Innehållsförteckning för February 10, 2023 från The Week Magazine

The Memphis cops who kicked and punched the life out of Tyre Nichols had been properly trained. In the “Reimagining Policing” reforms the city adopted in 2021, officers learned how to de-escalate conflicts whenever possible, limit the use of force, and report any abuses by colleagues. But on the streets, police warrior culture trumped that training and the race of the officers who pulled Nichols over. For allegedly driving erratically, they treated a terrified, compliant young man like a war criminal. While repeatedly pepper spraying a pinned Nichols in the face, one cop got some in his own eyes. “Ah, you motherf---er,” he yelled at Nichols. “Made me spray myself.” Fearing the gang of unhinged cops might kill him, a terrified Nichols got up and ran, and a sixth cop…

A shopping mall in Portland, Ore., has canceled a liquor store’s lease because the store gets robbed too often. The owner of POX Liquor and Wine had spent $50,000 a year on armed guards in response to daily shoplifting and overnight break-ins, to no avail. Saleem Noorani, president of the Associated Liquor Stores of Oregon, said the owner is “being driven out of business” through “no fault of his own.” Two Florida counties have instructed schools to “remove or cover” all library books out of fear school officials will be charged with crimes under Gov. Ron Desantis’ “Stop WOKE Act.” Officials with Manatee and Duval counties say library books will be unavailable until a “formal review” of their content is made by a trained “media specialist.” In other news Covid…

Anna Kendrick spent six years trapped in a relationship she calls “emotionally and psychologically abusive,” said Marlow Stern in Rolling Stone. The actress, 37, won’t name the ex-boyfriend, but says he made her live in constant fear, cheated on her, and lied so brazenly it was “gaslighting.” At times, she says, she “curled in a ball” while he was screaming at her. “When the pandemic first hit,” Kendrick says, “there was an unspoken thing where we were almost relieved that something so terrible was happening that neither of us could possibly think about what was going wrong in our relationship.” While trapped at home in April 2020, “we had no choice but to be kind to each other.” Eventually, however, the conflicts and raging returned, and Kendrick would “start…

Lisa Marie Presley had an opioid relapse and had rapidly lost 50 pounds before her death from cardiac arrest earlier this month, TMZ reported this week, citing “family sources.” The daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley reportedly sought to shed weight rapidly ahead of awards show appearances for the recent biopic about her father. At the Golden Globes, Presley, 54, appeared to be speaking slowly, slurring, and stumbling on the red carpet. Toxicology tests are pending. The singer spoke openly about abusing opioids, cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs, writing in 2015, “It is time for us to say goodbye to shame about addiction.” Presley, who was $4 million in debt at the time of her death, reportedly took out $35 million worth of life insurance policies. Last week, her…

John Fund and David Simon National Review Utopian leftists like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders still insist that a single-payer system would save American health care, said John Fund and David Simon. But “just look at the pain and suffering” that the U.K.’s government-run National Health Service is inflicting on the British people. The NHS’s costs are soaring out of control, and 2.9 million patients recently seeking care had to wait 18 weeks to start treatment. The inability to get prompt treatment, statistics show, is literally killing hundreds of sick Britons every week, which is why those who can afford it are turning to private doctors. “All over the world, single-payer health-care systems are experiencing similar problems.” In Canada’s single-payer system, the median wait for treatment after a referral last year was…

BANGLADESH Editorial Prothom Alo Bangladesh’s lawless Rohingya refugee camps are threatening our national security, said Prothom Alo in an editorial. Recently, clashes between two Rohingya militant groups set fire to the Konarpara camp, killing one person, injuring another, and leaving 4,000 camp residents homeless. I’m not blaming the refugees for the violence; most of them are simply victims. But it’s time to acknowledge that militant groups from Myanmar have infiltrated the camps. From these bases on Bangladeshi territory, they smuggle drugs, extort refugees, and basically create “chaos and disorder.” It’s been going on for years, yet “no effective action has been taken.” In part, that’s because our government still thinks of the camps as “temporary shelters” offered to a persecuted minority in 2017, when Myanmar’s brutal military launched an ethnic-cleansing…

