M A Y 2 7, 2 0 2 4

NEXT
GENERATION
LEADERS

Ncuti
Gatwa
THE NEW FACE OF
DOCTOR WHO

10 MORE
TRAILBLAZERS
SHAPING A
BRIGHTER
FUTURE

time.com
 VOL . 203, NOS. 17–18 | 2024

CONTENTS

6 26 38 65
The Brief Trump Beneath Time Off
Take 2 The Gobi
17 In exclusive interviews, the Mongolia, wedged between China
The View 45th President tells TIME his goals
for a second term
and Russia, sees a brighter future in
selling uranium to the West
By Eric Cortellessa By Charlie Campbell

△
46 58
A pro-Palestinian
encampment at
Next Generation Hunting Indiana University
Leaders Toxins on April 26
Eleven trailblazers challenging Inside the private lab that keeps Photograph by
the status quo, leading with finding troubling chemicals in drugs Mia Hilkowitz for
empathy, and forging the path to and beauty products the Indiana Daily
a brighter future By Jamie Ducharme Student

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2 TIME May 27, 2024

 CONTENT BY THE BUZZ

Ampere “We want to unlock a new entrepreneurial

mindset, unlearn old paradigms and
embrace new possibilities.”

charges Ampere’s current flagship model is

the Megane E-Tech, which has a 2.2%

ahead
share of the European EV market. In
the next two years, the arrival of the
®ADetienne
all-electric Scenic, Renault 5 and
Renault 4 is set to boost Ampere’s
sales to c. 300,000 cars a year, up from “By 2028, Ampere
More than 120 years after Louis c. 45,000 in 2023. That is projected to
Renault drove his first motor vehicle generate revenue of €10 billion in 2025. aims to have 1 million
through the streets of Paris, the car
manufacturer is transforming for By 2031, with a total of seven EVs
electric vehicles on
a decarbonized future. in Ampere’s portfolio, the company European roads,
expects to be making revenue of at least
Long celebrated for making attractively €25 billion a year. representing 10%
designed and economically priced of the market.”
vehicles powered by internal combustion One of Ampere’s primary objectives is
engines (ICEs), last year Renault Group to democratize EVs by reducing their
launched a brand-new business to propel end price. By 2027 to 2028, Ampere — JOSEP MARIA RECASENS,
COO, AMPERE, SVP STRATEGY
it into the electric era: Ampere. aims to decrease EV costs by 40%, & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT,
mainly by simplifying the platforms for RENAULT GROUP
Bringing together some 11,000 Renault each car type, innovating in batteries
employees, of whom 35% are engineers, and powertrains, and automating much
Ampere designs and manufactures of the manufacturing process.
electric passenger cars under the Renault
brand. Ampere’s goal is to accelerate “The primary barrier to EV adoption Ampere is confident that its
Renault’s growth in electric vehicles (EVs) is their cost,” Recasens says. “The key combination of competitive pricing,
and position the group as the European solution lies in reducing their costs and striking designs, and high brand
leader of the age of the zero-emission car. achieve pricing parity with ICE vehicles. awareness will help it perform strongly
That will make EVs a compelling choice against rising competition from
“Ampere blends the strengths of both for all consumers, not just for the Chinese EV manufacturers.
worlds: the stability of a legacy company premium segment.” In 2025, the Renault
and the agility of a startup,” says Josep 5 E-tech will come with a starting price Recasens says that software services
Maria Recasens, Chief Operations Officer of around €25,000. Ampere’s Legend such as faster charging and smarter
at Ampere and head of strategy and urban electric vehicle will be offered route planning provide another way for
business development at Renault Group. at an entry price below €20,000. Ampere to increase the competitiveness
of its vehicles. Half of Ampere’s
engineering workforce is dedicated to
software and system engineering roles.
Ampere is also partnering with tech
giants Qualcomm Technologies and
Google to share investments, minimise
costs, and accelerate the development
of operating systems and software.

“We plan to make these innovations

available to other players,” Recasens
says. “We are building the foundations
to transform the European automotive
industry.”

“Our competitors from China are

formidable. To match their productivity,
we must double our efforts in innovation
and value creation.”
FROM THE EDITOR

Covering leaders announced he was running for President in

2015. We believe these interviews—and deep re-
porting that places them in historical context—
INTERVIEWING POLITICAL LEADERS HAS BEEN provide valuable guidance for our readers.
a staple of TIME’s journalism for decades, as
we report on the most influential people in LEADERSHIP, OF COURSE, is not just a
the world and bring those insights to our read- political phenomenon. For the past decade,
ers. With six months to go until the U.S. presi- with the support of our partners at Rolex,
dential election, we want our coverage of this TIME has made a study of emerging leadership
campaign to help the world and American vot- in all its many forms—statesmanship and
ers understand what the candidates would do intellectual achievement, cultural prominence
if elected. Today, Donald Trump is in a better and athletic triumph. The latest class of
We want our position to win the White House than at any Next Generation Leaders, spanning eight
coverage of point in the previous two campaigns. TIME’s countries and six continents, is no exception to
Eric Cortellessa, who covers the Trump cam- that tradition of variety.
this campaign paign, interviewed the former President twice And yet amid such rich diversity, this cohort
to help in April to hear from Trump himself what a sec- finds commonality in the way their leadership
the world ond term would look like. is expressed. They embody
understand Trump’s ongoing trial in resilience; Gazan poet Mosab
the candidates Manhattan and his upcoming Abu Toha tells us that “writ-
legal battles elsewhere have ing a poem is an act of re-
drawn attention away from silience against forgetting.”
specific policy proposals and They are focused on build-
priorities for Candidate Trump. ing effective solutions to real
But those are ultimately what problems, whether the im-
will define the nation’s politics pact of an aging population
if he wins. We came away from on Japan’s economy or the
our interviews with Trump and lack of minority representa-
a dozen of his closest advisers tion in competitive swim-
and confidants with a clear un- ming. And they find joy at a
derstanding of an agenda that time when that act can be its
would reshape the presidency own kind of heroism.
and American life. Ncuti Gatwa, the Scottish
So much about Trump can actor on our Next Generation
seem unchanged since he first Leaders cover, is an expert at
announced his candidacy that that last skill. At a pivotal mo-
it’s easy to miss how much of △ ment for the beloved 61-year-
the situation around him has Trump being photographed old Doctor Who franchise,
been transformed. His cam- at Mar-a-Lago in April Gatwa this month becomes
paign appears more cohesive the first queer Black person to
than the one that propelled him to power in 2016. step into the iconic Doctor’s shoes. Gatwa hopes
While the courts played a significant role in over- to be remembered as much for his take on the
turning some of Trump’s efforts when he was in role as for breaking barriers, and he knows in-
the White House, he and Senate majority leader habiting this character carries weight. “Now I
Mitch McConnell stocked the judiciary with hun- understand that something you’ve done might
dreds of new judges who on the whole are more have touched someone’s heart,” he tells us, “or
likely to rule in his favor than those they replaced. made them feel safe or less lonely.”
Trump tells us he “wouldn’t feel good about” hir- In today’s world, the importance of leading
ing someone for his Administration who admits with heart is clearer than ever. TIME is pleased
Joe Biden won in 2020. Indeed, while the original to continue to introduce readers to young
members of the Trump Administration may not people who are putting that truth into action.
have been a Team of Rivals, many positions in the
Administration as well as leading Trump White
House figures originated from regions of the
Republican Party other than his own. Trump tells
T R E C A S S E T TA

us he won’t be making that mistake again.

Trump has sat with TIME journalists
regularly for extensive interviews since he EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
4 TIME May 27, 2024
 CONVERSATION

On the covers

Photograph by Philip
F O X , M A H O M E S , D O M I N G O : N I N A W E S T E R V E LT F O R T I M E (3); L I PA , R U D O L P H : S E A N Z A N N I — PAT R I C K M C M U L L A N /G E T T Y I M A G E S (2); M I N O G U E , R O B I N S O N , P O R T E R : C I N DY O R D — G E T T Y I M A G E S F O R T I M E ; S U M M I T: B R I T TA N Y D I L I B E R T O F O R T I M E

Montgomery for TIME

Photograph by
The TIME100 Gala Ruth Ossai for TIME

The gala celebrating TIME’s 2024 list of

the most influential people took place
on April 25 at Jazz at Lincoln Center
in New York City. Honorees included,
clockwise from top: pop star Dua Lipa;
Oscar nominee Colman Domingo;
Emmy Award winner Maya Rudolph; NFL
quarterback Patrick Mahomes; (from
left) Grammy Award–winning singer
Photograph by
Kylie Minogue, Human Rights Cam-
James Schaap for
paign head Kelley Robinson, actor and the GW Hatchet
singer Billy Porter; and actor Michael J.
Fox. See the gala Sunday, May 12, at To order specific copies
10 p.m. E.T. on ABC, and later on Hulu. and special issues visit
More at time.com/summitgala2024 time.com/mag-shop

SETTING THE
RECORD STRAIGHT
In TIME100 Health (May 13)
we mischaracterized
AstraZeneca’s greenhouse-
gas emissions; they are
down 68% since 2020. In
addition, we misstated the
amount Alaa Murabit has
raised for the Beginnings
Fund (it is $300 million) and
the amount Dan Doctoroff’s
Target ALS has raised (it is
$330 million since 2013).
TA L K T O U S

ROUNDTABLE ▽ ▽
send an email: follow us:
On April 26, ahead of the letters@time.com facebook.com/time
White House Correspon- Please do not send attachments @time (X and Instagram)
dents Dinner, TIME hosted a
TIME100 Talks panel about Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and home
regulating AI. From left: telephone, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space
political analysts Van Jones
and Michael Allen, TIME Back Issues Contact us at customerservice@time.com, or
CEO Jessica Sibley, Office call 800-843-8463. Reprints and Permissions Information
of Management and Budget is available at time.com/reprints. To request custom reprints,
director Shalanda Young, visit timereprints.com. Advertising For advertising rates and Please recycle
our editorial calendar, visit timemediakit.com. Syndication this magazine, and
and TIME’s White House cor- For international licensing and syndication requests, contact remove inserts or
respondent Brian Bennett. syndication@time.com samples beforehand

5
 WHAT
THEY SAW
Photographs by America’s
student journalists

REPORTING AND INTERVIEWS

BY SANYA MANSOOR

▷
UCLA
Pro-Palestinian
supporters link arms
while facing police
officers in the early
hours of May 2. Their
encampment had been
attacked by counterpro-
testers the day before.
Joseph Crosby for
the Daily Bruin

6 Time May 27, 2024

7
THE BRIEF OPENER

A
merican campuses have
not looked like this in more
than 50 years, and never for
the reasons they do now. The
foreign war that students protested in
the 1960s and ’70s was one that, even
amid draft deferments, threatened their
own lives. What has stirred students
to risk their safety, enrollment, and
future careers on hundreds of campuses
this spring is the deaths of others—the
34,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza
Strip since Israel launched its retaliation
for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed
1,200 and took 240 hostage.
The protesters’ own point of refer-
ence is the 1980s campaign for divest-
ment from apartheid South Africa. In
their campaign, aimed at what they see
as financial complicity in Israel’s actions,
the activists—many swathed in kaffiyehs
and living in tents, if they haven’t already
been forced out by their universities—
embody a generational divide previously
visible only in polling: young Americans
who have known Israel only during its oc-
cupation of the West Bank and blockade
of Gaza are more disposed to the Pales-
tinian cause than are those old enough to
remember it first fighting, in the shadow
of the Holocaust, to create a safe place
for the world’s Jews.
This is the conflict that has thrust
America’s colleges back into position
as the crucible in which the nation works
out its moral questions. Student jour-
nalists have been the ones to document
the resulting conflagration—especially
on campuses that barred the profes-
sional press from bearing witness. TIME
reached out to student photojournalists
from across the country to tell this
story. Find more of their work and words
at time.com/campus-protest
—Karl vicK

▷
GEORGE WASHINGTON
UNIVERSITY
Protesters pray on
Washington, D.C.’s
H Street, as their fellow
demonstrators form a
perimeter around them.
Tom Rath for
the GW Hatchet
8 Time May 27, 2024
◁ ▽
U N IV ER S IT Y O F U N IV E RSITY
T EXAS AT AU ST I N O F M ICHIGAN
Police grab a protester Dawn breaks on April 23
as they break up over a section of the tent
an encampment on city set up on the univer-
campus on April 29. sity’s Central Campus.
Lorianne Willett Josh Sinha for the
for the Daily Texan Michigan Daily

◁
UCLA
A counterprotester
gestures to a
bleeding injury
while appealing
to a security officer
on April 28.
Brandon Morquecho
for the Daily Bruin

9
THE BRIEF OPENER

◁
UNIVERSITY OF
TEXAS AT AUSTIN
People pour liquid
on a protester’s
face to help relieve
the pain of getting
pepper-sprayed,
on April 29.
Charlotte Keene
for the Daily Texan

▽
VANDERBILT
UNIVERSITY
Students gather on
March 27 outside
Kirkland Hall,
which was occupied
during a protest;
27 participants
were suspended.
Miguel Beristain
for the Vanderbilt
Hustler

10 Time May 27, 2024 The Brief includes reporting by Julia Zorthian
 COVER STORE

E N J OY T I M E AT H O M E
S HOP SOM E OF TI ME’S MO ST I CO NIC COVE R AR T

T I M E C OV E R S T O R E . C O M
THE BRIEF NEWS

GOOD QUESTION WHAT EXACTLY is the tech industry

Who is spending the most lobbying for? Some in the industry
are against regulating AI, arguing that
lobbying on AI policy? regulation would impede technologi-
BY WILL HENSHALL cal progress. But many of the com-
panies involved in the development
of AI have, at least in public, struck
IN NOVEMBER 2022, OPENAI RELEASED ITS WILDLY a cooperative tone when discussing
popular chatbot, ChatGPT. Six months later, leading AI potential regulation. Both newer AI
researchers and industry executives signed a statement firms and more established tech giants
warning that “the risk of extinction from AI should be a signed White House–organized vol-
global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as untary commitments aimed at miti-
pandemics and nuclear war.” Lawmakers around the world gating the risks posed by AI systems.
took notice, and as substantial federal AI legislation began But in closed-door meetings with
to seem possible, lobbyists flooded the Capitol. congressional offices, the same com-
The number of groups lobbying the U.S. federal govern- panies are often less supportive of cer-
ment on AI nearly tripled from 158 in 2022 to 451 in 2023, tain regulatory approaches, accord-
according to data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks ing to multiple sources present in or
and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying. familiar with such conversations. In
All organizations that carry out lobbying, the legal defini- particular, companies tend to advo-
tion of which includes only cate for very permis-
directly discussing specific sive or voluntary regu-
laws or regulations, are re- 458 lations. “Anytime you
quired to report how much want to make a tech
they spent. However, this company do something
data is reported only as a mandatory, they’re
total figure, meaning it’s gonna push back on it,”
impossible to know how said one congressional
much of this amount each staffer, who was not
organization is spend- authorized to speak on
ing on AI-related lobby- the record about lobby-
ing specifically, vs. other 148 142 158 ing discussions.

P U T I N : A L E X A N D E R Z E M L I A N I C H E N K O — P O O L /A P ; P R O T E S T: T H O M A S P E T E R — R E U T E R S ; M I S S U S A : H E C T O R V I VA S — G E T T Y I M A G E S
policy issues. 112 Others, however,
Still, by this crude met- 30 68 maintain that while
ric, Big Tech companies 1 1 6 companies do some-
have vastly outspent the times try to promote
rest. In 2023, Amazon, their own interests at
Meta, Google parent com- the expense of the pub-
pany Alphabet, and Micro- lic interest, most of
soft each spent more than $10 million on lobbying, accord- their efforts help to produce sensible
ing to data provided by OpenSecrets. The Information legislation. “Most of the companies,
Technology Industry Council, a trade association, spent when they engage, they’re trying to
$2.7 million on lobbying. In comparison, civil-society group put their best foot forward in terms
the Mozilla Foundation spent $120,000 and AI-safety non- of making sure that we’re bolstering
profit the Center for AI Safety Action Fund spent $80,000. U.S. national security or bolstering
Given that the definition of lobbying includes only U.S. economic competitiveness,” says
speaking with staffers about specific laws, these figures Divyansh Kaushik, a vice president
likely underestimate the amounts of money that tech com- at D.C.-based advisory firm Beacon
panies are spending to influence lawmakers, says Hamza Global Strategies. “At the same
Chaudhry, a U.S. policy specialist at the Future of Life In- time, obviously, the bottom line is
stitute, a nonprofit that focuses on risks posed by advanced ‘Obviously, important.”
technologies. “I would still say that civil society would be the bottom Time is scant for Congress to pass
outspent by Big Tech by 5 to 1, 10 to 1,” he says. an AI-related bill before the Novem-
Multiple sources tell TIME that the large amount spent line is ber presidential election, in which
by Big Tech companies has allowed them to build up a so- important.’ case the focus will shift to the 119th
phisticated lobbying apparatus—hiring more experienced —DIVYANSH KAUSHIK,
Congress, which convenes in Wash-
lobbyists who better understand the technical details of BEACON GLOBAL ington in January. The lobbyists are
their brief and have an extensive network on the Hill. STRATEGIES already there. □
12 TIME May 27, 2024
MILESTONES

DIED BANNED

RENAMED

EXITED

ELIMINATED
INAUGURATED

RESIGNED

13
THE BRIEF TIME WITH

Kate Cox wanted to be a Given her medical history, Kate

and Justin decided to terminate the
mom of three. Instead, she’s pregnancy. “We wanted our baby so
a reluctant abortion advocate badly,” Cox says. “But we didn’t want
her to suffer, and the risks to me were
BY CHARLOTTE ALTER/DALLAS too high. I also have two other babies,
and they need their mommy. I had to
make a decision with all of my babies
in The Tidy backyard of kaTe cox’s dallas-area in mind.”
home, there are two child-size lawn chairs alongside two But abortion is illegal in her state in
toddler bicycles. There are two red-and-white stuffed all but the most urgent medical situ-
horses in the playroom, and two sippy cups sitting in the ations. Cox’s physician told her that
sink. Everywhere you look, there are two of everything. because the fetus still had a heartbeat,
The only problem is, there should be three. Cox probably did not qualify for a
Last year, Cox and her husband Justin were thrilled medical exception. “I couldn’t believe
to learn that she was pregnant again. They had always that I wouldn’t qualify, given the risk
planned to have a large family—three, maybe even I faced in my pregnancy. My baby was
four kids. When Cox saw the positive pregnancy test in not going to live,” she says, pausing to
August, she ran into the playroom to tell Justin, who was wipe away tears. “I wanted to be able
wrestling on the floor with their 3-year-old daughter to come home and hug my babies, and
and 18-month-old son. Justin immediately started be close to my mom, and be able to cry
considering whether they would need a bigger car; on my own pillow.”
Kate was just excited. The law did not make that possible.
But a few more weeks into her pregnancy, Cox got a So instead of becoming a mother of
phone call from her doctor. “She asked me if I was driv- three, Kate Cox has become an un-
ing,” she recalls. “So I pulled the car over into an empty likely national figure—the first preg-
parking lot.” The doctor told her that the results of early nant woman in the midst of a health
screening tests indicated a risk of trisomy 18, a life- crisis to sue for the right to an abor-
threatening genetic condition. “I cried for a while in the tion since the Supreme Court over-
car,” Cox says. “In the same phone call, she told us that turned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Now,
we were having a girl.” ‘Sometimes Cox is a reluctant advocate for repro-
It took weeks of additional testing and waiting before prayed- ductive rights, and the most promi-
doctors confirmed the diagnosis. “Each time we had
an ultrasound, there was more bad news,” Cox recalls,
for, wanted nent example of how abortion bans
can endanger even women who des-
during an interview in her living room in early March. pregnancies perately want to be mothers.
“By the end, sometimes I couldn’t look at the screen.” end in
Trisomy 18 is almost always a fatal condition. In rare Before this ordeal, Kate and
cases, babies with milder forms of the disease can sur-
abortion. Justin Cox had never thought much
vive for years, but there were so many malformations to It’s medical about abortion. “I just didn’t think it
the fetus’s brain, spine, and neural tube that Cox’s doctor care.’ was going to be something that would
said the baby would probably die in utero. If she did sur- ever be in my life,” Cox says, sitting
vive birth, she would be placed directly into hospice care. at her kitchen table underneath a big
The months that followed were excruciating. People print of a Madonna and Child. Kate
at the grocery store would smile at Cox and ask when and Justin say they have not been
she was due. Acquaintances would ask if she was having regular voters, and don’t necessarily
a baby shower. Her daughter didn’t understand that the identify with either political party. Be-
new baby would not be coming home. tween raising two toddlers and work-
The diagnosis also put Cox’s own health and future ing full-time jobs (Justin’s in IT; Kate
fertility at risk. Her pregnancy was becoming increas- works at a nonprofit), they didn’t pay
ingly complicated. She went to the emergency room sev- much attention to the news. When the
eral times for cramping and fluid in her birth canal. If the Supreme Court upended America’s
fetus died, Cox could get an infection. And because her abortion landscape, it didn’t seem to
first two deliveries had been C-sections, a third delivery matter very much to their lives. When
carried increased risk of uterine rupture. If she contin- Texas’ strict abortion ban went into ef-
ued the pregnancy, her doctor told her, she might never fect shortly after, they both assumed
be able to have children again. “The more C-sections you that there would be medical excep-
have, the more risk of hysterectomy, hemorrhage, uterine tions. When Texas Attorney Gen-
rupture,” says Damla Karsan, Cox’s ob-gyn. eral Ken Paxton warned that doctors
14 Time May 27, 2024
 On Dec. 7, a Texas judge granted
Cox a temporary restraining order,
allowing her to terminate her preg-
nancy and shielding her doctors from
prosecution under Texas law. But al-
most immediately, Paxton petitioned
the Texas Supreme Court to halt that
order, and threatened local hospitals
with legal action if they allowed the
abortion to proceed.
At that point, Cox was roughly 20
weeks pregnant. She and Justin de-
cided they couldn’t wait any longer.
They traveled to New Mexico and
ended her pregnancy on Dec. 12. Be-
fore the termination, they named the
baby Chloe Jones. Her middle name
was after Cox’s grandfather, she says,
“so that way she would know who to
look for in heaven.”

