Time usa april 17 2017

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A P R I L 17, 2 0 17

THE URANIUM UNDERWORLD ISIS WANTS A DIRTY BOMB—AND IT KNOWS WHERE TO GET ONE BY SIMON SHUSTER

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VOL. 189, NO. 14 | 2017

2 | Conversation 6 | For the Record

The Brief News from the U.S. and around the world

9 | The fading power of Trump’s threats 11 | Chemical

attack marks grim milestone in Syria’s civil war 12 | Graham Allison

on what Chinese President Xi Jinping wants from Trump 14 | Ian Bremmer:

why the U.S. and Egypt are closer 16 | NCAA champs

from the Carolinas

The View Ideas, opinion, innovations

21 | The 100th

anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I is a big deal in Kansas City, Mo. 22 | Psychiatrists on how to deal with schmucks at work 23 | A new skyscraper with presidential ties designed by Zaha Hadid Architects 24 | Fur-real benefits of pet therapy 27 | The new North

American job magnet

The Features  Ticking Time Bombs Inside the black market for nuclear materials By Simon Shuster 28

Finding Home What happens when a Syrian refugee family is denied asylum. A continuing series By Aryn Baker, photographs by Lynsey Addario 34

Coal’s Rocky Road Trump promises to bring coal jobs back. In West Virginia, residents wish it were that simple By Justin Worland 38

Bigger Bird How Sesame Street aims to become a global force at a time when children’s-TV ratings are dropping By Belinda Luscombe 44

Time Off What to watch, read, see and do

49 | A new R&B sound is the heart and soul of spring’s best music 51 | Quick Talk with

Khalid

△ Inside a Southern Coal Corporation mine in Monroe County, West Virginia

Photograph by Peter van Agtmael— Magnum Photos for TIME

52 | Pierce Brosnan’s western soap, The Son 53 | Chris Evans stars in Gifted; Anne Hathaway in Colossal 54 | A guide to the Fast & Furious movies 56 | How David Letterman made late night weird

ON THE COVER:

Illustration by Brian Stauffer for TIME

TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published by Time Inc. weekly, except for two skipped weeks in January and one skipped week in March, May, July, August, September and December due to combined issues. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 225 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10281-1008. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS (See DMM 507.1.5.2); Non-Postal and Military Facilities: send address corrections to TIME Magazine, P.O. Box 62120, Tampa, FL 33662-2120. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40110178. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Postal Station A, P.O. Box 4322, Toronto, Ontario M5W 3G9. GST No. 888381621RT0001. © 2017 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. TIME and the Red Border Design are protected through trademark registration in the United States and in the foreign countries where TIME magazine circulates. U.S. Subscriptions: $49 for one year. SUBSCRIBERS: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within two years. Your bank may provide updates to the card information we have on file. You may opt out of this service at any time. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: For 24/7 service, visit time.com/customerservice. You can also call 1-800-843-TIME; write to TIME, P.O. Box 62120, Tampa, FL, 33662-2120; or email privacy@time.customersvc.com. MAILING LIST: We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable firms. If you would prefer that we not include your name, please call or write us. PRINTED IN THE U.S. XXXXXXX

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Conversation

BONUS TIME HEALTH

What you said about ... REBUILDING THE U.S. Reader Will Heinzel of Auburn, Ala., thanked TIME for an “excellent” look at the state of American infrastructure. The April 10 cover package “really got me thinking about the problems,” he wrote. Doug Cram of Lopez Island, ‘Where was Wash., who expressed hope that those in this cover power will focus on and article the solutions TIME two, four highlighted, said or even six the issue “brought years ago?’ back a flood of DAVID FRANK, sad memories” of Flagler Beach, Fla. “forward-thinking” infrastructure projects that never came to pass. However, Laurence Siegel of Manteno, Ill., wondered whether, as a nation, “we even know what we need” to solve these problems, and Bonnie Gosliner of San Anselmo, Calif., was disappointed that the cover’s illustration didn’t include one solution we do know about: bicycle paths.

FINDING HOME On the arrival of the latest installment of TIME’s yearlong multimedia project following Syrian refugee mothers and their babies, Africa bureau chief Aryn Baker—seen here center, with video producer Francesca Trianni (left) and photographer Lynsey Addario (right)—says it’s been a “roller coaster” to “share the joys and fears of the three families as we embark on this extraordinary journey with them.” Learn more in this issue on page 34 and at time.com/findinghome

THE GREAT WAR A new TIME special edition marks the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. Available on Amazon and in the TIME Shop, at shop.time.com

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TALK TO US

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BACK IN TIME: NOV. 23, 1970 This week’s look at Sesame Street (page 44) is just the latest time that the kid’s show has made news. Read this issue from 1970—a year after the show’s debut—at time.com/vault. “O.K., Sesame Street isn’t perfect. But it began something. Walt Disney opened up character animation. Sesame Street opened children’s TV to taste and wit and substance. It made the climate right for improvement.” —Animator Chuck Jones, quoted in TIME

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FINDING HOME: MOHAMMED FREE J

HOME OF THE FUTURE Karl Vick’s April 3 story on retirement-friendly mobile-home communities drew praise from many who are familiar with such places—including Caroline Marlette, a former resident of the town profiled in the article, who said that Vick “accurately describes the people and the lifestyle” there. Dan and Fanny D’Amelio, who live in a senior park in Yucaipa, Calif., said they have told their children ‘I hope I am to look for a similar as happy situation when they think about retiring. But Jan as they are Guthrie of St. Paul, Ore., when I’m a former housing director their age, for the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, noted embracing that, though the article life to the “only briefly” mentions fullest.’ potential exploitation of low-income and elderly DAWN COURY, residents, she has seen Omaha, whose problems firsthand. family members “Make sure you read the spend winters in lease in advance, and talk a mobile-home community to the folks living there first,” she advised.

Subscribe to TIME’s free health newsletter and get a weekly email full of news and advice to keep you well. For more, visit time.com/email

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ROY COOPER, North Carolina governor, saying the state must continue to “repair [its] reputation� after signing a compromise on March 30 to partially repeal its transgender bathroom bill; the NCAA said it would “reluctantly� lift its ban on holding championships in the state, while the ACLU called the deal “dangerous and fake�

‘I told my son, “Don’t let go,� and he said he wouldn’t. But the current came, and we lost him.’

Chicken The New Zealand postal service began delivering KFC to diversify its business

GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK

Egg Twitter retired its famous oval avatar

YURI NARVĂ EZ, a father who lost

his son in the mudslide that swept through the Colombian city of Mocoa after heavy rainfall began on March 31, claiming at least 262 lives

31

Distance, in miles, that a Watsonville, Calif., cat named Booboo traveled from home before being found in southeastern Canada; the tabby went missing in August 2013

‘IF THIS #PEPSI AD IS THE CHOICE OF A NEW GENERATION, I’M GONNA NEED THAT GENERATION TO TURN IN ITS BADGE.’ MARGARET CHO, comic, lambasting on Twitter a new ad from the soda company featuring millennials that was widely criticized for seeming to co-opt and sugarcoat recent protests about race, women’s rights and immigration; within a day of its release, Pepsi pulled the ad and apologized

C,W V JUHDW WR oQDOO\ NQRZ KRZ ROG , DP

DORIS DAY, 1960s Hollywood heartthrob and animal-rights activist, on the discovery that she is not 93 as she believed, but 95, after the Associated Press found a copy of her birth certificate from Ohio’s Office of Vital Statistics

‘WE HAVE UNMASKED TYRANNOSAURS.’ THOMAS CARR, paleontologist, explaining how he and his fellow researchers had revealed previously mysterious details about the features of the dinosaur’s face, including large individual scales, horns behind the eyes and supersensitive skin, in a study published in the journal ScientiďŹ c Reports on March 30

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TIME April 17, 2017

S O U R C E S : A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S ; P O S T A N D C O U R I E R ; N E W YO R K T I M E S; N E W Z E A L A N D T I M E S; S A N F R A N C I S C O C H R O N I C L E

650 Number of bicycles bought by Katie Blomquist, a South Carolina teacher, for each of Pepperhill Elementary’s students after one told her his family couldn’t afford one; she raised $80,000 online

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y B R O W N B I R D D E S I G N F O R T I M E

Number of companies that withdrew TV ads from Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor within ďŹ ve days of an April 1 New York Times report that host Bill O’Reilly had settled ďŹ ve cases for sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior

3,000

TUNE IN OR STREAM

STARTS MON APRIL 10 9/8c

‘FROM TRUMP’S PERSPECTIVE, THE CHINESE COULD—AND SHOULD—TELL KIM TO STOP.’ —PAGE 12

WHITE HOUSE

The incredible shrinking power of the President’s threats

GE T T Y IMAGES

By Michael Scherer

ON THE 11TH SUNDAY OF HIS PRESIdency, amid national approval polls as low as 35%, Donald Trump found himself on the back nine of his Virginia golf course, playing a foursome with his old rival Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. The group played to a tie, Paul would later report, but no one needed to be told the real score. Clearly the President was no longer winning. A couple years back, Trump called Paul “a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain.” He mocked the Senator’s golf game (“I easily beat him”) and dismissed his campaign as a “total mess” (“weak on the military, Israel, the Vets and many other issues”). He even joked about Paul’s looks. “And believe me there is plenty of subject matter right there,” Trump said, gesturing toward his opponent.

At the time, Trump was a statesman bulldozer, demolishing everyone in his path with insults and adjectives— “crooked,” “low energy,” “pathological” and “lyin’.” “My general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard,” Trump wrote in his best seller, The Art of the Deal. Confrontation was his method and message. In 2016, Americans voted for the alpha. But nothing lasts forever. Now the President stayed silent as Rand rushed to the cameras after the game. “We had a great day with the President,” he crowed. “I continue to be very optimistic that we are getting closer and closer to an agreement on repealing Obamacare.” Paul didn’t add “on my terms,” but the words hung in the air nonetheless. It was Paul, after all, who had helped 9

TheBrief

lead the charge to kill Trump’s signature Obamacare replacement, even going so far as to hand out copies of The Art of the Deal to House conservatives. True to form, Trump and his advisers had tried to live up to Trump’s dominant reputation, with threats and tough talk. But nothing worked. In one typical exchange, at a meeting with House Republicans, Trump told the moderate Pennsylvania Representative Charlie Dent that he was destroying the Republican Party by opposing the bill. “I’m going to blame you,” the President threatened. Dent remained a no. “I don’t take any of this personally,” Dent coolly explained to TIME. “I’d actually like to get the policy right.” At another point, Trump sent an aide to look South Carolina Representative Mark Sanford in the eye and deliver a Mafia-style threat: “The President hopes you vote against the bill,” Sanford remembers being told, “so he can run a candidate against you in 2018.” Sanford divulged the private conversation to his local newspaper. He then quoted his state’s Republican creed, “I will never cower before any master, save my God.” There is an old rule of stand-up comedy: punching up gets laughs. Punching down makes trouble. After a White House aide tweeted a call to “defeat” Representative Justin Amash in the 2018 primary, the Michigan Republican responded with “Bring it on,” and a link to his fundraising page. The antiestablishment vibe is very much alive in Trump’s Washington, except Trump is quickly becoming the Establishment. Almost all of the conservative holdouts in the House won their districts in 2016 by a greater margin than Trump. And Congress is not the only place Trump’s rhetorical bullets have turned to blanks. The U.S. intelligence community, which Trump dismissed as politically motivated before taking office, has successfully leaked information to cost him a National Security Adviser and forced the partial recusal of his Attorney General. His taunting of the FBI on Twitter, with misleading accusations of wiretapping, was met by the public announcement by FBI Director James Comey of an investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russian ties. So Trump appears to be recalibrating, reversing himself with some regularity. After announcing he would move on from health care if conservatives did not cave, he has agreed to re-engage, sending his Vice President to offer further concessions to conservative lawmakers. “We all learned a lot,” Trump said after pulling his bill from the floor. The bravado is still there, as is the call to smash the system. But he knows there are limits, especially with his poll numbers so low. Governing, unlike campaigning, has always been more about making friends than calling out enemies. —With reporting by SAM FRIZELL/WASHINGTON 10

TIME April 17, 2017

LAW ENFORCEMENT

TICKER St. Petersburg train bombed Fourteen people were killed and about 50 more injured on April 3 after an explosive device blew up inside a subway car in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city and President Vladimir Putin’s hometown. Investigators identified Kyrgyzstan-born Akbarjon Djalilov, 22, as a suicide bomber behind the attack after his body fragments were found in the train. Djalilov’s DNA was also found on a bag containing a bomb that was discovered and deactivated at another subway station later that day.

Sanctuary-state bill passes in California California is set to become a sanctuary state after its senate passed a bill to prohibit state and local lawenforcement agencies from using their resources to help with federal immigration enforcement. State senator Kevin de León, the bill’s author, said it was about making “communities safer, not less safe.”

Bannon loses National Security role White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was removed from his role on the National Security Council in a Trump-approved reshuffle, reflecting the increasing stature of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster within the West Wing.

Cops may get freer hand under Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions (below) hinted that he may pull back on consent decrees, police-reform agreements enforced by the courts and pursued by President Obama. Here’s how three cities are responding.

