NEWSWEEK MEDIA LEAD SHEET/July 31, 2006 (on newsstands Monday, July 24)
NEWSWEEK MEDIA LEAD SHEET/July 31, 2006 (on newsstands Monday, July 24)
COVER: "Weight of the World" (p. 30). Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe offers an exclusive account of Bush's reactions to last week's escalating violence in the Middle East and interactions with his senior staff and fellow world leaders-and reports on how the president grappled with the biggest foreign crisis of his second term. As the crisis in the Middle East unfolded, Newsweek gained rare access to the president and his senior aides, spending hours behind the security curtain that surrounds President Bush in the air and on the ground. Between meetings with world leaders at the G8 summit in Russia, Bush agreed to four freewheeling interviews and hundreds of candid photographs.
MIDDLE EAST: "Torn to Shreds" (p. 22). Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey and Middle East Correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh report that Israel's continued attacks in Lebanon are adding confusion to horror in Beirut. What sense could be made of this conflagration in which Israel, under merciless attack from Hizbullah rockets, demanded that the Lebanese army take responsibility for disarming Hizbullah militias-then bombed the Army, too? Israel says that it wants only to get rid of Hizbullah in the hope that democracy will grow in its place. However, with gruesome images of the devastation being broadcast around the Arab world and the main target of Israel's war-Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah-remaining cool, confident and apparently unperturbed, anger towards Israel, America and its allies continues to grow.
INTERVIEW: Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister (p. 28). Special Diplomatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth talks to Livni about the current conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and her decision to decline UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's call for an immediate ceasefire. " Hizbullah is a threat to the region and to the international community ... It is the long arm of Iran that wants to keep an open front with Israel in order to destabilize the region. Cessation or ceasefire right now ... would be a victory for Hizbullah."
JONATHAN ALTER: "It Was the Veto of a Lifetime" (p. 40). Columnist Jonathan Alter writes that for anyone who has experienced life-threatening illnesses, July 19, 2006 was a dark day. President Bush's veto of a modest bill that would have merely allowed surplus embryos from fertility clinics to be used for path-breaking research instead of tossed in the garbage is more than a political blunder. And for those with a friend or relative who is sick- in other words, almost everyone-it is more than an abstraction. By slowing cures for several major diseases, this decision may well doom thousands to die prematurely. It contradicts the whole idea of what it means to be "pro-life." The whole issue is emblematic of what's wrong with the Bush presidency: his inflexibility, obsession with his conservative base, religious arrogance and contempt for scientific consensus.
BUSINESS: "The New Ad Game" (p. 42). Newsweek's Jessica Ramirez reports on the various forces driving the latest trend in advertising: product placements in video games. There are at least 132 million gamers over 13 in the United States alone and they belong to some of advertising's most coveted consumers- men aged 18 to 34. Last year the market for advertising inside their virtual worlds totaled about $56 million. Now-thanks to new ad-serving technology, next-generation gaming consoles, and metrics to measure both-Boston-based business and technology research and consulting firm Yankee Group projects the in-game ad market will explode to $733 million by 2010.
HOLLYWOOD: "The Mice That Roared" (p. 44). Senior Writer Sean Smith reports on how Disney bosses Bob Iger and Dick Cook are redefining the kingdom, Hollywood and themselves. Iger and Cook both spent years toiling in the shadow of larger-than-life CEO Michael Eisner, who ran Disney like his personal kingdom. But with Eisner's reign at an end, no one's saying Iger and Cook aren't "sexy" anymore. Iger made up with shareholders and Pixar honcho Steve Jobs, even persuading Jobs to sell the animation company to Disney. Cook, meanwhile, had been turning theme-park rides into movies and getting Disney back to its family roots. What people think now is that Disney is setting the pace for the industry.
JANE BRYANT QUINN: "A Debit-Card Nation" (p. 45). Contributing Editor Jane Bryant Quinn looks at why debit cards are becoming so popular, the best kinds of debit cards available and the times when it's still better to pull out that credit card.
