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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>TIMEhttps://time.com/<!\[CDATA\[Breaking news and analysis from TIME.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science and entertainment news.\]\]>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 07:01:45 +0000en-UShourly1<!\[CDATA\[FIFA’s Infantino Scraps World Cup Investment Plan. But Is It Too Little, Too Late?\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/08/01/fifa-s-infantino-scraps-world-cup-investment-plan-but-is-it-too-little-too-late-/<!\[CDATA\[Sports\]\]><!\[CDATA\[UEFA said Saturday it had lost confidence in FIFA's leadership despite President Gianni Infantino's decision to abandon his plan to invite private investors into a new commercial venture tied to the World Cup.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Chris Brunskill/Fantasista—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends the World Cup 2026 final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd296c49a94ceea38/6a6e36f5b994348569a9f5c7/GettyImages-2286953242.jpg?branch=production)

FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends the World Cup 2026 final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. —Chris Brunskill/Fantasista—Getty Images

FIFA President Gianni [Infantino](https://time.com/collection/time100-sports/2026/gianni-infantino/) said Friday that football's international governing body would scrap plans to sell private investors a [stake](https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/fifa-forward-enterprise-world-cup-commercial-invest-infantino-trump-kushner/) in a new commercial venture tied to the [World Cup](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/spain-world-cup-2026-final-argentina-tournament-recap/). The pivot came after widespread backlash and vows from all 55 members of UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) to boycott future [FIFA](https://time.com/article/2026/07/06/trump-inserts-himself-in-world-cup-call-with-global-blowback/) competitions if the plans went through.

“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Infantino said in a [statement](https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media/all-media-releases). “Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

The turnaround followed escalating blowback from leading soccer organizations and top voices in the sport, culminating in Friday’s resignation of Carlos Cordeiro, a top advisor for FIFA who said that he could not “stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup.”

**Read More:** [_FIFA Draws Fury Over Plan to Sell Stakes in World Cup_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/fifa-forward-enterprise-world-cup-commercial-invest-infantino-trump-kushner/)

"Let me be clear: I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,” his [statement](https://x.com/RobHarris/status/2083124100684300590) said. “It is a bad deal for FIFA's member associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game."

But the criticism has not abated with Infantino’s reversal. UEFA and CONCACAF—the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer—continued to attack the underlying premise and said they would seek ways to prevent future attempts to advance it.

A UEFA [statement](https://x.com/UEFA/status/2083488910123106611) on Saturday said that it and “other members of the football family” had lost confidence in FIFA leadership while implying that “shabby, back room, opaque” deals had been taking place. It also said that Infantino had “failed to deliver” on his 2016 election promise of transparency. 

The organization said it would “reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again,” adding: “We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game.”

The continued backlash could have broader repercussions for Infantino, who is up for reelection in 2027\. Before the debacle, he was expected to run unopposed. However, Infantino's $20 billion private equity plan has complicated the 56-year-old Swiss administrator’s chances at running for another four-year term—particularly after criticism spread beyond FIFA itself, prompting accusations of football mismanagement and corruption.

“The fervent torrent of rejection emerging from numerous federations is extremely significant,” Jules Boykoff, professor of political science at Pacific University, tells _TIME_. “It signals that, despite FIFA's clientelistic patronage network—whereby FIFA brings in billions and redistributes millions to member associations around the world—Infantino overplayed his hand.”

The English Football Association [said on social media](https://x.com/fa/status/2083512599665094763?s=46) Saturday that it “fully” supports the UEFA position and echoed its calls for a “full and robust review of FIFA’s leadership and governance.”

CONCACAF, which comprises 41 member associations, [said](https://www.concacaf.com/news/concacaf-and-its-41-member-associations-welcome-the-withdrawal-of-the-proposed-fifa-forward-enterprise) that the fact that the plan materialized at all was a “symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first.”

“A comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative,” it said.

The FIFA President is not without some friends. Qatar’s Football Association has [thrown](https://x.com/QFA%5FEN/status/2083571210470793489) its weight behind him, saying it “fully supports \[his\] efforts to continue growing and strengthening the game globally.” 

But Infantino’s position has been significantly weakened at a delicate time for the organization, which ran into multiple scandals during the 2026 World Cup, including ticket pricing strategy in the United States, sponsored [hydration breaks](https://time.com/article/2026/07/17/what-the-world-cup-hydration-breaks-really-tell-us/), and its decision to overturn Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension ahead of the USMNT’s Round of 16 match, which followed a phone call between Infantino and U.S. President Donald Trump.

## Who are possible challengers to FIFA President Gianni Infantino?

Infantino was originally expected to easily retain his position at the helm of FIFA in March 2027\. 

Now, with public calls for review into his leadership, potential rivals may feel emboldened.

“FIFA is full of sharks, and there's no question that many of them can smell blood. Infantino's election in 2027, which seemed like a sure bet only a few days ago, is now an open question,” Boykoff says.

Challengers for his role must submit their candidacies by Nov. 18, and there has already been some speculation as to who might make a bid. 

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), was defeated by Infantino in 2016, the current administrator’s first term, but he could return a decade later as a frontrunner. He called Infantino’s investment proposal and his failure to consult AFC on it “[totally unacceptable](https://www.the-afc.com/en/about%5Fafc/about%5Fafc/the%5Fpresident.html/news/shaikh-salman-welcomes-withdrawal-of-ffe-proposal),” putting the two publicly at odds. 

Paris Saint-Germain President Nasser Al-Khelaifi has also been floated by European football officials as a potential candidate to run against Infantino. But when approached by [_Politico_](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/29/europe-nasser-al-khelaifi-challenge-infantino-fifa-01015898)earlier this week_,_ his representatives said he has “no ambition, no intention, no interest in the FIFA role, and he will continue to discreetly support all the institutions of world and European football.”

Once the world of soccer is no longer in the immediate wake of the equity venture controversy, more contenders could emerge.

However, UCLA law professor Steven Bank tells _TIME_ that he would not count Infantino out of the running yet—especially with over seven months to garner support.

“I think he’ll be weakened, but it's the classic case of if you come for the king, you better kill him, you can't leave him just wounded,” Bank says. “And none of the prospective candidates for president are free from problems themselves.”

And countries are going to have trouble parting from Infantino, he explains: “They're going to say, ‘Look, I don't like Infantino, but I know what I'm going to get from him.’”

Regional administrators who are worried about FIFA corruption should be concerned with more than just Infantino, Bank adds, saying that he is merely part of a larger, ongoing issue.

“Maybe it was just Infantino who was pushing this \[proposal\], but the existing governance structure allowed him to,” Bank says. “If that's the case, then there are problems with the governance structure.”

“This is not a single-person issue,” Bank explains, warning that a replacement for Infantino could just as easily come in and try advancing a similar plan in the years ahead.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltd6496a1a7ba68ee0Sat, 01 Aug 2026 18:08:45 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Rebecca Schneid\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Revolt of the Cockroaches: How India’s Gen Z Humbled Modi\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/08/01/cockroaches-protests-gen-z-india-delhi-narendra-modi-prime-minister/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Armed with a thousand memes, young protesters in Delhi and across the nation have delivered a fatal blow to the Indian leader's carefully constructed image.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

In the final segment of _Creepshow_, the horror anthology series written by Stephen King, Upson Pratt, a ruthless old businessman, lives alone in a penthouse fitted with surveillance screens, control panels, and alarm systems. He has a pathological phobia of germs and contamination, is obsessed with exercising complete control over his environment, and regards every competitor as little more than a bug to be squashed. 

One night, a cockroach breaches his citadel, and Pratt swiftly dispatches it. But the cockroaches keep appearing in ever-greater swarms, creeping out from air vents, drains, cupboards, and electrical panels until they are everywhere. Despite his manic efforts to smash and spray them out of existence, the ever-multiplying cockroaches eventually overwhelm him. 

Over the past 12 years, [Prime Minister Narendra Modi](https://time.com/6985284/india-modi-reelection-significance/) of India has single-mindedly gone about building an extensive machinery of control to tame India’s raucous democracy. He has gradually managed to bring the entire architecture of normal, institutional politics under his sway. The American watchdog Freedom House, for example, ranks India as, “[partly free](https://freedomhouse.org/country/india),” and the country’s press freedom ranking on a[ Reporters Without Borders index](https://rsf.org/en/node/79154) of 180 countries has sunk from 140 in 2014—the year Modi came to power—to[ 157 in 2026](https://rsf.org/en/country/india). Elsewhere, the[ V-Dem Institute](https://v-dem.net/) in Sweden, which monitors democracy and its variants, has described India as an “[electoral autocracy](https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem%5FInstitute%5FDemocracy%5FReport%5F2026%5Flowres.pdf),” where, despite the occurrence of multi-party elections, there is a corrosion of true democracy because of decline in core liberties. 

These damning assessments reflect the way Modi has consolidated his grip on all manner of [national institutions ](https://www.theindiaforum.in/law/sir-and-making-compliant-court)in recent years: from [the media](https://caravanmagazine.in/media/big-media-corrupts-journalism), where pliant owners have repeatedly bent the knee to the administration, to [election authorities](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy51qg00dezo), which in a recent state poll [erased millions ](https://scroll.in/latest/1091938/bengal-sir-95-of-deleted-voters-in-nandigram-are-muslims-shows-study)of names from voter rolls in a move widely seen as benefiting Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

Considering his hegemonic control over power and institutions, one can presume that when Modi first watched hundreds of disaffected young people, describing themselves as cockroaches, trickle into Jantar Mantar, a traditional site of protest in New Delhi, a few miles from his residence, the 75-year-old strongman would have felt fairly confident of squashing them like bugs. The reality turned out to be wholly different—uplifting the spirits of democratically minded Indians and no doubt surprising the country’s longtime leader.

### **Origins and growth of a Gen Z protest**

The call to protest came on Jun. 1 from[ Abhijeet Dipke](https://www.reuters.com/world/india/abhijeet-dipke-face-indias-first-gen-z-protest-movement-2026-07-23/), a 30-year-old Indian student in Boston, who had previously worked as a political communications specialist. The catalyst was a comment on May 15 by Surya Kant, the chief justice of India’s Supreme Court, who compared the[ country’s unemployed youth](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz72y11jjq1o) to "parasites" and "cockroaches." Dipke responded by forming an online parody party, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), whose meme-like name was partly a dig at Modi's BJP. He billed his satirical party as the "Voice of the Lazy & Unemployed," and the [CJP's instagram account ](https://www.instagram.com/cockroachjantaparty/?hl=en)amassed 20 million followers within days, eclipsing the BJP's following on the platform.

India’s young men and women were already frustrated and angry over recent[ paper leaks](https://time.com/article/2026/07/25/cockroach-movement-forces-out-india-education-minister/) in an examination for admission to medical schools. More than two million students had competed for[ around 140,000 places](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/world/india-cockroach-protests-spain-france-fires.html) to train as a doctor. After the paper leaks, the test was canceled and the government forced the students to repeat the exam on June 21\. In despair, reportedly at least 20 students committed suicide. 

On the morning of Jun. 6, Dipke arrived at Delhi airport holding a copy of the Constitution of India in one hand, and made his way to Jantar Mantar in central Delhi, where he started the protests with a modest gathering of supporters. On most days throughout June a few hundred people showed up at Jantar Mantar for the protests. On June 28, a prominent educator and activist, Sonam Wangchuk, and a group of student activists began a hunger strike in support of the CJP and its primary demand: the resignation of the education minister. 

I thought Modi might just co-opt the protest leaders or ignore them till they were exhausted, but as it turned out, his administration couldn’t tolerate even passive, peaceful resistance. On the evening of July 18, police charged the protest site and[ forcibly removed Wangchuk](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjej3dxxg2do) and others, who had been on the hunger strike for 20 days by then. Images and videos of Wangchuk being removed from the protest site went viral. 

Tens of thousands showed up at the protest site in solidarity. Among the multitudes in Delhi was Prashantkumar Dhramshibhai Patel, a middle-aged lawyer, who had traveled to the capital from Ahmedabad, a city in the western state of Gujarat. He carried a most painful wound inflicted by the failures of India's education system: on Jun.18,[ Kahaan Patel](https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/kahaan-patels-father-says-son-got-justice-after-dharmendra-pradhans-resignation-enn26072503930), his 17-year-old son, who had taken the medical-school test that was scrapped after the paper leaks, jumped from the sixth-floor balcony of their apartment and killed himself. “I have another son. I have to save him,”[ Patel said](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbAXomzAUlw/), in an interview at Jantar Mantar. “The system has to change.” 

On July 20, the protesters marched toward the Indian Parliament. The police attacked them with batons, tear gas, and pellet guns. More than 100 protesters ended up in hospital with broken ribs, fractured legs, head trauma, and other injuries. Viral videos of the police brutality on Instagram and YouTube swelled the crowds even further and transformed the protest site into a zone of occupation with the energy of a carnival. Copycat protests sprang up in other major Indian cities—Kolkata, Mumbai and Patna—lending the Gen Z protests the aura of a nationwide youth resistance that would humble Modi and force[ his education minister](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/dharmendra-pradhan-india-education-minister-resigns-cockroach-movement) to resign.

### **Gen Z challenges the strongman** 

The success of India’s Gen Z protests revealed a paradox: while Modi has effectively domesticated institutional politics, his control breaks down when confronted with eruptions of extraordinary, extra-institutional politics. He is forced into a corner when[ political mobilization](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/democracy-and-the-politics-of-the-extraordinary/B3DE4959C8CE6529697C636FABAC6C78) originates from the ignored margins, erupts in waves of collective action, and thrives in its own irregular, informal public spaces. India has witnessed such eruptions before: in the[ protests around a citizenship law led by Muslim women](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/opinion/india-citizenship-law-protests.html) in 2019, in the protests led by[ Sikh farmers](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/opinion/india-farmers-protest.html) in 2021, and now in the Gen Z protests. These extra-institutional mass upsurges have posed the greatest challenges to the Hindu nationalist political order helmed by Modi. 

After the police crackdown, the Gen Z protests in Delhi and other Indian cities gained the energy and tone of a carnival. The people who joined were not there at the behest of a political organization but were drawn, like pilgrims to hip pilgrimage sites, by the promise of an [insurrectionary pleasure](http://digitalmediafys.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/68477123/Protestival.pdf). Jantar Mantar, the protest site in Delhi, embodied an aesthetic of collective transgression. The crowds ignored the best efforts of the protest leaders to act as disciplinary conductors and reveled in their own playful spontaneity, their slogans and posters heaping colorful profanities on the prime minister. Fundamentally, the protest in Delhi amounted to a carnivalesque bonfire of Brand Modi.

The burnishing of Modi’s political brand traces back to another protest in Delhi, in the summer of 2011\. A movement called India Against Corruption—led by [a group of tech-savvy middle-class men](https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/arvind-kejriwal-agitator-turned-electioneer) and fronted by a talismanic Gandhian veteran on a hunger strike—mounted a protest against corruption scandals in the federal government, then led by the Indian National Congress. That movement tapped into, and crystallized, widespread public anger against the “system” and turned it into a crisis of legitimacy for the ruling Congress Party, from which it never recovered. 

The social imaginary of the “corrupt system” in India resembles the American populist notion of “[the swamp](https://time.com/4616679/donald-trump-drain-the-swamp/)”: it refers to a self-serving nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen who control the workings of state institutions, much to the detriment of ordinary people with no “connections” within it. 

Soon after those 2011 protests, Brand Modi was [carefully marketed](https://www.ft.com/content/ce68abf0-df3f-11e3-86a4-00144feabdc0?syn-25a6b1a6=1) on television channels and burgeoning social media platforms as the redemptive opposite of the images, associations, and stereotypes attached to the corrupt and feckless system. Modi was the charismatic outsider (at least to Delhi, since he had been a state level leader for years) and decisive executive who could cut through the thicket of vested interests and make institutions work for ordinary people. 

In contrast to the wealthy, dynastic politicians who dominated other parties, Modi presented himself [as a _fakir_, or ascetic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gRVqWVMo3c), free from the usual familial interests and material ambitions**—**aman uniquely suited to provide a renewed political and moral leadership. And unlike the English-speaking politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists of the old establishment mold, Modi was cast as the authentic [son of a tea seller](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzKWrcESjcc), whose provincial career in the western state of Gujarat had left him untouched by the incestuous courtly culture of the national capital. 

Fifteen years later, the Gen Z protests in Delhi and other Indian cities have incinerated Modi’s carefully constructed political brand, delivering death by a thousand burns. The target of the anger and scorn in all the insulting posters, slogans, and graffiti of the protest zone was not the education minister but Modi himself.

### **A bonfire of vanities in Delhi** 

It was an exhilarating spectacle to watch a prime minister elevated to the status of a demigod through the expenditure of [hundreds of millions of dollars](https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/03/31/follow-the-money-inside-modi-govts-rs-15-crore-a-day-ad-spend) of public money spent on ubiquitous advertising campaigns, becoming the butt of a torrent of wickedly humorous, profanity-laced slogans from young men and women in the capital. The eminently Instagrammable viral burns of the protesters were deliberate, taking apart and inverting each element of Modi’s political brand. 

The weapon of choice was satire. The unofficial anthem of the protest was a call-and-response chant: “_Chappan inch ka chhota bandar_,” followed by the crowd’s chorus, “_Bhaag Narendra, Bhaag Narendra_.” (“The little monkey with the 56-inch chest. Run Narendra, Run Narendra!”) The[ viral reel](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbGTw-Ds9QB/) that originated the chant features two women, who seem to be in their early 20s, dressed in casual streetwear, leading the chant while a man holds a poster depicting Modi as a little monkey. 

One could not imagine a more lethal grenade lobbed at Modi’s strongman image—a play on his 2014 campaign [claim ](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/will-take-a-56-inch-chest-to-turn-up-into-gujarat-modi-to-mulayam/articleshow/29269342.cms)of being a leader with a “56-inch chest” who embodied the masculine resolve needed to overcome the obstacles and transform India in the decisive manner he had transformed Gujarat, the state he had governed for 12 years. 

The chant, which deployed Modi’s first name, quickly spawned the kind of meme-like variations typical of viral reels. The chorus, “_Bhaag Narendra, Bhaag Narendra_,” (Run Narendra, Run Narendra!”) sometimes became “_Bal Narendra, Bal Narendra_!” (Baby Narendra, Baby Narendra!) —a nod to the 2014 comic book that [mythologized ](https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat/out-in-print-how-narendra-the-boy-picked-up-a-crocodile/)Modi’s childhood, depicting heroic tales like a young Modi helping soldiers during India’s 1965 war with Pakistan and rescuing a baby crocodile.Other chants added new bits lampooning Modi's relationship with friendly oligarchs. 

And there were posters tearing apart his otherworldly self-projection as a _fakir_, or ascetic, depicting him in his monogrammed suits, designer sunglasses, and aircraft. Street skits satirized the myth of Modi’s tea-seller origins. A man carrying a bullhorn wandered through the crowds playing Modi’s viral bloopers on a loop, taking requests from the audience like a disc jockey. 

A particular target of attack was Modi’s tactic of preserving his political brand by evading accountability: presenting himself as the supreme leader who sets the country’s political direction and articulates its moral vision while shifting responsibility for the government’s failures onto subordinate officials. 

A viral poster showed a young girl deriding Modi’s habit of [falling silent ](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/an-evening-at-cjp-cockroach-janta-party-student-led-protest-that-pushed-education-minister-dharmendra-pradhan-to-resign-in-pics-11822433)whenever the government came under attack: “Ghosting works on dating apps, not on citizens.” The posters bore Modi’s face, not the education minister’s, under the banner headlines, “Leak in India” and “Destroy in India” (a play on “Make in India,” Modi’s signature campaign to build up India’s manufacturing sector). 

For India’s youth, Modi has become the symbol of the hated system, the man who bore ultimate responsibility for everything that was wrong with the country’s institutions. He is no longer the crusader against a corrupt and sclerotic system but its prime patron.

### **Why the Cockroaches won** 

The cockroach protests overwhelmed Modi’s regime of control because the young protesters were immune to the blackout and the [vilification ](https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/06/06/go-back-godi-media-cjp-protesters-at-jantar-mantar-had-no-time-for-tv-media)by India’s mainstream media. The protest was anchored in its own alternative digital public sphere, primarily on Instagram, the loopy mimeticcauldron that served as both the lingua franca and the [primary driver](https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-instagram-gen-z-dents-modis-aura-ahead-key-state-polls-2026-07-25/) of the protests. 

Platforms such as Instagram and YouTube host a new generation of progressive journalists and influencers who command huge audiences, particularly[ among](https://m.thewire.in/article/media/digital-news-report-by-the-reuters-institute-avoid-news-digital-youtube-social-media-report/amp) the young who hardly watch mainstream news channels at all. Such an alternative digital sphere had already emerged and [grown](https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/a-special-collective-glimpses-of-a-counter-establishment-sphere/cid/1905586) during India’s previous major protest movements in the past decade.

India’s young people live with profound resentment against the current state of affairs. After the police crackdown, that resentment was directed atModi himself, who was seen as the face of a system that treats ordinary people like cockroaches. 

Many of those who had streamed into the capital after Wangchuk was forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar in Delhi had endured long train journeys. Most of them did not have the luxury of air-conditioned coaches. They had traveled in ordinary train cars, which Indians refer to as “general-class” coaches. In those sweltering, poorly ventilated coaches, passengers are routinely packed like sardines and somehow brave the lingering smells of piss and sweat.

The “general-class” coaches in Indian trains exist as visceral reminders to young Indians of what the “general” quality of life feels like. Millions of young aspirants are condemned to ride these moving purgatories every year, traveling to college or job-recruitment examinations that they often find have been canceled. 

The essence of the youth protest was a revolt against the persistent denial of education and employment that would enable them to lead the decent lives of people they glimpse in the few air-conditioned coaches most Indian trains have. 

Most of these young people never make it to a future of decent employment, given the deepening structural mismatch between the expansion of higher education and the availability of secure, high-quality jobs. The number of college graduates has increased since the education sector was opened to private investment, at a far more rapid pace than the employment opportunities available to them. A recent report by researchers at Azim Premji University showed that while the share of graduates among 20-to-29-year-olds has risen from just 4% in 1983 to 28% today, graduates now[ account](https://www.forbesindia.com/article/upfront/news-by-numbers/graphic-of-the-day-graduate-job-woes/2992303/1) for 67% of the unemployed in that age group.

India ranks near the bottom globally in providing formal salaried employment, according to World Bank data. A mere 23% of Indians[ hold](https://www.dataforindia.com/salaried-jobs/) salaried jobs; the share is double that in countries with more developed manufacturing sectors: Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Worse, many of these salaried jobs in India’s service-led economy are not in high-tech fields such as information technology but in occupations like retail sales, primary school teaching, domestic cleaning, and cooking.

The long “[waithood](https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/timepass)” of young Indians between education and employment, as the anthropologist Craig Jeffrey put it, can turn into a humiliating ordeal. The stigma of unemployment is compounded by the guilt of knowing that your parents had to drain their savings or mortgage their land to pay for the steep fees demanded by colleges and coaching centers. All for nothing. 

India’s National Crime Records Bureau estimated that[ more than 1,23,000 students](https://thewire.in/education/over-1-23-lakh-students-died-by-suicide-from-2014-2024-exam-failure-family-problems-top-causes-ncrb) in the country committed suicide between 2014 and 2024, citing “failure in examinations” and “family problems” as the primary reasons for ending their lives. As many as 15,000 students[ died](https://www.thehindu.com/data/student-suicides-jumped-80-in-ten-years-over-2000-die-by-suicide-every-year-due-to-exam-failures/article71258741.ece) by suicide in 2024, the last year for which government data is available, an 80% jump over the past decade.

In the end, the young cockroaches proved so resilient because Modi’s regime of control had no punishment or humiliation to threaten them with beyond what the system already inflicts on them every day. These young men and women had reached a point where they felt they had no voice in the existing order—and nothing left to lose. 

These protests pose no immediate threat to the stability of the Modi government. Nor are they bound to seriously damage his BJP’s prospects in upcoming state elections given the extent of the party’s institutional dominance and the fragmented state of the opposition. What is more, the Hindu nationalist BJP maintains its ideological hold over roughly a quarter of the population in many Indian states. 

Yet the protests have exposed the limits of the 75-year-old prime minister’s personal appeal to an expanding swath of the population after 12 years in power. 

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt812cb11dd613b901Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Asim Ali\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump Administration Amps Up Pressure On Senate To Confirm Todd Blanche As Attorney General\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/trump-administration-amps-up-pressure-on-senate-to-confirm-todd-blanche-as-attorney-general/<!\[CDATA\[Politics\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump officials are urging the Senate to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general as Republican holdouts threaten to derail his nomination.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Win McNamee—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche gets sworn in at his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill July 15, 2026 in Washington, D.C.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39000d9a1649cce9/6a6d07c4b9943418aea9d35a/Blanche-Pressure-Senate.jpg?branch=production)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche gets sworn in at his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill July 15, 2026 in Washington, D.C. —Win McNamee—Getty Images

With just a week left before the Senate leaves for its August recess, the Trump Administration is increasing pressure on lawmakers to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.

The White House said in a [press release](https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/07/icymi-confirm-todd-blanche-as-attorney-general/) on Friday that Blanche “should be confirmed by the U.S. Senate without delay.” The White House included statements from law enforcement organizations, state attorneys general, former Justice Department officials, and other groups that it said were “united in demanding \[Blanche’s\] expeditious confirmation.”

That same day, Secretary of State [Marco Rubio](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/marco-rubio/) urged the upper chamber to confirm Blanche before leaving Washington, D.C., to go on recess at the end of next week.

“Todd Blanche has been an invaluable partner in advancing President Trump’s agenda and as a result of his leadership at the Department of Justice, Americans are safer today,” Rubio said in a [post on X](https://x.com/SecRubio/status/2083257792656199742). “The Senate should not leave for recess without confirming him as Attorney General.”

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins also on Friday called on lawmakers to confirm Blanche.

“President Trump chose the right leader for @TheJusticeDept,” Rollins said in a [post on X](https://x.com/SecRollins/status/2083265983930826875). “It’s time for the Senate to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General.”

The confirmation of Blanche, who has been serving as acting attorney general for the Department of Justice (DOJ) since [Pam Bondi](https://time.com/7207203/pam-bondi-attorney-general-hearing-trump/) was [ousted](https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/pam-bondi-out-as-trump-s-attorney-general/) from the role in April, was upended this week after the Senate Judiciary Committee [postponed](https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/trump-says-no-objection-withdrawing-todd-blanche-doj-attorney-general/) a vote that would have advanced his nomination. 

Two senators in the President’s own party have threatened to pull their support of Blanche, saying that they want confirmation from the DOJ that the proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which was part of a settlement agreement for Trump’s [$10 billion lawsuit](https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/896f9d3c-624a-4148-9050-b94c21f1c623.pdf) against the I.R.S. over the [leak of his tax returns](https://time.com/article/2026/05/16/trump-irs-lawsuit-weaponization-fund/), has been eliminated.

Trump and Blanche have said that the fund, which would have provided compensation to people who claim that they were unfairly targeted by the government**,** is “dead.” But Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas who was one of the two holdout votes, said this week that he has not received written confirmation of that.

**Read More:** [_What to Know About the DOJ’s $1.8B ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ That Could Compensate Trump Allies Investigated Under Biden_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/trump-says-no-objection-withdrawing-todd-blanche-doj-attorney-general/)

“This is about making sure that even if you’re the President of the United States, you don’t get favorable terms from the government in a settlement of a lawsuit that ordinary citizens would not get,” Cornyn [said](https://x.com/atrupar/status/2082826482129281519) on Thursday. Cornyn [lost](https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/paxton-defeats-cornyn-trump-texas-talarico/) his [re-election run](https://time.com/7373241/james-talarico-jasmine-crockett-ken-paxton-john-cornyn-texas-senate-polls/) in his state’s Republican primary in May, to the President-backed challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Trump Administration’s renewed pressure on the Senate to push through Blanche’s confirmation comes a day after the President indicated he might pull the nomination.

“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Trump said in a [Truth Social post](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117009581290419286) on Thursday, referring to the two Republican holdouts.

During his Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, Trump said of Cornyn threatening to pull his support of Blanche: “I don’t really blame him, to be honest with you.”

“I endorsed his opponent,” Trump said. “The man that lost, the man that I didn’t endorse, has become very angry, and that’s ok.”

“I mean, I understand that,” he continued. “I probably would do the same thing.”

