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Fun and Games

While 2020’s Summer Games were a year late, the 2022 Winter Games are right on schedule. But not missing a beat means surprises—especially for the athletes. (Surprise number one: Their events are already complicated by politics, with the U.S. staging a diplomatic boycott—athletes will still attend; dignitaries will not—in protest of China’s human rights record.) Ski slopes that are being groomed at this moment on Xiaohaituo Mountain, in Yanqing National Park, about 60 miles north of Beijing, were originally scheduled to host a 2021 trial run. That was canceled, due to the pandemic. This month, skiers will be meeting the mountain for the first time. “None of us know it,” says Mikaela Shiffrin, 26, the alpine ski racer who has won two Olympic golds, “but what I’ve seen from the videos,…

Fun and Games

2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Before you read a word, look at the pictures accompanying this story and answer this question: If the 911 GT3 RS carried a sticker price of $1 million, how long would you need to pick yourself up after you collapsed in laughter? Whatever your estimate, it’s likely fair enough on the surface. The 911’s enduring, insuperable popularity has encouraged Porsche to crank out as many derivatives of its 59-year-old sports car as its assembly lines can accommodate—and selling every one of them, mind you. Another year, another month, another week; ho-hum, look out, here comes another 911! People who don’t get it understandably hit the snooze button. If the average 911’s ubiquity is at least partially a result of its inherent goodness, the GT3 RS is the line’s bucket of dry ice…

The quarantine bookshelf

The quarantine bookshelf

A year into the pandemic, readers know more than ever: the act of picking up a book can be transformative. When lockdown orders swept the U.S. beginning in March 2020, many turned to books to help escape—or confront—the unknown. Some readers favored light distraction, while others flocked to narratives that tackled pandemics head-on. Virtual book clubs kept readers connected, and rallying cries to support independent bookstores echoed around the Internet. While we were confined to our homes, books kept us going and allowed us to discover new worlds without going anywhere. To reflect on a year of reading in isolation, TIME asked nine fan-favorite authors to share the books that have brightened their days, provoked them or simply helped carry them through. CHARLES YU The National Book Award–winning author of Interior Chinatown…

Finishing techniques

Finishing techniques

Finishing the ends of a kumihimo project can be done in several ways, and each method serves three primary purposes: • Provide a secure and sturdy way to attach a clasp or closure so you can wear your piece • Prevent the braid from coming undone — ever • Conceal the end of the braid Most of the projects in this issue use one of the following three finishing methods. Get familiar with them now so you know how to proceed when it’s time to finish your braids. Glue and end cap with loops or a magnetic clasp Magnetic clasps are great for finishing kumihimo ropes. Most varieties have a magnet on one end and an opening on the other, which is where the end of the braid is inserted. End caps have an opening on…

Polychromatic Cuffs

Polychromatic Cuffs

TECHNIQUE Peyote stitch PROJECT LEVEL MATERIALS 8 g glossy black size 11° cylinder beads (A) 2 g total mix of size 11° cylinder beads in peridot AB transparent, silver-lined olive, light kelly green, pea green opaque, and dark green AB transparent (B) 2 g total mix of size 11° cylinder beads in light tan luster opaque, yellow AB transparent, white-lined yellow, canary luster opaque, and peach-lined crystal (C) 2 g total mix of size 11° cylinder beads in light orange opaque, strawberry AB transparent, red opaque, light cranberry AB, and dyed red opaque (D) 2 g total mix of size 11° cylinder beads in light blue opaque, blue sea AB transparent, dyed capri blue opaque, blue AB, and silver-lined cobalt (E) 2 g total mix of size 11° cylinder beads in light purple Ceylon, lavender-lined grape freeze, lilac AB…

Your guide to making the days easier and the journey sweeter

Street Cred Make your birthday kid’s eyes light up even before they see what’s inside the box. Start by packaging the gift in solid-colored paper. Then crisscross two strips of black chalkboard tape or duct tape around the present to make it look like two intersecting roads. Draw lanes with a white-paint pen, and pop a car or two on top (keep them in place with a bit of heavy-duty double-sided tape). Now you’ve got something wheely cool for the younger set. / IF YOU ASK ME / “How young is too young—and how old is too old—to trick-or-treat?”Three parents, no wrong answers “Too old? Easy. Thirteen. Thirteen-year-olds can dress up. Celebrate. Have a little backyard party. But when I see a teenager dressed up next to a 6-year-old at my door, both asking…

Your guide to making the days easier and the journey sweeter
How to keep kids safe

How to keep kids safe

With the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine newly given emergency-use authorization for children 5 to 11, many parents are asking the question: Should we vaccinate our kids? Many of them may have already made up their mind. Some of those arguing against vaccinating kids make the case that COVID-19 typically does not cause severe illness among children with healthy immune systems. Thankfully, purely as a percentage of total cases, it does hold true. To date, around 6 million children in the U.S. have contracted this coronavirus, which has led to more than 65,000 hospitalizations and 897 deaths. These numbers pale in comparison to the over 3 million hospitalizations among U.S. adults, and a staggering 754,000 deaths. The low rates of complications and severe illness from COVID-19 in children are the exact data needed to…

A New Day For Working Moms

IF YOU’VE been feeling as if the world is on fire, you’re right. It was, literally, for a while: As if a pandemic, a recession, a racial reckoning, and a contentious election weren’t enough, 7.7 million acres of land and thousands of homes burned in the wildfires that swallowed the West. We’ve lost so much in the last year. Loved ones. Time. Sanity. And jobs. Last year, my friends and colleagues, suddenly separated from their lives at work, joked that they missed wearing heels and pants that weren’t sweats. But beneath the jokes was something else: grief. “Grief is loss of your present, of your perceived future,” says Rebecca Soffer, cofounder of the Modern Loss community. “You feel untethered.” Working women have been gravely impacted by the events of the last year—more…

A New Day For Working Moms

The 25 Best Stores in the World

NOW THAT SHOPPING ONLINE is just another aspect of everyday life (and copping for the metaverse is part of our inevitable future), it’s never been more interesting and satisfying to buy clothes the old-fashioned way. But the brick-and-mortar experience has changed. It’s taken on new meaning, and become essential in all kinds of fantastic, radical ways. We get it. Going in to browse and try stuff on is a lot more demanding than simply clicking “add to cart,” but these 25 stores do something that no website or virtual world can—they engage all of the senses, including your sense of discovery. Alára Lagos, Nigeria What’s in stock? High fashion with an emphasis on African and Africa-inspired designers like Kenneth Ize, Post-Imperial, and Ahluwalia. What’s the vibe? Founded in 2014 by fashion entrepreneur Reni…

The 25 Best Stores in the World
FIXING FORENSICS

FIXING FORENSICS

Statistics research doesn’t usually require weapons. But to develop their latest algorithm, Iowa State University statisticians Alicia Carriquiry and Heike Hofmann needed thousands of bullets fired from a small collection of handguns. So they put the firepower in their own hands, and hit the range. criteria that distinguish science from speculation. That so-called sorcery has destroyed lives. The For nearly a year, Carriquiry and Hofmann, supervised by sheriff’s deputies, unloaded round after round into a tube with Kevlar fibers. After each shot, they fished out the bullet and tucked it in a plastic baggie labeled with critical data: gun, barrel, shot number. “If you had asked me a few years ago whether I was going to be doing this type of data collection, I would have said, ‘You’re crazy,’” says Carriquiry. It’s not…

Now’s the Time for That Dream Trip

Now’s the Time for That Dream Trip

Central Asia for Foodies A tip for this 10-day culinary excursion through the ancient trading routes of western China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan: Pack pants with an elastic waist. No one has offered a gastronomic journey like this before, so Wild China tasked Syrian Lebanese cookbook author Anissa Helou to introduce guests to hand-pulled noodles and sizzling kebabs in Song Kul, Bukhara-style plov, and other regional bites you quite literally have to travel far for. Few foreigners explore this route, hopping from the autonomous Uighur territory of Xinjiang to Kyrgyzstan, let alone glean the insight that comes from intimate moments like cooking with a Kazakh family in Bishkek. A Gastronomic Tour Through Central Asia With Wild China; wildchina.com Another India Outdoor pioneers Red Savannah’s nine-day passage through northern India starts in the mystical Himalayan…

MEET Nabhaan Rizwan

‘IT’S A REFRESHING REMINDER THAT love is possible,’ says Nabhaan Rizwan of The Last Letter from Your Lover, his first major leading role. Adapted from Jojo Moyes’ novel, it follows two stories in different eras: a heady 1960s French Riviera romance, and an innocent affair in contemporary London. Rizwan plays Rory, a newspaper archivist who, along with journalist Ellie – played by Felicity Jones – finds a cache of heartaching letters sent between two lovers in the 1960s (Big Little Lies’ Shailene Woodley and Fantastic Beasts’ Callum Turner). Though decades apart, their stories slowly become entwined. ‘Previously, when I’ve watched this genre, it’s perpetuated archaic gender roles and [that] takes me out of the film. It’s a distraction,’ says 24-year-old Rizwan. ‘But this script was different.’ Yes, there’s the obligatory (and…

MEET Nabhaan Rizwan
HOW to BE AN OPTIMIST IN dystopia

HOW to BE AN OPTIMIST IN dystopia

‘WHEN HAVE WE EVER BELIEVED that the world wasn’t ending?’ asks a character in Emily St John Mandel’s latest book Sea of Tranquility. ‘There’s always something.’ Depending on how you look at it, Emily St John Mandel is either a remarkably prescient writer or simply a student of history who recognised that pandemics are an inevitable part of life. Her award-winning 2014 novel Station Eleven, set in a world where 99 percent of humanity has perished from a swine flu, debuted as a television series earlier this year, as the UK entered its third year coexisting with Covid. Mandel, whose last book The Glass Hotel was released in March 2020, spent much of lockdown writing Sea of Tranquility (out April 28). The expansive novel explores moon colonisation, time travel and,…

