Home//The Week Magazine/September 23, 2016/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Editor’s letterSo now we know why Hillary Clinton has been coughing. After weeks of rumors and conspiracy theories, Clinton’s team was forced to come clean about her health this week when the Democratic presidential nominee appeared to collapse at a Sept. 11 memorial service. (See Main Stories.) Her aides revealed that she’d been diagnosed with pneumonia a few days earlier, a diagnosis they initially hid from the public, seemingly out of fear it might make the 68-year-old candidate seem weak. But it should be no surprise that candidates fall ill on the campaign trail, because running for president is an exercise in exhaustion. For more than a year, candidates endlessly race back and forth across the country: On the busiest day of his 2012 campaign, President Obama covered 5,300 miles, making…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Tensions escalate after North Korean nuclear testWhat happenedThe Obama administration vowed this week to press the United Nations for the “strongest possible” sanctions against North Korea, after Pyongyang conducted its fifth and most powerful test yet of a nuclear weapon. In the days after Kim Jong Un’s regime successfully detonated a nuclear warhead underground, triggering a magnitude-5.3 seismic event, the United States sent two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers streaking over U.S. ally South Korea— a dramatic show of force intended to rattle Pyongyang and soothe anxious nerves in Seoul. Analysts estimated the warhead’s yield as equivalent to 10 kilotons of TNT, compared with the 15-kiloton atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. North Korean defense officials said the warhead was designed “to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets,” stoking fears that the notoriously erratic Kim could soon…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The world at a glance ...ParisNotre Dame plot: Another ISISdirected plot against Paris was foiled last week when police arrested three women who allegedly planned to blow up a car near Notre Dame Cathedral. Inès Madani, 19, Sarah Hervouet, 23, and Amel Sakaou, 39, were charged with terrorist offenses after they brought a car filled with cooking-gas canisters and bottles of gasoline into a busy tourist district. During the trio’s arrest, Hervouet stabbed a police officer and Madani was shot in the leg while charging another officer. Police said several other members of a suspected terrorist cell were also arrested; ISIS commanders in Syria were allegedly directing the group. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said authorities were detecting plots “every day” and tracking 15,000 suspected radical Islamists. “There will be new attacks,” he said. “More innocent…7 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The great billionaire space raceWhy are private companies in the space business?To fill a void left by a downsized NASA. The space agency’s funding has declined from a high of 4.4 percent of the federal budget in 1966 to about 0.5 percent today, so its ambitions have been significantly downsized, too. That’s led several wealthy entrepreneurs to step forward and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in private companies dedicated to serious space exploration and research, as well as space tourism and other commercial ventures. Leading the charge are Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who have developed a fierce rivalry [see box] reminiscent of the U.S.-Soviet space race. Bezos started his spaceflight company, Blue Origin, with the goal of having “millions of people living and working in space,” and hopes…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016It must be true... I read it in the tabloidsA Philadelphia woman was stunned when a 5-pound catfish fell from the sky and smacked her square in the face. Lisa Lobree was walking through a city park when she heard a rustling in the trees above her and was struck by the 16-inch fish, which witnesses said was dropped by a passing hawk. Lobree suffered a small cut to the face and a lingering fishy odor. “I smelled so bad afterward,” she said. “I smelled disgusting.” Lobree added that she’s a keen angler, but in decades of fishing, “it was the first catfish that my face caught.” A British carpenter and naturist has been arrested after he shocked his neighbors by renovating his house in the buff. Robert Jenner, 42, has been a naturist since 1999, but his neighbors…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Best columns: InternationalRUSSIABoycott the sham electionsGarry KasparovRFERL.orgIt’s impossible to defeat President Vladimir Putin through the ballot box, said Garry Kasparov. Later this month, Russia will have “its so-called legislative elections,” choosing members of the rubberstamp parliament known as the State Duma. But Russia is not a real democracy. Voting is merely “an imitative mechanism intended to give the appearance of legitimacy to the regime.” Sadly, some members of the political opposition still don’t understand this basic truth. They persist in running for office, “pretending not to understand that by doing so they are playing into the Kremlin’s hands, willingly or not.” Their