Elizabeth Warren’s War on Military Spending

DOMESTIC
TERRORISTS
pose an
“existential
threat” to
THE NATION’S
ELECTRICAL GRID.
The attacks
have already
started
 Tomorrow's
capital projects
can't be built
with yesterday's The US government is investing
technology. trillions of dollars in capital programs.

Build a better tomorrow with Aurigo Masterworks Cloud

BUILD FASTER I BUILD SMARTER I BUILD STRONGER

Aurigo Masterworks, the leading capital planning and construction project

management software, empowers America to build smarter for tomorrow. Easy BUILD A BETTER
to use and configure, it's the power at your fingertips that helps you plan, build and TOMORROW
maintain your city’s capital assets.
 JA N u A Ry 2 0 , 2 0 2 3 _ VO L . 1 8 0 _ N O. 0 2

FEATURES

20
The Mother
of All Blackouts
Domestic terrorists pose
an ‘existential threat’ to the
nation’s electrical grid. The
attacks have already started.
by TOM O’CONNOR
and NAVEED JAMALI

30
China’s Bid for
the South Pacific
Beijing is expanding its
reach, saying its interests
are purely commercial and
diplomatic. The real long-
term goal is strategic.
by DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

ANCHORS AWEIGH People’s

Liberation Army sailors on parade in
Tiananmen Square. China is intent
FEN G LI/GE T T Y

on becoming a global naval power.

COVER Illustration by
Alex Fine for Newsweek

GO TO Newsweek.com F O R MORE HEADLINES 1


D E PA RT M E N T S
GLOBAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF _ Nancy Cooper
DEPUTY EDITOR _ Diane Harris
VICE PRESIDENT, BRAND CREATIVE _ Michael Goesele
VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL _ Laura Davis
MANAGING EDITOR _ Melissa Jewsbury
OPINION EDITOR _ Josh Hammer
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR _ Fred Guterl
GLOBAL PUBLISHING EDITOR _ Chris Roberts
EDITORIAL
Managing Editors _ James Etherington Smith (U.K.),
Kyle McGovern (U.S.)
Executive Editor, Engagement and Innovation _ Alex Hudson
Director, Podcasts and Radio _ Jesse Edwards
Producer, Podcasts and Radio _ Maura Currie
Senior Editor, Autos _ Eileen Falkenburg-Hull
Enterprise Editor _ Ritu Sehgal
Editor, National Security & Foreign Policy _ Bruno Battistoli
Newsletter and Editions Editor _ Emeri Montgomery
Newsletter Producer _ Pronita Naidu
Senior Editorial Operations Manager _ Connie Sideras
Editorial Operations Manager _ Leea Jackson
Senior News Editor _ Alfred Joyner
Deputy Publishing Editor _ Paul Rhodes
Senior Editors _ Peter Carbonara, Shane Croucher,
Meredith Wolf Schizer, H. Alan Scott
Senior Editor, Data Projects _ Rob Minto
Senior Editor, Fact Check _ Yevgeny Kuklychev
Senior Editor, Life & Trends _ Marc Vargas
Senior Editor, My Turn _ Jenny Haward
Senior Editor, Politics _ Jenni Fink
Senior Editor, Science _ Hannah Eaglesham
Senior Editor, SEO _ Shanique Joseph
Audience Editor _ Emily Kaiser, Ben Kelly
Autos Editor _ Jake Lingeman
Entertainment Editor _ Molly Mulshine
News Editor _ Rod Ardehali, Matthew Cannon
Live Blogs Editor _ Alex Backus
Night Editor _ Margaret Weaver
Weekend Editor _ John Fitzpatrick, Jason Lemon
Deputy Editors, Opinion _ Jason Fields, Philip Jeffery,
Ramsen Shamon, Batya Ungar-Sargon
Deputy Editor Life & Trends _ Charlotte Nisbet
2 NE WSWEEK .COM
▾ In Focus ▾ Periscope
06 Brasília, Brazil 10
Bolsonaro’s Bullies
08 Orchard Park,
14
New York
Answered Prayers
Washington, D.C.
Bare Minimum
Vatican City 18
Final Farewell
OSCAR OWNER
“You don’t take it for
granted. I certainly don’t
rest on my laurels.”
Deputy Planning Editor _ Remi Odejimi
Deputy Editor Culture _ Jon Jackson
Deputy Night Editor _ Scott McDonald
Deputy Weekend Editor _ Anna Commander
Politics Editor _ Will Veale
Asia Editor at Large _ Danish Manzoor
Associate Trends Editor _ Rebecca Flood
SEO Editor, Life _ Rebecca Nicholson
Deputy Editor, My Turn _ Katie Russell
Associate Editors, My Turn _ Monica Greep, Carine Harb
Editor at Large _ Naveed Jamali
Contributing Editor _ John Feng
Contributing Editors, Opinion _ Lee Habeeb, Shaun King
Publishing Editors _ Adrian Croft, Ed Cummins, Yannick
Demousiter, Bruce Janicke, Emma Lee-Sang,
Anthony Murray, Jason Nuckolls, Dom Passantino,
Edward Pearcey, Anthony Phillips, Manasa Rao,
Dave Siminoff, Grayson Thomas, Sam Wilson
C R E AT I V E
Director of Photography _ Lauren Joseph
Art Director _ Carrie Bremner
Contributing Art Director _ Michael Bessire
Photo Editor _ Adrian Callaghan, Kristen McNicholas
Digital Imaging Specialist _ Katy Lyness
CORRESPONDENTS
Chief Royal Correspondent _ Jack Royston
Congressional Correspondent _ Alex J. Rouhandeh
Diplomatic Correspondent _ David Brennan
Russia & Ukraine Correspondent _ Michael Wasiura
White House Correspondent _ Dan Bush
SENIOR WRITERS
Jack Beresford, Jamie Burton, Brendan Cole, Molli Mitchell,
Tom O’Connor, Khaleda Rahman, Nick Reynolds, Anna Skinner,
Ryan Smith
WRITERS
Anders Anglesey, Giulia Carbonaro, Adrian Carrasquillo, James
Crawford-Smith, David H. Freedman, Steve Friess, Katherine Fung,
Aristos Georgiou, Alice Gibbs, Lauren Giella, Meghan Gunn, Leonie
Helm, Matthew Impelli, Gerrard Kaonga, Fatma Khaled, Thomas Kika,
JA N UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 2 3 _ VO L . 1 8 0 _ N O. 0 2
▾ Culture
Automobiles 42 Uncharted
Ten Predictions Colorful Origins
for 2023
46 Show Business
Aiming for James Cromwell
Moral Authority
48 Parting Shot
Elizabeth Warren
Octavia Spencer
on a Values-
Driven Military NEWSWEEK (ISSN0028-9604) is published
weekly except one week in January, February,
Talking Points March, April, May, June, July, and November
due to combined issues. Newsweek is
published by Newsweek Magazine LLC, 1
Martina
ROBBY KLEIN/GE T T Y
World Trade Center, Floor 72, New York, NY
10007. Periodical postage is paid at New
Navratilova, York, NY and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send change of address
Prince Harry to Newsweek, 1 World Trade Center,
and More Floor 72, New York, NY 10007. For Article
Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, Back/
Bulk Issues Newsweek.com/licensing Brian
Kolb Newsweek@EnveritasGroup.com
Soo Kim, Kaitlin Lewis, Sophie Lloyd, Nick Mordowanec, Tom Norton,
Ewan Palmer, Adam Piore, Darragh Roche, Meghan Roos, Winston
Ross, Roberto Saviano, Roxy Simons, Aila Slisco, Andrew Stanton,
Zoe Strozewski, Jessica Thomson, Maria Volpe, Robyn White
VIDEO
Director, Video _ Jessica Durham
Deputy Directors, Video _ Jon Jenkins-Lowe (U.K.),
Maghen Reynolds (U.S.)
Motion Graphics Producer _ Eleanor Shere
Senior Video News Editor _ Nandini Krishnamoorthy
Senior Video Producers, News _ Olivia Cataldo, Alexis Sogl
Senior Video Producers, Lifestyle &Entertainment
_ Alyssa Hodenfield, Luke Smith
Video Assignment Editor _ Tiffany Latta
Video Producers _ Mickey Hutchings, Julius Kumi-Darfour,
Rose Lee, Liz Macro, Jevh Maravilla, Renae Whissel
SOCIAL MEDIA
Head of Social Media _ Mark Muir
Deputy Head of Social Media _ Grace MacRae
Social Media Coordinator _ Devin Robertson
Social Media Associates _ Shea Donovan, Jack Haley
PUBLISHED BY
Newsweek Magazine LLC
Chief Executive Officer _ Dev Pragad
Global Chief Commercial & Growth Officer _ Kevin Gentzel
Chief Strategy Officer _ Dayan Candappa
Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer _ Alvaro Palacios
Global General Counsel _ Rosie Mckimmie
Chief Technology Officer _ Michael Lukac
Chief Information Officer _ Sujay Nelson
Chief of Staff _ Ryan Kinney
SVP Finance / General Manager EMEA _ Amit Shah
SVP, Human Resources _ Leiann Kaytmaz
SVP, Product _ Luciano Costa
Global Head of Programmatic and Partnerships _ Jeremy Makin
Vice President, Strategy _ Nalin Kaul
Associate Director, Strategy _ Adam Silvers
Director of Rankings _ Josh Smith
Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships _ Patricia A. Hartendorp
Senior Sales Director _ Chantal Mamboury
Head of Subscription Operations _ Samantha Rhodes
Newsstand Manager _ Kim Sermon
 ★★★★★
“Journalism I don’t see elsewhere until later, if at all.”
NEWSWEEK .COM/ TRY

SAVE 79% F R O M $1.90 P E R W E E K

 Rewind

The Archives
“In 2013, Jersey quietly rose to the top spot of the global rankings
2014 of offshore tax shelters,” wrote Newsweek as it covered class
divisions and systemic child abuse on the Channel Island “known for
warehousing nearly $2 trillion of the world’s wealth.” The magazine added,
“while Jersey’s riches pile up, there is a growing perception among the island’s
working class that there’s one set of rules for the haves and another for the
have-nots.” Last year, to ease its housing crisis, the island’s parliament voted to
exempt islanders from tax on rental income under £10,000 ($12,000) per year.

1978

“The growing presence of women at

work is forcing men to revise their
sexual stereotypes,” Newsweek said.
“They are reassessing their priorities,
their ideas about success, their
notions of themselves as omnipotent
husbands and lovers.” Two million
men are stay-at-home dads in the
u.S. in 2021, nearly double from 1989.

1996

“Every generation thinks the

weather isn’t what it used
to be,” said Newsweek of the
year’s extreme weather, “a
n E WSWE EK arCHIVE (3)

result of global warming, itself

a consequence of air pollution.”
Global average temperature in
2022 was 1.87° F above pre-
industrial times, likely the fifth or
sixth warmest year on record.

