OC T.

28, 20 24

Next
Generation
Leaders

Nicola
Coughlan
TV’s breath of fresh air
PLUS 10 MORE
TRAILBLAZERS SHAPING
A BRIGHTER FUTURE

time.com
Morgan Freeman

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 It takes time to become an icon

P L E A S E E N J O Y C H A M PA G N E R E S P O N S I B LY
 VOL . 204, NOS. 13–14 | 2024

CONTENTS

9 28 36 42 57
The Brief If Kamala General Next Time Off
Harris Wins Elected Generation
△
23 The policy platform Prabowo Subianto Leaders Residents of
at the center of the made his name
The View Democratic nominee’s in Indonesia as a
Eleven trailblazers Muara Angke
from around the globe await Indonesian
make-or-break fight to fighter, but won the who are leading with President Prabowo
communicate to voters presidency vowing empathy, challenging Subianto on Aug. 14
what her presidency to build the country the status quo, and
would entail and help the poor forging solutions for a Photograph by
By Charlotte Alter By Charlie Campbell brighter future Muhammad Fadli
for TIME

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4 TIME October 28, 2024

 Vintages in Champagne are synonymous with excellence despite
significant variations in style, expression, and quality from one
to another.

Grand Siècle seeks a perfection beyond single vintages, with

the ambition of recreating “the perfect year”, one nature on
its own cannot provide. This approach makes us different from
our peers.

Because of our difference, it has taken us more time, effort,

perseverance, and a strong belief in our vision to become
recognized for what we do.

It takes time to become an icon

P L E A S E E N J O Y C H A M PA G N E R E S P O N S I B LY
FROM THE EDITOR

▷
Past Next
Generation Leaders
cover subjects
(clockwise,
from top) Greta
Thunberg in 2019,
Trevor Noah in
2017, and BTS
in 2018

China, India, Japan, Uganda, and

everywhere in between. Each list
has been the product of surveying
our reporters, editors, and partners
A decade around the world to determine who
is leading in the sectors that will de-
of leadership fine the future, with an emphasis on
△ business, climate, sports, the arts,
“THERE’S NO MAKUNG UT,” SAYS NUCOLA COUGHLAN. Behind the scenes and advocacy.
“You just have to keep going and can’t rest on your lau- with Coughlan And the future has indeed been
rels.” It was at 19, Coughlan tells TIME in our most recent theirs. Before Dua Lipa was on the
cover story, that she decided to pursue a career in acting. cover for TIME100, she was a Next
It has taken her nearly two decades to reach her current Generation Leader. Likewise climate
peak, delivering for Netflix the sixth most watched season activist Greta Thunberg, the 2019
of television in the streamer’s history with the most re- Person of the Year. Kylian Mbappé
cent installment of Shonda Rhimes’ Bridgerton. Coughlan’s and Simone Biles were NGL cover
persistence and her refusal to accept the status quo repre- subjects en route to global super-
sents the spirit of Next Generation Leaders, the series we stardom. In El Salvador, Nayib
launched 10 years ago in partnership with Rolex. Bukele joined Next Generation Lead-
Coughlan and the newest 10 other Next Generation ers as a young mayor; today he’s one
Leaders show that leading the future can often mean Leading of the world’s most closely watched
working to protect and preserve the past. Hana-Rawhiti the future politicians, recently profiled in a
Maipi-Clarke is protecting the rights of the Maori people TIME cover story.
in New Zealand (“We’re doing everything to revive our
can mean The list goes on, and so many seem
culture knowing that it could be extinct”). In the Philip- protecting to have embraced Coughlan’s insight:
pines, Ann and Billie Dumaliang are fighting for land that the past and the achievements may be many for
is home not only to people, but also to hundreds of kinds building this group, but there’s no resting on
of animals and plants. And Lenin Tamayo is preserving something their laurels.
Quechua and Andean culture. Other leaders are build-
ing something new—sometimes literally, as with Maggie
new
Grout, whose organization Thinking Huts is using 3D
printing to create schools faster and with less waste gen-
erated than with traditional construction, and architect
Arine Aprahamian, who is reimagining what kinds of
problems her field can help solve.
It’s thrilling to look back at the individuals who have
joined Next Generation Leaders across the past decade.
Those recognized have come from Afghanistan, Brazil, EDUTOR-UN-CHUEF
6 TUME October 28, 2024
At-Turaif,
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The birthplace of the Kingdom
A 300-year-old legacy DIRIYAH.SA
 CONVERSATION

On the covers

Photograph by Agnes
Lloyd-Platt for TIME

DIGITAL
COVER
On Oct. 7, TIME released a
digital cover story revisiting
families featured in the
magazine’s initial coverage
of Israel’s hostage crisis.
Pictured is Mia Schem, right,
who was taken hostage at
the Nova music festival, with
her mom Keren, left, and
sister Danny.

The future of influence

The 2024 TIME100 Next gala celebrated
emerging leaders from all over the world on Photograph by
Michal Chelbin for TIME
Oct. 9 at Manhattan’s Pier 59. The annual list
recognizes those to watch in health, climate,
business, sports, entertainment, and more. SETTING THE
After walking the red carpet, honorees hit the RECORD STRAIGHT
TIME Portrait Studio, presented by Toyota, to In “Leading the Future”
be photographed by Annie Noelker. Top, from (Oct. 14), we misspelled
left: activist Plaifah Kyoka Shodladd, actor philanthropist Marlene
Cole Escola, and actor Anna Sawai. Bottom, Engelhorn’s last name.
from left: singer Reneé Rapp, singer Victoria Also in that issue, in the
Monét, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. TIME100 Next, we misstated
At right, pop star Sabrina Carpenter, who the source of Engelhorn’s
performed her hits “Please Please Please” inheritance; she is an heir
and “Espresso.” See the full list of honorees to the Boehringer
at time.com/next Mannheim fortune.

TA L K T O U S
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Enzo Barracco, a former Please do not send attachments @time (X and Instagram)
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fashion photographer who is

an ambassador for the Prada Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and home
Group’s Sea Beyond project, telephone, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space
has turned his lens toward
sustainability. Barracco’s
Back Issues Contact us at customerservice@time.com, or
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8 Time October 28, 2024

The Brief
REMAKING
THE
MIDDLE EAST
BY YASMEEN SERHAN

A year after Oct. 7, Israel’s

list of targets had extended
to Lebanon. Where experts
see the region going next

MEXICO GETS ITS FIRST THE FROSTY CHARISMA OF THE A NEW ZEALAND CITY’S
FEMALE PRESIDENT INDOMITABLE MAGGIE SMITH AERIAL RIDE-HAILING PLAN

PHOTOGR APH BY BILAL HUSSEIN 9

THE BRIEF OPENER

F
or months after oct. 7, 2023, the world Hamas, Novik argues, “We’re going to see the West Bank
was newly focused on Palestinians’ aspiration to sliding in a Gaza-like direction. It has already begun.”
a nation of their own, the nub of their long con-
flict with Israel. In the U.S., public sympathy to- LEBANON: A MESSAGE TO IRAN
ward Palestinians had already been growing over Israel’s Having dismantled the military capabilities of one Ira-
decades-long military occupation of the Palestinian ter- nian proxy force, Hamas, Israel in September pivoted to
ritories. That feeling climbed as the Gaza death toll grew another—Hezbollah, the battle-hardened, heavily armed
to more than 41,000. Shi‘ite militia that dominates Lebanon. In two weeks, it
Now, a year since Hamas perpetrated the worst attack decapitated its leadership; killed more than 2,000 peo-
on Jews since the Holocaust, massacring 1,200 people ple, according to Lebanese health authorities; and tar-
and kidnapping 251, the world’s attention is back on geted the huge arsenal of missiles Israel regarded as its
Israel’s conflict with Iran—the contest that had earlier gravest security threat. The result was “a tectonic shift in
displaced the Palestinian question as the fulcrum of the Middle East,” wrote Paul Salem of the Middle East In-
the Middle East. But the region is changing at the stitute on Sept. 30. “The current rout of Hezbollah leaves
speed of missiles. Iran profoundly vulnerable.” Hezbollah is Tehran’s pri-
Analysts, and recent history, on what lies ahead: mary proxy—and its missile arsenal deterred Israel from
attacking Iran directly. Without
GAZA: ISRAELI TROOPS REMAIN it, Salem points out, Tehran may
The so-called day-after plan, in now opt “to build a more power-
which Gaza could be rebuilt and
its inhabitants returned to their
homes, remains as elusive as the
‘We are ful deterrent, which would be
a nuclear weapon.”

cease-fire that would return the

remaining hostages. Israeli Prime
sliding into ISRAEL: ISOLATION AND OFFENSIVES
The massacre and kidnappings
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in-
sists that Israel retain a military
presence in the Philadelphi corri-
an open- of Oct. 7 summoned the collec-
tive vulnerability accumulated
across 2,000 years of Jewish
dor that separates Gaza and neigh-
boring Egypt, a plan that is op-
ended history. They also shattered the
sense of security Israel exists
posed by Cairo. He has also ruled
out a role for the Palestinian Au-
thority, which controls portions
occupation to ensure. Those losses have
reshaped the landscape for
Netanyahu and his fragile coali-
of the West Bank.
“Absent a change of policy in
of Gaza.’ tion, which includes extremists
threatening to leave the govern-
Jerusalem, we are sliding into an —NIMROD NOVIK, ment if there were a Gaza cease-
open-ended occupation of Gaza,” FORMER ISRAELI fire. Yet warnings to Hezbollah
says Nimrod Novik, who was a FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER were first read out by Netan-
foreign policy adviser to the late yahu’s main political rival while
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon serving in the war cabinet in De-
Peres. “Since we are not going to cember. From the assassination
unilaterally withdraw and leave a vacuum for Hamas to of the leader of Hamas in an Iranian government guest
recuperate, then it means that we’re going to run Gaza’s house to the momentum in Lebanon, Israelis say that
affairs for an indefinite future.” “deterrence”—the premise of Israel’s security doctrine,
and another casualty of Oct. 7—is being restored.
WEST BANK: DRAMATIC DETERIORATION
Nearly 700 people have been killed in the Israeli- U.S.: FROZEN POLICY
occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, according to the U.N. Kamala Harris would likely continue President Joe
Most deaths were attributed to Israeli forces, but some Biden’s supportive posture toward Israel, if with more
were attributed to violent Israeli settlers, whose efforts sensitivity to the uproar over Gaza. While in his first
to displace Palestinians from their land—already spiking term, Donald Trump discarded the pretense of the U.S.
under Netanyahu’s right-wing, pro-settler government— as an honest broker on the Palestinian question; he urges
grew all the more brazen during the Gaza war. Netanyahu to “finish the job” in Gaza.
“All eyes used to be on Gaza, and now they are on With the election only weeks away, Biden is unlikely
Lebanon,” Novik says. “And therefore what’s happening to make policy changes—an opportunity for Netanyahu.
in the West Bank goes pretty much under the radar, but “Between now and Nov. 5 is when he’ll feel the freest to
it is quite dramatic.” Citing settler violence and the ris- do what he wants,” says Yousef Munayyer, a nonresident
ing appeal of armed resistance groups among Palestinian fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C. “Which
youth, many of whom embrace the resistance ethos of makes this a very, very dangerous time.” □
The Brief includes reporting by Chantelle Lee and Olivia B. Waxman
WORLD

BY ANNA GORDON

11
THE BRIEF NEWS

Disaster zone
The roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., is made of Teflon-coated fiber-
glass and built to withstand winds of up to 115 m.p.h. But in the late hours of Oct. 9, as Hurricane Milton struck, it was
ripped apart by 100 m.p.h.-plus gales—and so were plans to use the stadium as a base for storm-response workers.

