Home//The Week Magazine/May 13, 2016/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Editor’s letterIf you suffer from a compulsion to talk politics with friends, family, and co-workers during the next six months, resist it. The primaries already have fractured the two political parties into feuding factions (see Best U.S. Columns), and now the presidential race will be a death match between two of the most disliked, divisive figures in recent U.S. history. If you dare discuss Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton around the watercooler or at the family picnic, the ensuing argument will likely end in yelling and personal insults. You might even get punched. The passions this campaign will incite will be deep and vehement, and people will not forgive those who collaborated with the enemy. “It is impossible to live at peace,” the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “with those…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Sanders’ campaign gets much-needed boostWhat happenedSen. Bernie Sanders kept his presidential campaign alive this week with an upset victory in Indiana, though Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton continued her march to the party’s nomination, winning at least 38 of the state’s 83 available delegates. Sanders had campaigned hard in the state, spending $1.8 million on TV ads to Clinton’s zero. After winning 53 percent of the vote, the Vermont senator vowed to take the nomination fight all the way to July’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. “I think we can pull off one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States,” he told supporters.Even with the win, Sanders still trails Clinton in pledged delegates, with 1,411 to Clinton’s 1,701. With superdelegates—party leaders who aren’t bound by primary results and can vote…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The U.S. at a glanceChanhassen, Minn.Prince addiction questions: A Minnesota judge appointed a special administrator this week to oversee Prince’s $100 million– plus estate, as law enforcement officials confirmed they had found prescription painkillers in the musician’s possession following his sudden death on April 21 at his Paisley Park home. Friends said the 57-year-old megastar had been using the opioid Percocet for years to alleviate hip pain, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Prince had been scheduled to meet with a California opioid-addiction specialist the day after his death for “lifesaving” treatment. The doctor’s son, Andrew Kornfeld, arrived early at Paisley Park on the day Prince died to perform an evaluation, and it was Kornfeld who dialed 911, said the Star Tribune. Prince did not leave a will, and at least one woman…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016GossipPresident Obama this week lampooned Donald Trump, Republicans, and fellow Democrats alike in his farewell performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the celebrity-studded “nerd prom” where politicians and the media gather for good-natured fun at each other’s expense. Trump skipped this year’s event, after Obama skewered him in 2011 as payback for questioning his citizenship. “I’m a little hurt he’s not here tonight—we had so much fun the last time,” Obama said. “Is this dinner too tacky for The Donald? What could he possibly be doing instead? Eating Trump Steak? Tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel?” Addressing the GOP front-runner’s “foreign policy experience,” Obama noted he “has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world: Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan,” a reference to Trump’s stewardship of…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Best columns: The U.S.How politics is ruining friendshipsMichelle GoldbergSlate.comLots of Americans are losing friendships over this year’s presidential primaries, said Michelle Goldberg. Among Democrats, disagreements over the relative merits of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have given way “to hostile incredulity, as people wonder how those who they thought saw the world in the same way could be so utterly, bafflingly wrong.” My husband, a Clinton supporter, was recently stunned by the vehemence of an attack posted on his Facebook page by an old friend who called him a sellout. Women who support Clinton tell me they’re shocked to see men they thought were progressive allies now repeating “sexist anti-Clinton slurs.” Sanders’ fans say they can’t believe that old liberal friends are ignoring Clinton’s “manifold and glaring” flaws, such as her coziness with…3 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016United Kingdom: The Left’s anti-Semitism problemThe nasty underbelly of Britain’s Left has been exposed, said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. The opposition Labor Party was forced to suspend one of its rising stars last week, member of parliament Naz Shah, after a 2014 Facebook post was unearthed in which she called for Israel to be “relocated” to the U.S. Shah apologized and admitted the post was anti-Semitic. That didn’t stop former Labor London mayor Ken Livingstone from insisting that Shah was no anti-Semite, adding—utterly falsely—that Hitler had hoped to move Jews to Israel, and was thus a Zionist, “before he went mad” and decided to kill them instead. Livingstone was implying that Israel itself was an anti-Jewish idea, so critics of the Jewish state couldn’t possibly be anti-Semites. Now he, too, has been suspended,…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016NotedTeen birth rates have fallen to an all-time low, plunging 61 percent since 1991—partly because of access to reliable birth control, and partly because teenagers are having less sex. The percentage of teenage females who are sexually active declined from 51 percent in 1988 to 43 percent in the period 2006–2010.CSMonitor.com Republican