Indholdsfortegnelse for August 29, 2025 i The Week Magazine

Donald Trump is now coming for our mail-in ballots. The micromanager-in-chief has decided that voting by mail is inherently fraudulent, because his chum Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator who hasn’t held a free election in decades, told him so. “I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” Trump posted this week on social media. “We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.” That is a lie. Many Western countries have postal voting for all citizens, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Switzerland. Others allow it for certain voters, such as the…

■ The owner of Trump Burger, a Texas chain of MAGA-themed eateries, has been arrested by ICE and now faces deportation. Roland Beainy, 28, arrived from Lebanon in 2019 and in 2020 launched Trump Burger, which serves up a “taste of American greatness” between buns with TRUMP flame-seared into them. ICE said that Beainy’s visa expired in 2024, and that U.S. immigration laws will be enforced “regardless of what restaurant you own.” ■ Texas’ Baylor University is suing Boston University for what it claims is a “confusingly similar” logo of a B interlocked with a U. In court filings, Baylor acknowledges the two institutions share the same initials, and that Boston University has long been known as “BU.” Nevertheless, insists Baylor, BU’s sports-team logo made from those two letters is…

Bobby Bradford never imagined he’d have to start his life over at 91, said August Brown in the Los Angeles Times. But the cornet and trumpet virtuoso, who helped pioneer the free jazz style with Ornette Coleman in the 1950s and ’60s, had no choice after his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena was destroyed in January’s wildfires. Since then, he and his wife have bounced between rentals—and battled constantly with insurers. “The company said they won’t insure me again because I filed a claim on my house,” he says, bewildered. “How is that my fault?” Through it all, Bradford has continued to play music. “That’s all I have left. I’m [91] years old. I don’t have years to wait around to rebuild.” Bradford moved to his Altadena…

Liza Featherstone The New Republic Unlike floods and heat waves, air pollution “doesn’t lend itself to morbid doomscrolling or panicked media coverage,” said Liza Featherstone. But bad air is actually “much more deadly” than the more obvious consequences of climate change. The World Health Organization estimates that the annual death toll from air pollution is about 7 million people—far more than from storms, floods, and heat waves. Inhaling toxins and tiny bits of soot day after day increases people’s risk of emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, breast cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer, and coronary disease. There’s also evidence that it “takes a toll on mental health.” In this hotter world, massive wildfires have covered major U.S. cities in California, the Midwest, and the Northeast in heavy, toxin-laden smoke that can penetrate deep…

Prior Smith The Globe and Mail It’s time to trade “paradise for principle,” said Prior Smith. For generations, Canadian snowbirds have migrated to Florida beach towns to soak up the rays in winter. We relocate for weeks or even months, bringing tourist dollars to hotels, stores, and restaurants across the Sunshine State. The estimated 3.2 million Canadians who visited last year pumped $6 billion into the state’s economy. But will we winter there now? When Trump pushed aside a binding free-trade treaty to hit us with outrageous tariffs, and then topped it off with a threat to annex us as the 51st state, Canadians reacted with predictable outrage. Those of us who normally cross the border for groceries or summer vacations have changed our shopping habits and canceled our trips.…

“Smartphones and streaming services seem likely culprits” in a catastrophic loss of life skills among younger Americans, said John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times. Troubling new data from the University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study shows that adults in their 20s and 30s have grown increasingly careless, easily distracted, and less eager to honor commitments. Conscientiousness—“the quality of being dependable and disciplined”—in particular is in “free fall” among people ages 16 to 39, but other measures of the ability to get along with others are falling, too. Since 2017, neuroticism has jumped while agreeableness and extroversion have dropped. More Americans say they are easily distracted, and fewer think they are helpful or outgoing. After all the time we spend online, “real-life commitments now feel messy and effortful.” Even our…

Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player of all time, followed by Roger Clemens and Willie Mays. Power hitter Babe Ruth, long considered the GOAT by fans and experts alike, slots into fourth place. Those are the surprising conclusions of a team of specialists in sabermetrics, the science of baseball statistics, who spent years devising a methodology for comparing athletic performances across different eras. The team, led by statistician Daniel Eck at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, looked at each player’s performance while factoring in the size and strength of the Major League Baseball talent pool they faced. The rankings take into account how the talent pool broadened after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, as well as after baseball went global. The bigger the pool, the harder…

