Indholdsfortegnelse for May 23, 2025 i The Week Magazine

The media is dying, yet the media is thriving. There are masterpieces of investigative reporting every day, yet trust in the media is lower than it has ever been. This week’s Last Word, set in Oakdale, Calif., offers a striking look into those contradictions (see p.36). Oakdale is what’s known as a “news desert.” There is a regional newspaper, but hardly anyone gets it. Ditto for the national papers, and it’s just about the same with traditional TV news. Instead, residents there rely largely on a mix of Facebook groups for their news. Sometimes those are reliable, more often not. You can take Oakdale as a metaphor for the country, and especially the regions beyond the coastal centers. Trust in the traditional media there has eroded to a frightening…

■ A new Texas anti-abortion bill contains a provision that would make it impossible to challenge in state court. As well as empowering citizens to sue for $100,000 anyone who distributes abortion pills, SB2880 would also let citizens recover $100,000 from any state judge who rules on its constitutionality. “It’s just crazy,” said Dallas attorney Charles Siegel. “We’ve never had a system of law under which people get to sue judges for money over their rulings.” ■ A McDonald’s in Alexandria, Va., has banned customers under age 21 from dining inside following a wave of high-schooler brawls. A sign announcing the policy cites “repeated incidents of student violence” and informs all customers they must now ring a doorbell for entry. Local patron Tim Perkins called the change “a great…

Chris O’Dell sang with the Beatles and bought drugs for Keith Richards, said Christian Kriticos in The Guardian. And as a longtime assistant and tour manager for top rock bands, she has many more stories to tell. Her adventures began in 1968, when O’Dell—then 21 and working in radio promotion in Los Angeles—was offered a job in London at the Beatles’ label, Apple. She set up the office with Paul McCartney, joined the na-na-na-na refrain on “Hey Jude,” and moved in with George Harrison and his wife. One morning “I came down and every newspaper was on the table, saying: ‘Paul quits.’ It seemed so abrupt and unexpected,” says O’Dell. She went to work for the Rolling Stones, not only scoring drugs for Richards but indulging alongside him. “He…

Philip Bump The Washington Post The Trump administration is creating “a secret police force” of armed men wearing face masks and civilian clothing who grab people off the streets, said Philip Bump. This alarming, authoritarian tactic was seen on video when Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, here on a student visa, was seized on a street in March and scheduled for deportation because she’d co-written an essay critical of her school’s response to the war in Gaza. A court just ordered Ozturk’s release, but she is just one of a growing number of “targeted individuals” who have been seized by federal agents who hide their faces and do not identify themselves. Trump has long made it clear he does not object to police mistreating suspects, and has given Immigration…

Rafael Nieto Loaiza El Colombiano The presidential palace has become a “cesspool of corruption, drugs, and vulgarity,” said Rafael Nieto Loaiza. Yes, drugs. Since Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, becoming Colombia’s first leftist president in decades, his administration has been beset with scandal: buying off congressmen with disaster relief funds, appointing ministers who’d been indicted for corruption, and using “filthy language.” Now comes the most shocking allegation of all. Petro’s former foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva, claims the president is addicted to drugs, and that this addiction is what explains the “erratic behavior and apparent delusions” we have all witnessed, including that two-day disappearance during an official visit to France. The president, of course, has denied it, and in many places such a charge might be dismissed as mere…

■ At least 44 contracts terminated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have been resurrected by government agencies, reversing more than $220 million in supposed cost cutting. On its “Wall of Receipts,” DOGE lists 43 of those contracts as terminated and includes them in its tally of $32 billion in supposed savings. The New York Times ■ President Trump has met with intelligence officials for the president’s daily brief only 12 times since his swearing in. That’s a sharp drop from his first term—when he met with intel officials twice a week—and a rate well below that of his predecessors. Trump is also known not to read the daily briefing documents that cover global affairs, national security threats, and covert U.S. operations. Politico ■ Melania Trump has reportedly…

