Table of contents for June 24, 2024 in TIME Magazine

As President Joseph Biden walked into the small dining room next to the Oval Office, he reminded his visitors, not for the first time, that this space was where his predecessor spent the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021. “Trump sat and watched TV for three hours and did nothing,” he said, recalling the riot that overtook the Capitol on the day that Biden’s victory was to be certified by Congress. We were at the White House on May 28—one week before Biden was scheduled to visit Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and two weeks before he was set to join world leaders in Italy—to speak with the President about the U.S.’s role in the world. No President in a generation has entered the job with more foreign…

The Swedish buy-now-pay-later company Klarna has become something of a poster child for the potential benefits of generative artificial intelligence. The company relies on AI to create and tailor promotional images and to draft marketing copy, saving millions of dollars. Earlier this year it said an AI chatbot assistant was doing the work of 700 human customer-service agents, which it forecast would boost profits by $40 million this year. Klarna’s approach highlights generative AI’s promise for powering businesswide systems, like customer service. It’s also helping individual workers with some of the tasks that form their daily work. U.S. businesses are investing in AI, and they’re eager to see such gains. So far, the tools cover some of a worker’s tasks, saving time but not significantly impacting the business overall. They…

If the smoke alarm in your house were beeping, you’d spring into action. Yet we’re not so fast to react to the alarm bells ringing in our own bodies, letting us know we need to slow down. “A cascade of changes happen in the body when the stress response is activated in a sustained way,” says Jennifer King, assistant director of the Center on Trauma and Adversity at Case Western Reserve University. Fight-or-flight mode triggers cortisol and adrenaline to start flowing, which causes glucose to enter your bloodstream to give you energy to fight. Meanwhile, insulin production drops and your blood vessels tighten. Over time, that can contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, weight gain, and arthritis. Here are the signs to watch out for. 1.…

Stress and overwork are default American settings. But in many countries, relaxation is baked into the culture. 1. FOREST BATHING IN JAPAN Taking a regular walk in the woods is a form of preventive medicine called shinrin-yoku, credited with improving sleep quality, mood, and immunity. 2. SELF-MASSAGE IN INDIA For generations in India, a daily preshower massage with oil was standard to start the day alert, calm, and focused. Making this an early-morning habit has been found to ease stress. 3. SAUNA CULTURE IN FINLAND Sweating in a sauna’s dry heat has been linked to improvements in blood pressure, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia, and more endorphins. 4. SIESTA IN SPAIN Spain’s beloved ritual of an afternoon nap after lunch is an ideal way to escape the midday…

When Kabul fell to the Taliban, returning Afghanistan to the fundamentalist group’s control, women who did not flee faced a reality in which they could no longer be who they are: journalists deleted evidence of their work, artists destroyed their creations, and graduates set fire to their degrees. But some chose to fight back. Their defiance, and the dangers that have come with it, are vividly captured in Bread & Roses, a documentary that follows three women in real time as their lives become undone by the Taliban’s return. There’s Zahra Mohammadi, 33, a newly married dentist whose practice quickly transforms into a meeting space for fellow activists. There’s Taranom Seyedi, 39, a women’s-rights activist who is forced into exile in neighboring Pakistan. And there’s Sharifa Movahidzadeh, 31, a government…

President Joe Biden, center, speaks with TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, right, and Washington bureau chief Massimo Calabresi, left, at the White House, for this issue’s cover story on how his view of America’s role in the world will play out if he wins re-election in the fall. Read the article on page 28. SUBSCRIBE TO Breaking News Get alerts on the biggest breaking-news stories, straight to your inbox. To sign up, visit time.com/breaking-news See all the newsletters Find all TIME’s email lists at time.com/newsletters Tune in TIME’s list of the best podcasts of 2024 so far is perfect for summer road trips. Highlights include podcasting stalwart 99% Invisible’s series breaking down The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s 1,300-page biography of Robert Moses, and Serial’s fourth season, centered on Guantánamo Bay.…

The Trump campaign was prepared. Minutes after a Manhattan jury convicted the former President, fundraising pitches inundated inboxes, right-wing influencers stormed social media, and Donald Trump emerged from the courtroom to delegitimize the verdict. “This was a disgrace,” he told reporters. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.” That much was expected. But the onslaught of attacks against the ruling extended beyond the mass of MAGA loyalists. Many of Trump’s GOP critics assailed the trial, rather than the first U.S. President to be found guilty of a crime. “These charges should have never been brought in the first place,” said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Trump World villain. It was a strikingly cohesive message from across the conservative firmament, even among those who…

Palestinians wind their way through the rubble of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 31, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the town and its 75-year-old refugee camp. For nearly three weeks, Israeli soldiers waged intense battle against Hamas militants and launched over 200 airstrikes on the camp, which had housed 110,000 registered residents; 120 bodies had been recovered by June 2, a local hospital director told the press. Palestinians who returned in the wake of the assault carried what remains of their belongings through destruction that included the ruins of homes, the central market, and a hospital. For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox Photograph by Mahmoud Issa—Reuters…

