SUMMARY

MUSK, LAWYER ESCALATE WORD FIGHT

WITH SECURITIES REGULATORS  08
NEW YORK PLANS CYBERSECURITY
HUB TO COORDINATE RESPONSES  26
PAYMENTS: A WHOLE NEW INDUSTRY
UNDER APPLE’S SERVICES  40
TRUMP’S SOCIAL MEDIA APP LAUNCHES
YEAR AFTER TWITTER BAN  70
US NAVY PLANS LAUNCH OF MIDEAST DRONE FORCE ALONGSIDE ALLIES   16

USPS GETS FINAL SIGNOFF TO ORDER NEW DELIVERY VEHICLES   32

DIGITAL AD TAX ARGUED IN MARYLAND FEDERAL COURT CASE   60

BIDEN WANTS TO CUT INTO CHINA’S ELECTRIC BATTERY DOMINANCE   80

BIDEN’S FULL PLATE: UKRAINE, INFLATION, LOW PUBLIC APPROVAL   90

IF YOUR LIFE CHANGED IN 2021, WATCH FOR INCOME TAX SURPRISES   102

US CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DIPS SLIGHTLY BUT REMAINS HIGH   110

DUBAI’S NEW MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE ENVISIONS A HEALTHY PLANET   114

NFL AND XFL COLLABORATING ON PLAYER SAFETY AND HEALTH DATA   124

FROM HIPPIES TO HIPSTERS, ‘TEXAS CHAINSAW’ IS BACK   144

THE FOO FIGHTERS MAKE A HORROR MOVIE   152

STANDOFF ENDS AT AMSTERDAM APPLE STORE, HOSTAGE SAFE   170

LEAK GIVES DETAILS ON OVER 30,000 CREDIT SUISSE BANK CLIENTS   174

BEIJING SNAPSHOT: AS OLYMPICS EBB, SMARTPHONE SYNCHRONICITY   180

CHINA SANCTIONS RAYTHEON, LOCKHEED OVER TAIWAN DEAL   184

MUSIC   128
MOVIES & TV SHOWS   136
TOP 10 ALBUMS   160
TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS   162
TOP 10 TV SHOWS   164
TOP 10 BOOKS   166
TOP 10 SONGS   168
MUSK,
LAWYER
ESCALATE
WORD
FIGHT WITH
SECURITIES
REGULATORS

Elon Musk and his lawyers are escalating their

fight with U.S. securities regulators, with a
lawyer accusing them of leaking investigative
information, and the Tesla CEO alleging on Twitter
that government corruption is being exposed.

Musk’s tweet early Tuesday and a Monday letter

from Musk lawyer Alex Spiro to a federal judge
didn’t offer any specifics about the leak, but
the actions ramped up a war of words with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
The agency isn’t the only federal regulator that
Musk is sparring with. The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration recently has
stepped up enforcement against Tesla. Last

08
Image: Joe Skipper
09
week, Musk called the agency the “fun police” for
making Tesla recall a “Boombox” function that
can play sounds over an external speaker and
obscure audible warnings for pedestrians.

The safety agency has launched multiple

investigations of Tesla and is overseeing 15 Tesla
recalls since January of 2021. Recalls include “Full
Self-Driving” software being programmed to run
stop signs at slow speeds. Investigations include
unexpected braking by Tesla vehicles.

On Monday, Spiro filed another letter with the

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan
accusing at least one SEC staff member of
leaking information about an investigation of
Musk and Tesla’s compliance with a court order
aimed at controlling his tweets.

“It has become clearer and clearer that the

commission is out to retaliate against my clients
for exercising their First Amendment rights,”
Spiro wrote.

Tuesday morning, Musk tweeted that the

allegations are “just peeling back the first layer
of the corruption onion. Stay tuned.” No details
were given.

The SEC declined comment Tuesday, and

messages were left seeking details about the
leak allegations from Tesla and Spiro.

The SEC spat goes back to 2018, when Musk

and Tesla each agreed to pay $20 million in
civil fines over Musk’s tweets about having the
money to take the company private at $420 per
share. The funding was far from secured and
the company remains public. The settlement
specified governance changes, including
Musk’s ouster as board chairman, as well as
approval of Musk’s tweets.
Image: Andrew Harnik
10
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After Spiro filed a letter with the court accusing
the SEC of harassing Musk, the SEC responded
with a letter saying it was following Nathan’s
instructions in trying to speak with Musk’s
lawyers about his posts on Twitter.
In a letter dated Friday, Steven Buchholz of the
SEC’s San Francisco office wrote that the judge
encouraged both sides to confer before raising
issues with the court.
He also denied that the agency had issued
subpoenas in the Musk Twitter case and denied
Spiro’s allegation that the SEC is taking too long
to distribute a $40 million penalty from Musk and
Tesla that is supposed to go to Tesla shareholders.

Spiro sent a letter on Thursday accusing the

SEC of harassing Musk with investigations and
subpoenas over his Twitter posts.

Image: Qilai Shen

12
13
US NAVY PLANS
LAUNCH OF
MIDEAST DRONE
FORCE ALONGSIDE
ALLIES

The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet

announced the launch of a new joint fleet of
unmanned drones with allied nations to patrol
vast swaths of the region’s volatile waters as
tensions simmer with Iran.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet,

told that 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and
submersible, would dramatically multiply the
surveillance capacities of the U.S. Navy, allowing
it to keep a close eye on waters critical to the flow
of the global oil and shipping. Trade at sea has
been targeted in recent years as Tehran’s nuclear
deal with world powers collapsed.

16
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“By using unmanned systems, we can just simply
see more. They’re high-reliability and remove
the human factor,” Cooper said on the sidelines
of a defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi, adding the
systems are “the only way to cover on whatever
gaps that we have today.”

Cooper said he hopes the drone force using

artificial intelligence would be operational by
the summer of 2023 to put more “eyes and ears
on the water.”

The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet includes the crucial

Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the
Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes.
It also stretches as far as the Red Sea reaches
near the Suez Canal, the waterway in Egypt
linking the Mideast to the Mediterranean, and
the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.

The high seas have witnessed a series of assaults

and escalations in recent years, following former
President Donald Trump’s decision to pull
the United States out of the nuclear deal and
reimpose devastating sanctions.

A maritime shadow war has played out as oil

tankers have been seized by Iranian forces and
suspicious explosions have struck vessels in
the region, including those linked to Israeli and
Western firms. Iran has denied involvement in
the attacks, despite evidence from the West to
the contrary.
“It’s been well-established that Iran is the No. 1 in
the primary regional threat we are addressing,”
Cooper said. “There’s the ballistic missile, cruise
missile and UAV (drone) component, both in
their capability and their mass proliferation, as
well as well as the proxy forces.”

19
Iran sponsors proxy militias in Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon and Yemen that give it a military reach
across the region.
As Yemen’s 7-year-old civil war grinds on, the
Iran-backed Houthi rebels have dispatched
bomb-laden drone boats toward Saudi waters
that have damaged vessels and oil facilities.
“What the Houthis are doing, it is an entirely
completely different operation that’s offensively
oriented,” Cooper said. “What we are doing is
inherently defensively oriented.”
There has also been a recent string of tense
encounters between Iranian and American naval
boats in Mideast waters. The confrontations
have underscored the risk of an armed clash
between the nations.

Notably, however, Cooper said the U.S. has not

seen such an episode in the past few months, as
diplomats in Vienna attempt to resuscitate the
tattered atomic accord.

“If you look back over the last couple of months,

I would say it’s status quo,” Cooper said. “There
have been some periods where they have had an
uptick in activity. ... The overwhelming majority of
these interactions are safe and professional.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not

immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shared threat of Iran has prompted a rapid
realignment of politics in the Middle East. In
2020, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain
normalized ties with Israel in a series of U.S-
brokered accords.
Those warm relations have even extended into a
form of military diplomacy. Israel for the first time
joined in a massive US-led naval exercise in the

20
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region earlier this month, publicly participating
alongside other Gulf Arab states with which it has
no relations, including Saudi Arabia.
Cooper said that Israel likely would join in the
Navy’s unmanned naval drone task force in
the region.

“I would expect exercises in the future where we

would work side by side,” he said.

23
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NEW YORK PLANS
CYBERSECURITY
HUB TO
COORDINATE
RESPONSES

New York wants to improve its cybersecurity

defenses and will open a joint operations center
in the coming months to coordinate between
government agencies, critical businesses and
utilities, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

Hochul said the Brooklyn-based hub will have

a staff of 70 — both in-person and virtual — to
provide “a centralized viewpoint of threat data”
on the federal, state and local levels.

