The Week Magazine December 30, 2022 - January 6, 2023

It is below freezing now in Ukraine, and for tens of millions of people, the hostile grip of winter is unrelieved by electric light, heat, and running water. Unbowed, Ukrainians huddle in 4,000 “points of invincibility” throughout the country—public shelters where they can find light, warmth, and comfort. From above, Vladimir Putin’s pitiless missile and drone bombardment continues, as he empties his arsenals to punish every Ukrainian man, woman, and child for defying his genocidal wish to erase them. Hanukkah’s arrival this week could not have been more perfectly timed: The holiday commemorates a miraculous Jewish victory over more numerous oppressors, and is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah candles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, called attention to the symbolism after the lighting of a giant menorah…

What happened The Jan. 6 committee unanimously recommended this week that the Department of Justice charge Donald Trump with four crimes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a step unprecedented in American history, the committee said the former president should be prosecuted for assisting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements to the federal government, and obstructing an official congressional proceeding—the joint session interrupted by the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The referrals carry no legal weight, but the panel is turning over to the DOJ and special counsel Jack Smith the voluminous evidence it compiled over 18 months of investigation, including reams of documents, memos, text messages, and interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses. In its final…

What happened U.S. cities along the Mexican border braced for a massive influx of migrants this week, as the Supreme Court considered lifting the emergency health measure that has prevented people from claiming asylum. Title 42, which allows border officials to immediately expel asylum seekers rather than processing their claims, has been in effect since March 2020, when the Trump administration said it was necessary to keep out Covid, and some 2.5 million people have been expelled under it. A federal judge last month ordered it repealed by Dec. 21, but Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary hold after an emergency request from 19 Republican-led states. Saying that Title 42 was “no longer supported by public health conditions,” the Biden administration asked the court this week to lift…

At age 8, chess prodigy Tani Adewumi defeated 73 opponents at a New York championship, earning the top spot in his division. At the time, Tani and his family were living in a homeless shelter. They’d fled their native Nigeria in 2017 after being threatened by the terrorist group Boko Haram. While applying for asylum, Tani was named a national master by the U.S. Chess Federation. The 12-year-old’s family was officially granted asylum in the U.S. last week, so Tani can now compete in tournaments abroad, putting him one step closer to his ultimate goal of becoming a grand master. Cloe Fields and Christian Zelada were driving along a narrow road in California’s Angeles National Forest earlier this month when a Mercedes suddenly approached from behind and began honking. As…

“Politics is a cynical business,” said Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch, but Ron DeSantis just crossed the line into “sociopathic.” The Florida governor, Donald Trump’s most formidable rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, last week called for a grand jury investigation of “any and all wrongdoing in Florida related to the Covid-19 vaccines,” particularly by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna. This is the same DeSantis who once urged Floridians to get vaccinated, saying the shots would reduce the chance of getting seriously ill from Covid to “effectively zero” and would free people from “tyrannical” restrictions and mask mandates. Since then, however, the Republican base has fully succumbed to “anti-vax crankery,” to the point that Trump himself was booed when he told one of his rallies he’d had his booster…

Good week for: Having space, with a reported surge in the number of U.S. married couples who live apart so they don’t get on each other’s nerves. About 4 million married Americans currently live separately from their spouses, the U.S. Census Bureau said—a 25 percent increase from the year 2000. Female snakes, with the discovery they not only have clitorises, but actually have two of them. “I was just kind of jumping up and down,” says Australian biologist Megan Folwell, who found the organs during a dissection of a dead Australian death adder. Fake extra-terrestrials, after the original animatronic model of the alien from Stephen Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T. sold at auction to an anonymous bidder for $2.56 million. Bad week for: Real extra-terrestrials, after the Pentagon’s new All-Domain Anomaly…