Table of contents for September 29, 2025 in TIME Magazine

In the past year, Tariffs, AI, and changing consumer sentiments have made once dominant companies reshuffe their growth strategies. New giants emerged amid this shift. Nvidia, which this summer became the first public company to hit $4 trillion in market value, tops TIME and Statista’s new statistical ranking of the World’s Best Companies of 2025. The list measures employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and sustainability transparency. Nvidia rose through the ranks on a wave of growing AI demand and a well-performing gaming division. Many companies ranked high on the list have benefited from that enthusiasm for AI. Microsoft, ranked second on this list and right behind Nvidia in market value, also saw surges in revenue throughout 2024 driven by AI and cloud computing. Apple—which topped the World’s Best Companies list in…

Just three months ago, Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war that shook the Middle East. Missiles and drones flew in both directions, but with a major assist from the U.S., Israel established dominance of Iran’s airspace, repeatedly struck nuclear and military targets across Iran, and killed 30 security commanders and 19 of Iran’s nuclear scientists. Iran’s retaliation accomplished little that might deter Israel in the future. A return to war is unlikely. Though Iran likely retains a stockpile of enriched uranium and the means to rebuild enrichment capability, the Israeli-American bombing campaign ensured it is now several years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Israel has also essentially normalized direct strikes inside Iran’s borders and demonstrated its ability to inflict significant damage to the regime. Israel…

At a lakefront venue in Sweden in August, 18 individuals from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, the U.K. AI Security Institute, the OECD, and other groups gathered for an invite-only summit. On the agenda: arriving at an understanding of the likely ways advanced AI will impact the “social contract” between working people, governments, and corporations. One outcome of the so-called “artificial general intelligence social contract summit” was a list of four draft statements. They paint a grim picture of where the world could be headed, absent A grim picture of where the world could be headed with AI “AI is likely to exacerbate increasing wealth and income inequality within countries, worsening economic conditions for many working and middle-class people and families,” the first reads. “AI will increase inequality between countries that have…

There’s nothing worse than a white man who cares.” A character named Marty, played by the great Keith David, issues this lament in the premiere episode of the FX crime drama The Lowdown. The white man in question is the show’s protagonist, Lee Raybon, an anticorruption crusader investigating a powerful family in his home city of Tulsa, Okla. And although Marty may be the first to diagnose his affliction, he is not the only person of color in this story who suspects our hero’s bravery and righteousness—traits that those who doubt him might call foolhardiness and sanctimony—stem, in part, from his privilege. Whether this means he’s uniquely positioned to topple Goliaths or bound to lose and too blithely self-assured to realize it remains to be seen. His predicament combines the…

You’re the chief innovation officer and chief branding officer at Ralph Lauren. What does that actually mean you do? Every time we design products, there are stories that inspire those products. My job is to help bring those stories to life, to inspire our customers to want to be engaged in our world. Sometimes it’s creating events, sometimes immersive experiences online, sometimes it’s a fashion show in China. A lot of people don’t want to work for their parents. What’s it like… … to work for my dad? My dad is my best friend. He’s my mentor and inspiration. I am so lucky to have somebody who cares about what I do and wants to educate me. The good thing, when he loves what I do, is that your dad,…

Charlie Kirk was doing what he so often did—working a college crowd, prodding and provoking students in debate. The 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA was at Utah Valley University near Salt Lake City on Sept. 10, surrounded by thousands of students gathered in an outdoor courtyard. It was the first stop of Kirk’s fall campus tour, and he was seated beneath a tent emblazoned with the words THE AMERICAN COMEBACK. Kirk became a star in these settings. Since founding his right-wing advocacy organization at 18, he proved peerless at channeling youthful discontent into political energy, shaping a movement with national reach. As Kirk fielded questions from the audience, a shot rang out, striking him in the neck. Panicked students scattered. Kirk was rushed to the hospital. Grisly footage of…

The Trump administration filed plans in early September to cancel approval for two large wind-farm projects off the coast of New England, which represent an estimated value of nearly $15 billion and a source of new electricity in a time of growing demand. And the full-throated push against wind is more than an anticlimate move. By targeting investments that are already in train and in some cases close to completed, President Trump’s action strikes against the core of the free market and private enterprise. While past administrations have certainly changed subsidies and regulatory requirements, targeting projects with active construction presents an unprecedented level of regulatory uncertainty. “Permitted energy projects of any type shouldn’t be halted at such a late stage,” Martin Durbin, senior vice president of policy at the U.S.…

Daniel Lubetzky Investing in change Daniel Lubetzky, the Mexican American businessman who turned Kind snack bars into a global powerhouse, started his first company right out of law school: a joint venture between Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, and Turks to produce and distribute a line of spreadable pastes. “Trade among peoples breaks stereo-types,” says Lubetzky, 57, who is now perhaps best known for being one of the Sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank. “It cements relations between people.” While the business did not survive, and did not lead to lasting peace in the region, Lubetzky has not given up on the benefits of bringing people together. These days he devotes more of his time and resources—he’s worth a reported $2.3 billion—to an effort called Builders, focusing on media, education, and civic…

On Aug. 31, The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) became the latest organization to address the question of whether Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide. “The government of Israel has engaged in systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide,” read their resolution, which 86% of members approved. DEFINING GENOCIDE The IAGS resolution cited Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines genocide “as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.” It does not include political groups or what is known as “cultural genocide.” The resolution said Israel’s actions in response to the terrorist attack committed by…

When Donald Trump has spoken of late, many Americans have been less interested in his words than his appearance. Is he wearing more makeup than usual? Any new bruises? Is he steady? It is perhaps a reasonable response after so much talk circulating this summer about whether Trump is at death’s door—or through it. After years of being told Trump is the model of health, an exemplar of youth, and a man always in his prime, some are feeling a tad skeptical about his well-being—so much so that the public is conditioned to doubt even their own eyes when it comes to Trump’s existence. After all, earlier this year the White House physician praised the President’s health by boasting that he logs “frequent victories in golf events.” During his first…

It was not how Lee Jae-Myung envisioned his first day on the job. Following his election as South Korea’s President on June 3, Lee’s staff arrived at their new offices in central Seoul the next morning to find rooms strewn with trash and desks equipped with monitors but bereft of computers, which had all been piled in a corner. It was a struggle to get doors unlocked and find even basic stationery. “It was a very busy and chaotic period,” Lee, 61, tells TIME in his only Western media interview since taking office. “I thought that we had done much preparation in advance, but it was not sufficient.” Behind the chaos was his disgraced predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, whose December declaration of martial law plunged the East Asian nation of 50…

The unnamed cybercriminals trying to scam seniors out of their money got more than they bargained for when they targeted Tejasvi Manoj’s grandfather back in February 2024. Tejasvi, then a 16-year-old junior at Lebanon Trail High School in Frisco, Texas, was driving home from Scouting America camp with her father when he suddenly noticed five missed calls on his phone—all from his 85-year-old father. He called back, and the older man reported that he had received an urgent email from another relative, Tejasvi’s uncle, asking for $2,000 to settle an unexpected debt. Given the apparent emergency, Tejasvi’s grandfather was prepared to transfer the funds—but her father urged him not to and the grandfather, at the suggestion of his wife, then called the uncle to see if the request was legitimate.…