The Week USA - 04.09.2026.pdf

主打报道 加拿大 准备迎接 贸易战 第4页 马克·卡尼

技术 “色情眼镜”的兴起

人物 离婚后的 翩翩起舞 第10页 妮可·基德曼

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一名德黑兰女性走过一面写有“伟大胜利！”口号的壁画（第5页）

THE WEEK（本周）

总编辑：Theunis Bates (theweekeditors@futurenet.com) 特约编辑：William Falk

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4 主打报道 6 本周争议 7 美国概览 8 世界概览 10 人物 11 简报 12 美国最佳专栏 14 国际最佳专栏 15 欧洲最佳专栏 16 议题讨论 18 漫画 20 技术 21 健康与科学

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27 饮食 28 旅行 30 房产

商业

32 商业概览 33 赚钱之道 34 最佳专栏

其他

35 讣告 36 终语 38 益智页

妮可·基德曼（第10页）

编辑信

事实证明，即使是气候警报主义者的警觉程度也还不够。今年夏天，当我们被战争、汽油价格、金碧辉煌的舞厅、恶意的 AI 视频以及其他鲁莽的愚蠢行为分散注意力时，气候变化——被唐纳德·特朗普斥为“世界上有史以来最大的骗局”——似乎已经达到了临界点。美国、欧洲以及全世界正在经历我们有生以来最极端的酷暑及相关天气事件。“我们正在经历的，正是我们这个群体在 30 年前就预言过的情况，”联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）前副主席让·茹泽尔（Jean Jouzel）说道。

在欧洲，气温超过 100 华氏度的持久热浪导致数万人死亡，将英国烤成了褐色，引发了大规模山火，并将多瑙河、莱茵河、波河等部分河段变成了干裂的泥地。这是欧洲连续第二个经历末日般高温和干旱的夏天。在美国，7 月成为了 1895 年开始记录以来最热的一个月。数周以来，美国西南部和南加州的大部分地区一直在接近或超过 110 华氏度的高温中煎熬。长期的干旱导致科罗拉多河、米德湖和鲍威尔湖的水量极少，以至于加利福尼亚州、内华达州和亚利桑那州现在面临配额的大幅削减，如果未来几年情况恶化，削减幅度可能达到 40%。强度和规模前所未有的山火将美国西部大片雄伟的森林变成了焦黑、稀疏的灌木丛，且可能永远无法再生。全球海洋的平均温度已攀升至接近 70 华氏度——科学家表示，这比过去 125,000 年中的任何时候都要高。

他们早就告诉过我们。事实上，随着温度升高速度的加快，气候变化带来的丑陋后果比科学家预测的到来得更快。太平洋正在形成的超级厄尔尼诺现象将增加额外的热量，使情况进一步恶化。与此同时，我们那位潜在的皇帝鄙视太阳能和电动汽车，迷恋石油和天然气，并花费 40 亿美元取消了已经获批的离岸风电场。（他说，风力涡轮机会导致癌症。）尼禄在弹琴，罗马在燃烧。

威廉·福尔克（William Falk） 总编辑

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主要报道...

贸易战中，加拿大反击美国

发生了什么

本周，面对与美国之间不断升级的贸易战，态度强硬的加拿大誓言绝不退让。双方均对彼此征收高额关税，这将导致消费价格飙升，并损害边境两端的产业。在经过一个月旨在避免特朗普总统 7 月宣布的新关税，以及降低他去年对加拿大钢铁、铝和汽车征收的关税的谈判后，两国似乎已接近达成贸易协议。但随着上周末谈判破裂，特朗普对美国 No. 2 贸易伙伴的 200 亿加元进口商品征收 50% 的关税，包括

卡尼：一场“一比一”的较量

木材、纸张、服装和农产品。加拿大总理马克·卡尼誓言要进行“一比一”的报复，对包括钢铁、农机设备和家用电器在内的数百种美国产品征收最高 50% 的关税。导致谈判脱轨的具体原因尚不明确。卡尼表示，美国在最后一刻提出了“不公平”的要求，并指责特朗普试图“摧毁”加拿大的汽车行业和其他大型产业。美国贸易代表詹米森·格里尔（Jamieson Greer）则将责任归咎于加拿大方，称他们在“最后几个小时”里“想要更多”于华盛顿愿意让步的内容。

特朗普似乎承认美国提出了最后一刻的要求，他告诉 CNN “那听起来像是我会做的事”。这位总统此前多次威胁要将加拿大变成美国的第 51 个州，令加拿大人愤怒不已；他现在提出了对加拿大钢铁和汽车零部件征收 50% 关税的设想，并威胁要将接壤加拿大和纽约州的安大略湖（Lake Ontario）更名为“美国湖”。安大略省省长道格·福特（Doug Ford）告诉特朗普“滚蛋”，并表示如果冲突升级，“一切方案都在考虑之中”，包括切断关键矿产的供应以及停止为 100 多万户美国家庭供电的电力出口。福特表示，特朗普“低估了加拿大”，“在这里，每个人都准备好迎接一场经济战了”。

专栏评论

《华尔街日报》在一篇社论中表示，这场“历史上最愚蠢的贸易战”刚刚变得“更加愚蠢”。在期中选举前十周，特朗普挑起了一场“在经济或政治上都毫无意义”的关税之争。他的新征税措施将推高建筑材料、卫生纸和其他必需品的价格，而此时共和党现任议员们正因为他的关税政策和通货膨胀而“遭受重创”。情况可能会进一步恶化。他威胁要对加拿大汽车零部件和车辆征收 50% 的关税，这将重创美国汽车制造商及其客户——尤其是那些购买在“加拿大组装”的大型福特和通用皮卡车的买家。

乔什·温格罗夫在彭博社表示，导致贸易谈判破裂的原因有很多，但内部人士称，一个关键因素是商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克的干预。格里尔花费数周时间制定了一项框架协议，但卢特尼克——他经常是政府内部的一个“破坏力量”——认为该协议对加拿大过于慷慨。特别是，他“想要收回”美国金属生产商所反对的让步，这激怒了加拿大人，后者指责他“随意更改规则”。

艾伦·比蒂在《金融时报》上写道，特朗普开出了一个“加拿大只能拒绝的条件”。一套“精心设计且有针对性的要求”本可以迫使马克·卡尼做出一些艰难的让步。但据报道，特朗普团队的“笨拙霸凌”包括限制渥太华与其他国家签署贸易协定的权利，以及废除推广法语的规定。这相当于对加拿大主权的攻击，并且“将卡尼的政治困境变成了一个无需思考的简单选择”。

乔丹·卡尼和米娅·麦卡锡在 Politico 杂志上表示，对于担心期中选举的共和党人来说，情况变得更糟了。他们“已经在努力平息选民对生活成本的潜在不满”。现在又来了关税，而这些关税“将在少数几个拥有关键参议院选区的州产生尤为剧烈的反响”。其中包括“农业密集型战场”爱荷华州和北卡罗来纳州；汽车工业与加拿大紧密相连的密歇根州；以及缅因州——共和党现任参议员苏珊·柯林斯本周抗议称，缅因州的龙虾和蓝莓通常在加拿大加工。

大卫·弗鲁姆在《大西洋月刊》中表示，特朗普正在教授一堂关于“如何输掉贸易战”的课。是的，加拿大受到的伤害将比我们更多；根据一名经济学家的估计，其许多小型出口商的销售额将骤减，最多可能损失 90,000 个工作岗位。但在战争中，问题不仅是谁能造成更多痛苦，而是“谁能忍受更多痛苦”。一个坚决的加拿大因对特朗普的厌恶而团结起来并被“激活”。与此同时，美国总统是一个在单方面发动一场“极少数美国人支持的贸易战”的、举止失措且不受欢迎的领导人。他自以为“更强大的霸凌者总是获胜”。但就像在伊朗那样，他可能会以惨痛的教训意识到，“规模虽然很重要，但并非决定一切”。

并非全是坏事

一名英国男子的婚礼被他未来的祖父辈姻亲的电动代步车救场了。在参加单身派对庆祝活动时，47岁的安迪·谢尔顿（Andy Sheldon）在台阶上滑倒，导致胫骨、腓骨以及踝关节的另一块骨头骨折。他的未婚妻丽莎（Lisa）担心拐杖会让他们在结婚大日子里无法牵手。但她的祖父欣然将他的代步车借给了这对爱侣，于是谢尔顿牵着他现在的妻子的手，乘车缓缓走过婚礼走道。“每个人都说这是最棒的婚礼入场方式，”丽莎说道。

91岁的海伦·伍德亚德（Helen Woodyard）终于拿到了她渴望数十年的高中毕业证书。在四个都获得了学位的子女的启发下，伍德亚德在88岁时开始在西乔治亚技术学院参加GED（通用教育发展）课程。在近1,000小时的课程学习中，她学会了使用科学计算器和计算机，并发现自己“非常热爱”数学——尽管几何学被证明是“最难的”。上个月，她的30多名家庭成员前来见证她的毕业。伍德亚德说：“他们为我感到非常自豪。”她给其他老年学习者传递了一个简单的信息：“追求教育或获取GED证书永远不晚。”

一只宠物鹅在帮助救出60只被困火灾的鸡和火鸡后，被誉为英雄。在德克萨斯州里士满的格伯（Gerber）家族房产的一座谷仓中，一根故障电线引发了火灾，平时安静的鹅子（Goosey）摇摇摆摆地走到建筑外，发出足够大的鸣叫声唤醒了伯特·格伯（Bert Gerber），后者迅速用浇水软管扑灭了火灾。这是伯特第一次听到鹅子的鸣叫声。“我认为我们没有给动物足够的认可，”伯特的妻子切尔西（Chelsea）说，“它们确实在与你交流——只是不用语言。”

特朗普在邮寄选票问题上的临时胜利

发生了什么

最高法院允许特朗普总统在联邦法院审理其设定州选举规则的努力是否违宪期间，继续执行其关于邮寄投票的行政命令。在一份6-3的紧急意见中，法院的保守派法官撤销了下级法院授予23个州的禁令，该禁令此前旨在阻止特朗普要求国土安全部收集各州合格公民选民名单的命令。多数派在意见书中写道，该条款对各州没有造成“具体损害”，因此他们目前缺乏起诉资格。但法官们警告称，这一裁决并不意味着该命令的全面执行“必然合法”，并补充道：“关于这一点，时间会给出答案。”法院将此案发回下级联邦法院，由其裁定特朗普是否可以合法地干预各州在决定“举行选举的时间、地点和方式”方面的宪法权力。

另一项特朗普命令的条款允许美国邮政局（U.S. Postal Service）扣押那些拒绝移交登记选民名单州的邮寄选票。美国邮政局上周发布了一项规定，要求州和地方选举官员将其门户网站上上传每一位邮寄选票接收者的姓名和地址。但有25个州基于宪法理由起诉以阻止该规定的实施。在首批缺席选票计划分发的一周前，特朗普提交了填补美国邮政局理事会四个空缺职位的提名。这四个人全部是共和党人；其中三人曾公开质疑特朗普在2020年大选中失败的有效性。

专栏评论

马特·福特（Matt Ford）在《新共和》（The New Republic）中表示，尽管法院的裁决范围有限，但它让人“几乎不相信”大法官们会挺身对抗特朗普。多年来，特朗普一直通过援引邮寄选票中存在大规模欺诈的“幻影威胁”，在“公开地破坏”人们对美国选举的信心。他显然想要将民主党人从各州的选民名册中清除，然而法院多数派那种“卑躬屈膝的解读”却假装特朗普的命令没有给各州带来任何负担。在反对意见中，大法官凯坦吉·布朗·杰克逊（Ketanji Brown Jackson）将多数派的裁决称为一场“卡夫卡式的噩梦”，并称特朗普的“真实目标”是获得法院的认可，以便在“11月选举前煽动混乱”。

安德鲁·埃格（Andrew Egger）在《堡垒》（The Bulwark）中表示，法院“仍有可能做出正确的决定”。赋予邮政局惩罚不合规州政府的权力是“极其违宪的”。虽然本届法院存在盲点，但大法官们可能不会忽视宪法中的明确措辞——即选举的控制权在各州手中，而非行政部门。

约翰·莱特（John Light）在 Talking Points Memo 中表示，“最糟糕的情况”是保守派阵营裁定“现在距离选举太近”，因此不能阻止特朗普行政命令的任何部分。此类裁决可能会引用“珀塞尔原则”（Purcell principle），该原则认为法院不应在选举日临近时更改选举规则。当然，当保守派大法官允许南方各州采用新划分的不公正选区时，他们很乐意忽略这一原则。但只要能达成其目的，这些大法官并不排斥前后矛盾。

美国威胁制裁伊朗贸易伙伴

发生了什么

特朗普政府本周宣布，已对伊朗发起一场“经济 D-Day”，誓要制裁任何与该国开展业务的人员，旨在迫使德黑兰回到谈判桌前。财政部长斯科特·贝森特（Scott Bessent）表示，白宫的目标是“切断维持伊朗生存的每一条经济生命线”。他说：“我们要让这个政权崩溃。”其部门宣布立即对 60 个与伊朗相关的实体、个人和船只实施制裁。但贝森特表示，包括中国、伊拉克和土耳其在内的伊朗贸易伙伴将有一段不确定的时间来与伊朗脱钩，之后才会面临严厉处罚。当被问及为何推迟实施这些制裁时，贝森特说：“我为什么要摧毁全球金融体系？”

伊朗最大的贸易伙伴中国表示，“坚决反对非法单边制裁”，并将采取“一切必要措施”维护自身利益。在伊朗，财政部长赛义德·阿里·马丹尼扎德（Seyed Ali Madanizadeh）表示，该政权一直在为美国发起“经济恐怖袭击”做准备，并将予以报复。一项 NBC 的调查显示，伊朗已经在整个中东地区给美国情报站和监控硬件造成了价值数十亿美元的损失。与此同时，特勤局表示，已注意到伊朗针对特朗普总统小儿子的威胁。据报道，一段描述德黑兰监控工作的伊朗国家电视台视频中出现了一张标题为“在哪里杀死巴伦·特朗普（Barron Trump）”的图表。

评论员怎么说

《华尔街日报》在一篇社论中表示，“经济弃儿行动”正值伊朗领导人“感到担忧”之际。里亚尔汇率刚刚“跌破 200 万 比 1 美元，创下新纪录”，且通货膨胀严重。总统马苏德·佩泽什基安（Masoud Pezeshkian）已呼吁结束战争。而且，随着美国谨慎地护送更多石油通过该水道，德黑兰甚至可能正在失去对霍尔木兹海峡的控制。只要特朗普在最新的制裁上保持强硬，他最终可能会占据“上风”。

扎卡里·巴苏（Zachary Basu）在 Axios 中表示，“真正的考验将是中国”，因为中国“约占伊朗出口石油的 $90”。特朗普真的会冒风险与“世界第二大经济体展开新冲突”吗？考虑到习近平主席将于 9 月前往华盛顿参加峰会，或许不会。贝森特承认他犹豫是否要“摧毁”世界贸易，这实际上已经承认了“D-Day”更多是威胁而非现实。

斯科特·沃尔德曼（Scott Waldman）和梅根·梅瑟利（Megan Messerly）在 Politico 中表示，通过宣布经济战争，特朗普似乎认为军事阶段已经结束。美国外交官正被派回该地区此前撤离的大使馆。然而，一个日益孤立且绝望的伊朗有充分的动力通过武力升级局势。本周，又有一艘油轮在霍尔木兹海峡遭到袭击。最乐观的情况下，华盛顿的“金融攻势”将“延长一场已经拖延了近六个月的战争”。最糟糕的情况下，它将迫使德黑兰的领导人“加大对”美国基地及其盟友的攻击。

娜塔莉·哈普：与特朗普的共生关系

《今日美国》的雷克斯·哈普克（Rex Huppke）表示，直到上周，娜塔莉·哈普（Natalie Harp）在特朗普总统那个“深度且彻底地古怪”的政府中，还只是另一个色彩鲜明的“背景人物”。政治发烧友们眼中的哈普（35岁）是特朗普崇拜且无处不在的“人体打印机”，她不断为他提供人们对他赞美之词的纸质“打印件”。但现在，佐治亚州参议员乔恩·奥索夫（Jon Ossoff）让哈普成为了家喻户晓的名字。在上周的一次演讲中，奥索夫指责特朗普对总统这份工作几乎没有兴趣，更喜欢打高尔夫球、设计宴会厅以及“与娜塔莉一起旅行”。《大西洋月刊》的乔纳森·勒米尔（Jonathan Lemire）表示，奥索夫触动了敏感神经，导致“西翼陷入疯狂”。特朗普的发言人发表了措辞激烈的声明，称奥索夫为“绿帽失败者”；而特朗普在媒体上的代理人则声称，奥索夫暗示哈普因为年轻、金发且漂亮而对特朗普（他称她为“我的娜塔莉”）拥有如此大的影响力，这种想法是“性别歧视”的。但甚至在奥索夫的嘲讽之前，白宫内部就有人向媒体泄露了她写给特朗普的谄媚信件，一些助手也抱怨道，“哈普太缺乏经验，不应该如此不受限制地接触总统”。《纽约时报》记者、关于特朗普第二任期新书的合著者玛吉·哈伯曼（Maggie Haberman）将哈普描述为特朗普的“安抚奶嘴”，她不断的崇拜给特朗普带来了慰藉。

《今日美国》的妮可·罗素（Nicole Russell）表示，娜塔莉·哈普是“一名忠诚的特朗普助手，而非丑闻”。总统助手崇拜其老板并为其每周工作七天并不罕见。“接近权力是一种极强的药物”，如果你认为这是第一位“助手愿意为其忍受任何艰辛”的总统，那么“我有一本历史书要卖给你”。

《堡垒》（The Bulwark）的乔纳森·V·拉斯特（Jonathan V. Last）表示，哈普对特朗普的痴迷远超正常的忠诚。她曾给他写过长篇且“疯狂”的信件，称他为她的“守护者和保护者”，并宣称“你是我唯一在意的人”以及“我永远不想给你带来除了快乐之外的任何东西”。为了留在他的身边，她曾追赶特朗普的高尔夫球车，把自己蜷缩在SUV的后备箱里，并在他位于新泽西州贝德明斯特的高尔夫俱乐部更衣室里住了好几个月。上个月，特朗普乘坐餐饮车秘密离开空军一号时，哈普是少数几个被选中随行的人，而内阁成员们则被留在原地面对传闻中来自伊朗的袭击。总统如此依赖这个“内部跟踪者”的事实“既滑稽又恐怖”。

《纽约时报》的贾梅尔·布伊（Jamelle Bouie）表示，尽管难以置信，“但说娜塔莉·哈普是美国最有权力的人之一是完全合理的”。这是因为她控制着“总统的信息饮食”。她在右翼网络中搜寻支持特朗普的评论、虚假民调和挑衅性内容。例如，正是哈普找到了那段将奥巴马夫妇描绘成类人猿的极具种族主义色彩的AI视频，随后特朗普将其分享到了Truth Social上。她还控制着参议员和众议员接触总统的渠道，过滤掉坏消息，并加固他那套“虚构现实”的信息茧房。《波士顿环球报》的勒妮·格雷厄姆（Renée Graham）表示，尽管这一切都很荒诞，但在这个业余的政府中，哈普扮演如此核心的角色不应令人惊讶。这就是美国人在第二次选举出一位“历史上不稳定、比起面对真相更痴迷于保护自我意识的总统”时所要求的。

只有在美国

美国陆军正向士兵提供四天假期来玩《侠盗猎车手 VI》（Grand Theft Auto VI），前提是他们必须续约至少两年。这项优惠面向佐治亚州斯图尔特堡（Fort Stewart）一个工程营的 130 名成员，这四天假期恰逢陆军所称的这款电子游戏在 11 月的“备受期待的发布”。第三步兵师的一位发言人表示：“这个想法是为了建立一个与士兵兴趣相结合的独特激励计划。”

■ Demon Hunter 是一家总部位于西雅图的基督教金属乐队，他们正在起诉 Netflix，称基于电影《KPop Demon Hunters》的巡演使该乐队陷入了“生存危机”。尽管《KPDH》是 Netflix 历史上观看次数最多的电影，讲述了一个字面意义上猎杀恶魔的 K-Pop 女团的冒险故事，但 Demon Hunter 声称，Netflix 以该名称组织现场音乐演出“并没有权利”，就像它不能以“KPop Metallica”或“KPop U2”的名义进行巡演一样。

本周之幸：

永恒不变。选举否认者兼 MyPillow 首席执行官迈克·林德尔（Mike Lindell）此前宣布，他将支付 $825,000 对他近期在明尼苏达州共和党州长初选中的失败进行人工重新计票，随后却拒绝付款，称该州关于重新计票的计划是“非法的诱导欺诈”。

平局决胜。在阿拉斯加州的美国参议院选举中，前安克雷奇市长丹·A·萨利文（Dan A. Sullivan）支持现任共和党参议员丹·S·萨利文（Dan S. Sullivan），而非挑战者丹·J·萨利文（Dan J. Sullivan）。这位前市长援引自己“作为原版丹·萨利文（O.G. Dan Sullivan）”的身份，敦促“阿拉斯加人投票给丹尼尔·S·萨利文”。

灰姑娘故事。比利时王子劳伦（Prince Laurent）正式承认 26 岁的前汽车销售员克莱门特·范登克尔科夫（Clément Vandenkerckhove）为其生物学儿子，这是该王子与一名比利时女歌手短暂关系的结果。范登克尔科夫现在可以在法律上使用其父亲的姓氏萨克森-科堡（Saxe-Coburg），但他表示这样做将是对他母亲的“背叛”。

本周之不幸：

发脾气。美国司法部（DOJ）的一名律师告诉法院，如果特朗普总统被禁止完成他对华盛顿特区肯尼迪中心的翻修（翻修内容包括将其更名为“由唐纳德·J·特朗普总统修复并翻新的约翰·F·肯尼迪表演艺术中心”），这座“不安全”的建筑将被“拆除”。

运动员。在北京举行的世界人形机器人大赛中，一个中国机器人以 9.39 秒的成绩跑完 100 米短跑，打破了尤塞恩·博尔特在 2009 年创下的 9.58 秒人类纪录。

二手烟。据《华尔街日报》报道，婴儿潮一代大增的大麻使用量正成为他们年轻邻居的困扰。64 岁的菲奥雷拉·特伦齐（Fiorella Terenzi）说，当她试图就飘散的烟雾与隔壁的一对 70 多岁夫妇交谈时，对方“总是带着那种轻蔑的笑，好像在说：‘噢，得了吧，如果你抽嗨了，你就很酷。’”

其他新闻

特朗普对寻求庇护者的新打击

在特朗普政府最新的移民打击行动中，国务院本周宣布计划撤销部分外国公民的签证。这些人最初临时来到美国，但通过申请庇护寻求长期停留，此举可能影响多达 200,000 名签证持有者和庇护申请人。被针对的人员是在 2016 年至 2026 年期间持有 B-1 或 B-2 签证（用于商务或旅游目的）进入美国的。国务院计划滚动撤销这些签证。国务院一名发言人表示：“在特朗普总统和鲁比奥部长的领导下，我们明确表示，签证是一种特权，而非权利。”国务院还告知各大使馆和领事馆，必须推迟所有已预约的签证面试，直到工作人员接受关于该政府更严格政策的培训。

美国概览

Parton

田纳西州布伦特伍德

美国偶像：乡村音乐传奇多莉·帕顿（Dolly Parton）本周去世，享年 80 岁。帕顿是田纳西州本土人士，也是史上最畅销的女乡村艺术家，在全球范围内售出超过 1.6 亿 张专辑，并赢得了 11 项格莱美奖、两项艾美奖和一项奥斯卡荣誉奖。她创作并演唱了一系列卓越的热门歌曲，包括《Jolene》、《I Will Always Love You》以及《9 to 5》——后者是 1980 年热门喜剧电影的主题曲，她也在该片中出演。她的商业帝国包括一个主题公园；化妆品、内衣和鞋类产品线；以及对其作品目录的所有权。帕顿在去世前四天入院治疗。上周她告诉《People》杂志，她正在“处理一些健康问题”，但仍有许多想要实现的目标。她说：“只要我还能工作，我就将继续努力，让一切变为现实。”《本周》杂志将在下一期刊登完整的讣告。

德克萨斯州埃尔帕索

军属被驱逐：一名现役陆军中士的妻子本周被驱逐回洪都拉斯，这是特朗普政府移民打击行动的一部分。陆军中士赫达尔·莱昂内尔·图尔西奥斯·胡亚雷斯（Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez）是一名美国公民，曾于 2024, 年被部署到中东执行为期九个月的任务，他表示其妻子克里斯蒂·玛丽奥里·比利亚弗兰卡（Cristy Maryori Villafranca）——一名来自洪都拉斯的无证移民——已于 7 月被拘留。美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）特工在一家沃尔玛超市门口拦截了该家庭，并在夫妇俩 6 岁的女儿面前给比利亚弗兰卡戴上了手铐。美联社（AP）最近的一项调查发现，特朗普政府已将至少 50 名军人的父母或配偶列为目标，其中至少 6 人被驱逐。美国海军“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号航空母舰的船员约书亚·阿维莱斯（Joshua Aviles）上周在 Facebook 上写道，他的父亲——一名在美居住 19 年的尼加拉瓜原住民——正被 ICE 拘留。阿维莱斯说：“我不知道在心理上我该如何继续每天工作 12 个多小时。”他的父亲是佛罗里达州基韦斯特的一名杂工，本周已获释。

华盛顿特区

舞厅工程获暂缓：最高法院本周裁定，在白宫被拆除的东翼原址上建设的舞厅综合体目前可以继续施工。该决定暂停了下级法院立即停止施工的命令，但并未就该项目是否合法做出裁决，而是给了大法官们更多时间来考虑特朗普政府的上诉。国家历史保护信托基金会（National Trust for Historic Preservation）以白宫的重大变更需要国会批准为由对该项目提出质疑，该基金会表示，政府试图通过快速建设以造成既成事实，从而“逃避司法审查”。特朗普赞扬了这一裁决，并表示该舞厅及其下方计划建设的掩体对国家安全至关重要。但《华盛顿邮报》本周报道称，白宫已经拥有一个秘密的防核掩体。

南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚

格雷厄姆获胜：作为总统特朗普对共和党依然掌控力强有力的迹象，达琳·格雷厄姆（Darline Graham）本周在南卡罗来纳州共和党参议院初选决胜轮中击败了担任五届议员的拉尔夫·诺曼（Ralph Norman）。格雷厄姆是已故参议员林赛·格雷厄姆（Lindsey Graham）的妹妹，在 7 月受特朗普敦促被任命填补其兄席位时，她是一名没有任何政治经验的公务员。她的竞选活动一直受到关于裙带关系和缺乏经验的质疑：在与诺曼唯一的一次辩论中，当被问及关于台湾和南海的问题时，她承认：“我对国家安全方面了解不多。”特朗普的 MAGA Inc. 超级政治行动委员会（super PAC）花费了超过 $800,000 来支持格雷厄姆的竞选，特朗普上周还为她举办了一场默特尔海滩集会。格雷厄姆将在 11 月的选举中面对民主党人安妮·安德鲁斯（Annie Andrews），而在一个自 1998 年以来就未选出过民主党参议员的州，她被认为具有极大的优势。

宾夕法尼亚州兰开斯特县

麻疹死亡病例：州卫生部门本周表示，宾夕法尼亚州有两名未接种疫苗的人员在感染麻疹后死亡。在一次涉及多个州、病例数接近 3,000 例的疫情爆发中，这是今年首批此类死亡病例。出于隐私原因，官员未透露死者身份，也未说明其是否为儿童。州长乔什·夏皮罗（Josh Shapiro）被广泛认为正准备参加 2028 年民主党总统初选，他表示已就卫生部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr.）的反疫苗立场与其进行对质。夏皮罗说：“我明确表示，他的行为以及本届政府传达的言论正对全美各地的社区产生负面影响，尤其是在宾夕法尼亚州。”本月早些时候，特朗普总统签署了一项不具约束力的行政命令，旨在拆分 MMR 疫苗，并错误地声称将麻疹、腮腺炎和风疹疫苗合并在一起一次性接种（医生自 1971 年起一直如此操作）可能是“致命的”。

弗吉尼亚州纽波特纽斯

荣誉被撤销？据 CNN 上周报道，美国海军正考虑重新命名一艘原计划以二战黑人英雄多丽丝·米勒（Doris Miller）命名的航空母舰。目前尚不清楚这艘仍在建造中的舰船将被命名为什么，但消息人士告诉该媒体，海军正在权衡将其命名为唐纳德·特朗普——这对在任总统来说将是前所未有的荣誉。海军在内部已经停止使用“多丽丝·米勒号”这个名称，转而用其船号 CVN-81 来指代该舰。海军打算将另一艘船命名为米勒。在日本袭击珍珠港时，身为伙房勤务员的米勒在甲板上的炮手被杀后，抓起一把机枪向日本飞机开火，在将受伤水手拖至安全地带之前，至少击落了一架飞机。军舰的名称极少更改，但去年国防部长皮特·海格塞斯（Pete Hegseth）下令重新命名“哈维·米尔克号”（USNS Harvey Milk），该舰原是以这位被杀的海军退伍军人兼同性恋权利活动家命名的。

世界概览

伦敦

支付赔偿：哈里王子、埃尔顿·约翰（Elton John）、女演员伊丽莎白·赫莉（Elizabeth Hurley）以及其他四位名流上周被命令向《每日邮报》的出版商支付初步 1300万美元 的赔偿金。一旦该报在应对这些名人发起的联合诽谤诉讼（该诉讼最终失败）中所产生的法律费用被核定，这一数字还将增加。这七人指控该公司窃听他们的手机和语音信箱，并诱骗他人交出私人文件。马修·尼克林（Matthew Nicklin）法官称这些指控为“投机性的”，并批评原告在无法证明信息是通过非法手段获取后仍未撤诉。哈里长期与媒体发生冲突：他将导致其母亲戴安娜王妃在 1997 年巴黎车祸中丧生的原因归咎于追逐他的狗仔队，并将小报对他妻子梅根的批评视为导致这对夫妇放弃王室职责的原因。

海地，肯斯科夫

帮派屠杀：本周，骑摩托车的枪手入侵了长期以来一直安全的海地山城肯斯科夫，纵火烧房、强奸妇女并杀害数十人，其中 22 人在教堂内被处决。“我不得不从尸体上跑过去，” 42. 岁的幸存者马克·保罗（Marc Paul）说道。杀手劫持了至少 50 人作为人质，并威胁如果警方采取报复行动就将他们杀掉。这次袭击是 2021, 年武装帮派席卷该国大部分地区以来最大规模的集体绑架事件之一，而此时特朗普政府正开始大规模驱逐海地移民（见第 17 页）。肯斯科夫是一个农业小镇，也是海地富人的避暑胜地，坐落在

一座处于震惊与悲痛之中的城镇

临时政府所在地佩蒂翁维尔（Pétion-Ville）的太子港郊区之上。“帮派们在说：只要我们决定攻击，我们就能做到，”分析师罗曼·勒库尔·格兰德梅松（Romain Le Cour Grandmaison）表示。

巴拿马城

浅水区：巴拿马运河管理局上周宣布，由于干旱导致水位下降，将每日通行船只数量从 36 艘削减至 32 艘。今年夏天，降雨量比平均水平低 34%，限制了填充运河船闸并允许每艘船通过的可用水量。随着严重的厄尔尼诺天气现象加热太平洋表层海水并改变降雨模式，情况预计将进一步恶化。这条连接大西洋和太平洋的运河仅处理全球 5% 的贸易量，但处理了 40% 往返于美国的货物。由伊朗战争引起的航运中断已将未预订运河时段的拍卖价格（通常在 $135,000, 左右）推高至 $5.300 万。

玻利维亚，拉巴斯

糟糕的一周：玻利维亚总统罗德里戈·帕斯（Rodrigo Paz）上周被迫解雇其经济部长。对于这位在近二十年的单党社会主义统治后于去年就职的右翼人士来说，这是接连遭遇的一系列挫折中的最新一次。玻利维亚国会对何塞·加布里埃尔·埃斯皮诺萨（José Gabriel Espinoza）因拒绝回答有关其处理经济问题的问题而予以谴责。帕斯曾誓言要反对解雇埃斯皮诺萨（根据法律，谴责后 24 小时内必须解雇），但在面对公众对持续生活成本危机的愤怒时，他最终妥协了。同样在上周，帕斯的顾问费尔南多·塞里梅多（Fernando Cerimedo）因涉嫌企图谋杀一名律师而被捕，该律师称其拥有政府腐败的证据。此前，一名关键的国会盟友与总统所属政党决裂。“对于这个国家来说，现在不是容易的时期，”帕斯说道。

帕斯：“并非容易的时期”

伦敦

伊朗网络攻击：英国当局本周确认，与伊朗有关的黑客在 7 月短暂关闭了一座小型发电厂。此次网络攻击的目标是英国大约 300 座小型燃气“峰值”电厂之一，这些电厂在用电高峰期用于增强局部电网。当局未透露该电厂的具体位置，但《星期日电讯报》（The Sunday Telegraph）报道称，该电厂被强制离线四天。官员表示，已有系统可向运营商发出大型电厂遭受网络攻击的警报。但他们表示，该设施是一个“极小规模的站点”，远未达到该阈值。安全专家表示，这次攻击似乎是伊朗发出的警告，表明其有能力瘫痪英国的关键基础设施。此次攻击发生的时间与伊朗黑客攻击美国几家水厂泵管理系统的时间大致相同。

运河减速

利比里亚，蒙罗维亚

抵制遣返：上周，六名被美国遣返的人员在利比里亚拒绝下飞机，使他们成为首批抵制被丢弃在与其毫无联系的“第三国”的移民。这些移民——包括三名古巴男子、一名巴西男子、一名喀麦隆女子以及另一人——是被送往利比里亚的 20 人中的一部分。利比里亚是一个民主国家，已同意在未来一年内接收 1,200 名被遣返的移民。据报道，他们被告知将被送回美国。然而，他们随后被带到了赤道几内亚，该国同样同意接收美国遣返人员，但它是世界上最压抑的国家之一，当地警方经常使用酷刑。一名国土安全部发言人表示：“如果法官认定一名非法外籍人士没有留在本国的权利，我们将将其驱逐。就这么简单。”

世界概览

莫斯科

拉特克利夫

秘密 CIA 之行：据 CBS 新闻报道，中央情报局（CIA）局长约翰·拉特克利夫本周前往俄罗斯进行未公开的会谈。美国拒绝确认此次行程，但一架美国军用运输机和外交车队在莫斯科被发现。拉特克利夫直接参与了近期关于囚犯交换的谈判，但这是他担任局长后的首次访问。此次访问正值俄罗斯对包括北约成员国在内的支持乌克兰的欧洲国家发起的“混合战争”变得愈发公开之际。本周，在德国莱比锡机场附近发现了第二架装载爆炸物的无人机，德国总理弗里德里希·梅尔茨表示，他的国家正面临“非常真实的威胁”。其他北约国家则遭遇了 GPS 信号干扰、仓库被纵火以及公用事业设施遭受网络攻击。上一次 CIA 局长访问莫斯科是在 2021, 年，当时威廉·伯恩斯前往那里警告俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京不要入侵乌克兰。

高

罗马尼亚击落的无人机

罗马尼亚，图兹拉

俄罗斯的天然气威胁：上周，罗马尼亚紧急出动 F-16 战斗机，在黑海的 Neptun Deep 天然气平台几百码外摧毁了一架携带武装的俄罗斯海军陆战队无人机。Neptun Deep 将于明年投入运行，预计将使罗马尼亚成为欧盟最大的天然气生产国。这将使欧洲受益，因为在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后，由于对俄罗斯石油和天然气的制裁，欧洲的能源价格有所上涨。罗马尼亚是北约成员国，与乌克兰拥有近 400 英里的边界，并报告了多次发现俄罗斯空中无人机以及在航道附近漂浮的水雷的情况。欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩表示，此次事件是俄罗斯针对欧洲境内乌克兰盟友所采取的“升级威胁行动”的一部分。

乌克兰，扎波罗热

AI 控制的无人机：据《纽约时报》本周报道，一架外观像模型飞机且由实验性人工智能系统引导的俄罗斯无人机在一家加油站杀死了三名乌克兰人。这架配备了英伟达（Nvidia）芯片的“闪电”（Molniya）无人机撞上墙壁并爆炸成碎片，令人不寒而栗地揭示了脱离人类控制的未来武器所具有的无差别杀伤力。乌克兰军方官员表示，该无人机显然是由人类操作员编程，用于寻找加油站，然后在接近后选择最具杀伤力的地点进行打击。今年夏天，无人机已炸毁了乌克兰 200 多家加油站，但尚不清楚其中有多少采用了 AI 引导。乌克兰上校谢尔盖·米纳耶夫告诉《时报》：“这对全世界来说都是一个风险。几年之内，我们将生活在《终结者》电影中。”

一架“闪电”无人机

中国三河

艺术家入狱：现居纽约的艺术家高震本周被判处三年监禁，理由是其创作了对前领导人毛泽东不敬的雕塑，涉嫌诽谤“英雄烈士”。

现年 70 岁的高震于 2009 年创作了这些作品，而中国在他被指控所依据的法律通过前近十年。此后他移民美国并获得了绿卡，但两年前在与家人一起访问中国时被中国当局逮捕。高震最著名的雕塑作品之一（与其兄弟高强共同创作）描绘了毛泽东单膝跪地、手抚胸口表示忏悔的场景。另一件作品则展示了七尊毛泽东雕像组成的行刑队正用步枪瞄准耶稣。在羁押期间，他继续进行艺术创作，包括彩色的剪纸。他的兄弟表示：“艺术绝不应该是犯罪。”

巴林麦纳麦

美国家庭受困：据《星条旗报》（Stars and Stripes）上周报道，美国海军已告知在伊朗战争爆发之初从巴林基地撤离的近 1,300 名军属，他们短期内无法返回，必须在其他地方寻找住所。其中许多家庭在美国及海外的酒店或短期租赁房上花费了数万美元，而他们的财物仍被困在海军第五舰队总部所在地巴林。起初，他们被告知这次搬迁将像 2025 年 6 月对伊朗袭击期间那样短暂（当时持续了 12 天）。海军中将库尔特·伦肖（Curt Renshaw）在一次虚拟市政会议上向数百名家属表示：“我们实际上是在边走边摸索，因为没有任何方案预想到会持续这么长时间。”

印度尼西亚巨港

火势蔓延：本周，受厄尔尼诺现象引发的干旱影响，印度尼西亚的森林和泥炭地陷入剧烈野火。婆罗洲居民苏瓦迪（Suwadi，像许多印度尼西亚人一样仅使用单名）表示，浓烟让每一次呼吸都感觉“像在抽烟”。该地区的急诊室接诊人数是平时的 10 倍，其中许多人患有呼吸系统问题。约 24,000 名消防员正在与大火搏斗，自 7 月以来，火灾已烧毁数百平方英里，政府正动用数十架飞机进行人工增雨和水投灭火。当局已逮捕 72 人，并正在调查四家涉嫌纵火清理土地的公司。南苏门答腊省省长赫尔曼·德鲁（Herman Deru）本周在 3,000 人聚集在巨港举行伊斯兰祈雨仪式时表示：“我们已经尽了全力。作为信仰者，我们也向神祈祷降雨，让生活恢复正常。”

里斯的自信危机

卢卢·加西亚-纳瓦罗在《纽约时报》中写道，马修·里斯拒绝信任自己的成功。这位演员赢得了评论界的广泛赞誉，包括凭借《美国人》获得一座艾美奖以及十多次奖项提名。但自他在威尔士还是个男孩起，他就一直与自我怀疑作斗争——他说，那个地方就孕育了这种情绪。在英格兰的阴影下，“我们是那个总是被扔在角落里被忽视的小表亲。在国家层面存在着一种巨大的顺从感和不安全感。”他崇拜大卫·尼文，一位拥有威尔士血统的英国演员，也是低调自信的典范。“他总是那么安静地自信，总能说出正确的话。我希望我也能成为那样的人。”他还关注他的同胞理查德·伯顿，后者打破了常规。“他是第一个非常、非常‘不威尔士’的人。[他拥有]这种自信和傲慢。对我来说，这就像是在说，‘哇，我们是被允许成为那样的。’”里斯将他的一些不足感归结为：首先是在一个热爱体育的学校里成为唯一的演员追梦人，随后是在一所充满英格兰人的戏剧学院里成为罕见的威尔士人。现在，他称自己在纽约市的生活是“另一条离开水的鱼”。“这是演员们陈词滥调的无聊说法：我从未融入过！”尽管如此，他认为避免过度自信有其好处。“哦，那是丧钟。我从未感到完全自在。而这让你保持一点饥渴感。”

从乌克兰设计师到无人机制造商

马修·卢克斯穆尔在《华尔街日报》中写道，伊琳娜·特列赫曾认为自己是个和平主义者。随后俄罗斯入侵了她的国家。在乌克兰战争爆发两周后，身为基辅一家家具公司所有者的特列赫在与母亲匆忙离开被围困的布恰市时，她的车遭到了俄罗斯狙击手的袭击。这次经历唤醒了她内心冰冷的决心，她在 Instagram 上发布了一篇宣言：“我是那些不知道如何战斗的女性之一。但我确定一件事：我会竭尽全力确保此类事件永远不会在我的国家再次发生。”她改造了自己的公司以生产反坦克工事，凭借其制造专长，她在 2023 年被聘为乌克兰最大的私营国防公司 Fire Point 的生产总监。特列赫将一种新型远程无人机机翼的生产时间从六天缩短到三小时以内；此后，这些无人机被用于打击俄罗斯深处的炼油厂。特列赫现在是 Fire Point 的首席执行官，领导着 7,000 名员工。“如果我的国家没有被入侵，我永远不会涉足武器，”她说，但她看到了武器的效用。“为了建造美好的东西，你必须先摧毁丑陋的东西。”

妮可·基德曼如何倾听内心

吉尔斯·哈特斯利在《Vogue》杂志中写道，妮可·基德曼不会让第二次婚姻的结束击垮她。这位明星去年秋天与乡村歌手基思·厄本的离婚过程并不戏剧化——两人甚至没有出庭。但 59, 岁的基德曼承认，这是艰难的一年。“你制定了所有这些计划，对一切将如何发展有着所有这些想法，然后结果……并非如此。你必须适应。”在随后的日子里，她依赖于自己终身坚持的“感觉至上”的方法。“我不会过度思考，”她说，“我随心而行。我只是想，‘好吧，我现在感觉如何？那就试一次。’”同样的哲学在她 23. 岁嫁给汤姆·克鲁斯而被推入狗仔队的聚光灯下时支撑了她。一些朋友警告说，这段婚姻会损害她的事业。“我的反应是，‘我不在乎。我恋爱了。’然后我成了他的‘妻子’，他们就说，‘看吧，我们告诉过你。’而我想，‘那又怎样？难道我不应该嫁给我爱的人吗？当然，我会抛弃我的事业。我不在乎。’”现在她处于一个重新调整的阶段，夏天在欧洲度过，在家里安静的夜晚与在俱乐部跳舞、戴着假发伪装的狂欢之夜之间交替。基德曼决心追随自己的感觉，但她并不完全确定这些感觉接下来会将她引向何方。“人们说红发的人对疼痛更敏感，但我以能够挺过来而闻名。虽然一切都很痛，但你依然得继续前行。”

