Innehållsförteckning för June 2, 2023 från The Week Magazine

On Aug. 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort conducted a secret meeting with Russian intelligence agent Konstantin Kilimnik at a ritzy cigar bar in New York City. The two men had done business in Ukraine, where Manafort, a globe-trotting, slick political operative, had made $60 million advising Kremlin-allied oligarchs. Kilimnik had flown to New York to give Manafort a “peace” plan for Ukraine that called for cleaving off the eastern part of the country as a Russia-controlled “autonomous” state; Trump’s support for that plan, he suggested, would be helpful. In return, Manafort handed Kilimnik internal campaign polling indicating Trump could pull an upset by winning swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Russia soon targeted selected social media users in those states with messages portraying Hillary Clinton as deeply corrupt,…

In response to a conservative backlash to Bud Light’s use of a trans woman in an online marketing campaign, the beer company is introducing a military-themed bottle decorated with camouflage. With sales of Bud Light down 24 percent, Anheuser-Busch will feature the word “America” instead of “Budweiser” on the special-edition aluminum bottle, which is imprinted with lyrics from “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Texas legislature has passed legislation that would eliminate mandatory car-safety inspections. Critics say discontinuing inspections would make driving more dangerous for all motorists, but GOP Rep. Craig Goldman says he trusts Texans to maintain their vehicles free of government coercion. “If you have bald tires, that’s up to you,” Goldman said. “It’s a personal responsibility.” In other news Trump DOJ dragged out Clinton probe The Justice Department waited…

Dave Matthews knows he’s uncool by rock singer standards, said Alex Pappademas in GQ. Despite his band’s success—seven No. 1 albums in a row on Billboard’s charts—Matthews is the frequent butt of jokes for his dorky, dad-like persona. At 56 and with three kids, Matthews cringes when watching video of his performances: “My terrible posture,” he says. “My horrible dance moves.” On some recordings, he says, his thin, nasal voice makes him sound “like Kermit the Frog with a sinus infection.” He knows that his earnest, upbeat songs strike some as cloying. “At least half the people who hear my music go, Ugh—this guy’s a sugar-sweet nightmare.” But his determination to appreciate life is actually a reaction to a lot of heartache. When he was 10, his father, John,…

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were accused of exaggeration after their spokesman claimed they endured “a near-catastrophic car chase” involving “highly aggressive paparazzi” for “over two hours” in Manhattan. The incident, which followed Harry and Meghan’s appearance at an awards ceremony, was compared to the chase that led to the 1997 death of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana. The spokesman for the Sussexes said that about a dozen paparazzi in various vehicles raced after the couple as they drove away, causing “multiple near collisions” with other vehicles and pedestrians. But NYC Mayor Eric Adams said that while paparazzi had been “reckless”—tailing the couple’s car and swarming their windows when stopped in traffic—it’s “hard to believe” that a car chase could last two hours in notoriously congested midtown. Police said “there…

David Wallace-Wells The New York Times “Americans often think of wildfires as a California problem,” said David Wallace-Wells, but new research is showing how far their “toxic smoke spreads and how widely its noxious impacts are distributed.” Sometimes the smoke is visible, like the soot-filled winds that drifted down to Colorado last week from massive blazes burning 1,500 miles away in Alberta, Canada. More often, people inhale particulate pollution from distant wildfires without knowing it. A new Stanford study found that about “60 percent of the smoke impact of American wildfires is experienced by those living outside the states where the trees are in flames.” Because of the jet stream, fires in the West actually cause more health damage to people living east of the Rockies. The airborne particulates…

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Omar Al-Ubaydli Al Arabiya Arabs are quick to celebrate the successes of Westerners, but they take “great pleasure in tearing down their homegrown stars,” said Omar Al-Ubaydli. Look at Zaha Hadid, the late Iraqi architect, who achieved fame on the international stage but was never appreciated at home. “Arabs like foreigners,” she once said. “If I was an American, they would love me.” Sadly, she was speaking the truth. Our “destructive form of envy and self-loathing” is a response to the deeply rooted corruption of many Arab countries. In a functional, meritocratic society, talent plus hard work leads to success. In corrupt societies, though, nepotism and sycophancy rule. This phenomenon forces people into two groups: You’re either a “quasi-nihilist” who won’t waste time working hard “because it’s…

