Home//The Week Magazine/July 15, 2016/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016ISIS: Why it’s stepping up attacks around the world“First, they came for Istanbul,” said Ishaan Tharoor in WashingtonPost.com. At Turkey’s main airport last week, a trio of suspected ISIS gunmen in suicide vests and armed with automatic weapons slaughtered 45 passengers and airport staff. Days later, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, six local militants who pledged support to ISIS shot and hacked to death 20 customers at an upscale bakery. Then, early Sunday morning, a massive ISIS truck bomb in Baghdad killed 250 people in a Shiite neighborhood—one of the deadliest bombings in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion. These massacres demonstrate that ISIS “has cells around the world,” said Jessica Durando and Jim Michaels in USA Today, but they are also signs of the group’s new desperation, not its strength. Only one week before the Baghdad bombing, U.S.-backed Iraqi…5 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016PeopleSchreiber’s solitary struggleLiev Schreiber often feels out of place, said Ariel Leve in Esquire. The star of TV’s Ray Donovan recalls his first awkward date with the actress Naomi Watts, when the two agreed to meet up at a Manhattan club after the 2005 Met Gala. “She was there with Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro, and I’m kind of standing around like a bump on a log, waiting for my turn,” says Schreiber, 48. “I felt very embarrassed and self-conscious, because all these movie stars were hovering. So I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I gotta go home.’” The extroverted Watts chased after Schreiber and gave him her number; they have been an item ever since and now have two sons. Schreiber traces his social awkwardness back to his lonely…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Best columns: The U.S.Trump’s bogus pledges to charityEditorial The Washington Post“Donald Trump, perhaps the greatest braggart ever to aspire to national office, is hardly shy about flaunting—or hyping—his good works,” said The Washington Post. But a comprehensive analysis of his charitable giving by this newspaper has found a stunning pattern of lies and exaggerations. Over the past 15 years, Trump has publicly proclaimed he’d donate proceeds from The Apprentice TV show, Trump Vodka, Trump University, and two books to charity. But since 2009, records show, Trump has given zero dollars to charity through the foundation he set up for that purpose. As far back as the 1980s, Trump claimed he’d give the royalties from his successful book The Art of the Deal to the homeless, Vietnam veterans, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis, but only…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Best columns: EuropeIRELANDHow Brexit threatens the Irish peaceFintan O’Toole The Irish TimesBritain’s decision to quit the European Union has “planted a bomb” under Ireland’s peace settlement, said Fintan O’Toole. Until now, “all but a few diehards” had learned to live with Ireland’s partition. Why? Because the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland “had become so soft as to be barely noticeable.” If you crossed it, you had to change currencies—the North uses the pound, the Republic the euro—and remember that the speed limits were changing from kilometers to miles per hour. But a hard border will now have to be erected between the two countries to stop EU migrants who’ve legally entered the Republic from crossing unchecked into the U.K. “Meanwhile, the cornerstone of the peace settlement, the Belfast…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Bangladesh: Waking up to the reality of terrorism“Bangladesh is under attack, from within,” said Abak Hussain in the Dhaka Tribune(Bangladesh). Over the past two years, Bangladesh—an overwhelmingly Muslim country of 150 million people—has seen a wave of targeted jihadist violence. Secular bloggers, foreign aid workers, and members of religious minorities, including Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists, have been killed by machete- and gun-wielding militants. But last week’s attack on a popular restaurant in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan district marked the beginning of a new, deadlier phase of terrorism. Militants armed with machine guns, bombs, and swords stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery and began torturing and executing diners who couldn’t recite verses from the Quran. When government commandos raided the restaurant after a 10-hour siege, they found 20 dead hostages, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American, and an Indian…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Abortion: The Supreme Court moves leftThe sham is over, said Rekha Basu in The Des Moines Register. In perhaps the most significant victory for reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court last week voted 5-3 to strike down two Texas laws that imposed crippling restrictions on abortion clinics “under the guise of protecting women’s health.” The laws imposed “ridiculous requirements” that would have shuttered 75 percent of Texas abortion clinics, demanding that doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals and that facilities “have hospital-level surgical operating rooms,” with specific rules on cabinet spacing, corridor width, and plumbing. During arguments before the court, pro-choice groups pointed out that “statistically, abortion is a safe procedure.” Indeed, women are 14 times more likely to die in childbirth