Weekend Reading
Long reads for this weekend of Ambush
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to Washington optimistic that signing President Donald Trump’s desired minerals deal would stabilize their relationship and keep the U.S. on his side. Turns out he was walking into an ambush.” (Politico)
“Some universities across the United States are reducing or halting their PhD admissions because of federal-funding uncertainties stemming from actions taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump. Few universities have released public statements about their strategies, so prospective graduate students have remained mostly in the dark about which institutions are cutting back. Nature spoke to several young scientists caught up in the confusion. Some have received e-mails from universities indicating that they would have been accepted if not for funding uncertainties; others have been told that programmes are completely paused. At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, some prospective students even received informal offers to join the graduate programme, only to later have them rescinded, according to the institution’s newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. ‘The whole thing is horrendous,’ says a professor at the university, who requested anonymity because they are involved in admissions. ‘They’re cutting the heart of the intellectual mission of the university.’ The university did not respond to requests for comment.” (Dan Garisto/Nature)
“Over the past few years, I have fielded versions of the same question from readers again and again: Who, exactly, is buying all of this stuff? The confusion is fair. Recent economic headlines do not add up to a coherent picture: Since 2020, Americans have spent lavishly on discretionary goods and services, even as the cost of necessities has soared. Consumer debt has ballooned right along with prices, and Americans are now defaulting on their credit cards at rates unseen since the Great Recession. Wages growth has been strong, but inflation has thwarted its ability to help most Americans get ahead. So who’s booking all those first-class airline seats and tables at fancy restaurants? Why are tickets for concerts and major sporting events so expensive and also so sold out? A recent analysis of consumer spending from Moody’s Analytics, first covered in the Wall Street Journal, provides an answer: Rich people really are just firing a cash cannon into the consumer market. The wealthiest 10% of American households—those making more than $250,000 a year, roughly—are now responsible for half of all US consumer spending and at least a third of the country’s gross domestic product. If you keep that in mind, a lot of strange things start to make more sense—sometimes distressingly so. That high earners spend disproportionately large amounts of money on discretionary purchases is not a new phenomenon. But the disconnect between this group’s buying habits and those of the rest of the country has become more extreme in recent years. In the 1990s, spending by top-decile earners usually constituted a third or so of annual consumer spending overall. Now, their spending constitutes the largest share of the consumer economy in data going back to 1989.” (Amanda Mull/Bloomberg)
“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Bernie Sanders is harnessing a mood of public anger to mobilize insurgent voters, and elite commentators are rushing to dismiss it as wrongheaded. Last week, Sanders launched a barnstorming tour through a pair of Midwestern swing districts in Nebraska and Iowa. At both stops—in Omaha and Iowa City—the ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rallies drew overflow crowds, with the opening Omaha event relocated to a bigger venue to accommodate the turnout. Yet among our terminally savvy Beltway cognoscenti, a chorus of tutt-tutting took hold. Atlantic writer Jemele Hill promptly fired off a viral X post declaring, ‘A lot of the people you’re trying to reach don’t know what oligarchy means, certainly not within the context of their everyday life.’ Politico published a dispatch suggesting the whole idea was to grant the aging socialist crusader a vanity send-off in the twilight of his career. ‘A core tenet of Bernieism is that he likes talking to crowds,’ a former Sanders aide caviled. ‘He likes spreading his message, and he likes being adored.’ The broader contention that America is basically allergic to oligarchy (regardless of how many of us understand the word) has long been catnip to respectable pundits. After President Joe Biden warned of the troubling influence of tech oligarchs in his farewell message, The Economist published an off-the-rack commentary contending that America’s tech monopolists are at odds with one another in a way that more tightly networked conventional oligarchs in Russia and Hungary aren’t, and the resulting scrum for influence dilutes their power, rather than concentrates it. ‘America’s economy, including its technology industry, is too unwieldy and dynamic to petrify into an actual oligarchy, whatever diplomats and departing presidents say,’ the editorial concluded in a gaseous release of agitprop worthy of the University of Chicago Business School. For his part, The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker offered a twist on such hoary protestations of American exceptionalism, announcing that he welcomes our new MAGA oligarchic overlords, since they so stoutly disown the ‘unholy ideological trinity’ that transfixed the previous leaders of the American social order: ‘borderless globalism, environmental eschatology and puritan wokery.’” (Chris Lehmann/The Nation)
“Last Friday night, minutes after President Donald Trump announced the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a purge of the military’s top lawyers, I received an e-mail from my cousin in Los Angeles. ‘Why are we not in the streets?’ she wrote. ‘The Germans even marched against Musk. The French would have barricaded every government building.’ All week long I’ve been thinking of that message, composed in the heat of the moment after an unprecedented event that already seems forgotten amid all the subsequent unprecedented events. In the days since then, Trump warned agency heads to prepare for ‘large-scale’ layoffs by mid-March, fired thousands of additional government employees, and ordered Elon Musk, deputized as his chief job-slasher, to ‘GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.’ He’s axed bird-flu inspectors in the midst of a bird-flu outbreak and got rid of thousands of Internal Revenue Service personnel at the height of tax season. On Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump ordered the U.S. to stand not with Ukraine but instead with Russia, in a U.N. vote that put America on the side of dictatorships and against most of our democratic allies—a profound shift in American foreign policy. On Tuesday, Trump’s White House abolished a century-old tradition by decreeing that only news organizations handpicked by the President’s staff would be allowed in the press pool. On Wednesday, at the first Cabinet meeting of his second term, Trump allowed Musk to hold forth before any Senate-confirmed members of the actual Cabinet. (‘Is anybody unhappy with Elon?’ he asked. ‘If you are, we’ll throw him out of here.’) On Thursday, Trump vowed to impose stringent twenty-five-per-cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico next week, as well as additional levies on Chinese goods—which, if he follows through, are likely to result in higher prices for American consumers already concerned about inflation. And yet, making my way around Washington this week, the city showed no signs of the Trumpian tumult. Disruption, apparently, is just our new normal.” (Susan B. Glasser/TNY)
“Lina, then 32, with shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair and wide blue eyes, had grown up in a small village in a post-Soviet Republic and moved to Berlin in 2011 for a master’s degree in English studies. Graduate school didn’t suit her — she dropped out after three semesters — but life in Berlin did. She embraced a sort of belated teenage rebellion, taking up smoking and drinking, weed and MDMA, and backpacking and couch surfing across Europe and South America. She dabbled in various subcultures, first identifying as an anarchist and then joining a self-help group that pushed radically open communication, one she would later regard as a cult. In 2014, when she was 24, Lina fell in with the ‘sacred sexuality’ community: people who practiced a grab bag of New Age sex-focused rituals, including neo-Tantra, the western adaptation of the Buddhist and Hindu tradition. Soon, she was teaching her own workshops in rented dance studios: hands-on, participatory courses on topics like ‘conscious touch.’ For her, the work was about freedom. She could ‘love everybody,’ she believed. ‘It was all consensual, and you didn’t have to hide anything.’ For years, she heard from friends in the scene that she had to try ISTA, the International School of Temple Arts. It was ‘the Harvard’ of neo-Tantra, ‘the mother ship.’ The trainings were likened to skydiving: intense, thrilling, and risky. So in November, 2021, Lina headed to an island resort off the coast of Split, Croatia, in the Adriatic Sea, for the group’s Level 1 course, joining roughly 40 others. The cost was €1,700. The attendees convened in a large conference room where organizers had covered the windows and walls with red velvet and laid yoga mats, cushions, and mattresses on the floor. Hotel staff were barred from entering.” (Anya Kamenetz/NYMag)
