newyorker--2020-05-09--A Queasy London Celebrates the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of V-E Day

“ When the day finally came , it was like no other day that anyone can remember , ” Mollie Panter-Downes , the London correspondent for this magazine , wrote of May 8 , 1945 , the day that the war in Europe officially ended .
“ It had a flavor of its own , an extemporaneousness which gave it something of the quality of a vast , happy village fete as people wandered about , sat , sang , and slept against a summer background of trees , grass , flowers , and water.
” This holiday atmosphere was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Victory in Europe Day had in mind when it was announced , last June , that , in 2020 , the bank holiday typically observed on the first Monday of May would be moved to Friday , May 8th .
This rescheduling would permit a three-day-long celebration of that long-ago victory , with bagpipers playing from atop the four highest peaks in England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland , and bells ringing from the towers of churches and cathedrals nationwide .
As recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city of Wuhan was locked down , three weeks after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the U.K. , and a day after the first deaths as a result of the disease were reported in Italy—the government was releasing further plans : these included a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey , to be attended by veterans , and what was being billed as “ the Nation ’ s Toast , ” during which publicans , whose licensing hours would be extended to 1 A.M. , would encourage patrons “ to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ World War II.
” The official Web site of the anniversary , VE Day 75 , suggested forties-themed street parties , dances in village halls , and the baking of ration-book-era recipes , such as Lord Woolton pie , a root-vegetable and pastry confection .
“ Don ’ t forget the Spam !
” the site warned cheerily , proposing the consumption , or at least the purchase , of the reviled processed meat as the ultimate in kitsch depri-tainment .
Less than a month later , though , the first deprivations of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Boris Johnson ordered both pubs and churches to cease operations , and police were deployed to prevent wandering , sitting , or dozing in public spaces .
Rather than remembering the end of the Second World War from the safe distance of twenty-first-century peace and global—if not always personal—prosperity , Britons arrived upon the anniversary feeling some glimmer of proximity to the endurance and privations of the past .
On May 8 , 1945 , Londoners awakened to a thunderstorm that dissipated into what Panter-Downes described as “ that perfect , hot , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one sometimes feels , is to be found only in the imagination of the lyric poets.
” In London , Friday , May 8 , 2020 , also dawned gloriously .
The air was clear and fresh , pollution in the capital having dropped by as much as fifty per cent in some areas since the cessation , seven weeks earlier , of all-but-essential commerce , travel , and industry .
Temperatures were in the low seventies , perfect for lazing in the park or picnicking—two of the activities that are reportedly going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of restrictions .
With some government sources having , presumably , leaked the picnic-go-ahead rumor , other government sources quickly sought to tamp down expectations : changes would be “ modest , small , incremental and very carefully monitored , ” Dominic Raab , a senior minister , said on Thursday evening .
V-C Day was definitely not yet in sight , nor is it likely to be .
For all the martial metaphors that politicians on both sides of the Atlantic like to invoke , humanity is not so much at war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cohabiting with it , with nowhere more hospitable to escape to .
The messaging for V-E Day changed in the days running up to the holiday weekend : Britons were being encouraged to celebrate at home .
They were to deck their living rooms with bunting rather than waving flags on a sidewalk ; to hold back-garden tea parties—simultaneously with their neighbors , if they wished , at an appropriate social distance—instead of street parties .
Panter-Downes had witnessed , in London , the apparition of groups of beautiful young women , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ streets like flocks of twittering , gaily plumaged cockney birds.
” In lieu of that kind of liberty , Britons this weekend had a downloadable “ VE Day Party Pack , ” created by English Heritage , the charity that oversees many of the nation ’ s monuments .
It was about as festive as you ’ d expect in a social landscape in which any public embracing of handsome , uniformed strangers by young women in summer dresses would result not in cheers from onlookers but in tut-tutted condemnation .
Instead of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lindy Hop around one ’ s kitchen , or download a recipe for cheese-and-marmite swirls .
Still , Spam was for sale : two pounds per can on the Tesco supermarket ’ s Web site , and available for home delivery if you could get a slot , which you couldn ’ t .
A schedule of events had been issued—a timetable around which the population , isolated at home , was invited to cohere , just as it has every Thursday evening since mid-March , for doorstep cheers for the National Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 11 A.M. , a two-minute moment of silence in honor of the war dead , for which Britons were asked to stand on their doorsteps in solidarity .
On one street in North London , at least , not a single householder was seen making the gesture , unless the guy sitting on his doorstep and looking at his phone could be counted , which somehow seemed unlikely .
In London , it might have made more , if counterintuitive , sense to have called for a moment of noise .
The symbolic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when tools have already been downed for weeks , with an estimated seven out of ten firms furloughing staff .
Londoners have been observing not moments but weeks of silence , and any passing appreciation of enhanced birdsong and the absence of jackhammers is more than outweighed by the moral obscenity of , for example , a new population of homeless , comprising unemployed hospitality and restaurant workers , who have been driven onto the streets of central London .
On May 8 , 1945 , central London was alive with revellers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their hair done up in red-white-and-blue ribbons , to beaming elderly couples who , utterly without self-consciousness , strolled up and down the street arm in arm in red-white-and-blue paper hats.
” Arm-in-arm strolling has been a no-no for a while now : the city ’ s pedestrians are all hewing closely to the right or left of too-narrow sidewalks , seeking to avoid rival pedestrians and shoppers queuing six feet apart from one another .
Elderly couples may , possibly , be beaming as they walk through the streets these days , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind the face masks that so many of them have taken to wearing in public , and the alarmed eyes that widen whenever a younger jogger comes puffing into view would suggest otherwise .
“ The crowds milled back and forth between the Palace , Westminster , Trafalgar Square , and Piccadilly Circus , ” Panter-Downes wrote .
That ’ s quite a distance to mill , especially in a crowd , as Londoners who last gathered en masse to protest Brexit—and who are now forbidden from congregating in groups larger than their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Friday , Londoners were traversing those routes not on foot but by bicycle .
In recent weeks , it ’ s been easy to feel at times as if the British capital has been transformed , winningly , into Copenhagen , with hordes of cyclists whistling through the Royal Parks , which have never looked greener or more beautiful .
At Westminster , opposite the Houses of Parliament , an occasional passerby took a photo of the statue of Churchill , whose appearance on the palace balcony on V-E Day drew “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” from the crowd , Panter-Downes recorded .
The clock tower of Big Ben , which is presently under repair , was clad in black drapes , looking as if it had been the target of arson .
To behold it was to recall Boris Johnson ’ s sloganeering in late January , when he prevailed upon Britons to “ bung a bob for a Big Ben bong ” —contribute to a fund to make the bell temporarily functional—in order to celebrate Britain ’ s departure from the E.U.
, and to wonder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Prime Minister had brushed aside in his Brexit Day bluster .