Genetic factors appear to play a role in the development of chronic fatigue syndrome, reports the Financial Times. The condition—also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis—can be debilitating, featuring extreme exhaustion and brain fog. But it is poorly understood, and patients often struggle to convince doctors that their symptoms aren’t psychosomatic. Now a major new study analyzing the DNA of 15,500 people with the condition has identified eight areas where their genetic code differs significantly from that of people without it. Two of the areas, or “genetic signals,” relate to the body’s immune response to infection—an aha moment for researchers, as many sufferers say their symptoms began after an infection. The other areas are linked with the nervous system and chronic pain. “These signals align with how people with ME/CFS describe their…

Novelist Ed Park “seems both fascinated and repulsed by these changing times,” said Siddhartha Mahanta in The Washington Post. In his first story collection, the author of the 2024 Pulitzer finalist Same Bed Different Dreams explores how the internet age has divided experience between the material and the online. Yet he exhibits a healthy curiosity “about what we might gain in an age of digital reconstitution.” This is serious stuff. “It should, however, also be said: Park is funny.” As we read about a man getting left behind by more friends and family who are more online, or about a father of two watching his wife spin out on Ambien, the reading on your inner amusement meter will hover at “low, rumbly lol,” with occasional spikes to “lmao.” Park had…

People Like Us by Jason Mott (Dutton, $30) Jason Mott’s “oddly riveting” follow-up to his National Book Award–winning Hell of a Book “takes big swings at topics many people are struggling to understand,” said Chris Hewitt in The Minnesota Star Tribune. The new novel follows two Black American writers, one preparing to address a college after a mass shooting, the other touring Europe after winning a big award. We’re left wondering how the pair connect—until the finale, when Mott and his speech giver “knock it out of the park.” Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie (Doubleday, $28) Charlotte Runcie’s “smart, compulsively readable” first novel “provides food for thought on a variety of complex topics,” said Malcolm Forbes in The Washington Post. During Edinburgh’s celebrated annual Fringe festival, an American…

Chance the Rapper’s signature shout-out “And we back!” has “never meant more than now,” said Cory Woodroof in USA Today. Six years after releasing The Big Day, a genre-crossing album whose “unexpectedly bubbly spirit” turned off many “day-one Chance fans,” the 32-year-old Grammy winner has delivered a follow-up that recaptures “the sonic excellence and lyrical ambition” that made him a 2010s sensation. From bar one, we hear “some of the crispest delivery Chance has unleashed,” plus the “battle-tested introspection” that comes from a career fumble and the failure of his marriage. “Star Line is a feast, from start to finish,” said Robin Murray in Clash. While The Big Day has become “emblematic of his decline,” the new album “contains some career-best work.” Early on, we get “No More Old Men,”…

Eddington Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal play the sheriff and the mayor of a New Mexico town in this dystopian farce of a Western from horror director Ari Aster. At odds over Covid restrictions and older beefs, the two local leaders careen toward a violent showdown. $20 on demand The Last Rodeo Neal McDonough (Tulsa King) stars in this modern-day cowboy tale as a retired rodeo legend who gets back in the saddle for a shot at prize money to pay for his grandson’s cancer treatment. $20 on demand Tornado Western and samurai tropes intermingle in this surreal drama set in 18th-century Scotland. When bandits led by a menacing Tim Roth slay an itinerant Japanese swordsman, the outsider’s young daughter uses her own sword skills to exact revenge. AMC+ The…

■ To protect the screen: When your phone is face up, it’s more vulnerable to spills and scratches. And when it’s on a desk, “it’s probably not far from a glass of water or mug of coffee,” while the fumbling of a heavy object could crack the screen. Use a case with a raised edge, though, so the screen won’t be scratched by crumbs or other debris. ■ To extend battery life: Notifications don’t light up a phone when it’s placed face down, and while one or two notifications won’t save much battery power, “notifications can add up,” especially if you have them enabled on many apps. ■ To be polite: It’s always good etiquette to keep your phone face down when socializing, and a subtle way of showing your…

Kevin Frazier and Adam Thierer Reason Colorado’s faltering efforts at an AI law are “a warning for other states rushing to regulate emerging tech,” said Kevin Frazier and Adam Thierer. Last year, Colorado became the first state to regulate AI, with a law set to go into effect in 2026. The idea was that the state would prevent “algorithmic discrimination” and make AI developers exercise “reasonable care.” So much for that. The reality is that Colorado’s law is a set of “vague directives,” ambiguous standards, and mandates. The law’s demands for monitoring, reports, and assessments are so expansive that even state lawmakers are trying to backtrack. Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is tasked with enforcing these directives, now says the law needs to be fixed. Europe’s “heavy-handed model,” which American states…

