Innehållsförteckning för February 4, 2022 från The Week Magazine

“I have no way to defend my borders but to extend them.” That was the supposed justification given by Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who considered herself an enlightened reformist, for her unenlightened annexation spree in the 18th century. Under her rule, Russia expanded in all directions, conquering much of what is now Belarus, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and the Baltic states. Catherine was right that the quirks of geography had left her country uniquely vulnerable to attack. The Russian heartland that stretches from St. Petersburg to Moscow sits on plains and lacks natural barriers such as mountains and major rivers to slow an invasion from Europe. And in the two centuries that followed Catherine’s death, two foreign invaders—Napoleon and Hitler—marched in from the west. Both were eventually defeated, although at…

What happened The worst of a crushing Omicron-fueled spike of coronavirus cases appears to be over in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, although the highly infectious variant caused alarming hospital overcrowding this week in the South, West, and Great Plains. The country is averaging about 652,000 new cases a day, down from 754,000 daily cases a week earlier, and hospitalizations appear to have leveled off after topping a pandemic high of 160,000. Daily deaths hit 2,200 for the first time since last fall’s Delta variant surge, bringing the total U.S. toll to 870,000. In Idaho, where just 48 percent of the population is fully vaccinated—the country’s lowest rate—cases have soared 174 percent over two weeks, forcing resource-starved hospitals to triage care. Patients at Covid-packed hospitals in Kansas, where cases are…

The superintendent of the Midland, Mich., school district has denied that district schools are providing trays of kitty litter for students who “identify” as cats or other animals. After parents claimed that schools were adapting bathrooms for kids who call themselves “furries,” superintendent Michael Sharrow said there were no litter boxes, adding that it’s “a source of disappointment” that the rumor was believed. Four Arkansas prison inmates were given “incredibly high doses” of the deworming drug ivermectin without their consent, according to a new lawsuit. Anti-vaccine groups have touted the drug as a treatment for Covid, despite FDA warnings that it’s dangerous and doesn’t work. The inmates claim the prison doctor deceived them about their treatment and subjected them to “medical experimentation.” In other news SCOTUS takes case on affirmative…

Denzel Washington can hear the clock ticking, said Jonathan Dean in The Times (U.K.). The actor has felt intensely aware of his own mortality since the death of his mother in June. “I started to understand that you’re only here for a time and then you’re out,” says Washington, 67. Despite being one of the most celebrated actors of his generation, Washington is now hustling to beef up his résumé. “I’m not going to do many more films, so I want to work with the best.” He’s been calling a who’s who of prominent directors and asking for work: Steve McQueen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, and Joel Coen, who cast Washington in the lead role of his adaptation of Macbeth. Until recently, playing Shakespeare’s murderous thane wouldn’t have…

Rushan Abbas The Hill Boycotting the Winter Olympics in Beijing has become “a moral imperative,” said Rushan Abbas. In an “eerie parallel” to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, China is welcoming athletes from around the world even as “a genocide rages within.” China’s authoritarian government has been subjecting its Muslim Uighur minority to cultural and religious repression, torture, enslavement, and mass sterilization. It has forced at least 1 million into concentration camps to be “re-educated.” Because I’m a Uighur-American activist, my sister was abducted by China’s government, and many members of my husband’s family have disappeared. The Olympic Movement’s stated goal is to help build “a peaceful and better world… without discrimination of any kind.” Staging the Games in a repressive, genocidal nation makes a mockery of the Olympic…

“In the U.S., there is talk of ‘discriminating against’ unvaccinated people, and European cities have seen rowdy protests against ‘vaccine passports.’ In both cases, the complaint is that the unvaccinated are being treated as ‘second-class citizens.’ To my mind, that is not really a complaint at all—it is a solution, or at least part of one. Relieving pressure on health systems and reducing transmission, even modestly, is a very great benefit. The anti-vaccine stuff is pure superstition, tribalism, and performative self-harm.” Kevin Williamson in National Review…

