Innholdsfortegnelse for June 27, 2025 i The Week Magazine

Nothing is more American than flaunting your immigrant heritage. Every March, Boston, New York, Philly, and other cities are festooned with Irish flags and their sports bars fill with people clad in green, many of them also smeared in face paint. More than 31 million Americans claim Irish ancestry and plenty of them celebrate it on St. Patrick’s Day. My own family always had a big blowout party on that day, even though our most recent Irish-born person, an ancestor on my mother’s side, came over way back in the 19th century. Such parties were pretty common when I was growing up, maybe a bit less so these days as the great wave of Irish immigration recedes into the distant past. For my father’s side, the Scottish side, we…

■ The Oregon State Police have apologized for a recruitment email that asked potential SWAT team members if they’re “jonesing” to fire weapons. Authored by SWAT Sgt. Jamin VanMeter, the email also touts the thrill of “tossing diversions (flash bangs),” experiencing “dramatic and highly intense” hostage situations, and firing nonlethal rounds “at fleeing suspects.” OSP said the email’s “glamorization of the use of force” was contrary “to agency values.” ■ The cost of living in California is now so high that people with six-figure salaries qualify for low-income housing. In tech hub Santa Clara, those making $111,700 or less can apply for “affordable” housing, compared with $109,700 in San Francisco and $72,050 in the state capital, Sacramento. “I love the weather,” said Chelsea Carmack, a recent transplant to Sacramento…

Salt Lake City ‘No Kings’ shooting: A protester was killed last week in a shooting at an anti-Trump “No Kings” rally in Utah’s capital city. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, was shot accidentally by an unnamed self-identified “peacekeeper,” according to protest organizers Utah 50501. The volunteer allegedly spotted another man, Arturo Gamboa, wielding a rifle and opened fire, unintentionally hitting Ah Loo, a fashion designer who appeared on Project Runway in 2019. Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said witnesses recounted seeing Gamboa, 24, raise an AR-15-style rifle “in a firing position” and run toward the crowd. Gamboa, police said, was later treated for a gunshot wound and booked on suspicion of murder for instigating the shooting, though no charges have yet been filed. The volunteer who allegedly…

Tam O’Shaughnessy orbited her famous partner, Sally Ride, quietly for decades, said Michael Schulman in The New Yorker. Ride, a hotshot physicist and the first American woman in space in 1983, was a role model for millions. And while the two “did everything together” for 27 years, says O’Shaughnessy, Ride “just never uttered the words ‘Come meet my partner, Tam.’” O’Shaughnessy, 73, understood Ride “had a lot to lose” by coming out, and revealed their relationship only when she wrote Ride’s obituary in 2012. The two first met as young tennis players in California. O’Shaughnessy, then 12, spotted Ride, 13, standing ahead of her in line at a tournament. “She suddenly rose up and walked on her toes a few steps. I thought it was the funniest, quirkiest thing…

Ed Kilgore New York magazine Gay marriage is no longer a settled issue—and could be in jeopardy, said Ed Kilgore. The Southern Baptist Convention last week called on the Supreme Court to overturn the 2015 Obergefell ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationally, which “may surprise many who believed this was one debate that was resolved once and for all.” Today, 69% of Americans approve of marriage equality and about 740,000 LGBTQ couples have tied the knot. But social conservatives, particularly evangelicals, “have never given up on overturning it,” and since 2021, Republican support for gay marriage has dropped from 55% to 41%. Why? The court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling overturning Roe told Republicans that the court’s conservative majority is willing to reverse any past ruling; indeed, in Dobbs, Justice Clarence Thomas…

Editorial China Daily The gaokao, China’s highly competitive four-day college entrance exam, determines not only whether a young person will get into a university, said China Daily, but where they’ll go and what they will study. With so much at stake, the exam must be conducted with “discipline and fairness.” That’s why last week’s gaokao had the most rigorous anti-cheating protocols ever developed. Just to get to the testing site, students had to pass through two “intelligent security gates” to make sure they didn’t sneak in mobile phones, smartwatches, smart glasses, earpieces, or other high-tech gear that could be used to help answer questions. Teachers at the checkpoints wielded handheld metal detectors to search anyone who triggered an alarm. Even if a device got through, it wouldn’t work: Radio…