Cuttlefish have eight sucker-lined arms and two tentacles, and they’ve been seen waving their arms to intimidate predators or signal an eagerness to mate. Now scientists believe these cephalopods also express more complex concepts. Researchers at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris found that two species, the common cuttlefish and the dwarf cuttlefish, use four specific arm-waving signs that the study team named up, side, roll, and crown. “Up” is when one pair of arms is extended upward and the others tucked in; “side” has the arms all brought to one side; “roll” sees the arms folded under the head; and “crown” looks like when a person puts the fingers of two hands together to form a pyramid shape. Cuttlefish that were shown videos of their comrades performing these…

Florence Knapp’s “dazzling” first novel “sets up a sort of thought experiment,” said Elizabeth Hand in The Washington Post. In 1987, Cora Atkin is deciding between three names for her newborn second child. We then see the family’s next 35 years unfold on three different paths that follow from each possible choice. And because Cora’s husband is prone to violence, the premise sets the stage for “a profound, deeply compassionate examination of domestic abuse.” While the centrality of that theme may sound bleak, The Names is “startlingly joyful” and paced like a thriller. “I raced through it and immediately read it again.” The novel “has ‘book club’ written all over it,” said Chris Hewitt in The Minnesota Star Tribune. “It is guaranteed to make readers reflect about their own…

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley, $29) It’s no surprise that the new best-seller from romance fiction’s current queen “offers a reprieve from our dystopian present reality,” said Leigh Haber in The Boston Globe. Emily Henry’s novels “return again and again to a simple formula” but “never feel formulaic.” Here, two writers vying to author the biography of a notorious heiress bicker until, unsurprisingly, they fall into each other’s arms. Clearly, “a good old-fashioned cry,” plus some “Ephronesque” humor, “can be very revitalizing.” ‘I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer’ by Mary Beth Norton (Princeton, $25) In this “delightful” compendium of entries from the world’s first newspaper advice column, “it isn’t always easy to distinguish jests from earnest solutions,” said Judith Flanders in The Wall Street Journal. The…

(Audible) Jerry Springer’s life story “still has the capacity to surprise,” said Fiona Sturges in the Financial Times. Two years after the death of the divisive TV host, this “thoughtful and compelling” podcast series retraces Springer’s rise from little-known Cincinnati mayor to broadcasting phenomenon. Leon Neyfakh, creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco, weaves into his account interviews with dozens of people “who knew, worked with, or were guests of Springer.” The star of The Jerry Springer Show apparently never gave up his dream of returning to Democratic politics, even as he surpassed Oprah Winfrey in the late 1990s by goading guests into fistfights over personal matters. I’m one of the Ohio journalists Neyfakh talked to, said John Kiesewetter in WVXU.org, and while I haven’t heard the series’ nine episodes,…

Sarah Silverman: PostMortem Losing both parents within nine days doesn’t seem like a jumping-off point for a stand-up routine. Unless, of course, you’re Sarah Silverman, who delivers hilarious bits here about deathbed binge watching, ill-timed flatulence, and more. Netflix Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute It’s fitting that Silverman is part of a powerhouse lineup of comics paying posthumous tribute to Rivers in this special. Rivers’ acerbic wit influenced a long line of female joke tellers, including fellow participants Nikki Glaser, Tiffany Haddish, and Chelsea Handler. Peacock Jerrod Carmichael: Don’t Be Gay In 2022’s Rothaniel, Carmichael came out as gay. Then came his boundary-pushing docuseries Reality Show, which depicted fraught but funny situations such as the star introducing his boyfriend to his mom. A new stand-up special continues…

The first wave of glamping was driven by mom-and-pop startups offering tents with beds and plumbing, said Chris Dong in Thrillist. Now it’s hotel chains that are “commodifying the camping trip.” With adventure-based tourism expected to balloon to a $1 trillion business, corporate hospitality brands are offering stays that combine access to nature with comfy mattresses, hot showers, and other amenities. Hyatt has partnered with the glamping pioneer Under Canvas, while Best Western owner BWH recently bought Utah’s Zion Wildflower Resort, “a collection of well-appointed tents, covered wagons, and cabins.” Marriott is in the process of integrating 1,200 Postcard Cabins at 29 locations for its Bonvoy members, and Hilton has formed a partnership with AutoCamp, purveyors of shiny, vintage-style aluminum trailers. Travelers can reserve stays through established booking sites,…

