Indice dei contenuti per October 31, 2016 in TIME Magazine

It's been nearly a year since Mauricio Macri became President of Argentina, having led a coalition known as Cambiemos (Let's change). This is a country with promise that has long been plagued by a weak economy, a history of default, isolation from international credit markets and contentious, backward-looking populist politics. Argentina has been governed so badly for so long that "change" proved irresistible--and now Macri, whom I had a chance to interview on Oct. 12, has to deliver it. A successful businessman before becoming mayor of Buenos Aires, Macri has already taken big steps to mend distortions in Argentina's economy. He has lifted onerous capital controls and allowed the central bank to move against inflation. Vitally, he resolved a 15-year dispute with international bondholders, which left Argentina unable to borrow…

RECLINING FIGURE, New York City The work of art by acclaimed British sculptor Henry Moore was condemned as an eyesore by students after news of its move to Columbia University broke in March. One described it as "kind of evil." It has not yet been installed. LUCILLE BALL, Saddle River, N.J. A statue of Lucille Ball was dubbed Scary Lucy when it was erected in 2009, leading to the artist's receiving angry emails and death threats. A new sculpture of the actor replaced it in August. POPE JOHN PAUL II, Italy The 17-ft.-tall bronze sculpture was labeled "a sin" by an art critic in Rome when it was unveiled in the Eternal City in 2011. Locals called it "horrible," and the statue was eventually revised in 2012.…

What can we learn from ghost stories? Maybe more than you'd think: in Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, Colin Dickey argues that they reveal "the contours of our anxieties" and "the nature of our collective fears and desires." Consider the story of New York City's haunted Merchant's House. It involves the spirit of a spinster who died there in 1933, decades after her father forbade her to marry her only suitor--a narrative that exploits a long-standing social anxiety regarding single women and matrimony. Or the story of the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, La., said to be haunted by the ghost of a young slave who was her master's concubine before he killed her--details that tap into Americans' lingering discomfort with slavery and racism. In many ways, Dickey…

A roundup of new and noteworthy insights from the week's most talked-about studies: 1 MORE AMERICAN WOMEN WANT TO HAVE CHILDREN Fifty percent of American women ages 15 to 44 say they expect to have a child, up 4% from 2002, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2 IT COULD BE DANGEROUS TO TAKE OUT YOUR ANGER AT THE GYM A large new study of heart-attack survivors published in the journal Circulation found that both heavy physical exertion and being in a negative emotional state could double the risk of having a heart attack within the hour. When people exerted themselves and were angry simultaneously, the risk tripled. 3 MILLENNIALS SPEND ALMOST HALF THEIR FOOD MONEY AT…

Donald Trump will probably lose this election, which is good news. Here's the bad news: that loss may be just the beginning of Trump's toxic presence in American political life. Nightmare scenarios are floating through Republican circles. The best cases posit a bitter and continuing Republican civil war between the Trump and "Establishment" factions of the party. The worst cases involve a clean break, a new right-wing populist party, anchored by a Trump-Breitbart-Ailes media empire. The mud generated by this new faction, fed by WikiLeaks and the Russians, could splash across the political spectrum, creating a perpetual fever swamp of conspiracy theories and calls for special prosecutors, crippling a Hillary Clinton presidency. Goth politics may be the new normal. But: whoa, Joe. American politics is supple and enduring; a two-party…

On a late September afternoon, just before pitcher Kyle Hendricks will take the mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates, a handful of Chicago Cubs players and coaches are huddled around a table in the visitors' locker room, all trying to help. That night, the Cubs will count on Hendricks to clinch the team's 100th victory of the season and propel them into the playoffs as the hottest team in the game--and a trendy pick to win their first World Series since 1908. But first, the brain trust needs to map out the game plan. Seven laptops and two oversize monitors are laid out in front of them. Mike Borzello, the team's catching instructor, chats with scout Tommy Hottovy, informally known as Chicago's "run-prevention coordinator," or the guy tasked with figuring out…

TRUMP'S TOTAL MELTDOWN "What is [Donald Trump's] long-term play?" asked Joe Scarborough in a discussion on MSNBC of Alex Altman and Michael Scherer's Oct. 24 cover story about the Republican candidate's chaotic campaign. Although the answer remains unclear, Roberto Chavez of Arvada, Colo., "fully appreciated the candid, incisive and thorough analysis of Trump's unparalleled state of affairs." He, like many others, praised the cover illustration, an update of an August cover by Edel Rodriguez. On Twitter, Geno Carter noted that he "had to check" that the cover was real when he saw it. "Yes this is the new updated @TIME cover," he wrote. "Bravo." But some readers, like John Wilding of Hermann, Mo., found the focus on Trump unfair. "Are you going to run two covers of Hillary Clinton's meltdowns?"…

