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FEBRUARY 10, 2020 Kobe Bryant 1978–2020 time.com



VOL. 195, NO. 5 | 2020 2 | Conversation The View Features Time Off △ 4 | For the Record A memorial for Ideas, opinion, Containing Coronavirus What to watch, read, Bryant near the The Brief innovations see and do Staples Center in Learning from this outbreak so the Los Angeles News from the U.S. 13 | James Wallman next one doesn’t take us by surprise 47 | Why the Oscars and around the world on the best use of By Alice Park and can’t keep up with a Photograph by time Charlie Campbell 22 watching world Alex Welsh for 5 | The Bolton TIME bombshell 15 | Ian Bremmer on Joe Biden Needs This 50 | Books: Trump’s pro-Israel February’s most 7 | Europe’s Huawei peace plan What motivates the former anticipated releases dilemma Vice President to run 16 | The financial By Molly Ball 28 52 | 8 Questions 8 | Inside the world slowly for YA author courtroom at the awakens to climate  Death of an Icon Jenny Han Harvey Weinstein change trial The brilliance and the complicated legacy of Kobe Bryant 9 | Jim Lehrer and By Sean Gregory 36 the end of an era Plus: When a child loses his hero By David French 39 10 | TIME with . . . Being honest about Bryant’s life By Evette Dionne 43 CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell ON THE COVER: Photograph by Michael Muller— CPi Syndication For customer service and our general terms and conditions, visit timeeurope.com/customerservice, or call +44 1858 438 830 or write to TIME, Tower House, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, LE16 9EF, United Kingdom. In South Africa, write to Private Bag 1, Centurion 0046. Print subscriptions: Visit time.com/joinus38. Reprints and Permissions: Visit time.com/reprints. For custom reprints, visit timereprints.com. Advertising For advertising rates and our editorial calendar, visit timemediakit.com. TIME is published by Time Magazine UK Ltd, Suite 1, 3rd Floor, 11-12 St James’s Square, London, SW1Y 4LB. There are 14 double issues. Each counts as two of 52 issues in an annual subscription. Frequency is subject to change without notice. Additional double issues may be published, which count as two issues. TIME is printed in the Netherlands, the Republic of South Africa and the U.K. Le Directeur de la Publication: Mike Taylor. C.P.P.A.P No. 0122 C 84715. Editeur responsable pour la Belgique: André Verwilghen, Avenue Louise 176, 1050 Bruxelles. EMD Aps, Hoffdingsvej 34, 2500 Valby. Rapp. Italia: I.M.D.s.r.l., via Guido da Velate, 11 – 20162 Milano; aut. Trib. MI N. 491 del 17/9/86, poste Italiane SpA - Sped. in Abb. Post. DL. 353/2003 (conv. L. 27/02/2004 -n. 46) art. 1 comma 1, DCB Milano, Dir. Resp.: Tassinari Domenico. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing houses. Additional pages of regional editions numbered or allowed for as follows: National S1-S2. Vol. 195, No. 5 © 2020 TIME Magazine U.K., Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. TIME and the Red Border Design are protected through trademark registration in the U.S. and in the foreign countries where TIME magazine circulates. ISSN 0928-8430. 1

Conversation WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT ... youthquake Readers of all ages learned something from Charlotte Alter’s Feb. 3 story on millennial leaders changing Amer- ica. Ryan Dailey, a Chatham, N.J., high school Davos wrap-up senior and self-described political moder- At 2020’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in ate, wrote, “I may not agree with many of the Davos, Switzerland, TIME hosted events ranging ideas that the millen- from a conversation with young activists such as nial Democrats have, Greta Thunberg (above) to a kickoff reception co-chaired but now I have a bet- ‘That by will.i.am (near left) with ter understanding a performance by Lukas “progressive Nelson (far left). of why they believe what they believe.” earthquake” Also at Davos, TIME’s Cindy Haynes in can’t Susanna Schrobsdorff Bedford, Mass., was come soon led a panel, produced in so hopeful she “cried enough.’ partnership with Kaiser with joy,” but Peter Permanente, at which youth- SHERRY RIND, mental-health advocates (bottom left) discussed the Brier, Wash. urgent need to expand care. Graber in Elkhart, Ind., argued that corporations have the real power to make change. Karl Kettler of Stockton, N.J., said THUNBERG: FABRICE COF F RINI — AF P/GE T T Y IMAGES; NELSON, WILL.I. AM: CAROLINE DYER- SMITH FOR TIME (2); SCHROBSDORF F: JUT TA JACOBI every generation changes the world in its own way, and readers like Barbara Albin of Normal, Ill., cautioned against generalizing about boomers. “Some of us are not as selfish KOBE BRYANT SETTING THE The issue of TIME as others of our age,” she wrote. featuring the RECORD STRAIGHT commemorative the family business Brian Bennett’s cover of Kobe ▶ In “Inside Game” Bryant is available (Jan. 27) we misstated Jan. 27 story on media-shy White House ad- at retailers a detail about Charles worldwide. Prints Kushner’s guilty plea. viser Jared Kushner was a source of “valu- of the cover can be He pleaded guilty purchased at the to setting up his able new insights into his life and work,” TIME cover store brother-in-law with (timecoverstore a prostitute. In the said Jan Lupnacca of Rising Sun, Md. Diana .com). same issue, an essay about U.S. citizenship Savastano of Johns Creek, Ga., called the pro- misstated when Ellis Island opened as an file “fair and balanced,” immigration station. It was in 1892. though John Reynolds ‘Do you of Paso Robles, Calif., TALK TO US suppose felt it glorified nepo- Trump will tism. Greg Wilmoth of ▽▽ dump Pence Chesterfield, Va., was send an email: follow us: from his struck by Kushner’s re-election telling TIME that Pres- [email protected] facebook.com/time bid and ident Trump has “ro- run with tated out” people on Please do not send attachments @time (Twitter and Instagram) Kushner his staff who were “in instead?’ it” more for themselves Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and home than for the President. telephone and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space EVELYN S. STEVENS, “Shouldn’t they be ‘in Back Issues Contact us at [email protected], or Please recycle call 800-843-8463. Reprints and Permissions Information this magazine, and Lansing, N.Y. it,’ ” he wrote, “for us?” is available at time.com/reprints. To request custom reprints, remove inserts or visit timereprints.com. Advertising For advertising rates and samples beforehand our editorial calendar, visit timemediakit.com. Syndication For international licensing and syndication requests, contact [email protected]



For the Record ‘Why did you ‘IS NOTHING remove SACRED?’ me from the photo? I was part of the group!’ VANESSA NAKATE, GEORGE TAKEI, Ugandan climate activist, in actor, on the Jan. 24 unveiling of the U.S. military’s new Space Force seal a Jan. 24 tweet, after being and its similarity to the insignia of Star Trek’s fictional Starfleet Command cropped out of an Associated 97,112 ‘He asked, Press photo of climate “Do you think activists—among whom Number of gallons of red Americans she was the only person of wine that spilled into care about color—in Davos, Switzerland; a creek from a winery the news agency apologized in Sonoma County, Ukraine?”’ California, after a Carpool lanes MARY LOUISE KELLY, NPR host, Arizona police cited blending-tank door popped quoting from her discussion a man for driving in open on Jan. 22 with U.S. Secretary of State the HOV lane with a fake skeleton as ‘The people are Mike Pompeo after they clashed during an interview; a passenger Pompeo accused her of lying BAD WEEK about their exchange GOOD WEEK Traffic lights tired of the abuse.’ ‘It’s difficult A group of Florida to describe friends went viral IRIS GUARDIOLA, the pain with a video of 82, speaking to the Associated Press at a Jan. 23 protest in and loss the themselves playing Puerto Rico, demanding the resignation of Governor Wanda Chinatown Uno at a long red light community is Vázquez over the U.S. territory’s handling of disaster aid feeling, but we will not 80 be broken.’ ILLUSTRATIONS BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME Number of pythons captured in MARGARET S. CHIN, the Everglades during the 2020 Python Bowl, according to a New York City council member, Jan. 25 Florida Fish and Wildlife in a Jan. 27 statement after Conservation Commission a fire tore through a building announcement; the annual event housing the archives of the raises awareness of the threat Museum of Chinese posed by the invasive species in America 4 Time February 10, 2020 SOURCES: CNN; NPR; NBC2; AP

EYEWITNESS John Bolton, then National Security Adviser, listens to President Trump during an Oval Office meeting on April 9, 2019 THE BATTLE OVER 5G INSIDE JIM LEHRER’S BEST ADVICE FOR TECHNOLOGY COMES TO EUROPE MODERATING A DEBATE AT HARVEY WEINSTEIN’S TRIAL, MYTHS FACE SCRUTINY PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX WONG

TheBrief Opener POLITICS Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders had tried to pre-empt this scenario, John Bolton tests the nursing a whisper campaign against Bolton’s credibility GOP’s fealty to Trump that suggested he was turning on Trump because he had By Vera Bergengruen been fired last fall and was trying to goose book sales by offering testimony. McConnell and company urged a John BolTon is noBody’s idea of a lefTisT. united front to block any witnesses at the trial, but at a For the better part of three decades, Donald meeting of the GOP conference on Jan. 28, the normally Trump’s former National Security Adviser has in-control McConnell admitted he didn’t have the votes to block witnesses. been a leading voice for hawkish American foreign The result has been a barely concealed war between policy, arguing for military intervention, railing against those who want to allow new evidence and those treaties and personifying the hard right wing of the Repub- who put defending Trump first. When Senator Mitt lican Party. So it was a sign of just how fraught Trump’s im- Romney of Utah argued that Bolton clearly had “some peachment trial had become in its second week when the information that may be relevant” and signaled that he President’s defenders on cable TV began labeling Bolton a was open to Bolton’s testimony, he was publicly slammed “tool for the left” and suggested he was selling out decades by his colleague Senator Kelly Loeffler for wanting of unwavering ideology for personal enrichment. to “appease the left.” The recently appointed Georgia The short version of how Bolton became the Trump- Republican had supported Romney’s 2012 run, but ists’ bête noire is simple. After months of hinting that Loeffler’s seat is up for election in November, and she he had information to share, Bolton announced on could face a Trump-backed challenger. Jan. 6 that he would testify at Trump’s Sen- Romney was not alone. Susan Collins, the ate impeachment trial if subpoenaed, bucking ‘They’re not Maine moderate, had said she might want to hear PREVIOUS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES; THESE PAGES: SCHUMER: ALEX WROBLEWSKI—GETTY IMAGES; AUSCHWITZ: PATRICK VAN KATWIJK—GETTY IMAGES the White House ban on cooperation. Then, anti-Trump from witnesses, as had others, and the Democrats on Jan. 26, the New York Times revealed that people, they’re needed only four Republicans to force testimony. Bolton, in his upcoming book, The Room Where But the danger for the GOP was greater than just It Happened, says Trump personally told him his own Bolton’s revelations. Democrats want to hear from that he was withholding military aid to Ukraine appointees.’ other key players, including White House chief until the country agreed to cooperate in alleg- SENATOR CHUCK of staff Mick Mulvaney, who suggested during an ing wrongdoing by his Democratic rivals. Sud- SCHUMER, Oct. 17 press conference that Trump had offered denly, Bolton was poised to provide eyewitness a quid pro quo to Ukraine. Democrats also had speaking to reporters on testimony to the central charge in the Demo- Jan. 28 about potential expressed interest in hearing from two other crats’ first article of impeachment. As his book’s impeachment-trial officials involved in holding up the $390 million title wryly notes, he was in the room. witnesses in congressionally mandated military aid. In the arc of the Trump presidency, Bolton The push to win four Republican votes opened now represents the high-water mark in loy- up another potential vein of damaging evidence alty tests for Trump’s followers in Congress. As for Democrats to mine in the trial: documents. Trump has hired, fired and humiliated some House impeachment managers had mentioned of the most established GOP national-security multiple White House emails related to the figures, many Republicans in the Senate have holdup of military aid. These documents, which tried to remain silent, fearing the political cost the White House refused to hand over, could of crossing a President with more than 80% prove what more than a dozen officials, Bolton support in the party. Now, as jurors in the im- now among them, have said for months: that peachment trial that could decide the fate Trump leveraged the economic and military of the Trump presidency and their own po- might of the U.S. to aid his own re-election. That, litical futures, those same Republicans were Democrats argue, is the heart of their charge of being forced to take a side: believe Donald abuses of power and the reason Trump must be Trump or John Bolton. removed from office. Democrats would need 20 Republicans to The bolTon leak came at a bad moment make that happen, and as of Jan. 29 that remained for the President, just as his defense lawyers a most remote possibility. But Bolton’s account has were arguing his side in the Senate trial. Until raised the bar for the GOP’s loyalty test in the era then, Trump had seemed on course for a quick of Trump. Bolton served in the administrations of acquittal, and his legal team all but ignored Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, rising to be Bolton’s allegation as they took the floor of the U.N. ambassador, and ultimately spent 17 months chamber the day after his account became pub- in Trump’s White House. If they refuse to hear lic. But outside the Senate chamber the news from Bolton, Republican Senators would be on the threw Republicans for a loop. record in a way many had hoped to avoid. □ 6 Time February 10, 2020