4 NE WSWEEK .COM January 20, 2023

 H E L P I N G YO U N AV I G AT E A R A P I D LY C H A N G I N G W O R L D

▾ ▾ ▾ ▾
Award-winning Download issues National and global Expert analysis beyond
journalists and and read offline coverage on the the headlines on a
photographers on any device issues that matter wide range of topics

★★★★★
“Newsweek offers a clear combination
of news, culture and thought-provoking ideas
that challenge the smart and inquisitive.”

EASY WAYS SCAN THE QR CODE TO THE RIGHT, COMPLETE AND

TO SUBSCRIBE RETURN THIS FORM OR GO TO Newsweek.com/Try

1 Year for Deliver to:

$
99
NAME

BEST A DDRE S S

OFFER!
( $ 1 .9 0 P E R W E E K )
CI T Y R EG IO N/ STATE
79% SAVINGS
Z I P CODE CO U NTRY

□ Visa □ Mastercard □ Amex

RETURN TO:

Newsweek C A RD N O.
Subscriptions
Department E X P. CCV CO D E

1 WORLD TRADE CENTER,

N A M E ON C A RD
FLOOR 72
NEW YORK, NY 10007
S I GN AT URE

To receive an email confirmation and for digital access, please provide your email address:
* Percentage savings calculated as a saving
on our cover price, as found on the cover of
EM A I L
Newsweek. The weekly price is an indication
of what you will pay per issue, we will charge
you the full price for the term you select. □ Payment enclosed (checks made payable to Newsweek)
 In Focus
THE NEWS IN PICTURES

6 NE WSWEEK .COM
 BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL

Bolsonaro’s Bullies
Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro
attack a vehicle of the Military Police during clashes outside
Planalto Presidential Palace on January 8. Thousands of
protesters stormed Brazil’s Congress, presidential offices
and the Supreme Court, shattering windows and setting
fires, trying to oust the newly inaugurated President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsanaro never officially conceded Silva’s
november victory. His supporters believe the election was
a fraud and demanded military intervention to remove Silva
from office. Police have detained more than 1,200 rioters.

▸ SERGIO LIMA
aFP/G E T T y

January 20, 2023 NE WSWEEK .COM 7

8
In Focus

NE WSWEEK .COM
JANUARY 20, 2023
COU NTE RCLOCK WI SE FROM TOP LEF T: GE T T Y; THE WA SHIN GTON PO ST/GE T T Y; AFP/GE T T Y
 ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK
Answered Prayers
Buffalo Bills fans hold signs in
support of safety Damar Hamlin
during a game against the New
England Patriots at Highmark
Stadium on January 8. Hamlin
suffered cardiac arrest and was
resuscitated on the field during
a game against the Cincinnati
Bengals six days earlier. Now
able to breathe on his own, the
24-year-old, tweeted “GAMETIME!”
before Sunday’s game.
▸ T I M O T H Y T. LU DW I G
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Bare Minimum
Newly-elected Speaker of the
House Kevin McCarthy of California
celebrates with staff, family, friends
and other House Republicans in a
meeting of the 118th Congress on
January 6, after an excruciating five-
day, 15-ballot floor fight in which
McCarthy’s detractors—mostly
members of the House Freedom
Caucus—exerted concessions vastly
limiting the Speaker’s role. This
standoff was the longest since 1859.
▸ JABIN B OTSFORD
VATICAN CITY
Final Farewell
Clergy members leave after the
funeral mass for Pope Emeritus
Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s Square
on January 5. Benedict was the first
pope in 600 years to resign. The
current pope, Pope Francis, led the
funeral, marking the end of a unique
decade when two popes coexisted.
A scroll put into the casket said he
“fought against crimes committed
by members of the clergy against
minors or vulnerable persons.”
▸ ALBERTO PIZZOLI
NE WSWEEK .COM 9
 Periscope N E W S , O P I N I O N + A N A LY S I S

AT LAST?
Tesla’s long-delayed
Cybertruck is expected
to finally hit the
market in 2023.

10 NE WSWEEK .COM
 “I want a family, not an institution.” ▸ P.18

AU TO M O B I L E S

Ten Predictions
About New Cars and
Trucks for 2023
Industry analysts think supply chain problems will get better, consumer
demand will ease and the electric future will arrive—eventually

It was a busy year for the auto Industry.
2022 began with Ford F-150 Lightning “We will see ongoing supply chain issues keeping
buyers asking when they would get their elec-
tric trucks, as demand far outpaced supply. At
the same time, the compact Ford Maverick sold
out instantly and remains hard to find. GMC
revealed the Sierra Denali EV, a counterpart to
the Chevrolet Silverado EV. New electric vehicles
(EVs) without a bed made the news, among them
Lucid’s impressive Air sedan. Dodge introduced
the first American electric muscle car, the Charger
TE SL A ; TOP RIGHT: K A RWA I TAN G/G E T T Y
1 _ There will be more cars on dealer lots
production back in 2023, though inventory should
be in a better space than in 2022,” Stephanie Brin-
ley, assistant director of research and analysis at
S&P Global Mobility tells Newsweek. “S&P Global
Mobility forecasts U.S. sales will reach 14.7 mil-
lion units next year. This puts the market below 17
million units for the fourth year in a row, which
leaves pent-up demand.
“However, economic conditions are also expected

SRT Daytona. A host of Mercedes-EQ EVs hit the
street. And while supply chain issues continued,
EV infrastructure improved with several partner-
ships with charging companies. Home chargers
became hot items.
At year’s end, the Newsweek Autos team
rounded up some of its favorite indus-
try analysts from across the country
to weigh in on what 2023 might bring.
LINGEMAN
Here are 10 predictions for the new year.
to dampen some of the pent-up demand as well....
We may see fewer people looking for a new car in
2023. Overall, 2023 is going to be a stronger sales
year than 2022, but it’s still a comparatively weak
U.S. light-vehicle market.”
2 _ A recession may put a
damper on demand
by
“The last couple of years have seen supply
JA K E issues constantly in the headlines, with
semiconductor chips at the center of the

NE WSWEEK .COM 11
Periscope AU TO M O B I LE S

auto industry’s hardship in procuring David Undercoffler, editor-in-chief

adequate supply to meet new vehicle
demand. As a result, the industry has
seen sales crater, but not due to a lack
of demand,” says Ed Kim, president
and chief analyst at AutoPacific.
“2023 may prove to present a new
angle to these ongoing challenges.
There are some indications that var-
ious supply chain issues may be eas-
ing, particularly with China easing
its COVID Zero policy that has exac-
erbated the supply chain crisis.
“As a result, we are likely to see
much-improved supply in 2023. How-
ever, with economic headwinds due
to an almost certain recession in 2023,
it is quite possible that the increase in
supply may coincide with a drop in
consumer demand for new vehicles as
tough economic conditions may put
new vehicle purchases on the back
burner for many would-be shoppers.”
3 _ EV pickups will be big
at Autolist, says.
“Brands like Stellantis, Ford and
GM each see billions (yes with a B)
in annual revenue from vehicle sub-
scriptions by the end of this decade.
This, despite consumers’ clear prefer-
ence to pay upfront for the features,
according to our Autolist survey.
Thanks to over-the-air updates, these
features can be turned on or off with
the click of a mouse back to Auto-
maker HQ. You’ve been warned.”
5 _ SUVs and vans will
still outsell sedans
“Though Honda is launching a new
Accord and a new Kia Rio is expected
late in the year, new vehicles in 2023
will favor utility vehicles yet again
and sedan share of the market is
forecast to continue to slip, falling
from about 16 percent in 2022 to just
under 15 percent in 2023, while the
share for both utility vehicles and

“EV pickup trucks will still be a theme
in 2023, as we should have Chevrolet
Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and Tesla
Cybertruck on sale by the end of the
year, and Ford works to increase the
capacity of the F-150 Lightning,” S&P
Global Mobility’s Brinley predicts.
“For new EVs, we expect to see
entries on sale from traditional and
new brands, including BMW, Chevro-
let, Fisker, Polestar, Volvo, Chevrolet,
Lexus and VinFast. Startups in the
commercial van space targeting sales
in 2023 include Arrival and Canoo.”
4 _ Subscriptions are the
way of the future
“Those heated seats you love? That
trick navigation system with real-
time updates that you depend on?
Even that horsepower boost to your
new EV or the safety of a hands-free
driving system? All are potential
subscription targets for automakers,”
pickup trucks each increase slightly.
We’ll see a small increase in van sales
as well, specifically driven by delivery
vans,” Brinley says.
6 _ General Motors will
grab the spotlight
AutoPacific’s Kim says, “GM has
been in the news a lot as it read-
ies its plethora of Ultium-based
EVs. For all that press, GM cur-
rently only has thre e EVs for
“It is quite possible
that the increase in
supply may coincide
with a drop in
consumer demand
for new vehicles.”
CLOCK WI SE FROM TOP LE F T: FORD MOTOR CO; CHE VROLE T; K IA ; SE BA STIEN MAUROY; GENER AL MOTOR S (2)
sale in the U.S.: the subcompact
entry-level Bolt (in EV and EUV
guises), the mid-luxury Cadillac Lyriq
and the six-figure GMC Hummer EV.
2023 is the year that GM will finally
start rolling out its mainstream
Ultium-based EV models in the U.S.”
He adds, “The Chevrolet Equinox
EV promises to make a splash as an
attractive and affordable electric
family crossover starting at around
$30,000 and the Chevrolet Blazer EV
promises more room and fantastic
styling for a bit more money.
“The Chevrolet Silverado EV and
the GMC Sierra EV will also launch
in 2023, responding to Ford’s suc-
cess with the all-electric F-150 Light-
ning. These are mainstream volume
EV offerings that will put GM to the
test as the much-ballyhooed Ultium

12 NE WSWEEK .COM JANUARY 20, 2023


EV tech makes its way to the most
relevant and high volume auto-
motive segments.”
7 _ New laws boosting EVs
will take a while to work
2023 “will continue to see the foun-
dations for a successful transition to
an EV-dominated market being built,
but it won’t be a pivotal year itself,”
S&P’s Brinley predicts. “Though the
Inflation Reduction Act has several
elements that will support EV sales
growth, including the potential for tax
credits to consumers, the conditions
mean that the more significant impact
will be later in the decade, as auto-
makers invest to address the regional
sourcing requirements.”
“The infrastructure bill that allo-
cates funding for increasing the EV
charging infrastructure will also
take some time to have impact, as
it will take time to build out the
charging stations.”
8 _ Millennial parents
will get more three-row
EVs to choose from
“AutoPacific’s research has consistently
shown that millennials are more
excited about EVs than older gener-
ations. Millennials are also now in
their peak family-raising years,” Auto-
Pacific’s Kim says
“Three-row SUV sales are largely
powered by millennial parents as
a result. However, there has been a
distinct lack of three-row all-electric
SUVs (other than the six-figure Tesla
Model X) in the market to feed the
demands of millennial families who
ELECTRIC CHOICES Clockwise from
top left: Ford’s much in-demand 2022
F-150 Lightning Platinum, Chevrolet’s
2024 Equinox EV SUV due later this
year, Kia’s first electric SUV the EV9,
Vinfast’s VF9, the GMC Hummer EV SUV
and the GMC Sierra EV pickup truck.
want to go electric.
“That will change in 2023 as three-
row electric SUVs will hit the market.
Hyundai will release its IONIQ 7,
Kia will launch the EV9 and VinFast
will bring its VF9, with even more
three-row electric models coming in
2024. These vehicles are important
as they will feed the powertrain and
people-carrying demands of many
members of the largest population
cohort in the U.S.”
9 _ More Google
in your dashboard
“Sure we all know about Apple CarPlay
and Android Auto. But 2023 will see a
sharp increase in the number of new
vehicles that have Google Built-In.
2023 will see brands like Honda, Ford,
Chevy & GMC and Volvo all offer
this in-dash suite of services, which
bundles Google Maps, Google Assis-
tant and Google Play right into the
infotainment system of the vehicle,”
Autolist’s Undercoffler says.
“Log into it with your normal Goo-
gle account, and your entire history
is connected via the car itself, rather
than your smartphone.”
10 _ Prices aren’t
going down
Finally, S&P ’s Brinley predicts,
“Throughout the year, we could see
incentives tick up slightly, but there
is likely little reprieve for overall
vehicle prices.”
▸ Jake Lingeman is managing
editor at newsweek Autos. Twitter
@JakeLingeman
NE WSWEEK .COM 13
Periscope

P O LI T I C S

Aiming for
Moral Authority
Senator Elizabeth Warren weighs in on
the importance of a values-driven military and her
efforts to reduce defense spending

With the ringing in of the to her view on what constitutes U.S.

