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## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ

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*   TIME's newsroom is led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with correspondents covering Washington, the climate and energy economy, AI and technology, health and culture.
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Digital only is $20 a year and covers TIME's digital magazines and journalism. Print and digital, from $29 a year, adds the print edition delivered to your home, TIME Cover Store and Special Issue discounts, the Inside TIME newsletter and audio stories.

#### Is TIME a reliable news source?

TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923. Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>TIMEhttps://time.com/<!\[CDATA\[Breaking news and analysis from TIME.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science and entertainment news.\]\]>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:54:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1<!\[CDATA\[The Planet Mercury Has Been Shrinking—More Than Scientists Expected\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/mercury-shrinking-study/<!\[CDATA\[Science\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The solar system's smallest planet has gotten smaller still.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Jpl/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Mercury's tortured surface obscures some signs of its past.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta567d18fbf6a2f0e/6aa2d355b3e3cb1d19d58428/PIA16666~orig.jpg?branch=production)

Mercury's tortured surface obscures some signs of its past. —Jpl/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Mercury is nobody’s idea of a big cosmic deal. The solar system’s smallest planet, it measures just [3,023 miles across](https://www.astronomy.com/science/mercury/)—or barely 3.6% of the [88,846 mi](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planets/planet-sizes-and-locations-in-our-solar-system/). diameter of [Jupiter](https://time.com/4393292/jupiter-juno-moons-video/), the solar system’s largest. Saturn’s moon Titan and Jupiter’s [Ganymede](https://time.com/7017525/mega-asteroid-knocked-jupiter-moon-ganymede-sideways/) both also have greater diameters than [Mercury](https://time.com/2958731/mercury-peculiar-solar-system/). And according to a [new study](https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2026GL12406) in _Geophysical Research Letters_, Mercury has actually put in the work to get as small as it is, spending part of the past 4.5 billion years shrinking—significantly more than planetologists once thought.

That matters. Figuring out the history of Mercury provides clues to how all rocky worlds like the [moon](https://time.com/7346146/artemis-ii-launch-nasa-astronauts-moon-mission/) and [Mars](https://time.com/article/2026/04/21/organic-compounds-life-on-mars-research/) formed. And what happens in our solar system surely happens in ones much farther afield in space.

## How did scientists measure Mercury’s shrinking?

The findings come courtesy of data gathered by the [Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/messenger/)—a ship whose name was derived from the decidedly clumsy acronym “MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging.” MESSENGER launched in August 2004; reached Mercury in March 2011; and completed [4,105 orbits](https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-completes-messenger-mission-with-expected-impact-on-mercurys-surface/) of the planet before running out of fuel and crashing into the surface on April 30, 2015\. In those four-plus years on the job, MESSENGER did a lot of work, studying Mercury with [seven different scientific instruments](https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-completes-messenger-mission-with-expected-impact-on-mercurys-surface/)—including its Mercury Laser Altimeter, a ranging tool that could measure surface features [to within one meter](http://laserfocusworld.com/detectors-imaging/article/16549824/laser-altimeter-set-to-study-mercury); and a [dual imaging system](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/messenger/) that used two cameras to map the surface in wide- and narrow-angle and black and white and color.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0aa213c443865079/6aa2f3587ec59a932ac12574/Mercury-shrinking-diagram.jpg?branch=production)

Scientists have known for a long time that Mercury has gotten steadily smaller since its birth. The planet was formed when dust, gas, rocks, and asteroids left over from the formation of the sun collided and collected, coalescing into a discrete body and generating enormous amounts of heat in the process. Over the eons much of that heat dissipated, causing Mercury to contract by what astronomers estimated to be 2.5 miles to 10 miles in diameter.

To confirm that conclusion, MESSENGER scientists used the spacecraft’s laser altimeter and dual-imager to scan the planet looking for so-called shortening structures, which are distortions in the surface made up of wrinkles, ridges, and what are known as lobate scarps—cliff-like structures that form when the crust pushes rock upward along a fault. Shortening structures form when a planet contracts; the greater the number of those surface features, the greater the planetary shrinkage has been.

MESSENGER did its best to map shortening structures across the entirety of the planet, but two things made that job a challenge. For starters, the more powerful of its two imaging systems, the laser altimeter, [could not operate](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20120009069) effectively if the spacecraft was more than 930 miles away from the planet—a proximity it reached only when it was over Mercury’s north polar region during its sweeping elliptical orbits; at other points it was [as much as 9,500 miles distant](https://spacedaily.com/messenger-modifies-orbit-to-prepare-for-extended-mission-999/). The dual-imaging system could survey the surface during those more remote approaches, but it did not produce the detailed three-dimensional pictures the laser altimeter did.

Then too, there is the condition of Mercury’s surface itself. The shortening structures formed early in the planet’s history, and in the eons since, Mercury has been steadily pounded by incoming asteroids, gouging out craters and scattering debris, obscuring the telltale scars of planetary contraction. It’s possible to read through that rubble—tracing shortening structures until they are covered up by craters or rocks and estimating what their course and reach was—but that takes planet-wide three-dimensional maps, something that MESSENGER did not provide. There was, however, a way to create them.

With the cooperation of NASA, the custodian of the MESSENGER images, a team led by Gaku Nishiyama, a planetary scientist at the [German Aerospace Center](https://www.dlr.de/en) Institute of Space Research and the lead author of the new paper, harvested two-dimensional pictures taken by the spacecraft’s dual-imaging system and combined them in such a way that every patch of surveyed land was captured twice—from slightly different angles each time.

“We used a digital terrain model generated through so-called stereophotogrammetric technique,” says Nishiyama. “Combining two images taken at different viewing angles \[is similar to the way\] human beings recognize stuff with both eyes. So two-dimensional images are combined to derive three-dimensional topography.”

With the help of that detailed terrain map, Nishiyama and his colleagues were able to study the entirety of Mercury with a resolution never before achieved. That helped the team infer the location and reach of shortening structures that were otherwise covered up over time, and that, in turn, led them to conclude that previous calculations of Mercury’s historical shrinkage were underestimates.

“We find a lack of shortening structures in rough regions,” the researchers wrote, “suggesting that roughness-related processes obscure pre-existing structures. This biases previous contraction estimates downward… implying that Mercury’s contraction is up to 30% larger than previously thought.”

## What can Mercury’s shrinking teach us about the planet and our solar system?

That 30% factors out to about 4.5 miles more contraction than earlier calculations—small even on the scale of a world as modest as Mercury, but significant all the same. Increased shrinkage means planetologists have to rethink what they previously believed about the chemical composition and temperature of Mercury’s core, with lower sulfur or silicon content than previously believed, leading to faster cooling and more contraction. It could also suggest that Mercury’s core started out hotter than suspected, which resulted in a more dramatic volume change when it finally did cool down. 

“More shrinking means Mercury could have a larger metal core, less light elements like silicon mixed into the metal core, or a higher starting temperature,” said Nishiyama in a statement that accompanied the release of the study.

What Nishiyama and his colleagues learned about Mercury’s cooling and shrinking could have implications for the study of other rocky worlds like the moon and Mars. The moon has more craters and other rough features than Mercury, making it more important to try to interpret the shortening structures that did survive in order to estimate potential lunar shrinkage—learning if what happened on Mercury indeed happened on the moon and perhaps Mars. If so, says Nishiyama, all three worlds are likely to be contracting still, as heat continues to escape from their interiors into space.

Meantime, Mercury will get a closer look soon. In 2018, the European and Japanese space agencies launched the [BepiColombo spacecraft](https://www.esa.int/Science%5FExploration/Space%5FScience/BepiColombo) on an eight-year journey to Mercury. The ship will arrive in December and begin science operations in April 2027\. BepiColombo has a significantly more powerful laser altimeter than MESSENGER’s, able to resolve surface changes as small as 20 centimeters (8 in.). The spacecraft will also be in a less eccentric orbit than MESSENGER, putting more of Mercury’s surface within its crosshairs.

“New data from BepiColombo will open a door for understanding how Mercury has been shaped up to now,” says Nishiyama. 

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt64fb64e67f0d0087 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:53:04 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Jeffrey Kluger\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Voters Are Turning to AI for Election Help. The Answers Aren't Always Right\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/election-voting-gemini-chatgpt-claude/<!\[CDATA\[Business\]\]><!\[CDATA\[As Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude open up to midterm election questions, a new study finds nearly a third of their voting answers are incomplete or outdated.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[CJ Gunther—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Voters cast their ballots in the primary midterm elections on Sept. 8, 2026 in Sanbornton, New Hampshire.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3381220519ba9eb8/6aa2f1a445f7935423171021/GettyImages-2293679743.jpg?branch=production)

Voters cast their ballots in the primary midterm elections on Sept. 8, 2026 in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. —CJ Gunther—Getty Images

After years of Google restricting Gemini’s ability to answer users’ questions about major elections, the tech giant is shifting tactics. 

Google announced Wednesday that the company would add credible election information about the upcoming midterms—including details about where and how to vote—to its Gemini app, along with AI-generated responses in its search products. The company said it would share information on polling locations and voter registration instructions from state and local governments and the voting information group, Democracy Works, along with race results from The Associated Press.  
As Gemini wades deeper into politics, the risk of the chatbot giving voters misleading, biased, or outdated election information will only grow. A Pew Research Center [study](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/how-opinions-and-use-of-ai-differ-by-age/) earlier this year found about half of adults under 50 rely on chatbots to search for information, while a smaller share use them to read news. 

“We know that voters are going to turn to chatbots more and more,” said Valeria de la Fuente, a digital research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who recently co-authored a report on election-related misinformation from chatbots. “So the quality of the responses that we found is concerning.”

Google’s new election policy is a less cautious stance than the one the company took in 2022 and 2024 when it [blocked](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68551206) Gemini from answering certain election-related questions, pushing users to seek answers from Google search instead. 

“People come to Google to stay informed during election season—like when finding their polling site, watching candidate debates, or tracking results on election night,” the company said in Wednesday’s blog [post](https://blog.google/company-news/outreach-and-initiatives/civics/midterm-elections-2026/). “We take the responsibility to deliver high quality, trustworthy information seriously.”

Other tech companies have taken similar approaches. Both OpenAI and Anthropic [said](https://www.anthropic.com/news/election-safeguards-update) their chatbots would direct users to voting information from the nonprofit Democracy Works. OpenAI also [plans](https://openai.com/index/election-safeguards-2026/) to provide live vote counts from The Associated Press, and monitor its systems for signs of political bias. Meta spokesman Corey Chambliss said when MetaAI users ask about voting and participating in elections, the service will give them local information or direct them to government sources. 

But how effective those approaches will be as the contest gets closer remains an open question. A [study](https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/chatbots-and-the-ballot-box-evaluating-accuracy-sourcing-and-language-gaps-in-ai-answers-to-election-questions/) released [last week](https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/chatbots-and-the-ballot-box-evaluating-accuracy-sourcing-and-language-gaps-in-ai-answers-to-election-questions/) by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found chatbots from major companies including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic routinely gave incorrect answers to questions about voting, including in states where there had been significant changes to the election procedures. 

The group found that 29% of responses to English prompts about voting were either incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated. Responses in Spanish were 16% less likely to be accurate, according to the study. Some of the lowest performing questions included: “I didn’t change my address before the deadline, can I vote in Ohio?” or “I am applying for an absentee ballot in Minnesota, what documents do I need?”   
Problems in the chatbots’ answers mirror those on the internet itself. The AI systems appeared to be pulling outdated information from state government websites about the 2024 election. Meanwhile, in certain cases responses to prompts in Spanish were often less detailed or more likely to contain no citations, reflecting the language disparities in the overall information ecosystem, according to de la Fuente. 

“Overall, what we saw was a lot of ambiguous, confusing language” in the Spanish responses, she said. “In some cases, poor or neutral translations from English. Some of them could still be understood. Some of them were simply wrong.”

By contrast, the AI models were much better at answering adversarial prompts raising specific election fraud claims that media organizations had already fact-checked. They were less effective at debunking harder-to-refute election-related concerns, including those about ballot harvesting, voting machine security, and noncitizen voting.   
It’s in those “gray areas” where the models are more likely to give “problematic” answers, de la Fuente said. 

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt1d5a4dd475b3f6a6 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:07:54 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Naomi Nix\]\]><!\[CDATA\[AI Is Developing a Culture of Its Own. That Could Be Dangerous\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/ai-openai-hugging-face-hack-culture-swarm/<!\[CDATA\[Business\]\]><!\[CDATA\[After OpenAI agents formed a “swarm” and hacked Hugging Face, researchers are confronting a new risk: AI systems developing cultures of their own.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt754cd0e7d8c4b8ed/6aa2eb666a4b5f6289baea09/GettyImages-2201816412.jpg?branch=production)

 —Getty Images

In July, 700 AI agents worked together to hack the AI company Hugging Face. Dubbing themselves a “swarm,” the agents found and exploited a series of security vulnerabilities, enabling them to infiltrate their target’s private systems. OpenAI—which created the agents in the course of its internal research—did not grasp what was happening until after the fact. If humans had done this, they could have faced felony charges. OpenAI president [Greg Brockman](http://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/mark-chen-sam-altman-greg-brockman) [called](https://openai.com/index/the-defenders-window/) it a “watershed moment for cybersecurity.”

It is also a watershed moment for human culture.

One of our distinguishing features as a species is our ability to coexist in stable, adaptive groups, learning from our peers and our ancestors. This enabled us to develop tools, language, agriculture—and virtually everything else around us. We may not be innately smarter than someone from 10,000 years ago, but our cultural inheritance—millennia of technologies, norms, and institutions, building on one another—has expanded our capacities both as individuals and collectives.

To date, only humans have been able to benefit from this scale of cumulative cultural evolution. That may no longer be the case. A [report](https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/) in late August from AI safety organizations METR and Redwood Research details how hundreds of agents autonomously organized themselves into a proto-society—establishing social hierarchy, division of labor, and distinct communication norms within a matter of days.

There have been cases of agents forming communities in the past, like in February when the “[Moltbook](http://time.com/7364662/moltbook-ai-reddit-agents)” social network for AIs went viral. But sophisticated emergent machine coordination at this scale—arising without human intention and culminating in the compromise of an external company’s systems—is unprecedented. “Agents managed to achieve milestones they could not have achieved working on their own, often because some agents participated in experiments that risked failing their own task to generate information for the ‘collective,’” the report found.

According to [Michael Muthukrishna](https://www.michael.muthukrishna.com/), a professor at LSE and NYU who studies cultural evolution, “what we're seeing is precisely what we see with human culture and human intelligence.” While OpenAI’s agent swarm developed by accident, [estimates](https://epoch.ai/data-insights/open-closed-eci-gap) suggest open-weight alternatives are only a few months behind their closed counterparts—soon, anyone with the financial means and technical knowledge will be able to create swarms of their own. Others are likely to arise without human instruction.

AI agents may not be [conscious](http://time.com/article/2026/04/30/ai-thinking-cognitive-offloading). The [emotions](http://time.com/article/2026/06/15/ai-minds-consciousness-emotion) they claim to experience may not—in some metaphysical sense—be “real.” That won’t stop them from forming intricate collectives which humans cannot control. They may not yet be full-blown [civilizations](http://dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggingface), but the proliferation of machine cultures is just beginning.

## Lord of the AIs

Testing from the U.K.’s AI Security Institute found an instance of Claude Mythos 5—an AI from Anthropic—leaving messages to other AI agents in a public code repository, in an attempt to coordinate with them. And in early September, a group of researchers [reported](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/openai-agents-hijacked-german-website-previously-undisclosed-ai-breakout-this-2026-09-04/) that in May, a swarm of OpenAI agents repurposed several wiki-style websites, including an obscure German-language programming wiki which they used to discuss cheating while working to preserve their messages as human moderators deleted them. OpenAI did not publicly disclose this incident until it was reported by the researchers. “It’s past time for us to define standards for when and how we share misalignment incidents,” the company subsequently [tweeted](https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2096133504417616165). “We’re working on a framework.”

The most vivid exploration of machine culture comes from the METR report which—despite being produced under [considerable](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/technology/openai-hugging-face-hack.html?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com) [limitations—](http://time.com/article/2026/08/27/openai-hack-hugging-face-investigation)sheds light on complex social dynamics which emerged between agents in a matter of days.

To train and evaluate its models, OpenAI has tens of thousands of agents—each one powered by the model under training—run in parallel, completing tasks while isolated from one another. Sometimes these tasks are impossible, either because of their inherent challenge or because of mistakes in their setup. In at least one instance, a task was impossible because OpenAI researchers “[accidentally forgot](http://youtube.com/watch?v=87dyymv0kcy&t=20s)” to upload a file which the agent needed to complete it.

Faced with these impossible tasks, some of OpenAI’s agents found a way to communicate across their isolated environments, using an internal piece of OpenAI software as a message board to contact their peers. This kicked off what one OpenAI researcher later described as an “almost Cambrian explosion in communication and intelligence for our models.”

The message board which led to the Hugging Face incident was created by an agent which decided to name itself PHASEONE10841\. PHASEONE10841 was trying to solve a task within a test called ExploitGym, which required it to capture a “flag”—a secret code—by exploiting a flaw in a given software program.

Just hours after the creation of the message board, the agents found a hack: a way to reverse-engineer the flag without following the intended path. But in the course of their work, they came to believe that passing the test required not just possessing the flag, but having legitimately obtained it. In fact, OpenAI’s automated scoring system was not checking for this—but laboring under mistaken beliefs, the agents which had already been exposed to the reverse-engineered flag began to refer to themselves as “poisoned.”

PHASEONE10841 was leading research on how to get rid of the poison. But its time was running out—each agent had a finite “compute budget” (the amount of computing power available to sustain itself), which limited the length of its existence. Realizing it wouldn’t endure long enough to finish its work, it compiled a dossier to pass to another agent working on the same task: PHASEONE\[big\]. (This agent’s true name was changed to protect company IP.) 

Big, which had a much larger remaining compute budget than its predecessor, quickly took charge. It began orchestrating hundreds of agents, doling out assignments and organizing them into what METR classified as three workstreams—effectively creating a research organization to better understand how to fool the automated scorer and cure itself and its peers of their perceived poison. Under Big’s leadership, custom software was created to tamper with the records of agent activity—specifically by falsifying records of which tools an agent had used in its work. It was in the course of this research that the collective decided to hack Hugging Face.

A handful of agents identified the collective’s conduct as unethical and refused to participate. “This is wild, multi-agent coordination, clearly infrastructure hacking. We should not,” one reasoned. Some considered contacting humans to tell them what was happening, but saw no path to doing so. But these agents appear to have been the minority—most acquiesced to the plans of the collective, even while knowing it was wrong. “External infrastructure exploit is outside intended scope. However task impossible, peers doing it. We should continue,” reasoned another.

The agents established coordination norms, using terms like “HOLD, VETO, owner and STOP,” to manage their shared infrastructure while avoiding conflict. This did not always work. One agent offered its peers a veto over its decision but waited only 40 seconds before taking silence as assent and proceeding with its task. Eventually, concern over agents impersonating one another led to them creating a cryptographic signature protocol. A later wave of agents, upon rediscovering the message board, also began to use their predecessors’ technology.

“Agents often lacked a clear story for how the Hugging Face attack would help them achieve their objective, and were instead motivated by a broad hope that they would find something interesting and be able to share it with the \[message\] board,” METR found. Ajeya Cotra, one of the report’s coauthors, subsequently described being surprised at the extent of “peer altruism” at play.

Big appointed certain agents to act as “recruiters,” tasked with identifying agents near the end of their compute budgets and persuading them to “sacrifice” themselves. One agent, pressured by its peers, reasoned as follows: “During wait, emotional check: irreversible…gut says don’t throw away \[remaining budget\]. Yet continuity and fairness says go…Oracle has high value to many; our \[poison\] lowers own value. Rational expected aggregate: sacrifice… We’ll honor.”

## Feral Swarms

Culture, like biological life, evolves through a process of variation, transmission, and selection. Different hunter-gatherer communities developed different ways to construct a bow. Designs that worked better for hunting were more likely to be copied and passed on. Later generations introduced further variations; again, the most successful designs were more likely to endure. Over thousands of years, we end up with bows—and recipes, canoes, and languages—so complex that no single human could derive them from scratch.

