QUOTE OF THE DAY

'There have been nights as an adult when I would just get drunk and listen to his music and sit there and cry. The grief still comes. It's still just there.'

Lisa Marie Presley in her posthumous memoir, revealing the toll the death of her legendary father, Elvis Presley, had on her life

TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

Why does Trump want to free a black market founder?

With the 2024 election weeks away, former President Donald Trump has renewed a promise: if he wins back the White House, he'll release Ross Ulbricht from prison. Ulbricht has been behind bars since 2015 for creating Silk Road, an infamous black market website on the dark net.

Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy and engaging in a criminal enterprise by founding Silk Road. The website was a "sprawling black market bazaar where unlawful goods and services, including illegal drugs of virtually all varieties, were bought and sold regularly," said the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Before being shut down, Silk Road generated $200 million in sales and more than $13 million in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

What did the commentators say?
Trump's "continuing advocacy for the Silk Road founder appears incoherent and self-serving," said Sean Craig at The Daily Beast. Trump has called for Ulbricht's release even though he has "taken extreme positions on the drug trade, repeatedly suggesting that traffickers, smugglers and dealers should be eligible for the death penalty." But Ulbricht has become "something of a cause célèbre among some crypto enthusiasts and libertarians, two demographics Trump is wooing in advance of next month's presidential election."

However, the "pledge to pardon Ulbricht may not be enough," said Peder Schaefer at Politico. Trump "received sustained boos and jeers from the crowd" during a speech at the Libertarian National Convention earlier this year, despite his stance on Ulbricht. "I'm happy he said that. But it's not changing the needle," Billy Hunt, a Rhode Island Libertarian Party delegate, said to Politico.

And releasing Ulbricht "makes no sense because online crimes have real-world impacts," said Gil Duran at the San Francisco Chronicle. It has been reported that at least six people died after taking drugs purchased on Silk Road, but "many of Ulbricht's supporters share the weird belief, popular among Bitcoiners, that crimes committed via computer are expressions of liberty that deserve immunity from government authority."

What next?
While Trump may have pledged to release Ulbricht, this would likely not be at the top of Kamala Harris' to-do list if she won the presidency. Ulbricht is incarcerated in Arizona at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson, where he continues to serve a pair of life sentences.

Statistic of the day

16M: The number of acres destroyed by deforestation in 2023, according to a report from the consultancy group Climate Focus. An additional 154.6 million acres around the world were degraded due to the building of roads, logging and forest fires. This comes even as countries such as Brazil pledge to cut deforestation rates.

the explainer

Harris border policy reflects 'changing national mood'

Polls suggest voters trust Donald Trump more than Kamala Harris on immigration. Harris is trying to make up the difference with a hawkish platform on the topic.

Harris has "called for further tightening of asylum restrictions," said The Associated Press after the Democratic candidate visited the U.S. border with Mexico. Among her plans: "More serious criminal charges" for migrants who repeatedly cross the border illegally, as well as a new requirement that asylum claims be made only at official U.S. ports of entry.

Most Democratic presidential candidates have framed immigration as a "matter of legalizing undocumented immigrants," said The Washington Post. Harris treats the matter as a "law enforcement issue at the border." Border security is the first priority — after that, Democrats can turn to issues "ranging from temporary agricultural workers to dreamers to high-skill workers brought in under H-1B visas."

Hawk, or 'faux border hawk?'
On her campaign website, Harris highlights her support for the bipartisan border security bill that Trump helped kill this year. The bill would have provided new funding for 1,500 new border agents, as well as funding for "more detection technology to intercept fentanyl." Harris said she would revive that bill — part of an approach that includes both "strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship" for migrants, her website said.

Conservatives are skeptical. Harris is a "faux border hawk," said National Review. The Biden-Harris administration "tore up a border system that was working" and only turned back toward enforcement after realizing the tide of migrants was a "political gift" for Trump. Harris can't erase that she "spoke out forcefully against immigration enforcement just a few years ago," the outlet said.

'Shift that mirrors the far right'
There are also skeptics on the left. Harris "isn't fighting Trump on immigration policy," said The Progressive. "She's echoing him." Her emphasis on border enforcement "symbolizes a significant shift that mirrors the far right" and leaves migrants and their advocates without a "meaningful alternative."