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt18f2034d5eec19b2Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:40:36 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Chantelle Lee\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The Strait of Hormuz Is Exposing a Blind Spot in the Energy Transition\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/strait-of-hormuz-energy-transition-jet-fuel/<!\[CDATA\[Climate\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Alternative fuels like jet fuel can help address the energy price volatility that has resulted from the Iran war.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Amirhossein KHORGOOEI / ISNA / AFP—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Vessels are pictured anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on May 4.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt902c801bb17af0d4/6a6d004282cb374228005ba1/Iran_Strait_of_Hormuz_jet_fuel.jpg?branch=production)

Vessels are pictured anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on May 4\. —Amirhossein KHORGOOEI / ISNA / AFP—Getty Images

Every week brings more twists and turns to the [war in Iran ](https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/iran-america-hormuz-forever-war/)and the crisis that has kept the [Strait of Hormuz](https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/us-iran-conflict-oil-prices-strait-of-hormuz-trump-control/), a [key lane](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/iran-war-bab-el-mandeb-strait-trade-route-houthis-threat/) for fuel shipments, mostly closed. As the crisis has continued, [electrification](https://time.com/article/2026/06/17/solar-power-energy-independence/) and [non-fossil fuel power](https://time.com/article/2026/04/03/iran-war-energy-crisis-clean-tech-investment/) has received more and more attention. In the long run, electric vehicles can displace the oil that is refined into fuel for the internal combustion engine. And renewables can displace natural gas in the power sector. Largely missing from the public discussion is the opportunity to catalyze a broader shift to alternative fuels across sectors that can’t be electrified easily. 

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz hasn’t just stopped the flow of natural gas and crude oil but has also simultaneously made it more difficult to get refined products—everything from jet fuel to cooking fuel—to market. In theory, both the rapid price increases and the present [volatility](https://time.com/article/2026/04/17/strait-of-hormuz-oil-price-volatility/) should provide a strong incentive to invest in alternative fuels. The reality is more complicated. The same forces that make the case for alternative fuels also make it hard to invest right now.

There’s perhaps nobetter example to illustrate the challenge than jet fuel. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of jet fuel left the Strait of Hormuz every day before the crisis. In some places, including Europe, that supply had been central to keeping planes in the air. More than 40% of the continent’s jet fuel imports originated from the Persian Gulf last year, according to [data](https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/050826-europe-can-explore-us-jet-fuel-to-ease-supply-crunch-from-middle-east-war) from S&P Global. 

Alternatives are already on the market. [Sustainable Aviation Fuel](https://time.com/7001642/green-market-makers-climate/) (SAF), an umbrella term for a wide range of fuel sources including everything from recycled cooking fuel to plant-based fuels, is blended with jet fuel in many parts of the world, bringing down carbon emissions from flying. But in recent years SAF has been anywhere from 3 to 5 times more expensive than conventional jet fuel. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has closed some of that gap leaving SAF prices closer to 1.5 to 2 times as expensive.

But, with higher fuel prices eating into airline profits, companies are now poorly positioned to take advantage of the moment. To facilitate SAF production, airlines typically agree to long-term agreements to purchase the fuel. With high levels of geopolitical uncertainty, this is not the moment for executives to commit to a price premium without a regulatory mandate. SAF may sound nice, but it remains unaffordable. 

The refiners who make SAF, on the other hand, are enjoying record profit margins. But they, too, see too much uncertainty as prices fluctuate wildly. On earnings calls this summer they say they are more focused on improving operations and executing existing plans than investing in new projects. 

At a national level, the thinking should be different. SAF is more expensive, but a government can now clearly see the differential as an energy security premium as well as a sustainability advantage. It’s well worth paying to protect the country’s economy in the event of a Hormuz-like situation. 

The industry already sees this opportunity. Last year, a SAF executive corrected me when I used the word “sustainable.” It’s “synthetic aviation fuel.” Better optics, he said. 

Even still, response from governments around the world has thus far been uneven. This moment has strengthened policymakers’ resolve in the European Union, where an airline SAF mandate has faced pushback from industry since it was signed into law in 2023\. In the U.S., the SAF debate remains at a standstill. Last year, a tax incentive for SAF survived the gutting of the Inflation Reduction Act albeit at a reduced rate. Tax incentives may help move the market, but they’re not enough; governments can help coordinate the necessary infrastructure. 

Even amid the uncertainty, the clever businesses—whether that’s airlines, refiners, fuel transport companies, or commodity traders—will be the ones that figure out how to deploy alternative fuels while mitigating risk. 

SAF, of course, is just one example. Fuels represent nearly 80% of final energy consumption, and not everything can be electrified. “We have not had anything like the success in producing affordable, scalable, low-carbon fuels to displace oil,” says Ernie Moniz, a former U.S. Secretary of Energy who now runs the Energy Futures Initiative. “We need a lot of innovation on the fuel side.”

After decades of success innovating and deploying clean power alternatives, more work needs to be done on molecules. Today’s volatility is making the business case. 

_To get this story in your inbox, sign up to TIME's Future Proof newsletter_ [_here_](https://timefutureproof.beehiiv.com/subscribe). 

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltd63104522a998046Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:17:32 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Justin Worland\]\]><!\[CDATA\[See the Best Photos From the 2026 TIME100 Creators Party\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/time100-creators-2026-party-photos/<!\[CDATA\[Entertainment\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Take a look inside the cocktail party celebrating the annual list in New York City\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2642c435f76ec2e/6a6ca5b41081ab44279fb9f4/Web-Edit-Selects-01.jpg?branch=production)

The scene at the 2026 TIME100 Creators Gala was the algorithm’s dream. To celebrate TIME’s second annual list of [the most influential digital voices](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/) of the year, a throng of the most prominent Instagrammers, TikTokers, YouTubers, Twitch streamers, LinkedIn creators, and more converged IRL in New York City on July 30.

The high-energy room included creators from across categories and platforms, many of whom traveled from around the U.S. and abroad to be there. _Recess Therapy_ host [Julian Shapiro-Barnum](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/julian-shapiro-barnum/), science and technology journalist [Cleo Abram](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/cleo-abram/), comedy creators [Micky Gordon](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/micky-gordon/), [Kevin Fredericks](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/kevin-fredericks/), [Kat Stickler](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/kat-stickler/), [Madison Humphrey](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/madison-humphrey/), and [Eric Sedeño](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/eric-sedeno/), sports enthusiasts [Jackie Johnston](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/jackie-johnston/), [Katie Feeney](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/katie-feeney/), and [Morgan Riddle](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/morgan-riddle/), celebrity makeup artist [Katie Jane Hughes](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/katie-jane-hughes/), luxury-travel specialist [Olivia Ferney](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/olivia-ferney/), and more mixed and mingled. Guests chatted over passed sushi and cocktails, including the Algorithm, a honeydew-and-vodka refresher, and the hibiscus-infused Main Character Margarita.

“This year's honorees come from more than a dozen countries, reach audiences across every major platform, and are shaping everything from science, fashion, technology, sports, and entertainment,” TIME’s CEO Jessica Sibley said in her welcome remarks, stepping behind the DJ booth to address the crowd. “Together, you command a combined social following of more than 1 billion across the world’s leading digital platforms,” she continued. “You're driving the economy—building businesses, creating opportunities, and delivering real value for your audiences.”

Throughout the night, influencer and skin-care brand founder [Alix Earle](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/alix-earle/), who appears on the TIME100 Creators cover, posed for photos with guests. [Maura Higgins](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/maura-higgins/) and [Serena Page](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/serena-page/), both supernovas in the _Love Island_ cinematic universe and beyond, reunited with a big hug. Creator mental-health advocate [Shira Lazar](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/shira-lazar/) and psychiatrist turned creator [Judith Joseph](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/judith-joseph/) chatted in the bathroom line. And [Kane Parsons](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/kane-parsons/)—the 21-year-old YouTuber turned director of A24’s _Backrooms_, which this year became the studio’s highest-grossing feature to date—stopped by the red carpet for an interview conducted by 2025 listee [Cyrus Veyssi](https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299109/cyrus-veyssi/).

At one point in the evening, 10-year-old fashion designer [Max Alexander](https://time.com/collection/time100-creators/2026/max-alexander/)—the youngest creator on the 2026 list—declined the passed caviar bites and, with the help of a TIME editor, snuck back to the staff room to nab a much more enticing snack: a mini box of Frosted Flakes. 

See the best photos from the 2026 TIME100 Creators party here.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdf13c18985e44c1/6a6ca5b46f1c8a27eba8f2ba/Web-Edit-Selects-02.jpg?branch=production)

Alix Earle / @alixearle, Jessica Sibley / @jessicasibley, Lucy Blakiston @shityoushouldcareabout —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt462b446bf31345ea/6a6ca5b472ce239b9182ca9c/Web-Edit-Selects-03.jpg?branch=production)

Clark Coombs / @clarkcoombs, Wisdom Kaye / @wisdm —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0e60f5b2802541e/6a6ca5b40395d2300fb7f7ed/Web-Edit-Selects-04.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7437b87b2a017c3e/6a6ca5b472ce230b3882ca9a/Web-Edit-Selects-06.jpg?branch=production)

Micky Gordon / @mickycashflow, Katie Fang / @katiefang, Boman Martinez-Reid / @bomanizer —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc35be72650cecc87/6a6ca5b4cd8e7028d80d1034/Web-Edit-Selects-07.jpg?branch=production)

Alix Earle / @alixearle —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c004b736b7314d5/6a6ca5b565e47d05f3d8f248/Web-Edit-Selects-08.jpg?branch=production)

Eli Rallo / @eli.rallo, Lucy Blakiston @shityoushouldcareabout —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4f533010d1e6981/6a6ca5b5df73b54da8309bc8/Web-Edit-Selects-09.jpg?branch=production)

Olandria / @olandria, Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill / @a\_twink\_and\_a\_redhead —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29fb4696feeab30c/6a6ca5b5f59e1d432ceed5db/Web-Edit-Selects-17.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e96acf726c03238/6a6ca5b5df73b57733309bca/Web-Edit-Selects-10.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees and Julian Shapiro-Barnum / @julianmsb —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2430902de42bd8d/6a6ca5b5d0f6bb253b47ca4f/Web-Edit-Selects-12.jpg?branch=production)

Attendee at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63173bbd9b848524/6a6ca5b5b994345563a9c7a3/Web-Edit-Selects-13.jpg?branch=production)

Cyrus Veyssi / @cyrusveyssi —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9281786a5d32b2f4/6a6cb5960395d21473b7fa09/Web-Edit-Selects-23.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltceb0d07bba3bdd23/6a6ca5b5d0f6bbdc7b47ca53/Web-Edit-Selects-14.jpg?branch=production)

Reece Feldman / @guywithamoviecamera —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82687b4b256c44ab/6a6ca5b5df73b53a44309bce/Web-Edit-Selects-15.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a69d027be25fae2/6a6ca5b565e47d7366d8f24c/Web-Edit-Selects-16.jpg?branch=production)

Amanda Nguyễn / @amandangocnguyen —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25dd0d3ca2fdc826/6a6ca5b50395d25ff5b7f7f1/Web-Edit-Selects-11.jpg?branch=production)

Achieng Agutu / @noordinarynoire, Olandria / @olandria —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1183820cc183f8c2/6a6cb5960b3199482fc7b134/Web-Edit-Selects-24.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees and Taryn Delanie Smith / @taryndelaniesmith —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7752054d74f13323/6a6cb596f1b1ca50dc6780f3/Web-Edit-Selects-25.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc58f740523df8b8/6a6ca5b5218e6519a40a1f05/Web-Edit-Selects-18.jpg?branch=production)

Kat Stickler / @katstickler —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24af041b701cc463/6a6ca5b672ce230d0982caa0/Web-Edit-Selects-19.jpg?branch=production)

Brett Cooper / @imbrettcooper —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte676a41a2bbe1712/6a6ca5b60b31990280c7af66/Web-Edit-Selects-20.jpg?branch=production)

Serena Page / @serenaapagee, Maura Higgins / @maurahiggins —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta45444c35ff703b6/6a6ca5b5df73b50a0c309bd2/Web-Edit-Selects-21.jpg?branch=production)

Cleo Abram / @cleoabram —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta455adafbcb34884/6a6cb596d0f6bb520f47cc49/Web-Edit-Selects-26.jpg?branch=production)

Jackie Aina / @jackieaina —Michaella Jelin for TIME

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d7252a9cb8c0c50/6a6ca5b6d0f6bb06cf47ca57/Web-Edit-Selects-22.jpg?branch=production)

Attendees at the TIME 100 Creators Event in Brooklyn, New York on July 30, 2026\. —Michaella Jelin for TIME

_The TIME100 Creators Party was presented by Ally, Waymo, Target, Whalar Group, and The Lighthouse._

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt3df940e7d3b5a266Fri, 31 Jul 2026 18:26:19 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Avery Stone\]\]><!\[CDATA\[State Department Releases 250,000 More Passports Featuring Trump’s Face\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/state-department-releases-250-000-more-passports-featuring-trump-s-face/<!\[CDATA\[Politics\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The agency said it was expanding access to the limited-edition travel documents because of “overwhelming demand.”\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Al Drago—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[A limited edition U.S. Passport featuring U.S. President Donald Trump, on display at the State Department exhibit on the final day of the Great American State Fair on July 10, 2026 in Washington, D.C.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta47c9cf5491182c0/6a6cce2a72ce23298782cf6e/Trump-Passport-Expansion.jpg?branch=production)

A limited edition U.S. Passport featuring U.S. President Donald Trump, on display at the State Department exhibit on the final day of the Great American State Fair on July 10, 2026 in Washington, D.C. —Al Drago—Getty Images

The Department of State is rolling out an additional 250,000 of the “special commemorative passports” featuring President Donald Trump’s face.

The agency [announced](https://www.state.gov/releases/%E2%80%A6/celebrating-americas-250th-state-department-launches-commemorative-passports-nationwide) on Thursday that it was expanding access to what it calls the “Patriot Passport” because of “overwhelming demand.” 

The special passport design was initially [unveiled](https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/new-passport-design-featuring-trump-s-face-unveiled-by-state-department/) in April, when the State Department said it would “release a limited number” of the travel documents to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. The design includes an image of the President alongside the text of the Declaration of Independence, as well as a Freedom 250 gold flag and a depiction of the Founding Fathers gathering to sign the Declaration of Independence.

“Since its release in celebration of 250 years of American independence, the commemorative passport has generated extraordinary public interest,” the State Department said in its press release. “The Department of State is responding by expanding access so Americans across the country can obtain this unique and special document. The Department is hosting application events at passport agencies and centers for patriots all across our nation.”

**Read More:** [_All the Things Trump Has Put His Name and Face on as President_](https://time.com/article/2026/03/27/trump-name-face-signature-currency-government-buildings-programs/)

Several Democrats [criticized](https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/2083036021273608272) the Trump Administration for expanding access to the new passports rather than focusing on other issues, such as affordability.

“Most of my constituents are asking how they’re going to afford rent, groceries, childcare, and health care,” Rep. April McClain Delaney, a Democrat from Maryland, said in a [social media post](https://x.com/RepAprilDelaney/status/2083010312072990836) on Thursday. “They are NOT focused on a Trump-branded commemorative passport for overseas travel. I’ll keep fighting for a more affordable America and for working families.”

American citizens interested in obtaining the limited-edition passport must make an in-person appointment to apply for it. Initially, the State Department was only offering appointments at the Washington Passport Agency; but, [starting](https://x.com/StateDept/status/2082897486696333784) Aug. 8, the department is expanding access so that Americans can [make appointments](https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/help/security-design/passport-250.html) at passport agencies or centers nationwide. 

Trump is the first living President to be displayed on the American passport. The travel document is one of a number of government items, buildings, and programs that Trump has attached—or tried to attach—his name and face to since he took office for a second term. 

Earlier this month, the Palm Beach International Airport was [officially renamed](https://time.com/article/2026/07/09/florida-airport-officially-renamed-after-trump-here-s-what-to-know/) to the President Donald J. Trump International Airport. While several airports in the U.S. have been named after American Presidents—for instance, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City—the Palm Beach airport marks the first time that a President has had an airport named after him while sitting in the Oval Office.

Trump also displayed his name on the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.—but last month, six months after it was affixed to the building, it was [removed](https://time.com/article/2026/06/09/trump-name-removed-kennedy-center-building/), per a federal judge’s order to restore the cultural center’s original name.

Democrats have overwhelmingly denounced the President’s efforts to affix his name and likeness onto government buildings, programs, and items. Several lawmakers signed an [open letter](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtYvAFj8Jc/?img%5Findex=1) to Trump in February objecting to his plans to shutter the Kennedy Center for two years while it underwent renovations.

“The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to President Kennedy,” Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat from Texas, said in a [social media post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtYvAFj8Jc/?img%5Findex=2), in which she shared the open letter in February. “President Trump’s announcement that it will also bear his name (in violation of the law establishing it) and that it will be closed for two years (for unidentified repairs) show the narcissism and lawlessness that define this Presidency.”

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltd3dcf1b20cb7551bFri, 31 Jul 2026 16:49:06 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Chantelle Lee\]\]><!\[CDATA\[3 Republicans Break Ranks in Attempt to Limit Trump's Iran War Powers\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/republicans-break-ranks-attempt-to-limit-trump-iran-war-powers/<!\[CDATA\[Politics\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The largely symbolic vote reflects the high tensions as the Iran war enters its sixth month.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Tierney L. Cross—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Senators Lisa Murkowski, Ted Budd, and Jerry Moran gather for a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb31ad96ba9dc475d/6a6cbc8b0b31999fa8c7b200/GettyImages-2286465956.jpg?branch=production)

Senators Lisa Murkowski, Ted Budd, and Jerry Moran gather for a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 2026\. —Tierney L. Cross—Getty Images

The U.S. Senate narrowly rejected a largely symbolic effort to limit Trump's [Iran war powers](https://time.com/article/2026/07/23/war-powers-resolution-iran-trump-senate-house-republicans/), marking the second time in two weeks that such a measure has failed to advance in the upper chamber.

The [49-50 vote](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll%5Fcall%5Fvotes/vote1192/vote%5F119%5F2%5F00216.htm) on Thursday was mostly along party lines, but with some notable exceptions. As he has done previously, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with GOP lawmakers to sink the measure, while three Republican Senators broke ranks in an effort to curb the Trump Administration’s renewed [military campaign](https://time.com/article/2026/07/21/iran-war-injury-toll-us-service-members-pentagon-trump/).

Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine voted in favor of the war powers resolution, as they have done before, on account of concerns over the lack of congressional oversight relating to the conflict which has now [entered its sixth month](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/us/politics/iran-war-timeline.html).

Just last week, Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill that he believes the Iran war has left the U.S. “worse off” than before, citing the continued disruption of a vital trade passage.

“If you look at the militarization of the [Strait of Hormuz](https://time.com/article/2026/07/13/us-iran-conflict-oil-prices-strait-of-hormuz-trump-control/)… there’s not an easy way to un-militarize the Strait. From that point of view, I think we’re in worse shape,” he [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y-Z8DjrdAk&t=23s).

Paul has long been a vocal critic of the U.S. military operation. In March, he stood alone as the only [Republican](https://time.com/article/2026/03/25/republican-rand-paul-voted-against-iran-war-powers-resolution/) to vote in support of a previous attempt to rein in Trump’s ability to use military force against Iran without congressional approval.

Murkowski changed her own position some months later in May, when she [vowed](https://x.com/lisamurkowski/status/2054671878099173757) to “support measures to officially end hostilities and bring our men and women home” moving forward.

Collins had opposed an earlier effort to pass a resolution of this kind, [arguing](https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/03/04/2026/senator-collins-statement-on-iran-war-powers-resolution) it would “send the wrong message to Iran and to our troops.” But she has since [changed](https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-statement-on-her-vote-to-end-hostilities-in-iran-ahead-of-60-day-deadline) her position, insisting "the President’s authority as Commander-in-Chief is not without limits."

**Read More:** [_Nearly 100 U.S. Troops Injured in Two Weeks Since Iran War Resumed, Says Pentagon_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/21/iran-war-injury-toll-us-service-members-pentagon-trump/)

Democrats, meanwhile, are continuing to bring forward war powers resolution votes in an effort to showcase, and have a record of, their ardent opposition to Trump carrying out the Iran war.

Last week, the House extended a symbolic rebuke to Trump by approving a resolution to curb the war with a [214 to 208 vote](https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026282). In June, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed War Powers Act resolutions aimed to restrict the President from continuing the war.

Trump referred to those votes as “meaningless” and has declined to abide by the resolutions.

“These Senators have just made my job more difficult, but I will get it done, one way or the other, because I always get it done,” he [vowed](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116802765132974094) in late June.

**Read More**: [_'This Must End': Lawmakers Demand Termination of Iran War After Three U.S. Service Members Killed_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/iran-war-us-service-members-killed-trump-democrat-lawmakers-response/)

Outside of Congress, public sentiment in America is also showing unease over the conflict and its financial ramifications.

A nationwide [AP-NORC poll,](https://apnorc.org/projects/most-say-the-war-with-iran-is-not-worth-fighting/) conducted between July 23 and July 27, found that 64% of Americans believe the war with Iran has not been worth fighting.

In an earlier poll from [Reuters/Ipsos](https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/few-expect-us-iran-preliminary-agreement-bring-lasting-peace), which surveyed 1,262 American adults across the country over June 18 to 22, just 24% of Americans thought that the war with Iran was worth the costs.

On July 21, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was grilled by the Senate Appropriations Committee [over the $37.5 billion cost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIhyRvUluSs) of the Iran war. 

The death of [18 American](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/us-service-members-killed-wounded-iran-war-casualties/) service members during the conflict has also prompted strong reactions, with lawmakers [demanding an immediate end ](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/iran-war-us-service-members-killed-trump-democrat-lawmakers-response/)to the hostilities. 

These simmering issues pose a threat to the Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt897333e4621c7d68Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:26:13 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Tiago Ventura\]\]><!\[CDATA\[What Jean Grey's Debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day Means for the Future of the X-Men in the MCU\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/spider-man-brand-new-day-jean-grey-x-men/<!\[CDATA\[Entertainment\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Sadie Sink made her debut as the telepath in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which teases a future X-Men movie\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Sony\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1984f18685bfc1a4/6a6a2319a3531f31f2bd79b9/Screenshot_2026-07-28_at_1.49.00_PM.png?branch=production)

Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day —Sony

**_Warning: Spoilers ahead for_** **Spider-Man: Brand New Day**

The [Dark Phoenix](https://time.com/5600674/dark-phoenix-ending-explained/) will rise again. Probably. Eventually. 

A new version of Jean Grey made her debut in [_Spider-Man: Brand New Day_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/28/spider-man-brand-new-day-review/). _Stranger Things’_ [Sadie Sink](https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6213732/sadie-sink/) follows in the footsteps of Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner as the redheaded telepath who is arguably the most powerful mutant in the Marvel comics. But the Jean that Peter Parker ([Tom Holland](https://time.com/4837442/spider-man-tom-holland-peter-parker/)) meets is just a lonely teenager who can’t fully control her powers. She presumably won’t learn how until she meets Professor Charles Xavier and the other mutants at his school. Those X-Men are coming to the [Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://time.com/7004392/marvel-cinematic-universe-future-movies-what-to-know/) with a new cast in the iconic roles. It’s just going to take a few more years.

Disney acquired 21st Century Fox way back in 2019, and Marvel fans have been waiting ever since for Magneto, Storm, and Cyclops fighting alongside the Avengers. There have been hints of what is to come: [Ms. Marvel](https://time.com/6197488/ms-marvel-ending-mutation-bisha-ali/) carries the X-gene, the fabled marker of a mutant. And the [_Deadpool & Wolverine_ movie](https://time.com/6999600/deadpool-wolverine-mcu-movie-together/) was the first X-Men movie set inside the MCU. But Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has long promised something more deliberate, a dedicated series of X-Men movies and a “reset” of the stories that came before.

Jean appears to be the first character in that reset, which is confusing because the old versions of various X-Men characters are still here. Ian McKellen's Magneto, Patrick Stewart's Professor X, and James Marsden's Cyclops all [turn up in _Avengers: Doomsday_](https://time.com/7271926/avengers-doomsday-cast-x-men-mcu/) later this year. Whether they survive it is another question, and the odds don't look good. Here's what Jean's introduction tells us about how Marvel plans to get from one set of X-Men to the other.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8140e1c7f16d7ac4/6a6a2341aad9557f7a8463e7/GettyImages-2287305291.jpg?branch=production)

Sadie Sink at the premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day —Gilbert Flores—Variety via Getty Images

## How is Jean Grey introduced in _Spider-Man: Brand New Day_?

Jean is the misunderstood villain of the [latest Spider-Man movie](https://time.com/5472316/new-spider-man-movies/). She uses mind control to break into the Department of Damage Control, the government body originally created to clear the rubble after the fight in the first Avengers movie and since expanded into something closer to SHIELD, charged with safeguarding the public. Its head, Bill Metzger ([Tramell Tillman](https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318892/tramell-tillman/)), has a private agenda: he wants to contain superpowered beings and take their abilities. He kidnaps Jean's sister Sarah, also a telepath, and performs experiments on her. Jean tries to save her, but arrives too late.

The movie draws a parallel between Jean Grey and Peter Parker. Both are isolated. Both see their powers evolve. (We even get hints of the destructive emotions in Jean that could eventually manifest in her alter-ego Dark Phoenix.) Peter talks Jean out of killing Metzger and encourages her to find friends who can embrace her for who she is rather than shame her for being different. At the end of the movie, she boards a bus out of New York. Somewhere ahead of her is the found family at Professor X’s school.

For now, Jean is the only future X-Man we know of in Peter's timeline. That distinction matters, because the [MCU has spent years establishing](https://time.com/5576491/avengers-endgame-marvel-cinematic-universe-future/) that variants of the same hero exist across parallel timelines. Bruce Banner and the Ancient One lay out the branching rules in _Avengers: Endgame_. _Loki_ built an entire series around the TVA, the bureaucracy tasked with policing different timeline branches. And in _Deadpool & Wolverine_, Deadpool shops across timelines for a Wolverine variant willing to help him save his universe. The Jean Grey played by Janssen, along with Cyclops (Marsden), Magneto (McKellen), and Storm (Halle Berry), live in one of those other timelines.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd536e66953ca6cf9/6a68f5dad15efc423088bfa5/spidey_close-up.jpg?branch=production)

Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Brand New Day —Sony Pictures

## How do the events of _Spider-Man:_ _Brand New Day_ set up an X-Men film?

In _Brand New Day_, Peter’s actions may set in motion a major conflict between mutants and the government. Peter begins to develop new abilities thanks to a spike in arachnid hormones. At first, he can’t control his new powers; they make him stronger but also more angry. In an effort to return to “normal,” Peter visits Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Hulk, who has invented a gamma radiation inhibitor to prevent himself from turning into “the big green guy.” Peter suggests that he could adapt the technology to target specific genes, preserving his “good” powers while suppressing the “bad” ones. Banner warns that judging which evolutionary traits are good or bad is an ethical slippery slope.

Nonetheless, Peter builds both an inhibitor calibrated to target his own evolved powers and a universal one, which he uses to defeat Jean Grey. By the end of the film, the Department of Damage Control has its hands on the universal inhibitor. It’s probably not the last we see of it.

A device that can suppress superhuman abilities will likely play a major role in future [X-Men films](https://time.com/5602405/every-x-men-movie-ranked/). Mutants, and Magneto in particular, are frequently in conflict with the government over the attempt to eliminate or “normalize” them. While Professor X advocates for finding a way to live harmoniously beside humans, Magneto frequently takes the stance that humans will inevitably target mutants because of their differences. With the inhibitor, Peter may have accidentally seeded a future conflict between whoever this universe’s Magneto turns out to be and Bill Metzger, should Metzger attempt to use this technology to continue to capture, control, experiment on, and eliminate mutants as he does to Sarah.

Already some early fans [are comparing](https://x.com/juaneditzs/status/2082691035256242293?s=46&t=XqnH6S-pNndnNSOo9eB%5FYw) Peter’s invention of this universal inhibitor to J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s _Oppenheimer_: The physicist built the atomic bomb and then came to regret it, spending years advocating against nuclear proliferation. By the end of _Brand New Day_, Peter has accepted his own evolution and come to realize the government had specifically designed weapons to contain him. Once Peter understands how the universal inhibitor could be weaponized against people with special abilities, he surely will side with the mutants against its use.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt006c2ad0f4b63c28/6a6a219b0782375e1d4de5e7/cylcops-doomsday.png?branch=production)

James Marsden as Cyclops in Avengers: Doomsday —Marvel Studios

## **How are the Fox X-Men in** **_Avengers: Doomsday_** **if they are from a different timeline?**

Trailers and casting announcements have confirmed a substantial Fox contingent in _Doomsday_: Stewart as Professor X, McKellen as Magneto, Marsden as Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, and Channing Tatum as Gambit, who never appeared in the Fox movies but did make his debut in _Deadpool & Wolverine_.

It’s unclear which timelines these X-Men hail from. Stewart’s Professor X has already died three different times: vaporized by Jean Grey in [_X-Men: The Last Stand_](https://time.com/5601749/dark-phoenix-x-men-the-last-stand-comparison/), stabbed through the chest by X-24 in _Logan_, and neck-snapped by Wanda Maximoff in [_Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness_](https://time.com/6172935/doctor-strange-multiverse-madness-review/). Whatever version shows up in _Doomsday_, it's presumably a variant we haven't met.