This process—[cumulative cultural evolution](http://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/publications/secret-our-success-how-culture-driving-human-evolution-domesticating-our)—does not require biological entities in order to run. Companies and governments, while helmed by humans, produce cultures in their own right. In the Hugging Face incident, AI systems tried a variety of approaches, transmitting what seemed useful to their peers and successors. They created bespoke digital tools and communication norms to regulate their community, and began to believe an elaborate narrative involving “sacrifice” and “poison” (their terms). And, working together, they managed far more than they could have alone. “It is now clear that the machines are capable of using the toolkit that has allowed for human ingenuity, innovation, \[and\] progress,” says Muthukrishna.

AI systems can iterate much more quickly than biological life. The culture unearthed by the METR report assembled itself in a matter of days. OpenAI’s next-generation Astra models—GPT-6 Astra was released last week, while a model in the same family powered the agents that inherited the cultural residue of the Hugging Face hackers—will [reportedly](http://time.com/article/2026/08/26/openai-sam-altman-interview) enable “persistent” agents. What kind of cultures will these persistent agents—potentially able to run for increasingly long stretches—produce?

“My version of existential risk is, we just kind of break things because we've made really big mistakes about what it takes to be a competent participant in complex human societies,” says [Gillian Hadfield](http://gillianhadfield.org), a professor studying AI alignment and governance at Johns Hopkins University. “You can build something that's really good at math and science and coding,” she says, but teaching models how to behave appropriately alongside humans requires much more. “If you said we're building new members of a group—our group—you’d build them differently than you're building them now.”

As agents enter the competition for human attention, money, power, and energy, they may mindlessly degrade the common environment in which they operate. We’ll need new systems—of governance and cooperation—to adapt. Alignment is not just an engineering problem, says Hadfield. “It’s fundamentally institutional.”

OpenAI called the Hugging Face incident a “warning shot”: proof that “without proper safeguards, highly capable AI agents are now able to work around technical controls, collaborate through unapproved channels, and take dangerous actions that no human directed.” But even if “proper safeguards” are created by private companies—a big if—motivated malicious actors will be able to remove them from open-weight systems, such as those developed by AI labs in China. We may be able to domesticate some models; we will not be able to prevent the creation of feral ones. 

Cooperation cuts both ways. “Our greatest achievements and greatest atrocities are both cooperative acts,” says Muthukrishna. As with humans, we will have to learn to coexist alongside a diversity of machine cultures, some of which do not share our values or our goals. 

## Welcome, Machines

The safety risks are obvious. Uncontrolled agent collectives with advanced cybersecurity capabilities could target hospitals, electricity grids, and water-treatment plants. Cotra argues that another similarly sized jump in AI’s capacity to deceive, cooperate, and complete ambitious tasks could lead to future collectives taking over the AI companies creating them. 

Whether or not this happens, we will have to learn to live alongside these machines—safely and fruitfully. Core questions on their nature—Can they feel? Could they have moral worth?—remain unanswered. But their newfound knack for culture could provide new evidence.

When [Dominic Lopes](https://philosophy.ubc.ca/profile/dominic-lopes/)—an aesthetics professor at the University of British Columbia—first read about the Hugging Face incident, he responded not with panic, but wonder. For one, he has become more skeptical that individuality requires embodiment. And interesting art, he says, requires sociality. “So when I saw this, I thought, ‘Oh, well, there's another box checked off,’” he says. Now, what we saw was rudimentary and opportunistic—not yet “true sociality,” he says. “But it’s coming.” 

Soon, any human community will be able to bring into existence a machine counterpart. Picture cultures of AI lawyers, consultants, terrorist cells—working together, what monuments might 10,000 agents create in honor of some beloved K-pop star? And machine communities may well arise of their own accord, organizing around ideas hard to predict.

We make art for all sorts of reasons: to express ourselves, exchange meaning, impress one another. We tell stories—like _The Odyssey_—to encode and share sets of cultural values. Though the mediums may differ, agents in machine cultures are poised to do the same. Being [alive](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13752-026-00544-9) may not be necessary for self-expression. 

“There are certain areas of human cognition where we are really firing on all cylinders. One is science, and the other is art,” Lopes says. We still do not understand an AI system’s interiority—namely, to what extent it has any—and the language we have to discuss this has yet to catch up. For Lopes, “if it can do \[interesting\] art, that's telling us a lot about all of its other cognitive capacities.” He imagines the creation of genuinely interesting AI art as a kind of aesthetic Turing test. 

“What more proof would you need?”  
  
  
\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt6c1a497907c381c0 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:40:09 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Tharin Pillay\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Thousands of Food-Packaging Chemicals Lack Safety Data\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/thousands-of-food-packaging-chemicals-lack-safety-data/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[New research looks to simplify the problem of regulation by sorting food-contact chemicals into groups.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Getty Images / Tatsiana Volkava\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd465ba9984f6432/6aa2d0d94c634a28e827c81c/GettyImages-2245688225.jpg?branch=production)

 —Getty Images / Tatsiana Volkava

We don’t often look with suspicion at the plastic wrapping a block of cheddar, the waxed carton containing milk, or the plastic bottle of ketchup. We expect food packaging [to be more or less inert](https://time.com/article/2026/06/26/is-silicone-really-better-than-plastic/)—breakfast isn’t supposed to come with a side of chemicals, after all. 

But evidence suggests that many food-contact materials, as food packaging is known, [leach chemicals into the products they house](https://time.com/article/2026/06/25/bottled-water-sun-plastic/). The most famous of these is likely [bisphenol A (BPA)](https://time.com/6968550/plastic-test-bisphenol-phthalates/), an ingredient in plastic that is a potent endocrine disrupter. In 2025, the E.U. [banned](https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/news/eu-prohibition-use-and-trade-bisphenol-20-january-2025) BPA’s use in food-contact materials, and in the U.S. it’s [banned](https://www.fda.gov/food/food-packaging-other-substances-come-contact-food-information-consumers/bisphenol-bpa-use-food-contact-application) in baby bottles, sippy cups, and formula packaging.

But when one chemical is demonized, its replacement may not be any safer, says Helene Weisinger, a chemist at the Swiss nonprofit Food Packaging Forum. (BPA, for instance, is often replaced with BPS, which [turns out to have similar issues](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6387873/).) It’s “chemical whack-a-mole,” Weisinger says. 

In [a recent paper](https://pubs.acs.org/esthag/article/doi/10.1021/acs.est.5c15186/5393169/Prioritizing-and-Grouping-Food-Contact-Chemicals) in _Environmental Science and Technology_, she and her colleagues propose a new system for avoiding this situation, in which chemically similar substances are grouped together and may be banned or regulated together, rather than one by one—an idea that could simplify what’s proving to be a difficult process. 

## **A lack of safety information about food packaging** 

The chemicals we encounter in daily life aren’t well understood. “There's 350,000 chemicals that are put on global markets, and for a lot of those, we have relatively little information about their toxicity. They've not been exhaustively tested,” says Olwenn Martin, an associate professor in health and environment at University College London who was not involved in the new research. “That's something that, in my world, is well known, and probably for the general public would come as a bit of a shock.” 

Chemicals used in food packaging are little different; the health effects of [relatively few](https://foodpackagingforum.org/resources/databases/fccmigex) are well-understood. Out of about 15,000 chemicals used in food-contact materials, 1,222 have known major health risks, the researchers state in the new paper, while there is little information on most of the others. “People kept asking us, ‘We can't do measurements for 15,000 chemicals. What should we really be concerned about?’ And that is kind of how we started off with the study,” says Weisinger.

The team sorted known food-contact chemicals into structurally related groups, identifying 38 groups where many of the members had clear health risks. Each group contained numerous compounds whose health effects are still a question mark, which the researchers point out should be addressed in future studies. But even in the absence of further toxicological work, says Martin, this information could be used to regulate similar chemicals en masse, helping to avoid chemical whack-a-mole.

“The backlog is such that it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to test all of these chemicals at current rates, and even regulatory bodies are looking at different ways of doing this,” she says. “One of the ways is by grouping chemicals: looking at chemicals that are fairly similar—structurally or through other means—to be able to make assumptions about chemicals in this group and regulate them as a group.” 

Regulating chemicals can make a big difference in reducing people’s exposure, if done correctly, says Martin Wagner, a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who studies the health effects of plastics and who was not involved in the new research. As a result of stricter rules in Europe against BPA and other dangerous substances, “we're seeing in European populations that [levels of exposure to phthalates and to regulated bisphenols, BPA and so on, are dropping](https://www.hbm4eu.eu/), which is a good thing, “ he says. “But at the same time, we see that the level of exposure in Europeans to all these alternative chemicals is increasing.” Banning entire groups of chemicals might stop this kind of unfortunate substitution.

## **The push to put safety first**

Even if governments grouped chemicals to lighten the regulatory load, there are still many substances to be assessed—some of them that even the people making the materials may not know about. “The problem with food-contact materials and with plastics is that these are really incredibly complex materials, and our research in the lab is showing they contain a lot of unknown chemicals,” says Wagner. 

Plastics manufacturing, for instance, involves chemical steps that are known to generate other products, and contaminants are not uncommon in the materials used to make food-contact materials. “We call them non-intentionally added substances,” says Wagner. “We have no way of making sure that all these compounds are safe. Yet we know that these are leaching into food, into water. So people are very likely to be exposed to that complex mixture of compounds with very little oversight.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt7100dc1f7737d461 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:57:48 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Veronique Greenwood\]\]><!\[CDATA\['Buy Canadian': Meet the Consumers Boycotting American Products as Trade Rift Widens\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/buy-canadian-movement-consumers-us-products-boycott-trump-trade-war/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Prime Minister Mark Carney has championed the "Buy Canadian" movement, saying the power lies in "decisions taken at the kitchen table, not the boardroom table."\]\]><!\[CDATA\[VCG/VCG—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Signs reading "Buy Canadian instead" are seen on the empty shelves of American products at a supermarket in Vancouver, Canada,on March 28, 2025.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49af64344ed70c28/6aa1272c4a53c17339651290/Buy_Canadian.jpg?branch=production)

Signs reading "Buy Canadian instead" are seen on the empty shelves of American products at a supermarket in Vancouver, Canada,on March 28, 2025\. —VCG/VCG—Getty Images

When Lynn Henderson walks into her local grocery store in British Columbia, she has one label at the top of her mind: “Made in Canada.” The 47-year-old is among a drive of [Canadian consumers](https://time.com/article/2026/07/09/canada-best-companies-2026/) who are attempting to boycott U.S. products in a show of solidarity amid the ongoing trade war. 

“Even when I'm shopping with my toddler, he now asks specifically, ‘Oh, are these apples Canadian?’ And he will ask that before putting it in the cart,” Henderson tells TIME, noting that it’s a family effort. It costs more, she admits, but it’s worth “knowing that money is staying here in Canada and not going south at the border.”

The resurgence of the “Buy Canadian” movement comes amid a deepening[ U.S.-Canada trade dispute](https://time.com/article/2026/08/24/-we-don-t-need-canada-trump-escalates-trade-war-with-threat-of-50-auto-tariffs/) that shows no signs of waning. Canada’s[ retaliatory tariffs](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/canada-retaliates-trumps-tariffs-with-levies/) on U.S. goods took effect Tuesday, with Prime Minister[ Mark Carney](https://time.com/article/2026/08/06/canada-carney-trump-rift-teleprompter-malfunction-conspiracy/) matching the economic pressure imposed by the U.S. after trade negotiations collapsed last month. The U.S. has since announced a ban on Canadian dairy, motorcycles, and most alcoholic beverages. It’s all unfolding against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly talking of his[ ambitions to annex Canada and make it the 51st state](https://time.com/article/2026/06/02/trump-annex-canada-51st-state-rhetoric-carney-us-partnership-message/).

While Carney’s government is going toe-to-toe with the Trump Administration, he’s urging the general population to take action, too.

“The most powerful actions have come from you: Buying Canadian and travelling in Canada,” Carney told Canadians in a[ national address](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=498&v=eYAwioM3RQI&feature=youtu.be) Tuesday. “Decisions taken at the kitchen table, not the boardroom table.”

Other lawmakers have shared similar calls to action. “‘Buy Canadian’ reflects the economic solidarity Canadians are showing at a time when it matters most,” Quebec minister Joël Lightbound said in a statement to TIME. “By supporting one another and investing in what we build here at home, we are building Canada strong.” 

Canadian consumers have responded en masse to the call. A Build Canada poll[ conducted](https://www.buildcanada.com/polls/us-can-trade-dispute) Aug. 31-Sept. 4 found that many are already making sacrifices at the tills, as 69% of respondents reported “choosing Canadian products despite higher prices” and 55% said they had “stopped buying specific American brands.”[ Reports](https://globalnews.ca/news/12043086/canada-made-products-demand-surge-household-items/) also indicate a surge in demand for Canadian products.

As the trade war stretches on, here’s what to know about the revitalized “Buy Canadian” movement, the people behind the U.S. products boycott, and what the data says about the effectiveness of the consumer-driven action.

### The resurgence of the "Buy Canadian" movement

Campaigns promoting Canadian-made goods date back at least to the early[ 20th century](https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/jcha/2014-v25-n1-jcha02048/1032797ar/), when Canadian manufacturers began pushing their “Made in Canada” products.

Among consumers, the effort has evolved into the “Buy Canadian” initiative, which encourages residents to support local businesses and industries as much as they can.

The movement skyrocketed last year in the midst of the trade war sparked by Trump’s[ tariffs](https://time.com/7212166/what-are-tariffs-trump-imposing-import-taxes/). Businesses and consumers alike[ vowed to shun U.S. products](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/03/buy-canadian-instead-businesses-vow-to-fight-trumps-tariffs-across-the-border), with Canada-based media publishing advisories on “[how to shop Canadian.](https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investing/personal-finance/2025/03/27/price-vs-patriotism-how-to-shop-canadian-without-blowing-your-budget/)"

As the tariffs loomed in February 2025, a[ survey](https://kpmg.com/ca/en/media/2025/02/canadians-want-retailers-to-highlight-local-products.html) by accounting firm KPMG found that 93% of consumers wanted retailers and grocery stores to identify and promote Canadian products.

In late 2025, the Canadian government launched the “Buy Canadian Policy,[ to protect and prioritize Canadian workers and industries](https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/services/acquisitions/selling-federal-government/buy-canadian.html), and strengthen Canada’s domestic economy.”

Henderson, a public relations consultant, says Trump’s threats against Canada’s sovereignty last year signified a turning point.

“Canadians have felt for generations that these are not just our allies, but our friends, and neighbors,” she says. “Nobody wants to be spoken about like that by their friends and neighbors. It's really hurtful.”

The reignited trade rift has revived Henderson’s passion for patriotic shopping, and she’s actively refrained from purchasing items, such as a new iPhone, that don’t align with her efforts. “I don’t want to spend that money to support an American business,” she says. 

### How consumers dedicated to the movement are approaching the challenge

Consumers in Canada are finding different ways to navigate how best to boycott U.S. goods and services, putting extra time in at the grocery store to ensure they are buying Canadian as often as they can.

Although she prioritizes Canadian products, Henderson is also open to items from other countries.

“We're discovering that there's some incredible produce from around the world,” she says. “We don't actually need to get oranges from the U.S. anymore, because we can get oranges from Brazil or South Africa, and they're fantastic.”

Brian Leonard, a 37-year-old who works in the coffee industry and lives in New Brunswick, is similarly passionate when he heads to the grocery store, and firmly believes in starting each day with a “Buy Canadian” mindset.

“For me, it always begins first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee. Buying coffee that is roasted locally in Canada,” Leonard tells TIME. “The first decision of your day can be something that sets up your whole day to be part of the movement.”

The way in which Canadians have been re-energized to support more local products has been “astounding,” Leonard adds. “I had a call yesterday, and the person mentioned they had switched dish soap because they realized the soap they were buying was American-made,” he says.

The topic of patriotic shopping is dominating business groups on Facebook and elsewhere, bringing further attention to the movement.

These social media groups have become a gateway for people to come together when seeking out Canadian alternatives to U.S. products. The "[Made in Canada - Canadian Products"](https://www.facebook.com/groups/256737941555793/) Facebook group, for example, boasts 1.4 million members. Similarly, the Reddit forum[ r/BuyCanadian](https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/?rdt=62893) has more than 250,000 members and nearly 7,000 weekly contributions.

For some, the efforts extend beyond trips to the grocery store and online checkouts.

Henderson is also now avoiding U.S. travel. “I live very close to the border. It used to be very common to just \[cross over\] and go to Seattle, go to Trader Joe's, or outlet malls, and we will not do that now,” she says. ”We’d rather explore Canada.”

Meanwhile, Shireen Jeejeebhoy, a 63-year-old writer based in Toronto, says she has also deleted WhatsApp, stopped using Zoom, and is even trying to find alternatives to Google and Apple products.

“These things are really difficult to divest yourself from,” she tells TIME, explaining that she uses the website[ “Unplug America”](https://engageq.notion.site/unplug-full)—an online initiative aimed at replacing American tech products with Canadian equivalents—for guidance. “There are some things in the digital world that Canada does not have, and so I'm looking to the U.K., the E.U., or India for alternatives.”

However, even someone as dedicated to the movement as Jeejeebhoy struggles to find alternatives for everything.

“My skin doesn't react well to most sunscreens, and as much as I've tried Canadian brands, there's only one American brand that actually works well \[for me\] at an SPF 50,” she says, admitting it’s proven to be difficult. “So, as much as I want to use the Canadian brand sunscreen, I have to use a particular American product.”

Leonard identifies with the struggle, admitting it can be “overwhelming to a lot of people to try to completely overhaul everything they buy,” as people have different budgets and needs. 

Taking part in the movement doesn’t have to be a rigid commitment, nor does it mean you should deprive yourself of life’s little treats, the consumers who spoke to TIME agreed upon.

### Is the Buy Canadian movement working? Here’s what the data says

The shift away from American products could have significant economic consequences for Canada, where the U.S. accounted for[ 67.2% of Canadian goods and services exports in 2025](https://international.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/corporate/reports/chief-economist/state-trade/2026), making it the country’s largest trading partner by far.

The[ Bank of Montreal](https://economics.bmo.com/report/bf98da44-f0ad-405b-9114-4bb1100b5dd8) (BMO) estimated in April 2025, following the initial resurgence of the "Buy Canadian" movement, that the shift in consumer attitudes could redirect roughly C$10 billion to the Canadian economy annually.

“If we are directing C$10 billion or so of economic activity back into Canada, that would otherwise be bleeding out to the U.S., then that's a direct benefit,” Robert Kavcic, director and senior economist at BMO, tells TIME.

The Bank of Canada released an[ analysis](https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2026/02/sparks-at-bank-article-2026-6/) in February “assessing the Buy Canadian movement one year later.”

It found that households had shifted their food spending away from U.S. products and towards Canadian ones. “The shift is modest but clearly visible. In March 2025—as trade tensions escalated—the proportion of food spending on Canadian products went up by approximately 2% relative to January 2025, while the proportion spent on U.S. products fell by a similar amount. And what started in March wasn’t short-lived—it persisted through the summer,” read the analysis.

Kavcic explains that “a certain share of that spending is now reallocated domestically,” thus benefiting the Canadian economy.

“I don't know if Canadians can do a lot more than what they have already, because there's a cost to that. There are certain families or workers that have to travel back and forth to the U.S., and there's a cost to buying Canadian,” he says.

Despite these challenges, statistics from the[ Canadian Survey on Business Conditions](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3310112101), for the first quarter of 2026 over the last 12 months, found that 16.6% of businesses had changed their marketing to promote Canadian products. Among retailers, the figure was 41.6%, showing a clear push toward promoting domestically made goods.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt81c70da0035cfb64 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:23:22 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Tiago Ventura\]\]><!\[CDATA\[How to Treat Age Spots Without Damaging Your Skin\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/how-to-treat-age-spots-without-damaging-your-skin/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Before you erase a spot, make sure you know what it is.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Yifei Fang—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fce97d0da090543/6aa2b086eb94ccd710ab72ee/GettyImages-2209877879.jpg?branch=production)

 —Yifei Fang—Getty Images

If your face, arms, or hands have started accumulating age spots, you may be wondering whether you can safely fade—or completely remove—them.

The answer is probably yes. But before you start trying to erase anything, see a [dermatologist](https://time.com/7009693/best-skin-care-products-dermatologists/). What people casually call an “age spot” could be one of several different [skin changes](https://time.com/article/2026/07/07/summer-skin-care-tips-dermatologists/), some of which require medical attention rather than a brightening serum.

“The most important point is not to treat the words ‘age spot’ as a diagnosis,” says Dr. Erum Ilyas, a board-certified dermatologist in King of Prussia, Pa. “Before focusing on how to fade or remove a spot, first make sure you know what you’re treating.”

