Secret Saudi Missile Strikes / Yogurt-Powered Jet Fuel?

DI RT Y 12.29.2017

L AU NDRY IF
DONALD TRUMP
HAS A DARK
RUSSIAN SECRET,
DEUTSCHE BANK
MAY KNOW
WHAT IT IS
by

LUKE
HARDING
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 DECEMBER 29, 2017 _ VOL.169 _ NO.23

FEATURES

16
UNDER WATER
Around the time Donald Trump received massive
loans from Deutsche Bank, his lender was

Dirty Laundry
laundering Russian money. Was the timing of this
illicit operation and the loans to Trump coincidental?

COVER CREDIT
Photo illustration by C.J. Burton If Donald Trump has a dark
Russian secret, Deutsche Bank
BLE ND IMAGE S/GET T Y

for Newsweek

may know what it is.

For more headlines, go to
NEWSWEEK.COM BY LUKE HARDING

1
 EDITOR _ Bob Roe

EXECUTIVE EDITOR _ Kenneth Li

CREATIVE DIRECTOR _ Michael Goesele

DECEMBER 29, 2017 _ VOL.169 _ NO.23 NEWS DIRECTOR _ Cristina Silva

DEPUTY EDITOR _ R.M. Schneiderman

OPINION EDITOR _ Nicholas Wapshott

EDITORIAL
DEPARTMENTS Breaking News Editor _ Gersh Kuntzman
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04 London Science Editor _ Jessica Wapner

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06 Jerusalem Le Miere (Politics), Hannah Osborne (Science), Harriet
MASTERFUL Dark Shadows Sinclair (Breaking News), Maria Vultaggio (Culture)
PERFORMANCE Social Media Editor _ Adam Silvers
As Dina in the Netflix Birmingham, Senior Editor _ Siobhán Morrin
London Sub-Editor _ Hannah Partos
comedy Master Alabama Production Editor _ Jeff Perlah
of None, Lena
Waithe serves up
No Moore Copy Chief _ Elizabeth Rhodes
Copy Editors _ Bruce Janicke, Kelly Rush,
P.32
an uncompromising Carpinteria, Joe Westerfield, Amanda Woytus
Contributing Editors _ Max Fraser, Owen Matthews,
portrait of coming
out, half gut-buster, California Periscope Claudia Parsons, Matthew Sweet
Executive Editor, TV, Film & Digital _ Teri Wagner Flynn
half punch to the gut. Smoke Break Video Producer _ Jordan Saville
Editorial Assistant _ Zola Ray
08 War
Hit and Missile CREATIVE

Director of Photography _ Diane Rice

14 Politics Contributing Art Director _ Michael Bessire
Associate Art Director _ Dwayne Bernard
Mission Creep Assistant Photo Editor _ Alessandra Amodio
Digital Imaging Specialist _ Katy Lyness
Production Manager _ Helen J. Russell
Horizons WRITERS

Carlos Ballesteros, Meghan Bartels, Nina Burleigh, Matt 

32 Evolution Cooper, Anthony Cuthbertson, Teddy Cutler, Melina Delkic,
Janissa Delzo, Janine Di Giovanni, Dana Dovey, Beatrice
To Bee or Not to Bee Dupuy, Kurt Eichenwald, Sean Elder*, Jessica Firger, Joseph 
Frankel, Zachary Fryer-Biggs, Conor Gaffey, Emily Gaudette,
37 Health Lauren Gill, Julia Glum, Nicole Goodkind, Grace Guarnieri,
Climbing the Walls John Haltiwanger, Michael Hayden, Kristin Hugo, Abigail 
Jones, Celeste Katz, Max Kutner, Cristina Maza, Graham 
40 Energy Lanktree, Josh Lowe, Sofia Lotto Persio, Tim Marcin, Melissa 
Matthews, Douglas Main*, Kevin Maney*, Kastalia Medrano,
A Better Whey Summer Meza, Jack Moore, Alexander Nazaryan, Tom 
O’Connor, Callum Paton, Sydney Pereira, Maria Perez,
Tom Porter, Bill Powell, Greg Price, Chris Riotta, Tom Roddy,
Winston Ross*, Ryan Sit, Linley Sanders, Josh Saul, Roberto 
Culture Saviano*, Zach Schonfeld, Sam Schwarz, Damien Sharkov,
Kate Sheridan, Christianna Silva, Marie Solis, Jeff Stein,
Robert Valencia, Janice Williams, Christina Zhao, Stav Ziv
42 Movies and (*Contributing)

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In Focus THE NEWS IN PICTURES

LONDON

Crowning
Achievement
Britain’s Prince William, left, and Prince Harry arrive
for the European premiere of Star Wars: The Last
Jedi at Royal Albert Hall on December 12. Both men,
who are avid fans of the hugely successful franchise,
have cameos in the movie as Stormtroopers.

→ HANNAH MCKAY

4 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

 HANNAH MC KAY/RE UTERS

NEWSWEEK.COM
5
In Focus
JERUSALEM
Dark Shadows
Women recoil as an Israeli
mounted police officer disperses
Palestinian protesters in East
Jerusalem on December 9. Israel
has threatened the protesters
with forced removal as they
demonstrate against the threat
of eviction from their homes.
→ AHMAD GHARABLI
6 NEWSWEEK.COM
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
No Moore
Newly elected Senator Doug Jones
celebrates with supporters on December
12. Propelled by high turnout among
black voters, Jones won a stunning
victory over Roy Moore, who has been
accused of sexual misconduct with
teenage girls. Days after the vote, Moore
was still refusing to concede defeat.
→ HANNAH MCKAY
CARPINTERIA, CALIFORNIA
Smoke Break
A smoke-filled sky filters orange light
as surfers cover their faces to protect
against the effects of the Thomas Fire on
December 12. The devastating wildfire
had spread across more than 300 square
miles since it began on December 5, and
it continued to threaten communities
from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara.
→ JUSTIN SULLIVAN
DE C E M BE R 29, 2017
 CLO CKWISE FROM LEFT: AHMAD GHARABL I/AFP/GE T T Y; JUST IN SU LLI VAN/GET T Y; DAVID MCNEW/GET T Y

NEWSWEEK.COM
7
Periscope NEWS, OPINION + ANALYSIS

DEATH RALLY
Houthi supporters
rally in the streets of
Sanaa to celebrate
the killing of
Saleh, the former
president of Yemen.

8 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

 “He rushed into her bedroom, threw her back across the
bed, and ripped the telephone out of the wall.” » P.14

WAR

Hit and Missile

In Yemen, Tehran-backed rebels have secretly
struck Saudi Arabia dozens of times with long-range
missiles—yet another sign that Iran is winning
the proxy war over the Middle East

somewhere in the mountains of northern
Yemen, the missile lifted off in a dense cloud
of fire and smoke and began its arc over Saudi Ara-
bia. After roaring north for some 600 miles, the
Iranian-made Qiam-1 reached its target, the inter-
FROM LEFT: MOHAMMED HAMO UD/GET T Y; MICHAL KRUM PHANZ L/CTK PHOTO/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
yet to come up with a concrete plan, and analysts
say victory in this contest hinges less on guns and
warplanes than on which side can best exploit
religious and ethnic schisms in the Middle East.
As Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East ad-

national airport just outside of Riyadh. The Saudis viser to Republican and Democratic secretaries of
claim they blew the missile out of the sky with a state, puts it: “I don’t believe the Saudis are going
U.S.-supplied Patriot interceptor, but experts now to come out winners.”
say the incoming missile exploded upon impact,
narrowly missing the domestic airport terminal. ‘A HUGE VICTORY FOR IRAN’
This November 4 attack, Middle East intelligence Tehran exerts enormous influence across an
sources tell Newsweek on condition of anonymity expanse that stretches from Lebanon on the Med-
to discuss sensitive security matters, was one of 87 iterranean Sea, over the Levantine steppe of Syria
such long-range missile strikes Yemen’s Iran-backed and Iraq and down to Yemen. That influence stems
Houthi rebels have launched against the Saudis in from Iran’s creation of powerful Shiite proxies in
their nearly three-year war. The strikes—some 50 key countries in the region, which Tehran has
of which the Saudis have tried to keep secret—not been able to mobilize to its advantage—and to
only threaten to derail Riyadh’s ambitious plan to Saudi Arabia’s chagrin—especially since the Arab
transform its oil-based economy into one more Spring revolutions in 2011.
attractive to foreign investors; they’re also the In Lebanon, Tehran has backed the Shiite Hez-
latest sign that Iran and its proxies are thumping bollah militia and party, giving Hezbollah decisive
the kingdom in their fierce battle for political power and helping it crush
dominance in the Middle East. the Saudi-backed Sunni opposition.
President Donald Trump says In Syria, Iran has steadfastly sup-
BY
challenging Iran’s growing power ported President Bashar al-Assad, a
in the region is one of his top prior- JONATHAN BRODER member of the Alawite sect, a Shiite
ities, but the U.S. and its allies have @BroderJonathan offshoot, and sent both Hezbollah

NEWSWEEK.COM 9
Periscope
fighters and Iranian forces to fend
off Saudi-backed Sunni rebels when
civil war erupted in 2011. In Iraq,
Iran also created a 120,000-strong,
officially sanctioned Shiite military
force that was largely responsible for
defeating the Islamic State militant
group, which is known as ISIS.
Iran’s strategic advantage may
soon grow. In a month or so, it is
expected to complete construction
on a series of roads connecting Iran
to the Mediterranean, an overland
route that hasn’t existed since the
ancient Persians ruled the area more
than 2,300 years ago. “This is going
to be a huge victory for Iran,” says
Hanin Ghaddar, a Lebanese journal-
ist and expert on Shiite politics. “Not
only will it make it cheaper to ship
arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon and
other Iran-directed proxies, but it
also symbolically unifies the Shiites
10 NEWSWEEK.COM
WAR
and re-creates the Persian Empire.”
In a sign of Iran’s burgeoning
confidence, General Qassem Solei-
mani, commander of the Revolu-
tionary Guards’ elite Quds force,
recently refused to receive a letter
from CIA Director Mike Pompeo. “I
will not accept your letter, nor will
I read it. I have nothing to do with
these people,” Soleimani reportedly
replied. (Pompeo later confirmed
Soleimani’s response to his letter,
which warned that the United States
would hold Iran responsible for any
“The Iranians
have managed to
give the Saudis
the middle finger.”
Iranian attacks on U.S. troops now
advising Iraqi forces.)
Some experienced policy hands,
including former Defense Secre-
tary and CIA Director Leon Panetta,
would like Saudi Arabia to form a
military coalition with Israel and
Turkey against Iran. But Ankara
has grown closer to Tehran lately
because of their common struggle
against Kurdish separatists. Turkey
also has sided with Qatar in Saudi
Arabia’s bitter dispute with its tiny
Persian Gulf neighbor over its cor-
dial ties with Iran.
The Iranian surge has, however,
produced a once-unthinkable alli-
ance between Saudi Arabia and Isra-
el. The two now share intelligence on
Iran, Israel’s military chief disclosed
for the first time in November. Isra-
el appears focused on Iranian moves
to build a military base on the Syr-
ian side of the Golan Heights. But
some analysts suspect Riyadh has
been maneuvering to turn Israel’s
attention toward Hezbollah. On the
orders of his Saudi patrons, Leba-
nese President Saad Hariri flew to
Riyadh in November to resign be-
fore returning to Beirut to resume
his post. Then he threatened to step
down again unless Hezbollah with-
draws its forces from Yemen. Re-
gional experts say Hariri was clearly
channeling the concerns of Saudi
Arabia, which indicated it would
squeeze Lebanon economically and,
by extension, Iran, if Tehran’s proxy
refused to disengage from Yemen.
Saudi pressure likely would take
the form of expelling some of the
350,000 Lebanese working in the
REFUSE TO LOSE Soleimani shakes
hands with President Rouhani of Iran,
left. The Iranian general recently
refused to receive a letter from
CIA Director Pompeo.
DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