H U R R I C A N E : M A X C H E S N E S — TA M PA B AY T I M E S/A P ; S H E I N B A U M : G E R A R D O V I E Y R A — N U R P H O T O/G E T T Y I M A G E S; N I B I : N E W H O U S E
W I L D L I F E R E S C U E ; S M I T H : T O M J A M I E S O N — T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S/ R E D U X ; R O S E : B E T T M A N N A R C H I V E /G E T T Y I M A G E S
THE BULLETIN

Mexico’s first female President takes office

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM WAS SWORN IN “It is a time of transformation, a time U.S., Mexico’s largest trading partner,
as Mexico’s first-ever female President for women,” she said. Sheinbaum rec- over a controversial judicial overhaul
and the first Jewish leader in the na- ognized “our sisters who from their critics say will undermine democratic
tion’s more than 200 years of indepen- history managed to move forward checks and balances, but which Shein-
dence on Oct. 1. and emancipate themselves ... and baum is pushing forward.
our granddaughters, who dreamed of
HISTORIC MOMENT The 62-year-old the possibility that one day, it would ECONOMIC PRIORITIES One of Shein-
not matter whether we were born baum’s first major tests will come next
the oath of office during a cer- month when she presents her admin-
istration’s budget. While her predeces-
sex determining our destiny.” sor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador,
enacted popular welfare and social pol-
and the leaders of more than CHALLENGES AHEAD Shein- icies, they have contributed to a bal-
a dozen mostly Caribbean and looning fiscal deficit that Sheinbaum
Latin American countries in will need to address. She will also play
attendance. begins her six-year term at a a crucial role in upcoming negotiations
Shortly after taking the time when the nation faces on the free-trade agreement between
oath, Sheinbaum outlined spiraling violence by orga- Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, which is
her priorities in a speech nized crime, a slowing econ- set for renewal in 2026.
at the National Palace. omy, and tensions with the —ANNA GORDON AND NIK POPLI
12 TIME October 28, 2024
MILESTONES

DIED DIED

ANNOUNCED

RETURNED

AGREED

DIED

SUSPENDED

HALTED

REINSTATED

13
THE BRIEF CLIMATE
P R E S E N T E D B Y D I R I YA H C O M PA N Y
F I N D M O R E AT T I M E .C O M / T IME 2030

◁
A rendering showing
how the Whoosh
network would operate

other vehicles because, by using

a dedicated guideway, they avoid
energy-wasting actions like braking
or idling in traffic. Whoosh says it uses
roughly one-sixth the energy of a U.S.
bus or rail system. A one-hour ride
uses “about the same amount of en-
ergy as having a 10-minute shower,”
Allington says. And the infrastruc-
ture the pods glide across has roughly
TRANSPORT
a fifth of the embodied carbon—the
total emissions associated with ma-
A sky-high solution terials and construction—of ground-
level rail networks, Whoosh says.
for congested cities
BY HARRY BOOTH Of cOurse, the scheme remains
untested, and many a futuristic trans-
port idea has fizzled in implementa-
As ciTies Around The iorld grApple iiTh conges- tion. But the company already has
tion and seek to lower emissions, one New Zealand–based its sights set on the U.S. Five North
startup is looking upward for solutions. Next year, Whoosh Texas cities—Dallas, Plano, Arling-
will begin construction on a gondola-like ride-hailing net- ton, Frisco, and DeSoto—are being
work in a 370-acre area of tourism hot spot Queenstown— considered for potential sites of
the first of its kind. Whoosh’s first U.S. installation, says
Whoosh resembles a ski lift, descending for passenger its U.S. partner and Google spin-off,
pickup, but operates differently. While gondolas transport Swyft Cities, which is in talks with
lifts by moving the entire cableway, each Whoosh cabin uses public- and private-sector custom-
an electric motor to propel itself along a stationary network ers. “It’s places that are fast-growing,
of cables and rails at an average speed of about 26 m.p.h.
Powering the cabins themselves means the guideway can
‘None of the typically were built around the auto,
and now, they realize they’re stuck,”
be “really simple, low-cost infrastructure,” Whoosh CEO high-tech says Swyft Cities CEO Jeral Poskey.
Chris Allington says. The pods have a mechanism that al- innovations Part of what makes Whoosh a com-
lows them to switch from cables to suspended rails at speed, pelling option, he says, is that it can
meaning that, unlike a gondola, Whoosh can take flexible
solve the be “retrofitted into cities,” with its
routes from pickup to drop-off without stopping. problem.’ modular infrastructure, allowing it to
Whoosh says its vehicles, expected to be up and running —JERAL POSKEY, start small and grow over time.
as part of the pilot scheme by 2027, could help reduce travel CEO, SWYFT CITIES “Turns out, none of the high-
times and are twice as efficient as the most economical elec- tech innovations that fly or drive
tric cars. Users will be able to hail rides on demand using an themselves or go through tunnels
app or ticket-vending machines. are really designed to solve the
Queenstown is the ideal testing ground “because it’s got problem that most of the world is
horrendous traffic,” but it’s at a manageable scale, Allington facing,” Poskey says. Subways cater
says. If the network were expanded across the city, it would to high-density centers, while cars,
have the capacity to take about “20% of vehicles off the including autonomous vehicles, suit
road,” he says. low-density urban sprawl. Whoosh,
Each cabin will be complete with a stabilization system which targets trips of 1 to 5 miles,
that smooths rides in windy conditions, and smart-glass win- offers a solution for those in the
dows can frost over to stop riders from peering into homes as middle ground, he says. “We find
COURTESY WHOOSH

they glide past, Allington says. While providers will ultimately that people want to live in medium-
set the cost for riders, Allington says that he expects it to be density areas,” Poskey says, but “they
more expensive than mass transit but cheaper than an Uber. just aren’t well supported by either
Allington says the cabins are more energy efficient than automobiles or mass transit.” □
18 Time October 28, 2024
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LIGHTBOX

NATION

A North Carolina
town, after Helene
NorTh CaroliNa’s wesTerN mouN-
tains were once seen as a climate haven—
safely inland and elevated—but that idea
washed away on Sept. 27 with the rains
of Hurricane Helene. A few days later,
photographer Jack Sorokin returned to
Marshall (pop. 800), where his mother
still lives. The town is an artists’ enclave,
built along the French Broad River. “The
contrast between just a half mile away,
where life seemed normal, and down-
town, where it looked like the entire town
had been ripped apart, was staggering.”
—Jeffrey Kluger
PHOTOGR APHS BY JACK FLAME SOROKIN

▶ For more of our best photography,

visit time.com/lightbox

▽
A salvaged flag outside the
historic home where the photog-
rapher and his mother once lived.
The current occupants are safe

▷
Active-duty U.S. Army troops
change protective gear while
hauling mud by bucket from
the basement of the Madison
County Arts Council
20 Time October 28, 2024
◁
Looking south on
Main Street 10 days
after the storm.
Rubble in the distance
marks buildings that
were totally destroyed

◁
A volunteer
outside the old
Marshall High
School, covered in
mud—which might
contain sewage
and factory runoff
from upstream

▽
The interior of
an artist’s studio
located on the
island in down-
town Marshall

21
WORLD

LET REFUGEES
HELP REFUGEES
BY ANGELINA JOLIE

INSIDE

THE SURPRISING SUCCESS OF SOUTH NATURAL DISASTERS AND THE ‘KNOWN A TEACHER ON HOW AI DROVE HER
AFRICA’S GOVERNING COALITION UNKNOWNS’ OF CLIMATE COSTS FROM THE CLASSROOM

23
THE VIEW OPENER

More than half of the country’s

population of 46 million is experienc-
ing acute hunger, and three-quarters
of a million people face starvation.
Sudan is the worst humanitarian situ-
ation in the world, and with the in-
ternational appeal for funds short by
60%, governments are not rising to it.
But people are. During a visit to the
Sudanese border this fall, I saw volun-
teers doing more, with next to noth-
ing, than those who have the ability to
make the biggest impact. Hafiz Issak
Aroun, a Chadian doctor, had resigned
his job at a hospital to set up a clinic
in the border town of Adré, treating
refugees for free. “We are all volun-
teers here,” he said, “and we’re des-
perate for support to keep this going.”
In Khartoum, neighborhood mutual-
aid groups known as Emergency Re-
sponse Rooms operate 350 communal
kitchens. They know the value of liv- Volunteers dispense medication on July 7 at a clinic serving
ing a life of service and grace, of add- displaced persons in Kassala in eastern Sudan
ing to the lives of those around you.
Local responders see not mass suf-
fering but, rather, the needs of the per- directing, by 2020, at least a quarter offered part of that very small ration
son in front of them. Local volunteers, of all international humanitarian as- a family was storing. It’s not about
who include refugees themselves, are sistance through local and national ac- the food, it’s their common decency.
doing the work that the outside world tors. In 2022, it was less than 3%. Prayers for the health of a person’s
says should be done, and often bet- family are among the sincerest gifts
ter than any outsider could. But they Buhind thu quustion of money is we can give one another.
struggle to do it without the support another question, of respect. I have Our task must be to make that gift
that wealthier countries can provide. lived a privileged life, walked in many possible—first by funding and en-
We need to adjust. Research shows worlds. The people I have been most abling local responders. After visiting
that local groups are faster and more humbled by, the people I’ve learned the border, I met with the Mutual Aid
efficient in getting aid to those who the most from, were displaced families Sudan Coalition, which matches fund-
need it. To make this happen, donors fleeing war and persecution. No one ing to the needs of local aid groups,
and relief agencies need to change the knows better, or has more grace, than rather than asking those groups to
way they do business. The shift will the person who has survived the loss adapt to a global relief apparatus. But
S U D A N : A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S; S O U T H A F R I C A : P E R - A N D E R S P E T T E R S S O N — G E T T Y I M A G E S
need to be dramatic and draw on les- of family and country. They are who I they must be able to save lives with-
sons and models for financing in sec- hold in highest esteem. out risking their own. When justice is
tors like global public health. On the border of Sudan, where 200 not served equally and without excep-
It’s not just Sudan. In country after people cross every day, I found myself tions, it is not justice.
country, I have seen the current inter- standing face-to-face with a mother The U.N. was founded to prevent
national system fail people in need. who had just walked two weeks with war. When it fails at that, an interna-
I could no longer tell people to look a baby on her back and three young tional system that cannot even tend
only to the international community children at her feet. Their father had to those fleeing a conflict must, at a
as the answer. I wanted to learn more been murdered in their home, which bare minimum, protect the local peo-
about what was blocking refugees and was then looted and burned to the ple who, in the spirit of collective ac-
the internally displaced from helping ground. That mother was still smil- tion Sudanese call nafeer, step up. We
themselves. One answer is funding; ing at her child. To give him some can marvel at what they do with al-
this year, mutual-aid groups have re- light in the dark. She will live every most nothing. Or we can step up and
ceived only about 5% of the resources moment trying to ease her children’s make necessary changes to how we
allocated from the $130 million suffering and yet offered to pray for respond.
Sudan Humanitarian Pooled Fund. my children to have health—and she
Eight years ago, a humanitar- meant it. I can’t tell you now how Jolie, a TIME contributing editor, is an
ian “Grand Bargain” set a target of many times I’ve sat in a tent and been Oscar-winning actor and humanitarian
24 Time October 28, 2024
THE RISK REPORT BY IAN BREMMER

25
THE VIEW INBOX

By Justin Worland

A voter-registration booth near a Trump rally in Erie, Pa., in September

The D.C. Brief

By Philip Elliott
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

KAMALA HARRIS MAY BE LEADING window. It’s a similar mismatch

in many national polls, but a in Nevada; what was a 6-point
deeper look tells a less rosy story advantage for Democrats is now
for her party. A new TIME analy- shaved to 2.
sis of voter-registration data finds Finally, in North Carolina, Dem-
reasons for Democrats to worry ocrats’ 6-point advantage over Re-
that they may have frittered away publicans has quietly narrowed to a
baked-in advantages in states they 31%-30% split.
need to win. Strategists in both parties say that
In the four swing states that Biden’s decision to insist for so long
make it easy to track political that he was running for a second

V O T E R S : M AT T R O U R K E — A P ; T E A C H I N G : P H O T O - I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T I M E ; K A R E T O R I A /G E T T Y I M A G E S
alignment in voter registrations— term is a major reason Democrats
Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and have lost ground in voter registra-
North Carolina—Democrats have tions. Primaries are good at priming
seen their slice of the pie shrink. the voting pump, and Republicans
In Pennsylvania, Demo- had an active one. At the same time,
crats have their slimmest voter- Republicans also had more well-
registration advantage in decades. funded, high-stakes primaries for
On President Joe Biden’s watch, Senate and gubernatorial seats.
Democratic registrations in the To be fair, party registrations
state have gone from a safe 7-point aren’t predictive. Most Americans
advantage to now hanging ahead by skip labels altogether. But tags are
less than 4 points. Sure, in the wake often an early hint about voters’
of Biden’s choice to forgo a second behavior, and in a White House
term, Pennsylvania Democrats saw race that is the closest of any in
their best week of new-voter reg- 60 years, these signals cannot be
istrations since 2023, but that has brushed aside.
leveled off.
In Arizona, Democrats have For more from Washington, sign
lost more than 2 points of ground up for TIME’s politics newsletter
at time.com/theDCbrief
against Republicans in the same
26 TIME October 28, 2024
SOCIETY skills to identify and correct subtle
I quit teaching shifts in meaning. I couldn’t convince
them of the need for stylistic consis-
because of ChatGPT tency or the need to develop voices as
BY VICTORIA LIVINGSTONE research writers.
The problem was not recogniz-
ing AI-generated or -revised text. At
This fall is The firsT in nearly 20 years ThaT i am the start of every semester, I had stu-
not returning to the classroom. For most of my career, I dents write in class. With that base-
taught writing, literature, and language, primarily to uni- line sample as a point of comparison,
versity students. I quit, in large part, because of large lan- it was easy for me to distinguish be-
guage models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. tween their writing and text generated
Virtually all experienced scholars by ChatGPT. But
know that writing, as historian Lynn AI-assisted writing
Hunt has argued, is “not the transcrip- is easy to identify
tion of thoughts already consciously and hard to prove.
present in [the writer’s] mind.” Rather, As a result, I found
writing is a process closely tied to think- myself spending
ing. In graduate school, I spent months many hours grading
trying to fit pieces of my dissertation to- writing that I knew
gether in my mind and eventually found was generated by
I could solve the puzzle only through AI. I noted where
writing. Writing is hard work. It is some- arguments were un-
times frightening. With the temptation sound. I pointed to
of AI, many—possibly most—of my stu- stylistic quirks that
dents were no longer inclined to face I knew to be com-
this challenge. mon to ChatGPT.
In my most recent job, I taught aca- (I noticed a sudden
demic writing to doctoral students at surge of phrases
a technical college. My graduate stu- like delves into.)
dents, many of whom were computer That is, I found
scientists, understood the mechanisms myself spending
of generative AI better than I do. They more time giving
recognized LLMs as unreliable research feedback to AI than
tools that hallucinate and invent citations. They acknowl- to my students. So I quit.
edged the environmental impact and ethical problems of The best educators will adapt to AI.
the technology. They knew that models are trained on ex- In some ways, the changes will be pos-
isting data and therefore cannot produce novel research. I found itive. Teachers will move away from
However, that knowledge did not stop them from rely- myself mechanical activities and find ways
ing heavily on generative AI. Several students admitted to to encourage students to think criti-
drafting their research in note form and asking ChatGPT to spending cally and learn that writing is a way of
write their articles. more time generating ideas, revealing contradic-
As an experienced teacher, I’m familiar with pedagogical tions, and clarifying methodologies.
best practices. I researched ways to incorporate generative giving But students must learn to sit
AI in my lesson plans and designed activities to draw atten- feedback with the temporary discomfort of not
tion to its limitations. I reminded students that ChatGPT
may alter the meaning of a text when prompted to revise,
to AI than knowing and move forward with faith
in their own cognitive abilities as they
that it can yield biased and inaccurate information, that it to my write and revise their way into clar-
does not generate stylistically strong writing, and that it students ity. With few exceptions, my students
does not result in A-level work. It did not matter. The stu- were not willing to enter those un-
dents still used it. comfortable spaces or remain there
long enough to discover the revelatory
Generative ai is, in some ways, a democratizing tool. power of writing.
Many of my students were nonnative speakers of English.
Their writing frequently contained grammatical errors. Livingstone is the managing editor of
Generative AI is effective at correcting grammar. However, MLN, a journal of literary scholarship
the technology often changes vocabulary even when the published by Johns Hopkins University
only prompt is “fix the grammar.” My students lacked the Press
27
WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT WOULD SHE BE?
/
POLITICS