“New York’s leadership in finance, energy,

transportation, healthcare, and other critical
fields makes the State an attractive target
for cyberattacks,” Hochul said, adding that it
no longer makes sense for the state’s various
agencies to simply go it alone.
The Democratic governor has proposed a budget
with $62 million for cybersecurity improvements

26
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28
at the state level and a $30 million fund to help
local governments afford upgrades.

Until the new Joint Security Operations Center

is ready, she said the state will work with city
and regional leaders on cyber trainings and
exercises. She said the center will analyze
cybersecurity trends that otherwise might have
gone undetected.

“By collaborating and sharing literally just one

space ... we’re going to be able to enhance
our ability to respond to any attacks, as well as
prevent them,” Hochul said.

29
USPS GETS
FINAL SIGNOFF
TO ORDER
NEW DELIVERY
VEHICLES

The U.S. Postal Service said it cleared the

final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for
next-generation mail vehicles — and getting
some of them on delivery routes next year
— despite pushback from the Environmental
Protection Agency.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the
completion of an evaluation required by
the National Environmental Policy Act is an
important milestone for postal carriers who have
soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks
that went into service between 1987 to 1994.
The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more
than 230,000 vehicles, including 190,000 local
delivery vehicles that are due to be replaced.
“The men and women of the U.S. Postal Service
have waited long enough for safer, cleaner
vehicles,” DeJoy said in a statement.

32
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Environmental groups have pushed back
because only 10% of the vehicles would be
electric-powered under the Postal Service
contract with the manufacturer, Wisconsin-
based Oshkosh Defense.
The decision published in the Federal Register
allows the Postal Service to proceed with
placing the first order that will include at least
5,000 electric-powered vehicles, along with an
undetermined number of gas-powered vehicles,
Postal Service spokesperson Kim Frum said.
The Postal Service believes it has met all its
obligations and is moving forward despite
a request by the Environmental Protection
Agency to conduct another environmental
review that looks at long-term costs. Democratic
Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, chair of the
Senate Committee on Environment and
Public Works, said this month that it would be
“unwise” to proceed based on a “fundamentally
flawed analysis.”
“Neither rain, nor sleet, nor financial good sense
will stop the leaders of the U.S. Postal Service
from trying to buy dirty, polluting delivery
trucks,” Patricio Portillo of the Natural Resources
Defense Council said this week.

But DeJoy, an ally of former President Donald

Trump, said more of the electric vehicles can
be purchased under the contract if additional
funding “from either internal or congressional
sources becomes available.”
It would cost an extra $3.3 billion to convert
the entire Postal Service fleet to electric
vehicles. Money is included in Biden’s Build Back
Better plan, but that proposal remains stalled
in Congress.

35
The new vehicles are more environmentally
friendly and boast modern amenities like
climate control and safety features like air bags,
backup cameras and collision avoidance — all
currently lacking on the aging Grumman Long
Life Vehicles.

The vehicles are also taller to make it easier for

postal carriers to grab packages and parcels that
have been making up a far greater portion of
their deliveries, even before the pandemic.

36
37
40
Payments:
A whole new industry
under apple’s services

41
Since the launch of Apple Pay back in 2014,
Apple has changed the way we shop and
spend money, with subsequent refinements
and additions like Face ID and Apple Card that
have made shopping even more convenient.
Now, the Cupertino company plans to add yet
another string to its bow and make iPhone and
Apple Pay truly invaluable for merchants.

SHOPPING WITH APPLE

In markets like the United Kingdom, Apple has
a stronghold over contactless payments, with
a reported six in ten shoppers in the UK using
Apple Pay in-store. And although the United
States is behind European markets when it
comes to shopping via their smartphones
thanks to consumers favoring credit cards and
platforms like PayPal and Venmo, Apple Pay
is now growing its dominance in the market.
Indeed, over the last seven years, the total
amount of Apple Pay transactions at U.S. retail
stores has increased from an estimated $5
billion in 2015 to $90 billion in 2021, with the
Cupertino company regularly incentivizing
consumers and sellers to encourage them
to make the switch to the platform. Add in
the recent success of the Apple Card, Apple’s
credit card which launched in association with
Goldman Sachs, and Apple Pay has enjoyed
something of a boom, with consumers
realizing the value and convenience of paying
with Apple Watches and iPhones at drive-thrus
and supermarkets.
Recent data suggests that there are now more
than 500 million Apple Pay users around the
world, with Apple Pay reaching an eye-watering
48% of iPhone users. Google Pay follows in

42
Image: Credit: Zlata Ivleva / Mashable
43
44
Image: Credit: Zlata Ivleva / Mashable
45
46
behind Apple with an estimated 420 million
users, but perhaps the most interesting point to
raise is that it is the Chinese payment providers
WeChat Pay and AliPay that have the biggest
global audiences, with 550 million and 650
million users respectively. Back to the US and it’s
interesting to learn that Apple Pay holds a 43.9%
share of the mobile payments app market, and
it’s Starbucks that comes in second place with
a 31.2% share, ahead of Google with a 25%
share and Samsung Pay with a 16.3% share.
Simply put, it’s hard to dispute that Apple Pay
is the market leader in the West, and as Apple
introduces new features to the service and
makes it even more attractive to consumers, it
will go from strength to strength.

INTRODUCING TAP TO PAY

Keen to maintain its market dominance and
unlock new ways for consumers to pay with
Apple Pay, Apple has announced it will soon
launch Tap to Pay on iPhone. The service will
“empower millions of merchants across the US,
from small businesses to large retailers, to use
their iPhone to seamlessly and securely accept
Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards,
and other wallets through a simple tap to their
iPhone,” Apple said in a statement, adding that
there’d be no additional hardware or payment
terminal required. However, rather than using
Apple Pay as the dominant force, Tap to Pay on
iPhone will be available for payment platforms
and app developers to integrate into their iOS
apps and offer business customers the chance
to use their iPhones as a payment option.
Stripe has already been confirmed as the first
platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone, and other

47
platforms will likely be added to the rounds as
they implement changes to their apps and use
Apple’s new API.

Speaking of the launch of the new service,

Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple
Pay and Apple Wallet, said: “As more and more
consumers are tapping to pay with digital
wallets and credit cards, Tap to Pay on iPhone
will provide businesses with a secure, private,
and easy way to accept contactless payments
and unlock new checkout experiences using
the power, security, and convenience of iPhone.
In collaboration with payment platforms, app
developers, and payment networks, we’re
making it easier than ever for businesses of all
sizes to seamlessly accept contactless payments
and continue to grow their business.”

48
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The company has said that Tap to Pay on iPhone
will be available to participating payment
platforms and their app developers under a
new software developer kit (SDK) in a future
iOS software beta, though there’s no exact date
just yet. In theory, Apple could roll out the tech
in the next few weeks, and when it goes live in
an upcoming iOS release, consumers will be
able to pay for goods and services using their
iPhones, tapping another iPhone. When the
feature launches, merchants will be able to take
advantage of contactless payments in their
store or on the go, simply by asking customers
to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch to their
device. What’s perhaps most interesting and
revolutionary about the feature is that iPhones
will also support contactless credit or debit cards
and other digital wallets, fully taking advantage
of the NFC technology built into iPhones. Apple
has confirmed that users will need an iPhone
XS or later to take advantage of the vendor side,
though theoretically, all iPhones that support
Apple Pay will work with Tap to Pay when it
comes to buying.

In announcing the new feature, Apple took

the time to highlight the success of Apple Pay
in the United States, confirming that 90% of
retailers in the United States now accept it.
With the new Tap to Pay capability, virtually
every business, big or small, will be able to let
customers pay via their iPhones and Apple
Watches. Tap to Pay on iPhone will also be
available at Apple Store locations in the US
later this year, though there’s no word yet on
when or whether the service will launch in
other countries. It’s likely that Apple will need
to apply for regulatory approval to launch the

53
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Tap to Pay service in other territories, but that
it will come in due course as it looks to cement
Apple’s position as the top player in payments.

PUTTING PRIVACY FIRST

Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of
Apple Pay is privacy and the fact that Apple has
made it difficult for third parties or bad actors
to take advantage of the contactless payment
service. Indeed, you need to use your fingerprint
or Face ID to approve transactions. With Tap to
Pay on iPhone, customers are protected in the
same way as they are with Apple Pay; payment
data is automatically protected and transactions
which are made via Tap to Pay on iPhone are
encrypted and processed using the Secure
Element. What’s more, Apple doesn’t know what
is being purchased or who is buying it, offering
consumers added peace of mind.