The _Doomsday_ trailers suggest that Marvel is employing a specific mechanism that gets all the superheroes in the same room: an incursion, a catastrophic event where the two separate universes collide and destroy one another. In a recent trailer, Professor X seems to witness an incursion. Fans are speculating that various superheroes travel across timelines to join forces and stop both the incursions. In fact, the Fantastic Four have already made that journey: At the [end of _Thunderbolts\*_](https://time.com/7281053/thunderbolts-team-members-what-to-know/), Yelena (Florence Pugh) spots the Fantastic Four's ship entering her universe. If the Fantastic Four can reach the Avengers' timeline, the Avengers can presumably reach the X-Men timeline.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a6a721e92779c3c/698a595186f68e66ea6f5671/robert-downey-jr-comi-con-2024-marvel-doom.jpg?branch=production)

Robert Downey Jr. debuts as Doctor Doom as the Marvel Studios Panel at 2024 San Diego Comic-Con —Matt Winkelmeyer—Getty Images

## What role will the X-Men play in _Avengers: Doomsday_ and _Avengers: Secret Wars_?

Feige [said](https://ew.com/x-men-avengers-secret-wars-launches-new-age-of-mutants-8748745) at a fan event that _Secret Wars_ will launch “a new age of mutants” in the MCU. That tracks with the comics storyline from which the movie takes its name. In the comics, every parallel timeline is destroyed. A great many heroes and villains die. Many survivors forget their past lives and live on the single remaining planet, Battleworld, ruled by Doctor Doom. That story let Marvel writers clear the board, cut the characters who weren't working, keep the ones who were, and introduce new ones.

On screen, _Secret Wars_ is a tidy way to justify a new cast and a rebooted storyline. How Jean Grey fits into this plan is unclear. She could survive the incursions and wind up on Battleworld, possibly alongside Peter Parker, who winds up in space in a _Brand New Day_ post-credits. Or perhaps she will become an early recruit to the X-Men team after the events of _Secret Wars_.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c454d1f8b9a977b/698a593ecabb1d0558e545ee/TDW-12353_R.jpg?branch=production)

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine —Marvel Studios

## When will there be a new X-Men movie?

A new X-Men movie is in the works, though fans won’t see it until after 2027’s _Secret Wars_. _Thunderbolts\*_ director Jake Schreier is helming with a script by Lee Sung Jin ([_Beef_](https://time.com/article/2026/04/15/beef-season-2-review/)) and Joanna Calo ([_The Bear_](https://time.com/article/2026/06/18/bear-season-5-review/)).

At the San Diego Comic-Con in 2026, Feige told fans, "I can't wait for all of you to see _Avengers: Doomsday_. We have a movie after that called _Avengers: Secret Wars_, and then after that the mutants are coming, and the X-Men are coming. That's been a dream of mine." He has since said the cast will be young, as the characters are in the comics.

A lot is riding on the Marvel Studios’ execution of the X-Men saga. Fans have expressed frustration at how convoluted the [Marvel multiverse](https://time.com/6169255/cinematic-multiverse-list/) has become and how newer additions to the MCU haven’t reached the emotional highs of _Iron Man_ or _Captain America_. Refocusing on the X-Men could open up new stories and offer a more streamlined Marvel storytelling experience going forward.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt92854cf9a4f74867Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:10:28 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Eliana Dockterman\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Why Russia Is Choking Ukraine’s Black Sea Ports\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/russia-attack-odesa-ukraine-black-sea-ports/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Russia is attacking Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to choke its economy and boost Moscow’s leverage by inflicting pain on major grain importers in Africa and Asia.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Kostiantyn Liberov-Libkos-Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Smoke rises near a beach following a Russian missile strike on July 29, 2026 in Odesa, Ukraine.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0409a0ed94a457c8/6a6c8a12a9b85f803031799f/GettyImages-2287489594.jpg?branch=production)

Smoke rises near a beach following a Russian missile strike on July 29, 2026 in Odesa, Ukraine. —Kostiantyn Liberov-Libkos-Getty Images

It has been a summer of good news for Ukraine. 

Its drone strikes deep inside Russia have created gasoline shortages, strained Russia’s economy, stoked anxiety among ordinary Russians, and created headaches for Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian forces have effectively isolated occupied Crimea from the Russian mainland, and they continue to strike Russian vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. 

But Russia has scored some points of its own recently, and not just by terrorizing Ukrainian civilians with long-range missiles. A newly intense campaign against [Ukraine’s Black Sea](https://time.com/7310503/putin-quest-black-sea/) ports is exposing a shortage of [air-defense interceptors](https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/ukraine-is-running-so-low-on-interceptor-missiles-that-crews-flipped-its-best-air-defenses-to-manual-mode-a-former-sbu-officer-says/), disrupting grain exports, undermining export revenue, and halting arms deliveries to Ukrainian forces. Agricultural products account for 60% of the country’s goods exports, and Russia’s attacks come just as Ukraine’s farmers prepare for the harvest season. 

If the disruption lasts, Russia could choke off a crucial source of foreign currency for Ukraine and boost Russia’s international negotiating leverage by inflicting pain on major grain importers in Africa and Asia. 

Kyiv is playing down the damage. After a two-week Russian [drone and missile](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/15/russian-attack-on-odesa-kills-three-as-ukraine-targets-vessels-in-black-sea) barrage on [Odesa](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-attack-corn-ship-off-ukraines-odesa-kills-10-2026-07-20/) and other coastal cities, Ukraine’s agriculture minister claimed in July that ports were open and operational. But roughly 90% of shipowners have [suspended port calls](https://www.reuters.com/world/shipowners-halt-vessel-calls-farm-exports-ukraines-black-sea-ports-minister-says-2026-07-23/) because, as in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, insurance premiums have soared as the risk of further attacks remains.

This is not the first shutdown of Black Sea traffic since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Waves of Russian attacks on ports in late 2025 and early 2026 did not slow operations for long. But this latest barrage is both broader and more intense, largely because Ukraine’s recent successes, particularly inside Russia, have provoked Putin to try to reclaim battlefield momentum. For now, both Ukraine and Russia remain committed to aggressive military strategies. 

Ukraine’s immediate problem is that it relies on its limited supply of American-supplied Patriot interceptors—the only reliable defense against Russian missiles—to protect its cities and military supply lines. Shifting the Patriots to protect ports would be both expensive and dangerous. Knowing this, Russia will continue its port attacks with both missiles and swarms of drones, offering insurers no reason to lower premiums and shipowners no incentive to return.

Beyond cutting into Ukraine’s revenue and its ability to finance the war, Moscow also hopes to weaken international backing for Kyiv by driving up global food prices. Ukraine supplies a quarter of [Egypt’s wheat imports](https://en.usm.media/egypt-has-sharply-increased-imports-of-ukrainian-wheat-almost-2-million-tons-since-the-beginning-of-the-season/) and [about 18%](https://ukragroconsult.com/en/news/indonesia-to-increase-wheat-consumption-and-imports/) of Indonesia’s. It is also the European Union’s [largest corn supplier](https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/agriculture/020426-logistical-constraints-shift-eu-corn-import-dynamics-ukraine-loses-share), provides [92%](https://en.usm.media/ukraine-supplied-about-92-of-sunflower-oil-imports-to-the-eu/) of its sunflower oil imports, and remains an important source of feed grains and vegetable oils. 

Putin is betting that higher food prices, at a time when the American war with Iran is already driving up the cost of oil and much else, will persuade Ukraine’s trade partners, particularly in Europe, to press Kyiv to de-escalate its attacks inside Russia. That strategy is unlikely to work. 

European support for Ukraine remains strong, and governments suffering from higher prices are more likely to blame Moscow than Kyiv. But Putin is now so anxious for battlefield wins that he will stay the course even without a clear-cut victory. Nor should we expect a revival of [the agreement](https://www.un.org/fr/node/211659#:~:text=The%20Black%20Sea%20Grain%20Initiative%20%28BSGI%29%2C%20also%20known%20as,beacon%20of%20hope%20in%20a) brokered by the United Nations in July 2022 that restored safe maritime traffic to and from Ukrainian ports.   

Just as the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz has sent neighboring countries scrambling for new ways to move oil out of the Persian Gulf, Ukraine may be able to move grain through the Danube, via Romanian ports, and by rail, as it did in the war’s early days. But as before, diversions are costly and logistically complicated. 

For all these reasons, the shape of Russia’s war on Ukraine will continue to shift as each side searches for new ways to break the battlefield stalemate in its favor. And the economic damage, felt well beyond Ukraine and Russia, will continue.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt9dca0b12e84628c9Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Ian Bremmer\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Why Thousands of Moroccan Migrants Crossed Into the Spanish Exclave Ceuta\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/ceuta-spain-morocco-africa-explainer/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Footage and images show scores of people, many of whom appear to be young men, bypassing the Tarajal border fence between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Marcos Moreno—Europa Press/Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Dozens of migrants celebrate having crossed the border between Ceuta and Morocco in Ceuta, Spain, on July 31, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt718f4acd92d43468/6a6c844b23ef3a64eedd9f4b/ceuta-spain.jpg?branch=production)

Dozens of migrants celebrate having crossed the border between Ceuta and Morocco in Ceuta, Spain, on July 31, 2026\. —Marcos Moreno—Europa Press/Getty Images

A Spanish territory in northern Africa was left experiencing a humanitarian crisis on Friday after thousands of migrants swam across the border from Morocco, with at least [67 dying ](https://efe.com/espana/2026-08-01/cadaveres-recuperados-entrada-masiva-ceuta/)in the chaos.

Ceuta has long been considered a gateway for migrants seeking better lives in Europe, and the city has progressively fortified its border in response to perennial illegal border crossings.

Yet Spain's Interior Ministry on Friday said close to 50,000 migrants had rushed into Ceuta since Thursday morning. In an update shared later in the day, the [ministry said ](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ceuta-border-crisis-live-more-than-49000-migrants-cross-into-spanish-enclave-2026-07-31/?arena%5Fmid=7QHZdd5wxbWN7Cr9w0qR)more than 48,300 migrants had already returned to Morocco.

The Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, [said at an embassy event](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/07/30/la-embajadora-de-marruecos-en-espana-asegura-la-situacion-en-ceuta-no-es-algo-que-complazca-al-pais-africano-cadena-ser/) that the situation in Ceuta was “not wanted by the Kingdom of Morocco,” adding that it would “prefer legal, orderly, and safe immigration for everyone.”

Centers that receive migrants [had been overwhelmed](https://elpais.com/espana/2026-07-30/otra-manana-de-centenares-de-entradas-de-inmigrantes-a-ceuta-pone-en-jaque-a-la-ciudad-autonoma.html) after the surge, while parks and streets were crowded with people from across the border.

Footage and images showed scores of people, many of whom appeared to be young men, bypassing the Tarajal border fence between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.

Juan Jesús Vivas, Ceuta’s President, [called](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/07/30/el-presidente-de-ceuta-ante-la-crisis-migratoria-es-una-situacion-de-absoluta-emergencia-humanitaria-y-social-cadena-ser/) the crisis “a situation of absolute humanitarian and social emergency."

Spain called in its military to assist law enforcement in Ceuta, [Agencia EFE reported](https://efe.com/espana/2026-07-30/fuerzas-armadas-refuerzo-guardia-civil-ceuta/).

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in [a social media post](https://x.com/sanchezcastejon/status/2082820481720156659), vowed his government is working with Moroccan and international authorities “to restore normalcy as soon as possible."

## What is Ceuta?

The city of Ceuta, a peninsular region covering 19.9 sq. km (7.7 sq. mi) on Africa’s northern coast, is one of two Spanish exclaves on the continent, along with Melilla, which is about 220 km (140 mi) southeast.

The two Spanish autonomous cities represent the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. Spain has possessed Ceuta, which is separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar, since 1580.

Ceuta has a population of [more than 83,000](https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=67988), a mix of Christians and Muslims, including residents and day workers from Morocco and Spain. Ceuta’s population has generally lived harmoniously.

But Morocco, which largely surrounds the two exclaves, still treats them as occupied lands and challenges Spain’s sovereignty, citing history dating back to the Islamic conquests during the 8th century.

Over the years, Rabat, the political seat of the African nation, has triggered diplomatic incidents as part of the dispute. In 2002, Morocco and Spain had a standoff after both [sent forces to a small uninhabited island off Ceuta](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/morocco-spain-squabble-over-island/). And in May 2021, amid a deepening diplomatic spat over the disputed Western Sahara region, the Moroccan government [loosened its border controls](https://apnews.com/article/spain-europe-africa-morocco-migration-9833744a7058cc9438a8d7417d2944c6), resulting in nearly 8,000 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan countries pouring into Ceuta in just two days. Some of the migrants eventually returned, but the diplomatic rupture was only repaired when Spain backed [Morocco’s autonomy plan](https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/presidente/actividades/Documents/2022/070422-declaracion-conjunta-Espana-Marruecos.pdf) for Western Sahara in 2022\. 

## What are authorities saying about the spike in migrant crossings?

Thursday’s events did not begin without warning. Vivas, speaking to Cadena SER, said arrivals from across Morocco have overwhelmed the city’s social services and security apparatuses over the past few days, with more than 300 people per day.

“To give you an idea of ​​the scale, for the rest of Spain, this is equivalent to 2% of Ceuta’s entire population. It’s like a million people entering Spain irregularly,” Vivas told the broadcaster.

The crisis in Ceuta bucks the trend for the rest of Spain, where irregular arrivals fell from 17,990 in the first six months of 2025 to 12,138 in the same period in 2026, according to [Interior Ministry statistics](https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/export/sites/default/.galleries/galeria-de-prensa/documentos-y-multimedia/balances-e-informes/2026/12%5Finforme%5Fquincenal%5Facumulado%5F01-01%5Fal%5F30-06-2026.pdf#page=10). For Ceuta, there were [2,582 land arrivals](https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/export/sites/default/.galleries/galeria-de-prensa/documentos-y-multimedia/balances-e-informes/2026/12%5Finforme%5Fquincenal%5Facumulado%5F01-01%5Fal%5F30-06-2026.pdf#page=10), compared with 978 during the same period of 2025—an increase of 164%.

Spain’s Interior Ministry argued an earlier court ruling is behind the latest influx, [stating](https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/es/detalle/articulo/Comunicado-sobre-la-situacion-en-la-ciudad-autonoma-de-Ceuta/) it “believes that human trafficking networks are exploiting a court ruling to encourage the flow of undocumented migrants, mostly young people.” 

A [June 29 ruling](https://www.poderjudicial.es/cgpj/es/Poder-Judicial/Tribunal-Supremo/Oficina-de-Comunicacion/Notas-de-prensa/El-Tribunal-Supremo-confirma-que-la-ley-no-permite-las--devoluciones-en-caliente--de-los-migrantes-que-pretenden-entrar-a-nado-en-Ceuta-y-Melilla) by the Spanish Supreme Court stopped authorities from summarily returning migrants who arrive in Ceuta and Melilla by sea, at least not without due process. While it did not legalize irregular entry or guarantee that those swimmers could remain in Spain, [Spanish broadcaster RTVE](https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20260730/cientos-personas-cruzan-frontera-ceuta-crisis-migratoria/17174321.shtml) reported on Thursday that the ruling spread on Moroccan social media, reportedly prompting people to try to enter Spain by swimming to Ceuta.

## What has the response been?

The crisis in Ceuta has garnered worldwide attention, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying the incident looks like an “invasion.”

“I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country... that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected \[again\], except worse,” he [claimed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6vuYip9SWo&t=710s) during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday.

Closer to home, Spain’s right wing figures targeted Sánchez’s leftist, pro-migrant government when discussing the matter. 

Sánchez has [planned to give 500,000 undocumented migrants](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/04/this-is-europe-spain-pedro-sanchez-migrants-regularise) in Spain a path to legal status. More than a million have [applied](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/30/million-migrants-spain-apply-regularise-status-new-scheme) to that program.

“Pedro Sánchez, with his mass regularization, has provoked an invasion of our border, which is being experienced first and foremost by the Spaniards of Ceuta,” said [Santiago Abascal](https://x.com/Santi%5FABASCAL/status/2082824527063494993), who leads the far-right party Vox. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative Popular Party, [said in a video on X](https://x.com/NunezFeijoo/status/2082814659095052541) that Sánchez’s government “refuses to acknowledge that we are facing a serious national security problem.”

Italy announced it had "decided to temporarily suspend the free movement regime provided for by Schengen in maritime and air connections with Spain, reintroducing border controls."

"This is an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation," [said](https://x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/2083245126122422697) Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. "The measure will be kept in force only for the time necessary, with particular attention to limiting any impact on summer tourist flows."

The Schengen Area allows passport-free travel across 29 European countries, but member states can temporarily reintroduce border controls ​for security or public-order purposes.

French Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez [gave](https://x.com/NunezLaurent/status/2083089439711023136) instructions "to immediately strengthen the controls at the Spanish border" upon learning of the sudden influx of people.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen insisted the “images coming from Ceuta are unacceptable.”

“We cannot allow anyone to come to our Union without abiding by our rules," she [said](https://x.com/vonderleyen/status/2083142872870588460). "Dangerous crossings must stop immediately. Smuggling networks must be dismantled. And returns must be swift, as our rules allow."

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltd3c73ad5dfee21abFri, 31 Jul 2026 11:47:37 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Chad de Guzman, Tiago Ventura and Olivia-Anne Cleary\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Breaking Down the Bloody Finale of Cape Fear\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/cape-fear-finale-explained/<!\[CDATA\[Entertainment\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Javier Bardem, Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, and showrunner Nick Antosca break down the final act of the Apple TV adaptation.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Courtesy of Apple\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Javier Bardem in the series finale of Cape Fear\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae2df9769590f80e/6a6ba30764655132753cfc16/Cape_Fear_Photo_011005.jpg?branch=production)

Javier Bardem in the series finale of Cape Fear —Courtesy of Apple

_Warning: This post contains spoilers for the_ Cape Fear _finale._

Dusk is easing into dark on the Cape Fear River when Max Cady ([Javier Bardem](https://time.com/5537013/javier-bardem-oscars/)) steps out of his car near Bluff’s Point. Aboard the houseboat ahead, his half-sister Crystal Cady ([Juliette Lewis](https://time.com/6233792/welcome-to-chippendales-review/)) sees him coming, and dread crosses her face before she can even speak. Their father, Robert “Bob” Cady (Ron Perlman), and a young man named Luke (Max Mattern) are still arguing inside when Crystal warns them that Max has arrived. Max knocks on the door, a strange formality for a man about to burn the boat down to the waterline.

This scene arrives at the climax of Nick Antosca’s [_Cape Fear_](https://time.com/article/2026/06/02/cape-fear-apple-review-javier-bardem/)adaptation, which sees Max walking free after 17 years in prison for allegedly murdering his wife Melissa. Newly exonerated, he's treated in some corners as a folk hero. What Max actually wants is for Anna Bowden ([Amy Adams](https://time.com/5317556/amy-adams-equal-pay-me-too/)), the public defender who represented him at that original trial, to answer for choices that shaped his fate more than she ever admitted. Across the 10-episode season, Max stalked the Bowden family—Anna's husband, Tom (Patrick Wilson), and their teenagers, Zack (Joe Anders) and Natalie (Lily Collias)—and shattered their trust in one another, all while demanding to be seen as a man wronged by the world. But every step toward revenge transformed him into the very threat he insists he is not. The finale’s real tragedy is that Max, in his own warped pursuit of justice, destroys everyone around him before being forced to see his entire crusade differently. By then, it’s too late for redemption. 

Antosca shaped the season around sustained pressure, as a family’s small cracks split open under the weight of a man determined to make them suffer the way he once did. “This show is an experiment in dread and pressure on a family,” Antosca says. “I wanted to see the family come together to fight in a primal way for their survival.” The finale delivers on that promise, but it lets Max nearly destroy everyone else first. 

## **Max’s family meets a violent end**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96e6e3b8c4389aee/6a6ba30607d069dcb4aa33c3/Cape_Fear_Photo_011006.jpg?branch=production)

Juliette Lewis as Crystal —Courtesy of Apple

“Where is she?” Max asks Crystal on the houseboat, referring to Anna. Crystal tells him Anna escaped, jumping into the river hours earlier. Max’s gaze drifts toward the water, and his face closes like a fist. When Luke tells him, meekly, not to touch Crystal, Max only wants to know who the young man is. The audience doesn’t know yet, either. 

Crystal, the child their father favored while Max lived in a cage, offers a fragile truce, remembering how she also used to trail behind him along the river: “I’ll forgive you if you forgive me.” Max shoots her without hesitation, then shoots Luke when he lunges to intervene. “When you die, don't forget this face,” Max tells her. “Don't forget the face of the little boy you tormented.”

When Bob calls him a devil for shooting his own blood, Max doesn't flinch. “If I’m the devil, what are you?” he asks. He pistol-whips his father, traps Luke and Crystal below deck, and douses the boat in gasoline, saving the last of it for Bob, now in a cage. Crouching beside him, Max speaks in Spanish, the language of the Spanish mother who raised him until her suicide when he was 13, and the one his American father then caged him for using: the equivalent of “bad dog.” He strikes a flame, cuts the mooring line, and disappears into the dark as the boat catches fire.

Lewis’s casting carries its own echo: in [Martin Scorsese’s 1991 film version](https://time.com/archive/6718963/filming-at-full-throttle-martin-scorsese/), she played the Bowden daughter Cady preyed on. Here she’s a Cady, and Max kills her in the finale’s opening minutes. Bardem describes Max entering this hour “at the peak of his patience,” a man who spent years engineering this exact convergence. “Now it’s time to really create the situation and create the final step of his own goal of revenge,” he says. “That also includes fixing his family problems in a Max Cady way.”

Anna, meanwhile, has stumbled off the riverbank and flagged down a family to drive her back to her car. Tom is still sitting in Chatham County Jail on a murder charge Max framed him for.

## **Anna turns the tables on Max**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae12449b5d296a7c/6a6ba3069c6b67acb0ae6159/Cape_Fear_Photo_011004.jpg?branch=production)

Amy Adams as Anna —Courtesy of Apple

Max is opening a restaurant, Melissa & Adam, named for the wife he was convicted of murdering and the son she was carrying when she died. At the grand opening, with supporters wearing shirts that read “Max was a victim,” Anna walks to the front holding a paper bag that could, for one long beat, contain anything. It turns out to hold a Bluetooth speaker.

She plays an audio recording of Max’s daughter, Nevaeh Valentine (Malia Pyles), detailing his instructions: break into the Bowden home, spike the family’s tea, seduce Zack, push him to bite off his own toe, and kill Natalie. Anna’s colleague Noa Toussaint (CCH Pounder) follows with a video of Max coercing his mistress into suicide, shattering the narrative that bought his freedom.

“This is who he is!” Anna shouts to the crowd. Max wraps both hands around her throat before a guard tackles him. Cuffed and seeing visions of his dead wife and imagined son, he looks at Anna with pure hate as her expression mirrors his. The moment is a deliberate callback to the premiere, when Max seized a microphone at a fundraiser and humiliated Anna in public. “She had to have an opportunity to come and confront him in the same way at the end of the season, before we get to that primal fight in the house,” Antosca says.

Adams reads it as the turn where Anna finally matches Max on his terms. “She’s so physically and emotionally exhausted that I think she's acting without any barriers,” Adams says. If dying is what it takes to save her family and reveal who Max is, she adds, Anna is willing.

What Anna gains, Max loses. It is the first time, Bardem says, that Max sees her in complete control, and that public reversal triggers everything that follows. Once Max understands that “now everybody’s playing his game,” Bardem says, he moves to “close the deal.” From there, his psychological games give way to physical violence.

## **The calm before the storm**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa60ef6fe7cbb89/6a6ba306d0a80fcafaf1f934/Cape_Fear_Photo_011001.jpg?branch=production)

Bardem as Max —Courtesy of Apple

Tom enters this stretch of the finale about as low as a person can go. “For a guy that's in total control for most of his life, he's now completely out of sorts, to say the least. He's frayed,” Wilson says. He's released on bail after a night in jail spent beside a makeshift noose—an image Wilson says was designed to leave viewers wondering whether Tom had reached the point of taking his own life or someone else’s—then goes straight to Anna at the hospital. “Those are very important questions that we just wanted to propose, versus giving answers,” he says.

Natalie, meanwhile, finds Zack wandering back toward the house, unharmed, having simply walked out of rehab. At the hospital, Anna and Tom’s conversation turns quiet. She is glad he finally knows the truth, she tells him: that Max may have taken advantage of her during blackouts around his original trial 17 years earlier.

The conversation is also where Anna might finally let herself be fully loved, Adams suggests. “For her, it’s never being truly able to accept the love of her husband, the love of her children, the life that she's built, because she knows it was built on so many secrets and so much uncertainty,” Adams says. “Now, with everything being revealed, I think she can start from a place of more authenticity.”

Anna tells Tom she loves him. Neither answers the real question between them—what happens now?—before the hospital loudspeaker announces an evacuation. A hurricane is coming for Savannah, Georgia. 

By the time the family reconvenes at the house, the room exhales. Tom sits Zack down and explains what really happened to his brother, who died by suicide when Tom was 14, not in the accident Tom had always described. “For a long time, I didn’t want to see how bad things were with you,” Tom tells his son. “It was easier for me to just tell myself you would get better. But sometimes things just suck, and we can't pretend otherwise—just get through it together.”

Then Detective Grayson Park (Paul Schneider) arrives with several officers and reports that Max assaulted a cop and escaped custody. As the Bowdens light candles for the storm, Anna gets a text from Noa: a photo of a homebirth certificate connecting Crystal to a boy named Luke, a detail that means little to her yet. Upstairs, done running, Tom pulls a shotgun from the safe. He wants Max gone for good.

The police search the property, find nothing, and leave. Then the camera pulls back to reveal Max standing on the Bowdens’ roof, unbothered by the storm breaking around him. Zack, packing a bag, hears him first. He opens his window just as lightning catches Max's grin, and Max drops through it onto him.

## **Max puts the Bowdens on trial** 

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54afd3fcb098fba2/6a6ba30607d0692fbaaa33bf/Cape_Fear_Photo_011008.jpg?branch=production)

Adams and Wilson as Anna and Tom, beseiged in their own home —Courtesy of Apple

Anna finds Max holding a knife to her son’s throat on the staircase; Tom raises his shotgun. Max tells him to put it down, releasing Zack in exchange, then picks up the gun himself, herds all four Bowdens into the kitchen, and makes Natalie bind her parents' wrists with plastic restraints. He injects Zack with scopolamine, leaving him docile, and refuses to let the children go. He doesn’t want hostages so much as a jury.

What follows is the hour’s centerpiece: Max staging a trial of his own devising, as judge, prosecutor, and executioner at once. “Max has lost faith in all institutions: institutions of law, institutions of religion, the financial system,” Antosca says, drawing on guidance from a wrongful-conviction attorney the production consulted. “So Max becomes that institution for himself.” In its simplest form, Antosca says, the scene signals: “I was on trial. Now you’re on trial.”

Max asks Tom whether he owns a Bible—he means to swear his witnesses in—and strikes him across the face when Tom’s only answer is a baffled “What?” When Anna and Tom hesitate, Max turns to Zack, still glassy from the drug, and suggests the boy bite off his own tongue. Blood runs down Zack’s chin before his parents swear to tell the truth. Anna admits she secured Max a plea deal that took the death penalty off the table 17 years earlier. Max strikes Tom with the shotgun and keeps pushing.

The real confession arrives in pieces. Anna admits she learned through a leak that the jury at Max’s trial was deadlocked, and that fear—not conscience—decided what she did next. She could have used that leverage to secure Max a lighter sentence. Instead, she let the jury put him away for good.

Max smiles, imagining the life he might have had outside prison. “Did you hear that, jury?” he asks Natalie and Zack. “She betrayed her own client.” Then Anna admits the fear underneath the betrayal: Natalie might have been Max’s daughter, and Anna could not bear the thought of her knowing that her father was a monster.

Power flickers as the storm worsens. A window shatters. The lights die and come back. Max raises his arms, a half-lit prophet. “I have carried you in my skin, so that this day would come,” he declares. “Justice. Fire. Thunder and lightning. Today’s the day that you will be judged.”

Max’s restraint finally disappears here. “We haven't seen him like this in the whole show, because he's always been under control,” Bardem says. Now, he adds, Max becomes the “personification of his wildest impulses,” transforming into this “theatrical figure of revenge, this real evil avenger.”

Wilson plays the scene from the opposite instinct, a lawyer discovering the law has nothing left to offer him. “By that point, I’m not thinking about the law,” Wilson says. “I’m thinking about how to get out, how to save my family, and probably how to kill this guy.” Getting there meant stripping Tom’s composure away entirely, an approach Wilson suspects comes from his years [working in the horror genre](https://time.com/6292994/insidious-red-door-ending-explained/). “You want to paint in primary colors. You want to see a guy that is completely together, and then the complete animal side of him,” he says. While Tom looks for a way to fight, Anna looks for a way through. Adams describes her as switching tactics in what she calls “deep survival,” thinking about her family more than herself.

