OCTOBER 14, 2019

Iranian leader Ali THE Khamenei AYATOLLAH’S WAR

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VOL. 194, NO. 15 | 2019

2 | Conversation The View Features Time Off △ 6 | For the Record Harris with the Ideas, opinion, Leader of the Notion What to watch, read, The Brief innovations see and do Isiserettes Drill How President Trump’s obsession and Drum Corp in News from the U.S. 17 | The Guardians: 45 | Finding old with a debunked plot led to the Des Moines, Iowa, and around the world The murder of friends from TV on on Sept. 21 impeachment crisis 7 | Scandals engulf Jamal Khashoggi the big screen Boris Johnson was a blow to By Vera Bergengruen and Photograph by democracy Simon Shuster 20 48 | Reviews: September Dawn 9 | Fast-fashion Showtime’s Back Bottoms for TIME 19 | chain Forever 21 is Ian Bremmer to Life; Elizabeth no more on the Japan-Korea Kamala’s Case Strout’s Olive, trade war The California Senator is struggling Again; a nuanced 10 | Money for Antonio Banderas in to break out Pedro Almodóvar’s California’s college By Molly Ball 26 athletes Pain and Glory 51 11 | Milestones:  The Ayatollah’s War | Theater: Lin- soprano Jessye Manuel Miranda’s Norman and former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Freestyle Love French leader Khamenei is playing a familiar game Supreme heads to Jacques Chirac By Karim Sadjadpour 34 Broadway 52 12 | TIME with ... | 10 Questions documentarian Overlooked for Disney chief Louis Theroux Research is failing women with Bob Iger metastatic breast cancer 14 | Turmoil at a By Kate Pickert 40 ON THE COVER: migrant camp in Illustration by Lesbos, Greece Hellovon for TIME

1 Conversation

THE CLIMATE ISSUE cause pollution. So it follows Thank you for your spe- that lots of humans cause cial issue highlighting the lots of pollution, which does need to act now against cli- lots of environmental dam- mate change [Sept. 23]. Poli- age. What, then, is the real ticians and governments cause of this climate change generally prefer setting long- that we exacerbate at our term climate goals instead peril? Overpopulation! Gee, of focusing on what should overpopulation used to be a be accomplished by the end hot topic for global debate. of next year. By postponing I wonder what happened to difficult decisions like ban- our critical-thinking capac- ning or heavily taxing fossil ity. What is the obvious solu- fuels to a time when they are tion? Depopulation. no longer in power, they are David Stevens, failing us, future generations WenTWorTh falls, and our planet. ausTralia ticians who care only about we could not be yet another Martin Trafoier, staying in power. I will con- generation of stewards who schlanders, iTaly The science is sound, The tinue switching off the lights, passed by on our respon- argument won. It is time to lowering the heating, and sibilities for this amazing if our climaTe collapses, stop wasting energy trying to taking the bus instead of the building. And as Corporate no other problem is impor- convince those who, as they car, but for me it’s game over. Officer, bearing the legal re- tant. If voters continue to sink beneath rising sea, will Christina Parvaz, sponsibility if anything went elect men like Trump and deny climate change until caluire-eT-cuire, france wrong, I was during my time Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, there their very last breath. Change in office in a constant state of is no hope. Not only because the message to a simpler one i couldn’T help feeling worry about a catastrophic those men refuse to see the that is easy to understand disappointed that my TIME failure of services, fire, or problem but because voters and act upon: If you make copy still arrives in a single- structural problems, despite apparently don’t see it ei- a mess, clean it up. We all use plastic wrapper, whereas everything that my wonder- ther. And the chance that all learned that as children. Be it others I subscribe to now ar- ful Estates staff could do. We nations on earth will get to- land, sea or air, clean up after rive in a compostable wrap- are proceeding in the right gether to solve climate prob- yourself. Now get to work! per made of potato-starch direction but, as your arti- lems is an illusion. I won’t live Ian MacLennan, film. Please switch from cle makes abundantly clear, to see 2050, but I’m not sure QueensToWn, single-use plastic as soon as much too slowly. As I said I would want to. The pain- neW zealand possible, which—having read in a debate in the Lords re- ful and costly changes that the Climate Issue—is now! cently, if it takes seven years should be made are not at- “The Tipping poinT” ar- Jo Redman, before we get started on the tractive. It’s like the Titanic: ticle about the Amazon rain salisbury, england work (as it may, alas), seven we see the iceberg, but it’s too forest says it all. I would like years is a very long time to late to change the direction. to hope that I am too pessi- PROPPING UP PARLIAMENT keep on being lucky. Well William Schaefer, mistic, but it is so clear that re “Venerable and Vul- done—it is great to have this denzlingen, germany the whole problem is about nerable” [Sept. 16]: As Clerk issue kept in the public eye greed—whether in the Ama- of the House of Commons, I as you have done. polluTion damages The zon or in some obscure coal- initiated the original condi- Robert Lisvane, environment. Human beings mining area—and about poli- tion survey because I felt that house of lords

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2 Time October 14, 2019

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For the Record

‘This means ‘It is hard for the being a West to accept neighbor to ‘TODAY IS NOT seeing its all those centuries-long dominance in who are world affairs mistreated A CELEBRATION diminishing.’ and SERGEI LAVROV, Russian abandoned Foreign Minister, in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly on the on Sept. 27 streets of FOR US IN our world.’

POPE FRANCIS, unveiling U.S. INCOME INEQUALITY a sculpture representing migrants and refugees, at the HONG KONG. Gini Index 1=MAXIMUM Vatican on Sept. 29 INEQUALITY 0=PERFECT EQUALITY 0.45 ‘I lost my TODAY, WE ARE .485

mother 0.40 and now I MOURNING.’ watch my ALFRED, a protester in Hong Kong, on Oct. 1, 0.36 wife falling the 70th anniversary of China’s Communist Party rule 1970 ’80 ’90 2000 ’10 ’18 The Gini index, a measure victim to of income inequality, for the U.S. in 2018Ñits highest the same level since tracking began powerful ‘I think the gutsiest thing I’ve ever done, well, personally, forces.’ [is] make the decision to stay PRINCE HARRY, announcing in my marriage.’ Smelling a lawsuit after a U.K. media Officials investigated company published a private a mysterious rotten- letter of Meghan Markle’s HILLARY CLINTON, promoting The Book of Gutsy Women, which she co-wrote with daughter Chelsea, on Good Morning America on Oct. 1 fish odor in two New Jersey cities ILLUSTRATION BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME FOR DESIGN BIRD BROWN BY ILLUSTRATION

BAD WEEK 300,000 GOOD WEEK Number of customers Dunkin’ Donuts allegedly failed to properly warn after a 2018 cyberattack, per a lawsuit Tasting by New York State; the chain says it Domino’s Pizza in made sure customers were safe Australia posted a job for “chief garlic bread taste tester”

6 Time October 14, 2019 SOURCES: ABC, REUTERS, UPI HIS PEOPLE Even amid scandal, Boris Johnson was hailed by many at the U.K.’s Conservative Party conference on Oct. 2

INSIDE

FOREVER 21’S BANKRUPTCY A NEW CALIFORNIA LAW IS REMEMBERING JESSYE SUGGESTS SHIFTING TASTES CHANGING COLLEGE SPORTS NORMAN’S DISTINCTIVE VOICE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES VEYSEY TheBrief Opener

WORLD accusations are people who want to destabilize Boris’ Johnson rallies base government and distract people from his main task.” In his speech, Johnson suggested dark machinations as scandals loom were at work. “[People] are beginning to suspect that there are forces in their country that don’t want Brexit By Billy Perrigo/Manchester, U.K. delivered at all,” he told the crowd, to a thunderous re- sponse. “Within the Conservative Party it’s clear he’s long sTanding ovaTion greeTed U.K. their champion,” says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he appeared Queen Mary University of London, “partly because he’s Aonstage in Manchester on the final day of been offering them everything they’ve ever wanted on the annual Conservative Party conference on Brexit. In spite of all the allegations about his personal Oct. 2. It was his first speech to his party membership as life, he still remains very popular. In the same way they Prime Minister, and he brought the gusto his right-wing do with Trump, people dismiss the sexual-impropriety base has come to expect, pledging to deliver Brexit, allegations as either unbelievable or unimportant.” reinvigorate the national economy and fire the leader of Yet polls show Johnson’s popularity in the country the opposition into orbit. as a whole is waning. A majority (55%) is now dissatis- But despite the adulation of loyal supporters here, fied with him as Prime Minister, up 17 points from July, Johnson’s future looks less certain than ever. He not only according to a poll by Ipsos Mori published on Sept. 30. looks increasingly unable to make good on his promise to Women, in particular, are turning against him. Accord- deliver Brexit by the Oct. 31 deadline, but also ing to a YouGov poll published on Sept. 27, 47% is in danger of losing political standing ahead of ‘She’s not going think he is “dislikable,” a 7-point increase from a seemingly inevitable early election because of to have a late August. The more recent allegations may drive two emerging scandals about his personal con- that figure even higher. duct while in positions of power. Prime Minister One dates from his time as mayor of London who breaks such a change will matter if, as widely expected, in the early 2010s and involves his relation- the law. This is a general election takes place in the U.K. this win- ship with former model Jennifer Arcuri, who fundamental.’ ter. Although Johnson pledged onstage to ensure allegedly told friends she had a sexual affair DOMINIC GRIEVE, Brexit happens on Oct. 31 “come what may,” he is with Johnson while he was married. Officials U.K. Member of legally unable to do so unless he manages to strike are investigating reports Arcuri improperly Parliament, on Queen a new, last-minute deal with European leaders. If Elizabeth received government money, including two he fails and Parliament forces him to seek another TIMES/POLARIS ANGELES YAM—LOS MARCUS KONG: HONG IMAGES; GETTY QUEEN: PAGES: THESE SHUTTERSTOCK; PAGE: PREVIOUS grants totaling £11,500 ($14,000) from a public extension to the deadline, an election may follow fund managed by Johnson at the time. Both he that Johnson’s advisers believe he could win by and Arcuri deny any impropriety. casting himself as the victim of a cabal that wishes The second scandal stems from new allega- to stop Brexit at all costs. tions, published on the eve of the conference, His die-hard supporters may demand a greater that in 1999, when he was editor of Spectator sacrifice. Fifty percent of Conservative voters magazine, Johnson groped the upper thigh of would prefer he break the law to force a “no deal” journalist Charlotte Edwardes under a table at a Brexit rather than ask for a further delay, accord- dinner. Johnson’s office said the incident never ing to a YouGov poll from Sept. 9. That might leave happened, but his Health Minister said he him in a jail cell or worse, said Dominic Grieve, a felt Edwardes was “trustworthy.” The allega- lawmaker Johnson expelled from the parliamen- tion has also renewed attention on the Prime tary party for rebelling against the government. Minister’s past indiscretions, which include “Ultimately, the Queen would dismiss him ... She’s a number of extramarital affairs and at least not going to have a Prime Minister who breaks the one child born out of wedlock. law. This is fundamental.” On the conference floor, Johnson’s party Just two months into his premiership, Johnson’s faithful were happy to ignore the new alle- grip on the keys to 10 Downing Street seems more gations, so long as he could deliver Brexit. tenuous than ever. But in his conference speech “My honest view is: Who cares?” responded he betrayed barely a hint of concern, tossing one delegate. “The only reason it’s coming out jokes and red-meat slogans to rapturous up now is people who are trying to stop Boris applause. Yet for all the bellicose rhetoric, Johnson in his tracks.” Established members there were hints of conciliation too. “This of the party also smelled a conspiracy. “He’s is not an anti-European party, and it is not under attack from all sides from people who an anti-European country,” he told the crowd. wish to prevent Brexit,” Geoffrey Van Orden, a “We love Europe. We are European.” senior Conservative lawmaker in the European In Johnson’s whole speech, they were virtually Parliament, told TIME. “The sources of these the only sentences greeted by silence. •

8 Time October 14, 2019 NEWS TICKER Major floods devastate India

Unusually late monsoon rains caused devastating floods in northern India, leading to the deaths of at least 100 people, offi- cials said on Sept. 30. The monsoon—the most severe since 1994—left large areas underwater, forcing people to use lifeboats to escape their homes. HONG KONG CHAOS Riot police pin down a young antigovernment protester in Hong Kong on Sept. 29, two days before China’s National Day drew tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets to march for demands including universal suffrage. An 18-year-old protester was shot in the chest, and law enforcement responded to gasoline bombs and homemade weapons with tear gas and Trump Admin rubber bullets. According to official figures, 25 police officers and 66 protesters were injured. cuts refugee quota

THE BULLETIN President Trump on Sept. 26 limited the As Forever 21 files for bankruptcy, the number of refugees who will be allowed ‘retail apocalypse’ marches on to settle in the U.S. in the coming year to CHANGING ROOMS american mall behemoTh Forever 21 From a business per- 18,000, down from achieved massive success in the 2000s by spective, Forever 21’s crisis may have been 30,000 last year, selling inexpensive variations on the latest caused more by management mistakes than prompting condemna- styles, and now its decline is a window consumer forces. The brand got in trouble tion from human-rights into a different kind of trend. The chain, by moving into overlarge spaces abandoned advocates. The Obama Administration allowed founded in 1984 by a couple who had by former retail anchors like Sears, and into up to 110,000 refu- immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea, categories in which it lacked expertise, like gees to resettle in the declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 29. consumer electronics, argues Mark Cohen, a U.S. in 2017. Forever 21 has said that it will terminate professor of retail studies at Columbia Uni- operations in 40 countries and close up to versity. The company also generated addi- 350 stores worldwide, and that up to 178 of tional burdens with aggressive international Morocco its 549 U.S. outlets will be liquidated. ventures. “Mindless expansion has been judgment Forever 21’s downfall,” Cohen says. sparks outrage OUT OF STYLE Industry analysts see the store closings as a sign of shifting tastes on NOT BUYING IT Facing declining foot traf- A Moroccan judge on both sides of Forever 21’s business model. fic and rising online competition, retailers Sept. 30 sentenced Some consumers have become less inclined from Payless ShoeSource to Toys “R” Us to journalist Hajar Rais- souni and her fiancé toward the cheap, disposable clothing for Barneys New York have also filed for bank- to a year in prison, which the retailer is known, turning instead ruptcy in recent years. In what’s been called after they were found to brands that claim more sustainable or the “ retail apocalypse,” individual work- guilty of premarital ethical business models; others among ers have been hit the hardest; Forever 21’s sex and getting an Forever 21’s young clientele are opting for announcement has put the future of its abortion. They deny an abortion happened, more nimble brands like Fashion Nova and more than 30,000 employees at risk. And and rights groups Shein, which lean even harder on trendiness. they won’t be the last: consultants at the see the case, which “There’s a bit of a battle emerging between firm Core sight Research have projected that sparked protests, as the rise of conscious consumption and the 12,000 American brick-and-mortar stores part of a crackdown on rise of ultrafast fashion,” explains Elizabeth could close before the end of 2019. critical coverage of the government. Cline, author of The Conscious Closet. —alejandro de la garza 9 TheBrief News

