Newsweek June 03-10, 2022

PRIDE As activists like Anita Byrant mobilized against gay rights in the ’70s, Newsweek asked, “Is homosexuality a freely chosen life-style that can be reversed with therapy or prayer?” In the ’90s, the magazine reported on the possibility of a “gay gene.” In 2003, Newsweek said the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas decriminalizing gay sex “promises to change forever the status of homosexuals.” In 2015, after the Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision struck down bans on same-sex marriage, Newsweek said 379 companies, “including behemoths of retail, finance and sports,” had signed a brief in the case supporting the rights of gays to marry.…

THE PENTAGON ANNOUNCED ON MAY 13 THAT Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu for the first time in 84 days, urging “an immediate ceasefire.” Austin’s call, U.S. government sources tell Newsweek, came after high-level White House deliberations where President Joe Biden and his national security advisers discussed a new intelligence assessment of Russia’s effort and the implication of Finland and Sweden’s announcements that they would seek NATO membership. “There’s a general sense growing that Putin indeed is in a corner, not just in Ukraine where his army is failing, but also in facing an existential threat from Europe, now even more united because of his missteps,” says a U.S. senior intelligence official who has been involved in the deliberations. U.S. intelligence now believes, based on new…

“WE WON ONE IN A WEIRD WAY.”—Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton, whose team beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 without a hit“There is a broad majority in Sweden’s parliament for joining NATO.”—SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER MAGDALENA ANDERSSON“It is impossible to imagine the Golden Arches representing the same hope and promise that led us to enter the Russian market.”—MCDONALD’S CEO CHRIS KEMPCZINSKI“Ukraine could have sent one of its heroic bomb-sniffing dogs to bark the national anthem and still won.”—PIERS MORGAN ON EUROVISION WINNER KALUSH ORCHESTRA“NEVER SAY NEVER.”—Melania Trump on returning to the White House“That’s a no. It’s powerful to say no.”—Kim Cattrall on returning to Sex and the City“THIS INDIVIDUAL CAME HERE WITH THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF TAKING AS MANY BLACK LIVES AS HE COULD.”—Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown…

ACCORDING TO A RECENT WASHINGTON Post-ABC News poll, 94 percent of Americans describe themselves as either “concerned” or “upset” about inflation. And with good reason: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices were up 8.3 percent in April from the year before, a slight decrease in the inflation rate from March, but still close to the highest it has been since spiking at over 14 percent annually in 1980. There are numerous likely culprits, ranging from moves in recent years by the Federal Reserve to brisk consumer demand to supply chain problems exacerbated by the pandemic to higher oil prices linked to the war in Ukraine. But if experts disagree about exactly why inflation is up so dramatically, few of them are expecting it to ease any time soon. Until it…

HIS EVERY UTTERANCE SEEMS calculated to send progressives into a frenzy. He’s one of the most prolific political fundraisers in America. His endorsements of other like-minded America First conservative candidates help those beneficiaries pull ahead in crowded primaries. And the worst-kept secret in American politics is that he wants to swap out his Sunshine State address for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as soon as possible. No, the politician in question is not Donald Trump but rather Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who lately seems bent on executing just about every page of the former president’s political playbook—only with a sunnier demeanor, less offensive language and fewer of the personal antics that make Trump so polarizing. At 43, the once little-known backbench congressman has transformed himself into perhaps the hottest, most consequential political figure…

APRIL 2021 DeSantis signs the Combating Public Disorder Act, a measure that creates new definitions of rioting that allow the arrest of people for being at a protest where violence occurs, even if they were peaceful. The law also protects Confederate statues and makes it harder for localities to reduce police budgets. The protest part of the measure was struck down by a federal judge in September 2021. MAY 2021 DeSantis signs a voting bill—the signing aired exclusively on Fox News—that creates new ID requirements for mailin voting, restricts the use of ballot drop boxes and puts new limits on who can pick up and return a voter’s ballot. JUNE 1, 2021 On the first day of LGBTQ Pride Month, DeSantis signs a bill that bans transgender women and girls from playing in women’s sports…