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Less than six months ago, after an inappropriate amount of research, I bought a new toaster for $30. My old toaster had died, as old toasters do, and I wanted to buy one cheap enough that I wouldn’t be mad when I had to replace it. If President Donald Trump’s current 145 percent tariff on […]

From 2017 to 2020, meat-free sausages and veggie burgers had a moment. Sales of plant-based meat doubled thanks to new startups — like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods — which collectively took billions of dollars in venture capital investment and invented much more meaty vegetarian products than their predecessors. The emerging sector was hailed as […]

In late 2021, I stood in a forest about two hours from Mexico City and watched as a river of butterflies passed overhead. They were monarchs — the iconic, Halloween-colored butterflies — and they were coming here from the US to rest for the cold winter months.  Nearly all of the monarchs east of the Rocky […]

Nearly two weeks since his “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, President Donald Trump has roundly lost the majority of the American public’s support. According to polling, his chaotic trade policy has hammered trust in his economic stewardship, his economic approval ratings are tanking, and his overall popularity continues to slide. The public’s perception that Trump has […]

In March 2024, Kelli and Austin Emry welcomed their son Logan, a little brother for their toddler Mila and the final piece of the family they had always wanted. Born with a full head of black hair, Logan was a healthy, happy baby who thrived in his first weeks of life. When Kelli returned to […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m focusing on two federal judges threatening to hold the Trump administration in contempt, escalating a conflict between the president and the courts […]

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country,” President Donald Trump promised on “Liberation Day,” as he announced tariffs that have shocked global markets and set the country on course for a recession. “We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers, and […]

Every artist I know is furious. The illustrators, the novelists, the poets — all furious. These are people who have painstakingly poured their deepest yearnings onto the page, only to see AI companies pirate their work without consent or compensation. The latest surge of anger is a response to OpenAI integrating new image-generation capabilities into ChatGPT […]

The United States and China are locked in an economic war. They’ve levied tit-for-tat tariffs on each other, and there’s little sign of detente.  President Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday that “The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with […]

Recessions are always officially declared after they have already started.  In the US, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the official arbiter of what constitutes a recession, taking into consideration different economic indicators, including growth. The organization defines a recession as a “significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy,” […]

The Supreme Court’s Republican majority certainly seems eager to make taxpayers fund religious education.  Over the past few decades, the Court has slowly expanded the ability of religious schools to access public money. Most recently, in Carson v. Makin (2022), the Court held that states that provide tuition vouchers that pay for private education must […]

This story appeared in the Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m focusing on the Trump administration’s battle with Harvard University, in which a powerful university targeted by the president is pushing back. […]

President Donald Trump’s press conference with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele was, at heart, an authoritarian political performance. This was clearest in their discussion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man that the Trump administration seized and then erroneously sent (by its own admission) to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. The two men were sneeringly dismissive of […]

Trump v. Wilcox, a case now pending on the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket,” asks whether several federal agencies that are supposed to enjoy a degree of independence from the president should be stripped of that independence.  Wilcox is the latest in Supreme Court cases involving what’s known as the “unitary executive” theory, which, in its […]

If you’re bothered by allergies every spring, you may pop a Benadryl or Claritin most mornings to make the days tolerable. Two-thirds of Americans report spring allergies, and about 4 in 10 say they take an allergy medication several times a week. But those medicines, while valuable, don’t exactly fix the problem. One 2001 study […]

For many people, working out is a distinctly private pleasure. The way we run, the faces we make, the amount we sweat and the places we sweat from, the creaks and groans our bodies emit during a squat — these are our own little secrets. The last thing we want is to be filmed climbing […]

Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff policy, in which he declared trade war on the entire world simultaneously, was a bizarre and nonsensical undertaking, seemingly shaped only by the president’s own whims. But since that initial announcement, the policy has been modified to bear at least a little bit more of a resemblance to what Trump’s […]

When President Donald Trump unveiled tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories early this month, there was one place that was conspicuously left off the list: Russia.  Initially, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios that Russia had been excluded because US sanctions already “preclude any meaningful trade.” But this doesn’t make a […]