GOOD QUESTION College sports officials fear a player- Will a law permitting payment movement will spread, but schools NEWS and their athletics programs aren’t actually TICKER player payments ruin likely to be hurt by such laws. First, under the college sports? California model, they aren’t on the hook for Judge rules compensation: third parties, whether sneaker for Harvard on On sepT. 30, afTer califOrnia gOvernOr companies or local car dealerships, are the admissions Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 206—a ones making payments. Second, allowing A federal judge sided bill that allows the state’s college athletes players to profit shouldn’t damage the sup- with Harvard University to profit from their names, images and like- posed purity of “amateur” college athletics in a high-profile nesses and to sign endorsement deals despite and turn off fans. Critics made similar argu- affirmative-action NCAA rules forbidding them—state lawmak- ments about the Olympics when more pro- case on Oct. 1, saying ers across America followed California’s lead. fessionals began competing in the 1980s. But the institution has the right to consider The Democratic leader of Florida’s house filed Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt seemed to do race in making a bill mimicking California’s first-of-its-kind O.K.; the Games attract multibillion-dollar admissions decisions. law, which goes into effect in 2023. So did a TV deals. Plus, college sports will always be a The plaintiffs, who legislator in Illinois. Not even five hours after fun spectacle: the 11 a.m. tailgate sausage and alleged the school the California news broke, two Pennsylvania beer will still taste good, even if the starting discriminates against Asian Americans, say house members, Dan Miller and Ed Gainey, linebacker is a Tuscaloosa Toyota pitchman. they’ll appeal all the circulated a “Fair Pay to Play Act” of their Most important, these laws promote basic way to the Supreme own. “The future is starting in California,” fairness—and not just for future NFL stars. Court if necessary. Miller says. “It’s time to roll. ” Female athletes, for example, will be able to So far, the NCAA is refusing to embrace promote themselves and secure sponsorships this sea change. The organization argues that while thriving in college—a key allowance as

Far right a patchwork of state laws will bring chaos professional opportunities remain sparse in IMAGES DEMARTHON—AFP/GETTY JACQUES CHIRAC: IMAGES; COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES LIFE SCHILLER—THE BEATRIZ NORMAN: CANADA; OF PARTY MAY: GREEN sees losses in to college sports and “make unattainable women’s sports. And for the many athletes Austria vote the goal of providing a fair and level playing from disadvantaged backgrounds who field.” But inequality is already rampant in don’t end up making the NFL or NBA, their Austria’s center- college sports. Football powers such as Ala- monetary value soars while they compete right People’s Party bama, Clemson and Georgia consistently sit in college. Why shouldn’t they seize it? (OVP)—led by former Chancellor Sebastian atop coaches’ polls and have resources, like “California gives us hope that there’s a level Kurz—won a snap gleaming facilities and reputations for churn- of justice we can get to,” says Gainey, the national election on ing out pros, that the lower rungs of Divi- Pennsylvania lawmaker co-sponsoring a Sept. 29, taking 37% sion 1 can’t offer. If Alabama starts losing bill. “At the same time college athletes are of the vote. The poll recruits to UCLA because players can sign helping schools make millions, let them help was triggered by a corruption scandal endorsements in California, Alabama can themselves. Let them make some money.” involving the far-right change its state laws to keep up. —sean gregOry Freedom Party, whose support fell by a third, to 16%. POLITICS Spin-doctored images Sanders Canada’s Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, apologized after has heart staffers edited a photo of her so the disposable cup she held procedure looked reusable. Here, other electoral collages. —Ciara Nugent

After feeling chest discomfort on Oct. 1, FACE-OFF WINDOW DRESSING SHOE SHAME Vermont Senator and During the 2014 In 2015, India’s state Staff for Australian 2020 Democratic Texas GOP primary information agency Prime Minister Scott presidential candidate for Senate, former shared a doctored Morrison wanted to Bernie Sanders had Representative Steve photo of Prime remove his scruffy two stents inserted Stockman’s team Minister Narendra sneakers from to address a blocked pasted rival Sena- Modi surveying flood an official family artery. He canceled tor John Cornyn’s damage in Chennai portrait in January campaign events to face onto a photo (formerly Madras) 2019. Social-media rest, but his team of Florida’s then from a plane, crudely users were quick said he was “in governor Charlie Crist pasting a closeup of to point out they good spirits.” smiling with President a neighborhood over had given him two Obama. the window. left feet.

10 Time October 14, 2019 Milestones

DIED DIED U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson, who in 2003 Jacques Chirac publicly countered France’s stalwart the George W. Bush Administration’s JaCques ChIraC—Who dIed claims that Iraq was on Sept. 26 at 86— towered attempting to acquire nuclear weapons, on over French politics for nearly Sept. 27, at 69. four decades, as mayor of Paris, Prime Minister and ANNOUNCED finally President for 12 years. That nuclear- To some, he seemed to lack disarmament talks will resume strong views or convictions. between the U.S. But to others, he now seems and North Korea, to encapsulate a less troubled by officials in both time in France. “He had a countries on Oct. 1, really deep understanding of shortly before North Korea launched a the people, and at the same missile test. time he thought that France had something special to say RESIGNED to the world,” says Dominique GOP Congressman Chris Collins of New de Villepin, a former Prime York, on Sept. 30, a Minister who served as day before pleading Chirac’s chief of staff. guilty to federal Indeed, Chirac was securities-fraud France’s first leader to ac- charges. knowledge its role in the Ho- Norman in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Metropolitan Opera in 1993 CONVICTED locaust. He was also the first Former Dallas DIED world leader to rush to New police officer York after 9/11 to show unity. Amber Guyger, of Jessye Norman “He felt very strongly the murder, on Oct. 1. In September 2018, Opera goddess solidarity with the Ameri- Guyger fatally shot By Denyce Graves can people,” de Villepin says. her neighbor Botham “He understood very deeply Jean, who was black When I Was a student at the neW england Conservatory, how the world was going to and unarmed, after Jessye Norman gave a recital in Boston, and afterward I stood in change.” But Chirac broke she mistakenly went into his apartment line with all the other admirers to tell her how much she had im- with the U.S. in 2003 over instead of her own. pacted me. I said to her, “Ms. Norman, what could I possibly say its invasion of Iraq, a schism to you that you haven’t already heard a thousand times?” And she that took years to heal. PULLED said, “My dear, I’m sure you can think of something.” In his beloved Heartburn drug Zantac, from shelves Onstage, Norman—who died on Sept. 30 at 74—portrayed a lot France, something in several major of mythological characters and Greek goddesses, and for me, com- else will likely shape pharmacy chains, ing up in the early ’80s, she really was an absolute goddess. She his legacy: his after the FDA said was a tremendous source of pride for a young African- American flair for con- earlier in September singer. When we look through the lens of classical music, we don’t nection. “He it had detected small amounts of often see someone with brown skin. But to see someone like her, had huge a possibly cancer- who was a master at what she did, who carried herself with such pleasure causing chemical majesty, you’d be encouraged to say to yourself, “If she can do in meet- in the medication. that, then that’s something that I can aspire toward.” ing people,” The company that And then the voice—the voice was one in a million, rich and de Villepin makes Zantac says it meets all safety colorful with so much texture from the bottom to the top. It says. “He was requirements. washed over you, but it also felt like an embrace. She possessed really in poli- an incredible instrument, and she was a scholar in her approach tics because TESTED to singing. She was a real grande dame in every sense of the word he loved it.” A new Facebook policy that would and called us to be our best selves as human beings and as artists. —vIvIenne Walt hide the number of Just because of who she was, she made us rise in her presence. likes on posts, with Australian users, on Graves is an operatic mezzo-soprano who appears this season in the Metropolitan Chirac in Sept. 27. Opera’s Porgy and Bess Paris in 1996 TheBrief TIME with ...

After 25 years of and other cultures see the world.” Those themes run clear through Theroux’s interviewing misfits, films, in which he is often a slightly bemused be- Louis Theroux turns the spectacled British observer interacting with people living in unusual worlds or subcultures. “I think spotlight on himself we have a tendency to settle in certain ways of By Suyin Haynes/London thinking, or select data sets that confirm preju- dices we have on a given subject,” he says. To upend these assumptions, several of his programs WiThin minuTes of our meeTing in a cen- bring dimensions to subjects that a viewer might tral London coffee shop, Louis Theroux starts pep- not expect. One program focusing on convicted pering me with questions. How I am, how I came sex offenders showed a woman welcoming Ther- to be in this job and where I’ve traveled from to oux into her home with a crumb cake while wear- meet him. He’s friendly yet persistent, the ap- ing an ankle monitor, telling him the hardest part proach he’s built a career on. Within a matter of THEROUX about being on parole is being separated from her minutes, and without meaning to, I find I’ve re- QUICK children. “I’m interested in those inconvenient bits vealed to him my abridged autobiography. FACTS of data, or those points at which you are forced to Such is the award-winning technique of acknowledge that something does not fit the tem- Theroux, 49, widely regarded as the face of mod- Family plate or the paradigm.” ern British documentary filmmaking. For the past connections In 1998, the BBC aired Louis Theroux’s Weird 25 years, he has been making and presenting tele- His first cousin Weekends, in which he spent time with people on vision programs featuring quirky subjects, rang- is actor Justin the extreme fringes of American society—right- ing from UFO investigators to committed Nazis, Theroux. wing militia members, UFO enthusiasts and porn “Coolness When Louis Met ... Miami megajail inmates to big-game trophy hunt- came to him stars. Four years later, , a series ers. Persuasive but not pushy, challenging but not as though it of interviews with high-profile British personali- judgmental, his knack for convincing his inter- was his first ties, would follow. One of these was When Louis viewees to (often unwittingly) reveal more of their language,” Met ... Jimmy, in which Theroux spent time with psyches has endeared him to millions of viewers Louis writes. then popular entertainer and television presenter around the world. Whether speaking to a trans- Odd jobs Jimmy Savile. Two years after Savile died in Oc- gender woman and her cellmate about their re- Uncertain tober 2011, U.K. police investigations uncovered lationship inside San Quentin prison, or asking a about his that he had been guilty of hundreds of criminal member of the Phelps family why she exiled her- future after sex-abuse offenses, targeting mostly children. That self from the incendiary Westboro Baptist Church, graduating revelation has had a lasting impact on Theroux— from Oxford, Theroux elicits poignant, genuine responses. Theroux who had formed a “quasi-friendship” with Savile Now Theroux has become his own subject. His moved to after filming together —and was partially the impe- new book, Gotta Get Theroux This, is a memoir of the U.S. and tus for writing the memoir. his life and career on camera, from his early days worked in a The lighthearted nature of Theroux’s question- in 1994 as a fresh-faced correspondent for Michael glass-blowing ing of Savile led to retrospective criticism of his in- Moore’s satirical NBC news show TV Nation. Put- studio. terview style, best described as “faux naive.” In an ting himself in the hot seat does not come natu- Film early segment on TV Nation, for example, Theroux rally, he says. “I’ve made it my habit to be slightly favorites interviewed neo-Nazis in Montana and earnestly invisible in my programs. Although I’m on cam- Theroux cites discussed their theories of different races being era, I don’t really give that much of myself. I think directors banished to different planets after an impending Joshua that’s what’s needed, because of the nature of the Oppenheimer, apocalypse. Is it all an act? He says that is in the programs. I’m a straight man in a world that is the Maysles top three questions he is ever asked. “Am I exactly somewhat weird, mysterious, dangerous or just brothers the same person on camera as off camera? Well, ev- emotionally charged in one way or another.” and D.A. idently no because I’m doing a job on camera, and Pennebaker part of that is asking questions to which I know the Theroux was born in Singapore in 1970 to an as influences. answer sometimes.” That statement circles back American father (the writer Paul Theroux) and to his immersive approach, talking to subjects in British mother, and eventually settled in London. the languages of their own worlds. “Maybe it’s my He and his brother Marcel, now a writer, were en- sense of humor to ask something really obvious ... couraged to be interested in the world, and grew I don’t know if that’s a helpful answer or not, but up spending summers in Cape Cod with their basically I think me saying stupid things some- American family. “That was a big thing grow- times is funny. I plead guilty to that.” ing up: you weren’t tribal. [My parents’] outlook Still, his approach risks seeming like he is let- was very much cosmopolitan, striving to be open- ting his subjects off the hook—something survi- minded, unblinkered as to how other countries vors of Savile’s abuse charged him with when he

12 Time October 14, 2019 met with them for a follow-up documentary in liposuction at a Beverly Hills clinic. While these 2016. At one point, Theroux is called “gullible and kinds of stunts were what he calls “the price of silly,” and confronted with accusations of failing to admission” for making programs that would keep recognize evil in plain sight. “I needed to hear that, people entertained, today he keeps the antics actually,” he says now. ‘The fever to a minimum. Instead, in recent years Theroux swamps of has turned his attention to more serious matters. some of The “weird” ideas Theroux helped conspiracy Recent films include 2016’s Drinking to Oblivion, an introduce to viewing audiences have since be- have a unsparing look at alcohol addiction, and this year’s come more widely accepted. In a 1998 edition of hold over Mothers on the Edge, in which he met sufferers of Weird Weekends, for example, he traveled to Idaho mainstream post partum depression. He made his first feature- to meet survivalists preparing for the apocalypse. discourse length documentary, My Scientology Movie, in Theroux says the story hasn’t really changed. 2016—once again shedding light on an outlier “Most of those guys or guys like them are still now.’ community. The linking factor, he says, is human doing similar sorts of things, with the slight differ- LOUIS THEROUX beings themselves. “What all the films entail is a ence that sometimes they’re being retweeted by certain level of psychological angst, or complexity, Donald Trump Jr. or President Trump himself,” he or contradictoriness. I want to go deeper into why says. “In other words, the fever swamps of conspir- people behave the way that they do.” acy have a hold over mainstream discourse now.” As we stand up to leave, a woman approaches, Theroux’s early films—which have won a seemingly keen to take a selfie with Theroux. In- new generation of fans after being added to stead she hands him her phone and asks him to take Netflix— frequently involved partial integration a photo of her, standing in front of the park’s color- into the world he was in: stripping for a Polaroid ful flower beds. Theroux smiles politely and fulfills

PAUL MARC MITCHELL photo on an L.A. pornography shoot, or getting her request, at ease again behind the camera. • 13 LightBox Holding tight A man carries a boy through a cloud of tear gas during a clash with police that began after fires broke out at a crowded migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Sept. 29. One woman died in the blazes. Human-rights groups have long criticized conditions at the Moria camp, which was built for 3,000 people but houses four times that number after a surge of arrivals over the summer. Following the protest, the Greek government said it would speed up plans to move or deport thousands of asylum seekers off islands like Lesbos.

