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: FACT SHEET: President Biden Commutes the Sentences of 37 Individuals on Death Row  The White House Biden Commutes 37 Death Sentences Ahead of Trump’s Plan to Resume Federal Executions  The New York Times Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row inmates in final month of presidency  Fox News Biden commutes most federal death row sentences to life in prison before Trump takes office  CNN Biden commutes death sentences of child killers and mass murderers 2 days before Christmas  New York Post

Preview: House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017  CNN Matt Gaetz Ethics Committee Report Released: What to Know  Newsweek Matt Gaetz ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state laws  CBS News House Ethics Committee Is Expected to Release Report on Matt Gaetz’s Conduct  The New York Times Ethics Report: Fmr. Rep. Matt Gaetz used drugs, purchased underage sex  WCAX

Preview: Saudis say warnings about market attack suspect were ignored  BBC.com Germany Searches for Motives in Christmas Market Attack  The New York Times German Far-right AfD To March In City Hit By Christmas Market Attack  Barron's German Christmas market ramming is the latest attack to use vehicles as deadly weapons  The Associated Press Anti-immigrant anger rises at scene of German market attack  CNN

Preview: CEO killing suspect Luigi Mangione to appear in Manhattan court for arraignment on state murder charges  ABC News Luigi Mangione's terror case: Was the suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin 'overcharged'?  Fox News Luigi Mangione to be arraigned on murder, terrorism charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing  CBS News Luigi Mangione Charged with the Stalking and Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and Use of a Silencer in a Crime of Violence  Department of Justice At Luigi Mangione’s Perp Walk, Mayor Eric Adams Appeared Stage Right  The New York Times

Preview: Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen hospitalized after getting bucked off horse  CBS News Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen hospitalized after he was bucked off a horse  Fox News Nebraska governor hospitalized after being bucked off a horse  The Guardian US Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen transported to hospital  KETV Omaha Nebraska Gov Faces Christmas in Hospital After Horse-Riding Accident  The Daily Beast

Preview: "Not negotiable": Panama's president hits back at Trump over canal threat  Axios Trump threatens to try to take back the Panama Canal. Panama's president balks at the suggestion  The Associated Press Explained: Donald Trump's Big Warning Over Panama Canal Amid Rising Chinese Influence  NDTV President of Panama fires back at Trump: Canal ‘belongs to Panama’  Yahoo! Voices Trump Threatens to Take Control of Panama Canal, Greenland  The Wall Street Journal

Preview: In Arizona speech, Trump jokes Musk is ‘not going to be president’  POLITICO Trump bristles at Musk’s rocketing profile as Democrats play on the president-elect’s vanity  CNN Trump addresses idea that Musk is in charge and Cowboys defeat Bucs: Morning Rundown  NBC News Trump addresses Elon Musk's growing political influence: 'He's not going to be president'  MSNBC Trump Says Talk That He’s Ceded Presidency to Musk Is a ‘Hoax’  Bloomberg

Preview: New York City police apprehend suspect in the death of a woman found on fire in a subway car  The Associated Press New York City Has Lost Control of Crime  The Atlantic Man arrested after woman killed in Brooklyn F train fire, police say  Gothamist Suspect arrested in the killing of a woman who was set on fire on a NYC subway car  CNN 'Depraved behavior': Leaders outraged after woman set ablaze on NYC subway  USA TODAY

Preview: How reparations to Black residents are changing lives in Evanston, Illinois  NBC News

Preview: Child hospitalized after holiday drone show in Florida goes badly wrong  ABC7 Chicago Video FAA investigates holiday drone show gone wrong in Orlando  ABC News Boy 'Fighting for His Life' After Being Injured as Drones Fell from the Sky During Florida Holiday Show  PEOPLE Boy undergoes open heart surgery after being hit by drone at Orlando holiday show  WESH 2 Orlando FAA investigating after drones collide, fall into crowd during downtown Orlando holiday show  WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

Preview: “Anybody who wants to give me heat for doing my job, bring it on,” said John Curtis, who was elected to replace the Trump critic in the upper chamber.

Preview: The battles over abortion in the U.S. are increasingly focusing on the pills that are now the most common way pregnancies are ended.

Preview: Authorities have now identified a pickup truck driver they say fled police and careened through the doors of a JCPenney store at a Texas mall.

Preview: The president-elect made the remark on the same weekend he threatened to take back the Panama Canal, prompting a rebuke from Panama’s president.

Preview: The former congressman knocked the “sad” NBC show following the comedian’s name-drop.

Preview: The move, while significant, falls short of Biden's campaign promise to put an end to the death penalty. Three others remain on the federal death row.

Preview: Bill Hagerty claimed the billionaire's social media takes led to his office being "inundated with calls."

Preview: The Bulwark’s Tim Miller wrote that the election-denying conspiracy theorist made a “SCENE” at a Turning Point USA conference afterparty.

Preview: A sheriff in rural, coastal Oregon says he's concerned about letters asking residents to collect information on immigrants.

Preview: Bezos' comment comes after The Daily Mail published a report about the wedding.

Preview: After Donald Trump won last month’s presidential election, a number of judges who had announced their intent to retire withdrew their decisions.

Preview: House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries discusses the narrowly averted government shutdown, Elon Musk's influence among the Republican caucus, and House Democrats' focus during the next four years of Trump's presidency.

Preview: Donald Trump had one demand for the bill to prevent a government shutdown. He didn't get it. The result made him look weak at an inopportune time.

Preview: Elon Musk whipping Republican voters into a frenzy around a government shutdown recalls the power of radio host Rush Limbaugh

Preview: President-elect Donald Trump dismissed any suggestion that he’s being usurped by his high-profile billionaire ally Elon Musk, coming off a week in which Musk helped derail an emergency spending measure to avert a government shutdown.

Preview: President Joe Biden announced Monday that he is commuting the death sentences of 37 inmates, leaving only three people on death row in federal prisons.

Preview: Trump's Truth Social post claiming the U.S. subsidizes Canada on trade betrays how backward his case for tariffs is.

Preview: Senate Democrats laid out a string of alleged improprieties by the Supreme Court's conservative-leaning justices in a report on the court’s ethics issues released Friday.

Preview: Chris Hayes shares reporting from Israeli newspaper Haaretz about an alleged "kill zone" in Gaza, where soldiers say military forces are killing civilians

Preview: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis plans to appeal a court ruling removing her office from prosecuting Donald Trump. But this case is likely over.

Preview: Those affected by the president’s action on Monday are still subject to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Three men will remain on federal death row.

Preview: Here is a full list of those granted commutations, as well as the three men remaining on death row.

Preview: How President Biden could transform women’s rights and rescue his legacy with just a ring.

Preview: Attempts to restrict pharmaceutical advertisements have failed many times over the years, often on First Amendment grounds.

Preview: They include a billionaire investor who supported Mr. Trump’s campaign, a former official who froze aid to Ukraine and a former executive at Uber.

Preview: In announcing his choice of various envoys, including ambassador to Denmark, the president-elect again floated the idea of the United States acquiring Greenland.

Preview: Gangs are filling a power vacuum left by Israel in some parts of southern Gaza, hijacking desperately needed aid for Palestinian residents.

Preview: Ministers from Jordan and Qatar were among the first high-ranking Arab diplomats to meet with the leader of the rebel coalition that toppled the Syrian regime two weeks ago.

Preview: A reporter and photographer documented life in New York City’s shelter system for migrants, through the eyes of those living there.

Preview: Many Haitian immigrants work at an Amazon warehouse near Springfield, packaging thousands of holiday gifts. But after Donald Trump won the election, some worry about their future.

Preview: He’s made only four features over more than 50 years, all of them masterpieces.

Preview: It’s only fair.

Preview: We just started making progress.

Preview: They “love” it.

Preview: Test your wits on the Slate Quiz for Dec. 23, 2024.

Preview: Take a quick break with our daily 5x5 grid.

Preview: Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Dec. 23, 2024.

Preview: What started as “three tickets to Challengers, please” kept on going.

Preview: This era calls for a new strategy.

Preview: The YouTube star teams up with Amazon—but he may be in over his head.

Preview: When Kay’s two best friends — a married couple she met at work — told her they weren’t voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, she believed them. After all, Kay and her friends shared similar values; they all supported issues like reproductive rights and protections for LGBTQ people. But while she was scrolling on social media in July, she saw they had posted the same image to Instagram: the viral photograph of Trump raising his fist in defiance after the assassination attempt on his life, blood trickling down his face, American flag billowing in the background. Kay, 27, sent her friends a message asking about it. Her friends admitted then that they were voting for Trump, because they thought he would better the economy. Kay was shocked: She decided she needed space to reevaluate the relationship and stopped speaking to them. “They’re gay,” she says, “but they were voting for what they think was best because of the media they consume.” Over time, Kay, who declined to share her last name in order to speak about her friendships, grew to miss the couple. It was hard to avoid them: Not only did they all work together, but they were neighbors, too. They were the first best friends Kay made as an adult in their small California town. Although Kay says she cut other Trump supporters out of her life in the past, she ultimately didn’t want to sacrifice this relationship.  “Losing people like that, it’s hard.” The trio agreed to avoid discussing politics in order to maintain the friendship and they’ve since reconciled, Kay says. She was willing to overlook what she considers a misguided decision in order to remain close to people with whom she otherwise agrees. Distancing herself based on their voting record seemed too painful, too shortsighted, she says. “When it’s your family or your really close friends or your coworkers, it’s not that easy to just cut them off,” Kay says. “You have to think about how that impacts you emotionally. Losing people like that, it’s hard.” Over the last eight years, many Americans have distanced themselves from their Trump-supporting loved ones. The Harris Poll recently surveyed a representative sample of Americans and found that 42 percent of adults said politics was the largest cause of estrangement in families. Ahead of the upcoming holiday season, 38 percent of respondents in an American Psychological Association survey said they planned to avoid family members they disagree with politically.  The underlying motivation for these estrangements seems to be self-protective: Many come to believe that a loved one who votes for a candidate who supports policies that endanger their — and others’ — rights is not someone worth keeping around. Some can’t reconcile the fact that relatives they thought they knew agree with such divisive rhetoric. For others, a vote for Trump was the final straw in an already fraying relationship.  While these estrangements are still happening — and with good reason — in the wake of the 2024 presidential election, some are taking an alternative approach. Amid an epidemic of loneliness, some may not have the luxury to cut off valuable connections. Others recognize they can’t change their loved ones’ opinions from afar. More still have wisened to the reality that avoiding varying viewpoints only fuels polarization.  Although we don’t know for sure yet whether more people are reconciling with their Trump-supporting friends and family, therapist Chanel Dokun has observed this shift among her clients. In 2016, Trump’s victory felt like a shocking anomaly, which made people believe they could be more dismissive of those on the alternate end of the political spectrum. Now, those she’s counseled are compelled to engage with these supporters head-on. “It’s not something where I can simply distance myself or cut people off,” she says of client sentiment, “because now I’m looking at a much larger percentage of the population is in favor of this candidate than I thought of before.” In her practice, psychologist Vanessa Scaringi sees many of her clients — primarily women in their 30s and 40s — being more reluctant to turn away from aging relatives. Young women who originally disconnected from relatives in 2016 might have children now, Scaringi says, and they’d like conservative family members to be a part of their lives. “I do think generally the sense of time being lost is a motivator to maintain those relationships,” she says. Sometimes, those relatives are already an integral part of their lives and even provide child care, she says. Mental health professionals stress the importance of safety within relationships and encourage people to set boundaries or create distance with loved ones who say hurtful things or espouse upsetting rhetoric. You do not need to maintain a relationship with someone who condones hate and bigotry. There are thorny moral and ethical questions at play here; the choice of with whom to maintain a relationship — and under what conditions — is an entirely personal one. But tolerating discomfort can help build resiliency, Scaringi notes, and estrangement as a default sidesteps this opportunity for growth and healthy conflict. If you do decide to maintain a relationship with someone with whom you don’t see eye to eye and political talk does arise, avoid the impulse to try to change their mind. The goal of conflict isn’t to solve a problem, Dokun says, but to have empathy for the other side in spite of your differences. To help personalize what can be broad concepts, Dokun suggests sharing how you or people close to you were personally affected — or would be impacted — by specific policies or viewpoints. “When you speak to those more vulnerable places, using language around especially your emotions, that tends to de-escalate those conversations,” she says. “Family members also are able to see you in a new light and that’s much less of an argumentative space.” In group settings, having a sympathetic ally to whom you can subtly share snide remarks or roll your eyes also helps eliminate tension, Scaringi says. For Bryan, a 29-year-old who lives in Florida, that family member is his mom, Donna, 64. (Both are using pseudonyms in order to speak about their family.) Their tight-knit extended family is largely conservative, and over the last eight years, political divisions have strained relationships. “Before Trump, I didn’t care who you voted for, it wasn’t a topic in our home,” Donna says. “But since Trump, watching my two siblings fall in love with this man to a point where my sister says, ‘I love him like an uncle and I would have him at my Thanksgiving table’ hurts my soul, because everything about him is not me.” Donna and Bryan find it hard to reconcile their family’s beliefs with the realities of their experiences: Bryan is trans and his sister hopes to soon have a baby in a state with a near ban on abortion.  Before Bryan came out in 2022, he feared his family wouldn’t accept him based on their conservative views. While his aunt and cousins have been supportive in using his name and pronouns — even going as far to assure him that they’d find a way to source hormones if he was unable to receive gender-affirming care — Bryan says these same family members still express anti-trans views in front of him.  “When you speak to those more vulnerable places, using language around especially your emotions, that tends to de-escalate those conversations.” Despite everything, Donna and Bryan don’t intend on cutting out their family — for now. Bryan doesn’t expect his relatives to change their mind, but he believes offering a trans perspective may give them an opportunity to learn. “I said to myself,” Bryan says, “that if something happens where my health care is taken away, whether it’s because I’m on an Affordable Care Act plan or because the Affordable Care Act stops providing gender-affirming care, and if something actually does happen that’s a direct result of Trump being elected, then I will definitely reconsider cutting these people off forever.” Consistently exposing a loved one to alternative points of view can help to slowly shift their perspective, Dokun says, while estrangement may only push them further into their ideological silos. However, try not to exhaust yourself while championing your side. This might look like setting explicit boundaries like not watching the news together or limiting conversation to certain topics. “I work with a lot of folks who can berate themselves for not being enough of a social justice advocate,” Scaringi says. “I really work with them on trying to just plant seeds with their family.” For others, there are no minds to change, simply resignation toward what’s already happened. While a few people close to him voted for Trump, New Jersey resident Morgan, 32, who declined to share his last name to speak about his relationships, believes they did so for economic and global policy reasons. He doesn’t agree with these motivations, he says, but it’s worth hearing them out. “Now that he’s no longer a fluke, a glitch, some sort of national aberration that we can excuse away,” he says, “I hope the sides can talk more as Trump’s second administration wears on. Because what on Earth is the alternative?”

