Table of contents for February 10, 2025 in TIME Magazine

TIME marked the kickoff of the World Economic Forum’s 55th annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, with a Jan. 20 dinner on the future of artificial intelligence. At right, TIME CEO Jessica Sibley; above, TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs interviews keynote speaker Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of AI company Anthropic. Amodei discussed AI’s potential and the rise of virtual collaborators, noting that the question, on top of job impacts, is whether they will be safe or “wreaking havoc.” Read more from Davos at time.com/davos-2025 ON INNOVATING FOR IMPACT TIME’s Dan Macsai, with mic, moderated a Jan. 21 TIME100 Talks event on AI’s benefits and the tension between sustainability and growth with, from right, PepsiCo’s Athina Kanioura, IBM’s Rob Thomas, and Global Innovation Fund’s Joseph Ssentongo. ON AI’S TRANSFORMATIVE POWER TIME…

After announcing in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer, Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, has provided a positive update on her illness. “It is a relief now to be in remission and I remain focused on recovery,” Middleton announced on X on Jan. 14. The statement comes a few months after she revealed in September that she had completed chemotherapy treatment. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Princess’s case, including what type of cancer she had and the exact type of chemotherapy she used. And being in remission, while a positive development, comes with plenty of uncertainty. Remission means that doctors have successfully reduced the signs and symptoms of cancer—in some cases, to undetectable levels. “Remission quite simply means that at that point, there…

Smoke rises from a fire at a camp set up near the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers during the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, on Jan. 19. Considered to be the world’s largest religious gathering, the Hindu festival includes a series of ritual baths and runs for 45 days; millions of people were expected to travel to the region to attend this year’s gathering. Officials said the fire, caused by a gas cylinder exploding, was quickly contained with no reported injuries. ▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox Photograph by Rajesh Kumar Singh—AP…

Constitutionally, the President can’t create laws, but he does have broad authority to direct how the federal agencies enforce them. And within hours of his Inauguration, President Trump set out to fulfill a number of his campaign promises by using that authority, issuing a spate of presidential actions on everything from the border to federal building architecture. The White House’s website lists 46 presidential actions on Jan. 20. The first four were Administration staffing announcements; of the rest, 26 were Executive Orders, 12 were memorandums, and four were proclamations. What these different types of presidential actions mean and how much authority they each carry isn’t always clear. Many are also likely to face swift challenges in court. Here are some of the day-one executive actions to watch. PROCLAMATION ON…

When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, President Joe Biden set three objectives for the U.S. response. Ukraine’s victory was never among them. The phrase the White House used to describe its mission at the time—supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes”—was intentionally vague. It also raised the question: As long as it takes to do what? “We were deliberately not talking about the territorial parameters,” says Eric Green, who served on Biden’s National Security Council at the time, overseeing Russia policy. The U.S., in other words, made no promise to help Ukraine recover all of the land Russia had occupied, and certainly not the vast territories in eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula taken in 2014. The reason was simple, Green says: in the White House’s…

On a balmy December morning in Boston, Richard Daynard is sitting at his dining-room table watching a livestream on his laptop. “Pure. Horsesh-it,” he declares as a witness testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing has been called to discuss what seems to be becoming America’s new favorite pastime: throwing down bets on sports, 24/7. And what has set the bearded, bookish law professor off is a former gambling regulator from New Jersey’s use of a talking point favored by both the industry and the professional sports leagues: that the reason it’s so easy to wager on sports these days is this is what the American people want. To Daynard, president of the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University’s law school, such language deflects from gambling’s heavy…

DIED David Lynch The most Lynchian of them all Cigarettes, coffee, candy. According to legend, and to people who spent time with him, these were the things David Lynch would fuel up on, substances that kept him going and contributed to the mad, cosmic swirl of ideas that found their way—to our lasting pleasure—from his brain to the screen. Lynch, who died on Jan. 15, just a few days shy of his 79th birthday, was so extraordinary that his last name became the foundation of a descriptive adjective. But if he inspired countless filmmakers and TV creators, no one was more Lynchian than David Lynch. From his unnerving, hypnotic, black-and-white feature debut Eraserhead, to his heartland reverie The Straight Story, to his rapturously out-there, game-changing TV series Twin Peaks:…

David Zhao signed up for a medical credit card while supine in a dentist’s chair. In December 2018, the consumer lawyer from Los Angeles went for a routine appointment at Western Dental in San Mateo, in the suburbs of San Francisco. Zhao was told by the dentist that his gums were receding. He needed a special mouth guard or he’d have to have surgery, he recalls being told. Zhao says that he asked if the mouth guard was covered by insurance, and that office staff said most of the cost was not. Instead, Zhao says, he was told he could sign up for a payment plan used by many of Western Dental’s patients. As he lay in the chair, Zhao recalls, an assistant came over with a clipboard and a…

My only son, Hersh, was kidnapped from a music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, after having his dominant forearm and hand blown off. He was held captive, tortured, starved, and then, after 328 days, shot in the hand (his only one), shoulder, neck, and twice in the head in a dark and airless tunnel in Gaza on Aug. 29, 2024. Hersh’s name had been on the list, in July, of those who would be released in a deal between Hamas and Israel. But that deal did not happen, because decisionmakers did not want it to happen. And Hersh, along with five other beautiful young people, with whom he was being held hostage, are now all dead. My husband Jon and I, having suffered more than 300 days of every…

Lost amid the hullabaloo surrounding Donald J. Trump’s second Inauguration as President of the United States—the last-minute, cold-driven venue changes, the galas and balls, the $170 million raised from donors both big-name and anonymous—is the point of the whole extravaganza. In the summer of 1787, the delegates to the federal convention in Philadelphia included in the document they were drafting a requirement that before taking office, the President should recite the following oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Not everyone thought it was a good idea. Several delegates believed that oaths were pointless, almost superstitious. It’s the…