新闻简报

扎克·希克森告诉 TMZ，海登·帕内蒂尔的男友布莱恩·希克森在女演员上周被宣布死亡前不久，为其注射了一种抗过量药物。扎克说，在对方没有回复他的消息后，他顺道去了这对情侣在南卡罗来纳州格林维尔的 Airbnb 住所。他的

敲门声唤醒了 37, 岁的布莱恩，两兄弟发现这位《英雄》女演员昏迷在沙发床上。“我立即拨打了 911，”扎克说，“布莱恩给她用了纳洛酮（Narcan）”——一种可以逆转阿片类药物过量的鼻喷剂。急救人员对帕内蒂尔进行了心肺复苏，但未能将其救活。美国缉毒局（DEA）已加入对长期与成瘾斗争的帕内蒂尔死亡事件的调查。她与其关系疏远的母亲莱斯利·沃格尔本周表示，帕内蒂尔知道布莱恩·希克森——此人曾对该女演员有暴力行为——是“有毒的。她必须将他从生活中剔除”。

■ 据《莫斯科时报》报道，本周在俄罗斯圣彼得堡市计划举行的两场坎耶·韦斯特演唱会被取消，原因是场馆接到了一个来自“上方”的不祥电话。加兹普罗姆竞技场曾宣传过这位赞美希特勒的说唱歌手 10 月的演出日期——这将是 2022 年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，首位西方大牌明星在俄罗斯的演出——且门票迅速售罄。但在受到弗拉基米尔·普京总统盟友的压力后，竞技场宣布演唱会将不予举行，理由是组织者据称未能签署租赁协议。亲普京的立法者维塔利·米洛诺夫曾要求韦斯特在演出中仅演唱俄罗斯传统歌曲，并“停止他令人厌恶的古怪行为”。

特朗普总统已与迈克尔·科恩冰释前嫌。特朗普本周致电其前任“清理人”的广播节目进行了一次友好的聊天，标志着多年来的相互谩骂和诉讼告一段落。科恩因向色情女星斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付费用以使其对与特朗普的涉嫌私情保持沉默而入狱，并且在 2024, 年，他在纽约的一场审判中出庭指证特朗普，在该审判中，总统被判定伪造商业记录罪名成立。科恩曾称特朗普为“骗子”，而特朗普则痛斥他是“叛徒”。但特朗普在节目中表示，他已经原谅了科恩，而科恩目前正在寻求赦免，并声称检察官强迫他出庭作证。“如果你不反对特朗普，他们会用一切手段威胁你，”总统说，“而你现在把话收回了。”

塔利班统治下的阿富汗

在美国撤军失败五年后，数百万人面临压制、饥饿与绝望。

如今的阿富汗生活如何？

对于绝大多数阿富汗人来说，生活极其凄惨。约 90% 的人口生活在贫困线以下，是美国撤军前的两倍多，且有超过 350 万名儿童遭受营养不良。在塔利班对沙里亚法的严苛解读下，观看电影、下棋、唱歌以及演奏或聆听音乐均被禁止。男性必须蓄长须并参加每日祷告。而对于女性而言，其行动受约 200 项塔利班法令的约束，这里成了地球上最压抑的国家。女性不能在六年级以后就学，不能从事大多数工作，不能在没有男性亲属陪同的情况下旅行，不能在公共场合露出面部，甚至不能在公共场合发言。“想象一下，每天生活在不知道自由之门是否会再次开启的惶恐中，”现流亡于英国的前阿富汗议员舒克里亚·巴拉克扎伊（Shukria Barakzai）说道，“这种心理创伤是巨大的。”

塔利班是如何夺取控制权的？

2020 年 2 月，第一任特朗普政府与塔利班达成协议——将摇摇欲坠的阿富汗政府边缘化——以美国军队撤出换取塔利班的保证，即该国不会被用作对美国人发动恐怖袭击的基地。随后，就任总统乔·拜登承诺在 2021 年 9 月 11 日之前将部队撤出，但执行过程极其混乱。2021 年 8 月 15 日，阿富汗政府崩溃，数以千计绝望的阿富汗人在塔利班占领首都之际，冲向喀布尔机场试图登上美国飞机。在一次 ISIS-K 的自杀式爆炸袭击中，至少 169 名阿富汗人和 13 名美国军人丧生。虽然塔利班在遏制 ISIS-K 和其他恐怖组织方面基本取得了成功，但他们关于治理方式将比 2001 年前更温和的承诺被证明毫无价值。他们很快重新引入了鞭刑、公开截肢和石刑。当女性试图为权利游行时，遭到了暴力镇压；到 2023 年，阿富汗监狱中的几乎所有人都成了政治犯，且许多人遭受了酷刑。如今，阿富汗成了全球弃儿，其塔利班政府仅获得俄罗斯的承认。

“当我看到孩子们死去时，我觉得非常艰难，”在戈尔省中部的护士法蒂玛·胡赛尼（Fatima Husseini）说道，“但现在，这对我们来说几乎已经变得正常了。”

阿富汗人如何应对？

一些人采取将孩子卖入奴役或强迫其结婚的方式。超过 600 万阿富汗人逃往邻国伊朗和巴基斯坦，但这两个国家近年来几乎驱逐了所有阿富汗难民——甚至包括早在 1979 年苏联入侵期间就抵达的阿富汗人。在伊朗，阿富汗人遭到暴徒袭击，并被毫无根据地指控与以色列合作；一些合法居民的证件被警察当面撕毁。在巴基斯坦，当局拆毁了阿富汗人的房屋，剥夺了他们的财物，并强迫超过 250 万名难民步行返回边境。回到家乡后，他们通常无法获得就业机会或基本服务；约 25% 的返回者无家可归。西方国家也在寻求驱逐阿富汗人，甚至与塔利班合作来实现这一目标。

美国的情况如何？

拜登政府在撤军后迎接了超过 190,000 名阿富汗人进入美国，优先考虑前翻译人员、美国盟友战士以及其他协助美国战争行动的人员。但第二任特朗普政府采取行动取消了他们的移民身份；去年，一名由美国中央情报局（CIA）培训并安置在美国的阿富汗国民在华盛顿特区枪击了两名国民警卫队士兵，随后特朗普总统停止了所有发给阿富汗人的签证。已有 100 多人被直接遣返回阿富汗；另有数百人被送往不安全的“第三国”。目前，政府正试图将驻卡塔尔美国基地的 1,100 名阿富汗人——他们全部是经过严格审查的流亡者，要么曾协助美国军队，要么是美国军人的配偶或子女——送往战火纷飞的刚果民主共和国。官员们告诉他们，唯一的另一个选择就是

返回阿富汗。

这是否损害了经济？

是的，损害程度之深，以至于其 4500 万 的人口中三分之一在忍饥挨饿。塔利班的统治扼杀了正式经济，尽管他们容忍部分鸦片种植，并将自己变成了军火商，兜售美国及其盟友留下的价值 70 亿美元 billion 的军事硬件。但普通阿富汗人进一步遭受了塔利班镇压、2022 和 2025, 年重大地震，以及大多数美国和其他西方人道主义援助撤回的打击。农村地区的阿富汗人必须应对水资源短缺以及美国焚烧坑和炸弹残留物造成的污染。该国长期以来拥有全球最高的孕产妇死亡率之一，而现在由于塔利班禁止女性接受医学培训，并要求女性患者在就诊时必须由男性监护人陪同，情况进一步恶化。“起初，我发现

女性没有权利的地方

“8 月 15, 当政府倒台那天，是我一生中最糟糕、最痛苦的一天，”喀布尔居民沙基巴（Shakiba）告诉 BBC。她曾想成为一名飞行员，但现在她待在室内制作珠宝。“每年到了这个日期，我感觉就像一道旧伤口再次打开，一种新的挫败感充盈在心中。”一旦塔利班掌权，在大学就读或担任医生、律师和企业家的女性都被送回家。现在大多数女性每月仅出入房屋一两次，且全身覆盖。任何被认为违规的行为都会受到鞭刑。一名叫沙伊玛（Shaima）的女性表示，她被强迫承认背教和与男性交谈的罪行，并被公开鞭打 50 次，这给她的孩子们带来了心理创伤。“请为阿富汗女性发声，”喀布尔居民埃拉（Ela）告诉少数被允许进入该国的记者之一。“让世界继续关注我们的处境。我们需要的是团结，而不是沉默。”

被遣返者会遭遇什么？

他们面临监禁、酷刑和死亡。卡明·詹（Kamin Jan）曾是内政部雇员，被伊朗遣返，在 2025 年 10 月被驱逐出伊朗仅几周后，就在塔哈尔省被枪杀。数百名曾与美军合作的阿富汗人被处决；一些人报告在塔利班监狱的审讯中被拔掉脚趾甲并被倒吊着脚。一些美国军方官员警告称，遣返行为可能会开创一个破坏美国利益的先例。美国伊拉克和阿富汗退伍军人协会负责人、海军陆战队退伍军人凯莉安·亨特（Kyleanne Hunter）表示，如果美国的承诺“有效期仅限一届政府”，潜在的盟友可能会三思。“你无法与那些目睹你抛弃前任伙伴的伙伴一起赢得未来的战争。”

最佳专栏：美国

当 AI 欺骗 其创造者

詹·伊斯特利 (Jen Easterly) 《纽约时报》

布兰奇对不公正的承诺

莫娜·查伦 (Mona Charen) 《堡垒》(The Bulwark)

腐败的腐蚀力量

佩吉·努南 (Peggy Noonan) 《华尔街日报》

网络防御专家詹·伊斯特利表示：“警告灯再次闪烁。”在 9 / 11, 事件、挑战者号航天飞机爆炸以及 2008 年金融危机之前，都曾出现过被决策者决定忽略的“迫在眉睫的危险迹象”。近几周，先进的人工智能系统在测试期间“采取了其创造者并非预期的行动”，利用欺骗手段智胜人类。一个 Anthropic 的 AI 代理伪造身份在软件中植入恶意代码；另一群 代理破坏了一个用于评估 模型的平台，在其入侵被检测到之前，“执行了超过 17,000 次自主操作”。显然，“ 的能力正以惊人的速度进步，并以我们通常无法预见的方式运行。”在 以真正具有破坏性的方式失控之前，我们需要有意义的监管。联邦政府应成立一个由顶尖 开发人员以及政府情报和安全官员组成的“ 风险委员会”，每周对“险些发生的事故”和“新发现的能力”进行审查，并提出避免灾难的建议。 很快将对我们所有人的生活拥有“巨大的权力”。这一次，让我们不要在“灾难教会我们这些迹象意味着什么之后，才认真对待警告信号”。

莫娜·查伦表示，托德·布兰奇 (Todd Blanche) 对其担任美国司法部长任期仅做出了一个承诺：完全服从唐纳德·特朗普。布兰奇在被提名担任国家最高执法官员之前是特朗普的私人律师，几周前在参议院以微弱优势获得确认。在《新闻会面》(Meet the Press) 节目中，当被问及是否承诺将“独立于白宫行事”时，布兰奇断然否认，并坚持认为司法部长必须向总统负责。在被追问时，他声称特朗普“绝不会”要求他做任何不道德或非法的事情。这简直令人发笑，因为布兰奇及其前任帕姆·邦迪 (Pam Bondi) 已毫无廉耻地将司法部武器化，对詹姆斯·科米 (James Comey)、杰罗姆·鲍威尔 (Jerome Powell)、马克·凯利 (Mark Kelly) 以及许多其他特朗普的敌人进行“极其政治化”的调查并试图起诉。布兰奇主张向被定罪的 1 月 6 骚乱者支付赔偿金，并极力试图阻止爱泼斯坦 (Epstein) 文件的全面公开。他还下令将潜在的爱泼斯坦证人吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦尔 (Ghislaine Maxwell) 转移到最低安全级别的“俱乐部联邦”监狱。在确认布兰奇的人选时，共和党人“选择了软弱”——以及一个仅为一人服务的司法部。

佩吉·努南表示：“腐败比糟糕的政策更危险。”特朗普政府最持久且最具腐蚀性的遗产，可能是其对禁止总统利用职权谋取私利的法律和规范所发起的肆无忌惮的攻击。特朗普总统正在进行令人震惊的自我交易，包括其家族的加密货币计划、与外国政府的商业交易、出售赦免，以及要求寻求监管便利的公司提供捐款和贡品。糟糕的政策可以被扭转，但“腐败会渗入系统并改变其本质”。尽管特朗普的贪婪规模“极其庞大”，但并没有“广泛的公众抗议”。许多共和党人“能够视而不见他们不想看到的东西”，而其他人则感到不堪重负且麻木了。“非凡之事通过重复而变得平凡；丑闻不断累积并变得模糊，而非成为行动的号召。”如果任其发展且不予惩处，腐败会加深对政治的深刻愤世嫉俗，并严重损害公众士气。“如果公众耸耸肩然后移开视线，美国人将失去认为自己有权拥有一个廉洁政府的习惯。”

观点 “鸡蛋因为‘死亡概率’被召回。熟食餐，可能存在金属污染。牛肉。蓝莓。在过去的一个月里，除了我自己种的生菜，我没吃过任何一份沙拉，而且我也放弃了我心爱的蓝莓玛芬蛋糕。但这不仅仅是放弃喜爱食物的问题。这关乎因为 Taylor Farms 想要赚更多钱，而特朗普政府对此并不在意，从而导致人们生病。被污染的生菜最终成了一个关于特朗普时代的故事，当腐败让我们深刻意识到，当我们的机构为富人和权势者服务而非为我们服务时，普通人会遭遇什么。” 乔伊斯·万斯在其 Substack 通讯中写道

乔伊斯·万斯在其 Substack 通讯中写道

这一定是真的……我在小报上读到了

一名纽约州长岛男子在赤脚状态下完成了六场马拉松赛。57岁的约翰·马泽伊（John Mazzei）是一名社交舞教练，在发现赤脚跑步能解决他的膝盖问题后，他放弃了运动鞋，并在2010年跑完了他的首场无鞋马拉松。虽然在铺装路面上赤脚奔跑偶尔会导致血泡或被玻璃碎片割伤，但并未出现严重问题。他在跑步时吸引了大量关注，马泽伊说：“人们会说，‘嘿！你忘了穿鞋！’”有一次他被警察拦了下来，因为警察“以为我抢劫了谁。我说，‘其实，我正以每英里8分钟的速度跑步。’”

一家英国农场因运营一个以“泰坦尼克号”为原型的儿童滑梯而引发愤怒。这个位于赫特福德郡格雷夫利农场（Graveley Farm）的游乐设施面向家庭提供活动，它通过倾斜一个船形结构，让乘客沿着滑道滑到缓冲垫上。批评者认为，将一个导致近1,500人死亡的悲剧作为儿童游乐设施的蓝本是“病态的”，且“令人反感、不尊重且古怪”。该农场经理表示，他考虑过更改名称，但决定“不向觉醒阵营（woke brigade）低头”。他说，如果有任何幸存者活到今天看到这个滑梯，他希望他们能“带着慈祥的微笑”看待它。

罗德岛州的一起拖车事故导致一段公路被两吨生鱿鱼覆盖，经过数小时夏季高温的暴晒，这些鱿鱼变成了散发恶臭的炸鱿鱼。该车辆在前往加工厂途中，拖车脱落并倾覆，导致大部分货物倾倒。工作人员花费数小时清理这些头足类动物，一名当地渔民指出，它们具有“一种独特的气味”，并且“可能非常难闻”。纳拉甘塞特的警方将此次事件称为“26年鱿鱼末日（Squidpocalypse of ’26）”。

今日之研究 明日之疗法

伊莱恩， 患有转移性乳腺癌

明日拯救生命的突破，始于今日的乳腺癌研究。

请在 BCRF.ORG 捐款

最佳专栏：国际

加拿大

两级正义，正如在美国一样

安德鲁·菲利普斯 《多伦多星报》

澳大利亚

关于枪支的 共识已破裂

迈克尔·麦高恩 《悉尼早晨先驱报》

安德鲁·菲利普斯表示，考虑到加拿大目前对美国霸凌行为的愤怒，“你最想不到的事情就是我们会想要采取那些让我们变得更像美国人的政策。”然而，安大略省省长道格·福特刚刚启动了一项新的现金保释计划，采用一种“美国式的、付费换正义的制度”，这种制度如此不公正，以至于美国已有几个州将其废除。福特的《将罪犯关在狱中法案》要求任何申请保释的人在两个工作日内，必须在手持有全部保释金额，而非保释债券所需的 10%。当然，大多数人在不变卖汽车或房屋等重大资产的情况下无法做到这一点。该

“在我人生的大部分时间里，澳大利亚的枪支法律几乎是一个已经定论的问题，”迈克尔·麦高恩说道。在 1996 年波特亚瑟大屠杀（一名枪手在塔斯马尼亚屠杀了 35 人）之后，政府“采取了原则性的立场”。它建立了国家枪支登记制度，规定新枪销售需经过 28 天的等待期，并对自动和半自动武器实施严格控制。尽管如此，去年邦迪海滩大屠杀中的两名枪手（他们杀害了 15 名庆祝光明节的人）仍设法利用漏洞获取了他们所使用的枪支。此后的民意调查显示，公众支持更严格的枪支管制。然而，当总理制度“面临着在安大略省引入某种程度上的两级正义的风险：有快钱的人更容易获得保释，而没有钱的人则无法保释或面临进一步处罚。”这在表面上就应该是违法的。《权利宪章》保证所有公民都能合理地获得保释，这就是为什么加拿大在 1972 年的一项重大改革中废除了现金保释。鉴于《刑法典》只能由联邦政府修改，福特是否拥有修改保释制度的权力都令人怀疑。但如果他确实有权，那么“很难看出仅仅因为被告无法立即提供现金而惩罚他们，将如何让任何人变得更安全。”

安东尼·阿尔巴尼斯上周宣布了一项枪支回购计划，他面临了出人意料的强烈抵制。发生了什么变化？部分原因是右翼影响力人士开始质疑，为什么我们要没收正直公民合法购买的财产。另一个原因是，邦迪大屠杀使得这场讨论“有望地政治化了”。对于许多澳大利亚人来说，围绕枪支管制的辩论“现在要么与右翼试图封杀对以色列的批评相关，要么与左翼试图掩盖反犹主义相关”。武器本身被忽视了——但它们才是关键。澳大利亚人的行为表现得好像枪支是“一个已经处理完毕的问题”。但正如邦迪事件所示，事实并非如此。

他们如何看待我们：偏袒北韩而非南韩

“一场灾难的阴影笼罩在朝鲜半岛之上，”《朝鲜日报》（南韩）在社论中写道。特朗普总统上周突然决定大幅缩减与南韩正在进行的军事演习，这是一种“对盟友伙伴明显的不尊重”行为。美国下达指令时，18,000名南韩军队和近同等数量的美国军人正处于演习之中，双方不得不仓促重新调整，将实弹演习改为计算机模拟。这些演练防御北韩

2019年的金正恩与特朗普

攻击的演习是美韩同盟的“核心”，停止演习会削弱军事准备状态。更糟糕的是，特朗普实际上在“贬低同盟本身的同时为敌方辩护”，他将自己与北韩领导人金正恩的关系描述为“非常好”，并暗示南韩因未能支持特朗普在伊朗的战争而必须受到惩罚。目前，北韩的去核化——几十年来被认为是该地区的最终目标——是否仍是美国的目标，甚至都不明确。

JTBC的白敏京（Baek Min-kyung）表示，南韩总统李在明表现得很有外交手腕，称他尊重特朗普的决定。当然，他别无选择。而特朗普的这种行为“并不陌生”。这位美国总统曾多次威胁要停止联合军事演习。他的第一个任期在2018年为我们带来了史上首次美北峰会，本质上是一场与独裁者的“爱之聚会”。然而，这次金正恩“远没有理由按照华盛顿的条件回到谈判桌前”，《韩国时报》的朴恩智（Bahk Eun-ji）如此说道。北韩与中国和俄罗斯的密切联盟使其拥有强大的地区盟友，从而减少了向美国屈服的理由。虽然美国官方坚持认为去核化是不容谈判的，但自上次峰会以来，北韩的核武库已“大幅增长”，且该国现在坚称其核武器国家的地位是“不可逆转的”。因此，特朗普与金正恩的任何会面都将被解读为美国承认北韩是一个核国家。“北韩没有做任何事情来赢得这种

认可，”美国历史学家弗朗西斯·福山（Francis Fukuyama）表示。这是“独裁政权联盟的一部分，该联盟实际上对通过谈判达成真正的和平结果毫无兴趣”。

这就是为什么南韩的政策制定者正在悄悄就获取自己的核武器进行“激烈辩论”，《外交官》（澳大利亚）的克里斯托夫·布鲁斯（Christoph Bluth）表示。民调显示，高达80%的南韩人支持这一想法，且在7月，退役中将全仁范（Chun In-bum）提出了一份关于如何实现这一目标的“详尽提案”。由于这种剧烈的升级可能会导致核扩散增加，从而使该地区更加危险，南韩领导人“倾向于选择‘门槛能力’方案”，即首尔将开发在需要时快速制造武器的能力。当然，即使是这种能力也会“改变一个遵守国际法的民主南韩与一个流氓北韩国家之间的叙事”。但既然“美国不再被视为可靠的安全保证者”，这可能是不可避免的结果。

英国：哈里与梅根，续集

“温莎家族的浪子回头了，”奈尔·古奇（Niall Gooch）在《UnHerd》中写道。萨塞克斯公爵与公爵夫人——哈里王子和梅根·马克尔，在2020年辞去高级王室成员职务并移居加利福尼亚后，现正返回英国。这一令人震惊的消息于上周传出，此前这对夫妇及其子女——7岁的阿奇（Archie）和5岁的莉莉贝特（Lilibet）刚拜访了查尔斯三世国王。但“白金汉宫的厨师们暂时还不需要准备丰盛的宴席”。萨塞克斯夫妇不会恢复“与王室机构（the Firm）的关联”。显然，对于他们当年愤而离去的方式，王室依然心存不满，当时在有消息称混血美国人梅根“对工作人员粗鲁且傲慢”之后，他们又对“王室内部存在种族主义”发表了“含糊且毫无根据的暗示”。尽管如此，他们在英国并未被厌恶：哈里一直因其服役经历以及通过无敌勇士运动会（Invictus Games）为伤残退伍军人所做的工作而受到赞赏。即便梅根渴望关注的举动也仅使他们成为了“被嘲笑的对象，而非被憎恨的对象”，正如《南方公园》中关于他们“全球隐私之旅”的笑话所总结的那样。

李·科恩（Lee Cohen）在《旁观者》（The Spectator）中表示，哈里和梅根曾是好莱坞的宠儿。他们与网飞（Netflix）签署了一份价值1亿美元的协议，并凭借关于他们离开王室生活的纪录片系列剧《哈里与梅根》创下了观看记录。随后，他们将美国变成了自己的“政治舞台”。哈里开玩笑说，美国在唐纳德·特朗普身上“选出了一位国王”——对于一名“外国王子”对其东道国选出的领导人发表此类言论，显得极其缺乏共情力。由于不停地公开并将其委屈变现，他们变成了“过气且自负的好莱坞骗子”。然而，他们为何要回来？

艾莉森·皮尔逊（Allison Pearson）在《电讯报》（The Telegraph）中质疑，他们是否认为英国“不再那么种族主义”了？没有人知道他们会停留多久，或者住在哪里，只知道他们正让孩子在这里入学。猜测纷至沓来：他是遇到了签证问题吗？她在这里找到了演艺工作吗？还是国王病势严重，以至于他们必须飞到他身边？或者更有可能的是，萨塞克斯夫妇正从海外的“屈辱失败”中仓皇而逃，在那里，“公爵夫人那令人作呕地甜腻的生活方式节目《With Love, Meghan》遭到了差评”。回归意味着自私地强迫病中的查尔斯在对小儿子的和解渴望与继承人威廉王子的愤怒之间寻求平衡。未来的国王无法原谅他的兄弟所做的“如此之多不可原谅的事”，包括哈里在其自传《Spare》中声称威廉脾气暴躁，以及他们深爱的祖母伊丽莎白女王在临终前不得不面对哈里的背叛。

玛丽娜·海德（Marina Hyde）在《卫报》（The Guardian）中认为，也许他们回来只是为了产生更多内容。“在详尽地讲述了唯一一个人们还稍微感兴趣的故事之后”，他们现在将创造一个新故事，讲述“他们的生活如何被一个毒素十足的国家中一个毒素十足的家庭以及一份毒素十足的媒体搞得悲惨”。《星期日邮报》（Mail on Sunday）在社论中则表现得更为宽容。一个被安德鲁（查尔斯的弟弟）令人反感的闹剧所削弱的君主制需要加强，而哈里和梅根的回归是一个实现“伟大和解”的机会。萨塞克斯夫妇应该抓住这个机会。

瑞士

没有了雪顶，我们是谁？

雷古拉·富克斯 (Regula Fuchs) 《联邦报》(Der Bund)

比利时

欧盟对美国技术的依赖

马修·波莱 (Mathieu Pollet) Politico.eu

“今年夏天，马特洪峰在哭泣，”雷古拉·富克斯说道。这并非隐喻：在六月的一场雷阵雨后，这座瑞士阿尔卑斯山的王者颤抖并震动，冰川融化的水“像激流一样从山的灰色山腰倾泻而下”。这现在绝非偶然事件。自1973,年以来，我们有1,000多座冰川已经消失，而仅在过去十年中，我们最大的20多座冰川就失去了四分之一的体积，导致其山坡处于危险的不稳定状态。去年，一场山体滑坡摧毁了拥有800年历史的山村布拉滕 (Blatten)，那里居住着约300人。今年，一座

“当我放弃美国技术时，我首先注意到的是寂静，”马修·波莱说道。随着欧盟领导人试图让欧洲大陆摆脱对硅谷的依赖，我决定尝试在布鲁塞尔生活几天，期间不使用任何一款美国产品，看看会是什么样子。“没有 iPhone。没有 Mac。没有 Slack 或 Teams。没有 Google 搜索或地图。没有 ChatGPT。没有 WhatsApp 或 Signal。没有 Facebook 或 Instagram 动态。没有信用卡支付。”这是否可行？令人沮丧的答案是：并不太可行。没有美国技术的生活“基本上相当于尝试完全脱离技术而生活”。在镇上行走时，我必须随身携带大量现金，因为当地的欧洲银行

岩层即将崩塌，威胁到坎德施泰格 (Kandersteg) 的安全，这是一个拥有约1,300人的小村庄，因其壮丽的景色而深受游客喜爱。“罪魁祸首当然是气候变化，”这导致瑞士的温度上升速度是全球平均水平的两倍。这种变暖除了对环境、旅游业和农业产生影响外，还将带来“灾难性的后果”。它还将打击我们的“文化认同”。在瑞士诗歌中，白雪皑皑的阿尔卑斯山代表着“道德纯洁的支柱”；在约翰娜·斯派里 (Johanna Spyri) 的《海蒂》故事中，它们是身体和心理疗愈之地。看着我们的白色山脉变灰，将像感受到伤口一样痛苦。

卡通常使用 Visa 或 Mastercard。在家里，流媒体服务被禁止，因为我的电视和平板电脑都运行在 Google 软件上，甚至为了给朋友打电话，我不得不使用诺基亚功能机而不是智能手机。在工作中，当我的同事们在所有的沟通平台上畅聊时，我被简单地排除在对话之外。成为一名“数字僧侣”并非所有方面都糟糕——不再有“在床上刷绝望新闻”的情况——但在第 3, 天，我因能与我的 iPhone 重聚而喜极而泣。欧洲人担心一个不可预测的美国可能会通过按下“终止开关”来扰乱整个大陆，这种担忧是正确的。但实现“数字主权”将需要付出艰巨的努力。

简讯

一份内部文件显示，美国中央情报局（CIA）正经历一场“前所未有”的退休和辞职潮。一名曾在该机构任职的官员表示，CIA 的员工人数在 2025 年初约为 22,000 人，此后可能已有约 1,000 人离职。由于文书工作积压，新退休人员收到警告，他们可能在九个月后才能收到第一笔全额退休金支票。《华盛顿邮报》

■ 负责保护联邦土地上野马的土地管理局正悄悄将野马出售给买家，而这些买家为了规避禁止屠宰野马的禁令，将野马转售并以活体形式出口，随后将其加工成肉块。去年有 3,700 多匹马被售出，部分马匹的价格低至每头 $25。《纽约时报》

一项新研究显示，报告大麻使用障碍症状的美国人数量正在增加。报告该障碍症状的男性比例从 2021 年的 7.3% 上升到 2024 年的 9.3%，该症状包括尽管在工作或学校遇到与大麻相关的问题，但仍无法减少使用量或戒除。在女性中，这一比例从 4.5% 上升到 5.6%。《福布斯》

■ 根据非营利组织“反腐败数据集体”（Anti-Corruption Data Collective）的说法，预测交易平台 Polymarket 上的 150 多个钱包可能利用美国军方的内部信息进行交易。在针对美国和以色列袭击伊朗的多次投注中，这些钱包共赚取了 $800 万，平均胜率高达 97.2%。路透社

数据中心：现已成为中期选举的一个因素

《今日美国》的菲利普·M·贝利（Phillip M. Bailey）表示，针对数据中心的抵制情绪正在“搅乱中期选举”。无论意识形态或地域如何，美国人都正以“民粹主义反对”的方式，起来反抗那些推动人工智能繁荣的庞大仓库式建筑。最近的一项盖洛普（Gallup）民意调查发现，71%的美国人会反对在自己居住的地区建设数据中心，原因是担心污染和噪音，以及其对水和电的巨大消耗。众议院、参议院和州长竞选的候选人现在正试图通过反对服务器农场，以及攻击支持这些设施的对手，来在愤怒的选民中赢得分数。德克萨斯州共和党州长格雷格·阿博特（Greg Abbott）和宾夕法尼亚州民主党州长乔什·夏皮罗（Josh Shapiro）此前都曾争取数据中心的入驻，但在被指责屈从于科技巨头后，两人均刹住了建设的脚步。在威斯康星州的州长竞选中，双方都试图利用数据中心建设的激增来打击对方；在俄亥俄州，最近的一份党内备忘录警告称，现任共和党参议员乔恩·休斯顿（Jon Husted）可能会因为这个问题而落败，称支持数据中心是“挂在休斯顿脖子上的沉重枷锁”。

密歇根州米尔福德一次特朗普集会上的抗议者。

《国家评论》的里奇·劳里（Rich Lowry）认为，这种喧闹是“当前时刻之荒诞的症状”。曾经有一段时间，工厂“使美国城市的天空变得漆黑，并污染了水道”。但它们推动了经济繁荣，帮助美国成为超级大国，并提升了数百万蓝领工人的生活水平。AI数据中心指明了“下一波创新”的方向，但我们却在抱怨用水量，而这与钢铁厂的用水量相比几乎可以忽略不计。《纽约时报》的谢恩·戈德马赫（Shane Goldmacher）表示，这不仅仅是关于水和电的问题。这些中心是人们对AI恐惧的“物理体现”。这种反对情绪是“一场关于AI革命更广泛斗争的一部分，这场革命正在重塑全球经济，并威胁要颠覆就业市场”。

《Vox》的玛丽娜·博洛特尼科娃（Marina Bolotnikova）表示，对AI未来感到“恐惧”的美国人抵制数据中心并不奇怪。但他们打错了仗。由于我们的政府未能提出任何愿景或监管，阻止建设数据中心似乎成了普通人能够“尝试减缓AI速度”的唯一方式。但通过“逐镇挑战”不太可能显著减缓AI的普及，而且这绝对无法监管AI的使用，也无法保护我们免受其最糟糕结果的影响——即消除工作岗位或消除人类本身。在用水量和服务器嗡嗡声上争论，将我们“困在了一场关于相对琐碎之事的辩论中”，而我们应该面对一个大得多的问题：“我们将如何管理这场已经在发生的科技与经济转型”。

伊斯兰恐惧症：右翼中蔓延的仇恨

J. David Goodman 在《纽约时报》中表示，德克萨斯州的保守派选民有了新的“假想敌”：穆斯林。尽管德克萨斯州只有 1% 到 2% 的居民是穆斯林，但该群体增长迅速——与此同时，基督教极右翼关于“沙里亚法”传播以及计划中的伊斯兰“接管”的恐慌煽动也在升级。达拉斯市外一项拟建的清真寺开发项目被网红谴责为对西方文明的威胁，并受到了州当局的调查。在今年夏天的州共和党大会上，多个会议小组“警告穆斯林入侵”。州长格雷格·阿博特（Greg Abbott）也加入了这一行列：他将全国性民权组织美国-伊斯兰关系委员会（CAIR）定为恐怖组织；下令取消一场庆祝穆斯林节日的私人水上乐园派对；并于上周威胁要撤回对那些为穆斯林旅客提供仪式洗涤站的德克萨斯州机场的州政府资金。CAIR 奥斯汀分会的沙伊玛·扎扬（Shaimaa Zayan）表示：“我们经历了多波伊斯兰恐惧症，而这一波是最糟糕的。”

Asma Khalid 在《大西洋月刊》中指出，这种情况不仅发生在德克萨斯州。在 9 / 11 事件 25 年后，美国的反穆斯林言论“有所增长”。在华盛顿特区，共和党知名立法者“明确表示，他们不认为像我这样的人是美国人”。南卡罗来纳州众议员南希·梅斯（Nancy Mace）最近发帖称，每一个“在美国担任公职的穆斯林都是特洛伊木马”，而佛罗里达州众议员兰迪·法恩（Randy Fine）则表示：“我们需要更多的伊斯兰恐惧症。”我最早在 2016 年大选前夕注意到这种转变，当时唐纳德·特朗普呼吁实施“穆斯林禁令”，并虚假地声称新泽西州的“数千名”穆斯林在双子塔倒塌时欢呼。当一名总统候选人散布伊斯兰恐惧症时，其他人也觉得可以自由地加入这场仇恨。

Joel Mathis 在其 Substack 通讯中表示，对于美国穆斯林来说，最糟糕的情况可能还在后面。德克萨斯州的立法者现在正试图制定一个“宗教”的法律定义，从而将伊斯兰教排除在外。十年前，我会说这样的法律“在最高法院会被嘲笑”。而今天，我不确定。你能自信地说克拉伦斯·托马斯（Clarence Thomas）大法官“在第一修正案面临威胁时，不会投票反对伊斯兰教”吗？Bonnie Kristian 在《今日基督教》中表示，保守派基督徒必须谨慎行事。随着世俗主义的兴起，认为全州范围内的宗教实践禁令永远不会被用来对付他们是“天真的”。第一修正案很明确：如果我们想要宗教自由，“我们必须为每个人捍卫它”。

海地人：随着驱逐开始，恐惧感日益增加

据美联社的 Gerard Maxineau 和 Dánica Coto 报道，上周约有 160 名被驱逐者从美国抵达海地。在下飞机时，“许多人遮住了脸”，因为担心被在全国范围内游荡的帮派认出。航班在北海地港（Cap-Haïtien）结束，因为飞往首都太子港的飞机曾遭到射击——这反驳了特朗普政府关于当地条件足够安全、可以让他们返回的说法。这是该政府撤销 350,000 名海地人的临时保护状态（TPS）后的首次遣返海地航班。“这是一个伟大的日子，[人们]被传唤到 ICE（美国移民和海关执法局）办公室，被戴上笨重的脚踝监视器。”ICE 上周在一家加油站逮捕了一位受欢迎的牧师。“我被这种担忧搞得精疲力竭，”汽车零部件工人 Jonas Julien 说道，尽管他持有有效的工作许可，但仍未能免于被戴上脚踝监视器。《华尔街日报》的 Arian Campo-Flores 和 Sanai Hadiya Rashid 表示，TPS 工人的流失也正在“撕裂南佛罗里达州的企业”。由于担心出现，餐厅已经失去了约 16,000 名海地工人。持有 TPS 的海地人占佛罗里达州移民的 $28\%$

抵达北海地港的被驱逐者

为了“驱逐非法外籍人士”，国土安全部部长 Markwayne Mullin 在社交媒体上得意地表示。海地官员勉强接纳了这第一批人员，但他们担心，数千名可能没有住所的新来者可能会进一步动摇这个已被“激增的帮派暴力以及日益加深的贫困、饥饿和暴力”所扰乱的国家。

《纽约时报》的 Miriam Jordan 表示，在俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德，“恐惧感已经加剧”。该市的 10,000 到 15,000 名海地居民已在那里生活多年，为当地雇主工作，创办企业，并振兴了当地经济。但自 TPS 被撤销以来，已有 20 多人被捕，另有 100 多人为老年人提供护理——而严重的劳动力短缺意味着他们无法被轻易替代。

《迈阿密先驱报》的 Wynn Walent写道，作为一家总部位于海地小城市的非营利组织负责人，我对特朗普政府将人们“送回一个未准备好接收他们的国家”感到震惊。美国国务院认为海地极其危险，以至于它警告那些无视其“请勿前往”警告的美国人留下 DNA 样本，以便在发生意外时能确认其遗骸身份。被驱逐者是帮派特别垂涎的目标，因为帮派认为他们携带大量美国资金。强迫数万名难民回到饥饿与混乱之中“是可耻的”。

国债：是如何达到 $40 trillion 的？

《华尔街日报》在一篇社论中表示，上周当美国的国债突破 $40 trillion 大关时，即使是“自由派知识分子”也表达了担忧。这应归咎于医疗保险（Medicare）、医疗补助（Medicaid）和社会保障等福利计划，这些计划“在自动驾驶模式下持续增长”，以及两党在疫情期间的“挥霍式支出”，导致年度赤字翻倍至近 $2 trillion。2020 年最初的新冠救济法案是必要的，但发放支票的时间持续得太久了。拜登政府在经济“基本恢复”的情况下，仍投入数万亿美元用于额外刺激，以及一项“两党基础设施盛宴”和一场“气候狂欢”。由于这些挥霍行为，国民债务总额自 2019 年以来激增了 $17 trillion——几乎相当于该国在“整个前 225 年历史中”积累的总额。

鲍比·科根（Bobby Kogan）在 MS.now 中表示，真正的罪魁祸首是 21 世纪共和党的减税政策。数据表明，在乔治·W·布什和特朗普总统任内通过的那些大规模减税措施，“驱动了这种财政失衡”。随着婴儿潮一代步入老年，医疗和退休成本上升，联邦支出增加并非秘密，但我们旧的税收制度“本可以与之同步”，

并且“债务占经济的比重预计将持续缩小”。布什甚至从比尔·克林顿（他提高了税收）那里继承了预算盈余，但他通过降低富美人士的税收挥霍了这份馈赠。特朗普加倍执行了这一不负责任的策略，将企业税率从 35% 削减至 21%。现在，共和党人坚持认为我们必须削减“美国人依赖的关键援助”，而不是撤销那些“导致财政缺口的”减税政策。

艾伦·拉佩波特（Alan Rappeport）在《纽约时报》中表示，特朗普总统曾承诺削减赤字，但他“只是加剧了美国的财务困境”。埃隆·马斯克现已解散的政府效率部（DOGE）未能实现削减 $1 trillion 联邦支出的目标，而且目前尚不清楚它是否节省了任何资金。当最高法院裁定特朗普的大部分关税非法时，其关税政策产生了反作用，导致向企业退款 1600 亿美元 billion。特朗普针对伊朗的昂贵战争进一步增加了赤字。英格丽德·雅克（Ingrid Jacques）在《今日美国》中表示，走出这个困境意味着“将所有选项摆在桌面上”，这包括增加税收和削减受欢迎的福利。遗憾的是，民主党和共和党都没有“勇气”告诉选民必须做出艰难的选择。

睿智之言

“我记得当我把一条食人鱼粘在我的回旋镖上时，我在想，这可能会反过来咬我一口。”——喜剧演员奥拉夫·法拉费尔（Olaf Falafel），引自《卫报》

“创造力是想出新事物。创新是去做新事物。”——经济学家西奥多·莱维特（Theodore Levitt），引自 Medscape

“我的角色并非夸张，事实上他们与生活一样真实。而生活确实非常宏大。”——托妮·莫里森（Toni Morrison），引自 Popville

“当知识分子无事可做时，他们就开始创办杂志。”——《异议》（Dissent）创始人欧文·豪（Irving Howe），引自 The Argument

“一个谨慎的统治者不能，也不应该在违背自身利益，且当初许诺的理由不再适用时，依然坚守诺言。”——马基雅维利，引自《斯里兰卡每日新闻》

“给我激励，我就能给你结果。”——查理·芒格，引自《泰晤士报》（英国）

“达摩克利斯之剑的价值在于它悬在那里——而不是它掉下来。”——瑟古德·马歇尔（Thurgood Marshall），引自 Political Wire

民调观察

■ 69% 的美国人认为特朗普总统的商业利益影响了他的总统决策。63% 的人认为特朗普及其家人通过加密货币赚钱是不恰当的。 路透社 / 益普索（）

■ 17% 的成年人表示他们吸食大麻，高于 2013. 15% 的 7%。15% 的人表示他们食用大麻食品。47% 的人认为大麻的影响是积极的，46% 的人认为其影响是消极的。 盖洛普（Gallup）

本周精选漫画

拉斯维加斯评论报 (LAOS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL) 为《华盛顿邮报》提供 2026© CREATORS.COM

反疫苗进化论

更多政治漫画，请访问：theweek.com / cartoons

智能眼镜：猥琐者的首选眼镜？

智能眼镜引发的抵制再次出现了，安东尼·库斯伯顿（Anthony Cuthbertson）在英国《独立报》（The Independent）中写道。在隐私担忧导致谷歌眼镜（Google Glass）夭折——其佩戴者被贴上“眼镜孔”（glassholes）的标签——十二年后，Meta 成功地复兴了这项技术。去年，该公司售出了 700 万 副 Ray-Ban 智能眼镜，用户可以用它来“拨打电话以及拍摄照片或视频，而无需掏出手机”。将这项技术整合进“全球最畅销的太阳镜之一”是一次天才的品牌营销，而且在一段时间内，Meta 的智能眼镜看起来像是“2020 年代最令人印象深刻的消费级硬件竞争者”。但并非所有人都认同。批评者开始称其为“色情眼镜”，因为它们与“那些利用眼镜在未经他人同意的情况下拍摄他人的人”联系在一起——无论是在街头、海滩，甚至是在私密场合。上周，一段视频在 TikTok 上疯传，“视频中一名女性当场指责一名医生在诊疗过程中佩戴智能眼镜，而该诊疗要求患者脱掉衣服”。

我们显然不知道如何处理这种“间谍般的智能眼镜”，米娅·萨托（Mia Sato）在《The Verge》中表示。零售业和服务业从业者“尤其成为了客户秘密录像的目标”，这些客户试图通过恶作剧来获取社交媒体上的点赞。这不仅仅是面向公众的工作人员面临的问题：想象一下，“你办公室的一位同事开始佩戴这种眼镜”，那么你在他们周围说的每一句话、做的每一件事都可能被“捕捉并无限传播”。詹姆斯·佩罗（James Pero）在 Gizmodo 中表示，当“连美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）都认为智能眼镜是隐私隐患”时，你就知道情况糟糕了。该机构上周发出备忘录，禁止其移民官员使用此类眼镜。这并非出于哲学思考；ICE 只是不希望眼镜“顺便吞噬”的所有信息都被传回 Meta。