TURKEY Fatih Altayli Haberturk Turkish Islamists are trying to score political points by attacking our greatest pop star, said Fatih Altayli. When Sezen Aksu first released her song “Sahane Bir Sey Yasamak” (Living Is a Wonderful Thing) in 2017, nobody complained about the lyric in which she calls Adam and Eve “ignorant.” But when Aksu recently posted that song on YouTube, the line sparked outrage. The biblical couple are sacred figures in Islam, referred to with honorific titles, and Islamists claimed that Aksu was “trampling on our values.” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined in the condemnation, declaring that “no one can defame our master Adam. It is our duty to tear out those tongues.” Aksu is a convenient target for Erdogan: She backed the 2013 anti-government Gezi Park protests, supports…

KENYA Adhere Cavince Capital News Africa has become a dumping ground for expiring Covid-19 vaccines, said Adhere Cavince. The discovery of the Omicron variant by South African scientists last year threw a spotlight on the world’s failure to inoculate this continent, where 85 percent of the people have yet to receive a single shot. That ultra-low vaccination rate is partly a result of “rushed political decisions by rich countries to donate previously hoarded vaccines to developing countries.” Many of those vaccines were at or near their expiry date, and most African countries “have no capacity” to rapidly distribute and administer shots with “short life spans.” Nigeria destroyed 1 million expired doses in December alone. Such scenes have created “a new form of vaccine apathy” among Africans, who fear they might…

Some 8.8 million Americans—about 6 percent of the workforce—called in sick from work as Omicron infections soared in the first two weeks of 2022, according to Census Bureau data. Another 3.2 million said they weren’t working because they were worried about getting or spreading the highly transmissible variant.CBSNews.com Candidates running for Arizona secretary of state—the official who oversees elections—raised $2.2 million in 2021, more than triple the amount candidates raised in the equivalent period four years ago. In battleground states Georgia, Michiforgan, and Minnesota, fundraising secretary of state candidates is about 2.5 times higher than in the last two election cycles.The Arizona Republic About 30 percent of standard bulbs sold in the U.S. outside of California in 2020 were incandescent or halogen bulbs, instead of the more-efficient LED bulbs. Dollar…

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’”A. A. Milne, quoted in The Economist “Patience is also a form of action.”Auguste Rodin, quoted in The Austin Chronicle “It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it’s not; it’s a visa and it runs out fast.”Writer Julie Burchill, quoted in Psychology Today “By what inevitable degrees does bent become inclination, inclination tendency, tendency penchant, penchant disposition, disposition fate?”Novelist Stanley Elkin, quoted in The New York Times “Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not.”Ursula K. Le Guin, quoted in Woman’s Day “Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.”Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quoted in Parade “If you can’t…

A flying “carcopter” is hoping to take a step toward commercial reality by launching a Formula 1–style racing series in the sky, said Frank Markus in Motor Trend. French startup MACA, spun out of Airbus by the aerospace giant’s innovation committee, says its S11 vehicle was conceived “with Formula racing in mind.” The electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) racer is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell that propels “three pairs of low-noise, counter-rotating propellers,” and can reach speeds of up to 155 mph. MACA hopes to cut through some red tape in the regulatory process by flying very low—just 10 to 12 feet above the ground—and staying in “the airspace immediately above Formula 1 racetracks.” The company says it wants to launch a racing series “with at least five teams…

Getting a fourth Covid vaccine will boost your protective antibodies, but not enough to stop a breakthrough Omicron infection, an Israeli hospital study suggests. Just over 150 health-care workers at the Sheba Medical Center received a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Blood tests showed that the shots triggered an increase in two key types of antibodies. But over the following two weeks, the number of participants who caught Covid was only slightly lower than in a control group that did not receive a fourth shot. The findings will add to the debate over what proportion of the population, if any, should receive a second booster. “The decision to allow the fourth vaccine to vulnerable populations is probably correct and it may give a little benefit,” research leader Gili Regev-Yochay…

