Table of contents for July 28, 2025 in TIME Magazine

The minerals found in an electric-car battery often travel thousands of miles around the world before the vehicles they will be in hit the road. Lithium mined in Chile or Argentina is shipped to China—where three-quarters of the world’s electric-vehicle (EV) batteries are currently made. The sea journey emits considerable amounts of CO2 in the process. Yet, electrifying the transportation sector—which accounts for more than a third of global CO2 emissions—is key for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Putting more EVs on the roads and renewable energy in our grids will require more minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt to power the batteries they rely on. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), lithium demand has risen threefold since 2020 and is expected to triple again over the next…

Some foods simply radiate star power. Apples and Bananas? They’ve got their own song. Blueberries, spinach, and salmon? These so-called superfoods basically come with capes. But the obvious choices aren’t the only ones—and they’re not even necessarily the best. “People tend to fall into certain patterns. We’re creatures of habit,” says registered dietitian Mindy Haar, assistant dean at New York Institute of Technology’s School of Health Professions. “But from a nutritional point of view, by varying your diet, you’re going to get ahead.” In addition to exposing yourself to nutrients you might not be getting from the same old foods, switching up your standard fare can also be a delightful surprise for your taste buds. We asked dietitians to reveal their favorite underrated healthy foods, plus ideas on how to…

KAI CENAT @kaicenat BY ANDREW R. CHOW / AKRON, OHIO, AND ATLANTA Kai Cenat is whipping a golf cart across the University of Akron campus on Memorial Day weekend, furiously honking his horn, gaining ground on a trio of students who have cut class and are fleeing his wrath. Within seconds, he’s cornered them and shakes a fistful of keys in their faces. “My office, lunchtime,” he spits. Over the next few days, Cenat will roam around campus corralling other troublemakers, mediating disputes, fixing tech issues, and delivering supplies. None of this is real, per se. Every day, Cenat wakes up and creates his own reality. He has no real authority over these “students,” who are actually among his best friends. This is Streamer University, a four-day content-creator fantasy come…

TIME’s Andrew R. Chow spoke to the MIT Media Lab researcher who measured the widely varying brain activity of people writing SAT essays in a new study. A third used ChatGPT, a third used Google search, and a third worked on their own. See the interview at time.com/chatgpt-study Best Podcasts TIME’s list of the 100 all-time best podcasts is a resource for a summer road trip. Home Cooking offers food for thought, and for narrative on a hot-button social issue, there’s Nice White Parents from the makers of Serial. See the full list at time.com/podcasts In the Loop A new TIME newsletter offers a deep dive into the unfolding AI revolution, spotlighting the stories and personalities shaping our new digital age. Read an excerpt on page 23 and sign up…

Thomasville regional medical center was supposed to be a game changer. Situated in the U.S. congressional district with the worst health outcomes in the country, the hospital opened in 2020 with state-of-the art equipment, including a 3D mammogram and an MRI scanner. But it closed less than five years later in September 2024. The hospital now stands empty: its pristine hallways dark, its expensive machines gathering dust. “It’s almost like the apocalypse happened,” says Thomasville’s Mayor Sheldon Day, who worked for almost a decade to get a hospital to open there. This apocalypse is happening throughout the country. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed in the past decade, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform (CHQPR), a national policy center that works to improve health care…

The world’s economic capital stands to have a democratic socialist at the helm. No. That is not some AI hallucination. That really happened in New York City’s June 24 mayoral primary when 33-year-old state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani from Queens prevailed over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in a seismic moment that signals how much of an insurgent posture Democrats are in at the moment. Mamdani, who became an avatar for the political movement led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, would be the first Muslim to lead New York. He cast himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare” and a progressive champion poised to lead a deeply resourced grand experiment. As party leaders fret about whether Kamala Harris lost for being seen as too “woke” on various issues, the coastal…

