Newsweek 1/24-1/31/2020

1995 “Blood, race, celebrity, lust, love, sex, brutality: this case has had it all,” Newsweek reported on The People v. O.J. Simpson. In the trial of the former football star, the “prosecution and defense battled over evidence that portrayed Simpson as a brutal wife batterer and a key police witness as a racist.” A Newsweek poll revealed “82 percent of Americans” expected to follow the case, generating “the most publicized murder trial in history.” With the public divided largely along racial lines, Simpson was finally acquitted, and the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman remain unsolved. 1973 “Harsh winter weather was biting more deeply all across America” and “fuel shortages began to plague the nation,” Newsweek wrote. The country faced “long-range prospects of brownouts” and “diplomatic repercussions in the oil-rich Middle East.”…

THAT QUEASY FEELING YOU GOT LAST MONTH after you overindulged at a holiday party or knocked back one too many glasses of bubbly on New Year’s Eve? Chances are you may suffer a similar sensation this month when your credit card bills show up—stark proof of the toll your holiday travels, entertaining and generosity are taking on your finances. Plenty of people share your pain. The typical consumer racked up more than $1,300 in debt over the holidays, according to a MagnifyMoney survey, with Gen-Xers owing the most, at $2,076 on average. Compounding the problem: Seven in 10 borrowers already had a balance on their credit card before the giving season began. “It isn’t splurging for that one big, expensive gift—the car with the bow in the commercials—but all of the hundreds…

IN A TOTALLY UNANTICIPATED public statement earlier this month, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex mutinied against a monarchical institution, confronted vicious media outlets and common disparagers, and chose more freedom for themselves and their baby boy. Horrified traditionalists blame the uppity, black American wife. Harry was their darling, Officer Prince until the hussy got under his skin, into his head and heart. Best-selling English novelist Sir Philip Pullman named and shamed their racism in a tweet and concluded: “This really is a foul country.” So why should they not escape from it? When Harry wed Meghan in 2018, the sun shone, birds sang, crowds cheerfully waved their wee union flags. The world loves performative British Royal weddings, but this one came loaded with symbolism. Idealistic white people and minorities whipped up…

“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent.”—PRINCE HARRY AND MEGHAN MARKLE“I HAD TO PITCH PRETTY HARD ON ONE OF THEM.”—SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN ON GETTING HER BROTHERS' VOTES“Mr. Weinstein, is this really the way that you want to end up in jail for the rest of your life, by texting and violating a court order?”—JUDGE JAMES BURKE TO HARVEY WEINSTEIN OVER USING HIS PHONE IN COURT“I have not fled justice—I have escaped injustice and political persecution.”—FORMER NISSAN CHAIRMAN CARLOS GHOSN“ONCE YOU OVERCOME THE ONE-INCH-TALL BARRIER OF SUBTITLES, YOU WILL BE INTRODUCED TO SO MANY MORE AMAZING FILMS.”—Parasite director Bong Joon-ho“If you want free Netflix please use someone else’s account like the rest of us.”—NETFLIX INDIA“‘DON’T BE EVIL’ WAS NO LONGER…

IT’S MIDNIGHT IN A MEDIEVAL palace in the oldest city in West Africa: Kano, Nigeria. A thousand years ago, this was one of the richest cities in the world, the terminus of the cross-Saharan trade that brought guns and salt to exchange for slaves, gold and ivory. The palace has 5-foot thick walls, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, stone pathways and ornate mosaic domes. On the walls are large color photographs of a serious-looking man wearing a white turban with a veil across the bottom of his face. The two tails of the ceremonial knot that holds the veil in place look like bunny ears. The man is Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th emir of Kano, the second most important religious position in Nigeria. I watch as his assistant crawls across the carpet on…

1500 B.C.-500 A.D. Iron-Age Nok civilization flourishes in north-central Nigeria near modern-day Kaduna. 10TH CENTURY Beginning of the Trans-Sahara slave trade. Continues into the nineteenth century. The traders bring Islam to Nigeria. 1526 The Atlantic slave trade begins. Multiple slave forts soon established. 18TH CENTURY British dominate Atlantic slave trade. Missionaries bring Christianity to southern Nigeria. 1804 The northern states of Hausaland are united by jihad into the Sokoto Caliphate. 1807 Trans-Atlantic slave trade is outlawed by the British. 1861 British annex Lagos, and a year later it becomes a Crown Colony 1914 Northern Protectorate, Southern Protectorate and Lagos Colony unified into Nigeria, part of British Empire 1957 Oil production begins in Niger Delta 1960 Nigeria becomes an independent nation 1966 Military coup installs Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. Twenty nine of next 33 years are under military rule. There are nine coups or attempted coups. 1967-1970 Three eastern states attempt to secede and…