One of the most controversial executive actions Donald Trump signed on his first day as President took direct aim at the Constitution: challenging the idea that people born inside the U.S. are guaranteed citizenship. Trump told federal departments to deny what’s known as birthright citizenship to children born to mothers and fathers in the country unlawfully. His order would also deny citizenship to children born to parents in the U.S. on work or study visas, tourism visas, or when neither parent is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. If it stands, the changes would go into effect on Feb. 19. Within hours, Trump’s action was challenged in court as unconstitutional. A coalition of immigrant-rights groups—having expected Trump’s move—filed a lawsuit that night asking a federal court in New Hampshire…

When President Trump delivered his second Inaugural Address, he preserved a tradition of mythmaking that has only served Americans poorly. Beyond the expected theatrics, Trump declared the U.S. to be “history’s greatest civilization,” despite its fixture as the most unequal nation with the lowest life expectancy, even just among Western democracies of today. And, despite his record-thin margin of victory in November’s election, the President claimed that “the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda.” What’s actually noteworthy about this moment, however, is a rare current of agreement among Americans. The consensus comes in the form of a deep pessimism about our most cherished national story. One recent poll of American voters conducted by WSJ/NORC found that only 36% still believe in an American Dream, broadly defined by…

It’s hot. Or, as Mike White, the creator of The White Lotus puts it bluntly, “really f-cking hot.” Not that the 110°F scorch prevents Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnold, from doing push-ups as the crew prepares for another take. As the scene’s cast clambers onto sun loungers by the Four Seasons Koh Samui infinity pool, three burly Thai guys in wide-brimmed straw hats and sodden neck towels wade into the water clutching towering reflectors. The cameras start rolling as Aimee Lou Wood, the English rising star of Sex Education, banters with Schwarzenegger while munching nonchalantly on an apple. A yell of “cut” emerges from a blacked-out poolside cabana, where White is glued to a monitor wearing headphones and a huge grin. “Can you do that threesome line again?” he…

As a recent college graduate in a new city, Samantha Elliott thought she’d be lonely. Instead, she found companionship in the most unexpected place: with herself. And that, ironically, helped expand her community. “Being alone has this negative connotation, like it’s a punishment, but you’re learning to be friends with yourself,” says Elliott, who’s 24. Over the past few years, she’s gone on solo hikes and to concerts, museums, movies, and dinners—almost always making friends in the process. Spending time going places and doing things alone can be transformative, says Jessica Gaddy, a therapist in Los Angeles and avid solo traveler. She encourages many of her clients to become more comfortable with solitude as a means of self-care and self-exploration, and she helps them overcome their fears around venturing…

After 15 months of agony, the Gaza cease-fire comes as a colossal relief not just for Palestinians and Israelis, but also for the wider Middle East. True, the deal is narrow in size and scope. It covers a physical space scarcely bigger than Martha’s Vineyard. The actual terms of the first phase of the cease-fire agreement extend no further than a pause in fighting, an exchange of some hostages, and a partial Israeli withdrawal. Given recent precedent, the fragility of Israel’s ruling coalition and the yawning gap between the belligerents, this deal is just as likely to collapse, or simply to lapse, as to foster a longer-term peace. Still, even a temporary lowering of the regional heart rate allows for useful reflection. Perhaps not since the Arab-Israeli war of…

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ANDREW HARNIK—GETTY IMAGES; JIM WATSON—AFP/GETTY IMAGES; SHAWN THEW—POOL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; JIM WATSON—AFP/GETTY IMAGES; JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON—POOL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; VICTOR J. BLUE—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES; ANGELA WEISS—AFP/GETTY IMAGES…

One by one, they all trickled into the walnut-paneled Mansfield Room. Donald Trump had just made another improbable return: his first visit to the U.S. Capitol since a mob of his supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, just days away from reclaiming power, the President-elect was there to meet with the 52 Republican Senators of the 119th Congress about advancing his legislative agenda: a massive border-security package, extending his 2017 tax cuts, and dispensing with the debt ceiling. After more than an hour of wrangling over strategy, Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia tried to wrap things up, according to one of the GOP Senators present. “Sir,” she told Trump, “I want to respect your time and get you out of here so you can move…

When Senator John Fetterman got word that President-elect Donald Trump wanted to meet, the Pennsylvania Democrat didn’t have to think it over too long. Even though Trump had savaged Fetterman during the 2022 campaign—going so far as to allege he had an affinity for cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, and fentanyl—Fetterman reasoned that he represents all Pennsylvanians, including the 3.5 million who had just voted for Trump. “If the President invites you to have a conversation and to engage, I’m not sure why anybody would decide not to,” Fetterman tells TIME. “I’m in the business of creating wins for Pennsylvania.” And so, the weekend before Trump returned to the White House, Fetterman jumped on a plane to Florida to spend about an hour with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The two talked…

When celebrated Brazilian author Marcelo Paiva started writing his 2015 memoir Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here), he wanted to record his family history as his mother was losing her memory. Eunice Paiva had been living with Alzheimer’s for over a decade, losing her own past as a human-rights lawyer and activist. Her lifelong pursuit of justice was personal: her husband and Marcelo’s father, Rubens Paiva, an engineer and Congressman, was arrested by military police and forcibly disappeared on Jan. 20, 1971. It became clear decades later that he had been tortured and murdered by Brazil’s military dictatorship, which ruled from 1964 to 1985. His body was never found. As a domestic best seller, the book threw a light on Brazil’s dark and largely unspoken past, and now, a…