Table of contents for December 26, 2016 in TIME Magazine

There are few more wondrously terrifying moments in a woman's life than when she gives birth, delivering unto the world the passenger she has been carrying for nine months and then meeting directly for the first time. Tissue skin. Lumpy feet. Deep-pool eyes and those first howling breaths, all real and raw and eternal and so fragile. So I cannot conceive what it is like for the refugee women who have fled their country by land or sea or both to give birth to their babies in a foreign hospital, far from family and home, surrounded by doctors and nurses whose language they can't understand, wrapping their newborns in borrowed blankets and returning to the tents they now call home. TIME's Africa bureau chief, Aryn Baker, renowned photographer Lynsey Addario…

At nearly every rally in the waning days of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to purge the wealthy special interests that wield power in D.C. "I don't need them. I don't want them," he told a roaring crowd in Akron, Ohio, in August, denouncing the lobbyists and career politicians who help run the nation's capital. "I'm going to do what's good for you." This pledge to "drain the swamp" was slapped on bumper stickers and hashtagged on tweets. It helped lift the swaggering outsider to his upset victory. But as he turns to the task of governing, the President-elect is stocking his Cabinet and senior staff with the same sort of connected insiders that he railed against on the campaign trail. He's tapped four billionaires for his Administration, not…

RAISED The Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate, for only the second time since the 2008 financial crisis. The decision, which hikes the rate to a range from 0.5% to 0.75%, signals the Fed's confidence that the U.S. economy will continue to grow. The Federal Reserve said it expects to raise rates three more times in 2017. IMPLEMENTED A law legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, the first state on the Eastern seaboard to do it. A ballot initiative passed on Nov. 8 came into effect on Dec. 15, allowing people age 21 and over to possess, grow and use limited amounts of recreational pot. DIED Craig Sager, Emmy Award--winning broadcaster for Turner Sports, at age 65. He stood out on the sidelines with his eccentric, brightly colored suits while covering games…

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi kept her fingers interlocked on the polished table, a smile fixed to her face. This was not how she had hoped to spend the weeks after the 2016 election, sitting next to Vice President--elect Mike Pence. But the voters had called the shot. If there was any consolation to the awkward scene, it was that the two power brokers had known each other for years, well enough that when Pelosi dropped protocol to call him "Mike," he laughed and welcomed the informality. "You're going to be a very valuable player in all of this," she said to Pence, "because you know the territory, and I know--with no disrespect for the sensitivity and knowledge of the President-elect--you know the territory. So in that territory, we will…

The President of your home country of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, has been impeached. Do you have any interest in running for President? I will have to discuss with some leaders of Korean society what and how I can contribute to my motherland. Korea has achieved democratic institutions and democratic maturity and also economic success. I'm confident that with the sense of maturity and wisdom and resilience, Korean people will be able to overcome this current crisis as soon as possible. We seem to be living in a new age of nationalism. Where does that leave the U.N.? When member states are divided, the U.N. cannot function properly. When Security Council members are united, they have been able to address the issues protecting international peace and security. I'm concerned about…

You started investigating the sugar industry after attending a dental conference on diabetes. Why? I got a government brochure about preventing diabetes, and the nutritional advice was to reduce calories, increase fiber, decrease fat. It didn't say anything about sugar. One of the speakers had a fast-food nutrition guide, and [a sweet tea] got ranked as a "healthy." I asked him, "How can you characterize sweet tea, which has a ton of sugar in it, as a healthy drink?" His response was that there's no evidence linking sugar to chronic disease. I just looked at him like, What? So that led you to start digging into how industry was affecting public-health messaging? I came across all of these references to the Great Western Sugar Co. The company was based in…

DUA LIPA The British singer, a rising force in soulful pop, will make a winter debut. NICKI MINAJ Expect more of the master rapper's biting wit and blockbuster beats. THE XX The vibey London group returns in January with its third indie-pop album. ZARA LARSSON Sweden's latest export is a youthful and vivacious singer-songwriter. HAIM The trio of American sisters follow up their folksy-cool 2012 debut. LIL WAYNE The embattled Tha Carter V is finally due to drop. THE KILLERS The rockers' fifth album returns to early influences. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM The dance-punk troupe calls off its retirement. EMINEM Detroit's fiery rapper gets political in new material. MAJOR LAZER Diplo's hitmaking trio will drop a fourth EDM album. LORDE The Kiwi says her second project is more grownup. TAYLOR SWIFT Pop's…

