Table of contents for November 11, 2024 in TIME Magazine

Type 2 diabetes doesn’t always arrive with a bang. It can develop slowly but eventually result in marked side effects like extreme thirst and hunger, frequent urination, blurry vision, tingling sensations, and fatigue. When the body fails to properly make or use the hormone insulin, blood sugar rises, and sustained levels can damage organs from the heart to the kidneys. There’s an even subtler stage before diagnosis: prediabetes. People with the condition have blood-sugar levels that are higher than normal, but below the diabetes threshold. There aren’t usually any noticeable symptoms, which is why 80% of U.S. adults with the condition don’t know they have it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, that’s a lot of people: an estimated 38% of U.S. adults have…

A relief vessel ties up on Oct. 21 to a boat carrying more than 100 Rohingya refugees, close to the shore off Labuhan Haji in Indonesia’s Aceh province. Local people initially refused them entry but later agreed to allow them ashore for no more than a week. Having originally fled fighting in Myanmar, the refugees left Bangladesh on Oct. 9, hoping to reach Malaysia. ▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox Photograph by Chaideer Mahyuddin—AFP/Getty Images…

In 2018, field researchers in Uganda came across an unusual sight: a female chimpanzee carrying an infant she had recently given birth to that was affected by albinism, an extremely uncommon condition in this species that gives their fur a striking white color. The scientists were able to document the reactions of her mates when they first encountered the infant. Instead of curiosity and care that newborns tend to elicit, the chimpanzees reacted with what looked like fear, with their fur on end and emitting the kinds of calls that signal potentially dangerous animals. Shortly after, the alpha male together with a few of his allies killed the little one. Upon his death, the behavior of the chimpanzees radically changed, and the apes, overtaken by curiosity, began to investigate…

Last year, Colombian President Gustavo Petro watched in dismay as a political and economic crisis unfolded on the other side of his country’s eastern border. Global powers had imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil exports after the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, allegedly rigged his re-election. As hyperinflation fueled turmoil, millions of refugees poured into Colombia to escape. In the heat of the moment, Petro decided to talk to Maduro about an idea: the leftist strongman should propose a climate pact with the country’s opposition leaders to wean Venezuela off oil. That could boost the economy by ending its dependence on oil exports, Petro said, and it could help mend the country’s broken politics. Most of all, it would save the world from the climate change that would result from…

There are few filmmakers as openhearted, as stone-soup inventive, as Sean Baker. In movies like Tangerine and The Florida Project, he’s shown a knack for doing a lot with a little. And he makes us feel like insiders even in worlds that may be unfamiliar to us. Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, invites us into the life of a young sex worker from Brooklyn named Ani—she doesn’t like her full name, which is the same as the movie’s title, though by the end, it’s the only name regal enough to suit her tender, fighting spirit. Ani, played by Mikey Madison (perhaps best known as Max Fox on Better Things), dances in a Manhattan strip club. When a client asks specifically for a Russian speaker,…

At the inaugural TIME100 Health Leadership Forum in New York City on Oct. 22, health leaders discussed the most pressing issues in health care: equitable access to health care, women’s health, the impact of emerging technologies, and health-policy changes. At top right, Mahogany Browne kicked off the event by reading an original poem; above, from left, former White House official Raj Panjabi, Lori M. Reilly of PhRMA, and Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of the VA St. Louis Healthcare System appeared in conversation; at right, TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs spoke to TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year, Heman Bekele, a 15-year-old skin-cancer researcher. time.com/health-forum TUNE IN Now streaming on Prime Video: Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words, a documentary about the Grammy Award winner, co-produced by TIME Studios, Amazon MGM Studios,…

Few things will leave you feeling quite so icky as returning from a jaunt outside and finding a tick clinging to your skin. Not only is the unwelcome parasite sucking the blood from your body, it may also be leaving something behind: bacteria, viruses, or smaller parasites that can cause at least 15 different diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lyme disease, Powassan virus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Heartland virus are just a few of them. Another, babesiosis, is causing particular concern. The disease is colloquially known as “American malaria,” partly because of its widening spread and partly because of its clinical profile. Like malaria, it can lead to headache, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, altered mental state, anemia, low blood pressure, respiratory…

