Table of contents for August 26, 2019 in TIME Magazine

WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT … ENOUGH. The Aug. 19 cover story on the El Paso and Dayton shootings and the growing threat of white nationalism sparked strong debate. “I grew up around guns and own a couple,” wrote Vicki Hoss of Leland, N.C., “but there’s no reason someone can get a gun so easily.” In response to President Bill Clinton’s op-ed calling for the reinstatement of an assault-weapons ban, the singer Barbra Streisand tweeted: “There is no reason for any civilian to have a weapon of war.” Charles Batteau of Glen Allen, Va., believes “the solutions will probably require changes in our culture and society which will be uncomfortable for liberals and conservatives alike,” while Saul P. Heller of Peabody, Mass., writes “the people must take matters into their…

THE NEWS TRICKLED OUT SLOWLY. ON Aug. 8, Russian state media reported at least two people killed in a mysterious accident in the country’s far north. Then came news of a spike in radiation near a White Sea military facility and footage that seemed to show doctors in hazmat suits treating victims. Finally, on Aug. 13, five days after the blast, the Kremlin confirmed five nuclear scientists had died testing one of the newest weapons in President Vladimir Putin’s arsenal, the first apparent victims of a new arms race. IGNEOUS ROCKET Putin promised the world a new type of nuclear missile during a 2018 address, one able to penetrate any defense. To illustrate his point, he showed an animation of a rocket striking Florida. But the explosion on Aug.…

WEAKENED Endangered Species Act A race to survive THE U.S. FEDERAL LAW THAT ONCE SAVED THE BALD EAGLE FROM extinction is facing a new set of rollbacks by the Trump Administration, worrying conservation scientists about the future of at-risk species. Signed into law in 1973 by President Richard Nixon, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is credited with saving America’s national animal—as well as the California condor, the grizzly bear, the northern gray wolf and more. Today it protects more than 1,600 plant and animal species, and 99% of the species placed on the endangered list have not gone extinct, says Jeremy Bruskotter, a professor at Ohio State University. According to Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, the goal is to bring the ESA “into the 21st century.” New rules…

IN FEBRUARY, WEIGHT WATCHERS SET OFF A FIRESTORM when it announced it would offer its weight-loss program, for free, to teens ages 13 to 17. It angered many parents, as well as eating-disorder experts who felt it could give rise to obsessive and unhealthy behaviors in adolescents. WW—as the company rebranded itself last September—refused to shrink from the criticism, says CEO Mindy Grossman: “It actually strengthened our resolve and made us offensive.” Now WW is doubling down: on Aug. 13, the company rolled out Kurbo by WW, a free nutrition and weight-loss app for kids 8 to 17. The app will inevitably draw praise, for giving a new tool to the millions of U.S. children struggling with weight, and outrage, for potentially furthering unhealthy body standards and eating behaviors,…

FOR SOMEONE CONVINCED THAT NOTHING LIES beyond the grave, Téa Obreht brings a lot of stuff back from the dead. The living and the unliving mingle in her books like uneasy teens at a party, half recognizing each other, uncertain of what they have in common. She’s fascinated by history, particularly that which has been forgotten. And more literally, her latest book, Inland, contains some of the undead remains of the almost two whole books she wrote, but never finished, after her 2011 smash best seller The Tiger’s Wife. “I threw 1,400 pages in the trash,” says Obreht, 33, sitting on an unreliable chair in the windowless room she shares with two other adjunct professors at Hunter College in New York City. For a novelist about whom TIME critic…

Norwegian mosque attacked Police said a “young white man” was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 10 after allegedly opening fire at a mosque. He injured one man before he was overpowered. Officials said he wore a camera during the attack and had expressed far-right sympathies online. He is also suspected of killing his stepsister. Trump delays some China tariffs The White House said on Aug. 13 it would not impose tariffs on imports from China of cell phones, laptops, video-game consoles and some clothing until Dec. 15, helping keep prices low through the holiday shopping season. The delay came as the Trump Administration continues to pressure China over its trade practices. Rift opens in Yemen’s civil war Fighters backed by the United Arab Emirates seized the Yemeni port city…