The privacy benefits help businesses comply

with legislation, too, and take the pressure out of
accepting card payments. Apple has confirmed
that it will work closely with some of the world’s
leading payment platforms and app developers
across the payments and commerce industry
to make Tap to Pay as safe and easily accessible
as possible. The feature, according to Apple,
“complements and enhances the robust suite
of payment and commerce tools that payment
platforms and app developers provide”, and with
day-one support for big players like American
Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa, it’s a win-
win for everyone.

55
56
 Tap to Pay launches this Spring with Stripe as
the first payment platform, though others are
quickly expected to follow suit. The feature takes
Apple Pay to even greater heights and once
again puts both consumers and businesses
at the forefront. We can’t wait to see some
of the use cases and see how Tap to Pay
revolutionizes small businesses and commerce.

57
60
 DIGITAL AD
TAX ARGUED
IN MARYLAND
FEDERAL
COURT CASE

61
62
Attorneys in a federal court challenge to
Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital ad
tax argued about whether the law is a tax
or an unconstitutional penalty targeting
Big Tech.
Attorneys for the state of Maryland and a
lawyer representing Big Tech gave arguments
in a virtual hearing before U.S. District Judge
Lydia Kay Griggsby in a case that is being
closely watched by other states that are also
considering a tax for online ads.
Julia Bernhardt, a Maryland assistant attorney
general, defended the law as a legitimate
revenue-raising measure approved by the
state legislature to raise money for education.
Supporters have described it as a necessary step
to modernize the state’s tax system.
“It’s not a penalty, and it’s not a regulatory
fee,” Bernhardt said of the law, adding: “It
benefits the entire public, and that’s the most
important factor.”

The law was approved by Democrats who

control the legislature, over the veto of
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, to raise an
estimated $250 million a year to help pay
for a sweeping K-12 education measure to
expand early childhood education, increase
teacher salaries, boost college and career
readiness and help struggling schools. The
law was challenged in U.S. District Court in
Maryland just days after the veto override
last year.
Attorneys representing the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, the Internet Association, NetChoice
and the Computer and Communications
Industry Association are challenging the law.

63
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They say it violates the federal Internet Tax
Freedom Act, which prohibits discrimination
against electronic commerce, as well as other
federal laws.

Michael Kimberly, who is representing the

plaintiffs, argued the law is narrowly tailored,
punitive and “extraordinarily burdensome.” He
said it was specifically designed to have the
biggest impact on companies like Facebook,
Google and Amazon.
Kimberly cited criticism from Maryland
lawmakers who have accused Big Tech of
spreading disinformation and hate speech as
an indication that the legislation had a punitive
intent. He also noted a follow-up bill lawmakers
approved last year that exempted broadcasting
companies and news organizations.

“The explanation is clear in the legislative

history,” Kimberly said. “It’s because they were
not the companies that lawmakers understood
to be engaged in reprehensible conduct.”

He told the judge that the takeaway message

was that it’s OK to be in the business of selling
digital advertising if you are a small company
and you don’t have too much influence.

“It’s also OK to be in this business if you’re a

broadcasting company or a news organization,
but if you’re Big Tech, it’s not OK, and once you
have outsize influence, you spread hate speech,
we’re going to punish you for it,” Kimberly said.
“That is clear in every element of this law.”
When the judge questioned where that
language could be found, Kimberly said
it was part of the legislative history and
comments made by the sponsor of the digital

65
ad tax legislation, Maryland Senate President
Bill Ferguson.

Griggsby said while she understood that was

one person’s perspective, attorneys for the state
indicated quite clearly that the money raised
would go to education, and that there was
nothing in the statute that talks about attacking
tech companies.

Kimberly said the record is clear that the tax

was designed to “remediate these negative
externalities by subsidizing education to ensure
that children are more technology literate.”

The law would tax revenue the affected

companies make on digital advertisements
shown in Maryland. The tax rate would be 2.5%
for businesses with gross annual revenue of
$100 million; 5% for companies with revenue
of $1 billion or more; 7.5% for companies with
revenue of $5 billion or more and 10% for
companies with revenue of $15 billion or more.

66
67
TRUMP’S SOCIAL
MEDIA APP
LAUNCHES
YEAR AFTER
TWITTER BAN

70
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Former President Donald Trump’s social media
app that he hopes will rival Twitter launched
Monday as he seeks a new digital stage to
rally his supporters and fight Big Tech limits on
speech a year after he was banned from Twitter,
Facebook and YouTube.

His Truth Social app was offered for download

from the Apple App Store to a limited number
of subscribers who had preordered, with others
added to a waiting list to be given access over
the next 10 days.
The site encountered technical glitches shortly
after launch, with reports that subscribers were
shut out for hours. Others had trouble signing
on. The site is not expected to be open to anyone
who wants to download it until next month.

“Due to massive demand, we have placed you

on our waitlist,” read a message some of those
trying to access the platform, adding, “We
love you.”

Trump is hoping Truth Social will attract the

millions who followed him on Twitter as he hints
at a third presidential run, triggering a wave of
other subscribers to justify the billions of dollars
that investors have bet on the venture. Shares in
a company that plans to buy Trump Media and
Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social,
have soared in recent months.
According to Apple’s rankings, Truth Social was
the top free app in the U.S. on Monday morning,
besting the “Talking Ben the Dog” children’s
game, streaming service HBO Max, TikTok,
YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
The partial launch Monday follows an
experimental “beta” launch to test the platform
last week.

73
Trump was banned from top social media
platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot last
year that critics accused him of inciting. The ban
has raised difficult questions of free speech in
a social media industry dominated by few tech
giants, an issue that Trump and conservative
media have seized upon.
Republicans were quick to use the launch of Truth
Social to raise money for their election efforts.
“After over A YEAR of muzzling by the Liberal Big
Tech Tyrants: TRUMP. IS. BACK,” wrote GOP House
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a fundraising
email appeal Monday.
Groups like the Republican National Committee
and the Congressional Leadership Fund also
have been fundraising off the launch.

“Our main goal here is to give people their

voice back,” Trump Media CEO and former GOP
Congressman Devin Nunes said Sunday on
Fox News. He added that the app offers “the
opposite of some Silicon Valley tech oligarch
freak telling people what they want to think and
deciding who can or cannot be on the platform.”
Trump is hoping to tap into outrage over the
social media bans to attract a broad audience to
keep the stock rising — and possibly hand him
hundreds of millions of dollars personally — but
he faces significant challenges.
None of alternative messaging platforms already
open to public, such as Gettr and Parler, have
been able to move beyond an echo chamber of
conservative political commentary.
Trump’s company, Trump Media, also faces
financial hurdles. It has been promised nearly
$300 million from a publicly traded company

74
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that plans to merge with it and got pledges from
dozens of private investors for an additional $1
billion to fund its operations, but it still needs
approval from regulators for the deal before it
can access the cash.
The company it hopes to merge with, Digital
World Acquisition Corp., has said regulators
are investigating following reports that it may
have broken security rules last year by talking
to Trump representatives about possibly joining
forces before selling stock to the public. Digital
World is a so-called blank-check company that
is only allowed a quick path to going public
without many disclosures if it has not identified
a target to buy yet.
Another regulatory investigation is focused on
possible stock trading violations earlier in the fall.

Stock is Digital World puts the value of its

eventual merger target, Trump Media, at
$10 billion.

77
BIDEN WANTS
TO CUT INTO
CHINA’S ELECTRIC
BATTERY
DOMINANCE

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President Joe Biden highlighted his efforts
to counter China’s dominance of the electric
battery market as he touted domestic
efforts to mine and process lithium and rare
metals necessary to create the technology
that powers cars, electronics, wind turbines
and more.
The Democratic president announced his
administration is giving $35 million to MP
Materials, a company that mines rare earth
metals near the Nevada border in Southern
California,. The funding will boost MP’s ability
to process the materials domestically for use in
U.S. manufacturing.

He also touted efforts to extract lithium from

geothermal brine found around California’s
Salton Sea. Biden said U.S. demand for such
materials will grow by 400% to 600% over the
next several decades.

“We can’t build a future that’s made in America

if we ourselves are dependent on China for the
materials that power the products of today
and tomorrow,” Biden said. “And this is not anti-
China, or anti-anything else. It’s pro-America.”

