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LeBron James celebrates with teammates after the Los Angeles @lakers defeated the @miamiheat 106-93 in the championship-clinching Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on Oct. 11. @kingjames' fourth title, in this year of pandemic suffering and widespread social unrest sparked by a racial reckoning, will go down as his most important, writes @sgregory31. Read more at the link in the bio. Photograph by Mark J. Terrill (@mjterrill1)—ap

@tourmaliiine is one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020. “Tourmaline gave us evidence of our lineage," writes @janetmock, "and in a culture where histories of marginalized people—particularly Black trans and queer people—aren't preserved in mainstream storytelling, Tourmaline is a force showing us to ourselves, proving to anyone paying attention that trans people have always been here." Read more, and see the full 2020 list, at the link in bio. Photograph by Texas Isaiah (@kingtexas)

Bong Joon Ho is one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020. "This is the filmmaker who, this year, has risen into the 2020 vision of the entire cinepassionate planet like a new sun," writes Tilda Swinton. "Whip-smart, highly skilled, supremely cineliterate, exuberant, irreverent, self-determining, deeply romantic, with a voracious delight in the absurd, highly principled, precision-tuned, compassionate to the last: his films have always been all this. It just seems to be time for the world to catch up." Read more, and see the full 2020 list, at the link in bio. Photograph by @cyril.zannettacci—@vu_photo/@reduxpictures

Hundreds gathered for President Trump's first public appearance since returning to the White House after being treated for the coronavirus, on Oct. 10. The White House has refused to declare that he is no longer contagious, and the gathering of people on the South Lawn went ahead despite the guidance of public health officials, according to ap. Read more at the link in the bio. Photograph by Samuel Corum—@gettyimages

For many 20 year olds, coronavirus lockdowns have meant long hours of remote college classes or watching Netflix. For Ofelia Fernández (@ofefernandez), Latin America’s youngest lawmaker, it meant bringing a city legislature into her mom’s living room. In 2018, as Argentina’s congress debated a bill to legalize elective abortion, Fernández admonished a room full of lawmakers for not listening to her generation—and making unsafe, clandestine terminations more likely. “We’re the ones who have abortions, and now it’s up to you to give us the right to decide,” she said. “If you don’t, just know that you’re sending us to die in your war, without our permission.” Read more, and see the full list of Next Generation Leaders, at the link in bio. Photograph by @anitapouchardserra for TIME

The questions that Ziwe Fumudoh (@ziwef) spent the summer lobbing at guests on her Instagram Live show are the kind that usually go unasked: “How many Black friends do you have? Did your family own slaves? What does white privilege mean to you?” While those topics may make some of her guests uncomfortable, they’ve also made her IG Live show one of the pandemic’s most viral diversions. “Everything about our world is about race. This should be the easiest conversation and yet, somehow it’s the most difficult,” Fumudoh says. Read more, and see the full list of Next Generation Leaders, at the link in bio. Photograph by @gioncarlovalentine for TIME

@burnaboygram is in the 2020 class of Next Generation Leaders, featuring trailblazers who are forging new paths, crossing boundaries and creating change. No one person can represent an entire continent. But sometimes it seems as though Nigerian superstar Burna Boy is expected to. At the 2020 Grammys, the Beninese legend Angélique Kidjo dedicated her trophy for Best World Music to her fellow nominee, saying he was “changing the way our continent is perceived.” And Burna Boy isn’t shying away from the responsibility. Read more, and see the full list, at the link in bio. Photograph by Nwaka Okparaeke (@by_nwaka) for TIME

@iamhalsey has been unable to tour due to coronavirus restrictions, but has found a new purpose in activism and advocacy. “You vote for humanity, or you don’t,” she says. “You vote for a racist or you don’t. That’s the black and white of it to me.” Read more, and see the full list of Next Generation Leaders, at the link in bio. Styling by @zoecostello. Photograph by Daria Kobayashi Ritch (@dritch) for TIME

@joshi.manasi never set out to become an international athlete—or an advocate for disability rights in her native India. But a road crash in 2011 changed everything. Read more, and see the full list of Next Generation Leaders, at the link in bio. Photograph by @kannagikhanna for TIME

Meet TIME’s 2020 Next Generation Leaders: “I have faith that everybody can grow.” @munroebergdorf on using her blossoming platform to educate the world about racism and transphobia. Read more, and see the full list, at the link in bio. Styling by @iamjonjohnson. Photograph by Ronan Mckenzie (@ronanksm) for TIME

Eddie Van Halen, who died Oct. 6 at 65, "wasn’t just a guitar god," @genesimmons tells TIME. "He was a gentle soul." The first time Simmons saw Eddie playing with his brother Alex at the Starwood club, in 1976, Eddie was smiling like he had just won the lottery. "He never played the rock-star game or put down other bands. It was always just the joy. And he brought joy to millions of people. Eddie’s music is going to last forever—and so are all the guitar players who worshipped the ground he walked on. There’s never going to be another like him." Photograph by Koh Hasebe—Shinko Music/@gettyimages

Many things are possible to the man who sees no obstacles; this is the strongman’s appeal, and it has been President Trump’s MO for as long as anyone can remember, writes @mollyesque in this week's cover story. Other Presidents might have hesitated to ram a Supreme Court nomination through the Senate on the eve of an election and in the face of public opposition. Supreme Court confirmations normally take months, and many Republicans had previously argued that voters should have a say in such matters in an election year. The Senate still had yet to get around to debating legislation to boost the COVID-ravaged economy. Trump, man of action, ignored these quibbles. The nominee, federal judge Amy Coney Barrett, was presented to the public on Saturday, Sept. 26, the day after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state at the Capitol. In the sun-drenched White House Rose Garden, more than 100 mostly maskless guests hugged and chatted before taking their seats on tightly packed folding chairs. Afterward, they mingled at receptions indoors. Read more at the link in bio. Photograph by @alex_brandon—@apnews