“When the day finally came, it was like no other day that anyone can remember,” Mollie Panter-Downes, the London correspondent for this magazine, wrote of May 8, 1945, the day that the war in Europe officially ended. “It had a flavor of its own, an extemporaneousness which gave it something of the quality of a vast, happy village fete as people wandered about, sat, sang, and slept against a summer background of trees, grass, flowers, and water.” This holiday atmosphere was, presumably, what the architects of the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Victory in Europe Day had in mind when it was announced, last June, that, in 2020, the bank holiday typically observed on the first Monday of May would be moved to Friday, May 8th. This rescheduling would permit a three-day-long celebration of that long-ago victory, with bagpipers playing from atop the four highest peaks in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and bells ringing from the towers of churches and cathedrals nationwide.
As recently as February 23rd—a month after the Chinese city of Wuhan was locked down, three weeks after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the U.K., and a day after the first deaths as a result of the disease were reported in Italy—the government was releasing further plans: these included a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, to be attended by veterans, and what was being billed as “the Nation’s Toast,” during which publicans, whose licensing hours would be extended to 1 A.M., would encourage patrons “to raise a glass to the Heroes of World War II.” The official Web site of the anniversary, VE Day 75, suggested forties-themed street parties, dances in village halls, and the baking of ration-book-era recipes, such as Lord Woolton pie, a root-vegetable and pastry confection. “Don’t forget the Spam!” the site warned cheerily, proposing the consumption, or at least the purchase, of the reviled processed meat as the ultimate in kitsch depri-tainment. Less than a month later, though, the first deprivations of the coronavirus crisis began. Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered both pubs and churches to cease operations, and police were deployed to prevent wandering, sitting, or dozing in public spaces. Rather than remembering the end of the Second World War from the safe distance of twenty-first-century peace and global—if not always personal—prosperity, Britons arrived upon the anniversary feeling some glimmer of proximity to the endurance and privations of the past.
On May 8, 1945, Londoners awakened to a thunderstorm that dissipated into what Panter-Downes described as “that perfect, hot, English summer’s day which, one sometimes feels, is to be found only in the imagination of the lyric poets.” In London, Friday, May 8, 2020, also dawned gloriously. The air was clear and fresh, pollution in the capital having dropped by as much as fifty per cent in some areas since the cessation, seven weeks earlier, of all-but-essential commerce, travel, and industry. Temperatures were in the low seventies, perfect for lazing in the park or picnicking—two of the activities that are reportedly going to be permitted after an anticipated lightening of restrictions. With some government sources having, presumably, leaked the picnic-go-ahead rumor, other government sources quickly sought to tamp down expectations: changes would be “modest, small, incremental and very carefully monitored,” Dominic Raab, a senior minister, said on Thursday evening. V-C Day was definitely not yet in sight, nor is it likely to be. For all the martial metaphors that politicians on both sides of the Atlantic like to invoke, humanity is not so much at war with the virus as uneasily, unwillingly cohabiting with it, with nowhere more hospitable to escape to.
The messaging for V-E Day changed in the days running up to the holiday weekend: Britons were being encouraged to celebrate at home. They were to deck their living rooms with bunting rather than waving flags on a sidewalk; to hold back-garden tea parties—simultaneously with their neighbors, if they wished, at an appropriate social distance—instead of street parties. Panter-Downes had witnessed, in London, the apparition of groups of beautiful young women, who “streamed out into the parks and streets like flocks of twittering, gaily plumaged cockney birds.” In lieu of that kind of liberty, Britons this weekend had a downloadable “VE Day Party Pack,” created by English Heritage, the charity that oversees many of the nation’s monuments. It was about as festive as you’d expect in a social landscape in which any public embracing of handsome, uniformed strangers by young women in summer dresses would result not in cheers from onlookers but in tut-tutted condemnation. Instead of dancing in the streets, one could Lindy Hop around one’s kitchen, or download a recipe for cheese-and-marmite swirls. Still, Spam was for sale: two pounds per can on the Tesco supermarket’s Web site, and available for home delivery if you could get a slot, which you couldn’t.
A schedule of events had been issued—a timetable around which the population, isolated at home, was invited to cohere, just as it has every Thursday evening since mid-March, for doorstep cheers for the National Health Service. The first event was at 11 A.M., a two-minute moment of silence in honor of the war dead, for which Britons were asked to stand on their doorsteps in solidarity. On one street in North London, at least, not a single householder was seen making the gesture, unless the guy sitting on his doorstep and looking at his phone could be counted, which somehow seemed unlikely. In London, it might have made more, if counterintuitive, sense to have called for a moment of noise. The symbolic downing of tools has considerably less impact when tools have already been downed for weeks, with an estimated seven out of ten firms furloughing staff. Londoners have been observing not moments but weeks of silence, and any passing appreciation of enhanced birdsong and the absence of jackhammers is more than outweighed by the moral obscenity of, for example, a new population of homeless, comprising unemployed hospitality and restaurant workers, who have been driven onto the streets of central London.
On May 8, 1945, central London was alive with revellers, “from the smallest babies, with their hair done up in red-white-and-blue ribbons, to beaming elderly couples who, utterly without self-consciousness, strolled up and down the street arm in arm in red-white-and-blue paper hats.” Arm-in-arm strolling has been a no-no for a while now: the city’s pedestrians are all hewing closely to the right or left of too-narrow sidewalks, seeking to avoid rival pedestrians and shoppers queuing six feet apart from one another. Elderly couples may, possibly, be beaming as they walk through the streets these days, but it’s hard to tell behind the face masks that so many of them have taken to wearing in public, and the alarmed eyes that widen whenever a younger jogger comes puffing into view would suggest otherwise.
“The crowds milled back and forth between the Palace, Westminster, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus,” Panter-Downes wrote. That’s quite a distance to mill, especially in a crowd, as Londoners who last gathered en masse to protest Brexit—and who are now forbidden from congregating in groups larger than their own immediate family—will dimly recall. On Friday, Londoners were traversing those routes not on foot but by bicycle. In recent weeks, it’s been easy to feel at times as if the British capital has been transformed, winningly, into Copenhagen, with hordes of cyclists whistling through the Royal Parks, which have never looked greener or more beautiful. At Westminster, opposite the Houses of Parliament, an occasional passerby took a photo of the statue of Churchill, whose appearance on the palace balcony on V-E Day drew “a deep, full-throated, almost reverent roar” from the crowd, Panter-Downes recorded. The clock tower of Big Ben, which is presently under repair, was clad in black drapes, looking as if it had been the target of arson. To behold it was to recall Boris Johnson’s sloganeering in late January, when he prevailed upon Britons to “bung a bob for a Big Ben bong”—contribute to a fund to make the bell temporarily functional—in order to celebrate Britain’s departure from the E.U., and to wonder what briefings about the alarming new virus the Prime Minister had brushed aside in his Brexit Day bluster.


newyorker--2020-05-08--The Most Alarming Thing About the Worst Jobs Report in History

There has never been a monthly employment report like the one , for April , that the Labor Department released on Friday morning .
The figures in the report are based on two surveys : a survey of households , which the Census Bureau carries out , and a survey of businesses , which the Bureau of Labor Statistics carries out .
“ The household survey is generally collected through in-person and telephone interviews , but personal interviews were not conducted for the safety of interviewers and respondents , ” the report noted .
The regional call centers that conduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but some of the interviewers worked from home , and the department encouraged firms to file their payroll reports electronically .
As a result of these efforts , the amount of data that the business survey collected was “ essentially unchanged from collection rates prior to the pandemic , ” the report said .
In other words , the B.L.S .
did yeoman ’ s work in tough circumstances , and its report provided the most comprehensive picture yet of how the coronavirus shutdowns have affected the economy .
The headline figures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 4.4 per cent to 14.7 per cent in April , and the number of employees on firms ’ payrolls fell by 20.5 million .
Both of these jumps were unprecedented in scale .
In October , 2009 , following the great financial crisis , the unemployment rate peaked at ten per cent .
In November and December , 1982 , a year and a half after then Fed chairman Paul Volcker raised interest rates sharply to bring down inflation , it peaked at 10.8 per cent .
We haven ’ t seen a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one since the nineteen-thirties .
Moreover , the 14.7 per cent figure substantially underestimates the actual jobless rate for a couple of reasons .
One is a technicality .
Based on the answers they give the officials carrying out the household survey , individuals get counted as employed , unemployed , or out of the workforce completely .
The Employment Report explained that people who had been laid off in virus-related shutdowns should have been classified as “ unemployed on temporary layoffs , ” but many of them got categorized as “ employed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absentees had been included in the temporary-layoff count , “ the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher than reported.
” Making that adjustment takes the unemployment rate close to twenty per cent .
But even that figure is already out of date , because the reference week for the household survey , which is where the jobless rate comes from , was April 12th to the 18th .
Since then , at least another seven million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits .
Today , the real jobless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twenties , which would put it on a par with the peak rates seen during the Great Depression .
Friday ’ s report confirmed that layoffs and furloughs have affected virtually every part of the economy—manufacturing , government , and services—with the latter sector hit hardest .
Restaurants and bars alone shed almost 5.5 million workers last month .
Retailers laid off more than two million .
About a million people who had been working in amusement parks , casinos , and other recreation businesses joined the ranks of the unemployed .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been working in the offices of doctors , dentists , and other health practitioners .
About eight hundred thousand people working in launderettes or dry cleaners were let go .
So were about eight hundred thousand hotel workers .
In many of the hardest-hit industries , employees weren ’ t paid very much to begin with .
An analysis of the employment report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that “ more than half of all job losses come from the low-paid group of industries.
” Taken together , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by close to thirty per cent since February , the analysis concluded .
By comparison , industries in the middle third of the pay distribution have cut twelve per cent of their workforce , and industries in the top third have shed just eight per cent of their employees .
These figures confirm the emergence of two distinct coronavirus economies .
In the economy of well-paid professionals , most people keep their jobs and work from home .
In sectors where pay is low and workers tend to have fewer educational qualifications , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Since they are low-paid to begin with , many of the newly jobless don ’ t have the financial resources to survive independently .
Congress should extend its recent expansion of unemployment benefits until the jobless rate returns to a much lower level .
Other emergency programs may also need to be extended , and more financial aid should be provided to the states .
The jobs report showed that state and local governments cut their payrolls by about a million last month .
If states and municipalities are forced to cut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this figure will only increase .
How soon will the jobless rate start to fall appreciably ?
Friday ’ s report doesn ’ t answer this question .
In recording what has already happened , it is what economists refer to as “ a lagging indicator.
” On Wall Street , which looks forward , investors are betting on a rapid rebound in employment , output , and profits .
After the jobs report came out , the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by nearly two per cent .
Since stocks bottomed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has risen by more than thirty per cent .
The tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen even further .
Time will tell whether this is a shrewd wager or another instance of the madness of crowds .
According to Jared Bernstein , a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , who was also an economic adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden , “ the closest thing to a hopeful number ” in the employment report is the fact that , of the total of twenty-three million jobless Americans , eighteen million of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ layoff rather than being permanently out of work .
In all likelihood , many of these people will get called back .
Over the next few months , lots of retail stores , dental practices , construction sites , fast-food joints , and suspended flights will surely reopen , preferably with proper social-distancing protocols in place .
But how much revenue will businesses that reopen generate ?
The lesson from other countries , such as China , is that , with many people still fearful of the virus , the rebound from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And in some places , such as parts of Japan , a resurgence in cases of infection has prompted a second wave of lockdowns .
If that pattern is repeated here , many temporary layoffs may turn into permanent ones .
MGM Resorts International , which operates thirteen properties in Las Vegas , has furloughed sixty-three thousand workers .
Earlier this week , the firm indicated that at least some of these workers are unlikely to be rehired .
Given “ the continued uncertainty facing our industry , we simply don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ return to work within the coming months , ” MGM ’ s acting C.E.O.
, Bill Hornbuckle , said .
He was only referring to one industry , of course , but his statement could just as well be applied to the economy as a whole .
On a day when the worst jobs report in history was released , that pervasive and ineluctable uncertainty about what the future holds is the most alarming thing .
• Twenty-four hours at the epicenter of the pandemic : nearly fifty New Yorker writers and photographers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York City on April 15th .
• Seattle leaders let scientists take the lead in responding to the coronavirus .
New York leaders did not .
• Can survivors help cure the disease and rescue the economy ?
• What the coronavirus has revealed about American medicine .
• Can we trace the spread of COVID-19 and protect privacy at the same time ?
• The coronavirus is likely to spread for more than a year before a vaccine is widely available .
• How to practice social distancing , from responding to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cons of ordering food .
• The long crusade of Dr. Anthony Fauci , the infectious-disease expert pinned between Donald Trump and the American people .
• What to read , watch , cook , and listen to under quarantine .