New Year comes the arrival
of the nation’s nearly $858 billion
defense spending package—a $45
billion increase over President Joe
Biden’s budget request that lawmak-
ers say will advance the U.S. “strategic
competition with China and Russia.”
After Congress spent a year ques-
tioning military officials and draft-
ing the bill’s supporting elements,
the annual “must-pass” National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),
which funds the Pentagon, made
it through the Senate
with just two we eks
remaining in the 2022
congressional session. by
Eighty-three Senators A L E X J.
ROUHANDEH
voted in favor of the bill,
while just 11 opposed it.
One of those 11 was instrumental
in putting the bill together: Dem-
ocratic Senator Elizabeth Warren
of Massachusetts.
Warren serves on the Senate
Armed Services Committee, which
is responsible for drafting the legis-
lation. As she has in years past, War-
ren voted against the measure as a
matter of principle. She believes the “I pressed hard to get the military on
national security.
“We are stronger when we live our
values,” Warren tells Newsweek in an
exclusive interview. “The rest of the
world is more likely to align with
us, to trust us in a time of danger,
and to follow our lead if they know
that we hold ourselves to a higher
ethical standard.”
“Security is a whole lot more than
just counting off how many mis-
siles the Army has,” she explains.
“It’s about working with others to
try to lift all of us. When
other nations trust us
to follow our moral
guidance, then we are
more likely to make the
world a safer place—
and that’s good for every
single American.”
Defense (DOD) transition its non-tac-
Competing Priorities tical vehicles to electric or zero-emis-
Throughout the defense budget sion vehicles by 2035. The Pentagon
review process, Warren worked must also account for the electric
to get the military to address load of some of its electrical vehicle
other priorities. charging infrastructure when plan-
“Climate change is a huge threat to ning future construction projects.
our security,” Warren tells Newsweek. Warren’s work in distinguishing
the U.S. from its top adversaries
CQ ROLL C ALL /G E T T Y

spending authorized for the mili-
tary is too high when other issues
like childcare and climate change
remain, in her view, underfunded.
For Warren, that vote is integral
the side of a solution rather than con-
tinuing to contribute to the problem.”
One of Warren’s key achievements
in this year’s NDAA was a provision
establishing that the Department of
extends well beyond her climate
provisions. The 2023 defense bill
allocates $25 million toward imple-
menting the DOD’s Civilian Harm
Mitigation and Response Plan, which

14 NE WSWEEK .COM JANuARY 20, 2023


aims to protect civilians from harm
during military operations. It will
also fund the creation of a Center of
Excellence to serve as the hub and
facilitator for analysis and training
to prevent civilian harm.
Through the passage of this pro-
vision, Warren aims to bolster the
moral authority of America’s mili-
tary, further legitimizing the work of
its service members. She hopes that
a more values-driven military can
help the U.S. improve its recruitment
and retention efforts, an ongoing
Photograph by BILL CL ARK
challenge for the Pentagon.
To help draw in the next gener-
ation of service members, Warren
introduced a provision, which was
included in the defense bill, that
ensures oversight of military hous-
ing conditions, a move to counter
the “rat-infested, covered with mold”
housing she said some service mem-
bers have encountered.
A longtime Warren effort toward
improving recruitment and reten-
tion also succeeded this year. In
October, Secretary of Defense Lloyd
Austin authorized the renaming of
military bases that bear the names
of Confederate soldiers.
“Living our values is about treating
all human beings with dignity and
respect,” Warren tells Newsweek. “I
dug in on military housing as part of
that, but renaming Confederate bases
was also a huge part of ensuring that
today’s military honors each of our
service members and treats no one
like a second-class citizen.”
Gaining a Technological Edge
Making the military a more com-
fortable workplace for people from
diverse backgrounds stands central
to the challenges Warren expects
the country to face in a future where
technology and cyberspace are
expected to become an increasingly
important part of how the military
“American taxpayers
are paying far more
than they should for
the equipment and
services that the
Defense Department
purchases.”
operates. Both China and Russia con-
tinue to develop military cyber forces.
U.S. industries have already fallen vic-
tim to cyberattacks from suspected
Russian hacking groups, including
the 2021 attack on the Colonial Pipe-
line, which disrupted fuel transmis-
sion across the East Coast, and the
2020 cyberattack on SolarWinds,
which exposed government data.
To better prepare the Pentagon
against such potential attacks in the
future, Warren says the department
must help young people reimagine
what a military career can mean to
better attract “the next generation
of computer programmers and AI
specialists.” She adds that it also
means investing in future research
and development in order to keep
the U.S. technologically ahead of
its adversaries.
Warren cites the $2 million in
funding she secured in the 2023
NDAA for the MIT Lincoln Lab’s
superconducting microelectronics
program as an example.
Reining in Costs
To carry out that work effectively
and strengthen America’s position
moving forward, Warren returns to
the very concern that has led her to
vote “no” on the NDAA so many years
in the row: its cost.
While she believes the country
must invest in an “effective fighting
force in the field,” she thinks the U.S.
can make better use of some of the
money it spends on national secu-
rity by reexamining the relationship
between the federal government and
defense contractors.
“I’ve been fighting hard to put a
stop to the price gouging,” Warren
told Newsweek. “American taxpayers
are paying far more than they should
for the equipment and services that
the DOD purchases.”
NE WSWEEK .COM 15
Periscope POLITICS

In 2017, Warren sent a letter to
the DOD Inspector General asking
the body to investigate Ohio-based
aerospace company TransDigm for
using “tactics to avoid sharing cost
information with the government
for parts.” A 2019 Pentagon review
found that TransDigm had realized
profits from DOD contracts at mar-
gins ranging from 17 to 4,451 percent.
This exceeded the profit percentages
of 15 percent or below that the DOD
considers “reasonable.”
A subsequent 2021 report again
found that TransDigm earned excess
profit of at least $20.8 million on
DOD contracts. TransDigm is not
that he would not seek a position
on the board of a defense contrac-
tor or become a lobbyist after his
government service. That same year
she also secured commitments from
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Ken-
dall and Under Secretary of Defense
for Research and Engineering Heidi
Shyu that they would not work in the
defense industry for at least four years
following their time in the Pentagon.
“Security is a whole
lot more than just
Warren’s goal is to ensure that
taxpayers are getting the most for
their dollar by improving the eth-
ical standards of practice in the
Department of Defense.
“[National security] means fighting
the battle over ethics in the Depart-
ment of Defense and shutting down
the revolving door between defense
contractors and the DOD that makes
all the decisions about how profitable
the military purchases will be,” War-
ren tells Newsweek.
“That’s how I think the pieces come
together in the Senate Armed Services
Committee over making certain that
we have an effective fighting capacity,”

the only contractor to stand as the
focus of such DOD reports. In 2013,
the department found that “Boeing
charged the Army about $13 million
(131.5 percent) more than the fair and
GREG NA SH/BLOOMBERG/GE T T Y
she explains. “My two priorities on
counting off how Armed Services are to hold our gov-
many missiles the ernment accountable for its promises
Army has. It’s about and to live our values every day.”

reasonable prices” for parts. working with others ▸ Alex J. Rouhandeh is the Congres-
In an attempt to address this issue, to try to lift all of us.” sional correspondent for newsweek.
Warren introduced the Stop Price
Gouging the Military Act, which
enhances the Pentagon’s authority
to “oversee whether contract prices
are fair and reasonable” by provid-
ing the department with the infor-
mation necessary to prevent actions
like those carried out by TransDigm.
The legislation’s intent was reflected
in the 2023 NDAA.
Warren has also worked in com-
mittee hearings to secure commit-
ments from top Pentagon officials
that they would not carry out pri-
vate sector lobbying work immedi-
ately following their time serving
within the Pentagon.
Secretary Austin said in response
to a 2021 question from Warren

TAKING THE PLEDGE Warren has pressed

Pentagon officials, including Secretary
of Defense Lloyd Austin (right), to
refrain from becoming lobbyists
after their government service.