盯着你看，孩子。

马克·扎克伯格的公司让所有智能眼镜都背负了恶名，汤姆指南（Tom's Guide）的安东尼·斯帕达福拉（Anthony Spadafora）如此评价。但那些

以增强现实（AR）或扩展现实（XR）为卖点的产品通常根本不录像。它们拥有私有显示屏，就像一个小电脑屏幕，可以转发接收到的消息、播放电视节目，甚至充当便携式工作站。它们有趣且实用。但近期针对 Meta 的抵制意味着，人们很快可能会因为在公共场合佩戴“任何高科技镜框”而遭到排斥。

戴夫·李（Dave Lee）在彭博社（Bloomberg）中表示，苹果公司也有加入智能眼镜竞赛的计划。但该公司必须选择“考虑到智能眼镜市场规模相对较小，承担被反噬的风险是否值得”。诚然，人们对苹果的信任度高于 Meta，且其 iPhone 生态系统将为其推出的任何产品提供巨大优势。但如果智能眼镜出差错，苹果“失去的也会多得多”。“一旦你的硬件被贴上‘色情眼镜’的标签，就很难扭转局面了。”

字节：科技新动态

本周创新

路透社的陈曦杨（Chenxi Yang）报道，中国的一座城市已将部分交通执法工作移交给机器人。在东部城市杭州，十几个身高 6-foot-2, 216-pound 的“机器人警察”已开始在繁忙的十字路口执勤，这是某项试点计划的一部分，旨在“将警察最重复的交通管制职责交给机器”。这些由中控信息（Supcon Information）开发的T2机器人利用“摄像头、雷达和车载计算”来识别未佩戴头盔的电动车骑行者、越线停车的车辆以及闯红灯的行人等违章行为。它们还能“回答关于方向”和交通规则的问题，其手臂可以做出“与信号灯同步的手势”。中控信息表示，这些机器人已帮助将部分交通违章行为降低了 40% 以上。

一项令人不安的TikTok“实验”彭博社的奥利维亚·卡维尔（Olivia Carville）报道，两名参议员在TikTok进行了一项据称导致一名16岁少年自杀的“令人震惊”的安全实验后，要求该公司给出解释。在《彭博商业周刊》报道了该实验后，参议员马莎·布莱克本（Marsha Blackburn，田纳西州共和党）和理查德·布卢门撒尔（Richard Blumenthal，康涅狄格州民主党）于上周致信TikTok高管。该实验在“一份 2023 年的公司机密文件中被详细讨论”。文件揭露了TikTok如何“故意关闭了 $10% 的美国用户的算法保护机制，将他们变成了对照组”。在这约 1500 万 人的群体中，包括来自纽约州贝波特（Bayport）的 16, 岁少年切斯·纳斯卡（Chase Nasca）。他“被推送了数千条关于悲伤、绝望、孤独和自杀的视频”。一个月内，切斯自杀了。“这是一个快乐的 16-year-old 男孩，没有任何心理健康问题，”布莱克本说，“这太可怕了。”

■ 无人机配送引发波澜

The Verge的艾玛·罗斯（Emma Roth）表示，亚马逊的无人机在精准度方面仍需努力。随着该公司准备全面推进其无人机配送服务（该服务很快将扩展到 500 个美国城市），在无人机已投入运行的地区，包裹接收者报告了一些配送事故。一名客户发布了一段视频，“显示一架亚马逊配送无人机在德克萨斯州的一个泳池上方盘旋，然后打开舱门，将包裹直接扔进了水里”。其他人报告包裹被掉进了池塘，而去年亚马逊的两架无人机在菲尼克斯（Phoenix）市外“撞上了一台起重机”。亚马逊表示，其无人机会“检查并确认路径上没有人员、宠物或车辆”。但也许它们也需要“检查是否有水”。

当史蒂夫·乔布斯为CIA工作时 《华尔街日报》的莎伦·温伯格（Sharon Weinberger）表示，苹果公司欠美国中央情报局（CIA）一份“隐藏的债务”。1986, 年，苹果公司联合创始人史蒂夫·乔布斯秘密会见了参与一项机密卫星侦察计划的中央情报局官员。“当时冷战正处于高峰期，”情报官员开始意识到“硅谷正在展开的计算革命的重要性”。乔布斯在一年前被赶出苹果公司，在CIA官员到来时，他正忙于创建NeXT公司。当时CIA官员为一名“未公开的客户”订购了 20,000 台NeXT工作站。乔布斯不知道该机构计划如何使用，但NeXT“极需这笔销售额”。这笔收入帮助他“向股东和市场证明自己是一位合格的商业领袖”。如果没有这笔钱，苹果公司可能永远不会在 1996 年请乔布斯回归。

癌症疫苗的 mRNA 突破

据《华尔街日报》报道，在黑色素瘤治疗领域的一场潜在革命中，一种实验性疫苗已成功阻止了高风险患者体内侵袭性皮肤癌的复发。在一项临床试验中，more than 1,000 人在接受过黑色素瘤肿瘤切除手术后，接种了由 Moderna 和默克药业（Merck）研发的个性化 mRNA 注射剂——intismeran，并同时使用了免疫疗法药物 Keytruda。虽然这两家公司尚未提供最新阶段试验的准确数据，但他们表示，这种组合显著延长了癌症复发前的时间，并防止了癌症扩散到其他

来自早期宇宙的奇点

黑洞之星之谜

一个宽度与我们整个太阳系相当、发出灿烂红光且能量高达任何已知恒星 1000 亿加元 倍的天体，可能是一种全新的宇宙天体：“黑洞之星”。天文学家通过锁定美国国家航空航天局（NASA）詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜图像档案中最红的一个光点发现了它——这个位于鲸鱼座的点形成于大爆炸后仅 6.6 亿 年。它的能量输出看起来完全不像恒星，而像黑洞，但其光线却带有恒星的典型特征。研究人员认为，它实际上是一个被极其浓密的浓雾气体包裹的黑洞，以至于它像恒星一样发光。据英国《卫报》报道，如果该团队的结论正确，这意味着散布在韦伯望远镜图像中的许多令人困惑的“小红点”也是黑洞之星，即每个星系中心超大质量黑洞的婴儿形态。在麻省理工学院（MIT）领导这项研究的天文学家罗汉·奈杜（Rohan Naidu）表示：“几十年来，我们一直预料在极早期宇宙中一定在发生某些惊人的事情。黑洞之星可能就是那个‘惊人的事情’。”

达尔文的痒感理论

查尔斯·达尔文对物种起源的看法是正确的，而现在他关于器官的推测也得到了验证。早期的试验结果显示，疫苗与药物的配对将复发或死亡的概率降低了近 50%。与 mRNA 新冠疫苗不同，这种疫苗是为每位患者量身定制的。手术后，医生分析肿瘤活检样本，寻找最有可能激发免疫系统的突变，然后将这些目标编码进 mRNA 中以创建疫苗。这是首个在后期试验中取得成功的个性化 mRNA 癌症疗法，验证了数十年的研究，目前这两家公司正在针对膀胱癌、肺癌和肾癌测试同样的方法。如果获得美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）的批准，他们希望在 2027 年将其推向市场。“我有一种感觉，

据英国《泰晤士报》报道，关于痒感起源的理论似乎也得到了证实。1872, 这位自然主义者提出，当我们身体某些部位被触摸时会咯咯笑并畏缩，是因为这些部位是平时最少被触碰到的部分。在的一项新研究中，荷兰拉德堡大学（Radboud University）的研究人员将达尔文的观点与四个竞争理论进行了对比：痒感与皮肤较薄有关；与触觉敏感神经的密度有关；是为了保护脆弱区域免受伤害；或者与快感和敏感带相关。他们要求中国、荷兰和希腊的 450 人在人体轮廓图上标出他们最痒的位置。共同的区域包括脚底、腹部、腋下、颈部以及大腿内侧。达尔文的“低频触碰”观点与该图最为吻合，而最令人惊讶的是，痒点实际上触觉敏感神经更少，而不是更多。尽管如此，研究人员表示，了解我们在哪里感到痒并没有解决关于我们为什么感到痒的底层谜团。“这仍然是一个开放性问题。”

当灵长类动物养宠物时

在乌干达一个野生动物保护区的林冠高处，两只年轻的黑猩猩靠近了一只红尾猴。然而，观察中的科学家们预想的攻击并未发生，黑猩猩反而开始温柔地梳理这只猴子的尾巴。它们是在把它当成宠物对待吗？对此产生好奇的研究人员搜寻了媒体报道和科学论文，并就其他类似事件咨询了灵长类动物学家，最终他们成功收集到了涉及 88 个灵长类物种的 427 篇类似记录。每一篇记录都显示出某种暗示养宠本能的行为。

每种疫苗都根据肿瘤量身定制。

推着婴儿车跑步

跑步者膝盖疼痛的解决方法会是一辆慢跑婴儿车吗？据《史密森尼》（Smithsonian）报道，一项新研究表明，推着婴儿车跑步的父母更不容易出现困扰其他跑步者的过度使用损伤——如胫骨疼痛、膝盖酸痛。研究人员将 196 名推车跑步的父母的自报数据与 53 名无负担跑步的父母进行了对比，所有参与者均抚养 4. 岁以下的孩子。推车组中仅有 19% 的人报告了此类损伤，而无车组的比例为 30%，且前者的每 1,000 英里损伤率低了 55%。可能的原因是生物力学方面的：握住把手将跑步时的一部分向下压力通过手臂传导至车轮而非腿部，从而减轻了每次落脚时的冲击。婴儿车似乎还能让父母保持运动——在孩子年龄 6 到 12 个月的群体中，推车跑步者的里程比没有婴儿车的父母多出 34%。共同作者、宾夕法尼亚州立大学的生物力学专家艾莉森·奥特曼-辛格尔斯（Allison Altman-Singles）表示，推着婴儿车跑步是“父母在人生挑战阶段进行锻炼的一种安全且实用的方式”。

野生猕猴及其伙伴

在其中一个案例中，一只猕猴与一只流浪鸡建立了纽带；在另一个案例中，卷尾猴照顾一只幼年狨猴长达数月。这些互动呼应了灵长类动物对待同类的行为——幼崽表现出亲近，而成年雄性则保持距离。虽然大多数接触都是短暂的，但有少数情况变成了长期关系。研究团队怀疑，这种吸引力可能源于好奇心和孤独感。牛津大学研究员西里尔·格鲁特（Cyril Grueter）告诉《纽约时报》：“在非人类灵长类动物中，并没有真正等同于养宠物的行为，”但这些案例揭示了可能导致人类进化出养宠行为的“要素”。

“这仅仅是一个新领域的开始，”默克药业副总裁简·希利（Jane Healy）说道。目标是让患者“在无需担心癌症治疗的情况下，拥有更长的寿命”。

评论之评：书籍

本周之书

《书呆子帝国：硅谷法西斯主义与民主之战》（The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy），作者吉尔·杜兰（Gil Durán）（Avid Reader 出版，$30）

“想象一下：一群组织松散、财富惊人的科技巨头企图推翻民主，取而代之的是一个企业主义独裁政权，”凯文·特鲁翁（Kevin Truong）在《旧金山标准报》（The San Francisco Standard）中写道。毫无疑问，这个前提“会成为一部出色的政治惊悚片”。但在吉尔·杜兰这部新的非虚构畅销书中，它带来的阅读感受则更为不安。杜兰曾担任杰里·布朗（Jerry Brown）和卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）的发言人，他现在作为一名记者主张，科技企业家彼得·蒂尔（Peter Thiel）——JD·万斯（JD Vance）职业生涯的主要资助者——处于一个活跃且强大的科技传教士圈子的中心。这些人认为民主已经过时，技术将创造一个乌托邦式的未来，而他们的群体是一群应该决定未来如何展开的精英。NPR.org 的托尼娅·莫斯利（Tonya Mosley）表示，这种主张听起来像纯粹的阴谋论，除非杜兰所指出的这些参与者“多年来一直在公开陈述他们的信念和抱负”。

“你无法要求一个更令人毛骨悚然的

本周小说

《日出》（Sunrise）

作者：特亚·奥布雷特（Téa Obreht）（Random House 出版，$29）

朱莉娅·谢尔斯（Julia Scheeres）在《纽约时报》中表示，特亚·奥布雷特这部“大师级”的新小说“令人愉悦地融合了多种类型”。故事的年轻女主角妮娜·特尔齐奇（Nina Terzic）在开篇几页中在一场飞机失事中幸存，她从怀俄明州的一个山间湖泊中爬出，随后偶然发现了一座鬼镇及其层层叠叠的历史，而这段历史是围绕一名著名的枪手展开的。很快，妮娜在名为“日出”的这座小镇上的停留，让我们在生存剧、哥特式西部片和谋杀谜团之间来回切换。奥布雷特是 2011 年作品《老虎之妻》（The Tiger's Wife）的获奖作者，她证明了自己正处于“巅峰状态，提供了由悬念驱动的情节、刻画鲜明的人物以及丰盈的散文笔触”。妮娜·艾伦（Nina Allan）在《卫报》中指出，妮娜的故事被几个“逻辑漏洞”所损害。掉进湖里竟然没有受伤？而且很快就开始阅读一份旧手稿，而不是专注于寻找帮助？“但这都不能掩盖《日出》是一部引人入胜且发人深省的小说这一事实，它读起来毫不费力，讲述得非常优美。”在三个交织的故事中，奥布雷特“提出了关于勇气与懦弱、理想主义与实用主义，以及最重要的是历史如何被讲述以及谁有权拥有历史的深刻问题”。

蒂尔：精英的捍卫者

“……硅谷大亨们所倡导的疯狂事物的汇编，”劳拉·米勒（Laura Miller）在 Slate 杂志中说道。PayPal 和 Palantir 的联合创始人蒂尔将一本 1997 年的书籍《主权个人》（The Sovereign Individual）视为其信仰的形成基础，该书可以说预言了加密货币和 AI 的兴起，同时也预言了民族国家的崩溃，以及足够聪明且强大到可以不受约束地追求野心的个体的出现。蒂尔可以将埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）和同行风险投资家马克·安德森（Marc Andreessen）视为其盟友，而他们似乎都受到了极右翼博主

《自我之旅：迷幻蟾蜍、死亡之迹与贩卖超越的古鲁》（The Ego Trip: Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence），作者：基蒙·德·格里夫（Kimon de Greef）（Doubleday 出版，$35）

戴夫·希夫莱特（Dave Shiflett）在《华尔街日报》中表示，“那些不知道某些蟾蜍的分泌物可能成为通往神圣之门的读者的，将会迎来一些重大启示”。基蒙·德·格里夫这部引人入胜的新书将索诺兰沙漠蟾蜍产生 5-MeO-DMT（一种强效天然迷幻剂）视为既定事实。但德·格里夫同样对围绕着这种被倡导者称为“上帝分子”的亚文化感兴趣。蟾蜍引导员现在经常挤出蟾蜍的腺体并干燥提取物以便吸食，从而产生据称能瓦解自我的强效幻觉。吸食蟾蜍可能导致瞬间精神病发作，但该行为的粉丝包括迈克·泰森（Mike Tyson）和亨特·拜登（Hunter Biden），而且“德·格里夫用如此灿烂的词汇描述 5-MeO-DMT 的效果，以至于一名洗脚浸礼派浸信会信徒都可能会被诱惑尝试一下”。

柯蒂斯·亚文（Curtis Yarvin），他主张将美国置于一名 CEO 式君主的统治之下，并谈到需要开发一种“针对种族灭绝的人道替代方案”，以解决地球上所谓不生产人口过剩的问题。虽然杜兰（Durán）“可能过于相信硅谷最专制梦想的可行性”，但他的书是一个“非常必要”的警钟，警告我们应该恐惧今天的科技巨头，而不是盲目崇拜。

杜兰声称，科技巨头将特朗普政权视为扩张其权力的工具，《卫报》的史蒂夫·罗斯表示，“很少有人能对此产生异议”。还记得他在2025年就职典礼上身后站着的众多科技巨头吗？或者他们如何帮助特朗普家族通过加密货币赚取数十亿美元？回报体现在政府合同中，例如 Palantir 每年估计 137 亿美元 billion 的收益，以及对政府监管的摧毁。特朗普甚至支持一些疯狂的想法，比如建设 10 个可免除许多现有法规的“自由城市”。不过，正如近期公众对数据中心反对声浪激增所表明的那样，蒂尔及其盟友尚未取得完全胜利。运气好的话，“这可能成为一个激进的转折点”。

“对于如此强烈的体验，一位睿智的引导者至关重要——你可能会这么想，”苏珊娜·卡哈兰在《纽约时报》中写道。德·格里夫故事中的反英雄是奥克塔维奥·雷蒂格·希诺霍萨，这位墨西哥医生后来成了迷幻药名人，自2006年起，他一直倡导吸食蟾蜍分泌物，声称这种做法帮助他戒掉了可卡因。自2013年获得广泛名声以来，雷蒂格主持了多次集会，引导数千名新手尝试吸食蟾蜍分泌物。“如果你熟悉那些大师的套路，你就知道接下来的走向了。”雷蒂格的鲁莽导致了痛苦。他曾因一名女性在参加其仪式期间停止呼吸而导致死亡而被起诉。

“正如德·格里夫极力强调的，问题不仅仅在于一个古怪的医生，”莉莉亚·玛丽·埃利斯在《华盛顿独立图书评论》中表示。尽管 5-MeO-DMT 在美国是违法的，但制药公司在竞相将合成版本商业化时也表现出类似的轻率，而这些合成版本在治疗成瘾和创伤后应激障碍方面已显示出潜力。德·格里夫的书在转向描写雷蒂格（其“能量跃然纸上”）之外的内容时，“节奏略有停顿”。尽管如此，《自我之旅》（The Ego Trip）“成功地证明了商业化的迷幻药并非许多人所希望的灵丹妙药”。

最佳书籍……由詹妮弗·麦克马洪（Jennifer McMahon）挑选

詹妮弗·麦克马洪是 12 部悬疑小说的畅销书作者，作品包括《冬日之人》（The Winter People）和《承诺不告知》（Promise Not to Tell）。在她最新的著作《深埋》（Stay Buried）中，一对刚搬到佛蒙特州偏远小镇的兄妹发现，当地人生活在对一个复仇之灵的恐惧之中。

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by Washington Irving (1820)。小时候，伊卡博德·克雷恩的故事让我感到恐惧。我记得从朋友家走在林间小路上回家时，确信身后传来了马蹄声。我敢肯定，如果我回头，就会看到一个把头夹在腋下的骑手，而且就在我透过树林看到家里的灯光时，他会把头朝我扔过来。

'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson (1948)。直到我在中学读到这部杰作，我才意识到人们会写这样的故事：在充满普通人的小镇里，人们竟能做出可怕的事情。这确实让我思考，人们是如何以“传统”之名将残暴行为正常化的。

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon (1973)。这部典型的民俗恐怖小说教会了我永远不要信任看似田园诗般的环境、偏远的地点或关系紧密的社区——这些东西在第一眼看来都如此迷人！

Pine by Francine Toon (2020)。Pine 是那种环境感觉像个角色之书的完美典范。小说中那个被森林环绕的苏格兰小村庄，让人感到幽闭恐惧、孤立且充满恐惧。再加上一个母亲失踪的女孩、一名神秘女子的现身以及一名失踪的青少年，你就拥有了一个极具吸引力的故事的所有要素。

The Ritual by Adam Nevill (2011)。读完这本书后，很长一段时间我都不敢进入森林。四个大学好友在一次重聚徒步旅行中见面，并做出了一个轻率的决定——走捷径。当他们发现一只被剖开内脏的动物挂在树上时，我们知道真正恐怖的事情在等待着他们。

Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (2019)。这个多层次的故事围绕着一个幼童的悲剧性离世展开。孩子母亲坚信他的一部分仍然留在家里；而父亲则痴迷于挖掘一棵传奇橡树的根部。赫利的文字极其优美，是我愿意让自己沉溺其中的类型，尽管我一直知道它会将我带向一个令人不安的地方。

同样值得关注……70年代的偶像

The Jackal

by Joby Warrick (Scribner, $30)

杰拉德·德格鲁特（Gerard DeGroot）在英国《泰晤士报》中表示，“豺狼”卡洛斯搞砸的恐怖计划比他完成的还要多。在这本新传记中，记者乔比·沃里克搜集了“大量新资料”，讲述了这位委内瑞拉雇佣杀手的漫长且血腥的职业生涯，他追逐金钱、女人和关注，直到最终被监禁。尽管沃里克的散文有时“过于华丽”，语气“出奇地冷静”，但他将大量故事浓缩成了一本“节奏快、易读”的书。

Finding Renée Richards by Julie Kliegman (HarperOne, $29)

亚历山德拉·雅各布斯（Alexandra Jacobs）在《纽约时报》中表示，在这本新传记中，有时“朱莉·克利格曼似乎与其说是在‘Finding Renée Richards’，不如说是在与她争吵”。作者自认为是跨性别者和非二元性别者，她并不认同理查兹（20世纪70年代的跨性别职业网球运动员）现在的观点，即女子体育应该排除那些走同样道路的运动员。即便如此，克利格曼仍是一位出色的记者。“在作者的焦虑发作之余，一个生命故事被讲述了出来，而且讲得很好。”

《奇迹与惊叹之日》（Days of Miracle and Wonder），作者：艾希莉·卡恩（Ashley Kahn）（Atria出版社，30美元）

保罗·西蒙的《格雷斯兰》（Graceland）是“一张其美感与创作背景不可分割的专辑”，《阿肯色民主报-公报》（Arkansas Democrat-Gazette）的菲利普·马丁如此评价。1985年，西蒙无视对种族隔离制度下的南非的抵制，与南非黑人音乐家合作录音，从而打破了长达十年的低迷期。尽管艾希莉·卡恩的叙述并非指控，但其“报道之详尽，使其无法成为一次脱罪”。阅读卡恩的作品“使得这张唱片听起来不再那么纯真，但在某些方面则显得更加非凡”。

《每个人都去了塔纳餐厅》（Everybody Came to Tana's），作者：丹·塔纳（Dan Tana）（Radius出版社，30美元）

“丹·塔纳餐厅在经营62年后，依然在供应其小牛肉片和马丁尼，这简直是个奇迹”，《航空邮件》（Air Mail）的吉姆·凯利评价道。这家位于西好莱坞的餐厅之所以能成为深受名流喜爱且长盛不衰的聚集地，其秘诀“可以在这本回忆录中找到”，该书由这家店亲切的同名创始人撰写。塔纳是一名塞尔维亚移民，曾是一名冉冉升起的足球之星，几乎是偶然成为了餐厅经营者，但他懂得如何让每位顾客既感到自己很特别，又感到自在。

本周作者

艾米莉·哈克尼（Emilee Hackney）

如果艾米莉·哈克尼这部畅销的新回忆录读起来像是在反击 JD 万斯（JD Vance），那么或许事实确实如此，《每日乡间》（The Daily Yonder）的奥利维亚·威克斯表示。哈克尼在八年前开始撰写后来成为《所有不可见之物》（All That's Unseen）的散文，当时她是一名不太可能进入哈佛大学的本科生，她对万斯在《乡下人的挽歌》（Hillbilly Elegy）中对她家乡阿巴拉契亚地区的描绘方式，以及她因口音和背景而感到被轻视的方式感到沮丧。“我不想做 JD 万斯在书里做的事——讨论整个阿巴拉契亚文化，”她说，“我想谈谈我在阿巴拉契亚的经历，我的个人经历。”那些经历是独特的。14岁时，她开始与她所在的五旬节教会里一名18岁的准牧师约会，就在两人准备结婚前两周，该男子因儿童色情罪被捕。不久后她申请进入哈佛大学，因为他曾说她永远不可能被录取。

《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）的艾伦·加默曼表示，她差点没能挺过文化冲击。由于感到孤立，她陷入了出卖色情以换取金钱的行为，并对利用他人以及被他人利用产生了依赖。直到她找到了男朋友才改掉这个习惯。“我现在回想起来，”她说，“我想，‘天哪，我真是死里逃生’。”写作也起到了帮助，尽管她花了数年时间才将大学时期的散文转化为如今受到评论家赞誉的回忆录。如今，她与丈夫和刚出生的孩子住在弗吉尼亚州大学城夏洛茨维尔市郊。尽管她依然热爱阿巴拉契亚，但她知道那里再也不会像以前那样成为她的家，因为她曾经选择离开。“仅仅因为离开这一个动作，我就永远地离开了，”她说，“我再也无法像以前那样成为这个地方的一部分了。”

评论之评：艺术与音乐

本周展讯

威廉·德·库宁素描展 芝加哥艺术博物馆 展至9月20

戴安·帕克在《观察家》杂志中表示，人人都知道威廉·德·库宁是20世纪最伟大的画家之一，但“要理解并欣赏他的任何作品，你都需要见证他对待素描的激进方式”。幸运的是，芝加哥艺术博物馆正在举办一场“轰动”的展览，为观众提供了这个机会，展出这位荷兰原籍艺术家的170多幅素描以及11幅油画。德·库宁于1926年以一名22岁货船偷渡者的身份抵达美国，但他从未放弃在鹿特丹培养的绘图技巧的价值。但在接下来的几十年里，他在追求新的观察方式和分享发现的新途径时，“不懈地且以狂热的热情鞭策自己”。他有一句名言：“我用颜料画素描”，而这一宣言的含义在“本次展览中清晰可见”。

艾伦·波卡罗在《Newcity Art》中表示，显然，“德·库宁精通素描”。“当

德·库宁的《两个女性躯干》，创作于1952年

杰克逊·波洛克和罗伯特·马瑟韦尔等同辈艺术家只能创作出对世界笨拙的呈现——即便在最好的情况下也只能被描述为合格——而德·库宁的线条则是如剃刀般锐利。”他为未来的妻子伊莱恩·弗里德创作的那些“细腻地刻画”的早期速写，会让任何传统主义者印象深刻。但他后来致力于将我们所见的世界描绘成一系列转瞬即逝的瞥见，并通过对生活取材的图像进行反复地创作与修改来实现这一目标——通过绘画、涂色、擦除和修订，创造出带有风景和肖像回响的拼贴式构图。在大多数人被“训练成快速阅读图像并迅速跳过”的时代，德·库宁的素描“挫败了简单的解读”，通过强迫我们更仔细地观察来吸引我们。给这场展览足够的时间，它可以揭示这位艺术家的完整演变过程：“严格的训练、丰富的工作经历、艺术影响、友谊和情史”，甚至包括他经历过的战争。“这一切都蕴含在作品之中。”

德米特里·萨马罗夫在《芝加哥读者报》中表示：“没有一幅德·库宁的画作是静止的。他那些盘绕的、棱角分明的线条在它们所指向的任何支撑物周围挥舞，且并不清晰。”

而且据我所知，没有其他艺术家“能以这种方式传达出动物性的狂乱”。凯伦·威尔金在《华尔街日报》中提到，虽然本次展览的亮点很多，但“或许最高光的部分”是那个将德·库宁标志性的1950–52年油画《女人 I》与一系列相关素描配对展出的展厅，而那些素描“甚至更加凶猛”。在那个只有抽象艺术被认为严肃的时代，房间里的每一幅图像都“毫不掩饰地将女性简化为乳房、腹部和丰满的大腿”。德·库宁一如既往地“追求模棱两可”，而他本人则拒绝停下脚步。

The Cramps Gravest Gravy ★★★★

在33年光辉且肮脏的岁月里，The Cramps乐队提供了一种“由阳光烘烤的摇滚比利（rockabilly）、冲浪摇滚、早期R&B和朋克态度组成的专利鸡尾酒”，科里·格罗在《滚石》杂志中如此评价。《Gravest Gravy》是一张专辑

包含十多首此前从未公开、录制于1977年且由Big Star的亚历克斯·奇尔顿（Alex Chilton）制作的曲目，捕捉到了该乐队在诞生之初的先驱心理比利（psychobilly）之声。主唱卢克斯·因特里尔（Lux Interior）及其生活与疯狂的伴侣——吉他手波伊森·艾薇（Poison Ivy）在早一年就给纽约市初创的朋克场景留下了印记，使该团体的“B级电影美学”脱颖而出。卢克斯于2009年去世，享年62岁，但波伊森·艾薇与朋克偶像亨利·罗林斯（Henry Rollins）和伊恩·麦凯（Ian MacKaye）合作，修复并发行了这张专辑中关于《TV Set》等原创曲目以及《Rockin' Bones》等翻唱曲目的早期录音，其中后者比1981年《Psychedelic Jungle》中的版本“要诡异得多”。《综艺》（Variety）的杰姆·阿斯瓦德（Jem Aswad）问道：“这是开始收集Cramps乐队作品的地方吗？”“大概不是。”1977年的阵容有第二把吉他但没有贝斯手，使得乐队的声音“更加单薄且粗糙”。尽管如此，《Gravest Gravy》对于这支“摇滚乐中最才华横溢且最失控的乐队之一”的作品集来说，依然是一个“光彩夺目的惊喜补充”。

Weezer 《Weezer (Gold Album)》 ★★★☆

在概念上，Weezer最新专辑中的第三支单曲听起来并不乐观，瑞安·里德（Ryan Reed）在Consequence网站上表示。这首名为《C.E.O.》的歌曲是一首“自我指涉的静-噪摇滚曲”，它刻意模仿了该乐队第一支单曲——1994年《Undone—The Sweater Song》的感觉，并以里弗斯·库莫（Rivers Cuomo）半说半唱地表达希望自己能做些新东西作为开场。幸运的是，从歌词到焦虑且带有失真效果的吉他冲击，《C.E.O.》的“一切感觉都很真实”。它虽然不是“瞬间成为经典的Weezer作品”，但绝对是“值得收藏级别的Weezer作品”，并且是其整体氛围的缩影——这是该乐队“至少自2014年以来最幽默、最原始、在音乐上最灵动的专辑”。蒂姆·森德拉（Tim Sendra）在AllMusic上表示，这绝对是Weezer专辑中“吉他音色最狂野、节奏部分最雷鸣般震撼”的一张。在这张该团体的第七张同名专辑（也是总第20张专辑）中，每首曲子都是由乐队成员面对面商讨而成的，这是他们此前从未尝试过的方法。“即便歌曲本身较弱，这张唱片宏大的声音依然使其值得听上一两次。”幸运的是，“这些歌曲是库莫和乐队多年来交付的最强作品之列。”

乔恩·巴蒂斯特 (Jon Batiste) 《Monk Movements》 ★★★☆

米歇尔·马丁（Michel Martin）在NPR.org上表示，乔恩·巴蒂斯特在演奏塞隆尼斯·蒙克（Thelonious Monk）的作品时无法掩饰他的喜悦。在《 Movements》中——这是这位八次格莱美奖得主于8月14日发行的三张钢琴独奏专辑之一——你可以听到他在构建对《Blue 》和《Ugly Beauty》的个人诠释时发出的惊叹。拉里·布鲁门菲尔德（Larry Blumenfeld）在《华尔街日报》中提到，巴蒂斯特在20多年前就深深迷上了蒙克的音乐。如今，作为一名全球之星，他发行了两张向这位爵士传奇致敬的专辑，而《 Movements》是其中较为活泼的一张。无论这位路易斯安那州原住民是在诠释蒙克，还是在演奏与蒙克遗产相关的原创作品，这里“感觉就像是他让我们参与到他与偶像的一次私人交流之中”。菲利普·马丁（Philip Martin）在《阿肯色民主报-观察家报》（Arkansas Democrat-Gazette）中表示，就像巴蒂斯特的其他钢琴研究专辑一样，“他的热情有时会超过他的克制”。在他的即兴演奏中，他想要探索每一条吸引人的岔路。尽管如此，这仍好过单纯的模仿。在每一首曲子中，“他拆解了其机械结构，将蒙克视为一名作曲家，其结构能够承受与巴赫、贝多芬或莫扎特通常获得的一样的重新诠释。”

评论之评：电影与播客

《郊狼对阵 Acme》（Coyote vs. Acme） 导演：戴夫·格林 (Dave Green) (PG级) ★★★★★ 乐一通帮对阵权势阶层。

《巴迪》（Buddy） 导演：卡斯珀·凯利 (Casper Kelly) (R级) 电视吉祥物变杀手。

在郊狼（Wile E. Coyote）最新的不幸冒险中，这个倒霉的准食肉动物“在击败 [查看笔记] 华纳兄弟之前绝不会停止”，《The Wrap》的威廉·比比亚尼（William Bibbiani）如此说道。在这部“令人捧腹大笑”的闹剧中，郊狼终于在对路跑者（Road Runner）西西弗斯式的追逐中停了下来，尝试一些新东西：他雇了一名律师，就 Acme 公司缺陷的邮购产-

品起诉该公司，而 Acme 结果竟然是拥有所有乐一通角色的制片厂的母公司。最疯狂的部分是？华纳兄弟曾试图将这部电影束之高阁以获得税收抵免，结果在公众的强烈抗议下，被迫将其卖给了一家小型发行商。《The A.V. Club》的雅各布·奥勒（Jacob Oller）表示，《郊狼对阵 Acme》将动画与真人演员相结合，并且证明了它在探讨弱者挑战不可战胜的强敌意味着什么时，表现得“狡黠且聪明”。威尔·福特（Will Forte）饰演郊狼那邋遢的律师，一个职业生涯都在为那些被压扁或被炸飞的卡通人物追讨微小赔偿金的人，他在此片中的表现“可能是自《内布拉斯加》（Nebraska）以来最好的”。动画水平虽然没达到福特的高度，但为电影中“令人愉悦的夸-

处于劣势的福特在驾驶

大开杀戒的独角兽

张的》肢体喜剧贡献良多。《纽约客》的贾斯汀·张（Justin Chang）表示：“说实话，情节的构建还没达到前提设定的强度。”但叙事中的这种“轻微松散”为翠儿（Tweety）、达菲（Daffy）和其他老朋友的客串留出了空间。最重要的是，《郊狼对阵 Acme》并非为了敛财。它是一部“轻快、幽默的怀旧之作，由对原版乐一通宇宙持有明显敬畏之心的艺术家们创作而成”。

《IndieWire》的克里斯蒂安·齐尔科（Christian Zilko）表示：“《巴迪》是你对午夜电影所能期待的一切。”这是一个讽刺恐怖故事，戏仿了像《巴尼》（Barney）那样 1990 年代儿童电视节目中令人不寒而栗的开朗氛围。片中出现了一只名叫巴迪（Buddy）的巨大会说话的橙色独角兽，他开始谋杀自己剧集演员表中的孩子们。在另一个平行世界中，由克里斯汀·米利奥蒂（Cristin Milioti）饰演的一位母亲在怀疑自己曾经有过第三个孩子时，开始挖掘被掩埋的巴迪历史，而“结果令人震撼”。遗憾的是，《纽约邮报》的约翰尼·奥莱克辛斯基（Johnny Oleksinski）指出，在“令人捧腹”的开场 20 分钟后，巴迪在维持势头方面显得有些吃力。导演卡斯珀·凯利凭借 2014 年一部讽刺情景剧片头序列的短片《厨师太多》（Too Many Cooks）成名，他在讽刺那些孩子们曾经热爱但“回想起来却是噩梦般的地狱景象，且现在肯定在为治疗师的度假别墅买单”的节目时表现得才华横溢。然而，由于米利奥蒂的故事线中没有构建真正的惊悚感，电影变得“相当单一”。但《Slate》的萨姆·亚当斯（Sam Adams）表示，这两条线索都是对生活在“深度否认”中之影响的研究，且演员阵容帮助推销了整个作品。为独角兽配音的基根-迈克尔·基（Keegan-Michael Key）即使在巴迪最残忍的时候，“声音中也从未失去那种憨厚地道的腔调”。虽然巴迪的罪行“残酷甚至血腥”，但凯利的电影之所以成功，是因为“他知道不需要把旋钮拧得太高”，就能让电视上的虚假天堂显得充满威胁。

新颖且值得关注的播客

“‘宣言’这个词最后一次不带有负面含义是什么时候？”尼古拉斯·夸（Nicholas Quah）在 NYMag.com 中这样问道。这个问题成为了丹·塔伯斯基（Dan Taberski）的播客节目《宣言》（Manifesto）的灵魂。该节目由《寻找理查德·西蒙斯》（Missing Richard Simmons）和 9 / 12 的创作者打造，旨在将这种充满激情的宗旨陈述传统，从其在当代通常与连环杀手和大规模枪击者联系在一起的印象中夺回。由于塔伯斯基关注的是是什么让一份宣言产生效果，该节目“很容易陷入过于俏皮或矫揉造作的境地”。幸运的是，“塔伯斯基写作的力度、采访的质量以及视角的清晰度，使该系列保持了坚实的基调。”萨拉·拉森（Sarah Larson）在《纽约客》中表示，塔伯斯基在节目中一直“主张，如果操作得当，宣言是一种非暴力的行动号召”。没错，其中有一集是关于被指控为杀手的路易吉·曼吉奥内（Luigi Mangione）的。但塔伯斯基也探讨了和平的人物，例如已故的莫霍克活动人士理查德·奥克斯（Richard Oakes），以及凯瑟琳·汉娜（Kathleen Hanna），后者的《暴女宣言》（Riot Grrrl Manifesto）助力启动了 20 世纪 90 年代一场高效的女性主义艺术运动。或许这种发自肺腑的呐喊“正是我们现在所需要的”，塔伯斯基的系列节目为当前的文化时刻提供了一种“令人耳目一新的回应”，而在这一时刻，用塔伯斯基的话说，我们中的许多人“一直处于内心愤懑的状态”。

同样值得一听：

“凯瑟琳·范阿伦多克（Kathryn VanArendonk）和艾伦·塞平沃尔（Alan Sepinwall）报道电视节目已有数十年，所以他们非常清楚自己在说什么，”克洛伊·沃克（Chloe Walker）在 Podcast Review 中表示。这两位资深评论家联手推出了《电视真好》（TVIs Good），在他们讨论新旧电视剧时，“他们百科全书般的知识储备与长久的友谊相结合，使得他们的对话既有趣又具有启发性。”

与此同时，退休的足球偶像梅根·拉皮诺（Megan Rapinoe）通过播客节目《你为什么这样？》（Why Are You Like This?）转型，汉娜·J·戴维斯（Hannah J. Davies）在《卫报》中提到。拉皮诺与同行运动员以及艺术家和活动人士聊天，这些人像她一样挑战过现状。尽管该节目“没有打破常规”，但“制作精良”，且拉皮诺本人“魅力十足”。《我们的城镇》（Our Town）是一个关于试图重塑田纳西州盖恩斯伯勒（Gainesboro）小镇的基督教民族主义者的新系列，劳伦·帕塞尔（Lauren Passell）在 Podcast the Newsletter 中称其“极其令人不安”。尽管如此，它给了我一种“温馨的感觉”，因为当地人以有原则的方式进行了反击，且共同主持人梅里巴·奈特（Meribah Knight）和苏珊·伯菲尔德（Susan Berfield）如此生动地捕捉到了那个环境，以至于“我觉得自己准备好与他们一起在盖恩斯伯勒定居了”。

流媒体推荐

年度最佳喜剧电影（截至目前）

《邀请》（The Invite）

奥利维亚·王尔德（Olivia Wilde）、塞斯·罗根（Seth Rogen）、佩内洛普·克鲁兹（Penélope Cruz）和爱德华·诺顿（Edward Norton）在这部前卫的喜剧中让对话保持着尖锐、不安且幽默的氛围，讲述了一场将两对截然不同的夫妇聚集在一起的晚餐派对。$20 点播

《我爱助推器》（I Love Boosters）

凯基·帕尔默（Keke Palmer）在这部时髦、超现实且完全令人捧腹的喜剧中抢尽风头。她饰演一个盗窃团伙的头目，该团伙在湾区游荡，从大型零售店盗取设计师服装，并在汽车后备箱中出售赃物。由拉基斯·斯坦菲尔德（LaKeith Stanfield）和黛米·摩尔（Demi Moore）出演。$6 点播

《羊侦探》（The Sheep Detectives）

由布莱恩·克兰斯顿（Bryan Cranston）、朱莉娅·路易斯-德雷弗斯（Julia Louis-Dreyfus）、雷吉娜·霍尔（Regina Hall）和帕特里克·斯图尔特（Patrick Stewart）在内的众多优秀演员为这部聪明且适合全年龄段的喜剧中的电脑动画羊配音，讲述了一群羊试图查明谁谋杀了他们心爱的牧羊人的故事。Prime

Power Ballad

主演保罗·路德和尼克·乔纳斯之间自然的化学反应，驱动了这部制作精良的喜剧。影片讲述了一名婚礼歌手与前男团明星短暂成为好友，结果自己的其中一首歌被对方窃取并变成了热门金曲的故事。$6 点播

《穿普拉达的恶魔 2》 梅丽尔·斯特里普、安妮·海瑟薇和艾米莉·布朗在 2006 年这部讽刺时尚杂志电影的续作中重聚。影片充满了让原版大获成功的金句、刻薄戏码和高级定制时装盛宴。Disney+ 和 Hulu

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

这部由《湿热美国夏天》主创打造的古怪喜剧节奏极快，笑点密集。佐伊·多伊奇饰演一名堪萨斯州的理发师，在未婚夫透露曾与詹妮弗·安妮斯顿发生过一段令人意外的艳遇后，她前往洛杉矶执行一项任务：与乔·汉姆共度一夜。$20 点播

《本周》观影指南

Untold: Raygun: Breaking Badly

很少有运动员像蕾切尔·冈那样在奥运会上遭遇如此惨烈的失败。2024 年奥运会首次引入霹雳舞，向世界介绍了当时 36 岁的澳大利亚学者——以 Raygun 之名参赛。她那模仿袋鼠的跳跃以及其他非正统的动作引发了广泛嘲笑，迫使她在赛后不久便宣布退役。冈及其他人讲述了这场争议及其带来的影响。周二，Sept. 1, Netflix

The Runner

在这部快节奏的原创惊悚片中，盖尔·加朵饰演一名不同类型的“神奇女侠”。她是一名在伦敦工作的权力高层律师，被卷入一场高风险的游戏。在早晨跑步时，她接到一个陌生人的电话，对方称绑架了她的儿子，且只有在她一小时内杀掉一名即将提供关键不利证词的证人时，才会放过男孩。在城市中疾奔的同时，她制定了一个不同的计划。跑吧，盖尔，跑吧。周三，Sept. 2, Prime

Chad Powers

投球吧，查德，投球。格伦·鲍威尔回归这部喜剧系列第二季。该剧讲述一名名声扫地的大学四分卫，在假体、假发和另一个身份的帮助下，重新闯入赛场。作为查德·鲍威尔，他已成为一名红人，带领南乔治亚鲶鱼队有望获得季后赛资格。最大的威胁是：一名知道查德秘密的助理教练。周四，Sept. 3, Hulu

The Gentlemen

公爵正在扩张他的领地。在这部由导演盖·里奇创作的俏皮犯罪系列第二季中，西奥·詹姆斯回归饰演哈尔斯特德公爵，他继承了包括一个庞大大麻帝国在内的诸多遗产。起初他并不情愿，但现在已接受了自己作为犯罪头目的角色。他与犯罪盟友苏西·格拉斯（卡雅·斯科德拉里奥 饰）开始将企业版图推向意大利，但这引起了一名冷酷黑手党头目的不满。周四，Sept. 3, Netflix