FROM LEFT: IR ANIAN PRESIDENCY PR ESS O FFIC E/ANAD O LU AGENCY/GET T Y; DAVID HUME KENNERLY/GET T Y; CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GET T Y
kingdom, which would halt the flow
of an estimated $3 billion in remit-
tances back home every year. Such a
move would be a painful blow to the
Lebanese economy. Under this sce-
nario, several regional analysts say,
Hezbollah would need to provoke
another confrontation with Israel
to shift blame away from itself for
the country’s economic woes. And in
the ensuing war, Israel would deliver
a crushing blow to the Shiite group,
crippling Iran’s primary proxy.
Ghaddar doubts Hezbollah or
Iran would buckle under Saudi pres-
sure because support for the Houthis
has grown into a major cause for the
Shiite group and its Lebanese leader,
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
“This is more than a practical issue,”
she says. “This is whether Iran is go-
ing to give up Yemen for Saudi Arabia.
This is not going to happen.”
TIES THAT BIND From top: Panetta wants
Saudi Arabia to form a coalition with Israel
and Turkey against Iran; on Saudi orders,
Hariri said he’d resign unless Hezbollah
withdraws its forces from Yemen.
THE WORLD’S WORST
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
In Yemen, the Houthis, another Shiite
sect, have offered the Iranians yet an-
other opportunity to bleed the Saudis,
this time in their own backyard.
The Houthis ousted the interna-
tionally recognized government in
Sanaa in January 2015. Three months
later, Saudi Arabia, together with the
United Arab Emirates and Egypt,
launched a bombing campaign and
naval blockade to crush the rebels,
and blamed Iran for fomenting their
insurrection. Since then, the U.S. has
been providing intelligence and logis-
tical assistance to Riyadh’s war effort,
including midair refueling for Sau-
di warplanes and ships to interdict
weapons smugglers.
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have ac-
cused Iran of violating a U.N. arms
embargo on the Houthis, a charge
that Iran denies. But a confidential
November 24 report by U.N. inspec-
tors appears to support the allega-
tions that Tehran supplied the Qiam-
1 missiles used in the Riyadh attack
in early November, as well as several
earlier strikes. Another U.N. report
that month indicated that the Houth-
is have been using Iranian technology
to extend the range of their stockpiles
of Scud and SA-2 missiles.
The reports echo earlier accounts
that Iran has been assisting the reb-
els by supplying them with weapons.
The Iranian surge In August, Reuters quoted three un-
named senior Iranian officials boast-
has produced a once- ing that the Revolutionary Guards had
unthinkable alliance found a new arms smuggling route to
between Saudi the Houthis across the Persian Gulf.
Previously, the officials said, Iran
Arabia and Israel. had shipped weapons to the Houthis
NEWSWEEK.COM 11
Periscope
directly to Yemen or from Somalia.
But to evade U.S. and Saudi–led coa-
lition naval patrols, the officials said,
Iranian ships now transfer the weap-
ons to small wooden dhows at the top
of the Persian Gulf, where they face
less scrutiny. From there, the dhows
move down the gulf to Oman, where
the weapons are unloaded and moved
overland to the Houthis.
The U.N. investigators are now try-
ing to nail down whether Iran sup-
plied the Houthis with the Qiam-1
missile used in the November attack.
One clue comes from a missile com-
ponent found among the debris that
was stamped with the logo of the Sa-
hid Begheri Industrial Group, a sub-
sidiary of the Iranian Aerospace In-
dustries Organization. In a letter to
Iran obtained by Agence France-Pres-
se, the panel asked officials in late
November to list the companies
and individuals to which the Sahid
Begheri Industrial Group exported
the missile component. Iran has not
yet responded.
The Houthis suffered a setback re-
cently when their ally, former Presi-
dent Ali Abdullah Saleh, denounced
them, shattering the alliance between
the rebels and his loyalists. The reb-
els killed Saleh, prompting his son to
vow revenge. The fighting is raging
amid a Saudi blockade that has cut
off food and medical supplies to reb-
el-held areas of Yemen, causing wide-
spread starvation, a cholera epidemic
and what the United Nations calls the
world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Against this grim backdrop, the
Houthis have now threatened to
escalate their missile attacks by tar-
geting all airports, seaports and bor-
der crossings in both Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates. On
December 3, they announced they
had fired what appeared to be an
Iranian Soumar cruise missile at the
12 NEWSWEEK.COM
WAR
construction site of a nuclear power
plant in Abu Dhabi.
The Houthis also say they now pos-
sesses what they claim to be locally
manufactured, high-precision shore-
to-sea missiles and are prepared to
use them on warships enforcing the
naval blockade. Yemen is “a cheap
additional front for the Iranians to
open up,” says Miller of Houthis’ mis-
sile war against the Saudis. “It costs
$2 million to $3 million to launch a
THE EMPEROR’S NEW ROBE The Houthis’ missile
attacks are becoming an increasing challenge for
Salman, right, the architect of both the Yemen
war and the kingdom’s economic reform plan.
Patriot,” he said, referring the
U.S.-supplied missile defense system
the Saudis use against incoming rock-
ets. “It cost half that to launch one of
[the Houthis’] missiles.”
The Houthis’ missile attacks are
becoming an increasing challenge
for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman, the architect of both the
Yemen war and the kingdom’s eco-
nomic reform plan. Salman has ac-
knowledged only 34 of the long-range
attacks—and claimed an improbable
near-perfect record of interceptions
by U.S.-supplied Patriots—because
he’s trying to portray his country’s de-
fenses as impregnable, and he doesn’t
want foreign investors to know how
widespread the attacks have become.
In fact, the long-range missile strikes
come on top of hundreds of short-
range tactical rockets and missiles the
Houthis have fired into Saudi border
towns and military bases, wounding
and displacing thousands, according
to a recent study by the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy. “The
Iranians,” says Miller, “have managed
to give the Saudis the middle finger.”
At the same time, he adds, by
establishing the Houthi-held area
of Yemen as a missile platform from
FROM TO P: J ONATHAN ERNST/PO O L/GET T Y; MOHSEN SHA NDIZ/CO RBIS/GET T Y
which it can bombard Saudi Arabia,
Tehran is creating a situation similar
to that in southern Lebanon, where
Hezbollah’s missiles rained down on
northern Israel, culminating in the
inconclusive 2006 war between the
two. Today, southern Lebanon once
again bristles with thousands of Ira-
nian-supplied Hezbollah missiles
pointed at Israel.
“A sophisticated missile capacity in
Yemen is not only going to create a se-
rious security problem for Saudi Ara-
bia,” he adds. “It’s also going to make
it extremely difficult for much, if any,
of [the crown prince’s] new vision for
Saudi Arabia to take place.”
DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

TIME FOR SOME
FESTIVE SPIRIT
With Christmas and New Year just around
the corner, what would make a better gift than
a whisky from the “2017 Distiller of the Year”?
Kavalan CEO Mr YT Lee says the
Kavalan Solist ex-Bourbon Single Cask
Strength Single Malt Whisky is his
single most-awarded whisky. “In July,
it won the International Wine and Spirit
Competition’s (IWSC) 2017 ‘Worldwide
Trophy of the Year,’ and also picked
up the International Spirits Challenge
Trophy for the second year running,”
he said, making this dram’s scorecard a
spirited hat-trick. Kavalan Distillery itself
is the recently announced IWSC 2017
“Distiller of the Year,” one of the highest
accolades a drinks company can receive
in the drinks industry.
Here’s how the judges described the
ex-Bourbon: “Complex and balanced
with hints of biscuit, apricot jam, vanilla,
treacle and distinct nuttiness. Dried fruits
and soft spices on the palate, silky on the
tongue with a long finish that reminds of
a dry version of Apfelstrudel.”
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Not a bad fit for a quiet drop enjoyed
next to the Christmas tree.
Kavalan’s master blender Ian Chang
says he tends to save the ex-Bourbon cask
strength single malt, which has been aged
in the highest quality Bourbon casks, for
long, cold evenings when he is in the
company of a good friend.
“My best drinking partner was my
mentor, the late Dr Jim Swan. He and
I would savour this whisky late into the
night when attempting to solve one of the
many maturation and blending enigmas
that we came across,” said Chang.
The prestigious IWSC, founded
nearly 50 years ago, is the oldest wine
and spirits competition in the world with
an expansive reach across 90 countries.
During the year, “Producer of the Year”
awards are given to the best distilleries
in each category of gin, vodka, brandy,
rum, liqueur as well as whisky. Finally at
the end of the year, the distillery with the
highest total score is named “Distiller of
the Year.”
On November 14 at London’s
Guildhall, Kavalan was awarded this
designation in a remarkable performance
for such a young distiller and a new world
distillery.
Though this is the first time Kavalan
has won the IWSC’s biggest accolade,
it is the sixth time it has received the
distinguished IWSC “Spirit Producer of
the Year” award for whisky; with awards
in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and
now, 2017.
Known for its smooth, creamy taste,
depth and complexity, Kavalan is no
stranger to the industry’s highest awards.
Its Solist Amontillado Sherry Single Cask
Strength was named the “World’s Best
Single Cask Single Malt Whisky” in 2016
by the prestigious World Whiskies Awards
(WWA) and its Solist Vinho Barrique won
the WWA’s 2015 “World’s Best Single
Malt Whisky.”
*Kavalan whisky has been pioneering
the art of single malt whisky since 2006.
Benefiting from the world’s highest quality
oak casks and the unique combination of
intense heat and cool winter breezes, Kavalan
is made using the purest water source on the
island. Taiwan’s premier whisky is named
after both the old name for Yilan County
where it is based and the indigenous people
who settled the land.*
Periscope

ROUGH DIPLOMACY King’s allegedly

violent treatment of Mitchell while
attempting to cover-up the Watergate
scandal were not raised during his
confirmation hearing to be the new U.S.
ambassador to the Czech Republic.

the Watergate complex—and in a

violent fashion. None of that came
up during his confirmation hearing.
In June 1972, King was an ex–FBI
agent working security for the Com-
mittee to Re-Elect the President, or
CREEP, Nixon’s campaign arm. His
duty on the week of the break-in was to
protect—and keep an eye on—Martha
Mitchell, the talkative wife of Nixon’s
campaign director, former Attorney
General John Mitchell, while the
Mitchells were in California.
Martha Mitchell, dubbed “the
Mouth of the South” in press reports,
had been complaining vaguely to any-
one who would listen about campaign
operatives carrying out “dirty tricks”
POLITICS against the Democrats. So when she
learned that James McCord, the secu-

Mission Creep rity director of CREEP, was among

those arrested at the Watergate—
and described by her husband to the
Trump’s new envoy to the Czech Republic press as a private security contractor
who was “not operating either on our
reportedly beat and ‘kidnapped’ Martha Mitchell to behalf or with our consent”—she
cover up parts of Nixon’s Watergate scandal called a favorite reporter, United Press
International’s Helen Thomas.
Enter King, who “rushed into her
american presidents have a had never spent a day in Prague bedroom, threw her back across the
long history of awarding ambas- before taking up his post there on bed, and ripped the telephone out
sadorships to colorful characters to December 7. Radio Prague, the offi- of the wall,” wrote veteran reporter
thank them for campaign donations— cial state news outlet, called him Winzola McLendon in her 1979 autho-
roughly a third of U.S. ambassadors “a rich Republican businessman… rized biography of Martha Mitchell.
have no diplomatic experience beyond who worked for the FBI early in his “The conversation ended abruptly
rounding up cash for candidates. career.” Left unsaid was that King when it appeared someone took away
Among them is Stephen King, 76, played a crucial role in the 1972 the phone from her hand,” Thomas
a longtime confidante and booster Watergate affair. According to several reported. “She was heard
of House Speaker Paul Ryan, and a accounts over the years, King helped to say, ‘You just get away.’”
former business partner of Ryan’s cover up ties between President Rich- BY
Thomas added that
brother, Tobin. King, the new U.S. ard Nixon’s re-election campaign when she called back,
ambassador to the Czech Republic, and the burglars arrested inside the JEFF STEIN the hotel operator told
has no diplomatic experience and Democratic Party headquarters at @SpyTalker her, “Mrs. Mitchell is

14 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

 indisposed and cannot talk.”
Thomas’s story was a sensation. A
few days later, Marcia Kramer of the
New York Daily News tracked Mitch-
ell down in Rye, New York. Kramer,
a veteran crime reporter, described
Mitchell as “a beaten woman,” with
“incredible” black and blue marks on
her arms. Her account in McCall’s
said that after King ripped the phone
from Mitchell, he “summoned” a
doctor, who gave her “a tranquilizing
shot” and “[saw] to it that no more of
her outgoing calls [would] be taken
by the hotel switchboard.”
Yet few took Mitchell’s claims seri-
ously. She was known to like a drink
and make “wild” accusations. “The
Nixon and CREEP people began to
spread stories that Martha was crazy,
an out-of-control alcoholic, or had had
a breakdown,” McLendon wrote.
When Mitchell later learned that
King had been promoted to security
chief for the campaign, she wrote to
Parade magazine, the Sunday news-
paper supplement, saying that he
“not only dealt me the most horri-
ble experience I have ever had, but
inflicted bodily harm upon me.”
King’s response to Parade was that
FROM LEFT: MICHAL KRUM PHANZL/CTK PHOTO/A LAMY; HULTON A RCHIVE/GET T Y
he could “no longer talk about the
incident,” adding that “all such infor-
mation must come from” spokesmen
for CREEP. Officials there evidently
did not respond to Parade’s request
for comment.
(On December 11, King told News-
week, “I do not wish to comment fur-
ther on this old story.”)
In McLendon’s biography years
later, Mitchell told a story that seemed
straight from The Shining. After King
ripped the phone from her, she related,
she ran to another room to make a call.
“Again…she was thrown aside while the
phone was disconnected,” McLendon
wrote. “Steve then shoved her into her
room and slammed the door.”
Mitchell next tried to get to an adja-
cent villa via the balcony, but “King
ran out and pulled her back inside.
She claimed he threw her down and
kicked her.… The next day…she slipped
downstairs, planning to escape, but
King spotted her just as she reached a
glass door. In the ensuing scuffle, Mar-
tha’s left hand was cut, so badly that six
stitches were required in two fingers.”
That’s when the doctor was sum-
moned to sedate her. “Before [the
shot] took effect, she tried to get away,”
McLendon wrote, “but according to
Martha, King saw her dashing toward
the door and ran over and slapped her
across the room.”
More than two more years passed
before anyone came forward to cor-
roborate Mitchell’s story. In 1975,
McCord, convicted of conspiracy in
the Watergate affair, admitted that
“basically the woman was kidnapped.”
“Thank God somebody is coming to
my assistance,” Mitchell told The New
“According to Martha,
King saw her dashing
toward the door and
ran over and slapped
her across the room.”
York Times. “I was not only kidnapped,
but I was threatened at gunpoint.…”
During his August 1 confirmation
hearing before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, King was not
asked about roughing up Mitchell,
but he did raise the issue of security
for his wife in Prague, telling Wiscon-
sin Republican Senator Ron Johnson,
who chaired the hearing, that he was
thinking about hiring a private secu-
rity force to protect her.
According to Norman Ornstein, a
resident scholar on public policy at
the conservative American Enterprise
Institute and co-author of One Nation
After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed,
the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the
Not-Yet-Deported, there is “no statute of
limitations” against raising troubling
allegations in a nominee’s past. “They
should have taken this into account,
and could have.…”
Sean Bartlett, a spokesman for the
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, says King was asked
about the Watergate episode before his
public testimony. “After questioning
him and measuring his other qualifi-
cations and responses to questions on
a range of issues, staff did not believe
there was evidence or reason to delay
his nomination,” Bartlett says.
“This is a political question, not
legal,” says Richard Painter, chief
ethics lawyer to President George
W. Bush. Since King “was confirmed
already by the Senate, he would be
hard to remove.”
Not that the Republican major-
ity in Congress or President Don-
ald Trump’s White House would be
inclined to fire him, says Ornstein.
The bar for what’s acceptable conduct,
he maintains, has been dramatically
lowered by Republicans since Trump
took office. “This just one example,
among many very sordid ones, includ-
ing judges and Cabinet officers.”
NEWSWEEK.COM 15
 If Donald Trump has a dark Russian secret, DEUTSCHE BANK may know what it is

by

LUKE
HARDING

16 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

FROM LEFT: SPXC HRO ME/GET T Y; DAVID HUME KENNER LY/GE T T Y; ALL PORTRAIT PHOTO­ILLUSTRATIONS BY PICTUREBOX CREATIVE
 t sounded like a parent scolding a
tantrum-prone toddler with a penchant
for tossing toys from his stroller.
In November 2008, Steven Molo, an
attorney for Deutsche Bank, wrote a let-
ter to the Supreme Court of New York about one
of the company’s most troublesome clients. At
issue was $640 million that client had borrowed
in 2005 to fund construction of a new hotel in
Chicago. The client had personally guaranteed
the loan, but a few years later, the Great Reces-
sion devastated the economy, and he defaulted
on his payment, with $330 million outstanding.
Deutsche was seeking an immediate $40 million
from the client, plus interest, legal fees and costs.
The debtor in question: Donald Trump, the fu-
ture president of the United States. Instead of pay-
ing up, the New York real estate mogul counter-
sued, claiming the 2008 crash was a force majeure
event—one that Deutsche had helped precipitate.
Therefore, he argued, he wasn’t obliged to pay
back the money. Instead, he claimed Deutsche
owed him money—about $3 billion in damages.
In response, Molo drew up a withering docu-
ment, contrasting Trump’s frivolous writ with his
long career of boasting about how rich he was:
Trump proclaims himself “the archetypal busi-
nessman, a deal-maker without peer.” Trump has
stated in court he is worth billions of dollars. In
addition to substantial cash, personal investments
and various other tangible assets, he maintains sub-
↓
stantial interests in numerous extraordinary prop-

TRUMP
erties in New York and around the country.
Those assets included hotel projects in seven U.S.

