Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Israel and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop provoking the Palestinians. Albright also strongly urged Yasser Arafat to crack down more seriously on terrorists, but the press treated this as a dog-bites-man story. Reporters showed far more interest in Albright's public enumeration of provocative measures she wants Israel to stop (Jewish settlements, border closures, withholding of tax revenue, etc.) and in Netanyahu's unyielding response, which some took as a sign that the U.S.-Netanyahu relationship is coming apart. While deriding Arafat's claims that the Palestinian government can't stop terrorist attacks launched from Palestinian territory, Netanyahu claimed that the Israeli government can't stop expansion by Jewish settlers. (9/12)

An internal investigation blames the Army's top brass for pervasive sexual harassment in the ranks. The investigators' survey found that nearly half of the Army's women and 30 percent of its men said they had received "unwanted sexual attention." Fifteen percent of women and 8 percent of men reported "sexual coercion." The report blamed Army leaders for failing to fix a system that often punishes the accuser instead of the accused. In response, the Army announced new measures, including "human relations" classes and more rigorous selection of drill sergeants. (9/12)

The Senate voted 95-3 to throw out the $50-billion tax break for tobacco companies that Republican congressional leaders and the White House had allowed to be inserted in the budget deal. Nobody has admitted to inserting it. The New York Times blamed Speaker Gingrich, who in turn passed the buck to the White House. Editorialists celebrated the vote as a repudiation of the tobacco lobby and back-room special-interest favors. Analysts warned it may also foreshadow a repudiation of the whole tobacco settlement. Senate Republicans tried to take heat off the tobacco industry by depicting anti-tobacco lawyers as an even more contemptible interest group. The Washington Post one-upped this move by targeting tobacco-industry lawyers, who are presumed to combine the worst of both worlds. (9/12)

The Rev. Al Sharpton forced Democratic front-runner Ruth Messinger into a runoff in the New York City mayoral primary. Messinger got only 39 percent in the three-way race, while Sharpton got 32 percent. Messinger aides attributed Sharpton's success to outrage over the Louima/plunger police-brutality case. Messinger's embarrassing failure to win the primary outright means she has to campaign against Sharpton without alienating the blacks she'll need in a general election against Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Analysts concluded that she's toast. (Also see Slate's Aug. 9 "Assessment" of Messinger.) (9/10)

Update on the Princess Diana investigation: 1) A blood test indicates the driver had consumed anti-depressants as well as too much alcohol. 2) Police confirmed the car was going at a speed of about 100 mph. 3) The Fayed family's lawyer claims photographs show the driver was dazzled by a camera flash before the accident. The photos were apparently taken from a vehicle ahead of Diana's. 4) A French newspaper reported that Diana's last words after the crash were, "Leave me alone, leave me alone." A doctor said photographers had been snapping pictures "a few centimeters from her face." Bottom line: Investigators are leaning toward blaming the driver's speed and intoxication, but the paparazzi could still be prosecuted for their behavior after the crash. (9/10)

Late last week, Princess Diana was eulogized and buried. Fifty million Americans got up in the wee hours of the morning to watch the funeral on television. The big story was her brother's slap at the royal family: Diana was "someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who ... needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic." For days, the royals were scorned as stuffy brutes for failing to display grief in public. When they relented and displayed their grief, they were likened to President Clinton (for feeling others' pain) and scorned for pandering to public opinion. Several American pundits belatedly conceded that they had covered the story obsessively based on their false intimacy with Diana and their whitewashed view of her character. They resumed covering the story obsessively based on the public's false intimacy with Diana and its whitewashed view of her character. (9/8)

Chinese leaders authorized the constitutional endorsement of economic privatization, and are considering political reforms that could gradually extend elections from the local to the national level. Currently, privatization is merely tolerated. Officials complained that instead of focusing on changes in the system, Chinese politicos and citizens are gossiping about who's in and who's out in the Chinese elite. American newspapers responded by gossiping about who's in and who's out in the Chinese elite. (9/10)

Sunbeam chairman "Chainsaw"Al Dunlap sued the American Medical Association to make the AMA endorse Sunbeam's health-care products exclusively for five years. The AMA had proposed the endorsement scheme in exchange for millions of dollars in royalties, but then backed out after being denounced for prostituting itself. Dunlap accused the AMA of "arrogance" for breaking the contract and demanded $20 million in damages. Critics debated which of the two parties looks worse. (For more on Dunlap, see Slate's recent "Assessment.") (9/10)

Two developments in the Paula Jones case: 1) Her attorneys withdrew. They wanted her to accept $700,000 and a vague statement from President Clinton--which means they'd get paid--but she's holding out for an explicit apology. 2) Clinton's insurers (State Farm and Chubb) are ending their coverage of his legal bills and liabilities. This ends the plausibility of a monetary settlement, because henceforth Clinton will have to pay out of his own pocket, something his lawyer says he won't do. Pundits look forward to embarrassing depositions. (9/10)

The Virginia Military Institute suspended a female cadet for hitting a male upperclassman. The cadet was among the first women admitted to the school under last year's Supreme Court decision. She struck the blow in response to ritual verbal abuse by several upperclassmen. Civil-rights advocates called for scrutiny of the one-year suspension, but agree that it's OK as long as the abuse that provoked her was gender-neutral. (9/10)

Tennis prodigy Venus Williams lost in the finals of the U.S. Open. Because she's 17 and black (her father calls her a "ghetto Cinderella"), and because she's been hyped for years (she got a multimillion-dollar Reebok contract at 14), she overshadowed the new men's champion--Australian heartthrob Patrick Rafter--and women's champion Martina Hingis, who is a year younger than Williams and creamed her in the finals. Commentators were set to anoint Williams the next Tiger Woods, but her father screwed it up by calling her semifinal opponent a "white turkey" and portraying the opponent's collision with Williams during a changeover as "a racial thing." Pressed about these remarks, Williams parried, ducked, and fled her press conference. Critics contrast her arrogance with Tiger Woods' good manners. Defenders see a double standard: Critics don't blame white players (Steffi Graf and Mary Pierce) for their fathers' misbehavior, so why should Williams be blamed for her father's? (9/8)

Mother Teresa also died. Reviews of her career were highly favorable. Pundits paused to pay their respects before returning to the topic of Princess Diana. The proximity of the two women's deaths inspired a flurry of silly comparisons, which in turn inspired a backlash of equally silly commentaries pointing out their differences. Former Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko died, too. Since Mobutu ended up being only the third-most important person to die during the week, coverage of his demise was largely buried. (9/8)

Vice President Gore is on the hot seat in the campaign-finance investigation. The Washington Post reported that some of the money Gore raised in phone calls from the White House went to the Clinton-Gore campaign ("hard" money) instead of the Democratic National Committee ("soft" money). This removes Attorney General Reno's rationale for not appointing an independent counsel. The betting now is that a counsel will be named, and will hound Gore for years. Scandal questions upstaged Gore's feel-good visit to New Hampshire, giving pundits hope that he may get a real fight in the 2000 primaries. Gore sympathizers are shifting from defending his innocence to blaming Clinton for corrupting him. (9/8)

Photographs of: Madeleine Albright and Yasser Arafat by Will Yurman/KRT; Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed (R), and Henri Paul (L), from the Ritz/Reuters; Paula Jones by Jeff Mitchell/Reuters; Venus Williams and Martina Hingis by Blake Sell/Reuters; Mother Teresa by Joy Shaw/Reuters.