Table of contents for March 28, 2016 in TIME Magazine

In a milestone for AI, a Google program beat South Korean grand master Lee Sedol at the strategy game Go (left) on March 15. But machines have been mastering board games since the 1970s. BACKGAMMON A program called BKG 9.8 became the first to defeat a human in a board game in 1979 when it beat then world champion Luigi Villa in a 7-1 match. Its creator said the victory was due to luck. CHECKERS Chinook became the first program to win a world championship against humans in 1994 when opponent Marion Tinsley withdrew because of illness. The program retained its title a year later. CHESS IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated grand master Garry Kasparov in a highly publicized 1997 tournament. The Russian won the first game, drew in the…

This was supposed to be a great year to buy an election. Thanks to recent court rulings, after all, billionaires are allowed to spend freely to elect their chosen candidate. But so far, money has not seemed to matter. As the numbers reveal, there is little correlation between independent ad spending (which often comes from super PACs and special-interest groups) and primary results, especially for Donald Trump. --MICHAEL SCHERER [This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.] SOURCE: CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS…

Visit a steel mill and you'll hear this admonition from experienced metalworkers: Keep your head on a swivel. Danger, hot and heavy, can arrive from any direction. That's not a bad way to view investing these days. After a dismal start that initially drained 9% from the S&P 500 in January, stocks rallied in early March. The S&P is down just 1.37%, and oil bounced up to about $40 a barrel. The U.S. economy appears docile: Unemployment is a tolerable 4.9%; inflation remains tame, leaving the Federal Reserve less likely to raise interest rates this month. GDP growth is bumping along at 2%, the new normal. But you'd better be ready to duck. There's a well-documented tendency--called recency bias--for investors to think the future will resemble the recent past. They…

It's now a workhorse, but when it launched, Grey's Anatomy was revolutionary. The soapy depiction of medical residents' personal lives informing and interfering with their work made it more than another hospital drama. Twelve seasons in, the formula is often imitated, and now Melissa George, who appeared on Grey's, is donning the scrubs. In NBC's Heartbeat (debuting March 22 and 23), she's a cardiothoracic surgeon with a perfect blowout. George's Dr. Alex Panttiere pauses her search for a donor heart to play a flirty game of basketball with her doctor beau (Dave Annable). "I'm bored. Wanna have sex?" she asks, making the common TV mistake of confusing bland frankness with wit. She's not the only one who's bored. Heartbeat has welcome flashes of true weirdness. But the show isn't thoughtful…

DIED Keith Emerson, 70, progressive-rock star, keyboardist and co-founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, a British band that released six platinum albums in the '70s. Among his well-known songs: "Lucky Man" and the 30-minute-long "Karn Evil 9." • Michael White, 80, film and theater impresario famous for producing Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. • Lloyd Shapley, 92, a 2012 Nobel laureate known as a father of game theory. He also mentored the troubled mathematician John Nash, subject of the 2002 movie A Beautiful Mind. ANNOUNCED The retirement of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a total of 520 days in space, including a yearlong stint aboard the International Space Station. SIGNED By Governor Kate Brown, a bill that makes Oregon the first state…

Personal drones are already smart enough to fly themselves and follow moving subjects. Their next feat: sensing obstacles to avoid collisions. Sales of consumer drones have grown from nearly nothing several years ago to $1.6 billion globally, according to research firm Gartner. But most models are aimed at enthusiasts with some previous flying experience. To reach the mainstream, manufacturers say, keeping a drone in the air has to be as easy as working a smartphone. In early March, DJI, which makes the industry's most popular model, began selling the first consumer drone that can detect and dodge obstructions. Chip giant Intel's technology will bring similar capabilities to some models later this year. And startup Skydio, which recently raised $25 million in funding, makes software aimed at preventing drone crashes. "These…