There has never been a monthly employment report like the one, for April, that the Labor Department released on Friday morning. The figures in the report are based on two surveys: a survey of households, which the Census Bureau carries out, and a survey of businesses, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics carries out. “The household survey is generally collected through in-person and telephone interviews, but personal interviews were not conducted for the safety of interviewers and respondents,” the report noted. The regional call centers that conduct the business survey were closed last month, but some of the interviewers worked from home, and the department encouraged firms to file their payroll reports electronically. As a result of these efforts, the amount of data that the business survey collected was “essentially unchanged from collection rates prior to the pandemic,” the report said.
In other words, the B.L.S. did yeoman’s work in tough circumstances, and its report provided the most comprehensive picture yet of how the coronavirus shutdowns have affected the economy. The headline figures were that the unemployment rate jumped from 4.4 per cent to 14.7 per cent in April, and the number of employees on firms’ payrolls fell by 20.5 million. Both of these jumps were unprecedented in scale. In October, 2009, following the great financial crisis, the unemployment rate peaked at ten per cent. In November and December, 1982, a year and a half after then Fed chairman Paul Volcker raised interest rates sharply to bring down inflation, it peaked at 10.8 per cent. We haven’t seen a jobless rate as high as the current one since the nineteen-thirties.
Moreover, the 14.7 per cent figure substantially underestimates the actual jobless rate for a couple of reasons. One is a technicality. Based on the answers they give the officials carrying out the household survey, individuals get counted as employed, unemployed, or out of the workforce completely. The Employment Report explained that people who had been laid off in virus-related shutdowns should have been classified as “unemployed on temporary layoffs,” but many of them got categorized as “employed but absent from work.” If these absentees had been included in the temporary-layoff count, “the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher than reported.”
Making that adjustment takes the unemployment rate close to twenty per cent. But even that figure is already out of date, because the reference week for the household survey, which is where the jobless rate comes from, was April 12th to the 18th. Since then, at least another seven million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits. Today, the real jobless rate is probably somewhere in the low twenties, which would put it on a par with the peak rates seen during the Great Depression.
Friday’s report confirmed that layoffs and furloughs have affected virtually every part of the economy—manufacturing, government, and services—with the latter sector hit hardest. Restaurants and bars alone shed almost 5.5 million workers last month. Retailers laid off more than two million. About a million people who had been working in amusement parks, casinos, and other recreation businesses joined the ranks of the unemployed. So did a similar number of people who had been working in the offices of doctors, dentists, and other health practitioners. About eight hundred thousand people working in launderettes or dry cleaners were let go. So were about eight hundred thousand hotel workers.
In many of the hardest-hit industries, employees weren’t paid very much to begin with. An analysis of the employment report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that “more than half of all job losses come from the low-paid group of industries.” Taken together, these low-pay industries have cut their workforces by close to thirty per cent since February, the analysis concluded. By comparison, industries in the middle third of the pay distribution have cut twelve per cent of their workforce, and industries in the top third have shed just eight per cent of their employees. These figures confirm the emergence of two distinct coronavirus economies. In the economy of well-paid professionals, most people keep their jobs and work from home. In sectors where pay is low and workers tend to have fewer educational qualifications, the shutdowns often equate to being unemployed.
Since they are low-paid to begin with, many of the newly jobless don’t have the financial resources to survive independently. Congress should extend its recent expansion of unemployment benefits until the jobless rate returns to a much lower level. Other emergency programs may also need to be extended, and more financial aid should be provided to the states. The jobs report showed that state and local governments cut their payrolls by about a million last month. If states and municipalities are forced to cut their budgets as their tax revenues fall, this figure will only increase.
How soon will the jobless rate start to fall appreciably? Friday’s report doesn’t answer this question. In recording what has already happened, it is what economists refer to as “a lagging indicator.” On Wall Street, which looks forward, investors are betting on a rapid rebound in employment, output, and profits. After the jobs report came out, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by nearly two per cent. Since stocks bottomed out in late March, the index has risen by more than thirty per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen even further.
Time will tell whether this is a shrewd wager or another instance of the madness of crowds. According to Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who was also an economic adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden, “the closest thing to a hopeful number” in the employment report is the fact that, of the total of twenty-three million jobless Americans, eighteen million of them were classed as being on temporary layoff rather than being permanently out of work.
In all likelihood, many of these people will get called back. Over the next few months, lots of retail stores, dental practices, construction sites, fast-food joints, and suspended flights will surely reopen, preferably with proper social-distancing protocols in place. But how much revenue will businesses that reopen generate? The lesson from other countries, such as China, is that, with many people still fearful of the virus, the rebound from the shutdowns tends to be slow and partial. And in some places, such as parts of Japan, a resurgence in cases of infection has prompted a second wave of lockdowns.
If that pattern is repeated here, many temporary layoffs may turn into permanent ones. MGM Resorts International, which operates thirteen properties in Las Vegas, has furloughed sixty-three thousand workers. Earlier this week, the firm indicated that at least some of these workers are unlikely to be rehired. Given “the continued uncertainty facing our industry, we simply don’t know just how many employees will return to work within the coming months,” MGM’s acting C.E.O., Bill Hornbuckle, said. He was only referring to one industry, of course, but his statement could just as well be applied to the economy as a whole. On a day when the worst jobs report in history was released, that pervasive and ineluctable uncertainty about what the future holds is the most alarming thing.
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-05-08--The Michael Flynn Dismissal Is Another Shot in Trump’s War on the Mueller Investigation

For someone who lies a great deal , President Trump can be remarkably transparent .
Shortly after Attorney General William Barr ’ s Justice Department moved to dismiss the guilty plea of Michael Flynn , the former national-security adviser , Trump tweeted , “ Yesterday was a BIG day for Justice in the USA .
Congratulations to General Flynn , and many others .
I do believe there is MUCH more to come !
” Much more to come .
This means that Trump and his Administration will continue to try to disassemble the legacy of the special counsel Robert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign and its aftermath—and to pretend that a coverup amounts to an exoneration .
Matters of legal procedure often lend themselves to obfuscation , but the Flynn case is pretty straightforward .
At the end of 2016 , the F.B.I .
was winding down an investigation of Russian interference in the Presidential election .
But during the transition period after Election Day , American authorities intercepted a phone call between Flynn , who had been a Trump adviser in the campaign , and Sergey Kislyak , who was then the Russian Ambassador to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ F.B.I .
became aware that Flynn was lying to the public and others about what was said during the call about President Obama ’ s imposition of sanctions on Russia .
( Flynn lied by saying that he had not discussed the sanctions with Kislyak . )
In doing so , Flynn had opened himself up to blackmail from the Russians about the contents of the call .
To follow up , a pair of F.B.I .
agents interviewed Flynn on January 24 , 2017 , less than a week after he started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Flynn lied to them , too .
Later that year , as the investigation by Mueller continued , Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the agents .
There , following sentencing , is where the matter should have ended .
But Trump has been complaining for some time that Flynn was ill-treated .
This was a tough argument to make , because Flynn was a sophisticated defendant , with highly regarded lawyers , who made an informed decision to admit his guilt—in two separate proceedings , as it happened .
The President always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and he probably would have done so , but the Justice Department has done his dirty work for him .
This is an especially disturbing part of the Flynn denouement .
A pardon would have been outrageous but within Presidential prerogative .
Instead , the Justice Department manufactured a phony pretext to pretend that Flynn ’ s guilty plea was illegitimate .
The Justice Department ’ s action here may be unprecedented .
I do not know of another instance where the department has voluntarily dropped a case in which the defendant had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in which the judge had already rejected the arguments that Barr ’ s subordinates made in dismissing the case .
Those arguments are weak .
As the journalist Marcy Wheeler has shown , there is no new information that recently came to the attention of the Justice Department .
Instead , the department ’ s main legal argument is the assertion that the F.B.I .
had no reason to interview Flynn in the first place—and that , accordingly , the subject matter of the interview was not “ material ” to an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prosecutions of false statements when those statements are “ material ” to a pending investigation . )
But the F.B.I.
’ s approach to Flynn was totally legitimate , and Flynn ’ s lies were highly material to the investigation .
Indeed , there was so much concern about Flynn ’ s behavior that Sally Yates , the acting Attorney General , paid a visit to Don McGahn , the new White House counsel , to express her alarm about what Flynn was doing .
Interviewing Flynn was a crucial step in that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Trump ’ s war on the Mueller legacy has been clear for some time .
In February , the Justice Department overruled its own line prosecutors in the case of Roger Stone , who was also indicted as part of the special counsel ’ s investigation , and recommended a lower sentence than the prosecutors had .
( All four lawyers on the case promptly dissociated themselves from the prosecution , and one quit the Justice Department . )
Trump , in the meantime , has expressed great sympathy for Stone ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for two other prominent defendants in the investigation—Paul Manafort , Trump ’ s former campaign chairman , and George Papadopoulos , a campaign aide—seem more likely than not .
Judge Emmet Sullivan , who presided over the Flynn case , still has to approve the dismissal .
Given his honorable conduct of the case so far , Sullivan is likely to be aggrieved by what the Justice Department has done , and he may express that view to the public in some way .
But there doesn ’ t appear to be any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bring a case that they want to drop .
So Flynn will go free .
Likewise , through pardons or the actions of a compliant and compromised Justice Department , Trump can continue to undo Mueller ’ s legal legacy .
But the President can not change the underlying facts , nor can he unwrite the Mueller Report , which documents , in unsparing detail , the crimes of his associates , and his own .