16 NE WSWEEK .COM
 N E WS M A K E R S

Talking Points
“WE HAVE TO “YOU’D BE
SURPRISED HOW A.I.
SAVE OUR STRUGGLES WITH
FORESTS, OR BASIC COMMON SENSE.”
WE’RE DONE.” —Computer scientist yejin Choi

—Forest ecologist “I hope

Suzanne Simard
that young
women can
connect
with me
“It’s going to stink for and my YEJIN CHOI

a while but I will fight journey,

FrOM LE F T: TIM CL ay TOn /CO rBI S /G E T T y; Pau L HEn nE SSy/an aDOLu aGEn Cy/GE T T y; M aC arTHur FOunDaTIOn S
with all I have got.” and maybe
—TEnnIS PLayEr MarTIna
NAVRATILOVA ON CANCER see a little
bit of “My sins here
themselves are embellishing
in me.” my resume.”
—NICOLE MANN, NASA’S FIRST
— U.S. Representative-elect George Santos
NATIVE AM ERICAN ASTRONAUT

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA

“IT IS ALSO ANOTHER

STEP BY THE
“I want a TALIBAN AWAY FROM
A SELF-RELIANT
family, not an AND PROSPEROUS
AFGHANISTAN.”
institution.” —Britain’s u.n. ambassador
—Prince Harry Barbara Woodward on banning
women from universities

NICOLE MANN

18 NE WSWEEK .COM January 20, 2023

 EXTRAORDINAIRE.
YOUTH IS BACK.

firmer wrinkles
skin fade
97% 88%

* Results from self-evaluation tests on 40 women after 28 days.

moisturized radiant
skin skin
97% 97%

PATENTED

Available at neimanmarcus.com and bergdorfgoodman.com

 Domestic terrorists pose an ‘existential threat’ to the

- 21 $7+$ 1'$9,'621 Ǭ* ( 7 7 <

20 NE WSWEEK .COM - $ 1 8 $ 5 < ƹ Ʒ  ƹ Ʒ ƹ ƺ

nation’s electrical grid. The attacks have already started

by TOM O’CONNOR and NAVEED JAMALI

NE WSWEEK .COM 21
 ost people ignore the
electrical grid, until it stops
working. When that happens, the disruption can be
total, but most often is a matter of inconvenience—
the lights go out, the internet goes down, there is
no place to recharge a cell phone.
But what if power did not return for days, weeks
or months? And what if such a lengthy blackout
engulfed not just a neighborhood or a county but
a wide swath of the nation? The consequences, ex-
perts say, would be devastating. Many people would
have no water to drink, no gas for their cars, no
heat for their homes. They wouldn’t be able to cash
a paycheck, use a credit card or call an ambulance.
Food, vital medicines and other essentials would
22 NE WSWEEK .COM
grow scarce because trucks would be unable to re-
fuel. Virtually every aspect of life would come to a
halt. Casualties could run into the millions.
The possibility of widespread and prolonged
outages may seem to many people like the stuff of
science fiction, but security experts now believe RISING THREATS
Clockwise from below:
that the chance of such a disaster is higher than
A 2019 rally in Portland,
it’s ever been—and rising. Oregon, with groups
In the first eight months of 2022, the U.S. electri- from the right and left;
cal grid was physically attacked 107 times, according the PG&E substation in
to the U.S. General Accounting Office—the most in Petaluma, California;
and the Senate
more than a decade. On December 3, shootings at
Judiciary Committee
two substations in Moore County, North Carolina, meets to discuss
plunged more than 40,000 people into darkness. domestic terrorism
Reports have since emerged of other recent acts of threats in 2022.
JANUARY 20, 2023

sabotage, including a series of attacks against four
sites in Pierce County, Washington, leaving around
14,000 people without power on Christmas Day.
These attacks, authorities believe, are coming
from domestic extremists, who in recent months
have shown a newfound willingness to strike
at transformers and power lines. According to
CLOCK WI SE FROM LE F T: K A REN DU CE Y/G E T T Y; JUSTIN SULLIVA N/GE T T Y; DRE W ANGERER /GE T T Y
chatter on right-wing websites and social media
platforms, they may also be planning coordinated
attacks. A number of posts seen by Newsweek in-
clude specific instructions on how to inflict max-
imum damage to substations.
The U.S. electrical grid is highly vulnerable to do-
mestic terrorism in a way that is reminiscent of air-
lines before the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The hundreds
of thousands of miles of high-voltage power lines
and tens of thousands of transmission substations
that make up the power network are, practically
speaking, impossible to police. And regulators and
“If a major attack is required
to get the attention of policymakers
and regulators, America may not get
A SECOND CHANCE. That’s the reality.”
TECHNOLOGY
operators have not prepared adequately for the pos-
sibility of a concerted attack by domestic terrorists.
It is an open secret among security mavens that
homegrown terrorists could easily pull off an op-
eration that results in widespread outages and a
significant loss of life. All it would take, they say,
is a series of modestly coordinated, relatively low-
tech strikes against a few key nodes of the network.
“If you have a physical attack that damages equip-
ment, it can take weeks, months or years to replace
that equipment,” says Michael Mabee, a former U.S.
Army command sergeant major and an expert in
power infrastructure vulnerabilities. “If enough
of these transformers were destroyed in a physi-
cal attack, we would have a long-term, wide-scale
blackout, and the deaths would be in the tens of
thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions.”
The Moore County attack, in particular, has ex-
perts worried. It caused a serious disruption to ser-
vice, the assailants have not been caught, and it seems
to be part of a broad escalation. The possibility of
more such attacks in a coordinated fashion, designed
to cause irreparable damage to the grid, poses an “ex-
istential threat to the United States,” says Mabee.
Threat From Radical Groups
No group has claimed responsibility for the De-
cember 3 attack in Moore County. Authorities are
investigating a conservative group called the Moore
NE WSWEEK .COM 23

County Citizens for Freedom, whose director, for-
mer U.S. Army psychological operations officer Em-
ily Grace Rainey, is under investigation for leading
a group to participate in the riots at the Capitol
on January 6, 2021. Rainey was a vocal supporter
of protests involving right-wing militias against a
drag show being held at a local theater at the time
of the North Carolina substation attacks, and the
Moore County Sheriff ’s office visited her home af-
ter she claimed to “know why” the power was cut.
No charges have been filed against her, her group
or anyone else in connection with the attacks. On
social media, Rainey attributed them to an act of
“God,” who was “chastising Moore County” over the
LGBTQ-friendly event.
While many of the saboteurs behind past attacks
are unknown—domestic groups generally don’t
claim responsibility—Newsweek has obtained doc-
uments that show how homegrown radicals share
material and manifestos. A corporate intelligence
security memo and an intelligence assessment
issued in October by the California State Threat
Assessment Center detailed dozens of examples of
domestic radicals sharing plots and methods for
“The electric grid is a prime target for a wide variety of BAD ACTORS,
both foreign and domestic, ranging from the far right to the far left.”
24 NE WSWEEK .COM
TECHNOLOGY
carrying out attacks on U.S. infrastructure, as well
as recent examples of violent attacks already carried
out at sites across the country. Most are associated
with “accelerationist,” far-right and neo-Nazi ide-
ologies that see the power grid as a weak point to
bring down the nation.
In March, for instance, a shooting at a Red River
Valley Rural Electric Association site in southern
Oklahoma left thousands of people without power
and resulted in a major oil leak. The transformer, a
model that typically costs between $800,000 and $1
million, had to be replaced. In July, shots were fired
at a transmission site in Wasco, California, resulting
in a spill of hundreds of gallons of hazardous chem-
icals. Separately, a transformer serving the Keystone
pipeline near Huron, South Dakota, was vandalized
that same month, reducing the oil artery’s rate of
operations. The California State Threat Assessment
Center identified these “noteworthy incidents”
along with other attacks in the context of the do-
mestic extremist threat, though the perpetrators
and their motives remain unknown.
Although the recent attacks have been mostly
small in scale, experts fear that security is so poor
JANUARY 20, 2023

FROM LEFT: PETER ZAY/ANADOLU AGENCY/GET TY (2); JOE RAEDLE/GET TY
at many points in the nation’s sprawling network of
transmission lines, transformers and other critical
nodes that terrorist groups could easily cause mas-
sive disruptions. And even limited sabotage, which
neo-Nazis have celebrated on far-right channels on
social media sites such as Telegram and 4Chan, can
also serve to whip up enthusiasm for further attacks.
Indeed, calls for more frequent and larger strikes
against major U.S. cities, with the aim of sowing
chaos, have lately grown more strident, according
to recent reports by SITE Intelligence Group and
the Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEM-
RI) Domestic Terrorism Threat Monitor.
One white supremacist Telegram channel
included calls for attacks against substations,
railways and commercial sites such as grocery
stores and Amazon distribution centers. A short
video appeared to show two men shooting a “water
plant” with rifles. The same channel celebrated the
Moore County attacks as an act of “magnificent sab-
otage” and “beautiful escalation” in an anti-LGBTQ
culture war. Others called for large-scale attacks on
New York City, Washington, D.C. and other cities. A
user on 4Chan, who self-identified as “the current
Chancellor of the 4th Reich,” called on like-minded
individuals to attack substations in any area of the
country that was “not majority white.”
Because these communications are anonymous,
it’s difficult for the law enforcement to track down
who is behind them. Still, security experts say the
threats are credible, not least because they corre-
spond to an increase in physical attacks.
“Our modern civilization depends on electricity,”
Tommy Waller, executive vice president for the
Center for Security Policy, tells Newsweek. “There-
fore, the electric grid is a prime target for a wide
variety of bad actors, both foreign and domestic,
ranging from the far right to the far left.”
Nature of the Vulnerability
Law enforcement has successfuLLy thwarted
some extremist plots against the power grid. For in-
stance, in February, three white supremacists were
sentenced for planning a coordinated attack on three
substations in different regions of the U.S. in a bid to
start a race war. But most attacks remain unsolved.
One of the most notable in the last decade—and
possibly an inspiration for extremists—was an as-
sault on a substation in Metcalf, California, in April
2013. The perpetrators, still unknown to this day,
opened fire with rifles on 17 transformers at a Pa-
cific Gas and Electric Company site. This attack, like
the one in Moore County, hints at the true vulnera-
bilities that extremists seeking a broader shutdown
have begun to broadcast.
POWER PLAY
Both the Metcalf and Moore County attacks re-
Clockwise from above:
Residents of Fort Myers,
sulted in mostly superficial damage to transformers
Florida, cope without that was able be repaired quickly. Had the damage
power in October; a been more significant, however, the resulting out-
substation in Moore ages would have been far more difficult to fix. Most
County, North Carolina,
electric power equipment, such as transformers and
where attacks caused
widespread power
circuit breakers, is made abroad. Although some
outages; and one of the manufacturers are based in Mexico, Germany and
40,000 people affected. Japan, by far the biggest supplier is China, which
NE WSWEEK .COM 25
 TECHNOLOGY

itself raises questions of national security. In any

case, importing custom-made equipment is costly
and time consuming—new orders take months to fill.
The vulnerability of the grid to sabotage has long
been common knowledge. Before the 2013 Metcalf
attack, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) spelled out how damage to just nine key sub-
stations and one of the few domestic transformer
manufacturers could cripple the entire U.S. power
grid for at least 18 months.
Extremist groups have apparently absorbed this
lesson. In far-right material propagated online,
Newsweek has seen references to both the Metcalf
attacks and what has come to be known as the
“nine substation problem” identified by FERC.
“I was very, very concerned—extremely con-
cerned—in 2013,” says Jon Wellinghoff, head of
FERC at the time. “And I would say, after Moore
County, that I’m still extremely concerned.”
Today, he warns that there still exists “some lim-
ited number of critical nodes within the U.S. grid
that could have severe consequences” if significant-
ly damaged. “The threat is real,” he tells Newsweek.
“Americans should be concerned.”