PAID BACK
cities, as well as in Mexico, the Dominican Republic,
Canada, Panama and Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
the lawyer noted. There were also casinos and golf
courses scattered all over the world. DEUTSCHE
The same day Trump argued that the Great Re-
cession meant he didn’t need to pay back his debts, BANK WITH
he gave an interview to The Scotsman newspaper.
After a two-year fight, he had gotten approval from A MASSIVE
the Scottish government for a new resort near
LIFELINE—
FROM
Balmedie in Aberdeenshire—and he was thrilled.
“The world has changed financially, and the banks

DEUTSCHE
are all in such trouble,” he told the paper, “but the
good news is that we are doing very well as a com-
pany, and we are in a very, very strong cash posi-
tion.” Trump said he didn’t have any exposure to BANK.
18 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017
 DIRTY LAUNDRY
FROM LEFT: JASON ALDEN/BLO OMBERG/GET T Y; MAT TH EW LLOY D/ BLO OMBERG /G ET T Y; RON ANTON ELLI / BLO OMBERG /G ET T Y
the stock market, had bought the Scottish land
for cash and was now well placed to build “the
world’s greatest golf course.” Two weeks later,
George Sorial, a Trump Organization executive,
assured The Scotsman that the tycoon had a bil-
lion dollars earmarked for the course.
If those statements weren’t damning enough,
Molo’s affidavit cited the real estate tycoon’s liter-
ary works, which summarized his attitude toward
paying back other people’s money. Trump, the at-
torney observed, provided extensive advice on how
to do business in his half-dozen or so books. In How
to Get Rich, Trump advises readers to use the courts
to “be strategically dramatic.” In Think Big and
Kick Ass in Business and in Life, he boasts of how he
“love[s] to crush the other side and take the benefits.”
RUBLE ROUSER Trump’s strategy—honed during his terrible finan-
Years before Trump cial struggles with lenders during the 1990s—“was
got a new loan from to turn it back on the banks…. I figured it was the
Deutsche, Jain, left,
came up with a bank’s problem, not mine,” Molo quoted him as
controversial strategy saying, in connection with unpaid debt.
to tap into potentially As a result of these maneuvers, by the mid-2000s,
huge Russian profits:
forge relationships U.S. financial institutions had stopped lending
with state partners. to Trump for his building projects. Deutsche was
the only one still willing to work with him. After
Trump burned the bank, Deutsche shunned him as
well. But Trump soon found a creative way to get
off its blacklist—and return to solvency.
‘Are You Fucking Kidding Me?’
two years after molo wrote his letter to the
court, Trump settled his feud with the German
bank. How he did it was bizarre: He paid back
Deutsche with a massive lifeline—from Deut-
sche. Only this time he eschewed its real estate
team—which wanted nothing to do with him—
and got a loan from its private wealth division.
This group typically deals with high-net-worth
individuals, not real estate transactions, but in
2010, it not only lent him the money he owed its
real estate team but also reportedly gave Trump
another $25 million to $50 million in credit.
Deutsche employees in New York were sur-
prised by the bank’s decision. When asked wheth-
er it was normal to give more money to a custom-
er who was a bad credit risk and liked to sue, one
former senior staff member at the bank put it
succinctly: “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Over the next few years, the money kept rolling
in for Trump. He took out two mortgages against
a resort in Miami and a $170 million loan to fin-
ish his hotel in Washington, D.C. According to
Bloomberg, by the time Trump was elected pres-
ident of the United States in November 2016, he
owed Deutsche around $300 million, an unprece-
dented debt for an incoming president. (His June
financial disclosure showed he owes the bank
$130 million, which is due in full in 2024.)
The loans to Trump weren’t the only abnormal
behavior at Deutsche. Around the same time he
received his new line of credit, the bank was laun-
dering money, according to the New York State
Department of Financial Services (DFS). Russian
money. Billions of dollars that flowed from Mos-
cow to London, then from London to New York—
part of a scheme for which European and Ameri-
can regulators eventually punished the bank.
Was the timing of this illicit operation and the
loans to Trump coincidental? Or evidence of some-
thing sinister—a critical chapter in the president’s
long history of suspicious business deals with Rus-
sian and post-Soviet oligarchs? In January, Trump
claimed the former, tweeting: “I have nothing to do
NEWSWEEK.COM 19
 DIR T Y L A U N D R Y

with Russia—no deals, no loans, no nothing.” But
the president’s refusal to accept the assessment of
his intelligence agencies—that Moscow meddled
in the 2016 election—has, among other things, fu-
eled suspicions about his ties to Russia.
Robert Mueller is now trying to find out the
truth about those suspicions. The special counsel
is investigating Russian interference—from the
tions. Among them: Russia’s most powerful banker,
Andrey Kostin, who had served as a Soviet diplomat
in Sydney and London. (Intelligence sources think
he was a KGB spy. Like many others who spoke to
me for this story, they did so anonymously because
they weren’t authorized to talk to the press.) In
the 1990s, he became head of Vnesheconombank
(VEB), a state development institution described by

FROM LEFT: ULLSTEIN BILD/GET T Y; SIMON DAWSON/B LO OMBERG /G ET T Y

hacking of the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) to alleged coordination between the Trump
campaign and Moscow. So far, his team has charged
key Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and
Rick Gates with money laundering, as well as other
offenses. He’s also gotten former advisers, Michael
Flynn and George Papadopoulos, to plead guilty to
lying to the FBI and cooperate with the probe.
Now, however, Mueller appears to be following
the money, trying to determine if Trump has a fi-
nancial connection to Russia—one that might at
least partly explain his behavior. In December, the
German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the
special counsel’s office has subpoenaed Deutsche
Bank, demanding data and documents related to
people or entities tied to the president and those
close to him. The White House says the subpoena
doesn’t directly pertain to Trump or his family’s
accounts. But if the president has a dark Russian
secret, the German banking giant’s money-laun-
dering scandal may be key to finding out what it is.
one former CIA analyst as the “Kremlin’s cookie jar.”
Then Vladimir Putin made Kostin head of Vnesht-
orgbank (VTB), another state-run bank, after which
Kostin expanded it to operate in 19 countries.
VTB worked in many countries with minimal
oversight, which meant the Kremlin could use it
for espionage. In 2005, VTB absorbed two banks
traditionally used in Soviet times for spying and
BANKER, TAILOR,
shifting currency to Western communist parties. SOLDIER SPY?
These were the Moscow Narodny Bank, based in As Kostin, an alleged
London, and Euro-bank, in Paris. former KGB spy,
expanded VTB across
Meanwhile, Jain and Deutsche Bank recruited the globe, Deutsche
Kostin’s 20-something son, Andrey. In spring of recruited his son, and
2007, the young Kostin moved from a posting in suddenly the German
bank did a series of
London to Deutsche Bank in Moscow. lucrative trades with its
Suddenly, Kostin’s son got massive flows of Russian counterpart.

Friends With Kremlin Benefits

the story of how deutsche became embroiled
in the Trump-Russia probe dates back to 2005,
when the German lender bought UFG, a boutique
investment bank, to acquire an entry point into
Moscow. UFG’s co-founder and chairman was
Charles Ryan, a charming American banker with
libertarian views. Ryan’s partner was Boris Fyo-
dorov, a finance minister under former Russian
President Boris Yeltsin. The bank straddled West
and East, and was international and local.
The man behind Deutsche Bank’s aggressive ex-
pansion was Anshu Jain, its future co-CEO. He per-
suaded Ryan to stay on and head up Deutsche’s new
Moscow office, and he came up with a controversial
strategy to tap into potentially huge Russian profits:
forge relationships with state partners. He wanted,
in effect, to become friends with the Kremlin. One
way of doing this was to hire people with connec-

20 NEWSWEEK.COM
 business, a high-level banking source told me. And
it appeared his father may have helped: Deutsche
did a series of lucrative trades with VTB. According
to the source, the German bank’s Moscow subsid-
iary began posting profits of $500 million to $1
billion a year, with VTB generating somewhere be-
tween 50 and 80 percent of all revenue.
Other investment banks based in Moscow were
chagrined and suspected that Deutsche owed its
success to its alliance with Russian state interests.
“They were doing some very curious things,” says
Christopher Barter, the CEO of Goldman Sachs
Moscow at the time. “Nobody could make sense of
their business. We found the nature and concentra-
tion of their business with VTB quite galling. No-
body else could touch VTB.”
Everyone in Moscow understood that VTB was
more than a bank. It had ties to Russian intelli-
gence. Putin’s Federal Security Service (FSB) spy
chief, Nikolai Patrushev, and his successor, Alex-
ander Bortnikov, both sent their sons to work at
VTB. The bank’s deputy chief executive, Vasily Titov,
chaired the FSB’s public council.
VTB may have also had contacts with Trump
associates, according to The New York Times. In
November 2015, a few months after Trump an-
nounced he was running for president, one of
his business partners, Felix Sater, wrote an email
to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, saying VTB had
agreed to bankroll a Trump Tower Moscow project.
Trump signed a letter of intent for the deal. When
the project stalled, Cohen tried reaching out to

NOBODY Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, to help jump-

start it. But it ultimately failed.
COULD MAKE Kostin, the VTB banker, says he doesn’t know

SENSE OF Sater and never had any role in the real estate deal.
But Sater—the son of a Russian mafia boss—saw
THEIR BUSINESS. things differently. “Our boy can become president

WE FOUND THE of the USA and we can engineer it,” he wrote to Co-
hen about the Trump Tower Moscow plans. “I will
NATURE AND get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this.”

CONCENTRATION Shady Trades and Endless Vodka Shots

OF THEIR well before sater went looking for a deal there,

BUSINESS WITH the Russian capital was awash with petrodollars

and opportunity. At the start of the new millenni-
VTB QUITE um, Moscow was an alluring destination for West-

GALLING.” ern expatriates. Especially for young single males.

There were Russian women, some from Moscow,

NEWSWEEK.COM 21
 ↓
some newly arrived from the provinces—who were
keen to meet foreigners and practice their English. STEELE
There were the nightclubs, the parties, fueled by
TOLD HIS
FRIENDS HE
toasts and endless vodka shots. And the friendships,
always more intense than those at home.
But there was a dark side to this new Russia—as
one of those attracted by its offer of riches discov- BELIEVES
ered. Tim Wiswell grew up in Connecticut, about
100 miles northeast of New York City. He was more THE DOSSIER
of a repatriate than an expat: His father had worked
IS ABOUT
70 TO 90
in oil and gas in Russia. When he was 17, Wiswell
spent a year at the Anglo-American School in Mos-
cow and then returned to the United States for col-
lege. In his mid-20s, Wiswell went back to Moscow PERCENT
and got a job with Alfa, the private bank owned
by the oligarch Mikhail Fridman. From there, he
ACCURATE.
moved to Deutsche Bank. By age 29, he was head
of Russian equities. He found a Russian girlfriend—
Natalia Makosiy, an art historian whom he met at a
Moscow dinner party and later married.
In the wake of the 2007-2008 crash, profits
from the bank’s Russian business plummeted.
Traders were now under pressure to increase rev-
enue. But after Wiswell took over around 2009,
business started improving. And Barter suspects
that “something nefarious” was going on at
Deutsche during that time period.
After the crash, Barter says, he was approached
by “broker types, not very senior,” seeking to do
large, unexplained volumes of trades. These were
on behalf of major Russian clients. The brokers
declined to identify their counterparties. Their
names were concealed beneath “shell company
after shell company,” Barter says, making a due
diligence impossible. He turned this business
down “in five seconds.”
The same entities approached Wiswell and
company, and got better results. Between 2011
and February 2015, Wiswell presided over a mon-
ey-laundering scheme run from the equities desk
of Deutsche Bank’s Moscow office, according to a
report from the DFS, and more than $10 billion
was shifted from Russia to the West.
The method was simple but effective. In Mos-
cow, a Russian client bought blue-chip Russian
stocks from Deutsche Bank Moscow. The payments
were in rubles. The size of a typical order was $2
million to $3 million. Shortly afterward, a non-
Russian “customer” sold exactly the same number of