For someone who lies a great deal, President Trump can be remarkably transparent. Shortly after Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department moved to dismiss the guilty plea of Michael Flynn, the former national-security adviser, Trump tweeted, “Yesterday was a BIG day for Justice in the USA. Congratulations to General Flynn, and many others. I do believe there is MUCH more to come!” Much more to come. This means that Trump and his Administration will continue to try to disassemble the legacy of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the 2016 campaign and its aftermath—and to pretend that a coverup amounts to an exoneration.
Matters of legal procedure often lend themselves to obfuscation, but the Flynn case is pretty straightforward. At the end of 2016, the F.B.I. was winding down an investigation of Russian interference in the Presidential election. But during the transition period after Election Day, American authorities intercepted a phone call between Flynn, who had been a Trump adviser in the campaign, and Sergey Kislyak, who was then the Russian Ambassador to the United States. Afterward, the F.B.I. became aware that Flynn was lying to the public and others about what was said during the call about President Obama’s imposition of sanctions on Russia. (Flynn lied by saying that he had not discussed the sanctions with Kislyak.) In doing so, Flynn had opened himself up to blackmail from the Russians about the contents of the call. To follow up, a pair of F.B.I. agents interviewed Flynn on January 24, 2017, less than a week after he started his job as the national-security adviser. Flynn lied to them, too. Later that year, as the investigation by Mueller continued, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the agents.
There, following sentencing, is where the matter should have ended. But Trump has been complaining for some time that Flynn was ill-treated. This was a tough argument to make, because Flynn was a sophisticated defendant, with highly regarded lawyers, who made an informed decision to admit his guilt—in two separate proceedings, as it happened. The President always had the right to pardon Flynn, and he probably would have done so, but the Justice Department has done his dirty work for him. This is an especially disturbing part of the Flynn denouement. A pardon would have been outrageous but within Presidential prerogative. Instead, the Justice Department manufactured a phony pretext to pretend that Flynn’s guilty plea was illegitimate.
The Justice Department’s action here may be unprecedented. I do not know of another instance where the department has voluntarily dropped a case in which the defendant had pleaded guilty—especially a case such as this, in which the judge had already rejected the arguments that Barr’s subordinates made in dismissing the case. Those arguments are weak. As the journalist Marcy Wheeler has shown, there is no new information that recently came to the attention of the Justice Department. Instead, the department’s main legal argument is the assertion that the F.B.I. had no reason to interview Flynn in the first place—and that, accordingly, the subject matter of the interview was not “material” to an investigation. (The law only allows prosecutions of false statements when those statements are “material” to a pending investigation.) But the F.B.I.’s approach to Flynn was totally legitimate, and Flynn’s lies were highly material to the investigation. Indeed, there was so much concern about Flynn’s behavior that Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General, paid a visit to Don McGahn, the new White House counsel, to express her alarm about what Flynn was doing. Interviewing Flynn was a crucial step in that investigation.
Barr’s supporting role in Trump’s war on the Mueller legacy has been clear for some time. In February, the Justice Department overruled its own line prosecutors in the case of Roger Stone, who was also indicted as part of the special counsel’s investigation, and recommended a lower sentence than the prosecutors had. (All four lawyers on the case promptly dissociated themselves from the prosecution, and one quit the Justice Department.) Trump, in the meantime, has expressed great sympathy for Stone’s plight. Pardons for Stone and for two other prominent defendants in the investigation—Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and George Papadopoulos, a campaign aide—seem more likely than not.
Judge Emmet Sullivan, who presided over the Flynn case, still has to approve the dismissal. Given his honorable conduct of the case so far, Sullivan is likely to be aggrieved by what the Justice Department has done, and he may express that view to the public in some way. But there doesn’t appear to be any way for a judge to force prosecutors to bring a case that they want to drop. So Flynn will go free. Likewise, through pardons or the actions of a compliant and compromised Justice Department, Trump can continue to undo Mueller’s legal legacy. But the President cannot change the underlying facts, nor can he unwrite the Mueller Report, which documents, in unsparing detail, the crimes of his associates, and his own.


newyorker--2020-05-08--Trump Versus the Governors

Trump Versus the Governors

At a press conference at the White House in March , President Donald Trump said that state governors seeking federal aid to fight the coronavirus needed to be nice to him .
“ If they don ’ t treat you right , ” he told reporters , “ I don ’ t call.
” Michigan ’ s Gretchen Whitmer talks about her clashes with Trump , which have vaulted her into the national spotlight , and about her support of Joe Biden , despite the allegation of assault against him .
Plus , the novelist Edwidge Danticat surveys the effect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her Miami neighborhood , and two Montana writers , Thomas McGuane and Callan Wink , go fishing .
Governor Gretchen Whitmer on COVID-19 , Trump , and the Accusations Against Joe Biden The Michigan governor on guiding her state through the coronavirus pandemic , her public skirmishes with the President , and her support of Joe Biden .
The Pandemic and Little Haiti The novelist Edwidge Danticat says that COVID-19 is changing the lives of Haitians , both on the island and in the U.S. Two Western writers go fishing on Montana ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critique of “ Western writing .
”

Illustration by Golden Cosmos
At a press conference at the White House in March, President Donald Trump said that state governors seeking federal aid to fight the coronavirus needed to be nice to him. “If they don’t treat you right,” he told reporters, “I don’t call.” Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer talks about her clashes with Trump, which have vaulted her into the national spotlight, and about her support of Joe Biden, despite the allegation of assault against him. Plus, the novelist Edwidge Danticat surveys the effect of the coronavirus on the Haitian-Americans of her Miami neighborhood, and two Montana writers, Thomas McGuane and Callan Wink, go fishing.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer on COVID-19, Trump, and the Accusations Against Joe Biden
The Michigan governor on guiding her state through the coronavirus pandemic, her public skirmishes with the President, and her support of Joe Biden.
The Pandemic and Little Haiti
The novelist Edwidge Danticat says that COVID-19 is changing the lives of Haitians, both on the island and in the U.S.
Thomas McGuane and Callan Wink Go Fishing
Two Western writers go fishing on Montana’s Yellowstone River and share a pointed critique of “Western writing.”


newyorker--2020-05-08--A Mother Turns Her Quarantine Yard Into an Enchanted Garden

The children ’ s faces are rubbed with paint ; they are transformed into warriors .
It is nighttime , but , unlike in fairy tales , the darkness is not sinister but comforting .
The children , looking like characters from Carnival , are protected by night , camouflaged by leaves of deep , phthalocyanine green .
“ We started to elaborate on the weirdness of the situation , ” the photographer Elisabetta Zavoli , who took these haunting photographs in her garden with her young sons , while the family was under quarantine in their home in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking the photographs , she collaborated with the filmmaker Kristina Budelis , who lives in Los Angeles , to create “ Finding Colors in Darkness , ” the short documentary above .
Zavoli began this project as a salve for her mental health .
Like many , Zavoli was terrified during the first few days of lockdown in Italy .
Her sons , who are eight and eleven , found the process of setting up scenes therapeutic .
The stories that came out of the their imaginations were of monsters killing people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way to express these feelings .
With a new abundance of “ free ” time , the boys started asking her questions about her work , and soon she was setting them loose in the garden with her equipment ( and supervision ) .
As a professional photographer , Zavoli told me that her creative projects help her “ not to fall into despair.
” The kind of serious play she and her sons shared helped process complicated emotions , for which it is often hard to find language .
“ If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by playing them , this helps you recognize them in real life and cope with them , ” she said .
We all know childhood can be terrifying ; the stories of the Brothers Grimm mean so much to children because they allow them to see their fears acknowledged .
But it is one thing to argue for the value of fear , and another thing entirely to encourage children to turn and face the monster that ’ s chasing them .
There ’ s always a chance , after all , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real .
Zavoli ’ s family photo shoots—in which her children got to play at being the monsters that hide in the night—were a way of turning childhood fears upside down .
The photo shoots were also a way for Zavoli to share her creative life with her children .
Her older son is entering adolescence , and Zavoli appreciated the chance to play with him during these last months of his childhood .
Interacting with them as both an artist and a parent gave her a chance to , as she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them.
” “ For me , it works like this ” she explained in an e-mail .
“ I try to reconnect with my wilderness and to that state of grace that children have and maybe adults have forgotten .
Be full of amazement , do things ( sometimes ) that overcome the rules or the boundaries just because you are passionate about , train yourself in seeing things from another perspective ( from above , from bottom , from inside , from outside .
.
. )
, reconnect with all your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 6th one , use it as well ! )
, pay attention to small/tiny/almost invisible things around you.
” These practices don ’ t erase the differences between parent and child , she said , but help create a shared “ garden ” that they could each enjoy .
Such a connection is especially important when families in isolation may be dealing with unusual stress and anxiety .
In the dark , the children wear masks that make them look like animal gods .
The costumes seem to give them the courage to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hidden .
This transformation is natural to Zavoli , a part of life in their rural surroundings .
“ Animals live with us ” she said .
“ They are part of our daily life , to the point that we see us all inside the same big picture .
So playing the fox or the caterpillar , or taking pictures of our blue-gray rooster , it is like playing the part of one of the subjects in the stories that commonly happen in our daily life.
” In March , as daily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peak in Italy , Zavoli ’ s sons watched the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies .
They wondered , Zavoli told me , if a caterpillar “ feels strange when it realizes something is changing inside itself but doesn ’ t know what this will mean.
” • Twenty-four hours at the epicenter of the pandemic : nearly fifty New Yorker writers and photographers fanned out to document life in New York City on April 15th .
• Seattle leaders let scientists take the lead in responding to the coronavirus .
New York @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help cure the disease and rescue the economy ?
• What the coronavirus has revealed about American medicine .
• Can we trace the spread of COVID-19 and protect privacy at the same time ?
• The coronavirus is likely to spread for more than a year before a vaccine is widely available .
• How to practice social distancing , from responding to a sick housemate to the pros and cons of ordering food .
• The long crusade of Dr. Anthony Fauci , the infectious-disease expert pinned between Donald Trump and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ read , watch , cook , and listen to under quarantine .