■ The wealthiest 10% of U.S. households would receive an average $12,000 boost in resources a year—equivalent to a 2.3% increase in income—under the House-passed version of President Trump’s big, beautiful bill, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. The bottom 10% of households would lose about $1,600 a year, a 4% income cut. Bloomberg ■ About 75 sidelined Voice of America workers from the Persian-language news division were abruptly called back to duty last week as Israel and Iran exchanged missile strikes. The Trump administration shuttered the government-funded VOA in March and put hundreds of staffers on paid administrative leave. The recalled VOA workers will broadcast to Iranians otherwise dependent on state media. Politico ■ The Interior Department has begun posting notices at all 433 national…

■ 60% of Americans oppose the U.S. military becoming involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel. 16% support U.S. military involvement, and 24% are not sure. The Economist/YouGov ■ 35% of Americans say they approve of President Trump sending the National Guard and the Marines to subdue anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, while 50% disapprove. 52%—including 1 in 5 Democrats and 9 in 10 Republicans—support deporting people who entered the country illegally. But 49% say Trump has gone too far with his arrests of immigrants. Reuters/Ipsos…

■ Budget bill could bar AI regulation Senate Republicans have added language to the GOP tax bill that would deny states federal funding for broadband projects if they attempt to regulate AI, said Matt Brown in the Associated Press. Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Texas) pushed for the policy, a refinement of the House-passed version of the bill, which “banned any current or future AI regulations by states for 10 years.” The ban has angered state lawmakers, who say the language is overly broad and could apply to anything from chatbots to self-driving cars. Some AI leaders, like OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have argued that “patchwork” state AI regulations harm innovation, though Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has backed some state rules. Cruz’s proposal appears to be an attempt to satisfy the complex…

Getting a confirmed diagnosis of celiac disease may soon become far less grueling. Right now, diagnosing the autoimmune condition requires the patient to eat meals with gluten for weeks and then undergo a blood test or a gastroscopy. In people with celiac or gluten sensitivity, consuming so much bread and pasta can cause unpleasant side effects like diarrhea, bloating, and fatigue, so such patients often refuse to get tested. Now, scientists at Australia’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute say they have found an alternative. They had already discovered that a specific immune marker, interleukin 2, spikes after celiac patients eat gluten. To see whether the marker could be used for diagnosis, they mixed gluten into blood samples from 181 adults—around half of whom had celiac disease—and checked if the…

Anne Hillerman’s new novel, Shadow of the Solstice, is her 10th in the best-selling Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito series, which she made her own after the death of her father, Tony Hillerman. Below, she names favorite books that feature Indigenous characters. The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories by Stacie Shannon Denetsosie (2023). This talented Navajo author’s debut collection of short stories made me laugh, touched my heart, and left me with ideas to consider. The collection includes gritty, touching, and fanciful tales, and she writes with a poet’s heart and a reporter’s eye. Shutter by Ramona Emerson (2022). Navajo forensic photographer Rita Todacheene records the disturbing evidence of grisly murder scenes for the police. Then spirits of the dead nag her to find the killers. The ghosts in her…

Annahstasia, a Los Angeles–based singer-songwriter, is “a once-in-a-generation vocalist” who has been trapped in a bad record contract for 13 years, said Laura Molloy in NME. But with her debut album, the 30-year-old is not only sharing the kind of music she’s always wanted to make. She’s also claiming “her rightful place as a pioneer of modern folk, propelling the genre forward by weaving in moments of tense rock and intoxicating blues.” Silenced for too long by handlers who steered her in a poppier direction, Annahstasia “has a lot to say” here, all in a husky purr that commands attention even in the sparest arrangements. And on Tether, she “balances the sweet, poignant lyrical observations of Joni Mitchell with the sensuality of Sade’s Love Deluxe and the immense…