turnout this primary season is up 64 per cent over 2012. The high interest created by Donald Trump’s candidacy and the long duration of the primary battle has drawn far more Republicans and independents to the polls.The Wall Street Journal The biggest campaign spender of 2016 is Democrat Bernie Sanders, who’s gone through $166 million—$1 million more than his rival, Hillary Clinton. Sanders has far outspent Clinton on TV, radio, and web ads, with $91 million to her…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Sanders: Will he leave a lasting legacy?Now that the Democratic presidential campaign is nearly over, we progressives need to face facts, said Kevin Drum in MotherJones.com. Bernie Sanders “is basically running a con,” and it’s going to keep him from leaving a positive legacy. Blaming “the rich” for all of America’s problems, Sanders promises universal health care, free college, and free preschool for all. Asked how he’ll achieve his wildly expensive goals in the face of strong Republican opposition, his stock answer is “We need a revolution in this country.” But that magical, socialist uprising didn’t happen this year—and never will. Real change comes only after a long, “frustrating slog. You have to buy off interest groups, compromise your ideals, and settle for half loaves”—everything Sanders disdains. When Sanders’ “impressionable young followers” realize they’ve been sold…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Gadgets: Dyson’s hair dryer of the future“Is it possible to make a better hair dryer?” asked Elizabeth Paton in The New York Times. James Dyson, the celebrated British industrial designer who invented the first bagless vacuum cleaner, thinks so. The man hailed as “the Steve Jobs of domestic appliances” recently unveiled his eponymous company’s first foray into beauty products: the Dyson Supersonic. The sleek hair dryer, which will retail for $399 when it hits U.S. stores in September, is meant to be quieter, easier to handle, and more efficient than any other dryer model on the market. More than 100 engineers labored on it for four years, “taming” more than 1,010 miles of human tresses and running thousands of acoustic tests. Why all the fuss over a bathroom device that many never thought needed improvement? Ubiquity…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Cassandra ClareCassandra Clare has paid a high price for hitting it big as a writer of fantasy fiction, said Penelope Green in The New York Times. When the 42-year-old author does book events today, the least of her problems is the mass of fans who keep her signing books for hours, until she has to ice her hand after retreating to a bus emblazoned with her name. More troubling are the outliers in the crowd enraged by a plot turn or by discrepancies between her Shadowhunter books and the affiliated TV series. Death threats aren’t uncommon, and at one signing, a man slammed a book down on Clare’s hand because she had killed off a particular hero. Says the author, “People are deeply uncomfortable with the idea that the characters they…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Movies on TVMonday, May 9PlatoonOliver Stone’s breakthrough combat drama— based on his own experiences as an infantryman in Vietnam—picked up several Oscars, including Best Picture. (1986) 9 p.m., SundanceTuesday, May 10Citizen KaneThe greatest movie of all time? Directing his first feature film, young Orson Welles also stars—as an eccentric publishing titan modeled after William Randolph Hearst. (1941)8 p.m., TCMWednesday, May 11Glengarry Glen RossToo many great actors to name face off in a make-orbreak sales-team competition devised by playwright David Mamet at his most diabolical and profane. (1992) 10:15 p.m., EncoreThursday, May 12Shaun the Sheep MovieThis delightful clay-animated Wallace and Gromit spin-off follows a rascally—and silent—sheep who sets off on a featurelength trek from farm to city. (2015) 8 p.m., EpixFriday, May 13The GriftersAnjelica Huston, Annette Bening, and John Cusack co-star in a…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016This week’s dream: Exploring proud, cowed, and always beautiful BudapestBudapest is undergoing a “profound period of transformation,” said Stephen Heyman in Travel + Leisure. The Hungarian capital still bears reminders of an unsavory 20thcentury history, which included government complicity in the Holocaust as well as the crimes of the Communist era. Even today, the nativist policies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban “give liberal-minded Budapesters indigestion.” Still, residents harbor a quiet pride in their city’s beauty, its food, and the inventive ways it repurposes the best of its past. In Budapest, “nostalgia is a currency.”The first thing you notice about the city’s center is the “unified imperial vibe.” Whereas most European cities “developed over centuries,” the iconic buildings in Hungary’s capital—among them Parliament, St. Stephen’s Basilica, and the Opera House—were all constructed over a 30-year period, beginning in about 1875,…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The bottom lineThe Saudi Binladin Group last week laid off 77,000 foreign workers, about a third of its workforce. The Saudi construction giant is feeling the pain of low oil prices, which have forced governments throughout the Persian Gulf region to scale back on ambitious building projects.The Wall Street Journal Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will receive a $55 million severance package if she’s ousted as a result of the company’s auction of its core internet businesses this year. Ten potential buyers reportedly remain in the running, including Verizon and private equity firm TPG Capital. Yahoo went from making $7.5 billion in 2014 to losing $4.4 billion last year.Fortune.com McDonald’s has been testing a new Chicken McNugget with no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. The