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”Blaise Pascal, quoted in NPR.org “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”Flannery O’Connor, quoted in The Conversation “There is a difference between being resigned to a situation and reconciled to it.”Novelist Amor Towles, quoted in The Arizona Republic “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”Computer scientist Randy Pausch, quoted in the Shepparton News (Australia) “In America, there are two classes of travel: first class, and with children.”Robert Benchley, quoted in Forbes “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”Winston Churchill, quoted in Real Money “There’s no single answer that will solve all of our…

TikTok’s secret viral launchpad It’s not just TikTok’s much-vaunted algorithm that determines what users see—there’s a “secret button” that “can make anyone go viral,” said Emily Baker-White at Forbes. “A practice known internally as ‘heating’” allows employees to “hand-pick specific videos and supercharge their distribution.” Heating may account for as much as 2 percent of all views in the app. Other social media platforms sometimes amplify content, like pandemic public-health messages, but typically disclose when they do so. TikTok, however, “has often used heating to court influencers and brands” for partnerships. “We think of social media as being very democratizing and giving everyone the same opportunity to reach an audience,” said Stanford law professor Evelyn Douek. In fact, “the platform can decide winners and losers to some degree.” A…

When kids get a concussion, they are typically taken out of school and told to rest for a few days. But a new study suggests that may be counterproductive, says CNN.com. Researchers looked at data from 1,630 children in Canada admitted to emergency rooms with a concussion. They found that those over 8 who missed no more than two days of school experienced fewer symptoms 14 days after the injury than those who were off for longer. The link was strongest among those who initially suffered worse symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, and nausea. Previous studies have shown that post-concussion restrictions increase risk of depression and anxiety, so the researchers think that mixing with friends, getting back to a normal sleep schedule, and not stressing about missing class may…

Julia May Jonas is the author of Vladimir, an acclaimed novel, now out in paperback, about an English professor who becomes obsessed with her young Russian-American colleague. Below, Jonas recommends six short books that deliver outsize rewards. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (2018). I am an evangelist for this beautiful and terrifying novel about a young girl in Britain who is brought along on an Iron Age reenactment expedition by her zealous father. The way the meaning reveals itself to the reader is riveting, and the ideas the story evokes about history and masculinity are unsettling and very deep. Sempre Susan by Sigrid Nunez (2011). Several of Nunez’s books are the kind you want to read in one sitting, but I am particularly partial to her very funny and…

3 There’s something charmingly unpretentious about JD Clayton’s debut album, said Hal Horowitz in American Songwriter. Like many young singer-songwriters, the Arkansas native moved to Nashville to launch his career, and on this rootsy release, he “succeeds by not trying too hard.” Clayton often listened to the Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Creedence Clearwater Revival while working landscaping jobs, and his “everyman voice” and easygoing band excel at conjuring the no-frills authenticity of those influences. “Hopefully, there’s more where this came from.” Long Way From Home is full of heartfelt songs about chasing your dream and finding that special someone, said Maeri Ferguson in No Depression. As a vocalist, Clayton comes across as a disciple of Brent Cobb or Chris Stapleton. Though his “true-blue twang” is powerful enough to carry the…

Starting with a staff of 13 founders in 1971, Doctors Without Borders (doctorswithoutborders.org) now has 63,000 staff members in 70 countries helping in every major international conflict and emergency. The 1999 Nobel Peace Prize recipient has responded to crises in war-torn Syria, distributed lifesaving care after Hurricane Sandy, and sheltered Libyan refugees in Italy. During the coronavirus pandemic, the organization opened intensive-care units in countries such as Yemen and supported strained health-care systems in Europe while rolling out a global vaccination campaign. Their holistic approach includes mental-health support and counseling, delivering care to war victims in Ukraine and women subjected to sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each charity we feature has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which rates not-for-profit organizations on the strength…