To hear some people talk about wine, you’d never know it’s simply a fun, delicious drink, said Eric Asimov in The New York Times. Sure, “wine does deserve academic discussion.” But I propose a starter pack of wines for anyone who’s cowed by pretentious wine talk. “These are not bottles to study, they are joyous wines to love now.” 2023 Ampeleia Toscana Rosso Unilitro ($23). Sold in a 1-liter bottle, this Tuscan red blend is “juicy and joyous,” and it’s “wonderful cold with all kinds of food.” 2024 ColleStefano Verdicchio di Matelica ($20). This dry white, which showcases Italy’s verdicchio grape, is “thirst-quenching yet complex and delicious.” Besides, “it feels great to just roll it around in the mouth.” 2024 Gulp/Hablo ($21). A great introduction to orange wine, this…

Starbucks filled an arena with spectators to witness its first “barista championship,” said Heather Haddon in The Wall Street Journal. Extravagant coffee-making competitions have been around for decades, but Starbucks held its first intracompany contest in Las Vegas last week. More than 84,000 baristas entered the caffeinated competition, but only 12 were chosen to “dazzle clipboard-toting judges” in front of 14,000 “fans”—and even announcers. Starbucks didn’t take the competition lightly. It “paid for coaches for its competitors to refine their skills ahead of the showcase.” In the signature drink round, attendees were surprised with drink additions “like apple juice and a secret sauce of Japanese yuzu.” For years, Scandinavians ruled “the international coffee competition scene.” But in the championship, the four finalists hailed from China, Japan, and Jordan. Japanese…

A nonprofit founded in 1812 is home to more than 4.5 million pre-20th-century printed records from the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada. Based in Worcester, Mass., the American Antiquarian Society (americanantiquarian.org) has assembled the world’s most extensive collection of books, newspapers, music, graphic arts, and more dating from that early period of U.S. history. Many have been brought into the digital era; one project digitized more than 15,000 pages of diaries, poems, and stories written by 19th-century children. The AAS offers year- and monthlong fellowships to postdoctoral and doctoral academics and four-week fellowships to artists of all kinds—poets, painters, journalists, filmmakers, and others—whose work involves American historical research. And the society’s library is accessible not just to scholars but to any visitor over 18 years old. Each charity…

Matt Bai The Washington Post A “dumb EV tax” is further proof that intellectual conservatism is dead, said Matt Bai. It has been “replaced by cowering, shiftless Trumpism” that is so afraid of electric cars that Republicans are proposing a $250 annual tax for owning one. “Congressional Republicans say the policy is analogous to the federal gas tax that you pay at the pump, which is used for highway maintenance.” Owners of battery-powered cars contribute at least as much as owners of gas vehicles to wear on the roads, and they should shoulder some portion of the cost. This is a reasonable argument. The issue is “how they’re being asked to pay.” Think about it: Congress is proposing to slap a tax on something you have already purchased, whether…

The Nazis built an idyllic village close to Berlin for SS members and their families, said Sally McGrane in The New York Times. Current residents are still reckoning with its history. ONE MORNING IN January, Susanne Bücker, a family doctor in Berlin, woke up worried. National elections were approaching, and President Donald Trump’s most vocal advocate, Elon Musk, was publicly supporting Germany’s far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (or AfD), whose leaders have spouted Nazi slogans and downplayed the Holocaust. Bücker sent a letter to her neighbors. “Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,” she wrote, expressing her fear that fascism was again taking root in Germany. Over the next few weeks, about 40 neighbors got together, lighting candles in their front gardens as part of…

■ After Mykale Baker’s high school graduation in a suburb of Atlanta, he went to work in a local Burger King, still wearing his graduation sash and medals. Maria Mendoza, a drive-through customer, was so struck by the sight that she posted a TikTok video. After it went viral, Mendoza started a GoFundMe for Baker’s college education—quickly raising more than $200,000. Baker plans to enroll in technical college in the fall. “The kindness that you put out there always has a way of coming back to you,” he said. ■ Marine Corps officers Kathleen Spangler, 29, and her husband Michael, 30, have long dreamed of having a home overseas once they leave the military. After the Dayton mother of three gained her Irish citizenship last year, she browsed Irish…

