Table of contents for April 30, 2018 in TIME Magazine

ONE OF THE MOST STIRRING MOMENTS in this year’s billion-dollar blockbuster Black Panther, whose director, Ryan Coogler, and lead actor, Chadwick Boseman, are both on this year’s TIME 100, comes early in the film. A terrorist attack has upended the kingdom of Wakanda. As Boseman’s T’Challa returns to take the throne, his mother, played by Angela Bassett, reassures him, “My son, it is your time.” TIME’s annual list of the world’s most influential people is a designation of individuals whose time, in our estimation, is now. The TIME 100 isn’t a measure of power, though many on the list wield it. Nor is it a collection of milestones accumulated. As our staff considers candidates, we often find ourselves wowed by those with stunning lifetime achievements. But editorial director Dan…

America’s response to mass shootings has long followed a predictable pattern. We mourn. Offer thoughts and prayers. Speculate about the motives. And then—even as no developed country endures a homicide rate like ours, a difference explained largely by pervasive accessibility to guns; even as the majority of gun owners support commonsense reforms—the political debate spirals into acrimony and paralysis. This time, something different is happening. This time, our children are calling us to account. The Parkland, Fla., students don’t have the kind of lobbyists or big budgets for attack ads that their opponents do. Most of them can’t even vote yet. But they have the power so often inherent in youth: to see the world anew; to reject the old constraints, outdated conventions and cowardice too often dressed up…

When I think of Trevor Noah, the first image I see is from his brilliant memoir, Born a Crime, of Trevor’s mother throwing him out of a moving vehicle while he’s asleep in order to save his life. Through other eyes this could be remembered as traumatic and harrowing. Through Trevor’s it is bonding and hilarious, a testament to the love of someone who truly had to think on their feet. That is how Trevor sees the world. A fantastic storyteller, he has always been a defier of rules, which he broke simply by being born in his native country. At The Daily Show, which he has truly globalized, Trevor seeks out comedians of color in every possible venue, no matter how small. He is determined to find the…

I can’t imagine the emergence of quantum technology without Jian-Wei Pan. The world came to appreciate his work last summer, when he achieved quantum communication using quantum states of photons between Earth and China’s Micius satellite orbiting more than 300 miles overhead—and establishing the country as a leader in the field. This opens the door to a new world of secure communications and encryption. Trying to hack such a system disturbs its quantum state and sets off alarms. When Micius, the world’s first quantum satellite, launched in 2016, it was thanks to Jian-Wei Pan, whose vision made the project a reality. He is the kind of person who pulls up his sleeves and gets to work. His long-term goal of a quantum Internet has come a few leaps closer…

Growing up in India, Satya Nadella fell in love with cricket, a sport whose grace comes from melding stars into a cohesive and harmonic team. “One brilliant character who does not put team first can destroy the entire team,” he wrote in his recent book, Hit Refresh. Since becoming CEO of Microsoft in 2014, Nadella has used those principles to restore the company’s spirit of innovation. Consider its new product strategy, which emphasizes cloud computing and allowing people to collaborate across platforms. Nadella also preaches the importance of empathy and making products that work reliably, traits that deepened in him when his first child was born with brain damage and his son’s life depended on linked machines running Microsoft systems. The result is that in the four years since…

Somewhere among biryani, poutine and endless conversations, I realized just how deeply Meghan Markle cares for the world. With her, what you see is real, and what you get is a relatable young woman with her heart and mind in the right place. Her compassion, evident in the causes she supports, and her drive to break down stereotypes—obvious in her actions—will connect her to a generation in much need of kindness. This ever-smiling, strong free spirit found her prince, fell in love and in turn made a cynical world believe in fairy tales again. But more than anything else, Meghan is an important influencer in a world that needs strong public figures to respect and look up to. People the world can be inspired by. Meghan, standing shoulder to…

Outside of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman might be associated with confrontation—with Iran, with Qatar, and especially in Yemen. But inside the kingdom, there is cautious optimism. The heir to the throne is lifting restrictions on women, allowing us to work in positions once limited to men, play sports and attend public events. In June we will finally be allowed to drive. There is serious talk of letting women hold political positions for the first time and abolishing male guardianship altogether. Saudis appreciate his controversial challenge to the culture of corruption, and reining in religious police who choked us, literally and figuratively. At first I was skeptical of the prince’s Vision 2030 plan to modernize our kingdom. I have come around. Most Saudis are under age 30,…

Robert S. Mueller III doesn’t seek deferments. After a classmate died in Vietnam, this well-to-do Princeton athlete traded his lacrosse stick for a military rifle and volunteered for war. He returned with a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a gunshot wound. He later brought the same gritty courage to battling crime at the Department of Justice. Eventually, he retired to private practice, but moved by violence sweeping Washington, D.C., Mueller quit his law firm to work in the trenches as a homicide prosecutor. When his 10-year term as FBI director expired, a notoriously gridlocked Congress changed the law—just for him—and, once again, Mueller forfeited comfort for continued service. Mueller is straitlaced and tight-lipped, a legal and sartorial traditionalist. Once, while jointly announcing charges in an international assassination plot,…

