Indice dei contenuti per December 2, 2019 in TIME Magazine

High tide inside the Gritti Palace on Nov. 12, as Venice was beset by 6-ft.-high floods, the deepest in half a century. The waters also rose to about 5 ft. on Nov. 15 and 17, swamping cultural sites and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The city faces a compounded threat: its foundations are sinking into the mud, even as sea levels rise because of climate change. An underwater barrier system, meant to hold back the sea and intended to be operational by 2011, remains unfinished. For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox…

It was nearly impossible to check social media over the summer and miss the Area 51 fervor. Yes, that old conspiracy theory. While folklore surrounding the Nevada Air Force base has permeated pop culture for decades, a new Instagram-fueled trend of exploring forbidden locations—even Chernobyl had quite a few visitors this summer—revived the conspiracy that the U.S. government has proof of extraterrestrials at the remote military site. In June, when college student Matty Roberts suggested online that revelers band together to “storm” Area 51, it went viral instantly. Roberts even added that raiders should “Naruto run” through the gates: an homage to another of 2019’s biggest memes, of anime character Naruto. Roberts soon said that he was joking, but tens of thousands still wanted to gather near the (admittedly…

EVERY MORNING, MRS. CHEN DONS HER BRIGHT PURPLE TAI CHI pajamas and joins the dozen or so other members of Hongmen Martial Arts Group for practice outside Chongqing’s Jiangnan Stadium. But a few months ago, she was in such a rush to join their whirling sword-dance routine that she dropped her purse. Fortunately, a security guard noticed it lying in the public square via one of the overhead security cameras. He placed it at the lost and found, where Mrs. Chen gratefully retrieved it later. “Were it not for these cameras, someone might have stolen it,” Mrs. Chen, who asked to be identified by only her surname, tells TIME on a smoggy morning in China’s sprawling central megacity. “Having these cameras everywhere makes me feel safe.” What sounds like…

WE LIVE IN ODD ATHLETIC TIMES. LOSING HAS never been this fashionable. Look no further than the 2019 Miami Dolphins, who, as the season was about to kick off, traded two starters for a haul of future draft picks. The Dolphins decided, in modern parlance, to “tank,” or sacrifice the present for the potential of a brighter future. The Fins suffered 59-10 and 43-0 shellackings in their first two games. Then they traded another starter. Tanking is now an acceptable form of sports behavior, creating stark inequality in the standings. For only the second time ever, for example, four baseball teams lost more than 100 games in a single season. Not coincidentally, four teams won 100 games for the first time in history. The Cleveland Browns gutted their roster…

To read more about TIME’s Best Inventions, go to time.com/bestinventions2019 SOCIAL GOOD WATER, OUT OF THIN AIR Watergen GENNY Whether you’re in a developing country or on the scene of a natural disaster, water is usually the No. 1 need in times of crisis. Watergen, an Israeli company, thinks GENNY could be the answer. The machine, which looks like an office water cooler, pulls moisture from ambient air to create drinkable water through a patented filtration process, much like a fancier dehumidifier. One GENNY unit can produce up to 7 gal. of water a day, and all it needs is electricity or solar power—no plumbing required. The multistage purification process can make clean water even in areas with high air pollution, and larger units are already being used in disaster-relief…

‘I think that young women are always treated differently in politics.’LAUREN UNDERWOOD, U.S. Representative, at the TIME 100 Next gala Nov. 14, on former Representative Katie Hill’s decision to resign after admitting to an inappropriate relationship ‘We are no longer interested in such talks that bring nothing to us.’KIM KYE GWAN, North Korean diplomat, on Nov. 18, in response to President Trump’s apparent offer of another nuclear summit ‘I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years.’COLIN KAEPERNICK, quarterback, after canceling an NFL-backed workout event and holding one of his own on Nov. 16; he hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016 ‘WE FOLLOWED THE PRESIDENT’S ORDERS.’GORDON SONDLAND, E.U. ambassador, in his Nov. 20 House impeachment-hearing testimony on why he and other Trump Administration officials worked with…

