Every year, TIME magazine takes it upon itself to determine which public figures are the most influential, and in 2021, several prominent artists have made the roster. It stands to reason that this would be the case, given that 2021’s turbulence has begged for cultural interpretation, but even so, the names chosen for the list are appropriately diverse and wide-ranging in terms of the subject matter they deal with. The artists chosen for the final tally include Barbara Kruger, whose feminist art insists upon itself with blazing boldness, as well as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a Cuban dissident artist who’s recently been involved in antigovernment protests.

Also included: Mark Bradford, a large-scale abstract painter whose artworks have tackled subject matter including AIDS and isolation. Bradford was one of many artists who used his talents to try to capture the mood of the coronavirus pandemic, and Anita Hill, who wrote the TIME blurb praising the painter, was careful to point this out. “While in quarantine, he created paintings that convey the isolation, violence, struggles and resilience that marked our time apart,” Hill writes. “Mark’s work gives me hope that the challenges we’ve faced will help to connect us. Though future disasters may seem inevitable, Mark’s art has shown us how we might avoid them, if only we are brave enough to see.”

Art critic and historian Hal Foster is similarly effusive on the subject of Kruger. “Last year she had copies of a 1991 version of this work pasted on the streets of Szczecin, Poland, in response to restrictive new abortion laws there,” Foster says. “Always alert to questions of audience and venue, Kruger forever seeks new ways to intervene in the public sphere, drawing political debate into artistic practice and vice versa.”

Finally, none other than Ai Weiwei was tasked with summing up Alcántara. “Although he has since been imprisoned, his life, behavior and expression as a whole are so powerful that they can resist the aesthetic and ethical degeneration of authoritarianism,” Weiwei writes. He should know, given how much trouble he continues to get himself in back in Hong Kong.

K-pop mega group BTS will accompany South Korean President Moon Jae-in as special presidential envoys at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

Awarding ceremony: The seven-man group was awarded the certificates on Tuesday appointing them as “Special Presidential Envoys for Future Generations and Culture” in a ceremony at the Blue House, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

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Last week, New York Fashion Week didn’t just come back, it came roaring back. After being sent largely online for the last few seasons, a decent portion of its presentations were finally in person (while other contingents were either streamed online, offered as high-production videos or in-person but private visits).

We thought it was worth looking back at the full bounty of what was presented in all of the shows, and picking a few of the highlights. Here’s a snapshot of my five favorite, standout looks that I can’t wait to see worn once the weather starts getting warm next year.

Sandy Liang’s deconstructed creamy, dreamy dress
There’s something extra cool about a dress that’s romantic to begin with, but has been meticulously deconstructed. That’s what’s going on with this number. With its off-white hue and flowy layers, it’s artful enough to be worn on its own with some delicate jewelry and heels to a patio party, and original enough to counterbalance a moto jacket and black boots.

Rodarte’s acid yellow fringe dress

Rodarte has long been a creator of magical, almost surreal pieces in the fashion arena, bringing a trippy California vibe and dovetailing it with modern colors, strategically frayed fabrics and otherwise interesting spins on modern, handcrafted design. And that’s why the line’s all-fringe, all-bright yellow frock caught my eye. I can’t wait to see one light up a party.

Brandon Maxwell’s shimmer meets leather look

It was a match made in runway heaven: Flowy, feminine silks and satins in psychedelic swirls and endless shimmer were paired with casual T-shirts and structured leather and croc pieces. And it worked best in a look I could see wearing from a work meeting straight to dinner out: a blue pleated, holographic silk maxi skirt paired with a robin’s egg-blue leather jacket.

Tom Ford’s head-to-toe purple

Ford truly loves to put on a show. And this one was full of celebratory color, sequins and silk cargo pants. I especially loved his head-to-toe lilac look — a deluge (and yet a still-very-wearable deluge) of deep purple knickers, a satin button-down shirt tied seductively at the waist and velvet smoking jacket. Whatever is going on with COVID next spring, it’s a look with in-person presence and — dare I say it — true exuberance.

