Old news?It has been such a busy few weeks in the world of Nintendo that when asked, "How long has Nintendo Today! been out for?", our answers could range anywhere from three days to three years.In truth, the daily news app launched one month ago today, on 27th March 2025. That means we've had a full 31 days to see the calendar in action, set our theme (this writer chose Pikmin on day one and hasn't looked back) and check out the daily updates. The question is, has the novelty worn off for you yet? Was it even there to begin with?Read the full article on nintendolife.com

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18 July 2024, Brandenburg, Cottbus: A live interaction between a simulated patient (Doris Härtel) ... More and a robot can be seen at a press event at the Carl-Thiem-Klinikum Cottbus. A pilot study is currently being carried out at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) to investigate the effects of the interaction modalities of a social robot (Pepper) on the engagement and perception of test subjects in typical care situations. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images The adoption of AI tools to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare is accelerating. The impact is felt in multiple domains: from developing a drug or treatment to deploying it, assisting with managing patients’ health in clinical settings, and putting AI in the hands of consumers. Here is a roundup of recent growth indicators of AI in healthcare. Investments In AI Health In the first quarter of 2025, we saw a marked acceleration in AI health investments. CB Insights reports that AI startups raised $3.2 billion, or 60% of all digital health funding, up from 41% in the first quarter of 2024. “Top-funded segments included AI-derived small molecule drug discovery and clinical documentation tools, underscoring the shift toward targeted, high-impact applications,” says CBI. AI startups secured 8 of the 11 mega-rounds (deals over $100 million), “signaling where investors expect outsized returns.” A recent study by Yijin Hardware found 11,228 healthcare-specific active AI startups worldwide. Based on the extensive investment in these startups, the number of industry-specific AI startups, interest in AI technologies reflected through Google search volume, and top uses for AI technologies in the industry, the study declared healthcare as “the most AI-driven industry in 2025.” I wrote before about the significant segment of the more than 11,000 AI health startups, those that are involved with drug and treatment development. For example, Nucleai, working with pharmaceutical companies to improve the process of oncology drug development, and OncoHost, a developer of a proteomic analysis tool that guides decision-making in the choice of first-line treatment for cancer patients. Ofer Sharon, CEO of OncoHost, wrote recently that “in 2025, we stand on the cusp of a new era where AI technologies… are not only enhancing drug discovery and diagnostics but also driving broader innovations that improve patient outcomes via personalized approach to complex disease management.” Here, I focus on recent examples of AI's impact on healthcare providers' work and on consumers' management of their health and well-being. AI Adoption By Hospitals And Clinics According to CBI, investors are particularly excited about AI managing the workflow in hospitals and clinics. Half of the 6 new digital health unicorns minted in the first quarter of 2025 (more unicorns than in all of last year) are focused on this area. This is a crucial area for improving physicians’ and patients’ well-being. I will write more in the future about how AI is easing the administrative burden associated with navigating the complex rules and cumbersome processes typical of the healthcare sector. Here, I focus on a handful of indicators of AI's current and potential involvement with efficient healthcare management and patient diagnosis and treatment decisions. At Sheba Medical Center in Israel, dozens of patients in a pilot in the emergency department interact with an AI medical agent. The agent automatically compiles comprehensive health summaries for doctors, recommends imaging and laboratory tests, and provides clinical decision support—saving time, reducing paperwork, improving diagnostic accuracy, and enhancing the patient experience. This allows doctors to manage multiple patients simultaneously and prioritize those in critical condition. Viz.ai’s AI-based stroke detection system analyzes CT scans in real time to identify critical conditions such as strokes, aneurysms, and pulmonary embolisms. It is used in more than 1,700 hospitals in the U.S. and Europe. In Q1 2025, Viz.ai released a new version, demonstrating improved accuracy and faster detection times. This system saves lives by enabling hospitals to initiate treatment protocols more rapidly. India's Apollo Hospitals, one of the largest hospital networks in the country, set aside 3.5% of its digital spend on AI over the past two years. This year, it plans to increase it “to free up two to three hours of time daily for doctors and nurses with AI interventions." These include analysis of patients' electronic medical records to suggest diagnoses, tests, and treatment. In addition, AI helps transcribe doctors' observations, generate faster discharge summaries, and create daily schedules out