed more than 100 such documents from Mar-a-Lago after a Trump lawyer signed a document in June asserting that a “diligent” internal search had been conducted and all sensitive materials had been handed over, the DOJ said. Several secret documents were hidden in his office at Mar-a-Lago. That called into “serious question” whether Trump’s team was acting in good faith, said the 36-page filing—a response to Trump’s request to have an independent “special master”…

Uber driver Fritz Sam was taking a passenger to New York’s LaGuardia Airport when he saw fire coming from a nearby brownstone. Sam asked his passenger, Jemimah James Wei, if they could stop to help. “Obviously!” Wei said. As residents streamed out, Sam rushed inside, searching for anyone who might be trapped. He cajoled and guided two petrified residents out to safety as smoke billowed behind them. Minutes later, firefighters arrived and determined that everyone was safe, so Sam and Wei headed off again to the airport. On the way, Sam apologized for smelling like smoke. “Firstly, you smell fine,” Wei said. “And secondly, you just saved a life. Maybe multiple.” A crowd cheered last week as a Belgian-British teenager Mack Rutherford, 17, landed in Sofia, Bulgaria, becoming the youngest…

What happened Ukrainian forces launched a high-stakes counteroffensive to take back southern territory occupied by Russia this week and quickly reclaimed four villages in the Kherson region. “The occupiers should know: We will oust them to the border,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. His administration said Ukrainian forces had punctured Russia’s front lines and almost completely severed its supply lines across the Dnipro River, using HIMARS launchers to disable most of the bridges. Those launchers were part of a large package of weaponry the U.S. sent to help Ukraine prepare for the southern counteroffensive, including ammunition, drones, howitzers, and Javelin missile systems. The Biden administration pledged another $3 billion in military aid last week. Russia said the counteroffensive had already “failed miserably.” But the deputy head of Kherson’s Russian…

What happened Americans who have received two primary vaccine doses could begin getting new booster shots soon past Labor Day, after the Food and Drug Administration this week authorized the first Covid vaccines reformulated for Omicron. Pfizer and Moderna have both created versions of a bivalent vaccine containing genetic material from the original Covid strain and two Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and the dominant BA.5. Pfizer’s booster has been approved for everyone over 12, while Moderna’s is cleared for adults. The federal government has already ordered 171 million doses of what is expected to be the last free Covid booster. Last month, the government ceased sending free Covid tests to households, due to lack of funding. While the Omicron boosters have only been tested on mice, fears that the virus…

Three months after the Republican Party’s Supreme Court appointees overturned Roe v. Wade, there is some serious “buyer’s remorse creeping in,” said Aaron Blake in The Washington Post. The most direct expression of regret came last week from Republican South Carolina state Rep. Neal Collins in remarks that went viral. A 19-year-old constituent, he said, was told by doctors she has a nonviable fetus that will die in the womb, but they sent her home because South Carolina’s new “heartbeat” abortion ban would make standard medical care illegal. A prolonged miscarriage without medical assistance, the woman’s doctor told Collins, creates “a greater than 50 percent chance that she’s going to lose her uterus” to infection and a 10 percent chance she will die. “That weighs on me,” said Collins,…