current McNugget contains 32 ingredients, including such chemicals…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Best columns: BusinessWanted: a new Apple heroVivek WadhwaThe Washington Post“Apple needs another Steve Jobs,” said Vivek Wadhwa. CEO Tim Cook excels at the nitty-gritty of delivering products, but he “is clearly not a technology visionary.” Apple hasn’t had a breakthrough innovation since the iPhone in 2007. With smartphone sales beginning to decline, along with Apple’s earnings, the firm needs to reinvent itself to avoid the fate of once great tech companies like HP and Compaq. The person for the job is Elon Musk. While Apple squandered the past few years simply “tweaking” its main device’s componentry, Musk has been busy developing “world-changing” technologies at his companies Tesla Motors and SpaceX, including cutting-edge electric vehicles, next-generation batteries, and reusable spacecraft. Musk has said, not jokingly, that he plans to retire on Mars. He’s…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The pitchman who pioneered infomercialsPhil Kives 1929-2016In 1962, Phil Kives appeared live on Canadian TV, fried an egg, and allowed it to slide off the pan’s nonstick surface onto a plate. One of the first infomercials in history, the fiveminute ad persuaded thousands of viewers to buy the Teflon-coated skillet—and convinced Kives that he’d found his calling. The Canadian salesman’s company, K-Tel, went on to pioneer the use of loud commercials to sell items like the Veg-O-Matic kitchen slicer (“Chops a whole onion without shedding a tear!”) and the Brush-O-Matic (“Ideal for old suedes, woolens, hats, and all other clothes!”). He was even credited with inventing the expression “As seen on TV.” “People love a gimmick,” Kives said in 1993. “It was that way 20 years ago; it’ll be that way 20 years from…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The Puzzle PageCrossword No. 359: Fiesta TimeACROSS1 With regard to6 Weak Corleone11 Candy with collectible dispensers14 Church perch15 Transfix16 Brother of George Gershwin17 Fiesta day that celebrates a Mexican military victory over the French19 Snoozing session20 Landing guesses, for short21 Trio on a boat22 “Wonderful!”24 Egg ___≠≠≠25 “Whatever”26 Carlisle of 1980s pop30 Airport serving Washington, D.C.32 Beer you might drinkat the fiesta33 Big mug34 Mined stuff35 State its founders wanted to call Deseret36 If you’re the life of the fiesta, you might feel like this39 Item for some golfers42 MC rival43 Jon of Two and a Half Men47 Jamaican resort with more parties on this fiesta day than half of Mexico49 Israeli fortress50 They close at night51Traffic org.52 Amusing wordplay53 They work with IVs54 Get ready to fire55 High school means: abbr.56…3 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Trump completes his GOP takeoverWhat happenedCapping one of the most astonishing stories in modern political history, Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party this week, after a crushing victory in Indiana forced his only remaining rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to exit the race. The billionaire businessman picked up 53 percent of the vote and all of the available delegates in the Hoosier State primary, which his opponents saw as their last opportunity to deny him the nomination. Trump, who trails likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by double digits in most national polls, called his victory “a beautiful thing to behold” and asked Republicans to unite behind him. Cruz said his campaign “gave it everything we’ve got,” but conceded that “voters chose another path.”Republicans now face the…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Iraq protests imperil fight against ISISWhat happenedThe Obama administration’s efforts in Iraq against ISIS suffered a setback this week as political unrest rocked Baghdad’s fragile U.S.-backed government and ISIS-orchestrated terror attacks tore through the capital. Hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s government seat in the fortified Green Zone last week and briefly occupied the parliament. A longtime U.S. adversary, Sadr has led protests aimed at government waste and corruption. Though his followers quickly withdrew from the Green Zone, their protests underscored the dysfunction of the government and the vulnerability of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a key U.S. partner against ISIS. Amid the unrest, three ISIS bombs killed at least 18 people in and around the capital.Near Mosul, a Navy SEAL became the third U.S. serviceman to die in combat since the…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The world at a glanceLeicester, U.K.Underdogs triumphant: It’s being called the greatest upset in sporting history. English soccer club Leicester City won the Premier League this week, despite starting the season nine months ago facing 5,000-to-1 odds of finishing atop the world’s most watched soccer league. And to clinch the win, the Foxes didn’t even need to kick a ball—a 2-2 tie by second-place Tottenham at Chelsea meant that, with two matches remaining, it was impossible for Leicester to be overtaken. The team, which has never won a top-tier championship in its 132-year history, was promoted to the Premier League only two years ago and faced relegation just last spring. Its payroll is roughly one-tenth that of soccer powerhouses Manchester United and Chelsea. Bookies are now set to pay out an unprecedented $37 million…7 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Chicago in crisisWhat’s wrong with Chicago?For all its wonders—arts, jazz, classic architecture, a thriving restaurant scene, deep-dish pizza—the nation’s third-largest city is riddled with dysfunction. Chicago is “a fiscal basket case,” says urban analyst Aaron Renn, with a lower credit rating than any major metropolis except Detroit. The city’s 6.6 percent jobless rate