than in abortions, yet midwives aren’t required to set…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016TechnologyInnovation of the week“With every new gadget seemingly connected to the internet to automate your life, the question arises whether a lot of those items are really useful,” said Billy Steele in Engadget.com. The Oticon Opn, a smart hearing aid that can alert the wearer to blaring smoke detectors and chiming baby monitors even when those items are out of hearing range, promises to be a welcome exception. Opn communicates with other internet-connected devices via If This Then That, a popular app that allows users to program gadgets to work together when certain actions are triggered. For example, Opn can be programmed to alert the wearer when someone rings a smart doorbell, or to send a text message to a family member or caregiver when its battery is getting low.…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Juno probes the mysteries of JupiterNASA’s Juno spacecraft this week entered into an orbit of Jupiter, climaxing a fiveyear, 1.8 billion–mile journey to study the solar system’s largest planet. The probe should give astronomers an unprecedented peek beneath the gas giant’s thick, swirling clouds. Astronomers also hope to learn the composition of the gas giant, which was the first planet to coalesce from the gas and dust that formed our solar system, and gain insight into the origin of all the other planets. “One of the primary goals of Juno is to learn the recipe for solar systems,” mission leader Scott Bolton tells The New York Times.The first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter since the robotic explorer Galileo more than a decade ago, Juno will make a series of 37 orbital loops over 20 months and…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016The Strange Career of William Ellis: The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaireby Karl Jacoby (Norton, $28)In Gilded Age America, Guillermo Enrique Eliseo scored one financial coup after another. “He also had a huge secret,” said Karen M. Thomas in The Dallas Morning News. A Spanishspeaking businessman with a talent for engineering deals on both sides of the Rio Grande, Eliseo dressed elegantly, traveled first-class, and corresponded with Theodore Roosevelt and other world leaders. Many who met the Wall Street tycoon accepted his claim that he was from Mexico. But Eliseo in fact had been born into slavery in 1864 on a Texas cotton plantation, and had escaped a sharecropper’s life when he cast aside his given name of William Henry Ellis.“How did he do it? With intelligence, resolve, ruthlessness—and luck,” said Caitlin Fitz in The Wall Street Journal. Author Karl Jacoby…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016New on DVD and Blu-rayBy the Sea (Universal, $23)It’s not perfect, but Angelina Jolie Pitt’s recent portrait of a vacationing couple gripped by ennui is “grown-up, intelligent, and sexy to boot,” said FlavorWire.com. The director’s husband co-stars alongside her in a “remarkable and risky” picture about marriage, voyeurism, and private suffering.The In-Laws (Criterion, $30)Alan Arkin is a dentist and Peter Falk an ex-CIA agent, two men thrown together by their children’s wedding and soon involved in a series of misadventures. A 1979 release, the In-Laws might be, said AVClub.com, “the perfect ordinary-guy-gets-dragged-intovillainous-yet-hilarious-conspiracy film.”I Saw the Light (Sony, $26)This biopic about Hank Williams “whets your appetite” to learn more, said The Charlotte Observer. Though the movie fails to convey what haunted the country-music legend, or what drove him, star Tom Hiddleston “does an expert job”…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Show of the weekMr. RobotThe first season of Mr. Robot was a revelation and a revolution. Set in an exaggerated present where a mega-conglomerate controls most of the world’s debt and a band of hackers is working to take the firm down, the series has offered cerebral twists that the setup barely hinted at. Rami Malek, who stars as hallucination-prone hacker Elliot Alderson, has meanwhile been superb. Season 2 opens after the hacking of E Corp has erased debt worldwide. What happens next may depend on how well young Elliot can control his “daemons.”Wednesday, July 13, at 10 p.m., USA Network…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Recipe of the weekVanilla honey soft-serve ice cream6 large egg yolks • ½ cup granulated sugar • ¹/3 cup flavorful honey • 2 tsp vanilla extract • ¼ tsp fine sea salt • 3 cups heavy cream • 3 oz cream cheese, cubed, at room temperature • ¹/3 cup whole milk• In a large bowl, whisk together yolks, sugar, honey, vanilla, and salt until smooth. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to a simmer. Whisking constantly, slowly pour half the hot cream into the egg mixture. Scrape custard back into saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (180 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Do not let mixture simmer again or it could curdle. Strain into a heatproof bowl and…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Getting the flavor of...Michigan’s car-free island havenOn Mackinac Island, the worst traffic jams are caused by horse-drawn carriages, said Michael Bailey in The Boston Globe. Motor vehicles have been banned from the popular Michigan summer colony since 1898, so everyone walks, bikes, or rides the carriages. One “easy, excellent” bike trail is the loop around the island, 80 percent of which is state park land. For spectacular views of Lake Huron, stop a mile outside