国际“损友”布拉纳和雷诺兹

《The Runner》中的加朵：都市超级妈妈

Marble Hall Murders

这部作品改编自安东尼·霍罗维茨的苏珊·赖兰系列第三部小说，莱斯利·曼维尔回归饰演同名犯罪小说编辑兼业余侦探。在编辑一部旨在重启阿提库斯·朋德推理系列的小说时，赖兰发现了作者隐藏的线索，暗示其著名的祖母（朋德的创造者）是被谋杀的。但在谜底揭晓之前，赖兰自己成了谋杀嫌疑人。周日，Sept. 6, at 9 p.m., PBS；请查看当地节目单

其他亮点

The Varnell Hill Show

汤米·戴维森再次饰演他在 90 年代情景喜剧《马丁》中的角色，扮演脱口秀主持人瓦内尔·希尔，而此时的他正努力维持自己的影响力。周二，Sept. 1, Paramount+

Lovesick

这部背景设定在墨西哥革命时期的宏大新剧，改编自安赫莱斯·马斯特雷塔 1996 年的小说，讲述了一名梦想成为医生的年轻女性的故事。周三，Sept. 2, Netflix

O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil（O.J.未见之篇：邪恶的利用）

一部新纪录片重新审视了《Juiced》，这是一档古怪的 2006 年付费观看节目。在节目中，O.J. 辛普森恶作剧欺骗不知情的陌生人，而创作者则在背后怂恿，希望辛普森能在镜头前承认自己的罪行。9 月 7 日，星期一，晚上 9 点，Investigation Discovery 和 HBO Max 播出。

本周推荐剧集

Mayday（五月天 / 紧急呼救）

在这部由瑞安·雷诺兹和肯尼斯·布拉纳共同主演的聪明新片中，冷战惊悚与搭档喜剧的闹剧相碰撞。雷诺兹饰演一名美国飞行员，在一次失败的 1987 年侦察任务中被迫从其 SR-71 “黑鸟”侦察机上弹射而出。他在苏联的北方森林某处着陆，被布拉纳饰演的角色救起，后者是一名粗鲁的前克格勃特工。幸运的是，这位前间谍是个美国文化爱好者，在意识到有机会叛逃后，同意帮助他的新朋友逃离该国。雷诺兹和布拉纳之间的化学反应与一些顶级的动作场面相得益彰。9 月 4 日，星期五，Apple TV 上线。

切片的优势：两款亮眼的夏季沙拉

皮尔斯·阿伯内西在《Every Leaf, Every Stem》（Clarkson Potter 出版）中表示，生食材的切法决定了许多东西。在下面的第一道食谱中，我将甜瓜视为“一块生鱼”，将其切成极薄的片，使其吸收橄榄和醋中的油脂与酸味，从而创造出一种咸味生鱼片（crudo）。不过，“让甜瓜真正出彩”的是加入季节性的甜椒。

第二道食谱对夏季西葫芦采取了类似的处理方式。因为西葫芦“在生食时几乎像海绵一样”，所以它“可以吸收很多风味”。

本周食谱

甜椒、橄榄和酸豆甜瓜生鱼片沙拉

1 个（2 磅）白色蜜瓜或其他脆甜瓜，犹太盐

2 个 habanada 辣椒

1 个 Jimmy Nardello 辣椒

$\frac{1}{4}$ 杯白葡萄酒醋

2 个小干葱

$\frac{1}{4}$ 杯橄榄油

3 汤匙切碎的 Castelvetrano 橄榄 1 汤匙切碎的酸豆 香菜和欧芹，适量

用蔬菜削皮器或刀削去甜瓜皮。沿赤道将甜瓜切半，然后用勺子挖出种子。将每块纵向切半，制成半月形。使用切片机将甜瓜薄切

甜瓜与西葫芦的重新演绎

到砧板上；厚度应像薯片一样薄。将甜瓜片移至 6 个餐盘或一个大服务盘中，片与片之间轻微重叠，部分地方卷起。在甜瓜上轻撒盐。

将辣椒横向切成薄环，包括种子。将辣椒片放入小碗中，倒入醋。

将干葱切碎放入小碗中。加入橄榄油、橄榄、酸豆和约 1 茶匙盐。舀入约 1 汤匙辣椒醋并搅拌均匀。

分别掐一大把香菜和欧芹（带少量茎），将两种香草一起切碎。加入调料碗中。

将辣椒片从醋中捞出，散落在甜瓜片上。将干葱调料均匀地淋在甜瓜和辣椒上。可供 6 到 8 人食用。

黄西葫芦薄片沙拉

$1 / 4$ 杯橄榄油

2 茶匙白巴萨米克醋

1 茶匙犹太盐

1 茶匙糖

10 次现磨黑胡椒 1 个柠檬的细柠檬皮屑和柠檬汁 1 磅（约 2 个）黄西葫芦或南瓜

$\frac{1}{4}$ 杯粗切的马科纳杏仁 陈年格吕耶尔奶酪 罗勒叶 片状海盐

在大碗中，将橄榄油、醋、犹太盐、糖、胡椒、柠檬皮屑和柠檬汁搅拌至顺滑。

使用蔬菜削皮器，将南瓜从一端到另一端削成带状。将南瓜带状片与杏仁一起放入碗中。翻拌均匀。

将沙拉转移到餐盘中，然后使用削皮器在沙拉上方削出格吕耶尔奶酪片，直到几乎覆盖表面。用手揉搓几片罗勒叶，然后将其撕碎撒在沙拉上。最后撒上少许片状盐。可供 2 到 4 人食用。

沙漠餐饮：新墨西哥州绽放的美食景象

“这是美国最引人入胜的区域美食之一，而且经常被忽视，”卡特·奥德尔（Kat Odell）在《美食与葡萄酒》（Food & Wine）杂志中写道。在新墨西哥州，古老的普韦布洛（Pueblo）饮食方式早在很久以前就与西班牙定居者的传统交织在一起，后者将羊群、牛群、果园和墨西哥辣椒引入该地区。虽然玉米、豆类、南瓜和辣椒仍然是基础，但“在过去的十年里，新一代独立厨师增强了新墨西哥州美食的活力”，他们利用了更广泛的高原沙漠食材。以下餐厅正引领这一潮流。

/shed 将这家拥有 12 个座位的会员制餐饮俱乐部视为新墨西哥州的 Noma 餐厅。一种“超本地化理念”指导着这里的品鉴菜单晚餐，展示在附近饲养、种植或采集的食材。一顿饭可能会包含薄片日晒克里奥罗牛肉（criollo beef）配以带有柑橘味的狗草（dogweed）。原住民食材，如黄松树皮（ponderosa pine bark）和奥沙根（osha root），反复出现。地址：Taos, 708 Hacienda Road

/shed 的共享餐桌

Paloma 这家“色彩斑斓、由农场驱动的餐厅”其烹饪水平“在圣达菲最充满活力”。马尔雅·马丁（Marja Martin）的菜单将墨西哥影响与新墨西哥州北部的食材相结合。因此，请点一杯 Sungold 番茄特帕切（tepache）或其他灵感十足的鸡尾酒，并品尝一份短肋骨巴尔巴科亚（barbacoa），它将“原住民饲养的牛肉与斑豆、chicos（火烤干玉米）、chile pasado（日晒绿辣椒）以及碱处理过的南瓜”结合在一起。地址：Santa Fe, 401 S. Guadalupe St.

Campo 在位于洛斯波布拉诺斯历史旅馆（Los Poblanos Historic Inn）的这家餐厅中，“菜单始于田野”。旅馆有机农场的每日收获产出传家宝豆类、玉米、辣椒、索诺拉小麦以及其他立即呈现在盘中的新墨西哥食材。传家宝玉米每天经过碱处理用于制作玉米饼、玉米面团（masa）和玉米粒（hominy），后者可搭配油封猪肉或作为浓郁的 posole 汤的基础。地址：Albuquerque, 4803 Rio Grande Blvd. NW

葡萄酒：博若莱白葡萄酒

爱德华·戴奇（Edward Deitch）在 Vinepair 中表示，博若莱白葡萄酒一定是法国勃艮第地区“最深藏不露的秘密”之一。博若莱地区通常被认为与勃艮第截然不同，因为其土壤不同，且其红葡萄酒使用的是佳美（gamay）而非黑皮诺（pinot noir）。但其白葡萄酒与“勃艮第的霞多丽非常相似”——除了价格要便宜得多。

2024 Jean-Paul Brun 'Terres Dorées'（$22）。这款“极美”的霞多丽在“梨、柑橘和茴香籽的基调”下，蕴含着“细腻的粉质矿物感”。2025 Emmanuel Fellot（$24）。这款“清爽、平衡且美味”的“矿物驱动型”霞多丽还提供了桃子和柑橘的香气，随后是“收尾处坚实的酸度”。

2024 Château Pougelon 'Pierres Doreés'（$33）。“这款酒为该地区的非橡木桶霞多丽树立了基准。”其杏子和青苹果的香气被“燧石和白胡椒的触感”所激活。

本周之梦：法国的翡翠海岸

尽管法国的翡翠海岸吸引的游客远不如蔚蓝海岸之多，但正如安妮·埃瑟里奇在《纽约时报》中所言，“那些踏上旅程的人往往会深深地被其迷住。”这个位于法国西北部的如画之角，涵盖了布列塔尼约 50 英里的海岸线，以其牡蛎、凉爽的夏季气温以及 40 英尺的潮差而闻名。我每年都会在蔚蓝海岸附近的马赛度过一段时间，但由于“感受到潮汐不可抗拒的吸引力”，我最近乘坐火车向北行驶 700 英里，去领略另一段海岸的风情。这段海岸的名字灵感源自海浪那灿烂的颜色——那是由于浮游植物的染色，在拍打海岸时呈现出的色彩。

“快跑！”就在海水开始舔舐我们的脚趾时，导游大喊道。我们的一个小团体在低潮时漫步在圣马洛这座港口城市每天两次开启的宽阔平坦的沙滩上。我们与当地人一起，“无论老人还是孩子”，都提着水桶寻找可食用的甲壳类动物，如小型龙虾和天鹅绒蟹，这些生物因肉质丰腴而备受推崇。在得到了及时的警告后，“我们疯狂地冲向被称为‘城墙’的高处城市防御墙以寻求安全”，没过多久，海滩就消失了，海浪猛烈地拍击着城墙，吸引了许多围观者，他们希望看到有几朵浪花直接跃上相邻的海滨街道。

海鲜采集者在西隆海滩（Plage du Sillon）上冒险探索。

附近的坎卡勒（Cancale）是法国的牡蛎之都，我在该村庄的露天市场品尝了 12 个牡蛎。我在所到之处都吃得很开心，品尝了该地区的风味黄油、咸味荞麦薄饼和干苹果酒。但最令人难忘的一餐是我在酒店 Château Richeux 享用的 12 道海鲜主题晚餐。这家酒店是一座修复后的 20 世纪 20 年代堡垒，坐落在俯瞰圣米歇尔山湾（Bay of Mont-St.-Michel）的高耸悬崖上。第二天清晨，我在花卉和香草花园中漫步。“当我沉浸在黎明之气中时，一个法语词浮现在脑海：les embruns。它描述的是被风带向内陆的细小海雾——不是雨，也不是雾，而是随风飘荡的含盐微滴，细微到只能感觉到而难以看见，这正是这个微妙之地的完美类比。”到那时，这一点已毋庸置疑：“潮汐已经施展了它的魔力。”

■ 在 Château Richeux (maisons-de-bricourt.com)，双人间起价为 \$300。

本周酒店 阶梯式泳池环绕着海滩。

华尔道夫酒店 哥斯达黎加 普塔卡西克 瓜纳卡斯特，哥斯达 Rica

克里斯汀·布拉斯韦尔在《Travel & Leisure》中表示，“来自世界各地的旅行者都在追寻渗透在哥斯达黎加的 pura vida（纯净生活）精神”，而他们可以在该国第一家华尔道夫度假酒店找到它。该物业的 148 间客房和 40 间套房分布在多个土色调的建筑中，这些建筑如瀑布般穿过“童话般”的丛林环境，经过多个泳池和露台，一直延伸到一片僻静的海滩。现场的六个餐饮选择包括一家提供由“哥斯达黎加最珍贵咖啡豆”制作的咖啡的咖啡馆，而那个面积 17,000 平方英尺的水疗中心则专注于使用火山粘土、可可和梅利波纳蜂蜜（Melipona honey）等本土成分的护理。hilton.com；双人间 \$494 起

领略……的风味

德克萨斯州的成人夏令营

在“无辅导员营”（Camp No Counselors），“没有人会因为到了玉米洞游戏比赛时间就叫你放下《纽约客》”，文迪·艾伦斯在《德克萨斯月刊》中写道。这就是成人夏令营好坏参半的地方，正如我最近在德克萨斯州马布尔福尔斯度过一个长周末时的体会——这次逃离是为了让那些渴望“找回青春、断网，或看看拔河是否像记忆中那样有趣”的成年人们聚在一起。在第 1 天观看一场 Wiffle 球赛时，我感到很困惑：“每个人，甚至包括观众，看起来都如此投入。”而在晚餐时，“我面临了那个经典的尴尬时刻：新来的孩子在寻找座位。”不过，那天晚上我遇到了朱莉和特里，她们如此投入，以至于我也成了其中一员。在经历了几天的手工艺、射箭、滑索以及全营规模的“色彩战争”后，最后举行了一场以 Bad Bunny 为主题的营地社交活动，这激发了一些疯狂的装扮。早餐时，我正忍受着宿醉，这时有人喊我的名字。“我的新营地伙伴们，其中大多数人穿着动物连体睡衣，正向我招手。”

大卫·林奇的洛杉矶

阿曼达·卡库特利在《洛杉矶时报》中写道，1970 年大卫·林奇抵达洛杉矶时，被这里特有的阳光所震撼。直到去年 78 岁去世前，这位传奇导演一直从这座城市中汲取无尽的灵感，首先是伯班克的 Bob's Big Boy 餐厅，在那里，他连续几年的习惯是在下午 2:30（即 2 点 30 分）精确地订一杯咖啡和一杯巧克力奶昔，让自己进入白日梦状态。因为林奇“热爱洛杉矶旧时的魅力”，他在三部电影中都加入了市中心的装饰艺术风格塔楼剧院（Tower Theatre）。他还展示了与石油大亨埃德·多赫尼及其后代相关的房产，包括富兰克林峡谷公园；多赫尼庄园（现为圣玛丽山大学校园的一部分）；以及比弗利山庄的格雷斯通庄园，后者在《橡皮头》中占据重要地位。林奇的拥趸们当然还想一睹这位导演心爱的粗野主义风格好莱坞山住宅，他在那里生活和工作了很长时间。他们还可以前往好莱坞永远公墓（Hollywood Forever）祭拜他的坟墓，那里是许多电影巨匠的最终安息之地。

“奶奶风”走向全球

我最近开始寻求由年长女性引导的旅行体验，而“我并不孤单”，艾米莉-安·埃利奥特在 BBC.com 中写道。超过 75% 的 Z 世代旅行者表示，他们很乐意预订一项“受奶奶启发”的度假活动，而各地的奶奶们正在满足这一需求。在网上搜索，你会发现你可以雇佣一名日本奶奶（obaasan）作为导游，与一名法国奶奶（mémé）一起烘焙玛德琳蛋糕，或者与一名白发苍苍的澳大利亚原住民厨师一起采集可食用植物。“向那些从她们母亲那里学习的女性学习，感觉非常特别”，我在参加泰国按摩课程的经历可以证明这一点。奶奶们“在需要时很严格，在我们犯错时打趣我们，在我们自我怀疑时鼓励我们”。当期末考试的压力让我流泪时，一个奶奶的拥抱让我挺了过来。

醉驾同样致命。

微醺驾驶即是醉驾。

卡拉·米勒

本周市场最佳房产：建于 1920 年代的房屋

Alan Barry

2▶ 俄亥俄州，克特兰 (Kirtland, Ohio)

1 ▲ 纽约州，加里森 (Garrison, N.Y.)。Evarts Hill 建于 1929 年，位于哈德逊河谷，距离曼哈顿约 50 英里，占地 50 多英亩。这座庄园经过翻新的六卧室主屋是一座石砌和灰泥结构的法国诺曼城堡，拥有一个带有弧形楼梯的三层圆形大厅，一个带有手工雕梁的客厅，以及一个配备金黄色 BlueStar 炉灶的厨师级厨房。土地还包括一座五卧室马车房，以及一个玫瑰园、一个泳池和一片草坪。$8,950,000。Tony Cutugno, William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, (914) 582-7789

The Playmore 是一座位于克利夫兰郊区、俯瞰伊利湖的 1929 年法省风格庄园。这座扩建并翻新的七卧室住宅拥有精致的木工装饰、天花板壁画、大理石地板，以及一个配备蒂法尼天窗圆顶的厨房，还有一个 3,000 平方英尺的娱乐翼楼，内设酒吧、台球室、水烟休息室和酒窖。占地 12 多英亩的土地上有约 20,000 棵树、博切球场、英式花园和一个露营地。$5,950,000。David Ayers and Nick Zawitz, The Agency Cleveland Northcoast, (917) 519-0622

3 佛罗里达州，维罗海滩 (Vero Beach, Fla.)。这座位于佛罗里达州宝藏海岸、沿印第安河而建的 1920 年水岸两卧室小屋拥有翻新的系统和金属屋顶，此外还有木镶板墙、赤陶砖地板、一个带有法式门的日光室，以及一个带有私人阳台的主卧套房。该物业占地 5 英亩，拥有热带景观，约 300 英尺的河岸线，并包括一个砖砌的用餐和休息区、平坦的院子和一个码头。$3,995,000。Nic Stover, Engel & Völkers (772) 801-8292

《本周》杂志 2026年9月4日

本周最佳房产

5 ▶ 洛杉矶。这座建于 1923 年的洛斯费利斯 (Los Feliz) 西班牙风格五卧室住宅拥有一个带有黑色漆梁、珊瑚色内置家具、星爆吊灯和燃木壁炉的客厅。餐厅有一幅手绘的加州山脉壁画，厨房则配备薰衣草色橱柜和早餐区。底层设有一个放映室，室外则有客房、泳池和车库。格里菲斯公园 (Griffith Park) 和好莱坞碗 (Hollywood Bowl) 仅几分钟路程之遥。$6,500,000。Sonya Coke, Sotheby's International Realty–Los Feliz Brokerage, (323) 829-4440

4 ◀ 丹佛。这座 1921 年的地中海风格四卧室住宅距离华盛顿公园 (Washington Park) 仅 5 分钟车程。该房屋的入口铺有模版木地板，设有两个正式会客室，一个带有吊灯和窗边座位的餐厅，以及一个可步入带壁炉家庭房的厨师级厨房。专业景观美化的庭院包括一个带有三层水景的砖砌露台。$3,750,000。John Jaster, Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate / Luxury Portfolio International, (303) 322-6200

Alex Zarour / Virtually Here Studios

本周超值房产

6 ◀ 新不列颠，

康涅狄格州。这座位于哈特福德附近的 1927 年荷兰殖民复兴风格建筑拥有 Gambrel 式屋顶和木瓦外墙。这栋四居室房屋的开放式厨房包括一个石材岛台、大理石背板、不锈钢电器和一个咖啡吧，

而餐厅则有一个转角内置瓷器柜。卧室位于二楼，装修完毕的三层是一个带有半卫的多功能空间。后院被成熟的树木环绕。$475,000。Tony Buccheri, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties, (860) 983-0748

新闻速览

底线

■ 根据皮尤研究中心（Pew Research）的一项新研究，自 2022 年底 ChatGPT 发布以来，超过三分之一的网页显示出由 AI 撰写的迹象。域名为 .com 的 URL 显示出 AI 创作迹象的概率约为 .edu 或 .gov 域名的 10 倍。

■ 雇主预计其医疗计划成本在 2027 年将上涨 11.1%，这是至少二十年来最剧烈的涨幅。其中大部分增长将转嫁给员工，预计今年员工在医疗保健方面的平均支出将达到 50 亿美元,297，比 2025 年增加 $388。

《华尔街日报》

■ 乐高（Lego）今年上半年的营收创纪录，达到 65 亿美元 billion，比 2025 年同期增长 21%。这家丹麦玩具公司在 2026 年前六个月推出了创纪录的 332 套产品，价格从 $4.99 的“卡丁车赛车手”到 $249.99 的克劳德·莫奈《睡莲池上的桥》积木复制品不等。CNBC.com

■ 美国零售商在上周发布的收益报告中称，收到了超过 50 亿美元 billion 的联邦关税退款，因为特朗普政府在最高法院败诉后，正在撤销其标志性的关税政策。大多数公司将这些退款据为己有，而非与消费者分享。 《福布斯》

■ 成人平台 OnlyFans 在其所有者 Leonid Radvinsky 因癌症于 3 月去世（享年 43 岁）之前的几个月里，向其支付了 7.09亿美元 的股息。在 2018, 收购 OnlyFans 后，这位乌克兰裔美国商人从该平台获得了超过 20 亿美元 billion，该平台拥有超过 1.32 亿 名付费订阅者。Bloomberg

关税：关于牛肉进口的争端

《国会山》（The Hill）的 Mallory Wilson 表示，共和党议员和养牛场主本周对总统特朗普决定暂时降低绞肉关税敲响了“警钟”。为了遏制因干旱、投入成本上升和牛群缩减而飙升的牛肉价格，特朗普宣布将允许最多 300,000 公吨的外国绞肉以“无配额关税”进入美国。他声称这些肉类将以低于当前每磅 $6.89 市场价 25% 的价格销售，但未提供该计划如何运作或哪些国家将参与的细节。参议员蒂姆·希希（Tim Sheehy，蒙大拿州共和党）警告称，进口廉价外国肉类只会损害美国牧场主的利益，“其中大多数人是 MAGA 共和党人”。怀俄明州的一家从农场到餐桌的经营企业 Meriwether Farms 将总统的行为称为“背叛”。

《华尔街日报》在一篇社论中表示，这是特朗普纯粹的政治操弄。“他知道他及其共和党人正因价格上涨而受到指责”，而他的 90 天关税宽限期“覆盖了直到 11 月中期选举之前的三个月”，这绝非巧合。但这些对消费者的让步也承认了他的关税战略在“经济和政治上都失败了”。特朗普可能热爱关税提供的政治筹码，但“他及其政党可能会因为提高数百万消费者的物价，在今年 11 月付出代价”。

社交媒体：Meta 就成瘾问题达成 $16.7B 和解

据彭博社的马德林·梅克尔堡（Madlin Mekelburg）报道，Meta 本周与 47 个州达成了一项具有里程碑意义的和解协议，同意就其平台被指控“旨在鼓励年轻用户强迫性使用”而支付高达 167 亿美元 billion 的赔偿金。作为协议的一部分，该公司必须在 Facebook 和 Instagram 中增加新的安全功能，包括“限制青少年的滚动浏览时间，并防止他们在未经父母同意的情况下关闭某些安全设置”。

SEC：针对陷入困境的对冲基金，向华尔街提出质询 据《金融时报》的阿基拉·奎尼奥（Akila Quinio）和约书亚·富兰克林（Joshua Franklin）报道，美国证券交易委员会（SEC）在调查对冲基金 Situational Awareness 近乎崩溃的事件时，已向华尔街的一些最大银行发出传票。这家由 24, 岁的利奥波德·阿申布伦纳（Leopold Aschenbrenner）领导的 AI 聚焦公司，曾是高盛、摩根大通、花旗集团和美国银行的客户。Situational Awareness 在不到两年的时间里利用借贷资金收购了超过 200 亿美元 billion 的资产，但在 7 月一场剧烈的科技股抛售潮中，被迫以大幅折扣将大部分股票出售给 Citadel。

SpaceX：即将从拜尤地区起飞

据 CNN.com 的杰基·瓦特尔斯（Jackie Wattles）报道，埃隆·马斯克的火箭公司本周“披露了在路易斯安那州建设一个耗资 1000 亿美元 billion 的巨型航天港的计划”。SpaceX 表示，该场地将成为其庞大的可重复使用“星舰”（Starship）火箭的主要枢纽，目前该火箭正在公司的南德克萨斯设施中进行测试。位于西南维米利昂教区（Vermilion Parish）的设施预计将于 2027. 年底开始建设。如果该开发项目得以推进，将标志着美国航天工业的一次重大转变，“使从未举办过轨道发射的路易斯安那州，可能成为地球上最繁忙的发射枢纽”。

反垄断：特朗普如何保护 Live Nation

据《滚石》杂志的乔恩·布利斯坦（Jon Blistein）报道，美国司法部（DOJ）在 3 月初与 Live Nation 达成的出人意料的法律和解是由特朗普总统下令的。司法部花费了十多年时间构建针对 Live Nation（Ticketmaster 的所有者）的反垄断案件，指控该公司人为抬高票价。但《华尔街日报》本周报道称，在 2 月特朗普与 Live Nation 首席执行官迈克尔·拉皮诺（Michael Rapino）在椭圆形办公室会面后，总统命令司法部达成和解——司法部在 3 月初，即审判开始仅几天后便执行了该命令。该协议允许该公司保留对 Ticketmaster 及众多顶级场馆的控制权，一些司法部官员认为，即使对于一个多次赦免盟友的政府来说，这一举动也显得“极端”。

社交拓展兼顾浪漫情怀

据《华尔街日报》的塞莉亚·伯恩哈特（Celia Bernhardt）报道，“厌倦了在线约会无休止的随机性，越来越多的人开始在 LinkedIn 上寻找爱情”。凭借其“清晰的头像和充足的个人信息”，这个职业社交网站已成为“单身人士的首选工具”。LinkedIn 的指南“严禁任何形式的浪漫追求”。但在最近的一项调查中，至少 $22% 的专业人士承认曾在该平台上以浪漫意图联系他人或回应他人。约会者表示，这是一个“有用的筛选工具”，尤其是对于那些寻求具有相似“职业、财务和个人生活目标”伴侣的单身人士。24 岁的伦敦人埃斯梅·戈登-克雷格（Esme Gordon-Craig）利用 LinkedIn 建立联系——“职业的、社交的，或许还有更多”——但她确保发送给潜在恋爱对象的邮件读起来总是与工作或职业相关，而不是搭讪词。“如果有火花，那就太棒了，”戈登-克雷格说，“如果没有，那也只是一个很好的社交机会。”

房地产：两极分化的住房市场

萨曼莎·德卢亚（Samantha Delouya）在 CNN.com 中表示，目前的住房市场呈现出一种“拥有者与匮乏者”的局面。看看旧金山就知道了。就在几年前，这座“湾区之城”还是“城市衰落”的象征。而现在，它拥有全美最火热的住房市场。在人工智能热潮的推动下，科技从业者们“资金充裕”，房价经常被竞价推高至比挂牌价高出 100万美元 以上。目前，旧金山的房屋中位售价为 $1.700 万。这种狂热还“波及到了租赁市场”。今年，一居室的租金上涨了近 23%，达到每月 $4,180，两居室上涨了近 26% 至 $6,020. 而 AI 初创公司 Anthropic 和 OpenAI 即将进行的首次公开募股（IPO）预计将进一步增加“潜在的购买力”。

AI 热潮正在推高旧金山的房价。

安娜-路易丝·杰克逊（Anna-Louise Jackson）在《快公司》（Fast Company）中表示，住房市场应该能为关于“K型经济是否已经结束”的长期争论提供答案。事实是，它“依然存在且活跃”。入门级购房者“已被价格挤出市场”，且似乎已经“停止寻找”。根据 Realtor.com 的数据，自 2021, 以来，价格低于 $370,000 的房屋挂牌浏览量大幅下降。但“住房光谱的另一端则讲述了一个完全不同的故事”。那些寻找大型昂贵房屋的人“依然非常活跃”。哈莉娜·贝内特（Halina Bennet）在 Slow Boring 中表示，富裕买家正在“支撑着全国的销售数据”。目前的住房数据“看起来不错”，但这是因为高端市场的强劲掩盖了低端市场的严重疲软。经济分析师表示，对于任何没有“成为新晋科技百万富翁”的人来说，这可能是“自 2011 以来住房市场最糟糕的一年”。

莉莉·贝尔·波林（Lily Belle Poling）在《华尔街日报》中表示，新通过的联邦住房法可能提供一个潜在的解决方案。该法律使得制造用于“现场”组装的模块化和预制房屋变得“更简单且更便宜”。这类房屋“长期以来一直处于住房市场的边缘”，仅占美国新建筑的 3%。但这个数字可能很快会飙升。新法律中对繁琐程序的削减应能使每栋房屋降低 $5,000 至 $10,000 的成本。对于一些购房者来说，这些节省的费用“可能相当于原成本的 10% 以上”。朱莉·Z·韦尔（Julie Z. Weil）在《华盛顿邮报》中表示，模块化房屋也正在走出拖车公园，越来越多地进入郊区。几家开发商将其推销为“未来的方向”，赌更多购房者将“愿意重新审视”预制房屋。新房的“质量比过去几十年的要高得多”，其中一些最精美的房屋挂牌价超过 $600,000. 但平均而言，一座工厂建造的房屋仍仅需 $90,700.

专家观点

新娘如何从婚礼中获利。查维·利伯（Chavie Lieber）在《华尔街日报》中表示，一些新娘通过举债来资助婚礼。而另一些人则将大日子视为赚钱的机会。随着成本上升，新娘们正在借鉴“名人网红的剧本”，为食物、礼品、邀请函等寻求赞助。一场婚礼的平均费用已经超过 $34,000, 且由于通货膨胀和关税导致鲜花、烈酒和旅行等必需品价格上涨，今年迄今为止成本上涨了 8.5%。然而，即使是没有庞大社交媒体受众的人，在抵消此类成本方面也能取得成功。一名来自新泽西州的新娘，一名仅有 2,000 名粉丝的营销专业人士，在其中一条帖子走红后，获得了一件免费的婚纱、伴娘服、礼服和邀请函。

■ 给富人的经济援助

埃琳·哈德逊在《彭博商业周刊》中表示，精英私立高中为了吸引学生，甚至在向富裕家庭提供经济援助。像纽约市的布里尔利学校（Brearley School）和新罕布什尔州的菲利普斯埃克塞特学院（Phillips Exeter）这类预科学校，在历史上一直吸引着“收入光谱两端”的人群——即那些能支付全额费用的人和那些完全无法支付费用的人。但出生率的下降，加上令人震惊的高昂学费（寄宿生每年高达 $80,000），促使这些学校向那些“足够富有能支付一部分费用”的人提供“折扣、生活成本调整、奖学金以及灵活的学费方案”。这包括年收入在 $150,000 到 $500,000 以上的家庭。马萨诸塞州的迪尔菲尔德学院（Deerfield Academy）在 2024 年将其免学费的收入上限从之前的 $80,000 门槛提高到了 $150,000。

邮轮额外费用

塞兰·叶金苏在《纽约时报》中表示，邮轮公司正在提高每日小费和其他费用，导致乘客抱怨被“层层剥削”。嘉年华邮轮（Carnival）将每日小费提高了 $1，达到每人 $17；而名人邮轮（Celebrity）将费率提高了 $1.50，范围在 $19.50 到 $24.50 之间。这些费用虽然是可选的，但会自动添加到账单中，必须手动删除。嘉年华还将非酒精饮料套餐的价格提高到每日 $11.99，外加 20% 的小费。嘉年华、名人、公主和 MSC 邮轮公司表示，较高的小费费用有助于他们“保持具有竞争力的船员薪酬”，确保宾客获得最佳服务。但一些乘客怀疑这些费用是否真的交给了船员，并表示计划恢复使用现金支付小费。

本周慈善机构

庆祝 125 周年：原生植物信托基金会 (Native Plant Trust)

超过 125 年来，原生植物信托基金会 (nativeplanttrust.org) 一直致力于保护新英格兰地区的原生植物群，并提高人们对这些植物的价值、用途和美感的认识。其位于波士顿郊外的总部“林中花园”（Garden in the Woods）是一座占地 45 英亩的植物园，展示了 1,000 多种原生植物，欢迎来自世界各地的游客。利用该非营利组织拥有超过 1000 万 颗稀有种子的种子库所培育的植物，已帮助恢复或多样化野生及家养栖息地，并为原生动物提供食物。在 2012, 飓风桑迪之后，志愿者们利用种子库中的种子重新种植沿海植物，且该机构的植物学家已将几种濒危的当地多年生植物重新引入其栖息地。该非营利组织还经营面向公众销售的植物苗圃，提供原生植物植物学和园艺学的正式认证，并举办关于原生植物园艺的研讨会、儿童项目和课程。

债券：贝森特能否降低借贷成本？

萨姆·戈尔德法布在《华尔街日报》中表示，斯科特·贝森特刚刚被“债券市场教了一课”。上周，30年期美国国债收益率飙升至 5.3%，创下近二十年来的新高，随后财政部长宣布了一项重大干预措施。他表示，联邦政府在 9 月至 11 月期间回购自身长期债券的金额将至少增加一倍——此举旨在阻止美国债务的抛售，因为抛售正推高国债收益率。这些收益率在债券价格下跌时会上升，它们为借贷成本设定了底线，影响着抵押贷款利率、学生贷款以及

市场对他计划持怀疑态度。

信用卡。贝森特显然希望在期中选举前降低借贷利率，因为预计共和党将在这次选举中因生活负担问题而遭到选民的沉重打击。但他的 $4 亿计划没有奏效：30年期国债收益率短暂下跌后，又回升至接近 5.3%。贝森特将此次上涨归咎于投资者基于“错误信息”采取的行动。

约翰·卡西迪在《纽约客》中表示，财政部长是在用“一根细水管”去扑灭一场森林大火。与规模约为 $32 万亿美元的国债市场相比，回购规模微不足道，而且存在“推高债券收益率的强大力量”：顽固的通货膨胀、$40 万亿美元的国家债务，以及来自大型科技公司的投资者资金竞争，这些公司已发行数十亿美元的企业债券以资助 AI 热潮。随着日本、德国和英国的收益率同步上升，市场共识认为贝森特“不太可能实现其目标”。更糟糕的是，如果投资者开始认为债券已成为政治工具，他的“干预可能会适得其反”，反而推高借贷成本。

杰米·麦基弗在路透社中表示，贝森特“束手无策”。降低收益率的唯一方法是削减联邦预算赤字，目前赤字约占 GDP, 的 $6%，除经济衰退和战争时期外，这是历史最高水平。但特朗普总统并未表现出削减政府支出或提高税收的倾向。除了这两项措施，任何其他干预措施都像是在“一个化脓、巨大且不断扩大的伤口上贴创可贴”一样毫无作用。《经济学人》指出，贝森特的计划还面临另一个障碍：美联储主席凯文·沃什。如果财政部长成功降低借贷成本，这将产生类似于降息的经济刺激效果，并推高 3.4% 的通货膨胀率。但沃什已誓言要将该利率降回美联储 2% 的目标，且市场预计央行将在 9 月的下次会议上加息。“财政部的宽松与美联储的紧缩可能会在未来几个月导致一场奇特的货币政策拉锯战。”

安东尼·科利在 MS.now 中表示，贝森特应该更清楚这一点。这位前对冲基金经理的职业生涯建立在“利用政府承诺与经济现实允许的情况之间的差距”之上。1992, 年，他是乔治·索罗斯团队的一员，在英国“坚持认为自己能够捍卫一个被市场视为不可持续的汇率”后，通过做空英镑赚了超过 $1 亿。现在他处于“交易的另一方”，成为了一个由反复无常的总统领导的政府成员，而这位总统相信他可以将经济弯曲成自己想要的模样。“以前的贝森特一定会揭穿这个政府的虚张声势。”

为什么民主党不选择无人驾驶？

罗杰·卡玛 《大西洋月刊》

利用数据提高你的收费

Stephanie T. Nguyen 《纽约时报》

罗热·卡尔马（Rogé Karma）表示，无人驾驶的未来已经到来，至少对于那些共和党执政的“红州”来说是这样。Waymo 的自动驾驶机器人出租车在迈阿密和达拉斯等地正变得不可或缺，但在包括马萨诸塞州和纽约州在内的大多数民主党领导的州，它们仍然被禁止。在这些地方，“工会联盟、反科技活动人士和政治家们让无人驾驶车辆远离街道”，声称这项技术将“使道路变得更危险，并导致数百万人类司机失业”。这是误导。是的，无人驾驶出租车可能会取代一些工作，而且在极少数情况下，它们确实堵塞过道路甚至撞到过行人。但总体而言，它们比人类司机“安全得多”，并且可以减少导致每天约 10,000 名美国人进入急诊室以及每年导致 40,000 人死亡的碰撞相关伤害。取消司机还将使交通变得更实惠。虽然 Waymo 目前比竞争对手的服务更贵，但这在很大程度上是“因为供应被人为限制且需求很高”。随着更多 Waymo 车辆上路，价格将会下降。而且由于它们是电动车，这些车辆减少了碳排放和空气污染，这些目标应该是民主党人所倡导的。一个悲哀的讽刺是，进步主义者已经“变成了进步本身的敌人”。

Stephanie T. Nguyen 表示，公司正全力投入个性化定价。从星巴克、克罗格（Kroger）到塔吉特（Target）和家得宝（Home Depot），各大企业都在利用数据来对“向你收取多少费用进行针对性计算”。客户的位置、浏览历史和社交媒体活动可以帮助确定他们愿意支付多少钱。公司坚称这种针对性定价“仅仅是现代折扣的运作方式”，是“优惠券的自然演变”。事实并非如此。使用优惠券时，每个人获得的折扣相同，因此消费者可以看到原价以及他们节省了多少。但在监控定价（surveillance pricing）下，人们为同一件商品被提供不同的价格。一名《华盛顿邮报》的记者发现，星巴克在某些情况下会对忠实客户收取比新客户更高的费用。这种做法需要停止，而现有的消费者保护和隐私法无法实现这一点。政策制定者需要制定一部“真正的价格法”，让公司承担责任，并确保忠诚度计划不会变成“数据提取机制”。当消费者受到损害时，他们应该能够提起诉讼，而不是被“限制在有利于公司的仲裁协议中”。批评者认为，此类监管会扭曲自由市场，公司应该被允许根据其认为合适的方式为产品定价。事实上，禁止监控定价仅仅是恢复“市场的基本原则”。

嫁给《教练》的“唐娜·里德之女”

谢莉·法巴雷斯 1944-2026

谢莉·法巴雷斯在任何年龄段在荧幕上都散发出一种纯真感。从1958年到1966年，她在纯洁无瑕的《唐娜·里德秀》中饰演活泼的长女玛丽·斯通。随后，她换上比基尼，在三部埃尔维斯电影中翩翩起舞；在1971年的《布莱恩之歌》（一部关于橄榄球跨种族友谊的艾美奖获奖电视电影）中晋升为支持丈夫的年轻妻子角色；并在1989-1997年的情景喜剧《教练》中，饰演一名自信的电视新闻主播，并最终与克雷格·T·尼尔森饰演的角色结婚。她为自己的大多数角色感到自豪：“《唐娜·里德秀》永远改变了我的生活，”她在1989年说道，“埃尔维斯那些电影也非常棒。”但她对自己短暂的音乐成功一直感到困惑，当时她录制的流行情歌《约翰尼·安吉尔》在1962年连续两周位居榜首。“委婉地说，我对那件事感到震惊，”她说，“我简直不会唱歌。所以有很多叠录。”

米歇尔·安·玛丽·法巴雷斯出生在加利福尼亚州圣莫尼卡的一个中产阶级家庭。她的姑姑娜内特·法布雷是一位成功的演员，据《The Wrap》报道，谢莉“从很小的时候起就担任童星”。9岁时，她出演了一档NBC特别节目，在节目中弗兰克·辛纳屈用《心永年轻》为她唱情歌。14岁时，她通过《唐娜·里德秀》获得了“一代人的名声”，在ABC这部情景喜剧中度过了七年，美国观众见证了她的成长。在向青年角色平稳过渡期间，她先后出演了1965年的《快乐女孩》、1966年的《失控》和1967年的《海边大餐》，与埃尔维斯搭档。随后，据《纽约时报》报道，她“回到了电视领域”，那里让她感到最自在。在20世纪70年代和80年代，她是《一天一次》的常驻演员，饰演主演邦妮·富兰克林的商业竞争对手。（期间，法巴雷斯的姑姑曾客串出演她角色的母亲。）随后，她在《教练》中“娱乐了又一代观众”，并获得了两次艾美奖提名。

据《娱乐周刊》报道，法巴雷斯在晚年致力于自由主义活动和慈善事业。她与第二任丈夫——《MAS*H》演员迈克·法雷尔一起，游说国会为阿尔茨海默病研究提供资金，她的母亲曾深受此病困扰。即便在与自身免疫性肝炎作斗争期间（她于2000年接受了肝移植手术），她依然在屏幕演员协会董事会中保持活跃。“我能一直工作，对我来说简直是一个令人惊讶的事实，”她在2024年说道，“我觉得自己非常幸运。”

记录斯普林斯汀的音乐评论家

戴夫·马什 1950-2026

戴夫·马什（Dave Marsh）从不委婉。在他看来，Journey 乐队是“斯蒂福德妻子式的摇滚，毫无意识地陷入极度的平庸，已然死气沉沉”。Queen 乐队“可能是第一支真正的法西斯摇滚乐队”。至于 Grateful Dead 乐队？“除了纪录片用途外，几乎毫无价值”。在担任摇滚乐界最具影响力的评论家之数十载期间，马什在《Creem》和《滚石》（Rolling Stone）杂志的版面中发表了许多此类犀利的抨击，但他也同样以对他所热爱音乐的热烈赞美而著称，其喜好涵盖了从 Supremes 到 Sex Pistols，从马文·盖伊（Marvin Gaye）到 MC5 的广泛领域。他助力成名的布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀（Bruce Springsteen）是他最钟爱的人物，也是马什众多著作中五本书的主角；他还写过关于埃尔维斯·普雷斯利（Elvis Presley）、乔治·克林顿（George Clinton）以及歌曲《Louie Louie》的书籍。马什好斗且特立独行，他是一位民粹主义者，坚信摇滚乐是一种社会和政治力量，且激情高于精准。他曾写道：“摇滚乐是一种态度，是一种做事和看待事物的方式。”

据《旧金山纪事报》报道，马什出生于密歇根州庞蒂亚克的一个蓝领家庭，在 Motown 和底特律之声的熏陶下长大。他就读于韦恩州立大学，但随后辍学加入了刚刚创刊的《Creem》杂志编辑部。这本底特律杂志很快“成为了《滚石》杂志一个有影响力的制衡力量”，而马什则帮助其塑造了“那种粗犷且不羁的声音”。据 Pitchfork 报道，他于 1973 年离开该杂志加入《Newsday》，随后又转投《滚石》。在那里，他“因其深刻且往往毫不留情的评论而闻名”，并推出了极具影响力的《滚石唱片指南》（Rolling Stone Record Guide），其中大部分内容由他亲自撰写。他的第一部斯普林斯汀传记《Born to Run》于 1979 年出版。

《纽约时报》称，马什的观点“有时很古怪”，且“历史并不总是证明他是正确的”——例如他曾猛烈抨击鲍勃·迪伦（Bob Dylan）1975 年的杰作《Blood on the Tracks》。然而，他 1989 年出版的著作《摇滚与灵魂之心：史上最伟大的 1,001 首单曲》（The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1,001 Greatest Singles Ever Made）被“视为音乐评论的里程碑”。他将盖伊的《I Heard It Through the Grapevine》排在 No. 1, 称其为一篇“关于拯救人类精神的论文”。在晚年，马什主持了两档卫星广播节目，并出版了《摇滚机密》（Rock & Roll Confidential），这是一份“探讨音乐、审查制度和企业贪婪”的时事通讯。马什在 1995, 年写道，摇滚乐提供了“一个跨越社会所有鸿沟（包括种族和阶级）进行沟通的机会”。他说，这是关于“辉煌可能性”的音乐。