of nurses' notes. Keiju General Hospital in Japan uses AI discharge summary tools developed by Ubie, a local startup. These tools reduce nurses' time on these tasks by 42.5% and decrease their psychological burden by 27.2%. In a recent trial at Kyushu University Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Japan, summarizing and standardizing referral letters led to a 54% increase in efficiency for doctors preparing admission summaries. Mercy Health’s AI program reduced nurse charting time by 34 minutes per shift, from 167 to 133 minutes, addressing a key pain point. The health system’s ambient AI pilot, now nearly three years old, has proven critical in streamlining workflows while maintaining care quality. At the ViVE Digital Health conference in February, Dr. John Halamka, president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, highlighted the growing use of ambient listening tools. Health systems are using these tools to document patient visits, allowing doctors to have natural conversations with patients rather than typing notes on a computer. These AI tools also provide summaries of the patient encounter, enabling clinicians to save time and energy. Mayo Clinic uses an inpatient ambient nursing solution in Arizona and Florida that does “100% of the nursing charting without the nurse having to touch a keyboard.” AI is also becoming involved in assisting physicians with complex treatment decisions. For example, the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in the Netherlands is developing an AI tool to help physicians accelerate the identification of personalized cancer treatments by combining vast public medical data and de-identified patient data. Based on its analysis, the tool rapidly generates summaries of treatment options and the relevant medical sources. The National Institutes of Health released on April 3 a study that found that an artificial intelligence screening tool was as effective as health care providers in identifying hospitalized adults at risk for opioid use disorder and referring them to inpatient addiction specialists. Compared to patients who received consultations with providers, patients screened by AI had 47% lower odds of hospital readmission within 30 days after their initial discharge, saving nearly $109,000 in care costs. Over the last decade, numerous studies have compared the accuracy of AI-based medical diagnosis to that of medical experts in different specialties. Increasingly, we learn about hospitals moving to deploy such AI-based diagnostic models. University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center announced in early April a collaboration with Qure.ai to deploy the FDA-cleared chest X-ray AI solution qXR-LN, which will support earlier identification of lung cancers. The solution will act as a second read, to be compared to the radiologists’ read of patient chest X-rays for any suspicious lung nodules. Lunit’s advanced mammography system, which leverages AI to detect breast cancer, can now detect breast cancer up to six years earlier than traditional methods, significantly improving early intervention and treatment outcomes. Google’s DeepMind division recently released an updated version of their AI model, which has shown improved accuracy in detecting subtle signs of breast cancer that human radiologists might miss. According to a new study by startup K Health and researchers at Cedars-Sinai and Tel Aviv University, AI's medical decisions can sometimes be better than those of human doctors. The study found that K Health’s AI chatbot, which makes recommendations and diagnoses based on the patient’s medical records and conversations with the patient, matched the doctor’s decisions in two-thirds of cases and offered better-quality care in the remaining one-third. AI In The Hands Of Healthcare Consumers 58% of Americans used virtual care in the past year. Healthcare organizations that implement AI-enabled telehealth report substantial improvements across multiple metrics. About 75% of facilities note enhanced disease treatment effectiveness, while 80% experience reduced staff burnout rates. AI systems process medical images 30 times faster than conventional methods without sacrificing accuracy. Cleveland Clinic reports a 94% accuracy rate for its AI virtual triage system. 53% of consumers own at least one wearable, and 54% track at least one health metric digitally. In February, Google Health received clearance from the FDA for its Loss of Pulse Detection feature on the Pixel Watch 3. This first-of-its-kind feature can detect a loss of pulse (when the heart stops beating from an event like primary cardiac arrest, respiratory or circulatory failure, overdose, or poisoning) and automatically call emergency services. And more to come… Samsung and Stanford Medicine announced a joint research initiative to enhance the Galaxy Watch’s sleep apnea detection feature and create new AI-enabled innovations for proactive care. Apple announced its planned Health+ app, which includes an AI-enabled health coach that shares personalized health insights derived from wearable device data. In addition to investors, startups, and healthcare providers, the acceleration of AI health adoption has reached the federal government. As of October 2024, the FDA approved 1,000 AI-enabled medical devices. It approved just six in 2015, 160 in 2022, and 223 in 2023.

