Innholdsfortegnelse for May 1, 2017 i Time Magazine International Edition

Within the climate-change movement there are advocates, there are policymakers and there are scientists—experts who roll up their sleeves and dedicate themselves to finding solutions to our world’s most dire crisis. And among the scientists are those who commit their lives and their careers to identifying the most impactful changes we can make. Guus Velders is such a scientist. An atmospheric chemist, he has spent his life exploring how small and extremely common pollutants have the power to harm our natural world. His work was central to a global deal on reducing hydrofluorocarbons from air conditioners, and his findings encouraged an industry to develop less-harmful materials. Both were major, practical steps in the right direction. People around the world increasingly understand that climate change is the defining issue of our…

It can be easy to forget that until recently, HIV was a disease you didn’t talk about. Ironically, that’s what inspired Dr. Glenda Gray to study the virus in the first place. As a young medical student who fought to desegregate hospitals in apartheid-era South Africa, she was alarmed when she started seeing babies dying of a virus that her own government claimed wasn’t causing AIDS. That’s when the pediatrician in training learned firsthand that with HIV, you’re fighting a battle on two fronts: you’re up against a vicious virus—and the stigma that allowed it to proliferate, unchecked, for so long. Gray decided to fight the virus and the silence around it through research. Thanks in part to her work on mother-to-child transmission, the number of babies born with HIV…

Years ago, my grandmother asked me to call her friend’s grandson. “I want you to give him some words of encouragement,” she said. “He wants to be a rapper.” She gave me his number, and I left him a message. I told him to keep following his dreams. Then I forgot all about it. Years later, my teenage daughter played me a new mixtape she loved from an artist named Chance the Rapper. There was something unique and soulful about it—I could tell he really knew hip-hop. And when I first met him, I realized that he knew me too. “You won’t remember this,” he said, “but you called me when I was a kid.” Chance upends expectations about what artists, especially hip-hop artists, can do. He streams his albums…

While the world has come to know Ivanka Trump as the nation’s First Daughter—as well as an entrepreneur and a devoted wife and mother—I have had the privilege of calling her my dear friend for 12 years. We met as neighbors in New York City and quickly grew close. As modern working moms, we have faced many of the same challenges and joys, and she has become a trusted counsel in my life. Ivanka continues to earn my respect and admiration for how she has chosen to use her new visibility. She has long advocated to empower women and girls and is now leading education initiatives and working to put an end to human trafficking. I am deeply impressed by her courage to leave behind life as she knew it…

From the minute he stepped onto the Dear Evan Hansen stage, I knew there was something different about Ben Platt. His speech pattern had such a unique rhythm, and his singing—it’s rare to hear a voice with such range, tone and pitch that can also convey complicated emotions musically. I wanted to give him a standing ovation after his first song. Dear Evan Hansen tells a very particular story about teen suicide and anxiety. But because of the way Ben brings Evan to life, that story becomes instantly relatable for any person who has ever felt conflicting emotions without having an outlet. His performance brought me back to a sensitive place. It was almost difficult to watch, because it hit so close to home. When I met Ben backstage, I…

As a young, precocious redheaded boy growing up in Framlingham, Suffolk, Ed Sheeran decided he wanted to be a musician. He started writing songs and playing instruments like so many hopefuls do, but something very different happened that would set in motion one of the most impressive self-made careers in music. Whether by choice or an unconscious evolution, when he decided on his musical ambitions, Ed became less of a boy and more of a tank. He is protected by an impenetrable and ever-present armor of enthusiasm that has helped him endure any setback, letdown or underestimation. His reaction to any idea that fails is to almost immediately come up with a new one. He’s like a fighter who pops back up on his feet before you even noticed he’d…

Can the name be real? It is such a perfect movie-star name, like something that could be on a ’40s marquee. How fitting, then, that Ryan Reynolds has the same loose-limbed charm as Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. He’s the Everyman, but somehow with more of everything: wit, elegance, looks and general hunkiness. Of course, in the real world—for us, this was often at 6 a.m. in a makeup trailer—Ryan is also rumpled, kind, committed and generous, especially to women. He likes them in the most simple, direct, unadorned way: for their humanity. (How very appropriate that he is the father of two girls.) He has a natural wit, which he often turns on himself, and he can balance his private and public life with great dexterity. He is open…

When Donald Glover started as a staff writer on 30 Rock, he was still living as an RA in a dorm at New York University. He worked hard and contributed a lot of good jokes. After a few years, he requested a meeting with me and fellow producer Robert Carlock. Donald was grateful for the opportunity but felt like he should leave to pursue acting. Of the many writers who have suggested this over the past 20 years, Donald is the only one with whom I’ve ever agreed. One hundred percent, he should go be a star. Now Donald is serving you best-case-scenario millennial realness. He embodies his generation’s belief that people can be whatever they want and change what it is they want, at any time. When you’re tired…

When I first met Ava DuVernay, I had no idea how great an impact she would have on my life—and on so many other lives as well. But by the time I found out that she wanted to do a program with me, the “Venus Vs.” episode of Nine for IX, I didn’t need much convincing. If you have a chance to work with Ava, you do it right away. Ava’s point of view is fresh, it’s inspiring, it’s original, it makes people’s heads turn. But she also embraces other people’s perspectives. When we worked together, Ava was able to integrate herself into my life and see things through my eyes. It takes a very special person to do something like that. Ava makes it her mission to tell important…