town and climb Arch Rock, a limestone arch that was sculpted by receding glaciers. After cycling the 8-mile loop, you can quench your thirst at the Draught House, which has 34 Michigan craft beers on tap. Kids might prefer stopping at one of the many fudge shops that line Main Street before the family walks to Fort Mackinac,…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016ConsumerThe 2017 Ford Fusion Sport: What the critics sayJalopnik.comThe new Ford Fusion Sport might just be “the affordable, German-slaying American sedan we’ve been waiting for.” A performance edition of Ford’s supremely competent midsize four-door, the all-wheel-drive Sport will arrive this fall packing a twin- turbo V-6 Ecoboost engine that will pump out 327 hp and a “massive” 380 lb-ft of torque. That’s more twist than you get from Audi’s S4. Sure, the Fusion is “not going to drive like a $50,000 European luxury car,” but “some people don’t need all that coddling.”New York Daily NewsIf it’s coddling you want, the Fusion family can deliver that too. Ford’s “attractive, sophisticated, and technologically advanced” family sedan now comes in a dozen vari a tions, including a new Platinum trim, which features quilted…4 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Tech support: Bad by designIt’s not an accident that calling tech support can make even the most mild-mannered go blind with rage, said Kate Murphy in The New York Times. In a survey of customer service managers last year, roughly three-quarters admitted that their company procedures actually prevent agents from providing satisfactory service. The culprit is often a cost-per-contact model, which limits the time agents can be on the phone with a customer, leading to endless rounds of transfers and being placed on hold. Justin Robbins, of the International Customer Management Institute, says some companies even engineer the process so customers wait at least an hour to speak to someone in support. In the meantime, those on hold are bombarded with messages advertising immediate, premium support—for a fee. “Don’t think companies haven’t studied how…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Charity of the weekFounded in 1993 by NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young, the Forever Young Foundation (foreveryoung.org) seeks to improve the lives of underprivileged children by providing academic, athletic, and therapeutic opportunities through special “zones,” or learning spaces, in schools, hospitals, and Boys and Girls Clubs across the country. Forever Young zones in hospitals in Utah, California, and Arizona, for example, offer recreational spaces where children working through serious illnesses can relax and play. Multimedia zones and “8 to 80” zones in schools and youth clubs provide creative spaces where young people can learn skills to pursue careers in technology and media, with access to state-of-the-art radio, TV, film, and recording equipment. This year, the foundation opened its second “Sophie’s Place,” a facility dedicated to music therapy, inside the pediatric wing of…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016ObituariesThe Holocaust survivor who refused to let the world forgetElie Wiesel 1928–2016When Elie Wiesel emerged, close to starvation, from Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, the 16-year-old felt a huge responsibility to share his story. “If I survived, it must be for some reason,” he remembered thinking. “I must do something with my life.” Wiesel vowed not to speak of the horrors he had witnessed for at least a decade, out of concern he’d “use the wrong words.” He broke his silence with his 1958 memoir Night, which became for many a definitive account of the Holocaust. With haunting descriptions of the camps—the cattle cars delivering prisoners; the unceasing stench of burning flesh—Wiesel helped the world understand otherwise incomprehensible atrocities. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp,…5 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016A Brexit leader’s ruinous ambitionONE DAY IN 2004, Boris Johnson was interrupted on his morning jog by a pack of tabloid reporters massed outside his house in north London. They asked about rumors that Johnson, then editor of The Spectator magazine and a member of Parliament, had once had an extramarital affair, gotten his lover pregnant, and paid for her abortion.The chronically disheveled Johnson, wearing voluminous shorts and a bandanna decorated with skulls and crossbones, responded with his usual co*cktail of charm, bluster, and obfuscation. Having already dismissed the story as “a completely untrue and ludicrous conjecture” and “an inverted pyramid of piffle,” he cheerily advised the reporters to “go for a run, get some exercise, and have a beautiful day.”He was lying. The reports were correct, and he was fired from his parliamentary…8 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016The main stories... ... and how they were coveredThe Brexit earthquake shakes the worldWhat happenedBritish politics and global financial markets were in turmoil this week, as shock waves from the country’s historic vote to leave the European Union continued to reverberate around the world. Defying the wishes of most economists, politicians, and world leaders, British voters opted for “Leave” in the June 23 referendum by a narrow margin of 52 to 48 percent. The Leave victory was driven by resentment of EU dictates from Brussels and of immigrants from other EU countries taking British jobs and benefits (see Best European columns). It triggered extreme volatility in global equity markets and left the pound trading at record lows amid warnings Britain might tumble into recession (see Business News). Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the campaign to remain in…8 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016The U.S. at a glance ...Avon, OhioMuslims targeted: The United Arab Emirates this week warned its citizens to avoid wearing traditional clothing in the U.S. “to ensure their safety,” after an Emirati tourist was arrested in Ohio when a suspicious hotel clerk heard him speaking Arabic and told her family to alert authorities. Police bodycam footage shows officers charging at businessman Ahmed al-Menhali, 41, outside Avon’s Fairfield Inn with guns drawn before handcuffing him. They were responding to a 911 call from the hotel clerk’s sister, who claimed that a man “in full headdress” was “pledging his allegiance or something to ISIS.” Avon’s police chief later issued an apology. It was the latest in a spate of possible anti-Muslim incidents across the country—including the shooting of a Muslim doctor outside a Houston mosque. A man…4 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016GossipMorning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski may be on the verge of confirming their long-rumored romance, the New York Post reports. “Everybody at 30 Rock knows they are a couple,” an NBC insider tells the newspaper. “They are constantly together, they arrive and leave events together, even on weekends. It’s the worstkept secret in TV.” Brzezinski, 49, recently finalized a quiet divorce from ABC investigative reporter James Hoffer after 23 years of marriage. They have two teenage daughters.Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, has been divorced since 2013. The co-hosts seemed to allude to the news about their relationship in a coy on-air exchange last week. “Can I get to the lead stories now?” Brzezinski asked. “By the way, there are a lot of lead stories today,”…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Viewpoint“The beauty of the American Founding was not that it provided a detailed road map that could predict the minutiae of the future in glorious perpetuity, but that it laid out for all people a set of timeless and universal ideals. Among those ideals are that ‘all men are created equal,’ and that they ‘are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights’; that legitimate power derives ‘from the consent of the governed’; and that if any such government is seized or corrupted by tyrants, ‘it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.’ At times, the United States has failed disastrously to live up to these principles. But that an ideal has been violated in no way undermines its value.”NationalReview.com…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016United Kingdom: A nation revolts against the elite“For once, all the clichés are justified,” said Dominic Sandbrook in the Daily Mail. Britain’s momentous vote to leave the European Union— 52 percent to 48 percent—“ was not merely an electoral earthquake.” It was “a popular revolt” by millions of people against the massed ranks of the political, cultural, and financial establishment. The elite wheeled out their biggest guns to make the case for remaining in the EU—Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama—and were defied. “Remain” supporters in multicultural cities like London and Manchester are still in shock, said Janice Turner in The Times. To them, the EU “means Bach and Bergman,” weekends in Paris, and an affordable Polish plumber. But in the areas that overwhelmingly voted “Leave”—especially run-down, postindustrial regions in England and Wales—the EU is viewed as…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Trump: Would trade barriers revive the middle class?“Donald Trump has broken the mold for major-party presidential candidates in more ways than one can count,” said James Surowiecki in The New Yorker. But the bombastic businessman’s most radical break with conventional American politics—not to mention decades of Republican economic orthodoxy—is his vow to use the presidency to reverse the tide of free trade and globalization. In a major speech last week at an aluminum plant in Monessen, Pa., Trump blasted politicians on both sides of the aisle, including likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, for supporting “job-killing deals” such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he said had moved factories overseas and taken away American workers’ means of “supporting their families.” Trump also threatened to pull out of another potential major trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership…4 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Benghazi report: No smoking gun“Don’t stop the presses,” said USA Todayin an editorial. After a two-year, $7 million investigation, the House Select Committee on Benghazi finally released its report last week—and told us nothing we didn’t already know. Republicans have long tried to use the 2012 attacks in Libya’s second city—which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead—as an opportunity to politically damage then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But while the committee’s 800-page report rebuked the State Department and the CIA for security failures, it found no evidence of culpability on Clinton’s part, and acknowledged that U.S. troops couldn’t have reached Benghazi in time to prevent the fatalities. The Republican committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, was desperate to find a “smoking gun” incriminating the