8:45 pm - February 26, 2026Friday nights in the 1990s were associated with power tools, canned laughter, and flannel shirts. Zachery Ty Bryan, who played Brad Taylor on Home Improvement, was standing in the middle of that living room glow. Being the eldest son, he was athletic, sometimes rebellious, and always redeemable by the end.…
As Russell Brand emerged from a car sporting a dark pair of sunglasses and a white cowboy hat, cameras gathered along the pavement with their lenses tilted upward on a gloomy morning outside Southwark Crown Court. He made an unmistakably theatrical entrance. Once strutting across comedy stages in leather pants,…
Katherine Short’s life unfolded in silence in the hills above Los Angeles, where tiny streets wind past citrus trees and stucco houses. Her neighbors recall her stopping at her gate to greet them and the orange tree in her yard, which was unusually bright and stubbornly healthy. Her death on…
A few years ago, on a dreary Oxford afternoon, a group of scholars and philosophers convened in a seminar room to discuss a topic that would have seemed ridiculous a century ago: Are we living at the end of the world? Will MacAskill coined the phrase, which implies that the decades that are currently passing could influence not only the upcoming election cycle or the next century, but also possibly millions of years of human—or post-human—existence. It’s a bold assertion. Even so, it’s difficult to avoid feeling a little uneasy while hearing the arguments. Because, for the first time, neither…
The discussion of weight loss seemed stale a few years ago—another fitness app, another diet fad. Then came the injections. The refrigerated pens of Ozempic and Wegovy started to change hands with startling speed inside slick Manhattan clinics and suburban medical spas. Patients reported a sudden calmness in their thoughts, with cravings vanishing and the “food noise” diminishing. The numbers on the scale gradually decreased. The investors cheered. Medications skyrocketed. Category Details Drug Class GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Key Drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro Primary Companies Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly Market Value Estimated $80+ billion global market Common Side Effects Nausea, vomiting,…
It would have sounded ridiculous ten years ago. The notion that the glass rectangle in your pocket, the item you examine before your eyes open fully in the morning, may be deteriorating. It no longer seems like science fiction, though, after hearing Mark Zuckerberg say that smart glasses will replace phones by 2030. It resembles a CEO making a very big wager. Category Details Key Figure Mark Zuckerberg Company Meta Predicted Shift Smartphones replaced by AR smart glasses by ~2030 Related Device Apple Vision Pro Technology Trend Augmented Reality (AR), Voice Interfaces Reference https://about.meta.com The scene is almost ritualistic when…
It sounds ridiculous on paper. Ford Motor Company, which has been putting steel on American roads for more than a century, is now worth less than a five-year-old AI startup that primarily operates out of Manhattan and employs people all over the world. Edwin Chen founded Surge AI in 2020, and it is reportedly valued in the private markets at $24 billion to $30 billion. Depending on the week, Ford’s public valuation has consistently lagged well below that. One constructs trucks. The other creates training data. Category Details Company Surge AI Founder & CEO Edwin Chen Founded 2020 2024 Revenue…
In the past, artificial intelligence seemed like a laboratory experiment. In windowless rooms, a group of hooded graduate students is training neural networks while debating GPUs and coffee budgets. The atmosphere is different now when you enter the glass towers of Silicon Valley or the government-sponsored research centers in Beijing. Sharper. more calculated. Something bigger seems to be on the line. The quest to create artificial general intelligence, or machines that can carry out any intellectual task that a human can, is no longer solely a scientific goal. It is increasingly being presented as a geopolitical struggle. And the language…
The sidewalks had already been engulfed by snow by the time the plows arrived in Lyndhurst. When the final numbers were counted, some areas of New Jersey had recorded more than 30 inches. Measuring sticks sank deep into drifts that brushed past two feet. The recent nor’easter brought about a…
Who killed a Mexican drug lord? It seems like a straightforward question.—until you observe how rapidly “an answer” transforms into a mist of warnings. In this instance, the drug lord is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, popularly known as El Mencho. The short version is that he was killed in the…