The elation that greeted the end of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year reign naturally enough transformed into hopes for his successor. And in his first 100 days, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa spoke of re-engaging, forgiveness, democracy and unity. But though words matter, so does the survival of a system that destroyed the hopes and dreams of generations. For four decades, Zimbabwe’s new President was the protégé of the dictator he eventually deposed. Mnangagwa says very little of his own volition. He waits for you to speak and only responds when absolutely necessary. As Mugabe learned, he is extremely patient, choosing his moments of response or retaliation carefully. Mugabe described him as a man who does not forgive or forget very easily. Maybe that’s why for years, Mnangagwa has kept his liberation war…

Fifty years ago, Xi Jinping was among the millions of Chinese young people sent “down to the countryside” to learn life lessons from China’s peasants. The son of a purged senior official, Xi was sometimes hungry and homeless during his seven-year exile. Today he is the most powerful man on earth. Last October, he closed the party congress that marked his full consolidation of power with the most important speech since Mikhail Gorbachev announced the Soviet collapse. At a time when Western leaders are struggling to explain what future they see for their people, Xi heralded a “new era” for China, one that brings his country to the global center stage. Dysfunction in Washington has allowed Xi to offer his country as a leader on trade and the fight…

Dead Calm was released in 1989. Big Little Lies was released in 2017. In the interim, Nicole Kidman has never once left our consciousness. And even after decades, she continues to break new ground. On Big Little Lies, Nicole plays Celeste, a woman who is struggling to leave her abusive husband. She fills her character with so much humanity, it is beyond unnerving. Her emotions. Her fragility. Her ferocity. Her subtlety. Her physicality. Her bravery. Watching her, I wanted to put my hand through the TV screen and pluck her from danger. Not solely because Nicole is my friend but because she had laid herself so courageously bare for the role that Celeste felt real. She could be anyone we know. But beyond being an outstanding actor, Nicole has…

When I couldn’t get a dress for the Ghostbusters premiere, Christian Siriano graciously stepped up and made me a dress like I’d known him for 10 years. He made me feel beautiful. I couldn’t believe no designers were reaching out to me to make a dress for one of the biggest premieres. He kept saying, “You have such a beautiful figure.” He made me feel like I was supposed to have that dress on. That’s the specialness of Christian Siriano: he makes every piece feel like you are supposed to have it and like it was made for you. He has his talents and then incorporates them into what you want, which in the end is something that both of us want, making him a one-of-a-kind designer. It was…

Sterling K. Brown was born ready. I remember the first day I saw him on the set of American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, our eyes meeting from across a re-created D.A.’s office. In an instant it was clear: Sterling had come to play. Every day was like having a front row seat in a master class on readiness, a meditation on seizing opportunity, but most unexpectedly, on JOY. When you’ve been a player since you were in the womb, been forced to sit on the bench, and suddenly find yourself the MVP, no one would be surprised if fear or neurosis took hold. But when your name is Sterling K. Brown, what you choose to summon is your joy. If you ever have the pleasure of…

My friend John Krasinski is awesome. He’s very strong. He’s tall and handsome. He’s married to Emily Blunt. So, you know, there’s that. He is a New England Patriots fan … but nobody’s perfect. Now let’s talk about him as a director. This year audiences were floored, myself included, by his smash horror hit A Quiet Place. John’s third film with himself at the helm balances blood-chilling suspense with real emotion in a genre that often relies on over-the-top violence, jump-scares or effects. He moved us. And scared us. And then moved us, which scared us. Producing, directing and starring in this film redefines his place in Hollywood, and that place is right at the top. John started 2018 as Jim from The Office and has emerged as a…

I’ve never stopped and analyzed why I love Hugh Jackman. For me, it’s like loving chocolate or puppies or rainbows: effortless. Yes, he can light up a room with a laugh or a smile; yes, he is a generous, consummate professional; and yes, he has that gift for entertaining that takes all your cares away. (See the leggy The Greatest Showman. That is both a reference and a recommendation.) Yes, yes, and yet it’s easy to forget that why we allow ourselves the pleasure of going on visual and aural journeys with him is his mammoth, undeniable talent. In other words, he is so likable, sometimes we overlook that he is among the finest, most committed actors of his generation. All that, and I have personally discovered him to…

It’s no secret that Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player ever. As David Foster Wallace wrote, he is “one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws.” He also seems exempt from the laws of aging. At 36, he’s still winning Grand Slams with a combination of grace and grit. But not as many fans know about what Roger is doing off the court. Twice I’ve had the thrill of being his doubles partner to help raise money for his foundation, and we’ve become friends in the process. I’ve learned how sincerely Roger and his team are working to improve the life prospects for poor children—a mission that stems from his childhood visits to his mother’s home country…

While time’s rate of progress is fixed, humanity’s is not. Certain core inventions have been well-documented as accelerators of progress: the printing press, the automobile, the PC. But these inventions aren’t society’s only accelerators. A few rare people are accelerators too. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is one of them. I haven’t known Masa for long, but I’ve observed three facets that allow him to act as an accelerator: First, he is a self-described “super optimist.” It’s easy to see problems around every corner. It’s much harder to see solutions. Second, he focuses on the end state—where the world is going. He sees it more clearly than others and is obsessed with getting there, fast. Third, with the Vision Fund, he has flipped conventional investment wisdom on its head. Rather…

