Table of contents for February 20, 2026 in Newsweek

1972 “Talking to Liza [Minnelli], you know she’s reached the flash point that very few performers ever reach. She’s finding herself in her roles and finding her roles in herself,” wrote Newsweek of the actor’s rise to international stardom, following her acclaimed performance in the 1972 film Cabaret. The following year, Minnelli won best actress at the Academy Awards for the role and her concert film Liza with a Z scooped an Emmy. She would go on to become a rare EGOT recipient, winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and four Tony awards. Minnelli, the daughter of The Wizard of Oz star Judy Garland, is set to share her story in a memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! out next month. 1985 “[A]s freer markets weed out the less efficient…

A man stands among ruins of burnt homes on February 5 in Kwara State, in western Nigeria, after an extremist attack two days earlier. Local lawmaker Mohammed Omar Bio said Lakurawa militants—affiliated with Islamic State—also struck Nuku village. At least 162 were killed in the attacks, among the country’s worst in recent months, per the Red Cross. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, leader of U.S. Africa Command, said a “small U.S. team” was sent to help counterterrorism efforts.…

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S BOARD OF Peace is gaining momentum as a growing list of nations, including some of the world’s largest Arab and Muslim countries, sign on to it. The project was initially geared toward resolving the war in Gaza but is expected to command a broader mandate as its geographic and geopolitical mandate expands. Its scope has raised questions about the initiative’s potential to serve as a competitor to the United Nations, not least due to Trump’s own comments suggesting it “might” just do so. And while the U.S. leader has more recently expressed the position that the U.N. should continue to exist, he is far from alone in questioning the lasting efficacy of what has stood as the world’s leading multilateral institution since the end of World War…

Sebastian Siemiatkowski doesn’t look like a banker. The Klarna CEO dresses more like a tech bro, which is befitting as his company straddles the world of finance and technology. He rushes into our early morning interview, bespectacled and in jeans, a T-shirt, a navy button-up and white sneakers, the shoes high-end ones by the French fashion house Céline. He tells me he was up late “vibe coding”—coding by “feel” using a large language model like ChatGPT (Siemiatkowski is friends with OpenAI boss Sam Altman) rather than by a programming language like Java, C# or Flow. “The only thing I kind of regret in my life is not learning to code and be an engineer,” the Stockholm School of Economics alumni says. “Sorry, that’s what it is.” Siemiatkowski founded Klarna with…

IT IS CLEAR FROM A VISIT TO THE GOOGLE DEEPMIND CAM-pus that what is being pioneered by the team—research into, and development of, breakthrough artificial general intelligence tools—has the potential to be the modern-day equivalent of the Manhattan Project that led to the development of atomic weapons, in terms of human and societal impact. This is precisely where Lila Ibrahim, chief AI readiness officer at DeepMind, plays a critical guiding role. As she puts it, “from the time DeepMind was founded in 2010, having this responsible approach has been quite fundamental to how we do our research and building. When I first started [a key question was] how do you operationalize care in a research environment, so that it’s not bolted on at the end but rather more of a…

HARRY MELLING IS VERY AWARE HIS WORK IN THE NEW FILM PILLION IS ABOUT as far away as he can get from his portrayal of Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise. “A lot of people, they’ll go, ‘Wow, Dudley Dursley’s in this kinky movie.’ And I don’t know what to say about that.” Fortunately for Melling, critics are praising his performance as a shy man, Colin, entering the BDSM subculture through a relationship with Ray (Alexander Skarsgård). “What I loved about the story is meeting him in this brave moment of going, ‘I’m gonna give this a go.’ Watching him explore what he wants.” For Melling, this role is another example of how the actor is challenging the difficulties some child actors can have moving into more adult roles.…

EVERY YEAR, THE GLOBAL ECONOMY BECOMES MORE research-intensive than ever before. In 2024 alone, global R&D spending surged to nearly $3 trillion—tripling in real terms over the last 25 years. These massive investments drive the launch of innovative new products designed to make your life healthier, more convenient and more fun. In the United States alone, an average of 30,000 new products hit retail shelves annually, according to Neilsen research. Given the sheer volume of choices, it can be difficult to know which products to spend your hard-earned money on. To help shoppers navigate this crowded marketplace with confidence, Newsweek has partnered with market research leader BrandSpark International to present the Best New Product Awards 2026. This consumer-driven recognition is rooted in feedback from over 10,000 American shoppers who have…

“THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW YOU CAN LEARN FROM [THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE.]” Where did the idea come from for Messy Love? From doing couples coaching sessions, where I felt how valuable it would be if people could listen to how challenging, raw and vulnerable these sessions are. Social media is full of advice, but when you see the ideas in action, it transforms your experience. How do you differentiate this from On Purpose? On Purpose, I’m interviewing experts, thought leaders, celebrities and athletes. But on Messy Love, you’re getting something completely different. It’s me sitting down with a real couple and we’re walking through challenges—infidelity, toxic behavior, mismatched expectations or poor communication. What’s changed your own outlook on love? No matter how much time you’ve spent with someone, there…