Innholdsfortegnelse for October 24, 2016 i Time Magazine International Edition

Ethiopia declares a six-month state of emergency The Oct. 9 proclamation, from Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, followed waves of violent antigovernment protests from the country’s two largest ethnic groups (the Oromos and the Amharas), who claim they are being politically repressed by the ruling Tigrayans. Chicago averts a teachers’ strike The Chicago Teachers Union and the nation’s third largest school district reached a tentative agreement Oct. 10, after more than a year of negotiations over budgets and pensions. Hungarians fear a media clampdown The abrupt Oct. 8 closure of Hungary’s largest independent newspaper prompted fears of government censorship. Although the paper’s publisher says it was shuttered because of financial losses, opposition parties blamed Prime Minister Viktor Orban. WHO urges countries to tax sugary drinks The World Health Organization’s Oct. 11…

The decision came on Oct. 11, a day after the company halted global sales of the devices amid reports that some were spontaneously catching fire; attempts to rectify the issue were undermined when replacement devices also malfunctioned. Samsung kills Galaxy Note 7 Report links forest fires to climate change Man-made climate change has played a role in doubling the area burned by forest fires in the Western U.S. over the past three decades, according to a new study. It has also lengthened the fire season. Hong Kong lawmakers defy China Three of Hong Kong’s newly elected pro-democracy lawmakers were barred from the legislature on Oct. 12 for intentionally modifying their oaths of office in defiance of Beijing. They will have to be sworn in again later. McDonald’s benches Ronald McDonald…

TABLE MANNERS ARE OFTEN VIEWED as an out-of-date, classist set of rules that have no place in the 21st century. But in his new book, Table Manners: How to Behave in the Modern World and Why Bother, chef Jeremiah Tower argues that knowing how to comport yourself over a meal can still help you get ahead. In some cultures, for example, it’s considered improper to gesture while you eat. Although the rule itself might seem arbitrary, obeying it signals to your dining companion that you respect his culture, an invaluable skill in business dealings. Similarly, knowing how to properly set red and white wineglasses (both on the right side, with the red wineglass closer to the center of the table) could be an easy way to impress a boss who’s…

1 BIRTH CONTROL MAY BE LINKED TO DEPRESSION A study in JAMA Psychiatry found that women using hormonal birth control had an increased risk of receiving treatment for depression. Those on progestin-only pills or IUDs were 34% and 40% more likely, respectively, to begin using antidepressants than women not on birth control. 2 HUMAN LIFE SPAN MIGHT BE CAPPED A study in Nature suggests that the oldest ages reported each year will continue to hover around 115 years and that it may not be possible for anyone to live past 125, because of the wide range of genetic processes that lead to decline. 3 PARENTING IS MORE STRESSFUL FOR MOMS THAN DADS A study in American Sociological Review found that moms were more stressed, fatigued and unhappy than dads during…

Roughly 2,500 years ago, the first great Persian Empire, led by Cyrus the Great, was founded. Over the next several centuries, it grew to dominate a significant portion of the world’s extant population and stretched from western India to the Mediterranean Sea. The inheritors of that imperial Persian tradition are today’s Shi‘ite Iranians, and their present-day ambitions for the Middle East—to deepen their influence across the area—will roil the already tense region deeply over the next few years. While Iran’s path to nuclear armament has been temporarily stalled by a diplomatic agreement, the sanctions relief it negotiated as a result is pouring billions of dollars into its economy. A major part of that money will be used to increase Iranian control over Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and other fragile…

There have been a lot of column inches devoted to the danger of Donald Trump, if elected, becoming a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin itself has peddled this vision of the future in its propaganda, both domestically and in Ukraine. In this scenario, President Trump lifts U.S. sanctions on Russia and recognizes the annexation of Crimea, and the U.S. all but drops out of NATO. It’s a frightening prospect: two world-class bullies becoming best buddies across the ocean. But that is not going to happen—it’ll be worse. Why? First, Russia is effectively in a state of war with the U.S. Its military doctrine, adopted in December 2014, identifies NATO as Russia’s enemy No. 1. Russian propaganda makes clear that by NATO, they mean the U.S. Turn on…

