COVER STORY This issue: The men who rule the Islamic Republic of Iran came to power in 1979 after millions of ordinary people filled the streets to demand the end of a despotic regime. Looking out their windows in the first days of 2026, they knew exactly what they were seeing on thoroughfares and boulevards. They also knew how to clear them. On Jan. 8, Iranian authorities shut down the internet and gave security forces their orders. What followed was one of the most intensive massacres by gunfire since World War II. In Tehran alone, thousands were killed…To understand the world we live in, read TIME.

Life once followed a familiar pattern. You’d go to school, get a job, build a family, and then, sometime in your 60s, retire, enjoying life for a few years until you grew too frail to live on your own. Then you might move in with family or check into a facility where you’d spend your “golden years”. A crucial part of that blueprint was an unsaid but universal assumption: that for the vast majority of people, life would not extend far beyond their 70s. That was based on the average lifespan when this still dominant picture of an American life arc…

Sweet dreams are more like a pipe dream when 12 a.m. turns into 2 a.m.— and you still can’t stop worrying about all the work you have to do, the bills you need to pay, the argument you had with your sister, and the feeling that you maybe, probably, definitely are going to die sooner than you should because of a lack of sleep. Experts say almost everyone experiences this kind of middle-of-the-night panic at some point. “The most basic and common reason why we get…