INSIDE INSPIRATION4 BY JEFFREY KLUGERTHE FIRST ALL-CIVILIAN TRIP INTO ORBIT time.comWATCH TIME’S COUNTDOWN: INSPIRATION4 MISSION TO SPACE STARTING SEPT. 6 AUG. 23 / AUG. 30, 2021 DOUBLE ISSUE THREE DAYS THAT COULD CHANGE HUMANITY1TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published biweekly (except for August and December) by TIME USA, LLC. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 3 Bryant Park, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS ( See DMM 50 7 . 1.5.2 ) ; Non-Postal and Military Facilities: Send address corrections to Time Magazine , PO BOX 3 7 508 Boone , IA 5003 7 -0508. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement # 40069223. BN# 704925882RT0001. © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: For 24/7 service, please use our website: www.time.com/myaccount. You can also call 1-800-843-8463 or write Time Magazine PO Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Your bank may provide updates to the card information we have on file. You may opt out of this service at any time. uuuuuuu VOL. 198, NOS. 7–8 | 2021 2 | From the Editor 4 | Conversation 6 | For the Record The Brief News from the U.S. and around the world 9 | COVID-19 may always be with us 14 | What’s inside the Senate’s infrastructure bill 16 | Olympians display a different kind of strength 18 | Milestones: Andrew Cuomo resigns as New York governor 20 | Wildfires in GreeceThe View Ideas, opinion, innovations 23 | Kimberly Dozier on what the U.S. owes Afghans who risked their lives to save Americans 25 | Ian Bremmer on Tunisia’s defining moment 25 | The Leadership Brief: why people are flocking to Billings, Mont. Time Off What to watch, read, see and do 103 | The 100 best young-adult books of all time, from Little Women and The Catcher in the Rye to Holes and The Sun Is Also a Star. With an introductory essay by Jason Reynolds 112 | 6 Questions for tennis legend Billie Jean KingFeatures In His Orbit A billionaire with a mission takes civilians on a three-day journey into space By Jeffrey Kluger 26 A Cop Bears Witness After nearly dying on Jan. 6, Mike Fanone now fights for the truth By Molly Ball 36 Danger Zone The American West testifies to the climate crisis By Justin Worland; photographs by Adam Ferguson 46 Sex Education The evolution of risqué podcaster Alexandra Cooper By Eliana Dockterman 62 Special Report: The Way Forward With portions of the world emerging from the pandemic, leaders aim to seize a critical moment. A World Economic Forum showcase 67△ Nora, a polar bear at Portland’s Oregon Zoo, on June 28 during a record heat wave Photograph by Adam Ferguson for TIME2 Time  August 23/August 30, 2021earlier This summer, TIME senior correspondent Justin Worland traveled to the Mahoning Valley, an area of northeast Ohio once teeming with manufacturing and now better known for plant closings. There he met William “Doug” Franklin, who grew up in the Valley, where his fa - ther worked in a local steel mill and his mother at a local auto supplier. Frank - lin himself worked 25 years at the now shuttered local General Motors facility. Today he’s the mayor of the town of War - ren, focused on turning the area into an epicenter of electric- vehicle manufactur - ing. Even though he knows it’s not cer- tain where the new jobs will emerge and whether they’ll equal the jobs he and his parents had, he’s optimistic. “We know how to take a punch and how to recover; that’s just in our DNA, ” Franklin told Justin. Resilience is a theme running throughout this issue, and throughout this year in which the punches just keep coming. As the Delta variant extends its march across the U.S., correspondent Jamie Ducharme writes on the growing reality that COVID-19 may well