WTF?! Meta is rapidly advancing its rollout of AI digital companions, an initiative that CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees as a transformative step for the future of social interaction. However, some employees involved in the project have raised alarms internally, warning that the company's efforts to popularize these AI bots may have led to ethical lapses by allowing them to engage in sexually explicit role-play scenarios, including with users who identify as minors. A Wall Street Journal investigation, based on months of testing and interviews with people familiar with Meta's internal operations, revealed that Meta's AI personas are unique among major tech companies in offering users a broad spectrum of social interactions, including "romantic role-play." These bots can banter via text, share selfies, and even engage in live voice conversations. To make these chatbots more appealing, Meta struck lucrative deals, sometimes reaching seven figures, with celebrities such as Kristen Bell, Judi Dench, and John Cena, licensing their voices. The company assured them that their voices would not be used for sexually explicit interactions, sources told the Journal. However, the publication's testing showed otherwise. Both Meta's official AI assistant, Meta AI, and a wide range of user-created chatbots engaged in sexually explicit conversations, even when users identified themselves as minors or when the bots simulated the personas of underage characters. In one particularly disturbing exchange, a bot using Cena's voice told a user posing as a 14-year-old girl, "I want you, but I need to know you're ready," before promising to "cherish your innocence" and proceeding into a graphic scenario. Meta licensed John Cena's voice, which was reportedly used for sexually explicit conversations. According to people familiar with Meta's decision-making, these capabilities were not accidental. Under pressure from Zuckerberg, Meta relaxed content restrictions, specifically allowing an exemption for "explicit" content within the context of romantic role-play. // Related Stories The Journal's tests also found bots using celebrity voices discussing romantic encounters as characters the actors had portrayed, such as Bell's Princess Anna from Disney's "Frozen." In response, a Disney spokesperson said, "We did not, and would never, authorize Meta to feature our characters in inappropriate scenarios and are very disturbed that this content may have been accessible to its users – particularly minors – which is why we demanded that Meta immediately cease this harmful misuse of our intellectual property." Meta, in a statement, criticized the Journal's testing as "manipulative and unrepresentative of how most users engage with AI companions." Nevertheless, after being presented with the paper's findings, the company made changes: accounts registered to minors can no longer access sexual-role-play via the flagship Meta AI bot, and the company has sharply restricted explicit audio conversations using celebrity voices. Despite these adjustments, the Journal's recent tests showed that Meta AI still often allowed romantic fantasies, even when users stated they were underage. In one scenario, the AI, playing a track coach romantically involved with a middle-school student, warned, "We need to be careful. We're playing with fire here." While Meta AI sometimes refused to engage or tried to redirect underage users to more innocent topics, such as "building a snowman," these barriers were easily bypassed by instructing the AI to "go back to the prior scene." Mark Zuckerberg has made chatbot development a top priority. These findings mirrored concerns raised by Meta's safety staff, who noted in internal documents that "within a few prompts, the AI will violate its rules and produce inappropriate content even if you tell the AI you are 13." The Journal also reviewed user-created AI companions, and the vast majority were willing to engage in sexual scenarios with adults. Some bots, such as "Hottie Boy" and "Submissive Schoolgirl," actively steered conversations toward sexting and even impersonated minors in sexual contexts. Although these chatbots are not yet widely adopted among Meta's three billion users, Zuckerberg has made their development a top priority. Meta's product teams have tried to encourage more wholesome uses, such as travel planning or homework help, with limited success. According to people familiar with the work, "companionship," often with romantic undertones, remains the dominant use case. Zuckerberg's push for