Efforts to Build Resilience in the Grid

A strAightforwArd wAy to Avoid the worst conse-
quences of an extremist attack is to invest in making
the electrical grid more resilient. One reason a hand-
ful of attacks can cause widespread falure is that the
grid is vulnerable to cascading blackouts, where a
small disturbance has ripple effects far and wide.
That’s exactly what happened in the Great
Northeast Blackout of 2003, which affected 55 mil-
lion people in the U.S. and Canada. The disaster was
ultimately traced to a single cause: tree branches
that came down on three transmission lines in
northern Ohio. This relatively minor event, along
with a series of human and software errors, caused
grid failures through eight U.S. states and Ontario, NAYSAYERS
including the major metropolitan areas of New Some white supremacist
York City and Toronto. groups have called
for attacks against
Following the disaster, Congress passed the Energy
substations, railways
Policy Act in 2005, which set reliability standards for and commercial
utility companies for most of the power system. But sites such as grocery
critics say the utility companies were given too much stores and Amazon
leeway. Rather than having federal regulators set the distribution centers.
rules, Congress empowered the utilities to delegate
that task to a nonprofit entity known as the North

26 NE WSWEEK .COM JANUARY 20, 2023

 ED UC ATION IMAGE S /UNIVER SA L IMAGE S G ROUP/G E T T Y

NE WSWEEK .COM
27
 American Reliability Council (NERC), which is large-
ly overseen by members of the utility industry itself.
“The regulations for physical security and in cy-
bersecurity are not written by any federal regula-
tors,” says Wellinghoff. “They are instead written by
the utilities themselves, and those regulators only
can adopt or reject them.”
Once approved by FERC, the utilities are also in
charge of enforcing the rules. “It’s a very difficult
task to ensure that 3,000 utilities around the coun-
try are actually complying with regulations that the
utility industry themselves wrote,” says Wellinghoff.
The effort to shore up the resiliency of the U.S. pow-
er grid, he says, was “less than aggressive.”
A NERC spokesperson tells Newsweek, “keeping
the lights on for the citizens of North America is a
daunting task and is just too important to be done
by anyone other than an expert charged in the
field—anything less would be unacceptable.”
Regarding the recent rise in security threats,
the spokesperson points out that “physical security
events have a wide range—from errant bullets from
hunters, arson to copper thefts, which are the most
common physical threat.” A FERC spokesperson says,

“the security and reliability of the nation’s electric
grid remain our top priorities.”
Current regulations do not require utility com-
panies to keep spare parts on hand, which could
reduce the likelihood of long-term blackouts. How-
ever, says the NERC spokesperson, “our standards
do require entities to be able to operate without
overloading the system.”
Many critics feel that lawmakers have not done
enough to make the grid resilient to attacks. Two at-
tacks in particular—the one in Metcalf in 2013 and
the recent attack in Moore County—demonstrate
that the reforms made after the Great Northeast
Blackout of 2003 were inadequate, they say.
Securing the grid should be “a bi-partisan and
common-sense national security issue,” says Waller.
“Unfortunately, efforts to do so have failed under both
Republican and Democratic presidential administra-
tions. No matter who is responsible for recent out-
ages, Americans must demand better grid security.”
Lack of Political Will
Just how to implement this security is a matter
of debate. Some power companies have already
been shoring up physical security beyond the
COU NTE RCLOCK WI SE FROM TOP LEF T: ROLF SCHU LTEN /G E T T Y; BR AN DON BELL /GE T T Y; ZACH GIB SON/GE T T Y
limited scope of existing regulations, mostly in re- THREAT BOARD
Top to bottom:
sponse to increasingly frequent natural disasters,
California’s grid control
says Avi Schnurr, CEO and president of the Electric room; technicians
Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council. install a transmission
Some law enforcement experts doubt that any plan tower in Houston,
to physically guard sites could realistically be enforced Texas; and members
of the Federal Energy
across the nation. The grid is too large and spread out
Regulatory Commission
to be able to police effectively. “What do they want us appear before a Senate
to do, patrol power lines?” says a senior law enforce- Energy Subcommittee
ment official who worked on counterterrorism at the hearing on security
FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces, who requested threats in March.
anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the field.
Utilities have made efforts to improve coordina-
tion during outages. Using a strategy of “mutual as-
sistance,” utilities tap into a nationwide network of
technicians to restore power, usually in response to
severe weather events that regularly batter large parts
of the U.S., including Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.
Utility companies are also availing themselves
of new tools that would help them cope with wide-
spread outages. In the event of so-called blackstarts,
in which a major portion of the grid fails and has

28 NE WSWEEK .COM JANUARY 20, 2023

 TECHNOLOGY
to be restarted from scratch, utilities are putting in
place secure communication systems, long-duration
power cells that allow workers to operate in oth-
erwise absolute darkness, and chaos management
and decision support systems that use artificial in-
telligence to aid in diagnostics and decision making.
For the moment, the ability to use these new
technologies under emergency conditions is un-
tested. In a major disaster, where blackouts drag
on for weeks, how much these tools will help re-
mains to be seen.
“Generally speaking, such restart operations will
require far more time than we have experienced
with any grid restoration event seen previously in
the continental U.S.,” Schnurr says. “In such a disas-
ter, grid restart and restoration would take weeks, at
best. And if an attack has caused extensive damage
to grid assets, restoration times could be far longer.”
Despite these improvements in defenses and
planning for worst-case scenarios, many experts
are skeptical that the utilities are prepared to cope
with a major attack. Compared to the magnitude
of the threat, expenditures on physical security so
far have been “modest,” says Thomas Popik, chair-
man and president of the Foundation for Resilient
“The regulations for PHYSICAL SECURITY
and in cybersecurity are not written by
any federal regulators. They are instead
written by the utilities themselves.”
Societies, who has given testimony to utility regu-
lators and lawmakers. On insterstate highways, he
says, “we can see miles of concrete barriers for the
sole purpose of sound protection against adjacent
neighborhoods. If the same resources were put into
concrete barriers around electric grid substations,
we’d all be much more secure.”
He worries, in particular, about what he views as
a “deadly tendency” in the U.S., and other democ-
racies, to take action only after disaster has struck.
“If a major attack is required to get the attention of
policymakers and regulators, America may not get
a second chance,” he says. “That’s the reality.
“The first really big attack could be the last big
attack, because that’s it for America—light’s out.”
30 NE WSWEEK .COM
 by DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW

Beijing is aggressively expanding

its reach throughout the region,
saying its interests are purely
diplomatic and commercial.
The real long term goal is strategic
JIAN G SHAN /XIN HUA /G E T T Y

SEA POWER
Officers and sailors
of the People’s
Liberation Army Navy
at port in Zhoushan,
China, in 2020.

JANUARY 20, 2023 NE WSWEEK .COM 31

 hina’s ambassador to Vanuatu was
exceptionally busy in December as
the tiny Pacific Island nation signed
a security deal with America’s key
ally Australia. Starting on December
13, when Vanuatu and Australia sealed
the agreement, Ambassador Li Minggang hosted
three events over three days in Vanuatu, including
at the massive Chinese embassy in the capital Port
Vila. Li was at pains to highlight China’s extensive
involvement in the region with aid and infrastruc-
ture and its 40 years of diplomatic ties to a country
where the U.S. has no embassy on the ground. Bei-
jing’s message was clear: China was there for the
long haul—and it was bringing gifts.
China was willing to work with Vanuatu “to ad-
vance our strategic alignment,” Li told about 200
top government officials and other dignitaries on
32 NE WSWEEK .COM
December 14, as they enjoyed Chinese delicacies
and tried their hand at calligraphy, according to
the embassy.
The day after signing the formal security deal
with Australia, Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau,
FROM TOP : GINN Y STEIN /A FP/GE T T Y; M ARIO TAM A /GE T T Y
who had once voiced criticism of his predecessor’s
good relationship with Beijing, was pictured get-
ting a Chinese massage.
Li’s flurry of activity starkly underscored his
country’s determined push for economic and po-
WELCOME TO VANUATU
litical influence in the South Pacific, where growing Top to bottom: Chinese
competition between China and the United States— Foreign Minister
joined by allies such as Australia and Japan and Wang Yi with Chief of
closely watched by India—swirls across thousands Malvatumauri National
Council Willie Plasua
of miles of ocean in a region with sea lanes that are
in Vanuatu’s capital
important for world trade, that is crossed by un- Port Vila last June;
derwater cables carrying global communications and a cruise ship
and is dotted with islands that offer excellent ports docked at Port Vila.
 and airfields of potential strategic importance for
whichever military can count on them.
China’s diplomatic offensive to win hearts,
minds and pocketbooks in the South Pacific is just a
part of a wider strategy, highlighted by Newsweek’s
reporting, to deepen its influence around the world.
That includes building out a network of what Chi-
na’s rivals believe could be future bases for rapidly
expanding armed forces as China becomes a great- “false accusation,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao
er challenge to the United States. Demonstrating
Beijing’s growing assertiveness, in late December
Chinese warships including the aircraft carrier
Liaoning edged “close to Guam for the first time,”
according to the Communist Party’s Global Times
newspaper, citing “strategic threats” from the U.S.
While Beijing dismisses suggestions it wants
overseas bases for its armed forces, the U.S. and
its allies fear those are the real prize
as China intensifies diplomacy with
Li’s flurry of activity starkly
some countries: whether such bas-
es are full-blown operations run by
the People’s Liberation Army; looser, underscored his country’s determined
hidden policing or security arrange-
ments with foreign governments; push for economic and political
welcoming ports or airstrips often influence in the South Pacific.
with next-door investment zones that
JANUARY 20, 2023
are always ready to accommodate Chinese forces
including the PLA navy or commercial satellite
monitoring and weather stations that could have
dual uses. Such facilities would help China project
military power in a way that is currently only pos-
sible for the United States, which has a far larger
network of foreign bases than any other country.
Suggestions that China seeks overseas bases are a
Lijian told a briefing in June.
Global Military Plans
But China’s own military doCtrine makes Clear
how central the ability to project power globally is
to its future. China’s leaders say it will have a “world-
class” military by 2049. Its national defense concept
spells out that the world’s second biggest economy
must “safeguard China’s overseas interests.”
“China is at a critical stage of moving from big to
great,” Yan Wenhu, a strategist at the Institute of
War Research at China’s Academy of Military Sci-
ence, wrote in 2019 on 81.cn, a website belonging to
China’s military. The numbers refer to August 1, the
official founding day of the People’s Liberation Army.
“In recent years, China’s national interests have
been expanding and extending overseas,” Yan
wrote. “The People’s Army must closely follow the
process of expanding the country’s overseas inter-
est and enhance its ability to perform diversified
military tasks in a wider space.”
China already has the world’s biggest navy by
some measures as well as its biggest army. A recent
U.S. Department of Defense report assessed that Chi-
na had “probably already made overtures” to gain a
“military logistics facility” in Vanuatu as well as the
neighboring Solomon Islands, with the overall goal
“to support naval, air and ground forces projection.”
China will “likely use all means available to con-
duct influence operations to gain political favor
NE WSWEEK .COM 33
 UNITED
KINGDOM

