Table of contents for July 23, 2018 in TIME Magazine

‘I’m glad to see that there may be a middle ground for the discussion.’ CHUCK ALMAREZ, Clifton Forge, Va. GUN DIVIDE Readers were encouraged by the July 9 feature about a discussion project that brought together people on opposite sides of the political spectrum to talk about guns in America. Evlyne Sheltrown in Reed City, Mich., said she was moved to tears thinking about how such dialogue “helps eliminate fear, which seems to be the basis for many of our problems.” Some were left wanting more—Armond T. Joyce of Carriere, Miss., suggested that a conversation of this kind should get into the historical context of the Second Amendment—but Deidre Ann deLaughter of Athens, Ga., pointed out that the discussion’s model could be used repeatedly as a way “for citizens…

BUZZED BADGER A German motorist reported a dead badger to police in 2009—only to realize the animal was in a drunken stupor after eating overripe cherries from a nearby tree. Officers chased it away with a broom. BLOTTO BEAR In 2004, a black bear passed out at a Washington State campground after breaking into campers’ coolers and drinking 36 cans of beer. Park agents found him and chased him up a tree, where he slept off his hangover. HAMMERED HEDGEHOGS Two hedgehogs were rescued by police in June after sipping from a broken bottle of the Dutch drink advocaat left in a German playground. They were taken to a zoo to recover from their night out.…

DIED Comic-book artist Steve Ditko, who helped create Spider-Man, at 90, on June 29. Police announced his death on July 7. CHRISTENED Prince Louis, the third child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in a private ceremony on July 9, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. OVERRULED An order for Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to be released from jail while he appeals a corruption conviction, by the head of an appeals court. Lula’s status has caused an uproar as the country heads into elections later this year. ALLOWED Plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to block a citizenship-status question from the 2020 U.S. Census, to gather evidence from the Trump Administration about why the question was created, by a judge in New York. The suit…

On July 9, Starbucks said that by 2020 it would stop using plastic straws, which have drawn criticism for their pollution of oceans. Ironically, their ubiquity was originally the product of another do-good effort. Legend holds that in the late 19th century, a mint-julep-loving Washington, D.C., businessman was so bothered by the plant-based straws of the time that would disintegrate in his drink—yes, literal straws—that he created a paper-and-wax version. At about the same time, public-health campaigners raged against the drinking cups left at water fountains for all to use, which spread disease. Disposable cups remained too expensive, but the new single-use straws became essential. The plastic version’s popularity jumped in the post–World War II years, as plastic became cheaper—as did fast-food meals, with sodas in to-go cups with…

“A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law,” said Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his speech accepting the nomination to replace his former boss Anthony Kennedy as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. This may sound like a rhetorical pose, but you should take it literally, not just seriously: Kavanaugh, whom I know primarily through his teaching at Harvard, is one of the most principled jurists I have ever studied. Kavanaugh’s hundreds of judicial opinions show his commitment to careful, honest, detached interpretation of the Constitution and laws of the United States. His opponents will contest this conclusion, but largely because they are focused less on what the law requires than on winners and losers, and they fear that the undoubtedly conservative Kavanaugh…

EKKAPOL “COACH EK” CHANTAWONG The 25-year-old assistant coach was initially criticized for letting the boys enter the cave but has since been credited with their survival. Coach Ek is a former member of the Buddhist clergy, and the abbot at the monastery where he lives said his meditation skills and love for the boys helped them survive. PETTY OFFICER FIRST CLASS SAMARN KUNAN The ex-Thai Navy SEAL was the mission’s only fatality. Samarn volunteered to help set up oxygen tanks along the rescue route but lost consciousness underwater on July 6. Multiple attempts to resuscitate him failed. “You are the hero in my heart,” his widow said. DR. PAK LOHARNSHOON The “Doctor-Diver,” as he has come to be known, earned instant fame in Thailand after the Thai navy shared…

After spending two decades in the U.S., Lina and Wei Zhen land in an insular crowd of privileged, Western-educated citizens in Shanghai: financially successful husbands and taitais, or “housewives” who forgo housework. The Zhens lead an existence that appears as smooth as the surface of their infinity pool—until Qiang, Wei’s brother and Lina’s first love, cannonballs back into their lives. No one has a better view of the fallout than the couple’s hardworking and all-seeing housekeeper, Sunny. Sunny, whose story of ambition and struggle mirrors a life the Zhens could have lived, is just one of many skillfully drawn characters in Chinese-American author Lucy Tan’s buzzy debut, What We Were Promised. Tan crafts layer upon layer of contrasts beyond the glaring class difference between Sunny and her employers. As…