BALTIMORE Top city officials say they oppose federal efforts to delay police reform and vow to move forward, after already agreeing to revise officer trainings. On April 5, a federal judge denied a request from the Justice Department for a delay to reconsider the reforms. CHICAGO After city police were found to have engaged in a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional force, officials agreed to make substantial changes. Officials say they are committed to reform regardless of the Trump Administration’s next move. FERGUSON, MO. The city has already agreed to make over 300 law-enforcement reforms, including the formation of a civilian review board. Officials say they’re making progress, but activists have expressed frustration. —Maya Rhodan/Washington

$730 DIGITS

Price of raw ivory per kilogram in 2017, a 65% decrease since 201 14; demand hass dropped, according to o a new rep port by Save e the Eleph hantss

DATA

WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED MAKERS The “Made in Germany” label is the most highly regarded in the world, according to research firm Statista’s new index. Here’s how some countries ranked:

1

GAS ATTACK A Syrian child struggles for survival after a suspected chemical bombing in Idlib, northern Syria, on April 4. The attack, which apparently used a nerve agent, killed at least 72 people and prompted President Trump to declare that he had changed his view of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime denied responsibility. Without elaborating, Trump said the latest attack “crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines.” Photograph by EPA

WORLD

S E S S I O N S : A N D R E W H A R R E R — B L O O M B E R G /G E T T Y I M A G E S; D I G I T S , M AY, D A S T I S : G E T T Y I M A G E S

Britain’s ‘rock’ in Spain gets caught in a hard place GIBRALTAR, A TINY BRITISH TERRITORY ON Spain’s southern coast, has become an early focus of the U.K.’s upcoming negotiations over leaving the European Union, after a draft E.U. paper suggested Spain might be handed control of its future. LITTLE BRITAIN Gibraltar was ceded to Britain

“in perpetuity” following its capture in 1704, and Spain’s attempts to reclaim the territory proved unsuccessful. Over 300 years on, it remains a fraught topic in n U.K.Spain relations. The territtory,, nicknamed the Rock afterr its towering promontory, votted to remain British in 1967 and 2002,, and became the U.K.’s mo ost pro-Europe region last summer, when 96% of residents voted to remain n in the E.U.

HARD ROCK The E.U.’s first draft of its Brexit

negotiation guidelines included an unexpected clause giving Spain an effective veto on decisions that affect Gibraltar. The territory’s chief minister called the clause “disgraceful,” and Michael Howard, a former Conservative Party leader, suggested the U.K. might defend the peninsula by force. British tabloid the Sun sent a message to Spain in a banner headline: UP YOURS SEÑORS! COOL HEADS After Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis criticized the “tone of comments coming out of Britain,” British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed she would not in fact be sending the U.K. military to settle the matter. B Butt Gibraltarian officials called on E E.U U. leaders to drop the contentious claause for fear the territory will become be a bargaining chip in neegotiations. —KATE SAMUELSON

8 15 25 30 50

◁ Spain’s Dastis has urged May’s government to keep a cool head during Britain’s E.U. exit talks 11

TheBrief

High stakes: Can Trump and Xi avoid war and strike a North Korea deal? By Graham Allison PRESIDENTS DONALD Trump and Xi Jinping have many serious issues to discuss at their upcoming Mara-Lago summit, but only one ticking time bomb: North Korea. On the current trajectory, North Korea will likely be able to strike the American homeland with a nuclear weapon before the end of Trump’s first term. From his initial tweet on North Korea as President-elect to a lengthy interview in early April, Trump has declared unambiguously that he will never let this happen. As he put it, “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.” The message Trump is sending Xi is clear: to prevent North Korea from continuing missile tests and building nuclear warheads that could strike Honolulu or Los Angeles, he will not hesitate to order a unilateral, preemptive military attack on North Korean sites. For Xi and his team, this is almost unthinkable. A U.S. strike (no matter how targeted) could provoke North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to respond with a massive artillery barrage of South Korea and even missile strikes against Japan. No South Korean President could survive without mounting a major response, triggering a second Korean War. Should that occur, U.S. war plans reportedly call for American and South Korean troops to march north to stabilize the North and ultimately reunite the two nations. For Xi, the prospect of South Korea conquering the North and bringing a U.S. military ally to China’s borders is as intolerable today as it was when the first Korean War broke out 67 years ago. So to prevent North Korea from acquiring the ability to strike the U.S., will Trump risk war with China? Hard as it is to believe, that is the message. Is it just the audacious opening position for which Trump is famous—or would he really follow through? Will Xi and his team believe him? Who can tell? 12

TIME April 17, 2017

One thing we can be certain about is that Trump is seeking to give Xi every incentive to exercise all the leverage he can to stop North Korea’s advance. From Trump’s perspective, the Chinese could—and should—tell Kim to stop. “I think they could solve the problem very easily if they want to,” Trump has said. China controls vital lifelines to North Korea, including supplies of oil and food without which the regime could not survive. But from Xi’s perspective, any actions that lead to the collapse of Pyongyang are unacceptable. In preparation for the summit, Trump and his team have been studying Xi. Who is this man? How has he emerged as the most successful leader on the world stage today? Why do other strong leaders like Putin clearly look up to him? What does Xi really want? THE MAN’S STUNNING arc from a struggle for survival in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution to become China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong makes him in many ways the perfect foil for Trump. Long before Trump entered the political arena, Xi announced his aspiration to make China great again—or in his words, “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” For Xi this means: • Returning China to the predominance in Asia it enjoyed before the West intruded • Establishing control over the territories of “greater China,” including Hong Kong and Taiwan • Recovering its historical sphere of influence along its borders and in adjacent seas so that others give it the deference great nations demand • Commanding the respect of other great powers in the councils of the world Xi calls this vision of a restored China the “China dream.” Overturning China’s system of shared authority, Xi has concentrated power in his hands so completely that he is now known as the “chairman of everything.” He is

using this power to pursue the most far-reaching transformation of China’s economy, military and political system in a half-century. It is an almost inconceivable reversal of fortune. As the son of one of Mao’s top aides, Xi was destined to grow up in Beijing’s “cradle of leaders.” However, he awoke shortly after his ninth birthday in 1962 to discover that a paranoid Mao had arrested his father. Sent to the countryside to be “re-educated,” Xi lived in a cave in a rural village in Yan’an, shoveling dung and snapping to the demands of his peasant foreman. Depressed by deprivation and abuse, his older half sister Xi Heping hanged herself. Xi chose to embrace the reality of the jungle and was reborn. As one of his longtime friends recalled, he “chose to survive by becoming redder than red”— and doing whatever it took to claw his way back to the top. Xi was nothing if not persistent. The leader of 1.4 billion people and a Communist Party with 89 million members was actually rejected the first nine times he sought to join the party, finally succeeding on his 10th attempt. Having painted a bold vision of the China dream, Xi is aggressively mobilizing supporters to execute his hugely ambitious agenda. Any one of its four initiatives would be more than enough for most heads of state to attempt in a decade. But, exuding what China scholar Andrew Nathan has described as “Napoleonic self-confidence,” Xi has chosen to address all of them at once. Does Xi’s ambition to make China great again put him on a collision course with an immovable object in Trump’s America? Stephen Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, believes so. “We’re going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years,” he has said. “There is no doubt about that.” Bannon is wrong: war is not inevitable. But the historical pattern

In the 16 cases over the past 500 years when a rising nation threatened to displace a ruling one, war occurred 12 times

K E V I N F R AY E R — G E T T Y I M A G E S

of structural stress between rising and ruling powers known as Thucydides’s Trap does put the odds against us. In the 16 cases over the past 500 years when a rising nation threatened to displace a ruling one, war occurred 12 times. Great powers can escape this trap. Doing so in this 17th case—the U.S. vs. China—will require statecraft as subtle as that of the British in dealing with a rising America a century ago, or the “wise men” who crafted a Cold War strategy to meet the Soviet Union’s surge without bombs and bullets. FOR TWO PRESIDENTS who pride themselves as masters of the art of the deal, is there a potential bargain to be struck at Mar-a-Lago that could contain the North Korea crisis and point Beijing and Washington away from war? Potentially. But it would require both to stretch way beyond positions both governments have taken in the past. And it begins with revisiting assumptions Washington has nurtured for the past two decades. For Xi, 2017 is the year of political consolidation. His highest priority is stability through this fall’s 19th Party Congress, at which he seeks re-election

Long before Trump entered the arena, Xi announced his aspiration to make China great again

for a second five-year term and ratification of his nominations to fill the seven-man Standing Committee— steps that will allow him to rule not only until 2022 but perhaps beyond. The last thing he wants, therefore, is to rock this boat. Thus he shares with Trump an intense interest in containing Kim’s recklessness, especially behavior that could provoke action by Trump— at least for the year ahead. Xi’s ideal outcome would be a joint Chinese-U.S. effort that would freeze North Korean missile and nuclear tests without collapsing the regime. But to help induce the erratic Kim to stop testing, he will want help from the U.S. that could require significant changes in long-standing U.S. positions. The Obama and Bush administrations insisted that North Korea give up all its nuclear weapons and materials as a precondition for negotiations about other issues. Trump may conclude— realistically, in my view—that this demand is delusional. Brute facts are hard to ignore: North Korea has an

arsenal of nuclear warheads and is no more likely to give them up than is Israel or the U.S. But the U.S. could focus for the next four to eight years on freezing its missile-testing program and nuclearwarhead production. It might facilitate supplies of food, medicine or even money to North Korea, all of which the next government of South Korea might well be prepared to provide. If history is our guide, North Korea will cheat when it believes it can get away with it, regardless of what it agrees to now. Nonetheless, when the red lines are clear and punishment is swift, it has at least in some instances complied with agreements for extended periods. As a former U.S. negotiator with North Korea put it, while the regime cannot be bought, it can be rented for a season. And the time is now. As a senior Trump official recently said, “The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table.” Allison is the director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and author of the forthcoming book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

TheBrief

THE RISK REPORT

TICKER Gay men ‘missing’ in Chechnya Three men have been killed and more than 100 detained by authorities in Chechnya in a campaign against homosexuality, according to a Russian newspaper. The spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied the report and also claimed there are no gay people living in the Russian republic.

Southern U.S. storms kill 5

Kamikaze mission for Saturn probe NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, is set to become the first probe to explore the 1,500-mile-wide space between the planet and its rings before plunging into the atmosphere and breaking up.

High school hacks topple principal The new principal of Pittsburg High School in Kansas resigned after student journalists dug into her background and questioned her credentials, including the legitimacy of the private college from which she obtained her higher education.

By Ian Bremmer PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND EGYPT’S President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi sat down together at the White House in early April, and it’s as if Barack Obama and the Arab Spring never happened. These two champions of national pride agree that the challenge of killing terrorists should sideline questions of respect for human rights. In contrast to the awkward, complex choreography ahead of the visit by China’s Xi Jinping to Mar-a-Lago or the notably strained body language of the recent meeting with Germany’s Angela Merkel, Trump and al-Sisi looked like old pals. It helps that al-Sisi was the first world leader to congratulate Trump on his win in November. The Trump presidency looks to be good news for the former general. Trump wants a reliable, like-minded ally in the Middle East, and al-Sisi fits the bill. Al-Sisi likes the fact that he finally has a U.S. President who sees things his way. Obama froze military aid to Egypt for 18 months in 2013 in response to the Egyptian government’s crackdown on dissent. Al-Sisi will be encouraged by Trump’s recent decision to sell F-16s to Bahrain without demands for democratic reform or respect for human rights. He hopes Egypt can expect the same treatment. Egypt remains the second largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and at a time when

Trump wants to reduce foreign assistance, al-Sisi hopes to keep the dollars flowing. Egypt’s President also hopes to persuade Trump to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and to back down on demands to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. That will be complicated— and in the latter case unlikely—but the relationship will remain strong, because both leaders want it that way. Not everything is going al-Sisi’s way. Egypt may be more politically stable than some of its neighbors, but it’s not the military and economic power it once was. Inflation has skyrocketed since Egypt devalued its currency in November, and Al-Sisi likes cuts to bread the fact that subsidies led to he finally has a angry protests in U.S. President March. Egypt’s 6 million state who sees things his way employees, a key part of the government’s support base, have been especially squeezed as their salaries have not risen in line with prices, particularly for food and gas. As alSisi becomes less popular, rivals will seek opportunities to challenge him. For now, however, he remains firmly in control. He will surely win re-election in 2018. Relations with Saudi Arabia have improved, and ties with both Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin boost his confidence. The Obama presidency and the Arab Spring did happen, and they created demand for Trump and al-Sisi. Now, it’s their time to reshape the U.S.-Egypt alliance. □

ROUNDUP

The legal rights of nature An Indian court recognized Himalayan glaciers as “legal persons” on March 31 in an effort to curb environmental destruction. Here, other instances when Mother Nature gained legal standing. —Tara John INDIA The highly polluted Ganges and Yamuna rivers were given the same status as a human being on March 20. This means legal guardians can now represent the waterways in court over any violation.

NEW ZEALAND A river in the country’s North Island became a legal person on March 15. A local Maori tribe has fought for nearly 150 years for the Whanganui River to be recognized as an ancestor.

ECUADOR In 2008 the South American country set a legal precedent by giving nature rights like those of humans in its constitution. This means entire ecosystems have the “right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate.”

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y B R O W N B I R D D E S I G N F O R T I M E ; R I C E , B R O O K S , T E S L A : G E T T Y I M A G E S; B A K E R : M I K E H O L L A R — F L O R I D A K E Y S N E W S B U R E A U/G E T T Y I M A G E S

At least five people died in severe storms spanning from Texas to North and South Carolina. A mother and her 3-year-old daughter were killed by a tornado in Breaux Bridge, La., when it flipped their mobile home.

Egypt’s al-Sisi finds a kindred spirit in President Trump

INTELLIGENCE

Unmasking and leaks: Trump’s Russia retort AS THE FBI CONTINUES ITS PROBE into contacts between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, the President is advancing his own investigation of sorts. On April 5, a month after falsely alleging that President Obama had wiretapped him, he told the New York Times that he thinks former National Security Adviser Susan Rice may have committed a crime by unmasking the identities of Trump associates in classified intelligence reports. There is nothing illegal about unmasking. When U.S. spies target foreign adversaries, they are required by law to protect the privacy of Americans incidentally surveilled by masking their identities in classified reports. Senior officials are allowed to request the identities of the Americans if they determine the information is needed to understand the significance of the intelligence. The process is documented and constrained by law, and the masking agencies follow the rules with what FBI Director James Comey described in recent testimony as “obsessive” discipline. Rice says she and others followed this procedure, without any political motivation, and never leaked the results. Details of a phone transcript, between her replacement General Michael Flynn and a Russian ambassador, were leaked to the press. It revealed that Flynn had misled the White House, and he was fired by Trump.—MASSIMO CALABRESI

Susan Ric ice was d t Obama’s President Nationall Security d r Adviser

Milestones DIED Chicago blu ues s musician Lonnie Brooks, known for his version n of “Sweet Home Chicago,” at 83. ▷ James Rosenquist, whose powerful graphic style and painted montages helped define the 1960s Pop Art movement, at 83.