22 NEWSWEEK.COM
 DIRTY LAUNDRY
securities to Deutsche in London, paying in dollars.
There was no economic logic to these “mirror
trades,” the DFS report found. The buyers and sell-
ers were ostensibly different, but in reality, one in
the same. At least 12 entities used the scheme to sur-
reptitiously convert rubles into dollars. The money
was interred in offshore accounts. Those involved
moved billions out of one Deutsche location in
Moscow to another location in New York through
offshore territories such as Cyprus and the British
Virgin Islands. There were nearly 6,000 of such
transactions, and nobody in New York, London or
any other financial center seemed to notice.
When outsiders raised concerns—like a Europe-
an bank, for example—Wiswell swatted them aside.
The DFS report said he told the European bank not
to worry. Wiswell approved the trades with anony-
mous Russian clients. He browbeat his colleagues
on several occasions, a New York regulator said, ac-
cording to the report, “when it appeared they had
MAN OF STEELE
Above, the Grand not moved quickly to facilitate transactions.”
Kremlin Palace. At left, In Moscow, Wiswell’s 20-person equities desk
Steele. Republicans
was made up of Russians and Americans. One of its
have criticized his
dossier because the duties was to keep clients happy. That might mean
DNC and Clinton extravagant skiing trips and visits to elite night-
campaign helped
clubs. One of Wiswell’s business (and skiing) part-
pay for it. But the
document offers a ners was Dmitry Perevalov, the owner of a Moscow
compelling explanation fund called Lanturno. About seven years ago, for
for the president’s
his 40th birthday, Perevalov flew a group of peo-
unusual behavior
vis-à-vis Russia. ple on a private jet to Mauritius. The jet belonged
to the Russian Orthodox Church’s most important
bishop, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, but Perevalov
chartered it for the occasion. His guests stayed at
the luxurious Four Seasons hotel in Anahita, on the
FROM LEFT: VICTORIA JONES/PA IMAGES/GET T Y; DEAGOSTINI/GE T T Y
east coast of the Indian Ocean island.
One guest who met Wiswell at the party de-
scribed him as charismatic and charming, a tall,
handsome, all-American guy. This person also
said Wiswell came across as a “major lightweight”
in terms of banking and finance. “We wondered
whether he was doing kosher business.”
Perevalov flew in a popular performer to
crown his birthday celebration—the Russian rap-
per Timati, who gave a concert. Under a starry sky,
guests danced to his hit “Welcome to St. Tropez”:
Too much money in the bank account/Hands in the
air/Make you scream and shout.
Drinks, private villas, waterskiing—every-
thing was taken care of. “I was wondering: Who
the fuck is paying for all this?” the guest told me.
Lightweight or not, Wiswell was getting rich.
While the mirror trades were happening, his wife
became the owner of two offshore companies—
one in the British Virgin Islands, one in Cyprus. In
2015, a counterparty paid $250,000 into her ac-
count. This was for “financial consulting.” Similar
payments, totaling $3.8 million, were made through
two companies in Belize. These payments were “un-
disclosed compensation,” the DFS found—“a bribe.”
Which bank cleared them? Deutsche in New York.
According to journalist Ed Caesar, there were
further payments made to the Wiswells. The idea
of the money was “to hook you, so you are not go-
ing to do unexpected things,” one Moscow broker
told Caesar in an article published in The New
Yorker. These payments were always made in cash
and always delivered in a bag.
The end of this scheme came in August 2015,
when Deutsche Bank suspended Wiswell and then
fired him. After that, he disappeared. There were
Facebook postings from Southeast Asia and Bali,
where the Wiswells went with their two small chil-
dren. (He is now allegedly back in Moscow.) His
lawyer, Ekaterina Dukhina, declined to comment
on his case, but in his wrongful-dismissal suit
against Deutsche, Wiswell said he was merely the
fall guy for the bank’s wrongdoing. He also claimed
that around 20 colleagues, including two senior
managers in London, knew all about the trades.
The scandal was a grievous blow to Deutsche
Bank’s reputation. And an expensive one. About 10
days before Trump’s inauguration, the DFS—which
has the power to suspend any bank with a branch
in New York—fined the bank $475 million. Lon-
don’s Financial Conduct Authority imposed a £163
million ($218 million) penalty. (The Justice Depart-
ment and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the South-
ern District of New York are still investigating the
bank’s role in the scandal.
The bank carried out an internal review, which
didn’t identify the Russians behind the scheme. It’s
still unclear who they were or where the billions
went. Or where the money came from.
What is clear, however, from the DFS report and
conversations with sources in Moscow is that a
Kremlin bank, VTB, run by proxies of the FSB, had
seemingly captured Deutsche Bank’s Moscow out-
post. The German bank’s London and New York
NEWSWEEK.COM 23
 DIR T Y L A U N D R Y

divisions were economic beneficiaries of this ar-
rangement, as they facilitated the illegal flight of
capital by some well-connected Kremlin insiders.
While this was going on, Deutsche Bank in New
York was lending hundreds of millions of dollars to
United Kingdom “lent” money to one another, at
least on paper. Russian businesses underwrote
these “loans.” Company A would default on paying
back Company B. Typically, a Moldovan citizen
was involved. The companies would obtain a court

FROM LEFT: RAYMOND BOYD/GET T Y; DAILY MIRROR/GET T Y; Z ACH G I BSON/ PO OL/G ET T Y

the future American president, a man known to be judgment in Moldova asking the Russian firms to
litigious and a credit risk. My Guardian colleague settle the debt. And voilà! The Russian businesses
Nick Hopkins and I wanted to find out if Trump’s would legally transfer hundreds of millions of dol-
loans and the money-laundering scandal were con- lars to a bank in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau. From
nected. But Deutsche Bank stonewalled us; its poli- Chisinau, the money went to a bank in Latvia, Tras-
cy was to say nothing about its clients. ta Komercbanka. From there, the cash went to 92
countries, much of it vanishing offshore.
The Russian Laundromat The Latvian bank required a corresponding
in late 2016, that question and others led Western financial institution to process its dol- A NOTHING BURGER
Hopkins and me to a man now at the center of lar-denominated transactions. Most U.S. banks, in- WITH RUSSIAN
Mueller’s inquiry: Christopher Steele. This was be- cluding JPMorgan Chase, refused to offer banking DRESSING?
In his account to
fore the world knew he was behind the famous dos- services to Trasta, given the city of Riga’s reputation Congress on his
sier, raw intelligence alleging, among other things, as a European money-laundering hub. Only two dealings with Kremlin
that Russian intelligence had years of compromis- Western banks agreed, according to Moldovan and representatives, Kushner
admitted no wrongdoing—
ing information on Trump, some of it sexual in na- Latvian investigators. Both were German: Deutsche just inconsequential
ture. Hopkins knew Steele, but neither of us were Bank and Commerzbank. Once again, Deutsche meetings during a hectic
aware of what he was sitting on in that dossier. was the entry point for criminal Russian money campaign. Below, a
Trump hotel and tower in
We met on a Thursday afternoon, weeks before into the global financial system, the investigators Chicago and a Narodny
Christmas, when London’s streets were crowd- found. (The bank severed its relationship with Bank building in London.
ed with shoppers. Steele had agreed to chat over
4 o’clock tea. We tried a café and wine bar called
Balls Brothers—and found a tucked-away table. I
went to the bar and came back with drinks: beer
for Steele, Coke for Nick, pot of tea for me.
Steele clearly likes being in the shadows, away
from publicity or fuss. In the world of corporate in-
telligence, the fewer people who know what you are
doing, the better. “Have you heard of me?” he asked.
I confessed I hadn’t. I knew most of the people in
London who were focused on Russia, but not Steele.
“Good,” he said. “That’s how I like it.”
For the next 45 minutes or so, we asked Steele
about Trump’s connections to Moscow. He offered
helpful hints about following the money but little
more. In addition to questions about Deutsche
Bank, we inquired about another Russian mon-
ey-laundering operation, one that involved Putin’s
cousin Igor. Between 2010 and 2014, Moscow bank-
ers were sending cash out of the country through
something called the Global Laundromat—a
scheme that cleaned at least $20 billion, accord-
ing to investigators in Moldova and the Balkans,
though the true figure may be much greater.
This is how it worked: Shell companies in the

24 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

 Trasta shortly before Latvian officials shut down
the bank in 2016 for money laundering.) According
to the DFS, Deutsche was reluctant to classify Rus-
sia as a “high-risk” location for money laundering.
When Hopkins and I asked Deutsche Bank about
the scandal, we were rebuffed. So we talked to cur-
rent and former Deutsche Bank staff. According to
one senior ex-employee, who worked in equities in
Asia and New York, the bank’s problems went way
beyond these scams. The 2008 crash hit Deutsche
Bank hard, the employee said. In order to cover up
holes in the balance sheet, a few members of staff
took part in risky, complex and possibly illegiti-
mate forms of finance. These practices were exten-
sive, the person alleged. They might have involved
innovative and opaque ways of getting outside
parties to underwrite risky loans, the banker added,
using structures to disguise who ultimately are the
lenders and the beneficiaries.
Such impenetrable structures have led some
to wonder whether Deutsche’s unusual loans
to Trump and its Russian money-laundering
schemes were connected.
Adding to the intrigue: the statements of Trump’s
own children. In May, for instance, golf writer
James Dodson said that during an interview more
than three years ago, Trump’s son Eric boasted that
his father’s company had access to Russian money.

↓ “We don’t rely on American banks,” Dodson said

Trump told him. “We have all the funding we need
out of Russia.” (Eric Trump later denied he made
this claim.) Years earlier, at a real estate conference

DURING HIS
in 2008, Donald Trump Jr. said, “Russians make up
a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of

MEETINGS our assets.” He later added, “We see a lot of money

WITH RUSSIANS,
pouring in from Russia.”
In an interview with Prospect magazine, Richard

KUSHNER Dearlove, the former head of British secret intelli-

APPARENTLY
gence service MI6, summed up the suspicions sur-
rounding the alleged connection between Trump,

SAID NOTHING Russia and Deutsche. “What lingers for Trump may

ABOUT
be what deals—on what terms—he did after the
financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money

MOSCOW’S when others in the West would not lend to him.”

ATTACK ON
According to our sources inside Deutsche Bank,
Trump’s bid to become president made him a polit-

AMERICAN ically exposed person, or PEP. Banks scrutinize such

DEMOCRACY.
individuals carefully because they’re often targets
for illicit financial schemes. Deutsche reviewed

NEWSWEEK.COM 25
its lending to Trump and his relatives. Its goal was
to discover if there was a Russian connection to
Trump’s loans. The DFS also requested information
from the bank about its dealings with Russia. The
sources were vague about the review, who carried it
out and what its precise conclusions were. But they
insist that no trail to Moscow was ever discovered.
Other sources suggest the review was curso-
ry, but Deutsche hasn’t released any information
about it, so there’s no way to evaluate either claim.
Meanwhile, Trump refuses to release his tax filings,
breaking decades of precedent.
Over the past year, U.S. lawmakers such as Max-
ine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Finan-
cial Services Committee, have urged the bank to
privately hand over its internal review—along with
information about Trump’s accounts—but Deut-
sche declined to do so, citing privacy rules.
Now, nearly a year after BuzzFeed published
Steele’s dossier, the bank is handing records over to
Mueller, as the special counsel tries to figure out if
there is a connection between the Russian laundro-
mat and the president of the United States.

They Went to Jared

the special counsel’s inquiry could also
reach people in Trump’s orbit. Many were clients
of Deutsche Bank—and also credit risks. Among
them is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who
is trying to salvage a massive—and reportedly
imperiled—investment in 666 Fifth Avenue, a
↓
prominent piece of Manhattan real estate. His

IN HIS
relationship with Deutsche emerged in 2013,
when he apparently ordered a flattering profile

WRITTEN
of Trump’s wealth manager, Rosemary Vrablic, by
his newspaper, The New York Observer.
In a letter this spring to Bill Woodley, Deutsche
Bank’s U.S. CEO, Senator Chris Van Hollen ex- TESTIMONY
pressed concerns about the bank’s lending to Kush-
ner, who had a $25 million line of credit with the TO CONGRESS,
German institution. In October 2016, it loaned him
KUSHNER
SAID GORKOV
$285 million. The cash was used to replace an exist-
ing loan on the old New York Times building, which

HAD GIVEN
Kushner had bought the previous year from Lev Le-
viev, a businessman from the former Soviet Union.
The bank made the loan at a time when Kremlin
representatives were eager to speak to Trump’s son- HIM A “BAG
in-law, according to a timeline laid out in Kushner’s
testimony to Congress. In April, he first met Sergey OF DIRT.”
26 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

FROM LEFT: DMITRY ASTAKHOV/TASS/GET T Y; ILMARS Z NOTI NS/AF P/G ET T Y; PAUL LAURI E/ PATRI CK MCMULLAN /G ET T Y
Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, when Trump gave
his foreign policy speech at D.C.’s Mayflower Ho-
tel—just a handshake and pleasantries, Kushner
said. Next came a meeting at Trump Tower with
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Moscow lawyer who sat
down with Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr. They
talked about dirt on Hillary Clinton and repeal-
ing the Magnitsky Act, an Obama-era law that lev-
eled sanctions against Russians accused of human
rights abuses. Then, on November 16, Kislyak got in
touch again. By this point, it was clear that Kushner
would become senior adviser to the president.
There was another Kushner-Kislyak meeting,
on December 1 at Trump Tower. Flynn, Trump’s
adviser, was present too, as Kushner made an un-
usual proposal: He asked Kislyak if it would be
QUICK AND DIRTY
From top: Gorkov, a possible to set up a secret and secure communica-
Trasta Komercbanka tions channel between the Trump transition team
building in Riga and and the Kremlin. The purpose, it seems, was to
Vrablic. The former was
well prepared for his keep their conversations hidden from the outgo-
meeting with Kushner. He ing Obama administration and U.S. intelligence.
was, after all, a graduate Could this be done, Kushner wondered, by using
of the Dzerzhinsky
Higher School, a KGB Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States?
training center. The inquiry was staggeringly naïve. If Kushner or
DIRTY LAUNDRY
Flynn were to drop by the Russian Embassy, U.S.
intelligence would certainly notice.
The FBI hadn’t bugged that conversation but
learned of it when Kislyak reported to his superi-
ors back in Moscow. According to FBI intercepts
of those Russian communications, Kislyak was
taken aback by Kushner’s request. It was unlike-
ly Moscow would allow any American to use its
encrypted networks. The Trump transition team
said nothing about these secret negotiations. One
person who knew the details was so alarmed he
sent The Washington Post an anonymous note
about it, explaining what had happened.
Russia, it seemed, didn’t need to expend much
effort to get close to Trump’s aides. Kislyak came up
with a suggestion of his own, according to Kush-
ner’s testimony. Perhaps Kushner would like to
meet with another person from Moscow, someone
with “a direct relationship” to Putin?
During a meeting between Kislyak and Kush-
ner’s assistant, Avi Berkowitz, on December 12, they
agreed on the details of this meeting. Putin’s emis-
sary turned out to be a banker, or, more accurately,
a banker-spy. His name was Sergey Gorkov, and he
was the head of VEB, the state development bank,
which Kostin had run, and whose board Putin had
chaired during his four years as prime minister. He
had trained in the 1990s at the FSB’s academy be-
fore joining energy company Yukos and state-run
Sberbank. Like VTB, Sberbank was allegedly an arm
of the Kremlin. It was the official sponsor of the
2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow, attended
by Trump and hosted by Emin Agalarov, the pop-
star son of Aras Agalarov, who worked with Trump
to bring the pageant to Russia. Eight days after
the contest, Sberbank announced it was lending
Agalarov $1.3 billion to finance new projects. One
of those under consideration was Trump Tower
Moscow. In February 2016, Putin promoted
Gorkov to VEB chief.
The bank’s mission was to support Moscow’s
political programs. It provided capital to build fa-
cilities at the Sochi Olympics and fund secessionist
rebels in eastern Ukraine. These top-down ventures
lost money. VEB had large debts. The United States
had included VEB, VTB and Sberbank in the sanc-
tions it passed in 2014 after Putin annexed Crimea.
And Gorkov’s job was to restore the bank’s fortunes.
Gorkov was well prepared for his meeting with
NEWSWEEK.COM 27

