Where does the new Gold Album stack up in the iconic band’s massive oeuvre?

Shira Scheindlin is one of a group of 35 former federal judges who filed to reopen President Trump’s settlement with the IRS, accusing him of using the judicial system “for an improper purpose.” Scheindlin questions why taxpayer money should go to Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionists. "The president was on both sides of the case. That's called collusion."

New studies from the Journals of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Public Health reveal that in states with abortion bans, women are less likely to be given the best standard of care medication, and those states saw a possible 9.2% increase in pregnancy-associated deaths, either during or up to one year after pregnancy. "When I miscarried, I bled for five days at home. I finally went to the OB, we did a sonogram and found out my baby no longer had a heartbeat. She prescribed me medication, I left, I went to the pharmacy, and they wouldn’t fill it.,” says Kaitlyn Kash. It’s a “cascading ripple effect,” says Robin Marty of West Alabama Women’s Center. Many hospitals "are just not seeing miscarry patients."

People of mixed white-Asian background (like me) are having a pop culture moment. What does that mean for us?

In 2022, conservative members of a school board in Texas restricted titles on topics like race, gender, and sexuality from schools. Members of the community organized to push back, and this week, those right-wing trustees were voted out. Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District mom Kimberly Phoenix says that "This wasn't about books, this wasn't about CRT, it wasn't about LGBTQIA," instead, the goal of the right-wing group pushing the book bans was "to have smaller, weaker public school systems for our kids." Rachel Wall, another GCISD mom, says that her community "kept fighting, we kept showing up," because "our kids are worth it, our public schools are worth it."

Trump’s Republican Party is carrying out a coordinated assault on Black political and economic power, and the consequences for Black America could last for generations. The question now facing the nation is whether the political will exists to confront those determined to dismantle multiracial democracy.

Two months into the war with Iran, the price of oil and gas is high, and MS NOW Business Analyst Ron Insana explains that "the price here is not coming down" any time soon. From transportation to plastics, crude oil is essential to the global economy, so the current oil crisis "extends well beyond gasoline" to become "a global problem." The complicated, intertwined nature of oil markets and the global economy means that "this is going to be a protracted problem," Insana explains.

As President Trump threatens to use the U.S. Navy to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the centrality of the strait to the war in Iran reveals its importance as a "chokepoint" for the global economy. Edward Fishman, author of "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare," tells Ali Velshi that "Iran learned from the experience of being under financial sanctions for decades" how to use its leverage to "impose devastating economic pain on the United States." In upending the global oil market, Iran has "totally turned the tables on us," Fishman says.

Crowning my favorites from a great year in cinema.

The Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court to overturn birthright citizenship, which is clearly established by the 14th amendment of the Constitution. “The administration is pushing legal theories that really would be disastrous for our national identity,” according to Kermit Roosevelt III of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He says the administration’s argument puts forward the idea that the president “can undo centuries of progress just with a stroke of pen.” 

This week, the Supreme Court ruled against a Colorado law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth. Garrard Conley’s 2016 award-winning memoir “Boy Erased” shares his experience being forced into conversion therapy. Conley says that therapists “have a duty to walk people through options for their lives, not just tell them that there’s only one option.” He adds that “it’s a dangerous idea” to say LGBTQ people are “a subject to be debated.”

Assorted thoughts on representation in today's Hollywood

Oil prices are spiking, due to the U.S.-led war with Iran, and its ripple effects are being felt far beyond America’s gasoline pumps. Caleb Silver of People, Inc. and Investopedia unpacks oil price hikes from recent history to explain why we should all expect “an overall inflationary effect.” He warns, “We don’t know long it’s going to last.”

One Battle After Another and Sinners dominate a low-key celebration of the cinema of 2025.

A toast to my favorite films from last year that didn't make the cut for the Academy.

President Trump threatens to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge between the U.S. and Canada. Mitch Landrieu, former Infrastructure Coordinator in the Biden administration, says the threats show the president’s “corruption, incompetence, and cruelty.” Former Export-Import Bank of the United States chairman Fred Hochberg says, “Infrastructure takes steadiness, resolve, a lot of money, and it makes all of us more productive.”

Hopping on the 2016 nostalgia train to revisit a stellar year for Korean pop.

As Minnesotans respond to and resist the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, "rapid response" groups have organized to keep an eye out for federal agents and alert their neighbors. St. Paul City Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim, who volunteers as a part of one such group, says that "our main goal is to observe" and that "we know our streets and our neighbors the best." Kim says she views the group's work as "a form of nonviolent protest" to hold the federal government accountable.