America is divided. Generations are at war. Where do you stand on the most urgent debate of the past week?

THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT WITH FOILED DETAILS AND CUSTOM END PAPERSA fond and nostalgic cultural history of It's a Wonderful Life, celebrating the belove...

The model, dubbed GPT-6.1 Astra, was due to debut inside ChatGPT and Codex in October.

Tennis is sinking into prediction market hell, and Pete Sampras is your guide.

At midnight, Taylor Swift released a four-song update to her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, which came out last October and had the cultural impact of a Sketchers sneaker drop. Despite juicing ...

It takes an open mind to engage with China Miéville’s work. A writer for whom the already cliched phrase “genre-bending” is even more banal, Miéville has never opposed the designation of genre writer....

Over the weekend, The New York Times published an investigation into DraftKings. The upshot of the investigation is that this obviously exploitative and profit-driven company exploits its customers…

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A tribute.

Alexander Ovechkin is probably the single most famous Russian athlete. He is also a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and not a particularly quiet or passive one. This, occasionally, has ...

"Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."

Is AI really likely to wipe out humanity within the next decade? We used the most scientific tool in existence to get an answer.

Ed Sheeran, perhaps best known for writing the kind of music that your second cousin chooses to play for the father-daughter dance at her wedding, cemented his status as a floppy-spine dummy this…

The new Polymarket ad spot opens with LeBron James stepping onto an elevator and pushing a button labeled “SPORTS.” This is not some AI-extruded, near-enough visual representation of a generic basketb...

The 2026 U.S. Open is done, with Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev hoisting the trophies. The Defector tennis corps got together to talk about their impressions of the tournament, their feelings on ...

On Monday morning, the rapper Macklemore posted a lengthy Instagram statement alleging that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and other NFL owners pitched a hissy-fit to get him dropped from…

On Sunday afternoon, the 29-year-old German beat Ben Shelton to win his second Grand Slam. But allegations of domestic abuse continue to cast a dark shadow over his tennis resume.

He fell to Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s U.S. Open final, but has a plausible chance to win here in the future.

In 2025, Aryna Sabalenka stood in front of the winner's mic in New York. 12 months later, she was on the other side of the equation.

Aryna Sabalenka did something unusual in her Miami Open semifinal with Jasmine Paolini: She visibly acknowledged an error while a point was still live. Between points, anything goes in tennis. Players...

It’s being shouted from all corners: The U.S. Open has become an overcrowded, overpriced circus awash in influencers, aspirational influencers, corporate stooges, drunken buffoons, brand activations, ...

The young American needed every tool in his arsenal to beat Carlos Alcaraz in an instant U.S. Open classic.

Analysis of two skeletons reveals tooth wear and traces of psychoactive substance in what may be earliest known evidence for human drug taking What may be the earliest known evidence for human drug taking has been traced to ancient Indonesian foragers who sucked on mind-altering nuts as long as 25,000 years ago. Analysis of two exceptionally rare skeletons from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi revealed dramatic tooth wear and traces of a psychoactive substance in the individuals’ remaining teeth, suggesting they routinely sucked on hard, abrasive betel nuts. Continue reading...

Ben Shelton needed every tool in his arsenal to beat Carlos Alcaraz in an instant U.S. Open classic that ended at the absurd hour of 3:33 a.m.

The young American needed every tool in his arsenal to beat Carlos Alcaraz in an instant U.S. Open classic.