The children’s faces are rubbed with paint; they are transformed into warriors. It is nighttime, but, unlike in fairy tales, the darkness is not sinister but comforting. The children, looking like characters from Carnival, are protected by night, camouflaged by leaves of deep, phthalocyanine green. “We started to elaborate on the weirdness of the situation,” the photographer Elisabetta Zavoli, who took these haunting photographs in her garden with her young sons, while the family was under quarantine in their home in the Italian countryside, told me. After taking the photographs, she collaborated with the filmmaker Kristina Budelis, who lives in Los Angeles, to create “Finding Colors in Darkness,” the short documentary above.
Zavoli began this project as a salve for her mental health. Like many, Zavoli was terrified during the first few days of lockdown in Italy. Her sons, who are eight and eleven, found the process of setting up scenes therapeutic. The stories that came out of their imaginations were of monsters killing people, and Zavoli knew that the boys needed a way to express these feelings. With a new abundance of “free” time, the boys started asking her questions about her work, and soon she was setting them loose in the garden with her equipment (and supervision). As a professional photographer, Zavoli told me that her creative projects help her “not to fall into despair.” The kind of serious play she and her sons shared helped process complicated emotions, for which it is often hard to find language. “If you are able to feel these emotions by playing them, this helps you recognize them in real life and cope with them,” she said. We all know childhood can be terrifying; the stories of the Brothers Grimm mean so much to children because they allow them to see their fears acknowledged. But it is one thing to argue for the value of fear, and another thing entirely to encourage children to turn and face the monster that’s chasing them. There’s always a chance, after all, that the monster will turn out to be real. Zavoli’s family photo shoots—in which her children got to play at being the monsters that hide in the night—were a way of turning childhood fears upside down.
The photo shoots were also a way for Zavoli to share her creative life with her children. Her older son is entering adolescence, and Zavoli appreciated the chance to play with him during these last months of his childhood. Interacting with them as both an artist and a parent gave her a chance to, as she said, “be fully myself together with them.”
“For me, it works like this” she explained in an e-mail. “I try to reconnect with my wilderness and to that state of grace that children have and maybe adults have forgotten. Be full of amazement, do things (sometimes) that overcome the rules or the boundaries just because you are passionate about, train yourself in seeing things from another perspective (from above, from bottom, from inside, from outside . . .), reconnect with all your 5 senses (if you have the 6th one, use it as well!), pay attention to small/tiny/almost invisible things around you.” These practices don’t erase the differences between parent and child, she said, but help create a shared “garden” that they could each enjoy. Such a connection is especially important when families in isolation may be dealing with unusual stress and anxiety.
In the dark, the children wear masks that make them look like animal gods. The costumes seem to give them the courage to be seen while keeping their true faces hidden. This transformation is natural to Zavoli, a part of life in their rural surroundings. “Animals live with us” she said. “They are part of our daily life, to the point that we see us all inside the same big picture. So playing the fox or the caterpillar, or taking pictures of our blue-gray rooster, it is like playing the part of one of the subjects in the stories that commonly happen in our daily life.” In March, as daily death tolls from COVID-19 climbed toward their peak in Italy, Zavoli’s sons watched the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies. They wondered, Zavoli told me, if a caterpillar “feels strange when it realizes something is changing inside itself but doesn’t know what this will mean.”
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-05-08--Can the Middle East Recover from the Coronavirus and Collapsing Oil Prices?

A year ago , Iran marked its National Army Day with a flashy display of its military might .
As new tensions flared with the Trump Administration , tanks and long-range missiles loaded on flatbed trucks rolled through the streets of Tehran .
Neat formations of troops showcased the Army ’ s diversity—ethnic Turkmen wore fuzzy white-fur hats and maroon robes , and tribal Arabs were in brown capes with black-and-white checkered headdresses .
Special-forces soldiers in khaki fatigues and crisp berets goose-stepped past President Hassan Rouhani and the Islamic Republic ’ s top military brass .
This year , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different message .
With more than a hundred thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iran , the Army Day parade featured troops goose-stepping in hazmat suits and face masks , columns of ambulances , flatbed trucks converted into mobile clinics , and military vehicles spewing huge clouds of disinfectant into the air .
Members of the Army band performed—six feet apart .
The Iranian President skipped the show .
“ The enemy now is hidden and doctors and nurses are at the frontlines of the battlefield , ” he said , in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Our army is not a symbol of militarism but a manifestation of supporting the nation and upholding its national interests.
” The Middle East , the world ’ s most volatile region for more than seven decades , has been ravaged over the past two months by twin disasters—the coronavirus pandemic and the historic collapse of global oil prices .
Iran was the region ’ s original epicenter of the coronavirus .
But , by Wednesday , seventeen Arab countries , Iran , and Israel reported a total of more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with more than nine thousand dead .
Simultaneously , economies across the region have been hit hard after oil prices dropped to historic lows last month , owing to a simultaneous supply glut and the diminished demand for oil and gas during worldwide lockdowns .
A year ago , the price of oil was sixty-seven dollars a barrel .
Last month , prices plummeted worldwide—U.S .
oil dropped , for the first time , below zero .
As producers ran out of storage facilities , some were forced to pay buyers to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place to keep .
“ I don ’ t see how the Middle East recovers , ” Suzanne Maloney , of the Brookings Institution , told me .
“ This will have a catastrophic impact on the region , because the combination of COVID-19 and the oil-price collapse hits oil-producing states that have , in turn , been the source of largesse for the rest of the region.
” Since late February , across the region , the imagery , the agenda of its leaders , and the realities of daily life have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Idlib Province , the last major battleground of that country ’ s civil war , a trailer with massive , homemade drawings of the red coronavirus has driven through the streets to warn the war-ravaged population about an even greater danger than the Assad regime .
In Saudi Arabia , the guardian of Islam ’ s two holiest sites , the massive Grand Mosque , in Mecca , is eerily empty .
In March , the kingdom banned all pilgrimages , including the annual hajj to Mecca—one of the five pillars of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Napoleon ’ s invasion of Egypt , in 1798 .
The royal family has gone into de-facto hiding since the coronavirus infected as many as a hundred and fifty of its princes and princesses .
King Salman is reportedly in seclusion , on a Red Sea island near Jeddah , while the ambitious crown prince , Mohammed bin Salman , has retreated with his inner circle to the remote site of a futuristic city with few people , according to the Times .
Survival now supersedes even the region ’ s deepest rivalries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Palestinian territory run by Israel ’ s archenemy Hamas—with orders for masks and other protective gear , while anti-Israel graffiti on Gaza walls has been replaced by paintings of the coronavirus and people in masks .
Saudi Arabia announced a ceasefire in its five-year military campaign in Yemen—against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels—and signalled interest in ending the war .
The twin crises of sickness and sliding oil prices coincided with rumbling instability : three ongoing civil wars—lasting for five years in Yemen , six years in Libya , and nine years in Syria—plus months @ @ @ @ @ @ @ implosion of Lebanon ’ s monetary system ; the third Israeli election in a year ; the presence of millions of refugees and displaced people in rudimentary camps in Jordan , Iraq , and Lebanon ; and the resurgence of suicide attacks and assassinations by ISIS .
With the exception of Israel , most Middle Eastern countries don ’ t have the medical staff , hospitals , and equipment necessary to provide adequate care during a pandemic , nor the financial resources to bail out their economies .
The crises have set the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even more volatile .
Roughly sixty per cent of the region ’ s population is under thirty , which may impact the number who survive the pandemic .
But the young have also spearheaded the region ’ s protests—and may now express renewed fury because they will be the generation most impacted by soaring unemployment .
In many countries , roughly a third of young people were jobless before the pandemic .
In Lebanon , demonstrators violated quarantine in the northern city of Tripoli and burned down banks to protest the collapse of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives .
A twenty-six-year-old , Fawwaz al-Samman , died in a confrontation with the Lebanese Army .
He was quickly dubbed the “ Martyr of the Hunger Revolution.
” “ This is a critical turning point , ” Maloney told me .
“ It ’ s going to have a long-standing political impact , fuelling populism and rage against governments by their own people.
” Iran , the region ’ s epicenter , accounts for almost half of the total number of coronavirus cases .
Infections in twenty-three countries across four continents—from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to New Zealand—have been traced to Iran .
The pandemic is still in its early stages in other parts of the Middle East , according to Paul Salem , the president of the Middle East Institute , in Washington , D.C .
Highly vulnerable areas—Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps across the region , slums in Casablanca and Algiers , war zones in Yemen and Libya , and densely packed areas such as the Gaza Strip—have limited means of coping if infections spread .
“ Given that there is no therapy or vaccine and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the human toll over the next year or two could be gargantuan , ” Salem told me .
“ More could die in the Middle East from this pandemic than in all the region ’ s wars since the First World War.
” Every government also faces staggering economic challenges .
Algeria—which has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Africa , and which gets sixty per cent of its revenues from petroleum products—has been devastated .
This week , President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that the nation ’ s budget will have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s budget for 2020 was based on prices above eighty dollars a barrel .
The world ’ s largest oil producer , which relies on its petroleum sector for eighty-seven per cent of budget revenues , is now forced to draw on thirty-two billion dollars in foreign reserves and tap into debt markets to make ends meet .
The kingdom ’ s ambitious Vision 2030 plan to modernize and diversify its economy , championed by the crown prince , no longer looks affordable , at least on the current schedule .

