TIME

—Keeproll—Getty Images It’s hard to concentrate on a conversation when you’re busy trying to discreetly clear whatever’s stuck in your throat.

—Halfpoint Images—Getty Images In medical emergencies, time matters.

The seal of the U.S.

A detailed view of a patch for the Oakland Police Department on July 2, 2023, at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, California.

People wait in long security lines at LaGuardia Airport on March 25, 2026.

A Hapag-Lloyd container ship is berthed beneath quay cranes at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, on Sept. 26, 2026.

A Shell gas station outside of the Marathon Petroleum Corp.

For three and a half years, ever since the spring of 2023, when SpaceX launched the first of its massive Starship rockets, the company has been promising that before too long the towering, stainless steel machine would get to orbit.

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—Andriy Onufriyenko—Getty Images Should we hit pause on AI development?

—Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: SomkiatFakmee via Canva) What's your personality like?

The U.S. embassy in London has issued a security alert for American citizens in the U.K. following a suspected terror plot near an RAF airbase used by the U.S. military, which led to the arrests of five men who have since been released on bail.

A screenshot of President Donald Trump's 2023 ad for the 2024 presidential elections.

—Deagreez—Getty Images There is a scene in season two of Friends I think about often.

Members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) stand guard as a South African Police Service (SAPS) officer stretches police tape around the scene where gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed a bar in Johannesburg on Sept. 27, 2026.

Armed police monitor a road block after a major incident was declared on Sept. 27, 2026, near RAF Fairford, a military base that is used by the United States Air Force.

—Maskot—Getty Images As an occupational therapist working in medical respite care, Caitlin Synovec saw people in their 50s or 60s at a moment when their lives had forever shifted.

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In 2009, I moved to Middletown, Conn. from Seoul, South Korea to study ethnomusicology.

—Malte Mueller—Getty Images A few months ago, a new patient sat down in my office and started talking before I had finished my hello.

Rinko Kikuchi in Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

A massive nor'easter is sweeping across the U.S.

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Jacob Tremblay as Ted Kaczynski in Unabomber —Courtesy of Netflix Ted Kaczynski was 16 when he entered Harvard University as a mathematics prodigy.

The sun sets behind wind turbines at the Yambuk Wind Farm near Port Fairy in the southern Australian state of Victoria on September 23.

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Mahershala Ali in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother —Courtesy of Obscured Pictures No one really wants to talk about religious rage, the complex resentment when you feel your God has abandoned you: We like our faith to be tidy and count-your-blessings c…

A person holds a sign reading "capitalism is the crisis, socialism is the solution" as they protest ahead of the G20 Finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, on Aug. 28, 2026.

Giant pandas enjoy a feast of mooncakes and fruits to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Chongqing, China on Sept. 25, 2026.

A water truck sprays water at the construction site of Oracle’s Project Jupiter data center complex in Santa Teresa, New Mexico on on Aug. 27, 2026.

—Denis Novikov—Getty Images Last year, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

Sudanese refugees from Darfur receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen in Tine, in eastern Chad, on May 4, 2025.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 24, 2026.

President of China Xi Jinping and U.S.

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—Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME Some changes famously accompany aging.

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—inkoly—Getty Images AI is not arriving in a world capable of receiving it.

—Greg Vaughn—VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images This week, the U.N.

—Albert Fertl—Getty Images A few years ago, Katie Costanzo and her students went curbside shopping for trash.

President Donald Trump speaks to media aboard Air Force One on Aug. 2, 2026.

In the summer of 1986, when he was a college student in Pennsylvania, Samuel Paparo took his future wife Maureen to watch Top Gun.

Children play at a polling station at a school in Chennai, India, on April 23, 2026.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks on the sidelines of the 81st U.N.

Maleah Joi Moon and Cornell Young IV in A Different World —Eli Joshua Ade—Netflix Hillman College might be the most vividly realized institution of higher learning that never cashed an actual tuition check.

People holding American and Chinese flags wait for the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Waldorf Astoria hotel as streets and sidewalks in the area are closed in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 23, 2026.

Michigan Republican Senate candidate former Rep.

SpaceX hopes to expand in Texas wilderness area.

Crew in the cockpit of an RAF Voyager air-to-air refuelling (AAR) aircraft above RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on March 27, 2026.