“A new AI-based system for analyzing images taken over time can accurately detect changes and predict outcomes, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell’s Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech. The system’s sensitivity and flexibility could make it useful across a wide range of medical and scientific applications. The new system, termed LILAC (Learning-based Inference of Longitudinal imAge Changes), is based on an AI approach called machine learning. In the study, which appears Feb. 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers developed the system and demonstrated it on diverse time-series of images—also called ‘longitudinal’ image series—covering developing IVF embryos, healing tissue after wounds and aging brains. The researchers showed that LILAC has a broad ability to identify even very subtle differences between images taken at different times, and to predict related outcome measures such as cognitive scores from brain scans.” (News Weill Cornell)
“Happy 100th anniversary, The New Yorker, still my favorite brain food in print and online! My six and a half years as its editor were some of the most exhilarating of my life … The staff of The New Yorker (and pretty much everyone in the world of print media) saw my appointment as sacrilege. I was, after all, the lady editor who, eleven months before, had put the naked and very pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair. Where was the gravitas? The veteran New Yorker writer George W. S. Trow called me ‘the girl in the wrong dress.’ Garrison Keillor, the hayseed humorist from ‘Lake Wobegon,’ quit. Jamaica Kincaid called me ‘Stalin in high heels.’ (There’s some truth to that one.) The other day, I stumbled upon a file of letters Si Newhouse wrote to one of the many New Yorker readers who canceled their subscriptions when they learned of my appointment. ‘Dear Mr. Hickman,’ reads one Si missive from September 3, 1992. ‘Let me try to resolve your dilemma about resubscribing to this magazine... I believe that doctrinal rigidity would lead to timid publishing, an unacceptable position for The New Yorker…. I can assure you that high ambition, a sense of quality and a respect for the English language will define Ms. Brown’s editing philosophy as they have her predecessors…. However you may eventually judge her New Yorker, I can assure you you won’t be bored.’ It’s unthinkable that any media owner of his stature would take the time to write such a letter today. My mandate from Si was to clean house and blood-change the reader demographic.” (Tina Brown)
“'Ooh … the girls are fighting! Puck and Deadline, two sites that pride themselves on being able to publish insider information before the traditional trades get to it, can’t seem to agree on whether or not the current president of Lucasfilm who runs point on Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy, is leaving the role. ‘Deadline’s Mike Fleming, who never saw a movie producer’s anal cavity he couldn’t burrow inside, did a hilariously sycophantic interview with Kathleen Kennedy after I broke the news on Monday that the Lucasfilm president will announce her exit by the end of the year,’ Puck’s Matt Belloni wrote in his February 28 newsletter. ‘It was … quite something.’ Puck published the news that Kennedy, 72, was planning to step down as president of LucasFilm on February 24. Belloni has long criticized Kennedy both in print and on his podcast The Town, implying she’s bungling the Star Wars franchise by not releasing a film since 2019. ‘Ask a top creator about their experience working with Lucasfilm, and you’ll likely get an earful: unclear direction, paralyzed decision-making, extreme aversion to creative risks yet also slavish devotion to a fan base that has become increasingly toxic,’ he wrote in his report on Kennedy’s departure.Three days later, Mike Fleming Jr. at Deadline published an interview with Kennedy and used the intro to fire back at Belloni, even as it mostly just confirmed Puck’s reporting. ‘Belloni for years has been beating on Kennedy like she owes him money, and this week he reported Kennedy was retiring,’ he wrote.” (Jason P. Frank/Vulture)
“The World Health Organization's head of emergencies, Mike Ryan, said Friday that more than 60 unexplained deaths in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo were likely due to ‘some kind of poisoning event,’ adding that local authorities had indicated to the WHO "a very strong level of suspicion of a poisoning event" related to a water source in the hardest-hit village. It ‘appears very much more like a toxic type event, either from a biologic perspective like meningitis or from chemical exposure,’ Ryan said during a scheduled online news conference focused on flu prevention. Ryan said the WHO investigation was still ongoing, with a focus on protecting the vulnerable population of the Congo, and he lamented that global interest was likely to wane quickly if it became clear that this is ‘not some major new Earth-killing virus.’ Ryan commended health workers in the country for carrying out their efforts amid a number of challenges. His comments came a day after the WHO said its investigation was deepening into the still-unidentified illness suspected of killing a total of 66 people in two locations and sickening hundreds over the past five weeks.” (Sarah Carter/CBSNews)
