Table of contents for February 20, 2017 in TIME Magazine

STEVE BANNON Readers praised the reporting that went into David Von Drehle's Feb. 13 cover story about the influence of President Donald Trump's adviser. They were conflicted, however, about the cover, featuring a dramatic portrait by Nadav Kander. The image and wording were "trying to get people to think" of Bannon in a certain way, wrote L. Hoyt Miller of Cortez, Fla. Meanwhile, several professional architects objected to a teaser for the story in the table of contents, which called Bannon "the architect." One of them, Danielle Fontaine of Greenville, S.C., said the characterization "saddened" her, even though the article was "otherwise enlightening." THE RESISTANCE Karl Vick's Feb. 6 cover story about the Women's March and what's next for the resistance movement struck a chord with readers. On Twitter, reader…

'I was impressed. I was meeting with a CEO. It was obvious.' Randall L. Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, after meeting with the President 'A lot of us have built our business on the freer flow of cross-border trade, data and people. If that were to change over time, that would be a problem.' Ajay Banga, CEO of MasterCard 'I've been very pleased with the agenda that the Trump Administration has.' John Watson, CEO of Chevron 'We never realized the full benefit from ACA that we expected, so we wouldn't expect any significant near-term impact if it were to be repealed.' Stephen Rusckowski, CEO of Quest Diagnostics 'We expect a bounce back. The preoccupation with the election was hurting sales.' Len Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble…

THERAPY A separate study published on Feb. 6 found that cognitive behavioral therapy helped reduce symptoms of patients with social phobia. The therapy increased brain activity in areas that regulate emotions. MONEY In a 2016 study, neuroscientists used reward therapy to help the human brain overcome phobias, by giving subjects money every time brain activity linked to a particular fear was detected. PILLS Arachnophobes given beta blockers--a heart medication also used to treat anxiety--after being exposed to spiders were able to overcome their fear better than control groups, according to a 2015 study.…

In early 1952, the United Kingdom was still reeling from World War II and the once mighty British Empire was inching toward irrelevance, having recently lost India, the jewel in its crown. Elizabeth Windsor, then 25, was mourning the death of her father George VI while preparing to rule a country in flux and an empire in decline. Now 90, Queen Elizabeth II on Feb. 6 became the first British monarch to reach her Sapphire Jubilee. Yet the Queen did nothing in public to mark the occasion. Instead, she spent the anniversary of her transition from Princess to Queen at Sandringham, the country estate where her beloved "Papa" died. It was a fitting way to mark a reign steeped in the quiet act of duty. The world has changed since…

The Internet is supposedly a hive of virality. When we see a Facebook post with 10,000 shares or a YouTube video with 5 million views, we assume this popularity is driven by zillions of intimate shares, like infected individuals passing along the flu. Do popular ideas and products really go "viral"? For a long time, nobody could be sure. It was hard to precisely track word-of-mouth buzz. But online, scientists can actually follow the journey of a piece of information as it pings around the Internet. In 2012, researchers from Yahoo studied the spread of messages on Twitter. Their conclusion: nothing really ever goes viral. More than 90% of the messages didn't diffuse at all. The vast majority of the news that people see on Twitter--around 95%--comes directly from its…

Let's start with the numbers: Five. Ten. Six hundred. That's five nuclear tests in the past decade; enough plutonium to make 10 nuclear warheads; and the ability to launch ballistic missiles at least 600 miles, and perhaps far longer. That's the arsenal at the disposal of North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Emphasis on un--untested, unlearned and unpredictable. He is also, at 32, relatively young, morbidly obese, possibly addicted to opioids and possessed of a really bad haircut. But he is not irrational, a mistake some observers make. He follows priorities learned from his father and grandfather--ruthlessly maintain internal power, cling to weapons of mass destruction and cast South Korea and the U.S. as villains. To say that he is prone to hyperbole does a disservice to the word. In addition…

