Table of contents for March 27, 2023 in TIME Magazine

On March 8, International Women’s Day, TIME hosted its second annual Women of the Year gala at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, honoring the 12 actors, activists, and artists recognized in 2023. The honorees used the event to call for pay equity, diversity in the film industry, and even read an original poem. As TIME CEO Jessica Sibley described the common denominator among the group: “You are all driving change and making history.” Read more about the list and watch video profiles at time.com/women-of-the-year The Parent Files In a new series, Charlotte Alter—senior correspondent and mother of a 1-year-old—talks to newsmakers about how parenting has shaped their work and life. Find her interview with Whitney Wolfe Herd on page 72, and the whole collection—including Mark…

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the Biden Administration’s unprecedented response, guaranteeing deposits and backstopping regional banks, has catalyzed an important and necessary national conversation over what went wrong, and what can be done to prevent future crises. But SVB’s fall has also set off a frenzy of mythmaking, ranging from ideological clichés to hyperbole. These fact-free myths dangerously confuse the general public. Even more important, they obfuscate some of the genuine underlying drivers of SVB’s collapse. False narrative No. 1: Ideological opportunism: The fallout from SVB’s collapse is much more of a political problem than it is an economic problem—and it is being driven by the politics of the left and the right. Sadly, flagrant, clichéd ideological opportunism cuts across both sides of the aisle. On the far…

Louis DeJoy thought his workday was done as he arrived home one evening in February 2022. The Postmaster General was locked in a grueling, monthslong battle with Congress over a bill to shake up the Postal Service. But as he settled in, his cell phone rang and, pulling it out, he saw who was calling and could already guess why. It was Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. The second most powerful Democrat in America wanted to know how the whip count was coming. As it happened, the count was coming along very nicely. DeJoy may be best known as the Trump-era GOP megadonor the left accused of meddling with mail-in voting to subvert the 2020 election. But by the time Schumer called him on that frigid winter night, DeJoy was…

Art-history haven Historic Barcelona is in top form this year. Antoni Gaudí’s architectural marvel, the unfinished Sagrada Família, recently completed the towers of the evangelists Luke and Mark, which join the Virgin Mary’s tower, completed in 2021. In late 2023, the towers of the evangelists John and Matthew will join the other pinnacles in lighting up the city during the Christmas season. For panoramic views of the city, visitors can climb the Apostle towers of either the Nativity or Passion facades. By 2026—the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death—the 566-ft.-tall Jesus Christ tower is expected to debut and complete the set of six. Beyond the much-anticipated Sagrada Família’s unveilings, 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, and with it, events and exhibitions, including parallel exhibits (Museu Picasso and…

Trek with gorillas Musanze is the largest city in northern Rwanda and the gateway to Volcanoes National Park—home of rare mountain gorillas—which recently announced its expansion from 62 to 76 sq. mi. by 2027, an endeavor that will reduce human-wildlife conflict by 80%. A limited number of $1,500 daily gorilla-trek entry fees enable farmers and reformed gorilla poachers to make a living while not encroaching on the animals’ habitats. The opening of the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and its Gorilla Doctors campus, which invest in the conservation and research of endangered mountain gorillas, have brought global attention to the area. Red Rocks Rwanda, an amenity-rich nonprofit hostel, strives to connect locals and visitors through storytelling, banana-beer making, and Rwandan dance. Private homestays, many of…

Northern wonders If you’ve always dreamed of seeing the aurora borealis, you’re in luck this year, as solar activity heads toward a peak in its roughly 11-year cycle. One of the best spots to catch the northern lights is this remote Hudson Bay outpost, which sits just below the “auroral oval,” meaning the sky often dances to life more than 300 nights a year. Winter aurora-hunting has opened up a whole new tourist season in a town that has traditionally attracted the vast majority of its visitors during the fall polar bear migration. The massive carnivores remain big business, of course, and to get travelers (safely) up close to them, Frontiers North Adventures recently unveiled its electric Tundra Buggy, a behemoth with 6-ft. tires that cruises over the ice…