KEEPING UP Nancy The WNYC show about LGBTQ issues covers topics like RuPaul’s Drag Race and how gay Republicans reconcile the personal and the political with great emotional range. Pod Save America Former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor talk to politicians and activists to devise ways to challenge Trump. Stay Tuned With Preet Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and guests explain issues of justice and corruption, from Supreme Court cases to federal investigations. It’s Been a Minute NPR’s Sam Sanders explores the intersection of pop culture and politics with an approach that feels pertinent, as music videos get political and TV stars run for public office. Keep It Ira Madison III, Kara Brown and Louis Virtel balance hot…

‘Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia.’ DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, at a NATO meeting in Brussels where he told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas means it is “inappropriate” for the U.S. to help Germany defend itself against the source of that fuel; German Chancellor Angela Merkel disputed the assertion $70,000 Approximate difference between annual pay for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s top flutist and that of its top oboist; the flutist, Elizabeth Rowe, is suing for gender pay discrimination ‘The biggest trade war in economic history so far.’ CHINA’S MINISTRY OF COMMERCE, in a statement characterizing the effect of the $34 billion in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that took effect on July 6 $3.5 million Amount…

Nerve agent kills woman in the U.K. British police have launched a murder investigation after a 44-year-old woman died from exposure to Novichok, the military-grade, Soviet-era nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March. The U.K. has called on Russia to explain the poisonings. Trump Admin suspends Obamacare payments The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on July 7 that a February court ruling would force it to halt risk-adjustment payments to insurers, a part of the Affordable Care Act meant to stabilize markets. Health insurers said the move could cause premiums to spike. Iran’s arrest of dancing teen draws protest Iranian authorities face a backlash after detaining a teenager who posted Instagram videos of herself dancing in her room without…

WHEN FRENCH FILMMAKER Claude Lanzmann’s 9½-hour Holocaust documentary, Shoah, opened in 1985, the mere act of seeing it was a badge of honor. Lanzmann spent 12 years on the project, amassing 350 hours of interview footage with survivors, perpetrators and witnesses. As TIME critic Richard Corliss wrote of the film in 1985, “The viewer is grateful to have made the forced march with [Lanzmann] . . . We still have much to learn about the poison in our hearts.” Lanzmann, who died on July 5 at age 92, didn’t flinch from that poison. As a teenager, he smuggled small arms for the French Resistance. For Shoah, he immersed himself in the horrific details of the Holocaust—he knew the exact dimensions of the gas chambers and familiarized himself with the…

How a Supreme Court shift may impact LGBTQ rights Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, describes how the ruling finally made him feel “like an equal American”—but the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the decision, makes him fear for the fate of that progress. The keys to winning every argument Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, author of the new book Think Again, makes the case that to start, we should stop thinking of arguing as fighting, which undermines the use of reason, damages our ability to learn from debates and makes people try to avoid such conversations. How Trump should handle Vladimir Putin American-born financier Bill Browder, who has led a global campaign to expose Putin-regime abuses, writes ahead…

AN UNNAMED YOUNG woman—blond, beautiful, a graduate of Columbia University—hates everything and everyone in shiny, brittle Manhattan, circa 2000. So she decides to hibernate in her Upper East Side apartment for six months. Maybe, she thinks, if she sleeps all that time—with the help of an enabling psychiatrist and the medications she prescribes—she will wake to find purpose and pleasure in living. In her new novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh pulls off an unlikely premise, demonstrating once again the unsettling energy, daring plotting and biting observations that have earned her literary prizes and praise from the start of her career. At 37 years of age, Moshfegh is past being labeled an enfant terrible, but there is something youthfully confrontational about her storytelling and the forthright,…

OVER COLD BORSCHT IN A CHEAP CAFETERIA, THE narrator of Keith Gessen’s new novel, A Terrible Country, hears from one of his local companions that this is “real Russian cuisine.” Another one smiles and says, “It will give you a real Russian stomachache.” Those seem to be the terms: a taste of Russian reality in exchange for a good deal of pain. The novel’s hero (or, in the end, its antihero) takes that deal repeatedly during the year we see him navigating Moscow, and often comes to regret it. A failing academic with no real passions except for hockey, he leaves New York City at age 33 and moves back to Moscow to care for his sweet and senile grandmother, the one his family left behind when they moved…

‘I have a solution. Tell people not to come to our country illegally.’ PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS UNDER COURT orders to swiftly reunite the migrant families that were separated at the border under the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. But efforts to get even the youngest children returned to their parents stalled as the Administration struggled to reverse a crisis of its own making. In late June, a judge ruled that the 102 children under 5 who had been separated from their parents as a result of the policy needed to be returned to their families by July 10. In the case of those ages 5 and up—at least 2,000 minors—the Administration was given until July 26. The first deadline has come and gone, and…

A LAIN FONTAINE LEANS ON THE BAR AT HIS central Paris bistro, Le Mesturet, dodging trays in the hands of passing waiters. “A bistro isn’t just some place for a quick bite to eat,” he says, shifting to save his white chef’s coat from a glass of red wine. “It’s the home of the Parisian art de vivre. That’s what we’re losing if these places die out: our way of life.” Fontaine, 60, opened Le Mesturet in 2003 and is now leading about 30 comrades in a campaign for UNESCO, the U.N.’s culture agency, to award the city’s bistros and cafés the status of “intangible cultural heritage.” The designation would raise awareness, justify future planning protection from the city council and potentially give access to funds. In France, the…