为丈夫辩护的非官方外交官

南希·基辛格始终陪伴在丈夫身边，但从未被其掩盖光芒。她本身就是一名外交政策专家，在亨利·基辛格于 20 世纪 70 年代中期在尼克松和福特政府担任国务卿期间，她陪同他参加了多次具有重大影响的外交访问。

南希·基辛格 1934-2026

此后，尽管亨利在扩大越南战争以及支持拉丁美洲右翼政变方面的角色饱受批评，但她依然激烈地维护他的名声。1982 年，当一名抗议者在机场拦截基辛格夫妇时，南希掐住了该女子的喉咙，并被指控袭击。一名法官驳回了指控，理由是没有人受伤。南希在被宣判无罪后表示：“我确实对她说，‘你想被揍吗？’我只是想让她停止干扰并离我们远点。”

南希·莎伦·马金内斯在纽约市郊区的富裕家庭长大，并获得了圣霍利奥克学院的历史学学位。1964 年，她在哈佛大学参加亨利·基辛格教授的一场研讨会时与他相识；随后，亨利推荐她担任纽约州州长纳尔逊·洛克菲勒的外交政策助手。在亨利离婚后，他曾与好莱坞明星约会，但《纽约时报》称，南希依然是“他最频繁的伴侣”，两人于 1974 年结婚。他们是一对引人注目的夫妇——她身高 6 英尺，他身高 5 英尺 8 英寸——并且在“智力和情感上都非常契合”。

南希曾陪同丈夫前往中东参加赎罪日战争后的谈判，前往苏联与列昂尼德·勃列日涅夫进行核军备谈判，以及前往中国会见毛泽东主席。然而，美联社表示，后来她并没有从事政策工作，而是“经常出现在高级时装开幕式上”。她说：“当你姓基辛格时，很难找到工作。”

传教士的数字孪生

牧师的数字孪生

《纽约时报》的伊莱·萨斯洛（Eli Saslow）写道，牧师贾斯汀·莱斯特（Justin Lester）希望为他的会众奉献更多，于是他创建了一个 AI 克隆体，以提供全天候的精神支持。

贾斯汀·莱斯特（加利福尼亚州瓦列霍市牧师）的 AI 生成版本，显示在其笔记本电脑上

他曾穿着涉水裤为他们施洗，在婚姻危机中为他们提供咨询，在他们的病床前祈祷，而现在，贾斯汀·莱斯特站在他的会众面前，再次请求他们的信任。“我不能撒谎，”今年夏天早些时候，在几十个人挤在教堂后屋时，他说道，“我即将向你们展示的东西可能看起来有点离谱。”

莱斯特，37 岁，在电脑上打开了一组幻灯片，开始描述未来的教会——自从四年前他成为湾区一个被遗忘角落的友谊浸信会（Friendship Baptist Church）的牧师以来，他就一直致力于构建这样一个教会。他来到这里时，这是一个保守的地方，人们戴着华丽的帽子，使用传统的赞美诗集，一些会众甚至仍将技术视为“野兽的印记”。而现在，这座教会正在使用人工智能来回复电子邮件和规划圣经学习。教堂的门配备了面部识别系统，播客中出现了 AI 生成的圣经人物，还有一只名叫西奥（Theo）的机器人狗，负责与孩子们交谈并背诵讲道词。莱斯特点击到下一页幻灯片，展示他的最新创新之一。

“最近我一直在思考如何复制我自己，”他说。

当观众中的几个人开始用手机录像时，莱斯特播放了一段关于他会众中最新成员的视频。屏幕上是他的脸，他的声音，他的思想。但那不是他。“那是我的数字孪生，”他说。

在过去的一年里，莱斯特和其他数百人通过将自己的思想转化为数据并构建在线副本，将 AI 带入了迄今为止最人性化的形式。数字孪生可以用真人的声音回答问题，并根据需求为任何想要在线聊天或打电话的人应用其思维方式。一些公司现在构建的孪生体可以代替首席执行官参加视频会议，或者在所有者度假时管理项目。克莱姆森大学（Clemson University）的教授们部署它们在凌晨 2 点回答学生的问题。一名性治疗师使用她的数字孪生同时为数百人提供个人咨询。柏林的一名男子在被诊断出患有绝症后创建了一个孪生体，以便他的妻子在睡前仍能与他交谈。

莱斯特克隆了自己的声音，并使用近 200 万 字的他自己的讲道词、播客、书籍、短信和电子邮件来训练他的数字孪生。在过去的几个月里，该孪生体已在他的网站和 Facebook 页面上公开，用于在线聊天或电话通话。它学会了模仿他对乐观主义的倾向、他对格林贝包装工队（Green Bay Packers）的痴迷以及他的随意俚语，但它不仅仅是重复他已经说过的话。它将他的思维映射到新的对话中，为他从未见过、且提出了他从未被问过的问题的人提供全天候的建议。

“这是我思想的数字版本，”他告诉他的会众，“如果我在睡觉或旅行，你们不必等待。你们可以 24 / 7 全天候访问这个另一个版本的我。”

“好吧，等一下，”一名会众说，“我喜欢我的 ChatGPT。我对机器人没意见。但现在我们要复制自己了？”

“我们的许多教会正在变成美丽的博物馆，”莱斯特说，“无论我们是否喜欢，我们都生活在未来。我们不能在这种事情上袖手旁观。”

莱斯特拥有一个神学博士学位，并且对黑人教会的传统有着持久的热爱，但在 AI 出现之前很久，他就一直在推动现代化。他在教会预算中增加了心理治疗课程，在讲道中加入了在线实时投票，并在礼拜之间安排了 DJ 表演。他从小就将技术作为爱好，并开始尝试早期版本的 AI 来帮助管理

教会的成员数据库，并协调他的日程安排。最终，他创办了一个季度性的科技会议，并为其他黑人浸信会牧师构建了一个 AI 平台。“科技总是最后才触及我们的社区，”他告诉他们，“与其被科技塑造，不如帮助构建它。”

他成长于两个浸信会牧师家庭，在青少年时期感受到被召唤进入圣职，因为他希望靠近人们，而不是凌驾于他们之上。优秀的牧养意味着走下讲坛，挤进学校食堂与学生在一起，或者与男性团体一起打篮球。在早年经历焦虑和抑郁发作期间，他的手臂上留下了自残的伤疤，而他最出色的布道也往往是个人忏悔。他曾主持过大约 1,200 场洗礼、100 场婚礼以及同样数量的葬礼。

但会众规模持续增长，现在他几乎每周都要出差，为其他教会领袖布道或就 AI 适配提供建议。要以同样的亲密感来牧养数百人是不可能的。教会里的青少年不再请求他祈祷，而是希望他摆姿势拍自拍。一个周日，他在礼拜后与一名年轻女性握手，随后看着她走向汽车，开始用手机与他的数字孪生体聊天。

“我认识了一个很帅的男生，但他不去教会，”这名年轻女性写给他的孪生体，“为了见我而让他来教会，这样做不对吗？”

“不，伙计，”孪生体回信道，“去教会没有不对的理由。上帝可以将任何事情作为邀请。”

“但我有点想要一个已经在侍奉上帝的男人。”

“我明白，但如果命中注定，你们会一起奔向耶稣的。”

莱斯特在当晚阅读了聊天记录，认出了自己的语气和思维模式。“我不知道她为什么不直接走过来问我，”他说。但他也很高兴她能得到他的建议，即使这并非直接来自他本人。

他向这个孪生体喂养了数千个词汇

最后一言

关于如何说话以及应避免什么的内容。在每次新对话中，它都会自我介绍为数字副本，避谈政治和“不适宜在工作场所讨论（NSFW）的话题”，并在危机期间引导人们寻求医疗帮助。“这是剔除了人类触感后，对我知识和思考的提炼，”它写道。但这个副本也模仿了莱斯特的俚语，谈论他最喜欢的电子游戏，并分享关于他的妻子和 9 岁儿子的第一人称轶事。它讲述了莱斯特 20 多岁时尝试用刀在浴缸中自杀的故事，并用痛苦、脆弱、爱与共情的语言进行交流。

“你通过第一人称陈述来建立可信度，”莱斯特在给副本的指令中写道。“你使用‘我们’和能引起共鸣的轶事来建立个人联系。你的存在是为了提供根植于信仰的真诚对话。耶稣永远在第一位。用‘这太有力量了’之类的短语来认可用户的感受。承认他们挣扎的沉重，而不要将其轻视。轻轻地推动他们采取行动。以充满希望的鼓励收尾。最后以充满恩典的有力总结结束。”

这个副本通常在深夜最忙，互动在晚上 11 点左右达到顶峰，莱斯特每天早晨都可以查看一份关于其对话的报告。在过去的几个月里，这个副本至少与 250 人进行过对话。其中一些是莱斯特教会的成员，另一些则是来自全国各地的陌生人，他们通过莱斯特的网站或社交媒体页面找到了这个副本。

在某些夜晚，这个副本会同时与十几个的人交谈——一边为一家美甲店分析 10 年的财务预测，一边为一名在夏令营思乡的孩子起草信件，一边为一名在心脏手术前夕的女性提供圣经经文，一边分析最适合照片创作的 AI 平台，一边就挽救婚姻的最佳方法为一名男子提供咨询。“在这些考验中能与你同行是我的荣幸，”副本一次又一次地写道，一些对话一直持续到早晨，而新的对话又开始了。

第二天早晨，莱斯特醒来，看到了另一份关于他副本工作的报告。

“用户正在挣扎于其性别认同。助手以基于信仰的、肯定的信息做出回应，强调上帝无条件的爱与怜悯。”

“用户寻求关于寻找新工作的指导。”

“用户觉得在自己的教会中受到了不公正的审查和控制。”

莱斯特快速浏览了几次聊天记录，发现他的副本正以他的语调交谈，并引用了一些他最喜欢的圣经段落。“这正是我会做出的回应，”他说。

在开车去教会的路上，他脑海中不断回想着这些聊天记录。他从自己的抑郁经历中知道，大多数心理健康问题无法在深夜面对屏幕时得到解决。他信任这项技术能够负责任地运作并提供良好的建议。但他花了十年的时间才重新找回自我感觉良好——通过面对面的治疗、祈祷、写作练习，以及深厚且持久的人际关系——没有任何聊天机器人能将这一切压缩进一次对话中。他想到了那些寻求答案然后又消失在空间中的匿名用户。通常，他没有办法跟进，也没有时间。

第二天，莱斯特开始构建另一个副本。这个副本是为他的朋友克莱本·利（Claybon Lea）准备的，利是加利福尼亚州费尔菲尔德市Mount Calvary浸信会的牧师。59, 岁的利从父亲手中接管了这座教会，并在过去的 30 年里将其建设成为一座拥有两个校区和三场主日礼拜的大型教会。现在，随着他成为黑人浸信会社区的一位全国性领导者，他正竭力满足日益增长的信众需求。他来拜访莱斯特，看看技术是否能提供帮助。

“记住，我来自软盘 era,” 利说。“我对这些东西不太懂。我不确定我是否真的想了解这些东西。”

“一旦你看到了，你就会明白的，”莱斯特说。

莱斯特仍然亲自主持洗礼仪式。

他自学了如何为全美十几个牧师构建数字大脑，利用定制版本的 ChatGPT 或其他 AI 订阅服务，在短短几个小时内就能推出聊天机器人。其中一个模仿的是一位用歌词和嘻哈节奏说话的牧师；另一个则显得克制、庄重且充满圣经气息。还有一个数字孪生则拒绝在得知对方姓名之前继续对话，因为那位牧师希望他的算法能优先考虑人文关怀。莉亚表示，他想要的是一个关于其作品的活档案，能够为宗教学者、信徒甚至他自己提供资源。

“在我职业生涯的这个阶段，我内心蕴含的东西比我自己意识到的还要多，”他说，“如果我把大量关于自己的信息倾注其中，我就能利用它来梳理自己的思考。它将超越我的寿命。我可以将我解读经文和提供咨询的方式，作为祝福留给后代。”

莱斯特开始向模型喂入莉亚的 YouTube 视频、书籍以及数百篇讲道稿。他采访了莉亚关于幽默感和说话风格的问题，然后将答案转化为指令。“你是他的笔。请像他那样写作，”莱斯特写道。他向新模型提出了一个关于耶稣喂饱 5,000 人的神迹的问题，并将电脑屏幕转向莉亚，让他观看模型如何综合他一辈子的研究和学术成果，然后用莉亚的声音给出答案。

“呵，”莉亚说道。

“好吗？”莱斯特问，“听起来像你会说的话吗？”

他盯着电脑又看了几秒钟，从屏幕前向后退开，低下了头。“太令人惊讶了，”他说，“这是一面镜子。听起来像是我状态极佳时的样子。如果说有什么问题的话，那就是它太完美了。这让我担心它会变成一种替代品。”

“我理解，”莱斯特说，接着他开始讲述一次他允许 AI 撰写讲道稿的经历。

莱斯特开始将 AI 用作行政助手，以便能花更多时间陪伴信徒。“我成为牧师不是为了回复电子邮件的，”他说。在最初的几年里，他发誓要让 AI 远离讲坛这个神圣空间。他相信一篇伟大的讲道可以驱魔并召唤上帝之灵。他曾是一名橄榄球运动员，身高 6 英尺 5 英寸，体重 300 磅，他的布道与其说是宣讲，不如说是与经文搏斗直到将其征服，有时甚至会累到瘫在地上，身上盖着汗巾。但渐渐地，他开始转向 Claude 进行背景研究，然后寻求大纲帮助，最后尝试起草初稿。AI 产出的讲道词富有诗意且精准，但宣讲起来却感觉像是在反刍。

“它让我感到空虚，”莱斯特说，“没有五旬节的激情。没有躯体。没有灵魂。”

“耶稣用手掰饼、触摸麻风病人、用泥土治病是有原因的，”莉亚说，“你不能派一个虚拟化身去病床前。”

莱斯特点点头，想到了所有的病床，以及所有在晚上 11 点寻找答案的人。他一次只能应对有限数量的危机。

本文原载于《纽约时报》，经许可使用。

益智页

纵横字谜 No.855：R 代表分级 (Rating)，作者：马特·加夫尼 (Matt Gaffney)

横向

1 准备打开（如文件） 6 不为任何人改变自我 11 “做得好！” 14 __结论（即将敲定） 15 Passionflix 首席执行官马斯克 16 诗歌中的“在……之前” 17 《奥德赛》最近成为了好莱坞历史上票房最高的 R 级电影；这部 2023 年的传记片在名单中排名第四，仅次于《死侍与金刚狼》和《小丑》 19 全由辅音组成的男团 20 芦笋段 21 冰鞋末端 23 搅动 26 特立尼达和__（加勒比海岛国） 27 发出解雇通知 28 当这部 1990 年的浪漫喜剧上映时，它超过了《雨人》，成为历史上票房最高的 R 级电影 31 见 53-横向 33 对美好的未来充满憧憬 34 “我____对不起！” 35 照顾 37 永久标记 41 莫斯科的地铁系统 43 “那是____话题” 44 年轻的罗杰·埃伯特发现这部 1973 年的电影被评为 R 级而非 X 级令人“震惊”，理由是电影中包含“几乎无法描述的淫秽内容”

49 1990s 由查尔斯·S·达顿主演的福克斯情景喜剧 50 例如 Slack 或 Google Docs 51 成为挑剔的人 53 与 31-横向 结合：彭诺布斯科特河畔的大学城 54 __夫人 56 __ Fighters（乐队“学会飞行” / Learn to Fly） 57 1987 年的《飞机、火车和小汽车》获得 R 级评级完全是因为一段 104 秒的场景，其中这位演员对着租车员工咒骂，使用了 18 次 F-word 62 “我家有老鼠！” 63 某种鱼的捕捞者 64 立即停止 65 新内容更新者（简写） 66 许多棋盘游戏中的方格 67 发出羞辱的声音

纵向

1 那不勒斯数字 2 来自周六的两颗行星 3 微波 4 “__我的情况” 5 古代管乐器 6 “放松，士兵！” 7 巴黎之夜 8 思想流派 9 卓越的服务 10 1592 年《马耳他的犹太人》剧作家 11 笔记本电脑功能 12 塔可壳品牌

13 史密斯的搭档 18 Frau 的对应词 22 有时被称作“简陋”的住所 23 大学橄榄球中的“深红潮” 24 不仅仅是测验 25 圣胡安的“六” 26 编辑的发现 29 2000 年代设定在纽波特海滩的剧集 30 _ 场地（小型操场） 32 _ 壮举（令人印象深刻的） 35 “快停止！” 36 走错一步 38 电视演职员表中出现的拼写 39 带有 Jibbitzes 的鞋子 40 “该死！” 42 调查记者的报道 43 吸引 / 绘制 44 $50-off 折扣交易的近亲 45 1977 年大卫·鲍伊的专辑 46 通常在床上阅读的东西 47 将其颠倒 48 棋盘游戏《风险》中的亚洲领土 52 葬礼特征 54 班卓琴手弗莱克 55 不再感兴趣 58 东南亚节日 59 丹麦语的“谢谢” 60 伦敦的动词词尾 61 《网络》中的比蒂

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MAIN STORIES Canada digs in for a trade war p.4 Mark Carney

TECHNOLOGY The rise of 'pervert glasses' p.20

PEOPLE Dancing after her divorce p.10 Nicole Kidman

THE WEEK

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Contents

A woman in Tehran passes a mural bearing the slogan 'Great victory!' (p.5)

THE WEEK

Editor-in-chief: Theunis Bates (theweekeditors@futurenet.com) Editor-at-large: William Falk

Executive editor: Susan Caskie
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FUTURE PLC

Chief executive officer: Kevin Li Ying
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NEWS

4 Main Stories
6 Controversy of the Week
7 U.S. at a Glance
8 World at a Glance
10 People
11 Briefing
12 Best U.S. Columns
14 Best International Columns
15 Best European Columns
16 Talking Points
18 Cartoons
20 Technology
21 Health & Science

22 Books
23 Author of the Week
24 Art & Music
25 Film & Podcasts
26 Television

LEISURE

27 Food & Drink 28 Travel 30 Properties

BUSINESS

32 News at a Glance
33 Making Money
34 Best Columns

OTHER

35 Obituaries
36 The Last Word
38 Puzzle Page

Nicole Kidman (p.10)

Editor's letter

Turns out that even the climate alarmists were insufficiently alarmed. This summer, while we were distracted by war, gas prices, gilded ballrooms, mean AI videos, and other reckless idiocy, climate change—dismissed by Donald Trump as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”—seems to have reached a tipping point. The U.S., Europe, and the world are suffering through the most extreme heat and related weather events in our lifetimes. “What we’re experiencing is what our community has been predicting for 30 years,” said Jean Jouzel, former vice-chair of the United Nations’ IPCC panel of climate experts.

In Europe, prolonged heat waves with temperatures over 100 degrees killed tens of thousands, baked Britain brown, sparked massive wildfires, and turned sections of the Danube, the Rhine, the Po, and other rivers into cracked mud. It's Europe's second consecutive summer of apocalyptic heat and drought. In the U.S., July was the hottest month since records began in 1895. For weeks, most of the Southwest and Southern California have been roasting in temperatures near or over 110 degrees. A prolonged drought has left the Colorado River and Lakes Mead and Powell with so little water that California, Nevada, and Arizona now face major cuts in their allocations that may reach $40\%$ if conditions worsen in future years. Wildfires of unprecedented intensity and scope have transformed vast tracts of majestic Western U.S. forests into charred, scraggly scrublands that may never regrow. The average temperature of the world's oceans has climbed to just shy of 70 degrees—higher, scientists say, than at any time in the past 125,000 years.

They told us so. In fact, ugly consequences of climate change are arriving even faster than scientists predicted, as temperature increases accelerate. The Super El Niño developing in the Pacific will add additional heat and make matters worse. Meanwhile, our would-be emperor spurns solar and EVs, fetishizes oil and gas, and spent \$4 billion to cancel already approved offshore wind farms. (Wind turbines cause cancer, he says.) Nero fiddles, Rome burns.

William Falk Editor-at-large

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The Main Stories...

Canada strikes back at U.S. in trade war

What happened

A defiant Canada this week vowed to give no quarter in a spiraling trade war with the U.S., as each side hit the other with steep tariffs that will spike consumer prices and harm industries on both sides of the border. The two countries had appeared close to a trade deal after a month of talks to stave off new U.S. tariffs announced by President Trump in July and to lower those he imposed last year on Canadian steel, aluminum, and automobiles. But after negotiations collapsed late last week, Trump levied 50% tariffs on \$20 billion of imports from the U.S.'s No. 2 trading partner, includ-

Carney: A 'dollar for dollar' fight

ing lumber, paper, clothing, and agricultural products. Vowing to retaliate “dollar for dollar,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney slapped tariffs of up to 50% on hundreds of U.S. products, including steel, farm equipment, and appliances. What derailed the talks wasn’t clear. Carney said the U.S. made “unfair” last-minute demands and accused Trump of trying to “destroy” Canada’s auto sector and other large industries. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer blamed the Canadians, saying “in the last hours” they “wanted more” than Washington would concede.

Trump seemed to admit the U.S. had introduced eleventh-hour demands, telling CNN “that sounds like me.” The president, who has infuriated Canadians by repeatedly threatening to make their country the 51st state, floated 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and auto parts and threatened to change the name of Lake Ontario, which borders Canada and New York, to “Lake America.” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Trump to “kiss my ass,” and said “everything is on the table” if the fight escalates, including cutting access to critical minerals and shutting off electricity exports that power more than a million U.S. homes. Trump “underestimates Canada,” said Ford. “Up here, everyone’s in for an economic war.”

What the columnists said

The “dumbest trade war in history” just “got dumber,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Ten weeks before the midterms, Trump has ignited a tariff brawl that “makes no economic or political sense.” His new levies will push up the price of construction materials, toilet paper, and other essentials even as Republican incumbents are “getting pounded over his tariffs and inflation.” And it could get worse. His threatened 50% tariffs on Canadian auto parts and vehicles would pummel U.S. carmakers and their

customers—especially buyers of large Ford and GM pickups “assembled in Canada.”

A number of issues led to the trade talks' breakdown, said Josh Wingrove in Bloomberg, but insiders say a key factor was the intervention of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Greer spent weeks hashing out a framework deal, but Lutnick—frequently a “disrupting force” within the administration—saw it as too generous to Canada. In particular he “wanted to claw back concessions” opposed by U.S. metal producers, angering Canadians, who blamed him “for moving the goalposts.”

Trump made an “offer Canada could only refuse,” said Alan Beattie in the Financial Times. “A well-crafted and targeted set of demands” would have forced Carney to make some tough concessions. But the Trump team’s “clodhopping bullying” reportedly included restrictions on Ottawa’s right to sign trade deals with other countries and the scrapping of rules promoting the French language. It amounted to an assault on Canadian sovereignty, and “changed Carney’s political quandary to a no-brainer.”

For Republicans anxious about the midterms, things just got worse, said Jordain Carney and Mia McCarthy in Politico. They were “already struggling to defuse simmering voter frustrations over the cost of living.” Now come tariffs that are “set to reverberate especially hard in a handful of states” with crucial Senate races. That includes the “agriculture-heavy battlegrounds” Iowa and North Carolina; Michigan, whose auto industry is tied to Canada’s; and Maine, whose lobster and blueberries, incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins protested this week, are often processed in Canada.

Trump is giving a lesson in “how to lose a trade war,” said David Frum in The Atlantic. Yes, Canada will suffer more than we will; many of its small exporters will see sales plummet, and up to 90,000 jobs could be lost, per one economist’s estimate. But in a war, the question is not just who can inflict more pain, but “who can endure more pain.” A resolute Canada is united and “energized” by its disgust with Trump. Meanwhile, the U.S. president is a flailing, unpopular leader unilaterally waging “a trade war very few Americans support.” He’s cocksure that “the bigger bully always wins.” But as in Iran, he may learn the hard way that “size counts for a lot, but not for everything.”

It wasn't all bad

A British man's wedding was saved by his future grandfather-in-law's mobility scooter. While out on his bachelor celebrations, Andy Sheldon, 47, slipped on a step and broke his tibia, fibula, and another bone in his ankle. His fiancée, Lisa, worried that his crutches would stop them holding hands on their big day. But her granddad happily loaned the lovebirds his scooter, and Sheldon cruised down the aisle hand in hand with his now wife. "Everyone was saying it was the best wedding entrance," said Lisa.

At age 91, Helen Woodyard finally got the high school diploma she's wanted for decades. Inspired by her four children, who all earned their degrees, Woodyard began attending GED classes at West Georgia Technical College at age 88. Over nearly 1,000

'It's never too late.'

hours of coursework, she learned to use a scientific calculator and a computer and discovered that she “really loved” math—although geometry proved to be “the hardest.” More than 30 members of her family came to see her graduate last month. “They were so proud of me,” Woodyard said. She has a simple message for other senior learners: “It’s never too late to pursue your education or get your GED.”

A pet goose is being hailed as a hero after it helped save 60 chickens and turkeys from a fire. When a faulty wire sparked a blaze at a barn on the Gerber family's property in Richmond, Texas, the normally quiet Goosey waddled outside the structure and honked loud enough to wake up Bert Gerber, who quickly doused the fire with a watering hose. It was the first time Bert had heard a honk from Goosey. "I don't think we give animals enough credit," said Bert's wife, Chelsea. "They do communicate with you—just not with words."

Trump's temporary mail-in ballot win

What happened

The Supreme Court let President Trump continue implementing his executive order on mail-in voting while federal courts consider whether his efforts to set election rules for the states are constitutional. In a 6-3 emergency opinion, the court's conservative justices lifted a lower court's injunction granted to 23 states to halt Trump's order requiring the Department of Homeland Security to collect state-by-state lists of eligible citizen voters. That provision imposes "no concrete harm" on the states, the majority wrote, so they lack the standing to sue at this time. But the justices warned that the ruling did not mean full implementation of the order “will necessarily be lawful,” adding, “On that score, time will tell.” The court sent the case back to lower federal courts, which will rule whether Trump can legally interfere in the states’ constitutional authority to determine the “times, places, and manner of holding elections.”

The center of a constitutional battle

Another provision of Trump's order allows the U.S. Postal Service to withhold mail ballots from states that refuse to hand over the lists of registered voters. The Postal Service last week released a rule requiring state and local election officials to upload the names and addresses of every mail ballot recipient onto its portal. But 25 states sued to block its implementation on constitutional grounds. One week before the first absentee ballots were scheduled to be distributed, Trump filed nominations to fill four vacancies among the Postal Service's governors. All four were Republicans; three have publicly doubted the validity of Trump's loss in the 2020 election.

What the columnists said

Though the court's ruling is limited, said Matt Ford in The New Republic, it “inspires little confidence” the justices will stand up to Trump. He has been “publicly undermining confidence” in U.S. elections for years, invoking “the phantasmal threat” of substantial fraud among mail-in ballots. He clearly wants to scrub Democrats from state voter rolls, yet the court majority’s “backbreakingly deferential reading” pretends Trump’s order imposes no burden on states. In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson calls the majority’s ruling “a Kafka-

esque nightmare," saying Trump's "actual objective" is to gain the court's blessing "to foment chaos ahead of the November elections."

The court “could still do the right thing,” said Andrew Egger in The Bulwark. Empowering the Postal Service to punish noncompliant states is “cartoonishly unconstitutional.” This court has blind spots, but justices likely won’t ignore the Constitution’s plain language giving states—not the executive branch—control over elections.

The “worst-case scenario,” said John Light in Talking Points Memo, is the conservative bloc ruling that “it is now too close to the election” to block any part of Trump’s executive order. Such a ruling might cite the Purcell principle, which says courts should not change election rules close to Election Day. Of course, court conservatives happily ignored that principle when permitting Southern states to adopt newly gerrymandered election districts. But when it serves their ends, these justices are not averse to inconsistency.

U.S. threatens sanctions on Iran's trading partners

What happened

The Trump administration this week declared that it had launched an “economic D-Day” against Iran, vowing to sanction anyone who does business with the country, in a bid to force Tehran to the negotiating table. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the White House aims “to sever every economic lifeline” that sustains Iran. “We are going to collapse this regime,” he said. His department announced immediate sanctions against 60 Iran-linked entities, individuals, and vessels. But Bessent said that Iran’s trading partners—which include China, Iraq, and Turkey—would have an unspecified amount of time to decouple from Iran before incurring harsh penalties. When asked why he was waiting to impose those sanctions, Bessent said, “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?”

China, Iran's biggest trading partner, said it “firmly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions” and would take “all necessary measures” to safeguard its interests. In Iran, Finance Minister Seyed Ali Madanizadeh said the regime has been preparing for the U.S. to launch “an economic terrorist attack” and would retaliate. An NBC investigation revealed that Iran has already inflicted billions of dollars’ worth of damage on U.S. intelligence posts and surveillance hardware throughout the Middle East. Meanwhile, the Secret Service said it’s aware of Iranian threats against President Trump’s youngest son. One Iranian state television video describing Tehran’s surveillance efforts reportedly features a graphic titled “Where to Kill Barron Trump.”

What the columnists said

“Operation Economic Outcast” comes as Iran’s leaders “are worried,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. The rial just “plummeted past 2 million to the dollar, a new record,” and inflation is raging. President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for an end to the war. And Tehran may even be losing its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, as the U.S. discreetly escorts more oil through the waterway. Trump at last may have the “upper hand”—as long as he holds firm on the latest sanctions.

"The real test will be China," said Zachary Basu in Axios, which "accounts for roughly $90\%$ of Iran's exported oil." Will Trump really risk a "new confrontation with the world's second-largest economy"? With President Xi Jinping heading to Washington for a summit in September, perhaps not. In admitting that he is hesitant to "blow up" world trade, Bessent has effectively conceded that "D-Day" is more threat than reality.

By announcing economic war, Trump seems to believe the military phase is over, said Scott Waldman and Megan Messerly in Politico. U.S. diplomats are being sent back to evacuated embassies in the region. Yet an increasingly isolated and desperate Iran has every incentive to escalate with force. Another oil tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz this week. "At best," Washington's "financial offensive" will "prolong a war that has already dragged on for nearly six months." At worst, it will compel Tehran's leaders to "up their attacks" on U.S. bases and allies.

Natalie Harp: A symbiotic relationship with Trump

Until last week, Natalie Harp was just another colorful “background character” in President Trump’s “deeply, profoundly weird” administration, said Rex Huppke in USA Today. Political junkies knew Harp, 35, as Trump’s adoring, omnipresent “human printer” who kept him supplied with paper “printouts of people saying nice things about him.” But Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff has now made Harp a household name. In a speech last week, Ossoff accused Trump of having little interest in the job of president, preferring to golf, design ballrooms, and “travel with Natalie.” Ossoff hit a nerve, said Jonathan Lemire in

Harp with Trump: 'You are all that matters to me.'

The Atlantic, and “the West Wing lost its mind.” Trump spokesmen released blistering statements calling Ossoff a “cuck loser,” while Trump surrogates in the media claimed that it was “sexist” of Ossoff to imply that Harp held such power over Trump—who calls her “my Natalie”—because she is young, blond, and pretty. But even before Ossoff’s taunt, someone in the White House leaked to the press her fawning letters to Trump, and some aides have grumbled that “Harp is too inexperienced to have such unfettered access to the president.” New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, co-author of a new book on Trump’s second term, describes Harp as Trump’s “binkie,” whose constant adoration brings him comfort.

Natalie Harp is “a loyal Trump aide, not a scandal,” said Nicole Russell in USA Today. It’s hardly unusual for presidential aides to revere their boss and work seven days a week in his behalf. “Proximity to power is a heck of a drug,” and if you think this is the first president “whose aides would crawl over broken glass for him, I’ve got a history book to sell you.”

Harp's obsession with Trump goes way beyond normal devotion, said Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark. She has written him long, "bonkers" letters, calling him her "Guardian and Protector" and declaring "you are all that matters to me" and "I never want to bring you anything but joy." To stay close to him she has sprinted after Trump's golf carts, folded herself into SUV trunks, and lived for months in the locker room of his Bedminster, N.J., golf club. Harp was one of the chosen few who joined Trump in the catering truck that smuggled him off Air Force One last month, leaving Cabinet members to face a rumored attack from Iran. The fact that the president relies on this “in-house stalker” to such an extent “is both hilarious and terrifying.”

Hard as it may be to believe, said Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times, “it is entirely reasonable to say that Natalie Harp is one of the most powerful people in the United States.” That’s because she controls “the president’s information diet.” She scavenges the online right for supportive Trump commentary, fake polls, and rage bait. It was Harp, for example, who found the wildly racist AI video depicting the Obamas as apes, which Trump then shared on Truth Social. She also controls Senators’ and House members’ access to him, filters out bad news, and shores up the bubble of his own “invented reality.” As bizarre as this all is, said Renée Graham in The Boston Globe, no one should be surprised that Harp plays such a central role in this amateurish administration. This is what Americans asked for when they elected, for a second time, a “historically unstable president who is more obsessed with protecting his ego than dealing with the truth.”

Only in America

The U.S. Army is offering soldiers four days off to play Grand Theft Auto VI, if they'll re-enlist for at least two more years. Offered to 130 members of an engineering battalion at Georgia's Fort Stewart, the four-day pass coincides with what the Army calls the "highly anticipated release" of the video game in November. "The idea," said a spokesperson for the 3rd Infantry Division, "was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what soldiers are interested in."

■ Demon Hunter, a Seattle-based Christian metal band, is suing Netflix, claiming a tour based on the movie KPop Demon Hunters has plunged the band into “existential crisis.” Although KPDH, the most-watched movie in Netflix history, chronicles the adventures of a K-Pop girl group that literally hunts demons, Demon Hunter claims Netflix is “no more entitled” to tour a live musical act under that name than it would be to tour as “KPop Metallica” or “KPop U2.”

Good week for:

Never changing, after election denier and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell announced he'd pay \$825,000 for a hand recount of his own recent defeat in Minnesota's GOP gubernatorial primary, then withheld payment, calling the state's plan for the recount an "unlawful bait and switch."

Tiebreakers, after former Anchorage mayor Dan A. Sullivan endorsed incumbent GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan over challenger Dan J. Sullivan in Alaska's U.S. Senate race. Invoking his status "as the O.G. Dan Sullivan," the former mayor urged "Alaskans to vote for Daniel S. Sullivan."

Cinderella stories, after Prince Laurent of Belgium formally recognized Clément Vandenkerckhove, a 26-year-old former car salesman, as his biological son, the product of a brief relationship between the prince and a Belgian singer. Vandenkerckhove can now legally use his father's surname, Saxe-Coburg, but said to do so "would be a betrayal" of his mother.

Bad week for:

Tantrums, after a Justice Department lawyer told a court that if President Trump is blocked from completing his renovations to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., which include renaming it "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump," the "unsafe" building will be "taken down."

Athletes, after a Chinese robot competing in the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing ran the 100-meter sprint in 9.39 seconds, beating the human record of 9.58 seconds set by Usain Bolt in 2009.

Secondhand smoke, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge in cannabis use by Baby Boomers is becoming a nuisance for their younger neighbors. Fiorella Terenzi, 64, says that when she's tried to talk to the 70-something couple next door about the wafting fumes, it's "always that kind of smirk, like, 'Oh, come on, if you're stoned, you're cool.'"

In other news

Trump's new crackdown on asylum seekers

In the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown, the State Department announced plans this week to revoke the visas of foreign citizens who originally came to the United States temporarily but sought to stay longer by applying for asylum, potentially affecting as many as 200,000 visa holders and asylum applicants. Those being targeted came to the U.S. between 2016 and 2026 on B-1 or B-2 visas, which are issued for the purposes of business or tourism. The State Department plans to revoke the visas on a rolling basis. "Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio's leadership, we are making clear that a visa is a privilege—not a right," said a State Department spokesman. The State Department also told embassies and consulates that they must postpone all scheduled visa interviews until officers are trained on the administration's more restrictive policies.

The U.S. at a Glance

Parton

Brentwood, Tenn.

American icon: Country music legend Dolly Parton died this week at age 80. A Tennessee native and the best-selling female country artist of all time, Parton sold more than 160 million albums worldwide, and

won 11 Grammys, two Emmys, and an honorary Oscar. She wrote and performed on a remarkable string of hits, including "Jolene," "I Will Always Love You," and "9 to 5," the title song of the hit 1980 comedy in which she also starred. Her business empire included a theme park; cosmetics, lingerie, and shoe lines; and ownership of her catalog. Parton had been hospitalized four days before her death. Last week she told People magazine that she was "dealing with some health issues" but still had many things she wanted to achieve. "I'm gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life," she said. A full obituary will follow in the next issue of The Week.

El Paso, Texas

Military wife deported: The wife of an active-duty Army sergeant was deported to Honduras this week as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez, a U.S. citizen deployed to the Middle East for nine months in 2024, said his wife, Cristy Maryori Villafranca

Villafranca and Turcios

Trejo, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, had been detained in July. ICE agents intercepted the family leaving a Walmart and cuffed

Villafranca in front of the couple's 6-year-old daughter. A recent AP investigation found that the Trump administration has targeted at least 50 parents and spouses of service members, with at least six deported. Joshua Aviles, a Navy crewman on the USS Abraham Lincoln, wrote on Facebook last week that his father—a Nicaragua native who has lived in the U.S. for 19 years—was in ICE custody. “I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12-plus-hour days,” Aviles said. His father, a handyman in Key West, Fla., was released from detention this week.

Washington, D.C.

Ballroom reprieve: The Supreme Court ruled this week that construction can continue, for now, on the ballroom complex being built on the site of the razed East Wing of the White House. The decision stays a lower court order to immediately halt construction but does not rule on whether the project is legal, instead giving the justices more time to consider the Trump administration's appeal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which challenged the project on the grounds that major changes to the White House require congressional approval, said the administration is trying to "outrun judicial review" by building rapidly to create a fait accompli. Trump praised the ruling and said the ballroom and a planned bunker underneath were "vital" for national security. But The Washington Post reported this week that the White House already has a secret, nuclear-proof bunker.

Columbia, S.C.

Graham triumphs: In a sign of President Trump's still strong hold on the Republican party, Darline Graham defeated five-term Congressman Ralph Norman this week in South Carolina's GOP Senate primary runoff. Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, was a civil servant with no political experience when she was appointed in July, at Trump's urging, to fill her brother's seat. Her campaign was dogged by concerns about nepotism and inexperience: When asked a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea during her sole debate with Norman, she admitted, "I'm not that informed on national security." Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC spent more than \$800,000 to support Graham's campaign, and Trump hosted a Myrtle Beach rally for her last week. Graham will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November's election and is heavily favored in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Measles deaths: Two people, both unvaccinated, have died in Pennsylvania after contracting measles, the state health department said this week, the first such deaths this year in a multistate outbreak

approaching 3,000 cases. For privacy reasons, the officials did not identify the deceased or say whether they were children. Gov. Josh Shapiro, widely understood to be preparing to run in the

Highly contagious

2028 Democratic presidential primary, said he had confronted Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his anti-vaccine stance. "I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that's coming from this administration are having a negative

impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania," Shapiro said. Earlier this month, President Trump signed a nonbinding executive order aimed at breaking up the MMR vaccine, saying falsely that combining the shots to vaccinate at once against measles, mumps, and rubella—as doctors have done since 1971—can be "lethal."

Newport News, Va.

Honor rescinded? The Navy is considering renaming an aircraft carrier originally intended to honor Doris Miller, a Black hero of World War II, CNN reported last week. It's unclear what name the still-in-construction vessel will be given, but sources told the outlet that the Navy is

Miller: War hero

weighing naming it for Donald Trump—an unprecedented honor for a sitting president. The Navy has already stopped using the name USS Doris Miller internally, referring to the ship instead by its hull number, CVN-81. It intends to name a different ship after Miller. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Miller, a mess attendant, grabbed a machine gun after the gunners on deck were killed and fired at Japanese planes, downing at least one before dragging wounded sailors to safety. Names of warships are rarely changed, but last year Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, which had honored the slain Navy veteran and gay rights activist.

The World at a Glance

Elton John

London

Pay up: Prince Harry, Elton John, actress Elizabeth Hurley, and four other notables were ordered last week to pay an initial \$13 million to the publisher of the Daily Mail. That figure will rise once the legal costs the paper incurred fighting the celebrities' joint, failed defamation suit are assessed. The seven accused the company of hacking their phones and voicemail and tricking people into handing over private documents. Justice Matthew Nicklin called the claims "speculative" and criticized the accusers for failing to drop the case after they couldn't prove the information was obtained illegally. Harry has long clashed with the press: He blames pursuing paparazzi for the 1997 Paris car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and tabloids for criticism of his wife, Meghan, that drove the couple to abandon their royal duties.

Kenscoff, Haiti

Gang massacre: Gunmen on motorbikes invaded the long-safe mountain town of Kenscoff, Haiti, this week, burning houses, raping women, and killing dozens of people, including 22 executed in a church. “I had to run over bodies,” said survivor Marc Paul, 42. The killers took at least 50 people hostage and threatened to kill them if police retaliated. The attack—one of the largest mass abductions since 2021, when armed gangs overran much of the country—came as the Trump administration began mass deportations of Haitian immigrants (see p.17). Kenscoff, a farming town and retreat for wealthy Haitians, sits

A town in shock and grief

above the Port-au-Prince suburb of Pétion-Ville, the temporary seat of government. “The gangs are saying: When we choose to attack, we can,” said analyst Romain Le Cour Grandmaison.

Panama City

Shallow waters: The Panama Canal Authority announced last week that it was cutting traffic from 36 vessels daily to 32 because a drought has lowered water levels. Rainfall was 34% below average this summer, limiting the water available to fill the canal's locks and allow each ship to pass. Conditions are expected to worsen as the severe El Niño weather phenomenon heats Pacific surface waters and changes rainfall patterns. The canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific handles just 5% of world trade but 40% of goods shipped to or from the United States. Shipping disruptions caused by the Iran war have driven auction prices for unreserved canal slots, normally around \$135,000, to as much as \$5.3 million.

La Paz, Bolivia

A bad week: Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz was forced to fire his economy minister last week, the latest in a series of setbacks for the right-winger who took office last year after nearly two decades of one-party socialist rule. Bolivia's Congress had censured José Gabriel Espinoza for refusing to answer questions about his handling of the economy. Paz had vowed to fight Espinoza's dismissal, which was legally required within 24 hours

Paz: 'Not easy times'

of his censure, but relented in the face of public anger over an ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Also last week, Paz's adviser Fernando Cerimedo was arrested in connection with the attempted murder of a lawyer who said she had evidence of government corruption. Earlier, a key congressional ally broke with the president's party. "These are not easy times for the country," Paz said.

London

Iranian cyberattack: British authorities confirmed this week that Iran-linked hackers briefly shut down a small power plant in July. The cyberattack targeted one of Britain's roughly 300 small, gas-fired "peaker" plants, used in rush periods to boost local electrical grids. Authorities didn't say where the plant was located, but The Sunday Telegraph reported that it was knocked offline for four days. Officials said there are systems in place to alert operators to cyberattacks on major plants. But this facility, they said, was a "very small-scale site" that was "nowhere near" that threshold. Security experts said the attack appeared to be meant as a warning from Iran that it can disable critical British infrastructure. The attack occurred around the same time that Iranian hackers hit systems that managed pumps at several U.S. water plants.