Remember Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law?  The unconstitutionally vague law imposed such unclear restrictions on teachers who speak about sexual orientation or gender identity that many feared they could be fired merely for mentioning their spouses. Eventually, Florida agreed to a settlement which affirmed its right to do things like excluding Harvey Milk from the […]

Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m focusing on a showdown between the administration and the courts over a wrongful deportation, a critical test of the judicial branch’s ability to check Donald Trump’s power. What’s the latest? Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge on Sunday that they were not required to bring back a man who was […]

On Friday, four Republican members of the North Carolina Supreme Court issued an order attempting to disenfranchise more than 5,000 of the state’s voters. This order is part of an ongoing effort by Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican and the losing candidate in a recent state supreme court race, to overturn Democratic state Supreme Court […]

Mikaela Shafer values spending time with her friends, and if that means booking a flea market day three months in advance, she considers it a small price to pay. For a while, Shafer, 38, and her friends found themselves in the throes of schedule coordination hell. One person would attempt to make plans on a […]

Is college for everybody? According to Chelsea Waite, a senior researcher at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, the answer is no. And more students, parents, and educators are realizing it.  Waite spent two years speaking to administrators, teachers, parents, and students at six high schools in New England to learn more about post-grad desires. […]

In a podcast landscape dominated by the manosphere, one of the biggest podcasts targeted to women sounds like it could be a children’s television show.  Giggly Squad is hosted by two best friends, fashion influencer Paige DeSorbo and comedian Hannah Berner, who first rose to fame via the Bravo reality show Summer House. In 2020, […]

President Donald Trump’s tariff plan has rattled Wall Street, alarmed the United States’ trading partners, and made Americans afraid of checking their retirement accounts.  It’s also been extremely confusing: After announcing that he would implement steep tariffs across the board (for reasons that didn’t make much sense), Trump walked back some of the tariffs before […]

A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here! Back in 2022, sunglasses-wearing U2 frontman and rock star philanthropist Bono gave one of those long interviews to the New York Times Magazine. In between talking about his band’s new albums and the challenge of staying relevant after nearly 50 years […]

The Trump administration has been arresting and detaining protesters who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. They have justified the action by calling those protesters — without evidence — “Hamas supporters.”   In so doing, the administration appears to be following Project Esther, a plan from the Heritage Foundation with the stated purpose of cracking down on antisemitism. Published in […]

The biggest movie in the world right now sends its characters on a journey through a building-block world full of zombies, talking pigs, and magical artifacts. A Minecraft Movie has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in theaters around the globe since it opened last weekend, not only outperforming expectations by double but smashing […]

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the  Maryland man it had sent to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison in what the government has conceded was an “administrative error.” Not one of the justices dissented from that ruling.  The justices sent the case back to the federal trial […]

For many years, Donald Trump has viewed unpredictability as one of his greatest negotiating assets. He believes deliberately acting “crazy,” as he reportedly told aides in 2017, is a highly effective way to win concessions in advance of a deal. As I’ve written, this is akin to what President Richard Nixon dubbed the “madman theory” […]

Pollen allergy season is getting longer and more intense as the climate changes, creating more misery for allergy sufferers. But it’s not the only type of allergy threat getting worse with warming.  There are other allergens, like mold spores, whose spread coincides with higher temperatures and weather disruption. But one of the most insidious and […]

A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here! We live in a consumerist society. But at least speaking for my own social circles, we also live in an anti-consumerist society: We purchase lots of things, and we also feel vaguely guilty about it and brag about all of the ways we […]

By the time Remi Bader, who built her career as a plus-size influencer with over 2 million followers on TikTok, went on Khloé Kardashian’s podcast to address her smaller body, it had been subject to nearly a year and a half of speculation.  Fans were certain Bader had betrayed them, but exactly how and in […]