Kushner. He was, after all, a graduate of the Dzer-
zhinsky Higher School, a KGB training center. He
flew in from Moscow bearing gifts. Among them:
soil from the town of Novogrudok in northwest
Belarus, where Kushner’s paternal grandmother
grew up. In 1941, the German army arrived, and
the town’s Jewish inhabitants were rounded up
and forced to live and work in an agricultural
college. Around half were executed. The survivors
dug a tunnel, and in September 1943 they crawled
out, fleeing into the forest.
This information and much more would have
been included in the FSB’s Kushner file. Gorkov’s
presents were chosen to remind the young
Trump adviser of his origins in a part of the world
that once belonged to the Soviet Union, and of
his spiritual roots. (This subtlety was wasted. In
his written testimony to Congress, Kushner said
Putin’s messenger had given him a “bag of dirt.”
It came from “Nvgorod,” he wrote, spelling his
grandmother’s birthplace incorrectly.)
This meeting occurred on December 13, and
according to Kushner, Gorkov introduced himself
and “made some statements about the Russian
economy.” The banker said he was friendly with
Putin, expressed disappointment about the state
of U.S.-Russian relations under President Barack
Obama and “his hopes for a better relationship” in
the future, Kushner told congressional committees.
There was no discussion of lifting sanctions,
Kushner said. Nor was he offered any commer-
cial deals. Kushner characterized the encounter
as brief, meaningless. But there’s no official re-
cord of what was said in the meeting, so this is
hard to verify. After all, it was difficult to discuss
the Russian economy without mentioning its
depressed state. Gorkov then flew directly from
New York to Japan, where Putin was attending
a summit. He would likely have reported the de-
tails of the meeting then.
Kushner’s official account to Congress on his
dealings with Kremlin representatives is 11 pages
long. It’s a flat, sterile document, clearly reviewed
by his lawyers. In his version, there was no wrong-
doing, just a series of inconsequential meetings
during a hectic campaign. Kushner said in written
evidence to Congress that he even forgot Kislyak’s
name. There was no secret channel. Nor did he rely
on “Russian funds” to finance his business. In short,
28 NEWSWEEK.COM
DIR T Y L A U N D R Y
a nothing burger with Russian dressing.
Despite these protestations, it’s clear Russian
intelligence found it easy to access Trump’s inner
circle. Ambassadors, lawyers, bankers...all made
their way to Trump Tower in 2016. All were wel-
comed and listened to. Gorkov was part of them,
but the cast also included Kislyak, Veselnitskaya
and the Agalarovs and other unknown actors
working behind the scenes.
Targeting Kushner was logical. He was soon to
become a federal employee. His White House port-
folio included tax policy, the military and interna-
tional affairs. In a protean White House—where
anyone could be fired—Kushner’s status as the
president’s son-in-law made him unfireable.
During his meetings with Russians, Kushner
apparently said nothing about Moscow’s attack
on American democracy during the presidential
campaign, nothing about hacking the DNC or cir-
culating fake news on Facebook, Twitter and other
MONEY SHOT
platforms. He also kept his meetings with the Rus- Today, the questions
sians secret. So did the Trump administration. In Mueller is asking
seem to be the same
his security clearance form, Kushner didn’t men-
questions that led us
tion Gorkov or Kislyak. (Kushner said this was an to meet with Steele
accident, an administrative error by an underling.) last year. Namely:
Was Trump hiding
The American public found out about these
a connection to
meetings only because of a steady stream of Russian money? And
leaks—leaks that would eventually offer Mueller if so, was Moscow
blackmailing him with
some important clues.
that information?
Ursa Major
today, the questions mueller is asking seem
to be the same questions that led us to meet with
FROM TOP: SAUL LOE B/AFP/GET T Y; BR ENDAN SM IALOWSKI/AFP/G ET T Y
Christopher Steele last year. Namely: Was Trump
hiding a connection to Russian money? And if so,
was Moscow blackmailing him with that infor-
mation? And how?
On the campaign trail—and well before he be-
came a candidate—Trump’s praise of Putin was ef-
fusive and unwavering. He called him a strong lead-
er and claimed they’d spoken and gotten along well.
His fidelity to Russia’s president has continued in
the White House, even as he lambasted other world
leaders, turned on aides and allies, fired the head of
the FBI and publicly humiliated his attorney gener-
al. Shunning Putin would have been the savvy polit-
ical move, but he has refused to do so.
Republicans have criticized Steele’s dossier
because the DNC and Clinton campaign helped
DE C E M BE R 29, 2017
 ↓
MUELLER pay for it. But the document offers a compelling
explanation for the president’s unusual behavior
APPEARS TO vis-à-vis Russia. First, there was Moscow’s alleged

BE FOLLOWING kompromat operation against Trump going back

three decades. If the president had indulged in
THE MONEY, compromising behavior, whether sexual or oth-

TRYING TO erwise, Putin likely knew of it. Second, there was

the cash from Russian oligarchs that went into
DETERMINE Trump’s real estate ventures—and the prospect

IF TRUMP HAS of a lucrative deal to build a hotel and tower in

Moscow, a project that was still being negotiated
A FINANCIAL as Trump addressed adoring crowds on the cam-

CONNECTION paign trial. Finally, there were the Deutsche Bank

loans that rescued Trump after the crash. They
TO RUSSIA. had come from a bank that was simultaneously
laundering billions of dollars of Russian money.
(Though parts of Steele’s dossier remain unveri-
fied, some of his claims have been substantiated.
The former spy told his friends he believes the
document is about 70 to 90 percent accurate.)
And then there are the people in the president’s
inner circle. Wherever you look, there is a link to
Russia. His pick for secretary of state? Rex Tiller-
son, a figure known and trusted in Moscow, and
recipient of the country’s Order of Friendship.
Former national security adviser? Flynn, a bene-
ficiary of undeclared Russian money. Campaign
manager? Manafort, longtime confidant to ex–So-
viet oligarchs. Foreign policy adviser? Carter Page,
whom Russia tried to recruit as a spy. Commerce
secretary? Wilbur Ross, an entrepreneur with
Russia-connected investments. Personal lawyer?
Cohen, who sent emails to Putin’s press secretary.
Business partner? Sater, who sent Flynn a plan to
lift Russian sanctions. And so on.
It was almost as if Putin had picked Trump’s
Cabinet. The U.S. president, of course, did the
choosing, but the pattern of all these individu-
als, and their alignment with Russian interests,
forms a constellation. Call it Ursa Major. A big
Russian bear Robert Mueller is now hunting—at
Deutsche Bank and beyond.

This article was adapted from Collusion: Secret

Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped
Trump Win by Luke Harding. Copyright © 2017 by
Luke Harding. Reprinted by permission of Vintage,
an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

NEWSWEEK.COM 29
 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
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Trinidad and Tobago.
TOWARD A MODERN CARIBBEAN ECONOMY
P
rivileged with large supplies of oil and natural gas,
Trinidad and Tobago has long been a small country
with a high income. As in many nations rich in a
particular resource, however, there has been such an
emphasis placed on black gold that other areas have
remained neglected. With GDP for 2016 standing at around
US$21 billion, the twin-island nation towered above its
Caribbean neighbors economically, but this represented
a fall of 10.9% on the previous year. This is largely due to
vulnerability to world oil prices, which yearly guides the
ebb and flow of Trinidadian fortunes. Efforts to diversify
have long occupied the minds of the country’s leaders both
in business and politics and, in order to achieve this, the
islands consider creating a business-friendly environment
for incoming investors essential. Signs are beginning to
show that this is happening.
Even in the country’s flagship industry, there is room
for progress, and CEO of Ventrin Petroleum Company Ltd.
Anne Ghent is quick to point this out: “When the price of
oil dips and things are not as good as they used to be,
you begin to see where things haven’t been done.” Ghent
cites a lack of digitization as a major problem, suggesting
that improving the efficiency of the country’s bureaucracy
in this way should be prioritized. Talking of customs in
particular, she indicates the need for change: “There’s
no need to reinvent the wheel. For example, when a ship
comes into port everything can be done online: you can
make an application to enter the country online, you can get
a response online, duties and taxes can be paid online, and
the process doesn’t need many people.” Ravi Tewari, CEO
of Guardian Group, a financial services provider operating
throughout the English and Dutch Caribbean, shares this
view: “We have all the basic infrastructures in place, but
these need to be upgraded for diversification to happen in
earnest.” Advances have, however, already begun to take
place. Tewari is pleased by improvements made to the
ease of doing business: “The process of upgrading has
begun; modern legislation has been adopted, and a modern
view of how financial institutions should be governed.”
With the level of traffic passing by Trinidad and Tobago,
sandwiched as it is between North and South America
beside various major shipping lanes, Ghent is convinced
that the country is in an excellent position to take
advantage and develop further industries: “There is a lot
of maritime activity and there is potential for a lot more.
There are a lot of vessels that go past us having no reason
to call, but if you offered services, you have the advantage
of having this vast group of ships to cater to.” In order to
do this, positive steps already made in some areas must be
passed on: “There’s a lot to recommend in Trinidad, and a
lot of basic infrastructure like roads and water and even
digital communication, but to go to that next level we need
quite a bit of reform.”
Not everyone tells the Trinidadian narrative with such
doom and gloom. Karen Darbasie, CEO of financial services
group First Citizens, speaks with open optimism about
the country’s development: “We have a stable political
environment; the government has invested substantial
funds in the education system, which means we have a
well-educated and skilled workforce; our infrastructural
development is reasonably good; our telecommunications
facilities are good; our road infrastructure is good.” An
educated, English-speaking workforce does indeed stand
strongly in the country’s favor, as does the leading position
it holds within the CARICOM group of countries
– of which it has the largest economy.
Darbasie also speaks with relish about policy
changes being made to advance trade: “The
Ministry of Trade has been doing a lot of work
on double taxation agreements with different
countries that will promote a solid environment
once trade starts, both for investors coming
in and local companies exporting to other
parts of the world. We have always had that
with CARICOM neighbors, and now we’ll
be able to expand into Latin America.” The
opening up of these new markets will offer
exciting new prospects to business in the
islands. For foreign investors coming into
the country, an online portal, ‘TTBizLink’, has
been put in place by the government to help
with understanding the country’s business
environment, its registration requirements, and
to form links with entities which are essential
for establishing a business within the country.
Such efforts testify to an awareness on a
governmental level that the country needs to
be brought into the twenty-first century, and a
willingness to invest in achieving this.
Shaping the face of the country as it
continues its development is acla:works, an
innovative architecture firm with a vision “to
transform the way we live, work, learn and
play.” Despite his passion for transformation,
however, Director Brian Lewis was already
happy with the ease of doing business in
Trinidad: “From my architectural perspective,
Trinidad has always been very welcoming
of foreign business, especially in the
construction industry where foreign architects
and contractors are allowed to come and go.”
This said, Lewis welcomes measures such
as those made by the government to further
open the country up to foreign investment.
He has a word of caution, however, on the
importance of limitations on industry: “If
there is more investment in the country, there
would be more development and therefore
more construction work, provided that the
government establishes a partnership role
for local participation.” Elaborating on this,
he emphasizes that investment should benefit
the local community: “The government has
to set certain limits so that the benefits
will stay here. Otherwise it would just be a
www.aclaworks.com
Voices of Leaders offers special thanks to the companies that collaborated in producing this special report:
voices of leaders produced this report. Written by William Morris.
flow of money going out.” Having already
completed projects for the Ministry of Public
Administration and Information, the Institute
of Marine Affairs, as well as urban planning
and various private residences, acla’s role in
forming the Trinidad and Tobago of tomorrow
is proving to be comprehensive.
In diversifying away from the energy sector,
the government is targeting specific industries
on which to focus development, and one of
these is information and telecommunications
technology. Telecommunications Services
of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. (TSTT) is one
of the companies taking advantage of this
blossoming sector, and CEO Dr. Ronald
Walcott speaks confidently of the country’s
successes in this area: “In terms of mobile, we
have one of the highest penetration rates in the
Caribbean, 160%, which is on a par with global
standards.” Where there are gaps, such as the
failure to introduce LTE (4G) universally across
the islands, Walcott is assured of the work
being done to address them and place Trinidad
and Tobago ahead of its neighbors: “That is
going to be addressed this year. Where some
of our neighbors have rolled out LTE in 700
MHz, we’ve done so in 1900 MHz and we’re the
first (and right now the only) operator to do so.
These efforts notwithstanding, we’re yet to roll
out a ubiquitous, all-encompassing mobile LTE
broadband solution throughout Trinidad and
Tobago, which we will do.”
As much as it is the responsibility of
government to bring the country up to a
standard, the private sector also has its part
to play, and Walcott is appreciative of this: “I
can’t see us really diversifying our economy
to the point where we need to be unless
there is a robust communication network that
underpins everything. Our role, from a national
development and diversification perspective,
is to provide a communications backbone that
allows for the development of a cloud-based
system that is powerful enough to provide for
diversity and development.” Being Trinidad
and Tobago’s only full service provider and
catering to much of its business community
and government departments, including
national security services, TSTT has already
demonstrated its expediency in coming to
the fore in the country’s telecommunications
With decades of experience in the Oil & Gas
industry, Anne Ghent has been CEO of Trinidad
& Tobago’s Ventrin Petroleum Company Limited
since 2014. www.ventrinpetroleum.com
industry, and now as an industry leader seems
to be the natural candidate to urge the country
into the digital age.
Healthcare on the islands is another sector
in which, having already made strides in the
right direction, the main players are pushing
the industry forward. Paul Anderson, CEO of
Global Medical Response of Trinidad and
Tobago (GMRTT), recognizes that problems
still exist, but is optimistic about the progress
being made: “It’s a health system that is
under tremendous pressure and continuous
change. I’ve seen considerable improvements
in the time that I’ve been here.” GMRTT is, as
Anderson says, committed to improving its
service to better healthcare for all Trinidadians:
“We’re attempting to position ourselves by
increasing the clinical competency of our staff
that will be part of that solution to rationalize
how healthcare is distributed and accessed.”
As it turns away from oil riches in search
of a diversified, modern economy, Trinidad
and Tobago has a wealth of things in its
favor. Regional clout, an educated and
English-speaking population, and a stable
political environment offer a good base. Most
important, however, is the evident agreement
between private and public sector on what
must be done to get the economy moving, and
the willingness that has been demonstrated
to do it. As they continue to develop, these
islands will pack an increasing punch in terms
of attracting investment from abroad.
In collaboration with
Horizons SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY + HEALTH

E V O L UTION it’s a killer mystery without a killer. the

astonishing die-off of honeybees over the past

To Bee or
decade is a problem no one knows how to solve, but
the key might rest in Puerto Rico, where the so-called
“killer bee” spontaneously became gentle. This remark-

