COVER STORY This issue: A coast-to-coast rout revives the Legislative Branch—and presses Democrats to deliver. When hakeem Jeffries took the stage at an election-night celebration just south of the U.S. Capitol, well before midnight, the crowd was already chanting “Speaker Jeffries! Speaker Jeffries!” The Brooklyn Democrat emerged to the strains of “Unbelievable” by the Notorious B.I.G., then looked straight into the camera and declared, “America is back.” He paused, breaking into a broad grin as he savored the moment…To understand the world we live in, read TIME.

Life once followed a familiar pattern. Myanmar is poorer and more violent since its dictator seized power. Now he wants rapprochement with the West. First came the mirror. before Min Aung Hlaing enters the room for his first Western media interview since seizing power in a 2021 coup d’état, aides maneuver an ornate Rococo-revival looking glass into place for preening. Then come requests for his portrait: light him from the left, the better to disguise a thinning hairline no longer hidden beneath an olive cap…

Every room has a parallel conversation running beneath the surface—a pulse, a vibe, a temperature. This undercurrent of unspoken behavior delivers data instantly, but only if you can decipher it. Neuroscientists, psychologists, anthropologists, and linguists have studied how subtle behaviors create meaning. I’ve spent the past decade training people to spot those signals: who holds power, which relationship will influence a decision…