Manifest destiny, after U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, speaking to Fox News about the military’s ability to handle simultaneous deployments, claimed to have “talked to an astronaut yesterday who’s on the moon, who’s a soldier.” As of press time, neither NASA nor the Pentagon had confirmed an active U.S. military presence on the moon. Special interests, after the Ghana Drunkards Association gave the West African nation’s government three weeks to “do something” about the soaring price of alcohol, warning that a failure to act would result in mass protests by the group’s claimed 16.6 million members. “El Pendón Estrellado,” after pop star Nezza, booked to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a Los Angeles Dodgers game, performed the anthem in Spanish to protest ICE raids. Although the team expressly asked…

Jenna Ortega is still in shock at becoming an overnight global celebrity, said Carina Chocano in Harper’s Bazaar. The former Disney Channel child star rocketed to a new level of fame in late 2022 when the Addams Family spin-off Wednesday—in which she plays the titular role—debuted on Netflix. “I was so stunned that I didn’t really process it,” says Ortega, 22. “I still haven’t.” The experience, she explains, felt like something no human is designed to go through. “We used to live in villages and meet maybe 300 people in our lifetimes. Now we can meet way too many people, and way too many people can be familiar with you.” After the success of the first season of Wednesday, “to be quite frank, I was an unhappy person. I…

George Skelton Los Angeles Times Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came to Los Angeles last week to issue an authoritarian threat, said George Skelton. Federal agents who’d been arresting scores of immigrant workers “are not going away,” Noem said—in fact, the Trump administration would “liberate the city” from its “socialist” elected leaders, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. It was “the sort of language used by dictators,” but “in America, the ‘liberators’ are the voters,” who elected Newsom and Bass by large majorities. Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla was in the audience at Noem’s news conference, and lost his cool. California’s first Latino senator walked toward Noem, identified himself, and shouted out a question—and federal agents responded by dragging him out, forcing him to the ground, and handcuffing…

“The Oct. 7 pogrom perpetrated by Hamas must be one of the worst military miscalculations since Pearl Harbor. Less than two years later, the group’s leadership is dead and Gaza is in ruins. Hezbollah, Iran’s most dangerous proxy, has been decapitated. Iran itself appears defenseless against Israeli airstrikes, has seen its main uranium enrichment facility go up in flames, and lost its military chief of staff, its Revolutionary Guard commander, and its lead nuclear negotiator in a single evening. I don’t know how Tehran’s brain trust imagined all of this ending, but it’s suddenly an open question whether any of them will be alive in a week.” Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch…

Cha Se-hyeon Korea JoongAng Daily South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, has a plan to deal with Donald Trump, said Cha Se-hyeon. When Lee was elected this month, his first priority was to “schedule a tee time” with the U.S. president for a round of “golf diplomacy.” Golf certainly worked for Shinzo Abe, the late Japanese prime minister. When Trump was first elected in 2016, Abe raced to Trump Tower bearing a gift of a gold-plated Honma golf club worth $3,700; the following year, when Abe came to the U.S. for a summit, the two played a round at Mar-a-Lago. Abe called his opening tee shot “one of the most nerve-racking moments of his life.” Yet while he lost the game, he emerged a winner. While they were in…

Susana Quadrado La Vanguardia “It all started with olives,” said Susana Quadrado. In 1987, American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall saved $30,000 by removing olives from the salads served on his planes. That kicked off an industrywide push to squeeze every nickel possible out of the “proletarianized economy class.” First they took our “peanuts, crackers, and newspapers.” Next, they crammed us in with “less space between seats, in rows, and in the seats.” The headrest—and “in some airlines, the bathroom”—disappeared in the “scramble for savings.” Now the European Transport Council has not only agreed to allow European airlines to charge for carry-on baggage but also recommended lengthening the time a flight can be delayed before the passengers must be compensated. Today it’s three hours; soon it could be six. How…

“America’s anti-vaccine era is truly beginning,” said Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, last week abruptly removed all 17 members from the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP), which vets scientific data to help set vaccine policy and determine which vaccines insurers must cover. Kennedy promised during his confirmation hearing to leave the committee alone, but he suddenly claimed its members had to go because they would “enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy.” He’s appointed eight new members, most of whom are known for questioning vaccine safety. The ACIP largely determines our “future preparedness against infectious disease,” and appointing anti-vaxxers to a respected committee is “an especially effective way to sanewash extremism.” Scientific consensus and government policy are now…