presence in the political process dupes Russians into believing they have agency, that they have some say in how they are ruled. But Russians have none. The media is almost…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 20169/11 anniversary: How the U.S. has changed“Tears, vows, and memories marked emotionally charged ceremonies” last week on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Paul Berger, Jim Hook, and John Bacon in USA Today.com. At New York City’s World Trade Center site, where a gleaming new skyscraper supplants the fallen twin towers, family members “solemnly read aloud the names of the almost 3,000 victims,” and described their personal sense of loss. In Washington, D.C., President Obama paid tribute to 184 people killed when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon. “No deed we do can ever truly erase the pain of their absence,” he said. The speeches were heartfelt, yet there was a sense that this horrific national trauma is receding in memory. Crowds at memorials have dwindled. Joe Quinn, whose brother…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Apple: Cutting the cord with the iPhone 7When I walked into the hands-on testing area at last week’s splashy Apple product launch in San Francisco, it took me a good five minutes to realize that the smartphone in front of me was actually the device that Apple was billing as the latest, greatest iPhone, said David Pierce in Wired.com. Technically, I know that the new iPhone 7 and slightly larger iPhone 7 Plus pack in more computing power than any of their predecessors. But apart from a new digital Home button that you don’t have to click and the absence of the traditional headphone jack, in look and feel the iPhone 7 is virtually indistinguishable from the iPhone 6S. “I kept thinking I must have missed something.” If the tech reviewers are struggling to see the upgrades,…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016‘Starchy’: A new primary taste?Scientists long believed that humans could register only four primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Seven years ago, they added a fifth: umami (savory). But a new study suggests there may be a sixth: the “starchy” taste of complex carbohydrates such as bread and pasta, which might partly explain why people crave carbs. Researchers from Oregon State University found that volunteers who were given liquid solutions containing complex carbohydrates could detect a starchy taste. “Asians would say it was rice-like, while Caucasians described it as bread-like or pasta-like,” lead researcher Juyun Lim tells New Scientist. “It’s like eating flour.” To rule out the possibility that the volunteers were simply picking up on the sugar molecules that are produced when carbohydrates break down, researchers gave them blockers to prevent them…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Review of reviews: FilmBridget Jones’s BabyDirected by Sharon Maguire (R)A 40-something’s stumble toward motherhoodFifteen years after moviegoers met her, Bridget Jones is “as endearingly and sympathetically foot-in-mouth awkward as ever,” said Ariel Scotti in the New York Daily News. In this third installment for the romcom franchise, Bridget is 43 and a London singleton again when she hooks up in short succession with her ex-husband and a handsome American tech billionaire—resulting in a pregnancy of no clear paternal lineage. The ensuing tale “tries just a bit too hard to be trendy,” but that doesn’t matter, thanks to the “adorable buffoonery” of Renée Zellweger’s Bridget. Unfortunately, the star doesn’t seem fully engaged, said Leslie Felperin in The Hollywood Reporter. Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Patrick Dempsey “eventually form a mildly risqué, sexually chaste ménage à…4 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Sausage pie: A one-pan dinner as American as AppalachiaThink of the humble ear of corn as “the mountain South’s defining food,” said Ronni Lundy in Victuals: An Appalachian Journey (Clarkson Potter). Settlers of the Appalachians didn’t have wide-open spaces in which they could grow wheat, but they did have the New World’s answer to wheat, and it could thrive on a small patch just outside a farmhouse door. Corn could serve as either vegetable or grain; it “made amazing liquor,” of course; and it contributed mightily to the entire nation’s ethos of self-reliance.The corn bread crust that tops this “hills and holler variation” on shepherd’s pie is based on the bread my Kentucky parents and grandparents made. Appalachian corn bread is more salty than sweet—it was, after all, folks’ daily bread. This simple recipe “ups the savor” of…4 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016This week: Homes in DelawareSteal of the week…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016What the experts sayIRS to stall some tax refunds“Some people may wait a little longer for their tax refunds next spring,” said Darla Mercado in CNBC.com. Households that file early and claim the earned income tax credit or the additional child tax credit won’t receive their refunds until after Feb. 15 because of a new anti-fraud regulation that takes effect in 2017. The rule gives the IRS “more time to sniff out phony returns and prevent refunds from going to