The Economist An expanding and mysterious “shadow” infrastructure is helping Russia evade sanctions and sell its crude, said The Economist. Russia’s “alternative supply chain” has grown since European imports of its seaborne crude were banned last December and a $60-a-barrel price cap was imposed for any Russian oil shipped with Western logistics and insurance. China and India are still the biggest destinations for Russian oil, but they are far from the only buyers, and the volume going to “unknown destinations” has jumped. Some is transported on “battered tankers” sailing to “clandestine customers with their transponders off.” But most Russian crude is moved “through ‘gray’ networks” that do not recognize the price cap “but are not illegal,” because they use non-Western logistics and deliver to countries that are not part of…

Cindy Williams exuded spunk. First known for roles in George Lucas’ 1973 American Graffiti and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 The Conversation, she became a household name as the second, bubblier half of the working-class duo on Laverne & Shirley, which ran from 1975 to 1983. She and co-star Penny Marshall landed the show as a spin-off after playing those characters for an episode of the then-megahit Happy Days. The two women became known for their banter and physical comedy, although Marshall was seen as more memorable. “I always played the lead’s best friend,” Williams said of her acting roles, “always.” Born in Van Nuys, Calif., Williams “became interested in acting during high school” and studied theater arts at Los Angeles City College, said The Hollywood Reporter. She worked at…

Lewis Pugh has gone swimming in the world’s coldest waters in just a silicone cap and a Speedo, said Tim Lewis in The Guardian (U.K.). The English swimmer, 53, has been pushing himself for 35 years to test the limits of human endurance. At the North Pole, the water was so cold, it caused the cells in his fingers to burst, and he nearly died swimming a kilometer in a glacial lake at 17,000 feet on Mount Everest. He also survived swimming under an ice sheet in East Antarctica and among elephant seals in the extreme South Atlantic. While many people have swum across the English Channel, Pugh crossed the length of it: 348 miles in 49 days. “It’s the only sport where the more experience you have, the…

Overdose deaths from the powerful, easy-to-produce drug have soared. How did this happen? How dangerous is fentanyl? Developed in 1960, the synthetic opioid is still used as a prescription painkiller through controlled-release patches, pills, lozenges, and sprays. But in its illicit form, it is purer, highly addictive, and often lethal. A narcotic 50 times more potent than heroin, fentanyl can kill in doses as small as 2 milligrams—an amount that could fit on a sharpened pencil tip. Fentanyl was responsible for two-thirds of the more than 107,000 fatal overdoses in the U.S. in 2021. More Americans ages 18 to 49 die of fentanyl overdose than from any other single cause. “It is a new, deeper, more deadly threat than we have ever seen,” said Anne Milgram of the Drug…

Jamelle Bouie The New York Times Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination as “a culture warrior par excellence,” said Jamelle Bouie. But the strategic success of his war on “woke” has deliberately obscured a major DeSantis weakness: “his radical and unpopular views on social insurance and the welfare state.” During his three terms in Congress, DeSantis was one of the founders of the radical Freedom Caucus and “an especially fierce opponent” of entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. He spearheaded the 2013 GOP effort to shut down the government to force repeal of the ACA—which now provides affordable insurance to more than 35 million Americans—and voted in favor of cutting $250 million from Social Security and Medicare. In his…

SWITZERLAND Georg Häsler Neue Zürcher Zeitung Neutral countries can’t arm just one side in a war, said Georg Häsler. That’s why Switzerland has refused so far to allow other countries to pass Swiss-made munitions on to Ukraine. For more than 200 years, Swiss foreign policy has dictated that the country cannot get militarily involved in international armed conflicts. Now, though, under pressure from European countries, the ruling Social Democrats claim they’ve come up with a work-around to let Switzerland assist Ukraine without violating neutrality. Social Democratic lawmakers voted in committee to simply override the “non–re-export clause” of the War Material Act, allowing Denmark to give its Swiss-made Piranha armored vehicles to Ukraine. It’s not a real fix, of course. “The law of neutrality leaves no room for cunning.” The Hague…

It’s a riddle that has long puzzled scientists: Of the 14 million tons of plastic thought to enter our oceans each year, only about 1 percent is ever detected in sampling surveys. A new study suggests that some of the missing garbage is being eaten up—by bacteria that live in seawater. Researchers at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research treated plastic with UV light to mimic sunlight, which broke it down into smaller chunks. They then fed it to Rhodococcus ruber, a common bacterium that’s known to be able to transform harmful pollutants into harmless molecules. Sure enough, the bacteria did its work, turning the plastic into carbon dioxide. The researchers estimate that Rhodococcus ruber alone can probably break down more than 1 percent of available plastic in…