■ When Jason Hong turned 75, he reminisced about his rarely flown 1958 Cessna Skyhawk. But in July he discovered his aircraft missing from the Corona Municipal Airport in California. When it turned up at a different airport, Hong removed the plane’s battery, but it went missing again the next weekend. Police found the plane at a third airport. Flight data revealed someone had flown the Skyhawk and returned it several times. The experience has been unnerving for Hong, but there’s one saving grace: The flyer had put in a brand-new battery. ■ Micherre Fox, 37, wanted an engagement diamond that demonstrated her commitment to marriage. So the New Yorker spent three weeks fruitlessly digging through the diamond fields of Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park, which has a “finders…

Survivors, after Guinness World Records formally recognized Pearl, of Little Elm, Texas, as the planet’s oldest living chicken. En route to the record-setting age of 14, Pearl overcame a broken leg, chicken pox, and a raccoon attack, says owner Sonya Hull, noting that Pearl now lives in her laundry room, where she enjoys cuddling up with a mop. Redos, after a judge in Georgia, having just told a defendant that the jury had found him guilty of murder, was perplexed by the reaction in the courtroom. After inquiring, “Didn’t I say, ‘Not’?” and being told that he didn’t, the judge clarified what he’d meant to say was “not guilty,” which triggered cheers and hugs at the defense table. Kids today, after the Cambridge Dictionary added 6,000 new words, including “skibidi.”…

For decades, Sharon Stone thought she hated her mother, said Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian (U.K.). “Mom, Dot, was hilarious, but she said terrible things to me,” says the actress, 67. “When the last thing your mother says to you before she dies is ‘You talk too much, you make me want to commit suicide,’ and the whole room laughs, you think, That’s a hard one to go out on, Mom!” Dot died at age 91 in March, but Stone says she’d grown closer with her in recent years after realizing that her mother’s “lack of ability to find tenderness and peace within herself” stemmed from a brutal childhood. Stone’s maternal grandfather physically and sexually abused Dot and her sisters, and Stone says he later did the same to her…

Joanna Coles Daily Beast “We’ve already seen this movie when it starred President Joe Biden,” said Joanna Coles, and now we’re “watching the sequel.” At 79, President Trump is showing undeniable signs of physical and mental deterioration. His swollen “cankles,” the product of a lifetime lack of exercise and “chronic venous insufficiency,” visibly bulge over his shoes. They’re “the hinges of a retiree glued to his La-Z-Boy, feet up and watching Fox News all day.” After his recent summit in Alaska, Trump wearily trudged up the stairs to Air Force One, gripping the railing. He’s more incoherent than ever, and he frequently confuses names and places, repeatedly saying he was “going to Russia” for a meeting in Alaska. He referred to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as Cristie Kerr, who’s…

“Barely 1 in 4 men reads fiction. It’s a shame. I can say with confidence and experience that not only will a good story keep you entertained more than anything that has ever been written on best practices in human resources management or the history of data collection centers—it will be more useful too. The best writers don’t only keep you engaged with a gripping tale. They will, under the guise of that compelling narrative, teach you more about human motivation that lies at the base of everything in politics, business, and life itself.” Gerard Baker in The Wall Street Journal…

Ed Stoddard Daily Maverick When an American trophy hunter was gored to death by a charging Cape buffalo earlier this month, animal rights activists openly rejoiced, said Ed Stoddard. The beast’s revenge was “poetic justice” for Texas millionaire Asher Watkins, they argued, since after all he was trying to blow the buffalo away for sport. I understand that lots of people deplore hunting, and plenty “who don’t mind hunting in general dislike trophy hunting.” But celebrating a man’s death is grotesque. Hunters, even trophy hunters, are not the enemy of conservation here in South Africa. Studies show they don’t kill enough of any species to make the slightest dent in animal populations, and their money supports reserves for endangered animals. There is, though, “a mountain of evidence” that photo safari…

Editorial El País A Spanish town is committing “discrimination unbecoming of a democracy,” said El País. The town council in Jumilla, in the southern Murcia region—which was Arab for centuries until it was conquered by the kingdom of Castile in the mid-1200s—has effectively barred Muslims from public celebrations. The new policy appears on its face to be neutral, because it bans all religious celebrations in sports arenas. But in practice, only Muslims ever used those arenas that way; for years they’ve celebrated the annual Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha feasts in Jumilla’s sports complex. While the town council is run by the conservative People’s Party, the measure was proposed by the far-right Vox party, which has long used “demagogic and mendacious attacks on immigration” to attract xenophobic voters. Now Vox…