Baker helps stretch the world’s longest rainbow flag in 2003 DIED

Gilbert Baker Rainbow-flag artist WHEN DOES A SYMBOL BELONG TO everybody? Gilbert Baker, a Kansas-born artist, intended to answer that question some four decades ago when he began designing the rainbow pride flag that eventually became a global LGBTQ icon. Baker served in the U.S. Army in the early 1970s before being honorably discharged and settling in San Francisco as the gay-rights movement flourished. He taught himself to sew and began making banners for protests and celebrations. He befriended Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay elected official. And in 1978 he was commissioned to design a new symbol for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade that could be used year after year. Baker settled on the rainbow. He was moved by the idea that it is not only a natural phenomenon but one you have to be in the right place at the right time to see. Its beauty, he said years later, lies in the fact that it is composed of the colors you perceive as well as those you can’t. And the design was in the public domain, thus allowing the flag to be infinitely reproduced. It had to belong to everyone. Flags usually tell us where we come from and who we are. Stateless and unbound, Baker’s flag told us who we could be. —MATT VELLA

▷ Serial killer Donald Harvey, nicknamed the Angel of Death for murdering dozens of patients under his care in Ohio and Kentucky hospitals, after an attack in his prison cell, at 64. LEFT J.Crew, by executive creative director Jenna Lyons, following the retailer’s plummeting sales. Chief executive Millard Drexler said he and Lyons, who has helped define high street fashion since joining the company in 1990, agreed that it was “time for a change.” HIT Two home runs, by San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, making him the first pitcher to homer twice on Major League Baseball’s opening day.

SURPASSED Ford, by Tesla, in market value for the first time. The electric-car firm co-founded by Elon Musk surged to about $48.2 billion in value, compared with Ford’s $45.6 billion. Globally in 2016, Tesla sold 76,230 vehicles; Ford sold more than 2.6 million.

15

LightBox

A moment to savor A’ja Wilson and her University of South Carolina teammates celebrate the school’s first NCAA women’s basketball championship, in Dallas on April 2. Wilson scored 23 points in the 67-55 win over Mississippi State. It was a whirlwind week for the Carolinas, as the University of North Carolina edged Gonzaga 71-65 for the men’s title the following night. Photograph by Ron Jenkins— Getty Images ▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox

Š 2017 Time Inc. MONEY is a trademark of Time Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

‘IF IN WORKPLACE AFTER WORKPLACE YOU CAN’T GET ALONG WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES, SOMETHING IS WRONG.’ —PAGE 22

Kansas City’s 217-ft. tower, the Liberty Memorial, opened to the public in 1926

HISTORY

The world may little note, but Kansas City still remembers

by generation, while the Battle of the Argonne Forest—where more than 26,000 Americans gave their lives in the autumn of 1918—is gone like a nightmare that vanishes with the dawn. But the overlooked war looms large over Kansas City, Mo., which is why the official commemoration was held here, rather than in Washington. This is the place where, in 1919, a patriotic community, swept up in the conviction that something important had happened amid the unspeakable carnage, raised $2.5 million (roughly $35 million today) in just two weeks to build a monument. It would make a fitting venue for a gathering of heads of state. Rising to 217 ft., the Liberty Memorial tower commands a solemn plaza flanked on one side by a Memory Hall dedicated

AP

By David Von Drehle/ Kansas City, Mo.

THEY WERE HOPING TO GET THE President. He would attract Prime Ministers and live TV coverage and all the signifiers of an Important Commemoration. But as the day approached, the White House schedule called for the Commander in Chief to spend April 6, 2017, in the company of the Chinese President at Mar-a-Lago. So it appeared that the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I would be a bigger deal in Kansas City than elsewhere. This felt familiar. The transformative and tragic war was the harbinger of modern America, which reluctantly emerged as a world power amid the death throes of Old Europe. Yet for complicated reasons, it isn’t lodged in the nation’s memory. The battles of Gettysburg and Normandy are retold generation

PHOTOGR APH BY CHARLIE RIEDEL

21

The View

to 441 area residents who died in the war and by a small exhibition hall on the other. At the dedication of the site in 1921, the most famous Missourian in the world—General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in the Great War—was joined by his brother commanders from France, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium. But it was a lesser officer in the war, Captain Harry S. Truman, who captured the civic spirit that infused the construction project. Truman, a clothing-store owner who would become President, served as decorations vice chairman for the great event. It would, he predicted, make Kansas City “the most talked-about town in the world.” Ferdinand Foch, the French Marshal, declared that he had never seen such patriotism. In a city of roughly 325,000 people, more than 100,000 attended the dedication. Many of them would have recalled that the first American officer killed in action had been a local doctor, Captain William T. Fitzsimons. Another local man, Major Mark Hanna, was one of the last to die. It was an era of great energy in this young American boomtown. The feedlots and meatpackers of the Missouri River bottoms fed the nation with steaks and bacon. Prohibition was just a bad rumor in the city’s nightclubs, which pulsed with jazz and sex. A young ambulance driver home from France, Walt Disney, was surely in that crowd. Not yet 20 but matured by the war, he was starting a business making animated cartoons. His Kansas City studio didn’t last, but the mouse he befriended here was destined for immortality. In short, everything was up to date in the socalled Paris of the Plains. The soaring memorial would be a boldly visible expression of its ambitions. How could they know that the war they endured, which cost more than 100,000 American lives and left Europe decimated, was but a wretched overture to an even more horrible one? Nor could they imagine that their decorations vice chairman would build an American-led order strong enough to assure the longest reign of peace among great powers since the Roman Empire. The future has an urgency that drowns out the past. Over time the Liberty Memorial fell into disrepair. But Kansas City never gave up on it. In 1998, citizens voted to tax themselves for maintenance, and six years later they passed a bond issue to build an award-winning museum and research center beneath the memorial. In time, Congress granted an official designation: the National World War I Museum and Memorial. There are plans, finally, to build a memorial in the nation’s capital too. That’s a fitting and proper thing to do. The fact won’t change, however, that the first, and the grandest, memorial still stands in the heart of America. The President should see it sometime. □ 22

TIME April 17, 2017

BOOK IN BRIEF VERBATIM

‘Where was the shame in this movie?! There should have been a lot more shame.’ KEIKO AGENA,

actor, in a roundtable with the Hollywood Reporter, discussing the recently released Ghost in the Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson as a Japanese woman in a white person’s body

Problem colleagues and how to deal WE ALL HAVE AT LEAST ONE COworker whose behavior gets under our skin. In The Schmuck in My Office, Jody J. Foster and Michelle Joy identify 10 problem personalities and outline effective ways to handle each of them. If you work with a narcissist who makes everything about her own accomplishments, for example, be liberal with your praise and sandwich criticism between compliments. If your colleague is the suspicious type, paranoid that others are causing problems for him, offer a choice between alternatives to help him feel in control. And if your boss is an obsessive bean counter, cite how you “corrected” your work based on her suggestions so she feels heard. That the authors are both psychiatrists lends credibility to their advice, which includes: “If in workplace after workplace you can’t get along with your colleagues, something is wrong . . . Go get the mirror. Hurry.” —SARAH BEGLEY

CHARTOON

Phonetically defined

J O H N AT K I N S O N , W R O N G H A N D S

▶ For more on these stories, visit time.com/ideas

SNAPSHOT

A new addition to the glass jungle Plans for 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City made headlines when this rendering was released at the end of March—not only for the design, but also because presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s family’s real estate firm is the developer. —Julia Zorthian

GROWTH SPURT A glass addition on top of the current office building’s steel frame would add 40 floors and make the tower 1,400 ft.— officially “supertall.”

MIXED-USE The current office building would be replaced with retail space, an 11-story hotel and condos likely priced at $6,000 per sq. ft.

A G E N D A : J O N K O PA L O F F — G E T T Y I M A G E S; S N A P S H O T: Z A H A H A D I D A R C H I T E C T S — K U S H N E R C O M PA N I E S

PLANNING AHEAD Kushner Co., which bought the building a decade ago, projects beginning demolition work in 2019 and completing the building by 2025.

THE ADDRESS Developers reportedly want to change the building’s address from 666 to 660 Fifth to avoid the fraught number.

DATA

THIS JUST IN A roundup of new and noteworthy insights from the week’s most talked-about studies: 1

THE STARCHITECT The late Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid designed the building before her death last year.

INVESTOR DRAMA Reports that Chinese company Anbang would invest raised eyebrows in D.C. Kushner had stepped down as CEO of the firm by the time of Trump’s inauguration. Anbang has since pulled out.

VENDING-MACHINE DELAYS COULD LEAD TO HEALTHIER CHOICES The Rush University Medical Center developed a vending machine that told customers it would wait 25 seconds before dispensing unhealthy items. Overall, researchers saw a 2% to 5% increase in the proportion of healthy snacks purchased, without a decrease in snack sales. 2 PLAYING TETRIS AFTER TRAUMA CAN HELP PREVENT PTSD A study in Molecular Psychiatry found that people involved in car accidents who played Tetris at the hospital after recalling details of the accident had fewer symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder than those who did not. 3 DEEP BREATHING MAY ACTUALLY CALM BRAIN ACTIVITY A Science study found that a group of nerves that regulates breathing in the brains of mice has a direct connection to the brain arousal center. Translation: deep breathing may make people feel calmer because it slows brain activity. —J.Z.

The View

ANIMALS

The science of pet therapy is getting serious By Mandy Oaklander

24

TIME April 17, 2017

RABBITS In one study, a stressed-out group of adults were told to pet a rabbit, a turtle or their toy forms. The toys had no effect. But stroking a living creature, whether hard-shelled or furry, relieved anxiety. It worked for people regardless of whether they initially said they liked animals.

FISH Animals can focus people’s attention. When people at an Alzheimer’s-disease facility dined in front of aquariums with brightly colored fish, they ate more, got better nutrition and were less prone to pacing. They were also more attentive and less lethargic.

CRICKETS Animals don’t have to be cuddly to help. In a 2016 study published in the journal Gerontology, elderly people who were given five crickets in a cage became less depressed after eight weeks than a control group. The act of caring for a living creature seems to make the difference.

DOGS Some research suggests that when children who struggle with reading read aloud to a trained dog and handler, they show fewer anxiety symptoms. “Their attitudes change and their skills improve,” says Lisa Freeman, director of the Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction.

HORSES Among the most-studied therapy animals, horses have been involved in medical treatment plans in Europe since the 1860s. Activities like grooming a horse and leading one around a pen have been shown to reduce PTSD symptoms in children and adolescents.

GUINEA PIGS Animals make socializing easier for kids who find it stressful, says Maggie O’Haire of Purdue. In her study, when children with autism had a guinea pig in the classroom, they were more social with their peers, smiled and laughed more, and showed fewer signs of stress.

S O U R C E S : A N X I E T Y, S T R E S S & C O P I N G ; W E S T E R N J O U R N A L O F N U R S I N G R E S E A R C H ; P L O S O N E ; C O M P L E M E N TA R Y H E A LT H P R A C T I C E R E V I E W ; F R O N T I E R S I N P S YC H O L O GY

I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T O M I U M F O R T I M E

BEING A PET IN AMERICA IS A PLUM gig. Pets are incredibly well loved: according to a 2015 Harris poll, 95% of owners think of their animal as a member of the family. About half buy them birthday presents. And it’s a twoway street. People who have pets tend to have lower blood pressure, heart rate and heart-disease risk than those who don’t. Those health boons may come from the extra exercise that playing and walking require, and the stress relief of having a steady best friend on hand. Scientists are now digging up evidence that animals can also help improve mental health, even for people with challenging disorders. Though the studies are small, the benefits are impressive enough that clinical settings are opening their doors to animalassisted interventions—pet therapy, in other words—used alongside conventional medicine. “It used to be one of the great no-no’s to think of an animal in a hospital,” says Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University, citing the fear of causing infection. “Now, I don’t know of any major children’s hospital that doesn’t have at least some kind of animal program.” The rise of animal therapy is backed by increasingly serious science showing that social support—a proven antidote to anxiety and loneliness—can come on four legs, not just two. Animals of many types can help calm stress, fear and anxiety in young children, the elderly and everyone in between. More research is needed before scientists know exactly why it works and how much animal interaction is needed for the best results. But published studies show that paws have a place in medicine and in mental well-being. “The data is strong,” Beck says. “If you look at what animals do for people and how we interact with them, it’s not surprising at all.” Here’s a look some of the cuttingedge science in the field.

Thanks to her long hours, belief in the power of joy and FRQĂ€GHQFH LQ Make-A-WishÂŽ, seriously ill kids can renew their courage.

Samantha and social workers like her help make wishes come true. Thank you.

Learn how you can get involved at wish.org.