MY LIFE, MY STYLE

’I’ve always been incredibly drawn to family businesses,’ says Gigi Ettedgui. It’s no wonder – she herself was born into one of the most influential families in fashion. Her mother Isabel is the creative director and owner of the British lifestyle brand Connolly, and her late father was the designer and retailer Joseph Ettedgui, known for introducing brands including Kenzo and Yohji Yamamoto to the UK, as well as championing young British talent such as Margaret Howell and Alexander McQueen. ‘One of my earliest memories is sitting on the floor of Azzedine Alaïa’s atelier, playing with tin toy cars he had given me, when I was about five years old,’ says Gigi, who was a regular visitor to designer showrooms as a child. ‘Azzedine was doing a fitting, and I…

MY LIFE, MY STYLE

DIE ZUKUNFT HAT BEGONNEN

DAS PROJEKT Standort Medemblik, Nordholland Bewohner Kim Wiebring und Richard Pronk Bauweise denkmalgeschützter Klinkerbau Baujahr 1650 Umbau 2020 Umbauzeit 6 Monate Wohnfläche ca. 150 m2 plus Souterrain Grundstück ca. 150 m2 BAUEN & UMBAUEN SPECIAL Am Hafen von Medemblik stehen die Häuser mit den typisch holländischen Treppengiebeln Backe an Backe, jedes nur so breit wie ein Zimmer. Die Fassade von Kim Wiebring und Richard Pronk misst gerade mal 4,10 Meter, dafür ist das Haus aber fast 14 Meter tief. Vorn steht es direkt an der Straße, hinten liegt ein schmaler Garten. „Wir wohnten in der Nähe und wollten gar nicht umziehen“, erzählt Kim, „aber als dieses Kleinod auf den Markt kam, konnten wir nicht widerstehen – und haben es keine Sekunde bereut.“ Das Paar hat das 370 Jahre alte Gebäude restauriert und auf den heutigen Stand gebracht – mit viel Enthusiasmus. „Wir…

DIE ZUKUNFT HAT BEGONNEN

Her tribe fed the Pilgrims. She’s building on that history

When I first call Sherry Pocknett, she’s on her way out the door—headed to forage for mushrooms. But the Mashpee Wampanoag chef and longtime caterer invites me up to her restaurant, Sly Fox Den Too, in Charlestown, R.I., which specializes in East Coast Indigenous cuisine. There, in a little red house right by Narragansett Indian tribal lands, she cooks lunch—crisping duck skin like a potato chip—and explains that the sunflower oil she’s using to prepare our meal can also be rubbed on your hair and skin to keep you looking youthful. Pocknett, 62, is a member of the tribe best known for feeding the Pilgrims. Her restaurant—named for her fisherman father and Native American rights advocate Chief Sly Fox—is her own way of using her people’s knowledge to feed Americans today.…

Her tribe fed the Pilgrims. She’s building on that history

4 prescriptions for a more sustainable 2030

Use technology to hold polluters accountable By Ma Jun THE GLOBALIZATION OF MANUFACturing has transformed some of the world’s poorest nations to unprecedented levels of economic prosperity. But the resulting increase in poorly controlled emissions and eco-degradation has caused unsustainable levels of local air and water pollution, destabilizing the climate and threatening biodiversity. Just as the vast development of technology hastened this cycle of boom and doom, it can also help break it. Automated environmental monitoring, electronic reporting and web-based disclosure systems now available in the digital age create the possibility of new levels of accountability for environmental performance. Technology allows the public to scrutinize factory pollution problems, governments to make more efficient enforcement efforts and companies to hold their supply chains to account. To check pressing industrial pollution, for example, corporations in…

4 prescriptions for a more sustainable 2030

THE BATTLE FOR UKRAINE’S INTERNET

In the wake of the counteroffensive that reclaimed vast swaths of Ukraine from Russian forces, teams of local technicians and engineers quietly arrived. Wearing helmets and bulletproof vests amid the ongoing shelling, often escorted by Ukrainian troops to avoid land mines, the workers barely waited to see the last of the retreating Russian soldiers before beginning to repair the damaged base stations and fiber-optic cables that left hundreds of towns and villages cut off from the outside world. Ukraine’s dogged efforts to restore internet and mobile connection underscore the urgency with which government officials view the communications blackout in previously occupied areas. “The first thing the Russians do when they occupy these territories is cut off the networks,” says Stas Prybytko, head of mobile broadband development in Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital…

THE BATTLE FOR UKRAINE’S INTERNET
The peacemaker’s progress

The peacemaker’s progress

MOON JAE-IN CAN STILL HEAR THE roar today. South Korea’s President had been seated next to Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang’s May Day Stadium on Sept. 19, 2018, for the close of the Mass Games when North Korea’s leader beckoned him up to the dais. Beneath a vast collage calling for Korea to “unite the strength of the entire people,” Moon urged the 150,000-strong crowd to “hasten a future of common prosperity and reunification,” while revelers brandished white flags with powder blue outlines of a unified Korean Peninsula. For Moon, it was a transformative experience. The North Koreans’ “eyes and attitudes” showed that they “strongly aspire for peace,” he tells TIME. “I could see for myself that North Korea has completely changed … and is doing everything possible to develop.” That…

The Choice

The differences begin to fade a bit as one drives down Texas Highway 4, between the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande, toward one of the southernmost points in the U.S., where Musk is preparing to launch the world’s largest rocket. Gleaming spacecraft—some retired from duty, others still in production—rise stories above the sparse terrain. His company is gobbling up local housing and encouraging employees to move there. “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” Musk announced on Twitter earlier this year, to the evident surprise of the residents of Boca Chica, where his facility is located. (A county official noted that “Sending a tweet does not make it so,” and that a petition must first be filed.) For nearly a century, TIME has named a Person of the Year—the individual…

THE PRIME MINISTER OF MOLDOVA, NATALIA GAVRILITA, FEARS HER COUNTRY IS PUTIN’S NEXT TARGET

THE PRIME MINISTER OF MOLDOVA, NATALIA GAVRILITA, FEARS HER COUNTRY IS PUTIN’S NEXT TARGET

NATALIA GAVRILITA KNOWS SHE’S IN A TIGHT spot. It is after all the job of Moldova’s Prime Minister to project an air of control, an easy calm, the sense that everything will work out fine. But the humanitarian fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is fraying the seams of her nation, Europe’s poorest by some metrics. So as we wrap up our interview, chatting before her nation’s tricolor flag, she double-checks herself. “Perhaps I should have been stronger on the need for help,” she muses aloud. “Because we need green corridors [taking refugees to third countries], we need assistance, we need expertise, we need help to deal with economic concerns. We are small, and so panic can quickly unbalance the economy.” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has sent more 3…

A nation overwhelmed

A nation overwhelmed

DUSK IS FALLING IN THE INDIAN CAPItal, and the acrid smell of burning bodies fills the air. It’s the evening of April 26, and at a tiny crematorium in a Delhi suburb, seven funeral pyres are still burning. “I have lived here all my life and pass through this area twice a day,” says local resident Gaurav Singh. “I have never seen so many bodies burning together.” Scenes of mass death are now unavoidable in what’s often called the world’s largest democracy. Social media is filled with images of body bags and urgent requests for medical aid. Indians gasping for breath are being turned away from overwhelmed hospitals, sometimes simply because they don’t have lab reports confirming COVID-19 infection. Health workers plead for basic supplies. “We feel so angry,” says Kanchan…

SPECIAL INTERESTS

SPECIAL INTERESTS

ADVENTURE TRAVEL Kassandra Magruder While Magruder plans trips worldwide, her expertise lies in Africa, Latin America, and the polar regions. She recently organized a 43-day trip for a solo traveler that took in rain forests, cities, and sand dunes, with expert guides at stops along the way. From $200 per person per day; 406-540-1903; kassandra.m@adventure-life.com; adventure-life.com. AIR TRAVEL Paul Tumpowsky Tumpowsky arranges discounted airfares with such major carriers as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Emirates, saving his clients thousands of dollars while securing such perks as refundability. From $500 per person per day; 917-664-6200; p@skylark.com; skylark.com. BUSINESS TRAVEL Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg Whether she’s planning a long weekend at Gleneagles, in Scotland, for top travel industry executives or arranging a digital detox for a busy client at Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island, Wilson-Buttigieg goes above and beyond…

FOUR FRESH WAYS TO LEAN IN TO WINTER

FOUR FRESH WAYS TO LEAN IN TO WINTER

Rest and Recharge New York’s Finger Lakes aren’t typically top of mind this time of year, but the Inns of Aurora (innsofaurora.com; doubles from $200) is set to open a 15,000-square-foot spa in early 2021, with hydrotherapy circuits, pools, and winter-themed activities, like tea-blending classes. Outside Montreal, the resort Spa Eastman (spa-eastman.com; $169 per person per night, all-inclusive) roars to life in winter, with treatments in the Finnish sauna, hammam, and outdoor whirlpools. Meanwhile, some innovators have started “snowga” classes that combine yoga and a wintry outdoor setting. “Practicing in these mountainscapes connects us to the elements and to spaciousness within,” says instructor Rebecca Black (balancebec.com), a snowboarder who’s pioneering the practice with retreats in the Tarentaise Valley of the French Alps. Chase the Night Lights The northern lights are on view in…