MEDICINE: "Why Girls Will Be Girls" (p. 46). Senior Writer Peg Tyre and Correspondent Julie Scelfo report on neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, who has been developing what she describes as a female-centered strain of psychiatry focusing on the complex interplay between women's mental health, hard-wiring and brain chemistry. Now her first book, "The Female Brain," which she describes as a kind of owner's manual for women, is due in bookstores next month. Brizendine realizes she's going to take some heat. "I know it's not politically correct to say this," she says, "and I've been torn for years between my politics and what science is telling us. But I believe that women actually perceive the world differently than men. If women attend to those differences, they can make better decisions about how to manage their lives."
SCIENCE: "Cavemen, Chimps And Us" (p. 48). Senior Editor Jerry Alder looks at what can be learned from Neanderthal genes. Last week scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany announced they would attempt to sequence the Neanderthal genome-the complete DNA of the closest known relative to modern humans, a species that disappeared about 30,000 years ago. In fact, we will probably learn as much about Homo sapiens from the effort as we will about Neanderthals, says Svante Paabo, who heads the project.
CRIME: "What the Doctor Did" (p. 49). Correspondent Catharine Skipp and Miami Bureau Chief Arian Campo-Flores report on a case unfolding in Louisiana, where a doctor and two nurses at Memorial Medical Center are accused of killing several patients with lethal injections as Hurricane Katrina flooded the hospital and knocked out the power.
MUSIC: "Red Hot & Blue" (p. 50). Senior Writer Lorraine Ali talks to Christina Aguilera about her new, retro-sounding album "Back to Basics." Aguilera has a very personal connection to the '30s and '40s blues and jazz that inspired the new record: "They spoke to my life before I moved in with my grandma-my father, all the abuse I endured," she says. Her new sound also reflects changes in Aguilera's public persona, she says. "The sexuality coming forward on this record is more softened," she says. "It's more pin-up, tongue- in-cheek. It's playful. People take sex far too seriously."
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: Highlights and Exclusives, July 31 Issue
COVER: Weight of the World (All editions). Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe offers an exclusive account of Bush's reactions to last week's escalating violence in the Middle East and interactions with his senior staff and fellow world leaders -- and reports on how the president grappled with the biggest foreign crisis of his second term. As the crisis in the Middle East unfolded, Newsweek gained rare access to the president and his senior aides, spending hours behind the security curtain that surrounds President Bush in the air and on the ground. Between meetings with world leaders at the G8 summit in Russia, Bush agreed to four freewheeling interviews and hundreds of candid photographs.
Torn to Shreds. Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey and Middle
East Correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh report that Israel's continued attacks
in Lebanon are adding confusion to horror in Beirut. What sense could be made
of this conflagration in which Israel, under merciless attack from Hizbullah rockets,
that the Lebanese army take responsibility for disarming Hizbullah militias -- then bombed
the Army, too? Israel says that it wants only to get rid of Hizbullah in the hope that democracy
will grow in its place. However, with gruesome images of the devastation being broadcast
around the Arab world and the main target of Israel's war -- Hizbullah leader
Hassan Nasrallah -- remaining cool, confident and apparently unperturbed, anger
towards Israel, America and its allies continues to grow.
The Next Front? Special Correspondents Owen Matthews and Sami Kohen report on brewing tensions between Turkey and separatist Kurds in neighboring Iraq. Many Turkish leaders are pressing for cross-border tactical air assaults on the guerrillas, but President Bush, fearing yet another escalation of the Middle East's violence, urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold off. Since the beginning of the year, attacks on Turkish military garrisons and police stations have escalated across the country's southeast, along with random shootings, bombings and protests -- many of them, authorities suspect, organized in Iraq. For now, Turkey knows that it has no real option but to remain within the Western Alliance, but if attacks continue, Erdogan's sense of restraint could abruptly give way.
Border Backlash. Southeast Asia Correspondent Ron Moreau and Special Correspondent Zahid Hussain report that three years ago, Pakistan began dispatching tens of thousands of troops to the country's tribal regions in an attempt to beat back the Islamic radicals in and around the seven tribal agencies bordering on eastern and southern Afghanistan. But ironically, instead of quelling extremism, the military occupation has fueled it. Radical Islamic clerics throughout Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt now preach the hard-line gospel, day and night, and President Musharraf is scrambling to placate everyone, including domestic religious parties. If he continues to do so, extremism will only get worse-and so will the fighting in Afghanistan.
