The Week Evening Review
The new nuclear arms race, the enduring mask debate, and the spread of flesh-eating bacteria

 
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

Is the world in a new nuclear arms race?

The nuclear nightmares of the Cold War are back. The world's nine nuclear-armed nations "spent a combined total of $91.4 billion on their arsenals in 2023," said The Associated Press. This surge of weapons building and modernization makes international conflicts much more fraught with apocalyptic danger. 

That means a lot more saber-rattling. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is flexing the alliance's "nuclear muscles," Politico said, and suggests it should deploy nuclear weapons more widely to deter threats from Russia, China and North Korea. NATO may "face something that it has never faced before," he said, and that is "two nuclear-powered potential adversaries — China and Russia." A new arms race is on.

What did the commentators say?
"The U.S. needs more nukes," Hal Brands said at Bloomberg. President Joe Biden in 2021 briefly considered a "no first use" policy for America's nuclear arsenal, but "America's adversaries don't share the dream of a nuclear-free world." China doubled the size of its arsenal in recent years, capable of striking at U.S. bases and allies in the Pacific. The U.S. has always prioritized a "nuclear advantage" over its rivals, said Brands. Building more weapons is "vital to the credibility of America's global defense posture."

"More warheads will not make us safer," Robert Rust said at the Union of Concerned Scientists blog. We already learned during the Cold War that "any quantitative advantage" the U.S. might gain by building more nukes will "inevitably evaporate." The other guys will catch up quickly. A new nuclear arms race will have "no winners, only losers."

What next?
Stoltenberg's comments drew backlash from Russia, Reuters said. "This is nothing but another escalation of tension," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. NATO tried to walk back the notion that it might deploy nuclear arms more widely. "We have an ongoing modernization program to replace legacy weapons and aircraft," a spokesperson said. "Beyond that, there are no significant changes to our nuclear deterrent."

"Ideally, more aggressive U.S. diplomacy might bring China to the table for tripartite arms talks with Russia and the United States," said The Washington Post. But the prospects for such talks are "dim." Instead, China and Russia now seem to have a "desire for heightened geopolitical struggle." That's the dilemma. "Diplomacy takes two to tango or, in this case, three."

 
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talking points

Should masks be here to stay?

Four years after the Covid-19 pandemic's onset, a lot less people are wearing masks. Now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is considering outlawing masks on public transit in her state. 

The case for masking
Masks are proven to help stop the spread of Covid. And as the virus mutates, there are often new strains. While data on positivity rates is not always available, because testing has become less available and less frequent, cases are on the rise in the U.S., driven by the new FLiRT variants. 

Masks may additionally help to prevent the increasing spread of other common infections. "At least 13 communicable diseases, from the common cold to measles and tuberculosis, are surging past their pre-pandemic levels in many regions," said Bloomberg. "Around the world, a post-Covid reality is beginning to sink in: Everyone, everywhere, really is sick a lot more often."

'Culture wars'
Hochul suspects masks can aid criminals — and protesters — in evading the law. Her comments come as New York City "continues to be the site of steady protests that began after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7," said The New York Times. "Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have said that wearing masks is necessary because of police surveillance and threats … that participating in demonstrations could render protesters unemployable," said The Guardian. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams backed Hochul. "People have hid under the guise of wearing a mask for Covid to commit criminal acts," he said. "Civil rights leaders" like Martin Luther King Jr. "did not hide their faces," but the Ku Klux Klan "hid their faces."

Some Americans have steadfastly resisted masking for symbolic reasons. Masks "now carry weight as symbols in the red state–blue state culture wars," said the Times. 

Masking in public can help protect the most vulnerable, but reluctance to do so is not exactly surprising. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, Americans are "less likely than others around the world to feel close to people in their country or community." 

 
 

Statistic of the day

247: The number of mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to the most recent data from the Gun Violence Archive. This averages out to more than one mass shooting per day, including a slew of violence in four states on Sunday that left one person dead and 34 others wounded. 
Gun Violence Archive

 
 
QUOTE OF THE DAY

'One rash move — one miscalculation — could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination.'

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres responding to concerns over escalating tensions along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. The people of the region and the rest of the world cannot afford for Lebanon to "become another Gaza," he said. 

 
 
In the SPotlight

Japan's deadly flesh-eating bacteria spreads

Health experts are struggling to explain the record spread of a deadly flesh-eating bacteria in Japan, one that can prove fatal within 48 hours of infection. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases has reported 977 cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) since the start of 2024, nearly three times as many as there were this time last year and with 77 confirmed deaths between January and March.

Range of diseases
STSS is a "rare but serious" bacterial infection caused predominantly by microbes belonging to group A streptococcus (GAS) bacteria, said Newsweek. The pathogen itself is common, said The Telegraph, with between 5% and 20% of healthy adults having "latent symptom-free infections." Yet it can progress into a range of diseases, from tonsillitis and impetigo to scarlet fever and pneumonia, and some severe cases trigger a flesh-eating disease known as necrotizing fasciitis. 