Is machine intelligence becoming akin to human intelligence? asked Cade Metz in The New York Times. In March, computer scientists at Microsoft published a provocative 155-page research paper after their experience working with OpenAI’s GPT-4, an upgrade to the popular chatbot ChatGPT. This new system represented, in their opinion, “a step toward artificial general intelligence, or AGI,” behavior reflecting more human-like cognition. Working with a version of GPT-4 more powerful than the one available to the public, the Microsoft researchers threw challenges at it like constructing a complex mathematical proof—and making it rhyme. They found it was even able to give ingenious answers to puzzles—such as how to best stack a book, nine eggs, a laptop, a bottle, and a nail—“that should have required an intuitive understanding of the…

Most people recover quickly from Lyme disease, but others experience years or even decades of debilitating symptoms. A new study may explain why, says NBCNews.com. Researchers found that people with lingering Lyme symptoms have higher levels of an immune system marker called interferon-alpha even after they have taken antibiotics, the usual course of treatment. Interferon-alpha is a protein that helps the body tell immune cells to fight off bacteria and viruses. Too-high levels can trigger the immune system to overreact, causing pain, joint swelling, and chronic fatigue—all of which are associated with long Lyme disease. “We think this is a possible driver of persistent symptoms,” says co-author Klemen Strle, from Tufts University. The study was small, involving only 79 people who had been diagnosed with Lyme. But the findings…

(Pantheon, $27) Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel “presents a dystopian vision so upsetting that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are,” said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. In a near-future America, a huge TV audience pays to watch prisoners fight to the death, with the prisoners gaining temporary celebrity as well as a chance at eventual freedom. “You may think you’ll be able to look away, but you won’t.” Adjei-Brenyah writes consistently gripping fight scenes, and he focuses the story on a few prisoners who grab and hold attention, including Black female lovers who’ve killed enough fellow inmates to survive nearly three years of battles, becoming sex symbols who are aware how disposable they remain. Though Chain-Gang All-Stars is an act of protest, “it lures…

Shy by Max Porter (Graywolf, $25) “Max Porter has become something of a patron saint of troubled boys,” said Heller McAlpin in NPR.org. In this fourth novel from the author of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, a teenage violent offender in 1990s Britain is sent to a boarding school he’s told is his last chance. “This is one angry young man. But Porter’s compulsively readable primal scream of a novel offers a compassionate portrait of a boy jerked around by uncontrollable mood swings that lead to self-sabotaging decisions.” Harold by Steven Wright (Crown, $29) “Readers looking for a page-turner may not enjoy Harold,” said Michael Ian Black in The New York Times. “But for those seeking a page-lingerer, there is much to digest.” This “strange and wonderful” debut…

3 Paul Simon’s first album in seven years “sounds like a last testament,” said Jon Pareles in The New York Times. The legendary 81-year-old songsmith confronts mortality on this “observant, elliptical, and quietly encompassing” record—a suite of seven songs that runs without a break for 33 minutes and was inspired by a dream he had in 2019. Simon, a secular Jew, sings repeatedly of “the Lord” here, “striving to balance skepticism and something like faith,” while also ruminating on love, family, and the uncertainty of what lies ahead. He keeps his acoustic guitar work and plaintive singing front and center, “which is largely to his advantage but sometimes to his detriment,” said George Varga in The San Diego Union-Tribune. “Lyrics this personal should be presented as free of distraction as…

Inspiring women… Being Mary Tyler Moore Americans of the 1960s got to know her as lovable housewife Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Then Mary Tyler Moore surprised them all with her winning portrayal of ambitious, single, go-getter reporter Mary Richards. This superb documentary offers a chance to fall in love with Mary all over again. Max Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise Maya Angelou contained multitudes. It’s impossible to account for all that Angelou accomplished in letters and activism, but her story, that of a girl stricken mute by trauma who becomes a vital American voice, is beyond inspiring. $4 on iTunes Mission Blue Marine biologist Sylvia Earle has witnessed the dying of Earth’s oceans for 60 years. Not afraid to speak out, she has dedicated…