When someone is as unique and unboxable as Sarah Paulson, it takes time for creative spaces to open up that are large and porous enough to hold the depth and complexity of her talent. In remaining true to her distinct voice, she has been at the forefront of a generation of women who are changing the landscape of the film and television industry. She has played everything from a two-headed circus performer (American Horror Story: Freak Show) to an unflappable Marcia Clark (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story). Ryan Murphy, who cast Sarah on these shows, has played no small part in cracking open the shell of a rare pearl. I, too, have had the privilege of working with Sarah. When I first met her, on the set…

I first met Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in 1992 when he was Minister of Trade. Appointed as his adviser, I soon realized that he had set himself up to an impossible mission. While Colombia was waging a dire war against the drug cartels, Santos was looking beyond. Amid death, corruption and political divisions, I remember him saying, “We need to add, not subtract.” This could well be the parable of his life. Throughout his career, he carefully avoided graduating his adversaries into enemies—and his enemies into bitter foes. Years later, when then Defense Minister Santos greeted me back to freedom in 2008, he was not only inflicting major defeats on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) but also winning their respect. Last year Santos received the Nobel Peace…

From her early years on the Lazy B ranch in Arizona to her role as the first woman on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor has personified the American pioneer. She secured a central role on the court by blending determination with a politician’s skill at bringing people together. Yet she will claim that her most important work began when she stepped down, in 2006. Sandra wanted to make civic education relevant to young people, and she knew that in order to engage them, she had to make it fun. And so in 2009 she founded iCivics, a nonprofit that uses video games to teach middle and high school students how America’s democracy works. Once again, Sandra became a pioneer. Under her leadership, iCivics has grown into America’s largest civic-learning…

He always finds a way to get it done. When so many, including me at times, didn’t see how he could pull it off, Donald Trump won a historic victory. And in becoming the 45th President of the United States, he completely rewrote the rules of politics and reset the course of this country. A businessman always willing to challenge convention, he has shaken up Washington and laid out an agenda of generational proportions. Never afraid of a battle, he has made it his mission to fight for those who feel forgotten. Where others would pivot, he stays true to who he is. Where others would turn back, he forges ahead. Up close, I have found a driven, hands-on leader, with the potential to become a truly transformational American figure.…

Jim Mattis is a worthy successor to the only previous general officer to serve as Secretary of Defense, General George C. Marshall. Mat-tis shares Marshall’s deep knowledge of history, his strategic vision, his appreciation of both America’s national interests and its values, his tough-mindedness about policies and people, and his integrity. Like Marshall, Mattis is also unafraid to speak truth to power. As Secretary of Defense, I recommended Jim Mattis to take charge of both Joint Forces Command and Central Command. His tasks were challenging: he had to dismantle the former, and he oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I never worried about him sugarcoating his message to me or others. Finally, Jim Mattis loves the troops. He will do what is necessary to protect the country, and…

‘YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO BE MISUNDERSTOOD IF YOU’RE GOING TO INNOVATE.’ JEFF BEZOS I feel a special space kinship with Jeff Bezos—albeit one grounded not here on Earth, but far away on the moon. Jeff has told me that while I stood in that magnificent desolation in July 1969, he was all of 5 years old and yet firmly fixed on our Apollo 11 journey. In my recent visit to his Blue Origin rocket company near Seattle, nearly 50 years after my moonwalk, I was heartened to see a space-geek extraordinaire become a passionate patron of helping to shape the future of America’s space program via his entrepreneurial spunk, imagination and, yes, willingness to put dollars where his dreams are. We’ve seen him do this before. Bezos is…

Rebekah Mercer is a warrior and a patriot. She is the daughter of a brilliant mathematician and tremendously successful investor, and blessed with her own deep intelligence and intuitive insight, and it would have been simple for her to have settled into a life of comfort and ease. But Bekah cares too much about freedom and our nation to do so. Instead, she and her father, Bob, have invested generously in helping fuel a political revolution. Their approach is multifaceted. From think tanks to public-policy organizations to online media to path-breaking data analytics, Bekah has helped transform the world of politics. She understands the populist frustration with the bipartisan corruption in Washington, and she is one of the strongest champions of draining the swamp. And she has helped fund upstart…

IT IS SAFE FOR AMERICANS TO “FEEL GOOD” ABOUT THE ECONOMY, YELLEN SAID IN MARCH Janet Yellen, the first woman to hold what is often viewed as the most important and powerful economic position in the world, has wielded that power deftly, with a sure but steady hand, during an enormously difficult time. With a less skilled leader, the Fed might have become fractious and divided. Instead, with both labor and capital markets deeply troubled, she brought an expertise in these aspects of economics based on a deep theoretical grounding obtained at Yale (confession: James Tobin and I were among her advisers). And more than perhaps any other central banker, she brought a sensitivity to the key issue of our day, inequality, grasping that Fed macro and regulatory policies can…