Puma safari Known as a hikers’ paradise, with famous multiday routes including the W Circuit and the O Circuit, the Torres del Paine region of Southern Chile is also one of the best places on earth to see wild pumas right now. Thanks to a growing population and a high level of habituation to humans, visitors have a good chance of spotting the elusive animals inside Torres del Paine National Park (the second most popular park in the country with more than 300,000 visitors per year) or on privately owned ranchland surrounding the park. And it’s about to get even easier. Awasi Patagonia has restarted its puma-conservation program by leasing land surrounding the lodge—which is located on the outskirts of the national park—removing the livestock, and banning puma hunting.…

It’s a wonder we didn’t all go mad. How did we even survive the early days of the pandemic, a seemingly interminable epoch during which many of us spent long hours holed up in our sad little towers, captives in sweatpants gazing longingly at the outside world? Vasilis Katsoupis’ intriguingly odd little psychological thriller Inside isn’t a pandemic parable per se, but it’s likely to resurrect some jittery memories of those days even so. A high-end art thief played by Willem Dafoe botches a burglary and finds himself trapped alone in an art-filled luxury penthouse, for hours that stretch into days. Will he get out, and if so, how? Meanwhile, what is all that time spent alone—not to mention all that art, which includes an elegantly haunting Egon Schiele…

The Broadway-to-Hollywood pipeline has never been more active, and it’s easy to see why. Streaming needs content. Theater needs revenue streams. Hence the glut of uneven-at-best musical adaptations. But bringing stage and screen talent together to create original stories can yield more-inspired results, as Hulu’s Up Here so endearingly demonstrates. Scripted by Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) and sitcom vet Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (New Girl), with songs by Disney stalwarts Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the series infuses Broadway magic into what might’ve been a mundane romantic comedy. Like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend with a neurotypical twist Mae Whitman stars as Lindsay, a good-girl aspiring author in Vermont who scrounges up the courage to dump her milquetoast fiancé and move to Manhattan in the fateful year of 1999. While her roommate is…

DIED Judy Heumann Disability-rights activist BY REBEKAH TAUSSIG When I learned that Judy Heumann had passed away on March 4 at 75, I felt anxious in a way I struggled to explain. Judy became disabled by polio around the same age I became disabled by cancer—both as toddlers. Raised in 1950s Brooklyn, Judy grew up in a world that never expected her to join it. When her mom hoisted her up the stairs to their local school in her chair, the administrator refused to let her attend, saying Judy was a fire hazard. After a long fight and years later, Judy was allowed into a public-school basement classroom with other disabled kids ages 9 to 21. They did worksheets, took naps at their desks, and, if they graduated, were…

As watchmakers from around the world gather in late March in Geneva for one of the industry’s biggest events—the Watches and Wonders fair—Switzerland-based Oris will announce a luxury diver’s watch with a swirly blue and green dial. There’s nothing remarkable in that, except that the dial of the Oris X Bracenet (2,350 Swiss francs, or $2,508) is made of upcycled ghost fishing nets recovered from the ocean. Luxury watches have always been about communicating more than the time, and what this one gets across is its maker’s sustainability program. Oris became climate neutral in 2021 and frequently collaborates with conservation organizations. It stands out against others in the Swiss watch industry, which have been slow to respond to consumer appetite for products with a strong environmental profile. The scale of…

Something happened at Asbury University. Many Christians called the weeks-long worship service at the small Wilmore, Ky., school, which attracted tens of thousands and disrupted campus life, a revival. Fervent worship and prayer that began during a Feb. 8, 2023, chapel service continued for hours afterward, then days, with word soon spreading globally through social media and national news coverage. Asbury administrators, noting that the school and town had been overwhelmed by the rush of outside visitors, officially ended the on-campus revival gatherings on Feb. 24. But a number of other universities have reported their own enthusiastic campus awakenings, leading excited Christians to contend this is evidence of an unprecedented movement of God across the nation. The revival has had its fair share of skeptics, however, many of whom…

