Table of contents for December 14, 2020 in TIME Magazine

WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT … THE COVID WINTER After reading Jamie Ducharme’s Nov. 30/Dec. 7 cover story on the potential for a COVID-19 surge this winter, readers marveled at how America could have ended up in such a predicament. “The most depressing cover ever,” wrote Colleen Badenhop of Beavercreek, Ohio, of the frosty windowpane warning created for TIME by London-based artists Sean Freeman and Eve Steben. Enrique Puertos of Cleveland, Ga., argued that the spread of COVID-19 misinformation was as alarming as the spread of the virus itself. “Social media platforms are the superspreaders,” he wrote. “The callous attitude of a sizable section of people toward this life-threatening pandemic has led to a disturbing trend of conscious ignorance,” added Pritish De of Waukesha, Wis., “when we actually need to…

BY THE TIME THE CANISTER FLEW through a window, filling the room with tear gas, a security camera had already captured footage that would convulse France. It showed three Paris police officers violently assaulting Michel Zecler, a Black musician. Zecler says the three officers, whom his colleagues pushed outside moments before a fourth fired the canister, used racial slurs. The Nov. 21 incident is the most recent example of police brutality against minorities in France, and an outcry has ensued just as the country’s government is pushing for stricter law-enforcement powers. LAW AND ORDER France has faced waves of sometimes violent protests in recent years, from 2018’s Yellow Vest movement to racial injustice demonstrations this summer. In response, lawmakers on Nov. 24 gave early approval to a new bill, backed…

HIEROGLYPH HEX An unnamed man delivered a carving back to the Egyptian embassy in Berlin in 2007, claiming his stepfather had stolen the item while in Egypt three years earlier and had suffered the “curse of the pharaohs.” STOLEN STONE In March, a man returned to the Israel Antiquities Authority a 2,000-year-old ballista taken from a display in Jerusalem 15 years earlier, saying he wanted to clear his conscience before “the end of the world.” ROMAN RUINS A Canadian tourist returned five artifacts to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in October, saying she’d stolen them in 2005. She added that she’d also had bad luck ever since and didn’t want to pass the “curse” to her family.…

Pope installs first African-American Cardinal Pope Francis appointed 13 new Cardinals in a Vatican City ceremony on Nov. 28, including the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Wilton Gregory, 72, who became the first African-American Cardinal in the Catholic Church’s history. Australia’s army acts after report on abuses Thirteen special-forces soldiers face dismissal after an independent commission’s report on unlawful killings in Afghanistan, the Australian army’s head said on Nov. 27. The Brereton Report alleges troops were involved in the murders of 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners from 2005 to 2013. Thai protesters face lèse majesté charges On Nov. 30, five leaders of Thailand’s pro-democracy protest movement reported to police to face charges under a law that ostensibly protects the country’s monarchy from insult, but that has become a political weapon.…

DIED Diego Maradona Touched by the “hand of God” DIEGO MARADONA IS ABOUT TO DRIBBLE THROUGH TWO ENGLISH defenders in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup. He spins, however, somehow keeping the ball attached to his left foot—as if it were a toy and he the child who won’t let it go. And then he’s off, to finish arguably the greatest 70-yd. charge in soccer history. England’s goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, is the last line of defense: Maradona, who died at 60 of a heart attack on Nov. 25, shimmies to his right, and Shilton slides right past him, giving Maradona the goal and Argentina the 2-0 lead it would hold on to en route to the country’s second World Cup title. “His greatest achievement, that goal will forever…

How has the pandemic influenced your mission? The number of people we project to be on the brink of starvation has gone from around 135 million pre-COVID to 270 million, so 2021 has the potential to be catastrophic. What kind of aid will you need to tackle it? We need $15 billion in 2021, almost double the $8.4 billion raised this year. That includes $5 billion just to avert famine for about 30 million people, mostly in conflict-affected areas. How do you convince nations to increase aid at a time of global hardship? It’s about being strategic with the money they have. It’s like the Titanic: you’ve got spilled wine on the carpet and an iceberg out front. Which do you focus on? You need to focus on famine, destabilization…

THIS IS THE STORY OF A YEAR YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO REVISIT. There have been worse years in U.S. history, and certainly worse years in world history, but most of us alive today have seen nothing like this one. You would need to be over 100 to remember the devastation of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic; roughly 90 to have a sense of the economic deprivation wrought by the Great Depression; and in your 80s to retain any memory of World War II and its horrors. The rest of us have had no training wheels for this—for the recurrence of natural disasters that confirm just how much we have betrayed nature; for an election contested on the basis of fantasy; for a virus that originated, possibly, with…

1 FIRST COW KELLY REICHARDT In the verdant Pacific Northwest of the 1820s, two settlers—a baker and a Chinese immigrant with an entrepreneurial streak—start a business selling fried cakes made with the purloined milk of a local cow. The enterprise takes off, as their friendship deepens. Both tranquil and dazzling, First Cow is a song of this weird, rough-edged stretch of stolen land we call America, a place where tenderness is still the most precious commodity. 2 COLLECTIVE ALEXANDER NANAU Collective, which follows a team of Romanian journalists as they uncover a health care scandal whose tentacles reach deep into a corrupt government, is that rare documentary that plays like a political thriller. But it’s also a deeply moving testament to both the power and the necessity of investigative…