(Putnam, $27) “It’s easy to forget that for most of human history, physical training was the preserve of athletes and eccentrics,” said Mia Levitin in the Financial Times. For men, a shift in thinking took hold sooner than for women, who were being warned by doctors well into the 1950s that overexertion could cause the uterus to fall out. In Danielle Friedman’s “engaging” new book, the fitness revolution that has since unfolded is traced through the stories of the women who led the way, from 1940s yoga proselytizer Indra Devi to 1980s workout queen Jane Fonda and beyond. Though Friedman keeps an eye on the tension between the pursuit of personal well-being and the pursuit of beauty ideals imposed by society, her account underscores “the tremendous gains women have made…

Devil House by John Darnielle (MCD, $28) John Darnielle’s third novel is “never quite the book you think it is. It’s better,” said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. The author, frontman of indie folk’s the Mountain Goats, focuses on a true-crime writer who has moved into a California home where teenagers committed a notorious double murder decades earlier. But Darnielle drills down past tabloid sensation to character and turns Devil House into a “powerful and soulful page-turner. I had no idea where it was going, in the best possible sense.” Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan (Pegasus, $26) Jenni Fagan’s “deliciously weird” gothic novel dramatizes how an unhealthy space can affect the people who inhabit it, said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. In 1910, a heinous act is committed…

The Fallout Megan Park’s astonishing feature debut considers the effects of a high school shooting on a survivor, Vada, and a small circle of her friends. A brilliant performance by Jenna Ortega lends this new film an air of raw honesty. HBO Max The Hate U Give Before the term “woke” became a pejorative, this 2018 movie, about a Black teenager who’s a witness to the police shooting of her unarmed friend, played as a moving distillation of how racial injustice plays out. It still does. Hulu Booksmart Gen Z is often accused of being humorless. But maybe their elders just don’t get the joke. Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever bring the laughs while playing a pair of teen overachievers who set out to do what bad kids do in…

Dove Beauty Refillable Deodorant Dove was one of the first major brands to get into refillables. It sells its aluminum-free deodorant, in scents that include cucumber and green tea, in a reusable stainless-steel case. Refill sticks cost $10 per pair. $15, walmart.com Source: PopSugar Bathing Culture Mind & Body Wash Bathing Culture encourages you to refill this 8-ounce glass bottle at select stores or from a $175 gallon jug. Even a small drop of the company’s popular organic moisturizing body wash does a lot of cleansing. $35, bathingculture.com Source: Allure Kjaer Weis Cream Blush Kjaer Weis’ blushes, bronzers, and eye shadows are “finger friendly” and “very easy to use.” They also come in a weighty metal case that can be used with $32 refills and feels “ultra-luxurious and special.”…

Peloton Digital isn’t just for people who own the company’s pricey bike. Anyone can tune in to live-streamed fitness classes, join guided outdoor runs and walks, or download workouts for viewing. “The app’s Artist Series workouts are best.” Try the Beyoncé dance cardio, the BTS ride, or the AC/DC full-body strength class. ($13 a month) Alo Moves offers dozens of yoga classes, from beginner lessons to challenging power yoga. Its fitness classes cover Pilates, barre, strength-based workouts, and more. You can even join a virtual yoga retreat. ($20 a month or $199 a year) Future will hold you accountable. The app pairs you live with a personal trainer, who will ask about your schedule, equipment, and goals. Your coach will then send you a personalized workout regimen and track your…

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said it “will soon be appropriate” to make the first interest-rate hike since 2018, said Jeff Cox in CNBC.com. Though the Fed this week “did not provide a specific time for when the increase will come,” the indications are that it could happen as soon as March. With concerns growing about inflation, Powell suggested rates could rise “quite a bit” without “undermining” the labor market. The central bank’s pandemic-relief program is also expected to fully wind down “at the same time that rates increase.”. Consumers: AmEx sees signs of spending strength Blockbuster earnings from American Express were seen as a good sign for consumer spending, said Imani Moise in the Financial Times. The card company said this week that “spending on goods and services excluding…

The IRS wants to ID you “You’ll soon be required to submit a selfie to the Internal Revenue Service if you’re filing your taxes online,” said Peter Butler and Clifford Colby in CNET.com. The agency has begun working with ID.me, a third-party “identity-proofing” service already widely used by other government agencies, including state unemployment bureaus, who have used the service to screen for identity thieves applying for benefits in someone else’s name. By the end of this year, “an ID.me-verified account will be needed to access most areas of your online IRS account.” But it is much more comprehensive than typical online verification systems, requesting scans of a photo ID, confirmation of your Social Security number, and a selfie taken through your phone or computer camera to be uploaded. Cincinnati…