Conventional wisdom holds that corporations are the enemy of the common good, willing to exploit workers and pollute the environment if it helps their bottom line. But in his new book, Connect, John Browne (a former BP CEO who left before the big spill) argues that increasingly the most successful companies are the ones that keep society's welfare in mind. Consider Unilever, whose sustainability measures--like reducing water use by 32% since 2008--helped boost revenues from €40 billion in 2009 to €48 billion in 2014. On the flip side, Volkswagen's shares plummeted after news broke that it had cheated on emissions tests. To compete in the modern economy, Browne writes, it's not enough to make empty promises. Rather, companies must be "far-sighted enough to make friends before they need them and…

One of the most outspoken advocates I know for women and girls is actually a man. As co-founder of the ONE Campaign, my friend Bono spends a lot of time speaking out against global poverty. Together, we're working to get out a simple, powerful message: poverty is sexist. Women and girls are more likely to be impoverished, less likely to get an education and more likely to suffer bad health. And when they're born into poverty, it's much more difficult for them to lift themselves and their families out of it. Why? One reason is that breaking out of poverty takes time--and that's a resource women around the world are short on. On average, women spend about twice as much time as men doing the unpaid work that makes life…

The most important question of the 2016 presidential campaign was asked by an Indian-American doctor and poet named Amit Majmudar in a Democratic forum on March 13. It was so important that the moderator, Jake Tapper, had Dr. Majmudar repeat it to both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The doctor said his family was afraid of Donald Trump. "I am going to have one mission heading to the ballot box, which is to keep him out of office," he announced. "Leaving aside the negative rhetoric and attack ads, none of which have worked so far, can you share with us three specific points of your anti-Trump game plan?" Sanders' response was very Bernie: Trump was a pathological liar and a billionaire. But Clinton's was borderline weird, and now that she…

Terrible people often make gorgeous music, a quandary when we want to believe that true beauty shines from within. Shouldn't artists who spin out transcendent sounds also be nice to their wives, their children, their colleagues? But the things that make human beings shine are rarely all pretty or easy to parse, as three current--if disparate--not-really-biopics show. In Robert Budreau's Born to Be Blue, Ethan Hawke plays West Coast jazz heartthrob and junkie Chet Baker, though Budreau isn't even pretending to tell Baker's real story. Instead, he imagines what Baker's life might have been like if, in 1966, he'd gotten clean, fallen in love and switched course. In Don Cheadle's directorial debut, Miles Ahead, Cheadle plays an even cooler, wilder trumpet superstar, Miles Davis, but again, this is no straight-ahead…

LOVE IT Ariana Grande delivered a pitch-perfect Jennifer Lawrence impression while hosting SNL. Famed pastry chef François Payard unveiled his latest creation: the "macaronut," a hybrid macaron-doughnut. According to director Garry Marshall, Anne Hathaway is open to making Princess Diaries 3. President Obama helped Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda perform a freestyle rap in the Rose Garden. Taco Bell is launching a $1 breakfast menu in an effort to compete with McDonald's. Mariah Carey will star in her own reality series, which will focus on her current tour and upcoming wedding. Time's weekly take on what popped in culture LEAVE IT A newly viral video (shot in 2014) shows a man urinating on Rice Krispies products in a Kellogg's assembly line. The cereal company said it was "outraged" at the employee's…

Why do you say in your new memoir, Until We Are Free, that the story of Iran is the story of your life? Because my life story depicts what kind of government Iran has and how it treats people. I am not political competition for anyone. I'm just an attorney. And you can see how the government has harassed me. This is the way that they treat a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has access to microphones all over the world. Just imagine how they would treat a young journalist or unknown student who is arrested. Were there some downsides to winning the Nobel? The Nobel Peace Prize does not have a downside. But the government of Iran looked at it with suspicion. They raided my law office and my…

'I'm getting ready to rent a covered wagon.' John Kasich, Ohio governor, saying he's moving the focus of his presidential campaign west to states including California after winning his home state's Republican primary March 15 'If there is no reason to do so, I will not step down.' Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian President, rebuffing calls for her resignation following allegations of bribery and corruption; protests against her drew millions of people March 13 Star Wars fans The Force Awakens won at Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK Star Trek fans Crowdfunded spin-off movie faced new copyright-infringement complaints 'The Americans are urging us down a course they would never dream of going themselves.' Boris Johnson, London mayor, responding to a report that President Obama plans to push the U.K. during…