A smile and some lipstick will improve your attractiveness far more than costly injections. That’s the conclusion of a new study that found that the average boost in perceived attractiveness from Botox and similar wrinkle treatments was barely noticeable, increasing ratings by just 0.07 points on a 7-point scale. Smiling, though, raised attractiveness by 0.4 points—six times more—and makeup delivered an even bigger bump of 0.6 points. The researchers, from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, tracked 114 people undergoing injectable treatments and asked 3,000 people to assess before-and-after photos. The post-Botox group showed no meaningful gains in appeal as a long-term romantic partner, but the injections did slightly raise perceptions of youthfulness (up 0.13 points), likability, and short-term romantic appeal (both up 0.09). Study leader Bastian Jaeger tells The…

“There are approximately a million different ways in which a novel about the past 10 years in America could devolve into a parade of familiar miseries,” said Chris Stanton in NYMag.com. “So Far Gone sidesteps those pitfalls by being consistently funny.” Rhys Kinnick, the hero of Jess Walter’s eighth novel, dropped out of society in the mid-teens, fed up with the rise of right-wing conspiracy theorists. But he is coaxed out of the wilderness when his grandkids seek his help in escaping a violent militia. “What follows is a madcap road novel,” and like Walter’s prior work, including Beautiful Ruins, it has “a cynical, absurdist sense of humor lined with a cautious humanism.” Walter is “a slyly adept social critic and has clearly invested his protagonist with all of…

The Haves and Have-Yachts by Evan Osnos (Scribner, $30) “The thing about being megarich,” said Madison Darbyshire in Bloomberg, “is that it feels good.” New Yorker writer Evan Osnos got a taste of the life while reporting the pieces in this book about the super-elite, whose share of America’s wealth keeps swelling. “The question that hangs over Have-Yachts is whether the U.S. has reached a point of no return,” a point at which an oligarchy crushes democracy. In the meantime, Osnos has some yachts and bonkers parties you’ll want to see. The Spinach King by John Seabrook (Norton, $32) John Seabrook’s family history “makes for juicy reading,” said Roger Lowenstein in The Wall Street Journal. The New Yorker writer details his tyrannical grandfather’s role in building a huge frozen…

Haim, L.A.’s three-sister rock trio, has always made music that “pairs best with an iced beverage and a lawn chair,” said Angie Martoccio in Rolling Stone. On their fourth album, “they don’t just perfect that summer vibe; they dial up the heat—and bask in it.” All three were single when recording the album, and the result is another dose of “sleek, soft pop-rock” that’s also a cohesive concept record, one focused on breakups and “the hard-won independence you earn from them.” It’s perhaps “too on the nose” that George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” is sampled on the opening track, said Rachel Aroesti in The Guardian. Much of the album “fixates on the bitter end of a flawed relationship,” evoking the breakup of lead vocalist Danielle Haim and Ariel Rechtshaid,…

Taskmaster This masterpiece of a reality show has now aired in the U.K. for 10 years. Contestants, mostly comedians, are challenged to complete absurd tasks, such as writing a song about a stranger, or slicing a loaf of bread without a knife, or creating a real-world simulation of a classic video game. The results are reliably hilarious. YouTube The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning No, contestants aren’t made to clean under pain of death. Instead, one American at a time is visited by a trio of Swedish experts who help clients clear out the junk in their homes so that someday, when they’re gone, their relatives won’t have to. The show is therapeutic in more ways than one. Peacock Alone Many reality shows teem with loudmouth confrontation. In…

■ Claude outperformed other AI bots when we tested its capacity to read and summarize various written documents. Tested on short fiction, legal contracts, medical research, and two Donald Trump speeches, it edged out ChatGPT. Also, “it was the only model that never hallucinated,” meaning it didn’t invent any information. ■ ChatGPT excelled at politics and literature “but ranked near the bottom in law,” because it overlooked an important clause about intellectual property. We scored it 68.4 vs. Claude’s 69.9, meaning each had only a D+. ■ Gemini bombed on fiction, delivering an “inaccurate, misleading, and sloppy” story summary. ■ Copilot was bamboozled by Trump’s rally speech, “failing to capture its charged nature” while also incorrectly reporting how many new jobs he promised. ■ Meta AI did well with…