This week’s question: The Trump administration has terminated a federal grant that helps fund PBS children’s shows, including Sesame Street. If Sesame Street’s puppet cast were to sing a song about how the beloved show’s finances are no longer A-OK, what would the number be titled? Last week’s contest: Wellness maven Gwyneth Paltrow recently confessed that she’s eating dairy and carbs again after growing “a little sick of” her strict yearslong paleo diet. If Hollywood were to make a movie about an actress who gets a new lease on life after rediscovering the joys of bread and cheese, what would it be titled? THE WINNER: There’s Something About Dairy Kenneth Burgan, Grass Valley, Calif. SECOND PLACE: Cheese Knives Out Joyce Salter, La Crescenta, Calif. THIRD PLACE: How Stella Got…

Good week for: Making the most of it, after Dutch scientists concluded that the universe will die “much sooner than expected,” with all stars set to burn out in 10 to the power of 78 years—that’s a one with 78 zeros—rather than the previous estimate of 10 to the power of 1,100 years. Charlie Hustle, after the MLB removed Pete Rose and other deceased players from its permanently banned list, making them eligible to be considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose, who was placed on the list for gambling, “is no longer with us,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, so “cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game.” Pathogens, after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted photos of himself and his grandkids…

Ariel Winter went through puberty in public, said Gillian Telling in People, and it’s a trauma she’s still recovering from. The actress, who played the bookish Alex Dunphy on Modern Family, was only 11 when the sitcom debuted in 2009. As she entered her teen years, she endured brutal comments about her appearance. “It was just everywhere,” says Winter, now 27. “It was every headline I read about myself—like, grown people writing articles saying how I looked terrible or pregnant or like a fat slut.” The endless trolling hammered her self-esteem. “I was 14. It made it very difficult to look at myself in the mirror.” Making matters worse, parental support was absent. Raised by a mother she calls abusive, Winter was placed in the care of an older…

Jason Matzus The Boston Globe “What’s happening at Newark Liberty International Airport is not just troubling—it’s terrifying,” said Jason Matzus. A “burned-out copper wire” recently caused a 90-second communications blackout at a radar facility serving Newark, leaving air traffic controllers “blind and mute” while planes full of passengers descended into one of the country’s busiest airports. Two more outages have occurred since then, causing hundreds of flight delays and cancellations. More than 20 percent of Newark’s air traffic controllers have taken leave, with some “reporting symptoms consistent with trauma,” and they say the airport is unsafe. The FAA has a long-standing national shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers, who take three years to train, and these critical workers rely on antiquated technology that “should have been replaced decades ago.”…

“Are we helping create the tools of our own obsolescence? As AI systems increasingly match or exceed our cognitive abilities, we’re witnessing the twilight of human intellectual supremacy—a position we’ve held unchallenged for our entire existence. This transformation won’t arrive in some distant future; it’s unfolding now, reshaping not just our economy but our very understanding of what it means to be human beings. Our children and grandchildren will face a profound challenge: how to live meaningful lives in a world where they are no longer the smartest and most capable entities in it.” Tyler Cowen and Avital Balwit in The Free Press…

Robert Amalemba The Continent “Truth tellers” are on their own in Kenya, said Robert Amalemba. Business student Nelson Amenya learned that recently when he “blew the lid” off a murky deal to lease out Kenya’s biggest airport to India’s Adani Group. News of the deal, which would have left Kenyan taxpayers on the hook if Adani lost money, unleashed “public furor,” and it was promptly scrapped. Yet Amenya soon found himself “targeted for speaking out.” He has endured online abuse, death threats, and a $68,000 defamation lawsuit filed by a man he had named as a fixer for Adani. Amenya would have had a measure of protection if Kenya had ever actually passed its draft bill to protect whistleblowers, but it has been stalled in the legislature for over…

