By Lane Florsheim | Photography by Alasdair McLellan for WSJ. Magazine | Styling by Alice Goddard March 4, 2025 8:00 am ETWhen Lalisa Manobal was 14, she left her home in Thailand to become a star in South Korea. Shed been signed to one of the countrys biggest music labels, the only one chosen of thousands who auditioned in Bangkok. This wasnt a record deal but a chance at one. She arrived alone in Seoul, not speaking a word of Korean. Training days ran 15 hours. There were often no weekends, and certainly no guarantees of fame or fortune. Her peers spent years not knowing whether theyd make it; many quit before they could find out.Looking back on those punishing years, Manobal projects total positivity. She smilesa warm, wide grin broken only by the occasional giggle.Copyright 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

treading water Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 review: No, its not 4090 performance at $549 It's not all bad news, but in a lot of ways this is barely an upgrade. Andrew Cunningham Mar 4, 2025 9:00 am | 8 Credit: Andrew Cunningham Credit: Andrew Cunningham Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn more"4090 performance at $549."Thats what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said of the GeForce RTX 5070 when he announced the card at CES in January. Thanks to AI, this new midrange GPU would be able to match the frame rates of what had been the fastest consumer GPU that had previously existed, for around one-third the price.Let's dispel that notion up front. No, the GeForce RTX 5070 is not as fast as an RTX 4090, not without some very creative comparing of non-comparable numbers. Per usual for the 50-series, Nvidia is leaning on its AI-generated interpolated frames for the bulk of its claimed performance improvements. In terms of actual rendering speed, the 5070 isnt even as fast as a 4080 or a 4070 Ti. Its barely faster than last years 4070 Super, and with disproportionately higher power usage. The RTX 5070 Founders Edition is a lot smaller than the 5090/5080 design. Andrew Cunningham The RTX 5070 Founders Edition is a lot smaller than the 5090/5080 design. Andrew Cunningham Like the 5090/5080, the 5070 switches to a slightly angled 12-pin power connector. Andrew Cunningham Like the 5090/5080, the 5070 switches to a slightly angled 12-pin power connector. Andrew Cunningham The RTX 5070 Founders Edition is a lot smaller than the 5090/5080 design. Andrew Cunningham Like the 5090/5080, the 5070 switches to a slightly angled 12-pin power connector. Andrew Cunningham For all that, it's still not necessarily a bad cardit's a little faster than the $599 4070 Super at the same $549 price that Nvidia used for the RTX 4070. It still represents Nvidia's minimum viable 4K GPU, once you factor in DLSS upscaling, and its well suited for people with 1440p monitors.But it's a hard card to get excited about, and unlike every other 50-series GPU released so far, it actually has to compete against somethingAMD's new Radeon RX 9070 series. I can't talk in detail about how these cards all stack up until later this week, but suffice it to say that Nvidia could use something a bit more impressive than the RTX 5070 at this price.GeForce RTX 5070 specsRTX 5070 TiRTX 4070 Ti SuperRTX 5070RTX 4070 SuperRTX 4070CUDA Cores8,9608,4486,1447,1685,888Boost Clock2,452 MHz2,610 MHz2,512 MHz2,475 MHz2,475 MHzMemory Bus Width256-bit256-bit192-bit192-bit192-bitMemory Bandwidth896 GB/s672 GB/s672 GB/s504 GB/s504 GB/sMemory size16GB GDDR716GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR712GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR6XTGP300 W285 W250 W220 W200 WThe 5070's CUDA core count falls right in between the RTX 4070 and the 4070 Super's, where the 5080 and 5070 Ti both included small increases from their previous generation counterparts. To boost speeds over the 4070 Super, this means Nvidia is leaning on architectural improvements in Blackwell, the memory bandwidth increase from GDDR7 (a fairly significant 33 percent increase), and increased GPU clock speeds (the memory switch and clock speed boosts likely explain the higher power consumption).The 5070 gives you 12GB of memory, which still clears that crucial more than 8GB bar that youll want for higher-than-1080p resolutions and ultra-quality textures, though as time goes on it may be more limiting at 4K if thats a resolution youre hoping to hit with this card.The number that sticks out in a bad way is the power consumptiona maximum of 250 W under load, 30 W more than the old 4070 Super. The 5070 series is still far more power-efficient than older cards like the RTX 3070 or 3080, but efficiency is no longer as much of an advantage for the 5070 as it was for the 4070 series. The 5070 Founders Edition (left) and the 4070-series design. Both have two fans, but only the 5070 puts them on the same side. Credit: Andrew Cunningham We reviewed the Founders Edition of the card provided by Nvidia, and it uses a different two-slot design than the much larger, much more powerful RTX 5090 and 5080 cards. It's the same physical size as the 4070 and 4060 Founders Edition cards, but with an updated power connector that's set at an angle instead of sticking out directly from the top of the card. Nvidia has updated the cooler design, too, moving both fans to the same side of the card rather than placing one on each side. The RTX 5070 runs a bit warmer than other cards we've tested recently. