Newsweek 09/07/2018

2005 This tragic image, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, set the tone for a 31-page special report on New Orleans, where the death toll remained terrifyingly uncertain in early September. “What went wrong?” Newsweek asked. “Just about everything.… Certainly, the government failed, and the catastrophe exposed, for all the world to see, raw racial divisions.” The other central question of the report: Could New Orleans possibly rise again? Thirteen years later, the city is revitalized, but at a cost that again exposes a racial divide: Gentrification has displaced thousands of black families. 1935 Fred Astaire, still America’s greatest popular dancer, was celebrated for the 1935 musical Top Hat. Newsweek praised the classy hoofer—photographed, naturally, in white tie and tails—for lifting the nation out of a Depression-era funk: “Not since the wartime vogue brought…

“Skewed birth rate casts single guys on the scrapheap.” IT WAS THE FALL OF 2005, AND VLADIMIR PUTIN, in his second term as Russia’s president, was holding a televised Q&A session with the nation. Toward the end of the program, a middle-aged woman asked him to comment on media reports that the government wanted to increase the age at which Russian citizens can retire and claim—as almost all of them do—a state pension. The question was an important one for Putin, whose popularity after he first came to power in 2000 was partly due to his success in ensuring that senior citizens would receive their pensions in full and on time, something that had rarely happened under his predecessor, President Boris Yeltsin. Putin stared directly into the camera. “I am opposed to raising…

IN 2015, MILLIONS OF SYRIAN refugees were streaming across land and sea borders in an effort to escape a brutal war that had been raging for four years. Many chose to take the dangerous journey, in rickety boats, across the Aegean Sea to Greece, a country in the midst of its own crisis, this one economic. To take some of the burden off Athens—and shut down the so-called Balkan route—the European Union offered Turkey a deal in March 2016: The country (which is not part of the EU) would get roughly $6.6 billion in assistance if it would take the majority of those refugees. In addition, the EU would accept one refugee already living in Turkey for every person Turkey took back, though the EU capped the number it would accept…

The state warns single females of the pitfalls of being a “leftover woman.” IS THERE ANYTHING LESS romantic than parental pressure to marry? Try government pressure. The August Qixi festival is known as Chinese Valentine’s Day, and as millions of young men and women spent the day looking for love or strengthening their budding relationships under family scrutiny, the ruling Communist Party was butting in. Encouraging singles to settle down isn’t just a family issue anymore: It has become a matter of state concern. China is one of the fastest-aging populations in the world, with rapidly declining fertility rates caused largely by the one-child policy instituted in 1979. The U.N. recently estimated that the number of Chinese citizens over 60 will hit 440 million by 2050, a figure larger than the entire…

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT OTTAWA PROVOKES an international brawl. The issue: Saudi Arabia’s detention of several prominent women’s rights activists. Canada’s Foreign Ministry posted a tweet urging their immediate release—and Riyadh took it badly. Accusing Canada of “blatant interference in the kingdom’s domestic affairs,” Saudi Arabia pulled its ambassador from Ottawa and expelled his Canadian counterpart, giving him just one day to clear out of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Trade with Canada was frozen, the managers of Saudi wealth funds were told to sell Canadian holdings, and airline links between the two countries were severed. The kingdom also halted payments for some 10,000 Saudi students enrolled at Canadian universities and 5,000 patients undergoing treatment there. The fierce reaction bore all the hallmarks of 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as…

THE CROWN PRINCE KNOWS HOW TO PLEASE. In early March, Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as MBS, was at Buckingham Palace for lunch with Queen Elizabeth II. It was the first official visit for the 32-year-old, and press coverage was glowing. “He’s a revolutionary!” proclaimed The Daily Telegraph. British conservatives loved MBS’s proposal to privatize Saudi Aramco, his state’s oil company, and list it on the London Stock Exchange—a nice boost to the flagging British economy, as well as his reputation as an economic reformer. Later that month, he was in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, followed by stops in Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Silicon Valley and Seattle to meet with Hollywood and tech elite—including Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk and Google executives. This grand tour marked the crown prince’s…