scammers.” But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep filing early. Thieves rush to submit fake returns before actual taxpayers file documents. The two popular tax credits are among the most attractive to scammers, because they often result in a sizable refund.Help with at-home careDependent-care flexible spending accounts “aren’t just for children,” said Kimberly…3 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The boxing champ who was haunted by tragedyBobby Chacon1951–2016Boxing Hall of Famer Bobby Chacon was a crowd-pleaser, handsome and charismatic with a sunny grin that belied a turbulent life outside the ring. A quick, adroit stylist early in his career, Chacon morphed into a bruising, toe-to-toe brawler, battling some of his era’s finest fighters en route to titles in the featherweight (126 pounds) and superfeatherweight (130 pounds) divisions. With his gloves off, the 5-foot-6-inch Californian lived large and fast, falling prey to excessive drinking and drug use. Chacon also suffered devastating personal loss and, ultimately, the brain damage and dementia that afflict so many boxers. Yet he remained a blithe spirit. “Life, it ain’t the friendliest place to be,” Chacon once said. “But where else you going to be?”Born to Mexican immigrants outside Los Angeles, Chacon was…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Crossword No. 376: The M.E. AwardsACROSS1 Like lemon drops5 Collapsed, as a roof11 Kid’s shout14 Dim-witted dog15 Soar on a Cessna16 Big bird17 Host of the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 1819 Word in many college course names20 Like many wet suits21 Hotel offering23 Set of tools24 Drawn characters, casually26 You’re on one right now30 Suggestive state33 1990s dolls34 The Two ___ (1990 Jack Nicholson thriller)35 See 32-Down36 Tampa Bay team37 Group of roses, often38 Ladd or Alda39 Ethereal chants40 Inverted sixes41 Moved with stealth42 Strategic44 Pipeline attracting tribal protests45 Lousy writers46 Review harshly47 Mentally measure49 Has54 Inlet55 His eponymous Late Late Show is nominated for Outstanding Variety Talk Series58 Ang or Tommy59 Threat ending60 John Deere rival61 Attention, in metaphor62 Improving63 Road signDOWN1 Tripartite Pact supporter2 Point after deuce, sometimes3 Coleridge title…4 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Clinton’s attempt to conceal her pneumoniaWhat happenedThe physical health of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump became a major campaign issue this week, after the Democratic nominee collapsed outside a 9/11 memorial ceremony and later revealed she had pneumonia. Diagnosed with the lung infection last Friday, Clinton, 68, initially informed only a handful of staffers, and refused to alter her campaign schedule. When she then fell ill at the 9/11 ceremony in New York on Sunday, her aides insisted she was just “overheated.” But when a video then emerged of Clinton fainting as she got into a van while leaving the 9/11 event, her campaign came clean about her pneumonia diagnosis. “Obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner,” said Clinton, who canceled her campaign events Monday through Wednesday. “I just didn’t think it was…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The election: Are Trump’s supporters ‘deplorables’?Hillary Clinton just “said out loud what our progressive friends have long been thinking,” said Jack Cashill in AmericanThinker.com, and it may well “cost her the election.” At a star-studded LGBT fundraiser last week in Manhattan, Clinton trashed the tens of millions of Americans who back her Republican rival Donald Trump, saying, “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.” These awful Trump people, Clinton continued as her audience laughed, are “racist, sexist, hom*ophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.” So now we know what this supposed paragon of progressive values thinks about Americans who don’t share her views on immigration, terrorism, and traditional values. She later issued a partial apology, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, saying she’d been “grossly generalistic”…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016PeopleMcEwan’s paranoiaIan McEwan writes novels for one reason alone, said Decca Aitkenhead in The Guardian (U.K.). “Ah, the dopamine moment is finishing them,” he says. “It’s, you know, when you’re thinking you’ve got it to where you wanted it to be.” The British author sees everything else—the sales, the acclaim, the literary legacy—as a side issue. He finds publicity tours especially torturous. “I start out all right. But then you get a bit tired of your own voice. And then this feeling begins to creep in. You begin to feel a bit like a brush salesman of old, selling encyclopedias or double glazing. It’s a certain kind of self-loathing.” McEwan, 68, sometimes finds himself descending into paranoia. His biggest fear? Getting shot at a public signing. “Someone’s going to come…3 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Best columns: The U.S.An untold story of corruptionPaul WaldmanWashingtonPost.comDonald Trump has gotten plenty of negative media coverage, said Paul Waldman, but it’s been focused “mostly on the crazy things he says on any given day.” His antics have obscured the mind-boggling