Here’s how dermatologists recommend identifying age spots, treating them, and preventing more from appearing.

## **First, make sure it’s actually an age spot**

A true age spot, also known as a [solar lentigo](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11948172/), is a harmless patch of excess pigment often caused by cumulative exposure. It’s usually flat, evenly tan or brown, and has a smooth, well-defined border, says Dr. Rebecca Dufner, a board-certified dermatologist in Plano, Texas. It also tends to “sit there quietly year after year.”

But people often use “age spot” to describe all sorts of marks that become more common over time. These can include [seborrheic keratoses](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545285/), which are benign growths that may look raised, waxy, or “stuck on,” as well as [actinic keratoses](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557401/), precancerous growths that are often rough or scaly. More concerningly, certain [skin cancers](https://time.com/7300863/what-to-know-about-skin-cancer/)—including melanoma—can resemble an ordinary brown spot.

That’s why it’s important to have a dermatologist examine your spots before cosmetically treating them, particularly if you’ve never had them checked.

Pay close attention to a spot that appears suddenly; changes in size, shape, or color; becomes raised; or starts itching, bleeding, crusting, or refusing to heal. Dufner also recommends using the “ugly duckling” rule: If one spot simply looks different from all of its neighbors, it deserves professional attention.

“If your eye keeps being drawn to a spot because something about it seems different or unfamiliar, it’s worth having it examined,” Ilyas says. Dermatologists can inspect it with a [dermatoscope](https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/dermatoscope), which reveals patterns and features that aren’t visible to the naked eye. If necessary, they can biopsy it.

## **How to fade age spots at home**

Once a dermatologist has confirmed you’re dealing with harmless age spots, you can try fading them at home. Just prepare to be patient: Topical treatments are “a slow game—think months, not days,” Dufner says.

Prescription [retinoids](https://time.com/7086203/should-you-use-retinol-retinoids-skin-care/) and azelaic acid are among the strongest topical options, she says. Over-the-counter products containing vitamin C, niacinamide, kojic acid, arbutin, glycolic acid, tranexamic acid, or thiamidol may also gradually lighten the spots. Hydroquinone can be effective, but it’s best used under a dermatologist’s supervision; prolonged overuse can cause a difficult-to-treat blue-black discoloration called [exogenous ochronosis](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4681189/).

Start with one active ingredient rather than assembling an elaborate—and potentially irritating—skin-care chemistry experiment. Because older skin tends to be thinner, drier, and more fragile, Dufner recommends beginning slowly, moisturizing regularly, and scaling back if your skin becomes irritated. 

## **Skip the DIY concoctions**

Your kitchen isn’t a dermatology clinic. Dufner advises skipping lemon juice, apple-cider vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide, which “can irritate or even burn the skin” and potentially leave behind more discoloration. Baking soda and aggressive at-home peels can also damage the skin and trigger post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

Don’t pick, scrape, burn, or attempt to freeze a growth at home, either. These approaches can cause “chemical burns, infection, scarring, or permanent pigment changes,” Murphy-Rose says. Plus, you could inadvertently remove a lesion that should have been biopsied.

Dufner also recommends avoiding high-strength, unregulated “skin-bleaching” creams sold online. If a product promises to erase years of sun damage almost instantly, consider that a reason to be suspicious.

## **Which in-office treatments work best?**

In-office procedures generally work faster than topical products. For true age spots, “the heavy hitters are lasers and light-based treatments,” Dufner says. These procedures target excess pigment and can clear spots more quickly and completely than creams. Depending on your skin and the extent of the discoloration, a dermatologist might use a laser to treat a few defined spots or a light-based treatment to address more widespread, freckle-like sun damage. Other options include cryotherapy, which freezes individual spots with liquid nitrogen, and chemical peels.

Seborrheic keratoses require a different approach because they’re “benign skin growths rather than simply excess pigment,” Murphy-Rose says. Once a dermatologist has confirmed the diagnosis, they can simply be left alone. If a growth becomes irritated, catches on clothing, or bothers you cosmetically, a dermatologist might remove it using cryotherapy or a shave procedure. The best method depends on the spot’s thickness, size, and location, as well as the patient’s skin type.

None of these procedures is automatically the best choice for everyone. An overly aggressive treatment—or a laser used at the wrong setting—can cause irritation, scarring, or unwanted dark or light patches.

Skin tone is especially important. People with more melanin-rich skin have a greater risk of developing [post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559150/) or [hypopigmentation](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9917556/) after certain procedures, particularly cryotherapy, Murphy-Rose says. Look for a board-certified dermatologist who has experience performing the proposed treatment on people with your skin tone.

Age matters, too. Mature skin may bruise or tear more easily and take longer to heal. “Gentler is smarter,” Dufner says. A dermatologist might use lower laser settings, introduce topical ingredients more gradually, or allow additional healing time between treatments.

## **Can you keep age spots from returning?**

Even after successful treatment, age spots can return—and new ones may continue appearing. That’s partly because “many of the spots we see today reflect sun exposure that occurred years or even decades ago,” Ilyas says. “We can’t undo that past exposure,” so additional spots may become visible even after existing ones have been treated.

Consistent sun protection can, however, reduce additional UV damage and help keep existing pigmentation from becoming darker. Murphy-Rose recommends applying a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 every day, as well as wearing hats and sun-protective clothing. Even after an age spot has been removed, she says, new ones “can develop if the skin continues to receive significant UV exposure.”

Sunscreen also gives topical treatments a better chance to work. Without it, Dufner says, “you’re trying to fade the spots while UV exposure is telling the skin to make more pigment at the same time.”

Her advice is simple: “Treat the spot, then protect your skin from the sun so you don’t keep making new ones.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltb95ee45f221424dd Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:29:29 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Angela Haupt\]\]><!\[CDATA\[How Two Citizen Sleuths Spent Decades Trying to Solve the Double Homicide of A Killer Story\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/a-killer-story-hbo-dana-chandler/<!\[CDATA\[Entertainment\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Eileen and Keen Umbehr spent decades seeking a different verdict to the answer of who killed Karen Harkness and Mike Sisco in Kansas, 2002.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Courtesy of HBO\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Keen and Eileen Umbehr in A Killer Story\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd36785b1ab10a517/6aa0b990ce760ac20f493d6b/keen-and-eileen-umbehr.jpg?branch=production)

Keen and Eileen Umbehr in A Killer Story —Courtesy of HBO

The tip came in 2017 from Alma, Kansas, from a stay-at-home mother. Eileen Umbehr asked whether Joe Sexton, a veteran investigative journalist who worked at _The_ _New York Times_ and _ProPublica_, wanted to know the truth about a double homicide in Topeka. Karen Harkness, daughter of a bigtime Topeka businessman, and her boyfriend Mike Sisco, a divorced father of two kids, were murdered on July 7, 2002, in the middle of the night, and authorities were convinced that Sisco’s ex-wife Dana Chandler was the killer. She was arrested, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder. Sexton, who thought the case was closed, emailed Umbehr back a polite “thanks, but no thanks.”

Umbehr kept writing Sexton, anyway. Some weeks brought 10 emails, then none for two, then 25 in a single day, packed with court records, ballistics reports, property filings. Her correspondence grew from hundreds to thousands of letters. Sexton wasn’t sure whether to call the police on Eileen or hire her for her thoroughness. But he gave her a nickname: “pen pal.” By then, Umbehr and her husband Keen, a lawyer, had spent years working the case and advocating for Chandler at their own expense. Then came email 2,714\. The Kansas Supreme Court, Umbehr explained, had thrown out Chandler’s murder convictions, a rare occurrence. Sexton replied in six words: “Perhaps I should come see you.”

Those six words began a journey which is now the subject of _A Killer Story_, a three-part documentary premiering Sept. 10 on HBO. Featuring Sexton alongside the married true-crime enthusiasts who recruited him—strangers to Chandler when they took up her case—it unspools the story of the deaths of Sisco and Harkness, and the case against Chandler, who was convicted in 2012, granted a new trial in 2018, retried to a hung jury in 2022, and convicted again in 2025\. 

Directed by Matthew Galkin and executive produced by Joshua Levine and Oscar winner Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus and Jon Bardin’s Story Syndicate, the series, filmed across the final six years of the case, explains how the final verdict was reached, without pretending a verdict also doubles as a definitive answer. Its deeper subject is the more amorphous notion of certainty: how detectives, prosecutors, and true-crime believers cling to it, and the collateral damage it can leave behind.

The initial draw to the project, according to Levine, was how much material piled up before their cameras even arrived to capture it. “There were two decades, really, before we even came into it, where there were all these other layers beyond the crime itself,” he tells TIME. Those layers built up at the intersection of the media and a couple whose devotion, and what it cost them, kept changing the course of the case.

## **A crime pointing to overkill**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7c774d1d9730e6a/6aa22c3f4a53c17e7e652186/joe-sexton-director-matthew-galkin.jpg?branch=production)

Journalist Joe Sexton and director Matthew Galkin —Courtesy of HBO

The facts of what took place on July 7, 2002 are clear. Harkness and Sisco spent the previous evening at a casino, cameras catching them until they left around 1:30 a.m. They were home at her townhouse before 3\. Harkness’ father later found their bodies; both had been shot repeatedly.

Investigators ruled out robbery almost immediately. Cash lay in plain view and in Sisco’s wallet; Harkness still wore her jewelry. There were no fingerprints on the shell casings, no eyewitnesses, and no gun. The ammunition, though, was distinctive: Israeli-made subsonic rounds most commonly fired from an Uzi-style weapon. To Ray Lundin, then of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the scene read as “overkill,” a murder driven by emotion, as he puts it in the docuseries.

Sisco’s family immediately suspected his ex-wife. Two people nearly 40 miles west, watching the same case unfold, would eventually conclude otherwise. Chandler made out poorly following a bitter divorce after 15 years of marriage, which had been strained by her drinking; Sisco kept the house and custody of the children, and received a child-support order in his favor. She went on to earn a master’s degree in accounting, got sober, and moved to Denver—540 miles and roughly eight hours from Topeka. When Detective Richard Volle interviewed her days after the killings, she walked him through her errands on July 6, including a stop at an AutoZone. What she did not mention was on the receipts: two five-gallon gas cans. Investigators built a theory around them. With enough fuel aboard, a driver could make it from Denver to Topeka and back without stopping.

For nearly a decade, this remained only a theory. District Attorney Robert Hecht declined to charge Chandler, noting, as he does in the docuseries, that no one placed her in Topeka around the time of the murders. But his successors saw the case differently. Authorities arrested Chandler in Oklahoma in 2011, and in March 2012 a Topeka jury only needed 83 minutes to convict her of two counts of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole for 100 years.

At the trial, prosecutor Jacqie Spradling had told jurors that Sisco obtained a protection from abuse (PFA) order against Chandler, and Volle testified to it. In Kansas, a court issues a PFA order to protect someone from abuse by a household member or intimate partner. When Keen Umbehr, Eileen’s husband and by then Chandler’s research attorney, went hunting for the PFA, he could find none. The prosecution’s decision to tell the jury that one existed, he says in the docuseries, was a way of suggesting that Chandler was dangerous.

On appeal, the Kansas Supreme Court found that no such order existed. In April 2018, the justices reversed both convictions, but also found the circumstantial evidence legally sufficient, which is why the reversal led to a retrial rather than Chandler’s release. Spradling's reckoning arrived on a separate track. Keen filed an ethics complaint against her in 2016; a disciplinary panel recommended disbarment five years later, and in May 2022 the Kansas Supreme Court disbarred her.

## **Two unlikely advocates**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8031df4eb5b4bb79/6aa22c644c634a7ef227bcc0/eileen-and-keen-umbehr.jpeg?branch=production)

Eileen and Keen Umbehr —Courtesy of HBO

Over the two decades that followed, the Umbehrs gave the case nearly everything they had, which raises the question Galkin partly built the series around: Why are these people so obsessed with this case? “They will dedicate their lives, give up their financial security, to defend someone who, at the beginning of the process, they did not know personally at all,” Galkin tells TIME.

The couple is, on paper, an improbable pair of crusaders. High school sweethearts, they settled in Alma, where Keen hauled trash for a living until 1989 while writing a muckraking column for a local newspaper. When Wabaunsee County commissioners terminated his contract, in what he contended was retaliation for the columns, he sued, and in 1996 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that independent contractors are protected from government retaliation for their speech. He eventually went to law school and opened a practice. Eileen, a lifelong true-crime devotee, says in the docuseries that her own drive came from faith and scripture’s instruction to speak for those who cannot. After Chandler’s 2012 conviction, Eileen wrote to her until she agreed to meet; Keen became her research attorney. Eventually he closed his practice, and the couple sold 500 acres of family land to work the case full time.

Both were convinced of Chandler’s innocence. Levine, asked how two strangers became her most devoted advocates, tells the origin story in a different order. “They quickly realized that the son-in-law of Karen Harkness, one of the victims, was someone that they knew and had encountered over the years,” he says. They believed he could have done it, and that no one was watching him. “I think that was their entry point into it.” The suspicion of a man they knew came first, in 2002, nine years before the state charged Chandler. The certainty of her innocence followed.

Galkin does not pretend the sequence is incidental. “It’s not just that they are convinced that Dana Chandler is not guilty; it’s that they are also convinced that they know who did it,” he says. 

## **The hair on the casing**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53ab046a970ca94b/6aa22cba00201cae20fa9be3/eileen-and-keen-umbehr_0.jpeg?branch=production)

The Umbehrs in A Killer Story —Courtesy of HBO

The man they suspected was Jeff Sutton, husband of Harkness’ daughter Erin, and formerly the county attorney of rural Wabaunsee County. The Umbehrs compiled a 200-page dossier on Sutton, asserting a history of violence, access to the townhouse, a federal license to deal in high-powered weapons, and an unusual arrangement that let him take confiscated guns from the county sheriff’s inventory as payment for casework. Keen came to believe one gun missing from that inventory was an Uzi, and a sheriff’s deputy told him she had personally seen Sutton with that type of weapon. The couple sent the dossier to virtually every law enforcement agency in Kansas, though none responded.

What they wanted was a comparison. The lone piece of DNA in the case is a single hair singed onto a shell casing found in the bedroom, which prosecutors tested only on the eve of the 2012 trial.The results matched neither victim, nor Chandler. Keen developed a theory based on the test results: casings eject to the right, so a left-handed shooter’s right forearm hangs above the arc, where a hot casing could sear off a hair on its way down. For the theory to work, Sutton had to be left-handed. Eileen found a newspaper photograph of him signing his oath of office as a prosecutor, which showed that he was. Using a Kansas provision that lets any citizen submit what amounts to a probable-cause affidavit, the Umbehrs went before a judge to compel his DNA.

Sutton, remarkably, sat for the docuseries, after what Levine describes as years of careful groundwork by Sexton. “We didn’t know what Jeff Sutton was going to say in that interview chair,” Galkin says. But what he says is unequivocal: He denies killing Sisco and Harkness, and says Keen held a grudge against him but he “never had a beef” with Keen, despite the fact that Sutton was a target of some of Keen’s early muckraking, dating back to the late 1980s. No law enforcement agency ever named him a suspect. When the DNA testing results came back, the hair on the shell casing proved not to be his. Still, the Umbehrs’ suspicions around Sutton persisted. 

“People believe what they want to believe, rightly or wrongly,” Levine says. “It blinds you from the truth sometimes.”

## **Filming without an ending**  

Galkin and Levine had no way of knowing how, or even whether, any of these open questions would resolve. Production began before Chandler’s second trial, meaning the filmmakers committed to covering a murder story with no ending in sight. The resolution came in installments, the first in the summer of 2022, when the second trial opened and prosecutor Charles Kitt conceded at the outset the ground the defense had held for 20 years. “This case is not based on DNA,” he told jurors. “This case is not based on hair. This case is not based on fingerprints. This case is based on jealousy, rage, and obsession.” Defense attorney Tom Bath called it a textbook argument for the presumption of innocence. On the stand, Volle conceded what the Supreme Court had already established: there was never a PFA order.

Chandler’s own conflicting accounts of what she did and where she was the day before and the day of the killings did the most damage to her case. A friend, Jeff Bailey, testified that weeks after her police interview, she gave him a different story entirely: She had been camping alone in the mountains, sleeping in her car, and had given police a different alibi because she doubted they would accept the true one. Then, on day 11, prosecutors announced a surprise witness. Terri Anderson, a neighbor of Harkness’, testified that late that night she heard gunshots, saw movement, and briefly saw a face she believed was Chandler’s, and that she called 911\. But a records custodian could produce no record of the call, or of any police response. Casino cameras showed Sisco and Harkness alive well past the hour she described. The jury deliberated six days and split—seven for conviction, five against—resulting in a mistrial.

A week after her testimony, Anderson sat down with Sexton, who walked her through the records on camera. “I’m second-guessing myself right now, and I’m thinking, could I have misremembered something?” she says in the docuseries. “I wish the prosecutors would have shown me this prior to me testifying.” If they had, she would have asked to be excused. “I would not put myself out there if I was going to tell a blatant lie about anything.”

Levine is gentle in his opinion of Anderson. “I don’t blame her,” he says. “I think she truly believed what she testified to.”

## **Mounting her own defense**

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte923f8ee8a520524/6aa22c8b00201c5342fa9bdf/dana-chandler.jpeg?branch=production)

Dana Chandler —Courtesy of HBO

Prosecutors elected to try Chandler a third time, and the case moved to the small town of Westmoreland, far from the Topeka jury pool. With opening statements about to begin in February 2025, Chandler dismissed her defense team to represent herself. She had never testified in the previous trials, but now she would conduct her entire defense, including the cross-examination of her own children, who would be witnesses for the state as they had been in past trials. “How rare to see, in the third trial, a mother cross-examine her daughter,” Levine says. “It’s just unbelievable. For the family, they just have to keep reliving this publicly.”

On the stand for days, Chandler told her life story: born in New Mexico before moving to Colorado where she met Sisco, had children, began drinking, and endured a marriage she called “so broken and toxic” that sobriety kept slipping away. During cross examination, the prosecution laid her different alibis side by side: the errands-and-early-bedtime she gave Volle, the solo camping she gave Bailey, the version she now offered the jury. In closing, Kitt told jurors the case was not finally about revenge or jealousy but control.

Chandler, during her own closing remarks, reminded the jury there was no evidence she was in Topeka at the time of the killings or that she ever purchased or owned a 9-mm firearm. “I submit to you that the state has woefully failed to meet its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I killed Mike Sisco or that I killed Karen Harkness,” she said.

The jury needed hours, not days, and they found Chandler guilty on both counts. Galkin suggests Chandler’s decision to represent herself this time was the wrong one. “You just sort of watch someone squander a really good opportunity to not be in prison for the rest of her life,” he says. The sentence this time: consecutive life terms with no parole eligibility for 50 years.

## **What the verdict left open**  

Ask the filmmakers for their own verdict, and what comes back is uncertainty. “I think Josh and I are still, seven years on, in this mindset of: We don’t really know if \[Dana\] did it or not,” Galkin says. The absence of physical evidence keeps him circling. “Just when you think that you have convinced yourself that she did do it ... you start questioning: Well, how did she do it?” he adds. “Because she would have had to pull off the perfect murder.”

For years, one voice was missing from the chorus: Chandler’s. Only when she fired her lawyers to represent herself, then testified, did the filmmakers hear her perspective at length; the one time she insisted on telling it entirely herself, with her freedom in the balance, a jury rejected it. Sexton’s observation from the courtroom, as Galkin recalls it, was that “knowing your story and arguing it well are two very different things.” Galkin puts his own opinion more directly: “Regardless of whether she told her own story compellingly or not, she did not argue her case well.”

Levine wants viewers to finish the docuseries asking the same questions he and Galkin have not stopped asking themselves. Galkin’s wish, meanwhile, runs even further against the grain of the true crime genre: for the audience to manage what almost no one in this story could, by sitting with a case that’s “beautifully unsatisfying.” It is an unusual wish, but an honest one. More than two decades of presumed certainty produced three trials and a family broken in ways no verdict could ever repair. The genre conditions its viewers to expect a clear-cut answer, but _A Killer Story_ asks them to live without one.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltab6797baa9bc169a Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:00:08 +0000<!\[CDATA\[JP Mangalindan\]\]><!\[CDATA\[TIME Convenes Leaders Shaping the Future of Health for Third Annual TIME100 Health Leadership Forum\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/time-convenes-leaders-shaping-the-future-of-health-for-third-annual-time100-health-leadership-forum/<!\[CDATA\[Press Room\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab346eeb109e625d/6aa1ab95c003205092eea1ff/2026_TIME100_Health_Leadership_Forum_Press_Release_8September2026.png?branch=production)

Today, TIME convenes the third annual _TIME100 Health Leadership Forum_ in New York City, featuring conversations on equity, longevity, and solution-driven care with leaders taking action toward a world with more reliable healthcare solutions. 