“ICE is extremely desperate for you to work for them,” said Julianne McShane in Mother Jones. Flush with more than $150 billion allocated by President Trump’s tax and spending megabill, and scrambling to deliver on his campaign promise of 1 million deportations a year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has embarked on a “massive hiring spree.” To meet its goal of minting 10,000 new officers, the agency is posting ads across social media and streaming services that tempt potential recruits with “a slate of perks,” including a signing bonus of up to $50,000 and as much as $60,000 in student loan forgiveness. Previous age requirements have been scrapped: Those 18 to 21 can now work as deportation officers, as can the over-40s. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” the…

Hey, ladies: Have you been trapped into “mankeeping” your boyfriend or husband? asked Emma Specter in Vogue. That’s the new term for the widespread phenomenon of women assuming full responsibility for a couple’s social life—and serving as the only person their emotionally isolated male partner can confide in. Coined by Stanford University fellow Angelica Puzio Ferrara, mankeeping describes the hard work a woman “does to keep her less-than-motivated male partner” from “succumbing to the male loneliness epidemic.” In 2021, 15% of men reported having zero close friends, up from 3% in 1990. Today, just 20% of men say they reach out to friends to discuss personal issues. That leaves women with the “unreciprocated” burden of meeting all of their partner’s social and emotional needs, and planning get-togethers with friends like…

“Born to Run clocks in at just under 40 minutes and has only eight tracks. But what an eight they are,” said Bob Ruggiero in the Houston Press. “Thunder Road,” “She’s the One,” the driving title track, and a handful of others remain cornerstones of both Bruce Springsteen’s concert sets and his legend, and he recorded it all with his career on the line. Peter Ames Carlin’s new book, arriving as the seminal Springsteen album turns 50, revisits the record’s creation with the help of fresh interviews with Springsteen, fellow members of the E Street Band, and other key participants. “But what Carlin does here is more than just music journalism. He creates a story, a mood, and triumphs and challenges for its main and supporting characters,” resulting in a…

Novelist Brandy Schillace may have always remained a mystery to herself if her own fictional protagonist hadn’t finally helped crack the case, said Zack Budryk in The Washington Post. Jo Jones, the amateur sleuth featured in Schillace’s 2024 fiction debut, The Framed Women of Ardemore House, shares many traits with her creator. Jo misses social cues, fixates on certain words, excels at pattern recognition, and has a voice inside her head that regularly warns against exhibiting any neurodivergent behavior. Schillace, a Ph.D. who has also authored books on science history, consciously based Jo on herself from the start. But not until a literary agent recommended that Jo own her autism did Schillace realize that she hadn’t yet owned her own autism. Jo is now back in a second novel, The…

Cass McCombs’ new album “does little to dispel the illusion that it could have been made by Gordon Lightfoot in 1974,” said Brian Howe in Pitchfork. Even so, every well-honed detail of the 47-year-old’s throwback folk rock feels “distinctly his.” Having now served for more than 20 years as a torchbearer for Boomer greats such as Lightfoot, John Lennon, and Warren Zevon, he has graduated from being quixotic to being simply great, and “greatness makes inherited things seem invented.” Loaded with “gorgeous melodies” and “brilliant rhetorical mechanisms,” this album comprises 16 songs in all, and there’s “not a throwaway among them.” You could even imagine Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra singing some of the well-crafted slower tunes here, said Ben Beaumont-Thomas in The Guardian. But all of these songs feel…

(R) Seekers of a new utopia spiral into savagery. “In a film littered with monstrous behavior, what is perhaps most shocking about Eden is the director behind it,” said Tim Grierson in Screen Daily. In most Ron Howard movies, “the best of humanity usually shines brightest.” Here, he aims instead to reveal the worst, taking us to a Galápagos island in the 1930s to watch as unwelcome guests poison the wilderness utopia that a pompous real-life German doctor and his wife had begun to build. As rivalries emerge, “Howard embraces the story’s demented bent,” offering the viewer kinky sex and “a level of brutality unique to his oeuvre.” Still, “he can’t quite connect with the evil that permeates his film.” Jude Law, playing the doctor, does some “enjoyable scenery chewing,”…

