Preview: An increase in the number of U.S. jobs that was higher than expected makes it unlikely that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon.

Preview: Tesla has spent much of the year dealing with struggling sales and a deteriorating brand. Now CEO Elon Musk has drawn the ire of the president.

Preview: Walmart announced its latest efforts at an annual gathering of store employees, managers and executives in Northwest Arkansas.

Preview: Trump had slapped higher tariffs on China than any other country, but temporarily lowered them last month after initial trade talks in Switzerland.

Preview: Global spirit makers are staring down a sobering cocktail of challenges as tariffs and brand boycotts threaten to exacerbate wider shifts in drinking habits.

Preview: As rivals make headway with their AI hardware strategies, Apple stakeholders want to hear how the company's approach to AI has changed.

Preview: Trump lashed out at Elon Musk for his criticism of the Republican tax-cut and spending bill, leading the CEO to later suggest Trump should be impeached.

Preview: With the Senate poised to consider the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, here's who may be vulnerable to health-care coverage losses if the legislation passes.

Preview: Milan Kovac, Tesla's vice president in charge of Optimus humanoid robotics, announced on Friday that he's leaving the company.

Preview: The Supreme Court had upheld a federal judge's order that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S. from a notorious prison in his native El Salvador.

Preview: • Fox-Dominion trial delay 'is not unusual,' judge says • Fox News' defamation battle isn't stopping Trump's election lies

Preview: The judge just announced in court that a settlement has been reached in the historic defamation case between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.

Preview: A settlement has been reached in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation case against Fox News, the judge for the case announced. The network will pay more than $787 million to Dominion, a lawyer for the company said.

Preview: • DeSantis goes to Washington, a place he once despised, looking for support to take on Trump • Opinion: For the GOP to win, it must ditch Trump • Chris Christie mulling 2024 White House bid • Analysis: The fire next time has begun burning in Tennessee

Preview: • 'A major part of Ralph died': Aunt of teen shot after ringing wrong doorbell speaks • 20-year-old woman shot after friend turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York, officials say

Preview: Newly released body camera footage shows firefighters and sheriff's deputies rushing to help actor Jeremy Renner after a near-fatal snowplow accident in January. The "Avengers" actor broke more than 30 bones and suffered other severe injuries. CNN's Chloe Melas has more.

Preview: It's sourdough bread and handstands for Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Preview: A tiny intruder infiltrated White House grounds Tuesday, prompting a swift response from the US Secret Service.

Preview: An arrest warrant has been issued for controversial Biden administration official Sam Brinton in connection with a second alleged theft at an airport in Las Vegas. Brinton, who works for the Department of Energy, was already placed on leave after he allegedly stole a woman’s luggage at Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport late last month. ...

Preview: Inside the Illinois State Capitol sits a display of several religious exhibits for the holiday season, which includes a Jewish menorah, the Christian nativity scene, and the “Serpent of Genesis” from the Satanic Temple, as reported by local radio media. Consisting of a leather-bound copy of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” — which ...

Preview: The latest release of the “Twitter Files” Thursday evening revealed that leftists at the highest level of the company, who have all since been fired or been forced to resign, targeted one of the most popular right-wing accounts on the platform with repeated suspensions despite the fact that they secretly admitted that she did not ...

Preview: The second installment of the so-called “Twitter Files” was released Thursday evening after the company turned over documents to a journalist who then started to publish the findings on the platform. Musk released internal company communications through journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday about the company’s censorship of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story ...

Preview: The transgender community has turned on a once revered surgeon specializing in sex change surgeries after a patient posted graphic photos of an allegedly botched operation. Dr. Sidhbh Gallagher, a Miami-based surgeon specializing in double mastectomy surgeries for transgender-identifying patients, has been heavily criticized for performing the elective surgery on minors. She has also earned ...

Preview: Video emerged Thursday afternoon of Brittney Griner being swapped on a runway for convicted Russian terrorist Viktor Bout after Democrat President Joe Biden agreed to the trade. The video showed Griner, who is wearing a red jacket, walking across the tarmac with three men while Bout walked toward her with a man standing next to ...

Preview: After a woman claimed to be the daughter of a serial killer in a recent interview, a search of the supposed location of buried remains has turned up nothing. Federal, state, and local authorities did not find any evidence or remains after scouring the earth for several days in Thurman, Iowa, a small town just ...

Preview: A FedEx contract driver strangled a 7-year-old girl after hitting her with his van in Texas late last month, according to arrest warrant documents. Tanner Horner, a 31-year-old from Fort Worth, has been arrested and charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years old and aggravated kidnapping in the death of Athena Strand, ...

Preview: Disabled veteran Congressman Brian Mast (R-FL) took issue with fellow Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) over the way she chose to transport her American flag while she was moving from one office to another. Mast, who lost both legs and his left index finger in 2010 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) while ...

Preview: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed President Joe Biden Thursday for releasing notorious terrorist Viktor Bout in exchange for Brittney Griner. Griner, who has a criminal record in the U.S. stemming from a domestic violence incident several years ago, was arrested in Russia back in February on drug charges, ...

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Preview: AS THE MUSK TURNS! (Main headline, 1st story, link) Related stories: RUSSIA OFFERS ASYLUM TRUMP DUMPS HIS TESLA EPSTEIN 'BOMB' FALLOUT 'NATIONAL SECURITY RISK'

Preview: RUSSIA OFFERS ASYLUM (Main headline, 2nd story, link) Related stories: AS THE MUSK TURNS! TRUMP DUMPS HIS TESLA EPSTEIN 'BOMB' FALLOUT 'NATIONAL SECURITY RISK'

Preview: TRUMP DUMPS HIS TESLA (Main headline, 3rd story, link) Related stories: AS THE MUSK TURNS! RUSSIA OFFERS ASYLUM EPSTEIN 'BOMB' FALLOUT 'NATIONAL SECURITY RISK' Drudge Report Feed needs your support!   Become a Patron

Preview: EPSTEIN 'BOMB' FALLOUT (Main headline, 4th story, link) Related stories: AS THE MUSK TURNS! RUSSIA OFFERS ASYLUM TRUMP DUMPS HIS TESLA 'NATIONAL SECURITY RISK'

Preview: 'NATIONAL SECURITY RISK' (Main headline, 5th story, link) Related stories: AS THE MUSK TURNS! RUSSIA OFFERS ASYLUM TRUMP DUMPS HIS TESLA EPSTEIN 'BOMB' FALLOUT

Preview: The Dark Conspiracy Where Elon Destroys The Don... (First column, 1st story, link) Related stories: DC holds its breath... President Hints at Musk Drug Use: 'Poor Guy's Got a Problem'... Will He Be Indicted? You Can Bet On It... BANNON: DEPORT HIM! AND SEIZE HIS SPACEX... MAGA faithful celebrate end of bromance... FOX STRUGGLES WITH BREAKUP... Vance Conspicuously Quiet... Psychologist Explains Dynamic... Influential advisor revenge tour, fanned flames -- bragged about stock drop... How he triggered it... White House races to fix DOGE mistakes: Too many people were fired! Supremes greenlight access Social Security data...

Preview: DC holds its breath... (First column, 2nd story, link) Related stories: The Dark Conspiracy Where Elon Destroys The Don... President Hints at Musk Drug Use: 'Poor Guy's Got a Problem'... Will He Be Indicted? You Can Bet On It... BANNON: DEPORT HIM! AND SEIZE HIS SPACEX... MAGA faithful celebrate end of bromance... FOX STRUGGLES WITH BREAKUP... Vance Conspicuously Quiet... Psychologist Explains Dynamic... Influential advisor revenge tour, fanned flames -- bragged about stock drop... How he triggered it... White House races to fix DOGE mistakes: Too many people were fired! Supremes greenlight access Social Security data...

Preview: President Hints at Musk Drug Use: 'Poor Guy's Got a Problem'... (First column, 3rd story, link) Related stories: The Dark Conspiracy Where Elon Destroys The Don... DC holds its breath... Will He Be Indicted? You Can Bet On It... BANNON: DEPORT HIM! AND SEIZE HIS SPACEX... MAGA faithful celebrate end of bromance... FOX STRUGGLES WITH BREAKUP... Vance Conspicuously Quiet... Psychologist Explains Dynamic... Influential advisor revenge tour, fanned flames -- bragged about stock drop... How he triggered it... White House races to fix DOGE mistakes: Too many people were fired! Supremes greenlight access Social Security data...

Preview: Will He Be Indicted? You Can Bet On It... (First column, 4th story, link) Related stories: The Dark Conspiracy Where Elon Destroys The Don... DC holds its breath... President Hints at Musk Drug Use: 'Poor Guy's Got a Problem'... BANNON: DEPORT HIM! AND SEIZE HIS SPACEX... MAGA faithful celebrate end of bromance... FOX STRUGGLES WITH BREAKUP... Vance Conspicuously Quiet... Psychologist Explains Dynamic... Influential advisor revenge tour, fanned flames -- bragged about stock drop... How he triggered it... White House races to fix DOGE mistakes: Too many people were fired! Supremes greenlight access Social Security data...

Preview: A former Osceola County sheriff was arrested on felony charges for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business out of Kissimmee, Florida.

Preview: Federal agents raided multiple Los Angeles businesses, including Home Depot stores, detaining dozens and drawing criticism from local officials and immigrant rights advocates.

Preview: On the 81st anniversary of the unprecedented D-Day invasion at Normandy, the memory of one Navy veteran lives on after his son was named the first American Pope in history.

Preview: A suspect appeared in federal court Friday for a hate crime charge after allegedly attacking a pro-Israel rally with Molotov cocktails in Boulder, Colorado.

Preview: Police in New York attempted to disperse around 500 teenagers after they gathered at Jones Beach for "senior cut day."

Preview: Convicted murderer Grant Hardin, nicknamed 'Devil in the Ozarks,' captured 1.5 miles from prison after escaping on May 25, ending a weeks-long manhunt by multiple agencies

Preview: Third U.S. Navy destroyer deployed to patrol waters near Mexico as part of NORTHCOM's border security objectives, enhancing drug trafficking interdiction efforts.

Preview: Stay up to date with the Fox News True Crime Newsletter, which brings you the latest cases ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.

Preview: Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia is headed back to the U.S. to face federal charges for allegedly smuggling migrants, some linked to MS-13.

Preview: Attorneys for Mickey Stines say the state of Kentucky botched grand jury proceedings against their client, who is accused of killing District Judge Kevin Mullins, according to a report.