Democrats’ presidential nominee, said Dana Milbank in…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Autos: Self-driving cars cause their first fatality“It was the crash the auto industry knew was coming but still feared,” said Dee-Ann Durbin in the Associated Press. Tesla Motors, the maker of sleek, all-electric vehicles, revealed last week that a 40-year-old driver was killed on May 7 in Florida while using the Autopilot mode in one of the company’s partially self-driving cars. The Ohio man’s Tesla Model S didn’t automatically brake for a white tractor-trailer turning in front of it because the car’s cameras failed to distinguish the trailer against the bright sky. As a result, the car never slowed down, crashing into the gap between the semi’s wheels. “The race by automakers and technology firms to develop self-driving cars has been fueled by the belief that computers can operate a vehicle more safely than human drivers,”…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Book of the weekBeing a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divideby Charles Foster(Metropolitan, $28)“This is not a typical nature book,” said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. Seeking to gain a deeper understanding of animal life, British veterinarian and Oxford lecturer Charles Foster chose to live for extended periods as a badger, an otter, and a few other unheroic creatures, and he threw himself into each task. As a badger, he slept in a hillside ditch for six weeks and dined on earthworms. As an otter, he defecated to mark his territory and invited his children to do the same. As an urban fox, he startled passing Londoners by devouring rancid pizza from garbage bins. He admits that his adventures left him “a gnat’s breath away from psychosis.” But the book that…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Author of the weekStuart StevensStuart Stevens might just want a second crack at writing a dark comedy about U.S. politics, said Stephanie Sy in Yahoo.com. The Republican consultant, who in 2012 served as Mitt Romney’s top strategist, this summer has published a novel whose antagonist— an anti-immigration demagogue on the verge of securing the GOP presidential nomination— almost too closely resembles Donald Trump. “What I wanted to do was take what could happen and push it out to the edge,” Stevens says. Instead, Trump—a candidate the author has lambasted all year—is making the craziest prognostications in The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear look tame, albeit prescient. “Here’s the frightening thing: I started this book before the Romney campaign,” Stevens says. “There’s always been space in the market for someone who would appeal to…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Movies on TVMonday, July 11Brief EncounterA chance meeting between married strangers at a train station leads to romance in this gem from director David Lean. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard co-star. (1945) 10 p.m., TCMTuesday, July 12Top FiveChris Rock wrote, directed, and stars in this forthright rom-com about a sellout comedian facing a midlife crisis. Rosario Dawson costars. (2014) 8 p.m., EpixWednesday, July 13Invasion of the Body SnatchersResidents of a small town are turned into “pod people” in this sci-fi classic that generates genuine chills without the aid of monsters, violence, or special effects. (1956) 11 p.m., MovieplexThursday, July 14MilkSean Penn delivers perhaps the performance of his career playing Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, who was assassinated in 1978. (2008) 5:05 p.m., CinemaxFriday, July 15Die HardBruce Willis plays an…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Critics’ choice: New places from three familiar facesLa Sirena New York CityIn recent years, “it’s been easy to forget the excitement of eating in huge, kinetic restaurants,” said Pete Wells in The New York Times. At a time when a fixation on “modest little chef’s lairs” has overtaken the culinary world, Mario Batali’s latest venture offers a reminder that there’s energy in numbers. With two dining rooms that each seat 120, a bar the length of an airstrip, and scores more seats outside, La Sirena is constantly bustling, and its trattoria menu should please most anyone—“except, maybe, the person curious for fresh insights into Italian cuisine.” Though executive chef Josh Laurano must play to the masses, he does so with “care and vigor,” bringing “layers of complexity” to familiar dishes like grilled swordfish in a Sicilian tomato…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016This week’s dream: Kissing baby whales in BajaWhale watchers who visit Mexico’s San Ignacio Lagoon don’t hope for glimpses—they yearn for kisses, said Alice Short in the Los Angeles Times. Though I’m no whale person, “I emerged a convert” after three days on the lagoon, which is located on Baja California’s Pacific coast and serves each winter as a breeding ground for hundreds of eastern North Pacific gray whales. Even after a friend and I checked into our eco-lodge, I remained skeptical that the whales would get close enough to the lodge’s pangas, or open motorboats, to allow for intimate contact. Our first outing proved me wrong, though, as playful mothers and their calves soon surrounded us. Whenever a calf swam close, a passenger leaned overboard to grasp its head and kiss its snout. “All of us…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Last-minute travel dealsOff-season St. LuciaBook this month to enjoy 50 percent off on stays at the Landings Resort and Spa in St. Lucia through