Table of contents for June 13, 2016 in TIME Magazine

BERNIE'S ENDGAME Our June 6 cover story on Bernie Sanders was "intriguing," wrote Ashok Kulkarni of West Palm Beach, Fla. He critiqued the Vermont Senator's "strategy of 'If you can't beat them, first join them, and then beat them from within'"--and noted that he hoped it would lead to a GOP victory in November. Pancha Chandra lamented on Twitter that Sanders is "wasting everyone's time," but others disagreed. On Facebook, Andrew Chow had a simple answer to the headline wondering how far the candidate would go: "All. The. Way." Meanwhile Mary Anne Bowie of Sarasota, Fla., a devoted Sanders supporter, had praise for TIME's coverage of his campaign but wished his face rather than his back had been on the cover. The image of Sanders speaking at a rally was,…

BURMA President Thein Sein pardoned 6,966 people in July 2015 to free prisoners of conscience and others who had been purged by the country's military regime. SOUTH KOREA Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, President Park Geun-hye pardoned 6,527 people in August 2015, including a handful of high-profile business tycoons, to boost the economy and buoy national spirits. CUBA The Council of State (led by President Raúl Castro) pardoned 3,522 prisoners before Pope Francis' visit last September, indicating improved relations with the Catholic Church. ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe pardoned roughly 2,000 people--including all juvenile and most female prisoners--reportedly because the country couldn't feed the growing number of inmates.…

On May 25, New York State voted to eliminate a "luxury" tax on menstrual products, which the goods had been subject to as non-"necessities" (think medicine, food), joining a handful of states and cities that have done the same. The next day, similar legislation passed in Illinois. These are the most recent wins in what has become a global movement over the past 18 months to change not only the way tampons and pads are taxed and distributed, but also the openness with which we talk about a biological process that for centuries was cast as a curse and a source of shame. Linda B. Rosenthal, the assembly member who introduced New York State's bill last May, estimates it will save women in New York City $416.52 over their lifetimes.…

RESIGNED Brazil's anticorruption minister, Fabiano Silveira, after leaked recordings seemed to show him trying to thwart a corruption probe into the national oil company Petrobras. INCREASED The U.S. death rate, for the first time in 10 years, partly because of a rise in mortality from Alzheimer's, drug overdoses and suicides in 2015. WON The 100th Indy 500, by rookie driver Alexander Rossi, 24, the first newcomer to win the race since 2001. ENDED The Verizon strike, after unions representing 40,000 telecom workers, who walked off the job on April 13, agreed to return on June 1. Verizon won the right to offer buyouts without union approval, while workers gained raises of at least 10.5% and 1,300 additional jobs. DIED Charles "Mike" Harper, 88, former ConAgra CEO, whose 1985 heart attack…

We want to believe we're all basically the same and want the same things, but what if we're not? Islam, in both theory and practice, is exceptional in how it relates to politics. Because of its outsize role in law and governance, Islam has been--and will continue to be--resistant to secularization. I am a bit uncomfortable making this claim, especially now, with anti-Muslim bigotry on the rise. But Islamic exceptionalism is neither good nor bad. It just is, and we need to understand and respect that. Two factors are worth emphasizing: First, the founding moment of Islam looms large. Unlike Jesus Christ, the Prophet Muhammad was a theologian, a preacher, a warrior and a politician, all at once. He was also the leader and builder of a new state, capturing,…

"Winning the news cycle" is one of the more odious concepts in American politics. It is a recent media invention that rewards superficiality and punishes substance; it is, at best, a nano-measurement of micro-momentum--but anything measurable is news, and therefore easier to cover than subjects that may require actual thought. Which makes it perfect for Donald Trump. He uses the daily contest brilliantly, with an almost demonic perversity. He almost always wins the day. Trump understands that even if he dredges up an utterly reprehensible issue--the question of whether Hillary Clinton's friend Vince Foster actually committed suicide, for example--and is clobbered for it by the right-thinking residents of Mount Opinion, it can be a winner: it will divert attention from much larger and more embarrassing problems, like his refusal to…

