Table of contents for February 12, 2018 in TIME Magazine

AMERICA ALONE Readers took note of the juxtaposition of features in the Feb. 5 issue, which included coverage of the World Economic Forum’s summit in Davos, Switzerland, as well as a photographic look at poverty in the U.S. Dale Kueter of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, concluded that the wealthy “don’t give a rump about poverty, but take comfort on their own fat pocketbooks.” But Sidney Crain of Sacramento instead saw the pictures of American poverty as representing “hollowed-out flyover states” that had been “ignored for decades” by Democratic politicians—and an illustration of why President Trump was seen by voters as “a beacon of hope” for the nation. ‘The Davos articles convinced me that the majority of the world’s leaders can guide us in a positive direction.’PEGGY SKILES, Big Spring, Texas…

PRESIDENT TRUMP DELIVERED A fairly traditional mix of barbs and bromides during his 80-minute State of the Union address on Jan. 30, but one seemingly anodyne claim was actually pretty audacious. “For the last year,” Trump declared 22 minutes into the speech, “we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government.” In fact, Americans’ trust in their government has plunged during Trump’s first year in office, dropping 14 points to 33% in the Edelman Trust Barometer. And the President seems intent on undermining one part in particular: the justice system. Since taking office, Trump has accused the Justice Department of criminally spying on him, the leadership of the FBI of political bias and the intelligence community of acting like Nazis. He charged one federal…

SUBWAY STATION In December, 21 couples took part in a group wedding ceremony at a subway station in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province. All couples had been involved in the construction of the subway. UNDER WATER A couple who met on dating website Plenty of Fish hired a tank at an aquarium in Manchester, England, and said their marriage vows underwater in July. Their six bridesmaids all dressed as mermaids. TACO BELL In June, Dan Ryckert and Bianca Monda became the first people to get married at Taco Bell’s Las Vegas Cantina location. The couple won an all-expenses-paid wedding after entering the chain’s Love & Tacos contest.…

I’VE BEEN ATTENDING THE WORLD Economic Forum in Davos for more than two decades, and I can’t recall another time when the meeting ended with attendees who were so optimistic about the economic outlook. Their reasons: The global economy is enjoying unusual synchronicity, with every major region expanding at the same time. With unemployment low and inflation dormant, we face the possibility of several years of “high pressure” growth, in which wages and other rewards to workers will rise, after a decade of anemia. The unusual bonuses paid by some companies to workers in the wake of the U.S. tax bill are partly an acknowledgment of that trend. Trump’s hard-line “America first” trade agenda was retrofitted at Davos into a more reasonable “America first, but not America alone.” It remains…

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOVE and money just got even rockier. Psychologists at Swansea University in the U.K. showed 75 men and 76 women pictures of 50 potential love interests and asked if they’d be interested in a long, short or nonexistent relationship with each person. The researchers then showed some of them images of fancy cars, jewelry, big houses or actual cash to see if that affected how they felt about dating. It did. After the viewers had seen those images, they were shown the photos of the opposite sex again. Compared with the group that was not shown any luxury images, these participants had a higher preference for short-term flings—choosing 16% more such partners. But those looking for something more serious should fear not: the effect works both ways.…

Bradie Tennell is nothing if not prepared. After being derailed by back injuries, the 20-year-old from Illinois was cleared to skate again in late 2016, and she hit the ice in stride. This season, Tennell earned bronze at her first major international competition, won gold at the U.S. national championships and skated away with a surprise spot on the Olympic team. She’s now a dark horse to medal. And while she couldn’t have predicted how things would turn out, she was, as always, prepared: Tennell’s short program is set to a patriotic song by a South Korean composer.…

When he was 7, Nathan Chen performed a routine set to “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” from The Lion King, decked out in a Simba costume with hoodie, ears and tail that his mother made for the occasion. Few could have predicted how prescient it was. Chen, 18, is now the two-time U.S. national champion and is known as the Quad King for being the first skater in the world to land five quadruple jumps in a single program. Most elite skaters perfect just one or two of the four-rotation jumps. Because Chen can whip off five different quad jumps, he’s a favorite to win individual gold in PyeongChang. A native of Salt Lake City and the youngest of five, Chen displayed his extraordinary skill from an early…