Caliber is a good choice for people new to strength training. Fill out a questionnaire and the free, no-frills app will create a personalized workout regimen. Each training session targets a different muscle group. Videos and written instructions explain how to do each exercise properly. AloMoves provides video workouts on demand. Ideal for people who’d like to follow an instructor, it’s like the Peloton app, but for weightlifting. Many of the classes use bodyweight exercises or light dumbbells. The service costs $20 a month, or $199 a year. Future connects you with a personal trainer who’ll help every step of the way. The one-on-one coaching costs $149 a month. Hevy is the best of the free weightlifting apps. You can create custom workouts, track your progress over time, compare lifting…

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion contract last week to develop a moon lander for NASA, said Micah Maidenberg in The Wall Street Journal. NASA had initially decided to “issue a single lunar-lander contract to SpaceX,” the space exploration company led by Elon Musk, for its upcoming Artemis moon missions. “After prodding by some members of Congress,” NASA decided to contract with a competing company to design an alternative lander for transporting “astronauts from an orbiting craft to the surface of the moon.” SpaceX will still handle the first two moon-landing missions, scheduled for 2025 and 2028. Airlines: Court ends JetBlue-American pact A federal judge this week terminated the “Northeast Alliance” between JetBlue and American Airlines, said Joe Rennison and Niraj Chokshi in The New York Times. Started…

Robinhood’s late-night trading buzz Robinhood has started offering 24-hour weekday trading of popular stocks and ETFs, said Michael P. Regan in Bloomberg Businessweek. The brokerage app announced recently that shares of “43 of the most active U.S. exchange-traded funds and individual companies such as Tesla, Amazon, and Apple” can be bought and sold “anytime from 8 p.m. New York time Sunday to 8 p.m. on Friday.” Robinhood joins Interactive Brokers, which offers all-night trading for 79 stocks and ETFs. The brokerage is catering to its fast-trading retail clientele; however, “much like the service and clientele at your local all-night diner,” the market behaves a little more strangely at night. Fewer buyers means lower liquidity, which “can lead to abrupt, volatile changes in stocks and wider spreads between bid/ask prices.”…

Caitlin Ostroff and Deborah Acosta The Wall Street Journal Attendees at this year’s annual Bitcoin conference in Miami seemed to check reality at the door, said Caitlin Ostroff and Deborah Acosta. At the entrance, a sign proclaimed “No bears allowed,” referring to market pessimists. Indeed, there may be plenty of those now, but this was an event for crypto diehards to show their devotion. Inside, they “donned Bitcoin swag, played cornhole in front of a giant inflatable Bitcoin, and bid on a Bitcoin-themed DeLorean.” At one point, pallbearers trailed by gospel choristers carried an open casket into the convention center filled with dollar bills and a label reading “#FiatFuneral.” But despite the attempt at pomp and circumstance, the parties and satellite events were noticeably smaller and calmer than last year.…

Amy Silverstein lived with what she called a “gratitude paradox.” Twice the recipient of a transplanted heart, she wrote frankly in her two memoirs about the pressure to be eternally upbeat and never complain. In 2007’s Sick Girl as well as 2017’s My Glory Was I Had Such Friends, she told of the complications that followed her surgeries, including cancer caused by transplant drugs. “People don’t recognize that it’s hard because I’m not toting around an oxygen tank,” she said in 2007. “Most people take for granted that when you stand, your heart speeds up immediately. Mine doesn’t, and I get a feeling of ‘wrong’ in my body every time.” Born in New York City, Silverstein grew up on Long Island. She studied journalism at New York University and…

This week’s contest: A suspected drunk driver allegedly tried to fool police by putting his dog in the driver’s seat. Come up with the name of a charge for this unusual attempt at DUI-dodging. Last week’s contest: Wealthy dog and cat owners can now send their companions on chartered “pet jets,” where they can enjoy prime cuts of meat and champagne flutes filled with treats. What would you name a first-class-only airline that caters to spoiled four-legged flyers? THE WINNER: “Savoir Fur” Pamela Peterpaul, Edison, N.J. SECOND PLACE: “Aer Lickus” Beth Simon, Oakland THIRD PLACE: “Thanks-For-Not-Taxing-Hedge-Fund-Profits-Like-Middle-Class-Income Airlines” Daniel Burstein, Jacksonville, Fla. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number…