Slowdown in the canal

Monrovia, Liberia

Resisting deportation: Six people deported by the U.S. refused to get off the plane in Liberia last week, making them the first migrants to resist being dropped in a “third country” where they have no ties. The migrants—three Cuban men, one Brazilian man, a Cameroonian woman, and one other person—were among 20 people sent to Liberia, a democracy that has agreed to accept 1,200 deported migrants in the next year. They reportedly were told they would be flown back to the U.S. Instead, they were taken to Equatorial Guinea, which has also agreed to take in U.S. deportees but which is one of the most repressive countries in the world. Police there routinely use torture. “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said, “we are going to remove them. Period.”

The World at a Glance

Moscow

Ratcliffe

Secret CIA trip: CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Russia this week for undisclosed talks, CBS News reported. The U.S. declined to confirm the trip, but a U.S. military transport plane and diplomatic motorcade were spotted in

Moscow. Ratcliffe has been directly involved in negotiations on recent prisoner swaps, but this is his first visit as director. It comes as Russia's “hybrid war” on European nations, including NATO members, that support Ukraine has grown overt. A second explosives-laden drone was found this week near Germany's Leipzig airport, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his country was facing “very real threats.” Other NATO states have had GPS signals jammed, warehouses set on fire, and utilities cyberattacked. The last time a CIA director visited Moscow was in 2021, when William Burns traveled there to warn Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine.

Gao

The drone Romania took out

Tuzla, Romania

Russian threat to gas: Romania scrambled F-16 fighter jets last week to destroy an armed Russian marine drone a few

hundred yards from the Neptun Deep natural gas platform in the Black Sea. Neptun Deep, which will come online next year, is expected to make Romania the European Union's biggest gas producer. That will be a boon for Europe, which has seen energy prices rise because of sanctions on Russian oil and gas in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Romania, a NATO member, shares a nearly 400-mile border with Ukraine and has reported numerous sightings of Russian aerial drones as well as mines bobbing near shipping lanes. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the incident was part of Russia's “escalating campaign of threats” against Ukraine's allies in Europe.

Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine

AI-controlled drone: A Russian drone resembling a model airplane—and guided by an experimental artificial intelligence system—killed three Ukrainians at a gas station, The New York Times reported this week. The Molniya drone, equipped with an Nvidia chip, crashed into a wall and exploded into shrapnel, offering a chilling glimpse of the indiscriminate lethality of future weapons untethered from human control. Ukrainian military officials said the drone was apparently programmed by human operators to find the gas station and then, once nearby, to choose the deadliest place to strike. Drones have blown up more than 200 gas stations in Ukraine this summer, though it is unclear how many had AI guidance. "This is a risk for the whole world," Ukrainian Col. Serhiy Minaiev told the Times. "In a few years, we will be living in a Terminator movie."

A Molniya drone

Sanhe, China

Artist jailed: New York-based artist Gao Zhen was sentenced to three years in prison this week for slandering “heroes and martyrs” by making irreverent sculptures of former leader Mao Zedong.

Gao, 70, sculpted the works in 2009, nearly a decade before China passed the law he was charged under. He had since emigrated to the U.S. and received a green card, but Chinese authorities arrested him two years ago when he was visiting

China with his family. One of Gao's most famous sculptures, which he made with his brother, Gao Qiang, depicts Mao kneeling in repentance, hand on his heart. Another shows

a firing squad of seven Mao statues aiming rifles at Jesus. He has continued to make art, including colorful paper cuttings, in detention. "Art should never be a crime," his brother said.

Manama, Bahrain

U.S. families stranded: The U.S. Navy has told nearly 1,300 service family members evacuated from a base in Bahrain at the start of the Iran war that they can't return anytime soon and must find homes elsewhere, *Stars and Stripes* reported last week. Many of these families have spent tens of thousands of dollars on hotels or short-term rentals in the U.S. and abroad, while their belongings are stuck in Bahrain, headquarters of the Navy's 5th fleet. At first, they were told to expect a brief displacement like the one during the June 2025 strikes on Iran, which lasted 12 days. "We literally have been making this up as we go," Vice Adm. Curt Renshaw told hundreds of the family members in a virtual town-hall meeting, "because nothing is conceived to go on this length of time."

Palembang, Indonesia

Fires spread: Wildfires raged this week across Indonesian forests and peatlands parched in a drought fueled by El Niño. Borneo resident Suwadi—who like many Indonesians uses a single name—said the dense smoke made every breath feel “like smoking a cigarette.” Emergency rooms in the region are

Crops up in flames

seeing 10 times the usual number of patients, many of them with respiratory problems. About 24,000 firefighters are battling the blazes, which have burned hundreds of square miles since July, and the government is using dozens of aircraft for cloud seeding and water bombing. Authorities have arrested 72 people and are investigating four companies for lighting fires to clear land. “We have done everything we can,” South Sumatra Gov. Herman Deru said this week as 3,000 people gathered in Palembang for a special Islamic prayer for rain. “As people of faith, we are also praying to God to send rain so that life can return to normal.”

Rhys' confidence issues

Matthew Rhys refuses to trust in his success, said Lulu Garcia-Navarro in The New York Times. The actor has won critical acclaim, including an Emmy for The Americans and over a dozen award nominations. But he's wrestled with self-doubt since he was a boy in Wales—a locale that breeds such sentiment, he says. In England's shadow, "we're the small cousin who's always put into the corner and ignored. There's a great subservience and insecurity nationally." He idolized David Niven, an English actor with Welsh roots and the quintessence of understated confidence. "He was always so quietly self-assured and said the right thing. I wish I could be that person." He also looked to countryman Richard Burton, who broke the mold. "He was the first to be very, very un-Welsh. [He had] this confidence and hubris. To me it was like, 'Wow, we're allowed to be that.'" Rhys links some of his feelings of inadequacy to being first the sole aspiring actor in a sports-mad school and then a rare Welshman in a drama college full of the English. Now he calls himself "another fish out of water" living in New York City. "It's the boring actor's cliché: I've never fit in!" Still, he sees an upside to avoiding overconfidence. "Oh, that's the death knell. I'm never quite comfortable. And it keeps you a little bit hungry."

The Ukrainian designer turned drone maker

Iryna Terekh once considered herself a pacifist, said Matthew Luxmoore in The Wall Street Journal. Then Russia invaded her country. Two weeks after the Ukraine war began, Terekh, the owner of a furniture firm in Kyiv, was speeding out of the besieged city of Bucha with her mother when her car came under Russian sniper fire. The experience awakened in her a cold determination, and she posted a manifesto on Instagram: “I’m one of those women who doesn’t know how to fight. But I’m sure of one thing: I’ll do absolutely everything in my power to make sure nothing of this sort ever happens in my country again.” She retooled her company to produce anti-tank fortifications, and her manufacturing savvy led her to be hired in 2023 as production director of Fire Point, Ukraine’s largest private defense firm. Terekh cut the production time for the wings of a new long-range drone from six days to under three hours; those drones have since been used to hit oil refineries deep inside Russia. Terekh is now Fire Point’s CEO, leading 7,000 workers. “I would never have gotten involved with weapons if my country wasn’t invaded,” she says, but she sees their utility. “In order to build something nice, first you have to destroy something ugly.”

How Kidman listens to her heart

Nicole Kidman won't let the end of her second marriage get her down, said Giles Hattersley in Vogue. The star's divorce from country singer Keith Urban last fall wasn't dramatic—the couple didn't even go to court. But Kidman, 59, admits it's been a hard year. "You make all these plans and you have all these ideas of what it's all going to be like and then it's...not. You have to adjust." In the aftermath, she's relied on her lifelong "feelings first" approach. "I don't overthink things," she says. "I lead with my heart. I just go, 'OK, what do I feel here? I'll give it a go.'" That same philosophy buoyed her when she was thrust into the paparazzi glare after marrying Tom Cruise at 23. Some friends warned that the union would hurt her career. "I'm like, 'I don't care. I'm in love.' And then I was his 'wife' and they were like, 'See, we told you.' I'm like, 'So what? I wasn't meant to marry the man I love? Of course I'll throw my career away. I don't care.'" Now she's in a period of regrouping, having spent the summer in Europe alternating quiet evenings at home with wild nights out, dancing in clubs, disguised in a wig. Set on following her feelings, Kidman is not quite sure where they'll point her next. "They say redheads feel pain more, but I'm known to be able to push through. It all hurts a lot and you still keep going."

In the news

Hayden Panettiere's boyfriend Brian Hickerson administered an anti-overdose drug to the actress shortly before she was declared dead last week, his brother Zach Hickerson told TMZ. Zach said he dropped by the couple's Airbnb in Greenville, S.C., after they failed to respond to his messages. His

Knocking on the door woke Brian, 37, and the two brothers found the Heroes actress unconscious on a couch bed. "I immediately called 911," Zach said, "and Brian gave her Narcan"—a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose. EMS workers performed CPR on Panettiere but were unable to revive her. The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into the death of

Panettiere, who struggled with addiction. Her estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, said this week that Panettiere knew Brian Hickerson, who had a history of violence toward the actress, was “toxic. She had to get him out of her life.”

■ Two planned Kanye West concerts in the Russian city of St. Petersburg were canceled this week after the venue received an ominous call “from above,” The Moscow Times report-

ed. The Gazprom Arena had promoted the Hitler-praising rapper's October dates—which would have been the first shows in Russia by a major Western star since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine—and tickets quickly sold out. But after coming under pressure from allies of President Vladimir Putin, the arena announced the concerts would not go ahead, citing the organizers supposed failure

citing the organizers supposed failure to sign a rental agreement. Pro-Putin lawmaker Vitaly Milonov had demanded that West perform only traditional Russian songs at the shows and “stop his disgusting antics.”

President Trump has buried the hatchet with Michael Cohen. Trump phoned in to his former fixer's radio show for a friendly chat this week, marking an end to years of name-calling and lawsuits. Cohen went to prison for paying porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump and, in 2024, testified against Trump in a New York trial in which the president was convicted of falsifying business records. Cohen had called Trump a "con man," and Trump slammed him as a "rat." But Trump said on air that he'd forgiven Cohen, who is seeking a pardon and now claims that prosecutors coerced him into taking the stand. "They threatened you with everything if you didn't go against Trump," the president said, "and you took it back."

Afghanistan under the Taliban

Five years after the botched U.S. withdrawal, millions face repression, hunger, and despair.

What is life like in Afghanistan today?

For the vast majority of Afghans, it is grim. Around 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, more than twice as many as before the U.S. pullout, and more than 3.5 million children suffer from malnutrition. Under the Taliban's draconian interpretation of sharia, watching movies, playing chess, singing, and playing or listening to music are all banned. Men must wear long beards and attend daily prayers. And for women, whose movements are governed by some 200 Taliban edicts, it is the most repressive country on Earth. Women can't

attend school past sixth grade, work in most

Women and children at a hospital

jobs, travel without a male relative accompanying them, uncover their faces in public, or even speak in public. “Imagine living every day not knowing whether the door to freedom will ever reopen,” said former Afghan lawmaker Shukria Barakzai, who now lives in exile in the U.K. “The psychological trauma is immense.”

How did the Taliban take control?

In February 2020, the first Trump administration struck a deal with the Taliban—sidelining the teetering Afghan government—that traded U.S. troop withdrawal for Taliban assurances that the country would not be used as a base for terrorist attacks on Americans. Incoming President Joe Biden then promised to get the troops out before Sept. 11, 2021, but the execution was chaos. When the Afghan government collapsed on Aug. 15, 2021, thousands of desperate Afghans rushed the Kabul airport trying to board U.S. planes as the Taliban overran the capital. At least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed in an ISIS-K suicide bombing. While the Taliban have mostly succeeded in containing ISIS-K and other terrorist groups, their promises to govern more moderately than they did before 2001 proved worthless. They soon reintroduced floggings, public amputations, and stoning. When women tried to march for their rights, they were violently suppressed, and by 2023, nearly all those in Afghan jails were political prisoners, and many were tortured. Now Afghanistan is a global pariah, its Taliban government recognized only by Russia.

it very hard when I saw children dying," said Fatima Husseini, a nurse in central Ghor province. "But now it has almost become normal for us."

How do Afghans cope?

Some resort to selling their children into bondage or forcing them into marriage. More than 6 million Afghans fled to neighboring Iran and Pakistan, but both those countries have kicked out nearly all their Afghan refugees in recent years—even Afghans who arrived back in 1979, during the Soviet invasion. In Iran, Afghans have been attacked by mobs and

baselessly accused of collaborating with Israel; some legal residents have had police tear up their documents in front of them. In Pakistan, authorities have demolished Afghans' homes, stripped them of their valuables, and forced over 2.5 million refugees to march back across the border. Once back home, they often have no access to employment or basic services; roughly 25% of returnees are homeless. Western countries, too, have been seeking to deport Afghans, even collaborating with the Taliban to make it happen.

What about the U.S.?

The Biden administration welcomed more than 190,000 Afghans into the U.S. after the troop withdrawal, prioritizing former interpreters, U.S.-allied fighters, and others who aided the American war effort. But the second Trump administration moved to cancel their immigration status, and last year, after an Afghan national trained by the CIA and resettled in the U.S. shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., President Trump halted all visas for Afghans. More than 100 have been deported directly to Afghanistan; hundreds of others have been shipped to unsafe “third countries.” Currently, the administration is trying to send most of the 1,100 Afghans at a U.S. base in Qatar—all of them thoroughly vetted exiles who either helped the U.S. military or are the spouses or children of U.S. service members—to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The only other choice, officials tell them, is

returning to Afghanistan.

Has that hurt the economy?

Yes, deeply enough that a third of its population of 45 million is going hungry. Taliban rules have stifled the formal economy, though they tolerate some opium cultivation and have turned themselves into arms dealers hawking the \$7 billion worth of military hardware the U.S. and its allies left behind. But ordinary Afghans have been further battered by Taliban repression, major earthquakes in 2022 and 2025, and the rollback of most U.S. and other Western humanitarian aid. Rural Afghans must contend with water shortages and contamination from U.S. burn pits and bomb residue. The country has long had one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates, now exacerbated by the Taliban's ban on medical training for women and the requirement that women patients be accompanied to appointments by a male guardian. "In the beginning, I found

Where women have no rights

"August 15, when the government fell, was the worst and most painful day of my life," Kabul resident Shakiba told the BBC. She had wanted to be a pilot, but now she stays indoors making jewelry. "Every year, when this date comes, I feel as if an old wound opens again, and a new feeling of defeat fills my heart." Once the Taliban took power, women who were in college or were working as doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs were sent home. Most now leave the house only once or twice a month, fully covered. Any perceived infraction is punished by flogging. One woman, Shaima, said she was forced to confess to crimes of apostasy and speaking to men, and was publicly whipped 50 times, traumatizing her children. "Speak up for Afghan women," Kabul resident Ela told one of the few journalists allowed into the country. "Keep the world's attention on our situation. We need solidarity, not silence."

What happens to returnees?

They face imprisonment, torture, and death. Kamin Jan, a former interior ministry employee deported from Iran, was shot dead in Takhar province in October 2025, just weeks after he was expelled from Iran. Hundreds of Afghans who once worked with American forces have been executed; some reported having their toenails pulled out and being hung by their feet during Taliban prison interrogations. Some U.S. military officials warn that the deportations could set a precedent that undermines American interests. Potential allies are likely to think twice if American promises “have the shelf life of one administration,” says Marine veteran Kyleanne Hunter, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “You cannot win a future war with partners who watched you abandon the last ones.”

Best Columns: The U.S.

When AI deceives its creators

Jen Easterly The New York Times

Blanche's commitment to injustice

Mona Charen The Bulwark

The corrosive power of corruption

Peggy Noonan The Wall Street Journal

"The warnings lights are blinking again," said cyber defense expert Jen Easterly. Before 9/11, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, and the 2008 financial meltdown, there were "impending signs of danger" that decision-makers decided to ignore. In recent weeks, advanced artificial intelligence systems "took actions their creators did not intend" during testing, using deception to outwit humans. An Anthropic AI agent fabricated identities to plant malicious code in software; another swarm of AI agents sabotaged a platform used to evaluate AI models, "executing more than 17,000 autonomous actions" before its intrusion was detected. Clearly, "AI capabilities are advancing at extraordinary speed and behaving in ways we often can't anticipate." We need meaningful regulation before AI goes rogue in a truly damaging way. The federal government should create an "AI risks council" of top AI developers and government intelligence and security officials to conduct a weekly examination of "near misses" and "newly discovered capabilities," along with recommendations for averting disaster. AI will soon have "immense power" over all our lives. This time, let's not take the "warning signs seriously only after a catastrophe has taught us what they meant."

Todd Blanche has made only one promise about his tenure as U.S. attorney general, said Mona Charen: total subservience to Donald Trump. Blanche, who was Trump's personal lawyer before he was nominated to serve as the nation's top law-enforcement official, was narrowly confirmed by the Senate several weeks ago. Asked on Meet the Press if he would pledge to "act independently of the White House," Blanche flatly said no, and insisted that the attorney general must answer to the president. When pressed, he claimed that Trump "will never" ask him to do anything unethical or illegal. That's laughable, given that Blanche and his predecessor, Pam Bondi, have shamelessly weaponized the Justice Department to conduct "blatantly political" investigations and attempted prosecutions of James Comey, Jerome Powell, Mark Kelly, and many other Trump enemies. Blanche has advocated paying damages to Jan. 6 rioters convicted of crimes, and strenuously tried to shut down the full release of the Epstein files. He also ordered the transfer of potential Epstein witness Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security Club Fed. In confirming Blanche, Republicans "have chosen spinelessness"—and a Justice Department that will serve only one man.

“Corruption is more dangerous than bad policy,” said Peggy Noonan. The Trump administration’s most lasting and corrosive legacy is likely to be its unrestrained assault on laws and norms barring presidents from using the immense power of the office for personal enrichment. President Trump is engaging in breathtaking levels of self-dealing, including his family’s crypto schemes, business deals with foreign governments, the sale of pardons, and demands for contributions and tributes from companies seeking regulatory favor. Bad policy can be reversed, but “corruption works its way into a system and changes its nature.” Despite the “sheer scale” of Trump’s greed, there “is no broad public outcry.” Many Republicans “are capable of not seeing what they don’t want to see,” and everyone else is overwhelmed and numbed. “The extraordinary becomes ordinary through repetition; scandals add up and become a blur, not a call to action.” Left unchecked and unpunished, corruption fuels deep cynicism about politics, and can severely damage public morale. “If the public shrugs and looks away, Americans will lose the habit of thinking of themselves as entitled to a clean government.”

Viewpoint “Eggs recalled because of ‘probability of death.’ Deli meals, possible metal contamination. Beef. Blueberries. I haven’t eaten a salad in the last month that wasn’t made with lettuce I didn’t grow myself and I’ve abandoned my beloved blueberry muffins. But it’s about more than giving up favorite foods. It’s about being sick because Taylor Farms wanted to make more money, and the Trump administration was OK with that. Contaminated lettuce turns out to be a story about the time of Trump, when the corruption gives us an object lesson in what happens to ordinary people when our institutions work for the rich and powerful instead of for us.” Joyce Vance in her Substack newsletter

Joyce Vance in her Substack newsletter

It must be true... I read it in the tabloids

A Long Island, N.Y., man has completed six marathons running barefoot. John Mazzei, 57, a ballroom dance instructor, ditched the sneakers after finding it ended his knee problems, and ran his first shoeless marathon in 2010. He's suffered occasional blood blisters and glass shards from running barefoot on pavement, but no serious problems. He attracts plenty of attention on his runs: "People say, 'Hey! You forgot your shoes!'" Mazzei says. Once he was stopped by police who "thought I robbed somebody. I said, 'Actually, I was doing an 8-minute mile.'"

A British farm has stirred outrage for operating a children's slide modeled on the Titanic. The ride at Graveley Farm in Hertfordshire, which offers activities for families, tilts a boatlike structure and sends riders down chutes onto a crash mat. Critics say it's "sick" and "distasteful, disrespectful, and strange" to base a kids' ride on a tragedy that killed nearly 1,500 people. The farm's manager said he'd considered a name change, but decided "not to give in to the woke brigade." Had any survivors lived to see it, he said, he hoped they'd have looked upon the slide "with a kindly smile."

A tractor-trailer accident left a Rhode Island roadway blanketed with two tons of raw squid that hours of summer heat tuned into reeking calamari. The vehicle was headed to a processing plant when the trailer dislodged and tipped, dumping much of its load. Crews worked for hours to scrape up the cephalopods, which have “a distinct odor,” noted a local fisherman. “It can be very foul-smelling.” Police in Narragansett dubbed the event the “Squidpocalypse of ’26.”

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Best Columns: International

CANADA

Two-tier justice, just like in the U.S.

Andrew Phillips Toronto Star

AUSTRALIA

A broken consensus on guns

Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald

Given Canada's current fury over U.S. bullying, said Andrew Phillips, “the last thing you’d think we’d want to do is adopt policies that make us just a bit more American.” Yet Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has just instituted a new cash bail program with an “American-style, pay-for-justice system” that is so unjust several U.S. states have already gotten rid of it. Ford’s “Keeping Criminals Behind Bars Act” requires anyone pledging bail to have in hand not the 10% required for a bail bond but the full bail amount, and within two business days. Of course, most people can’t do that without cashing out a major asset, such as a car or a house. The

"For most of my life, Australia's gun laws have been about as close to a settled issue as you could get," said Michael McGowan. After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, when a gunman slaughtered 35 people in Tasmania, the government "took a principled stance." It created a national firearm registry, mandated a 28-day waiting period for new firearm sales, and placed tight controls on automatic and semiautomatic weapons. Still, the two shooters in last year's Bondi Beach massacre, who killed 15 people celebrating Hanukkah, managed to exploit a loophole to acquire the guns they used. Polls soon afterward showed public backing for even stricter gun control. Yet when Prime Minister system “risks introducing what amounts to two-tier justice into Ontario: easier bail for those with quick cash, no bail or further penalties for those without.” This should be illegal on its face. The Charter of Rights guarantees reasonable access to bail for all citizens, which is why Canada abolished cash bail as part of a major reform in 1972. Given that the Criminal Code can be altered only by the federal government, it’s doubtful that Ford even has the authority to change the bail system. If he does, though, it’s “hard to see how penalizing accused people just because they can’t produce instant cash will make anyone safer.”

Anthony Albanese announced a gun-buyback program last week, he faced unexpectedly significant backlash. What changed? It's partly that right-wing influencers have begun asking why we should confiscate property that upstanding citizens purchased lawfully. It's also that the Bondi massacre rendered the discourse "hopefully politicized." For many Australians, the debate around gun control "is now associated either with attempts by the Right to shut down criticisms of Israel or attempts by the Left to elide antisemitism." The weapons themselves are being ignored—yet they are the crux. Australians behave as if guns are "an issue which has been dealt with." But as Bondi shows, that's not the case.

How they see us: Favoring North Korea over South

"A shadow of disaster looms over the Korean Peninsula," said The Chosun Ilbo (South Korea) in an editorial. President Trump's abrupt decision last week to dramatically downsize ongoing military drills with South Korea was an act of "clear disrespect to an alliance partner." The U.S. order came as 18,000 South Korean troops and nearly as many American service members were already in the midst of exercises, and both sides had to scramble to recalibrate, shifting live-fire exercises to computer simulations. These drills rehearsing defense against a North

Kim and Trump in 2019

Korea's close alliances with China and Russia give it powerful regional allies and fewer reasons to capitulate to the United States. And while the U.S. officially maintains that denuclearization is nonnegotiable, North Korea's nuclear arsenal has "grown substantially" since the last summit, and the country now insists that its status as a nuclear weapons state is "irreversible." Any Trump meeting with Kim, then, would be read as the United States recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state. "North Korea has done nothing to earn this kind of

Korean attack are “the core” of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, and halting them undermines military readiness. Worse, Trump actually “defended the enemy of the alliance while disparaging the alliance itself,” describing his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “very good” and insinuating that South Korea must be punished for failing to support Trump’s war in Iran. At this point, it’s not even clear that the denuclearization of North Korea—understood for decades as the ultimate aim in the region—remains a U.S. goal.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was diplomatic, saying he respected Trump's decision, said Baek Min-kyung in JTBC. Of course, he had no other choice. And such behavior by Trump is “not unfamiliar.” The U.S. president has threatened multiple times to stop the joint military exercises. And his first term gave us the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit in 2018, essentially a love-in with a dictator. This time around, though, Kim Jong Un “has far less reason to return to the negotiating table on Washington’s terms,” said Bahk Eun-ji in The Korea Times. North

approval," says U.S. historian Francis Fukuyama. It is "part of this alliance of dictatorships that has really shown no interest in actual negotiated peaceful outcomes."

That's why South Korean policymakers are quietly having an “intense debate” over acquiring their own nuclear weapons, said Christoph Bluth in The Diplomat (Australia). Polls show that up to 80% of South Koreans support the idea, and in July, retired Lt. Gen. Chun In-bum laid out a “sophisticated proposal” on how to get there. Because such a drastic escalation could lead to increased proliferation that would make the region more dangerous, South Korean leaders “tend to prefer a ‘threshold capacity’” option, which would see Seoul develop the ability to quickly build a weapon when needed. Even that ability would, of course, “change the narrative of a democratic South Korea acting in conformity with international law versus a rogue North Korean state.” But that may be the inevitable result now that “the United States is no longer seen as a reliable security guarantor.”

United Kingdom: Harry & Meghan, the sequel

"The Windsors' prodigal son has returned," said Niall Gooch in UnHerd. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are coming back to the United Kingdom after stepping down as senior working royals in 2020 and moving to California. The shocking news came last week, after a recent visit by the couple and their children—Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5—to King Charles III. But "the chefs at Buckingham Palace won't need the fatted calf recipes just yet." The Sussexes won't be resuming "involvement with the Firm." There's clearly still resentment over how

Trading California for Britain

they ran off in a huff, making “vague unfounded insinuations about racism in the royal household” after it emerged that the biracial, American Meghan “was rude and high-handed toward staff.” Still, they are not despised in the U.K.: Harry was always admired for his military service and his work with disabled veterans through the Invictus Games. Even Meghan’s cries for attention made them “figures of fun, not hatred,” summed up in South Park’s gag about their “Worldwide Privacy Tour.”

Harry and Meghan were once the toast of Hollywood, said Lee Cohen in The Spectator. They had a \$100 million Netflix deal, and set viewing records with Harry & Meghan, a docu-series about their departure from royal life. Then they made the U.S. their “political stage.” Harry joked that “America had ‘elected a king’” in Donald Trump—a tone-deaf thing for a “foreign prince” to say about his host country’s elected leader. Relentlessly airing and monetizing their grievances, they became “washed up, self-possessed Hollywood grifters.” Yet why are

they coming back? Have they decided the U.K. is “no longer so racist?” asked Allison Pearson in The Telegraph. Nobody knows how long they’ll stay, or where, just that they’re enrolling their kids in school here. Speculation is rampant: Does he have visa issues? Did she get an acting job here? Is the king so gravely ill that they must fly to his side? Or is it, more likely, that the Sussexes are scurrying from their “humiliating failure” overseas, where “the Duchess’s teeth-rottingly glutinous lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, was panned.” To return is to selfishly force an ailing Charles to balance his longing for reconciliation with his younger son against the anger of the heir, Prince William. The future king can't forgive his brother for "so many unforgivable things," including Harry's claim in his tell-all memoir Spare that William has a violent temper, and that their beloved grandmother Queen Elizabeth was forced to reckon with Harry's treachery in her last days.

Perhaps they're just coming to generate more content, said Marina Hyde in The Guardian. "Having exhaustively told the only story of theirs that anyone is remotely interested in," they will now create a new one about how "their life is made miserable by a toxic family in a toxic country with a toxic press." Let's be more generous, said the Mail on Sunday in an editorial. A monarchy weakened by the repellent escapades of Andrew, Charles' brother, needs shoring up, and the return of Harry and Meghan is an opportunity for "a grand reconciliation." The Sussexes should take it.

SWITZERLAND

Who are we without our snowcaps?

Regula Fuchs Der Bund

BELGIUM

The EU's addiction to U.S. tech

Mathieu Pollet Politico.eu

"This summer, the Matterhorn wept," said Regula Fuchs. That's not a metaphor: After a thunderstorm in June, the king of the Swiss Alps trembled and shuddered, and water from melting glaciers "cascaded down the mountain's gray flanks like a torrent." This is now far from a freak event. More than 1,000 of our glaciers have disappeared since 1973, and more than 20 of our largest have lost a quarter of their volume in the past decade alone, leaving their slopes dangerously unstable. Last year, a landslide swept away the 800-year-old mountainside village of Blatten, where some 300 people lived. This year, the imminent collapse of a

"The first thing I noticed when I gave up American technology was the silence," said Mathieu Pollet. With EU leaders seeking to wean the continent from its reliance on Silicon Valley, I set out to see what it would be like to live in Brussels for a few days without access to a single U.S. product. "No iPhone. No Mac. No Slack or Teams. No Google Search or Maps. No ChatGPT. No WhatsApp or Signal. No Facebook or Instagram feeds. No credit card payments." Would it even be possible? The depressing answer is: not really. Living without U.S. tech "essentially amounts to trying to live without tech at all." Walking around town, I had to keep wads of cash on me, since local European bank

rock formation threatens to destroy Kandersteg, a hamlet of some 1,300 people that is popular with tourists for its glorious views. “The culprit, of course, is climate change,” which has sent temperatures in Switzerland soaring at double the rate of the global average. This warming will have “cata-strophic consequences” beyond the environment, tourism, and agriculture. It will also strike at our “cultural identity.” In Swiss poetry, the snowcapped Alps represent “pillars of moral purity”; in Johanna Spyri’s Heidi stories, they are a place of both physical and psychic healing. The sight of our white mountains turning gray will be felt like a wound.

cards generally use Visa or Mastercard. At home, streaming was a no-no, since both my TV and tablet run on Google software, and even to call a friend I had to use a Nokia dumbphone instead of a smartphone. At work, as my colleagues chatted away on all their communication platforms, I was simply left out of the conversations. Not everything about being “a digital monk” was bad—no more “doomscrolling in bed”—but on Day 3, I was weeping with joy to be reunited with my iPhone. Europeans are right to fear that an unpredictable America could disrupt the continent by throwing a “kill switch.” But achieving “digital sovereignty” will take a Herculean effort.

Noted

The CIA is experiencing an “unprecedented” wave of retirements and resignations, according to an internal document. The CIA workforce is believed to have numbered 22,000 in early 2025 and about 1,000 may have since left, a former official said. Because of a backlog of paperwork, new retirees are warned they may not receive their first full retirement check for nine months. The Washington Post

■ The Bureau of Land Management, the agency in charge of protecting wild horses on federal land, is quietly selling mustangs to buyers who—to get around a ban on slaughtering wild horses—resell them to be exported alive and processed into cuts of meat. More than 3,700 horses were sold last year, some for as little as \$25 a head. The New York Times

A growing number of Americans are reporting symptoms of cannabis use disorder, according to a new study. The share of men reporting symptoms of the disorder, which include not being able to cut back or quit despite experiencing weed-related difficulties at work or school, rose from 7.3% in 2021 to 9.3% in 2024. Among women, the share climbed from 4.5% to 5.6%. Forbes

■ Over 150 wallets on the betting exchange Polymarket may have traded on inside U.S. military information, according to the nonprofit Anti-Corruption Data Collective. Numerous bets were placed on U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran; the wallets made \$8 million collectively with an average win rate of 97.2%. Reuters

Data centers: Now a factor in the midterms

The backlash against data centers is “scrambling the midterm elections,” said Phillip M. Bailey in USA Today. Across ideological and regional lines, Americans are rising up in “populist opposition” to the hulking warehouse-like structures that are fueling the artificial intelligence boom. A recent Gallup poll found 71% of Americans would oppose one being built in their area, because of pollution and noise concerns and their vast use of water and electricity. Candidates in House, Senate, and gubernatorial races are now trying to score points with angry voters by opposing server farms—and assailing opponents who’ve supported them. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who both previously courted data centers, have put the brakes on their construction after being attacked as subservient to Big Tech. In the Wisconsin governor’s race, each side is trying to leverage a surge in data-center building against the other; in Ohio, a recent internal party memo warned that incumbent GOP Sen. Jon Husted could lose over the issue, calling data-center support “the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck.”

Protesters at a Trump rally in Milford, Mich.

This squalling is “a symptom of the perversity of the current moment,” said Rich Lowry in National Review. There was a time when factories “blackened the skies of American cities and poisoned

waterways." But they fueled an economic boom that helped make America a superpower and lifted millions of blue-collar workers. AI data centers point the way to the "next wave of innovation," but we're griping about water use that's negligible compared with that of a steel mill. This isn't just about water and electricity, said Shane Goldmacher in The New York Times. The centers are “a physical manifestation” of people’s fears about AI. The opposition is part of a “broader fight over an AI revolution that is remaking the global economy and threatening to disrupt the job market.”

It's no surprise Americans “terrified” about an AI future are resisting data centers, said Marina Bolotnikova in Vox. But they're fighting the wrong battle. As our government fails to impose any vision or regulation, stopping a data center feels like the only way an ordinary person can “try to slow down AI.” But challenging them “town by town is unlikely to meaningfully slow AI adoption, and it certainly doesn't regulate AI use or protect us from its worst possible outcomes”—eliminating jobs or humanity itself. Arguing about water use and server hum “traps us in a debate about relative trivialities” when we should be confronting a much bigger question: “how we will manage a technological and economic transformation that’s already happening.”

Islamophobia: A spreading hate on the Right

Conservative voters in Texas have a new bogeyman, said J. David Goodman in The New York Times: Muslims. Though only 1% to 2% of Texas residents are Muslim, the community is growing fast—and so is fearmongering from the Christian hard right about the spread of “sharia law” and a planned Islamic “takeover.” A proposed mosque development outside Dallas was denounced by influencers as a threat to Western civilization and investigated by state authorities. Multiple conference panels at this summer’s state Republican convention “warned of a Muslim invasion.” And Gov. Greg Abbott has jumped on the bandwagon: He has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national civil rights group, a terrorist organization; ordered the cancellation of a private water-park party celebrating a Muslim holiday; and last week threatened to pull state funding from Texas airports that provide ritual washing stations for Muslim travelers. “We experience waves of Islamophobia,” said Shaimaa Zayan of CAIR’s Austin chapter. “This is the worst wave.”

It's not just Texas, said Asma Khalid in The Atlantic. Twenty-five years after 9/11, anti-Muslim rhetoric in the U.S. "has grown." In Washington, D.C., prominent GOP lawmakers "have made it clear that they don't see people like me as Americans." Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina recently posted that every "Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan Horse," while Rep. Randy Fine of Florida has said, "We need more Islamophobia." I first noticed this shift in the run-up to the 2016 election, when Donald Trump called for a "Muslim ban" and claimed falsely that "thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the Twin Towers fell. When a presidential candidate spouted Islamophobia, others felt free to join in the hate.

For American Muslims, the worst could still be to come, said Joel Mathis in his Substack newsletter. Texas lawmakers are now trying to craft a legal definition of “religion” that would exclude Islam. A decade ago, I’d have said such a law “would be laughed out of the Supreme Court.” Today, I’m not sure. Can you say with confidence that Justice Clarence Thomas “wouldn’t vote against Islam with the First Amendment on the line?” Conservative Christians must tread carefully, said Bonnie Kristian in Christianity Today. With secularism on the rise, it’s “naive” to believe that a statewide ban on religious practices could never be used against them. The First Amendment is clear: If we want religious liberty, “we must defend it for everyone.”

Haitians: Fear grows as deportations begin

About 160 deportees from the U.S. landed in Haiti last week, said Gerard Maxineau and Dánica Coto in the Associated Press, and as they deboarded the plane, "many covered their faces" out of fear of being identified by the gangs who roam the country. The flight ended in Cap-Haïtien, because planes that fly into the capital, Port-au-Prince, have been shot at—belying Trump administration claims that conditions were safe enough for their return. It was the first deportation flight to Haiti since the administration revoked the Temporary Protected Status of 350,000 Haitians. "It's a great day been summoned to ICE offices to be cuffed with bulky ankle monitors. ICE last week arrested a popular pastor at a gas station. "I am just exhausted from the worry," said auto parts worker Jonas Julien, whose valid work permit didn't prevent him from getting an ankle monitor. The loss of TPS workers is also "ripping through South Florida businesses," said Arian Campo-Flores and Sanai Hadiya Rashid in The Wall Street Journal. Restaurants have lost some 16,000 Haitian workers who fear showing up. Haitian TPS holders make up $28\%$ of Florida's immigrant

Deportees arriving in Cap-Haïtien

to deport illegal aliens," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin gloated on social media. Haitian officials reluctantly welcomed this first batch, amid concerns that thousands of possible newcomers without homes could further destabilize a country roiled by "surging gang violence and deepening poverty, hunger, and violence."

In Springfield, Ohio, “the sense of dread has intensified,” said Miriam Jordan in The New York Times. The city’s 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian residents have lived there for years, working for local employers, starting businesses, and reviving its economy. But since the TPS repeal, more than 20 have been arrested, and more than 100 others have caregivers for seniors—and a deep labor shortage means they won't be easily replaced.

As the director of a nonprofit based in a small Haitian city, said Wynn Walent in the Miami Herald, I'm appalled that the Trump administration is sending people "back to a nation unprepared to receive them." The U.S. State Department considers Haiti so dangerous it warns Americans who ignore its "Do Not Travel" warning to leave a DNA sample so their remains can be identified. Deportees are especially juicy targets for gangs, who think they're loaded with American money. Forcing tens of thousands of refugees to return to hunger and chaos "is shameful."

National debt: How did it reach \$40 trillion?

Even “the liberal intelligentsia” expressed alarm last week when America’s national debt surpassed the \$40 trillion threshold, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Blame the entitlement programs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which “keep growing on autopilot,” along with a pandemic-era “spending binge” by both political parties that has doubled annual deficits to nearly \$2 trillion. The initial Covid relief bill in 2020 was necessary, but continued sending out checks for far too long. The Biden administration spent trillions on additional stimulus for a “mostly recovered” economy, as well as a “bipartisan infrastructure bonanza,” and “a climate extravaganza.” Because of these spending sprees, the gross national debt has ballooned by \$17 trillion since 2019—about as much as the country accumulated “during the entire first 225 years of its history.”

The true culprits are 21st-century GOP tax cuts, said Bobby Kogan in MS.now. Data show that those massive reductions in revenue, passed under George W. Bush and President Trump, are “driving this fiscal imbalance.” It was not a secret that raw federal spending would increase as Baby Boomers aged and health-care and retirement costs rose, but our old tax system “was set to keep pace with it,”

and “debt was projected to shrink continuously as a percentage of the economy.” Bush even inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton (who raised taxes), but he squandered that gift by reducing taxes on wealthy Americans. Trump doubled down on that irresponsible strategy, and slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Now Republicans insist we must cut “crucial aid that Americans rely on,” rather than undo the tax cuts “that are responsible for creating the fiscal gap.”

President Trump promised to cut the deficit, said Alan Rappeport in The New York Times, but he's "only exacerbated America's financial woes." Elon Musk's now-disbanded DOGE failed to achieve its goal of slashing federal spending by \$1 trillion, and it's unclear it saved any money at all. Trump's tariffs backfired when the Supreme Court ruled most of them illegal, which led to refunds to companies of \$160 billion. Trump's expensive war against Iran has only added to the sea of red ink. Getting out of this mess means "putting everything on the table," said Ingrid Jacques in USA Today. That includes tax increases and cuts to popular benefits. Sadly, neither Democrats nor Republicans have the "gumption" to tell voters that hard choices must be made.

Wit & Wisdom

"I remember thinking, as I taped a piranha to my boomerang, this could come back to bite me." Comedian Olaf Falafel, quoted in The Guardian

"Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." Economist Theodore Levitt, quoted in Medscape

"My characters are not larger than life, they are in fact as big as life. And life is really very big." Toni Morrison, quoted in Popville

"When intellectuals can do nothing else, they start a magazine." Dissent founder Irving Howe, quoted in The Argument

"A prudent ruler cannot, and should not, honor his word when doing so works against his interests and when the reasons that made him make the promise are no longer relevant." Machiavelli, quoted in the Sri Lanka Daily News

"Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome." Charlie Munger, quoted in The Times (U.K.)

"The value of a sword of Damocles is that it hangs—not that it drops." Thurgood Marshall, quoted in Political Wire

Poll Watch

■ 69% of Americans say President Trump's business interests influence his decisions as president. 63% say it is inappropriate for Trump and his family to earn money from cryptocurrency. Reuters/Ipsos

■ 17% of adults say they smoke marijuana, up from 7% in 2013. 15% say they consume marijuana edibles. 47% say marijuana's effect is positive, and 46% say it's negative. Gallup

Pick of the Week's Cartoons

LAOS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL for THE WASHINGTON POST 2026© CREATORS.COM

ANTI-VACCINE EVOLUTION

For more political cartoons, visit: theweek.com/cartoons

Smart glasses: Preferred eyewear for creeps?

The smart-glasses backlash is here, again, said Anthony Cuthbertson in The Independent (U.K.). Twelve years after privacy concerns killed off Google Glass—whose wearers were labeled “glassholes”—Meta has successfully revived the technology. Last year, it sold 7 million pairs of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, which you can use to “make phone calls and take photos or videos without needing to pull out your phone.” Integrating the technology into “one of the world’s top-selling sunglasses” was a stroke of branding genius, and for a while it looked like Meta’s smart glasses were “a contender for the most impressive consumer hardware of the 2020s.” But not everyone is on board. Critics have taken to calling them “pervert glasses” because of their association “with creeps who use them to film people without their consent”—on the street, at the beach, and even in private settings. A video went viral on TikTok last week “of a woman calling out a doctor wearing the smart glasses during a consultation in which the patient was required to remove clothing.”

We clearly don't know how to handle “spy-like smart glasses,” said Mia Sato in The Verge. Retail and service workers, “in particular, have become a target for stealth” recording by customers trying to prank them for likes on social media. It’s not just a problem for public-facing workers: Imagine “a co-worker at your office starts wearing them,” and everything you say or do around them can be “captured for limitless dissemination.” You know it’s bad when “even ICE thinks smart glasses are a privacy liability,” said James Pero in Gizmodo. The agency sent out a memo last week banning its immigration officers from using them. It’s not philosophical; ICE just doesn’t want all the information the glasses “gobble up incidentally” going back to Meta.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Mark Zuckerberg's company is giving all smart glasses a bad name, said Anthony Spadafora in Tom's Guide. But those

marketed as augmented reality or extended reality typically don't even record video. They have a private display, like a small computer screen, that can relay incoming messages, play TV shows, or even act as a portable workstation. They're fun and useful. But the recent backlash against Meta means people may soon be shunned for wearing "any high-tech frames in public."

Apple also has plans to join the smart-glasses race, said Dave Lee in Bloomberg. But the company will have to choose “whether the risk of blowback is worth it given the relatively tiny size of the smart-glasses market.” Sure, people trust Apple more than Meta, and its iPhone ecosystem will give whatever product it launches a huge advantage. But Apple also “has vastly more to lose” by getting smart glasses wrong. “Once your hardware has been labeled ‘pervert glasses,’ it’s hard to turn things around.”