11大漲價缺貨股操作攻略

台股漲價缺貨概念股熱潮不斷延燒,除了傳產原物料、航運、鋼鐵、大宗商品大漲,部分車用電子、半導體、利基型電子零組件也吹起漲價或缺貨風潮,究竟台股指數位置會不會太高了?投資人又該如何擇優布局? 「其實從上市公司今年獲利成長率上看五成來看,現階段台股真的不算貴⋯⋯。」今年第二季主動式台股基金表現名列前茅的安聯台灣大壩基金經理人蕭惠中強調,投資人不要單純看表面上的指數去衡量台股,應該用「評價」來衡量,用公司獲利的成長幅度、本益比、股價淨值比的角度來看。 的確,台股上攻到一萬七七○○點之後,上市公司總市值已達五十三.八兆元。從去年第二季到今年第一季的四季上市公司總獲利二.八九兆元,以現階段換算台股本益比僅十八.五倍來看,對比二○○○年以來台股本益比除了極端值以外,多在二十五倍左右至三十、四十倍之間,並不算貴,若以上市公司總獲利今年成長三成來換算,台股本益比目前只有十四倍。 按照安聯投信內部預估,今年上市公司整體獲利,不但相較於去年獲利成長二五%更高、上看五二%,其中傳產獲利年增率大增一四○%、電子業年增三六%,不難理解市場資金為何出現「傳產原物料優於電子」的盛況。…

11大漲價缺貨股操作攻略
◼ IN BRIEF

◼ IN BRIEF

● The US will bolster the nuclear deterrence it provides South Korea. US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the agreement on April 26 at the White House. In return, Washington secured a pledge from Seoul that it won’t pursue its own atomic arsenal. The level of support will be similar to that provided to Europe under the US nuclear umbrella at the height of the Cold War. The arrangement doesn’t mean US nuclear weapons would be deployed on South Korean soil, they said. ● War in Ukraine ▶ Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since Russia invaded 14 months ago. ▶ Russia threatened to pull out of the UN-brokered deal to protect Ukrainian grain shipments, after accusing Kyiv of launching…

COME AT ME

COME AT ME

“RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU THINK YOU’VE HAD A HARDER week than I’ve had.” It was Feb. 14, 2019, in the early afternoon, and for perhaps the first time in the 25-year history of Amazon.com Inc., Jeff Bezos was prepared to explain himself to his employees. Bezos was a master compartmentalizer; his ability to keep the intricate threads of his personal and professional lives separate was unrivaled. This talent had allowed him to build Amazon while also running a space company, Blue Origin LLC, and reviving the Washington Post—all while keeping his family life private. But those threads had gotten tangled. Bezos, a father of four, was the subject of tabloid stories in the National Enquirer about his relationship with a married former television host. Rather than doing what most billionaires do under…

Chained To Trump

Chained To Trump

On a brisk Saturday morning in mid-April, grassroots Republicans gathered in county conventions across Georgia to begin deciding their party’s future. The day ended with Donald Trump firmly in control of the state Republican Party, in a microcosm of the national struggle for the GOP’s soul following the November election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In the state’s biggest Republican strongholds, conventions that were supposed to last a few hours dragged into the evening as insurgent delegates—many of whom had never participated in party politics before—booted longtime leaders in favor of Trump-embracing newcomers. They attacked the party’s top officeholders, passing resolutions condemning them for not supporting Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. They dissed former GOP officeholders, too, flouting a tradition of giving them votes at…

When the Boss’s Boss Is a Machine

When the Boss’s Boss Is a Machine

On a recent August morning, inside a cavernous Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center outside Seattle, Evan Shobe positioned himself before a bank of nine computer screens. Known internally as the quarter-back desk, or QB, the command center lets Shobe monitor the intricate workings of a building the size of about 15 football fields. Thousands of blue dots show robots ferrying products around the facility; yellow figures that look a little like restroom signs represent the humans who load and unload the robots. A maze of green lines shows conveyors speeding orders to stations down the line and, ultimately, to waiting delivery trucks. The system is running smoothly on this early morning, as it mostly does seven days a week at more than 900 Amazon logistics facilities across the U.S. BFI4, located in…

Short on Drivers, Shippers Shift Gears

Since she got her learner’s permit at age 16, Clarise King-Green had driven just about every vehicle imaginable: cars, vans, minibuses, box trucks. But like most women in transportation, she’d never gotten behind the wheel of a freight truck. That changed last summer when the Philadelphia resident, 50, enrolled in a state-sponsored program that helps aspiring drivers pay for commercial-trucking school, where tuition costs as much as $7,000 for a multiweek course. It’s a line of work she’d briefly considered decades ago, but finding someone to care for her young daughters during nights spent on the road put her off. Now that they’re older, King-Green decided it was time. “People that know me well say driving is in my blood, so it wasn’t intimidating. It was exciting, really,” she says about her…

Short on Drivers, Shippers Shift Gears
There Is No Free Parking

There Is No Free Parking

Over a Zoom call from sunny Los Angeles, Donald Shoup—sporting a big white beard, a brown cardigan sweater, and a marketer’s telephone headset—was yelling at me. “Oh, how terrible, you have to move your car, so they can sweep the road. I think that’s just awful,” he said, with audible italics. “To overcome the base desires of people like you”—people like me?—“you have to give the money back to the neighborhood.” I’d made the mistake of griping to the bona fide king of parking reform that owning a car in New York City was annoying. Twice-weekly street sweeping forces a large group of people to fight for a small number of free curbside spots that they must then vacate frequently. It’s the rare game of musical chairs that requires insurance. And…

He’s Making Apple the Bad Guy

Horacio Gutierrez made his name in U.S. corporate law two decades ago defending Microsoft Corp. against charges of anticompetitive behavior in the first major antitrust case of the internet age. As the tech industry is once again dominated by talk of monopolies, Gutierrez, now Spotify Technology SA’s chief legal officer, has switched sides. For the past five years he’s led Spotify’s campaign against Apple Inc., one of a series of antitrust actions with the potential to make an even greater impact than the Microsoft litigation. While the shift in public opinion about the tech industry in recent years has been stunning by any measure, the change in the perception of Apple may be the most improbable. When Gutierrez started accusing the company of anticompetitive behavior in 2016, many public officials had…

He’s Making Apple the Bad Guy

2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Here’s the short version of our review of the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06: It’s the best American sports car ever made. How can we say this so definitively? What about the Ford GT? What about the Dodge Viper ACR? You know we’ve driven, tested, and tracked them, and they’re both great cars. And each is a Le Mans winner in its own right (though Corvette Racing has more wins than the two of them combined). The 2023 Z06 is better. As much as there is to talk about with the C8 Z06, we must begin with the sacrilegious dual-overhead-cam, flat-plane-crank V-8 engine. No, it doesn’t burble like a cross-plane-crank V-8, because it isn’t one. It does, however, make more naturally aspirated power than any production V-8 in history. We’re talking 670 American…

2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class

2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class

The new 2021 Mercedes-Benz S-Class will be a force to be reckoned with when it reaches American shores in both S 500 and S 580 forms sometime in the first half of 2021. The new platform extends the Benz’s wheelbase by 2.0 inches, most of which translates to additional rear seat space. The S-Class’ body is stretched 1.3 inches in length and gains 0.4 inch in height. Mercedes recommends every driver create a profile to automatically load preferences for everything from audio levels and frequent navigation destinations to climate settings and seat position. You can activate yours by a fingerprint swipe, facial or voice recognition, or a PIN, and up to seven profiles can be stored, with the car’s owner able to restrict how much access other profiles have to vehicle settings. All…

New neighbors

New neighbors

BRADLEY FREEMAN JR. WAS DOING SOME CHRISTMAS SHOPping at Target when he got the email. Glancing down at his phone, all he could see was a preview: “Hey Brad, thanks for taking the time to audition for us …” He immediately assumed he had been rejected. Then he read the rest. “I had to read it over, like, seven different times to make sure that I actually got the part,” he says. “I say yes, and then I realized I didn’t actually type anything so I had to send a second email and say yes and then texted—I was like, ‘Just making sure you know that I accepted this part.’” The part—the one that had him “hyperventilating in the middle of Target”—is the puppeteer for Wesley Walker, a new Black Muppet who, along…

Leaf It to Us

Chorizo-and-Mustard-Greens Tacos 1 tablespoon thinly sliced garlic (from 2 cloves)3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided1 bunch mustard greens, stemmed and roughly chopped (6 cups)Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper12 ounces Mexican chorizo, casings removed½ cup finely chopped white onion, divided¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro stems, plus ¼ cup chopped leaves¼ cup salsa verde, such as Frontera, plus more for serving12 6-inch corn tortillasSour cream and sliced pickled jalapeños, for serving 1. In a large skillet, cook garlic in 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat until sizzling. Add greens; season with salt and cook until just wilted. Transfer to a plate. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil, chorizo, ¼ cup onion, and cilantro stems to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up chorizo with the back of a spoon, until cooked…

Leaf It to Us

Editor’s Note

I KNEW I’D RELIED on the same weeknight supper rotation for too long when my then 6-year-old turned to me mid-bite—a look of mild disgust in his eyes—and said, “Mommy, I’m done eating pasta.” He paused, then added: “Forever.” How did I get to a place where one of the most popular and plainest dishes gets cut from my child’s “approved foods” list? My interest in cooking has always ebbed and flowed; I go through bursts of intense weekend meal prep and weeknight pot stirring, followed by longer stretches of improvising with peanut-butter sandwiches, cereal, scrambled eggs, and takeout. My home-chef instincts were at an all-time high when my older son started solids. I made fruit and vegetable purees, combined them in distinct flavor profiles, froze them into cubes, and created a meal…