Growing up on a kibbutz in Israel, Adam Neumann was the only boy whose family had a VCR, which made his house a magnet for the local kids. Everyone eventually forgot about the VCR, he remembers, but “we still ended up hanging out together.” Today that same communal spirit has attracted 240,000 workers from businesses of all sizes to WeWork, the company he co-founded, in 21 countries. With collaborative work-spaces, startup incubators, gyms and housing, Adam is revolutionizing the way we work and reimagining how we live. At a time of declining public trust in nearly every institution, Adam and I connect on leading values-driven companies that serve a larger purpose, beyond making money. “How do you change the world?” he once asked. “Bring people together.” By enabling the…

When we pitched Stranger Things to Netflix, we were told Cindy Holland was the key. As it turns out, she’s also extremely difficult to read in a room. We left the pitch certain of only one thing: Cindy hated it. One day later, she greenlighted our show, and our lives changed. Cindy has changed a lot of lives over the years—and she’s changing Hollywood while she’s at it. But she’s doing it in her own way. We admire Cindy because there is no bombast with her, no bull, she just gets it done. It’s simply who she is—she would rather be working than talking about working. And she’s working with some truly incredible people: Jenji Kohan, Tina Fey, David Fincher, Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy—the list just keeps growing. There’s…

When Tencent started in 1998, the Internet’s first wave was cresting, and some thought it had peaked in reach and importance. But the Internet was only getting started. Today, 3 billion people are connected across a broad range of digital devices. Pony Ma deserves a lot of credit for that growth, and for helping shift the perception of China from being skilled at replication to being a global leader in innovation. Pony took AOL’s highly successful instant-messenger service, ICQ, changed some letters in its name and launched it as QQ in China. It was an overnight success, and it set the stage for Tencent’s rapid rise. In doing so, Pony brought the world’s most powerful medium for connecting people to the world’s most populous country. There is still a…

As a kid growing up in the Bronx, I used to watch Jennifer Lopez from the wings. Several of us girls would hide in the folds of the curtains at the Boys & Girls Club to watch her perform. We were in awe of our neighborhood role model and phenom. When Jennifer left the Bronx to pursue her dreams, I would rush to finish my homework on Sunday to watch her on In Living Color. She made me believe that you could come from where we came from and achieve whatever you imagine is possible. Jennifer Lopez is an iconic performer. She’s the first Latina actor to earn over $1 million for a film and the first woman to have a No. 1 album and a No. 1 movie…

A little over 10 years ago, Virgil Abloh, relatively fresh out of graduate school, visited my office in Tokyo while working with Kanye West. I had no way of recognizing the shy youth’s talents that were to blossom in the years to come. Fast-forward to June 2017. Virgil visited my exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago the day before it opened and told me how he had been inspired by my multicolor monogram collaboration with Louis Vuitton. I proposed a collaboration between us, and we quickly realized our art exhibition at Gagosian London. Through our collaborative and creative process, I came to know the nobility of his character. Everything from the way he works to how he uses his time to how he makes his judgments is…

“United We Dream.” This could be an inspirational bumper sticker on a car in any U.S. state, red or blue. How could these three words possibly be associated with anything divisive? Dreaming is universal, after all. Cristina Jiménez dreams. She dreams big. She dreams because she wants there to be a future for the roughly 700,000 young people who, by no choice of their own, were brought to the U.S. as children by their undocumented immigrant parents. She dreams because she wants the fear and anxiety of the unknown to end. She dreams because she is one of the Dreamers who could be affected by the reversal of DACA. After arriving in Queens at the age of 13 from Ecuador, Cristina experienced living in the shadows firsth and and…

It feels like every time Chadwick Boseman appears onscreen, he’s finding a new way to inspire. His portrayals of African-American heroes have shown how black America has always been able to transform pain into something powerful. From turning James Brown’s tortured soul into music, Jackie Robinson’s pride into barriers broken and records set, and Thurgood Marshall’s sense of racial injustice into equality, Chadwick depicts these figures with a coolness, power and grace that remind us that we too can be great ourselves. And now as the Black Panther, he’s inspiring everyone, but especially black youth, who deserve to see superheroes like them, to show them that truly anyone can be a superhero; this matters, because it has been a long time coming to see our own superheroes and the…

When I first met Tarana Burke, I found a kindred spirit, somebody else who’s been screaming into the hurricane. Somebody else who’s been advocating for survivors of rape and sexual assault, and specifically young black women, whose voices have been silenced at best and completely erased from the national dialogue at worst. She was kind enough to film a guest spot for the upcoming finale of Being Mary Jane. Between takes, it was both of us talking and strategizing, venting and celebrating. You want a leader who truly believes in inclusivity. For Tarana, it’s not about personal gain or attention but doing the work in a way that makes people feel like they can join in. When you’ve been sidelined for so long, it’s exhilarating to know that such…

Janet Mock is one of the most visible and important voices in activism—not just for the trans community, but for women, people of color, LGBTQ people and marginalized communities everywhere. From her brilliant books (Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty) to her invigorating speeches, she does not placate bigotry or misogyny by approaching it politely, as if there are two sides to equality. She fights for people who have not been fortunate enough to be accepted for who they are. It is a never ending battle, and she does not waver in the face of it. I’ve dressed Janet for the Oscars, the GLAAD Awards and the cover of Surpassing Certainty, but one of my favorite memories with her was when she and her husband Aaron came to my country…

