Table of contents for November 5, 2018 in TIME Magazine

MAYAN MIMIC Mexican officials believe a Mayan statue that sold for $4.2 million in Paris in 2011 was not authentic. The 5-ft. 4-in. warrior didn’t match the style of the period it was said to be from—over 1,000 years ago. DUMMY DIAMONDS The Czech National Museum said in March that many of the jewels in its collection, including a 5-carat diamond and a 19-carat sapphire, were fakes. Curators said they may have been the victim of a con or a heist. COUNTERFEIT COLLECTION In April, a French museum dedicated to painter Étienne Terrus learned that more than half its works were forgeries. One showed a tower built in the 1950s, some 30 years after the local painter died.…

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS HAS always wrung laughs out of the tiniest tics: a conspiratorial wink, a repulsed grimace, an incredulous stare. The mere mental image of the convulsive dancing of her excitable Seinfeld character, Elaine Benes, can be enough to send a fan into hysterics. In her current role, as the vain politician Selina Meyer on HBO’s Veep, the 57-year-old actor dispenses withering insults with a camera-ready grin. These performances have made Louis-Dreyfus the Meryl Streep of TV comedy. Over the course of a career that began on Saturday Night Live in 1982, she has won eight acting Emmys—a feat matched only by the great Cloris Leachman. On Oct. 21, she added comedy’s most prestigious trophy, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, to her collection. During a ceremony at…

WHEN NANCY DALY WAS HELPING TO CARE FOR HER late mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, the stress was so great that she would often shut herself in a bathroom and cry into a towel. For more than two years, Daly regularly flew from her home in California to her mother’s in Maryland, eventually to no recognition. “It was as if my entire childhood was erased, when she did not know me,” says Daly, 59. “But I had to grit my teeth and bear it. It was my job to be there.” Daly’s situation is likely familiar to many of the 16 million Americans who serve as unpaid caregivers to someone with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Because the tasks involved are so intimate and expensive to outsource, caregiving often falls…

THE WRONGLY ACCUSED With an AR-15 slung across his shoulder, Mark Hughes, an activist and tax preparer, joined hundreds of protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas on July 7, 2016. Hughes openly carried his rifle—a legal act under Texas law—for the first time. It was a symbolic response, he says, to fatal police shootings of black men including Philando Castile, who was killed during a traffic stop in Minnesota after disclosing to an officer that he was armed but licensed. The rally turned into tragedy when a sniper killed five police officers in what is considered the worst attack on U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11. Before the real gunman was identified, the Dallas police department wrongly labeled Hughes a suspect, tweeting out his photo…

DIRTY JOHN Journalist Christopher Goffard first reported on a Newport Beach resident whose romance with a mysterious man turned disastrously sour in the Los Angeles Times. Goffard turned those stories into a 2017 podcast, which inspired an upcoming Bravo series starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana. THE STAIRCASE The 2005 true-crime docuseries centered on Michael Peterson, a novelist who seemed suspiciously laid-back while being tried for his wife’s murder. Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s film featured mind-boggling twists and turns. He added three new episodes to Netflix this year. I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK Writer Michelle McNamara became obsessed with investigating the Golden State Killer, a rapist and murderer who terrorized the state for more than 10 years. Her book on his crimes was published posthumously…

Explosives sent to Obama and Clinton Former U.S. President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among several figures associated with the Democratic Party who received suspicious packages, some containing explosive devices, on Oct. 24, two days after a bomb was found in philanthropist George Soros’ mail. Train mows down crowd in India At least 59 people died when an express train plowed through a crowd of people watching fireworks at a Hindu festival in Amritsar, in northern India, on Oct. 19. Some local officials said organizers had failed to get permission; authorities announced an inquiry. Positive sign on opioid epidemic The U.S. is “beginning to turn the tide” on the opioid crisis, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Oct. 23, announcing that…

IT WAS A WINTER NIGHT IN 1943, AND A 23-YEAR-OLD NORWEgian fighter was gazing at his target: a hydroelectric power plant in southern Norway where Nazi scientists were trying to develop “heavy water.” Joachim Ronneberg knew the project was vital to Hitler’s war effort, but he learned only later that his actions that night likely thwarted the Nazis from developing an atomic bomb. Ronneberg—who died Oct. 21 at the age of 99—led eight comrades on a secret mission coordinated from Britain. They skied across a pine forest and crossed a mountain river before sneaking into the heavily guarded plant. They planted explosive charges inside the cylinder room, sending Nazi research for a nuclear weapon literally down the drain. The men then escaped into neighboring Sweden, skiing 200 miles across…

THE SAUDIS MAY have finally admitted to the “accidental” killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but they still don’t have a coherent explanation that exonerates Crown Prince (and King in waiting) Mohammed bin Salman, known widely as MBS. Few believe Khashoggi could have been killed without his order. The response from political leaders is stiffening. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been noisily picking holes in the Saudi accounts of the killing. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has halted arms trade with the Saudis, while Canada is also considering a freeze. While U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be looking for a way to condemn the killing without blaming MBS or jeopardizing U.S. arms sales to the kingdom, lawmakers of both parties have demanded Saudi answers and a tough U.S. response.…