Not to Bee
Puerto Rico seemed to hold the key to
saving the world’s honeybees—until a
giant storm blew hope away
KASTALIA MEDRANO
able evolutionary leap could hold the secret to restor-
ing the global bee population—unless Hurricane Ma-
ria kills off these benign “killers.”
The strange story begins around 400 years ago.
When European settlers came to the Americas in
the 1600s, they brought their bee colonies. Because
North America has a temperate climate similar to Eu-
rope’s, the bees thrived there. But other settlers—and
their bees—went to South America, which has a trop-
ical climate. There, the bees grew weak and became
vulnerable to parasites and disease.
For years, beekeepers wondered if a genetic infu-
sion could build a better bee in South America. In
the 1950s, Brazilian researchers brought in a tropical
bee from Africa that was carefully quarantined and
introduced into an experimental breeding program.
The scheme both worked and didn’t. “The catch
was that they were tropically adapted and very strong,
healthy, vigorous bees—but also very aggressive,” Gene
Robinson, director of the Illinois Bee Research Facili-
ty, tells Newsweek. “The scientists back then said, ‘Well,
we’ll be able to control them, we’ll carefully monitor
and contain them and see whether we can diminish
the aggression with selective breeding.’”
That was not to be. In 1956, 26 swarms of aggressive
bees escaped from their quarantine and bred haphaz-
ardly with wild honeybees. This mixing resulted in what
Robinson and colleagues describe in a recent paper
as “the infamously aggressive, admixed, invasive, New
World hybrid population of Africanized honeybees”—
now commonly known as the killer bee. Before long,
the hybrids expanded beyond Brazil. By 1985, they’d hit
North America, and by the early 1990s, killer bee hives
were being reported across southern Texas.
Killer bees are the suspected
perpetrators of some horrific
scenes. In 2013, 30,000 bees
BY
attacked a Texas couple and
their miniature horses, sting-
@kastaliamedrano ing them hundreds of times

32 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

 BLOWN
OPPORTUNITY
Hurricane Maria hit
Puerto Ricans very
hard and put the bee
population at risk.
FROM LEFT: COU RTE SY OF NASA ; ANDY ROBE RTS/GE T T Y

If honeybees go
extinct, many
foods we love could
disappear too.

NEWSWEEK.COM 33
Horizons
and swarming over their bodies
completely. The couple survived, but
both horses died. “The spread [of
these bees] is a major public health
problem,” University of Illinois crop
sciences professor Matthew Hudson
tells Newsweek. After what sounded
like a worried pause, he adds, “They
do sting people.… And if you run away,
they’ll follow you. Oh, they’ll still die,
yeah, but they’ll all swarm you and
follow you. And then they’ll die.”
THE DO BEE
A few decades after the bees escaped
from Brazil, their tale took a surpris-
ing turn. In 1994, a small founder
population crossed the Caribbean
(probably stowed away on a boat
from Mexico) and made it to Puer-
to Rico. They infiltrated the domes-
ticated colonies of European bees,
toppled the queen and installed an
Africanized one in her stead.
In the years that followed, bee-
keepers there noticed something very
odd: These once-scary bees stopped
attacking humans. In just 30 years,
they made an evolutionary leap and
became a strong, thriving honeybee
population that was also gentle to-
ward beekeepers. There is no other
known instance of this happening
anywhere else in the world.
Why this happened in Puerto Rico,
but not in Mexico, Brazil, California,
Texas or anywhere else, researchers
don’t know. The phenomenon seems
to have appeared spontaneously.
Regardless of what prompted the
Puerto Rican bees to take a big step
up the evolutionary ladder, it hap-
pened just in time. Around 2005,
worker bees all over the world began
abandoning their colonies, for no
apparent reason. The global honey-
bee population plummeted, which
was grim news for bees and humans
alike, since one-third of the human
34 NEWSWEEK.COM
EVOLUTION
diet is made up of crops we rely on
bees to pollinate. If honeybees go ex-
tinct and we don’t have anything to
replace them with, many foods we
love could disappear too.
The gentle bees are remarkable,
but only recently have researchers
realized the full extent of their po-
tential still wasn’t even known. Rob-
inson says that only in the past two
decades have researchers realized
that these gentle bees are still ag-
gressive enough toward parasites to
withstand a particularly nasty one
called the Varroa mite.
Multiple causes of the die-off
have been identified in the years
since. One of the major causes,
though, is the Varroa mite, which
has been laying waste to honeybee
populations across parts of North
America. Not only do the mites
spread disease; they’re also big and
hard for most bees to fight off. “This
would be like having a cat on your
back,” says Robinson.
Robinson and other bee research-
ers began wondering whether the
gentle Africanized bees could help
save their bee brethren.
GENE GENIES
To understand the underlying ge-
netics of the Puerto Rican bee pop-
ulation, scientists in Illinois, Puerto
Rico and elsewhere sequenced the
genomes of 30 male drones from
an Africanized killer bee population
in Mexico; 30 from the European
stock that settlers had brought to
North America; and 30 from the
gentle bee colonies on Puerto Rico.
Because the killer bees that migrat-
ed there initially took so strongly
after their African ancestors, the re-
searchers expected to find a genome
that reflected that heritage. But the
researchers also found a few regions
where the gentle bee genome looked
European. Robinson and his team
hypothesized that these regions
contained the genes that were mak-
ing the bees gentle. In November, a
paper explaining their research was
published in the scientific journal
Nature Communications.
With this new information on
the bee genome, scientists are clos-
er to learning which genes make
the Puerto Rican honeybees behave
nicely toward humans. The research-
ers believe those bees went through
what’s known in genetics research
as a “soft selective sweep.” A hard se-
lective sweep is a sudden change to
the genome that occurs when one
THE BEE STORY The killer bees of Puerto
Rico who mysteriously lost their killer
instinct have a genetic twist that could
solve a huge mystery, if they can be
kept alive amid the wreckage of Maria.
DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO [2]; MARIO TAMA/GETTY (BEE: GETTY)
strong gene favored by natural selec-
tion takes over and wipes out weaker
genes. This hard sweep results in a
more uniform, less diverse genome,
which can make the genome’s owner
vulnerable to disease, famine or oth-
er threats; genetic variation is what
allows us to adapt to new circum-
stances and thus continue to survive.
But a soft sweep affects only a few
specific regions of DNA. This alter-
ation moves the genetic needle just
enough that the trait in question
does change, but not so much that its
owner loses the benefits of a diverse
genome. That’s what the researchers
think happened with the killer bees.
They don’t know why. Robinson
says the team’s best guess is that
these versions of the genes were in
the founder population of bees that
first came to Puerto Rico, just at very
low frequencies. Once they arrived,
something about the environment
“Ask any beekeeper
if they’d like to have
access to these bees
and they’d be like,
‘Hell, yeah!’”
caused them to begin expressing the
gentle-toward-humans gene variant
at higher frequencies. Or it’s pos-
sible that a mutation occurred in
the population after they arrived.
There’s no way to know for sure.
Either way, the killer bees re-
mained aggressive toward the mites
but not humans, and by sequencing
the honeybee genome, the research
team showed that natural selection
in Puerto Rico had uncoupled the
two behaviors. One trait was able to
evolve without affecting the other.
Robinson says the isolation of
the mite-resistant trait means “we
might be able to push for selection
for creating strains resistant to
mites and help fight colony collapse.”
A bee that could withstand death
by parasite could go a long way to-
ward stopping colony decline. “Ask
any beekeeper if they’d like to have
access to a population of bees resis-
tant to Varroa mites but also gentle
and they’d be like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ That’s
the holy grail,” says Amro Zayed, a ge-
neticist and biologist at York Univer-
sity in Toronto who was not involved
with the research. Researchers have
tried using killer bees to fight mites,
but their aggressiveness makes even
simple steps, like loading them onto
trucks, often more trouble than it’s
worth. Zayed agrees that the gentle
killer genome might make that feasi-
ble. “If we better understand the cir-
cumstances where the bees naturally
evolved gentleness and can re-create
them, there’s the potential to have
our cake and eat it too.”
STAYING ALIVE WITH THE BEE GENES
In September, after three years of
research, the team was waiting to
hear if their paper had been accept-
ed for publication and looking for-
ward to the next phase of their work.
Then Hurricane Maria struck; it laid
waste to Puerto Rico, leveling its in-
frastructure and causing the largest
blackout in American history.
The Puerto Rican Department of
Agriculture estimates that 80 per-
cent of the island’s 150,000 bee col-
onies disappeared in Maria’s after-
math. Tugrul Giray, a biologist at the
University of Puerto Rico and one of
the co-authors of the new genomics
paper, thinks close to 90 percent of
the bees are gone.
Once Maria arrived, Giray’s priority
NEWSWEEK.COM 35

