Table of contents for October 23, 2023 in TIME Magazine

The British Museum in London, frequently accused of displaying looted treasures, has solicited the public’s help in finding artifacts stolen from its collection over the years. Of some 2,000 items first reported missing in August and valued in the millions of pounds, 60 had been returned to the museum by late September, and 300 more were in the process of retrieval. STOLEN ITEMS The missing artifacts, which were not on public display, are dated from the 15th century B.C. to the 19th century, and include gold jewelry and semiprecious gemstones. The museum is working with the Art Loss Register, the world’s largest database of stolen art, and has established an email hotline for anyone with information to come forward. Some items were being sold on the e-commerce platform eBay,…

When people walk into Keri Piehl’s retro toy store in Albuquerque, N.M., their eyes light up. Wooden spinning tops, yo-yos, trolls, rainbow lava lamps, scratch-and-sniff stickers—it’s like time travel, unlocked. Some visitors make a beeline for the games and puzzles, eager to relive their glory days. “I sell a ton of jacks to grandparents,” Piehl says. “I always joke that I should have an over-50 league, because every single grandma tells me they were the best at jacks.” Indulging in this sort of nostalgia offers a host of well-being benefits, experts say. Research suggests that yearning for the past helps us feel more connected to other people while increasing our ability to offer emotional support. Nostalgia can also help us find meaning in life, build self-esteem, and focus more…

Depending on whom you ask, Oregon and Washington have been either reckless or trailblazing. In 2021, both states decriminalized possession of all drugs, a highly experimental move amid a growing opioid crisis in the Pacific Northwest. Because no one clear metric captures the dangers of drugs, measuring the impact of these bills isn’t so simple. Residents of both states, particularly in major cities like Seattle and Portland, have noticed dramatic increases in visible drug activity since the bills took effect, quality-of-life challenges that have been well documented by local and national news outlets. Washington’s decriminalization measure has since been rolled back. A pair of new studies, however, suggest that by other metrics, in their first year the measures may have begun to work as intended. According to an analysis…

IRAN AND SPAIN SARA KHADEM MAKING MOVES FOR FREEDOM When Iranian chess star Sara Khadem, an International Master, competed without a hijab at an international event last December in Almaty, Kazakhstan—in defiance of her country’s mandatory dress regulations—she knew the risk she was taking. She could be arrested upon returning home—or worse. Khadem, 26, acted in solidarity with the protest movements that erupted after Mahsa Jina Amini died after being arrested for allegedly not wearing a hijab properly. “This wasn’t some decision I made quickly,” she says. “I thought about it. I knew it was right. So I have no regrets.” Fearing repercussions from Iran, Khadem is now living in Spain, where she received citizenship this summer so she can participate in global chess events with the support of…

U.S. Kim Shui EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH FASHION To wear Kim Shui is to celebrate confidence. The fashion designer, who founded her namesake brand in 2016, makes clothes for women who aren’t afraid to make a statement. Sheer qi paos, daring corset tops, brocade minidresses with artful cutouts, and curve-hugging trousers with lace-up embellishments have all become staples of her New York City–based brand, which is favored by the likes of Dua Lipa and SZA. Shui’s bold style was shaped by her experiences growing up in Rome, where as the American-born daughter of two Chinese immigrants, she was constantly confronted with her otherness. “I didn’t have a choice, I just naturally stood out,” she says. “At a certain point, instead of hiding it, I wanted to embrace it and put it…

Photograph by Joshua Kissi for TIME Photographs by Robin Hammond The interviews for the feature on youth in America in this issue (page 34) will be used to teach mental-health and social skills to teens and tweens via the nonprofit Youth Empowerment Group. Photograph by Gabriella Demczuk for TIME Photograph by Eyad Baba—AFP/Getty Images The news of war in Israel broke just as this issue went to press. We rushed the story about the attack into the magazine, accompanied by this digital-only cover. America’s top Latino leaders Beginning during Hispanic Heritage Month, TIME—in partnership with Nissan—will spotlight the most influential Latino leaders in the U.S. today. The initial group includes Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, author Elizabeth Acevedo, and baseball star Julio Rodríguez. Read the profiles at time.com/latino-leaders TALK TO…

As House Republicans convened their first hearing of an impeachment inquiry nominally against President Joe Biden, it was pretty obvious that their program was designed to agitate partisans, not persuade Americans. In fact, House Oversight chairman James Comer all but confirmed as much during that Sept. 27 session. “We want to present evidence,” the Kentucky Republican said as the day began. Shot back Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who was a leading voice during both of the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump: “What evidence? There is no evidence. There are no facts.” Then Comer, perhaps not fully appreciating that he sounded like he was conceding the facts in this anti-Biden probe matter less than their packaging, responded, “Just sit back and let the American people see the hearing.”…

To be a U.S. teenager in 2023 is both the same as it ever was, and astoundingly different from even a generation ago. Along with all the classic challenges of growing up—grades, parents, first loves—looms a crop of newer ones: TikTok, gun violence, political division, the whipsaw of COVID-19, the not-so-slow creep of climate change. “The main domains are the same: school, home, family, and peers,” says Dr. Asha Patton-Smith, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Kaiser Permanente in Virginia. But the stressors that emerge within those domains have changed tremendously in a world where the internet and real life have largely blurred into one, with everything from school to social interaction now happening at least partially online and a fire hose of bad news always only a swipe away.…