Norman Foster, one of the world’s most acclaimed living architects, is still working at 87, said Deyan Sudjic in The Times (U.K.). Foster is designing a cancer center in Manchester, England, near where he was born. His firm is also designing buildings in Seoul and Mumbai and helping Kharkiv, Ukraine, plan its rebuilding after the war. “Even under the immense pressure of war and destruction, they want the things any city would want,” Foster says. “To upgrade their Soviet-style apartments, to achieve sustainable jobs, to make the most of green riverbanks, and to build on Kharkiv’s existing strengths of industry, culture, and learning.” Foster designed Apple’s iconic Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and is designing sleek new Apple stores for cities around the world. He’s proven himself to be an expert…

Eric Levitz New York magazine Republicans have “a big long-term problem,” said Eric Levitz: Young voters remain “durably hostile” to the party. New data from analytics firm Catalist indicates a big factor in the Democrats’ success in the 2022 midterms was the increasing electoral might of Millennial and Gen Z voters. In the 2018 midterms, Millennial turnout doubled over 2014, and Gen Z began voting. About 60 percent of young voters supported Democrats—a major reason the party won control of the House. But even without Donald Trump in the White House, turnout from voters under 40 jumped another 6 percent in 2022, and their support for Democrats remained steady. The generational divide “has never been more stark,” with Baby Boomers and Gen Xers leaning toward the GOP as younger…

UNITED KINGDOM Samira Shackle The Guardian Early this year, a video of a Black teenager being pinned down and handcuffed in a shop in the cathedral town of Chichester went viral across the U.K. But it wasn’t simply another all-too-familiar image of police brutality, said Samira Shackle. The men kneeling on top of the boy weren’t officers of the law, but private security guards known as “rangers.” They’re part of a growing army of “pseudo-police.” With police forces diminished by years of spending cuts and failing to investigate crimes like burglary or car theft, towns have turned to private muscle. Some of the rent-a-cops are tasked with enforcing landlords’ rules in privately owned urban developments, such as London’s South Bank, while others work for homeowner associations. Their main tool is…

It’s “the latest in a long line of quixotic efforts to sidestep America’s two-party system,” said Andrew Romano in Yahoo News. The centrist political group No Labels is barreling ahead with its plan to run a third-party candidate in next year’s presidential election if both parties nominate “unacceptably divisive candidates.” Founded in 2010 with the slogan “Not Left. Not Right. Forward,” No Labels has raised $70 million to get a “unity ticket” on ballots nationwide. The group won’t officially announce a candidate until Super Tuesday in March 2024, but right-leaning Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the current favorite. Still, “as Trump and Biden emerge as their parties’ respective front-runners,” Democrats are questioning the group’s motives. A third-party candidate is highly unlikely to win, but would “have…

(Simon & Schuster, $28) Katy Kelleher, like a lot of consumers today, feels guilty about many of the material possessions she has acquired, said Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times. “Thankfully, this book isn’t her penance. It’s more surprising and ambivalent than that.” Kelleher, a journalist who frequently writes about design, has compiled a group of essays that examine the histories of such luxury goods as perfume, gems, silk, and porcelain, and while “some of what she recounts is truly horrific,” her purpose is not to scold. Instead, she displays “a knack for nimbly threading together her own memories and tastes with the histories of the objects,” eventually modeling a healthy way to appreciate both beauty and the desires that attach to it. “Kelleher is at her best…

R.F. Kuang tossed a bomb into her writing career and is getting back only love, said Alexandra Alter in The New York Times. The 26-year-old author of Babel, a brainy best-selling 2022 fantasy novel, chose to skewer racism in the publishing industry with her next book, writing a satire in which a struggling white writer witnesses the death of a successful Asian novelist, steals her deceased friend’s just-finished manuscript, and plots to pass it off as her own. Such self-serving behavior is shown as endemic to the business, but her publisher, HarperCollins, didn’t blush when Kuang submitted the work. Instead, it is treating Yellowface as one of its biggest fiction titles of the spring, and Kuang can only savor the irony. “This book is going to make HarperCollins a…

3 “On her fifth LP, Kesha is tired, angry, and vicious,” said Brittany Spanos in Rolling Stone. The former top-40 star has been embroiled in a legal battle since 2014, when she accused her producer, Dr. Luke, of sexual abuse. As the title of Gag Order suggests, there’s a lot she can’t yet say about the ongoing dispute. Yet on her final album for Dr. Luke’s record label, the 36-year-old singer-songwriter “unspools as much of her feelings as she can across 13 scorched-earth tracks.” Kesha still has a silly sense of humor, but she’s mostly venting about damage done to her mental health and career. Don’t expect catchy pop tunes, said Stephen Thomas Erlewine in AllMusic. This record’s producer, Rick Rubin, conveys Kesha’s emotional turmoil through “an amorphous swirl” of…