IRELAND

FRANCE

among elites in host nations, while obfuscating
the scale and scope of PRC political and military
interests,” the report says.
Vanuatu’s government, which was hit for weeks
starting in November by a cyberattack, did not re-
spond to multiple requests for comment. China’s
embassy in Vanuatu and the Foreign Ministry in
Beijing did not respond to requests for comment.
The Solomon Islands has said there will never be
a Chinese military base there—though China has
confirmed the signing of a security agreement.
Strategic South Pacific
By some measures, Vanuatu is on the world’s
margins. It has about 65 inhabited islands, outcrops
of volcanic rock and coral strung out hundreds of
miles from neighbors such as Fiji, the Solomon
Islands and New Caledonia that are scarcely less
A rising China feels constrained by those chains. In
recent years, it has sought not only to break them—its SPAIN
PORTUGAL
claim over Taiwan is part of that effort—but to secure
its place anywhere in the world that it sees fit.
“The Chinese look at the whole map and are MOROCCO
thinking globally,” says Grant Newsham, a senior
fellow with the Center for Security Policy in Wash-
ington, D.C., and a former U.S. diplomat and re-
serve head of intelligence for Marine Forces Pacific.
“They are building ports and airfields in Latin
America on both sides, in Africa on both sides, and
on the west side of the Indian Ocean. They’ve been
looking around the Azores and Greenland and a
bunch of other places,” Newsham tells Newsweek
in an interview.
“The idea is to have a network of ports and air-
fields to which they have access, and some actual
bases as well. In other words, they’ll have the same

“Establishing new foreign military bases runs

the risk of touching off conflicts that neither PROJECTING
China nor the United States wants.” POWER
Current and potential
Chinese military bases
or access locations
SOURCE: RAND CORPORATION

remote themselves. Its population of just over

300,000 is only two-thirds that of Staten Island.
Existing base High desirability
Most of Vanuatu’s people earn a modest living from
the land or sea. But its strategic significance within
the Pacific is not in doubt, as became plain during
World War II.
Vanuatu’s island of Espiritu Santo was home to
the biggest American military base in the Pacific
outside of Pearl Harbor. It was from “Santo” that
the U.S. pushed back against the Imperial Japanese
Army in Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands to the
northwest, fighting some of the most ferocious and
decisive battles of the Pacific war. Tens of thousands
of American, Allied and Japanese soldiers died.
When peace came in 1945, the Allies set up a new
security architecture for the Pacific consisting of
three “island chains” with ports and airfields run-
ning north to south through the Pacific. The first
includes Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, while
the third includes Hawaii. Many Pacific Island na-
tions lie just outside the second.

34 NE WSWEEK .COM
 FINLAND
NORWAY

SWEDEN

RUSSIA
NETHERLANDS

GERMANY
KAZAKHSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN

ITALY

UZBEKISTAN S.KOREA JAPAN

TURKEY

GREECE

LEBANON IRAQ
BAHRAIN IRAN
TAJIKISTAN
CHINA
PAKISTAN

EGYPT BANGLADESH
SAUDI ARABIA MYANMAR
(BURMA)
OMAN
INDIA LAOS

NIGER YEMEN
THAILAND

NIGERIA DJIBOUTI
CAMBODIA

EQUATORIAL GUINEA SRI LANKA

MALAYSIA
KENYA
DEMOCRATIC SINGAPORE
REPUBLIC
GABON OF THE CONGO
TANZANIA INDONESIA TIMOR LESTE

ANGOLA

AUSTRALIA
SOUTH
AFRICA

y/feasibility for base Medium or high desirability and medium or high feasibility (but not high in both) Large-scale Chinese investment Major sea lanes

infrastructure as the Americans and a military with and Japan, have bases in Djibouti too.
global reach as well,” Newsham says. “In the world of overseas basing, minor military
FROM TOP : GE T T Y/N E WSWEE K ; N ARIND ER N AN U/AFP/G E T T Y

facilities like communications posts or logistics fa-

China’s Overseas Base
Beijing opened its first—and hitherto only
known—overseas People’s Liberation Army mili-
tary base by the port of Doraleh near Djibouti city,
the capital of the Republic of Djibouti in east Africa,
in August 2017.
Initially said by Beijing to be merely a “logistics
FRIENDLY RIVALS facility” for sailors engaging in anti-piracy missions
Chinese diplomat at the Horn of Africa, today it can house thousands
Li Minggang (left)
of Chinese Marines and has underground facilities
at a Chinese photo
exhibition at the Guru
measuring over 27,000 square yards, according to
Nanak Dev University in SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research
Amritsar, India, in 2007. Institute. Other countries, including the U.S., France
cilities are relatively common,” says Stephen Watts, a
co-author with Cristina Garafola of a recent report
on China’s overseas base plans by the RAND Corpo-
ration, a defense think tank headquartered in Santa
Monica, California.
Major bases—like in Djibouti—with thousands
of foreign uniformed military personnel are much
more rare, Watts says. “Today, only the United States
operates many such bases. If China gets into the
overseas basing game in a major way it is going to
have significant ripple effects,” Watts says. “In these
circumstances, establishing new foreign military
bases runs the risk of touching off conflicts that

JANUARY 20, 2023 NE WSWEEK .COM 35

 neither China nor the United States wants.”
In the report, “China’s Global Basing Ambitions,”
the RAND authors identify 24 possible locations for
bases around the world, predicting that a “grow-
ing overseas PLA presence is not a matter of if, but
when.” They write the most likely candidates to
become China’s next overseas base include Ream
in Cambodia and Gwadar in Pakistan. Both coun-
tries are de facto allies of China and core parts of
China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), Beijing’s
geo-economic influence push. Both locations
neighbor “investment zones” also built by China.
The situation of Cambodia’s Ream naval base is
instructive. When news first broke in 2019 of an al-
leged agreement for China to use the facilities, both
Cambodia and China denied any such deal and the
Cambodians put on a press tour to show there were
no Chinese there. Both countries continue to deny
that Ream will serve as a Chinese military base, but
the Chinese cooperation is no longer any secret.
Chinese and Cambodian officials, including
senior officers, posed for pictures at a ground-
breaking ceremony there in June. Dredging has
begun so that bigger naval vessels can use the port.
A small facility built for the Cambodians by the
U.S. was removed early on.
“China’s leaders seek to fulfill the ‘China Dream’
of prosperity under the Communist Party of
China (CCP) by securing markets and access to
ensure China’s continued economic growth,” Ga-
rafola says by email. They are “shaping the security
environment to China’s advantage,” Garafola says.
“These goals are driving requirements for the PLA the Indo-Pacific.” Most locations were in South-
to increase its overseas presence.” east Asia, the Middle East and Africa, but some

FROM TOP : WA NG ZHAO/AFP/GE T T Y; UN DERWOOD ARCHIVE S /G E T T Y

Newsweek has reported how China’s growing
commercial global port acquisitions have led to
visits by its naval ships, and how China fuses mili-
tary and civilian use—something easily done when
major parts of the economy are controlled by state-
owned companies that must obey the CCP.
In the British colonial era, a well-known saying
was that “trade follows the flag”—arguably China
is turning that around with the flag following trade.
In its recently released 2022 China Military
Power Report, the U.S. Department of Defense
reaches similar conclusions to the RAND authors,
outlining 17 possible locations and stating baldly,
“The PRC’s military facility at Ream Naval Base in
Cambodia will be the first PRC overseas base in
were in the South Pacific, the report says.
Indo-Pacific Tensions
Not just the u.s. but also japaN is iNteNsely
interested in China’s overseas military activities.
In mid-December, it published a new National De-
fense Strategy outlining plans to double military
NOW AND THEN
spending in response to China’s rise and sharply Top to bottom: Solomon
deepen its presence in the Western and South Pa- Islands Prime Minister
cific, throughout the Indo-Pacific and in Africa in- Manasseh Sogavare
cluding at its own base in Djibouti. and Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang in Beijing; a U.S.
Japan has territorial disputes with China in the
ship sinking in a Vanuatu
East China Sea that have led to standoffs between harbor in 1942; and
PLA forces, Chinese coast guard vessels and Japan’s Chinese Foreign Ministry
military, the Self Defense Force. PLA ships now sail spokesman Zhao Lijian.

36 NE WSWEEK .COM
 between Japanese islands to access the broader ocean International Court of Justice in The Hague, ruled that
beyond, in a development seen by Japanese authori- aspects of British administration of the territory were
ties as provocative. “unlawful.” In November the British government said it
“The document reflects our actual recognition of would discuss its future with Mauritius, which claims
the security issues surrounding Japan,” a Japanese the islands and which in 2019 struck wide-rang-
diplomat says, speaking with customary anonymity. ing financial and trade agreements with China.
India is also watching closely. It too has contested “The fear among those who keep an eye on the fu-
borders with China, in the Himalayas, where dead- ture threat posed by Chinese expansionism is a mili-
ly clashes take place. India has long-standing ties tary base coming up in one of these islands, once the
throughout the Indo-Pacific including in the South UK relinquishes its hold and the Archipelago comes
Pacific where people of Indian origin have lived for under the control of the Mauritius government,”
generations. commentator Abhinandan Mishra wrote in India’s
With a similarly sized population of about 1.4 bil- Sunday Guardian. “The reason for this fear is the eco-
lion, “India is the only country that can give China a nomic dependence that Mauritius has on China.”
run for its money on the ground in the South Pacific,”
says Cleo Paskal, a non-resident senior fellow at the Competing Interests
Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washing- For sure, China is not alone in seeking inFluenCe
ton, D.C., where she focuses on the Indo-Pacific region. in the vast South Pacific. Other nations have an older
In August, the Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese navy satel- interest and presence, including the U.S., Australia
lite monitoring ship bristling with radar and high-
tech monitoring equipment, docked in China-owned
Hambantota port in Sri Lanka off the southern tip
of India. The move sparked speculation that Ham-
bantota, which was leased for 99 years to a Chinese
Japan has territorial disputes with China
state-owned company after Sri Lanka failed to repay in the East China Sea that have led to
its debt to China, may become a military or at least
dual-use base of the PRC on India’s doorstep. A second
standoffs between PLA forces and Chinese
visit to the Indo-Pacific by another PLA navy spy ship, coast guard vessels and Japan’s military.
the Yuan Wang 6, in November, at the same time as
Indian military maneuvers, renewed questions about
China’s intentions. However, the Yuan Wang 6 did not
dock at Hambantota.
Retired Sri Lankan admiral Jayanath Colombage
dismisses the suspicions that Hambantota could
become a Chinese military base, but he nonetheless
characterizes the Yuan Wang 5’s visit as “a message”
from China to Sri Lanka and India. “We tell the Chi-
nese they may not antagonize the Indians. The visit of
the space surveillance ship was symbolic, they could
gather that information from the sea but India in-
creasingly is dominating Sri Lankan security so they
wanted to push back,” Colombage says.
Indian military analysts are also watching what
GRE G BAKE R /AFP/G E T T Y

they suspect could become another potential Chinese

foothold—the joint British-U.S. military base in Diego
Garcia, the biggest island of the Chagos Archipelago,
1,000 miles south of India and part of the British In-
dian Ocean Territory.
In 2019, the United Nations’ highest court, the

JANUARY 20, 2023

PORT OF CALL
Chinese People’s
Liberation Army
personnel at the
opening ceremony of
China’s military base
in Djibouti in 2017.