NEVER FORGET A guard tower at Auschwitz looms during a Jan. 27 ceremony to mark the 75th NEWS anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp in southern Poland, where roughly 1.1 million TICKER people, most of them Jews, were murdered during World War II. More than 200 Holocaust survivors attended the ceremony, along with heads of state and dignitaries. “Do not be indifferent when any Billions of minority suffers discrimination,” warned Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski, 93. locusts swarm THE BULLETIN RISKY BUSINESS In Germany, the same East Africa trade-off between economic growth and Britain sides with China in security is clear, with an added current of Kenya is suffering its technology cold war fear over Chinese retaliation. (An estimated worst locust plague in 900,000 German jobs depend on exports to 70 years, as an insect in The BaTTle over The nexT genera- China.) “I don’t think we can quickly build tion of telecommunications, China is win- a 5G network in Germany without Huawei infestation sweeps ning. On Jan. 28, British Prime Minister taking part,” German Interior Minister Horst across farmland, Boris Johnson decided not to ban hardware Seehofer said on Jan. 18. And while new E.U. destroying crops made by the market-leading Chinese firm guidelines allow members to exclude “high- meant to feed millions Huawei as the U.K. builds out its infrastruc- risk” 5G providers, they stop short of recom- of people. The U.N. ture for 5G wireless technology. The choice mending a ban on Huawei. warned that the locust was a blow to the Trump Administration, population could grow which has waged a monthslong campaign NEW ERA For the past century or more, the up to 500 times after to persuade allies to shun Huawei—and just cutting edge of technology has been domi- March rains unless lost its closest ally. nated by the U.S. and its allies. Now, thanks pesticides are quickly to years of research and design subsidized SENSITIVE TOPIC Although Johnson needs by the Chinese government, Huawei’s hard- deployed. a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S., he ware is cheaper and faster than that of its also promised voters a revolution in Inter- rivals. That could have lasting effects across States sue over net speed and coverage. His decision not to the board for U.S. diplomacy. And as China’s 3-D-printed- ban Huawei—despite warnings of the risk of sway grows, the Washington-London link gun rule spying by Beijing—reflects the importance is unlikely to be the only “special relation- states are placing on the competitive advan- ship” to come under strain. Twenty states and tage in Internet infrastructure. Huawei is to Washington, D.C., filed be limited to a maximum 35% role in the pe- —Billy Perrigo a lawsuit against the riphery of the U.K.’s 5G network, away from Trump Administration “sensitive” sites like nuclear plants. But on Jan. 29, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Jan. 23 over a still urged Britain to reconsider its decision. federal rule change they say will allow schematics for 3-D-printed guns to be posted online—where, critics argue, they could be used by anyone to make untraceable weapons. Lawyer: Prince not helping Epstein probe The U.S. Attorney looking into possible sex trafficking by associates of Jeffrey Epstein accused the U.K.’s Prince Andrew on Jan. 27 of offering “zero cooperation” to the investigation, despite his promise to assist. Andrew, who is accused of having sex with a teenage trafficking victim, has denied any wrongdoing. 7

TheBrief News NEWS POSTCARD behavior on the night more than 25 years ago TICKER when she says Weinstein pushed his way into At Weinstein trial, her apartment and raped her. Throughout U.S. discloses drama gives way to her questioning, Rotunno touched on issues Iran missile- ‘rape myths’ that Weinstein hopes will cast doubt in jurors’ strike injuries minds, including why Sciorra didn’t immedi- Harvey WeinsTein’s neW york CiTy rape ately call the police, 911 or a hospital after the Fifty U.S. military and sexual-assault trial opened in dramatic alleged attack. personnel suffered fashion. Lines formed before dawn outside traumatic brain injury the lower-Manhattan courthouse. Protesters While Sciorra’s alleged attack occurred from Iran’s missile bellowed for justice for Weinstein’s accusers. too long ago for Weinstein to be charged with strike on an air base in A list of possible witnesses promised poten- raping her, the actor’s testimony is key to Iraq on Jan. 8, though tial jurors a glimpse of Hollywood A-listers. prosecutors’ attempts to show a pattern of 31 have resumed their abuse. (The actual charges he is facing in this duties, the Pentagon But as testimony in the former Miramax trial stem from an alleged rape in 2013 and said Jan. 28. President chief’s trial entered its second week, some- an alleged sexual assault in 2006; Weinstein Donald Trump initially thing other than celebrity took center stage: denies all allegations of nonconsensual said no Americans the myths surrounding sexual assault, in- sexual contact.) Prosecutors got a boost when were hurt in the attack cluding society’s assumptions about victim two of Sciorra’s friends, fellow actor Rosie and later downplayed behavior. And while Judge James Burke in- Perez and former model Kara Young, testified the severity of the sisted at the start that this case would not be about what Sciorra had done and said to “a referendum on the #MeToo movement,” them at the time. injuries. the issues that came to the fore as a result of that movement have dominated much of the Weinstein, appearing to chew gum, Dozens dead testimony. watched the testimony quietly as the seven- in Brazil man, five-woman jury listened intently and landslides “The idea that women respond to sex- took notes—but as the trial delved into these ual assault by screaming, yelling, punching, crucial questions about sexual trauma and At least 54 people biting—although that happens, it’s rare,” its often paralyzing effect on victims, fewer have been killed and forensic psychiatrist Barbara Ziv explained people were watching than before. While more than 30,000 from the witness stand on Jan. 24. Ziv, an ex- spectators had at first queued up to gain displaced after heavy pert witness for the prosecution, dismissed the access to the trial, interest appeared to drop rains caused floods “rape myths” that she said society clings to: off after opening statements. Instead of a that most assaults are committed by strangers, crushing crowd, there were empty seats in and landslides in that victims scream and try to run away and the courtroom. The protesters who gathered southeastern Brazil, that they immediately report assaults. outside the courthouse during jury selection the Associated Press had disappeared, and Weinstein arrived The day before, defense attorney Donna without having to listen to demonstrators’ reported Jan. 27. Rotunno had quizzed the first accuser to take cries for his conviction. —melissa CHan Thousands of people the stand, actor Annabella Sciorra, about her were evacuated amid warnings the rainfall could continue. State Dept. GRAMMAR COIN: HM TRE ASURY/AF P/GE T T Y IMAGES; LEHRER: JOSHUA ROBERTS — REDUX imposes ‘birth tourism’ rules To phrase a coin A new State A new coin (left) commemorating Britain’s Jan. 31 Department visa exit from the E.U. came under fire for not including rule, designed to prevent women from an Oxford comma in its inscription—“Peace, traveling to the U.S. prosperity and friendship with all nations.” Here, to give birth in order more problematic punctuation. —Melissa Godin to secure American citizenship for their DAIRY DILEMMA EXPENSIVE ERRATA FRUIT FAUX PAS children, took effect In 2018, a dairy company in James Joyce wrote Ulysses In 1872, a comma mistakenly Jan. 24. Opponents Portland, Maine, agreed to pay say the change is $5 million in unpaid overtime by hand, and the typists placed between fruit and discriminatory as it to its drivers, who had filed a who transcribed the pages plants in the 13th U.S. may lead some women lawsuit over the lack of a comma introduced more than 5,000 tariff act led to certain who are only suspected in a labor law about exempted fruits’ becoming exempt of being pregnant to be errors—including extra from tariffs—and a loss of tasks. Maine legislators punctuation. Correcting them $2 million in tax dollars, a denied visas. rephrased the law. for a new edition in 1984 cost massive sum at the time. scholars $300,000 of work. 8 Time February 10, 2020

Milestones ARRESTED Lehrer at his office in Arlington, Va., in 2008 AWARDED Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard’s DIED New Kid chemistry depart- First Newbery ment, on Jan. 28, for Jim Lehrer Medal for a allegedly lying about Eminent anchor graphic novel his ties to a Chinese government program By Bob Schieffer By Raina Telgemeier designed to recruit foreign scientific in 1963, i Worked as a reporTer aT THe ForT WorTH Star- WHen Jerry CraFT beCame experts. Lieber has Telegram and Jim Lehrer worked at the Dallas Times Herald, and the very first graphic novel- previously denied the we both covered the Kennedy assassination—but it was only after ist to receive a Newbery affiliation. we came to Washington, D.C., that we became good friends. Jim, Medal, he shattered a glass who died Jan. 23 at 85, was a guy I always looked up to. ceiling for cartoonists, who SPOTTED have long been looked at as Three Bolivian So when I was chosen to moderate my first presidential debate producing “lesser” literature Cochran frogs, a in 2004, he was the first person I called. I said, “How do I do than their prose-writing sib- rare species with this?” and he said, “Remember, it’s not about you.” That was the lings. I am so proud of him. translucent skin, by best advice anybody could possibly give me, and for every other The Jan. 27 announcement conservationists, person down through the years who called me to ask for advice on that the prestigious prize for for the first time in how to moderate a presidential debate, I told them the same. American children’s litera- 18 years, according ture will go to his New Kid, to reports Jan. 28. The integrity and the objectivity he displayed had set the tone the story of a seventh-grader for those debates—not just one but all of them. Jim had great who doesn’t fit in at his RELEASED respect for his viewers and for his readers; he thought they should mostly white private school, U.S. environmental be allowed to make up their minds, and he didn’t try to push his is a victory for Jerry and for journalist Philip views. He just asked the questions, and he always did his home- the art form of comics. Jacobson, on work. That sometimes is a little rare these days, but I still think Jan. 24, after being that’s what reporters are supposed to do. I mean this literally: he Jerry’s win (after many, jailed for three days was the most objective person I have ever dealt with. And what many years of hard work) in Indonesia for you saw on television was exactly what you’d see if you ran into proves once and for all that allegedly violating Jim in the grocery store. He was a real person. Sometimes people comics and graphic novels the terms of his visa; you see on TV aren’t. We don’t run around telling people that, but are real books, real reading, advocates called his we all know—and he was the real deal. and really and truly deserve arrest an attack on shelf space front and center. press freedom. Schieffer, a veteran CBS News reporter, was an anchor of Face the Nation for 24 years It has been a joy to watch se- quential art evolve and to see CAPTURED the warm reception graphic Fugitive former novels have received from Colombian Senator young readers and awards Aída Merlano, committees alike! How joy- in Venezuela, on ous that when children read Jan. 27, nearly four New Kid in decades to come, months after she they will feel the tactile merit escaped custody of the golden sticker on its during a dentist cover. visit, while serving a 15-year sentence for Telgemeier is the Eisner Award– vote buying. winning author of the best-selling graphic novel Guts SENTENCED Libyan militant 9 Mustafa al-Imam, to more than 19 years in prison, on Jan. 23, for his role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks. SUED Imprisoned former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, by federal and New York State authorities, for alleged anti- competitive practices, on Jan. 27.

TheBrief TIME with ... CBS Evening News anchor O’DONNELL you like and feeds it back to you. It reinforces our Norah O’Donnell says QUICK political beliefs,” she says. “CBS Evening News is ‘down the middle’ is still FACTS not driven by an algorithm.” the best way to report Digital reach And yet the same divide is reflected on the net- By Eliana Dockterman Her interview works that CBS News competes with for viewers. with Saudi O’Donnell argues that by staying neutral, at the Norah o’DoNNell is TesTiNg ouT The color- Crown Prince risk of losing more partisan audience members changing lights in her new Washington, D.C., stu- Mohammed to MSNBC or Fox, CBS can snag interviews with dio. Using an iPhone, she highlights the stage with bin Salman world leaders, even the most divisive ones. “We red then purple then green. “We can have photos has more are right down the middle,” she says, adding, “It’s on the floor too,” she says. “Or graphs. With the than 700,000 why Joe Biden sat down with me. It’s why [Saudi election, there are a lot of options.” views on Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman, one of the YouTube. most scrutinized leaders in the world, sat down The studio is sparkling white, like the inside with me twice.” O’Donnell prides herself on ask- of an Apple Store, a physical manifestation of a Off the air ing the hard questions, and quickly. Her first query fresh start for a network that has struggled with a O’Donnell posed to bin Salman on 60 Minutes was whether he series of sexual-harassment scandals and a drop and her ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the ratings in the past few years. O’Donnell husband, chef which the CIA has concluded the crown prince did. took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News in Geoff Tracy, (The crown prince “took responsibility” but denied July and eagerly agreed to the suggestion from published a ordering the execution.) the new CBS News president, Susan Zirinsky, to baby-food move the show from New York City to the nation’s cookbook in O’DOnnell tOOk Over the Evening News at a capital in December in hopes of boosting the rat- 2010. particularly precarious time for CBS. Back in 2012, ings. O’Donnell had first risen to prominence as O’Donnell shared a desk with Gayle King and a White House correspondent, and her husband, First job Charlie Rose as the co-anchors of CBS This Morn- chef Geoff Tracy, operates a restaurant group O’Donnell ing. Their chemistry buoyed the program’s ratings. based in D.C. started But in 2017, Rose was accused of sexual miscon- her career duct at CBS during the first wave of the #MeToo Though some media prognosticators called the covering movement. O’Donnell and King had to announce shake-up “a risk,” O’Donnell shares much in com- Congress and react to the news on the air. True to both of mon with her venerated predecessors, including for the their brands, O’Donnell dealt out the facts with a Walter Cronkite, once famously dubbed “the most newspaper poker face, while King processed the news emo- trusted man in America.” Her high-tech studio Roll Call. tionally, trying to reconcile her friendship with notwithstanding, O’Donnell is an old-school jour- Rose with the allegations. nalist operating in a world that’s increasingly hos- tile to that type of newscaster. She prides herself Rose’s fall was just the beginning. Sexual- on her shoe-leather reporting skills. She still reads harassment scandals felled CBS News chair- six hard-copy newspapers every morning. On man Jeff Fager and CBS CEO and chairman Les Twitter, she doesn’t spout opinions or share per- Moonves, and former employees reported a toxic sonal anecdotes, just stories from CBS. culture that pervaded the network. CBS was not the only network forced to contend with #MeToo: “My parents are scientists. We’re fact-based Fox News and NBC made headlines for sexual- people,” she says. “I was never someone who was harassment allegations too. siloed into a certain group, ideologically or just growing up. I did theater, and I did cheerleading. I Even as CBS struggled with the fallout, went to Catholic church camp and Baptist church O’Donnell was reporting on the #MeToo move- camp. I don’t judge. I’m naturally curious.” ment outside of media. O’Donnell, who grew up in a military family, won an Emmy Award in 2018 for Nonjudgmental, neutral, reliable—these aren’t a story on a sex-abuse scandal at the U.S. Air Force the most exciting ways to brand a broadcast in Academy. “I firmly believe sunlight is the best any era, but it’s a particularly difficult sell in 2020 disinfectant,” she says of reporting on that story. when audiences are largely looking to affirm their “There’s no harder interview to do than that, and own views: a 2019 Pew study found 55% of Ameri- to try to help [survivors] tell their story in a way cans get their news from social media, an 8% in- that not only reveals what happened to them, but crease over the prior year. Facebook and Twitter hopefully ushers in change, because that’s also part feeds tend to be either red or blue, full of arti- of it . .. making sure that something changes.” cles posted by friends hailing from similar back- grounds who share similar political opinions. “So- Yet she’s circumspect on the topic of whether cial media is driven by an algorithm. It learns what things are changing at CBS News itself. “I’m sort of done with that story,” she says. “I want to be 10 Time February 10, 2020 judged for my work.” But she did have a hot-mic