In the new year, citizens around the world will argue over the fate of refugees fleeing by sea, by land and by air. But in Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid's new novel, they escape by enchanted door. Exit West (out March 7) takes place in an unnamed city where Islam prevails but sex, 'shrooms and smartphones are also prolific. A young couple, Saeed and Nadia, are falling in love even as their city is spiraling into war, with explosions plaguing every neighborhood and "helicopters [filling] the sky like birds startled by a gunshot." The conflict accelerates the relationship, and soon Saeed and Nadia decide to seek out one of the doors they've been hearing about, portals to another, safer part of the planet. Using doorways to exit conflict zones, people (mostly…

PORTUGAL The country made verbal sexual harassment illegal in August 2015. Offenders who make a sexual proposal on the street can be fined around $120, ordered to do community service or--if the victim is under the age of 14--jailed for up to three years. BELGIUM In 2014 it became a crime to insult a person based on gender or make intimidating sexual remarks in public. The government reportedly acted after a viral film by student Sofie Peeters showed her being sexually harassed as she walked through Brussels. PERU Nearly 90% of women in the capital city of Lima have reported street harassment, and in 2015 a law against the behavior was strengthened to allow jail sentences of up to 12 years for men who target women in public.…

The effects of Russia's hacking of Democratic emails before the U.S. presidential election didn't end on Nov. 8. In the weeks since, the fallout on American democracy has continued, revealing splits in Congress and tainting Donald Trump's transition effort. President Barack Obama has ordered the intelligence community to produce a full review of Russia's malicious cyberactivity for declassification and publication before Inauguration Day. The point, says one source familiar with the review, is not just to lay out what happened but to establish a record before Trump takes over command of the national-security agencies. Trump has so far refused to accept evidence that Russia was behind the attacks, and has suggested the U.S. intelligence community's conclusions are politically motivated. Trump faces trouble from his own party on Capitol Hill, as…

On Oct. 7, at the height of the presidential campaign, a tape appeared of Donald Trump saying vile things about women to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. We, the media, went berserk. For the next two weeks, as various women came forward accusing Trump of sexual assault, the coverage was wall to wall. Hillary Clinton's campaign snapped at the bait and made Trump's misogyny the centerpiece of its strategy. Also on Oct. 7 came the mind-blowing news that the U.S. intelligence community, including all 17 agencies, believed the Russians were behind the hacking of internal Clinton and Democratic Party email accounts. This news was accompanied by candidate Trump's strange affinity for Vladimir Putin. It was also accompanied by Trump's unwillingness to release his tax returns, which made it impossible to…

1 'Ugly' vegetables go mainstream Pristine produce will have less photogenic--and also less costly--cousins in the fresh-food aisles. That's thanks to a growing effort to reduce waste by farmers and grocers, particularly the waste of wholesome, if somewhat unsightly, fruits and vegetables. In the U.S., up to 40% of food goes to waste--that amounts to a per-household cost of about $2,200. Meanwhile, the U.N. estimates that some farmers chuck 20% to 40% of less-than-flawless-looking plants simply because they aren't pretty enough to meet retailers' expectations. But now, even large grocery chains are developing an appetite for the ugly stuff. In early 2016, Whole Foods launched a program with the nonprofit Imperfect Produce to start stocking some of its stores in Northern California with knotty potatoes and blemished oranges. At a…

President-elect Donald Trump put discarding much of the Obama-era environmental agenda at the top of his list of priorities. But doing so isn't as easy as many think, and could spark a high-profile fight in the early days of Trump's term. President Obama called the Clean Power Plan, which pushes states to move away from coal-fired power plants, the most significant step the U.S. has taken to fight global warming. Trump could direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to chuck the regulations, but that would require a years-long rulemaking process and scientific evidence to back up a new policy. And even that effort would face litigation that at the very least would slow things down. Trump could ask Congress to draft legislation gutting the regulation more quickly, but such efforts--like…

It was supposed to be a photo-op. Earlier this year, the United Nations decided to name Wonder Woman an honorary ambassador ahead of the 75-year-old comic-book character's first-ever feature film. The title had previously been bestowed on Winnie the Pooh and the red Angry Bird without much commotion. But this time, the U.N. named the bustiered bombshell Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. The U.N.'s press officers set up a ceremony in October at the organization's New York City headquarters to honor the comic-book character as well as Gal Gadot, the Israeli actor who played her in 2016's Batman v Superman and will reprise the role this summer. Things quickly went sideways. As Gadot greeted dozens of cheering elementary-school-age girls, the adults sitting behind them raised their…