Agolde Long Line Maxi Skirt A denim maxi skirt is as “simple as it is sophisticated,” and all you need to complement the look is a classic loafer or sneaker. Agolde’s Hilla skirt is a “star all on its own.” $208, revolve.com Source: Vogue Brandon Blackwood Mini Kendrick Trunk Celebrity fans helped make this small bag go viral for its rising young designer. “The cutest bag to carry all summer long,” it can be clutched by its handle or slung from its shoulder strap. $265, brandonblackwood.com Source: Ebony Abercrombie & Fitch Oversized Shirt Jacket “Is it a shirt? Is it a jacket? We’ll let you decide.” This comfortable layering piece finishes at the hips, and it’s so versatile, it can be “the MVP of any wardrobe.” $100, abercrombie.com Source:…

U.S. consumers now owe $986 billion on their charge cards, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s a 17 percent jump from a year ago and a record high. CBSNews.com The share of U.S. adults who said they were doing “at least OK financially” fell sharply last year, to 73 percent from 78 percent in 2021, according to a latest Federal Reserve survey. Some 35 percent of Americans said they were worse off than a year earlier. The New York Times Jay-Z and Beyoncé paid $200 million for a 40,000-square-foot mansion in Malibu, Calif., shattering the $177 million record set a year earlier by billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, for the house right next door. The couple got a relative bargain—the home was originally listed for $295…

Every Mother Counts (everymothercounts.org) is devoted to preventing deaths and improving outcomes in labor and childbirth, both in the U.S. and abroad. Working with partner organizations, many of them focused on training midwives and doulas, Every Mother Counts seeks to turn the tide of maternal mortality. The organization supports assistance for childbirth in places like Bangladesh and Haiti—and in the U.S., which ranks 55th internationally in maternal mortality deaths, the worst ranking of any wealthy country. Outside the U.S., Every Mother Counts trains midwives who are able to attend to births in regions where few doctors are available. Within the U.S., it works with doulas, some in Native American communities, to provide professional help and advocacy before, during, and after a birth. Each charity we feature has earned a…

Good week for: Freak flags, after blues musician Otis Taylor, 74, of Denver finally received the high school diploma he was denied in 1966 because school officials insisted he cut his bushy Afro. Taylor said he used to wear “fringed leather jackets and beaded moccasins” in addition to his long hair, “so I always sort of stood out.” Resilience, after Florida man Jordan Rivera went out to pee outside a bar, fell into a pond, and had his arm bitten off by an alligator. “I lost an arm, it’s not the end of the world,” Rivera said. True love, with reports that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s third-richest person, gave a 30-carat engagement ring to girlfriend Lauren Sánchez. The smitten Bezos also put Sánchez’s face on the buxom wooden…

Mara Wilson grew up feeling like a disappointment, said Emine Saner in The Guardian (U.K.). Wilson, 35, was a child star in some of the biggest family films of the 1990s—Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and Matilda—and her adorable, precocious movie characters brought her a lot of admiring attention. But then her protective, competitive, demanding mother died from breast cancer. “I felt completely lost, completely unmoored,” Wilson says. “I didn’t really know who I was.” Without her mother to shield her, the price of child stardom became steep, and she began receiving unwanted attention. Adult men sent her inappropriate letters, and at age 12, Wilson Googled herself and found “things that I couldn’t unsee”: porn sites with her head superimposed on other girls’ bodies. Roles dried up as…

Tiana Lowe Doescher Washington Examiner Dianne Feinstein is setting a precedent that’s “bad for the republic,” said Tiana Lowe. The 89-year-old Democratic senator from California recently returned to the Capitol after about three months away due to shingles, reappearing wheelchair-bound and with a partially paralyzed face. Her staff did not previously reveal that Feinstein’s shingles had led to encephalitis, a serious complication that causes brain swelling and can result in lasting memory and language problems. Feinstein has been visibly confused, even telling a reporter that she’s been working at the Capitol the whole time. For years, Rolling Stone revealed, Feinstein’s staffers have had a system to keep her “from ever walking around the Capitol on her own,” out of concerns about her “increasing senility.” Now “they’ve tightened their usual…