Brexit negotiations will now have to contend with the open dysfunction not just of internal E.U. politics but domestic U.K. politics as well “THE DREAM IS dying,” wrote Boris Johnson of Brexit in his letter to beleaguered Prime Minister Theresa May, resigning the post of Foreign Secretary. Her plan for leaving the E.U., he warned, will leave Britain with the “status of colony,” because it binds the U.K. to E.U. regulations with no say over how those rules are made. The U.K. is legally bound to leave the political and economic bloc on March 29, 2019, but in the two years since the British people voted to leave, little progress has been made on what the country’s relationship with the E.U. will look like once it has gone. For…

If appointed, Brett Kavanaugh will shift Supreme Court power rightward—with potentially dire consequences for women’s rights. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion across the U.S., has become a litmus test for nominees. While liberal judges pledge to uphold Roe, conservative ones like Kavanaugh often resort to vague responses about respecting precedent, giving moderate Republican Senators—in this case, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski—a guilt-free green light. But Kavanaugh is supported by the conservative Federalist Society. Moneyed right-wing groups have long been drafting anti-abortion legislation for GOP lawmakers, further emboldened after the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey allowed states to restrict access to abortions. Now, with long waiting periods and forced clinic closures, Roe is already a shell of itself. Restrictions are so tight in some states…

ENVIRONMENTALISTS SPENT MORE than a year fighting for the dismissal of Scott Pruitt, accusing the Environmental Protection Agency administrator of being a corrupt ideologue who halted key regulations and prioritized the interests of polluters. So it’s no surprise that green groups hailed Pruitt’s July 5 resignation as a victory. But with Pruitt swept away in a storm of scandal, the battle to stop the Trump Administration’s environmental deregulation may only get harder. In Andrew Wheeler, who has taken over Pruitt’s job until the Senate confirms a replacement, environmentalists face an opponent who is every bit as conservative but without the same record of brazen self-dealing. Green groups worry that Wheeler, who served as Pruitt’s deputy, will carry out his former boss’s priorities more effectively, without the distractions that marred…

THE CARTOONS OF THE late John Callahan, jiggly line drawings betraying a joyously twisted sensibility, serve as a litmus test. Are you a glass-half-full person, a glass-half-empty person or a person who can’t stop laughing because the entire contents of said glass have been dumped on your head? In Gus Van Sant’s marvelous, openhearted Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Joaquin Phoenix captures the jaggedly optimistic spirit of the guy behind those cartoons. Callahan was a quadriplegic, permanently relegated to a wheelchair after a 1972 car crash. An alcoholic even before the accident, he spent the first few years after it in a substance-abuse-fueled rage. Van Sant and Phoenix show how Callahan switched gears with the help of a laid-back recovery guru with a wry sense of…

In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein answered a cryptic Craigslist ad for a job in Washington. It turned out that the White House was looking to hire a stenographer. After landing the job, Dorey-Stein spent five years traveling the world with President Obama, transcribing his every word. She logged countless hours on Air Force One, peeked behind the curtain of power in the West Wing and got her heart smashed by a ne’er-do-well fellow staffer—all of which she details in her memoir, From the Corner of the Oval. What was the best thing about working for President Obama? My first day walking to the White House, I was so nervous. I stopped dead in my tracks and thought, Oh my God, what if he’s not that great? And then within a…

Settlements have been reached with four airlines in class action lawsuits involving the price of airline tickets. The Settling Defendants are: Air New Zealand, China Airlines (Taiwan), EVA Airways, and Philippine Airlines. Settlements were previously reached with 8 Defendants. The lawsuit continues against the remaining Non-Settling Defendant airline: All Nippon Airways (“ANA”). What is the case about? The lawsuits claim that the Defendants agreed to fix prices on tickets for transpacific air travel. As a result, ticket purchasers may have paid more than was necessary. The Settling Defendants deny the allegations and deny that they have any liability. The Defendant airlines also deny liability, although ANA has pled guilty to fixing the prices of certain discounted tickets. Am I included? You are included if: (1) you bought a ticket…

‘I KNEW WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE, AND I WOULD NEVER HAVE LET ANYONE GET IN THE WAY ’ You were recently named Best Female Chef at the 50 Best Restaurants Awards but said afterward that it was “strange” to distinguish between male and female chefs. Were you conflicted about accepting the accolade? No. There’s still a lack of women in the industry across the board, and this was a platform to talk about it. What would I be adding to my industry by not accepting it, by not sharing my story and trying to inspire other people? In your acceptance speech you talked about the need to make restaurants a “more human workplace” for staff. What did you mean? This industry traditionally has very long hours and…