ranks 51st—dead last—among metropolitan areas with more than 1 million residents. Its strapped school system seems perpetually on the verge of collapse, and last month teachers staged a one-day strike to protest closings and budget cuts. Chicago routinely ranks among the nation’s most politically corrupt cities, with a Democratic machine controlling City Hall for 90 years. That machine has incurred $20 billion in unfunded pension debt by giving generous public pensions to unions. But above all, what’s tearing at…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016It must be true… I read it in the tabloidsA Brooklyn man is nursing a black eye after a stranger punched him because of his striking resemblance to eccentric actor Shia LaBeouf. Mario Licato, 26, had just gotten off a subway train when the unknown LaBeouf hater knocked him to the floor. “All I heard him say was, ‘This is because you look like Shia LaBeouf!’” Licato said. “Then he ran away.” After the attack was reported, LaBeouf—the target of much online hate— phoned Licato to offer his condolences. “He was like, ‘Aw, man. I’m so sorry. But I get it. It’s happened to me before.’” Australian brewers have created a tangy new beer using an unusual, locally sourced ingredient: yeast grown from their own belly-button fluff. Staff at Melbourne’s 7 Cent craft brewery began by swabbing their belly…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Best columns: InternationalMALAYSIAStage is set for Islamist violenceFarouk PeruThe Malay MailMalaysia could soon see an outbreak of Bangladesh-style jihadist violence, said Farouk Peru. Machete-wielding Islamist vigilantes have been on a killing spree in Bangladesh since 2013, hacking to death secular bloggers, publishers, and professors. Twenty years ago, I would have said such atrocities could never happen here, but “Islamofascist influence has truly spiked in recent years.” Malaysians are “being brainwashed en masse 24/7 via cable Islamic networks.” While much of the programming is peaceful, some of it is inflammatory, and all of it is explicitly sectarian. The youth are being taught that infidels are conspiring against the ummah, the Islamic world— a paranoid view that is surely contributing to the recruitment of Malaysians into ISIS. Anti-Shiite preaching is common; non-Islamic groups fare…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Trump vs. Clinton: The looming gender war“When Republican leaders declared after losing the last presidential election that the party had to do more to attract female voters,” said Cathleen Decker in LATimes.com, “this was not what they had in mind.” Last week, GOP front-runner Donald Trump claimed that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton—a former twice-elected senator and secretary of state—had dominated the Democratic race by playing the “woman’s card.” Trump, who has never held public office in his life, doubled down by saying that “if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.” Even for Trump, that’s “a curious electoral strategy,” said Steve Benen in MSNBC.com. He’s now put women in the same category as Hispanics, blacks, Muslims, and other groups who enjoy unfair advantages over white males in…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Wit & Wisdom“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”Emily Dickinson, quoted in The Charlotte Observer“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”John Dewey, quoted in Bookreporter.com“We have to change truth a little in order to remember it.”George Santayana, quoted in TheBrowser.com“It is possible to be homesick for a place even when you are there.”Don DeLillo, quoted in The Atlantic“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.”Peter Drucker, quoted in Forbes.com“Too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much slavery.”Plato, quoted in New York magazine“Mistrust the man who finds everything good; the man who finds everything evil; and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.”Swiss theologian Johann Kaspar…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Innovation of the weekMost nursing mothers would rather do anything else than pump breast milk, said Michal Lev-Ram in Fortune.com. “If the experience isn’t painful for them, it’s certainly time-consuming and frustrating and loud.” Janica Alvarez, a former pharmaceutical researcher and a mom of three who struggled with traditional breast pumps, aims to change all that. Her Silicon Valley startup, Naya Health, has created the $599 Smart Pump, which uses a waterbased hydraulic system instead of the air-based suction used in most breast pumps. The design is quieter, and “allows for a machine that more closely mimics the motions of a nursing baby.” It contains fewer parts to clean than current pumps on the market, and—as with many modern smart devices—there’s also an app, to track pumping sessions. The Smart Pump will start…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Review of reviews: BooksBook of the weekOld Age: A Beginner’s Guideby Michael Kinsley(Tim Duggan, $18)Michael Kinsley’s slim new book on aging “depressed the hell out of me,” but not for the reasons you might think, said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. The former magazine editor and longtime columnist hasn’t dimmed on the page: He still writes in “probably the most envied journalistic voice of his generation—skeptical, friendly, possessed of an almost Martian intelligence.” The depressing aspect of Old Age is realizing that Kinsley, who’s now 65, might not ever put out the full shelf of books his talent merits. Here, he reminds us that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 23 years ago, and that his experience since has made him intimately familiar with the physical and cognitive deterioration his peers…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Review of reviews: StageShuffle AlongMusic Box Theatre, New York