Vox

A decade’s worth of grudges and feuds between the Democratic establishment and the insurgent left is coming to a head in one election this year: Michigan’s Senate primary.

The contest between Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed has somehow unearthed every fault line that’s divided the two factions over the years — from gender and racial politics, to Israel and Gaza, to questions of electability and fair play, to money in politics, and much more.

In this one race, the Democratic factions are relitigating the 2016 presidential primary, the 2020 presidential primary, and several major controversies of the past few years, all at once.

And whoever wins will have to find a way to somehow unite the party and win a competitive general election against presumptive Republican nominee Mike Rogers.

Read more: www.vox.com/politics/496229/michigan-senate-abdul-…<media_url>

📸: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Michigan Democratic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) greet the crowd after El-Sayed spoke at a rally on July 18, in Detroit, Michigan. Sarah Rice/Getty Images

6 hours ago | [YT] | 534

Vox

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week that the Pentagon would begin testing the testosterone levels of all military members over the age of 30 as part of their regular, annual physical exams.

“It’s not about artificial enhancement,” Hegseth said. “It’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.”

The testosterone obsession is just one of several ways that the military is having a Make America Healthy Again movement. Hegseth announced over the spring that service members would no longer be required to get an annual flu vaccine. (The military later reinstated the mandate for new recruits, after a major flu outbreak at a boot camp.)

And also this week, he launched a new investigation into the Defense Department’s decision in 2021 to mandate the Covid-19 vaccine — shades of the efforts being made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

📸: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images

7 hours ago | [YT] | 353

Vox

President Donald Trump’s White House has a new, very stinky trend: Sauerkraut.

“[RFK Jr.] calls it the carnivore diet. I think people mean different things when they say that, but for him, it includes a lot of yogurt, a lot of kimchi or sauerkraut, a lot of steak, a lot of eggs,” said Wall Street Journal reporter Liz Essley Whyte. “Kennedy now travels with sauerkraut. His wife has said that he has asked her to carry it in her purse for him, and she has said, “I actually cannot,” which is an amazing phrase. It seems they all think their skin is glowing, and people online have commented that JD Vance is looking good.”

Read more about the trend — and if it’s actually good for you — here: www.vox.com/podcasts/496163/sauerkraut-white-house…<media_url>

1 day ago | [YT] | 430

Vox

There’s something deep and psychological brewing when it comes to neighbor feuds.

“Where we live is where we form our identity, the story we tell ourselves about who we are,” Bob Bordone, author of the book Conflict Resilience: Negotiating Disagreement Without Giving Up or Giving In, and former director for the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, tells Vox. “A lot of times, neighbor conflicts are about more than whatever it is we may be disagreeing on.”

Find out exactly why neighbor feuds tend to bring out the worst in us — and what you can do if you feel like you’re going to completely explode on the person across the street — here: www.vox.com/life/494675/why-neighbor-feuds-escalat…<media_url>

🎨: Laura Simonati for Vox

5 days ago | [YT] | 545

Vox

If you’re prone to laziness, a weekly photo dump has perhaps the highest effort-to-payoff ratio when trying to stay connected with your friends. The weekly cadence establishes a routine, and texting is a relatively low-lift means of staying in touch.

Sure, we could all do with a little less screen time, but if you’ve already got your phone in hand, might as well use it for something socially engaging.

The weekly photo dump is a safe space to fill your friends in beyond the prying eyes of social media. No need to hard launch to an audience who hardly knows you — sprinkle in pictures of your new fling, who they’ve probably already heard about. Your friends will value the chaotic scene of your kids’ pool party more than the internet will, and the fact that it’s not something you’re posting on Instagram makes the interaction feel that much more intimate.

Read more: www.vox.com/advice/494526/photo-dump-friendship?ut…<media_url>

6 days ago | [YT] | 1,258

Vox

Tens of millions of Americans live on top of, below, or directly next to their neighbors — which means, statistically speaking, some of us are going to end up in close proximity to an extremely irritating stranger.

While phone calls, texts, and friendly in-person conversations are all tried-and-true ways to address proximal nuisances, many partake in the dreaded form of communication known as the neighbor note. Judging from the multiple, hand-wringing posts on social media and Reddit about the labor of writing one, as well as an unfathomable number of messages about the anxiety of receiving them, these letters are a bit of a trap.

Most people don’t really want to scold another adult, or be scolded — especially anonymously — for things they’re not aware that they’re doing.

Read more about how to best communicate with an annoying neighbor, even if it does end up being through a neighbor note: www.vox.com/culture/494514/neighbor-annoying-notes…<media_url>

🎨: Laura Simonati for Vox

1 week ago | [YT] | 413

Vox

Meet the new Today, Explained newsletter — a daily, curiosity-driven guide to the bigger, weirder, and more fascinating ideas shaping the news cycle. 💡

Every afternoon, we’ll catch you up on the two or three headlines you need to know to feel grounded and informed.

Then we'll pull on one thread until it takes us somewhere unexpected — deep into the history, science, economics, politics, and culture that explain both the day’s news and the wider world.

Subscribe to Today, Explained: www.vox.com/today-explained-newsletter-signup

1 week ago | [YT] | 289

Vox

Neighbor relationships have the potential to be either fruitful or fraught.

They sit at a unique intersection of intimacy and distance: You may be geographically close to them, but they aren’t owed the same sort of emotional vulnerability as family or friends. The couple next door or the folks down the street might carry institutional knowledge of the building or neighborhood; they can help you out in a pinch and can be a pleasant source of social interaction.

They can also be a little nosy, standoffish to newcomers, and, at worst, harbor biases, upping the chances for years of awkward or contentious run-ins.

It’s well established that gossip facilitates social connection, and swapping stories with a neighbor can be super beneficial in spurring collective action in your community. Find out how to gossip effectively with your neighbors: www.vox.com/advice/494002/gossip-neighbors-secrets…<media_url>

🎨: Laura Simonati for Vox

1 week ago | [YT] | 405

Vox

Would you consider yourself friends with your neighbors? 🏡

A 2025 Pew Research report found that about two-thirds of US adults know at least some of their neighbors. But a lot of those folks are older adults in suburban, home-owning environments, the report showed, and they’re more likely to maintain relationships with the people next door.

Millennials and Gen Z, on the other hand, aren’t nearly as likely to know who lives beside them, data suggests.

“The importance of neighbors literally cannot be understood until we recognize how much of our health and our lives depend on them,” Daniel P. Aldrich, Dean’s Professor of Resilience at Northeastern University, explained. While a large chunk of adults rely on social media and digital communication to meet our social needs, Aldrich said that “if anything goes wrong…those online communities that we are so wedded to can’t do anything at all.”

Find out how to befriend your neighbors — and why it could save your life — here: www.vox.com/advice/494399/how-to-talk-to-befriend-…<media_url>

🎨: Laura Simonati for Vox

1 week ago | [YT] | 989

Vox

Rahm Emanuel — a chief of staff in the Obama White House and widely rumored 2028 candidate — went to Tel Aviv to deliver a stern message to the Israeli public: If Israel wants to keep America as an ally, it needs to change.

That a Jewish Democrat like Emanuel is now comfortable with once-marginalized rhetoric and policies is a marker that the old pro-Israel consensus is well and truly dead among Democrats. What’s coming in 2028 and beyond is going to be very different — and much tougher for Israel — than what came before it.

“I think [Rahm’s position] becomes the baseline of Democratic primary candidates,” Ilan Goldenberg, the chief policy officer at the liberal J Street lobby, said. “You can’t go to the right of this.”

📸: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

1 week ago | [YT] | 3,451