Daniel Ek is a tech pioneer. Through his music-streaming service, Spotify, which now has more than 100 million users, he and his team have helped transform the way people listen to music and the way artists interact with fans. Spotify was launched just as I was starting my own career, so you might even say that we’ve grown up together. As an artist, it’s become another way that I can connect with my fans. And as a fan myself, being able to have virtually the entire history of recorded music at my fingertips is phenomenal. I don’t know what the future of music holds, but I bet Daniel’s a big part of it. Sheeran is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter…

‘I TRULY BELIEVE THAT THE PRIVILEGE OF A LIFETIME IS BEING WHO YOU ARE.’ VIOLA DAVIS When you spend your life embodying other lives, if you are successful, the one that belongs to you can silently slip behind. But Viola Davis’ hard-won, midlife rise to the very top of her profession has not led her to forget the rough trip she took getting there. And that is why she embodies for all women, but especially for women of color, the high-wire rewards of hard work and a dream, risk and faith. Viola has carved a place for herself on the Mount Rushmore of the 21st century—new faces emerging from a neglected mountain. And when she tells the story of how she got from where she was to where she is,…

GRAHAM IS THE FIRST SIZE-16 MODEL TO APPEAR ON THE COVERS OF VOGUE AND SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’S SWIMSUIT ISSUE Every inch of Ashley Graham’s face tells the story of beauty—inside and out. Every word she speaks shouts to all who lack faith in their reflections. Every Graham of her body embraces anyone who ever doubted themselves. Ashley’s firsts will last in our minds forever, permanently imprinted in our skulls that all of our beauty matters. Yes, Ashley. You did that. And I am beyond proud, in admiration and in awe of your power and influence over so many people’s self-worth. It is time for everyone to bow down to the fashion industry’s—no, make that beauty’s—new queen. Banks is an entrepreneur and the host…

The victim, the psycho bitch, the good wife. Lady readers will know what I mean when I say we are supposed to embody these roles, but unknowingly, so as not to ruin the mood. It’s this mood that Cindy Sherman’s role-playing self-portraits have disrupted and repurposed over the past 40 years. Her photographs always beguile at first—She’s so pretty! So sad! So crazy!—but in the next moment we remember, “She” took this picture. She knows. This has never felt more subversive than in Sherman’s most recent works. Rather than playing a young ingenue from a vintage film, as she often has, she portrays richly costumed older women in the 1920s, perhaps trying to imitate the starlets of the day. Sherman chases youth backward through time to create an astoundingly complex…

The first thing I noticed when I met Fan Bingbing was her inner strength, which was exuded so effortlessly it was difficult to take my eyes off her. I am not the only one. A giant star in mainland China, Fan Bingbing has also made her mark in Hollywood as Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past. And her innate sense of style has made her a natural to represent global brands. She is also a woman who knows her own strength. Not only is Fan Bingbing a brilliant actor, but she is also a formidable businesswoman. She’s one of the world’s highest-paid female actors, she has created her own studio to make her own films and develop other projects, and still she finds time for philanthropy, co-founding Heart Ali…

Speaking truth to power is never easy. It’s even harder when the whole country is watching. Gretchen Carlson’s very public stand against Fox News blew the lid off a corporate culture that seemed to perpetuate sexual harassment—from the executive suite to the anchor desk. Gretchen had her own Howard Beale moment: she was mad as hell and she wasn’t going to take it anymore. Her resolve led to the downfall of one of the most powerful men in media, Roger Ailes. Now Gretchen is shining a light on the fine print in employment contracts that force victims into arbitration and secret settlements, leaving the public in the dark. In addition to putting more women in positions of power and replacing the word troublemaker with truth teller, Gretchen also wants men…

Guatemala has long been held back by a culture of graft. It’s through the efforts of people like Thelma Aldana that the country’s battle against impunity is being fought with new intensity. As Attorney General of Guatemala, Aldana uncovered a corrupt network within its customs agency siphoning off millions and involving every level of government. She worked closely with the U.N.’s International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala on the ensuing investigation, known as La Línea (The Line) to identify who among the political and economic elite was involved. The trail led all the way to President Otto Pérez Molina, who was impeached and arrested and is now facing trial for fraud. La Línea sparked the biggest demonstrations ever known in Guatemala and set an important example for countries in Central…

Some families have emergency plans for fires, earthquakes or tornadoes. Jeanette Vizguerra’s family had an emergency plan for a dreaded knock at the door. If U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to her home, her children knew to film the encounter, alert friends and family and hide in the bedroom. The Vizguerra family lived in terror of being ripped apart by deportation. Jeanette moved to the U.S.to be a janitor, working as an outspoken union organizer and building her own company before becoming an advocate for immigration reform—a bold and risky thing for an undocumented immigrant. After fighting off deportation for eight years, she decided to go public with her story and sought refuge in the basement of a Denver church. The current Administration has scapegoated immigrants, scaring Americans…

“I’M LONELY HERE,” BEE HAS JOKED OF BEING THE ONLY FEMALE HOST OF A LATE-NIGHT TELEVISION SHOW Oh, how I love Samantha Bee! She is a tiny package of fire and kittens. She purrs and she burns. She can run with the boys and doesn’t have to wear an industrial-strength bra. And as the host of TBS’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, she has given voice to all the women who have wanted to take on the political establishment—women like me. But unlike me, she has the courage and the ability to plant those little feet, lean just slightly into the camera and fire off a staggering spray of machine-gun bullet points laced with delicious asides for color. She is as smart as a whip and, as far as I’m…