Juliet Samuel The Times Leftists bemoaned the recent stunning success of the Reform UK party in local elections as the “Trumpification of Britain,” said Juliet Samuel. But that’s not what’s really going on. “Voters just want immigration to come down—or at least, to stop going up and up”—and are turning to the party that offers a “radical approach.” Successive Labour and Conservative governments have pledged to curb migration, only to “then let it shoot up.” Before the Eastern bloc joined the EU in 2004, we were told Britain would get maybe 13,000 migrants a year. “By 2007, 750,000 had arrived.” The Tories tried to fix things but failed. Then Syria exploded, and the sight of Middle Eastern migrants overrunning Europe “led directly to the Brexit vote.” Boris Johnson became…

The U.S. service academies are under attack—by the Pentagon, said Greg Jaffe in The New York Times. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered West Point and other military academies to purge their libraries of books covering “divisive concepts” such as race, gender, and the treatment of Native Americans. The service academies, Hegseth and President Trump declared in a memo, cannot teach that “America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.” The Defense Department suggested using search terms including “anti-racism,” “diversity in the workplace,” “gender transition,” “white privilege,” and “critical race theory” to weed out forbidden books. The Naval Academy has already purged almost 400 books, including acclaimed works by Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. As Trump and Hegseth “ratchet up the pressure” in the culture wars, several West Point…

Mark Twain was skeptical that a biography could ever do more than capture surface impressions, said Mary Ann Gwinn in the Los Angeles Times. This one, however, “feels like the truth of one man’s star-crossed life.” At more than 1,000 pages, Ron Chernow’s latest doorstop is “not a book for the casual reader,” and the author “never quite gets to the core of the contradictions in Twain’s conflicted soul.” But after previously taking the measure of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Ulysses S. Grant, Chernow gives us Twain’s complete life story, “in all its glory and sorrow.” The creator of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer was a talent whose wit and best writing are valued to this day, but he was more discontented late in life than we generally…

In at least one way, becoming a nun hasn’t been everything the former Claudette Powell imagined it would be, said Sophie Gable in the Daily Mail (U.K.). “I really thought, when I left Hollywood and came to New Jersey, that I would live this very quiet, obscure life, and just sort of disappear,” she says. Instead, the onetime aspiring comedian, now known as Sister Monica Clare, has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok and a new memoir out that details her unlikely path to leading a convent of 10 Episcopal nuns in verdant Mendham, N.J. Then again, the allure of convent life first captured her imagination when she was a girl in Georgia, and the attraction never died. “I tried to ignore it,” she says. “I tried to cure…

(Economist Podcasts) This year, multiple media outlets have released exposés about the recent proliferation in Southeast Asia of so-called scam compounds, said Nicholas Quah in NYMag.com. “Of these, Scam Inc., from The Economist, struck me as the most effective,” because of its “sweeping scope” and ability to access various nodes in the network of fraudsters who are using texts, emails, and other digital messages to cheat innocent victims out of their money. The compounds are prisonlike complexes where workers who’ve essentially been kidnapped are compelled to mislead strangers into fake online romances and then milk them for cash. When host Sue-Lin Wong states early on that these “pig-butchering” scams are as numerous as stars in the sky, the claim seems suspect, said James Marriott in The Times (U.K.). “It…

Inflation in April fell to its lowest point in four years, said Paul Davidson in USA Today. “Overall consumer prices increased 2.3 percent from a year earlier, down from a 2.4 percent rise the previous month,” according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index this week. “On a monthly basis, costs rose 0.2 percent” from March, but “prices for groceries, including eggs, used cars, and airfares all fell sharply.” The better-than-expected results captured costs “just as President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs were kicking in,” so it will take longer to register what effect the tariffs will have on prices. Power grid: Google expands nuclear ambitions Google signed an investment agreement last week for three advanced nuclear reactor sites, said Pippa Stevens in CNBC.com. “Google will commit early-stage capital” to nuclear…