Preview: One fall day in 1856, a family of Eastern gray squirrels in rural New York uncurled from a cozy nest in a chestnut tree, looked around, and joined half a billion other squirrels on a multi-state walkabout. Waves of fur, claws, and sharp incisors swarmed like locusts in squirrel armies that could be up to 150 miles long, “devouring on their way everything that is suited to their taste,” wrote John Bachman, a 19th-century naturalist. Walls of Sciurus carolinensis pulsing across the landscape befuddled naturalists and frustrated farmers, but these movements were a survival strategy, says John Koprowski, the dean of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming and a longtime squirrel expert.  “Squirrels have an amazing sense of smell. They often find fruiting trees, trees with good crops, from miles away,” says Koprowski. “When you had continuous forests with acorns or chestnuts that are all blooming or fruiting at the same time or producing seed crops, that had to be a pretty powerful smell moving through the forest.” The strategy worked. By taking these mass rodent odysseys, squirrels settled new areas, found higher-quality munchies, and, in turn, made more squirrels. At one point, naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton estimates Eastern gray squirrels likely numbered in the billions.  This is almost impossible to imagine today. But this emigration wasn’t the only odd feat of dispersal by wild animals. The now-extinct Rocky Mountain locusts once migrated across the country in waves. Passenger pigeons, also extinct, moved in flocks so thick they darkened the sky. Jackrabbits — still abundant today but more sedentary — once moved en masse, ripping through crops so severely during the Dust Bowl that people drove them into pens and killed them by the thousands.  Some species, especially birds and some large mammals like deer and elk, still make pilgrimages. But many more, including the Eastern gray squirrel, have lost their ability to move long distances, lacking large connected forests and unable to navigate through industrial parks and parking lots, over six-lane interstates or subdivisions.  “We don’t have millions of animals in those places anymore,” Koprowski says. “They’re giving us an early warning that these aren’t functioning the way they have historically, in the ways that animals have evolved to be using these spaces.”  And that warning is becoming more dire. A 2024 United Nations Report found that 44 percent of the world’s migratory species are declining, a result of overhunting paired with habitat destruction largely due to agriculture, sprawling housing and commercial development, pollution, and, increasingly, climate change.  Yet as wildlife lose the freedom to move, biologists say the ability to shift from one place to another to find food or escape threats will become even more necessary as our planet continues to change.  There are still some incredible feats of migration that are hanging on. These epic tours serve as a reminder that not all is lost. Arctic hares that run ultras  North of those once-abundant Eastern forests with their once-abundant Eastern squirrels, there’s another small mammal with a surprising penchant for long-distance quests: the Arctic hare.  Protected by a special adaptation — a dazzling coat of thick fur that turns white in the winter and thinner and blue-gray or brownish in spring and summer to camouflage to its surroundings — the Arctic hare can survive frigid temperatures. But when the thermometer in the polar desert dips to below negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit, they begin hopping southwest — sometimes for nearly 200 miles.  This marathon feat was a surprise to scientists who discovered the journeys in 2019.  Previously, researchers largely believed Arctic hares were “sedentary species with little dispersal capacity.” Researchers at the University of Quebec at Rimouski knew hares could travel quickly — up to 40 miles per hour — but they wanted to see just how far they could go. They were stunned to discover that the creatures regularly traveled hundreds of miles — likely headed for warmer pastures with more abundant plants and glacial meltwater, says Ludovic Landry-Ducharme, a PhD student at the University of Quebec at Rimouski who is continuing the research. The Canadian researchers published their work in the journal Nature and underscored that climate change may well disrupt these patterns as snow comes later and spring melts come earlier, shifting where and when — and how abundantly — important plants grow.  The propensity to look for good food and escape bad weather conditions is one of wildlife’s oldest adaptations and most often documented in more visible species like mule deer in the American West, wildebeest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and caribou in northern Canada. Indigenous people long knew wildlife moved with the seasons, and many followed those movements, taking advantage of the weather and trailing along with a consistent food source.  But it was only more recently that researchers with modern satellite technology began to map exactly where the wildlife moved. Those results made headlines with stories of mule deer faithfully following the same 150- or even 250-mile migrations up and over mountain ranges.  Many animals — from Arctic hares to mule deer — use what researchers call stopover points. These are areas along the way where species can rest, take a breather, and eat.  Wyoming migration researcher Hall Sawyer once described stopovers as pit stops on a long interstate road trip. Drivers who stop for gas, a cup of coffee, and a meal make better decisions and arrive better rested than those who power through.  For animals, it’s no different. Their cross-country trips can look meandering and erratic, but according to scientists, they are critical and increasingly threatened by everything from highways and fences to drought, fires, and floods worsened by climate change to energy developments, subdivisions, and agricultural fields. A newt’s year (or seven) of self-discovery  Anyone who has gone for a walk through a pocket of Eastern forest has likely spotted a burnt-orange eastern newt. Next time you see one, thank it not only for its mosquito-killing capabilities but also wish it well on what amphibian researcher JJ Apodaca likens to its Rumspringa.  When a newt enters its eft stage, it experiences a fundamental physiological change. The newt starts its life journey in a pond looking like an olive salamander with feathery gills and a narrow tail before it crawls out onto land, turns orange, and swaps out its gills for a set of lungs as an eft. Once on land, the newt sets out for parts unknown, spending two to even seven years meandering — sometimes for miles — on its tiny legs to what it surely considers faraway lands. After years of roaming, it returns to a pond or wetland, dives back into the water, and looks for a mate.  Those eft walkabouts are a critical time to look for the best food while the juvenile newt grows and matures. And the more fragmented their habitat, the less cover they can find on leafy, forested floors and the higher the chance for a run-in with a car tire. They’re not the only amphibians that require room to roam. Instead of skittering horizontally, the green salamander looks upward for greener pastures. The salamanders climb trees for better food (and also likely to avoid becoming food).  But as humans continue to chop down some trees — and pests and disease targets other trees — fewer and fewer salamanders remain.  The ability to seek out new territory isn’t just critical for a species’ overall population, but will become even more important as habitat shrinks and the climate changes.  In March 2018, a female Arctic fox wearing a tracking collar traveled from a research site on a Norwegian archipelago to the Canadian Ellesmere Island, paddling more than 2,700 miles from start to finish in the span of just four months. And she’s certainly not the only one. According to a study by Eva Fuglei, a Norwegian Polar Institute researcher, Arctic foxes have the ability to bridge continents, have crossed ice sheets, and have connected to distant populations — keeping their genetics spanning generations robust.  But as sea ice melts, those populations will likely become isolated. The problem with animal islands Eastern gray squirrels continued their periodic decampments, fewer and fewer each year, until naturalists reported some of the last major ones in the 1960s. Humans’ desire for timber and space for parking lots and shopping centers eventually proved too much for even the most industrious squirrel, and the long emigrations eventually ended.  Today, a much smaller relative population of Eastern grays live in piecemeal habitat, islands locked in by roads or development.  Wildlife, even those as small as salamanders or as big as wildebeests, don’t function as well on islands as they do in connected landscapes. A 1987 paper published in the journal Nature showed that more species went extinct in 14 western American national parks than were naturally reestablished there. The island effect, as it’s called, shows that even if animals live in protected areas like national parks, those parks are often too small.  “The effect of habitat loss and fragmentation on populations, going from intact to fragmented, is as close as we have to a golden rule in conservation,” says Matthew Kauffman, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit leader and longtime migration researcher. “Populations will be less robust when you go from a large, intact habitat to the same habitat but fragmented, where animals can’t move.” Fortunately, in recent years, there have been promising moves to reconnect habitat, even within an increasingly fragmented landscape. Across the country, states, nonprofits, and the federal government have worked together to install wildlife crossings — over- and underpasses that provide safe passage for everything from salamanders to mountain lions from the forests of Massachusetts to the multi-lane interstates of Southern California. Apodaca’s organization, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, recently completed work on a culvert under a highway to usher the increasingly endangered bog turtle from one side to another, giving the creature access to varied habitat it would otherwise seek by perilously waddling across the road.  States like Wyoming and Colorado are using maps of deer, elk, and pronghorn migrations to tweak locations of oil and gas development or potentially even modify subdivisions. Wildlife managers also now understand the importance of those long-distance pit stops to wildlife abundance.  Conservationists also praised efforts like President Biden’s plan to conserve 30 percent of the country’s land, freshwater, and ocean by 2030 as a way to maintain critical habitat and migration pathways. The future of those efforts under the incoming Trump administration, however, remains murky. Eastern North America may never again see swarms of half a billion squirrels skittering through forests en route to lush acorn crops, but for other species, researchers say, it’s not too late.