BTS SOUTH KOREAN POP BAND MOON JAE-IN PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA BARACK OBAMA FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and home telephone and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space TALK TO US SEND AN EMAIL: letters@time.com Please do not send attachments FOLLOW US: facebook.com/time @time (Twitter and Instagram) NOW STREAMING This year, the TIME 100 comes with a soundtrack. Throughout the issue, you’ll learn what inspires the world’s most influential people—and you can hear their musical inspirations (including Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,”selected by U.S. Representative Maxine Waters) on a special Spotify playlist. Listen at spoti.fi/time100 The TIME 100 culminates on April 24 at the TIME 100 Gala. Stay tuned to TIME.com and our social channels to see inside…

When a project is completed, it’s easy to forget what a long shot it was at the outset. The market wasn’t exactly crying out for a movie about a woman in a coma starring a Pakistani immigrant who questions his faith. But when Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon wrote The Big Sick, working for years without any guarantee of success, they wrote a script so strong, it was undeniable. There are so many neglected stories in movies today. Kumail and Emily took theirs and made it heartfelt and funny, and at an enormous personal risk—because there’s nothing more humiliating than sharing the most important story in your life and having the movie be awful. Kumail is one of our most hilarious, unique stand-up comedians. But what…

I was a fun and energetic child. Then I spent two years in a hospital getting cancer treatment, but it wasn’t working for me. That’s when my parents and I learned about an experimental treatment, called T cell, that would train my immune system to fight my cancer; it hadn’t been tried on a pediatric patient before. My parents believed that this was the right choice for me, and we transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to enter the trial. After getting the treatment, I went into a 14-day coma and awakened on my seventh birthday. But the treatment had worked! We later learned that Dr. Carl June’s research had created this treatment. Dr. June saved my life and had a huge impact on my family. Without him,…

When I first came up, people said, “She’s too edgy.”But I can do Shakespeare in the Park! You can’t judge me based on where I come from or the colloquialisms that I speak with, because that’s who I am. And when you are cool with who you are, no one can use it against you. I identify with Cardi B, because she knows that too. The first time I went on her Instagram page, she was so raw, coming at you, like, whoa! She used words like “shmoney”and “shmoves,”and she talked openly about being a former stripper. And she was proud of it—like, So what, I was on the pole, look what I parlayed that into? When she showed her soul like that, I hit the Follow button. I…

Jesmyn Ward’s writing is brutal and moving, tragic and beautiful. While she writes about the modern American South, where she grew up, the realities for black men are very much the same as where I grew up in Philly. The feeling of there being no way out, of people turning to drugs to feel less like themselves, the endless pervasiveness of death, dysfunction and detention. When I first read her memoir, Men We Reaped—about five young black men, all of whom died within a span of four years in her life—I understood the weight of grief as one struggles to live. And I felt the same way with her brilliant new novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing. From the first lines—“I like to think I know what death is. I like…

In his essay “The Talented Tenth,” W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men.” Kenneth C. Frazier is exactly the type of exceptional African-American leader Du Bois had in mind. His grandfather was born into slavery in the 19th century; his father worked as a janitor in the 20th century; and today, Ken is among the most influential chief executives of the 21st century. If Ken’s history mirrors that of this country, his career has advanced the march of progress. As a lawyer, he taught black law students in South Africa and freed an innocent man from death row. As a CEO, he has directed Merck to increase its investment in bold, lifesaving treatments. As a leader, he…

The new year may have stirred hopes that Kim Jong Un might not be so bad after all: he did reach out to South Korea in the Winter Olympics, offer to meet President Trump, and meanwhile suspend missile and nuclear tests. I had faint hopes of my own when he came to power in 2011, knowing that he had encountered democracy and capitalism studying in Switzerland. But he’s even worse than his father. In North Korea, more than 100,000 people face torture and death in forced-labor camps, where one defector witnessed a mother forced to drown her own baby. The camps and regular public executions keep people deaf, dumb and blind in loyalty to his regime. Armed guards now patrol the river over which I fled to China in…

From his days as a U.S. Attorney to his Senate service, Jeff Sessions has consistently fought to protect the public and the nation. He has brought that principled leadership and integrity to the office of Attorney General. His commitment to the safety and security of Americans has fueled progress in the fight against gang violence, and guides his department’s opposition to dangerous sanctuary city policies. And his leadership has simultaneously brought greater toughness and greater compassion to our national struggle with opioids. Don’t let his understated Southern charm deceive you. This dedicated leader is steadily restoring the rule of law and defending all Americans under the Constitution.…

President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America. The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature. The same cultural safe spaces that blinkered coastal elites to candidate Trump’s popularity have rendered them blind to President Trump’s achievements on behalf of ordinary Americans. While pundits obsessed over tweets, he worked with Congress to cut taxes for struggling families. While wealthy celebrities announced that they would flee the country, he fought to bring back jobs and industries to our shores. While talking heads predicted Armageddon, President Trump’s strong stand against North Korea put Kim Jong Un back on his heels. President Trump is…

Moon Jae-in was quick to visit me in the hospital in Seoul after I was attacked by a knife-wielding pro–North Korean nationalist while serving as U.S. ambassador in 2015. Befitting his reputation, Moon, then the opposition leader, was compassionate and engaged. He shared with me a Korean proverb, “The ground hardens after the rain,” and we spoke of how crisis begets opportunity. Following his election to the presidency in 2017, Moon has made dramatic moves with regard to North Korea: hosting Kim Jong Un’s sister at the Winter Olympics, agreeing to an inter-Korean summit and brokering what could be a first-ever U.S.–North Korea summit between President Trump and Kim. Moon must now navigate between the U.S. and North Korea, as well as regional rivalries, to rid Pyongyang of illegal…