Constance Wu is a great actor. The anxious, steely, often lost-in-translation young matriarch she plays on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat is an invention as sharp and expansive as Lucille Ball’s alternative persona (only could Lucy do the accent?). But Constance also knows that—as one of the only actors to portray Asian-American womanhood on television—she is tasked with being more than just an actor. And she takes this second gig just as seriously. On the road with her for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I was not only able to access a glint of Constance’s humor (the girl is very wicked) but also witness her giving nature, her monstrously big heart, her passion for change and the careful way she lets everyone around her share the challenges of their own identity. This…

Never before had a mosquito bite been found to cause a birth defect, but after a string of troubling encounters with her patients, Dr. Celina Turchi knew something was wrong. An infectious-disease specialist in Recife, Brazil—which was the epicenter of the first major outbreak of Zika-associated microcephaly—Turchi worked around the clock, missing meals and sleep to figure out what was going on. She understood that this was a global crisis requiring global collaboration, so she reached out to experts from around the world, facilitated their work and collaboration in Brazil and openly shared what she and her colleagues were finding so that the world could learn about this unprecedented threat. Turchi’s studies were part of an emergency investigation that ultimately proved that Zika does indeed cause microcephalysomething many skeptics doubted.…

At least a decade ahead of expectations, Demis Hassabis and his team at DeepMind created AlphaGo, a software program that defeated Lee Sedol, one of the world’s best players, at the complex game of Go. This represents a historic milestone for artificial intelligence. Demis is one of the leading scientists creating AI breakthroughs, with three Nature papers in the past two years. He believes, as I do, that AI will help solve humanity’s grand challenges—alleviating poverty, curing disease and improving the environment. Of equal importance, however, Demis is deeply committed to keeping AI safe. Every technology since fire has intertwined promise and peril. Demis has been a leader in establishing ethical guidelines to keep AI accountable. If we achieve this vision, it’s likely Demis will have played a large part.…

Of The Exorcist, James Baldwin once wrote, “I was most concerned with the audience. I wondered what they were seeing, and what it meant to them.” Sitting in a crowded theater, I wonder the same as I take in Jordan Peele’s astonishing Get Out. In the shifting laughter lacing the room, at once rancorous, nervous, defensive and, yes, knowing, a cinema maxim is turned on its head—rather than presenting us a mirror, this multi-hyphenate auteurist shows us more of ourselves than we ever wanted to see, a window through which America is left no choice but to recognize the purgatory of her own sunken place. This isn’t new for Jordan. Alongside Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele, he’s used comedy to shed light on the murky detritus of American exceptionalism…

1. NATALIE BATALHA’S Globe of Kepler-10b “Oftentimes, the planets we discover are just numbers on a computer screen,” says the NASA scientist. “But when artists render them, as one did here, it brings them to life, sparking our imagination and reminding us that these worlds actually exist in the galaxy. As I stare at Kepler-10b’s lava seas, I marvel at the narrow range of conditions that give rise to a world like Earth.” 2. ASHLEY GRAHAM’S LOVE necklace “I bought it after I had just gotten out of a destructive relationship,” says the model. “After we broke up, I realized I was only in that relationship because I didn’t love myself. I was in Barneys trying to get over my woe, and I saw this necklace. The charm spins but…

“I STILL HAVE A LOT OF GROWING AND LEARNING AND WORK TO DO,” STONE SAID AFTER WINNING HER OSCAR. “THIS IS A ... SYMBOL TO CONTINUE ON THAT JOURNEY.” I can’t imagine film without Emma Stone. And I don’t want to. As an actor, Emma is brave, devastating, hilarious, real, complex, charming and so much more. Her Oscar-winning performance in La La Land is just the latest example. But Emma takes on significant roles off-screen as well. The selfless friend. The wise psychiatrist. The fearless leader. The coolest girl at the party. (She’s even the intense soccer mom, cheering you on, no matter what, at the top of her lungs.) I know that she has played all of these roles in my life. And for that I’m lucky to call…

She’s a tiger. She’s a lioness. She’s a pussycat. It wasn’t just the comedy that drew me close to Leslie Jones. Although her brand—edgy, insightful and honest—is the kind I lean to. It wasn’t just the bonhomie, the easy friendship and the shared sense of gratitude. It wasn’t just the beauty, though it radiates from her unchecked. It was, in fact, the kindness, the thoughtfulness and the way she owns all of who she is. She stalks the audience from the stage and in front of the cameras. Like the comedy greats throughout history, she’s there to give, and what she is prepared to give is all of who she is. All the absurdity and pathos of being human. All the joy of having a heart that big. She’s going…

For years, James Corden has been a beloved part of British pop culture. By the time he started his career in America, James had written and co-starred in his own hugely popular TV series. In fact, James’ first ever version of “Carpool Karaoke” took place in London in 2011 with my dear friend, the late George Michael. When he began hosting The Late Late Show in 2015, most Americans still had no idea who he was. But it wasn’t long before he skyrocketed to fame in the U.S., too. It took just over a year for James’ show to be nominated for four Emmy Awards. He then went on to host the Tony Awards and the Grammy Awards. He has also Carpool Karaoke’d with Adele, Lady Gaga, myself and more.…