Preview: Views of the heart of the Puerto Rican neighborhood of North Philadelphia along 5th Street on the eve of the 2024 election. | Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today. What does “Latino” mean? And is there still such a thing as the “Latino vote”? At first glance, both questions are simple to answer. Latinos are simply any of the 65 million people of any race living in the United States with cultural or ancestral ties to Latin America (and Spain, if you consider the term “Hispanic”). Overwhelmingly of Mexican descent (about 60 percent), they live primarily in two states, California and Texas, and make up about a fifth of the American population. The “Latino vote,” meanwhile, could simply be those Latino Americans who vote in elections. More than 30 million of these people living in the US are citizens who can, and more than 16 million turned out in the 2020 election — the Latino electorate. These voters have tended to vote for Democrats in national elections, and, since 2004, have given near super-majorities of support to the Democratic presidential candidate. For a time, this vote remained pretty uniform in both its makeup and its support for one party. That stability fueled the idea that there was such a thing as a Latino voting bloc, leading parties to have “Latino strategies” aimed at winning these voters over. They could be thought of as Black voters tended to be: reached with appeals to racial and ethnic solidarity, reminders of discrimination and inequality, and in turn expected to behave like Black voters — who, along with LGBTQ voters, have been Democrats’ most loyal cohort.  By 2024, this assumption has been called into question. To say that Latinos are not a monolith is now a cliche — the basic starting point for conversations about how these Americans vote. But now, is even the term “Latino” itself an oversimplification?   Many strategists, academics, and activists agree, saying the category of “Latino” is too vague and amorphous to capture its diversity of race, language, national origin, and immigrant experience. And when it comes to politics, it can flatten the political ideology, partisan loyalty, and changing vote preferences of millions of people across 50 states. That idea is gaining momentum, but it’s not universal. There are those who think the term has value, pointing out that it’s still useful to have a broad and more visible descriptor for these people; its members are stronger together, and despite diversifying political views, still tend to behave in similar patterns.  The implications are big: For the last 40 years, political organizing, power building, and business interests have relied on there being such a thing as a Hispanic or Latino community to count, to mobilize, and to market to. In short: This quandary matters for anyone hoping to win the votes of tens of millions of people. The case for specificity — and that “Latino” is too broad The best political example to stop thinking of Latinos as a bloc or collective is to see what has happened when campaigns have tried to appeal to them as a group. The outreach and persuasion operation that President Joe Biden’s 2020 primary and general election campaigns ran is a prime example.  In 2020, that was the focal point of criticism of Democrats’ Latino voter outreach. It was too generic, unsophisticated, and premised on outdated thinking about what matters to these voters: promises of immigration reform and humanitarian border policies for a community that was primarily native-born; reminders of Donald Trump’s racism when these voters didn’t necessarily think he was talking about them; and “Hispandering” with flourishes of Spanish and Latin celebrity endorsements when Spanish-language use rates were declining and those celebrities weren’t necessarily relevant. The most widely referenced example: When Biden campaigned in Florida with the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, and bopped along to the star’s hit song “Despacito.” It went viral — for the wrong reasons: seeming like a cringey last-ditch attempt to get in the good graces of a community he hadn’t really been campaigning for. That campaign continued to be a special target of this criticism for beginning outreach too late in the cycle, for not investing enough resources in persuasion and turnout efforts, for leaning too much on immigrant-friendly appeals in that pitch, and for missing just how damaging Republican attacks describing Democrats as “socialists” actually were. Biden still won a majority of these voters, but his results were a decline from the share of support Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had gotten in previous presidential cycles.  These approaches still fit within the old model of talking to and about a “Latino vote”: one that assumed it could operate as a voting bloc, and it would remain monolithic. At one point in time, it was. But as rates of college education rise, as incomes grow, as the share of foreign-born Latinos declines, and as they vote differently, perhaps “Latino” should give way for more specific reference points, like “Mexican American,” “Cuban American,” “Southwestern voters,” or “Florida Latinos” — at least for the purposes of electoral politics. Since 2020, the conventional wisdom has settled on a more tailored, targeted approach — what some Democratic Latino strategists and aligned groups call “culturally competent” campaigning. In 2024, that became the bedrock of Biden and Harris’s early and improved Latino outreach — what New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called a “diaspora strategy.” “They care about the diasporas and looking at this from a diaspora strategy, as opposed to just an overall, monolithic strategy that we often hear discussed and unfortunately played out in a lot of different areas,” Ocasio-Cortez told Politico in September. “So I think that as time goes on, we’re going to see the results of that more refined approach.” On the ground, that looked like tailored ads and campaign contact for Puerto Rican and Dominican communities in Pennsylvania and Florida, for Mexican Americans in the Southwest, and for using different surrogates, accents, and vocabulary in different media markets. After all, the thinking goes, what might sound familiar and credible to a first-generation naturalized Mexican American voter in Las Vegas is different from what appeals to the third-generation Puerto Rican voter who did not have to go through the same immigrant experience, even if they both speak Spanish. Republicans performed their own version of this new identity politics between the 2020 and 2024 cycles — but it looked very different. Instead of appealing to a broad “Latino” or “Hispanic” vote, they doubled down on specific segments of the electorate in an attempt to chip away at Democratic dominance. They played up the specter of “socialism,” “communism,” and “Marxism” in both Trump’s and other down-ballot candidates’ appeals to Cuban and Venezuelan American voters in Florida. It’s here where one 2020 jingle that was recycled for the 2024 cycle stands out: A Cuban band’s “Latinos for Donald Trump” salsa song that went viral four years ago was used by Trump’s campaign this year to double down on a segment of the Latino electorate they thought was already likely to surge for him at the polls. They paired this with talk of the threat that illegal immigration posed to Mexican Americans and their safety in border communities in the Southwest in order to reach Trump-friendly working-class voters in Arizona, Nevada, and Texas — a mirror image of the traditional Democratic appeal to working-class, first- or second-generation Latinos. These varying, hyper-specific approaches all demonstrated two things: Campaigning to “Latinos” was falling out of vogue — the preference now was for direct appeals to subset within the bloc. And the Latino electorate was now large, complex, and varied enough to be examined and treated with the same degree of sophistication as white voters are. The case that “Latino” still serves a purpose If Biden’s 2020 run suggested it was a mistake to think of Latinos as a broad, workable category, Trump’s 2024 victory suggests that maybe you can. Even if the Latino category is too diverse, and doesn’t function as a monolithic voting bloc, reality suggests they still behave as a group. That’s the conclusion of early analysis conducted by the Latino research firm Equis, which found that the rightward shifts of these voters in the 2024 cycle cut across geographical location, population size, and country of origin. “Broad-based shifts like these challenge the use of provincial theories to explain them,” Equis co-founder Carlos Odio wrote in sharing those results. The implication? It might make theoretical and intellectual sense to think of and appeal to these voters with specificity and fragmentation. But as a whole, a broader category of people united by similar experiences as a minority in the US, primarily nonwhite, and which continues to assimilate, still exists on the ground. Those similar experiences, some shared language, and growth across the country do make this cohort of people distinct from non-Hispanic white, Asian, and Black people — and therefore it makes sense to organize, mobilize, and campaign for the votes of these communities. That’s the premise that led to the formation of specific Hispanic- and Latino-focused advocacy groups and political organizations, and which continues to warrant specific data collection, policy work, fundraising, investment, and political outreach from institutions, businesses, politicians, and campaigns. In practice, across race, age, and gender, this group is still also mostly motivated by a similar set of priorities and concerns. When asked about issues that might affect their vote in 2024, the overwhelming majority of these voters described economic anxiety. Immigration tended to follow — and for similar reasons: They were upset by the status quo of the post-pandemic migrant crisis. Though they may be becoming more of a swing voter group, by most metrics they are still siding with Democrats at higher rates than white voters. And above all, a majority of these people still conceive of themselves as distinctly either “Hispanic” or “Latino.” In other words, we’re overcomplicating this question. Whether “Latino” is still useful in the political realm reminds me of something the sociologist G. Cristina Mora, who has traced the history of the “Hispanic” and “Latino” labels,” told me back in 2021. “Sometimes people want to [say] that somehow Latinos are so different, like, ‘Oh my god, they’re too diverse!’ Like, ‘Latinos are not a thing.’ How is white a thing? How is Black a thing? How is Asian a thing? Somehow people think that there’s something really uniquely diverse and special and in many ways we’re the same as others,” she told me then. “We’ve never just had one term that everyone was into, we’ve never had one term that everyone’s happy with.” For the never-Trump strategist Mike Madrid, the ambiguity is the point. “Latino” as a multiracial category distinct from the binary “white” and “Black” challenges both the nation’s political class and the greater American public to realize just how quickly the US is moving into a primarily multiracial, Latino-driven future. It might not be a label that is useful forever, but it’s useful now for carving out a distinct category of people who deserve attention. “To talk about us as ‘Mestizo’ [someone of Spanish and indigenous ancestry in Latin America]  is more appropriate maybe than ‘Latino,’ but we are multiracial and there has to be a new language for that that doesn’t necessarily fit in this black and white paradigm,” Madrid told me. How we should think of “Latino” in the future For now, the “Latino” label doesn’t face the prospect of sliding out of relevance or usage soon, even if talk about the “Latino vote” seems to be on the decline. Sure, as this category of voters continues to assimilate, enmesh itself into the fabric of the nation, and change the nation just as we are being changed, Hispanic and Latino identity itself will change. Labels don’t stick around forever.  And that’s where the challenge of defining “Latino” and “Latino voters” suggests something more uncomfortable too: The idea of Hispanic-ness, Latinidad, is likely to change quickly in the next two decades. Rates of interracial marriage continue to remain high; the role of Spanish continues to decline; US-born Latinos are driving the growth of this part of the population; and ideological sorting within this part of the electorate appears to be increasing. That suggests to political parties, and those seeking power, that they can’t rest easy thinking alignments or realignments will stick around forever. But it also means “Latinoness” stands to lose its distinctiveness in the near future.

