Table of contents for December 5-12, 2025 in Newsweek

1977 “It was the state America loved to hate,” Newsweek said, noting Texas’ rise from “nothing more than a left turn on the way to California” to the free world’s ninth-largest economy. Nearly 50 years later, the Lone Star State has climbed another rung—to the world’s eighth-largest economy—and now aims to open a stock exchange it hopes can rival New York City’s. Targeted for a launch in the first quarter of 2026, the TXSE, tapping Texas’ booming tech sector and rapid population growth, has fueled investor interest statewide. Whether “Y’all Street” can ever overtake Wall Street is an open question. 1985 “Fissures in the church are now in the open,” Newsweek wrote, as Catholic leaders gathered on the 20th anniversary of Vatican II to debate its reception and implementation. Four…

“RUSSIA’S TESTING, AND CHINA’S TESTING, BUT THEY don’t talk about it,” was President Donald Trump’s bold claim to CBS News about the U.S. adversaries’ nuclear weapons. China rejected this, but its growing atomic arsenal and attitude toward it could be a brake on Russia’s flirtation with nuclear war. “China is very reluctant to play a nuclear brinkmanship game, and that certainly has a calming effect on, and restrains, Russia,” said Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy, whose latest book, The Nuclear Age, charts the atomic weapons race. Beijing is officially neutral on President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine but positive in its role as Moscow’s chief economic partner since Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24, 2022, with trade between the countries swelling to record levels. As they tout their “no limits”…

AMERICANS, BRITS AND CANADIANS ARE START-ing to pick up on what Europeans, Russians and Scandinavians have known for centuries: Saunas are an integral part of wellness. Driven by trends in self-care and a greater focus on health, boutique sauna experiences are gaining steam. Broad Health Benefits Saunas—defined broadly as any room where a heat treatment occurs—are renowned for their numerous health benefits, including improved cardiovascular health, stress reduction, pain relief, muscle recovery, enhanced respiratory function and relaxation. Spa enthusiast Alisa Priddle says, “With a Finnish mother, I have been bathed in saunas since I was an infant. It is the contrast: repeatedly going from the heat and steam to a jump in a lake or roll in the snow that stimulates the circulation, cleans the pores and makes you feel…

“THE STAGE IS MY FIRST HOMELAND,” 75-YEAR-OLD IRANIAN singer Googoosh tells Newsweek from her Los Angeles home, noting that her second is Iran. A child performer who became one of the defining voices of pre-revolution Iranian pop, with a catalog of hit songs and lasting cultural influence, Googoosh has spent the past quarter century in exile, refusing to be silenced again. For nearly two-and-a-half decades before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the boundary-pushing artist captivated audiences in Iran with daring performances and bold style choices, writing in her memoir that despite Tehran’s “growing cosmopolitanism, it was still scandalous for a child my age to be singing in cabarets.” By her mid-twenties, Googoosh was more than a household name—she was a national sensation, singing for the Shah, diplomats and celebrities. With major…

FOR MICHELLE MONAGHAN, A MAJOR PERK OF RETURNING FOR THE FAMILY Plan 2 was the location. “It was incredible. I’d never been to London during the holiday season. I’ve been to London, but it’s different at Christmastime.” Monaghan plays Jessica Morgan in the action comedy about a family on the run because of her husband, played by Mark Wahlberg, and his past. Monaghan was also excited to explore her character’s physicality. “Jessica Morgan is a decathlete. She does the pole vault and whatnot that kind of goes awry in the first [film], but they lean into it in the second.” She credits director Simon Cellan Jones for finding the right balance in the sequel. “He’s a wonderful comedic director, and he really understands tone. Moreover, he really trusts the actors.”…

INITIALLY, KAL PENN WAS HESITANT TO DO A PODCAST BECAUSE “EVERY ACTOR HAS A podcast.” Fortunately for us, he created Here We Go Again, focused on why history keeps repeating itself. “I loved the fact that you could talk about history repeating itself through pop culture, through politics. But it’s not a political podcast by any means.” That said, Penn, an actor who took a break from Hollywood to work in the Obama administration, still very much has a foot in advocacy. “If you wanna go through the death spiral of social media and make yourself anxious,” go for it, he says, but he’s not going to join. Instead, he’s going to invite people to “come knock on doors...it’s gonna move the needle on real conversations.” And one thing fans…

Annie Farmer, a survivor of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, speaks during a candlelight vigil honoring victims of his crimes on Capitol Hill on November 18. Farmer acknowledged Virginia Giuffre, a fellow survivor of Epstein and sexual abuse advocate who died by suicide in April. Earlier that day, both the House and Senate voted to release all documents related to the Epstein investigation. President Donald Trump later signed off the bill, despite earlier opposition to it.…

FOR DECADES, THE PUBLIC FACE OF THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, was one of polished, teetotaling perfection: the perkiness of the Osmond family, missionaries on bicycles and an unwavering, wholesome image. Nowadays, the most visible and defining portrayals of the faith are coming from women on reality TV shows like Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. First among these voices is Heather Gay of RHOSLC. A member of the original cast, Gay has shared her story of leaving the church on the reality series and in her bestselling memoir Bad Mormon, and recently came out with the docuseries Surviving Mormonism on Peacock. “I think women are doing it [appearing on reality…

IT STARTED IN APRIL, JUST AFTER EARTH DAY, WHEN former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, called for a “radical reset” in the way the world tackles climate change. Blair argued that current net-zero strategies were “doomed to fail.” Next came Bill Gates, among the world’s richest men and a major force in clean tech through his Breakthrough Energy investment group. Gates released a memo just before the COP30 climate talks calling for “a different view” and urging leaders to “adjust our strategies” for dealing with climate change. “Climate change is not the biggest threat to the lives and livelihoods of people in poor countries, and it won’t be in the future,” Gates wrote, infuriating many in the climate movement. University of Pennsylvania…

CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT communities, also known as Life Plan Communities, offer a continuum of long-term care designed to meet residents’ evolving needs, from independent and assisted living to skilled nursing and memory care. For many older adults and their families, the ability to remain in one community while accessing higher levels of support is a defining advantage. With a national footprint of roughly 1,900 CCRCs/ Life Plan Communities, the landscape is broad and varied, making it essential to identify communities that consistently deliver quality, safety and resident satisfaction. To help readers navigate those choices, Newsweek and global data intelligence firm Statista are proud to present America’s Best Continuing Care Retirement Communities 2026, recognizing 330 leading facilities across the United States. Each community’s score draws on four data sources. The national…