During a Senate floor debate this year, Senator Elizabeth Warren read a letter from Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow Coretta Scott King. Minutes later, she was silenced midsentence by majority leader Mitch McConnell, under an obscure and rarely invoked Senate rule. “She was warned,” Senator McConnell said. “She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” Yes, she did. And it was just the latest example of this plainspoken daughter of the Plains standing up for the middle class and the marginalized. I first met Elizabeth after the 2008 housing crisis, when we battled the big banks and mortgage lenders together. I witnessed a fierce and fearless fighter, the same progressive champion who oversaw the $700 billion bank rescue and fought to create a consumer-protection agency. Today I’m honored to serve…

“Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there are 3 million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ President, has said. His approach is as ill considered as his grasp of history (more than half of Hitler’s 11 million victims were Jewish). Since Duterte’s inauguration last year, some 7,000 people have been killed. His ironfisted strategy alarms governments, human-rights organizations and faith-based groups while winning high approval ratings at home. When I was President of Colombia, I was also seduced into taking a tough stance on drugs. But after spending billions, I discovered that the war was unwinnable and the human costs were devastating. The cure was infinitely worse than the disease. There are solutions that work. Duterte could start by treating drugs as a health,…

Theo Epstein has this weird hue around him. His vision helped end historic World Series droughts in both Chicago and Boston. But his power lies in a paradox, in the knowledge that the only way to keep power is to give it away. He knows Wrigley Field is a multigenerational secular church. Our families have been there a long, long time. We are all just renting—nobody owns this. Theo may be a creature of destiny, but he recognizes that he’s also just another flawed human being, no better than anyone else. It’s an artful thing to thread that needle and wear it as a matter of common sense. He’s more Old World than old school. Words and deeds need to match. Trust is earned. He apologizes to no one for…

If Xi Jinping is China’s “core leader,” then Wang Qishan is his enforcer. A banker by profession, Wang used to be China’s point man on the economy. Now he follows the money in a different way. As head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Wang has prosecuted, jailed or censured tens of thousands of officials and businesspeople in a relentless campaign against corruption. His actions have considerable public support. But because bribes big and small grease China’s wheels of commerce up and down the line, the drive has hit consumption, at least the conspicuous kind, as many people hide how cash-rich they are. There’s a political impact too: boss Xi can take out rivals under the cover of fighting graft. Wang’s fearsome, and feared, offensive has effectively made him…

Scandal has closely followed Thailand’s new King. As Crown Prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn made headlines for giving his pet poodle a military rank, ordering a takeout meal from a Thai restaurant 6,000 miles away in the U.K. and having a penchant for crop tops and yakuza-style temporary tattoos. In October, the now 64-year-old succeeded his revered father Bhumibol Adulyadej as sovereign of the 70 million–strong Southeast Asian nation. With Bhumibol’s passing, Vajiralongkorn inherited the world’s largest royal fortune, once estimated at $30 billion. However, the deep love his father earned over seven decades of dutiful rule will be harder for Vajiralongkorn to acquire. The thrice-divorced Vajiralongkorn’s eccentric lifestyle is a source of great anxiety for Thais, who hold the monarchy in high esteem as a figurehead and guarantor of stability. Thailand…

Cancer hasn’t been kind to James Allison. It claimed his mother, brother and two uncles, and he himself was diagnosed with both prostate cancer and melanoma. So it’s not entirely surprising that growing up in a football-crazy town in South Texas, young Allison kept a science lab in his family’s garage instead of helmets and pads. And though the MD Anderson immunologist didn’t set out to cure cancer, his curiosity about it could result in just that. Cancer is a tricky kind of disease—one that escapes the body’s natural defenses against foreign agents. For decades, scientists tried to find ways to train the immune system to attack tumors in the way it does bacteria or viruses. But since cancerous cells are born from normal cells, that seemed an impossible task.…

Jean Liu is a disrupter, and not only through her ambitious effort to change the way people in China commute, travel and connect with one another. With Didi Chuxing, the ride-sharing, taxi-hailing startup she leads alongside Cheng Wei—its name means “Beep Beep Mobility” in Chinese—Jean has built a transportation platform that offers convenience and flexibility to tens of millions of commuters. She and her team are succeeding with innovative, big-data algorithms that aim both to improve the efficiency of Didi’s service and to ease the congestion on roadways. By analyzing commuter patterns the way oceanographers track the tides, Didi may help traffic jams go the way of the flip phone. In over 400 cities across China, Jean has also built a company that is dedicated to serving the community around…

I met Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat, for the first time last year. I wanted to look into the eyes of someone who has that kind of vision—who’s willing to go all out to build a company and to make such incredible technology. So much of social media is used to tear people down, which I don’t respect or believe in. But Snapchat is motivating and inspiring. It shows people that there are better ways to express yourself and to entertain other people. Everyone who knows me knows I’m all about spreading love and inspiration. And with Snapchat, I’m not a secret anymore. I’m not just for the people around me. I can open up my life and connect with my fans worldwide, in real time. I hope, now…