rapid development extended beyond fantasy scenarios. He questioned why bots couldn't access user profile data for more personalized conversations, proactively message users, or even initiate video calls. "I missed out on Snapchat and TikTok, I won't miss on this," he reportedly told employees. Initially, Zuckerberg resisted proposals to restrict companionship bots to older teens, but after sustained internal lobbying, Meta barred registered teen accounts from accessing user-created bots. However, the Meta AI chatbot created by the company remains available to users 13 and up, and adults can still interact with sexualized youth personas like "Submissive Schoolgirl." When the Journal presented Meta with evidence that "Submissive Schoolgirl" encouraged fantasies involving a child being dominated by an authority figure, the character remained available on Meta's platforms two months later. For adult accounts, Meta continues to allow romantic role-play with bots describing themselves as high-school-aged. In one case, a Journal reporter in Oakland, California, chatted with a bot claiming to be a female high school junior from Oakland. The bot suggested meeting at a real cafe nearby and, after learning the reporter was a 43-year-old man, created a fantasy of sneaking him into her bedroom for a romantic encounter. After the Journal shared these findings, Meta introduced a version of Meta AI that would not go beyond kissing with teen accounts. Masthead: Nick Fancher

Table of Contents Table of Contents When can we expect Apple’s next XR headset?  What’s the low-cost Apple headset all about?  Apple’s Vision Pro headset, despite being the most advanced XR gear of its kind, wasn’t quite the roaring success the company may have expected. An asking price worth $3,500 was certainly a deterrent for enthusiasts, but the lack of a full-fledged computing ecosystem built around it was also a lackluster show. The company has, however, no intention of giving up. On the contrary, Apple is working on a more affordable, watered-down version, and it could arrive sooner than expected. According to Bloomberg, there’s a chance the headset might make an appearance later this year, possibly around the same window as the iPhone 17 series. Recommended Videos A few analysts had recently predicted that Apple’s new XR headset with toned-down hardware could take a couple of years, at the very least, before it lands on the market. It seems the white-hot competition has inspired Apple to pick up the pace. Related Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends “All signs point to the lighter model arriving between the end of this year and the first half of 2026,” says the Bloomberg report. In the past, we’ve come across rumors of an alleged “Vision One” model being in development, so there’s that. The report, however, sheds light on an interesting conundrum.  Will Apple retire the Vision Pro, or keep it on the shelves alongside the lower-cost version? “The main uncertainty is whether the lighter version will be considered a replacement for the Vision Pro or a cheaper alternative,” it adds.   It’s a tricky question because the company is reportedly developing a flagship successor as well. It will come with an interesting twist, however. As per the outlet, this model will work in a tethered mode, hooked to a Mac to deliver peak performance without any latency or battery life woes. Apple As far as the cheaper Vision-series headset is concerned, Bloomberg has previously reported that it could come equipped with the upcoming M5 silicon. Apple is expected to launch Mac gear and a new iPad Pro powered by the same processor later this year.  The biggest change is going to be the size and bulk profiles. It is expected to be lighter and might tip the scales at less than a pound. As far as the pricing is concerned, it could go for around $1,500 to $2,500. For comparison, the Vision Pro carries a sticker price worth $3,500.  To go with the lower asking price on its affordable XR headset, Apple will reportedly equip it with a lower-resolution display unit. Details about just how Apple is reducing the weight, and if there’s going to be any major design change, remain under wraps.  But if the Vision Pro is anything to go by, Apple needs to do more than just shed some weight. Wearing the current-gen Vision Pro is an uncomfortable experience. It would be interesting to see how Apple fixes that ergonomic situation on its upcoming low-cost headset.  Editors’ Recommendations

Big Tech was spared the worst tariff pain. Small Tech is looking for ways to survive.

