The Week Evening Review
Europe's role in Ukraine, the Pentagon's future, and travel advisories

 
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

Can Europe pick up the slack in Ukraine?

The election of Donald Trump could mean the end of U.S. support for Ukraine's defense against Russia's invasion. Now, European leaders are trying to figure out what's next.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are working to present a "united front on Ukraine" ahead of Trump's inauguration, said the Financial Times. Some European countries are prepared to "up their support for Ukraine if needed," said The Wall Street Journal. Others, like Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, have suggested it would be tough to ask "struggling voters to dig deeper for Kyiv." Additionally, the continent's "weapons stocks are dwindling, and its defense industry is less robust" than America's.

What did the commentators say?
"Helping Ukraine is Europe's job now," said Phillips Payson O'Brien at The Atlantic. Trump has "clearly indicated" he wants America out of the war and quickly. European leaders should "accept this reality and make their own plans" to help Ukraine and protect their own security. Trump may allow Europe to purchase American weapons to help Ukraine. Building Europe's defensive capacity will be hard, said O'Brien. "But it's essential."

Europeans must take Ukraine policy "into their own hands," Sophia Besch and Liana Fix said at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Leaders could offer Trump a deal in which Europe will take over financial support for Ukraine if the U.S. maintains its military support. That might appeal to Trump's "shareholder logic," while letting Europe "secure a seat at the table in any potential Ukraine peace negotiations."

Europe probably can't "fill the void" left by a possible U.S. withdrawal of support for Ukraine, Luis Simón and Lotje Boswinkel said at War on the Rocks. However, European leaders can have some say over the "actual landing zone" of a Trump-led peace proposal for Ukraine and Russia. That should be the goal now that a peace-for-territories deal seems "all but inevitable." 

What next?
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss "prospects for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine," said The New York Times. It was the first contact between Putin and the leader of a "large Western country" since 2022. After Trump's election, such calls will probably increase in frequency, said the Times, and Scholz and Putin vowed to "stay in touch."

 
 
QUOTE OF THE DAY

'These are so appalling they are a form of performance art.'

Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice, on Donald Trump's cabinet picks and their fitness for the positions. His choices seem "designed to poke the Senate in the eye." 

 
 
talking points

The Pentagon faces an uncertain future 

President-elect Donald Trump has been busy selecting potential Cabinet nominees, and there's perhaps no more consequential choice than Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. Trump has pledged to undertake a vast yet controversial overhaul of the federal government. This has some ranking members at the Pentagon worried about the next phase of America's defense policy.

Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and Army National Guard veteran, was close to Trump during his first term. But his selection as defense secretary reportedly caught even Trump's closest allies off guard, and many are calling Hegseth unqualified for the job. 

'Rapid erosion' of the military 
The "greatest danger the military faces" from Trump's second term is a "rapid erosion of its professionalism, which would undermine its status and respect," Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said to The Washington Post. Trump "does not have a real understanding of civil-military relations or the importance of a nonpartisan, nonpolitical military." Similar concerns have been raised about Hegseth. 

Trump and his defense secretary also have "wide latitude to interpret the law, and U.S. troops cannot disobey legal orders they consider to be morally wrong," Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali said at Reuters. There will be an "enormous chaos premium in a second Trump term, both because of the policies he will attempt to enact and the people he will put in place to enact them."

Noncombat focus
Trump and Hegseth may choose to focus less on deploying the military and more on its cultural issues. The president-elect has previously pledged to purge the military of "wokeism." The "abortion issue is going to be a big one for both the DOD and the VA," Leo Shane III, the deputy editor of the Military Times, said on "PBS NewsHour." 

Hegseth has "made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he's opposed to 'woke' programs that promote equity and inclusion," Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp said at The Associated Press. And while Hegseth has also said "diversity in the military is a strength, he said it was because minority and white men can perform similarly but the same isn't true for women."

 
 

Statistic of the day

$212M: The potential economic damage of a network of fake art forgers in Europe, said Italian officials. At least 38 people in the network — which allegedly produced at least 2,100 fake paintings attributed to 30 famous artists like Banksy, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol — are under investigation.

 
 
the explainer

What to know about State Department travel advisories

Civil unrest, crime, health, terrorism and the likelihood of natural disasters are among the factors that come into play when the U.S. State Department issues its travel advisories. These advisories aim to keep Americans safe and secure while abroad.

What do travel advisories say?
The advisories "describe the risks" of visiting a country and "give clear guidance to U.S. citizens to help them stay safe," said the State Department. From lowest to highest, the travel advisory levels are Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions, Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution, Level 3: Reconsider Travel and Level 4: Do Not Travel. 

Advisories for Level 1 countries, like Japan, are straightforward and include a link to a page containing additional information, like whether a tourist visa is required for entry and if there are any vaccination requirements. A Level 3 or 4 country will have more details in its advisory, including a summary of why it's dangerous to travel there.