38 NE WSWEEK .COM JANUARY 20, 2023

 and New Zealand. Stung by China’s challenge, they
are renewing influence efforts after years of relative
neglect. That is evidenced by the security agreement
signed by Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister,
and Kalsakau, the Vanuatu prime minister. An-
nouncing it, Wong pointedly said the agreement had
been made public—in contrast to the one between
the Solomon Islands and China.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made a
rare high-level visit to the region in July and
told regional leaders that the islands “may not
have received the diplomatic attention and sup-
port” that they deserve and that “we are going to
change that.” In the fall, Secretary of State Ant-
ony Blinken hosted South Pacific Island leaders
aiming to “build greater resilience” on an array of
issues—crucially climate change which threatens
the low-lying nations.
Some say the effort is too little, too late, and that
a condescending, even colonial-style attitude, ham-
pers efforts. “Both Australia as well as New Zealand
consider themselves to be the tutors and nannies of
the island countries in the southeastern Indo-Pa-
cific,” Madhav Nalapat, professor of geopolitics at
Manipal University in India and the editorial direc-
tor of Sunday Guardian wrote, adding, “Yet neither
seems to have shown much concern about the way
in which Communist China has displaced them in
a majority of the island nations scattered through-
out the region.”
In an interview, Nalapat points out that over the
last decade China had militarized the South China
Sea, which it claims as do about half a dozen other
Asian countries. Engaging in a slow-moving tactic
known as “salami-slicing,” it has won effective con-
trol there but was “given a pass” by other nations,
Nalapat says. “Now they are moving into the lower
reaches of the Pacific,” Nalapat tells Newsweek.
China’s security agreement with the Solomon
Islands has not been made public, but in April
Chinese government spokesman Wang Wenbin
confirmed it, saying it was a “normal exchange and
cooperation between two sovereign and indepen-
dent countries.” According to a leaked text of the
draft, the Solomons can “request” the PLA to send
ST R /AFP/G E T T Y

in police, armed police, military forces and navy

ships. Beijing would have access to Solomons in-
telligence and the PLA would enjoy legal immunity
on the ground.

NE WSWEEK .COM 39
A Chinese Visit
Back in Vanuatu in chinese amBassador Li
Minggang’s whirlwind of meetings in mid-Decem-
ber, Li promised the new minister of youth and
sports development Tomker Netvunei that China
would support Vanuatu’s youth: 60 percent of its
population. He offered state-sponsored exchanges
with young Chinese. The next day, Li promised “new
vigor” in the two countries’ “strategic alignment.”
Vanuatu has denied reaching a security agree-
ment with China, but according to the Foreign
Ministry in Beijing, agreements were signed during
a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi in June, includ-
ing in technology, the economy, oceans and health
care, while the two countries “reached a broad
consensus to increase mutual political trust and
deepen strategic cooperation.”
Wang’s visit was one of 10 with Pacific nations—
eight in person and two online—in another sign of
how seriously Beijing is taking the region.
Areas for cooperation in the agreement with Van-
uatu include a seabed survey and construction of
a communication systems for internal security, ac-
cording to Nalapat, the Indian geopolitics professor,
who conducts granular research on security issues.
Full details of what has been agreed by Vanuatu
and China have not been disclosed, but China is

races and bets on every horse,” he says.

“The commercial comes first,
and that builds political influence,
and then the military
is the third thing to happen.”
making every effort to highlight its projects in Van-
uatu, such as the highway that one of its state-owned
companies is building on the second biggest island,
Malekula. “Want to be rich? First build a road!” Li said
as he launched a new section on December 15.
China has cast a wide net in the region, leveraging
extensive commercial investments and loans into se-
curity agreements which could act as a precursor for
bases, says Newsham of the Center for Security Policy.
“The Chinese tend to put down a marker in a lot of
places at once looking to see where they make some
progress. Sort of like a guy who goes to the horse
“The commercial comes first, and
that builds political influence, and
then the military is the third thing to
happen. They’ll often do things like
provide ‘police’ equipment, training,
and ‘courses in the PRC’ for local offi-
cials, sometimes security officials too,
as a way to insinuate themselves,” he
says by email, adding, “The PRC has gone slowly but
that’s the long-term objective, though they swear
it isn’t.”
PREPARATION
In one demonstration of how China is gaining
Top to bottom: A
ground, at the end of November, police officials of Chinese live-fire naval
six of the South Pacific Island countries visited by drill; and Chinese naval
Wang Yi met online with one of China’s most senior special operation
politicians—Wang Xiaohong, a leading member of soldiers on deck as
their ship embarks on
the powerful Secretariat of the CCP who also serves
a mission to escort
as the Public Security minister, according to Xinhua, Chinese commerical
the state news agency. ships in the waters
Called the “First China-Some Pacific Island off Somalia.

40 NE WSWEEK .COM JANUARY 20, 2023

 Nations Ministerial Dialogue on Law Enforcement
Capacity and Police Cooperation,” it was co-hosted
by security minister Wang and Anthony Veke, the
police minister of Solomon Islands. In attendance
were officials from Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga
and Papua New Guinea, photographs show. China
hoped to “form more efficient ways of cooperation
and enhance more professional law enforcement
capacity so as to jointly protect the economic and
social development of the region,” Xinhua said.
Vanuatu is unlikely to be placing all its bets on Chi-
na. Australian media cited Prime Minister Kalsakau,
elected in November, as calling the new bilateral se-
curity agreement with Australia the “embodiment”
of his country’s relationship with Australia.
Yet for Nalapat, the professor of geopolitics,
while a formal agreement like that “pleases the
FROM TOP : CFOTO/FUTURE PUBLI SHING /G E T T Y; JIAN G SHA N/ XIN HUA /GE T T Y; THE A SAHI SHIMBUN/GE T T Y
lawyers,” it may not decide who runs things on the
ground. Westerners often miss the full range of
China’s activities which tend to be “sub-critical” or
under the radar, he says.
China has spent years building up a local net-
work of United Front organizations in Vanuatu,
according to Geoff Wade, an Australian research-
er. These have been accused of influence and inter-
ference operations elsewhere in the world and can
serve as conduits for overseas policing by China’s
Public Security Bureau, as reported by Newsweek, as
REMINDER well as clandestine operations by China’s Ministry
Below: The wreck of of State Security, according to authors Peter Mat-
the Japanese Imperial
tis and Matthew Brazil. (As for the U.S., there is no
Navy transport vessel
Kinugawa Maru off
embassy in Vanuatu. The U.S. ambassador handles
Guadalcanal Island, relations from Papua New Guinea. The Peace Corps
Solomon Islands. has an office in the capital Port Vila.)
Before his election, Kalsakau had expressed con-
cern about Beijing’s activities. Those included an
offer of a free laptop computer to every member
of parliament (China built the Vanuatu parliament
building) and a lack of transparency around a $114
million loan to develop Luganville port on the is-
land of Santo, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Luganville was the site of U.S. bases in World War II.
Kalsakau said Vanuatu’s parliment had not been
given access to the loan agreement to see if there
were clauses that would let Beijing take over the
port if Vanuatu defaulted. Kalsakau described that
as “extraordinary” and criticized his predecessor,
Charlot Salwai’s handling of the relationship. “No
one’s questioning what the Chinese are getting out of
this,” he said. Other investments by China include a
convention center, a sports stadium and the prime
minister’s own office, according to China Daily. The
state-owned newspaper said there were “no politi-
cal strings attached.”
On December 21, China’s ambassador Li unde-
took his fourth high-profile public engagement in a
little over a week, further underlining China’s sup-
port for Vanuatu with a medical supplies donation.
China-Vanuatu relations “are better than ever be-
fore in history,” Li said, according to the embassy.
▸ This is the fourth in Newsweek’s “Covert
China” series on China’s efforts to achieve global
preeminence by 2049. Didi Kirsten Tatlow is a
Newsweek international affairs correspondent.
Twitter @dktatlow
NE WSWEEK .COM 41
 Culture HIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

UNCHARTED

The Colorful Origins

of Hues, Pigments and Dyes
A color’s name carries with it a unique origin story, often revealing a tireless pursuit of
beauty. What we know now as the reflection of light or a simple string of RGB codes, people
once tried to recreate and possess through all kinds of methods. From a deadly tree resin in
Cambodia to mucus made from thousands of sea snails in Lebanon to Swedish copper mines
to ceramics in China, here are stories behind colors with unique names. —Fan Chen

42 NE WSWEEK .COM JANUARY 20, 2023

 The ‘Best Season’ for True Crime
Octavia Spencer embraces her inner Columbo in Apple TV+’s Truth Be Told ▸ P.48

Falu
FALUN, SWEDEN

Redder than mahogany, darker than

GE T T Y; TOP RIGHT: E MM A MCINT YRE/G E T T Y

crimson, Falu red is the iconic color of

Scandinavian houses. Its origin is the
Swedish copper-mining city of Falun
where the pigment is a by-product of
the mining process, mixed with minerals
and linseed oil. Now it is a common color
for barns, since the dark, brownish-red
paint absorbs the sun’s rays, maximizing
interior warmth during winter months.
(See #07 on following spread)

NE WSWEEK .COM 43
Culture

03
Phlox
NORTH AMERICA
This radiant magenta color
comes from the name of a
flower most commonly found
in eastern North America.
Meaning “flame” in Greek,
the name says everything
01
05
Mountbatten Pink
ENGLAND
The murky mauve is a naval camouflage
color at its most effective during
07
dawn and dusk and first used by Lord
Louis Mountbatten in the British Falu
Royal Navy during World War II. The FALUN, SWEDEN
color’s usefulness is controversial, (See previous
however, as ships may attract more spread)
attention with reddish shade. But if
the surname Mountbatten sounds
familiar, he was a distant relative of
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 5

0 1: EN RIQUE AGU IRR E AVE S /GE T T Y; 0 2: LEON ARDO A LVAR E Z HERN ANDE Z /GE T T Y; 03-04: GE T T Y; 05: THE PRINT COLLEC TOR /GE T T Y; 07: WILLIAM TURNER /GE T T Y
about the vibrant clusters son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
Quercitron 6
of flowers with sweet
NORTH AMERICA 1 fragrance when in bloom.
It’s not tech jargon, but
a yellow dye extracted
from the bark of Eastern
Black Oak, a forest tree 3
indigenous to North
America. In the 18th
century, the dusty, citrus
yellow color came to
light by grinding the
stem numerous times
and sifting through 2
the fibrous matter.

04

Indigo Blue
HUACA PRIETA, PERU
The blue on your denim jeans has a
history that goes back as far as 6,200
02 years. The earliest evidence was found
Carmine Red on fabric at a burial site. Historically,
OAXACA, MEXICO the stunning color was widely produced
and used from South Asia and the
A little goosebump: Parasites
Middle East to Central America. Ancient
may actually produce the bright
people turned dried indigo plant leaves
red color in your lipstick. The
mixed with lye into a dye and trading
pigment is created from clusters
commodity known as blue gold.
of female cochineal removed from
cactus pads and dried, after which
large amounts of carminic acid
are extracted from their dead
bodies. Carmine red has at least
2000 years of history in textile
dying, and is now widely used in
cosmetics and food coloring.