Preview: When you see a movie or read a book that you can’t get out of your head, there’s nothing better than sharing that experience with other people. But in a fractured media landscape — with countless new releases a year and a significant portion of the entire history of human culture at our fingertips — it can be hard to find someone else obsessed with the same thing you are.  We asked our newsroom: What captured your attention this year? We’ve pulled together our colleagues’ obsessions, from buzzy new movies and music, to older TV shows and books that feel as relevant as ever. We’ve rounded up the best stuff on our radars during a long, jam-packed year. Here’s everything we couldn’t stop thinking about. Lost Lost, the 2000s mystery drama serial, always seemed like a fool’s errand to me. I knew it was long-winded, sometimes unsettling, and would probably exhaust me with its circularity. When I saw it was on streaming, I tuned in out of curiosity, thinking an episode or two would be an amusing way to spend a weeknight. But I haven’t grown tired of it yet. In fact, I haven’t been so gripped by a television show in a while; one evening has turned into months of obsessive viewing. Watching the castaway characters navigate the unknown, despite its violence and ridiculousness, has been a soothing reprieve from the casual chaos of my own everyday life. On Lost, nothing makes sense, but everything kind of turns out okay even when it doesn’t (unless it really doesn’t? I’m just starting season five, don’t tell me!). (Streaming on Netflix.) —Melinda Fakuade, culture editor The Double  Netflix promptly snapped up the hit Chinese drama The Double for a week-by-week release before it was even done with its original run this spring. I know because I was glued to every episode as they released on Chinese streaming platform IQIYI, which I woke up early to stream before work. This fun, fierce palace revenge drama stars the fabulous Wu Jinyan, who broke through in 2018 with the wildly popular, Vox-approved Story of Yanxi Palace.  After a murder attempt at the hands of her husband, Wu Jinyan’s character adopts the identity of a friend who suffered a similarly tragic betrayal. The mysterious “Jiang Li” returns to court to enact revenge not just for herself but for her friend, piquing the interest of the incredibly suave Duke Su (newcomer Wang Xingyue in a charming, star-making turn).  The Double is pulpy, addictive binge material, with a delightful slow-burn romance between the two leads. It’s also firmly feminist, forever dangling the possibility of sympathy toward its nice-guy husband turned villain, then yanking it back and redoubling its critique of toxic masculinity. (Streaming on Netflix.) —Aja Romano, senior culture writer All things Top Dawg Entertainment If VH1 still did its Best Year Ever television specials, my vote would be for Top Dawg Entertainment. The rap label has been absolutely dominating the music conversation and the charts this year. From ScHoolboy Q’s Blue Lips to Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal, the label’s signees have garnered plenty of critical acclaim.  And no one can deny their marquee artist Kendrick Lamar’s influence and commercial success this year. He arguably took down hip-hop’s golden boy with diss track after diss track, topped it all off with a surprise album, and announced a stadium tour for this coming summer with his label-mate SZA. They’ll even be playing next year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Top Dawg, indeed. (Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Doechii, and SZA are all streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.) —Jonquilyn Hill, host of Explain It To Me Castaway Diva  A teenager runs away from an abusive home to pursue her dream of becoming a pop star in Seoul but ends up stranded on an island for over a decade before being found — and then fights ageism in the music industry to become a star anyway. Castaway Diva provides lots of glorious musical numbers and soap opera-esque side plots. The premise is totally wild, but lead actor Park Eun-bin (of Extraordinary Attorney Woo) is a joy to watch, making it easy for viewers to suspend their disbelief while rooting for her character, Mok-ha.  As K-dramas do, it smacks you with some serious childhood trauma up front, and it doesn’t shy away from gut-wrenching moments; at one point I realized I was crying at every episode! But amid all the pain, the show tilts toward optimism and hope, which is something I needed in 2024, and maybe you do, too. (Streaming on Netflix.)—Kim Eggleston, copy editor Everything Laurie Colwin wrote This year, I wanted an escape from the now, which manifested as reading many books — fiction and nonfiction alike — about an older, though not terribly distant, New York City. A big part of this was making my way through Laurie Colwin’s bibliography. Colwin’s career spanned from the mid-70s to the early ’90s; she experienced a mini-revival a few years ago when her novels and collections of short stories and essays were reissued. I got lost in what’s been referred to as her sneakily deep “romcomedies of manners” and her utterly delightful version of the city I’ve lived in and loved for so long. Start with Family Happiness, and go from there. (Available on Bookshop.org.) —Julia Rubin, senior editorial director, culture and features Hard Truths Mike Leigh’s film Hard Truths is maybe the most radical (and funniest) depiction of female and working-class rage I’ve seen in a long time. It’s like if Nightbitch didn’t try to convince you that motherhood is an innately satisfying experience at the end. Leigh boldly commits to the grouchiness of its lead, played by an excellent Marianne Jean-Baptiste, granting her enough dimension that she never feels like a cartoon. He doesn’t offer an easy answer as to why she can’t enjoy life, or at least pretend to, like her even-keeled relatives. While we’re often fed stories of women overcoming things and finding themselves, it’s surprisingly moving to watch a woman live in her miserable truth. (Now playing in select theaters.) —Kyndall Cunningham, culture writer The God of the Woods by Liz Moore Approximately 300 pages into The God of the Woods, a propulsive literary mystery centered on a teenager who goes missing from her summer camp, I texted the friend who had recommended it in all-caps: “NOVELS ARE SO GOOD, MAN.”  Liz Moore’s latest had successfully reminded me that one of the greatest pleasures of a truly well-done piece of long-form textual fiction is that it can feel like magic, in the literal, I-have-had-a-spell-cast-upon-me type of way. Moore demonstrates a mastery of conjuring whole worlds and lives inside your head, and then shifting the perspective just slightly to let you see what was always there but hidden from view.  The power and misery of wealth, the awe and darkness of the forest, the strictures and potential of being a woman, the anxiety and thrill of growing up and coming into your own; I don’t want to give anything away, I just want you to read it, and text your friends. (Available on Bookshop.org.) —Meredith Haggerty, senior culture editor Only Connect As Connections became the hottest new puzzle on the New York Times game app, I soaked myself in luxurious superiority, for I knew a secret. Connections is nothing but a flimsy simulacrum of the cult British quiz show Only Connect, a game so fiendishly complicated that it makes New York Times’s Connections look as easy as Strands (iykyk).  To work out the average Only Connect category, you have to possess an esoteric combination of knowledge of advanced high mathematics, the topography of South American mountain ranges, and snooker balls, not to mention a high tolerance for truly terrible puns. Watching the contestants make their way through the categories each week under the ironical eye of host Victoria Corin is like watching Olympic athletes attempting death-defying feats — only instead of winning international fame and medals, victors walk away with nothing more than a warm congratulations from Corin. This show is as absurdly, smugly difficult as Jeopardy! on Mensa mode, and I love it with my whole heart. (Available on BBC Two in the UK, and some episodes are on YouTube.) —Constance Grady, senior correspondent Brat It was late July when Jake Tapper inquired, “Is the idea that we’re all kind of brat?” live on a CNN panel. That was just after Kamala HQ went neon green, and well after a million memes threatened overexposure. But Brat has staying power.  It didn’t hurt that Charli xcx later dropped a remix album that adds even bigger beats and deeper meaning to already pitch-perfect source material. She didn’t have the biggest tour, and she certainly didn’t have the most streams, but I bet Brat is the album we’ll still be talking about in 10 years, because behind the sunglasses and the club classics is a vulnerable ode to stumbling through life while falling in love “again and again.”(Streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.) —Sean Rameswaram, host of Today, Explained “Bull Believer” by Wednesday  In November 2023, I Shazam’d a song I heard playing on the speakers of my local coffee shop. A year and many streams later, I still find myself obsessed with this 2022 alt-rock single. “Bull Believer” by Wednesday is moody and gritty, soft and hard, full of distorted guitar and a vibe I can only describe as a little delirious. And at 8 minutes and 30 seconds, it feels like a journey with a beginning, middle, and an absolutely explosive and wailing end. The song has stuck to me because it’s unabashedly full of rage and despair — emotions that we tend to avoid, even at a time when there’s a lot of reasons to feel them. We all need an outlet for these feelings, and if you’re searching for a raw musical catharsis, this is just the thing. (Streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.) —Sam Delgado, Future Perfect fellow Sami Blood  A look into the lives of the Sámi, the Indigenous peoples in Scandinavia, Sami Blood follows a 14-year-old girl struggling with an identity crisis as she faces Sweden’s racist attitudes toward native people. The movie stuck with me because of how little I knew about the Sámi going into it, and still how familiar the story was. It helped me better understand the universality of anti-Indigenous racism in the West and the similar oppressive tactics deployed in country after country, from discriminatory boarding schools to segregation to plain-old mocking and shaming. It’s also a really well-made and compelling film, with powerful characters that are hard to forget. (Streaming on Peacock.) —Abdallah Fayyad, policy correspondent Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Special  I first saw Rachel Bloom perform “Death, Let Me Do My Special” live back in 2023. I loved it then, but something about watching the show again when it was released on Netflix this October gave me new appreciation for its jokes and themes.  It’s tempting to wish for an escape to a time before Covid – as Bloom tries desperately to do over and over again in the show, only to be pulled back to the present by her grief. But something about the way she decides to disarm Death with a few jokes before confronting him head-on feels really cathartic, like a good cry or a big laugh. Fair warning: It’s highly likely you’ll do a fair amount of both as you watch. (Streaming on Netflix.) —Carla Javier, supervising producer, Explain It to Me Hacks There are few shows I love more these days than Hacks. It’s hilarious, heartwarming, fresh. I love that it focuses on the intergenerational relationship between two women, and once you get hooked on Hannah Einbinder, you can go watch her also great comedy special on HBO. I can’t wait for season four. (Streaming on Max.) —Rachel Cohen, policy correspondent My Brilliant Friend — The Story of the Lost Daughter The final season of this Italian series, like the three seasons before it, is a marvel on every level. Based on the novels by Elena Ferrante, this whole series is stunning; the filmmaking, acting, storytelling, all of it is extraordinary. At the center are two complicated, angry, unpredictable women who are so marvelously depicted you’ll feel like you know them. Plus, you’ll learn a lot about 20th-century Italian politics, and this season features some spectacular ’80s fashions. (Streaming on Max.) —Ellen Ioanes, reporter Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman America’s pantheon of sad cowboy poet crooners — a list that includes Bill Callahan, David Berman, Stephin Merritt — got a new member this year. And somehow, he’s only 25. MJ Lenderman announced himself as one of the greats with an album in September, Manning Fireworks, a collection of catchy, heart-achingly good songs with sometimes poignant, often tragicomic lyrics. I listened to “Wristwatch” and “You don’t know the shape I’m in” an embarrassing number of times already. (Streaming on Apple Music and Spotify.) —Marin Cogan, senior correspondent Rebel Ridge  Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier is a pro at luring opposing parties into cage matches — one will escape and the other won’t. In Saulnier’s suffocatingly tense Green Room, that entrapment is literal; it’s legal in this year’s Netflix thriller Rebel Ridge. The film opens with Terry, a Black ex-marine played with simmering intensity by Aaron Pierre, pedaling into a small Alabama town with a backpack full of cash to post bail for a wayward cousin. He’s sent flying off his bicycle by a cop, part of the predictably crooked department that stymies Terry’s attempts to work within the town’s labyrinthine legal system. What choice does he have but to respond like John Rambo’s harassed veteran before him? The police chief (a terrifically tyrannical Don Johnson) and Terry’s verbal sparring escalates into a brutally elegant showdown, concluding a film as taut and satisfying as the First Blood it echoes. (Streaming on Netflix.) —Caity PenzeyMoog, senior copy editor Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte  If you’ve ever felt angry or lonely or resentful or like the world’s hugest loser, take solace in the world of Rejection, where everyone is constantly getting fucked (except, of course, when they can’t). Incels, porn addicts, Twitter freaks, hustle bros, and desperate romantics populate Tony Tulathimutte’s sad, hilarious world in this short story collection where all the characters connect in the cringiest ways possible. Reading this book made me want to physically crawl out of my skin (complimentary). Consider it a refreshingly bleak antidote to the upcoming deluge of try-hard New Year’s resolution content. (Available on Bookshop.org.) —Rebecca Jennings, senior correspondent Shōgun My husband and I traveled to Japan in February, and afterward immersed ourselves in Shōgun. I found it to be not only culturally competent but also a faithful depiction of James Clavell’s 1975 novel. (I’m actually re-reading that now because I can’t get enough of this story!) After so much crappy TV for so long, FX’s remake was refreshing, with excellent acting and casting, pacing, and dialogue. It all hit. (Streaming on Hulu.) —Paige Vega, climate editor Movies of Hollywood’s pre-Code era  In 1930, sound films became widespread in Hollywood; in 1934, Hollywood studios agreed to heavily censor their films under the Hays Code. The brief window in between is the Pre-Code Talkies Era, a rich and inventive period in which the idea of just what a movie could and should be was in flux. Unfolding during the Great Depression, movies got far bolder in what they dared to say and show, defying what we think of as Old Hollywood’s clichés. My favorites of the period include classy auteur films (Trouble in Paradise, Shanghai Express), fun trashy romps (Baby Face, Night Nurse), social critiques (Heroes for Sale, Wild Boys of the Road), and dazzling extravaganzas (42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933). If you’re interested in challenging your preconceptions for what “old movies” are like, this is the era to look at. (A list for your perusal here.) —Andrew Prokop, senior correspondent Messy Star by chokecherry I miss being a teenager just before streaming services were a thing, when that visceral, desperate pull to scavenge for illegal downloads formed my identity. With their debut EP Messy Star, Bay Area-grown band chokecherry gives me that feeling again. Their siren-esque vocals, fearlessly heavy guitars, and pop-grunge hypnosis are exactly what our inner teens need. Especially in the deflated liminal space between the election and the next administration, where it feels like all efforts to scream and fight for change amount to nothing, we need women riling up mosh pits. Chokecherry is going to take over the world. (Streaming on Apple Music and Spotify.) —Celia Ford, Future Perfect fellow Industry Few things captured my attention this year more than Industry. Living under the shadow of Succession for its first two seasons, HBO’s hot business-drama delivered a landslide season three. The copious sex, drugs, and wealth hooked me, but it was the exploration of nepotism, aristocracy, and relationships that kept me coming back. Each character is deeply flawed and equally cunning. I am still trying to understand the individual jobs within the firm, and the esoteric language they speak may require homework. But hate to watch, love to hate watch: you simply must watch Industry. (Streaming on Max) —Claire White, senior manager of network development Star Wars: Andor Andor came out in 2022 but I rewatched it this year with joy and awe. I think a lot of people who would love this show have stayed away because it’s Star Wars, even though it also never really caught on with Star Wars fans because it’s not really Star Wars. You could barely call it sci-fi; it’s basically a show about how political movements form and how one’s politics can change, from the director of Michael Clayton. Fine, if that still sounds bad to you, I get it. (Streaming on Disney+.) —Adam Freelander, supervising story editor, video “Caravan” by Van Marrison with The Band I found myself retreating into the music of the past this year, particularly live instrumental performances — and none transfixed me the way Van the Man’s appearance with The Band during Martin Scorsese’s concert documentary The Last Waltz did. Writer Nick Hornby once described Morrison’s live performances of “Caravan” like this: “In the long, vamped passage right before the climax Morrison’s band seems to isolate a moment somewhere between life and its aftermath, a big, baroque entrance hall of a place where you can stop and think about everything that has gone before.”  He was referring to the showstopper on Morrison’s own live album, It’s Too Late To Stop Now, but I think it applies just as aptly to his rendition with The Band, a fusion of their Celtic and Ozark blues. Something about the connectivity and immediacy of these old live performances resonates with me in our disconnected age. I crave it. (Streaming on Spotify.) —Dylan Scott, senior correspondent 1000-lb Sisters I am not a complicated woman: I enjoy television that is charming and makes me laugh. Amy and Tammy Slaton of TLC’s 1000-lb Sisters check both of those boxes. Earlier this year, a friend introduced me to the show, which chronicles the sisters’ incredible weight loss journeys. But Amy and Tammy are more than their struggles. Frankly, they’re hilarious. Viewers are invited into their small Kentucky hometown and are eventually introduced to their three older siblings, who join Amy and Tammy in transforming their health.  This season, the show’s sixth, Amy gets adventurous with cooking, adding white chocolate to her alfredo sauce; Tammy experiments with fashion and burlesque dancing. In a culture where reality TV seems less and less “real,” Amy, Tammy, and their entire family feel like a relic from the genre’s glory days: They’re loud, they fart on-camera, and they’re not at all concerned with personal branding. (Streaming on Max and TLC GO.) —Allie Volpe, senior reporter Dropout Dropout is a comedy channel offering a wide mix of content — some D&D/roleplaying stuff, but also a lot of Whose Line Is It Anyway-style improv. I got into their stuff this year after seeing some clips on TikTok and enjoyed the rapport between the recurring comedians.  There are episodes where the players improvise a whole musical based on a few wacky prompts, and it’s pretty jaw-dropping to watch people so witty and quick on their feet. The channel is also a lesson on how smaller media companies can survive the era of Big Streaming. It charges $6 per month for a big collection of high-quality, regularly updated content, and as far as I know, the business is thriving. (Available on YouTube.) —Whizy Kim, senior reporter My Old Ass I went into the theater thinking My Old Ass would be a lighthearted, quirky comedy. I left determined to double down on my gratitude for the most important people in my life. Actors Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella do a fantastic job of invoking a bittersweet nostalgia while reminding us just how precious the present moment is. (Available on Amazon Prime.) —Lauren Katz, senior newsroom project manager The Later Daters The world fell in love with The Golden Bachelor, and rightfully so — watching seasoned singles find their mate was the feel-good content we didn’t know we needed, especially for those of us who might feel already disillusioned by the dating pool in our 20s and 30s. Later Daters is another take on dating for golden singles, but with, in my opinion, more nuance, heart, and personality than The Golden Bachelor.  It employs more of a polished docuseries tone, chronicling the lives of several older men and women looking for love the second (or third or fourth!) time around. Michelle Obama is a producer on this show, which makes sense; it presents a poignant mix of humor and heartfelt charm that made it hard for me to turn off. (Streaming on Netflix.) —Elizabeth Price, director of grants & foundation development The joys of Pinterest In a world full of cursed algorithms, my tried-and-true social platform is Pinterest. For the past 11 years, I’ve built my homepage brick by brick. From the board “cool pools” of —  you guessed it — cool pools I created in high school, to a board of dinner recipes I share with my partner so we can take the guesswork out of what to make for dinner, Pinterest is both the perfect place to ignite inspiration and a hilarious time capsule. Whatever the opposite of doomscrolling is, I’ve found it on this social platform. (Located at Pinterest.com.) —Gabby Fernandez, associate director of audience Evan Baggs Live @ Watergate Berlin This year, when Spotify Wrapped came out, my listening minutes were a fraction of previous years; I had moved to the long-forgotten SoundCloud, where my playlists have been replaced with roving DJ mixes. What I like so much about the DJ mix format is that they remind me of the mixtapes and CDs of my youth. My most-streamed mix was made in 2011 by New York/Berlin DJ and producer Evan Baggs.  The synthesizers are sparse, the bass lines are minimal, the drums are somehow loose and sturdy at once, while the energy shifts from melancholic to serious to hypnotic to playful in the span of an hour. Even though it’s a decade old, it remains a great introduction to, for lack of a better phrase, what the modern “underground” house music scene has to offer. (Streaming on SoundCloud.) —Kenny Torella, Future Perfect staff writer Immortal John Triptych games Attempts to describe Joe Richardson’s indie video games often invoke Monty Python. One look at them, and it’s easy to see why: The three games included in his Immortal John Triptych — the last of which, The Death of the Reprobate, he released on Steam in November — are intricate pastiches of Renaissance art and classical music, but they are also wildly irreverent and very funny. Nothing in these point-and-click worlds is sacred, even if their soundtracks are, and Richardson’s bonkers collages make magnificent backdrops for solving satisfyingly complex puzzles. Fans of stunning visuals (did you ever imagine you’d see a masterwork move?) and self-aware humor will find each of these a high-low delight to the end. (Available on Steam.) —Keren Landman, senior health reporter All of Us Strangers (2023) This British fantasy movie set in the peripheries of London tells a story of modern loneliness that has haunted me since the frigid January night I went to see it in theaters. Andrew Scott, playing a gay screenwriter entering early middle age, channels angst in a tenor that will resonate with anyone who has ever confronted the fear of dying alone.  And yet, this movie offers so much hope. It set me on an existential spiral for the following days that culminated with a reinvigorated appreciation and special gratitude for chosen family. Think of it this way: This movie can be a tear-wrenching, cathartic experience, a comforting companion to get you through at least one cold winter night.-(Streaming on Hulu.) —Christian Paz, senior politics reporter Robert Caro’s LBJ biographies I know I am not the first person to say, “Hey, did you know that Robert Caro is really good at what he does?” But Robert Caro is really, really good at what he does.  I did not come into his four-part series on Lyndon B. Johnson with any interest in the subject matter. I didn’t even come into it with a particular interest in biographies. But these books read like novels and made me care deeply about LBJ and his myriad machinations. Each book is full of mini-dramas with clear stakes that all layer together to create a full and fascinating picture of how power works in politics.  I found myself rooting for LBJ sometimes, rooting against him at other times, and thoroughly disgusted with him much of the time (Justice for Lady Bird!), but I was never, never bored. (Available on Bookshop.org.) —Byrd Pinkerton, senior producer

