Table of contents for April 9, 2018 in TIME Magazine

‘Taking hardline stances in op-ed pages is all good and well, but reality begins to set in once you’re briefed on military plans.’Anthony Cordesman AFTER TOILING IN THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION, JOHN Bolton received a symbolic gift from his colleagues intended to sum up his tenure: a bronze-plated hand grenade. It became a prized possession that Bolton showcased on a coffee table in his Washington office for years afterward. Now the man who relishes his role as a bomb thrower will serve as President Donald Trump’s next National Security Adviser, further unsettling a world that both men appear to enjoy keeping off balance. Bolton’s appointment on March 22 registered as the biggest lurch yet in the ongoing White House shake-up, not least for the contrast he offers with the departing…

THE U.S. CENSUS HAS BEEN EVOLVING SINCE 1790, but the latest change to the list of questions has some demographics experts, civil rights leaders and Democratic lawmakers worried—so worried that the tweak is already facing several legal challenges. At issue is the Trump Administration’s announcement on March 26 that the 2020 Census will include a question about citizenship status. Critics argue that the question could lead undocumented immigrants to skip the Census entirely. Census data affects everything from how much money an area receives for its highways to how many Representatives a state sends to Congress—and thus how many delegates it receives in the Electoral College. If people opt out, the resulting inaccurate population count could create an uneven distribution of federal funds and, because of the demographics of…

WHEN I WAS STATIONED AT AN AIR FORCE BASE IN THE TOPEKA, Kans., area, I knew of the Browns—and Linda Brown, who died at 75 on March 25—simply because everybody who was black in Topeka knew everyone else who was black in Topeka. But I only really began to understand what Brown v. Board of Education meant when I was a student at Columbia Law School. The dean told me that the reason they were letting the best minds in the black race come was so they would learn that even when you won a constitutional case, you didn’t gain anything. With the Brown decision in 1954, the court said, “O.K., we’ll rule that it’s wrong for blacks not to be able to go to white schools, but don’t…

‘They can march in knit hats and go to town-hall meetings, but if everyone voted, things would change.’CECILE RICHARDS FOR ONE OF THE MOST VILIFIED WOMEN IN America, Cecile Richards is very warm. She’s self-deprecating, lively and attentive to guests. She apologizes for the terrible coffee an assistant brings from the office machine but drinks it anyway. Her mascara is a little smudged over her right eye. She looks down when thinking; it’s not effortless for her. She’s human. But until May, when she decamps her post, Richards is also the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an organization that provokes only strong feelings in people. Reliable surveys show that most citizens do not believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Other equally reliable surveys show that…

A selection of stories published on time.com/ideas Google’s biased past Dr. Safiya Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression, details her study of the search results for “black girls” between 2010 and 2016. At first, they sent users to pornographic websites—warping the view of black women. Google has tweaked its system, but Noble asks about “how we get these stereotypes in the first place.” How to make it in the comedy boys’ club Veteran TV producer Nell Scovell—who’s written for Letterman and NCIS and created Sabrina the Teenage Witch—encourages more collaboration to overcome sexism in Hollywood: “If women who don’t help women get a special circle in hell, I think women who do help women should get a special cloud in heaven.” Facebook: an infidelity machine Divorce lawyer James Sexton…

WHEN JEFF SESSIONS WAS A BOY OF 7 OR 8, HE HAD a dog that followed him everywhere. But one day, the dog got him in trouble. Sessions had run with the mutt into the woods of rural Alabama, figuring it knew where it was going. By the time he realized he was wrong, the two of them were hopelessly lost. “They closed all the stores and everyone had to go looking for me,” Sessions recalled with a chuckle. “My excuse was, I was just following him.” Sessions told me this story on March 15—the day before he fired former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe—from his blue vinyl club chair on the military jet that had whisked the U.S. Attorney General away from Washington. It had the ring of…

Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent concerns among college students seeking mental-health treatment on campus today. The Center for Collegiate Mental Health also found a consistent increase in the prevalence of suicide attempts and other self-harming behavior among students seeking mental-health treatment each year since 2010. 30% Percentage by which the number of students visiting counseling centers increased on average from 2009 to 2015, according to a report by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health 39% Percentage of college students who said they had felt so depressed within the last 12 months that it was difficult for them to function, according to the American College Health Association’s spring 2017 survey 61% Percentage of college students who said they had “felt overwhelming anxiety” within the last 12 months, according…

Wendy’s dropped a fast-food-themed mixtape called “We Beefin?” that draws from its viral Twitter feuds with competitors. LOVE IT Margot Robbie is producing a new Shakespeare-inspired TV series that will retell the Bard’s tales from a female perspective. LEAVE IT A Los Angeles–based food entrepreneur launched a Kickstarter to crowdsource funds for sliced ketchup, a no-mess alternative to the popular condiment.…

Al Pacino has made a sideline in recent years of playing controversial men on HBO; he won an Emmy for his 2010 Jack Kevorkian and was nominated for his 2013 Phil Spector. He goes deeper still with Paterno, a new HBO film (debuting April 7) in which he plays Penn State’s football coach, a legendary figure both within the campus bubble and as far as ESPN could reach. The real Joe Paterno was disgraced after his assistant coach was reported to have molested young boys; Pacino, after the revelation hits, shows us the vanity and insecurity that goes into denying what’s in front of one’s face. It all builds to the first Penn State game after Paterno’s firing, and Pacino does his best acting in years reacting to a…

THE SHORT STORY’S “RENAISSANCE” IS A TROPE THAT HAS BEEN TROTTED OUT by booksellers and commentators throughout the 21st century, though in fact the genre’s popularity has remained relatively steady. That said, this season brings a wave of writers who made their name as novelists putting out short-story collections, perhaps attracted to the literary form’s innate opportunity for experimentation and specificity. Here are five writers mainly known for their novels who have this year slimmed down their long-form prose and embraced the short story. LIONEL SHRIVER, PROPERTY The author known for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003)—and for her controversial remarks about the racial politics of fiction—has written her first collection of short stories and novellas. The book probes the power dynamics that surround ownership, of both homes…

‘Thank God for these amazing, articulate young people. They’re showing us the way!!’SARA B. GOVERNALE, Mount Vernon, Wash. THE YOUNG AND THE RELENTLESS Readers of all ages were moved by Charlotte Alter’s April 2 cover story on how a group of students organized for stronger gun-control laws after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Calvin Mauldin, 15, of Jacksonville, Fla., said it was “refreshing” to see people from his generation, who can be “concerned with stupid stuff like their social media,” rally around an important issue. And Niel Spillane, 94, in Mystic, Conn., expressed the hope that young people who aren’t yet “hung up by ideologies” would continue to press adults for change. As a grandparent, he added, when “kids come at you, you listen.” But…

Protests continue after a deadly police shooting in Sacramento Demonstrators in California’s capital marched and blocked the entrance to a basketball game to protest the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a police officer. The family of 22-year-old Stephon Clark has called for criminal charges against the officers involved. Book praising Hitler pulled by publisher An Indian children’s book that listed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler among history’s amazing world leaders was withdrawn by its publisher following widespread criticism. The book, titled Great Leaders, pictured Hitler on its cover and also featured biographies of Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Trump boots Veterans Affairs chief In the wake of a spending scandal, President Trump replaced VA Secretary David Shulkin, tweeting on March 28 that the embattled Cabinet member…

DIED Charles Lazarus, founder of Toys “R” Us, on March 22 at 94. His death came one week after the toy-store chain announced it would end U.S. operations. KILLED Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor in Paris, in what officials—amid a rising number of attacks against Jews in France—are calling a hate crime. FILED Remington, one of America’s oldest gun manufacturers, for bankruptcy. The company had amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in debt as sales fell in recent years. EXPELLED More than 100 Russian diplomats from the U.S., Canada and a number of European Union countries, in response to Russia’s alleged involvement in poisoning one of its former spies. DETAINED Catalonia’s former separatist president Carles Puigdemont, in Germany, under a warrant issued by Spain for charges including rebellion.…