On a sunny Wednesday in degree requirements for 500,000 federal jobs. She

wants to invest in research and development in new
manufacturing industries, and trim red tape to fur-
late September, Vice President ther the Biden Administration’s overhaul of Amer-
ica’s infrastructure. Perhaps more than any other
Kamala Harris took the stage presidential candidate in recent memory, Harris
has focused on solving America’s housing crisis. She
at Carnegie Mellon University plans to offer $25,000 in down-payment assistance
to first-time home buyers, a tax credit to incentivize
for the first comprehensive builders, and pledges to build 3 million affordable
housing units in her first term.
economic-policy speech of her You can imagine the Harris presidency as an iOS
upgrade of the current Administration: the operating
system would stay the same, but with new features
short presidential campaign. and better packaging. There are tonal differences

Addressing a sedate audience in suits and ties, the

Vice President outlined plans to strengthen small
businesses, cut taxes on the middle class, and build
more affordable housing. “I am a capitalist,” she told
the Pittsburgh crowd, detailing how she would in-
vest in startups and increase public-private part-
nerships, and describing an approach to economic
growth that stressed stability.
It was a business-friendly speech tailored
to business-friendly voters. But in a neck-and-
neck presidential race, wonky pitches like these
could make the difference. In a September
New York Times/Siena poll, nearly 30% of likely vot-
ers said they felt they needed to learn more about
the Vice President before making their choice. The
fight to define Kamala Harris—who she is, what she
stands for, and what kind of President she would
be—will be one of the central battles of the cam-
paign’s final weeks. THE VICE
PRESIDENT
To examine these questions, TIME spoke with VISITS THE
20 current and former Harris campaign advisers, U.S.-MEXICO
BORDER IN
former aides in her vice presidential and Senate DOUGLAS, ARIZ.,
offices, senior officials from each of the past five ON SEPT. 27
presidential administrations, and a range of policy
experts. The portrait that emerged was of a politi-
cian who is more practical than ideological—a cau- between the two: Harris talks more—and more
tious candidate running in a change election, jug- comfortably—about abortion rights than Biden ever
gling the liabilities and benefits of her ties to her did, speaks with more empathy about the suffering of
boss, President Joe Biden, as well as her own past Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and has put housing and
positions, all while trying to keep the focus on her small business at the center of her plans for strength-
opponent. For Harris, policy specifics are in ser- ening the middle class. But for the most part, allies
vice to the larger goal of her campaign, which is to and critics agree there is little evident policy daylight
present a credible alternative to a second Donald between the Democratic nominee and the President
Trump presidency. she replaced atop the party’s ticket this summer.
At Carnegie Mellon, Harris offered the most de- The sharper contrast is between Harris’ current
tailed look at her economic plans since taking over as positions and her previous ones. If you talk to Har-
the Democratic nominee. She’s proposing a $50,000 ris’ advisers, the word that frequently comes up is
tax deduction to help Americans start more small “pragmatic.” But the candidate who campaigned for
businesses, and a $6,000 Child Tax Credit for fam- President in the 2020 Democratic primary was part
ilies in the first year of a baby’s life. She plans to of the party’s leftward lurch. Back then, Harris sup-
extend $35 insulin to all Americans and eliminate ported a public health care option and a Green New
30 Time October 28, 2024
 Deal. She wanted to ban fracking, decriminalize accounting of her policy evolution that Lopez is
unauthorized border crossings, and cut funding for seeking, in part by speaking infrequently to report-
immigrant detention. She backed forcing owners of ers. When she does do interviews, she mostly favors
assault weapons to sell them to the government. She local media, culture podcasts, or friendly talk shows.
has since changed her stance on all these issues. Harris declined repeated requests for an interview
Some voters see these shifts as part of a predict- for this story. In contrast, Trump talked about his
able pivot to the center; others see them as flip-flops policy vision with a TIME reporter for 90 minutes
in need of an explanation. Outside the auditorium across two interviews. Biden spoke to TIME at simi-
at Carnegie Mellon, Rodrigo Lopez, a registered in- lar length before dropping out of the race.
dependent from Florida, was finishing up home- Harris is running on what she won’t do as much as
work for his mechanical engineering class. Lopez what she would. She won’t curb abortion rights, as
followed the 2020 primary closely, and recalled Republicans want to do. She won’t impose Trump’s
that Harris took left-wing positions he disliked. He blanket tariffs, which most economists believe
said he would never vote for Trump, but doesn’t feel would raise prices and could throw the country
he knows enough about Harris to cast a ballot for into a recession (hers are more narrowly targeted).

her either. “It’s hard to tell what her real policy in- MEETING WITH She won’t initiate the mass deportation of undocu-
UKRAINIAN
tentions are,” he says. Harris “could win my vote,” PRESIDENT
mented immigrants, as Trump promises, or fire le-
Lopez adds, “if she articulates the reasons she’s VOLODYMYR gions of civil servants and replace them with MAGA
O P E N I N G PA G E S : R E U T E R S; T H E S E PA G E S , F R O M L E F T: R E B E C C A

changed some of her stances.” ZELENSKY IN loyalists. She won’t attempt to overturn the results
WASHINGTON
N O B L E — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S; K E V I N L A M A R Q U E — R E U T E R S

Harris is hardly the first Presidential candidate ON SEPT. 26 of a free and fair election, as Trump did.
to change her positions; Trump has flipped on ev- Once upon a time, presidential candidates com-
erything from abortion to gun control to Social Se- pared health care plans or tax policies when compet-
curity. When asked on 60 Minutes about her shifts ing for votes. These days, a policy-heavy campaign
since 2020, she said her time as Vice President has can weigh you down. Elizabeth Warren’s “I have a
included a lot of “listening” and “consensus build- plan for that” campaign sputtered through the 2020
ing.” Forging compromise is “not a bad thing,” she primary, failing to win a single state. She lost the
said, “as long as you don’t compromise your values.” nomination to Biden, whose campaign was about
What she means, according to her aides, is that her “Restoring the Soul of the Nation,” whatever that
goals remain the same—affordable health care, a was supposed to mean. Airy promises of “Hope and
strong middle class—but she is flexible about how Change” worked for Barack Obama, whereas Hillary
to achieve them. Yet she has skirted the thorough Clinton’s economic white papers did not. Trump’s
31
POLITICS

own campaign is constructed around a set of one- taxes on working families. On Oct. 8, she proposed a
liners; he acknowledged in his recent debate with new Medicare benefit to help families pay for home
Harris that he had only “concepts of a plan” for over- health aides for seniors and the disabled. To finance
hauling the American health care system. None of all this, she proposes increasing the long-term capi-
that has cost him an iota of support. Instead of pol- tal gains tax on people who make more than $1 mil-
icy, many voters are making their decisions based lion a year, and restoring the 28% corporate tax rate
on tribal allegiance or vibes. that existed under previous Democratic and Repub-
Which is one reason Harris’ approach may be a lican Presidents.
winning strategy. For many, the fact that she is not Biden’s domestic agenda was partly a product of
Trump is reason enough to vote for her. Running the crises he inherited—rebuilding from the pan-
against MAGA has boosted Democrats to victory demic, revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector.
in scores of elections since 2016—whether those Harris, who had a front-row seat as voters’ strug-
candidates had well-defined policies or not. “She gles with inflation created political headaches for
knows that very few people are going to choose be- the Administration, promises to curb high prices on
tween her and Donald Trump based on some details
of economic strategy, or some full-fledged proposal,
so she’s not presenting them,” says David Wessel, di-
rector of fiscal and monetary policy at the Brookings
Institution, a nonpartisan think tank. “It’s a strategy
to win the election. What reason is there to put out
a detailed economic plan if your opponent is just
throwing snowballs?”

WHEN SOMEBODY JOINS the Vice President’s staff,

Harris often asks them to think of a wedding album.
Imagine you’ve been to somebody’s wedding, she
says, and you go to their home and see their photo
album. When you start flipping through it, what are
you looking for? The question is rhetorical; you’re
looking for yourself. “Because you want to see if
you’re in their vision of what their day was,” recalls
Rohini Kosoglu, Harris’ former domestic-policy ad-
viser. “That’s how the American people feel when
they’re listening to us talk. Are they in our vision
when we see the future of our country?”
This approach, more than any ideology or eco-
nomic theory, animates Harris’ style of governance.
How does policy feel to the people who are expe-
riencing it? One aide recalls a conversation about
transportation infrastructure in which the Vice
President asked how the outcome would work for
a mother pushing her stroller down the street. An-
other ally recalls how, after hearing small-business
owners tick off the burdens of paperwork, Harris everything from groceries to health care. The goal is
worked to automate the way small businesses pay “to lower your costs by cutting your taxes; to lower
taxes. When discussing abortion restrictions, she housing costs; to lower pharmaceutical costs,” says
often describes how painful it must be for a patient Brian Deese, who served as director of the National
to wait in line at TSA while flying out of state to get Economic Council under Biden and is now one of
reproductive care. “She puts a tremendous amount Harris’s top economic advisers.
of capital on having people make sure they’ve really Opponents tell a different story. Harris’ agenda is
thought through the everyday life and experience of “the Biden Administration agenda–lite,” says Doug-
Americans,” says Kosoglu. las Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action
Harris has put abortion at the center of her cam- Forum, a center-right think tank in Washington, and
paign, with a promise to suspend the filibuster to the former senior economic adviser for Republican
restore the protections of Roe v. Wade. She would John McCain’s 2008 campaign. Holtz-Eakin consid-
extend Biden’s initiatives on infrastructure, climate, ers Harris’ plans to be “profoundly antigrowth” be-
and jobs, while adding new ones to build more af- cause of their reliance on government programs. Yet
fordable housing, invest in small businesses, and cut he thinks Trump’s proposed tariffs would be equally
32 TIME October 28, 2024
 bad. “Neither are good for the economy,” he says. half of American jobs. Helping small businesses
By many measures, the economy has thrived was part of her White House portfolio, and even
under the Biden-Harris Administration, with conservative critics acknowledge she’s been atten-
16 million new jobs created, unemployment hov- tive to the issue. In addition to offering a $50,000
ering around 4%, and manufacturing jobs at a 10- tax deduction to help new small businesses off-
year high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statis- set startup costs, she proposes to ease permitting
tics. GDP growth is around 3% this year, and the and automate processes, with a goal of 25 million
stock market keeps hitting all-time highs. But even new startup applications in her first term. “If you
if the data is good, the economic vibes are bad. Hous- ask small businesses what they don’t like, they
ing costs in particular have skyrocketed over the will always say, It’s really hard to get permits and
past decade, which is why Harris has put housing hard to get this licensing. The paperwork has got-
affordability at the heart of her economic agenda. ten to be too much,” says Karen Mills, who ran
In addition to that proposal for first-time the Small Business Administration under Presi-
homebuyers—which could be whittled down to dent Obama. “It’s the first time I’ve heard someone
listen to that.”
Some economists are skeptical of Harris’ tax pro-
posals. “In the aggregate, all these provisions would
have a negative impact on economic growth,” says
Alex Durante, an economist at the Tax Foundation,
a center-right research institute. But even many
conservatives doubt Trump would be much better
for the economy, citing his tariffs and immigration
plans. Goldman Sachs announced in September
that they estimate a stronger economy and more
job growth under a Harris presidency than a sec-
ond Trump term. Modeling by the Wharton School
at the University of Pennsylvania forecasts that
Trump’s plans would increase the deficit five times
as much as Harris’ would.
Taken together, Harris’ economic plans are “good
for lower- and middle-income Americans and small
businesses, and tough on high-net-worth house-
holds and corporations,” says Mark Zandi, chief
economist at Moody’s, who has predicted a Har-
ris victory. Her proposals are “not going to change
the growth rates of the economy in a meaningful
way,” Zandi adds, “but it does change who benefits
the most from that, and that’s going to be low- and
middle-income households.”