We sometimes forget that America’s character has been forged by calamitous conflict. Subjects against kings. Southerners vs. Northerners. Blue and red. Our most challenging moments—and some of our most regrettable ones—have united us as a people and propelled America toward a renewed commitment to progress. While the narrative of this mad, bad campaign swings from border walls to locker rooms, serious issues like Social Security have been flung into the too-hard-to-tackle basket. Whether you are paying into it or receiving it, it’s an issue that impacts just about everyone, so why is nobody talking about it? I recently convened a focus group of undecided voters in Virginia on behalf of AARP, a group that supports quick action to shore up Social Security. The program matters to these voters—they know it’s…

WE’RE LIVING IN A MOMENT when the challenges facing black folks are becoming more visible. Thanks to cell phones and social media, the entire nation can now see for itself what black folks have been talking about for years—the pain of injustice, the consequences of negative stereotypes. These issues are critical to us, to our families and communities. But no black person wants to be seen merely as a problem to be solved. It’s a conundrum. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to agree to write this column. You want to raise these issues; you don’t want to be synonymous with them. But silence doesn’t fix anything. And there’s plenty to fix. Obviously, I’m very fortunate, but the average black person still faces what you might call a “black tax”…

Recent mass shootings have renewed the debate over gun rights. And every day Americans are killed by accidental gunshots or by weapons that fell into the wrong hands. Here’s a look at gun ownership and gun deaths in the U.S. There were 310 MILLION firearms in the U.S.as of 2009 NOTE: THE BRADY CAMPAIGN’S STATE RANKING EVALUATES EACH STATE ON 33 GUN POLICIES, GUN DEATH RATE AND CRIME-GUN EXPORT RATE. SOURCES: CRS; BRADY CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE; BMJ; CDC; DOJ; PEW RESEARCH CENTER; FBI; GALLUP; GUNVIOLENCEARCHIVE.ORG GUN LAWS are most stringent in California and in the Northeast. States are ranked here on the restrictiveness of their gun laws. GUN OWNERSHIP is higher where gun laws are looser.About half of owners say they own guns for protection, followed by hunting…

 THE PROBLEM of skyrocketing college costs is, by at least some measures, even worse than we thought. The total amount of outstanding student debt has roughly tripled in the past decade, creeping toward $1.3 trillion, and 1 in 10 borrowers is now either delinquent in repayment or already in default. Private investors, and not taxpayers, would take on the risk of coming up short While the biggest burden disproportionately falls on low-income students, especially those attending for-profit universities, college costs have become a problem that both Republican and Democratic politicians can no longer afford to ignore. Here are two relatively novel fixes to the problem. 1 THE DEMOCRATS’ DEBT-FREE COLLEGE The idea was born with Bernie Sanders’ sweeping promise to make college free for everyone. While his plan was short…

The environment rarely polls high as a concern for the American electorate. It’s usually topped by health care, the economy, national security—all of which are valid concerns. But the largest environmental issue—climate change—is altering our voting landscape. There may be no other voting issue that touches so many voters. Are you a health care voter? The mosquitoes that carry malaria, dengue and Zika thrive in a warmer world. Climate change is heating our atmosphere. National-security voter? The American military and security establishment is already studying models of how climate change will exacerbate resource conflicts around the world. Religious-values voter? The worst effects of climate change will be felt by the poor, the dispossessed, those who most need our charity. An economy voter? Clean energy and the technologies that make it…

THE IDEA OF NATIONALISM is at least as old as Genesis, where the sons of Noah divide the earth between them after the flood. But as the presidential campaign has made clear, Americans have not quite settled on what it is that defines us as a nation. Are we defined by openness, a belonging, at least potentially, to people everywhere? Hillary Clinton has advanced that idea throughout the campaign. “We don’t hide from change. We harness it,” she declared in her campaign launch speech. Her vision was of an “inclusive society,” she continued: “What I once called ‘a village’ that has a place for everyone.” Or are we defined, as most nations have been throughout history, by geography and a common culture? Does our nationhood depend on what we keep…

THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) A raucous British rock band births the catchphrase “This one goes to 11” BEST IN SHOW (2000) A group of obsessive canine owners compete for the blue ribbon at a Westminster-like dog show WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1997) Community-theater actors in small-town Missouri fall under the delusion that they have a shot at Broadway A MIGHTY WIND (2003) A fictional crew of obsolete folkies perform hits like the Oscar-nominated “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow”…

KELLY REICHARDT’S FILMS (Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy) can seem like delicate creatures while you’re watching them. Their true sturdiness and depth emerge only after you’ve allowed time for the details to sink in. Reichardt’s latest, Certain Women, connects the daily lives—and the workaday loneliness—of four women in rural Montana: a lawyer (Laura Dern) representing an injured construction worker (Jared Harris) who has already settled his case but can’t let it go; an alienated mother (Reichardt regular Michelle Williams) whose husband (James Le Gros) is building her a dream house, even though he barely understands who she really is; and a shy ranch worker (Lily Gladstone) drawn to the distracted law-school grad (Kristen Stewart) who tools into her town twice a week to teach a night class. Certain Women burns…

 DESPITE ITS NAME, The Walking Dead has never really been about the zombies. From the show’s first episode, in which Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) awakens from a coma to find the world as he knew it overrun by the undead, AMC’s hit drama has actually been character-driven, fueled by the relationships formed among a ragtag group of survivors navigating a post-apocalyptic landscape. But as the show has picked off those characters one by one, it’s veered toward the point of no return. ‘It made me physically sick when I read it, and if we’ve done it right, you will [be] too.’ANDREW LINCOLN, to Variety, about the controversial scene That matters, considering that The Walking Dead has been the top-rated series on television for four years running, earning more than 14…

‘I WANTED TO TAKE THE MASK OFF.’ HARRISON BROWNE, 23-year-old player for the National Women’s Hockey League’s Buffalo Beauts, explaining why he is coming out as transgender; he is believed to be the first openly transgender athlete on a U.S. professional hockey team ‘THE PLACE HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A LAKE OF BLOOD.’ MURAD TAWFIQ, rescuer, describing Sana‘a, the capital of Yemen, after Saudi-led airstrikes hit a funeral hall on Oct. 8, killing at least 100 people and wounding more than 500 GOOD WEEK Ken Bone The Illinois energy worker became a viral star after the debate BAD WEEK Ken Bone The college basketball coach had to repeatedly clarify he is not, in fact, the viral star 2,624.6 Weight, in pounds, of a giant pumpkin harvested by a Belgian grower,…

Pope Francis recently named 17 new Cardinals, including three Americans, who will serve as his primary advisers after their Nov. 19 induction. Like Francis, the trio come from the church’s progressive wing, having spoken for immigrants, women and LGBT Catholics, and their appointment signals a shift toward (relative) liberalism among the U.S. Catholic leadership. —Tara John BLASE CUPICH The Chicago Archbishop supports gun-control laws and called for more outreach to the Catholic LGBT community, which feels alienated from the church. Like the Pope, he has pushed other Archbishops to be a voice for migrants and is open to the possibility of divorced or remarried Catholics’ receiving Communion. JOSEPH TOBIN The Indianapolis Archbishop openly opposed Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s efforts to bar Syrian refugees from being resettled in the state in…

 THE MORNING AFTER BRITONS VOTED TO leave the E.U., there was considerable apprehension across the U.K. Even some who had voted for Brexit did so with confidence that choosing Leave was merely a protest vote and that Remain would carry the day. Obviously they were wrong, but there was considerable relief when the immediate economic fallout from the vote appeared less damaging than feared. International markets came to understand that negotiations over the terms of exit and Britain’s future relations with the E.U. would take at least two years, and probably longer. Many hoped that their fears about Brexit had been exaggerated. Markets look set to punish the U.K. Investors don’t like bad news, and they hate uncertainty In the weeks following the vote, speculation centered on how Britain might…