Although Cox did not want an

abortion, she says she is “grateful”
she was able to get one. “The alterna-
tive would have been worse,” she says.
“I didn’t want to have to wait until my
baby died in my belly, or died during
birth, or have to hold her in my arms
as she suffocates or has a heart attack.”
The experience has opened the
Coxes’ eyes to the ways their family
could be affected by laws that seemed
to have little to do with them. “As a
nation we have a lot to learn about
abortion,” says Cox. “Sometimes
prayed-for, wanted pregnancies end
in abortion. It’s medical care.”
A few weeks after her abortion,
Cox got a call from the White House.
“I actually had my son on my hip, and
he had peed through his diaper all
△ down my side,” she says, laughing for
who provided abortions could be held criminally liable, Cox at home the first time since our conversation
the news barely registered. But when Cox’s doctor told with her two began. “I certainly never thought I
her that she couldn’t get an abortion in Texas, Cox started young children would get an opportunity to speak to
googling to learn more about the state law. That’s how she the President. If I did, I didn’t think
came across the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), it would be with pee down my side.”
a legal-advocacy organization that had filed a lawsuit, The President and First Lady invited
Zurawski v. Texas, to clarify the scope of the state’s “medi- her to sit in the First Lady’s box at
cal emergency” exception to its abortion ban. the President’s State of the Union
Cox sent a cold email to CRR, and was connected to on March 7.
Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney who is the lead lawyer Both Coxes now say that they are
on the Zurawski case. She agreed to represent Cox. “What committed to voting in every election,
S H E L B Y TA U B E R F O R T I M E

Kate Cox’s case shows is that this argument of the states and that abortion access is their top
that they have exceptions to their blanket abortion bans issue. “If you are pregnant, if you love
for the health of the woman is false,” says CRR president someone that is pregnant, if you may
Nancy Northup. “They don’t have exceptions, and they become pregnant,” Cox says, “you have
won’t allow exceptions to be applied.” to vote like your life depends on it.” □
15
 H E A LT H

“You handled that situation so well.”

BY ANGELA HAUPT

“I’m really impressed with your ability

to work under pressure.”

“I love the way you bring out the best in people.”

“Hey, great earrings!”

“You make even ordinary moments

feel extraordinary.”
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

16 TIME May 27, 2024

WORLD

HOW TO WIN
COLD WAR II
BY DMITRI ALPEROVITCH

INSIDE

HOW FRANCE COULD TAKE IN A WORLD OF DOG SHOWS, THE CASE FOR WARNINGS
A TURN TO THE RIGHT LEARNING TO LOVE MUTTS ON SUGARY FOODS

17
THE VIEW OPENER

Today there are striking and trou-

bling similarities between our current
moment and the original Cold War
between the U.S. and Soviet Union
that defined the second half of the
20th century. Once again, the world is
witnessing two major powers engaged
in a global competition for supremacy,
trying to lock in an economic, tech-
nological, diplomatic, and military
advantage anywhere and everywhere.
Virtually every region of the planet is a
battlefield for this confrontation: from
the scramble to secure mining rights
for critical minerals and advantageous
trade deals in Africa and Latin Amer-
ica, to the establishment of economic
and military partnerships across Asia,
to backing opposite warring sides in
Europe and the Middle East.
And just as in the 20th century,
the past two decades have witnessed
a dangerous conventional and nu-
clear arms race, with China engaging
in rapid buildup and modernization
of its nuclear, naval, air, ground, and closing in on attaining the capability become the world’s most powerful
rocket forces. In an unmistakable nod to conquer Taiwan by force—the nation much less realizable.
to the space race of the 1960s, this U.S. intelligence community has The U.S. must also pursue a strat-
contest is also playing out beyond determined that Xi had issued a egy of unidirectional entanglement.
earth, as both countries race to once deadline to his military to be ready for That means increasing China’s de-
again place a human on the moon in this war by 2027. Biden has publicly pendence on U.S. supply chains while
the space of a decade, and later Mars. stated on at least four separate doing the opposite with America’s.
Finally, the coldness of the original occasions that he would order Beating China also requires Washing-
Cold War was defined most of all on American troops to defend Taiwan ton to reframe its engagement with
a daily basis by the secret espionage against an invasion. The world faces lesser adversaries like Russia, North
war. And today once again America is an abyss if this were to happen. Korea, and Iran and to view our work
confronted with an espionage threat with allies, and partners like India and

P H O T O - I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T I M E , G E T T Y I M A G E S (3); L E P E N : S T E P H A N E D E S A K U T I N — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S
against its government and industry EvEry passing month makes clear Vietnam, through that same lens.
on a scale heretofore not seen. that confronting the reality of China’s There would be a substantial re-
The current era is not identical to threat to the U.S.-led global order re- duction in tension and a much smaller
the prior Cold War. That is most clear quires a deep, hard strategic look. risk of outright war if China were ul-
in the deep economic interdepen- Just as it was in Cold War I, time is on timately convinced that it is better off
dence between China and the U.S. America’s side in Cold War II. But it working within the current U.S.-led
Both China and the U.S. also believe must be used wisely. international order. But Washington
that the two countries are here to stay. In practical terms, that means mustn’t count on that happening.
Their current goals are not destruction strengthening America’s critical ad- Over 2,000 years ago, amid the
of each other’s systems but a competi- vantages and the Western alliance Third Punic War between Rome and
tion for influence around the world, while deterring a calamitous war with Carthage, Cato the Elder used to finish
especially in the Indo-Pacific. Neither China. This requires staying ahead his speeches before the Roman Senate
believes that this struggle is existential in the military domain as well as in with his rallying cry, “Carthage must
as it was in Cold War I. Rather, it is a semiconductors and other key tech- be destroyed.” Today, the U.S. rallying
fight over who controls the economic nologies. On top of that, the U.S. must cry must be Sinae deterrendae sunt.
levers and has more influence in invest in talent-based immigration China must be deterred.
global institutions of the 21st century. that will help offset China’s numerical
But as in the prior Cold War, there advantages. Left to their own devices, Alperovitch is a national-security expert
are considerable risks of a hot conflict China’s systemic challenges—from and author of a new book, World on the
breaking out. That is especially the a slumping economy to a shrink- Brink: How America Can Beat China in
case over Taiwan. China is already ing population—will make its bid to the Race for the Twenty-First Century
18 Time May 27, 2024
THE RISK REPORT BY IAN BREMMER

19
THE VIEW INBOX

◁
Fed Chairman Jerome
Powell, playing a
waiting game

renewable-energy projects have been

announced in the time since the pas-
sage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction
Act, President Joe Biden’s landmark
climate law, but many projects still re-
quire final investment decisions. And
higher interest rates risk causing the
math not to add up.
The interest-rate environment is a
definite headwind, but there are still
reasons to stay the course with renew-
able energy. Of course, the economics
of wind and solar is highly location-
dependent. In many places, these proj-
ects remain a good bet even with higher
interest rates. In some places, including
Europe, governments have set decar-
bonization or renewable-energy stan-
CO2 Leadership Brief dards that must be met regardless of
By Justin Worland additional cost. Lastly, it’s worth con-
sidering that energy markets are dy-
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
namic, a trend that’s bound to continue.
A spike in fossil-fuel prices driven by
ON MAY 1, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR analysis from the research and consult- geopolitical instability or other unex-
Jerome Powell offered a two-part mes- ing firm Wood Mackenzie found that pected developments could quickly
sage to eager interest-rate watchers. a 2-percentage-point interest-rate in- shift the math. In short, renewable en-
The Fed is unlikely to increase interest crease would lead to as much as a 20% ergy can help advance energy security.
rates this year, but policymakers there spike in the LCOE for renewables. And then there’s the climate im-
are also not rushing to bring them Power plants running on natural gas perative. The energy infrastructure we
below 5.25%–5.5%. “I don’t know how face only a 11% increase in the LCOE build today will be around for decades
long it’ll take,” Powell said of when the under the same interest-rate conditions. and determine how far away we land
Fed might cut rates. At the same time, large oil and gas from meeting climate targets. If inter-
Interest rates shape markets, and companies have enjoyed record prof- est rates seem likely to remain high
that’s especially true with renewable its over the past several years, giving for years into the future, policy-
energy. Clean-energy projects are firms deep pockets and leaving them makers keen to address climate
cheaper to run than their fossil-fuel less reliant on debt to finance projects. change may need to look for new
counterparts because they don’t re- ways to continue to nudge the world
quire operators to continually pur- THE CHALLENGE that interest rates toward cleaner energy sources. That
chase fuel. But they typically have pose to renewable energy isn’t new. could mean the further development
high up-front costs. As a result, the Indeed, it’s been a key point of dis- of carbon markets designed to put a
price of clean energy is determined cussion in energy and climate circles cost on emitting or implementing new
to a significant extent by the cost of since inflation began to rise rapidly mechanisms designed to reduce the
the debt that developers take on when post-COVID. But what is new is the cost of financing clean-energy proj-
they first build projects. prospect of a longer period of sus- ects. And, finally, a sustained period
Energy experts sometimes refer to tained high interest rates. Billions in of high interest rates strengthens the
A L D R A G O — B L O O M B E R G /G E T T Y I M A G E S

what they call the levelized cost of elec- case for policymakers to reduce the
tricity, or LCOE, to compare the cost of cost of renewables in the domains
generating electricity over the lifetime they do control, including by helping
of different facilities or energy sources. The energy accelerate the permitting process.
That figure incorporates all the dif- infrastructure we
ferent costs associated with building
build today will be
For insights on business and climate
and operating a plant, from develop- sent straight to your email, sign up at
ment to decommissioning. An April around for decades time.com/co2-report

20 TIME May 27, 2024

 On April 24 th and 25 th , we gathered in New York City to recognize the
world’s most influential people at the TIME100 Summit and Gala.

Experience more time.com/time100

DUA LIPA SINGER- SONGWR ITE R, TARA J I P. HEN SON ACTOR , M AYA RU D OLP H ACTOR , MIC HA EL J. FOX A DVOCAT E & FOUN DER OF THE M ICHAEL J. FOX FO UNDATION
FOR PAR KI N S ON ’S R E SE AR CH , CO LMA N D OM ING O ACTOR

T H A N K YO U T O O U R PA R T N E R S

P R E M I E R PA R T N E R

S I G N AT U R E PA R T N E R S S U P P O R T I N G PA R T N E R S B R O A D C A S T PA R T N E R
THE VIEW ESSAYS

SOCIETY veterinary hospital over a 15-year

Why the Westminster Dog Show span. They found that purebreds were
more likely than mutts to have any
made me appreciate mutts of 10 different genetic conditions—
BY TOMMY TOMLINSON everything from cataracts to
dermatitis to bloat (a distended-
stomach condition that can be fatal).
i spenT Three years among dogs wiTh bloodlines Perfection always comes with a price.
like British royalty. In our world, they would be earls and Thinking about that price led me
duchesses. Their names are in stud books that go back to think about the parade of dogs I’ve
many generations. They are the product of centuries of been lucky enough to know through-
careful breeding to make them the out my life. Nearly
most perfect versions of themselves. all of them have
Eh. I like mutts better. been mutts, and you
It’s not that I didn’t like the could tell just by
dogs I met at dog shows around the looking at them. The
U.S.—including the most prestigious dogs I’ve loved have
of them all, the Westminster Dog had crooked teeth
Show. They were beautiful speci- and scrawny butts.
mens: athletic, combed to a high They walked a little
sheen, well behaved. sideways or drooled
In fact, the dogs on the dog-show from one side of the
circuit—a never-ending tour of big mouth. They were
cities and small towns all over Amer- all, in their own way,
ica, a rolling caravan that I came to perfectly imperfect.
think of as “Dogland”—have to meet My wife and I
brutal guidelines just to step into the had the great luck
ring. Each of the American Kennel △ to live with a yellow
Club’s 200 recognized breeds has a written standard that Great Danes Lab mutt, Fred, who arrived in our
outlines what a prime example of the breed can and can- during lives as a stray puppy in the ditch in
not be. Some breed standards run thousands of words. the 147th our old front yard. Fred wouldn’t have
Dogs that meet all the rules and make it to the top of Westminster lasted five minutes in a show ring. His
the show world are just about physically perfect. I spent a Kennel Club back end sometimes strayed when he
Dog Show in
lot of time with a Samoyed named Striker who won more walked, like a fishtailing car. But he
Queens, N.Y.,
than 100 dog shows all over North America. One time I on May 9, 2023
was the most loving and lovable dog
asked his handler, Laura King, to tell me where Striker I’ve ever been around. Never once, in
fails to meet the Samoyed breed standard, which runs to his entire life, did he harm another
1,600 words. The only thing she could think of was a slight living thing.
discoloration on the inside of his lip. It broke our hearts when old age,
None of this is by accident. Breeders choose the puppies and a tumor on his liver, finally got
they believe to be “show quality” when they are just a few him. But he made it to 14�∕₂ years—
weeks old. (The other dogs in the litter are deemed “pet more than two years longer than the
quality.” Dogland is the only place where that phrase serves average life of a purebred yellow Lab.
as a dig.) The ones who grow up to be champion show dogs I think of that now as extra innings,
are then bred with other champion show dogs to produce, a second helping of dessert.
naturally, even more champion show dogs. But that pro- There were many purebreds in
cess, repeated over generations within a breed, leads to Dogland that I would have taken
what people in Dogland refer to as “line breeding.” What it home in a second if I’d had the chance.
means, in practice, is that show dogs are inbred. It was breathtaking to watch them
C A L L A K E S S L E R — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X

sometimes, like being in the front row

InbreedIng Is faIrly common among all types of ani- at an NBA game. But if you gave me
mals. Intensive inbreeding, in situations like the show-dog all the dogs in the world to choose
world, can have long-term medical effects. That’s because from, I’d start with the ones that are a
recessive genes that could get muted by crossbreeding little lopsided, asymmetrical, funky.
get amplified instead. This means that nearly every breed Our quirks are features, not flaws.
of purebred dog has chronic health problems that never Give me a mutt.
get fixed. In 2015, a group of researchers analyzed the re-
cords of nearly 89,000 dogs that came through a California Tomlinson is the author of Dogland
22 Time May 27, 2024
GE T T Y IMAGES

HEALTH

BY MARK HYMAN AND RON GUTMAN

MOST OF US ARE ADDICTED TO SUGAR,

GRAMS

GRAMS
AND WE DON’T EVEN KNOW IT

50
150
 ADVERTISEMENT

CHINAWATCH

Flights of kites

An ancient folk craft tradition floats across time and still soars to new heights in modern times

BY CHENG YUEZHU years crafting a wooden hawk,

which is considered a prototype
Many people hold at least for today’s kites. Later, Lu Ban, a
one memory of a kite from their master carpenter and engineer,
childhoods, be it a simple yet made improvements by substi-
classic diamond or a colorful tuting wood with bamboo.
bird-shaped kind with vividly During the Eastern Han Dynas-
flapping wings. It could be a ty (25-220) the inventor Cai Lun
sunny spring day in a pastoral improved papermaking tech-
landscape with family members. niques, leading to the invention of
As the wind picks up, the user “paper hawks”, which resembled
runs as fast as he or she can, the kites we know today.
until the kite ascends high into “Kites’ origins reveal the re-
the sky and dances in the air. markable ability and creativity of
However, the kite that Yang ancient Chinese to imitate nature
Hongwei of Yangjiabu village in Top: A girl flies a kite in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province on April 6. XINHUA Above: A dragon- and explore its mysteries,” Ma
Weifang, Shandong province, headed centipede kite made by Yang Hongwei, a national-level representative inheritor says. “They observed birds and
remembers is slightly different. of kite-making techniques in Weifang, Shandong province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY thought of using wood and paper
It was a gigantic dragon-headed to make objects that could soar
centipede that stretched for national-level intangible cultural each of which is hand-painted in the sky. They were driven by
1,180 feet and took dozens of heritage items, kites and Yangjia- with images of children, carrying curiosity and a spirit of scientific
people to fly. bu new year pictures, a type of wishes for longevity, prosperity exploration to understand and
That was at the third Weifang traditional woodblock printing and other blessings. harness the power of wind.”
International Kite Festival in used to decorate people’s homes “Throughout history kites During the Tang Dynasty
1986. To celebrate their village’s during Spring Festival. have been close to people’s (618-907) relative stability and
legacy of crafting kites, her Both art forms emerged in daily lives and influenced by folk prosperity made paper more af-
grandfather, Yang Tongke, and Yangjiabu in the Ming Dynasty traditions,” says Ma Zhiyao, a fordable, and kites became part
uncle, Yang Qimin, both master (1368-1644) and prospered in professor at Tianjin University of ordinary people’s lives. As
kite makers, envisioned and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), who specializes in folklore and kite-making techniques became
created a model 10 times bigger she says. “Our kites’ decora- intangible cultural heritage. more refined, varieties adorned
than any they had ever made. tions draw inspiration from new “They have not only become with imagery and that produced
Weifang is renowned as the year pictures, each one carries embedded in folk culture but sound effects were developed.
“world capital of kites”, and its own story and auspicious also provide entertainment and In this period, too, kite fly-
Yangjiabu village has long connotations.” physical activity. This heritage ing during festivals became a
remained at the heart of local She took a variety of rep- has been passed down, demon- custom. The late Tang-era poet
production. resentative Weifang kites to strating the enduring vitality of Luo Yin wrote prose about a kite
Yang Hongwei, who was born the recent 37th International Chinese civilization.” flying on the Cold Food Festival,
to a family of artisan kite makers Kite Festival in Berck-sur-Mer, Kites’ origins can be traced which then fell directly before the
in the village in 1966, became France, including a dragon-head- back to the late Spring and springtime Tomb Sweeping Day
a national-level representative ed centipede kite with images of Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.), and was later merged with it.
inheritor of Weifang kite-making 100 children. The kite features a with historical accounts attrib- The custom was popularized
techniques this year. dragon head with a body and tail uting their invention to the phi- in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Yangjiabu is home to two fashioned from about 50 discs, losopher Mozi, who spent three By the Ming and Qing dynasties,

China Watch materials are distributed by China Daily Distribution Corp. on behalf of China Daily, Beijing, China.
 ADVERTISEMENT

significant progress was con-

tinuing in design, style, produc- Exhibition showcases
tion, decoration and flying skills.
“Many literati liked to hand-
make silk kites as gifts for their
ancient splendor
families and friends,” Ma says.
“They’d carefully select refined BY DENG ZHANGYU splendid history was revealed
materials and then paint the silk and LIA ZHU by recent archaeological
cover by hand. These kites were discoveries and their musical
exquisite and lasting.” A captivating exhibition at the instruments, represented by
One of history’s most famous Asian Art Museum in San Fran- the bronze bells, which aston-
kite lovers was Cao Xueqin, a lit- cisco offers a clue to the vibrant ished the world, said Jeremy
erary giant of the Qing Dynasty Bronze Age cultures that flour- Zhang, the museum’s curator
who wrote the seminal novel ished along the Yangtze River of Chinese art.
Dream of the Red Chamber. more than 2,000 years ago. Jay Xu, director and chief
Kite flying was portrayed in Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last executive of the Asian Art Mu-
the book as a pastime of the Splendor of China’s Bronze Age seum and a specialist in early
genteel protagonist family and had an appreciative audience at China, said: “We’re witnessing a
was also used as a metaphor the museum on April 19, show- golden age of Chinese ar-
for characters’ destinies. casing more than 260 items of chaeology. Phoenix Kingdoms
In the book’s 70th chapter a remarkable artifacts unearthed bridges the gap between myth
main character suggests kite from aristocratic tombs in and history, allowing visitors
flying to “let go of bad luck”, a Hubei province. to come face-to-face with the
belief traditionally associated The exhibition, running until past through these stunning
with kites. July 22, was co-organized by artifacts.”
“In the past, when it came to the Asian Art Museum and Anne Kaahn, a docent of
Cold Food Festival and Tomb Hubei Provincial Museum. It the Asian Art Museum, said it
Sweeping Day, kite flying was showcases a diverse range of is such a rare opportunity for
considered a key custom,” Ma objects: intricate bronze ves- American audiences, because
says. “After making sacrifices to sels, jade ornaments, musical the artifacts, like textiles that
ancestors, people would fly kites, instruments used in ancient were previously too fragile to be
which on one hand expresses ceremonies, and weaponry excavated or travel, can now be
thoughts about family members employed in battles. Lacquer- shared with the public.
and on the other lets go of all ware, a hallmark of luxury and One of the pieces that Kaahn
unhappiness and ill omens. refinement, also features. recommends to visitors is the 16
“On Dragon Boat Festival, Li Qun, director of China’s writhing dragons that resemble
which was believed to be the National Cultural Heritage snakes, which make up the base
most poisonous day of the year, Administration, said that it is of a drum from the tomb of the
people would fly kites, represent- the largest show of cultural Marquis Yi of Zeng (433 B.C.).
ing the shaking off of misfortune, property China has organized Other highlights include the
so that family members could in the U.S. in recent years and ornament with a design of two
live long and healthy lives.” represents the magnificent raptors on a mask (2200 B.C.),
Weifang, Beijing, Tianjin and and romantic allure of Chinese the oldest piece on view.
the city of Nantong in Jiangsu culture to the U.S. audience. The exhibition has drawn
province are four areas celebrat- The show consists of five significant interest, attracting
ed for distinctive kite-making sections that vividly illustrate visitors from all walks of life.
techniques. They all boast their achievements in art, music, Huiqi Demke, 11, from Utah,
own unique features yet share technology and design of the said she is eager to learn more
the same dedication to preserv- Zeng and Chu states, two vas- about Chinese history.
ing, inheriting and promoting sals of the Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th “I’ve been studying Chinese
traditional artisanship. century-256 B.C.) in the middle for five years, and I’m always
Ma says the “four techniques” reaches of the Yangtze River, a fascinated by Chinese culture.
in kite making — crafting the cradle of China’s early civilization This is an amazing opportunity
frame from roasted split bam- at the end of the Bronze Age. to learn and share what I see
boo, pasting materials such as The Zeng state’s long and here with my classmates.”
paper and silk onto the frame,
painting images on the body
and flying the kite — are a test
of a person’s temperament,
patience and dedication. “From
an item as modest as a kite, we
can see Chinese people’s at-
tachment to the cultural values
swallow shaped associated with happiness,
kites with various positivity and health. This is why From left: Visitors examine a cultural relic known as a lei, a type of ritual bronze object
patterns, colors and the the thin string linking us to kites decorated with resting birds, at Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendor of China’s
symmetrical structure. and culture has endured until Bronze Age, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. WU XIAOLING / XINHUA
PHOTOS PROVIDED TO today and remains a cherished A volunteer introduces Chinese history to a group of students at the exhibition.
CHINA DAILY part of contemporary life.” LIA ZHU / CHINA DAILY

Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

 POLITICS

In exclusive
interviews with
TIME, Donald
Trump lays out a
second-term agenda that followed the last one, or how he has become
the first former—and perhaps future—American
President to face a criminal trial. I wanted to know
that would reshape what Trump would do if he wins a second term, to
hear his vision for the nation, in his own words.
America and its What emerged in two interviews with Trump,
and conversations with more than a dozen of his
role in the world closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines
of an imperial presidency that would reshape
America and its role in the world. To carry out a
BY ERIC CORTELLESSA/PALM BEACH, FLA. deportation operation designed to remove more
than 11 million people from the country, Trump
told me, he would be willing to build migrant de-
tention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both
DonalD Trump Thinks he’s iDenTifieD a at the border and inland. He would let red states
crucial mistake of his first term: He was too nice. monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those
We’ve been talking for more than an hour on who violate abortion bans. He would, at his per-
April 12 at his fever-dream palace in Palm Beach. sonal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by
Aides lurk around the perimeter of a gilded dining Congress, according to top advisers. He would be
room overlooking the manicured lawn. When one willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry
nudges me to wrap up the interview, I bring up the out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with
many former Cabinet officials who refuse to en- a tradition of independent law enforcement that
dorse Trump this time. Some have publicly warned dates from America’s founding. He is weighing par-
that he poses a danger to the Republic. Why should dons for every one of his supporters accused of
voters trust you, I ask, when some of the people attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more
who observed you most closely do not? than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been con-
As always, Trump punches back, denigrating victed by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an
his former top advisers. But beneath the typical attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that coun-
torrent of invective, there is a larger lesson he has try wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He
taken away. “I let them quit because I have a heart. would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National
I don’t want to embarrass anybody,” Trump says. “I Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the
don’t think I’ll do that again. From now on, I’ll fire.” White House pandemic-preparedness office, and
Six months from the 2024 presidential elec- staff his Administration with acolytes who back his
tion, Trump is better positioned to win the White false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
House than at any point in either of his previous Trump remains the same guy, with the same
campaigns. He leads Joe Biden by slim margins in goals and grievances. But in person, if anything,
most polls, including in several of the seven swing he appears more assertive and confident. “When
states likely to determine the outcome. But I had I first got to Washington, I knew very few people,”
not come to ask about the election, the disgrace he says. “I had to rely on people.” Now he is in
 The former President,
at Mar-a-Lago on April 12,
is rallying the right at
home and seeking
common cause with
autocratic leaders abroad
PHOTOGR APH BY PHILIP
MONTGOMERY FOR TIME
POLITICS

charge. The arranged marriage with the timo-

rous Republican Party stalwarts is over; the old
guard is vanquished, and the people who remain
are his people. Trump would enter a second term
backed by a slew of policy shops staffed by loyal-
ists who have drawn up detailed plans in service of
his agenda, which would concentrate the powers
of the state in the hands of a man whose appetite
for power appears all but insatiable. “I don’t think
it’s a big mystery what his agenda would be,” says
his close adviser Kellyanne Conway. “But I think
people will be surprised at the alacrity with which
he will take action.”
The courts, the Constitution, and a Congress
of unknown composition would all have a say in
whether Trump’s objectives come to pass. The ma-
chinery of Washington has a range of defenses:
leaks to a free press, whistle-blower protections,
the oversight of inspectors general. The same de-
ficiencies of temperament and judgment that hin-
dered him in the past remain present. If he wins,
Trump would be a lame duck—contrary to the
suggestions of some supporters, he tells TIME he
would not seek to overturn or ignore the Constitu-
tion’s prohibition on a third term. Public opinion
would also be a powerful check. Amid a popular
outcry, Trump was forced to scale back some of
his most draconian first-term initiatives, includ-
ing the policy of separating migrant families. As
George Orwell wrote in 1945, the ability of gov-
ernments to carry out their designs “depends on
the general temper in the country.”
Every election is billed as a national turning
point. This time that rings true. To supporters,
the prospect of Trump 2.0, unconstrained and
backed by a disciplined movement of true believ- is elsewhere. With an index finger, he swipes
ers, offers revolutionary promise. To much of the through an iPad on the table to curate the restau-
rest of the nation and the world, it represents an rant’s soundtrack. The playlist veers from Sinead
alarming risk. A second Trump term could bring O’Connor to James Brown to The Phantom of the
“the end of our democracy,” says presidential his- ‘If we don’t Opera. And there’s a uniquely Trump choice: a ren-
torian Douglas Brinkley, “and the birth of a new dition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by a
kind of authoritarian presidential order.”
win, you choir of defendants imprisoned for attacking the
know, it U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, interspersed with a record-
Trump sTeps onTo The paTio at Mar-a-Lago depends.’ ing of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
near dusk. The well-heeled crowd eating Wagyu —TRUMP, ON THE This has become a staple of his rallies, convert-
steaks and grilled branzino pauses to applaud POSSIBILITY OF POST- ing the ultimate symbol of national unity into a
as he takes his seat. On this gorgeous evening, ELECTION VIOLENCE weapon of factional devotion.
the club is a MAGA mecca. Billionaire donor The spectacle picks up where his first term
Steve Wynn is here. So is Speaker of the House left off. The events of Jan. 6, during which a pro-
Mike Johnson, who is dining with the former Trump mob attacked the center of American
President after a joint press conference pro- democracy in an effort to subvert the peaceful
posing legislation to prevent noncitizens from transfer of power, was a profound stain on his leg-
voting. Their voting in federal elections is al- acy. Trump has sought to recast an insurrection-
ready illegal, and extremely rare, but remains a ist riot as an act of patriotism. “I call them the J-6
Trumpian fixation that the embattled Speaker patriots,” he says. When I ask whether he would
appeared happy to co-sign in exchange for the consider pardoning every one of them, he says,
political cover that standing with Trump provides. “Yes, absolutely.” As Trump faces dozens of fel-
At the moment, though, Trump’s attention ony charges, including for election interference,
28 Time May 27, 2024 PHOTOGR APHS BY VICTOR J. BLUE
 imposing his will directly on the department and
its far-flung investigators and prosecutors.
In our Mar-a-Lago interview, Trump says he
might fire U.S. Attorneys who refuse his orders to
prosecute someone: “It would depend on the situ-
ation.” He’s told supporters he would seek retribu-
tion against his enemies in a second term. Would
that include Fani Willis, the Atlanta-area district
attorney who charged him with election interfer-
ence, or Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA in the
Stormy Daniels case, who Trump has previously
said should be prosecuted? Trump demurs but of-
fers no promises. “No, I don’t want to do that,” he
says, before adding, “We’re gonna look at a lot of
things. What they’ve done is a terrible thing.”
Trump has also vowed to appoint a “real spe-
cial prosecutor” to go after Biden. “I wouldn’t
want to hurt Biden,” he tells me. “I have too much
respect for the office.” Seconds later, though, he
suggests Biden’s fate may be tied to an upcoming
Supreme Court ruling on whether Presidents can
face criminal prosecution for acts committed in of-
fice. “If they said that a President doesn’t get im-
munity,” says Trump, “then Biden, I am sure, will
be prosecuted for all of his crimes.” (Biden has not
been charged with any, and a House Republican ef-
fort to impeach him has failed to unearth evidence
of any crimes or misdemeanors, high or low.)
Such moves would be potentially catastrophic
for the credibility of American law enforcement,
scholars and former Justice Department leaders
from both parties say. “If he ordered an improper
prosecution, I would expect any respectable U.S.
Attorney to say no,” says Michael McConnell, a
△ former U.S. appellate judge appointed by Presi-
conspiracy to defraud the United States, willful Trump dent George W. Bush. “If the President fired the
retention of national-security secrets, and falsi- addresses U.S. Attorney, it would be an enormous firestorm.”
fying business records to conceal hush-money the crowd at McConnell, now a Stanford law professor, says
payments, he has tried to turn legal peril into a a campaign the dismissal could have a cascading effect simi-
badge of honor. rally in lar to the Saturday Night Massacre, when Presi-
In a second term, Trump’s influence on Amer- Schnecksville, dent Richard Nixon ordered top DOJ officials to
Pa., on
ican democracy would extend far beyond par- remove the special counsel investigating Water-
April 13
doning powers. Allies are laying the groundwork gate. Presidents have the constitutional right to fire
to restructure the presidency in line with a doc- U.S. Attorneys, and typically replace their prede-
trine called the unitary executive theory, which cessors’ appointees upon taking office. But dis-
holds that many of the constraints imposed on charging one specifically for refusing a President’s
the White House by legislators and the courts order would be all but unprecedented.
should be swept away in favor of a more powerful Trump’s radical designs for presidential power
Commander in Chief. would be felt throughout the country. A main focus
Nowhere would that power be more momen- is the southern border. Trump says he plans to sign
tous than at the Department of Justice. Since the orders to reinstall many of the same policies from
nation’s earliest days, Presidents have generally his first term, such as the Remain in Mexico pro-
kept a respectful distance from Senate-confirmed gram, which requires that non-Mexican asylum
law-enforcement officials to avoid exploiting for seekers be sent south of the border until their court
personal ends their enormous ability to curtail dates, and Title 42, which allows border officials
Americans’ freedoms. But Trump, burned in his to expel migrants without letting them apply for
first term by multiple investigations directed asylum. Advisers say he plans to cite record bor-
by his own appointees, is ever more vocal about der crossings and fentanyl- and child-trafficking
29
RUBRIC

△
as justification for reimposing the emergency mea- The Jan. 6, 2021, pregnancies. “I think they might do that,” he says.
sures. He would direct federal funding to resume attack on the When I ask whether he would be comfortable with
construction of the border wall, likely by allocating U.S. Capitol is a states prosecuting women for having abortions be-
money from the military budget without congres- profound stain yond the point the laws permit, he says, “It’s ir-
sional approval. The capstone of this program, ad- on Trump’s relevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s to-
visers say, would be a massive deportation opera- legacy, one that tally irrelevant, because the states are going to
he has sought to
tion that would target millions of people. Trump recast as an act
make those decisions.” President Biden has said
made similar pledges in his first term, but says of patriotism he would fight state antiabortion measures in court
he plans to be more aggressive in a second. “Peo- and with regulation.
ple need to be deported,” says Tom Homan, a top Trump’s allies don’t plan to be passive on abor-
Trump adviser and former acting head of Immigra- tion if he returns to power. The Heritage Founda-
tion and Customs Enforcement. “No one should tion has called for enforcement of a 19th century
be off the table.” statute that would outlaw the mailing of abortion
For an operation of that scale, Trump says pills. The Republican Study Committee (RSC),
he would rely mostly on the National Guard to which includes more than 80% of the House GOP
round up and remove undocumented migrants conference, included in its 2025 budget proposal
throughout the country. “If they weren’t able the Life at Conception Act, which says the right
to, then I’d use [other parts of] the military,” he to life extends to “the moment of fertilization.”
says. When I ask if that means he would over- I ask Trump if he would veto that bill if it came
ride the Posse Comitatus Act—an 1878 law that to his desk. “I don’t have to do anything about
prohibits the use of military force on civilians— vetoes,” Trump says, “because we now have it
Trump seems unmoved by the weight of the stat- back in the states.”
ute. “Well, these aren’t civilians,” he says. “These Presidents typically have a narrow window to
are people that aren’t legally in our country.” He pass major legislation. Trump’s team is eyeing two
would also seek help from local police and says bills to kick off a second term: a border-security
he would deny funding for jurisdictions that de- and immigration package, and an extension of his
cline to adopt his policies. “There’s a possibility 2017 tax cuts. Many of the latter’s provisions expire
that some won’t want to participate,” Trump says, early in 2025: the tax cuts on individual income
“and they won’t partake in the riches.” brackets, 100% business expensing, the doubling
As President, Trump nominated three Supreme of the estate-tax deduction. Trump is planning to
Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, intensify his protectionist agenda, telling me he’s
and he claims credit for his role in ending a consti- considering a tariff of more than 10% on all im-
tutional right to an abortion. At the same time, he ports, and perhaps even a 100% tariff on some Chi-
has sought to defuse a potent campaign issue for nese goods. Trump says the tariffs will liberate the
the Democrats by saying he wouldn’t sign a federal U.S. economy from being at the mercy of foreign
ban. In our interview at Mar-a-Lago, he declines to manufacturing and spur an industrial renaissance
commit to vetoing any additional federal restric- in the U.S. When I point out that independent ana-
tions if they came to his desk. More than 20 states lysts estimate Trump’s first-term tariffs on thou-
now have full or partial abortion bans, and Trump sands of products, including steel and aluminum,
says those policies should be left to the states to solar panels, and washing machines, may have
do what they want, including monitoring women’s cost the U.S. $316 billion and more than 300,000
30 Time May 27, 2024
 △
jobs, by one account, he dismisses these experts Left: the U.S. your own,” he says. Trump has long said the al-
out of hand. His advisers argue that the average border fence in liance is ripping the U.S. off. Former NATO
yearly inflation rate in his first term—under 2%— Sunland Park, Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg credited
is evidence that his tariffs won’t raise prices. N.M.; right: Trump’s first-term threat to pull out of the alli-
Since leaving office, Trump has tried to engi- a protester ance with spurring other members to add more
neer a caucus of the compliant, clearing primary confronts than $100 billion to their defense budgets.
fields in Senate and House races. His hope is that members of But an insecure NATO is as likely to accrue
the Minnesota
GOP majorities replete with MAGA diehards could National Guard
to Russia’s benefit as it is to America’s. President
rubber-stamp his legislative agenda and nomi- after the murder Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine looks
nees. Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, a for- of George Floyd to many in Europe and the U.S. like a test of his
mer RSC chairman and the GOP nominee for the broader vision to reconstruct the Soviet empire.
state’s open Senate seat, recalls an August 2022 Under Biden and a bipartisan Congress, the U.S.
RSC planning meeting with Trump at his residence has sent more than $100 billion to Ukraine to
in Bedminster, N.J. As the group arrived, Banks re- defend itself. It’s unlikely Trump would extend
calls, news broke that Mar-a-Lago had been raided the same support to Kyiv. After Orban visited
by the FBI. Banks was sure the meeting would be Mar-a-Lago in March, he said Trump “wouldn’t
canceled. Moments later, Trump walked through give a penny” to Ukraine. “I wouldn’t give unless
the doors, defiant and pledging to run again. “I Europe starts equalizing,” Trump hedges in our in-
need allies there when I’m elected,” Banks recalls terview. “If Europe is not going to pay, why should
Trump saying. The difference in a second Trump we pay? They’re much more greatly affected.
term, Banks says now, “is he’s going to have the We have an ocean in between us. They don’t.”
backup in Congress that he didn’t have before.” (E.U. nations have given more than $100 billion
in aid to Ukraine as well.)
Trump’s inTenTion to remake America’s rela- Trump has historically been reluctant to crit-
tions abroad may be just as consequential. Since its icize or confront Putin. He sided with the Rus-
founding, the U.S. has sought to build and sustain sian autocrat over his own intelligence commu-
alliances based on the shared values of political and nity when it asserted that Russia interfered in the
economic freedom. Trump takes a much more trans- 2016 election. Even now, Trump uses Putin as a
actional approach to international relations than his foil for his own political purposes. When I asked
predecessors, expressing disdain for what he views Trump why he has not called for the release of
as free-riding friends and appreciation for authori- Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich,
tarian leaders like President Xi Jinping of China, who has been unjustly held on spurious charges
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, or former in a Moscow prison for a year, Trump says, “I guess
President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. because I have so many other things I’m working
That’s one reason America’s traditional al- on.” Gershkovich should be freed, he adds, but he
lies were horrified when Trump recently said doubts it will happen before the election. “The re-
at a campaign rally that Russia could “do what- porter should be released and he will be released,”
ever the hell they want” to a NATO country he Trump tells me. “I don’t know if he’s going to be
believes doesn’t spend enough on collective released under Biden. I would get him released.”
defense. That wasn’t idle bluster, Trump tells America’s Asian allies, like its European ones,
me. “If you’re not going to pay, then you’re on may be on their own under Trump. Taiwan’s Foreign
31
POLITICS

Minister recently said aid to Ukraine was critical in to lingering security concerns. When Trump ar-
deterring Xi from invading the island. Communist rives, he asks the store’s co-owner, Maad Ahmed,
China’s leaders “have to understand that things like a Yemeni immigrant, about safety. “You should be
that can’t come easy,” Trump says, but he declines allowed to have a gun,” Trump tells Ahmed. “If you
to say whether he would come to Taiwan’s defense. had a gun, you’d never get robbed.”
Trump is less cryptic on current U.S. troop On the campaign trail, Trump uses crime as a
deployments in Asia. If South Korea doesn’t cudgel, painting urban America as a savage hell-
pay more to support U.S. troops there to deter scape even though violent crime has declined in
Kim Jong Un’s increasingly belligerent regime to recent years, with homicides sinking 6% in 2022
the north, Trump suggests the U.S. could withdraw and 13% in 2023, according to the FBI. When I
its forces. “We have 40,000 troops that are in a pre- point this out, Trump tells me he thinks the data,
carious position,” he tells TIME. (The number is which is collected by state and local police depart-
actually 28,500.) “Which doesn’t make any sense. ments, is rigged. “It’s a lie,” he says. He has pledged
Why would we defend somebody? And we’re talk- to send the National Guard into cities struggling
ing about a very wealthy country.” with crime in a second term—possibly without
Transactional isolationism may be the main the request of governors—and plans to approve
strain of Trump’s foreign policy, but there are lim- Justice Department grants only to cities that adopt
its. Trump says he would join Israel’s side in a con- his preferred policing methods like stop-and-frisk.
frontation with Iran. “If they attack Israel, yes, we To critics, Trump’s preoccupation with crime
would be there,” he tells me. He says he has come is a racial dog whistle. In polls, large numbers of
around to the now widespread belief in Israel that his supporters have expressed the view that anti-
a Palestinian state existing side by side in peace white racism now represents a greater problem in
is increasingly unlikely. “There was a time when the U.S. than the systemic racism that has long af-
I thought two-state could work,” he says. “Now I flicted Black Americans. When I ask if he agrees,
think two-state is going to be very, very tough.” Trump does not dispute this position. “There is a
Yet even his support for Israel is not absolute. ‘There is definite antiwhite feeling in the country,” he tells
He’s criticized Israel’s handling of its war against a definite TIME, “and that can’t be allowed either.” In a sec-
Hamas, which has killed more than 30,000 Pales- ond term, advisers say, a Trump Administration
tinians in Gaza, and has called for the nation to “get antiwhite would rescind Biden’s Executive Orders designed
it over with.” When I ask whether he would con- feeling in to boost diversity and racial equity.
sider withholding U.S. military aid to Israel to push the country.’ Trump’s ability to campaign for the White House
it toward winding down the war, he doesn’t say —TRUMP in the midst of an unprecedented criminal trial is
yes, but he doesn’t rule it out, either. He is sharply the product of a more professional campaign oper-
critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- ation that has avoided the infighting that plagued
yahu, once a close ally. “I had a bad experience with past versions. “He has a very disciplined team
Bibi,” Trump says. In his telling, a January 2020 around him,” says Representative Elise Stefanik of
U.S. operation to assassinate a top Iranian general New York. “That is an indicator of how disciplined
was supposed to be a joint attack until Netanyahu and focused a second term will be.” That control
backed out at the last moment. “That was some- now extends to the party writ large. In 2016, the
thing I never forgot,” he says. He blames Netanyahu GOP establishment, having failed to derail Trump’s
for failing to prevent the Oct. 7 attack, when Hamas campaign, surrounded him with staff who sought
militants infiltrated southern Israel and killed to temper him. Today the party’s permanent class
nearly 1,200 people amid acts of brutality includ- have either devoted themselves to the gospel of
ing burning entire families alive and raping women MAGA or given up. Trump has cleaned house at the
and girls. “It happened on his watch,” Trump says. Republican National Committee, installing hand-
picked leaders—including his daughter-in-law—
On the secOnd day of Trump’s New York trial who have reportedly imposed loyalty tests on
on April 17, I stand behind the packed counter prospective job applicants, asking whether they
of the Sanaa Convenience Store on 139th Street believe the false assertion that the 2020 election
and Broadway, waiting for Trump to drop in for was stolen. (The RNC has denied there is a litmus
a postcourt campaign stop. He chose the bodega test.) Trump tells me he would have trouble hiring
for its history. In 2022, one of the store’s clerks anyone who admits Biden won: “I wouldn’t feel
fatally stabbed a customer who attacked him. good about it.”
Bragg, the Manhattan DA, charged the clerk with Policy groups are creating a government-in-
second-degree murder. (The charges were later waiting full of true believers. The Heritage Foun-
dropped amid public outrage over video footage dation’s Project 2025 has drawn up plans for legis-
that appeared to show the clerk acting in self- lation and Executive Orders as it trains prospective
defense.) A baseball bat behind the counter alludes personnel for a second Trump term. The Center
32 Time May 27, 2024
 Robert Lighthizer Tom Homan
TRUMP’S FORMER ACTING ICE
TRUMP’S FORMER U.S. TRADE DIRECTOR
REPRESENTATIVE
Fellow at Heritage
America First Policy Institute
POLICY Foundation
ADVISERS