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Whether it's because of the updated cooler or the higher power consumption or both, the 5070 actually runs hotter than any other card in our current round of testing, including (by a few degrees) the 5090. The card runs a bit loud under loadthat's not a scientific measurement, but I noticed it more than I did when testing either the 5090 Founders Edition or the 4070-series Founders Editions. It's something to keep an eye on for any smaller or lower-end 5070 cards from partners that use smaller double-fan cooler designs, though we doubt it will be an issue for the triple-fan monstrosities.Testbed notesGaming testbedCPUAMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (provided by AMD)MotherboardAsus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero (provided by AMD)RAM32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB series (provided by AMD), running at DDR5-6000Power supplyThermaltake Toughpower GF A3 1050 WCPU cooler360 mm MSI MAG CoreLiquid I360CaseMontech XR ATX Mid-tower with three 120 mm cooling fans installed and side panel removedOSWindows 11 24H2 with Core Isolation on, Memory Integrity offDriversNvidia RTX 5090: Beta driver 571.86Nvidia RTX 5080: Beta driver 572.12Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti: Beta driver 572.43Nvidia RTX 5070: Beta driver 572.50Other Nvidia cards: Game Ready Driver 566.36AMD cards: Adrenalin 24.12.1Our testbed is the same as it's been since we updated it for the RTX 5090 reviewa Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the heart of the build to minimize the likelihood that CPU performance will cap any of our GPUs' frame rates.We've tested the 5070 at 4K and 1440p. Cards in this $500 to $600 price range tend to be a better fit for a 1440p high-refresh-rate gaming monitor, especially if you're hoping to play without DLSS or other upscaling technologies available.But if you play older or lighter games, if you don't mind upscalers, and if you can turn down a few settings, hitting 60 frames per second at 4K is often within the realm of possibility. It's certainly the least I would spend if I was hoping to play on a 4K monitor.Performance and power 4K game benchmarks. 4K game benchmarks.The 5070 usually represents a mid-single-digit performance increase over the 4070 Super, despite having fewer CUDA cores. It's more-or-less 20 percent faster than the RTX 4070a comparison Nvidia would probably prefer, since the 5070 is technically replacing the 4070 at $549 and not the 4070 Super at $599. But the launch MSRPs for the 50-series have been mostly imaginary so far, due to a combination of supply, demand, and people buying cards just so they can resell them for more money. We'd assume the same for the RTX 5070 until proven otherwise.There were a couple of exceptions in our suite that performed strangely no matter how many times we re-tested them or how many times we tried clearing our shader cache or reinstalling drivers, and one game that benefitted from an outsized increase. Cyberpunk 2077 in Ultra mode with ray-tracing disabled showed a larger improvement than the other games we tested24 percent faster than the 4070 Super, and 72 percent faster than the 4070. It was an outlier, but some games may benefit more than others.Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered andCyberpunk 2077in Overdrive mode with DLSS turned off all gave abnormally low or otherwise strange numberswe've presented those here for the sake of transparency, and we've communicated our findings to Nvidia, but we'd take these with a grain of salt when comparing results.Horizon seems to have some kind of issue with DLSS frame generation regardless of GPU, with low frame rates and odd visual artifacts across all the GeForce cards we've tested with recent drivers. 4K benchmarks with DLSS/FSR upscaling and single frame-generation enabled. 4K benchmarks with DLSS/FSR upscaling and single frame-generation enabled.On the AMD side, we can't compare the 5070 directly to the RX 9070 series yet, but it's worth noting that the 5070 outperforms the old RX 7900 GRE by a small but consistent amount in our benchmarks without ray-tracing effects (the gap in ray-traced games is larger because of AMD's typical performance deficit in these games).AMD says that the $549 RX 9070 and $599 9070 XT should be 21 percent and 42 percent faster (respectively) than the RX 7900 GRE on average. That could spell trouble for the 5070, but it remains to be seen whether AMD has fixed its ray-tracing performance problems and how much the cards' power efficiency has improved. 1440p benchmarks. 1440p benchmarks.We ran our 1440p benchmarks on the GeForce RTX 3070, too, to give a bit more context for upgraders. The 5070 is usually between 40 and 70 percent faster than the 3070 here, a card that will find itself more and more limited by its 8GB of RAM as time goes on. The 5070 is still a good upgrade from the 3070, it's just not all that much better of an upgrade than what you could get from a 4070 Super a year ago. As usual, the older your card is, the better the upgrade will feel, even if the generation-over-generation improvement is small. The 5070's small increase in performance is matched with a larger increase to power consumption. Credit: Andrew Cunningham In exchange for five or six percent better performance, the 5070 uses 13.5 percent more power under load than the 4070 Super did. Nvidia was so far ahead of AMD and the RTX 30-series on efficiency with the RTX 40-series GPUs that one relatively inefficient upgrade cycle doesn't really wreck things, but we do generally like to see power consumption either