Preview: Buildup to a Meltdown: How the Trump-Musk Alliance Collapsed  The New York Times The Polling on Elon Musk Is a Warning for Republicans  Politico Trump-Musk political relationship: A summary and timeline  NBC News Who holds the cards in Trump vs. Musk? Trump, but …  CNN Tesla already had big problems. Then Musk went to battle with Trump  CNBC

Preview: Multiple immigration sweeps reported across L.A., with a tense standoff downtown  Los Angeles Times Protesters march in downtown Los Angeles after ICE immigration raids across city  ABC7 Los Angeles ICE agents detain day laborers at Home Depot parking lot in Westlake  NBC4 Los Angeles ICE sweeps through LA businesses as local Democrats cry foul over Trump administration's enforcement actions  Fox News David Huerta, president of SEIU California, detained during L.A. ICE raids  Los Angeles Times

Preview: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in US custody after being illegally deported and will now face criminal charges  Politico Kilmar Abrego Garcia, newly returned to US, appears in court on charges of trafficking migrants  ABC News President Trump responds to return of alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to US  Fox News Kilmar Ábrego García returned from El Salvador to face criminal charges in US  The Guardian Return of Abrego Garcia Raises Questions About Trump’s Views of Justice  The New York Times

Preview: Supreme Court restores DOGE’s access to sensitive Social Security data and says it doesn’t have to turn over documents  CNN Justices Grant DOGE Access to Social Security Data and Let the Team Shield Records  The New York Times Trump says he has no plans to speak with Musk; Supreme Court gives DOGE access to Social Security data  NBC News Supreme Court hands DOGE big wins in Social Security, records cases  The Hill Supreme Court halts lower court orders requiring DOGE to hand over information about work and personnel  CBS News

Preview: Zelenskyy says Russian drivers 'didn't know anything' about role in audacious drone attack  ABC News How the US could be vulnerable to the same kind of drone swarm attack Ukraine unleashed on Russia’s bomber fleet  CNN Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,199  Al Jazeera Russia faces struggle to replace bombers lost in Ukrainian drone strikes  Reuters Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web destroyed more than aircraft – it tore apart the old idea that bases far behind the front lines are safe  Yahoo

Preview: Deportees are being held in a converted shipping container in Djibouti, ICE says  NPR ICE officers stuck in Djibouti shipping container with deported migrants  The Washington Post How the Trump Administration Banished Eight Men to Legal Limbo in Africa  The New York Times South Sudan deportations have placed migrants, and ICE officials, in danger: new court filing  Fox News Group stranded with Ice in Djibouti shipping container after removal from US  The Guardian

Preview: Judge grants final approval to House settlement  ESPN With $2.7 billion settlement approved, college sports' big money era is officially here  NPR Historic House v. NCAA settlement gets final approval, allowing schools to pay college athletes  The New York Times U.S. judge approves $2.8 billion settlement, paving way for colleges to pay athletes millions  NBC News Judge grants final approval to House vs. NCAA: What it means for Georgia athletics  DawgNation

Preview: Arkansas killer and rapist caught after 13-day manhunt in mountains  The Guardian Former Arkansas police chief who escaped from prison has been recaptured, sheriff’s office says  CNN Notorious 'Devil in the Ozarks' finally caught after weeks-long manhunt that drew multiple agencies  Fox News 'Devil in the Ozarks' fugitive captured after 12-day Arkansas manhunt  Southwest Times Record ‘Devil in the Ozarks' Escapee Is Caught Near Arkansas Prison  The New York Times

Preview: As World Pride flows straight into the military parade, DC officials say they're ready for anything  AP News D.C. Hosts WorldPride Parade in the Shadow of Trump  The New York Times Federal police close Dupont Circle Park ahead of WorldPride weekend  The Washington Post Thousands to attend DC's Pride parade Saturday. Here's what to expect, including road closures  NBC4 Washington WorldPride gathers in Washington as Trump rolls back LGBTQ+ rights  Reuters

Preview: ‘It could be months’: Experts evaluate Decker’s survival odds  KING5.com Father searched online for jobs in Canada, how to relocate before 3 Decker sisters were killed  KING5.com GoFundMe for mother of slain Wenatchee girls surpasses $1M, 2nd-largest in WA history  MyNorthwest.com Travis Decker: Police search for man accused of killing his 3 daughters  BBC Missing Wenatchee girls likely cause of death revealed in court documents  FOX 13 Seattle

Preview: Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.) said President Trump and Elon Musk’s feud wouldn’t last for long, noting that the Republican Party and the president's allies are all a part of “one big family.” Musk in recent days has criticized the president’s budget bill over its effects on the national debt, which the tech billionaire says “undermines”...

Preview: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) celebrated the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported and detained in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, calling it "a victory" for the rule of law. The Trump administration doubled down on the deportation, accusing Abrego Garcia, who illegally immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador...

Preview: Mold growth in the units posed "risks of respiratory issues or other infections" to customers, the recall notice said.

Preview: Elon Musk floated a new political party on Friday after falling out with President Trump over the big, beautiful bill.  He launched a Thursday poll on the social platform X, which he owns, asking about whether or not the country needed a new faction for political nominees. “The people have spoken. A new political party...

Preview: Elon Musk has been critical of the Trump-backed "big, beautiful bill," calling it a "disgusting abomination."

Preview: Citadel founder Ken Griffin knocked the Trump administration for a series of moves he said would undoubtedly cause stagflation. Griffin, who’s notably criticized the president’s trade policies, slammed the White House for promoting tax reductions amidst a fiscal deficit.  “It would be a textbook stagflation scenario. The question is, is it for several quarters, or...

Preview: Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} Defense & National Security Defense & National Security The Big Story  After deadly Army helo, jet crash, sweeping air safety legislation unveiled  Seven Democratic lawmakers unveiled legislation Thursday outlining updated air safety regulations after a deadly passenger plane collided with an Army helicopter in January.  © Photo...

Preview: President Trump signaled Friday that he’s done with his relationship-turned-feud with tech billionaire Elon Musk, telling reporters he’s not interested in making up with his former top adviser. “There are efforts,” Trump said about work to reconcile the duo. “But I’m not really interested in that. I’m really interested in the country solving problems, including...

Preview: {beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment   The Big Story Trump goes after Biden car efficiency rules The Trump administration on Friday took a step to undermine a Biden-era rules tightening car fuel efficiency requirements. © Getty Images The Transportation Department published an interpretive rule that says the Biden administration improperly considered electric vehicles as a way to make...

Preview: Presented by Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding {beacon} Health Care Health Care   The Big Story Measles cases see biggest rise in over a month The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 80 new measles cases this week, the biggest jump since April. © AP A total of 1,168 confirmed measles cases were reported in...

Preview: Seven public housing tenant association presidents told THE CITY that they were surprised to see their names on a list of Cuomo backers.

Preview: “I can’t believe that’s something a member of Congress feels comfortable saying out loud without any shame," said the "Late Night" comedian.

Preview: From denial and downplaying to anger and acceptance.

Preview: The MSNBC host slammed the president as a “vulgar lump of a man.”

Preview: The "Late Show" host finds a truly unexpected plot twist in the middle of the chaos.

Preview: “That’s true, that’s true,” Trump later admitted to Friedrich Merz.

Preview: Trump “wants that to be in the zeitgeist,” argued the CNN anchor.

Preview: The late night host showed how the battle was even better than he had hoped.

Preview: “Shouldn’t have done it, it was way too soon before we had any real information,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus admitted in a Thursday press conference.

Preview: Michael Kosta highlighted the "crazy" circumstances of the nasty split between the world's wealthiest man and the president.

Preview: Robinhood Markets’ stock was falling in after-hours trading Friday.

Preview: The decision is the latest development in a battle over the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to sensitive personal information.

Preview: Why investors and consumers should hope the Republicans’ tax bill doesn’t pass.

Preview: AI’s new promise is ‘trust me with your money.’ Here’s why you should be careful.

Preview: “I don’t want to upset her while she’s living. Stress makes her condition worse.”

Preview: “I have worked for more than six months to get my elderly mother a place to live.”

Preview: “She has received a small inheritance, an annuity and also receives Social Security so she’s not penniless.”

Preview: Warning signs are present for a potential “cyber 9/11” attack on everything from electric grids to financial and telecom networks.

Preview: The S&P 500 closed just above an important psychological threshold Friday.

Preview: “My brother, the executor of her will, coerced her during her illness to give him power of attorney.”

Preview: Veterans are frustrated with Trump's broken promises, including threats from DOGE to cut core VA services.

Preview: As Donald Trump launches an investigation into Joe Biden, it's the third time the Republican has engaged in such a flagrant abuse of presidential power.

Preview: It feels like a distant memory now, but back in 2023, then-presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis faced widespread condemnation and ultimately fired a campaign staffer who circulated a video that featured Nazi imagery

Preview: The Trump administration had fought court orders requiring the government to remedy the illegal deportation to El Salvador.

Preview: The federal government had asked the justices to halt a judge’s order blocking DOGE from sensitive Social Security information.

Preview: While trying to defend Trump's tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had to be reminded of a simple truth: "We cannot build bananas in America."

Preview: The HHS under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership is poised to make the United States' already high maternal mortality rates even worse.

Preview: As the conservative media ecosystem tries to cope with the fallout from an apparent feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, some right-wing influencers are trying to spin the spat as nothing more than two macho men in a benign sparring match.

Preview: Michelle shares her and Barack Obama's thoughts on their eldest daughter, Malia's decision to drop her last name in professional projects.

Preview: Even before Elon Musk and President Donald Trump escalated their feud Thursday, some Democrats were thinking of trying to entice the Tesla billionaire to their side.

Preview: “By removing decades-old regulatory barriers and promoting cutting-edge supersonic technology, President Trump is Making Aviation Great Again."

Preview: Marchand's second goal of the night 8:04 into the second OT allowed Florida to escape with a split.

Preview: Zane Garrett, 26, was charged with aggravated animal cruelty after gruesomely knifing a bull shark near a wreck site off Key West on May 22 in a video titled "Bud broke my rod."

Preview: Maybe Jazz Chisholm Jr. has unlocked the secret for his success: Don’t give it your all.

Preview: “We will not stand for this,” Bass said in a statement released after federal immigration authorities arrested 44 people in raids across Los Angeles.

Preview: The REAL ID requirement took effect May 7.