DIED Terry O’Neill Lens on the stars I REMEMBER TERRY O’NEILL AS A NATTY dresser with a cockney accent, which was all the rage in the late 1950s, when Terry replaced me as a photographer at the London Daily Sketch and I moved to the London Daily Express. That was one of his first jobs, and Terry, who died at 81 on Nov. 16, went on to create enduring images of icons from Frank Sinatra to Brigitte Bardot. His own life was glamorous too. Once Terry and his then wife Faye Dunaway brought their new baby Liam over to our apartment in a wicker basket to meet my wife Gigi and me, and our doorman was delighted to see a movie star. I never saw Terry on a news story,…

WHEN THE RIDE-SHARING APP LYFT RANG THE opening bell at its IPO in March, pink confetti rained down on the trading floor, a reference to the company’s current pink logo more than its long-retired one: a furry pink mustache that sat atop drivers’ cars. The wacky mustache was emblematic of Silicon Valley’s live-for-the-moment startup culture, where entrepreneurs focus on quickly scaling their product to millions of people, prioritizing high user growth over immediate profitability. For much of the past two decades, consumer-tech companies have carried the mantle for America’s long-held obsession with entrepreneurs, lifting Silicon Valley and the tech industry to ever loftier heights in the national consciousness. While enterprise software businesses like Box and VMware have steadily raked in billions by building collaboration tools, security solutions and IT infrastructure,…

For two weeks this summer, the entire country seemed to have the same craving. This was particularly impressive considering it was for a food that most of us had not tried yet. Made with just four ingredients (brioche bun, fried chicken, pickles and mayo), the Popeyes chicken sandwich was more than just a menu item; it was a phenomenon. Many have credited the company’s social-media savvy, particularly its brush-off of a challenge from rival Chick-fil-A, with propelling the sandwich to fast-food fame. But a viral tweet can go only so far. What kept it going was a perfect combination of comfort, quality and scarcity, with a side of distraction. Not only is fried chicken an American staple, the sandwich contained quite a bit of it. And to top it…

In the Season 2 premiere of Fleabag, creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge attends a tumultuous family dinner wearing a sleek black jumpsuit that promptly became the talk of Twitter, selling out in a day once Internet sleuths found its maker. The jumpsuit, a High Street offering retailing for about $50, features wide-leg trousers paired with an open back, a high-neck collar leading to a deep keyhole in the front. “It’s sassy and yet exposing,” Fleabag costume designer Ray Holman tells TIME. “The jumpsuit is very easy to wear, but I think you have to be very confident and streetwise to pull it off.” The effect is daring and alluring, but it’s also decisively aloof—much like Fleabag herself, a quintessentially millennial character, whose confidence and wit often distract from her…

THE 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS 1. THE NICKEL BOYS Colson Whitehead Inspired by a Florida news story, the Pulitzer Prize winner imagines two black boys fighting to survive a juvenile reformatory in the Jim Crow South. Like The Underground Railroad, this book draws from U.S. history to underscore the continued relevance of the characters’ oppression. 2. THE TESTAMENTS Margaret Atwood The legendary author returns to the Republic of Gilead 34 years after the release of her classic, The Handmaid’s Tale. Her page-turning sequel traces the rise and ultimate fall of the totalitarian theocracy, a society with frightening parallels to the ugliest aspects of humanity. 3. LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE Valeria Luiselli A family of four embarks on a road trip from New York to Arizona, hoping to discover news of…

I AM AFRAID FOR DR. TEDROS’ SAFETY. The World Health Organization Director-General and I are walking from the WHO’s midtown-Manhattan offices to the nearby U.N. campus, where Tedros is participating in the U.N. General Assembly. As we cross avenues amid a chorus of honking horns, Tedros is so intent on answering my questions, rarely breaking eye contact, that he appears not to notice traffic lights changing and cyclists whizzing past at alarming proximity. His staff and I breathe a collective sigh of relief when he arrives at the U.N. unscathed. It should come as no surprise that the man at the helm of the world’s leading global health organization—after a decade serving as Minister of Health, then Foreign Affairs in Ethiopia—is laser-focused on the issues that keep the public-health…

IF YOU LEARNED ABOUT THANKSGIVING IN AN AMERICAN elementary school, chances are you learned that the holiday commemorates how the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Mass., fresh off the Mayflower, celebrated the harvest by enjoying a potluck-style dinner with their friendly Indian neighbors. But while that story is inspired by a real 1621 meal, it reflects neither the 17th century truth nor the 21st century understanding of it. American public memory of Thanksgiving comes from the 19th century—and it can sometimes seem stuck there. An elementary school in Mississippi, for example, drew backlash for a Nov. 15 tweet that included photos of kids dressed up as Native Americans, with feather headbands and vests made of shopping bags. Images like those have deep roots in American education, dating back to the decades…

