Indholdsfortegnelse for February 24, 2023 i The Week Magazine

Air-traffic controllers and a commercial pilot were the first to see the unexplained radar blips and bright lights over Washington, D.C. Days later, an Air Force pilot reported chasing a UFO—which sped away. Newspaper headlines blared “Jets Chase D.C. Sky Ghosts” and “Aerial Whatzits Buzz D.C. Again!” This episode (recounted in The Atlantic) took place in the summer of 1952, during the height of the “flying saucer” craze that excited the public’s imagination. In various guises, the prospect of alien visitation has continued to thrill earthlings ever since. In recent weeks, the U.S. shot down four UFOs, or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) as the Pentagon now prefers to call them. (See Main stories, p.4.) These close encounters have produced a lot of collateral damage—to China-U.S. relations, to the Pentagon, and…

Good week for: Novel legal defenses, after a California man successfully beat a DUI charge by claiming his wife had just caught him cheating on her. Thomas Houston’s lawyer explained to the jury that drunk driving was “necessary to allow him to escape two angry women.” F-bombs, after a British tribunal ruled that a manager had not harassed a worker by saying during a meeting, “I don’t give a f---.” Those words, the panel said, “are fairly commonplace and do not carry the shock value they might have done in another time.” Proof that the past is not even past, after an archaeologist armed with a metal detector unearthed a 10-pound unexploded shell at the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa. The shell, later detonated by a bomb-disposal team, “could…

Harrison Ford hasn’t softened with age, said James Hibberd in The Hollywood Reporter. The famously testy actor, 80, still hates interviews, talking about himself and his career, and, worst of all, disclosing his innermost feelings. He only does interviews “to help sell the product. That is what they pay me for. The acting I’d do for free.” Some fans have speculated that Ford’s guarded public persona reflects a social anxiety disorder. “No,” he says. “I have an abhorrence of boring situations.” He admits that when he gave up carpentry and first began acting onstage, “I was terrified. My knees would shake so badly you could see it from the back of the theater.” But he got over that simply through “the experience of being onstage and telling a story…

Matthew Continetti Washington Free Beacon A war on “wokeness” will only carry the GOP so far, said Matthew Continetti. If Republican candidates are to win the White House and Congress in 2024, they’ll need to expand their message beyond the culture-war battles that serve as “catnip to the populist grassroots.” In a closely divided country, the independent voters who “decide elections” will cast their ballots on the economy, abortion, and other core issues on which Republicans have no clear agenda. Consider, for example, the response to the State of the Union last week by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She told Americans that Democrats are “crazy” radical leftists who conspire with Big Tech to censor conservatives, promote “CRT,” and demand that all Americans “worship their false idols.” Fox viewers…

“America has gone too far in legalizing vice. State laws tend to allow the gambling industry to regulate itself, which means that these companies are expected to identify and exclude their steadiest customers. This has been as unsuccessful as one might expect; as much as 50 percent of revenue comes from ‘problem gamblers,’ while one study showed that in 1998, only 4 percent of gambling revenue from video lottery games came from ‘responsible’ gamers. Just as tobacco companies would go out of business if people used their products responsibly, gambling wouldn’t be a multibillion-dollar industry if it weren’t for addicts.” Mathew Loftus in The Atlantic…

ITALY Luigi Manconi La Repubblica Right-wing extremists are coming out of the closet, loud and proud, said Luigi Manconi. No longer hiding their true selves as they did when running for office last year, members of the ruling, far-right Brothers of Italy party are proclaiming their “unspeakable impulses” with “ribald virulence” now that they’re in power. Just last week, Brothers of Italy congresswoman Donatella Morgante expressed outrage over rapper Rosa Chemical’s performance at the televised Sanremo Festival music competition. Rosa Chemical wore lipstick, painted nails, and a bustier under his suit and sang of polygamy and porn, and Morgante called the act “a commercial for gender bending and fluid sexuality.” Other Brothers of Italy lawmakers have taken similarly retrograde positions. One introduced a bill giving legal rights to fetuses, which…

