VOL. 186, NO. 14 | 2015

Cover Story
First, Do No Harm
Inside the debate over when to operate on breast-cancer patients-and when to wait
By Siobhan O’Connor 22

A Laughing Matter
Young Arabs use comedy to counter the propaganda of the extremist group ISIS
By Naina Bajekal 30

The Doctor Is In
How celebrated brain surgeon Ben Carson, a political novice of deep faith, vaulted near the top of the Republican heap
By Philip Elliott and Tessa Berenson 34

Ambition and the Working Woman
A new poll by TIME and Real Simple asks how women and men define success and ambition.
Hint: not the same
By Kristin van Ogtrop 38

4 | Conversation
6 | Verbatim

The Brief
News from the U.S. and around the world
7 | Russian warplanes bomb Syria
9 | Can the hajj be made safer?
10 | Ian Bremmer on how the Volkswagen scandal will affect Germany
11 | What the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner means for his party
12 | MacArthur winners announced
13 | The on-demand fix-it industry is up and running
14 | NASA confirms there is water on Mars

The View
Ideas, opinion,innovations
17 | A new argument about the roots of the Rockefeller drug laws
18 | How to win customers and influence online behavior
20 | How long does it take for a TV show to get its hooks into you?
20 | Don’t call them Lego-they’re bigger than that
20 | The drunk history of the United States
29 | Are Russians happier than Americans?

Time Off
What to watch, read,see and do
43 | Janet Jackson’s new album Unbreakable
45 | Robert Zemeckis’daredevil movie The Walk
45 | A climate-change film from Naomi Klein
46 | Everybody loves TV foodie Phil Rosenthal
47 | Quick Talk with actor Justin Theroux
48 | Kid-lit reboot: Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure
49 | The apotheosis of the weekend warrior
51 | Joel Stein turns to memoirist Mary Karr for help in dramatizing the undramatizable
52 | 10 Questions with evangelical leader Rob Schenck

On the cover:
Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME