Table of contents for July 24, 2023 in TIME Magazine

There were almost as many people (nearly 100) involved in this issue’s Barbie cover and video shoots as there are Barbies (170-plus). For the cover, artist Carlota Guerrero had the stars of the Barbie movie strike poses that nod to the iconic doll—even down to their hand gestures. For the video, the actors took part in the childhood pastime of dressing up Barbies for different occasions—from the Met Gala to the cover of TIME’s annual Person of the Year issue. Actors Issa Rae, Margot Robbie, and Kate McKinnon (from left) crack one another up with their outlandish outfit designs. Watch the full exercise at time.com/barbie-video SUBSCRIBE Get Extra Time, our Women’s World Cup newsletter, in your inbox at time.com/extra-time See all the newsletters Find all TIME’s email lists at…

People don’t usually become homeless suddenly. It’s a chutes-and-ladders process, with lots of chutes and hardly any ladders. A large new statewide study done by the University of California, San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative takes a closer look at the period just before homelessness, by asking a representative sample of almost 3,200 homeless people from all over the state about the chutes they fell into, and what would have helped. (Marc and Lynne Benioff, funders of the UCSF initiative, are also co-chairs and owners of TIME.) The study, published on June 20, is the largest of its kind since the 1990s. Some of the findings were unsurprising: in the state with the nation’s largest homeless population, people are unhoused because they don’t have enough money, or have…

Fire engulfs a car in the Paris suburb of Nanterre following a June 29 march to protest the police killing of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of North African descent. Merzouk worked as a delivery driver and was fatally shot during a traffic stop. In response, nearly a week of demonstrations erupted across the country, in some places devolving into riots that led to some 3,400 arrests. President Emmanuel Macron, who called the June 27 death “inexplicable” and “inexcusable,” also urged parents to keep their children indoors. The officer who killed the teen was charged with voluntary homicide. ▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox Photograph by Abdulmonam Eassa—Getty Images…

One by one, children toss note cards into the flames, each one bearing the name of a family member lost to suicide: fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters. Each card makes the fire burn a little brighter, a burst of light and memory as the paper singes and crumples. When each child has had their turn, they embrace in a group hug—some crying, some smiling, together in both grief and healing. Tomorrow, the 72 children, teens, and young adults attending Comfort Zone Camp’s three-day suicide-bereavement camp in rural New Jersey, as well as the parents who accompanied them and the “big buddies” with whom the kids are paired, will pack up and return home. The hope is they’ll leave feeling emotionally lighter than when they arrived, says Lynne Hughes, who founded the…

IMPLODED Titan submersible 5 lives lost on the OceanGate craft Five people aboard OceanGate’s Titan submersible perished when the craft imploded on a dive to see the Titanic. The crew’s disappearance—and the voyage’s reported $250,000 ticket price—captivated the world after the sub went missing on June 18, shortly after venturing down to tour the Titanic wreckage 2½ miles beneath the water’s surface. ‘We lost him doing what he loved.’—family of explorer Hamish Harding The vessel carried OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman Dawood, British explorer Hamish Harding, and French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet. The vessel reportedly imploded an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, instantly killing those on board. Presumed human remains have been found within the submersible’s debris, according…

While a legal blow, the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action should not—and need not—be the final word. Our legal and democratic responsibility to address the racial and ethnic inequalities that persist in the U.S. education system is as important as ever. Because what the court doesn’t have the power to do is erase our civil rights laws, or the principles underlying them. The U.S. Supreme Court just limited the ability of universities to consider an applicant’s race and ethnicity in admissions. In its opinion, the court found that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s consideration of race and ethnicity in determining admission violated both the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. While Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion exhibits concern…

When we reach the dirt road leading to Drax Hall plantation, Esther Phillips suggests we stop the car. Phillips, 73, gets out and draws in a deep breath. There’s a faint, sweet smell of something akin to rum out here, about eight miles from the capital city. The dried remains of sugarcane, burned then harvested, flank the road. This is about as close as she can get. Drax Hall, a Barbados plantation where sugar has been reaped for nearly four centuries, was for so long just an ordinary part of what Phillips understood as her wholesome childhood. She grew up nearby, skipping across the grounds to school. She remembers gathering milk from cows here, hearing stories about a relative working in the big house, caring for the child referred…

There’s plenty to consider about Barbie, but let’s start with her feet. Perfectly arched, but not quite demi-pointe—the ideal position to fit into any pump. They’re instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever played with the iconic doll. So when the trailer for the upcoming live-action Barbie movie opened with a shot of star Margot Robbie stepping out of Barbie’s marabou stilettos, still on tiptoes, the internet exploded. On TikTok, people attempted to mimic the viral shot with their highest heels. The Wall Street Journal interviewed a podiatrist about the physical impossibility of the moment. “I need to know everything,” tweeted Chrissy Teigen. Robbie has answers: The shot took eight takes. She had to hold onto a bar to keep her feet flexed. And, yes, those are her feet. “I…

Going on vacation every week might sound like the (very unattainable) dream. But a simple mindset shift can make it happen—no travel involved. All you need to do is get in the habit of treating your weekend like a vacation, suggests Cassie Mogilner Holmes, a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. A few years ago, Holmes and her colleagues began exploring the importance of taking vacations, which are correlated with improved health, creativity, job performance, and life satisfaction. Yet only 48% of U.S. workers use all their vacation days, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. “Initially we were like, ‘How do we get more people to take their vacations?’” Holmes says. “But then we realized, we actually have breaks in our lives already.” Presenting:…

The latest Marvel TV series, Secret Invasion, opens with an uncharacteristically timely monologue. “Imagine a world where information can’t be trusted,” rasps a CIA agent in present-day Moscow. “Not very hard, is it? News service says one thing. Website says another. Society starts to fray. All we can turn to are the people we care about. But what if those people weren’t who we thought they were?” So far, so chillingly authentic to this era of information bubbles and conspiracy thinking. But then Agent Prescod (Richard Dormer) continues: “What if they weren’t even human?” It turns out he’s talking about Skrulls: reptilian space aliens who hide behind human faces on earth. According to his theory, a series of international terrorist attacks, each claimed by a different group of militants,…

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion got back to Joy Ride director Adele Lim faster than she thought possible: Yes, she had permission to include their song “WAP” in her directorial debut. To set the scene: The summer comedy’s four protagonists are stuck in China, trying to get to South Korea despite having had their passports stolen. They need a big, shiny distraction. So naturally, they disguise themselves as the brand-new (fictional) K-pop group Brownie Tuesday and launch into a yassified version of the sexually explicit, modern rap classic. It’s a larger-than-life scene that gets its last laugh from a flash of female frontal nudity, a rarity in film but especially in the context of the genre. “Dicks have always been comedy somehow,” says the film’s co-writer, Teresa Hsiao. “Jason…