Thich Nhat Hanh spent his life advocating for peace—in the human mind and in the world outside. As war engulfed his native Vietnam in the 1960s, the Buddhist monk founded the School of Youth for Social Service, a relief organization that rebuilt bombed-out villages and delivered food and medicine—often as the bullets were flying. Branded an enemy by North and South Vietnam for his pacifism, he spent four decades in exile in the West, during which he founded dozens of Buddhist practice centers and spread the concept of “mindfulness”: being fully attentive to one’s thoughts, actions, and surroundings. The Zen master saw no clash between the hard inner work of Buddhism and his life of international activism. “When bombs begin to fall on people, you cannot stay in the…

Israel Dresner proudly identified as the most-arrested rabbi in America. Determined to rally white clergy and other Jewish leaders to the civil rights cause, Dresner became one of the first Freedom Riders and was arrested four times in the early 1960s. He’d drive overnight from his New Jersey home to join nonviolent protests in the South, including the March on Washington and the 1965 marches to Montgomery from Selma, where Dresner gave a prayer at Martin Luther King Jr.’s behest. Inspired by the Holocaust, which wiped out most of his father’s family, Dresner along with 15 other rabbis wrote from behind bars in St. Augustine, Fla., in 1964 that they would not be like “the millions of faceless people who stood quietly, watching the smoke rise from Hitler’s crematoria.” He…

Françoise Gilot is much more than Pablo Picasso’s former partner, said Ruth La Ferla in The New York Times. A celebrated artist herself, Gilot has works in a dozen prestigious museums around the world. Since turning 100 in November, she’s found herself being courted by a string of art world pundits—although she doesn’t have much to tell these curiosity seekers. “The idea!” says Gilot. “For me, painting is a silent art.” She is not so shy about discussing Picasso, whom she met when he was 61 and she was 21. He gave her a studio at his home in Paris, she doted on him, and they had two children. But family life was not as serene as the famous photo of Picasso screening Gilot at the beach with a…

Hugh Hefner kept a trove of sex tapes of women and male celebrities that he secretly recorded at the Playboy Mansion, two of his ex-girlfriends alleged this week in the A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy. One ex, Sondra Theodore, says Hefner, who died in 2017 at age 91, would sometimes pretend to turn off his cameras to trick women into feeling more comfortable. He’s also accused of secretly filming famous friends who borrowed his bedroom. The series says the Play-boy mogul engaged in rampant drug use and sexual abuse, and hosted a weekly “Pig Night,” during which he’d hire a dozen unattractive prostitutes off the street to have sex with his friends. His harem of girlfriends was completely controlled by him and felt afraid to leave, several of them…

David Leonhardt The New York Times “If the U.S. is going to act on the climate in the foreseeable future,” said David Leonhardt, “it will almost certainly need to be through a Democratic bill” signed by a Democratic president. It’s quite possible Democrats will lose of control of the House and perhaps the Senate next year—which makes it urgent that they pluck the climate-change portion from the blocked Build Back Better bill and pass it as stand-alone legislation. The climate provisions, costing about $555 billion over 10 years, would heavily subsidize wind, solar, and nuclear power, and provide a $7,500 rebate for buying an electric car. These incentives would make it cheaper for businesses and homeowners to transition to clean energy, accelerate that change, and enable the U.S. to reach…

A Michigan professor was suspended after he posted an introductory video for a history class in which he swore profusely, wore a space helmet, called students “vectors of disease,” and said their grades were randomly assigned in advance to demonstrate “predestination.” Professor Barry Mehler of Ferris State University told students to “go ahead” and complain, because he’s “retiring at the end of this year” and “could give a flying f---.” School president David Eisler said he was “shocked and appalled” by the video. Mehler said he’d put on “a performance” to amuse the students and “get their juices flowing.” A Canadian woman whose car broke through the ice while she was driving on a frozen river took some time to snap a few selfies as she stood atop the…