Photograph by Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty Images ▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox

SAVE THE HELP FRIDGE © WildWonders ofEurope/OleJoergenLiodden /WWF Spitsbergen, Norway. The fridge needs help. Because much of the energy we need to power it produces The fridgeneedshelp.Becausemuchof the energyweneedtopoweritproduces We’re the solutionsfor all aroundtheworldtoprovide campaigning incountries we produce and use energy in a way that will contribute to a sustainable future. we produceanduseenergyinawaythat willcontributetoasustainablefuture. waste, pollutestheatmosphereandchanges theclimate.We cantransitiontheway about energyconservation anduse. And you,asanindividual, canhelpjustbythe governments, for companies and for all members of society to make the right choices governments, forcompanies andforallmembersofsocietytomake therightchoices choices youmake. Help uslookaftertheworldwhereyou liveatpanda.org

© 1986 Panda symbol WWF ® “WWF” is a WWF Registered Trademark THEWE GUARDIANS STILL NEED JUSTICE FOR JAMAL By Hatice Cengiz Oct. 2, 2018, was the last day I would wake up to a normal life like everyone else, full of hopes and desires. Who would have known that it would be the last day I saw my fiancé, Jamal Khashoggi? Who would have known that when I left the house, I would become a real-life answer to the question: “Can someone’s life change in a day?” ▶

17 TheView Opener

I wasn’t supposed to be with Jamal that day when he went to the Saudi con- sulate to get the necessary documents for our marriage. He knew I was busy with my Ph.D. work and had told me to carry on with my studying. But in the end, I offered to go with him. Apart from being a person I loved, Jamal was a person I profoundly respected, whose life, status, experience and values I ad- mired. I was always happy to know where he was going and to help him out, especially when he was in Istanbul, where we spent a lot of time together. It made him happy too. Who would have known that as we were finalizing preparations for our marriage, others were moving in for his murder? As the hours passed by in deep silence, I waited for him and stared at the gates of the consulate in fear and hope. By the time I realized something was wrong, the damage was already done. Jamal’s blood had already been spilled, his body cut up into pieces. I still had no idea of the dark nights to come. In the days that followed, my phone rang constantly for hours. Were the calls from journalists? I could not ^ answer most of them. Although it took life like everyone else. Now, Jamal’s A candlelight vigil for Khashoggi outside the a long time for the news to emerge, fight for justice has been added to them. Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 25, 2018 Jamal’s death in the consulate that Because world leaders claim to repre- day was eventually confirmed to the sent justice but lack morality, I have public on Oct. 19. Turkey was saved been left with the burden of carrying what is being defended is Europe. For from being the host to an anonymous this feeling. I am not just the woman in Bosnia today, the values vowed to be murder. That is hardly enough to ease going after her partner’s cause in his ab- upheld by Europe are being defended.” the enormous loss of Jamal. sence but also the one left to hold to ac- Jamal supported the fight for After the news of the atrocity, I felt count those who took his life. democracy in the Middle East after the detached from life for a long time. I Arab Spring. “It is time for concepts like did not read the news; I did not follow A yeAr lAter, the first thing that freedom of thought and democracy to what was written during the period. Ar- comes to my mind is shame, an arrive in Arab states as well,” he would ticles or phone calls would not be able immense disappointment that the say. It was statements like these that so to bring Jamal back. But journalists and systems of the world are built on provoked the current leaders of Saudi rights groups managed economic interests rather Arabia, afraid of their own shadows, to keep the issue on the Jamal’s murder than ethical values. their rage growing into such animosity international agenda for was a blow to As a researcher of the that they carved up a human being a long time, with sheer Middle East and a future because of his words. loyalty to Jamal and what everyone fighting academic, I can see that Jamal only wanted to practice jour- he stood for. For this I am for democracy the killing of Jamal was nalism. He acted as a journalist should. grateful, and I hope they in the region not simply the murder of But in the minds of those who only saw will uphold their moral a journalist. It was also journalists as spies giving intelligence to CHRIS MCGRATH—GETTY IMAGES responsibility and continue to pursue the murder of fundamental values: the pubic, he was extremely dangerous. justice for this brave man. human rights, the international rule From this perspective, Jamal’s But Jamal was murdered. I will never of law, the norms of diplomacy. The murder shows how our part of the see or have the chance to meet with situation reminded me of the words of world—the Middle East—is being him again in the earthly realm. All my the wise Alija Izet begovic during the left in the dark ages. Most of Jamal’s dreams have been profoundly shaken. Bosnian War: “What is being defended friends were either in prison or did not Before this, I had my own struggles in in Bosnia today is not just Bosnia itself; have a strong enough voice to speak

18 Time October 14, 2019 to the whole world. But Jamal found THE RISK REPORT comfort in knowing that so many like- If only the Japan–South Korea minded people were with him and trade war were about trade supported him. This is what he meant By Ian Bremmer every time he said he was not alone with these beliefs. What happened to Jamal showed The U.S.-China have already erupted; in South Korea, how far human rights have been aban- trade war is sales of Japanese beer and cars have doned in the Arab world. Jamal’s name inflicting the tumbled precipitously. At the end of now represents all the nameless people most damage the summer, nearly 7 in 10 Japanese in this region who would like to speak to the global supported the tech trade restrictions but can’t articulate what they want to economy, but it’s slapped on Seoul; more than half say and have to remain anonymous on the trade spat of South Koreans approved of how social media. between Japan and South Korea Moon’s administration was dealing The murder of Jamal, a rare man of that signals the larger troubles ahead with Japan. his generation, was a blow to everyone for the world. fighting for democracy in the region. South Korea’s Supreme Court With numbers like these, it’s It wasn’t just people who knew him ruled in late 2018 that a number of unlikely that either Moon or Japanese who cried at his death; it was everyone Japanese companies must compensate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make crying for the fate of the people from a group of South Koreans (or their the first move toward reconciliation this region. Muslims around the world descendants) who were forced to work (as each is demanding of the other). performed a funeral prayer without a for them during Japan’s occupation On Oct. 1, Seoul accused Tokyo of body. In getting rid of his body, his kill- of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 sitting on the approval of a Japanese ers had dealt yet another blow to those to 1945. Japan argues that all such firm’s request to send a shipment of who loved Jamal. claims were settled by a 1965 treaty liquid hydrogen fluoride—critical in But at the same time, they sowed between the two sides. building semiconductors— the seeds of a new enlightenment and a South Korea’s Supreme Trade has to South Korea, fueling movement to fight for freedom around Court disagrees, and become an worries over tech supply the world and, above all, in the Middle President Moon Jae-in’s acceptable chains. In August, the East. While I was traveling recently, a administration insists that weapon in trade war even spilled man came to help me with my suitcase, it has no authority to tell over into security as Seoul walking with me until passport con- the country’s independent a country’s announced that it would trol without looking at me. When we judiciary to reverse the diplomatic not renew an intelligence- paused, I thanked him for his kind ges- ruling. Frustrated with arsenal sharing pact with Tokyo, ture. “May Jamal rest in peace,” he re- the proceedings and to the dismay of the U.S. plied. “I wish I could do more for you. determined to put pressure on Moon’s Not that Washington can say I am Iranian; I recognized you as we government to intervene in some way, much about it these days. After were boarding the plane. I am so sorry Japan strengthened restrictions on all, it was the U.S. that decided to for what happened. I was very much af- several high-tech exports to South bundle a host of other disputes it fected by it all.” Then he said goodbye Korea in July and downgraded South had with the Chinese into a trade and left, and I stood there watching Korea’s status as a trusted trading fight—not to mention threatening him walk away. partner in August. South Korea to increase tariffs on Mexico unless The savagery of Jamal’s killing returned the trade fire, and suddenly it beefed up border security— pained anyone with a conscience. By two of Asia’s largest economies were setting a troubling precedent for helping me that day, that Iranian man locked in a trade war. those once wary of doing the same. tried to relieve his own suffering. Days There is not much love lost Trade has become an acceptable later, I saw a middle-aged lady ap- between Japan and South Korea. weapon in a country’s diplomatic proaching me. Her eyes brimming with Nearly 75 years after World War II arsenal; in August, French President tears, she asked me if I was Jamal’s part- ended, the two sides continue to argue Emmanuel Macron threatened to ner; I said yes. “Please, let me hug you,” over the issue of how much, how upend the E.U.-Mercosur trade she said, wanting to prove how sincere often and in what form Japan should agreement over Brazilian President she was. I learned this mother was from appropriately atone for its past Jair Bolsonaro’s refusal to deal with Iraq and was suffering too, sharing in transgressions. But what makes this fires in the Amazon rain forest. With the pain of Jamal’s brutal killing. They recent round of historical finger- the U.S. decision to stop playing a tried to silence Jamal forever. But in- pointing worrisome is the speed global leadership role and mediating stead he has become the symbol of our with which trade was roped into this disputes, the world will face more collective moral conscience, the voice fight and how effective it has been grievances between countries that roil for the voiceless in the Middle East.  in satisfying public outcry. Boycotts economies and trade. • 19 Trump at the White House on Sept. 26 after the House launched an impeachment inquiry

PHOTOGRAPH BY GABRIELLA DEMCZUK FOR TIME NationTRUMP’S CONSPIRACY COPS How a murky theory fueled a global hunt and consumed the presidency By Simon Shuster/Kiev and Vera Bergengruen/Washington

The warning signs were There. in a tweet or offhand remark, President Donald Trump would touch on what he said Ukraine had done to him during the 2016 election. Top Administration offi- cials got an earful. Foreign leaders were treated to the stories. Occasionally his rants would unspool on live TV. “And Ukraine!” Trump shouted down the line to a Fox News host on June 19, the night after he formally announced his re- election bid. “Take a look at Ukraine!” he went on, as the host tried to move to other subjects. Few people, even those closest to him in the White House, grasped exactly what the President of the United States seemed to believe: that Ukraine, a nation con- sumed over the past five years by a crip- pling armed conflict with Russia, had found a way to conspire against him dur- ing the 2016 election, and to collude with his rival, Hillary Clinton, by hiding the Democratic National Committee’s email Nation

server and feeding her allies dirt about or dubious in provenance, that he is right up for an impeachment trial. And the na- Trump. It was an idea Tom Bossert, his about his enemies, that he is the victim tion is struggling to understand where the first homeland- security adviser, described of a grand conspiracy and not in fact the truth actually lies. as a “completely debunked” conspiracy purveyor of one. Tracing the origins of the theory. Few saw in his Ukraine outbursts Ukraine conspiracy theory and the Presi- It Is perhaps not surprising that one anything more than the effusions of a dent’s efforts to pursue it is central to un- of the first sources of the Ukraine con- cable -news showman. derstanding the political crisis consum- spiracy theory that has so captured the It took a complaint from an intelli- ing Washington. President’s imagination was the Russian gence-community whistle-blower, re- TIME journalists, from Washington Foreign Ministry in Moscow. As ques- leased late last month, to reveal the weight to Ukraine, have found a tangled mix tions mounted over Kremlin interference of Trump’s Ukraine conspiracy theory and of fact and fiction. Barr has launched a in the 2016 presidential race, a ministry just how far the President has gone to sup- formal Justice Department investiga- spokesperson suggested that Ukraine port the notion that a vast network of en- tion of the origins of the Mueller probe. had “seriously complicated the work of emies inside and outside his own gov- Meanwhile, Giuliani has drawn on a Trump’s election-campaign headquarters ernment has been working against him. Trump has tried to mobilize the vast re- sources of his presidency—from Attorney General William Barr and the U.S. Jus- IN SEARCH OF A CONSPIRACY tice Department to America’s national- Fed by the far- security apparatus—and a team of inves- right fringes of tigative irregulars, led by his personal the Internet, lawyer Rudy Giuliani. This band of con- conservative spiracy cops has traveled the globe in a media and disorderly hunt for proof of the conspir- members of acy Trump says is arrayed against him. Trump’s inner In the past, many of his advisers tried circle, conspiracy to redirect Trump. They urged the Pres- theories took ident to accept the consensus of U.S. shape in the last RUDY GIULIANI JOSEPH DIGENOVA intelligence agencies: the true conspiracy two years, alleging of the 2016 election was that Russia in- From Kiev to Florida, VICTORIA TOENSING that Ukraine Trump’s personal The husband-and-wife terfered on his side. But those voices are lawyer contacted and others tried Trump loyalists and long gone. In their place is a network of an unlikely cast of to sabotage the Fox News regulars say they far-right Internet denizens, conservative characters in pursuit were asked by Giuliani to Trump campaign: of Trump’s suspicions media and members of Trump’s inner cir- work on the Ukraine matter cle, advancing theories that have taken about Biden, Clinton shape over the past two years. Those and Ukraine seeds have fallen on fertile ground. Trump tells aides he is held to a dou- ble standard, a White House official tells TIME. Trump sees Joe Biden on tape network of sources, including a former by planting information” about its chair- saying the Obama Administration with- prosecutor in Kiev, a wanted fugitive in man, Paul Manafort. “All of you have held aid until Ukraine fired its prosecu- Vienna and a pair of Russian- speaking heard this remarkable story,” the spokes- tor, and then feels unfairly criticized for businessmen in Miami in pursuit of person, Maria Zakharova, told reporters asking Ukraine to help investigate Biden Trump’s theories. in November 2016. and the origins of the Russia probe. To Trump and Giuliani—egged on by Like any good conspiracy theory, this Trump, the official says, “It feels like supporters chanting “Investigate the one contained a sliver of truth. The leak people are coming at him over a bunch investigators!”—may still believe they that forced Manafort to leave the Trump of bullsh-t while letting all this other stuff will find enough proof to chasten their campaign did come from Ukraine, and slide.” That sense of grievance has helped enemies. But so far their efforts have one of the people who publicized it was lead Trump into what Democrats and a mostly hurt Trump, his Administration a lawmaker named Serhiy Leshchenko. handful of Republicans say are poten- and the country. Barr is frustrated with Before he went into politics, Leshchenko tially impeachable offenses, first among Giuliani’s role in the unorthodox investi- worked as an investigative journalist and them, using the power of the presidency gation. The White House counsel’s office an activist against corruption. One focus to try and stay in office. is at loggerheads with some more politi- of his research had been Manafort’s work Trump’s focus on Ukraine turned into cally minded White House aides over how for a Kremlin ally in Ukraine accused of an invitation, an open call for a cast of to respond to the whistle-blower’s revela- siphoning at least $37 billion in gov- sleuths to deliver the thing he craves: ev- tions. Democrats on the Hill are licking ernment money into offshore bank ac- idence, no matter how thin in substance their lips at the opportunity to put Trump counts. “I’ve never made a secret of my

22 Time October 14, 2019 anger at Manafort,” Leshchenko says. in Sunnyvale, Calif., with no known ties information about Manafort’s work in “He helped bring a regime to power that to Ukraine. Three months later, he cryp- Ukraine with reporters and the DNC. robbed my country.” tically tweeted about “Ukrainian efforts As the Mueller probe drew to a close In August 2016, the New York Times to sabotage Trump campaign” that had in the spring of this year, the President revealed that Manafort had received more been “quietly working to boost Clinton.” and Giuliani began to speak out more fre- than $12 million in payments from that Whenever new allegations of Trump’s quently about these theories. “As Russia regime, and he was forced to resign from Russia ties emerged, his allies would re- Collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help the Trump campaign. Days later, Lesh- vive the Ukraine theory. As the Muel- Clinton emerges,” Trump tweeted on chenko held a press conference in ler probe gained steam in the summer March 20, two days before Mueller de- Kiev calling for Manafort to be of 2017, Fox News host Sean Hannity livered his final report to the Attorney investigated. That kindling—a devoted segments of his show to General. wounded Trump campaign, the allegations that the Clinton All along, the pied piper of the Ukraine the New York Times and campaign had received help narrative was Giuliani. On the morning an obscure Ukrainian from Ukrainian officials, of May 11, a few days after a Senate com- mittee called Trump’s eldest son to tes- tify, Ukraine’s new government awoke to news footage of Giuliani declaring WILLIAM BARR that there were “enemies of the United The Attorney General asked States” among them. Raising his voice foreign officials for help over the anchor’s attempts to interrupt investigating the origins of the him, Trump’s lawyer even name-checked counterintelligence probe into Leshchenko, the former journalist. He had the Trump campaign been in line to join the Cabinet of Presi- dent Volodymyr Zelensky, but Trump’s lawyer got in the way. “We knew Giuliani is the hand of Trump,” Leshchenko tells TIME. “Once he called me an enemy, it MORE QUESTIONS was clear I had to step aside.” SEAN HANNITY What’s left are Trump soon took the theories about Trump’s favorite multiple probes and a Ukraine straight to the country’s Pres- Fox News host loose narrative, based ident. In a phone call on July 25—the has devoted part on real and fictional of his prime-time day after Mueller’s testimony before VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY events, in which show to Ukrainian Ukraine allegedly Congress—Trump urged Zelensky to do interference theories Trump pressed Ukraine’s leader to interfered in the 2016 him a favor. “I would like to have the Attor- investigate a debunked conspiracy U.S. election ney General call you or your people” about theory about Ukrainian collusion this alleged collusion, Trump said. “And I with the Clinton campaign would like you to get to the bottom of it.”