Biden spoke virtually from Washington with a

group of California business and government
leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Las Vegas-based MP Materials runs the

Mountain Pass mine and processing facility
that is the only one of its kind in North America.
It extracts rare earth metals and produces a
concentrate that’s exported for use in other
countries. Such metals are used to produce
magnets necessary for batteries in electric cars
and many other items.

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The federal money will help the company
create a processing facility for “heavy” rare
earth metals, and it follows a $10 million
award last year for “light” rare earth metals.
The company is spending $700 million of its
own money for improving processing and
creating a manufacturing facility in Texas to
produce magnets. The company has a deal
with General Motors, said Matt Sloustcher,
MP Materials’ senior vice president for policy
and communications.
“My team is committed to bringing this supply
chain home,” company Chief Executive Officer
Jim Litinsky told Biden on the call.

Elsewhere, Biden touted lithium production

efforts in California. Newsom has called the state
the Saudi Arabia of lithium, a reference to that
country’s abundance of oil.

Newsom said lithium extraction in California

has the potential to boost national security
by improving domestic supply chains and
accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels
in the transportation sector. Biden earlier noted
the nation could produce a half-million electric
cars per year by 2025.

“If it’s as big as it appears to be, this is a game-

changer in terms of our efforts to transition
to low-carbon green growth and to radically
change the way we produce and consume
energy,” Newsom said.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy
is among several companies working on
extracting lithium from geothermal brine
found around the Salton Sea, California’s largest
lake. Berkshire Hathaway has run geothermal
plants around the lake for decades, but the

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lithium has historically been pumped back
under ground with the brine after it’s used to
generate power.
With state and federal investments of about $20
million, the company is working on projects
to demonstrate it can extract the lithium and
convert it to battery-grade in a way that’s
commercially viable, said Alicia Knapp, president
of BHE Renewables.
The Newsom administration said it wants
to ensure economic benefits from lithium
extraction go back to the areas around the
Salton Sea, which have been hit by economic
hardship and environmental degradation as
the lake dries up because of dwindling supplies
from the Colorado River.

Silvia Paz, chairwoman of the state-created

Lithium Valley Commission, told Biden
communities in the region have seen “unfilled
promises” before. She called for investments in
career development and education for people
in the region as well as improvements to basic
services and environmental cleanup.

“We want to be at the table and help you

understand what it means for us to have a
prosperous economy,” she said.

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BIDEN’S FULL
PLATE: UKRAINE,
INFLATION,
LOW PUBLIC
APPROVAL

On the same day that President Joe Biden called

out Russia and and issued harsh sanctions for
its invasion of Ukraine, his only other public
appearance was an event focused on the need
to unkink the supply chain for minerals used in
batteries, electronics and other technologies.
The back-to-back events on Tuesday highlighted
the competing claims for Biden’s attention
entering the spring of a midterm election year:
the prospect of a calamitous European land
war that will only add to inflation and other
problems at home while also managing a vexing
set of domestic challenges and must-do tasks.

For Biden, the convergence of such urgent

foreign and domestic issues puts to a test
the often cavalier assertions of previous
administrations that a president has to be able
to “walk and chew gum” at the same time.

Biden acknowledged the troubling overlap

in remarks as oil and gasoline prices have

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climbed on the grim headlines from Ukraine. He
announced sanctions against Russian financial
institutions, oligarchs and banks as well as Russia’s
sovereign debt, effectively cutting the country off
from U.S. and European financial systems.
Yet Biden also said he wants to limit the “pain”
to Americans because sanctions aimed at
pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin
could also limit Russia’s exports of oil and
natural gas and cause global energy prices
to soar.
“I want to take robust action to make sure the
pain of our sanctions is targeted at a Russian
economy, not ours,” the president said at the
White House. “We’re closely monitoring energy
supplies for any disruption. We’re executing a
planned coordination with major oil producing
consumers and producers toward a collective
investment to secure stability and global
energy supplies.”

His White House this week is also vetting

nominees for a coming opening on the Supreme
Court. Add that 40-year high inflation, a stalled
domestic agenda, a slew of executive orders
to enforce, infrastructure dollars to spend and
sagging approval ratings that could make
implementation all the more difficult. And the
impact of the COVID pandemic, while seeming
to fade, is still being felt.

Biden used the minerals event to stress the

importance of investing in U.S. production
and avoiding reliance on China. California Gov.
Gavin Newsom greeted Biden at the minerals
event Tuesday afternoon by expressing surprise
that the virtual event hadn’t been rescheduled
because of Ukraine.

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“I had an over-under that you were going do
this today,” Newsom joked. “Thank you for not
canceling on us.”
The start of a Russia invasion into Ukraine has
spillover effects for Biden’s previous plans. It
takes time to barnstorm the country and rally
support for Democrats as he said he would do
to try to maintain control of Congress in the
midterm elections and it gets tougher to defuse
inflation as the U.S. and its European allies
escalate sanctions against Russia.
The invasion also puts Biden in a holding
pattern, as he plans to amplify sanctions
only to counter any additional aggression
from Putin.
“The fact that Putin is in control of when and
how and to what degree he invades, really
places Biden in a very difficult position,” said Cal
Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas. “Putin looks like he is
completely in charge.”

All of this takes away from the problem that

Americans had previously said Biden must
prioritize: inflation. A December poll from the
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research found that 68% of Americans deemed
the economy to be a top priority, while 24% said
the cost of living should be a top priority.

But just how the unfolding crisis in Ukraine

plays out and what it means for Biden’s agenda
is difficult to divine. The higher energy and
commodity prices could be short-lived, or they
could reflect the beginning of a prolonged
disruption as the sanctions to exclude Russia
from the global economy wage a toll on oil,
natural gas, aluminum and nickel supplies.

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“We’re chasing a moving target,” said William
Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at
the Brookings Institution.
Biden could easily blame higher prices on Putin.
But voters might be skeptical because the
inflationary run-up predates the current tensions
in Europe. U.S. gas prices have increased about
6% over the past month, but they’re up about
33% from a year ago, according to AAA.
“We have had close to a year of soaring inflation
rates and higher gas prices that cannot be
attributed to foreign policy,” Galston said. “And in
these in these circumstances, it’s not clear to me
that an all out effort to shift the inflation focus to
the Russian actions would be credible.”
Republican lawmakers have argued that Biden’s
spending plans have been the real trigger for
inflation. Yet they’re also encouraging Biden to
immediately deploy sanctions against Russia
in hopes of deterring Putin, a move that could
drive prices even higher.
“This should begin, but not end, with
devastating sanctions against the Kremlin and
its enablers,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch
McConnell said in a statement. “The president
should waste no time in using his extensive
existing authorities to impose these costs.”

Beyond oil, the markets for natural gas, corn,

wheat, aluminum and nickel — all commodities
at risk from the invasion — have turned volatile
and hypersensitive to each move by the U.S.,
Russia, Ukraine and NATO allies.
The higher prices could push U.S. inflation
above its current annual rate of 7.5% at a time
when Biden has struggled to get sufficient
support for an expanded child tax credit, child

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care subsidies, universal pre-kindergarten and
other programs that could free up cash in family
budgets. West Virginia Sen. Manchin, the key
Democratic vote in the split Senate, is wary of
additional spending.
Yet families will likely need some form of relief
and that creates even greater urgency for
Biden’s domestic agenda, said Joe Brusuelas,
chief economist at the consultancy RSM, who
estimates that the economic shock from war in
Ukraine could send inflation above 10%.

Brusuelas said that the best fix might be

renewing the recently expired increase to
the child tax credit. The credit would get
additional funds to families on a monthly basis
to insulate them against price increases, an
immediate source of funds that would contrast
to proposed changes in federal regulation and
new infrastructure spending to reduce price
pressures in the long term.

“We have a readymade program that could be

quickly revived to provide direct cash to stressed
households and cushion the adjustment
caused by Vladimir Putin’s external adventures,”
Brusuelas said. “It is the American middle and
working classes that will bear the burden of
adjustment caused by another European war.”

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 IF YOUR LIFE
CHANGED IN
2021, WATCH
FOR INCOME
TAX SURPRISES

The events of 2021 didn’t always play out as

expected. A lingering pandemic, a shifting
government response and a wave of career
moves meant many people ended the year in a far
different place from where they began.

Now, as the income tax filing deadline

approaches, those life changes may bring a new
wave of surprises for U.S. taxpayers.

If your income changed, or if you made money in

the stock and cryptocurrency boom, you may find
a larger-than-usual tax bill. If you welcomed a new
child or had major medical expenses, you might
qualify for new breaks.
Whatever your situation, it may take longer
than you expect to gather information and
understand provisions that may not have
applied to you before.

