Table of contents for December 11, 2017 in TIME Magazine

Access Hollywood: Trump tape ‘real’ Access Hollywood host Natalie Morales rejected President Trump’s reported claim that the tape in which he bragged about groping women, leaked before the 2016 election, was fabricated. “Let us make this perfectly clear—the tape is very real,” she said on the show on Nov. 27. Pope lets Rohingya go unspoken Pope Francis refrained from mentioning by name the Rohingya Muslim minority being persecuted in Myanmar during his first public Mass in the majority- Buddhist nation. The Pontiff instead urged citizens to “respect the rights of all who call this land their home.” War criminal poisons self in court A former Bosnian Croat general died after swallowing a vial of poison at a tribunal in the Netherlands seconds after his 20-year sentence for involvement in crimes…

WHEN DONALD TRUMPWAS ELECTED, Germany’s Angela Merkel didn’t join other world leaders in trying to engage the unpredictable new President. There was no flattery, no urgent appeals and no friendly rounds of golf. Instead, she issued a carefully coded message of congratulations making clear her expectation that, whatever he said to rouse his supporters, Trump would defend the principles and institutions that past U.S. Presidents—and Merkel herself—have done their best to promote. “Germany and America are bound by common values— democracy, freedom, as well as respect for the rule of law and the dignity of each and every person, regardless of their origin, skin color, creed, gender, sexual orientation or political views,” Merkel wrote. “It is based on these values that I wish to offer close cooperation.” Yet President Trump…

EVERYONE LOVES A ROYAL ROMANCE, BUT FEW ARE as unlikely as that of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who announced their engagement on Nov. 27. The American divorcée from Los Angeles is now marrying into the Royal House of Windsor, with its blessing. Markle has all the attributes of a modern-day princess. She knows her own mind, she has mastered the art of saying a lot and giving away very little, and she is used to being the center of attention. She is not going to be pushed around by a royal system that caused so much anxiety for Princess Diana. Prince Harry laid down the ground rules early in their relationship when he complained to the press that his then girlfriend—born to an African-American mother and a white father—had…

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans are failing bitterly to eat their greens: more than 90% of people in the U.S. don’t consume the recommended two to three cups of vegetables per day. Given that pleasure is a better motivator than far-off health benefits, we asked five renowned cooks to share their favorite ways to transform drab produce into prizewinning meals. Mark Bittman’s steam-sauté The best-selling cookbook author cites three reasons we should all appreciate veggies: they provide variety, everyone likes at least a few of them, and they’re nearly impossible to overeat. Bittman, who recently released a new edition of his classicHow to Cook Everything Vegetarian, shares his go-to: “Most vegetables, gently steam-sauteed with good olive oil, a little water, garlic,…

ANY VILLAIN WORTH ELEVATING INTO THE pantheon needs a trademark; think Captain Ahab’s peg leg or Captain Hook’s hook. On Godless, a Netflix miniseries that tells its story with a brazen willingness to try for the epic, Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels) has his own mark of past harm: a missing arm. But rather than cover the absence with a prosthesis, Frank carries around his dead limb. It’s a gruesome reminder of just how much he’s able to survive. This 1880s-set western, co-created by the director Steven Soderbergh, is filled with vim and rage, some of it from Frank and some from those who fear his wrath. When Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell) escapes Frank’s gang, a small mining town populated with women is threatened by the potential cross fire. For all…

EACH RECENT U2 ALBUM has endured some kind of complicated gestation before its eventual release. Songs of Experience, the band’s 14th LP, is no exception: the companion to 2014’s Applebranded blunder Songs of Innocence was delayed a year while the band reworked the material to reflect the changing political landscape. Maybe that’s why this album occasionally taps into an urgency its older sibling lacked. The political songs here are strident but sturdy, and Bono’s love songs are textured by an appreciation of his own mortality. On the rumbling “Lights of Home,” he cuts straight to the point: “I shouldn’t be here ’cause I should be dead.” It’s still a mixed bag. The singles are disjointed and generic, and “American Soul,” featuring Kendrick Lamar, sees Bono moaning for a “refu-Jesus.” But…

‘Similar reporting lapses occurred.’ U.S. AIR FORCE review into its procedures for reporting service members charged or convicted of crimes to the federal background-check database, a few weeks after it was revealed that the branch failed to input Texas church-shooting suspect Devin Kelley, who had a court-martial conviction for domestic assault GOOD WEEK Beer Budweiser is launching barley samples to the International Space Station on Dec. 4 BAD WEEK Vodka Thieves made off with 1,800 gal. from an L.A. distillery 969 Number of flights handled by the Mumbai International Airport on Nov. 24, thought to be a world record for most flights handled on one runway in 24 hours ‘They call her Pocahontas.’ DONALD TRUMP, U.S. President, repeating an epithet for Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has claimed…

FEB. 12 North Korea launches Pukguksong (Polaris)-2, the first known test of a new midrange ballistic missile. It is a land-based version of an earlier submarine-launched missile. It flies a distance of about 300 miles before crashing into the sea off the hermit nation’s east coast. JULY 4 Pyongyang conducts its first flight test of Hwasong-14. The ICBM soars at an altitude of 1,740 miles for a distance of about 580 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan. Experts say it could potentially travel 4,100 miles, which would place Alaska within striking distance. SEPT. 3 The country carries out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date, which triggers a 5.7-magnitude temblor in the northeast part of the nation. North Korea claims it is a hydrogen bomb designed…

