In the first season of Russian Doll, death is an inescapable hazard of New York City life. Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne) is stuck in a death-driven time loop, perishing in all sorts of bizarre, gruesome, and cursed accidents. Each round, she resurrects to the night of her 36th birthday party as Henry Nilsson’s jaunty “Gotta

French president Emmanuel Macron will face off against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the country’s April 24 presidential runoff. It is a rematch of sorts of the 2017 election. But the dynamics that gave voters a reprise of the Macron-Le Pen matchup reveal deeper shifts in French politics: a collapse of traditional parties,

Since the beginning of President Biden’s term in January 2021, a federal mask mandate for public transportation has been in place, affecting everything from local bus routes to transcontinental flights. On Monday, the federal mask mandate for public transportation was struck down by Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. While the Justice Department has appealed this ruling

Part of the Future of Work issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world. “I don’t have goals. I don’t have ambition. I only want to be attractive.” This apathetic declaration is the start of a TikTok rant that went viral for its blatant message: to reject hard work and

Over the past decade, the basic facts of how we produce meat and its harms to society — its acceleration of the climate crisis, the torture of tens of billions of animals, hazardous workplace conditions for meatpacking workers — have begun to enter the realm of public consciousness. That’s led, in part, to a quarter

The Earth is mainly a water world — more than 70 percent of its surface is covered by oceans — and yet we know so little about what resides beneath the waves. The ocean, in this light, is like an alien world within our own. Many of its creatures are still unknown to us —

Part of the Future of Work issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world. Harriet Krzykowski was a mental health aide in a South Florida correctional facility, making $12 per hour, when she learned of the death of Darren Rainey. Rainey was a mentally ill man who had been incarcerated

This week, the new phase of Russia’s war in Ukraine has taken form. It is a war over control of the Donbas, the eastern Ukrainian region where Russia has been supporting a separatist rebellion since 2014. Whereas the war — which began with the Russian invasion on February 24 — previously spanned the country, centering

At the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature voted this week to punish one of the world’s biggest producers of entertainment and pop culture, because DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republicans disagreed with that producer’s First Amendment-protected speech. DeSantis signed the bill into law on Friday. Florida’s decision to strip a government

A spate of attacks this week all over Afghanistan killed at least 77 people, including children. At least one — and likely most — of the attacks were carried out by ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K), the Islamic State affiliate active mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The devastating attacks are further destabilizing a nation already in economic