Issue March 16, 2018 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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Main storiesEditor’s letterHistory, it turns out, is not over. Liberal democracies have not won the war of ideas. In his influential 1992 book, The End of History, political philosopher Francis f*ckuyama surveyed a world in which the Soviet Union had collapsed, the Cold War was over, and the West had won—seemingly for good. Free-market democracies, f*ckuyama said, had proven they were the “final form of human government.” But that victory’s permanence was an illusion. In the 21st century, liberal democracy is in retreat all over the world, as autocrats and populist extremists seize the levers of power. In China, President Xi Jinping has made himself an emperor. (See Talking Points.) In Russia, the modern czar Vladimir Putin leverages the West’s social media and free speech to deepen our divisions and interfere in…3 min

Main storiesTrump stands firm on metal tariffsWhat happenedPresident Trump this week insisted on pushing ahead with his plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, despite fierce pushback from congressional Republicans, Wall Street, and the business community, and the resignation of his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn. Taking even senior White House officials by surprise, the president last week announced across-the-board tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. He said the U.S. had been “mistreated” by other countries for decades, railed against America’s $375 billion trade deficit with China, and batted away concerns about retaliatory tariffs, tweeting: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win.” Wall Street registered its concern as stock prices dropped. Trump later signaled that major U.S. trade partners Canada and Mexico could be exempted if they accepted…3 min

Main storiesIt wasn’t all badMary Lou Smith is known as the Queen of the Conch. The 70-year-old has been joyously blasting the large pink shell at weddings and parties on Key West, Fla., for nearly two decades and has won the island’s annual conch-blowing contest several times. But Smith’s shell talent inspired a particularly special moment this week when, shortly after she won this year’s women’s division contest, her beau, Rick Race, 73, jumped onstage, got down on one knee, and proposed. It took Smith a moment to gather her thoughts. “I didn’t know what to say, so I blew the conch,” she says. “Then, I said yes.”Quebec musher Anny Malo was 25 miles into the 150-mile CopperDog sled race when disaster struck. One of her dogs, Max, had collapsed after a piece of…2 min

Main storiesNorth Korea dangles offer of nuclear disarmamentWhat happenedNorth Korea is willing to hold “candid talks” with the U.S. about dismantling its nuclear program and has promised to halt weapons tests during any negotiations, South Korea announced this week following a historic meeting in Pyongyang. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un apparently made the offer during a four-hour dinner with envoys from Seoul—Kim’s first meeting with South Korean officials since he took power in 2011. “[North Korea] made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed,” South Korean officials said. What exactly Pyongyang would want in return for denuclearization wasn’t clear: It has previously demanded a full U.S. military withdrawal from the South and an end to the U.S. nuclear…3 min

Main storiesMueller’s investigation gets closer to TrumpWhat happenedSpecial counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation appeared to be zeroing in on President Trump himself this week, with multiple news organizations reporting that prosecutors were questioning witnesses about the activities of Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen and casting a wide net for documents and emails concerning the president and his advisers. Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg revealed that Mueller’s office had served him with a subpoena demanding all documents involving Trump and nine of his closest advisers going back to Nov. 1, 2015. In a series of rambling TV interviews, Nunberg asserted that he would defy the special counsel’s orders, before later backing down, and suggested that he believed Mueller’s team “may have something” on the president.The special counsel’s office also appears to be scrutinizing the influence of foreign…2 min

Controversy of the weekKushner: Why he’s in big troubleHow bad was last week for Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser? “So bad,” said Jed Shugerman in Slate.com, that it was actually “hard to keep track of how many bad stories there were.” It started with the news that Kushner had lost his top-secret security clearance, followed swiftly by a possible explanation of the demotion: a Washington Post report that U.S. intelligence intercepted at least four foreign governments—including China and Israel—discussing ways they might use Kushner’s complex business interests to manipulate him. Every foreign country knew that Kushner “was desperate for cash,” said Rick Wilson in TheDailyBeast.com. In 2007, as the 26-year-old acting head of his family’s business, Kushner made the most expensive real estate purchase in U.S. history: 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan, for which he…3 min

Issue March 16, 2018 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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