moment when reporting on a sexual-harassment matters. If the boss cares, if she’s there late every story last year. Some listeners believe they heard her say, “Sounds like someone else here.” night, talking to every reporter, every producer, O’DOnnell insists that she does not feel like she every janitor—if the boss cares, everyone cares.” is on the edge of a glass cliff, thrust forward as the female face of a network plagued by men’s wrong- Zirinsky—famously the inspiration for Holly doings. The move to D.C. has strengthened view- ership numbers. The broadcast drew 6.8 million ‘I’ve never Hunter’s ridiculously efficient character in viewers one evening in December, a peak for the seen so show since O’Donnell took over, though it still much Broadcast News—has spent 45 years at CBS and, trails ABC’s and NBC’s programs. Ratings declines cultural have slowed across the network, including on CBS change when Fager was dismissed, was brought in to clean This Morning, where King has lured younger view- in such ers with high-profile interviews, like a sit-down a short up the mess. Zirinsky has said she was asked to with R. Kelly after a documentary accused the R&B period of musician of sexual assault. O’Donnell credits the time.’ take the job before but was loath to give up her progress CBS News has made to its new president, notorious workhorse Zirinsky. O’Donnell says NORAH hands-on role as a producer. She’s retained that Zirinsky connects with everyone in the building, OÕDONNELL, which builds a sense of community and account- title and spends every night in the control room ability. “I’ve never seen so much cultural change in on CBS News such a short period of time,” she says. “Leadership under its new while O’Donnell records her show. “I’m sorry, president, Susan Zirinsky but no other president of the network is in the control room of both their morning show and their evening news show every day,” says O’Donnell. It’s a good thing too. Before O’Donnell’s move to D.C., a soundboard in the New York City studio JARED SOARES FOR TIME caught fire during a broadcast of the Evening News. Zirinsky jumped into action. “She’s down in the basement on West 57th Street with a dozen guys telling them what to do and taking pictures,” says O’Donnell. One more fire out, the hope is that the story moves elsewhere. □ 11



SOCIETY DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME? By James Wallman In the 2010s, we worried about too much stuff. A growing awareness of consumerism’s effect on the environment and a desire to broadcast our lives on social media led us to prioritize experience over things, and millions turned to Marie Kondo and minimalism. Now we’ve started to worry about something new: too little time. ▶ REFLECTIONS ON A INSIDE MAKING MEMES LANDMARK LGBTQ CASE MORE ACCESSIBLE TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST PEACE PLAN 13

TheView Opener Psychologists have found that experiences have built apps to tell you how much time are more likely than material goods to deliver you spend on your device, but their business SHORT READS happiness—another reason we were content models rely on your continued use. ▶ Highlights to shed anything that didn’t spark joy—but from stories on time.com/ideas of course we must make choices about which PeoPle who feel strapped for time are Being yourself experiences to pursue. The fear of making the more likely to be anxious or depressed. They Novelist Marlon James wrong one, and therefore wasting valuable are less likely to exercise or eat healthy foods. moved to the U.S. time, is something many of us feel deeply. And they’re less productive at work. It makes just a few years after Lawrence v. Texas, the There’s some irony to this predicament: sense then that there’s been growing interest Supreme Court case that struck down laws We have more free time now than we have from psychologists in the best ways to spend prohibiting people of the same gender from had in decades. But for a number of reasons, our time. (Current Opinion in Psychology’s engaging in sexual it doesn’t feel that way. April 2019 edition was simply called “Time.”) activity. It still gets pushback, “but what In his 2019 book Spending Time, Daniel S. In my own writing on the topic, I have drew me to these United States,” he writes, Hamermesh explains that while our life spans come to characterize experiences as “junk “was the idea that simply being myself have gotten a bit longer—13% since 1960—our food” or “superfood.” Junk? Spending too was protected by law, even if at the time spending power has surged by much time indoors, alone, scroll- I didn’t know what 198%. “It makes it difficult to stuff ing Facebook or watching TV. that self was.” all the things that we want and can Superfood? Getting offline and Doing the right thing now afford into the growing, but outside and, as UCLA associate Some people say increasingly relatively much more 4.9 professor of marketing Cassie Presidents use moral limited, time that we have avail- Mogilner Holmes notes in her arguments in foreign able to purchase and to enjoy them HOURS 2019 paper “It’s Time for Hap- policy to justify their over our lifetimes,” he writes. piness,” doing things for or with personal or national interests. Joseph S. Next, there’s our cell-phone Average time others and staying active. Nye Jr., author of addiction. American adults spend women spent on Of course, these experiences Do Morals Matter?, around 3½ hours on their de- leisure activities require that we actually take time says they’re wrong. vices each day, trying to keep up each day in 2018 off—not easy in a culture ob- “Principle and prudence sometimes conflict, but with the volume of emails, texts, sessed with productivity. After they can also reinforce each other,” he writes. social-media updates and 24/7 5.7 all, 55% of Americans don’t use news. And much of our time is all their paid vacation time. But Facing history “contaminated time”—when HOURS researchers say sometimes it’s we’re doing one thing but think- about reframing how we think Germany is often ing about something else. Try- Average time men about leisure activities. Colum- praised for owning ing to get more miles out of every spent on leisure bia’s Silvia Bellezza, Harvard’s up to its Nazi past, minute—scanning Twitter while activities each Anat Keinan and Georgetown’s but the reality is day in 2018 more complicated. According to historian watching TV, for example— Neeru Paharia have found that a Jacob S. Eder, “while it is inconceivable makes us think we’re being pro- “functional alibi” can be helpful: to encounter a ductive, but really it just makes us 55% we’re more likely to go camping monument dedicated feel more frazzled. if we acknowledge it will be good Percentage of for our productivity at work. to a Nazi leader in Add to this the ever expand- Americans who Similarly, Keinan and Columbia’s Berlin or Munich, the ing options in today’s experience don’t use all their Ran Kivetz have observed that countryside leaves economy. Think of all the pop-ups, more room plays, talks, workshops and escape paid time off we often opt for “collectible ex- for ambivalence.” rooms you could go to tonight. periences” that give us a story to No wonder many of us suf- tell and help build our “experien- fer from what psychologists call “time fam- tial CV,” as we like to feel we’re accomplishing ine.” No wonder we’re seeing books about something. They have also argued that while reclaiming our time, like Brigid Schulte’s we often think we’re being virtuous by choos- Overwhelmed and Jenny Odell’s How to Do ing work over leisure, in the long term we’re Nothing, and about loosening the grip of cell likely to regret this and feel as if we’ve missed phones, like Adam Alter’s Irresistible, Nir Ey- out on “the pleasures of life.” al’s Indistractable and Cal Newport’s Digital Time is our least renewable resource. Minimalism. Despite the stress our fixation on it may There have been calls to rein in the atten- cause, it’s good for us to consider if we’re tion economy, like Tristan Harris’ Time Well using it wisely. Spent movement, but the factors that make us feel time-poor aren’t going away anytime Wallman is the author of Time and How to soon. Tech companies, for instance, may Spend It: The 7 Rules for Richer, Happier Days 14 Time February 10, 2020

THE RISK REPORT TECH Trump’s Middle East plan Making memes acknowledges Israel’s primacy accessible By Ian Bremmer While blind and visually impaired people use The Trump adminis- resolving one of the world’s thorniest con- special software to navigate the Internet, tration’s Israel-Pal- flicts by getting other Arab states to buy they are often left out of the conversation when it estine peace plan into the proposal. comes to the thousands of viral images that tears up the playbook To entice the Palestinians, the Trump spread like wildfire on social media. of prior U.S. policy. Administration has pledged to drum up Now researchers— Rather than fairness, investments of $28 billion over 10 years to from companies like Twitter, Facebook and it is built upon the rec- support Palestine, with $22 billion of ad- Reddit—are proposing ways to make memes ognition of Israeli power on the ground ditional funding going to Jordan, Egypt more inclusive. One group, from Carnegie Mellon and shifts in the region’s geopolitics. and Lebanon. University and Columbia University, recently With continued expansion over the Many Palestinians will likely not ac- developed a program that uses audio as a past two decades, Israelis have been mak- cept anything that smells like a payoff, es- means for translating popular memes. ing the West Bank their own. The plan pecially when it includes so many poison Advocates hope that also underscores the reality that Pales- pills. First, before Palestinians can unlock up-and-coming tech innovators will embrace tinian leaders have lost the active sup- any benefit, the Hamas government in the issue, though experts note that fun activities— port of much of the Arab Gaza must renounce its anti- including meme culture— that aren’t necessary for world, many of whose The Israel ideology or somehow daily life often get put on leaders would like to work Administration’s be removed from power. the back burner. more closely with Israel on Second, the Trump plan countering Iran and other limits on the would allow the state of Pal- “They can be cute or initiatives. Palestinian estine to build a capital on hilarious, but I feel like ‘right of return,’ the outskirts of East Jerusa- people also use them to For Palestinians, the plan really communicate what even within the world we live in now is imposes Israeli bargaining lem but only in areas east of like,” Tasha Chemel, an academic coach who is positions from earlier nego- a sovereign the existing separation bar- blind, told TIME. “So it’s really hard to be left out tiations: a nominally sover- Palestinian rier. Third, the state of Pales- of that conversation.” eign state of Palestine with nation, is a tine would control just 70% ÑRachel E. Greenspan a capital on the outskirts of serious obstacle of the West Bank, in contrast East Jerusalem. Both Prime to the 94% to 96% proposed 15 Minister Benjamin Netan- for any truly by Bill Clinton in 2000. Fi- yahu and his chief rival, free country nally, the Administration’s Benny Gantz, are on board. limits on the Palestinian The Trump team is wagering that more “right of return,” even within a sovereign geopolitical honesty will change the game Palestinian nation, is a serious obstacle for in the region. Previous U.S. governments any truly free country. presented themselves as neutral arbiters It’s clear that this proposal will not lead between Israelis and Palestinians; neither to peace in the coming months—or maybe side took that claim seriously. This new ever. The Palestinians rejected the plan, deal aims to contain, rather than reduce, and their leaders will make their anger Israeli settlements, giving Palestinians a clear. According to my conversations with smaller plot of land for their state, about senior Trump Administration officials, 70% of the West Bank. Once the plan is they have already told Israeli and Arab formally implemented by the Israeli gov- leaders that territory is specifically open ernment, Israel would freeze settlement for negotiation should the Palestinians de- KID: LANEY GRINER; MEME: COLE GLEASON construction for four years in areas that cide to engage after having refused to talk would become the state of Palestine. for more than two years. This plan is central to Trump’s Middle Taken wiThin The conTexT of the rest East strategy. As the conflict becomes of Trump’s foreign policy, this deal is an more marginal to the interests of the re- outlier. The plan is detailed and thought- gion’s key actors, and the U.S. has gen- ful, unlike the agreement announced with erally become less interested too, Arab- North Korea. Most surprising, one of the Israeli normalization is only a matter of most unilaterally oriented Administra- time, and the Palestinians are at risk of tions has taken a multilateral approach to missing that train. □

TheView Economy The world of finance △ proposed by congressional Democrats, groggily awakens Georgieva the climate policy of the IMF and the to climate change took office changing tune of the financial sector as managing may sound wonky. But the climate chal- By Justin Worland/Davos, Switzerland director of the lenge is unlikely to be met without the International financial sector—and the authorities For years, climaTe acTivisTs have warned ThaT a Monetary Fund that regulate and govern it—on the right warming planet would bring devastation, disrupting not only in October side of the fight. For decades, banks developing countries and coastal communities but also the have given fossil-fuel companies the fi- foundations of the global economy. Still, investors continue nancing to mine and drill; meanwhile, SIKARIN FON THANACHAIARY—WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM to pump billions of dollars into fossil fuels, governments pri- governments have provided seemingly oritize policies to keep cheap oil flowing, and developers bottomless subsidies, some $5 trillion build on land that scientists say will soon be underwater. annually, the IMF said last year. At the same time, banks have largely ignored Kristalina Georgieva, 66, the environmental economist the risk that climate change poses to who took the helm as managing director of the International their customers, from businesses in the Monetary Fund in October, has spent much of her career flood zone to homes in fire-prone areas. studying the problem. Now, she says, a slew of climate-related disasters have finally awakened the financial sector and the At Davos, there were hints this may economic leaders who guide it. “The tide is turning,” she be changing. Just a few days before the told TIME in a Jan. 23 interview at the annual meeting of the conference, BlackRock, the world’s larg- World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. est asset manager, said climate change would lead to a “fundamental reshap- Georgieva plans to take advantage of this moment. The new ing of finance” and promised to rethink chief of the IMF described a range of measures the global fi- its strategy. Microsoft pledged to go nancial institution will take to prioritize climate change during carbon-negative in a decade and remove her five-year term: supporting policies that require investors to by 2050 a sum of carbon equivalent to disclose climate vulnerability, measuring a country’s financial all that the company has ever emitted. situation in part by its preparation for climate change, push- The value of assets under management ing countries around the globe to implement a carbon tax. “We in the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, a have to create the right policy environment that is based on group of investors committed to having sound economics,” she says. “I’m prioritizing this for the Fund.” a zero-emissions portfolio by 2050, grew to more than $4.3 trillion. And the IMF At a time when much of the climate conversation cen- warned that climate change “already en- ters on flashy policy prescriptions like the Green New Deal dangers health and economic outcomes.” 16 Time February 10, 2020 “I don’t want to be naive, but I want to acknowledge that the center of the global economy is now saying things that many of us have dreamed they might for a long time,” former Vice President Al Gore said at a dinner at Davos convened by WWF. “They’re say- ing them forcefully and eloquently.” Two broad climaTe risks domi- nated the discussion among corporate executives and investors in Davos: physi- cal risk and so-called transition risk. The former is obvious. Climate change drives extreme weather events and di- sasters, from flooding and drought to wildfires and heat waves, which can de- stroy infrastructure and devastate econ- omies. IMF data shows that even seven years after a devastating tropical storm, a country’s GDP per capita remains 1% lower than it would have been otherwise. Transition risk refers to the possibil- ity that companies may get left behind