WON Nobel Peace Prize, by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, for his “resolute” efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end. Santos said he would donate the almost $1 million in prize money to the victims of the conflict. The status of Colombia’s peace effort is in limbo after voters narrowly rejected on Oct. 2 a treaty to end the war. Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, by Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström, for their contributions to contract theory, the study of how people and companies make legal agreements. RETIRED David Ortiz, 40, after 14 seasons with the Boston Red Sox. Affectionately known as Big Papi, he was a 10-time All-Star and was on three World Series champion rosters. DIED Andrzej Wajda, 90, acclaimed Polish filmmaker.…

 ISSUES IN A PRESIDENTIAL-ELECTION year are often like the fat books that we’re glad to own but don’t plan to read. Voters say they crave substance, a campaign focused less on the cartoon-character smackdown and more on the small-print spreadsheets of serious policy positions. Candidates offer “platforms,” a metaphor reinforcing the myth that their proposals are the structural foundation on which their presidency will be built. And most voters say that policy matters more than personality when they cast their ballots. The drama of this campaign has been more memorable than the ideas. But whoever wins eventually has to govern But watch what we do, not what we say. The least substantive campaign in modern history has drawn the most massive audience. A Pew survey in July found that more…

THE ARRAY OF terrorist actors is broader, wider and deeper than it has been at any time since Sept. 11, 2001. While I have great confidence in the U.S. counterterrorism architecture built in the past 15 years and the professionals we have trained, this is certainly a sobering state of affairs. In the current environment, terrorist threats to the homeland typically take two forms. On one end of the spectrum, Americans face complex plots driven by known terrorist groups—including ISIS—that can take months or years to materialize. In my view, the U.S. is well postured to defend against these kinds of attacks. On the other end of the spectrum, we face a growing number of potential attacks by what we call homegrown violent extremists. These individuals are frequently lone actors…

ONE OF THE REASONS I ran for President was because, for decades, the economy had been changing, and Washington hadn’t done enough to make it work for working Americans. Everywhere I went, it seemed like our economy’s basic bargain—if you work hard, you can get ahead—had frayed. The good news is, policy proves we can make a difference. In 2015, the typical household saw its income rise by $2,800. That’s a 5% gain—the fastest rate on record. And 3.5 million Americans climbed out of poverty—the most in one year since the 1960s. Changes to tax policy under my Administration helped ensure the 1% pay a fairer share. But they also increased the share of income going to everyone else by more than the tax changes of any other Administration since…

NEW OPPORTUNITIES 69% Percentage of people with a college degree or higher who think U.S. involvement in the global economy is “good” because it provides access to new markets and growth. Only 41% of those with a high school diploma or less hold the same view. LOSING JOBS AND WAGES 55% Percentage of those with a high school diploma or less who agree that U.S. involvement in a global economy is “bad” because it lowers wages and eliminates jobs in the U.S. Just 28% of those with a college degree feel the same. STAYING COMPETITIVE 48% Percentage of Clinton supporters who think the U.S.is making progress overall, compared with 4% of Trump supporters. 72% of Trump supporters think the U.S. is falling behind, vs. 23% of Clinton supporters. SOURCE: TIME/SURVEYMONKEY…

The prescription-opioid epidemic is one of the most urgent public-health challenges of our time. Since 1999, overdose deaths have quadrupled, which parallels the quantity of opioids prescribed. The majority of prescription opioids that are being misused are coming not from people buying them off the street but from legally written prescriptions. In 2012, enough prescriptions were written for every American adult to have a bottle of pills. The addiction to prescription opioids is also leading to increased use of heroin and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Despite these grim statistics, there are many reasons to be hopeful. Communities across the country are taking steps to turn the tide. In Seattle I met with police officers who are part of a bike unit and have recently started carrying naloxone—a…