“Three decades ago, not getting lost was one of the most important goals of human labor and human social organization. The possibility of getting lost was an ever-present worry for anyone who drove their car, or walked in the woods, or took a vacation to a strange place. And now that foundational human experience is just…gone. Unless your phone runs out of battery or you’re in a very remote wilderness area, GPS and Google Maps will always be able to guide you home. You don’t have to plan your route or ask for directions, you don’t have to keep close track of landmarks as you drive or walk, you don’t even have to remember the names of roads. The forest has lost its terror.” Noah Smith in his Substack…

IRELAND Martina Devlin Irish Independent The recent scenes of young Irish yobs burning down a migrant tent city in Dublin should appall every Irishman, said Martina Devlin. The Irish, of all people, should understand what it’s like to “set out on a long and arduous journey to escape intolerable conditions.” We are “a nation of emigrants.” Millions of Irish fled the Great Famine of the mid-19th century and set sail for North America, and the money they sent back “helped to ensure the survival of those left behind.” How, then, can we fail to sympathize with the plight of migrants who come here, fleeing disasters in their own countries? If it’s distressing for us to see camps in the middle of downtown, the fault lies not with the migrants, but…

SOUTH AFRICA Pierre de Vos Daily Maverick Africa is not the anti-gay monolith the Western media makes it out to be, said Pierre de Vos. True, Uganda adopted a “draconian” bill criminalizing homosexuality earlier this month, and Kenya is considering one. “But the story is much more complicated than that.” Last week, Namibia’s Supreme Court said the state must recognize the validity of same-sex marriages for Namibian citizens who wed abroad, and its ruling suggested it would expand gay rights further. Nor is Namibia alone. Over the past decade, many African countries—including Angola, Botswana, and Mozambique—repealed their colonial-era laws that had criminalized same-sex acts. The countries going the other way, such as Uganda and Kenya, are the countries explicitly targeted by the American far-right Christian group Family International. Its president,…

“They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me.”Playwright Nathaniel Lee, quoted in the Montreal Gazette “You know myths and legends still have power; they get buried and forgotten, but they’re like land mines.”Neil Gaiman, quoted in The New York Times “Every life is a novel for those who are curious enough to look into it.”Novelist Anne Berest, quoted in Lithub “Our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see.”Elijah Cummings, quoted in WYPR “Why should I care about posterity? What has it ever done for me?”Groucho Marx, quoted in the Vancouver Sun “If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.”Katharine Hepburn, quoted in The Knowledge “Fiction is where I go to tell…

Tech firms win key speech case The Supreme Court ruled that social media companies were not liable for terrorist content posted on their sites, said Will Oremus in The Washington Post. Two cases, Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google, were brought by “families of victims of ISIS terrorist attacks” against the tech companies “for their role in distributing and profiting from ISIS content.” The cases asked the court “to pass judgment on Section 230,” the tech platforms’ shield from lawsuits over content posted by users. In the end, however, the court “decided it didn’t need to address” Section 230, ruling against the plaintiffs in one case, and sending the other back to a lower court, where it’s unlikely to survive. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a unanimous court,…

They say you can’t run your way out of a bad diet, reports The Times (U.K.), but you may be able to eat your way to better fitness. In new research involving more than 2,000 middle-aged adults in the U.S., those with balanced, vegetable-rich diets performed better in fitness tests, regardless of how much they typically exercised. Overall, a better diet was associated with taking 4,000 more steps each day. For the study, the participants answered a questionnaire about their eating habits and were rated on two scales: the Alternative Healthy Eating Index and the Mediterranean Diet Score. Higher numbers indicate a better diet, with more produce and seafood and less red meat and alcohol. When the participants rode an exercise bike, those with higher scores performed better, using…

Jamie Loftus is an Emmy-nominated writer and comedian and the creator and host of several acclaimed podcasts, including My Year in Mensa and Aack Cast. Her first book, Raw Dog, is a new cultural and culinary history of hot dogs. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (1999). My favorite book ever. Lemony Snicket exploded my world as a kid. I’d never encountered unreliable narrators, or kids in a world where adults didn’t care, who had nothing but each other and their passions to get through. How do you manage to get a third-grader excited about Isadora Duncan and Damocles? Unbeatable. A Right to Be Hostile by Aaron McGruder (2003). This collection of original Boondocks comics aimed precise and hilarious rage at white liberal America in the late ’90s and…