amount of “corruption, double-dealing, and fraud” associated with Trump’s businesses and his charitable foundation. While Hillary Clinton has been taking a daily beating over the Clinton Foundation, it was quietly reported last week that the Donald J. Trump Foundation made an illegal, $25,000 political contribution to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. After she cashed the check, Bondi decided not to pursue allegations that Trump University had defrauded its Floridian students. That should be “enormous news.” But it wasn’t. Neither was a story revealing that Trump’s modeling agency used underpaid foreign women to…3 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Best European columnsNETHERLANDSSegregation for students of colorOrhan Agirdag and Michael MerryTrouwSegregation in Dutch schools “is not going away,” said Orhan Agirdag and Michael Merry. Most children from minority groups, primarily of Moroccan, Turkish, or Surinamese origin, go to what we call “black schools”—schools where more than 60 percent of the students are children of color. That’s partly because of a history of white flight from immigrant neighborhoods. But it’s mostly because parents have freedom of school choice here, and “the color of a school seems to play a very important role in the selection process,” at least for white Dutch parents. Immigrant parents who don’t speak Dutch or are unfamiliar with the system often aren’t even aware they could send their children to a school outside their neighborhood. Given this reality, the…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016North Korea: Is it time to panic about Kim’s nukes?North Korea seems to have achieved “a level of technology on par with the nuclear powers of the world,” said The Hankyoreh (South Korea) in an editorial. Our northern neighbor claimed that it had conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test last week, successfully detonating a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a ballistic missile “at will.” The announcement came just hours after the U.S. Geological Survey detected a magnitude-5.3 earthquake near North Korea’s underground nuclear test site—a stronger tremor than those set off by the regime’s previous tests. The response from the international community was swift and strong. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it has prepared plans to take out North Korean missile sites and flatten the capital, Pyongyang, with artillery and ballistic missiles if the…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Chicago: Gangs and guns rule the streets“The deadliest month in two decades. More homicides this year than in New York and Los Angeles combined.” It’s difficult to convey the magnitude and horror of the violence gripping Chicago, said The Washington Post in an editorial. Our country’s third-largest city has already had 522 homicides this year—more than in the whole of 2015. More than 3,000 people have been shot. The majority of the shootings have occurred in gang-dominated areas on the South and West sides, and almost all the victims and perpetrators are young black males. But innocent bystanders are often caught up in the crossfire, said Monica Davey in The New York Times. Among the victims this summer were a 6-year-old girl wounded by a stray bullet outside her home, and a young mother shot dead…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Bytes: What’s new in techInnovation of the week“To help end the blind search for a parking gap in crowded city streets, Mercedes-Benz cars will start giving each other a heads-up when a space is free,” said Elisabeth Behrmann in Bloomberg.com. The luxury automaker is testing a pilot program in Stuttgart, Germany, that uses the Mercedes E-Class sedan’s built-in ultrasound sensors to spot available parking spots while driving. The car’s sensors scan for empty spaces big enough to park in, even when a driver isn’t looking for one. It then transmits that information to the cloud, to be shared with other Mercedes drivers. Initially, the system will share the probability of finding a parking spot on a particular street or block. But eventually it will be able to display a digital parking map to drivers…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Review of reviews: BooksBook of the weekWeapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracyby Cathy O’Neil(Crown, $26)Cathy O’Neil’s new book has been “haunting me since I read it,” said Evelyn Lamb in ScientificAmerican.com. A bracing dive into the world being created by Big Data, it illustrates “again and again” how the complex mathematical models that are increasingly being used by businesses and government to sort people into groups are reinforcing human biases instead of correcting them. O’Neil, who’s “an ideal person to write this book,” speaks passionately about individual victims: a teacher fired because assessment metrics discounted her talent; a college student who’s barred from a job by a personality test. To O’Neil, a former Wall Street quant, the greatest outrages occur when the models reinforce inequality— denying people…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Movies on TVMonday, Sept. 19Bus StopMarilyn Monroe demonstrates a knack for serious drama playing a lounge singer who’s courted by a rodeo