SINGAPORE Tammy Gan ChannelNewsAsia.com I’ll be dressing up for Chinese New Year, said Tammy Gan—but not in anything new. “My family used to detest my insistence on wearing” secondhand outfits for reunion dinners, where tradition holds that we should wear new clothes to symbolize “a fresh start, a herald for good fortunes.” But in a world of “ridiculous overconsumption,” this rule is worth a rethink. Wealthy countries send boatloads of used and unsold clothing to the developing world every day. Mountains of clothes end up being trashed, and because of the “infant state” of the textile-recycling industry in poor countries, attempts to transform discards into new fabrics produce “a lot of waste.” Instead of lecturing my relatives about this trash crisis, I’ve engaged them in “accidental environmentalism” by showing up…

(Ballantine, $27) Nita Prose’s best-selling debut mystery “satisfies on every level—from place to plot to protagonist,” said Bethanne Patrick in NPR.org. When Molly Gray, a maid at a luxury boutique hotel, finds a wealthy guest lying dead in his bed, she is so awkward when she’s questioned that she becomes the prime suspect in the victim’s murder. While some readers may guess who the true killer is immediately, “it doesn’t really matter,” because the book is more about Molly, who could have pointed investigators in the right direction if she were better at reading social situations. Prose, a Canadian publishing executive, “threads a steady needle with the intricate plotting, the lockedroom elements of the mystery, and especially Molly’s character,” said Sarah Weinman in The New York Times. Molly appears to…

“Murder is never far from Antoine Wilson’s mind,” said Bethanne Patrick in the Los Angeles Times. When the Canadian novelist was 7, his older half-brother, Eric, was killed during a solo road trip by a pair of drifters who wanted the young man’s VW van. At the time, Wilson was too young to fully process the crime. “I understood that he’d been murdered, that he was dead, and there was a sort of wake for him, but there was no body,” he says. Many years later, while on his own solo road trip, Wilson stopped in the town where one of Eric’s killers was out on parole and couldn’t help contemplating what he’d do if he crossed paths with the man. “You ask yourself, ‘Would I put a cap in…

Another Sundance Film Festival was derailed at the last minute by a Covid surge, but the upside is that festival organizers are getting good at welcoming in-home viewers, said Chris Lindahl in IndieWire. Throughout the 11-day festival, scheduled to end Sunday Jan. 30, access to individual movies could be purchased for $20, while package deals have let couch sitters enjoy multiple films, plus discussion panels, Q&As, and VR programming. Even latecomers to the annual Sundance chatter were provided a chance to get in on the action: For $300, every purchaser of the Award Winners Package could plan the Jan. 29-30 weekend around four screenings per day of eight of the festival’s award winners, which possibly could include Dakota Johnson and Cooper Raiff in Cha Cha Real Smooth, Regina Hall in…

Alto Adige, Italy’s northernmost wine region, “turns out some of the country’s most lauded white wines,” said Kerin O’Keefe in Wine Enthusiast. While pinot grigio and chardonnay are among the volume leaders, lesser-known varietals produce many of the mountain region’s most exciting whites. 2020 Cantina Produttori San Michele Appiano Schulthauser Pinot Bianco ($24). “Dry, elegant, and absolutely ly delicious,” this wine combines fresh acidity with notes of stone, baking spice, and “creamy yellow apple.” 2020 Pacher Hof Kerner ($29). Kerner, a trending grape, delivers notes of white peach, tangerine candy, and crushed Alpine mint. 2019 Abbazia di Novacella Praepositus Sylvaner ($29). The even rarer sylvaner grape is prized for its “mineral-driven tension.” In this wine, it tastes of peach and yellow apple before a “savory, almost salty” mineral finish.…

