Innholdsfortegnelse for 13/05/2016 i Newsweek International

Aleppo, Syria—A boy cries next to the body of his brother, who died in an airstrike on the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Soukour on April 27. The strike was part of a recent series of attacks by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad that have killed more than 200 people and shattered a cease-fire. The violence comes just weeks before peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition are expected to resume in Geneva. The U.S. State Department denounced the attacks and called on Russia to pressure Assad to have his forces stand down.…

Minsk, Belarus—Children affected by the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant attend a physiotherapy session on April 25. Thirty years after the 1986 disaster, many babies born in Chernobyl’s neighboring regions have birth defects and develop rare forms of cancer. A new concrete shield is scheduled to be installed this year over a reactor at the plant. The operation to dismantle Chernobyl’s radioactive core is one of the world’s largest engineering projects and could take another 30 years.…

“IN REPLY TO THE ACCUSATION THAT THERE ARE NO NEW FACES IN POLITICS: PUTIN HAS HAD PLASTIC SURGERY.” RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin’s annual “direct line” conversation with the nation was still going strong when the joking began on social media. “Question: ‘Everyone has had to make cuts to their household budgets recently. What have you cut spending on?’ Putin: ‘On you lot,’” wrote one Twitter user, in a parody of the president’s apparent lack of empathy with millions of ordinary Russians who are suffering as a result of the country’s tanking economy. Others posted doctored photographs of a young woman from the Siberian city of Omsk, who called into April’s televised presidential Q&A session to quiz Putin on why the roads in her hometown were in such a pitiful condition.…

“By 2025, Ethiopia will be a middle-income economy with zero net growth in carbon emissions” Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister In times of economic uncertainty, nations tend to focus on domestic concerns and lose sight of issues of global importance. This March, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, called on the world not to forget his country as it faces its worst drought in 50 years, which has put more than 10 million people at risk of famine and could erode the remarkable achievements Ethiopia has made in the last quarter of a century. Compared to many of its African peers, Ethiopia is a beacon of political stability, economic growth, and social advancement. In 2014, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) chose it as one of two nations on…

In its latest assessment this April, Fitch Ratings awarded Ethiopia solid ‘B’s across the board with a stable outlook. But it noted that the current account deficit remains a concern for government planners and policymakers, with international reserves standing at just over two months of payments at the end of 2015. Fitch also warned the birr is overvalued by 30%, adding to the risk of exchange rate adjustment if The National Bank of Ethiopia does not contain depreciation against the dollar. “A country can only grow to that extent it can generate foreign exchange or [improve] its export performance,” concurs Dr Arkebe Oqubay, the architect of Ethiopia’s industrialisation policy. “Light manufacturing is export-oriented and we have to supply the global market, because we need to address constraints in foreign exchange.”…

IN 2010, Thomas Adams, a 16-year-old from New Jersey, died on the baseball field. He was warming up a pitcher and got hit in the chest with a ball. He stood up, said, “I can’t breathe” and then collapsed, dying almost instantly. Although it seems unbelievable, every year approximately 15 athletes of high school age or younger die when a blow to the area over the heart’s left ventricle in the 0.0005 of a second between heartbeats stops the heart. In the U.S., commotio cordis is most common in baseball but happens in lacrosse as well; overseas, soccer and cricket are the most dangerous sports. Only young athletes, whose thoraxes are not yet fully developed, are at risk, and even heavy gear like the catcher’s chest protector Adams was wearing…

1 FLY The journey from London’s Silicon Roundabout to California’s Silicon Valley is now a whole lot more palatable. British Airways is running direct flights ( first-class, round-trip from $5,104) from Heathrow to San Jose on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Mood lighting and electronically dimmable windows will keep you rested for your first meeting. 2 LISTEN UP Master & Dynamic has partnered with designer Carolyn Rowan on its new MH30 headphones ($1,000) covered with jet-black Swarovski crystals. Look good while you shut out the world. 3 GIVE Paris parfumerieand candle-maker Diptyque has launched a new fragrance, Eau des Sens ($90 for 50 milliliters), with notes of orange blossom, juniper, patchouli and angelica. 4 RACE The Longines Equestrian Pocket Watch Jockey 1878 ($37,457) is a re-creation of the…