(Norton, $28) “This intense wonder of a historical novel” springs from an ugly true story, said Maureen Corrigan in NPR.org. In 1912, the state of Maine destroyed a century-old mixed-race fishing community by taking over the island it occupied and burning the residents’ homes to the ground. In fictionalizing that story, Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Harding immerses readers in the life of the island before the racially motivated violence. “You could imagine lots of ways a novel about this horror might be written, but none of them would give you a sense of the strange spell of This Other Eden—its dynamism, bravado, and melancholy.” He introduces nearly 20 circa-1912 island residents, and “all are rendered human, particular, and luminous in Harding’s long, poetic sentences,” said Danez Smith in The…

The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley (Soft Skull, $27) “One might expect a novel about gun-toting, conspiracy-minded loners to lampoon its key players,” said Laura Warrell in The New York Times. But this “lethally witty” debut is empathetic toward the Black survivalists who become housemates to the protagonist when she moves into her boyfriend’s Brooklyn brownstone. As she gradually adapts the group’s mindset, the story implicitly raises a troubling question about modern life: “Where’s the line between self-preservation and self-destruction?” Small World by Laura Zigman (Ecco, $28) With her seventh novel, Laura Zigman has again delivered “an appealing blend of depth and froth,” said Carol Iaciofano Aucoin in WBUR.org. In Small World, a middle-aged divorcée invites her older sister to move in temporarily, hoping the stay will bring the pair…

2 “Sam Smith is done wallowing,” said Melissa Ruggieri in USA Today. The nonbinary British pop star has been crooning about heartbreak since scoring a global smash with the 2014 ballad “Stay With Me.” But the 30-year-old’s “musically adventurous” fourth album focuses instead on self-acceptance, starting with “Love Me More.” That “bright, springy” opener, which addresses Smith’s body-image struggles, “transcends one-dimensional empowerment pop” because it doesn’t downplay the challenge, said Lindsay Zoladz in The New York Times. Several tracks later, the artist’s biggest hit yet, 2022’s “Unholy,” marshals the exotic power of a Byzantine scale as it “wags a lusty finger at holier-than-thou puritanism.” The rest of the album is full of “mid-tempo fare recycling various radio fads of the past 10 years: tropical pop, nu-disco, the Weeknd–style R&B,” said…

Think of the new Dead Space remake as “an idealized version of a classic game,” said Michael McWhertor in Polygon. The 2008 original, inspired by films like Alien, was “a masterpiece of science-fiction horror” that dropped the player into a zombie-infested space freighter. That derelict ship, now “a cold, industrial maze lit by flickering halogen lamps,” is the star of this visually stunning reboot, which feels unmatched in its terrifying sense of play. Even the “richly layered” soundtrack will have you on edge: “Metal clangs, steam hisses, and morbid screams bounce through hallways.” You play as a nice-guy engineer who must hack his way through grotesque monsters to escape, and the combat, for up to 20 hours straight, remains “thrilling, scary, and fun,” said William Hughes in The A.V.…

Among the hundreds of beers we blind taste-tested in 2022, only two achieved scores of 100, said John Holl in Wine Enthusiast. Both are American IPAs, and they’re exemplars of how IPA craft has changed over the past decade. In previous IPAs, hoppy bitterness was prized. But New England–style IPAs use fruitier hop varieties, and which are often added late, during fermentation, which “drastically” reduced bitterness. Power Tools Made by Industrial Arts Brewing of Beacon, N.Y., this IPA is “lightly bitter,” but that’s balanced by citrus and pine aromas, a “light bready character,” and “a pleasing sweetness.” Volatile Substance In this IPA from Von Ebert Brewing of Portland, Ore., “grapefruit pith flavors are accented by delicate pine and a caramel malt sweetness that allows just the slightest bit of…