Samantha Vasquez, LMSW Department of Social Work Services The Mount Sinai Hospital

The View Economy

JOBS

Canada welcomes tech companies that are spooked by Trump By Philip Elliott

KEVIN DIETSCH —AP

ON ANY GIVEN DAY IN VANCOUVER’S trendy Gastown neighborhood, young engineers on single-speed bikes ride along brick streets toward shared workspaces where they write code that powers billion-dollar ideas. Some 75,000 tech workers, many for household names like Facebook and Google, work in the city. And Canadian officials are dead set on bringing in more, using the fear of Donald Trump’s immigration and visa policies to lure American jobs north. It is a cruel irony for Trump, who has focused his presidency on keeping jobs in the U.S. But his policies do threaten to drive jobs north. Attempts to block visitors from certain Muslimmajority countries have infuriated tech companies that depend on international talent. One CEO, Google’s Sundar Pichai, estimated that as many as 200 of his employees were abroad and potentially affected by Trump’s policies, and he recalled them to the U.S. to avoid any border detentions. A few weeks later, his company announced it was investing $5 million in a Canadian government– backed artificial-intelligence lab. COMPANIES ARE ALSO frustrated by Trump’s decision not to immediately expand the number of H-1B visas, which allow firms to hire highly educated workers from abroad when no Americans qualify. Instead, in an April 3 memo, the Justice Department warned companies that they could be investigated and “vigorously prosecuted” if they didn’t do a better job of finding passable Americans. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and local government ministers have been gleefully putting out a welcome mat. “Diversity is our strength,” he tweeted when Trump first issued his immigration orders. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says his city, where

△ Competitors Trudeau and Trump met in Washington earlier this year

no one culture dominates, prides itself on being welcoming. “We’re very tough on racism and discrimination,” he says. To high-tech firms, Canada promises predictable and expedited immigration, free government-run health care and aggressive tax rebates. The country’s Immigration Minister, Ahmed Hussen, hails from Somalia, one of the countries targeted by Trump’s restrictions. Private firms are also getting in on the act. Last year one Canada-based web-advertising platform started running ads of its own with a picture of then candidate Trump: “Thinking of moving to Canada? Sortable is hiring.” Some American officials recognize the political and economic threat Canada poses if Washington doesn’t start responding. “The President should want entrepreneurs, or people who we are subsidizing with American tax dollars, creating jobs in the United States instead of taking our education and leaving,” says Ro Khanna, a former Obama Administration official who now represents Silicon Valley in Congress. He’s working with a bipartisan coalition—backed by tech—to change the work-visa programs by eliminating

the lottery system, instead awarding visas to the most qualified foreign candidates with the highest salary offers. While Trump has moved forward with his plans to renegotiate NAFTA, a draft letter circulated to Congress by the Administration calls for more open hightech trade. THAT WOULD BE more good news for Vancouver, where many firms have opened hubs for workers to get up and running while they wait for their American papers to clear. Seattle-based Amazon has a staff of 700 (and growing) in the city. Microsoft, headquartered 140 miles to the south, has an office space for 750 employees. At the other end of the spectrum, smaller startups are taking advantage of the space-sharing incubators that rent workspace by the hour. “You talk to 10 people, and nine of them will have come from somewhere else,” says Mike Tippett, an entrepreneur who has used the U.S.’s immigration shift to recruit tech workers to Vancouver through his startup, True North. The city, he notes, is filled with marijuanaretail stores, vegan restaurants and a counterculture vibe. “It’s like how San Francisco used to be,” he says. It could become like San Francisco today, awash in money and talent, if Trump’s policies push more work north. □ 27

World

DARK SECRETS, DIRTY BOMBS

A nuclear threat lurks in the lawless hinterlands of the former Soviet republics By Simon Shuster /Tbilisi

PHOTOGR APH BY YURI KOZYREV FOR TIME

Tamila Chaduneli holds a picture of her son Amiran, who was caught attempting to sell highly radioactive uranium in Georgia

ONE NIGHT LAST SPRING, AMIRAN CHADUNELI, A FLEA-MARKET TRADER IN THE EX–SOVIET REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA, MET WITH TWO STRANGERS ON A BRIDGE AT THE EDGE OF KOBULETI, A SMALL TOWN ON THE COUNTRY’S BLACK SEA COAST.

which is now believed to have more than a dozen warheads and has been busily testing intercontinental missiles to carry them, has also been the world’s most active seller of nuclear know-how. Pakistan is developing battlefield tactical nuclear weapons, which are smaller and more portable than strategic ones, even as its domestic extremist threat grows. The danger from dirty bombs is spreading even faster. For starters, they pose none of the technical challenges of splitting an atom. Chaduneli’s type of uranium was particularly hard to come by, but many hospitals and other industries use highly radioactive Over the phone, the men had introduced themselves materials for medical imaging and other purposes. as foreigners—one Turkish, the other Russian—and If these toxic substances are packed around conthey were looking for an item so rare on the black ventional explosives, a device no bigger than a suitmarket that it tends to be worth more, ounce for case could contaminate several city blocks—and poounce, than gold. Chaduneli knew where to get it. He tentially much more if the wind helps the fallout to didn’t know that his clients were undercover cops. spread. The force of the initial blast would be only From the bridge, he took them to inspect the meras deadly as that of a regular bomb, but those nearby chandise at a nearby apartment where his acquaincould be stricken with radiation poisoning if they tance had been storing it: a lead rushed to help the injured or box about the size of a smartphone, breathed in tainted dust. Entire BELARUS RUSSIA containing a few pounds of radioneighborhoods, airports or sub(former Soviet active uranium, including small way stations might need to be republics in tan) Kiev amounts of the weapons-grade masealed off for months after such TRANSDNIESTR UKRAINE terial known as uranium-235. The an attack. Luhansk KAZAKHSTAN stash wasn’t nearly enough to make The lasting effects of a dirty Donetsk a nuclear weapon. But if packed to- MOLDOVA bomb make this weapon espegether with high explosives, these cially attractive to terrorists. metallic lumps could produce ROMANIA Fear of contamination would ABKHAZIA CAUCA what’s known as a dirty bomb—one drive away tourists and customS MOUN US TAINS Caspian Black Sea that could poison the area around BULGARIA ers, and cleanup would be costly: Sukhumi Sea Tbilisi the blast zone with toxic levels of the economic impact could be Kobuleti radiation. worse than that of the attacks of GEORGIA Istanbul AZERBAIJAN In the popular culture, the deal9/11, according to a study conARMENIA ers who traffic in such cargo are usuducted in 2004 by the National TURKEY ally cast as lords of war with tailored Defense University. “It would suits and access to submarines. The change our world,” President reality is much less cinematic. AcObama said of a potential dirty IRAN Mosul SYRIA cording to police records reviewed bomb in April 2016. “We cannot IRAQ Mediterranean Sea by TIME in Tbilisi, the Georgian be complacent.” capital, Chaduneli’s associates in Obama’s successor is certainly the attempted uranium sale last spring included conalive to the nuclear threat. In a Republican primary struction workers and scrap-metal traders. Looking debate in December 2015, Donald Trump said the at the sunken cheeks and lazy left eye in his mug shot, risk of “some maniac” getting a nuclear weapon is it seems improbable that lousy capers like this one “the single biggest problem” the country faces. But could rise to the level of a national-security threat. he suggested that the world would be safer if more But the ease of acquiring ingredients for a dirty bomb countries acquired nukes. His Administration has yet is precisely what makes them so worrying. to set out a policy for countering the danger of a dirty bomb; the position Trump takes could be crucial. By AS THE NUMBER of nuclear-armed countries has training and equipping foreign governments to stop grown from at least five to as many as nine since the nuclear traffickers, the U.S. has played a central role in fragile or unstable areas of the world where highly 1970s, the danger of World War III has been joined by a host of secondary nuclear threats. The possibildangerous materials can fall into the wrong hands. ity that a warhead, or the material to build one, could The goal, according to Simon Limage, who led the fall into the hands of a rogue state or terrorist helped State Department’s nonproliferation efforts during drive President Barack Obama’s deal to temporarily the last five years of the Obama Administration, is halt Iran’s alleged weapons program. North Korea, “to push the threat away from U.S. shores.” 30

TIME April 17, 2017

P R E V I O U S PA G E S : N O O R ; T H E S E PA G E S : G E O R G I A N I N T E R I O R M I N I S T R Y— R E U T E R S

GEORGIA IS ONE of the best examples of how these efforts have worked on the ground. Over the past 12 years, the U.S. government has provided more than $50 million in aid to help the former Soviet republic, a nation of only 3.7 million people, in combatting the trade in nuclear materials. Though it possesses no nuclear fuel of its own, Georgia sits in the middle of what atomic-energy experts sometimes refer to as the “nuclear highway”—a smuggling route that runs from Russia down through the Caucasus Mountains to Iran, Turkey and, from there, to the territory that ISIS still controls in Syria and Iraq. All along that route, the U.S. has helped install nuclear detectors at borders, trained police units to intercept traffickers and provided intelligence and equipment to local regulators of nuclear material. “The Americans brought all the technology,” says Vasil Gedevanishvili, director of Georgia’s Agency of Nuclear and Radiation Safety. “They secured every border around Georgia.” The payoff was clear in 2016, when Georgian police busted three separate groups of smugglers for attempting to traffic in nuclear materials—a spike in arrests the region hadn’t seen in at least a decade. They foiled an attempt in January to smuggle cesium-137—a nasty form of nuclear waste that could be used in a dirty bomb—across the border into Turkey. Three months later, on April 17, Georgian police caught a group of traffickers trying to sell a consignment of uranium for $200 million. At the end of that month, Chaduneli and four of his associates were arrested in Kobuleti by a team devoted to countering nuclear trafficking that has received training, equipment and intelligence from various arms of the U.S. government. “So in some sense this was a success story,” says Limage, who met the team during a visit to Georgia in December, less than two months before he resigned from his post as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. “But none of the gains we’ve made with these partnerships are permanent. They’re all reversible.” And they’re becoming even more essential to international security. Over roughly the past three years, as the U.S.-led coalition has advanced against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group has been shifting tactics. Rather than urging its followers to come join the fight in Syria, ISIS recruiters now call for attacks against the West using whatever weapons are available. The continued erosion of the group’s territory may not make it any less dangerous. “It may make them more desperate,” says Andrew Bieniawski, vice president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S. nonprofit that works to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons and materials. “And they may try to raise the stakes.” There have already been plenty of signs that ISIS would like to go nuclear. After the series of ISISlinked bombings in Brussels killed at least 32 people

THE SIBERIA CONNECTION

△ Oleg Khintsagov tried to sell highly enriched uranium (in bags) to an undercover Georgian police officer

in March 2016, Belgian authorities revealed that a suspected member of a terrorist cell had surveillance footage of a Belgian nuclear official with access to radioactive materials. The country’s nuclear-safety agency then said there were “concrete indications” that the cell intended “to do something involving one of our four nuclear sites.” About a year earlier, in May 2015, ISIS suggested in an issue of its propaganda magazine that it was wealthy enough to purchase a nuclear device on the black market—and to “pull off something truly epic.” Though the group is unlikely to possess the technical skill to build an actual nuclear weapon, there are indications it could already possess nuclear materials. After the group’s fighters took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, they seized about 40 kg of uranium compounds that were stored at a university, according to a letter an Iraqi diplomat sent to the U.N. in July of that year. But the U.N.’s nuclear agency said the material was likely “low grade” and not potentially harmful. “In a sense we’ve been lucky so far,” says Sharon Squassoni, who heads the program to stop nuclear proliferation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. “I honestly think it is only a matter of time before we see one of these dirty-bomb attacks.” Obtaining ingredients for such a weapon is not, it turns out, the hard part. According to Chaduneli’s lawyer, Tamila Kutateladze, his associates found the box of uranium in one of the scrapyards where he would find old bric-a-brac to sell. His co-defendant in the case, Mikheil Jincharadze, told police that “unknown persons” had delivered the box inside a sack of scrap iron, according to interrogation records and other court documents obtained by TIME in Georgia. That version of the story did not convince investigators, and even Chaduneli’s lawyer wondered how such a thing could turn up in a pile of trash. “A mere mortal cannot just get his hands on this stuff,” Kutateladze told TIME in her office in Tbilisi. “You have to have a source.” But the Georgian authorities have so far been unable to determine that source with any certainty. Similar investigations in the past, most recently in 2010 and 2011, have traced the nuclear material back to reactors in Russia. Among the most famous cases involved a small-time Russian smuggler named Oleg Khintsagov, who tried to sell a sample of highly enriched uranium in 2006 to a Georgian police officer posing as a wealthy Turkish trafficker. “He said he could get much larger quantities from his sources in Siberia,” recalls Shota Utiashvili, who oversaw that case as Georgia’s Deputy Interior Minister at the time. “We think it’s from an old stockpile of this stuff that’s been laying around and periodically looking for a buyer.” During the chaos that followed the Soviet collapse in the early 1990s, radioactive material was 31

frequently stolen from poorly guarded reactors and nuclear facilities in Russia and its former satellite states. Police intercepted shipments of it transiting through cities as faraway as Munich and Prague in those years, and nuclear experts believe that large batches of Soviet nuclear fuel are still unaccounted for and most likely accessible for well-connected traders on the black market.

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TIME April 17, 2017

△ Border police patrol Georgia’s frontier with Russia in the eastern Caucasus, part of a nuclear smuggling route

within Moscow’s orbit. When the civil war reached Sukhumi in 1992, its scientists set up patrols to protect their stores of radioactive material from looters and paramilitaries. The war ended the following year with Abkhazia’s de facto secession from the rest of Georgia, and the fate of its nuclear stockpiles has been something of a mystery for international observers ever since. Officials in Russia say there is no longer any nuclear material in Abkhazia. But Georgia disputes this. Gedevanishvili, the head of the country’s nuclearsafety agency, says the Sukhumi Institute still conducts experiments using radioactive sources. “We don’t know what security measures they take. We know nothing about their work.” Russia has its own reasons to worry about dirty bombs. The explosion that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens of others in the St. Petersburg

