It should have been clear to the U.S. Navy that Holly Graf wasn’t fit for command when her destroyer steamed out of a Sicilian port in 2003 on the eve of the Iraq war. Without warning, all 9,000 tons of the U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill shuddered as it cleared the harbor’s breakwater. The screws stopped turning, and the 511-ft.-long ship was soon adrift. “What the hell happened?” Commander Graf demanded from the bridge.
Skiing is Believing in Lebanon
The life of a Middle East correspondent isn’t all conflict and crisis. In fact — though I may regret letting my editors in on the secret — when there isn’t a war, the living in Lebanon is pretty darn easy. Ski season opened here properly a few days ago with the first sunny weekend at Faraya Mazaar, Lebanon’s most developed ski resort. And, as the saying goes, TIME was there. Faraya is just an hour north of Beirut by car, and the short distance means you can attend a dinner party in town on Saturday night, get your full eight hours of sleep, and still be on the slopes by around 10 the next morning.
STRIPES 6 STARS OF REBELLION
EVERY American schoolboy knows that Betsy Ross made the first U.S. flag for George Washington and the Continental Congress in 1777. It makes a pretty story, but historians are not so sure of its accuracy. Through the years, they have searched for evidence to support a variety of theories concerning the origin of the U.S. flag —that it derived from British and Dutch flags, that it evolved out of designs of the different colonies, that it came from George Washington’s coat of arms.
The Americans Season 3 Finale and Ronald Reagan's 'Evil Empire' Speech
Contains a spoiler for the third-season finale of FX’s The Americans
Anyone who knew the title of Wednesday night’s season finale of The Americans might have guessed that a particular Ronald Reagan speech might make an appearance. After all, “March 8, 1983” — the title of the episode — was also named by TIME, in 2003, to a list of the 80 days that changed the world.
That was the day on which President Reagan, speaking before the National Association of Evangelicals, delivered what is known as the evil-empire speech.
The Miracle Club Review: Dream Cast of Laura Linney, Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates Elevat
A handful of terrific actors make the pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, hoping for a miracle but settling for a fairly standard pot of art-house pudding.
“The Miracle Club” may not be a faith-based movie in the traditional sense (that is, a film made with an explicitly evangelical Christian agenda), but this Ireland-set art-house offering is a movie about faith all the same — specifically, about the conviction that drives four women to make the pilgrimage from Ireland all the way to Lourdes, France, where the waters are believed to have holy healing powers.
Trail of Tears (Famous Painting)
Historical Context It was US President Andrew Jackson's policy to removing Native Americans from their ancestral lands to make way for settlers and speculators that led to the infamous Trail of Tears in the 1830s.
The Cherokees of Georgia initially tried legal means to resist the policy and actually won their case in the US Supreme Court. However President Jackson refused to acknowledge the judgement and 20,000 were eventually marched west at gunpoint.
U.K. Judge Rules That Childlike Sex Dolls Are 'Obscene'
August 1, 2017 3:18 AM EDT
A U.K. judge ruled Monday that sex dolls resembling minors are “obscene,” a landmark decision in the case a against an elementary school governor who tried to import the item.
The BBC reports that David Turner, 72, had purchased one such doll — measuring about 3 ft. 10 in. tall — overseas and tried to ship back to his home, where he said it would serve as a “companion” for himself and his wife.
Unreal Engine 5 Could Change Games, Movies and the Metaverse
A version of this article was published in TIME’s newsletter Into the Metaverse. Subscribe for a weekly guide to the future of the Internet. You can find past issues of the newsletter here.
For years, the 3D software development tool Unreal Engine has powered some of the biggest video games on the market—from Fortnite to Valorant—as well as television shows like The Mandalorian and even Porsche engineering. On Tuesday, Epic Games showed off the public release of Unreal Engine 5, the engine’s first major update in 8 years.
What to Know About How Rare Gun Violence Is in Japan
Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 67, was shot and killed in the Japanese city of Nara with a homemade firearm on July 8 while he was campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on the street. The news was especially shocking considering Japan’s reputation as a country that values gun safety; gun sales and gun ownership have been severely restricted and regulated in the country for decades.
Japan, a country of more than 125 million people, experiences significantly less gun violence and other forms of violent crime than the global rate.
When Death Comes Stealing: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books
In Valerie Wilson Wesley’s 1994 novel, investigator Tamara Hayle’s personal and professional lives collide. Tamara’s ex-husband is grieving the loss of his two sons from previous relationships, both of whom died tragically young and under mysterious circumstances—and he’s hiring her to uncover what really happened to them. For Tamara, the cases have extra urgency: She’s fearful that Jamal, her own son with DeWayne, might be next. The first of eight books in Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle series, the novel addresses the all-too-real issues of police violence and racial discrimination.