Are Americans Turning Post-materialistic?

LONDON — The sequel to Prince Harry vs. the British tabloids begins Tuesday in a high-stakes trial pitting him against Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers that could cost him millions even if he wins. Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, and one other claimant remain alone among hundreds who have settled lawsuits against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, over allegations their phones were hacked and investigators unlawfully snooped on their lives. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] It will be the first case of its kind to go to trial against the publisher since a widespread phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to close News of the World in 2011.

There is a sense that President Donald Trump will face less resistance during his second term, that activists are tired, that the country is complacent. I cannot speak for others, but I can say for myself and those around me: we are bracing ourselves with eyes wide open, measured, strategic, and ready to fight.

Pale, gaunt, and with a freshly shaved head, Chinese actor Wang Xing sat flanked by Thai police in the border town of Mae Sot on Jan. 7 to discuss his terrifying ordeal. The 31-year-old had flown to Bangkok for what he thought was a meeting with Thai movie executives. Instead, he was trafficked across the border to wartorn Myanmar’s lawless Myawaddy region, where he was forcibly put to work conducting online scams. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “The environment was very dangerous,” Wang said on a video filmed on his flight home published by Chinese media.

ISLAMABAD — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The deal came as Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U. S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, handed power over to returning President Donald Trump.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Among other false and misleading claims in U. S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration addresses on Tuesday, his declaration that Americans “split the atom” prompted vexed social media posts by New Zealanders, who said the achievement belonged to a pioneering scientist revered in his homeland. Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel Prize winner known as the father of nuclear physics, is regarded by many as the first to knowingly split the atom by artificially inducing a nuclear reaction in 1917 while he worked at a university in Manchester in the United Kingdom. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The achievement is also credited to English scientist John Douglas Cockroft and Ireland’s Ernest Walton, researchers in 1932 at a British laboratory developed by Rutherford.

Leaders from across the world of business, technology, policy, and entertainment gathered at the TIME100 Davos Dinner as the World Economic Forum’s 55th annual meeting kicked off on Jan. 20. In keeping with this year’s annual meeting theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,” Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of AI company Anthropic, joined TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs on stage to talk about the future of AI.