BideN’s successor will have to grapple with

multiple foreign policy crises now gripping the
White House. The next Commander in Chief will
pass a divided Congress—she’s proposing a signif- HARRIS GREETS have to deal with wars in Europe and the Middle
THE CROWD AT
icant expansion of the Low Income Housing Tax A CAMPAIGN
East, and competition with China. Harris has delib-
Credit, a popular and long-standing bipartisan ini- STOP IN NORTH erately not staked out new foreign policy positions,
tiative that incentivizes developers to build more HAMPTON, N.H., aides say, since she’s still the current Vice President.
ON SEPT. 4
affordable rentals. She’s also proposing a tax cut Still, there are subtle but important differences be-
designed to encourage more homes to be built for tween their approaches.
first-time homebuyers, and a $40 billion innova- While Biden views the world as a contest be-
tion fund. Housing experts say no other presiden- tween democracy and authoritarianism, Harris, a
tial candidate in recent memory has proposed such former prosecutor, sees it through the prism of rules
J O H N T U L LY— G E T T Y I M A G E S

a detailed plan. For years, housing affordability and norms: a fight between those who uphold the
was a “silent crisis,” says Dennis Shea, who leads rules-based order and those who undermine it. As
the housing program at the Bipartisan Policy Cen- a Californian who once represented Silicon Valley,
ter. “Now, it’s a front-burner issue.” she sees technology as a crucial part of America’s
Harris has also proposed several ways to ease global leadership, and would put it at the center of
burdens on small businesses, which provide nearly her foreign policy.
33
POLITICS

She also tends to talk more about the Global South A Harris presidency, says Colby, would mean a “gen-
than Biden does. One of Harris’ frst diplomatic as- eration younger, more progressive version of the
signments was to stem the flow of migrants arriving current foreign policy.”
in the U.S. by addressing the economic and security
conditions in the Northern Triangle countries of Cen- To Republicans’ oismay, Harris’ careful policy
tral America—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Hondu- rollout appears to be working. When she entered
ras. In an effort to improve life in the region, Harris the race, Trump had a decisive lead on many of the
helped launch a public-private partnership that drove issues voters say they consider most important:
big companies to invest more than $5 billion there. immigration, the economy, the cost of living. Polls
Such long-term economic strategies haven’t show Harris beginning to erase this edge. Harris is
succeeded in the past. And illegal crossings still virtually tied with Trump on who voters trust to
spiked under Biden. Harris, like her boss, has re- handle the economy, and only narrowly trails him
cently toughened her position on border security. on immigration, according to a September AP poll.
She now talks about her experience as the attorney She continues to lead by broad margins on health
general of a border state, prosecuting transnational care, abortion rights, and climate change. Two re-
cartels and drug smugglers. She supported the bi- cent polls found that more Americans see Harris as
partisan immigration bill that would have hired the candidate representing “change.” Whether it’s
1,500 new border-patrol agents, improved the asy- change from Biden or change from Trump, Harris
lum process, and paid for new fentanyl-inspection supporters have seized that mantle; the chant at her
machines. Though she is a daughter of immigrants, rallies is “We’re Not Going Back.”
“Harris is not as sympathetic to some of the immi- Still, 65% of registered voters say the country is
gration advocacy,” says Doris Meissner, a senior fel- on the “wrong track,” which is a tough number for
low at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan the party in power. That sour
think tank. “She’s sympathetic to immigrants, but mood presents Harris with a
she’s also going to be strong on the fact that there
needs to be control and discipline and consistency
Harris is ‘guided delicate challenge: boasting
about the Biden Administra-
to the way that we do it.”
On the spreading war in the Middle East, Harris
by pragmatism, tion’s accomplishments on in-
frastructure, insulin, and green
has condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas
on Oct. 7, promoted Israel’s right to defend itself,
not ideology.’ jobs, while distancing herself
from both her predecessor and
—BRIAN DEESE,
and called for a cease-fre with the return of the ECONOMIC-POLICY ADVISER her old policy platform. “She
hostages. Some supporters glean signs of greater has a record of saying things
sympathy for civilians in Gaza, even if the distinc- that she’s now trying to pivot
tions are subtle and rhetorical. “What I sense from from,” says Ted Gayer, president of the Niskanen
her is that she will be less accommodating of Is- Center, a nonpartisan think tank. “I can look at that
rael even than Biden was,” says Michael Allen, who and it can cause suspicion, or I could look at that
served on President George W. Bush’s National Se- and be happy for the pivot. I’m happy for the pivot.”
curity Council. “She’s more progressive than Biden Aides argue that her current platform is rooted
is, so I think she’d be more inclined to the point in political reality. She is “guided by pragmatism,
of view that the Israelis, especially [Prime Minis- not ideology,” says Deese, a top economic adviser.
ter Benjamin] Netanyahu, have prosecuted the war That “doesn’t mean we can’t set big goals, but it
too aggressively.” A Harris aide said in a statement means we need to be highly practical and constantly
that “she has a lifelong and unwavering commit- ask ourselves the question, Is this working? And if
ment to the security of Israel,” and added that she it’s not, try something else.”
shares Biden’s larger goals of de-escalation, a hos- As Harris left her economic-policy speech at
tage deal, and a cease-fre. Carnegie Mellon, students lined up along the street,
Harris has not given an address focused solely on waiting silently for her motorcade. As the line of
foreign policy, and she is viewed mostly as a support- black cars passed the crowd, Harris appeared in the
ing character in the Biden Administration’s overseas window, waving through the glass, her face framed
dramas. “I don’t think anybody with a straight face by the window like a living postage stamp. The
could really say that she’s considered a foreign pol- crowd began to cheer, and the girl standing next to
icy powerhouse,” says Elbridge Colby, a national- me began to cry. Her name was Noemi Barbagli, an
security expert who served in the Trump Penta- 18-year-old with long curly hair. I asked Barbagli if
gon and argues for a tougher approach on China. there was a particular policy proposal of Harris’ that
Her closest foreign policy adviser, Philip Gordon, excited her. “Honestly? Not that much,” she said.
has served Democratic Presidents since Bill Clin- “She brings a lot of hope and optimism. I know what
ton, and he and his aides are more likely to stay I don’t like about Donald Trump.” —With reporting
the course than seek to remake American strategy. by LesLie DicksTein and siffone shah □
34 Tife October 28, 2024
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WORLD

Indonesia’s President-elect
at his ranch outside of
Jakarta on Aug. 15.

PHOTOGR APHS BY MUHAMMAD FADLI FOR TIME

The
Chosen
One
ELECTED PRESIDENT WITH
MORE VOTES THAN ANYONE
ELSE IN HISTORY, PRABOWO
SUBIANTO AIMS TO KEEP
INDONESIA ON A TIGHTROPE
BETWEEN WORLD POWERS
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL/JAKARTA

A dozen mAsked commAndos croich

inside a jet black dinghy as it carves across
shimmering Jakarta Bay. At the bow,
loops of 12.7-mm bullets spill from a tri-
barreled Gatling gun; at the stern, Prabowo
Subianto, Indonesia’s Defense Minister
and President-elect, appraises the fshing
boats and rusting refueling stations that
pepper the inky water.
As the dinghy docks at Muara Angke,
a slum perched on the northern shore
of Indonesia’s sprawling capital, the
72-year-old Prabowo clambers onto land
and plunges into a cheering crowd, shak-
ing hands and kissing babies. In his wake,
aides pass out plastic trinkets from trash
bags to barefooted kids.
It feels like a campaign stop, but
Prabowo isn’t campaigning: he already won
Indonesia’s highest office with over 58% of
37
WORLD

the vote in February elections, and will until his appointment as Defense Min-
be inaugurated on Oct. 20. That land- ister in 2019. He unsuccessfully ran
slide saw over 96 million votes cast for for President twice with divisive cam-
the former general—the most ever for a paigns that brazenly courted the Is-
single candidate anywhere in recorded lamic right. But he finally triumphed
history. It was two weeks before polling by recasting himself as a gemoy—or
day that Prabowo last stopped by Muara cute and cuddly—grandpa, whose
Angke, only to be “heartbroken,” he trademark dancing on the stump gar-
says, by its pauperized inhabitants wal- nered many millions of views on social
lowing waist-deep in floodwater filled media. Yet activists fear Prabowo’s rise
with human excrement and discarded augurs an erosion of democracy and
mussel shells. (Harvesting the seafood emboldening of a military already ac-
is the main local industry.) cused of abuses in minority regions.
Prabowo immediately ordered the As Southeast Asia’s largest country
National Defense University to construct and top economy, Indonesia has always
200 new low-cost floating and stilted been the linchpin of its strategically
houses fitted with solar panels, indoor vital region. But with over a quarter of
bathrooms, and filtered drinking water. the world’s supply of minerals, it has
This return trip in August was simply also emerged as a battleground between
to kick the tires and inspect whether all the U.S. and China for the copper, gold,
was shipshape—though the deafening and nickel essential for the green transi-
three-syllable chants of “Pra-bo-wo!” tion and any tech economy. Neither has
telegraphed the local reaction even be- a lock. Regular Chinese intrusions into
fore he had stepped onto the dock. Indonesia’s territorial waters stoke pub-
“It’s heartwarming,” Prabowo tells lic outrage, while Washington’s support
TIME of his reception, in his first for Israel in the Gaza crisis has proved
Western-media interview since his elec- toxic in a nation with more Muslims
tion victory. “But it’s also sad. The way than any other.
these people lived. And there’s still so Prabowo nods in all directions. His
much work to do.” first foreign trip after his election was to or political connections, Prabowo is
If Prabowo’s success dragging see Chinese President Xi Jinping. In July very much of elite stock. His grand-
Muara Angke out of the mire is im- he also met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, father founded Indonesia’s central
pressive, he faces a stiffer challenge describing Russia as a “great friend.” bank, while his father served as Minis-
to uplift all of Indonesia’s 280 million “We respect all great powers,” ter for the Economy under the country’s
people. Prabowo was billed as the con- Prabowo tells TIME. “China is a great first President, Sukarno. But his father
tinuity candidate to outgoing President civilization. And the United States is was forced into exile, so Prabowo spent
Joko “Jokowi” Widodo—who must a great power [but] sometimes makes his childhood in Singapore, Malaysia,
step down because of term limits—but mistakes. They forgot who their true Hong Kong, Switzerland, and England.
he has bold ideas of his own. He is roll- friends are. Some parts of the U.S. Upon returning to Indonesia,
ing out a $30 billion scheme for free Administration, at a certain point, have Prabowo joined its army special forces
meals in schools, plans to use technol- an opinion about me. But I always put unit, Kopassus, and later received train-
ogy like AI to fight endemic corruption, the interest of my people first.” ing at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg and
and wants to utilize new farming tech- Fort Benning. His marriage to one of
niques to turn the world’s fourth most srabowo has been preparing to lead Suharto’s daughters kept him close to
populous nation into a food exporter his entire life. In contrast with Jokowi, a power as he climbed the military zig-
within five years. Poverty, meanwhile, former carpenter raised in a shanty and gurat. But after Suharto was toppled in
he vows to eradicate in two. “Almighty Indonesia’s first leader without military 1998, Prabowo was stripped of his mili-
God and the people of Indonesia gave tary command for alleged human-rights
me the mandate,” he says. “I always say violations and went into exile in Jor-
we need power, but to do good with dan. Upon returning home, he unsuc-
that power.” cessfully ran for President in 2014 and
Yet Prabowo is a controversial fig- ‘Almighty God and 2019 before finally triumphing, thanks
ure, to put it mildly. He was one of in large part to Jokowi’s backing.
the most feared generals under the re- the people of It wasn’t a natural union. The two
viled dictator Suharto—not to mention Indonesia gave me had been fierce rivals, and Prabowo’s
being the strongman’s son-in-law. Seri- 2019 presidential run ended with thou-
ous human-rights accusations meant the mandate.’ sands of his supporters converging on
he was banned from visiting the U.S. —PRABOWO SUBIANTO Jakarta to protest what they claimed was
38 Time October 28, 2024
 Extremely health-conscious, he rises
at 6 a.m. to swim before beginning his
day, listening to rock, classical, or mili-
tary music on underwater headphones
as aides linger nearby to note down any
ideas that spring between lengths. He
detests smoking, which can be prob-
lematic given almost three-quarters of
male Indonesians light up, and has even
scolded foreign dignitaries who indulge
in the habit. (Smokers on Prabowo’s
team are constantly trying to duck out
for a quick puff without being noticed.)
He’s obsessed by education and IQ, reel-
ing off the supposed intelligence scores
of historical figures.
“Einstein was 200; Napoleon was
180,” he estimates. “I’m just 105, I’m
not that smart, but I like to use smart
people. I have a lot of 130, 140 people
working for me.”