Preserving paradise As French Polynesia moves toward more sustainable tourism—a new five-year plan calls for one foreign visitor per local resident—visiting the remote Tuamotu Archipelago is one way to put your dollars more directly into the pockets of locals. Known for black-pearl farming, the Tuamotus sprawl over 76 islands and atolls across 700,000 sq. mi. of the South Pacific, and are just an hour’s fly time from the capital of Papeete. The Tuamotus are also known for world-class surfing, scuba diving, and snorkeling, with plunging coral walls and current-washed passes filled with reef sharks on atolls like Fakarava and Rangiroa (the latter is the second largest atoll in the world and could fit the entire main island of Tahiti within its enormous lagoon). Get off the grid at family-owned-and-operated…

Fashion hot spot Senegal bursts with color, from the bubble-gum pink algae that dye Lake Retba to the blue and yellow minibuses, car rapides, that navigate Dakar’s stylish streetscapes. So it’s no wonder Africa’s westernmost capital city is also a blossoming fashion capital. Arrive on Delta’s direct route from New York City, then weave your way through the fabric of a city defined by its modern architecture and contemporary craftspeople. It’s already old news that Chanel hosted its first runway show in Africa last December at the picturesque former Palais de Justice. In fact: Chanel never left. In January, the French luxury house opened a new exhibition space, le19M Dakar, within the Theodore Monod African Art Museum. The free gallery offers local artisans the opportunity to dye and weave…

In the 15 years since its inception, Airbnb has become the travel industry’s bread and butter. But once regarded as the affordable option, Airbnb prices began creeping up as the platform became more popular. Airbnb’s average global price rose from $110 per night in 2020 to $137 in 2021, according to All The Rooms, which catalogs vacation-rental properties. In February, Airbnb cited its average daily rate (ADR) as $153 for the last quarter of 2022. Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2022, Hilton reported an ADR of $151.81, and InterContinental Hotel Group reported $125.58. While costs are up across the board, the gap between hotels and Airbnb is closing. A spokesperson for Airbnb says that “Airbnb often provides more space and more amenities” and that its prices remain below those…

Making history This year marks 150 years since three cities along the Danube—Buda, Obuda, and Pest—united, forming the modern metropolis of Budapest. The Hungarian capital is celebrating its sesquicentennial with nearly 100 events extending through 2024. The city’s landmark Chain Bridge will reopen to pedestrians this fall after more than two years of reconstruction. In October, scores of spectators will cheer on participants in the Budapest Marathon as they run next to and under the famous bridge. Other anniversary events include an open-air jubilee concert in Heroes’ Square in September; the Cake of Budapest competition, whose winning confectionary is set to be offered citywide after the first public tasting this fall; and a new exhibit on the identity of Budapest at the Budapest History Museum. The events build on…

Otherworldly escape Set against the rust-colored Wadi Rum mountains, Aqaba is the only coastal city in the country of Jordan, on the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The ancient city of Petra—a New Wonder of the World—is just 78 miles away through desert haze. The otherworldly landscape might look familiar to visitors as the planet Arrakis in Dune. The sci-fi franchise’s second installment, which premieres this November, was also filmed in the extraordinarily dramatic scenery of the Wadi Rum reserve, referred to as the Valley of the Moon and previously famous as the backdrop for Lawrence of Arabia. But it’s not just the dunes that are bringing new visitors to Aqaba this year; it’s the sea. In the Gulf of Aqaba, Aqaba Marine Park aims to preserve its…

About 2,300 ft. above Beirut in the Matn District mountains, Roger Mazloum and his brother Elias greet me on an unusually balmy winter day as they chop wood to help keep their early 20th century home warm before the cold returns. I’m no match for these burlier Lebanese men, who grew up in Broummana, a town about a dozen miles east of the Lebanese capital, but I take my turn, meekly swinging an ax at the tree stump before us. After a lackluster start, and plenty of patience from the pair, something akin to firewood begins to splinter off. Roger takes me through the family home’s front door—past a living room with traditional Lebanese floor tiles and artwork dedicated to Umm Kulthum, the Egyptian titan of Arabic music—and up the…

Migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. face immigration personnel across barricades on the El Paso, Texas, side of the Paso del Norte International Bridge on March 12. A crowd of hundreds, mostly from Venezuela, rushed past controls in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, “posing a potential threat to make a mass entry,” a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman told AP. The cause was unclear, but migrants have struggled to make asylum appointments through a new U.S. government app overloaded by demand. For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox Photograph by Herika Martinez—AFP/Getty Images…

It wasn’t long after the pandemic began that people around the world started to notice something weird was going on. As the rhythms of daily life changed, some people’s days seemed to run together; others felt theirs stretched on indefinitely. The sense of what an hour felt like was corroding. News outlets filled with attempts to explain what was happening. Ruth Ogden, an experimental psychologist who studies time perception at Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K., says she had only ever gotten maybe one interview request before the pandemic, and has since received at least a hundred. And while the study of time is certainly not new, she says the volume and pace of academic publication on the topic seem to have increased too. Studies published since early 2020…

It’s possible to make the airport less stressful. Samantha and Ryan Looney, travel bloggers at @samandryanlooney, recommend being proactive. “I pack a change of clothes, toothbrush, [and other] essentials in my carry-on even if I’m checking a bag,” says Samantha. Eileen Rhein, who blogs as @lighttravelsfaster, also recommends putting a GPS tracker like an Apple AirTag in your bag and getting a TSA-approved lock on suitcases in case they go missing. Of the services that can expedite lines, “I would do Global Entry if you’re eligible,” says Gary Leff, who writes for View From the Wing. “If you are a frequent traveler, then Global Entry and CLEAR can be worthwhile together, because PreCheck lines can get long.” All of them say lounges, which provide food, are worth it; some…

Rising from the ashes When bushfires ignited Australia’s third largest island during 2019 and 2020, half of Kangaroo Island burned, killing 40% of its namesake marsupials and an estimated 40,000 koalas. Researchers mourned losses among species like the sooty dunnart, a mouse-size marsupial that lives nowhere else on earth. But visitors to the island will find a landscape lush with greenery, including the Kangaroo Island yucca, whose spiky flowers disappear for decades and bloom only in the wake of fire. Aided by Western River Refuge, even the dunnart is scurrying back. Recovery has been a community-wide effort, travelers included. Guide company Exceptional Kangaroo Island recently introduced three-day private conservation tours; Seal Bay Conservation Park has new research adventures to assist with monitoring endangered Australian sea lions. The focus on…

Richard III as a fictional character has a lot to answer for: Shakespeare painted him as a deformed, power-mad schemer. But Richard III as a real person? Evidence suggests he was more complicated than that. With his charming, sympathetic picture The Lost King, Stephen Frears digs into the fairly recent rehabilitation of the misunderstood monarch’s legacy—as well as the 2012 discovery of his long-lost bones beneath a Leicester parking lot. Sally Hawkins plays Philippa Langley, the real-life amateur historian instrumental in figuring out where, exactly, the last Plantagenet King had been buried. Hawkins’ Philippa suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, an illness that’s not always taken seriously. She’s close with her ex-husband (Steve Coogan), though even he occasionally loses patience with her. (Coogan and Jeff Pope wrote the script for…

In the near future imagined by the Apple TV+ sci-fi drama Extrapolations, humans have discovered how to communicate with humpback whales. One scientist, Sienna Miller’s Rebecca Shearer, even translates a female humpback’s song into English via the sonorous voice of Meryl Streep (who also plays Rebecca’s mother). That’s the good news. The bad news is that the creature is the last of its kind. Rebecca works for a company that is scrambling to preserve the genetic footprints of species that are going extinct because of global warming so that they can be reintroduced when someone figures out how to cool the world. This juxtaposition of grand-scale catastrophe with glimmers of innovation and hope is typical of Extrapolations, an ambitious look at the potential fallout of climate change from Contagion…