Preview: Protesters outside the Spanish Parliament, calling for Spain’s president to resign after floods killed hundreds of people in Valencia. The protester’s sign reads, “It wasn’t a climate catastrophe. It was a murder.” | Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images 2024 is on track to become the hottest year since humans have been keeping track, beating out 2023.  The extraordinary back-to-back record-breakers amplified disasters like heat waves, hurricanes, and torrential downpours around the world, claiming thousands of lives and causing billions in damages.  Few countries have emerged completely unscathed over the past two years, but one place known for its welcoming climate, was especially wounded.  In 2023, Spain experienced a searing early-season heat wave with temperatures topping 101 degrees Fahrenheit in Córdoba in the south of the country, followed up by more severe heat across the country in July and August. It led to more than 8,000 heat-related deaths, the second-highest toll in Europe behind Italy. The high temperatures worsened an ongoing drought, depleting water supplies and causing its economically vital olive oil production to fall in half. Intense wildfires ignited across the country, including the Canary Island of Tenerife and on the mainland in Gandia. The Asturias region in northern Spain suffered the single-largest wildfire in its history, torching more than 24,000 acres. Record rainfall in Toledo triggered flash floods that killed at least three people. Dangerous heat, fire, and drought continued to rage this year. But in October, Spain experienced a disaster that still managed to shock the climate change-wracked country. The Valencia region in eastern Spain suffered an unprecedented downpour, receiving a year’s worth of rain in just a few hours. It triggered flash floods across a vast expanse and killed at least 224 people, making it the deadliest flood on the continent since 1967. And warming clearly played a role: Climate research groups reported that these storms were stronger and more likely to occur due to warming caused by humans.  🛑 #BREAKING : FLASH FLOODING DUE TO HEAVY RAINFALL #Turís, Spain 🇪🇸 October 29, 2014 #dana #gotafria #lluvia #Floods https://t.co/ogW9FYzF0D pic.twitter.com/PQqtUtGouA — Weather monitor (@Weathermonitors) October 29, 2024 “It was mostly a surprise. We started seeing it in the news, huge floods, cars floating,” said Marcos Masa, 19, a university student in Valencia region. “The first reports were about 10 deaths. It was already too much. We never expected to get to 200 [deaths].” In the aftermath, locals directed their outrage at local officials and the national government, which they blamed for what they saw as delayed, inadequate warnings and a botched response. Spain’s military mounted one of its largest peacetime operations in its history to assist with the recovery effort, but it came days after the rainfall had stopped. Tens of thousands of Valencia residents joined protests and called for Carlos Mazón, the regional leader for Valencia, to resign. When Spain’s king, queen, and prime minister visited one of the flooded towns, locals threw mud at them.  Spain’s 47 million residents and 95 million annual tourists have long savored Spain’s ordinarily nice weather, but the disasters over the past two years illustrate that it’s not something anyone can take for granted. The recent catastrophes didn’t just claim lives and destroy homes; they shook the country’s political system and for some Spaniards, rattled their sense of home.  “The climate you were born in no longer exists,” said Andreu Escrivà, an environmental scientist and author. “Spain is no longer that paradise where you could spend a very mild winter and a very nice summer.” Spain stands out for having so much happen in one relatively small country — about the size of Texas — over a short period. But it’s ahead of the curve on a global trend: Around the world this year, warming has exacerbated disasters, which in some cases in turn triggered protests. Spain didn’t necessarily reach the highest temperatures, suffer the biggest fires, or suffer the most intense rain in the world; it was the failures of preparation and response that worsened the destruction these events caused and fueled the ensuing anger. This is all happening at a moment when global climate politics are set to become more tumultuous. The US is the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter and President-elect Donald Trump is likely to pull the US back from its international climate commitments. He also wants to impose stiff tariffs on goods from European Union countries unless they buy more US oil and gas. That could hamper Spain’s ambitions to expand its clean energy footprint in the US with solar and wind technologies.  Global politics are only getting more complicated, and climate change will add to ongoing political tensions and destabilize governments in unexpected ways.  2024 raised temperatures and tensions around the world While the planet has been warming on average, the past two years were hotter by a wider margin than some scientists expected. The soaring temperatures were a result of natural variability building on top of warming induced by humanity’s relentless combustion of fossil fuels.  On top of that, the Pacific Ocean’s temperature cycle, known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, was in its warm phase. That’s when hotter water along the equator in the Pacific Ocean sloshes eastward, altering weather patterns and generally heating up the globe. The 2023 El Niño was one of the strongest on record. Although it began to weaken earlier this year, some of its effects still played out over the summer and into the fall. In particular, the world’s oceans remained at record-high temperatures, one of the key ingredients for severe rainfall and tropical storms. The Atlantic Ocean in particular saw record-high temperatures and underwater heat waves that devastated marine life.  Aerosols, tiny airborne bits of soot and dust, played a role in the recent warm weather as well. In the atmosphere, they can block enough sunlight to cool the area below, but weather conditions like weaker winds over Africa suppressed natural aerosol sources like dust from the Sahara desert. A law to limit pollution also had an ironic twist: Because of a new international shipping regulation to limit sulphur pollution, there were less aerosols over the oceans — and more warming. Policies to limit air pollution in countries like China contributed to warmer waters too.  Right now, the El Niño Southern Oscillation is in its neutral phase. The Pacific Ocean is forecasted to tip into its cool phase, known as La Niña, early next year. It’s likely global average temperatures will come down in 2025 compared to this year. That shift brings its own weather consequences, like creating more favorable conditions for hurricanes.  However, if people keep pumping out greenhouse gases, years as warm as 2024 will become more common in the decades ahead and we can expect even hotter years to come.  Why Spain was in the bullseye for disasters For Spain, there were a few more factors that put it in the crosshairs of extreme weather. Escrivà, the environmental scientist, noted that Spain has a diverse range of climates. Some regions are hot and dry while others are cool and humid across mountains and low-lying coasts. The country has historically experienced periodic extreme weather as well. Valencia saw a major deadly flood back in 1957. In 1982, heavy rain led to a dam failure that flooded the region in up to six feet of water.   Still, Spain does have a deserved reputation for pleasant weather. Look at a map and you can see that New York City is roughly at the same latitude as Madrid, yet Madrid tends to have a warmer, drier climate. (And no one is eager to winter in New York.) The climate gives Spain its famous products like oranges, olives, wine, and dusty landscapes that have served as the backdrop of classic spaghetti Westerns.  The fact that Spain is situated on a peninsula has blessed the country with a historically temperate climate. The surrounding ocean acts as a temperature buffer and keeps conditions from swinging between extremes too often.  In addition to its geographical good fortune, Spain’s climate benefits from the Gulf Stream. This ocean current transports warm water from the Gulf of Mexico and sends it north along the US East Coast before turning east to cross the Atlantic, where it becomes the North Atlantic Current. Warm water heats up and introduces moisture into the air above it. Across Europe, this pattern moderates searing temperatures in the summer and cushions the bitter cold of winter. In Western Europe, air temperatures are about 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) warmer than the global average for its latitude.  But Spain’s climate stabilizers have started to destabilize. “The Mediterranean Sea has warmed more than one degree Celsius in the last 30 years,” Escrivà said. “And that’s kind of a big energy battery for the weather system. If you have an enormous mass of very, very hot water, it’s going to dissipate this energy. It’s going to explode somehow.” Warmer air also holds onto more moisture, leading to more severe rainfall events. Additionally, the Gulf Stream is warming up faster than the rest of the ocean and changing its course.  The Valencia floods were driven by a phenomenon called a high-altitude isolated depression. In Spanish, it goes by the acronym DANA or gota fría, meaning “cold drop.” This occurs when cold air at high altitudes moves over the warm Mediterranean waters. The warm moist air below quickly bubbles up and forms dense rain clouds that can stay parked over a region for a long time, leading to intense rainfall below. The October gota fría was one of the most severe storms to hit the Valencia region this century.   For Spaniards, the recent weather has been so jarring that they’re starting to reshape how they think of their climate. “We are experiencing extraordinary events in an ordinary way,” Escrivà said.  It wasn’t just the water that made Valencia’s floods so devastating Of course, political unrest and anger toward politicians after a disaster isn’t unique to Spain. Storms like Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Helene in the US sparked outrage at local and federal officials for inadequate planning and agonizingly slow recovery efforts. 2024 is the deadliest year for hurricanes in the US since 2005.  Viktoria Jansesberger, a researcher studying climate change and politics at the University of Konstanz in Germany, explained there are several variables that determine whether people see a natural disaster as just a force of nature versus a human-caused problem.  Generally, people do tend to extend grace to their leaders when they experience a catastrophe, up to a point. “When it comes to extreme weather events and disasters, it takes a lot of very visible mismanagement for people to really blame the government,” Jansesberger said.  Frustrations mount when there are unmet promises for aid, a long-lasting loss of services like electricity, and a sense of neglect when leaders don’t show up in time. Disasters can also expose long-simmering unhappiness around problems like corruption and underinvestment in a community.  But filling the streets with protesters requires coordination. “Discontent is not sufficient; it needs organization,” Jansesberger said. “This is something one can observe super nicely in the Spanish protests.” Many of the rallies in Valencia were led by public sector labor unions who were already mobilized by campaigns over the past year for fewer working hours and better job conditions. There were also major public demonstrations across the country for affordable housing and against amnesty for Catalan separatists. The Spanish people were primed to protest.  The tipping point in Valencia came when residents were caught off guard during the floods. AEMET, Spain’s meteorological agency, issued alerts that a major storm was brewing, but many people didn’t get warnings on their phones until the flooding had already begun (AEMET did not respond to requests for comment).  “We all received the very late warning the day of the disaster,” said Franc Casanova Ferrer, a bioinformatics researcher living in Sueca in the Valencia community. “People are aware that flash floods can happen here but it’s the lack of warning that feels like a betrayal.”  Those warnings were desperately needed because some of the most severe flooding wasn’t in the places that had the most rainfall, but in places downstream of the downpours. Low and dry riverbeds quickly turned into chutes channeling water into downtown areas where many Valencians lived.  After the floodwaters receded, it took time to get power restored and roads cleared. “We didn’t have the tap water for around three weeks after the disaster,” Casanova Ferrer said.  Americans watching from afar may see a familiar story. The aftermath of Hurricane Helene raised many of the same concerns about inadequate warnings, confusion about leadership, and a complicated ad hoc recovery effort, which in turn opened fissures along existing political fault lines.  As global average temperatures rise and populations grow, more people and property will find themselves in the path of an onslaught worsened by climate change. It’s not just lives and homes that are vulnerable, but whole governments.

