Newsweek October 21, 2022

WHAT SHOULD REPRESENTATION LOOK LIKE? ▸ How did one social media post lead to a 14,000-person-strong effort to reform redistricting laws in Michigan? Why does gerrymandering essentially strip the power of a vote in many areas, especially in districts where independents aren’t permitted to participate in primary elections? HOST ▸ Kristal Knight, Democratic political operative IN THEIR WORDS ▸ “It will impact the next 10 years worth of elections…an issue that Democrats and Republicans need to be upset about.” FAST WOMEN Test-driving the newest cars on wild adventures Fantastic Madrid ▸ Churros with a mug of melted chocolate and four Range Rover Sport versions, including a plug-in hybrid. Plus: The most organized baggage claim ever and dealing with traffic cops abroad. THE DEBATE A civil discussion of hot-button issues Red-State Abortions at VA Hospitals ▸ Is it right…

ACCORDING TO A PAPER PUBLISHED IN THE journal Scientific Reports, the mining of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is environmentally unsustainable because of the huge amount of electricity it requires. Mining has at times created harm to the environment not only greater than beef farming and other industries, but also greater than the value of the currencies produced. This energy use “is because of the proof-of-work production process that [Bitcoin] uses,” Benjamin A. Jones, an associate professor at the University of New Mexico’s Department of Economics and co-author of the paper, tells Newsweek. Bitcoin mining uses an estimated 75.4 terawatt hours per year (TWhyear-1). All of Austria only uses 69.9 TWhyear-1. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, one of several digital nongovernmental currencies that can be used for transactions outside of any country’s…

“ALOHA, BELOVED,” SAYS A SMIL-ing young woman from her kitchen. “About three, four days ago I made ‘the cure’…to what’s going around. It’s actually called hydroxy-chloroquine,” she explains. Hydroxychloroquine is the drug that ignited fierce debate soon after the coronavirus pandemic began. Following multiple studies, a broad consensus of medical experts, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, rejected claims that it could prevent or cure COVID-19 even as some, including then-President Donald Trump, continued to tout it. The woman lifts up a plastic jug containing a murky yellow liquid. “It’s made out of grapefruit peel and lemon peel and it’s slow simmered and it’s supposed to ‘cure’ that,” she continues. “I’m telling you, hydroxychloro-quine, quinine, can heal anything.” The video is the second one that appears when users search for…

“I DIDN’T MAKE IT TO THE END BUT THAT WAS ALL I COULD DO.”—Jingyao Liu on settling her rape case against Chinese billionaire Richard Liu“It’s never, ever OK to be a racist.”—SENATOR RICK SCOTT ON EX- PRESIDENT TRUMP MOCKING EX-TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY ELAINE CHAO“My ex-wife left the place that the court assigned her for house arrest and, together with my 11-year-old daughter, fled in an unknown direction.”—IGOR OVSYANNIKOV, ON JOURNALIST MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, WHO HELD UP A “NO WAR” SIGN ON RUSSIAN TV“The things that I do can cause pain and damage to the people that I care about the most.”—COMEDIAN HASAN MINHAJ“YOU ARE A VISIONARY AND ONE OF ONE.”—Beyoncé to her sister Solange, the first Black woman to compose music for the New York City Ballet“We’ve laughed together. We’ve cried together.…

NGIE LANDEROS KNEW HER DAUGHTER had always been shy. “Very, very shy,” she says. “She always felt awkward talking to other kids her age.” Then came the COVID-19 lockdowns in March, 2020. Ten years old, Landeros’ daughter began feeling unbearably self-conscious seeing herself on the computer screen during Zoom lessons. When her elementary school went to a hybrid format that required most kids to attend in person, some days she’d refuse to go. Once she had a full-blown panic attack in the car and began kicking and screaming. On another day, says Landeros, “she literally ran out the door to hide from us.” Since Landeros and her husband, Michael Bloch, are psychiatrists at the Yale Child Study Center, they knew what their daughter was going through: social anxiety disorder. She wasn’t the…

The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, estimates that U.S.consumer spending will grow somewhere between 6 percent and 8 percent this year, to $4.86 trillion. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Commerce Department, about 14.5 percent of that spending happens online. To point our readers to the Best Online Shops 2023, Newsweek has once again paired with respected global data-research firm Statista. We’ve ranked retailers according to numerous criteria important to shoppers, among them usability, security and how likely consumers said they were to make a purchase at a particular online shop. This year our rankings recognize 1,000 shops across 39 categories. “Single-Brand Fashion” is the largest category this year with 80 shops recognized in the list. We found that the multiproduct retailers we defined as…