A year ago, Iran marked its National Army Day with a flashy display of its military might. As new tensions flared with the Trump Administration, tanks and long-range missiles loaded on flatbed trucks rolled through the streets of Tehran. Neat formations of troops showcased the Army’s diversity—ethnic Turkmen wore fuzzy white-fur hats and maroon robes, and tribal Arabs were in brown capes with black-and-white checkered headdresses. Special-forces soldiers in khaki fatigues and crisp berets goose-stepped past President Hassan Rouhani and the Islamic Republic’s top military brass. This year, it was a very different show—and a different message. With more than a hundred thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iran, the Army Day parade featured troops goose-stepping in hazmat suits and face masks, columns of ambulances, flatbed trucks converted into mobile clinics, and military vehicles spewing huge clouds of disinfectant into the air. Members of the Army band performed—six feet apart. The Iranian President skipped the show. “The enemy now is hidden and doctors and nurses are at the frontlines of the battlefield,” he said, in a message to the nation’s military. “Our army is not a symbol of militarism but a manifestation of supporting the nation and upholding its national interests.”
The Middle East, the world’s most volatile region for more than seven decades, has been ravaged over the past two months by twin disasters—the coronavirus pandemic and the historic collapse of global oil prices. Iran was the region’s original epicenter of the coronavirus. But, by Wednesday, seventeen Arab countries, Iran, and Israel reported a total of more than two hundred and twenty thousand cases, with more than nine thousand dead.
Simultaneously, economies across the region have been hit hard after oil prices dropped to historic lows last month, owing to a simultaneous supply glut and the diminished demand for oil and gas during worldwide lockdowns. A year ago, the price of oil was sixty-seven dollars a barrel. Last month, prices plummeted worldwide—U.S. oil dropped, for the first time, below zero. As producers ran out of storage facilities, some were forced to pay buyers to take the oil that the firms had no place to keep. “I don’t see how the Middle East recovers,” Suzanne Maloney, of the Brookings Institution, told me. “This will have a catastrophic impact on the region, because the combination of COVID-19 and the oil-price collapse hits oil-producing states that have, in turn, been the source of largesse for the rest of the region.”
Since late February, across the region, the imagery, the agenda of its leaders, and the realities of daily life have been transformed. In Syria’s Idlib Province, the last major battleground of that country’s civil war, a trailer with massive, homemade drawings of the red coronavirus has driven through the streets to warn the war-ravaged population about an even greater danger than the Assad regime. In Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites, the massive Grand Mosque, in Mecca, is eerily empty. In March, the kingdom banned all pilgrimages, including the annual hajj to Mecca—one of the five pillars of the faith—which hasn’t been interrupted since Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, in 1798. The royal family has gone into de-facto hiding since the coronavirus infected as many as a hundred and fifty of its princes and princesses. King Salman is reportedly in seclusion, on a Red Sea island near Jeddah, while the ambitious crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has retreated with his inner circle to the remote site of a futuristic city with few people, according to the Times.
Survival now supersedes even the region’s deepest rivalries. Israelis have flooded garment-makers in Gaza—the Palestinian territory run by Israel’s archenemy Hamas—with orders for masks and other protective gear, while anti-Israel graffiti on Gaza walls has been replaced by paintings of the coronavirus and people in masks. Saudi Arabia announced a ceasefire in its five-year military campaign in Yemen—against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels—and signalled interest in ending the war.
The twin crises of sickness and sliding oil prices coincided with rumbling instability: three ongoing civil wars—lasting for five years in Yemen, six years in Libya, and nine years in Syria—plus months of deadly protests in Iraq; the implosion of Lebanon’s monetary system; the third Israeli election in a year; the presence of millions of refugees and displaced people in rudimentary camps in Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon; and the resurgence of suicide attacks and assassinations by ISIS. With the exception of Israel, most Middle Eastern countries don’t have the medical staff, hospitals, and equipment necessary to provide adequate care during a pandemic, nor the financial resources to bail out their economies.
The crises have set the stage for the Middle East to become even more volatile. Roughly sixty per cent of the region’s population is under thirty, which may impact the number who survive the pandemic. But the young have also spearheaded the region’s protests—and may now express renewed fury because they will be the generation most impacted by soaring unemployment. In many countries, roughly a third of young people were jobless before the pandemic. In Lebanon, demonstrators violated quarantine in the northern city of Tripoli and burned down banks to protest the collapse of the national currency—and its impact on their lives. A twenty-six-year-old, Fawwaz al-Samman, died in a confrontation with the Lebanese Army. He was quickly dubbed the “Martyr of the Hunger Revolution.” “This is a critical turning point,” Maloney told me. “It’s going to have a long-standing political impact, fuelling populism and rage against governments by their own people.”
Iran, the region’s epicenter, accounts for almost half of the total number of coronavirus cases. Infections in twenty-three countries across four continents—from the United States to Sweden, from Thailand to New Zealand—have been traced to Iran. The pandemic is still in its early stages in other parts of the Middle East, according to Paul Salem, the president of the Middle East Institute, in Washington, D.C. Highly vulnerable areas—Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps across the region, slums in Casablanca and Algiers, war zones in Yemen and Libya, and densely packed areas such as the Gaza Strip—have limited means of coping if infections spread. “Given that there is no therapy or vaccine and lockdowns will only last so long, the human toll over the next year or two could be gargantuan,” Salem told me. “More could die in the Middle East from this pandemic than in all the region’s wars since the First World War.”
Every government also faces staggering economic challenges. Algeria—which has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Africa, and which gets sixty per cent of its revenues from petroleum products—has been devastated. This week, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that the nation’s budget will have to be slashed in half. Saudi Arabia’s budget for 2020 was based on prices above eighty dollars a barrel. The world’s largest oil producer, which relies on its petroleum sector for eighty-seven per cent of budget revenues, is now forced to draw on thirty-two billion dollars in foreign reserves and tap into debt markets to make ends meet. The kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030 plan to modernize and diversify its economy, championed by the crown prince, no longer looks affordable, at least on the current schedule.
The deal last month among twenty-three oil-producing nations to cut production by almost ten million barrels per day may have limited impact. In April, the International Energy Agency projected that the global demand for oil would drop by twenty-nine million barrels per day. Iraq, Libya, Iran, and the other Gulf sheikhdoms all stand to lose tens of billions of dollars in revenues.
To manage the pandemic, some governments in a region famed for its autocrats have become even more authoritarian, shutting down public spaces and controlling the words and actions of a population facing more unemployment and hunger, Salem said. The United Arab Emirates, which has reported more than fifteen thousand cases of COVID-19, imposed a fine of more than five thousand dollars on anyone who contradicts official statements on the pandemic. Saudi Arabia, which has reported more than thirty thousand cases, imposed strict curfews and cut off entry and exit to several cities. Egypt, which has more than seven thousand cases, has criminalized “spreading panic” about the pandemic, while parliament granted even more sweeping powers to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and security agencies. The government “is using the pandemic to expand, not reform, Egypt’s abusive Emergency Law,” Joe Stork, the Middle East and North Africa deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Egyptian authorities should address real public health concerns without putting in place additional tools of repression.”
Finally, the twin crises have coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, which began on April 24th. Normally, it is one of the most joyous times of the year for observant Muslims, who fast from dawn to dusk, then break the daily fast with Iftar feasts shared with extended families, neighbors, and mosque communities. Iftars are now small, modest meals under quarantine. Jordan was among several countries that banned worship in mosques during Ramadan. If leaders were wise, Salem posited, they could cut back on defense spending, end direct or indirect involvement in wars, and focus instead on issues of health and public welfare. The waves of protests before the pandemic proved the Middle East is indeed ripe—even overripe—for change. But given the region’s long history of dictators, warlords, militias, and corrupt élites, prospects seem dim. And that does not bode well for the Middle East’s post-pandemic future.
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-05-08--Bill Barr Tests Negative for Integrity

Bill Barr Tests Negative for Integrity

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —In a test result that he called “ a tremendous relief , ” the Attorney General , Bill Barr , has tested negative for integrity , Barr confirmed on Friday .
Barr submitted to the test after learning that he had come into contact with career Justice Department prosecutors who were found to be integrity carriers .
“ When I learned that there were still people at the Justice Department with integrity , I was understandably furious , ” Barr told reporters .
“ I told them to go home at once.
” Barr @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new protocols that would require Justice Department employees to be tested for integrity before entering the building .
“ I thought that anyone with integrity had already left the Justice Department , but apparently I was mistaken , ” he said .
“ It ’ s better to be safe than sorry.
” Although he was elated to learn that he had tested negative for integrity , Barr said that he shuddered to think how close he came to contracting the dreaded virtue .
“ Having integrity would have made it impossible for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a test result that he called “a tremendous relief,” the Attorney General, Bill Barr, has tested negative for integrity, Barr confirmed on Friday.
Barr submitted to the test after learning that he had come into contact with career Justice Department prosecutors who were found to be integrity carriers.
“When I learned that there were still people at the Justice Department with integrity, I was understandably furious,” Barr told reporters. “I told them to go home at once.”
Barr said that he was putting into place new protocols that would require Justice Department employees to be tested for integrity before entering the building.
“I thought that anyone with integrity had already left the Justice Department, but apparently I was mistaken,” he said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Although he was elated to learn that he had tested negative for integrity, Barr said that he shuddered to think how close he came to contracting the dreaded virtue.
“Having integrity would have made it impossible for me to work for President Trump,” he said.


newyorker--2020-05-08--Béarnaise, the French Sauce That Makes Ordinary Food Spectacular