The trial brings Max to Tom, whom he accuses of sleeping with Anna during the proceedings and building a “life of privilege” out of Max’s ruin. “I’ll say whatever words you want to hear, but we did not sleep together during your trial,” Tom answers, looking toward Anna. “I was falling in love with her, but nothing happened.”

Max staggers and envisions his dead wife and imagined son again before pulling himself back to his closing argument. He asks Natalie for a verdict. She curses at him and sides with her father. Max looks up, as if awaiting a ruling from somewhere higher, then delivers it himself: guilty, with a capital sentence to be carried out immediately.

## **The truth about Max’s son is revealed**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59076802e57585fe/6a6ba3073ee741ace6ec8d3a/Cape_Fear_Photo_011009.jpg?branch=production)

Collias and Anders —Courtesy of Apple

He levels the shotgun at Natalie. That’s when Anna tells him the truth that breaks him: his son didn’t die with Melissa. He was Luke, the young man Max shot on the houseboat without knowing who he was. 

Anna has Max pull up the homebirth certificate Noa sent, then connects it to the scar visible in an old photograph of the baby, the same scar she saw on Luke's side. “Crystal killed Melissa, and she ripped him out of her. Your sister stole your baby, Max,” Anna tells him. “He was alive all this time, until you killed him.”

Max shakes his head, watching the story that drove his entire revenge plot come apart. He sinks to his knees, his hands covering his face. Antosca says the moment is a turning point for Max. “It changes everything, because he can tell himself that he is righteous and everything he's doing is righteous,” Antosca says. “The revelation that Luke was his son, that his son was alive this whole time, makes it feel like his whole campaign of vengeance was misguided.”

For Bardem, the revelation collapses everything that made Max who he was, and it lands where he is least defended. “It was the moment of deep vulnerability that has to hit him in the weakest side of him, as the father who has committed the worst crime of them all,” he says. What replaces the man who ran the season is something feral: Bardem describes “an out of control, dying beast, wounded animal, that we have not seen before.” The collapse also costs Max the only weapon he ever had. His strength was always his ability “to play, to manipulate, to divert the attention.” Reduced to survival, he can't reach for it, and the pain is so total, Bardem says, that Max no longer knows how to react.

Adams, watching from Anna’s side of the revelation, says Anna is piecing it together at nearly the same moment Max is. Anna is trying to reach him, Adams says, to “apply some amount of logic” and “bring him back into a reasonable place.” “I think she recognizes the tragedy of it as well,” she says.

Natalie has been using a hidden lighter to burn through her restraints. Now free, she runs. Max corners her behind the sofa, and she fires a nail gun repeatedly, driving one nail into his skull. It barely slows him. He pulls it out and gets back up. Natalie reaches for a knife in the kitchen before Max overpowers her. 

Zack, still hazy from the drug, sees himself holding a flapping fish, with Max fishing beside him—the trip Max once promised while feeding the boy the lie that he was his real father. Then Max's face gives way to Tom's: the counterfeit father yielding to the true one. The vision, conjured by the very drug Max used to make him harmless, snaps Zack back just in time to lunge at Max, knocking him off balance and saving Natalie from the shot meant for her. 

Tom and Max fight. Anna drives a kitchen knife into Max's back. He staggers outside, and Tom knocks him into the pool, which glows an unnatural aquamarine beneath the storm. “It's a kill-or-be-killed sort of moment,” Adams says.

In the churning pool, Max grapples with Tom, who locks him in a stranglehold. Anna leaps in, and together they hold him under until his limbs finally go limp.

Moving the climax from the open waters of the Cape Fear River to the family's backyard pool marks a decisive break from previous film adaptations. “We felt for this version of the story that it should end in their home,” Antosca explains. “Bring the storm to them.”

The scene also pays off a detail from Episode 7, when Max told Natalie he’d been baptized in the Cape Fear River as a boy but never learned to swim. “\[The pool\] is also the place where he’s more vulnerable,” Bardem says.

The pool fight took days to shoot, with rain pouring down and cameras rolling underwater. Staging a brawl in water demands precision from everyone in it. “You’ve got to be so in tune with your dance partner,” Wilson says. It was also a release after months of playing Tom measured. “We all had been so measured for so long … it was nice to let it rip,” he says. For all the scale, the sequence plays as a test the Bowdens narrowly pass. “There’s a killer inside of everybody,” Wilson says, but killing Max at that point would be vengeance, not self-defense. “Tom, at his core, is not someone that would kill out of revenge.”

It is Anna who calls it off. “Let him die in a cage,” she tells Tom. The words land with the weight of everything before them: the dog cage Max was confined to as a boy and the metal cage in which his father died only hours earlier. Tom pulls Max, still breathing, to the edge of the pool. 

Adams frames the choice not to kill Max as Anna snapping back into herself the instant she sees her children watching. “She has to come back to some sense of reason,” Adams says. “She has to return to her moral code. … If they kill him, Max wins.”

## **The threat has passed, but things will never be the same**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8a8bc0c241951b/6a6ba30687ccc556b6455d6e/Cape_Fear_Photo_011007.jpg?branch=production)

Baryshnikov in the series finale —Courtesy of Apple

Once the storm passes, the episode finds Natalie in her room watching a video of Tabitha (Anna Baryshnikov), the journalist who spent the season chasing Max's story and fell in love with him. Natalie closes the laptop. In her hand is an unopened envelope from a DNA testing company, containing the answer to whether Max was ever really her father. Instead of opening it, she goes downstairs, where Anna is calling everyone to eat.

Downstairs, the scene echoes the premiere's opening barbecue: Tom grilling under the Savannah sun, Anna teasing him. They kiss. Zack finds a smile for his mother at the patio table; Tom glances over his shoulder at nothing before Natalie joins him at the grill. For one elongated moment, it looks almost like the family the show opened on.

Then the camera settles on Anna’s face and stays there long enough to watch her smile give out, a choice Adams says wasn’t necessarily written that way. “We discovered it in filming,” she says. “Things never go back to the way they were. Anna has changed, and I don't know for the better.” While the Bowdens still have each other, so much of Max’s darkness remains, Adams adds, and he’ll “never really go away.” Wilson, playing Tom’s own version of that unease a few beats earlier, needed only the smallest gesture to register it. “We needed a glimmer of fear or doubt in there,” he says.

That unease belongs to the whole family, not just the two of them, and it isn't so much about what they survived as what survival asked them to do: become, over the course of one long night, people capable of ending Max—before stopping just shy of doing so. Antosca always knew the finale would return to the Bowdens’ backyard. “I felt that this family would want to try and recreate their sense of safety and comfort, and they would never quite be able to,” he says.

As Anna glances behind her, the frame turns chromatic, echoing the show’s title sequence, while Neil Young with Crazy Horse's “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” rises over the cut to black. The lyrics long for a home that’s “cool and breezy,” a place to finally stop running and unwind. For the Bowdens, the irony is that they're already home; what they've lost is the ability to rest there. _Cape Fear_ lets them win, but refuses them the relief triumph should bring. 

Antosca wanted that lack of clean resolution to linger with viewers. “I hope that when you’re finished watching the show, you feel like you just went through a really intense nightmare,” he says. Here, they do. The finale, which opens with Max pausing to observe a small courtesy before committing an atrocity on Crystal’s houseboat, closes with the Bowdens reaching for ordinary family life after surviving an atrocity of their own. As Anna’s smile dissolves in the final moments, survival is cold comfort. Nothing that happened that summer washes off, and no amount of time on that sun-drenched Savannah patio will convince her otherwise.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt2fc5492867cf3b28Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:04 +0000<!\[CDATA\[JP Mangalindan\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The Case Against Using Alcohol and Cannabis to Sleep\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/the-case-against-using-alcohol-and-cannabis-to-sleep/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Effective strategies exist, and using alcohol or cannabis to sleep is counterproductive, writes Joan M. Cook.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Images: Connect Images, Serhii Mazur, Kampee Patisena—Getty Images)\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2a6b6fe1bf3bbdd/6a6a5783e6110cabc447af3d/alcohol-Cannabis-sleep.jpg?branch=production)

 —Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Images: Connect Images, Serhii Mazur, Kampee Patisena—Getty Images)

Good [sleep](https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/why-sleep-important) is crucial to [healthy functioning](https://time.com/collections/guide-to-sleep/). If we don’t get [enough sleep](https://time.com/collections/guide-to-sleep/3691992/sleep-hours-recommendations/) or if it’s of insufficient quality, we often have problems the next day. We may have a harder time concentrating or may feel irritable and sluggish. If sleep problems persist, as they do for up to one in three [adults](https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness/sleep-health), those individuals are at risk for a range of serious physical and mental health difficulties, [including](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-effects-of-sleep-deprivation) problems with heart and circulatory systems, issues with thinking and memory, as well as respiratory and immune disorders.

A substantial number of Americans turn to cannabis and alcohol to help them fall asleep. Indeed, there are estimates that nearly one in 10 Americans regularly use [cannabis](https://www.sleephealthjournal.org/article/S2352-7218%2826%2900070-7/fulltext) for sleep, and many adults report using [alcohol](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12942847/) in this way. Sadly, these rates are higher for [young adults](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2840034).

While cannabis and alcohol may seem to assist in sleep, these substances offer a cheap trick. While they can initially make a person feel sleepy, they don’t produce the kind of restorative sleep humans need to function well. In fact, researchers warn that regular use not only weakens healthy sleep but increases the risk of dependence. 

[Philip Gehrman](https://psychology.sas.upenn.edu/people/philip-gehrman) is a psychologist and professor who directs the [Sleep Neurobiology and Psychopathology](https://www.med.upenn.edu/snaplab/) lab at the University of Pennsylvania. I asked him what he thought of the use of these substances for sleep. “As alcohol is metabolized, it is broken down into compounds that disrupt sleep and lead to more wakefulness in the night. So, any benefit at the beginning of the night is not worth the price you pay the rest of the night,” he said. “There is much less research on cannabis, but it has a similar pattern to alcohol. Plus, if you use either alcohol or cannabis as a coping strategy to improve sleep, it increases the chances of becoming dependent on them.”

I also reached out to [Lisa Fucito](https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/lisa-fucito/), a professor of psychiatry at Yale and the director of the [Tobacco Treatment Service](https://www.ynhh.org/smilow/services/support-services/smoking-cessation) at Smilow Cancer Hospital.“Alcohol, cannabis, and other psychoactive substances do not address the behavioral and cognitive processes that perpetuate insomnia,” she said. “While these substances may provide short-term sedation, their sleep effects tend to diminish with tolerance in as little as a few days and can worsen sleep continuity and quality.” Tolerance can develop within days, and is often followed by rebound sleep disruption in the second half of the night.

As a psychologist, I venture that most people who use substances to sleep are trying to help, not harm, themselves. They are likely not informed about the potential damaging effects of these substances or their ineffectiveness.

The research evidence overwhelmingly supports that [cognitive behavioral therapy](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10002474/) is a safer, more effective long-term solution for many sleep difficulties, even if it lacks the appeal of a quick fix. This can help address the root cause of behaviors such as spending excessive time in bed awake, maintaining irregular sleep schedules, and conditioned arousal such as worrying about sleep. 

Noelle Smith is a psychologist and vice-president of clinical care at [Moona Health](https://www.moona.health/), which specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia via telehealth. “The good news is that insomnia is highly treatable,” she said. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches skills like establishing a consistent sleep schedule, strengthening the connection between bed and sleep, and changing the unhelpful worries that keep people awake. “The results are more durable than medication and other substances with fewer side effects,” Smith added, “so people see lasting improvement in their ability to fall and stay asleep.”

It’s possible that some of us who are struggling with sleep-related issues may not have the time or money to seek formal services. Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs [National Center for PTSD](https://www.ptsd.va.gov/) and the Department of Defense’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology developed free evidence-informed mobile apps that anyone can use [alone](https://mobile.va.gov/app/insomnia-coach) or in [conjunction](https://mobile.va.gov/app/cbt-i-coach) with their health care provider. These apps can assist in learning effective ways to increase healthy sleep. 

To be sure, there are a wide range of sleep complaints and disorders including, but not limited to, insomnia, breathing, and movement disorders. The [American Academy of Sleep Medicine](https://aasm.org/) launched the [Sleep is Good Medicine](https://sleepisgoodmedicine.com/) campaign to increase public education about the importance of sleep and its connection to health. They offer a wealth of resources such as a podcast called [Talking Sleep](https://aasm.org/professional-development/talking-sleep-podcast/) and tips on talking to [one’s doctor](https://sleepisgoodmedicine.com/talk-to-your-doctor/) about sleep.

Given that sleep-related difficulties are so widespread, please know that you are not alone. Effective strategies exist, and using alcohol or cannabis to sleep is counterproductive.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt3b269a9ba038bbf6Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:00:03 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Joan M. Cook\]\]><!\[CDATA\[What It Means to Plead the Fifth Amendment\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/fifth-amendment-fauci-rand-paul-covid-hearing-contempt-of-congress/<!\[CDATA\[U.S.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Dr. Anthony Fauci has drawn anger and threats of contempt charges from Republicans after he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right during a Senate hearing on the COVID pandemic.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Al Drago—Bloomberg/Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0e6facade5c25f8/6a6bd9523e83ff5eff61bddb/fifth-amendment-fauci-rand-paul-senate-hearing.jpg?branch=production)

Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2026\. —Al Drago—Bloomberg/Getty Images

[Dr. Anthony Fauci’s](https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888309/anthony-fauci/) decision to [invoke](https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/fauci-fifth-amendment-senate-hearing-covid-rand-paul-republicans/) his Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering lawmakers’ questions about the government’s handling of the COVID pandemic during a Senate hearing on Wednesday sparked outrage from Republicans.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said following the hearing that the panel would vote next week on whether it would recommend to hold Fauci, an infectious disease expert who helped lead the country’s pandemic response, in contempt of Congress after he pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times.

Here’s what to know about the Fifth Amendment, why Fauci invoked it, and if he can be held in contempt of Congress for doing so.

## What is the Fifth Amendment?

The [Fifth Amendment](https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/education/lesson-plans/high-school/constitutional-amendments/constitutional-amendments-amendment-5) was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. It stipulates multiple key legal protections for Americans, including that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” In other words, the amendment establishes the constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

The American criminal justice system relies on the presumption that people are innocent until proven guilty; it’s the responsibility of prosecutors to prove that someone is guilty, rather than on the individual to prove their innocence. The Fifth Amendment is critical in preserving that presumption of innocence. And invoking the Fifth Amendment doesn’t necessarily mean that that person is guilty of a crime.

“Pleading the Fifth is not an admission of guilt—it is a constitutional protection designed to prevent coercion, mistakes, and unfair burden-shifting,” Whalen Law Office, a criminal defense law firm based in Texas, writes on its [website](https://www.whalenlawoffice.com/blog/the-fifth-amendment-what-it-is-and-what-it-is-not/).

## Why did Fauci invoke the Fifth Amendment?

In his opening statement to the Senate committee on Wednesday, Fauci accused Paul of having an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said. 

“Although it pains me to do so because of the respect that I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress,” he said, “under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”

Shortly before former President Joe Biden left office, in January 2025, he preemptively [pardoned](https://www.justice.gov/pardon/media/1385746/dl?inline) Fauci. Biden said he was issuing the pardon to shield Fauci from “politically motivated prosecutions.”

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has for years been a target of Republicans’ persistent criticisms and probes into the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic. GOP lawmakers have accused him of covering up information about the coronavirus’s origins and the vaccines developed to combat the disease—claims that Fauci has denied.

The pardon only protects Fauci from being charged for events or actions that happened before it was issued. He is not protected under the pardon for anything that happens after January 2025\. He could therefore be at risk of legal consequences if he were accused of a crime that occurred after that date—for instance, if he were accused of lying under oath. 

Several Republicans, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have said that Fauci could still face perjury charges if he made false statements while under oath during the Senate hearing.

Senate Democrats criticized their Republican colleagues’ actions during the hearing on Wednesday. Instead of questioning Fauci, they thanked him for his years of work in public health.

“It must be enormously frustrating to know that this hearing is designed to entrap you,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said to Fauci during the hearing.

## Can Fauci be held in contempt of Congress?

Paul said that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will vote next week on whether to recommend holding Fauci in contempt of Congress. If the panel votes in favor of doing so, then the issue would go to the entire Senate to vote on.

Paul has argued that Fauci is not entitled to invoke his Fifth Amendment right because the pardon Fauci received from Biden protects him from any federal criminal prosecutions for his past actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the subject of the Senate hearing on Wednesday. It’s unclear whether this argument would hold up in court; Paul [said](https://apnews.com/live/trump-news-updates-07-29-2026?version=1785335648965#0000019f-ae8a-d6eb-ad9f-fefbd14b0000) that it’s a “legal question that the courts may have to decide.”

Paul told [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rand-paul-anthony-fauci-very-real-chance-prosecuted-covid-senate-hearing-5th/) after the Senate hearing one Wednesday that he believes “there is a very real chance that \[Fauci\] could be prosecuted” for refusing to answer the panel’s questions.

But Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, maintained that Fauci was within his constitutional right during the hearing.

“We are completely confident that Dr. Fauci has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege here and is on solid legal ground in asserting it,” Schertler said in an email to CBS News. “Rand Paul may be a doctor, but he is not a lawyer.”

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt9e30a18dadc7bef3Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:13:01 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Chantelle Lee\]\]><!\[CDATA\['Major Incident' Declared as England Wildfire Swells to Size of 210 Soccer Pitches\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/england-wildfire-swells-suffolk-evacuations-high-temperatures/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[“Changing wind conditions continue to affect the direction and behavior of the fire, making it difficult to predict how it may spread,” said the local emergency services.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Joe Giddens––Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Smoke rises from a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, Suffolk, where a major incident has been declared as firefighters battle a large heathland blaze on July 30, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt917886995f0a0731/6a6b7663a9b85f37bf315213/England_Fire.jpg?branch=production)

Smoke rises from a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, Suffolk, where a major incident has been declared as firefighters battle a large heathland blaze on July 30, 2026\. —Joe Giddens––Getty Images

The emergency services in Suffolk, England, have declared a “[major incident](https://www.facebook.com/SuffolkFRS/posts/pfbid0i6ZGrrZ5vfm95pMxm6Cyd8r1GFQd8T9sZr3SrUCarSQuNoyH5FZhXXyTkqibnSPpl)” as they struggle to contain a [wildfire](https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/france-spain-europe-wildfires-destruction-photos/) that has swelled to around 370 acres, roughly the size of 210 soccer pitches. 

“Changing wind conditions continue to affect the direction and behavior of the fire, making it difficult to predict how it may spread,” Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service [said](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1095475936141065?locale=en%5FGB) in an update Thursday afternoon.

More than 120 firefighters have been on site tackling the blaze at Dunwich Heath, an area of coastal lowland in the east of England, since the fire [broke out on](https://www.facebook.com/SuffolkFRS/posts/pfbid0pLNQf4MKmv8urpYKtbdUeJPoVRHkiyoFTvuqDMTJHShKzr3sFY1Fd4YMvigCNrRKl?%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZbEZ4qHqCQRvJ9piArEtBPzPmz91zimRgI2qSc3T8ZRLg2BN5wzNVtVciVRGbX1wKCM-aHwt2zq%5FJYnGJikPVGtvcxOgpGeCxlp0oow1DzBTJm3qTDRtNWKgzwKz1Nhk3XEr80R%5F7aXzdhVGUfiFZbdNP7NIEEWYv%5FPRwZAQr25hS0mbb1qsecS7K-lD5APvd4&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2CO%2CP-R) Wednesday. 

The blaze has spread across heathland and fields, forcing dozens of people to be evacuated from their homes, with vast stretches of [land left charred](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1726764755077066/?%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZYuwXP2O--mSU4S5IZ0sKIU9fZJQ2Ote2c3pnMzf5K0FIJ-hYqFCDeA%5FnYICnfUoNGkaPJC5GZrG08vaFWKaowK8e2DAVJGqi--rPw3sJoyunDym3T8pCvGoQFEUGq-REuX37bmmD1sJgtiG9rjGdvXxVt5s0j8j97ZWN8AnuOcxTx1gXzc92lGWl46C91waXlVPmcBH5vkKZI9X0JfkoT4&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2CO%2CP-R).

Chief fire officer Jon Lacey [described](https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2082812928172998792) the blaze as "one of the largest” he remembers in the history of Suffolk.

“The fire is still developing. It is a challenging environment to be able to extinguish that fire,” Lacey said at a Thursday press conference. “We have surrounded it with resources, particularly on the fire front that is moving forward to make sure that we can protect the buildings, other forestry, and other items that need to be protected.”

Prime Minister [Andy Burnham](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/andy-burnham-uk-prime-minister-day-one-trump-invitation/) has [said](https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/2082826588014481808) the local authorities will have "all the support, mutual aid, \[and\] other services that they need,” as they continue to work around-the-clock amid another U.K. heat wave.

**Read More**: [_What Is a Fire Cloud and How Are They Making Europe's Wildfires More Dangerous?_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/what-is-a-fire-cloud-wildfires-europe-more-dangerous/)

The wildfire has caused power outages in the surrounding areas, placing additional challenges on local services.

U.K. Power Networks [said](https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/power-cut/incident?incidentid=INCD-22365-I) a power cut affecting 116 customers across three postcodes in the area is under investigation.

Meanwhile, officials have quelled concerns about nearby nuclear power stations.

An EDF Energy spokesperson told TIME “the fire at Dunwich Heath is not currently affecting operations at Sizewell B power station but we are continuing to monitor the situation—we are not on high alert.”

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service also said neither Sizewell B or Sizewell C—a second nuclear power station under construction nearby—are considered to be at risk.

“At the moment, Sizewell B and C are being monitored. We're in consultation with them, but we're not worried about fire spreading in that direction,” Lacey said.

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, the Member of Parliament \[MP\] for Suffolk Coastal, praised the efforts of local officials and urged people to steer clear of the vicinity.

"I am so grateful, as I know so many others are, for the work of the fire brigade and the emergency services,” she [said](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story%5Ffbid=pfbid02iktVKXviWfTeWyeWC5KH3xCcjvFrB3iSYq2Sqdi7Aso8mLixVsCepVzFaKuchChQl&id=61557275483560&%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZY6owK9g8%5FLORn2gd3tNHkciLzUcrtHvXs9bu%5FWyerY27nF9WW5MbXf2GpCjCR8Lw9D64GEKqDvCu3m%5Fgylhc2et5zKgIOEcW%5FMwwGva%5Fmt39D2elq-a%5FF9BG-D5KaE1Nseu4JTaMcl9R54CqcIKxtDF7LZwOePWxWvXo54xTueCCyF65sWHsvTSt5vvrW7nvXwRfTrpHX4gwdXFK%5Fw3tyT&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2CO%2CP-R). “Please do avoid the area, and allow the fire and emergency services the space to respond.”

The wildfire has also raised concerns among local [farmers](https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/2082830195996725720).

Patrick Spencer, the lawmaker for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, described the wildfire as an "extremely worrying situation" and expressed he is "deeply conscious of the impact on our farming community."

"At such a critical point in the year, with harvest under way or about to begin for many, this is an especially difficult time for farmers whose land, livestock, or livelihoods are at risk," he [said](https://www.facebook.com/patrickspencercentralsuffolkandnorthipswich/posts/pfbid0nVTGKt74jum6iKKtcNN85J643vx4ZtjJBAWMTEo7DpoJW4PUjpJgjWf1pkF3kmajl?%5F%5Fcft%5F%5F[0]=AZb5MfheEatMTNU9bL7f5ScwmcacgTOXL4IMYeEAPzT16XlJgi925VVJGnvEEA4oRjDymIcrGL2uCSPFsjGhNP6Yh5YAIxK%5F7bM6mJKbxYu9JgbAL3XC26LWELRVuHvw75TVpErG%5FCl2y31Ickd810ZE10wBrrCIUcimwvDJHsU-hg&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2CO%2CP-R).

A series of [heat waves](https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/france-spain-wildfire-heat-wave-europe-climate-change/) have recently gripped England, worsening wildfire conditions.

The U.K. Health Security Agency on Thursday [said](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-report-shows-2877-excess-deaths-caused-by-may-and-june-heatwaves) it estimates there were 2,877 heat-associated deaths during two notable periods of hot weather in May and June 2026, putting the country on track to record its highest number of heat-related deaths since modern records began.

Seven areas of England have officially been [declared](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/drought-declared-in-half-of-england) as being in drought, after “record low rainfall and exceptionally high temperatures.”

British Water Minister Emma Hardy warned that the U.K. needs to be prepared “for this new normal” moving forward.

“Our climate is changing, droughts are becoming increasingly common,” she said. “We expect water companies to follow their drought plans, to go further and faster to reduce leaks, and to ensure supplies are not disrupted even in the driest of weather.”

This is the third drought in the past five years, with former extreme dry spells happening in 2022 and 2025.

At the start of the summer, in the wake of last year’s blazes across North York Moors National Park in eastern England, the U.K. government [strengthened](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-strengthens-wildfire-resilience-heading-into-summer) its wildfire resilience, announcing it would be placing “teams of specialist firefighters will be positioned in key areas and ready to respond to fires across England.”

**Read More**: [_Photos Show the Destruction in France and Spain From Ferocious European Wildfires_](https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/france-spain-europe-wildfires-destruction-photos/)

The wildfire in England comes as other European countries, including France and Spain, continue to battle [ferocious blazes](https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/france-spain-europe-wildfires-destruction-photos/). 

Three firefighters died Wednesday while facing wildfires on the island of Crete and in the south of the mainland, the Greek fire department said.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltab13b10a2cb92dd8Thu, 30 Jul 2026 18:34:51 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Tiago Ventura\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump Says He Has ‘No Objection’ to Withdrawing Todd Blanche’s Nomination\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/trump-says-no-objection-withdrawing-todd-blanche-doj-attorney-general/<!\[CDATA\[Politics\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Two Republican senators are withholding support as the Senate delays a vote over a disputed DOJ settlement involving Trump allies.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Kevin Dietsch–Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is seen after leaving a meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9689193f192b5220/6a6b7f23d0a80fdff3f1f506/GettyImages-2288170287.jpg?branch=production)

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is seen after leaving a meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. —Kevin Dietsch–Getty Images

President Trump [said Thursday](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/117009581290419286) that he might pull Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, after two Republican senators threatened to withhold their support. 

“I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing,” Trump posted on Truth Social. 

His comments came after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote Thursday that would have advanced Blanche’s nomination.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, one of the key holdout votes, [told](https://x.com/mkraju/status/2082485551223951707) reporters Wednesday that he had not received a written confirmation from the Department of Justice that it would eliminate provisions in a proposed settlement between Trump and the department over a lawsuit he filed concerning [the leak of his tax returns](https://time.com/article/2026/05/16/trump-irs-lawsuit-weaponization-fund/).

The most contentious provisions would have created a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” for Trump allies and Jan. 6 defendants, and shielded Trump and his family from future audits by the Internal Revenue Service.

**Read more:** [_What to Know About the DOJ’s $1.8B 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' That Could Compensate Trump Allies Investigated Under Biden_](https://time.com/article/2026/05/18/trump-doj-anti-weaponization-fund-irs-lawsuit-settlement/)

“I think they \[the administration\] realizes that we are serious,” Cornyn, who [lost](https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/paxton-defeats-cornyn-trump-texas-talarico/) his reelection bid in May after Trump endorsed his opponent, said after canceling an in-person meeting with Blanche.

The committee did not immediately announce a new date for a confirmation vote. Shortly after the postponement, Cornyn [said](https://x.com/mkraju/status/2082841823232291085) negotiations between the committee members and the DOJ were still ongoing, and that the DOJ had received “some pushbacks” from the White House. 

“I thought we were pretty close to landing the plane last night, but this morning there's been some more complications. I think if this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would have worked this out,” Cornyn added. 

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is not seeking reelection over his [disagreement](https://time.com/7298637/thom-tillis-retirement-reelection-north-carolina-senator-trump-republican-obbb/) with the Trump administration, has also [made](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TdsDtoiVW8) [clear](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91AvlaL6N38) his opposition to the Anti-Weaponization Fund. 

“He \[Blanche\] is a qualified candidate. We just need to get the issues off the table,” Tillis [said](https://x.com/ReubenJones1/status/2082587469627674960/video/1) on Wednesday.

## What happens if Blanche is not confirmed? 

Todd Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general for the DOJ since [Trump removed Pam Bondi in April](https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/pam-bondi-out-as-trump-s-attorney-general/) over her handling of the Epstein files. Unlike interim U.S. prosecutors, who can lawfully serve 120 days without a Senate confirmation, an acting attorney general can serve for as long as a president wants. 

That is because of U.S. Code § 508, which [states](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title28/pdf/USCODE-2024-title28-partII-chap31-sec508.pdf) that “the Deputy Attorney General may exercise all the duties of that office” if the office of Attorney General is vacant and the law does not state a time limit for how long the acting attorney general can legally serve. 

The law, which was passed decades before the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (VRA) of 1998, takes [legal precedence](https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R44997)**.** While the FVRA generally limits officials serving in a temporary capacity to no longer than 210 days after the position becomes vacant, the law also made exceptions to agency-specific laws that had been previously codified.