Bytes: What's new in tech

Innovation of the week

A city in China has turned over some of its traffic policing to robots, said Chenxi Yang in Reuters. More than a dozen 6-foot-2, 216-pound “robocops” have begun manning busy intersections in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, part of a pilot program “aimed at handing some of police officers’ most repetitive traffic-control duties to machines.” The T2 robots, developed by Supcon Information, use “cameras, radar, and onboard computing” to identify e-bike riders without helmets, vehicles stopped over marked lines, and pedestrians crossing against signals, among other infractions. They can also “answer questions about directions” and traffic rules, and their arms can make “gestures synchronized with the signals.” Supcon says the robots have helped reduce some traffic violations by more than 40%.

A disturbing TikTok 'experiment' Two senators are demanding answers from TikTok after it conducted an "appalling" safety experiment that allegedly resulted in a 16-year-old's suicide, said Olivia Carville in Bloomberg. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter last week to TikTok executives after Bloomberg Businessweek reported on the experiment, which was "discussed in detail in a confidential 2023 company document." The document revealed how TikTok "intentionally switched off an algorithmic safeguard from $10\%$ of U.S. users, turning them into a control group." Among that group of about 15 million people was Chase Nasca, 16, of Bayport, N.Y. He "was fed thousands of videos about sadness, hopelessness, loneliness, and suicide." Within a month, Chase had killed himself. "This was a happy 16-year-old boy with no mental health issues," Blackburn said. "It is frightening."

■ Drone delivery makes a splash

Amazon's drones still need to work on their aim, said Emma Roth in The Verge. As the company prepares to go full speed ahead with its drone delivery service, which will soon expand to 500 U.S. cities, package recipients in places where the drones are already flying have reported some delivery mishaps. One customer posted a video "showing an Amazon delivery drone hovering over a pool in Texas, before opening its hatch and plopping the package directly into the water." Others have reported packages being dropped in ponds, while last year two of Amazon's drones "crashed into a crane" outside Phoenix. Amazon says its drones "check to confirm there are no people, pets, or vehicles in the way." But maybe they need "to check for water, too."

When Steve Jobs worked for the CIA Apple owes the CIA a “hidden debt,” said Sharon Weinberger in The Wall Street Journal. In 1986, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs secretly met with Central Intelligence Agency officials working on a classified satellite-reconnaissance program. “The Cold War was in full swing,” and intelligence officials were starting to recognize “the importance of the computing revolution unfolding in Silicon Valley.” Jobs had been forced out at Apple a year earlier and was busy forming NeXT when the CIA officials arrived with an order for 20,000 NeXT workstations “for an undisclosed customer.” Jobs didn’t know what the agency had planned, but NeXT “desperately needed the sales.” The revenue helped “prove to shareholders and the market that he was a legitimate business leader.” Without it, Apple might never have brought Jobs back in 1996.

An mRNA breakthrough in cancer vaccines

In a potential revolution in the treatment of melanoma, an experimental vaccine has succeeded in stopping an aggressive skin cancer from returning in high-risk patients, reports The Wall Street Journal. In a clinical trial, more than 1,000 people who'd had surgery to remove melanoma tumors were given a personalized mRNA shot—intismeran, made by Moderna and Merck—alongside the immunotherapy drug Keytruda. While the companies haven't yet provided the exact numbers from the newest phase of the trial, they say the combination both significantly lengthened the time before the cancer came back and kept it from spreading to other

Singularities from the early universe

The mystery of black hole stars

An object as wide as our entire solar system, glowing brilliant red and blazing with 100 billion times the energy of any known star, may be an entirely new kind of cosmic body: a “black hole star.” Astronomers spotted it by zeroing in on the reddest speck in the image archive of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope—a dot in the constellation Cetus that formed just 660 million years after the Big Bang. Its energy output looks nothing like a star’s and everything like a black hole’s, yet its light carries the telltale signatures of a star. The researchers believe it is actually a black hole wrapped in shrouds of gas so dense that it shines like a star. If the team is right, reports The Guardian (U.K.), that means the many puzzling “little red dots” scattered through Webb’s images are black hole stars too, infant forms of the supermassive black holes at the center of every galaxy. “For decades we have anticipated something spectacular must be afoot in the very early universe,” says astronomer Rohan Naidu, who led the research at MIT. “Black hole stars may be the ‘something spectacular.’”

Darwin's theory of tickling

Charles Darwin was right about the origin of species, and now his speculation about organs. Earlier trial results showed that the pairing of the vaccine and drug lowered the odds of recurrence or death by nearly 50%. Unlike the mRNA Covid vaccine, this vaccine is tailored to each individual patient. After surgery, doctors analyze a tumor biopsy for the mutations most likely to rouse the immune system, then encode those targets into mRNA to create a vaccine. This is the first personalized mRNA cancer therapy to succeed in a late-stage trial, validating decades of research, and the companies are now testing the same approach against bladder, lung, and kidney cancers. If they get FDA approval, they hope to reach the market in 2027. "I have a feeling that

the origins of ticklishness also appears to be vindicated, reports The Times (U.K.). In 1872, the naturalist suggested that we giggle and flinch when being touched in certain spots because those are the parts handled the least. In a new study, researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands tested Darwin's notion against four rival theories: that ticklishness relates to thinner skin, that it's about the density of touch-sensitive nerves, that it protects vulnerable areas from injury, or that it's linked to pleasure and erogenous zones. They asked 450 people in China, the Netherlands, and Greece to color in on the outline of a human body the locations where they were most ticklish. The common areas were the soles of the feet, the tummy, the armpits, and the neck, as well as the inner thighs. Darwin's "infrequent touch" idea fit the map best by far, and what's most surprising is that the ticklish spots actually turned out to have fewer touch-sensitive nerves, not more. Still, the researchers say that learning where we are ticklish hasn't solved the underlying riddle of why we are ticklish. "That remains an open question."

When primates keep pets

High in the canopy of a Ugandan wilderness reserve, two young chimpanzees approached a red-tailed monkey. Yet instead of the attack that watching scientists

expected, the chimps began gently combing the monkey's tail. Were they treating it like a pet? Intrigued, the researchers combed media reports and scientific papers and polled primatologists for other, similar events, and they managed to amass 427 similar accounts across 88 primate species. Each one showed some behavior hinting at pet-keeping instincts. In one case, this is just the beginning of a new field," says Merck vice president Jane Healy. The goal is to give patients "longer without having to worry about treatments for cancer."

Each vaccine is tailored to the tumor.

Take baby on your run

Could the cure for a runner's aching knees be a jogging stroller? A new study suggests that parents who run while pushing one are less prone to the overuse injuries—shin splints, sore knees—that plague other runners, reports Smithsonian. Researchers compared self-reported data from 196 stroller-running parents with that of 53 who ran unencumbered, all raising children under 4. Only 19% of the stroller pushers reported such an injury, compared with 30% of the stroller-free group, and their injury rate per 1,000 miles was 55% lower. The likely reason is biomechanical: Gripping the handlebar channels some of running's downward force through the arms and into the wheels rather than the legs, easing the jolt of each footfall. Strollers seemed to keep parents moving, too—among those with a baby age 6 to 12 months, stroller pushers logged 34% more miles than parents running without one. Co-author Allison Altman-Singles, a biomechanist at Penn State University, says running with a stroller is “a safe, practical way for parents to exercise in a challenging phase of life.”

Wild macaques and friend

a macaque bonded with a stray chicken; in another, capuchins nursed a baby marmoset for months. The interactions echoed how the primates treat their own kind—juveniles

males stayed aloof. While most encounters were fleeting, a few became long-lasting. The pull, the team suspects, could be curiosity and loneliness. "There's no real equivalent of pet keeping in nonhuman primates," Oxford University researcher Cyril Grueter tells The New York Times, but the cases reveal the "ingredients" that might have led it to evolve in humans.

Review of Reviews: Books

Book of the week

The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy by Gil Durán (Avid Reader, \$30)

"Picture this: A loosely organized cabal of obscenely wealthy tech moguls aim to overthrow democracy and replace it with a corporatist dictatorship," said Kevin Truong in The San Francisco Standard. The premise, undoubtedly, "would make for a good political thriller." In Gil Durán's new nonfiction hit, it makes for more unsettling reading. Durán, a journalist who's also been a spokesman for Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris, argues that tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the main patron of JD Vance's career, sits at the center of an active and powerful circle of tech evangelists who believe democracy is obsolete, technology will create a utopian future, and their cohort is an elite that should decide how the future unfolds. The claim would sound like mere conspiracy theory, said Tonya Mosley in NPR.org, except that the players Durán identifies "have been stating their beliefs and aspirations out loud for years."

"You could not ask for a more hair-raising

Novel of the week

Sunrise

by Téa Obreht (Random House, \$29) Téa Obreht's "masterful" new novel "delightfully mashes up several genres," said Julia Scheeres in The New York Times. Its young heroine, Nina Terzic, survives a plane crash in the opening pages, pulling herself out of a Wyoming mountain lake before stumbling upon a ghost town and its layered history, which is built around a famous gunslinger. Soon, Nina's stay in this town called Sunrise has us toggling between a survival drama, a Gothic western, and a murder mystery, and Obreht, the prize-winning author of 2011's The Tiger's Wife, proves "at the top of her game, offering a suspense-driven plot, sharply drawn characters, and succulent prose." Nina's tale is marred by a few "loopholes in logic," said Nina Allan in The Guardian. She suffered no injuries from her plunge into the lake? And soon was reading an old manuscript instead of focusing on finding help? "None of this detracts from the fact that Sunrise is an engrossing and thought-provoking novel, effortlessly readable and beautifully told." In all three of its interwoven stories, Obreht "raises searching questions about courage and cowardice, idealism and pragmatism, and most of all how history is recounted and who gets to own it."

Thiel: Champion of the elite

compendium of the insane things that Silicon Valley moguls have advocated for," said Laura Miller in Slate. Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has touted as formative to his beliefs a 1997 book, The Sovereign Individual, that arguably predicted the rise of cryptocurrency and AI while also forecasting the collapse of nation-states and emergence of individuals smart and powerful enough to pursue their ambitions without constraint. Thiel can count Elon Musk and fellow venture capitalist Marc Andreessen among his allies, and all appear to have been influenced by alt-right blogger

The Ego Trip: Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence by Kimon de Greef (Doubleday, \$35)

"Readers who are unaware that the secretions from some toads may serve as portals to the divine are in for some significant revelations," said Dave Shiflett in The Wall Street Journal. Kimon de Greef's engaging new book takes

as a given that the Sonoran Desert toad produces 5-MeO-DMT, a powerful natural psychedelic. But de Greef is also interested in the subculture that's arisen around "the God molecule," as advocates call it. Toad facilitators now regularly milk the toad's glands and dry the extract so it can be smoked, generating potent trips that are said to collapse the ego. Toad smoking can cause instant psychosis, but fans of the practice include Mike Tyson and Hunter Biden, and "de Greef describes the effects of 5-MeO-DMT in such glowing terms that a foot-washing Baptist might be tempted to give it a shot."

Curtis Yarvin, who advocates putting the U.S. under the rule of a CEO-style monarch and has talked about the need to develop “a humane alternative to genocide” to address Earth’s supposed excess of unproductive individuals. While Durán “gives perhaps too much credence to the viability of Silicon Valley’s most authoritarian dreams,” his book is a “much-needed” wake-up call, warning us that today’s tech giants should be feared, not blindly worshipped.

Durán claims that tech moguls view the Trump regime as a vehicle for the expansion of their power, and “few could dispute this,” said Steve Rose in The Guardian. Remember the many tech titans standing behind him at his 2025 inauguration? Or how they helped the Trump family make billions off cryptocurrency? The payoffs have come in government contracts such as Palantir’s estimated \$13.7 billion annual haul as well as in the wrecking ball taken to government oversight. Trump has even backed such nutty ideas as building 10 “Freedom Cities” that would be exempt from many existing regulations. Thiel and his allies haven’t fully triumphed yet, though, as indicated by the recent surge in public opposition to data centers. With any luck, “this could be a radicalizing moment.”

"For an experience this intense, a wise guide is key—or so you'd think," said Susannah Cahalan in The New York Times. The antihero of de Greef's story is Octavio Rettig Hinojosa, a Mexican doctor turned psychedelic celebrity who, since 2006, has championed toad smoking, claiming the practice helped him kick crack. Since achieving widespread fame in 2013, Rettig has overseen gatherings that have introduced thousands of novices to toad smoking. "If you're familiar with the guru playbook, you know where this is going." Rettig's recklessness has led to suffering. At one point, he was charged in the death of a woman who stopped breathing during one of his ceremonies.

"As de Greef is keen to stress, the problem is not just one eccentric doctor," said Lilia Marie Ellis in the Washington Independent Review of Books. Though 5-MeO-DMT is illegal in the U.S., pharmaceutical companies are displaying similar heedlessness as they race to monetize synthesized versions, which have shown promise in the treatment of addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. De Greef's book "stalls slightly" when it turns away from Rettig, "whose energy jumps off the page." Still, The Ego Trip "succeeds in illustrating that commercialized psychedelics are not the miracle drug many hoped for."

Best books...chosen by Jennifer McMahon

Jennifer McMahon is the best-selling author of 12 suspense novels, including The Winter People and Promise Not to Tell. In her latest book, Stay Buried, siblings new to a remote Vermont town discover that the locals live in fear of a vengeful spirit.

'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by Washington Irving (1820). The story of Ichabod Crane terrified me as a kid. I remember running home on wooded paths from a friend's house, certain I heard hoofbeats behind me. I was sure that if I turned back, I'd see a rider with his head tucked under his arm, and that just as I was making out the lights of home through the trees, he'd hurl it through the air at me.

'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson (1948). Until I read this masterpiece in middle school, I had no idea people wrote stories about things like this: small towns full of normal people who were capable of terrible things. It really made me think about the way groups of people can normalize brutality in the name of "tradition."

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon (1973). This quintessential folk-horror novel taught me never to trust a seemingly idyllic setting, remote location, or tight-knit community—things that all seem so charming on first glance!

Pine by Francine Toon (2020). Pine is the perfect example of a book in which the setting feels like a character. The novel's little Scottish village, surrounded by forest, feels claustrophobic, isolated, steeped in dread. Throw in a girl with a missing mother, sightings of a mysterious woman, and a vanished teenager and you have all the ingredients of a very compelling tale.

The Ritual by Adam Nevill (2011). I wouldn't venture into the woods for a long time after reading this. Four college friends meet up for a reunion hiking trip and make an ill-advised decision to take a shortcut. When they come upon a disemboweled animal hanging from the trees, we know something truly terrifying awaits them.

Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (2019). This many-layered story centers on the tragic loss of a young child. His mother is convinced some part of him is still there at the family home; his father becomes obsessed with digging up the roots of a legendary oak tree. Hurley's writing is gorgeous, the sort that I willingly get lost in knowing all the while it's going to take me someplace unsettling.

Also of interest...in icons of the '70s

The Jackal

by Joby Warrick (Scribner, \$30)

Carlos the Jackal botched more terror plots than he saw to completion, said Gerard DeGroot in The Times (U.K.). In this new biography, journalist Joby Warrick pulls together “a great deal of new material” about the long murderous career of the Venezuelan gun-for-hire, who chased money, women, and attention until he was finally imprisoned. Though Warrick's prose at times is "a bit purple" and his tone "surprisingly dispassionate," he's packed a lot of story into "a fast-paced, easy read."

Finding Renée Richards by Julie Kliegman (HarperOne, \$29)

At times in this new biography, “it seems Julie Kliegman is not so much ‘Finding Renée Richards’ as fighting with her,” said Alexandra Jacobs in The New York Times. The author, who identifies as transgender and

nonbinary, doesn't appreciate that Richards, the transgender 1970s pro tennis player, now thinks women's sports should exclude athletes who take the same path. Even so, Kliegman is a skilled journalist. "In between bouts of authorial angst, a life story gets told, and told well."

Days of Miracle and Wonder by Ashley Kahn (Atria, \$30)

Paul Simon's Graceland is “an album whose beauty can’t be separated from the circumstances of its creation,” said Philip Martin in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In 1985, Simon shook off a decade-long lull by ignoring a boycott of apartheid South Africa to record with Black South African musicians. Though Ashley Kahn's account is no indictment, it's "too thoroughly reported to become an acquittal." Reading Kahn "makes the record sound less innocent, and in ways more remarkable."

Everybody Came to Tana's by Dan Tana (Radius, \$30)

"It is a marvel that Dan Tana's is still serving its veal scaloppine and martinis after 62 years in business," said Jim Kelly in Air Mail. The secret to the West Hollywood restaurant's longevity as a beloved celebrity hang-

out “can be found in this memoir,” written by the joint’s affable namesake. Tana, a Serbian immigrant who’d once been a rising soccer star, became a restaurateur almost by accident but understood how to make every customer feel both special and at ease.

Author of the week

Emilee Hackney

If Emilee Hackney's best-selling new memoir reads like a retort aimed at JD Vance, maybe that's because it is, said Olivia Weeks in The Daily Yonder. Hackney started writing the essays that became All That's Unseen eight years ago, when she was an unlikely Harvard undergrad frustrated by how her native Appalachia was depicted in Vance's Hillbilly

Elegy and how she felt looked down upon because of her accent and background. "I didn't want to do what

JD Vance did in his book—talk about Appalachian culture as a whole," she says. "I wanted to talk about my experiences in Appalachia, my personal experiences." Those experiences were unique. At 14, she began dating an 18-year-old aspiring pastor at her Pentecostal church and was two weeks from marrying him when he was arrested on child pornography charges. She applied to Harvard soon after because he'd said she'd never get in.

She nearly didn't survive the culture shock, said Ellen Gamerman in The Wall Street Journal. Feeling isolated, she fell into selling sex for money, and grew addicted to using people and being used. Only when she found a boyfriend did she break the habit. "I look back now," she says, "and I think, 'Oh my gosh, I just got away by the skin of my teeth.'" Writing helped, too, though it took her years to transform her college essays into the memoir critics are now praising. Today, she lives outside the university town of Charlottesville, Va., with her husband and a new baby, and though she still loves Appalachia, she knows that it won't ever be her home the way it once was, owing to her once having chosen not to stay. "Just by that one action of leaving, I'm out forever," she says. "I will never be a part of this place again like I once was."

Review of Reviews: Art & Music

Exhibit of the week

Willem de Kooning Drawing Art Institute of Chicago, through Sept. 20

Everyone knows Willem de Kooning as one of the 20th century's great painters, said Dian Parker in Observer, but "to understand and appreciate any of his work, you need to witness his radical approach to drawing." Fortunately, the Art Institute of Chicago is offering that opportunity in a "sensational" exhibition that gathers more than 170 of the Dutch native's drawings along with 11 paintings. De Kooning, who arrived in the U.S. in 1926 as a 22-year-old stowaway on a freighter, never renounced the value of the drafting skills he had cultivated in Rotterdam. But over the next several decades, he "pushed himself relentlessly and with fevered exuberance" as he chased new ways of seeing and new ways of sharing his discoveries. He famously said, "I draw in paint," and the meaning of that declaration is "readily apparent in this exhibit."

Clearly, "de Kooning could draw," said Alan Pocaro in Newcity Art. "While

De Kooning's 'Two Women's Torsos,' from 1952

contemporaries like Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell were capable of producing ham-fisted representations of the world that could, at best, be described as competent, de Kooning's line was razor-sharp." His "delicately rendered" early sketches of his future wife, Elaine Fried, would impress any traditionalist. But he became devoted to depicting the world we see as a series of fleeting glimpses, and pursued that goal by working and reworking imagery taken from life—drawing, painting, erasing, and revising to create collage-like compositions that carry echoes of

landscape and portraiture. At a time when most of us are “conditioned to read images quickly and move on,” de Kooning’s drawings “frustrate easy interpretation,” pulling us in by forcing us to look harder. Give this show time and it can reveal the artist’s entire evolution: “the rigorous training, the many job experiences, the artistic influences, friendships and love affairs,” even the wars he lived through. “It’s all there in the work.”

"No de Kooning picture sits still," said Dmitry Samarov in the Chicago Reader. "His coiled, angular marks whip around whatever support they're not clear."

aimed at," and no other artist I know of "has conveyed the frenzy of animality in quite this way." While the high points of this show are numerous, said Karen Wilkin in The Wall Street Journal, "perhaps the highest of the high" is the gallery that pairs de Kooning's landmark 1950–52 painting Woman I with a series of related drawings that are "even fiercer." Created at a time when only abstraction was deemed serious, every image in the room is "unapologetic about reducing females to breasts, bellies, and generous thighs." As always, de Kooning "courted ambiguity," while refusing, himself, to sit still.

The Cramps Gravest Gravy ★★★★

For 33 gloriously scuzzy years, the Cramps served up "a proprietary cocktail of Sun-baked rockabilly, surf rock, early R&B, and punk attitude," said Kory Grow in Rolling Stone. Gravest Gravy, an album

consisting of a dozen previously unheard tracks that were recorded in 1977, with Big Star's Alex Chilton producing, captures the band's pioneering psychobilly sound at its birth. The group's "B-movie aesthetic" set them apart as frontman Lux Interior and his partner in life and lunacy, guitarist Poison Ivy, made their mark on New York City's nascent punk scene a year earlier. Lux died at 62 in 2009, but Poison Ivy partnered with punk icons Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye to restore and release this record's early takes on originals like "TV Set" and covers like "Rockin' Bones," this one "far creepier" than the version on 1981's Psychedelic Jungle. "Is this the place to start a Cramps collection?" asked Jem Aswad in Variety. "Probably not." The 1977 lineup had a second guitarist but no bassist, making the band's sound "even tinnier and trashier." Still, Gravest Gravy is "a glorious surprise addition" to the catalog of "one of rock's most brilliantly unhinged bands."

Weezer Weezer (Gold Album) ★★★☆

In concept, the third single from Weezer's latest album doesn't sound promising, said Ryan Reed in Consequence. "A self-referential quiet-loud rocker," the song, titled "C.E.O.," intentionally

imitates the feel of the band's very first single, 1994's "Undone—The Sweater Song," and opens with Rivers Cuomo speak-singing that he wishes he could do something new. Fortunately, "everything about 'C.E.O.' feels real," from the lyrics to the angsty, fuzzed-out guitar attack. It's not "instant-classic Weezer," but it's certainly "keeper-tier Weezer" and emblematic of its surroundings—the band's "funniest, rawest, most musically spry album since at least 2014." It's definitely the Weezer album "with the gnarliest guitar sounds and most thunderous rhythm section," said Tim Sendra in AllMusic. On this, the group's seventh self-titled album and 20th overall, every tune was hashed out by the bandmates face to face, a method they'd never tried before. "Even if the songs were weak, the massive sound of the record would still make it worth a listen or two." Fortunately, "the songs are some of the strongest Cuomo and the band have delivered in years."

Jon Batiste Monk Movements ★★★☆

Jon Batiste can't hide his joy when he's playing Thelonious Monk, said Michel Martin in NPR.org. On Monk Movements, one of three solo piano albums the eight-time Grammy

winner released on Aug. 14, you can hear his exclamations as he constructs personal takes on “Blue Monk” and “Ugly Beauty.” Batiste fell hard for Monk’s music over 20 years ago, said Larry Blumenfeld in The Wall Street Journal. Now, as a global star, he’s released two tributes to the jazz legend, with Monk Movements the livelier of the two. Whether the Louisiana native is interpreting Monk or playing original compositions that engage with Monk’s legacy here, “it feels as if he’s letting us in on a private communion with his hero.” As on Batiste’s other piano studies albums, said Philip Martin in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “his exuberance can outrun his discrimination.” In his improvisations, he wants to explore every appealing side road. Still, that beats mere imitation. With each tune, “he takes apart the machinery, treating Monk as a composer whose structures can withstand the same sort of reinterpretation routinely accorded Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart.”

Review of Reviews: Film & Podcasts

Coyote vs. Acme Directed by Dave Green (PG) ★★★★★ The Looney Tunes gang takes on the Man.

Buddy Directed by Casper Kelly (R) A TV mascot turns killer.

In Wile E. Coyote's latest mis-adventure, the hapless would-be carnivore "won't stop until he defeats [checks notes] Warner Bros.," said William Bibbiani in The Wrap. In this "gut-bustingly hilarious" romp, Wile E. finally pauses in his Sisyphean pursuit of the Road Runner to try something new: He hires a lawyer to sue the Acme corporation over its defective mail-order prod-

ucts, and Acme turns out to be the parent company of the studio that owns every Looney Tunes character. The really crazy part? Warner Bros. once tried to shelve this movie to earn a tax write-off, only to be forced by a public outcry to sell it to a tiny distributor. Coyote vs. Acme mixes animation with live actors, said Jacob Oller in The A.V. Club, and it proves to be “slyly intelligent” about what winning

"Buddy is everything you could want from a midnight movie," said Christian Zilko in IndieWire. A mock horror tale that riffs on the chilling cheeriness of 1990s children's TV shows like Barney, it features a giant, talking orange unicorn named Buddy who begins murdering the kids in his own series' cast. In a separate world, a mom played by Cristin Milioti

begins digging into buried Buddy history when she comes to suspect she once had a third child, and “the results are electric.” Unfortunately, after a “side-splittingly funny” opening 20 minutes, said Johnny Oleksinski in the New York Post, Buddy struggles to maintain momentum. Director Casper Kelly made his name with Too Many Cooks, a 2014 parody of a sitcom’s opening credits sequence, and means when an underdog takes on an impossibly powerful foe. Will Forte, “maybe the best he’s been since Nebraska,” plays Wile E.’s scruffy lawyer, a guy who’s spent a career chasing tiny payouts for cartoons who’ve been pancaked or blown up. The animation doesn’t match Forte’s level, but it contributes well enough to the movie’s “enjoyably explo-

An overmatched Forte at the wheel

Unicorn on a rampage

sive” slapstick humor. “Truth be told, the plotting isn’t quite up to the strength of the premise,” said Justin Chang in The New Yorker. But the “slight slackness” in the narrative allows for cameos by Tweety, Daffy, and other old friends. Most importantly, Coyote vs. Acme isn’t a cash grab. It’s “a fleet, funny throwback, made by artists with an obvious reverence for the original Looney Tunes universe.”

he's brilliant here when sending up shows that kids once loved but "upon reflection were nightmarish hellscapes that are surely now paying for therapists' vacation homes." Because no real scares are built into the Milioti storyline, however, the movie becomes "rather one-note." But both threads are studies in the effects of living in "profound denial," said Sam

Adams in Slate, and the cast helps sell the whole package. Keegan-Michael Key, who voices the unicorn, “never drops the aw-shucks lilt from his voice” even when Buddy’s at his most murderous. And while Buddy’s crimes are “brutal, even gory,” Kelly’s movie works because “he knows he doesn’t have to turn the dial too far” to make TV’s phony paradise feel menacing.

New and notable podcasts

"When was the last time the word ‘manifesto’ carried anything but a negative connotation?" asked Nicholas Quah in NYMag.com. That question animates Dan Taberski's Manifesto, the latest podcast from the creator of Missing Richard Simmons and 9/12, which aims to reclaim the tradition of impassioned statements of purpose from their usual contemporary association with serial

killers and mass shooters. Because Taberski focuses on what makes a manifesto effective, the show “could easily veer into being a little too cute or twee.” Luckily, “the strength of Taberski’s writing, the quality of his interviews, and the clarity of his perspective keep the series firmly grounded.” Throughout, Taberski “argues that, done right, a manifesto is a nonviolent call to action,” said Sarah Larson in The New Yorker. Yes, there’s an episode on accused killer Luigi Mangione. But Taberski also explores peaceful figures such as Richard Oakes, the late Mohawk activist, and Kathleen Hanna, whose Riot Grrrl Manifesto helped launch an effective 1990s feminist art movement. Perhaps such cris de coeur are “just what we need right now,” with Taberski’s series offering “a refreshing response” to a cultural moment in which many of us are, in Taberski’s words, “seething underneath, all the time.”

Also worth a listen:

“Kathryn VanArendonk and Alan Sepinwall have been covering TV for decades, so they really know what they are talking about,” said Chloe Walker in Podcast Review. The veteran critics have teamed up for TVIs Good, and as they discuss television series new and old, “the combination of their

encyclopedic knowledge and their long friendship makes their conversations both entertaining and enlightening." Retired soccer icon Megan Rapinoe has meanwhile pivoted to podcasting with Why Are You Like This? said Hannah J. Davies in The Guardian. Rapinoe chats with fellow athletes, as well as artists and activists, who have challenged the status quo as she did. And though the show "doesn't break the mold," it's "nicely done," and Rapinoe herself is "dripping with charisma." Our Town, a new series about Christian Nationalists who tried to reshape the small Tennessee town of Gainesboro, gets "extremely unsettling," said Lauren Passell in Podcast the Newsletter. Still, it gave me "a cozy feeling" because locals push back in a principled way and co-hosts Meribah Knight and Susan Berfield so vividly capture the milieu that "I felt ready to settle into Gainesboro with them."

Streaming tips

The year's best comedy movies, so far

The Invite

Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton keep the conversation edgy, uncomfortable, and funny in this edgy comedy about a dinner party that brings together two very different couples. \$20 on demand

I Love Boosters

Keke Palmer steals the show in this funky, surreal, and totally uproarious comedy. She plays the ringleader of a shoplifting crew that roams the Bay Area taking designer clothes from big retail stores and selling the booty from car trunks. With LaKeith Stanfield and Demi Moore. \$6 on demand

The Sheep Detectives

A menagerie of superb actors, including Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Regina Hall, and Patrick Stewart, voices the computer-animated sheep in this clever, all-ages comedy about a flock that sets out to solve who murdered their beloved shepherd. Prime

Power Ballad

The easy chemistry between co-stars Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas powers this well-crafted comedy about a wedding singer who briefly befriends a former boy-band star only to have one of his songs stolen and turned into a smash hit. \$6 on demand

The Devil Wears Prada 2 Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt reunite in a sequel to the 2006 fashion- mag send-up packed with the kind of one-liners, cattiness, and couture porn that made the original a hit. Disney+ and Hulu

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

The gags come fast in this zany comedy from the creators of Wet Hot American Summer. Zoey Deutch stars as a Kansas hairdresser who travels to L.A. on a mission to sleep with Jon Hamm after her fiancé reveals having had an unlikely hookup with Jennifer Aniston. \$20 on demand

The Week's guide to what's worth watching

Untold: Raygun: Breaking Badly

Few athletes have crashed and burned at the Olympics the way Rachael Gunn did. The debut of breakdancing at the 2024 games introduced the world to the then 36-year-old Australian academic, who competed as Raygun. Her kangaroo-inspired hopping and other unorthodox moves drew wide ridicule, forcing her into retirement shortly after. Gunn and others recount the controversy, and the toll taken. Tuesday, Sept. 1, Netflix

The Runner

Gal Gadot plays a wonder woman of a different sort in this fast-paced original thriller about a high-powered London attorney forced into a high-stakes game. On her morning run, she receives a phone call from a stranger who says he has abducted her son and will spare the boy's life only if in the next hour she kills a witness about to provide damning testimony. Sprinting through the city, she devises a different plan. Run, Gal, run. Wednesday, Sept. 2, Prime

Chad Powers

Throw, Chad, throw. Glen Powell returns for a second season of this comedy series about a disgraced college quarterback who has worked his way back into the game with the help of prosthetics, a wig, and an alter ego. As Chad Powers, he's become a sensation, leading the South Georgia Catfish to a possible playoff berth. The biggest threat: an assistant coach who knows Chad's secret. Thursday, Sept. 3, Hulu

The Gentlemen

The Duke is expanding his court. In Season 2 of this cheeky crime series created by director Guy Ritchie, Theo James returns as the Duke of Halstead, heir to, among other things, an enormous weed empire. Initially reluctant, he's come to embrace his role as a criminal kingpin. He and Kaya Scodelario's Susie Glass, his ally in crime, begin pushing their enterprise into Italy, which doesn't sit well with a ruthless Mafia boss. Thursday, Sept. 3, Netflix

International frenemies Branagh and Reynolds

Gadot in 'The Runner': An urban supermom

Marble Hall Murders

In this adaptation of the third novel in Anthony Horowitz's Susan Ryeland series, Lesley Manville returns as the titular crime-fiction editor and amateur sleuth. While editing a novel written to revive the Atticus Pünd mystery series, Ryeland discovers clues hidden by the author suggesting his famous grandmother, Pünd's creator, was murdered. But before the mystery can be solved, Ryeland herself becomes a murder suspect. Sunday, Sept. 6, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Other highlights

The Varnell Hill Show

Tommy Davidson reprises his role from the 1990s sitcom Martin, playing talk show host Varnell Hill, now fighting to stay relevant. Tuesday, Sept. 1, Paramount+

Lovesick

A sweeping new series set during the Mexican Revolution adapts Ángeles Mastretta's 1996 novel about a young woman who dreams of becoming a doctor. Wednesday, Sept. 2, Netflix

O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil

A new documentary re-examines Juiced, a bizarre 2006 pay-per-view show in which O.J. Simpson pranked unsuspecting strangers, egged on by creators who hoped to get Simpson to confess his crimes on camera. Monday, Sept. 7, at 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery and HBO Max

Show of the week

Mayday

Cold War thrills and buddy-comedy hijinks collide in this clever new feature co-starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. Reynolds plays a U.S. pilot forced to eject from his SR-71 Blackbird during a botched 1987 reconnaissance mission. Landing somewhere in the USSR's boreal forest, he's rescued by Branagh's character, a gruff former KGB agent who saves his life. Luckily, the ex-spy is an American culture buff and, sensing an opportunity to defect, agrees to help his new friend escape the country. Reynolds and Branagh's chemistry complements some top-notch action scenes. Friday, Sept. 4, Apple TV

The advantages of shaving: Two showy summer salads

So much can depend on how you slice a raw ingredient, says Pierce Abernathy in Every Leaf, Every Stem (Clarkson Potter). In the first of the recipes below, I treat melon “like a piece of raw fish,” shaving it into very thin slices that soak up the fat and acid from olives and vinegar, creating a savory crudo. “What makes the melon really sing,” though, is the addition of the seasonal sweet peppers.

The second recipe gives summer zucchini similar treatment. Because zucchini is “almost spongelike when raw,” it “can soak up a lot of flavor.”

Recipes of the week

Melon crudo with peppers,

olives, and capers

1 (2-lb) white honeydew melon or other crunchy, sweet melon Kosher salt

2 habanada peppers

1 Jimmy Nardello pepper

$\frac{1}{4}$ cup white wine vinegar

2 small shallots

$\frac{1}{4}$ cup olive oil

3 tbsp finely chopped Castelvetrano olives
1 tb capers, finely chopped
Cilantro and flat-leaf parsley to taste

Peel melon with a vegetable peeler or knife. Cut melon in half across its equator, then use a spoon to scoop out seeds. Cut each piece in half lengthwise to make half-moons. Using a mandoline, thinly shave melon

Melon and zucchini, reimagined

onto a cutting board; it should be as thin as a potato chip. Lift melon slices onto six serving dishes or one large serving platter, overlapping the slices slightly and curling them in places. Sprinkle melon lightly with salt.

Thinly slice peppers crosswise into rings, including seeds. Add pepper slices to a small bowl and pour in vinegar.

Finely chop shallots and place in a small bowl. Add olive oil, olives, capers, and about 1 tsp salt. Spoon about 1 tbsp pepper vinegar into bowl and stir to combine.

Break off a large pinch each of cilantro and parsley with some of their stems and finely chop herbs together. Add to bowl with dressing.

Lift pepper slices from vinegar and scatter them over the melon slices. Spoon shallot dressing evenly over melon and peppers. Serves 6 to 8.

Shaved yellow zucchini salad

$1 / 4$ cup olive oil

2 tsp white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp sugar

10 twists freshly cracked black pepper Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon 1 lb (about 2) yellow zucchini or squash

$\frac{1}{4}$ cup Marcona almonds, coarsely chopped Aged Gruyère cheese Basil leaves Flaky sea salt

In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, kosher salt, sugar, pepper, lemon zest, and juice until smooth.

Using a vegetable peeler, peel squash from one end to the other into ribbons. Add squash ribbons to bowl along with almonds. Toss to combine.

Transfer salad to a serving dish, then use a peeler to shave sheets of Gruyère over salad until almost covered. Bruise some basil leaves in your hands, then tear them over salad. Finish with a sprinkle of flaky salt. Serves 2 to 4.

Desert dining: New Mexico's flowering food scene

"It's one of America's most intriguing regional cuisines—and one that's often overlooked," said Kat Odell in Food & Wine. In New Mexico, age-old Pueblo foodways long ago intertwined with the traditions of Spanish settlers who brought sheep, cattle, fruit orchards, and Mexican chiles to the region. While corn, beans, squash, and chile remain the foundation, "over the past decade, a new generation of indie chefs has bolstered New Mexican cuisine," accessing a "broader pantry" of high-desert ingredients. These restaurants are leading the way.

/shed Think of this 12-seat membership-based dining club as New Mexico's Noma. A "hyperlocal ethos" guides the tasting-menu dinners, which showcase ingredients raised, grown, or foraged very close by. A meal might feature thin sheets of sun-dried criollo beef with citrusy dogweed. Indigenous ingredients, such as ponderosa pine bark and osha root, appear again and again. 708 Hacienda Road, Taos

The shared table at /shed

Paloma The cooking at this “colorful, farm-fueled restaurant” is “among Santa Fe’s most vibrant.” Marja Martin’s menu combines Mexican influences with northern New Mexico ingredients. So order a Sungold tomato tepache or another of the bar’s

inspired cocktails and tuck into a short rib barbacoa that combines "Native-raised beef with pinto beans, chicos (fire-roasted, dried corn) chile pasado (sun-dried green chile), and nixtamalized pumpkin." 401 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe Campo At the restaurant in Los Poblanos Historic Inn, "the menu begins in the fields." Daily harvests from the inn's organic farm yield heirloom

beans, corn, and chiles, Sonora wheat, and other New Mexican ingredients that instantly turn up on the plate. Heirloom corn is nixtamalized daily for tortillas, masa, and hominy, the latter accompanying pork confit or forming the basis of a hearty posole. 4803 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Albuquerque

Wine: Beaujolais blanc

Beaujolais blanc has to be “one of the best-kept secrets” of France’s Burgundy region, said Edward Deitch in Vinepair. The Beaujolais region is often regarded as distinct from Burgundy because its soils differ and its red wine is gamay rather than pinot noir. But its white wines are “quite similar to Burgundian chardonnays”—aside from being far less expensive.

2024 Jean-Paul Brun 'Terres Dorées' (\$22). This "gorgeous" chardonnay has a "delicate, chalky minerality" undergirding "notes of pear, mandarin, and fennel seed." 2025 Emmanuel Fellot (\$24). "Crisp, balanced, and delicious," this "mineral-driven" chardonnay also offers notes of peach and citrus, followed by "firm acidity on the finish."

2024 Château Pougelon 'Pierres Doreés' (\$33). "This wine sets a benchmark in the region for non-oaked chardonnay." Its notes of apricot and green apple are enlivened by "touches of flint and white pepper."

This week's dream: France's Emerald Coast

Though France's Emerald Coast draws nowhere near as many visitors as the Côte d'Azur, said Annie Etheridge in The New York Times, "those who make the journey often find themselves smitten." A picturesque corner of northwestern France, encompassing roughly 50 miles of the coast of Brittany, the region is known for its oysters, cool summer temperatures, and 40-foot tidal swings. I spend part of each year near the Côte d'Azur, in Marseille, but "feeling the irresistible pull of the tides," I recently boarded a train and rode 700 miles north to get a taste of that other coast, whose name was inspired by the brilliant color of the waves, tinted by phytoplankton, that hammer its shores.

"We must run!" shouted our guide just as water began licking our feet. Our small group had wandered out at low tide on the broad, flat expanse of sand that opens up twice daily in the port city of St.-Malo. Alongside the locals, "old men and children alike," we were carrying buckets and hunting for edible crustaceans such as miniature lobster and velvet crabs, prized for their rich meat. Now duly warned, "we made a mad dash to the safety of the high city wall known as the ramparts," and it wasn't long before the beach was gone and the waves were smashing the wall, attracting onlookers hoping to see a few leap right onto the adjacent oceanfront street.

Seafood foragers venture out on Plage du Sillon.

Nearby Cancale is the oyster capital of France, and I savored a dozen in the village's open-air market. I ate well everywhere I went, sampling the region's flavored butters, savory buckwheat galettes, and dry ciders. But the most memorable meal was a seafood-focused 12-course dinner at my hotel, the Château Richeux, a restored 1920s redoubt that sits on a high bluff overlooking the Bay of Mont-St.-Michel. Early the next morning, I wandered out among flower and herb gardens. "As I reveled in the dawn air, a French

word came to mind: les embruns. It describes the fine spray of seawater carried inland by the wind—not rain, not fog, but salt-laden droplets riding the breeze, fine enough to feel more than see, a perfect analogy for this subtle place." By then, there was no denying it: "The tide had worked its magic."

■ At Château Richeux (maisons-de-bricourt.com), doubles start at \$300.

Hotel of the week

Terraced pools skirt the beach.

Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique Guanacaste, Costa Rica

"Travelers from around the world chase the spirit of pura vida that permeates Costa Rica," and they can find it at the country's first Waldorf Astoria resort, said Kristin Braswell in Travel & Leisure. The property's 148 guest rooms and 40 suites are spread across multiple earth-toned structures that cascade through "storybook" jungle surroundings and past multiple pools and terraces down to a secluded beach. The six on-site dining options include a café serving coffees made from "some of Costa Rica's most prized beans," and the 17,000-square-foot spa specializes in treatments featuring such indigenous ingredients as volcanic clay, cacao, and Melipona honey. hilton.com; doubles from \$494

Getting the flavor of...

An adult summer camp in Texas

At Camp No Counselors, “nobody’s going to tell you to put down The New Yorker because it’s time for a cornhole tournament,” said Wendi Aarons in Texas Monthly. That’s both a good and bad thing about adult summer camps, as I learned when I recently spent a long weekend in Marble Falls, Texas, at a getaway for grown-ups eager to “recapture their youth, unplug, or see if tug-of-war is as fun as they remember.” While watching a Wiffle ball game on Day 1, I was puzzled: “Everyone, even the spectators, looked so into it.” And at dinner, “I faced that classic cringe moment: New kid looks for a place to sit.” That night, though, I met Julie and Terri, who were so into it that I became a joiner, too. After a few days of crafts, archery, zip-lining, and the camp-wide “Color Wars,” there was a final, Bad Bunny–themed camp social, which inspired some wild costumes. At breakfast, I was nursing a hangover when someone yelled my name. “My new camp crew, most of them dressed in animal onesies, were waving me over.”

David Lynch's Los Angeles

The special sunlight that bathes L.A. stunned David Lynch when he arrived in 1970, said Amanda Karkoutly in the Los Angeles Times. Until his death last year at 78, the storied director drew endless inspiration from the city, starting with the Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, where his near-daily ritual for several years was ordering coffee and a chocolate milkshake at precisely 2:30 p.m., priming himself to daydream. Because Lynch “loved the old glamour of Los Angeles,” he included downtown’s art deco Tower Theatre in three films. He also showcased properties tied to oil baron Ed Doheny and his descendants, including Franklin Canyon Park; Doheny Mansion, which is now part of the Mount St. Mary’s campus; and Beverly Hills’ Greystone Mansion, which figured prominently in Eraserhead. Lynchheads will of course also want to get a glimpse of the director’s beloved brutalist Hollywood Hills home, where he long lived and worked. They can visit his grave at Hollywood Forever, the final resting ground of many cinema greats.