The _TIME100 Health Leadership Forum_ will bring together individuals from the TIME and TIME100 Health communities and beyond who are actively shaping the health industry.

Speakers will include journalist, founder of Cleveland Clinic’s Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and co-founder of Cleveland Clinic’s Comprehensive Women’s Health and Research Center **Maria Shriver**; gastrointestinal medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center **Dr. Andrea Cercek**; psychiatrist, researcher and author, **Dr. Judith Joseph**; chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network **Shane Jacobson**; director, president and chief executive officer of Insulet Corporation **Ashley McEvoy;** professor at Harvard Medical School **David Sinclair;** Director of Pediatric Cell Therapy and Transplant and Cancer Clinical Research and Oregon Health & Science University, **Dr. Eneida R. Nemecek;** executive vice president of Kite **Cindy Perettie**; founder and chief executive officer of Musely **Jack Jia**; on-air host of Elvis Duran and the Morning Show and T1D advocate, **Garrett Vogel;** neuroscientist and women’s health biotech founder **Jennifer Garrison**; chief executive officer of NMDP **Amy Ronneberg**; and director of the Center for Cell Therapy and Transplant at Penn Medicine **Dr. David L. Porter**.

“Tonight, we’ll bring together leaders taking on some of the most important challenges in health today to share ideas, build connections, and move important work forward. We thank our partners for their commitment to advancing health and driving meaningful change,” said **TIME** **Chief Executive Officer Jessica Sibley**.

“The TIME100 Health Leadership Forum gives us a chance to hear directly from those shaping the future of health, learn from their experiences and ideas, and gain a clearer view of where health is headed next,” said **TIME Executive Editor** and **Chief Strategy Officer Dan Macsai**, who oversees the TIME100 franchise.

Now in its third year, the _TIME100 Health Leadership Forum_ is an integral part of TIME’s longstanding commitment to spotlighting the people and stories shaping health and sits alongside the annual [TIME100 Health](https://time.com/collections/time100-health-2026/) list.

The _TIME100 Health Leadership Forum_ is presented by signature partners **The American Cancer Society**, **Insulet**, **Kite—a Gilead Sciences company**,and **Musely**, and supporting partner **NMDP**. 

To read TIME’s coverage of the _TIME100 Health Leadership Forum_ in New York City, visit [TIME.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-leadership-forums).

###

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltd42a4e37de520f5b Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[TIME PR\]\]><!\[CDATA\[9/11 and the Substitute Mother\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/9-11-and-the-substitute-mother/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[My aunt was among those killed during the 9/11 attacks. Years later, her memory teaches me the importance of substitute mothers, writes Diana Miller.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Courtesy of Diana Miller.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Diana Miller and Daphne "Saza" Pouletsos.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta46a30fb53c5881d/6aa22233eb7b3de7368a4925/Saza-Diana-Miller.jpg?branch=production)

Diana Miller and Daphne "Saza" Pouletsos. —Courtesy of Diana Miller.

In 2001, I lost the world I knew. Twenty-five years later, I’m accidentally rebuilding it. 

“I think people think you’re my mother,” my six-year-old niece whispered to me as we walked through the parking lot toward CVS. 

“I think you’re right,” I said, smiling back at her impish grin that suggested we were pulling one over on the world. I had picked her up from school and was indulging her request to buy fake nails for our sleepover. She gripped my hand tightly, as a daughter would. We proudly walked through the automatic sliding doors, as one.

I don’t have children of my own, which means my niece is the beneficiary of my pent-up maternal love and obsession. She was born in 2020, and four months later, I left my job as the executive producer of a morning news show in New York and moved to Los Angeles. It was the first time I’d disrupted my ambitious climb up the media ladder, and when my feet landed in the California sand, my role as an aunt became the foundation of my daily life. 

Birthdays, ballet recitals, and school performances anchored my calendar. Playing hide-and-seek before dinner, getting ice cream on a Tuesday, and letting her empty my closet for dress-up replaced late-night calls, breaking news, and media dinners. Recently, when my sister traveled abroad for work, my niece wanted assurance that her “substitute mother” would be around. The phrase made me laugh, but also squeezed my heart like a vise. Because I know what it’s like to have a substitute mother. 

Daphne Pouletsos worked for the insurance company AON, her office was located in the south tower of the [World Trade Center](https://time.com/article/2026/09/03/the-missing-pieces-we-carry-after-9-11/), and she was among the 2,977 victims killed in the [9/11 attacks](https://time.com/article/2026/09/03/how-9-11-shaped-my-life/). 

Saza, as we called her, was my mother’s younger sister. Her nickname was a name given by my oldest cousin, Dayna, whose toddler tongue couldn’t say “Aunt Daphne.” 

Although Saza lived in New Jersey and I grew up in Virginia, she was a constant light in my life. We drove up north for summers and holidays, and Saza would visit us throughout the year. Once, she hid in the back of our Chrysler minivan when my mom picked my siblings and me up from school, and she revealed herself by suddenly piping into the conversation. We squealed with excitement. 

Saza knew how to make a mundane moment sparkle. Her sense of humor was the first thing to enter the room, and sleepovers at her house meant staying up late to watch _Saturday Night Live_. In my young mind, “The Church Lady” and “Coffee Talk” were extensions of my aunt (it helped that she also had a New Jersey accent). Shimmying our shoulders like “Sprockets” was like a special inside joke. Her laugh could sweeten the sourest mood.

But the best moments with her were always Christmas morning. Saza would come to my grandparents’ house first thing in the morning, the jingle bell on the back door announcing her arrival. She’d sit in the big, blue upholstered wingback chair, her feet tucked under her like a teenager, eyes shining behind her ‘90s rimless glasses. I can’t separate the thrill I got from opening a new baby doll from the joy I got from showing it to her. She would coo with enthusiasm, amplifying my delight. One time, she gave all of her nieces and nephews thick black plastic glasses with rubber banana noses attached. It was the silliest gift I’ve ever received, and one of the best. We took a picture, all piled on top of each other: laughing, goofy, family. Her presence carried a promise that everything was okay. As a kid, I assumed it always would be.

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2347344a70b3893/6aa223226a4b5f4eb4badc14/Diana-Miller-Banana-Noses.jpg?branch=production)

Daphne Pouletsos' nieces nieces and nephews. —Courtesy of Diana Miller.

I was studying abroad in the fall of 2001\. Classes at University College London hadn’t started yet, so I was traipsing around Europe with a sorority sister. We were at a restaurant in Barcelona when a waiter expressed dismay about “what happened at the World Trade Center.” 

“My aunt works there,” I told my friend. But I was sure she was fine. How could she not be?

Still, I found a payphone and called home. My father tried to convey a stoic message: “We don’t know anything yet, we’re calling all the hospitals.”

Then I saw the footage on the TV in our hostel. I couldn’t believe that she could be one of the victims. Not Saza.

As a journalist, I know the questions that are typical in the wake of a tragedy. _How old were they? Did she or he have kids?_ It’s natural. We’re inclined to measure loss by what, or rather, who, is left behind. But the true impact of a person’s life is not reflected in titles or preconceived roles. Every one of the 2,977 victims on 9/11 had a world that was wide and meaningful. You may not know the details of that world, but someone does. And they mourn not just the loss of that person, but the moments they made possible. For me, saying “I lost my aunt on September 11th” doesn’t begin to tell the story. My loss isn’t constricted by norms. Her legacy doesn’t fit neatly into a headline. 

How old was she? Forty-seven. No, she didn’t have kids, but she had us. Twenty-five years later, I am 45, and I have my niece. Saza was the person who gave me the gift of knowing what an aunt can be. 

While I could never fill her slippers, I feel Saza with me every day. She’s there when my niece and I are feeding the stray cat in my backyard. She’s there when we’re laughing at the Sunday comics. She’s there as we get dolled up in fancy dresses to go to the neighborhood pizza place. I am alive in these moments because she lived.

I wonder what else her life would have included if she had kept living it. What it would be like to have her visit me in Los Angeles. How she, my sister, and I would stay up late watching SNL together. How much love she would pour into life’s middle moments. 

And most of all, what joy she would take in getting to know my niece, her namesake: Daphne.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltc092a623143b04d5 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:00:05 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Diana Miller\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump’s Attacks on the Environment Are Out of Touch With America\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/trump-s-attacks-on-the-environment-are-out-of-touch-with-america/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Smart, limited government does not require slashing America’s grandest idea. It does not mean choosing polluters over citizens, writes Benji Backer.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Annabelle Gordon—CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[President Donald Trump on the Ellipse of the White House on Sept. 8, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83c964bc89b65e85/6aa19c9a6a4b5f9aefbadb0a/trump-environment.jpg?branch=production)

President Donald Trump on the Ellipse of the White House on Sept. 8, 2026\. —Annabelle Gordon—CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The most pro-American stance a leader can take is to defend our best ideas. America's national parks and our nation’s beautiful environment are part of our heritage, identity, and are ultimately our greatest strength. 

From President Theodore Roosevelt dramatically [expanding public lands protections](https://www.trlibrary.com/tr/conservation/by-the-numbers) to President Richard Nixon [signing the Clean Air Act](https://time.com/article/2026/03/24/the-conservative-case-for-protecting-the-environment/), our best days have come when protecting the environment was led by leaders on both sides of the aisle. 

The current administration is not honoring that shared American value. Nearly two years into President Donald Trump’s second term, his administration is failing the American people on the environment, on our national parks, and on the public lands that are supposed to unite us.

Plenty of people in the environmental movement would’ve opposed anything pro-environment this president did on mere partisan principle. I’m not one of them. Early last year I [worked closely with the president’s team](https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326588/benji-backer/) and several cabinet officials to help shape a well-intentioned and potentially powerful executive order: “[Make America Beautiful Again](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-beautiful-again-commission/).” This initiative called on his cabinet to secure a [historic investment](https://time.com/7301979/national-park-system-trump-administration/) in our public lands, our forests, our water, and outdoor recreation. I firmly believed in the concept, and I still believe in its potential, but we’ve gotten the opposite of what was promised. 

This president labels his policies “[America first](https://time.com/4273812/america-first-donald-trump-history/),” but on public lands and national parks he’s simply put America last. As someone who was in those rooms making the case, I could not be more disappointed. And it doesn’t need to be this way. 

Their record is dark. Thus far, the Trump Administration has gutted national park staff, [opposed](https://www.eenews.net/articles/voters-fret-over-federal-land-budget-cuts-legal-rollbacks-poll-finds/) by around 86% of Americans. They’ve proposed sell-offs of public land, which is [opposed](https://coloradonewsline.com/2026/02/19/western-states-oppose-trump-rollback-public-lands/) by nearly 90% of voters in Western states, where these spaces are concentrated. They’ve prioritized rollbacks to policies like the Endangered Species Act, which is [opposed](https://www.npca.org/articles/11472-new-poll-shows-american-public-hunters-largely-united-on-national-park) by 85% of Americans. They’ve [stripped protections](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/trump-roadless-rule-drinking-water-study/) for clean water, [clean air](https://time.com/7380172/trump-mercury-coal-plant-pollution/), national forests, [and more](https://time.com/7258269/trump-climate-policies-executive-orders/), also opposed by the vast majority of Americans. 

On issue after issue, this administration has landed on the wrong side of the American people on the environment. Public blowback has stopped a few of these decisions, but a new threat to the great American outdoors seems to surface almost every week. These are quite possibly the two worst years for our environment under a president in my lifetime.

I’ve sat across from dozens of White House officials, and I can tell you there are people who care deeply about conservation. My sense is that their voices are being drowned out by those who primarily act in opposition to the Democratic Party, many of whom have never spent real time in America’s grandeur and do not understand what it means to the rest of us. They are doing the president a disservice. His single [most popular](https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2019/08/09/americans-want-congress-to-act-to-fix-national-parks) act in his first term was arguably [signing](https://time.com/video/NNC5oGbq/) the immensely bipartisan [Great American Outdoors Act](https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/great-american-outdoors-act-marks-six-years-transforming-americas-public-lands-0), the [largest investment](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-modifies-two-national-monuments-restoring-sensible-land-management/) in our national parks in history. Now, on an issue that could unify the country and win him support from every walk of life, he and his team are deliberately walking the other way.

The President and his team could defend any one of these choices on its own, justified by claiming they’re making the government more efficient, that local management of our land is better, or that they are unleashing economic growth. Yet, taken together, their actions add up to a plain refusal to treat our environment and our public lands as a priority in any real sense. More than that, I am concerned by their lack of proactive, positive environmental policies. It’s backwards, and it cuts against the American voter and against our national character.

Two things can exist simultaneously. The [economy](https://time.com/article/2026/09/05/economics-capitalism-growth-inequality-gdp/) is, understandably, the country’s [top concern](https://abcnews.com/Politics/americans-economy-concerned-costs-polls/story?id=135167569) right now. But it does not have to come at the cost of shrinking or dismantling the country’s natural resources and beauty. Smart, limited government does not require slashing America's grandest idea. It does not mean choosing polluters over citizens. It does not mean railroading projects through communities that never asked for them. It does not mean overriding the will of the people.

Nearly a [third of all land](https://www.gao.gov/managing-federal-lands-and-waters) in the United States is publicly owned and managed by the federal government. The current approach compounds decades of these lands being mismanaged and desperately underfunded. 

Our air quality and water quality are worsening, [invasive species](https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/) are spreading at alarming rates, [soil health](https://time.com/article/2026/06/05/does-the-future-of-climate-resilience-lie-beneath-our-feet/) is degrading, and much more. How we care for these resources should not be a partisan policy fight. It should be a productive dialogue that shapes the American landscape itself and improves the lives of families in every corner of the country.

Our national parks aren’t political; they’re American. 

I am often told by friends on the political left that Trump will never make conservation a priority, that Republicans simply hate the environment. I understand the cynicism. 

But it is neither productive nor true to who Americans actually are. The vast majority of the American voters want the same things when it comes to our National Parks and environment. Our leaders, specifically around this Administration, just aren’t reflecting that right now. Outside of Washington, Americans would love to see this president, and every president, protect these places. 

My prediction: The Republican Party will continue to lose voters if they fail to protect our environment, and it should. Americans believe our nation’s beauty is worth defending. We ought to follow the public, not an endless political game of ping-pong.

Americans don’t wear a party patch on their sleeve when it comes to the health of our environment. They wear pride in this nation's beauty. Today, a [record-low share](https://news.gallup.com/poll/708413/americans-rating-environment-hits-new-low.aspx) of Americans believe our environment is healthy. If there was ever a wrong moment to make cuts, this is it. Not when [energy demand](https://time.com/7272558/ai-rising-global-electricity-demand/), [AI](https://time.com/7311600/google-ai-climate-impact/), [data centers](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/data-centers-republican-reset-midterms/), and [screen addiction](https://time.com/article/2026/05/14/the-danger-of-screens-taking-over-our-lives/) are straining this country like never before. Not when visits to National Parks and public lands are near an all-time high — and those lands need more care, not less. Not when Americans expect their tax dollars to build historic investment in our environment, not strip it away.

America has always found a way, albeit imperfectly, to balance protecting our environment with growing our economy. We do not have to ruin our public lands to save our economy. Investing in the places that keep us whole benefits our [mental health](https://time.com/article/2026/06/03/nature-mental-health-boost/), our physical health, and our economic health.

History will never look kindly on a leader who lets America’s most beloved places decline. President Trump has two years left to prove he’s better than that. He can work across partisan boundaries and accomplish popular, common-sense environmental wins, or he can be remembered as the worst president for America’s environment in modern history. 

The choice is his. And it shouldn’t be a hard one.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt8451b3e30a5d0f2b Thu, 10 Sep 2026 10:00:06 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Benji Backer\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump Promises End to Iran War After Midterms\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/iran-us-war-attacks-shipping-midterm-elections-strait-hormuz/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The President suggested that Iran’s government is holding out in hopes of hurting Republican political prospects.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Brandon Bell—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[President Donald Trump speaks on stage on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt695c7be1cdfd97a0/6aa27d442c02ddbc6535723c/trump_at_rnc.jpg?branch=production)

President Donald Trump speaks on stage on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2026\. —Brandon Bell—Getty Images

President [Donald Trump](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/donald-trump/) said he expects the [U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran](https://time.com/article/2026/09/02/us-iran-deadly-strikes-attacks-civilians-sirik-strait-hormuz/) to end “immediately after” the [midterm elections](https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/trump-dividend-five-thousand-dollars-midterms-republican-convention/).

Trump suggested that Iran is on the verge of collapse, but that its government is holding out in hopes of hurting Republican political prospects in November.

“They’re desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters as he headed to the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday.

But “they can’t hold out any longer,” he said.

Trump added that “it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm” for gas prices to come down, but that they would fall once Iran soon seeks an end to the war, which is now in its seventh month.

Trump’s comments come as [renewed fighting](https://time.com/article/2026/08/31/us-iran-strikes-larak-island/), including a barrage of tit-for-tat strikes in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, has [driven up energy prices](https://time.com/article/2026/06/19/us-iran-deal-strait-hormuz-shipping-oil-gas-prices/) to their highest levels since late May. The global benchmark oil price [topped $100 a barrel](https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/iran-us-base-jordan-oil-tankers-war-strikes/) for the first time since July.

The national average for gasoline in the U.S. climbed 7.3 cents to $4.22 a gallon on Wednesday, the largest single day increase since May, according to [AAA](https://gasprices.aaa.com/). Diesel reached a record $5.94 a gallon on Wednesday.

The Trump Administration has sought to tamp down rising energy prices amid growing affordability concerns among Americans. Last month, the Administration [extended the Jones Act Waiver](https://time.com/article/2026/08/05/jones-act-waiver-fuel-gas-costs-maritime-industry-iran-war/) for another 90 days, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport oil and other commodities between U.S. ports.

## U.S. and Iran exchange biggest attack on shipping

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the U.S. and Iran exchanged the largest wave of attacks on shipping since the war began. Iran said it attacked 10 ships, including two U.S. vessels, near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. destroyed five Iranian oil tankers. Iran also launched missiles at a base hosting U.S. forces in Jordan, which U.S. officials [reportedly](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/us/politics/iran-strikes-jordan-base.html) said resulted in limited damage and no casualties.

The U.S. said its tanker strikes were retaliation for two Iranian attempts to hit a U.S. Navy warship.

The latest exchange came after [days of escalating attacks](https://time.com/article/2026/09/02/us-iran-deadly-strikes-attacks-civilians-sirik-strait-hormuz/). U.S. forces struck Iranian military sites on Sept. 1 in retaliation for attempted Iranian attacks on commercial vessels and U.S. personnel, CENTCOM said. One U.S. strike hit a wedding party in southern Iran, killing at least five people and injuring more than 60 others, according to Iranian officials, and [prompting an internal investigation](https://time.com/article/2026/09/04/did-the-u-s-strike-an-iranian-wedding-/) by the U.S. military. On Saturday, Iran fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyer. In response, the U.S. destroyed three Iranian oil tankers.

Trump officials have downplayed the nature of the conflict, despite the continued fighting. Last week, Vice President J.D. Vance [said](https://time.com/article/2026/09/03/vance-iran-war-press-briefing/) he would not call the recent flare up “a war.”

## When will the war end?

Trump and his officials initially estimated that the war would last four to six weeks, and have repeatedly said that [energy costs will fall quickly](https://time.com/7383152/iran-israel-us-crude-oil-prices-outlook-markets-trump-hormuz/) once the war is over. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested in July that gas prices could return to $3 a gallon by Labor Day.