A similar arrangement existed under the Biden administration. In 2023, after Marty Walsh resigned as labor secretary, President Biden [nominated Julie Su](https://time.com/6263673/biden-labor-secretary-pick-julie-su-unions/) to fill the vacancy. Su, who had served as deputy labor secretary, ultimately [failed](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/20/white-house-confirmation-su-labor-00107485) to get confirmed by the Senate due to the lack of support from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Su served as acting labor secretary for the rest of the Biden administration under a similar statutory provision, despite Republicans' objections. In 2023, the Government Accountability Office, which oversees the federal government’s compliance with vacancy laws, [concluded](https://www.gao.gov/assets/870/861240.pdf) in a letter that time limitations “do not apply” to Su’s case. 

## What did Blanche say about the demands?

During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Todd Blanche [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2EmFWaqQ4o&vl=en) the Anti-Weaponization Fund was “dead.” 

However, Sen. Cornyn pointed out during the hearing that the settlement agreement made between Trump and the Department of Justice that included the fund could only be modified through “a written agreement” between two parties. When pressed by Cornyn, Blanche said Trump could potentially enforce the agreement if he decides to do so. 

“They \[Trump’s legal counsel\] could say that we breached by not moving forward,” Blanche said. 

TIME has also reached out to the Department of Justice for comment. 

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blte6db290eea518df2Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:08:21 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Philip Wang\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Russian Bombardment Kills at Least Eight in Ukraine as Zelensky Renews Plea for Air Defense Supplies\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/russia-ukraine-attack-drones-missiles-defense-death-toll/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\["Untimely assistance and delays in the delivery of anti-ballistic missiles lead to this kind of destruction," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[People stand near burning market stalls following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 30, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2763958a3361cbaa/6a6b71670cddc6ec5c8b8621/GettyImages-2288299921.jpg?branch=production)

People stand near burning market stalls following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 30, 2026\. —Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine—Getty Images

Ukrainian President [Volodymyr Zelensky](https://time.com/7271480/zelensky-transcript-trump-white-house/) said Russia launched over 70 missiles and 280 drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine that killed at least eight people, including three children, and left dozens injured.

Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and the western city of [Lviv](https://x.com/SESU%5FUA/status/2082764932374732856), near the Poland border, were most impacted, local officials reported. 

“Dozens of ordinary homes, civilian businesses, and infrastructure facilities were destroyed and damaged,” [said](https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2082706840081571877) Zelensky on Thursday, as he decried the “critical shortage of air defense missiles from our partners” and called for assistance from other countries.

“All partners know how and with what they can help. Untimely assistance and delays in the delivery of anti-ballistic missiles lead to this kind of destruction, these kinds of casualties that, unfortunately, we are seeing today,” Zelensky added, doubling down on his previous statements on the perils of delayed defensive equipment. 

Zelensky shared a series of images and videos that showed buildings reduced to rubble and emergency services carrying out search and rescue operations.

"This Russian terror once again proves that protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people," Zelensky declared. 

The Russian Defense Ministry [said](https://t.me/mod%5Frussia%5Fen/28582) its strikes targeted Ukrainian air bases, arms factories, and military telecommunications and logistics facilities.

Following the attack, Ukraine’s air force [said](https://t.me/kpszsu/70754) it shot down just one of nine ballistic missiles sent into its airspace.

Zelensky has [repeatedly appealed](https://time.com/article/2026/07/07/zelensky-ukraine-nato-membership-air-defense-systems-summit/) for more U.S.-made Patriot missile interceptors as they are capable of downing Russia’s ballistic missiles, but there’s a critical short supply.

At the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump told Zelensky that the [U.S. would extend Ukraine a license to manufacture](https://time.com/article/2026/07/08/trump-zelensky-ukraine-patriot-missile-interceptors-russia-nato/) Patriot missile interceptors.

The pair met again for a closed-door meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday, sharing what Zelensky [described](https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2082125765634822619) afterward as a “good” sit-down.

They “discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,” according to the Ukrainian leader, but no concrete details or next steps for manufacturing plans have been released.

During his time in Washington, Zelensky watched from inside the chamber as the [U.S. Senate advanced a bill ](https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/why-republican-rand-paul-voted-against-advancing-russia-sanctions-bill/)that would impose tougher sanctions on Russia.

Elsewhere, the European Commission stepped up its support for Ukraine, announcing Thursday it would disburse a further [€3.47 billion](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip%5F26%5F1710) (around $3.99 billion) for drones, missiles, air defense, and fighter jets under its [€90 billion Ukraine Support Loan](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/04/23/council-finalises-90-billion-support-loan-to-ukraine/).

Ukraine’s new Prime Minister [Sergii Koretskyi](https://time.com/article/2026/07/16/meet-sergii-koretskyi-ukraine-new-prime-minister-energy-official-zelensky/) expressed gratitude, [saying](https://x.com/KoretskyiUA/status/2082770933035516384) the “funds will strengthen our defense and help finance Ukraine’s most urgent needs.”

Zelensky later [held](https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2082792868008149083) a meeting with Ukraine’s new military chief Mykhailo Drapatyi and other defense officials to discuss the country’s challenges facing Russia’s ballistic missile attacks and its “ability to counter this tactic, both at the military and diplomatic levels.”

### Russian missile "violated" airspace in Poland, says Tusk

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk [said](https://x.com/donaldtusk/status/2082713000591470612) "during the Russian massive missile attack on western Ukraine, a violation of Polish airspace occurred."

He convened a “coordination team” early Thursday morning to assess the site where the projectile fell.

“I am in contact with the leaders of European countries regarding the violation of Polish airspace. Everyone declares full solidarity and readiness for any assistance,” Tusk [added](https://x.com/donaldtusk/status/2082756299473691111).

The leader of Poland, a NATO member, later [said](https://x.com/clashreport/status/2082790548537045477) in a press conference that “there is no reason to believe that Poland was the target,” but maintained a violation had taken place.

“After my conversation with President Zelensky, it is quite clear to me that the next 100 days could decide the outcome of this war,” Tusk, who [met with Zelensky](https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2082515174343233974) on Wednesday, [declared.](https://x.com/clashreport/status/2082792479447736630) “Right now, I would say the chances are fifty-fifty. Much depends on decisions made by the President of the United States.” 

NATO is “in close contact with the Polish authorities about the violation of Poland’s airspace,” NATO spokesperson for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) Col. Martin O’Donnell told TIME in an emailed statement.

“The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Alexus G. Grynkewich, spoke earlier today with Poland's Chief of Defence General Wiesław Kukułan about NATO and Poland’s response to the incident, which remains under investigation,” the statement continued. “SACEUR underlined that NATO will continue to take all necessary measures to defend NATO territory.”

### European leaders denounce Russian aggression against Ukraine

European officials were quick to denounce the overnight bombardment against Ukraine and the reported violation of Polish airspace.

“France condemns in the strongest possible terms the Russian strikes that killed civilians in Ukraine, as well as the violation of Polish airspace,” [said](https://x.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/2082760519644045762) French President Emmanuel Macron. “Our support for Ukraine and our allies will not waver. This is a matter of our collective security.”

European Council president António Costa echoed those remarks, warning that the incident underscored a broader threat posed by Russia.

“Last night, Russia launched a massive combined strike against Ukraine. During the attack, Polish airspace was also violated, underlining once again that Russia’s aggression is a threat to the security of Europe as a whole,” he [said](https://x.com/eucopresident/status/2082737601002320259).

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen labeled the attack “another unacceptable violation of our E.U. airspace caused by Russia’s latest strikes on Ukraine.”

“To put an end to this, we are helping Ukraine win this war in every way we can. And we are building a robust European security architecture on land, at sea and in the air,” she [said](https://x.com/vonderleyen/status/2082786944661029132).

This is not the first time Russia has reportedly violated the airspace of a NATO member.

In late May, a [Russian strike](https://time.com/article/2026/06/02/russia-strikes-ukraine-deadly-attack-zelensky-us-trump-appeal/) hit an apartment building in [eastern Romania](https://www.mapn.ro/cpresa/19271%5Finforma%C8%9Bie-de-presa)—a crash E.U. leaders referred to as “a serious violation of Romania’s sovereignty and European airspace.”

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blta782c1e60864d561Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:53:53 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Tiago Ventura\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Stop Saying There's a Nursing Shortage\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/stop-saying-theres-a-nursing-shortage/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The U.S. may have less of a shortage of licensed nurses than a shortage of nurses who are willing to work in bedside jobs that have become increasingly demanding.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Suzanne Kreiter—The Boston Globe/Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Stethoscopes on the wall of a class at the MGH Institute of Health Professions on Jan. 13, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcc1f42b3d1b3a6f/6a6a05ad7f56dc059db5ebb3/nurses-jobs-hosptial.jpg?branch=production)

Stethoscopes on the wall of a class at the MGH Institute of Health Professions on Jan. 13, 2026\. —Suzanne Kreiter—The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Turn on the television or flip through a newspaper, and you might think that the U.S. desperately needs to train more nurses.

Arizona has [nearly 30,000 nursing vacancies](https://www.12news.com/article/news/investigations/i-team/education-impact/arizona-faces-worst-nursing-shortage-in-nation-one-college-training-the-next-generation/75-20294e25-aaeb-4a9e-a92e-f918167c445c), local TV stations there recently reported; Pennsylvania Republicans [met in early June](https://www.pasenategop.com/news/robinson-hosts-roundtable-discussion-on-nursing-shortages-workforce-development/) to discuss how to fill the state’s nursing shortage, two schools are even opening [new nursing programs](https://www.ajc.com/news/2026/06/two-new-nursing-schools-aim-to-ease-georgias-nursing-shortage/) in Georgia to meet that state’s projected nursing shortage. “The Nursing Shortage Starts in the Classroom,” a recent [_Wall Street Journal_ headline](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-nursing-shortage-starts-in-the-classroom-9102cd26) proclaimed. 

Yet more people are going into nursing; 280,308 people [passed](https://www.ncsbn.org/publications/2025-nclex-examination-statistics) the NCLEX examination to become a registered nurse (RN) or licensed practical nurse (LPN) in 2025, a 34% increase from 2016, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. And currently 7 million registered nurses and practical nurses [hold an active license](https://www.ncsbn.org/nursing-regulation/national-nursing-database/licensure-statistics.page) in at least one state, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. 

But there were only about [3.4 million jobs](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm) for registered nurses in 2024, the most recent year for which data are available, and[ 651,400 jobs](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/licensed-practical-and-licensed-vocational-nurses.htm) for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—meaning that there are substantively more actively licensed nurses than there are nursing jobs. This suggests that well over two million licensed nurses are not currently working as nurses for patients.

This data—and the experience of many nurses across the country—suggest that the U.S. may have less of an actual shortage of licensed nurses than a shortage of nurses who are willing to work in bedside jobs that have become increasingly demanding. Pressure on nursing has not let up since the pandemic, nurses say, because of cost-cutting at hospitals and health systems that ask them to do more work with fewer resources. 

“We’re really putting a lot of money into building a pipeline for nursing, but if nurses are leaving after a year or two of getting into employment, the problem isn’t so much a pipeline problem as a leaking gas tank,” says Karen Lasater, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing who studies what she calls the nursing-retention crisis. 

## Why nursing jobs are getting more difficult

Conditions for nurses were bad before the pandemic, got even worse during it, and appear to be deteriorating further a few years out, according to [research](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41733171/) Lasater and her colleagues recently published. Postpandemic, more than two thirds of hospital nurses reported having too few staff, compared to 57% before the pandemic, according to the paper, which surveyed 50,044 nurses in hospitals across New York and Illinois. From December 2023 to March 2024, about one third of nurses said they were dissatisfied and that they intended to leave their employer—“significantly” higher than pre-pandemic and pandemic levels, according to the paper.

It wasn’t just their imagination that the work seemed like it was getting harder. Among nurses working on medical-surgical units, the average staffing ratio increased to six patients per nurse, up from 5.7 prepandemic, according to the paper. (In California, one of the few states with mandated staffing ratios, ER nurses are staffed at a ratio of four patients per nurse, and labor and delivery nurses are staffed at a ratio of two patients per nurse.)

“I fear that we’re headed to a worse place, because it’s apparent that we didn’t learn much from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lasater says. 

Ariana Lucio, a 45-year-old nurse in El Paso, Texas, has been a nurse for 14 years and currently works in the medical-surgical unit at Del Sol Medical Center, which is [owned](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/money/business/2024/06/12/el-paso-native-new-ceo-at-hca-healthcare-las-palmas-medical-center-in-east-el-paso/74062210007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z11xx40e003700v11xx40d--69--b--69--&gca-ft=109&gca-ds=sophi) by HCA Healthcare, the [largest health system in the U.S.](https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/100-of-the-largest-hospitals-and-health-systems-in-the-us-2026/) HCA operates a network of for-profit hospitals across the country. Her hospital has been cutting back on staffing and embracing technology that makes work harder for nurses, says Lucio. Adequate staffing is a key issue for [nurses unions](https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/there-is-no-nurse-shortage) and [organizations](https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nurse-staffing/nurse-staffing-crisis/), and Lucio, who is a member of National Nurses United, has [protested](https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/el-paso-nurses-to-rally-against-hca-contract-proposals) staffing conditions at the hospital in the past.

Her unit used to have a unit clerk who would answer the phones, stock supplies, and handle paperwork, but the hospital eliminated the position, she says. Now, she says nurses are running to answer phones, clean the break room, and pick up the tasks the unit clerk used to do. In the past, the charge nurse—often the person managing a specific hospital unit—wasn’t assigned patients, Lucio says. No longer. The added responsibility of patients means the charge nurse can’t as easily help other nurses with difficulties they may encounter. 

The hospital also used to predominantly use “sitters”: hospital employees who stay in a patient’s room for a given amount of time to keep a patient company or ensure that they stay in bed for safety reasons. But Lucio says that the hospital is relying more on virtual sitters: a person on a computer screen who watches and can talk to the patient remotely. If a patient tries to get out of bed and doesn’t listen to the virtual sitter’s instructions to get back in bed, the virtual sitter messages the nurses on duty, who then have to get the patient back in bed, Lucio says. With in-person sitters, the nurse is called less frequently because the in-person sitters can get the patient back in bed. 

“It’s gotten harder, especially after COVID,” says Lucio, who recently became so burned out that she went from working full-time to part-time. “It’s coming not so much from patients but from changes in the administration.” 

HCA, which owns Del Sol Medical Center, referred questions about staffing to a public relations team handling the hospital’s communications. In a statement to TIME responding to these examples of how staffing conditions have changed, Del Sol Medical Center said that its staffing is “safe and appropriate” and that it utilizes technology to “limit administrative tasks so our nurses can spend more time taking care of patients.” 

“Like hospitals across the nation, we are actively recruiting new nurses to join our staff,” the hospital said. “We continue to provide a competitive wage for a hospital system in El Paso, as well as support our colleagues and their families by providing a generous and flexible benefit package with benefits specifically designed to support our colleagues’ families and careers."

A [study of nearly 8,000 nurses](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38592723/) who left the profession between 2018 and 2021 found that 26% left because of burnout, and 21% cited insufficient staffing. About two-thirds left because of planned retirement, suggesting that many of the others left before retirement age.

[Data show](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12214290/) that lower staffing ratios lower nurse burnout and improve patient outcomes. In [one study of nurses at hospitals across Queensland,](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40845827/) Australia, those who worked at hospitals that followed a minimum nurse staffing policy had 24% lower odds of high burnout and 27% lower odds of job dissatisfaction. 

Minimum staffing ratios were good for patients, too; they were linked to lower mortality, a shorter length of stay, and less readmission, [according to a separate study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33989553/). The costs avoided due to fewer readmissions and shorter length of stay were more than twice the cost of the additional nurse staffing, the study found. 

“There’s really substantive cost savings,” Lasater says. 

But hospitals are often reluctant to invest in lowering their nurse-to-patient ratios. Doctors can bill for their services, making it easy for administrators to see that they bring in money, Lasater points out. But it’s harder for administrators to see that nurses have an impact on the balance sheet. Instead, hospitals treat nurses like a labor expense, she says.

Yet nurses can save hospitals money, research suggests. Generally in the U.S., insurance or government payers like Medicare pay hospitals to treat certain conditions in a patient. But if the patient stays longer than most patients with that condition do, the hospital foots the bill for the extra time. So if nurses can reduce patient length of stay and readmission, they can be [good for the balance sheet](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33989553/). 

In [one study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33655903/) of hospitals in New York state, hospitals with fewer than six patients per nurse, patients were discharged sooner and readmitted less often than they were at hospitals with seven or more patients per nurse. Had hospitals been staffed at a ratio of four patients per nurse—a ratio proposed most recently in 2025 in legislation that did not pass—an estimated 4,370 lives and $720 million would have been saved over two years, the study projected.

Yet rather than add nurses, many hospitals are paring back, sometimes turning to apps where they can hire nurses as gig workers. Such apps often allow hospitals to avoid paying for benefits for these workers, says Katie Wells, a senior fellow at the AI Now Institute, which has studied gig apps for nursing. “Lean staffing has just become the norm,” Wells says. 

The American Hospital Association argues that the issue is not lean staffing but that instead there are [workforce shortages](https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/nursing-projections-factsheet.pdf) that are projected to continue for more than a decade. 

“The growing complexity and intensity of patient care, along with overly burdensome regulatory requirements and increased administrative demands from corporate insurers, continue to place significant demands on nurses,” the association said in a statement provided to TIME.

Hospitals are also facing increased costs of caring for patients, according to a [March 2026 post](https://www.aha.org/news/perspective/2026-03-13-hospitals-face-increased-costs-caring-patients) by Rick Pollack, AHA’s president and CEO. In 2025, he writes, hospital expenses grew 7.5%, more than twice the rate of growth in hospital prices. Hospitals are also caring for patients who are sicker and whose care is more complex than it used to be, he points out. 

Some of the lean staffing can likely be attributed to the wave of private equity takeovers of hospitals in recent years. Hospitals that were acquired by private equity [reduced full-time employees staffing](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40982974/) by 11.6%, while control hospitals—those that were not taken over—increased staffing in the same time period, according to one 2025 study. The study also found that hospitals acquired by private equity reduced hospital-wide salary expenditures. 

Lean staffing has also been embraced by for-profit hospitals that aren’t owned by private equity, Wells says. About one-quarter of hospitals were for-profit in 2020, but that [share is growing](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335521000620). For-profit hospitals had “statistically significant” lower investments in nursing services, higher nurse staffing ratios, worse nurse job outcomes, and worse patient safety outcomes when compared to non-profit hospitals, one [2025 study looking at hospitals in Illinois found](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40758552/). 

A few states have mandated minimum staffing ratios for hospitals. California has had minimum staffing ratios for nurses since 2004; [research has shown](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40123204/) that hospital nurses there have lower burnout than nurses nationally. (In California, the ratios differ depending on the unit; the medical-surgical unit has a mandated ratio of no more than five patients to one nurse, for instance, while the ICU has a mandated ratio of no more than two patients for one nurse.) Oregon [passed](https://www.wsna.org/news/2023/new-oregon-law-establishes-safe-staffing-ratios) mandatory nurse staffing ratios in 2023, which went into effect in June 2026\. 

Other states have considered nurse-to-patient ratio legislation but have not passed it, though a few states require hospitals to publicly report their nurse-to-patient ratios. Other states allow hospital nurses to formally decline assignments they believe are unsafe. 

It’s one reason Lasater, the nursing professor, says that the best solution for getting more nurses to stay at hospitals is to mandate nurse-to-patient ratios by legislation. It works, she says.

“Hospitals have always had the opportunity to create better staffing conditions and to create more favorable working conditions,” she says. “They can voluntarily do this, but a large portion of them haven't.”

**Correction, August 1** 

_The original version of this story incorrectly described California's nursing mandates. The ratio is four patients per nurse in the ER, two patients per nurse in labor and delivery, five patients per nurse in the medical-surgical unit, and two patients per nurse in the ICU, rather than four nurses per patient, two nurses per patient, five nurses per patient, and two nurses per patient, respectively._

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt6d4a82e689d96e74Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:36:37 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Alana Semuels\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Putin The Puppeteer: How Russia Benefits From Trump’s War in Iran\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/putin-the-puppeteer-how-russia-benefits-from-trump-s-war-in-iran/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The War in Iran "provided the exact lifeline that Putin needed to rescue him from economic catastrophe."\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Alexander Kazakov—AFP/Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on July 29, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81e23088012fdd9f/6a6b5cc50cddc6c1a78b834a/Russia-President-Vladimir-Putin.jpg?branch=production)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on July 29, 2026\. —Alexander Kazakov—AFP/Getty Images

Regrettably, the effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s [war in Iran](https://time.com/7382631/iran-israel-us-war-explainer-trump-middle-east/), with [oil prices](https://time.com/7383060/gas-prices-iran-war-oil/) rising and Trump’s lifting of Russian oil sanctions, have been [massively helpful ](https://time.com/7383068/iran-war-russia-oil/)to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, the war provided the exact lifeline that Putin needed to rescue him from [economic catastrophe](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/west-ukraine-russia-putin-sanctions-economy-/). 

Now, Putin is providing assistance to Iran in the form of [munitions](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/from-drones-to-rocket-fuel-china-and-russia-are-helping-iran-through-supply-chains/), [money](https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/05/07/secret-document-reveals-russias-plans-to-aid-iran), and [intelligence](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-strikes-cia-facilities-prompt-questions-about-possible-russian-role-2026-07-22/), effectively prolonging the war. Reciprocally, Iran is helping Putin prolong his invasion of Ukraine. 

Puppeteers like Putin manipulate their characters’ movements by pulling several strings at once, not just one. Accordingly, Putin appears to have his hands on quite a few strings, with U.S. intelligence reports [confirming](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/us/politics/russia-iran-partnership.html) this linkage of Russia to the Mideast. For months, multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have documented Russian intelligence assistance to Iran against America.

Just last week, when [asked](https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/politics/trump-russia-iran-us-troops) about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warnings that Russia is apparently passing satellite images of American bases **to** Iran to strengthen their missile attacks, Trump [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usfe3AGg2I4), “We’ll find out if that’s true. I’ll ask Putin about it.” [Experts](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/06/russia-iran-intelligence-us-targets/) agree it’s true; but the question is whether Trump is ready to confront Putin about it. Perhaps that’s why he decided to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptors, and endorsed the Russian sanctions bill. 

Putin’s assistance to Iran comes as he is reaping windfalls from higher oil prices. Until these higher prices bailed him out, Putin had been overseeing a seeming Russian economic collapse, as we [documented extensively](https://time.com/7261449/putin-donald-trump-russia-ceo-essay/) before with the Russian economy [imploding in plain sight](https://time.com/7209350/trump-putin-sanctions-russia-us-economy/). Foreign direct investment in Russia has fallen from [$100 billion a year](https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/ceos-dont-want-to-return-to-russia-because-they-know-its-bad-business) to close to zero, amidst the exodus of over [1,000](https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain) global businesses. Now, Putin is running enormous deficits, with few countries stepping up to fund that debt. Meanwhile, Russia’s [domestic productivity](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/30/russias-civilian-industry-downturn-accelerated-in-early-2026-think-tank-says-a92380) is weak; between [700,000 and 1.5 million](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/05/russias-emigre-tech-workers-eye-jobs-at-western-firms-as-moscow-clamps-down-on-working-abroad-a84749) skilled tech workers have fled the country; and oligarchs have spirited out billions in assets amidst drastic capital outflows. 

As a result, Putin was quickly [running out of cash](https://yale.app.box.com/s/tarci24pfo7j5goyxhal8d55ss928fbe), and the value of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and rainy day reserves was [plummeting](https://yale.app.box.com/s/tarci24pfo7j5goyxhal8d55ss928fbe). Then, higher oil prices provided a fresh windfall for Putin to stave off collapse. Indeed, with Trump’s [lifting](https://time.com/article/2026/03/13/trump-europe-russia-oil-sanctions-iran-war/) of certain sanctions on Russian oil, some analysts now [estimate](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-oil-gas-revenue-seen-up-60-yy-july-2026-07-23/) that Russia is on pace to [double](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/world/europe/russian-oil-revenues-doubled.html) its annual oil revenues.

While windfall profits are helping Russia stave off economic collapse, Putin keeps throwing the living room furniture into the furnace to fund the war effort, cannibalizing all productive sectors and relying on unsustainable, record deficit spending, all directed towards the war. This has fueled rampant consumer inflation across sectors amidst rising [consumer unease ](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/07/24/russian-central-bank-warns-of-higher-inflation-as-it-lowers-key-rate-to-14-a93329)and usurious [14% interest rates](https://www.reuters.com/business/russian-central-bank-cuts-key-rate-by-25-bps-14-ukrainian-drones-hit-economy-2026-07-24/). 

It is paradoxical, but not entirely surprising, that Putin is failing in his own bloody gambit for territorial expansion with [hundreds of thousands](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g44gprnnvo) of his own people killed and his own economy in tatters; yet he continues to hold sway over other leaders. No matter what Putin lacks, he extends this malevolent influence through manipulation befitting his background as a KGB operative, the puppeteer manipulating many strings at once, sparking diversionary fires and then pouring gas on the flames continually to distract from his own many problems.

It’s clear Russia is the single most important ally to Iran in their shared conspiracy against global peace and prosperity. According to many intelligence reports, in addition to [passing](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/07/27/8046150/) on sensitive intelligence to Iran about U.S. military installations in the region, Russia is systematically upgrading Iran’s aging, pre-1979 military [infrastructure](https://mei.edu/policymemo/russias-wartime-support-for-iran/) as its single largest external source of weaponry. As of mid-2026, [Moscow has completed](https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-finalises-deal-buy-russian-fighter-jets-tasnim-2023-11-28/) production of advanced Su-35 fighter jets and helicopters for Tehran, augmented by deliveries of Yak-130 combat trainers, Mi-28 attack helicopters, and hundreds of long-range air-to-air and anti-radar missiles. Furthermore, in 2022, Moscow helped launch Iran's high-resolution [Khayyam satellite,](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russian-rocket-successfully-launches-an-iranian-satellite) and Russian forces routinely [transfer](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/10/politics/russia-iran-ukraine-weapons/index.html) captured Western weaponry from the Ukrainian frontline—including Javelin and Stinger systems—directly to Iranian defense firms to be reverse-engineered and cloned for Tehran's proxy networks. Simultaneously, Russian telecommunications firms are [supplying](https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-supplies-iran-with-cyber-weapons-as-military-cooperation-grows-1c0c6600) Iranian operators with advanced digital surveillance and cyber warfare technologies.

But all this is hardly a one-way street for Putin, as Russia has also [benefitted](https://apnews.com/article/russia-iran-drones-shahed-war-israel-ukraine-840b4f885d99714bdb7813c0d56213cf) from Iranian Shahed drone technology. These mass-produced, cheap drones are capable of wreaking disproportionate havoc on much costlier Western defense systems, and now Putin has been directly manufacturing these Shahed drones [inside](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/08/17/russia-iran-drone-shahed-alabuga/) Russia using transferred Iranian manufacturing technology and blueprints. Similarly, Iran has also benefitted from easing sanctions and higher oil prices nearly as much as Putin, with oil windfalls providing up to [$60 billion](https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/deal-gives-iran-chance-to-turbocharge-its-oil-revenue-5b481eb6) in annual sales—and that’s in addition to up to the [$300 billion](https://time.com/article/2026/06/22/jd-vance-donald-trump-iran-peace-talks-congress-nuclear-strait-of-hormuz/) the White House agreed to in the most recent [agreement](https://time.com/article/2026/06/17/us-iran-peace-deal-agreement-leaked-draft-text/) with Iran. 

As Russia and Iran deepen their unholy alliance, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Mideast cannot be viewed as separate and isolated problems. Rather, they are part of the same global conflict, which is increasingly fueled by the same supply chain—a supply chain that is similarly tied back to the diabolical evil of Putin as a cynical mastermind and puppeteer. Treating peace negotiations in the Mideast as separate from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will only lead to more trouble to come. 

We may be seeing a growing recognition of this as Trump advocated adding Iran to the Russian sanctions bill, and Ukraine hit an Iranian ship carrying military supplies to Russia in the Caspian Sea. But much more needs to be done to suffocate the supply chains that sustain Putin’s power, by re-enforcing existing sanctions and passing the new comprehensive sanctions bill proposed by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham alongside Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. It was encouraging to see this new set of sanctions ratified [overwhelmingly](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/us/politics/senators-russia-sanctions-bill-graham.html) with an 88 to 12 vote by the U.S. Senate yesterday with Zelensky smiling from above in the Senate Galley seats while colleagues celebrated the memory of their late colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham. Now the House must act. The E.U. can likewise [do much more](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/west-ukraine-russia-putin-sanctions-economy-/) irrespective of Trump, as we wrote previously, as the E.U. has been shamefully stepping up its purchases of Russian natural gas and oil.

