Innholdsfortegnelse for July 26, 2024 i Newsweek

NIGERIA’S SECURITY CZAR PULLED A mobile phone from his white gown to show a video of a man with his head wrapped in a full turban. Addressing the camera somewhere in the scrubby badlands of northern Nigeria, the figure made a statement from behind mirrored goggles. “This is one of the biggest bandits,” National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu told Newsweek. “And he wants to stop fighting.” Any respite from Nigeria’s multiple mini-wars is a welcome relief to the giant African country, whose population of 220 million is forecast to pass that of the United States in little over a generation. By then it could become the world’s second biggest democracy after India’s, but only if it can survive some of the greatest challenges of its existence. It is beset by…

IT HAS BEEN A DIFFICULT YEAR FOR MANY electric vehicle companies. Despite overall growth in EV sales from 2023, EV makers Tesla and Rivian announced layoffs this year as their stock prices slid. But one EV maker stands out: Georgia-based Blue Bird has seen its stock price soar more than 100 percent since January as the company electrifies more of the familiar yellow buses it sends to school districts around the country. Founded in 1927, Blue Bird is approaching a century of operation, and it appears on Newsweek’s rankings of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America and the World’s Most Trustworthy Companies. While the basic appearance of its main product hasn’t changed that much over the years, the company’s recent success comes amid some major changes. As well as expanding…

Former President Donald Trump raises a fist in the air as he is escorted off stage by Secret Service agents after being shot at during his speech at a campaign rally on July 13. The Republican presidential candidate, seen with a bloodied face, said a bullet “pierced the upper part of my right ear.” A spectator was killed after multiple shots were fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from a nearby roof, in what officials called an assassination attempt on Trump. The gunman was shot dead by the Secret Service, officials said. President Joe Biden later urged the nation “to lower the temperature in our politics.”…

In her namesake gallery in Lagos, Nike Davies-Okundaye shows off a painting adorned with the colors of both the Nigerian and American flags. It’s a stylized portrait of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited the gallery earlier this year. Upstairs, an oil paint and canvas hewn image of Nigerian folk hero Fela Kuti peers out at potential customers. Davies-Okundaye’s own large beadwork piece, depicting dozens of the mothers who demonstrated in Abuja a decade ago after insurgents kidnapped their daughters, is among some 5,000 works of art for sale in her space in the Ikoyi neighborhood. Davies-Okundaye is a living testament to the cultural transformation that has brought new attention and appreciation to Nigeria’s artists. The artist and entrepreneur, 73, owns galleries across Africa’s most populous country and…

Periscope NEWS, OPINION + ANALYSISSOUTH KOREA SOUTH KOREA’S TOP OFFICIAL TASKED WITH PROMOTING the seemingly miraculous campaign of exporting entertainment to international audiences has revealed to Newsweek the secret recipe to success in the hands of a nation still divided after nearly eight decades. The phenomenon, known as the “K-Wave,” or Hallyu in Korean, first began to rise across East Asia in the late 1990s, amid an explosion of cultural expression as the country emerged from a regional financial crisis and rigid military leadership. Today, a vibrant and democratic South Korea has become synonymous in households around the world with some of the most popular music, television series and cinema, producing megastar performers like BTS, binge-worthy shows like Squid Game and universally acclaimed movies like Parasite, the only foreign-language film…

Culture FILM BELOVED ANIMATED MOVIE Inside Out came back with its sequel last month and smashed box office expectations. Nine years after the original, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 raked in $154 million in the U.S. on its opening weekend, making it the second-biggest opening of all time for an animated movie in the domestic market, according to Box Office Mojo. Those great results beg the question as to whether the movie will help to turn around the fortunes of animation studio Pixar and its parent company Disney after a string of flops and disappointing financial results. “Disney has much bigger problems,” Alexander Ross, film industry expert at Yale University, told Newsweek. “One successful picture to them is a drop in the ocean [for Disney]. All their boardroom issues aside, the…