Table of contents for June 25, 2018 in TIME Magazine

‘Trump should be wearing the imperial crown of the czars of Russia.’ SUE KAYTON, Menlo Park, Calif. ‘this is so good, thoughtful & respectful, @samlansky.’ KEVIN MCHALE, Glee actor, on Twitter THE WAR ON MUELLER Tim O’Brien’s June 18 cover illustration, accompanying Molly Ball and Tessa Berenson’s feature on President Trump’s attempt to challenge special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, got an enthusiastic response from Kathie Schlemm of Franklin, Wis., who called it the “best TIME cover ever.” And Randall Schumann of Madison, Wis., wrote that Americans might take inspiration from it, remembering on Election Day that “colonial Americans ‘fired’ a King in 1776.” But Larry R. Schultz of Bellevue, Wash., took issue with how the cover story framed the matter. The investigation, he wrote, “is discrediting itself…

‘If people don’t want to be separated from their children, they should not bring them with them.’ JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. Attorney General EARLIER THIS YEAR, A YOUNG HONDURAN woman named Mirian gathered her 18-month-old son into her arms and walked across the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, where she presented herself to U.S. border agents to ask for asylum. Mirian and her son spent the night in a detention facility. The next day, officials told her to put her son into a car seat in the back of a government vehicle. Her hands shook as she buckled him in. The officials wouldn’t tell her where they were taking him, she wrote in a personal statement later published by CNN.com—only that she would not be allowed to…

WHEN THE U.S. SUPREME COURT UPHELD Ohio’s method of cleaning up its voter rolls in a 5-4 decision on June 11, the ruling focused in large part on technical interpretations of federal voting law—but it also represented a broader debate about partisan visions of democracy. The case centered on Larry Harmon, a software engineer who found he’d been taken off the voter-registration list when he showed up to cast a ballot in 2015. In Ohio, his home state, election officials can send residency-confirmation notices to anyone who skips one federal election cycle. If a voter fails to respond and doesn’t vote in the next four years, that person is purged from the rolls. Ohio sent Harmon such a notice, but he said he never got it. So, unable to…

DAVID DOUGLAS DUNCAN, the LIFE photographer who died on June 7 at 102, was in Tokyo in 1950 when the Korean War began. He had been a Marine officer during World War II, so his pictures of war had the breathtaking clarity and intimacy of a lover. He was not a lover of war but of the Marine Corps. He knew what a Marine was doing on the front line, what he was thinking and why—and he showed it. His pictures were collected in the best-selling book This Is War! The photos have no captions. None are needed. It wasn’t just war. He was alone with Richard Nixon the night Nixon was writing his acceptance speech for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. He made some of the best pictures…

The best books of 2018 so far TIME staffers review and recommend their favorite novels and nonfiction books that have come out this year, including a fictional account of a marriage confronting a wrongful conviction, and an unnervingly timely analysis of Shakespeare’s portrayals of tyrants. The invisible ethics of body hair Moral philosopher and author of the recent book Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal, Heather Widdows details how our constant shaving and plucking and waxing have changed our views of “natural” bodies and explains why there are deeper, insidious costs. Restoring trust across America Former TIME editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs writes that, as the public says it has lost faith in the media, “unless you believe that the country has gotten better and stronger and fairer as trust…

Every nation, even a superpower, needs friends. Whether a leader identifies terrorism or climate change or protectionism or nuclear proliferation as a priority challenge, allies are needed to meet them. Once again, Donald Trump sees things differently. For evidence, look no further than the fallout from the worst G-7 summit in memory. The U.S. now has tariffs in place against the E.U., Canada and Japan. In Quebec, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron set aside the buddy approach with Trump that has so far yielded few results to try some carefully worded straight talk. That appears to have infuriated Trump, who tweeted that Trudeau was “dishonest & weak” from his plane bound for Singapore. There, Trump met with the North Korean leader he once derided as “Rocket Man”…