City, (212) 541-8457“Never has anything this educational been so sensationally staged,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. Though Hamilton is still the best new Broadway musical of the 2015-2016 season, this vibrant, poignant story about Broadway’s first musical with an all-African-American cast is the clear runnerup. The lengthy full title of the new show sketches the history: Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed. But while the Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle songs that thrilled jazz-age audiences have lost none of their vivaciousness, the revue-style plot of the original Shuffle Along would today feel dated—and that’s not even taking into consideration the blackface skits. Writer-director George C. Wolfe wisely chose instead to frame the…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The Week’ s guide to what’s worth watchingIndependent Lens: Armed in AmericaFormer Utah Sheriff William “Dub” Lawrence founded a SWAT unit in 1975 that 33 years later gunned down his unarmed son-in-law in a standoff while Dub watched in horror. The ex-lawman’s search for truth in the case anchors Peace Officer, an affecting documentary about the militarization of America’s police that kicks off two nights of related programming. Both nights will feature interactive town hall debates, hosted by NPR’s Michel Martin, on the role of guns in America. Begins Monday, May 9, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listingsChelseaChelsea Handler has already gone down in history as the first woman to host her own hit latenight talk show. Now, two years after ending her successful run on E!, the comedian is bringing the first talk show to…3 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Recipe of the week“Making granola is dead simple and ridiculously satisfying,” said Dorie Greenspan in The Washington Post. Start with rolled oats, some kind of oil, and a sweetener, and the rest is up to you. It won’t be cheaper than quality store-bought, but it’ll include your favorite nuts and dried fruits, and “I can guarantee it will be better.” Here’s my favorite:Cocoa crunch fruit and nut granola¼ cup light brown sugar • ¼ cup honey • 3 tbsp coconut or olive oil • 2 cups rolled oats • 1 cup mixed chopped nuts • ½ cup each hulled, unsalted pumpkin seeds and sun-flower seeds • 2 tbsp wheat germ • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder • 1 tsp fine sea salt •1½ tsp vanilla extract • ½ cup coconut flakes • ½…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Hotel of the weekBurj Al ArabDubaiFor “unapologetic opulence,” it’s hard to beat the Burj Al Arab, said Juyoung Seo in Forbes.com. Guests at Dubai’s iconic sail-shaped hotel are chauffeured from the airport in a white Rolls-Royce—or flown straight to the rooftop helipad. All 202 rooms are sprawling duplex suites, and each offers spectacular views of the Arabian Gulf, a massive Jacuzzi, and a choice of 17 bed pillows. The “exuberant” decor—think leopard upholstery and gold leaf, everywhere—“might not suit everyone’s taste.” But the dedicated 24/7 personal butler service is “unrivaled.”jumeirah.com; from $2,700…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016ConsumerThe 2017 Jaguar F-Pace: What the critics sayMotor TrendThe first Jaguar SUV has arrived, and “it’s everything a modern Jaguar should be.” This “glamorous” all-wheel-drive five-seater “combines the sporty look and feel” of the British marque’s storied sports cars with a degree of “all-round practicality” that no previous Jag has ever delivered. Sales of the F-Pace are expected to be so strong that it “will likely be the savior of the Jaguar brand.” Already, the 10,000 preorders have established the F-Pace as the fastest-selling vehicle in the automaker’s history.Car and DriverThe unexpected focus on utility might be this vehicle’s “most compelling” trait. Even with its athletic look, the F-Pace offers ample room in back for two 6-footers and a cargo hold that’s nearly twice as big as the Porsche Macan’s.…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Media: Comcast buys DreamWorks AnimationThe country’s biggest cable provider is building on its status “as a media and entertainment powerhouse,” said Brian Fung in The Washington Post. Comcast announced last week it would buy DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind hits like Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, for $3.8 billion. The deal reportedly came together over just a few weeks, after Comcast executives got wind of rumors that DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg planned to take the company private with the help of a Chinese investor. The marriage of DreamWorks and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, producer of blockbusters like the Fast and Furious franchise and Jurassic World, makes Comcast a formidable rival to Disney in the lucrative family-entertainment business.This deal “highlights just how much the media landscape has changed in the five years since Comcast acquired NBCUniversal,” said…3 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016What the experts saySocial Security’s regressive creepRich people are living longer, and that’s “tilting Social Security in their favor,” said Neil Irwin in The New York Times. Social Security was designed to provide more generous retirement benefits to low-income workers, by giving them a higher rate of return on their tax dollars than high earners. “That’s progressivity in action,” or would be if high and low earners lived to the same age. But over the past 30 years, life expectancy has steadily crept up for the rich, while staying roughly the same for those lower down the income scale. An American man in the top 1 percent—making at least $2 million a year—can now expect to live to 87, nine years longer on average than a man who earns $30,000 a year. If…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Issue of the week: Facebook races past rivals“Facebook is killing it,” said Julia Greenberg in Wired.com. In a week in which tech giants like Apple, Google, and Twitter posted surprisingly disappointing earnings, the world’s biggest social network “wildly beat Wall Street’s expectations,” tripling its first-quarter profit compared with last year—to $1.5 billion on $5.3 billion in revenue—and sending its stock to an alltime high. Why is Facebook soaring while “its biggest rivals stumble”? Like Alphabet (née Google), Facebook spends lavishly on “moonshot ventures” like drones and virtual reality. And like Apple, it relies on a legacy product—its newsfeed—to drive the bulk of its earnings. But more than any other giant in Silicon Valley, Facebook has “skillfully transitioned” its advertisers into buying placements “where most users are likely to see them: on their phones.”