When the WhIte house released a lawmaker—would soon start a fire on with a banner of the country’s blue-and- declassified summary of that call on the Internet, conflating events both real yellow flag reading in all-caps UKrainian Sept. 25, it showed just how aggressive and imagined. eLeCTiOn inTerFerenCe? Trump’s son Trump had been in pursuit of the mat- Leshchenko’s calls to investigate Donald Jr. amplified the Ukraine theories ter, and just how varied a team he had Manafort became part of a Ukrainian after his infamous Trump Tower meeting enlisted in the effort. While Giuliani is scheme with Democrats to smear the with a Kremlin-linked lawyer became a central player, Barr is second only to chairman of the Trump campaign. Crowd- public in July 2017, retweeting that “DNC Trump in the power he wields in its ex- Strike, the security firm hired to investi- operatives actively worked with Ukrainian ecution. But when he first learned that gate the hacking of emails from the DNC, government officials to dig up oppo re- Trump had raised his name on the call was said to have covered up Ukraine’s role search,” asking, “No outrage???” Trump’s with Zelensky, the Attorney General was and framed Russia instead. And starting attorney Jay Sekulow ran with this mes- “angry and surprised to be lumped in to- soon after his Inauguration, Trump piled sage on CNN a few days later, referring to gether with the President’s personal attor- on. “I heard [CrowdStrike is] owned by a “the situation with the Ukrainians and the ney,” not least because Barr has never spo- very rich Ukrainian, that’s what I heard,” DNC and the Clinton campaign, where in- ken about Ukraine to Giuliani, a person Trump told the Associated Press in April formation actually was shared.” Trump’s familiar with Barr’s thinking tells TIME. 2017. He would continue to repeat in allies pointed to reporting by Politico But Barr’s role in this story has other interviews that the firm was owned and the New York Times that a DNC out- drawn plenty of attention, and criti- by Ukrainians or based there, despite reach coordinator had met with Ukrai- cism. While Trump publicly mused that the fact that it is a U.S. company based nian officials in Washington and shared Barr’s predecessor, Jeff Sessions, should

GIULIANI, HANNITY, DIGENOVA, TOENSING: GETTY IMAGES; ZELENSKY: SIPA; BARR: AP Nation

investigate Ukraine’s role in the events If Barr is trying to be discreet, Giuliani that Shokin was fired for his alleged cor- that led to the Mueller probe, one for- has been anything but. His pursuit of par- ruption, and the investigation of Hunter mer official who worked under Sessions allel investigations has triggered alarm Biden’s company was dormant at the time. does not recall the topic ever coming up at the highest levels of the White House. A parallel track in Giuliani’s efforts inside the Justice Department. Barr, by “The most dangerous stuff is Rudy fly- has been entrusted to a pair of American contrast, dived right in. ing around the world fixing sh-t,” a per- lawyers and Fox News regulars, Victoria Shortly after being confirmed to the son close to Trump told TIME. Toensing and Joe DiGenova, who have job in February, Barr instructed the U.S. From Vienna and Kiev to Florida, worked with Giuliani for years and, ac- Attorney for Connecticut, John Durham, Giuliani has recruited a cast of helpers cording to a recent profile of them in Po- to look at “the extent to which a number in his effort to confirm Trump’s suspi- litico, “enjoy an open line to Trump.” This of countries, including Ukraine, played cions about Biden, Clinton and Ukraine. summer, they went to work for Dmitry a role in the counterintelligence investi- Among them was a pair of business- Firtash, a Ukrainian tycoon who is wanted gation directed at the Trump campaign men from Miami, Igor Fruman and Lev in Chicago for alleged corruption. In a during the 2016 election,” according to Parnas, who volunteered to be his eyes legal filing in 2017, the DOJ referred to a Justice Department statement in Sep- and ears in Kiev, they have said. Born in Firtash as an “upper-echelon associ- tember. Asked what the basis for the in- the Soviet Union and still connected in ate of Russian organized crime.” He has vestigation was, a Justice Department of- Ukraine to businessmen and politicians, strongly denied having links to the mafia ficial says, “the Attorney General just saw the duo have made generous donations and is fighting extradition to the U.S. on enough things that weren’t adding up that to Republican causes since 2016. With the bribery charges, which he also denies. he knew he needed to look into it.” their assistance, Giuliani spoke to three But the Firtash case has become a rich Barr himself has taken up the task of politicians in Ukraine who had overseen pool of material for Giuliani’s effort to digging into the matter. In London this discredit the Mueller investigation. In a summer, he asked British authorities legal filing in Vienna in July, lawyers for how much credence they gave former Firtash claimed that one of Mueller’s top British spy Christopher Steele and a dos- ‘THE MOST investigators had offered to drop the brib- sier he compiled on Trump’s alleged ties DANGEROUS STUFF ery case against Firtash in exchange for to Russia, two British officials briefed on damning testimony on Trump, Toensing Barr’s visit tell TIME. British intelligence IS RUDY FLYING and DiGenova tell TIME. “The oligarch,” officials found Barr’s request for infor- AROUND THE WORLD Giuliani told Fox News on July 22, “basi- mation in the probe “rather unusual, cally said, ‘I’m not going to lie to get out of coming as it did from the Attorney Gen- FIXING SH-T.’ the case.’” (Mueller’s prosecutors have de- eral instead of the usual channels,” one of —A PERSON CLOSE TO TRUMP nied ever inappropriately pressuring wit- the officials tells TIME. nesses to testify against Trump.) Barr has also enlisted Trump. “At At- For Trump’s critics, the scariest thing torney General Barr’s request, the Presi- about his efforts to discredit the Mueller dent has contacted other countries to ask probe is the impact it will have on the them to introduce the Attorney General investigations related to the Biden fam- 2020 election. U.S. intelligence agen- and Mr. Durham to appropriate officials,” ily. Parnas, Fruman and Giuliani have all cies have warned repeatedly that Russia Justice Department spokesperson Kerri spoken publicly about their efforts. “I has again set out to influence the vote. Kupec said in a statement on Sept. 30. was doing it because I felt as a U.S. citi- “They’re doing it as we sit here,” Mueller Trump has spoken to Australia and pos- zen it was my patriotic duty,” Parnas told told Congress in July. sibly other leaders at Barr’s behest. NPR in September. Trump’s refusal to credit such warn- So far, the most valuable source for ings, and his attempts to cast them as a one troublIng questIon is whether Giuliani in Ukraine has been Viktor Shokin, plot against his presidency, is going to Barr, like Trump, crossed a line from pur- a former prosecutor general, who spoke to make the Kremlin’s work much easier suing a suspected conspiracy perpetrated Giuliani over Skype in late 2018. Shokin this time around, says Michael McFaul, during the last election into investigating later wrote a damning 12-page statement a former U.S. ambassador to Mos- Trump’s political rivals in the coming one. accusing Biden of abuse of power during cow. “That is my prediction for what is The whistle-blower alleged Barr appeared his tenure as Vice President. “I was forced going to happen in electoral politics in to be “involved” in the effort to “solicit to leave office, under direct and intense America moving forward,” McFaul tells interference from a foreign country in the pressure from Joe Biden and the U.S. Ad- TIME. Thanks to Trump’s “disinfor- 2020 U.S. election.” Pressed on whether ministration,” in order to stop an investiga- mation campaign,” he says, “Ukraine is Barr and Trump had discussed former tion of the company where Hunter Biden going to become the focus of the 2020 Vice President Biden in connection with worked, Shokin wrote. elections. And that means Russia is off Ukraine, the Justice Department official That account has not stood up to scru- the hook.” —With reporting by Brian reported no awareness of any conversa- tiny. Top officials in the U.S. and Ukraine, BenneTT, Tessa BerensOn, massimO tions between the Attorney General and as well as independent experts and in- CaLaBresi, aBBy VesOULis and JOhn the President about Biden and Ukraine. vestigative journalists, have confirmed waLCOTT/ washingTOn 

24 Time October 14, 2019

Harris backstage before her town hall in Waterloo, Iowa, on Sept. 20 PHOTOGRAPHS BY SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS FOR TIME Finding Kamala Harris Emphatic but elusive, the candidate searches for her place in the Democratic field BY MOLLY BALL Sometimes Kamala Harris wakes up in the middle of the night because there’s something on her mind. the mid–single digits in most national Did anybody get back to so-and-so? How and early-state polls and draws mod- is my stepdaughter adjusting to her apart- est crowds. Perhaps three dozen people ment in New York City? Sometimes those showed up to see her in Waterloo, where early-morning moments are her only they were packed into a few rows in front chance, as the junior Senator from Cali- of the stage so that the large room—an fornia and a top Democratic presidential ornate century-old former department candidate, to think through the events of store—wouldn’t look so empty. the past day. In mid-September, Harris said she’d “Oh, I worry,” she says, “I worry.” Sit- be focusing on the first-to-vote cau- ting at a table upstairs from the stage cus state. It was something of an unwit- where she’s just held a town hall in ting announcement: she was overheard Waterloo, Iowa, Harris begins to laugh, in Washington joking to a colleague, that deep, body-shaking laugh of hers. “I’m f-cking moving to Iowa.” (At least, “Let me just tell you, I was born worry- a staffer quipped, “she didn’t say, ‘I’m ing. I had a mother who worried, I had a moving to f-cking Iowa.’”) Her campaign grandmother who worried. It’s kind of in is doubling its staff in the state, to more my blood.” than 130 people, and she has pledged to resources to remain viable. Her campaign That jolt awake at 3 a.m. has become visit every week for the foreseeable fu- raised $11.6 million in the quarter ending Harris’ campaign theme, the crux of her ture. “I’m really excited about it,” she Sept. 30—a respectable haul, although wandering stump speech. What wakes tells me, saying the opportunity to en- far short of what some other front run- the American people at 3 a.m., she says, gage in “old-school retail politics” re- ners pulled in. As more long-shot candi- is not ideological mudslinging but prac- minds her of her San Francisco political dates bow out of the race, campaign offi- tical concerns: holding down a job, get- roots. “I like people.” cials expect Harris to benefit from voters’ ting through a health crisis, weather- People like Harris too; they just can’t renewed focus. With a little luck, they ing hurricanes and tornadoes. Harris’ quite place her. Like the acquaintance you say, she still has a fairly clear path to the “3 a.m. agenda,” as she calls it, is the back- recognize but can’t recall how you met, she nomination. bone of her campaign’s policy approach, seems both familiar and yet mysterious. Is Among the top-polling Democrats, a road map of solutions for the middle she a liberal or a moderate, establishment some churn seems inevitable. Former class. But so far it has failed to get much or populist, reformer or radical? Critics Vice President Joe Biden remains the ap- traction. At a time when the electorate is point out that she has flip- flopped or ob- parent front runner, but his unsteady de- looking for sharp definitions and ambi- fuscated her positions on important policy bate performances and shambling cam- tious visions, her emphasis strikes some issues, like health care and immigration, paign have many insiders convinced he’s Democrats as vague and noncommittal. and the speeches she could use to define on the brink of collapse. When and if that And so Harris is here, in Iowa, trying herself often devolve into paeans to unity. happens, the next leading candidates, to regain her footing in the race. After a For all that, however, Harris remains Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, promising start in January, her campaign in the hunt. She consistently polls among could face a rebellion from mainstream has stalled. While she is in the competi- the top five candidates in the jumbled Democrats who see them as too left-wing. tion for the nomination, she’s stuck in Democratic field, and she has the financial In such a world, Harris would be well

28 Time October 14, 2019 in a law ofce on the city’s west side. But home, to her, always conjures memo- ries of a Berkeley duplex where she lived with her mother and sister above a nurs- ery school. Born in Oakland, Harris had an itiner- ant childhood, moving from California to Illinois to Wisconsin to Montreal as her parents pursued academic careers. Her mother and father were both immigrants who came to the U.S. to attend the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley. Shyamala Gopalan, Harris’ mother, came from India to get a Ph.D. in nutrition and endocrinol- ogy, while Donald Harris, her father, came from Jamaica to study economics. As a re- sult, most of Harris’ family members were overseas. She learned, like many children of immigrants, that family and commu- nity aren’t necessarily something you are born into; they are something you make. Her memories are replete with references to surrogate grandmas and second moth- ers, godparents and godchildren, aunts and uncles, none of whom are related. Harris’ parents met in the 1960s in the civil rights movement. Both were mem- bers of a small group of students who met to discuss black consciousness and liberation. They were unabashedly rad- ical: the group’s heroes were “Malcolm, Fidel, Che,” says Aubrey LaBrie, a leader of the group. Some in the group were in- volved in the founding of the Black Pan- ther Party, he says. Now in his 80s, with graying braids and a voice made hoarse positioned as the alternative: a practical ^ by Parkinson’s, LaBrie remembers Harris’ idealist with undeniable political skills Harris speaks at her town hall in parents as committed activists, joining in and a respected track record of problem- Waterloo, Iowa a protest of the local Woolworth’s to ex- solving rather than grandstanding. As a press solidarity with a sit-in at a segre- 54-year-old black woman, she also offers gated lunch counter at a Woolworth’s in a compelling profile for Democrats hun- in this new political climate, voters may the South. Gopalan, who died of cancer gry for diversity and fresh faces. Among relish the idea of seeing Harris—with her in 2009, was “very feisty, strong-willed, the top-tier candidates, who also include icy prosecutor’s glare—square off against very assertive,” he says. Pete Buttigieg, she is one of two women President Trump on the national stage. Harris recalls being steeped in her and the only person of color. And she’s “This guy has completely trampled parents’ activism. In speeches, she says younger than the three septuagenarian on the rule of law, avoided consequence she remembers being surrounded by “a front runners by a decade and a half. and accountability under law,” she says bunch of adults who spent all their time Meanwhile, as the Democrat- of the President. “For all the sh-t people marching and shouting—for justice!” controlled House of Representatives give me for being a prosecutor, listen. I Once, she told me, she came down the moves toward impeachment, another believe there should be accountability stairs of her childhood house in Berke- piece of Harris’ record may supercharge and consequence.” ley to see free bobby carved in wet her candidacy in the coming months: her cement, after the Black Panther leader background in law enforcement. At a time Harris lives in Los Angeles now, where Bobby Seale was arrested. when liberals are clamoring to make the her husband of five years, entertainment She was also on the front lines in her criminal-justice system less punitive, her lawyer Douglas Emhoff, is based. L.A. is own way. In 1970, when she entered first record as a district attorney and state at- only the latest of many places she’s put grade, Harris was in the second class of torney general has been a liability. But down roots, she tells me in an interview children to be bused across town to inte- 29 KAMALA’S STORY

