Discussions

Photo: Guy DeLort/Penske Media/Getty Images There have been 14 official state funerals in Washington for presidents and ex-presidents since the first, for William Henry Harrison, was held in 1841. Until the 1930 funeral of former president (and sitting chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) William Howard Taft, this particular honor was reserved for presidents […]

Photo: Ken Cedeno/Reuters Joe Biden will exit the White House with as little fanfare as any president in modern memory. Forever sandwiched between Donald Trump presidencies and unwilling, in his 80s, to engage with conventional media for any length of time — there are few interviews, televised or in print, for Americans to grasp on

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images Character.ai is a popular app for chatting with bots. Its millions of chatbots, most created by users, all play different roles. Some are broad: general-purpose assistants, tutors, or therapists; others are based, unofficially, on public figures and celebrities. Many are hyperspecific fictional characters pretty clearly created by teenagers. Its currently

Photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images Group dances don’t get any simpler than the movements that traditionally accompany the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” You don’t need anyone to tell you which way you’re sliding. There’s no hip twisting required. You don’t even need to be able to get low to the floor as you “Shout!” a little

Photo: Nathan Howard/Reuters It would be a vast understatement to say that a lot is going on in Washington this month. The 119th Congress, featuring a Republican majority in both houses, is due to begin on January 3. On January 6, a joint session of Congress is supposed to confirm the results of the 2024

Photo-Illustration: Illustration by Joe Darrow/Photos: Getty Images, Reuters, AP Photo, Alamy The race to be the next mayor of New York City kicked off on a Saturday morning in the South Bronx. It was late October, ten days before a presidential election that was by universal claim one with apocalyptic stakes, but that didn’t stop

Photo: Wade Vandervort/AFP via Getty Images On the morning of New Year’s Day in Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck blew up while parked in front of the Trump International Hotel. Police say the truck’s bed was loaded with gas canisters and fireworks and that the driver died and seven people were injured. The driver’s motive

Photo: Matthew Hinton/AFP via Getty Images At least 10 people were killed and 35 injured early Wednesday morning during a suspected terrorist attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The perpetrator, a 42-year-old Texas man named Shamsud Din Jabbar, intentionally rammed a pickup truck into New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street, then crashed his truck and

Photo-Illustration: Facebook Among Meta’s many resolutions for the new year — making augmented reality and the metaverse happen, positioning itself to absorb TikTok refugees if the app gets banned, cracking open Apple’s platforms to get more access to user data, and attriting its competition in artificial intelligence with breathtaking spending — one stands out as plain

Photo: Mauricio Paiz/Alamy Stock Photo If you were one of the estimated 40 million people who picked up a pickleball paddle in the United States in 2024 and wanted to catch a little inspiration by watching its top athletes dink their way to glory, you might have ventured to Dallas, Texas, to attend the Lapiplasty®