Month: August 2019

Oh, 2019 VMAs. You left us with so many unanswered questions.

Why were you held in Newark? Why did you keep acting like it was exciting that you were held in Newark? Did you think that maybe it would distract us from the downright tragic moment when it became clear that even Newark thinks MTV is a little bit passé these days? (It did not.) Why were you hosted by a walking spray tan with no name recognition? Why did you keep cutting away from Missy Elliott dancing on the stage to show us Taylor Swift dancing in …

President Donald Trump wants to host 2020’s G7 meeting of international leaders at Trump Doral in Florida, a private club he still owns and profits from — a move that would serve as perhaps the starkest illustration yet of how Trump is normalizing corruption.

Having the G7 at Doral would be tantamount to “a free, giant international promotion” for Trump’s business, said Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), in an interview with Vox.

Trump first raised the idea of hosting next year’s meeting at his Doral, Florida-based golf resort during a bilateral …

Have you gathered your friends and family to play the hot new game “Boar on the Floor” yet? Get your sausages ready, so that you can give it a whirl at your Labor Day cookouts and whatnot.

Since the end of Succession’s first season, Logan Roy has really regained his strength — if not his sanity — and “Hunting” is a masterclass in how to be a terrifying business asshole who can make large groups of people go along with a plan they know is ill-advised. It’s a very important skill for powerful capitalists to have, which is …

At its summer meeting in San Francisco this weekend, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) addressed two things at the top of many voters’ minds: climate change and Russian interference in the 2020 election. The decisions party leaders made on both points frustrated activists and fellow Democrats.

Members on Saturday rejected a proposal to allow presidential candidates to participate in third-party debates, effectively ending hopes for a debate focused solely on climate change. Activists and presidential candidates alike had long called for a debate on the issue, and one candidate — former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke — called the decision not …

The Brazilian military began an operation on Saturday to fight the fires that have both ravaged huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest for two weeks and threatened to ignite global political disputes.

Military aircraft and about 44,000 troops are being deployed across six Brazilian states struggling with the fires. President Jair Bolsonaro, a strongman who entered office in January on a far-right nationalist platform, authorized the operations on Friday, following international protests against his administration’s handling of — and its possible role in contributing to the scale of — the wildfires.

The move came two weeks after the fires …

Marvel’s Phase 4 slate of movies now includes Black Panther 2.

At Disney’s D23 Expo on Saturday, August 24, Marvel officially announced that Black Panther 2 will arrive in theaters on May 6, 2022. Director Ryan Coogler will return to the franchise. The first Black Panther film was a massive hit, and biggest solo superhero movie for Marvel in history.

Curiously, Marvel made no mention of other movies during its D23 session — even though the third Guardians of the Galaxy film has director James Gunn back on its roster, and a Captain Marvel sequel seems like a …

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China and the US keep hitting each other with tariffs; Rohingya Muslims, concerned for their safety, refuse to return to Myanmar.

China imposes retaliatory tariffs against the US

Wang Chun/Visual China Group via Getty Images

• China is hitting the US with $75 billion in retaliatory tariffs, indicating that the trade war between the two countries is nowhere near simmering down. [USA Today

The 2019 MTV Video Music Awards air on Monday, August 26, and will feature performers such as Lizzo, Shawn Mendes, Taylor Swift, and Lil Nas X. Along with Billy Ray Cyrus, Lil Nas X is one of the artists to receive the most nominations heading into the night, picking up eight total nominations for their collaboration on “Old Town Road”: video of the year, song of the year, best new artist, best collaboration, best hip hop, best direction, best editing, and best art direction.

But the road to success for the ode to the cowboy life, released in …

A month after food delivery app DoorDash said it would change its controversial tipping policy, the company released more details about the planned changes — but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

In a company blog post on Thursday, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu gave a timeline and more details about when and how the company will change its pay model to stop effectively pocketing workers’ tips.

The announcement comes a few days after Recode first reported that the company had continued to pocket drivers’ tips despite promising drivers nearly a month ago that it would share more details …