Russell Vought Stephen Miller

TRUMP’S FORMER OMB C A M PA I G N TRUMP’S FORMER SENIOR
DIRECTOR TEAM ADVISER
President of America
President of Center for
First Legal
Renewing America

SENIOR POLITICAL

INSIDE ADVISER

TRUMP’S
WORLD
The former H
President has a CAMPAIGN MANAGER
SENIOR POLICY ADVISER
AND SPEECHWRITER
more disciplined
operation preparing
to put his vision
into action
CONFIDANTS

Stephen Bannon ay
FORMER CHIEF FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR
STRATEGIST AND CAMPAIGN MANAGER

for Renewing America, led by Russell Vought, zeal. One weapon in Trump’s second-term
HALE Y, SCAVINO, WILES: AP (3); BANNON, CONWAY, HOMAN, L ACIVITA, LIGHTHIZER, J. MILLER, S. MILLER, TRUMP, VOUGHT: GE T T Y IMAGES (9)

Trump’s former director of the Office of Manage- “War on Washington” is a wonky one: restoring
ment and Budget, is dedicated to disempowering the power of impoundment, which allowed Pres-
the so-called administrative state, the collection of idents to withhold congressionally appropriated
bureaucrats with the power to control everything funds. Impoundment was a favorite maneuver
from drug-safety determinations to the contents of of Nixon, who used his authority to freeze fund-
school lunches. The America First Policy Institute ing for subsidized housing and the Environmen-
is a research haven of pro-Trump right-wing pop- tal Protection Agency. Trump and his allies plan
ulists. America First Legal, led by Trump’s immi- to challenge a 1974 law that prohibits use of the
gration adviser Stephen Miller, is mounting court measure, according to campaign policy advisers.
battles against the Biden Administration. Another inside move is the enforcement of
The goal of these groups is to put Trump’s vi- Schedule F, which allows the President to fire non-
sion into action on day one. “The President never political government officials and which Trump
had a policy process that was designed to give him says he would embrace. “You have some people
what he actually wanted and campaigned on,” says that are protected that shouldn’t be protected,”
Vought. “[We are] sorting through the legal author- he says. A senior U.S. judge offers an example of
ities, the mechanics, and providing the momentum how consequential such a move could be. Sup-
for a future Administration.” That includes a litany pose there’s another pandemic, and President
of boundary-pushing right-wing policies, includ- Trump wants to push the use of an untested drug,
ing slashing Department of Justice funding and much as he did with hydroxychloroquine during
cutting climate and environmental regulations. COVID-19. Under Schedule F, if the drug’s medi-
Trump’s campaign says he would be the final cal reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration
decisionmaker on which policies suggested by refuses to sign off on its use, Trump could fire
these organizations would get implemented. them, and anyone else who doesn’t approve it. The
But at the least, these advisers could form the Trump team says the President needs the power to
front lines of a planned march against what hold bureaucrats accountable to voters. “The mere
Trump dubs the Deep State, marrying bureau- mention of Schedule F,” says Vought, “ensures that
cratic savvy to their leader’s antibureaucratic the bureaucracy moves in your direction.”
33
 △
It can be hard at times to discern Trump’s Trump were its greatest threat. “I think the enemy from
true intentions. In his interviews with TIME, he supporters within, in many cases, is much more dangerous
often sidestepped questions or answered them in gather outside for our country than the outside enemies of
contradictory ways. There’s no telling how his ego Manhattan China, Russia, and various others,” he tells me.
and self-destructive behavior might hinder his ob- Criminal Toward the end of our conversation at Mar-a-
jectives. And for all his norm-breaking, there are Court on Lago, I ask Trump to explain another troubling
April 15 for
lines he says he won’t cross. When asked if he comment he made: that he wants to be dictator
the first day of
would comply with all orders upheld by the Su- his trial for a day. It came during a Fox News town hall with
preme Court, Trump says he would. Sean Hannity, who gave Trump an opportunity to
But his policy preoccupations are clear and con- allay concerns that he would abuse power in of-
sistent. If Trump is able to carry out a fraction of fice or seek retribution against political opponents.
his goals, the impact could prove as transformative Trump said he would not be a dictator—“except
as any presidency in more than a century. “He’s in for day one,” he added. “I want to close the border,
full war mode,” says his former adviser and occa- and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
sional confidant Stephen Bannon. Trump’s sense Trump says that the remark “was said in fun, in
of the state of the country is “quite apocalyptic,” jest, sarcastically.” He compares it to an infamous
Bannon says. “That’s where Trump’s heart is. moment from the 2016 campaign, when he encour-
That’s where his obsession is.” aged the Russians to hack and leak Hillary Clinton’s
These obsessions could once again push emails. In Trump’s mind, the media sensational-
the nation to the brink of crisis. Trump does ized those remarks too. But the Russians weren’t
not dismiss the possibility of political vio- joking: among many other efforts to influence the
lence around the election. “If we don’t win, you core exercise of American democracy that year, they
know, it depends,” he tells TIME. “It always de- hacked the Democratic National Committee’s serv-
pends on the fairness of the election.” When I ers and disseminated its emails through WikiLeaks.
ask what he meant when he baselessly claimed Whether or not he was kidding about bring-
on Truth Social that a stolen election “allows for ing a tyrannical end to our 248-year experiment
the termination of all rules, regulations and ar- in democracy, I ask him, Don’t you see why many
ticles, even those found in the Constitution,” Americans see such talk of dictatorship as contrary
Trump responded by denying he had said it. He to our most cherished principles? Trump says no.
then complained about the “Biden-inspired” Quite the opposite, he insists. “I think a lot of peo-
court case he faces in New York and suggested ple like it.” —With reporting by LesLie DicksTein,
that the “fascists” in America’s government simmone shah, and JuLia ZorThian □
34 Time May 27, 2024
 CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

CROATIA
A Premium Experience

E
ach summer, thousands of yachts and other vessels for dental services, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and cosmetic
weave their way through the turquoise waters of the surgery are also all on the rise. Croatia’s tourism transformation
Adriatic and around the 1,200 islands that lie off isn’t just about increasing the quality of accommodation, it’s
Croatia’s coast. Leisure sailing is big business here, but it is only about offering diverse experiences, unparalleled access, and a
one facet of why people visit Croatia. commitment to responsible tourism.
Croatia’s rich history is visible in the remnants of fortresses Minister of Tourism and head of the Croatian National
dating back to Roman times, plus monasteries and castles Tourist Board (CNTB) Nikolina Brnjac has been
that have survived from later eras scattered throughout its instrumental in elevating the country’s brand and appeal. “I
cities and towns. With appetites stimulated by excursions and am extremely happy that Croatia is recognized in the world
outdoor exercise, active and cultural tourists are driving demand Nikolina Brnjac as a leader in the development of sustainable tourism,”
for traditional and haute Croatian cuisine, hence the growing Croatia Minister of Tourism says Brnjac. “We are one of the few countries that has a
popularity of culinary tours. Tourism Act, which enables each destination to develop in
“We are becoming a boutique destination for premium tourism,” explains the direction of sustainability based on exact data. Our examples and
Andreja Vukojević of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, “and health tourism good practices will serve as guidelines for the development of tourism
is an area where we can excel.” Thanks to a combination of Croatia’s skilled in other European and world destinations.”
body of healthcare professionals, its investment in state-of-the-art medical Thanks in part to Brnjac and CNTB’s efforts and initiatives, the country’s
equipment, quality of post-operative care, and cost-effective prices, demand tourism product has been polished into a premium experience.
 CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

“I Have Found Paradise...Croatia!”

Town of Hvar

Eagle Hills Real Estate, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi-based real estate company, has recently
added another illustrious gem to its opulent portfolio: Sunčani Hvar Hotels, a prominent
hotel chain situated on Croatia’s premier island of Hvar. We talked to Eagle Hills founder and
chairman Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar about Croatia’s unique tourism appeal and finding his
own piece of paradise on the Adriatic coast.

A COUNTRY OF ASTONISHING
NATURE AND HERITAGE BRAČ – REMARKABLE
“I arrived late at night so I couldn’t see NATURAL BEAUTY
much of anything,” says Alabbar, recalling The island of Brač’s Bluesun Hotel Elaphusa
his first trip to Split several years ago. “But is typical of the nature and quality of Eagle
when I opened my bedroom curtains the Hills’ hotels. Nestled between a 100-year-old
next morning, I couldn’t believe my eyes. pine forest and a pebble beach, the hotel also
I was blown away by the view! I lived in stands equidistant between Zlatni Rat, one of
California, Singapore, Dubai, and Morocco, Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar, Croatia’s best beaches, and the historic center
but I have never seen anything to equal it!” Founder and Chairman of Eagle Hills. of Bol, which is among the most popular
Alabbar fell in love with Croatia’s Adriatic blend of nature’s majesty and human tourist resorts in the country. Mainland resorts
Coast, particularly the jewel-toned vistas artistry. Split’s beauty boasts layers of like Bluesun Holiday Village Afrodita, on the
of Split, which is clearly a contender for history, its ancient stones whispering tales other hand, promise a more family-oriented
the title of the world’s most breathtaking of emperors and empires. experience, as well as access to the cultural
seaside panorama. The turquoise sea, After a drive south along the Adriatic treasures to be found in towns like Makarska.
flecked with emerald islands, lapping Coast, Alabbar became even more convinced
against the city’s shores, is crowned by the he had stumbled across one of the most HVAR – THE SUNSHINE
golden ramparts of Diocletian’s Palace, an idyllic places on the planet. Within days he ISLAND
UNESCO-protected Roman marvel. The had bought himself a house in Zagreb and Croatia is the land of a thousand islands,
draw of the picturesque fishing villages, begun looking for a suitable hotel chain to and Hvar is an island with a thousand
which dot the coastline with their terracotta add to his Eagle Hills portfolio. Bluesun’s possibilities. Acclaimed as the St Tropez
roofs glowing under a stunning azure sky, 13 beachfront hotels and private airport on of Croatia, it is the sunniest island in the
are unparalleled in their visual drama. The the island of Brač proved to be the perfect Mediterranean, with an interior just as
scene is a feast for the eyes, a harmonious match. stunning as its beaches, with peaceful

www.time.com/partnercontent
 CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

villages, lavender fields, olive groves and culture,” says Alabbar. “They want to get a
wineries. Hvar has also been acknowledged by feel for the spirit of the place and have some
Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards fun engaging with the local art and music
as the No.1 island in Europe. So it is truly an scene and even grass-roots sustainability
island with something for everyone. campaigns.”
Sunčani Hvar has already staked out its The talent and ability of the region’s
“green” credentials by becoming the first craftsmen is something Alabbar is passionate
hotel chain in the country to install solar about. He also recognizes the importance for
power panels in all its buildings. But there the neighborhood community to be involved in
is much more to the chain’s allure than its these projects. It is a policy that he is applying
environmental proficiency and, like the island in the renovation of his new portfolio of
itself, combines beauty and style in equal Croatian hotels, where he actively encourages
measure. domestic designers and professionals to join
Palace Elisabeth Hotel, a Hvar Heritage his team. “We’ve invited local architects, artists
Hotel, and a recent addition to Virtuoso’s and sculptors to put their ideas forward,”
luxury travel network, is situated in the heart he says. “They not only have the artisan
of Hvar Old Town, only steps away from many craftsmanship abilities, design acumen, and
of Hvar’s most emblematic attractions. It a talent for modern design, but they also
prides itself on being the island’s first five-star understand the historical references and
hotel and is an historical landmark in its knowledge about the legacy of these buildings.”
own right. Dating back to the 13th century, These hotels have nurtured generations of
it boasts Venetian and Austrian architectural hospitality talent, and it’s a relationship that
details, tastefully decorated rooms and suites, Eagle Hills is proud to continue to foster.
and -- thanks to its prime location in the heart Alabbar is carrying on the tradition of working
of Hvar -- amazing views of the marina and with the local communities in a whole range of
main square. activities ranging from wellness and healthcare
Tucked away in a tranquil bay, Hotel Amfora to art, crafts, and music. “A good hotel can be
is surrounded by a lush pine grove and only the jewel in a town or city’s crown; it’s what
a short ten-minute walk from town. This makes a neighborhood sparkle, and I have a
is probably one of the most exciting beach duty to create an exciting environment for my
resorts in the Adriatic. Its contemporary customers,” says Alabbar.
designed rooms offer breathtaking views of
the Paklinski Islands. Amfora’s spectacular A SUSTAINABLE LEGACY
cascading pool and lounge area, and diverse Now in his mid-60s, Alabbar still exudes
amenities such as state-of-the-art conference boundless energy and enthusiasm. He is
facilities, makes this unique, self-contained also a fierce champion of environmental
destination resort ideal – and not only for sustainability and is particularly looking
couples and family vacations, but also for all forward to the completion of a 15-story tower
memorable business events. block made entirely of recyclable material that
Palace Elisabeth and Amfora are just two of is scheduled for completion in 2025. He is
Sunčani’s seven-strong network of three- to also infectiously optimistic about the future of
five-star hotels strategically located across the tourism. “Only 2% of the world’s population
town of Hvar. travels right now,” he says. “Imagine the
impact on our business if that went up to
“A GOOD HOTEL MAKES THE 2.5%? I hope that doesn’t happen too fast
NEIGHBORHOOD SPARKLE” though, as we need time to build adequate
Bluesun and Sunčani Hvar resonate with infrastructure to support that kind of growth.”
Alabbar’s desire to give back to the regional With business leaders like Alabbar at
economies. Where tourism is concerned, he the helm, ensuring hotels and resorts are
believes that this means involving the local embracing eco-friendly practices, minimizing
communities as much as possible and, in the their environmental impact, and appealing to
process, enriching the visitor’s experience. travelers with a conscience, Croatia’s pristine
For more information on Sunčani Hvar’s and
“These days people are looking for more landscapes, charming towns, and turquoise
Bluesun Hotels and Resorts’ range of exquisite
authenticity from their holidays and want the waters look sure to retain their magic for many hotels please visit,
chance to immerse themselves in the local generations to come. www.suncanihvar.com & www.bluesunhotels.com

www.time.com/partnercontent
WORLD

Uranium dreams The promise of clean nuclear

power brings the West to Mongolia
By Charlie Campbell/
Sainshand, Mongolia

THE GOBI DESERT, ONCE REVERED BY MONGO-

lian poet Dulduityn Danzanravjaa as hiding a cos-
mic portal to the heavenly kingdom of Shambala,
Mongolia’s first uranium mine is expected to produce about 2,750
tons annually for three decades, some 4% of global production; it’s cur-
rently one of the top 10 unexploited deposits worldwide.
“This deposit is far from the only one,” says Olivier Thoumyre, a senior
vice president for Orano. “There is huge potential in Mongolia . . . to
enter the uranium market at the right time, because we know needs are
going to increase.” Mongolia boasts the world’s second largest uranium targets of war or terrorism. But historic fatalities
reserves, which promise to catapult this landlocked nation of 3.5 million across seven decades of the civil nuclear industry
into position as a key player in the global renewable-energy transition. are measured in the low thousands. Meanwhile,
Catalyzed by the war in Ukraine and Europe’s desire to wean itself air pollution from burning fossil fuels is estimated
off cheap Russian gas, support is booming for clean nuclear energy, to cause 5 million deaths every year.
which generates electricity by splitting atoms of uranium or plutonium. Today, nations from Romania and Saudi Arabia
The enthusiasm must overcome deep anxiety over reactor meltdowns to Bangladesh and Indonesia are exploring nu-
such as those at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011, questions clear plants. The E.U. has included nuclear power
about the disposal of nuclear waste, and the potential for plants to be plants in its list of “green” investments that can
be funded by its own green bonds, given the en-
ergy produced boasts just a quarter of the carbon
WORLD

nuclear reactors more than double, to $695.5 million. Legislation to

curb this supply passed the Senate in late April, though experts pre-
dict that it will take at least five years of heavy investment for the U.S.
to break its Russian uranium dependency.
Mongolia can help in that regard, if it steps lightly. It may be an
adolescent, rambunctious democracy, but a nation squeezed between
Russia and China—and whose capital, Ulan Bator, literally translates as
“red hero”—cannot shrug off historical and geopolitical baggage so eas-
ily. Since democratization in 1990, Mongolia has cultivated ties with the
West via its “third-neighbor policy,” of which the Orano deal is a prime
example. But a nation reliant on Beijing for 90% of trade and Moscow
for 90% of imported gas and petroleum must tread carefully in this
fraught new era of great-power competition. “Russia feels Mongolia’s
mines are really their assets because Soviet money was invested into
them,” says Ken de Graaf, a former vice chairman of the North America–
Mongolia Business Council.
Mongolia is an acute illustration of the geopolitical, environmen-
tal, and economic challenges facing mineral-rich nations seeking to
benefit from emerging technologies, whether supplying indium for
flat-screen TVs, rhenium for jet engines, or gallium for smartphones.
With mining already accounting for a quarter of GDP and 90% of ex-
ports, the hope in Mongolia is that this generation of energy extraction
works out better than the last. The nation remains blighted by endemic
poverty and, because of a reliance on coal for heat and power, some
of the planet’s most rancid air. Over the past decade, respiratory dis-
eases in Ulan Bator—the world’s most polluted capital—have increased
nearly threefold, with pneumonia the second leading cause of death
among young children today. Miscarriages are 3.5 times as common
in Ulan Bator’s polluted winter as in the comparatively clear summer.
But resource exploitation is a charged issue
in Mongolia, a third of whose people are no-
madic and fiercely protective of ancestral lands, ‘There
worshipping the Eternal Blue Sky and consider- is huge
ing even a shallow trench a shameful defiling of
Mother Earth. The challenge for Mongolia’s gov- potential in
ernment is to safely harness the benefits of the Mongolia ...
resource boom while mitigating pushback within to enter the
its borders and beyond.
“I’m confident that we will have a successful uranium
cooperation with Orano,” Mongolian Prime Min- market at
ister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai tells TIME. the right
“But it is important for us to have public accep- time.’
tance so that the project can be legitimate among
— OLIVIER
the people of Mongolia.” THOUMYRE,
ORANO SVP
Securing that legitimacy has been a key
focus for Orano, which formed a local joint ven-
ture, Badrakh Energy, to run Zuuvch-Ovoo alongside Mongolian state face south to catch the light; they can be easily
mining company Erdenes Mongol LLC. Orano began exploring the Gobi transported on camels to follow grazing herds and
back in 1997, discovering its first uranium deposits in 2006 and obtain- reassembled in under an hour. It’s a harsh exis-
ing licenses in 2016. It then built a pilot project to demonstrate feasibil- tence with temperatures in the Gobi plunging to
ity, producing 11 tons of uranium over 18 months during 2021 and 2022. –40°F in the winter and soaring to 113°F during
The pilot project remains staffed by a skeleton crew, though the site will summer. Gers are still constructed as they have
likely be used for training the 800 permanent staff for the full mine, been for millennia, albeit now with solar-powered
construction of which is slated to take three or four years. televisions, refrigerators, and wi-fi connections.
Practically all Zuuvch-Ovoo’s neighbors are nomads who live in gers, When Orano first set up camp nearby, the
otherwise known as yurts—felt-covered domed tents of latticed wood herders were suspicious, unnerved by alarm-
with central dung-burning stoves. Mongolians assemble their gers to ist social media posts that incorrectly suggested
40 Time May 27, 2024
radiation from uranium could cause mutations in A WORKER TENDS quelled concerns. Orano committed to putting
livestock. (Toxic waste is a concern nuclear power TO SYNTHETIC-
RESIN TANKS AT
$1 million annually into community projects near
plants must deal with, but mining raw uranium THE ZUUVCH-OVOO Zuuvch-Ovoo, whose pilot site welcomed 670 vis-
exposes workers to far less radiation than a job URANIUM MINE itors in 2023—herders, students, and NGOs, to
as a hospital radiologist would.) Staff would be whom the company strove to explain the mining
chased away by furious locals, who hurled dead process. “There were a lot of rumors at the start about animals dying,”
animals and once even a Molotov cocktail into the says a herder’s wife, Tsevelmaa Narantogtool, as she plays by her ger
mine’s compound. It didn’t help that Mongolia’s with her 3-year-old son, Irmuunbileg, proudly showing off his Spider-
first COVID-19 case was an Orano employee visit- Man pajamas. “But it’s been years now, and nothing has happened.”
ing from France, a fact that energized demonstra- To be sure, history is rife with examples of supposed progress whose
tions. But a slow and steady outreach program has real harms have not become clear until decades later. (To wit: climate
41
WORLD