ACTOR, IRELAND Saoirse Ronan A new model for women on stage and screen It's two hours before the curtain goes up, and Saoirse Ronan is making a cup of tea in her cramped dressing room. She offers me a cup, though thankfully not the "gross" licorice-flavored kind Ronan is drinking to revive her voice before she takes the Broadway stage as Abigail, the manipulative maid at the heart of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. As the Irish actor, whose first name is pronounced Ser-sha, searches for her favorite green mug, we discuss how Abigail is traditionally played as a teenage seductress who beguiles the noble John Proctor. When the older man later casts out Abigail, she brings the 17th century Massachusetts town of Salem to its knees by accusing Proctor's…

What drew you to this character? She just felt so much like me. I like people, I like laughter, I like joy. Crazily, I'm known for playing someone who's the opposite. [Khaleesi] never smiles. Did you feel pressure to please the book's fans? I've made naive choices to take on roles that are beloved--Thrones, Terminator, Breakfast at Tiffany's. For better or worse, I've worked really hard to please the fans. For the first time, with this one, I read it and was like, "I've got this. I know her." How do you handle criticism? With Game of Thrones, I feel more pressure the bigger it gets. Every season, I'm like, "Don't let this be the season I f-ck it up." I'm reading and researching. I watch as many strong female…

LOVE IT A new site, BibleEmoji.com, translates Scripture from the King James Bible into emojis. Rihanna collaborated on a line of futuristic sunglasses with Dior that are inspired by a character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. A new Winnie-the-Pooh story celebrates the 90th birthdays of the beloved bear as well as Queen Elizabeth II, with a cameo by a boy who resembles Prince George. Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune executive producer Harry Friedman set a Guinness World Record for producing more than 11,128 game-show episodes. Best-selling author Wally Lamb will release his new novel, I'll Take You There, as an app first, two days before paper and digital editions. Starbucks is putting coffee on tap with its new Nitro Cold Brew, a beverage the company says infuses nitrogen into…

As CEO, you steered GM through the safety recall and litigation over the ignition switches. Is there anything you would do differently now? There are always things you would change on the margin, but generally I'm very proud of the way we lived our values as we managed through the recall. GM recently offered payments to owners of some large SUVs. Why? We found that there had been a data error in the way that we calculated the fuel economy on the labels of the GMC Acadia, the Buick Enclave and the Chevrolet Traverse. So although this wasn't a safety issue, when we found an error, we raised it and are fixing it. Can you explain the investment in Lyft, a ride-share company that wants fewer cars on the road?…

'He actually performed a public service by raising the debate.' Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General, referring to fugitive leaker Edward Snowden's disclosure of secret documents about American surveillance programs; Holder added that Snowden should still be punished for breaking the law $22,000 Estimated monthly rent for the nine-bedroom house the Obama family will move into after leaving the White House, in the posh Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. 4,100 Length in miles of an undersea cable Microsoft and Facebook are planning to build, connecting Virginia to Spain 'Their souls speak to us.' President Obama, on a historic visit to Hiroshima on May 27, remembering the 140,000 killed when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city during World War II; Obama called for an end to nuclear weapons…

The Iraqi military and its allied militias are engaged in intense fighting on the edges of Fallujah in an effort to reclaim the city from ISIS militants. The offensive is a critical test for Iraq's disparate armed forces in the broader war against ISIS, which seized a large portion of Iraq in 2014. COLLATERAL DAMAGE An estimated 50,000 civilians remain trapped in Fallujah, roughly 40 miles west of Baghdad. ISIS is losing territory in both Iraq and Syria, and the militants may attempt to impose a high human cost for any military victory by pro-government troops. Iraqi forces cut the supply lines into Fallujah in February, placing the city under siege and forcing thousands of trapped civilians to go hungry. SECTARIAN CONFLICT The Iraqi military is fighting alongside Shi'ite-majority militias…

THE NEW STUDY Researchers exposed rats to cell-phone radiation for about nine hours a day and found that male rats were more likely to develop cancerous tumors. THE EARLIER STUDIES Observational studies in humans show limited evidence of cancer, though the World Health Organization says there's not enough research to rule it out. THE TAKEAWAY It's possible that the long-term effects of cell-phone radiation on human health are yet to be seen. More research is needed, and the study's authors say they'll release more findings in 2017.…