Early 1970s Kamala with Maya, 1965 who now serves Harris was born in 1964 in as chair for Harris’ Oakland to parents who had 1970 presidential campaign both immigrated to the U.S.; Harris with her mother seen here with her mother and and younger sister Maya, paternal grandfather in Jamaica outside of their Berkeley apartment in 1970 grate an elementary school that had previ- to treat underage girls in the sex trade as ran on a platform of restoring competence ously been 95% white. It was a 40-minute victims rather than criminals, remembers to the bumbling department and relent- journey each way. She did not, at the time, telling Harris she was disappointed by her lessly criticized the incumbent for his low understand that she was a pawn in grown- decision. But Harris was unfazed. “She’d conviction rate for major crimes. She won ups’ sociopolitical experimentation—a say, ‘Are you going to be outside all the in a landslide. lack of trauma that, she jokes, presents time with a bullhorn, or are you going to The law is written in black and white, a challenge in politics. “People are like, be inside, deeply in the face of folks with but prosecutors have tremendous discre- ‘Tell us your suffering, tell us how hard it decisionmaking power?’” Simon remem- tion to shape the way it is applied. It’s a was,’” she says. “But I was raised by proud bers. To Harris, Simon recalls, the way to prosecutor who decides to put sex work- people. I was raised to know and believe make change was not to protest the sys- ers in jail while letting their customers we had everything we needed.” tem, but to take it over. off. It’s a prosecutor who decides that It’s easy to see how this upbringing a white teenager who kills is a good kid shaped Harris’ standing as an outsider— Harris’ underdog campaign did bet- who deserves a second chance, but that someone who had to convince others she ter than expected. Partly as a result of her a black teenager who commits the same belonged, no matter where she was. But relationship with her former boyfriend crime is a predator who should be locked she was the kind of outsider who was de- Willie Brown, the legendary California up for life. It’s a prosecutor who often termined to get inside. She was always politician who was then speaker of the decides that a woman who reports rape trying to find commonalities, even as state assembly, Harris had cultivated a just doesn’t seem believable, even when she was aware of the difficulty of mak- strong fundraising base among the city’s there’s physical evidence. It was a prose- ing herself understood in different con- wealthy socialites. Brown, 30 years her cutor who decided, in 2008, that Jeffrey texts. “The reality is that when you are the senior and technically still married, had Epstein deserved essentially house arrest so-called minority,” she says, “you learn also appointed Harris to boards and intro- for the serial sexual abuse of dozens of many languages, necessarily.” duced her to his political network when young women. Modern reformers seeking EMHOFF, BIDEN: GETTY IMAGES UNIVERSITY; COURTESY KAMALA HARRIS (4); 1986: HOWARD While others, including her own they were dating in the 1990s, sparking to curtail mass incarceration increasingly mother and sister, a former American accusations of nepotism. argue that no amount of policy reform Civil Liberties Union leader, sought to But Harris’ campaign was also uniquely will fix a system whose decisionmak- protest and advocate from outside, Har- her own. She put down her headquarters ers are vulnerable to certain blind spots. ris worked to find her way into institu- in one of the city’s poorest black neighbor- When Harris took over as DA, Simon re- tions where no one like her had ever been hoods, pounded the pavement and used members her pointing out all the framed in charge. After graduating from Howard an ironing board as a standing desk. She photos of past DAs along a wall. The por- University, the historically black college traits were all of white men until her face in Washington, D.C., and the Univer- appeared at the end of the line, a 40-year- sity of California’s Hastings College of old black woman. the Law, she became a prosecutor, first ‘She’s in kind of a It would not be easy to bring a new at the DA’s office in Oakland’s Alameda perspective inside the system. Just a few County and then in San Francisco. In no-person’s-land months into her tenure as San Francisco 2003, when Harris announced she would in terms of having DA, a young gang member killed a San run for San Francisco DA against her Francisco cop in the same rough neigh- former boss, many of her liberal friends a good base.’ borhood where she’d headquartered balked. Lateefah Simon, who had worked —Larry Gerston, a political scientist at her campaign. Harris, who had run on with Harris to get police and prosecutors San Jose State University her opposition to capital punishment,

30 Time October 14, 2019 2003 She becomes the first woman, first African- American and first 2019 Indian-American DA in At a Democratic debate 1986 San Francisco 2015 in June, Harris confronts Harris graduates from Harris and Emhoff, Biden on busing and Howard University, where married the year before, segregation she was involved with the attend the opening of student government L.A.’s Broad museum announced she would not seek the death calls Simon, the former colleague. decision striking down the death penalty penalty. The decision sparked a major The thought of it still fills Harris with as unconstitutional, successfully reinstat- controversy that some thought would end fury. “People had no expectations from ing a penalty she claimed to oppose. her political career before it started. From these children,” she says. “They had no Criminal-justice reformers charge that the pulpit at the officer’s funeral, both Cal- understanding of the capacity of these Harris is cautious at best and hypocriti- ifornia’s senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein, children. The system was not responding cal at worst, an ambitious pol who wants and the head of the police union called for to what was in my mind a crisis. We im- to have it both ways and lacks the guts the death penalty as Harris sat stunned in proved attendance by over 30%. No par- to pursue bold reforms. A new wave of the audience. She stuck by her decision in ent ever went to jail. It was about what I progressive DAs like Philadelphia’s Larry the face of the firestorm, ultimately se- could do, in my limited capacity, based Krasner has gone much further than Har- curing a sentence of life without parole. on the position I had.” The controversy ris ever did, with initiatives like restrict- A couple of years later, as a wave of still dogs Harris, however, Exhibit A for ing the use of cash bail, which reformers homicides swept the city, Harris again liberals who say she punished those she say unfairly penalizes the poor while al- saw her convictions tested. While other should have been trying to help. lowing the rich to buy their way out of elected officials proposed putting more When Simon expressed her doubts, jail. “There’s sort of a laundry list for what cops on the street and beefing up gang en- Harris would remind her of all the fu- it means to be a progressive prosecutor, forcement, she wanted a new approach. nerals she’d attended. For all the people and she doesn’t check a single one of the “Instead of just accepting these statis- you’ve buried, was anybody ever held ac- boxes,” says Lara Bazelon, a professor at tics and reacting, I asked my team to tell countable? The women raped and left for the University of San Francisco School of me, Who are the homicide victims under dead on street corners, who is going to see Law. “At least she didn’t when she was an the age of 25?” she says. Both the vic- them? “Black people want law enforce- actual prosecutor and she was in a posi- tims and the perpetrators, they discov- ment,” says Simon, who considers herself tion to do something to make the system ered, had something in common: more a prison abolitionist. “We just don’t want more fair.” than 90% were high school dropouts. them to kill our children.” Harris, Bazelon notes, dismissed the Many started missing class in elementary After two terms as DA, Harris ran for idea of legalizing marijuana as recently as school, quickly falling too far behind to state attorney general, winning a close 2014, but now that it’s popular she sup- ever catch up. race against the Republican DA of Los An- ports it. “That seems to be a theme: once Seeing an opening, Harris began send- geles. As attorney general, she went after she’s not in any sort of political risk, and ing notices to the families of chronically big banks and the pharmaceutical indus- there’s a consensus that a reform is a good truant kids. In meetings, her office’s rep- try, for-profit colleges and oil companies. thing, she’s behind it,” Bazelon said. “But resentatives outlined the services that She refused to defend the voter-approved when it’s time to be bold and do the right might help the family, but also reminded Proposition 8 banning gay marriage, pav- thing, she doesn’t.” them that parents whose kids didn’t go to ing the way for the Supreme Court’s 2015 school were committing a crime and could decision legalizing it, and she created a since Her election to the Senate in be subject to fines and arrest. Even some bureau of children’s justice to oversee 2016, Harris has thrilled liberal audi- members of Harris’ own staff considered children’s services. ences with her punishing interrogations her approach overly threatening to strug- But she also backed down from many of Trump Administration officials. She gling families, but Harris blazed ahead. fights, declining to endorse ballot initia- made former Attorney General Jeff Ses- “She said to me, ‘[People] will stop for a tives that would have reformed the three- sions blanch and Supreme Court nomi- stray dog before they will stop for a black strikes law and ended the death pen- nee Brett Kavanaugh squirm. And in May, child alone in the middle of the day,’” re- alty. She even appealed a federal court she deftly filleted the current Attorney 31 General, William Barr, asking him, “Has minutes discussing the need to “speak the the President or anyone at the White truth about all of this,” before finally set- House ever asked or suggested that you tling on a prescription: “To deal with this open an investigation of anyone?” Barr issue,” she said, “we need to collect the was reduced to stuttering. He wouldn’t data and then we need to expose it.” or couldn’t answer. In recent weeks, the By upbringing and orientation, Har- clip has gone viral again as new questions ris seems to have a strong sense of right have arisen about Barr’s involvement in and wrong and a fierce drive to fight in- the President’s political pressuring of for- justice, coupled with virtually no large- eign governments. scale policy instincts. Presented with a Sitting in the office in Los Angeles, problem, she looks for ways to solve it, Harris says she asked that question on a starting with data, guided by few firm prosecutor’s hunch. “It has become clear ideological convictions. “All these grand to me that these are the kinds of questions ideas that academics and so many have you have to ask members of this Adminis- about how you’re going to transform the tration,” she says. “What kind of unethi- world,” she says. “But, you know, pay at- cal requests has this President made of tention to the basics.” you? I knew by instinct and by example Perhaps, in these days of brutal ideo- that it is not beyond him to think that logical combat, that kind of pragmatism America’s justice system is his personal could be sold as refreshing. But in Harris’ apparatus for political gain. He’s made case it seems to be having the opposite ef- that quite clear.” fect. Some of the attendees at her events Now that the process to impeach in Iowa told me they don’t think she’s pro- Trump is under way—something Harris gressive enough; others said she strikes called for, but not until several other can- them as too far left. “She hasn’t gone far didates beat her to it—many liberals fan- enough to get the activists behind her, but tasize about her as the prosecutor of the she’s gone too far for some of the mod- impeachment trial in the Senate. The Har- erates,” says Larry Gerston, a professor ris they see in those hearings is the Harris emeritus of political science at San Jose they crave: sharp, ruthless, oppositional. State University. “So she’s in kind of a no- (Unfortunately for her campaign, ethics person’s-land in terms of having a good rules prevent her from using those clips base.” And yet, polls indicate that Demo- to raise money.) But that’s not the Harris cratic voters still want to like her—if only they get on the campaign trail. Presiden- they can figure out what she’s about. The tial candidate Harris wants to be about race is far from over. Iowa voters are no- unity, about uplift, about bringing people torious for shopping around until the end. together around not a particular agenda On a clear early-fall day, more than 100 but a sense of “who we are.” Campaign- people have come to hear Harris speak ing to fix what keeps people up at night, in a pub in Coralville. “I like Biden, but I she might just cure America’s insomnia by want someone new,” says 71-year-old Jane putting us to sleep with platitudes. Carlson, a retired university worker. “I Various commentators have found don’t want yesterday. I want tomorrow.” Harris elusive, and she can be hard to Harris bounds onto the stage, all pin down on policy positions. Early in her gleaming smiles and upbeat energy. “So, presidential campaign she called for abol- I’m moving here!” she says with a big ishing private health insurance, then took laugh, and then turns serious. “We are at it back, then later released a health care an inflection moment in the history of our plan that would be government- run but country,” she tells the crowd, “a moment allow for both public and private health in time requiring us to look in the mirror insurance. In the first debate, Harris and ask a question, that question being, scored a clean hit on Biden with her at- Who are we?” tack on his opposition to federally man- While Harris is still speaking, a few dated busing in the 1970s, and surged people begin to trickle out the back of in the polls. But in the ensuing days she the venue. Elizabeth Warren is hold- Harris takes a cue from a local couldn’t definitively describe her own po- ing an event a little ways down the road, drill team at the Polk County sition on busing. When I asked her what they tell me, and they don’t want to miss Democrats’ Steak Fry in ought to be done about the ongoing segre- it. —With reporting by Lissandra ViLLa/ Des Moines in September gation of public schools, she spent several WashingTon •

32 Time October 14, 2019 33 A painter works on a Tehran mural of Khamenei, left, and Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini

PHOTOGRAPH BY A. ABBAS World The Resistance Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is one despot Trump might not win over By Karim Sadjadpour World

iran’s PresidenT arrived in new Khamenei, who has confounded tions Trump then imposed have further York City in September and left, as every U.S. President he has faced since debilitated Iran’s economy, sending it to usual, without meeting the American coming to power 30 years ago, harbors 50% inflation. But they seemingly stiff- one. Both Hassan Rouhani and Donald a particular animus for Trump. In June, ened Khamenei’s resolve. “Resistance,” Trump professed an appetite for sitting he told the Prime Minister of Japan, who Khamenei said in a recent speech that down and talking over the ever more had come bearing a message from the included the word 70 times, “unlike sur- treacherous rift between their nations. White House, “I do not consider Trump render, leads to the retreat of the enemy.” But as Rouhani has pointed out in private, as a person worth exchanging any mes- In Trump, Iran has an enemy who does Iran’s top elected official “has no authority sage with.” A detonation on the hull not want to fight. After an Iranian mis- in foreign policy.” That authority—and of a Japanese oil tanker the same day sile shot down that massive U.S. drone in nearly every other strand of power in the might have been an exclamation point. June, Trump at the last minute retracted Islamic Republic—resides with the elderly Perhaps no other foreign leader is his own order for military retaliation. cleric who remained 6,000 miles away, in working harder to put Trump out of of- Two days later, he thanked Iran for not the country he has not left for decades. fice than Khamenei. And perhaps no shooting down a manned flight: “That’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 80 years of other foreign leader differs in more ways. something we really appreciate.” The age, disabled by a saboteur’s bomb blast Trump, thrice married and irreligious, has vacillation seems to have only increased and lit by a righteous certainty, holds the lived a life of opulence and publicity. The Khamenei’s appetite for risk, and on title of Supreme Leader of Iran. But he deeply devout Khamenei has been mar- Sept. 14, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil facility has quietly emerged as the most power- ried for over 55 years, and he openly dis- was crippled by a missile and drone attack. ful person in the Middle East, with uni- dains pomp and materialism. Trump, Iran denied involvement, but the formed military fighting in Syria and loyal operating on impulse, exhibits no orga- game unfolding now is one Khamenei proxies dominant in Lebanon, Yemen nizing principles. Khamenei has shown knows well. For years, he has carefully and (despite a U.S. investment of $1 tril- a lifelong commitment to his: resistance calibrated Iran’s reaction to U.S. pres- lion and thousands of lives) Iraq. Since against “global arrogance”— his moni- sure: an insufficient response might the spring, behind a thin veil of denials, ker for American imperialism—is both project weakness and invite more pres- he has also presided over an audacious ideology and strategic doctrine for the sure. An excessive response, on the other and escalating campaign to raise un- theocracy. When Trump unilaterally hand, could trigger a serious U.S. retali- certainty and global oil prices, shooting withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 deal that ation and risk outright war. It’s a situa- down a $176 million U.S. drone, blowing had significantly curtailed Iran’s nuclear tion made even less predictable by two holes in tankers and bombing the heart program, the move validated Khamenei’s qualities the leaders do share: each har- of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, all with- view of the U.S. as “deceitful, untrust- bors an appetite for conspiracy theories out drawing a U.S. military response. worthy and backstabbing.” The sanc- and a profound sense of victimization.

Being 1 2 Khamenei The life of Iran’s Supreme Leader tracks that of the Islamic Republic he has led for three decades: 1. In 1980, Khamenei visited American hostages inside the captured U.S. embassy 2. Recovering in a Tehran hospital from a 1981 bomb blast that cost him the use of his right hand 3. Portraits of Khamenei and his mentor and predecessor, Khomeini (right), at a Tehran polling place in June

36 Time October 14, 2019 Khamenei is a geriatric cleric ruling ments and mired by internal economic unfailingly loyal to him. They serve to but- over an increasingly secular population malaise and ideological fatigue. But in- tress rather than check his authority. whose median age is 30. Aside from Syria’s stead of marshaling global unity against Khamenei is a reader. He has fre- Bashar Assad, he has no reliable friends in Tehran’s malign activities, Trump aban- quently said Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables the world. And he goes to bed every night doned the nuclear agreement the U.N. re- is the greatest novel ever written, and his and wakes every morning believing that ported Iran had been adhering to. Instagram feed shows him smiling as he the U.S. government is actively trying to To this day, senior U.S. government of- reads a Persian translation of Fire and overthrow him. This paranoia— frequently ficials confuse Khamenei with his char- Fury, Michael Wolff’s unflattering ac- reflected in official state media, which ismatic predecessor: Grand Ayatollah count of Trump’s first year in office. And Khamenei controls—is also driven by po- Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the though it’s unknown whether he’s read litical expediency. Mohammed Khatami, Islamic Republic. Although Khomeini The Prince, he displays a Machiavellian the reformist cleric who was Iran’s Pres- died 30 years ago, his sinister daily pres- genius in manipulating what Iranians call ident for two terms (1997–2005), told ence on American TV sets through the “the system.” Khamenei’s slyest feat: as- me in a private meeting in Oslo in 2008 444-day hostage crisis left a lasting im- suring that he has power without account- that when he was in office Khamenei pression. “These economic sanctions are ability, while Iran’s elected Presidents used to tell him that Iran “needs enmity just a part of the U.S. government’s total have accountability without power. with the United States. The revolution effort to change the behavior of the Aya- Iran makes a great show of its highly needs enmity with the United States.” tollah Khomeini,” Secretary of State Mike manipulated presidential elections, and Despite its distance and a military bud- Pompeo said in a November 2018 briefing. their importance to the public became get less than 3% of that of the U.S., Iran “The assets of Ayatollah Khomeini and his clear when the 2009 ballot was stolen. has loomed large in American domestic office,” President Trump followed up in Millions took to the streets in what be- politics. The Iran hostage crisis ended June 2019, “will not be spared from the came known as the Green Movement, bru- Jimmy Carter’s presidency; Iran-contra sanctions.” tally quashed by the leader’s internal mi- tainted Ronald Reagan’s presidency; Ira- The confusion—like so much the U.S. litia, the Basij. Marring the ballot was a nian machinations in post-Saddam Iraq does—may serve Khamenei. He prefers to dangerous miscalculation by Khamenei, exhausted George W. Bush’s presidency. obscure his vast power behind the Islamic and perhaps an unnecessary one. No mat- And the Iran nuclear program and nego- Republic’s byzantine array of institutions. ter the challenge brought by a President— tiations engrossed the Obama presidency. The Assembly of Experts, Guardian Coun- the economic challenge of Hashemi Raf- Trump inherited from Obama an Iran cil, Expediency Council and Revolution- sanjani (1989–1997), the democratic that resembled the late-stage USSR, pow- ary Guards evoke a Game of Thrones–style challenge of Khatami, the populist chal- erful beyond its borders but hemorrhag- drama. But in reality they are all led by lenge of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005– ing billions of dollars in foreign entangle- individuals handpicked by Khamenei or 2013) or the pragmatic one of Rouhani

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(2013–present)—Khamenei emasculated each. In more than two decades research- ing Iran, both in Tehran and the U.S., I have learned the most important indicator of the regime’s behavior is in the speeches of the Supreme Leader.