Preview: In the last issue of this newsletter, I wrote about what went wrong with public housing in the United States — how it didn’t necessarily fail, but was routinely sabotaged because of bad policy choices that contributed to neglect and mismanagement. So this week, I want to look at what successful public housing can look like.  Oftentimes, when looking for models to emulate, many Americans look abroad for answers — Austria, Denmark, and Singapore, for example, are frequently cited as places to learn from. But one of the problems with turning to other countries is that their politics and governments are fundamentally different, and simply copying them isn’t always an option.  That’s why I’m particularly interested in looking at examples of public housing models that have worked quite well here in the United States. After all, if one American city or county can pull off an ambitious program, then what’s stopping others from doing the same? What we can learn from the DC suburbs Earlier this year, my colleague Rachel Cohen highlighted a place where local leaders are expanding public housing: Montgomery County, Maryland.  Montgomery County has long prioritized affordable housing. Developers, for example, are required to make at least 15 percent of units in new housing projects available for people who make less than two-thirds of the area’s median income.  But the county got creative with how it could provide public housing: It set aside a fund to finance and develop housing projects. And while the county partners with private developers, its investment makes it a majority owner of a given project. As the New York Times put it, the county, as an owner, becomes “a kind of benevolent investor that trades profits for lower rents.” For background, the county’s Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) is not just a public housing authority, but a housing finance agency and public developer as well. “We have these three different components that ultimately work together to help us really advance a very aggressive development strategy that we have deployed over 50 years,” said Chelsea Andrews, executive director of HOC.  Historically, public housing projects in the United States have only been available to people making very low incomes. That’s by design: In 1936, the federal government set income limits for eligibility. While that might seem like it makes sense — shouldn’t public housing units be available to those who most need them? — the reality is that this rule limited housing authorities’ ability to raise revenue by charging closer to market-rate rents for middle- or higher-income earners. As a result, public housing projects have been overly reliant on government subsidies and constantly underfunded. But Montgomery County is addressing that problem by opening public housing up to mixed-income renters. “Mixed income accomplishes so many goals,” Andrews said. “It allows for housing authorities to ensure that they are creating inclusive communities. It takes away the concentration of poverty.”  Andrews added that mixed-income housing doesn’t discourage people from advancing their careers since they don’t have to worry about losing their eligibility to stay housed in an HOC property. And by making the developments mixed-income, the local government can use profits from some renters to subsidize others and keep the buildings in good condition. In many ways, this model is a rebrand. “They are very clear about not calling it ‘public housing’: To help differentiate these projects from the typical stigmatized, income-restricted, and underfunded model, leaders have coalesced around calling the mixed-income idea ‘social housing’ produced by ‘public developers,’” Cohen wrote. But in effect, the model is still publicly owned units being rented to residents at subsidized rates. Montgomery County has seen plenty of success. The Laureate, one of these types of developments in the suburbs of Washington, DC, had leased out 97 percent of its 268 units within a year of opening in 2023. It’s not just Montgomery County Across the country, housing advocates and local governments have taken note of Montgomery County’s example and are keen on trying it out for themselves.  In Massachusetts, state Rep. Mike Connolly introduced legislation last year to create a $100 million fund to finance social housing projects. While that specific legislation hasn’t passed yet, the governor recently signed a housing bond bill that includes funding for a social housing pilot program.  “We got a lot of enthusiasm and support around us now doing the work of mapping out what these initial projects will look like. It could result in perhaps one or two local, mixed-income social housing-type projects in the coming years,” Connolly said. “If we can develop something and build it, people can see it, and then we can point to it and look to expand it. And, of course, Montgomery County, Maryland, has been the contemporary national leader here.” As local governments struggle to deal with soaring housing costs, this model is providing a good solution by both building more units (which is very much needed) and providing below market-rate rents. And with more and more lawmakers approving these projects, America could be on the brink of a new era of public housing — and this time, it might actually be a success.  This story was featured in the Within Our Means newsletter. Sign up here.