EL SALVADOR Editorial El Faro El Salvador’s most notorious gangs are no longer menacing the country, said El Faro in an editorial. After an intense 11-month crime crackdown by the government of President Nayib Bukele that jailed some 63,000 people, MS-13 and Barrio 18 now have “minimal or null” presence in the neighborhoods they once controlled. This is life-changing news for Salvadorans, “particularly those who have lived under siege by these criminal groups for decades.” Suddenly, people can cross the street, chat with neighbors, and drive to work without risking “a gun to their heads.” Yet it came at a steep cost. Since March 2022, El Salvador has been under a state of emergency with many constitutional rights suspended, from free speech to due process. So many have been arrested—about…

In 21 states, public-school enrollment fell by at least 700,000 between 2019 and 2022. Out-of-state moves, private-school enrollment, and homeschooling account for more than half of the drop, but the whereabouts of 230,000 children in grades K through 12 are unknown, and most may have simply stopped attending any school.Associated Press The IRS is now answering nearly 90 percent of calls from taxpayers, up from 13 percent during the 2022 tax season and 11 percent in 2021. Tax officials credit the new funding it received in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act for the improvement.The Washington Post An estimated 3.4 million Americans had to flee their homes last year due to a natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood, or wildfire, according to Census Bureau data. Nearly 16 percent of them…

“Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.”Pema Chödrön, quoted in The Marginalian “There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument.”Robert Musil, quoted in the Daily Hampshire Gazette “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why even be here?”Steve Jobs, quoted in The Verge “Leisure seems itself to contain pleasure and happiness and felicity of life. And this is not possessed by the busy but by the leisured.”Aristotle, quoted in Philosophy Now “Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.”George Will, quoted in The Washington Post “The goal or end of each is the life and flourishing of each, and no…

Propaganda turns to cheap deepfakes Pro-China bot accounts on Facebook and Twitter have been discovered distributing computer-generated “deepfake” videos of fake news anchors, said Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur in The New York Times. It is the first known instance of the technology in “a state-aligned disinformation campaign.” The people and voices in the videos are digital avatars created by a company called Synthesia. The company, which says the fake reports violate its terms of service, provides access to realistic video characters for as little as $30 a month. “One AI character, named George, looks like a veteran business executive with gray hair,” while another, “Helia, wears a hijab.” While the videos found by Twitter are “ham-handed,” the deepfake technology “opens a new chapter in information warfare.” Carmakers battle…

If you want to cut your chances of diabetes, stay married no matter what. That’s the implication of a new study that found that being married or living with a partner is linked to healthier blood sugar levels—regardless of whether it’s a happy relationship. Researchers examined the health records of 3,335 adults in England, ages 50 to 89, who had regular checks for type 2 diabetes. They also interviewed the participants, around three-quarters of whom were living with a spouse or partner, to determine how content they were in the relationship. Overall, marriage was linked to a 0.21 percent decrease in blood sugar level—a drop significant enough to cut the risk of dying early—while getting divorced was linked to a rise in blood sugar. “Marriage and cohabitating partnerships require…

Matt Ruff is the author of Lovecraft Country, the horror novel that inspired the HBO series of the same name. Ruff’s new sequel, The Destroyer of Worlds, picks up the story in 1957, as racism and supernatural forces continue to plague the protagonists. The Mad Scientists’ Club by Bertrand R. Brinley (1965). One of the most beloved books of my childhood. Its teenage protagonists use their STEM skills for worthy projects, such as building a fake Loch Ness monster. And there’s a sequel, The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club, that’s just as good. The Sundial by Shirley Jackson (1958). In this underrated black comedy by the author of The Haunting of Hill House, the members of a wealthy family take shelter on their country estate to await…

3 This debut album from a talented young Ghanian-British singer-songwriter “feels like a real reclamation,” said Aimee Cliff in Pitchfork. After signing with Polydor at 17, Raye spent seven years recording only singles and EPs before splitting with the label and going independent. This record “showcases the breadth and the peaks of her capabilities,” beginning with “Escapism,” its surprise No. 1 U.K. hit single. But it also has “a cut-and-paste collage feeling,” revealing the 25-year-old to be uncertain of her direction, and more drawn to retro stylings than to the electronic dance music she’s been known for. It’ll be hard to make a better second album, though, said Cat Woods in The Telegraph (U.K.). “Somewhere between the rave club, exploratory electro, R&B, bluesy jazz, and soul, Raye has carved her…