Once part Of Jokowi’s team, Prabowo

proved a diligent and unswerving col-
league. When the 2024 election arrived,
Jokowi shunned the candidacy of his
own party colleague to instead back
Prabowo, who ran alongside Jokowi’s
△ eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka,
a stolen ballot. (The results tallied with Prabowo is welcomed by residents who will now serve as Vice President.
pre-election polls, and independent of Muara Angke, where he ordered Yet many Indonesians are perturbed
monitors found no malfeasance.) Eight the construction of new houses by Jokowi’s attempts to retain influence.
people were killed and over 600 injured Besides Gibran, he has installed loyal-
as protesters armed with rocks and fire- ists into the police and judiciary, and
works torched cars and battled police. “And I would like to consider myself defanged the nation’s anticorruption
Prabowo says he had an epiphany somewhat decent also!” commission. Prabowo has no dynastic
when faced with supporters nursing This softening belied Prabowo’s for- ambitions—his only son is an award-
wounds and sputtering from caus- midable reputation as a battle-hardened winning Paris fashion designer—and
tic tear gas: “This young boy, no more Kopassus commando, when the culture, scoffs at the idea that Jokowi’s maneu-
than 17 or 18, looked at me and said, as he puts it, was “kill or be killed.” But verings portend conflict. “The majority
‘Prabowo, we are ready to die for you!’” Prabowo is too complex a character to of the Indonesian people want continu-
he recalls. “I dropped to the side, shook be distilled into simply the “massacre ity,” Prabowo says. “The fact that [Gi-
him, and said, ‘No, I don’t want you to general,” as he sums up his Western rep- bran] is with me strengthens that bond.”
die for me. You must live for your par- utation with a resigned eye roll. Along Prabowo insists he’s “completely
ents and for Indonesia.’ And then I just with the local Bahasa and Betawi dia- on the same page” regarding Jokowi’s
told myself, I’m not going to have these lects, he speaks fluent English, French, signature “downstream” policy of pro-
young kids die for me. I don’t want that.” and German. Over grilled rib eye and cessing raw materials locally to retain
It was a climbdown that ultimately octopus salad at his favorite Italian more of the value add. However, the
sparked his ascent. After Prabowo or- restaurant in Jakarta, he’s gregarious fact that over 90% of Indonesia’s nickel
dered his followers home, Jokowi sent company, musing about the impor- smelters—a key component of EV
an emissary to seek talks. The two ad- tance of cartographers in the Napole- batteries—are built by Chinese com-
versaries unexpectedly bonded, and onic wars, controversial links between panies has led to friction with the U.S.
Jokowi invited Prabowo into his ad- race and intelligence in the 1994 trea- Last October, nine U.S. Senators
ministration. Although initially reluc- tise The Bell Curve, and the role of re- signed a letter urging the Biden Admin-
tant, Prabowo found the offer of lead- ligious sectarianism in the European istration to reject a potential free-trade
ing his beloved armed forces impossible Renaissance. He’s currently devouring agreement with Indonesia because of
to turn down. “Jokowi is a very decent a biography of Catherine de’ Medici. “Chinese dominance of Indonesian
man,” says Prabowo, adding with a grin: “I’m an avid student of history,” he says. mining and refining,” among other
39
WORLD

concerns. Already, the 2022 Infation Re-

duction Act stipulates that EVs contain-
ing China-sourced batteries and metal
components are ineligible for $7,500
tax rebates. Growing geopolitical head-
winds have pushed Jakarta to diversify
its investor pool for extractive industries.
Prabowo insists his goal is to keep In-
donesia nonaligned, even if geopolitics
renders this tightrope ever narrower.
“We have the history of always being
neutral,” he says. “When an Indonesian
leader leaves this tradition, he brings us
into disaster. So we respect the Ameri-
cans ... but we also respect China.” △
caused any human-rights abuses,” he Prabowo, at left with cap, on his
It was not always that way: Prabo- says. “My conscience is clear.” He also way to pay a visit to Muara Angke
wo’s military career was focused on points out that some former democracy on Aug. 14
countering leftist threats fostered by activists detained under Suharto are
Beijing. Like many military men, he is now supporters, including one whom
hesitant to discuss his past campaigns Prabowo not entirely reassuringly told Prabowo’s fagship project, dubbed
but eventually acquiesces over lunch in during a campaign event: “Sorry man, Graduates for Development. The plan
the Defense Ministry. Soon emerge tales I used to chase you. But I’ve already is to eventually recruit 50,000 smart
of Prabowo stranded in a minefield, one apologized, right?” young Indonesians—minimum IQ 110—
comrade’s severed leg fying past his Still, it’s unlikely that historical bag- into this special civil service program,
face; a suicide pact with another when gage will count against Prabowo in the instill them with military discipline and
cornered under heavy fire; and imper- international arena. “We are all very patriotic zeal, and dispatch them to far-
sonating the noise of a buffalo to contact happy that Prabowo is the President,” fung provinces to guide development
partisans deep in the Timorese jungle, Timor-Leste President José Ramos- projects. Much as he did with his suc-
only to be confronted by the real thing. Horta tells TIME in Dili, its capital. cess in Muara Angke, Prabowo wants
While Prabowo insists he “served “With Prabowo, we may upgrade our to sidestep Indonesia’s Kafkaesque
with honor,” accusations dog his various relationship.” bureaucracy with direct action.
deployments. In Timor-Leste, where There’s little doubt the cosmopoli- First duty, he says, will be the free
roughly 180,000 people perished dur- tan Prabowo will be more at home in the school meals, followed by teaching
ing the 1975–1999 Indonesian occupa- world than Jokowi, who tended to shun farmers new sustainable agricultural
tion, he stands accused of overseeing international forums like the U.N. The techniques. “I’m a man of action,”
the 1983 massacre of some 200 people question is whether Prabowo will finally Prabowo says later that evening over
in Kraras, today dubbed the “town of rouse this sleeping giant from its slum- dinner in his ranch library, as he quietly
widows.” In Timor-Leste’s 2005 truth- ber. “People always want Indonesia to passes scraps of meat to two of his favor-
and-reconciliation report, Prabowo’s be more active,” Prabowo says, “but we ite dogs, Kiki and Romeo, ensconced by
name appears 19 times. “Prabowo have to take care of our people first.” his feet. “I cannot see suffering, poverty,
should be in jail,” says Naldo Rei, a for- and injustice and not do anything.”
mer child soldier for the Timorese resis- at Prabowo’s ranch in the hills Following 10 years of “son of the
tance who was imprisoned and tortured south of Jakarta, 400 young men in crew slums” Jokowi, Prabowo represents a
by the Indonesian military. “Not just for cuts and olive green uniforms fidget in return to power for the nation’s aris-
Timor-Leste but also inside Indonesia.” an amphitheater as the Dutch war epic tocracy, though today’s informed, so-
In August 1998, just months after the The East plays. Suddenly, the screen phisticated Indonesians won’t be satis-
fall of Suharto’s regime, at least 23 de- turns white and Prabowo strolls on- fied with scraps from his table. Prabowo
mocracy activists were abducted; one stage, prompting all to stand and launch knows his controversial background
was found killed, nine were returned, into a traditional Javanese war dance, means judgment will be quicker and
and 13 others remain officially missing. punching the air, thumping chests, and more withering. But after so many years
Although Prabowo was never formally chanting in hypnotic unison. Prabowo in the wilderness, he’s determined not
charged with any crime, a 2005 investi- strolls the ranks of recruits, asking their to waste time. “The success of society
gation by Indonesia’s National Human home provinces, their university ma- rests on the well-being of your peo-
Rights Commission attributed respon- jors, and razzing a couple of the stout- ple,” he says, eyes suddenly narrow-
sibility to Kopassus under the direct or- est about their paunch. ing. “You are either with me or you can
ders of its commander: Prabowo. These are recent university graduates get out of the way.” —With reporting by
He denies all allegations. “I’ve never from across Indonesia recruited for LesLie DicksTein/new York □
40 Time October 28, 2024
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PHOTOGR APHS BY AGNES LLOYD-P

 g the
hy,
ighter future

North London on a sunny September

morning, she’s in between filming the
show’s fourth season and flying out to
NICOLA Los Angeles to present at the Emmys.
Low-key in damp hair, a baseball cap,
COUGHLAN and sweatshirt, she’s reflecting on the
upside of all this: it means she’s em-
b et
ployed. “I just feel really lucky to be
n
working, because all of my 20s, I wasn’t,”
she says. Coughlan, now 37, can be un-
assuming. Yet she’s confident and bold
ring The in her approach to the industry and her
his year newfound status in the public eye.
here As Coughlan landed her big break
e somewhat later than many of her
peers, she steps into this new chapter
with more life experience and a firm
idea of who she is. She earned praise
during the Bridgerton press tour for
w she balanced pleas for humanity
e Middle East alongside her pro-
of the series. At a time when
es are urged to speak out on
ues, only to be told to “stay
” when they do, Cough-
herself to drown out
nd up for what she
G

L S
NEXT
G E N E RAT I O N
LEADERS

believes in. She has found her stride she says, “It was intimate, but it was
in the industry, but she’s far from also scary because of the level of nudity.
complacent. “There’s no making it,” We wanted to do justice to the story
she says. “You just have to keep going and this beautiful moment where he
and can’t rest on your laurels.” makes her feel really loved and they’re
vulnerable together. I’m so proud of
Coughlan experienCed more than a that scene.” The duo have more inti-
few false starts on her path to breaking mate moments in Season 4 and will also
out on the beloved Northern Irish dram- have something else to manage: Polin’s
edy Derry Girls, which premiered on the “crazy cute” onscreen baby.
U.K.’s Channel 4 in 2018. She graduated
from university in Ireland and then, While Coughlan and neWton
after a demoralizing application process, were promoting the show, there was
attended drama school in the U.K. She a stark contrast in the questions
moved from her birthplace in Galway they fielded. She was repeatedly
to London “three or four times,” often asked about her body. She was called
having to trudge back home after fail- “brave” for taking on the role. She in-
ing to land her lucky break. “It’s a true- sists: “Don’t call me brave. I have a
love kind of thing,” she says of her career cracking pair of boobs. There’s noth-
choice. “You have to have a level of delu- ing brave about that, that’s actually
sion to think, I can really sustain myself just me showing them off.”
pretending to be other people.” But Coughlan is concerned about
The tide turned when she landed the impact of such narratives being
the role of Clare Devlin in Derry Girls. upheld. “I’m a few sizes below the av-
She took part in a pivotal storyline erage size of a woman in the U.K. and
when Clare came out, memorably I’m seen as a ‘plus-size heroine.’” Not
identifying herself as the “wee les- to mention: “I worked my arse off
bian,” no small feat at a Catholic con- for that show. I barely saw my fam-
vent school in the 1990s, amid the ily and friends, and people were just
Troubles. The actor has since gone on going, ‘But your body ...’” She knows
to become an advocate for LGBTQ+ it can be meant as a compliment. “But
rights. But if Derry Girls was Cough- I don’t take it as nice. Making it about
lan’s introduction, Bridgerton truly how I look is reductive and boring. between two things as a woman: It
changed the trajectory of her life. What if I was suddenly going to play a costs nothing to be nice, and women
After premiering during the pan- ballerina and lose a sh-t ton of weight, don’t owe you niceness. Both of those
demic, the Netflix series quickly built are you not going to like me anymore? things are true,” she says.
up a loyal following, turning Coughlan That’s insane and so insulting.” Privacy is only one aspect of her
into a global superstar. The third sea- When I interviewed Coughlan in ambivalent relationship to technol-
son focuses on the love story between 2022, around the time of Derry Girls ogy. She’s experienced firsthand the
Penelope and Luke Newton’s Colin ending its hit three-season run, she uncanny valley of AI. “As part of my
Bridgerton, a couple affectionately was slowly getting used to the reali- brain-rot lifestyle, I do watch a lot
coined Polin by viewers. So powerful ties of fame. But the public’s curios- of TikTok,” she says, laughing. “A
is the fandom that Netflix moved their ity has ramped up significantly since Bridgerton thing came up, and it was
love story to an earlier season than the Bridgerton. “Nowadays, people have my voice, but I was thinking, ‘I don’
sequence of Julia Quinn’s books would their camera phones pointed at you remember saying this.’ Then I re
have indicated. “We have no control and they’ll post where you are in it was lines from the Bridgert
over those decisions. And there’s a real time,” she says. She recalls an oc- which we’d not done. It w
queer couple that’s coming up. I know casion when people filmed her having version of my voice, an
some fans have not been happy about dinner in the hotel she was staying at. so badly. I was like
that,” she says. “It’s a show that’s going It was only later she realized that her When she us
to embrace so many different types of night off had been documented. “It’s a voice on soci
love stories. And Benedict, a bisexual real invasion,” she says, still shaken. tain level
king? We’re so happy about that!” Coughlan, who considers herself to spe
Mutual trust between Coughlan and a “people pleaser,” often finds her- w
Newton, built on- and off-set during the self walking a tightrope. “I oscillate
first two seasons, proved key for a plot
with no shortage of exposing moments.
Of Penelope and Colin’s first sex scene,
44 Time October 28, 2024
 Next Generation Leaders cover star
Ncuti Gatwa. She will be home in Gal-
way when it airs over the holiday, an
plans to watch it with her family
particular her teenage nephe
Coughlan is often remin
days of how far she’s co
enced one such mo
mer after landin
Magic Faraw
of Enid Bl
She w
b
-

‘THER
IT

as.”
r plan,
matt felt, has
sil
about bring-
lin to sign when she
ntion diverted by some-
ning outside the window.
I m always obsessed with this.
my favorite thing in the world.” I turn
round to see a group of schoolchildren,
no more than 6 years old, being led down
the road, flanked by teachers. They hold
t. And a safety walking rope, ensuring nobody
nue— wanders off. Coughlan watches them
t want to do until they are out of sight. She mentions
later that although she only ever wanted
make an appearance to be an actor, she could also see herself
d the world in the fes- as a Montessori teacher. The scene is a
- Who Christmas special, glimpse of what might have been, had
g the companion to former she not made that decision to bet on her-
self all those years ago. A 19-year-old
gambling her future on a wild-eyed
dream? Now, that’s brave.
45
NEXT
G E N E RAT I O N
LEADERS

-
that
oked.
ya
ntry, where
s a part of the
ool curriculum and
sex marriage is not legal-
d. For an artist like Tamayo,
who eschews traditional
LENIN s
gender norms when it comes
to personal expression, opting
TAMAYO t with
morrow. For
for makeup and a crocheted
off-the-shoulder top during our
, Tamayo says. interview, this was not always
se the melody and a hospitable place to grow up
en [the song conveys] and come into himself.
and genuine emotion, I Discovering K-pop, and the
anslate [the emotion] into global community of fans that
Quechua. And in Quechua it comes together around their
takes on more depth.” love for it, offered a refuge
ity, In November, he’ll release from the harsh realities he
a victim the second half of his debut faced. “I consider it like armor,
. “I couldn’t album, the first part of which because through that armor
g in Korean. dropped in August 2023. One I felt that I could let myself
agined myself sing- upcoming single in particular be an artist in singing, danc-
y language and reclaim- exemplifies this connection ing, wearing costumes, and
hat I am,” he says. between language and subject performing,” he says.
Writing music in Quechua matter. Its title, “Llaqta,” All of it is in service of the
comes naturally to Tamayo. It’s translates directly to “village” values he embodies in his
mil- the native tongue of his mother or “town,” and the song tells art. As the singer introduces
ca. Yolanda Pinares, also a singer, the story of someone who has himself to me: “Lenin, amor y
elped and a language she’s passed to leave their home country, libertad. Amor para unir pueb-
m an aspir- down to him since birth. He “not because you want to go, los. Libertad para ser uno
tist to a social but because you have no other mismo.” Lenin, love and liberty.
, with his songs choice than to go and look for Love to unite people. Liberty to
sic videos garnering better opportunities,” says be one’s self.
illion likes across his TikTok Tamayo. But there is some-
page and tens of thousands thing that pulls them back to