Sean Hannity has a remarkable impact between three hours of radio and an hour of TV every day. His fans listen to him and learn from him. One of his biggest fans is President Donald Trump, who routinely watches the TV show and talks with Sean as a fellow New Yorker. Hannity played a major role in helping Trump get the nomination and win the general election. Sean is both a principled conservative and a ferocious opponent of the left and the deep state. He has made and is making a difference.…

As immigration concerns were driving the push for Brexit, Londoners elected Sadiq Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants, as their mayor in May 2016, making him the first Muslim to hold that position in a major European capital. I met with him a few weeks after his election and was impressed by his ambitious agenda. For instance: he has made tackling climate change a top priority, and he is showing how cities—on their own and by working together—can accelerate our progress. He has also been a voice of reason on Brexit, recognizing that the U.K. will be stronger by maintaining a close relationship with Europe. And at a time of increasingly divisive political rhetoric, he has been an important voice for tolerance and unity. When President Trump retweeted videos…

Guillermo del Toro’s potion intoxicates. His brand of alchemy includes a pinch of macabre, a dash of melancholy and a few handfuls of stunning horror, but then he adds that perfect dollop of whimsy that keeps his audience gripped to the screen as close as Ola Ray clutches to Michael Jackson in the Thriller video. To watch one of Guillermo’s masterpieces is an experience in escapism and wonder. To gnaw on the totality of his work reveals an obsession with the eternally forbidden romance between beauty and beast. Guillermo is in love with monsters and lives to show us that we are too. With each fable he weaves, he pushes us closer to acceptance of a primal truth: that we each have a deep connection to the spectrum of…

Not every year does a filmmaker’s solo feature debut sweep you up in its sweetness and pain, in its humility and frankness, and in its confidence in the art and craft of filmmaking. Of course, it has happened before, bringing to mind Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station—and now Greta Gerwig and Lady Bird. Greta has a kind of momentum that feels like it must help contain a million good ideas from flying out of the atmosphere. It’s not a nervous energy; it’s an engaged one. I remember debating with her at the Oscar nominees’ luncheon. When Greta has heard your point, her hands flutter up—a pitcher’s wild windup, subverting any indication of the precision and effectiveness of what she’s about to fire back.…

Gal Gadot brought Wonder Woman to millions of new fans. Her portrayal was magnificent and powerful, capturing everything that Wonder Woman represents. She and I are lucky to be members of this small sisterhood, living and breathing this uniquely strong, smart and charming superhero. I know that as a person, Gal embodies all of these traits. She is a wife and mother; she has served her country, traveled the world, and is hardworking, loving, wise, goofy and full of humanity. Wonder Woman has helped transform how women and girls see themselves since she emerged on a TV show in 1975. She represents what we know is inside every one of us: fierce strength, a kind heart and incredible valor. Gal understood and captured the spirit of this complex, independent,…

When Deepika Padukone came in to read for one of the Fast and the Furious films, I knew instantly I was in the presence of someone very special. As soon as she entered the room, there was a synchronicity, a synergy, a chemistry—it promised great things to come. Her schedule didn’t work for that movie, but I never gave up. She was the first role we cast in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. She said, “I want to do this movie, but if I do, you have to come to India.” Thank God I made that deal. Making that movie, Deepika took committed to a whole other level. That’s who she is as a performer. She wants the whole movie to shine, which is a rare thing. Anyone could…

In Black Panther, Queen Ramonda looks upon her son T’Challa and delivers a proclamation: “It is your time.” Millions upon millions of moviegoers around the world have proclaimed the same to the film’s mastermind, Ryan Coogler. We gaze upon him with the same pride, the same hope, the same respect. What kind of person attracts unprecedented acclaim, the likes of which has never been seen in the history of cinema? A person with extraordinary talent, yes. But also one with a spirit of integrity. One deserving of this light. Ryan Coogler is that person. And it is indeed his time. When I think of Ryan, I think of a moving video that he organized among our friends to comfort me when my father passed away. Of his smile when…

In 1985, Roseanne Barr made her debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at a time when few women were given the opportunity. I and millions of others watched this domestic goddess slay a live audience in Burbank. Johnny approved. Roseanne’s life and career launched into the stratosphere overnight. Soon after, she had her show, Roseanne. It centered on the Conners, a working-class American family, and it is full of rich details that allow every family in America to see parts of themselves within. The show premiered to tremendous ratings on Oct. 18, 1988, and stayed there for almost a decade. Roseanne was a shero from the beginning—brilliant, bold, big, brave and beautiful. Now, 20 years later, Roseanne and her TV family are back, warts and all. And…

It seems everyone’s talking “disruption” today, especially in corporate America, where it basically describes individuals and companies challenging conventional ideas to reshape various sectors of the economy. Disruption, however, is only a by-product of a successful and sustainable approach to doing business. From the outset, the key to Jeff Bezos’ success has been his intense and unwavering focus on customer satisfaction and on his audience: the end user. He refined and perfected this model in books, and then scaled and expanded it while always keeping consumers front and center, often anticipating their needs before they realized them. For most of us, transforming the retail industry would be a pretty satisfying accomplishment. But Jeff’s relentless attention to consumers is not defined by any boundaries. As Amazon has grown and Jeff…