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“Take nothing for granted. Question everything.
Don’t make assumptions, even about your own
situation,” says Akeiva Ellis, a certified public
accountant and certified financial planner in
Waltham, Massachusetts.

IF YOU JOINED THE GREAT RESIGNATION

Through November, an average of 3.9 million
people quit their jobs each month of 2021,
according to the Society for Human Resource
Management. That’s the highest number since
the federal government began publishing the
data in 2000.

How a career change affects your taxes depends

in part on why you left.

IF YOU GOT A NEW JOB: You’ll get W-2 forms from

each employer, and the combined pay reported
on those will help you calculate your total income
for the year. It’s pretty straightforward, as long as
you withheld the correct amount.

IF YOU STARTED WORKING FOR YOURSELF: People

who became their own bosses will have to pay
self-employment taxes; the federal rate is 15.3%.

If you have people working for you, you’ll

be responsible for sending tax forms to
contractors or employees. People working for
themselves can also manage their tax liability
by carefully accounting for both their income
and their expenses.

“Good records matter,” says Kimberly Key, a

professor focused on accounting and taxation at
Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business
in Alabama. “2021 is going to help people figure
out what they did wrong and try to get things
fixed for 2022.”

105
IF YOU JOINED THE INVESTING BOOM
Trading by individual investors, many using online
platforms, reached historic highs during the early
part of 2021, according to Nasdaq . Meanwhile,
investments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin
reached all-time records last year.

If you didn’t sell any assets, Ellis says, you won’t

have to pay taxes on them even if your portfolio
did well.
If you bought and sold investments for the first
time in 2021, you’ll soon get a crash course on
capital gains taxes. You’ll have to gather records
of your gains and losses. You’ll also want to
distinguish between long-term capital gains
(typically, for assets held longer than a year) and
short-term capital gains (for assets held a year
or less).
If you bought or sold stock, your brokerage
will send you a tax form detailing your activity.
Cryptocurrency exchanges, however, are not yet
required to do so. In any case, it’s critical when
filing your taxes to review any records sent by the
investment platforms on which you’ve traded. If
you don’t receive any records, you can log in to
review your history.

IF YOU WERE AFFECTED BY COVID-19

Perhaps 2021’s most discouraging surprise
was the persistence of COVID-19, which
continued to sicken Americans throughout
the year.
Even as vaccinations blunted some of the
worst outcomes, many suffered from serious
illness and significant medical costs. But if
you spent more than 7.5% of your income on

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medical care, it may be possible to write off
any expense beyond that threshold.

IF YOU HAVE KIDS

Anyone with kids — whether or not they joined
your family in 2021 — will have to navigate the
child tax credit, which saw a one-time expansion
under the COVID-19 relief measures enacted
early last year.

The federal government distributed payments

from the child tax credit in advance based
on income tax data from the 2020 tax year.
Taxpayers were able to opt out, choosing to
claim the deduction on their tax returns instead,
but many did not.

The credit, with a maximum of $3,600 per child

age 5 or younger at the end of 2021 and $3,000
for children ages 6 through 17, phases out at
higher incomes. That means if you got a raise
last year, you might no longer be eligible for the
payment you received.

“I think the child tax credit this year is really

going to throw a lot of people for a loop,”
says Ellis, who runs The Bemused, a financial
education program. “It was great when the
checks were coming in, (but) some families will
find that they need to repay part of that credit.”

109
US CONSUMER
CONFIDENCE DIPS
SLIGHTLY BUT
REMAINS HIGH

U.S. consumer confidence declined modestly

this month but remains high, even as prices for
just about everything continue to rise.
The Conference Board, a business research
group, said this week that its consumer
confidence index — which takes into account
consumers’ assessment of current conditions
and their outlook for the future — ticked down
to 110.5 in February from 111.1 in January.
The Conference Board’s present situation index,
which measures consumers’ assessment of
current business and labor conditions, rose
slightly this month to 145.1 from 144.5 in January.
The expectations index, based on consumers’
six-month outlook for income, business and
labor market conditions, slipped to 87.5 in
February from 88.8 in January.

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Concerns about inflation rose in February after
declining the previous two months and the
proportion of people planning to purchase
homes, automobiles, and major appliances
over the next six months all fell, the Conference
Board said.

However, consumer confidence remains high

in the U.S., despite surging prices for virtually
everything. Earlier this month, the Labor
Department reported that for the 12 months
ending in January, inflation hit 7.5% — the
fastest year-over-year pace since 1982.

Prices have risen sharply for cars, gas, food

and furniture, but so far it has not held back
American consumers, who ramped up their
spending at retail stores last month. Last week
the government reported that retail sales
jumped 3.8% from December to January, a
much bigger increase than economists had
expected. Though inflation helped juice that
figure, most of January’s gain reflected more
purchases, not higher prices.

The Federal Reserve is expected to begin raising

interest rates in March for the first time in three
years, the main mechanism for combatting
inflation. Many economists say that the Fed is
moving too late.

113
DUBAI’S NEW
MUSEUM OF
THE FUTURE
ENVISIONS
A HEALTHY
PLANET

Dubai will open the doors to an architecturally

stunning building housing the new Museum of
the Future, a seven-story structure that envisions
a dreamlike world powered by solar energy and
the Gulf Arab state’s frenetic quest to develop.
The torus-shaped museum is a design marvel
that forgoes support columns, relying instead on
a network of diagonal beams. It is enveloped in
windows carved by Arabic calligraphy, adding
another eye-popping design element to Dubai’s
piercingly modern skyline that shimmers with the
world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa.

The Museum of the Future projects Dubai’s

ambitions and its desire to be seen as a modern,
Image: Kamran Jebreili
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 Image: Kamran Jebreili
116
inclusive city even as its political system remains
rooted in hereditary rule and hard limits exist on
the types of expression permitted. It is the latest
in a stream of feats for Dubai, which is the first
country in the Middle East to host the World’s Fair.
The museum envisions what the world could
look like 50 years from today. It’s a vision that
crystalizes the United Arab Emirates’ own
50-year transformation from a pearl-diving
backwater to a global interconnected hub
fueled by oil and gas wealth.

“It was an imperative requirement to develop so

fast because we needed to catch up with the rest
of the world,” said Sarah Al-Amiri, UAE minister
of state for advanced technology and chair of
the UAE Space Agency. “Prior to 1971, (we had)
no basic road networks, no basic education,
electricity network and so on.”

The UAE last year announced it would join a

growing list of nations cutting greenhouse gas
emissions, shifting away at least domestically
from the fossil fuels that still drive the Arabian
Peninsula’s growth, clout and influence.

However, the museum’s focus on a sustainable

future brings to the forefront the inherent tension
between the push by Gulf Arab states to keep
pumping oil and gas and global pledges to cut
down on carbon emissions, including the UAE’s
2050 net-zero pledge.

Moreover, the museum invites visitors to

reconnect with their senses and disconnect from
their phones, but digital screens and experiences
flow throughout its installations. The museum
also encourages visitors to think about the
planet’s health and biodiversity in a city

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 that celebrates consumption, luxury
and consumerism.

Al-Amiri said the museum’s ethos is that the

drive toward a sustainable future and healthy
planet should not prohibit progress and
economic growth.

“It needs to not be prohibitive, but rather an

opportunity to create new opportunities out of
this challenge that we’re all facing,” she said.
The museum’s creative director, Brendan
McGetrick, said addressing climate change
“doesn’t mean that you have to return to like
some hunter gatherer lifestyle.”
“You can actually mobilize and continue
progressing and continue innovating, but
it should be done with an awareness of our
relationship to the planet and that we have a lot
of work to do,” he said.

The museum’s goal is to inspire people to think

about what is possible and to channel that into
real world action, he added.

Visitors to the Museum of the Future are ushered

by an artificial intelligence guide named “Aya.”
She beckons people to experience a future with
flying taxis, windfarms and a world powered by
a massive structure orbiting Earth that harnesses
the sun’s energy and beams it to the moon.
The so-called “Sol Project” imagines the moon
covered by countless solar panels that direct that
energy toward nodes on Earth, where humanity
thrives and the planet’s biodiversity includes
innovative plant species resistant to fire.
“What we tried to do is create a sort of
compelling vision of what would happen if
we imagine space as a shared resource,”
McGetrick said.
Image: Kamran Jebreili
119
The museum envisions that humanity’s collective
energy project is directed by a space station
called the OSS Hope, the same word in Arabic
the UAE named its real-life mission gathering
data from Mars’ atmosphere. Last year, the
UAE became the first Arab country to launch a
functioning interplanetary mission.
The museum’s imagined future also draws
from Islam’s past with a mesmerizing display
of the planets in our solar system mapped by
astrolabes, the complex devices refined by
Muslims during the Golden Age of Islam to aid in
navigation, time and celestial mapping.