ON MY RADAR WONDER “Jacob Tremblay is great. I got to meet him because he [was] in one of our episodes. I’m always rooting for him. He’s such a sweet guy.” The actor, writer and Saturday Night Live alum, 47, plays National Lampoon cofounder Doug Kenney in the new Netflix movie A Futile and Stupid Gesture. He’s also partway through Season 4 of his Fox comedy series The Last Man on Earth. Did the National Lampoon magazine or movies play a role in your comedic education? Caddyshack was one of my all-time favorites. My dad went to Dartmouth and would always say, “Animal House was about my fraternity.” I was able to fact-check my dad’s stories and found he might have fudged it a bit. Your wigs in the movie…

LISA HALLIDAY’S DEBUT novel, Asymmetry, begins with a lopsided affair—a perfect vehicle for a story of inexperience and advantage. This romance is between Alice, a young woman in publishing, and Ezra Blazer, a literary eminence grise, who resembles a certain real-life novelist who is chronically on Nobel wish lists. The details of their relationship are sometimes painfully precise, but Alice’s emotions are mostly left to guesswork. Just as there is something aslant between Alice and Ezra, there is asymmetry between the first half of the book and the second, which focuses on Amar Ala Jaafari, an Iraqi-American man detained at Heathrow Airport. The shift in subject matter complements one in style: the writing is now explicitly emotional, and so far from the understatement of the first half that you might…

The Missile, Jan. 30, 1956 This week’s feature on the new nuclear age (page 20) may summon déjà vu for readers who recall the Cold War, and some fears expressed in this 1956 TIME cover story are still felt today. The piece explored the chance of nukes getting into the wrong hands, as well as the chaos that could come with a false alarm like the one recently seen in Hawaii. Given a missile mistake, the story supposed, “there will be no time to check or debate, and the decision to fire ‘in retaliation’ will be made by some low-ranking officer. Retaliation may result in counter-retaliation, and in a few more minutes all the world’s missiles may fly.” Read the full story at time.com/vault SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT In Time…

CDC head quits amid controversy The Trump Administration’s appointee to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned on Jan. 31 following a report that she had bought stock in a tobacco company shortly after joining the CDC, which oversees government efforts to curb smoking. Ireland to vote on abortion laws Ireland will hold a vote this summer on liberalizing its strict abortion laws. Voters in a constitutional referendum will decide whether to relax restrictions, potentially allowing women to end pregnancies at up to 12 weeks. Feds drop charges against Menendez The Justice Department said it will not retry Senator Robert Menendez on charges of bribery, fraud and conspiracy, after a first trial ended in a hung jury last year. The New Jersey Democrat denied charges of…

THE TALIBAN AND ISIS KILLED AT LEAST 140 people in January in a wave of attacks inside Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. It’s a reminder that this 16-year war, the longest in U.S. history, rages on. At least 30,000 Afghan civilians and more than 2,200 U.S. soldiers have died. As attacks mount, it’s time to take a longer look at the U.S. goals in Afghanistan. President Trump has tried to show positive results. He has deferred to his generals on how best to achieve strategic goals and put thousands of additional troops on the ground. Afghanistan has a reasonably strong government in Kabul under the leadership of President Ashraf Ghani. It hasn’t helped. The Trump Administration has at the same time shifted support away from Pakistan in favor of closer relations with…

EVEN THE MOST ELITIST DESIGN SNOBS (YES, THAT’S me) have to admit that Ingvar Kamprad, who died on Jan. 27 at the age of 91, did more to change the look of homes across the globe than any other retailer. The pioneer of flat-pack furniture put simplicity and affordability at the core of his business. With Ikea stores worldwide, his vision encapsulated the Bauhaus dream of making good design available for all. He democratized interior design and exported the modernist Scandinavian aesthetic around the globe. Those picture-based assembly instructions were another genius design innovation; clear and succinct while overcoming language barriers, they were a precursor of the dominance of visual communication so prevalent today. Perhaps the best measure of Ingvar’s societal impact, however, is the oft quoted statistic that 10%…

Rare is the 17-year-old with the perspective to see missing the Olympics as a good thing. Four years ago, Chloe Kim qualified for the U.S. team in Sochi—but she was still two years shy of 15, the minimum age to compete. “Looking back on it, I’m really glad I couldn’t go,” Kim says. “I don’t know how my 13-year-old self would have dealt with it.” The wait has only heightened the expectations in Pyeong-Chang, where Kim is widely seen as the gold-medal favorite in the halfpipe event. Fellow Americans Kelly Clark, who won the Olympic halfpipe gold 16 years ago, Arielle Gold and Maddie Mastro are also contenders. Few can match the exuberant Southern California native’s precocious résumé: she is the youngest snowboarder to earn a gold medal at the…

