We’ve had Plagens on the run since 1989. A painter himself–he has a show of his abstract works at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York coming in December-Plagens was chairman of the art department at the “University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early ’80s. Then he moved to Manhattan and was freelancing for Artforum and Art in America when he caught NEWSWEEK’S eye. Like all of our critics, Plagens has always been encouraged to follow his instincts wherever they may take him–“My first assignment was ‘Go find something to review and review it’ “and his prose has always had a funny, irreverent, populist touch....

More bad times are certainly on the menu. Across Asia, a region relatively remote from war fears, pestilence is the specter that haunts the economy. Although the death toll from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) remains relatively small, fear that a killer virus is rampaging unchecked has stunted commerce from Seoul to Tokyo to Singapore, with dramatic implications for the rest of the world. Beyond the obvious victims–travel, shopping and the once ubiquitous business lunch–SARS has derailed trade shows, delayed movie releases, shuttered factories and threatened to disrupt the flow of everything from Nike sneakers to Motorola handsets....

The elusive creature is critically endangered: one category below extinct in the wild. Measuring around three-feet in length on average, compared to the 15ft to 20ft of its more famous counterpart the great white, the small shark lives throughout the coastal waters of the IndoPacific. Its habitat is thought to stretch from the coast of India to the Gulf of Oman, as well as rivers like the Hooghli in West Bengal and the Saigon in southern Vietnam....

Based on the eponymous best-selling graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, “Persepolis” tells the life story of Marjie as she and her family live through the 1978 revolution, the Iran-Iraq War and the increasingly tight grip of religious fanaticism. It won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and has since invoked the fury of the Iranian government. Like Satrapi’s black and white illustrations, the film sheds light on a time and place enshrouded in darkness....

The more he studied World War I, George F. Kennan wrote, the more he came to see it as “the great seminal catastrophe of this century.” Now as Europe seethes with long-suppressed ethnic and national hatreds, it is valuable to get a fresh look at the roots of that catastrophe, for in some ways the hatreds are the same. In “Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War,” Robert K....

FIFA World XI nominees revealed Bayern have dominated the Bundesliga over recent years and are aiming for a fifth consecutive title. However, the Bavarians have not yet hit their full stride under Ancelotti, who took over as head coach in the close-season, and they find themselves in second place after 12 matches, three points adrift of Leipzig. With just four league matches to play before the Bundesliga takes a month-long break, Ancelotti was asked if it would be a disappointment not to be top of the table heading into the new year....

The inscriptions on the shreds include lists of names, representations of gods, and receipts for food purchases. Among these were hundreds of examples of lines written in a school by pupils receiving Bart Simpson-like punishments, the team believes. The sherds were recovered from Tell Atrib, a region that was once ancient Athribis, during excavations led by Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) at Germany’s University of Tübingen Professor Christian Leitz....

The “unique” find had researchers scrambling to excavate the area where it was found: a strip of motorway between the regions of Bohemia and Moravia in the north of the Czech Republic. “We had no idea that the first farmers, who only had tools made of stone, bones, horns, or wood, were able to process the surface of felled trunks with such precision,” Jaroslav Peška, who heads the Archaeological Centre in Olomouc, Moravia, told Radio Prague International in 2019....

Now Abdullah is doing more than wishing. He’s launched an initiative that’s raised more hopes among Israelis and Arabs than seemed possible a month ago–and, alas, more than seem justified today. No, he’s not planning to go to Jerusalem to make peace the way Egyptian President Anwar Sadat did a generation ago. Nor is he planning to invite Israelis to Riyadh for public talks. And even as the rhetoric of negotiations gained sudden momentum last week, so did the carnage in the occupied territories....

Libeskind’s plan has jagged towers, a spiky spire and a dramatic void all the way down to bedrock for a memorial site; now he may have to make that void smaller and shallower. THINK has a pair of spectacular open towers (eventually with cultural facilities inside), but one tower’s footing must be re-engineered because of its proximity to the underground transit system. Changes are inevitable in a project so complex, but each team must preserve the core of its own visionary idea....

But, as the New York Times reports today, Romney seems to be picking up steam because he’s spending millions of dollars on advertising. And in this story is perhaps another McCain problem: The head-scratching analogy. The Times quotes John Weaver, McCain’s longtime political adviser, talking about Romney’s surge in the polls. He says that Romney’s up because his early ads have created an “artificial impression they are doing well.” “They are very soft numbers because it’s done in a vacuum,” Weaver says....

It will be Andrade’s first fight at MSG. The Providence, R.I., native is coming off a unanimous decision in October over Walter Kautondokwa, who was a last-minute replacement for Billy Joe Saunders after Saunders failed a VADA anti-doping test. “I couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity,” Andrade said in a press release. “Fighting at Madison Square Garden, where so many great fighters have fought is a true honor, and something I have dreamt about my entire life....

Lindelof a statement signing from Man Utd Silva has been in prolific form in Portugal this season, scoring 16 times in 32 outings in the league, plus another four in eight in the Champions League. And that has convinced Milan to enter the transfer market for the forward, with the Serie A giants now applying the finishing touches to a €38 million deal. That figure is well below the player’s release clause of €60m, with the move made possible thanks to the work of agent Jorge Mendes, who is eager to see the player feature in a more competitive league....

The NBA center seems to take his poker game seriously, he has all the lingo down pat. Although Bogut didn’t tell us what stakes he and his teammates play at, he did let us in on who may be the best and the worst Warriors in their “home” game. MORE: How poker helped shape Pat McAfee’s football career | Richard Seymour finishes 37th at WPT Jacksonville | Martin Jacobson wins WSOP Main Event...

The plan will be created by Governors Cuomo and his fellow Democratic governors, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, John Carney Jr. of Delaware and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island. They’ve collectively agreed to put public health considerations foremost to avoid starting fresh coronavirus outbreaks that could spread throughout the region. On Monday, the governors held a conference call in which they decided to name an economic official, a public health official and their respective chiefs of staff to help develop a plan together....

Governor Cuomo responded to his mistake by listening to the demands of one of his top donors: the lobbying group for the nursing home industry. As The Daily Poster reported in May, he granted full corporate legal immunity to nursing homes, all the way up to the C-suite. At the time, New York Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim warned that the liability protections removed a key deterrent to corporate misbehavior and effectively shielded nursing home executives from legal consequences if their cost-cutting, profit-maximizing decisions endangered lives....

Billed as a “Summer Reception,” attendance at the event costs $10,000 for one person or $15,000 for two. It comes ahead of a July 15 filing deadline for his campaign to disclose funds raised in the last six months. Cuomo is facing multiple investigations, including about his administration’s handling of the underreporting of COVID-19 deaths in the state’s nursing homes and several accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct. Nonetheless, it is still widely believed the three-term governor will seek a fourth term in 2022....

Robach and Holmes—who have co-hosted GMA3: What You Need to Know since 2020—were photographed showing off their apparent romance in New York in November, including enjoying a vacation together and holding hands in a car. Currently, the twosome are on hiatus from the Good Morning America spinoff. On Monday, December 12, ABC News President Kim Godwin reportedly updated employees about the controversy, noting Robach and Holmes would “remain off-air pending the completion of an internal review....

Using the hashtags #YangMediaBlackout and #LetYangSpeak, which trended on Twitter throughout the day, supporters shared images that purported to display the entire field of Democratic candidates but which omitted Yang. The outcry was ignited by an image on CNN, Yang 2020 Press Secretary Randy Jones told Newsweek. Yang, a former corporate lawyer and social entrepreneur, distinguished himself in the crowded primary field by promising universal basic income (UBI) for all adults....