The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for the Trump administration to potentially revive an immigration policy once used to turn back migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The justices, in a 6-3 decision, overturned a lower court order blocking the practice that limited the number of people who could apply for asylum each day, first under the Obama administration and then expanded during President Donald Trump’s first term. Advocates said the tactic created a humanitarian crisis as thousands of people settled in unsafe makeshift shelters to await their turn. The Trump administration said it was necessary to deal with an increase of…
Author: Staff Writer
Some of the biggest sticklers in the return-to-office movement have been big banks and investment firms, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, which have, in large measure, required employees to work from the office five days a week. But not this summer. Bucking the trend, those companies are now allowing workers to stay home for one surprising reason—the World Cup. Here’s why. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase reportedly told employees they can request to work remotely on game days in busy host cities, like New York City, where commutes will likely be heavily impacted, according to internal memos seen by the…
The video begins with a faceless performer wearing a mask of former British prime minister David Cameron. Standing in front of a crinkled white sheet, the performer begins to slowly feed pages of a book into a paper shredder, letting the machine’s whir serve as the video’s only sound. The process continues for five minutes, and the mask changes five times, from Cameron to Theresa May and Boris Johnson. By the end of the part-comical, part-unsettling performance, the book has been reduced to a pulp. This performance is part of an exhibition marking the 10-year anniversary of Brexit, which was…
It’s a big moment for Amazon. The online retail giant’s misnamed Prime Day, which actually stretches across half a week and ends June 26, is in full swing, with blockbuster discounts on a vast swathe of products. But rather than leaving shoppers to click, compare, and hunt for deals on their own, Amazon is pushing its AI tools hard. Videos touting the ability to integrate Alexa, or Rufus, Amazon’s AI text chatbot, into the shopping experience are a new addition this year. An interesting Prime Day video featuring Amazon Alexa. 👀Quick poll:When shopping on Amazon now, what do you use…
A day after France hit record high temperatures, a court in Paris is set to rule Thursday on a landmark climate change case that could see energy giant TotalEnergies forced to reduce its oil and gas production.The lawsuit, brought by a group of NGOs and the city of Paris, argues the French corporation is violating a 2017 law that requires companies to prevent human rights abuses and environmental risks. It is the first time that the so-called corporate duty of vigilance law is being applied to climate change. Environmental groups Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa, ZEA, France Nature Environnement launched…
When I shared my predictions for AI in 2026 earlier this year, I snuck in a one-sentence nugget that turned out to be surprisingly prescient: “In 2026, I expect a populist backlash against the fact that data centers’ voracious energy demands are raising electricity rates for everyday people.” I was right to flag the problem. But even as an AI expert, I failed to predict its scope. People hate AI data centers. They’ve been blamed for high electric bills, but also air pollution, odd humming noises, water scarcity, fiscal decline, and much else. To be sure, plunking a 300,000-square-foot building…
In an era of shrinking aid budgets and multiplying conflicts, every dollar spent on humanitarian aid must work harder than ever. As the Ebola crisis shows, aid cuts can bring disaster, but the question is not just how much the world spends. It’s whether resources are being directed towards investments that address crisis and generate lasting economic and social returns. One of the highest-return investments in fragile nations does not involve roads, ports or security forces. It involves 4-year-olds. Investments in early learning and primary education generate some of the highest long-term returns. Evidence from rural Kenya found that every dollar…
As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, it’s tempting to focus only on the milestones: from the ratification of the Constitution, to the abolition of slavery, to the suffrage movement, to the moon landing, to the civil rights victories that expanded the promise of democracy to more of its people. But anniversaries invite something deeper than celebration. They invite reflection. Reflection on what it has taken, and what it has cost, to build a resilient nation over 250 years. Two hundred and fifty years ago, our nation’s founders dared to imagine a country that had never existed before. Their…
Below, Owen Jones shares five key insights from his new book, Force of Nature: Understanding Evolution’s Deepest Logic―and Putting It to Use. Jones is a professor of law and biology at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses, in part, on the implications of natural selection for everything from medicine to law to the way we make decisions. What’s the big idea? We are prone to make big, extremely consequential mistakes and miss important opportunities to improve the human condition anytime we overlook, underestimate, or misunderstand natural selection. Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Jones himself—in the Next Big…
Donald Trump’s attacks on science began on the very first day of his second presidential term. On January 20, 2025, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, declared a national emergency to justify the expansion of fossil fuels, and repealed multiple environmental protections. That was just the start. Since Trump returned to office, his administration has carried out some 574 attacks on science, according to a new tracker from the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). There has been constant coverage of these attacks, including the administration’s plans to scrap PFAS “forever chemical” regulations and stop requiring…