DURING THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE on Oct. 4, as Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence tussled over immigration plans, one of the candidates said the words criminal aliens seven times. The other described immigrants who had come to the U.S. illegally as “people . . . who are here without documents.” Can you guess who said which? Sure. Political language is packed with code words, sometimes known as dog whistles. “The idea,” says sociolinguist Ben Zimmer, “is it’s speaking to a particular audience that’s supposed to pick up on a frequency that others won’t hear.” Often these terms say not much on the surface, but underneath attempt to speak to the real issue at stake. When Pence hammers on about “criminal aliens,” the immigration debate is about safety. When Kaine…

A PAIR OF RUNAWAY SLAVES fleeing the antebellum South, arriving in Boston. A family of Jews fleeing the Third Reich, arriving in New York. A baby boy fleeing the destruction of his home world of Krypton, arriving in Kansas. Most Americans know what must be done with such people. They must be taken in. Given a chance. Allowed to become an equal part of the American story. How many Americans today would think it right to send the slaves back to the plantation, the Jews back to Europe, the infant Superman back into space? The very idea seems abominable, absurd—un-American. Why, then, is there such an outcry over accepting refugees from places like Syria? From places that have been bombed into rubble or fallen under the control of psychopathic, sadistic,…

A man from ancient Rome said it was better to know nothing about a subject than to half-know it. I’m worried that this Republic of ours is set on proving his wisdom all over again. Only, we aren’t even bothering to know 50% of what’s going on. Seems to me we’re mostly satisfied with understanding about 10% of something before we grow bored and turn to the next thing. I say this based on what I know about the most important knowledge-building habit we have: reading. We’re becoming a nation of functional illiterates scattered along the tracks, incapable of pursuing a train of thought for more than minutes at a time. The annual survey on time use by the Bureau of Labor Statistics put some proof to something I think…

FOR MONTHS, Republican Senators have obstinately refused to consider Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Senator Mitch McConnell set this strategy in motion mere hours after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, when he issued a statement declaring that he would not allow the vacancy to be filled during the remainder of President Obama’s term. This unprecedented obstructionism has ensured that the future of the Supreme Court is at stake on Nov. 8. As vividly confirmed by the series of tie votes on important issues during the court’s latest term (including the Administration’s policy of providing immigration-law relief to alien parents of U.S. citizens), the eight Justices now sitting on the court are locked in a state of jurisprudential and ideological equipoise. So the person who fills Scalia’s seat…

There’s always been something special about the United States of America. President Abraham Lincoln called us the “last, best hope of earth.” President Ronald Reagan said we are a “shining city on a hill.” And Robert Kennedy called us a great, unselfish, compassionate country. I couldn’t agree more. If there’s one core belief that has guided and inspired me every step of my career in public service, it’s this: the U.S. is an exceptional nation. And when you add up all our advantages, it’s clear we’re indispensable too—a nation all others look to for leadership. America is indispensable in part because we have the greatest military in history, with the best troops, training and technology. And it’s essential we do everything we can to support our men and women in…

The British-born actor, 34, gives an award-worthy performance in Christine (Oct. 14), director Antonio Campos’ harrowing reimagining of the final days of Florida TV news anchor Christine Chubbuck, who shot herself during a live broadcast in 1974. What was your first reaction upon encountering this material? People fall into two camps: Either you hear about the story of Christine and you go, “That’s a frightening, horrible thing—she must have been a monster.” Or you’re curious and vaguely sympathetic. You must have fallen into the second camp. I thought, Wait a minute. It’s about mental-health issues, but there’s something brutally relatable here, because you’re looking at a woman who is a misfit, and weird. Often that’s portrayed as cool and hip, but it’s so rare, especially for a woman, for that…