The museum’s Arab thumbprint flows

throughout, including in a meditation space
that is part of a larger sensory experience
guided by vibration, light and water. These
three elements underpinned life for tribes in
the Arabian Peninsula.

The oil-fueled cities of the Gulf that have

emerged from the desert over the past few
decades unearthed seismic changes in the ways
people in the region live, interact and connect
with nature.

“It’s always important to continue to evolve

and develop and understand what parts of the
culture actually push development forward,” said
Al-Amiri. “Creating new norms and new ways of
living and new ways of coexisting is OK.”
A stunning centerpiece of the museum is a
darkened mirrored space illuminated by columns
of tiny glass cylinders with the illusory DNA of
animals and species that have gone extinct,
including the polar bear whose Arctic habitat is
currently threatened by warming temperatures.
In this dreamscape future, the health of the

120
Image: Kamran Jebreili
121
planet is monitored like a person’s pulse,
temperature and vitals are.

The Museum of the Future opens to the

public with tickets costing the equivalent of
$40 a person. An official launch ceremony
Monday evening took place in the presence of
Dubai ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, whose poetry wraps the building in
Arabic calligraphy.
The building was conceptualized by Killa Design,
a UAE-based architecture firm. Killa Design says
the building, which overlooks Dubai’s main
thoroughfare, has achieved LEED Platinum status,
a worldwide rating reserved for the world’s most
energy-efficient and environmental designs.

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Image: Kamran Jebreili
123
NFL AND XFL
COLLABORATING
ON PLAYER
SAFETY AND
HEALTH DATA

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The NFL is collaborating with the XFL for player
safety and health data.

The XFL, which plans to relaunch in 2023, will be

working with the NFL on physical and mental
fitness programs for players, the study of playing
surfaces and equipment, and the sharing of game
trends and data.
“We are extremely pleased to collaborate
with the NFL in these important areas,” said
Dany Garcia, co-owner of the XFL, which also
has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among its
ownership group. “We are bringing forward an
XFL that is progressive and forward thinking
when it comes to innovation, leveraging the
newest technology to enhance game-day
experience. We have an open field for innovative
rules to enhance in-game access.

“Sharing insights and practices between the XFL

and NFL will do a tremendous amount of good
for the game of football and support the player
ecosystem overall.”

Also potentially in the works between the leagues

could be international football development and
scouting, and officiating, including the testing
of game rules for player protection as well as
technologies to enhance officiating.

“The XFL has shown us that innovation is one

of its core principles. We are hopeful that this
relationship will support further development and
improvements in the game of football at all levels.”
said Troy Vincent, who oversees NFL football
operations.
The XFL is not planning to become a
developmental league for the NFL.

127
128
Music Oliver Tree - Cowboys Don’t Cry [Music Video]
 Cowboy Tears
Oliver Tree

Alt-pop artist Oliver Tree has adopted a new

emo-country sound for this, his second major-
label studio album. “When I listen to this
album, I cry my eyes out,” he told Apple Music,
adding: “But the truth is, it’s important to cry”,
Genre: Alternative
Number of Songs: 13 rather than “hold it until it erupts in anger and
Price: $9.99 violence.”

FIVE FACTS:
1.The album title’s cowboy reference reflects
Tree’s own heritage, as he explained: “My
grandfather was a cowboy. His grandfather
was a cowboy.”
2. The album itself was recorded in California
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. The track “Swing & A Miss” is about when
two girls recently phoned Tree to offer him a
threesome, but later turned out to be credit
card scammers.
4. Meanwhile, the album’s first single
“Cowboys Don’t Cry” is “really the story of the
end of a relationship, when two people are
trying to make it work but there’s no hope.”
5. The second single, “Freaks & Geeks”, refers
to Tree’s status as an outsider, which he calls
“something I will likely always identify with”.

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Oliver Tree - Freaks & Geeks [Music Video]

131
REY//IV
Alice Glass

Having left behind her gothic electro-

pop band Crystal Castles and, with it, her
allegedly abusive collaborator Ethan Kath,
Alice Glass has released her debut studio
album as a solo artist. The new album’s
Genre: Electronic
material adopts an unsettling tone, with its Number of Songs: 13
focus on themes of abuse. Price: $10.99

FIVE FACTS:
1. The album’s first single, “Suffer and
Swallow”, was released in January 2021
with a stop-motion animated video.
2. The album’s second single, “Baby Teeth”,
arrived the following November and was
described by Glass as “probably the
darkest and most hopeless track on my
record”.
3. She has also described the third single, “Fair
Game”, as “trauma core”.
4. Paste critic Max Freedman hailed the
track “The Hunted” as “among the album’s
most visceral moments, a jump-along-shout-
along moment in the vein of her prior best
works”.
5. Meanwhile, Slant Magazine critic Eric Mason
called Prey//IV “excoriating and fast-paced”.

Alice Glass - SUFFER AND SWALLOW

(Official Music Video)

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Alice Glass - BABY TEETH [Official Animated Video]

135
 &TV Shows PARALLEL MOTHERS | Official Trailer

136
 Parallel Mothers
Two single women – Janis (Penélope
Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) – find
themselves together in the same
hospital room as they prepare to give
birth. The two women form a strong
bond as the optimistic Janis attempts
to encourage the much younger,
traumatized Ana.

by Pedro Almodóvar FIVE FACTS:

Genre: Drama
Released: 2022 1. It was in 2011 that director Pedro
Price: $19.99 Almodóvar first discussed this project, calling
it “the Don Quixote of motherhood”.
2. However, Almodóvar had previously placed
a poster for the film in a scene of his 2009
movie Broken Embraces, as he was working
on the script for Parallel Mothers at the time.
3. In one scene, a red car appears – in-keeping
with Almodóvar’s tradition of using red cars in
his films, including Broken Embraces.
4. Although Instagram initially removed a
poster of this movie due to it showing a
female nipple, the site later backtracked
and apologized.
5. The poster was subsequently allowed on
Instagram because the nipple was deemed
to have clear artistic context.

Rotten Tomatoes

97 %
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138
Penélope Cruz talks ‘Parallel Mothers’ and Her Films
with Director Pedro Almodóvar

139
The King’s Daughter
In 1684, King Louis XIV of France (Pierce
Brosnan) is obsessed with his own mortality
after a failed assassination attempt on his
life. This leads him to send an exhibition
intended to find the lost city of Atlantis and
capture a mermaid (Fan Bingbing) believed
to offer the key to immortality.

FIVE FACTS:
1. This film is an adaptation of Vonda N. by Sean McNamara
McIntyre’s 1997 historical fantasy novel The Genre: Kids & Family
Released: 2022
Moon and the Sun. Price: $19.99
2. Although the movie was filmed back in
2014, it was not released until 2022.
3. Filming wrapped in May 2014, with a
release lined up for April 2015. However, the
movie was subsequently delayed – partly
due to the studio’s lack of enthusiasm for the
original cut.
4. Another problem was the later emergence
of a Chinese tax scandal involving Fan
Bingbing, resulting in negative publicity
that effectively killed the film’s chances of a
lucrative Chinese release.
5. Some filming took place at the actual
Palace of Versailles in Paris.

Rotten Tomatoes

19 %
140
THE KING’S DAUGHTER Trailer (2022) Kaya Scode-
lario, Fantasy Movie

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 The King’s Daughter - Sean McNamara Interview

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 FROM HIPPIES
TO HIPSTERS,
‘TEXAS
CHAINSAW’
IS BACK

Et tu, pause button? I thought you were my friend.

Anticipating the inevitable guts and gore and

murderous mayhem, I screened Netflix’s new
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” on my TV in broad
daylight, with sunlight streaming through the
windows and the comforting din of traffic below,
and with the remote in my hand throughout,
ready to hit “pause” to delay the really bad stuff.
But things dragged and I got complacent,
and sure enough, that pause button was too
far away when I really needed it — a truly

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shocking moment I did not see coming. I won’t
reveal when this moment arrives, but if your
plan is to be saved by your own pause button,
well, good luck!

Despite that admirably executed shocker of

a scene, though, the question does arise not
long into this, the 10th movie in the “Chainsaw”
oeuvre: Did we really need another? And sadly,
given the lack of imagination, creativity or
even basic attention to logic in a perfunctory
and downright silly script, the answer seems a
resounding “Nope.”