Preview: Just when another night of anguish with RISP appeared ready to spell R.I.P. for the Mets, a wounded star came to the rescue.

Preview: Contentions about the Buc-ee’s have been brewing in the area for quite some time.

Preview: College athletes will undergo yet another historic change.

Preview: Mia Scott hit a grand slam, Teagan Kavan claimed another win and Texas defeated Texas Tech 10-4 in Game 3 of the Women’s College World Series championship series on Friday night to win its first national title.

Preview: For the nearly three months before the Justice Department secured an indictment against the man, it had repeatedly flouted a series of court orders to “facilitate” his release from El Salvador.

Preview: Three months after being wrongly deported to El Salvador, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was flown back to the United States on Friday to face federal charges.

Preview: As Elon Musk leaves Washington, the team he formed to ferret out waste and abuse won dual victories in the Supreme Court.

Preview: The warm welcome for a technology executive whose purchases of the president’s digital coin won him a White House tour illustrates inconsistencies in the administration’s views toward visitors from China.

Preview: Advance episodes of “Art of the Surge” offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the adulatory environment in which Mr. Trump has moved since regaining power.

Preview: The top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee said Vice President JD Vance had set a precedent for derailing U.S. attorney candidates during his time in the Senate.

Preview: President Trump’s decision to pull a close associate of Elon Musk’s out of the running to lead NASA helped doom an extraordinary partnership.

Preview: The president could tighten federal oversight of the tech titan’s businesses, even if heavy reliance by the Pentagon and NASA on them makes terminating Mr. Musk’s contracts less feasible.

Preview: Armed agents in tactical gear threw flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd in Los Angeles’s Fashion District. Later, agents fired less-than-lethal ammunition at protesters outside a detention center.

Preview: A city with an image dented by protests, pandemic restrictions and a security crackdown hopes to broaden its appeal beyond budget-minded visitors from mainland China.

Preview: The Phoenician Scheme is about all of the things you can’t put in a Wes Anderson movie.

Preview: The sound of the mid-’20s isn’t the main pop girls, Kendrick, or Drake. It’s dudes like Alex Warren.

Preview: Mexico’s complaint alleged that the named firearms manufacturers and the named distributor aid and abet rogue dealers in the U.S.

Preview: We know this is the America that some have fought hard to create. Is this the America that we will accept?

Preview: “But ... I really like both of them,” a senator posted mournfully.

Preview: And it feels amazing?

Preview: I'm fed up.

Preview: Despite chilling celebrity witness testimony, some are worried the charges against Diddy may be overreaching.

Preview: How much is it worth to have oligarchic control of the United States government? We now have an idea.

Preview: The ESPN writer joins Jenée Desmond Harris.

Preview: What's on your mind?

Preview: The New York Times has a profile of fired Muhlenberg professor Maura Finkelstein that portrays her as a martyr for… The post Fired Prof. Maura Finkelstein: A Martyr for Academic Freedom? appeared first on Reason.com.

Preview: An Eleventh Circuit panel (by a 2-1 vote) issues a stay of the preliminary injunction that the district court issued in Naples Pride's favor.

Preview: The Trump Administration returned the illegally deported migrant from imprisonment in El Salvador after repeatedly claiming they could not do so.

Preview: From Judge Tom Barber (M.D. Fla.) in Trump Media & Tech. Group Corp. v. WP Company LLC: This lawsuit for… The post Trump Media's Suit Can Proceed Against Wash. Post Over "Trust Linked to Porn-Friendly Bank Could Gain a Stake in Trump's Truth Social" Story appeared first on Reason.com.

Preview: In yesterday's Aviel v. Gor, D.C. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, joined by Judge Nina Pillard, held that the President likely… The post Limits on the President's Power to Remove Inferior Officers (Even When He Has Power to Remove Department Heads) appeared first on Reason.com.

Preview: No, says a magistrate judge.

Preview: A genomics PhD and conservative bioethicist debate the ethics of in vitro fertilization and discuss recent scientific advancements in reproductive medicine.

Preview: Neither Russia nor Ukraine has a clear path to victory. The Ukrainian drone attack last week and the Russian air raids on Friday don't change that.

Preview: Sen. Blackburn introduced a bill this week that would make it a crime to publish the name of a federal law enforcement officer.

Preview: See who's running

Preview: All four cases explained

Preview: The Crossword

Preview: Start the day smarter ☀️

Preview: After Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Wednesday, Florida communities are emerging to see its destruction with hopes and plans to recover.

Preview: Downgraded to a tropical storm, what had been Hurricane Idalia powered across Georgia and the Carolinas on Wednesday evening.

Preview: The 81-year-old Republican Senate minority leader struggled to answer reporters' questions in Kentucky, requiring help and drawing questions about his health

Preview: Nebraska volleyball set a women's sports attendance record Wednesday night as 92,003 fans descended on Memorial Stadium to watch the match vs. Omaha.

Preview: At least 73 people died when a fire ripped through a multi-story building in Johannesburg overtaken by homeless people, authorities said Thursday.

Preview: As the storm moves away from the shore, it can cause an additional life-threatening hazard: inland flooding. Georgia and the Carolinas are at risk.

Preview: President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have quickly turned on each other in a very public and bitter feud. Their split isn’t just personal, but has major implications for the rest of the country, with Musk now strongly opposing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” It is the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, which includes tax cuts, Medicaid reductions, and increased border spending. The proposal would also significantly raise the national debt. Musk took aim at the bill as “massive, outrageous, pork-filled…a disgusting abomination” that would “massively increase” the budget deficit. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” In response, Trump threatened Musk’s federal contracts. Then Musk threatened to start a new political party and accused Trump of covering up “the Epstein files.” Follow along here for updates and explainers to understand the deeper implications of this battle. The big reason why Republicans should worry about an angry Elon Musk Why Trump probably can’t cut Musk loose Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship with Donald Trump, explained The real reasons Musk is feuding with Trump The Trump-Musk breakup, briefly explained

Preview: In the November 2026 midterm elections, Elon Musk could have much more impact for much less money. | Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images How the Musk-Trump blowup ends, nobody knows. Most commentary gives President Donald Trump the advantage. But Elon Musk’s willingness to spend his fortune on elections gives him one distinct advantage — the ability to drive a brittle party system into chaos and loosen Trump’s hold on it.  Thus far, Musk has raised two electoral threats. First, his opposition to Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill has raised the specter of his funding primary challenges against Republicans who vote to support the legislation. Second, he has raised the possibility of starting a new political party. There are limits to how much Musk can actually reshape the political landscape — but the underlying conditions of our politics make it uniquely vulnerable to disruption. The threat of Musk-funded primaries might ring a little hollow. Trump will almost certainly still be beloved by core Republican voters in 2026. Musk can fund primary challengers, but in a low-information, low-turnout environment of mostly Trump-loving loyal partisans, he is unlikely to succeed.  However, in the November 2026 midterm elections, Musk could have much more impact for much less money. All he needs to do is fund a few spoiler third-party candidates in a few key swing states and districts. In so doing, he would exploit the vulnerability that has been hiding in plain sight for a while — the wafer-thin closeness of national elections. In a straight-up battle for the soul of the Republican Party, Trump wins hands down. Not even close. Trump has been the party’s leader and cult of personality for a decade.  But in a battle for the balance of power, Musk might hold the cards. Currently, the US political system is “calcified.” That’s how the political scientists John Sides, Chris Tausanovitch, and Lynn Vavreck described it in their 2022 book, The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American Democracy. Partisans keep voting for their side, seeing only the reality that makes them the heroes; events may change, but minds don’t.  In a 48-48 country, that means little opportunity for either party to make big gains. It also means a small disruption could have massive implications.  Elon Musk doesn’t have a winning coalition — but he may not need one to hurt Trump Let’s imagine, for a moment, that Musk is serious about starting a new political party and running candidates.  He will quickly find that despite his X poll, a party that “actually represents the 80 percent in the middle” is a fantasy. That mythical center? Being generous here, that’s maybe 15 percent of politically checked-out Americans. View Link Realistically, the coalition for Musk’s politics — techno-libertarian-futurist, anti-system, very online, Axe-level bro-vibes — would be small. But even so, a Musk-powered independent party — call it the “Colonize Mars” Party — would almost certainly attract exactly the voters completely disenchanted with both parties, mostly the disillusioned young men who went to Trump in the 2024 election. Imagine Musk funds his Colonize Mars Party in every competitive race, recruiting energetic candidates. He gives disenchanted voters a chance to flip off the system: Vote for us, and you can throw the entire Washington establishment into a panic!  Practically, not many seats in the midterms will be up for grabs. Realistically, about 40 or so House seats will be genuine swing seats. In the Senate, there are realistically only about seven competitive races. But that means a small party of disruption could multiply the targeted impact of a precision blast with a well-chosen 5 percent of the electorate in less than 10 percent of the seats. Quite a payoff.  The short-term effect would be to help Democrats. Musk used to be a Democrat, so this is not so strange. If Musk and his tech allies care about immigration, trade, and investment in domestic science, supporting Democrats may make more sense. And if Musk mostly cares about disruption and sending Trump spiraling, this is how he would do it.   Musk is an engineer at heart. His successes have emerged from him examining existing systems, finding their weak points, and asking, What if we do something totally different? From an engineer’s perspective, the American political system has a unique vulnerability. Every election hangs on a narrow margin. The balance of power is tenuous.  Since 1992, we’ve been in an extended period in which partisan control of the White House, Senate, and the House has continually oscillated between parties. National electoral margins remain wickedly tight (we haven’t had a landslide national election since 1984). And as elections come to depend on fewer and fewer swing states and districts, a targeted strike on these pivotal elections could completely upend the system.  A perfectly balanced and completely unstable system It’s a system ripe for disruption. So why has nobody disrupted it?  First, it takes money — and Musk has a lot of it.   Money has its limits — Musk’s claim that his money helped Trump win the election is dubious. Our elections are already saturated with money. In an era of high partisan loyalty, the vast majority of voters have made up their minds before the candidate is even announced. Most money is wasted. It hits decreasing marginal returns fast. The very thing that makes our politics feel so stuck is exactly what makes it so susceptible to Musk’s threat. But where money can make a difference is in reaching angry voters disenchanted with both parties with a protest option. Money buys awareness more than anything else. For $300 million (roughly what Musk spent in 2024), a billionaire could have leverage in some close elections. For $3 billion (about 1 percent of Musk’s fortune) the chance of success goes up considerably. Second, disruption is possible when there are enough voters who are indifferent to the final outcome. The reason Ross Perot did so well in 1992? Enough voters saw no difference between the parties that they felt fine casting a protest vote.  In recent years, the share of voters disenchanted with both parties has been growing steadily. The share of Americans with unfavorable views of both parties was 6 percent in 1994. In 2013 it was 28 percent.  In a recent poll, a plurality of adults (38 percent) now say neither party fights for them. Both parties (and Trump) are very unpopular. The overwhelming majority of voters (70 percent) describe themselves as disappointed with the nation’s politics. Voters are angry, and eager for dramatic change.  Election after election, we’ve gone through the same pattern. Throw out the old bums, bring in the new bums —  even if 90-plus percent of the electorate votes for the same bums, year in and year out. But in a 48-48 country, with only a few competitive states and districts, a rounding-error shift of 10,000 votes across a few states (far fewer than a typical Taylor Swift concert) can bestow full control of the government. Think of elections as anti-incumbent roulette.   The system is indeed “calcified,” as Sides, Tausanovitch, and Vavreck convincingly argue. Calcified can mean immovable. But it can also mean brittle. Indeed, the very thing that makes our politics feel so stuck is exactly what makes it so susceptible to Musk’s threat. Most money in politics is wasted. But if one knows how to target it, the potential for serious disruption is quite real.