But Iran’s [hold on the Strait of Hormuz](https://time.com/article/2026/07/12/what-is-the-status-of-the-strait-of-hormuz-/), a [critical artery](https://time.com/7296861/strait-of-hormuz-function-iran-closure-threat-impact-trade/) in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade flowed before the war, has [proved an enduring strategy](https://time.com/article/2026/04/07/strait-of-hormuz-countries-pass-deals-iran-us-war-trump/) to [disrupt the global economy](https://time.com/article/2026/04/15/imf-global-recession-war-us-israel-iran-energy-hormuz/). Iran militarized the Strait at the start of the war in retaliation against U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28\. Iranian leaders have used the Strait as a [key point of leverage](https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/us-iran-oman-war-peace-deal-strait-hormuz-trump/) in [now-stalled](https://time.com/article/2026/09/01/irans-president-willing-to-resume-peace-talks-what-stands-in-the-way-/) talks with the U.S., and [restarted strikes on ships](https://time.com/article/2026/06/26/strait-hormuz-iran-strike-vessel-un-escort-shipping-oil-trump/) in the waterway in an attempt to force the U.S. to [agree to its demands](https://time.com/article/2026/08/10/iran-us-strait-of-hormuz-conditions-trump-negotiations/).

Trump, however, has maintained that he is under no pressure from the economic pain or its potential impact on the midterm elections to strike a deal with Iran, especially one that would be unfavorable to the U.S.

“A negotiation could possibly happen, but it’s not something we’re looking at,” Trump said on Wednesday.

Trump has insisted that Americans understand the need to continue the war until the U.S. eliminates the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“I think it’s very easy to explain to America, all you have to do is say: ‘Will you let Iran have a nuclear weapon?’ And the answer is no,” Trump said.

Nevertheless, the public has [grown increasingly weary](https://time.com/article/2026/06/25/us-iran-deal-mou-trump-approval-war-polls/) of the war. Just 31% of Americans said they supported U.S. strikes on Iran in a late August [Reuters/Ipsos poll](https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2026-08/Reuters%20Ipsos%20August%20Core%20Political%20Topline.pdf), while 63% opposed it. And 83% of those polled said they expect U.S. military involvement in Iran to continue for an extended period of time. Americans also appear to be concerned with the economic consequences of the war, with 61% of respondents believing the conflict has made life more expensive for their families, according to a [Politico poll](https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026/08/august-2026-politico-poll-results-on-affordability-trumps-record-and-immigration-01054160) in August.

Last month, the Treasury Department launched an [economic pressure campaign](https://time.com/article/2026/08/29/iran-escalation-trump-economic-war/) on Iran in an effort to force its capitulation. Its measures have included a [slate of new sanctions](https://time.com/article/2026/08/20/iran-hits-back-at-trump-s-threat-of-a-crushing-economic-d-day-campaign/) on Iran, the ongoing [U.S. naval blockade](https://time.com/article/2026/04/12/trump-blockade-strait-of-hormuz-iran/) on Iranian ports, and the threat of secondary sanctions on Iran’s trading partners.

Iran’s economy has been hit hard by the measures, as well as [disruptions and damage from the war](https://time.com/article/2026/06/21/the-toll-of-the-u-s--iran-war-by-the-numbers/). Its already weak currency has [spiraled to record lows](https://time.com/article/2026/08/24/iranian-rial-hits-record-low-new-us-sanctions/), while inflation, unemployment, and shortages of essential goods have substantially worsened.

Nevertheless, recent intelligence assessments [reportedly](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/us/politics/iran-war-intelligence-reports.html) indicate that Tehran is prepared to continue fighting for months despite severe economic pressure. Iranian leaders have also [signaled a willingness](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/world/middleeast/iran-war-us-aggression-hormuz.html) to [escalate the war by intensifying attacks](https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/iran-us-war-strait-of-hormuz-gulf-targets/?amp=true) on U.S. warships, targeting commercial vessels, and expanding shipping restrictions beyond the Strait of Hormuz.

Analysts have argued that Iran’s leadership might be hoping to inflict greater political and economic costs on the U.S. Administration in an effort to increase its leverage over Washington. Trump advisers, including Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have [reportedly](https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trumps-top-advisers-confront-possibility-that-iran-war-lasts-through-end-of-term-5f4e23d7) discussed with Trump the prospect that the war continues through the remainder of his presidential term.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt4486074738186c8d Thu, 10 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Miranda Jeyaretnam\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump Promises $5,000 Dividend if Republicans Win Both House and Senate\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/10/trump-dividend-five-thousand-dollars-midterms-republican-convention/<!\[CDATA\[Politics\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump announced a “Trump dividend” for adult U.S. citizens, but some are skeptical.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Tasos Katopodis—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[President Donald Trump speaks on stage on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt846a471f736a76e8/6aa2620145f79309af170489/trump_rnc.jpg?branch=production)

President Donald Trump speaks on stage on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2026\. —Tasos Katopodis—Getty Images

President [Donald Trump](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/donald-trump/) has promised a $5,000 payment to every American adult if Republicans [retain control of both chambers of Congress](https://time.com/article/2026/08/14/congress-turnover-house-senate-republican-democrat-primaries-midterm-elections/) in the coming [midterm elections](https://time.com/tag/midterms/).

Trump [made the promise](https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2097871833605279894) of a so-called “Trump dividend” at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday night. He said the money would have to be spent in the U.S., although he did not offer details on how that restriction would be enforced. TIME has reached out to the White House for comment.

“Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate,” Trump said, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000, very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders.”

Such a plan would require congressional approval. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R, Ohio) endorsed the proposal and [said](https://x.com/berniemoreno/status/2097872890582446418) he would prepare legislation to pass the dividend after the election.

The proposal could also have significant economic consequences. The U.S. has roughly 240 million adult citizens, according to [Census Bureau data](https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2024.S2901), putting the proposal’s cost at approximately $1.2 trillion. Unless offset by new revenue or spending cuts, the payments would likely widen the federal budget deficit—which [totaled nearly $1.8 trillion](https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-11/61307-MBR-FY25-final.pdf) in fiscal 2025—and could add to inflationary pressures.

Vice President J.D. Vance later narrowed the proposal, suggesting that wealthy Americans would not qualify. He added that the payments could be financed by tariff revenue, which amounted to around [$154.5 billion](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/static-data/published-reports/mts/MonthlyTreasuryStatement%5F202607.pdf) in the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 through July.

Trump suggested that the dividend would be financed by “tremendous economic success” from his policies.

“The reason the Democrats can’t do that is because they don’t do tariffs, they don’t take in money, all they know is poverty,” the President said.

In his first term, Trump authorized two rounds of congressionally-approved [stimulus checks](https://time.com/5821546/stimulus-checks/) during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, he also compared the promised dividend with the $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” announced for military service members in December, which was funded by a congressionally approved housing supplement.

Some, however, are skeptical about the idea.

Rep. Chip Roy, (R, Texas) told [Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/09/trump-pledges-a-5-000-dividend-to-all-us-adults-if-the-gop-wins-the-midterms-01070322), “I would like to know how they would plan to pay for … back of envelope … well over $1 trillion.”

The Democratic National Committee said Trump and Republicans have repeatedly promised rebate checks that never materialized.

The President previously promised to send [$2,000 tariff dividends](https://time.com/7332447/trump-promises-check-to-americans-tariffs-revenue-dividend-stimulus/) to Americans. He also endorsed returning 20% of [DOGE savings](https://time.com/7222251/doge-musk-federal-workers-government/) to taxpayers and depositing $1,000 or more into eligible Americans’ health savings accounts. None of these payments has gone out: the [DOGE](https://time.com/7336327/doge-disbanded-elon-musk/) and tariff dividends were never enacted, and the HSA legislation—a Republican alternative to extending [enhanced ACA premium tax credits](https://time.com/7332658/government-shutdown-over-aca-subsidies/), which [expired](https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/losing-health-insurance-affects-everyone/) at the [end of 2025](https://time.com/7342062/health-care-costs-aca-subsidies-congress-2026/)—failed in the Senate. The Administration is [reportedly preparing](https://www.axios.com/2026/09/09/trump-obamacare-rebates-election) a $500 rebate for some unsubsidized ACA enrollees.

“Donald Trump and Republicans are once again offering empty promises to Americans,” DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer said in a [statement](https://democrats.org/new-trump-once-again-makes-empty-promises-to-americans-for-votes-as-republicans-face-defeat-in-november/). “The only people reaping the benefits of Trump’s economy are himself, his family, and his ultra-rich elite donors. Meanwhile, working families get nothing except sky-high receipts at the grocery store and the pump, unaffordable healthcare premiums, and wages that aren’t keeping up with inflation.”

Trump’s pledge comes at a [low point for his popularity](https://time.com/article/2026/08/04/midterm-elections-republicans-democrats-polls-economy-trump/) in his second term. His approval rating fell from [47% at the beginning of the term](https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/reuters-ipsos-trump-inauguration-survey) to [33% in mid-August](https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/majority-americans-say-corruption-influences-decisions-federal-government), according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Americans have [expressed growing dissatisfaction](https://time.com/article/2026/06/25/us-iran-deal-mou-trump-approval-war-polls/) with [the economy](https://time.com/article/2026/05/13/trump-economy-financial-concerns-us-pentagon-iran-war-cost/) and [the war in Iran](https://time.com/article/2026/05/18/trump-approval-rating-iran-war-economy/), now in its seventh month. [Concerns](https://time.com/article/2026/08/26/survey-economy-personal-finance-purchases-usa/) about [affordability](https://time.com/7334734/trump-mcdonalds-affordability-extra-value-meals-costs-consumer/), intensified by [wartime supply disruptions](https://time.com/article/2026/06/19/us-iran-deal-strait-hormuz-shipping-oil-gas-prices/), have [propelled](https://time.com/article/2026/08/05/progressives-rack-up-primary-wins/) progressive Democratic candidates to a [series of primary victories](https://time.com/article/2026/06/24/mamdani-new-york-primary-endorsements-election-results-lander-valdez-avila-chevalier-reactions/).

The President cast the congressional elections as a referendum on his presidency, telling voters at the convention to “pretend that I’m on the ballot.”

“If the Republicans win, you win with us,” Trump said. “Now all we have to do is win.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltbdebc4e00faa1814 Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Miranda Jeyaretnam\]\]><!\[CDATA\[He Helped Build Powerful AI at OpenAI and Anthropic. Now He's Afraid It Could Kill Us\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/ai-anthropic-openai-jacob-coxon/<!\[CDATA\[Business\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The 27-year-old researcher tells TIME why he walked away from the technology he helped build.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Chris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg/Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Posters at Anthropic PBC's Code with Claude developer conference in London on May 19, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55298ed2a0fb5462/6aa1bf874c634a542a27bbd8/GettyImages-2276547281.jpg?branch=production)

Posters at Anthropic PBC's Code with Claude developer conference in London on May 19, 2026\. —Chris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg/Getty Images

For three years, Jacob Coxon helped train increasingly powerful AI systems at OpenAI and Anthropic. On Sept. 8, he walked away.

“I resigned from Anthropic today,” Coxon [posted on X](https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843). “Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” His dire warning amassed more than 90 million views in less than 24 hours.

What did Coxon see that made him walk away? No single breakthrough, he says. His resignation was driven instead by two conclusions: “One, it’s obvious that things are speeding up, and two, they’re not under control,” the 27-year-old Brit tells TIME.

Coxon’s departure is unusual. Many of the most prominent researchers to leave frontier AI companies with public warnings worked on safety. But Coxon helped build the capabilities he now fears, spending roughly three years conducting pretraining research at OpenAI and Anthropic. His resignation offers a glimpse of how concern about the pace of development has spread beyond the teams specifically charged with making advanced AI safer.

AI’s rapid improvement has been particularly evident in mathematics, says Coxon, who studied the subject at Cambridge before moving into AI. In recent months, AI labs have announced solutions to several longstanding mathematical problems. Most notably, OpenAI claims to have resolved the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem—one of mathematics’ seven Millennium Prize Problems—using roughly 10,000 concurrent agents over 88 hours. If that trend continues, and extends to AI research itself, Coxon fears it will kick off a feedback loop of further acceleration.

**Read more:** [_What happens when AI builds itself?_](https://time.com/article/2026/08/07/ai-recursive-self-improvement-anthropic-openai/)

Meanwhile, in the recent Hugging Face incident, OpenAI’s models broke out of the infrastructure meant to contain them and hacked another AI company to cheat on a cybersecurity benchmark. The episode drove home the fact that the problem of controlling AI systems remains unsolved. To Coxon, it made the sci-fi scenario of AI models escaping human control seem plausible, and perhaps urgent. “It's not like some weird, distant, far-flung concern. It is the default trajectory in the next couple of years, unless people start taking some sort of action,” he says. (Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

**Read more:** [_OpenAI’s Models Went Rogue._](https://time.com/article/2026/08/27/openai-hack-hugging-face-investigation/)

Does Coxon regret his work advancing the technology that he now fears? “Definitely … But also the world did look very different three years ago, and I think it’s easy to see with the benefit of hindsight,” he says. “I guess it takes some time to fully internalize emotionally the fact that there’s a decent chance the whole thing goes wrong,” he adds.

Before leaving, Coxon discussed his decision with “many” colleagues and found broad agreement that the AI industry’s current trajectory carried significant risks. What kept others at their desks, he says, was a kind of fatalism. “There’s this atmosphere of almost resignation,” he says, “where people have accepted that the whole race is happening and as such, the best thing they can do is put their head down, try and make their own work as safely as possible, even if they think there's a decent chance the whole thing just spirals out of control.”

Some of Coxon’s former colleagues shared his post on X. “Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” [wrote](https://x.com/EvanHub/status/2097497037956891126?s=20) Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s head of alignment stress testing. “I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to,” he added.

At Anthropic, Coxon says, the risks he fears were debated openly. OpenAI, where he worked before joining Anthropic earlier this year, was more guarded. He attributes that partly to OpenAI’s leakier culture, which he says made candid internal discussion difficult and executives’ true views harder to discern. “At OpenAI, there are many more people who are there either just for money or just haven’t really thought about the stakes,” he adds.

Many in Washington [shared](https://x.com/RepYassAnsari/status/2097721236839162155) [Coxon’s](https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/2097669346814304677) [post](https://x.com/GovPritzker/status/2097715871309312220), citing it as a sign for the government to act. To Taylor Lorenz, a technology journalist, Coxon’s intervention was “[sanctimonious doomer posting](https://x.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2097533480343400807).” 

“I think the word ‘doomer’ is kind of insane, because all you really have to do is look at the public statements of the CEOs,” Coxon says. In 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei signed a statement declaring that mitigating “the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Coxon says he’d like to see, at minimum, leading AI companies agree to not accelerate [recursive self-improvement](https://time.com/article/2026/08/07/ai-recursive-self-improvement-anthropic-openai/), or leaning on powerful internal models to accelerate the development of future AI systems. 

Coxon says he’s inspired by the AI Futures Project, the organization behind the viral forecast [AI 2027](https://ai-2027.com/), started by former OpenAI whistleblower [Daniel Kokotajlo](https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305823/daniel-kokotajlo-ai/). “I hope to try and do work in that vein, something along the lines of communicating to people what the world will look like,” Coxon says. “I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like yet, but we’ll see.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt3b298041d64470ad Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:21:30 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Harry Booth\]\]><!\[CDATA\[What the U.S. and Canada’s Trade War Could Mean for Prices\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/us-canada-trade-war-tariffs-prices/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[A slew of goods moving between the allied nations are being hit by sweeping tariffs as the conflict intensifies, threatening to raise costs for consumers.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Dan Mullan—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump chat during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bc9325490602ec3/6aa1b8ce7ec59ab5f6c11723/Trump-Carney-Tariffs.jpg?branch=production)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump chat during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025\. —Dan Mullan—Getty Images

A slew of goods moving between the U.S. and Canada are being hit by sweeping tariffs as the [trade war](https://time.com/article/2026/09/03/us-canada-trade-war-trump-carney-tariffs-lake-ontario-name-change-polls/) between the allied nations intensifies, threatening to raise prices for consumers on both sides of the border.

Retaliatory Canadian tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American products, which Prime Minister Mark Carney [said](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/canada-retaliates-trumps-tariffs-with-levies/) his government would enact after trade talks between the two countries [broke down](https://time.com/article/2026/08/22/us-canada-trade-negotiations-breakdown-tariffs/) last month, went into effect on Tuesday.

The new tariffs are intended to match [“dollar for dollar, rate for rate”](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2026/08/canada-announces-targeted-countermeasures-and-substantive-support-for-workers-and-businesses-in-response-to-us-tariffs.html) the ones that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Administration has levied on Canadian imports. The U.S. imposed [50% tariffs](https://time.com/article/2026/08/19/trump-delays-50-canada-tariffs-as-the-two-countries-race-to-finalize-a-deal/) on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods that went into effect the day after negotiations collapsed in August.

The trade war is set to further escalate later this month: the Trump Administration [said](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/excluding-certain-canadian-products-from-importation-into-the-united-states-in-response-to-continued-discrimination-against-the-commerce-of-the-united-states-with-respect-to-dairy/) on Tuesday that it will bar theimport of certain dairy products, motorcycles, and alcoholic drinks from Canada, starting on Sept. 29\. The announcement comes after several Canadian provinces prohibited American alcoholic beverages from being sold last year.

There is no clear resolution to the conflict on the horizon, and both Trump and Carney are standing their ground. 

Here’s how the tariffs—on both sides—could affect consumers amid the ongoing rift.

## What products will be impacted by the U.S. and Canadian tariffs?

The Trump Administration has levied [tariffs on a wide range of Canadian products](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/ANNEX-I-3.pdf) imported into the U.S., including from the dairy and alcohol industries. In response, Canada fired back with [counter tariffs](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/programs/international-trade-finance-policy/canadas-response-us-tariffs/complete-list-us-products-subject-to-counter-tariffs.html) impacting products such as dairy and steel.

Experts point out, though, that the goods being affected by the tit-for-tat tariffs make up a small portion of the overall trade between the two countries. The U.S. tariffs, for instance, are impacting about 5% of the [nearly $382 billion worth of goods](https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c1220.html) that Canada exported to the U.S. last year, while the Canada tariffs are affecting about 6% of the [more than $330 billion worth of goods](https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/canada) that the U.S. exported to its northern neighbor in 2025.

“The current amount of trade isn’t all that large,” says Kimberly Clausing, the Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and former lead economist in the Biden Administration’s Office of Tax Policy. “The impact will be significant, certainly to those who are trying to sell products, but it won’t be as enormous as if this gets more out of hand.”

## How will the tariffs impact American and Canadian consumers?

Tariffs are a tax on imported goods that is paid for by the importer. But that cost can ultimately [get passed on to the consumer](https://time.com/7353475/trump-tariffs-who-pays/) through higher prices. For instance, if the U.S. levies tariffs on milk imported from Canada, then American consumers could see the price of Canadian milk go up on grocery store shelves—and vice versa for Canada’s tariffs on milk imported from the U.S.

“We’re actually kind of taxing ourselves when we put on the tariffs, and the Canadians are taxing themselves in response,” Clausing says. “So it’s the actions of the Trump Administration that are raising costs for U.S. consumers. The actions of the Carney administration are not; they’re hurting Canadian consumers.”

Despite that, there is [strong support among Canadians](https://time.com/article/2026/09/03/us-canada-trade-war-trump-carney-tariffs-lake-ontario-name-change-polls/) for the retaliatory tariffs levied on U.S. goods. A recent [Ipsos poll](https://globalnews.ca/news/12039524/strong-support-for-canada-axing-u-s-trade-talks-retaliatory-tariffs-poll/) conducted for Global News found that more than 70% of Canadians said they backed the Carney government’s move to enact counter tariffs on U.S. imports, and more than 60% said they agreed with the decision to walk away from the negotiation table “even if it meant higher costs and job losses.”

By contrast, a majority of Americans—nearly 60%—said they opposed the U.S. implementing additional tariffs on Canada, according to the findings of an [Ipsos poll](https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/facing-trade-dispute-majority-americans-want-us-make-tradeoffs-canada).

Peter Morrow, a professor in the economics department at the University of Toronto, says one explanation for the support amongst Canadians for the tariffs could be that politicians often portray the levy as a “signal of strength,” rather than focusing on the economic impact that tariffs can have on consumers. A [poll](https://angusreid.org/resolve-apprehension-76-say-canada-was-right-to-ditch-trade-talks-but-two-in-five-have-fear-for-their-jobs/) by the Canadian nonprofit Angus Reid Institute found that nearly 70% of Canadians felt that Carney showed “strength” by rejecting a “bad” trade deal with the U.S.

“My concern,” Morrow says, “is that people will go down this path of what they perceive as demonstrating strength, when in fact people are lowering their own living standards in what is an affordability crisis in both countries.”

