The Era Of The Superstorm

China’s population fell last year for the third straight year, its government said Friday, pointing to further demographic challenges for the world’s second most populous nation, which is now facing both an aging population and an emerging shortage of working age people. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] China’s population stood at 1.408 billion at the end of 2024, a decline of 1.39 million from the previous year. The figures announced by the government in Beijing follow trends worldwide, but especially in East Asia, where Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and other nations have seen their birth rates plummet.

SpaceX launched its Starship rocket on its latest test flight Thursday, but the spacecraft was destroyed following a thrilling booster catch back at the pad. Elon Musk’s company said Starship broke apart—what it called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” The spacecraft’s six engines appeared to shut down one by one during ascent, with contact lost just 8 1/2 minutes into the flight. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The spacecraft—a new and upgraded model making its debut—was supposed to soar across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas on a near loop around the world similar to previous test flights.

Here’s something you’ve never seen before: two great professional basketball opponents, who less than three months ago slugged it out during an epic WNBA Finals series, now sitting in the same room together to promote their new hoops startup operation. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Yeah, it got spicy between co-founders for a little bit,” says New York Liberty center Breanna Stewart, who along with her 2024 WNBA Finals rival, Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, are starting Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s pro basketball league that tips off Friday night in South Florida. The pair are conducting a joint Zoom interview with TIME from Unrivaled’s new all-purpose 130,000 sq.-ft.

Five minutes. That’s how long Saturday Night Live auditions last. The high-stakes audition process for the sketch show, which celebrates its 50th anniversary on Feb. 16, is notorious in its own right. Comedians and writers who want to make it on SNL perform their best bits, characters, and impressions for a chance at stardom. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In an episode of the four-part docuseries SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night, out now on Peacock, longtime SNL producers lift the curtain on the audition process.

Cigarettes, coffee, candy. According to legend, and to people who spent time with him, these were the things David Lynch would fuel up on, substances that kept him going and contributed to the mad, cosmic swirl of ideas that found their way—to our lasting pleasure—from his brain to the screen.

OMAHA, Neb. — The problem of kids working in dangerous slaughterhouses continues to be a concern as the Labor Department announced its third agreement this week with a company in the industry agreeing to pay a penalty and reform its practices to help ensure it won’t hire underage workers again. On Thursday, the Department said investigators found that another slaughterhouse cleaning company called QSI had employed 54 children at 13 meatpacking plants in eight states on overnight shifts sanitizing the industrial carving and slicing machines companies use to produce beef and chicken between 2021 and 2024.