Newsweek International June 23 - 30, 2023

2011 “Our current way of living is selfish and unsustainable. We are gobbling up the last resources. We are cutting down the rainforest. We are polluting the water. We are polluting the air. We are killing plants and animals, destroying the ozone layer, burning the world through our addiction to fossil fuels, and leaving a devastated planet for future generations. In other words, humanity is doomed,” wrote Newsweek. While we are now focusing more on clean energy incentives, the recent air-quality alerts along the East Coast due to Canadian wildfires, are a reminder that we have a long way to go. 1974 “Under a blazing sun, the Presidents of the United States and Egypt stood in the back of an open limousine, waving to frenzied crowds and beaming with delight,”…

New York City topped the list of most polluted major cities in the world on June 7, as smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the East Coast, creating a thick orange haze and hazardous air quality conditions. Due to visibility issues, the Federal Aviation Administration halted several flights bound for New York and New Jersey, while schools in the area canceled all outdoor activities, citing health threats. The Yankees vs. White Sox game at Yankee Stadium was postponed. “This may be the first time we’ve experienced something like this of this magnitude,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press briefing. “Climate change is accelerating these conditions.”…

PeriscopeNEWS, OPINION + ANALYSISWORLD SOUTH KOREA IS TAKING AN EXPERIMENTAL approach to a tough-to-define problem by offering the country’s solitary young citizens a regular living allowance in the hope it will encourage their reintegration into society. So-called “reclusive youths,” who the government says rarely leave their homes, could receive a monthly handout of 650,000 won ($490) on top of additional support for personal and professional development, according to a legislative amendment announced in April by the cabinet of President Yoon Suk Yeol. South Korea, one of the world’s most advanced economies, is as wealthy as it’s ever been, with longevity and living standards on the rise. Seoul’s decision to help a small but vulnerable subset of the population indicates a maturing welfare system, some subject matter experts say. The Ministry…

DISRUPTORS MEDICINE MAY BE ROOTED IN SCIENCE, but it has never been wholly driven by it. The human body and mind are so complex that progress in medicine depends more and more on technology finding better ways of peering into the unknown. Leonardo da Vinci’s closely observed drawings gave doctors a better understanding of human anatomy. The discovery of X-rays made it possible to see the structure of the DNA molecule. More recently, progress has come from advances in artificial intelligence and a growing appreciation of the value of human history and diversity, among other things. If science doesn’t fully describe the practice of medicine, neither does technology completely explain its progress. Medicine is ultimately a practice of compassion, of caring for people. Recently, experts have come to believe that…

DISRUPTORS Jeeshan Chowdhury FOUNDER and CEO, JOURNEY COLAB IF YOU ARE SUFFERING—IF YOU live with depression, anxiety, addiction or other mental health issues—there really is hope. Psychiatry has many effective tools, from medication and talk therapy to a range of behavioral treatments that have helped millions of people. Doctors wish they had more tools. The last major new class of drugs—antidepressants like Prozac, Lexapro and Zoloft—came in the 1980s. But maybe there are other answers—much older ones, discovered by Indigenous people of what is now the Southwest, Mexico and parts of South America. Five thousand years ago, according to archeological evidence, some of them began to use psychedelics—compounds like mescaline, found in many types of cactus, and psilocybin, from certain mushrooms. Dr. Jeeshan Chowdhury is working to give these old…

Narjust Florez THORACIC ONCOLOGIST, DANA-FARBER BRIGHAM CANCER CENTER; FOUNDER, FLOREZ LAB ONE PATIENT CHANGED THE COURSE of thoracic oncologist Narjust Florez’s career: a 43-year-old nonsmoker, an active runner, wife and mother who she’d just diagnosed with lung cancer. The patient’s response? “Please don’t tell my family.” More women die of lung cancer than any other cancer, including, since 2018, a growing number of young women. Many delay seeking treatment because of the stigma associated with lung cancer, including the idea that people brought the illness upon themselves—the same reason Florez’s patient felt she couldn’t tell her loved ones about her diagnosis. Now, Florez is on a mission to change the way the world sees lung cancer and to improve screening processes so patients don’t wait for treatment. She started the…