IRAQ'S ARMY The country's military is fighting to undo the disastrous legacy of losing the Sunni-majority city to ISIS in June 2014. The troops are pushing toward Mosul from the south and will lead the assault on the city center. PESHMERGA Kurdish militias known collectively as the peshmerga, or "those who face death," took a series of villages from ISIS on Oct. 17. Mosul is adjacent to the area controlled by the Kurdish regional government. SHI'ITE FIGHTERS Powerful militias dominated by Shi'ites, known as the Popular Mobilization Units, are fighting but not expected to enter the city center because of past allegations of abuses against Sunni Iraqis. U.S.-LED FORCES The international military coalition provides air support, artillery fire and special-operations forces on the ground. There are now more than 5,000…

DIED Dario Fo, 90, Italian playwright known for works like Accidental Death of an Anarchist. He received the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature. • Dennis Byrd, 50, former NFL defensive lineman, in a car crash. The New York Jets player was known for recovering from a paralyzing neck injury in 1992. • Jia Jia, 38, the world's oldest giant panda to live in captivity. WON The 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature, by Bob Dylan, for creating "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." He is the first musician to win the award. ELECTED Portugal's former Prime Minister António Guterres, as Secretary-General of the U.N.…

As Hillary Clinton prepared to launch her presidential campaign early last year, the former Secretary of State wanted her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to keep one last, lucrative speech on his schedule. Her husband's sponsor: the financial giant Morgan Stanley. The gig, her aides protested, was a terrible idea. Furor over Wall Street's greed was raging in the heartland. Clinton was already facing criticism for taking speaking fees from unpopular clients. "That's begging for a bad rollout," campaign manager Robby Mook said in a message dated March 11, 2015. When the candidate stubbornly stood by her husband, Mook was adamant in a follow-up note that the campaign not begin this way: "It's a very consequential unforced error and could plague us in stories for months." Clinton relented a day…

LAURIE HERNANDEZ, 16 THE BUDDING ICON Growing up, Hernandez rarely saw girls like her at the gym, tearing down the vault run or tackling the balance beam. "There weren't a lot of Hispanic role models," she recalls, "especially in gymnastics." Still, she didn't think much of it--until she became one. Three months after winning Olympic gold alongside her Final Five teammates (and an individual silver), the New Jersey native is emerging as a star in her own right, signing an endorsement deal with Crest and crushing competitors on ABC's Dancing With the Stars. But the most meaningful reward, she says, comes during meet-and-greets with fans, particularly those from Hispanic families. "They say, 'You made Latinas proud!' and that hits me hard," says Hernandez. "It helps me realize that I've done…

LOVE IT Lego introduced a Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine set that includes mini figures representing John, Paul, George and Ringo. Domino's is now delivering pizza by canoe to residents living along the River Loose in England. The pizza "buoys" will wear wet suits and carry boxes equipped with their own flotation devices. President Obama shared a list of his must-watch sci-fi films and TV shows. Among them: Star Trek, The Martian and Cosmos. A Reddit user claimed that he successfully proved he was old enough to buy beer by showing his vintage Blockbuster membership card instead of an official ID. A man gave his Harry Potter--obsessed wife a homemade Pensieve --the magical device that preserves memories--as a wedding gift. America's hottest new Halloween trend: carving pumpkins inspired by Donald Trump and…

'We will absolutely accept the result of the election.' Mike Pence, Republican nominee for Vice President, responding to questions about claims by his running mate, Donald Trump, that the elections will be "rigged" $340 billion Annual losses to the U.S. economy from medical treatment and lost productivity resulting from conditions linked to common chemicals such as those in cosmetics, plastics and sofas, according to research published in The Lancet $13,007 Amount of money crowdfunded by Democrats via GoFundMe as of Oct. 18 to reopen the firebombed Orange County Republican Party office in Hillsborough, N.C. 'They were running around like rats, in and out of tunnels, and surprising us with suicide attacks and snipers.' Mehsen Gardi, Kurdish militia lieutenant, describing Islamic State fighters at the start of the battle to retake…