Preview: US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and US President-elect Donald Trump arrive to a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. | Andrew Harnik via Getty Images Support independent journalism that matters — become a Vox Member today. Editor’s note, December 21 10:20 am ET: Shortly after midnight on Saturday, the Senate passed legislation that would fund the government and avert a shutdown. The bill did not include the suspension or elimination of the debt ceiling that Donald Trump had demanded. This week’s installment of the long-running saga, “House Republicans cannot govern,” will soon be forgotten. Elon Musk’s decision to blow up a bipartisan agreement to keep the government funded through the sheer power of posting (and the latent threat posed by his immense wealth), Donald Trump suddenly calling for the abolition of the debt limit, House Republican Chip Roy telling his colleagues that they lack “an ounce of self-respect” — all these dramas will surely give way to even more ridiculous ones in the new year. But this week’s government funding fight also revealed something that could have profound implications for the next four years of governance: Trump’s power over the congressional GOP is quite limited. This did not appear to be the case just days ago. On Wednesday, Trump joined Elon Musk in calling on House Republicans to scrap a bipartisan spending deal that would have kept the government funded through March, increased disaster relief, and funded pediatric cancer research, among many other things. Despite the fact that the GOP needs buy-in from the Senate’s Democratic majority in order to pass any legislation — and failure to pass a spending bill by Saturday would mean a government shutdown — House Republicans heeded Trump’s call to nix the carefully negotiated compromise. If Trump had little difficulty persuading his co-partisans to block one spending bill, however, he proved less adept at getting them to support a different one.  On Thursday, in coordination with Trump, the House GOP unveiled a new funding bill, one shorn of all Democratic priorities. Over social media, the president-elect instructed his party to “vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!” Then, 38 House Republicans voted against the legislation, which was more than enough to sink it amid nearly unified Democratic opposition.  House conservatives’ defiance of Trump is partly attributable to ideological differences. The president-elect’s objections to Wednesday’s bipartisan agreement were distinct from those of his donor Elon Musk or the House GOP’s hardliners. The latter disdained the spending bill’s page count and fiscal cost. Trump, by contrast, appeared more preoccupied with the legislation’s failure to increase — or eliminate — the debt limit. Which is understandable. The debt limit may be the most irrational of all the US government’s institutions. It does not prevent Congress from authorizing spending far in excess of federal revenue. Rather, it authorizes the government to finance the spending that Congress has already ordered through borrowing. The alternative to raising the debt limit is for the government to default on its obligations to American citizens, or to its lenders, or both. In practice, breaching the debt limit could trigger global financial tumult, as the world’s most widely trusted “safe” asset — US treasury debt — suddenly becomes a risky investment. Although refusing to raise the debt limit would be economically disastrous, many lawmakers are inclined to do so anyway. After all, increasing the limit on how much debt the government can accrue — when the federal debt already sits at $36 trillion — can sound bad to voters when highlighted out of context in a campaign ad. And some conservatives see threatening to sabotage the global financial system as a potential means of forcing through unpopular spending cuts.  So getting Congress to raise the debt limit is inevitably a bit of a headache. And Trump does not want that high-stakes formality getting in the way of his plans to enact large tax cuts that — if history is any guide — will substantially increase the debt and deficit.  Trump therefore implored House Republicans to suspend the debt limit for at least two years — or else, eliminate it entirely — so it wouldn’t interfere with his honeymoon period (as is, Congress will likely need to raise the debt ceiling at some point next year, after narrowly averting a crisis in 2023). House Speaker Mike Johnson honored this request, adding a two-year debt limit hike to Thursday’s bill. For dozens of House conservatives, the idea of voting for a spending bill devoid of any major funding cuts that also suspended the debt limit was more odious than the prospect of defying Trump. It is not surprising that some House Republicans would prize conservative purity above fealty to Trump. That nearly 40 of them would harbor such priorities is a revelation, however. During the 2024 campaign, Trump demonstrated a remarkable capacity to dictate ideological terms to his party, officially forswearing a national abortion ban without provoking any sustained attacks from his right. Combined with his apparent success in revising conservative orthodoxy on trade, entitlement spending, and US-Russia policy, Trump’s pivot on abortion raised the possibility that the modern right was a personality cult first and an ideological movement second.  It’s now clear that for a substantial portion of House Republicans, this is not the case. And that is going to raise serious challenges to Trump’s agenda next year. Republicans will control both chambers of Congress in 2025, but their majority in the House will be razor-thin: They will have at most a five-vote majority by year’s end, assuming they sweep all impending special elections in deep-red districts. The party will need to reach something approaching unanimity in order to advance legislation without Democratic help. This might not seem like such a difficult feat when it comes to passing the cornerstone of Trump’s legislative agenda, an extension and expansion of his 2017 tax cuts: If Republicans agree on anything, after all, it is that taxes should be lower. Yet some conservatives evince genuine concern about deficits and insist on paying for the tax cuts by slashing spending. Others hail from swing districts and may be nervous about signing off on unpopular cuts to social welfare programs. At least a few Republicans are even reluctant to roll back all of the Inflation Reduction Act’s pro-clean energy tax credits, which have disproportionately benefited Republican areas. Appeasing all relevant constituencies will be difficult.  Theoretically, Trump could make this task easier by cowing intransigent Republicans with charges of disloyalty and threats of primary challenges. But after Thursday, it appears less certain that the president-elect actually boasts such power over the House GOP’s backbenchers. It is worth recalling that Trump is a 78-year-old lame duck. If you are an up-and-coming conservative House member with aspirations to run for higher office a decade from now, a reputation for conservative ideological purity might eventually prove more useful than a record of perfect fealty to an elderly man whose interest in the Republican Party is liable to evaporate the moment he forfeits the presidency. Whatever happens, Trump is poised to wield a disconcerting amount of personal power over the executive branch come next year. But he may find that his capacity to dictate terms to Congress is as frustratingly limited as our government’s authority to issue new debt.

Preview: On the Money is a monthly advice column. If you want advice on spending, saving, or investing — or any of the complicated emotions that may come up as you prepare to make big financial decisions — you can submit your question on this form. Here, we answer a question asked by Vox readers, which have been edited and condensed. Why is money so hard? Dear Letter Writer, You asked this question at the beginning of the year; now that we are coming to its end, I may have an appropriate framework through which to answer it. The literal answer is that money is difficult because it is a representation of value. Unfortunately, we are often unable to earn and spend our money according to what we actually value. Various industries are motivated to pinpoint the exact minimum amount of money we’re willing to accept for various jobs and the exact maximum amount of money we are willing to pay for particular items, trusting that we’ll give them exactly what they ask for. Much of what is left over goes toward experiences we don’t actually value and expenses we can’t necessarily control. The metaphorical answer is a little more complicated: It is the holiday season for many of us, a time when we demonstrate our values to one another. The person who values frugality shops the sales, the person who values extravagance shops full price, the person who values their own skills handcrafts ornaments or puts calligraphed labels on jars of jam — but no matter what you choose, you generally end up spending an unusual amount of time or an unusual amount of money.  Most of us pick the money route, and even the people who choose the DIY route have to purchase the Mason jars and calligraphy pens. So we set budgets — some of us, anyway — and divide our holiday shopping lists into affordable allotments. This much money for gifts, this much money for clothing, this much money for travel, and so on. At this point, if we’re thinking practically, we book the travel first. Somehow it costs more than we were expecting, even if we set aside more money than we did last year. This is because the airlines, rental car companies, and hotels understand that reaching a particular destination for the holidays is a top-level value in nearly everybody’s minds — a value that is taught and reinforced by much of the media associated with the holiday season, as well as societal expectations — and these companies can charge precisely what the market will bear. So we end up booking the flights or the rental cars or the hotel rooms, or we look at the cost of gas and estimate how much it might cost us to drive, and whether it would be possible to pack a cooler instead of stopping to eat along the way, and then we tell ourselves that we can always make our budget balance by spending a little less on the presents. Except we don’t want to spend less on the presents. We want to let the people we love know how much we love them, and the amount we love them hasn’t changed since we booked our flights, so why should the amount we spend on their gifts have to decrease? We don’t want our families to have to bear the burden of an inadequate budget. We don’t want to face disappointed children or disapproving relatives.  And so — because we value the people we love, and because we very much value the idea of ourselves as generous and holiday-spirited — we spend more than we can afford. Read more from On the Money Should you combine finances with your partner? How to cope with inflation and lifestyle creep How are you supposed to start investing? Do you have questions related to personal finance? Submit them here. Sometimes this overspending comes from what might be considered a necessity. This is the year to give your child a bike, for example, because next year might be too late. However, many of us quickly get into the kind of overspending that is less useful. This would be the “well, we’re giving Nana three gifts, so I had better make sure Pop-Pop has three gifts too” thing, the kind of financial imprudence that leads to comically unnecessary novelty purchases or the dregs of drugstore sales bins.  Nobody wants these gifts, and yet we feel as though they ought to be given, and so we exchange money we cannot afford or have not yet earned. There’s another level of overspending that occurs when someone else tasks you with a holiday responsibility you weren’t expecting. This year, your team is doing Secret Santa. This year, you got invited to a themed party that requires you to buy an ugly sweater or a silly hat. This year, Nana and Pop-Pop want everyone to send in family photos so they can make a calendar. This year, your neighbor gave you a gift, and so you had better give them something too. And so we spend, and spend, and spend, and tell ourselves we’ll sort it out later, maybe we’ll get a raise or pick up a side hustle or apply for a 0 percent intro APR balance transfer credit card — because that’s what we’re supposed to do at this time of year. Everything in us and around us tells us to book the travel and buy the presents and attend the parties and take the pictures, and if we don’t enjoy all of this as much as we ought to, or can’t afford to spend as much as we want to, we’ve failed. That is why money is hard, dear Letter Writer: Because the way we spend the holidays is the way we spend our lives. Fortunately, New Year’s resolutions are just around the corner. This year, consider resolving to understand both what you value and what value you have to offer. From there, you may be able to improve the rate at which you exchange your value for money and exchange your money for what you value. It’s the only way through this mess of personal finance, and it isn’t easy — but I’ve done it, and other people I know have done it, so I hope you can too.