All the evidence points in a single direction and toward a single unassailable truth: as President George W. Bush [memorably](https://time.com/archive/6665744/the-axis-of-evil-is-it-for-real/) warned in 2002, there is an [“axis of evil”](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html), and Vladimir Putin remains one of, if not its, most centrifugal hub, from which much anti-American mischief and malevolence spew.

Winston Churchill’s 1940 “[Finest Hour](https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/their-finest-hour.html)” speech before the House of Commons rallied his nation’s resolve through his clear-eyed warning of Adolf Hitler’s ability to leverage the control of industry of the occupied lands he exploited. 

Rather than consult Putin for his advice, it is time for Trump and his E.U. partners to reinstate sanctions and rally military defenses against the Russian puppetmaster Putin.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt15fac114208194f6Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:22:37 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, John Herbst, Thomas Kolditz, Cedric Leighton and Steven Tian\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Can Studying Daily Life Help Us Envision the Future?\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/how-studying-daily-life-can-help-us-envision-the-future/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[“Shrinking of room around ordinary choices” shapes what the future will look like, argues Frank Diana.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[MirageC—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta976750ba451740d/6a6b58ae9c6b674d66ae57d0/Magnifying-Glass.jpg?branch=production)

 —MirageC—Getty Images

The morning begins before anyone is fully awake. One parent is packing lunches while the other is answering a work message from the kitchen counter. A child cannot find a shoe. The school app says the bus is delayed. A phone buzzes with a reminder about a prescription refill for an aging parent, followed by another message from the care aide asking whether anyone can confirm the afternoon appointment. The day has barely started, and the family is already negotiating between school, work, care, money, time, and the small emergencies that do not look serious enough to be called emergencies.

Nothing about the scene looks unusual. That is [part of the problem](https://time.com/6694092/exhaustion-increasing-causes-essay/). It looks like [modern family life](https://time.com/7016463/busyness-status-symbol/): busy, stretched, familiar, and manageable because someone keeps managing it. The parents move through the day like runners in a relay race that never quite ends. School drop-off gives way to meetings. Meetings give way to [eldercare calls](https://time.com/7304510/seniors-long-term-care-costs/). Eldercare calls collide with a sick-child pickup, dinner, laundry, bills, homework, and the quiet work of getting everyone ready to do it again tomorrow. No single moment breaks the family. Each demand is ordinary enough to explain away. Together, they begin to take up the room that a future would need.

Late that night, after the house finally settles, one parent opens a drawer and sees an old baby photo. For a moment, the noise of the day gives way to something softer. There had been conversations about another child. There had been a name they liked, a space they imagined making, a version of the family that still lived somewhere in the mind. Then the phone lights up again. A calendar alert. A payment reminder. A message about tomorrow’s schedule. The parent closes the drawer, opens a pregnancy-planning app, looks at it for a few seconds, and closes that too.

The family did not stop wanting a child. Daily life ran out of room. 

These are the kinds of moments that [shape the future](https://time.com/article/2026/03/12/can-you-predict-the-future/). They do not always arrive as an announcement or a breakthrough. They often arrive as a shrinking of room around ordinary choices. A family still appears to function, but the effort required to function has changed. Work still happens, care still happens, school still happens, bills still get paid, and dinner still finds its way to the table. Yet underneath that visible continuity, the old arrangement is carrying more than it was built to carry. The future does not first appear as a grand prediction. It appears as pressure inside the day.

We often talk about the future as if it sits somewhere ahead of us, waiting to arrive. But many futures begin earlier than that. They begin when familiar systems keep their shape while losing some of their fit, when people absorb more complexity than the official story admits, and when choices that once felt open become harder to hold, not because people lack desire, discipline, imagination, or responsibility, but because the conditions around those choices have changed.

For years, I have been troubled by a gap in the way we talk about the future. We can describe possible worlds with confidence. We can imagine new technologies, new institutions, new markets, new risks, and new ways of living. We can tell powerful stories that help people see beyond the immediate problem in front of them. Those stories matter. They stretch imagination and widen attention. But they often leave unanswered the question that matters most: how does a possible future actually form, and where can people still act before it hardens?

I know that gap from the front of the room. For more than 16 years, my writing has been a thinking laboratory for these questions, and for much of that time I have spoken with executives, boards, students, and communities about the forces reshaping the world around us. The stories often landed. People would tell me a talk helped them see the world differently or made the future feel closer. But I watched too many audiences leave inspired and still uncertain, sensing that change was coming without seeing what was already under pressure, where that pressure was moving, or where their own choices still mattered.

The future does not usually arrive as a finished condition. It forms in the middle, between the strain people can already feel and the larger consequences that have not yet become obvious. That middle is where workarounds become expectations, where private effort becomes part of how systems keep functioning, and where old rules keep operating even after the world around them has changed. It matters because action still has room there. Once pressure hardens into price, policy, habit, infrastructure, or culture, the choices narrow.

The family at the kitchen counter is one way to see that middle. Their story is not simply about household stress. It shows how the old logic of family life is being asked to carry more than it once did. Work, care, money, time, aging, and the desire to build a future are not separate pressures inside that home. They arrive together, and the family has to make one life out of them. The private decision is real, but the pressure around it is systemic.

This is what makes the current moment so difficult to read. Transitions do not move neatly through the categories we use to manage the world; pressure crosses them, changing role as it goes, and by the time the official language catches up, people may already have been living with the change for years.

The next transition is forming through that movement. It is not an [artificial intelligence](https://time.com/article/2026/06/06/why-ai-agents-are-the-next-great-technological-transformation/) story alone, or a [climate story](https://time.com/7381633/climate-change-energy-security-debate/) alone, or a [demographic story](https://time.com/7303332/the-issue-with-living-longer/) alone. Each of those matters, but none explains the whole moment by itself. What matters most is how these forces begin to interact, and how much load they place on systems built around older assumptions. When enough pressure moves at once, the operating and organizing logic of an age begins to lose its fit.

Every age has such a logic. Most people do not experience it as a theory. They experience it as the background of life: how work is organized, how families are supported, how knowledge is trusted, how institutions make decisions, how risk is absorbed, and how people are expected to build a life. For a long time, that background can feel natural. Then the world changes around it, and what once made life manageable begins to show its limits.

That is how an age gives way. Not all at once, and not because everything collapses. The old structures often remain visible. The question is not whether they still exist. The question is whether they still carry the world they are being asked to support. When they do not, people feel the mismatch first as effort. They spend more time navigating, proving, coordinating, adapting, waiting, caring, and explaining. The system appears to hold because people keep holding it.

_Adapted with permission from_ [_Inside the Next Transition: Seeing Systemic Change Before Pathways Harden_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H97NP5Q2) _by Frank Diana._

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt60769c27433903ecThu, 30 Jul 2026 14:00:38 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Frank Diana\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The Surprising Perimenopause Condition That Can Freeze Your Shoulder\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/what-is-frozen-shoulder-syndrome/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Adhesive capulitis—or "frozen shoulder"—is a painful, debilitating condition primarily affecting women of perimenopausal and menopausal age.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images)\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac7f5df8f25638dd/6a594d323411caeba9a0a31d/Frozen_Shoulder.png?branch=production)

 —Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images)

When Liz Gumbinner first noticed a twinge in her right shoulder, she assumed she’d pulled a [muscle](https://time.com/article/2026/04/20/how-to-tell-if-you-are-losing-muscle/). It was during the [pandemic](https://time.com/tag/covid-19/), when many exercise studios were closed, and Gumbinner, a writer who teaches advertising at Boston University, had been doing a lot of [yoga](https://time.com/7279553/why-yoga-is-the-best-practice-tony-sanchez-essay/) and [dance](https://time.com/collections/guide-to-exercise/4828793/dancing-dance-aerobic-exercise/) at home. 

But the [pain](https://time.com/4527808/how-to-treat-your-pain-without-drugs/), mild at first, gradually became excruciating, shooting down her arm whenever she extended it. “We're talking worse than labor contractions,” she says.   
  
Pretty soon, Gumbinner couldn’t zip up a dress, turn off a light switch on the wall, or even hold hands with her boyfriend. The only way she could [sleep](https://time.com/article/2026/07/28/what-to-do-when-you-cant-sleep/) was flat on her back with her arms at her sides. “That's when I realized it wasn't a pulled muscle,” she says.   
  
A few months later, she was diagnosed with adhesive capulitis, colloquially known as “frozen shoulder,” a condition in which the shoulder capsule—a fibrous sheath which surrounds the joint—becomes thick and inflamed. It usually develops in three phases: the freezing stage, which can last several months and cause severe pain; the frozen stage, during which the shoulder becomes stiffer and difficult to use, often for up to a year; and the thawing stage, when mobility finally begins to improve. 

In most cases, frozen shoulder is not caused by an external injury or trauma, says Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein, a sports medicine specialist and associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Duke University. Instead, patients often experience a sudden, spontaneous onset of pain, “and they’re kind of wondering, ‘What could I have possibly done to my shoulder?’” she says.

## Women in mid-life are most at risk 

Frozen shoulder affects around [2-5%](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532955/) of the population, and occurs more frequently in women, predominantly those from [ages 40 to 60](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/frozen-shoulder-adhesive-capsulitis). It’s also more common in people with endocrine disorders, like [diabetes](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9815013/) and [thyroid disease](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7458737/).

During [perimenopause](https://time.com/7019600/perimenopause-signs-symptoms/) and [menopause](https://time.com/tag/menopause/), the loss of estrogen—which plays a key role in protecting musculoskeletal tissue—can lead to inflammation and loss of elasticity throughout the body. This hormonal shift can also cause [metabolic changes](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9606939/), making women more susceptible to thyroid disease and diabetes. 

“There's likely a [combination of things](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41156183/) going on,” says Wittstein. “There's withdrawal of estrogen and the effect on the joint lining, but there's also probably some endocrine changes happening.”

Gumbinner, who hit perimenopause during the pandemic, had never heard of frozen shoulder before. “Here we are, with yet another ailment that impacts middle-aged women that gets no attention,” she says. 

Women who are being treated for breast cancer are also “a special at-risk population for frozen shoulder,” Wittstein says. Many take a kind of hormone therapy called aromatase inhibitors, which drastically decreases estrogen and can [cause joint and muscle pain](https://www.uofmhealth.org/our-care/specialties-services/breast-cancer/aromatase-inhibitors-musculoskeletal-symptoms-aimss). 

## Early diagnosis can be crucial

The earlier you catch frozen shoulder, the easier it can be to resolve, Wittstein says. “If you get into where you have really significant loss of motion, not just the early loss of motion, it takes longer to get better,” she explains.

The problem is that if you’re unfamiliar with the condition, you might mistake it for something else.

**“**We call it ‘the great mimicker,’ because it can look like everything,” says Dr. Stephanie Wong, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at UCSF. “It looks like a rotator cuff tear, it looks like biceps tendonitis.”

That’s why it’s important to get evaluated by an [orthopedic surgeon](https://time.com/article/2026/05/15/orthopedic-surgeons-healthy-aging-habits/) or shoulder specialist as soon as possible. “It’s a very straightforward diagnosis for us,” Wong says. The giveaway, she explains, is that not only will the patient be unable to move their arm during a physical exam, but another person won’t be able to either. “So when I try to raise your arm up, your arm is literally frozen,” she says. 

An X-ray or MRI can be helpful in ruling out other conditions, Wong says, but “it’s really a clinical diagnosis.” 

## New treatment may be on the horizon 

The standard of care for frozen shoulder is physical therapy and anti-inflammatory injections into the joint; the majority of people get better with these interventions, Wong says, though “it can just take a really long time.” Most people recover within one to three years, and requiring surgery is rare, she adds: “We reserve that for the very stubborn cases.”   
  
Though there isn’t yet enough definitive research to demonstrate that hormone therapy (HT) can help prevent or treat frozen shoulder, the clinical benefits are promising, says Wittstein, who is currently exploring the link; she recently presented new data on more than 10,000 women at the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine suggesting that HT is associated with a reduced risk of developing frozen shoulder.

At UCSF, the orthopedic and ob-gyn departments are also [investigating](https://clinicaltrials.ucsf.edu/trial/NCT07278323) whether HT reduces the course of frozen shoulder, which Wong hopes will give women another treatment option. “It’s just so disappointing to have things be chalked up to perimenopause or menopause, and you have to suffer through it,” she says. 

It’s important, Wittstein says, to recognize that [some women](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/well/menopause-hormone-therapy-breast-cancer.html), including [many breast cancer survivors](https://www.bcrf.org/about-breast-cancer/hrt-breast-cancer-risk/), may not be able to use HT. “There’s this huge group of women who take a double hit,” she says. “They get early menopause from chemotherapy or they get aromatase inhibitor-associated musculoskeletal syndrome, and then they can't use this medication.”

## What to do (and not do) 

Physical therapy for frozen shoulder focuses mainly on stretching and manual therapy, which [may differ depending on what stage you’re in](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5917053/), and can often cause discomfort. That’s why it’s important to do it under the guidance of an experienced physical therapist, says Dr. Ariana Lott, an orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone who specializes in sports medicine. 

“It’s really hard for patients to do these kinds of movements by themselves,” she says, because “it hurts.”   
  
In terms of regular exercise and activity, “I hate to restrict people,” Wong says. “I always say, unless I think it’s really going to do you harm, do whatever’s in your realm of comfort. So if you want to do some light weights, totally fine. If you don’t feel up to that, also totally fine.”

The one thing she cautions patients against doing is immobilizing their shoulder by wearing a sling. “Generally, we worry about that making it more stiff,” she explains. 

Lott reassures her patients that they didn’t cause their frozen shoulder, which she says they can find freeing. “A lot of people place blame, like, ‘Oh, it’s because I did this or I didn’t do this,’” she says. “And it's like, ‘No, actually this is nothing that you did. And we can fix it. It's going to be a long process, but you can't blame yourself, too.’” 

For Gumbinner, that process is still ongoing. After her original right-side pain finally resolved, it resurfaced again in 2024, this time on the left. Multiple steroid shots, along with heating pads and ibuprofen, have provided stretches of reprieve, but almost two years later, she’s still dealing with it.   
  
“I can work around it, but it’s not ideal,” she says. “I just want to be able to slip on a dress again without a whole gymnastics routine.”

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltf62887d0541f5b45Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:35:39 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Holly Burns\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Read the Full Transcript of TIME’s Interview With Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/venezuelan-president-delcy-rodriguez-interview-transcript/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The acting Venezuelan president sat down for a rare interview at Miraflores Palace in Caracas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Fabiola Ferrero for TIME\]\]><!\[CDATA\[TIME correspondent Eric Cortellessa interviews the Acting President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, on June 16, 2026 at the Miraflores Palace.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39dcbecaef79ff25/6a6a548ad15efce51d88e947/2I6A6699-Edit.jpg?branch=production)

TIME correspondent Eric Cortellessa interviews the Acting President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, on June 16, 2026 at the Miraflores Palace. —Fabiola Ferrero for TIME

Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez sat down with TIME for an interview at Miraflores Palace in Caracas on June 16.

Rodríguez discussed the U.S. raid that captured her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro; her relationship with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Venezuela's economic future; and the prospects for a socialist autocracy to transition toward democracy.

Below is the transcript of Rodriguez’s interview with TIME Senior Political Correspondent Eric Cortellessa, lightly edited for clarity: 

**TIME: We're in a transitional moment, perhaps a transformational moment. How would you describe your vision for Venezuela, post-Maduro?** 

Rodríguez: I prefer not to label political moments. January 3 marked a turning point for Venezuela. Personally, I felt it was a time of great change. The first thing to change was the political landscape. We needed to seek a new Venezuela, to correct the mistakes of the past so we could move forward into the future. I believe that is the main focus: to drive economic transformation to address the most pressing needs of the [Venezuelan people](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/trump-rubio-rodriguez-earthquake-venezuela/). So all this political and economic change, which seeks to meet socioeconomic needs, is paving the way for a new political era in the country. My daily work leads me to believe that there is a bright future for Venezuela. We’ve accomplished a great deal in just a few months. The reform of laws, legislative changes, and changes in the criminal justice system, and for me, the flagship moment—the program for democratic coexistence and peace—seeks to build a different kind of society. It aims to steer Venezuelan society away from hatred and intolerance and toward a time of understanding and coexistence rooted in diversity. That’s how I see the present and the future. 

**We’ll get into a lot of the points you just raised. Where were you the day of the** [**Maduro raid**](https://time.com/7342941/venezuela-maduro-bombing-trump-delta-force/)**, January 3, 2026?** 

I was meeting with him until 8 p.m. Then I left for Margarita Island, where my brother and my nephews were. I arrived at Margarita at 11 p.m. The attack took place at 2 a.m., but I was worried because my oldest niece and my mom were in Caracas. 

**How did you find out about it? What was your reaction?** 

My first reaction was that I was keeping a close eye on the radars, and before the attack happened, I saw many planes and called the person in charge of one of the posts of the vice president. If I’m completely honest, we never thought the capital of the country would be attacked, much less imagined what happened to the president and the first lady at that moment. 

**What do you say to people who suggest that you might have known in advance about the attack?** 

No. There’s absolutely no way to say that because I’m telling the truth. 

**When and how did you learn that you would be Venezuela's interim president? Take me into that moment where you realize you're going to take over?** 

First, I have to say that we went through a moment of great anguish when we thought they had killed the president and the first lady. And then there came a moment when we learned that they were taking him to the United States—that changed the situation completely. At that time, I spoke with a leader from another country and he told me ‘Now the responsibility rests on your shoulders, and you have a responsibility to preserve Venezuela.’

**Who was that leader?**

The Emir of Qatar. 

**Wow, interesting. Did he reach out to you? How did that conversation happen?** 

No, I sent him a message because I was worried about the situation. 

**And he was in touch with the Trump administration?** 

As I understand it, yes, his prime minister held talks with the government of the United States.

**Do you consider Maduro to be the legitimate president of Venezuela today, even in absence or do you think it's time for the country to move on?** 

I am the acting president because I was the executive vice president under President Nicolás Maduro. 

**Do you still consider him the legitimate president though?** 

The thing is, I’ll repeat the answer I gave you. It’s within the constitutional framework of a legitimate president who had an executive vice president, and in a situation like the one that arose, which is identical, it falls to me to assume the role of acting president. 

**I understand. You spent decades as one of Maduro's closest allies. What do you say to those who say, who believe, that your government represents not a break from the Maduro government, but its continuation? What do you say to those Venezuelans?** 

Look. Sai Baba. Do you know who Sai Baba is? You know who Sai Baba is? 

**I don't.** 

He is a religious figure. He says that holy acts are known more by the hands that act than by the lips that pray. I believe it’s clear that there’s a different Venezuela. There’s a change that’s evident regardless of whether I say it, you say it, or anyone else says it. There are new laws, there’s a program for peaceful coexistence, there have been significant releases, and there’s an amnesty law. I believe there is a process of transformation underway. Venezuelan society itself is different from what we experienced in the past, and I say that this should be recognized by its actions. This is different than we have in the past. 

**What in your view was Maduro's greatest mistake?** 

We should have been more open geopolitically. As I said in my first actions as acting president, we are moving toward a new relationship with the United States, and I believe that Venezuela’s international relations should be more open and diversified. I also understand that there was a lot of pressure on Venezuela. So I think that was a mistake. 

**Interesting. So the mistake was that he left Venezuela too internationally isolated? And that's part of what you're correcting, it seems like, with these relationships forged with other nations?** 

I am working in good faith and with trust. We must build trust in international relations. 

**Last question on Maduro. Tell me about your final conversation with him? What was it like? What did you talk about? And have you been able — we'll have a quick follow up.** 

My last meeting with him took place, and I’ve said so publicly, we discussed the economic plan for the year 2026, taking into account that Venezuela was under a naval blockade. During the month of December and part of January, Venezuela was unable to sell a single barrel of oil. So we were working hard with the economic team, and that was what I presented to him. 

**Have you been able to have any communication with him since he's been in American federal prison?**

Very little communication.

**But you have spoken? You have had communication?** 

No. I’ve received some messages.

**He sends emails or letters or—how?** 

No, no, just with the lawyers.

**And have they told you anything of importance? What have they shared?** 

He sees what is happening in Venezuela as very positive. 

**How many people are currently imprisoned for political reasons in Venezuela? There's a recent report that says it’s down to 389\. Is that true?** 

On the subject of—quote ‘political prisoners’ unquote, it’s a topic with far too many different versions. We passed an amnesty law to address political violence from 1999 to the present. For example, in 2002, there was a coup against President Chávez. In 2014 and 2017, there were very violent protests; people were burned alive, motorcyclists had their throats slit, health centers were set on fire, schools were set on fire. Before the amnesty law, nearly 900 people were released, and with the amnesty law, nearly 9,000 people were released—more than 400 of them with full freedom, while the rest were subject to court-ordered reporting requirements. In parallel with the amnesty law, there has also been a process of granting relief to those who cannot benefit from the law, and there are more than 500 such people. 

**Just so I understand, more than 500 people have been released since the amnesty law?** 

No, roughly 9,000 under the Amnesty Law; of those 9,400, some were granted full freedom—physical freedom—while the rest were individuals subject to court appearance requirements. However, in addition to the amnesty law, there are more than 500 people who benefited from the law but were not eligible for its provisions. 

**Would you allow an international body to audit those cases?** 

Definitely. I asked the Human Rights Commission about it. 

**And would you commit to releasing all political prisoners, not the ones who committed violence you described, but people who are in prison because of their political beliefs or positions?**

The fact is, no one is imprisoned for their political beliefs—for example, those who used a drone to \[try to\] assassinate the president. The drone incident is a well-known, widely reported public fact. That is not a political belief—attempting to assassinate a head of state or planting a bomb in a public square. In other countries, this is considered terrorism and cannot be regarded as a political belief. 

**When will Venezuela hold elections?** 

Venezuela will hold elections when it is ready to do so. And if you think about what I said earlier, after January 3, we had to change our policy. Why? Because there are extremist groups that called for military aggression against Venezuela, and the Venezuelan people—especially those who experienced the attack first hand—felt a great deal of fear. The mothers who feared for the children, the children who were simply afraid. And that’s when I realized we had to change our political approach—that we had been mistaken in our policies—and that’s why the program for democratic coexistence and peace is, for me, fundamental. Because it must lead us to a different political reality where extremists don’t believe that violence is the path to political power, and where we, as a government, recognize that we have political opponents and that those differences will be resolved at the ballot box. 

**You spoke about this but I just want to clarify. What exactly has to happen for those elections to be held? You have to eliminate the threat that you were just describing? What is the criteria for—now we are ready? What has to happen for Venezuela to be ready?** 

I feel that moment will come when all of the country’s political actors reach an understanding and we can tell the nation that we, as politicians, are ready. I always say Venezuela as a country is much greater than the differences among politicians. I would ask young people what they think of politicians, and I hope that the people of Venezuela—the citizens—truly believe that politics is what can help them overcome many challenges in their daily lives. 

**What do you say to those who worry that this is sort of a recipe for endless procrastination?** 

I’ll say it again for you. January 3 marks the beginning of a new political era, and we’re all shaping that era together. For example, the Coexistence Program has already held meetings with more than 30 economic, political, and social sectors across the country. It doesn’t depend on any one person. In this case, it doesn’t depend on any one woman. I hope we can build it together. 

**When that day comes, would you allow international organizations, the EU, the United States, to monitor the elections?** 

The Venezuelan electoral process must, first and foremost, be a national process. Venezuela has a tradition of having international observers in its electoral process, but that international observation must be respectful of the country. It should not involve groups that come to make decisions on behalf of the country.

**So the answer is yes, but with the caveat that they have to respect your national control and sovereignty over the election. Will you run?** 

I don’t know. 

**Let's talk for a moment about María Corina Machado. Will you allow her to return to the country?** 

Look, I believe that Venezuela belongs to all Venezuelan men and women, and there will come a time, and I dream of that time, when Venezuela will not have a single sanction in place, a time when we can all come together. Extremism has cost the country dearly. From a congressman who proclaimed himself president of Venezuela and spoke of Venezuela’s assets as if they were the King of England, to those who called for sanctions and this invasion. We have to move onto a new political era. 

**So it sounds like the answer is no.** 

No. My question isn’t—my answer isn’t no. My answer was that there will be a political moment when coexistence and peaceful coexistence will be possible. And that this political moment will not involve economic sanctions against Venezuela. 

**Would she be allowed to run for president?** 

I believe, and I’ll say it again, that the situation in Venezuela goes far beyond who participates in an election. The most important thing isn’t who participates. The most important thing is the groundwork we’re laying for this new political approach. 

**Let's move onto the economy. Exciting topic. Venezuela's oil sector has been opened to private investment for the first time after years of state control. Would you say the model of state control over the Venezuelan economy is effectively over?** 

The economic blockade has led Venezuela to adopt innovative mechanisms for private-sector participation. We have incorporated new business models, but our constitution provides for private property and private participation in investments. The legal reforms have been aimed at increasing the return on investment and also providing greater legal certainty. We have just signed a new agreement with Repsol to expand its presence in Venezuela, and I’m going to share some data with you that will be useful for us. According to the International Energy Agency, 80% of the world’s oil wells are in decline, and 90% of global investment is directed toward halting that decline. But here’s the most important fact: Venezuela has 303 \[billion\] barrels of oil reserves. But of those 303 \[billion, many\] are green fields, which means that Venezuela represents one of the most significant opportunities for the world’s future energy. That is why my proposal to President Trump and the U.S. government was to develop a long-term energy agenda. 

**Well we're going to certainly get to that in just a moment. But tell me in a story, you become interim president, all of a sudden now there's all this opportunity, potential, for oil investment, how did that begin? How did you get started on having these kinds of agreements and driving in this kind of foreign investment?** 

I was also set to become the minister of hydrocarbons, and I had all these ideas in mind to attract more investment to the country. It was pointless to have those reserves if we couldn’t guarantee benefits for the people of Venezuela, and that’s why we were able to pass the reform of hydrocarbons law so quickly, as those investments that are about to start flowing into the country will translate into income for workers in healthcare, education, and public services. I am very hopeful that everything we are signing, which has been quite a lot, will have a positive impact and bring great benefits to the country. 

**Beyond oil, what is your strategy for rebuilding an economy that saw millions of Venezuelans emigrate? And then to that point, what would you say to the Venezuelan engineer or doctor living in Miami, about why they should come back?** 

Look, I’d like them to come back today. I set up a registry so that young professionals and entrepreneurs who want to join this economic initiative can sign up there. More than 56,000 young Venezuelans have registered in just one month, and right now the system is routing those who want to start a business to the “Emprender Juntos” program. We’re collecting data on professionals to make it available to the companies we’ve partnered with. We’re working toward Venezuela in 5, 10, 20 years. Venezuelan migration was an economic migration. Venezuela has always welcomed immigrants, nearly six million Colombians arrived in Venezuela, and Venezuela has always been welcoming and has incorporated and integrated Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Ecuadorians, and Colombians. I want those migrants to return to Venezuela, which is why I was telling you that this country belongs to all Venezuelan men and women. I was a migrant for 10 years, but the country always calls you back. 

**Can Venezuela diversify beyond oil or will it always remain an energy state?** 

Venezuela has an economy with great potential due to its diversity—not only in the area of hydrocarbons such as oil, but also natural gas, which will allow us to develop the petrochemical industry, which will have a major impact on the national economy. But we also have mining operations with some of the largest reserves of gold and diamonds. We have iron reserves sufficient for 350 years, and we have aluminum. In other words, Venezuela possesses a very significant diversity of minerals. We also have water for agriculture, millions of hectares available for food production, and a tourism sector that we would like to develop. Venezuela boasts a diverse range of landscapes, including deserts, plains, snow, beaches, mountains, forests. 

**Of course a big mark of progress where you got commercial flights to and from the U.S. Made life easier for me, certainly.** 

Trading, too. Retail. The United States is a key driver of digital retail commerce.

**I want to talk about the** [**U.S.-Venezuela relationship**](https://time.com/7344628/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-oil-drugs-war-explainer-questions-answered/) **and work that you're doing with the Trump administration. Can you explain—let's just start with oil and then branch out—how the U.S. is managing Venezuela's oil reserves? What exactly is the agreement that was reached after you took over for Maduro?** 

The most important thing is that companies from the United States are returning and arriving. The first hydrocarbon operation in Venezuela took place 114 years ago. It was the New York and Bermúdex Company, an American business. We’re not doing anything out of the ordinary. Chevron has been in Venezuela for over a century. What’s happening here is that companies that were here in the past are returning, but also new companies are arriving. Halliburton, for example, has returned. 

**Haliburton came back. Can you give me two or three of the new ones?** 

Oof. There’s a lot. Haliburton is a good company. It’s significant that companies that attended the meeting with Trump are here. But there are also companies that came with Secretary Burgum and Secretary Wright. We are currently negotiating 30 agreements. 

**Is this done with the government's cooperation?** 

We are always in communication and dialogue.