Editor’s Note

Autumn Aglow

HOW-TO Leaf Candlestick SUPPLIES Template (download at marthastewart.com/leaftemplate)Copper-foil sheet, 36 gaugeStylus or blunt pencilMetal shearsCopper wire, 24 gaugeCandlestick and candle 1. Lay template on copper sheet, and trace outline of leaves with stylus, fitting as many small and medium-size leaves as possible. Holding shears steady, move copper around to cut out shapes. Make sure to keep stems long. 2. Unfurl a piece of copper wire long enough to fit all the leaves, and place first stem at the beginning. Fold wire back ¼ inch to fasten, then tightly wrap metal around wire. Slightly overlap next leaf, and continue, alternating sizes, until all leaves are attached. Cut wire and drape garland around candle base. THE DETAILS: St. Louis Crafts Art Metal foil sheets, 36 gauge, $17 for 12; and copper wire, 24 gauge, $4 for 100 feet,…

Autumn Aglow

Mystical Portal Pendant

Use tubular peyote stitch to form this mystical unisex pendant and hang it from your choice of cord, chain, or ribbon. TECHNIQUES Tubular peyote stitch Herringbone stitch PROJECT LEVEL MATERIALS 2 g semi-matte champagne galvanized size 11° cylinder beads (A) 4 g copper galvanized size 11° cylinder beads (B) 1 copper 12×16mm Eye of Horus charm 1 antiqued copper-plated 6mm jump ring 1 plastic cocktail straw; 1⁄8" diameter Black 4 lb FireLine braided beading thread TOOLS Scissors Size 11 beading needle 2 pairs of chain- or flat-nose pliers FINISHED SIZE 2 × 1¾ " Marianna used the following Delica numbers for this project: DB1152, DB046 1) PENDANT BACK. Use tubular peyote and herringbone stitches to form the back of the pendant: Rounds 1 and 2: Use 12' of thread to string 69A; pass through the first 24A to form a tight circle, leaving a 6' tail (Fig. 1, black thread). Round…

Mystical Portal Pendant

Big Acts of Storytelling

IN 2013, WHEN I WAS A REPORTER FOR THE magazine Ad Age, I had occasion to interview David Granger, who at the time was three quarters of the way into his nineteen-year tenure as Esquire’s editor in chief. He characterized the feature stories on which Esquire built its reputation—deeply reported, vibrantly written, wholly immersive—as “big acts of storytelling.” The phrase has stuck with me, and today I use it frequently when talking about Esquire articles, past and present, because big acts of storytelling have been part of the magazine since its inception. Our first issue, published in September 1933, opened with a page called “Backstage with Esquire,” our take on the contributors’ page. The column contained a note about big-act storyteller Ernest Hemingway’s contribution: “For those of you who have waistlines,…

Big Acts of Storytelling
Blood Work

Blood Work

Late one night in 1982, a Yale University medical student named Martin Yarmush witnessed a harrowing scene at a local hospital. A toddler was admitted, and several nurses attempted to insert an IV needle into one of the child’s tiny veins. Each time they missed the vessel, the child screamed more shrilly, and the mother grew more worried. There has to be a better way, thought Yarmush, now a professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers University. The incident changed his outlook on medicine. Thoroughly unnerved by the anguish he’d witnessed, Yarmush started to imagine what would happen if the process of drawing blood could be automated. At the time, automation was found primarily on assembly lines for cars, where robots were so powerful and dangerous that they were bolted to the ground…

TOUCH POINTS

TOUCH POINTS

Several years ago, Sushma Subramanian was procrastinating on her work when she noticed her desk was a bit wobbly. It was a rather mundane moment, she recalls. But as she began to fiddle with the tabletop, the science journalist found herself noting how the experience felt: the grain of the wood against her fingers, the pinching of her skin and the sensation of her muscles straining to lift the desk. As Subramanian explains in her book, How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch (Columbia University Press, 2021), it was a moment when she began to consider how little she knew about this multifaceted sense. The questions kept forming, eventually leading Subramanian to write an article for Discover in 2015 about the development of tactile touch screens. In her latest work,…

Cool Ranch

IT WAS THE EARLY DAYS of the pandemic when Lauren Malloy’s father, a Vermont physician, called his daughter in California to urge her and her husband, Keith, to stock up on supplies. “Like any loving dad, he was worried about us,” says Lauren, who had just given birth to the couple’s third child, Clay. “I said, ‘Dad, remember where we live? We’re better prepared than most!’” Indeed, the Malloys, who call four acres in bucolic Santa Barbara County home, were already remarkably self-sufficient. They had a cow (and therefore fresh milk on tap), chickens (for eggs and the occasional roaster), pigs (more meat), and a vegetable garden teeming with kale, cabbages, herbs, and much more. And in the kitchen, Lauren even had a soon-to-be-coveted quarantine staple: a trusty sourdough starter. “If…

Cool Ranch

DRESS QUEENS

BALENCIAGA SAINT LAURENT DIOR PRADA ERDEM LOUIS VUITTON DOLCE & GABBANA ALEXANDER McQUEEN FENDI VALENTINO GUCCI SIMONE ROCHA GIORGIO ARMANI MIU MIU MODELS: ODETTE PAVLOVA, LILI SUMNER, RILEY MONTANA, LORENA MARASCHI AND NEELAM GILL AT NEXT MODELS LONDON HAIR: SAMANTHA HILLERBY AT PREMIER HAIR AND MAKE-UP, USING ORIBE. MAKE-UP: SHARON DOWSETT AT CLM HAIR & MAKE-UP USING CHANEL NEAPOLIS NEW CITY AND BLUE SERUM EYE. NAILS: AMA QUASHIE AT CLM HAIR & MAKE-UP USING DIOR CAPTURE TOTALE DREAMSKIN AND DIOR CHRISTMAS COLLECTION 2017. BUS: RED ROUTEMASTER. WITH THANKS TO MARRIOTT COUNTY HALL HOTEL…

DRESS QUEENS
BEHIND THE CURVE

BEHIND THE CURVE

Flesh. Even the word is – no pun intended – freighted. What should be a simple descriptive for, well, flesh, has, over the past century, become charged with negativity for women. Such is the programming running in my 49-year-old subconscious that the terminology alone is enough to make me recoil slightly. Yes, however much I consider myself resistant to the aesthetic pressures women are put under – with my grey hair and my unBotoxed frown lines – I haven’t managed to fight entirely shy of this one. I am someone who is naturally fleshy, who has a bum and thighs, and society has taught me to police that tendency. And so surreptitiously, unnoted often even by me, I do. Yet look how fabulous flesh is! Look at these glorious, celebratory pictures of…

BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS

at the beginning of 2021, analysts predicted we’d be ending the year with a period of exuberance, glamour and frivolity akin to the last century’s Roaring Twenties. Those post-war years were defined by hedonism, pleasure and a keenness to celebrate life. Youth culture demanded new experiences, and the combination of women’s right to vote, the flourishing Jazz Age and technological advances certainly provided them. It marked the arrival of the independent, liberated flapper girls and the modern cosmetic industry as a new means of self-expression. Whether we’re on the verge of such a moment continues to be debated, but there is certainly optimism to be found in beauty’s current mood. Having pared back our make-up routines for the past year, this season’s collections are bright and bold, inspiring a painterly approach. Driven…

BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS

BEST INVENTIONS

AR & VR AUGMENTED JOB TRAINING Magic Leap 2 Magic Leap sees a big future for augmented reality (AR) in workplaces. With this new headset, which can overlay 3D images and text on a user’s surroundings, the company is focused on employers in health care, manufacturing, retail, and other sectors. Home-improvement giant Lowe’s has begun outfitting workers with Magic Leap 2 so they can see what a store shelf should look like and then tweak displays. Manufacturers are using it to speed up training of technicians on factory floors. Fifty percent smaller than its predecessor, the headset offers a wider field of view and crisper image resolution. New “dynamic dimming” technology blocks distracting light to create an immersive work environment. Magic Leap’s open developer platform lets its customers create custom AR solutions to…

BEST INVENTIONS

A wave of new bills threatens trans youth

IT’S A SPRING EVENING IN ARKANSAS, AND JOANNA Brandt just closed down her boutique. She and her son Dylan, a 15-year-old with a thatch of floppy blond hair, are tired. It’s not the pandemic; Joanna has actually enjoyed remote-schooling her two kids. And it’s not the management of Dylan’s weekly hormone-therapy treatments, injections he has learned to administer himself over the past eight months. No, it’s that they—like most of the U.S.’s transgender community and its advocates—are tired because in recent months, Arkansas and a growing number of other states have been stripping trans youth like Dylan of their rights. “The one thing that is helping me become who I want to be and has made me as happy as I am and as confident as I am—they’re taking that…

A wave of new bills threatens trans youth

Going it alone

“I’M A TOUCHER AND FLIRTER, AND I DON’T CARE who you are,” says Maggie Duckworth. “I will talk to a log.” Before the arrival of COVID-19, Duckworth had a pretty sweet life. An events coordinator for a waste-management company in Chattanooga, Tenn., she traveled frequently for work and for fun. She had a large group of friends, a loving family she could visit in Atlanta and a cool apartment all to herself. In December 2019, Duckworth, 43, was on a date when she snapped her Achilles’ heel. She was told to keep off her foot and had to be confined to her home while it healed. Just as she was ready to go out again, the pandemic hit. (However long the stay-at-home restrictions have been for you, they have been about…

Going it alone
A bittersweet Pride in Florida

A bittersweet Pride in Florida

IT’S BEEN POURING FOR TWO DAYS STRAIGHT, BUT WE’RE on our way to Wynwood for Pride. The Lyft driver complains continuously as he navigates traffic on the gridlocked highway. He says he hates living in Florida, notes that he and his wife both want to move away, but if they do, they want to be 1,500 miles apart, because they can’t be in the same room without fighting. “I’m going to live in Wyoming, be a cowboy,” he announces, nearly rear-ending a Camry as he turns to look at us. “She can go to California for all I care.” I take my girlfriend’s hand and squeeze it, twice, the way we always do when we want to remember to joke about something later on when we’re alone. I keep our hands pressed…

Will U.S. bishops break bread with Joe Biden?