change.) No fewer are the examples of damage done by those who seek That hasn’t stopped traders and rival herders
that progress, to peoples who live more in sync with the earth. from leveraging the mine to barter down the price
But it helps that Zuuvch-Ovoo is far from a conventional mine. The for local animals. “People say our meat is toxic
uranium deposit lies some two to five miles below the surface and is because of the uranium,” says Munkhsuuri Dam-
sandwiched between two thick layers of clay. This distinct geography badarjaa, 41, a herder who grazes his 1,500 cows,
allows in situ recovery, or ISR, a leaching process during which acidi- horses, sheep, goats, and camels next to Zuuvch-
fied water is pumped deep to the deposit via narrow, vertical tubes. Ovoo. “But if so, how come we are still alive?”
The acid dissolves the uranium before being retrieved at the surface via Nuclear power and the mining projects neces-
a network of outlet pipes. The uranium is then removed and processed sary to fuel it will always have detractors. How-
into yellowcake, a low-grade form with the claggy texture of spent cof- ever, the Gobi’s increasingly problematic winters
fee grounds. Eventually, this can be enriched into fuel rods. have inadvertently served as a propaganda tool.
It’s in theory a “closed loop” process where vital groundwater is During the harsh season, herders now bring their
completely sealed from possible contaminants. What’s more, there’s no animals to the plant’s gates to ask if they can shel-
gaping quarry, pit tunnels, diggers, noise, dust, or choking diesel emis- ter inside. “We have to say no, it’s an industrial fa-
sions. The only evidence of this “mine without a mine,” as Orano likes cility,” says Enkhtulga Gantulga, a sustainability
to put it, is a network of stumpy pipes poking out and community-affairs manager for Orano. “But
of the surface of the desert, through which cam- it shows acceptance has completely changed.”
els and horses can wander just as before. While ‘When it The herders have always contended with dzuds,
mining operations occur across a concession of comes to severe winters that arrive after summer droughts
some 35 acres, only a tiny section used for pro- resources and trigger widespread animal death. But global
duction facilities and crew housing is fenced off. warming has exacerbated this phenomenon. Av-
Still, the project has been dogged by contro-
and energy, erage temperatures in Mongolia are already 2°C
versy. In 2018, French prosecutors began inves- when is warmer than at the start of the 20th century—
tigating Orano for alleged bribery of a public geopolitics more severe than the global average—meaning
official in Mongolia involving a third-party con- not involved?’ drier weather, more frequent dust storms, and
sulting firm. (Orano says it is cooperating with sparser grasslands for grazing animals to ac-
— ORCHLON
the ongoing investigation.) The French anti- ENKHTSETSEG, quire the fat necessary to survive longer winters.
nuclear network Sortir du Nucléaire has criti- FORMER MINING This year was a particularly bad dzud, which af-
EXECUTIVE
cized the leaching process for the quantities of fected over 90% of the country and killed over
acid used, and in 2018 a group of Mongolian 4.7 million animals as pastures were buried in
citizens filed a complaint against Badrakh Energy, alleging a spike in snow and ice. At least 2,250 herder families lost
livestock malformations as well as cancers and miscarriages nearby. over 70% of their livestock. When TIME visited
In response, Orano points to independent monitoring by Mongolia’s Zuuvch-Ovoo in February, the adjacent land was
Academy of Sciences that found no discernible impact to local water, strewn with frozen gazelles and cows, tongues
soil, air, or vegetation. protruding in grim rictus. The frequency of dzuds
42 Time May 27, 2024
STUDENTS AT THE THE SPIRITUAL SARANGEREL of the global decarbonization shift,” says Orchlon Enkhtsetseg, a for-
ULAANBADRAKH
SCHOOL, WHICH
ENERGY CENTRE,
FOUNDED IN 1820
TSETSEGEE, RIGHT,
AND VISITORS
mer mining executive who founded renewable-energy startup URECA.
WAS RENOVATED BY MONGOLIAN IN HER GER, “So how do we put in policies now so that Mongolia is positioned as the
WITH ORANO’S POET DULDUITYN CLOSE TO THE most economically competitive place to buy renewable energy from?”
SUPPORT DANZANRAVJAA URANIUM MINE
Yet competition also brings challenges. Orano is 90% owned by the
French government, and Thoumyre insists Zuuvch-Ovoo “will cer-
has brought home to Mongolia’s rural population tainly contribute to the energy security of Europe.” But Mongolia’s ura-
what has become irrefutable to its urban dwellers: nium requires processing at one of the dozen or so enrichment facili-
that the climate crisis is deadly, and clean energy ties around the world—and the closest are in Russia and China. Even
vital to mitigate its ravages. if Orano wanted to ship elsewhere, Mongolia’s geography necessitates
Mongolia’s coal addiction is especially per- using Chinese ports. Oyun-Erdene insists “our two immediate neigh-
verse considering the bounty of clean power at bors do not interfere in our domestic affairs.” But few believe Mongo-
its disposal. Whereas coal last year accounted for lia would be immune to pressure if the West’s relations with Moscow
over half of Mongolia’s total $15.2 billion export and Beijing continue to deteriorate. “When it comes to resources and
revenue, the hope is that future mining projects energy, when is geopolitics not involved?” asks Enkhtsetseg pointedly.
can enhance, rather than impair, quality of life. Recent experience also makes mining a contentious topic in domes-
Orano says running Zuuvch-Ovoo will require tic Mongolian politics, especially as parliamentary elections approach
only 12 megawatts (MW) of electricity, of which in June. “Resource development is probably the biggest dilemma that
5 MW will be generated by harnessing the heat we’re facing as a country,” says Amarjin Nemekhbayar, an adviser to
produced by the on-site sulfuric acid plant. The the chairman of the opposition Democratic Party of Mongolia. As com-
remaining 7 MW will, it says, likely come from a modity prices soared in the early 2000s, Mongolia briefly became the
nearby wind farm. “Orano’s business is to produce world’s fastest-growing economy, earning the sobriquet “Minegolia.”
decarbonized energy, so we need to be consis- Prospectors from across North America and Europe quaffed single-malt
tent,” says Marc Meleard, CEO of Badrakh Energy. in upscale Ulan Bator nightspots. But the mineral boom was short-lived,
Along with subterranean uranium deposits, and in 2017 Mongolia went cap in hand to the International Monetary
the Gobi also offers tremendous solar and wind Fund for a $5.5 billion bailout.
potential. Back in 2011, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Mongolia boasts significant deposits of gold, copper, phosphorus,
Son even proposed an Asian Super Grid linking zinc, and lithium, as well as coal and uranium. The impetus is to “not
China, Japan, South Korea, and as far south as repeat the mistakes of the past,” says Oyun-Erdene. “It is very impor-
Singapore to solar and wind farms blanketing tant to go step-by-step.” Whereas Mongolia spent profligately during
the Gobi. Although such grandiose plans have its previous mining boom, Oyun-Erdene says future revenues will be
stalled, Mongolia remains committed to becom- “put into a sovereign wealth fund and used to expand other sectors like
ing a net-zero economy by 2050 and hopes to set agriculture and tourism so that we can diversify our economy.”
international standards for responsible resource Past missteps also mean Orano’s joint venture has been closely
exploitation. “The journey is just starting because scrutinized. Orano boasts a 90% stake in Badrakh Energy with 10%
43
WORLD

owned by Mongolia, reducing state liabilities,

though that smaller slice will be “preferred
shares,” receiving prioritized dividends and
“guaranteeing over 50% of the global benefits
of the mine go to the people of Mongolia,” says
Thoumyre. Meleard estimates Mongolia’s share
at over $2 billion over the project’s lifetime. Oc-
tober’s accord between Orano and Erdenes Mon-
gol LLC was signed inside the Elysée Palace in
Paris in the presence of French President Em-
manuel Macron and Mongolian President
Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh. Yet despite this back-
ing, the investment agreement remains stalled
after two separate heads of the relevant working
group were transferred to other posts. “We had
to restart nearly from scratch,” Meleard sighs
wearily. “Maybe we’ll have more chance after
the election. It’s quite difficult to read.”

OranO has sO far plowed $250 million into

its Mongolia operation without earning a cent.
Since 2006, it has launched over 300 projects
including new community centers for herders
and planting 20,000 native saxaul bushes to
combat desertification. In the nearest town of
Ulaanbadrakh, last year alone Orano helped ren-
ovate the hospital, meeting hall, museum, and
school, which has 226 students 8 to 14 years old.
Orano purchased 14 computers for the school
in 2016 and is about to replace them for the
third time. Touring the dozen immaculate class-
rooms, flanked by trophies and crayon drawings
of Bart Simpson, the head teacher asks the ti-
dily dressed children if they’ve heard of Orano.
“Yes, it bought the minibus!” shouts one student.
“The whiteboard!” chimes in another. “And the
books!” says a third. The teacher uses our visit
to make a spirited argument for why her charges YELLOWCAKE— as Mongolia and by 2005 was selling that ura-
also need tablets. A MIXTURE OF
URANIUM OXIDES—
nium on the international market. Today, Orano
In the Gobi, Orano operates as almost a state AT THE ZUUVCH- extracts as much uranium in a single day from
within a state; when the local governor needs OVOO URANIUM MINE its Kazakh mine as the Mongolia pilot proj-
something, he doesn’t approach the cash-strapped ect produced across its entire 18 months of op-
central government, he goes directly to the mine. TIME saw a petition eration. And even that uranium still sits within
from the Mongolian military asking Orano for funds to repair the bor- 120 black drums inside shipping containers at
der fence. The seemingly endless flow of cash has engendered a sense Zuuvch- Ovoo, since Orano hasn’t been granted
of dependence and, perhaps inevitably, resentment. an export license.
“The French are penny pinchers; the Chinese mine gives a lot more,” Meleard admits that were Orano a private
complains herder’s wife Sarangerel Tsetsegee, seated by a cauldron of rather than state-owned firm, it probably would
boiled beef bones in her brightly painted ger, as she picks gristle off a have abandoned Mongolia long ago.
cow femur with a knife. Her gripe is that Orano contributed to the gov- “It’s already 27 years with only expenses,” he
ernment’s emergency fund to provide hay during the dzud instead of says with a Gallic shrug. “It’s really too long.” Such
doling out cash. “You should give the money directly to the herders!” delays are “very specific to Mongolia,” he laments,
While you might expect the boss of a multibillion-dollar min- as our train rolls out of Sainshand station.
ing venture to travel by private jet or helicopter, Meleard chats with Behind us, Danzanravjaa’s cosmic portal and
TIME on the rattling Soviet-era train he takes every few weeks for its ethereal promise of Shambala fades into the
the 10-hour trudge between the Gobi city of Sainshand and Ulan gloom. But the prospect of a better tomorrow
Bator. He doesn’t begrudge due diligence, but his frustration is pal- springing from the Gobi feels very real and very
pable. By comparison, Orano also entered Kazakhstan the same year close—if only today can first be secured. □
44 Time May 27, 2024
DO YOU LIVE
WHERE
NEXT
GENERATION
LEADERS
11 trailblazers who are challenging the status quo,
leading with empathy, and forging solutions for a brighter future

PHOTOGR APH BY RUTH OSSAI FOR TIME

 Ncuti Gatwa
is poised for
global renown
as he steps into
a legendary TV
franchise
NEXT GENERATION LEADERS

U.K.

NCUTI GATWA
Mold-breaking actor
BY NAINA BAJEKAL/LONDON

When ncuTi GaTWa GoT The call ThaT Would

change his life, he was walking into a London bar-
bershop. The Rwandan-born Scottish actor froze as
his agent shared the news: he had just been cast as
the lead in the beloved British sci-fi series Doctor
Who. This wasn’t just another job—it was some-
thing that would cement his place in British cultural
history. He told his agent he’d call back. “I hung
up and didn’t think about it for a week,” he recalls
when we meet two years later on a cool spring day
in East London. “I was like: I’ve got laundry to do,
I’ve got the gym to go to, I can’t think about this
life-changing thing you’ve just thrown at me.”
Doctor Who, which has been running on and
off since 1963, is something of a national treasure
in the U.K. Some of Britain’s most celebrated ac-
tors have played the Doctor, a time-traveling alien
who explores the universe in a spaceship known
as the TARDIS, which resembles an old British era in other ways too: in May, the show premiered
blue police box. The Doctor defeats evil creatures in more than 150 markets—and in 25 languages—
and rights wrongs across time and space—and can as part of a new partnership between the BBC and
“regenerate” when fatally injured, allowing a new Disney to turn the show into a global franchise.
actor to step into the role. Though taking on such “That’s really powerful,” says veteran screenwriter
an iconic part was a no-brainer for Gatwa, now 31, Russell T. Davies, who revived the series to criti-
it was also overwhelming. He describes himself as cal acclaim in 2005 and returned as showrunner
“an anxious, anxious mess” while filming: “My first in 2023 amid dwindling ratings. Doctor Who now
day walking on set, I saw the TARDIS and it just hit has the potential to reach more viewers than ever—
me. This is the British TV program. I cannot fail.” and higher expectations along with it.
Failure isn’t exactly a word you’d associate with For Davies, there was never any doubt about
Gatwa. We first met nearly five years ago on the set Gatwa being up to the task. He says it took mere
of Netflix’s Sex Education, where his nuanced per- minutes of watching Gatwa’s audition tape to per-
formance as Eric Effiong, a colorful, quick-witted suade him, along with BBC and Disney executives,
teen navigating his sexuality and religion, won to cast Gatwa. “Suddenly there was a man in front
him critical acclaim. Gatwa credits the character of me being funny and lighting up the room when
with teaching him to be braver—“just learning to he smiles, and then being sinister as hell and com-
be unapologetically myself, to embrace flaws and manding the room,” Davies recalls. “He was abso-
strengths as well.” lutely astonishing. I just remember thinking: This
Those strengths have since become visible to is it, this is it, this is it.”
millions. He made his debut as the Doctor in an an-
niversary special last December, and recently ap- In the world of Doctor Who, a single moment
peared in Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air and as a can alter the course of history. Gatwa experi-
Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. He took the stage at enced something similar in his own life when, a
the Oscars alongside Ryan Gosling, and even ap- few years ago, he was on the brink of quitting act-
pears in the airline safety video that plays on the ing altogether. Gatwa, whose family left Rwanda
flight I take to London to meet him. for Scotland when he was 2, says he was drawn
Now Gatwa is the first queer Black person to lead from a young age to the transformative element
the world’s longest-running sci-fi series. It’s a new of acting. At 18, he went to study acting at the
48 Time May 27, 2024
 shows being particularly affected by cancella-
tions, it’s easy to imagine that a show like Sex Ed-
ucation might not get greenlighted today. Gatwa
agrees that there is a slow backsliding toward
“old formulas that work, less diversity, less push-
ing for different stories to be told.”
Gatwa is focused on maintaining momentum in
an industry where losing it can be fatal to a career.
He spent weeks in the winter of 2022 filming the
final episodes of Sex Education while shooting his
first season of Doctor Who. That came off the back
of filming Barbie and the Doctor Who specials. “I
don’t think I even had three days off, and I was
exhausted,” he says. “It was like, gym, work, food,
bed; wake up at 4, push-ups, lines for the day.”
Though Gatwa doesn’t want to push himself
quite so hard again, it’s not easy to relax into his
success. “Because I’ve been homeless, I don’t
think I’ll ever not wake up and check my bank
balance or whether there’s food in my fridge,” he
says. Such anxiety is unsurprising in a precarious
industry. It’s also partly why, Gatwa says, so many
Black and brown parents encourage their children
Gatwa and his
co-star Millie
to become doctors or engineers rather than pur-
Gibson in the
new season of
Doctor Who

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he re- been cast as the lead in the most British of shows.
ceived full financial assistance and remembers But it’s groundbreaking because it’s the first time,
being one of just two students who had to work because it’s happening now, because you don’t see
alongside their studies to make ends meet. (He it anywhere else.”
handed out flyers for an LGBTQ+ club in Glasgow, Reaching milestones like these—especially for
later working as a go-go dancer.) After graduation, a long-running show like Doctor Who—can bring
Gatwa spent years working in theater, including out the darker elements of society. When Gatwa’s
performing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at casting was announced in May 2022, everyone
Shakespeare’s Globe in London. braced for racist and homophobic responses—
He hit a low in 2017, after a theater tour in Amer- including the BBC, which put security outside
ica. “The phone just stopped ringing,” he says. He his family members’ homes. After the harassment
took odd jobs but the bills piled up; before he knew John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran experienced fol-
it, he’d lost his apartment. Months of barely scrap- lowing their casting in Star Wars, it wouldn’t have
ing by led him to seriously consider returning to been the first time racist fans of a beloved genre
his hometown of Dunfermline to work at the local property came out of the woodwork en masse.
Tesco supermarket. “You have to let this go, it’s not Ultimately, the backlash was small. “There were
sustainable,” he recalls telling himself. those people, but I would say the love drowned
Just as he was about to give up on his dreams, them out,” Gatwa says. “Sorry, losers!”
C O U R T E S Y O F J A M E S PA R D O N — B A D W O L F/ B B C S T U D I O S

Netflix came calling. “I got Sex Education. I know,

I know,” he says, still marveling at the twist of AS MUCH AS GATWA wants to give voice to broader
fate. At the time, he had no idea what it would issues, he also hopes his turn as the Doctor will be
mean for his career—and was instead focused remembered for more than just breaking barriers.
on finally being able to pay his friends and fam- “Those firsts matter,” he says. “But I also just want
ily back. The show was a runaway hit, and Gatwa people to see me as a f-cking sick Doctor, who was
used his newfound wealth to buy a house in South really fun and smashed it.”
London; he is also starting a project to build a If early reactions are any indication, he’s on his
school in Rwanda. But while his career has taken way to doing just that. Critics have praised Gatwa’s
off, the broader industry has been in turmoil. performance as a refreshing, dynamic force that el-
With streaming platforms contracting and diverse evates the show to new heights. Gatwa describes
49
NEXT GENERATION LEADERS

his Doctor as action-focused, energetic, and un-

afraid of a stunt, but also deeply empathetic. “He’s
emotionally available and unavailable,” he says,
constantly flying away from his problems. “He’s
not afraid to cry, he feels a lot. He’s cheeky, he’s
quite flirty, and unafraid to use his charm to get
what he wants.”
It’s a characterization that Gatwa crafted with
great care, immersing himself in old episodes to
identify each Doctor’s unique traits and analyzing
his scripts with all the rigor of his drama-school
training. He drew particular inspiration from Jon
Pertwee’s action-hero energy in the 1970s and
David Tennant’s charismatic liveliness in the
2000s. Drawing from his family’s experiences of
conflict in Rwanda, Gatwa felt a strong emotional
link to the Doctor’s origin story as the last survivor
of a planet destroyed by war. He was also intrigued
by the Doctor being something of a “public loner.”
“The Doctor has traveled the whole universe and
is friends with everyone,” Gatwa says. “And yet
no one really knows him.”
Gatwa has similarly had to navigate the delicate
balance between maintaining privacy and open-
ing up. During his photo shoot for TIME, Gatwa
poses effortlessly, jokes around with the crew, and
dances along to Beyoncé in between shots. “If you
put me in nice clothes and put lots of nice makeup Kenya water—and around the world.
on me then I’m very happy,” he tells me with a grin.
(Gatwa is known for his chic, playful looks, from BETH KOIGI Instead of focusing on large
infrastructure projects, Koigi’s
sharply tailored suits to a gleaming silver chest- Finding water for organization gives local
plate at the Oscars; he describes his personal style everyone, everywhere communities direct access to
as somewhere between Ken and the Doctor.) BY JUSTIN WORLAND water in their backyard.
Adjusting to other aspects of his fame has been “The water-scarcity issue is
harder, as “pockets of anonymity” become increas- becoming bigger and bigger,”
ingly rare for the self-described introvert. Davies The U.N. estimates that more says Koigi. “The world is
underscores the intensity of the role. “God, it’s so than 1.8 billion people across looking for decentralized water
hard to be the Doctor, especially in the U.K.,” he the planet live in communities sources.”
says. “It’s such a public role, and you’re adored by under drought conditions. The Majik, pronounced “magic,”
children. That’s a very specific and unusual thing.” cost to the global economy relies on technology that
Part of the shift for Gatwa has been grasping that measures in the tens of billions at first blush does seem
he’s not simply doing a job—that the characters of dollars. almost magical: a filtration
he plays have real power. “Now I understand that But despite the global system that pulls water from
something [I’ve] done might have touched some- nature of the problem, Beth thin air. Her atmospheric
one’s heart or made them feel safe or less lonely.” Koigi, 33, knows that tackling water generators (AWGs)
Gatwa hopes to get into producing, inspired by drought will require local draw humidity from the air,
solutions. condense it, filter out any
the wonderful experience he had on set for Bar-
In 2017, along with bacteria and add essential
bie, which was directed by Gerwig and produced Canadian environmental minerals for drinking water.
by Margot Robbie. “We need a lot more creatives scientist Anastasia Kaschenko The system runs on solar
making decisions in our industry,” he says. and Oxford economist Clare power, allowing for installation
Davies, meanwhile, has no doubts when it Sewell, she founded the social- in remote areas. And it works
comes to Gatwa’s future. “Imagine where he’ll be enterprise company Majik virtually anywhere, including
when he’s 40,” he says, adding that he’s in an un- Water with the goal of making places with relatively low
usual position after filming two seasons of Doctor clean drinking water accessible humidity. “If you have air, you
Who, while everyone else is only just witnessing in arid and semiarid regions can have drinking water,” the
Gatwa’s performance. “I feel like I’m on the edge across her native Kenya— group’s website states.
of the volcano, and the whole world is about to where half the population The approach isn’t entirely
see it explode.” —With reporting by Julia Zorthian lacks access to clean drinking new. For centuries, humans