■ Watch out for Florida’s noncompetes Florida wants to make it easier for employers to impose noncompete agreements on their workers, said Brit Morse in Fortune. Last month, state legislators passed a new bill broadening the scope of businesses that could require noncompetes, including for out-of-state employees and independent contractors. The law also raises the bar for workers to prove in court that the job they’re taking won’t compete with their old employer. Businesses use noncompete agreements to discourage employees from leaving, but they have been criticized for restricting freedom, suppressing wages, and stifling entrepreneurship. California has long frowned on them, and other states have recently followed. Florida, on the other hand, is aiming to attract businesses as “the most noncompete-friendly state.” ■ A simple dividend investing strategy It…

Ellen Cushing The Atlantic Fried chicken is eating the burger’s lunch, said Ellen Cushing. The fried chicken sandwich may have beaten the hamburger as “America’s favorite thing to do with meat and bread.” Since 2019, the year Popeyes introduced a version that people lined up for, fried chicken sandwich consumption has gone up 19 percent at American restaurants, while burgers are down 3 percent. There’s nothing wrong with beef. But a fried chicken sandwich is just better. It lets Americans fulfill their desire “to customize everything,” and takes well “to being dressed a gazillion different ways.” It’s a delicious restaurant luxury that’s “splattery, stinky, and stressful” to cook at home. It’s also transforming the fast-food landscape. Not long before the Popeyes craze, McDonald’s franchisees pleaded for a good option.…

Trump’s “free” plane would be no “gift for the American taxpayer,” said Joe Gould and Connor O’Brien in Politico. The two presidential planes currently in use are decades old and “increasingly hard to maintain,” and replacements are years behind schedule. But before it could be used as Air Force One, the Qatari jet “would need to be torn down and rebuilt from the inside out” to meet security and communications needs and swept for “embedded foreign tech.” Experts say that process could cost the government tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. The furor over the plane could raise the heat on a simmering problem for Trump, said Aaron Blake in The Washington Post. Polls show many Americans have concerns about his business dealings, and lately we’ve seen…

Trump seeks to replace librarian of Congress President Trump fired the first Black librarian of Congress last week and named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, as acting librarian. Carla Hayden had one year remaining in her 10-year term, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “There were quite concerning things she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children.” The Library of Congress is primarily a research center reserved for people 16 and over, but it has a children’s reading room. Last week, Trump also fired the head of the library’s copyright office, who had recently issued a report questioning the legality of training AI on copyrighted works. Staff at the…

Bjorn Ulvaeus remembers the moment he became image conscious, said Michael Odell in The Times (U.K.). The Swedish songwriter and his group, ABBA, had just won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with “Waterloo,” making them overnight stars—and his svelte, blond then-wife Agnetha Faltskog a sex symbol. Ulvaeus took a long look in the mirror, literally. “I remember the actual full-length mirror,” he says. “And I remember making a decision: This cannot go on. This is not what a pop star looks like.” He vowed to lose weight. “I began running and eating more healthily that same day. Because pop stars were thin.” Now 80, he remains in remarkably good shape. Ulvaeus works out daily and doesn’t eat before midday. “I try to follow the advice of Clint Eastwood who,…

■ Bill Belichick’s family is “extraordinarily concerned” about the North Carolina football coach’s 24-year-old girlfriend and is “digging into” her background, former ESPN personality Pablo Torre said on his podcast last week. Their worries have grown amid reports that Jordon Hudson, a former college cheerleader, is micromanaging her 73-year-old boyfriend’s life, weighing in on media interviews and standing beside him at Tar Heel practices. Citing a source close to the Belichick clan, Torre said the family fears Hudson could wreck everything the coach “has built and worked for over decades.” Torre claimed Hudson has been banned from Tar Heel practices; the university insists she’s “welcome” around the team. Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, Torre said one of his sources described Hudson as “the worst person I’ve ever dealt…