Africa's Taliban. Chief Foreign Correspondent Rod Nordland reports on the emergence of a new threat to the global fight of terrorism -- the African Taliban. Finally the warlords of Mogadishu and southern Somalia have been subdued, bringing peace to the ravaged area for the first time in 15 years. The Islamic Courts Union, a popular uprising built around traditional Islamic Sharia courts and financed by fed-up businessmen, collected the warlords' guns and rounded up their battlewagons. But instead of warlords now, though, Somalis have what many are calling an African version of the Taliban, bent not only on imposing a harsh, Wahhabi-style Islam on the country but allegedly also providing a safe haven, Afghan style, for international terrorists.
A Question of Graft. Special Correspondent Phil Gunson reports that corruption and scandal are eating away at Hugo Chavez's so-called Bolivarian Revolution. The Venezuelan leader swept to power in 1998 on an anti-graft platform, but now the soaring price of oil has flooded government coffers with petrodollars and fanned the same endemic corruption that thoroughly discredited Venezuela's two political parties in the 1990s. The biggest headache of all is rooted in a government agricultural-development fund to achieve food self-sufficiency called Fondafa. Despite a 50 percent increase in farm credits used by Fondafa last year, the number of hectares planted nationwide rose by a paltry 1.4 percent, and most of the money ended up in the bank accounts of unscrupulous landowners. Millions of Chavistas have become disenchanted with the epidemic of sleaze inside the corridors of power and Chávez could soon find that the parallels to his predecessors haven't ended yet.
Computer Genius. European Economics Correspondent Rana Foroohar reports on German software giant SAP's Web-based technology that will make today's desktop systems look as slow and inflexible as the giant mainframes of old. Perhaps the most important question is whether SAP can best its own history. Back in the 1980s and '90s, founder Hasso Plattner did for companies what Microsoft did for consumers, by replacing mainframes with easy-to-use business software that could be accessed via desktop computer. Whether it can repeat that in the Internet age remains to be seen. But the fact that a German company is even in the race should make Europeans proud.
WORLD VIEW: A Mission Unaccomplished. The war unfolding in the Middle East marks a new era, writes Gilles Kepel, chair of Middle East studies at Sciences Po in Paris and author of "War for Muslim Minds." For Israel and the Palestinians, it is the end of any prospect for peace. For Israel and Hizbullah, it is the beginning of a death struggle. For newly reborn Lebanon, led by a West-leaning government that sprang from last year's anti-Syrian Cedar Revolution, it's a loss beyond calculation. And for the United States, it's the last gasp of a cosmically naive pipe dream. Since coming to power, the Bush administration has jettisoned the traditional U.S. role of (relatively) honest power broker. It has become partisan, deaf to Arab views. And Washington has lost much (if not most) of its leverage in alienated Arab capitals.
THE LAST WORD: Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister. Special Diplomatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth talks to Livni about the current conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and her decision to decline UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's call for an immediate ceasefire. "Hizbullah is a threat to the region and to the international community ... It is the long arm of Iran that wants to keep an open front with Israel in order to destabilize the region. Cessation or ceasefire right now ... would be a victory for Hizbullah."
NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW: Christina Aguilera
Feels Deep Connection to Old Jazz And Blues That Inspired New Album: 'There's a Lot of Pain and Angst in Those Songs ... They Spoke to My Life Before I Moved in With My Grandma - My Father, All The Abuse I Endured'
Says Sexuality is 'Softened' On New Album But Has No Regrets About Sexier Release 'Stripped': 'I Was Proud of Myself For Having The Balls to Do It'
Christina Aguilera has a very personal connection to the '30s and '40s blues and jazz that inspired her new double- disc album "Back to Basics," she tells Senior Writer Lorraine Ali in the July 31 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, July 24). "At a really early age I connected with old soul and blues," she says. "My grandma used to take me to little record stores around Pittsburgh and buy me old records. I was 6, and I'd sing the songs at block parties. My grandma would get a kick out of hearing me do material that was far beyond my years." She also explains, "They spoke to my life before I moved in with my grandma-my father, all the abuse I endured." On one track, "Oh Mother," Aguilera sings about that period directly: "On that song, I thank my mom for leaving him, for getting us out of that situation because it was life-threatening." And Aguilera still avoids contact with her father. "He tries to send letters every once in a while, but I have amazing people around me now and I'm happy, so I don't really long for that relationship. I just don't see the need."