Adam Lippes’ minimalist separates

Sometimes you just can’t beat an impeccably made, solid color piece that moves just the way you want it to. That’s the practical-but-ethereal sense you get from Adam Lippes in this latest collection, thanks to flowy and well-tailored pants in dusty rose, and white lace, pouf-sleeved blouses that evoke special occasions but are incredibly easy to toss on and wear just about anywhere.

With their New York-bound plane sitting on the tarmac at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport with mechanical difficulties on Sunday, Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers decided to use the opportunity to learn something.

“I was just talking to one of the flight guys who works out there, just talking about different airplanes and asking questions,” Jeffers said. “It’s just who I am.”

Jeffers uses this example to explain why, in an up-and-down season, he still feels confident he’ll be a consistently better major leaguer than he has been this season. A hunger for learning — Jeffers was a physics major in college — can only help him in that effort. And after a brief taste of the majors last season, the 2021 season has been all about learning for Jeffers.

“I’m always learning. I don’t like going into situations and not knowing or not understanding. I like to be informed, I like to learn, I  like to grow,” he said. “And that’s something I’ve always done. Whether it’s hitting, whether it’s defensive, whether it’s stuff completely unrelated.”

With Mitch Garver on and off the injured list twice this year — first with a groin injury, now with back tightness — Jeffers has seen more time behind the plate this year than Garver, even with an early-season demotion back to Triple-A.

In 76 games, Jeffers has hit .202 with a .275 on-base percentage and .408 slugging percentage with 13 home runs. He turned in one of his better games of the season on Tuesday, collecting three hits, including a home run, and driving in four in a Twins win against the Cleveland Indians.

There’s more of that coming, he believes.

“Just continuing to work and continuing to grow and get better every day really is possible by staying in the lineup,” Jeffers said. “Who knows what the next couple years entail? But I want to be that guy catching 120 games, 130 games.”

However the Twins split playing time with their catchers over the course of the next couple of weeks — Garver is getting closer to making his return — this season will have proven a valuable one for Jeffers, showing him the ins and outs of what it takes to be an everyday major league catcher.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said it was one “unlike any year he’s ever played.”

“He’s going to have seen the light in some ways as to what it entails to go out there and do this job on a consistent basis at the major league level, and he’s learning to embrace it,” Baldelli said. “ … I do think the experience factor, the innings that he’s logging, the consecutive games that he’s played, there’s going to be a collective benefit for him going forward and it’s going to make him a better player.”

His willingness and desire to learn and expand his horizons — the same curiosity that led to him peppering an airport worker with questions — he believes will make him a better player.

“I know I can be one of the best-hitting catchers in baseball,” Jeffers said. “I know I can be one of the best defensive catchers in baseball.”

TWINS LIKELY TO MISS BERRIOS

The Blue Jays have not named a starter for Sunday’s series finale against the Twins but it doesn’t appear it will be former Twins right-hander José Berríos, who last pitched on Tuesday.

With an off day on Thursday, Berríos, is more likely to start on Monday, as long as he’s healthy. He left Tuesday’s start after seven strong innings with what Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo called left abdominal tightness, but he is expected to make his next start.

Berríos should be in line to start against his former team next weekend in his return to Target Field. Since the July 30 trade that sent Berríos to Toronto for prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson, Berrios has posted a 3.31 earned-run average across nine starts.

BRIEFLY

The Twins will have Michael Pineda start the first game in Toronto, followed by Bailey Ober on Saturday. They have not yet listed a starter for Sunday. The Blue Jays will counter with Hyun Jin Ryu and Steven Matz in the first two games.

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — In the new book “Peril,” Watergate journalist Bob Woodward and co-author Robert Costa claim the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff circumvented former President Trump and his authority because he was worried about Trump’s stability.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley is defending his past calls to Chinese officials as “keeping with his duties and responsibilities… to maintain strategic stability.”