“Facebook is in a class…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The weight lifter who was raised in an internment campTommy Kono 1930-2016Tommy Kono was a skinny, asthmatic 14-year-old being held at a California internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II when he started pumping iron. “I didn’t want to be a weight lifter,” he said. “I just wanted to be healthy.” Kono more than achieved his goal. He’d packed on 15 pounds of muscle by the time his family left the camp in 1945, and he went on to become one of the world’s greatest weight lifters, winning gold at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, and silver in 1960. A celebrated bodybuilder, Kono also won the Mr. Universe title three times and in 1954 was named “the most beautiful athlete in the world” by Sports Illustrated.Born in Sacramento to Japanese immigrant parents, Kono “entered his first weight-lifting contest…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016What next?“Get ready for the nastiest presidential race you have ever seen,” said Chris Cillizza in WashingtonPost.com. Hampered with “historically low” favorable numbers, both Trump and Clinton know they’ll struggle to convince swing voters to “make an affirmative choice for them.” So instead they’ll do their best to “tear down the other candidate, making him (or her) so unpalatable as to be disqualified.” Neither will be short on ammunition: Clinton’s vulnerabilities include Benghazi, her private email server, and her husband’s infidelity; Trump’s include his attitude toward women, his business failures, and his persistent lying. “Buckle up. This is going to be nasty, brutish, and very, very long.”…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Obama: How will history judge his economic legacy?When President Obama took office in 2008, said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times Magazine, the global economy was in free fall. A full-blown financial crisis—the worst since the Great Depression—had left several major U.S. banks close to defaulting, housing prices plummeting, rattled employers shedding 800,000 jobs a month, and a deep recession gripping the country. Eight years later, unemployment has been cut in half, to 5 percent, the annual budget deficit has been reduced by nearly $1 trillion, and the private sector has added 14 million jobs over the longest sustained period of job growth in U.S. history. So why is it, then, that “The Economy Is Terrible” has become the narrative of the 2016 campaign? The answer, President Obama told me in an extended interview, lies…5 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016PeopleWainwright’s change of heartRufus Wainwright has become a fan of marriage, said Celia Walden in The Telegraph (U.K.). During his mid-20s, the gay singersongwriter was a tortured soul, so addicted to crystal meth that he went temporarily blind and had to be checked into rehab by his friend Sir Elton John. Now, at the age of 42, he finds himself transformed into a family man. In 2011, Wainwright fathered a child by Leonard Cohen’s daughter, Lorca, a lifelong friend; a year later, he married his long-term boyfriend, German arts administrator Jörn Weisbrodt. Wainwright used to think that the institution of marriage “ran counter to the history of gay life,” but he’s changed his mind. “I reached a point in my life when I needed it to be official,” says Wainwright,…3 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Emanuel’s precipitous fallWhen he was elected mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel was a political superstar. Last year, the pugnacious former White House chief of staff was re-elected mayor, with 56 percent of the vote. Now a majority of Chicagoans think he should resign, and he is fighting for his political survival. What happened? “So many scandals,” says local historian Rick Perlstein, “it’s hard to single them out.” His transit system “smart card” failed miserably and was rife with hidden fees. A charter school advocate, Emanuel angered parents and teachers by closing 49 public schools, many in black neighborhoods; his schools CEO, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, resigned over a kickback scheme. But what really sank Emanuel was the McDonald video, which many believe he suppressed to protect his re-election. Still, some believe forcing Emanuel to…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Best columns: EuropeTURKEYWe will not become a religious stateSemih IdizHurriyetPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just been forced to promise that he won’t impose sharia law on Turkey, said Semih Idiz. Secular Turks have long been suspicious of the motives of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, which has its roots in Islamism. Then last week the party’s speaker of the national assembly, Ismail Kahraman, made the gaffe of saying out loud that the new constitution under discussion “should be stripped of all references to secularism and be based on religious values instead.” When you combine that with his support for Erdogan’s push to change Turkey’s parliamentary system into a presidential one, Kahraman appears to calling for the creation of an “Islamic dictatorship” governed by sharia. Erdogan himself has always been careful to couch…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016How they see us: Fury over confiscated Iranian cashAmerica just brazenly stole $2 billion from Iran, said Nemat Ahmadi in Sharq(Iran). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian central bank assets must be turned over to survivors and relatives of Americans killed in terrorist attacks that the U.S. blames on Iran. Those attacks include the 1983 truck bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 American servicemen, and the 1996 truck bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif calls the asset seizure an “outrageous robbery” and a “travesty of justice,” and he is right. Even by U.S. legal standards, the ruling is outrageous: Iran had been winning a long-running legal battle against those trying to confiscate its assets when Congress…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016McDonnell: When is a payoff a payoff?The Supreme Court just might pull “Bob McDonnell’s bacon out of the fire,” said the Richmond Times-Dispatchin an editorial. The former Virginia governor and erstwhile rising Republican star made a final effort last week to overturn his 2014 corruption conviction for accepting $177,000 in gifts—loans, vacations, a Rolex watch—from businessman Jonnie Williams. In return, McDonnell helped promote Anatabloc, Williams’ tobaccobased dietary supplement, by hosting an Executive Mansion launch party, among other favors. Surprisingly, perhaps, most of the justices seemed sympathetic to McDonnell, questioning whether there was an explicit quid pro quo leading to “official action.” Liberal Stephen Breyer said the corruption statute used in the case was vague, and wondered if it criminalizes common politicianconstituent interactions, such as “when the quid is a lunch or a baseball ticket.” Based on…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Trump’s foreign policy: America First“I didn’t think it possible,” said Fred Kaplan in Slate.com, but Donald Trump’s scripted speech on foreign policy last week “was even more incoherent than his impromptu ramblings of the past several months.” Essentially casting himself as an isolationist with protectionist trade policies, the Republican front-runner proclaimed that the “overriding theme” of his foreign policy was “America First.” He said that as president he’d quit NATO and abando n our allies in Asia if they didn’t start spending more on defense—while blaming President Obama for making our allies feel they can’t depend on us. He insisted he’d avoid foreign entanglements, but promised to defeat ISIS “very, very quickly” and make friends with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The man is clearly clueless. “The dangerous thing is not so much that he knows…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Bytes: What’s new in techInsurance against cyberbulliesThe emotional toll of cyberbullying is well known, said Amy Tennery in Reuters.com. “But there is also a cost in real dollars for some to clean up their online reputations, including legal fees, security measures, and even counseling.” To soften the financial blow, Chubb—the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer—now offers cyberbullying coverage for its homeownerinsurance clients. The plan, included in Chubb’s $70 a year Family Protection policy, covers up to $60,000 for clients “to pay for services including psychological counseling, lost salary, and in extreme cases public relations assistance.” About 40 percent of adult internet users have personally experienced cyberbully ing, according to Pew Research Center.Snapchat stands up for ballot selfies“Taking a civic selfie from the voting booth might be illegal in your state, but…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The Book ListBest books...chosen by Mark HaddonMark Haddon, the award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has become a big fan of audiobooks and names his favorites below. His new short-story collection, The Pier Falls, will be published this month by Doubleday.Beowulf translated and read by Seamus Heaney (HighBridge, $25). That rare thing: a translation of a masterpiece that is also a masterpiece. After listening to it for the first time I decided to listen to it all over again, not least because Heaney’s voice is a thing of wonder. I could listen to him reading insurance policies, frankly.Emma by Jane Austen, read by Juliet Stevenson (Naxos, $64). Emma Woodhouse is one of the most lovably infuriating heroines in the whole of English literature. And British stage…3 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Review of reviews: Film & MusicCaptain America: Civil WarDirected by Anthony and Joe Russo (PG-13) Internal strife threatens a superhero syndicate.The new Captain America would more accurately be labeled a third Avengers movie—and it’s “the best one yet,” said Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly. The peppery banter between this group of allied superheroes has been crucial to the franchise’s appeal, and in this installment they graduate from insults to beating the stuffing out of one another, “like a family reunion gone violent.” The trigger is a United Nations demand that the gang cease causing civilian casualties while fighting supervillains: Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man leads a contingent that accepts the new restrictions; Chris Evans’ Captain America heads the resisters. It’s a crowded cast, and “some personalities get to shine more than others,” said Sheri Linden…4 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Show of the weekThe Queen at 90To her 2-year-old great-grandson, she’s “Gan-Gan.” To the rest of us, she’s Queen