Preview: Elon Musk gives a tour to President-elect Donald Trump and lawmakers of the control room before a test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images Breaking up is hard to do — especially when one party is a billionaire with near-unassailable dominance of the nation’s ability to launch things into space, and the other is a president who has staked a significant portion of his legacy on wildly ambitious space-based projects.  As President Donald Trump and his erstwhile financial backer and former DOGE boss Elon Musk traded blows on social media Thursday, the president at one point posted, “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”  This prompted Musk to announce that he was decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, used to transport astronauts to the International Space Station, though he later backed down from the threat. Trump may soon find, however, that canceling Musk’s contracts is a lot harder than selling his Tesla, particularly if he wants to pursue goals like his much-vaunted Golden Dome missile defense project.  To get to space, the US needs SpaceX During President Joe Biden’s administration, concerns were indeed raised about Musk’s lucrative government contracts as well as his access to classified defense information, given his partisan political activities (unusual for a major defense contractor), communications with foreign leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, and ties to the Chinese government.  But as Vox reported last year, unwinding the government’s relationship with Musk’s companies is a near impossibility right now, particularly when it comes to SpaceX. The company is simply better at launching massive numbers of objects into space than any of its competitors, and it’s not close: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was responsible for 84 percent of all satellite launches last year, and the constellation of more than 7,000 Starlink communications satellites accounts for around 65 percent of all operational satellites in orbit.  The reusable Falcon 9 has become the space launch workhorse of choice for a US military and intelligence community that is ever more dependent on satellites for communications and surveillance. “If one side or the other severed that relationship, which I don’t think is practical, you would very quickly see a backlog of military satellites waiting for launch,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow and space defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute. Ambitious plans like the National Reconnaissance Office’s ongoing project to launch a constellation of intelligence and surveillance satellites for military use would come to a “screeching halt,” said Harrison. The US military is also increasingly reliant on SpaceX for mobile internet connectivity via a specialized military-only version of Starlink known as Starshield. For NASA, the situation is, if anything, even more dire, as shown last March when two US astronauts returned, months late, from the International Space Station on a SpaceX Dragon capsule when problems were detected on the Boeing craft that brought them into orbit on its first ever flight.  Losing SpaceX “would basically just end the US participation in the space station,” said David Burbach, an associate professor and space policy expert at the Naval War College.  NASA’s space shuttle program shut down in 2011. Boeing’s Starliner is probably years from being a viable alternative, and going back to relying on Russian rockets — as the US did for nearly a decade between the end of the Space Shuttle and the advent of Dragon — would probably be a tough sell these days. Burbach, speaking in his personal capacity, not as a representative of the US military or war college, said such a break “would be the kind of thing that could trigger something truly drastic” such as the White House using the Defense Production Act to take control of the program. It’s not surprising Musk quickly backed down from the threat.  NASA’s ongoing Artemis program, which aims to eventually return humans to the Moon and establish a permanent lunar space station, is also heavily dependent on SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle, as are longer term plans for a mission to Mars. These are (or at least were) priorities for the White House: The moon and Mars missions are the only parts of NASA’s budget that were increased in the president’s recent budget request and the president mentioned planting “the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars” in his inaugural address.   Mars is, to put it mildly, something of a fixation for Musk, and it’s hard to imagine an ongoing US program to get there without his involvement.  Trump’s golden dreams may require Musk A true Trump-Musk rift would also have implications for “Golden Dome,” the ambitious plan to “protect the homeland” from ballistic missiles, drones, hypersonic cruise missiles, and other aerial threats.  Plans for Golden Dome are still a little vague and no contracts for its construction have been awarded yet, but SpaceX is reportedly a frontrunner to build a constellation of hundreds of new satellites to detect missile launches and determine if they are headed toward the United States, and possibly even intercept them from space.  According to Reuters, SpaceX is bidding for portions of the project in partnership with Anduril and Palantir, two other defense tech companies also led by staunch Trump backers. SpaceX’s vision for the satellite network reportedly envisions it as a “subscription service,” in which the government would pay for access, rather than owning the system outright, a model that would presumably give Musk much more leverage over how Golden Dome is developed and deployed.  Critics of the program charge that it is little more than a giveaway to Musk and his allies and Democratic members of Congress have raised concerns about his involvement.   Advocates for the program, including the Heritage Foundation, which called for investments in ballistic and hypersonic missile defense in its Project 2025 document, have cited SpaceX’s success with Starlink and Starshield as proof-of-concept for their argument that deploying a layer of hundreds or thousands of satellites for missile defense is more practical today than it was in the days of President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” project. Even if Golden Dome could be effective, which many doubt, Trump’s stated goal of having it operational with “a success rate close to 100 percent” in “less than three years” for around $175 billion (the Congressional Budget Office projects half a trillion dollars) is eyebrow-raising. The Pentagon had already backed away from the three-year timeline even before the president began feuding with the only person in the world who’s built anything close to this.  “Even for SpaceX, it would be challenging,” said Burbach. “I don’t think any other company has the capability. They’re really out in the lead on assembly line satellite capability.” Some experts think Golden Dome could be reconfigured with a greater role for land-based radar and interceptors, but this would almost certainly put it short of Trump’s expansive vision. As nuclear expert Ankit Panda succinctly put it on Thursday, “Golden Dome is cooked.” Is there an alternative? If anyone had a good day on Thursday, it was Musk’s fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos. In January, Bezos’s space company Blue Origin carried out its first successful launch of New Glenn, a reusable rocket meant to compete with SpaceX’s game-changing Falcon for contracts including military launches. The company has also begun launching satellites for its Kuiper communications network, a potential competitor to Starlink.  Both projects have suffered from long delays and have a long way to go to catch up with Musk’s space behemoth, but it’s still presumably good news for the company that their main competitor is no longer literally sleeping feet from the White House. Finding ways to at least encourage competition with Musk, if not cut him loose entirely, would likely have been a priority for a Kamala Harris administration, and may now be one for Trump as well. In response to Vox’s questions to the White House about the future of SpaceX’s contracts, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt responded in an emailed statement, “President Trump is focused on making our country great again and passing the One Big Beautiful Bill.” SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.  Though the two may no longer be speaking, Trump is likely to find it harder than he thinks to get out of the Elon Musk business entirely.

Preview: For decades, digital privacy advocates have been warning the public to be more careful about what we share online. And for the most part, the public has cheerfully ignored them.  I am certainly guilty of this myself. I usually click “accept all” on every cookie request every website puts in front of my face, because I don’t want to deal with figuring out which permissions are actually needed. I’ve had a Gmail account for 20 years, so I’m well aware that on some level that means Google knows every imaginable detail of my life.  I’ve never lost too much sleep over the idea that Facebook would target me with ads based on my internet presence. I figure that if I have to look at ads, they might as well be for products I might actually want to buy.  But even for people indifferent to digital privacy like myself, AI is going to change the game in a way that I find pretty terrifying. This is a picture of my son on the beach. Which beach? OpenAI’s o3 pinpoints it just from this one picture: Marina State Beach in Monterey Bay, where my family went for vacation.  To my merely human eye, this image doesn’t look like it contains enough information to guess where my family is staying for vacation. It’s a beach! With sand! And waves! How could you possibly narrow it down further than that?  But surfing hobbyists tell me there’s far more information in this image than I thought. The pattern of the waves, the sky, the slope, and the sand are all information, and in this case sufficient information to venture a correct guess about where my family went for vacation. (Disclosure: Vox Media is one of several publishers that have signed partnership agreements with OpenAI. Our reporting remains editorially independent. One of Anthropic’s early investors is James McClave, whose BEMC Foundation helps fund Future Perfect.)  ChatGPT doesn’t always get it on the first try, but it’s more than sufficient for gathering information if someone were determined to stalk us. And as AI is only going to get more powerful, that should worry all of us. When AI comes for digital privacy For most of us who aren’t excruciatingly careful about our digital footprint, it has always been possible for people to learn a terrifying amount of information about us — where we live, where we shop, our daily routine, who we talk to — from our activities online. But it would take an extraordinary amount of work.  For the most part we enjoy what is known as security through obscurity; it’s hardly worth having a large team of people study my movements intently just to learn where I went for vacation. Even the most autocratic surveillance states, like Stasi-era East Germany, were limited by manpower in what they could track. But AI makes tasks that would previously have required serious effort by a large team into trivial ones. And it means that it takes far fewer hints to nail someone’s location and life down.  It was already the case that Google knows basically everything about me — but I (perhaps complacently) didn’t really mind, because the most Google can do with that information is serve me ads, and because they have a 20-year track record of being relatively cautious with user data. Now that degree of information about me might be becoming available to anyone, including those with far more malign intentions. And while Google has incentives not to have a major privacy-related incident — users would be angry with them, regulators would investigate them, and they have a lot of business to lose — the AI companies proliferating today like OpenAI or DeepSeek are much less kept in line by public opinion. (If they were more concerned about public opinion, they’d need to have a significantly different business model, since the public kind of hates AI.)  Be careful what you tell ChatGPT So AI has huge implications for privacy. These were only hammered home when Anthropic reported recently that they had discovered that under the right circumstances (with the right prompt, placed in a scenario where the AI is asked to participate in pharmaceutical data fraud) Claude Opus 4 will try to email the FDA to whistleblow. This cannot happen with the AI you use in a chat window — it requires the AI to be set up with independent email sending tools, among other things. Nonetheless, users reacted with horror — there’s just something fundamentally alarming about an AI that contacts authorities, even if it does it in the same circumstances that a human might. Some people took this as a reason to avoid Claude. But it almost immediately became clear that it isn’t just Claude — users quickly produced the same behavior with other models like OpenAI’s o3 and Grok. We live in a world where not only do AIs know everything about us, but under some circumstances, they might even call the cops on us.  Right now, they only seem likely to do it in sufficiently extreme circumstances. But scenarios like “the AI threatens to report you to the government unless you follow its instructions” no longer seem like sci-fi so much as like an inevitable headline later this year or the next. What should we do about that? The old advice from digital privacy advocates — be thoughtful about what you post, don’t grant things permissions they don’t need — is still good, but seems radically insufficient. No one is going to solve this on the level of individual action.  New York is considering a law that would, among other transparency and testing requirements, regulate AIs which act independently when they take actions that would be a crime if taken by humans “recklessly” or “negligently.” Whether or not you like New York’s exact approach, it seems clear to me that our existing laws are inadequate for this strange new world. Until we have a better plan, be careful with your vacation pictures — and what you tell your chatbot! A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here!