LAST FALL DILLER, SCOFIDIO AND THEIR PARTNERS, CHARLES RENFRO AND BENJAMIN GILMARTIN, WON THE COMMISSION FOR A MAJOR NEW CONCERT HALL IN LONDON Elizabeth Diller is a visionary. She imagines things the rest of us have to see to believe. She can turn a metaphor into brick and mortar. For the Broad, Liz had a tricky assignment: build a museum that is iconic, but that doesn’t clash with Disney Hall across the street. Liz called her design “the veil and the vault.”The veil—a white, porous overlay—brings diffused light in to meet the art. And the vault, hovering within the building, its contents visible through plate-glass windows, shows visitors the great potential of our collection to keep offering more art and ideas. We thought this was a brilliant concept. Maybe…

Suppose that in the year 3000, TIME publishes the 100 most influential people of the millennium. Who from our generation would make the list? Elon Musk has a shot. Because he is one of the few people who is not only thinking about the long-term survival of our civilization but also doing something about it: building the conditions for a viable colony on Mars. That has meant reimagining the private space industry. Through original thinking, technical precision and smart marketing, Elon is making space transport rise up to our biggest ambitions. Along the way he has reinjected the most powerful fuel of all into the mission: public enthusiasm. For the first time since the 1960s, space once again feels like the greatest adventure. That excitement, and that pioneering spirit,…

When I first met Oprah Winfrey, I was an extra on the set of a movie she was producing, Their Eyes Were Watching God. I was telling jokes and making the other extras laugh when Oprah walked by and said, “You’re really funny. What’s your name?” She told me to keep her updated on my career. So I wrote her all these letters, and she never wrote me back. Then she surprised me on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in February. When she walked onstage, my soul was overjoyed. That was everything. It made me feel like I’m on the right track, and it inspired me to push even harder. I’ve been watching Oprah since I was 7. In my eyes, she’s my auntie. I call her Auntie O. I…

Congresswoman Maxine Waters of the 43rd District of California, a.k.a. Auntie Maxine, has made my generation proud to be nieces and nephews. She is adored and admired by people who care about social justice and is oh so eloquent in letting the world, particularly the white men of Congress who dare test her acumen, know that she is not here for any nonsense. From “reclaiming my time” to leading a movement to “impeach him,” she says what many of us are thinking. And she reminds us that we are worthy of any space we occupy. You would think that 41 years of public service would make Congresswoman Waters tired, but her laser focus is unmatched. When other policymakers criminalize protests, she is there, verbalizing our pain. She fights for…

Who cares about a piece of jewelry? The dress you wear to a wedding? In his trilogy of novels about contemporary Asians, which began with 2013’s Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan makes these small things matter, not for their glitz but for what those choices reveal about our inner lives and histories. Like August Wilson, Kwan is that rare male writer who understands women. It’s no surprise that his books are best sellers, with a fervent female fan base. His stories are important for Asianmen too. Asian men often grow up in patriarchal cultures. American men grow up in a culture that equates toughness with masculinity. Combine those two cultures, and it’s understandable why an Asian-American man might bemoan a depiction of being small or silly. But Kwan knows…

Chile is so proud of Daniela Vega and the team that wrote and produced the movie she starred in, A Fantastic Woman, which was the first Chilean film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie shows the challenges we face not only as a country but also as human beings—that is, to accept and confront the reality of transgender people in our societies. It’s urgent, and a matter of human rights. When Daniela made history as the first openly transgender person to present at the Academy Awards, she said this onstage: “I want to invite you to open your heart and your feelings, to feel the reality, to feel love.” I also want to invite people to empathize with others and respect them, because diversity…

Kesha spoke out against sexual harassment and assault long before the #MeToo movement was making headlines, and nearly lost her career as a result. But instead of going away quietly, she fought back. And she made Rainbow, an album that I think includes some of the best songs she’s ever written. When I was asked to stand alongside Kesha and sing one of those songs—“Praying”—at this year’s Grammys, I was honored and thrilled. It was important that she was able to tell her story. But it was also important that we—myself, Bebe Rexha, Camila Cabello, Julia Michaels and Andra Day—could stand onstage with her. That performance showed the power of sisterhood. It was a reminder that none of us are alone. Women make up roughly half of the U.S.…

In an era of whistle-blowers, Christopher Wylie wields a bullhorn. The 28-year-old data genius devised the ideas behind Cambridge Analytica, the firm that took credit for influencing the Brexit vote and the online success of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. His revelations in March about the firm’s allegedly nefarious means of acquiring social media data most of us thought reasonably private sent Facebook reeling into a crisis and added another twist to the still incomplete story of America’s election. But Wylie’s impact goes far beyond those things. For years, the growing power of large technology companies has created a generalized anxiety—their ability to influence whom we vote for, what we believe, when we buy and even how we feel is disquieting to many of us. This anxiety is often fleeting…

I actually can’t remember the first time I met Rihanna; I was probably numb from the shock of it. She is one year older than me, but I feel like she’s been around forever. The progression of her superstardom feels steady, well deserved and extremely natural. She burst onto the scene with the absolute banger that is “Pon de Replay” in 2005, so young and breathtakingly beautiful. But the first time it felt like she made everyone sit up was with “Umbrella.” It crossed her over to every platform and into everyone’s lives. It felt like she had truly arrived, and she hasn’t slowed down since. Even more, she has designed and conquered an entire lane of her own. The innovative and groundbreaking world of Rihanna that no one…