Abby Finkenauer IOWA At 29, the state rep wants to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Mikie Sherrill NEW JERSEY The former Navy helicopter pilot is gunning for a seat being vacated by a retiring Republican. Gina Ortiz Jones TEXAS The former Air Force officer would be the first lesbian, Iraq War vet and Filipina to represent Texas in Congress. Kara Eastman NEBRASKA A nonprofit exec running on single-payer health care, she topped the party’s preferred candidate in the primary. Amy McGrath KENTUCKY A viral campaign video helped launch the former fighter pilot and mother of three to a primary victory. Madeleine Dean PENNSYLVANIA The state rep beat a former Congressman in the primary for a Democratic-leaning seat. Susan Wild…

IN THE 14 YEARS SINCE THE FINAL EPISODE OF SEX AND the City aired, Sarah Jessica Parker has become a real-life fashion mogul with her own shoe line, portrayed a suburban corporate recruiter in the HBO series Divorce and played an actor in an off-Broadway production. But her latest undertaking goes in another direction: literary lion. Parker’s new publishing imprint, SJP for Hogarth, released its first novel on June 12—within a week of when another celebrity-run book imprint, Lena Dunham’s Lenny, published a new novel of its own. The worlds of fashion and music have long understood the power of celebrity collaborations, which count on high-profile partners to combine expertise and star power. Now book publishers are breaking out of their bubble and looking to outsiders—people with name-brand cachet…

MUSHROOMS ARE POPPING UP IN odd places all over the supermarket, from coffee and kombucha to snack bars. That’s because the humble fungus is nutritionally impressive: add it to any dish and you’ll impart loads of savory, meaty flavor for very few calories. Six white mushrooms clock in at a mere 28 calories. Mushrooms also deliver nutrients that many people lack, like potassium, which keeps blood pressure in check: a cup of white mushrooms has nearly 10% of your daily recommended target (4,700 mg), a goal only 2% of Americans meet. Mushrooms are brimming with phytochemicals, antioxidants and a fiber called beta-glucan, all of which have anti-inflammatory properties. That means they can protect you from a number of diseases, says Dr. Lawrence Cheskin, director of the Johns Hopkins Weight…

Subscribe to TIME’s free politics newsletter and get exclusive news and insights from Washington, sent straight to your inbox. For more, visit time.com/politicsemail SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ▶ In “King Me” (June 18), we incorrectly stated Democrats controlled the Senate in 1999 when the chamber acquitted President Bill Clinton after he was impeached in the House. Republicans had the majority at the time. In “The Future of Fitness” (June 11), we misstated the year in which LEKfit started streaming workouts. It was 2017.…

STUCK IN THE MUD An 11-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome survived four days in Florida’s alligator-infested swamps in 2010 after wandering away from her home to see nature. She ate plants and slept inside a hollow log. INTO THE WOODS In 2016, a 3-year-old boy wandered into a Siberian forest populated by wolves and bears and was lost for three days. The chocolate he was carrying in his pocket sustained him until he was found by his uncle. RESCUE DOGS A Canadian dog walker was stranded in the British Columbia backcountry in 2017 after she fell, hurt herself and lost her phone. But her three dogs helped keep her warm during the three-day ordeal.…

DIED British actor Eunice Gayson, who was the first Bond girl, on June 8 at 90. Gena Turgel, a Holocaust survivor known for comforting Anne Frank, on June 7 at 95. CELEBRATED The 94th birthday of George H.W. Bush— the first former U.S. President to hit that age—on June 12. WON The French Open women’s and men’s singles titles, by Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal, respectively. APPOINTED Eleven female lawmakers, to Spain’s 17-member Cabinet, the most in the nation’s history. Their June 7 swearing-in gave Spain the most proportionally female Cabinet in Europe. CHARGED Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and his aide Konstantin Kilimnik, with witness tampering, by special counsel Robert Mueller. The June 8 indictment is the case’s first to involve an American and a Russian together.…