“Frequent communication with two countries like China and Russia is not atypical at all,” said Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.

The book “Peril” claims Milley made calls to China in October and January, reassuring his counterparts that then-President Trump would not launch a surprise military attack.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said Milley should resign or be fired.

“If it’s true, it means he broke the chain of command, it means he communicated with an opponent of the United States without civilian authorization — the authorization of his commander in chief,” said Hawley.

The book also claims Milley worried about Trump’s mental decline and asked U.S. military officials to contact him before launching nuclear attacks.

Former President Trump said if the story is true, he assumed Milley would be fired for treason.

“I have great confidence in General Milley,” President Joe Biden said.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said understanding the calls requires context.

“The outgoing president of the United States, during this period of time, fomented unrest leading to an insurrection and attack on our nation’s capital,” said Psaki.

Psaki said Trump’s cabinet was also concerned and were “questioning the former president’s stability, his behavior and his suitability to see the national security of the United States.”

PSAKI SAID TRUMP’S CABINET WAS ALSO CONCERNED.

Hawley said Milley needs to explain himself before Congress as soon as possible.

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.– The Edwardsville Police Department needs help finding a missing 48-year-old man. Grady Giger was last seen on the 900 block of Esic Drive around 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Police say Giger is not in possession of his medicine and needs to take it on a daily basis. He also often takes short walks and likes nearby comic book stores, gas stations, and restaurants but usually returns home within two hours.

Giger also has ties to the Alto area.

Giger is described as being 5’10”, weighing 280 lbs, brown hair and blue eyes, blue t-shirt, black suspenders and blue Jeans

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact the Edwardsville Police Department at (618) 656-2131.

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits moved up last week to 332,000 from a pandemic low, a sign that worsening COVID infections may have slightly increased layoffs.

Applications for jobless aid rose from 312,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Jobless claims, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily for two months as many employers, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their employees. Two weeks ago, jobless claims reached their lowest level since March 2020.

Jobless claims rose 4,000 in Louisiana, evidence that Hurricane Ida has led to widespread job losses in that state. Ida will likely nick the economy’s growth in the current July-September quarter, though repairs and rebuilding efforts are expected to regain those losses in the coming months.

Still, Ida shut down oil refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi about two weeks ago and left more than 1 million homes and businesses without electricity. But Ida’s impact was limited: Applications for jobless aid fell slightly in Mississippi.

Scientists are divided on the topic of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, and the debate hinges on whether it is more appropriate to give booster shots to the fully vaccinated population or if those doses should be saved for the unvaccinated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee is set to meet on Friday to vote on whether the agency should approve a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The vaccine committee, consisting of independent scientists and advisors, will review new data submitted by Pfizer about the safety and efficacy of a third booster shot based on real-world studies. The FDA doesn’t have to follow the committee’s recommendation, but it usually does.

The Biden administration has expressed strong support for giving booster shots to Americans, but said the ultimate decision will be left to the FDA and the CDC.

Pfizer data submitted to the FDA on Wednesday showed that a third dose of its mRNA vaccine six months after a second shot restores protection from infection to 95 percent. Without a third shot, protection wanes over time, dropping from the peak 95 percent a few weeks after the second dose to below 84 percent four months later.

However, some scientists say the added benefits don’t matter if a significant portion of the world’s population remain unvaccinated.

On Monday, a group of top scientists, including two senior FDA officials and several with the World Health Organization, authored an article in the medical journal The Lancet, arguing that “current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations.”

“Even if some gain can ultimately be obtained from boosting, it will not outweigh the benefits of providing initial protection to the unvaccinated,” the authors wrote. “If vaccines are deployed where they would do the most good, they could hasten the end of the pandemic by inhibiting further evolution of variants.”

They also reasoned that boosters are not needed in the general population, because existing vaccine regimes are still highly effective at preventing severe illness and death, even against the delta variant.

Nearly 58 percent of the world population hasn’t received any COVID-19 vaccine, according to Our World in Data. In the U.S., despite ample vaccine supply, less than 55 percent of the population are fully vaccinated, still far from the coverage needed for herd immunity.