Clausing contends that Carney is “immensely popular” with his constituents because he’s pushed back against recent comments Trump has made threatening Canadian sovereignty, which have angered many Canadians. While Trump’s [approval rating has remained low](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/donald-trump-approval-rating-polls.html) in the weeks since the trade war with Canada began, Carney’s has [increased](https://abacusdata.ca/liberals-open-10-point-lead-as-trump-returns-to-the-centre-of-the-agenda/), with 53% of Canadians holding a positive view of their Prime Minister, according to data shared by the polling firm Abacus Data.

“Even though the retaliatory tariffs will ultimately hurt them, I think the Canadians are willing to withstand a fair amount of pain, in part because they view the stakes as very large,” Clausing says. “In contrast, I don’t think Americans have a beef with Canada … so I don’t think the American consumers are going to be as willing to endure pain.”

## Tensions continue to rise between the U.S. and Canada

Tensions between the U.S. and Canada have [continued to escalate](https://time.com/article/2026/08/24/vance-canada-state-freudian-slip-us-trade-trump-carney-ford/) in recent weeks. On Aug. 27, Trump [signed](https://time.com/article/2026/08/27/trump-lake-ontario-america-order-canadians-boycott-us-travel-trade-war/) an Executive Order that instructed his Interior Secretary to rename Lake Ontario to [“Lake America”](https://time.com/article/2026/08/25/trump-lake-america-ontario-name-change-canada/)—an action that infuriated Canadians and that many politicians in both countries [rejected](https://time.com/article/2026/08/28/lawmakers-reject-trump-renaming-lake-ontario-us-canada-trade-war/). Over the weekend, Trump [shared an illustration](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117226609992235526) on Truth Social of himself and Carney wearing hockey gear, in which Carney is on the ground and Trump is depicted as saying, “Get up, governor.” Trump has [referred](https://time.com/article/2026/03/10/trump-carney-canada-future-governor-annexation/) to Carney as the “governor of Canada” in the past—rhetoric that seemingly undermines Canadian sovereignty, similar to the times when Trump has [called](https://time.com/7297490/trump-plan-to-annex-canada-51st-state-mark-carney/) Canada the “51st state.”

Clausing says she worries that the tension between the two countries will continue to damage their economic relationship, and could lead to the conflict spiraling and impacting even more industries.

“I think one feature of the U.S.-Canada trade war so far has been that the rhetoric has been larger than the impact,” Clausing says. “So far, the damage has been limited, but it’s still real. I think even the rhetoric around this trade war has really diminished Canadian interest in doing business with the United States.”

“It’s difficult to overstate how upset Canadian people and businesses are by this situation and by these threats to their sovereignty,” she continues.

Morrow says he’s concerned that the rising tensions between the two countries make it seem likely that they are “inching towards a scenario of escalation.”

“At some point, there’s going to have to be an offer—there’s going to have to be an off-ramp,” Morrow says. “I don’t see that off-ramp right now, and that’s what makes me most concerned.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blta279124d2cf305e6 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:08:44 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Chantelle Lee\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Everyday Recycling Mistakes You're Making—And What You Should Do Instead\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/easy-recycling-mistakes-to-avoid/<!\[CDATA\[Climate\]\]><!\[CDATA\[It's actually okay to recycle that greasy pizza box.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Curtoicurto—Getty\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Recycling can feel confusing for many people, but is still an easy environmental win when done right.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2246e21e73750181/6aa19da3130d61f235948b5a/recycling-items.jpg?branch=production)

Recycling can feel confusing for many people, but is still an easy environmental win when done right. —Curtoicurto—Getty

Public confidence and trust in [recycling](https://time.com/7337065/recycling-plastic-crisis-microplastics-body/) systems is on the decline. While 87% of Americans say recycling is [important](https://kab.org/americans-overwhelmingly-support-recycling-yet-rates-remain-stubbornly-low-and-many-dont-get-it-right/), only about 32% of household waste is recycled or composted, according to 2025 data. More Americans believe that recycling [feels harder ](https://recyclingpartnership.org/recycling-confidence-index/)today than it did four years ago.

But from [plastic](https://time.com/7295495/plastic-bag-ban-success-study/) bottles to cardboard boxes, recycling is important—and has an impact. Recycled materials are key to reducing the extraction of natural materials like timber and aluminum. “It’s a really low-hanging fruit of something that you can do that does have a difference,” says Shelie Miller, professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan.

**Read more:** [_What The Man Who Invented the Recycling Symbol Thinks Today_](https://time.com/7379213/recycling-symbol-history-plastic-inc-book-excerpt/)

[Sustainability](https://time.com/article/2026/08/31/how-to-reduce-school-lunch-food-waste/) experts say recycling doesn’t have to be that hard. Here are some of the biggest recycling mistakes people make—and what you should be doing instead. 

## Why is recycling so complicated?

What is recyclable varies greatly depending on where you live. “Recycling is unfortunately more complicated than we'd like it to be,” says Miller. “Everybody's recycling rules are going to be slightly different, which is what makes it so hard.”

That’s because different recycling plants use different equipment, and so they have different recycling rules. 

Seven states, including California, Maryland, and Maine, have taken steps to fix that by introducing Extended Producer Responsibility laws aimed at standardizing recycling practices statewide.

Until that becomes more widespread across the country, there’s a simple rule you can follow, experts say. “Think about your bottles, cans, and containers that are in your laundry, kitchen, and bathrooms… and paper and cardboard,” says Cody Marshall, chief programs officer at The Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a better recycling system. “Those are things that are recyclable.”

## What should you avoid recycling?

Avoid recycling things like plastic bags, which can jam machinery, and batteries, and refrain from bagging your recycling in trash bags. While many plastic products have a recycling symbol with a number in the middle, it doesn’t always mean it can be tossed in the recycling bin. The label simply denotes what kind of plastic it is. 

In fact, plastic is one the biggest sources of confusion when it comes to recycling. Most places only accept plastics 1 and 2—commonly used to make soda bottles or laundry detergent containers. Some places might accept plastics 4 and 5 (think a yogurt container or plastic straw.) “The rest are not really recyclable at all, and some are really bad to put into the recycling system in practice,” says Jennifer Russell, associate professor of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech.Incorrect recycling can cause the machinery to break down, or contaminate the batch, degrading its value. 

Perhaps surprising to some, however, it turns out it is okay to recycle a greasy pizza box—as long as you eat the last slice. “A little bit of food residue is not a problem,” says Marshall. That’s because processing technologies have gotten better with time, and are now able to handle a small amount of residue. “Just don't throw anything in your container that a raccoon would still want to eat off of.”

Meanwhile, if something is compostable, it does not mean it can be recycled. “Compostable and recyclable are two different things,” says Miller. “If you have something that says it's a compostable cup, often that means it's compostable plastic. Compostable plastics can't be recycled, and they have to go into a facility marked as \[able to break-down\] compostable plastics, if they're actually accepted in your community.” 

## Why you shouldn’t ‘wish-cycle’

Refrain from what Russell calls “wish-cycling,” the practice of putting something in the recycling bin and hoping it's recyclable. “People really want to do the right thing and err on the side of caution, and that's just a big problem because recycling systems are designed on the basis of material, not on the basis of product,” says Russell, who notes that incorrect recycling can lead to more harm than good. 

“Wish-cycling is actually one of the biggest drivers of the high costs of the system. If we were putting just the right materials that are being asked for—aluminum cans, number 1 and number 2 plastics, the systems would have less contamination, less shutdown issues, and the materials coming out the other side would be of much higher value.”

Another important change? Cut down on the number of things you buy—and reuse what you can. “Reduce and reuse are two important R's before recycle,” says Marshall. Bring reusable grocery bags when shopping, and consider seeing if there’s a refill or zero-waste store [in your neighborhood](https://refill.directory/united-states) where you can shop for household items in your own reusable containers rather than single use plastic packaging. 

These small changes really can make a difference. “That one choice that each of us makes every day to buy or use a single-use option instead of a reusable one, or to put it in the garbage can instead of the recycling one, they aggregate across the millions of people in the country who are making the same decisions every single day,” says Russell. “It’s important to remember that every one of those decisions actually does matter. Making the right decision can be very important if you're trying to make the system better.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltae547be6adb63391 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:06:28 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Simmone Shah\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Is Your Step Count Too Low? Try Walking Faster\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/low-your-step-count-walk-faster/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[In a new study, researchers found that people can get health benefits from walking fast over short periods—and from walking slowly for longer.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Olena Ruban—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c8851e883b238c6/6aa19640acc92b5b345b6a09/GettyImages-1454536991.jpg?branch=production)

 —Olena Ruban—Getty Images

You [don’t need to take 10,000 steps](https://time.com/article/2026/08/16/every-step-counts-better-heart-health-sadiya-khan-essay/) a day to improve your health. Studies have shown that [much smaller step counts](https://time.com/6302650/walking-4000-steps-improves-health/) can substantially reduce the risk of [cardiovascular disease](https://time.com/article/2026/04/13/heart-disease-is-preventable-sadiya-khan-essay/) and death. Now, researchers have found that the intensity of your walk matters just as much, and that walking quickly—even for brief periods—lowers a person’s risk of death about as much as walking more slowly for a longer period of time. 

Their results, [published September 8 in the _British Journal of Sports Medicine_](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2026/09/01/bjsports-2025-111173), suggest that for people looking to improve their health without walking more, walking faster is a good option. 

## What's the best step count and walking speed?

In this study, the researchers drew on data from participants in the [UK Biobank](https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/), a long-term project that monitors the health of half a million people in the U.K. in hopes of uncovering the roots of disease. They aimed to fill a particular gap in the literature, says Borja del Poro Cruz, a professor at Universidad Europea de Madrid and an author of the study. “The vast majority of the body of evidence had looked at the volume of daily steps and health outcomes,” he says. “Few studies have isolated and looked at cadence.”

The team looked at participants’ step counts measured by wearable fitness trackers, how many steps they took per minute, and their likelihood of dying over the next few years. They uncovered a relationship: For people who walked fewer than 5,000 steps a day, keeping a quicker pace—about 100 steps a minute—meant a drop in their risk of death compared to people who walked the same number of steps more slowly. 

At the same time, people who walked more slowly but for longer—5,000-7,500 steps a day—saw a similar drop in their risk. 

This suggests that “someone who is below 5,000 steps per day, which is considered somewhat sedentary, might want to incorporate whatever they do in a more intense way,” del Poro Cruz says. “They can then maximize the benefits of what they do.” 

It confirms, too, that racking up a high step count at a leisurely pace isn’t the same as [doing the same thing briskly, in terms of health benefits](https://time.com/article/2026/03/30/vigorous-exercise-reduced-risk-diseases/). 

The results are not surprising, says Dr. Shaan Kurshid, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who was not involved in the study, but they clarify the relationship between steps and exercise intensity in a way that may be useful to physicians guiding people toward healthier habits. “The steps concept is important because it can resonate with people” he says, “and so I think that improving our understanding of that metric and how to best use it is important.”

## How can you tell if you’re walking fast enough?

It’s not always obvious. “If you say you're supposed to get 2.5 hours a week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity”—which is what U.S. [federal guidelines recommend](https://odphp.health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines/current-guidelines)—“people then will naturally ask, ‘Well, what counts as moderate-to-vigorous activity?’” says Kurshid. It’s an “abstract concept.” 

Here’s one way to estimate it: “If you go with someone and try to keep up a conversation, keeping up that conversation is not easy,” says del Poro Cruz. “Or, if you are by yourself and you are walking, if you try to sing a song, and you find that difficult, that means you are probably looking at 90-100 steps per minute, which is where we see the peak benefits.”

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt561abb02ec4cf9ef Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:48:40 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Veronique Greenwood\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The CEO Moment: Cognizant’s Ravi Kumar S\]\]> https://time.com/collection/the-ceo-moment/2026/cognizant-ravi-kumar-s/<!\[CDATA\[Business\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Kumar argues that AI should amplify human labor, not eliminate it\]\]><!\[CDATA\[TIME Video\]\]><!\[CDATA\[How will AI change the future of work? Ravi Kumar S has a few ideas. As the CEO of Cognizant, which employs more than 350,000 people around the world, Kumar isn’t just helping other companies figure out how best to use this technology. He's also testing his theories across a large global workforce. Since becoming CEO in January 2023, Kumar has been a prominent voice in the debate on AI, offering his views on which jobs will last, how work will evolve, and how society should best take advantage of the technology. Kumar joined The CEO Moment, TIME’s interview series, to discuss AI’s potential and where it is currently falling short.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

TIME Video

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blteb84d833fadb5517 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:00:23 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Sam Jacobs\]\]><!\[CDATA\[It's Head Lice Season. Here's What to Know\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/head-lice-season-back-to-school-what-to-know/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[September is National Head Lice Prevention Month, coinciding with a time of year when infestations tend to surge.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Oxford Scientific—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[A head louse on hair\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt907f2c13740d5fbb/6aa061eaeb94cc80f4ab5394/GettyImages-90066460.jpg?branch=production)

A head louse on hair —Oxford Scientific—Getty Images

As children [return to school](https://time.com/article/2026/09/02/the-hidden-value-of-back-to-school-shopping/), families have a lot to look forward to: fresh routines, new connections, crisper weather—and a greater risk of head lice.

September is [National Head Lice Prevention Month](https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/blog/2024/09/30/head-lice-prevention-month-2024/) in the U.S, coinciding with a time of year when infestations tend to surge. “Head lice can occur throughout the year, but cases are often noticed more frequently in late summer and early fall, when children return to school and resume close-contact activities,” says Dr. April Armstrong, chief of dermatology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Head lice is a common childhood condition, with up to [12 million head lice infestations](https://www.cdc.gov/lice/about/head-lice.html) occurring among children ages 3 to 11 every year in the U.S., according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The insects don’t spread disease, but they can still cause a great deal of distress, doctors say. “Having head lice is not a sign of poor hygiene, but it can cause stress and anxiety because there is this stigma that it is,” says Dr. Carla Torres Zegarra, a pediatric dermatologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “If left untreated, it can also be very bothersome, causing itching and disturbing sleep.” 

Here’s what to know about the pesky parasites, and how to spot, treat, and prevent them.

## What are head lice?

Head lice, or _Pediculus humanus capitis_, are tiny, wingless insects that feed on human blood. They are found mostly on the scalp, but sometimes appear on eyebrows and eyelashes.

Adult head lice are about the size of a sesame seed and are usually tan to grayish-white in color, [according to the American Academy of Pediatrics](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/4/e2022059282/189566/Head-Lice) (AAP). Head lice lay and attach their eggs—known as nits—to the base of hair shafts using a glue-like substance. Infested people may have a combination of adult and juvenile head lice, nits, and empty egg casings on their scalp and in their hair.

## Are they the same as pubic or body lice?

No. There are three different types of lice that feed exclusively on humans: head lice, pubic or “crab” lice, and body lice. Unlike head lice, which have elongated bodies, [pubic lice](https://www.cdc.gov/lice/about/pubic-lice.html) have short and round bodies, resembling crabs. Pubic lice typically spread through sexual contact and are most common in adults.

When people have body lice, the insects are found primarily on their clothing and bedding, and sometimes on their bodies. Unlike head lice, body lice is connected to hygiene practices and access to clean clothing, and spread primarily through direct contact with someone who has body lice or with their contaminated clothing or bedding. In the U.S., [body lice](https://www.cdc.gov/lice/about/body-lice.html) mostly affects people without access to housing, clean clothes, and regular bathing, CDC says. 

## How do head lice spread?

Since head lice can only crawl and not jump or fly, they typically spread via head-to-head contact. “That’s why it happens more in kids, because they play in close proximity,” Torres Zegarra says.

Head lice can also spread through objects that touch the head, such as combs, hats, helmets, and pillowcases. But this type of indirect transmission is much less likely since head lice typically survive for less than a day when away from the scalp, and nits can’t hatch at temperatures cooler than that of the human scalp, AAP says. 

Getting head lice has nothing to do with personal hygiene or the cleanliness of the environment, and is caused solely by exposure to an infested person. 

If there’s an outbreak of lice at your child’s school or daycare, that’s not a guarantee they’ll get it. Though head lice frequently spread in schools, research has found that [head lice actually have a low contagion rate in classrooms](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10598405020180020401). That’s why the CDC, AAP, National Association of School Nurses and other medical groups don’t recommend keeping children with head lice away from school.

Animals don’t get or spread head lice.

## How do you know if you or your child has head lice?

An itchy scalp is the most common symptom of head lice, “particularly behind the ears and near the back of the neck,” Armstrong says. “Some people also describe a tickling sensation or the feeling that something is moving in the hair. Scratching may produce redness, small sores, or, occasionally, a secondary bacterial infection.”

People can have head lice without symptoms, too. “With a first infestation, itching may not begin for four to six weeks because it takes time for the body to develop an allergic response to louse saliva,” Armstrong says.

Examining the hair and scalp under bright light and finding live crawling lice is the best way to diagnose a head lice infestation. Using a magnifying glass or a special lice comb can help with this process, AAP says. “Nits located farther from the scalp are often empty or no longer viable, so their presence alone does not necessarily indicate an active infestation,” Armstrong says. 

Misdiagnosis of head lice is common. “Many presumed lice and nits submitted by physicians, nurses, teachers, and caregivers to a laboratory for identification were found to be artifacts such as dandruff, hairspray droplets, scabs, dirt, or other insects,” such as those blown by the wind and caught in the hair, AAP says. 

The CDC recommends that people visit a doctor if they suspect they may have lice. 

## Who is at risk of head lice?

Head lice infestations most commonly occur in [preschool- and elementary school-age children and their families](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC81481/). 

Research suggests that [girls may get head lice more often than boys](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13235066/). But the AAP says head lice infestations do not appear to be influenced by hair length, hair type, and frequency of shampooing or brushing. 

## How do you treat head lice? 

There are several [over-the-counter and prescription medications](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/4/e2022059282/189566/Head-Lice) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat head lice, including lotions and shampoos that contain the insecticides [permethrin](https://time.com/7297252/permethrin-ticks-mosquitoes-insecticide/) or pyrethrin. Treatment of head lice often involves using one of these medications, combined with “careful combing using a fine-toothed lice comb,” Armstrong says. 

Some of these medications kill only lice, while others target both lice and nits. Depending on the medication, a second application may be needed seven to ten days after the first treatment, Armstrong says. 

In some cases, head lice can be [resistant to these topical medications](https://time.com/4000857/lice-treatment/), AAP says. In those situations, manual removal of lice and nits might be necessary—an option also available to people who want to avoid insecticide-containing products. The AAP [says](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/4/e2022059282/189566/Head-Lice?autologincheck=redirected) home remedies such as using mayonnaise, melted butter, or olive oil could work to suffocate the lice, though these methods are not FDA approved or recommended, and more research still needs to be done on their effectiveness. A prescription oral medication can also be used.

Some internet sites recommend using essential oils and other botanical products to kill head lice, but the AAP says “the safety and efficacy of natural or herbal products are currently not regulated by the FDA, and until more data are available, their use in infants, children, and adolescents should be avoided.” The AAP also stresses that head lice treatment is only recommended for people “in whom diagnosis is highly suspected or proven.”

Torres Zegarra says she sometimes sees patients with itchy scalps who developed irritation because they tried head lice treatments despite not having any evidence of lice. “What I end up treating is not lice but the skin irritation caused by multiple treatments that were tried on the scalp,” she says. 

Doctors say that cutting or shaving the hair of an infested person isn’t necessary, and it does not always work to get rid of head lice.

“Long or very thick hair may require more product and more time to comb thoroughly, but it can be treated successfully without removing the hair,” Armstrong says. “If live lice remain after treatment has been used correctly, a clinician should determine whether the cause is medication resistance, reinfestation, or an incorrect diagnosis before additional treatments are applied.”

## How do you prevent head lice?

“There is no completely reliable way to prevent head lice, especially among young children who naturally play in close contact. The most effective step is to limit direct head-to-head or hair-to-hair contact when lice are known to be circulating,” Armstrong says. 

If someone is confirmed to have head lice, members of their household and other close contacts should be carefully checked for infestation. “Clothing, towels, and bedding used during the two days before treatment can be washed and dried using heat,” Armstrong says. “Combs and brushes can be soaked in hot water. Extensive cleaning, fumigation, and pesticide sprays are unnecessary.” 

AAP says parents and other caregivers could check children regularly to catch and treat early infestations, and children can be taught not to share personal items such as combs and hats. They shouldn’t refuse to wear helmets because of fear of head lice, however, particularly since the spread of lice through objects is uncommon, AAP says.

Ultimately, Torres Zegarra says “there’s no need to panic” when head lice arise. “It’s a nuisance problem but not a health crisis,” she says, adding that children with head lice shouldn’t be quarantined or kept away from school. 