Plantains are magic, said J. Kenji López-Alt in Serious Eats. Allow them to ripen until they’re pitch black and “right on the cusp of starting to shrivel,” and they’re ready for slow pan-frying that will turn them into a salty-sweet side “packed with flavor.” I prefer my fried plantains, or maduros, with a Puerto Rican–style mojo, an herbal sauce flavored with garlic and citrus. ½ cup picked fresh mint leaves • 1 cup picked fresh parsley leaves • 2 medium cloves garlic, minced • ¼ cup capers, drained and rinsed • 1½ tbsp juice and 1 tsp zest from 1 lemon • 2 tbsp juice from 1 sour orange • 1 small shallot, minced • 1 pinch red pepper flakes • ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil • kosher salt…

With 500 staff working in Turkey and Syria since 2013, Concern Worldwide (concernusa.org) has been at the forefront of the recent deadly earthquake’s humanitarian response. With more than 20,000 people killed and tens of thousands injured, the nonprofit has opened community centers to provide shelter and distributed supplies in Sanliurfa, next to the quake’s epicenter. Founded in 1968, CW has worked in 50 countries, responding to emergencies such as Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis and the impact of Cyclone Ida in Malawi. Last year, they also reached 39 million people living below the poverty line, alleviating malnutrition through the distribution of food in the Central African Republic and providing long-term solutions in Haiti through the Building Hope & Opportunities program. Each charity we feature has earned a four-star overall rating from…

Matthew A. Winkler Bloomberg “If socialism means state control of production, distribution, and exchange of goods and services, then Florida and Texas fit the description,” said Matthew A. Winkler. The states have gone on a campaign against supposedly “woke” capitalism, trying to pressure investment banks to drop their support for environmental, social, and governance practices (ESG). This has meant “blacklisting” Wall Street’s biggest municipal bond underwriters. DeSantis has done his best to alienate Wall Street banks, while Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have been barred from handling state bond sales in Texas because of “their support for gun safety regulations and alternative energy.” Now the states have had to turn to smaller firms that charge more. Florida and Texas have AAA credit ratings, higher than California’s AA. Yet “shorn of…

David Jolicoeur was the bubbly soul of De La Soul, the rap trio that dressed in bright floral prints and rhymed with whimsy. At a time when hip-hop was dominated by songs about violence and urban poverty, De La Soul emerged from middle-class Long Island, New York, to introduce an abstract style—a mix of earnest and offbeat lyrics, interspersed with humorous skits and eclectic samples—that resonated with college crowds. Jolicoeur, who went by Trugoy the Dove (“yogurt” backward) and later Plug Two or Dave, was the lead on “Me Myself and I,” the hit single from the band’s 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising. Growing up in the suburbs, “we had the opportunity to soak in a lot more,” Jolicoeur said in 2000. “It broadened our horizons.” He…

This week’s question: At the Grammy Awards, the first annual “Dr. Dre Global Impact Award” went to the rapper and producer himself, Dr. Dre. Come up with the title of a distinctive award that could easily be given to the celebrity after which it is named. Last week’s contest: Marie Kondo, the home-organization guru who is now the mother of three children, recently admitted she has “kind of given up” on her once relentless pursuit of tidiness. What should she call a new book that reflects her messier new reality? THE WINNER: “The Life Changing Magic of Giving Up” Bill Levine, Belmont, Mass. SECOND PLACE: “Zen and the Art of No Maintenance” Hunter Burgan, Los Angeles THIRD PLACE: “Goodnight Broom” Raven Deerwater, Mendocino, Calif. For runners-up and complete contest…

What happened Exercising their new powers, House Republicans this week launched an inquiry into Covid’s origins, days after holding contentious hearings on whether federal authorities had censored conservatives. Republican leaders sent a letter requesting testimony from Biden’s former chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and other officials on the novel coronavirus and government funding of “gain-of-function” research. A plurality of intelligence analysts in a 2021 report said that the virus was probably not created in a lab—a finding House Republicans have disputed. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, also conducted a hearing purporting to reveal collusion by the FBI, media organizations, and tech companies to suppress the New York Post’s October 2020 story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. But Twitter officials said the FBI had not…

Florida’s Duval County school district has removed a biography of Roberto Clemente from its shelves, because sections detailing the racism faced by the black Puerto Rican baseball legend may violate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE Act.” The act prohibits schools from exposing students to material that could cause racial “anguish,” and the district says “a certified media specialist” will formally review the book. Two Milford, N.H., schools have banned male students from using bathroom urinals. The “compromise” plan is a response to girl students who have objected to sharing bathrooms with trans students who urinate standing up. Having all students use stalls, said school board member Noah Boudreault, will ensure “student safety.” In other news Pence resists special counsel subpoena Former Vice President Mike Pence plans to fight a grand…