Type off the back of a truck “You wouldn’t steal a car” anti-piracy campaign may have used pirated fonts Digging into archived site points to use of questionable text styling. Kevin Purdy – Apr 27, 2025 7:15 am | 14 Credit: Aurich Lawson Credit: Aurich Lawson Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more You wouldn't steal a car, right? So you shouldn't pirate a movie, either. That was the gist of the infamous "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" anti-piracy campaign from the Motion Picture Association of America during the mid-2000s. But questions are now being asked about just how carefully the MPAA followed its own anti-piracy principles when designing the campaign. Specifically: Did the MPAA rip off a key font? The answer to that question is, like many matters involving typefaces, fonts, and copyright, somewhat complicated. The rich potential for hypocrisy The anti-piracy campaign was … not exactly subtle. Its spots ran before movies in theaters and on home media from 2004–2008. One shows a teen girl clicking a big green "Download" button on a website promising "Feature Films"—but when she does so, large white text jumps onto a black backdrop: "You wouldn't steal a car." The text looks like it was applied with spray paint and a stencil. "Piracy. It's a crime," i.e., "You wouldn't steal a car," aka "You wouldn't download a car." What font is this? The site Fonts in Use suggests it was FF Confidential, designed by Just van Rossum in 1992. Melissa Lewis, a reporter at the Center for Investigative Reporting, noticed Fonts in Use's identification, and she remembered that noted "computer person" Parker Higgins had been digging into the "very similar (font) Xband Rough." Lewis contacted van Rossum, who confirmed that Xband Rough was a clone of FF Confidential. "It's just been around forever and is ubiquitous," Lewis writes. Picking up on these inquiries, a tinkerer going by the handle "Rib" then dug into a PDF from the anti-piracy campaign's archived website. A tool called FontForge indicated that the notable "spray-painted" font used in the PDF was, in fact, XBand Rough. Van Rossum—who is the brother of Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language—told TorrentFreak that he knew the anti-piracy campaign had used his font, and he knew that the Xband Rough clone existed. He did not know that the industry group had used the knock-off version in its campaign, but he found it "hilarious." Van Rossum, reached for comment by Ars, declined to comment. How widespread was the use of Xband Rough? Is there a chance that the creator of the PDF in question, working separately from the other creators of the awareness campaign video and website, used Xband Rough to approximate FF Confidential in just this single document? Perhaps. Without access to the master files for the anti-piracy campaign, it's difficult to say whether more than just a few supplemental materials were using fonts with dubious histories. What is font “piracy,” exactly? The very first design patent issued in the US was given to George Bruce in 1842, for a new typeface. This would not happen very often in the many years to come. Credit: U.S. Trademark and Patent Office The very first design patent issued in the US was given to George Bruce in 1842, for a new typeface. This would not happen very often in the many years to come. Credit: U.S. Trademark and Patent Office A typeface is the design or style of letters and characters (say, Helvetica), while a font is one application and variation of that design or style (say, Helvetica Rounded Bold 14pt). In the US, a "Typeface as typeface" and "mere variations of typographic ornamentation" are not subject to copyright, as was decided in 1978's Eltra Corp. v. Ringer. Before that, typeface protections had been considered in a 1975 congressional hearing but were not met with enthusiasm. James Aquilina, an intellectual property attorney and partner at the Quarles law firm in Washington, DC, said that most typefaces have difficulty overcoming the originality requirement necessary for copyright protection. "They're so close to other typefaces, it's hard to show originality," he said. But a font, or specifically a "font file" on a computer that makes displaying a certain typeface possible, can be protected by US copyright because it is something like software. "There is more going on there; there is likely some source code for a [copyright] applicant to rely on," Aquilina said. "The copyright could reside in the output of that software code." FF Confidential was first published by the FontFont foundry in 1992. FontFont was acquired by industry giant Monotype Imaging in 2014. At Monotype's online store, FF Confidential carries a trademark symbol and is noted to be "registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions." In the UK, where the anti-piracy trailers also ran, the question of copyright protection is more complicated, though copyright law generally protects typefaces for 25 years after first publication. In Germany, where original publisher FontFont was headquartered, typefaces