Innehållsförteckning för March 3, 2023 från The Week Magazine

The contrast could not have been more stark. Both President Biden and President Putin gave major speeches this week on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and they described different worlds. President Biden’s presence in Kyiv was in itself a bold statement of Western solidarity, with German media likening it to President Kennedy’s 1963 trip to walled-in West Berlin. Just as Kennedy assured West Germans that he was a Berliner in spirit, Biden promised Ukrainians that the U.S. and its NATO allies would “have Ukraine’s back,” not just today, but “tomorrow and forever.” Meanwhile in Moscow, an isolated Putin was giving his own, much angrier speech, saying that Russia, not Ukraine, was the one fighting for its very existence (see The world at a glance, p.8). “It’s they…

California’s Culver City High School is eliminating honors English courses because they don’t attract enough Hispanic students. District officials said they “felt obligated to do something” about low Hispanic representation in the AP classes. Parent Pedro Frigola, who was born in Cuba, was among the frustrated parents who said high-achieving kids are penalized “to achieve equal outcomes for everyone.” Two Republican lawmakers in Idaho want to make it a crime to administer mRNA vaccines. Americans have received about 700 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines, which have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But the bill’s co-sponsor, state Sen. Tammy Nichols, says FDA approval for the vaccines in 2020 “was fast-tracked.” In other news Gaetz won’t face trafficking charges The Justice Department informed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)…

Penn Badgley did not enjoy his first go-round with celebrity, said Kate Aurthur in Variety. The actor became globally famous when Gossip Girl premiered in 2007, and the experience of overnight success at age 20 left him questioning if he wanted to keep acting. When the show ended, he faced “nothing short of a spiritual crisis,” says Badgley, 36. He tried nearly everything to fine meaning: meditation, traveling, getting involved with political movements such as Occupy Wall Street. Then a chance meeting led him to the Baha’i faith, which teaches the oneness of humanity and all religions, with a strong emphasis on social ethics. In 2014, as Black Lives Matter protests were taking off in Ferguson, Mo., “I thought to myself, ‘If I really want to participate in the…

Don Lemon was briefly taken off the air this week and required to take “formal training” after the co-host of CNN’s new morning show said on the air that “a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” Lemon, 56, was addressing GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s proposal to test the mental fitness of politicians older than 75. After Lemon quipped that Haley, 51, “isn’t in her prime, sorry,” his female co-hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, were visibly aghast, with Harlow asking, “Are you talking about ‘prime’ for childbearing?” Lemon replied, “Don’t shoot the messenger,” adding, “Google it.” On an internal call, CNN’s new chairman, Chris Licht, called Lemon’s remarks “upsetting, unacceptable, and unfair.” Lemon apologized, saying, “What I said…

Noah Smith Noahpinion.substack.com Americans are souring on immigration, said Noah Smith, but bringing in new workers for our economy “is not charity”—it’s “a necessity.” Two-thirds of those polled by Gallup recently said they want less immigration. These sentiments are no doubt largely driven by the huge influx of asylum seekers at the southern border in recent years, and the perception that the federal government “is not in control of its own borders.” That concern is valid and should be addressed by reform of asylum laws that the Biden administration has already begun. But the reality is that the U.S. badly needs more legal immigration, especially of skilled workers. Our country’s birth rate has dropped below “the replacement rate,” and without young immigrants, the average age of “our population will…

ZIMBABWE Ashley Simango Al Jazeera (Qatar) The U.K. is propping up its crisis-hit National Health Service by “plundering doctors and nurses from former colonies like Zimbabwe,” said Ashley Simango. British health-care workers have been leaving the NHS “in droves because of poor pay and conditions,” yet instead of addressing those concerns, the British government is luring workers from a place with even worse pay. Zimbabwe simply cannot afford this brain drain. The nation has a paltry 3,500 doctors total for a population of 15 million, and far fewer nurses than it needs. To lose hundreds of them to Britain is a national catastrophe. There’s a “vicious cycle” at work here: What’s the point of the U.K. donating $43 million to help Zimbabwe create a “resilient” health system, as it did…