Salman Rushdie believed the years of looking over his shoulder for assassins were over, said David Remnick in The New Yorker. In 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader declared Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous and issued a fatwa ordering his execution. For the next decade, Rushdie lived mostly in hiding, guarded by police. But the ayatollah died, years passed, and Rushdie, 75, felt safe enough to go unguarded in public and speak at an event in upstate New York last August. There, a 24-year-old devout Muslim of Lebanese descent rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie about a dozen times. “I’ve been better,” says Rushdie, who now wears a dark eyeglass lens over his blinded right eye. “But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad.” He’s lost 40 pounds, has scar…

■ Britney Spears has denied reports that her inner circle considered staging an intervention because of growing concerns over the singer’s mental and physical health. Multiple news outlets had reported that Spears, 41, met with a medical professional after her manager, doctors, and husband, Sam Asghari, had discussed asking her to get treatment and not leave her Los Angeles house for two months. “It makes me sick to my stomach that it’s even legal for people to make up stories that I almost died,” Spears wrote last week on Instagram, adding, “There’s obviously a lot of people who don’t wish me well!” Asghari said his wife “will continue to make all decisions involving her care regardless of circumstances.” But a source told the New York Post that “her mental…

Margaret Atwood The Atlantic “Today’s self-appointed moral gatekeepers” wan to ban my novel The Handmaid’s Tale from school libraries, said Margaret Atwood. “Go ahead. It’ll only make them want to read it more.” The school board in Madison County, Virginia, just deemed the book “unacceptable” and removed it under legislation signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year enabling parents to censor reading materials they found sexually explicit. Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, put The Handmaid’s Tale on its list of books to be banned. The banning helps answer one of the book’s central questions: “What kind of a totalitarianism might the United States become?” The novel portrays a future, dystopian society ruled by a patriarchal religious cult based on heretical interpretations of the Old Testament, with…

Chinese police say they have “successfully trained” six squirrels to sniff out drugs. The Eurasian red squirrels have “a rather keen sense of smell” and have an advantage over drug-sniffing dogs because they can squeeze through nooks and crannies in tight spaces filled with mail packages, said narcotics squad trainer Yin Jin. In training so far, the squirrels have done “an excellent job” of detecting drugs inside packages, Yin said, but deploying them requires more work and “the patience for a flower to bloom.” An exterminator called by a California homeowner whose house was under constant attack by an overactive woodpecker cut some holes in the walls—and an avalanche of 700 pounds of acorns came pouring out. “They just kept coming and coming, nonstop,” said the exterminator, Nick Castro. Enough…

CANADA Shree Paradkar Toronto Star Canadian conservatives showed their bigoted stripes on Valentine’s Day, said Shree Paradkar. Earlier this month, administrators at an elementary school in Waterloo, Ontario, asked that children not bring Valentine’s cards or candy to school because the holiday “is not celebrated by all students.” Outraged parents promptly blamed Muslims for canceling Valentine’s Day. A “dumbfounded” school board superintendent clarified the real issue: Valentine’s Day is a financial strain for low-income families, and anyway, candy doesn’t belong in the classroom. The incident should have blown over, but right-wing media had already run with it. School board members got “abusive hate mail” and angry phone calls, including one saying that administrators were too naïve to realize that Muslims would kill them all. The Waterloo school board has been…

There is no reliable way to screen for ovarian cancer, so women at high genetic risk are currently advised to have their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed once they’re done having children. Now the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, a research and advocacy group, has significantly broadened that recommendation, reports The New York Times. OCRA is advising all women whose childbearing days are over to have their fallopian tubes removed if they are undergoing a gynecologic operation anyway. That’s because the fallopian tubes are the starting point for 70 percent of the most common and lethal forms of ovarian cancer. The ovaries themselves, though, should be retained if possible, because they produce beneficial hormones that reduce the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and sexual dysfunction. The group is offering free…