cowboy. (1956) 8 p.m., TCMTuesday, Sept. 20Mon OncleA boy stuck in a rules-laden new modernist home looks to an uncle for relief in a Jacques Tati comedy that won a foreign-language Oscar. (1958) 8 p.m., TCMWednesday. Sept. 21CasinoRobert De Niro and Sharon Stone co-star in Martin Scorsese’s crime epic as a mobbed-up casino operator and the former prostitute he marries. (1995) 6 p.m., SundanceThursday, Sept. 22Lost in TranslationBill Murray and Scarlett Johansson play bored Yanks who develop an unlikely friendship while staying at a Tokyo hotel. Sofia Coppola directs. (2003) 10 p.m., the Movie ChannelFriday, Sept. 23Terminator 2: Judgment DayIn a sci-fi thriller that gives sequels a good name, Arnold…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016TravelThis week’s dream: Oman, the Middle East’s hidden oasis“Oman isn’t exactly an obvious destination for Americans,” said Hanya Yanagihara in Condé Nast Traveler. But don’t make any assumptions about this Arab country of 5 million based on its neighbors Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. Oman is “not just a literal oasis but also a geopolitical one,” maintaining friendly relations with the U.S. and welcoming tourists from around the world. I visited the country earlier this year, and it proved a revelation: “a safe, secure patch of the Middle East that’s not only an antidote to the glittery artifice of Dubai but also a series of astonishing topographies”— beaches, mountain ranges, and broad desert among them.Muscat, the capital, is not much to look at, beyond its main attraction, the Sultan Qaboos…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Economy: Big bump for middle-class incomesThe bottom lineThe legal marijuana industry in the U.S. could grow to be worth $50 billion over the next decade, eight times its current size, according to a recent market analysis. Nine states have pot-related initiatives on the ballot this November, five to legalize the drug for all adults and four to allow it for medical use. Bloomberg.comOpenings for manufacturing jobs have averaged 353,000 a month this year, the highest level in 15 years. Many employers say they’re having a difficult time finding workers with the skills needed to fill today’s increasingly technology-focused manufacturing roles. The Wall Street JournalThis month’s bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping, the world’s seventh-biggest container shipper, has left $14 billion in cargo stranded at sea, as ports worldwide refuse to admit Hanjin ships over fears that docking…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Best columns: BusinessHow Theranos suckered a stateTim StellerArizona Daily StarLured by the siren song of Silicon Valley, state politicians make it easy to get played, said Tim Steller. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes rolled into Arizona last year with a now infamous pitch: Her biotech startup would revolutionize medical testing with its “Edison” device, which purportedly required just a few drops of blood to run a battery of health tests. The company wasn’t seeking tax breaks or incentives, just legislation to allow individuals to get medical tests without a doctor’s order. The state’s conservative leadership, drawn in by Holmes’ vision of a freemarket medical revolution, “quickly got on board.” Meanwhile, no one asked, “Does your blood-testing technology work?” One year later, we know the answer. Theranos recently voided all of the tests it…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The dashing actor who played Wyatt EarpHugh O’Brian1925–2016Hugh O’Brian made it acceptable for adults to watch TV Westerns. Before the square-jawed actor’s 1955 debut as the titular character in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, such shows had been aimed at kids, with cartoonish gunfights and cookie-cutter good guys and bad guys. Wyatt Earp introduced darker, more complex story lines and a compelling hero in O’Brian’s Earp. Snappily dressed in his black frock coat and hat and a gold-trimmed waistcoat, the Old West lawman used his gun only as a last resort. To add to the show’s sense of realism, O’Brian insisted that the blanks fired by his .45 pistol be fully filled with gunpowder, not the half load or less normally used in filming. “It made a hell of a difference when it came…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Fragile cease-fire takes hold in war-torn SyriaWhat happenedThe first stage of a tentative U.S.-Russia brokered peace deal intended to end Syria’s devastating civil war went into effect this week, beginning with a seven-day cease-fire that appeared to be holding as The Week went to press. Under the agreement negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will stop hitting opposition targets in exchange for a cessation of hostilities by rebel fighters. The truce does not apply to militant groups considered terrorists, including ISIS and the al Qaida affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS). The country’s major rebel groups said they supported the deal “with harsh reservations,” noting that Assad might use the terrorist loophole to target them. Just hours before the cease-fire started, the dictator…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The U.S. at a glance ...San Francisco*kaepernick’s