“No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” Zora Neale Hurston, quoted in MSNBC “Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.” Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou, quoted in CNN “Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.” Werner Herzog, quoted in the Montreal Gazette “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Theodore Roosevelt, quoted in Forbes “If you don’t have fun in your 20s, you’re never going to have fun. Life does not get more and more fun.” Fran Lebowitz, quoted in NorthJersey.com “Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.” Ben Franklin, quoted in The Wall Street Journal “When one person climbs higher than the last person, we all feel like we are capable…

DOJ Escalates Apple Antitrust Probe “The Justice Department has ramped up work in recent months on drafting a potential antitrust complaint against Apple,” said Aaron Tilley in The Wall Street Journal. The DOJ has put more lawyers on the case and issued new demands for documents. The investigation, launched in 2019, is understood to be focused on Apple’s operating system and its App Store. DOJ antitrust division head Jonathan Kanter “likely would be involved in any action”; Kanter, confirmed in 2021, had initially stayed out of the probe because of his prior representation of clients in disputes with Apple. “The current steps taken by the department would make it possible to file a lawsuit as soon as the spring,” but it’s not certain that the government will actually do…

Male killer whales are extremely needy. Unlike females, young males continue demanding fish from their mothers even in adulthood. Now scientists have discovered that this never-ending parenting takes such a toll on the moms that it makes them less able to raise another calf. Researchers studied decades of tracking data on 40 female orcas in Pacific Northwest waters. They found that the females who had a son were about 50 percent less likely than those with a daughter to have another whale baby that survived its first year. That was true even after the sons grew into adulthood. “What the killer whales seem to be doing is having a son and investing in that son for the rest of their life,” study co-author Sam Ellis, from the University of…

In Rebecca Makkai’s new novel, I Have Some Questions for You, a woman returns to teach at the boarding school where her roommate was murdered years earlier. Below, the author of The Great Believers recommends six other boarding-school books. Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy (1983). In a novel that was one of my childhood favorites, 12-year-old Maggie goes to live with her two great-aunts at Adelphi Hills, a boarding school that closed after a tragic fire. The founders’ ghosts live on in the attic, in dolls’ bodies, and Maggie soon becomes enmeshed in their world. Behind the Attic Wall is a masterpiece of the slow reveal, and still gives me goosebumps. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005). Sure, Ishiguro’s Booker Prize finalist is science fiction…

3 Kelela’s first batch of new music since 2017 is “an album that creates its own atmosphere,” said Tom Breihan in Stereogum. “Languid and intimate,” it “conjures dark nightclubs and lingering glances,” reaffirming the Los Angeles–based singer-songwriter’s singular way of mixing the elements of electronic dance music. On this sophomore album, the 39-year-old shows “a masterfully playful sense of tension-and-release dynamics” as she sings, in “hushed, fluid” vocals, about breaking through walls. Her voice throughout radiates the “blissful, narcotic cool” of Sade or Aaliyah. “Raven understands its place in the pantheon of Black art,” that it extends a long line of Black futurist electronic music, said Craig Jenkins in NYMag.com. “Cycling through hazy, minimalist R&B, house music, and Baltimore club jams, Raven teases out the beauty in decay and in…

“Some may see boxed wine as unpolished, but there are plenty of quality boxed wines that sophisticated wine drinkers can get behind,” said Samantha Sette in Wine Enthusiast. Our editors give these three no better than an 89 rating, but that’s good value for wine that’s so portable and that stays fresh for weeks after it’s opened. Bota Box Old Vine Zin ($19 for 3 liters). Bota’s Nighthawk Black red blend has also been an editors’ favorite, but this zin wins special praise for its pepperiness and “brambly” black fruit flavors. 2020 Black Box Pinot Noir ($16 for 3 liters). Black Box’s 2020 pinot closes the gap on Bota. It’s “nicely ripe and fruity while being dry and well-balanced.” 2020 Sokol Blosser Evolution Pinot Noir ($26 for 1.5 liters).…