Costa Mesa, California—Police face off against protesters displaying a variety of placards outside a Donald Trump campaign rally in Orange County on April 28. Some protesters tried to flip over cars, including a police cruiser. Costa Mesa police arrested as many as 20 people and broke up the crowd. The incident came more than a month before California’s presidential primary and was the latest in a string of charged protests against Trump’s quest for the presidency.…

IN THEIR TECHNO-THRILLER Ghost Fleet, authors Peter Singer and August Cole describe a cataclysmic world war that begins with a Chinese sneak attack against the U.S. in space. First, soldiers at China’s Cyber Command Headquarters in Shanghai hack into the Pentagon’s network of GPS satellites and scramble their signals. The cyberattack sows chaos among U.S. forces, which can no longer navigate accurately, track targets or hit them with precision munitions. Then, from a space station orbiting 200 miles above Earth, Chinese astronauts train a laser gun on three dozen U.S. satellites the military relies upon for virtually all of its communications and critical surveillance. By the time the Chinese are done, America’s technological edge on this new, 21st-century battlefield has been reduced to the predigital levels of World War…

“HERE’S A COUNTRY THAT HAS, IN THEORY, EVERY DISADVANTAGE POSSIBLE.” LIBYAN DICTATOR Muammar el-Qaddafi, killed by rebels in 2011, left behind a legacy of chaos and brutality. But he also left a surprisingly modern political vision of a Pan-African state. In 1999, he began to push for the creation of an African Union (AU), modeled loosely on its European counterpart, the EU. Over the next decade, he urged leaders to join his campaign to create a single government that would act as a counterpoint to the U.S. and the EU. At a 2008 meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers in Benghazi, he declared, “We want an African military to defend Africa, a single African currency, one African passport to travel within Africa.” Eight years later, the…

“It is the only way to sustain growth, make structural transformations, [and] pull the economy forward” Dr Arkebe Oqubay, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Ethiopia has come a long way in a generation. The nation has staged a spectacular transformation to become an African leader in inclusive development, registering massive social and economic gains since the 1990s. Having posted in excess of double-digit GDP growth for the last decade, Ethiopia had the world’s second fastest-expanding economy in 2015. The International Monetary Fund expects it to maintain a similar pace in 2016. Although infrastructure may have played critical role, says Dr Arkebe Oqubay, a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, the foundations of its success lie in agriculture. The sector provides 40% of GDP, 80% of exports, and…

When completed, GERD will have 6,000MW of capacity to serve Ethiopia and its neighbours As a feat of engineering, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is pretty damn (pun intended) impressive. Upon completion, GERD will become one of the biggest dams in Africa and will hold back a new lake that covers 1,800 square kilometres and contains 74 billion cubic metres of water. Once its twin hydropower plants come onstream, the dam will have 6,000MW of installed capacity, harnessing a renewable, sustainable energy source to produce up to 15,700GWh of power a year. Located in the Benishangul-Gumaz region, 700 kilometres northwest of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and about 14 km. from the border with Sudan, GERD lies on the Blue Nile, one of the two major tributaries of the world’s…

REPORTS ABOUND OF SCABS AND SKIN INFECTIONS ATTRIBUTED TO CONTACT WITH THE CANAL AFTER MAJOR STORMS. IN HAWAII, natural landmarks fill the role of the mainland’s cardinal directions. That means saying a place is toward the mountains (mauka) or toward the sea (makai) but also, if you’re in Honolulu, toward or away from iconic Diamond Head, the volcanic ridge that steals the skyline from neighboring Waikiki Beach, where a less natural feature—the Ala Wai Canal—defines the area. Two miles long, palm-lined and stick-straight, the broad channel is the culmination of the Ala Wai Watershed, which runs from a high point in the Ko‘olau Mountains all the way down to Waikiki Beach. Almost all the rain that is not absorbed by the ground in this urban watershed—which encompasses eight of Honolulu’s…