protest spreads: A number of NFL stars joined San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s symbolic demonstration against “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the opening weekend of the regular season this week—some kneeling during the national anthem, others raising their fists in protest. Kaepernick, who is biracial, began his silent protest during the preseason in order to bring attention to police brutality and racial injustice. His gesture prompted anger among some NFL fans, who argued it disrespected the U.S. flag and military. During this week’s opening games, which fell on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, four players from the Miami Dolphins knelt during the anthem, while at least six other players—from the Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, and Kansas City Chiefs—raised their fists in solidarity with Kaepernick.…4 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016GossipKatie Holmes won’t confirm her long-rumored romance with Jamie Foxx because she doesn’t want to lose $5 million from her 2012 divorce settlement with Tom Cruise, RadarOnline.com reports. Holmes, 37, who also received $4.8 million in child support for daughter Suri, 10, signed a clause preventing her from “publicly dating another man for five years,” a source told the website. “She’s allowed to date, but she cannot do so in a public fashion, and she’s not supposed to let any boyfriend near their daughter.” Still, Holmes’ relationship with Foxx, 48, is one of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets— insiders say they’ve been involved since 2013. Last month in New York City, Holmes openly cheered the Django Unchained star when he joined Barbra Streisand onstage to sing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”; afterward, she visited…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Viewpoint“Distrustful politicians [like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton] were nominated by an increasingly distrustful nation. A generation ago, about half of all Americans felt they could trust the people around them, but now less than a third think other people are trustworthy. Only about 19 percent of Millennials believe other people can be trusted. Across all age groups, there is a rising culture of paranoia and conspiracy mongering, and a surge of unmerited cynicism. We set out a decade ago to democratize the Middle East, but we’ve ended up Middle Easternizing our democracy.”…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Spain: Fragmented country can’t decide on a leader“Spain is adrift without a government,” said TheSpainReport.com in an editorial. We have had a caretaker government for nine months because the past two elections, in December 2015 and this June, failed to produce a clear winner. Both times, the conservative People’s Party won the most votes—about 30 percent— but nowhere near a majority. And both times, the PP’s leader, incumbent acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, failed to form a coalition. The Socialists, led by Pedro Sánchez, came in second but absolutely refuse to support a PP-led government and have been unable to form their own ruling coalition with smaller extreme-left and regional parties. No one is willing to negotiate: Ahead of the June election, “everyone said they would not budge, and in the end, everyone did, in fact, not…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Trump: Unqualified to be commander in chief?“Donald Trump has to be the most dangerously ignorant major-party presidential candidate in history,” said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. That much became crystal clear last week when the Republican nominee and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton took part in back-to-back interviews on board the USS Intrepid, as part of NBC’s “Commanderin-Chief Forum.” It was an opportunity for the two to show off their national security credentials—but in Trump’s case, it was a total disaster, as he failed “to give the slightest indication he knew anything about the issues he was supposed to be talking about.” The real estate mogul once again falsely asserted—without being challenged by host Matt Lauer—that he had opposed the Iraq War from the start. He then insisted that the U.S. should have “taken the…5 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Author of the weekElizabeth Gilbert Now we know how Eat, Pray, Love really ends, said Michael Schaub in the Los Angeles Times. Author Elizabeth Gilbert had closed her blockbuster 2006 memoir about fleeing a broken marriage by reporting that she had fallen in love with the Brazilian businessman readers knew as Felipe. Now, just months after announcing that the relationship had ended amicably after 12 years, she has posted a long statement on Facebook explaining why. Her best friend, a woman named Rayya Elias, was diagnosed with incurable cancer earlier this year, and Gilbert decided that she needed to be at Rayya’s side—and not withholding her true feelings— until the end. “Death—or the prospect of death—has a way of clearing away everything that is not real,” Gilbert wrote. “I was faced with this…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The Week’ s guide to what’s worth watchingThe Good