The Week Magazine May 12, 2023

Sometimes, going bankrupt can look like an awfully profitable line of work. This week, Bed Bath & Beyond started wrapping up its operations with a liquidation sale. Back in 2021, in the flush of euphoria in the markets, a bunch of clownish speculators—oh, sorry, investors—on online message boards came up with a theory that everything Wall Street said was wrong. No one really believed this, but it was a good excuse for very-online hustlers to buy up a bunch of stock in troubled companies like Bed Bath & Beyond and the movie theater chain AMC, and thumb their noses at the experts who said investing in struggling mall stores and theater chains was not a great idea. When the price of shares rose, the meme lords got out with their…

What happened Russia accused Ukraine of staging a drone strike on the Kremlin this week, as both countries stepped up aerial attacks in advance of an expected Ukrainian spring counteroffensive. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine is “reaching the finish line” in preparations for a broad attack on hardened Russian lines, which Ukrainian officials hope will shift the war’s momentum after months of bloody stalemate. U.S. officials estimated this week that Russia has sustained 100,000 casualties since December, including 20,000 deaths, many in the ongoing battle over the eastern city of Bakhmut. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is in a “strong” position to retake occupied territory, after NATO members delivered 1,500 armored vehicles, 230 tanks, and “vast amounts of ammunition.” Reznikov suggested the offensive was close at hand.…

A choking giant panda was saved in China by a handler well-trained in the Heimlich maneuver. When a caretaker at the Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas in Chengdu saw a panda struggling with a carrot, he did the Heimlich, then lifted the bear and shook him until the carrot was dislodged. The rescue by the caretaker, identified only by the surname of Yang, was caught on video and became a viral hit. China has worked to restore the population of giant pandas, which were taken off the country’s endangered species list in 2021. Last month, approximately 100 children with autism recorded public service announcements for the transit systems of New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Many autistic kids cling to familiar phrases they listen to while being deeply…

What happened After a four-day manhunt, police this week captured the man suspected of killing a neighboring family who had simply asked him to stop shooting off his rifle late at night. The attack on the family of Honduran origin in Cleveland, Texas, was the latest in a series of unprovoked deadly shootings across the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, responded to the crime by referring to the victims in a tweet as “illegal immigrants,” drawing widespread criticism. After it emerged that at least one of the victims was a permanent U.S. resident, Abbott’s office apologized. “We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal,” Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze said. “Any loss of life is a tragedy.”…

What happened With the prospect of a catastrophic default looming, President Biden called a meeting to discuss the debt ceiling with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other House and Senate leaders next week. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. will likely exhaust its “extraordinary measures” to prevent a breach of the government’s $31 trillion debt ceiling “by early June, and potentially as early as June 1.” House Republicans are threatening to force the U.S. into default if Biden doesn’t agree to a list of spending cuts and policy concessions. The administration insists on a “clean” increase untethered to the GOP’s demands. House Republicans’ “Limit, Save, Grow Act,” passed last week, ties a $1.5 trillion debt-ceiling hike to steep discretionary spending cuts. Senate Democrats will ignore it, but…

Sorry, John Roberts, but “‘trust me’ won’t work anymore,” said James D. Zirin in The Hill. The Senate Judiciary Committee this week held a hearing on the need for an enforceable code of ethics at the Supreme Court—a problem crystallized by the revelation that billionaire conservative donor and activist Harlan Crow has showered millions in lavish vacation trips, gifts, and land purchases on Justice Clarence Thomas, which Thomas chose not to report. Yet Chief Justice Roberts grandly declined to appear before the Senate, citing “separation-of-powers concerns.” Roberts reminded Congress in a letter that due to the “unique institutional setting of the Court,” the justices’ compliance with ethics rules binding other federal judges is purely voluntary. That won’t do, given this court’s flagrant conflicts of interest, said Dahlia Lithwick and…