Preview: For the last year and a half, Angela has been waging a silent corporate war with her boss. When the two women started working together in finance, they were peers. Even then, Angela felt this coworker was a little too judgmental when Angela took time off work, a little too comfortable asking Angela why she was avoiding her in the hallways. (Angela says she never purposely shirked her.) But about seven months ago, the colleague was promoted to be Angela’s manager. Her behavior became even more intrusive, says Angela (Vox granted her a pseudonym to talk freely about her manager without repercussions). “When I have doctor’s appointments,” Angela, a 33-year-old who lives in Philadelphia, says, “she wants me to put them on her calendar and tell her what they are.” Her boss has even given her negative performance reviews that are in stark contrast to the praise she used to receive from previous managers. Every day, Angela bites her tongue. But internally, she’s stewing on negative emotions. “I know that this is a problem with her and not with me, but the reason I’m feeling resentment is because it’s really pulling me down in all aspects of my life,” Angela says. “Because even if you know that you are not the problem, when somebody is coming at you every single day with aggression, it’ll bring anybody down.” Resentment is the weapon we silently wield against partners, friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors for wrongs, either real or perceived. Harboring feelings of resentment is more common than people probably would like to admit — it’s the weapon we silently wield against partners, friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors for wrongs, either real or perceived, that we can’t seem to forgive. The experience is so pervasive, says therapist and registered social worker Audrey Kao, she created a YouTube video summing up all the information she’d shared with clients.  Resentment is commonly described as festering or simmering, probably because it doesn’t just come out of nowhere. Envy is wanting what someone else has, according to psychologists, while jealousy is a fear of losing what you have to another person. These are more momentary feelings that can accumulate over time to resentment, Kao says, which is a response to repeatedly being made to feel inferior or being the victim of perceived injustices. Hear a friend discuss their lavish lifestyle long enough and mild annoyance and envy might curdle to resentment. Opposed to envy and jealousy which are action-oriented emotions, resentment can be something you get stuck in. When people hold resentments, they often don’t take action to rectify the situation because “it’s easy to think that the other person’s behavior is the cause of our resentment,” Kao says, “and if only they didn’t behave this way, then I wouldn’t be like this.” You may be hesitant to bring up your feelings out of fear the other person will get angry or end the relationship. When this state of affairs continues for a while, bitterness can take root. If the dam ultimately breaks, months or even years of resentments could come spilling out at once. With a lifetime of hard feelings out in the open, is it even possible to salvage the relationship? Should you even want to? Rather than let ill will accumulate and simmer over time, experts say, in most situations, you should fall back on a bit of evergreen wisdom: communicate your needs in the moment.  How resentments form The simmering blaze of bitter indignation stems from a single spark. These inciting events are usually the result of broken expectations or when the resentful party was made to feel inferior, according to Kerry Howells, a visiting professor at Tallinn University in Estonia and the author of Untangling You: How Can I Be Grateful When I Feel so Resentful? You might hold resentment toward your partner when they failed to throw you a surprise birthday party. Or, like in Angela’s case, you could feel ill will toward your boss for constantly undermining you.  The blame shouldn’t be placed entirely on one side. When you fail to communicate the fact that you wanted a surprise birthday party, you set your partner up for failure — and yourself for disappointment. “We can interpret that as them not caring,” Kao says. “If that disappointment doesn’t get addressed, and we still don’t decide to talk to the other person about how we really feel, then inevitably, that disappointment is going to be festering until it turns into resentment.” Those who struggle with people-pleasing tendencies in particular may prioritize others’ happiness so that they end up silently resenting their friends for not intuiting their needs.  There are, of course, power imbalances that make accusing your boss or pushy mother-in-law of overstepping unwise and unfeasible. “The environment is unsafe — that’s a very real thing,” says psychotherapist Israa Nasir, author of Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Demands More. “Those are structural realities, and so you’re stuck with resentment.” With no outlet, resentment builds over time. You file away every slight, every snide remark, every time your emotional needs aren’t prioritized until it snowballs into something that rankles just underneath the surface.  When resentment grows into contempt No one wants their relationship to devolve to a point where they despise the way a friend chews, laughs, speaks. But unchecked resentment can push us to unpleasant emotional territory. “Resentment breeds contempt,” Nasir says, “and contempt is a very powerful emotion.” Once there, you may find it hard to cut the person any slack at all. You therefore detach, give them the silent treatment, or become passive aggressive. You could resort to playing little games like waiting for them to acknowledge your anniversary first or making a backup dinner reservation because you don’t trust your flaky friend to do it.  “Gratitude is about awakening to everything that I receive from others and resentment puts us in this state of ruminating about what’s been taken away from us.” Excess resentment can ratchet up your desire to undermine and backstab, Howells says, as a way of coping with pent up bitterness. You might speak poorly of a coworker you resent not only to vent, but to impact how other colleagues see them, too. “We think that’s making it better, but it’s actually making it worse,” Howells says. “We push the relationship even further away.” Through all of this, the foundation on which your relationship was built, as well as any good memories or positive associations that went along with it, is forgotten. Resentment is the antithesis of gratitude, Howells says, and without it, all we see is a person to blame. “Gratitude is about awakening to everything that I receive from others,” she says,” and resentment puts us in this state of ruminating about what’s been taken away from us.” Addressing resentment without ruining the relationship There is a wrong way to air your grievances: unloading them all at once. It’s nearly impossible to rebound after hearing how your partner or your friend has been carrying a grudge for all the choices you’ve made in the relationship. Before launching into a discussion, decide if it’s even appropriate to bring up resentments. First, think about the role you played. Did you tell your friend you wanted to spend more time one-on-one and they keep planning group outings, or did you hope they’d just know? Are you really putting more work into a relationship or do you have unrealistic expectations of what dating should look like? “Resentment always happens when a need is not being met, but you have to think about what you are doing to create an environment where your needs are not being met, and, of course, assessing the environment itself,” Nasir says. When you fail to take ownership over your own actions (or inaction), you’re likely to place blame on others and find the cycle repeating in other relationships.  In some situations, bringing up your resentments isn’t necessarily helpful. For instance, if you’re single and jealous a friend is getting married, telling them as much might only sow discord. What would be the point of the conversation? “That might be a sign that it’s more about your insecurity, or that you’re not happy with your own life,” Kao says. In that case, your efforts would be better spent on working toward your goals. A friend’s success or happiness does not negate or prevent your own. But there are still plenty of scenarios where it’s worth having a direct, clarifying conversation in order to address your unmet needs. Kao has observed that people often drop hints about their feelings (“We never do date night,” or “You always cancel our dinners”) without coming out and saying, “I feel unimportant when you spend more evenings at work than you do with me,” or “I don’t feel valued when you keep changing our plans.” The key is to communicate your hurt head-on without blaming the other person, which is why Kao and Nasir recommend therapist-favorite “I statements” that focus on describing your feelings and how you’d like to mend the relationship. (No, “I resent you” doesn’t count.) For instance, if you’re starting to resent a friend who seems to leave you out of every social event, you could say, “I feel like I don’t know what’s going on with you. I think it’s because we’re both so busy. I’d love a monthly hang to catch up.” “It’s always helpful to come to the table with a solution, because that’s the repair piece,” Nasir says. “The solution is not just ‘you need to change.’ It’s this thing needs to change, or this needs to be added, or this needs to be removed.” The whole point of the conversation should be to preserve and improve the relationship.  Try to broach these conversations sooner rather than later. The longer you sit in the hurt, the more you might be tempted to dump a backlog of resentments. But don’t race into them too quickly while the emotions are still so fresh that you end up saying something you regret. Finding that sweet spot can be as difficult as having the conversation itself.  “It’s always helpful to come to the table with a solution, because that’s the repair piece.” Workplace resentments are far trickier since there are risks to your livelihood. You could try to tell your boss you feel undervalued or ask a coworker not to put you down in meetings, but they might not be compelled to change because, technically, they don’t have to. These people could also make your life more difficult. Howells suggests writing all your resentments in a letter that you’ll never send or working with a therapist to parse through your emotions.  The greatest gift we can give ourselves is knowing when to pick our battles. Some habits — like your partner’s penchant for showing up to every event 15 minutes late — are hard to break and it isn’t worth feeling bitter over them. The rest of the relationship is worth more than a few embarrassing, fashionably late entrances.  Taking a hard look at resentments — and what causes them — can also be freeing. Admitting to yourself that you’re jealous and resentful of a friend whose career is thriving can feel uncomfortable “because that means taking responsibility for your own unhappiness,” Kao says. “But this is actually a very liberating thought to have, because that means that if we cause our own unhappiness, then we can also solve it.” That firmly places the power in your own hands.