Khamenei projects a life of piety and service. He hasn’t left the nation since 1989 and, apart from a small, trusted coterie of advisers, is largely inaccessible. His modest official residence in working- class central Tehran is hidden from the public, and his clothing usually consists of dull robes and cheap slippers. Visitors to Khamenei’s abode curry favor with him by publicly recounting its simple decor and plain dinner menu, often bread, cheese and eggs. Among his two daughters and four sons (all of whom became clerics) only one, Mojtaba, has a public profile. And in contrast to Arab first ladies whose spendthrift ways have fueled popular anger, Mrs. Khamenei has never been seen in photographs. Still, the facade was pierced by a 2013 Reuters investigative report that revealed Khamenei controls a $95 billion financial conglomerate, which he uses as he wishes. The conglomerate was built on the seizure of property of Ira- nians, many of them religious minorities, and holds stakes in sectors as diverse as oil, telecommunications, the production of birth control pills and ostrich farming. But if Khamenei controls more bil- lions than Trump ever claimed to, his or- igin story is both humbler and bloodier. The second of eight children born to a Shiʻite cleric father in the shrine city of Mashhad, Khamenei has often romanti- cized his deprived but devout upbring- ^ ing, saying he frequently ate “bread and tensions of Iran’s ruling monarch, Shah Khamenei and Qasem Soleimani flank raisins” for dinner. He was enrolled in Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, gained him a Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr at a religious education by age 5 and recalls loyal following among deeply traditional Tehran mourning ceremony on Sept. 10 entering “the arena of jihad” as a teen- seminary students. When the Shah exiled ager, inspired by a radical Shiʻite cleric Khomeini in 1963, Khamenei remained agitations by the Shah’s secret police complicit in the assassination of several in Iran disseminating his mentor’s un- (SAVAK) and endured torture and solitary prominent Iranian secular intellectuals orthodox teachings about Islamic gov- confinement. Those who know Khamenei LEADER/AP SUPREME IRANIAN THE OF OFFICE and government officials in the 1950s. ernment. Because that theocratic doc- personally have speculated that the roots While studying in Qom—the Shiʻite trine cast the West as a foil to the virtue of his hatred toward Israel and the U.S. Vatican—in his early 20s, Khamenei of fundamentalist Islam, it made common go back to this period, since SAVAK was came under the tutelage of Khomeini, cause with Iran’s anti-imperialist liberal widely believed to have received assis- who became his lifelong mentor. intelligentsia, who resented American tance from the CIA and Mossad. At the time, Khomeini was largely meddling in Iran. Traumas in Khamenei’s When Grand Ayatollah Khomeini re- unknown in Iran, but his opposition to personal history also shape his worldview. turned in triumph in 1979, having over- the social reforms—particularly wom- While working underground, he was re- thrown the Shah, his disciple was cata- en’s enfranchisement—and modern pre- peatedly arrested for his antigovernment pulted from anonymity. Khamenei was

38 Time October 14, 2019 The cultlike Marxist-Islamist orga- Tehran wields the most influence— Syria, nization that was blamed for the bomb, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen—are engulfed the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, now promotes in civil strife and ruled by weak, embat- regime change from exile. It has mini- tled central governments. mal support but deep pockets and has At the same time, Iran is the only na- together paid Trump associates John tion in the world simultaneously fighting Bolton and Rudy Giuliani hundreds of three cold wars—with Israel, Saudi Ara- thousands of dollars in speaking fees. bia and the U.S. Khamenei manages those conflicts with two crucial tools: Qasem Khamenei became an Ayatollah by Soleimani, the charismatic commander of shortcut. When Khomeini died in 1989, IRGC operations abroad, is Khamenei’s shortly after agreeing to a cease-fire to end sword. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, in the brutal eight-year war with Iraq, there contrast, is his shield, deflecting West- was no clear successor. Then speaker of ern economic and political pressure. the parliament Rafsanjani claimed that Soleimani deals with foreign armies, Zarif Khomeini’s dying wish was for Khamenei with foreign ministries. to succeed him, and made it happen. “I am And the 80 million Iranians? Khamenei an individual with many faults and short- has shown himself willing to subject them comings,” Khamenei said in his inaugural to indefinite economic hardship rather speech, “and truly a minor seminarian.” In than hold his nose, swallow his pride and the demanding hierarchy of Shiʻite Islam, do a deal with the U.S. His insensitivity— he had the clerical equivalent of a master’s his own brother, a reformist cleric, was degree (hojjat al-Eslam). once beaten by a hard-liner mob—has He was made an Ayatollah overnight, allowed Khamenei to play a weak hand but, lacking the respect of the seminary, strongly. Trump, hypersensitive to his instead sought the legitimacy of the bar- domestic political fortunes, has played a racks. Khamenei cultivated the Islamic strong hand weakly. Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), se- Trump’s warm interactions with lecting its top cadres, and shuffling them North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un are every several years to prevent them from understood by Tehran as evidence that establishing independent power bases. pageantry and flattery are higher prior- The checkered IRGC scarf Khamenei ities for the U.S. President than nuclear wears around his neck signals a sym- nonproliferation and human rights. Yet biotic relationship: politically expedient Khamenei is too proud, and dogmatic, to for Khamenei and financially expedient flatter Trump. If Tehran ever does come for the Guards, who have become a domi- to the table, another difference pre- nant economic force in the theocracy they sents new obstacles. Trump prefers pub- defend. Between banking, construction, lic spectacles about broad topics, while smuggling and other nebulous enter- Khamenei favors covert discussions on prises, the IRGC, one study estimates, narrow ones. now accounts for one-third of the Ira- But then Trump faces re-election in 13 nian economy. months. Khamenei serves for life. Once delivering a speech on June 27, 1981, in Iran, which is publicly edging toward again, no successor is in sight. But the a Tehran mosque, when a bomb hidden resuming its nuclear program, will likely shape the Islamic Republic has assumed in a tape recorder exploded. Accord- always want to be a screwdriver turn on his watch, morphing from a clerical au- ing to his official website, “The right away from having atomic weapons. But tocracy into a military autocracy, suggests side of his body was full of shrapnel and for now it has been doing well without the IRGC will play a much more overt role pieces of radio.” Khamenei’s right hand them. Khamenei is likely the only leader in Iran’s politics, on the lines of Pakistan’s was no longer functional. “I won’t need in today’s Middle East who can inspire or Egypt’s militaries. the hand,” he claims to have replied. “It people, many of whom are not even Ira- For now, however, the current game would suffice if my brain and tongue nian citizens, to go out and kill—and po- of chicken between the U.S. and Iran re- work.” Since then he has been forced to tentially die—for him. It’s a major reason mains a test of wills between two proud, do everything, include write, with his Iran’s regional proxies have consistently elderly men. The consequences of their left hand. An Islamic Republic political outmatched their opponents, as the Is- actions will long outlive both. insider once told me Khamenei’s con- lamic Republic moved to exploit the op- tempt for his opponents is refreshed portunities created by the U.S. in Iraq and Sadjadpour is a senior follow at the every morning “when he struggles to the power vacuums created by the Arab Carnegie Endowment for International wash his ass with one hand.” uprisings. The Arab countries in which Peace 39 Health

FRONTIERSTHE OF MEDICINE OVERLOOKED BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN SPENT ON BREAST-CANCER RESEARCH. BUT WOMEN WITH METASTATIC FORMS OF THE DISEASE HAVE RARELY BEEN THE FOCUS BY KATE PICKERT

Lianne Kraemer had been Living with metastatic breast cancer for more than a year when I met her in December 2017 at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Anto- nio. Throughout the week, more than 7,000 doctors, scientists and pharmaceutical-company representatives would descend on the city for the country’s most important breast-cancer con- ference. Inside the main exhibition hall, it seemed that every major pharmaceutical company was putting on its best come- hither show. A pair of young, lithe dancers whipped flowing fabric through the air at a booth for the drug Faslodex, a new injectable from AstraZeneca used to treat women with estrogen- fueled advanced breast cancer. Novartis had free cupcakes. Tes- aro, a company developing new drugs for BRCA- linked breast cancer, had Nutella-branded ice cream cones. Espresso was available at Eli Lilly, and Pfizer had put out small cups of fro- zen yogurt. Medtronic, a medical- device company, had breasts of raw chicken at its booth so surgeons could test the Plasma- Blade, its new soft-tissue- dissection knife. Although I had worked as a health-care journalist for nearly a decade, I had never attended this particular conference. I was there to report on the latest scientific advances in breast cancer, but I was also an interested party. Three years earlier, at the age of 35, I had been diagnosed with breast cancer and begun what would be more than a year of treatment. My cancer responded Kraemer was 39 well to the chemotherapy and targeted drug therapy my doctors when she found out prescribed, and I was, according to the evidence, cancer-free. her breast cancer I was grateful, but I wanted to learn more about women with had spread and metastatic disease whose breast cancer had managed to carry formed tumors on despite treatment and spread to other parts of their bodies. inside her brain

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID KASNIC FOR TIME

Health

Kraemer, a smiling, energetic woman with dark doctors believe they may have micrometastases— brown hair and eyes, sat at a table in the back of cancer growths outside the breast that are too small the hall. There was no complimentary coffee or to appear on scans. But sometimes breast cancer that ice cream, just brochures stacked in neat rows and a is treated will later metastasize into larger tumors small sign that said metavivOr. Founded in 2009, around the body, somehow managing to survive the METAvivor is a nonprofit organization run by and initial treatment. Women who declare themselves advocating for metastatic- breast-cancer patients. In cancer-free have no way of knowing if they really are. recent years, the group and others like it have tried Sometimes breast cancer continues to grow during to turn public attention—often focused on feel-good treatment. Other times, breast-cancer cells remain “survivor” stories—to the more than 160,000 women alive and go dormant but then begin multiplying in America living with metastatic breast cancer. Hav- years or even decades later. ing a presence at major conferences is part of a strat- Often, though not always, newly diagnosed breast- egy to increase research funding for metastatic dis- cancer patients get abdominal scans, but they almost ease and raise awareness that for all the strides made never have brain scans unless a symptom appears. in treatment, some 40,000 American women still die (About a year after I finished treatment, I had a debil- from breast cancer every year. itating two-day headache and my oncologist recom- Despite the billions of dollars collected and mended I get a brain MRI, which turned up nothing. I spent on breast-cancer research over the past half- was diagnosed with a migraine.) Even if Kraemer had century, relatively little has been devoted to study- ‘I BELIEVED had a brain scan when she was diagnosed, it’s pos- ing metastatic-breast-cancer patients or their partic- sible the tumors inside her skull were so small that ular forms of the disease. Doctors do not know why THE they would have been invisible on an MRI. some breast cancers eventually form deadly metas- NARRATIVE When we first spoke by phone a few months after tases or how to quash the disease once it has spread. we met in San Antonio, it was clear that Kraemer had Patients with metastatic disease are typically treated THAT IS thought through every possible diagnostic scenario. with one drug after another, their doctors switch- Could her doctors have done more? Did the month ing the medications whenever the disease stops re- PUSHED ON that passed between the time she found a lump in her sponding to treatment. Eventually, nearly all patients WOMEN, THAT breast and her diagnosis make a difference? Kraemer with breast- cancer metastases run out of options and had complications with her double mastectomy that die, although in recent years, many have been living IF YOU CHECK delayed the start of her chemotherapy. Did this give longer. Of the four metastatic-breast- cancer patients the cancer time to spread to her brain? She will never who founded METAvivor in 2009, three have died, YOUR BREASTS know, but she believes that most likely, her meta- but one is still alive, 13 years after discovering that AND IF YOU static breast cancer could not have been prevented. her disease had spread. “You can do everything right and still end up met- Diagnosed with estrogen-receptor- positive breast CATCH IT astatic,” Kraemer said. “I just assumed that could cancer in January 2014 at the age of 37, Kraemer had never be me because I would catch it early, because a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, lymph-node EARLY, I was on top of things. I believed the narrative that removal, radiation and hormone treatment. She YOU’RE FINE.’ is pushed on women, that if you check your breasts emerged from the yearlong ordeal relieved she had —LIANNE KRAEMER and if you catch it early, you’re fine. That surely the acted quickly—she’d felt a lump in her breast and women who are not O.K. must not have gotten good was diagnosed the next month. Then, in June 2016, treatment or must not have caught it when they Kraemer was doing laundry when she felt a tingling should have. I believed what I was told.” in the right side of her lips. The next day, the right side of her gums and tongue started to feel weird Existing brEast-cancEr-trEatmEnt proto- too. “During that day, the crease on my right index cols fail in tens of thousands of women like Lianne finger felt like someone had put a slight rubber band Kraemer every year. In some cases, breast-cancer pa- around it,” Kraemer told me. tients don’t have access to high- quality treatment or Kraemer emailed her oncologist, who recom- they ignore signs of the disease until it’s incurable. mended she get a brain MRI, and she asked her uncle, But more women who die of breast cancer succumb a neurologist, to review the scan. When he broke the to the disease for no other reason than that it man- news that it looked as if her breast cancer had spread ages to outwit the protocols. and formed about a dozen small tumors inside her Pharmaceutical companies and researchers brain, she was stunned. often test new drugs on metastatic patients be- Three-quarters of women with metastatic breast fore anyone else. These are women who are dying cancer were originally diagnosed with early- stage anyway, and they are the ones most willing to be disease. The idea that the breast cancer “came back” part of experiments. But the goal for most drug after initial treatment is a bit misleading. Women development is to treat early-stage patients success- who undergo traditional chemotherapy shortly after fully and eradicate breast cancer before it spreads. an early-stage diagnosis, as I did, do so because their According to Cyrus Ghajar, a cancer biologist at the