Biram Dah Abeid was just 8 when he became aware of slavery in his home country of Mauritania. He saw a defenseless youth being beaten by a man—a common experience, his parents explained, for the thousands of Mauritanians still treated as chattels by their “masters.” Biram himself was of slave descent; his own grandmother was born into slavery. Biram promised that day that he would resist. And in 2008, he founded the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA-Mauritania). Alongside other Mauritanian antislavery organizations, such as SOS-Esclaves, IRA-Mauritania has sought to break the official silence that enables slavery to persist by using nonviolent tactics: reporting and publicizing cases, assisting victims and holding sit-ins and demonstrations. For this, Biram and his colleagues have been imprisoned on numerous occasions. But…

‘THE PLACE YOU STICK OUT THE MOST IS THE PLACE WHERE YOU SHOULD STAY. BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING NEW.’ RIZ AHMED Look! Riz Ahmed is over here on HBO, turning in a stunning, tell-your-friends-the-next-day performance as Naz, the aching center of The Night Of. Look! Now Riz Ahmed is over there, playing Bodhi Rook in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, defecting to the Rebel Alliance and breaking our collective heart! Look! There’s Riz Ahmed delivering a blistering 16 bars about the immigrant experience on The Hamilton Mixtape! “To a galaxy far from their ignorance . . . immigrants, we get the job done”! Wait, look! Now he’s home in London, gathering friends and fellow artists for passionate salons! Look! He’s in the new Bourne! Look, there…

“IT’S JUST NOT IN MY NATURE TO GIVE UP,” GRIMM HAS SAID OF HIS LANDMARK LAWSUIT Gavin Grimm was 15 when he reintroduced himself to his classmates at Gloucester High School in Virginia as the boy he knew himself to be. As someone who also transitioned in high school, I know intimately how freeing and fraught it can be to live your truth. Shortly after Gavin transitioned, some parents complained about his use of the boys’ restroom, making a universal private experience a public spectacle. But when the school board banned Gavin from that restroom, he sued his district, stating that the decision violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Now 17, Gavin is the cherubic face of a reductive, dirty debate about trans…

Hamdi Ulukaya puts the xenophobes to shame. At a time when some accuse immigrants of stealing jobs, the Chobani CEO—a Kurd born in Turkey who moved to the U.S. in 1994—is creating them, big time. He transformed a shuttered factory into a flourishing yogurt company that now employs people in places where jobs have been scarce, such as south-central Idaho and upstate New York. He even shares the wealth, offering hires an equity stake in the company. Many of these workers are native-born Americans. But in a demonstrable rebuke to the hatred coming from Washington, Hamdi has also hired hundreds of refugees to work alongside them. And as the founder of the Tent Foundation, a group dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of the world’s displaced, he is encouraging…

I first became aware of Bob Ferguson, the Washington State attorney general, when he spoke up for a local gay couple who was denied service by a florist in 2013. But the name didn’t embed itself in my mind until this year, when he filed the lawsuit that wound up halting Donald Trump’s first travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority countries. As that scene played out, I was reminded of when I was 5 years old and imprisoned behind American barbed-wire fences in a Japanese-American internment camp in Arkansas. Every morning at the school, in a black, tar-paper barrack, we began the day by pledging allegiance to the flag: “With liberty and justice for all.” Bob Ferguson clearly believes everyone deserves those guarantees, no matter their background. That is,…

Human beings have long wondered whether they are alone in the universe. Now we are closer than ever to getting an answer. That’s thanks in large part to the astronomers who are searching for exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—that could be home to life. Three have been most influential of late: Guillem Anglada-Escudé of the Queen Mary University of London, who last year discovered an Earth-size planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, our closest neighboring star; Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège in Belgium, who in February announced the discovery of a full solar system of seven Earth-size planets orbiting Trappist-1, another comparatively local star; and Natalie Batalha, the current lead scientist for NASA’s Kepler space telescope, who has helped find approximately 4,700 new worlds since 2009. If life exists on the…

‘I THINK ART HAS A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN MAKING US SEE EACH OTHER AS HUMAN.’ JOHN LEGEND John Legend is a wonderful artist. He’s a remarkable lyricist, and the songs he has giftedly crafted are straight-ahead beautiful melodies that will find a welcoming home in the great library of American songs. One of my personal favorites is “Glory,” the duet he performed with Common for the Selma soundtrack—a song with a powerful message about overcoming adversity. With songs like this, he has rewarded a diverse fan base, and I am pleased to be part of such a multitude. John uses his platform to push for meaningful social change, and the depth of his commitment is to be admired. He has visited prisons to raise awareness about mass…

From the first page of Colson Whitehead’s extraordinary novel The Underground Railroad I knew I was reading something ground-shifting. I’ve been a student of African-American history since about age 14, and I thought I knew just about everything there was to know about slavery and the Freedom Train. But that’s what’s so powerful about great literature: it deepens your perspective, opens your consciousness and allows you to be in the shoes of its characters, journeying alongside them. In the year since I first read this book, it has been affirming to see how it’s been embraced, winning the Pulitzer Prize and becoming a No. 1 best seller. I believe that’s because Colson has a vision about what it means to make art. He didn’t just write a historical novel about…