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TheView Economy as the world goes green—the industry few dollars in the fossil-fuel era. “This driven out of business by new regula- is a whole-of-economy transition, and Camping out for climate tion, for example, or the technology in every sector of the economy there are A SHORT RIDE UP a funicular made obsolete by new advances. Not to companies that will be part of the solu- from the conference in Davos, an unusual scene: mention the brand tarnished by grow- tion and there will be companies that, for a group of scientists and youth activists camped ing activist (and consumer) revolt. whatever reason, lag,” Mark Carney, gov- alongside the actor Rainn Wilson, who rose to fame Companies have been aware of these ernor of the Bank of England, said at a playing the quirky Dwight Schrute in The Office. risks for years, in some cases decades, panel hosted by Bloomberg in Davos. The goal of this unlikely encampment? To teach but executives have always seen manag- The companies that have made bold people about how the changing Arctic is reshaping ing them as a balancing act. Move too promises still need to deliver on them. global weather systems. Since the project—part quickly and risk leaving behind your As the teenage activist Greta Thunberg educational pop-up, part protest—first came to Davos core business. Move too slowly and risk said in perhaps her most publicized mo- in 2017, the organizers have attracted an array of world getting left behind. ment of the week, “Pretty much nothing leaders, from former Vice President Al Gore, who sought But the swiftness and severity of has been done, since the global emis- out the campers, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin recent climate events, along with the sions of CO₂ have not reduced.” Netanyahu, who happened to pass by. When I visited, growing social pressure, have made the In fact, global temperatures are on track former Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson had biggest companies and investors realize for a rise of 3°C since the Industrial just finished a tour. “We’re speaking science to power,” they’ve been too conservative, leaving Revolution, even if governments follow says Arctic Basecamp founder Gail Whiteman. Wilson, who them out of step with colossal changes through on their current commitments, joined the camp for the first time this year, muses about that are already under way. “The degree blowing past the Paris Agreement’s tar- what his character would think. Dwight, he decides, of capital reallocation and get of keeping the tempera- would probably embrace the threat that climate change the speed of that is going to ‘If we really ture rise well below 2°C. poses to his beloved beet be larger and happen more have the Jennifer Morgan, execu- farm. “I think he would quickly than most market courage to ultimately be on our side,” participants expect,” Brian tive director of Greenpeace he said. ÑJustin Worland International, described the move, it may dynamic as a “tension” be- Wilson camped out at Deese, BlackRock’s global Davos with other activists head of sustainable invest- be the silver tween companies that see ing, told TIME in Davos. themselves as part of the so- Georgieva wants to bullet that lution and “an old energy” boosts the driving companies that oper- nudge the system along to economy.’ ate with business-as-usual make countries and com- panies acknowledge the KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, assumptions. A Greenpeace threat climate change poses IMF managing director, International report released to their bottom lines. For on measures to during Davos showed that 24 years, the IMF has tested banks in attendance this year tackle climate change small islands for their ex- financed the fossil-fuel in- posure; this year it will do the same for dustry to the tune of $1.4 trillion from the Japan, building on pilots done in other adoption of the Paris Agreement to 2018. advanced economies. At Davos, she en- Even as some investors start to step dorsed the work central banks are doing up to change that tide, Georgieva says to measure how climate change might the transition needs a push from lead- impact portfolios. ers in government, beyond voluntary Tackling climate change isn’t all bad disclosures of climate risks. “To ac- news for the economy, Georgieva says, celerate progress toward low-carbon, as a transition to clean energy sources climate-resilient investments, it would creates new economic opportunity. be prudent to move toward mandatory “If we really have the courage to move, disclosure,” the Bulgarian said. “It is a it may be the silver bullet that boosts welcome sign that some central banks the economy,” she says. are going in that direction.” For all the ardent declarations of in- The newfound urgency of the cli- tention at Davos, the true test lies in mate discussion at Davos reflects the the months to come. This year will be reality facing economic leaders. None- a critical test of global commitments, theless, challenges remain. So far it’s as governments prepare to make new mostly just talk, of course. And for all pledges to reduce emissions ahead of the executives and investors who say November’s U.N. climate conference in HENRY IDDON they will tackle climate change, there are Glasgow. Davos was a good start; lead- others who want to squeeze out the last ers are talking. Now they need to act. □ 18 Time February 10, 2020

Every day, everywhere, our connections to nature are infinite. © KEVIN ARNOLD; © WALTER P. AFABLE Healthy forests capture and slowly release rainwater into rivers and aquifers—providing reliable water that farmers use to grow the food we eat. Working together, we can build a planet where people and nature thrive. Explore the infinite ways you can connect with nature at nature.org.

Health CONTAINING A CRISIS ARE WE DOOMED TO A FUTURE OF RELENTLESS VIRAL OUTBREAKS? BY ALICE PARK AND CHARLIE CAMPBELL/WUHAN 22 Time February 10, 2020

A thermographic monitor records temperature in Celsius of passengers arriving at the Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on Jan. 27 PHOTOGRAPH BY ZIKRI MAULANA 23

Health THE YEAR OF THE RAT IS OFF TO AN OMINOUS START. “We just stay home and don’t go out,” says time you read this, but as of Jan. 29, the corner of the world, especially to China, PREVIOUS PAGES: SOPA IMAGES/SIPA USA; CRANES: XIAO YIJIU—XINHUA/POLARIS Mr. Dong. The 33-year-old researcher, new virus had claimed at least 133 lives where in some places the flow of infor- who provided only one name, has no and sickened more than 6,000 people mation is tightly controlled by a paranoid other options. He, his wife and their across 18 countries, including at least five state. Researchers in London and Hong 3-month-old daughter live in Wuhan, the cases in the U.S. While the World Health Kong have already warned that Beijing epicenter of an unfolding global health Organization (WHO) has not declared has dramatically underestimated the crisis. They’re treating the forced time at a “public-health emergency of interna- number of cases in Wuhan. “For any dis- home as a holiday, though he says, “this tional concern”—which would entail ease outbreak, the best strategy is trans- is different than any of them before.” more stringent monitoring and contain- parency,” says Yanzhong Huang, senior Families like his huddle in their homes, ment of infected people—China’s Presi- fellow for global health at the New York fearful that if they venture out, they will dent Xi Jinping is treating it as a national City–based Council on Foreign Rela- get sick. Since the first cases of a previ- emergency. He ordered an unprecedented tions. “Even taking into account the po- ously unknown pneumonia-like illness quarantine of Wuhan, banning travel in tential for panic, you need people to be emerged in December, Wuhan, the capi- and out of the city on Jan. 22; a few days prepared.” With a government as opaque tal of Hubei province, has frozen in place. later, he extended the quarantine to a as China’s, can we be sure that we are? Ten-lane thoroughfares lie empty after a dozen cities in Hubei province. Xi also ban on personal cars, and buses and sub- took the unusual step of extending the Coronaviruses are not rare. In ways sit silent. Lunar New Year 2020 official Lunar New Year holiday to dis- fact, you might have one right now. De- was stripped of its traditional fireworks, courage millions from traveling back to pending on the year, anywhere from boisterous gatherings around overflow- work and further seeding new infections 10% to 30% of the annual burden of ing tables of food and drink, and happy around China. colds can be blamed on one of four coro- reunions with family and friends. naviruses. That’s why, until the early Faster than the virus itself, fear has 2000s, the scientific community treated As researchers and public-health offi- spread around the globe. In the U.S., coronaviruses primarily as nuisances cials scramble to learn as much as they designated airports quickly instituted and paid relatively little attention to can about the new virus—how easily it screening programs to identify passen- them. “Twenty years ago, people weren’t transmits among people, and how deadly gers on Wuhan-originating flights with thinking in terms of coronaviruses being it is—fears swamp this city of 11 million. signs of fever, cough or difficulty breath- The disease responsible is caused by a ing, and to immediately direct them to coronavirus that’s never infected people hospital isolation wards. Numerous air- before. Conflicting advice about how in- lines canceled flights to and from China. fectious the virus might be are swirling Asian stock markets that weren’t closed through the Internet, along with mis- for the Lunar New Year plummeted. In information about exactly where the the U.S., Europe and Asia, shortages of virus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, came from. surgical face masks were reported. Hospitals in Wuhan are besieged by the sick, and only a handful of clinics are able The emergence of a powerful new in- to test for the disease. fectious virus for which there is (as yet) no vaccine should scare us, of course. But at Coronaviruses make up a family of vi- the same time, humans are better equipped ruses that live mainly in animals (bats are to fight these kinds of outbreaks than ever a favorite) but also includes strains that before. New technologies, specifically ones contribute to the common cold in people. that make possible the sequencing of any Only recently have they become more living thing’s genetic blueprint, are finally threatening, causing two deadly global giving us a meaningful advantage over pandemics in the past two decades— microbes. We can map the genome of a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, for example, which provides valu- in 2002 and 2003, and Middle East respi- able clues about how it spreads and helps ratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012. Each us figure out how our immune systems can new outbreak adds a fresh urgency to best battle it. The finest scientific minds the question of whether public-health are doing just that with coronaviruses officials could be doing more to confront in the hope that epidemics do not have the threat from emerging infections in a chance to mushroom into pandemics. general, and coronaviruses in particular. The question now is how quickly we The numbers will have climbed by the can transmit that knowledge to every 24 Time February 10, 2020

^ officials in white hazmat suits contin- findings should have rung alarm bells, he Earthmovers build one of two new ued to sift through evidence when TIME says. “We made strong predictions that hospitals the government ordered to visited on Jan. 22. these coronaviruses were poised for re- treat coronavirus cases in Wuhan emergence in human populations.” In De- Movement across species is what cember, that prediction came true, when a potential causes of pandemics or re- makes virus experts nervous. Because mysterious pneumonia-like illness began spiratory disease,” says Dr. Ian Lipkin, of their sloppy genetic copying, viruses spreading in the city of Wuhan. director of the center for infection and mutate all the time. By chance, the new immunity at Columbia University Mail- aberrations sometimes make a strain It’s not a mystery how authorities man School of Public Health. more adept at living in a new host—and should respond to a new infectious dis- in some cases, those changes make it more ease; by and large, it’s been the same for That changed in 2002, when SARS virulent as well. thousands of years. Since typhoid fever first emerged from China. Of the 8,000 struck Athens in 430 B.C.—among the people ultimately confirmed to have the In some respects, the outbreak in first recorded outbreaks—to the black respiratory disease, up to 10% died, wak- Wuhan might have been inevitable. Ralph plague in Europe during the 1300s, and ing public-health experts to the dangers Baric, professor of epidemiology at Uni- the more contemporary 1918 influenza of a virus that had jumped from bats to versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pandemic, isolation and quarantine have cats and dogs, and then to people. In and an expert on the genetic sequences been the most effective ways to contain Wuhan, officials believe 2019-nCoV of coronaviruses, has worked with Chi- a highly contagious infectious agent and made such a leap inside the city’s Huanan nese researchers since 2002 to better prevent it from decimating an entire pop- market. Rows of blue stalls housed count- understand this family of microbes and ulation of people. less purveyors of exotic, wild animals for how its members infect human cells to consumption. “I saw live hedgehogs, por- cause major respiratory symptoms. Yet in China, those lessons weren’t cupines, that kind of thing,” says Alan always followed, despite the recent leg- Laine, 57, a physics teacher from the From bats, Baric and his team ex- acy of SARS. Although scientists in China U.K. who has lived in Wuhan since 2002. tracted a series of coronaviruses that var- quickly identified the new coronavirus, “It wasn’t exactly hidden.” The market ied genetically from SARS by anywhere public-health officials were slow to ad- has been shuttered since Jan. 1, though from 2% to 12%. Those differences hinted vise people about how best to protect that some were primed to jump from bats themselves. It took President Xi nearly to people, and cause serious disease. His a month after the first cases emerged in Wuhan to finally address the health crisis publicly, and local health officials say that delay tied their hands. As Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang explained on CCTV on Jan. 27, “As a local official, I could only disclose information after being autho- rized [by the central government]. A lot of people don’t understand this.” Indeed, the wife of a doctor in a Wuhan hospi- tal told TIME that her husband had been instructed not to discuss the coronavirus situation and the government’s response with anyone. The top-down leadership structure of Xi’s government leaves local health de- partments with little authority to issue alerts or take any action, snarling pub- lic health and politics at the expense of human lives. Train conductors were re- portedly initially told not to wear masks to avoid generating more panic among passengers, just days before the entire rail system was shut down. “People didn’t realize the severity of the situation,” says a graphic designer from Wuhan who provided only her last name, Tao. “They thought the virus was controllable and not contagious. The government did not publish the facts in time, and they failed to control the epidemic.” 25

