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With just days until the 2024 election, it can feel like Americans are more divided than ever. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have attacked opponents in increasingly vicious terms. There have already been incidents of political violence — including multiple alleged arsons targeting ballot boxes and a terrorism arrest in Arizona after the […]

Halfway through the run of Martha, the new Netflix documentary about the former domestic goddess-turned-Sports Illustrated cover star, Martha Stewart lingers over the moment in 2004 when she received a guilty verdict at the end of her high-profile insider trading trial. Stewart’s lips purse viciously with disgust. She rolls her eyes. “Guilty guilty guilty on […]

In the game Jenga, players take turns removing wooden blocks from a rickety tower and then stacking them back on the top. Each removed piece makes the base more wobbly; each block put back on top makes it more unbalanced until it eventually topples.   This, I’d argue, is basically how we should be thinking about […]

On Friday evening, the Supreme Court ruled it would leave in place a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that made it marginally easier for certain voters in the state to cast a ballot. The Republican Party had asked the justices to block that decision; doing so would have likely disenfranchised thousands of voters. But that won’t […]

For anyone closely watching the 2024 election, scrutinizing the daily drop of polls has become the norm. Each new data point gives people cause to celebrate or despair depending on how their candidate is faring. But if you understand what polls are actually capable of telling you, it might dispel any desire you have for […]

Welcome to the Vox crossword! New puzzles are published daily, Monday through Saturday, and our moderated comments section is now live. The registration link is below every puzzle so get over there and add your two cents. Puzzle editors, constructors, and other solvers will be on hand to answer your questions and reply to your […]

Elon Musk has arguably done more than any single individual to aid Donald Trump’s campaign. The mega-billionaire has put more than $75 million toward electing the former president, turned America’s most politically influential social media platform into a vehicle for right-wing propaganda, orchestrated a (shambolic) get-out-the-vote effort, and repeatedly appeared beside Trump on the campaign […]

Political violence has reached alarming levels in the US over the last few years.  The January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, the attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and multiple assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump are all examples of America’s increasingly polarized and perilous environment.  Now, the 2024 election could […]

When election season rolls around I always run into a lot of people who are having a pretty bad time. It’s the drumbeat of dire news and last-minute plot twists and scandals. It’s the absurdly close polls. It’s the feeling that we — especially people like me in California — are approximately powerless while a […]

In the midst of a heated presidential election, political coverage and commentary can feel unavoidable. Kids are not immune — they might be picking up information about the race from the adults in their lives, at recess, or on social media. As much as parents may think their children are oblivious, research shows kids, including […]

The 2024 election cycle has produced some stunning and sometimes counterintuitive narratives about how demographic subgroups might end up voting. We may just see a historic gulf in the way men and women vote — or not. Polls suggest we’re in for the greatest racial realignment since the Civil Rights Act was passed — or […]

Arab Americans are one voting bloc that’s used to being slighted by both major parties. In 1984, Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate for president, returned donations made by Arab Americans; a campaign official at the time said it was the campaign’s policy to refuse contributions from that community. In 1988, Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis rejected […]

If you’re confused, it’s not an accident. Republicans are trying to have it both ways on health care during the 2024 campaign. They boast that they want to deregulate insurance and massively cut government spending, yet they also claim that they would never do anything to endanger people’s coverage. That two-step keeps getting them into […]

For the most part, Donald Trump has been mum on who he’d appoint to his administration if he wins. But he has made one pretty clear promise: Trump has said he’ll let conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” on health, food, and drug regulation. That could have massive consequences for […]

The Biden era has witnessed a revolution in the Democratic Party’s approach to policing large corporations. Under the leadership of chair Lina Khan, the Federal Trade Commission has grown markedly more aggressive in blocking mergers and cracking down on big business’s exploitative practices. This has earned Khan’s FTC plaudits from critics of corporate power. But […]

Another season of Love Is Blind has come and gone, and in its wake we were left with two marriages, five breakups, a villain who bullies, a gold-digging hero, and at least one secret father who never mentioned his children to his partner. Initially, season seven didn’t look like it was ever going to peak […]

This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions. I remember the first time I encountered Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It was second grade, and another kid had smuggled a copy of the Alvin Schwartz horror collection out to the playground during recess. We […]

Apple just put AI in millions of people’s pockets. The company is rolling out what it calls Apple Intelligence this week, bringing some basic text generation and image editing features to iPhone, iPad, and Mac users who opt in. I’ve been testing these tools through the developer beta version of the software for a couple […]

In 2016, Christy Lopez was living her dream. She was an attorney at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division working on policing where, among other things, she led the team that investigated the Ferguson Police Department in Missouri after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown. Lopez believes that her work spurred meaningful policing reforms, both […]

Vox reader Jason Taylor writes: Should voters be concerned about the possibility of Trump election deniers being in positions of power to count votes in Trump’s favor that he did not receive in the upcoming election? Thank you for your time and consideration of my question. One of the defining — and troubling — facts […]

Joe Biden is no longer competent at speaking in public. This makes him a poor surrogate for Kamala Harris’s campaign, but he is also the president, and therefore an extremely prominent surrogate for the Democratic nominee.  This generated a problem for Harris Tuesday night when Biden set out to criticize dehumanizing rhetoric at a recent […]

Israel’s parliament voted to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNWRA) on Monday, a decision that could further impede the delivery of critical aid to Gaza as Israel continues its brutal assault there. For over 70 years, UNRWA has provided assistance and services — schools, clinics, food and cash assistance, and […]

In 1990, the FDA banned the use of Red No. 3 in topical drugs and cosmetics. Its cited reasoning was that the color additive was “not shown to be safe,” because when fed to rats, Red No. 3 was found to slightly increase the risk of thyroid cancer.  Today, that same dye is still found […]

It’s election o’clock, and that means there is, once again, chatter about Texas going blue. Democrats haven’t won statewide since 1994, but now, they’re pinning their hopes on Rep. Colin Allred, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.  Cruz leads Allred by between 1 and 7 percentage points in recent polling, though Allred has […]