50 Time May 27, 2024

 have harvested water from fog.
More recently, the U.S. military Gaza
has explored devices like
Majik Water’s to source water MOSAB ABU TOHA
in challenging environments.
Koigi emphasizes that Majik
A poet documenting war
Water’s success isn’t just BY YASMEEN SERHAN
about the technology, but
rather envisioning a variety of The first time Mosab Abu “When the Palestinians lost with those far beyond the
ways to apply it. Toha witnessed an Israeli their lands, they started besieged enclave where
The company started airstrike, he was 7 years old. to invest in education. he grew up—something he
by working with NGOs that “I was decades younger than Education is the only thing hopes to do with his second
bring Majik Water devices to war,” he wrote years later that we can control.” poetry collection, Forest of
communities after natural in a poem, and “a few years For Abu Toha, poetry is Noise, when it is published
disasters to provide emergency older than bombs.” Now an more than just a mode of later this year.
services. Those function as acclaimed Palestinian poet expression; it’s a bulwark While Abu Toha currently
essential sources of sanitary and writer, he draws on his against erasure. “Writing a resides in Cairo with his
water for rural hospitals, experiences growing up in poem is an act of resistance family, he says returning to
while the company’s smallest Gaza in much of his work: against forgetting—not Gaza is a matter of when,
devices can be used in In one poem, he describes only forgetting the story not if. “Gaza is my home,” he
households. escaping death at age 16 or the experience, but also says. “And even if our house
More recently, Majik when a piece of shrapnel got the feelings that come with continued to be a heap of
Water has started working lodged in his neck, narrowly that experience,” he says. rubble, I would—with so
with local entrepreneurs on missing his windpipe. In It’s also a means of sharing much love—be living there.”
the ground in Kenya. Those another, he tells of his first
individuals place the devices experience of war as a father
in busy shops and markets, and the fear his three children
providing access to everyday felt as bombs rained down.
consumers who can pay to use Since Oct. 7, Abu Toha,
the system. Working directly 31, has emerged as an
with people across Kenya not evocative chronicler of
only allows the company to the ongoing war—from his
grow its footprint faster, but experience living under
also supports the economies Israeli bombardment in
in these communities. “We are northern Gaza to his family’s
empowering a person to earn efforts to flee to the safety of
an extra income,” she says. neighboring Egypt. Midway
Koigi’s work comes just through their journey, he was
as a startup ecosystem abducted by Israeli soldiers
is burgeoning in Kenya. who he says blindfolded
Combined with the severity and beat him. (“Detainees
of water issues in East Africa, are treated in line with
Koigi sees a significant international standards,” the
opportunity to expand. Israel Defense Forces told
“It’s a very big starting TIME.) When Abu Toha was
point,” she says. released days later, he wrote
Despite the inventiveness a poem about that too.
of Majik Water’s air-to-liquid From Mahmoud Darwish
technology, Koigi stresses that to Edward Said, some of the
K O I G I : E VA D I A L L O — R O L E X ; A B U T O H A : M O H A M E D M A H DY

she isn’t running a technology most notable Palestinian

company that will simply figures are writers and
rapidly scale its core hardware. poets—something Abu Toha
To grow in the long term, she says is no accident. Before
says, the company will need to 1948, most Palestinians
work with local communities to were farmers. After the
identify all of their local water establishment of the state
challenges and help fix them. of Israel and the war that
“We want to become a ended with more 700,000
company that offers holistic Palestinians fleeing or
solutions,” says Koigi. “Water expelled from their homes,
issues depend on the context.” many lost their livelihoods.
51
 problem in Japan is serious—I
think it is the most serious in
the world,” Sagami says.
In 2019, Japan’s
government estimated that
by 2025 over 1.25 million
small-business owners
would be 70 or older and
lack a succession plan, with
unsuccessful turnovers
forecast to put about
6.5 million jobs at risk and a
dent in Japan’s economy—the
fourth largest in the world—of
more than $100 billion.
Sagami’s firm similarly
estimated last year that about
620,000 profitable companies
in the country are at risk of
closure because they have no
successor.
That’s where Sagami’s
unique AI-powered match-
making system comes in. He
takes pride in working quickly
and charging clients only after
a deal has been made, unlike
industry peers that charge
up front, and whose services
he deems too slow and
inefficient. And so far, M&A,
which was publicly listed on
the Tokyo Stock Exchange in
2022, has seen tremendous
success.
The company, which now
has more than 300 employees
and is working on some 400
deals at any given point, has
done so well that it diversified
last year into asset manage-
ment at the request of clients
Japan real estate agency in his home- who sold their businesses and
SHUNSAKU SAGAMI
town of Osaka but was forced to needed help managing their
shutter the business when he newfound wealth. Sagami
CEO for the future retired and couldn’t find some- is also eyeing international
one suitable to take it over. expansion for the main broker-
BY CHAD DE GUZMAN
After selling a startup, age business—as he knows
in 2018 Sagami founded Japan is far from the only coun-
“I’m not quite sure how I feel helping other businesses. M&A Research Institute, a try dealing with the problem of
about my wealth,” one of “From a young age,” he mergers-and-acquisitions heirless businesses.
Japan’s youngest billionaires says, “I wanted to be a person advisory firm that harnesses “The fact that my
tells TIME from his office who could solve problems in artificial intelligence to match company’s matching service
in Tokyo. “But I continue to the world.” buyers and sellers. The firm is independent of language is
work hard to create good One problem Sagami saw specializes in connecting aging its strength,” he says. “If I have
businesses.” in his own life was the chal- owners and CEOs of small the chance, I’d like to use the
Shunsaku Sagami, 33, lenge of corporate succession and medium-size enterprises services M&A has developed
owes his fortune—Forbes in a country where the old with successors, so that here in Japan and help other
recently estimated his net vastly outnumber the young. they don’t have to follow the countries in similar ways.”
worth to be $1.9 billion— Sagami has spoken often of same disappointing path his —With reporting by Lillian
specifically to the business of his late grandfather, who ran a grandfather did. “The aging Loescher/Osaka
52 Time May 27, 2024
 Australia

LAURA AND
JORDAN
O’REILLY
Tireless disability advocates
BY JEFFREY KLUGER

Laura O’Reilly of Sydney was none too

pleased in 2008 when she found out her
little brother Shane was literally being
warehoused. Shane, then 18, suffered
from quadriplegic cerebral palsy and
spent his days in a care facility where he
was ostensibly receiving occupational
therapy. Laura, then 22, came to visit
him to bring him a change of clothes
at the address she’d been given and
was stunned to find a whitewashed
warehouse with a group of clients inside,
all idling in wheelchairs. Separately, off to
the side, the staff was busy with lunch.
“I remember going up to [Shane]
and saying, ‘Mate, what’s happening?’”
Laura, now 38, recalls. “He said, ‘We’re
just waiting. Then we’re gonna do art.’
I just remember thinking why would he be
doing art? He didn’t have the dexterity to
hold a paintbrush.”
That turned a wheel in Laura’s head—
and in that of her other brother Jordan,
now 35, as well. In 2011, Jordan and
Laura launched Fighting Chance and
Hireup, a pair of web-based networks that
find housing, training, care teams, and
more for people with disabilities and their
families across Australia.
The need is acute. Nearly 1 in 6 people
has a disability. That’s 4.5 million Aus-
tralians, 34,000 of whom have cerebral
palsy. The condition alone costs the
nation of 26 million people $1.47 billion
for treatment and care each year, a third
of which is paid for by patients’ families.
Through their platforms, the O’Reillys
are making a meaningful dent in that,
S A G A M I : K O S A S A K I F O R T I M E ; O ’ R E I L LY S : N I C K C U B B I N

providing caregivers and financial sup-

port for more than 11,000 families—and
they are looking to blow past the 25,000
marker as early as 2025. In 2021, Laura
was awarded the Order of Australia Medal
for outstanding service to the disability
sector, and last June, Jordan received the They are doing that—and much more. “It was extremely traumatic,” says
honor too. Sadly, Shane himself did not live to see Jordan, “but off the back of that we
“Laura and I said, ‘Let’s get involved,’” the contribution his big sister and brother decided just to throw ourselves into this
Jordan says. “Let’s create service are making. He died in 2011, at age 21, work. It is incredibly inspirational to see
and create the kind of life Shane and of severe sleep apnea related to his just how powerful Shane was in his own
others deserve.” condition. small and humble way.”
53
NEXT GENERATION LEADERS

after selling the company in

Chile 2015, he was eager to try
again. He went to the U.S.
MATIAS MUCHNICK to take executive education
courses at the University
Using AI to revolutionize food
of California, Berkeley, and
BY WILL HENSHALL
Harvard Business School. At
the latter he met computer
scientist Karim Pichara,
with whom, alongside plant
geneticist Pablo Zamora,
he founded NotCo. The
company grew rapidly, and
in 2021 it became the first
Chilean unicorn, raising
$235 million at a valuation
of $1.5 billion. In addition
to NotMilk, the company
sells a range of plant-based
products including NotBurger,
NotChicken—the flavor of
which is partly provided
by another unlikely duo,
tomato and strawberry—and
a plant-based version of
the Latin American sweet
favorite, NotDulceDeLeche.
Muchnick attributes
NotCo’s success to the AI
tools his team has built,
which he says are at the core
of the company’s work. NotCo
uses AI to design mixtures of
molecules to produce desired
If you were to take a sip of animal-based foods using tastes, textures, smells, U.K.
NotMilk, a plant-based whole-
milk replacement made by
plant-based ingredients.
“There is a complete world
and colors. This AI system,
along with others NotCo RAYE
Chilean food-tech company of ingredients that, in their has developed, allowed Openhearted songwriter
NotCo, you might wonder how combinations, we have no the company to create a BY MOISES MENDEZ II
it tastes so creamy. idea as human beings how plant-based custard in three
It’s not fat from nuts they can react, or what they months in partnership with
or oats, as with other can create, when mixed ShakeShack—a problem the As a teenager, RAYE attended
replacements on the market. together,” he says. chain had spent years trying the BRIT School, a legendary
The secret, says Matias As more people, to solve, says Muchnick. South London performing-
Muchnick, NotCo CEO himself included, began to While NotCo is not yet arts academy that has bred
and co-founder, is a mix of understand how what they profitable, Muchnick hopes successful songwriters and
pineapple and cabbage. eat affects their bodies and the business will turn an recording artists like Jessie J,
When processed correctly, the planet, Muchnick spied operating profit later this Adele, and Amy Winehouse.
the unlikely union of tropical a way to turn his passion year. As for the future of These days, RAYE is regularly
fruit and leafy vegetable for food into a business plant-based food, Muchnick compared to Winehouse, but
reacts to form lactones, opportunity. He founded believes that only by back then she remembers
which help give NotMilk a his first venture, a plant- becoming “ultra-obsessed” walking through the hallways,
milky flavor and scent. based-mayonnaise vendor with customer experience looking at pictures of the
NotCo did not stumble named the Eggless Co., in can the sector graduate to alumni, and thinking, “That’s
across this combination 2012 in Santiago, Chile. the mainstream. gonna be me one day.”
through brute-force trial and “It was the garage story,” “It’s the experience At the 2024 BRIT Awards,
error, says Muchnick, 35. he recalls, fondly, of the that’s king, and the only way she earned her place in those
Rather, his team uses company’s humble start. that we’re going to get that hallowed halls. RAYE, born
artificial intelligence to The mayo project taught $10 billion industry, that Rachel Keen, made history
discover unlikely pairings him how the consumer- today might be niche, into at this year’s ceremony in
that mimic the tastes of goods industry works, and the trillion-dollar realm.” March as the most nominated

54 Time May 27, 2024

 English father were heavily
U.S.
involved in their church, where
RAYE’s mother sang in the SIMONE
choir and her father served
as musical director. After two MANUEL
years at the BRIT School, she Champion for inclusion
dropped out at 16 and spent BY ALICE PARK
the remainder of her teenage
years learning how to write
songs professionally in studio Growing up, Simone Manuel
sessions on the weekends. In was used to being the only
the early stages of her career, Black swimmer on the pool
she wrote for Little Mix, Ellie deck. “There was a feeling
Goulding, Charli XCX, and of loneliness,” she says.
even Beyoncé, first on her When she beat the field in the
Lion King soundtrack The 100-m freestyle at the 2016
Gift, in 2019, and again on a Olympics, she became the
track, “RIIVERDANCE,” from first Black American swimmer
the artist’s acclaimed recent to earn an individual Olympic
album Cowboy Carter. (RAYE gold. After making history, her
won’t divulge any details from swimming journey became
the experience, shrouded challenging in a different way.
as Beyoncé albums are in She didn’t make the team in
secrecy, other than to call it that event in 2021 because
“incredible.”) of overtraining syndrome,
In February of last year, after repetitive, intense
RAYE released her debut training brought her body to
album, My 21st Century Blues, its breaking point. She was
a project that showcases her forced to reduce nearly all
ability to seamlessly blend physical activity to recover.
influences from pop, R&B, and That experience put her
doo-wop. The openhearted, trailblazing role into perspec-
autobiographical album, tive. In 2023, she created the
artist at the U.K.’s biggest which landed on several best- Simone Manuel Foundation
music-awards show. She then of-the-year lists and would
went on to break the record earn her all those BRITS one
for most wins in a single night year later, was a hard-won
by collecting six awards, triumph after years of conflict
including the evening’s with Polydor, the label with
biggest prize, Album of the which she parted ways after
Year. Among the previous they allegedly refused to
record holders the 26-year-old put out the album she had
waltzed on past are Adele, recorded. When she finally
Harry Styles, and Blur. released it independently, it
“That night felt like it was spawned a viral TikTok hit,
a lucid dream, it was just so “Escapism,” which cracked
surreal,” she says, looking the Billboard Hot 100 for the
back. “I think the only part first time in her career.
where I felt truly at peace The need to prove herself
was during the performance. may once have been daunting,
I was so proud of it,” she says but now it drives her. “That
of her show-stopping medley, very much becomes a part of
which included three songs your psyche. What fuels me to
and a sneak peek at some new work as hard as I do is to prove
music coming down the pike. those people wrong. Getting
Long before she arrived into a room with men, who are
on that stage, RAYE’s love of experienced and talented,
singing was inspired from a asking ‘Who are you?’” Her
young age by her parents: her answer is simple: “Give me
Ghanaian-Swiss mother and the mic and I’ll show you.”
F R O M L E F T: B L O O M B E R G /G E T T Y I M A G E S; H A N N A H K H Y M YC H — A R T PA R T N E R L I C E N S I N G / T R U N K A R C H I V E ;
COURTESY OF SYDNE GRIF F ITH 55
NEXT GENERATION LEADERS

U.S.

MYCHAL
THREETS
Unquiet librarian
BY OLIVIA B. WAXMAN

Amid record-high attempts

to ban books and a harsh
reality of reduced funding
and staffing, libraries have a
great publicist. Meet Mychal
Threets, 34, a librarian in Fair-
field, Calif., who has amassed
roughly 2 million followers
across social platforms with
his videos promoting the local
institution as a friendly, under-
rated neighborhood hangout.
Threets basically grew
up in a library. For the home-
schooled kid, the Solano
County Library—where he
would one day work—was a
classroom. One of the first
books he remembers reading
with his mother is Maurice
Sendak’s beloved Caldecott
Medal winner Where the Wild
Things Are. He loved it so much
that he later got tattoos of its
titular fanged creatures. “I’ve
always found my mind wander-
ing, almost like searching for
the wild things,” he says. “The
‘wild rumpus’ is like a cry to
do something. Let’s go on an
adventure.”
Sporting tattoos on his left
arm honoring not just Sendak
but also Marc Brown’s Arthur
series and illustrator Richard
Scarry, his sunny expression
framed by an Afro held back
with a headband, he posts
TikTok videos that guide young the internet are the ones in to turn on a special font for reach, he jokes, “For a quiet
people to books he hopes will which he shares memorable dyslexic users in the popular library voice person, I have a
spark what he calls “library joy” encounters with “library kids” free e-book app Libby. In an very loud voice on the internet.”
and a lifelong love of reading. and “library grownups.” In especially moving video, he Many of Threets’ TikTok
He also speaks to his adult his most viral TikTok, which talks about an unhoused adult videos are about mental
audience, pointing them toward racked up about 22 million and child who regularly come health and his own struggles
lesser-known library resources views and was shared by to the library to watch YouTube with anxiety, depression, and
like free tax help, legal help, celebrities like Jennifer Garner, videos and laugh together, panic attacks. He hopes that
and rentals for video games, he tells a story about a kid at offering up a breach of quiet because of his openness
board games, and musical the library reading a book in library code that he sees as about these subjects, people
instruments. Spanish to two other kids who a win—two people who see facing similar challenges will
But the videos that have wanted to read it but didn’t the library as a safe space to feel less alone, and remedies
contributed most to carving speak the language. In one enjoy time together. But then, like taking medication will be
out his special corner of of his PSAs, he explains how as he says of his videos’ viral destigmatized (a message he
56 Time May 27, 2024
 reinforced in an April video in
which he shakes an orange
pill bottle and exclaims, “Live, Thailand coalition government. Its
laugh, Lexapro!”). They might CHONTHICHA Prime Minister candidate
failed to get the support of
‘LOOKKATE’ JANGREW
even take a page out of his
book and go to the library the military-backed Senate,
and it has since faced legal
to take their minds off their Activist turned politician challenges, including the
troubles for a while. In fact, it
BY KOH EWE threat of dissolution over its
was an excursion like this that
opened up a door to his career: push for monarchy reform.
When he was especially Chonthicha “Lookkate” thought of being a politician Now, Lookkate uses
depressed as a young adult, Jangrew has lost count at all,” says Lookkate, 31. her official capacity as a
in 2012, he would go to the of the number of times But, she adds, “I realized one member of the opposition
Fairfield library to try to figure she’s been arrested while thing: if we want to make a to advocate for human
out his next steps. One day, participating in Thailand’s sound, we cannot only make rights and social equality.
he asked a librarian there for pro-democracy movement change on the street. We She’s joined committees
a job—a step so seemingly since a 2014 coup. But also need to get into power, on refugee aid and helped
simple they don’t bother to no charge—from sedition and use this power to make to draft labor reform, and
suggest it in most self-help to illegal assembly—has a change—to build a society she’s continued to fight
books, but one that set him on stopped her from protesting that we want to see.” for freedom of expression,
the path toward becoming the the country’s conservative In a victory that stunned introducing an amnesty bill
librarian he is today. royal- and military-linked most of Thailand and for thousands of activists
After a decade-long career government. observers around the world, charged or imprisoned for
at that library, Threets stepped Last May, Lookkate was Move Forward emerged as political reasons over the
down earlier this year to deal back on the streets, but the biggest vote getter, past two decades.
with some mental-health this time it was to hand winning a plurality of 151 While the future of
challenges. While he has been out campaign flyers as a seats in the 500-member Move Forward—as well as
attacked by trolls on X (formerly parliamentary candidate House of Representatives that of Thailand—remains
Twitter), he denies reports that for the Move Forward Party. by appealing to a broad uncertain, Lookkate wants
cyberbullying had anything to The upstart progressive swath of youth and urban to show the country’s youth
do with his decision. Library party sought to transform voters. Political newcomers that the pro-democracy
workers regularly deal with the energy of years of pro- like Lookkate became movement will persist.
harassment from patrons, democracy activism into real lawmakers, but the “What we, as people in
so much so that he says, “If I political power through the conservative establishment power, right now have to do,”
were going to leave because 2023 national election. ended up preventing Lookkate says, “is to keep
of bullying, I would have left “I have to say that I never the party from forming a their hope alive.”
years ago.” Now, he hopes to
dedicate his next chapter to
advocacy, working to promote
libraries nationwide. Named
PBS’s resident librarian in
February, he’s been making
videos for social media with
iconic characters, with many of
his fans online billing him as a
T H R E E T S : C L A R A M O K R I F O R T I M E ; L O O K K AT E : A N D R E M A L E R B A F O R T I M E

spiritual heir to LeVar Burton,

of Reading Rainbow fame.
There is even a Change.org
petition calling for a TV reboot
of that show with Threets as
the host.
Whatever his medium might
be, one of his chief messages
is to dispel the notion that
all librarians are strict
schoolmarms in cardigans
telling people to be quiet. As
he puts it, “I love the children’s
library section where there is
noise—that means kids are
having fun.”