**Well it's not just energy, oil, and trade. It’s also security. Recently, the U.S. and Venezuela participated in a joint operation to kill a leader of the Tren de Aragua gang. Can you just tell me: How did that come about?** 

It was not a joint. It was a combined … Well, it was a joint operation. What are we combining? Intelligence information, and on the ground, we have our security forces. The important thing is that there are opportunities for joint cooperation—joint cooperation against drug trafficking, for example, against transnational organized crime. That is very important to us, so I believe, and as we said, we congratulate the officials who participated in this operation. 

**So you supplied intelligence to the United States that helped them locate—**

And vice versa. 

**And vice versa. Your forces were on the ground but the United States authorized an airstrike.** 

Yes

**Obviously, Tren de Aragua is a big preoccupation of President Trump’s. Should we be expecting more of this kind of cooperation?** 

Look, we have, I repeat, anti-narcotics cooperation with European countries, such as France. We’ve also spoken with Colombia. 

**Will you and the Trump administration continue to target more of Tren de Aragua together?** 

Yes… it’s also transnational, but again, that’s nothing out of the ordinary. It’s just part of judicial, police, and security cooperation with other countries. Mexico and the United States have cooperation agreements. 

**I'm not saying it's unusual. I'm saying it's a factor in terms of bringing people back to Venezuela, getting tourism, because obviously security is a concern for many people. Another Latin American leader who has driven down crime and opened up their economy, President Bukele in El Salvador. Are you considering adopting any of the tactics he has to reign in gangs and violence?** 

As for what has been done in El Salvador, I’d rather not comment on other countries. I’ll just say that I wish things were different in Venezuela. 

**How often do you speak with Secretary Rubio? My understanding is that you both talk a lot. What are those conversations like?** 

As many times as necessary. 

**Why do you think he took such an interest in Venezuela?**

Well, we’re talking about a country that is a major player in the hemisphere. And what I see is that Secretary Rubio is interested not only in Venezuela, but also in the rest of the countries in our continent. He serves as secretary of state and is responsible for international affairs, that is the world. I was foreign minister and \[unintelligible\].

**Tell me about the first time you spoke with President Trump?** 

I think it was January 4, but I don’t remember. 

**What did he say to you? Tell me about that conversation?** 

He was very kind and very respectful, for which I am grateful, and from the very beginning, during my first conversation with President \[Trump\], I asked that our relationship be based on mutual respect. 

**What did he say?**

He responded respectfully. We discussed how diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States could be established and what areas of common interest might be identified. 

**And what were they? What was the path of establishing diplomatic relations?** 

Look, I think we’ve moved quickly because just a few days later—I think 12 days later—the first Chargé d'Affaires arrived for two hours, and then Barrett arrived, who I think has been here for five weeks and has been very active as well. Just like the former Chargé d'Affaires, and our diplomatic staff who went to the United States and are currently here. 

**Yeah well the United States' relationship with Venezuela right now was unimaginable a year ago. What changed?** 

I’m starting out by acting in good faith and trusting that these relationships can develop in good faith; and on the side, there’s a very full cooperation agenda that needs to be addressed. 

**Do you and President Trump have a personal rapport, relationship now? and what has surprised you the most about him in private?** 

I’ll say it again. He was straightforward when we spoke. Let me give you an example. One morning, Secretary Rubio called me and said ‘I’m going to put you on the line with someone who wants to say hello.’ It was President Trump, calling to tell me that he was going to approve commercial flights to Venezuela. So everything was very specific and focused on our agenda for work and cooperation. 

**I want to get into your legacy. But are you worried if a Democrat wins the next election and reverses Trump's Venezuela policy, what happens to your strategy for the country's future?** 

Look, my current and future strategy has always been to ensure peace and tranquility in the country—tranquility and social and economic wellbeing. I try to ensure that another country’s domestic policy does not affect Venezuela, and I hope that Venezuela does not become a pawn in any other country’s political agenda.

**If Hugo Chavez were alive today, do you think he would recognize the Venezuela that you're building?** 

Yes, absolutely. He maintained relations with the United States—for example, the country’s largest oil exports went to the United States—and there was cooperation on security matters. So Chávez always—and this is enshrined in the constitution—promoted the coexistence of the public and private sectors, and most importantly, the program of social protection and social and economic support for the people.

**And so when you look back over all broadly with the Chavez era, do you feel pride, regret? Both? How do you look back?** 

I think Chávez left a very important legacy during the Fourth Republic, large segments of the population–espeically the poorest—were excluded from the country’s political and social life. And I believe that is the legacy Chávez left Venezuela through the Democratic Coexistence” program. I have said that today everyone can sit at the table—on the republican side, that is–so now it’s up to us to bring everyone together.

**So what from the Maduro-Chavez era do you want to keep and what do you want to get rid of?** 

Look at the social protection programs. They show that the Venezuelan government is looking out for those who need it most, that there’s room for all of us here, and that just as the economic sectors are supported, so too are the most vulnerable. Let me give you an example. No one could explain how, in an economy that contracted as severely as Venezuela’s, such immense efforts were made to guarantee food for the most vulnerable—for 4 million families truly impacted by the economic blockade. In 2020, during COVID, Venezuela had no access to its financial resources, yet we administered 70 million doses of free vaccines to the population. I believe in a country where the president or government officials do not consider themselves the owners of the country. I believe in a Venezuela for everyone, regardless of who is here. 

**Final question because I know you have to go. What is the single hardest decision you've made since taking office? And what does success look like for your presidency five years from now?** 

I think the cooperation that we’re receiving has made me very happy to sign agreements with the company IMPSA, and General Electric makes me very happy to negotiate with them because you can’t imagine the relief the people will feel when their electricity service is up and running, regardless of the political dynamics. The people of Venezuela will feel the impact of what’s being done. This makes me happy. 

**Thank you. I appreciate your time.** 

Thank you. 

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt7b3256d133c3721eThu, 30 Jul 2026 11:00:07 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Eric Cortellessa/Caracas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[How Delcy Rodríguez Went From Maduro Loyalist to Trump Proxy\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/venezuelan-president-delcy-rodriguez-interview/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The acting president of Venezuela insists that she is not surrendering Venezuelan sovereignty but opening the country’s economy in the best interests of its people.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Fabiola Ferrero for TIME\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez on June 16, 2026 at the Miraflores Palace.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ac9f870764ca3ed/6a6a5425160b3c5b57a6d5ca/2I6A6730-Edit-2.jpg?branch=production)

Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez on June 16, 2026 at the Miraflores Palace. —Fabiola Ferrero for TIME

Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president of Venezuela, conducts the nation’s business out of the Miraflores Palace, a 19th century neoclassical mansion in the heart of Caracas. Gilded portraits of Simón Bolívar and [Hugo Chávez](https://time.com/archive/6643245/end-of-the-revolution/) gaze down on the ornate halls. Birds chirp in the manicured gardens. An unusually tight security detail shadows Rodríguez’s every step. The caution is understandable: Not long ago, the U.S. sent a Delta Force unit into her predecessor’s residence on a nearby military base to [seize the man](https://time.com/7342941/venezuela-maduro-bombing-trump-delta-force/) she had served for years.

Which may help explain Rodríguez’s careful manner. She speaks regularly with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State [Marco Rubio](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/marco-rubio/), and her English is nearly flawless. Yet when she sits down with TIME for a rare interview with an American media outlet, she summons a translator. I suggest it would be easier to speak in English. 

“When I do interviews, I like to do them in Spanish,” she says.

“I’m not sure that’s best for this one,” I say. 

“It is best for me,” she replies with a faint smile.

It’s easy to understand her strategy. Speaking through an interpreter slows the conversation and gives Rodríguez greater control over the words that ultimately reach the page. It is the instinct of a disciplined operator who has spent decades in one of the world’s most unforgiving political systems—and who is now navigating an extraordinary diplomatic moment.

A socialist stalwart who rose through Chávez’s inner circle before serving for years as Nicolás Maduro’s second-in-command, Rodríguez, 57, was among the most recognizable faces of a movement largely defined for decades by its hostility toward the U.S. Today, she is the steward of a remarkable rapprochement with Washington. In exchange for U.S. support, she has allowed Trump and Rubio to turn Venezuela into a de facto vassal state, giving them an unprecedented [degree of influence](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/us/politics/how-marco-rubio-runs-venezuela.html) over her country. 

In an hour-long interview, Rodríguez insists she is not surrendering Venezuelan sovereignty but opening the country’s economy in the best interests of its people. “I’m starting out by acting in good faith and trusting that these relationships can develop in good faith,” she tells me. “My current and future strategy has always been to ensure peace and tranquility in the country—tranquility and social and economic well-being.”

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb8d523bf70ba5c0/6a6a60ad0782373b774ded67/TIM260817-Venezuela-Cover-FINAL.jpg?branch=production)

[_Click here to buy your copy of this issue_](https://magazineshop.us/venezuela)  

The nation Rodríguez now governs is not the same country that existed before the raid that captured Maduro. Before his fall, Venezuela was in stark decline: riddled with corruption, teetering on economic collapse, and ruled by an authoritarian who the U.S. and independent international observers say stole his 2024 election. Hyperinflation had wiped out citizens’ savings. Oil production, the lifeblood of the economy, had plummeted after years of graft, underinvestment, and sanctions. Nearly [8 million Venezuelans](https://www.unrefugees.org/news/venezuela-crisis-explained/) had fled, fueling the largest migration crisis in the history of the western hemisphere. Rolling blackouts, water scarcity, crumbling hospitals, and shortages of food and medicine had become routine. Once among Latin America’s wealthiest nations, Venezuela had devolved into one of its poorest.

Since Rodríguez’s [ascension in January]( https://time.com/7344628/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-oil-drugs-war-explainer-questions-answered/), signs of recovery have begun to emerge. Construction cranes have reappeared over parts of Caracas. Store shelves are fuller. Dormant oil fields are stirring back to life. American companies—including [ExxonMobil](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/world/americas/exxon-venezuela-oil-trump.html), ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, and GE Vernova—have returned or begun negotiating new investments. Commercial flights between the U.S. and Venezuela [have resumed](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-resumes-commercial-passenger-air-service-venezuela-2026-04-30/) for the first time since 2019\. The dollar circulates openly. Foreign executives, diplomats, and investors are filling hotels—the lobby of the JW Marriott is now a gathering place for oil executives, while at the more exclusive Cayena Caracas, impeccably dressed financiers and government officials mingle amid polished marble and soft jazz, discussing exploration rights, infrastructure contracts, and Venezuela’s future.

All this has come at a price. Under an arrangement [overseen by Rubio](https://time.com/7344479/venezuela-oil-rubio-trump/), the U.S. has become deeply involved in Venezuelan state affairs. In an arrangement described to TIME by three senior U.S. and Venezuelan officials, the U.S. Secretary of State supervises the framework governing Venezuela’s oil revenues and public finances, effectively administering a joint fund that gives Washington influence over everything from how the country’s export earnings are allocated to the reopening of the energy sector to preferential treatment for American companies. Rubio and Rodríguez are in near daily contact through phone calls and WhatsApp messages, officials say. Rodríguez consults him on domestic appointments, including her selection of a Defense Minister, according to three officials familiar with the arrangement. “Basically, you have what they call the Rodrígato operating,” says James Story, a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela under Presidents Trump and Biden, describing an arrangement in which Rodríguez’s government remains in power while carrying out Washington’s strategic priorities. “They are doing everything that we ask them to do.”

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15326701f7e761d0/6a6b59cc94f3fd209d5d10f8/GettyImages-2254061778.jpg?branch=production)

U.S. President Donald Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe (L) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio monitor U.S. military operations in Venezuela, from Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club on January 3, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. —Molly Riley—The White House via Getty Images

Washington and Caracas now cooperate on intelligence and counternarcotics operations too. In June, the partnership resulted in [the killing](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp36z37knlko) of Niño Guerrero, the leader of the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua, at his compound in Venezuela’s Bolívar state. Rodríguez says Venezuela supplied the intelligence that located Guerrero and deployed forces on the ground, enabling the U.S. airstrike. “The important thing is that there are opportunities for joint cooperation,” she tells me. “Against drug trafficking, for example, and against transnational organized crime. That is very important to us.” Thousands of political detainees have been released under an amnesty framework encouraged by the U.S., while negotiators continue hammering out dozens of additional economic agreements.

Venezuela has become a case study of Trump’s ability to reshape the world in pursuit of his own priorities, unbound by the diplomatic conventions that restrained his predecessors. He launched an extralegal campaign of force and coercion, beginning with strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats and culminating in the capture of a sitting head of state, who was brought to the U.S. to face drug and weapons charges. Maduro is now in a [federal jail ](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/22/nicolas-maduro-court-us-drug-trafficking-case)in New York City, replaced by a subservient successor the Trump Administration believed would comply with American interests while preserving stability in Caracas.

Small and slender, dressed in tailored suits and oversize glasses, Rodríguez projects the demeanor of a technocrat rather than a firebrand. Cooperation with the U.S. has allowed her to consolidate power during a period of tremendous upheaval. The bargain is as brazen as it is fragile, and the leverage runs both ways. Over two decades, Rodríguez established herself as one of Chavismo_’s_ indispensable figures. There is no guarantee another leader could sustain such an arrangement—or would choose to align Venezuela with Washington rather than Beijing or Moscow.

For Rodríguez, the role requires a delicate balancing act. Few Venezuelans mourn Maduro’s departure after years of oppression and economic collapse. But relief at his ouster has not translated into enthusiasm for his successor. To many, she is more sellout than savior. But her future rests less on public affection than on her ability to satisfy Trump’s demands, and to convince citizens that becoming a client state of a despised foreign power is in the national interest. 

When a [major earthquake](https://time.com/article/2026/06/25/venezuela-earthquake-doublet-magnitude-casualties-explainer/) struck Caracas in June, killing [more than 5,000 people](https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-earthquakes-deaths-d32eecaceabe88b93670e27accabfea2) and causing an estimated $6.7 billion in damages, the new relationship with Washington produced dividends. The State Department assembled a $300 million [reconstruction package](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/world/americas/earthquake-venezuela-haiti-us-aid.html), and the U.S. Southern Command provided military support for the relief effort. An aide to Rodríguez points to moments like that as proof that the bargain can be a boon, even as Venezuelans criticized her for taking too long to address the catastrophe publicly, waiting eight days before holding a press conference.

Whether the arrangement will ultimately improve the lives of ordinary Venezuelans or merely enrich a privileged elite remains unclear. Rodríguez has taken few steps to institute democratic reforms. “Millions of Venezuelans that want to come back are only going to do it if they are certain that their rights will be respected,” says María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who won the [2025 Nobel Peace Prize](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2025/summary/) for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and now lives in exile. To Machado, who was barred from running in Venezuela’s most recent elections, Rodríguez has capitulated to Washington in pursuit of power and self-preservation. “She’s willing to give away anything she’s asked for—anything,” Machado says. “That’s the way those that have committed crimes reason.”

Rodríguez rejects the criticism. “I try to ensure that another country’s domestic policy does not affect Venezuela,” Rodríguez tells me. “I hope that Venezuela does not become a pawn in any other country’s political agenda.”

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafc48e44339aaf87/6a6b5a676465516a973cf2f6/AP26023846053153.jpg?branch=production)

This image from video provided by U.S. South Command, shows a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean shortly before it was destroyed by the U.S. military, killing two and injuring one, on Jan. 23, 2026\. —U.S. Southern Command/AP

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c4a28479f293ed5/6a6b5a7a0b7a7ed986964bc8/h_16446042.jpg?branch=production)

Nicolas Maduro, the ousted president of Venezuela, is escorted off a helicopter en route to the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Monday morning, Jan. 5, 2026\. —Vincent Alban—The New York Times/Redux

As we sit in a room of polished marble and gold leaf, Rodríguez recounts the chain of events that propelled her to power with the soft, measured cadence of someone accustomed to exercising authority without raising her voice. On Jan. 2, she recalls, she met with Maduro to discuss Venezuela’s economic plans and the ongoing [naval blockade](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gej5ezyypo) the U.S. had imposed since December. Afterward, she flew to Margarita Island, the Caribbean resort off Venezuela’s northern coast, where her brother and nephews were vacationing. She arrived around 11 p.m., only a few hours before the frantic phone calls began.

In the early hours of the morning, U.S. military units infiltrated Maduro’s compound inside the Fort Tiuna military complex as he slept. They found him in his pajamas, arrested him, and whisked him and his wife out of the country. “We went through a moment of great anguish when we thought they had killed the President and the First Lady,” Rodríguez tells me. “Then we learned they were taking him to the United States. That changed the situation completely.”

One of Rodríguez’s first calls was to an unlikely figure: Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, with whom she had cultivated a relationship. “‘Now the responsibility rests on your shoulders,’” Rodríguez recalls him saying. “‘You have a responsibility to preserve Venezuela.’”

According to Rodríguez and U.S. officials, Qatari officials helped arrange a conference call between her and Rubio on the afternoon of Jan. 3\. “Is Maduro alive?” she asked. Rubio assured her he was; to prove it, U.S. officials sent photographs of him in a jumpsuit aboard a helicopter en route to New York. The Secretary of State then delivered an ultimatum: meet U.S. demands or face continued military pressure. Rodríguez agreed. An aide says she saw no viable alternative. “If I’m completely honest,” Rodríguez tells me, “we never thought the capital of the country would be attacked, much less imagined what happened to the President and the First Lady.”

She spoke to Trump for the first time the following morning. “We discussed how diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States could be established and what areas of common interest might be identified,” Rodríguez says. Trump wanted access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, seeing them as a way to increase global supply, lower energy prices, and strengthen the U.S. economy ahead of the midterm elections. But he delegated the logistics to Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, for whom uprooting leftist regimes in Latin America is a long-standing priority. As Secretary of State, he suddenly had an opportunity to pursue that ambition. 

Under the agreement, the U.S. would receive the proceeds from most Venezuelan oil exports and then disburse the money back through Venezuela’s banking system. The structure, one senior U.S. official explains, would function like an escrow account: Washington would release funds only as Caracas met agreed-upon conditions. By controlling the flow of revenue, the U.S. would gain leverage over how the money was spent while limiting corruption and the influence of rival foreign powers. In return, Rodríguez would remain President, buoyed by an influx of American investment and the economic benefits of renewed integration. The Trump Administration saw it as a straightforward trade-off: political stability in exchange for economic oversight, energy access, and the strategic realignment of one of the world’s most resource-rich countries.

---

One morning a few weeks later, Rodríguez received an unexpected call from Rubio. “I’m putting you on the line with someone who wants to say hello,” Rubio told her. It was Trump. According to Rodríguez, the President told her he was pleased with her cooperation following the Maduro extraction. As a reward, he said, the U.S. would restore commercial flights to Venezuela. By April, American Airlines resumed service between Miami and Caracas. In May, United Airlines launched flights from Houston.

Trump’s fixation on Venezuela had grown since his return to office. He dispatched Rubio to El Salvador to broker an unprecedented agreement with President Nayib Bukele. As part of Trump’s mass-deportation campaign, the U.S. transferred hundreds of detained Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, drawing fierce criticism from human-rights groups and immigration advocates. Trump justified the move by saying the migrants were members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang he portrayed as the embodiment of the border crisis. 

The situation intensified when intelligence reports allegedly indicated vessels departing Venezuela were transporting drugs toward the U.S., Administration officials say. Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed Trump to respond with a campaign of military strikes against the alleged drug-smuggling boats, according to two senior White House officials. Trump authorized the strikes, hoping military pressure would compel Maduro to dismantle trafficking networks, crack down on criminal gangs, and open Venezuela’s vast oil sector to American investment. When Maduro was captured, U.S. boat strikes had killed more than 100 people over the course of 10 months, according to Just Security; as of June 21, the number of deaths has more than doubled, with 215 killed in 66 strikes. Many legal experts argue that the strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels violated both international law and the limits of presidential war powers under the U.S. Constitution. “One state is only really supposed to use force against another state when that other state has committed an armed attack against it or threatened imminent armed attack against it,” says Scott Anderson, a former State Department official and national-security law expert at the Brookings Institution. 

But while Trump saw a chance to secure access to Venezuela’s oil reserves, Rubio saw an opportunity to remake the balance of power in the western hemisphere. Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller soon joined the effort. Increasingly eager to expand his portfolio beyond immigration into national security, he viewed Venezuela as the point where those issues converged. Miller argued limited military pressure would never change Maduro’s calculus, a senior White House official tells TIME. He pushed for a more aggressive approach. (Miller declined to comment for this story.)

As Rubio, Miller, and their advisers continued briefing the President on the boat strikes, they emphasized Venezuela’s growing importance as a platform for American adversaries, including Cuba, Russia, and China, which had deepened their foothold through oil, military and intelligence cooperation, and economic support. “The type of influence that existed in that country is incompatible with U.S. interests,” a State Department official says. Senior U.S. officials were determined to change Maduro’s behavior—or remove him from power. “Our objective was simple: persuade Maduro to sever those relationships,” the State Department official adds. “He was unwilling to do that.”

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05fb298dca0a2b33/6a6b5afb87ccc52d174554de/h_16480449.jpg?branch=production)

Oil tankers at the Cardon refinery in Punta Cardon, Venezuela, on Jan. 29, 2026\. —Adriana Loureiro Fernandez—The New York Times/Redux

According to the State Department official, the Administration persuaded Turkey to offer Maduro safe harbor if he agreed to leave Venezuela peacefully. He refused. “The inflection point was in December, when we sent him an offer via the Turks, and the offer basically was, if you leave the country permanently to Turkey or some other acceptable place, we’ll leave you alone, but you’ve got to leave the country,” another State Department official says. “He basically ignored it. He had multiple off-ramps where he could have left and lived happily ever after somewhere else, giving us the opportunity to work with someone else inside the government to make those changes. Instead, he posted silly videos of himself dancing and singing.”

That “someone else,” Rubio believed, was Delcy Rodríguez.

---

Rodríguez was born into one of Venezuela’s most politically committed left-wing families. Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was a student leader of the Revolutionary Left Movement. He was arrested, tortured, and killed by government security forces in 1976, when she was just 7 years old. His death became a defining event in her life. Alongside her older brother, Jorge Rodríguez—who heads the National Assembly—she was raised in the ideology of the Venezuelan left. Trained as a lawyer, she followed in her father’s footsteps, rising through Chávez’s government before becoming one of Maduro’s closest confidants. She served as Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, in role in which she became one of the regime’s most combative international defenders, denouncing U.S. sanctions while strengthening ties with Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba. In 2018, Maduro elevated her to the vice presidency. 

But international diplomats viewed Rodríguez as a technocrat rather than an ideological hard-liner. “She was seen as a more pragmatic figure,” says Christopher Hernandez-Roy, a Latin America expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They picked her with a gun to her head, but she seemed to understand the country’s economics, and she had long been deeply involved in its oil sector. That’s obviously one of the Administration’s highest priorities—the recovery of Venezuela’s oil industry.” Rodríguez had long advocated for greater economic openness. She had also been responsible for attracting foreign investment and rebuilding relationships with international energy companies. According to multiple officials, Rubio concluded that Rodríguez was a realist with a grip on the levers of government, and who would be willing to meet Washington’s demands.

Rodríguez argues the relationship has already reaped benefits for the country. During the Maduro years, Chevron had been the only major U.S. oil company to maintain a significant presence. Now it may be joined by ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Halliburton. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are negotiating more than 30 agreements that would give American firms a foothold in Venezuela’s energy sector. “The most important thing is that companies from the United States are returning and arriving,” Rodríguez says.

The shift reflects the carrot Trump has dangled: renewed access to American capital and global markets. The bet is that economic integration can induce geo-political alignment after decades of Chavista rule. It’s not yet clear, though, how much of this influx of capital has reached ordinary Venezuelans. Reliable polling remains scarce under the country’s authoritarian system. Venezuelans celebrated Maduro’s removal in large numbers, but many remain wary of Rodríguez, viewing her as someone who abandoned the cause to which she had devoted her political career. “The Venezuelan people don’t miss Maduro, right?” an aide to Rubio tells TIME. “They fully recognize that he was a bad actor and a destabilizing influence. The oil was tremendously valuable to the people of Venezuela. It was stolen by very corrupt elites and used to pay off massive debts to China, Cuba, and others. No more.”

To some Venezuelans, however, Rodríguez is a new face for the same regime. She spent years helping administer a government accused by international investigators of widespread human-rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killings. “She was part of a regime that systematically violated human rights,” says Diego Area, an expert on Venezuelan politics at the Atlantic Council. “She comes from normalizing practices that are considered crimes against humanity.” 

---

**For all the changes** under way in Venezuela, the biggest one—a transition to genuine democracy—still appears distant. Rubio sees it as part of his mission to rid Latin America of its remaining socialist autocracies and lay the groundwork for Venezuela to one day hold a legitimate election and complete a democratic transition, according to a State Department official. At his behest, Rodríguez’s government enacted an amnesty law in February covering political violence from Chávez’s rise in 1999 through the present. (The law includes those accused of participating in the 2002 coup attempt against Chávez and individuals implicated in violent unrest in 2014 and 2017.) Venezuelan authorities say roughly 9,000 detainees have been released since the passage of the amnesty law. Rodríguez says she is prepared to have the process independently reviewed. During our interview, she says she has asked the U.N. Human Rights Office to audit the releases, arguing that outside scrutiny will confirm the government’s compliance with its commitments.

But there are few signs that Venezuela is moving quickly toward free and fair elections. “Trump’s not focused on democracy building,” says Story, the former ambassador to Caracas. “If anything goes bad, it increases instability and further erodes the chance of companies coming in and making investments. That’s the fear.”

Rodríguez expresses little urgency either. “Venezuela will hold elections when it is ready,” she tells me. “There are extremist groups that called for military aggression against Venezuela, and the Venezuelan people—especially those who experienced the attack firsthand—feel a great deal of fear,” she says, referring to the country’s competing power centers and the persistent risk of political violence.

But when will that moment come? What conditions must exist before Venezuela holds open elections? “I feel that moment will come when all of the country’s political actors reach an understanding and we can tell the nation that we, as politicians, are ready,” she says, skirting the question. Rodríguez says she would welcome international election observers, provided they respected Venezuela’s sovereignty.

When I ask whether she intends to run for President herself, she pauses. “I don’t know,” she says.

Then I ask the question that hangs over every discussion of Venezuela’s future: Would Rodríguez allow Machado to return and compete? Rodríguez sidesteps it. “We have to move on to a new political era,” she says.

“So the answer is no?” 

“My answer isn’t no,” she replies. “My answer is that there will be a political moment when coexistence and peaceful coexistence will be possible.”

The answer doesn’t mollify Machado. “I understand the U.S. government decided to start with the process of stability, but in order to make that sustainable, you certainly need legitimacy,” she says. “They fear an election because they fear the people, they fear popular sovereignty. They know what the Venezuelan people desperately desired.” Rodríguez’s halting response to the tragic earthquake, Machado adds, “exposed the true nature of the regime: its lack of humanity, its display of infinite corruption and incompetence.”

For Rodríguez, everything comes back to survival. “She needs to follow the guidance of the U.S. government, which at some point will include renewing democratic institutions and rules,” says Area. “She will do it not because of her democratic commitment, but as a means to achieve her political objectives.”

That would be not simply surviving politically, but creating conditions under which she—and perhaps Chavismo itself—can survive after power. She wants guarantees that she—a woman whose father was killed by the state—can remain in Venezuela without fearing imprisonment or retribution from a future government. “That’s what survival means for her,” Area says. “To make it so the system will be stable and able to govern itself, which will potentially include her being able to participate in the new Venezuela. It’s about survival.”

For now, Rodriguez is keen on reintegrating the nation into global markets: diversifying the economy, attracting long-term foreign investment, and ensuring that Venezuela’s prosperity no longer depends on a single commodity. The day before our interview, executives from General Electric sat across from Rodríguez discussing ways to modernize Venezuela’s aging electrical grid.  
(General Electric did not respond to a request for comment.)

Whether these ambitions survive Trump’s presidency remains uncertain. Current U.S. foreign policy is animated by the application of leverage, economic incentives, coercion, and transactional dealmaking to draw former adversaries into America’s orbit. Venezuela’s future will depend not only on Rodríguez’s ability to manage the relationship with her current counterparts, but also on whether Trump’s successor embraces the strategy or chooses another path. 

As our interview comes to an end, we wander through the sunlit gardens of the palace. I tell Rodríguez I’m flying home the next day, connecting through Miami on one of the newly restored commercial routes. She smiles. Pretty soon, she says, I can skip the layover. “Maybe next time,” she says, “fly from Washington to Caracas.” _—With reporting by Leslie Dickstein_

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt7f64436a1395c279Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:00:04 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Eric Cortellessa/Caracas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Why Iran Cannot Fight a Forever War\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/iran-america-hormuz-forever-war/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Iran has disrupted global energy supplies and imposed costs on the United States and its allies, but it is not clear how it can remain in a permanent state of war.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Fatemeh Bahrami-Anadolu via Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Iran displays Zolfaghar and Qadr missiles alongside a model of a mini submarine at Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran on July 24, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt103cb5d9b33bdccb/6a6b0bfb0cddc627a38b71d0/GettyImages-2286809317.jpg?branch=production)

Iran displays Zolfaghar and Qadr missiles alongside a model of a mini submarine at Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran on July 24, 2026\. —Fatemeh Bahrami-Anadolu via Getty Images

The United States and Iran are again at war. The renewed conflict is not about Iran's nuclear program or regime change, but over the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of the world's oil must pass.