“Daniel Humm has read the room,” said Melissa McCart in Eater. Four years after the chef committed to a vegan-only menu at Eleven Madison Park, his Manhattan fine-dining temple that in 2017 was named the world’s best restaurant, he announced this month that his kitchen will soon begin dishing out meat again. Humm had seemed on a mission. He cited climate change and animal welfare when he began engineering vegan luxury dishes such as mock duck made from beets and “land caviar” made from seeds. And “the gamble paid off—at least in accolades.” But Humm’s makeover wasn’t celebrated by all his constituents, including the tech bros whose spending keeps luxury restaurants afloat. While EMP isn’t killing its vegan menu, Humm, citing a desire not to “exclude” anyone, is bringing back…

IceMule Classic Medium Soft Cooler The “strong yet thin” insulation in this collapsible cooler bag can keep an ice pack and perishable food cold for days. And when not in use, the bag “compresses down to the size of a medium-weight sweater.” $85, amazon.com Source: Bon Appétit TernX Carry-On Luggage Stroller This travel stroller transforms into a rolling suitcase and folds up to fit in an overhead compartment. Though converting to pure luggage mode “takes effort,” the stroller is a “dream come true” for traveling parents. $700, ternx.com Source: Wired Cross Homes Magnetic Spice Jars The magnets on the caps of these 4-oz containers allow them to be hung on the front or side of a refrigerator, putting 15 seasonings at easy reach. $46 for 15, amazon.com Source: NYMag.com West…

UnitedHealth Group shares surged last week after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed a stake in the embattled company, said Krystal Hur in The Wall Street Journal. The health-care giant, once a pacesetter, has “struggled in the midst of a litany of challenges” that include a Medicare billing investigation and the high-profile assassination of one of its executives in December. Berkshire’s purchase of $1.6 billion in shares represents a vote of confidence in the prospects for a turnaround. Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth’s chief from 2006 to 2017, returned to the CEO spot in May. Superintelligence? Meta reorganizes AI group Meta this week told employees it is yet again reorganizing its AI division “after months of tumult” to stay relevant in the field, said Mike Isaac and Eli Tan in The New York…

■ Private equity misleads investors After the Trump administration opened American 401(k) retirement accounts to private equity investments, plumbing their opaque “tricks of the trade has taken on greater importance,” said Jonathan Weil in The Wall Street Journal. The industry, famous for secrecy, rarely discloses the types of financial figures investors rely on, and even when they do, the disclosures can be impenetrable. Some funds are buying “stakes in other private equity funds at big discounts on the secondary market,” then marking up the prices to a so-called stated value, allowing a private equity company to report gains of up to 1,000% in a single day. In the worst cases, firms hide the markups “by listing the cost figures in lengthy footnotes” in their financial statements. ■ Fast food and…

Terence Stamp soared to stardom in the 1960s on the strength of his piercing blue eyes and artfully tousled hair. Named “the world’s best-looking man” when he was in his 20s, the British actor made viewers swoon with his turn as a naïve seaman in Billy Budd (1962), quickly followed by roles as a menacing psychopath in The Collector (1965) and a sinister swordsman in Far From the Madding Crowd (1967). Billy Budd earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe statue, and he won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival for The Collector. Having become almost as famous for the starlets he dated as for his talent, he left the movies for a long sabbatical throughout his 30s and returned, more seasoned, to take such roles as…

Eddie Palmieri, “El Maestro,” put a uniquely American spin on Latin music, changing it forever. The Nuyorican pianist, composer, and bandleader was known as the “madman of salsa” for his inventiveness and passionate performance style, attacking the piano like a hurricane. But Palmieri, the winner of eight Grammy Awards, never thought of himself as a salsa star. He preferred the term “Afro-Caribbean music” for his propulsive mix of mambo, jazz, and cha-cha. “I don’t guess I’m going to excite you with my band,” he would tell audiences. “I know it.” The son of Puerto Rican immigrants, Palmieri grew up in New York City “playing stickball and dishing out egg creams at his father’s ice cream parlor,” said The New York Times. The jukebox there was full of 1950s Latin masters,…

The question of whether Putin will deign to meet with Zelensky now takes “center stage,” said Thomas Grove and Matthew Luxmoore in The Wall Street Journal. Any agreement “won’t likely come quickly—or easily.” Putin has repeatedly questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy, belittled him as a stooge of the West, and insisted that “various complex issues be solved” before a one-on-one summit. Moreover, a meeting with Zelensky “could end the delicate dance Putin has performed around Trump’s peace efforts,” where he professes his “desire for peace while escalating offensives.” To bolster Zelensky’s position before any possible meeting, European leaders are trying to flesh out a package of security guarantees, said Ellen Milligan in Bloomberg. At a gathering this week, European officials discussed a plan to dispatch British and French troops to Ukraine as…