Wake me when it’s over—summer, that is. I know, I know, you just love it: the long days, the warm evenings, the trips to the beach, the afternoons at the ballpark when your favorite team is playing and the pennant race is tightening—and the temperature is skyrocketing, and your skin is blistering, and the beer is $14, and the drive home will be in 88° heat, which is fine if you don’t mind running the air conditioner, except that you’re burning through $4-a-gallon gas, because it’s summer driving season and the giant oil companies didn’t get to be the giant oil companies without knowing the right time of year to hike their prices. And that’s hardly all of it. Summertime is the season of horribles, from higher crime rates,…

Joe Biden makes his way through the West Wing telling stories. In the Cabinet Room, with sun pouring through French doors from the Rose Garden outside, he remembers the first time he sat around the long mahogany table, its high-backed leather chairs ordered by seniority. It was more than 50 years ago, Biden says, and Richard Nixon told National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger to brief the 30-year-old first-term Delaware Senator on the still secret timing of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Walking slowly through the halls, the President unspools anecdotes about heads of state: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Emmanuel Macron. In the Oval Office, he talks about his childhood home in Scranton, Pa., and the 2008 phone call from Barack Obama asking Biden to be his running mate. Biden recounts…

You take a vacation day, but get distracted by the thought of your work inbox filling up. Or you sit down to watch a movie and immediately feel guilty about all the tasks still on your to-do list. Or perhaps you splurge on a massage, but barely enjoy it because your thoughts are racing the entire time. If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone. Relaxing may sound like the easiest thing in the world, but for many people it’s anything but. Erin Westgate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida, learned that a decade ago, when she tested the effects of letting people sit with their thoughts for a few minutes. She thought they’d find it relaxing. But the opposite turned out to be true:…

Face it: you could use a day to yourself. But if you can’t swing a whole one, how about half? What about an hour? Any amount of time works for a DIY spa day: a completely customizable way to de-stress. You don’t even need to leave your house. “The key to an at-home spa-day idea is being intentional about unwinding,” says Whitney Crawford, a social worker at Thriveworks in Grand Prairie, Texas, who specializes in stress and anxiety. Being deliberate about relaxation can release dopamine, the feel-good hormone that boosts mood, confidence, motivation, and energy. It’s also a way to prioritize yourself, something that Crawford says many of her patients, especially women, don’t always do. Too often, they feel shame both about feeling stressed and taking time to relax.…

Now that a jury has found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges, nearly everything about what happens next is up to Judge Juan Merchan. The experienced New York Supreme Court justice who has presided over Trump’s Manhattan trial has several thorny decisions before him. Every one will reverberate across the political landscape and, depending on the timing, could greatly affect the election in November. THE SENTENCING HEARING IS SCHEDULED FOR JULY 11 Even scheduling Trump’s sentencing hearing was politically fraught, given this year’s election calendar. Merchan went for July 11—meaning Trump will be back in the courtroom days before the Republican National Convention kicks off on July 15 in Milwaukee. In the weeks leading up to the hearing, Trump likely will meet with a probation officer who’ll then prepare…

Until mid-2023, artificial intelligence was something of a niche topic in Washington, largely confined to small circles of tech-policy wonks. That all changed when, nearly two years into Gina Raimondo’s tenure as Secretary of Commerce, ChatGPT’s explosive popularity catapulted AI into the spotlight. Raimondo, however, was ahead of the curve. “I make it my business to stay on top of all of this,” she says during an interview in her wood-paneled office overlooking the National Mall on May 21. “None of it was shocking to me.” But in the year since, even she has been startled by the pace of progress. In February 2023, a few months after ChatGPT launched, OpenAI’s leadership previewed its latest model, GPT-4, to Raimondo, who used it to write a speech she says was “alarmingly…

Travel can do wonders for your well-being: expanding your mind, bonding you to loved ones, and connecting you with nature. Still, it’s possible to arrive back home from a trip feeling more stressed than you were before you left. Keeping certain tips in mind as you plan and set out will help you better reap the benefits of travel. TAKE A FEW SHORT TRIPS INSTEAD OF ONE LONG ONE Because the positive effects of traveling fade about a month after you return home—and because the planning process can make you happier than the trip itself—traveling more often could be key to improving mental health, says Laurence Chan, instructor of medical psychology at Columbia University. That means taking a few smaller trips may be better than taking one big trip,…

Summer is nigh, and with it relaxing hours to be filled, a page at a time, on the beach, by the pool, or in air-conditioned comfort. The season’s literary releases offer promising options for every setting and inclination: a heart-pounding mystery from Rachel Howzell Hall; a hip-hop history lesson from Questlove; and multigenerational tales of Los Angeles luchadores and, on Long Island, polystyrene magnates. There are memoirs from Dr. Anthony Fauci, artist Anna Marie Tendler, and not one but two men whose lives intersected meaningfully with Joan Didion’s. Debut novels arrive from film producer Essie Chambers and Palestinian journalist Yasmin Zaher. And if it’s not hot enough, Red, White & Royal Blue author Casey McQuiston is back with a romance they call their “spiciest” yet, and memoirist Glynnis MacNicol recounts how…