Newsweek 07/13/2018

1995 The 17-year hunt to identify the Unabomber (who killed three and injured 23 with 16 mail bombs) climaxed after he sent a 35,000-word manifesto to major newspapers. Newsweek observed that he seemed to have “an insatiable appetite for recognition and enough brains to give [1995’s Oklahoma City bomber] Tim McVeigh a run for his money.” Ted Kaczynski’s brother, David, would recognize the Harvard-educated mathematician’s writing and tip off the FBI. Kaczynski, serving eight life sentences, would later befriend McVeigh (executed in 2001) when they ended up in the same Colorado prison. 1943 The issue was almost entirely devoted to dispatches from World War II. Highlights include reports of the “first purely offensive” bombing campaign in the South Pacific, action shots of a Liberator bomber crew during a raid and an…

RUTH BADER GINSBURG AGE: 85 APPOINTED BY: CLINTON VOTING RECORD: LIBERAL ELENA KAGAN AGE: 58 APPOINTED BY: OBAMA VOTING RECORD: LIBERAL SAMUEL ALITO AGE: 68 APPOINTED BY: GEORGE W. BUSH VOTING RECORD: CONSERVATIVE ANTHONY KENNEDY AGE: 81 APPOINTED BY: REAGAN VOTING RECORD: CENTER SONIA SOTOMAYOR AGE: 64 APPOINTED BY: OBAMA VOTING RECORD: LIBERAL CLARENCE THOMAS AGE: 70 APPOINTED BY: GEORGE H.W. BUSH VOTING RECORD: CONSERVATIVE JOHN ROBERTS AGE: 63 APPOINTED BY: GEORGE W. BUSH VOTING RECORD: CENTER NEIL GORSUCH AGE: 50 APPOINTED BY: TRUMP VOTING RECORD: CONSERVATIVE STEPHEN BREYER AGE: 79 APPOINTED BY: CLINTON VOTING RECORD: LIBERAL For nearly three decades, Justice Anthony Kennedy wielded the critical swing vote on a polarized Supreme Court, siding with liberals on gay marriage and abortion rights while backing conservatives on campaign finance and gun control. But in a striking decision that could reshape the American legal landscape, the 81-year-old jurist announced his retirement on June 27. In a letter to President Donald Trump, he expressed “profound gratitude for having…

THE IMAGES OF SCREAMING CHILDREN WERE searing, the cries unforgettable. In June, as the public reeled from around-the-clock coverage of the Trump administration’s systemic separation of immigrant families, the president dug in. “They could be murderers and thieves and so much else,” Trump said of those crossing the border. “We want a safe country, and it starts with the borders, and that’s the way it is.” As the criticism mounted, he accused Democrats of wanting migrants to “infest our Country.” And even after signing an executive order to end the controversial separations, he remained defiant. At a White House press conference, the president stood with family members of people killed by undocumented immigrants—or, as Trump called them, “the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones.” Amid the uproar, according to The New…

MICHAEL MCFAUL WAS AN ACADEMIC EXPERT IN RUSSIAN STUDIES WHEN President Barack Obama tapped him to become the White House’s point man on Russia in 2009. He was tasked with attempting to reset relations with Russia after its invasion of neighboring Georgia. But soon after he was appointed as ambassador, Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of being behind mass demonstrations opposing his third term as president. McFaul quickly became a hated figure in Russian media, and nationalist youth groups physically harassed him after he met with representatives of the Russian opposition. By the end of his ambassadorship in 2014, Russia had invaded neighboring Ukraine, leaving the reset in tatters. McFaul, now a professor of political science at Stanford University, has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s ties with Russia.…

Evolving from a fishing village, Shenzhen, in south China’s Guangdong Province, is now one of China’s megacities. It has been the country’s fastest growing economy over the past four decades. Shenzhen was set up as a city in January 1979, right after China adopted its reform and opening-up policy in December of the previous year. In 1980, it was upgraded to a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) along with three other coastal cities in south China, with the aim of making it a pioneer in exploring ways to carry out reform and opening up. Huge transformation When Wu Jinqing arrived at the Shenzhen River in a rowing boat with his parents in the 1940s, it was a desolate place with few residents along the river. In the 1950s, with the support of the local…

“MOON WAS THE MAN OF THE HOUR. NOW HE’S FINDING THAT HE’S NOT DRIVING THIS TRAIN.” When THE WORLD FIRST learned of a historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the news didn’t come from a presidential tweet or a state-run media announcement. It came from a bespectacled South Korean official standing in the darkened driveway of the White House on a cool March evening. In an impromptu appearance, Chung Eui-yong, South Korea’s national security adviser, told the assembled press corps he had just come from a meeting with Trump. That week, Chung had flown to Washington from Pyongyang, where Kim had asked him to hand-deliver a personal letter to Trump. Kim, he told the media, had invited the American president to meet face-to-face to discuss…