Trump ramps us his campaign against mail-in voting President Trump pledged this week to issue an executive order and “lead a movement” to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 election. Trump has for years railed against mail-in ballots, which he baselessly claims lost him the 2020 election. His latest tirade appears to have been inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, Trump said, told him during their summit in Alaska last week that Trump beat Joe Biden by “so much” in 2020 but was defeated because of “rigged” mail-in voting. The Constitution gives state legislatures the power to determine the “times, places, and manner” of holding elections, subject to acts of Congress that regulate the process. But Trump claimed “the States are merely an…

Travis Kelce won’t apologize for loving his life, said Sean Manning in GQ. The Kansas City Chiefs star tight end—now more famous for being the boyfriend of pop superstar Taylor Swift—gained a reputation early in his pro football career for dancing wildly after almost every completion. “Some of the older players [would] come up to me and be like, ‘Man you celebrate after every f---ing catch!’” says Kelce, 35. “I’m like, ‘I’m in the NFL dude! I love this shit! I have millions of people watching me, this is exciting!’” Now Swift, 35, loves it too. “I’ve sort of made her a football fan. She knows what the injury reports look like. She understands what special situations are, third and short, all these things, because she just naturally loves to…

■ Angelina Jolie is ready to ditch the U.S. and move abroad, People reported last week. With the youngest of her six children—twins Knox and Vivienne—about to turn 18, the actress and filmmaker is preparing to put her 11,000-square-foot mansion up for sale. She bought the property, built in 1913 and once owned by director Cecil B. DeMille, for $24.5 million in 2017. While other celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres have recently left the U.S. to escape the Trump presidency, Jolie has eyed an American exit for some time. She told The Hollywood Reporter last year that she remained in L.A. only because of a custody arrangement with ex-husband Brad Pitt; the pair reached a divorce settlement in 2024 after a bitter eight-year legal fight. Jolie has…

Jeet Heer The Nation Pete Hegseth is imposing a “Christian nationalist patriarchy on the military,” said Jeet Heer. The Fox News personality turned secretary of defense has been “more concentrated on defeating liberalism than in fighting foreign wars”—and that agenda includes purging the military leadership of women officers. Hegseth recently removed Vice Admiral Yvette Davids as head of the Naval Academy, and previously removed the first woman to command the Navy and the first woman to command the Coast Guard, as well as other women in senior leadership posts. All were replaced by white males. It’s not surprising, given that Hegseth is a fervent follower of an arch-conservative evangelical church whose stated agenda is to remake the U.S. as an overtly Christian nation, and to restore traditional gender roles and…

Elena Vasilyeva Politico.eu (Belgium) Conventional wisdom says there’s a long way “from canceling Stephen Colbert’s late night show to putting journalists in prison for years,” said Elena Vasilyeva. But in fact, “it might be shorter than you think.” In Belarus, under authoritarian rule since the USSR dissolved in 1991, we kept comforting ourselves by saying, well, things could be worse—but then they always did grow worse. The first time I heard the platitude was 2017, when I was covering a protest with another journalist and he got arrested for no reason. He was released within hours, and friends told me: “Be grateful they let him go.” In 2020, we covered another protest, and this time police rounded up every journalist. Again we were set free, and this time all of…

For President Trump, “only a triumphalist version” of history will do, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. His administration last week gave the Smithsonian Institution 120 days to review displays at eight national museums and replace “divisive or ideologically driven language” with material that celebrates “American exceptionalism.” We’ve already seen “glimpses of what that looks like.” Last month, the National Museum of American History removed references to Trump’s impeachments from an exhibit. Those references were recently restored, with changes. They no longer mention Trump’s “false statements” about the 2020 election or how his Jan. 6, 2021, speech “encouraged” the Capitol insurrection. Other inconvenient facts will soon disappear, said Renée Graham in The Boston Globe. Trump and his Project 2025 allies consider it unpatriotic to discuss this nation’s history…

