Table of contents for October 14, 2024 in TIME Magazine

Moo Deng of Thailand is not your typical A-list celebrity, but she’s certainly being treated like one. Every move she makes is closely watched, each new photo of her fervently discussed. Her effortlessly dewy glow is the subject of envy and inspiration for fan art and makeup tutorials. The 3-month-old pygmy hippo has wriggled her way into the hearts and minds of millions on the internet with her feisty antics and petrified looks. BOUNCY PIG Born on July 10, Moo Deng was unveiled to the public in Khao Kheow Open Zoo on July 25. Her name, which roughly translates to “bouncy pig,” was chosen by a popular vote held by the zoo. Native to West Africa, pygmy hippopotamuses, which mature to around 500 lb., are an endangered species, with only…

Many nations keep a nervous eye on U.S. presidential races, but none have as much at stake this time as the Ukrainians. For them, the result could determine how their war with Russia ends, and their leaders have spent months vying for the support of both candidates. But on Sept. 22, when President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived for a weeklong trip to the U.S., his outreach to Donald Trump nearly went off the rails. Zelensky’s first public event that day was a visit to an arms factory in Scranton, Pa., which he toured alongside the state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro. The visit allowed Zelensky to express his gratitude to all the American workers producing weapons for Ukraine. But the optics did not sit well with the Trump campaign. “It seems he…

First, on Sept. 17, there were exploding pagers. The next day, walkie-talkies detonated. Panic gripped Lebanon, particularly in areas where Hezbollah, whose members carried the devices, has a large presence. “We were confused at first,” said Joumana, visiting a Beirut hospital. “It sounded like gunfire. Then we saw cars, ambulances, and wounded people.” The booby traps, widely attributed to Israeli sabotage, announced a dramatic turn in a conflict largely contained to artillery exchanges across a shared border. On Sept. 23 alone, waves of Israeli airstrikes killed 558 people, including 50 children, Lebanese officials say. It was the deadliest day for the country since its 1975–1990 civil war. Hezbollah, both a militant group and a political party, came into being, with Iran’s help, after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to…

For New York Climate Week, TIME chief climate officer Shyla Raghav (above, left) led a Sept. 25 panel on energy with (from left) Jon Creyts of Rocky Mountain Institute, Ruth Gratzke of Siemens, Calvin Butler of Exelon, Josh Parker of Nvidia, and Bobby Hollis of Microsoft. At right, Jane Goodall poses with Xiye Bastida of Re-Earth Initiative at TIME’s Sept. 23 Climate Leadership Forum. At an Impact Dinner in San Francisco the week before, TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs (below left) hosted a Sept. 17 conversation on AI with (from left) Chinasa T. Okolo of Center for Technology Innovation, Ravi Kumar S of Cognizant, Elizabeth Kelly of U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. Making an impact TIME for Kids is launching the second year of its Service…

If you’ve been to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription lately, you might have wanted to bang your head against the wall. Chains and independent pharmacies alike are short-staffed, leading to long lines. Customers are finding empty shelves and chaotic operations. Satisfaction with brick-and-mortar pharmacies in the U.S. dropped 10 points in 2024 alone, a study by J.D. Power found. Running the businesses is getting harder too. “Without a doubt, this is the worst it’s ever been,” says Enrique Reynoso, who has been a pharmacist since 1991 and owns Beacon Wellness Pharmacy, a small shop in upstate New York. Reynoso has tried to do everything he can to stay afloat—putting drugs in smaller bottles to save costs, asking customers to pay by Venmo since credit-card fees are so high,…

Nearly half a billion miles from Earth, a world may be stirring. Our planet is the only one on which we know life exists. But if the basic sciences of chemistry, energy, and biology apply, Jupiter’s moon Europa may be alive as well. NASA aims to start finding out, with the October launch of the $5 billion Europa Clipper spacecraft on a 5½-year journey to the Jovian system for the most detailed exploration ever of the mysterious icy moon. Europa has fascinated astronomers and exobiologists at least since 1979, when the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft reconnoitered the moon and photographed an icy white surface shot through with cracks and fractures, suggesting a churning ocean disrupting the frozen crust. The later Galileo mission, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003,…

J.D. Vance looks annoyed. It’s a Tuesday afternoon in August, and we’re sitting near the front of his campaign plane, flying from a rally in Michigan to a fundraiser in Tennessee. Across the aisle is his mother Bev, whose role in Vance’s traumatic and disruptive childhood he chronicled in his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. As flight attendants serve Chick-fil-A, Vance gripes about the ongoing controversy over his three-year-old comments complaining that the U.S. is being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs, and “childless cat ladies” who “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country’s future. As with his boss, Vance’s instincts are to punch back. “I think it’s a ridiculous thing to focus on,” he says, “instead of the underlying argument I was trying to make.” Since being tapped by…

INDICTED Sean Combs Music mogul facing charges In September 2023, Sean “Diddy” Combs was handed the key to New York City at a ceremony in Times Square, an award the mayor’s office called a “symbol of civic recognition and gratitude” for “service to the public and the common good.” A year later, on Sept. 16, the music mogul was arrested—charged by a grand jury with sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs, who has been embroiled in multiple legal battles over allegations of physical or sexual abuse, pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his lawyer Marc Agnifilo said he would “fight this to the end.” Combs is in custody while awaiting trial. The federal indictment alleges that Combs created “a criminal enterprise” through which he…