South Korea rejoiced when cross-country skiing phenom Kim, 19, announced he would compete for the host country in PyeongChang. Kim’s mother is South Korean, his father is Norwegian and Kim held citizenship in both countries. In 2016, Kim became the first South Korean to win a gold medal at a major international cross-country event, when he took two golds and a silver at the 2016 Youth Winter Olympics. No Asian country has ever won an Olympic cross-country medal. While skiers from Norway, Sweden and Italy provide stiff competition, Kim has home-field advantage—and the hopes of a nation behind him.…

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE/JANET JACKSON Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004) “Nipplegate” damaged Jackson’s career—and for years stymied the spontaneity of live TV. MADONNA Super Bowl XLVI (2012) The boundary-pushing singer was a daring choice for the NFL—but the uneasiness of the fit got more attention than her unsteady new music. BEYONCÉ Super Bowl XLVII (2013) The era’s defining artist emerged in a dazzlingly ambitious performance, setting the stage for her surprise album later that year. KATY PERRY Super Bowl XLIX (2015) Riding in on a lion, exiting on a shooting star and meeting Left Shark in between, Perry showed off her mettle and her vibrant, creative wit. BEYONCÉ Super Bowl 50 (2016) Coldplay was the headliner, but Beyoncé stole the show with a sharp message and a provocative, Black Panther– inflected new image.…

‘The rumor that I’m secretly creating a zombie apocalypse to generate demand for flamethrowers is completely false.’ ELON MUSK, Tesla co-founder, tweeting about an effort to raise money for his Boring Company through sales of branded flamethrowers; pre-sales have raised $7.5 million $496,100 Value of the chocolate in two truck trailers that were stolen from an industrial park in southern Germany 46 tons Combined weight of the Mardi Gras beads pulled from five blocks’ worth of New Orleans storm drains during a recent cleanup project ‘Everything seems absurd until we die, and then it makes sense.’ MAURIZIO CATTELAN, Italian sculptor, commenting on an offer by New York City’s Guggenheim Museum to loan his work America, a solid-gold toilet, to the White House 11.1 billion Estimated number of plastic items littering…

DEATH CAMPS Under the proposal, offenders could face jail sentences of up to three years. The stiffest penalties are reserved for those who use the term Polish death camps to refer to Nazi concentration camps. The bill, passed on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was condemned by Israeli politicians as a form of Holocaust denial. THE HISTORY At least 3 million Polish Jews were killed during World War II, and some Poles were complicit. The Nazis recruited local collaborators to round up Jews for the camps. RIGHTWARD MARCH The bill comes as the ruling right-wing Law and Justice Party is accused of pandering to the nationalistic far right. Critics say the bill could restrict Holocaust research and discussion. The government denies the bill was intended to limit free…

Troubled worker sent Hawaii alert An investigation revealed Hawaii’s false emergency alerts that warned of an incoming missile threat were sent by a troubled employee, and not by accident as state officials initially said. A state investigation revealed that a worker with a history of confusing drills with real life sent the alert. Headscarf protests in Iran Iranian women have been removing their headscarves in public to protest a law that forces women to cover their heads in public places. Images on social media show women waving sticks with headscarves hanging from the end. Tourists face jail for raunchy dancing Ten tourists are facing jail time after dancing in a “pornographic mode” near a Cambodian temple. Police raided a rented villa close to the religious site, arresting 77 tourists. The…

DIED Mort Walker, the veteran comic-strip artist who delighted millions of readers with the antics of lazy Army Private Beetle Bailey, at 94. Actor Olivia Cole, who won an Emmy for her role in the 1977 hit miniseries Roots, at 75. RESIGNED FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, following months of criticism by President Trump, and amid an investigation into his role in the Hillary Clinton email probe. RETIRED The Chief Wahoo logo from the Cleveland Indians’ uniform, starting in 2019. Critics say the depiction of Native Americans is racially insensitive. GIVEN UP Three Michelin stars by French chef Sébastien Bras, for his restaurant Le Suquet. He surrendered the rating citing the pressure of inspections. RESUMED The admission of refugees from 11 “high risk” countries to the U.S., but with added…