Apple security flaw exposed A security flaw built in to macOS High Sierra, the latest version of Apple’s operating system, made it possible for anyone to log in to a computer running the software with the username root. Apple released a software update on Nov. 29 to fix the problem. Hopes fade for missing submarine Argentina is continuing to search for survivors of a submarine that disappeared on Nov. 15 with 44 crew members on board. A navy spokesman said on Nov. 27 that water had entered the snorkel of the 65-m watercraft, causing a battery fire, before it vanished. Attack on German pro-refugee mayor Andreas Hollstein, the mayor of Altena, a town in western Germany, is recovering after he was stabbed in a politically motivated attack carried out by…

DIED Singer-songwriter Pete Moore, an original member of the hitmaking Motown group the Miracles, at 79. WON The Miss Universe crown, by South Africa’s Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, who wants to use her reign to champion HIV/AIDS and self-defense causes. CROSSED The $10,000 mark, for the first time, by Bitcoin. The value of the cryptocurrency soared from under $1,000 at the end of 2016 to more than $10,267.90 on Nov. 28. DECLARED Complicit, as Dictionary.com’s word of the year for 2017, after political scandal (and an SNL sketch) led to an uptick in lookups of the word. ANNOUNCED Meredith Corp.’s planned acquisition of Time Inc., publisher of TIME, Fortune and People, among other titles, for $2.8 billion. The deal, partly financed by a $650 million investment by Koch Equity Development, would expand…

ONE INVESTMENT STRATEGY THAT HAS GROWN increasingly popular, particularly among people who are either retired or close to retiring, needs to be put out to pasture, investment strategists say. And that’s the dividend switch. For much of the past decade, investors have operated against the backdrop of two big trends: historically low interest rates, which have frustrated retirees living off the income their portfolios produce; and rising equity prices, which have encouraged risk-taking in the market. As a result, many investors have been trading in some of their low-yielding bonds for dividend-paying stocks during the bull market, with the hope of earning greater income and enjoying price gains. This would explain why dividend-paying stocks, which have historically traded at a discount to the broad market, are now frothier than shares…

Five years ago, when you edited your last issue of Newsweek, you seemed so over print. What are you doing publishing a book? I’m not over books. You’re now publishing your diaries. What do you keep private? There’s plenty of that diary that didn’t make it into publication. I’m an introverted, offstage character. But I also love the arena. I say in the book I’m a girl of the arena. I like to be sitting there in the heart of the action. The two strands pull at me all the time. One of the book’s most touching stories is about raising your son George, who has Asperger’s syndrome. What has that been like? There’s a lot of joy, because he’s so unfiltered. When he met Anna Wintour at my publishing…

A POLITICIAN FROMINDIA’S RULING HINDU nationalist party shocked the country by offering a 100 million rupee ($1.6million) bounty to anyone who beheads actor Deepika Padukone, star of the controversial new movie Padmavati, along with the film’s director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The threat to the Bollywood figures is just the latest evidence of an escalating culture war in India. SCENE SPECULATION Hindu nationalists have become obsessed by rumors that Padmavati features a romantic dream sequence between a 14th century Muslim sultan and the eponymous Hindu queen. Although Bhansali denies that a love scene exists, Suraj Pal Amu, an official with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, repeated a call for their beheadings on Nov. 19. NO-SHOW The film’s Dec. 1 release in India has now been put…

NORTH CAROLINA Earlier this month, an anonymous donor gifted $50,000 worth of toys to the Gaston County Department of Health and Human Services in North Carolina, to go to children in need this Christmas. PENNSYLVANIA In December 2016, an anonymous caller paid off 194 people’s layaway items at a Walmart store in the small town of Everett, Pa. The total cost of the items on hold was $46,265.59. TEXAS Last year, an unidentified donor surprised more than 300 teachers in the Dallas Independent School District with Target gift cards worth $400 each. The gesture cost $150,000 in total.…

ON DEC. 3, 1967, A SOUTH AFRICAN SURGE ON named Dr. Christiaan Barnard opened a man’s rib cage, took out his failing heart and replaced it with a healthy one from a brain-dead woman who had been hooked up to a ventilator. The procedure took eight hours and a team of 19 medical professionals—and when the donor heart began beating in its new body, the news ricocheted around the world. Barnard became a star overnight. “It captured people,” says Donald McRae, author of Every Second Counts, which chronicles the history of the first heart transplant. But all was not well behind the hospital doors. Shortly after the landmark surgery, the patient, a 53-year-old grocer named Louis Washkansky, fell ill. Barnard assumed the man’s body was attacking the heart—a common reaction…

Did you find Catesby to be a relatable figure?As I went along trying to depict Catesby and get into his head, the less I sympathized with him. He’s persecuted—I see why he does what he does. But the more I looked, the more I realized he’s an incredibly selfish person. He takes a whole lot of people along with him who wouldn’t have ended up becoming attempted murderers. From a less sympathetic angle, Catesby and his compatriots might look like terrorists. I don’t think they were terrorists—the word terrorism hadn’t been coined at that point. They were revolutionaries. Often you see terrorists in movies and it isn’t explored why they did what they did. There was a chance in this to do that. Was it interesting to do research into…

MIGUEL HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LOVER, not a fighter. On his 2012 breakout, Kaleidoscope Dream, he earned comparisons to Prince, while 2015’s Wildheart showcased his talents for introspective, edgy R&B. But on his fourth studio album, War & Leisure, out Dec. 1, he finds new depths of sensuality, making use of distorted rock influences and a sharp social consciousness. Los Angeles–raised with black and Latino roots, Miguel—born Miguel Jontel Pimentel— was always skilled at blending sonic and cultural influences, but here he pushes further. “Wolf” explores animalistic desire over a driving downbeat; “I love the taste of your flesh,” he groans. J. Cole collaboration “Come Through and Chill” is a glorified late-night text that oozes swagger, then name-checks Colin Kaepernick. He shines when exploring his mix of falsetto, reverb-heavy guitar…