Newsweek 1/15/2021

1964 According to Newsweek, an estimated 70 million visitors would attend “the costliest ($1 billion), biggest, most controversial, most commercial, and probably most successful moneymaker since Prince Albert started the whole World’s Fair business by approving London’s Great Exhibition in 1851.” Some worried that “New York’s big bazaar has no unifying theme” due to its array of food, entertainment and events. In October, after a year’s postponement due to COVID-19, Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World’s Fair held in the Middle East; its theme: “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.” 1976 Newsweek described the first post-Watergate election as “a marathon…a long, tortuous route” to the White House after the turmoil of President Nixon resigning and being pardoned by his VP, Gerald Ford. Now, New York Attorney General Letitia James has predicted that…

GET BACK TO ECONOMIC BASICS by Batya Ungar-Sargon SOMETHING RATHER TELLING happened in early December, after the bipartisan “Problem Solvers Caucus” initially unveiled its new COVID-19 relief stimulus package. This new package, unlike its March predecessor, did not include any direct stimulus checks, nor did it include the crucial federal unemployment benefits that millions of out-of-work Americans have been relying on to feed their families through the COVID recession. In protest, two senators took to the Senate floor to introduce their own legislation that would dispense direct payments of $1,200 to working-class American families. And just as the coalition that had omitted the checks had been bipartisan, so, too, was the pushback; the two senators were Democrat Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri. The Talmud tells us that God…

ARE YOU A SMALL BUSINESS owner? A fan of ABC’s Shark Tank? Ever wonder what it takes to get on the show and then, actually get a deal done with one of the Sharks like Mark Cuban or Lori Greiner? I had no idea how, but I turned to someone who did: Sarah Apgar, a former volunteer firefighter from Long Island. She launched a company called FitFighter, featuring a new fitness device called the Steelhose. On the show, which was broadcast November 13, Apgar offered 15 percent of her company for $250,000. She settled for 25 percent from guest Shark, and KIND bars creator, Daniel Lubetzky. My interview with Apgar was featured on Better, Newsweek’s interview series on LinkedIn Live [Thursdays, 9 a.m. ET/noon PT], where I talk with authors, business leaders…

THE THEORY THAT FEARS OF 5G technology might have been behind the Nashville bombing on Christmas Day has prompted federal, state and local law enforcement officials to focus on the possibility of additional or copycat threats to U.S. telecommunications infrastructure, according to restricted government threat warnings exclusively obtained by Newsweek. Domestic intelligence agencies have warned that conspiracy theorists might attack “critical infrastructure,” including the electrical grid near vulnerable quarantine areas, health care facilities, government buildings and 5G cell towers. Anti-5G conspiracies have steadily grown since 2016, when telecommunications companies began installing Fifth Generation (5G) wireless technology infrastructure throughout America. Social media has been awash with conspiracy theories about 5G, a movement that has grown in size and intensity with the COVID-19 pandemic. The first large 5G networks were activated in 2018. The nationwide…

“Soon, there won’t be anyplaces for these ambulances to go.”—DR. CHRISTINA GHALY, L.A. COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES DIRECTOR“THE CONFLUENCE OF COVID INTO THE PROTESTS INTO ALL OF THE DEBATE ABOUT DEFUNDING THE POLICE—I CAN’T IMAGINE A DARKER PERIOD.”—NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER DERMOT SHEA“I hope that people will remember her the way that I do—always with a smile on her face.”—TINA LOUISE ON THE DEATH OF HER GILLIGAN’S ISLAND CO-STAR DAWN WELLS“I have thanked the Lord hundreds of times that I wasn’t out in the middle of Texas on a tour bus, miles away from a hospital. It was a major blessing I didn’t have a heart attack.”—RICKY SKAGGS AFTER QUADRUPLE BYPASS“I THINK I’D SEEN THE DA VINCI CODE BEFORE, BUT I DIDN’T KNOW WHO HE WAS. I THOUGHT IT WAS…

PENTAGON AND WASHINGTON-area military leaders are on high alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office. Though far-fetched, ranking officers have discussed what they would do if the president declared martial law. And military commands responsible for Washington, D.C., are engaged in secret contingency planning in case the armed forces are called upon to maintain or restore civil order during the inauguration and transition period. According to one officer who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity, the planning is being kept out of sight of the White House and Trump loyalists in the Pentagon for fear that it would be shut down. “I’ve been associated with the military for over 40 years and I’ve never seen the discussions that are being had right…