The debate will continue for some time on what Vladimir Putin has actually done in Syria. Russia announced on March 14 that it was withdrawing its few thousand troops serving in Syria, but Putin will keep the naval base that Russia leases at Tartus, Moscow's only direct access to the Mediterranean and the only Russian naval base not on former Soviet territory. He will keep access to a Syrian air base and maintain air-defense systems to protect both, and Russia reserves the right to drop more bombs as Moscow deems necessary. The moves are shrewd. Putin is declaring mission accomplished and reducing Russia's risks. Putin had several goals in Syria. He wanted to re-establish Russia as a fully independent power broker outside its immediate sphere of influence, as a country…

When Harry Carson, a hall of fame linebacker for the New York Giants, heard that an NFL official had acknowledged, for the first time, a link between football and the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), he felt vindicated. Carson, who was diagnosed with postconcussion syndrome in 1990, has long argued that football contributed to his condition. "This is what players have been waiting for," he says. "Just tell the truth." The truth hurts. A Boston University neuropathologist who examined the brains of 94 ex--NFL players found 90 showed signs of CTE. Asked at a congressional hearing on March 14 whether there's a link between football and brain diseases like CTE, Jeff Miller, NFL executive vice president of health and safety policy, could no longer punt the question away.…

"If it takes a village to raise a child ... it takes a city to raise a genius." That's the case Eric Weiner makes in his latest book, which explores how history's greatest thinkers were (and are) shaped by their surroundings. A sampling: CLASSICAL ATHENS The city's "openness to foreign goods, odd people [and] strange ideas" made it a bastion of creative thought, giving birth to Socrates and Aristotle. SONG DYNASTY, HANGZHOU, CHINA From A.D. 969 to 1276, China's emperor-poets created a culture of generalists, especially in Hangzhou, then one of the world's biggest, richest cities. That led to advances in woodblock printing, compasses and more. RENAISSANCE FLORENCE Patrons like the Medicis thought they could save themselves from damnation by sponsoring religious artwork, launching Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. SILICON…

JAMES CORDEN The pop-star whisperer Even if you've never watched CBS's Late Late Show, chances are you've seen its host, James Corden, singing in a car with Adele. Or playing "tattoo roulette" with One Direction. Or hijacking a tour bus with Jason Derulo. This is a testament to how well the 37-year-old British comedian understands how to be a late-night host in 2016. It's not enough, Corden says, to be "a white guy in a suit behind a desk," exchanging canned banter with celebrities. Instead, he plays a giddy instigator, pushing celebrities beyond their comfort zone to create the kinds of funny, feel-good clips that thrive in the age of YouTube. Chief among them is "Carpool Karaoke," a semiregular series (now set for a prime-time special) in which Corden chauffeurs…

The U.S. President and a Ballerina. Throw in a rabbi and a priest and you've got the start of a classic watercooler joke. But add first black U.S. President and first black female principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre and it's no longer a joke but an uplifting ideal for a new generation of African Americans. Two shining models of how diligence, discipline and perseverance can overcome even the most daunting obstacles to achieve the American Dream. But being a black role model is a double-edged sword of inspiration and frustration. Yes, you are an inspiration to children of color--living proof that although you face a lot of closed doors, they aren't all locked. For Barack Obama, the doors were double-locked: no black person had ever been President, and…

Elizabeth Brundage's exquisitely gut-churning new novel begins with a familiar scenario: a woman is found dead in her home (in this case, with an ax in her head), and her husband is the primary suspect. Flash back one year: The Hale house in upstate New York has a history--some might even call it a curse. Its owners are dairy farmers who fall on hard times in the changing economy of the 1970s; with financial ruin looming, the abusive, philandering husband persuades his wife to commit a double suicide, leaving their three sons behind to fend for themselves. George Clare, an art-history professor at a local college and a bad husband himself, buys the house when it's in foreclosure. The price is right for his relocation from New York City with…