Is China the New Us? Or Are We?

Author Kurt Andersen’s new book, Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America, examines the economic, political cultural opportunities to be found in the wake of the financial crises. In this excerpt, the first of five on TIME.com, he glances back through history to see how national destinies can change. It was fitting that as I was writing my previous book, an historical novel called Heyday published in 2007, I turned 50.

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Music supervisor Andrea von Foerster on 500 Days of Summer and other great romantic comedy soundtracks

There comes a moment in almost every movie romance when words no longer suffice and the music must rise to the occasion. From the initial meet-cutes to the heated arguments and all those third-act sprints to win back the girl, a movie’s soundtrack often does the heavy lifting, providing all the needed passion, heartache and poetry. The romantic comedy Days of Summer, with a soundtrack ranging from Wolfmother to Carla Bruni, hits all the right notes, with a few surprising ones thrown in .

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Rwandan to face genocide charges in Finland

Finnish prosecutors will file genocide charges against a Rwandan man in the killings of 15 people during Rwanda’s ethnic cleansing bloodbath in 1994, authorities said Monday. GM will file a bankruptcy petition at 8 am ET (12 pm GMT), paving the way for a de facto government takeover, according to a source with direct knowledge of the bankruptcy proceedings

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GM poised for bankruptcy, agrees European selloff

The future of thousands of car industry jobs in Europe remained uncertain Monday as General Motors prepared to file for bankruptcy after reaching a deal to sell off its European operations, including German automaker Opel and UK-based Vauxhall. GM will file a bankruptcy petition at 8 am ET (12 pm GMT), paving the way for a de facto government takeover, according to a source with direct knowledge of the bankruptcy proceedings.

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Gorbachev, Shultz, Nunn, Perry Urge a Nuclear-Free World

President Obama’s call for a “world without nuclear weapons,” and his agreement with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to work towards just that, have helped revive an issue that slipped off the foreign-policy agenda following the end of the Cold War two decades ago. But nuclear disarmament hasn’t been completely forgotten in recent years. In 2007, four diplomatic heavyweights — former U.S

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