42 time October 14, 2019 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, unnerved when I learned that I would not get even 25% to 40% of early-stage breast- cancer patients al- annual scans to look for signs of metastases. Studies ready have cancer cells in their bone marrow, and published in the 1990s showed that detecting me- these patients are, on average, three times more likely tastases through scheduled scans, rather than when than those who don’t to develop other metastases a symptom appears, did not change survival rates, later. It’s impossible to know if a patient has cancer prognosis or quality of life. Scanning every breast- cells in her bone marrow without driving a long needle cancer patient post-treatment would be expensive into a large bone and aspirating marrow from inside. and would undoubtedly lead to unnecessary medi- Ghajar, one of a relatively small number of scientists cal intervention. studying metastatic breast cancer full time, said that, But imaging has gotten much better since the in theory, patients could give consent to have their 1990s, with MRI, positron-emission tomography marrow drawn when they are placed under general (PET) and CT scans able to detect tumors as small anesthesia for lumpectomies or mastectomies. The as a few millimeters. A 2017 study by researchers results could tell doctors which women were more at the National Cancer Institute found that some likely to face a recurrence of their breast cancer and 11% of women under 65 diagnosed with meta- therefore might need more treatment up front. “We static breast cancer live for 10 years or more. The don’t have a way to further stratify people, because year prior, George Sledge, chief of oncology at Stan- we haven’t studied it enough,” Ghajar told me. “We ford, had published a paper in the Journal of On- don’t have enough samples.” cology Practice called “Curing Metastatic Breast Ghajar pointed out that the Cancer Moonshot, Cancer.” In it, he suggested that the existing para- a National Cancer Institute initiative launched by 11% digm around metastatic breast cancer—that it is in- President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe of women under 65 curable and not worth looking for—should be up- Biden, does not explicitly provide funding to ad- with metastatic dated in the face of new science. “If some patients dress the challenges of metastatic cancer. “How can breast cancer survive are cured,” he wrote, “might not we cure more?” you have a moon shot trying to cure cancer and not 10 years or more mention people dying of cancer?” he said. about a month after her diagnosis of metastatic Alana Welm, a molecular biologist, runs a lab breast cancer, Kraemer was going through her be- devoted to studying breast-cancer metastases at 160,000 longings, hoping to save her parents the agony of the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Insti- women in America discarding her possessions after she died, when her tute. One of her research projects compares breast- are living with hands settled on a photograph. It was a picture of a cancer cells from a patient’s original tumor against metastatic smiling couple: Kraemer and an ex- boyfriend, a Ne- cancer cells found elsewhere in the body after the breast cancer braska native named Eric Marintzer. After he had un- disease spreads. The idea is to determine the dif- ceremoniously dumped her more than a decade ear- ferences between the cells to find clues about why lier, Kraemer had thrown out every physical reminder some migrated and how they may then be affected of him. He had given her a waffle iron as a gift, and by microenvironments inside the body. “Think about 75% she had smashed it to bits in an alley. But somehow, how hard this research is,” Welm said. By the time this photograph had survived the reckoning. of women with a woman is diagnosed with metastatic disease, her metastatic breast Like any modern woman, Kraemer picked up original biopsy tissue may no longer be available. In cancer were her iPhone and found Marintzer’s Instagram pro- addition, it’s often hard to get a sample of a meta- originally diagnosed file. She scrolled through images, her thumb mov- static tumor, which may be buried inside the brain with early-stage ing so quickly that she accidentally “liked” one. Pan- or located in a place that is difficult to access safely, disease icked, she threw her phone across the room so hard as opposed to the readily available breast tissue that that the screen shattered. Then she decided to come gets biopsied in early-stage patients. “I sometimes clean. She had just been diagnosed with a terminal wait for years in between to try to get these samples,” disease. What did she have to lose? Welm said. Welm and other researchers encourage Kraemer sent Marintzer a message, saying she metastatic-breast-cancer patients to consider mak- had seen his photographs and accidentally “liked” ing plans to have an autopsy done immediately after one. To her surprise, he wrote back. They started tex- they die so that cells can be harvested, preserved and ting, and eventually he asked her out for drinks. She studied before they degrade. was living in St. Louis but often traveled to Chicago, After I finished my treatment for early-stage dis- where Marintzer lived. Whenever she went, they got ease in February 2016, I did not celebrate. I did not together. It was refreshing to be with someone who feel cured. I felt scared. Although it is unlikely, my didn’t know about her disease. “Everybody in my disease could recur. Some researchers estimate that life was treating me with kid gloves,” Kraemer said. breast cancer recurs in 20% to 30% of patients either After spending New Year’s Eve together, they locally or elsewhere in the body, but the odds vary sig- talked about whether they should officially be a cou- nificantly depending on the specific type of the dis- ple again. “There’s something you need to know,” ease a woman has and her treatment outcome. I was Kraemer said. Marintzer listened and then said her 43 Health

metastatic breast cancer was no reason to change not to define by the fact that Kraemer was battling their plans. Before long, she moved into his condo a disease that would most likely cut her life short. and they picked up where they had left off. Later that day, I asked Kraemer how her disease Women who have breast cancer that has spread affects her everyday life. She said her largest tumor to the brain often die within a year or two of the in her brain had begun to impede her ability to use diagnosis. To shrink the tumors inside Kraemer’s her right hand. She could no longer hold chopsticks brain, one oncologist recommended she undergo or write legibly. She also had frequent migraines what’s known as “whole brain radiation,” an ex- and once burned herself on a hot pan because she treme but common procedure for patients with couldn’t feel that her hand was on it. She said ever multiple brain tumors. Such treatment can cause since her targeted brain radiation, she had had trou- debilitating fatigue and permanent cognitive dam- ble multitasking and struggled to have a conversa- age. Kraemer instead enrolled in a clinical trial tion if music was playing in the background. I asked to test whether a relatively new drug called Ver- if she felt like she was dying. “Yes and no,” she said. zenio could beat back brain tumors in women with She had a loving boyfriend, a tight-knit family and estrogen-receptor- positive metastatic breast can- a good life, but her symptoms were getting worse. “I cer. Kraemer went on the drug, and most of her tu- am in a decline,” she said. mors stayed the same size for eight months, a good Kraemer babysat in high school, worked as a sign. The largest even shrank. The drug also kicked nanny in college and chose a career as a speech Kraemer into chemical menopause, which her on- pathologist for kids. “All I wanted to do was be a cologist thought might help cut off the supply of ‘HOW CAN mother,” she told me. After her early-stage diag- estrogen her type of breast cancer was feeding on. YOU HAVE A nosis, Kraemer froze eggs harvested from her ova- But the drug had side effects, including chronic ries, and every three months, she pays to keep them diarrhea that required Kraemer to get IV fluids to MOON SHOT in storage. “I know I’m not going to use them, but prevent dehydration. Her oncologist decreased the I can’t stop paying for them and just throw them dose of the trial drug, which stopped the diarrhea but TRYING TO away,” she said. also the menopause. Soon her tumors began growing CURE CANCER In December 2017, Kraemer had told me that the again. The clinical- trial protocol dictated that Krae- upcoming Christmas holiday would probably be her mer had to stop taking Verzenio—if her cancer was AND NOT last. But in December 2018, she and Marintzer went growing, the drug was not working. But a new on- shopping for a Christmas tree and picked out the big- cologist had a different take. Nancy Lin, a metastatic MENTION gest one they could find. It was so large, they had to specialist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Bos- PEOPLE DYING move most of their furniture out of their living room. ton, speculated that the drug actually was working “We know that the number of Christmases Lianne and that the estrogen produced by Kraemer’s ovaries OF CANCER?’ has are limited,” Marintzer told me. “Let’s do it up.” was canceling out its effects. The problem was that —DR. CYRUS GHAJAR, A scan in January 2019 showed that several of the clinical- trial rules did not allow patients to start cancer biologist at Kraemer’s tumors were growing again. In the months hormone therapy in the middle of the study. “I said, the Fred Hutchinson since, she has been treated with multiple types of ‘I don’t care what I have to sell or do, someone’s going Cancer Research chemotherapy and more specialized radiation. But to get me that damn drug back,’” Kraemer told me. Center in Seattle her symptoms are becoming more pronounced. Krae- Lin lobbied the drugmaker Eli Lilly to allow Krae- mer’s right hand and arm are now mostly useless. Her mer to have Verzenio and begin hormone therapy. right foot and leg are also not working properly, and Miraculously the company agreed to sponsor a new she walks with a noticeable limp. She is weighing trial with just one patient, Kraemer. whether to allow a neurosurgeon to try to excise the The treatment kept Kraemer’s brain tumors stable largest tumor inside her brain. The surgery would for six months. But in January 2018, a scan showed be risky, so Kraemer and Marintzer decided to take they were growing. Still worried about the cognitive one more big vacation. In August, they traveled to the side effects of whole brain radiation, Kraemer began Greek islands and stayed on the cliffs of Santorini. specialized radiation treatment that would hit only “All things considered, I’m really lucky,” Krae- her largest tumor. Her brain tumors remained stable mer, now 43, told me recently. It has been more than for a few months, but eventually they started growing three years since she was diagnosed with metastatic again. Kraemer enrolled in yet another clinical trial, breast cancer in her brain. She has survived longer this one testing whether a drug that has been shown than most women like her, thanks to new drugs, clin- to work against certain types of liver and kidney can- ical trials and creative thinking by her doctors. Krae- cer might help women with metastatic breast cancer. mer is proof that research and science can change the In September 2018, I flew to Chicago to see Krae- fates of metastatic-breast-cancer patients. We just mer. I met her and Marintzer for breakfast the day need more of it. after I arrived and couldn’t help thinking they looked entirely, astonishingly normal, their predicament Excerpted from Radical: The Science, Culture, and hidden inside a relationship they were trying hard History of Breast Cancer in America

44 time October 14, 2019 BREAKING DOWN Breaking Bad is reborn on Netflix in the form of an original movie starring Aaron Paul

INSIDE

A DARK NEW COMEDY FOR FANS THE NEXT CHAPTER OF ANTONIO BANDERAS REACHES OF FLEABAG OLIVE KITTERIDGE NEW HEIGHTS TimeOff Opener

TELEVISION When the finale isn’t final By Judy Berman

he lasT Time we saw Jesse Pinkman, in the series finale T of Breaking Bad, he’d just escaped a massacre. After refusing to put a mortally wounded Wal- ter White (Bryan Cranston) out of his misery—an act that would’ve added one more sin to the long list he’d committed under the influence of the meth king- pin who used to be his high school sci- ence teacher—Jesse (Aaron Paul) drove the nearest El Camino straight through a chain-link fence, hit the road and never looked back. His symbolic shackles bro- ken, he laughed and sobbed, his grizzled face filling the frame. By then, he was a traumatized, nearly feral mess. But △ with the same wistfulness that colors he was free. The film reunites Jesse with pals our memories of friends with whom Unlike Walt’s inevitable death, Badger (Matt L. Jones, left) and we’ve lost touch. Film franchises based Jesse’s ending was morally ambiguous: Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) on decades-old series with loyal fan manipulated by a man who’d come to bases, from Star Trek to The Muppet represent evil incarnate but still per- boom of TV-to-film adaptations of vary- Show, can still be relied upon to rake sonally implicated in horrific violence, ing quality. For better or worse, these in millions. These new chapters can be Jesse had also suffered terribly for his sequels exist thanks to the devotion of great, but only if they have something to transgressions. Like Dorian Gray’s por- fans—and particularly the lasting bonds offer audiences besides nostalgia. trait, his face registered the blackening we form with characters like Jesse. Deadwood, for instance, had unfin- of Walt’s soul. So it seemed appropri- ished business. HBO canceled the bril- ate that Jesse’s fate remained unsettled. ObviOusly, El Camino and the rest of liant western in 2006 between seasons, Sure, he made it out of five seasons this year’s many feature-length addenda before creator David Milch could wrap alive. Surviving much longer, how- to popular shows—Deadwood: The up a series-long arc driven by power, ever, would be a test of his intelligence, Movie, Transparent: Musicale Finale, progress and greed. It took so long to resourcefulness and—most of all—his Downton Abbey, even Rocko’s Modern get this year’s culminating made-for-TV determination to live a bet- Life: Static Cling—are in- movie made that Milch ended up set- ter life. separable from the larger, ting it a decade after the events of the Six years later, Break- There’s more established trend of series finale, as older, more settled char- ing Bad creator Vince Gil- a unique squeezing every possible acters reunited to celebrate South Dako- ligan is back with the re- potency to the cent out of existing intel- ta’s statehood. The film left a few of the

sults. And for fans like me, connections lectual properties. Stories drama’s best characters, like widowed IMAGES GETTY PAUL: NETFLIX; PAGE: THIS AND PAGE PREVIOUS there’s something strangely viewers don’t end anymore. Cin- financier Alma Garret (Molly Parker), urgent about that update. form with ematic universes actually with little to do. Yet new historical per- Jesse was the show’s audi- TV characters do feel infinite. Forget the spective and a poignant resolution for ence surrogate, the tortured Disney–Marvel–Star Wars Deadwood’s greatest creation—Ian Mc- conscience of a criminal machine; even Margaret Shane’s Shakespearean saloon owner Al demimonde populated by milquetoast Atwood’s literary classic The Hand- Swearengen—made the ride back into psychos (Walt, Todd, Gus Fring) and maid’s Tale has a sequel now. town worthwhile. sad, irredeemably compromised men Yet there’s a unique potency to audi- Spun off from shows that aired for like Saul Goodman and Mike Ehrman- ences’ connections with characters on long enough to start repeating them- traut. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, TV, which at its best combines the viv- selves, the Downton Abbey and Trans- which comes to Netflix and some the- idness of movies, the intimacy of books parent movies had less reason to exist. aters on Oct. 11, offers Jesse a chance and the seriality of comics. Sometimes The former, a glossy gown-fest con- to start over. It’s the latest in a recent we remember these fictional people trived around the Crawleys hosting the

46 Time October 14, 2019 THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND HER WORLD, king and queen that arrived in theaters QUICK TALK last month, goes down easily enough, Aaron Paul THE MORE as long as you have a high tolerance for monarchist propaganda. But does In the midst of shooting Westworld, POSSIBILITIES Lady Mary’s (Michelle Dockery) com- Aaron Paul took a break to talk about mitment to preserving the estate really El Camino and returning to the role YOU SEE. need to be tested again? (Many viewers that earned him three Emmy Awards thought yes: the film grossed a surpris- ing $31 million in its opening weekend.) How has your relationship with The self- indulgent straight-to-Amazon Jesse Pinkman changed over the Transparent musical was too quirky and years? In the first couple seasons, niche to be a cash grab; it’s likelier that I tried to stay within that skin. But it was a well- intentioned but artistically [co-star] Bryan [Cranston] taught bankrupt effort to move on without dis- me that it’s O.K. to wash the makeup graced former star Jeffrey Tambor. off at the end of the day and just be yourself. It was a bit of a struggle for It seems relevant that these films all of us—it was an emotional toll. are sequels to shows that debuted be- Playing Jesse was like revisiting an fore Netflix started spewing out hun- old friend. dreds of originals each year. They sat- isfy our nostalgia for the monoculture Did you yourself ever fantasize of appointment TV, along with our lin- about what happened to Jesse? gering affections for familiar characters. People ask me that almost on a daily Especially now that we’re all stream- basis. My response is: “I have no idea. ing different things at different times, He’s probably on the run and in hid- there’s community to be found in going ing. His fingerprints were all over that to the cinema to watch Downton in the murder scene.” But I fantasized that company of others who’ve paid to laugh he was just living in the woods some- at the Dowager Countess’s zingers. where, working with his hands again, That goes double for El Camino. creating things with wood. Written and directed by Gilligan, it has an action-thriller scale that more than The ending of Breaking Bad is justifies the theatrical release, elevat- widely beloved. Did you have any ing cinematography and sound design trepidation when creator Vince whose artfulness was unparalleled on Gilligan asked you to star in a TV. (Whatever you do, don’t watch it continuation? Zero. I think any fan on your phone.) The movie joins AMC’s of Vince trusts him. He’s not going Better Call Saul as an expansion of a to do something for no reason. It was Breaking Bad Televisual Universe that is this itch that he just had to scratch— also a moral universe, weighing the soul the one unanswered question that he of each protagonist in turn. In Walt, was living with. Gilligan illustrated how meekness can conceal malice. Saul Goodman The movie picks back up is what happens when a person with Jesse in a raw and trau- with good intentions is incapable matized state. How difficult of following society’s rules. was it to get back into such Going into El Camino, a mind-set? Honestly, Jesse’s soul still hangs in not at all. After I first Find out more at the balance. And unlike read the script, I in- diabolical Walt or self- stantly felt all of ScreenForAutism.org saboteur Saul, we can’t those emotions run- help but worry for him— ning through me. because we can imagine Because I lived this ourselves behind the guy. Everything wheel of that getaway you saw and didn’t car. What choice do we see—I lived through have but to see his story these moments. through to the end?  —ANDREW R. CHOW © 2019 Sesame Workshop. All rights reserved. TimeOff Reviews