On a quiet summery Saturday evening several years ago , when I was living with my family in Lyon , my wife and I arranged a last-minute babysitter to look after our twin sons .
Then we took off , got out of the city , and drove south along the Rhône , looking for a place for dinner .
The roads were empty , and the light was a fading orange .
We had no reservation and no plan except to keep driving until we found something .
What we found , instead , was that every place we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miles later , in Condrieu , a town famous for a luscious floral white wine made with the local Viognier grape , we spotted a hotel on the bank of the Rhône called Le Beau Rivage .
We were surveying the dining room—there appeared to be only one table left—when a maître d ’ greeted us and asked if we were guests , and we , by now hungry and distressed , abandoned scruples and said yes .
We drank wine made from vines growing on the steep hills directly behind us and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a massive turbot , the flat , shellfish-munching bottom-feeder whose eyes float arbitrarily on one side of its scaly , weird head ( a special category of marine delicacy , fabulously ugly and fabulously delicious ) .
It was carved tableside and served with a fluffy , pale-yellow sauce béarnaise , which wasn ’ t dribbled atop or poured over but seemed , rather , to settle alongside the fish like a perfumed , mysterious fog .
Until that evening , I hadn ’ t thought much about béarnaise .
I had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student at L ’ Institut Paul Bocuse , but I regarded it as just a thing people ate with Sunday roast beef .
I ’ d never eaten it with fish .
I ’ d also never tasted a version so perfectly rendered , with a vivid vinegar acidity that seemed to wrap itself around every molecule of the sauce ’ s fat .
I liked , too , that it was different from most other French sauces , which are wine-based and can be manipulated to match the food they are served @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to match .
It ’ s just there .
It could be its own food group .
French cookbooks tend to regard a béarnaise as a no-brainer , but after our meal on the banks of the Rhône I found myself disappointed every time I ordered it at a restaurant , including on two return trips to Le Beau Rivage : it was unpleasantly heavy , overcooked , or thickened with flour , having been neglected during a busy service .
And , for my part , I was only occasionally successful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sometimes it worked , and I was happy .
Sometimes it seemed to work , only to fall apart moments later .
A failed béarnaise is a mess .
Some describe it as scrambled eggs .
It ’ s more like barf .
When I was working in a Lyonnais kitchen , I got another chance to make the sauce .
The restaurant was La Mère Brazier , a Lyonnais institution ; the executive chef was Christophe Hubert , and I was a stagiaire ( something like an apprentice ) .
My job @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personnel .
One day , I asked if I could make a béarnaise .
“ No , ” he said , flat out .
“ It is too difficult.
” Hubert ’ s position was perfectly reasonable .
He wanted to feed his staff .
“ Have you even made a béarnaise ?
” “ Because that is why I am here.
” “ To learn .
I am here to learn.
” Je suis ici pour apprendre .
It seemed obvious , but apparently it wasn ’ t .
Hubert uttered a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it : I wasn ’ t going through an initiation rite to become a professional French chef .
I was there to learn what a French chef does .
The following week , the protein was steak .
Hubert gave me the go-ahead : “ Make your sauce.
” “ Ah , the perfume of the mignonette , ” he said , once I ’ d got started .
Mignonette describes the infusion—shallots , black pepper , and the licorice fragrance of tarragon in a bracing white vinegar , simmered slowly to extract @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the three components of a béarnaise .
The other two are egg yolks and clarified butter .
Both béarnaise and its cousin hollandaise are at the heart of the French kitchen .
Hollandaise , which may or may not have come from the Netherlands ( akin to how a béarnaise may have come from Béarn but probably didn ’ t ) , is one of the five mother sauces that the chef and author Auguste Escoffier categorized as the fundamentals of French cooking .
( The others are béchamel , velouté , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intense veal-tomato combination that is said to have been conceived by a Spanish cook at the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria , in 1615 . )
Hollandaise and béarnaise are basically alike .
Where they differ is in their acidity : a hollandaise is lightly enhanced with lemon , whereas a béarnaise is emboldened by that vinegar reduction .
Some cooks cut the vinegar with white wine , but in Lyon , in my experience , the béarnaise is often made only with vinegar , and only with the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which is derived not from wine but from grain alcohol and is used by housekeepers for cleaning .
Béarnaise is a sauce that bites back .
When done right , it makes ordinary food spectacular , and great food into a fête .
Béarnaise is an emulsion—made by getting two incompatible elements , liquid and fat , to bond .
( Actually , the secret code of French cooking—its flair—seems always to involve getting two incompatible elements to live with each other . )
It is unlike other emulsions ( such as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cooked .
Making a béarnaise involves adding your egg yolks to the reduction ( which must be thoroughly cooled after simmering ) , heating them up slowly while whisking vigorously , and hoping to arrive at that awkward , custard-forming temperature that is precisely between raw and ruined .
How hot ?
Well , according to the writer Harold McGee , it should be fifty degrees Celsius .
But according to L ’ Institut Bocuse ’ s textbook it ’ s sixty degrees , and according to the chef Joël Robuchon it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that all these figures are useless , because you ’ re not about to poke a thermometer into your pot while you are wildly whisking away , afraid that at any moment the sauce might break .
I use my finger , dipped quickly ; if I burn myself , I know I ’ m in trouble .
In the béarnaise that I was making for the staff lunch , the egg yolks and the reduction frothed up impressively .
I then introduced the last ingredient , a golden thread of clarified butter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the sauce seemed to defy gravity and puff up .
I tasted it .
I added salt and pepper .
I tasted it again .
I added a bit of lemon .
It seemed to be missing something .
Hubert tasted it .
“ What does it need ?
” “ Vinegar , really ?
” He looked at me , stupefied .
The sauce already had a lot .
I added the vinegar , with Hubert looking powerfully doubtful .
We tasted again .
“ You were right , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Then it was a bad moment .
As we were standing there , the sauce broke before our eyes .
I had failed .
It was barf .

Watch Bill Buford’s technique for making sauce béarnaise, a classic French sauce of clarified butter, egg yolk, vinegar, and herbs, that’s hollandaise’s bolder cousin.
On a quiet summery Saturday evening several years ago, when I was living with my family in Lyon, my wife and I arranged a last-minute babysitter to look after our twin sons. Then we took off, got out of the city, and drove south along the Rhône, looking for a place for dinner. The roads were empty, and the light was a fading orange. We had no reservation and no plan except to keep driving until we found something. What we found, instead, was that every place we stopped at was raucously full. Twenty-five miles later, in Condrieu, a town famous for a luscious floral white wine made with the local Viognier grape, we spotted a hotel on the bank of the Rhône called Le Beau Rivage. We were surveying the dining room—there appeared to be only one table left—when a maître d’ greeted us and asked if we were guests, and we, by now hungry and distressed, abandoned scruples and said yes. We drank wine made from vines growing on the steep hills directly behind us and ate a surprising meal. The highlight was a massive turbot, the flat, shellfish-munching bottom-feeder whose eyes float arbitrarily on one side of its scaly, weird head (a special category of marine delicacy, fabulously ugly and fabulously delicious). It was carved tableside and served with a fluffy, pale-yellow sauce béarnaise, which wasn’t dribbled atop or poured over but seemed, rather, to settle alongside the fish like a perfumed, mysterious fog.
Until that evening, I hadn’t thought much about béarnaise. I had learned to make it as a culinary student at L’Institut Paul Bocuse, but I regarded it as just a thing people ate with Sunday roast beef. I’d never eaten it with fish. I’d also never tasted a version so perfectly rendered, with a vivid vinegar acidity that seemed to wrap itself around every molecule of the sauce’s fat. I liked, too, that it was different from most other French sauces, which are wine-based and can be manipulated to match the food they are served with. A béarnaise doesn’t have to match. It’s just there. It could be its own food group.
French cookbooks tend to regard a béarnaise as a no-brainer, but after our meal on the banks of the Rhône I found myself disappointed every time I ordered it at a restaurant, including on two return trips to Le Beau Rivage: it was unpleasantly heavy, overcooked, or thickened with flour, having been neglected during a busy service. And, for my part, I was only occasionally successful when I made it at home. Sometimes it worked, and I was happy. Sometimes it seemed to work, only to fall apart moments later. A failed béarnaise is a mess. Some describe it as scrambled eggs. It’s more like barf.
When I was working in a Lyonnais kitchen, I got another chance to make the sauce. The restaurant was La Mère Brazier, a Lyonnais institution; the executive chef was Christophe Hubert, and I was a stagiaire (something like an apprentice). My job included making the staff meal, le personnel. One day, I asked if I could make a béarnaise.
“No,” he said, flat out. “It is too difficult.” Hubert’s position was perfectly reasonable. He wanted to feed his staff. “Have you even made a béarnaise?”
“Yes.”
“Often?”
“No.”
“Then why make one now?”
“Because that is why I am here.”
He was confused.
“To learn. I am here to learn.” Je suis ici pour apprendre. It seemed obvious, but apparently it wasn’t. Hubert uttered a faintly audible “Huh.” He got it: I wasn’t going through an initiation rite to become a professional French chef. I was there to learn what a French chef does.
The following week, the protein was steak. Hubert gave me the go-ahead: “Make your sauce.”
“Ah, the perfume of the mignonette,” he said, once I’d got started. Mignonette describes the infusion—shallots, black pepper, and the licorice fragrance of tarragon in a bracing white vinegar, simmered slowly to extract the flavors.
The infusion is one of the three components of a béarnaise. The other two are egg yolks and clarified butter. Both béarnaise and its cousin hollandaise are at the heart of the French kitchen. Hollandaise, which may or may not have come from the Netherlands (akin to how a béarnaise may have come from Béarn but probably didn’t), is one of the five mother sauces that the chef and author Auguste Escoffier categorized as the fundamentals of French cooking. (The others are béchamel, velouté, tomate, and espagnole, the wonderfully intense veal-tomato combination that is said to have been conceived by a Spanish cook at the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, in 1615.) Hollandaise and béarnaise are basically alike. Where they differ is in their acidity: a hollandaise is lightly enhanced with lemon, whereas a béarnaise is emboldened by that vinegar reduction. Some cooks cut the vinegar with white wine, but in Lyon, in my experience, the béarnaise is often made only with vinegar, and only with the most in-your-face version of it, white vinegar, which is derived not from wine but from grain alcohol and is used by housekeepers for cleaning. Béarnaise is a sauce that bites back. When done right, it makes ordinary food spectacular, and great food into a fête.
Béarnaise is an emulsion—made by getting two incompatible elements, liquid and fat, to bond. (Actually, the secret code of French cooking—its flair—seems always to involve getting two incompatible elements to live with each other.) It is unlike other emulsions (such as vinaigrette or mayonnaise) because it is cooked. Making a béarnaise involves adding your egg yolks to the reduction (which must be thoroughly cooled after simmering), heating them up slowly while whisking vigorously, and hoping to arrive at that awkward, custard-forming temperature that is precisely between raw and ruined. How hot? Well, according to the writer Harold McGee, it should be fifty degrees Celsius. But according to L’Institut Bocuse’s textbook it’s sixty degrees, and according to the chef Joël Robuchon it’s sixty-five degrees. The truth is that all these figures are useless, because you’re not about to poke a thermometer into your pot while you are wildly whisking away, afraid that at any moment the sauce might break. I use my finger, dipped quickly; if I burn myself, I know I’m in trouble.
In the béarnaise that I was making for the staff lunch, the egg yolks and the reduction frothed up impressively. I then introduced the last ingredient, a golden thread of clarified butter, whisking, whisking, whisking, as the sauce seemed to defy gravity and puff up. I tasted it. I added salt and pepper. I tasted it again. I added a bit of lemon. It seemed to be missing something.
Hubert tasted it. “What does it need?”
“Vinegar,” I said.
“Vinegar, really?” He looked at me, stupefied. The sauce already had a lot.
I added the vinegar, with Hubert looking powerfully doubtful. We tasted again.
“You were right,” he said.
It was a good moment. Then it was a bad moment. As we were standing there, the sauce broke before our eyes. I had failed. It was barf.
“Why did it break up?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” Hubert said. He seemed very amused.
Then he demonstrated a fix. He put cold water in a pan, not much, a glassful (with an extra glassful nearby, in case he needed it). He heated it up and added some ruined sauce by the spoonful, whisking it in little by little. “The trick is the water,” Hubert told me. “You want to get the sabayon right.”
Sabayon. Of course. Someone had used the same word at L’Institut Bocuse: “You’re making a sabayon.” But, by then, I had found making sauces so routine (no staff lunch can be made without one) that I treated a béarnaise like a beurre blanc or a demi-glace, reducing it as tightly as possible to concentrate the flavors. Like a great veal stock: take five gallons and reduce it to five ounces. But the basis of a béarnaise probably isn’t French. Sabayon comes from the Italian zabaglione: a sauce made of sweet wine, usually Marsala (the water element), plus egg yolks (the fat element), whisked and cooked. Béarnaise, like sabayon, is a foam sauce as much as it is an emulsion. As McGee points out, yolks will foam pretty well on their own, but they will foam spectacularly well with water. My béarnaise had failed because it didn’t have enough water. I had reduced it too much. But once fixed it was completely restored, looser in fact than the original, a miracle to behold, a big yellow bowl of deliciousness next to a platter of steaks.
Béarnaise
Serves 6 (or a hearty family of 4)