What to make of the discrepancy between Trump’s lack of criticism and his Administration’s moves against Moscow? WE DON’T YET KNOW why Donald Trump seems so fond of Vladimir Putin. Maybe we never will. But the expulsion from the U.S. of 60 Russian diplomats and the shuttering of the Russian consulate in Seattle reminds us that the media obsession with the Trump-Putin bromance hides the reality that U.S. government policy remains as tough on Russia as it was under President Obama (and potentially would have been under Hillary Clinton). Consider Ukraine. In December, the Trump Administration approved the export to Ukraine’s military of lethal weapons, including American-made Javelin antitank missiles, to help Kiev shore up its defense of eastern Ukraine against separatists backed by Moscow. Under Obama, the…

Rules govern players, while coaches enjoy a freemarket QUICK, AND BE HONEST NOW: WHEN you filled out your March Madness bracket a few weeks back, along with millions of your fellow Americans, did you actually pick 16th-seeded University of Maryland, Baltimore County to upset the University of Virginia, the top team in the entire NCAA men’s basketball tournament? Or Loyola University Chicago to knock off a string of bigger-name and better-funded programs on its way to the Final Four, which tips off on March 31 in San Antonio? And you certainly didn’t put any money on a 98-year-old nun emerging as the biggest celebrity of all, right? No, of course you didn’t. No one saw UMBC’s win coming—the first time a top seed has lost in the first round—nor…

39% Increase in global human consumption of antibiotics from 2000 to 2015, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ‘Demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.’ JOHN PAUL STEVENS, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice, in a New York Times op-ed responding to the March 24 March for Our Lives demonstrations, which called for gun-control reforms ‘I was like, “Turn around, drop ’em.”’ STEPHANIE CLIFFORD, known in her porn career as Stormy Daniels, claiming in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that in 2006 she spanked President Trump with a magazine that had his face on the cover ‘THEY ARE AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT MODERN-DAY COLONIALISM LOOKS LIKE.’ CHRISTOPHER WYLIE,…

Macron: Slain French officer is a hero A French police officer died after he switched places with a hostage and was shot by a terrorist during a standoff at a supermarket in Trèbes, France. President Emmanuel Macron described Lieut. Colonel Arnaud Beltrame as a hero. Four people were killed and 15 injured during the March 23 attack. Lawsuit sees discrimination on Facebook Several fair-housing groups sued Facebook on March 27, claiming the social network lets advertisers exclude groups such as women or those who express interest in disabilities from seeing certain listings. The suit comes as Facebook faces intense scrutiny over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Scores dead in Russian mall fire A fire at a mall in Kemerovo, Russia, killed at least 64 people and injured more than 10.…

PARLIAMENT Pest control had to be called into the U.K.’s Houses of Parliament in 2017 after bedbugs were spotted at various locations in Westminster, London. Staff members were told to seek advice if they had been bitten by the parasites. THE TAJ MAHAL Insect excrement is turning India’s Taj Mahal green, experts announced in 2016. The intricate marble work on the 17th century monument must be scrubbed daily for its signature whiteness to be maintained. ANCIENT FORESTS Nature lovers flock to Pennsylvania’s Cook Forest State Park to see its Forest Cathedral of hemlocks and white pines, but in 2013 conservationists said the trees were under attack by the hemlock woolly adelgid.…

WHEN CEOS SPEAK OUT ON hot-button social issues, how does it affect their companies’ stock prices? That’s the question Harvard Business Review asked recently, creating a compelling interactive graphic on the cost of making a stand. In some cases—like Merck CEO Ken Frazier’s strong rebuke of President Trump’s waffling on the Charlottesville riots, for instance—the stock market response was positive and sustained. In others—as when Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter criticized how the NFL handled the nationalan them protests—it was clearly negative. The bottom line, according to the study: “Most companies did not see a sustained rise or drop in stock price following their CEO’s public statement” on a controversial issue. Most of the movement, the authors concluded, was associated with “normal economic factors.” No big surprise there. The…