STOPPING A KILLER A new virus has emerged from central China, infecting thousands with severe respiratory illness and killing dozens. Health officials, doctors and researchers are scrambling to contain the outbreak DEC. 31 JAN. 7 JAN. 9 JAN. 13–15 The animal-to-human jump Cause identified First fatality International exposure Several people in Wuhan It belongs to the coronavirus A death is recorded in Wuhan; Thailand and Japan confirm report symptoms caused by family, which includes SARS meanwhile, the virus reaches infected travelers; the a virus that is later tied to a and MERS, and spreads via other provinces as people countries begin to screen food market airborne droplets travel around China anyone arriving from Wuhan The swing from downplaying the ini- speeding detection of new cases. When exactly which proteins the virus is using tial cases to the extreme policies now the first potential case of 2019-nCoV ap- to wreak havoc requires making high- in place fueled outbursts on the social- peared in the U.S., the Centers for Dis- quality synthetic DNA from the viral media network Weibo: “The common ease Control and Prevention (CDC) was genome, something only a few compa- people are suffering. We don’t really able to confirm the fingerprint of the new nies are able to do in a process that takes have democracy here, and we are de- coronavirus overnight, from the patient’s around 10 days. Then researchers need prived of the right of telling the truth,” sample sent to the agency. The CDC also to make proteins from that DNA. With- wrote one Weibo user on Jan. 28. An- plans to ship testing kits to health de- out those proteins from the viral genome, other, on the same day, went further, partments, both in the U.S. and abroad, you can’t test which antibodies or drug seeing the outbreak as a harbinger of the to enable them to quickly confirm compounds might counteract them. “The future of the Chinese state. “The virus coronavirus infections and distinguish [genetic] code on a screen doesn’t get you outbreak exposes the truth. It is a wake- them from the current seasonal flu. things to work with on the bench,” says up call: our country is not as strong as Karla Satchell, co-director of the center we expected, our system is not as supe- Diagnosing a disease is one thing, but for structural genomics of infectious dis- rior as TV describes.” treating it is another, and creating a vac- eases at Northwestern University’s Fein- cine or drug will take longer. To find out berg School of Medicine. Xi’s government has done at least one indisputably effective thing to help PROTECTING YOURSELF Scientists shouldn’t be relying on pri- battle the virus. On Jan. 10, it posted on- vate companies in this way, says Andrew line a scientific paper containing the ge- Use these CDC tips to prevent Mesecar, a coronavirus researcher and netic blueprint of 2019-nCoV. The prompt the spread of 2019-nCoV and head of biochemistry at Purdue Uni- release of the sequence won Xi plaudits other respiratory viruses: versity, who researches coronaviruses. in the global health community, since it He is currently working on a solution: allowed teams around the world to begin Wash hands often using he and his team have studied the pro- breaking down the ingredients of the in- soap and water teins, or enzymes, that different strains fection and figuring out how to fight it. of coronavirus use to replicate in human Avoid touching eyes, cells, and developed 50 compounds that When SARS hit, the sequencing of nose and mouth can inhibit their activity, essentially the human genome was costly and cum- blocking the virus from causing infec- bersome; in part because of that, in Avoid close contact tion. “My idea is to have an [IBM] Wat- 2002, it took the Beijing government with those who are sick son of drug discovery,” he says. “As soon five months to release what it did in just as we get the sequence information for a few days in 2020. Today, the technol- Disinfect frequently a new disease-causing virus, I can feed ogy is cheap and routine and is already touched surfaces the computer the information, and it 26 Time February 10, 2020 Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue

JAN. 17 JAN. 23 JAN. 27 CURRENT Passenger screening City quarantined Hospitals overwhelmed Treating patients The U.S. begins airport health A travel ban is put into effect Increasing numbers of sick As China builds new hospitals, checks on all travelers from in Wuhan and, later, in other patients in Wuhan strain scientists are racing to Wuhan and, later, all travelers cities in Hubei province, hospital staff and deplete develop drug treatments and from China affecting 50 million people medical supplies a vaccine SOURCES: WHO; CDC; JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY; NEWS REPORTS NOTE: DATA AS OF JAN. 29 will say you should try these compounds There is still a lot about the Wuhan which turned into an upper-respiratory off the shelf to start. It’s not here yet, but coronavirus that researchers don’t know, it’s coming, and I hope this is realized however. It’s not clear how easily the infection, sneezing, runny nose and then in my lifetime.” virus spreads from person to person or how long its incubation period is, and muscle soreness, weakness and sharp Yet even if researchers identify a po- there are reports from Chinese health tential drug for 2019-nCoV, testing its officials that it can be spread by some- pains throughout my chest,” he says. safety and efficacy will take months. one who is infected but doesn’t have any To speed that process up, scientists are symptoms of the illness. The CDC and Unsure whether he was infected with tapping some new technologies. For other health agencies are trying to con- example, stem cells can be coaxed to firm that right now. Both U.S. and Chi- 2019-nCoV or the flu, he decided to wait churn out high volumes of human lung nese scientists are also working on devel- cells in order to study how a virus like oping a vaccine for 2019-nCoV, relying it out rather than brave a potentially in- 2019-nCoV interacts with them. And on some of the genetic knowledge they three-dimensional cell cultures, which gathered from SARS. fectious line of people at the hospital for mimic in a lab dish the physical and mo- lecular environment in the human body, All the science in the world still might several hours. “It just seemed absolutely could substitute for some early human not be a match for human nature, how- safety studies, making for a more afford- ever, as personal fears often take prece- terrifying and unsafe,” he says. able and efficient way to test how safe a dence over the public good—especially treatment might be. during an unfolding outbreak when Even if he had gone to the hospi- health officials don’t have all the an- Advances like these make some in the swers. When Jacob Wilson, who runs tal, he might not have learned if he had field hopeful that the public-health re- a media company in Wuhan, first felt sponse could be better this time around. his throat get scratchy on Jan. 21, he 2019-nCoV; only four medical centers “Twitter and everything was lighting up wasn’t concerned. The 33-year-old from on Friday night [Jan. 10] that the genetic Alexandria, La., hadn’t visited the sea- in the entire city had kits to test for the sequence of the virus was posted,” says food market that was being targeted as Mesecar. “We analyzed the first one that the source of the outbreak, and health au- virus at the time. He turned instead to Saturday morning. Within 20 minutes of thorities in Wuhan said the new mysteri- having the sequence, I knew it was very ous pneumonia-like illness wasn’t passed his mother, a nurse in the U.S., who pre- close to SARS. That’s when I thought, between humans. Reassured, Wilson con- ‘Uh-oh, this could be as virulent as SARS.’ tinued going to work. “But for the next scribed antiviral and asthma medica- That tells you right away that you had bet- three days I had a fever and dry cough, ter act like this is SARS.” tions that improved his symptoms after about a week. He and the roughly 50 million peo- ple stuck in Hubei province are still fac- ing a quarantine period that looks likely to drag into weeks and possibly months, as the numbers of infections and deaths creep higher. With workplaces shut- tered, and no way to earn money, locals are counting their meals—and trying to remain positive. “This break is peace and quiet,” says Dong. “People may feel bored, but I enjoy this holiday.” Until sci- ence offers a better remedy, the people of Wuhan must cling to those simplest of defenses: hope and hiding. □ 27

HTeahleer FOR JOE BIDEN, THE 2020 ELECTION IS THE LATEST TEST IN A LIFETIME FILLED WITH LOSS By Molly Ball PHOTOGR APHS BY SEPTEMBER DAW N BOTTOMS FOR TIME

Biden on the campaign trail in Iowa, where his crowds have been smaller than those of his top rivals

It’s dark inside bartender at an American Legion post who lingered to speak with Biden after a town hall in Ottumwa, Iowa. Joe Biden’s “That’s what would make him such a good leader.” campaign bus, The outcome of the Democratic primary and potentially the party’s fate in November hinge on a lumbering blue diesel emblazoned with the slogan Biden’s resilience and whether he can overcome one BaTTle for The Soul of The NaTioN. On this late last test. Embedded in the challenge are existential January afternoon in Iowa, the former Vice President questions about grief and experience: Do they add is in the cramped back cabin, nursing a paper cup of or detract? Are they baggage or scar tissue? Do they Panera Bread coffee so the motion of the road and the strengthen a person or deplete him? In Biden, both drone of the motor don’t lull him to sleep. possibilities are simultaneously present. He is talking about loss. The things he has lost are Politics has always been a cathartic exercise for never far from Biden’s mind. Chief among them: his Biden, a form of exuberant self-expression. It’s as if son Beau, a rising star in Democratic politics who he has to prove to himself he’s still alive, and this is died of brain cancer in 2015, a few months after his the only way he knows. “Purpose,” he says. “That’s 46th birthday. “I get up in the morning lots of times how I got through it. I lost my wife and daughter; and ask myself if he’d be proud of me,” Biden says. that’s how I got through it. When they told me Beau didn’t have a chance of making it, that’s how I got Beau’s death was the latest in the litany of losses through it. You’ve got to have purpose.” and setbacks that have defined Biden’s life. The death of his wife and daughter in an auto accident in 1972. This time is no different. Biden’s iPhone rests on The 1988 presidential bid that ended in a plagiarism the table in front of him, a platform bolted to the wall scandal. Life-threatening brain aneurysms. Another of the bus. The phone is open to a text-message con- failed bid for the presidency in 2008. For nearly a half- versation in enlarged type, the sender identified as century, the nation has watched Biden wrestle pub- “HUNT”: his younger son Hunter, the one with the licly with sorrow. At countless funerals, he has eulo- soap-opera life and foreign entanglements that fig- gized Americans great and ordinary, all while nursing ure into President Trump’s impeachment. The only his own barely concealed wounds. “My mother used visible message reads, “Love you Dad.” to say God never gives you a cross too heavy to carry,” his wife Jill says. “But God got pretty close with Beau.” Yet Biden soldiers on: out of pride, out of duty, out of a deep-seated need to remain in the mix. To his boosters, he’s the last authentic man in American pol- itics and the Democrats’ best hope of toppling Don- ald Trump. To his critics, he’s a nostalgia act whose well-worn slogans about middle-class uplift and na- tional unity are out of sync in this season of outrage. Now, at 77, he stands atop the field of Democratic presidential contenders. For months, rivals have nipped at his heels, evincing an I-can’t-believe-I’m- losing-to-this guy incredulity. His campaign is disor- ganized, his debate performances uneven, his stump speech a long-winded hodgepodge delivered to small, graying crowds. Anyone who’s known him can see he’s slowed down. And yet, as the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses draw near, Biden remains the man to beat for the nom- ination. He has maintained a lead in national polls since the start of the campaign, bolstered by a dura- ble coalition of African American and white working- class voters drawn to his experience, his relationships and his humanity. No one in either party connects with voters in such an intensely personal way: hug- ging, gripping shoulders, planting kisses on fore- heads. “He’s got more compassion in his little finger than anyone I’ve met,” says Mary Luce, a 70-year-old 30 Time February 10, 2020

The bus pulls onto the campus of Iowa Central ^ were never comfortable either. Joe struggled to over- Community College in Fort Dodge, a city of 24,000 Biden, in Mason come a childhood stutter; his mother assured him it an hour and a half north of Des Moines. The sun has City, Iowa, on was because he was so smart his mouth couldn’t keep set by the time Biden finally gets started, nearly two Jan. 22, connects up with his brain. hours late. Despite the venue, the crowd is elderly. As Biden speaks, students drift out of the adjacent with voters in During college at the University of Delaware, Biden library without stopping to listen. an intensely worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool in a rough, personal way mostly African-American neighborhood in Wilming- Something in the front row catches Biden’s eye, ton. “You couldn’t run up on him and scare him,” says inspiring a riff about the three times firefighters saved Richard “Mouse” Smith, who befriended Biden at him and his family members, starting with the car the pool and remains close. “If you got in his face, crash that killed his wife Neilia and 13-month-old he got in your face. He didn’t back down for nobody.” daughter Naomi but spared his two young sons. It’s been less than three minutes and already we’re talk- When Biden ran for Senate in 1972, people said ing about the Jaws of Life. Then the story ends, and he was crazy to take on the well-liked Republican in- Biden, who’s pacing the room with a microphone, cumbent, Cale Boggs. Biden responded, “He’s tired.” left hand tucked in the pocket of his slim navy suit, The 29-year-old wunderkind thrilled audiences with moseys back to his lectern, scanning his notes for a soaring oratory, each speech a feat of Kennedy-esque rhetorical foothold. “But look, folks, um, one of the optimism that defied the Vietnam-era gloom. Smith things that, uh, that I think is pretty critical here is helped introduce him in Wilmington’s housing proj- that, uh, you know, uh I think the character of the na- ects, where white politicians rarely ventured. It was a tion is literally on the ballot this time around.” bad year for Democrats, the year of President Nixon’s landslide re-election, but Biden won by a razor-thin Biden spent his early years watching his father 3,000-vote margin. struggle in business. At one point the family had to live with his mother’s parents, a feuding, hard- Just a few weeks later, while Biden was in Wash- drinking Irish clan. When Biden was 10, the family ington interviewing staff, a tractor-trailer slammed moved to Delaware, where his father worked as a car into the family station wagon. “One of the things salesman. The Bidens never sank into poverty but that made it so excruciating is that it came right after something fantastic happened to him,” says Ted Kaufman, who was a 33-year-old volunteer on the ’72 campaign and would later become Biden’s chief of staff, close confidant and appointed successor in the Senate. “He won this impossible, come-from-behind race for the Senate seat at 29 years old. We were top of the world, and then we were down at the bottom.” Biden’s sons Beau, then 3, and Hunter, 2, were badly injured. Once Biden got to the hospital in Wilmington, he refused to leave their side. He told the Senate majority leader, Mike Mansfield, that he wouldn’t return to Washington and sent word that the incoming governor of Delaware should prepare to appoint someone else. The tragedy plunged him into such despair, Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir, that he came to understand why those who commit suicide see it as a rational choice. Mansfield arranged for Biden to take the oath of office at the hospital and wouldn’t leave him alone until he agreed to stay in the Senate. Biden never rented an apartment in Washington, commuting two hours each way by car or Amtrak so he could be home in Wilmington every night. The meaning he found in his work helped pull him through the tragedy’s aftermath; the Senate became a sort of second family. Slowly, Biden put his life back together. In 1975, after a few years as a single father, he asked Jill Jacobs on a date after spotting her picture on an airport poster and discovering his brother knew the onetime model. “It wasn’t like Joe and I dated—I dated Joe and the boys,” Jill Biden says. “I watched him heal through his love for the boys.” 31