How to relax like a champ Focus on the physical. Some people resist meditation because they can’t quiet the mind. But a similar effect is achievable by focusing on the muscles throughout your body. To get started, put aside 10 or 15 minutes and sit on a sofa or lie down on a bed. Isolate each muscle. The idea is to release muscle tension by first flexing each one. Close your eyes, clench your hand, and focus on how that feels. Now, while exhaling, let go of the tension, feeling your hand become heavy as it unclenches and relaxes. Repeat the process with your biceps, shoulders, calves, thighs, even your mouth. By the end of it, you’ll attain a state of calm. Take it on the road. Fortunately, conscious muscle…

Reporting the news remains a dangerous occupation in many parts of the world, with at least 27 journalists killed in 2021 because of their work, and a record 293 put in prison. The Committee to Protect Journalists (cpj.org) is a nonprofit dedicated to defending journalists and their right to report safely and without fear of reprisal, even as attacks on the press—including, last year, the unprecedented in-flight kidnapping of the Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich—become more flagrant. When journalists are persecuted or endangered, CPJ representatives spearhead diplomatic efforts to protect them. Hundreds of journalists have been freed from jail thanks to CPJ’s efforts, among them Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had been imprisoned for investigating the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar. Each charity we feature…

Shawn Donnan and Dina Bass Bloomberg Businessweek Prepare to become familiar with a little-known cybersecurity company called ID.me, said Shawn Donnan and Dina Bass. Creating an ID.me account is easy. Answer a few questions, upload a selfie, and scan some government documents “to verify you are who you say you are.” Once that’s done, the promise is that you’ll “be able to do everything online from banking to accessing your health records” without searching for passwords. ID.me has sold itself aggressively to government agencies, including the IRS, which will soon require taxpayers to create an ID.me account to view their tax information online (see Making Money, p.33). Co-founder Blake Hall has pitched his business with the oft-repeated claim that his company “uncovered a $400 billion theft of pandemic unemployment payments…

Good week for: The pursuit of liberty, after a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner escaped from a hotel in England and spent a full day at large in the outdoors before being located under a hedge. The device, hotel officials said, is now back “with the rest of its robot vacuum family.” Surface tension, after French physicists invented a super-durable bubble of water and glycerol that held its shape for a staggering 465 days, defying clichés about bubbles being “fragile” and “ephemeral.” The dictator’s cut, with reports that China’s streaming service has altered the cult classic Fight Club to have a happy, pro-authoritarian ending. In the original 1999 film, a bomb destroys a city skyline, but in China’s version, that scene is replaced by the words “The police rapidly figured out the…

London WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange got another reprieve this week in his long-running bid to avoid extradition to the U.S. on espionage charges. A British appellate court had allowed the extradition by overruling a lower court finding that Assange’s mental health was too fragile to withstand potentially harsh U.S. prison conditions. That reversal came after the U.S. promised that Assange would not be held in solitary or supermax detention during his trial and could serve any sentence in his native Australia. The High Court in London has now ruled that there are legal questions about those assurances that Assange can challenge at the U.K. Supreme Court. The U.S. seeks to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents and diplomatic cables in…

Cary Raditz has one claim to fame, said Kate Mossman in the New Statesman (U.K.): He is the “mean old daddy” that Joni Mitchell sang about in “Carey,” one of the best-known tracks on her 1971 album Blue. The pair met in 1970, when he was a hippie living in a cave on the Greek island of Crete; Mitchell first laid eyes on him when a propane explosion blew Raditz out the door of the taverna where he worked as a chef. The pair were inseparable for two months. “We were both going through dark nights of the soul,” explains Raditz, 75. On the night of his 24th birthday in April 1970, she played him “Carey.” “I thought it was an endearing little ditty,” he says, but “I wasn’t thrilled”…

Jane Mayer The New Yorker In a speech last fall, said Jane Mayer, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accused the media of portraying the justices as partisans who indulge their “personal preference.” But Thomas’ dubious claim of neutrality is being severely undermined by the far-right activism of his wife, Ginni Thomas. Owner of a political consulting firm that generates substantial income for the couple, Ginni Thomas insists that America faces an existential threat from the “deep state” and the “fascist left,” and she adamantly opposes abortion, gay marriage, and affirmative action, and aggressively promotes gun rights. On Jan. 6, she promoted former President Trump’s Stop the Steal rally, writing “Love MAGA people!” She personally lobbied Trump on political issues and hirings, and has denounced the House Jan. 6 committee as…