newyorker--2020-05-09--Your Virtual Cruise F.A.Q.

Your Virtual Cruise F.A.Q.

Here at Royal Sunshine Cruises , even though our fleet is docked , you can still experience a taste of the high seas virtually , from the comfort of your own home .
Let us answer a few of your questions about our Virtual Cruise packages .
Will there be a Virtual Cruise director ?
Yes !
Fun Steve will be broadcasting to you live via Google Hangouts from his apartment in Panama , where the entire crew maintains residency for exactly fifty-one per cent of the year because they love it there , as we ’ ve explained repeatedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Steve also gets to enjoy all the perks of working from home .
No , he won ’ t be wearing pants .
Yes , he will occasionally be broadcasting from his toilet , but he promises to cough loudly , as necessary .
Is a Virtual Cruise as good as a regular cruise ?
Yes !
“ Cruising ” from home might even be better than being on a real cruise because there ’ s no end in sight .
You could be “ cruising ” forever !
Isn ’ t that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” still start with the Captain ’ s Super Fun Fact™ ?
As our longtime Cruisers™ know , we begin every Royal Sunshine morning with the Captain ’ s Super Fun Fact™ , and our Virtual Cruises are no different .
Today ’ s Super Fun Fact™ ?
Cruise ships are more effective at growing bacteria than petri dishes are .
We are in awe of our own power .
What will my “ cabin ” look like ?
If you ’ ve ever watched “ Tiny House Nation ” on A & @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are those houses for ?
A family of Bigfoots ?
, then you ’ ll love our physical ship ’ s Cozy Cabins™ .
On the Virtual Cruise , you ’ ll re-create the authentic fifteen-square-foot Royal Sunshine cabin in your own home by hanging sheets around one corner of your bedroom and declaring the rest of the house off limits .
If you only paid for an inside stateroom , you should also hang sheets over your window .
What kinds of activities should we expect ?
We ’ ll kick off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Amanda , our head of housekeeping .
If you thought being indefinitely quarantined was the greatest test of your stamina , wait until you ’ ve spent eight hours painstakingly trying to fold your old beach towel into a swan !
Remember : the bar is always open on your Virtual Cruise , so long as you didn ’ t polish off your entire liquor supply five minutes after you first learned that Tom Hanks had COVID-19 .
What are the dining options ?
Our main meal of the day , dinner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s an all-you-can-eat buffet of the eight types of beans you ’ ve squirrelled away in your pantry .
Do cannellini , garbanzo , and black beans go together ?
Sure , why not ?
They ’ re all beans , aren ’ t they ?
( Note that , even if you didn ’ t partake , everyone ’ s bill at the end of the voyage will include the unlimited sushi-and-sake bar . )
For dessert , everyone gets one-fifth of the last remaining Hostess cupcake in your apartment .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ recommend that you close your eyes like one of the lost boys in “ Hook , ” and imagine you ’ re enjoying our ice-cream-sundae bar .
Mmmmm .
Remember , nothing tastes as delicious as the freedom of the near-past .
Oh , and on our Virtual Cruise you all get to sit at the Captain ’ s Table !
I should warn you , though—the Captain is very sad right now .
Is there any post-dinner entertainment ?
Yes !
After dinner , head over to the Diamond Theatre , a.k.a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s all-star performance of your children singing whichever lyrics they remember from “ Frozen.
” Don ’ t worry about paying royalties on these Disney songs !
Disney will follow up with the bill at a later date .
What time does the daily schedule conclude ?
Our virtual day ends at 5 P.M. , but you should set your clocks forward to convince your kids it ’ s 8 P.M. You ’ ll feel like the day has flown by , especially if you ’ re like Fun Steve , who started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As our daily programming winds down , we suggest you head back to your room and try to be delightfully surprised by the swan towel you folded earlier .
Rest your head on your pillow and enjoy sweet dreams about fearlessly roaming the aisles of a CVS without a mask .
How will we know when it ’ s time to disembark ?
You ’ ll know the “ cruise ” is over when your state ’ s governor tells you it is .
So sit back , relax , and enjoy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life , but worse .
Bon voyage !

“Cruise lines turn to virtual cruising to give a taste of life on the high seas.” —The Telegraph
Here at Royal Sunshine Cruises, even though our fleet is docked, you can still experience a taste of the high seas virtually, from the comfort of your own home. Let us answer a few of your questions about our Virtual Cruise packages.
Will there be a Virtual Cruise director?
Yes! Fun Steve will be broadcasting to you live via Google Hangouts from his apartment in Panama, where the entire crew maintains residency for exactly fifty-one per cent of the year because they love it there, as we’ve explained repeatedly to the I.R.S. But now Fun Steve also gets to enjoy all the perks of working from home. No, he won’t be wearing pants. Yes, he will occasionally be broadcasting from his toilet, but he promises to cough loudly, as necessary.
Is a Virtual Cruise as good as a regular cruise?
Yes! “Cruising” from home might even be better than being on a real cruise because there’s no end in sight. You could be “cruising” forever! Isn’t that great?
Does every morning “aboard” still start with the Captain’s Super Fun Fact™?
As our longtime Cruisers™ know, we begin every Royal Sunshine morning with the Captain’s Super Fun Fact™, and our Virtual Cruises are no different. Today’s Super Fun Fact™? Cruise ships are more effective at growing bacteria than petri dishes are. We are in awe of our own power.
What will my “cabin” look like?
If you’ve ever watched “Tiny House Nation” on A&E and thought, Hey, who are those houses for? A family of Bigfoots?, then you’ll love our physical ship’s Cozy Cabins™. On the Virtual Cruise, you’ll re-create the authentic fifteen-square-foot Royal Sunshine cabin in your own home by hanging sheets around one corner of your bedroom and declaring the rest of the house off limits. If you only paid for an inside stateroom, you should also hang sheets over your window.
What kinds of activities should we expect?
We’ll kick off each day with Zoom towel-folding, taught by Amanda, our head of housekeeping. If you thought being indefinitely quarantined was the greatest test of your stamina, wait until you’ve spent eight hours painstakingly trying to fold your old beach towel into a swan!
Remember: the bar is always open on your Virtual Cruise, so long as you didn’t polish off your entire liquor supply five minutes after you first learned that Tom Hanks had COVID-19.
What are the dining options?
Our main meal of the day, dinner, is served at 3 P.M. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet of the eight types of beans you’ve squirrelled away in your pantry. Do cannellini, garbanzo, and black beans go together? Sure, why not? They’re all beans, aren’t they? (Note that, even if you didn’t partake, everyone’s bill at the end of the voyage will include the unlimited sushi-and-sake bar.)
For dessert, everyone gets one-fifth of the last remaining Hostess cupcake in your apartment. As you savor every morsel, we recommend that you close your eyes like one of the lost boys in “Hook,” and imagine you’re enjoying our ice-cream-sundae bar. Mmmmm. Remember, nothing tastes as delicious as the freedom of the near-past.
Oh, and on our Virtual Cruise you all get to sit at the Captain’s Table! I should warn you, though—the Captain is very sad right now.
Is there any post-dinner entertainment?
Yes! After dinner, head over to the Diamond Theatre, a.k.a. your den, for tonight’s all-star performance of your children singing whichever lyrics they remember from “Frozen.” Don’t worry about paying royalties on these Disney songs! Disney will follow up with the bill at a later date.
What time does the daily schedule conclude?
Our virtual day ends at 5 P.M., but you should set your clocks forward to convince your kids it’s 8 P.M. You’ll feel like the day has flown by, especially if you’re like Fun Steve, who started drinking while you were hanging those sheets. As our daily programming winds down, we suggest you head back to your room and try to be delightfully surprised by the swan towel you folded earlier. Rest your head on your pillow and enjoy sweet dreams about fearlessly roaming the aisles of a CVS without a mask.
How will we know when it’s time to disembark?
You’ll know the “cruise” is over when your state’s governor tells you it is. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a vacation that is just your regular life, but worse. Bon voyage!