1 FOLKLORE TAYLOR SWIFT After exploring the upper reaches of pop maximalism on her past projects, Swift makes a powerful about-face on Folklore, an album that’s as much an experiment with emotional delicacy as it is a lush take on the intersection of folksy storytelling and contemporary pop. Swift has been a public figure for well over a decade, but never before has she sounded so consistently vulnerable, so at home in her voice and so willing to play with sounds: hypnotic string plucks, angelic chorus hums, the unexpected gruffness of Bon Iver’s vocals on “Exile.” Her lyrics, meanwhile, are sharp and tinged with layered bittersweetness. Some trade on the nostalgia of adolescence, others on an imagined American mythology, but the best offer hazy, intimate glimpses into the messiness…

1 NICE WHITE PARENTS Serial Productions takes a fascinating deep dive into New York City public schools, among the most segregated in the U.S. Host Chana Joffe-Walt presents a stunning portrait of white parents who often choose their children’s future test scores over the diverse community they ostensibly desire. Once you’ve heard this show, it’s difficult to stop thinking about it—or debating possible solutions with other listeners. 2 CODE SWITCH Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji sit down with guests for frank explorations of issues of race, like why Vice President–elect Kamala Harris’ Indian heritage has gotten less attention than her Black identity, or the origins of the “Karen” meme. They draw from personal experience, grounding what could be an academic debate in a show that offers listeners an…

IT’S A RARE GLIMMER OF HOPE IN A BRUTAL AND battering pandemic year: in November, both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech reported that their much anticipated COVID-19 vaccines are around 95% effective in protecting people against getting sick with the disease. Both companies have requested authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start distributing their vaccines, and the agency is expected to review those requests in mid-December. Scientists are encouraged, and even surprised, by the magnitude of the protection; public-health officials finally see what could be the beginning of the end of the pandemic; and families everywhere are fantasizing about a return to normality where gathering to celebrate holidays is not a matter of public-health concern. But those same public-health experts also warn that vaccines aren’t the panacea that many…

EVEN BEFORE TAKING OFFICE, PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden is already facing a political storm among his ideologically diverse base of supporters over the volatile issue of student-debt forgiveness. Roughly 45 million Americans currently hold $1.6 trillion in student debt, with the average student-loan recipient owing between $20,000 and $25,000, according to the Federal Reserve. Among those actively making payments on their debt, the average monthly installment is between $200 and $300. And with 5.3 million more people unemployed than in February, right before the U.S. fell into a pandemic-induced recession, progressives say that student-debt forgiveness could be a boon for the economy. “Student-debt cancellation feels like one of the most accessible Executive actions to stimulate the economy at the moment,” says Suzanne Kahn, director of the Education, Jobs and Worker Power…

LONE TREE, COLO. / 15 “Observe, brainstorm, research, build and communicate.” That is what the brilliant young scientist and inventor Gitanjali Rao told me about her process, over Zoom, from her home in Colorado, during a break in her virtual schooling. Just 15 years old, Rao has been selected from a field of more than 5,000 nominees as TIME’s first ever Kid of the Year. She told me about her astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying, and about her mission to create a global community of young innovators to solve problems the world over. Even over video chat, her brilliant mind and generous spirit shone through, along with her inspiring message to other young people: don’t try to…

1 I MAY DESTROY YOU HBO A young woman goes out drinking, wakes up with a brutal hangover and, some time later, realizes she was raped. Three years after the #MeToo revolution, you may think you’ve heard this one before, but you haven’t. For Michaela Coel—the 33-year-old British writer, director and actor who created and starred in this semiautobiographical masterpiece—the assault opens up a path to the core of her character’s psyche, forcing her to address decades of formative trauma. Consent gets a complete deconstruction. Coel gives fresh consideration to race, gender, sexuality, family, social media and—on a meta level—the difficulty of making art that feels true. That the show ultimately comes down on the side of compassion, for ourselves most of all, made it a beacon in dark…

1 ‘PEOPLE, I’VE BEEN SAD’ CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS Many artists wrote quarantine songs in 2020, but none conveyed loss and alienation like the agonizing, hypnotic “People, I’ve Been Sad,” written by Héloïse Letissier last year as she grieved the death of her mother. It’s a mantra for accepting communal suffering and making peace with tragedy—and her soaring voice makes it hard not to howl along. 2 ‘WAP’ CARDI B AND MEGAN THEE STALLION Few rappers today have the cultural cachet of the firebrand Cardi B and the ebullient Megan Thee Stallion. With “WAP,” they united for an infectious, juicy song that shook up the charts and—with its celebratory, explicit and uproarious lyrics—drummed up both controversy and conversation around sexuality. 3 ‘YO PERREO SOLA’ (REMIX) BAD BUNNY, IVY QUEEN…

Small axe takes its name from a proverb: “if you are the big tree, We are the small axe.” it’s an anthology of five films about the experiences of the west indian community in london, from the late 1960s to the 1980s. How did you first conceive the series? This started about 11 years ago, and I needed the time and the maturity to get a grip on it. I needed that perspective. It was going to be one story with one family, but with my research, I was just finding all these amazing stories and thought that they should be stand-alone stories. These stories are not really taught in school or seen onscreen. What was it about these five moments that interested you? Mangrove was the first story,…