Last month, the WHO called on rich countries with vaccine surpluses to hold off on booster shots until the end of the year to ensure sufficient supply for poor countries. Yet, several developed countries have moved ahead with booster shots anyway—for certain groups.

The U.S. authorized the third booster shot of Pfizer vaccine for immunocompromised people in August. France began administering booster shots on September 1 to people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions. The U.K, Ireland and Greece have followed suit since then.

The Pfizer-BioNTech shot is the only fully approved COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. The other two popular vaccines, made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are authorized for emergency use only.

What a difference 102 years makes.

In the early part of last century, women couldn’t cast a ballot, much less be on one for mayor. And speaking out for the cause could land a lady behind bars.

Back in February 1919, Boston threw President Woodrow Wilson a welcome home parade on his way back from the Paris Peace conference. Members of the National Woman’s Party picketed for women’s right to vote in front of the State House viewing stand. They were arrested and taken to jail.

Women got the right to vote in the U.S. in 1920, and this year on Nov. 2, voters will cast their ballots for either Michelle Wu or Annissa Essaibi-George as mayor of Boston.

Change is never fast enough.

Change has been top of mind in this mayoral campaign — how the status quo is no longer working, how voters need a voice, how Boston’s communities are desperate for positive changes.

Yet what was stark in its constancy was the preliminary election’s low voter turnout.

As the Herald reported, with just a few hours left before polls closed, only about two in 10 registered voters had shown up to vote — and that number was even lower in some neighborhoods.

In the end, about 108,000 votes were tallied, a little less than a quarter of Boston’s registered voters.

Yikes.

This is not a new trend — the seeming apathy during local elections is one cities across the nation have bemoaned.

It’s not as if people don’t care about what’s going on with our neighbors, our neighborhoods and our community in general. Over the past few years we’ve seen marchers take to the streets — some peacefully, some not — for a variety of causes.

There have been calls for police reform, social reform, affordable housing and an end to gun violence, to name a few. Families will stand in the cold to protest online-only learning in the face of a pandemic, or protest mandatory mask-wearing.

We’ll work long and hard to help each other — as volunteers packed boxes with food and supplies for low-income families in the early days of the pandemic and kept the goodwill going as COVID dragged on. Donations poured in, and folks drove strangers without transportation to vaccination sites.

Bostonians aren’t apathetic when it comes to stepping up to the plate, why are we when it comes to stepping up to the voting booth?

One possible cause that’s been bandied about is lack of competition.

The last time Boston had a Republican mayor was in the late 1920s, one Malcolm Nichols. Fun facts: He was the State House reporter for the Boston Traveler, and was preceded and succeeded by James M. Curley. Since then, it’s been Democrats all the way.

With a field of five hailing from the same party, as it did this year, differences on the issues are subtle more than earth-shattering. No one is against affordable housing. No one thinks the situation at Mass and Cass is great and doesn’t require intervention. Everyone’s caught up on the gunfire on Boston’s streets.

When the differences between candidates come down to what kind of Democrat is on the menu — progressive or moderate — then the mayor’s office can appear to be on auto-pilot to voters.

If you vote, a Democrat will win. If you don’t, a Democrat will win.

One of the items on the next mayor’s to-do list should be ramping up civic engagement.

By MOHAMED IBRAHIM and AMY FORLITI

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group who authorities say masterminded the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque was sentenced Monday to 53 years in prison for an attack that terrified the mosque’s community.

Emily Claire Hari, who was charged, tried and convicted as Michael Hari and recently said she is transgender, faced a mandatory minimum of 30 years for the attack on Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Defense attorneys asked for the minimum, but prosecutors sought life, saying Hari hasn’t taken responsibility for the attack.

No one was hurt in the bombing, but more than a dozen members of the mosque community gave victim impact statements Monday about the trauma it left behind. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said evidence clearly showed Hari’s intent was to “scare, intimidate and terrorize individuals of Muslim faith.”