Who is Bitcoin’s founder, Satoshi Nakamoto? The question has perplexed and excited cryptocurrency fans ever since Bitcoin was created by someone with that username in 2009. Fans have endlessly theorized, debated, and hunted for clues across the web, while investigative journalists have tried to unwind the mystery with no success. The answer matters because Satoshi’s ideas are imbued with near religious significance—and because whoever it is owns about $60 billion worth of Bitcoin, which would make them roughly the 25th richest person alive. In October, the filmmaker Cullen Hoback released the documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery on Max, a film that claims that Satoshi is Peter Todd, a 39-year-old Canadian Bitcoin developer, whose ideas and hot temper have earned him notoriety in the Bitcoin community. In an email…

Here’s the thing: kids have always pushed limits and asked for things that aren’t good for them; in fact, this is part of kids doing their job, as they’re meant to explore the world and figure out the “edges” or limits. And while kids continue to do their job, parents are really struggling to do theirs—and as a result, the family system is off-balance and mental health is suffering. We’ve all seen the data around phones, social media, and the youth mental-health crisis. We know this generation of children has staggering rates of anxiety and depression. As a clinical psychologist specializing in parenting and family relationships, I’m as concerned as anyone and yet I’ve been shocked that one key word—really, a key foundational principle in life—has been left out of…

AS NOV. 5 APPROACHES, FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HAS LEFT LITTLE ROOM FOR DOUBT ABOUT HIS INTENTIONS. HE WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY DECLARE VICTORY ON ELECTION NIGHT, AS THE VOTES ARE STILL BEING COUNTED. He may turn out to be right. But if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, Trump will reject the result as corrupt and launch a scorched-earth campaign to overturn it. This plot is so well telegraphed that it barely counts as a prediction. Trump has stated repeatedly that he cannot lose unless there is “massive fraud”—and, separately, that the election is “rigged,” with a “bad voting system.” As he told the Fraternal Order of Police on Sept. 6: “We win without voter fraud, we win so easily.” Voters, by that reckoning, can make no other legitimate choice. That…

DIED Liam Payne Global phenomenon On Oct. 16, former One Direction singer Liam Payne died at 31 in Buenos Aires after falling from a third-floor balcony. The last hours of his life were eerily shared on his Snapchat, highlighting a career painstakingly documented online. Payne became a global star in 2010 when Simon Cowell picked him as one-fifth of his next boy-band venture on The X Factor. The group—which also included Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik—came in third on the show. But by the following year, they had already released their soon-to-be quadruple-platinum first single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” and debut album Up All Night, and embarked on a world tour. Directioners, as fans were known, constituted what can fairly be called a new wave…

On Jan. 27, 2021, then Governor Larry Hogan had good news for affordable housing in Maryland: nearly $40 million in competitive awards to spur construction of 18 low-income housing projects. “During our administration,” Hogan said, “the State of Maryland has provided financing and tax credits to create or preserve more than 20,000 affordable rental units across the state.” But there was one detail Hogan didn’t mention: one of the projects was being developed on his own family’s property. The bucolic land in Frederick County had been in the Hogan family since the governor’s father, former Congressman Larry Hogan Sr., and his second wife, Ilona Hogan, bought it in 1983 for $230,000. Now, three years after Hogan Sr. had passed away and six years into his son’s tenure as governor,…

There’s a lot of fear around spending time alone. Alone time can make people itchy with boredom. It can carry a stigma (especially if you’re single). Worse, recent articles and studies warn us about the dangers of loneliness—one 2017 study by Julianne Holt-Lunstad at BYU’s Social Connection and Health Lab claims loneliness is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published an advisory all about the epidemic of loneliness in America. It details the genuine risks of chronic loneliness, such as increased rates of anxiety and depression, as well as dementia in older adults. Not all alone time is the same The message? Loneliness isn’t just bad for you; it’s a killer. But while it is a serious health problem, what…

In We Live in Time, the romantic drama whose slow October rollout has swept up moviegoers in a tidal wave of tears, Andrew Garfield plays a divorced man who finds love in a hopeless place. Recovering in the hospital after a distracted stumble into traffic, Garfield’s Tobias meets the apologetic woman who struck him with her vehicle: Almut (Florence Pugh), a talented and fiercely ambitious chef. She becomes the star in their relationship, but he is its tender heart. Tasting her food makes him emotional; he frets about the future and cares for her when she’s gravely ill. When she gets pregnant, Tobias takes notes to ensure they’re prepared for childbirth. It’s a perfect role for Garfield, a 41-year-old actor who radiates gentleness—and who has spoken with great eloquence…