The new Trump phone won’t be made in America, said Wilson Rothman and Ben Raab in The Wall Street Journal. The president’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., announced this week that the Trump Organization will launch a mobile-phone service called Trump Mobile and sell a Trump-branded smartphone, the T1, beginning in August. Despite the Trump Organization’s promises, beating the iPhone’s specs at the T1’s $499 price point is a “tall order.” But there’s one thing the T1 and iPhone share: Both are made overseas. Eric Trump walked back Trump Organization claims that the phone will be manufactured “in Alabama, Florida, and California,” suggesting that would “eventually” be the case, but “the first wave” of phones will likely get made in China. The Oval Office sales parade continues, said Timothy…

Brian Wilson sang of a sun-drenched, carefree world that stood in striking contrast to his tormented inner life. In songs like “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “California Girls,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” and “I Get Around,” the Beach Boys leader wrote of a Southern California idyll where eternal surf beckoned and there were “two girls for every boy.” Their more than 30 Top 40 hits made the Beach Boys America’s top band of the mid-1960s. But in reality, Wilson was a troubled introvert who preferred the isolation of his bedroom to parties on the beach. He took a turn toward moody introspection—and made a quantum artistic leap for pop—with the 1966 album Pet Sounds, a masterpiece that influenced countless bands to follow. But his genius was eclipsed by a descent into drug abuse…

This week’s question: When a tornado approached during a couple’s wedding in Portales, N.M., their photographer seized the moment to snap some images of the newlyweds kissing with the twister looming in the background. In seven or fewer words, come up with a caption to accompany a photo from this dramatic wedding shoot. Last week’s contest: The 2024–25 Broadway season was the highest-grossing in history, at $1.89 billion, with tickets to celebrity-filled shows selling for upwards of $800. If a Broadway composer were to write a song-and-dance number about how expensive it is to see a show these days, what would it be titled? THE WINNER: “Brokelahoma!” Norman Miller, Farmington Hills, Mich. SECOND PLACE: “(These Prices Are) Defying Gravity” Jesse Rifkin, Arlington, Va. THIRD PLACE: “If I Were a…

If the U.S. does target Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility, it will turn to a formidable weapon that’s “never been used in combat before,” said Kat Lonsdorf in NPR.org. That’s the 20-foot-long, 30,000-pound GBU-57—or Massive Ordnance Penetrator—designed to burrow up to 200 feet below ground before exploding. The Pentagon has about 20 of the high-density-steel “bunker busters”—so heavy they must be dropped from a B-2 stealth bomber, “which only the U.S. possesses.” Experts agree the bombs could wreak serious destruction on Fordo, but “whether it would be enough to stop Iran’s nuclear program” is another matter. If the U.S. strikes, Iran will “almost certainly have to respond,” said Stephen Collinson in CNN.com. It could hit U.S. bases and personnel in the region; Trump would then have to strike back “in…

Court orders NIH to restore canceled grants A federal judge this week ordered the Trump administration to reinstate hundreds of research grants cut by the National Institutes of Health, calling the terminations the worst case of “government racial discrimination” he had seen in 40 years on the bench. The NIH canceled the grants as part of a wider administration effort targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. But Massachusetts District Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee, noted the government’s reasoning for some of the cuts appeared to be rooted in anti-LGBTQ prejudice, while others that targeted grants focused on minority communities and women were clearly discriminatory. ”Have we fallen so low?” he said in a short speech after his ruling. “Have we no shame?” The White House, which…