Unless you just want to see a lot of chainsaw

killing. Because, there is that.

The new installment, directed by David Blue

Garcia with a screenplay by Chris Thomas Devlin,
is billed as a direct sequel to the original, meaning
we’re supposed to forget the eight intervening
movies. OK, done! The 1974 film, directed by
Tobe Hooper, has been called disgusting and
disturbing, but also a classic of the genre. The plot
involved a group of young people — hippies, this
being the ’70s – who happened on the remote
Texas property of a troubled family of cannibals.
Out came the chainsaw. Only a young woman
named Sally survived.

From hippies... to hipsters. In 2022, we have a

group of idealistic 20-something entrepreneurs
from Austin, who decide that Harlow, Texas,
essentially a ghost town, is the ideal place to buy
up and gentrify. They arrive to organize things
just before a busload of their investors comes
rolling in, ready to party.
There’s Dante (Jacob Latimore) and girlfriend
Ruth (Nell Hudson). And then there are the two
most fleshed-out characters (pardon the pun) in

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TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE | Official Trailer |
Netflix

147
the film: Melody (Sarah Yarkin), Dante’s partner
in the venture, and her teen sister, Lila (Elsie
Fisher) who we learn is the emotionally scarred
survivor of a school shooting, (The brief scenes
that reference this shooting seem gratuitous —
even in a slasher movie.)
Things don’t go smoothly. Upon arrival,
they enter a building they’ve bought, an
old orphanage, and discover its elderly, sick
caretaker (Alice Krige) lives there with “her last
boy” and refuses to leave. The hipsters call the
cops to force her out. Bad idea. The “last boy” is
tall and scary and wears masks of human skin
which is not his own.

Yup, it’s Leatherface, now played by Mark

Burnham (silent but physically, um, imposing.)
He’s a lot older but still has the chainsaw — in
fact, it’s the original chainsaw from 1974. And
he’s angry. Also, Sally (Olwen Fouéré) is still alive.
She, too, is angry.

Alas, this is all you get in terms of plot — this,

and some half-baked ideas that die after a few
lines. Turns out — surprise! — a chainsaw is
a durable instrument, and its efficacy in the
hands of Leatherface doesn’t seem to have
changed in 48 years.

Nor has much else. A half-century of social

and technological development hasn’t made
much of a mark. Yes, there’s a GPS in the car,
and the young people have smartphones and
Instagram. And that’s about it.
All this may still be enough for diehard fans.
In any case, at least the above-mentioned
smartphones create the one, and the ONLY,
funny moment of the movie. When the
rampaging Leatherface appears with his

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blood-soaked chainsaw in front of a huge
group of partying hipsters, said hipsters do not
immediately scream or run — they take out
their phones to livestream. One threatens to
“cancel” Leatherface.
It’s just a silly release of tension, before what is
surely the goriest scene ever filmed on a party
bus. But we’ll take it (along with a blink-and-
you-miss-it meta-joke from the director.) Still,
if you’re like me, don’t let this loosen your grip
on that remote. Soon enough, you’ll need that
pause button. You may want to do a little fast-
forwarding, too.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” a Netflix release,

is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of
America “for strong bloody horror violence and
gore, and language.” Running time: 81 minutes.
One star out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying

parent or adult guardian.

151
THE FOO
FIGHTERS MAKE
A HORROR
MOVIE

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153
154
For anyone who found the band tensions that
reverberate in “The Beatles: Get Back” too tame,
the Foo Fighters have made a movie in which
arguments over recording an album lead to a
trail of dead bodies — and, no, this isn’t Yoko’s
fault, either.

“Studio 666,” a horror-comedy starring the six

members of the Foo Fighters as themselves,
is one of the sillier concepts to reach the big
screen in a while. That it even exists is part of
the joke — maybe even the whole joke. While
Dave Grohl and company were making their
10th album at a big, old house in Los Angeles’
San Fernando Valley, they hit on the idea of a
bloodier riff on “This Is Spinal Tap” that would
parody not just themselves but any band that’s
ever sequestered themselves in a colorful locale
said to have good sound.

“Like Zeppelin, when Zeppelin went to the

castle,” Grohl urges his bandmates in the film.

“Studio 666,” which opens in theaters Friday,

was conceived as a lark, and that’s exactly how
it comes off. It’s a goof, and there’s something
to be said for watching Grohl and the gang
having so much fun. In the version I saw, you can
even catch them laughing once or twice. The
charm of that can only go so far, of course. This
is essentially a decent “SNL” sketch stretched to
nearly two hours.

But the Foo Fighters have in their three

decades proved, if nothing else, the boundless
possibilities of positivity and being regular, self-
deprecating guys. Letting the good times roll
has made the Foo Fighters — despite being
decades removed from their biggest hits — one
of rock’s biggest acts, hall of fame inductees and,

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 Studio 666 | Official Trailer | Open Road

156
157
now, movie stars. If anything, “Studio 666” is a
testament to how bloody likable they are.

Bad vibes are the enemy in “Studio 666” — that,

and a demonic force that dwells beneath
the house and seizes Grohl, turning his
monomaniacal desire for an “epic” album into
a fevered, murderous obsession. Referencing
Rush, he wants it to be “2112 times 2112.”
He claims to discover a new note: L Sharp.
A heavy metal thrasher stretches past 40
minutes in length.
Members of the band — Taylor Hawkins,
Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, Chris Shiflett, Nate
Mendel — are peeled away one by one, and
director B.J. McDonnell makes sure any death is
comically extreme. A few friends make cameos
— Lionel Richie, Whitney Cummings and Will
Forte as a delivery guy with a demo tape who
tells the group they’re “like my second favorite
band after Coldplay.”

It’s rare for any musical act to make a movie like

this today — documentaries seem the preferred
format these days — and rarer still for it to be
a band that’s been around as long as the Foo
Fighters have. But hopefully it starts a new trend
among ’90s acts. Maybe a hairbrained heist
movie with Pavement or a science-fiction thriller
with Radiohead?
“Studio 666” an Open Road release, is rated R
by the Motion Picture Association of America
for strong bloody violence and gore, pervasive
language, and sexual content. Running time:
108 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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Studio 666 | Sneak Peek

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 ENCANTO
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, GERMAINE FRANCO & ENCANTO LIN-MANUEL...

GOOD MORNING GORGEOUS

MARY J. BLIGE

TEXAS MOON - EP
KHRUANGBIN & LEON BRIDGES

SING 2
VARIOUS ARTISTS

MARRY ME
JENNIFER LOPEZ & MALUMA

30
ADELE

YOUNG-LUV.COM - EP
STAYC

BE TOGETHER
BTOB

DANGEROUS: THE DOUBLE ALBUM

MORGAN WALLEN

COUNTRY STUFF THE ALBUM

WALKER HAYES

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162
 THIS IS THE KINGDOM / THIS IS ...
FLOWELEVATION WORSHIP

SAME GOD (FEAT. JONSAL BARRIENTES)

ELEVATION WORSHIP

WHAT I SEE (FEAT. CHRIS BROWN)

ELEVATION WORSHIP

LOSER
SUECO

NINEVEH
BROOKE LIGERTWOOD

A THOUSAND HALLELUJAHS
BROOKE LIGERTWOOD

DYNAMITE
BTS

THE NEXT EPISODE

DR. DRE FEATURING SNOOP DOGG, KURUPT & NATE DOGG

FAST TIMES
SABRINA CARPENTER

ENEMY
IMAGINE DRAGONS, JID, ARCANE & LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

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164
 WHY CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS
THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF SALT LAKE CITY

THE DAYTONA WIND

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE

NO OTHER WAY
THE WALKING DEAD

TIME’S UP
90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS

EDIBLE DERANGEMENTS
THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ORANGE COUNTY

ONE ON ONE: PART 3

SISTER WIVES

A VERY JERSEY KEGGER

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW JERSEY

UNTUCKED - THE DAYTONA WIND

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: UNTUCKED!

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

ALL AMERICAN

PILOT
EUPHORIA

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166
 VERITY
COLLEEN HOOVER

SIERRA SIX
MARK GREANEY

IT ENDS WITH US
COLLEEN HOOVER

THE DRESSMAKERS OF AUSCHWITZ

LUCY ADLINGTON

A FOREVER KIND OF LOVE

NORA ROBERTS

THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY

RYAN HOLIDAY

STEAL
JAMES PATTERSON & HOWARD ROUGHAN

HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH

SARAH J. MAAS

DIABLO MESA
DOUGLAS PRESTON & LINCOLN CHILD

THE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE

ROBERT GREENE

167
168
 COLD HEART
ELTON JOHN & DUA LIPA

WE DON’T TALK ABOUT BRUNO

CAROLINA GAITÁN - LA GAITA, MAURO CASTILLO, ADASSA...

