Table of contents for May 20, 2019 in TIME Magazine

WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT … FIRST FAMILY Charlotte Alter’s May 13 profile of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who was pictured on the cover with his husband Chasten, left many readers moved by what Buttigieg’s candidacy means for LGBTQ people—who “know what it’s like to have to fight for space in the public square,” as Bernie Evans of Black Creek, Ga., put it. Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis tweeted that “whatever candidate you support,” the cover should “inspire the celebration of love and family in all its forms.” It drew praise from Judy S. Lejuez of Springfield, N.J., a Republican who said she is “obsessed” with the “highly qualified” candidate, but Michael Falls of Whittier, Calif., argued that Buttigieg’s policies, not his sexual orientation, should have gotten the cover…

IT’S BEEN 15 YEARS SINCE THE SINGER CIARA erupted onto the scene, making her mark with breathy vocals and limber dancing. The rapper Lil Jon declared her the “first lady of Crunk&B” for her dominance over the grooving, bass-heavy pop-R&B style that was popular in the mid-aughts. She wasn’t as vocally bombastic as Beyoncé, or as frank and eccentric as Lady Gaga, but she cornered her lane: shooting from the hip sonically while using her music as a gateway to put her full abilities on display as a performer, in creative music videos and electrifying live sets. It’s tempting to draw a parallel between the trajectory of her career and that of Janet Jackson, to whom she’s often compared—another artist whose creativity has earned her acclaim, if not always…

‘We’re moving backwards instead of forwards.’ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, U.S. Trade Representative, on continuing U.S.-China trade tensions, as the U.S. prepared to increase tariffs on Chinese goods $2.2 billion Global box office for Avengers: Endgame after two weekends, making it the fastest film ever to pass $2  billion ‘I am not a politician, but I  can talk about what is moral.’HATICE CENGIZ, fiancée of the late journalist Jamal Khashoggi; she plans to meet with members of Congress in mid-May about the role of Saudi Arabia in his murder 22.7 Height, in feet, of the Mississippi River around Rock Island, Ill., when it crested during flooding on May 3, setting a record amid heavy rain and melting snow Woodstock Founder of imperiled 50th-anniversary festival claims that investors mismanaged funds Woods Tiger Woods receives…

DIED Peter Mayhew FOR PEOPLE TO REMEMBER something, it needs to be unique. Peter Mayhew, who died April 30 at 74, made Chewbacca unique by being real—even though Chewie happens to live in space in a fantastical world. At the character’s core is the warmth, loyalty and friendship that Peter brought to Star Wars, so he created something that we will always remember. I first met Peter two days before we started filming The Force Awakens, as I prepared to take over that role. He generously told stories and encouraged me; to this day, no one knows which scenes I did and which he did for that movie, except the crew. Later, we’d watch old footage of Peter as Chewbacca, and he would explain why he did the things…

THE INSTANT UBER SHARES HIT THE New York Stock Exchange on May 10, people and groups from the company’s ex-CEO Travis Kalanick to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund are set to make millions, even billions, of dollars. In all, Uber’s initial public offering (IPO) could set the company’s value at as much as $90 billion, likely the year’s biggest such deal. Uber’s nearly 4 million drivers, however, probably won’t benefit much. In fact, they’re likely to see take-home pay worsen in coming years, as the ride-share company, to meet shareholder expectations, will inevitably look to cut incentives like bonuses for completing a set number of rides. Frustrated with what they view as worsening conditions even before the IPO, some drivers launched a global strike on May 8, just before…

REPRESENTATIVE ELISE STEFANIK CAN PINPOINT the moment that crystallized the issue for her: It was the week after the midterm elections, and the newly elected members of the House of Representatives lined up for a photo. Representing the Democratic side of the aisle were more than 30 women. On the GOP side were two—Carol Miller of West Virginia and Young Kim of California. Stefanik knew what could have been. “I recruited over 100 women,” she says, reflecting on her time as recruitment chair for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). But looking at the freshmen on the Capitol steps, she saw whom her party was welcoming in 2019: almost all white men. And within days, mail-in ballots showed that Kim had actually lost, bringing the grand total for House GOP…

AROUND FIVE YEARS AGO, CHRISTOPHER Keyser found himself pondering the state of human society. “How did we get here?” he asked himself. “And is this the best we could have done?” These are the kind of big questions that fuel great literature, but Keyser, who co-created the ’90s prime-time hit Party of Five, works in television. So he, alongside director and fellow executive producer Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer), endeavored to translate his inquiries onto the screen in the form of a show that would be both philosophical and entertaining. The result is The Society, a surprising, provocative, occasionally messy yet frequently revelatory series whose first season arrives on Netflix on May 10. Its appeal may not be obvious from the banal pilot, which recalls recent teen sci-fi…

You were born in Germany and lived in Switzerland, Jerusalem and Paris before moving to the U.S. What was it like to revisit some of these places from your past while making this Hulu documentary? I was very careful where I took the documentary people. For example, I went to Switzerland to talk about how grateful I was to be there during World War II. Otherwise I would not be alive. And you take them to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, where you find your parents in a database of victims of the Holocaust. Was that moment the first time you learned what happened to them? When I saw in German verschollen, which means disappeared, next to my mother’s name, I was shocked. I knew already that none of my…