1. “BE RIGHT BACK” A woman (Hayley Atwell) who loses her boyfriend signs up for a service that will cull his online presence to re-create him 2. “THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF YOU” An implant allows humans to rewind and replay anything they’ve ever seen, wreaking havoc on personal relationships 3. “WHITE CHRISTMAS” Jon Hamm plays a consultant who helps men pick up women through a device that allows him to hear what the client hears and see what he sees 4. “THE NATIONAL ANTHEM” Terrorists kidnap a princess and demand that the Prime Minister have sex with a pig on national television for her return…

WHEN ANOTHER SON WENT OFF TO COLLEGE THIS PAST summer, I made it clear that I required four things of him: 1. Eat vegetables 2. Get good grades 3. Make friends 4. Register to vote My son is going to school in Pennsylvania, so that last requirement was particularly important, even if he does think battleground state has something to do with Gettysburg, or maybe the Steelers and the Eagles. In the suburban town where my son grew up, there is a charming tradition in which the elementary-school kids get to cast ballots alongside their parents whenever the school budget is up for a vote. The stakes of the two electoral contests seem to be equally weighty: an approved school budget vs. reduced investment in the next generation’s education; pajama…

EVERY DAY AMERICAN PILOTS fly scores of sorties against terrorist targets in Syria. And on every mission, the pilots watch their instruments for signs that one of the Syrian government’s thousands of surface-to-air missiles, including Russian batteries possibly manned by Russian military advisers, is preparing to blow them out of the sky. The pilots aren’t the only ones worrying. The dangerous consequences of an accidental U.S.-Russian confrontation in Syria are front of mind for senior American officials right now—over the past two weeks, relations with Moscow have taken a sharp and accelerating turn for the worse around the world. Russia has deployed nuclear-capable forces to the Mediterranean and to the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, a Russian province separated since 1945 from the motherland by Poland and Lithuania, two NATO allies.…

SOMETIMES IT TAKES A GROUP of economists to confirm reality. Last year, a team of German academics released a study on the effects of major financial crises on politics, examining 800 elections over 140 years in 20 advanced economies. They found that after such crises, right-wing populist parties and politicians typically increase their vote share by about 30%. (The same isn’t true in the wake of more mild recessions.) If that sounds familiar, it’s because we are living through a season of the very same: persistent economic malaise since the 2008 crisis—punctuated by scandal after scandal—has laid bare the ways in which elites collude to create a system that mostly benefits elites. Since 2010, there have been major scandals at banks on nearly every continent for every reason: malfeasance, incompetence,…

IT’S COMMON FOR ADULTS TO FEEL LIKE we’re drowning in judgment—“You’re not famous enough,” “You’re not smart enough,” “You’re not thin enough.” The weight of these appraisals, from others and from ourselves, can prevent us from looking at the world as a child might, as a place of wonder and new possibilities. This, in turn, keeps us from accessing the state of mind that stands at the root of creativity: playfulness. When a child is engaged in play, she is taking material from her inner reality, or dreamworld, and placing it into what we might call the real world. Very young children don’t think about the consequences or how they might be perceived; they just play. Studies have shown that when we fully immerse ourselves in joyous doing—as opposed to…

IN THE MIDST OF OUR BOUNTIFUL OCTOBER HARVEST OF Trump grotesqueries, the Russians and Julian Assange organized a WikiLeaks dump of private emails from the Clinton campaign. These revealed a shocking and scandalous fact about the former Secretary of State: she is a politician. Indeed, the documents represent one of the most reassuring moments of this calamitous campaign. The overwhelming impression is of the candidate’s and her staff’s competence and sanity—and something more: a refreshing sense of reality about the vagaries of politics. The headline revelation came from one of Clinton’s paid speeches. Clinton said it was necessary for politicians to have a “public and private position” on many issues. Gotcha! And even though Clinton had difficulty defending herself on this in the second debate, she’s absolutely right. In one…