ITALY HAS HAD 67 governments over the past 74 years; in that respect, the impending collapse of the 5 Star–Lega coalition government is hardly surprising. For 14 months, the far-right Lega party helmed by current Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has managed to cooperate with the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement despite little agreement on actual policy beyond a general contempt for the E.U. Lega’s priorities have centered on stemming migration flows into the country and cutting taxes; for 5 Star, the focus has been on expanding the social safety net and radically reforming Italy’s sclerotic political system. Tensions in the coalition have risen in recent months as Lega has been accused of soliciting help from the Kremlin ahead of European elections in May, a charge that Salvini dismisses as the…

HE WAS FALLING APART. BRILLIANT AND TORtured, devout and driven, Johnny Cash had been discovered in the Memphis of Sun Records—the musical milieu that gave America Elvis Presley—and had built a career that, by the late 1960s, he seemed determined to destroy through an addiction to pills. Lost in a fog of speed and drink, Cash missed shows and was exiled from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville after he kicked out the footlights of the stage at the fabled Ryman Auditorium. His first marriage in tatters, Cash was in love with June Carter, of country music’s iconic Carter Family, but June refused to marry him until he sobered up. At last, June and her parents isolated Cash at his house near Nashville to dry him out and get…

AS A CROP, THE PEA HAS RISEN AND FALLEN, BUT TODAY everyone seems to agree it checks the box against the biggest problems plaguing the earth: climate, food and health. From a sustainability standpoint, peas do everything wheat, corn and soy don’t. They require less water, are drought tolerant, reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizers because they take nitrogen from the air and store it in their roots, and are an ideal candidate for crop rotation. Want to avoid allergens? Pea allergies are rare; it’s why peas are leaving soy in their dust. Mintel, the market-research firm, reported that 757 new pea-related foods hit the shelves last year. That’s in addition to what’s already out there, including the most famous pea food, the Beyond Burger. With one of the…

THE PATTERN IS FAMILIAR BY NOW. A MASS shooting prompts calls for stricter gun laws. Politicians promise to fix the problem, then run into roadblocks. Intensity fades. Congress ends up passing nothing. But after back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, left 31 dead in 13 hours of violence, there are the slightest of hints that this time might be different. President Donald Trump and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell have cracked open the door to a debate over new gun measures like universal background checks, which roughly 90% of Americans say they support. Bipartisan talks between congressional and White House staffs have begun. The National Rifle Association, normally the biggest impediment to new gun legislation, is struggling internally and could pose less of a hurdle.…

The National Academy of Medicine recommends that adult women and men drink at least 91 and 125 oz. of water a day, respectively. But pounding large amounts of water morning, noon and night may not be the best way to hydrate. “People who are drinking bottles and bottles of water in between meals and with no food—they’re probably just peeing most of that out,” says David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus. A 2015 study based on analyses of urine samples found that several drinks—including milk, tea and orange juice—were more hydrating than water. That’s not to suggest people should dump water for these other beverages. But ingesting water along with amino acids, fats and minerals seems to help the body take up…

‘IT FEELS LIKE I’M CHOSEN, IN A WAY, TO DO THIS STUFF.’ LIL NAS X IS GETTING BORED. AT A BOWLING ALLEY in midtown Manhattan, he plays a giant Connect 4, then ping-pong and then, even as he checks and re-checks his phone, he races back and forth between two lanes, pins clattering in surround sound as he bowls one spare after another. But for the 20-year-old rapper, singer and songwriter—who less than a year ago was a college dropout sleeping on his sister’s floor—second best gets boring, and fast. On his next turn, in a whirl of goofy energy, he spins around, pointing his black Air Jordans away from the pins, and flicks the ball backward down the hardwood lane. Rather than sinking into the gutter, the ball…

You were in Japanese-American internment camps from ages 5 to 8. What was that like? We were plunked down in the swamps of southeastern Arkansas. To me, it was an exotic, alien planet. Trees grew out of the water of the bayou that was right next to the barbed-wire fence. I remember catching pollywogs and putting them in the jar. Dragonflies, which I’ve never seen before. The first winter, it snowed there. I was a Southern California kid. To wake up one morning and see everything covered in white, it was a magical place. What was it like for your parents? For my parents, it was a series of goading terrors, one after the other. But children are amazingly adaptable. We adjusted, and we got used to what would have…