The spell cast by Johannes Vermeer has never been so bewitching, said Jackie Wullschläger in the Financial Times. Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is currently hosting the largest Vermeer exhibition ever—displaying 28 of the Dutch master’s known surviving paintings—and “the effect is momentous, almost dizzying.” The first two paintings a visitor sees are landscapes: View of Delft and The Little Street. Beyond lie Vermeer’s intimate domestic scenes, beginning with The Milkmaid (a national symbol of the Netherlands) and the painstakingly detailed Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. “An early revelation is Officer and Laughing Girl.” Later comes Girl With a Pearl Earring, “the Mona Lisa of Dutch art.” Crucially, the show, which runs through June 4, affords the paintings room to breathe, said Adrian Searle in The Guardian. You share space…

Amazon’s falling stock price is “roiling” its stock-heavy compensation plan, said Dana Mattioli and Sebastian Herrera in The Wall Street Journal. Much of Amazon’s compensation comes in restricted shares, and the company has relied on a “long-standing assumption” that those “shares would appreciate at least 15 percent each year.” The stock’s 35 percent decline in the past year is causing compensation to fall 15 to 50 percent below the company’s initial projections. The company is now left struggling to explain “what effectively amounts to a pay cut” to its employees. Tesla: Recall for autos with Full Self Driving feature Tesla last week recalled all 363,000 U.S. vehicles equipped with its “Full Self Driving” software, said Neal E. Boudette in The New York Times. The announcement came after the National Highway…

Silicon Valley loses top women Some of the highest-profile women in the tech industry are “heading for the exits,” said Emily Chang in Bloomberg. Last week, it was YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki, who announced she was leaving after 25 years at Google. Days earlier, Marne Levine stepped down as Meta’s chief business officer. Sheryl Sandberg left her role as Meta’s chief operating officer last year. Women are underrepresented in Silicon Valley, so the pressures on those at the top are tremendous. Several top female executives who recently left had faced “ferocious criticism” that could feel “overly personal.” This latest wave of departures risks discouraging the next generation of women in tech, left even lonelier in the layoffs following the pandemic-era boom. Working less, by choice The main reason the…

Andrew Van Dam The Washington Post Why does the South have the worst credit scores in the nation? asked Andrew Van Dam. It can’t be explained away by poverty, because the lower scores persist across every income bracket. Nor is it simply racism, because the problem holds for Southerners of every race. Instead, when researchers looked at data from credit scores and credit-card borrowing across the nation, what jumped out in the South was the high level of medical debt. That’s partly because “the South is simply less healthy than any other region.” But it’s also because of “the reluctance of the region’s mostly Republican governors to participate” in the 2014 expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. In states that immediately expanded Medicaid, medical debt “was slashed nearly…

Tim McCarver exemplified why catchers can make excellent broadcasters. More than any other position, catchers have to analyze the game, and McCarver honed that skill in a professional career spanning four decades, as a two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champ (in 1964 and 1967, with the St. Louis Cardinals). In the broadcast booth, where he worked 24 World Series, he gave viewers uniquely penetrating insights. In the final at-bat of the 2001 championship, for example, when Arizona Diamondbacks star Luis Gonzalez faced New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera with one out, the bases loaded, and the game tied, McCarver questioned the Yankees for moving their infielders in. “The one problem is Rivera throws inside to left-handers,” he said. “Left-handers get a lot of broken-bat hits into the shallow…

Richard Belzer was nearly 50 before he landed the role of his lifetime. A stand-up comic who struggled with drugs, he couldn’t make ends meet until his 40s. But in 1993, he was handed the role of detective John Munch on Homicide—and he kept it for 23 years, appearing as the brainy, wisecracking character in 10 different shows. His stint on Law & Order: SVU ran for 14 years. Belzer said he played his character like “Lenny Bruce with a badge,” adding that it was easy to portray the rebel persona because “I was thrown out of every school I ever went to.” Born in Bridgeport, Conn., Belzer was raised in a housing project by an abusive mother and a father who was a tobacco wholesaler. It was “a…