The new sound of "Back to Basics" reflects changes in Aguilera's public persona, she tells Newsweek. "The sexuality coming forward on this record is more softened," she says. "It's more pin-up, tongue-in-cheek. It's playful. People take sex far too seriously." Still, says Aguilera, she has no regrets about the much sexier -- and more controversial -- image she donned for her last release, "Stripped." "I was proud of myself for having the balls to do it," she says. "And you know what I love about that record? Everybody had an opinion. If you liked it, you wanted to root for me -- 'Look, she's empowered.' If not, well, you'd stick all those labels on me."
Aguilera also talks to Newsweek about her relationship with fellow ex- Mouseketeer Britney Spears. Disputing reports of a feud between her and Spears, she says, "We were like best friends, but the media saw a navel and blonde hair and had to create some drama." Now, some in the industry say that this new album puts Aguilera well ahead of her peers-including Spears. "Her competition is no longer Britney," says writer and producer Linda Perry (Pink, Gwen Stefani), who did the second disc of Aguilera's new record. "She's on another level, one where she can compete with those great old voices from the past."
NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW: Tzipi Livni Israel's Foreign Minister
Says Hizbullah is a Threat to International Community: 'It is The Long Arm of Iran That Wants to Keep an Open Front With Israel to Destabilize The Region'
On UN's Call For Immediate Ceasefire: 'Cessation or Ceasefire Right Now Without Full Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559 ... Would be a Victory For Hizbullah'
Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni tells Newsweek's Special Diplomatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth that the goal of the current military operation is to push the Lebanese government to take control of the entire country. "Hizbullah is a threat to the region and to the international community. It is the long arm of Iran that wants to keep an open front with Israel in order to destabilize the region," Livni tells Newsweek in the July 31 issue (on newsstands Monday, July 24). "In U.N. Resolutions 1559 and 1680, it was stated that there was a need for the Lebanese government to extend its sovereignty over the entire [country of] Lebanon and to dismantle all militias, including Hizbullah. Israel was attacked by Hizbullah -- an unprovoked attack. So, it is necessary right now that we take this opportunity to change the situation."
Livni also declined UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's call for an immediate end to the violence between Lebanon and Israel. "Cessation or ceasefire right now without full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559 ... would be a victory for Hizbullah ... It would take us back to square one, to the day before the attack," she says. When asked whether Israel might extend the fight to Syria, Livni responds, "Of course, there is an axis of terror and there are connections between Syria, which supports Hizbullah, and Iran." She continues, "The Israeli targets are only Hizbullah. But some of the missiles were in private houses, so we had to target these places. In order to avoid civilian casualties -- although I think that someone who sleeps with a missile can expect an attack -- we called on the civilians to leave their houses by warning them on television and radio that we were going to bomb. The pictures are not nice when you see people leaving places, but we had no alternative."
Livni tells Newsweek she looks forward to working with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a political settlement. "We will work together about the day after [the fighting stops in Lebanon]. The Israeli operation is crucial, but it is not enough."
NEWSWEEK COVER: Weight of The World
Newsweek Gains Rare, Exclusive Access to Bush as he Responds to Mideast Crisis, Meets With World Leaders-Four Interviews in Four Days, Hundreds of Candid Photos
Bush Wants Coalition: 'I View This as The Forces of Instability Probing Weakness ... Sometimes in Order to Get Others to Act With Us There Has to be Conditions on The Ground That Make The Case Better Than I Can Make It'
As the crisis in the Middle East unfolded last week, Newsweek gained rare access to the president and his senior aides, spending hours behind the security curtain that surrounds President Bush in the air and on the ground. Between meetings with world leaders at the G8 summit in Russia, Bush agreed to four freewheeling interviews and hundreds of candid photographs. In Newsweek's July 31 cover story, "Weight of the World" (on newsstands Monday, July 24), Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe gives a day-by-day account of Bush's reactions to the escalating violence and interactions with his senior staff and fellow world leaders-and reports on how the president grappled with the biggest foreign crisis of his second term.
