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Last night, former President Donald Trump returned to X, the social media site once known as Twitter in as bombastic a form as possible: a livestream with the site’s now-owner Elon Musk. The interview on Spaces, X’s platform for live audio conversations, covered everything from illegal immigration to union busting. At one point, Trump and […]

In response to new and resurging mpox outbreaks in multiple African countries, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declared mpox a continent-wide public health emergency Tuesday. Although many countries outside of Africa rapidly contained an mpox pandemic that began in 2022, large outbreaks continued unabated in west and central Africa. And now, a […]

President Joe Biden has made taking on “junk fees” — hidden fees on everything from airline bookings to concert tickets — a key part of his domestic agenda. His administration has already tried to limit fees on things like bank overdrafts and late credit card payments, and Monday, it turned its attention to making subscriptions […]

Vice President Kamala Harris is potentially on the verge of becoming one of the most powerful people on Earth. At the same time, in part because her rapid ascent to the Democratic presidential nomination didn’t involve the sustained public attention of a long presidential primary, she’s more of a cipher to many Americans than major […]

Many of us like to think our moral values are stable. We imagine that we’ve each got a moral compass inside us, with the needle reliably pointing us north — toward our sense of right and wrong.  But according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, our deepest moral […]

For roughly half of humans, one thing is as certain as death and taxes: If you menstruate and live long enough, your ovaries will stop releasing eggs, and your menstrual cycle will end. Menopause is weird, biologically speaking. People, five species of whales, and maybe chimpanzees are the only animals that seem to live beyond […]

For most of American history, free speech did not exist in the United States. Dissidents were commonly thrown in prison, often for many years, when the government disagreed with their views. Near the end of World War I, the great union leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for giving a speech […]

Quick. Think about the state of American politics. We’re polarized — it’s almost cliché to point it out. But why are we polarized? While there are plenty of reasons (some have even written whole books explaining them), our politicians and elected officials play a key part.  It’s a political science phenomenon called “elite polarization,” in […]

If I asked you to name a historical figure who manages to be both incredibly well-known and universally misunderstood, who comes to mind? Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche are obvious candidates. But any list like this has to include George Orwell, the English essayist and the author of two of the most famous political novels […]

Industry, now in its third season, has lived in the shadow of two HBO juggernauts, Euphoria and Succession, for the past four years. Its similarities with Succession in particular — British creators, corporate settings, despicable characters, acerbic dialogue, gray-toned palettes — have made it difficult for the show about young, ketamine-snorting bankers to capture everyone’s […]

Humans are simple creatures. Since the dawn of spectator sports, we’ve wanted to watch muscular people fight and do flips. Today, TikTok-friendly high-drama sports like women’s gymnastics regularly dominate Olympic viewership on TV networks and streaming platforms. But watching artistic gymnastics isn’t the only way to see ultra-strong people do flips and splits. Pole dancing […]

You might have seen previews or even bought tickets for the new film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling romance novel It Ends With Us, starring Blake Lively. But have you heard about the online soap opera surrounding a rumored rift among the film’s cast, its director and co-star Justin Baldoni, and possibly Deadpool? Once again, a […]

The FDA has decided not to approve MDMA therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, dealing an unexpected blow to the growing movement to raise psychedelics from the underground as a new, strangely powerful type of medicine.  Psychoactive drugs like psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA have been illegal for decades. But academic research looking into […]

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump seemed to suggest he would consider restricting access to mifepristone, a pill used for medication abortions. Within a day, his campaign furiously walked back Trump’s statement, claiming the former president misheard the question. Trump’s first-term record on reproductive rights is clear: His three Supreme Court picks led directly to […]

It’s common, whenever someone skyrockets into mainstream fame, for folks to dig deep through their internet histories. Less common is what happened to Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: Pretty much everything they found was extremely wholesome. From clips of him riding roller coasters with his daughter at the […]

Athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics are competing against the toughest opponents in the world, the clock, the record books, and increasingly, extreme heat.  Rain soaked the opening ceremony, but it followed an extensive heat wave across France and much of Europe. According to the World Weather Attribution research group, such temperatures would not have […]

Fellas, is it illegal for brands to refuse to advertise on my social media site? If you’re Elon Musk, the answer is yes. This week, Musk’s social media company X (formerly Twitter) filed an eyebrow-raising lawsuit against an advertising industry group and several major brands, including Unilever (maker of Dove soap), Mars Inc. (maker of […]

Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationship with money, their relationship with each other, and how those relationships inform one another. Cheryl Roorda is 51 years old; her husband, Zac Smith, is 52, and together they have two grown children. After a decades-long career as independent musicians, Cheryl and […]

It’s fair to observe that in the run-up to the Summer Olympics, Parisians were feeling a bit of, how do you say, ennui.  If they hadn’t already put their apartments on Airbnb in anticipation of fleeing the city, Parisians took to social media to complain about the Olympics and beg tourists not to come.  Well […]

ST. ROSE, Louisiana — In the St. Charles Parish neighborhood, only a tall green chain-link fence stands between a block of homes and the future site of a facility that may, among other things, store carbon in efforts to limit planetary heating.  The $4.6 billion project is part of a new slate of federal efforts […]

This weekend, one of the most popular books of the decade is making its way to the big screen. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us, a romantic tearjerker about breaking the cycle of abuse that became a social media sensation after it was published in 2016, is now a movie starring Blake Lively. The moment […]

Riots and violence have erupted in the UK following the killing of three young girls in the quiet seaside town of Southport in northern England. Last week, while learning dance moves to their favorite Taylor Swift songs, a 17-year-old boy entered their classroom and went on a stabbing rampage that left three dead and critically […]

Vox editor-in-chief Swati Sharma and executive editor Elbert Ventura announced today that Angela Chen has joined the brand as a senior editor on the policy, politics, and ideas team. She begins her new role on August 19. “I’m thrilled to welcome Angela. One thing that sets Vox’s coverage of policy and politics apart is our […]

First, there was Charli XCX’s post declaring Vice President Kamala Harris “is brat” on X. Then there was Beyonce’s approval of her song, “Freedom,” for Harris’s campaign use. And most recently, there was Megan Thee Stallion’s appearance at a Harris rally in Atlanta, alongside fellow musician Quavo.  Since Harris became the likely Democratic nominee at […]