President Donald Trump got a mulligan in former Sen. Markwayne Mullin — a second shot at filling the top job at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump fired his first pick, Kristi Noem, amid mounting criticism of her leadership and management of the agency.  Mullin, a plumber-turned-MMA fighter-turned-firebrand politician, was confirmed to his new post […]

After more than three weeks of war in Iran, the US has destroyed major components of Iran’s military, including ballistic missile sites and much of the country’s navy. One advantage Iran retains, though, is the Shahed-136. The Shahed, a one-way, single-use attack drone, is small, inexpensive, and highly accurate. Iranian drone attacks have led to […]

This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get access to member-exclusive stories every month, become a Vox Member today. Puzzle enthusiasts’ pleasure is measured in the smallest of details: the exact shade of pink on a peony’s petal, a small sliver of a man’s plaid shirt, the tiniest glint of sunlight reflecting […]

When Donald Trump won the 2016 Republican primary, he didn’t just defeat a field of rivals; he toppled a dynasty.  For nearly three decades, the Bush family and its vassals lorded over red America. This regime’s style of Republicanism reflected the peculiar interests and obsessions of country-club conservatives: tax cuts, free trade, and mass immigration […]

When Sam Altman first told her that he’d never let OpenAI go corporate, that what he and his colleagues were building was too powerful to be driven by investors, Catherine Bracy more or less believed him.  The conversation took place in 2022, when Bracy, CEO and founder of the social mobility-focused nonprofit TechEquity, was interviewing […]