57
 H E A LT H

AN INDEPENDENT
LAB HAS MADE
A BUSINESS
OF EXPOSING
WHAT’S REALLY
INSIDE EVERYDAY
PRODUCTS
BY JAMIE
DUCHARME

▷
H E A LT H

If you are newly suspicious

about the safety of the
products in your medicine
cabinet, there’s a good chance
you have Valisure, a tiny
laboratory in New Haven,
Conn., to thank. Or blame.
Over the past five years, Valisure’s team of about a dozen sci-
entists has detected potentially cancer-causing chemicals in
widely used medications, hand sanitizers, sunscreens, anti-
perspirant body sprays, dry shampoos, and—most recently—
acne treatments. When Valisure sounds the alarm about a
new scary-sounding finding, a flood of headlines, lawsuits,
and product recalls often follows. The company is shattering
the illusion that some 80% of Americans still believe: that the
products they buy have been through enough safety testing
to be proved not harmful.
“Most consumers assume that because it’s for sale, it quirks of a health care system where
must be safe,” says Teresa Murray, who directs the consumer supply chains are so complex that qual-
watchdog office at the nonprofit U.S. Public Interest Research ity assurance is difficult. Light remem-
Group (PIRG). “Oftentimes, that’s very much not true.” bers being far more shaken than his
Despite its nearly $7 billion annual operating budget, the friend’s physicians.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) isn’t analyzing “It was shocking to both of us to re-
every shampoo or supplement on sale at your local drugstore. alize the FDA’s not testing everything,
In fact, the FDA does not approve most cosmetics before they and retail stores and pharmacies aren’t
hit shelves—let alone assess how they’ll affect human health doing the testing,” he says. “So who’s ac-
after years of regular use. This information vacuum has given tually testing the product, as opposed to
rise to a network of nonprofits, consumer-protection groups, looking at the paperwork?”
and independent scientists dedicated to informing the public Light and Clark-Joseph—now Vali-
about potential hazards lurking in their products. sure’s president and head of analyt-
Within this group, Valisure has been uniquely effective ics, respectively—co-founded Valisure
at grabbing attention. Its testing has led to product recalls in 2015 to fulfill that mission, setting
from household-name brands, congressional testimony, up shop down the road from their
and partnerships with big-name organizations like the U.S. alma mater. At first, Valisure quality-
Department of Defense. But Valisure—the underdog that tested medications, then sold them
built its reputation as a crusader for public health—has made through its own online pharmacy. But
enemies too. Critics and regulators have denounced its test- four years after its founding, Valisure
ing methods and the legitimacy of its scientific findings, rais- made a name for itself in a splashier way.
ing doubts about the very doubts the company has raised. So In September 2019, Valisure’s sci-
every time Valisure’s results make the news, Americans are entists used a “citizen petition,” which
left to figure out how worried they should be. everyday people can use to request ac-
tion from the FDA, to announce they’d
In 2015, DavID LIght, a molecular biologist, heard from found the probable carcinogen NDMA
his friend and former Yale University classmate Adam Clark- in every batch of the heartburn med-
Joseph about a problem with his medication. Every so often, ication ranitidine that they tested.
Clark-Joseph said, he got a batch that triggered side effects Then lawyers brought a slew of law-
and sent his chronic condition into relapse. He said his doc- suits against GSK and Sanofi, pharma-
tors mostly shrugged off these incidents as unfortunate ceutical companies that have sold the
60 Time May 27, 2024
 △
popular ranitidine drug Zantac, link- his staff finds something concerning. Valisure has found potentially
ing it to clients’ cancers. (Many of these Over the past few years, Valisure has cancer-causing chemicals in dry
cases have been settled or dismissed.) In found the carcinogen benzene in a va- shampoos, sunscreens, and more
April 2020, the FDA asked all makers to riety of consumer products, includ-
pull ranitidine from the market. ing sunscreen, dry shampoo, and acne
The FDA has said that the recall treatments, leading to major news cy- istry at the University of California,
was based on its own testing, not Vali- cles and, in some cases, product recalls. Berkeley. But, Schwarzman says, it’s not
sure’s. Though FDA tests did find ele- A range of other groups work in this always easy for scientists, let alone the
vated NDMA levels—high enough to space. Experts from the Cosmetic In- average consumer, to understand what
trigger a recall—they were much lower gredient Review assess the safety of in- to make of the potential risks raised by
than Valisure’s. That’s because Valisure gredients used in beauty products, with these groups. “There’s lead in pigments
used extreme testing practices, like ex- funding from the Personal Care Prod- in lipstick,” Schwarzman says. “If you
posing the drugs to heat, that may have ucts Council, an industry trade group. wear lipstick once a month, it’s probably
actually produced NDMA, the FDA said The University of Kentucky’s health care not a big exposure”—but is wearing lip-
in a response to Valisure’s petition. system also performs independent anal- stick a few times a week enough to cause
But to the public, a recall is a recall, ysis of medications. But unlike Vali- health problems over years or decades?
and Valisure had been the first one to sure, many of the other groups inform- Is the risk high enough to swear off lip-
sound the alarm. The scandal boosted ing the public about products with stick altogether? What about other cos-
Valisure’s reputation; Light still keeps questionable safety data—including metics? These questions are difficult
Zantac-branded memorabilia in his of- the Ralph Nader–aligned PIRG, the even for scientists to answer.
fice as evidence of his lab’s impact. Silent Spring Institute, Toxic-Free Fu- It’s also near impossible to isolate
In 2021, Valisure sold off the phar- ture, and the Environmental Working which chemical exposures, if any, are
macy business to focus on product test- Group (EWG)—are nonprofits. These responsible for health problems, be-
ing. Mostly—thankfully—this business groups have had made splashes too; cause “we are exposed to [toxins] at
is a boring one. Valisure’s clients are PIRG was behind the 2018 discovery generally very low concentrations all
mainly organizations, like health care of asbestos in makeup sold at Claire’s, the time,” adds Debra Kaden, a toxi-
systems, that buy lots of medications leading to recalls. cologist and principal consultant at the
and want to know what’s in them. About “The more we look [at consumer environmental-consulting firm Ramboll.
90% of the time, Light says, this test- products], the worse it looks,” says Given those realities, consumer-
ing is uneventful. But now and then, Dr. Megan Schwarzman, associate protection groups have their work
often operating on their own hunches, director of the Center for Green Chem- cut out for them—which is an indictment
61
H E A LT H

of the U.S. regulatory system, says Homer Swei, who oversees suspected health hazards, like formal-
consumer-safety science at EWG. “It would be great if there dehyde and parabens, are still used in a
was no need for organizations like this,” Swei says. “Why variety of products sold in the U.S., such
does a third party have to do the heavy lifting for industry as hair treatments and lotions.
and government?” The FDA has implicitly acknowl-
edged gaps in its approach—like in
The FDA regulATes most things that Americans put on 2019, when it asked sunscreen manu-
and in their bodies, but the scope of its oversight varies de- facturers for more safety data. A spokes-
pending on the product. Pharmaceutical companies have to person wrote in a statement that “the
conduct complex clinical trials and secure FDA approval be- agency remains committed to using all
fore bringing new drugs to market. Meanwhile, the agency’s available tools to oversee the safety and
regulatory structure for cosmetics stems from a law enacted quality of FDA-regulated products.”
in 1938—long before the average American was using up to The question, for some, is whether
a dozen personal-care products, potentially containing more Valisure should be one of those tools.
than 100 chemicals in total, every single day. Unlike nonprofit groups, Valisure is
A 2022 law expanded the FDA’s purview over cosmetics— a business backed by private inves-
it can now issue a mandatory recall and suspend manufactur- tors, which means its work has “got
ing facilities if a serious issue arises—and some states have to make financial sense,” Light says.
passed additional laws related to consumer protection. But Valisure has lobbied for policies that
experts say there are still huge holes in the ways many prod- would push companies to pursue the
ucts are regulated in the U.S. Under the current structure, cos- kind of independent testing that’s the
metics companies can decide what sorts of safety and quality bread and butter of its bottom line. “Any
testing they want to do, which often isn’t adequate, Swei says. increase in the use of independent test-
Brands don’t even have to submit the results of their testing ing will benefit Valisure as a business,”
in most cases. And, contrary to popular belief, the FDA rarely Light acknowledges. But he maintains
orders a recall; more commonly, it requests a voluntary one. it would also be a win for public health.
The FDA is also lenient toward potentially concerning in- Personal-injury lawyers make a similar
gredients, compared with regulators in other countries. Since argument, saying their fees (routinely
2009, Europe has required cosmetics makers to submit safety 30% to 40% of any damages awarded)
data before selling a new product. In 2023 alone, regulators in Valisure serve as a market incentive to hold com-
the European Union moved to ban 30 chemicals from use in co-founder and panies accountable.
beauty products—more than the FDA has banned from cos- president In court filings, Unilever has also
metics in its more than 100 years in existence. Many known or David Light alleged that Valisure is motivated by
▽ money. Before filing a citizen petition
related to benzene in dry shampoos,
Unilever said, Valisure offered to test
its products and keep the results con-
fidential if Unilever paid more than
$1 million, an offer the company said
it declined. And GSK and other com-
panies have questioned Valisure’s re-
lationship with plaintiffs’ attorneys,
suggesting the lab works with lawyers
to produce test results that will lead
to juicy lawsuits. One of the first suits
related to Zantac was filed by Light’s
brother-in-law, an attorney in Florida.
(Light says Valisure’s proposal to Uni-
lever was taken out of context and the
lab does not have inappropriate rela-
tionships with attorneys, including his
brother-in-law, although its scientists
sometimes serve as experts in cases.)
The FDA has criticisms as well. In a
2022 letter, the agency alleged that Vali-
sure was using inappropriate methods
and machinery for its tests. “Third-
party testing using unreliable methods
62 Time May 27, 2024
produces unreliable data, and decisions Benzene spreadsheets and business plans,” Light says. He prefers
based on unreliable data are not sound,” discovery by the spotlight. “I’m an adventurous kind of guy, I guess.”
an FDA spokesperson wrote in a state- Valisure: Sometimes, perhaps, too adventurous. During the summer
ment provided to TIME. of 2007, while a student at Yale, Light was arrested for firing
Consider Valisure’s recent finding A timeline a pistol into the ceiling of his fraternity house. Authorities re-
of benzene in benzoyl peroxide acne portedly found that Light—who was a gun enthusiast at the
treatments. For that testing, Valisure time—had numerous weapons, thousands of rounds of am-
scientists analyzed what happened munition, and chemicals consistent with bomb-making in his
when benzoyl peroxide products were room. (Light says the chemicals were not intended for illegal
exposed to 122° temperatures for 18 activity and notes that charges related to them were dropped.)
days, conditions that the Personal Care 2021 He served about six months of a one-year prison sentence
Products Council argued have little and eventually went on to finish his degree at Yale in 2011.
real-world relevance. (Light, however, “I sincerely regret the events that occurred during my
contends the test isn’t so far-fetched: college years,” Light wrote in a statement to TIME. “I take
“What if it sits in a warehouse in Florida full responsibility for my actions . . . and since then have
for two weeks, or sits on a shelf in a store made a concerted effort to rebuild my life and contribute
where their air conditioner broke?”) positively to society.”
Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of Bos- SU N SC R E EN
ton College’s Program for Global Pub- Va l i s u r e How positively valisure contributes to society is up
lic Health and the Common Good, ar- d i s c ov e r ed for debate. The FDA, court system, and trade groups some-
gues that the public has a right to know b e n z e n e in su n - times treat it as a nuisance, arguing its findings scare people
about any level of benzene contamina- c a r e p r o d u ct s without the science to back up the headlines. But the sci-
from 29 brands
tion. “We know that it’s a carcinogen, entists who do similar work maintain that information is
even down to the lowest levels,” he says. power—that even if consumers can’t pinpoint the exact mo-
But Kaden, the Ramboll toxicologist, ment at which exposure to benzene or NDMA or parabens
says much of the discussion about ben- becomes dangerous, they have a right to know it’s happening.
zene doesn’t give consumers enough “It’s up to everybody to decide for themselves the risk-benefit
context. In 2022, after Valisure tests 2022 ratio,” Schwarzman says. “When you have the information,
revealed benzene in sunscreens, Kaden you get to do that.”
and a colleague did their own analysis, Under the existing regulatory structure, Americans prob-
concluding that people could be ex- ably wouldn’t get that information without independent labs
posed to more benzene in the vehicle and consumer-interest groups digging it up. Even finding de-
exhaust they’d inhale walking down a tails about product ingredients and news about product re-
city street than by using a sunscreen calls currently requires a little effort on the part of consumers.
contaminated with benzene at the lev- D RY That may be changing. In addition to state-level efforts,
els Valisure found. Other researchers SHAMPOO U.S. lawmakers have in recent years introduced legisla-
have also found that people who use Va l i su re t e s te d tion that seeks to ban risky chemicals, improve transpar-
sunscreen actually tend to have lower 1 4 8 p r o d u cts a n d ency around supply chains and ingredient disclosures, and
f o u n d b e n ze n e i n
blood concentrations of benzene than 60% of batches
strengthen oversight of over-the-counter drugs. But for now,
nonusers, which suggests these prod- consumers are left to operate with imperfect products and
ucts are not major threats. limited information, says Kristin Knox, a data scientist at the
Toxin exposure is never a good thing, Silent Spring Institute. In her own life, she’s tried to strike a
Kaden says, but “the dose makes the balance between caution and panic, continuing to use mass-
poison.” Groups like Valisure, she says, market products while also making tweaks like swapping
don’t always make that clear enough in 2024 plastic household goods for glass, choosing unscented prod-
their messaging to the public. ucts, and using fewer cosmetics. “That there are things you
Light, however, stands by his lab can do that actually reduce your chemical burdens is good
and its findings. In fact, he seems to news,” she says. “But it’d be even better if the products didn’t
enjoy the notoriety that comes with have bad chemicals in the first place.”
being the guy brave enough to take on Ultimately, any independent actor, from Valisure to Silent
the FDA and major brands. Framed ar- Spring to PIRG, has only so much authority. They can break
ticles about Valisure’s bombshell test BE N Z OY L into the news cycle, which sometimes results in recalls and
results line the walls of his office and P EROX IDE changes from manufacturers, but they’re not the ones making,
the lab’s lobby, and he proudly dis- Va l i s u re f o u n d selling, and regulating products. Systemic change is required,
plays the mug he got from a 2023 visit t h a t a l l b e n z oy l Knox says, for jobs like hers to become obsolete.
p e ro xi d e
to the White House, where he was in- products can “Like most people, I [used to assume], ‘Oh, it’s in the grocery
vited to talk about product safety. degrade into store, it’s been reviewed by the government, it’s safe,’” Knox
“Some people like very straightforward benzene says. “It would be nice to live in a place where that’s true.” □
63
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 TV’S
ENDLESS
HOLOCAUST
BY JUDY BERMAN

A surge of
World War II dramas
fails to connect
with the present

GEORGE MILLER RETURNS SOMETHING IS AMISS IN HANNAH EINBINDER ON HACKS,

TO THE WASTELAND THE AMY WINEHOUSE BIOPIC STAND-UP, AND SELF-PROMOTION

ILLUSTR ATIONS BY KUMÉ PATHER FOR TIME 65

TIME OFF OPENER

W
hen you Think abouT The holocausT,
what images appear in your mind’s eye?
I see Nazis marching into city squares. Jews
crushed into airless cattle cars. An iron gate
with the inscription arbeit macht frei, and beyond it,
rows of spartan dormitories housing skeletal inmates in
filthy striped uniforms, subjected to all manner of dehu-
manization. There are smokestacks, barbed wire, mass
graves. These awful tableaux are the products of a life-
long immersion in Holocaust narratives, from factual ac-
counts in textbooks to visits to museums to documentaries
screened at Hebrew school. But because I grew up in the
era of Schindler’s List and Life Is Beautiful, my most indel-
ible impressions come from pop culture. When I envision a
concentration camp, I am seeing a collage of movie stills.
The same imagery sufuses The Tattooist of Auschwitz,
Peacock’s new adaptation of Heather Morris’ best-sell-
ing 2018 novel. Inspired by her conversations with Lali
Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who spent the final years of World
War II tattooing ID numbers on new arrivals at the notori-
ous death camp, it is ultimately, as Harvey Keitel’s elderly
Lali explains to Heather (Melanie Lynskey), “a love story.”
But that romance unfolds against a familiar backdrop of she grew inured: “After 30 years, a sat-
sufering that fits our broadest conceptions of the camps: uration point may have been reached.
sadistic Nazis; lines of naked bodies slouching toward In these last decades, ‘concerned’ pho-
death; Jews praying and singing to reassert their humanity. tography has done at least as much to
The Tattooist is solidly made historical fiction, built on deaden conscience as to arouse it.”
benign intentions and openhearted performances. It’s also A half-century later, The New Look
the latest and most generic example of a dubious TV trend: on Apple TV+, Lucky Ones on Hulu,
the Holocaust drama. While the genre dates back decades, and The Tattooist—all based on true
the past year has seen an explosion of such shows, from stories and released in the past three
We Were the Lucky Ones to The New Look to Transatlantic; months—cement a new era of super-
A Small Light to All the Light We Cannot See. saturation. The New Look is an origin
Each of these series has its own angle. What unites most story for Christian Dior (Ben Mendel-
of them is an unwittingly exploitative repetition of imagery sohn), whose struggle to free a sister
that long ago lost its power to shock and an adherence to (Maisie Williams) condemned to the
tropes of heroism and villainy that abstract the Holocaust camps for her role in the French Re-
from any but the most anodyne political context: Nazis sistance is contrasted with the bra-
evil, Jews brave. This is a tumultuous moment for Jewish zen Nazi collaboration of his rival
identity. Antisemitism and fascist ideology both are surg- Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche). In
ing, while Jews weigh the morality of Israel’s assault of Lucky Ones, a family of Polish Jews
Gaza. Yet these stories too often cling to sentiment and cli- fleeing the Nazis endures years of sep-
ché. What we need from those narratives—political insight, aration and hardship. The Tattooist is
introspection—remains elusive. the most conventional concentration-
camp narrative of the three, framed by
In hIgh school, I took two classes that happened to Lali’s conversations with the author.
screen French New Wave filmmaker Alain Resnais’s docu- Although their plots diverge, the
mentary Night and Fog just weeks apart. Released in 1956, The shows have strikingly similar emo-
the half-hour film exposed an international audience to tional arcs and moral agendas. Each
photographic evidence of the multifarious horrors of the morality drags the viewer through endless suf-
camps. The first viewing was as enlightening as it was har- that fering, whether behind the gates of
rowing. But the second felt obscene. I was staring at those underlies Auschwitz or in a Soviet work camp
same distressing images without learning anything new. or even in a Paris atelier where Dior
I had to excuse myself after a few minutes. these must design gowns for the wives of the
Susan Sontag recounted a similar experience in her 1977 dramas Nazi officers whose minions are hold-
book On Photography. The cultural critic wrote that when ing his sister Catherine captive. At long
she first encountered photos from the camps, at 12, “Some- tends to be last, the finales bring catharsis. Fami-
thing broke … I felt irrevocably grieved.” But gradually, simplistic lies and lovers reunite. Inspired by
66 Time May 27, 2024
 that shares a wall with Auschwitz, decades. The only subtext that sneaks
gazing with disdain upon the perfect through: “We can’t let it happen again.”
flowers Rudolf’s wife Hedwig (Sandra It’s an obvious conclusion, though
Hüller) cultivates in her garden. That it can be depressingly divisive once
the Hösses are not remarkably evil is you start breaking it down—which is
the point. They are beneficiaries of a probably why most Holocaust TV de-
system whose leaders mobilized the clines to do so. Who, for one thing, is
manpower to implement their Final we? Is it individuals or governments?
Solution, in part, by fulfilling the And what is it—the mass slaughter of
frustrated ambitions of the Christian Jews in particular or the attempted
working class. annihilation of any group of people
TV has not been entirely bereft of based on their shared identity?
politically aware Holocaust histories. For contemporary art about the
Viewed by 120 million people in the Holocaust to matter, it must engage
U.S. and exported around the world, with these questions, which are more
NBC’s 1978 miniseries Holocaust is central to Jewish identity than ever. On
like Lucky Ones if its central family college campuses and in the streets,
weren’t so lucky. When it isn’t mawk- Jews find themselves on opposite sides
ish, it’s stiff. Yet the presence of the of a conflict rooted in divergent inter-
gentile Erik Dorf (Michael Moriarty), pretations of the Nazi genocide. Is the
an out-of-work lawyer with socialist lesson of the Holocaust that Israel, a
sympathies who rises up in the SS to sanctuary state for the world’s vulner-
Catherine, Dior reinvents French fash- become a legal architect of the geno- able Jewish minority, must be pro-
ion for an exuberant postwar era. Care- cide, speaks to an understanding of tected at all costs? Or that the global
ful to temper happy endings with som- the Holocaust as the product of a bro- community must stop the violence of
ber tributes to the millions who died, ken society seduced into fascism. powerful states against disempowered
the creators leave us to exult in the tri- Last year, two TV series, Netflix’s communities like the one in Gaza?
umph of the human spirit over evil. Transatlantic and Nat Geo’s A Small Levi meditated on the universal
The morality that underlies these Light, dramatized the stories of real political implications of the Holo-
dramas tends to be simplistic. No one people who fought against this ex- caust in Survival, observing that “it is
disputes that the Nazis are the bad tremist undertow. Set amid the brave in the normal order of things that the
guys. But that doesn’t mean the Reich souls who led the Emergency Rescue privileged oppress the unprivileged.”
must always be represented by one or Committee, in Marseilles, Transatlan- But despite its obsession with Nazis,
two conniving, midlevel psychopaths, tic was disappointingly shallow. Much television has yet to forge a thought-
plus dozens of faceless foot soldiers. more perceptive, A Small Light follows ful connection between this history
The implication is that Germany dur- Miep Gies (Bel Powley), the heroic and the matter that consumes the con-
ing the Second World War was popu- young woman who hid Anne Frank’s sciences of Jews in the present. With
lated by millions of extraordinarily family from the Nazis in Amsterdam. the exception of an empathetic season
deranged individuals, rather than While she risks her life on a daily of Transparent that visits Israel and the
overtaken by a regime that normalized basis, not only with the Franks, but West Bank, and a smattering of Ameri-
and incentivized genocidal hatred to also in the Dutch resistance, the acqui- can and Israeli thrillers that too often
such an extent that only Europeans of escence of her friends to the Nazis’ as- stereotype Arabs as terrorists, the me-
remarkable courage resisted. sault on their Jewish and queer neigh- dium has, likely in its reluctance to of-
bors horrifies Miep. It’s the one TV fend, barely touched the politics of the
The impression ThaT the Holo- Holocaust drama from the past several Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
caust was an anomaly, perpetrated years whose profound insight justifies Maybe there are bold TV creators
by avatars of rootless evil, isn’t just a reimmersing viewers in one of human- who are, right now, synthesizing the
comforting misapprehension—it’s a ity’s lowest moments. devastations of Oct. 7 and Israel’s as-
dangerous one, blind to the systemic sault on Gaza into thoughtful art. If so,
workings of authoritarian populism. “This really happened” con- then the Holocaust will surely play a
The best recent representation of this tinues to be the take-home message part—just as it has already informed
phenomenon is The Zone of Interest, of most Holocaust series in 2024, as a handful of stories that speak to our
Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning film though Holocaust and Schindler’s List increasingly authoritarian moment.
about the family of Auschwitz com- (not to mention Night and Fog, Hannah Whether for political or moral rea-
mandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, Primo sons, or simply in order to tell cathar-
Friedel). Instead of reproducing com- Levi’s memoir Survival in Auschwitz, tic tales of resilience, we can’t keep
monplace images, Glazer confines and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah) haven’t cordoning off history from a present
himself to this upwardly mobile home been part of Western pop culture for to which it’s so urgently relevant. □
67
TIME OFF MOVIES

