Table of contents for January 23, 2017 in TIME Magazine

BOTOX FOR EVERYTHING Alexandra Sifferlin's Jan. 16 cover story about the many medicinal uses of Botox spurred readers to share a variety of personal experiences. On Facebook, some wrote that they have used the drug--which is most famous for smoothing wrinkles--to treat everything from migraines and excessive sweating to extreme morning sickness and poststroke conditions. But Warren I. Schaeffer, a former professor of microbiology in Edison, N.J., said that he wished the story had included more discussion of reports that "the effectiveness of the treatment does diminish with repeated use over time," as that could "put a financial strain on the patient as effectiveness diminishes but cost per dose remains." TIME TRAVELERS Susanna Schrobsdorff struck a chord with readers in her Jan. 16 column about how the passage of time…

Theresa May passed her sixth month as Prime Minister on Jan. 13 as the defining issue of her term--Britain's withdrawal from the E.U.--nears a crisis point. The resignation of a key civil servant on Jan. 3 was the latest blow to a Brexit process that critics say is going badly awry: HARD TRUTHS Britain's ambassador to the E.U., Ivan Rogers, quit with a letter to fellow civil servants suggesting that the government was unwilling to accept the realities of leaving the E.U. He had previously said it would take Britain up to a decade to forge a post-Brexit trade deal with the E.U. Pro-Brexit ministers insist it can be done in two years. KNOWN UNKNOWNS May has said Britain will formally begin the two-year process of leaving the E.U. before…

TAIWAN A 2006 earthquake damaged cables, jammed Internet services on the island and disrupted 98% of Taiwan's communications with Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia. NORTHERN MARIANAS About 50,000 residents of the Pacific islands lost Internet access in 2015 when their sole undersea cable was cut. Even government websites in the U.S. insular area went offline. JERSEY, U.K. The British island's three main undersea cables were accidentally severed by a ship's anchor in November, with many people reporting a total loss of Internet or drastically slow speeds.…

Jason Paced the corridor outside the boardroom before his presentation. He could hear his pulse in his ears, and his mouth was dry. The last time he felt like this, he told himself to relax, but it didn't work. So this time, he tried something different: "I feel excited." Suddenly, his symptoms--the racing pulse, the twisting stomach, the sweaty palms--started to energize him. The boardroom door opened. He performed brilliantly. This story might be fiction, but at its core lies a very real truth. The science of emotion tells us that our bodies respond similarly to many different emotions, including anger, excitement and anxiety. And recent research has shown that if we verbally put those symptoms into a different context--by saying "I feel excited" when feeling stressed, for example--we can…

South Korean author Han Kang broke out in the U.S. last year with the Man Booker International Prize--winning novel The Vegetarian, a transfixing book about the unexpected consequences of a woman's decision to forgo meat. Her new novel, Human Acts, showcases the same talent for writing about corporeal horrors, this time in the context of the 1980 Gwangju uprising, when the military killed hundreds of people protesting martial law. The book follows a handful of victims and survivors, from a boy keeping vigil over corpses to a woman who undergoes barbaric torture. Han deftly outlines the anatomy of violence, as when a character's cheek is struck so hard that "the capillaries laced over her right cheekbone burst." Wounds form scars, and over decades, the survivors bear reminders of their pain--and…

'I still feel like I had to do it.' Dylann Roof, in a statement before being sentenced to death for the killing of nine African-American parishioners in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015 $20 million Amount of cash hidden in a mattress box in an apartment in Westborough, Mass., seized by authorities who were investigating an Internet telecom company suspected of being a pyramid scheme 52 million Age in years of fossilized tomatillos that paleontologists found in Patagonia, Argentina, making the plants at least 25 million years older than previously believed 5,000 Estimated number of black holes that scientists have discovered in the Chandra Deep Field South, in deep space; it's the highest concentration of supermassive black holes ever seen 'Anytime, anywhere.' Unnamed North Korean foreign ministry spokesman, on the nation's…

OVERCROWDING Brazil has the world's fourth largest prison population per capita, with roughly half of all inmates still awaiting trial. Overcrowding makes it hard to separate rival factions, who are sent to remote northern states in an attempt to dissolve their gang ties. INFIGHTING The riots are reportedly part of a power struggle between rival drug gangs the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command. Gang members have decapitated and dismembered rivals during the bloodshed. UNDERFUNDING Many of Brazil's jails are poorly staffed and equipped, making it impossible to contain a riot. Following the first uprising on Jan. 1, the government promised to modernize prisons and hasten the process of criminal charges.…

DIED Clare Hollingworth, 105, a veteran war correspondent who broke the news that Germany was set to invade Poland in 1939, launching World War II. The journalist, who was briefly accredited to TIME, reported from Vietnam, Algeria and Iraq, and was heralded as a pioneer among female journalists. Tilikum, a SeaWorld killer whale that gained notoriety for killing a trainer in 2010. The male orca's story was featured in the documentary Blackfish, which sparked calls for changes at the marine park. On Jan. 8, SeaWorld San Diego held its final killer-whale show. WON A record seven Golden Globes, by the movie La La Land. Awards for the Hollywood musical, which stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, included Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. APPROVED Plans to grow the number of…