The sixth and last season of HBO's Girls premieres on Feb. 12. Though its audience was relatively small over the years, the show had an outsize impact on popular culture as the millennial generation's not-always-flattering TV avatar. Critics now reflexively compare shows written by and starring a young woman to Girls. Networks, based on the show's hype, greenlighted a raft of programs examining feminism, youthful angst and awkward nudity. The show's star and creator, Lena Dunham, became a controversial figure too, thanks to her political campaigns, celebrity friendships and newsletter featuring A-list writers. Here's how far her influence reached: [The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.] GROUNDBREAKERS MINDY KALING THE MINDY PROJECT LOOKING INSECURE JILL SOLOWAY TRANSPARENT GABY HOFFMANN JAKE LACY JENNY…

'They can shut me up, but they can't change the truth.' Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator, criticizing her Republican colleagues for using a Senate rule to prevent her from speaking during a debate about Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions 200,000,000 Estimated number of years since the "lost" supercontinent Gondwana was formed; scientists recently discovered its remains under the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications 'If there were 30 slippers, then we knew that 15 people had been executed.' Former Syrian Prisoner, describing the "execution room" at Saydnaya prison, where up to 13,000 people were secretly hanged by President Bashar Assad's regime over the past five years, according to a new report from Amnesty International Apple The tech company was set to release…

The leader of al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen called for attacks on the U.S. after a Jan. 29 Special Forces raid in which several civilians were killed, as well as a U.S. Navy SEAL. In an audio message, Qassim al-Rimi, leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), scorned Donald Trump as the "new fool of the White House." Here, how a powerful enemy has regrouped: THRIVING IN CHAOS AQAP has benefited from the security vacuum created by Yemen's ongoing civil war. As military forces backed by a Saudi Arabia--led coalition battle the Houthi rebels who seized much of the country in 2014 and 2015, state institutions have collapsed. More than 10,000 people have died, and the country is on the brink of famine. SCALING UP AQAP also flourished as the…

DIED Actor Richard Hatch, 71, Battlestar Galactica's Captain Apollo. Hatch also appeared in the TV series' reboot from 2004 to 2009. Hans Rosling, 68, Swedish physician and statistician known for his public teachings on global development. Concert pianist Walter Hautzig, 95. Hautzig's musical talent paved his path out of Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938, when he was awarded a fellowship from the Jerusalem Conservatory. COMPLETED The world's longest regularly scheduled airline flight, by Qatar Airways. The airline introduced the 17-hour, 9,032-mile flight from Auckland to Doha, Quatar, on Feb. 6. RECEIVED By U.S. colleges, a record $41 billion in donations, in fiscal year 2016. BOUGHT $17 billion in foreign alcoholic beverages in the U.S. in the first 11 months of 2016, a 6% increase that will likely be the biggest total…

With the stroke of a pen, President Trump has put the future of a controversial financial-planning rule in doubt. On Feb. 3, he signed an executive memo instructing the Department of Labor to review the fiduciary rule, which requires financial advisers to put their clients' interests ahead of their own when giving retirement investment advice. If the department finds that the rule has hindered the public's access to retirement-planning information, officials would need to publish a new rule to either rescind or revise it. The review is a victory for opponents of the rule, enacted by the Obama Administration in 2015. "This has been a big moment for Americans," said Missouri Republican Representative Ann Wagner. She says the rule limits low- and middle-income Americans' access to retirement advice and puts…

For years, most millennials have avoided running for public office. But contrary to popular stereotypes, it was not because the generation born between 1982 and 2002 didn't care about changing the world; it was because they cared too much--or so argues Shauna L. Shames, a Rutgers political-science professor who surveyed dozens of students at places like the Kennedy School of Government for her new book, Out of the Running. Despite the election of President Obama, who drew heavy millennial support, most young people saw politics as all partisan infighting, no progress. As a result, they opted for careers in NGOs, community organizing or appointed office, where they felt they could get more done. But there are signs the tides are turning. Shames cites the rise of Bernie Sanders as proof…