UNITED KINGDOM George Monbiot The Guardian The fishing industry is treating the ocean like a giant garbage dump, said George Monbiot. In recent years, so many nets and long lines have ended up in the waters around the U.K. that this “ghost gear” now routinely entangles and drowns dolphins, seals, and seabirds. I’ve long wondered how fishing vessels manage to lose so much equipment, and now I may have an answer. A trawlerman working in Scotland tells me that large trawlers, many from France and Spain, don’t have enough storage space to house the trash they generate, because most of the hold is dedicated to frozen fish. So, while at sea, the crews will cut off and save the expensive, reusable parts of their gear—floats, weights, and hooks—and toss their…

Meat Loaf, who died last week, was a beloved entertainer and a devoted husband and father, said Andrew Mark Miller at FoxNews.com. He was also a critic of mask and vaccine mandates who declared in one of his last interviews, “If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled.” So when he actually did die, reportedly from Covid, socialmedia pundits rushed “to mock him,” calling him “a pandemic a--hole” who got what he deserved. The nation is awash in such schadenfreude, said Andrea Stanley in The Atlantic. In the pandemic’s early days, every Covid death was considered “an unqualified tragedy.” Now that most of the dying are anti-vaxxers, compassion has been replaced by “scorn.” On Twitter and websites such as Sorryantivaxxer.com, the vaxxed gleefully mock the deaths…

Tesla driver faces charges A Tesla owner became the first person to be criminally charged for a deadly crash involving the vehicle’s self-driving system, said Andrew Hawkins in The Verge. Prosecutors in California said 27-year-old Kevin George Aziz Riad “was exiting a highway in his black Model S” in December 2019 “when he ran a red light, slamming into a Honda Civic and killing two people.” At the time, the Autopilot feature, which can control steering and braking functions, was active in Riad’s vehicle. “Tesla warns drivers that they need to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” even when in “full self-driving mode.” But not all Tesla drivers listen to those warnings; “a Canadian man was charged with reckless driving after being pulled over for…

Jessamine Chan’s debut novel, The School for Good Mothers, is set in a near future where mothers deemed unfit are monitored and counseled by a government organization. Below, she names six other books that offer unique insight into motherhood. Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder (2021). Yoder’s wild, glorious tale of an exhausted stay-at-home mom who might be turning into a dog put into words so many of my feelings about motherhood, art making, and the question of how to live fully while doing both. The New Wilderness by Diane Cook (2020). For readers who prefer motherhood novels with a dose of the climate apocalypse, Cook offers the story of conflicted, loving Bea and her daughter, Agnes, whom she is trying to save by having relocated their family of three to the only…

Arriving only now in the U.S., this wry Japanese film from Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi was one of 2021’s best, said Alissa Wilkinson in Vox. “A haunting, funny, tightly written meditation on loneliness and connection,” it strings together a triptych of short, women-centered dramas: about an unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction, and a would-be romantic reunion. “Sensitive and surprising,” the three stories “ask how luck and fantasy operate in the love we preserve and the love we throw away.” ($4 on demand) Not rated Belle Mamoru Hosoda’s “dazzling” anime riff on Beauty and the Beast tells a “significantly darker, wilder” version of the fairy tale, said Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times. When a lonely teen still reeling from her mother’s death finds herself reborn as…

Jordan Weissmann Slate As tech stocks crumble, so, too, does Bitcoin, said Jordan Weissmann. That’s not the way it was supposed to work. Bitcoin mavens claimed it would be “a hedge against inflation, a sort of digital gold” that didn’t just mirror other markers. But thanks to rampant speculative trading, Bitcoin’s value can undulate like a roller coaster. It has currently “lost about 45 percent of its value since November”—tough news for people like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who opted to have his first paycheck paid in Bitcoin. Bitcoin has long been hyped as “a safe place” to store your money in case of inflation. With inflation at 7 percent, you would think Bitcoin’s price would be skyrocketing right now. Instead, Bitcoin and its crypto cousins are behaving…