BEIJING Donald Trump bashes China. So why does the Global Times, a Communist party-linked Chinese daily, contend that many Chinese prefer Trump? “Just like some American voters, the Chinese public likes the idea of a new face in politics who is not a traditional politician,” says Wang Yiwei, a professor of international politics at Renmin University. Besides, Hillary Clinton has long stood up to the Chinese government. “She is always criticizing China,” says Wang, “for human rights or something else.” —Hannah Beech LONDON There is Trumpism in Britain: T-shirts bearing his face and “Make Britain Great Again” baseball caps were worn openly at September’s conference of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party. But while most Britons are repelled by Trump, Clinton’s candidacy seems less than historic to a nation already on…

SHIPPING Ninety percent of all we use—shirts, phones, disposable coffee cups and the beans therein—have traveled around the world on ships burning one of the dirtiest fuels by the ton. According to Edward Humes, author of Door to Door, 160 of these ships create the same amount of smog and particulate pollution as all the cars in the world. The fleet is 6,000 large. CHARTER SCHOOLS A recent Brookings Institute study of Massachusetts lottery charter programs found that urban schools cut the racial achievement gap by a third in a year and, as is the trend in cities nationwide, raised the test scores and college-attendance rates of disadvantaged students (though only them). GERRYMANDERING In 2012, Democrats received 1.4 million more votes than Republicans for the House of Representatives. Yet the…

Americans are famous for working hard. Sometimes, though, life needs to take priority over work, and the U.S. is notoriously lacking in policies that support employees who need to take time off when it does. We are the only developed country in the world that doesn’t provide paid leave for new parents, but childbirth is just one of many reasons Americans might need to take leave. More than 25 million American workers care for an aging friend or relative. Our own health isn’t always perfect either, no matter what age we are. But if fulfilling our obligations to ourselves and our loved ones requires an extended absence from work, we’re often on our own. We save up vacation days to stay home with a new baby. We lean on friends…

While most politicians speak favorably about infrastructure projects, funding them is a different story. That’s why cash-strapped cities and states are struggling to maintain the bridges, tunnels and roads that citizens count on. Federal funds are shrinking too. Take the federal Highway Trust Fund. It routinely runs dry because its primary funding—a tax on gasoline—hasn’t kept up with inflation since 1994. Historically, major investments like the transcontinental railroad and interstate highways stemmed from obvious public need. But today’s vital need is routine upkeep, which is easy to ignore—until something goes wrong. INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING Transportation and water projects accounted for 2.7% of total federal spending in recent years—less than half of its peak of almost 6% in 1965 The U.S. ranked 19 TH in transport infrastructure spending as a percentage of…

Racism should be a core concern for all Americans, in every area of our lives. Implicit bias—our subconscious associations of race—permeates everything that we do. And we must pursue systemic accountability to fix it. The next President must apply the lens of race to all core issues, including health care, immigration, jobs, criminal justice, climate change and education, and create a Cabinet-level position dedicated to racial equality and justice. More immediately, however, we must address the problems with race and policing. The killing of unarmed black people is the most egregious example of the dehumanization of black lives in the U.S., which has left too many black people devalued, disregarded and disposable. Here are four main steps the next President must take to address this. First, we must defund police…

PRO-LIFE/PRO-CHOICE HOMO- SEXUAL ISLAMOPHOBIA UNDOCUMENTED/ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SKEPTIC/ DENIER 2000 The AP recommends chucking the terms pro-life and pro-choice, terms charged by their respective sides in the debate, in favor of the more direct anti-abortion and pro–abortion rights. 2006 The AP identifies gay as a preferred term. Homosexual, a word popularized by psychologists in a time when being gay was seen as a disease, can have derogatory clinical connotations. 2012 The AP adds an entry for the suffix -phobia, saying it’s not appropriate for social or political contexts. Words like Islamophobia can suggest that someone has an irrational fear that qualifies as a mental illness. In general, the Stylebook tries to eschew labels in favor of details. 2013 The phrases illegal immigrant and undocumented immigrant both go by the wayside.…