Good week for: Facing reality, after star NFL quarterback Tom Brady, 45, announced he was retiring “for good.” Ex-wife Gisele Bündchen wished him “wonderful things in this new chapter of your life.” Plain English, after the Associated Press amended a policy advising staff to avoid “dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French.…” Online wags had wondered if people in France should now be called “people experiencing Frenchness” or people “assigned French at birth.” The Scots, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture was petitioned to legalize importation of Scotland’s offal-filled national dish, haggis. Regulations prevent the use of lung tissue in commercial food products, which the petition says makes “no scientific sense.” Bad week for: Writers, with Buzzfeed’s announcement, only a month after laying off 180 employees,…

Lauren Sánchez insists it’s not Jeff Bezos’ wealth that made her fall in love with him, said Derek Blasberg in The Wall Street Journal. She says her beau is “goofy,” makes her pancakes every Sunday morning, and is “the most loving human I know.” Both were married—Sánchez to Patrick Whitesell, chairman of the powerful Hollywood agency Endeavor—when the National Enquirer exposed their affair in 2019, relating juicy details such as the Amazon founder calling her “alive girl” in racy texts. They knew each other as friends, but romance blossomed on helicopter rides Sánchez, 53, piloted. The cockpit, she says, “is one of the only places I feel entirely in control.” A former Fox Sports reporter and Good Day L.A. co-host, Sánchez began flying in 2011 and later founded one…

David Rothkopf The Daily Beast The U.S. and NATO have provided a lot of military aid to Ukraine, said David Rothkopf, “but winning will take much more.” Ukraine’s valiant effort to repel Russia’s brutal invasion is reaching “a critical juncture,” with both countries planning spring offensives. So far, every major new weapons system provided by NATO—including the recent decision to provide about 105 Western tanks—has come only after months of negotiation, amid fear more aid might provoke “out-of-control escalation by Moscow.” That escalation hasn’t happened and won’t: Putin knows that attacking a NATO nation or using a nuclear weapon “would lead to certain, swift disaster” for his regime. NATO is providing just enough aid to create a bloody stalemate; Putin, meanwhile, desperately fights to hold on to the 20 percent…

“We have never been more entertained. That is our luxury—and our burden. We have never been able to share so much of ourselves. And, as study after study has shown, we have never felt more alone. Screens are everywhere; the entertainment environment is so vast, you can get lost in it. It becomes difficult to process the facts of the world through anything except entertainment. The news has become entertainment, and entertainment has become the news. Dystopias often share a common feature: Amusement, in their skewed worlds, becomes a means of captivity rather than escape.” —Megan Garber in The Atlantic…

UNITED KINGDOM Sherelle Jacobs The Telegraph The Tories have botched Brexit so badly that rejoining the EU may be inevitable, said Sherelle Jacobs. Rather than freeing Britain from the bureaucrats in Brussels, as Brexiteers promised when they persuaded more than half of voters to back the “Leave” side in the 2016 referendum, our departure from the EU ushered in seven years of “intractable technical deliberations.” The Northern Ireland piece of the Brexit puzzle—how to keep trade flowing with the rest of the U.K. while avoiding a hard border with EU member Ireland—continues to fester, so “almost no attention” has been paid to slashing regulations. The “Remain” camp loves to say that “nobody voted to be poorer,” but the truth is, Britain isn’t doing drastically worse than its EU peers. The…

MEXICO Manuel Ajenjo El Economista What did Mexico’s presidents know about their top cop’s dealings with the Sinaloa drug cartel? That’s what Mexicans hope to learn from the trial of former Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, which started last week in New York, said Manuel Ajenjo. From 2006 to 2012, serving under two presidents and partnering with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, García Luna was tasked with leading the Mexican government’s war on drug trafficking. Instead, U.S. prosecutors say, he took millions of dollars in bribes to turn a blind eye to the vicious Sinaloa cartel, even tipping off members about potential arrests. García Luna’s alleged crookedness was long “known, or at least suspected,” but it wasn’t until after the blockbuster 2019 trial of Sinaloa boss Joaquín “El…

