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A Vox reader asks: Why is factory farming still around? Factory farming — the intensive confinement of chickens, pigs, and cows on a massive scale — developed in the second half of the 20th century to feed a growing, and increasingly prosperous, post-World War II America. It was made possible by a “set of economic, […]

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On Tuesday, after a ferocious Santa Ana windstorm blew through Southern California, a severe brush fire broke out in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, burning at least 1,000 structures and forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate […]

Wildfires are raging across Los Angeles, turning the skies red, destroying homes and businesses, and blanketing the region with smoke and debris. The largest fire is in Pacific Palisades, which has grown to over 17,000 acres as of Thursday morning and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. Four other major fires have engulfed […]

Multiple major wildfires, fanned by unusually strong seasonal winds, are currently burning through the Los Angeles area, leaving devastation in their wake. Thus far, those fires have led to at least five fatalities, massive evacuations, and significant damage to more than 2,000 buildings.  Though destructive fire seasons have become increasingly common in California, it’s still […]

Sustained powerful winds reaching nearly 100 miles per hour are driving fast-moving wildfires near Los Angeles, spewing smoke, destroying homes, closing roads, and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.  The Palisades fire along the coast near the Santa Monica mountains has burned more than 17,000 acres as of Thursday morning. The Eaton fire near Pasadena […]

$95 million is a headline-making number, especially when it comes as a result of a proposed class action lawsuit settlement in which claimants accused Apple of unlawfully surveilling them through Siri and other Apple devices. If the settlement is approved by the district court in Oakland, California, overseeing the case, people who owned a Siri […]

A scientific narrative about what meditation does can offer a helpful lens on what is happening when you take your seat on the cushion. But no matter the story, there’s no substitute for actually doing the practice. Which raises the question: If you’re interested in exploring deeper meditation, how long will it take you to […]

Grown-ups around the world have spent the last year desperately trying to get kids to put down their phones. Worries about kids’ screen time are far from new (you could argue that they are nearly a century old), but in recent months, high-profile experts have raised the concern that social media use among young people […]

Is Donald Trump going to risk throwing the global economy into crisis by enacting the gargantuan tariffs he’s proposed? Or is he just pretending he’s willing to do that to strike a better deal? On trade and many other issues, it’s clear Trump enjoys being seen as an unpredictable and dangerous figure and believes that […]

North Carolina’s supreme court has temporarily prohibited the state’s Board of Elections from certifying the election of sitting Democratic Justice Allison Riggs to the bench on Tuesday, despite her 734-vote victory over Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin.  The court’s decision is not an out-and-out bar on the certification of the election’s results; it’s a stay, meaning […]

In March, Dartmouth basketball players made history with a 13-2 vote to unionize and be classified as college employees — the first successful union election by student-athletes in US history. After Dartmouth rejected the bid, the two sides began litigating the path forward. But last Tuesday, well before any contract was reached, the players ended […]

With President Donald Trump’s second administration just weeks away, congressional Republicans are gearing up to execute on a wide-ranging legislative agenda touching on everything from taxes to immigration to fossil fuels. In a Monday interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump noted that his preference for doing so was “one big, beautiful bill,” but said […]

Bitter cold has lashed its icy fingers across the United States, bringing a frigid start to the new year. Dubbed Winter Storm Blair, the tempest has triggered winter weather alerts for more than 60 million people this week in a swath from Illinois to New Jersey.  The ongoing storm has already dropped up to a […]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that he’d step down as head of the country’s Liberal Party, after weeks of speculation that his time in leadership was coming to an end. In Canada, the head of the party with the highest number of seats in Parliament leads the country. Though Trudeau will no longer […]

In what is likely to be one of her final actions as the federal government’s top Supreme Court litigator, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asked the justices last week to significantly diminish the power of lower court judges to block federal laws and policies. Should the Court take her up on this invitation, the biggest immediate […]

With an annual toll of 40,000 American lives, the deadliness of secondhand smoke is now common knowledge. But it was only a few decades ago that puffing on a cigarette was defended as an act that affected only the smoker. In the 1980s, researchers for the first time demonstrated that smoking can kill people who […]

One in three Americans has resolved to make 2025 the year they get therapy. If you’re one of them, brace yourself: Figuring out how to get your insurance benefits to cover therapy can take some legwork.  The drudgery of figuring out whether and how your insurance plan covers therapy — or choosing between plans in […]

When former Buffalo Bill Jordan Poyer heard New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers extol the benefits of ayahuasca on The Pat McAfee Show in 2023, he was suspicious — but intrigued. Poyer had been struggling with his marriage and his recovery from alcoholism, and after hearing Rodgers discuss “plant medicine” — as the psychoactive brew […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. I am a recovering optimizer.  Over the past several years, I’ve spent ages agonizing over every decision I made because I felt like I had to do the best […]

It always seems like everyone wins and no one really loses at the Golden Globes.  The event has historically been known as more of a boozy party than a serious awards show, a casual hangout with Hollywood’s most charming celebrities rather than a cutthroat winner-take-all situation — even if it’s had its fair share of […]

In an ideal world, everyone who qualifies for an aid program ought to receive its benefits. But the reality is that this is often not the case. Before the pandemic, for example, nearly one-fifth of Americans who qualified for food stamps didn’t receive them. In fact, millions of Americans who are eligible for existing social […]

On New Year’s Eve, America’s most prominent nativist declared that the nation needs more immigrants.  “We need competent people, we need smart people coming into our country,” President-elect Donald Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, “we need a lot of people coming in.” It may sound as though Trump was just visited by the […]

It’s been a contentious 24 hours in South Korean politics, after impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol narrowly avoided arrest for insurrection on Friday, a month after his martial law declaration.  It’s the latest development in a month-long political meltdown that has not only thrown Korean politics into turmoil, but surfaced the country’s deep political polarization, […]

House Republicans — after some initial drama — successfully reelected Rep. Mike Johnson as speaker on Friday. Johnson’s victory in the first round of voting came as something of a surprise, after three Republicans initially voted against him, depriving him of the 218-person majority he needed to win the speakership. After conferring with Johnson, however, […]