A life in 1950S 1973 1987 politics The Bidens at Mourning his wife and Biden’s first presidential Biden, who spent their family home; daughter, Biden is sworn in at campaign ends before 44 years as a any votes are cast, amid a Senator and as Vice Joe is second his sons’ hospital room President, has made from the right plagiarism scandal his experience a core theme of his 2020 campaign. By 1987, Biden was chairman of the Judiciary Com- covered and went on to rack up a long record of ac- mittee and running for the Democratic presidential complishments. He became chairman of the Foreign nomination. His campaign was a high-wire act, a suc- Relations Committee and won acclaim for his ability cession of late entrances and ad-libbed last-minute to work across the aisle. “I saw him negotiate with speeches. Instead of preparing for a debate at the Iowa Jesse Helms to get funding for the U.N.,” recalls for- State Fair, Biden spent the entire flight westward gab- mer Senator Chris Dodd. “No one else could do it.” bing with aides about Senate business and failing to prepare a closing statement. He could talk forever, but Today the deals Biden cut with Republican Sen- he could never quite articulate why he was running. ators, including segregationists like Helms, are part of the left’s case against him. Biden took the lead in Unable to come up with his own message, he sub- passing the 1994 crime bill, which included a ban on stituted those of others. He claimed to have marched assault weapons and the Violence Against Women in the civil rights movement when he hadn’t, and Act but also increased criminal penalties that have he lifted passages from the late Bobby Kennedy’s been blamed for America’s mass-incarceration crisis. speeches. Finally, in a debate, he recited nearly When he ran Clarence Thomas’ 1991 Supreme Court word for word, without credit, British Labour Party nomination hearing, he initially resisted airing Anita leader Neil Kinnock’s impassioned monologue about Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment, then presided his coal-mining ancestors. Biden was not descended over an all-white-male panel that treated Hill with from any coal miners. A rival campaign tipped off the skepticism and condescension. press. It was soon discovered that he’d also been dis- ciplined for plagiarism in law school. Biden voted for welfare reform and banking dereg- ulation, NAFTA and the war in Iraq. He clashed with a Biden’s political rhetoric had invoked the sacred- little-known professor named Elizabeth Warren over ness of a man’s word. The scandal cast him instead as bankruptcy legislation that Warren said would leave a blarney artist, a man so in love with the power of a the working class without a safety net. Biden, whose good story that facts were incidental. He withdrew home state’s lax financial regulations have drawn from the race before voting began. many banks and credit-card companies to make their headquarters there, ushered the bill through. “Every For The nexT 20 years, Biden worked to reclaim big mistake Democrats have made in the past 30 years, his reputation as a serious man. “It obviously jolted Joe Biden has been involved, and often he’s been him,” says former Secretary of State John Kerry, a leading the way,” says Rebecca Katz, a progressive longtime Senate buddy who is now campaigning for strategist unaffiliated with a presidential campaign. Biden. The same day Biden pulled out of the presi- dential race, he returned to the Senate to question Biden’s second presidential run, in 2008, was over- witnesses about President Reagan’s conservative Su- shadowed by Barack Obama’s meteoric ascent and preme Court nominee, Robert Bork. Biden won over Hillary Clinton’s establishment machine. He dropped six Republican Senators to derail Bork’s nomination out after getting 1% in Iowa. But Obama had been im- on ideological grounds, a feat that broke the Senate’s pressed by Biden’s debate performances and wanted norm at the time of evaluating judicial nominees only an elder statesman to balance the ticket. Biden agreed on the basis of aptitude. to be vetted for Vice President and was interviewed by Obama’s senior strategist David Axelrod. “I said, A few months later, Biden fell ill in a hotel room ‘One thing that concerns me is that you can be a little after a speech. He underwent two high-risk brain voluble. Can you control that?’” Axelrod recalls. “Two surgeries to repair cranial aneurysms. Doctors told hours later, he finished answering the question.” him he had no better than 50-50 odds of recovery. Biden was out of the Senate for seven months but re- Obama and Biden were opposites in background and temperament, but they became genuinely close, 32 Time February 10, 2020

1991 1994 2008 2015 After Anita Hill accuses Biden helps write Obama taps the senior Biden and his Clarence Thomas of the controversial crime Senator to join the family at a visitation sexual harassment, Biden bill signed by Democratic ticket, and for his son Beau presides over an all-white- President Clinton the Senator is elected male panel in the Senate Vice President 19 5 3: C O U R T E SY B I D E N C A M PA I G N; 1973: A P; 19 87, 19 91, 2 0 0 8: G E T T Y I M AG E S (3); 19 9 4, 2 015: A P (2) according to both men. Biden commanded an expan- but it got done.” Reid later demanded the White sive portfolio: implementing the Recovery Act and a House remove Biden from future negotiations. gun-control push, handling sticky foreign situations from Iraq to Ukraine and doing much of the Senate The morning aFTer the speech in Fort Dodge, glad-handing that Obama loathed. Biden also argued Biden arrives at the North Iowa Events Center in for a restrained foreign policy, frequently clashing Mason City, where he’s introduced by Represen- with the more hawkish Secretary of State Clinton tative Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, a 35-year-old and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Biden advised who in 2018 won a district Trump had carried by against the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and 20 points. Youth and diversity are great, Lamb says. against sending more troops to Afghanistan. But “a little adult supervision wouldn’t be the worst thing for us in the House!” Taking the microphone, Within the Administration he was a serious player, Biden extols Lamb’s credentials. “He reminds me so but he was also known for his antics. Upbeat and gre- much—excuse me for saying this—of my son Beau,” garious, he couldn’t walk down a hallway without pi- Biden says. “They both ended up majors, they both geonholing someone for a 10-minute conversation, ended up deployed, and they both ended up serving a former West Wing staffer recalls. He carved out a their country from their heart as well as their head.” public persona as a sort of lovable goof, encapsulated by a parody in the Onion of a shirtless “Biden” sup- Beau was the attorney general of Delaware, laying posedly washing his vintage Pontiac Trans Am in the the groundwork to run for governor, when in 2013 White House driveway. His staff once blacked out the he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same fast- windows of a venue where he was speaking because moving brain cancer that killed Senators John McCain his tendency to bound outside to shake hands pre- and Edward Kennedy. “It’s a death sentence. We knew sented a security risk and scheduling hassle. right away,” Biden recalls in our interview. “But you al- ways hope for a miracle.” Beau succumbed to the dis- Obama aides mostly laughed off Biden’s idiosyn- ease in May 2015. Before he died, he made his father cracies; they’d known what they were getting when swear that he would be all right, as Biden describes they picked him. There was one notable exception. in his best-selling 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad—a In May 2012, Biden let slip that he’d come around deeply moving chronicle of loss that’s interwoven with to supporting gay marriage, forcing Obama to an- descriptions of Biden’s high-stakes negotiations with nounce ahead of schedule that his own position had foreign leaders. At first, Biden wasn’t sure he could also “evolved.” Obama’s advisers, some of whom had keep that promise. The boys had gotten him through tested the idea of replacing Biden with Clinton on his grief after the car accident, he says. Coming the 2012 ticket, were incensed. Today Biden invokes home every night “wasn’t about being a good dad—I their partnership incessantly, but Obama remains of- needed them.” Now his support system was gone. ficially neutral in the primary. Biden had been making serious preparations Some of Biden’s critics charged that he was so to run for the 2016 presidential nomination, de- eager to be part of the action that he would agree spite the conventional wisdom that Clinton had it to bad deals in the name of bipartisanship. In De- locked up. His strategist Mike Donilon drew up a cember 2012, then Senate majority leader Harry 22-page memo arguing that he was well positioned Reid and minority leader Mitch McConnell reached to win with a message of finishing the work Obama an impasse on an extension of the George W. Bush– started and lifting up the middle class. Even Biden’s era tax cuts. Reid was so annoyed with McConnell’s gaffes, he argued, would strike voters as authen- offer that he threw it in a fireplace. McConnell tic and refreshing compared with “carefully pack- “called Biden because I didn’t want any part of aged candidates” the public had tired of. But Biden that deal,” Reid recalls. “I was not a big fan of it, 33

says, “I realized I just didn’t have the heart to do it.” a tactic Obama’s team seized on to encourage volun- Beau’s death had destabilized the family in more teering. But on his recent campaign swing, all the ways than one. His widow fell into a romance with his brother Hunter, who had separated from his wife. field organizers were from out of state, a sign that he’s Hunter had struggled with addiction for years—in 2014, he was discharged from the Navy when he having trouble recruiting local volunteers. tested positive for cocaine. He’d been to rehab, but after his brother’s death, he resumed drinking and Then there’s the candidate himself. Some days he smoking crack, he told the New Yorker last year. He recently settled a paternity suit brought by an Arkan- seems lost; others, he’s perfectly sharp. The campaign sas woman in local court. In May of last year, Hunter surprised his parents by suddenly marrying a South has sharply limited his exposure to the media. Biden African filmmaker he’d met six days earlier. (Hunter Biden did not respond to messages requesting com- hasn’t taken questions from reporters on the cam- ment for this article.) paign trail in more than a month. Aides cut off the Hunter’s career has also created issues. After grad- uating from Yale Law School, Hunter founded a se- interview for this article before the allotted time was ries of lobbying and investment firms that Repub- lican critics charge were mostly about leveraging up. “They’ve been very careful how they handle him,” his name. These activities caused heartburn in the White House, Obama Administration sources say, Axelrod observes. “He’s like a porcelain candidate— but Biden would become defensive or irate if any- one questioned them. One of his gigs was with the they don’t expose him very much. I used to say Biden Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, which paid him up to $50,000 per month to sit on its board despite Hunt- has a peculiar type of performance anxiety: he per- er’s lack of expertise in Ukraine or natural gas. At the time, Joe Biden was leading anticorruption ef- forms, and everyone around him is anxious.” forts in Ukraine, and from this potential conflict of interest, Trump and his allies have spun an elabo- The old Biden gaffes tended to be a product of po- rate and false conspiracy theory alleging that Bu- risma was bribing Joe Biden, through his son, to in- litical incorrectness, like when he called Obama “the fluence U.S. policy toward the former Soviet state. first sort of mainstream African American who is ar- After 2016, Biden’s political career was assumed to be over. But Biden still nursed ambitions. Trump’s “flat ticulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” appeal to hatred” after the deadly white-supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017 was Now Biden often wanders around searching for the a key factor, he says. Still, he wasn’t sure about running, “because I knew how ugly he’d make it.” end of his sentence, cutting off digressions with an Biden’s 2020 campaign has been messy and in- apologetic “anyway.” The fast-talking, wise- sular, like all his previous ones. This is the first time his sister Valerie Biden Owens hasn’t managed the ‘Joe’s a cracking lawyer-pol has been replaced by an operation, though she’s still deeply involved. His se- healer. old man who can’t stop talking about the past. nior leadership is heavy on confidants and light on consultants-for-hire, with few veterans of other pres- And yet when Biden gets into the weeds idential campaigns and few former Clinton staffers. It satisfies on policy, a sort of muscle memory kicks in. The candidate is prone to indecision, sometimes He ticks off the legislative history of bills and paralyzingly so. The campaign’s kickoff was delayed that for months as he dithered. In April, aides planned to makes sophisticated arguments and has a re- launch at last with a video, filmed in Scranton, Pa., about middle-class values. At the last minute, Biden feeling of markable ability to weave together his aw- ditched it and recorded an ad about Charlottesville shucks persona with his high-level experi- instead. It took months for the campaign to open its purpose.’ Philadelphia headquarters. When the Ukraine scan- ence. One minute he’s cracking jokes about dal began to unfold in September, Biden initially firefighters (“You’re all crazy, but I love you”), struggled to respond to questions about his son’s role. ÑJILL BIDEN and the next he’s recounting his meetings with All of Biden’s top Democratic rivals routinely draw larger and more enthusiastic crowds. At events he is Chinese President Xi Jinping. The New York usually preceded onstage by a young field organizer, Times editorial board gave him scant consideration 34 Time February 10, 2020 for its endorsement but noted he was the only can- didate they interviewed who offered a detailed plan for what to do if China sent troops to quell the Hong Kong protests. (U.N. resolution, warships moved to the region, pressure from allies, threats of sanctions.) The most telling moment from Biden’s session at the Times came not in the interview but before- hand, when an African-American security guard ap- proached him in an elevator to tell him she loved him. In the 2020 campaign, this has been Biden’s abiding strength: the loyalty of voters who feel they know him deeply. “He has a real base among African Americans, non-college-educated whites and older voters,” Axelrod says. “He has a palpable sense of em- pathy and compassion, and when the race is defined by a President who’s completely devoid of empathy and compassion, that is a powerful quality.” Almost anyone who knows Biden can offer a story about this compassion. Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat, was not yet an elected official when her husband died unexpectedly in 2014. Biden tracked her down and called out of the blue to comfort her. “I got a lot of calls that day.