YURI KOZ YRE V— NOOR F OR TIME

THE POTENTIAL SOURCE that most concerns investigators in Georgia is the region of Abkhazia, a Russian protectorate that broke away from Georgian control in the early 1990s. It is one of several unrecognized pseudo states—often referred to as frozen conflict zones—that Russia has helped maintain in the former Soviet space. With no internationally acknowledged borders, these regions often function as way stations for smugglers, allowing everything from guns and cigarettes to contraband caviar to be trafficked under the radar of international law. “These spaces are ungoverned,” says Squassoni of CSIS. “So what we risk when we look at these conflict-torn regions is that people will try to make a living any way they can, and they may not have any scruples about what they’re smuggling across these borders.” On the border between Moldova and Ukraine is the pro-Russian enclave of Trans-Dniestr, where Moscow has stationed about a thousand troops since the region’s violent split from Moldova in the early 1990s. This sliver of land along the Dniestr River was a base for one of the world’s most notorious nuclear smugglers, Alexandr Agheenco, a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen nicknamed the Colonel, who is wanted by U.S. and Moldovan authorities for attempting to sell weapons-grade uranium to Islamist terrorist groups in 2011. One of his middlemen was caught that year in a Moldovan sting operation; police reportedly found the blueprints for a dirty bomb in his home. But the Colonel remains at large. More recently, Russia has carved a fresh pair of conflict zones out of eastern Ukraine, where separatist rebels used weapons and fighters from Russia in 2014 to seize territory around the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. According to research compiled by CSIS, the war has destroyed 29 of the radiation detectors that would normally monitor the movement of nuclear material along the border between Russia and Ukraine. But Abkhazia is the only one of these conflict zones that has ever possessed its own nuclear facilities. Physicists recruited from Germany after World War II set up the first Soviet centrifuges at the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology, which remained a key pillar in the Soviet nuclear program through the Cold War. After the fall of Soviet Union, the newly independent Georgian government fought separatists who wanted to keep Abkhazia

metro on April 3 was just the latest of dozens of terrorist attacks since the early 1990s. Over that time, Moscow has worked to secure nuclear stockpiles throughout the former Soviet Union, often with help and funding from the U.S. But as relations with Washington have eroded, Moscow has cut off cooperation, insisting it no longer needs American assistance. WHETHER HE WANTS to or not, President Trump will play a key role in determining the danger from dirty bombs in coming years. Since his election, Trump has denounced the work of the U.N. as a “waste of time and money,” even though U.N. organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency are responsible for monitoring nuclear stockpiles and advising countries on keeping them safe. Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Energy, for-

mer Texas governor Rick Perry, previously called for its dissolution, but defended its mission during nomination hearings; the department oversees the U.S. nuclear arsenal and safety at nuclear sites. Trump’s new budget proposal, which the White House published on March 16 under the title “America First,” would slash programs that contribute to U.S. security in ways subtler than guns and walls. It would cut foreign aid, diplomacy and development programs—all of which have helped the U.S. forge a global network of alliances against nuclear trafficking. “This isn’t rocket science,” says Limage, the former State Department official. “A lot of the nonproliferation progress that has been made around the world has been through patient, careful diplomacy.” Countries that would otherwise not have the means or the motivation to target smugglers of nuclear material have received regular encouragement, training and aid from the U.S. in these efforts. The Trump Administration says it takes the threat “extremely seriously,” a White House official tells TIME. “We have active programs within the U.S. government and with international partners to reduce the risks of such an attack and to mitigate the effects if one should occur. The prospect of terrorists using WMD is one of many reasons we need to remain vigilant in pursuing our counterterrorism strategy around the globe,” the official says. In Georgia, there are obvious risks to letting partnerships lapse. From the bridge where Chaduneli went to meet his buyers, it would take just a couple hours for a dirty bomb’s ingredients to reach Turkey by car or boat, and only days more to reach Syria or Iraq. His family home stands within view of the border with Azerbaijan, a notoriously corrupt dictatorship with links to Iran. Local kids often ride their bikes next to the border crossing, a barbed-wire fence guarded by a few lethargic soldiers. They are a thin line of defense in an era when nuclear threats emerge not only from military and rogue regimes, but from the hard economic reality of some of the world’s most forgotten places. An honest job in this region brings in a few hundred dollars per month. So the lure of trafficking across these borders is constant, says Chaduneli’s mother Tamila. The undercover agents who arrested him offered to pay $3 million for that box of uranium. At the end of their trial in December, all of the suspects in Chaduneli’s case took a plea deal in exchange for lighter sentences; Chaduneli got three years in prison. In his one-story home, which has an outdoor kitchen with a wood-burning stove and gets intermittent electricity, his mother says she has no idea how his friends got their hands on a batch of nuclear material—or why her son joined a plot to sell it. “The money,” she says, “might have clouded his eyes.” —With reporting by ZEKE J. MILLER/ WASHINGTON □ 33

Finding Home This year TIME is following three refugee families eeing the war in Syria. Each began 2017 with a new baby, in a transit camp in Greece.

NO WAY HOME

A SYRIAN FAMILY SEEKING ASYLUM GETS AN ANSWER

BY ARYN BAKER / KASTORIA, GREECE PHOTOGRAPHS BY LYNSEY ADDARIO

Minhel and the boys watch TV in a hotel room in Kastoria, Greece. Their lives are still in limbo

ILLHAM ALARABI IS ONE OF THOSE INDOMITABLE women who takes everything in stride. The kind of unflappable mother who can single-handedly extract her oldest son from a squabble with a bully, soothe the teething pains of another and bathe a baby, all while supper simmers on the stove. Traveling 1,500 miles from her bombed-out village near Deir ez-Zor in Syria to Greece was a hardship, to be sure, but she always comforted her family with faith that they were headed for something better. Even life in squalid Greek refugee camps, where she spent eight months pregnant with her fifth child, offered opportunities to make friends, build communities and find something to laugh about, whether it was the bad food or the midnight treks to the portable toilets in the snow. But after more than three years of relentless optimism, first as a refugee in Turkey, then again in Greece, she finally gave into despair one day in March. Slumped on a chair in a shabby hotel room in remote northern Greece, she watched her four oldest sons ricochet from bed to wall to floor and back again, barely missing the sleeping baby. Her oldest son Wael, 7, has never set foot in a school. He says he wants to be a teacher when he grows up, but he struggles to write even simple Arabic words, like baba, for father. “We have been here [in Greece] for a year and two months,” says Illham with a sigh of defeat. “If we had put these kids in school from the beginning, they would at least be reading Greek by now.” Like the tens of thousands of other Syrian refugees that flooded across the Mediterranean and into Greece over the past two years, she and her husband Minhel Alsaleh had counted on being relocated elsewhere in Europe as part of an E.U. plan to redistribute the asylum seekers to lighten the burden on the 35

Illham takes a moment to sit in between cleaning and feeding and caring for her family in a small hotel room

countries at the front lines of Europe’s migrant crisis. They are one of three families TIME is following as part of a yearlong project on the lives of babies born in Greece’s refugee camps. One family is on its way to Estonia. Another is still waiting to hear news of their future. But doors across Europe are slamming shut. Little more than 13,000 of Greece’s 27,000 refugees eligible for relocation in Europe have been processed since October 2015, when the agreement first went into effect. It’s unlikely that the rest will be placed by the program’s end in September 2017. Meanwhile upcoming elections in France and Germany—the two countries that have taken in the largest number of Europe’s refugees so far—feature populist candidates stoking anti-migrant sentiment. Yet the number of Syrians fleeing their country for refuge abroad continues to climb, reaching a new milestone in March: more than 5 million in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, plus the 884,461 applying for asylum in Europe. As the war grinds on, with news of a major chemical bomb attack on the province of Idlib on April 4, there are likely to be even more. The number of refu36

TIME April 17, 2017

Faraj, who was born in a Greek refugee camp in October, rests after trying to learn to roll over

gees reaching Europe fell last year in the wake of an agreement between the E.U. and Turkey, but that deal is also at risk as tensions mount over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on dissent. Illham and Minhel did eventually receive a placement from the Greek Asylum Service, after a bewildering application process and months of interminable waiting. Despite the fact that both have family in Germany and put it at the top of their list of desired countries, in February they were matched with Lithuania—a seemingly arbitrary decision. They were not happy with the choice. “What kind of country has less than half the popula-

‘IT WAS BETTER THAN NOTHING, AND MY CHILDREN WOULD FINALLY GET TO GO TO SCHOOL.’ Minhel Alsaleh

tion of Aleppo?” mused Illham. “And has a woman for President?” said Minhel of the country’s head of state Dalia Grybauskaite. In fact, he was more worried about Lithuania’s poor economy and high unemployment rate. But at the same time they were relieved that their long journey in search of safety and stability seemed to be finally coming to an end. “I got Lithuania and it was bad, but at least it was a step forward,” says Minhel. “It was better than nothing, and my children would finally get to go to school.” The only thing standing between Greece and their new life was a security interview at the Lithuanian embassy in Athens. The interview was grueling, says Illham. They asked Minhel about his military service, and why he defected. (“I didn’t want to continue when the regime started shelling civilians, its own people,” he says he answered.) They asked Illham if she would continue to wear her headscarf and if she was a militant. (“I found this to be a very silly question. How would I go fight when I have children?” she says she responded.) Still, they had no reason to think they wouldn’t pass. On March 1, they were informed by

LY N S E Y A D D A R I O — V E R B AT I M F O R T I M E

The children play while Illham prepares a warm Middle Eastern drink called sahlab over a hot plate

the Greek Asylum Service that Lithuania had rejected their application. Officials there cited unspecified “security reasons” in their rejection letter, and there is no chance for appeal. “It’s a big shock,” says Illham, still reeling from the news. “I have headaches. My teeth, my eyes, my whole body is hurting me.” “We have been waiting for so long,” Minhel adds. “And then to be rejected from a country we didn’t even want. It’s painful.” Both have gone over the interview in their minds multiple times, trying to figure out what might have triggered the rejection. Minhel’s military service was no different from that of thousands of other Syrian applicants, he says. Indeed, his defection puts him at even greater risk of persecution from the regime. But he can’t figure out what else it could have been. Officially, the E.U. member nations committed to the relocation scheme can deny applicants only for reasons of national security and public order. So far across the E.U, 858 applicants have been rejected, or 7% of the total. But Lithuania has rejected 18% of applicants, according to the Greek Asylum Service. Lithuania’s

ambassador in Greece, Rolandas Kacinskas, would not speculate on the reasons for rejection, as he is not formally involved in the interviewing process. Still, he notes that his country, like many others, only wants refugees genuinely committed to staying, not ones simply waiting to take advantage of liberal E.U. travel laws to search for work in wealthier nations like Germany. It’s a fact, he says, that not all the refugees granted asylum in Lithuania stay. “You can tell the people who are looking for the economic opportunities from the people who are genuinely interested in integrating and settling in Lithuania. Our goal is not to take a person knowing that next day he will run from the country.” Minhel admits that he did little to convince the Lithuanians that he was enthusiastic about moving there. But it’s unfair, he argues, to push refugees into countries they know nothing about, when their lives are already so laden with uncertainty. Of course they want to go to countries where they have family, and where other refugees have made a success out of exile. Syrians may be running from war, but they are also running toward hope. Not just hope

for security, but hope for a better future, for them and for their children. Still, there is a silver lining to the rejection, says Minhel. He can now apply for asylum in Greece, a country that, despite its crumbling economy, has warmly welcomed the refugees and has seen little of the anti-migrant rhetoric and violence apparent elsewhere in Europe. The countryside, he says, reminds him a lot of his home back in Syria, where he was a farmer. “I have no problem to work here as a shepherd, in agriculture, a driver of a tractor. I would do any work. Europe is not going to pay you for not working. I want to live, I want to provide money to my children and educate them.” Even Illham brightens at the prospect of a life in Greece. It may be difficult, but at least it provides a direction, and the chance of building a home for her family. But in doing so her relentless optimism is likely to be tested like never before. —With reporting by MOHAMMED FAREEJ/ THESSALONIKI Continued reporting for this project is supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 37

At work inside a Southern Coal Corp. mine owned by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, in McDowell County PHOTOGR APHS BY PETER VAN AGTMAEL FOR TIME

COAL’S LAST KICK NATION

AS CLEAN ENERGY RISES, WEST VIRGINIA LOOKS PAST TRUMP’S EMBRACE OF COAL TO WHAT COMES NEXT BY JUSTIN WORLAND/ CHARLESTON, W.VA.

I

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TIME April 17, 2017

that figure had declined to just 30%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Over that same period, annual production in West Virginia declined from 150 million tons to less than 90 million. Much of that is the result of the boom in natural gas, which has become cheap and plentiful thanks to fracking and other new extraction technologies. Last year, for the first time, natural gas unseated coal as the top source of U.S. electricity. Coal also has an environmental problem, accounting for the most carbon emissions of any fossil fuel used for electricity. At the same time, the cost of renewable power sources like wind and solar have become increasingly competitive with coal, further eroding its market share. Nowhere have these trends hit harder than in West Virginia. More than a cen-

tury of mining has depleted the state’s most accessible reserves, forcing companies to spend more money to dig deeper into the earth. As demand for coal dwindles, many have decided it’s just not worth it. Between 2011 and 2016, U.S. coal producers lost more than 92% of their market value. The state’s fortunes have stagnated in stride. Today West Virginia ranks 49th in per capita income, 50th in educational attainment and 49th in life expectancy. To those who see coal as key to a revival, Trump has been a beacon. On March 28, after promising to gut the Obama-era environmental regulations known in mining states as the “war on coal,” the President made good on his word. Flanked by energy-industry executives and coal miners, Trump signed an Executive Order that is expected to

P R E V I O U S PA G E S : M A G N U M P H O T O S; T H E S E PA G E S : P E T E R VA N A G T M A E L— M A G N U M F O R T I M E

IT WAS A CLOUDY FEBRUARY AFTERnoon in Charleston, W.Va., but the mood inside the city’s civic center was downright celebratory. As bow-tied waiters mixed drinks and manned a buffet of shrimp cocktail and roasted meat, the hundreds of members and guests at the annual meeting of the West Virginia Coal Association mingled with a lightness that would have been unthinkable just a year before. After years of steady decline, the price of a key type of coal used to make steel doubled in 2016, largely due to a spike in demand from China. This led some mines to hire more workers and prevented others from laying off workers. Meanwhile, the state elected Jim Justice, a billionaire coal baron, as governor, and the nation installed Donald Trump as President. Both men wooed West Virginia voters with the promise of more mining jobs and fewer regulations. For an industry in need of a boost, it might as well have been jet fuel. “For the first time in a long time, there’s hope and optimism,” West Virginia Representative Evan Jenkins told the civic center crowd. “Everyone knows it. Everyone can feel it.” Here in the capital of the state that depends on coal more than any other, the hope of a rebound is understandable. In 2006, burning coal provided 49% of the country’s electricity, but by last year

Posters for Governor Justice, a coal baron who ran his campaign on saving mining jobs, remain in Chapmanville five months after the election

effectively scrap the Clean Power Plan, President Obama’s signature effort to reduce global warming by placing a cap on power-plant emissions. The plan, which had not gone into effect, was expected to force most of the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants to close and further diminish the country’s appetite for the fuel that helped power its rise. “You know what it says, right?” Trump joked with the miners before signing the order. “You’re going back to work.” The reality, however, is far more complicated. Undoing Obama’s climate regulations is more like plugging a burst dam than reversing the water’s flow. Without the Clean Power Plan, the EIA expects natural gas and renewable power to account for a combined 57% of the nation’s electricity by 2040. With the plan, those sources were projected to reach

