Newsweek February 25-March 04, 2022

2011 “A surfeit of information is changing the way we think, not always for the better,” Newsweek wrote of the “info-paralysis” epidemic. Researchers found that the endless deluge of facts, constantly available online, hindered people’s ability to make decisions. Even worse, it turned out, was that information overload caused poor decision-making. In recent years, a new crisis has complicated the issue further: misinformation, a trend which has become more pronounced during the pandemic. Now the challenge has become not only to parse through unlimited sources, but to distinguish whether they are reliable. 1992 “Our last place of safety is the school,” one New York City principal. told Newsweek. “Next to Mother’s arms, that should be the safest place.” Almost 30 years later, gun violence continues to haunt American kids. Recently Education Week reported…

ATHLETES COMPETING AT THE WINTER OLYMPICS in Beijing have gotten first-hand experience of China’s prowess in controlling COVID-19 outbreaks. Unlike the often vague and inconsistent policies of the U.S., Beijing has perfected the art of the lockdown. Athletes have been strictly cordoned off from the outside world, required to wear masks and submit to daily tests, and isolated in their rooms upon a negative result. The safeguards do more than merely protect athletes from infection. They also protect China’s newfound reputation as a competent steward of global public health in a pandemic crisis. The idea that China, less than 20 years since bungling the SARS outbreak, has raised its game to world-class standards might be cause for celebration. A Chinese public-health system that is alert to pandemic pathogens and can bring the…

WILL OLDER AMERICANS SAVE US? Unless you have been living in exile, you know all about “The Great Resignation,” a term coined by organizational psychologist and Texas A&M professor Anthony Klotz. It’s the period beginning in 2021 when pandemic-shocked employees went into revolt: The number of Americans quitting their jobs exceeded pre-pandemic highs for a majority of the year, despite employers struggling to fill millions of open positions. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), roughly 3 percent of all workers, or 4.3 million people, quit their jobs in December. This was a slight improvement over the previous month, but still problematic given that help wanted signs are still ubiquitous across the nation. Meanwhile, thanks to cost-cutting and ageism, older workers were taking the beating they usually…

EARLY THIS JANUARY AFTER A long search, Laura Kastner, a 27-year-old consultant living in New York City, found her dream couch: a plush, Joybird brand L-shaped sectional. “It gave me butterflies when I pictured myself laying on it.” She ordered it on January 3 and was told it would be delivered in six weeks. It wasn’t. Now, it’s due on March 16th. The reason? “We are working through delays,” the company told her. A lot of Americans have been having similar experiences lately. “A sofa is a good microcosm of how everything in the supply chain is impacted,” according to Mark Schumacher, CEO of the Home Furnishings Association. “It’s called a supply chain for a reason. What we have found is that it’s not been a weakness or a single broken…

“Donald Trump belongs in jail.”—STEPHEN KING“IT IS A DISCUSSION THAT HAS TO BE HAD—IT’S UTTERLY LEGITIMATE.”—HELEN MIRREN ON WHETHER A NON-JEW OUGHT TO PLAY GOLDA MEIR“When…my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort.”—QUEEN ELIZABETH“There’s some owners, I don’t think they’ll ever hire a Black head coach. There’s a mind-set about it. That mind-set that a Black guy, Black men can’t do this.”—SHERMAN SMITH, LONGTIME NFL ASSISTANT COACH“I NEVER SAID ANYONE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ME.”—Tennis star Peng Shuai on her previous accusation against a Communist Party official“There is still time to preserve peace.”—FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON ON UKRAINE“I’M AN…

THREE THOUSAND AMERICAN TROOPS ARE headed to Europe, with thousands more on standby in response to the Kremlin’s threats against Ukraine. President Joe Biden is pondering further actions—and as U.S.-Russia tensions rise, a new American nuclear war plan, previously unknown, lurks in the background. For the first time, the war plan fully incorporates non-nuclear weapons as an equal player. The non-nuclear options include the realm of cyber warfare, such as cyberattacks on the basic workings of society like electrical power or communications. Rather than strengthen deterrence, the emergence of countless options and hidden cyberattack schemes weakens deterrence, obscures the nuclear firebreak and makes escalation more likely. Why? Because an adversary such as Russia can be confused about where preparations for nuclear war start, and whether a multi-domain attack is merely a…