Ottessa Moshfegh earned plaudits for last year's Eileen, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction and was short-listed for the Booker Prize. But her literary career began with stories. Homesick for Another World (out Jan. 17) showcases her mastery with tales of a range of creeps and weirdos in despair, looking for something that will make this world more palatable to them (or vice versa). Moshfegh sympathizes with these people on the margins even as she mocks them, often suturing together comedy and tragedy in one sentence. In the case of an alcoholic schoolteacher sitting alone at a bar: "I dipped a finger in my beer," she says, "and rubbed off my mascara." A delusional actor with eccentric interests responds to a disappointment by "staring at the sun through…

SAME CHARACTER, DIFFERENT ACTORS Spider-Man: Homecoming, due in July, installs the fourth Peter Parker in as many decades, following a recent Captain America cameo that sent the Internet abuzz. TOM HOLLAND The actor, 20, is also likely to star in a sequel ANDREW GARFIELD 2012, 2014 TOBEY MAGUIRE 2002, 2004, 2007 NICHOLAS HAMMOND 1977--79 (on TV) FROM ANIMATION TO LIVE ACTION Disney's Beauty and the Beast remake puts a human face on a once animated bibliophile, painstakingly re-creating her 2-D costumes and breathing life into her cadre of sidekicks, from candelabra Lumière to teapot Mrs. Potts. EMMA WATSON 2017 PAIGE O'HARA (voice) 1991 FROM SMALL SCREEN TO BIG The slo-mo beach run returns in a high-res adaptation of the hit series, which throughout the 1990s proved that…

'The Russians are not our friends.' Mitch Mcconnell, Republican Senate majority leader, announcing a joint congressional investigation of potential Russian interference in the U.S. election but rejecting calls for a special select committee; his statement came after the CIA reported to lawmakers it believed the Kremlin worked with the aim of electing Donald Trump, who called the CIA findings "ridiculous" 78.8 years The 2015 average American life expectancy--down a tenth of a year from 2014, the first decline since 1993, during the AIDS epidemic 1.4 inches Length of a dinosaur's tail feather preserved in amber, discovered by paleontologists at the China University of Geosciences, considered further proof that dinosaurs were birdlike 'So-called fake news can have real-world consequences.' Hillary Clinton, former Democratic nominee for President, in her first public appearance…

António Guterres takes over from Ban Ki-moon as U.N. Secretary-General on Jan. 1, becoming the first former head of government to lead the global body. Portugal's ex--Prime Minister inherits the role amid rising nationalism around the globe and growing regional tensions in Asia and the Middle East. WORLD LEADER The 67-year-old is already a senior figure on the world stage, having led Portugal's government from 1995 to 2002 and headed the U.N.'s refugee agency for a decade. Fluent in four languages, Guterres was elected in 1976 to Portugal's first democratically elected parliament after five decades of dictatorship. BIG PLANS Guterres has indicated that one of his first priorities will be to simplify and decentralize the world body's sprawling bureaucracy. He is expected to name a female deputy, after his appointment…

FISH AND CHIPS Warming waters surrounding the United Kingdom may force fish traditionally used in the dish, like cod and haddock, to migrate north, leaving chefs to serve up squid, sardines and anchovies. COFFEE The Bean Belt region surrounding the equator, where coffee is grown, also happens to be one of the most sensitive to climate change, with abundant pests, devastating plant diseases and frequent droughts. GUACAMOLE Persistent drought in California has taken its toll on the U.S. avocado supply, leaving restaurants like Chipotle to question whether they can afford to offer guacamole in the future.…

America has a long tradition of sitcom dads, from The Brady Bunch to Modern Family, stoically solving crises within 30 minutes. But Alan Thicke, the Canadian actor who died Dec. 13 at 69, brought new energy to a familiar genre. As Dr. Jason Seaver, psychiatrist pop on ABC's Growing Pains (1985--1992), he bore vanities unrelated to his kids--he was supportive but still at times pedantic, full of hot air and thus easily punctured. Later in life, Thicke's ability to play with the dad archetype served him well on How I Met Your Mother (he had a recurring role as himself) and Unusually Thicke, a reality show about his family (featuring son Robin, the singer). Both roles introduced Thicke to new generations of viewers, who seemed to love "America's dad" just…