I don’t remember a lot. I was in a fog,” she says. “But ^ Taking in Biden’s long-winded Q. and A.s can feel I’ll never forget the conversation with him. Through Biden backstage the phone I could feel true empathy from somebody before his campaign like a warm bath: not necessarily thrilling, but deeply who had walked that path.” She only found out later event in Mason City that Biden’s son had a terminal illness at the time. soothing. His advisers believe voters are hungry for Biden’s events can feel like a rolling therapy ses- reconciliation. “They’re scared to death because they sion. A large chunk of time is set aside after every speech for Biden to interact with voters, many of think the character of the country is going to change in whom tell him about their own encounters with trauma and death. Most people would find this con- a way that will never be repaired,” Donilon, the cam- stant performance of comfort, the assumption of so many strangers’ burdens, to be draining. Not Biden. paign’s chief strategist, says of voters. “That’s what “Joe’s a healer,” Jill says. “He feels people’s problems because he’s been through a lot of it himself. And it sat- Biden is talking about. That is a resilient message.” isfies that feeling of purpose that he’s helping others.” The other key pitch is that Biden offers the best biden’s mosT consequenTial decision this cam- paign has been not to make a hard turn to the left. chance of beating Trump. “We can win in North Car- (Some of his advisers pushed him to reconsider de- fending his work on the crime bill. He refused, saying olina, we can win in Georgia, we can win in Texas, we it demonstrated his pragmatism.) Pressed to apolo- gize for working with segregationists in the Senate, he can win in Arizona, we can win Pennsylvania,” Biden insisted it proves he can work even with today’s Re- publicans. “Some of my colleagues don’t think we can says. “The question is, who do you think helps? You unite the country,” Biden says on the bus, positioning a throw pillow at the small of his back on the narrow think Bernie or Elizabeth helps them win in North bench. His jacket is off, his tie loosened. “They make fun of me that I think I can,” he continues. “Well, if we Carolina or Georgia? You know the answer.” don’t unite the country, if we don’t bring it back to- gether, start to be able to work together, we’re done.” Yet many Democrats fear nominating Biden is a di- It’s a gamble to hawk comity while your rivals in- saster waiting to happen. Trump could run the same veigh against a broken system and a bitter enemy. playbook he ran against Clinton: insinuating physical decline, pointing out paid speeches and other ties to big banks, the vague scent of legal-but-sleazy asso- ciations, “experience” turned into an epithet against the longtime Washington insider. Biden allies recog- nize the threat and insist they’re girding for a brawl. Says Senator Chris Coons of Delaware: “We’re going to go right back at him.” Biden’s bus trundles on through Iowa, the win- dows so darkened by his campaign slogan that it’s impossible to see the landscape as it passes by. “My mom used to say, as long as you’re alive—” he pauses and emits a chuckle. “You’re not dead until you see the face of God.” —With reporting by PhiliP ellioTT/deS moiNeS, iowa • 35

KOBE BRYANT 1978 — 2020



Sports BY SEAN GREGORY Bryant celebrates the 2010 NBA championship, after the Lakers defeated the Boston Jerry West saw something the other basketball mavens didn’t. Everyone around the league was intrigued by the slender high school senior with NBA genes and confidence to spare. But could Kobe Bryant really go directly from leading the Lower Merion High School Aces in suburban Philadelphia to guarding Michael Jordan? It took

VIEWPOINT WHEN A CHILD LOSES HIS HERO BY DAVID FRENCH OPENING PAGES: BOB LEVEY—GETTY IMAGES; THESE PAGES: ALEX GALLARDO—REUTERS WHEN I WATCHED the coverage of Kobe great athlete at the top of his game. It’s a and Gianna Bryant’s deaths, amid the joy to see an artist perform at the peak of primary grief I felt for Kobe’s wife, his her talents. surviving children and the people who knew and loved him, there were a series And, make no mistake, it was a of images that brought even more tears to privilege to watch Kobe. He brought my eyes. It was the kids lined up outside a ferocious energy to the court. He the Staples Center. Some of them were carried that ferocious energy into a will dressed head to toe in Lakers gear. I to improve, to drive himself to match or looked at them and saw my own son. possibly even exceed the game’s greats. I was transported back to a magical To put it another way, Kobe upheld night on Nov. 11, 2014. We live in his end of the bargain. The kids in the Tennessee, not too far from Memphis, Kobe jerseys gave him their love, and and Kobe’s Lakers were coming to Beale he gave them everything he had. And as Street to play the Grizzlies. We didn’t he poured his heart and soul out on the know how many more opportunities we’d hardwood, the bond was sealed. have to see Kobe play, so I splurged and bought tickets for the row behind the As Kobe got older, his growth was Grizzlies bench. My son brought a friend, unmistakable. He was a leader in another Kobe fan, and I’ve never seen the cohort of NBA stars who put their two kids more excited—or more decked families front and center. Kobe’s fans out in Lakers gear. They’d even fashioned started to see Kobe as a husband and capes out of Lakers flags. father. My son knew his daughters’ names. His friends knew their names. NBA basketball is often a more inti- And after Kobe retired, the pictures of mate game than the other major Ameri- him on the sideline with Gianna went can sports. In basketball, you can be viral—and not just with sentimental sometimes inches away from the world’s parents. greatest athletes. Throughout the night, Grizzlies stars Marc Gasol and Zach Kobe’s life was messy and Randolph talked to my son and his friend, complicated. There were hard questions good-naturedly giving them a hard time for to ask and hard conversations to have rooting for Kobe. Then, late in the game, about a terrible night in Colorado, and Kobe saw them—in all their ridiculous the man behind the jersey. But most lives Lakers finery—and he broke his game have a direction, and the direction of face for just a moment and smiled. Kobe’s life was clear. If you’re a parent, chances are you And he had so much more to do. While know what it’s like when your kid finds a he never quite reached Michael Jordan’s hero. Channeled properly, it’s a source of greatness on the court, he was poised to true joy. Go to the games together, and outshine Jordan in his retirement. He won you create those moments that bond an Oscar. He was an enormous presence families. I once read advice that I’ve in the game. He showcased an intellect never forgotten—when spending money that was miles beyond mere “basketball with your family, don’t purchase things. brilliant.” And kids still wore his jersey. Purchase shared experiences. And on He was still their hero, almost four years that night, we had an experience that will after his incredible, 60-point final game. stay with us forever. And now he’s gone. There are a lot of good reasons to I called my son, a college freshman. worry about our celebrity culture. We He told me he was wearing Kobe’s lavish attention bordering on obsession jersey. His grief, and the grief of millions on our biggest stars. But it’s also true of Americans like him, is—in its own that excellence can be a gift to a nation way—a final tribute to the man who gave and a culture. It’s a privilege to watch a them so much joy. Celtics in Game 7 French is a columnist for TIME 39

Sports West, then executive vice president of INDELIBLE MOMENTS CLOCK WISE F ROM TOP LEF T: KOBE BRYANT/INSTAGR AM; VINCENT L AFORE T— AF P/GE T T Y IMAGES; STE VE GR AYSON — WIREIMAGE/GE T T Y IMAGES; TIMOTHY A . CL ARY— AF P/GE T T Y IMAGES; JOHN SHE ARER— GE T T Y IMAGES the Los Angeles Lakers and one of the Clockwise from top left: In 2019, Bryant with daughters Natalia, best players in NBA history, less than a Bianka and Gianna, and wife Vanessa, pregnant with daughter half hour to know the answer. As part of Capri; chatting with Michael Jordan during a 1997 game; with a workout ahead of the 1996 draft, Bry- Jerry West, left, upon joining the Lakers in 1996; showing off his ant played one-on-one against the re- gold medal at the 2012 Olympics; clutching his Oscar in 2018 cently retired defensive specialist Mi- chael Cooper. The GM ended the session including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter social networks, the hashtag for Bryant’s early. “I was embarrassed for Michael to Gianna, known as Gigi, and two other death drew nearly 2.5 billion views in a watch a 17-year-old just basically demol- young girls. Bryant had begun using he- day. Former President Barack Obama ish him,” West tells TIME, “and enjoy licopters as a player to avoid L.A. traf- said, “Kobe was a legend on the court doing it.” fic on his commutes to home games, and just getting started in what would and to give him more time with his wife have been just as meaningful a sec- West acquired Bryant in a draft- Vanessa and their children. The crash ond act,” and world leaders from Israel day deal, pairing the teenager with the is still under investigation, though the to Venezuela shared their own condo- towering Shaquille O’Neal and launching National Transportation Safety Board lences. Murals of Bryant with his daugh- one of the most decorated careers in said the helicopter was not equipped ter appeared in states from Texas to professional sports. Over 20 seasons— with a terrain-warning system that Massachusetts. Across the Philippines, all of them with the Lakers—Bryant could have alerted the pilot to danger. skyscrapers lit up in tribute. won five NBA championships, two scoring titles, a pair of Olympic gold The loss was one of the most stun- In Los Angeles, thousands gath- medals, one MVP award and was named ning in the history of sports and global ered to cry and light candles outside the to 18 All-Star teams. More than merely celebrity that Bryant had done so much downtown Staples Center—“the house guarding Jordan, Bryant emerged as to fuse. To many, it was as if a vein had that Kobe Bryant built” as host Alicia his heir, a scoring assassin who could been opened. NBA players wept pub- Keys called it at the top of a notably sub- rip a defender’s heart out by way of a licly. On Weibo, one of China’s largest dued Grammy Awards held in the arena devastating dunk or an elusive fadeaway jump shot from the baseline, his singular work of athletic art. His ascent coincided with the development of social media and basketball’s embrace around the world, which turned Bryant into one of the game’s first truly global stars. Back home, he inspired a generation of high school phenoms like LeBron James to follow his lead from high school to the NBA. “You said Kobe, and everyone knows who that is: a one-word name,” says Quentin Richardson, who played against Bryant in the 2000s. Driven by a focus and intensity that he would come to call—and trademark— Mamba Mentality, Bryant had the rare combination of elite talent and preter- natural fire seen only in the true greats. “Kobe played the game,” says West, “like it was war.” When Bryant retired in 2016, he had scored 33,643 points, good for fourth on the NBA all-time scoring list. He was in third until Jan. 25, when James passed him. Bryant called James and sent a con- gratulatory tweet. The next day, Bryant was gone. The helicopter he was taking to his daugh- ter’s youth-basketball tournament crashed in the hills near Calabasas, Calif. All nine people on board were killed, 40 Time February 10, 2020

that night. It has become a gathering VIEWPOINT place for Bryant’s legions of fans, who come bearing jerseys and balls much COMING TO TERMS WITH the way Buckingham Palace overflowed A COMPLICATED LIFE with flowers following the death of Prin- cess Diana. BY EVETTE DIONNE Reactions to Bryant’s death have IN THE WAKE of Kobe Bryant’s untimely helped equip us with more nuanced deepened to reflect the dimensions and death at 41, the usual cascade of understanding of sexual violence. A sometimes confounding complexity emotion set in: disbelief, shock, person can be good to their spouse of his life. Though not cut down in the sadness and, for some, anger. That last and their children, donate lots of prime of his basketball career, Bryant, at emotion was born not from what was money to worthy causes and create 41, was well into a second act that gave said about the superlative basketball indelible work that influences—and him more prominence than many active star and doting father, but what wasn’t: also be a monster. And yet it’s still players. He had already written an Oscar- rarely did the outpouring of tributes difficult to process legacy in the face winning animated short film, launched a stop to acknowledge that amid the of tragedy. Thanks to the pressures production company, created a sports many wonderful accomplishments, of social media, on which we react to academy and become a vocal champion Bryant did something horrific. unfathomable news in real time, we of women’s sports. “I absolutely be- often fall into a binary of good or bad, lieve he was going to do great things,” In July 2003, Bryant was charged wrong or right, on the side of survivors says Richardson, “and write another with sexually assaulting a 19-year- or on the side of a rapist. It is rarely chapter of greatness after basketball.” old employee of the Lodge and Spa that simple. at Cordillera in Edwards, Colo. He And he died being a parent. As word admitted that he didn’t explicitly ask for Bryant, aged and matured, became emerged that Gigi had been killed with consent and initially denied even having an ambassador for women’s sports, him, queasiness was compounded by sex with the woman. He left a bruise coached his daughter’s basketball team recognition. Every weekend, parents on her neck and drew blood from her and took pride in being a “girl dad.” travel with their children to organized skin. After Bryant’s defense team badly But none of his commitments—to his youth-sporting events, just like Bry- intimidated the victim and smeared children, to women’s sports, to a more ant was doing with the second of his her reputation, she refused to testify. equitable world—negate his culpability. four daughters. Suddenly people who After the criminal case was dismissed, We must confront the tragedy that did not know Bryant, or particularly Bryant issued an apology that said, has befallen Bryant and his family, care for him, could picture themselves in part, “After months of reviewing understand the greatness he exhibited in his place, and choke up. To toggle discovery, listening to her attorney, and on the court and finally—maybe for the between Instagram and Twitter in the even her testimony in person, I now first time—reckon with the irreparable days after Jan. 26 was to experience the understand how she feels that she did trauma he inflicted. social-media version of a wake: Gigi not consent to this encounter.” He dangling from her father’s shoulders, later settled for an undisclosed sum When we are wedded to specific or parked above them, her hands rest- in a civil suit. narratives of how feminists are ing on his head. The two sitting court- supposed to act, it can be all too easy side, exploring the nuances of the game. It is irresponsible to excuse or gloss to disregard humanity. But feminism, over Bryant’s treatment of this woman at least the tradition I follow, makes Bryant’s biography included another or his complicity in a legal strategy space for redemption too. Only Bryant’s critical element: in 2003, he was ar- that upended her life. But it is also accuser can decide if she forgives him, rested and charged with sexual assault. reductive to focus only on this behavior and it’s not our place to do that work The criminal case was dropped after Bry- when reflecting on his life and death. publicly on her behalf. What we can do ant’s accuser refused to testify in court. When I learned of the helicopter crash, is complicate these conversations so A civil suit ended with a settlement. Bry- I immediately thought about my older we can usher in more honesty about ant issued a statement of apology, which brother yelling, “Kobe!” whenever he who’s elevated in the aftermath of read in part: “After months of reviewing threw makeshift paper basketballs into a sexual assault and how fame and discovery, listening to her attorney, and a trash can. I thought about Bryant’s money insulate perpetrators from being even her testimony in person, I now un- widow Vanessa and their fatherless brought to account. We can do this derstand how she feels that she did not daughters, who now have to move while still acknowledging that Bryant did consent to this encounter.” through life with a hovering cloud of not deserve to die in such a manner at grief. I thought about the many black such an age and that the people who The case failed to derail Bryant’s ca- children and families who saw Bryant loved him are grieving. reer, and by the time he retired, it tended as a model of possibility. And I thought to be mentioned reluctantly, if at all, in as- about the woman who accused Bryant Dionne is the editor in chief of Bitch sessments of his legacy. In the era before of rape having to watch her perpetrator Media and the author of the forthcoming #MeToo, an NBA superstar could com- being valorized for eternity. book Lifting as We Climb: Black mute between games and court appear- Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box ances without apparent consequence. The #MeToo movement has 41