46 Time October 28, 2024

 Ent repre ne ur innovat ing to
improve access to educat ion

2
Th
dedic
commu
Now 25,
in life promp
about “how luc
to have even basic
a lot of people just d
cially access to educati mpleted
TA M AYO : A N G E L A P O N C E — R E U T E R S; G R O U T: R O S E M A R I E C R O M W E L L F O R T I M E

When Grout was in hig untry,

school in Colorado, she bec king
interested in technology, incl ers
ing 3D printing. “I just had the be
idea that maybe we could have
this technology applied to more
of a humanitarian perspective be
in constructing schools,” she stru
says. “That’s what set off that its prec
journey.” eration of
Thinking Huts aims to opened its fi
“bridge this divide between in Madagasca
 JEROME
FOSTER II

ld
sasters and
degradation,
decided to take
when he was 16. He
d often skip school to
old strikes in front of the
Ge n Z Maori White House, collaborating
g uardian in parliame nt ith climate-change icons
a Thunberg and Jane
to transform the public
e. What started as a
students grew into
ement. “We said
will take up the
ans and our
going to do
in the

-
o
ower. Mi
as rolled long
anguage and “chuffe
lth Authority, It also
affecting the peo- can be a ka
1 million of New Zea- Maori people
ion of over 5 million. her heritage—s
trying to protect as much “If someone’s got
an,” says the 22-year-old, re- that’s their problem
ring to herself and five other problem, because we
Maori Party opposition legislators thing to revive our cult
in the 123-member parliament. that it could be extinct.”
48 Time October 28, 2024
 IA

H AU WA O J E I F O
Act ivist pushing back against
tab o os around me ntal health
e BY SIMMONE SHAH
ole,
merican
deral pro-
to place young
ean-energy and Hauwa Ojeifo looks back on her
esilience jobs. decision to speak out about her with online and community-
e remains focused on an
nclusive vision for the future.
struggles with mental health not based support centers. Ojeifo says
“In five or 10 years, I want as a choice, but an obligation. they were able to offer tangible
young Black girls and boys “Keeping quiet was literally a life- support for people while also
to know they have the same
chances as anyone else,” he or-death situation,” she says. “And moving conversations about
says. He envisions a world so I started to talk.” mental health out of the abstract.
where clean air and water
are not privileges but rights. After an abusive relationship “We humanized the story, we
And he offers a reminder that and symptoms of undiagnosed humanized the numbers, and so
rights are intertwined. “If bipolar disorder led her to sui- mental health is no longer this
you’re fighting for racial justice,
you’re fighting for reproductive cidal ideation, she sought help thing that is so far away.”
freedom, if you’re fighting from a psychiatrist. In 2016, she In 2020, Ojeifo became the
for women’s rights, all those
things are intersectional to began to channel her experiences first person open about having a
climate change.” into a new project, a mental- mental-health condition to tes-
Foster’s dedication to
environmental justice extends
health awareness blog called tify before the Nigerian National
to advising young activists She Writes Woman. As it gained Assembly for a public reading
like himself. He counsels traction, Ojeifo realized that of a bill on the topic—one that
M A I P I - C L A R K E : M ATA A R A S T O K E S; F O S T E R : C L A R K H O D G I N F O R T I M E ; O J E I F O : R O B I N H A M M O N D — PA N O S P I C T U R E S/ R E D U X

them to embrace the slow,

often frustrating process of there was a need for a platform later went on to become the first
change. “Even if we don’t see dedicated to centering the stories mental-health model Nigeria has
immediate results, something
tomorrow will appear,” he says.
of people in her home country of had since gaining independence
“We’ll see a future where it’s Nigeria who were also facing dif- in 1960. Ojeifo has spoken at the
like, ‘We did that.’” ficulties with their mental health. U.N. and World Health Organiza-
“Everyone was waiting for tion and, earlier this year, was
someone to be the first to speak, one of 12 leaders to receive a
and I just felt an incredible sense $20 million grant from Melinda
of privilege and honor to be able French Gates’ Pivotal Philanthro-
to be in a position where I could pies Foundation.
use my voice,” she says. Despite this progress, Ojeifo,
At first, her goal was to provide now 32, believes there is still more
support and bring awareness to work to be done—pushing for
a topic often considered taboo legislative change that can outlive
in a country with a population of the organization and enshrine
200 million and only 250 psychia- access to mental-health care for
trists. She Writes Woman created all. “That is where we need to
a toll-free, 24/7 hotline, along double down,” she says.
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis, call or text 988
NEXT
G E N E RAT I O N
LEADERS

Whenever Lamine Yamal past opponents with impudent Spain’s victory, regi
scores, which is often, he tricks and flicks tells TIME over one goal and fo
S PA I N doesn’t so much bask in adora- a video call from his home. being name
LAMINE tion as channel it elsewhere.
The 17-year-old soccer phenom
“You can’t play in the top
league the way you played in
best you
happ
YAMAL celebrates his goals for Bar-
celona and Spain’s national
the park. But 60% to 70% of
my game comes from the sly-
S
So cce r sup e rstar team by flashing 3-0-4 with his ness of playing with other kid
and hometown he ro hands: the final postal-code [in Rocafonda]. I feel prou
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL digits for the rough Rocafonda helping the neighborh
neighborhood of the Catalan be known.”
city of Mataró where he grew up, Last April, j
a place described by national and 9 mont
newspaper El País as “forgot- became
ten, isolated, and stigmatized.” ever
The gesture transports fi
Yamal, whom soccer legend
Cristiano Ronaldo recently
christened “the best pla
of this new generatio -
his legion of fans
manicured em
stadiums t
asphal
tra
h

50 Time Octobe
 Siste rs on the f ront lines
of e nvironme ntal defe nse

hom
broth
and cra
Moroccan
her rfissa, a
lentils spiced
“I try to go there
because if I go th
lunchtime I en
somethin
glintin Ben,
Y al plans to
he early
hese

ty d
, loggers,
t. They’ve been t
isinformation and har
campaigns, and this year t
ippine environment departm
announced plans to nullify the
agreement that allowed Billie an
the
tations, Ann’s team to reforest and con-
carefree shrug serve the area, citing supposed
ng what he loves.
y feel pressure when constitutional issues. The sisters th
hink about it,” he says. “If are open to renegotiating with bein
ou enjoy what you do and have the government, but they also say mitted
fun, you don’t have pressure.
they’re more than ready to take “as an exa
YA M A

That’s what I always try.”

their battle to court. is possible.
 Jo
solo g
lery comm
ns Chelsea with bran
d imagine that and launch
n work might hang his own online
Art ist making s. But the dream felt remains commit
p osit ivity go viral
each. “As I was chasing his art accessible.
gallery route, people would be [making] art for th
tell me, ‘The stuff that you’re person, like me,” he says
doing is too traditional,’ ” he says. Rodriguez hopes that h
Galleries weren’t looking for the pathway can inspire young a
classically inspired portraits he to think outside the mold when
was painting. Rodriguez had it comes to breaking into the art
always been an outsider to the world. “There are no rules,” he
art establishment. “I grew up says. “If you have a vision that you
in poverty,” he says. “I didn’t go feel strongly about, just follow it.”
Time October 28, 2024
ARINE
APRAHAMIAN

e of
a world
nfrastruc-
ough shelter, so
uilding technology
indling amount of
ty space, and a changing
limate but fixed construc-
tion methods, how does an
architect ply her trade? For
ine Aprahamian, it’s less
ut creating a widely photo- scratch.” In some areas, that create some better interaction Bourj Hammond that would
d dramatic new edifice, approach could be as simple between the buildings.” ascertain what changes or
e about intelligently as better insulation or more Like many young architects, small adjustments could
hat’s already been flood-proofing. In others, it Aprahamian is dabbling in a create spaces that “would
might be figuring out how to number of design-adjacent art massively benefit the people
ese Armenian adapt residential buildings forms, including animation, living there, to an extent that
ur infra- into co-housing that’s more typography, illustration, and they could act as a catalyst to
dy for the suitable for a population that exhibition planning. “All the transform a whole neighbor-
er way, is waiting longer and longer to experiments I do somehow find hood into a more vibrant,
d our have families. their way as a building block more inclusive, more happy
here Aprahamian, 34, was raised into making who Arine is as population,” she says. She
p by a family of teachers, paint- an architect,” she says. “For hopes to release her findings
t ers, and musicians in Bourj me, it’s very necessary to let early in 2025.
Hammoud, a lower-income myself experience whatever While Aprahamian is an
area in eastern Beirut that was interest drives me, because I advocate of small changes,
itially settled by displaced think inspiration lies in those she doesn’t dismiss the
enians. She grew up with interests.” Her mother was importance of those of a
of culture and a lack of a huge fan of science-fiction massive scale. “What is very
There were no public movies, and the imaginative important is to constantly jump
aygrounds in her scenarios she grew up watch- between both schemes,” she
d, but there was ing piqued her interest in says. “One is almost invalid
ction between design innovations inspired by without the other. You need big
e communi- future challenges. They also changes in policies, changes
at for a very informed such proposals as in approaches, and govern-
e says. an eco-resort in an oasis at the mental decisions that are more
e small edge of the Sahara built from oriented toward the benefits
o kersheef, a local earthen build- of the masses.” And while
dn’t ing material made up of salt, she’s worried about the future
clay, minerals, and aggregate (including Beirut’s), she’s opti-
from a nearby lake bed. mistic about the power of archi-
While her work spans tecture to help address bigger
e globe (she speaks four global problems. “Architecture
guages: Arabic, Arme- has always been dealing with
French, and English), issues that are beyond what we
mian has turned to would consider its limits.”
town for one of the
sest to her heart.
g up a study of
53
 ADVERTISEMENT

CHINAWATCH
PRESENTED BY CHINA DAILY

Lacquer masters
apply historic touch
Art form utilizes nature’s resilient sap and evolves
with the accumulation of time, patience and artistry
A replica of
a lacquer
BY LIN QI changed the appearance of lac- drum dating
querwork. It is vividly evident if back more
At first it appears to be just a the Hemudu bowl is juxtaposed than 2,300
piece of decayed wood, and one with another bowl, made by years ago is
suspects few people would give prominent living artists in the one of the
it a second glance unless they field, such as Gan Erke, 69, of highlights
were told of its great historical Anhui province, reputed for his of the
significance. Belonging to the lacquerwork featuring distinc- exhibition
Neolithic period, the object, no tive marbled patterns. Phoenix
more than 2.4 inches high and No one could better sum- Kingdoms
with some red stains, suggests marize the evolution of the in Beijing.
that people living along the techniques and artistic styles JIANG DONG /
Yangtze River between 6,000 than Yang Ming, a celebrated CHINA DAILY
and 7,000 years ago obtained lacquerer of the Ming Dynasty
sap from lacquer trees and (1368-1644), who wrote in the
used it in their daily lives. preface for Xiushi Lu, a publica-
This wooden piece, later iden- tion on Chinese lacquerwork
written by another artisan,
a veneer of lacquer, was

the Hemudu bowl, and is thus This was founded on a sys-

Culture in Yuyao, considered the earliest lacquer tem of sophisticated artisanship
Zhejiang province, in well-developed and object found in the country. formed in practice over several
diverse, one would Lacquer sap is milky and gray- thousand years, he says.
find it an extravagant ish when collected, and turns At Phoenix Kingdoms, an ex-
along the Yangtze’s dark brown when it is exposed hibition at the National Museum
to the air. Once the lacquer is of China in Beijing, the splendor
according to ar- purified it is ready for use. It pro- of lacquerwork in the late stage
chaeological findings, the collection of began to use the fluid tects objects from water, humid- of the Bronze Age is evident.
has produced jade the Metropolitan from lacquer trees as ity and insect infestation so they This use followed people’s initial
objects, lacquerware Museum of Art in early as 8,000 years are more durable. It can also be exploration with the material
and other relics. New York. PROVIDED ago. “Because of its mixed with color pigments for and craft in the Neolithic period.
When the people TO CHINA DAILY fine physical and decorative purposes. From the collections of five
of Hemudu applied chemical properties, Layering lacquer onto the museums in Hubei province, a
lacquer to the bowl, it natural lacquer as a surfaces of objects numerous production hub of lacquer trees
is believed that they also mixed coating material played a vital times for better protection a wide variety of objects on sho
the varnish with vermilion role in ancient times,” says Yang requires patience; each layer stand as witness to the flourish
to beautify the piece, which Peizhang, 47, a lacquer artist must dry before the next is ing of several states between th
explains the red stains. and associate professor in the added. The process results in 11th and third centuries B.C.
The chemistry between Academy of Arts and Design of a distinguished depth, which is “Lacquer, lightweight and
human hands and raw lacquer Tsinghua University in Beijing. smooth, shiny and mysterious, accessible, was used in many
evolved in this land for thou- He is referring to a lacquer leaving the object in a state of aspects of life at the time,” say
sands of years. The advances of bow found at a grave site of the stability, achieving aesthetic Chen Keshuang, the exhibition
human intelligence to use the Neolithic Kuahuqiao Culture heights that Yang Peizhang de- curator.“It was applied, mostly
juice of nature, manual dexter- in Hangzhou that is more scribes as “an essential part of on a wooden core, to make
ity and creativity have greatly than 1,000 years older than the Eastern cultural tradition.” armor, vessels, plucked zith