Included in Newsweek's report: - FRIDAY, JULY 14: As the crisis first breaks out, Bush focuses on winning the support of friendly Arab leaders and rehearses what he needs to say to King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon. "The real culprit in this case," he tells them, "is the militant wing of Hamas and Hizbullah." His calls to them go well; the Arab leaders agree with the president. Listening on their own handsets, national-security adviser Steve Hadley gives Bush the thumbs up and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice grins. Bush may deplore the loss of life, but he also sees this crisis as an extraordinary opportunity. "I view this as the forces of instability probing weakness. I think they're testing resolve in many ways," he tells Newsweek moments after the calls. "Sometimes, in order to get others to act with us," he says, "there has to be conditions on the ground that make the case better than I can make it." - SATURDAY, JULY 15: Now in Russia, Secret Service agents believe the president and his aides are under surveillance at all times. Hovering above the ground nearby is a white communications balloon that Bush's aides believe is recording everything they say outdoors. Bush is especially guarded as he waits outside for Russian President Vladimir Putin to pick him up for the short trip to the villa where they will hold their talks. Newsweek asks whether Putin maintains his dour KGB face in private, or whether he is more relaxed behind closed doors. Bush looks up at the spy balloon and states clearly, "That's your phrase, not mine." - Bush sees Putin clutching some notes before a press conference, and leans over. "Are you sure you want to say that?" he quips. Putin looks up and glares, then gets the joke. Bush straightens his red tie and pats Putin on the back. "Have fun," he says as they walk into the cloud of camera flashes. But Putin has been readying a joke of his own. When asked a predictable question about the state of Russia's democracy, Putin pounces: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly." Struggling to hear the translation over guffaws and gasps from the media, Bush joins in the laughter before catching himself. "Just wait," he snaps back, and his smile fades. Outside, both men return to far happier banter, even as reporters dissect the tensions of the press conference. "He's good at quips. I think it was pretty clever," Bush says later. He waves off the media's analysis that his meetings with Putin are strained. "It makes me wonder if people have their articles written before they arrive," he says. Bush thinks Putin's motives are all about Russian pride. "Here's the key now," he says later. "Russia wants to be an equal partner. That's what this meeting is all about." - SUNDAY, JULY 16: During the summit, Bush speaks to the press three or four times a day and he often varies his language as he ad-libs-a dangerous habit during a Middle East crisis where every word is endlessly parsed. On his first outing, Bush forgot to mention both Syria and Iran as the backers of Hizbullah-even though the White House cited both countries in a written statement. Two days later, standing alongside Putin in Russia, Bush forgot to mention Iran, and neglected to warn Israel to avoid toppling the Lebanese government. Reporters quizzed Bush's aides about what looked like a rapid shift in policy. Now, as he prepares for yet another press session, this time with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his aides remind him of the complete wording. Bush is annoyed by his errors and frustrated that he must repeat the entire thing: the entire explanation runs to 190 words. "It was a reminder to him that you have to make a full case," says Bush's counselor, Dan Bartlett. "You can't just give one assessment. You have to touch all the bases." - The leaders at the G8 summit are promised they will see the final text of their statement on the Middle East by 4:00 and it's still not there at 5:00. Bush has had it. "I'm going home," he says to the room full of presidents and prime ministers. "I'm going to get a shower. I'm just about meeting'd out." Some of the leaders suggest they should all work out their differences together. But Bush can no longer keep up appearances. "I thought that was a lousy idea and so did others," Bush says later. "It would lose focus and everybody would then have an opinion." Blair steps in to calm things down. "Let me see if I can work it out," he assures Bush, and he disappears into a side room with Putin. Condi Rice and Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, join them. As it turns out, one final bit of haggling stands between Bush and his shower: a reference to both the terrorists and "those" that support them. Bush had hoped for a mention of Iran and Syria, but didn't want to block the agreement. The president is exasperated by all the hours of dickering over the obvious. "Everyone knows who is supporting Hizbullah," he says later. - MONDAY, JULY 17: Showered and rested, Bush sits in his conference room on Air Force One, clearly glad to be heading home. Bush is in philosophical mood, pleased with the summit and his handling of the crisis. But as the crisis in Lebanon deepens, Bush's allies and critics question the depth of his commitment to diplomacy. In his own mind, he's simply doing what much of the world has long urged him to do: build a coalition. "What you're seeing is a foreign policy that works with friends and allies to solve problems," he tells Newsweek. "It takes a while for a problem to occur and it takes a while to solve a problem."