Bryant’s aerial displays were among the game’s most thrilling ever; here, a reverse slam in a 1998 home game ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN—NBAE/GETTY IMAGES

Sports Bryant was the son of former NBA kept chanting, ‘Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!’” The player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant and Pamela Bryant. He spent part of his childhood UNBEARABLE LOSS U.S. won gold in Beijing. in Italy, where his father played profes- sionally and where he learned both the Victims of the helicopter A Lakers renaissance followed. Los An- language and a love of soccer. The family crash that killed Kobe Bryant eventually settled outside Philadelphia, include teen basketball players, geles won back-to-back titles in 2009 and where Bryant grew into a phenom. coaches and parents 2010, and Bryant was MVP of both finals. He was self-confident, and solitary, which disarmed teammates. At the 1998 JOHN ALTOBELLI, 56, He continued to produce, but injuries All-Star Game in New York, Bryant, then KERI ALTOBELLI, 46, AND 19, went right at Jordan in what was a clear plagued the last few years of his career. generational shift. After Jordan retired ALYSSA ALTOBELLI, 13 from the Bulls, the Lakers of Shaq and The 2015–2016 goodbye season served as Kobe won three straight NBA titles, from Alyssa Altobelli was a member 2000 to 2002. Bryant and O’Neal had an of the Mamba Sports Academy both farewell and affirmation of his bas- inevitable falling-out: not even L.A.’s team and with her parents when sprawl could contain those two alpha she died. Her father John was ketball greatness. In a full Mamba showing egos. When, in 2004, O’Neal was traded the longtime baseball coach at to Miami, many blamed Bryant, painted Orange Coast College; a colleague that was replayed on national television, as a selfish ball hog and whose reputation called him an “amazing mentor.” was tainted by his criminal case. in prime time, a day after his death, Bryant GIANNA “GIGI” BRYANT, 13 Bryant chose to embrace the role of vil- scored 60 points, on 50 shots, at the Sta- lain, creating the Mamba Mentality pop The second oldest of four philosophy. It was an approach to life that children that Bryant had with ples Center in the final game of his career. required extreme focus, discipline and en- his wife Vanessa, Gianna was thusiasm for taking on all comers. Magic an aspiring basketball star who Rather than jump to TV or hawk Johnson’s perpetual smile didn’t fit Bry- played at her father’s Mamba ant’s style. Like Jordan, Bryant embraced products after his playing days, Bryant brutal honesty and could be cruel to un- Sports Academy. derperforming teammates. embraced the clean slate. He dedicated SARAH CHESTER, 45, AND The Lakers suffered some down years PAYTON CHESTER, 13 time to his venture-capital firm, created in the mid-aughts, but Bryant’s displays of individual excellence continued to make Payton Chester was also a a musical podcast for children and won noise. In 2006, he scored 81 points in a basketball player for Mamba game, the second highest point total in Sports Academy and was on his Oscar for “Dear Basketball,” an ani- league history. Around that time Jerry board the helicopter with her Colangelo, the head of USA Basketball, mother Sarah. A family member mated film based on the poem he used told Bryant that if he wanted to play for said Payton “was the greatest his first Olympic team, he’d have to serve person you would ever meet” to announce the end of his playing ca- primarily as a passer, not a shooter. Bry- and that Sarah was “the one ant, though surprised, still promised Col- reer. In addition to supporting women’s angelo he’d do whatever was needed to everybody counted on.” bring a gold medal back to the U.S. Win- sports—Bryant was a regular presence at ning was always paramount. Colangelo CHRISTINA MAUSER, 38 was testing Bryant; the pair then shared and cheerleader for the WNBA and U.S. a laugh, knowing that asking Bryant not An assistant coach at Mamba to score was like asking a dog not to bark. Sports Academy, Mauser was women’s national soccer and gymnastics remembered by her husband as a At an early training camp for those warm, witty and funny mother of teams, among others—he became a de- Beijing Olympics, Bryant arrived in the three who was especially adept at weight room before 6 a.m. Younger su- voted coach for his own daughters. He perstars like James and Dwyane Wade, coaching defense. according to Colangelo, learned to follow embraced the role, telling Jimmy Kim- Bryant’s example. In China, where Bry- ARA ZOBAYAN, 50 ant first hosted a clinic in 1998, hordes mel that his goal was to give the girls “a of people would greet the U.S. team bus. A pilot for more than 20 years “They didn’t want to see us,” says Colan- with a commercial license since foundation of the amount of work and gelo. “They wanted to see Kobe. They just 2007, Zobayan was said to preparation that it takes to be excellent.” 44 Time February 10, 2020 frequently fly with Bryant. He was described as a dedicated “We lost a big advocate for women’s flight instructor who was sports,” soccer icon Mia Hamm tells passionate about aviation. TIME. “But we’re all inspired by his be- —Mahita Gajanan lief in equality, and it’s our job to continue to move forward.” She is among the many who believed Bryant’s best was ahead of him, which only added to the despair over his death. When athletes hang up their uniforms, they’re supposed to return to mortal life and age with the rest of us. They show up at ceremonies, hair a little more salty but the applause as raucous as ever. “I had a brother killed in Korea and honestly,” says West, “it affected me in the same way.” The NBA’s silhouette logo is modeled after West in his playing days. A petition to change it to Bryant’s likeness has since received close to 3 million signatures. —With reporting by Andrew r. Chow/ new york • ▷ ELSA—GETTY IMAGES Bryant holds his daughter Gianna, then 9, before the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto



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ALL THAT GLITTERS This year, Oscar is #somale as well as #sowhite ILLUSTRATION BY NEIL JAMIESON FOR TIME

TimeOff Opener MOVIES Joker Fixing the Oscars 11 won’t change the world. But it’s a start NOMINATIONS By Stephanie Zacharek Todd Phillips’ dark take on Joker earned 11 nominations, including Actor in a Leading Role for star Joaquin Phoenix, The AcAdemy AwArds used To serve A fAirly simple purpose. They were Hollywood’s way Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture of patting itself on the back, of acknowledg- ing the best the industry had to offer. It Hap- We go to The Irishman or Marriage Story, two PRE VIOUS PAGE: HUSTLERS: ST X; HARRIE T: FOCUS FE ATURES; DOLEMITE IS MY NAME: NE TFLIX; THE FARE WELL: A 24; QUEEN & SLIM, US: pened One Night, The Best Years of Our Lives, Lawrence of movies not powerhouse Netflix releases from last UNIVERSAL; THESE PAGES: JOKER: WARNER BROS.; THE IRISHMAN: NETFLIX; 1917: UNIVERSAL; ONCE UPON A TIME IN ... HOLLY WOOD: SONY Arabia, The Godfather: these were all great movies that just to see our year, those films weren’t positioned for Hollywood was proud of, and audiences loved them too. best selves optimum Oscars attention. A Best Picture Oscar only validated their good taste. reflected In a directors’ roundtable sponsored But today audiences want a different kind of valida- but also by the Hollywood Reporter late last year, tion from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- to help us Lulu Wang, director of The Farewell, ences, and the rise of streaming platforms that sharpens understand pinpointed the problem. She said that that appetite also makes its fulfillment less likely: having ourselves at while streaming deals can be favorable more movies, and more choices, means more favorites. our worst for established directors like Martin Consensus seems hopeless. A few years back, the organiza- Scorsese or Noah Baumbach—whose tion took steps to diversify its ranks, inviting more women names are extremely valuable in helping and people of color into its membership. The impulse was Netflix build its brand—her preference, great. But if this awards season is any indication, it’s not as a relative newcomer, was to go with clear that the changes have done much good. Joker, a hit a small studio, A24, though one of the movie that seeks pity for a violent, white male character streaming platforms had offered her who’s been failed by society, leads with 11 nominations. twice as much money. Meanwhile, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which As of December, The Farewell had focuses on a family of women—and which has also been been playing in theaters for almost five popular with audiences—earned nominations in several months. That theatrical release granted categories, including Best Picture. But Gerwig wasn’t it a legitimacy it might not have gotten nominated for Best Director, an oversight that feels like from a streaming platform. “I know for a slap to many women struggling to have their work a fact that if I took that bigger money, recognized in the industry. Furthermore, many critics [the streamer] wouldn’t have the energy were frustrated that Jennifer Lopez failed to get a nod for to put behind someone like me to build her terrific turn in Hustlers; likewise, Lupita Nyong’o was my brand,” Wang said—especially when overlooked for the intricate performance she gave in Us. there are now so many established di- rectors who are open to streaming deals. The outrage on social media has been deafening. We—that is to say, anyone who hopes for a progressive, Wang’s decision against streaming democratic, open society—want our movies to better highlights a conundrum that all reflect the diversity of the world we live in, and we’re desperate for the Academy to follow suit. But while it’s normal to want change, and to want to fix everything that’s wrong with Hollywood, the bigger question is this: Are we sure we’re not looking to Hollywood to fix us? How a movie like The Farewell—an unequivocally Ameri- can film, though it features a nearly all-Asian or Asian- American cast and is largely in Mandarin, with subtitles— gets out into the world can make all the difference. The rise of streaming platforms is good news, to a point, for new filmmakers hoping to break in or for established film- makers who have been unable to get even a small, indepen- dent project off the ground. In years past, Netflix provided a home for fine work from directors like Tamara Jenkins (Private Life) and Dee Rees (Mudbound)—but unlike 48 Time February 10, 2020

The Irishman 1917 Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood 10 10 10 NOMINATIONS NOMINATIONS NOMINATIONS Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, A bracing war drama shot in the style Both Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio were his 3½-hour epic Mob movie for Netflix, of one continuous take by director nominated for their performances in Quentin Sam Mendes, 1917 was nominated Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood received 10 nominations in 10 categories filmmakers seeking to break in will have to think People who love movies have so much invested about. The rise of streaming services has already changed what kinds of stories get told and who in the “Oscars suck!” argument that we see our gets to tell them and stands to alter the landscape further: according to a recent Los Angeles Times foot stomping as being somehow productive. But article, Netflix released 19 original movies from first-time directors in 2019; 11 more are already “fixing” the Oscars—to the extent that it’s even scheduled for 2020. About half the directors making Netflix debuts last year were women, and possible—won’t solve society’s bigger problems. several were filmmakers of color. Many filmgoers are torn between claiming that this But if directors like Scorsese and Baumbach— that is, male, white and established—have elite institution doesn’t matter and agitating for it everything to gain and little to lose from releasing a movie on Netflix, a filmmaker seeking to build to change. We can’t have it both ways. a name will find it harder to stand out from the pack. Having more movies out there means more The healthier approach might be to follow the movies to slip through the cracks, especially if they don’t come with a big-ticket director’s name lead of Bong Joon-ho, director of Parasite, which attached. Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, made by experienced director Craig Brewer, is a terrific has been nominated for six Academy Awards, picture about blaxploitation impresario and entrepreneur Rudy Ray Moore, starring a dazzling including Best Picture—it’s the first Korean film to Eddie Murphy. But the film received no Oscar nominations. With streaming, the public may have have earned that honor. In October, as Bong was greater access to good movies that perhaps couldn’t otherwise have been made—but that doesn’t bringing his film to various festivals (it had already necessarily mean those movies will get the awards attention they deserve, which in turn grants those won the top prize, the Palme d’Or, at Cannes), filmmakers more freedom to tell worthy stories. he was also in the midst of the obligatory Oscars campaign, a routine that was new to him. When a reporter from Vulture asked what he made of the fact that no Korean film had ever been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, despite the Korean film industry’s size and worldwide influence, he responded with a tongue-in-cheek but potent answer. “It’s a little strange, but it’s not a big deal,” he said. “The Oscars are not an international film festival. They’re very local.” Hollywood is a big- business tiny town, and its awards body is never going to be the answer to the public’s prayers. It’s our job, by buying tickets and being thoughtful consumers, to show it what to think—not the other way around. □ 49