“A stunning concession.” That was the consensus of the world’s media gathered in Singapore, where President Trump announced that the U.S. would halt all military exercises with South Korea. But by saying he would discontinue the war games, Trump is in effect offering to stop the simulated mass murder of North Koreans. Don’t let military language sugarcoat this: when you send a nuclear bomber on a “dry run,” you are practicing the indiscriminate murder of civilians. Each year, that’s exactly what South Korea and the U.S. have been doing. It is time to unravel the anachronistic security framework of the constant threat of mass extinction. Last year, 122 states at the U.N. voted to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. That means most of the world…

At the final press conference of his whirlwind summit, President Trump announced offhandedly that the U.S. would end what he called its “provocative war games” with South Korea. But “war games” is a misrepresentation. Trump is sacrificing joint operational military exercises in which ships, aircraft, ground forces and special operators practice executing defined war plans. To have forces forward deployed without the benefit of this practice could lead to major losses in a real fight. After decades as a senior military officer, I cannot imagine stopping them without first seeing tangible progress in not only North Korean denuclearization, but also demilitarization by that nation, which fields the world’s fourth-largest army. America does these exercises constantly, often on a weekly basis, with larger events monthly and truly grand-scale exercises a…

THE GIFT OF ANGER Jeter Publishing The baseball star’s imprint offers books for all ages, including an inspirational tome by Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Arun Gandhi. PROVIDENCE Lenny Dunham and Konner’s imprint aims to give voice to the female experience. Its latest offering, Providence, is an emo-monster story. A PLACE FOR US SJP for Hogarth Parker’s imprint debuts with Fatima Farheen Mirza’s literary novel about a fracturing Indian-American Muslim family.…

Did growing up in a small town help prepare you for shooting in rural locations? Shooting in rural towns didn’t feel new or scary. I was able to go into those situations without toning myself down. Growing up in Illinois and being a male cheerleader also prepared me. I’ve worn a 100% polyester cheer-leading outfit in stadiums full of people—it is pretty hard to embarrass me. Have there been any unexpected outcomes from being on the show? I am shocked almost on a daily basis that my being me everywhere I go affects people so deeply. There are so many repressed feelings in men and women about being themselves and loving themselves. Whether you are straight or gay, we are all in this boat of not being quite sure…

‘PEOPLE EXPECT US TO BE LIKE TEFLON, BUT WE’RE JUST MEN.’CLINTON PORTIS, former NFL running back, opening up about dealing with the pressures of fame as part of the players’ union mental-health-awareness campaign 172 Number of American children killed by the flu during the 2017–18 flu season, more than in any other non-pandemic year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ‘There is no evidence to suggest that current policies, procedures and approaches have resulted in a significant reduction in sexual harassment.’ THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE, in its first report addressing how universities handle sexual harassment ‘Rescuing lives is a duty; transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp is not.’MATTEO SALVINI, Italy’s Interior Minister, defending his controversial decision to turn away…

Antarctic ice loss tripled in past decade Antarctica is losing ice at a staggering rate, dumping about 2 billion tons of ice into the ocean every year, scientists found in a study published in the journal Nature on June 13. And it’s getting worse: of the nearly 3 trillion tons of ice loss since 1992, 40% occurred over the past five years. Ex–Senate aide charged in leak case James Wolfe, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, was arrested June 7 in an investigation into classified-information leaks. He was charged with three felony counts of lying to the FBI about his contacts with journalists. Prosecutors in the case also secretly seized years’ worth of phone and email records from one of the journalists. North America wins World Cup bid The…

NO ONE IN OUR INDUSTRY WAS BIGGER THAN ANTHONY Bourdain, who died on June 8 at 61. There’s Auguste Escoffier and then there’s Tony. Actually, he was more like our Elvis Presley. Famous, but also personal. Everyone felt like they knew him. The first time I met him was in Tokyo in 2011. We met for dinner at a kaiseki restaurant, and although the crew for his TV show No Reservations was there, it was otherwise just the two of us. We immediately hit it off and the conversation just flowed. For three or four hours we talked about food, about Japan—just the kind of easy conversation that makes you feel good. We met up again a few days later in Ishikawa, where he and his crew were shooting…