ON THE OCCASIONAL clear-frost autumn night, my dog takes the opportunity to remind me that she is not a dog. Bewitched by sounds that I cannot hear and by smells that I cannot imagine, she plants her four feet stolidly apart and raises her head up toward the treetops. Through her slack jaw she emanates a long, low, warbling bellow that echoes across the empty wood. After the last note fades, she is herself again and comes tripping back to my side. I rub her head and continue hiking through the dark forest with my GMO wolf. Yes, my best friend is a genetically modified organism; deliberate selection has produced the blunt-toothed, small-pawed wonder that walks by my side. Millennia passed as the most trusting puppy was selected from the…

The arc of a presidency is hard to predict. In December 2000, historian Michael Beschloss proclaimed that the election of George W. Bush “marks the end of what the great historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once called the ‘imperial presidency.’” Then came the 9/11 attacks, and Bush’s transformation from a modest executive as Texas governor with no foreign policy experience into a prerogative-wielding war President. Barack Obama promised retrenchment but expanded presidential war and administrative powers. Bush and Obama were not the first Presidents to defy expectations and become aggressive presidentialists once in office. Jefferson, Lincoln, Eisenhower and Nixon, among others, did the same. With Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, by contrast, we expect robust presidentialism. These wolves come as wolves, as Justice Antonin Scalia once said—though as different subspecies. Trump…

EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING about the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery—or about the criminal-justice system—there will be something in Ava DuVernay’s succinct, passionate documentary 13th to make your jaw drop. Although the amendment guarantees freedom for all citizens “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” its meaning has been willfully distorted: mass incarceration, unreasonable drug laws and police brutality have become Jim Crow–like means to control the lives of people of color. The chances that a white man will go to prison at some point in his life are 1 in 17. For black men, that statistic is 1 in 3, according to the film. DuVernay has assembled a persuasive group of experts—including Angela Davis and Henry Louis Gates Jr.—…

MOVIES In South Korean director Park Chanwook’s erotic thriller The Handmaiden (Oct. 21), a con man and a pickpocket try to trick a sheltered heiress out of her fortune—but it soon becomes unclear who’s getting fooled. MUSIC On Mad Love (Oct. 14), her first album in a decade, former teen-pop chart topper JoJo serves up a more grownup sound with soulful songs about intoxicating romances and self-empowerment. BOOKS In Who Killed These Girls? (Oct. 11), Beverly Lowry unravels the unsolved murders, and subsequent botched investigation, of four teenagers in a Texas yogurt shop in 1991. TELEVISION Berlin Station, premiering Oct. 16 on Epix, stars Rhys Ifans and Richard Armitage as CIA agents in Berlin coping with leaks of classified information.…

 Taco Bell Canada is transforming one of its Ontario stores into an Airbnb for one night to celebrate the launch of its new Steak Doubledilla. The so-called SteakCation will include a personal taco butler. ‘I’m glad I’m bringing a ray of sunshine to an otherwise dull day, being imagined eating fritters shirtless.’ Benedict Cumberbatch said he’s generally amused by the attention he receives online, even when it results in bizarre comments and memes: Toy company Funko is releasing Golden Girls action figures, which will be sold exclusively at New York Comic Con. Lady Gaga is doing a tour of dive bars to promote her new album, Joanne. Pope Francis was photo-bombed by a smiling dog while meeting with a canine training group outside the Vatican in St. Peter’s Square. Starbucks…

 You’re an antiwar socialist leading Western Europe’s largest political party. Are you part of a global anti­establishment phenomenon? It’s not about me personally, it’s about a rejection of the neoliberal consensus by a lot of people all over the world. Europe and the U.S. were the last to wake up to this. ‘[There’s been] a rejection of the neoliberal consensus by a lot of people all over the world. Europe and the U.S. were the last to wake up to this.’ Your former Labour Party colleague David Miliband says you’re making the party “unelectable.” How can you win in 2020? We are reaching out to people who are disillusioned with politics because of the lack of distance between the Labour and Conservative parties. We are very enthusiastically mobilizing a lot…