(Counterpoint, $27) “Immigrant novels are so frequently tales of devastating woe,” said Scaachi Koul in The New York Times. Kathryn Ma’s new novel, by contrast, is “imbued with inherent optimism.” Its 18-year-old Chinese protagonist, who adopts the name Shelley, arrives in today’s San Francisco penniless but determined to find a wife and make a lot of money—hopefully as a poet. His optimism is “often completely foolish,” including his presumption that his distant Chinese-American relatives will support him unconditionally. “But you root for Shelley because Shelley is rooting for Shelley.” As pure immigrant tale, The Chinese Groove “doesn’t always get beyond the usual clichés about language barriers and cultural differences,” said Serena Puang in The Boston Globe. But Shelley “grows on readers,” and the complicated lives of the family he…

Rikers: An Oral History by Graham Rayman & Reuven Blau (Random House, $29) New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail “brings out the worst in human behavior,” said John J. Lennon in The Atlantic. This volume, “a book of horror stories,” weaves together the recollections of 130 people who’ve been inmates, guards, visitors, or supervisors at the crowded complex. “What becomes clear is that the people aren’t what makes it bad—the environment is,” and the evidence is “enough to make you feel that the only solution is to shut down the complex entirely.” The Riders Come Out at Night by Ali Winston & Darwin BondGraham (Atria, $30) “Every city contemplating the future of its police force could use a book like this,” said Maurice Chammah in The New York…

4 H.C. McEntire’s new album “reveals more wisdom the more you surrender to it,” said Pat King in Paste. On her previous two solo records, the Durham, N.C., native and former frontwoman of the Americana band Mount Moriah affirmed that she’s “one of the most poignant writers we have.” Here, her lyrics “inspire a new perspective,” one that situates our fleeting lives in relationship to the land we occupy. Natural images abound, while the spare music “burrows deeper into the warm nest that McEntire and her band created on 2020’s Eno Axis.” A listener “can practically smell the dirt and feel the wind from the first notes,” said Jon Young in No Depression. These “angsty stories of unruly impulses and elusive fulfillment” aren’t meant to be soothing, though. “Turpentine,” a…

“Sometimes less is more,” said Nicholas Hautman in the New York Post. Rihanna, one of the top-selling pop artists of all time, had 119 million people watching when she ended her six-year hiatus from performing by headlining the Super Bowl halftime show. But while the 34-year-old self-made mogul surrounded herself with athletic dancers and performed on platforms that soared high above the field, her 13-minute performance was in effect minimalistic: “no gimmicks, just hit after hit.” With 31 top-10 singles to date, “her music has been the soundtrack of our lives since 2005, and she gave us exactly what we came for—a good time.” Well, a good time, and the unspoken revelation that she is pregnant again, expecting her second child. “Strictly speaking, the show didn’t meet the expectations…

It’s getting harder to find good wines at $20 or under, said Eric Asimov in The New York Times. But if you look to lesser-known grapes and regions with a spirit of adventure, “the rewards are many,” as these bottles can prove. 2020 Maris Pays d’Oc Rouge ($15). This merlot-syrah blend, made by an organic producer in southern France’s unheralded Pays d’Oc region, is “juicy, focused, and refreshing.” 2020 Pedro Parra y Familia ‘Vinista’ País ($16). Century-old vines in Chile’s Itata region produce the país grapes that Pedro Parra uses in this “herbal and refreshing” red with a texture that has the “slightest” of rasps. Luis Pato Baga Espumante Bruto Rosado ($16). This dry sparkling rosé, made from baga, the best red grape in Portugal’s Bairrada region, is “fresh…

Give money: Cash donations are far more useful than clothing or food because cash buys what’s needed most on the ground. Vet the charity: CharityNavigator.org has compiled a list of 43 reputable organizations that are responding to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, including the International Rescue Committee and the Syrian American Medical Society. A rule of thumb: Trustworthy nonprofits post annual reports that show where donations go. Go local: Aid groups with an established local presence are positioned to act fast. The White Helmets, for example, have conducted search-and-rescue operations in Syria for years. Look for explicit links to such groups when donating to international charities. Continue contributing: Giving surges after a disaster, but earthquake refugees will need support for years. Consider making monthly donations to help meet long-term…

The “easy listening” label attached to Burt Bacharach’s music belied a world of complexity. Though catchy and hummable, songs such as “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” featured lush orchestration, stark key changes, and unusual time signatures—Frank Sinatra once grumbled that Bacharach “writes in hat sizes: seven and three-fourths.” Yet more than 1,000 recording artists couldn’t resist tackling the intricacies of Bacharach’s work, which included 73 Top 40 hits. The results were unforgettable and often, as in his three Oscar-winning theme songs, vividly cinematic. His one self-imposed rule, he said, was “Don’t make it difficult for the listener. Just the singer.” The son of a fashion columnist father and an amateur pianist mother, Bacharach became “a skilled pianist” by age…