Have you ever tricked your Fitbit? Sometimes my friend Dawn will wake up before me, take my Fitbit and get in my steps. I go so far over the recommended amount most days that I think it’s O.K. Why do you hate having your picture taken? So many photographers went to the Annie Leibovitz school of photography and think if you’re not being humiliated physically, then you’re not revealing your true self. I’ve been asked to stuff things in my mouth and get into a swimming pool with my clothes on.…

Bourdain’s June 8 suicide, coupled with that of fashion designer Kate Spade, was a one-two punch to our belief that there are some people who are living the perfect life. That each of them chose to end an existence that, to outsiders, seemed idyllic and enviable is a mystery to most of us—especially because these were not teenagers or lost 20-somethings, but two people who might reasonably be expected to have reached some sort of self-knowledge, or to have made peace with their demons. So many spectators of Bourdain’s and Spade’s lives saw in them reflections of the lives they would have liked to have lived. Spade created what many women would consider the ideal situation. Her world was filled with creativity, beauty, family and meaningful work. Having brought…

Before its June 11 death, supporters of net neutrality argued that ending the rule that Internet providers must treat traffic equally would mean everything from the mundane (higher bills) to the bombastic (the end of free speech online). This may distract consumers from what they should actually look for in its wake. Yes, companies like Verizon or Comcast may rework how they charge for services like Netflix, driving up prices for some—though potentially reducing them for others. But users are unlikely to feel those effects immediately. Service providers won’t want more public outrage so soon. The more troubling outcome could accumulate over time: power may concentrate further in the hands of a small group of digital giants. Companies like Facebook, Google and Netflix arose because they replaced something inferior,…

Kim Jong Un was anything but formidable when he first stepped onto the world stage in 2011. With head bowed, the 27-year-old wept before the casket of his late father Kim Jong Il. Rumors suggested the scion was a hard-partying libertine, while a CIA psychological profile painted him as an egotist who lashed out savagely at perceived insults. Intelligence officials doubted his rule would last longer than a few years and, if it did, only at the pleasure of North Korean elites who would control him from the shadows. But the young dictator has turned out to be anything but a puppet. Kim defanged the powerful military by purging hundreds of top brass, including his powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek. He transformed the North Korean economy by ceasing collectivization…

Last summer, Langston was an intern for a progressive organization in New Jersey. They had been lobbying at the capitol in Trenton that day. He left home hoping they could make a difference. But as he attempted to park at the statehouse, a police officer stopped him and roughly told him to park elsewhere. As Langston searched for a different spot, another officer stopped him, drilled him with questions and told him to find somewhere else to park. He stood still in the kitchen, not really looking at me as he spoke. And then, “I got stopped again, Dad. Again! And the cop asked me, ‘Who is your P.O.?’ And I said, ‘What’s a P.O.?’ and the cop yelled, ‘Parole officer!’ I was in a suit, Dad! A suit!”…

CHRISTINA AGUILERA HAS ALWAYS BEEN DRIVEN by reinvention. She shakes off a part of herself with each new album cycle, tapping into a character or concept that can house whatever is energizing her creatively. First she left her teen-pop roots behind and demanded respect on 2002’s Stripped, becoming a defiant adult star; four years later, she shedded that album’s raunchy persona and evoked Old Hollywood glamour on the overstuffed Back to Basics. She has spent most of the last decade-plus trying to generate and maintain some momentum, but she’s struggled to find musical relevance beyond a few booming features on hits including Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” and Pitbull’s “Feel This Moment.” On Liberation, her eighth studio album, she hits the reset button after almost 20 years in the…