Heroes:
- Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured), who has negotiated a ceasefire in Syria with Russia and some other combatants. In the past, he has been an avid environmentalist and anti-Vietnam War activist.
- The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is standing up against the Dakota Access Pipeline that would destroy some of their ancient burial grounds and pose an environmental risk. The tribe is staging a nonviolent protest, and some members have taken the issue to the UN Council in Geneva.
- Colombians, who negotiated a ceasefire between the leftist FARC and the government, hopefully ending a 50-year war that ravaged the country.
- Fariah Syed, who organized a protest that built a beach outside the French embassy in London to protest France’s burkini ban. She and other protesters then held a “wear-what-you-want beach party.”
Villains:
- Ahmad Khan Rahami (probably), who is the suspect behind the bombings that injured 29 people in Chelsea, a neighborhood of New York City, on September 17. He also planted bombs in several areas in New Jersey.
- Betty Shelby, the Tulsa police officer who shot and killed Terence Crutcher and is now being charged with manslaughter.
- Wells Fargo, the nation’s third-largest bank, whose employees fraudulently opened at least two million fake accounts—without customers’ permission—just to hit sales targets. The accounts, which started appearing in 2011, often incurred thousands of dollars in fees, and the bank fired over 5,000 employees in response.
- Heather Bresch, who, as CEO of Mylan, raised the price of the EpiPen by over 400% in recent years by exploiting their monopoly in the epinephrine market. Over 43 million people who suffer from severe allergies are bearing the brunt of these price increases.