Climate negotiators meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, agreed on Oct. 15 to phase out pollutants known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The deal represents crucial progress toward meeting the goal of last year's landmark Paris Agreement, which set out international targets to reduce the rate of increase in global temperatures: BAD GASES HFCs, introduced widely in the 1990s to replace ozone-depleting gases, can be found in household goods such as air conditioners and refrigerators. They are thousands of times more destructive to the climate than carbon dioxide, when compared pound per pound. Scientists had warned HFC use would expand significantly in the coming decades as incomes rise in the developing world. UNITED FRONT Other climate negotiations have been slowed by the lobbying of energy companies and fast-growing developing countries for concessions. The Kigali…

According to estimates from federal agencies, there are tens of thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement--put there not by judges or juries but at the discretion of prison administrators. Often the conditions are extreme: one California prisoner, Todd Ashker, spent more than 20 years in a cell the size of a wheelchair-accessible bathroom stall, with the lights on 24 hours a day. It's easy to dismiss solitary as just another consequence of committing a crime. But that logic ignores broader costs. First, it's expensive. A year in solitary averages $75,000 per prisoner--about three times the average cost of incarceration. Second, it's dangerous. Isolated prisoners often become psychotic from sensory deprivation. And third, it can be invisible to oversight, enabling abuse. Vaughn Dortch, another California prisoner, publicly alleged that after he…

Sebastian Mallaby's new biography of former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan, The Man Who Knew, might easily have been titled The Man Who Knew--And Didn't Act. The central revelation of the book is that Greenspan, far from being a blind follower of "markets know best" efficiency theory, was well aware that easy monetary policy and soaring stock prices could create bubbles--terribly damaging ones. And yet throughout his tenure, he allowed them to expand, believing them preferable to dramatic government interference in markets. The great irony is that, thanks in large part to Greenspan, central bankers themselves have become the major player in global markets--something that has introduced huge, unknown risks into our economy. Clearly, Greenspan was the man who didn't know quite enough. Greenspan's legacy offers lessons for today's economic…

As long as there's suburbia, there will always be movies about near-middle-aged couples reckoning with their dull lives. Greg Mottola's Keeping Up with the Joneses gives us a new incarnation of these woebegone creatures, Karen (Isla Fisher) and Jeff (Zach Galifianakis), who live on a street with maple in its name and spend Friday nights cozied up with the DVR. Enter new neighbors Tim (Jon Hamm) and Natalie (Gal Gadot), a dashing travel writer and a purring, leggy sophisticate with a food blog. Too perfect to be real, they're actually spies, which is the tiny circular track the movie's jokes run on. The worn-out gags include one in which Karen and Natalie try on racy lingerie together and another in which Tim takes the meek Jeff to a secret restaurant…

Douglas MacArthur certainly had a way with Commanders in Chief. Long before he ran afoul of Harry Truman near the end of the Korean War, the self-glorifying Army general was ignoring the orders of President Herbert Hoover. As a young Army chief of staff in 1932, MacArthur, against the explicit instructions of Hoover, took it upon himself to not just disperse a crowd as Hoover had asked but also completely clear Washington of the ragtag "bonus army," penniless World War I veterans (and their wives and children) who had camped on the banks of the Anacostia River while pleading with Congress to pay out their military benefits early. What should have been a minor test of crowd control turned, in MacArthur's hands, into a fiasco. Several hundred troops under Mac's…

Sure, it feels like this Presidential election isn't about issues and is instead a barrage of insults, anger and ugly revelations. But as anyone who has ever been in a romantic relationship can attest, a barrage of insults, anger and ugly revelations is how you know you're talking about issues. When you're having a calm, rational discussion, one person is talking and the other is thinking about what there is in the house to eat. Past presidential elections have focused on issues like how to structure the income tax, which I don't know the answer to, since I'm not an economist. Or what the best health care system is, which I don't know because I don't even know what someone who studies health care is called. Or how to handle…

Esther, your character in The Birth of a Nation, doesn't have any lines, but you convey her suffering so powerfully. I've been asked, "Should you separate the art from the artist?" I've implored people to not separate my art from this artist because that's my life. Unfortunately, life gave me all the preparation I needed. Much of my journey as a rape survivor has been in the shadows. The posttraumatic stress is like being locked in this excruciatingly joyless place. I hope people see Gabrielle Union, rape survivor, as the same person as Esther, because we are the same. With women speaking out against Bill Cosby and Roger Ailes (who have been accused of sexual assault and harassment, respectively), does it feel like there's been a cultural shift? Women have…