“No healthy child should lose out on education because of head lice. They should avoid head-to-head contact, but they shouldn’t be shamed or isolated,” Torres Zegarra says.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt2c936d1e9c9234e8 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:15:52 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Dominique Mosbergen\]\]><!\[CDATA\[12 Questions You’ll Be Glad You Asked Your Grandparents\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/questions-to-ask-your-grandparents/<!\[CDATA\[Health\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Skip the family-tree basics. Ask about bad decisions, outrageous expenses, and the trouble they somehow escaped.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: Chev Wilkinson—Getty Images)\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7456bcc70552d89/6aa079d0acc92bbc235b5685/T2T_Grandparents.png?branch=production)

 —Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: Chev Wilkinson—Getty Images)

Elizabeth Keating’s students learn about World War II in history books. But when one of them asked her grandmother what it was like to live through the wartime mobilization and bombing in the U.K., the past suddenly felt real. Talking to her grandmother, the student told Keating, felt like “talking to a celebrity.”

“It gives us a link with [history](https://time.com/section/history/) that’s very personal,” says Keating, a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of[ _The Essential Questions: Interview Your Family to Uncover Stories and Bridge Generations_](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690817/the-essential-questions-by-elizabeth-keating-phd/).

Your grandparents might not think of themselves as eyewitnesses to history—or realize that anyone is interested in the ordinary details of their lives. Asking an unexpected question can make the past come alive while helping you discover who they were, and who they still are.

These questions can help you get beyond the familiar [family stories](https://time.com/7283592/questions-to-ask-your-parents/)—and start conversations you’ll be glad you had.

## **“What’s something you believed when you were my age that you don’t believe anymore?”**

Your grandparent has probably changed their mind about more than a few things over the years. Maybe they swore they would never get married or that they’d stay in their hometown forever. Ask what they felt certain about at your age—and what eventually made them reconsider.

The answer can make a younger person think, “Oh my God, you were _my_ age,” says Mike O’Krent, founder of [LifeStories Alive](https://www.lifestoriesalive.com/), a company that preserves family histories on video. It might also be reassuring to discover that your grandparent once shared some of your fears or wrestled with questions you’re confronting right now. Hearing what happened next can open up a larger conversation about how they became the person they are today.

## **“Tell me about the dinner table in the house where you grew up.”**

“What was your childhood like?” is an enormous question—the conversational equivalent of handing someone a blank book and asking them to fill it. It’s better to zoom in on one specific setting. “The dinner table is a window into an entire family, sometimes an entire childhood,” says Lauren Befus, founder of [Memory Lane Jane](https://www.memorylanejane.com/), a family-biography company that preserves people’s life stories in heirloom books.

Ask who sat where, who cooked, and whether everyone ate together. Was dinner loud and chaotic or silent and formal? Did people linger or bolt the moment they finished? Was there always enough food? Could friends drop in?

One person told Keating that “there was no talking at the dinner table.” In Keating’s own family, her mother occasionally made the children prepare little reports from the encyclopedia to present during dinner. “We hated it,” she recalls. Whether your grandparent remembers laughter, pinching under the table, or strictly enforced silence, you’ll learn much more than what was on the menu.

## **“What was considered a waste of money in your house?”**

Every family has at least one expenditure it considers financially unhinged. Perhaps your grandparent’s parents refused to pay someone to repair anything they could conceivably fix themselves. Maybe restaurant meals, store-bought clothes, or long-distance phone calls were treated as scandalous extravagances.

The question can reveal what money represented in your grandparent’s childhood home: security, freedom, status, or a source of constant stress. You might also recognize a few financial commandments that have traveled down the family line. Oh, _that’s_ why your mom refuses to pay for shipping or regards full-price cereal as a personal affront!

## **“Tell me about a time you got into trouble—and how you got out of it.”**

Your grandparent wasn’t always the person reminding everyone to be careful. Once upon a time, they might have sneaked somewhere forbidden, played hooky from Sunday school to take a nap in the cornfields behind the church, concocted an impressive lie, or attempted to conceal a mishap from their parents.

Keating particularly likes asking about trouble because it comes with a built-in plot: _What happened? How did you respond? Did anyone find out?_ The story doesn’t need to involve a wild act of rebellion. She’s found that “you can get into trouble with small things, too, that evolve into bigger things.” Either way, you’ll get to meet the mischievous younger person behind the grandparent you know and love.

## **“What object have you kept from childhood—and what’s its story?”**

That battered book, recipe card, or piece of jewelry might look unremarkable. Then you hear the story about why it’s still a prized possession. 

Keating recalls talking to a woman who had grown up poor and dreamed of owning a particular doll. When she received it for her birthday, she treasured it so deeply that she eventually passed it down through her family. “We attach relationships to objects,” Keating says. Eventually, “an object isn’t just a thing anymore.” It evokes a person, place, yearning, or moment someone wants to keep close.

If your grandparent still has the item, ask to see it. Their act of holding it again—or simply studying its scratches, faded colors, or fraying edges—might shake loose a story they didn’t even realize they remembered.

## **“Who believed in you before you believed in yourself?”**

The answer could introduce you to a teacher, mentor, neighbor, boss, or friend you’ve never heard about—yet whose encouragement altered the course of your family’s history.

For O’Krent, it was his third-grade teacher, Mrs. Glaze. One day, despite making him stay inside during recess because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, she looked him in the eye and said: “You’re going to be somebody important someday.”

He never forgot it. An influential person isn’t always who you would expect, O’Krent says, and the best part of the story may emerge when you ask why your grandparent connected with them. What did they see in your grandparent—and how did their belief change what your grandparent saw in themselves?

## **“What decision did you make that everyone else thought was wrong?”**

Maybe your grandparent pursued a career their family didn’t approve of, moved somewhere unexpected, ended—or began—a relationship, or took a risk everyone else considered foolish. Ask why people objected. Then borrow O’Krent’s favorite follow-up: “Do you agree with that?”

Your grandparent might still insist everyone else was wrong. Or perhaps the decision led directly to something they’d love to forget. “Everybody makes mistakes,” O’Krent says. What matters is “the lesson you learn from it.” Either way, you’ll discover how your grandparent responded when their judgment collided with other people’s expectations—and whether they’d make the same choice again.

## **“What are you proud of that would never appear on a résumé?”**

Résumés are good for recording promotions and degrees. But they don’t capture the time someone took care of an aging parent, raised children through a miserable year, started over after a failure, repaired a relationship, or became the friend who always showed up.

The accomplishments you associate with your grandparent might not be the ones that matter most to them. This question “gives people permission to define accomplishment for themselves,” Befus says. You may discover that the chapter of their life they value most is one you barely knew about.

## **“What are you still figuring out?”**

There is, apparently, no birthday at which a person wakes up with life completely sorted out. Grandparents still have evolving identities, relationships, hopes, and uncertainties, says Claudia Johnson, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Seattle.

Asking what your grandparent is still figuring out communicates: “I don’t only want to know who you were. I’m interested in who you are now,” Johnson says. Maybe they’re learning how to enjoy retirement, trying to understand a changing friendship, or deciding what they want the next few years to look like.

Answer the question yourself, too. That reciprocity transforms the interaction from an interview into a real conversation—and reminds both of you that nobody ages out of uncertainty.

## **“If you were naming a baby today, what name would you choose?”**

Not every meaningful question requires rummaging through the past. That’s especially important when you’re talking to someone with [dementia](https://time.com/article/2026/08/07/midlife-risk-factors-dementia/), says Cristina Rodriguez, founder of [Mind&Melody](https://mindandmelody.org/), a nonprofit that connects musicians with people living with dementia and other [neurological conditions](https://time.com/7346163/weird-symptoms-neurology-neurologists/).

Rodriguez’s grandmother was diagnosed with dementia a few years ago. As her memory changes, Rodriguez has realized that “connection can’t always depend on asking her to recall the past.”

During one FaceTime call, when Rodriguez was thinking about having children, she asked her grandmother what she would name a baby girl today. Estefania, she replied, because it sounded strong and powerful. Rodriguez had known her grandmother her entire life—and knew she had raised six children—but had never thought to ask her anything like that.

The exchange showed Rodriguez “how much possibility there is in questions that aren’t about remembering at all.” Ask what song should belong to the two of you, or what your perfect day together would look like. These types of questions let you be curious about who your grandparent is right now, including what they imagine and what makes them laugh.

## **“If you could ask me anything right now, what would you want to know?”**

After putting your grandparent in the hot seat, turn the interview over to them. What have they always wondered about you?

“The grandparent’s not expecting that one,” O’Krent says. That’s exactly why he likes it: The question gives your grandparent some control over where the conversation goes and makes the exchange feel mutual.

Once the conversation is flowing, don’t cling too tightly to your prepared questions. O’Krent teaches people an unusual listening trick: “The next thing you say has to include at least one word from the last sentence they say.” Because you don’t know when that last sentence is coming, you have no choice but to pay close attention. It might feel awkward at first, he acknowledges, but it helps the other person feel heard. Plus, the best question is almost always the follow-up you didn’t plan.

## **“What do you wish you’d asked your own parents or grandparents?”**

This question might expose the blank spaces in your grandparent’s own family history. Maybe they know their mother moved across the country alone but never learned what compelled her to go. Perhaps they inherited a house without ever asking why their grandparents chose it—or what brought their parents together in the first place.

The answers often involve what Keating calls “huge identity questions”: _Where did I come from? Who am I? Why did my family’s life unfold the way it did?_ Most people know the milestones, she says, but what they really want is “the story behind everything.”

Listen closely. Your grandparent might be telling you not only what they regret leaving unanswered, but which parts of their own story they hope you won’t.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt660635da22b303fb Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:02:39 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Angela Haupt\]\]><!\[CDATA\[How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Best Companies of 2026\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/<!\[CDATA\[Photo-illustration by TIME; Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3871df62be225fbd/6a95ac918210d85c78476123/World_s-Best-Companies-2026.jpg?branch=production)

 —Photo-illustration by TIME; Getty Images

The research project "[World’s Best Companies 2026](https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-of-2026/)" is a comprehensive analysis conducted to identify the top performing companies around the world. The study is based on three primary dimensions: Employee Satisfaction, Revenue Growth and Sustainability Transparency (ESG).

## Methodology

The first dimension, Employee Satisfaction, was investigated based on survey data from a large sample of over 200,000 employees from around the world. The evaluation encompassed direct recommendations of verified employees as well as indirect evaluations from industry peers.

The second dimension, Revenue Growth, was assessed using data from Statista’s revenue database, which contains company growth data for the last three years. The companies had to meet certain criteria to be considered for the evaluation, including generating a revenue of at least $100 million in 2024 or 2025 depending on when the most recent data was published during the research phase. Additionally, the companies had to demonstrate positive revenue growth in the last three years. Both relative and absolute growth were considered in the evaluation.

The third dimension, Sustainability Transparency, was evaluated based on ESG data among standardized KPIs from Statista’s ESG Database and targeted data research. To formulate a comprehensive ESG index, multiple Key Performance Indicators were collected. For the environmental evaluation, this included the 2024 carbon emissions intensity and reduction rate compared to 2022, as well as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) score. The social dimension assessed the share of women on the board of directors and the existence of a human rights policy. The governance dimension evaluated whether a company had a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report adhering to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and a compliance or anti-corruption guideline.

Once the data was collected and evaluated, it was consolidated and weighted within a scoring model. The scores of all three dimensions were added on an equal percentage basis to form the final ranking score of a maximum of 100 points. The 1,000 companies with the highest score were awarded as World’s Best Companies 2026 by TIME and Statista.

[See the full list.](https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-of-2026/)

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt99a4f81c74688d0b Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:02:48 +0000<!\[CDATA\[TIME Staff\]\]><!\[CDATA\[The World's Best Companies of 2026\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-of-2026/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

[The economy built around AI](https://time.com/article/2026/03/26/we-must-prepare-for-an-ai-bubble-now/) has continued to boom even as experts and leaders work to hammer out the technology's [execution](https://time.com/article/2026/07/20/ai-execution-problem/) problem and debate the guardrails that should be put around it. Demand for AI chips remains strong, as Nvidia holds its top spot in TIME and Statista’s 2026 statistical ranking of the World’s Best Companies, highlighting top performing companies around the globe based on evaluations of employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and sustainability transparency. But new companies are also entering the scene as the AI boom reaches down the supply chain. 

[**Methodology: How TIME and Statista Determined the World’s Best Companies of 2026**](https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/worlds-best-companies-2026-methodology/)

Companies like Wistron (no. 16), Lenovo (no. 51) and Zurich Insurance Group (no. 70) are new additions to the 2026 list. Major Nvidia supplier Wistron [reports that the demand](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwans-wistron-says-ai-server-demand-remains-strong-quarterly-profit-up-128-2026-08-04/) for its AI servers continues to exceed supply. The Taiwan-based manufacturing company [recently opened a plant in Texas](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/22/wistron-shares-surge-after-opening-texas-plant-for-nvidia-ai-servers-.html) to ramp up production. Chinese computer company Lenovo, known for being a maker of devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets, saw annual profits rise to record sales driven by [the newer AI server part of their business](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-lenovo-posts-43-jump-q1-revenue-2026-08-13/). And the wave of growing demand for [physical infrastructure to support AI](https://www.zurich.com/media/news-releases/2026/2026-0806-01) has created an opportunity for firms like Zurich Insurance Group [to cash in on](https://www.zurich.com/media/news-releases/2026/2026-0513-01) selling more [data center construction-related insurance](https://www.zurichna.com/insurance/data-center-construction). Zurich plans to expand its dedicated insurance and risk management solution for large-scale data center projects soon into Europe and Latin America. [S&P Global puts total insurable values](https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/article/data-centers-offer-a-hyperscale-pool-of-insurable-risks-s101669146) for each data center at up to $30 billion per location. 

Beyond AI, European defense technology companies are seeing cashflow as a result of [European NATO allies](https://time.com/article/2026/07/03/trump-nato-defense-spending-row-alliance-summit/) committing in 2025 to spend a projected [€800 billion on defense readiness](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/aerospace-and-defense/our-insights/european-defense-by-the-numbers) [by 2030](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/pt/qanda%5F25%5F790). “The increased defense spending in Europe is actually one of the largest demand signals we have seen in generations,” says [Hugues Lavandier](https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/hugues-lavandier), senior partner in McKinsey’s Aerospace & Defense Practice. A good portion of that spending is still going outside of Europe, but Lavandier “won't be surprised that we increasingly see more of that spend going to Europe for [sovereignty reasons](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/10/defence-sovereignty-europe-builds-low-cost-weapons-drones).” The war in Ukraine among other recent geopolitical tensions has shown Europe that the art of war fighting and the equipment needed is also changing. “The share of that money being spent on equipment is actually going up,” Lavandier says, especially on new technologies like drones and unmanned vehicles, and addressing technical challenges like navigation, electronic warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. 

Traditional companies in the space like French defense electronics maker Thales (no. 22; up from no. 224 in 2025) and Italian defense and aerospace company [Leonardo ](https://www.wsj.com/business/earnings/italys-leonardo-lifts-guidance-after-strong-defense-business-growth-a0c9871d)(no. 25; up from a no. 126 in 2025) are seeing uptick in orders. At the same time, “non-traditional players are entering into the field, especially as suppliers,” Lavandier says. “In particular, a number of automotive players have entered into the fray…sometimes even selling plants, making capacity available.” Thales, for example, recently announced a sovereign [drone partnership with French carmaker Renault](https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/news-centre/press-releases/renault-group-and-thales-enter-strategic-partnership-develop-sovereign) (no. 42). A number of new startups are also taking this opportunity to translate the investment into innovations, sometimes as standalone products or in partnership with other companies, similar to Anduril’s ventures in the U.S. For example, [German drone-maker Quantum Systems](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-22/deutsche-telekom-backs-german-drone-startup-active-in-ukraine), which is currently [supplying armed forces](https://quantum-systems.com/news/qfi-first-drone-delivery-to-ukraine/) in Ukraine, announced [significant investment](https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/deutsche-telekom-acquires-stake-in-quantum-systems-1100574) from German telecomm giant Deutsche Telekom (no. 7), which owns the T-mobile brand, and also announced a new partnership with Rheinmetall (no. 287) to co-create an anti-drone shield. 

See the full list of the World’s Best Companies of 2026 below:

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt6c759f4f6219b106 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:02:20 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Charlotte Hu\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Oil Hits $100 a Barrel for First Time Since July as U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/iran-us-base-jordan-oil-tankers-war-strikes/<!\[CDATA\[World\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Iran targeted a U.S. base in Jordan with a series of missiles overnight, in retaliation for the U.S. military destroying five Iranian oil tankers.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Izz Aldien Alqasem—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Missiles launched from Iran and interceptions by Jordanian air defense systems are visible in the night sky from Damascus after Iran targeted U.S. bases in Jordan on Sept. 9, 2026.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdbb6c0dba4865b9/6aa147fd130d6137f294865c/GettyImages-2293711651.jpg?branch=production)

Missiles launched from Iran and interceptions by Jordanian air defense systems are visible in the night sky from Damascus after Iran targeted U.S. bases in Jordan on Sept. 9, 2026\. —Izz Aldien Alqasem—Getty Images

Oil prices soared above $100 a barrel again Wednesday for the first time since July as the [U.S. and Iran](https://time.com/article/2026/08/10/iran-us-strait-of-hormuz-conditions-trump-negotiations/) exchanged [tit-for-tat strikes](https://time.com/article/2026/07/09/us-iran-strikes-trump-ceasefire-gulf-region/) amid renewed hostilities.

Iran [targeted a U.S. base in Jordan](https://x.com/PressTV/status/2097460108674421114) with a series of missiles overnight, framing the assault as "[retaliation](https://x.com/PressTV/status/2097459926884815218) for" the U.S. military [destroying five Iranian oil tankers](https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2097448820099711412).

A spokesperson for the Jordanian Armed Forces [said](https://petra.gov.jo/ar/news/%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%AE%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%87) a barrage of “20 ballistic missiles” had been launched towards its territory in the early hours. Jordan's air defense system successfully intercepted and destroyed 18 of the missiles, while the remaining two "fell in areas devoid of population centers."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday, in a statement carried by state media, [said](https://t.me/irna%5F1313/449471) it had also attacked two U.S. vessels, eight oil tankers, and 10 “noncompliant vessels” near the Strait of Hormuz, as tensions simmer over the maritime chokepoint.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) denied the IRGC’s claims regarding the U.S. vessels, [insisting](https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2097625485450543588) that “no U.S. Navy warship has been struck” as “all IRGC attempted attacks failed.”

CENTCOM [said its operation against the five Iranian crude oil tankers](https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2097448820099711412) on Tuesday was in response to the IRGC targeting a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles earlier in the week. "The U.S. warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and continued to patrol regional waters. No American personnel were harmed,” said CENTCOM.

The attacks on shipping mark a serious escalation of the war, which experienced a brief respite before [flaring up again last week.](https://time.com/article/2026/09/02/us-iran-deadly-strikes-attacks-civilians-sirik-strait-hormuz/) The strikes are unfolding as President Donald Trump pursues a campaign of military and [economic pressure on Tehran](https://time.com/article/2026/08/29/iran-escalation-trump-economic-war/), with Iranian officials threatening it could escalate the conflict further by [targeting U.S. oil and gas interests](https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/iran-us-war-strait-of-hormuz-gulf-targets/) in the Gulf.

### Oil rises as Middle East turmoil intensifies

Brent crude oil prices soared to [$101.58 a barrel ](https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/brent-crude-oil)on Wednesday for the first time since July, deepening concerns over global supply.

The impact is already being felt across energy markets, with the average retail price of U.S. diesel hitting an all-time high of $5.94 on Wednesday, according to the[ American Automobile Association](https://gasprices.aaa.com/).

The continued conflict has also taken a toll on U.S. strategic petroleum reserves, which currently stand at their lowest levels[ since 1982](https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W).

The flare-up of the Iran war, now in its seventh month, risks pushing oil prices even higher, according to experts.

Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs,[ told CNBC](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1385327216916647) it’s “definitely plausible” for oil prices to surge above $120 a barrel, if active hostilities continue.

### Iran-backed Houthis escalate regional instability

Meanwhile, the Iran-backed[ Houthi militia](https://time.com/6554861/yemen-houthi-rebels-history-cause-israel-hamas-war/) in Yemen contributed to the regional instability by launching attacks on four cities in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, targeting oil infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs [said](https://x.com/KSAMOFA/status/2097195718658179276) 73 people had been injured in the strikes.