became just keeping his bees alive.
The storm wiped out the island’s wild-
flowers, so the bees were starving. Af-
ter the hurricane first made landfall
on September 20, Giray, stood in line
for seven hours to buy the gasoline
he needed so he could drive sugar
syrup out to his honeybee colonies.
He saved his bees during the storm
by bringing them all indoors.
“When something happens on
an island, it happens to the whole
island,” says Giray. “I saw a lot of
bees on the island in garbage cans,
anything people might have, like a
Coke can or whatever.... They were
36 NEWSWEEK.COM
THE BEE TEAM
Clockwise from top left:
Hudson, collaborator Arian
Avalos and Robinson have
been cracking open the
DNA of Puerto Rico’s killer
bees; Varroa mites are
destroying bee populations;
Giray is trying to keep his
bees fed, warm and alive.
escaping into the urban areas, relo-
cating, trying to find food.”
Robinson and his colleagues on
the mainland had extracted enough
genetic material before the hurri-
cane to continue their work, but no-
body knows what future scientists
will be able to do with that research.
None of the gentle bees have ever
been taken off the island—if they
die out on Puerto Rico, they die
out everywhere. There are other
efforts around the world to breed
honeybees resistant to Varroa mites,
but the Puerto Rican bees and their
newly deciphered genome were
EVOLUTION
arguably the most promising.
At the moment, Giray’s concerns
are more immediate. Although elec-
tricity has been restored to about 61
percent of the island, Giray says that
number isn’t accurate because it
refers only to the generators. Many
of the distribution lines that bring
power from the generators to the
residents are still down.
Giray knows how much depends
on the survival of Puerto Rica’s bees,
so he’s delivering their food himself.
On a given day, this involves filling a
generator with gas, taking an empty
canister to his car along with emp-
ty five-gallon bottles, driving to the
university to fill the bottles because
that’s the only way of getting drink-
ing water that doesn’t involve wait-
CLO CKWISE FROM TOP: CO URTESY O F UNIV ERSIT Y OF ILLINOIS; ALAM Y; COURTESY OF UNIVERSIT Y OF PUERTO RICO; (BEE: GET T Y)
ing in a two-hour line at Costco, then
buying more gas on the way home so
he can fill the generator again.
There are signs the global honey-
bee die-off may be slowing. The most
recent report by the Bee Informed
Project, which conducts annual sur-
veys of honeybee losses, found that
between April 2016 and March 2017,
beekeepers lost 33.2 percent of their
colonies. Disastrous as that is, this
rate of loss is still the second-lowest
in the past seven years.
But percentages can be deceiv-
ing. The Varroa mite population has
shown signs of growing, says Dennis
VanEngelsdorp, an assistant profes-
sor of entomology at the University
of Maryland who directs the Bee
Informed Project. They continue to
destroy the bee population in the
United States, Europe and Canada.
The gentle Puerto Rican bees are
conceivably the strongest and most
adaptable to ever exist, but even they
may not ultimately survive Maria. If
they die, the global honeybee popula-
tion may ultimately die too. For now,
our collective fate is uncertain.
DE C E M BE R 29, 2017
 H E ALTH
Climbing the Walls
A different kind of altitude sickness: psychosis
climbing to the “death zone”
is perilous. Scaling moun-
tains to heights where planes fly
and there’s little oxygen can trigger
extreme responses. There is no short-
age of personal accounts of mountain
climbers, alone at high altitudes, los-
ing their grip on reality. One man who
climbed Mount Everest recounts how,
thousands of feet up, a climber named
CHRISTIAN KOBER/GET T Y
“Jimmy” appeared out of the darkness,
said “hello” and climbed behind him
before disappearing. Now, doctors are
taking a closer look at such stories.
A team led by Dr. Katharina Hüfner,
composed of researchers from Eurac
Research and the Medical University
of Innsbruck, studied the accounts
of climbers at altitudes above 2 miles
to understand what was happening
to them. According to the research-
ers, they may be experiencing psy-
chosis. The results were published
in Psychological Medicine in early
December. Looking over
83 accounts by climbers,
the researchers found 41 BY
who described psychosis,
when a grip on reality is JOSEPH FRANKEL
lost. They found a smaller @josephfrankel
number who described symptoms of
psychosis and no other illness. For the
latter, the episodes mostly lasted sev-
eral hours, although some went on for
several days. These climbers had trou-
ble seeing, hearing and speaking and
hallucinated both sights and sounds.
Why is this happening? Philip
Corlett, a Yale psychologist who
specializes in psychosis and was not
involved with the study, speculates
that lack of oxygen, which can affect
brain metabolism, might have some-
thing to do with it. But whether that’s
really the same thing as psychosis, the
detachment from reality sometimes
experienced by people with schizo-
phrenia and sometimes people with
mood disorders, is unknown.
Dr. Ann Shinn, who specializes in
psychosis at McLean Hospital and was
not involved with the study, says the
ideal way to study something like this
would be to examine a large group of
people and assess their health before
and after they go mountain climbing.
The researchers know that, but say
that high-altitude psychosis should
be considered a “distinct and separate”
condition, one that should be better
studied to treat people exposed to
high altitudes. This research, Hüfner
claims, could also help doctors better
understand schizophrenia.
She sees it as a matter of practical
safety as well. “There are probably
unknown numbers of unreported
accidents and deaths caused by psy-
choses,” she says. “It is of the greatest
importance to disseminate cognitive
coping strategies, which the moun-
taineers themselves, or with the help
of their partners, can apply directly
whilst on the mountain.”
MOUNTAIN DUES Climbers at
high altitudes may experience
psychosis, according to a study
published in early December.
NEWSWEEK.COM 37
Horizons
By turning yogurt waste products into fuel and feed, one researcher
is taking a more cultured approach to sustainability
those nice folks who make
your Greek yogurt create waste
that could one day be used in jet fuel.
Mixing whey—the watery remains
after protein is strained from milk—
with thousands of species of bacteria
and then heating this brew trans-
forms it into a new material called
bio-oil, which could be used in bio-
fuels or as additives in livestock feed.
A study published in Joule in
mid-December details how bacteria
feed on whey and then turn it into
caproic acid and caprylic acid—bio-
oil. The research is an attempt to rev-
olutionize food production by creat-
ing a “circular economy,” in which
all waste products are recovered for
something useful and perhaps even
profitable. “The agricultural mar-
ket…has a very large carbon foot-
print, and turning acid whey into
feedstock that animals can eat is an
38 NEWSWEEK.COM
ENERGY
A Better Whey
important example of the closed
cycles that we need in a sustainable
society,” Lars Angenent, environ-
mental engineer and microbiologist
at Cornell University and University
of Tübingen, said in a statement.
The acids in the bio-oil can be used
as “green antimicrobials,” which
could replace antibiotics in livestock.
That’s key for preventing
diseases from becoming
BY
resistant to drugs. In
November, the Centers
SYDNEY PEREIRA
for Disease Control and @sydneyp1234
Prevention announced
an outbreak among humans of
Salmonella Heidelberg, mostly as a
result of coming into contact with
sick dairy cattle infected with the
drug-resistant disease.
This bio-oil could also be used
for fuel. Further processing could
make the chain of carbon molecules
large enough to qualify as “drop-in”
biofuels that are easily adaptable to
current oil infrastructure—such as
pipelines, refineries, and storage and
distribution systems. Drop-in biofu-
els could make flying in an airplane
more sustainable. The technologies
for this process exist, according to
Angenent, but there is still a lot of
work to do to make it happen.
The process for creating the bio-
oil isn’t as unusual as it might sound.
“In a way, it’s very similar to our own
guts,” Angenent tells Newsweek. Live
cultures of bacteria in your gut con-
vert food into various types of acids.
And why stop with Greek yogurt?
“We can also learn more about the
nature of the microbiomes and the
biology involved,” said Angenent,
“and start investigating whether this
technology can be translated to
other waste streams.”
Illustration by A L E X F I N E
 J A PA N
The PCBs that will power the cars of the future
With more than 40 years
of experience in manufac-
turing high-performance,
high-quality, yet competi-
tively priced, printed circuit
boards, Meiko is poised to
put itself in the driving seat
of the new IoT and AI-
driven era of automotives
Over the past few decades, elec-
tronics has increasingly meshed
with mechanics in the automo-
bile industry. As technology has
advanced, printed circuit boards
(PCBs) have become more promi-
nent components of the modern
automobile. Offering drivers an
enhanced driving experience
and greater safety, PCBs are es-
sential to the operation of every-
thing from the windshield wiper,
headlights, the car stereo and
heads-up display, to the assisted
breaking system (ABS), electronic
power steering (EPS), electronic
ignition system and GPS.
As cars continue to get ‘smart-
er’, greener and more connected
over the coming decades, adopt-
ing AI, IoT and remote sensor
technologies, the demand for
high-performance, highly reli-
able and competively priced
automotive PCBs is set to grow
rapidly. This means big oppor-
tunities going forward for the
world’s PCB manufacturers, who
have recently been impacted by
stagnation in the saturated mo-
#TheWorldfolio #JapanTheWorldfolio
bile phone market and a continu-
ous decline in the PC market.
One company aiming to pioneer
PCB technology in the next-gener-
ation automobile is Japan’s Meiko.
Since its establishment in 1975,
Meiko has developed state-of-the-
art PCBs for a range of industries,
including automotive, consumer
electronics, telecommunications
infrastructure, office equipment,
home appliances and robotics.
Meiko produces PCBs used
in Advanced Driver Assistance
Systems, such as EPS, ABS,
engine electronic control units,
LED headlamps and infra-red
cameras. With a very stringent
quality standard already defined
for PCBs used in passenger ve-
hicles, Meiko has cultivated
extremely reliable technologies
over the years, building trust
since the 1980s based on its ex-
perience and partnerships with
the world’s largest automakers.
Going forward the company is
focusing on combining its wide-
ranging technological strengths
in automobile PCBs, smartphone
PCBs and telecommunications
PCBs, to develop technology that
will power the cars of tomorrow,
including autonomous vehicles.
“Our car accessories are used
by Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and
also by Volkswagen and BMW in
Europe. In comparison to smart-
phones, car accessories haven’t
drastically diversified. However,
with the appearance of innovative
technologies such as self-driving
cars, IoT and more, this will most
likely change,” says Meiko’s presi-
dent and CEO, Mr. Yuichiro Naya.
“In the near future, automo-
biles will grow more computer-
ized, so the use of our products
will naturally increase. We are
currently developing solutions
to assist smart cameras, which
detect objects, as well as radars
for automatic operations.
“We believe autonomous driv-
ing is a field poised to grow. While
Europe has acquired a head start
in this field, I believe that Japan
will soon catch back up thanks
to its investments. Because IoT
sensors are necessary for auto-
PRODUCED BY GLOBUS VISION
“We believe autonomous
driving is a field poised
to grow. While Europe
has acquired a head
start in this field, I be-
lieve that Japan will soon
catch back up thanks to
its investments”
Yuichiro Naya,
President and CEO, Meiko
driving, I believe it represents
great potential for Meiko.”
Meiko entered the PCB mar-
ket for both automobiles and
smartphones at an early stage.
Its accumulated experience and
know-how has enabled it to pro-
duce high-performance, high-
quality PCBs that are not only
superior to many of its competi-
tors’, but also reasonably priced.
Mr. Naya hopes to continue to
supply such products in the fu-
ture, as we enter the new era of
the automobile driven by IoT, AI
and sensor technology.
Discovering Japan’s hidden gem
Only one percent of foreign
tourists visit Japan’s
Tohoku region, a land of
varying landscapes, rich
cultural heritage, and
home to the tomb of Date
Masamune, the samurai
who inspired the design of
Darth Vader’s helmet
“Tohoku has many
unique attractions,
the food is great, we
have four very distinct
seasons, there is so
much nature to enjoy
and an abundance of
green country”
Satoshi Seino, Chairman of
Tohoku Tourism Promotion
Organization
Occupying 30 percent of the area
of Honshu Island, Japan’s main
central island, Tohoku has a wealth
of stunning natural landscapes,
from the heights of snow-capped
mountains peppered with popular
ski resorts and natural hot water
springs, to the depths of Lake Taza-
wa, Japan’s deepest lake which has
been made famous as a filming lo-
cation for “Iris”, a Korean drama
series. Here visitors can enjoy a
spot of sail-boating and jet-skiing
on the lake’s sapphire-blue waters.
Many say that the charms of the
Tohoku region, and its six constitu-
ent prefectures (Akita, Aomori,
Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi and
Yamagata), are best displayed in
late autumn, when trees erupt in
a riot of brilliant color, and some
Lake Tazawa
of the tastiest oysters on the
planet are ripe for harvesting. On
a year-round basis, one can enjoy
the islands of Matsushima, 260 of
them, located within a protected
bay North of Sendai, in Miyagi
prefecture, a famous cruise spot
known for its beauty and incredible
scenery. They are rated as one of
the three most strikingly beautiful
natural sights in all of Japan.
But aside from its vast natural
landscapes perfect for sporting
activities, Tohoku also has some of
Japan’s richest cultural heritage.
Highlights include: the town of
Kakunodate, one of the best places
to see an example of a Japanese cas-
tle town and Samurai architecture;
and the Aomori Nebuta Matsuri
festival, a kaleidoscope of color and
cacophony of sound that attracts
three million visitors from all over
Japan every August. Tohoku’s big-
gest city is Sendai, site of the Osaki
Hachimangu Shinto shrine and or-
nate Zuihoden, the tomb of feudal
Samurai lord, Date Masamune.
“There are many attractions
where you can feel the spirit of the
Samurai Warriors in Tohoku. There
are several Castles such as Hiro-
saki Castle in Aomori, and Shiroishi
Castle in Miyagi,” adds Mr. Satoshi
Seino, Chairman of Tohoku Tourism
Promotion Organization (TTPO).
“Or if you visit Sendai City Mu-
seum and see Lord Masamune
Date’s armor and helmet, which
they say inspired the costume of
Darth Vader in the movie Star
Wars. Also, there is the Samurai
Warriors’ Houses Street in Kaku-
nodate Akita, which make you feel
as if you were back in the Edo Era
of 400 years ago.”
But unfortunately, a lot of To-
hoku’s natural and cultural gems
remain hidden to the millions of
foreign tourists that visit Japan
each year. According to Mr. Seino,
a mere one percent of the inbound
tourists to Japan make their way
to the Tohoku region. The authori-
ties are aware that attracting
more foreign tourists to Tohoku
requires stepping up promotion
and marketing to position this
beautiful, yet unknown, Japanese
region on the global tourism map.
“I’m afraid all hidden gems in To-
hoku will remain hidden forever un-
less we promote them using SNS,
video streaming, inviting influential
bloggers, and so on. We need to
make every effort more than ever
and keep on going,” says Mr. Seino.
“Going forward, we are taking
steps to inform potential visitors
of the attractions Tohoku has to
offer in the hope that we will enjoy
a bigger share of inbound tourists.
Tohoku has many unique attrac-
tions, the food is great; we have
four very distinct seasons There
is so much nature to enjoy and an
abundance of green country, as
well as a chance to experience the
traditional cultures of Japan. With
increased promotion both domesti-
cally and overseas, we hope to suc-
ceed in further promoting Tohoku.”
As Tohoku prepares to welcome
more tourists, the authorities are
also making efforts to address
the language barrier, a problem
for most foreign tourists in Japan
outside of the three hotspots of
Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
“The language barrier is a con-
siderable obstacle with not enough
leaflets and guides being updated
to meet with the new demands.
However, efforts are being made
to tackle this problem, work is be-
ing carried out to produce more
tourist-friendly guides and trains
have started to make emergency
announcements in English,” ex-
plains Mr. Seino.
So, as Japan expects to see
double the number of current
tourist arrivals by 2020, and
with the TTPO’s efforts to pro-
mote the Tohoku region, it may
not be long before the this true
hidden Japanese gem is un-
earthed. Catch it before it is!
Culture HIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

O DENKIRK, SE EHORN, SKARSGAR D, KEE N, SYLES, STEWART & LEWIS BY ALAMY; STREEP, HAUSER, YUE AND STUHLBARG BY GET T Y; TOP RIGHT: JOH N PH I LLI PS/G ET T Y
MOVIES

Drama
Queens
(and Kings)
The 29 performances, plus one
ensemble, that impressed, moved, provoked
and thrilled Newsweek in 2017

42 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

 PLACE YOUR BEST HERE
Meet awards season favorite
Timotheé Chalamet. » P.46

some of the following actors have

been or will be nominated for awards, some
will not. The Newsweek culture desk doesn’t get
hung up on stuff like that. These are the perfor-
mances that stuck with us. It was a big year for
13-year-olds, but also for exceptional scenery-chew-
ing, big returns (Jeff Goldblum!), final bows (Daniel
Day-Lewis) and debuts (including one former boy
band member on the beach at Dunkirk). Ranking is
for losers, so here’s our list, alphabetically.

Seo-hyun Ahn Daniel Day-Lewis

OK JA PHANTOM THREAD
It’s a very good bet that In his second
South Korean child star collaboration with
Ahn has a rich and full director Paul Thomas
acting career ahead Anderson, Lewis portrays
of her, yet it’s unlikely an aging fashion designer
she’ll encounter the beset with emotional
precise challenges of and existential crises.
this fantasy-thriller Don’t expect any flashy
again: co-starring with a milkshake-drinking or
gigantic CGI super-pig, bowling-pin-wielding, à la
clinging to the back of a Anderson’s There Will Be
speeding truck and going Blood; he is more quietly
head-to-head with Tilda superb here. This is Day-
Swinton’s embodiment of Lewis’s self-proclaimed
corporate evil. last acting role, so you
know it’s good.
Hong Chau
D OWNSIZING Laura Dern
Alexander Payne’s BIG LIT TLE LIES ,
weird and wonderful T WIN PEAKS
environmental satire She has already won an
stars Hollywood’s Emmy for her hate-her-
most accomplished then-love-her mother in
everyman, Matt Damon HBO’s Big Little Lies, but
(whose aging face adds when playing FBI aide
pathos to Downsizing’s Diane in Twin Peaks:
particular loser, shrunk The Return, she had to
to 5 inches), and the animate a character fans
film chugs along nicely— have mythologized and
until Chau jolts it to imagined for 25 years.
life. Playing a similarly Given this is a David
shrunken Vietnamese Lynch production,
refugee amputee activist Dern also had to play
(say that five times fast), two versions of her
she enters hilariously (and possibly a third,
bossy and harsh, but by maybe a fourth).
the end, it’s Chau’s grace High expectations,
you can’t forget. higher returns.