One of those peculiarly sticky internet facts that should be resolved in a single sentence but leaves room for interpretation is Alysa Liu’s height. On a major official bio, you’ll see 5’2″, but if you go to another page, you’ll see 5’3″ stated with equal assurance. Rotations, air time, center…
The smoke was no longer rising in thick columns by late afternoon in Puerto Vallarta, but it still hung in the air like a relic the city couldn’t quite get rid of. Inland, along arterial roads and supermarket parking lots, charred buses and blackened cars told a different story from…
Top stories
The sound of tires hissing through slush, the occasional scrape of a shovel hitting concrete, and the distant, unyielding grind of a plow attempting to force its way through a curbside ridge that has already frozen into a tiny glacier are all muffled and cottony, and they are all heard outside New York after a significant snowfall. On day two, when the romance fades and the edges of the city become gray mounds of compacted ice, even those who claim to “love snow” always seem less convinced. This storm’s numbers have been significant enough to garner media attention and, more…
The way people lean forward after the lights go out, as if they’ve been given a secret, is what you notice most about Send Help, not the gore or even the jokes. Someone whispered, “This is the Raimi one,” in the row behind me, as if that were the only…
Even though it was cruel to experience, Microsoft’s previous miracle was easy to explain: Windows on everything, everywhere, at once. In the 1990s, you could sense it in beige office cubicles and bustling computer labs—the blue glow of a CRT, the soft click of a mouse, and the same Start…
It wasn’t in a lab or a hospital when it first became apparent that something strange was occurring. It was located in the snack section. In private, a senior executive at a large food company acknowledged that cookie and chip sales were “softening in certain demographics.” It seemed cautious, almost…
The private-credit crowd tends to speak in the language of calm outside a glassy Midtown hotel ballroom, the type with the lighting that flatters everyone and the thick carpet that swallows footsteps. “Covenants.” “Downside protection.” “Resilience at floating rates.” Coffee is always available, as is the quiet assurance that this…
Deep dive with
our insights
A nine-year-old is sitting cross-legged on the floor of a Brooklyn apartment on a weekday afternoon, leaning his tablet against a pile of textbooks. She requests an explanation of fractions from a chatbot. An answer appears in a matter of seconds, complete with detailed reasoning, colorful diagrams, and even a follow-up test. She taps, nods, and continues. No hand was raised. Don’t wait. No obvious struggle. It’s difficult to ignore how seamless learning has gotten. These days, artificial intelligence permeates childhood in ways that are both familiar and unexpected. Before a parent can finish drying the dishes, voice assistants respond…
Before dawn, the parking lot outside a recently constructed data center in northern Virginia fills up. The perimeter fence is lined with contractor vans and pickup trucks, their windshields foggy from the cold. Technicians navigate lengthy server corridors inside, inspecting cables and keeping an ear out for the faint pitch shift that indicates overheating. A large portion of Wall Street’s capital is moving into these buildings, which are silently growing across the nation. It’s difficult to ignore how swiftly they appeared. In the belief that whoever controls the infrastructure will influence the economy for decades, investors have poured enormous sums…
All stories
The concept of reversing aging has always remained in the realm of fantasy in a society where youth is frequently associated with vitality. Recent advances in science, however, are changing that perception and making the idea of treating aging a real possibility. Targeting the biological processes of aging rather than age-related illnesses has attracted a lot of interest from investors and scientists alike, who are investing billions of dollars in this new field. A tangible sense of excitement permeates the atmosphere. Funding for longevity research is predicted to reach an astounding $8.5 billion in 2024. Some of the wealthiest people…
The parking lot outside a big tech campus appeared oddly normal on a dreary Silicon Valley morning. A couple of workers entered with coffee. Others were silently checking their phones by their cars. Nothing noteworthy. However, dozens of people’s security badges had already been disabled inside, and their access had been discreetly revoked over night. The way that regular layoffs have begun to feel is unnerving. The public explanation has sounded straightforward for years: the industry is changing, businesses are becoming more efficient, and artificial intelligence is replacing jobs. Part of those reasons are valid. However, observing these choices up…