All future wars will begin as cyberwars. Cyberattacks and online disinformation campaigns will define the next generation of conflict, and they will unfold silently, invisibly and relatively inexpensively. The threat is real, but we are equipped with the means to keep the cyberpeace. It's now incumbent on policymakers and tech companies to help keep our information secure and our infrastructure safe. In many ways, the tools of cyberwarfare are irresistible to governments. Cyberattacks have already been used to weaken infrastructure, disrupt communications and spread disinformation. It's much cheaper and less risky to design malware that, for example, destroys Iranian nuclear centrifuges than it would be to bomb a nuclear facility. Cyberattacks are often hard to detect and even harder to attribute, making these weapons appealing for covert operations, when governments…

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in January, one challenge looms large: China and its expanding role in the vital Asia-Pacific region. The incoming Administration will need to develop a long-term Pacific strategy--which ultimately eluded President Obama's team. Creating a long-term policy toward China will be difficult: Trump's recent questioning of the venerable "one China" policy and China's vigorous reaction illustrates the hypersensitivity in Beijing. There is certainly leeway to change and clarify policy, but rocking the boat without a strategic plan--as Trump did by taking a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen--has already resulted in ominous pronouncements by China. What are the key elements of such a strategy? A durable China policy would have to reconcile two key elements: security and trade. Security is foundational to protecting…

NETHERLANDS MARCH 15 The far-right Party for Freedom is ahead in the polls for the parliamentary election. If it wins a majority, its populist leader and E.U. opponent Geert Wilders could be in position to become Prime Minister. FRANCE APRIL 23 The presidential election in one of Europe's largest economies could pit the far-right and anti-E.U. Marine Le Pen against an Establishment figure like former Prime Minister François Fillon. If no candidate wins a majority in April, a second round of voting will be held in May. IRAN MAY 19 Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani is running for re-election, but he faces hard-line rivals critical of the nuclear deal he struck with the U.S.; incoming President Donald Trump's threats to tear up the deal likely won't help Rouhani's bid. KENYA AUG.…

[The following text appears within a diagram. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual diagram.] MILD FEAR SNAPCHAT GOES PUBLIC The startup's wildly anticipated IPO is cut short when its new stock ticker disappears after six seconds. THE TREASURY DOESN'T TURN PLATINUM Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the smash musical Hamilton, about America's first Secretary of the Treasury, struggles to come up with a rhyme for the surname of the incoming appointee: Mnuchin. WESTWORLD IS REAL The Supreme Court declares that intelligent robots are people too. Robots find the classification beneath them. IT'S TIME FOR A SPACE STAYCATION After the eclipse begins, Boeing and SpaceX move up their manned space trials, enabling more of us to join the sun in hiding. PERMANENT SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER On Aug. 21, there will be…

January 3: One of the year's best meteor showers, the Quadrantids, appears, visible to skygazers in the northern hemisphere. 5--8: The latest electronics and tech gadgets are unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. 13: Nintendo reveals more about its new offering Switch, a video-game console that doubles as a handheld gaming gadget. 28: The highly anticipated sequel to the BBC nature documentary Planet Earth hits U.S. television screens. February 1: Cardiovascular health is brought to the fore as doctors draw attention to American Heart Month. 16--20: Top researchers present game-changing science at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting. 27: Tech fans descend on Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, where smartphone companies reveal their latest wares. TBD: Samsung is expected to unveil its next Android-powered iPhone…

MOVES TALKS SEES GOOGLE HOME This voice-controlled speaker is powered by the Google Assistant, which helps users manage their calendars, perform Google searches or translate speech. AMAZON ECHO The company's Alexa software enables users to chat with its Internet-connected speaker, asking it to read news and weather reports or even order a taxi. ANKI COZMO This camera-equipped robotic toy can recognize and react to its owner's face, and even say his or her name. FETCH ROBOTICS These bots follow warehouse workers as they pick items from shelves, then help them carry inventory to reduce physical strain. SPHERO BB-8 The smartphone-controlled Star Wars toy is smart enough to remember its surroundings so it can adapt accordingly as it roves your home. AETHON TUG This bot, which is now in use, moves…