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

wine cups, ornamental objects

and drums.” These pieces are Young Americans
testimony to the height of
lacquerware that would run get a taste of China
through the third century.
Striking visual effects were BY MO JINGXI Isabella Ferguson of West
created on an opaque lacquer- Valley High School, and her
coated surface on a wooden, Rich and vibrant culture is fellow students were able to
metal, cotton or other type of what has deeply impressed a discover Sichuan province and
core, such as outlined patterns delegation of high school stu- its myriad wonders.
with other pigments, inlaid fine dents from the United States They visited the lush home of
shells to generate light con- who completed on Sept. 24 a giant pandas, learned about the
trasts, and carved relief patterns 10-day trip to China that took historical bonds of the two coun-
— and sometimes gold leaf fill- them to Guizhou, Sichuan and tries at the Hall of the Heroes
ing — to exhibit a three-dimen- Shandong provinces. of the Flying Tigers, expanded
sional effect. Popular decorative The delegation of nearly 100 their knowledge of Sichuan’s ar-
motifs included animals, clouds teachers and students from chitecture and bamboo culture,
and geometrical shapes. more than 10 high schools in and got to taste the province’s
This was just the beginning of Washington state was part of mouthwatering cuisine.
ancient Chinese using lacquer China’s initiative to invite 50,000 “I think everything that we
and other materials to make young people from the U.S. for have learned and experienced
wares that define timeless exchange and study programs in here helps us form a more well-
beauty in their living spaces. By the country over five years. rounded view of China and its
the time the lacquerers Yang Since the initiative was an- culture and people,” she said.
Ming and Huang worked on nounced in San Francisco last Bea Kelzenberg, a senior at
Xiushi Lu, there had been 14 November more than 10,000 Stadium High School, said her
primary crafts and more than U.S. teenagers have visited. trip to universities in Shandong
300 varieties of lacquerware. Ronda Litzenberger, a mem- was exciting. “We all experienced
In the book, Huang men- ber of the delegation, said the such rich and vibrant culture at
tions one such sophisticated hospitality, culture and scenery the different schools we visited,
technique called xipi qi, in which far exceeded her expectations, especially Shandong University.
the time-consuming process of and it was a rich cultural ex- While there we were graced with
coloring, layering and polishing change that will leave a lasting dance and opera performances
ultimately assumes a dazzling impression on her. with opportunities to play
pattern: numerous interlaced “This trip has been an incred- Chinese musical instruments
colors, predominantly red, ible experience. Every adven- as well as try on the beautiful
yellow and black, sometimes ture has been special, but our costumes of their culture.
added with other hues to visit to the Miao ethnic village “Not only this, but to be able
present, as the late scholar (in Guizhou) stands out. The to converse with the students
Yuan Quanyou once put it, “a delicious food, vibrant ethnic and learn about their culture
harmonious feeling, and with a dancing and the opportunity to firsthand was truly inspirational
closer look, changeable details, learn batik from local students and moving.”
a sense of fluidity and splendid were truly memorable.” Before returning to Wash-
luster.” In Guizhou the students ington, the students played
Gan, an esteemed artist com- played the lusheng, a Miao eth- a basketball game with their
mitted to carrying this unique nic reed-pipe flute, took part in Chinese peers at Beijing No. 8
lacquer style into modern times, a local drum dance and tasted High School on Sept. 24.
says “it is agreed that lacquerers sour fish soup and rice wine. Litzenberger said she was
covered the color patterns They also took part in a basket- moved by how the U.S. and Chi-
r ature and managed to repli- ball event dubbed the Village nese students played together.
s e them on lacquer.” Basketball Association competi- “They were evenly matched,
s he encyclopedic view of tion in the village of Taipan. and you could see the mutual
nese lacquerwork shows Kenneth McKee Cryan of Tri- respect and care they had for
c ying features from differ- Cities Prep High School, said he one another.”
v regions to reflect local found the lusheng, an instrument Sports have a special way of
g ory and cultures, as “some he had never heard of before creating personal connections,
eloped a neat, majestic style coming to China, fascinating. she said.
ulfill royal requests while
ers addressed the aesthetic A student from
preference of intellectuals to be a high school in
er art poetic and aloof,” he says. Kaili, Qiandongnan
cately Yang Peizhang of Tsinghua Miao and Dong
into the University says that aesthetics autonomous
ulous have evolved and will continue prefecture, Guizhou
etailed to do so, and however artistry is province, introduces
ss defined, the life of lacquerwork Miao ethnic clothing
ting is based on well-preserved tech- to the visiting U.S.
niques passed down and on art- youth on Sept. 16.
ists developing new techniques LUO FEI / XINHUA
to carry the tradition forward.

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

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AFFORD THE EXTRAORDINARY®

Time Off INTO THE
HEART OF
DARKNESS
BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN

Jeremy Strong tackles another

morally complex character,
playing the power broker
behind Donald Trump’s rise

THE GOTH-GIRL BRIDGET EVERETT ON THE END

POP-CULTURE TAKEOVER OF HER BELOVED HBO SERIES

PHOTOGR APH BY NOR MAN JEAN ROY 57

TIME OFF OPENER

erefy STrong iS noT known for hiS SenSe of

J humor. When getting dressed, he favors brown for its

“monastic” connotation. He famously thought that
Succession, the HBO show that shot him to stardom,
was a straight drama when his co-stars believed it
to be a comedy. When he sits down for our Zoom con-
versation in September—in a brown shirt, of course—he
recites poetry and quotes Stella Adler, the godmother
of Method acting. He describes Succession as reflecting
“the Emersonian notion of the institution as the shadow
of a man.”
But when I suggest that he could have capitalized on
that show’s success by earning a hefty paycheck from a
superhero movie—as many in his position have done—he
cracks a self-aware smile. The notion that he, an actor who
insists on disposing of his own personality in order to fully
inhabit a character, would implement that extreme ap-
proach to play a spandex-wearing hero is, indeed, funny.
Strong, once an eager upstart, has arguably grown into
the pretentiousness he’s been accused of in the past. Be-
fore answering a question, he tends to lean back in his
chair, look up at the ceiling, and actually consider his words
rather than rattling off a canned quote. He has let himself
go a bit gray, the effect closer to thoughtful professor than
Succession’s hapless nepo baby Kendall Roy.
After four seasons of rapturous acclaim and accolades for △
that role—not to mention a Best Actor Tony for a recent run Strong as willing distributor and will hit the-
of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People on Broadway— Cohn and Stan aters just weeks before the U.S. presi-
Strong had his pick of flms. “There’s a lot of, like, fnance- as Trump, dential election. Strong is relieved
bro projects coming my way,” he says. “You know, the son brokering power because he fears that Hollywood no
of a dynastic fll-in-the-blank.” It’s the type of pigeonholing longer produces provocative art. “I’m
some actors would readily build a career upon, but he dis- trying to fnd material that feels like
missed those offers. Instead, this fall he is playing—to riff it’s about something that matters,” he
on Emerson—a man who overshadows the institution that says. “I guess I feel like the world is
is Donald Trump’s Republican Party: Roy Cohn. on fre, and I’m not that interested in
Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice tells the story of Trump’s laundry-folding content.”
rise in 1970s and ’80s New York under the tutelage of
Cohn. The gritty flm introduces Trump (Sebastian Stan) as One day during the shOOt, Strong
a fumbling brat before Cohn teaches him to bully his way to asked the costume designer to fnd
fame through aggression, half-truths, and blanket denials. him a full-body frog suit. Cohn, who
For much of the flm, Strong sports a fake tan and Speedos, made his name prosecuting Julius and
barking orders at the trembling man who would become Ethel Rosenberg, also happened to
the 45th U.S. President. collect frog paraphernalia. Later that
Despite its premiering at the Cannes Film Festival to day, Strong flmed an entire dream se-
positive reviews, no studio was willing to distribute the quence in a frog costume, serenading
flm in U.S. theaters. Trump’s lawyers sent a cease-and- the future President in bed with “I Am
desist letter, and one of the flm’s key fnanciers sold his What I Am” from La Cage aux Folles.
stake over “creative differences.” “Everybody was afraid The sequence contains Freudian
to touch this movie,” says Strong. It includes a scene of layers: The 1978 comedy tells the story
Trump raping his then wife Ivana (based on her divorce of a gay couple who masquerade as
deposition, now recanted) and another of him receiving straight to be accepted by the conser-
cosmetic surgery. “As allegedly liberal or courageous as vative parents of their son’s fancée.
Hollywood might be, it was dismaying to all of us to see Cohn, a closeted gay man and influen-
how risk-averse everyone was,” says Strong. “In the sum- tial Republican, maintained he was nei-
mer, when it really looked like this movie was going to ther queer nor HIV-positive until the
be censored, that just felt like a harbinger of something day he succumbed to AIDS. To position
extremely dark to me.” Cohn in bed next to Trump, a notori-
After many months in limbo, The Apprentice found a ous hypochondriac, highlights their
58 Tife October 28, 2024
 tried to reconcile Cohn’s contradic- of Hollywood studios. He has spent
tions. “This person was both mon- three years working with the Danish
strous and childlike, gleeful and ab- filmmaker Tobias Lindholm trying to
solutely vicious,” he says. “I’m always get a movie made about the mass tort
looking for the possibility of transfor- brought by Sept. 11 first responders
mation and risk.” for health care. He sat with firefight-
Strong underwent a physical trans- ers and EMTs during the research pro-
formation, including donning pros- cess, but no studio would make the
thetics and embarking on what he ad- film. “That’s something I feel abso-
mits was a “kind of dangerous level lutely crushed that people won’t get to
of rapid weight loss.” But he quickly see,” he says. He blames the industry’s
dismisses any discussion of bodily fear of unique ideas. “The algorithms
changes, often rewarded by the Acad- are harsh masters.”
emy. “You have to put your body, Strong chooses every project with
which is your instrument, through intention—films by Steven Spiel-
things to render something precisely. berg (Lincoln), Adam McKay (The Big
But that stuff all feels cosmetic. The Short), and Aaron Sorkin (The Trial
really important thing is the inner of the Chicago 7) that dig into criti-
stuff.” Strong calls inhabiting Cohn’s cal moments in history. He’s set to
mind entering “the heart of darkness.” star in a limited series about the Boe-
This isn’t the first fictional por- ing 737 Max crashes from the screen-
trayal of Cohn. He is a prominent writer of Argo. But he says his decision
character in the Pulitzer-winning to take on two political projects in an
play Angels in America, which inter- election year was largely happenstance.
rogates Cohn’s own hypocrisy during In An Enemy of the People, he played a
the AIDS epidemic. Al Pacino won an scientist whose warnings of ecologi-
strained relationship as Trump rose Emmy for the role in the HBO version. cal disaster are shouted down by self-
and Cohn fell in New York high society. Strong, as revealed in a New Yorker interested townspeople, a parable for
The sequence was cut, to Strong’s profile, is perhaps Pacino’s biggest the politicization of climate change.
dismay, because they couldn’t get the fan. He grew up with a poster of the The material he takes on cannot
rights to the song. “His legacy is this Dog Day Afternoon actor on his wall always be so dark. “There are certain
defiant denial of objective reality, of and reportedly nearly bankrupted things I would not be able to touch
his emotional reality, of his homosex- Yale’s theater group creating an award anymore,” he admits. “I’ve become
uality, and all of the shame and self- for Pacino to lure him to speak on more conscious, because I have three
hatred he experienced,” Strong says. campus. “If anything, my hesitation small kids, of what I am putting into
“It all caught up with him in the end, was taking it on because of what Al the world. Am I adding one qubit of
HIV and being disbarred. I couldn’t did, and the anxiety of influence,” he light to the world?”
O P E N I N G PA G E : T R U N K A R C H I V E ; T H E S E PA G E S : C O U R T E S Y B R I A R C L I F F E N T E R TA I N M E N T A N D R I C H S P I R I T

help but feel a kind of pity for him.” says. Cohn, in Strong’s head, wasn’t To that end, he is preparing for a
The movie’s insistence on human- the real-life man but Pacino’s version. role in a Bruce Springsteen biopic.
izing its subjects has raised eyebrows “And, you know, he’s someone who I Strong treated himself to what he
on the left even as its subject matter revere,” Strong says of Pacino, again describes as a spiritual experience
has drawn scorn from the right. “I’ve permitting himself a knowing grin. at a Springsteen concert in Asbury
heard that I might have made him too Park, N.J., the night before we speak,
human. I don’t know what that means. Strong aSpireS to a type of acting and, earlier this summer, in a field
We’re all human,” Strong says. career that doesn’t really exist any- in Denmark, where his family has a
“It’s a gift that actors get to suspend more, the kind someone like his Lin- home. Swaying to Springsteen’s music
judgment and attempt to empathize coln co-star Daniel Day-Lewis and few in a field with 70,000 Danish revel-
even with people who others would others have been able to craft. Indeed, ers healed his soul after its immer-
say are despicable. It’s very danger- Strong is dismayed by the direction sion into Cohn’s psyche. Though, as
ous, this idea that some people are not he thinks about it, embodying Cohn
worthy of empathy.” He quotes the had its strange delights. “Roy was ac-
writer William Saroyan: “Despise evil ‘The world is on tually a pretty gleeful guy and had a
and ungodliness, but not men of un- relatively uncomplicated relationship
godliness or evil. These, understand.” fire, and I’m not to the awful things he did,” he says.
To understand a person Strong de- that interested in “He did them without conscience or
scribes as one of the worst humans shame. The truth is, it’s probably more
of the 20th century, he watched in-
laundry-folding difficult to watch someone like Roy
terviews, listened to recordings, and content.’ Cohn than it was to be him.” □
59
TIME OFF ENTERTAINMENT