Talk about it Don’t try to shoulder the burden alone. Seek emotional support from friends and family, caregiver hotlines or mental-health professionals. Support groups are also available. Address stress Finding positive ways to cope with stress, like meditation, yoga and breathing exercises, can help people manage the physical and emotional difficulties of caregiving. Prioritize your health Eating well, exercising and sleeping enough help provide the energy required for caregiving. And even light physical activity has been shown to reduce stress and lift mood. Stay mindful A recent study found that mindfulness training—the practice of staying in the moment—helped dementia caregivers understand and accept their own emotions and those of their loved one. Seek training Professionals can teach strategies for dealing with progressive Alzheimer’s symptoms and…

THE ENDURING EMPTINESS OF OUR PUBLIC RAGE BY PHIL KLAY RECENTLY A FRIEND ASKED ME, WITH WHAT I thought was a hint of suspicion in his voice, why my writing was so “apolitical.” It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it always surprises me. I’ve written about military policy under both President Obama and President Trump. I’ve questioned what we’re doing and tried to write about what flawed policy looks and feels like to those tasked with carrying it out. To me, this is inescapably and obviously engaged political speech. But to my friend, a smart guy who nevertheless spends a surprising amount of his time online coming up with inventive ways to crassly insult his political enemies, there was something lacking. Something to do with my inclination…

THE WOMAN APPROACHED MICHAEL Avenatti with obvious purpose. A 79-year-old retired physicist with long blond hair, she wore a blue T-shirt that said AVENATTI IS MY SPIRIT ANIMAL. It was mid-August, and Avenatti had just finished giving a rousing speech at a county Democratic picnic in New Hampshire. As he threw his arm around her and grinned for the umpteenth selfie of the day, she slipped a folded piece of paper into his hand. Later, as he checked into his luxury hotel near Manchester, Avenatti took the paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. It was a check for $1,000, made out to “Avenatti for President.” In the memo line, the woman had written, in precise lowercase print: “Our hopes are in your hands.” This is the effect…

THE MEANINGS OF TERMS EVOLVE ALL THE time, but the Trump Administration is taking aim at one in particular: gender. The federal government is considering a policy that, by simply stating a meaning for the word sex, could have the effect of ending federal recognition of more than a million adults who identify as genders other than the ones listed on their original birth certificates. According to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) memo obtained by the New York Times, the Administration is mulling the adoption of a narrow legal definition of sex under Title IX as a set characteristic determined by genitalia at birth. The memo argues that such a key term needs a definition that is “clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable”—but the answer…

WON A jackpot worth $1.537 billion, by a Mega Millions ticket holder in South Carolina on Oct. 23. WOUNDED U.S. Army Brig. General Jeffrey Smiley and Zalmai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, in an attack at the governor’s compound on Oct. 18. Two Afghan officials were killed in the attack. FREED Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda, more than three years after he was captured by militants in northern Syria while reporting on the civil war, Tokyo confirmed Oct. 24. AWARDED Damages of $78.5 million to a groundskeeper who sued Monsanto, arguing that its Roundup weed killer gave him cancer. A Californian judge rejected Monsanto’s appeal but slashed the $289 million it was originally ordered to pay. GRANTED A building permit for the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí’s legendary Barcelona…

A better form of nationalism “A biblically rooted American nationalism—one that recognizes the nation as a diversity of tribes bound together by a common heritage and mutual loyalty—is sorely lacking from American public debate,” writes The Virtue of Nationalism author Yoram Hazony. He laments how racists have adopted the term. Ending polio While new wild poliovirus cases have dropped from 1,000 a day in 1988 to 20 so far this year, “one child is too many,” writes Rotary International president Barry Rassin and World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. They warn that slowing elimination now could lead to a resurgence. Accepting the tired, the poor U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III argues that fearing immigrants, while common in U.S. history, is misguided. “Immigration has been an affirmation of our…

FREDERICK WISEMAN has been making documentaries for more than 50 years, and the subjects he chooses—the New York Public Library, a small Texas boxing gym—sometimes don’t seem big enough to fill a whole movie canvas. But once you follow his curious eye, and see what he sees, you know why you’re looking. In Monrovia, Indiana, he and his cameras move into a small farming town, sitting in on Lions Club meetings, checking out the funnel cakes and auto decals at the annual town fair, and sometimes just taking in the vista of corn and other crops that farmers grow there. What do people care about? What do they spend their money on? What do they do in their spare time? Wiseman seeks, and finds, the answers, illuminating a pocket…

Stephen Hawking’s Brief Answers to the Big Questions, published seven months after his death, offers the legendary theoretical physicist’s parting thoughts on the universe. —Rachel E. Greenspan 1 THERE IS NO GOD Hawking addresses each possible rebuttal to the question of all questions with the utmost confidence: some people think God created space and energy, Hawking writes. “But science tells a different story.” 2 AI MAY SURPASS US Hawking predicts the invention of “brain-computer interfaces,” connecting human brains to the Internet. But with innovation comes risk, he cautions—and we must ensure that our own human wisdom can outsmart the power of technology. 3 WE WON’T SURVIVE ON EARTH Evaluating the state of the climate alongside the current political climate, Hawking paints a picture of a grim future: a “Second…