The Supreme Court has ruled, and Andy Warhol has been found insufficiently original, said Cynthia Littleton in Variety. Settling a closely watched case that may affect creative fields well beyond the visual arts, the justices’ 7-2 decision last week held that a Warhol silk-screen portrait of Prince was so similar to the 1981 photo it was based on that the photographer should have been compensated when the image was licensed in 2016. Justice Elena Kagan wrote a spirited dissent charging that the majority didn’t understand Warhol’s art and that its decision “will stifle creativity of every sort.” In the majority opinion, Sonia Sotomayor shot back that creators of original imagery are entitled to copyright protection, “even against famous artists.” Though many in the art world will agree with the…

3 Madison McFerrin’s first full-length album “would fit nicely next to anything from Erykah Badu to Solange to SZA,” said Andrew Sacher in Brooklyn Vegan. The Berklee-trained daughter of jazz singer Bobby McFerrin shares her father’s talent for intricate a cappella vocal arrangements—listen, for example, to her new single, “God Herself.” But in recent years, McFerrin has also developed a knack for production work, and her debut LP “takes cues from ’90s neo-soul and 2010s alt-R&B.” Its 10 atmospheric songs “leave you wanting more.” The album’s lyrics “explore the joys and pitfalls of evolving into new versions of yourself,” said Mary Retta in Pitchfork. On “OMW” and “Utah,” a nimble funk groove, McFerrin “captures the messy, confusing headspace that precedes future growth.” And though the singer’s elaborate instrumental arrangements add…

Many wine lovers are unaware of picpoul, but “it certainly has its in-the-know fans,” said Melanie Young in Wine Enthusiast. A high-acid white akin to pinot grigio but with “more texture and aromatics,” picpoul blanc is “pleasing to both the palette and the wallet.” 2020 Jean-Luc Colombo Les Girelles ($15). This bottle from Languedoc, the source of most French picpoul, is lively on the palate, but “ripe fruit flavors allow for a good midpalate weight and smooth mouthfeel.” 2021 Bonny Doon Picpoul ($20). Aromas of white peach and lime sorbet give way to flavors of red pear and nectarine in this Central Valley, Calif., wine. Its bright finish has a floral aspect. 2021 Turning Tide Picpoul ($24). Citrus peel and “a stony, oyster-shell minerality” are the top notes of…

iPhones automatically receive software updates for five or six years, which remains their “biggest advantage” over an Android. An iPhone also generally keeps your data more secure and its App Store offers a better selection of apps than the Google Play Store. Getting help from customer service is also easy with Apple, which helps when, for example, your five-year-old phone needs a new battery. Android phones are available “in many more shapes and sizes,” allowing you to choose options such as a stylus, a keyboard, or a huge screen. The user interface is also much more customizable. Though a Samsung Galaxy can run well over $1,000, Android devices can also be budget friendly. “You can buy good ones for under $200 and fantastic ones for less than $400.” The $600…

Leo Lewis Financial Times It took three decades, but Japan is suddenly hot again, said Leo Lewis. “An exceptional six straight weeks of buying by foreign institutions” pushed the Topix index of Japanese stocks to a 33-year high last week. Some analysts say the market may be on its way to eclipsing its peak in the final days of the 1980s asset bubble, when Japan had more than half of the 20 biggest companies in the world. Returning to such a mark seemed unimaginable. And many investors remain wary, noting fizzled rallies in the past. But there are a few differences between this and earlier bursts of market optimism. Shareholder activism has intensified, changing how businesses talk and behave. “A country where an entire generation of consumers, businesses, banks, and…

New abortion bans are tying doctors’ hands and forcing women to continue troubled pregnancies at the risk of their own lives, said journalist Kavitha Surana in ProPublica. This is one woman’s story. One day late last summer, Dr. Barry Grimm called a fellow obstetrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee to consult about a patient who was 10 weeks pregnant. Her embryo had become implanted in scar tissue from a recent cesarean section, and she was in serious danger. At any moment, the pregnancy could rip open her uterus. Dr. Mack Goldberg, who was trained in abortion care for life-threatening pregnancy complications, pulled up the patient’s charts. He did not like the look of them. The muscle separating her pregnancy from her bladder was as thin as tissue paper; her placenta threatened…