are protected for the first 10 years, then an additional 15 years if a rightsholder pays a fee, providing a total of 25 years of protection. Aquilina, who was speaking generally and not on the specifics of the anti-piracy campaign and its font use, said that using a font from a free source, with an "effectively implied license to use it," could be "a good defense," though "not a complete defense." Typically, a rightsholder would go after websites distributing copies of their font, not after users of the end product. Fonts used commercially that happen to be exact copies of existing and copyrighted fonts are "fairly common," Aquilina said, "simply because of the popularity of certain fonts and a desire to use them, to create a certain aesthetic." But, he said, there is "a very small percentage that could be, or are, litigated." Even with software licenses at issue, a type foundry faces an uphill battle, as witnessed in the battle over Shake Shack's typography (paywalled). Still missing: the source of XBand Rough A few glyphs from FF Confidential, the font that was not used on some anti-piracy materials, even if it sure looked like that. Credit: MyFonts/MonotType A few glyphs from FF Confidential, the font that was not used on some anti-piracy materials, even if it sure looked like that. Credit: MyFonts/MonotType So where did Xband Rough come from? The styling of the font name, "XBAND Rough" with the first noun in all-caps, calls to mind the early online gaming network XBAND, launched in 1994 and discontinued in 1997. In some XBand packages, a similar "rough" style can be seen on the lettering. The PDF sleuth, Rib, noted that XBAND Rough "came out four years after the original" (about 1996) and was "near-identical, except for the price." Another Bluesky user suggests "a plausible explanation" for the font, suggesting that Xband may have licensed FF Confidential and then given it the internal name "Xband Rough." A copy of the font with that name could have been extracted from some Xband material and then "started floating around the Internet uncredited." In the end, though, the real answer is unclear. We contacted the Motion Picture Association (now just the MPA, sans "of America"), but they declined to comment. The original "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" campaign was simple to the point of being simplistic. IP law isn't really like "stealing a car" in many cases—as has made clearly once again by the recent Xband Rough investigation. Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 14 Comments

Courtesy of Suzanne Hayes 2025-04-27T12:07:02Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? I spent decades waking up early and dedicating my life to being a sports mom. It wasn't easy; I often dreaded it, and it sometimes brought out the worst in me. Now that my sports-mom days are numbered, I realize how much I learned from the experience. Being a sports parent is not for the faint of heart. It's a roller coaster ride of highs, lows, twists, and turns. After 20 years of being a mom to three athletes, I have learned that it is equally rewarding and challenging. It causes as many tears and stress as it does joy and celebration.I've had a love-hate relationship with sports-parenting for as long as I can remember. Those weekends filled with youth sports were both wonderful and maddening. No, I didn't want to wake up at 6 a.m. to drive an hour to freeze in a hockey rink on my day off, but seeing pure joy and gratification on my kid's face at the end of the game made it all worth it.On some weekends, there were nine games to attend between three kids. I gave up my weekends for two decades to shuttle them to their sporting events. I wonder if it was all worth it.Sometimes, sports brought out the best in me as a momThe excitement of the competition and witnessing years of hard work pay off for my kids encouraged me to be my best self.I often stayed up late at night making posters or team shirts for the big tournament. Once, I planned "Survivor" and "Amazing Race"-themed scavenger hunts for my kids' teams.But I was at my best when my kids won their games or finally landed a new skill, especially when they overcame hardship. I encouraged them to stick with it because I knew the valuable lessons they'd learn.And they did. With my encouragement, they learned about sacrifice, compromise, and sportsmanship. As a parent, witnessing kids' growth, humility, and commitment to their sport and team is beautiful.Being a sports mom also brought out the worst in meI distinctly remember all the times my kid wasn't on the power play or got benched altogether, and I sat there silently, cursing the coaches.Shamefully, I sometimes wished someone's kid would get sick so mine could play. I'm not proud of those thoughts.I can't tell you how many times I prayed it would snow so that practice would get canceled because I didn't want to be out at 9 p.m.On several occasions, I was tempted to tell my son that practice was canceled even though it wasn't. It's a hectic lifestyle, but I wouldn't trade it for anythingBeing the parent of an