65%. “It’s nonsense. Coal is not coming back,” says Mark Barteau, director of the University of Michigan Energy Institute. “It’s going to continue to lose to cheap natural gas.” Nor do open mines necessarily mean open jobs. A range of automated technologies, from rock crushers to shovel

‘FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME, THERE’S HOPE AND OPTIMISM.’ Evan Jenkins, West Virginia Representative

swings, have taken the place of humans in recent decades—a key reason that employment in the coal industry fell between 1980 and 2010 even as production grew. U.S. coal mining employed 53,000 people last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1979, it was more than 250,000. “There’s almost zero reason to be completely optimistic,” says Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy. “It’s a disservice to coal-mining communities to tell them they will have a mighty comeback.” That may not be clear in the White House, but it is in the places that do the mining. In West Virginia, it’s striking that even those who applaud Trump’s repeal of Obama’s environmental agenda are preparing for life after coal—or at least beginning to negotiate the terms. Governor Justice, the towering owner of the Greenbrier resort, with an outsize personality and a fortune built on coal, skipped the February industry conference without explanation. Instead, he sent his chief of staff to deliver a dose of reality: a budget proposal for a slew of new fees, including a potential tax increase on coal companies. “I walked in and was able to look under the sheets and look at where we were,” Justice told TIME of his rationale after seeing the state’s $400 million budget deficit. “It was beyond dismal. We’re in a real mess here.” Indeed, from the statehouse in Charleston to the well-worn tables at Park Avenue Restaurant in Danville (pop. 688), nearly everyone wants to embrace coal’s latest chance, but they cannot escape the fact that the future is bleak. And what comes next is a subject of animated debate. THE FIRST THING that catches the eye at the Coal Heritage Museum in Madison is a small but striking image of a miner hovering over a city. With his arms rested on his waist, the deity-like miner uses his helmet lantern to illuminate the city. 41

A trailer park outside of Madison. Although veteran coal miners can earn $100,000, West Virginia ranks 49th in per capita income

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TIME April 17, 2017

industry. Revenue from a state tax on coal production—a key source of funding for local communities—is expected to decline from more than $420 million in 2012 to $151 million by 2018. It’s market forces that make this moment the most challenging time in the coal industry’s long history—and a key reason why energy analysts are skeptical of any promise to bring it back. The development of fracking opened up once unreachable reserves of natural gas and has slashed its price by twothirds since 2008. Wind and solar, once liberal pipe dreams, now compete with

‘PEOPLE NEED TO REALIZE THEY’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE $30 AN HOUR LIKE THEY USED TO IN A MINE.’ Mary Ann McClure, Madison, W.Va.

P E T E R VA N A G T M A E L— M A G N U M F O R T I M E

The message isn’t meant to be subtle. “A lot of miners take pride in it,” says Carl Dunlap, who spent 40 years as a coal miner and now mans the front desk of the museum. “We’d go blind in the dark.” He’s right. Coal was discovered in West Virginia in 1742, just a few miles from where the museum sits, and it became central to the state’s economy in the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution sent demand soaring. Eventually, all but two of the state’s 55 counties became a source for the black rock. Coal powered the nation through World War II and was critical during the energy crisis in the 1970s, when Middle Eastern sheiks embargoed the sale of oil. Demand peaked in 1988, when coal provided nearly 60% of U.S. electricity. There were ups and downs in the decades that followed, but in the past 10 years the decline began to resemble a death spiral. West Virginia produces 60% of the coal that it did a decade ago and employs about 12,000 people as coal miners—down from more than 64,000 in the 1970s. The effects extend far beyond the people working directly in the

coal on price in many places. At the same time, the most accessible—and therefore cheapest—coal reserves in Appalachia are mostly mined out. “Trump is not going to bring all the coal jobs back,” says Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “There isn’t a lot of investment activity, because in some cases it looks more economically attractive for firms to invest in cleaner technologies.” The tune was far different at the West Virginia Coal Association conference, where over the course of two days presenters slammed Obama as a jobs killer, praised Trump as a potential savior and dismissed climate change as a fiction. “This war on coal has come from the environmental community, from the White House and from a host of others,” says Roger Horton, a retired miner who founded the advocacy group Citizens for Coal. “And it’s been strangling our ability to provide these jobs.” That view crosses party lines in a state filled with billboards telling the EPA to stop killing jobs and bumper stickers suggesting that those who don’t like coal can give up electricity. “The mess started because Obama wanted to kill coal,” says Rupert “Rupie” Phillips, the lone independent in the West Virginia house of delegates. “Thank God for Donald Trump.” Phillips, who has vowed to do everything in his power to prevent any new taxes or regulations on the industry, made clear that his only priority is making the mines hum again. “I have no loyalty when it comes to my coal,” he said at the conference, to raucous applause. There’s more room for nuance outside of the echo chamber. On a recent night in Boone County, where coal was first discovered in the state, longtime residents were skeptical of a return to the glory days. “It’s moving up a little, but some of these people need to realize they’re not going to make $30 an hour like they used to in a mine,” says Mary Ann McClure over dinner at Park Avenue Restaurant. “It’s just not there like it used to be.” McClure and her dinner mate JoAnn Harmon both would like to see coal come back—even if they know it’s unlikely— but when we talked, they seemed more interested in what’s happening just a few miles up the road, where the state

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600K 500K 400K

JOBS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR IN 2017

HYDROPOWER GEOTHERMAL

0

WIND NUCLEAR

100K

BIOENERGY

200K

SOLAR COAL

300K

NATURAL GAS

GOVERNOR JUSTICE SAYS he’s going to make sure the project gets built. Justice is a Democrat, but his political appeal has been likened to that of Trump’s. Both are wealthy businessmen who until now had never held elected office, with little in the way of concrete political ideology. Justice even has a tax controversy of his own: millions of dollars in unpaid fees assessed on his coal mines. Still, his central promise resonated with voters: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.� And to the extent that he had an economic platform, it emphasized tax cuts and reviving coal. Justice even reopened a few of his company’s mines just days before the election— an apparent down payment for the bright future in store for the industry. Taking office has a way of bringing a politician back to earth. West Virginia faces a deep budget deficit, thanks in part to the shrinking revenue from the state’s coal tax, and even the most severe regulatory rollback won’t reverse that trend. While Justice is fond of saying that miners have been “overregulated out of a job,� he has come to realize that coal will not be as important to the state’s future as it was to its past. “There’s real hope and real optimism,� Justice says, but “you’re still going to have thousands and thousands of displaced miners.� The governor’s agenda includes a wide variety of measures to raise revenue and repair the state’s recently downgraded credit rating. He wants legislators to raise the state’s sales tax, create a new business tax and increase the gasoline tax. (They have balked so far.) And he proposed a sliding scale of taxation that would make coal companies pay more when their production increases. It’s all part of an effort to think beyond the state’s dominant mineral. Justice wants to spend billions of dollars to rebuild roads and increase broadband Internet access—nearly one-third of people in the state can’t get it—in an attempt to make West Virginia more attractive to outside investors. He hopes he can jump-start the timber and furnituremaking industries and encourage new

FALLING EMPLOYMENT

OIL/PETROLEUM

government has promised to transform the site of a former 12,000-acre surface mine into a commercial development park with offices, retail and, most important, jobs.

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PROJECTED ELECTRICITY GENERATION BY SOURCE

2,000

(In billions of kilowatt hours) NATURAL GAS 1,500

COAL

1,000

RENEWABLES

NUCLEAR 500

Projections

0 2005

2010

2020

2030

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

2040

businesses to set up shop. There is also hope in West Virginia’s growing tourism industry, which has benefited from privately sponsored environmental-cleanup efforts across the state’s scenic trails, mountains and waterways. Justice doesn’t refer to his plans as economic transition, a loaded phrase sure to draw even more ire from the coal industry, but it’s clear that that’s exactly what he wants to achieve. The prospect elicits excitement in some quarters and fear in others. For those still working in the mines, the decline of coal is a direct blow to their ability to provide for themselves and their families. An experienced coal miner can earn $100,000 along with benefits and the promise of a pension. Jobs in the new industries targeted by economictransition plans—think call centers, shipping warehouses and non-union manufacturing—often pay minimum wage or else require specialized training and a college education. But in a state where coal has long been an icon as well as a livelihood, the industry’s fade takes a psychic toll. Coal is in the names of West Virginia’s roads and rivers, stamped on its buildings and the source of scholarships at its leading universities. For years, the football teams at Marshall and West Virginia squared off in the Friends of Coal Bowl, and in 2009 the state named coal its official rock. “West Virginia has always relied on coal,â€? says Tom Southern, who lives near the coal museum in Madison. “That’s been their mainstay. That’s what they do.â€? Yet the possibility of a different way of life doesn’t seem to scare all older coal miners. Randy Smith, a longtime miner who was first elected to the state senate as a Republican in 2012, proudly wears a Friends of Coal lapel pin. His office is decorated with memorabilia from decades in the mines, and he says he wants coal jobs to remain a career for those who desire it. But it’s always been a hard life, and he says he’d welcome more options in the state. “I’m a coal miner, been a coal miner all my life. My son, I didn’t want him to be a coal miner. The coal is in my blood, but I want what’s best for my kids,â€? Smith says. “We have to use this opportunity to diversify our economy. Coal will never be what it was.â€? â–Ą 43

STREET CRED Culture

SESAME STREET HAS LAUNCHED AN AMBITIOUS PLAN TO EXPAND ITS GLOBAL REACH AT THE SAME TIME AS IT BATTLES TO KEEP KIDS WATCHING BY BELINDA LUSCOMBE

Experts hope Julia, the first new Muppet on Sesame Street’s broadcast show in a decade, might dispel misunderstandings of autism

SESAME STREET PRIDES ITSELF ON BEING ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST INCLUSIVE PLACES, BUT IT’S QUITE A HARD JOINT TO BREAK INTO.

When the show introduced Julia, a character on the autism spectrum, in April, she had been gestating for six years. The first brand-new Muppet in a decade, Julia was initially planned as a cartoon character for the web but got such a big response that after an 18month test run in the exurbia of digital storybooks and animation, she was canonized in Muppet form and allowed into the neighborhood. The Sesame folks, who produce a 30-page-plus curriculum for the show every year, consulted with more than 250 experts and advocacy groups as Julia was being formed. A series of white papers had been written on her before she even had a face. She has a compendium of autistic characteristics, such as an increased sensitivity to sound and a tendency to flap her arms when excited. (She has a spare set of arms for such occasions.) The covering of the toy she carries, Fluffster, had to be changed because it would distress some kids with sensory issues. She arrived fully loaded with online resources for teachers and parents. As a final touch, Julia’s puppeteer is the mother of an autistic child. For the autism community, Julia’s debut is a watershed moment. Not only do kids on the spectrum rarely see a kid like themselves on TV, but other kids don’t either, especially one who is treated as part of the gang. “It resets the baseline of

47 YEARS OF PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

1969 ANGER: Over the years, Oscar the Grouch has been criticized for being too abrasive for preschool viewers. “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” senior vice president Carol-Lynn Parente has said. Some African Americans also regarded Oscar as a belittling stand-in for black urban residents.

46

TIME April 17, 2017

1969 RACE: James Earl Jones was Sesame Street’s first celeb guest. In 1970, Mississippi public TV banned the show for 22 days because of its racially integrated cast.

1983 DEATH: After the passing of actor Will Lee, who played shopkeeper Mr. Hooper, the show talked about his death and what it meant. 1972 DISABILITY: Librarian Linda was a deaf character who had a recurring role.

1994 DRUGS: Cheech, who became famous for his pot movies, was a guest star.

1978 SMOKING: Alistair Cookie of Monsterpiece Theater smoked, then ate, a pipe. Later, the pipe was removed.

P R E V I O U S PA G E S : S E S A M E W O R K S H O P ; T H E S E PA G E S : C H E E C H , T R A C T I O N J A C K S O N , D O N A L D G R U M P, P E R R Y: YO U T U B E ; O S C A R T H E G R O U C H , E A R L , L I N D A T H E L I B R A R I A N , M R . H O O P E R , A L I S TA I R C O O K I E , K A M I , M A H B O U B , Z A R I , J U L I A : S E S A M E W O R K S H O P

understanding,” says Kristie Patten Koenig, chair of the department of occupational therapy at New York University. “If you have a child who’s autistic in your neighborhood, you have a different understanding than if you don’t. With Sesame Street, we all have an autistic child in our neighborhood.” Getting Julia right may have been a tall order, but she isn’t close to the biggest challenge the organization is taking on. Kids’ TV has undergone a climate change, as the behavior and viewing patterns of families shift and former sources of revenue dry up. To survive, the show founded with the express purpose of reaching every child did a deal with subscribers-only HBO. That cultural adjustment has to be negotiated just as the organization attempts a more radical structural shift: Sesame Workshop no longer wants to make a TV show that tries to help kids learn and be kind. It wants to become a global educational force that happens to have a TV show. SOME FORM OF SESAME STREET is now broadcast in 150 countries: the show has introduced an Arab Muppet to Israeli TV and an HIV-positive Muppet in South Africa and Nigeria. In Afghanistan, says Sesame’s research, 80% of TV-watching children and 70% of their parents tune in to Baghch-e-Simsim (Sesame Garden), which in 2016 introduced the

hijab-wearing Zari, a model of girl empowerment. Last year the folks who popularized the phrase “I can’t hear you—I have a banana in my ear,” joined forces with the International Rescue Committee. Their joint proposal to take educational and socialemotional support to refugee kids in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria is now one of eight finalists for a prize from the MacArthur Foundation worth $100 million, alongside such global heavyweights as the Carter Center. “The MacArthur competition puts us in a different conversation,” says Sesame Workshop’s chief operating officer, Steve Youngwood. The organization is also on the cusp of a pilot program that pairs Sesame Street characters with IBM’s Watson to test adaptive learning in schools. The plan is to figure out if a computer can interact with a kid in a way that would enable it to learn a child’s strengths and weaknesses and adjust its responses accordingly. But there are some very lowtech experiments too. “We take TVs on rickshaws into villages in Bangladesh” so kids can be exposed to healthy and positive messages, says Sherrie Westin, who heads the philanthropic and humanitarian arm of Sesame Workshop. She cites studies that suggest young kids are the most receptive to programs that lessen the effects of childhood trauma. Sesame Workshop spent $22 million furthering its global ambitions last year, raised from a combination of foundations, government and corporate partners. But the State Department has funded Baghch-e-Simsim only through November. “If I don’t get funding for Afghanistan, I have to walk away,” says Westin.