THE NEXT EPISODE

DR. DRE

STILL D.R.E.
DR. DRE

ABCDEFU
GAYLE

LOSE YOURSELF
EMINEM

SURFACE PRESSURE
JESSICA DARROW

‘TIL YOU CAN’T

CODY JOHNSON

SHIVERS
ED SHEERAN

NUMB LITTLE BUG

EM BEIHOLD

169
STANDOFF ENDS
AT AMSTERDAM
APPLE STORE,
HOSTAGE SAFE

An hours-long hostage standoff at the Apple

Store in Amsterdam ended late Tuesday with
police in a car driving into the hostage taker
as he ran from the store. His hostage was safe,
police said.

“We can confirm that the hostage taker is out

of the Apple Store,” police said in a tweet. “He is
lying on the street and a robot is checking him for
explosives. Armed police officers have him under
control from a distance. The hostage is safe.”
Police then said that the man did not have
explosives and that medical staff were attending
to him. There was no word on his condition.

The motive for the incident was not immediately

clear. Local broadcaster AT5 suggested the
standoff was the result of an attempted armed
robbery. AT5 said witnesses reported hearing
shots fired.

170
171
172
Dozens of police, including heavily armed
specialist arrest teams, massed around the store,
cleared and sealed off the nearby Leidseplein
square and urged people living there or in shops
or cafes nearby to remain indoors. The square
ringed by bars and restaurants is close to one of
the Dutch capital’s main shopping streets.
Police said dozens of people managed to leave
the building during the standoff but declined
to give more details about the situation in the
popular store.
As police lines were set up to keep people away
from the store, a helicopter could be heard
hovering overhead. The police asked people
not to publish images or livestream the hostage
situation “for the safety of the people involved
and our deployment.”

Earlier, video posted on social media appeared

to show an armed person in the store,
apparently holding somebody else. It was not
clear how many people were in the store.

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174
 LEAK GIVES
DETAILS ON
OVER 30,000
CREDIT SUISSE
BANK CLIENTS

175
A German newspaper said a leak of data from
Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank,
reveals details of the accounts of more than
30,000 clients — some of them unsavory — and
points to possible failures of due diligence in
checks on many customers.
Credit Suisse said in a statement that it “strongly
rejects the allegations and insinuations about the
bank’s purported business practices.”
The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said
it received the data anonymously through
a secure digital mailbox over a year ago. It
said it’s unclear whether the source was an
individual or a group, and the newspaper didn’t
make any payment or promises.
The newspaper said it evaluated the data, which
ranged from the 1940s until well into the last
decade, along with the Organized Crime and
Corruption Reporting Project and dozens of
media partners including The New York Times and
The Guardian.
It said the data points to the bank having
accepted “corrupt autocrats, suspected war
criminals and human traffickers, drug dealers
and other criminals” as customers.

Credit Suisse said the allegations are

“predominantly historical” and that “the
accounts of these matters are based on
partial, inaccurate, or selective information
taken out of context, resulting in
tendentious interpretations of the bank’s
business conduct.”
The bank said it had reviewed a large number
of accounts potentially associated with the
allegations, and about 90% of them “are today
closed or were in the process of closure prior

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to receipt of the press inquiries, of which over
60% were closed before 2015.”

As for accounts that remain active, the bank said

it is “comfortable that appropriate due diligence,
reviews and other control related steps were taken
in line with our current framework.” The bank also
said the law prevents it from commenting on
“potential client relationships.”

Switzerland has sought in recent years to shed

its image as a haven for tax evasion, money
laundering and the embezzlement of government
funds, practices carried out through the misuse
of its banking secrecy policies. But those laws still
draw criticism.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung published an excerpt

from a statement by the source of the leak.

“I believe that Swiss banking secrecy laws are

immoral,” it said. “The pretext of protecting
financial privacy is merely a fig leaf covering the
shameful role of Swiss banks as collaborators of
tax evaders.”

179
BEIJING
SNAPSHOT: AS
OLYMPICS EBB,
SMARTPHONE
SYNCHRONICITY

The smartphones glowed. The irony echoed.

As part of the closing ceremony Sunday night

for the most locked-down and sequestered
Olympics in human history, a carefully curated
crowd packed — well, dotted, really — the
famed Bird’s Nest stadium as a warm and
humanistic show unfolded.
The show itself, headed by famed Chinese
director Zhang Yimou, fairly burst with color
and music and energy and even joy. It felt
disconnected from a COVID-compartmentalized
Winter Games that, despite its insistent theme
of “Together for a shared future,” kept people
apart by the thousands — both those inside and
outside its calibrated bubble.
As the closing ceremony reached its
denouement, something interesting unfolded.

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182
It was the kind of moment that has become
common in the post-lighter-at-the-concert era.

Before the ceremony, the official crowd preppers

had exhorted those in attendance to, at a certain
moment, take out their phones. “When the
Olympic flame is about to be extinguished,” the
emcee said, “hold up your phone, turn it on and
sway to the music.”

And so they did, these carefully screened

representatives of a carefully screened Games,
these folks who had passed through security
screenings and swabbing of their mucous
membranes and all sorts of other gates and
portals and checkpoints to gather here for the
event that’s supposed to symbolize the planet
coming together in the spirit of excellence and
amiable competition.

In The Era of The Phone, humanity is negotiating

a new relationship with itself. But as we clutch
our remarkable and terrible devices, be it
swaying in unison in an Olympic Stadium or
sitting alone and reaching across the ether, are
we together but always apart? Or apart but
always together?

The smartphone, barely a teenager in 2022, has

— like many teenagers — sucked up most of
the oxygen in the room. And as these Olympic
faithful in the Bird’s Nest held their phones
skyward to become totems of warmth and
togetherness against cold and COVID, a Chinese
song called “You and Me” played and the words
“One World” were displayed in fireworks, it was
easy to wonder: Is this now the best connection
we can hope for?

183
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 CHINA
SANCTIONS
RAYTHEON,
LOCKHEED OVER
TAIWAN DEAL

China said it will impose new sanctions on U.S.

defense contractors Raytheon Technologies
and Lockheed Martin due to their arms sales to
Taiwan, stepping up a feud with Washington
over security and Beijing’s strategic ambitions.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin
announced the move at a daily press briefing,
citing a newly passed Anti-Foreign Sanctions
Law that took effect in 2021. It was in response
to a $100 million deal approved by the U.S. for
maintenance of Taiwan’s missile defense systems
by the two companies.
Image: Elise Amendola
185
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“China once again urges the U.S. government
and relevant parties to . . . stop arms sales to
Taiwan and sever military ties with Taiwan,”
Wang said.

“China will continue to take all necessary

measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty
and security interests in accordance with the
development of the situation,” he said without
giving any details.
Taiwan is a democratically self-governed island
that communist-ruled China claims as its own
territory. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.

The U.S. has no formal relations with Taiwan but

is its main ally. It has increased weapons sales in
recent years, angering China with the sales. U.S.
law requires the government to ensure Taiwan
can defend itself.

Beijing regularly pressures American companies

to try to influence U.S. policy.

In October 2020, Beijing also announced

sanctions against Raytheon and other defense
contractors and “relevant American individuals.”
A day later, the State Department said it had
notified Congress of plans for a $2.37 billion sale
of Harpoon attack missiles to Taiwan.

It’s unclear what penalties, if any, were

imposed. U.S. weapons or military aircraft sales
to Taiwan in 2010, 2015 and 2019 drew similar
threats of sanctions.

China maintains that U.S. arms sale to Taiwan

violates its so-called “one-China principle” and
provisions of agreements between Beijing
and Washington.
Tensions over Taiwan have been mounting as
Beijing has stepped up military activity around

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the island to try to force concessions from the
pro-independence administration of President
Tsai Ing-wen. The Communist Party also is using
the Chinese mainland’s growing economic
weight to pressure other governments to cut
diplomatic and unofficial ties with Taiwan.
Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other
defense industry giants face controls on sales to
China of military and dual-use technologies that
have both defense and commercial applications.
But they also have major civilian businesses
and China is a huge market for aviation, among
other industries.

189