The technology isn’t the first thing that people notice when they enter Google’s Gradient Canopy building. It’s the silence. The soft clatter of mechanical keyboards or the occasional hum of a coffee grinder break up the low-pitched conversations. As if anticipating something slightly unexpected, engineers lean toward their screens and watch as responses come in line by line. Because it does occasionally. Gemini, Google’s most recent AI model, is unquestionably the most powerful system the company has ever created. It can create software code, summarize whole books, and have strangely fluid conversations. Alphabet’s valuation is rising as investors appear to…
Outside a modest semi-detached house on a soggy afternoon in North London, a slightly crooked “For Sale” sign is displayed. The uneven growth of the grass underneath it indicates that it hasn’t been trimmed in weeks. The windows only show gray sky, and the curtains are still drawn inside. The length of time it has been silently promoting a house that no one appears interested in purchasing, at least not yet, is difficult to ignore. These kinds of scenes are becoming oddly common. Once characterized by steady booms and busts, the global housing market now seems uncertain, almost hesitant. Affordability…
The chilly glow of the monitors is the primary source of light in the radiology room, which is darker than most hospital areas. Hunched forward, a radiologist clicks through hundreds of chest scans, each one looking almost exactly the same to the untrained eye. Something else has been looking first lately, though. Artificial intelligence has already scanned the file, flagged it, and silently formed an opinion before the doctor even opens it. It is possible that medicine has already started to change in ways that most patients haven’t fully understood at this very moment—this silent pre-reading by a machine. More…
Robert Aramayo appeared more like someone who had accidentally wandered into the wrong room than a man accepting an award when he first took the stage at London’s Royal Festival Hall. His voice trailed off in midsentence as his hands made clumsy movements. The shock might have been more than just a performance. He had just defeated Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio, two actors whose careers have shaped the prestige of contemporary Hollywood. There was a sense that something irrevocable had just started as they watched him stand there blinking in harsh white lights. Actors are not always changed by…
The familiar February cold that makes people walk more quickly while acting as though they aren’t cold at all was in the air outside the Royal Festival Hall. One by one, black cars slid up to the curb, their doors opening to cautious smiles and camera flashes. This contrast—glamour pressed tightly against the gray reality of London winter—has always been the lifeblood of the British Academy Film Awards. But this year, something felt a little different inside. Even by awards-season standards, there is a feeling that the 2026 ceremony wasn’t totally predictable. Applause for One Battle After Another’s Best Film…
First, the smoke rose. It curled into the sky like signals no one wanted to recognize, drifting upward in slow gray columns above Guadalajara’s streets. Burned buses with blackened windows and still-heating metal frames sat abandoned across intersections. The scene must have seemed surreal to residents viewing it from the balconies of their apartments, as if it were a movie that had somehow infiltrated everyday life. The violence started after the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, was killed. One of the most potent criminal networks in the world was…
In Cancún, sirens weren’t the first indication that something had changed. There was quiet. Just after sunrise, lounge chairs at a beachside resort sat empty for longer than usual, their white towels still tightly rolled, as they waited for guests who never showed up. As indifferent as ever, the ocean flowed toward the sand in gentle blue layers. However, people stayed behind the glass doors of hotel lobbies, rereading the same alert: shelter in place, while they stared at their phones. It’s probable that many visitors initially misunderstood its meaning. Cancun has been marketing certainty for decades. Sunshine that never…
It felt more real because the phone was trembling a little. Holding his gold medal up to the camera, Dylan Larkin stood in the center of a tumultuous Milan locker room, grinning in that loose, worn-out manner that athletes do when everything is finally over. Behind him, equipment was strewn all over the damp tile floor, teammates were shouting, and music was blasting. Another face then inadvertently entered the frame: Kash Patel, who was smiling and leaning in as though he had always been there. Larkin might not have realized what he had just captured. Field Details Full Name Dylan…