“The landscape of devastation is still a landscape. There is beauty in the ruins.” Susan Sontag, quoted in The Oxford American “There is a conspiracy that you can find online: It is the one to keep you online, looking for conspiracies.” Timothy Snyder, quoted in Slate “I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me.” Bob Dylan, quoted in The Los Angeles Review of Books “Your freedom does not mean to be free to go the wrong way and crash into another car.” Brazilian jurist Cármen Lúcia, quoted in The Washington Post “It is dangerous to be right when the authorities are wrong.” Voltaire, quoted in the Oman Observer “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu,…

■ A genetic search for smarter babies Silicon Valley’s tech elite are testing embryos to breed smarter babies, said Zusha Elinson in The Wall Street Journal. Parents there are shelling out over $50,000 “for new genetic-testing services that include promises to screen embryos for IQ.” Techies’ obsession with producing gifted children is a combination of a budding pronatalist movement and a confidence in their own “good genes.” But even believers say the tests’ ability to predict intelligence is low. “If parents rank their embryos by the predicted IQ, they could gain between 3 and 4 points on average,” says a scientist who created a genetic model used for such predictions. One couple said their main goal in testing was minimizing the risk of cancer, but they were happy to know…

MIT researchers have used generative AI to design antibiotics that can destroy superbugs, bacteria resistant to current treatments. Tested in mice, one of the AI-developed drugs successfully wiped out MRSA while a second cured drug-resistant gonorrhea. To design the drugs, the researchers tried two different techniques: Directing AI algorithms to scan millions of chemical fragments that show antimicrobial activity resulted in the gonorrhea drug. Allowing the AI to design entirely new molecules from scratch, atom by atom, yielded the MRSA killer. Both drugs will have to undergo at least a year of refinement and further testing before they are ready for human clinical trials. But with drug-resistant bacterial infections now causing more than 1 million deaths worldwide each year, the research provides hope for game-changing new treatments. “AI can enable…

Across a long career, London native Keith McNally has created many of New York City’s buzziest restaurants, including the Odeon, Balthazar, and Minetta Tavern. In his best-selling recent memoir, I Regret Almost Everything, he describes how books and films shaped him. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant (1885). I often gravitate to books with an amoral central character, and Bel-Ami contains one of the most compelling. Georges Duroy arrives in Paris as an innocent but opportunistic young man from the provinces who ascends several rungs up the social ladder by exploiting his charm and good looks. Even shallow, uneducated men can succeed if they’re calculating enough. Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger (1959). This is Thesiger’s account of his extraordinary journey—on foot and by camel—through the scorched “Empty Quarter” of Arabia, the…

Molly Tuttle’s new album “may not make her into the next Taylor Swift,” said Mark Deming in AllMusic. But “by all rights,” it should win her a larger audience. Tuttle, a “superb” guitarist and expressive vocalist, is, at 32, “one of the biggest names in contemporary bluegrass.” But she’s never been a genre purist, and her fifth solo LP turns out to be “that rarity—an acoustic musician’s big pop move that fully succeeds without throwing away the virtues of her previous work.” The addition of drums, keys, and electric bass on tracks such as “Easy” and “The Highway Knows” brings out the songs’ “keen melodic hooks,” making them sound “radio-ready” while in no way compromising Tuttle’s artistry. A couple of the tunes “have a dreamy warmth that recalls Kacey Musgraves,”…

(R) A queer private eye prowls a high-desert town. A retro sheen hangs over Honey Don’t!, director Ethan Coen’s second attempt to put a lesbian spin on a tossed-off genre workout, said Esther Zuckerman in IndieWire. Private eye Honey O’Donahue, played by Margaret Qualley, prowls the dusty streets of Bakersfield, Calif., in a vintage Chevy SS, sporting red pumps and seamed stockings when she steps onto murder scenes. “Not much about this film is fantastic,” but Qualley’s wardrobe is. Co-written by Coen and his spouse, Tricia Cooke, Honey follows last year’s road-trip flick Drive-Away Dolls, building toward a trilogy of intentionally madcap riffs on the lesbian experience, said Owen Gleiberman in Variety. “A deliberate throwaway,” Honey Don’t! is “just trying to show you a flaky good time.” And watching Qualley is…

There are always plenty of candidates for the drink of the summer, said Brooke Steinberg in the New York Post. The paper plane, a modern classic, took off before the warmer months and the spaghett—a Miller High Life with a splash of Aperol and a squeeze of lemon—looks like the budget king. But don’t sleep on the still-rising Hugo spritz, said M. Carrie Allan in The Washington Post. It’s a “lovely,” floral spritz that’s neither bitter nor too sweet. To make it, fill a wine glass with ice, add ½ oz St-Germain elderflower liqueur, 4 to 5 oz. prosecco, 1 oz sparkling water or club soda, and gently stir to combine. Slap a mint sprig between your hands to release its aroma, then fluff it out and add it to…

