Innholdsfortegnelse for 08/17/2018 i Newsweek International

THERE ARE NEW GUESTS AT THE RUINED PALACE WHERE Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa once held court. During his rule over the Central African Republic (CAR) in the 1970s, Bokassa used a year’s worth of development aid to stage an extravagant coronation and personally oversaw the torture of prisoners. He fed some to his pet crocodiles and lions. But the French government that helped install Bokassa in 1966 ousted him in 1979, deploying paratroopers to prevent any counter-coup. Now, four decades later, it is Russian soldiers who mill around this crumbling estate in Berengo—and the shifting power dynamic is raising concerns in the West. President Vladimir Putin is pushing into Africa, forging new partnerships and rekindling Cold War–era alliances. “There will be a battle for Africa,” says Evgeny Korendyasov, head of Russian-African…

THIS YEAR’S CALL OF DUTY, THE 18th entry in the franchise, features a popular Zombie mode that replaces living soldiers with undead enemies in a wild time-travel story that’s anchored in real-world events. “We build off historical elements, both real and mythological,” says Black Ops 4 lead writer Craig Houston of the mode’s 2018 iteration (which comes to PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 12). Also historical: For the first time in Call of Duty history, four Zombies chapters will launch simultaneously. Jason Blundell, co-studio head for Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch, says the artists were obsessive about details, to the point where he had to rein in the art director. For one chapter, “Voyage of Despair,” which takes place on the RMS Titanic, the ship was re-created from…

IT FEELS LIKE A DIFFERENT universe. In fact, it was the summer of 1998: Bill Clinton was testifying in front of a grand jury about an affair with a White House intern, Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine” was the biggest song in the country, and the movie Armageddon was grossing millions. Up north, a group of quirky Canadians who called themselves Bare-naked Ladies were plotting their world takeover. Ed Robertson and Steven Page had formed the band 10 years earlier in Ontario, and the musicians were already local heroes thanks to their 1992 debut, Gordon, with its signature sing-along, “If I Had $1,000,000.” Two more ildly successful albums were released during the mid-’90s before Stunt pushed the band to a place it never expected to be. The album,…

A back burn is contained on July 31 as the devastating Carr Fire roars toward nearby Douglas City and Lewiston. Since igniting on July 23, Carr has killed six people, burned over 126,000 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and melted boats on Whiskeytown Lake. On August 2, an unprecedented fire tornado (a rotating column of combustion gases) ripped through the area, registering winds of 143 miles per hour—an event Governor Jerry Brown described as “unprecedented.”…

AUGUST 11 AND 12 MARK THE ONE-year anniversary of the “Unite the Right” rally and counterprotests in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended with the death of Heather Heyer. The 32-year-old paralegal was protesting against the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who descended upon her city in response to the possible removal of a Confederate statue of Robert E. Lee. She was killed when 21-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into the crowd. In a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper last August, Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, memorably addressed Fields (who has since been charged with multiple hate crimes). “This wasn’t a video game, buddy. This was real people. There are consequences to what you did,” she said. “I’m going to be the voice that [Heather] can no longer be. You gave…

THE SWIMMERS AND KAYAKERS OF OREGON ARE NO STRANGERS to algae. In recent years, warnings of infestations in ponds and lakes have become routine. When an early-summer algal bloom developed on Detroit Lake near Salem this May, state and city officials knew exactly what tests to run and advisories to issue. But city leaders hadn’t anticipated a threat to drinking water. Detroit Lake drains into the North Santiam River, and from there, water runs into the municipal system. On May 31, a few days after the algae was first detected in the system, Salem toxicologists found potentially deadly toxins in the water supply. That same day, the city warned its nearly 200,000 residents that tap water was off-limits for children under the age of 6, people with existing liver or…

As you rush to complete takeout orders, you must battle evil, food-themed spirits The world is in peril (sound familiar?), and only you can save it. But there’s a catch: You’re a lowly restaurant manager, and your only line of defense against evil spirits is food. This is the premise of Food Fantasy, a bizarre yet entertaining new mobile game by Elex, creator of the popular Love Nikki fashion role-playing app. The game melds elements of classic strategy titles with a restaurant management simulator to create an engaging experience for both Android and iOS. Food Fantasy has plenty to keep players busy, while not taking itself too seriously. Players must hire staff, develop recipes, gather ingredients and cook dishes to satisfy customers. There are hundreds of recipes to discover, as…

CONGRESS RARELY GETS OUTRAGED OVER AN internecine war in a distant land where American troops are not bleeding and dying. But in a rare exception, lawmakers have become deeply troubled over the Pentagon’s role in Yemen’s civil war—a conflict that has eviscerated the civilian population, provoked a deadly famine and ignited what health officials are calling the worst cholera outbreak in recorded history. For the first time since the war began in 2015, U.S. lawmakers are taking concrete steps to halt or tightly restrict weapons sales to their allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—the leaders behind an Arab coalition fighting Yemen’s rebels, who are seen as proxies for a common enemy, Iran. Much of the damage from the war, independent observers say, has been caused by Saudi and…

$19,783 Highest price a bitcoin was sold for, on December 17, 2017. $6,200 Rough value of one bitcoin on June 30, the close of this year’s second quarter. 21 MILLION Finite number of bitcoins authorized by the currency’s original computer code. There are about 17.1 million coins currently available and in circulation. 26.6 million Number of blockchain wallet users. 300 KWH/YEAR Estimated kilowatt-hours of energy used to power each bitcoin transfer—enough energy to run a comfortable house, including everything in it, for roughly a week. 1,664 Number of different cryptocurrencies, of which bitcoin, at 46 percent market share, is the biggest, followed by Ethereum and Ripple. $925,000  Approximate median value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation, in U.S. dollars. Percentages of bitcoin held in the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar and…