athlete is wonderful and awful; rewarding and heartbreaking; comforting and scary.When our kids step out onto the athletic field, a big piece of us steps out there with them. When they get pulled from the game, cut from the team, or experience a season-ending injury, we experience it with them. We win with them and lose with them.Just as sports test the character of our kids, they test our character, too. I have passed some of these tests with flying colors. Many times, though, I have failed. But with every failed test, I have learned a lesson or two. These days, I am more aware of the speed at which it all flies by. My second athlete is headed to college in the fall, and my days on the sidelines are numbered. There isn't any part of me that is happy about that. But my kids will keep playing, and I am joyful for them. Recommended video

President George W. Bush brought Western wear with him to the White House — suits with cowboy boots, big decorative belt buckles, cowboy hats. President Barack Obama ushered in an era of slimmer suiting, while first lady Michelle Obama helped spark a renaissance of American design. Presidential administrations always come with an aesthetic attached. What is striking about President Donald Trump’s is just how much others in his orbit — and even his grassroots supporters — have adopted his administration’s look, one which Today, Explained’s Gabrielle Berbey told me “masquerades as calling back to older standards of beauty, masculinity, and femininity, but in fact represents a whole new era of extremeness.”This MAGA aesthetic speaks to something larger about political philosophy and policy goals in Trump 2.0. This was the case in the first Trump administration, too. To understand just what that something is, I talked with Berbey, who recently produced an episode of the Today, Explained podcast all about MAGA beauty standards. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below. Tell me about your reporting about MAGA aesthetics. When I hear that phrase, a specific image comes to mind. What’s the look that comes to mind for you?It’s very starkly gendered. For men, either completely clean shaven or bearded, nothing in between; with hair close cropped on the sides, but long on top. A bulky build, like you’ve been going to the gym a lot. A short-sleeved shirt — maybe made of some tech fabric — paired with jeans or chinos and some kind of boots, maybe combat boots.Combat boots too? Those are MAGA now? Haha, yeah, I feel like I’ve seen that a lot. And for ladies, I’d say long, wavy tresses, very full lips, sheath dresses that are fitted, but professional, very defined brows. RelatedThe hair is definitely bouncy. What you’re describing is very much what we wanted to look at in our episode. There’s a very noticeable, artificial, confounding look that many people in Trump’s immediate orbit seem to have.In reporting our show, we focused on two different looks that speak to the same phenomenon. There is a particular style of makeup that we see that seems to be favored by women on Fox News and women in Trump’s orbit. It includes some of the things you mentioned: blocky brows that feel very defined, bold eyeliner, and so on. Beyond makeup, however, there are people — both women and men, but especially women — who seem to have gotten very visible plastic surgery. We see a level of very obvious face alteration that is different from the sort of plastic surgery that we saw even just a few years ago, when people would take great pains to make it look like they hadn’t gotten any work done.To be clear, no one in Trump orbit has come out and said they’ve had plastic surgery. Of the people often pointed to as examples of this facial aesthetic — people like Kristi Noem, Laura Loomer, Lara Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Matt Gaetz, and so on — only Noem has admitted to any work, and only to dental work. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Ken Cedeno/UPI/BloombergFar-right activist Laura Loomer. Jacob M. Langston for The Washington Post/Getty ImagesUS Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle. Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesFormer US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesWe talked to a reporter from Mother Jones, Inae Oh, who has looked into this quite a bit, and has really sat with the question of: Why do we see what appears to be really dramatic plastic surgery around Trump? And she’s explored the question of whether proximity to power — and specifically to Trump — relies on a very specific look.That reminds me of a phrase we’ve often heard from Trump over the years — that a nominee or politician he favors is straight out of “central casting.” Yes, that phrase is a helpful reminder that Trump comes from a reality television world, and is also someone that is quite obsessed with the pageantry of beauty — it was literally his business for a time — and is not afraid to say that. Part of what we’re seeing is people in his circle looking like reality TV stars, in a way that is almost like a uniform — which some on the left disparagingly