▪ A. JACINDA ARDERN ▪ B. GUILLERMO DEL TORO ▪ C. KEVIN DURANT ▪ D. RONAN FARROW ▪ E. GAL GADOT ▪ F. GRETA GERWIG ▪ G. SEAN HANNITY ▪ H. HUGH JACKMAN ▪ I. MOON JAE-IN ▪ J. HODA KOTB ▪ K. EMMANUEL MACRON ▪ L. TREVOR NOAH ▪ M. NANCY PELOSI ▪ N. PRINCE HARRY ▪ O. OPRAH WINFREY ▪ P. RIHANNA ▪ Q. ADAM RIPPON ▪ R. JUSTIN TRUDEAU 1. Dreamed of being a meteorologist 2. Conquered a fear of heights with diving board practice 3. Got a D in high school geography 4. Has tattoos of a raven and a globe 5. Has a cockapoo named after Blake Shelton 6. Collects ukuleles 7. Was in jail when he learned he’d passed the bar exam 8.…

I first met Tiffany Haddish on the comedy scene 13 years ago. She was young, raw and funny, almost like she didn’t have a care in the world. But when I noticed her car was packed to the brim with her belongings, I asked her if everything was O.K. That’s when I found out she was homeless and living in that car. I didn’t know the details of her life at the time, but I knew she had talent, I knew she had drive, and I wanted to help. So I reached into my pocket, and I pulled out $300—it was all I had with me. Then I handed it to her and said, “I think you’ll find a purpose for it.” Now Tiffany is bringing a whole new…

There was a time when the Conservative Party looked as dead as a dodo in Scotland. Having won majorities of Scottish votes in the 1950s, the Tories seemed to have gone extinct by 1997, when not a single one of their candidates won in Scotland. The party’s resurrection—it won 31 seats in the Scottish Parliament in 2016 and 29% of the Scottish vote in last year’s U.K. general election—owes much to the refreshing, rambunctious style of Ruth Davidson. Born in Edinburgh in 1978, Davidson served in the British Army Reserves and worked as a journalist before entering politics in 2009. Just two years later, she was elected the Scottish Conservatives’ leader. An opponent of both Scottish independence and Brexit, Davidson stands out as a proponent of same sex marriage.…

It took Albert Einstein to predict the existence of gravitational waves—ripples in space-time that occur when objects like black holes collide. It took Marica Branchesi to make sure we actually saw the evidence of such a crack-up. Branchesi, an astrophysicist, works at the Virgo gravitational wave detector in Italy. Detectors in the U.S. had recorded waves three times since 2015 but only as physical ripples, never optically. Branchesi got the astronomers and physicists working together so that the next time waves were picked up, telescopes all over the world could swing into position. Last August her work paid off, when a collision between two neutron stars was detected. Thanks to her, 70 telescopes jumped into action, yielding dozens of scientific papers, one with 3,500 co-authors. Her name is listed…

Huntington, W.Va., fire chief Jan Rader has spent her career running toward fires and training the next generation of firefighters to do the same. And right now in West Virginia, our biggest fire is the opioid epidemic. Like they are in many communities across the country, overdoses and overdose deaths are a frequent occurrence in Huntington. And like many local heroes, Rader is on the front lines combating this epidemic every day. Nevertheless, her strength and compassion never waver. She has saved countless lives and has been unrelenting in her commitment to help people struggling with substance-use disorders return to lead productive lives. As the first woman to lead a professional fire department in West Virginia, she broke down barriers for young women across our state and continues to…

At a time when women are shaking the foundation of this country—challenging cultural norms, asserting our role in the economy and working for equity in political representation—it’s important to recognize the women who have brought us to this point, and continue to carry us forward. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has done more than anyone else in office to advance women’s equity and opportunity, and to build a stronger future for generations to come. Whether she’s fighting for reproductive rights, paid family leave or affordable health care, Nancy looks out for women from every walk of life. She worked tirelessly to ensure that when the Affordable Care Act passed, women weren’t left behind. Due to her leadership, women can no longer be charged more for insurance because of gender or…

ISIS announced itself as a dread military force on June 10, 2014, the day it overran Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, as thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled for their lives. Three years later, the back of the terrorist group was broken by reconstituted Iraqi security forces that retook the city in a battle that lasted nine brutal months. U.S. air support was essential, but the grinding, house-to-house effort was carried out by Iraqi fighters who were commanded, ultimately, by Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister who came to power after ISIS controlled a great swath of the country. Al-Abadi selected the generals who took it back and made daily visits to the Baghdad joint command post as the battle for Mosul raged. The nation over which he presides remains as…

Shinzo Abe’s confident and dynamic leadership has revived Japan’s economy and prospects since he became Prime Minister in December 2012. As a statesman, he is both resilient and pragmatic, recognizing that the prosperity and security of our region depends on maintaining and developing the rules-based international order. In a world with many strong and dominant leaders, he has certainly been as tenacious and courageous as any other. But he has also been flexible, a careful listener and always willing to work to accommodate the views of others. Nothing shows this more than the way he worked with other nations to resuscitate the Trans-Pacific Partnership when its future looked bleak following the withdrawal of the U.S. He stayed the course, and in March, 11 nations including Australia and Japan signed…