This week’s question: AMC Theaters is introducing tiered pricing in its cinemas, with prime seats in the middle rows costing $1 to $2 more than other areas. What would you name these rows to convince moviegoers of the value of paying extra? Last week’s contest: At the Grammy Awards, the first annual “Dr. Dre Global Impact Award” went to the rapper and producer himself, Dr. Dre. Come up with the title of a distinctive award that could easily be given to the celebrity after which it is named THE WINNER: “George Santos Lifetime Deceivement Award” —Hunter Burgan, Los Angeles SECOND PLACE: “The Harry Houdini Medal of Freedom” Ken Liebman, Williston, Vt. THIRD PLACE: “The Will Smith Local Impact Award” Steve Currie, Pawleys Island, S.C. For runners-up and complete contest…

Alaska The U.S. has given up the search for three unidentified flying objects that the military shot down recently in North American airspace, raising the likelihood that the objects will never be recovered. President Biden said the flying objects were unrelated to a Chinese spy balloon shot down earlier and were likely privately operated balloons “studying weather or conducting other scientific research.” Biden’s order to send fighter jets to shoot down the three objects with missiles came after Republicans in Congress criticized him for waiting too long to down a Chinese spy balloon flying over the U.S. That balloon, downed Feb. 4 after it had drifted east across the country, is being analyzed at an FBI laboratory. Military pilots and recovery teams spent days searching in vain for the…

Heinali prefers to remember Kyiv as it was before the war began, said John Lewis in The Guardian. The Ukrainian musician, whose real name is Oleh Shpudeiko, was raised in a Russian-speaking home in the Ukrainian capital. Over a decade ago, in 2012, he bought a handheld digital tape recorder and began recording the sounds of his city—traffic, birdsong, voices in a mall, trains on a track. “I had hundreds of these sound sketches on my hard drive when I had to flee the city in February last year,” says Heinali, 37. “These are recordings of a world that has disappeared.” Since Russia invaded, he hasn’t read any books in Russian—a previous hobby since so few works are translated into Ukrainian—and refuses to speak the language in professional settings,…

Rong-Gong Lin II Los Angeles Times California will be hit one day with a massive earthquake similar to the one that just killed more than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria, said Rong-Gong Lin II. A seismic event in California like the back-to-back quakes in Turkey—a magnitude 7.8 followed by a 7.5—could “rupture the southern San Andreas fault” from the Mexican border to Los Angeles, with “major aftershocks” causing damage as far north as San Francisco and Sacramento. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault would kill about 1,800 people and injure 50,000; cause $200 billion in damage; destroy freeways; and disrupt electrical, gas, cellphone, and internet service. “There will be 7.8s in our future—absolutely,” said Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones. Lax building standards…

CZECH REPUBLIC Tomas Macak CNN Prima The Czech Republic’s first openly gay soccer player “deserves a lot of credit for his courage” in coming out, said Tomas Macak. In a video posted this week on Instagram, Sparta Prague midfielder Jakub Jankto said he would no longer “hide myself,” saying he wanted to live and play “in freedom, without fears, without prejudice.” That may be tough in this country, where even though we have one of Europe’s largest Pride parades each August, “people will still stare at two men holding hands on the street, maybe throw a nasty remark in their direction.” Of course, his team immediately backed him, saying, “You have our support. Nothing else matters.” And plenty of other clubs across the world made similar statements, knowing that some…

Don’t feel guilty about feeding your dog scraps from the table—it may just be the secret to keeping it healthy. That’s the conclusion of a new study that found that puppies who were fed a varied diet were less likely to grow up to suffer from chronic enteropathy, a disorder characterized by diarrhea, vomiting, and weight loss. The researchers gathered dietary and health data on more than 4,500 puppies and 4,000 adolescent dogs. They found that the dogs given a mixed diet—including raw meat, bones, vegetables, berries, and leftover people food—had 22 percent lower odds of experiencing symptoms of chronic enteropathy later in life than those given only kibble. That’s likely because a varied diet boosts populations of “good” microbes in their gut, as it does for humans. “Commercial…