In an age of swiping right and binge-watching The Bachelor, millions of Americans are obsessed with the idea of finding "the one" with whom they will live happily ever after. But in her new book How to Choose a Partner, Susan Quilliam makes the case for putting aside conventional wisdom about romance. Instead of searching for bliss and emotional fireworks, she writes, singles should look for someone who will aid their own self-improvement: "The most important factor is not whether we are currently ecstatic, but whether we are currently growing, and whether we trust that we will grow in the future, and whether we believe our partner is growing too." In a sense, she adds, it's a good idea to approach dating like interviewing candidates for a job: "Be open-minded…

A roundup of new and noteworthy insights from the week's most talked-about studies: 1 ART CAN AFFECT YOUR APPETITE A small study in the journal Appetite found that a group who viewed images of impossibly thin sculptures by artist Alberto Giacometti ate less chocolate and blueberries afterward than the control group. 2 AMERICAN WORKERS LOVE YOGA A study of more than 85,000 adults in the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease found that the number of American workers who practice yoga nearly doubled from 6% in 2002 to 11% in 2012. The trend bodes well for output, since activities such as yoga and meditation have been shown to increase productivity. 3 MORE MEN ARE STRUGGLING WITH BODY-IMAGE ISSUES A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that…

THE PLAYERS YOHANNES ABRAHAM Deputy assistant to the President for the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs LISA BROWN Former staff secretary BRIAN DEESE Senior adviser to the President JOSH EARNEST Press secretary RAHM EMANUEL Former chief of staff JASON FURMAN Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers VALERIE JARRETT Senior adviser to the President CODY KEENAN Director of speechwriting KATIE LILLIE Former director of press advance KATIE MCCORMICK LELYVELD Former press secretary for First Lady Michelle Obama DAN PFEIFFER Former senior adviser to the President MACON PHILLIPS Former director of digital strategy JEN PSAKI Communications director BEN RHODES Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting KORI SCHULMAN Deputy chief digital officer MONA SUTPHEN Former deputy chief of staff TOMMY VIETOR Former national security spokesman MELISSA WINTER…

LOVE IT 'It was a corn tortilla ... in case you were wondering.' Serena Williams, announcing her engagement to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian with an Instagram post of an engagement ring featuring a miniature taco instead of a gemstone A man showed up to greet his newborn niece at the hospital in a suit because, as he explained, "first impressions matter." An 11-year-old beagle named Purin and her owner in Japan set a Guinness World Record for most jump-rope skips by a dog and a person, completing 58 in one minute. Kim Kardashian West returned to Instagram following a three-month hiatus after being robbed at gunpoint in Paris. Her first post: a family portrait with husband Kanye West and children Saint and North. The 105-year-old Robert Marchand of France cycled…

For the residents of Flint, Mich., the burden of the ongoing water crisis can be measured in weight. Few outside of Vehicle City can tell you how much a 24-pack of bottled water weighs. But in Flint, they can recite it from memory: 26½ lb. For more than a year, many Flint residents have been making the daily journey to distribution centers to load up on cases of water for virtually every basic chore: bathing, brushing teeth, making dinner. Twelve months after a state of emergency was declared to deal with the catastrophic decision to switch the municipal water supply to the Flint River, which allowed lead and other toxins from the city's aging pipes to flow into residents' taps, the water in Flint remains unsafe to drink without a…

To say Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani inspired mixed emotions is to begin to understand Iran. The power broker, who died on Jan. 8 at age 82, reflected the contradictions that define the Islamic Republic. Rafsanjani was both revolutionary and evolutionary, a reputed killer and a subtle diplomat, famously corrupt and, late in life, the last best hope of democratic reformists. Most of all, he was the ultimate insider in a system so dense, it may at some point collapse into itself like a black hole. Much of the obscuring haze was dust kicked up in the perpetual scuffle between Rafsanjani and Ali Khamenei, the old friend he basically installed as Iran's Supreme Leader in 1989--and, over the next 27 years, proved unable to control. He thought he could. The son…

When hip-hop veterans Jaime "El-P" Meline and Michael "Killer Mike" Render came together to record their first mixtape as Run the Jewels, they weren't expecting much out of the side project beyond fraternal fun. "When I started this band, didn't have no plans, didn't see no arc," El-P raps near the end of the pair's new album, Run the Jewels 3. "Just run with the craft, have a couple laughs, make a buck and dash." Mission accomplished, and then some. 2014's fierce, filthy Run the Jewels 2 was rightly hailed as one of that year's best records. Now at an unexpected career peak, they're hip-hop's paunchy, middle-aged everymen. And their demands are simple: a copious marijuana stash, consensual and freaky sex, and the demolition of institutions that foster racism and…

Davos takes place this year at a time of uncommon instability. How come? When you look at the major European or North Atlantic nations, people do not know what the policy of the next administrations will be. The U.S., maybe together with China, is the elephant in the room. Both uncertain. You have elections in France, the unknown nature of Brexit's implications. And then you have Germany, and given what happened in Berlin with terrorism, what will be the position of Angela Merkel one year from now? That creates the whole atmosphere of morosity. You have a phrase about the rise of discontented workers--you call it the Precariat? I didn't coin the phrase, but it describes why people have this uneasy feeling. Is my job still safe? I think there…