“Diversity is the strength of this country,” Frank said. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that doesn’t understand the constitutional promise of this country that brings a lot of people here.”

“Anything less than 636 months would (be) disrespect to the law,” the judge added.

Hari made a brief statement before she was sentenced, saying, “For how blessed my first 47 years of life were, I can’t complain about what the last three have looked like … considering my blessed and fortunate and happy life, I can’t ask the judge for anything further.”

She also said the victims who testified during Monday’s hearing have been through a “traumatic ordeal” and she wished them “God’s richest blessings in Christ Jesus.”

Frank said he was prepared to recommend Hari go to a women’s prison, but said the Bureau of Prisons would decide.

Hari was convicted in December on five counts, including damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs.

Members of the mosque asked the judge on Monday to impose a life sentence, describing their shock and terror at the attack. Some were afraid to pray there afterward and have not returned. Mothers were scared to bring their kids to the mosque, which also serves as a charter school and community center.

“I felt really scared because I was going to start school in the same building soon and we lived like six blocks away from the mosque,” said Idris Yusuf, who was 9 when the bombing happened. “I was scared because if these people could do this to our mosque, what’s stopping them from coming to Muslim people’s homes too?”

Afterward, community members said they saw 53 years as justice for an attack that has rattled worshippers for more than four years.

“We were looking for life (in prison), but this is something we can settle for today,” said Khalid Omar, a community organizer and Dar Al Farooq worshipper.

Several men were gathered at Dar al-Farooq for early morning prayers on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of an imam’s office. A seven-month investigation led authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago, where Hari and co-defendants Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris lived.

Authorities say Hari, 50, led a group called the White Rabbits that included McWhorter, Morris and others and that Hari came up with the plan to attack the mosque. Prosecutors said at trial that she was motivated by hatred for Muslims, citing excerpts from Hari’s manifesto known as The White Rabbit Handbook.

McWhorter and Morris, who portrayed Hari as a father figure, each pleaded guilty to five counts and testified against her. They are awaiting sentencing.

It wasn’t initially clear how the White Rabbits became aware of Dar al-Farooq, but the mosque was in headlines in the years before the attack: Some young people from Minnesota who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State group had worshipped there. Mosque leaders were never accused of any wrongdoing. Hari’s attorneys wrote in court filings that she was a victim of online misinformation about the mosque.

Assistant federal defender Shannon Elkins also said gender dysphoria fueled Hari’s “inner conflict,” saying she wanted to transition but knew she would be ostracized, so she formed a “rag-tag group of freedom fighters or militia men” and “secretly looked up ‘sex change,’ ‘transgender surgery,’ and ‘post-op transgender’ on the internet.”

Prosecutors said gender dysphoria is not an excuse and said using it “to deflect guilt is offensive.”

Prosecutors asked for several sentencing enhancements, arguing the bombing was a hate crime led by Hari. They also say Hari committed obstruction when she tried to escape from custody during her transfer from Illinois to Minnesota for trial in February 2019. Hari denied trying to flee.

Hari, a former sheriff’s deputy and self-described entrepreneur and watermelon farmer, self-published books including essays on religion, and has floated ideas for a border wall with Mexico. She gained attention on the “Dr. Phil” talk show after she fled to the Central American nation of Belize in the early 2000s during a custody dispute. She was convicted of child abduction and sentenced to probation.

Before her 2018 arrest in the mosque bombing, she used the screen name “Illinois Patriot” to post more than a dozen videos to YouTube, most of them anti-government monologues.

Hari, McWhorter and Morris were also charged in a failed November 2017 attack on an abortion clinic in Champaign, Illinois. Plea agreements for McWhorter and Morris say the men participated in an armed home invasion in Indiana, and the armed robberies or attempted armed robberies of two Walmart stores in Illinois.

___

This story was first published on Sept. 13. It was updated on Sept. 16 to correct that Belize is in Central America, not South America.