Indholdsfortegnelse for April 15, 2022 i Newsweek

“Companies that excel at personalization generate 40 percent more revenue from those activities.”▸ P.16 AS THE WAR IN UKRAINE ENTERS ITS SECOND month, Russian ally Armenia worries about a new front erupting on its own border with rival Azerbaijan as unrest builds between the South Caucasus neighbors. Like Russia and Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan are two post-Soviet nations with a long history of deadly territorial disputes. Their most recent war erupted in September 2020 in the form of a bloody 44-day conflict focused on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians established a separatist state called the Artsakh Republic three decades ago on land recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. The latest all-out bout of hostilities in the century-long feud over this territory largely ended with an agreement that allowed…

AMERICANS HAVE BEEN SPENDING MUCH MORE time at home over the last couple of years. COVID-19 made our homes not only our accustomed refuges from the world—the places where we live, sleep, eat and relax with family and friends—but also our workplaces and classrooms. We are spending more time in our homes and we are spending more money on our homes. In 2020, for instance, average annual spending per U.S. household on lawn and garden supplies jumped to a record $155 from $120 in 2019. Last year, total U.S. home improvement sales, including building supplies, appliances and decor as well as the services of contractors and other tradespeople, reached $538 billion and is expected to hit $620 billion by 2025. To help consumers make smart decisions when spending on their…

A protester weeps as she takes part in a Mothers March for Ukraine on March 26 from United Nations UNICEF headquarters to Times Square. Nonprofit Razom for Ukraine organized the event to raise awareness of the Russian military’s treatment of children during its invasion of Ukraine, particularly the March 16 Russian bombing of a theater in Mariupol. The theater was sheltering more than 1,300 people and had the word “children” painted on the ground outside.…

BRANDS ARE OFFERING MORE than just freebies and cash rewards to get customers to stay put these days. “Probably the biggest trend has been to go from a strict ‘buy this, get that’ to a more experiential, lifestyle kind of focus,” says Howard Schneider, who has worked in the brand loyalty space for over 20 years and helped pioneer programs at companies like Hilton Hotels and Neiman Marcus. Over 90 percent of companies now have some type of customer loyalty program, according to a recent Accenture report. The average U.S. house-hold is enrolled in 18 different loyalty programs. Some of those programs are hugely important to company bottom lines. Starbucks Rewards members, for instance, are now responsible for 53 percent of the dollars spent at the coffee chain. With so…

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, PEOPLE are coming out from under their pandemic rocks. The masks are off, the bars are crowded, the kids are back in school. Even New York City, home to some of the most stringent mandates, no longer requires proof of vaccination in restaurants or masks in schools. On April 7, the Red Sox and the Yankees will square off on Opening Day in front of a potential crowd of 50,000-plus fans eager to cheer full-throated and (mostly) maskless into the breeze. Baseball fans aren’t the only ones eager to put the pandemic behind them. So, apparently, is Congress. Money for COVID-19 testing, vaccines and therapeutics is running out and new spending harder to find than Putin’s conscience. Leading the opposition is Senator Mitt Romney. “While we have…

SOMETIMES EVEN THE MOST-talked-about indie rock acts need to decompress. Take, for instance, the British duo Wet Leg—Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers—currently on the second leg of a tour in America. “Me and Hester did yoga the other day,” Teasdale tells Newsweek, laughing. “The bus expands on the front lounge, so there’s enough room to do like a YouTube yoga session diagonally.” In a span of less than a year, the duo from the Isle of Wight have generated tremendous buzz from their singles—most notably the extremely catchy disco/punk/New Wave number “Chaise Longue,” which has garnered over 11 million streams so far on Spotify. The attention brought Wet Leg widespread press coverage, sold-out shows, and American TV appearances on Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy…