Newsweek International October 20, 2023

1981 “The gap has yawned wider—a growing gulf between the mostly prosperous Northern Hemisphere and the mostly impoverished South…and the problems have overwhelmed the solution,” Newsweek wrote at the time of a north-south economic development conference of 22 countries held in Cancún, Mexico. While the magazine promised “The unstructured give-and-take will rise above parochial disputes of various governments and produce mutual understanding,” the summit produced no important agreements. Today, China is South America and Africa’s largest trading partner. 1977 “One can say of [Jasper] Johns what could be said of few other artists: he changed the history of painting,” said Newsweek. “His pictures show us how we see—and don’t see—the world.” In 2020, amid the pandemic, Johns painted Slice, inspired by an astrophysicist’s map of the universe. 2004 “It’s no…

Palestinian militant group Hamas fire rockets from Gaza City to Israel in an unprecedented surprise attack on October 7. In a land, air and sea operation, Hamas infiltrated southern Israel and killed hundreds of civilians including more than 250 at a music festival, wounded thousands and took over 100 hostages, making Saturday the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Israel declared war, retaliated by hitting more than 1,000 targets in Gaza and has ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza. By October, 9, the death toll has risen to over 700 Israelis killed and almost 500 Palestinians, according to the Associated Press.…

Laphonza Butler is sworn in as California’s junior U.S. Senator by Vice President Kamala Harris at the U.S. Capitol on October 3. Butler was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to complete the term of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, which runs through next year. Butler is the only Black woman in the Senate, the third in history and California’s first openly LGBTQ+ senator.…

PeriscopeNEWS, OPINION + ANALYSIS POLITICS “There were moments when the situation seemed overwhelmingly bleak.” ▸ P.16 AS MANY REPUBLICAN LEADERS EMBRACE A message of alarm surrounding LGBTQ+ issues, particularly regarding what is being included in school curriculums and library books, one group historically at odds with the GOP has become a potential ally. Muslim Americans have made historic political and cultural gains in the past couple of decades since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which were followed by a wave of Islamophobic sentiment and suspicion. Most of those gains—from the rise of lawmakers such as Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan to the popularity of cultural figures such as comedians Hasan Minhaj and Ramy Youssef—have appeared to align largely with the political left. But…

WHEN THE FULL-SCALE INVA-sion of Ukraine took place in February 2022, I had already served as a soldier, participating in a combat mission near Mariupol as part of the 36th Marine Brigade. What I remember most vividly from my time on the battlefield is the experience, professionalism and solidarity of my fellow soldiers. It was these qualities that would ultimately save my life. On April 16, 2022, I was seriously wounded. Subsequently, I and others like me were taken prisoner by Russian forces during a critical breakthrough operation in Mariupol. Since the brigade was going to break through, I was unconscious and cannot describe what I felt at the time of the physical attack. When Russian soldiers found me, they presumed I had fallen in action. However, when I began…

HEALTH FOR YEARS, ALZHEIMER’S CONFERENCES WERE like the obituary pages in the local newspaper: It’s where clinicians and researchers in the field went to find out the names of the latest promising drugs to die. Between 1998 and 2017 alone, 146 clinical trials of new Alzheimer’s drugs failed. So when Randall Bateman showed up outside a restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine, one evening in the fall of 2022 during an industry confab and announced to a couple of tables full of his colleagues drinking on the patio that he had something important to share with them, no one was prepared for what came next. Bateman, a neurologist and Alzheimer’s researcher at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, told them he had just received a phone call from…