Preview: Smoke from Canadian wildfires dims Chicago’s skyline on June 3, 2025. Smoke from wildfires in Canada is once again shrouding parts of the United States — cities like Chicago and Milwaukee — with unhealthy air, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Parts of the plume have reached as far as Europe. The bulk of the smoke is forecasted to drift eastward across North America and thin out.   As of Thursday afternoon, Canada was battling more than 200 blazes, the majority in western provinces like British Columbia and Alberta, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. In Canada, the fires forced more than 27,000 people to evacuate, but the smoke is “impacting aerial operations for both suppression and evacuation flights.”   This is all too familiar. Canada faced a massive spate of wildfires in 2023 and in 2024 that similarly sent clouds of ash and dust across North America, reaching places like New York City. The burned area this year is a fraction of the size of the regions scorched in 2023, a record-breaking year for wildfires in Canada, but it’s still early in the fire season. Canadian fire officials warn that the “potential for emerging significant wildland fires is high to extreme” and lightning may lead to more ignitions in the next few days.  These blazes remind us that the dangers of wildfires reach far beyond their flames, and the threat is growing.  Wildfire smoke contains a melange of gases like carbon monoxide, particles of soot, and hazardous chemicals like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that can cause cancer. The tiniest particles in smoke can penetrate deep into the lungs, and even reach the bloodstream, leading to a variety of health problems. When it drifts over a community, it often causes a surge in emergency room visits as people who breathe the smoke suffer strokes, heart attacks, and asthma attacks. There’s also evidence that long-term exposure to smoke can lead to a higher likelihood of death from heart, lung, kidney, and digestive diseases.  And experts believe the true health burden from wildfires is likely much more extensive than we realize.  The harms to health will increase as wildfires become more destructive. Though wildfires are a natural, regular, and vital phenomenon across many landscapes, more people are now living in fire-prone areas, increasing the risk to lives and homes. That increases the odds of starting a fire and means more people and property are in harm’s way when one ignites. Decades of fire suppression have allowed fuels like trees and grasses to build up to dangerous levels. And as humanity continues to burn fossil fuels, emitting greenhouse gases and heating up the planet, the climate is changing in ways that enhance fire conditions.  On top of wildfires, the summer season can cause other problems. The hot, sunny weather can trigger the formation of ozone, a compound that can cause lung trouble. Dry air can lead to more airborne dust. This week, there’s also a huge cloud of dust from the Saharan Desert making its way westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Such clouds can also fill the air with tiny irritating particles and carry pathogens and heavy metals.  So smoke isn’t the only pollutant to worry about, and as average temperatures continue to rise, these factors are undoing hard-fought progress in improving air quality across much of the world.  However, there are ways to clear the air and avoid some of the worst harms. One tactic is to pay attention to the Air Quality Index in your area and avoid being outdoors when pollution reaches high levels. Wearing a high-quality KN95 or N95 mask can help reduce the damage from polluted air. Blocking air from getting indoors and filtering the air in living areas reduces smoke exposure as well.  It’s also important to mitigate wildfires where possible. On a bigger scale, that means smarter planning: limiting development in areas likely to ignite, building defensible perimeters around structures, and reducing fuels with controlled burns. And we can’t get around the fact that reducing our risk will also require limiting climate change. Otherwise, more smoky, dusty, and dirty summers lie ahead.

Preview: Elon Musk attends a Cabinet meeting held by President Donald Trump at the White House on March 24, 2025, in Washington, DC. | Vox; Win McNamee/Getty Images Ketamine seems to be everywhere — from the nightclub to the psychiatric clinic. Among its growing number of users is Elon Musk, who says he takes ketamine every two weeks for depression as prescribed by a doctor. He’s far from alone: More and more Americans are turning to ketamine for relief for their mental health struggles.  But the New York Times reported recently that Musk was taking so much ketamine during last year’s presidential campaign, sometimes daily, that he reportedly told people it was causing him bladder problems, a known symptom of chronic ketamine use. Musk’s reported experience with the drug — from medical to possibly abusive — provides a window into ketamine’s growing popularity in the United States, and the paradox that popularity presents. Ketamine, both an anesthetic and a hallucinogen, was first synthesized in the 1960s and has long been used for surgery and veterinary medicine. More recently, it has shown remarkable effectiveness in alleviating symptoms of depression, particularly in treatment-resistant populations. Clinics administering the drug — which legally must be licensed by the government to provide intravenous infusions — are becoming more popular. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first ketamine-derived nasal spray for depression in 2019.  On the other hand, as highlighted in the Times’ report alleging that Musk was mixing ketamine with other drugs, more Americans appear to be using ketamine recreationally and outside of medical supervision. Chronic misuse can put people at risk of serious physical and mental health consequences, from kidney and liver damage to memory loss and paranoia.  “There is absolutely a role for ketamine to help people with depression and suicidal ideation,” said Dr. Kevin Yang, a resident physician in psychiatry at the University of California-San Diego. “At the same time, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be safe and effective for everyone.”  According to a study co-authored by Yang and published earlier this year, the percentage of Americans who reported using ketamine within the past year grew by 82 percent from 2015 to 2019, took a brief dip in 2020 — possibly because of the pandemic complicating people’s access to the drug — and then rose another 40 percent from 2021 to 2022. The increases were similar for both people with depression and people without, suggesting that the growth is being driven by both more people seeking ketamine for clinical purposes and more people using it recreationally. The overall number of people taking ketamine is still tiny: About 0.28 percent of the population as of 2022, though this might be an undercount, as people don’t always tell the truth in surveys about drug use.  There is other evidence to suggest more people are taking ketamine recreationally. Yang’s study found that ketamine use was rising most among white people and people with college degrees, and users reported taking it more often in combination with other recreational drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine. Ketamine drug seizures nationwide increased from 55 in 2017 to 247 in 2022, according to a 2023 study led by Joseph Palamar at New York University. Experts think most recreational ketamine is produced illicitly, but the number of legitimate ketamine prescriptions that are being diverted — i.e., lost or stolen — has been going up, a 2024 analysis by Palamar and his colleagues found, which is another possible indicator of a blossoming black market. The buzz about ketamine’s popularity in Silicon Valley and its persistence in certain club cultures that first emerged in the ’80s confirms its place in the counterculture. We can’t know the reality behind Musk’s public statements and the anonymous reporting about his ketamine use. The Times reports that people close to Musk worried that his therapeutic use of ketamine had become recreational; Musk quickly dismissed the Times’s reporting. But the drug does coexist as a therapeutic and a narcotic, and the line between the two can be blurry.  People should not try to self-medicate with ketamine, Yang said. Its risks need to be taken seriously. Here’s what you need to know. How to think about ketamine as its popularity grows Ketamine is edging into the mainstream after years at its fringes. It has been around for decades, enjoying a boom as a party drug in the ’80s and ’90s. For the most part, ketamine had been viewed warily by mainstream scientists. But in 2000, the first major research was published demonstrating its value in treating depression. And increasingly over the past decade, however, ketamine has started to gain more acceptance because of its consistently impressive study results. Studies have found that for some patients, ketamine can begin to relieve their depression symptoms in a matter of hours after therapy and other medications have failed. The testimonials of patients whose depression improved quickly, such as this one published in Vox, are convincing. The benefits identified in clinical research have opened up a larger market for the substance. Johnson & Johnson developed its own ketamine-derived treatment for depression (esketamine, sold as a nasal spray called Spravato) that received FDA approval in 2019, the first of its kind. The number of monthly prescriptions for Spravato doubled from the beginning of 2023 to October 2024. People can also visit clinics to receive an IV of conventional ketamine for treatment, and that business is booming too: In 2015, there were about 60 clinics in the US dedicated to administering ketamine; today, there are between 1,200 and 1,500. For the 21 million Americans who experience major depression, this widening access could help: ketamine and esketamine do appear to have strong anti-depressive effects — as long as it is used in consultation with a doctor and under their supervision. A 2023 meta-analysis of the relevant studies found that across many clinical trials, most patients reported significant improvements in their symptoms within 24 hours. It is recommended primarily for people whose depression has not gotten better after trying other treatments or for people with severe suicide ideation, who need a rapid improvement in their symptoms to avoid a life-threatening emergency.  But providers also screen potential patients for any current substance use problems for a very important reason: The risks for ketamine abuse are real. When taken outside of a clinical setting, ketamine is often consumed as a pill or a powder, either snorted or mixed with a drink, and it’s easy to take too much. One recent survey found that more than half of patients who attempted to take ketamine at home for depression either intentionally or accidentally took more than the prescribed amount. Users can also develop a tolerance over time, which raises the risk that people will take stronger and stronger doses to feel the same effects. Scientists have found that people who use ketamine can develop a dependency on it, especially with frequent and high-dosage use. They become irritable or anxious without the drug and experience other withdrawal symptoms. Its addictive quality, while less potent than that of nicotine or opioids, is an important difference from some other hallucinogens, such as psilocybin, that are also being used in experimental settings for mental health needs and are less likely to be habit-forming.  Maintenance doses can also be necessary for ketamine therapy, and regulating any long-term use to prevent dependency is another reason medical supervision is so crucial. There is limited evidence that most people who use ketamine in a clinical setting do not end up abusing it, which is a promising sign that properly managing its use reduces the risk of therapeutic use turning into a disorder. But because ketamine’s use for depression is still so new and still growing, it’s an important risk to watch out for. Johnson & Johnson urges patients to be mindful of Spravato’s potential for misuse. The line between genuine therapeutic use and abuse becomes clearer when a biweekly treatment at a clinic turns into a regular at-home habit, especially if that involves obtaining the drug from illicit sources whose purity is not guaranteed. Street ketamine is typically just the drug itself, produced and sold illegally. But Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, who oversees the University of North Carolina’s Street Drug Analysis Lab, told me they’ve noticed a recent rise in samples where ketamine is combined with other substances. On its own, ketamine overuse in the short term can cause nausea and high blood pressure, with all of the attendant risks, as well as hallucinations and “bad trips.” Longer-term abuse can lead to problems with a person’s bladder and urinary tract, which can create difficulty urinating — the kind of issues Musk described to people in private, according to the Times. People who chronically abuse ketamine can also experience paranoia, memory loss, and a shortened attention span. The potential for ketamine in a clinical environment is exciting. But its use does come with risks, and not enough people are aware of them: A recent survey from the United Kingdom found that many people there who were taking ketamine did not know that it could be addictive.  It can be. Ketamine is not something to experiment with on your own. Clinics have all sorts of safety checks for their patients, Yang told me. Ketamine “absolutely has been shown to be very effective,” he said, before adding the all-important qualifier: “under the supervision of a clinical physician.”