American negotiators are headed to Oman this weekend for a round of high-level talks with Iran over its nuclear program. President Donald Trump dropped the surprise announcement Tuesday during his Oval Office meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu. (Netanyahu was reportedly surprised by the news as well, one of a number of disappointments for the Israeli prime […]

The facts underlying Noem v. Abrego Garcia are shocking, even by the standards of the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants. The Supreme Court just ruled that the immigrant at the heart of the case get some relief — but that relief is only partial. In mid-March, President Donald Trump’s government deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Economic chaos from President Donald Trump’s tariffs continues to dominate headlines, but today I want to focus on his continuing effort to rewrite the history of the 2020 election […]

For those of us with anxiety (hello!), the class of prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines, or benzos, can be a boon in times of crisis. Though they are addictive, they’re pretty good at chilling us out.  But it turns out that by drugging ourselves with these pills, we are inadvertently drugging wild animals as well. […]

Let’s start with what should be obvious: The wolf pups are not dire wolves, and they haven’t been “de-extincted.” The fluffy white canines — Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi — unveiled this week by Colossal Biosciences are closer to something like designer dogs. More precisely, they are genetically modified, hybridized modern wolves, gestated in the womb […]

The arrest of Rex Heuermann, allegedly the infamous Long Island serial killer, makes for riveting drama in Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries Gone Girls — but while the series focuses on the victims and sheds light on Heuermann himself, viewers may find themselves more fascinated by another important facet of the investigation: just how close […]

This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions. Having a baby is expensive. You need a car seat. A stroller. A high chair. You need the baby shampoo and then the different baby shampoo for when your baby is allergic to the baby shampoo (maybe just […]

Something unexpected happened recently as I was filing my taxes: AI helped. It even caught an error that my human accountant missed. This was surprising because when I decided to test out a free tax return chatbot, I expected it to tell me to, I don’t know, write off my dog as a business expense […]

Much has apparently changed in the last 24 hours in the US economy. The S&P 500 opened Wednesday more than 10 percent down since President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariffs on American imports. Goldman Sachs had raised its recession odds to 45 percent. Investors believed they no longer had the ear of the president. […]

President Donald Trump has launched a global trade war, raising prices and tanking stocks in the process. His approval rating is in free fall. And yet, somehow, the Democrats are in disarray.  Or at least, they are bitterly bickering over what their party’s stance on trade should be. Last week, as “Liberation Day” unraveled global […]

When President Donald Trump announced his tariffs last week, he also declared a national emergency. According to the White House, the emergency in question is “the large and persistent trade deficit,” or the fact that the United States imports more goods than it exports.   If you’re confused about why that’s an emergency, you’re not alone. […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m breaking down President Donald Trump’s wild afternoon of trade moves. What is going on with tariffs? Last week, Trump announced two sets of tariffs: a […]

President Donald Trump beat a partial — and possibly temporary — retreat from the most radical version of his trade agenda Wednesday.  One week ago, he vowed to impose massive new tariffs on virtually all imports from nearly all countries. Although rates varied by nation, many countries faced tariffs of more than 30 percent. Trump […]

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expanding his crusade to turn back the clock on federal health policy. Having undermined the government’s support for childhood vaccines amid the worst measles outbreak in years, he is now targeting another longstanding pillar of American public health: water fluoridation. HHS will convene a board […]

The Trump administration’s announcement of widespread tariffs has thrown the stock market into a tailspin, increasing the odds of a recession.  This economic turmoil could have far-ranging implications, and some Americans’ first question — and the outcome they believe they have most control over — is how to handle their retirement savings and other investments. […]

In less than a week, President Donald Trump’s tariffs have already created economic chaos in the US and abroad.  On Wednesday, he announced a minimum 10 percent tariff on almost all imports, with dozens of countries facing far higher rates.  The S&P 500 has plunged almost 10 percent in response as of Monday, hitting nearly […]

On Monday night, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision tossing out a closely watched district court decision, which blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to use a 227-year-old law — the Alien Enemies Act — to deport many individuals without due process. The Court largely voted along party lines, although Republican Justice Amy Coney […]