Innholdsfortegnelse for March 01-08, 2024 i Newsweek

IT WASN’T A TYPICAL DAY—JULY 1, 2023, was the day Ordinance 23-0-22, better known as the “Decency Ordinance,” was set to go into effect in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It gave Police Chief Michael Bowen and City Manager Craig Tindall the power to penalize anyone, anywhere in public, for anything they deemed indecent. No two men should have this much power. When questioned on what would qualify as indecent during public discussions before Murfreesboro City Council voted to pass the ordinance, the response was: I can tell you when I see it. I believe that this was an absurd and dangerous attempt to criminalize being LGBTQ+ in our town, a discriminatory effort that coincided with a similar attempt to erase Murfreesboro’s LGBTQ+ citizens and their stories at the Rutherford County Library System…

Horizons HEALTH WE’RE OFTEN TOLD THAT 10,000 STEPS IS THE gold standard for keeping healthy, but where did this number come from—and is it accurate? There’s no doubt that boosting your daily exercise levels by walking more brings benefits for your body and mind, experts say. “Increasing physical activity such as your step count through walking contributes to improved cardiovascular fitness, weight management, improved mood, better sleep and enhanced cognitive function,” Lindsay Bottoms, a reader in exercise and health physiology at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., told Newsweek. “Walking can reduce the risk of developing chronic illnesses such as dementia, and certain cancers. In some cases, it helps improve health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes.” But do we need to hit a certain number of steps daily…

TRICKY CONVERSATIONS with kids are par for the course when you become a parent. But while many know they have to introduce the idea of stranger danger or eventually explain the birds and the bees, plenty of other topics also need to be understood by children by certain age milestones. Children learn something new every day, and parents work hard to get them ready for adulthood. Sixty-three percent of parents who participated in the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health in 2019 said they are doing enough to prepare their teenagers for adulthood. While raising children is all about pointing them in the right direction, 52 percent of the 2,032 parents surveyed said that it’s critical for teenagers to have the opportunity to make mistakes. Newsweek spoke…

In Focus THE NEWS IN PICTURES MANILA, PHILIPPINES A performer exhales fire during a Chinese New Year celebration on February 10. The festivities launched the year of the Wood Dragon in the Philippines’ Binondo district, known as the world’s oldest Chinatown, established in the late 1500s. Also known as Lunar New Year, the holiday is observed by billions worldwide and marks the first new moon in a lunar cycle identified over 4,000 years ago. Celebrations typically include red decorations, special dishes such as long noodles for longevity, honoring ancestors, and thorough cleaning to wash away bad luck. Each year is defined by one of five elements and its pairing with one of 12 Chinese zodiac animals.…

IT’S BEEN A YEAR SINCE A TRAIN CARRYING various toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio—yet, as a federally managed recovery operation continues, locals still sometimes smell something “rotten” in the air. “I can’t tell anyone where I live without them having a look of sorrow,” Kasie Locke, a resident, told Newsweek. “Even though day to day we’re trying our best to go about our normal lives in the best way we all can, I will still always have an ill feeling when I think about how the rest of my family’s life is going to go.” Residents of the small border town (population 4,700) had been getting home from work on February 3, 2023, and having their dinner when their evenings were disrupted by the sight of smoke rising…

IT ALL BEGAN FOR ME WITH A one-year public commitment to walk 20,000 steps a day, and to share my step count, a daily photo and my insights on Facebook and Instagram. I wanted to encourage and motivate others to do the same, so I started a blog and kicked it off with that splashy commitment. The thing is, I had already been doing 20,000 steps a day for six months, and would continue for another year after it ended. My journey started in the middle of March 2018, and in those two-and-a half-years to August 31, 2020, I learned a great deal. ONE _ THE IMPORTANCE OF A PRE-DECISION TO COMMIT I made a pivotal decision before starting: Whatever was going on in my life that day, I would…

PeriscopeNEWS, OPINION + ANALYSISGEOPOLITICS THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS PAID RUSSIAN companies over $8 million to maintain its embassy in Moscow, a Newsweek investigation has found, with one company that was awarded a contract later placed under sanction by Canada. Shortly after launching its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia was slapped with economic sanctions by the United States and its allies around the world. The U.S. went on to seize approximately $300 billion of Russian Central Bank assets as well as $30 billion of assets of officials close to President Vladimir Putin. The embassy contracts have drawn criticism from campaign groups and politicians, including Idaho Republican Congressman Russ Fulcher. “Even if these contracts are relatively small, I voted on legislation to halt American investments into Russia, and providing jobs…

WHAT IS THOUGHT TO BE THE world’s oldest unintentionally preserved egg, discovered in a field in England, could explain how ancient Romans reared chickens and other birds. The egg was originally found during excavations at a site known as Berryfields in Buckinghamshire. During the dig, archaeologists uncovered a large, waterlogged pit or well dating between A.D. 270 and A.D. 300 during Britain’s Roman period. Inside, researchers found pottery vessels, coins, leather shoes, animal bones, and a woven basket containing a cache of eggs, which were likely laid by chickens. “In Britain, this was a unique find,” Edward Biddulph, senior project manager with Oxford Archaeology (OA), a charity that was involved in the Berryfields excavations, told Newsweek. “The pit had originally been used to extract water for malting and brewing. The…