For Miri (Haggard), life on the outside is just as perilous as prison

TELEVISION Love Fleabag? Meet Miri By Judy Berman EvEn bEforE it dominatEd thE Miri can’t possibly deserve her mon- Emmys, Fleabag was bound to loom strous reputation. Timid and fragile, large over Showtime’s Back to Life. she radiates the benign dizziness of a Aside from sharing a pair of executive ’90s Lisa Kudrow character— Haggard producers, Harry and Jack Williams, even looks a bit like Kudrow—if that both British imports cast their creator- flaky woman-child were also a recently stars as women who’ve been deemed incarcerated local pariah. Miri trips terminally unlovable. Both have six- over the usual ex-con hurdles: awk- episode seasons built around those ward job interviews, tough reunions, characters’ secrets. They share witty, check-ins with a distracted parole of- concise scripts and defining fascina- ficer (Jo Martin’s Janice). But the show tions with ugly emotions: grief, loneli- is more about the unique nightmare ness, guilt, shame, self-hatred. of being hated and misunderstood by The big difference between Back everyone around you. Miri could eas- to Life protagonist Miri Matteson ily have allowed the ordeal to break (Episodes’ Daisy Haggard, in her her, though in a rare insight Janice ob- writing debut) and Phoebe Waller- serves, “I deal with broken women all Bridge’s indelible Fleabag is the day, and you? You’ve got it all.” grave and public nature of Miri’s Miri is a scapegoat, defined by what predicament. After serving 18 years in others project on her. That’s a difficult prison for a crime she committed as portrait to paint in under three hours a teenager, she returns to the seaside while juggling elements of comedy town where she grew up—a place and crime drama, but Back to Life (pre- where everybody knows everybody, miering Oct. 6) smartly surrounds Miri and most see her homecoming as a with distinctive secondary characters: threat to public safety. her distant mom (Geraldine James),

It takes a while for Haggard and obsessive conservationist dad (Rich- SHOWTIME LIFE: TO BACK co-writer Laura Solon to fill in the ard Durden), a love interest (Adeel backstory. By then, you’re likely to Akhtar) with secrets of his own. What have reached two hard-to- reconcile Fleabag did for one wounded human conclusions: that whatever happened being, this worthy successor does for a must’ve been devastating, and that scarred community.  CHILDHOOD POVERTY CREATES

BOOKS ADULT POVERTY Aging with Olive CREATES By Annabel Gutterman CHILDHOOD POVERTY morE than 10 yEars havE passEd And none are more devastating than CREATES... since Elizabeth Strout introduced the ones Olive reckons with herself. the world to retired teacher Olive Growing older can be tough, but Kitteridge, a character who is at once growing old is much harder. Aging and frank, frightening and full of wisdom, the anxieties that surround it plague often in a single breath. Now, Strout Olive, who was widowed at the end brings her beloved protagonist back of the first novel, especially as she at- in Olive, Again, a follow- tempts to reconnect with up to her Pulitzer Prize– her adult son Christopher. winning 2008 novel-in- Growing older Their interactions are stories. The new book can be tough, achingly rushed, empha- is a nostalgic return to but growing sizing a sense that their Crosby, Maine, where old is much time together is limited. Olive continues to poke harder Tension only rises when around in the lives of her Chris discovers that Olive fellow townspeople. has found love again. The 13 interlinked stories in While Strout fills her protagonist’s Olive, Again embrace both new and life with exchanges and interactions, familiar characters navigating the she underlines a poignant sense of dis- struggles that arise in everyday life. appointment. As Olive is forced to re- Olive finagles her way into each flect on the meaning of her life in old chapter with her distinct, outsize age, she’s overwhelmed by a sense of presence— whether she’s a central loneliness—a symptom of living that is player in the action (as when perhaps the most crushing of all.  she unexpectedly delivers a baby) or a scene- stealing side character (grumpily Worldwide, millions of children ordering doughnuts at the live in extreme poverty. At local shop). ChildFund International, we None of the scenarios are committed to breaking this is particularly novel: a harmful cycle. In 25 countries, we are fighting poverty and mother facing a medical improving the lives of 11.4 million crisis fears for her family’s children and their families. Our future. Adult brothers re- programs support early childhood alize the sacrifices they’ve development, children’s health made in marrying very dif- and education, and help ferent women, who draw strengthen families’ economic them apart. An estranged security and self-sufficiency. couple comes closer to- gether after their daugh- Learn more at childfund.org ter makes a surprising announcement. But the stories are rendered in such delicate turns that Strout is again able to portray the subtle heart- breaks that punctuate the mundanities of life. TODAY’S CHILDHOOD POVERTY Olive, Again is Strout’s seventh novel MUST NOT BECOME TOMORROW’S. TimeOff Reviews

MOVIES Banderas, alive with color By Stephanie Zacharek

Pedro AlmodóvAr’s world hAs AlwAys been one of color. He’ll ask his actors to perform the most delicately complex scenes in front of wildly pat- terned wallpaper. The furnishings in his characters’ apartments are like visual music: hanging lamps in tangerine and turquoise, vases of van Gogh–hued flowers, couches whose fabric channels the upbeat mood of a tiki bar. He orchestrates the outdoors too, by making judicious use of a mosaic wall, a brightly painted door, trees that have been saving up all their chlorophyll just for him. Color is everywhere in Almodóvar’s astonishing and deeply moving Pain and Glory. But a brilliant △ grew up with Almodóvar: in the 1980s, nutso, filmmaker can always make you see the world in a Banderas gives glorious melodramatic visions like Women on the new way, and the colors of Pain and Glory are like possibly the best Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Matador (both a newly discovered dialect in a familiar language. performance of featuring a very young Banderas, who, like Cruz, Antonio Banderas plays Salvador Mallo, a success- his career has long been an Almodóvar regular) were like ful filmmaker in his 60s living in Madrid (and ob- nothing we’d ever seen. But as out-there as they viously a fictional stand-in for Almodóvar himself). were, they also rang with generosity. Almodóvar Salvador suffers from a list of aches, pains and ail- has always been attuned to women’s experience, ments as long as those reams of tiny print on the certainly, but also to drag queens and all manner folded-up paper that comes tucked into an aspirin of people who might have reason to feel like mis- bottle: digestive issues, migraines, anxiety and, fits. He was reckoning with trans identity long be- worst of all, debilitating back pain. He has plenty fore most of us were thinking about it— Almodóvar of money, but he hasn’t made a film in ages and made a place for everyone. may never make one again. He runs into an aging So to see Almodóvar-as-Salvador suffering in actress from his past, who asks him what he’ll do this way is acutely painful—yet this movie is hardly if he stops making movies. “Live, I guess,” he re- joyless. In its most beautiful scenes, Salvador sponds, but if the words sound positive enough, spends time with his mother (Julieta Serrano), now his eyes tell the real story: they’re weary, like a aged, teasing her gently even after she’s spoken crumpled tissue. somewhat sharply to him. Frail but still peppery, But a series of reconnections and recollections she sits in a chair in the bedroom he’s prepared for gradually bring Salvador back to life. A long-lost her—it’s covered in a bright purple print, a faux love, Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), re-emerges flower garden unto itself. In a box of old things, as if from the ether. Salvador reflects on his deeper A radiant she comes across an old-fashioned wooden darn- past too, particularly his precocious childhood in Cruz plays a ing egg. Salvador’s face lights up—he remembers a small Spanish village: he thinks of the teenage filmmaker’s watching her use it—and when she hands it to him, construction worker (César Vicente) who used to mother, and a his hand curls around it like the treasure it is. come to his family’s house, who ignited the first memory There’s color all around them in the room, and spark of erotic desire in him as a youngster. But his ▽ in their life together. Almodóvar’s colors— most tender memories are reserved for his capa- as brought to life here by his production ble, affectionate mother, played by Penélope Cruz. designer Antxón Gómez, and as cap- Radiant and vital, she looks barely older than she tured by his frequent cinematogra- did in Almodóvar’s 1999 All About My Mother. pher José Luis Alcaine—aren’t just a

stimulant but an energy source, like (2) CLASSICS PICTURES SONY Not all of Pain and Glory is strictly auto- sugar: they get the eyes busy and keep them biographical. But Banderas’ performance—maybe working, in turn heating up the brain’s fur- the finest he’s ever given—is so fine-grained in nace, and before long, the heart starts pumping its attentiveness to every nuance of physical and harder too. Everything about Pain and Glory psychic suffering that you can’t help thinking Al- is awake and alive, and Almodóvar’s nerve modóvar is speaking through him. Some of us endings become ours as well. 

50 Time October 14, 2019 THEATER Making it up, on Broadway By Rob LeDonne

when lin-mAnuel mirAndA wAs in reheArs- als for his breakout theatrical production In the Heights, he—along with his cast and crew—would break up the grueling schedule by sneaking off and improvising, spitting bits of rhymes and jokes. “We did it as a fun way to blow off steam,” Miranda says. His colleague Anthony Veneziale, who had an extensive improv background, suggested they per- form it in front of people. So they did, in a show they called Freestyle Love Supreme, borrowing its name from John Coltrane’s 1965 album A Love Supreme, and billed as a hip- hop improv show. Miranda and his cohorts first performed it in the cramped basement of the temporarily closed theater-district location of New York City staple Drama Book Shop in 2003, basing the show on audience suggestions and making up the rest on the spot. Starting Oct. 2, the show will make its official Broadway debut at the Booth Theatre. “This was not a show that would, in our wildest dreams, play Broadway,” says Miranda. “I △ while still allowing it to stay loose. “There’s a could show you footage of us with flyers, busking The cast liberation in doing something like this,” he says. and making up raps and begging people to come of Freestyle “Unlike anything we’ve ever done, it takes this to the show. We’ve come very far—and at the same Love Supreme strange skill set we have and celebrates it.” takes the stage time, it’s also been five blocks.” without a script That the show is on Broadway at all is a testa- the 16-week Broadway ruN features a ment to the power of Miranda’s brand. Following rotating group of freestylers—among them the success of In the Heights, the writer-director- Miranda and Veneziale as well as Chris Sullivan, performer won universal acclaim for his show a beatboxer known as Shockwave and longtime Hamilton, which has led to an eclectic career: he’s member Utkarsh Ambudkar. Though Miranda’s behind an upcoming remake of The Little Mer- calendar is jam-packed, it’s a priority for him maid, a big-screen take on In the Heights and a to work in this way, without the restraints of movie version of Jonathan Larson’s play Tick, scripted projects. “We do it for the joy of doing Tick ... Boom!, which he’ll direct—plus he’ll star in it,” he says, “and for the freedom that comes with an adaptation of the fantasy novel series His Dark getting onstage without a plan and connecting Materials, which premieres on Nov. 4 on HBO. Yet with an audience in the most visceral way the joys of Freestyle Love Supreme continued to possible: ‘Tell us what’s on your mind, and we’re ricochet around his creative psyche. “It never went going to make a show for you.’” away,” he says. “It was always this supporting exer- Though that may sound intimidating— standing cise that made all other things possible.” in front of that many people onstage without a Dusting off the show for Broadway was a way plan— Veneziale says it gets more natural after de- for Miranda to honor his creative past while cades of practice. “It comes from a subliminal part helping push into the future. Improv is an art form of your subconscious, so you’re able to trust your mainly relegated to tiny stages, rarely performed abilities,” he says. “When you freestyle enough, at this scale. “We tried to do research into improv you start dreaming in freestyle.” Miranda agrees, on Broadway,” says Veneziale, “and only came noting that the ability to improvise rhymed verses up with one or two things that fall vaguely into now comes as organically to him as speaking an- the realm of it. It feels pretty singular.” Director other language. “A lot of my life is pretty sched- Thomas Kail, a longtime Miranda collaborator uled,” he says. “I’m juggling two kids, a marriage who also directed Hamilton and In the Heights, and a lot of projects. When I get to do a freestyle

MATTHEW MURPHY worked to give the show some basic structure show, I don’t think of any of that.”  51 10 Questions

Bob Iger The Disney CEO on consequential fun, firing humanely and what he learned from scraping chewing gum off desks

here are many business- are times in my life where I failed. The leadership books; what does impact on my marriage wasn’t really T The Ride of a Lifetime offer from work ethic as much as pursuing that’s new? Because I’m in the business opportunity. When people gave me of storytelling, and I had some good opportunities, I seized them. I didn’t stories to tell, I thought I could write purposely put my marriage on the line, a book of stories that could convey but as a result, I made it difficult on my advice to young people in a less dry, less marriage. At least my last one, not my businesslike way. current one. You write that your hardest day was I WAKE UP Risk-taking is a key leadership prin- when an alligator killed 2-year-old HAPPY,‘ WHICH ciple in the book. Yet one criticism Lane Graves at a Disney park while that people level at Disney is that all you were opening a new park in BASICALLY its sequels and superhero movies Shanghai. What lesson did you learn MAKES IT feel iterative and not risky creatively. from that? That even though you’re in a VERY, VERY How would you address that? I can business that is essentially manufactur- name numerous risks that we’ve taken, ing fun, it doesn’t mean that every day is DIFFICULT TO just in the last few years: Black Panther, going to be a happy day. LIVE WITH ME Coco and a number of movies that are ’ coming up. I find that criticism to be You also write that you took your unfounded and preposterous. father, who struggled with mental health and financial issues, to One of the toughest parts of manage- dinner, and you told him that in your ment is firing people. How do you do eyes, he’d been a success. How did that in a humane fashion? You start he respond? He did not express his with never really wanting to. When I understanding of it or his appreciation have to, I try to be empathetic. I try to in words, but I could see that my words be to the point. I try to be transparent, had meaning to him. meaning not to make excuses. I try to be generous in terms of explaining the rea- You have a legendary work ethic. Is sons why, and I try to do so quickly. that partly biology? Could all people develop that? I think it’s a combination Do you have any plans for after 2021, of biology, necessity and just practice. when you retire? Nope. I’m looking forward to waking up and not having a So we all have to scrape the chewing to-do list a mile long. gum off a thousand desks, as you did one summer? That just taught me You’ve put your whole life, essentially, how to tolerate monotony. Anybody into a theme-park company. Do you who’s ever been in my life knows that I ever think: Is that enough? Here’s what wake up happy, which basically makes I think. There’s never been a time when it very, very difficult to live with me. art and entertainment are as important Once I learned how to use that energy as today. I think people are desperate and enthusiasm to my advantage, it for it, and I think that our place in the IMAGES RODRIGUEZ—GETTY E. ALBERTO reinforced the whole dynamic and I world is both important and something probably applied myself even more. that I’m extremely proud of, to be in this business at this company at this point, Is there any downside to that work at this time in the world. I don’t look at ethic? You write of not wanting it to what we do as frivolous. I don’t look at cost you another marriage. I think what we do as small. I don’t look at what lives need balance—for you and for we do as inconsequential. the people around you. I’m sure there —Belinda luscomBe

52 Time October 14, 2019 It’s time to take a stand for homeless pets. It’s time to adopt change. Every day, more than 4,100 dogs and cats are killed in shelters across the country — but with Best Friends Animal Society leading the way, and your support, we can help our nation’s shelters and Save Them All. save-them-all.org