(Knopf, $28) Even 1960s show-biz buffs might struggle to recall Dick Kallman, said Maureen Corrigan in NPR.org. Though the stage and screen actor worked briefly with Lucille Ball and once had his own NBC sitcom, he’s remembered now, if at all, because he was fatally shot in his Manhattan townhouse, along with his male lover, during a 1980 robbery. In Thomas Mallon’s “dazzling” latest novel, Kallman returns to the spotlight only to reveal the self-inflicted wounds that doomed his dreams of stardom. Kallman’s problem is simple, said Chris Vognar in The Boston Globe. “Nobody likes the guy—except, perhaps, Mallon.” Though Up With the Sun never presents its protagonist as anything other than an irritating self-promoter, Mallon comes across as “fascinated with this blinkered, barely closeted has been/never was.” Thanks…

Dinner With the President by Alex Prud’homme (Knopf, $35) Alex Prud’homme’s book about the White House dietary habits of our presidents dishes out “a slew of entertaining believe-it-or-not tidbits,” said Moira Hodgson in The Wall Street Journal. Taft ate 12-ounce steaks for breakfast. Nixon served cheap wine to guests while he secretly sipped vintage Margaux. Franklin Roosevelt ate boiled carrots over spaghetti when Eleanor wanted him punished for his infidelities. At other times, these leaders’ food choices “played a pivotal role in politics,” and Prud’homme’s reporting “drives the point home.” Ghost Music by An Yu (Grove, $26) Novelist An Yu “braids the mundane and the magical together with a gentle hand,” said Alexandra Kleeman in The New York Times. In the Beijing native’s “spellbinding” second novel, a piano teacher…

4 Caroline Polachek’s fourth studio album “vaults her to the front of adventurous pop music,” said Jem Aswad in Variety. In recent years, the former lead singer of the synth-pop band Chairlift has reinvented herself as an art-pop innovator, one whose “deeply imaginative” music is “lithe and pretty, disciplined and orderly, but provocative and messy at times as well.” Polachek’s powerful voice is at the center of it all. Her range is “sky-scraping,” and she’s “unafraid to flex,” taking on unusual melodies that “recall Kate Bush and Björk.” Even within a single song, Polachek’s voice will “smear like paint, swoop like a crane, and bubble like lava,” said Cat Zhang in Pitchfork. The 37-year-old sings of being subsumed by desire—of yearning to lose herself in the rush of new love—while…

Family adventures… My Dad the Bounty Hunter A brother and sister eager for some dad time stow away in his car only to discover he’s an intergalactic bounty hunter. Epic adventures in crime fighting and parenting ensue in this new animated series. Netflix The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Author-illustrator Charlie Mackesy has adapted his best-selling children’s book into a wonderful half-hour work of movie art. The simple premise—a boy lost in the woods—becomes a touching meditation on the importance of kindness, courage, and cooperation. Apple TV+ Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Marvel continues pairing animation and top-notch storytelling with this thrilling cartoon series about Lunella, a 13-year-old science genius who accidentally brings a T. rex to New York’s Lower East Side. Disney+ Puss in…

Even before 6,000 Syrians were killed in one of the worst earthquakes of the century, the Syrian American Medical Society Foundation (sams-usa.net) was alleviating the pain of a war-torn country. Founded in 1998, the nonprofit greatly expanded its capacity in 2011, when the Syrian civil war erupted, sponsoring field hospitals and ambulances as well as providing specialized care for refugees and displaced populations. Besides Syria, SAMS is also present in seven other countries, operating a medical center in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp and delivering humanitarian aid though cross-border operations based in Turkey. In 2021, SAMS performed more than 70,000 surgeries and 22,000 deliveries at 37 Syrian facilities, and it has helped provide emergency care for close to 2,000 victims of the earthquake. Each charity we feature has earned a…