GHANA Prince Gyasi FORGING CONNECTION THROUGH VIVID IMAGES Prince Gyasi sees days of the week in color. Monday is brown, Tuesday orange. Letters and words too. “My senses are mixed. It’s supposed to be bad, but I’ve made it work,” says the Ghanaian artist. A touch of synesthesia goes a long way in visual communication. Gyasi, 28, draws on the emotions he associates with those colors to embed meaning into his photographs, which have become globally recognizable. From high-fashion campaigns for Balmain and Off-White to the platform Artsy, where he racked up more collectors than David Hockney in 2021, his images—vibrant, utopian, distinctly African—occupy the space between painting and photography. “I knew society did not respect photographs as much as paintings, and I wanted to change the game by creating…

U.K. JAMIE CHADWICK CHANGING THE FACE OF RACING Fewer than 1% of drivers in the history of Formula One have been women, and only 10 women have ever passed the Indy 500 driver’s test. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Jamie Chadwick, one of the world’s most accomplished female drivers. Chadwick won the inaugural all-women W Series in 2019 and took the title twice more before the series was discontinued because of a lack of funding. Today, she’s the only female driver in the Indy NXT developmental league. “It’s a sport that should be available to men and women to compete equally,” says Chadwick, 25. “There’s very few sports where that’s the case.” That’s not to say men and women are on an even playing field—or…

ESSAY A SATISFYING, MYSTIFYING THRILL BY TANA FRENCH I was 6 when I fell in love with mysteries. Some schoolbook had a (not very accurate) comprehension page about the Mary Celeste, a ship that was found drifting in the Atlantic in 1872, intact—a meal still cooking in the galley—with the crew, passengers, and lifeboat missing, never to be seen again. I was totally enthralled. I can still remember lying on the living-room rug with the book, promising myself that when I died, I would ask God for the answer. I could probably trace a direct line from that moment, through all the fictional and real mysteries I’ve devoured since then, to where I am today. Mystery books, for me, divide themselves into two kinds. One kind—Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes—is all…

The obvious and intended point of reference for the shattering surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 was the 1973 October War, the devastating invasion that Arab armies launched precisely 50 years earlier, plus a day. It was the last time Israelis awoke to a life-changing assault that its intelligence apparatus had not seen coming, and also the last time they found themselves, officially, in a “war.” Another analogue might be the Tet Offensive, the 1968 Viet Cong surprise attack that changed the course of the Vietnam War. Like the Hamas assault out of the Gaza Strip, it broke out on the morning of a holiday and seemingly everywhere at once; it demonstrated capacities unforeseen in a guerrilla force; it briefly overwhelmed a far superior military; and it produced images…

In January, Taiwan will hold a presidential election. China’s leaders hope former New Taipei City mayor Hou Yu-ih, candidate of the Kuomintang opposition party, will win the job, but the smart money is on current Vice President William Lai, who represents the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Lai and his party favor a tougher approach to Beijing. If Lai wins, Beijing will become much more confrontational in the coming months. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan remains highly unlikely, but a deterioration in relations is bad news for both sides. Beijing is wielding both sticks and carrots to influence Taiwan For now, Beijing is wielding both sticks and carrots to influence Taiwan’s voters. China’s navy recently conducted its largest-ever military exercises in the western Pacific, but Beijing has also announced…

U.S. PATTIE GONIA FOSTERING AN INCLUSIVE OUTDOOR COMMUNITY Pattie Gonia was born on a mountaintop in 2018, strutting along a trail in 6-in. heels. What started as a fun Instagram video turned into a viral sensation. “It was unbelievable to see the queer community that was a part of these outdoor spaces,” says the artist, environmentalist, and drag queen. “I was like, there are people here that want community, that are ready for it.” Five years later, the community she founded has brought together more than 750,000 people to celebrate the outdoors and queerness and, hopefully, save the planet. “If we want to make a climate movement where people are actually joining it, we have to make it inclusive,” she says. In 2022, Pattie Gonia (who goes by Wyn…

INDIA DHRUV RATHEE BRINGING FACTS TO THE MASSES Dhruv Rathee discovered YouTube in 2014, a time when cheap smartphones and cellular data led to a boom in internet access in India. Inspired by videos he watched online, Rathee, now 28, started a travel vlog. But he soon noticed a problem: “People in India weren’t trained on how to use the internet and blindly trusted whatever they saw on YouTube or WhatsApp,” he says. So Rathee, who grew up in a small northern Indian town in the state of Haryana and later studied mechanical engineering in Germany, became what he calls a “YouTube educator,” making videos in Hindi that fact-check topics that are trending on Indian social media. “My aim is to present things as simply as possible and break…

1860 THE WOMAN IN WHITE BY WILKIE COLLINS 1867 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT BY FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY 1878 THE LEAVENWORTH CASE BY ANNA KATHARINEGREEN 1898 THE TURN OF THE SCREW BY HENRY JAMES 1902 THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE 1926 THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD BY AGATHA CHRISTIE Christie earned a reputation as the “queen of crime” through her 66 acclaimed detective novels. In Ackroyd, one of her first books to feature detective Hercule Poirot, the sleuth sets out to solve the mystery of who murdered his friend. But Poirot isn’t the reader’s guide to this story—it’s James Sheppard, a local doctor helping Poirot, who serves as the book’s narrator. Through Sheppard’s perspective, Christie manipulates and outwits the reader, building to an ending that feels earned in 2023…

Is it true that it’s easier to be a woman than a man now? In one respect, in that we women are able to talk about problems of gender and men still seem not to have invented that technology in a way that isn’t damaging, angry, and women-blaming. We can confess when we’ve got a problem. We can talk to each other about it. And then there’s this amazing centuries-old thing called feminism that means that even if your mother or your friends don’t have the solution, someone’s written a blog about it, someone’s written a movie about it, Beyoncé has written a song about it. Men don’t seem to have got to that point of being able to go, “This scares me. Does anybody else suffer from this problem?…