As numb as we have become to the shock and ugh of the Trump presidency, here’s one thing we didn’t foresee: Stormy Daniels, porn star, director, entrepreneur and fiercely funny tweeter, might just be the woman the resistance needs. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, may be able to accomplish what millions of outraged women marching in pink hats could not—holding Donald Trump accountable for his behavior. If her lawyer Michael Avenatti succeeds with the motion he filed late on March 27 in Los Angeles, the President will have to testify under oath about the payment that Daniels received after signing a nondisclosure agreement to keep quiet about the consensual relationship she alleges that she and Trump had in 2006. The President has not spoken directly about the…

The pioneering labor activist helped organize the United Farm Workers and is the subject of the documentary Dolores, now on PBS.org. One of the film’s theses is that you didn’t get credit for the work you did to organize the farmworkers. Did you feel overlooked? I didn’t expect any kind of recognition. I think that’s very typical of women. That’s changing now. We will never have peace until feminists take power. Farmworkers are part of the #MeToo movement. When did you become aware of the sexual harassment affecting them? Farmworker women have always been subjected to sexual harassment and rape. The thing is, if the woman reports harassment from the foreman, then maybe the whole family will get fired. We did a lot of work with the union to…

I MET COLONEL H.R. MCMASTER IN THE early years of the Iraq War, when he was in command of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in TalAfar, Iraq. It was a hot and dusty day, and I was a three-star Vice Admiral traveling with my boss at the time, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld. McMaster, who looks like he ought to be working as a bouncer in a city bar in the Badlands neighborhood of his Philadelphia hometown, briefed us on his work in pacifying the violent region with an adept blend of hard and soft power—what some have called “smart power.” The encounter solidified in my mind the superb intellect combined with operational skills that have characterized his career. As the NATO Commander a few years later, and wearing four…

LOOK AT KACEY MUSGRAVES’ RÉSUMÉ and you’d think the 29-year-old country singer would be more famous than she is: her debut album, 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park, won her two Grammys as well as New Artist of the Year at the CMAs; she went on to court pop listeners by opening for Katy Perry on a global tour. Yet unlike contemporary country A-listers such as Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan, Musgraves isn’t a household name. Maybe that’s because she’s an edgier artist than many of her peers, and a more progressive one too: in her lyrics, she’s championed LGBTQ rights and been plainspoken about her fondness for cannabis. That’s risqué material for the conservative landscape of country music. Musgraves’ fourth studio album, Golden Hour, out March 30, isn’t likely…

‘IT FEELS LIKE THERE ARE MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T HAVE A CHANCE TO TELL THEIR STORIES BEFORE ’ So I saw the movie—Did you cry? Oh yeah. I love crying in movies. Me too. So cathartic. I’ve seen it three times and sobbed every time. I tell everybody, “If you love a good cry, go see this. Don’t wear eye makeup, and bring tissues.” What was your relationship with horses before this? I was really frightened of horses. I got to spend a lot of time learning to ride and take care of them. A lot of them were old racehorses and they had past traumas that would come up when they’d see the track again. I have so much reverence for them. You star opposite Steve…

There’s a reason we say we ‘savor’ memories. Recollection is wine’s strongest flavor, sometimes WHAT’S IN A GLASS OF WINE? THAT’S SIMPLE: A BEVERAGE made from fermented grapes. It affords pleasure from its taste and (might as well be up-front about it) its moderate alcohol content. But what if the answer to that question was: history, science, economics, agriculture, esthetics, chemistry and biology, not to mention emotion, human perseverance, luck, even war? Open a bottle of Château Musar’s estate red. Forget worrying about whether it tastes of blackberries or raspberries, whether it has a note of this spice or that spice. Instead, taste that Musar red and think of it in another way. Take a sip and consider that it was made in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon,…

‘EVEN PEOPLE WHO SAY, “OH, I DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT POETRY,” THEY DO HAVE A POEM THAT THEY CARRY’ Why does poetry matter today? Poetry requires us to be humble and beholden to something other than our own opinion. That’s important. There’s too much in our 21st century lives that is telling us we’re the most important thing, that our initial gut reaction is incredibly valuable and not vulnerable, and that our opinions as consumers are more important than just about anything else about us. A poem says, “No, no. You have feelings. You have fears. You have questions. Let’s get back to the voice and the vocabulary of being human.” What do you feel is your duty as poet laureate? I think my duty is to say, This…