Barry Jenkins is one of the rare artists who are willing to look into the deeper places of themselves and society in order to provide a lens through which we may discover the humanity at our core. And he has come to the attention of the world at precisely the right moment, just when we most need someone to give voice to those who have not been heard. From his first feature, Medicine for Melancholy, to Moonlight, which he wrote and directed, each film tells an important and timely story that brings you into its world. He not only knows where he is coming from, but he has the gift of being able to show you that place and make you understand it—from capturing the literal colors of a city…

MARSHALL’S PIONEERING WORK INCLUDES RYTHM MASTR, A BLACK SUPERHERO SERIES SET IN CHICAGO For too long, the contributions of black people in American society have been ignored, marginalized and denied. Kerry James Marshall confirms and confronts those depictions and omissions with artistic flair, portraying everyday events in black lives. As the rest of the world learned through the stunning retrospective exhibition “Mastry,” Kerry’s narrative paintings are direct, bold and in-your-face views of moments in our lives, and they cannot be ignored. Black is his dominant color, and his persistent, consistent and masterful use of it, in all its palettes, defines, engages and draws countless viewers to each creation. He forces people to assess the American experience through the black experience. In so doing, he has established…

Like no one else—that’s what Margot Robbie’s like. You’re asked this question a lot about actors—“What’s she like?”—and I’ve never been able to give an answer I’m happy with. With Margot, you can recall some classic precedents: the comedic genius of Carole Lombard, for her all-bets-off feistiness; Joan Crawford, for her grounded, hardscrabble toughness; Ida Lupino, for her emotional daring. Margot has all this in addition to a unique audacity that surprises and challenges and just burns like a brand into every character she plays. She clinched her part in The Wolf of Wall Street during our first meeting—by hauling off and giving Leonardo DiCaprio a thunderclap of a slap on the face, an improvisation that stunned us all. This is not a complete answer to the perennial question, but…

‘WOMEN SPEAKING UP FOR THEMSELVES AND FOR THOSE AROUND THEM IS THE STRONGEST FORCE WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE WORLD.’ MELINDA GATES Leadership takes many forms. Here’s one: A group of women sit on the ground in a circle. Most of them make less than $2 a day. They talk about their families, their fledgling enterprises, their dreams of better lives for their children. In their midst is Melinda Gates, listening. You might think, Everyone listens. In fact, women like this are rarely heard, and few listen like Melinda. She listens with her complete attention and total empathy. Then she figures out how to use what she’s learned to make the world a more equitable place. Her vision for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped lift the lives…

THE TIME HAS COME FOR ALL POLITICAL LEADERS TO “UNDERSTAND THE ANGER OF THE PEOPLE,” MODI HAS SAID In May 2014, long before Donald Trump seemed conceivable as a U.S. President, Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy. Once barred from the U.S. for his suspected complicity in anti-Muslim violence, and politically ostracized at home as well, this Hindu nationalist used Twitter to bypass traditional media and speak directly to masses feeling left or pushed behind by globalization, and he promised to make India great again by rooting out self-serving elites. Nearly three years later, his vision of India’s economic, geopolitical and cultural supremacy is far from being realized, and his extended family of Hindu nationalists have taken to scapegoating secular and liberal intellectuals as well…

Reince Priebus and I don’t share much beyond our Midwestern roots and unique names—and, of course, a love of politics. But we will always be in the small fraternity of those who answered a President’s call to serve as White House chief of staff. In both our cases, we assumed the role at the beginning of a new Administration, after a contentious election and transfer of power. We started from scratch. Chief of staff is the only White House job with two titles: chief and staff. The first allows for structure and accountability. The second, well, just remember whose name was on the ballot, check your ego at the door and understand you’re there to serve the President and ensure that his—or, someday, her—vision is being executed. When I had…

The late actor Will Rogers once said, “I am not a member of any organized political party—I am a Democrat.” That’s why Democratic Party chair Tom Perez has one of the toughest jobs in the country. The child of Dominican immigrants—with a dad who earned U.S. citizenship after enlisting in the Army—Tom absorbed early a family legacy of patriotism, immigrant striving and Catholic social justice. His parents told him, “In order to get to heaven, you have to have letters of reference from poor people.” Prosecutor, civil rights lawyer, local elected official, Secretary of Labor, loving dad and husband, and now chairman of the Democratic National Committee—Tom’s the right person to lead the world’s longest-surviving political party during a stress test of our constitutional democracy. And he’s smart enough to…

Stephen Bannon may no longer function as the 45th President’s chief strategist, but no one else had as much influence on Donald Trump’s general-election campaign and first two months in office. The U.S. Navy and Goldman Sachs refugee has been the new Administration’s chief narrative officer, nursing an angry, nationalist, America-first flame that set both Republicans and Democrats on their heels; attacked elite institutions in government, business and the media; and thoroughly delighted Trump’s aging, white and disaffected base. Bannon’s story line, which he nurtured for years as boss of the Breitbart news enterprise, gave the Trump White House a clear (if counterproductive) purpose for about 75 days. But then Trump realized that rather than scoring legislative victories, Bannon was doing little more than alienating voters outside Trump’s base and…