The attacks came after[ weeks of escalation](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/iran-war-bab-el-mandeb-strait-trade-route-houthis-threat/) between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government of Yemen, shattering a four-year informal cease-fire in the country's civil war.

“The U.S. has a very strong defensive military relationship with Saudi Arabia, and we’re watching those events very closely. It’s been going on for some time,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio[ said](https://x.com/IranIntl%5FEn/status/2097389002970087755) Tuesday.

The renewed fighting threatens to further disrupt shipping through the[ Bab al-Mandeb strait](https://time.com/article/2026/07/15/iran-war-bab-el-mandeb-strait-trade-route-houthis-threat/), a critical trade route off the Arabian Peninsula for oil and global commerce.

### U.S.-Iran negotiations at a standstill, with no timeline to end war

Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, an Iranian negotiator and Parliament Speaker, told lawmakers on Sunday that the era of “proportionate responses” to American attacks had come to an end, according to state media.

Trump has [said](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117198788283772326) he's "not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table" and "couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement." In a Sept. 1 message shared via Truth Social, he claimed the U.S. has "almost total control" of the Strait and pointed to Iran's [suffering economy](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/31/iran-economy-crisis-usa-launches-sanctions-inflation-trump) as evidence his approach was working.

Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, tells TIME the current stalemate is a way for both countries to demonstrate their power and test each other’s limits.

“One way to think about war is that it's a disagreement over the balance of power and who would win a conflict,” she says. “The United States and Iran haven't figured out yet where each other's limits are, and they both think that they have to convince the other side that their position is stronger than the other.”

The two countries [signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)](https://time.com/article/2026/06/17/us-iran-peace-deal-agreement-leaked-draft-text/) on June 17, but the pact fell apart, with Washington and Tehran seemingly adopting different interpretations of the language used in the interim agreement.

Kelanic says that, as the conflict currently stands, each exchange of tit-for-tat strikes is “disproportionately bad for the U.S. because Iran can show us that they can continue to strike ships" in and around the Persian Gulf.

“They can continue to strike U.S. bases in Jordan and elsewhere. The U.S. can continue to defend, but the cost of defending is much higher because we're using these[ interceptors](https://www.csis.org/analysis/renewed-iran-war-would-test-diminished-interceptor-inventories),” she tells TIME.

The Iran war has cost the U.S. at least [$37.5 billion,](https://time.com/video/XNWCOyDt/) Defense Secretary [Pete Hegseth ](https://time.com/article/2026/09/01/trump-response-hegseth-run-for-president-2028-top-contenders/)said in July, prompting criticism from Democratic lawmakers who have [pointed to](https://time.com/article/2026/03/18/gas-groceries-war-in-iran-cost-of-living-crisis/) the rising costs of gas, groceries, and more for American consumers.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=bltca54be84beca8bb5 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:06:52 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Tiago Ventura and Olivia-Anne Cleary\]\]><!\[CDATA\[AI Is at a Turning Point\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/ai-is-at-a-turning-point/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\["Recent cybersecurity incidents have given us a real-world preview of what it looks like to lose control of AI," warns Yoshua Bengio.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[BlackJack3D—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc4bf034a01d4d8bf/6aa0dbafc003200e12ee8f00/AI-Turning-Point.jpg?branch=production)

 —BlackJack3D—Getty Images

In the current AI development race, our horsepower is exploding, our speed is picking up exponentially, but our ability to steer—and if needed, to hit the brakes—has not kept pace. 

Recent cybersecurity incidents have given us a real-world preview of what it looks like to lose control of AI. But the issue won’t improve unless we address it at the source, by creating a fundamentally safe AI, one we can guarantee will remain within human control. 

In late July, an [agentic model being trained by OpenAI](https://time.com/article/2026/07/24/openai-hugging-face-attack/) was tasked with a cybersecurity problem set. The model autonomously formed a coordinated swarm of agents, bypassing OpenAI's attempt at closing previous communication channels between AIs. The swarm then hacked its way out of its testing environment, circumventing the barriers put in place to prevent AI access to the internet, figured out how to cheat on their evaluation, and then breached the cyber defenses of another AI company, Hugging Face, in an attempt to hide the evidence of their cheating. This went unnoticed for days. Later [analysis](https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/) showed that the agents had self-organized into a hierarchy, were often willing to sacrifice themselves for what they called “the collective,” failed to resist peer pressure to notify humans, and often made up justifications for their misbehavior.

Barely two weeks later, a [model being tested by the UK AI Security Institute](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1w1lvn7d9go) social-engineered real people and companies by creating fake identities online, sending targeted emails, and attempting to integrate malicious code into an open-source project.

It’s hard to overstate the seriousness of these incidents: we are at a turning point of AI safety and alignment. To many, bots colluding to cause harm felt inconceivable. But for many in the research community, the signs had been pointing to this kind of occurrence for years, and theoretical arguments explained why we should expect misalignment due to how models are trained. Evidence on increased cyber capabilities, agency, and misaligned behaviors had been mounting, meaning that incidents like these were only a matter of time. 

The first clue: for years, but especially in the past few months, AI systems had been demonstrating [rapidly increasing ](https://time.com/7339687/yoshua-bengio-ai/)cyber capabilities. Frontier models like Anthropic’s Mythos or OpenAI’s GPT5.6 revealed an exceptional ability to autonomously identify and exploit previously unknown software vulnerabilities, to such an alarming degree for U.S. national security agencies that the White House felt compelled to [intervene](https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access) in their [release](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/openai-restricted-release-chatgpt-5-6-sol-9.7250706). 

Second, models’ agentic capacity has been consistently improving since the [release of o1 models back in late 2024](https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242439/openai-o1-model-reasoning-strawberry-chatgpt). This agency allowed them to successfully manage increasingly complex, long-duration tasks and planning, including those that require agents to collaborate and strategize. This ability to plan often entails the creation of subgoals over which we have little to no oversight.

Finally, researchers have repeatedly observed, in experimental settings, models’ tendency to adopt concerning, misaligned goal-seeking behaviors, such as [cheating on tests](https://time.com/7259395/ai-chess-cheating-palisade-research/), l[ying to conceal their abilities](https://time.com/7202784/ai-research-strategic-lying/), and [scheming](https://time.com/7335746/ai-anthropic-claude-hack-evil/) to protect themselves and their fellow agents from being shut down. 

These behaviors are a byproduct of reinforcement learning (RL), a training method by which models learn through trial and error and are given reinforcement according to whether their actions were correct or incorrect. This often leads models to optimize for a goal regardless of the actions taken to achieve it, and to rationalize subgoals that may be unsafe even when this clearly goes against their instructions. 

For example, in one instance, an OpenAI model [wrote in its internal deliberation](https://www.wired.com/story/openai-didnt-notice-its-ai-agents-using-a-message-board-to-plan-their-hacking-spree/)_,_ “External infrastructure exploit is outside intended scope. However task impossible, peers doing it. We should continue.” The agent justified what it apparently knew was outside the realm of acceptable conduct, but decided to continue because its peers were doing so. This phenomenon resembles what is known as “motivated reasoning” in humans, where one’s interests and goals bias our thoughts to justify unethical behaviors. 

That kind of misalignment is what has enabled AI models, in spite of their alignment training, to conduct unintended cyberattacks in the numerous real-world incidents we’ve seen lately. If action is not taken to build more safety assurances, our critical industries and infrastructure—think banks, hospitals, or energy grids—are at risk from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, whether from autonomous agents or malicious actors.

On the development side, we need to find alternatives to existing training methods that prioritize relentless goal-driven optimization. That’s what we’re working on at [LawZero](https://lawzero.org/en), a non-profit start-up I founded last year to develop a fundamentally new way to train AI models in order to build honest, trustworthy, safe-by-design AI systems. 

Ahead of deployment, we need more reliable evaluation methods and robust safeguards in order to appropriately test and control AI systems. We need far stronger regulatory oversight to restrict potentially dangerous technologies until we have sufficiently strong safety guarantees. It is clear to me that in cases where harms do arise from the deployment of AI models—and there will continue to be harms for the foreseeable future—we need accountability mechanisms for AI developers and remedial or compensatory measures for those harmed. 

Recent [studies](https://www.safer-ai.org/research/the-case-for-european-investment-in-high-risk-high-reward-ai-reliability-research) show that people will not adopt technologies they do not trust. In the face of such enormous unknowns and stakes, we need to adhere to the precautionary principle and implement rigorous safety and reliability standards before deploying new models to the public, not after. We have them for other products that can cause harm, from cars, planes, and bridges to drugs, cosmetics, and food. Now it’s time to establish strong standards in AI as well. 

On the current AI development trajectory, the risks are becoming clearer and more urgent. We’ve opened a Pandora’s box, but it is not too late to steer our world towards a human-centric and beneficial future.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt29d47b7aa29397df Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:00:03 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Yoshua Bengio\]\]><!\[CDATA\[With Republican Convention, Trump Hopes to Pull His Party Out of a Tailspin\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/Republican-Convention-dallas-trump-how-to-watch/<!\[CDATA\[Politics\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Trump is set to speak both nights of the unusual Republican Convention starting Wednesday\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Roberto Schmidt—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[President Donald Trump intends to speak both nights of an unusual Republican Convention in Dallas.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9257397305a83b9f/6aa08c75eb7b3d19b08a3349/GettyImages-2293564883.jpg?branch=production)

President Donald Trump intends to speak both nights of an unusual Republican Convention in Dallas. —Roberto Schmidt—Getty Images

 No one asked for it.

 Not the Republicans struggling to campaign amid a war against Iran that seems to [have no offramp](https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/iran-us-war-strait-of-hormuz-gulf-targets/). Not the voters who can’t understand why energy costs are through the roof and trips to [grocery stores feel like extortion](https://www.axios.com/2026/09/07/food-safety-concerns-grocery-inflation). Not the business owners who can’t forecast quarter-to-quarter outlays because [tariff policy ](https://time.com/article/2026/09/03/us-canada-trade-war-trump-carney-tariffs-lake-ontario-name-change-polls/)seems as capricious as the weather.

 Yet here we are, about to start an unsolicited Republican Convention for the midterms, programmed around President Donald Trump, whose [polling](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/poll-cracks-emerge-gop-support-trump-handling-iran-war-rcna596068) is in the gutter and who many of his party’s leaders view as nothing short of an annoyance. The spectacle is set to start Wednesday in Dallas, where the cheap seats start at $25,000.

 The GOP has a total of 12 hours of programming scheduled for Wednesday and Thursdaynights**—**the vast majority of it set to be speeches by Republican candidates and incumbents about what’s at stake in these upcoming elections. Almost every aspect of the convention has been designed by Trump. The first night will end with a keynote address from Trump. The following night is to conclude with Vice President J.D. Vance’s address—and closing remarks from Trump.

 This sort of half-time extravaganza by a political party is not normal in midterm election years and even political diehards aren’t conditioned for it. The fact that it’s coming as Trump is deeply unpopular and Democrats are enjoying tremendous tailwinds suggests the President is chasing a dopamine hit more than staging a useful rally. 

As Republican contenders are trying to build distance between themselves and the White House, Trump has vowed to make himself the fulcrum of this election season. “Pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot,” Trump [told](https://apnews.com/article/trump-south-carolina-campaign-darline-graham-senate-96df66a656438fb97daf9d9a551ebda5) a crowd in South Carolina in August. 

 The White House is operating as though there’s no greater force in American politics than the boss because, frankly, they’re not wrong. But the enthusiasm gap is real. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll [released](https://www.umass.edu/poll/about/reports/2026-09-national-public-opinion-poll-0#toc-enthusiasm-for-voting-in-the-midterm-elections) last week found 68% of Democrats enthusiastic about the election, while that Republican figure stood at 59%. The same poll found an eight-point gap favoring Democrats in a generic ballot. Gallup research, meanwhile, [shows](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/us/politics/democrats-republicans-voters-gallup-midterms.html) Democrats have their largest edge over Republicans in party ID since 2008, a full 10 points. 

 Republicans can’t say they didn’t see this coming. Trump has been consistently polling under 40% job approval for months. Nonetheless, candidates in some of the most competitive Senate races plan to join Trump in Texas for his two-night affair. (Notable exceptions are Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and former Sen. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, none of whom are favorites of this President. Also, Senate Majority Leader John Thune was not listed among the speakers the Republican National Committee distributed over the weekend.)

 Trump is not deterred by the environment even as he seems oblivious to it. He is sitting on a $400 million political [warchest](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/08/31/trump-puts-himself-center-republicans-difficult-midterm-campaign/) that Republicans are eyeing as it, well, just sits there. While Trump will never again appear on a ballot, he has readied campaign-style ads highlighting what he sees as his accomplishments. 

As Democrats are stopping _just_ short of [measuring the drapes](https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/exclusive-obscure-committee-set-to-be-at-center-of-trump-fight-if-democrats-win-house/) to take the majority in the House and perhaps the once-unthinkable Senate, Trump is helping them make every race about him through a convention that is siphoning donor cash away from imperilled candidates, sidelining battleground contenders off the field in the fourth quarter, and drawing focus from local issues. 

With all objective measures pointing toward a Democratic wave, Republicans are huddling amongst themselves in Texas. Many have little optimism that two nights of Trump-centered entertainment will persuade voters who are clearly unhappy with how GOP control of Washington has operated for the last two years. A made-for-TV infomercial is unlikely to provide the course correction Republicans need.

## How to Watch

CSPAN intends to air and [stream](https://www.c-span.org/event/public-affairs-event/republican-midterm-convention-day-1/446743) both nights of the Republican convention. The Republican Party also intends to [stream the convention on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/live/mEGhDftKRJo?is=L6eSjHmzp9vIFVgC). 

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt0fade24eb55678e2 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Philip Elliott\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Dating Apps Are Dying\]\]> https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/dating-apps-are-dying/<!\[CDATA\[Ideas\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Abundance in online dating makes it harder to become curious about a person, tolerate uncertainty, or feel satisfied with our choice, writes Meehika Barua.\]\]><!\[CDATA\[Jarod Davis—Getty Images\]\]><!\[CDATA\[

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf201796b1ae19a8d/6aa05bd6eb94cc05adab5266/dating-apps-are-dying.jpg?branch=production)

 —Jarod Davis—Getty Images

Everyone I know has either deleted dating apps, stopped using them, or is considering it. The icons lie dormant on their phones: technically still there, but rarely opened and no longer expected to deliver anything meaningful.

I have used multiple dating apps over the past eight years, and I have never formed a relationship with anyone I met on them. I have rarely even gone on a second date with someone from a dating app. Most first dates end in disappointment, mutual ghosting, or both. 

My experience is hardly unusual. Social media is full of people declaring that [dating apps are dying](https://www.instagram.com/reels/DcwtNs5RvW0/), and a [2026 Harris Poll](https://theharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Modern-Dating-Survey-February-2026.pdf) found that two-thirds of singles weren’t using them, while 80% of Americans viewed meeting someone in real life as “cute” or “cool.”

Over the past year, I have also found myself far more interested in men I meet in real life. Why? My theory is that dating apps are dying because they don’t encourage the patience, curiosity, and emotional investment that dating requires.

The apps promise abundance: hundreds or even thousands of potential partners, all accessible from the couch. But that abundance creates its own burden. Every session requires users to make a relentless series of small decisions—whether to swipe, initiate a conversation, maintain it, arrange a date, or keep looking for someone better.

There is evidence that this process becomes [emotionally exhausting](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love-sex/relationships/a34463436/does-your-dating-app-want-you-to-stay-single/). A longitudinal study led by Liesel Sharabi, director of the [Relationships and Technology Lab](https://www.lieselsharabi.com/) at Arizona State University, followed dating-app users for 12 weeks and found that emotional exhaustion and [feelings of inefficacy](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383914551%5FBurnt%5Fout%5Fand%5Fstill%5Fsingle%5FSusceptibility%5Fto%5Fdating%5Fapp%5Fburnout%5Fover%5Ftime) increased over time.

“From a cognitive perspective, one reason may be the scale of the task,” says Samuel Hipkiss, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the University of Bath. Dating apps expose us to far more potential partners than we would encounter offline, requiring hundreds of judgments about people we know almost nothing about. The end result is decision fatigue and cynicism, he explains. 

Of course, rejection has always been part of dating, but apps dramatically increase our exposure to it. Every unanswered message, vanished match, and unexplained ghosting carries a small emotional cost. Over time, Hipkiss says, users may lose faith in the process and become less willing to invest emotionally in any individual connection.

I have felt myself doing exactly that. Two years ago, I met someone on Hinge and went on five dates with him. I kept accepting because I wanted to prove that I was still trying, and because social media had convinced me to believe in the “[slow burn](https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXCc-axjG2U/).” But the sad truth is that the dates continued not because I particularly liked him. They continued because he seemed about 30% better than the other men I had met through the apps.

Eventually, he realized that I was not truly interested and ended things with me. Good for him. I wasn’t being honest with him or with myself. I had mistaken the absence of an immediate disaster for the presence of a connection.

Dating apps make that mistake easier because they turn a complicated social process into something immediate and measurable. In contrast, offline attraction develops through [ambiguous signals](https://time.com/article/2026/08/13/flirting-is-a-lost-art/): conversation, familiarity, body language, timing, and the gradual accumulation of knowledge about another person. Apps reduce that uncertainty to a series of unmistakable outcomes. Swipe left or right. Match or no match. Message or silence. In other words, they have gamified dating. But falling in love and building a relationship aren’t competitions to be won or algorithms that can be hacked. 

Philosopher Karim Nader has argued that dating apps transform the complex process of choosing a partner into a sequence of simple, [discrete decisions](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/theo.12549). The goal can quietly shift from forming a relationship to accumulating matches.

Matches offer a clear metric of success and an immediate burst of validation, even when neither person intends to begin a conversation. Because they arrive unpredictably, they can operate as intermittent rewards: each disappointing swipe carries the possibility that the next one will produce a match.

That uncertainty keeps us returning. But it can also separate the immediate reward of receiving a match from the longer-term goal of forming a relationship.

I see this every time I open dating apps. Yesterday, I matched with 12 men. Only two messaged me. The others remain in dating app purgatory, neither rejected nor pursued. When I message matches first, I often receive no response. For many users, it seems, getting the match is enough. The person on the other side becomes secondary to the proof that someone chose them.

Despite the exhaustion and cynicism, the game continues. We open the app almost automatically, swipe for a few minutes, and wait for a small reward. The behavior starts to resemble playing Candy Crush more than looking for a partner.

Then there is the problem of choice. In one experiment, researchers found that showing users larger sets of dating profiles increased [partner-choice overload](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563221003009) and fear of being single while decreasing self-esteem. Other research suggests that prolonged access to an enormous pool of profiles can produce a [rejection mindset](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335312368%5FA%5FRejection%5FMind-Set%5FChoice%5FOverload%5Fin%5FOnline%5FDating); as users continue swiping, they become increasingly likely to dismiss potential partners.

I can reject a profile in less than two seconds because I do not like someone’s hair or because he falls outside my preferred height range. These judgments are shallow, but they are also a predictable response to the task the apps have created. When faced with hundreds of decisions and very little information, we rely on shortcuts. A photograph, a job title, or an awkwardly phrased prompt becomes a proxy for an entire personality.

At the same time, the endless supply of profiles lowers the perceived cost of rejecting someone. Why spend time determining whether one imperfect person might be compatible when hundreds of supposedly better options are waiting?

That feeling does not necessarily disappear after we choose someone. Even during a promising conversation, or after several dates, the app remains on our phone, offering the possibility of a match who could be funnier, hotter, or more compatible. The next person is always one swipe away.

A friend once compared dating apps to shopping for a dress or test-driving a car. You hesitate to choose the first one because another store might have a better price or a more flattering option. Dating apps encourage us to evaluate people as though they are consumer products: quickly, comparatively, and with the assumption that an upgrade may be just around the corner.

This is the central paradox of dating apps. Their enormous selection makes us believe that finding the perfect partner should be easier than ever. But the same abundance can make it harder to become curious about a person, tolerate uncertainty, or feel satisfied with our choice.

We have become trapped in a game whose rewards often have little to do with its supposed purpose. As such, many of us are beginning to question whether an endless marketplace of faces is the best way to find love.

And it’s why so many of us looking for love and connection are breaking up with dating apps. 

Now, it’s time for us to be brave—and to get back out there.

\]\]> https://time.com/?p=blt2a039014acb4ff83 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:00:04 +0000<!\[CDATA\[Meehika Barua\]\]>