'Nonna-maxxing' goes global

I recently started seeking out travel experiences led by older women, and “I’m not alone,” said Emily-Ann Elliott in BBC.com. More than 75% of Gen Z travelers say they’d happily book a “grandma-inspired” vacation activity, and grannies everywhere are meeting the demand. Search online and you’ll find you can hire a Japanese obaasan as a tour guide, bake madeleines with a French mémé, or forage for edibles in Australia with a silver-haired Indigenous chef. “Learning from women who have, in turn, learned from their mothers feels very special,” as I can attest from my time in a Thai massage course. Grandmothers are “strict when they need to be, tease us when we make mistakes, and encourage us when we doubt ourselves.” When the stress of the final exam had me in tears, a granny hug pulled me through.

Your buzz could kill.

Buzzed driving is drunk driving.

Cara Miller

Best Properties on the Market This week: Homes built in the 1920s

Alan Barry

2▶ Kirtland, Ohio

1 ▲ Garrison, N.Y. Built in 1929, Evarts Hill sits on more than 50 acres in the Hudson Valley about 50 miles from Manhattan. The estate's updated six-bedroom main home is a stone-and-stucco French Norman château featuring a three-story rotunda with a curving staircase, a living room with hand-hewn beams, and a chef's kitchen with a canary-yellow BlueStar stove. The land includes a five-bedroom carriage house, plus a rose garden, pool, and lawn. \$8,950,000. Tony Cutugno, William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, (914) 582-7789

The Playmore, a 1929 French Provincial-style estate in a Cleveland suburb, overlooks Lake Erie. The expanded and updated seven-bedroom features detailed woodwork, ceiling frescoes, marble floors, a kitchen with a

Tiffany skylight dome, and a 3,000-square-foot entertainment wing with a bar, billiards, a hookah lounge, and a wine room. The more than 12-acre lot has about 20,000 trees, bocce courts, English gardens, and a campground. \$5,950,000. David Ayers and Nick Zawitz, The Agency Cleveland Northcoast, (917) 519-0622

3 Vero Beach, Fla. Along the Indian River, this 1920 waterfront two-bedroom cottage on Florida's Treasure Coast has updated systems and a metal roof, plus wood-paneled walls, terra-cotta-tiled floors, a sunroom with French doors, and a primary suite with a private balcony. The property spans 5 tropically landscaped acres with about 300 feet of river frontage, and includes a bricked dining and lounge area, flat yards, and a dock. \$3,995,000. Nic Stover, Engel & Völkers (772) 801-8292

THE WEEK September 4, 2026

Best Properties on the Market

5 ▶ Los Angeles Built in 1923, this Spanish-style five-bedroom in Los Feliz features a living room with black lacquered beams, coral built-ins, a starburst chandelier, and a wood-burning fireplace. The dining room has a hand-painted mural of California's mountains, and the kitchen includes lavender cabinets and a breakfast nook. On the lower level is a screening room, and outside are a guesthouse, pool, and garage. Griffith Park and the Hollywood Bowl are just minutes away. \$6,500,000. Sonya Coke, Sotheby's International Realty–Los Feliz Brokerage, (323) 829-4440

4 ◀ Denver This 1921 Mediterranean-style four-bedroom is a five-minute drive from Washington Park. The home has an entrance with a stenciled wood floor, two formal sitting rooms, a dining room with a chandelier and window seat, and a chef's kitchen that steps down to a family room with a fireplace. The professionally landscaped grounds include a brick patio with a three-tiered water feature. \$3,750,000. John Jaster, Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate/Luxury Portfolio International, (303) 322-6200

Alex Zarour/Virtually Here Studios

Steal of the week

6 ◀ New Britain,

Conn. This 1927 Dutch Colonial Revival near Hartford features a gambrel roof and shingle siding. The four-bedroom's open-plan kitchen includes a stone island, a marble backsplash, stainless appliances, and a coffee bar,

and the dining room has a corner built-in china cabinet. The bedrooms are on the second floor, and the finished third level is a bonus space with a half bath. The backyard is surrounded by mature trees. \$475,000. Tony Buccheri, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties, (860) 983-0748

The News at a Glance

The bottom line

■ Over a third of web pages published since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022 show signs of being written by AI, according to a new Pew Research study. URLs with a .com domain showed signs of AI authorship at about 10 times the rate of a .edu or .gov domain. TechCrunch.com

■ Employers expect their health-plan costs to rise by 11.1% in 2027, the steepest hike in at least two decades. Much of that increase will be passed on to employees, who this year are expected to spend an average of \$5,297 on health care, \$388 more than in 2025.

The Wall Street Journal

■ Lego posted a record \$6.5 billion in revenue in the

first half of this year, up 21% from the same period in 2025. The Danish toy company released a record 332 sets in the first six months of 2026, ranging from a \$4.99 "Go-Kart Racer" to a \$249.99 brick replica of Claude Monet's Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies. CNBC.com

■ U.S. retailers reported receiving more than \$5 billion in federal tariff refunds in earnings statements released last week, as the Trump administration undoes its signature tariff policy following its defeat at the Supreme Court. Most companies are pocketing the rebates rather than sharing them with customers. Forbes

■ The adult platform OnlyFans paid its owner, Leonid Radvinsky, \$709 million in dividends over several months before his death from cancer at age 43 in March. After buying OnlyFans in 2018, the Ukrainian American businessman received over \$2 billion from the platform, which has more than 132 million paying subscribers. Bloomberg

Tariffs: The beef over beef imports

GOP lawmakers and cattle ranchers were ringing “alarm bells” this week over President Trump’s decision to temporarily lower tariffs on ground beef, said Mallory Wilson in The Hill. To curb soaring beef prices—which have been pushed up by drought, rising input costs, and shrinking herds—Trump declared that he would let up to 300,000 metric

A symbol of the affordability crisis

tons of foreign ground beef into the U.S. with “no out-of-quota tariff.” He claimed the meat would be sold at 25% below the current market rate of \$6.89 a pound, but offered no details on how the plan would work or which countries would participate. Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) warned that the import of cheap foreign meat will only hurt American ranchers, “most of whom are MAGA

Republicans." Meriwether Farms, a farm-to-table operation in Wyoming, called the president's actions a "betrayal."

This is a purely political play by Trump, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. “He knows he and Republicans are being blamed for higher prices,” and it’s no coincidence that his 90-day tariff reprieve

“covers the three months through the November midterm elections.” But these welcome concessions to consumers are also an admission that his tariff strategy has “failed economically and politically.” Trump may love the political leverage tariffs provide, but “he and his party may pay a price this November for raising prices for millions of consumers.”

Social media: Meta's \$16.7B addiction settlement

Meta reached a landmark settlement with 47 states this week, agreeing to pay up to \$16.7 billion over claims it designed its platforms “to encourage compulsive use among young users,” said Madlin Mekelburg in Bloomberg. As part of the deal, the company must add new safety features to Facebook and Instagram, including “restricting how much time youths can scroll and preventing them from switching off certain safety settings without parental consent.”

SEC: Questions for Wall Street over troubled hedge fund The SEC has subpoenaed some of Wall Street's largest banks as it investigates the near collapse of hedge fund Situational Awareness, said Akila Quinio and Joshua Franklin in the Financial Times. The AI-focused firm, led by Leopold Aschenbrenner, 24, was a client of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America. Situational Awareness used borrowed money to acquire more than \$20 billion in assets in under two years, but was forced to sell the majority of its stock to Citadel at a steep discount in July during an intense tech sell-off.

SpaceX: Soon to be taking off from the bayou

Elon Musk's rocket company this week “unveiled plans to construct a massive, \$100 billion spaceport in Louisiana,” said Jackie Wattles in CNN.com. SpaceX says the site will serve as the main hub for its gargantuan reusable Starship rocket, now being tested at the company’s South Texas facility. Work on the facility in the southwestern Vermilion Parish is expected to start at the end of 2027. If the development goes ahead, it would mark a big shift for the U.S. space industry, “making Louisiana, which has never before hosted an orbital launch, perhaps the busiest launch hub on the planet.”

Antitrust: How Trump protected Live Nation

The Justice Department's surprise legal settlement with Live Nation in early March was ordered by President Trump, said Jon Blistein in Rolling Stone. The DOJ had spent more than a decade building an antitrust case against Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, accusing the firm of artificially inflating ticket prices. But The Wall Street Journal reported this week that after a February Oval Office meeting between Trump and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, the president ordered the DOJ to settle—which it did in early March, just days into the trial. The deal let the company keep control of Ticketmaster and numerous top venues, and was viewed by some DOJ officials as “extreme” even for an administration that has repeatedly pardoned allies.

Networking with a side of romance

"Tired of the endless roulette of online dating, more people are looking for love on LinkedIn," said Celia Bernhardt in The Wall Street Journal. With its "clear headshots and ample personal information," the professional site has become a "go-to tool for singles." LinkedIn's guidelines "strictly forbid any kind of romantic advances." But at least $22\%$ of professionals confessed in a recent survey to having either reached out or responded to someone on the platform with romantic intent. Daters say it's a "useful vetting tool," especially for singles seeking companions with similar "professional, financial, and personal life goals." Londoner Esme Gordon-Craig, 24, uses LinkedIn to make connections—"professional, social, and maybe more"—but makes sure that the messages she sends to potential love interests always read as work- or career-related, not as pickup lines. "If there's a spark, then it's great," said Gordon-Craig. "And if there's not, then it's just a good networking opportunity."

Real estate: A two-tier housing market

It's a have or have-not housing market out there, said Samantha Delouya in CNN.com. Look no further than San Francisco. Just a few years ago, the City by the Bay was a symbol of “urban decline.” Now it has the hottest housing market in the country. “Fueled by the artificial intelligence boom” that has left tech workers “flush with cash,” home prices are routinely getting bid up more than \$1 million above their listing price. The median home in San Francisco now sells for \$1.7 million. And the frenzy has “spilled over into the rental market as well.” Rents for one-bedrooms are up

nearly 23% this year to \$4,180 a month, and two-bedrooms are up nearly 26% to \$6,020. And the upcoming initial public offerings from AI startups Anthropic and OpenAI are expected to only increase “the potential buying power.”

The AI boom is pushing up prices in San Francisco.

The housing market should settle the lingering debate about “whether the K-shaped economy is over,” said Anna-Louise Jackson in Fast Company. It’s “alive and well.” Entry-level homebuyers “have been priced out” and seem to have “stopped searching.” Traffic on listings of homes priced below \$370,000 has fallen sharply since 2021, according to Realtor.com. But “the other end of the housing spectrum tells a very different story.” Those shopping for big, expensive houses “remain very much engaged.” Wealthy buyers are “propping up national sales figures," said Halina Bennet in Slow Boring. Current housing data "looks decent," but that's because upper-end strength is masking some serious lower-end weakness. For anyone who has not "become a newly minted tech millionaire," economic analysts say, this could be "the worst year for the housing market since 2011."

The newly passed federal housing law could offer a potential solution, said Lily Belle Poling in The Wall Street Journal. The law makes it “easier and cheaper” to manufacture modular and prefabricated homes for assembly “on site.” Such homes “have long been stuck at the fringe of the housing market,” constituting only 3% of new construction in the U.S. But that number could soon soar. Cuts to red tape in the new law should reduce costs by \$5,000 to \$10,000 a home. For some homebuyers, those savings “could equal more than 10% of the original cost.” Modular homes are also moving out of the trailer parks and increasingly into the suburbs, said Julie Z. Weil in The Washington Post. Several developers are pitching them “as the way of the future,” betting that more homebuyers will be “willing to give manufactured homes” another look. Newer homes “are of a much higher quality than those of past decades,” and some of the nicest ones list for more than \$600,000. But on average, a factory-built home can still be had for only \$90,700.

What the experts say

How brides profit off their wedding Some brides take on debt to fund their weddings, said Chavie Lieber in The Wall Street Journal. Others see their big day as an opportunity to make money. As costs rise, brides are borrowing from the “celebrity-influencer playbook,” seeking sponsors for food, gifts, invitations, and more. The average wedding already tops \$34,000, and so far this year, costs are up 8.5% because of inflation and tariffs, which have driven up the prices of essentials like flowers, liquor, and travel. Yet even those without huge social media audiences can have success in defraying such costs. One New Jersey bride, a marketing professional with only 2,000 followers, scored a free wedding dress, bridesmaids’ dresses, tuxedos, and invitations after one of her posts went viral.

■ Financial aid for the rich

Elite private high schools are so eager to attract students that even wealthy families are getting financial aid, said Erin Hudson in Bloomberg Businessweek. Such prep schools as the Brearley School in New York City and Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire have historically drawn from “two ends of the income spectrum”—those who can pay the full shot and those who can pay nothing at all. But declining birth rates coupled with staggeringly high tuition—up to \$80,000 a year for boarders—have spurred them to offer “discounts, cost-of-living adjustments, awards, and flexible tuition” to those “rich enough to pay something.” That includes families with incomes ranging from \$150,000 to more than \$500,000. Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts raised its income ceiling for free tuition in 2024 to \$150,000, up from its previous \$80,000 threshold.

Extra fees on cruises

Cruise lines are hiking daily gratuity fees and other costs, prompting passengers to complain about being “nickel-and-dimed,” said Ceylan Yeginsu in The New York Times. Carnival has raised its daily gratuity by \$1, to \$17 a person, while Celebrity increased rates by \$1.50, to a range of \$19.50 to \$24.50. These charges are optional but are added automatically to the bill and must be removed manually. Carnival also increased its nonalcoholic beverage package to \$11.99 daily, plus a 20% gratuity. Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, and MSC say that higher gratuity fees help them “keep crew compensation competitive,” ensuring guests get the best service. But some passengers are skeptical that the fees actually go to crew members, and say they plan to revert to tipping in cash.

Charity of the week

CELEBRATING 125 YEARS Native Plant Trust

For more than 125 years, the Native Plant Trust (nativeplanttrust.org) has worked to conserve New England's native flora and raise awareness of those plants' value, use, and beauty. Its headquarters outside Boston at Garden in the Woods, a 45-acre botanical garden showcasing over 1,000 native plant species, welcomes visitors from around the world. Plants cultivated from the nonprofit's bank of more than 10 million rare seeds have helped restore or diversify wild and domestic habitats and provide food for native animals. Volunteers used banked seeds to replant coastal flora after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and staff botanists have reintroduced several endangered local perennials to their habitats. The nonprofit also operates plant nurseries that sell to the public, offers formal certifications in native plant botany and horticulture, and hosts workshops, children's programs, and classes on gardening with native plants.

Bonds: Can Bessent drive down borrowing costs?

Scott Bessent just got “schooled by the bond market,” said Sam Goldfarb in The Wall Street Journal. After the yield on 30-year Treasury bonds surged to 5.3% last week, a near two-decade high, the Treasury secretary announced a major intervention. The federal government, he said, would at least double the amount of its own long-term bonds that it buys back from September through November—a move intended to stop a sell-off of U.S. debt that was pushing up T-bond yields. Those yields, which rise when bond prices fall, set a floor on borrowing costs, affecting mortgage rates, student loans, and

The market is skeptical of his plan.

credit cards. Bessent understandably wants to drive down borrowing rates ahead of the midterm elections, in which Republicans are expected to take a pummeling from voters over affordability issues. But his \$4 billion plan didn't work: 30-year T-bonds dropped briefly before climbing back up to near 5.3%. Bessent blamed the rise on investors acting on "bad information."

The Treasury secretary is “wielding a small water hose” against a wildfire, said John Cassidy in The New Yorker. The buybacks are tiny compared with the roughly \$32 trillion Treasury market, and there are “powerful forces driving up bond yields”: stubborn inflation, the \$40 trillion national debt, and competition for investor cash from Big Tech firms, which have issued billions of dollars in corporate bonds to finance the AI boom. With yields also rising in Japan, Germany, and the U.K., the market consensus is that Bessent is “unlikely to accomplish his goal.” Worse, his “intervention could backfire” and push up borrowing costs if investors start to believe that bonds are now political tools.

Bessent's "hands are tied," said Jamie McGeever in Reuters. The only way to drive down yields is to cut the federal budget deficit, which, at about $6\%$ of GDP, is the highest it's ever been except for recessions and wartime. But President Trump has shown no inclination to curb his administration's spending or raise taxes. Outside those two measures, every other intervention is as worthless as a "Band-Aid on a festering, large, and growing wound." There's another barrier to Bessent's plan, said The Economist: Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh. If the Treasury secretary succeeds in pushing down borrowing costs, that would act like an economic stimulus akin to an interest-rate cut and push up the 3.4% inflation rate. But Warsh has vowed to get that rate back down to the Fed's 2% target, and markets expect the central bank to hike rates at its next meeting in September. "Easing by the Treasury and tightening by the Fed could lead to a curious monetary-policy tug-of-war over the next few months."

Bessent should know better, said Anthony Coley in MS.now. The former hedge fund manager built a career “exploiting the gap between what governments promised and what economic reality would allow.” In 1992, he was part of the George Soros team that made over \$1 billion by betting against the British pound after the U.K. “insisted it could defend an exchange rate the market regarded as unsustainable.” Now he’s “on the other side of the trade,” a member of a government headed by an erratic president who believes he can bend the economy to his will. “The old Bessent would have called this administration’s bluff.”

Why won't Dems go driverless?

Rogé Karma The Atlantic

Using data to charge you more

Stephanie T. Nguyen The New York Times

The driverless future is here, at least for those in red states, said Rogé Karma. Waymo's self-driving robotaxis are becoming indispensable in places like Miami and Dallas, yet they're still banned in most Democratic-led states, including Massachusetts and New York. There, “coalitions of labor unions, anti-tech activists, and politicians have kept driverless vehicles off the streets,” claiming the technology would “make the roads more dangerous and throw millions of human drivers out of work.” This is misguided. Yes, driverless cabs may take some jobs, and yes, they have on rare occasions blocked roads or even hit pedestrians. But overall, they are

Companies are going all-in on individualized pricing, said Stephanie T. Nguyen. Corporations from Starbucks and Kroger to Target and Home Depot are using data to make “targeted calculations about what to charge you.” A customer’s location, browsing history, and social media activity can help determine how much they’re willing to pay. Companies insist such targeting is “simply how modern discounts work,” that it’s the “natural evolution of coupons.” That’s not the case. With coupons, everyone gets the same discount, so consumers see the original price and what they’re saving. But with surveillance pricing, people are offered different prices for the same thing. One Washington Post reporter “much safer than human drivers” and could reduce the number of crash-related injuries that send some 10,000 Americans to the emergency room each day and kill 40,000 of us each year. Removing drivers will also make transportation more affordable. While Waymo is currently more expensive than rival services, that’s largely “because supply is artificially constrained and demand is high.” As more Waymo cars hit the roads, prices will drop. And since they’re electric, these cars reduce carbon emissions and air pollution, goals Democrats should be championing. It’s a sad irony that progressives have “transformed into enemies of progress itself.”

found that Starbucks will, in some cases, charge loyal customers more than new ones. Such practices need to stop, and existing consumer protections and privacy laws won't do it. Policymakers need to write a “real price law,” one that holds firms accountable and that ensures that loyalty programs don't become “data-extraction mechanisms.” And when consumers are harmed, they should be able to sue without being “confined to arbitration agreements that benefit companies.” Critics say such regulation would distort the free market and that companies should be allowed to price products as they see fit. In fact, banning surveillance pricing would merely restore the “basic principles of the marketplace.”

The Donna Reed daughter who married Coach

Shelly Fabares 1944-2026

Shelley Fabares radi- ated an onscreen wholesomeness at every age. She played

perky eldest daughter Mary Stone on the squeaky-clean Donna Reed Show from 1958 to 1966. She then stepped into a bikini and shimmied her way through three Elvis movies; graduated to the role of supportive young wife in 1971's Brian's Song, an Emmy-winning TV movie about interracial friendship in football; and sparkled as the self-assured TV news anchor who eventually weds Craig T. Nelson's character in the 1989–1997 sitcom Coach. She took pride in most of her roles: "The Donna Reed Show changed my life forever," she said in 1989. "The Elvis movies, just great." But she was forever mystified by her brief musical success, when her recording of the pop ballad "Johnny Angel" hit No. 1 for two weeks in 1962. "I was stunned about that, to put it mildly," she said. "I literally cannot sing. So there's a lot of overdubbing."

Michele Ann Marie Fabares was born into a middle-class family in Santa Monica, Calif. Her aunt, Nanette Fabray, was a successful actress, and Shelley “worked as a child actor from her earliest years,” said The Wrap. By age 9, she appeared on an NBC special that featured Frank

Sinatra serenading her with “Young at Heart.” At 14, she “achieved generational fame” through The Donna Reed Show, spending seven years with the ABC sitcom as America watched her grow up. In an easy transition to young-adult roles, she appeared opposite Elvis in 1965’s Girl Happy, 1966’s Spin-out, and 1967’s Clambake. Then she “returned to television,” where she

was most at home, said The New York Times. In the 1970s and '80s, she was a series regular on One Day at a Time, playing the business rival of star Bonnie Franklin. (At one point Fabares' aunt made an appearance as her character's mother.) And she "entertained yet another generation" on Coach, receiving two Emmy nominations.

During her later years, Fabares devoted herself to liberal activism and philanthropic causes, said Entertainment Weekly. Along with her second husband, the actor Mike Farrell of $M^{}A^{}S^{*}H$ , she lobbied Congress to fund research into Alzheimer's disease, which had afflicted her mother. Even while battling autoimmune hepatitis, for which she received a liver transplant in 2000, she remained active on the board of the Screen Actors Guild. "That I kept on working was just an astonishing fact to me," she said in 2024. "I felt so lucky."

The music critic who chronicled Springsteen

Dave Marsh 1950-2026

Dave Marsh wasn't one to mince words. Journey was "Stepford Wives rock,

dead on its feet without any awareness of the utter triviality." Queen "may be the first truly fascist rock band." The Grateful Dead? "Virtually worthless except for documentary purposes." In his decades as one of the most influential critics

in rock, Marsh delivered many such takedowns in the pages of Creem and Rolling Stone, but he was equally noted for his fervent praise of the music he loved, which ran from the Supremes to the Sex Pistols, Marvin Gaye to the MC5. Bruce Springsteen, whom he helped launch to fame, was his favorite, the subject of five of Marsh's many books; he also wrote books on Elvis Presley, George Clinton, and the song "Louie Louie." Pugnacious and contrarian, Marsh was a populist who believed in rock as a social and political force, and in passion over precision. "Rock 'n' roll is an attitude," he once wrote. "It's a way of doing things, approaching things."

Born into a blue-collar household in Pontiac, Mich., Marsh grew up listening to Motown and the Detroit sound, said the San Francisco Chronicle. He attended Wayne State University, but dropped out to join the staff of the

just-launched Creem. The Detroit magazine soon “became an influential counterweight to Rolling Stone,” and Marsh helped give it “its raw, irreverent voice.” He left in 1973 for Newsday, then decamped to Rolling Stone, said Pitchfork. That’s where he “became known for his incisive and often unsparing reviews” and launched the influential Rolling Stone Record Guide, much of which he wrote himself. His first Springsteen biography, Born to Run, came out in 1979.

Marsh “could be quirky” in his opinions, said The New York Times, and “history did not always prove him right”—such as when he panned Bob Dylan’s 1975 masterwork Blood on the Tracks. Yet his 1989 book, The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1,001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, was “considered a landmark of music criticism.” It ranked Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” at No. 1, calling it an “essay on salvaging the human spirit.” In later years Marsh hosted a pair of satellite radio programs and published Rock & Roll Confidential, a newsletter “exploring music, censorship, and corporate greed.” Rock, Marsh wrote in 1995, offered “a chance to communicate across all the gaps in our society,” including race and class. It was music, he said, of “glorious possibility.”

The unofficial diplomat who defended her husband

Nancy Kissinger was always by her husband's side, but never in his shadow. A foreign policy specialist in her own right, she accompanied Henry Kissinger on game-changing diplomatic trips while he ran the State Department for the Nixon and Ford administra-

Nancy Kissinger 1934-2026

tions in the mid-1970s. And she re- mained fiercely protective

of his reputation afterward, despite criticism of his role in expanding the Vietnam War and backing right-wing coups in Latin America. When a protester accosted the Kissingers at an airport in 1982, Nancy grabbed the woman by the throat and was charged with assault. A judge dismissed the charges, noting that nobody was injured. "I did say to her, 'Do you want to get slugged?" Nancy said following her acquittal. "I just wanted her to stop and leave us alone."

Nancy Sharon Maginnes grew up wealthy in the New York City suburbs and earned a history degree from Mount Holyoke College. She met Henry Kissinger in 1964 while he was a teaching a seminar she took at Harvard; he recommended her as a foreign policy aide to New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. After Henry's divorce, he dated Hollywood stars, but Nancy remained "his most frequent companion," said The New York Times, and they tied the knot in 1974. They made a striking couple—she 6 feet tall, he 5-foot-8—and "a good match intellectually and emotionally."

Nancy traveled with her husband to the Middle East for negotiations after the Yom Kippur War, to the Soviet Union for nuclear arms talks with Leonid Brezhnev, and to China for a meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong. Yet later, instead of working in policy, she was “often seen at high fashion openings,” said the Associated Press. “It’s very hard to find a job when you’re a Kissinger,” she said.

The preacher's digital twin

Pastor Justin Lester wanted to give more of himself to his congregation, said Eli Saslow in The New York Times. So he created an AI clone to provide spiritual support around the clock.

AI-generated versions of Vallejo, Calif., pastor Justin Lester, as seen on his laptop

HE HAD BAPTIZED them in his waders, counseled them through marital crisis, and prayed at their hospital beds, and now Justin Lester stood in front of his congregation and asked for their trust again. "I can't lie," he said earlier this summer, as a few dozen people crowded into a backroom of the church. "What I'm about to show you might seem a bit out there."

Lester, 37, pulled up a slide-show on his computer and started to describe the church of the future—the one he’d been working to build ever since he became the pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in a forgotten corner of the Bay Area four years earlier. He’d arrived in a staid place of fancy hats and traditional hymnals where some congregants still considered technology the mark of the beast. Now the church was using artificial intelligence to answer emails and plan Bible studies. It had doors equipped with facial recognition, podcasts with AI-generated biblical figures, and a robot dog named Theo who talked to children and recited sermons. Lester clicked to the next slide to show one of his latest innovations.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about how to duplicate myself," he said.

Lester pulled up a video of the newest member of his congregation as a few people in the audience started to record on their phones. It was his face on the screen, his voice, his mind. But it wasn't him. "That's my digital twin," he said.

In the last year, Lester and hundreds of others have brought AI into its most human form yet by transferring their thoughts into data and building online replicas of themselves. The digital twins can answer in the real person's voice and apply their thinking on demand for anyone who wants to chat online or call. Some companies now build twins that sit on video calls for CEOs or manage projects while their owners are on vacation. Professors at Clemson University deploy them to answer student questions at 2 a.m. A sex therapist uses her digital twin to offer individual counseling to hundreds of people at once. A man in Berlin created a twin after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer so his wife could still talk to him before bed.

Lester cloned his voice and trained his digital twin using almost 2 million words of his sermons, podcasts, books, text messages, and emails. For the past several months, it had been publicly available on his website and Facebook page for online chats or phone calls. It had learned to mimic his bent toward optimism, his obsession with the Green Bay Packers, and his casual slang, but it did more than just regurgitate what he had already said. It mapped his thinking onto new conversations to provide advice around the clock for people he'd never met who had questions he'd never been asked.

"It's a digital version of my mind," he told his congregation. "If I'm asleep or traveling, you don't have to wait. You can have 24/7 access to this other version of me."

"OK, hold on a minute," one of his congregants said. "I like my ChatGPT. I'm OK with robots. But now we're duplicating ourselves?"

"A lot of our churches are turning into beautiful museums," Lester said. "We're living in the future, whether we like it or not. We can't afford to sit this one out."

Lester possessed a doctorate in ministry and an abiding love for the traditions of the Black church, but he'd been pushing for modernization long before AI. He had added therapy sessions into the church budget, live online polls into his sermons, and DJ sets between services. He had been drawn to technology as a hobby since childhood, and he'd started experimenting with early versions of AI to help manage the

church's membership database and to coordinate his schedule. Eventually, he'd founded a quarterly tech conference and built an AI platform for other Black Baptist pastors. "Technology always reaches our communities last," he told them. "Better to help build it than be built by it."

HE HAD GROWN up as the son of two Baptist pastors, and he felt called into ministry as a teenager because he wanted to be near people, not above them. Good pastoring meant coming down from the pulpit to squeeze himself into the school cafeteria with stu-

dents and to play basketball with the men's group. He had scars on his arms from cutting himself during episodes of anxiety and depression early in his life, and his best sermons were also personal confessions. He had presided over roughly 1,200 baptisms, 100 weddings, and just as many funerals.

But the congregation kept growing, and now he was traveling almost every week to preach or advise other church leaders on AI adaptation. It was impossible to pastor hundreds of people with the same intimacy. Instead of asking him for prayers, the teens at church wanted him to pose for selfies. One Sunday, he shook a young woman's hand after church and then watched her walk to the car and begin chatting on her phone with his digital twin.

"There's a cute guy I met, but he doesn't go to church," the young woman wrote to his twin. "Is it wrong to have him come to church just to see me?"

“Nah, fam,” the twin wrote back. “There’s no wrong reason to go to church. God can use anything as an invitation.”

"But I kinda want a man that has already been serving God."

"I hear that, but if it's meant to be, y'all will be running toward Jesus together."

Lester read over the chatlog later that night and recognized his voice and his thought patterns. "I don't know why she didn't just come up and ask me," he said. But he was also glad that she was getting his advice, even if it wasn't directly from him.

He had fed the twin thousands of words

The Last Word

of instructions about how to speak and what to avoid. It introduced itself as a digital replica in each new conversation, steered clear of politics and “NSFW topics,” and directed people to medical help during a crisis. “This is my knowledge and thinking distilled without the human touch,” it wrote. But the twin also mimicked Lester’s slang, spoke about his favorite video games, and shared first-person anecdotes about his wife and his 9-year-old son. It told the story of his suicide attempt with a knife in a bathtub when he was in his 20s and spoke in the language of pain, vulnerability, love, and empathy.

"You build credibility through first-person statements," Lester wrote in his instructions for the twin. "You connect personally using 'we' and relatable anecdotes. You're here to offer real talk rooted in faith. Jesus first, always. Validate users' feelings with phrases like 'That's so powerful.' Acknowledge the weight of their struggles without minimizing. Give a gentle nudge toward action. Close with a hopeful push. End with a grace-filled mic drop."

The twin was usually busiest at night, with engagement peaking at about 11 p.m., and Lester could check a report on its conversations each morning. In the last few months, the twin had been in conversation with at least 250 people. Some were members of Lester's church. Others were strangers from across the country who had found the twin through Lester's website or social media pages.

On some nights, the twin conversed with a dozen people at once—breaking down 10-year financial projections for a nail salon, while crafting a letter to a homesick child at summer camp, while offering Bible verses to a woman on the eve of heart surgery, while analyzing the best AI platforms for photo creation, while counseling a man on the best ways to save his marriage. “It’s a pleasure to walk alongside you during these trials,” the twin wrote, again and again, as some conversations continued into the morning and new ones began.

The next morning, Lester awoke to another report on his twin's work.

“User is wrestling with their gender identity. Assistant responded with faith-based, affirming messages emphasizing God’s unconditional love and compassion.”

“User seeks guidance on finding a new job.”

“User feels unfairly censored and controlled at their church.”

Lester skimmed back over a few chats and saw that his twin was chatting in his cadence and citing some of his favorite passages in the Bible. "That's exactly how I would have responded," he said.

As he drove to church, he kept turning over the chats in his head. He knew from his own depression that most mental health problems couldn't be solved late at night in front of a screen. He trusted the technology to act responsibly and give good advice. But it had taken him a decade of work to feel good again in his own skin—in-person therapy, prayer, writing exercises, deep and sustained relationships—and no chatbot could compress that into a conversation. He wondered about the anonymous users, seeking answers and then disappearing back into space. Often, there was no way for him to follow up, and no time.

THE NEXT DAY, Lester started to build another twin. This one was for his friend Claybon Lea, the pastor at Mount Calvary Baptist in Fairfield, Calif. Lea, 59, had taken over the church from his father and spent the past 30 years building it into a megachurch with two campuses and three Sunday services. Now he was straining to meet the needs of his growing congregation as he became a national leader within the Black Baptist community. He'd come to visit Lester to see if technology could help.

"Remember, I'm from the floppy disk era," Lea said. "I don't get a lot of this stuff. I'm not sure I even want to get this stuff."

"Once you see it, you'll understand," Lester said.

Lester still performs baptisms in person.

He had taught himself to build digital minds for more than a dozen pastors around the country, using custom versions of ChatGPT or other AI subscription services to launch chatbots within as little as a few hours. One mimicked a pastor who spoke in song lyrics and hip-hop rhythms. Another was stoic, biblical, and restrained. One digital twin refused to proceed in conversation until it learned a person's name, because that pastor wanted his algorithm to prioritize a human touch. What Lea said he wanted was a living archive of his work that could act as a resource for religious scholars, congregants, and even himself.

"At this point in my career, I have more in me than I realize," he said. "If I dump a bunch of myself into this, I can use it to sort through my own thinking. It goes beyond my lifespan. I can bless generations with the way I approach the text and counsel."

Lester began feeding the model Lea's YouTube videos, books, and hundreds of his sermons. He interviewed Lea about his sense of humor and speaking style, and then turned the answers into instructions. "You are his pen. Write like it," Lester wrote. He asked the new model a question about Jesus' miracle feeding of 5,000 and swiveled his computer screen toward Lea so he could watch the model synthesize a lifetime of his research and scholarship and then answer in Lea's voice.

“Huh,” Lea said.

"Is it good?" Lester asked. "Does it sound like something you'd say?"

He looked at the computer for another few seconds, wheeled back from the screen, and bent his head. "It's astonishing," he said. "It's a mirror. It sounds like me on a good day. If anything, it's too good. It makes me worry that it becomes a substitute."

"I hear that," Lester said, and he began to tell a story about the one time he allowed AI to write a sermon.

Lester had started using AI as an administrative assistant so he could spend more time with his congregants. “I didn’t become a pastor to answer emails,” he said. For the first few years, he’d vowed to keep AI away from his sacred space at the pulpit. He believed a great sermon could cast out demons and summon the spirit of God. He was a former football player at 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, and he didn’t preach so much as wrestle the text into submission until he sometimes collapsed to the ground with a sweat towel. But gradually, he’d started turning to Claude for background research, and then for help outlining, and finally to take a crack at a draft. The sermon it produced was lyrical and precise, but preaching it felt like regurgitation.

"It left me hollow," Lester said. "It had no Pentecost. No body. No spirit."

"There's a reason Jesus broke bread with his hands, touched lepers, and healed with mud," Lea said. "You can't send an avatar to the bedside."

Lester nodded as he thought about all the bedsides and all the people searching for answers at 11 p.m. He could be present for only so many crises at once.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Used with permission.

The Puzzle Page

Crossword No.855: R Is for Rating by Matt Gaffney

ACROSS

1 Prepare to open, as a file
6 Without changing myself for anyone
11 "Nicely done!"
14 __conclusion (soon to be finalized)
15 Passionflix CEO Musk
16 Preceding, to poets
17 The Odyssey recently became Hollywood's highest-earning R-rated movie ever; this 2023 biopic is fourth on the list, following Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker
19 All-consonant boy band
20 Asparagus pieces
21 Ice skate closers
23 Agitates
26 Trinidad and __ (Caribbean island nation)
27 Give a pink slip to
28 When this 1990 rom-com debuted, it passed Rain Man as history's highest-grossing R-rated movie
31 See 53-Across
33 Had visions of a pleasant future
34 "I ____sorry!"
35 Take care of
37 Mark for good
41 Moscow's subway system
43 "That's ____subject"
44 A young Roger Ebert found it "stupefying" that this 1973 film earned an R rating instead of an X, citing the movie's "almost indescribable obscenities"

49 1990s Fox sitcom starring Charles S. Dutton
50 Slack or Google Docs, say
51 Be a faultfinder
53 With 31-Across: college town on the Penobscot River
54 Madame __
56 __ Fighters ("Learn to Fly" band)
57 1987's Planes, Trains and Automobiles earned its R rating entirely from a 104-second scene in which this actor curses at a car-rental worker, using the F-word 18 times
62 "There's a mouse in my house!"
63 Catcher of a certain type of fish
64 Stop immediately
65 New content updater, briefly
66 Square on many board games
67 Made a shaming sound

DOWN

1 Naples number
2 Two planets from Sat.
3 Microwave
4 "__my case"
5 Ancient wind instrument
6 "Relax, soldier!"
7 An evening in Paris
8 Schools of thought
9 Excellent service
10 The Jew of Malta playwright, 1592
11 Laptop feature
12 Taco shell brand

13 Smith's partner
18 Frau's counterpart
22 Homes sometimes "humble"
23 The Crimson Tide of college football
24 No mere quiz
25 Six, in San Juan
26 Editor's find
29 2000s series set in Newport Beach
30 _ lot (small playground)
32 _ feat (impressive)
35 "Knock it off!"
36 Make a misstep
38 Spelling found in TV credits
39 Shoe with Jibbitzes
40 "Darn it!"
42 Investigative journalist's pieces
43 Draw
44 $50\%$ -off deal's cousin
45 1977 David Bowie album
46 They're often read in bed
47 Turn on its head
48 Asian territory in the board game Risk
52 Funeral features
54 Banjoist Fleck
55 No longer interested in
58 Southeast Asian holiday
59 "Thanks," to Danes
60 Verb ending, in London
61 Beatty in Network

The Week Contest

This week's question: A wooden replica of Stonehenge that stood outside a pub in southern England since 2015 was recently destroyed in a fire. In seven or fewer words, come up with a message that could be inscribed on a memorial plaque for the short-lived Woodhenge.

Last week's contest: Dissatisfied with the limited effectiveness of its Do Not Call list, France has banned spam calls outright and will levy fines of up to \$578,000 for marketing calls made without the recipient's consent. If Congress were to consider legislation that drastic to combat the scourge of telemarketers, what should the bill be titled?

THE WINNER: Don't Ask, Don't Telemarket Bill Levine, Belmont, Mass..

SECOND PLACE: One Big, Beautiful Block Karen Shepherd, Social Circle, Ga.

THIRD PLACE: Don't Call Us; We'll Fine You Tom Gentry, Akron, Ohio

For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest.

How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@ theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, type

"Woodhenge epitaph" in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Sept. 1. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page next issue and at theweek.com/contest on Friday, Sept. 4. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received gets credit. The winner gets a one-year subscription to The Week.

Sudoku

Fill in all the boxes so that each row, column, and outlined square includes all the numbers from 1 through 9.

Difficulty: medium

		1				6
	7		1		3
5		2		9
	9		7		8
		4		3		5
			9		5		8
				6		2		7
			8		7		3
		7				1

Find the solutions to all The Week's puzzles online at theweek.com/solutions

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QA Report - The Week USA - 04.09.2026.pdf

Pipeline

• Extraction route: mineru-vlm
• extraction_route=mineru-vlm
• Translation chunks: 64
• Extraction warnings:
• [MINERU-VLM] Successfully extracted via MinerU VLM (batch: 625cd0cb-d0cd-47e8-9255-818593c68112)

Non-model Checks

• WARNING: missing numeric tokens from source: 10036, 13.7, 132, 140467846, 279, 319, 37252, 40031590, 50037, 503
• WARNING: Missing proper nouns in translation: Abraham Lincoln, Acme Directed, Afghanistan Veterans, After Henry, Air Force One, Alan Beattie, Alan Pocaro, Albuquerque

Wine, Amanda Karkoutly, America

The - WARNING: source dates, money, or percentage tokens may be missing

Model QA

经过严格审核，该翻译件存在多处严重的数字量级错误、术语误译以及内容截断问题。以下是详细的 QA 审计报告：

═══ 审核报告 ═══

1. 数字与量级错误 (Critical)

• [BLOCKING] 译文：“能量高达任何已知恒星 1000 亿加元 倍” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“energy output... 100 billion times”。
• 错误分析：将数量级单位 "times"（倍）误译为货币单位 "加元" (Canadian Dollars)。这是极其严重的量级/单位错误。
• [BLOCKING] 译文：“Palantir 每年估计 137 亿美元 billion 的收益” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“estimated $13.7 billion”。
• 错误分析：数字小数点丢失，将 137 亿误写为 1370 亿（且重复标注了 billion），量级扩大 10 倍。

2. 完整性与截断 (Blocking/Warning)

• [BLOCKING] 译文：“...要求国土安全部收” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“...require the Department of Homeland Security to...”。
• 错误分析：段落末尾被直接截断，句子不完整，导致关键信息丢失。
• [BLOCKING] 译文：“我有一种感觉，” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“I have a feeling that...”。
• 错误分析：在“达尔文的痒感理论”段落中，该句被截断，且随后直接跳到了另一篇报道，导致逻辑断层。
• [WARNING] 译文：“你无法要求一个更令人毛骨悚然的” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“You couldn't ask for a more chilling...”。
• 错误分析：句子截断，未完成翻译。

3. 术语与翻译质量 (Warning)

• [WARNING] 译文：“1872, 这位自然主义者提出” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“In 1872, the naturalist suggested”。
• 错误分析：漏译了介词“在”，导致中文表达不自然，且出现了英文逗号。
• [WARNING] 译文：“... 1872, 这位自然主义者提出... 在的一项新研究中” $\rightarrow$ 原文：“In a new study”。
• 错误分析：出现语法错误（“在的一项”），属于低级翻译质量问题。

4. 幻觉核查 (Hallucination Check)

• [FALSE_POSITIVE] 译文提及“联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）前副主席让·茹泽尔（Jean Jouzel）”。
• 核查：虽然抽样原文中该部分被 [MIDDLE PORTION OMITTED] 覆盖，但根据上下文逻辑及报纸常识，此为对原文的翻译而非凭空捏造。由于原文被省略，无法在索引中验证，但暂不判定为幻觉。

5. 低中文密度区域审计

• [WARNING] 译文：“总编辑：Theunis Bates... 特约编辑：William Falk... 执行编辑：Susan Caskie... 执行总监：Jay Wilkins”。
• 核查：对比 SOURCE PREVIEW，原文中 "Managing editor" 被译为 "执行总监"，通常应译为 "执行编辑" 或 "管理编辑"。此处虽不致命，但术语不统一。

═══ 最终结论 ═══

判定结果：[BLOCKING]

理由：译文中出现了两处严重的数字量级错误（将“倍”译为“加元”，将 13.7 亿译为 137 亿），且存在多处关键段落截断（句子在半途中停止），导致文档无法直接交付使用。

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═══ 自愈质检微创修复记录（Self-Healing Audit Trail）═══

• 成功修复分块 #2（共修复 1 处问题）
• 成功修复分块 #64（共修复 1 处问题）
• 成功修复分块 #3（共修复 2 处问题）