Eduardo Porter Bloomberg Developing countries can’t seem to find a winning formula, said Eduardo Porter. Take Latin America: Some 40 years ago, when its GDP per capita lagged at 42 percent of that of the Group of Seven countries, it listened to economists’ advice. Governments from Argentina to Mexico did “a 180 on a half-century of statist, inward-looking economic policy,” privatizing public enterprises and opening up to foreign investment. The result? Their GDP per person actually dropped relative to that of the rich G7 countries. African and Middle Eastern countries fared even worse. Whether these nations tried to boost manufacturing through free-trade agreements such as NAFTA or focused on exploiting commodities, the result was the same. The rich world’s capital and the poor world’s cheap labor failed to produce the…

Good week for: Japan, after a new cartographic survey of the archipelago nation will roughly double its number of islands to more than 14,000. Previous surveys neglected to count small islands in lakes and rivers, and new islands have been created by volcanic activity. Smells, with a proposal from state Sen. Bill Soules to make “the aroma of green chile roasting in the fall” the official state aroma of New Mexico, making it the first state with an official aroma. Honesty, after Rep. George Santos was asked in an interview why he thought he could get away with telling so many lies while running for Congress. “I ran in 2020 for the same exact seat, and I got away with it then,” Santos said. Bad week for: Irreconcilable differences, after…

Jennifer Rubin The Washington Post Republicans have been shamelessly lying to voters about election fraud, vaccines, and climate change, said Jennifer Rubin. So it’s little surprise they are now “increasingly lying about themselves.” Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) wears the crown for fabricating “virtually his entire life,” but he has plenty of company in the “party of charlatans.” Former President Donald Trump lied continuously, and his handpicked U.S. Senate candidate for Georgia, Herschel Walker, “compulsively lied during his campaign about everything.” Now Santos and Walker are joined by Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), who have also concocted bogus backgrounds. Luna, whose grandfather fought for Nazi Germany, changed her name from Mayerhofer before running for Congress, and has alternately claimed to be Jewish, Middle Eastern, and Mexican-American.…

“If you’ve ever worked in conservative media, you know this rule: There’s always someone nuttier, or willing to pretend that they’re nuttier, who’s coming for your audience. Many a chagrined conservative wondered in 2016 why Rush Limbaugh, a proud Reagan Republican, suddenly sounded receptive to the party’s takeover by a nationalist who was soft on Russia and hard on entitlement reform. The unhappy answer is that Rush recognized his listeners craved strongman populism more than they did conservatism and that they’d leave him behind if he didn’t follow them toward Trump. Everyone who makes their living in conservative politics or its media arms has had to make a choice like that.” Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch…

GERMANY Martin Reichert Der Spiegel Critics are often smeared online, but rarely are they literally smeared in feces, said Martin Reichert. The journalist Wiebke Hüster became the unhappy exception to this rule recently after skewering a performance staged by the celebrated choreographer Marco Goeke. Hüster wrote in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Goeke’s new ballet in The Hague left audience members seesawing between “going insane” and “dying of boredom.” Just hours after her review was published, she attended another performance featuring a different work by Goeke, who furiously confronted her in the lobby and “rubbed dog poop in her face.” Goeke is a known “loose cannon,” an eccentric who “likes to wear sunglasses at the wrong time,” but even geniuses can get away with only so much. After all, the crime…

MALAYSIA Praba Ganesan Malay Mail Working for free is the latest trend among Malaysian politicians these days, said Praba Ganesan, but it’s not one we should endorse. Back in December, our newly elected prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, said that now he’d finally made it to the office he’d sought for decades, he would forgo his $5,200 monthly salary. Soon, other members of his administration enthusiastically waived their wages, too. Malaysia’s new ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Nazri Aziz, underscored that he had never intended to accept the post just for the money, adding perhaps somewhat boastfully, “I do not need the salary.” This sounds like altruism, but is it? Such a pose of generosity could lead these unpaid officials to lord their benevolence over others or, worse yet, use…