During the pandemic, David Balogun took the challenges of online learning in stride: He glided through remote middle and high school classes before graduating at the remarkable age of 9. The science and computer-programming wizard is among the youngest children to ever graduate from high school, beating, among other notable prodigies, the journalist Ronan Farrow, who graduated at 11. Although Balogun enjoys martial arts and playing piano, he says he’s already decided on a career as an astrophysicist. Dianne Gordon’s Jeep broke down a year ago, forcing her to walk 2.7 miles to her job at a White Lake Township, Mich., grocery store. While heading home in January, she stopped at a gas station and spotted something near the door: a Ziploc bag filled with letters and nearly $15,000 in…

Lhakpa Sherpa trained for her 10th climb to the summit of Mount Everest by carrying boxes of food at a Whole Foods in Connecticut, said Bhadra Sharma and Adam Skolnick in The New York Times. The Nepali woman’s unconventional West Hartford training regimen was just the latest chapter in her unlikely path to climbing heroics. One of 11 children, Lhakpa grew up on the slopes of Mount Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest peak. “We had no television and no phone. I used to spend my day watching sheep and birds,” said Lhakpa, who is in her 40s but doesn’t know her exact birthday. “I could see Mount Everest from my village.” She dreamed of being a Sherpa climbing guide—a job typically reserved for men—and became the second Nepali woman to…

Jennifer Rubin The Washington Post More than half of all Republicans “harbor a set of extreme beliefs at odds with pluralistic democracy,” said Jennifer Rubin. A Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings Institution survey published last week sheds light on Christian nationalism, a “troubling anti-American movement” that is now a major force within the GOP. The survey asked participants whether they agreed with such statements as “Being Christian is an important part of being truly American” and “God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.” More than half of Republicans either mostly or completely agreed. Seven out of 10 Christian nationalists agreed with “great replacement” theory—the belief immigrants are “invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” Half agreed that “we need a leader…

UNITED KINGDOM Polly Toynbee The Guardian Liz Truss, the former prime minister who tanked our economy last fall, would like you to know it was not her fault, said Polly Toynbee. Truss wasn’t in office long—she was famously “outlasted by a lettuce”—but she still managed to do vast damage in her 49 days as prime minister. Just hours after her government presented its budget last September, the pound plummeted. Bond markets went into shock, and the Bank of England had to launch a $65 billion bailout. Britain is still paying a “moron premium” for Trussonomics today, in the form of higher borrowing costs. But in a whiny, self-justifying article in The Sunday Telegraph, Truss now claims the chaos should be blamed on Treasury officials who failed to prepare her, Conservative lawmakers…

“Normally, this would be an absurd scenario,” said Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times, but “when it comes to reproductive health, we have entered the realm of the absurd.” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, with a long track record of Christian conservative activism, is getting ready to rule in a lawsuit that seeks to ban the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide. The lawsuit, filed in November by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, argues that a drug “used safely by millions of American women over more than two decades” wasn’t sufficiently tested when it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. Revoking approval would be a truly “radical act,” said Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post. Combined with another pill,…

(Harper, $28) “Do not be fooled by the adorable cover of Unraveling, or by its flippant subtitle,” said Laurie Hertzel in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “This witty, irreverent memoir is, at heart, extremely serious.” When her 2020 book tour was derailed by the pandemic, best-selling author Peggy Orenstein decided to spend her time during lockdown making a sweater from scratch, starting with the shearing of a sheep named Martha. The urge was loosely connected to the recent death of the mother who’d taught her to knit. But as cozy as the project sounds, its multiple steps also prodded Orenstein to explore the origins of clothing, the environmental damage wrought by the garment industry, and the overlooked work that women have performed for centuries. “How does she knit this all…

