Time Magazine International Edition July 28, 2025

They are changing what we watch, how we spend our time, what we buy, and how we vote Over the past decade, we’ve seen a significant shift in how people view institutions and established gatekeepers. The media industry has been no exception, and while our business has been challenged, others have seen increased attention and relevance. Led by changes in consumer behavior that accelerated during the pandemic, digital creators, the entrepreneurs who have built businesses through significant online followings, have emerged to shape our culture. They are changing what we watch, how we spend our time, what we buy, and how we vote. Recently, we’ve expanded the TIME100, the world’s most influential community, to include individuals who work in fields that we believe are shaping the future. Today, we release…

TIME’s Andrew R. Chow spoke to the MIT Media Lab researcher who measured the widely varying brain activity of people writing SAT essays in a new study. A third used ChatGPT, a third used Google search, and a third worked on their own. See the interview at time.com/chatgpt-study Best Podcasts TIME’s list of the 100 all-time best podcasts is a resource for a summer road trip. Home Cooking offers food for thought, and for narrative on a hot-button social issue, there’s Nice White Parents from the makers of Serial. See the full list at time.com/podcasts In the Loop A new TIME newsletter offers a deep dive into the unfolding AI revolution, spotlighting the stories and personalities shaping our new digital age. Read an excerpt on page 23 and sign up…

In the end, Democrats were unable to stop Republicans from getting their tax-cuts-and-spending plan across the finish line. But, in conversations with strategists close to Democratic leaders, they had a credible consolation spin: this bill is the most hated piece of major legislation since at least 1990, and Republicans have no plan to fix that. President Donald Trump’s decision to package a July 4 signing ceremony with a showy military flyover at the White House further lashed supportive lawmakers to the red-ink fountain of a law. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill may soon be best known as a campaign-trail blunder—if not a burden. GOP strategists seemed to understand the buzzkilling buzz saw they were marching toward with a grim sense of inevitability as they muscled it into law. Fiscal conservatives…

As the U.S. under president Donald Trump increasingly closes itself off from the world, denying entry to some tourists amid a crackdown on border controls and migration, its geopolitical rival China, which has long been known for its relative isolation, has loosened its travel restrictions to unprecedented levels. ATTRACTING VISITORS China is expanding visa-free entry to 75 countries as part of a broader campaign to boost inbound tourism, which has already seen a surge. Last year, over 20 million foreigners visited China without a visa, doubling the number of the previous year, according to China’s National Immigration Administration. China has been steadily pushing for more people to visit since reopening its borders in early 2023, after its “Zero-COVID” policies appeared for a time as though they might drive the country…

Thomasville regional medical center was supposed to be a game changer. Situated in the U.S. congressional district with the worst health outcomes in the country, the hospital opened in 2020 with state-of-the art equipment, including a 3D mammogram and an MRI scanner. But it closed less than five years later in September 2024. The hospital now stands empty: its pristine hallways dark, its expensive machines gathering dust. “It’s almost like the apocalypse happened,” says Thomasville’s Mayor Sheldon Day, who worked for almost a decade to get a hospital to open there. This apocalypse is happening throughout the country. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed in the past decade, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform (CHQPR), a national policy center that works to improve health care…

CONVICTED Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs In sex-crime trial with mixed verdicts Sean “Diddy” Combs, the music mogul whose weekslong trial garnered global attention, was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted on the other, more serious charges he was facing: sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The stunning verdict on July 2 came after nearly two months of emotional, graphic testimony from multiple witnesses, including Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, whose allegations of physical and sexual abuse helped spur the federal investigation into the music mogul that led to his arrest in September. The prosecution alleged that Combs manipulated and forced women to engage in sexual activities with male sex workers, which he called “freak-offs.” In their testimonies, Ventura and another woman, who went by the pseudonym…