Does the State Department issue travel advisories for every country?
Yes. When it comes to determining each country's travel advisory level, "safety and security conditions that could affect the lives and interests of U.S. citizens abroad" are considered, with each analysis "undertaken without regard to bilateral political or economic considerations."

What is STEP?
U.S. citizens and nationals can enroll in the free Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) by signing up on the State Department website. This service allows travelers to register their international trips and receive communications from the closest U.S. embassy or consulate in case of emergency. 

Some travelers might find it helpful to "think of STEP like travel insurance: If all goes well, you won't need to use it, and you might even forget you have it," said The Points Guy. Should things take a turn while on your trip, it could be a lifesaver, as the "local U.S. embassy is the quickest way to get help" and has the goal of ensuring all Americans in its "jurisdiction are safe and accounted for."

 
 

Good day 💬

… for parents of young gamers. Roblox, a game platform popular with kids and tweens, has introduced "significant updates" to parental controls and will ban children under 13 from directly messaging other gamers. The new safety measures will allow parents to "access controls, set spend limits and monitor their child's activity remotely without needing access to the child's account or device," said NBC News.

 
 

Bad day 🖋️

… for poets. In a new study, more than 1,600 people were asked to distinguish verses by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and other famous writers from imitations generated by ChatGPT, and they could not do so more than half of the time. And according to the University of Pittsburgh researchers, more than 78% preferred the AI versions.

 
 
Picture of the day

Braving the elements

A folk artist performs at the foot of the Ulan Hada volcanoes in Inner Mongolia as part of an ice and snow festival. The celebrations kick off the winter tourism season in the Chinese autonomous region.
Wang Zheng / VCG via Getty Images

 
 
Puzzles

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

 
 
The Week recommends

"The Zuni Café Cookbook," published in 2002, is like a bike with training wheels. Over the course of 500-plus pages, Judy Rodgers emboldens the reader with recipes that spare no verbiage in describing how to think like a cook and, in time, act like one.

Teaching and technique
The most famous dish at the 45-year-old Zuni Café in San Francisco is its roast chicken with bread salad. It's an honest dish — a whole chicken roasted in a wood-fired oven and accompanied by chunks of country bread tossed with vinegar, dried currants and pine nuts. The deliciousness is in the details.

Rodgers utilizes five pages to describe the process, including how to prepare the bread so the chunks are craggy, how to warm the pine nuts and rehydrate the currants and why you should season the chicken with salt at least a day before cooking it. 

This salting technique might be Rodgers' finest legacy. A section called "The Practice of Salting Early" explains the science behind salting meat and fish before you cook them. The book is two decades old, and with each year, more chefs are applying this wisdom.

Staples, revitalized
Vegetables and starches receive equal attention in the cookbook. Influenced by a range of European techniques and her home base of California, with its famously fine produce, Rodgers shows how to turn the common into the remarkable.

Rodgers died in 2013. Zuni Café lives on, with her spirit everywhere. And "The Zuni Café Cookbook," Rodgers' magnum opus, continues to mentor and assure curious home cooks.

 
 

Poll watch

Over half of Americans, 56%, support stricter gun laws, according to a Gallup poll. This marks the 10th straight year of majority support for stricter gun laws. The poll of 1,023 adults found that this support falls largely along partisan lines, as 89% of Democrats favor stricter gun laws compared with 25% of Republicans. 

 
 
INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson is the absurd spectacle we deserve'
Will Leitch at The New York Times
The Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight "ended after eight soporific rounds," and the "problem with spectacle as an end to itself is that it crowds out actual quality," says Will Leitch. It's "one thing to watch a farcical fight; it's another entirely when farcical fights are all that are left." People are "seeing this phenomenon not just in boxing or in other sports but in many aspects of American society," and it's "instantly disposable content."

'What Islam taught me about accepting defeat'
Shadi Hamid at The Washington Post
Even when we "know we have lost, it's not easy to lose well, so we must look for other resources where we can find them," says Shadi Hamid. Islam has been a "source of strength in this regard." Religion is about "befriending reality rather than resisting it," and "loss and suffering are inescapable." There's "something liberating in the idea that we got it wrong, because then at least we can do better next time." 

'Access to climate education is a matter of justice'
Alexia Leclercq at Al Jazeera
We "increasingly find ourselves in a situation where the survival of human civilization is at stake," and "while the near future seems bleak, our education systems are nowhere near providing children with the right tools and knowledge to help them understand it," says Alexia Leclercq. Schools are "simply inadequate to prepare new generations for living in an era of climate change and taking action on it." We "must ensure that young people are equipped to tackle the climate crisis."

 
 
WORD OF THE DAY

Pando

A grove of over 40,000 trees in rural Utah descended from a single seedling, collectively considered one single organism (making it the world's largest organism). Pando might also be the world's oldest living organism at an estimated 16,000 to 80,000 years old, according to new DNA analysis by researchers. 

 
 

Evening Review was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Joel Mathis, Summer Meza and Anahi Valenzuela, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Illustration by Stephen Kelly / Getty Images; Mike Theiler / Pool / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Maudib / iStock via Getty Images; W.W. Norton & Company