ESSAY

The nostalgic comforts

of a goth-girl autumn
BY JUDY BERMAN

AUTUMN MAY BE THE MOST ATMOSPHERIC SEASON,

tantalizing the senses with soft sweaters and warm bever-
ages and the crunch of colorful leaves underfoot. But, as
we suddenly remember once Sept. 30 gives way to Oct. 1,
it isn’t all flannel-swaddled, pumpkin-spice ASMR. This is
a time charged with the contradictions inherent in the end
of the calendar—cozy and eerie, Thanksgiving and Hallo-
ween, harvest and decay. The entertainment industry of-
fers up its own autumnal cornucopia of contrasts. Sand-
wiched between chummy fall baking competitions and the
anodyne made-for-TV Christmas movies that arrive earlier
each year is a dollop of bloody, gory, nightmare-inducing
horror on screens big and small.
Falling somewhere between the two is a third spooky-
season sensibility—one epitomized this year by the reunion

P H O T O - I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T I M E ; S O U R C E I M A G E S : A G AT H A A L L A L O N G : C H U C K Z L O T N I C K — M A R V E L , W E D N E S D AY: V L A D C I O P L E A — N E T F L I X , B E E T L E J U I C E : W A R N E R B R O S . P I C T U R E S
of Tim Burton, Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton in a
blockbuster sequel to their classic undead comedy Beetle-
juice: goth. With aesthetic roots in pre-Victorian Gothic
fiction, goth was adapted into a black-shrouded subculture
by fans of melancholic 1980s British rock bands like the
Cure and Cocteau Twins and has, since then, been sliced,
diced, and spliced into dozens of divergent factions. I’m
using it here in the broadest sense. It’s dark, it’s spooky, it’s
romantic, it’s death-obsessed. It’s velvet and lace and vam- △
pires and witches and black cats and dripping candles and Clockwise from Underground and Nico, silent-film
séances conducted by Ouija board. It has the trappings of top: Kathryn vamp Theda Bara, the chilling fictions
horror but no interest in jump scares. And more often than Hahn, Winona of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe,
not, especially as it approaches a half-century of existence, Ryder, and Jenna Dracula and Frankenstein. Goth did not
goth has a campy sense of humor about its own melodrama. Ortega embrace even begin with the eponymous Ger-
Goth’s mainstream profile tends to ebb and surge, and seasonal vibes manic tribes that raided the waning
the past few years have seen a new wave of macabre media Roman Empire. Insofar as it entails the
that seems to be cresting this fall. (What says goth revival romanticization of death and the occult,
more than the Cure releasing its first new song in 16 years the goth worldview might be as old as
a few days after the autumnal equinox?) In a recent Vogue human society—a Freudian, death-drive
essay trumpeting fashion’s rediscovery of morbid beauty, fixation that’s as apparent in the fune-
Tish Weinstock—whose forthcoming book How to Be real traditions of ancient Egypt as it is in
a Goth: Notes on Undead Style is itself a bellwether— Chappell Roan’s velvet, chain mail, and
identifies a “full-blown gothic resurrection” and proclaims: crucifix VMAs ensemble.
“welcome to the season of the witch.” Weinstock is right to Goth as we know it today can, how-
name witches as the supreme goth signifier of 2024. Every ever, be loosely sorted into eras. If the
retro movement gets repackaged to suit the era into which early scene was predominantly about
it’s reborn. And from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to Agatha All music and nightlife, then by the late
Along, this year’s extra-comforting model has an aspira- ’80s goth had become a full-on pop
tional girl-power quality grounded in nostalgia for the phenomenon, spawning superstars
goth-pop artifacts of the late ’80s and ’90s. like Burton and author Anne Rice,
with Marilyn Manson and Hot Topic
TRACING THE ORIGINS of the goth aesthetic is a fool’s er- mass-producing PVC-clad rebel-
rand. While the subculture coalesced within a music scene lion for the ’90s mall rat. A binary of
transitioning from ’70s punk to ’80s new wave, the sensi- sorts emerged, with such aggressively
bility has no discrete genesis. It predates proto-goth touch- masculine variations as the indus-
stones like Rocky Horror, the droning decadence of The Velvet trial rock of Manson and his mentor,
60 TIME October 28, 2024
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TIME OFF ENTERTAINMENT

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, on Ryder, Criterion Channel is honoring

one side and a witchier, female-driven ’90S GOTH-GIRL her with an October retrospective.
vibe on the other. This was a decade HALL OF FAME Sequels and reboots and rere-
bookended by riot grrrl’s feminist- leases may be the linchpins of Holly-
punk energy and the neopagan, earth- wood’s nostalgia-industrial complex,
mother ethos of Lilith Fair; goth girls but goth’s comeback goes beyond the
synthesized aspects of both move- reanimation of dormant titles. The
ments, white magic and white-hot rage. new Disney+ series Agatha All Along
In 1988, Burton gave that audience is about as original as Marvel shows
an icon in Ryder’s Beetlejuice hero- get. A once fearsome witch, Kathryn
ine, Lydia Deetz, who dressed like a KIM BOGGS Hahn’s WandaVision villain Agatha
miniature Siouxsie Sioux and moved EDWARD SCISSORHANDS Harkness convenes a makeshift coven
into a country house where only she (1990) to flank her on a perilous journey that
had the ability to see the ghosts of its Winona Ryder’s teen heroine might restore her lost powers. The
previous owners. Ryder grew into an slowly falls for a gentle mon- show celebrates and sends up all sorts
offbeat romantic lead with Burton’s ster played by Johnny Depp. of witchy archetypes, writing into
1990 cult classic Edward Scissorhands, its lore a ’70s singer à la Stevie Nicks
the teen black comedy Heathers, and and a wellness influencer mixing up
Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Drac- toxic potions. Eighties-set teen com-
ula. Following in her combat-booted edy Lisa Frankenstein, released this
footsteps, Christina Ricci broke out past winter, finds a misfit girl falling
by reviving the deadpan ’60s proto- for the gentle Victorian zombie who
goth icon Wednesday Addams in follows her home from the cemetery.
The Addams Family and Addams Fam- WEDNESDAY ADDAMS Soundtracked by period-appropriate
ily Values, romanced a friendly ghost ADDAMS FAMILY indie rock, the movie is itself a Fran-
in Casper, and entered the Burton- VALUES (1993) kenstein’s monster of influences, from
sphere with 1999’s Sleepy Hollow. By Christina Ricci takes Beetlejuice to the 1992 B movie that
then the witchy girl was everywhere, center stage in this cult- kicked off the Buffy franchise. Its very
forming outcast covens in The Craft, classic sequel. existence confirms the longevity of a
fighting supernatural baddies in Buffy previous generation’s dark teen tropes.
the Vampire Slayer and Charmed, all
grown up and empowered to destroy WHAT ARE WE looking for when we
abusive boyfriends in Practical Magic. flock to these paradoxically pleasur-
While there have been short-lived able paeans to monsters and magic,
resurgences in the 21st century (see: mortality and the afterlife? In an inter-
Twilight), it’s primarily this strain of view with the Guardian, Weinstock,
goth that is driving the current nostal- the How to Be a Goth author, ventured
NANCY DOWNS
gia fest. September’s Beetlejuice Bee- that “there’s so much sadness and vio-
THE CRAFT (1996)
tlejuice gives Lydia a brooding teen- lence in the world that it’s beginning to
age daughter of her own in Ryder’s Abused at home and shamed seep into and shape the culture ... It’s
closest Gen Z analogue, Jenna Ortega. at school, this coven leader a form of escapism but it’s also a real-
(Fairuza Balk) takes dabbling
Ortega also plays the title role in Bur- ity check that reminds us we’re living
in the occult too far.
ton’s incredibly popular teen-drama through scary, uncertain times.”
twist on the Addams Family, Netflix’s I’m not so sure about that. The girly
Wednesday. An adult Ricci appears as goth talismans we’re clinging to now
one of Wednesday’s teachers. Those are relics of a more upbeat era, when
who crave a more tactile connection the economy was coasting and the Cold
with the actor’s dark brand can shop War was ending and the daughters of
Ricci’s recent West Elm collab, which second-wave feminists were invent-
features tarot cards. A musical adap- ing new ways to inhabit their power.
tation of Death Becomes Her, the 1992 THE HALLIWELLS While some of us will always feel the
goth-camp comedy that pit Meryl CHARMED (1998–2006) temptation to immerse ourselves in
Streep against Goldie Hawn in an orgy This trio of Wiccan sisters the gloomy and supernatural, the more
E V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N (4)

of cartoon violence, is about to open uses the Power of Three to potent form of escapism at play in this
on Broadway; Sabrina Carpenter’s vanquish demons. revival is nostalgia for the recent past.
“Taste” video, also starring Ortega, One perennial lure of the goth subcul-
pays homage to the same movie. And ture, with its Victorian wardrobe and
if you just want to watch vintage Expressionist makeup, is its ability to
62 TIME October 28, 2024
 ®

untether adherents from the pres-

ent. “Goth’s interest in the time-
less,” writes the critic Simon Reyn-
olds in his post-punk history Rip It
Up and Start Again, “could be seen
as precisely that—a refusal of the
timely, the topical, the urgent is-
sues of the day.” It supplants the
sadness and violence we know
with dark fairy tales too remote
from reality to demand our engage-
ment with real-world problems.
Goth circa 2024 may not visu-
ally resemble the cardigan-core of
Taylor Swift’s Folklore/Evermore
era, but, like a certain seasonal
latte, it’s delivering pure comfort.
You might notice that Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice feels cozier than its
predecessor; while both have the
same rural idyll as a backdrop, the
sequel de-emphasizes the origi-
nal’s uncomfortable framing of
Lydia as a child bride to the titu-
lar ghoul in favor of a plot that re-
pairs broken bonds between gen-
erations of Deetz women. Or that
Wednesday is set at a boarding
school for outcasts, monsters, and
practitioners of magic—shades
of Harry Potter. Or that Agatha
eases its underworld odyssey with
camp-savvy faces: Hahn, Aubrey
Plaza, Patti LuPone. Meanwhile,
one recent Gen X goth IP revival
that bombed was a convoluted,
self-serious reboot of the 1994
revenge fantasy The Crow, which
earned $9 million at the domestic
box office to Beetlejuice Beetle-
juice’s $254 million and counting.
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Scarier by far is the impulse that

drives us to it. □
 8 QUESTIONS

Bridget Everett The star of Somebody Somewhere on the

HBO show’s final season, being honored by her Kansas
hometown, and whether she could actually live there

Somebody Somewhere is a slice- and that’s why Sam has that sort of
of-life dramedy set amid a tight- storyline. I think I’m happier where
knit group of friends and family Manhattan, I’m at. But I think I could be happy
in your real hometown of Manhat- there. And I hope that, like Sam,
tan, Kans. The characters’ arcs are Kans., celebrated I would’ve found my people.
so patient, it’s easy to imagine the
show continuing forever. Did you
you with a Many performers who come to Hol-
and the creators, Hannah Bos and Bridget Everett lywood from edgier, underground
Paul Thureen, anticipate when you
were putting together the third
Day. What was scenes, as you did from New York’s
alt-cabaret scene, end up sand-
season (premiering Oct. 27) that that like? ing themselves down for mass ap-
it would be the last? With this kind peal. But you’ve stayed true to the
of show, you feel like every season warm, bawdy persona you’ve al-
is going to be your last. The way we ways had. Has that been difficult?
wanted to approach the season was: I don’t think it’s been difficult to hold
it’s a snapshot, a moment in time— on to who I am; it’s been difficult to
not wrapping anything up. We just find ways to get to show it. If I didn’t
like to live with the characters. do the stage show, I wouldn’t have
[Somebody Somewhere]—they’re
Your character, Sam, the show’s two very important sides to me. But
protagonist, has made slow but the stage person is doing the same
steady progress at learning to thing that the person in the TV show
value herself and trust other peo- is doing: screaming for somebody to
ple. Do you ever imagine the fu- see who I am.
tures that she, her sweet best
friend Joel (Jeff Hiller), and the Did it help to have friends from
other characters might have? The that New York scene—like Mur-
story is always going in my head. ray Hill, a transmasculine come-
Maybe down the line we could do a dian and downtown icon who
movie or something. Because I think plays Sam’s buddy Fred Rococo—
these people will always inform and making the show with you? Abso-
shape each other’s lives. lutely. It was helpful to have people
that had been scrapping around in
Somebody Somewhere has many an alternative scene. We were often
autobiographical elements for in the suburbs of Chicago film-
you. Which aspects of Sam’s story ing, and we felt like we were just
resonate most with you? The doing another downtown show. It
love of music and struggles with wasn’t like we were rolling up to the
self-worth—Sam hums along to those Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. We
two things, which I really relate to. were at a dead mall in Illinois.

Could you have been happy with What do you see yourself doing
the quieter sort of life Sam lives? next? I really don’t know. In a fan-
I do think about it: What would tasy world, I would make Some-
J A M I E M C C A R T H Y— G E T T Y I M A G E S

happen if I still lived in Manhat- body Somewhere ’til the day I die.
tan, Kans.? I still have the same best But that’s not the way life goes. I
friend I had [growing up]. She still want to take my time and find some-
lives there. I go visit her, and I get a thing I can connect to. I don’t have
good sense of what’s going on and to be No. 1 on the call sheet, but I
that feeling of being a little too much want to do something that means
for people—I’ve always felt like that, something. —JUDY BERMAN
64 TIME October 28, 2024
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