Preview: Northeastern University students toss their caps at the end of their graduation ceremony on May 11, 2025, at Fenway Park in Boston. | Matthew J Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images A Vox reader Nneoma Ngene asks: Maybe it’s because I am a new grad, graduating with my bachelor’s in May yippee! But it seems everyone is super pessimistic about the job market these days. Has it been harder to get a job for people in recent years, or am I just finally shedding my childhood naïveté and being forced to wake up to the way the job market has always been? Congratulations on your graduation! That’s a genuine achievement worth celebrating, even amid job market concerns.  The short answer to your question is that, unfortunately, the economic data does confirm what you’re sensing: The job market really is more challenging for new graduates right now, and it’s not just your childhood optimism fading away.  You and your peers have faced uniquely tough circumstances. You started college during a pandemic, and now you’re entering a job market that’s shifting beneath your feet in ways that can feel discouraging, even though they’re driven by much larger economic and technological forces. This isn’t the first time graduates have faced a difficult transition. The Great Recession in 2008 led to hiring freezes and layoffs that blocked new workers from landing entry-level jobs. The labor market took time to heal after unemployment peaked in 2009, but improved steadily until the pandemic disrupted that progress.  What new grads are facing Numbers from the first quarter of 2025 from the New York Federal Reserve show that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates reached 5.8 percent, up from 4.8 percent in January. Companies have also pulled back on hiring. Last fall, employers expected to increase college-graduate hiring by 7.3 percent, according to a survey led by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Now they’re projecting just a 0.6 percent increase, with about 11 percent of companies planning to hire fewer new grads than before. A few different factors are working together to create this challenging environment. First, the new tariffs have created economic uncertainty. The stock market responded accordingly, with the S&P 500 down about 6.5 percent since inauguration day. As a result, businesses are hesitant to expand their workforce.   The elephant in the room here — that Great Recession grads didn’t have to deal with — is artificial intelligence. There’s evidence that AI might be affecting entry-level opportunities. The tasks typically performed by new college graduates — synthesizing information, producing reports — align with what generative AI can now generally handle.  And while the unemployment rate for recent grads is 5.8 percent, the overall unemployment rate is 4.2 percent —  a record gap. This suggests that while companies are not laying workers off because of AI en masse, they may be using AI to do jobs that would otherwise have gone to new grads. It’s understandably frustrating when you’ve done everything “right” — earned your degree and prepared for the job market — only to face conditions that are more challenging than in recent years. The good news about the job market Despite these challenges, some sectors are still actively hiring.  Health care accounts for 34 percent of total payroll gains this year. Engineering positions, especially electronics engineering, offer opportunities with high starting salaries (projected at $78,731). Special education roles are abundant, and while federal hiring has contracted, state and local governments remain strong for entry-level hiring. Sales consistently ranks among the top fields for new college graduates. On the tariffs front, the situation seems to be turning a corner now, as stock markets digest news of President Donald Trump’s recent deal with China. This deal could help prevent a full recession and improve the outlet for college-graduate hiring.  The reality is that your job search might take longer than you hoped. Over 80 percent of seniors told ZipRecruiter in March that they expect to start working within three months of graduating, but in reality, only about 77 percent from recent graduating classes started that quickly. If it takes even longer for you or your peers, that’s not a personal failure — it’s simply a reflection of the market you’re entering. Your question asked whether this is just “the way the job market has always been.” The truth is that job markets fluctuate, and the timing of your graduation coincides with a particularly challenging period. But previous generations have faced similar challenges and found their way through, and yours will too.

Preview: President Donald Trump at the White House on May 28, 2025. | Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images 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: President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s increasingly nasty public split is dominating headlines today, and you can read all about it here. But it also means that another change Trump made this week is flying under the radar — one with consequences for millions of people around the world. What just happened? On Wednesday evening, the Trump administration announced a total ban on entry to the US for citizens of 12 countries, resurrecting a key first-term policy. The ban also includes partial restrictions on seven other countries and is set to take effect this coming Monday, June 9. Which countries does the ban impact? Immigrants, students, and tourists will all be affected. Citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are subject to a total ban, while all immigrant visas and many classes of non-immigrant visa for citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela are covered by the partial restrictions. What’s the context? This new ban isn’t a surprise — a “Muslim ban,” which was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court after multiple iterations, was a flagship policy in the first Trump administration, and the second Trump administration has previously signaled its intent to bring back some version of the policy. In March, it was reported that the administration was considering various restrictions on at least 43 different countries.  What’s different this time? The new ban covers more countries and cites a wider range of justifications. In addition to national security concerns, the ban also alleges “significant risks” of visa overstays from some of the impacted countries. It comes as the administration steps up an ever-more-aggressive campaign of deportation and anti-immigration policies.  And with that, it’s time to log off… The NBA finals start tonight, featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers! I really enjoyed this preview of the series from Defector, which is a great starting point whether or not you’ve been following along through the playoffs. That being said, the Thunder head into the series as favorites — something I, a former Washington state resident, cannot condone. Go Pacers, and long live the Sonics.

Preview: Limited-time offer: Get more than 30% off a Vox Membership. Join today to support independent journalism. Editor’s note, June 5, 2025, 4:25 pm ET: On Thursday, amid an apparent feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire posted on X that Trump was “in the Epstein files,” saying, “That is the real reason they have not been made public.” The story below was originally published on November 5, 2024. In media and politics, timing is everything — which leaves many people wondering why journalist and author Michael Wolff waited until mere days before the presidential election to drop a bombshell: what he says are recordings of Jeffrey Epstein discussing his intimate friendship with Republican candidate Donald Trump. Wolff, author of Fire and Fury, a bestselling 2018 book about the Trump White House, dropped a brief clip from the tapes last week on his Fire and Fury podcast, on which he and co-host James Truman gab about the news and political insider gossip. In the clip, Epstein chit-chats about how Trump played mind games with his staff. After it made headlines over the weekend, Wolff shared a wider selection of the “hundred hours” of his Epstein recordings with the Daily Beast, which published excerpts Monday.  On the tapes — which, it must be noted, feature only Epstein’s version of events — Epstein proclaims he was Trump’s “closest friend.” He depicts the pair as bros who partied together for over a decade, and Trump as a dedicated womanizer and adulterer.  “The only thing I really like to do is fuck the wives of my best friends,” Trump allegedly told Epstein after a tryst. “That is just the best.’” The Trump campaign has responded to the tapes by accusing Wolff of outright lying and “blatant election interference on behalf of [Trump’s opponent] Kamala Harris.” What’s striking about the allegations Epstein makes in the tapes is that they aren’t anything we haven’t heard before, about Trump’s friendship with Epstein or Trump himself.  The pair’s “bromance” has been a matter of public record since the ’90s, with plenty of accompanying salacious gossip. No fewer than 28 women have come forward to publicly accuse Trump of sexual misconduct against them over the decades. The two most recent allegations were made within days of each other, with the 27th accuser, Stacey Williams, claiming that Epstein had introduced Trump to her and that the two men seemed to be treating her like the object of a “twisted” game.   Wolff said on the podcast that he was motivated to release the Epstein-Trump clip after the 28th accuser, former Swiss pageant queen Beatrice Keul, also made a recent allegation of sexual assault against the former president.  Wolff claimed to the Daily Beast that he’d attempted unsuccessfully to interest various media outlets in the tapes at various points in the past. Those editors likely passed on the clips due to the difficulty of fact-checking them or verifying any of the claims made by Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.  Vox likewise makes no claims to the veracity of Epstein’s statements, but even if the claims Epstein makes about Trump can’t be verified, the recordings serve as a visceral reminder that the Epstein-Trump connection was real and well-documented.  It may even serve as a much-needed reminder about the many, many accusations of sexual misconduct that Trump himself has yet to really confront. Who was Jeffrey Epstein? Jeffrey Epstein was, ostensibly, a money manager, though whose money he managed was always somewhat unclear. You can learn more about him here or here, but at a basic level, it’s important to know that by the 1990s, he was wealthy enough to buy a private island in the US Virgin Islands and that he moved in circles with some of the richest and most powerful men in the world. During that time, dozens of women say that he sexually abused them, often while they were underage, then offered them money to find him more girls or young women to abuse. “He told me he wanted them as young as I could find them,’’ one woman told Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown, saying she recruited 70 or 80 girls for Epstein. A detective in Palm Beach, where much of the alleged abuse took place, called it a “sexual pyramid scheme.”  But Epstein avoided any legal consequences until 2008, when he pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution, and served a shockingly light sentence: just 13 months in a private wing of a Palm Beach county jail. In July 2019, however, thanks in part to Brown’s reporting at the Herald, Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, accused of recruiting young girls for abuse in both Palm Beach and New York. A month later, before he could be tried, he was found dead in jail; the New York City medical examiner ruled his death a suicide. Epstein has since become a kind of symbol for the most depraved sort of sexual abuser, a man who, according to the women who came forward, knowingly and repeatedly targeted children, manipulating them and forcing them to become his accomplices in harming others. Other men accused of serial sexual misconduct, like Sean Combs, are often compared to Epstein. Investigations and reports have continued since the money manager’s death — in a 2020 lawsuit, for example, the attorney general of the Virgin Islands said Epstein had run a sex trafficking operation from his private island there, bringing girls as young as 11 to be abused. Trump and Epstein were more than acquaintances — they were self-professed close friends who partied together for over a decade On episode 22 of the Fire and Fury podcast, released October 31, Wolff discusses Epstein and Trump’s “longstanding deep relationship.”  “Epstein knew him, really, I think, better than most,” Wolff said. “I mean, this was a true BFF situation: two playboys very much styling themselves as playboys in that Hefner sense, who palled around for the better part of 15 years.” Trump’s own previous statements bear out this assessment. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002, in a profile that now reads like an indictment of the many powerful people in Epstein’s orbit. Archival photos abound of the pair hanging out at events, partying at Mar-a-Lago, double-dating with Melania Trump and Epstein’s girlfriend-turned-business partner Ghislaine Maxwell. In one video recorded at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 and released in 2019, Trump appears to point out women to Epstein and then to whisper something in his ear, making him laugh. The earliest photos hail from the early ’90s; Trump was a frequent dinner guest of Epstein’s until at least 2003.  Trump told New York magazine that “Jeffrey enjoys his social life” and “he’s a lot of fun to be with.” He also told the magazine, “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” A source once told Page Six that Epstein had formerly “use[d] the spa” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club “to try to procure girls.” (The club claimed it had since banned Epstein, a claim Epstein disputed to Page Six.) Photos of Trump and Maxwell — now serving her conviction on sex trafficking charges for having procured underage victims for Epstein — also abound.  In addition to Epstein frequently attending Trump parties at Mar-a-Lago, Trump allegedly also frequently partied at Epstein’s former New York townhouse. This included allegedly having sex with at least one of Epstein’s victims “on regular occasions,” according to an Epstein survivor who later testified in court to witnessing the meetings. Another Epstein accuser testified in court that Epstein introduced her to Trump when she was just 14.  (Trump has denied the accusations.) Epstein and Trump eventually had a falling out in 2004 after they reportedly feuded over the since-destroyed Maison de l’Amitie estate in Palm Beach. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to drastically reduced charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute — crimes for which he served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. Trump has since distanced himself publicly from Epstein, claiming he was “not a fan” of the money manager and had “no idea” of Epstein’s crimes. The Wolff tapes, if true, add some new dimension to the dissolution of their friendship and Epstein’s downfall. According to Wolff, Epstein first told Trump that he was planning to buy the Palm Beach estate, only for Trump, as court records recently revealed, to outbid him. Following this dispute, according to Wolff, Epstein came to suspect that Trump was the person who initiated the subsequent criminal investigation into Epstein’s now-infamous parties.  For Epstein’s part, based on his comments to Wolff, it seemed he remained interested in Trump’s trajectory and had trouble even grasping that Trump, who he described as “functionally illiterate,” could have made it into the White House.  In the tapes, Epstein emphatically showed his distaste for his former friend, calling him “a horrible human being.” Why all this matters It’s an open question whether Wolff’s revelations about Epstein and Trump will play any role in the 2024 election. The tapes have had little time to percolate through the media landscape or to be investigated and fact-checked. There’s also a widespread belief that no accusation against Trump, no matter how damning, can truly damage his standing with his supporters: He was caught on tape bragging about his ability to grab women “by the pussy,” for example, and still won in 2016. Nonetheless, the Wolff tape underscores what many Americans already knew: that Trump and Epstein spent time together socially, chatting at parties and praising one another in the press, for many years. What’s new on these tapes is largely Epstein’s perspective on their friendship. According to Epstein in his conversations with Wolff, that party life included sexual exploits — a suggestion that Trump himself teased in the New York magazine piece. Williams’ recent allegation against Trump further bolsters the theme of Trump and Epstein competing over women; in her recounting of the incident, Trump groped her aggressively while he and Epstein allegedly smiled at each other, after which Epstein grew angry with Williams.   “Of course, we see now Epstein as the sexual monster,” Wolff said on the podcast episode, “but certainly, at least in Epstein’s telling, he and Trump were pretty much, in this regard, brothers in arms.” Besides the fact that Trump himself has been accused of sexual assault or other misconduct by more than 20 women, he has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation of journalist E. Jean Carroll in 2023. When Carroll first came forward in 2019 to say that Trump had assaulted her in a dressing room in the mid-’90s, Trump responded that she was “not my type.” American voters may never know how deep Trump’s association with Epstein went. But we are familiar with the fact that for Trump, abuse of women is a punchline, “locker room talk,” a little joke to share among friends. Trump has never made a secret of what he thinks about women and their bodies.  Ultimately, the Wolff tape may be less of a revelation than a reminder of what’s always been out in the open, if voters choose to see it.