“HAS CANCEL CULTURE GONE TOO FAR?” THE QUESTION FELT IMPOSSIBLE to ignore this year. Google it and you’ll see pages of op-eds, often concluding, yes, it has gone too far, and the Internet mob is out of control. Cancel culture became so central to the discourse in 2019 that even President Obama weighed in. The idea is that if you do something that others deem problematic, you automatically lose all your currency. Your voice is silenced. You’re done. Those who condemn cancel culture usually imply that it’s unfair and indiscriminate. The problem with this perspective is cancel culture isn’t real, at least not in the way people believe it is. Instead, it’s turned into a catch-all for when people in power face consequences for their actions or receive any type…

The young people now in high school, college and just spilling out into the workplace, part of Generation Z, are frustrated, angry and scared. In 2019, their exasperation broke out in a firestorm of just two words: “OK Boomer.” The meme came about as part of a viral TikTok video—an irritated teenager writes the phrase on a piece of notebook paper in response to a geezer who’s gassing on about the folly of youthful idealism—that gave voice to millions of young people who look forward to emerging from college saddled with debt, only to inherit a decrepit financial infrastructure and, far worse, a rapidly heating planet. The phrase isn’t just a teenage fad: Chlöe Swarbrick, a 25-year-old New Zealand politician, used it as a sly dis when an older…

UNDER THE BRIGHT WHITE LIGHTS OF A LONDON EXHIBITION SPACE, an instructor asks those who identify as extremely anxious about climate change to go to the far side of the room. Those who don’t should stay closer to her. Soon, she is mostly alone; 30 ft. away, a few dozen strangers cram together, signaling that they suffer “eco-anxiety.” This workshop, hosted by King’s College London, is one of several events organized in the British capital this fall to help people work through the feelings that arise when confronting the fact that, according to the U.N., we now have less than 11 years to prevent catastrophic climate change. “I try not to be hard on myself, because I know I’m doing as much as I can,” says Leyla Kaya, a…

FOR DECADES, MOST COMPANIES WENT TO GREAT lengths to avoid opining on social issues. No longer. After a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in August, the retailer said it would stop selling ammunition for military-style assault rifles. Patagonia closed its offices and stores for part of the day on Sept. 20 so employees could participate in a global climate strike. And in November, Chick-fil-A, which has come under fire for supporting Christian organizations that oppose same-sex marriage, said it would stop donating to those groups. What’s changed? Frustrated with political gridlock, consumers have turned to business for leadership. “I think business has to pick up the mantle when governments fail you,” Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario told TIME earlier this year. Young consumers are also more…

THE HOTEL BALLROOM IS PACKED WHEN THE SPOKEN-WORD POET Staceyann Chin takes the stage on a Saturday morning in late October. At least 1,100 mostly women and nonbinary people of color have filled the vast space in the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta in anticipation of her performance and of Stacey Abrams’ keynote address, which will come next. Chin’s first poem is a polemic against President Donald Trump, which elicits yells of support along with sharp laughs and applause. But the second performance, called “Tsunami Rising,” is when the audience explodes. In a monologue describing how black women have been brutalized, beaten down and discarded since before the founding of America, Chin expresses both the rage she feels at being ignored and the adoration she has for her fellow women…

THE 10 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS 1. SAY NOTHING Patrick Radden Keefe Keefe delivers a strong example of how to take a brutal crime (the murder of a mother of 10 in 1972 Northern Ireland) and use it to tell, in page after gripping page, a much larger history—delving into the IRA, the British occupation and the terrorism that plagued the country for decades. 2. KNOW MY NAME Chanel Miller Miller—known for years as Emily Doe, the woman who delivered a powerful victim-impact statement after being sexually assaulted at a 2015 Stanford party—gives the most profound look at life as a survivor we’ve seen since the #MeToo movement began. 3. THE YELLOW HOUSE Sarah M. Broom One of the many things lost in Hurricane Katrina was the home where Broom…