L.S. Dugdale The New York Times As a doctor, I’ve seen intensive-care units full of gravely ill people being kept alive by “tortuous” artificial means, said L.S. Dugdale. So I support efforts to provide “a better death.” That’s the supposed goal of the Medical Aid in Dying Act, recently passed by the New York State Assembly. But the bill—modeled on similar laws already in effect in Oregon and Canada—“is not about dying well.” Instead, it’s “about relieving society of responsibility” to care for people in despair because of loneliness, poverty, depression, and disability. The bill would authorize doctors to give qualifying patients lethal drugs they can self-administer. But it doesn’t require most recipients to be screened for depression. Of the 607 Oregonians receiving lethal prescriptions last year, only three…

Béatrice Madeline Le Monde France’s “social elevator” has gotten stuck, said Béatrice Madeline. The wealthy aren’t those who work hard, save, and invest—they are the lucky ones whose parents passed down a fortune. In the 1970s, inherited money represented about 35 percent of the nation’s wealth. That figure is now a stunning 60 percent, and it will only climb higher as Baby Boomers pass on some $760 billion to their children every year. With the richest 10 percent now controlling 80 percent of French assets, we’re back to the stratification of the 19th century. How did we get here? It started in the 1970s, when growth slowed, which meant workers’ income didn’t rise much. Yet the real estate market and the stock market were simultaneously booming, so those who…

It’s a tale to “make you sick to your stomach,” said Parker Molloy in The New Republic. Shiloh Hendrix, a white mother from Rochester, Minn., went viral last week after she allegedly called a 5-year-old Black boy the N-word at a city playground. Confronted by smartphone-wielding bystander Sharmake Omar, she “doubled down,” lobbing the same slur at Omar and saying she’d caught the 5-year-old boy “digging” through her son’s diaper bag. Hendrix said she was justified in using the N-word “if that’s what he’s going to act like.” After Omar posted the video on social media, Hendrix launched an online fundraiser, saying her family was being harassed. She raised more than $770,000, much of it coming from donors who signed off with racist usernames such as “Nate Higgers” and…

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Shakespeare, quoted in The Atlantic “I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.” Phyllis Diller, quoted in Good Housekeeping “The narratives called biographies pale and shrink in the face of the disorderly actuality that is a life.” Janet Malcolm, quoted in The New York Review of Books “Because you are king of a nation, it does not follow that you are to gather for yourself all the wealth of that nation.” John Ruskin, quoted in The New Yorker “Civilizations decline when their leaders stop responding creatively, and the civilizations then sink owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the…

■ A wave of crypto-world kidnappings French authorities dramatically rescued the abducted father of a crypto millionaire, said Nate Anderson in Ars Technica. The man, who was being held for ransom, had been “snatched from the streets of Paris by men in ski masks” who took him to a house and severed one of the man’s fingers “in the course of ransom negotiations.” Police were able to locate the house and “arrested five people in their 20s.” In January, French crypto entrepreneur David Balland was abducted along with his partner. Balland also had his finger cut off by the kidnappers. In Normandy, the family of a Dubai-based “crypto influencer” was kidnapped and held for ransom; police found his father stuffed in the trunk of a car, doused with gasoline,…

A type of mold that kills nearly 2 million people a year is moving into new areas because of climate change, a new preprint study warns. Already common in the U.S., aspergillus can damage a broad range of agricultural crops, and in humans it can cause aspergillosis, a deadly lung infection. Researchers mapping the effects of rising temperatures on fungal species found that by the year 2100, various strains of aspergillus could reach considerably further north in Europe, Asia, and North America. Aspergillus flavus could increase by around 16 percent, while Aspergillus fumigatus could rise by 77.5 percent. That would put millions more people at risk. “Changes in environmental factors, such as humidity and extreme weather events, will change habitats and drive fungal adaptation and spread,” lead author Norman…