A POLITICIZED RIFT IN THE AMERICAN Catholic Church has widened in June, as U.S. bishops voted to draft instructions to the faithful on who should receive Communion—with an eye toward dissuading high-profile Catholics who support abortion policies and gay rights, like Joe Biden, from presenting themselves for the ritual. According to a church official, many bishops had been concerned about the confusion such an apparent conflict could otherwise cause among Catholics. Biden regularly attends Mass and takes Communion at St. Joseph on the Brandywine near his home in Wilmington, Del., and at Holy Trinity in Georgetown, two miles from the White House. He has long turned to his faith for solace, close friends say—in particular during times of trial or personal tragedy. But how the President practices is “personal,” White House…

Will U.S. bishops break bread with Joe Biden?
What game is Putin playing?

What game is Putin playing?

VLADIMIR PUTIN IS PUMPING some last-minute iron and putting finishing touches on his trademark smirk as Joe Biden preps for his first face-to-face with the Russian President since taking office, in Geneva on June 16. For Putin, this meeting is a big deal. It’s a chance to sit opposite the man who leads Russia’s great nemesis, the U.S. He can smile for the cameras as an equal, bat away subjects like the fate of imprisoned opposition activist Alexei Navalny and cyberattacks on the U.S. that he doesn’t want to discuss, and defiantly insist on Russia’s view of the world. For Biden, there are fewer interesting opportunities. He won’t get to Putin until after he has met with the allies at the G-7 summit in what he hopes will be a triumphant…

Should we wear masks after the virus is gone?

Should we wear masks after the virus is gone?

AS WHAT NORMALLY WOULD HAVE been cold and flu season in the northern hemisphere draws to a close, many (lucky) people are having the same realization: they haven’t been sick since the pandemic started. Federal data show that flu season was extremely mild this year. About 600 flu deaths had been recorded in the U.S. as of April 26, compared with at least 24,000 last flu season. There are a few reasons for that. Flu-vaccination rates were high this season; social distancing kept people away from strangers’ germs; and mask wearing in public to help slow the spread of COVID-19 likely limited influenza transmission too. Masks are only one piece of that puzzle, but the impressive results do raise the question: Should masks stay after COVID-19 is gone? Some experts say yes.…

Gaining perspective

LIFE IS A JOURNEY. In the past few weeks, my journey took an unexpected path but one that has taught me so much and helped me grow. I learned a couple of key lessons. Lesson one: you can never please everyone. The world is as divided now as I can remember in my short 23 years. Issues that are so obvious to me at face value, like wearing a mask in a pandemic or kneeling to show support for antiracism, are ferociously contested. I mean, wow. So, when I said I needed to miss French Open press conferences to take care of myself mentally, I should have been prepared for what unfolded. Lesson two was perhaps more enriching. It has become apparent to me that literally everyone either suffers from issues related…

Gaining perspective
outside the box (office)

outside the box (office)

A HUSH SETTLES as the lights fade to black. There’s a moment of charged silence as the audience sits at attention, suspended between two worlds. Then the music swells, the opening sequence rolls, and a group of strangers hurtles headlong into a story. “Watching a movie is like riding a roller coaster,” says Holly Crane, co-owner of Bookhouse Cinema in Joplin, Missouri. “You’re all feeling the highs, the lows, the emotions. My favorite thing is to sit by the door and hear everybody laughing together. Seeing movies is important, but it’s even more important to look at someone’s face and see that they’re affected by the same thing I am.” That shared experience of taking an immersive silver screen journey with other people feels extra magical—even healing—after a year of watching films…

The Democrats’ Working-Class Deficit

IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT DEMOCRATS ARE UP AGAINST IT THIS FALL. THE PRESIDENT’S party generally does worse in midterm elections. Inflation is at a 40-year high. The mainstream media trumpet that crime is up. And the centerpiece of President Biden’s domestic agenda has been torpedoed by united Republican obstruction—and, until the recently brokered spending deal, by the Democratic Senator Joe Manchin III. But a more long-term difficulty was revealed in a recent New York Times–Siena College poll: Though they enjoy a 20-point advantage over Republicans among white, college-educated voters, Democrats have a working-class problem—and the climate deal, while welcome, isn’t going to fix it. Currently trailing the GOP by 12 points, Democrats are becoming the party of upscale urban and suburban voters, while Republicans are beginning to consolidate a multiracial coalition of…

137億度電的取捨

137億度電的取捨

決戰十二月十八日,「四大公投」投票日剩下不到一個月,正、反方展開大辯論,互不相讓。 四大提案中,包括是否同意重啟核四(位於新北貢寮的龍門核能發電廠)、中油第三天然氣接收站(桃園觀塘液化天然氣接收站,以下簡稱三接)遷離桃園大潭藻礁海岸這兩案,牽動台灣「減煤增氣」、「非核家園」的能源轉型路線是否還能持續走下去。 涉及供電、減空汙、生態保護等層面的三接,從連署、成案,不同主張持續交鋒、爭吵不斷,公投若過,目前已施工近三年的三接要停工遷更是一場影響台灣能源轉型成敗的關鍵戰役。 想像一下,當台灣不要核電、不要燃煤造成空汙、要持續減碳,要綠電、天然氣等能源轉型,也要台積電、台商回流等經濟發展,又期待供電穩定、不缺電,同時還能顧及環境生態……,怎麼可能做到?這是正反雙方交鋒的火線時刻,也是全民價值選擇的關鍵時刻,這時,沒有人是局外人,取捨絕對是必要的。 三接爭議,到底吵什麼?釐清四大關鍵提問,答案或許跟你想的不一樣。 關鍵提問1》遷三接影響供電? 全台調度更吃緊 關鍵提問一:三接遷離現址,不會影響電力供應?答案是,不只電力調度更吃緊,減煤成果也可能倒退。 打開經濟部能源局二○ 一九、二○…

The ‘Covid Zero’ Trap

A smattering of places, mainly across the Asia-Pacific region, have achieved stunning victories in the battle against Covid-19, effectively wiping it out within their borders. Now they face a fresh test: rejoining the rest of the world, which is still awash in the pathogen. In some ways, the success of “Covid Zero” strategies is becoming a straitjacket. As financial and travel hubs such as New York and London return to business as usual—tolerating hundreds of daily cases while vaccinations gather pace—counterparts in Asia like Singapore and Hong Kong risk being left behind as they maintain stringent border controls and tighten other curbs in response to single-digit flareups. China, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand have suffered fewer deaths during the entire pandemic than many countries—even highly vaccinated ones—currently log in a matter of…

The ‘Covid Zero’ Trap

A Matter Of Trust

The future of Huarong Asset Management Co., a troubled Chinese financial conglomerate, may be determined by a man who believes that allowing more state-owned companies to default is just what the country needs: Vice Premier Liu He. While Huarong insists it’s healthy enough to repay its debts, markets have been pricing in the risk of default since the company missed a March 31 deadline to report 2020 earnings. Another portent: In January, Huarong’s former chairman, Lai Xiaomin, was executed on charges that he’d accumulated a fortune in bribes during his years at the helm. Under Lai, the company moved beyond its original mandate of helping banks dispose of bad debt, raising billions of dollars from offshore bondholders and expanding into everything from trust companies to securities trading and illiquid investments. At…

A Matter Of Trust

EASE OF SHOES

Earlier this year a curious sneaker popped up on Nike Inc.’s website. Instead of lying flat on the ground, the shoe has a band that squeezes it so its sole bends in the middle, creating an unusually large opening for a person’s foot. Just slide your toes down into the gap and press down with your heel, and the band contracts to close the shoe into its proper shape and hold the foot firmly in place. This is the Go FlyEase, a breakthrough in Nike’s attempts to make a sneaker that’s effortless to put on and take off. Removing the shoe is a little more complicated than putting it on—wearers use a hand or the other foot to engage a built-in kickstand—but the band system makes a big difference for many…

EASE OF SHOES
September Is Here. Normal Isn’t

September Is Here. Normal Isn’t

When President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion U.S. stimulus package in March, dissolving most of the emergency pandemic safety net come September seemed to make sense. Vaccinations were rising rapidly, and schools were preparing to resume in-person learning in the fall, removing two main hurdles keeping people—especially parents—out of the workforce. All spring long, that month was heralded as a symbolic turning point for the U.S. economy. With schools set to reopen, companies solidified September return-to-office dates. Virus fears were abating, with the country in May on track to have 75% of the population vaccinated in September. The shortage of workers—brought on by a mismatch between the robust snapback in consumer demand and the number of Americans willing and able to work—was expected to “fade in the coming months and…

The Next War

The Next War

Brandon Tseng, a former Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas, developed the idea for his startup Shield AI to solve a problem specific to what he and his colleagues saw in the field. One of the most dangerous tasks for U.S. ground troops in the Middle East was entering buildings that might contain armed fighters. So Shield, founded in 2015, built fleets of small, autonomous drones that would go in first and send photos and maps to soldiers waiting nearby. The U.S. military has used Shield’s technology in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. The end of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan marks a new era for the military, and for Shield. The company has spent the better part of the year acquiring new technology and pitching officials and investors on…