■ Forget training wheels. There’s “a better way to learn” than leaning on the support of rickety training wheels. Training wheels don’t teach balance, a shortcoming that sets kids up for “a terrifying moment” when they’re placed on a bike with just two wheels and expected to pedal, steer, and balance all at once. ■ Try a balance bike instead. The balance-bike method of learning is spreading because it’s “intuitive, empowering, and accessible for most kids.” Balance bikes are essentially bikes without pedals. Riders push themselves forward using their feet, learning to balance, steer, and stop. Once kids master gliding for 25 feet, they’re ready for pedals. ■ Make one yourself. Several companies make lightweight balance bikes for small children. But “any bike can become a balance bike.” Just remove…

Scott Jacqmein is a Texas-based actor who now has an AI-powered “digital avatar” that’s “peddling whatever an advertiser might want him to sell,” said Sapna Maheshwari in The New York Times. It started when Jacqmein sold his likeness to TikTok last year, thinking that it might give his budding acting career a boost. Now he frequently sees himself pitching a wide range of peculiar products on the platform, like “an insurance-quote marketplace, a daily horoscope app, and a puzzle and brain teaser app” that features him speaking fluent Spanish. Such stories are becoming more common as generative AI proliferates and actors are forced “to reckon with the loss of control over their images.” Platforms like TikTok offer a relative pittance for the right to use actors’ likenesses, and they don’t…

A 17-acre nonprofit farm in Pennsylvania has been connecting disabled children with farm animals and nature since 2004. Run mostly by volunteers, The Barn at Spring Brook Farm (springbrook-farm.org) offers activities exclusively to kids ages 2 to 17 with physical, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. Children at the farm spend time petting, grooming, and feeding cats, donkeys, rabbits, pigs, miniature horses, and goats one-on-one. Sensory play, socialization, and self-esteem reinforcement are the focus of a summer camp for those ages 6 to 12, and the camp includes music therapy, meals in an accessible tree house, sports, crafts, hayrides, and vegetable farming. Every camper is matched with a counselor, and there’s a nurse on-site. Speech or physical therapists from outside the farm can also continue to support kids while they attend camp.…

Adam Minter Bloomberg As money transforms college football, the traditions and culture of high school football have become “collateral damage,” said Adam Minter. Buford High School’s new $62 million Philip Beard Stadium “features 15 corporate suites, 10,000 seats and a 3,600-square-foot, state-of-the-art scoreboard.” Buford, Ga., 40 miles northeast of Atlanta, is not alone, and its stadium isn’t even the most expensive. Texas has at least 10 high school stadiums that cost $50 million or more. These sports monuments are the ripple effect of changes at the college level, where athletes now have the right to be paid and coaches scout other college teams for transfers. Their high school recruiting narrows to the most elite programs, hence the arms race in gold-plated facilities, which attract top athletes and impress scouts. Last…

In the courtroom, Gerry Spence was hard to miss. The Wyoming trial attorney sported a silvery-blond mane and a suede jacket dripping with fringe. Loud and swaggering, he dubbed himself America’s best lawyer, and claimed to have never lost a criminal jury judgment. While that may have been a stretch, he certainly racked up a pile of long-shot acquittals. He scored one of those for former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos, successfully depicting the socialite, accused of pilfering millions to fund her lavish lifestyle, as a “lonely widow” who just happened to be “a world-class shopper.” He also won acquittal for Randy Weaver, the anti-government survivalist accused of killing a federal agent during an 11-day standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992. Spence’s most famous win was a $10.5 million…

SHARP KNOCKS ON the front door interrupted Firouzeh Firouzabadi’s Saturday-morning coffee. On the porch of her suburban Maryland home were two law enforcement agents and a very familiar pit bull mix named Duke. “Can you take this dog?” Firouzabadi recalled one of the men saying. “I said, ‘This is my son’s dog. Where is he?’ They wouldn’t say.” At that moment, her son, Reza Zavvar, was handcuffed in the back of an SUV parked two houses down in the Gaithersburg neighborhood where the Iranian-born family has lived since 2009—apprehended, he later said, that late June day by at least five federal immigration agents in tactical gear who told Zavvar they had been waiting for him to take Duke out for his regular morning walk. More than a month later, Zavvar,…