mid-December. Families with up to two children can enjoy a free guided tour of Pigeon Island National Park and a hike to Monde du Cap. landingsstlucia.comA Danube cruiseThrough July 26, Avalon Waterways is offering up to $3,000 off per couple on select 2016 European river cruises. A Panorama stateroom on a 12-night cruise from Budapest starts at $2,888 per person, double occupancy. Flight included. avalonwaterways.comMystical MyanmarBook by July 21 to save up to $800 on a 12-day fall tour of the former Burma with stops in Yangon, Mandalay, and Inle Lake. The SmarTours trip starts at $3,299 per person, double occupancy, including airfare from Los Angeles. smartours.com…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016The bottom lineThe U.S. now holds more recoverable oil reserves than either Saudi Arabia or Russia. Oil intelligence firm Rystad Energy estimates that the U.S. has 264 billion barrels of oil that are technologically and economically feasible to extract, compared with Saudi Arabia’s 212 billion barrels and Russia’s 256 billion barrels. More than half of the U.S.’s reserves are in unconventional shale oil. Financial Times America’s top earners are Asian men, according to a new Pew study. In 2015, Asian males pocketed $24 per hour on average, compared with $21 for white men. Average hourly wages for black and Hispanic men were $15 and $14, respectively.Bloomberg.com American companies have gotten bigger and more bureaucratic over the past two decades. Between 1983 and 2014, the number of managers, supervisors, and support staff in…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Making moneyWhat the experts sayBuilding credit without a cardMillennials, it’s time to get serious about building your credit history, said Suzanne Woolley in Bloomberg.com. Just 33 percent of adults between ages 18 and 29 report having a credit card, even though a good credit score is “essential when you apply for an apartment, a mortgage, an auto loan, or even to get a good deal on a cellphone.” Getting on someone else’s card as an authorized user is one way to start building credit, allowing a young person to piggyback off a parent’s credit. “Starter” credit cards with low limits are another option, provided they’re paid off every month to avoid their punishing interest rates. Secured cards, for which you put down a cash deposit as collateral, also build credit history,…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Best columns: BusinessU.S. icons, foreign ownersAfshin Molavi Bloomberg.comYour all-American summer barbecue is anything but, said Afshin Molavi. That ice-cold Budweiser? Owned by a Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate. The Heinz ketchup on your hot dog? Run by a Brazilian private equity group. Catching a summer blockbuster? Chinese real estate giant Dalian Wanda owns more U.S. cinema screens than any U.S. company. The list goes on: Gerber baby food, Holiday Inn hotels, Alka-Seltzer, Hellman’s mayo—“all owned by non-American conglomerates.” But patriotic Americans needn’t seek comfort in a shot of Jim Beam whiskey (it’s owned by a Japanese firm anyway). Global companies that buy iconic American firms “have no incentive to destroy the brand,” but every reason to boost the bottom line. That translates into jobs for Americans. Foreign companies and their U.S. affiliates employ more than…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016The Puzzle PageCrossword No. 367: Star of the CenturyACROSS1 With 17-Across, living legend whose 100th birthday was on July 17 The color of the Caribbean11 Genre for Dashboard Confessional14 It may be all-inclusive15 Cheese basis16 Cloth for cleaning17 See 1-Across19 Staff20 Wash. neighbor21 Hooligan22 Twenty24 One’s lot in life26 Methylphenidate, familiarly28 Despised31 Repel, as an attack33 Business end of a tool35 False start?36 Trees used in ancient Roman vineyards39 Bit of perjury40 1-Across’s role in Gone With the Wind43 The second person44 Part of the Labor Dept.46 It’s often made of orchids or carnations47 Subtlety49 Give the right52 Where people just skate by53 Snobbish outlook55 Sports car’s sound57 Had the gumption58 They’re large on a basset hound60 Playmate63 Wrath64 Award won twice by 1-Across, and once by her sister, Joan Fontaine68 Sets…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016It wasn’t all badTyler Fugett is helping the inmates at his local jail turn a new page. The 9-year-old from Clarksville, Tenn., recently turned up unannounced at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office with more than 100 books he wanted to donate to the jail library. Tyler had saved up his allowance to buy the books at clearance sales, hoping they’d help the inmates find a new way forward. “When I’m thinking bad thoughts, I like to read,” he said. The lockup’s library receives no taxpayer funding, said jail chaplain Emmett Sexton, so “Tyler’s generosity is truly appreciated.”A 10-year-old Asian elephant is walking tall again after being fitted with a new custom-made prosthetic leg. Mosha was 7 months old when she was first brought to the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in northern…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016The world at a glance ...LondonDamning Iraq report: A long-awaited report into Britain’s role in the U.S.