Jon Bernthal is a product of the world’s toughest acting school, said Irina Aleksander in The New York Times Magazine. The black sheep of a well-to-do Washington, D.C., family, he auditioned for the Moscow Art Theater—birthplace of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s famed acting method—after flunking out of Skidmore College and repeatedly ending up in jail for fighting. He arrived in Moscow in the fall of 1999 and was stunned by the brutality and corruption of the city police and the kindness of ordinary Russians. “I never saw such rampant cruelty,” says Bernthal, 48. “That coldness with the warmth.” The Art Theater was akin to a military school for acting: The teachers—many of them former Soviet dissidents—were treated like decorated generals, with students standing up when they entered a room. Alongside daily…

■ Alex Soros, the son of billionaire liberal donor George Soros, and former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin tied the knot last week in a ceremony that The New York Times likened to a “political royal wedding.” Held at the Soros estate in the Hamptons, the nuptials were attended by top Democrats such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff, and Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Abedin’s first husband, disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, did not attend. The couple was serenaded by 1990s R&B group Boyz II Men, while the guests dined on gourmet dishes such as truffle agnolotti and an American Wagyu bavette steak. Soros, 39, and Abedin, 48, had initially planned to elope, Abedin told Vogue. But they were told at a…

Riley McCabe The Washington Post Russia insists it’s winning its war on Ukraine, but new data reveals “it has little to show for its efforts,” said Riley McCabe. Russia has been on the offensive since early last year, but its losses have been catastrophic. Russian casualties in Ukraine are nearing 1 million. Since January 2024, Moscow has also lost roughly 1,200 armored fighting vehicles, 3,200 infantry fighting vehicles, and 1,900 tanks. All that for seizing fewer than 1,800 square miles of territory at a glacial pace similar to the trench warfare of World War I. Ukraine’s ingenious military “has saturated the battlefield with drones,” which are taking a deadly toll on Russian soldiers, and have fortified their front lines with “minefields, trenches, anti-armor obstacles, and artillery positions that shred…

Jaroslaw Kuisz Interia Donald Tusk is suffering from “Gorbachev syndrome,” said Jaroslaw Kuisz. Just like the former Soviet leader, the Polish prime minister is wildly popular abroad but significantly “less appreciated at home.” Tusk is a big deal in the European Union, having been president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019 and leader of the European People’s Party for four years after that. His “economic and international successes are therefore undoubted” on the global stage. But here at home, his disapproval rating has hit 58%. “Please forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but that’s a lot.” Earlier this month, voters in the presidential election showed their disdain for his government by rejecting Tusk’s favored candidate in favor of a little-known nationalist backed by populist éminence grise…

Well, that didn’t last long, said William Kristol in The Bulwark. Just days after President Trump declared an “immigration-enforcement truce”—by calling on ICE not to seize undocumented migrants employed by “our great farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business”—his administration told ICE agents to “disregard all that.” In an email outlining the “about-face on the about-face,” Homeland Security official Tricia McLaughlin told staffers there would be “no safe spaces” for any industry that hired undocumented workers. ICE has ramped up raids on farms, restaurants, and meatpacking plants in recent weeks to meet the administration’s target of 3,000 migrant arrests a day, said Carol D. Leonnig in The Washington Post. Agriculture and hospitality executives lobbied Trump to lower that quota—set by White House aide and hard-line immigration foe…

“I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I’ll tell you what, never again.” Comedian Tim Vine, quoted in Time Out (U.K.) “Egomania is not a duty.” Poet Marianne Moore, quoted in LitHub “Music is the space between notes.” Claude Debussy, quoted in Asheville, N.C.’s WNC Magazine “Of course I talk to myself. I like a good speaker, and I appreciate an intelligent audience.” Dorothy Parker, quoted in The Knowledge “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” Benjamin Franklin, quoted in Kiplinger “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.” P.J. O’Rourke, quoted in Raw Story “To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.” Hubert Humphrey, quoted in The Hill…

“As the title helpfully warns, Murderland is not for the faint of heart,” said Chris Hewitt in The Minnesota Star Tribune. Author Caroline Fraser, whose previous book was a Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, has now plumbed a much grimmer topic, digging into the crimes of 1970s and ’80s serial killers to argue that the breed proliferated in that era because so much of the population was poisoned by exposure to lead and other heavy-metal pollution. While “there is scientific evidence to indicate that those metals can deform brains,” Fraser “mostly doesn’t offer the evidence.” Even if her argument leaves you unpersuaded, however, “her book is mostly riveting.” She’s incensed that dirty industries were allowed to contaminate the air and soil, and “she has a terrific eye…