Elizabeth II of England, a monarch who has spent more than 60 years as the nation’s figurehead. This twohour portrait was created by a film crew that had behind-the-scenes access to the queen for a year, following her from Buckingham Palace to her Scottish Highlands retreat and around the world. President Obama is the first of many dignitaries who share insights about the steadfast royal, but a bigger draw is the inaugural solo on-camera interview of Kate, duch*ess of Cambridge. Sunday, May 15, at 8 p.m., Smithsonian Channel…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Rye: Sorry, Kentucky“You don’t have to have a Kentucky address to make America’s signature booze,” said Graham Averill in Paste Magazine.com. Craft distilleries have proven that’s true of bourbon, and the same applies to bourbon’s spicier counterpart. Vermont-made WhistlePig rye is deservedly celebrated, but we’ve found some others “completely worthy of a spot on your home bar.”Woody Creek ($50). From a Colorado distillery renowned for its vodka comes an outstanding straight rye with “a hint of caramel sweetness” and a scotch-like peatiness.Union Horse Reunion Rye ($54). This straight rye from Kansas “plays like a soft bourbon,” delivering “velvety waves of butterscotch and oak.”High West Silver Whiskey OMG Rye ($35). It is rare to find unaged whiskey with such “incredibly soft mouthfeel.” Thanks, Utah.…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Getting the flavor ofSan Francisco in the darkIf you’re looking for a new way to experience San Francisco, try temporarily sacrificing your sense of vision, said Sam McManis in The Sacramento Bee. Doing things in the dark heightens the other senses, and the city has long offered a few interesting adventures in sightlessness. I began my sensory-deprivation tour at Opaque, a restaurant where diners eat in the dark and play guess-thedish. It’s a surprisingly tough challenge: My foodexpert friend mistook pork for beef, and peas for mushrooms. Next up was Audium, where visitors sit in darkness while 176 speakers bombard them with disorienting sounds ranging from thunderous percussion to toddlers playing. My final stop was Pier 15’s Tactile Dome, an unlit, multilevel maze that can be navigated only by sense of touch. After…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Tech crystal ball: Ping-Pong sales?“Is the tech bubble popping? Ping-Pong offers an answer,” said Zusha Elinson in The Wall Street Journal. Falling table-tennis sales in Silicon Valley appear to track the stumbling startup market, at least according to Simon Ng, owner of Billiard Wholesale in San Jose, which sells primarily to tech companies. Ng reports that sales of Ping-Pong tables dropped 50 percent in the first quarter of the year; during that same period, U.S. startup funding dropped 25 percent. Ping-Pong tables are ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, where they are shorthand for a laidback office culture; the right to play on the job “is sacrosanct.” Ng says many once reliable customers, like Twitter and Intel, have stopped calling since their fortunes began to fade. Former client Yahoo, which is entertaining bids for its struggling…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Charity of the weekSince 1988, Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care (maryscenter.org) has provided access to health care and family social services in the Washington, D.C., area, regardless of patients’ ability to pay. The center serves nearly 40,000 men, women, and children each year, assisting not only with medical issues but also with educational and social services like literacy and job training, to put families on the path to good health and economic independence. Since 2013, 94 percent of babies born to mothers enrolled in prenatal care at Mary’s Center have had healthy birth weights, compared with 90 percent in the D.C. area. Several of the organization’s key social programs, such as teenage pregnancy prevention, high school graduation initiatives, and postpartum care, also have high success rates.Each charity we feature has earned…1 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016The Jesuit priest who led antiwar protestsRev. Daniel J. Berrigan 1921-2016In May 1968, Catholic peace activist Rev. Daniel J. Berrigan marched into a Selective Service office in Catonsville, Md., with his younger brother, the Rev. Phillip Berrigan, and seven other anti–Vietnam War campaigners. In front of stunned clerks, they gathered up hundreds of draft records, carried them to the parking lot, and set them on fire with homemade napalm. The incident— and the subsequent trial and imprisonment of the so-called Catonsville Nine— was a catalyst for the antiwar movement, sparking protest marches, sit-ins, and other acts of civil disobedience. “Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children,” Father Daniel Berrigan wrote in a 1970 play about his trial. “We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.”Berrigan…2 min
The Week Magazine|May 13, 2016Cleaning up f*ckushimaA 50-FOOT WALL of water spawned by the quake exploded over Daiichi’s seawall, swamping backup diesel generators. Four of six nuclear reactors on site experienced a total blackout. Three of them melted down, spewing enormous amounts of radiation into the air and sea in what became the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.The Japanese government never considered abandoning f*ckushima, as the Soviet Union did with Chernobyl. It made the unprecedented decision to clean up the contaminated areas—in the process, generating a projected 22 million cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste—and return some 80,000 nuclear refugees to their homes. This past September, the first of 11 towns in f*ckushima’s mandatory evacuation zone reopened after extensive decontamination, but fewer than 2 percent of evacuees returned that month. More will follow, but…9 min