Laura Miele Is Listening

One of the first things Laura Miele did when she became chief studios officer of Electronic Arts Inc. three years ago was to gather 19 video game influencers in a conference room. “What do you want me to hear? Lay it on me,” she recalls asking them. “One guy sitting at the corner of the table, he just said, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t give players what they’re asking for.’ ” It’s something many gamers have wondered about EA for years. The $40 billion company, one of the biggest in gaming, is responsible for Battlefield, Madden NFL, and other megahit franchises. But many gamers have long seen EA as a necessary evil, resenting the direction in which it took some games and bristling at its aggressive attempts to extract money…

Laura Miele Is Listening
A Pop-Up Store Hits the Road

A Pop-Up Store Hits the Road

A new type of store is popping up at a California mall on June 10. It looks a lot like a regular shop, full of handbags, small leather goods, and jewelry. Oh, except it’ll be outside, and the floors, counters, and racks all fit on a flatbed truck, to be transported and remade anywhere—some assembly required. Cuyana, a San Francisco-based premium fashion label, is taking its traveling showroom on a summer road trip. The portable pop-up presents retailers and malls with a new way to sell goods, gather data, and try out locations without committing to a larger lease or paying repeatedly for major renovations. Just load the whole thing onto a truck and plop it down somewhere. “Retail’s not going away,” says Shilpa Shah, co-founder of Cuyana. “It just needs…

Thai Dissidents Break a Royal Taboo

Thai Dissidents Break a Royal Taboo

At a recent showing of the James Bond movie No Time to Die at a theater in Bangkok, almost half of the 60 people in the audience sat down without incident as the royal anthem played—a scene unthinkable only a few years ago, when not standing was risky. The shift highlights changing attitudes toward Thailand’s monarchy following more than 15 months of protests. Pro-democracy students and other demonstrators have called for reforms to the country’s constitution and to the monarchy, its most powerful institution. Thailand’s royalist government hasn’t acceded to their demands. But major political parties are starting to acknowledge them ahead of an election that could come in early 2022. One of the protesters’ goals is the revoking of a so-called lèse-majesté, or royal insult law, which makes it illegal to…

British Watches Take Off

Although Switzerland reigns supreme in watchmaking, that hasn’t always been the case. “In the 17th and 18th centuries, pretty much every concept that you find in a modern Swiss watch was developed primarily in England,” says watchmaker Robert Loomes, chairman of the British Horological Institute. Even the Swiss lever escapement—which makes the ticking sound in mechanical watches and clocks—isn’t Swiss: It was created in London around 1750 by Thomas Mudge. “There were some extraordinary watchmakers who rivaled the likes of Patek Philippe,” Loomes says. “Firms like Players of Coventry made the most extraordinary, complicated, beautiful, and expensive watches.” So what happened to British watchmaking? World War I and II. Timepiece makers joined the army, and many studios were bombed during the Blitz. “When those workshops were destroyed in the Second World War, very…

British Watches Take Off

What Would Donny Do?

I HAVE ONE SIBLING, A BROTHER NAMED DONNY. Because he’s seven years older, our childhood worlds rarely overlapped. When he was a high school senior, preoccupied with girls and Guns N’ Roses, I was in the fourth grade, building Lego pirate ships and mastering Super Mario Bros. 2. I was the good student; I liked school and got mostly A’s. Donny was the music guy, the fashion guy, the car guy. He drove an orange ’74 MG. The one time he helped me with homework, I was sixteen and reading The Great Gatsby. My American Lit teacher had assigned us a short paper on a Jazz Age–related topic of our choosing. The topic Donny suggested: the martini. You might say I was Donny’s student. He taught me to drive stick. Made me…

What Would Donny Do?
The many lives of Demi Lovato

The many lives of Demi Lovato

IN THE YOUTUBE DOCUMENTARY DEMI LOVATO: DANCING WITH THE DEVIL, the 28-year-old singer and actor speaks openly about her battles with eating disorders and drug addiction, focusing most acutely on the 2018 overdose that nearly killed her. But the most revelatory words in the film belong to a selection of her fans, young women with makeup so precise and polished they look as if they’re suspended in a world smoothed out by an Instagram filter. One nearly runs out of breath as the words tumble out: “I love what she does for young girls, and her music—it just saved my life.” Another beams, “I don’t think she really understands how much of an impact she has on her fans.” That kind of idolatry would weigh heavily on anyone’s shoulders, and Lovato—a…

2021 Maserati MC20

2021 Maserati MC20

A 621-hp mid-engine supercar that in form and function elbows the Ferrari F8 Tributo in the ribs, the 2021 MC20 is precisely the sort of car Maserati would never have been allowed to build a few years ago when the parent company still owned Ferrari. Reportedly developed in a company-record 24 months using virtual tools—including sophisticated dynamics simulators that allowed engineers to create and test fully digital versions of the car to 97 percent of final spec before constructing any prototypes—the MC20 is designed to be a supercar on the road and a race car on the track, development chief Luigi Sciarretta says. The clue is in the name—MC20 stands for Maserati Corse (Maserati Racing) 2020. At first glance the MC20 looks like a 21st-century mid-engine supercar on paper: carbon-fiber monocoque (designed…

Jul i den gamle bydel

Jeg holder meget af at pakke gaver ind og synes, de pynter så fint på trappen. Min søn kommer ned hver morgen i december og åbner en – det er så hyggelig en tradition.GABRIELLA ODORICO Hvem? Gabriella Odorico, som er grafisk designer hos FDB Møbler, og sønnen Vincent. Hvad? Et byhus på 125 m² fra 1870 i Dragør. Med et huskøb i Dragørs gamle bydel fulgte der for grafisk designer Gabriella Odorico et helt særligt juleansvar – at pynte op til højtiden med respekt for husets arkitektur og det omkringliggende område. I de karakteristiske og lave, gule huse, der ligger side om side på de brostensbelagte veje, er der nemlig tradition for, at beboerne gør noget ekstra ud af at lyse gaderne op på gammeldags manér, når kalenderen siger december. Heldigvis faldt det Gabriella helt…

Jul i den gamle bydel
Choosing Vital Vitamins

Choosing Vital Vitamins

MULTIVITAMIN Yes, eating a well-balanced diet can help you meet your nutritional needs, but taking a daily multivitamin can fill in any common nutrient gaps, like vitamin A or D. “Your body will keep what it needs and let go of the rest in your urine or stool,” explains Niket Sonpal, M.D., an internist and gastroenterologist in New York City. VITAMIN D Even if you spend time outside or consume vitamin D–fortified foods, you’re likely still short on this nutrient—most Americans are. Few foods naturally contain it (fatty fish like trout and salmonare the best sources), and the sun’s effectiveness changes depending on the time of year, where you live, and your skin’s pigmentation. But don’t let that keep you from getting your share: Vitamin D helps absorb calcium, which strengthens your bones,…

Your guide to making the days easier and the journey sweeter

It’s Crunch Time If presentation is what it takes to get kids psyched about vegetables, then this idea is a game changer (so to speak). After all, carrots are much cooler when they’re pulled from a Jenga-like tower rather than fished out of a baggie. Celery and carrots (we used orange and yellow varieties of the latter) are a natural choice, but you can level up the competition with parsnips, large radishes, or jicama. Just cut the veggies into equal-size blocks and trim their curved sides so they lie flat—you’ll need 30 to build a ten-story tower. Pro tip from Rachel Faucett, generator of this idea (and others in The Handmade Charlotte Playbook): Cut more than you think you’ll need. As kids pull sticks, they’re likely to nibble along the way…

Your guide to making the days easier and the journey sweeter

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING VACATION RENTAL

TIPS AND TRICKS TO HELP YOU TRAVEL SMARTER “IN RETROSPECT,” says Melany Robinson, “the pricing was too good to be true.” Robinson, a hospitality publicist and seasoned traveler who lives in Birmingham, Alabama, was surfing Craigslist in the summer of 2020, looking for a ski-season rental in Park City, Utah. She came across a five-bedroom, five-bath chalet with panoramic views, a wood-burning fireplace, and an outdoor deck complete with a hot tub. It looked perfect for her family and was available for her dates in February and March of this year. Robinson e-mailed the contact listed and quickly heard back from someone calling himself Thomas. Using public records, she matched that name with the property’s deed holder and began discussing rental terms. Thomas promptly answered all her questions, and, in July, she…

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING VACATION RENTAL
Hands On With the OnePlus Watch: Lots of Promise for Just $159

Hands On With the OnePlus Watch: Lots of Promise for Just $159

I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical before unboxing the first smartwatch from OnePlus, aptly named the OnePlus Watch. At $159, it’s less than half the price of our Editors’ Choice winner, the Apple Watch Series 6 (which starts at $399). And while it doesn’t work with iPhones, it offers many of the same features as Apple’s market-leading wearable. So far, my skepticism appears to have been unfounded. The OnePlus Watch offers a large color touch screen, built-in GPS, 2GB of storage, a 402mAh battery that promises two weeks of power, and the ability to make and receive calls. It also has plenty of health and fitness features, including support for more than 110 workout types, automatic workout detection for jogging and running, rapid-heart-rate alerts, guided breathing exercises, stress detection, and the…