Treatments include antibiotics, intravenous fluids and surgery to remove the infected tissue. Even then, STSS can prove fatal, with as many as 30% of patients dying after contracting the infection. “Most of the deaths happen within 48 hours," said Ken Kikuchi, a professor of infectious diseases at Tokyo Women's Medical University. 

Link to Covid restrictions 
Tokyo has been most affected by the rapid surge in STSS, with 145 cases in the first six months of 2024. The reason "remains unclear," said CNN, citing Japanese public broadcaster NHK, though one leading theory is that it's linked to Covid-19 restrictions. 

It could be due to people's weakened immune systems following the pandemic, said Kikuchi to NHK. "We can boost immunity if we are constantly exposed to bacteria," he said. "That mechanism was absent during the coronavirus pandemic." But surges in cases are far from unusual, said Jon Cohen, an emeritus professor of infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the U.K. 

Other regions have experienced recent outbreaks, said Fortune. In late 2022, five European countries reported an increase in cases of GAS infections to the World Health Organization.

 
 

Good day ?

… for a lost boy. Christian Ramirez, a 4-year-old California boy, was found safe after wandering away from a campground in the Sierra National Forest and spending 22 hours alone in the woods. The boy was found "nestled under a tree" about a quarter mile from the campground, "hungry and exhausted" but in otherwise good health, authorities said.

 
 

Bad day ?

… for stranded astronauts. NASA's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck in space aboard the International Space Station due to problems with the Boeing Starliner they rode to orbit. The pair were scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after a week on the ISS, but they will now return no sooner than June 26, said NASA.

 
 
Picture of the day

Hair of the dog

After entering the competition four times, a Pekingese named Wild Thang won the 34th annual World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, California, winning $5,000.
Josh Edelson / 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

A little bit of freezer trickery and a lot of assembling are the elements of cunning summer cooking. This collection includes a no-cook berry showstopper, the best basil pesto and a vigorous watermelon salad. 

Basil Pesto
Having a solid pesto recipe for the summer months is just good living. And if you are going to sequester a pesto recipe — of which there are endless variations with many an herb and nut — the northern Italian version with basil and pine nuts is a fine place to begin. 

Peach Granita
Effortless wonders can be accomplished with fruit, ice and sugar. Granitas are the worn-in jeans of the frozen dessert sphere — comfortable, easy-access, no-fuss, well-textured. This peach incarnation exclaims all that is good and right about summer. 

Summer Pudding 
Berries are one of the vibrant marvels of the warm-weather season. One of the finest ways to see them shine is in summer pudding, the classically British no-cook dessert comprising bread soaked with macerated fruit. It's a sublime example of a dish that through simple alchemy becomes far grander than the sum of its parts. 

Watermelon Salad
Watermelon is a refreshing delight on its own, directly from the coldest part of the fridge. Pickle some onions with the floral wallop of habaneros and lift of salt mixed with lime zest, and that watermelon becomes a new creature.

 
 

Poll watch

Seventy-two percent of work meetings are ineffective, according to a recent survey from Australian software company Atlassian. The survey polled 5,000 workers on four continents, and 78% of those workers said the number of meetings they have to attend makes it harder to get work done. 

 
 
INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'Wes Moore's marijuana pardons are a model for the country'
The Washington Post editorial board 
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's (D) pardoning of low-level marijuana offenses is a "good example of clemency done properly," says The Washington Post editorial board. Moore "appears to be thinking along the same lines in a state that has already done what the federal government is on the road to doing." While "no one is getting out of prison as a result of the pardons," Moore's decision is "still significant, both symbolically and substantively."

'Is this the worst idea Trump has ever had? Almost.'
Dean Obeidallah at CNN
Donald Trump recently "shared with the crowd his 'Hunger Games'-themed idea of pitting migrants against each other in physical combat," says Dean Obeidallah. Trump's idea was that "despite the toughness of the professional UFC fighters, the migrants coming to America are actually stronger, tougher and more dangerous." He "wants his supporters to view migrants as a threat from which only he can protect them," and the proposal is "simply more evidence of Trump's depravity."

'The misdirection of the Hunter verdict'
Peter Van Buren at The American Conservative
Hunter Biden is "fully guilty, no doubt, confirmed by the rapid three-hour turnaround decision reached by the jury," but the "problem is that misdirection" from his laptop, says Peter Van Buren. The saga of Hunter has "credibility now in that in the course of the Hunter gun trial the contents of his laptop were validated by the FBI as real." The president was "at least a passive participant in the scheme, maybe more than that." 

 
 
WORD OF THE DAY

grolar

The hybrid offspring of polar and grizzly bears, which scientists warn could threaten the future of polar bears as a species. Until recently, the home ranges of the two groups of bears had kept them apart, but climate change is shrinking the habitat of polar bears and seeing more crossover. Thankfully, a new study in the Conservation Genetics Resources journal found only one example of grolars, which was already known to scientists.

 
 

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

Image credits, from top: Illustration by Stephen Kelly / Getty Images; EMS Forster Productions / Getty Images; BSIP / Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Greg Dupree / Food & Wine