California mom Jessica Bradshaw found out that her 15-year-old daughter was identifying as a transgender boy at school only when she saw his new male name on a homework assignment. School officials had honored the teen’s request not to tell his parents. “It felt like a parenting stab in the back from the school system,” Bradshaw said. “It should have been a decision we made as a family.” Schools and parents are facing “wrenching new tensions” in many states, as the number of children identifying as trans has nearly doubled in recent years, said Katie J.M. Baker in The New York Times. Some school officials say they have to follow state and federal guidelines about protecting students’ privacy, especially if the kids fear a backlash at home. But even…

“Donald Trump is Facebook’s problem again,” said Shirin Ghaffary in Vox. Facebook’s parent company, the struggling tech behemoth Meta, last week lifted Trump’s suspension from Facebook and Instagram, freeing him to post again. CEO Mark Zuckerberg imposed the suspension on Jan. 6, 2021, on the grounds Trump had used the platform to incite “violent insurrection.” Now Facebook says the risks Trump’s rhetoric poses to democracy and public safety have “sufficiently receded” to justify his reinstatement—but has introduced “guardrails” that will remove his posts or suspend him again if he encourages violence or violates other policies. Trump, of course, “hasn’t changed,” and may have grown even worse. On Truth Social, his own social media app, he has amplified QAnon accounts at least 116 times, and continues to insist the 2020…

The first “truly wireless” TV is coming, and it has no ports and no remote, and it can stick to almost any wall, said Scott Tharler in New Atlas. The startup Displace’s eponymous DisplaceTV boasts a 55-inch screen and an impressive 180 hours of battery life, “a month’s worth of streaming TV and movies for a mind-numbing six hours a day.” Users can mount it with a vacuum seal and control it by voice or gesture; for something more like a remote, there’s an app. A base unit can relay signals to up to six TV screens, which can be mounted separately to watch different channels, or together to make one huge screen. Displace says the first TVs will be available in December, with prices starting at $2,999 for…

(St. Martin’s, $28) Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon, begins his “serious and wise” new memoir with a humbling admission, said Laurie Hertzel in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer at 70, after having too long ignored symptoms that should have prompted him to seek help far earlier. “I thought I was being stoical,” he writes, “when in reality I was being a coward.” That confession sets the tone for the candid pages to come. No longer the confident specialist he was in his two acclaimed previous memoirs, Marsh is now a helpless patient, and “moving from one camp to the other is painful—the doctors no longer treat him as a peer, and he’s reduced to Googling his symptoms just like the…

Partial paralysis has not robbed Hanif Kureishi of his will to write, said Sarah Lyall in The New York Times. In late December, the British novelist and screenwriter best known for My Beautiful Laundrette returned from a walk and collapsed in his Rome apartment without warning. He awoke lying in a puddle of blood, unable to move his arms or legs. “I believed I was dying. I believed I had three breaths left,” he said in a Twitter post that he dictated less than two weeks later. A series of posts followed that same day, explaining that the fall had caused a severe spinal injury. “For a few days,” he said, “I was profoundly traumatized, altered and unrecognizable to myself. At the moment, it is unclear whether I will…

3 “Samia’s emotional and musical literacy is clearly vast,” said Devon Chodzin in Paste. Unfortunately, on her second album, this rising star of sad-girl indie rock veers so often from one style to another that it’s “hard to see her broader aesthetic vision.” The “hypnotic” opener, “Kill Her Freak Out,” showcases the New York City–raised songwriter’s talent for conveying emotional turmoil in slow-boiling confessionals. But “with disorienting abruptness,” she jumps to acoustic folk rock, then a piano ballad, then throbbing synth-pop. Though the record’s “rife with beautiful moments,” its haphazardness “de-emphasizes Samia’s best qualities, especially her wit.” But despite bursts of pop polish, Honey “skews lo-fi, positioning Samia’s versatile voice front and center,” said Michael Cragg in The Guardian. Over “bruised synths” or a spare guitar backing, she flits between…