When we think about the future, we envision a version of the present: that the TV shows, movies and singers who matter most today will be the ones remembered in 100 years. History says otherwise, Chuck Klosterman argues in But What if We're Wrong? Thinking About the Present as if It Were the Past. The works that endure, he says, are the ones that future societies find meaningful, whether they're valued in their day or not. Herman Melville's Moby-Dick was scorned when it came out, and Franz Kafka was dead before The Trial saw print. So which of today's writers will be remembered in 2116? Probably not Philip Roth or Jonathan Franzen, Klosterman says, but someone writing in obscurity (perhaps on the deep web), representing an ultra-marginalized group and covering…

Software that blocks ads in browsers or apps cuts two ways: it reduces clutter for the viewer, but it also reduces revenue for websites that survive on the sales of those ads. Outlets ranging from newspapers to social-media platforms have been affected. A new report from PageFair, a startup that offers publishers ways to get around blockers, recently measured the phenomenon, which varies widely by region. 22% Percentage of global smartphone users who deploy a blocker on their mobile browser 90% Global increase in mobile users who deployed a blocker from January 2015 to January 2016 159 million Number of ad-blocking browsers installed in China, compared with 122 million in India and only 2.3 million in the U.S. 45 Number of ad-blocking browsers available for download on the iOS and…

Orenthal James Simpson, the man at the center of ESPN's five-part documentary O.J.: Made in America, was great at two things in particular: running and wanting. On the football field, Simpson was a genius of evasion. His deftness at avoiding opponents made him the first man ever to rush for 2,000 yards in an NFL season. After his retirement in 1979, he turned to comedy films, Hertz ads and sideline commentary as a way to pursue material success and respect from white America. It's this quest that defined Simpson's career in the years before his trial for the 1994 murders of his estranged wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. O.J. takes us from Simpson's early stardom at the University of Southern California--a mostly white bubble floating above the racial…

Chance the Rapper has been called the next Kanye West, and it's easy to see why: they're both Chicago rappers with ambition to spare. But it might be unfair to Chance, whose new mixtape Coloring Book, released exclusively on Apple Music, is a joyful pastiche of gospel and hip-hop that marks him as one of his generation's most exciting artists. West himself, who appears alongside the Chicago Children's Choir on the album's first track, "All We Got," tweeted that Coloring Book was a "masterpiece." Like any kid from the South Side, Chance (real name: Chancelor Bennett) is eager to brag about his hometown in ways that are observant and slyly political: "I got my city doing front flips/When every father, mayor, rapper jumps ship," he croons on "Angels," in a…

Sometimes it takes a small film to tackle big but subtle ideas, like the role of the mystical in everyday life. In Anna Rose Holmer's The Fits, Cincinnati preteen Toni (played by Royalty Hightower, a newcomer whose face holds the camera with unguarded intensity) seems headed to becoming a boxer, like her older brother. But she really longs to be part of a dance troupe that rehearses at the same community center where she trains. After her workouts, she peers wistfully through the narrow window of the gym where young women perfect their elaborate routines. They're older than she is, which is part of the draw--the world of feminine power and beauty that they represent calls out to her. But shortly after she joins the troupe, the women begin suffering…

For millions of people around the world, electric bicycles are a staple of commuting. But Americans have been slow to adopt so-called e-bikes, which typically employ an electric motor to supplement peddling. Palo Alto, Calif.--based Karmic Bikes, which plans to launch its first model in June after a successful 2015 Kickstarter campaign, thinks it has found the formula to make e-bikes popular. Its Koben bike situates a motor near the pedals and crank, making it easier to climb steep hills. "It never feels like the bike is pushing or pulling you," says founder Hong Quan. Getting Americans to consider one may be difficult. According to data firm Navigant Research, Western Europeans will buy some 1.6 million e-bikes this year. In China, where fewer people have the disposable income to buy…

Emma Cline's debut novel, The Girls, depicts the adolescent longings and frustrations of Evie Boyd, a 14-year-old who gets sucked into a Manson-family-like cult in 1969 California. Led by a charming but talentless middle-aged hippie named Russell, the cult consists largely of women desperate for love who find comfort not only in Russell's arms but also in those of their sisters. "To be part of this amorphous group [meant] believing love could come from any direction. So you wouldn't be disappointed if not enough came from the direction you hoped," Evie observes. When the cult's practices take a gruesome turn, it's enthralling to trace the transformation of seemingly independent women to lemmings. Cline, 27, has said she wrote the book in a sort of fever dream over the course of…