GARY KNELL,

former Sesame Workshop CEO

2010 SEX: Guest star Katy Perry wore a dress many considered too risqué for kids. Her song never aired.

2002 HIV: Kami, an HIV-positive Muppet, appeared on the South African version of the show, Takalani Sesame.

2006 DIVERSITY: Mahboub, an Arab Muppet, was introduced to the Israeli version of the show, Rechov Sumsum.

1994–2000 DISABILITY: Wheelchair user Tarah Schaeffer became a series regular at 9 years old.

‘It’s competing with every piece of content ever invented, from a cat video to Gone With the Wind. That’s a bit daunting.’

1988–2005 GENTRIFICATION: Ronald Grump and/or Donald Grump, two depictions of a certain property developer, try to make the street great again. 2016 FEMINISM: Zari, the first native Muppet on the Afghan show Baghch-e-Simsim, goes to school and interviews famous people.

2017 AUTISM: Julia’s quirks don’t keep her from being one of the gang.

47

◁ Julia’s toy rabbit, Fluffster, had a textured covering that autistic kids would not tolerate, until her puppeteer, Stacey Gordon, pointed it out

48

TIME April 17, 2017

‘The rules have changed so much. Kids have changed so much. The funding models have changed so much.’ JEFF DUNN,

Sesame Workshop CEO

G I L VA K N I N — S E S A M E W O R K S H O P

While the organization tries to change the landscape overseas, the domestic terrain is shifting under its feet. Very few children watch Sesame Street the way their parents did, by sitting down in front of the TV at a given time to watch an hour-long Saturday Night Live–meets–Dr. Seuss mashup of celebrity appearances, pop-culture spoofs and the letter p. Nor do their parents buy episodes on DVD. They can just bring up whatever clip they want on the Internet. “The rules have changed so much,” says Sesame Workshop CEO Jeff Dunn. “Kids have changed so much. The funding models have changed so much.” And that shift has been fast. In the last quarter of 2015, kids ages 2 to 11 watched about 11 hours of Internet video a month, according to Nielsen. By the end of 2016, that had jumped to 15 hours, an increase of 36% in one year. Meanwhile, time spent watching TV, either in real time or on demand, dropped 10% over the same period, to 90 hours a month. Ratings for Disney and Nickelodeon have been on a steady decline since 2012, even as the number of kids younger than 11 in the U.S. has held at about 48 million. In response to these changes, Sesame Workshop cut its broadcast back to half an hour and in 2016 started a nimbler studio that makes only videos for the web. But its offerings are a little like kale on a buffet table groaning with eyeball candy. Kids have more tempting options. Since March 19, for example, a clip of Julia playing with Elmo has garnered more than half a million views on YouTube. That sounds respectable until compared with other kid-centric channels, like Ryan’s ToysReview, where a clip of a

little boy playing with toys (educational value: zip) got more than 15 million views over the same period. “[Sesame’s] videos move a little more slowly than kids are used to,” says Jill Murphy, editor in chief of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that helps parents negotiate media. “That can be a positive thing. It teaches patience.” On the other hand, parents want their kids to watch stuff together, and older kids age out of Sesame Street earlier than they used to, so the younger ones switch off too. Toddler junk food like Ryan’s ToysReview aren’t even Sesame Street’s biggest rival. “It’s competing with every piece of content ever invented, from a cat video to Gone With the Wind,” says Gary Knell, a former Sesame Workshop CEO, who now runs the National Geographic Society. “That’s a bit daunting.” Also daunting: from 2008 to 2016, Sesame Workshop lost 70% of its DVD revenues and 50% of its licensing income, Dunn says, mostly because of the one-two punch delivered by the iPad and streaming video. Endless free programming ensures that no character can dominate the toy shelves the way Elmo did in the ’90s. And even if Julia did become the must-have doll of the season, fewer kids play with toys because of all those games on the iPad. In 2015, Dunn negotiated a deal with HBO, which covers the cost of producing the show for the next five years. Why did the cable giant best known for racy and violent entertainment want a wholesome kids’ show most people can get for free? In no small measure because Netflix and Amazon Prime have kids’ shows and HBO craves parents. “Programming that parents can trust has never been more important,” says Lisa Heller, HBO’s senior vice president of family and documentary programming. The arrangement, for an estimated $20 million-plus a year, gives HBO exclusive rights to new episodes for nine months. After that, PBS can air the show as it has done for almost half a century. Since most sub-5-year-olds don’t have much of a grasp of novelty, the Sesame executives guessed the change would not cannibalize their PBS audience. So far the gamble appears to have paid off. Ratings for the show were 12% higher on PBS in 2016 than in 2015. And the HBO show is drawing a third more viewers this season than last. So the TV show, for now, seems safe. “What we hope is that quality rises to the top,” says COO Youngwood. “The HBO deal gives us five years to reinvent ourselves.” As for changing the world, that might take a little longer. But it’s hard to completely dismiss the power of an operation that has outlived most TV shows simply by sticking by its principles. And its puppets. □

‘DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT TAKING THE CONVERTIBLE. IT MIGHT LOOSEN YOUR MOUSSE.’ —PAGE 54

MUSIC

R&B’s new wave is embracing creative destruction

GE T T Y IM AGES (5)

By Jamieson Cox WHAT DOES GENRE MEAN IN 2017? The categories that once defined listener taste—rock, hip-hop, country—are collapsing into one another. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have had a homogenizing, sound-blurring effect on listening habits around the world, and rising musicians are less averse to coloring outside the old lines. Which makes sense: If everyone is listening to your song on a custom playlist, who cares which genre-bound radio station would theoretically play it? The genre-busting results play out on the charts on a regular basis. Recent chart-toppers include Ed Sheeran’s Caribbean dance-folk “Shape of You,” the Chainsmokers’ arena-rock EDM and Rae Sremmurd’s diaphanous pop-rap. While the weekly jostling for the top spot is as sanguine as ever, the most fascinating changes are the ones taking place within the very styles that are starting to crumble. Take R&B, the home of some of this year’s most compelling fulllength releases. The genre has a long, rich history, but it’s being rapidly reshaped by young talents more interested in atmosphere and perspective than devotion to classical ideals. The precocious Texas singer Khalid, for example, positioned himself as the voice of a blossoming generation with his debut full-length album American Teen, drunk on youth and the shimmering textures ILLUSTR ATION BY JAMES TAYLOR FOR TIME

Destroyers of musical worlds, clockwise from top: Kehlani, Frank Ocean, Sampha, Syd and Drake 49

Time Off Reviews

of ’80s synth-pop. His Oakland counterpart Kehlani revitalized the sounds and structure of turn-of-the-millennium pop and R&B on the tough-talking SweetSexySavage. Sydney “Syd” Bennett—a relative veteran and former member of the anarchic hip-hop collective Odd Future—came forward with Fin, a slinky solo debut. The London singer-producer Sampha made his own statement with the bruised Process. None of these artists have much in common in terms of straightforward sonics. They’re not retro revivalists like Maxwell and KING. They don’t have the chart chops of Rihanna and Bruno Mars. They’re not established, versatile professionals like Usher and Alicia Keys. They’re not making music that’s as socially conscious as recent LPs by Solange and Blood Orange. They don’t have the shadowy lecherousness of the Weeknd and his stylistic imitators. What links them is a common interest in introspection. This year’s rising stars aren’t ciphers or blank slates. They’re storytellers with diverse backstories, interests and influences. Sampha’s aching soul is shaped by anxiety and family tragedy. Kehlani tries to reconcile her radiant swagger with a desperate need to protect her well-being. Khalid is an old soul reminiscing about high school ennui before he’s even old enough to drink legally. Even Syd’s more traditional focus on sex is rendered radical by the fact that she’s a woman coolly singing about seducing other women. Thank personality for the freshness and flexibility to this crop of LPs. Not that they aren’t heirs of sorts. Nobody’s done more to melt down the former binary between rap and R&B than Drake, this decade’s most influential megastar. He too has embraced miscellany with the release of his new “playlist” album, More Life, in March. Its most exciting songs move beyond R&B and rap to adopt the sounds of black music around the globe: British grime, Caribbean dance hall, African pop music, ebullient house. The playlist finds Drake looking at the genres eroding around him and slamming his foot on the accelerator. No matter how R&B sounds this time next year, we’ll remember 2017 for deconstruction and bold rebuilding. □ 50

TIME April 17, 2017

New music containing multitudes From the minimalism of Syd to the progressive lyricism of Kendrick Lamar, here are some of our favorites

By Raisa Bruner

CHILDISH GAMBINO AWAKEN, MY LOVE!

JIDENNA THE CHIEF

DRAKE MORE LIFE

Feb. 17 Wondaland, Epic American-born, Nigerian-raised, Stanford-educated rapper Jidenna’s latest injects melody into his songs. He tempers straightforward raps with sung-through tunes like the nostalgic lullaby “Bambi” and flamencoinflected “Adaora.”

March 18 Republic The musical equivalent of a house party, More Life’s songs dabble in global flavors with wideranging guest stars. From juicy slow jam “Passionfruit” to his flute-backed rap on “Portland,” Drake shows how to host a relaxed, allinclusive bash.

BIBI BOURELLY “BALLIN”

KENDRICK LAMAR “THE HEART PT. 4”

FRANK OCEAN “CHANEL”

Sept. 29, 2016 Def Jam After writing hits for Rihanna and Selena Gomez, this German-born 22-yearold is set to make a mark with her own voice. Bourelly has a powerful delivery and an open-book authenticity that finds a home in songs ranging from rock to R&B. “Ballin” suggests a slinkier sound for her forthcoming debut album.

March 23 Interscope Master of fiery rhyme Lamar teased new material and a fresh album this spring, kicking things off with this jubilant track, which showcases his dexterity as he moves confidently from slow jams through jazz interludes into burning political send-ups—all hallmarks of his unique flow.

March 10 Independent Ocean is generally classified as a rapper, but he’s an idiosyncratic one: self-releasing, secretive, raw. His approach to music means that many of his most lauded tracks—from “Chanel” to much of 2016’s Blonde—fall into a category all their own.

Dec. 2, 2016 Glassnote Childish Gambino, a.k.a. Donald Glover, surprised fans with this funkand soul-inspired album. Brimming with Gambino’s impressive falsetto and a slow-burning energy, Awaken finds a futuristic R&B groove in breezy bops like “California” and “Redbone.”

How Khalid makes music Where do you begin? All of my music is based off moods and feelings. I have to put my emotions into a song. It’s a form of therapy for me. I start with melodies. I don’t necessarily start with words. Because I can hear what I felt from melody, I usually build upon that.

April 20 Interscope Whether layering his powerful baritone over distorted bass or stripped-down ballads, soulful British-Nigerian artist Jacob Banks takes his cues from blues, contemporary production and African rhythms, all of which come together in this album.

RUSS “KEEP ON GOIN” March 16 Diemon, Columbia The Jersey-born artist employs his elastic voice to skip from hip-hop to R&B and back in the same song. His most recent releases, the Southern-style “Keep On Goin” and 2016 hit “What They Want” find him teasing out lazy love songs.

KEHLANI SWEETSEXYSAVAGE Jan. 27 Atlantic Former America’s Got Talent contestant Kehlani amps up languid, ’90s-reminiscent slow jams with lyrical kick. This debut album swings between emotions without apology, mining vulnerabilities for musical punch, all delivered with her easy swagger.

SAMPHA PROCESS

SYD THA KYD FIN

KHALID AMERICAN TEEN

Feb. 3 Young Turks The British pop singer and hip-hop producer behind some of the industry’s biggest stars finally gets his own moment to shine on this debut album. Sampha’s music is spare but tender, marked by his flexible, emotive voice and the specter of heartbreak.

Feb. 3 Columbia Syd’s minimalist, sharply produced tracks feel like the R&B of a more evolved society. The Odd Future and Internet member’s first solo project, Fin is subtle, technical and darkly alluring, mixing slinky bops with sultry ballads that still come across as fresh.

March 3 RCA At 19, Khalid’s soulful way with beats and words speaks to the modern experience of adolescence with joyful honesty. The Texan singersongwriter manages to coyly document the intersection of love, youth and technology in groovy, unhurried jams.

R&B is going in a chill, deconstructed direction. Why do you think this is happening at a time of national upheaval? Because it’s honest. Nowadays there’s a lot of dishonesty. Trying to find yourself is the hardest thing. I think me being vulnerable about whatever I was going through, people listen to it and they hear authenticity. What role does technology play in your process? My best songs are written on my iPhone. I click back and forth between Voice Memos and Notes. On Voice Memos, I record all my melodies. If I’m in a session and feeling the mood, I can play a memo and we can re-create it. What makes this wave of artists unique? There used to be such a small space when it came to music. Now we accept the fact that we literally can do whatever we want. The box, especially in R&B, is growing, growing, growing. I’m glad to be a part of that. —R.B.

KHALID: TIM MOSENFELDER— GE T T Y IMAGES

JACOB BANKS THE BOY WHO CRIED FREEDOM

51

Time Off Reviews

TIME PICKS

BOOKS Author Jennifer Finney Boylan’s atmospheric thriller Long Black Veil (April 11) follows a travel writer tangled up in a cold case that has come back to haunt her decades later.

Brosnan plays a former Comanche captive all grown up and ready to dominate

△

MUSIC Experimental electro producer Arca sings celestial songs in Spanish on his eponymous third album (April 7). The multimedia whiz has produced songs for Kanye West and FKA twigs. MOVIES A surgeon trades favors to get his daughter into a university after a sexual assault jeopardizes her future in Graduation (April 7). Cristian Mungiu won Best Director for the film at Cannes.