Every few years, a professional athlete touches the heart and soul of a city in a way that has nothing to do with athleticism. Such is the case with Houston Texans star J.J. Watt, who is a star on and off the field. Hurricane Harvey was a historic storm that dumped more than 50 inches of rain, damaged more than 300,000 homes and shattered lives. As Houston’s mayor, I led the response and resiliency efforts. But government can’t do everything for everyone. J.J. tackled Harvey’s destruction the same way he obliterates his opponents on the football field. He raised more than $37 million for hurricane recovery and delivered water, food and supplies to storm victims. In the process, he lifted the spirits of all Houstonians. Who knows? After I…

When Ireland finally decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, the Catholic Church still had a firm grip on the state’s affairs. Divorce was illegal, and its abortion laws were deeply entrenched as some of the most conservative in the West. Twenty-five years on, Ireland is a very different place—symbolized by the rise of its new leader, Leo Varadkar. The openly gay son of an Indian immigrant, Varadkar decided to come out publicly in the run-up to the world’s first marriage-equality referendum. Today the once antiabortion politician is campaigning to significantly liberalize the country’s abortion laws. Varadkar is now at the center of E.U. negotiations on Brexit, which could have a devastating impact on Ireland’s peace and prosperity. He also faces a major housing and homelessness crisis. The country’s youngest-ever Taoiseach will…

There will be a few names globally that will become etched in our history books. They will be the names that mark the shift in our political landscape, when younger politicians took the reins and heralded a different type of politics. Justin Trudeau will be one of them. Youth alone is not remarkable, but winning over people with a message of hope and warmth, tolerance and inclusion, when other politicians the world over choose an easier route—that is remarkable.…

Shawn Mendes is a pop star born both of and for Generation Z. He doesn’t see genre as a barrier, and he regards all of music as an open playing field, which it very much is for someone with his talent. His enthusiasm is boundless and infectious, probably because of the fact that he gets better by the day. He’s like Neo in The Matrix, downloading skills in one sitting. “I know falsetto harmonies.” He’s reverential, but he’s not deferential: when I invited him to share the stage with me in Toronto last year, I unconsciously expected I’d be the one calling the shots during rehearsal. But Shawn isn’t passive. He got in there. He was determined, he pitched ideas, and they were good ones. He knows his right…

I must have been 15 and living in Chicago when my mom and her best friends Hedy and Judy started talking about Judy Chicago coming to Chicago. It was going to be a big exhibit in the South Loop, and all of the Jewish women were thrilled. I guess they thought I was too young to see so many vaginas, but they came home talking about the religious experience of it. When I finally saw the color pictures in the Chicago Tribune of the huge triangle table, I couldn’t believe that all of these tongues and pink and flowers and fronds had come out of a woman who looked like my mom. Her real name was Judith Sylvia Cohen, and she had taken our mothers’ unspoken appetites and invented…

Lena Waithe won an Emmy for writing while starring on the Netflix show Master of None, but it might be more accurate to call her a Master of Everything. Besides her Emmy, Waithe created the Showtime drama The Chi, appears in Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi blockbuster Ready Player One and still makes time to be an incredible mentor and role model for young women of color. No wonder a recent Vanity Fair cover story—the first featuring an openly queer black woman—called her someone who’s “disrupting the hell out of Hollywood.” Thanks to Waithe, diverse communities can turn on the TV and see vivid, funny, deeply real portrayals of people like themselves. And that’s empowering—whether you’re a student or a Senator. As Waithe said in her Emmy acceptance speech, “The…

Sonia Friedman has spent her whole life in the theater. She has managed stages and stood in wings to hand people props. She understands the logistics, the nuts and bolts, of putting on a show. And she knows what audiences want to see, even before they do. Over the past two decades, she has produced blockbuster hits, from an all-male Twelfth Night (starring Mark Rylance as Olivia) to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which she has brought from the West End to Broadway. Once, I remember I was talking to her about potentially doing a musical comedy, and she looked at me, put her hand on the side of my face and said, “But don’t you want to make people cry as well as make them laugh?” That’s…

All figure skaters are beautiful, but Adam Rippon is different. He isn’t just a beautiful skater. He has humility, grace and an incredible sense of humor. You could see in the leather-harness suit he wore to the Academy Awards that he isn’t afraid to take chances. It wasn’t about the suit, really. It was about the fact that he dares to be different in a world where being different always comes with a cost. I thought it was fabulous, of course. Adam is a skater who happens to be gay, and that represents something wonderful to young people. When I was young, I had no role models—everyone looked like Sandra Dee and Doris Day. There was nobody who made me think, Oh, I could be like them. They represent…

“How much is a little girl worth?” That’s the simple yet powerful question Rachael Denhollander posed to a packed Michigan courtroom in January. Rachael, like so many of us, was a victim of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Olympic team doctor, and she was the first to draw public attention to his sexual abuse. But through her strength and resolve, she is a survivor. None of us could have anticipated or prepared for the onslaught of emotions we’d experience just by being in that courtroom. It was overwhelming. And yet Rachael was there for each court session of that sentencing, each impact statement and each fellow survivor. This show of courage and conviction inspired many people to feel less like victims and more like survivors. We still…