“The rupture of the post-1945 order is gaining pace. In extraordinary scenes at the UN this week, America sided with Russia and North Korea against Ukraine and Europe. Germany’s probable new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, warns that by June NATO may be dead. Fast approaching is a might-is-right world in which big powers cut deals and bully small ones. Team Trump claims that its dealmaking will bring peace and that, after 80 years of being taken for a ride, America will turn its superpower status into profit. Instead it will make the world more dangerous, and America weaker and poorer. You may not be interested in the world order—but it is interested in you. America’s Don Corleone approach has been on display in Ukraine. Having initially demanded $500bn, American officials settled for a hazy deal for a joint state fund to develop Ukrainian minerals. It is unclear if America will offer security guarantees in return. The administration is a swirl of ideas and egos but its people agree on one thing: under the post-1945 framework of rules and alliances, Americans have been suckered into unfair trade and paying for foreign wars. Mr Trump thinks he can pursue the national interest more effectively through hyperactive transactions. Everything is up for grabs: territory, technology, minerals and more. “My whole life is deals,” he explained on February 24th, after talks on Ukraine with Emmanuel Macron, the French president. Trump confidants with business skills, such as Steve Witkoff, are jetting between capitals to explore deals that link up goals, from getting Saudi Arabia to recognise Israel to rehabilitating the Kremlin. This new system has a new hierarchy. America is number one. Next are countries with resources to sell, threats to make and leaders unconstrained by democracy. Vladimir Putin wants to restore Russia as a great imperial power. Muhammad bin Salman wants to modernise the Middle East and fend off Iran. Xi Jinping is both a committed communist and a nationalist who wants a world fit for a strong China. In the third rank are America’s allies, their dependence and loyalty seen as weaknesses to exploit. The transactional world Donald Trump seeks would harm not help America.” (The Economist)
“My cousin Lorrie invited me on a ten-day retreat in Peru where we would partake in ancient ceremonies involving the Living Death Drug ayahuasca and—’Don’t tell me anything more,’ I interrupted. ‘The answer is yes!’ I never watch the trailer before going to the movie. I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Even if sometimes that means the surprise ruins me. I met a big-personalitied Frenchman while traveling and did not take time to get to know him before marrying him and moving into his house in Paris. I guess I don’t feel any proprietary rights over my destiny. I allow the Parisian shopgirls to choose my outfits, and now I will let the Peruvian shamans choose my insides. Whatever they’ve got has to be better than what I got going on now. Lorrie and I tried to figure out when was the last time we’d seen each other. Thirty-six years ago, when she visited me in Philadelphia! ‘I was nineteen in my second year of missionary school,’ she remembered. ‘And I was eighteen in my first year of peripatetic hedonism.’ ‘I know,’ she groaned.” (Lisa Carver/The Paris Review)
“Ötzi the iceman is the holy grail of glacial archaeology, nothing less. The discovery of the 5300-year-old mummified body and the associated artefacts created a media frenzy and great public interest. Today, 250,000 people visit the Ötzi Museum in Bolzano each year to get a glimpse of Ötzi and the exhibited artefacts. A wealth of scientific papers, popular books and documentaries are available … Thus, when Ötzi appeared, he was a bolt from the blue for the Austrian and Italian archaeological milieu. From the start, scientists believed that Ötzi was a unique find, preserved by miraculous circumstances – a freak of nature event. Otherwise, there would surely have been more such finds. It was six years before the first mass melt-out of archaeological finds from the ice in Yukon in 1997 and a few years later in the Alps and Norway (more on the history of glacial archaeology here) … Since Ötzi was discovered in 1991, glacial archaeology has developed as a new archaeological discipline, with its own methodology and a deeper understanding of the complexity of ice sites. Presently, there are hundreds of sites and thousands of finds in various parts of the world. However, Ötzi is still an odd find. Similar very old finds sealed beneath moving glaciers are unknown.” (Lars Pilo/Secrets of the Ice)