Preview: Amazon workers and union members picket outside the DB4 Amazon distribution center in the Queens, New York, on December 20, 2024. | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images Delivery workers continued to picket Amazon facilities in New York City, Illinois, California, and Atlanta after launching a strike on Thursday, following the company’s refusal to engage in bargaining for a labor contract.  The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been organizing the workers, though Amazon does not recognize those efforts and claims that the workers are not Amazon employees. (A stance federal labor watchdog the National Labor Review Board, or NLRB, disagrees with.)  The striking workers, who are primarily delivery drivers, are agitating for a contract that offers better pay and working conditions. The Teamsters gave Amazon until December 15 to start contract negotiations. Those did not transpire, leading to a strike timed for the week before Christmas as part of a push to bring the company to the bargaining table. It’s one of the biggest strikes in Amazon’s history, and it’s not clear how long it will last. And it’s already having legal consequences; an Amazon delivery driver and a Teamsters organizer were arrested at a Queens facility Thursday allegedly for disrupting traffic.  “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said in a Thursday statement. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.” The delivery workers’ strike is part of a larger effort to unionize the workers, including delivery drivers and warehouse employees, who perform Amazon’s shipping and fulfillment services. The unionization battle has been ongoing for years. In 2022, labor organizers had their first major victory, when an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island voted to unionize and formed the Amazon Labor Union. Since then, the Amazon Labor Union joined the Teamsters, which bills itself as the largest labor union in North America and represents workers from a variety of industries, including transportation and health care. The Teamsters say the union represents 10,000 Amazon workers. There is little indication this week’s strike will result in the type of win the Staten Island workers saw in 2022; Amazon has argued the strike won’t hurt its operations, and dismissed its validity. And while workers trying to organize at Amazon have notched some victories in cases before the NLRB, that body is expected to undergo major, pro-business changes in the incoming Donald Trump administration. All that puts the success of the striking workers, and how the federal government will treat labor in the years to come, in doubt.  Workers are striking to make a statement It’s not clear how many workers are striking, but they represent only a fraction of the approximately 800,000 people who make up Amazon’s delivery workforce.  Amazon warehouse workers’ poor working conditions, including injuries and insufficient access to medical care, have been well-documented, including in a new Senate report. That’s what inspired the first unionization effort at the Staten Island warehouse. Drivers and delivery workers say they struggle, too.  “The pay needs to be better. The health insurance needs to be better,” Thomas Hickman, a Georgia-based delivery worker, told CNN. “We need better working conditions. If we do have 400-plus packages, we need someone to be a helper with us, to ride with us.” This strike isn’t focused on working conditions or pay and benefits exactly, although that’s part of it; it is what’s called an unfair labor practices strike, because Amazon refused to bargain with the workers by the deadline the Teamsters gave Amazon management. The workers are striking to get the company to negotiate a labor contract that sets out acceptable working conditions, pay, benefits, and more. The workers hope to get their rights and benefits enshrined so they can’t be arbitrarily removed by the company.  The Teamsters maintain that the company is violating labor law by refusing to negotiate a contract.  “In some ways, this isn’t so unique,” Eric Blanc, professor of labor relations at Rutgers University’s school of management and labor relations, told Vox. “In many cases, employers will ignore labor laws and refuse to bargain. Sometimes, striking is the way to get them to the table.” Amazon, however, maintains that the striking workers aren’t even Amazon employees.  “There are a lot of nuances here but I want to be clear, the Teamsters don’t represent any Amazon employees despite their claims to the contrary,” Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for Amazon, told CNN. “This entire narrative is a PR play and the Teamsters’ conduct this past year, and this week is illegal.” Vox reached out to Nantel to clarify which actions Amazon believes to be illegal but did not receive a response by publication time.  According to Amazon, these drivers and delivery workers work for a third-party contractor — what they call a delivery service partner (DSP). But Amazon doesn’t name the DSPs and advertises for those delivery jobs on Amazon websites. Delivery workers drive Amazon-branded vans and wear Amazon uniforms; they deliver Amazon packages, and Amazon “completely dictates the way the third-party company operates,” Rebecca Givan, professor of labor relations at Rutgers University’s school of management and labor relations, told Vox. “Amazon sets the terms.” The Teamsters filed unfair labor practice charges against Amazon and one of its California DSPs, Battle Tested Strategies, in 2023, saying that Amazon and the DSP are joint employers of dozens of delivery workers the Teamsters had organized there. In August of this year, the NLRB ruled that Amazon and Battle Tested Strategies were joint employers, and in September, an NLRB regional director lodged a formal complaint against Amazon.  Amazon is not likely to back down any time soon — and the stakes are high Amazon has “made it very clear that they have no intention of bargaining” with the workers, Seth Harris, senior fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change and former top labor policy advisor to the Biden administration, told Vox. First of all, Amazon’s business model depends on low-cost labor and that is easily replaced during periods of high turnover, according to all of the labor experts Vox spoke to. Putting a contract in place that guarantees workers certain levels of pay, benefits, and workplace safety contradicts that model. Amazon hasn’t recognized the original Amazon Labor Union, even though it is recognized by the NLRB. And they have also spent “tens of millions” of dollars over the years on illegal union-busting activities, Blanc said, including threatening employees’ wages and benefits if they unionized, removing information about union efforts from a digital message board, and firing workers for unionizing.  There are federal laws governing how companies are meant to interact with unions and collective action efforts. But there’s no real penalty for failing to negotiate with workers, Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Vox. The NLRB is tasked with adjudicating labor disputes, but Amazon (as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX) have filed lawsuits claiming the NLRB and the current dispute resolution system is unconstitutional. If courts rule in favor of Amazon and SpaceX, that could significantly alter how the federal government handles labor disputes.  Therefore, Amazon can just “delay, delay, delay” negotiating a contract with the striking workers, Wheaton said, hoping that they win their case, or that they will soon have a Trump administration that is much more antagonistic to labor, and an NLRB that is much more friendly to corporations. President-elect Donald Trump will get to fill at least two seats on the NRLB, and is expected to select pro-business candidates; his labor secretary pick, however, is viewed as more pro-labor than expected. Regardless of what stance the incoming administration takes, the unionization push at Amazon, which has only grown over a relatively short period of time, is likely to continue. “This strike is a way of making it clear to the company — and the public — that [the push to unionize and negotiate a contract] is not going away,” Blanc said.

Preview: President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on December 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Editor’s note, December 21 10:20 am ET: Shortly after midnight on Saturday, the Senate passed legislation that would fund the government and avert a shutdown. The bill did not include the suspension or elimination of the debt ceiling that Donald Trump had demanded. This week, we’re getting a potent reminder of what legislating looked like under President Donald Trump — and the turmoil we can soon expect in his new term.  Trump, along with his ally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, upended a bipartisan spending deal on Wednesday, just days before government funding is set to expire. That agreement would have kept the government open until March 14, bundling $100 billion in disaster aid with $10 billion to assist farmers, and a slew of other measures. Following grumbling from Musk about the size of the legislation, Trump called for Republicans to negotiate a new agreement that both addresses the debt ceiling and strips the deal of so-called “Democrat giveaways.”  House GOP leaders tried to do so, presenting a new bill Thursday. Unsurprisingly, that version of the bill hasn’t been able to garner the votes that it needs to pass — leaving lawmakers once again scrambling with a shutdown deadline looming Friday night. Trump’s 11th-hour decision to get involved in negotiations, weighing in via social media (and seemingly without coordinating with congressional allies), is reminiscent of his first-term approach to Capitol Hill, when he regularly blew up funding talks and directly caused the longest government shutdown in US history. As such, this week’s chaos is both a callback and preview of the tumult that’s yet to come.  Trump’s history of blowing up deals, briefly explained  During Trump’s first term, he repeatedly called for Republicans to shut the government down in order to put pressure on Democrats to back his priorities, and also proved to be a mercurial negotiator.  In his first year as president, Trump began urging a shutdown as early as August, attacking members of his own party and emphasizing his willingness to endure a stoppage if it meant securing funding for a border wall. He went out of his way, too, to needle Democrats on Twitter ahead of a funding negotiation meeting that November, prompting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to not attend.  And as a shutdown loomed in January 2018, Trump further helped to scuttle a potential spending deal by throwing in extraneous border security demands. That month, Trump and Schumer famously met for cheeseburgers and appeared to reach an agreement, according to the Democratic lawmaker.  That agreement would have included Democratic backing for increased military spending and potential funding for a wall, in exchange for legislation that created a path to legal status for DACA recipients (a category of undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children). After the meeting, however, Trump reportedly pushed for more hardline immigration measures — including policies to enforce illegal immigration across the country — ultimately killing the deal.  In the week that followed, Democrats withheld their votes on a funding bill in an attempt to force the inclusion of DACA protections, leading to a brief shutdown. That didn’t wind up working, however. The shutdown ended when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised Democrats a vote on an immigration bill, which later failed to pass.  Perhaps most notably, Trump went on to cause a 35-day government shutdown from December 2018 to January 2019, after he panned a bipartisan funding deal that lawmakers had already agreed to. His statements prompted House Republicans to pass a different version of the spending bill that included more than $5 billion in funding for construction of a border wall, which Democrats balked at supporting. Because the House and Senate couldn’t find a version of the bill they could both pass, the funding deadline came and went, and the government entered a shutdown. After more than a month, Trump caved on his demands when it was apparent that he and his Republicans allies didn’t have the votes for the border wall funding and the effects of the shutdown on government services were becoming untenable (his approval rating also suffered noticeably as the shutdown wore on). He ended up signing a short-term funding bill that reopened the government but did not include his requested border wall funds, though he later declared a national emergency in a second, more successful, attempt to secure wall funding. Even after leaving the White House in January 2021, Trump has continued to meddle with funding bills. Just this past fall, he again called for Republicans to reject funding legislation and shut down the government if Congress didn’t pass a bill to curb noncitizen voting, which is already illegal.  A return to the chaos of Trump’s first term This week’s developments are yet another indication that Trump’s disruptive style hasn’t changed — particularly with the vocal backing of new allies like Musk.  Trump and Musk’s shared approach to governance by tweet (or Truth Social post) could well amp up the chaos and pressure that Republicans lawmakers will face in the president-elect’s second term.  Neither has been shy about making threats in order to bully people into acquiescing. Musk, for example, has said he’ll financially back primary challengers against senators who don’t support Trump’s Cabinet picks. And Trump has his own history of pushing for primaries against lawmakers who don’t do his bidding, a tactic he reprised this week.  While Republicans will again control both chambers of Congress next year, as they did during the first two years of Trump’s first term, they will hold narrow majorities that pose their own challenges. House Speaker Mike Johnson will need to keep a fractious coalition fully unified — or rely on Democrats — to get anything done.  Already this year, Johnson has had to rely on Democrats to help pass multiple funding bills, a dynamic that’s garnered ire from his right flank and could fuel challenges of his leadership in the new term.  Even after lawmakers resolve this funding fight, Johnson won’t have long to rest; the likely next deadline, in mid-March, will be an early test for the return of unified Republican governance. If this week is any measure, GOP leaders will have their work cut out for them — and it’s likely Trump and Musk will throw a few more grenades into the process along the way.

Preview: LAS VEGAS—Stressing how much it meant to Mrs. Claus’ sister to be included for the first time in the family business, Santa Claus confirmed Monday that as their present this year, all children would be receiving one of the bags of glitter labeled “fairy dust” that his sister-in-law sells on Etsy. “We’re excited that on […] The post Santa Confirms Everyone Getting Bag Of Glitter Labeled ‘Fairy Dust’ His Sister-In-Law Sells On Etsy appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: Scientists have for the first time created mouse stem cells from the genes of a single-celled life form, using these newly generated stem cells to help form a living, breathing mouse from a developing embryo. What do you think? The post Scientists Create Mouse Using Single-Celled Organism appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: Millions of parents across the U.S. are scrambling to complete their holiday shopping. In honor of the season, The Onion looks at the history of the most popular Christmas toys.  1877: Millions of trees are felled across the country to keep up with children’s demands for woodcuts of President Rutherford B. Hayes. 1933: Do you […] The post Timeline Of Trendy Christmas Toys appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, has refused to withdraw his nomination amidst allegations of financial mismanagement and sexual misconduct. Here is what you need to know about the Defense Secretary nominee’s background. Marital Status: Third wife, 12th affair  Military Rank: Goon Speaking Style: Eight drinks in  Hairstyle: Speaking role in American Psycho […] The post Political Profile: Pete Hegseth appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: First lady Jill Biden announced that she is stepping down from her teaching position at Northern Virginia Community College, capping off over 40 years of teaching in both high school and community college classrooms. What do you think? The post Jill Biden Leaves Teaching Post appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside a Moscow apartment building when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off, with Ukraine taking credit in the most high-profile killing of its kind. What do you think? The post Top Russian General Killed By Bomb appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: MILWAUKEE—Noticing the discolored places where different letters had once adorned the decoration, area woman Paula Jackson observed Friday that the faded outline of an ex-girlfriend’s name was still visible on the Christmas stocking given to her by her boyfriend’s mom. “At first I thought maybe ‘Jessica’ was just the brand name of the stocking, but […] The post Faded Outline Of Ex-Girlfriend’s Name Still Visible On Stocking appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: CLEVELAND—Screaming with delight when the rarely seen star appeared onscreen in the opening scene of the film, sources confirmed Thursday that, holy shit, Daniel Day-Lewis is in this. “Man, I thought this was just a Paul Dano flick, but I guess Daniel Day-Lewis has some sort of cameo in it, too?” said one source, who leaned […] The post BREAKING: Holy Shit, Daniel Day-Lewis Is In This appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: Question for Jeanketeers: Who do you write to if you want to get things to stop changing? Congress? Or influencers, like a lady I spotted the other day in the Walgreens parking lot filming herself in her car yelling? Just asking for a friend (name of Dale Jeanstea!) who would like change to chill out […] The post AI? Ai-Yai-Yai! appeared first on The Onion.

Preview: MINNEAPOLIS—Looking glumly at the mess of candies and royal icing, local 44-year-old Anthony Renton told reporters Thursday that building a shitty gingerbread house was just making his depression worse.  “Nothing will stick—the gumdrops, the Twizzlers, the candy canes, the Hershey’s kisses—they all reject the frosting, just as life has rejected me,” said Renton, who stared […] The post Building Shitty Gingerbread House Just Making Depression Worse appeared first on The Onion.