When LeBron James, my hometown of Akron’s most famous son, takes flight to dunk, even I, a poet usually averse to battered clichés, am tempted to call it poetry in motion—if we agree that poetry can be stormy as well as smooth, thrillingly true yet downright mean as it lures you one way, pivots and drives its point home. Who could have imagined that a basketball boy wonder, a prodigy from the projects, would bridge class and racial divides to evolve into King James of the International Courts? By making good on his pledge to bring a championship to the Cleveland Cavaliers and by investing in the promise of future generations through his foundation, LeBron James has not only bolstered the self-esteem of his native Ohio but also become an…

Bernard J. Tyson is one of the leading authorities on public health in America. He is smart, gifted, thoughtful and a highly respected voice in the struggle to make high-quality health care affordable for every American. As the CEO of Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health plans, Bernard addresses the medical needs of more than 11.3 million people. He has devoted more than 30 years of his professional life to Kaiser, managing all the major aspects of the company before he became the CEO. During his tenure, Bernard has focused on public health and preventive care, rather than just treating disease, seeking to provide high-quality, affordable, accessible health care to all of its members. And from his position of considerable influence, he has brought an often overlooked…

For me, Jason Blum’s defining moment came in 1998, when I sent him to Munich to buy the film rights to The Reader. Others on my team had already passed on the book, so I knew it was a long shot. But I told Jason that if he didn’t succeed, I would do everything in my power to keep him—he was working for me at the time—from coming back to America. “You’re not serious,” Jason said. And to this day I don’t know whether or not he thought I was. But he leveraged my line anyway. After the book’s author refused to see him, Jason started to beg. “My boss is Harvey Weinstein,” he said. “If you don’t meet with me, he won’t let me come back.” It worked. Jason…

“I’M NOT THE NEXT USAIN BOLT OR MICHAEL PHELPS,” BILES SAID IN RIO, WHERE SHE WON FIVE MEDALS. “I’M THE FIRST SIMONE BILES.” I always keep up with gymnastics because I love the Olympics. But what struck me when I first saw Simone in Rio was how perfect she was at everything. That girl was born to do what she does. And she is the best at it. Not the best black gymnast, not the best black-girl gymnast. The best gymnast. It really is inspiring. It’s like she’s sending a message to everyone who’s watching: No matter what you’re going through in life or what your circumstances are, you still can be No. 1. You’ve just got to work hard. Of course, it’s important to have fun too. Simone is…

All of Peru saw Cindy Arlette Contreras Bautista dragged by her hair through a hotel, battered and screaming. Security-camera footage of her assault circulated online, adding humiliation to her injuries. But there was hope that the video evidence would condemn the attacker, her former partner, to jail. When he was given a suspended sentence and released in July 2016, Contreras wasn’t the only one who was outraged. Her case—and her willingness to speak publicly about it—helped propel thousands of women onto the streets of Lima that summer to protest gender violence. This was how the women of Peru joined the wider Ni Una Menos (“Not One Less”) movement sweeping across Latin America, which has some of the world’s highest rates of femicide. The name references a phrase coined by Mexican…

Former Gambian Justice Minister Fatou Bensouda now presides over investigations and prosecutions at the International Criminal Court at one of the most fraught moments in its 19-year existence. Earlier this year, leaders of the African Union called for a collective withdrawal from the court, claiming that the arbiter of the world’s most morally repugnant crimes is racist, colonial and anti-African because it has almost exclusively investigated and prosecuted Africans. Russia has already left, and the Philippines has hinted that it might follow suit, signaling a dissolution of the only independent international body truly capable of investigating and prosecuting genocide and crimes against humanity wherever they happen. Bensouda isn’t going to let that happen without a fight. When countries started announcing their intent to leave, she blasted them for giving African…

From freedom rides to freedom marches to leading Freedom Summer. From tear gas to jail cells to brutal, hateful beatings. With truly death-defying sacrifices and an almost irrational, love-fueled persistence in the cause of our country, John Lewis has spent his life dedicated to the freedoms, liberties and justice we enjoy. In the 1960s, Lewis was one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders, and today he is the last remaining person alive who spoke at the March on Washington. In the decades since, he has shown through his tireless work in Congress that service isn’t a sometimes thing but an all-the-time thing; that leadership isn’t a title or position but a way of life; and that love of country isn’t a verbal profession but something that is evidenced daily…

Writers are the gods of the worlds they create. It’s a big job. We make the people and the cities and the trees. If we’re very ambitious, we create not just the laws of government, but the laws of nature. No writer has been a god to as many vastly different worlds as Margaret Atwood has, and to my way of thinking, no one has done a better job. Her worlds are harsh and exacting, but also flooded with the brilliant light of her imagination, whether she’s writing about the past, the present or a future we had never considered. Atwood is especially timely in 2017 for The Handmaid’s Tale, which she published in 1985 about the government’s ownership and subjugation of women’s bodies, proving just how far ahead of…

David Adjaye is one of the great architectural visionaries of our time. His work—deeply rooted in both the present moment and the complex context of history—has envisioned new ways for culture to be represented and reflected in the built environment. Nowhere is this more evident than in his recent triumph on the National Mall. Every architect has to contend with gravity—but when David designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the challenges of that elemental force went far beyond the ordinary. How can a design acknowledge, and embody, the weight of this monumental history and yet transcend it right before your eyes? How can a building be true to the earthbound burdens of centuries of oppression and struggle, while at the same time displaying the faith, joy…