A roundup of new and noteworthy insights from the week's most talked-about studies: 1 CAMPING MAY HELP YOU SLEEP BETTER A small study published in Current Biology found that people's internal clocks shifted earlier to align with daylight after just a weekend of camping, which could be beneficial, since having delayed or inconsistent sleep cycles can lead to health problems. 2 FAST-FOOD WRAPPERS COULD BE TOXIC A report in Environmental Science & Technology Letters found that about half of roughly 400 wrappers from 27 fast-food chains tested contained fluorine, a marker for the grease-resistant PFAS chemicals. Previous studies have linked PFAS exposure to thyroid issues, fertility problems, increased risk of cancer, developmental delays and other health issues. 3 SPACE TRAVEL MAY CHANGE GENETIC MAKEUP Preliminary results from the NASA study…

Put Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump in a room together and you can't miss the connection. They are the leaders of rival parties, sharp opponents on Twitter and in the press, but they live by the same words, as big and bold as the city that made them. "Beautiful!" they will say, though at different times and about different things. "Wonderful!" "Horrible!" "So, so great!" It is the vernacular of outer-borough kids who, in different ways, scraped their way to the big time. They are two local grandees who boast, yarn, insult and rib each other like they are still on the streets of New York City. It will take a while--like maybe never--for Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan or other GOP pooh-bahs to build up a store of Trump war…

Kehlani Parrish doesn't mince words. The Oakland, Calif.-based singer spends most of her debut LP, SweetSexySavage, laying down romantic ground rules in frank, flirty terms. Take the funky single "Distraction," on which she eschews love and commitment in favor of a lower-stakes proposition: "I need you to not want to be mine/Are you down to be a distraction?" This candor makes SweetSexySavage a welcome addition to R&B, a genre defined this decade by libidinous, manipulative bad boys like the Weeknd. Kehlani is a scholar, the kind of songwriter who worships at the altar of Swedish hitmaker Max Martin and chases genre-bending hooks, and SweetSexySavage owes plenty to the recent past--even its title is a tribute to TLC's 1994 smash CrazySexyCool. But the album strikes a balance between the nostalgic and…

Two mysteries are at the heart of Hideo Yokoyama's Six Four: the 14-year-old cold case of a young girl's murder and the recent disappearance of protagonist Yoshinobu Mikami's teenage daughter. Yet most of the suspense in this thriller has to do with bureaucratic maneuvering. Mikami, 46, has spent most of his career in criminal investigations at a prefectural police headquarters, where he earned a reputation as a tough detective. But when the novel opens, he's become press director, an administrative job he did not seek and one he finds exasperating. Between corralling unruly journalists and dealing with dissembling managers--"It's surely easier to be assertive if you don't know anything," his boss advises--he yearns for the days of actually solving crimes. When the cold case known as Six Four resurfaces, Mikami…

LOVE IT The Gap is relaunching its classic 1990s collection, featuring original model Naomi Campbell in the new ad campaign. Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul was given a chance to redeem himself on The Price Is Right, 17 years after overbidding on a sports car in the Showcase. 'And ... I'll never come back.' --Kristen Stewart, joking that she'll be barred from hosting Saturday Night Live again, after accidentally swearing during her opening monologue Lady Gaga's epic Super Bowl halftime show featured aerial acrobatics, drones--and a keytar. Leonardo DiCaprio dined on a meal prepared by Internet sensation Salt Bae, a Turkish chef famous for the flair with which he seasons meat. TIME's weekly take on what popped in culture LEAVE IT At New York Fashion Week, Japanese brand N.Hoolywood debuted…