The questions remaining over the damage to Iran’s nuclear program include the fate of almost 900 lb. of highly enriched uranium, enough to make nine bombs. But we know that stockpile was accumulated after Donald Trump scrapped an agreement that had sidelined Iran’s program, a pact that Tehran had been honoring. Trump’s failed diplomacy got us into this mess. Ten years ago, I was part of the U.S. team negotiating a deal to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Those negotiations culminated in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was Trump’s decision in 2018 to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal that ultimately led to the perilous new situation in the Middle East. The JCPOA was the result of a sustained campaign of principled, effective U.S.…

How do you measure the worth of a filmmaker’s career? Do you tick off box-office returns, or the awards lined up on a shelf? Which is a better determination of success, a string of hits or a film that lives on in the cultural imagination for decades, and counting? Or how about this: Can you measure a career in terms of generosity of spirit? Writer-director Amy Heckerling’s Clueless turns 30 this summer, and if she’d made no other movies, this delightful modern reimagining of Jane Austen’s Emma would have been an accomplishment by itself. Alicia Silverstone’s Cher, a Beverly Hills high school student with a closet of riotous and costly mix-and-match outfits and a knack for negotiating higher grades without actually earning them, comes off as shallow and spoiled. But…

CONVICTED Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs In sex-crime trial with mixed verdicts Sean “Diddy” Combs, the music mogul whose weekslong trial garnered global attention, was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted on the other, more serious charges he was facing: sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The stunning verdict on July 2 came after nearly two months of emotional, graphic testimony from multiple witnesses, including Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, whose allegations of physical and sexual abuse helped spur the federal investigation into the music mogul that led to his arrest in September. The prosecution alleged that Combs manipulated and forced women to engage in sexual activities with male sex workers, which he called “freak-offs.” In their testimonies, Ventura and another woman, who went by the pseudonym…

More than 100 people have died after devastating flash floods hit central Texas on July 4. According to experts, a number of conditions came together to cause the deadly inundation. The July floods were triggered in part by the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall in Mexico at the end of June. “When you have a tropical cyclone, the system dies, but that system still puts lots of water vapor in the atmosphere,” says Aiguo Dai, professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany, SUNY. “The moisture stays in the air and travels with the winds, and in this case, it looks like some of the water vapor from that remnant moved into Texas.” The region where all this water rained down, Texas Hill Country,…

“I’m ticked,” says John Prevost, the retired Midwestern high school principal who is now, abruptly and without warning, globally famous and in demand. “I didn’t want to be, but I’m so angry.” He’s sitting at the table of Denise and Rob Utter, who have invited a bunch of people from their local Catholic parish, about 45 minutes south of Chicago, to talk about their friend and John’s kid brother Bob, whom they have known for decades, over pizza. Sometimes they call him Father Bob. Occasionally they remember to call him by his new name, Pope Leo XIV, but it’s unfamiliar to their tongue. One of the guests accidentally calls him Pope Pius. It’s probably not all fun and games to be the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion people from very…

Vladimir Putin could not make out the names of the missing children that appeared on the screen in front of him. They were printed in tiny letters, 339 in all, each representing a child abducted from the war zone in Ukraine and, according to authorities in Kyiv, forcibly taken to Russia. Putin had never been confronted with the list in public, and he showed no particular interest in reading it. It was June 4, a warm day in Moscow, exactly three years, three months, and 11 days since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. In keeping with the habit of reclusiveness that he has cultivated during the war, the Russian President convened a meeting of his aides and ministers that day via video call. Their somber faces appeared in little…

How many times have you heard the expression “The pandemic broke our brains”? Particularly in less densely populated parts of America, plenty of people still hold a grudge over the way life was shut down. In some places, mask wearing is still treated as a sign of wimpiness. And the “lost” years of Zoom education overshadow the reality that COVID-19 killed a lot of people, and that some who survived still suffer. The pandemic is the global event we just can’t let go, a scapegoat for people’s anger over how and why their lives aren’t exactly as they’d like. How did we get here? That’s the question writer-director Ari Aster’s somber comedy-western Eddington appears to be asking. The story opens in late May 2020. It’s set in the (fictional) city…