January 3: Roxane Gay releases a short-story collection, Difficult Women. 8: Jimmy Fallon hosts the 74th Golden Globes. 15: HBO's The Young Pope stars Jude Law as the first American Bishop of Rome. 20: M. Night Shyamalan spins fear from dissociative identity disorder in Split. 28: BBC America puts the planet's splendor on display again in Planet Earth II. February 5: Lady Gaga brings her powerful pipes to the Super Bowl LI halftime show. 12: Beyoncé is up for nine Grammys; Lena Dunham returns for a final season of Girls. 14: Decorated author George Saunders drops a novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. 17: Gore Verbinski's A Cure for Wellness is a thriller that unfolds at a mysterious spa. 24: Racism is the real villain in writer-director Jordan Peele's horror film…

For 11 seasons on the FXX series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Kaitlin Olson has brought a loopy, dark mania to each of her drunken rants as sociopathic aspiring comedian Dee Reynolds. Now she's coming to network TV as the least likely of saviors. On Fox's The Mick (debuting Jan. 1), Olson plays Mackenzie Murphy, a woman whose own alcohol-fueled thrill ride of a life doesn't exempt her from having to clean up her sister's messes. She ends up playing mom to her wealthy nephews and niece--taking up residence in their Greenwich, Conn., manse--after Sis flees federal charges. It's a fish-out-of-water story in which Olson flops about with fearless élan, scared only of her own propensity to actually be good at this. Elsewhere, FX mixes up the superhero template with…

When Ellen Oh was in elementary school, her teacher read a classic children's book to the students: Claire Huchet Bishop's The Five Chinese Brothers. That day at recess, she says, "the kids started to chase me around and do Chinky eyes at me and use ching-chong language." In art class that afternoon, a boy painted mustard yellow on her arm, telling her she "wasn't the right color for a Chinaman." Oh, who is Korean American, is now an author herself and wants to make sure young readers today feel recognized in their literature. As president of the organization We Need Diverse Books, she has edited an anthology of short stories for middle-grade readers representing the breadth of American childhood. Flying Lessons & Other Stories, to be published Jan. 3, includes…

Do you remember the first time you saw Hello, Dolly!? I was in Fiddler on the Roof [in the late 1960s], which was around the corner, but I was working all the same nights, so I never got to see it. When I was invited to do it, I walked to the Library for the Performing Arts, one of my favorite places, and watched it. It was the last revival Carol Channing did, in 1995. Even at 75, she was absolutely extraordinary. I met her a couple of months ago and fell in love. She's a real light in the world. It's very big shoes to fill. Did she have any advice for you? Make it your own. That's what everyone I talked to said. You can't do somebody else's…

5th The 'Gangnam Style' video is uploaded to YouTube JULY 15, 2012 The popularity of Psy's K-pop ode to materialism--and its signature horsey-dance move (above)--would eventually require the video-streaming site to upgrade its views counter to track large enough numbers. Also in style: May 7 marks 80 years of Ray-Ban sunglasses. 10th Apple releases the iPhone to U.S. customers JUNE 29, 2007 In honor of the retail debut of the much anticipated device, which had been unveiled by Steve Jobs that January, every Apple store in the U.S.--164 at the time--remained open until midnight. Also in retail: The then 4.2 million-sq.-ft. Mall of America turns 25 on Aug. 11. 20th Princess Diana's passing AUG. 31, 1997 The Paris car wreck that led to the death of the "people's princess" also…

While 2016 was a horrible year for predictions--Brexit! Trump! FARC plebiscite! Leicester City! The Game of Thrones guy who deserved to die but no one thought would die and was finally killed by that other Game of Thrones guy!--that is not going to stop me from making prognostications. In fact, I feel very confident about my first prediction: 2017 is going to be a horrible year for predictions. I also predict that Warren Hatch, a superpredictor who is a senior vice president of a forecasting consulting firm, will not be making predictions in this column like he did last year. Sure, he admitted to me that forecasters "took a few lumps" this past year, but he said increased global uncertainty only makes expert predictions more important. Then he defended oddsmakers…

1 In 2017, the most interesting political figure not named Trump will be: A. California Governor Jerry Brown, for the 42nd year in a row B. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, as she tries to make Goldman Sachs a four-letter word. C. Incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who still knows how to make a deal D. Kellyanne Conway, Trump adviser 2 When it comes to his conflicts of interest, Donald Trump will make no changes to his business practices because: A. His lawyers say the law doesn't require him to B. Americans don't really care C. The Trump kids cannot afford to buy his interests in the family partnerships D. Congress won't let him write off capital-gains taxes, as it has for other public servants 3…