“If James Frey has found some perspective, that doesn’t mean he’s at peace,” said Sam Dolnick in The New York Times. Nineteen years ago, Frey was a star of the publishing world—until it was revealed that he’d fabricated parts of his mega-selling addiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Oprah Winfrey famously shamed him on live TV, which still angers him. “She told more lies to the public times a thousand than I ever have,” he says. Frey, 55, hasn’t been down and out since 2006. He founded and sold a mass-market publishing house, wrote young adult novels, and ran a video game company, all of which helped him set up in Connecticut in a secluded home with a few adored Warhols and Picassos. As he sits for his first…

Addison Rae, against all odds, has just released “one of the most exciting pop records of the year,” said Jaeden Pinder in Paste. This caps a year in which the former TikTok teen sensation transformed herself from a “flop star” to “the next left-of-center diva” because she “put her scrunched-up nose to the grindstone” and started making music she cared about. Back in 2021, Rae’s ultraprocessed first single, “Obsessed,” was widely mocked. But the 24-year-old has since teamed with two female songwriter-producers, and the young trio clearly draw inspiration from today’s pop vanguard. You can hear Lana Del Rey’s influence on “Diet Pepsi,” while “New York” mixes Charli XCX–style electroclash with early FKA twigs. Addison arrives in the wake of “a string of improbably great singles, each one…

Kraft Heinz and General Mills said this week they would remove synthetic color additives from their products by 2027, said Mary Kekatos in ABCNews.com. Both food producers said only “a small portion” of their products contain artificial food dyes, which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including brands such as Jell-O and Kool-Aid. The issue has been a focus of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who in April “unveiled a plan to start phasing out eight synthetic food dyes from the American food supply,” citing some links to cancer in animals. Extra time: Trump gives TikTok another 90 days The Trump administration said this week that it would extend TikTok’s lifeline by another 90 days, said Sapna Maheshwari in The New York Times. Trump is giving the…

■ The quiet rise of the ‘model portfolio’ Most wealth advisers are following a surprising script, said Jack Pitcher in The Wall Street Journal. More than 80% of fee-based advisers in the U.S. use model portfolios for at least some of their clients’ assets, covering some $8 trillion in investments. The investment templates crafted by money managers at firms like UBS and Morgan Stanley can “run a classic allocation of 60% stocks and 40% bonds split across a dozen funds,” or get a bit more esoteric. When BlackRock added an iShares’ exchange-traded fund to one of its popular models, “assets surged more than tenfold,” a sign of how many advisers are “outsourcing their investment decisions.” If you want the benefits of a model portfolio without wealth advisers’ high fees,…

Joon Lee The New York Times The sports industry is draining the fun and affordability out of being a fan, said Joon Lee. To simply follow my beloved Boston teams today, I have to subscribe to “nearly every service there is”—YouTube TV, MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, Peacock, Apple TV+, Max, Amazon Prime, Paramount. It costs me $2,634 a year. And still I couldn’t watch the Yankees play the Red Sox earlier this month unless I forked over another $19.99 for some other obscure baseball-focused service. It didn’t have to be this way. Leagues could have “devised ways to pocket streamers’ cash” without allowing America’s favorite sports to be “sliced and diced” and hidden behind never-ending paywalls. It’s beyond simply frustrating for fans at home. Sports bars…

Frederick Forsyth didn’t set out to be a novelist. He sought adventure, not acclaim, and he found it as a war reporter and an informant for MI6. It was only when he needed cash between reporting stints that he turned to writing spy thrillers. Yet his very first book, the 1971 blockbuster The Day of the Jackal, was a best-seller, as were nearly all of the dozen-plus novels and numerous short-story collections that followed. Forsyth’s Cold War characters were lone wolves who tangled with extremists and mercenaries and often struggled to maneuver through webs of power, wealth, and deceit. He said the research and the planning—he’d often spend six months preparing a novel before putting pen to paper—were the good parts. “I don’t even like writing,” he said. “The…