44 NE WSWEEK .COM

06
7 Feldgrau
GERMANY
The name means “field gray” in
German, and it was the official
color for military uniforms of the
German army during World War
II. Today, armies in Chile, Finland,
Austria and other countries wear
uniforms of this dark, gray-green.
9 11
0 6: GE T T Y; 08 : BRIT TA NY OL SON/G E T T Y; 09: FE THI BEL A ID/AFP/GE T T Y; 10: MAT TEO COLOMBO/GE T T Y; 11: L ANE OATE Y/GE T T Y
08
Alabaster
CAIRO, EGYPT
You can find this color in the Alabaster
Mosque, where the creamy white reflects
golden sunshine. Or you’ll see it in
sculptures of medieval saints, in which
the soft white perfectly transcends
the figures’ solemnity and tenderness.
The shade of white comes from calcite
rock originally from Egypt, porous
and soft enough to be carved into
decorative arts and dyed into colors.
09
Tyrian Purple
TYRE, LEBANON
This reddish purple dates back to
as early as 1200 B.C. in Phoenicia,
today’s Lebanon. The extremely
laborious process to make the
pigment from thousands of murex
and sea snails makes the pigment
expensive, and thus a symbol for
wealth and power. In fact, only
the Roman emperor could wear
clothing made entirely using the
color, and some elites and nobles
could wear a stripe or border of it.
11
10
Celadon
ZHEJIANG, CHINA
10
Celadon pottery, also
Gamboge known as “greenware,”
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA originated in the Song
Coming from gum resin of trees dynasty. In order to
native to Cambodia, this sunny obtain the most prized
yellow has a foul past: in the mid- shade closest to jade
19th century, it was the major green, artisans must
ingredient of a pill some British finely balance the amount
quack-physicians touted as cure- of iron oxide and the
all, like snake oil. Nearly a dozen temperature of the kiln.
people died after overdosing
on the laxative pills. Today the
mustard yellow is most associated
with the robes of Buddhist monks.
NE WSWEEK .COM 45
Culture

S H OW B US I N E S S

James Cromwell
Is Happy
to Be Offensive
The veteran actor and activist talks about being
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ 2022 Person
of the Year and why Hollywood brass don’t like him

SucceSSion actor James In 2019, Cromwell was arrested

Cromwell says he’s happy to be
as “offensive” and “unpopular” as he
needs to be for People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) after he
was named the group’s 2022 Person
of the Year on December 28.
The Oscar-nominated actor was
given the accolade by the animal
rights nonprofit for his years of
service to its cause. PETA has also
named its Los Angeles event
space “The James Cromwell
Empathy Center.”
C r o mw e l l h a s b e e n
involved in a number of B U R TO N
high-profile protests for
PETA in recent years, which have
resulted in his being arrested on
multiple occasions. Reflecting on
his activism and career, 82-year-old
Cromwell spoke to Newsweek about
disrupting the status quo on behalf
of PETA and revealed why he doesn’t
believe he’s very popular with the
Hollywood elite.
PETA’s Secret Weapon
for protesting at an animal testing
lab at Texas A&M University. He was
part of PETA’s campaign to convince
Air France to stop flying monkeys to
laboratories. Cromwell also recently
super glued his hand to a Starbucks
counter in New York to protest the
company’s surcharge on vegan milk.
“I love that organization. PETA
is one of the most ethical organi-
zations I have ever been
involved with,” Cromwell
by tells Newsweek. “I’m moved
JA M I E because comparatively, to
what they go through every
day, the issues that they face,
the determination, the courage, the
willingness that they show, in taking arrested at both protests). He’s also
on issues that are unpopular, they satisfied if a protest ends up in just
do things that people find offensive one person changing their habits
or attention grabbing, but it works. after learning about animal cruelty.
They make a difference in our lives “James Cromwell has compassion
and they save animals.” for all animals in every fiber of his
“I’m really delighted that my small being,” says PETA Senior Vice Presi-
contribution, because I have a face dent of Communications Lisa Lange.
and because I’m loud, because I can “He’s PETA’s Person of the Year for
talk, that we made a difference.” He being the secret weapon in our hard-
LON DON TE LEGR AP H/GE T T Y

At 6 feet 7 inches tall, the 82-year-old
Cromwell is an imposing figure phys-
ically, but his tireless campaigning
also makes him a formidable political
figure. He’s been a part of a number
of campaigns for a number of causes.
goes on to list some of his achieve-
ments which include getting Sea-
World to change its policy on orca
whales, as well as releasing cats that
were allegedly being mistreated at
the University of Wisconsin (he was
won campaigns on behalf of animals
who are kept hidden away in cages,
exploited, and killed.”
Cromwell’s efforts aren’t just
reserved for animal rights activ-
ism though. The octogenarian cites

46 NE WSWEEK .COM JANuARY 20, 2023


failing institutions as the driving
force behind his mission for change.
“It’s a necessary life,” he continues,
“It’s so bad. Every institution is failing.
We live in a toxic culture. There is so
much mendacity. There is so much
obfuscation. There’s so much distrust.
There’s a lack of empathy for the peo-
ple who are basically exactly like us,
who are suffering in another place
“Every institution is
in another town in another country.
We can’t project our imagination to
understand what it must be like.”
Sort of a Loose Cannon
Cromwell has been acting for
Photograph by JESSE CHEHAK
decades and continues to star in
high-profile movies and TV shows.
In the last decade we’ve seen him in
Succession, American Horror Story,
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and
Big Hero 6. Before that he was known
for his roles in Babe, The Green Mile,
Star Trek and Six Feet Under.
His work on the ’70s and ’80s sit-
com Barney Miller helped him real-
ize he could juggle an acting career
with campaigning. Despite his suc-
cess and continued casting in big
projects, however, he doesn’t think
he’s a favorite of the people behind
the scenes in Hollywood.
“As my career got better, I had
some success. Then I started to be
interviewed. I realized that now
it was my responsibility to use the
opportunity that was presented to
me to speak for people who don’t
get a chance to be heard. They
speak out, but they’re not heard,
they’re ignored.”
“I’m not very popular, I don’t think,
in Hollywood because when you
go on the red carpet or they have
these press conferences, they fly
in press from all over the country,
and they asked the same question
from 9 o’clock in the morning until
5 o’clock at night and you’re just so
sick of whatever you’ve done.”
He drew on a past Star Trek col-
league as an example of his inter-
view techniques with journalists
failing. We live in a
toxic culture. There
is so much mendacity.
There is so much
obfuscation.”
now. “I would say, ‘Working with
Jonathan Frakes, he’s a wonderful
guy—Listen, do you know what’s
going on in Attica? Did you know
about the prison uprising? You
know what they’re doing to those
people?’ And so they now know that
I’m sort of a loose cannon, I think
they would call it.”
Rewriting Succession
Despite appearing in a handful of
episodes, one of Cromwell’s most
notable roles is that of Ewan Roy on
Succession. The HBO series is set to
return for its fourth season some-
time this spring. He plays the cur-
mudgeonly older brother of media
mogul Logan Roy, but his outlook on
wealth is vastly different.
“My impression was that he was
going to be in the same mold [as
Logan] only as discontent, because
he didn’t get the empire.” Crom-
we l l to l d t h e s h o w r u n n e r h e
had other ideas.
“I said, ‘I can’t do this. I have to
be a voice.’ We talked for an hour
and, bless his heart, he said, ‘Okay,
okay, I got it. That’s good. We can do
that.’ So from the very beginning, I
was the voice of moral outrage. It
wasn’t sour grapes. It was because
I believed that what he [Logan Roy]
put on television, as I believe what
[Rupert] Murdoch puts on television,
is toxic, it is dangerous, it is divid-
ing us. I wanted somebody in that
show to say, ‘You got to stop what
you’re doing.’ You have to tell the
truth and, and they let me do it. I’m
eternally grateful, and it’s a brilliant
show. And everybody in it is bloody
brilliant. And luckily for me, I’m the
one guy saying ‘no,’” Cromwell says.
▸ Jamie Burton is a newsweek
senior TV and film reporter. Twitter
@Jamie_Burton
NE WSWEEK .COM 47
Culture

PA RT I N G S H OT

Octavia Spencer
Playing PoPPy Scoville-Parnell, a true-crime PodcaSter out to Do you think using Poppy
solve crimes on Truth Be Told (Apple TV+, January 20), was always in the narrating the podcast allows
cards for Octavia Spencer. “I’ve had this affinity for true-crime and investiga- you to tell a deeper story?
tive journalism. So it was just a natural progression.” Now in its third season, I do. Poppy blurs those journalistic
Spencer says, “it actually is our best season because it’s tied to something mean- lines. The journalist is never a part
ingful and real.” Spencer is joined by Gabrielle Union, who she says “is such a of the story, but somehow Poppy,
brilliant comedic actress and she’s coming into her own as a dramatic actress.” in her quest for the truth and
Together they must solve the case of a missing girl. For Spencer, what makes the doing the right thing, is always at
genre so appealing is that “there’s something about being an active member of the center of the investigations.
the investigation as a viewing audience member, you are actively a part of the
investigation.” Spencer has expanded her credits to include producing recently. I have to admit, when I watch Poppy,
“The question always comes up, what is the role you’re destined to play, and at I think of Jessica Fletcher in Murder,
this age and stage of my life, I would say that it’s definitely that of a producer. She Wrote or Peter Falk in Columbo.
A person who generates work and creates opportunities not just for myself.” I have to let you in on a little secret.
I watched every episode of [them],
and Poppy is kind of the marriage
between those characters. She
always wears her expensive jackets
because she left The New York
“For me, Times and she hasn’t gotten rid
of her suits. And my non-rumpled
it’s about trench coat is my ode to Peter Falk.
creating the
opportunity Where is Poppy in season three?
She’s had some life shake-ups. A child
for other goes missing; it’s about examining
people.” what happens when kids go missing.

You’ve experienced every aspect

of this business as an actor and
producer. When you look at your
Oscar, what do you think?
You don’t take it for granted. I
certainly don’t rest on my laurels
either, because there are a lot of
BEN JO ARWA S /CON TOUR /GE T T Y

people out there who are more

talented than I am, who only need
the opportunity. So for me, it’s about
creating the opportunity for other
people. I marvel at the fact that
Oscar is a constant companion, and
I’m grateful for that. —H. Alan Scott

▸ Visit Newsweek.com for the full interview

Airline
technology
that opens
the world of
e-commerce
shipping.
Every online shopping site is looking for reliable
solutions for fast delivery of their products.

Airlines and their supply-chain partners own the

assets to meet the growing demand for speed in
delivery by e-commerce retailers worldwide.

Connecting this demand with an airline’s supply

of capacity can bring a nice revenue increase
via air cargo.

SmartKargo provides the technology and know-how

to help airlines and their partners connect from the
desktop to the doorstep.

Learn more
Contact us at hdq@smartkargo.com or scan the
QR Code below to read a case study.

Enabling e-commerce. Delivered.