Time Magazine International Edition

The work of encouraging trust in our democratic process ultimately comes down to each of us While many Americans may have Nov. 5, Election Day, circled on their calendars, the presidential election is already well under way. In-person voting has started in Pennsylvania, perhaps this year’s most-contested state. It will begin this month in four others, ranging from Minnesota to Vermont. Absentee ballots for military and overseas voters are required to be mailed out by Sept. 21. In truth, “Election Day” is now months long. But, though the past three elections witnessed historically high turnout, polls still show widespread unease among Americans about the integrity of our election system. Satisfaction with how democracy works in the U.S. is at an all-time low. Unease has spread among Americans about the durability of democracy,…

TIME hosted its inaugural TIME100 Women’s Leadership Forum on Sept. 10 in Manhattan, featuring panels on leadership, sports, health care equity, and voting. Left, Brooke Shields; right, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman; top, TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs interviews (from left) actor Kerry Washington, organizer Angela Lang, activist María Teresa Kumar, and attorney Sherrilyn Ifill. All coverage at time.com/leadership-forum Protecting the vote As part of TIME’s Democracy Defenders project, The Officials, a new documentary short directed and produced by Sara Archambault and Margo Guernsey, profiles U.S. election officials in four battleground states as they prepare for Election Day. Watch at time.com/the-officials SUBSCRIBE The D.C. Briefdaily newsletter Subscribe to The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter, where correspondent Philip Elliott helps readers make sense of what matters most in Washington. Sign up at time.com/theDCbrief See all the newsletters Find all TIME’s…

When Donald Trump in May became the first former President ever to be criminally convicted, one question was answered and a whole new set arose. Perhaps most important: Would Americans vote this fall with the Republican presidential nominee behind bars? The answer turns out to be no, but only because his sentencing is being postponed. Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan over falsifying business records, said on Sept. 6 that he will announce the sentence on Nov. 26, to avoid any question of interfering with the election. Trump was supposed to learn his fate on Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day. Trump faces up to four years in prison after a 12-member jury in Manhattan unanimously pronounced him guilty of 34 felony charges—though he could receive…

India’s highest court instructed striking junior doctors to return to work in a Sept. 9 order, after weeks of protests that followed the rape and murder of a trainee medic in Kolkata. Some doctors in the state vowed to continue pressing their demands as the protests spread beyond India’s borders after the order. Thousands of diaspora Indians protested on Sept. 10 in 130 cities across 25 countries, including the U.S., to demand justice, organizers told Reuters. DOCTOR’S MURDER The victim was a 31-year-old trainee doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College, a government-run hospital. Her severely injured body was discovered by colleagues the morning of Aug. 9 after she reportedly fell asleep in a seminar room during a 36-hour shift. A man was arrested for the crime on Aug 10 and a…

In the minds of many voters, nothing less than American democracy is on the line in 2024. Some see threats on multiple fronts: foreign interference, artificial intelligence, a polarized electorate. Others are most worried about candidates who have undermined faith in our voting systems. The 11 people on this list—Democrats and Republicans, public officials and private individuals, business leaders and civil rights crusaders—are working to boost voter participation, reverse disenfranchisement, and combat misinformation. Their efforts help not only defend democracy, but also strengthen it. Read more at time.com/democracy-defenders Lucille Wenegieme EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEADCOUNT Lucille Wenegieme sees her job as a straightforward one: “We turn music fans into voters.” That’s the mission statement of Headcount, which leverages the fan bases of some of the world’s biggest artists to get out the vote. In two decades, Headcount…

More than perhaps any other material, cement is the glue that holds the globalized world together—especially our cities. But producing it requires huge amounts of fossil fuels, and the industry is responsible for up to 8% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a 2023 study in Nature. Efforts to tackle the issue have historically centered on things like fuel and efficiency. But some companies have another option, which could be a win-win for the climate and the cement industry: creating carbon-negative building materials by storing excess carbon dioxide in concrete. Paebbl captures carbon from the atmosphere and combines it with ground olivine rock to create a rock powder or slurry. That can be used as an inert industrial filler or ingredient in building materials like concrete. The process, known as accelerated mineralization,…