Issue July 27, 2018 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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Main storiesEditor’s letterLet us spare a thought for the poor, overwhelmed minders whose job it is to protect President Trump from himself. As we saw once again this week, it is nearly an impossible task, like getting a 2-year-old through a nine-hour plane flight without tantrums. During a breakfast for NATO leaders last week (see Controversy), a visibly disgusted Chief of Staff John Kelly turned his head away and looked as if he’d swallowed a live, flapping bird as his boss berated Germany for allegedly being “totally controlled by Russia.” (Pot, meet kettle.) In Helsinki, Dan Coats, Trump’s director of national intelligence, was so horrified by Trump’s submission to Putin (see Main Stories), he felt obliged to say Russia did too engage in “ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.” Secretary of…3 min

Main storiesThe blowback from Trump’s summit with PutinWhat happenedPresident Trump faced bipartisan condemnation this week for his warm embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit meeting in Helsinki, during which he sided with the Kremlin in denying that it meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Asked about Russian hacking during the election at his joint press conference with Putin, Trump said, “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia,” adding, “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” Trump’s own aides were reportedly flabbergasted by his direct contradiction of U.S. intelligence findings after they’d prepared him to press Putin on a range of issues, including election interference. Instead, Trump blamed “both countries” for deteriorating U.S.-Russian relations, saying special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation had offended Russia and…5 min

Main storiesMueller indicts Russians over election hackingWhat happenedSpecial counsel Robert Mueller for the first time directly accused the Russian government of interfering in the 2016 presidential election, indicting 12 Russian military intelligence officers last week for hacking the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. The 29-page indictment contains an extremely detailed account of how the hacking occurred, even describing the actions of individual Russian intelligence officers on particular dates. It reveals how hackers stole information by planting malware onto Democratic computers and then disseminating the pilfered emails and documents through the fake online personae DC Leaks and Guccifer 2.0, and passing it to individuals and organizations, including WikiLeaks. “The goal of the conspirators was to have an impact on the election,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said as he announced the charges. The indictment…3 min

Main storiesIt wasn’t all badA year ago, Lalu Muhammad Zohri couldn’t afford running shoes. Last week, the 18-year-old Indonesian won gold in the 100-meter sprint at the world junior championships in Finland. Zohri crossed the finish line in 10.18 seconds, beating two favorites from the U.S. and becoming the first Indonesian to medal at the event. Raised in a wood-and-bamboo home on the island of Lombok, next to Bali, Zohri often trained barefoot. He had to borrow $30 from his sister to buy sneakers for the big race. “I am crafting history,” Zohri says, “and I’m very proud.”An 8-year-old with a robotic hand is closing in on her dream of becoming the first person to throw out the first pitch at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. Hailey Dawson has Poland syndrome, a rare…1 min

Controversy of the weekTrump and NATO: Is the Western alliance doomed?Now we know what “America First” really means, said Bret Stephens in The New York Times. In his “excruciating” trip to Europe last week, President Trump made it clear he intends to bring about “the collapse of the liberal international order” and such institutions as NATO, the G-7, and the European Union. Trump’s wrecking-ball rampage began at the NATO summit in Brussels, where he berated our allies—Germany’s Angela Merkel, in particular—and threatened that the U.S. might “go our own way” if member states didn’t immediately meet their agreed-upon 2024 target for spending 2 percent of their GDP on their militaries, and soon double that spending to 4 percent. Next, in Britain, came the “gratuitous humiliation” of Prime Minister Theresa May. In an interview, Trump not only mocked May’s “weak” handling…3 min

Controversy of the weekGood week/bad weekGood week for:Reading the Kindle version, after Danish researchers discovered that three medieval manuscripts in a library’s Rare Books Collection were coated with arsenic, perhaps as a preservative. “The toxicity of arsenic does not diminish with time,” researchers noted.Grooming, after the holder of the world record for Longest Fingernails finally had them clipped off and donated them to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. “I have become a real celebrity,” said Shridhar Chillal, 82, of Pune, India, who had been growing his nails since 1952.Not pressing charges, after a Virginia man playing pickup basketball in a gym called the police when he was knocked to the ground by what he felt was an illegal screen. A responding officer reminded the players to be “civil.”Bad week for:Oral suction, when a gang…1 min

Issue July 27, 2018 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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