For Barbara Brandon-Croft, drawing comics was the family business, said Ebony V. Flowers in Publishers Weekly. In 1968, her father, Brumsic Brandon Jr., created Luther, one of the first syndicated strips to feature a Black main character, and by the early ’70s he had enlisted his talented daughter, then in junior high, to apply shading to his panels to help him meet his deadlines. “I didn’t know it then,” Brandon-Croft says, “but I was in training.” She was also internalizing her father’s philosophy of cartooning. “My dad would often say that as a cartoonist, our job is to observe, interpret, and record,” she says. “It’s so true. We are telling our history. When we put our pen to the page, we are showing what our life is like, and…

4 Paramore is not the band you used to know, said Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic. The Nashville trio’s “tense and complex” new album has more in common with the brainy guitar music of Talking Heads and Radiohead than the punkish, excellent emo that put Paramore on the charts 16 years ago, when its members, including lead singer Hayley Williams, were still teenagers. But one constant in the group’s more recent sonic explorations, including this first album in six years, has been “what made the band important all along: a raw nerve of emotion.” Here, they exude “a dirtball, post-punk energy that’s irresistible,” said A.D. Amorosi in Variety. “Every spiky riff and punchy drum snap is jaggedly askew,” and Williams “sounds like she’s having a ball, acting like a cross…

Several Oscars underdogs… To Leslie Andrea Riseborough isn’t likely to outpoll Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett to take this year’s Best Actress title. But she’s the talk of Hollywood because of her turn as a troubled West Texas woman who squanders a $190,000 lottery windfall. Well, that, and the peer-driven campaign that landed her a nomination. $7 on YouTube Aftersun A decided underdog in the Best Actor category, Normal People’s Paul Mescal is heartbreaking in this superb indie film about a father quietly battling depression while treating his 11-year-old daughter to a low-budget beach-resort getaway. $6 on Amazon Prime Causeway In a different year, Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry would be a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor. That’s how good he is opposite Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a soldier who…

2048 is a fun, easy, and free-to-play smartphone game that can take the tedium out of sitting in a waiting room. Simply slide numbered tiles around, combining like numbers (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.) until they add up to 2048. “It’s very satisfying.” Flow Free is another straightforward puzzle game. Here, the object is to connect colored dots without crossing any lines. Because the level of difficulty increases, it “feels really rewarding” when you make progress after getting stuck. Sudoku.com and its associated mobile app will help you to master sudoku, the classic numbers-based puzzle game. The free app offers daily challenges, awards, and five difficulty levels ranging from “easy” to “evil.” Words With Friends is essentially a version of Scrabble that you can play online with friends and…

Retailers bounced back after a disappointing holiday shopping season, said Christopher Rugaber in the Associated Press. Sales jumped 3 percent in January—after two straight monthly declines—as shoppers boosted spending at the fastest pace since March 2021. The increase underscored “the economy’s resilience” despite rising prices and interest rates. Increasing car sales helped, as supply shortages that had slowed auto production eased and dealers were able to “meet more of the nation’s pent-up demand for vehicles.” Regulation: Second FTC Republican resigns in protest The Federal Trade Commission’s “biggest internal critic,” Republican antitrust lawyer Christine Wilson, announced her resignation this week, said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. Wilson, appointed in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, said she was leaving, without specifying precisely when, to avoid legitimizing the FTC’s “lawlessness”…

The 5 percent savings yield returns Savers have a golden opportunity to “earn more money on their cash” in 2023, said Lorie Konish in CNBC.com. The Federal Reserve has used a string of interest rate hikes “to combat record-high inflation.” The latest quarter-point increase came just two weeks ago, and after the blockbuster January jobs report “the interest-rate increases are expected to keep coming.” The Fed’s hikes are letting banks raise the rates they pay on savings accounts. Primis Bank’s online savings account last week became the first to top 5 percent in 15 years. Rates on certificates of deposit also are soaring, with one- and two-year CDs paying up to 4.85 percent. And this is happening as the Fed’s actions pull inflation down, so “the after-inflation return on…

Allison Schrager City Journal Corporate stock buybacks make for a “convenient political target,” said Allison Schrager. In the State of the Union, President Biden proposed quadrupling the current 1 percent tax on stock buybacks, ensuring that companies that have been “raking in large profits” put them back into “long-term investment” instead of sending them back to shareholders. That’s not how things work. As the economist Ken French once said, stock options are divisive because they “divide people who understand finance from those who don’t.” A stock purchase is basically just a payment to shareholders—“just like paying a dividend, but more tax efficient.” Critics of share buybacks think that companies should be investing the money instead. But it’s far better for the economy for shareholders to get the money back than…