▽

TELEVISION Rashida Jones plays a detective chasing an animal-rights activist turned serial killer in the third season of Angie Tribeca (April 10), the offbeat TBS show that spikes the crime formula with zany humor.

TELEVISION

Oilmen and Indians in a saga of American West IN THE FIRST EPISODE OF AMC’S NEW DRAMA THE SON, Eli McCullough (Jacob Lofland) is impersonating an ape moments before Comanche Indians attack his homestead and carry him away. He may as well be an animal to his family— wine-slurping, Ralph Waldo Emerson–reading German settlers deep in the untamed heart of 1849 Texas. Eli is the only McCullough in touch with the base instincts of survival. Little wonder that, kidnapped, he takes so easily to Comanche life, and that later, as a free adult (played by Pierce Brosnan), he has trouble shaking a relentless drive for violence. And yet The Son, a saga based on Philipp Meyer’s 2013 novel, turns out to be full of surprises, at least after the first few episodes, which depict the Comanche in such a tired way, with war whoops and brutality substituting for character. These early missteps give way to insight, as chief Toshaway (Zahn McClarnon) explains to Eli the entitlement of the McCulloughs and their peers. “All the white people I’ve ever met tried to steal our land,” he says, “and yet I’ve never met a white man who didn’t look surprised when I killed him.” Adult Eli retains the wartime spirit of his onetime captors but abandons their sense of fair play as he quests to destroy his enemies and become an oil baron. As a tale of synthesis— how the West was won by those most willing to be brutal— The Son shows promise. As the multigenerational saga it wants to be, it has room to grow. Eli’s son Pete (Henry Garrett) is overshadowed by the monstrous charisma of his father. But then, it wouldn’t be a soap worth its salt without a domineering patriarch. —DANIEL D’ADDARIO THE SON airs on AMC on Saturdays at 9 p.m. E.T.

‘There’s oil underneath this ground, and I intend to get it out, even if it means us three digging our way to Hades with a pick and shovel.’ PIERCE BROSNAN, as Eli on The Son

A N G I E T R I B E C A : T B S ; T H E S O N : A M C ; G I F T E D : 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y F O X ; C O L O S S A L : T OY F I G H T P R O D U C T I O N S

MOVIES

MOVIES

Chris Evans ties a bow on Gifted

Big monsters, bigger feelings

AMONG THE MANY problems caused by the ascendance of the superhero movie is that the actors who star in them—and they’re often good ones—get boxed into supertight quarters. Chris Evans is perfectly charming in the Captain America movies and their brethren in the expansive cinematic Marvel universe. But it’s a relief and a pleasure to see him freed, temporarily, from that brazenly pectoralenhancing onesie. In Gifted, he plays Frank Adler, a Florida boat-engine mechanic who’s raising his niece Mary (Mckenna Grace) on his own. Mary is a precocious mite of a girl and a happy kid. But she’s also what’s euphemistically called a gifted child—she can solve outlandish numerical problems in her head and even more complicated ones on paper—and such gifts always come with complications. In this case, the unwelcome variable is Mary’s grandmother, and Frank’s mother, Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), a proper Englishwoman so stiff and brittle she could be cast from sterling silver. Evelyn believes Mary should be in a special school, but Frank resists. A custody tussle becomes inevitable. The plot mechanics are the big problem here: you fear the worst is going to happen, and it almost does but ultimately doesn’t. By the time your emotions have been yanked for the third time, you’re too hip to the pattern to care. But director Marc Webb—who knows his way

IN SPANISH DIRECTOR Nacho Vigalondo’s fantasydrama Colossal, monsters are real. Worse yet, their actions are controlled by outof-control human beings. Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, a well-intentioned but irresponsible young woman who, after a breakup, decamps from New York City to her hometown. There, she reconnects with Jason Sudeikis’ Oscar, who kindly steps in to help his old friend readjust. And then—news alert! A giant, scaly monster attacks Seoul, appearing and vanishing mysteriously. The whole world watches, and Gloria’s problems suddenly seem small in comparison— until she realizes that she and this strangely soulful, frustrated reptilian behemoth share a bizarre kinship. Even if its characters’ behavior doesn’t always make sense, Colossal is still a mischievous, clever piece of entertainment, and Vigalondo handles the central metaphor gracefully. How do we get ourselves back on track when we realize we’re guilty of monstrous behavior? Taking that first big, clomping step is key.—S.Z.

Grace and Evans are capable actors who carry a so-so movie on their shoulders

around a superhero movie himself, having directed the 2012 and 2014 Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield—seems to genuinely enjoy his actors, and they all rise to the occasion. Grace is just at that point in childhood, a quicksilver flash, where she’s missing her two front teeth. She’s impishly cute without ever being cloying. Duncan reveals glints of humanity behind the grand dame routine. Jenny Slate plays Bonnie, Grace’s teacher and Frank’s love interest—a phrase that’s painful to use, but how else to put it? She has frustratingly little to do, but her low-key screwball radiance still manages to fill up the picture. Even if Gifted is flawed, Evans ought to be making more movies like it. He’s marvelously casual and affectionate in his scenes with his young co-star— Grace clambers over him as if he were a jungle gym, and he barely blinks. There’s something ridiculous about Evans’ beauty. Even with modern-day facial hair, he’s like a caricature of a 1940s football hero, yet he carries it all with a shrug. While he’s young, Evans should be playing more small-town guys who have no idea how fabulously good-looking they are. It surely can’t be as easy as he makes it look.—STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

Hathaway prepares to confront the monster within 53

Time Off Movies

Fast & Furious: The completist’s guide

The epic franchise features more than big complex, interconnected universe. The Fate

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT

FAST & FURIOUS

RELEASED

2001

2003

2006

2009

PREMISE

A crew of elite street racers is infiltrated by an undercover cop

An undercover cop and a friend use their knowledge of elite street-racing crews to bring down a drug lord

A crew of elite street racers in Tokyo initiates an American teenager

A crew of elite street racers and an FBI agent avenge the murder of one of their own

1:46 min.

4:01 min.

5:45 min.

1:36 min.

GANG LORD

DRUG LORD

GANG LORD

DRUG LORD

DODGE CHARGER

NISSAN SKYLINE

FORD MUSTANG

ACURA NSX

Car strafes under semitruck

Car jumps onto yacht

Cars drift down mountain

Car strafes under tanker

78

130

249

190

“You want time? Buy the magazine.”

“Don’t even think about taking the convertible. It might loosen your mousse.”

“Boys. All they care about is who’s got the biggest engine.”

“Are you one of those boys who prefers cars to women?”

LOCATION THINGS GET FAST AT: MAIN FOE BITCHIN’ WHEELS BEST STUNT

CARS HARMED MAKING THIS PICTURE BEST LINE

CAMEO

MAN TEARS? THE FAMILY: THE CREW

YES

YES

Vin Diesel

Jordana Brewster

Matt Schulze

Michelle Rodriguez

NEW TO THE CREW

Sonny Chiba

Devon Aoki

Ja Rule

Paul Walker

Christopher ‘Ludacris’ Bridges

YES

SPEECHES ABOUT FAMILY FASTER OR FURIOUS-ER?

Fast

—

—

1

—

Furious

S O U R C E S : T H E WA L L S T R E E T J O U R N A L , T H E LO S A N G E L E S T I M E S , I G N

YES

Tyrese Gibson Lucas Black

LOST TO THE CREW

—

Bow Wow

2

Sung Kang

Don Omar

G l Gal Gadot G d t

2

Tego Calderón

A Socratic dialogue between Fast nerds ...

engines and bigger muscles. Millions of devotees delight in the series’ of the Furious comes out on April 14. —Eliana Dockterman and Matt Vella

FAST FIVE

FAST & FURIOUS 6

FURIOUS 7

2011

2013

2015

A crew of elite street racers pulls one last job to buy its freedom

A crew of elite street racers pulls one last job to save one of its own

A crew of elite street racers pulls one last job to avenge the murder of one of its own

We both agree with Vin Diesel that is the “saga of our millennium.” But which film reigns supreme?

MATT

To quote 3, “Life’s simple: you make choices, and you don’t look back.” Listening to my the answer is 5.

It was the first to get a fresh rating, but doesn’t it bother you that they kind of sold out? 1:19 min.

00:00 min.

05:47 min.

DRUG LORD

TERRORIST

TERRORIST

FORD GT40

NISSAN GT-R

LYKAN HYPERSPORT

ELIANA

They used to for $2,000 and pink slips. Suddenly they’re going on $ million heists.

The over-the-top-ness is what appeals! It lampoons the genre. The robbery and cliff dive is the perfect example: Cars drag giant safe

Cars crushed by tank

Car jumps between high-rises

260

400 (est.)

230

“Good news or bad news?” “You know I like my dessert first.”

“Plan B? We need a plan C, D, E. We need more alphabets!”

“Did you bring the cavalry?” “Woman, I am the cavalry.”

Eva M Mendes

YES

Jason Statham

Rita Ora

YES

They jump out of a falling from a into and are totally unharmed! It’s like Butch Cassidy meets Hot Wheels in the best way.

I guess there’s no point in being a originalist.

Iggy Azalea

Romeo Santos

In which case I say 7 is tops because that’s the one in which this story of finally comes together.

Ronda Rousey

YES Plus:

for Paul Walker. That’s true. Though I 5 because it’s the first to bring together the family from all the previous movies. And we still have my fave : Han and Gisele before they

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

Elsa Pataky Nathalie Kurt N th li Russell Emmanuel

—

4

6

5

G E T T Y I M A G E S (3 8); I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y M A R T I N G E E F O R T I M E

Also 7 doesn’t have enough of the Rock, who is in 5. His showdown with Vin is

He

off his cast in 7, just sayin’.

So if you’re in it for the , go for 5. If you’re in it for the , watch 7? Agreed. And don’t try any of the at home or you’ll have to deal with the &

55

Time Off Books

POLITICS

Chief of staff: master of one IN MOST WHITE HOUSES, IF not the current one, the chief of staff’s job is to tell the Commander in Chief just how completely wrong he is when the situation requires. That’s the premise of Chris Whipple’s new book The Gatekeepers, which grew out of a 2013 documentary, and, fewer than 100 days into the Trump era, could not be more timely. The book opens when the chief job first took shape, under Richard Nixon’s axman H.R. Haldeman, who organized the modern presidency but who rather dramatically failed his boss when Nixon went haywire. Since those days, the gig has grown more powerful, thanks to such men as James Baker and Leon Panetta, and never more so than when a President is in crisis. There are valuable lessons in Gatekeepers for Trump’s chief, the embattled Reince Priebus. Example: dealing with your own party is often harder than making friends across the aisle. “Every modern President learns the hard way that you can’t govern effectively without an empowered chief of staff,” says Whipple. “Trump has no idea that’s the case. Until he figures it out, it’s going to be a continuing clown show.” —MICHAEL DUFFY

TIME April 17, 2017

A TV traditionalist with a weird streak DAVID LETTERMAN’S DEPARTURE FROM defining relationship of Letterman’s CBS’s Late Show in 2015 put an end to career: his partnership with writer Merrill Markoe, who put the surrealism television’s most fascinating barometer: the Letterman mood. With guests he could in Letterman’s comedy. The host “would be flirtatious (Julia Roberts) or disdainful have been perfectly happy to do the (Paris Hilton); toward figures in the Carson show,” a Letterman writer says. news he could be engaged (John McCain, That’s one difference between Letterusually) or scathing (John McCain, man and newer stars like James Corden campaign 2008). and Jimmy Fallon. The talk Jason Zinoman’s show has already been deconLetterman’s new book Letterman structed by YouTube, so those innovation chronicles the manner hosts may as well go for broke gained power by which Letterman, an from its rigorous with potentially viral sketches. angst-filled raw nerve, For Letterman, bits like Top 10 formalism built his TV franchise. Lists and Stupid Pet Tricks It’s a contradiction the gained power because of, not author relishes: Letterman’s innovation despite, their placement in an hour that (his seeming depiction of the workings looked a lot like Carson’s. Try to imagine of a twisted mind) gained power from its Stephen Colbert, Letterman’s succesrigorous formalism. As Zinoman puts it, sor and an able host, displaying what one “He had gradually turned into a fascinatLetterman writer calls “pure contempt for ingly disgruntled eccentric trapped inside television.” Oddity like Letterman’s has a more traditional talk show.” become a professionalized way of being, Perhaps wisely, Zinoman elides welland its edges have been sanded by pleasworn history, like the warfare with Jay ant bonhomie. You don’t get the contempt. Leno over who would succeed Johnny But you don’t get as much feeling either. Carson. He has an eye, though, for the —DANIEL D’ADDARIO

L E T T E R M A N : N B C/G E T T Y I M A G E S

56

BIOGRAPHY

AN AT&T ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY

MAY 4 | THURSDAY | 8PM | ET ----PT

|

DIRECTV CH. 239 OR 4K CH.104 | DIRECTV NOW | U-VERSE CH.1114

THIS LAND ISN’T FREE.

1

Pre-Collision with Pedestrian Detection standard. 2

Pedestrians can come out of nowhere. So Pre-Collision with Pedestrian Detection can help spot them and brake for you. It’s just one of the standard Toyota Safety Sense™ P (TSS-P)3 features that give you more peace of mind. Options shown. Dramatization. 1. The TSS Pre-Collision System is designed to help avoid or reduce the crash speed and damage in certain frontal collisions only. It is not a substitute for safe and attentive driving. System effectiveness is dependent on road, weather and vehicle conditions. See Owner’s Manual for additional limitations and details. 2. The Pedestrian Detection system is designed to detect a pedestrian ahead of the vehicle, determine if impact is imminent and help reduce impact speed. It is not a substitute for safe and attentive driving. System effectiveness depends on many factors, such as speed, size and position of pedestrians, and weather, light and road conditions. See Owner’s Manual for additional limitations and details. 3. Drivers are responsible for their own safe driving. Always pay attention to your surroundings and drive safely. Depending on the conditions of roads, weather and the vehicle, the system(s) may not work as intended. See Owner’s Manual for additional limitations and details. ©2017 Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

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