Photo illust rat ion by G L U E K I T NEWSWEEK.COM 43

Culture MOVIES

James Franco stand-up set of her Laurie Metcalf,

THE DIS ASTER ARTIST daughter’s boyfriend. Saoirse Ronan
It must have felt like LADY BIRD
kismet when Hollywood’s Dafne Keen The Irish Ronan plays
most eccentric leading LO GAN the titular heroine with
man first saw The Room, As mutant Laura Kinney, a the right mix of brash,
the so-bizarre-it’s-good Wolverine clone and tiny youthful individualism
cult hit directed by and powder keg of rage, the and gnawing adolescent
starring the exceedingly bilingual 11-year-old (in identity crisis. Whether
strange Tommy Wiseau. her film debut) manages belting out show tunes
Franco directs and stars to pilfer scenes from co- or wooing a hipster-
as Wiseau, and not since stars Sir Patrick Stewart doofus, she effortlessly
Shelley Duvall played and Hugh Jackman—as conveys artless joy,
Olive Oyl has casting Ansel Elgort well as shred some though joy is rarely the
been so spot-on. B ABY DRIVER
serious ass—without operative emotion when
saying much at all. her scolding mother—a
Sarah Gadon Edgar Wright’s propulsive comedy caper found deep, sympathetic
ALIAS GRACE its jet fuel in Elgort, the film’s exuberant Ok-bin Kim performance by Metcalf—
Yes, Elizabeth Moss getaway driver. He made his name as a YA THE VILLAINESS is in the picture.
delivered a triumphant dream boy in The Fault in Our Stars; turns out Byung-gil Jung’s
performance in The he’s more of a modern-day Gene Kelly. film—crazy, ludicrous, Julianne Moore
Handmaid’s Tale. But violent fun—would be W ONDERSTRUCK
enough about her. In this just ludicrous without Moore gives two quiet
year’s other powerful Kim, who turns her performances in Todd
Margaret Atwood trained assassin killing Haynes’s film: She plays a
adaptation about men machine into something silent film star who is the
abusing women—based parody. For anyone else, Paul Walter Hauser irresistibly sentimental. mother of a deaf daughter,
on a true 19th-century that would be disaster; I, TONYA As a mother out to as well as that daughter
crime—Gadon for Goldblum, it’s gold. Allison Janney is the protect her daughter, grown up. In the latter
convincingly ages from explosive breakout of I, Kim embodies soulful case, Moore speaks only
innocent adolescent to Tiffany Haddish Tonya, playing Harding’s purpose while producing through sign language, but
(possibly) murderous GIRLS TRIP abusive mother, while buckets of blood. you won’t miss a thing.
young woman to The actress, who Hauser, as the skater’s
manipulative middle-aged plays raunchy Dina in dim-bulb “bodyguard,”
convict, adding layers, the highest-grossing Shawn Eckhardt, is its
delivering chills and R-rated comedy in two stealth bomb. Hauser
leaving just enough room years, provokes deep, plays Shawn with such a The ladies of
for doubt. Did she do it? honking belly laughs. noxious blend of juvenile GLOW
Does it even matter? As fearlessly gross as delusions of grandeur, We came for the spandex and hairspray, for
Melissa McCarthy (with shifty-eyed paranoia and
Jeff Goldblum that kind of heart too), unearned cockiness that
Alison Brie’s impeccable comic timing and for
THOR: RAGNAROK she’s also one of the best he becomes the avatar the bizzaro casting of comedian Marc Maron as a
Goldblum always physical comedians on for the forces at work sleazy manager of a low-budget wrestling show,
manages to find a screen. No one lunges on America in 2017. In circa 1980. We stayed for all that, yeah, but also
strange harmony at a co-star quite like fake news, he will sweep for the little-known actresses (Betty Gilpin, Gayle
between taking material Haddish. awards season!
seriously and deploying
Rankin, Sunita Mani and Sydelle Noel, among
just enough oddball Eili Harboe Holly Hunter others) playing a ragtag band of preposterous,
sensibility. But as the THELMA THE BIG SICK body-slamming misfits. It’s a workplace comedy
vaguely Trumpian Director Joachim Trier As the agitated mother of that, like its subject, makes art out of trash.
authoritarian egomaniac sets his paranoid thriller a young woman in a coma,
Grandmaster in Thor: in Norway’s Bible Belt, Hunter prevents this
Ragnarok, he chews and lithe, clear-eyed highly original romantic
so much scenery and Harboe is his ideal comedy from descending
leans so hard into his vessel, articulating a girl into the mawkish. She also
trademark ums, ahs and simultaneously realizing delivers some of the film’s
ehs that he completely she’s a lesbian and in heartiest laughs, including
obliterates the line possession of disturbing her confrontation with
between camp and self- mystical powers. a racist heckler at the

44 NEWSWEEK.COM
 well played top to bottom,
but no one gets at the
show’s surreal larkiness
faster than the wild-eyed,
deadpan Stanfield, as
one of the three central
friends (“I know you don’t
know me…but could I
measure your tree?”).
Jordan Peele capitalized
on that secret sauce in
his hilariously horrifying
directorial debut, Get
Out, in which Stanfield
plays two versions of one
Bill Skarsgard doomed man.
IT
Give the guy his due: Skarsgard managed Kristen Stewart
a breakout performance as Stephen King’s PERSONAL SHOPPER
evil clown through layers of makeup and Filmmaker Olivier
Assayas wrote the part
CGI manipulation. You can thank the of a personal shopper
FROM LEFT: COU RTE SY OF SONY P ICT URE S PUBL IC IT Y; E RICA PAR ISE /NETFLIX; COLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL/ALAMY; COURTESY OF NETFLIX
tenderness, as a father to escape certain death
counseling a young son by any means necessary
coming out in 1983 in (including sacrificing
Call Me by Your Name, some of his humanity)
and as a sympathetic is rich and affecting.
Russian spy in 1960s Turns out a million girls
America—the conscience- really can’t be wrong
driven hero, in fact,
of Guillermo del Toro’s Shawn Yue
The Shape of Water. MAD W ORLD
Playing a young
Harry Styles stockbroker trying to
DUNKIRK contain his emotional
In his genre-defying turmoil, the Hong Kong
war epic, overflowing actor conjures the
with top British actors frightening ups and
(Mark Rylance, Tom downs of bipolar
Hardy, Kenneth Branagh), disorder—listless one
director Christopher moment, manic the next—
Nolan’s casting of shattering any previous
Styles—a former member attempt (including 2012’s
of the boy band One saccharine Silver Linings

latter for Pennywise’s toothy grin extending haunted by her brother’s Direction—felt stunty. Playbook) to portray
into something monstrous, but it was the young ghost for Stewart after And yet, his performance mental illness on screen.
actor’s glass-eyed stare that haunted you working with her in as a young soldier driven —Newsweek culture staff
after the film ended. Clouds of Sils Maria
(2014). In this unsettling
thriller, Stewart expresses
grief, fear, envy and lust
while saying almost
Bob Odenkirk, who feels real, yet is as nothing. Makes tangling
Rhea Seehorn poised as her 62-year- with vampires look like
BET TER C ALL S AUL old co-star Willem Dafoe. child’s play.
Nothing makes us As the epically bratty
happier than when Kim Moonee in Sean Baker’s Meryl Streep
(Seehorn) and Jimmy grim, gloriously shot film THE P OST
(Odenkirk) step out for about American poverty, The another-year-another-
a smoke—the special she’s in nearly every Oscar-nomination actress
place for their dry- scene—and you miss her can do formidable in
witted romance. Since every second she’s not her sleep, and pull it off
Kim’s the one thing on the screen. with multiple accents
preventing Jimmy from (The Devil Wears Prada,
going full Saul Goodman, Noah Schnapp The Iron Lady). What’s
we fear Seehorn’s STRANGER THINGS special here is Streep’s
tight ponytail might In a show filled with ability to evoke the flighty
not be long for TV’s terrific kid performances, vulnerability of The Lena Waithe
most inspired drama. A Schnapp, as Will Byers, Washington Post’s one- MASTER OF NONE
shame: When it comes stole it this year. Playing time publisher, Katharine
to tough-talking, no- someone possessed by Graham, while still The uneven second season of Aziz Ansari’s show
frills femininity, she’s a demon is no easy task appearing bulletproof. contained two perfect TV episodes, one of them,
unbeatable. at 13, and he pulls it off— Thanksgiving, written by his co-star Waithe (for
without even projectile Michael Stuhlbarg which she already made history as the first black
Brooklynn Prince vomiting pea soup THE SHAPE OF WATER,
woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing). In
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (see Linda Blair in 1973’s C ALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Like Quvenzhané The Exorcist). An end-of-year
her writing and performance as Dina, Waithe
Wallis in Beasts of the doubleheader from a serves up an uncompromising portrait of coming
Southern Wild, the Lakeith Stanfield character actor who out, half gut-buster, half punch to the gut.
7-year-old Prince is GET OUT always nails gravitas. This
preternatural—a kid Donald Glover’s Atlanta is time it’s with uncommon

DE C E M BE R 29, 2017 NEWSWEEK.COM 45

Culture

M O V I ES with being themselves, being vul-

nerable; [that] there’s nothing wrong

Sex and the Single Boy with opening up [even if you might
be rejected]. Sometimes it can be an
attractive and beautiful thing.
Timothée Chalamet has his way with Armie Hammer
(and a piece of fruit) in Call Me by Your Name The peach masturbation scene
might have been disturbing if
handled by another director. How
if you learn one name before awards season, make it timothée did Guadagnino direct you?
Chalamet. (Pronounce it the American way—his friends call him It was a couple weeks’ process. Luca
“Timmy.”) The 21-year-old had a breakout year, appearing in two of the most clued me in to a conversation he
critically acclaimed films of 2017. He grabbed attention in Greta Gerwig’s had with André, that maybe this
debut film, Lady Bird, but it’s his role as the vulnerable Elio Perlman in Call Me
by Your Name that could earn him serious hardware in the next two months.
(He has been nominated for a Golden Globe and has already won the New
York Film Critics Circle award for best actor.)
The film, a love story adapted from André Aciman’s 2007 novel of the same
name, follows 17-year-old Elio as he falls in love with Oliver (Armie Hammer),
the older American student studying with Elio’s professor father
(Michael Stuhlbarg). A confident, intellectual kid who writes
BY
music, reads voraciously and speaks three languages, he is sud-
denly emotionally unmoored by his feelings for Oliver. The film
ANNA MENTA
takes place over a languid summer at the family’s vacation home @annalikestweets
in northern Italy, and, as directed by Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love,
A Bigger Splash), the story ripens slowly and lusciously, like summer fruit.
Chalamet spent his high school years at New York’s City’s LaGuardia High
School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, the school that inspired the film
Fame; had a brief run on Showtime’s Homeland in 2012; and acted alongside
Matthew McConaughey in 2014’s Interstellar. Chalamet spoke to Newsweek
about, among other things, having intimate relations with a peach.

What attracted you to Call Me he started acting—it kind of changed

by Your Name?
Just how unabashed and accurate it
was. It’s such an intimate lens into
the random mania of a young per-
son’s desire and inhibitions. In that
way, it reminded me of the novel The
Perks of Being a Wallflower.
the game of filmmaking. Everybody
had to start being that real. The expe-
rience was tough. If Armie and I ever
gave a false note in the film, Luca
jumped on it.
Elio seems more attuned to
MAT T W INKEL MEYER/SXSW/GET T Y

his emotions than your average

Guadagnino is known for his
immersive sets, as well as pulling
deeply natural performances
out of actors. What was the
experience like?
[He] reminds me of how people
talked about Marlon Brando when
American teen boy. Could
teenagers learn something
from Elio?
I love the idea that young guys—par-
ticularly Americans, because I feel
Europe is less repressed than here—
will see that there’s nothing wrong

46 NEWSWEEK.COM
scene worked better [on the page],
that it would be too difficult to play
believably. So even though we always
intended to shoot it, there was the
chance it would be cut from the film.
When I was preparing for the scene,
it wasn’t “I have to do this right.” I
don’t like to know exactly what I’m
going to do in a scene, because the
most interesting moments for the
audience are moments of truthful
spontaneity. In the end, I think we
felt we got it on the second take.
One of Elio’s most dazzling
moments comes when he plays
Bach on the piano for Oliver.
He does it three times—once in
Bach’s original version, then twice
more, as the composers Ferruccio
Busoni and Franz Liszt might have
played it. Are you that good
a piano player?
I played growing up and then stopped
for 10 or 12 years. In the early meet-
ings with Luca and [screenwriter]
James Ivory, they always asked, “Will
“I love that young
guys will see that
there’s nothing
wrong with being
vulnerable, being
themselves.”
you be able to play the piano?” I said,
“Yeah, yeah, don’t even worry about
it!” [Laughs.] Then, later, I said to
Luca, “You know, I’m really going to
have to work on that.” He said, “OK,
come [to Italy] a month and a half
early.” I worked with an Italian com-
poser every day, sharpening those
skills up. It’s a nice party trick, to sit
down and play Bach with a Busoni or
Liszt alteration.
In Lady Bird, you play a
philosophical high school
anarchist named Kyle. I heard
director Greta Gerwig gave you
something to read to prepare.
She gave me The Internet Does Not
Exist and said, “This is what your
character would be reading.” It’s long-
winded, formulaic equations on why
the internet requires everyone to be
on the grid, with a lot of Y2K theory.
I opened it up, and there was manic
scribbling everywhere, and I said, “Oh
my God, Greta, what thrift shop did
you get this at? Whoever was read-
ing this before you was really going
through some serious paranoid stuff.”
And she said, “Those are all my notes!”
[Laughs.] I thought, Jesus, you’re not
Lady Bird. You’re Kyle!
Your next two films are Beautiful
Boy, opposite Steve Carell,
and Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in
New York. What can you say
about them?
I can’t wait for Beautiful Boy. I’m
playing a methamphetamine addict,
and I lost 20 pounds to do that. With
A Rainy Day in New York, I can’t say
much; [Allen is] so secretive about the
plotline. I can say that it takes place in
New York City, since the title has been
revealed. I can also say that to [play]
opposite Elle Fanning and Selena
Gomez for a month and a half is quite
a humbling experience.
NEWSWEEK.COM 47
Culture Illustration by B R I T T S P E N C E R

P A R T ING SHOT

Jodi Kantor
when she started investigating harvey weinstein’s abuse What was your most difficult
of women, sources told New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor the story reporting obstacle?
wouldn’t matter—“This is the way Hollywood has always been.” What she got was Going on the record about these
beyond anything she could imagine: the #MeToo movement began with her first things is not easy. It wasn’t easy then,
Times article on October 5, a story based on reporting by Kantor and her partner, and I’m not sure it’s easy now, even in
Megan Twohey. (Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker piece followed days later.) Since then, the #MeToo moment. I find, every day,
women have found courage—and abusive men have found consequences. Kantor that lots of women are still scared.
has since broken stories about Louis C.K.’s misconduct, as well as Weinstein’s Remember that these women
“machine” of enablers and deniers. She and Twohey are now collaborating on a experienced their incidents in
book chronicling the recent scandals, and they receive daily notes and phone isolation, without knowing it was
calls from victims around the world. “Sometimes they hope we write about them, happening to other women. They
but sometimes they just want to be heard,” says Kantor, who is humbled by the experienced it as their secret shame,
response, as well as “staggered, energized, saddened, thunderstruck, moved, trou- as something really embarrassing.
bled and inspired. All of it. Occasionally on the same phone call.” There’s also a pattern of women
admonishing themselves: “Why did I
believe him in that hotel room?” Or “I
“I find, every never should have agreed to deliver
day, that lots a script to his home.” I’ve spoken to
women who spent years berating
of women are themselves for doing those things.
still scared.” Together, the stories provoke the
big question: What have women in
the United States truly endured in
the workplace? Clearly, we’re only
beginning to learn the truth.

Have you been shocked by

allegations against any famous
man in particular?
It’s more the totality of it. It’s the
combination that’s most powerful.

Has anyone you admire

been accused?
The obvious one—I’ve been on
CBS This Morning with Charlie
Rose. I talked with him about sexual
harassment on air. I wish I could go
back and understand more about
what he was thinking about those
conversations. —Zach Schonfeld

48 NEWSWEEK.COM DE C E M BE R 29, 2017

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