Six Oscar contenders… Everything Everywhere All at Once Is this the most psychedelic movie ever nominated for Best Picture? The mind-blowing adventure-comedy leads all contenders with 11 nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Michelle Yeoh, who slays as a multiverse-traveling middle-aged laundromat owner. Hulu Tár It’s tough to bet against Cate Blanchett on awards night. She turned in another amazing performance playing Lydia Tár, an imperious maestro who’s undone by the massive ego she cultivated on her way to the top. Peacock All Quiet on the Western Front The Academy loves a sweeping war epic, and this German adaptation of a classic 1929 novel became a Best Picture nominee by checking all the boxes. As we follow a teenage recruit, dazzling cinematography catches the tedium and horror of…

FileVault is a tool in macOS that allows enhanced encryption. Though all of your data is encrypted by default, FileVault increases security and can be used to encrypt external hard drives and USB drives. Just right-click on the icon for the drive and choose “Encrypt.” The drive will be password protected. BitLocker is the Windows 10 Pro and 11 Pro equivalent of FileVault. Like macOS, Windows provides automatic encryption and password protection for your device. You can encrypt an external drive by right-clicking on the icon and choosing “Turn on BitLocker.” You can also use BitLocker to encrypt specific files and folders, but the tool is not available on Windows Home. VeraCrypt is a third-party encryption tool that’s free and easy to use. This is a good option for Windows…

The Indian conglomerate Adani Group this week “couldn’t stop the free fall in its shares and bonds set off by an American short seller,” said Weilun Soon in The Wall Street Journal. Adani-namesake of India’s richest (but suddenly far less rich) man, Gautam Adani-had seen shares in his sprawling Adani Enterprises surge 3,000 percent in five years. Short seller Hindenburg Research last week “pricked the bubble with claims of stock-market manipulation and questionable business practices.” Adani Group lost more than $64 billion in value. Adani Group called Hindenburg’s report “a calculated attack on India.” Inflation: The Fed slows its interest-rate hikes “The Federal Reserve slowed its drive to rein in inflation,” with a quarter of a percentage point hike in benchmark interest rates, said Rich Miller in the Bloomberg. While…

Taking the mystery out of inheritance It’s time for Baby Boomers to have an awkward talk with their children, said Alexis Leondis in Bloomberg. Over the next 20 years, wealthy Boomers will pass down $70 trillion in “the largest transfer of money in U.S. history,” but surveys suggest nobody wants to talk about it. Some Boomers fear ceding control. Others worry the looming windfall will make their offspring “flaky or irresponsible.” But “the silence” hampers the younger generation’s ability to plan for big expenses, such as college and retirement. Surprises in wills also can spark fights among siblings. A “dialogue about wealth transfer” can start with philanthropy goals. Parents can “give a sense of magnitude” of the estate, and introduce their kids to their financial adviser. “That can go…

Lydia DePillis and Michael Corkery The New York Times Setting up a Little Gym kids’ fitness franchise gave Tiffany Cianci “a known brand name” and a business plan in exchange for “a cut of the revenue,” said Lydia DePillis and Michael Corkery. She loved her business until The Little Gym was acquired by a private equity–backed firm called Unleashed Brands. The firm “demanded higher fees” and “more stringent requirements,” prompting Cianci to organize an association “to push back.” Unleashed terminated her license, accusing her of being “chronically late in paying her fees.” It also used undercover investigators to surveil her and “disparaged her to fellow franchisees.” When she tried to “salvage her business” under a new name, Unleashed sued her. The dispute has left Cianci “about $300,000 into debt,” but also…

This week’s question: A 45-year-old software tycoon’s anti-aging regimen involves dozens of nutritional supplements, a low-calorie vegan diet, a team of 30 doctors, and a constant battery of MRIs and other tests. What should he call a self-help book promoting his grueling program for pursuing eternal youth? Last week’s contest: A startup founded by a group of rocket scientists is trying to devise an artificial intelligence system that can make pizza from scratch. What would you name a specialty pie created without the use of human hands? THE WINNER: “Bot-a-Bot-a-Bing” Patty Oberhausen, Fort Wayne, Ind. SECOND PLACE: “The Stringylarity” Erica Avery, Greenfield, Mass. THIRD PLACE: “Deepfake Dish” Rebecca Burgan, Grass Valley, Calif. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions should be emailed…