Newsweek is reporting that Madonna opened the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, surrounded by younger women, in what the outlet described as a meditation on longevity and refusing to accept other people's timetable for one's own departure. It said the 68-year-old pop star's return to the stage she helped make culturally important offered a more interesting possibility than nostalgia or vanity, and drew a parallel to President Donald Trump, who Newsweek said appears to understand that rule unusually well.
Newsweek is also reporting that Trump said Sunday he is "very seriously" considering a ban on American diesel exports. It said on-highway prices hit a record $6.529 a gallon last week.
In a separate item, Newsweek is reporting on the suspected bomb plot at Fairford and whether an Iranian hand was behind it. It said the president will have a sharper case against reluctant allies if so, framing the episode as the NATO test Trump wants.
Newsweek is additionally reporting commentary arguing that Los Angeles is on the cusp of its "Mamdani moment," pointing to Nithya Raman's rise as evidence that an affordability coalition may travel even if governing Los Angeles proves far harder. It also published a piece on what a harrowing 1984 BBC nuclear war drama says about artificial intelligence's Terminator scenario, and a first-person account from a 32-year-old who was told he had months to live after what he thought was a sinus infection.
In a note to readers, Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham said there is no shortage of news but that trustworthy news is harder to find, adding that the outlet follows facts, not factions.