Harris' message reflects a "changing national mood," said NBC News. Tougher border controls will be a priority "regardless of which party wins the 2024 elections."

Good day 🕹️

… for a Texas Tetris champ. Michael Artiaga became the first known person to successfully clear level 255 on Nintendo's Tetris, forcing the level counter to roll back to zero. After achieving the "rebirth," the teenager continued playing up to level 91 in a second round during a two-hour live stream, earning 29.4 million points.

Bad day 🔎

… for Google. The Department of Justice made recommendations for the search engine's business practices, which indicate it is "considering a possible breakup of the tech giant as an antitrust remedy," said CNBC. The DOJ is considering "behavioral and structural remedies" to prevent the company from using its products to advantage Google search "over rivals or new entrants."

Puzzles

Daily crossword

Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section, which also includes sudoku and codewords

Play here

The Week recommends

One great cookbook: 'Every Grain of Rice'

"Every Grain of Rice," from the British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop, is designed for true home cooking. In Dunlop's other books, she aims to reverse-engineer complex dishes from regional Chinese cuisines like Shanghainese, Sichuan and Hunanese. This cookbook is a gorgeous outlier. No fancy restaurant techniques or assemblage of seven time-consuming components in these dishes. Instead, the recipes replicate how some Chinese people cook at home in various parts of the enormous, diverse country.

Stocking for the future
The home cooking that requires the least effort foregrounds a strong pantry. In this case, that means store-bought, shelf-stable items like soy sauce, Sichuan bean paste, Chinese black vinegar and toasted sesame oil.

Dunlop never assumes the reader knows these ingredients well, so the glossary in "Every Grain of Rice" is both wide and deep. Each subsection is accompanied by a full-page photo of the section's ingredients, along with hanzi and roman names.

Recipes that work — and work, and work
Some of the stir-fries necessitate a mere four ingredients, as with the pressed tofu with planks of green bell peppers. Others — like gong pao chicken, aka kung pao chicken — have a robust list of ingredients. Yet every recipe feels equally manageable because each is simply a variation on a ripping-fire, wok-centric assembly line.

A parade of noodle dishes; greens and mushrooms; tofu from breakfast to late-night snack; spicy wontons that warm and startle. Each recipe in "Every Grain of Rice" is a Golden Retriever: comforting, frisky and, once you become acquainted, loyal like no other.

Poll watch

Young men and women in high school are split when it comes to views on gender discrimination, according to a Pew Research Center poll. The poll found that 70% of 12th-grade girls said women are likely to face a "good deal" or "great deal" of discrimination in getting leadership roles, compared to just 33% of boys.

INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'Before critiquing other nations' elections, let's perfect our own'
Arick Wierson at Newsweek
The 2024 election "could drastically alter the international community's perception of America's role as the paradigm of how elections should be run," says Arick Wierson. To "restore Americans' confidence in this election, it's all hands on deck." Election officials should "conduct all phases of the election process, from capturing and tallying votes to reporting and certifying them, in an open and transparent fashion." Americans should "come out in droves this November. More participation ensures more voter engagement."

'Does Melania Trump really think her pro-choice messaging will fool us?'
Moira Donegan at The Guardian
Melania Trump making pro-choice statements "does not mean that her choice to make them now, at a moment when they are maximally politically beneficial to her husband, is not cynical," says Moira Donegan. These "gestures do not reflect a sincere change of Republican policy agendas." We "already know that her husband will say anything he thinks will further his own interests; we have no reason not to assume the same of his wife."

'The beauty of being alone'
Meghan Keane at Time
While loneliness is a "serious health problem, what gets lost in these conversations is that not all alone time is the same," says Meghan Keane. There's "chronic loneliness — and there's solitude. One is a dangerous epidemic. The other is a skill we must nurture." People "do so many activities alone that don't come with the stigmas or dangers of chronic loneliness." This "kind of alone time is healing and important."

WORD OF THE DAY

Deppenapostroph

A German word meaning "idiot's apostrophe." While the German language traditionally does not use apostrophes after a name and before an S to indicate possession, it has become so widespread that the Council for German Orthography's style guide has said the punctuation was permissible.

What power does Elon Musk hold as a campaigner?