PROFILE Early reactions to the trailer critiqued

On the road again with the film’s use of CGI. Some fans sug-
gested Miller should have left his clas-
Mad Max’s mastermind sic alone. But he couldn’t. The script
BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN was there. With red-tinted glasses that
wouldn’t look out of place in the retro-
futuristic world of Mad Max perched
GEORGE MILLER HAS SPENT MORE THAN 40 YEARS AN on his nose, Miller explains that he
swerving in and out of the postapocalyptic world of Mad ECLECTIC was determined to complete the story.
Max. It’s an unpleasant place: dry, barren, and violent, but And that third film? The one that
Miller can’t seem to stay away. And he had a compelling
RÉSUMÉ covers a year in Max’s life before the
reason to return after 2015’s hugely successful Mad Max: Miller’s career events of Fury Road? It’s tentatively
spans many genres
Fury Road. In preparing to bring that story to the big titled The Wasteland, and Miller
screen, Miller wrote not just one movie, but three. says it’s ready to go. “Depending on
The first film was, of course, Fury Road. The film intro- whether Furiosa gets traction or not,
duced a new protagonist, Furiosa, a one-armed road war- that movie is on the horizon,” he
rior played by Charlize Theron. She betrays the dictator says. Will Hardy return to play Max?
she serves, a man obsessed with big muscles and bigger car Miller smiles conspiratorially. “If the
engines, by smuggling his wives out of their prison. Furiosa planets align.”
ended up eclipsing the franchise’s titular hero, with Tom BABE
Hardy in the role made famous by Mel Gibson. Miller wrote Babe FURIOSA HAS BECOME an iconic ac-
But in the nearly two-decade-long development process and directed tion hero, up there with John Mc-
for Fury Road, Miller also sketched out two more films: the sequel Clane and Ellen Ripley. It’s hard to
an origin story for Furiosa and what happened to Max imagine anyone besides Theron em-
a year before Fury Road. Miller shared concept art for the bodying her. “With Charlize, the
Furiosa movie with Theron so she could better understand Venn diagram of actor and charac-
her character. “She said, ‘Oh, gosh, can we do the Furiosa ter overlapped a lot,” says Miller. He
story first?’” Miller remembers. But that train had left the briefly considered using technology
station—or in the parlance of Mad Max, that war rig had to make Theron appear younger. “But
left the Citadel. the de-aging just wasn’t working,
THE WITCHES
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will finally debut on May 24, OF EASTWICK even in the hands of really master-
but with Anya Taylor-Joy replacing Theron as the solo ful filmmakers like Martin Scorsese
Cher is a witch in
lead—there’s no Max in this movie. The prequel chroni- on The Irishman and Ang Lee with
this star-studded
cles 16 years of its hero’s life, from the moment she’s kid- John Updike
Gemini Man,” he says.
napped as a child from her idyllic home by the henchmen adaptation
Miller would have made the film
of a crazed biker named Dementus, played by Chris Hems- sooner, but he spent years tied up
worth sporting a consciously comic prosthetic nose. (Mill- in litigation with Warner Bros. over
er’s character names, which include Rictus Erectus and Fury Road. The director claimed the
Doof Warrior, are rarely subtle.) Furiosa spends the rest of studio hadn’t paid his production
the movie trying to return to her native land, though she’s company a promised bonus; the stu-
occasionally distracted by fantasies of revenge. dio countersued because Miller de-
Expectations for Furiosa are sky-high after Fury Road livered a 120-minute R-rated film in-
won six Oscars and became a cultural phenomenon: its HAPPY FEET stead of the 100-minute PG-13 movie
high-octane action scenes, shot largely without CGI, Miller won an he was contracted to make. (The suit
were so original and unrelenting that the movie left au- Oscar for the went into arbitration, and Miller and
diences dazed. Fury Road’s shoot was legendarily long movie about WB are partnering again on Furiosa.)
and troubled—there’s an entire book chronicling the on- dancing penguins “By the time it came to it, we had to go
set feuds and chaos at the studio. Despite all that, Miller with a younger actor,” Miller says.
is upping the ante with Furiosa. He employed 200 stunt Taylor-Joy is a slighter if equally
performers, topping Fury Road’s 150. And the new movie mighty Furiosa. Miller asked the actor
boasts a 15-minute sequence that took nearly nine months to send him an audition tape and let
to shoot. “You can’t anticipate how that effort will be ap- her choose from three monologues,
prehended,” Miller says over Zoom from his native Austra- including Peter Finch’s famous speech
lia. “It’s in the hands of the audience now.” from Network in which he unravels on
Fury Road is essentially a 120-minute extended chase se- FURIOSA air. Taylor-Joy recorded the anchor’s
quence with almost no dialogue. Furiosa is structured more Anya Taylor-Joy ravings directly to camera. Though
like a traditional hero’s journey. The cars sometimes stop leads the fifth she would speak very few lines in
and park. The characters occasionally have conversations. Mad Max movie Furiosa, she conjured the intensity
68 TIME May 27, 2024
 ◁
Miller insisted the vehicles in Furiosa
be functional, including a motorcycle
that runs on a plane engine

because that would be a different story. It would have to be

a woman.” And so Furiosa was born.

MILLER HAS ALWAYS BEEN a visual filmmaker. If Furiosa

was conceived because Miller needed a hero to drive the war
rig of his dreams, Max was born from grisly images Miller
saw in real life. Before he became a filmmaker, Miller was an
ER doctor who treated the victims of car accidents in rural
Queensland where, in the 1970s, driving laws were lax and
the consequences horrific. That gore inspired 1979’s Mad
Max. Made on a shoestring budget, the production couldn’t
afford a photocopy machine for the storyboard pictures.
“I wrote out descriptions of every scene and every camera
move for everyone working on the movie,” says Miller. “The
screenplay was 274 pages long for a 90-minute movie.”
The film became a sensation. The original Mad Max held
the Guinness World Record for most profitable movie of
all time. Miller completed a trilogy with Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome in 1985. He took a detour into children’s
films, including scripting the classic Babe and directing its
sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.
When he was ready to turn to Fury Road, a series of ca-
lamities delayed shooting, from 9/11—and Miller’s decision
in its aftermath to pivot to the Oscar-winning animated
film Happy Feet—to a rainstorm that turned the barren
needed to convey the mentality of desert where Miller had planned to shoot into a flower-
a survivor living in a depraved world. ing oasis. The cast and crew filmed for 138 grueling days in
It may seem bold that this fran- the desert. Theron and Hardy have both said it was a frus-
chise, defined by monster trucks and trating and stressful experience: Theron has said they had
machismo, now has a female hero no script, just pictures, and Miller responded to any di-
at its center. Fans spent years argu- rect questions about the plot with thesis-length answers.
ing about the message behind Fury (During our interview he apologized multiple times for his
Road. “There was a cohort of males lengthy, discursive responses.)
who said, ‘Oh, you can’t have a fe- Miller describes Fury Road as an “anthropological docu-
male action hero,’” says Miller. “There mentary.” The audience catches glimpses of specific be-
W A R N E R B R O S . P I C T U R E S ; M I L L E R : V I O L E T T E F R A N C H I — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X
B A B E , T H E W I T C H E S O F E A S T W I C K , H A P P Y F E E T: E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N (3); F U R I O S A :

was a cohort of feminists who said, havior, like soldiers called War Boys spraying chrome paint
‘Why does she need Max at all?’” into their mouths. “We get the sense that the spray paint
But for Miller, choosing to make has a meaning to the boys,” says Miller. “But you have to
Furiosa the hero of a Mad Max movie pick up on the run because we never stop to explain.”
was a practical decision, not an ideo- Furiosa fills in the blanks of Fury Road. And Fury Road,
logical one. “When you tell a story, you a movie with famously few lines of dialogue, left a lot of
don’t say the story is going to be about blanks. How did Furiosa lose her arm? You’ll find out. How
this particular theme,” he says. He con- was her war rig built? Get ready for a montage.
ceived Fury Road during a dream on a Part of what distinguished Fury Road from the other
transpacific flight. But he needed char- franchise films of its era was Miller’s refusal to weigh down
acters to put inside the cars. ‘It’s in the movie with lore. But Miller chafes at the notion that
“In the case of Fury Road, I Furiosa could be accused of fan service. “In terms of choos-
thought, ‘What if the MacGuffin, the hands ing what to tell of her story, it wasn’t sitting down and mak-
the thing everyone is chasing, were of the ing a shopping list,” he says. “It was character-driven.”
human?’ And that led to the wives For all the dirt that Miller’s tricked-out motorbikes
being stolen from the warlord. And audience kick up, his films are ultimately character studies—and
it couldn’t be a man taking the wives now.’ Furiosa is an indelible one. □
69
TIME OFF REVIEWS

MOVIES

What does a biopic

owe its subject?
BY STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

Amy Winehouse WroTe songs ThAT cuT To The core

of heartbreak, and sang them in a voice as supple and
sturdy as raw silk. In her short lifetime she earned millions
of fans, a number that has only increased since her death
from alcohol poisoning in 2011, at age 27. She’d long strug-
gled with substance abuse and mental-health problems,
and there’s evidence that those in her inner circle—people
who stood to profit off her gifts—had failed her. No wonder
those who love her feel protective of her even after death.
When the trailer for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic
Back to Black dropped, Winehouse fans sprang into mother-
bear mode. They claimed that the film looked cheesy, and
that its star, Marisa Abela (from HBO’s Industry), who did
her own singing, looked and sounded nothing like Wine-
house. Worst of all, the film had been made with the coop-
eration of Winehouse’s father Mitch, the “daddy” who, in
real life and in Winehouse’s megahit “Rehab,” had at one
time deemed his daughter’s use of alcohol—the addiction
that would eventually kill her—nothing to worry about.
Why make a film about Amy Winehouse at all? the fans de-
manded. She’d suffered enough. Why not just let her rest? Just watching footage of her clown-
There’s no clear answer to whether a troubled art- ing it up on a talk show, or giving one
ist’s life should ever become fodder for a movie. Taylor- of many live performances of “Back to
Johnson had said she sought to celebrate Winehouse’s Black,” her signature number—each
music rather than fixate on the more sordid details of her time reinventing the song as a devas-
life, and she’s arguably pulled that off. But in its middling tating act of death and rebirth—can
safeness, Back to Black is also a far less robust picture than make you feel a little raw. The sudden
Winehouse deserves. Its failures, and fans’ anger about it death of a performer can spark a pecu-
even before they’d seen it, raise entwined questions: What liar mournful helplessness, only rein-
does a music biopic owe its audience? More important, forcing the perception that we live in a
what does it owe its subject? world gone wrong.
We have plenty of biopics about artists whose lives and
careers were damaged by substance abuse: Kasi Lemmons’ The frusTraTion of Taylor-
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022), Johnson’s film is that it represents a
starring Naomi Ackie, addressed the more controversial missed opportunity, that of making an
aspects of Houston’s career with discretion and sensitiv- essentially celebratory movie about
ity, specifically her drug use and her longtime semisecret Winehouse while also acknowledging
relationship with Robyn Crawford. As a reasonably accu- thornier truths about her life. Abela’s
rate chronicle of Houston’s life, the movie is effective and performance captures some of Wine-
affecting. Other biopics, like Taylor Hackford’s terrific Ray house’s spitfire charm, and in her sing-
Charles biopic Ray (2004), starring Jamie Foxx, address ing, it’s easy to see she worked hard
the ways family members, producers, or managers can in- to re-create Winehouse’s marvelous
directly or otherwise enable an artist’s substance abuse. snakes-and-ladder phrasing, her mode
One scene shows Charles jittery and high as a kite as he lays of tossing a line off as casually as if
down “Night & Day” in the studio. The performance is in- she were flicking a cigarette butt into
candescent, explosive—yet you don’t want to think about the night. There’s something innocent
the self-destructive habit that’s fueling it. Back to and wrenching about the way she tells
Houston died at 48, less than seven months after Wine- Black is her on-again, off-again boyfriend and
house did. But her résumé, long and largely triumphant, onetime husband Blake Fielder- Civil
more closely resembled that of Charles. Winehouse’s brief respectful (Jack O’Connell), “I wanna be a wife,
career and wrenching death still feel like recent history. to a fault I wanna be a mum.” Winehouse had
70 Time May 27, 2024
 ◁ NEVER LET
Abela as Winehouse: a missed THEM GO
opportunity to capture a complex life
Biopics about musicians
are often divisive, but at
their best, they capture
the case that Mitch Winehouse acted
the essence of our
against his daughter’s best interests greatest stars. Here are
more than once. In addition to keep- four worth watching.
ing her from going to rehab at an early,
crucial stage, he initially resisted get-
ting her into treatment after a serious
overdose of cocaine, crack, and alco-
hol in 2007, not wanting her to back
out of her upcoming American tour.
Mitch Winehouse blasted Kapadia
for Amy, asserting that he was work-
ing on a rival movie that would set the
record straight. (He appeared in an- TINA TURNER
played by
other documentary about his daugh- ANGELA BASSETT
ter, Reclaiming Amy, in 2021.) Back to What’s Love Got to
Black somewhat redeems his reputa- Do With It? (1993)
tion: Mitch is played by a wonderful
and hugely sympathetic actor, Eddie
Marsan, and he spends much of the
movie looking pained as his daughter
suffers—though, tellingly, he takes ac-
tion only when she finally asks him to.
often indicated a yearning for that
kind of security, maybe as a way of re- You don’t have to know every in-
creating the life at home she never had tricacy of Winehouse’s story to sense
RAY CHARLES
as a kid: Mitch left the family when something amiss here. Parent-child played by
Winehouse was 9, making a meaning- relationships are always complicated, JAMIE FOXX
ful reappearance in her life only when and it’s true that Mitch opened his Ray (2004)
she was poised for success. daughter’s life to music. A cabdriver
Back to Black starts by introducing and amateur singer, he was the guy
us to a North London girl infatuated with the records, introducing her to
with performers like Billie Holiday, sounds she instinctively loved. But
Tony Bennett, and Thelonious Monk. he’s depicted in Back to Black as an
But it also assumes the viewer already agreeable, benign presence; the truth
A B E L A : D E A N R O G E R S — F O C U S F E AT U R E S ; B I O P I C S : E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N (4); G E T T Y I M A G E S (4)

knows something about Winehouse’s is almost certainly more complicated.

life: her bulimia, for example, a fea- Winehouse’s fans feared that Taylor-
ture of her life since she was a teen- Johnson’s movie would sensational-
JAMES BROWN
ager, is only subtly hinted at. (There’s ize her anguish for dramatic effect. As played by
a carefully shot vomiting scene, but it it turns out, Back to Black is respect- CHADWICK BOSEMAN
could be read as the aftereffects of too ful to a fault. The best art allows its Get On Up (2014)
much partying.) The movie captures characters—fictional ones or those
the volatility of Winehouse’s ping- based on real life—the dignity of own-
ponging relationship with Fielder- ing their choices, even decisions they
Civil, but it presents him as a curiously made because they couldn’t help them-
neutral figure, not much worse than selves. As joyful as Winehouse could
your average bad-boy charmer, when be, the somber facts of her life are
in fact he has admitted that it was he interwoven with her legacy; they’re
who introduced Winehouse, always a part of her complexity, her sadness. To
heavy drinker, to crack and heroin. truly respect her, we have to be tough
But the most questionable angle of enough to accept them, to carry some WHITNEY HOUSTON
Back to Black may come down to its of that burden for her. Back to Black played by
NAOMI ACKIE
depiction of Mitch. Asif Kapadia’s su- lightens that burden for us—and that’s Whitney Houston: I Wanna
perb 2015 documentary Amy makes precisely what’s wrong with it. □ Dance With Somebody (2022)

71
 9 QUESTIONS

Hannah Einbinder The Emmy-nominated actor and

comedian on Hacks, queer representation onscreen, and
her debut comedy special, Everything Must Go

In Hacks, you play Ava Daniels, queer people put in a position to

a writer who grudgingly goes to author those stories.
work for a fading comedy icon. Aging in
It’s a very gay show. What do you Jean Smart plays opposite you as
think it offers queer viewers that showbiz is a stand-up stalwart Deborah Vance.
isn’t often seen in the media?
It’s by the queers for the queers.
major theme of Have any of your stand-up experi-
ences informed her storyline? So
We’re in charge of the stories and the show. Has many of our writers are stand-ups,
we write them and we also perform
them, so they feel authentic and true
Hacks changed and the show touches on various
reference points in Paula Pound-
to life because they just are. No one’s how you think stone and Joan Rivers and Phyllis
guessing here at Hacks. We’re speak- Diller. For myself far less so than the
ing from experience. about aging? women who came before me, but
whenever I see the scripts, I’m like,
You have some qualities in com- “Yup.” It’s always pretty true to life.
mon with Ava, namely your
bisexuality and your career in Deborah is the face of a QVC
comedy. Do you ever worry that empire. If you had to sell one thing
people conflate the two of you? on the network, what would it
We do have some pretty on-paper be? It would be a bamboo matcha
similarities. But I know her inti- whisk because bamboo is really
mately, and I feel like the character sustainable. QVC is the pipeline
was so fully formed by the time I au- to the landfill with all of these
ditioned that I just see her as so sepa- horrifying textiles that are purely
rate. I definitely feel OK if people waste. Plastic, polyester, etc. So I
feel like she’s real. That makes me would choose a little tiny thing that
feel like I’m doing my job. you could put in your tea and then it
would be a useful tool.
Do those similarities make it easier
for you to lock into the character? Your first comedy special, Every-
For sure. I think [the same] for a lot thing Must Go, comes out next
of the actors on our show. We have month. What do you hope people
queer actors playing queer charac- will take away from the hour? Like
ters in every instance. So it’s nice for I took them on a little adventure. My
all of us to be telling our own stories. stand-up is theatrical and it is mixed
And as a comedian, it’s nice to lock media. I explore a variety of perfor-
into that frequency that we share. mance styles, so I just hope that it
feels different and that it feels like an
What more would you like to see escape, just for a little while.
when it comes to queer story-
telling onscreen? I hope that there Has the character of Deborah
is more faith in trans representation taught you anything about com-
and the ability for trans people to edy? Never miss an opportunity for
play themselves. Monica, starring self-promotion. Folks, my special is
J C O L I V E R A — VA R I E T Y/G E T T Y I M A G E S

Trace Lysette, is a great example on Max this June. M-A-X, like that
of a film that was so incredible. It’s guy from high school who played la-
just such a gorgeous piece of cinema crosse. That’s where you can see it.
that was indie and didn’t have a lot That’s where it’ll be. I’m there. Well,
of money behind it. So I would love you know I’m there. I’m kind of the
to see more money behind these princess of that place. So yeah, June.
incredible queer stories and more We ride. —ERIN MCMULLEN
72 TIME May 27, 2024
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