Newsweek 11/16/2018 - 11/23/2018

1967 To illustrate that “the old taboos are dead or dying,” the magazine chose a nude image of Jane Fonda on the set of Roger Vadim’s raunchy sci-fi comedy Barbarella—already notorious months before its release. Some psychologists and “social thinkers” feared explicit lyrics in songs and “often obscene language” in novels and plays would bring about “a dangerous swing toward irresponsible hedonism and, ultimately, social decay.” If only they could see internet porn today. 1945 Three months after atomic bombs devastated Japan, hastening the end of World War II, President Harry Truman and U.K. Prime Minister Clement Attlee met to discuss an atomic policy. “So much was at stake—the fate of individuals, of nations and, if the atom experts were to be believed, even of the planet itself.” 1989 On November 9—11 months before Germany…

The Statue of Unity, the largest statue in the world, looms over the Sardar Sarovar Dam on October 30. The bronze behemoth, a likeness of Indian independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is 597 feet (begging the question: Why not just go for 600?). That’s twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and 177 feet above the previous record holder, China’s Spring Temple Buddha. As India’s first deputy prime minister, Patel worked to unify more than 500 states to form the Indian union. SAM PANTHAKY CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP/GETTY; JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/GETTY; SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/GETTY…

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI IS DUE AT FOX Business in five minutes, and he’s nowhere to be found. I’m standing in the midtown Manhattan lobby of the Fox complex when, 30 seconds to airtime, he swoops in, hand in hand with his wife, Deidre, a thin blond wearing Balenciaga heels and brown leather leggings. Lunch went late at their social club, Scaramucci explains. I want to ask about how all this squares with the title of his new book, Trump, the Blue-Collar President, but there’s no time. We’re whisked through security as makeup artists descend upon him. Producers shout his nickname. Lights, camera, action: The Mooch is back. More than a year after setting the record for the shortest-serving White House communications director in history, Scaramucci is making the rounds to promote his new…

ON OCTOBER 29, ANGELA MERKEL announced that she will not seek re-election as chancellor of Germany in 2021. Long touted as the liberal West’s most stalwart defender, she has come under increasing pressure from far-right opponents, largely because of her welcoming policies toward refugees. Since assuming her role as chancellor in 2005, Merkel has watched as fellow European Union leaders in Hungary, Poland and Italy, as well as the president of the United States and the prime minister of Britain, embraced populism. The day before her announcement, Jair Bolsonaro was elected as Brazil’s new president. The former army captain has defended the military dictatorship that ruled his country from 1964 to 1985, expressed support for the use of torture and openly denounced gay rights. “He is a result of Brazilians’ dissatisfaction…

EVERYONE LOVES FORNICATING; it’s the oldest sport and the oldest business in the world. But we’ve now got 7.6 billion human products of fornication (and other forms of copulation) overpopulating the planet to prove the point. Fornication without some form of birth control produces an exploding human population, straining government resources, degrading the environment and driving mass migration. If we could do just one simple thing to stabilize the globe, it would be to give the world’s women unrestricted, free access to modern contraception. And yes, it turns out, government can play an important role in the bedroom. Look no farther than Colorado, the state that has also, wisely, made cannabis legal. This purple state with a Democratic governor and an open mind has offered free or low-cost access to intrauterine devices…

JOE LUBIN WAS LIVING IN JAMAICA IN 2014 WHEN he had the meeting that would transform him into a crypto billionaire and a high priest in a new technological ecosystem that some believe may one day prove more significant than the internet. Lubin, a 53-year-old Princeton-educated engineer with a résumé that included stints at Goldman Sachs and several hedge funds, had long since “checked out.” Alarmed by global debt and what he was seeing on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C., he had considered hoarding precious metals long before the 2008 financial crisis was in full swing. He’d even trekked through Peru and Ecuador with his brother, looking to buy South American farmland that might help insulate them from what he saw as an inevitable global reckoning. Instead, once the crisis finally…