WHEN VIRUSES HEAL

WHEN VIRUSES HEAL

Sitting in an isolated room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Frank Nielsen steeled himself for the first injection. Doctors were about to take a needle filled with herpes simplex virus, the strain responsible for cold sores, and plunge it directly into his scalp. If all went well, it would likely save his life. Nielsen was a cancer survivor and, once again, a cancer patient. His melanoma, which had responded to conventional treatments the first time around, had returned with a frightening aggressiveness. Within weeks, a lump on his scalp had swelled into an ugly mass. Unlike the first time, options like surgery weren’t viable — it was growing too quickly. As a last resort, his doctors turned to a cutting-edge drug known as T-VEC, approved in 2015 in the…

THE HIGHEST-PAID ENTERTAINERS

1. Peter Jackson • $580 mil The Lord of the Rings director became a billionaire in November when he sold part of his visual-effects firm, Weta Digital, to Unity Software for $1.6 billion, about 40% of it in cash. 2. Bruce Springsteen • $435 mil (See story, page 15.) 3. Jay-Z • $340 mil The hip-hop mogul cashed out stakes in music streamer Tidal and the Armand de Brignac champagne brand. 4. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson • $270 mil About 25% of his earnings came from starring roles in films like Jungle Cruise and Red Notice; most of the rest came from his buzzy tequila brand, Teremana. 5. Kanye West • $235 mil He earns most of his money from a multiyear deal to design Yeezy sneakers for Adidas. A jacket and hoodie designed for the Gap arrived last…

THE HIGHEST-PAID ENTERTAINERS

Family first

Jessica de Ruiter„Ein Kind stellt alles Gewohnte auf den Kopf – mit dem Renovieren sollte man da eigentlich lieber etwas warten.“ Jed Lind„Wenige gute Dinge – das macht einen gelungenen Raum aus.“ Die Männer tragen hier, in den Hügeln von Silver Lake, wilde Bärte, die Frauen sehen ein bisschen aus wie Françoise Hardy oder Miranda July. Man fotografiert nach wie vor Avocado-Toast auf handgefertigten Keramiktellern und bringt die Kinder morgens zu Fuß in die Schule. Die Gentrifizierung hat eingeschlagen im Osten von Los Angeles, und doch ist das entspannte Viertel Meilen entfernt von McMansion-Supersize-Konsum und dem gefälligen Bling des Hollywood-Nightlife. „Wir mögen den Abstand vom Wahnsinn der Stadt“, sagt Jessica de Ruiter, „und wir haben hier interessante Nachbarn. Man fühlt sich miteinander verbunden, was auch für unsere Tochter James schön ist.“ Gemeinsam…

Family first

New BOHEMIA

THE MOOD ANYTHING GOES ONCE THE SUN IS OUT, SO HAVE FUN CLASHING PRINTS AND MAXING OUT ON YOUR ACCESSORIES THE KEY PIECE A GLITTERING JEWEL-TONED TOP ADDS AN ELEMENT OF GLAM TO POOLSIDE PATTERNS THE KEY PIECE YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH A ROOMY BASKET BAG – ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES DIPPED IN WARM SUNSET SHADES THE ACCENTS TAKE A MORE-IS-MORE APPROACH TO YOUR LAYERING BY STACKING ACID-BRIGHT COLOURS AND UPBEAT PATTERNS THE STAPLE THEY’RE NOT JUST FOR FESTIVAL SEASON – PATTERNED BUCKET HATS LOOK JUST AS GOOD ON THE BEACH THE PALETTTE THE SHADES OF SUMMER? A PALETTE OF JUICY CITRUS TONES – ZESTY ORANGE, BOLD GRAPEFRUIT, THE LIST GOES ON THE KEY PIECE WORN OVER A BIKINI, AN ORNATE CROP TOP TAKES YOU FROM SUN-WORSHIP TO SUNDOWNERS IN A MATTER OF SECONDS THE TIP LEAVE MINIMALISM ON THE SHORE AND GO BOLD…

New BOHEMIA

CONTRIBUTORS

BOO GEORGE The Irish photographer began snapping at a very young age, after his father gifted him a camera. He cut his teeth spending nine months in the North Sea, taking pictures of fisherman and won ‘The Shot’, a global photography talent search in 2013, after which he turned his lens on innumerable celebrities such as Emma Watson and Sienna Miller. This month, he shoots Keira Knightley for his first Bazaar UK cover. What does family mean to you? ‘I love them all, my mother and wife especially. I speak on the phone to my mum every day; wife not so much…’ The one piece of advice you would give your children ‘Work hard, play harder, but save for a rainy day.’ You know it’s summer when… ‘you launch the boat for dropping lobster…

CONTRIBUTORS
THE COLLECTIONS

THE COLLECTIONS

How to help green innovation

This year, our annual list of best Inventions includes more innovations in sustainability than ever before. Among them is SCC55, a material that significantly enhances silicon-lithium battery performance. It’s made by Group14, whose CEO, Rick Luebbe (below), spoke about boosting green ingenuity with Barun Singh, CTO of TIME CO2, a new platform to help businesses get to net zero. Read more on time.com Singh: Group14 is slated to make batteries for Porsche EVs, and you just got a $100 million grant from the Department of Energy, but many products don’t get that far. What do we need to do to support the green-innovation ecosystem? Luebbe: The struggle is getting from idea to commercialization. There are two chasms. One: you need to have data to get first seed investments, and you need funding…

How to help green innovation
Optimism is in the air

Optimism is in the air

On an April day in Manhattan, Erin Fox emerged from the giant glass building where she had gotten her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The Javits Center, home to comic-book confabs and one highly dramatic presidential nonvictory, had become a key hub of a New York City vaccination effort inoculating close to 100,000 people a day. It was now “operational nirvana,” said Fox, a vice president of operations for Kaplan North America, who was in and out with her shot in under half an hour. Walking into the afternoon sun, Fox felt “surprisingly emotional,” almost like “back-to-school jitters.” It was finally warm enough to loosen her jacket. “It’s like the COVID spring,” she says. “It’s poetic that people are getting vaccinated just as spring is coming, and spring is a symbol…

The world beyond Delta

EXPERTS PREDICTED, FROM THE START, THAT THE pandemic would end with a whimper, not a bang. That is, COVID-19 won’t so much disappear as fade into the background, becoming like the many other common infectious diseases that sicken people, but also can be controlled with vaccines and drugs. “This can become a livable pathogen where it’s there, it circulates, you’re going to hear on the evening news about outbreaks in a dorm or a movie theater, but people go about their normal lives,” former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb predicted in an April 2020 interview with TIME. For a while, it felt like the U.S. was closing in on that point. Highly effective vaccines made their way into millions of arms. The U.S. Centers for Disease…

The world beyond Delta
FULL SPEED AHEAD

FULL SPEED AHEAD

ON NORTHERN VIETNAM’S RED RIVER Delta, the world’s most ambitious electric-vehicle (EV) upstart occupies a factory complex fringed with mango trees and palms. Outside VinFast’s plant by the port city of Haiphong, fishermen in conical hats still plumb mudflats for grass carp and tilapia; inside, each car negotiates an overhead ergonomic conveyor assembly line measuring 2.5 miles. A gauntlet of 1,250 robot arms, twirling like pneumatic ballerinas, adds some 3,000 components and welds rivet after rivet in a flurry of sparks. Everything here is top of the line: machinery sourced from Germany, Japan, Sweden. Welding is 98% automated. Capacity is 250,000 cars a year. Impressively, instead of individual assembly lines tailored for each vehicle, the facility can simultaneously assemble multiple models on the same line. Even more impressively, Google Maps shows…

HOW UKRAINE IS CROWDSOURCING DIGITAL EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES

HOW UKRAINE IS CROWDSOURCING DIGITAL EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES

IT ALL LOOKS LIKE A GAME AT FIRST. VERIFIED USERS OF Ukraine’s government mobile app are greeted with icons of military helmets and targets. An automated prompt helps you report Russian troop movements in your area, and rewards you with a flexed-arm emoji. “Remember,” the message says. “Each of your shots in this bot means one less enemy.” Another option on the menu, denoted by a droplet of blood, prompts Ukrainians to report and submit footage of war crimes in places now associated with atrocities: Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel. This chatbot, created by Ukraine’s Digital Ministry and dubbed “e-Enemy,” is one of a half dozen digital tools the government in Kyiv has set up to crowdsource and corroborate evidence of possible war crimes. Since the start of the invasion, Ukrainian officials, lawyers,…

Emissions tests for airlines

VACCINATED AMERICANS WILL BE ABLE TO visit Europe this summer, after E.U. leaders agreed to open the bloc’s borders to foreign tourists on May 18. Although the E.U. hasn’t set an exact date for the reopening, the news is a boon for the air-travel industry, which suffered plunging revenues due to COVID-19 restrictions. Bookings for highly lucrative transatlantic routes have surged, and executives are enthusiastically touting the concept of “revenge travel,” predicting passengers will fly more than usual in 2021 to make up for months of being grounded. But revenge on the virus comes at a cost for the climate. The pandemic succeeded at something policymakers and campaigners have been powerless to do: ending decades of almost uninterrupted rapid growth in aviation’s carbon dioxide emissions, which fell by a record 48%…

Emissions tests for airlines
Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel

THE FATE OF AN AUTHOR WHO GREW UP IN A funeral home may be that every book she writes becomes a contemplation of mortality. That certainly seems to be the case for Alison Bechdel, the cartoonist who shot to literary fame with the 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home, named after the family funeral home where she spent her formative years. That book dealt with Bechdel’s coming out during college, the subsequent revelation that her father had had sexual relationships with men, and his untimely death, which Bechdel believes to have been a suicide. Her next book, Are You My Mother?, sought to unpack Bechdel’s complicated relationship with her mom. “After spending a long time writing these intense family memoirs that were kind of grueling, I thought it would be fun to…

Condo collapse raises fears of climate risk

EVER SINCE THE DEADLY COLLAPSE OF A CONDO tower in Surfside, Fla., residents of Miami’s waterfront have found themselves looking up more often. Cracks in garage ceilings, corroded rebar in concrete columns and signs of saltwater seepage after bad weather—not uncommon features of older seaside buildings in this part of the state—are being viewed with new and wary eyes. They’ve been documented on social media, distributed on group chats and shared in unnerved emails to building managers and inspectors. The June 24 collapse of the 13-story Champlain Towers South building, just north of Miami Beach, has not only left 46 people confirmed dead and more than 94 still missing as of July 7. It has also shaken Miami residents who had grown used to natural disasters and regular warnings that they…

Condo collapse raises fears of climate risk

jolly good

After the May through November rush of wedding season, December arrives like a sigh at Cornman Farms, a private event center in southeast Michigan. Snow kisses the rooflines of a cheerful red barn and stately 1834 farmhouse, trimmed in white lights and puffing wood smoke. A flock of geese mills about the naked trees, and a few horses graze nearby. Even in the winter pause, though, Cornman’s founder and executive chef Kieron Hales keeps busy. Preparing for catered holiday parties, he bustles around the kitchen in suspenders, a bow tie hanging loose around his neck. As he dresses a plate with supple leeks and extra-crispy potatoes, he stops to hand over a spoonful of whatever’s on his stovetop for a taste. “You know how they say, ‘Kill people with kindness?’” he…

jolly good

大戶教我的投資本事

台股市場交投熱絡,去年新開戶人數創下近年來新高,三十歲以下占比更是突破四成,而隨著大盤一路向上,指數奔向萬七,股民們不分年資長幼,進出操作多半也是順風順水……。這一切,對台股億元大戶、技術派名家蕭明道來說,真的就像是歷史重演。 那是在上個世紀的八○年代後期,台股迎來史上第一波激情狂潮,當時還不到三十歲的蕭明道,很快就在股市賺到億元身價。只不過,當股市狂潮退去,他又很快地賠光財富,不只來去一場空,甚至因為先前快速致富的經驗讓他對市場失去戒心,反倒負債千萬。 或許就是這段歷程的烙印太深刻,如今,面對前來求教的年輕學生,蕭明道給出的修煉功課絕不輕鬆,他認為,所有的操作,都要有嚴謹、扎實、系統性的訓練為基礎,在基礎之上,賺錢,才知道為何能賺;賠錢,也才知道如何修正再進化。…

大戶教我的投資本事

The Inflation Guy Is Feeling Pumped

Michael Ashton, who styles himself “Inflation Guy” on Twitter, has been preparing for this moment for almost 20 years. In the early 2000s, he was a derivatives trader at Barclays Capital in New York when he was tapped to build a business around inflation swaps, contracts that let traders bet on a rise in consumer prices. Ashton says he was a “good enough” trader—the real job was to build a market by being “an evangelist for the product.” He became one even though, until recently, he expected inflation to be low and stable. Correctly so: In recent years, the U.S. consumer price index has often grown by less than 2% annually. Ashton says his measured outlook irritated his bosses at Barclays, who viewed it as an impediment to drumming up business.…

The Inflation Guy Is Feeling Pumped
Your Facebook Friend Has Some ~Thoughts~ to Share About Your Covid Vaccine

Your Facebook Friend Has Some ~Thoughts~ to Share About Your Covid Vaccine

Kaleese Williams had mostly stayed off Facebook and Instagram before Covid-19 hit. But during the lock-down, the 37-year-old was stuck on her north Texas farm with her husband, their 3-year-old, and their chickens and goats. She was also cut off from a source of income. Williams sells essential oils for a multilevel marketing company in Utah called Young Living. She’d normally set up booths at conferences and other events, making a little money while socializing with passersby. “Quarantine is not a whole lot of fun,” Williams says. “So I started thinking, ‘What would be so wrong with me sharing on social media?’ ” Her plan was to take her essential oils business on Instagram, where she could sell to people she met there. Williams decided to splurge on an online course…

Bracing for Life After Coal

Bracing for Life After Coal

Gerald Lucas, 69, is a former coal miner and federal mine inspector who now gives public tours underground at the Beckley, W.Va., Exhibition Coal Mine, which ceased operations in 1953. He describes it as a fun job that allows him to share his decades of experience with visitors. A career change such as his is becoming more common among West Virginians as the rural state of 1.8 million moves toward a new economy in which coal is no longer king. West Virginia lawmakers also occupy key perches on Capitol Hill as President Joe Biden introduces a sweeping infrastructure and climate package—the $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan—and pledges to revitalize coal country. Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, is a crucial swing vote in the 50-50 Senate and chairs the Committee on Energy…

Winning a Wager on U.S. Sports Betting

Greg Bunnell has played fantasy football since he was a teenager. So when Indiana legalized sports betting two years ago, the 39-year-old project manager seamlessly switched from plotting his next player transfer to setting himself up to bet—all within the FanDuel app. Bunnell, who says he plans to wager as much as $100 a weekend, is one of a record 45 million Americans expected to legally bet on professional football this season, a 36% increase from last year. Thirty states are set to allow such wagering by the Super Bowl’s coin toss in February, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision three years ago to strike down a federal ban on sports betting. FanDuel Group Inc. has emerged as the top business in this new market, nabbing a 42% share of U.S.…

Winning a Wager on U.S. Sports Betting

Target, The Police, And the Damage Done

Before police Sergeant Alice White assigns officers to work off duty at the East Lake Street Target store in South Minneapolis, they get what Target calls values training. Included are specific instructions for greeting customers with a smile and a friendly hello. It’s an unusual script for Minneapolis cops, who are known for adopting a more intimidating posture. That’s certainly been the case at some Targets. But in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 by a Minneapolis policeman, Target Corp. is trying to recalibrate. The 127,000-square-foot store on East Lake Street sits about 2 miles from the corner where Floyd was killed, and it was among the first buildings ransacked after the murder sparked an uprising across Minneapolis. The scene that night is etched in the…

Target, The Police, And the Damage Done
The Political Perils of the Carless City

The Political Perils of the Carless City

On Milan’s long list of pandemic-era public initiatives, remodeling Piazza Sicilia is a strange one to get worked up about. The city built the tiny park in just a few weeks last autumn, at an estimated cost of €20,000 ($23,600). The strip of land had been a right-turn lane at the intersection of busy Via Sardegna and four residential streets, jammed every morning with honking commuters and every afternoon with parents double-parked to pick up their kids from school. Now, with cars forced to divert around the piazza, one of Milan’s myriad traffic nightmares has become a place where children play soccer, food delivery riders perch on their bikes awaiting calls, and residents of nearby apartment blocks face off at the pingpong table. But people are worked up. Covidera urban planning…

Macron’s Mess

The French like to say they are ungovernable, invoking Charles de Gaulle’s exasperated (and likely apocryphal) comment about the difficulty of managing a country with 246 different cheeses. Emmanuel Macron, too, has called the French obstinately opposed to change. Both presidents, former and current, might appear to be right given the images of the Bordeaux City Hall gate that was torched on March 23 or the cancellation of King Charles III’s visit over worries about violent protests coinciding with his stay in Paris. In truth, the French aren’t more averse to change than most. But when they contest a particular policy such as Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age to 64, opponents have only one way to really make a difference, which is to head to the streets. And unfortunately, one…

Macron’s Mess
Saudi Arabia’s Slow Religious Revolution

Saudi Arabia’s Slow Religious Revolution

As an agent of Saudi Arabia’s powerful religious police, Ahmad Alghamdi thought he’d finally found the perfect job. He would order stores to close during prayers, tell men to go to the mosque, and ask women to adjust their veils. He’d previously had short stints as a customs official, accountant, and teacher, but those jobs didn’t sit well with the sheikhs, or religious scholars, whose doctrine he followed. Yet not long after joining the formidable muttawa in his 20s, he grew disillusioned, he says, with what was a pillar of the kingdom’s establishment. He wasn’t convinced its heavy-handed practices were grounded in Islamic law. Today, Alghamdi, now 56, is a sheikh who advocates for freedoms that his former superiors had banned, such as allowing men and women to mix in public, or…

Peak Pallet

Peak Pallet

After carrying the weight of the global economy since World War II with little fanfare, the lowly shipping pallet is finally commanding some respect. Demand for the platforms used to haul consumer goods and industrial materials is soaring amid a surge in e-commerce, forcing retailers and manufacturers to expand warehouses or pile inventories higher. At the same time, two key production inputs—cheap lumber and low-wage labor—are scarce, and even nail costs are rising. The result: Pallet prices have hit record highs, according to a U.S. Labor Department index, while European gauges show big jumps from the U.K. to Germany. The market may stay hot through the peak home construction season in the springtime and as Covid-19 vaccines help revive restaurants and event venues—adding to inflationary pressures rippling across supply chains. “Supply is…

Bonds Are Turning Right Side Up

Bonds Are Turning Right Side Up

Fewer bond investors are having to pay for the privilege of lending out their money. For the first time in years, the global supply of debt with a negative yield is in meaningful decline. The trend is strongest in Europe, where subzero bonds have been an everyday reality for investors. Although the shift will be welcomed by those seeking safe income from new investments, it means current bondholders are losing money. (Bond prices fall when yields rise.) It also signals that higher borrowing costs are on the way for everyone from governments to corporations to homeowners. It could be an especially nasty jolt for junk-rated companies and emerging-market governments, which have been able to gorge themselves on debt at much lower rates than they’re used to as investors have taken on…