Innholdsfortegnelse for November 15, 2024 i Newsweek International

Periscope NEWS, OPINION + ANALYSIS DRUGS THE MOTHER OF A WOMAN WHO LOST HER life to fentanyl believes that the United States is under chemical attack, as she and other families of victims call for sanctions on China over its role in the crisis. Andrea Thomas, whose daughter Ashley Romero died in 2018 from an accidental overdose of the synthetic opioid, is asking the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, to investigate China’s role in the manufacturing of the illicit substance. The group she helped start, Facing Fentanyl, and its lawyers allege inaction by the Chinese government to stop the manufacture of the drug has cost the U.S. trillions of dollars, as well as thousands of lives each year. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. told Newsweek that…

NORTH KOREA’S RHETORIC was reaching fever pitch again. Unused roads and rail links to the South had just been blown up in a spectacular display of belligerence. The North had labeled the South “a hostile state” and its leaders as “gangsters” and “scum.” It was not what South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol wanted to talk about. For while the threat of new conflict with the nuclear-armed North has long loomed across the armistice line, the South’s domestic problems are growing—from the strains on its health care system to worries over the labor force to education. A deepening divide between genders, a collapsing birth rate and an aging population have set it on course for a demographic collapse as dramatic as any in the industrialized world. “We need to make…

Horizons SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY + HEALTH GEOLOGY THE EARTH’S MANTLE MIGHT NOT ALWAYS move along in lockstep with the overlying tectonic crust—as set out in science textbooks for decades—but may instead behave differently. This is the conclusion of an international team of geologists who made a mysterious find on Easter Island, the Chilean special territory in the Pacific famous for its giant statues. The idea that the Earth’s crust and mantle might move together like a “conveyor belt” as a result of convection currents in the latter was first proposed in 1919 by the British geologist Sir Arthur Holmes. His suggestion provided a mechanism by which large continents might drift across the surface of the Earth—a then contentious theory based on evidence including how landmasses like Africa and South America seem…

In FocusTHE NEWS IN PICTURESLOS ANGELES A city bus burns after World Series celebrations in L.A. turned rowdy in the early hours of october 31. Dodgers fans took to the streets after their team defeated the New York Yankees in a nail-biting Game 5 at Yankee Stadium for a 4-1 series win. riots ensued amid the excitement and a dozen arrests were made for various offenses, including commercial burglary and failure to disperse. At a press conference the next morning, mayor Karen bass emphasized that the “overwhelming majority of [celebrations] were joyful and peaceful.”…

THE EXPENSE OF VLADIMIR Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as his apparent plans to maintain the war, is putting Russia’s economy in danger of “burnout,” according to new analysis. That assessment by the Institute for the Study of War followed a decision by Russia’s Central Bank, led by Elvira Nabiullina, to increase its key interest rate by 2 percentage points to 21 percent—the highest level in modern Russian history. “Russia’s economy and war effort is coming under increasing strain,” the ISW said in a recent statement, noting this will “pose increasingly acute challenges” to Putin’s ability to sustain the war over the long term. The ISW said the costs of funding the war will increase as Moscow continues to expend manpower and equipment. “Russian resources are finite, and…

Horizons ARCHAEOLOGY VIKING AGE NORSE PEOPLE SEEKING walrus ivory in the High Arctic may have encountered Indigenous North Americans hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus “discovered” the continent, a DNA study of bone fragments has suggested. In medieval Europe, walrus ivory was a prized commodity and was supplied by Norse intermediaries who expanded across the North Atlantic in search of the product, establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland in the process. But the precise locations of where the traded ivory was sourced have long remained unclear. Now, a study published in the journal Science Advances has indicated that walrus ivory imported into Europe from Norse settlements in Greenland was harvested from very remote High Arctic hunting grounds. Using high-resolution genetic sourcing methods, the research team was able to pinpoint specific…

Dozens of cars are stacked in the streets of Sedaví, Valencia, on October 30 after rain and flash flooding hit eastern Spain the day before. At least 205 people were killed, mainly in Valencia, with some areas receiving more than a year’s worth of rain. Riverbanks overflowed, destroying bridges and sweeping away entire homes. The flood has been called the worst natural disaster in Spain’s modern history.…

THE MORNING I WAS ABDUCTED at 16, I woke up to strangers’ boots pounding outside my lilac bedroom. My mother kept everything pristine in our Northern California home—no one wore shoes inside. So I knew something was off. My door burst open. A man and woman appeared—their figures so tall and wide they filled my door frame. “Come with us,” they demanded. “No,” I spoke, then froze. The man inched toward me. “I wasn’t asking.” He seized my arm. Immediately, his grip started tightening like a blood pressure machine, but he wasn’t measuring my life—he was taking it. “Help,” I wailed. They tackled me. I tried to break free. They won. Two months into eleventh grade, I was barely a quarter of their size. Face-down against my floral carpet, they…

NLINE LEARNING CONTINUES TO EXPAND in the United States as colleges and other education providers seek to attract students who live outside the immediate area and working adults drawn to the flexibility of online classes. Studies suggest online learning has yet to reach its peak and is expected to grow in coming years. For those looking to further their knowledge—from individual non-degree courses for the curious or for professional development to a full academic degree—online schools offer customized opportunities to people in all stages of life. With so many choices and no physical location to visit, finding the right program can be challenging. To help you find the best fit for your goals, News- week and global data research firm Statista are proud to present America’s Top Online Learning Schools 2025.…

CultureHIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING INBETWEENBOOKS JOURNALIST ILANA KAPLAN REMEMBERS ONE of the first Nora Ephron movies she saw— 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan—in a theater when she was about 10. To Kaplan, the onscreen romantic chemistry between the two fictitious lead characters, rival booksellers Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly, drew her attention. “I just fawn over the end of the movie, before they actually kiss in the park,” Kaplan told Newsweek, “Joe is walking with Kathleen and trying to get her to forgive him for putting her out of business by comparing the situation to her forgiving this guy who ‘stood her up.’ He goes, ‘Oh, how I wish you would.’ The way he looks at her and says that line—it just gives me chills…