PlaceThere’s nothing like an appealing, offbeat new comedy series to put you in a good place. In the latest from Parks and Recreation creator Mike Schur, the reliably winning Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) plays a narcissist who dies and is sent to a sunny afterlife because she’s been mistaken for an accomplished do-gooder. Playing her heavenly mentor, Ted Danson proves charming, too. Monday, Sept. 19, at 10 p.m. and Thursday, Sept. 22, at 8:30 p.m., NBCEmpireWho was that who fell from a terrace at the end of Season 2? For Fox’s hit drama series about a hip-hop-industry family dynasty, that’s just background noise to what Lucious Lyons, his exwife, and their sons will be getting up to. Taraji P. Henson’s Cookie is being courted by a handsome pol…3 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The 2017 Aston Martin DB11: What the critics sayMotor Trend“It’s no exaggeration to say the DB11 is the most important new car in Aston Martin’s history.” A tiny, cash-strapped company for most of its history, the storied British automaker last year unveiled an ambitious plan to roll out seven new vehicles by 2020. The DB11 leads the way, and it’s an “impressively accomplished,” impressively complete grand tourer. For once, Aston Martin has rolled out an all-new product, and “there are no eccentricities to excuse.”The Wall Street JournalDriving this “big, voluptuous” road car is “like saddling up on He-Man’s Battle Cat.” Purists might object to the engine’s twin turbochargers, but the new 600-hp V-12 can get you to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and accelerate from there with the authority of a luxury powerboat. The switchgear is now Mercedes-sourced,…4 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Robocalls: The scourge of IRS scamsI’ll say this for scammers: They don’t discriminate, said Kelly Phillips Erb in Forbes.com. Whereas swindlers once had to make individual calls themselves, criminals today rely on robocalling technology to cast a wide net for victims. Last month, this tax attorney and financial journalist received no fewer than three urgent voicemails claiming to be from the IRS. All of them demanded that I call back immediately to settle my bill, or else face a lawsuit. Of course, it wasn’t true. The IRS doesn’t call about taxes owed without sending a notice first, and it never demands payment over the phone. But apparently the grift works, no matter “how ridiculous the scam sounds.” In just one outrageous example, the IRS says at least 328 people this year paid a total of…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Issue of the week: Wells Fargo’s phony-account scandalWells Fargo has long portrayed itself as a “bank for Main Street,” far removed from the excesses of Wall Street’s wheeler-dealers, said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times. That carefully crafted image “evaporated” last week, with the revelation that the San Francisco–based bank had fired some 5,300 employees—roughly 1 percent of its workforce—for signing up customers for checking accounts and credit cards without their knowledge. Authorities said about 2 million sham accounts were opened going back to 2011, complete with forged signatures, phony email addresses, and fake PIN numbers—all created by employees who were hounded by supervisors to meet daily account quotas. The bank then charged customers at least $1.5 million in fees for the bogus accounts.“When politicians talk about Wall Street as a ‘criminal enterprise,’ this is…2 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016The U.S. Olympic gold medalist who received little acclaim at homeNorbert Schemansky924–2016In 1952, Norbert Schemansky was working at a Detroit manufacturing plant when he asked his boss for a few days off to compete in that year’s Helsinki Olympics. Like most Americans at the time, Schemansky’s employer was indifferent to his sport of weightlifting. “One of the guys from downstairs said, ‘Give him all the time off he wants: Fire him,’” the weightlifter recalled. The 6-foot, 265-pound athlete quit, went to Helsinki, and won gold in the middle heavyweight class in front of cheering fans.But when Schemansky flew home to the U.S., no adoring crowd was waiting at the airport to meet him. Only a bus porter recognized the returning champion. “[He] said, ‘Nice going, Semansky,’” Schemansky said. “He mispronounced my name, but he knew who I was.” Born in…1 min
The Week Magazine|September 23, 2016Growing up in the shadow of 9/11THE CHILDREN OF 9/11 are growing up. Fifteen years after that cataclysmic day in 2001, the infants of the time—or those still in their mothers’ wombs— are high school age. Then-toddlers are nearing or even starting college. The tweens of 2001 are young adults, and their elder siblings are marking life’s milestones: marrying, notching career achievements. Having children of their own. In the arc of childhood, time bends in strange ways. The Sept. 11 attacks are part of history now. But for young people who lost a parent that day, the pain is ever present.The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people— aboard the four hijacked airliners, at the World Trade Center, and at the Pentagon. Those people left behind 3,051 children under the age of 18, by the count of survivors’…9 min