Ahmedabad, India—A man stands on a dry lakebed as workers remove dead fish on April 24. In India, El Niño has led to one of the worst droughts in decades. Hundreds have died due to the heat, and more than 300 million people—a quarter of the country’s population—are grappling with severe water shortages. Elsewhere, in Southeast Asia, from Thailand to Bangladesh, El Niño has led to a devastating heat wave that’s threatened both livestock and crop yields.…

Have you heard Beyoncé’s new album? It’s the biggest thing on Tidal. What about Drake’s Views? Don’t look for it on Spotify—it was dropped as an Apple Music exclusive. A generation ago, you could find all of the biggest pop albums at a record store. In the streaming era, exclusivity rules the day, and Tidal—Jay Z’s embattled subscription-based service—is setting the trend. The streaming company has positioned itself as a playground for 2016’s most elite pop and hip-hop releases. In February, when Kanye West unveiled his long-awaited The Life of Pablo, he put it on Tidal. On February 15, he made a characteristically extreme proclamation. “My album will never never never be on Apple,” the rapper tweeted. “And it will never be for sale.… You can only get it on…

Donald Trump should be a nominee for this fall. And Bernie Sanders should not. THIS IS NOT A JUDGMENT on the merits of any candidate, political philosophy or policy position. Instead, it is about a principle that supposedly is a source of pride for Americans but that too many citizens hold in contempt: democracy. In the past few decades, democracy has become seen as an impediment to those in power, where voters get in the way of the “correct” outcomes. The will of the electorate is treated with scorn, something to push aside for the greater goal of getting into office. Voter suppression, rules manipulation and dirty tricks intended to mislead certain constituents have become workaday realities of the American electoral system. The United States now ranks 20th in the…

Book now to avoid disappointment. After Ethiopia was named ‘World’s Best Tourism Destination’ last July by the European Council on Tourism and Trade, a growing flow of visitors has been flooding into the country, determined to see its UNESCO World Heritage listed sites, experience its centuries-old culture, and get off the proverbial track before it gets too beaten. The 2014/15 fiscal year was already a good one for the Ethiopian tourism industry, which posted earnings of €2.6 billion, according to government and World Bank figures, contributing 4.5% of GDP. At the start of April 2016, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism —led by Aisha Mohamed Mussa, one of two women in Prime Minister Desalegn’s cabinet — revealed that receipts for the first six months of this year had surpassed €1.5…

WHEN PHILIP NORMAN set out to write his new biography of Paul McCartney, the last person he expected to cooperate was the ex-Beatle himself. In his 1981 best-selling book on the Beatles, Shout!, Norman had displayed a clear bias in favor of McCartney’s songwriting partner, John Lennon, even declaring on American TV at the time that “75 percent of the Beatles was Lennon.” McCartney read the book and publicly rechristened it Shite. In the early, bitter post-Beatles years, a pro-Lennon/anti-McCartney prejudice was common among rock journalists, who generally saw Lennon as an edgy, charismatic genius and McCartney as a bland, pretty egomaniac who, in Lennon’s words, was writing “granny music.” But Norman’s assertion that McCartney was a bit player in the Beatles seemed extreme. Norman now says he retreated from…

“I SUPPOSE YOU COULD SAY WE’VE INCREASED THE WORKFORCE BY 50 PERCENT.” CRAFTIS A WORD that comes freighted with cultural baggage—it conjures up shiver-inducing images of wickerwork, pottery and sandals. It also has the whiff of the crank about it—a lingering sense of the utopianism of William Morris and Kelmscott Manor and a romantic reaction against the industrialization of the modern age. London Craft Week, which was set up in 2015 by Guy Salter of the British luxury trade organization Walpole and is running this year from May 3 to 7, is changing all that by highlighting a place for craft—its creation and consumption—in the contemporary world. (Walpole’s partners in the venture are the Crafts Council, the mayor of London and the Heritage Crafts Association.) The word bespokehas…