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A company defined by utterly ruthless efficiency sets its sights on the flabbiest part of the U.S. economy? We shall see, now that Amazon has announced that it—along with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase—will be entering the dominion of health care. “The three of our companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans,” said JPMorgan chairman Jamie Dimon on Jan. 30, treading lightly (“potentially”) on the enormous implications (“all Americans”) that were apparent. As it takes shape, the as-yet-unnamed joint enterprise will nominally serve, without seeking profit, only the 1.2 million people who work for the three companies. But the clear and worthy goal is to confront the…

The Pulitzer Prize– winning reporter has written a new book, It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. Have you interacted with President Trump since you started this book? The last time Donald and I spoke was in April 2016, during the campaign. He called me at home to do what he’s done many times: threaten to sue me. He’s been threatening to sue me since 1989. He never has. He never will. You know him pretty well. What surprised you the most in your research and reporting for this book? Nothing. Seriously. There’s plenty of videotape of me out there saying what he was going to do. What I did not expect was that the Republican leadership in Congress would just lose their…

Maame Biney Speedskating, USA Biney, 18, became the first African-American woman to make the U.S. speedskating team. She moved to Maryland from Ghana at age 5. Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron Figure skating, France The pair holds the record for the highest scores in ice dancing. The favorite for gold, their free dance to Moonlight Sonata has been called “magical.” Shaun White Snowboarding, USA After a gruesome training crash in October left him needing 62 stitches, White, 31, scored a perfect 100 in an Olympic qualifier and is on track for his third Olympic halfpipe gold. Seun Adigun Bobsled, Nigeria A former sprinter, Adigun, 31, earned a chiropractic doctorate in December; now she’ll drive the first bobsled team to represent Africa at the Winter Games. Gus Kenworthy Freestyle skiing, USA…

FROM THE 9TH CENTURY B.C., athletes and spectators traveling to the Olympics were protected by a truce that stilled feuding states during the Games. The ekecheiria was history’s earliest attempt to separate sport from politics. Although tarnished by Cold War boycotts in the 1980s, the notion of the Olympics as peacemaker endures. In PyeongChang, it’s the Koreas’ turn. North and South will march under a united flag and field a joint team in women’s ice hockey, despite the two nations’ officially remaining at war. The outreach comes as tensions have spiked following Kim Jong Un’s accelerating nuclear and missile tests and his escalating war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korean President Moon Jae-in hopes the show of unity can arrest what many fear is a relentless march…

RUSSIA’S KINDA-SORTA BAN Officially, Russia was barred from sending a team to PyeongChang as penance for its elaborate state-supported doping scheme at the Sochi Olympics. But 169 athletes who were deemed clean by the IOC will each compete as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia.” They won’t march under their nation’s flag or hear its anthem if they medal—but they’ll ensure that Russia’s presence is felt. NEW EVENTS Four events will make their debut in PyeongChang: the Alpine team competition, in which 16 countries square off in a mixed-gender slalom tournament; big-air snowboarding (boarders ascend to the top of a tower, then fly off a 160-ft. ramp); mixed-doubles curling, which features two curlers—a man and a woman—on a squad rather than the usual four; and mass-start speedskating (think a very…

FOR ANYONE STRIVING TO BE SENSITIVE TO questions of gender identity, the world has grown trickier. We need to respect those who are different from us, yet even acknowledging differences runs the risk of segueing into a kind of discrimination. This is where movies can help. In A Fantastic Woman, from Chilean director Sebastian Lelio, trans actor Daniela Vega plays a waitress and singer, Marina, whose older lover, Orlando (Francisco Reyes), suddenly falls ill. She rushes him to the hospital, where he dies almost immediately. In the aftermath, Marina must contend with more than her own grief when the hospital staff alerts the police. Orlando’s family, suspicious and cruel, blocks her from his funeral. At issue is the fact that Marina is still considered, legally and by those who have…

‘I have artist friends who can’t paint a nude picture and show it in India because it offends Hindu values. What crap is this? We have to insist on freedom.’ You won the 2017 Genesis Prize, awarded to renowned Jewish individuals. Why did you recently donate the $1 million prize to refugee causes? My father’s family was forced to leave Lahore for Delhi during the 1947 partition of India. My mother’s family were Baghdadi Jews, and they fled Iraq in 1924. Migration is part of my history. But look, in the face of tens of millions of refugees, my donation is less than a drop in the ocean. I hope it signals that there is dignity in the lives of those on the move. Does politics inform your art? I…