Preview: Banks are hoping to sell the X debt at around 90 to 95 cents on the dollar.

Preview: The Canadian government said it would provide extraordinary financing to Canada Post to avoid insolvency at the state-owned mail service.

Preview: Amazon.com said it is open to talks with officials from the Canadian and Quebec governments about the decision to shut down operations in the country’s French-speaking province, which would lead to 1,700 people losing their jobs.

Preview: Once a stalwart supporter of Black and LGBTQ rights, the retailer joined corporate America’s retreat from DEI initiatives.

Preview: Find insight on Cnooc, YTL Power International, Ampol, and more in the latest Market Talks covering energy and utilities.

Preview: Find insight on CSX, Givaudan, Rio Tinto and more in the latest Market Talks covering basic materials.

Preview: Read about CSX, Magna International, Alaska Air and more in the latest Market Talks covering the auto and transport sector.

Preview: Find insight on Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s bid for Mediobanca, Travelers and more in the latest Market Talks covering financial services.

Preview: Novo Nordisk shares rose sharply after the Danish pharmaceutical giant said an experimental weight-loss shot helped patients lose 22% of their body weight in a clinical trial.

Preview: The European Commission said that the parties’ offer to sell five of International Paper’s plants in Europe fully addresses its competition concerns over the deal.

Preview: A federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Trump can exclude The Associated Press from the Oval Office, overturning part of a lower court ruling that had ordered him to give the news service equal access.

Preview: A former police chief and convicted killer known as the "Devil in the Ozarks" was captured by law enforcement 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) northwest of the prison he escaped from following massive, nearly two-weeks-long manhunt in the mountains of northern Arkansas, authorities announced on Friday.

Preview: Air quality regulators in Southern California voted 7 to 5 to reject rules that would have curbed harmful emissions from gas-powered furnaces and water heaters, but the majority voted to send the rules back to committee to be changed and reconsidered.

Preview: After a heavy thunderstorm that delayed play for an hour and 47 minutes, Bryson DeChambeau gained four strokes across his final five holes to close his round with a 5-under-par 66 and a share of the lead after day one of LIV Golf Virginia.

Preview: Christian rock group Newsboys is distancing itself from former lead singer Michael Tait following allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use, saying the band was "horrified, heartbroken and angry" over the revelations.

Preview: The Supreme Court has given President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency two temporary wins, ruling DOGE members can access Social Security information that challengers had hoped to block, and temporarily stopping a liberal advocacy group from obtaining records of DOGE's operations.

Preview: The Archdiocese of Washington will lay off roughly a quarter of its workforce and restructure its operations in a sweeping effort to close a persistent $10 million annual budget shortfall, according to a letter issued this week by Cardinal Robert McElroy.

Preview: A federal appeals court said Friday that President Trump can exclude The Associated Press from the Oval Office, overturning at least part of a lower court ruling that had ordered him to give the news service the same access as other outlets.

Preview: Flights in and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport will be suspended on June 14 during the U.S. Army's 250th birthday celebration in the nation's capital.

Preview: Biden administration proclamations, executive orders, pardons and commutations were mechanically signed using at least three different versions of President Biden's signature during his four years in office, according to a new analysis.

Preview: LITTLETON, CO — According to sources, a local dad's favorite t-shirt was hanging in his closet, begging for the sweet release of death.

Preview: U.S. — With rapid advancements in technology and government intrusion into the lives of citizens, scientists sounded the alarm to warn that they were running out of dystopian sci-fi movies to make into reality.

Preview: The world watched in horror yesterday as the friendship between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk was torn asunder, but it doesn't have to be this way. There is still hope that the two titans can make amends.

Preview: WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following a major online dust-up between himself and Elon Musk this week, a depressed President Donald Trump asked First Lady Melania if she'd consider putting on a black MAGA baseball cap and "saying some space stuff to me."

Preview: ORLANDO, FL — Sources close to one local man said that the lifelong Republican was "really regretting" the Trump-Musk back tattoo he got in January.

Preview: WASHINGTON—As part of ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency with which it collects money for the world’s richest man, officials at the Internal Revenue Service announced a new plan Tuesday allowing taxpayers to deposit payments directly into Elon Musk’s bank account. The mandatory new service will reportedly help streamline the tax payment process, bypassing the […] The post IRS Allows Taxpayers To Deposit Payments Directly Into Elon Musk’s Bank Account appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: WASHINGTON—Making sure the pair were sitting down before she delivered the news, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly told the Trump boys Friday that their Uncle Elon had been blown up in a rocket accident. “Boys, your father wanted me to tell you that you won’t be seeing your Uncle Elon anymore because […] The post Weeping Trump Boys Told ‘Uncle Elon’ Blown Up In Rocket Accident appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: WASHINGTON—After days of listening to the tech billionaire criticize his ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ President Donald Trump escalated his feud with Elon Musk Friday by nuking Mars. “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, and then I blew up his stupid planet that no one else cared about,” Trump wrote in a post on […] The post Trump Escalates Musk Feud By Nuking Mars appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: HBO’s Harry Potter reboot is anticipated to hit the streaming service in 2026. The Onion shares everything that is known about the TV adaptation so far.  Q: Is J.K. Rowling involved? A: The author will serve as Executive Producer and Chief Goodwill Destroyer.  Q: Who is playing Dumbledore? A: John Lithgow stepped in after the […] The post Everything Known About The New ‘Harry Potter’ Series So Far appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: The owner of Pornhub has blocked access to its website in France because of its objections to a new French law requiring pornographic sites to verify the age of their users. What do you think? The post Pornhub Exits France Over Age Verification Law appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: MEADE, KS—Saying the difficult act was necessary so his family wouldn’t be starved for clangs, local farmer Troy Cox told reporters Friday that he had been forced to slaughter a cow for its bell. “I told Molly that I was sorry, girl, but we need that bell if we’re going to make it through the […] The post Cow Slaughtered For Its Bell appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: VATICAN— In an effort to bring openness and transparency to his role as supreme pontiff, Pope Leo XIV vowed Friday that “the truth will finally be revealed” as he issued an order fully declassifying the Church’s Jesus Crucifixion Documents. “Ever since Christ was executed in broad daylight in the middle of Golgotha, questions have swirled […] The post New Pope Declassifies Jesus Crucifixion Documents appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: Celebrities including Rihanna and Blackpink’s Lisa have been spotted with Labubu dolls, the latest craze to hit the U.S. Here is everything you need to know about the plush toys. Q: What is a Labubu? A: A Labubu is designer Kasing Lung’s best attempt at what a British person looks like. Q: Why do they […] The post What To Know About Labubu Dolls appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art collection. What do you think? The post Dutch Museum Displays 200-Year-Old Condom Made From Sheep Appendix appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: WASHINGTON—Visibly unnerved after experiencing a slight breeze through an office window, acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency David Richardson reportedly became confused Thursday by the concept of wind, remarking that he didn’t understand how he could feel something that he couldn’t see. “Does anyone else feel, like, air moving across their skin?” the […] The post FEMA Chief Confused By Wind appeared first on The Onion.