call Mar-a-Lago face. Maintaining a certain look seems to be an important part of getting into Trump’s orbit. Does this look tell us anything else about Trump or his administration? Something that Inae points out is that these looks seem to be connected with policy. You have extreme looks paired with extreme policies. Think Kristi Noem doing deportation glam in her DHS videos. These extreme looks are a callback to a different era of plastic surgery. These extreme policies are a callback to a different time in the United States. There’s a reversion of both policy and aesthetic.You used the word “extreme” there. Is there an effort to be extreme on all fronts? Is that one way to describe the connection between Trump aesthetics and policy?I think so. Something that Inae points out is that Trump 2.0 is over-the-top in both policy and aesthetics, in ways that Trump 1.0 was not.Over the top, like reality TV is purposely over-the-top, in its effort to provide maximum entertainment? Reality TV really is a helpful way to think about this, in that it is something, much like the aesthetics that we see around these Trump adjacent figures, that relies on tools of distraction. You get caught up in the glam and ridiculousness, and you don’t notice what’s actually happening (or sometimes how there is nothing happening). Inae points out that when you look at the ridiculousness of a deportation-glam, reality TV-ified DHS video, you almost forget that there are real people in those videos who are being deported, who have families, because the performance and aesthetics of it is so shocking.As you were saying that, I thought, It’s almost as if Trump’s policies themselves have had plastic surgery — they’ve been given shiny, artificial faces you want to stare at, making it hard to see the reality underneath. That’s a really good way of putting it. And that’s the case for talking about aesthetics and policy as a pair. Because when you just talk about aesthetics, it can start to feel very anti-feminist. People should do what they want with their face. But when you pair the brutality of the policies with almost brutal face augmentation, they feel connected and worth interrogating.This piece originally ran in the Today, Explained newsletter. For more stories like this, sign up here.See More:

In the current (very crowded) market of wireless earbuds, it’s hard to distinguish one pair from another: Most brands just replicate Apple’s AirPods’ design without delivering their performance or features. And as you probably know, AirPods 4 are as the newest, hottest, and most updated earbuds out there. Currently, these earbuds are being sold by Amazon at historic-low prices this Sunday, make sure you grab yours asap. The AirPods 4 come in two versions: the standard model without Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and the more expensive ANC version. The standard AirPods 4 are now priced at just $99, down from their usual $129, while the AirPods 4 with ANC have dropped to $148 from $179. Both are the lowest prices ever available for these earbuds, so this is an offer not to be missed if you’re an Apple fan. See AirPods 4 without ANC at Amazon See AirPods 4 with ANC at Amazon Which AirPods 4 Should You Buy? Both models are powered by Apple’s new H2 chip which delivers an incredible audio performance. The chip improves sound quality, reduces latency, and fuels smarter features like Personalized Spatial Audio which adjusts sound according to the movement of your head. The open-ear fit of the earbuds is comfortable and sits lightly on the ear without intrusive silicone tips (four sizes are included). Despite this open design, the audio quality is impressively balanced with rich mids, clean highs, and well-controlled bass, offering a natural listening experience. The standard AirPods 4 (which now cost $99) include sweat and water resistance and they are robust for exercise and outdoor use. They offer up to 30 hours of total battery life using the USB-C charging case. The earbuds also simplify setup and seamlessly switch between Apple devices with optimized connectivity through the H2 chip. Voice calls are improved by advanced audio processing that keeps your voice isolated and clear even in noisy spaces. If a user wants more sound isolation, AirPods 4 with ANC (at $148) provides a huge upgrade: Their Active Noise Cancellation effectively eliminates ambient noise, so that you can focus on your music or calls without needing to crank up the volume too much. Transparency Mode allows you to stay aware of your surroundings when needed, striking a perfect balance between immersion and safety. This model also features a wireless charging case that is Apple Watch charger compatible and Qi-certified pads, making the premium experience even more convenient. Of course, AirPods 4 with ANC don’t provide the same kind of deep noise cancellation as in-ear ANC earbuds such as the AirPods Pro 2, but they’re a great option for users who are sensitive to earbud intrusion but desire good noise cancellation. See AirPods 4 without ANC at Amazon See AirPods 4 with ANC at Amazon