Richard Bausch, who edited the most recent edition of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, is the award-winning author of 10 short-story collections and 13 novels, including Hello to the Cannibals and Peace. His new story collection, out May 20, is The Fate of Others. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869). I first read Tolstoy’s towering novel at 18 because I heard that John F. Kennedy admired it. I had no idea that I’d end up a writer, too. I’m currently reading it again, for the sixth time. I love Mark Twain’s remark about it—and it is so like Twain: “Tolstoy carelessly neglects to include a boat race.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925). I’ve read The Great Gatsby nearly every year since 1971. It just…

“This is a golden age for light beer,” said Matt Allyn in Men’s Journal. Where once the best light beers were merely the least offensive, “flawless” light beers are now being made by craft brewers and mass producers alike. After a wide search, I’m ready to declare these the best of all. Dale’s Light Lager ($12 per six-pack). My favorite, from Colorado-based Oskar Blues Brewery, “tastes like the big light beers you love, but a little better.” It delivers “cracker malt flavor with a kiss of grapefruit hops.” Wiseacre Sky Dog Lager ($10). Of all the beers I tasted, this contender is “the most like a classic European pilsner.” It balances “toasty malted barley with subtle, spicy Czech hops.” Dogfish Head 30 Minute Light IPA ($11). This is the…

Sapelo’s Gullah Geechee culture At Georgia’s Sapelo Island, travelers disembark from the ferry “into another world—one simultaneously haunting and more than probably haunted,” said Jessica B. Harris in Garden & Gun. The Manhattan-size redoubt off the coast of Meridian today has fewer than 75 permanent residents but was once home to large cotton and sugarcane plantations tended to by several hundred enslaved Africans and their descendants. The traditions maintained by those laborers’ freed descendants “form the bedrock of Gullah Geechee culture.” As I strolled Nanny Goat Beach with a group of local experts, we found sand dollars and “luminous” blue whelk shells, and spotted the grasses used to make Gullah teas and woven baskets. Oysters once teemed by the millions in these waters, and their shells were used for…

Tech bros are increasingly eager to beat one another up, said David Yaffe-Bellany in The New York Times. Last year, Karate Combat, a “would-be competitor to the Ultimate Fighting Championship,” started a new competition for amateurs called Influencer Fight Club. “Its premise was simple: Put a couple of tech guys in the ring and see what happens.” Now at crypto conferences around the country, tech entrepreneurs are showing up “not to network with fellow crypto enthusiasts” but to fight them. Many were inspired by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, whose transformation “from skinny computer nerd to martial arts fighter” has been documented on Instagram. In 2023, Zuckerberg challenged Elon Musk to a televised cage match, which never took place. But other fights are happening. Andrew Batey, a venture capitalist, “spent $75,000…

Diapers for a baby in the first year of life can cost close to $1,000, an expense that half of families with young children have trouble affording. Since 2006, the nonprofit Baby2Baby (baby2baby.org) has sent 450 million necessities, including 200 million diapers, to children across all 50 states, in hospitals, shelters, foster care, refugee communities, underserved schools, and domestic violence programs. Baby2Baby’s programs now use 10 warehouses around the country, but they cover only a fraction of the need: The organization had requests for 1.5 billion diapers. Baby2Baby has been on the scene of disasters like hurricanes Helene and Milton to support families with diapers as well as resources like food and clothes. It also distributes kits to new mothers in hospitals, providing them with essentials for the first…

Kenneth Rogoff The Economist President Trump didn’t start the dollar’s decline, but he is a dangerous accelerant, said Kenneth Rogoff. There are many measures of the dollar’s footprint on the global economy. “A particularly useful one is what currency central banks focus on as their exchange-rate anchor or reference currency.” By this measure, the dollar’s fall began around 2015, “after which China began to make its currency more flexible.” A gradual splintering has unfolded since, beginning in Asia and moving to Europe, which “chafes at the tentacles of control that dollar dominance gives America.” The greenback will “almost certainly remain the world’s dominant currency for at least a couple more decades,” but there are signs of tectonic shifting. “Aside from upending a global trade regime in which America was…