-led 2003 Iraq War this week delivered a blistering critique of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who it said led the U.K. into a conflict on the basis of flawed intelligence and exaggerated public statements. The 2.6 million–word Iraq Inquiry, seven years in the making, said Blair presented the threat posed by Iraq’s alleged WMD with “a certainty that was not justified,” and joined the invasion without fully exploring peaceable options. After the report’s release, Blair said he accepted responsibility for the war’s failings and felt “more sorrow and regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe.” But he insisted that he’d gone to war in “good faith,” and that the world was “a better place…7 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Why assault weapons are so popularWhat is an assault weapon?Though gun owners and gun control advocates have fierce debates over the definition, “assault weapon” is widely accepted to mean a rapid-firing semiautomatic firearm that accepts detachable large-capacity magazines, and comes equipped with other military-style features, such as a pistol grip and foldable stock. The term “semiautomatic” means the weapon fires one round with each pull of the trigger, instantly reloads, and can keep firing until the magazine is emptied. That’s not the same as “automatic” assault rifles, or machine guns, which continue firing bullets as long as the trigger is pressed; civilian use of them has been strictly regulated since 1934. The best-known assault weapons are the AR-15 rifle and its many spin-offs. While rates of gun ownership have fallen over the past four decades—about…5 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016It must be true... I read it in the tabloidsA driver lost control of his car on the German Autobahn when he hit a large patch of snail slime. Tooling along the superhighway, the young man encountered a slick spot left by what police say was a “whole caravan” of snails. The vehicle then careened into a side railing and flipped over. Fortunately, the driver escaped injury. Authorities say the slime eventually dried out in the sun, preventing more mishaps, and that some of the snails managed to crawl away from the highway and “save themselves in the nearby grass.” SweePee Rambo—a blind, 17-year-old Chinese Crested Chihuahua mix—was crowned the World’s Ugliest Dog last week, beating out 15 other canines at an annual contest in Petaluma, Calif. A scrawny 4 pounds, with milky eyes, a tousled Mohawk, and bow…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Best columns: InternationalTURKEYPaying the price for aiding ISISLior Akerman The Jerusalem PostRecep Tayyip Erdogan has his people’s blood on his hands, said Lior Akerman. After three ISIS suicide bombers killed 45 people at Istanbul’s international airport last week, the Turkish president called on foreign governments to “join forces in the fight against terrorism.” Western leaders can be forgiven for scoffing at his request. For years, Erdogan turned a blind eye to the tens of thousands of foreign jihadists and weapons passing through Turkey on their way to neighboring Syria. Erdogan seemingly believed that he could use the extremists to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and block Kurdish attempts to set up an independent state in northern Syria. He reluctantly changed his allegiance last year after coming under pressure from the U.S., which…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016NotedMore than 1,200 people outside of Iraq and Syria have been murdered in attacks inspired or coordinated by ISIS—including 224 people in Egypt, 130 people in Paris, and 130 people in Yemen. NYTimes.com Since the 2008 recession, 99 percent of the 11.6 million new jobs created have gone to people with bachelor’s degrees or at least some college education. About 68 percent of Americans, or 209 million people, do not hold a college degree. Qz.com Roughly 1.4 million adults who live in the United States are transgender, or about 0.6 percent of the population, according a new report by UCLA’s Williams Institute, the country’s leading researcher on LGBT demographics. That’s double the institute’s previous population estimates, released in 2011. BuzzFeed.com After a long downward trend, traffic fatalities were up sharply…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Novel of the weekBefore the Fallby Noah Hawley(Grand Central, $26)Noah Hawley’s current best-seller is “a pretty much ideal summer vacation read”—if you aren’t flying anywhere, said Rebecca Foster in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. When a private jet crashes in Long Island Sound shortly after leaving Martha’s Vineyard, only two of its 11 passengers survive: the 4-year-old son of a conservative media mogul, and the artist who rescues the boy. Hawley, the producer of the FX series Fargo, cleverly toggles between buildup and aftermath, pulling all 11 passengers into the drama; “the reader’s task is to weigh what is happenstance and what is destiny.” We must also decide why the plane went down, and here Hawley’s “ingeniously nerve-racking” tale adds a twist, said Janet Maslin in The New York Times. A Bill O’Reilly–like TV host…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Best books...chosen by Ramona AusubelShe by Michelle Latiolais (Norton, $26). A nameless 15-year-old girl boards a westbound bus to flee her evangelical upbringing. She winds up in a Los Angeles full of striking characters—including a botanist, a dentist, and a dancer—who each give the girl a new way of seeing herself.Florida by Christine Schutt (Mariner, $13). Alice Fivey’s father died when she was 5, and she is 10 when her mother loses custody rights and enters a mental institution. Alice, shuttled from home to home, is left to build herself a story. Schutt’s prose is blindingly beautiful—complicated, precise— a reminder that language itself is a refuge.Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (Dover, $4.50). Rickety stone towers, a dishonest, blunderbuss-carrying uncle, murder, a shipwreck, and a chase through the Scottish Highlands. David Balfour, 17, has much…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Review of reviews: FilmThe Secret Life of PetsDirected by Chris Renaud(PG)This week’s big animated release is “a little too heavily indebted to Toy Story for its own good,” said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph(U.K.). An “amiable time-passer” from the studio behind Despicable Me, it features a terrier named Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) who becomes jealous when his owner brings home Duke—a big, mangy rescue dog. Once left alone for the day, Max and other neighborhood pets, including a peppy Pug (Bobby Moynihan) and a fluffy Pomeranian (Jenny Slate), create all kinds of mischief, leading to a “Looney Tunes–esque” animal odyssey through New York City’s streets. The ensuing slapstick “should play like catnip for kids starting summer vacation,” said Jordan Mintzer in The Hollywood Reporter. Along the way, a zoo of furry and…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Orange wines: A summer cropWine’s “fourth color” has moved past trendy, and deservedly, said Elin McCoy in Bloomberg.com. Orange wines— made by leaving the juice of white grapes in contact in with the skins—can be “deliciously complex, even thrilling.” These three are great during summer, when you might want the structure of a red but “without the heaviness.”2013 Channing Daughters Ramato ($25). A great introduction to orange wine, this “dry, exotic, spicy white” is produced in the Hamptons from pi not grigio grapes.2014 Pheasant’s Tears Mtsvane ($20). I adore this golden wine, made in the Republic of Georgia at a winery founded by an American painter. “It’s crisp but mouth- filling, with tastes of smoky apricots.”2012 Cos Pithos Bianco ($35). Also aged in clay amphorae, this Sicilian product offers “explosive” aromas of mint, green…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Hotel of the weekSmith Fork RanchCrawford, Colo.This remote all-inclusive resort offers “an intimacy that’s unusual at Western guest ranches,” said Ann Abel in Forbes.com. Its five log cabins house 28 people at most, so “friendships form quickly,” and “there’s just enough blurring of that line between staff and guest”— with employees joining in for weekend line dancing at the open-air pavilion. The 300-acre ranch includes streams, ponds, and a river for fishing, and activities include group horseback rides to hilltop co*cktails. Gunnison National Forest is a neighbor, and the “magnificent” Black Canyon lies “just a short drive away.”smithforkranch.com; six nights from $7,500…1 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Best properties on the marketThis week: Modern homes in Britain…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Markets: Brexit rattles European companiesThe United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU “has paralyzed planning and investment in boardrooms across the Continent,” said Robert Wall in The Wall Street Journal. It’s clear that for most companies “there was no Plan B” in place in case U.K. voters decided to leave the union. Now executives are scrambling to assess how their businesses will be affected, as the very uncertain details of the exit begin to take shape. Telecom giant Vodafone, for example, says it may have to relocate its Newbury, England, headquarters to somewhere else in Europe, but “it also might not.” The CEO of Ireland-based Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, was even more blunt: “Don’t ask me what this means, because we don’t know.”Global markets, meanwhile, have mostly recovered from the initial shock, though that…3 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Investing: Protecting your portfolio from Brexit“Welcome to Brexit bedlam,” said Suzanne McGee in The Guardian(U.K.). Investors the world over watched in horror as markets swooned in the aftermath of the United Kingdom’s shocking vote on June 23 to leave the European Union. In the U.S., major stock market indexes tumbled nearly 4 percent the Friday after the vote, blotting out $675 billion in value “and erasing all this year’s hard-earned gains.” Stocks have since regained most of their losses in a surprising rally, but investors still face lots of uncertainty in a post-Brexit world. More market shocks are likely in store as the U.K. negotiates its fraught divorce with Europe over the next few years, and we won’t know which developments will be destabilizing “until they hit the headlines.”“The first challenge is not to make…2 min
The Week Magazine|July 15, 2016Issue of the week: VW’s $15B ‘Dieselgate’ settlementVolkswagen is one step closer to putting its diesel emissions scandal behind it, after agreeing to “one of the largest consumer class-action settlements ever in the U.S.,” said Hiroko Tabuchi and Jack Ewing in The New York Times. The embattled German automaker agreed last week to pay $14.7 billion in connection with 475,000 of its diesel vehicles that were outfitted with software designed to cheat air-quality tests. Under the terms of the deal, Volkswagen will buy back affected cars from American owners at pre-scandal values, as well as provide cash compensation ranging from $5,100 to $10,000 per owner. The unprecedented deal dwarfs recent auto industry settlements, like the $1.4 billion Toyota paid over flawed accelerators and the more than $2 billion General Motors has paid to settle claims related to…3 min