When I need to know how to #dresslikeawoman, I call my friend Brenda, who is a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She is more than stylish--she's a wardrobe artist. Her advice is to skip the usual black when you want to feel confident. "Wear white," she says. "It's an 'I dare you' color. It's the color of courage." This might be particularly true for those of us who spend half the day carrying around a cup of coffee, but she does have a point in general. After decades in which women tried to blend into a room of dark suits, a woman dressed all in white is making a statement. Consider Hillary Clinton. You can trace her rise and fall in white pantsuits.…

Is Angela Merkel in trouble? She hopes to win a fourth term as Germany's Chancellor this fall, but recent polls show her trailing Martin Schulz, candidate for the center-left Social Democratic Party. The news made headlines across Europe because Merkel has been the one European leader in recent years who projected coolheaded, mainly popular leadership through the Continent's various crises. Yet she's on the back foot for now. That's hardly surprising given everything that's gone wrong for her since TIME named her Person of the Year in 2015. Then, Merkel's politically courageous decision to admit more than 1 million migrants, many of them from the Middle East, into Germany over the course of two years won her plaudits across the globe. In Germany, however, the policy has been bitterly divisive--and…

If Thelma Richards continues to pay $317 a month, every month, for the foreseeable future, she'll pay off her student loans by the year 2038. The problem is, by then she'll be 87 years old. "I don't think I'm going to live that long," she says, laughing. "I'm not joking!" Richards, 65, who lives in Little Falls, N.Y., fits the profile of a growing number of older Americans, who are now more likely than ever to hold student debt well into retirement age. According to a January report from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog agency, the number of Americans age 60 and older carrying student debt quadrupled in the past decade. They are now the fastest-growing group of student borrowers and owe, on average, $23,500,…

Is the show trying to say something new about male friendship? We were just trying to show our friendship. In the show, if somebody tries to make a gay-panic joke, we're like, "That's real funny. Grow up!" Very purposefully, that's not where the humor lies. What's funny is these guys will make friendship bracelets for each other. As adults. How did you want to depict Detroit, where you both grew up? It was very important that we show a different side. The one you're used to seeing is a place you go for a zombie apocalypse. I'm not saying Detroit isn't a place where negative things exist. That would be irresponsible. But why doesn't Detroit deserve to have a fun comedy? Why does it always have to be a bleak…

In John Wick: Chapter 2, Keanu Reeves' John Wick--whom we first met as the ruthless yet tender avenger in the surprise 2014 hit that bears his name--does more walking than driving. In the movie's dazzling opening sequence, he does take a car for a spin (and a crash and a bang). But Wick, the quintessential hit man longing for retirement, mostly gets around the old-fashioned way, as if willing himself to slow down. Fat chance. Forced to take one last job, Wick treks to a drowsy, decadent catacomb nightclub in Rome, where he tangles with a sultry mob princess (Claudia Gerini) and her butt-kicking bodyguard (played, wonderfully, by Common). The film has style to burn, and oh! what violence--terrible, bone-crunching, glorious violence, beautifully orchestrated by director and ex--stunt man Chad…

Fans of crime fiction have plenty to choose from this season. Here are four thrilling new books on the beat: LUCIDITY BY DAVID CARNOY A California cold case and a recent murder in New York both connect to a lucid-dreaming center. QUICKSAND BY MALIN PERSSON GIOLITO The latest Swedish crime sensation involves a mass shooting at a prep school. ILL WILL BY DAN CHAON A psychologist with a murderous brother becomes obsessed with a string of drowning deaths. THE FREEDOM BROKER BY K.J. HOWE An expert kidnapping negotiator works to free a special client: her father.…

What has struck you most about Trump's first days in office? He has already made historic moves to reverse the policies of his predecessor. He may be the first person in history to be overruled by a federal judge only days after he took office. He has proven that he's going to be an activist. He is not going to stop using the bully pulpit of his Twitter feed. And he is not going to be isolated by his handlers. Has he made any mistakes in your view? It's his nature. His nature is not going to change. It's not surprising to me that he's feisty and combative and he's not taking any crap. That's Trump. So I'm not going to characterize them as mistakes. They just are. What's the…