The New York Times is under fire “for its coverage of transgender issues,” said Mary Yang in NPR.org. Last week, nearly 1,000 journalists and academics who contribute to the Times signed a letter expressing “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting” on transgender people. The critics say the paper has used “pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language” in news stories examining the use of puberty blockers, hormones, and even surgery in clinics treating children and teens, and say that it’s irresponsible to question “gender-affirming treatment” at a time when Republican legislators in numerous states are seeking to ban such care for minors. The paper’s “infuriating” response was a flat denial that its coverage has been biased, said Danielle Tcholakian in Jezebel. At a time when trans teens face…

“John Fetterman just wanted to fit in,” said Jonathan Tamari and Julia Terruso in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Instead, the 6-foot-8, hoodie-wearing new senator from Pennsylvania—whose election last fall helped Democrats maintain control of the Senate—is struggling with “ongoing health problems” stemming from his May 2022 stroke. Last week, Fetterman, 53, checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. Although Fetterman’s office said he’s battled depression “on and off” for years, people close to him say “this isn’t something they had seen until recently.” He’s in Washington without his wife and kids, trying to adapt to Congress while he struggles with limitations caused by the stroke, particularly his difficulties processing oral speech. He’s been relying on an iPad to provide closed captioning during…

(Princeton, $30) The most memorable figure in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is “unlike any female character ever written before her,” said Erin Maglaque in The New York Times. “Neither princess nor witch nor damsel in distress,” the Wife of Bath has entranced readers for more than 600 years, and remains to this day a figure who inspires imitations and tributes. In this stirring appreciation of Alison of Bath, Oxford professor Marion Turner, the author of an acclaimed 2019 biography of Chaucer, digs into what’s known about women in the Middle Ages to put Chaucer’s achievement in context. His Alison was keenly aware of negative stereotypes about women and unafraid to push back. Turner re-creates the milieu she emerged from in “elegant, quietly angry prose,” all of it grounded in…

Patrick Bringley has seen the world’s art masterpieces in a way most of us never will, said Scott Simon in NPR.org. As he recounts in his new memoir, All the Beauty in the World, he was 25 when he began a 10-year stint as a security guard at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, gravitating to the quiet, meditative work after losing his 26-year-old brother to cancer. “It set off in me a desire to be more in touch with fundamental things,” he says. Freed from the busy work he’d engaged in as an event planner, he was now spending up to 12 hours a day in the presence of Rembrandts and Botticellis. “I was very happy to be there because many of those paintings are sort of…

3 “Yo La Tengo has always done a nice job of playing with depressive rock idioms,” said Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone. But the New Jersey trio’s 17th album is more “openly downcast” than usual, enacting a confrontation with mortality that “gives everything here a little more urgency.” Lead singer-songwriter Ira Kaplan is 66 now, and his drummer wife, Georgia Hubley, is 63. And they’ve chosen to apply their Velvet Underground–like mix of electric noise and fragile acoustic balladry to addressing the struggle to make the best of one’s diminishing time on earth. “A record like this makes easing toward the abyss feel a little less painful.” This Stupid World “may not offer any big-swing innovations,” said Bill Pearis in Brooklyn Vegan. “But it’s top-tier Yo La Tengo,” with every…

Raquel Welch’s life was forever changed by a deerskin bikini. Then a little-known actress, she donned the skimpy outfit to play a cavewoman in the low-budget 1966 adventure movie One Million Years B.C. The film was forgettable, and Welch spoke only a few lines. But her appearance—posing voluptuously on the film’s poster—made her an international sex symbol. Her resulting career spanned five decades and yielded more than 35 films, if little critical praise. (“She can’t act; it’s cruel to force her,” Roger Ebert once wrote.) Ranked No. 3 on Playboy’s list of the 20th century’s sexiest film stars, Welch was ambivalent about her sexpot status, relishing the attention but bristling at not being taken seriously. “It’s very hard to accept a brain and a very strong, willful personality in…