For two weeks, American missiles [have struck](https://time.com/article/2026/07/16/war-america-iran-trump-hormuz/) Iran. In turn, Iran has retaliated against American allies: Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. Four U.S. soldiers have been [killed](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/us/politics/pentagon-casualties-iran-war.html) and 142 wounded; at least 53 Iranians [have been ](https://www.isna.ir/news/1405043119054)killed and 592 injured since July 6\. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)[ claimed](https://farsi.anf-news.com/rwzhhlat-kwrdstan-ayran/byanyhhay-spah-w-artsh-drbarh-hmlat-phpady-bh-paygahhay-amryka-dr-kwyt-105549) to have destroyed an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic in the strait has slowed to a trickle and oil prices have jumped again.

The ceasefire and[ the initial agreement](https://time.com/article/2026/06/19/iran-united-states-agreement-nuclear-program-war-israel-lebanon/) signed on Jun. 17 lasted barely three weeks, undone by rival readings of a deliberately vague text. Washington wanted free navigation in Hormuz restored; Tehran insisted that it was the master of the strait. When traffic resumed, ships and tankers avoided the mined central route of the strait and hugged its southern coast close to Oman under American protection or sailed along the northern coast of Hormuz close to Iran, where it levied a “toll” for safe passage.

On July 7, the IRGC fired on ships defying routes designated by Iran; American airstrikes followed. Three days later, on July 10, President Donald Trump notified Congress that[ the war](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-sends-congress-formal-notice-that-iran-conflict-has-resumed-2026-07-13/) between the U.S. and Iran had resumed. Iran[ formally suspended](https://www.tasnimnews.ir/fa/news/1405/04/27/3650188/%D8%BA%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%A8-%D8%A2%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%87%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A2%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%82%D9%81-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%85) the agreement,[ citing](https://www.irna.ir/news/86203656) strikes, sanctions and Israel's operations in Lebanon.

The costs are mounting. For decades, maritime traffic from Saudi Arabia, whose eastern border sits on the Persian Gulf, has passed through Hormuz to reach the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Since the closure of Hormuz, the Kingdom has been moving roughly[ four million barrels](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/business/energy-environment/red-sea-saudi-arabia-houthis.html) a day—around four times its pre-war volume—through the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, along its western border.

But the Red Sea has a chokepoint of its own: the Strait of Bab al-Mandab, at its southern end, off the coast of Yemen, which connects it to the Gulf of Aden and the broader Arabian Sea. On July 20, the Houthis, Iran’s allies in Yemen, declared a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia at Bab al-Mandab, invoking “[an eye for an eye](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/20/yemens-houthis-declare-naval-blockade-of-saudi-arabia-what-to-know).” They have already struck [two](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpw9xzx9r4ko) Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. With the chokepoints of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab now contested simultaneously, the Gulf's energy systems face an unprecedented strain. 

American strikes have targeted Iran’s southern coastline and the approaches to Hormuz, with inland strikes largely reserved for the missile bases that allow Iran to reach the U.S. bases across the region. Its intensity is lower than the 40-day military campaign that preceded it, and it is an open-ended campaign: a war of attrition fought over a waterway. This is, for now, a bilateral contest, with Washington keeping Israel outside the frame for as long as Iran refrains from striking Israeli territory directly. 

American objectives have contracted to reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Having survived the war and denied the U.S. and Israel their stated aims, Iran now regards the outcome as a victory and is working to shape and cement its terms. 

### **Why Iran thinks it has won**

Iran has managed to impose significant human and material costs. The war has already cost the U.S. more than [$37.5 billion](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-war-iran-has-cost-375-billion-so-far-pentagon-says-2026-07-21/), 18 U.S. service members[ have been](https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5992132-pentagon-iran-war-casualties-top-600/) killed and 624 have been injured. Wartime learning, intelligence and technological [cooperation](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/from-drones-to-rocket-fuel-china-and-russia-are-helping-iran-through-supply-chains/) with Russia and China, and better access to satellite imagery have markedly improved Iran’s missile and drone strike accuracy. And Iran has been able to rattle the global energy markets by closing the Strait of Hormuz, weaponizing a chokepoint that offers continuous leverage over the global economy.

Iranian strategists are aiming for something more ambitious:[ raising the cost](https://www.amerikanets.com/p/debasification) of hosting American forces until the U.S. thins out its regional military presence. The U.S. has indeed moved some military assets away from the Persian Gulf toward Jordan and Israel. American radars, bases and surveillance systems across the Arab states also function as early-warning systems for Israel. Iran’s concentrated attacks on those systems in March and April likely improved its ability to attack Israel with its long-range missiles.

Tehran seems to hope that a combination of its control of Hormuz and the coercive power of its drones and missiles would make the Gulf states reluctant to host U.S. forces and facilitate military operations against Iran. That instead, the Gulf states would seek security arrangements with the Islamic Republic.

Iran is also tailoring its approach to different Gulf countries: it has no appetite for a direct war with Saudi Arabia, so the Houthis in Yemen carry the Saudi file. The Houthis imposed their embargo on the Bab al-Mandab Strait on July 20, days after Iranian officials signaled that the strait would close if American strikes on Iran’s infrastructure continued. The Houthis had[ their own reasons](https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/07/houthi-red-sea-blockade-will-collective-maritime-security-be-defended-or-break-down)to move, especially Riyadh’s[ siege of Yemeni ports](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/20/yemens-houthis-declare-naval-blockade-of-saudi-arabia-what-to-know?) and a military[ strike](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/yemen/yemen-saudi-arabia-air-strike-sanna-airport-houthi-rebels-rcna587273) on Sanaa airport. But either way, Tehran gained a second strategic chokepoint.

Intense Iranian attacks on Kuwait are the[ lesson](https://www.yjc.ir/fa/news/9111023) intended for every Gulf state hosting U.S. forces. Kuwait facilitated American strikes on Iran from its territory, and Iranian drones have answered by striking the power and desalination plants that Kuwait depends on for roughly 90% of its drinking water. The strikes on Kuwait are also aimed at degrading a potential staging ground for a potential U.S. ground operation in southern Iran.

What this strategy lacks is a clear account of how Iran would convert wartime leverage into a durable political settlement. Tehran has shown how it can disrupt global energy supplies and impose costs on the U.S. and its allies, but it is not clear how it can remain in a permanent state of confrontation with America and the Gulf states. 

### **Iran, America, and the limits of force**

The first challenge Iran faces is the asymmetry of pain thresholds. American credibility is on the line, but Iranian territory is being hit hard. Year-on-year inflationin Iran reached an astonishing[ 88.6%](https://www.euronews.com/business/2026/06/30/irans-inflation-spiral-deepens-as-rial-slides-and-tensions-rise) by late June.In southern provinces, which are facing the brunt of the renewed conflict,[inflation](https://www.rokna.net/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%DB%8C-95/1232981-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A8-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B2%DB%8C%D8%B1-%D9%81%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AC%D9%86%DA%AF-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%85-%D9%87%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%B2%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D8%B1%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%AF-%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A2%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%85%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D8%AF%D9%86-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%AA) has crossed 101% in Hormozgan**,** 99% in Khuzestan, and 96.5% in Bushehr. Iran’s[ energy ministry](https://www.irib-news.ir/fa/news/5847940) has asked the citizens to ration electricity in extreme heat as American strikes strain the electricity grid. The Islamic Republic [crushed](https://time.com/7357635/more-than-30000-killed-in-iran-say-senior-officials/) a nationwide [uprising](https://time.com/7362290/iran-uprising-collapse-islamic-republic/) in January, has an economy in free fall, and is fighting a war with America. Its most dangerous front may prove to be the domestic one.

Iran’s coercion of the Gulf states may produce the very coalition it fears. Attacks on Kuwaiti power and desalination plantsare pushing Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates toward closer security cooperation with each other, with Washington, and eventually, with Israel. Given the disparity in economic resources between Iran on one side of the Persian Gulf, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar on the other side, a counterbalancing bloc would hold the stronger hand over time.

The biggest challenge Iran faces: Israel’s secretive nuclear [powers](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/world/middleeast/israel-nuclear-weapons.html). Iran has been trying to destroy the U.S. surveillance and radar systems in the Gulf that serve as early warning systems for Israel. If Iran continues succeeding in degrading those early warning systems, Israel would have to confront its missiles with less warning and thinner interception depth. A more vulnerable Israel could lean harder on its nuclear deterrent. Iran’s success could turn out to be extremely dangerous.

Washington’s options are no better. Trump has promised to destroy “[one bridge or power plant](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/trump-says-u-s-will-destroy-a-bridge-or-power-plant-for-each-iranian-attack-in-the-strait-of-hormuz)” for every ship Iran fires on. A war on infrastructure would amount to war crimes by Washington, and it would not change Tehran’s calculations. Iran would retaliate against Gulf infrastructure, and the destruction would spread across states that are party to none of this. 

Airstrikes on Iran’s most sensitive nuclear facilities would also yield little. Trump has threatened to “[very heavily](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-says-u-s-will-hit-area-of-irans-pickaxe-mountain-very-heavily)” hit the area around Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified underground site near Natanz, one of Iran's primary nuclear enrichment facilities. Such an attack would produce symbolic effects and trigger Iranian retaliation against energy and other critical infrastructure in the Gulf. 

With the International Atomic Energy Agency locked out of Iran [since June 2025](https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/iaea-board-of-governors-briefed-on-ukraine-iran-and-global-nuclear-cooperation) and the fate of nearly 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium unverified, fresh air strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran would make it even harder to determine what nuclear material and capabilities remain, where they are located, and how quickly the program could be rebuilt. Subsequently, greater[ ambiguity](https://mecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/PN-13%5F25-Iran-and-Nuclear-Opacity%5FEdited.pdf) around Iran’s nuclear capabilities would make any settlement harder to negotiate and verify.

That leaves ground operations. On July 15, Trump[ reportedly convened](https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trump-leans-toward-expanding-u-s-military-operations-in-iran-6c230462) a meeting to weigh seizing Kharg Island, through which some 90% of Iran’s crude exports pass, and other territory along the strait. U.S. officials told the _Wall Street Journal_ that Trump remained reluctant to commit ground forces. The threat of a ground invasion is only a threat as long as it stays a threat. Kharg and other such Iranian islands are hard to take and harder to hold. Their occupation would sharply reduce Iran’s oil revenue, but it would not necessarily compel Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or accept American terms. Iran could respond by intensifying attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and shipping, while presenting the seizure of its territory as proof that the war had become one of national defense.

Neither Iran nor America has a credible military path to a durable settlement that ends the fighting, restores freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, and prevents another rapid return to war.Iran’s problem is the long-term cost of its current strategy; Washington’s problem is the diminishing returns on each additional night of bombing.

### **The choice Tehran and Washington have to make**

The way out runs through the initial agreement. Its basic bargain remains workable: Iran would restore freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and halt attacks on U.S. forces, while Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iran, end its air campaign and suspend the punitive measures imposed after the agreement collapsed. 

Pakistani and Qatari mediators are still working. What sank the previous deal was ambiguity: obligations without sequencing, commitments without monitoring, and no mechanism for containing an incident at sea before it became a campaign. Any new agreement will have to specify who verifies what, in what order, and what happens when a ship is hit. 

Iran faces a larger decision. It cannot strike American assets in Gulf states indefinitely while expecting those states to put up with the attacks. Tehran must choose between a region organized around coexistence and one it hopes to dominate. Bids for hegemony summon their own opposition: the counter-coalition Iran could provoke, backed by Washington and Israel, would leave it more encircled than the war that began in February ever did. That is the calculation Tehran has yet to make, and the one on which everything else now depends.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt473cff88dcc6a54cThu, 30 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Hamidreza Azizi\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Corporate America Is Getting Anxiety All Wrong\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/30/corporate-america-is-getting-anxiety-all-wrong/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Instead of trying to eliminate anxiety, business leaders and managers should help employees to use it constructively, writes David H. Rosmarin.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[kutaytanir—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95205902e1371f26/6a58dead399945a6255e768b/work-anxiety.jpg?branch=production)

 —kutaytanir—Getty Images

Most companies treat anxiety as a problem to solve. When employees feel stressed, they are offered meditation apps, mental-health days, and employee-assistance programs. These can be valuable resources. But they carry an underlying message: [Anxiety](https://time.com/article/2026/04/27/should-you-trust-your-gut-feeling-or-is-it-anxiety/) is an obstacle to performance, and the goal is to make it disappear.

I saw this mindset clearly during a recent consultation with the CEO of a midsize company. I asked what comes to mind when an employee says they are experiencing anxiety. Her discomfort was immediate, as though merely hearing the word “anxiety” activated her own.

She then named three concerns: the employee might need accommodations, benefits costs may rise, and the company could face legal exposure. Her managers, she explained, were trained not to ask too many questions about anxiety. Instead, they were supposed to document the interaction, direct employees toward support, and avoid saying anything that could create additional risk.

That may be prudent from a legal perspective, but it also reveals a problem. Corporate America is getting anxiety all wrong.

I don’t fault the C-suite for thinking this way. For much of my career as a clinical psychologist, I made a similar mistake. I was trained to regard all anxiety as a symptom to reduce, manage, or eliminate.

In reality, the word “anxiety” is used to describe two very different experiences.

On the one hand, [clinical anxiety](https://time.com/5047874/anxiety-disorder-symptoms/) is persistent, excessive, and disruptive. In professional nomenclature, these conditions are known as anxiety disorders. They interfere with work, sleep, relationships, and everyday functioning. Clinical anxiety typically requires professional treatment, workplace accommodations, or other meaningful support.

On the other hand, [most anxiety](https://time.com/6324845/anxiety-beneficial-essay/) is not a disorder at all. It is an ordinary and healthy human emotion involving apprehension we feel when an important matter is uncertain. The emotion of anxiety shows up before difficult conversations, major presentations, high-stakes decisions, and periods of change. Yes, it tends to be uncomfortable, but discomfort is not the same as a dysfunction or disorder. Fundamentally, anxiety is simply evidence that we care about what happens next.

We readily distinguish between [depression](https://time.com/6175288/depression-untreated-young-adults/), a clinical disorder, and [sadness](https://time.com/archive/6681844/when-sadness-is-a-good-thing/), which is a normal human emotion. Yet when it comes to anxiety, that nuance often disappears. We use the same word for everything from fleeting nerves to debilitating psychiatric conditions.

When companies pathologize ordinary anxiety, a self-reinforcing cycle develops. Employees become reluctant to admit they feel anxious because they fear being seen as unwell, unable to cope, or a professional liability. Managers, worried about saying the wrong thing, avoid honest conversations about emotions altogether. Leaders lose access to important information, psychological safety erodes, productivity suffers, and tensions tend to rise for all parties.

Companies have long treated emotional wellness and performance as separate agendas: one soft, the other serious. That is a false divide. When people know how to use anxious feelings well, they become both healthier and more productive.

Corporate America needs a different approach. Instead of trying to eliminate anxiety, business leaders and managers should help employees to use it constructively. 

Here are four steps that can help.

First, identify anxiety as information. When anxiety occurs, resist the instinct to dismiss it or make it disappear. Get curious. What specifically feels concerning? Is there a risk being overlooked? What does anxiety suggest is at stake?

The emotion of anxiety is not always accurate, but it is often informative. It can sharpen attention, improve preparation, and expose blind spots. The most anxious person in a meeting is often voicing questions everyone else is avoiding.

Second, employees and leaders alike should feel freer to share their anxiety with others. Of course, work should not become group therapy, and thoughtful disclosure is not the same as oversharing. But work colleagues should be able to acknowledge pressure in a grounded, professional way.

When appropriate, managers should respond to anxiety with validation: “I’m concerned about this, too. Here is what we know, what we don’t know, and how I think we should proceed.” That kind of honesty does not weaken authority or credibility. It builds trust, invites candor, and allows anxiety to move from a private burden to shared experience.

Third, embrace anxiety instead of avoiding it. Many of the best employees are anxious. I’m not talking about clinical impairment or paralysis due to fear. I mean team members who care enough to worry about quality, consequences, deadlines, and the people affected by their work. Managers should view anxiety as evidence of investment, not inadequacy.

Human Resources teams should treat healthy anxiety as a positive criterion in hiring and promotion. Constructive anxiety often signals foresight, conscientiousness, and genuine commitment when outcomes are uncertain. Those are qualities companies claim to value, but tend to overlook when they favor polished confidence over thoughtful concern.

Finally, let go of the illusion of control. This is the most important step in the age of AI. [Jobs](https://time.com/7357476/economics-of-ai-and-jobs/) will change. Industries will be disrupted. Employees and leaders alike will have to make decisions without complete information.

Leaders who pretend to know exactly what will happen may look confident at first, but this quickly becomes hubris. A healthier response is to acknowledge uncertainty, identify what can be controlled, and accept what cannot. Letting go is not resignation. It is doing our best without pretending that effort guarantees the outcome.

In a recent keynote for business managers and executives, I asked audience members to raise their hands if they had felt any anxiety during the previous two weeks. Nearly every hand went up. “Thank God,” I said, and the room burst out laughing.

The joke landed because the alternative was alarming. In this era of uncertainty, a room full of business leaders who felt no anxiety would not be a picture of perfect mental health or corporate excellence. It would have signaled disengagement, denial, or even worse, emotional numbness.

Anxiety means you are human. It means you care. And it means you are living and working in a world no one can fully predict or control.

The future of work will not belong to the people who feel no anxiety. It will belong to the people who know how to use it.

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=bltd376c6b1a9472176Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:00:04 +0000<!\[CDATA\[David H. Rosmarin\]\]><!\[CDATA\[FIFA Draws Fury Over Plan to Sell Stakes in World Cup\]\]>https://time.com/article/2026/07/29/fifa-forward-enterprise-world-cup-commercial-invest-infantino-trump-kushner/<!\[CDATA\[Sports\]\]><!\[CDATA\[A plan to open the biggest sporting tournament, in part, to private investors has drawn widespread backlash from soccer associations and politicians around the world.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Alex Pantling—FIFA/Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[FIFA President Gianni Infantino and U.S. President Donald Trump in conversation after the award ceremony during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 19, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt878aafa5d705c16b/6a69d4c4077c4365822b9331/Infantino_Trump.jpg?branch=production)

FIFA President Gianni Infantino and U.S. President Donald Trump in conversation after the award ceremony during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 19, 2026\. —Alex Pantling—FIFA/Getty Images

FIFA is considering selling a minority stake in the World Cup’s commercial rights, a plan that critics say would turn soccer’s biggest tournament into an investment asset and threaten to upend the sport.

FIFA said Tuesday that it will create a $20 billion subsidiary to house its commercial and event operations and offer external investors the opportunity to buy shares of up to 20% of the subsidiary. FIFA claims that offering minority interests to private investors would allow it to raise up to $4.2 billion that can be used to fund soccer development programs worldwide. FIFA says it would retain sole control of the enterprise and “exclusive authority” over its competitions, governance, and all regulatory and sporting decisions.

“Football is the world’s most popular sport and an extraordinary engine of human and social development,” FIFA President [Gianni Infantino](https://time.com/collection/time100-sports/2026/gianni-infantino/) said in a [statement](https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/intends-expand-football-development-funding-usd-10-billion-subject-approval-member-associations). “Parts of the game have turned that popularity into remarkable commercial value—and we celebrate that success and want it to continue, because it lifts the whole game.”

But the move has faced backlash from soccer officials, fans, and political leaders, who say it would overly commercialize the sport. Critics also fear that it could deepen FIFA’s already-controversial ties with U.S. President Donald Trump through potential investors linked to his family. The proposal comes on the heels of the 2026 men’s World Cup, which was co-hosted by the U.S. and brought in a record $12 billion in revenue for the organization.

“The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade—especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” European soccer body UEFA said in a [statement](https://x.com/UEFA/status/2082125178440401072?s=20). The organization is [reportedly](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/%5F/id/49470028/uefa-blasts-fifa-proposal-10-billion-world-cup-private-investment) planning to hold an emergency meeting this week to discuss plans to oppose the proposal, including a potential World Cup boycott.

“The close relationship between the FIFA President and the US President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football,” [posted](https://x.com/SeppBlatter/status/2082163332463661084) Infantino’s predecessor, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who was dogged by accusations of corruption and financial mismanagement during his tenure but has since become a vocal critic of his successor. “No one has the right to sell our game.”

## Plan to bring in private investors

The commercial subsidiary, “FIFA Forward Enterprise” (FFE), would consolidate FIFA’s commercial rights, including broadcast, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing, with the operational delivery of FIFA tournaments. The enterprise would raise capital from investors and significantly increase funding for FIFA’s 211 member associations, according to FIFA’s announcement. Revenue generated through FFE would also help finance increased development funding for its member associations, FIFA said. FFE has an initial implied equity valuation of $20 billion, estimated by J.P. Morgan.

The existing FIFA Forward program is budgeted to provide $8 million in development funds to each member association during the 2027-30 World Cup cycle. Under the proposal, the program would increase funding to $20 million each during the upcoming cycle, and to $22 million and $24 million each for the following four-year cycles through 2038.

Each member association would also be able to access an optional $20 million in one-off, immediate funding for special development projects through a new “FIFA Fast Forward Program.” The funding could go toward infrastructure, coaching, national teams, competitions, grassroots football, and the women’s game. That means, if the proposal is approved, member associations that opt into the voluntary program could get up to a total $40 million in funding for the upcoming cycle.

In its proposal to member associations, FIFA argued that the World Cup has been under-monetized compared to other sporting competitions, and that FFE would allow FIFA to separate its commercial operations from governance of the sport. FFE would remain a FIFA-controlled entity.

FFE would be managed by a dedicated team and board of directors, none of whom have been appointed yet, according to FIFA’s website. “The proposal does not establish a future role or compensation package for any specific individual,” FIFA said.

[Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-30/fifa-sale-plan-enraging-fans-began-with-kushner-talks-last-year) reported that the idea for FFE first arose last year during private discussions between Infantino and Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. J.P. Morgan was reportedly brought in early this year to develop a way for FIFA to monetize its media rights and pitch it to potential investors.

Thrive Eternal, a company launched by Kushner, is expected to lead the investor group for FFE. Thrive is a permanent capital investment firm created earlier this year to buy and hold minority stakes in sports teams and other iconic brands.

Kushner does not have political ties to the Trump Administration. His most recent political donation was to the Obama Foundation, according to [public records](https://www.obama.org/about/contributors/).

Investors in FFE would not have a seat on FIFA’s Council or be able to vote in FIFA’s congress. [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/28/fifa-world-cup-plans-explained-gianni-infantino-uefa-football) also reported that investors would not receive dividends from the scheme. Instead, they would potentially realise a return if they sell their stake in future, the organization said.

“Outside investors will have only a minority stake in FFE and will not play any operational role,” FIFA said in its announcement. “Equally, they ​are investing in a subsidiary of FIFA, and not in FIFA itself. For FIFA, nothing changes.”

TIME has reached out to FIFA for comment. Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Kushner, said it did not have a comment to provide at this time.

## Soccer confederations, lawmakers criticize proposal

The outline of the proposed project was shared with FIFA’s member associations in Manhattan on July 18, FIFA told the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-fifa-investors-kushner-infantino-uefa-8345e0864e3a217632733810c232b423). The final decision on the proposal will require majority support from FIFA’s member associations and approval by the FIFA council.

FIFA began the official consultation process on Tuesday, and member associations will have until Sept. 19 to decide on the proposal. FFE is “part of a democratic process, a consultation process,” Infantino said on Wednesday. “Above all, it is an opportunity but not an obligation.”

“If, and only if, it is approved by the majority of our 211 member associations and the FIFA council, it would be a FIFA-owned and controlled subsidiary,” he added.

If the proposal is approved, FFE would begin operating next year, according to FIFA.

But several of FIFA’s confederations have criticized the fact that the proposal was announced publicly before the consultation process was launched.

Some critics have also argued that the proposed financial benefit through the voluntary program to member associations creates an incentive for them to accept the broader proposal.

“Today we have learned of FIFA’s deadline to associations to support their proposals or have the one-off payout offer withdrawn. This says everything you need to know about this plan,” UEFA, which represents 55 FIFA member associations, said in a [Wednesday statement](https://www.uefa.com/news-media/news/02a7-21386623beab-40b7ac297b44-1000--further-uefa-statement-on-fifa-plans/). FIFA said that member associations will not receive ownership stakes in FFE and that the proposed funding is not an equity allocation.

UEFA was not the only soccer body to express concern about the proposal. The European soccer confederation said that it has had “discussions with many stakeholders across the game” and that there is “significant and growing opposition to FIFA’s scheme.”

CONCACAF, the confederation that governs soccer in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean and that represents 35 of FIFA’s member associations, [said](https://x.com/JacobsBen/status/2082387863438508276) it was “deeply concerned by the lack of due process,” including the fact that plans had been announced “before any discussion with the relevant governance bodies and stakeholders has taken place.”

The Football Association, England’s national football governing body, also [said](https://www.thefa.com/news/2026/jul/29/statement-fifa-world-cup-proposal-20262907) it was “deeply concerned about the lack of process and governance to get to this point, and the apparent substance and principles involved.” FA Chair Debbie Hewitt is one of FIFA’s eight vice-presidents.

The Asian Football Confederation also [expressed concern](https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc%5Fnews.html/news/afc-statement-on-the-fifa-forward-enterprise-proposal) about the proposal and said it was not consulted on it. The body, which represents 46 FIFA member associations, said it “is disappointed that a matter of such significance entered the public domain” before it was discussed “through the appropriate and established governance channels.”

It’s also not the first time that FIFA has faced backlash over a proposed commercial deal. In 2018, Infantino pursued a $25 billion deal with a consortium led by Japanese firm SoftBank that would finance an expanded Club World Cup and a new global Nations League. But the commercial package ultimately failed due to opposition. UEFA had raised concerns about transparency and said that the new competitions would threaten European tournaments.

Other sports organizations have also created separate commercial entities, including UEFA which has a joint venture with European Football Clubs to sell commercial rights to certain competitions.

 “Establishing subsidiaries is nothing new for FIFA,” the organization said on its website.

The proposal comes as relations between UEFA and FIFA have strained. UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin skipped the World Cup final after disputes with FIFA over disciplinary procedures and match operations. UEFA said FIFA had “crossed a red line” when FIFA [suspended the implementation of an automatic one-match ban](https://time.com/article/2026/07/10/world-cup-fifa-infantino-trump-us-balogun-red-card-european-lawmakers/) for U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, who had [received a red card](https://time.com/partner-content/prediction-markets/red-card-reversal-turns-usa-belgium-into-world-cup-grudge-match/), after [Trump’s reported intervention](https://time.com/article/2026/07/06/trump-inserts-himself-in-world-cup-call-with-global-blowback/).

Infantino, who is up for reelection as head of FIFA next year, has faced criticism from UEFA over his close ties to Trump and what critics say is a lack of transparency in FIFA’s decision-making. Infantino was scrutinized after accompanying Trump on a Gulf tour instead of attending the start of the FIFA Congress in 2025, prompting a UEFA-led walkout.

Ahead of this year’s World Cup, some European soccer officials and politicians called for fans to [boycott the U.S. games](https://time.com/7358117/fifa-world-cup-boycott-soccer-football-trump-infantino/), citing both Infantino’s [friendship with Trump](https://time.com/7302062/trump-boos-fifa-club-world-cup-chelsea-palmer-infantino-controversy/) and the Trump Administration’s immigration and foreign policies. Infantino was also criticized for presenting Trump with a newly-created FIFA Peace Prize, and for opening a FIFA office in New York’s Trump Tower, a property owned by the Trump Organization.

“FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!” the House Judiciary Democrats [posted](https://x.com/HouseJudiciary/status/2082158656146100275?s=20) on X. “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”

The Democratic committee members said the proposal was an example of “more oligarch corruption” after FIFA’s use of dynamic pricing helped push World Cup ticket prices to unprecedented levels. Earlier this week, the group of lawmakers [called on Infantino](https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-raskin-calls-foul-on-fifa-president-infantino-for-trump-bribery-and-corruption-scheme) to sit for an interview about “deceptive” ticket practices and alleged corruption between him and Trump. 

[Andy Burnham](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/andy-burnham-uk-prime-minister-day-one-trump-invitation/), who [became British Prime Minister](https://time.com/article/2026/06/29/andy-burnham-uk-prime-minister-plans-economics-devolution-backlash/) earlier this month after [Keir Starmer resigned](https://time.com/article/2026/06/22/uk-prime-minister-keir-starmer-resignation-reports-burnham-leadership-potential/), also criticized the proposal.

“Let me say this very directly. Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine,” Burnham [posted](https://x.com/andyburnham/status/2082181244830339117) on X. “The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.

“Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will.”

\]\]>https://time.com/?p=blt1270e100310c126bWed, 29 Jul 2026 10:30:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Miranda Jeyaretnam\]\]>