increase proportionally with performance, or for performance to increase more than power consumption does.Improving efficiency was always going to be tough for the 50-series, since the Blackwell GPU dies are manufactured using a 4nm TSMC process similar to what Nvidia used for the Ada Lovelace GPU dies for the 40-series. But the 5070 ends up slightly worse on this metric than the other 50-series cards.Frame generation comparisons and caveats A 5070 can go as fast as a 4090... if you use two entirely different performance metrics. Credit: Andrew Cunningham When you turn frame generation on, you can see the source of Jensen Huang's "4090 performance for $549" performance claim. The 5070 with DLSS Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) enabled in 4x mode has a similar average frame rate inCyberpunk 2077 compared to the RTX 4090 with the old Frame Generation mode enabled (now labeled "2x" in games that support MFG). That's because the 5070 is capable of generating three AI-interpolated frames for every rendered frame, rather than one.But the 5070 (and, when they arrive, the 5060 series) demonstrates the limits of FG and MFG more than the other 50-series cards do. With MFG enabled,Cyberpunk 2077 can hit over 80 frames per second on average with the Overdrive preset enabled. That sounds pretty good! Until you consider that the base frame rate (with DLSS upscaling enabled, but not any frame generation) is closer to 20 frames per second. With a base frame rate this low, user input will feel sluggish, and visual artifacts are plainly visible when objects are in motion.DLSS MFG can still have its usesthe 5070 can push some pretty high frame rates at 1440p, and MFG could help you take better advantage of a 240 Hz or 360 Hz 1440p monitor than you could without MFG enabled. But it remains a relatively niche technology that's useful under certain circumstances, not the broad cure-all for mediocre performance that Nvidia's charts imply it is.It could be better, or at least cheaper The GeForce RTX 5070. Credit: Andrew Cunningham The GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Super were some of the best values in Nvidia's lineup last generation, offering the same performance as high-end 30-series cards and outstanding power efficiency for a little less money than you'd spend on an RTX 3080 or 3090.Now that it's here, it's hard to classify the RTX 5070 as anything other than a disappointment. It's just barely, by the skin of its figurative teeth, faster than the 4070 Super for the same $549 MSRP as the regular 4070. This technically makes it an improvement, along with support for multi-frame generation. But this nearly imperceptible performance improvement comes with a 13.5 percent increase in power consumption under load, which seems like a bad trade-off any way you cut it.The RTX 5070 feels like the kind of product you make when you're not particularly worried about what your competition is doing. Theentire 50-series has sort of felt like that so far, between the astronomically high price of the RTX 5090 and the so-so performance improvements for the 5080 and 5070 Ti.But it's different for the RTX 5070 because AMD actually has an answer for it coming soon.AMD's RX 7600, 7700, and 7800 GPUs may not have been smash-hit sales successes for its last generation, but stiffer competition at and under $600 did help pull Nvidia's pricing down to earth a bit. Soon we'll know whether the RX 9070 series will exert a similar pullor if it can actually manage to wrest some market share back from Nvidia after years of trending in the wrong direction.The goodGreat 1440p performance and can stretch to 4K with the right settings.Same price as the old RX 4070 and a little cheaper than the 4070 Super (in theory).Compact design that should fit in just about any case.Reasonably power-efficient when compared to older RTX 30-series or Radeon cards.DLSS Multi-Frame Generation is a situationally useful technology.Wide ecosystem support for DLSS, CUDA, and other Nvidia software features.The badHigher power consumption for not that much better performance.A few odd performance results that will hopefully be ironed out by driver and/or game updates.Founders Edition runs a bit hot.12GB of RAM feels stingy.The uglyNvidia's grandiose apples-to-oranges performance comparisons.Availability remains a big question mark.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 8 Comments

Lisa Morgan, Freelance WriterMarch 4, 20255 Min Readincamerastock via Alamy StockThe tech industry isnt immune from the White Houses policies, including mass deportations and federal buyout packages. Recently, two top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were reassigned as the Trump Administration seeks to accelerate mass deportations. While the impact on agriculture jobs has been widely reported, less discussed is the potential impact on the tech industry.Federal buyout packages could also impact tech, depending on who has accepted them. As of February 13, 75,000 workers decided to take the buyout, and a judge cleared the way to make it happen. Organizational leaders should be prepared.I believe mass deportations and federal buyouts could significantly impact the tech sector. Tech thrives on using a rich tapestry of global talent, and these policies could strip away all of that, says Jason Wingate, CEO of international technology and business solutions company Emerald Ocean in an email interview. The move may lead to a significant loss of skilled professionals who drive innovation and development, Wingate adds.This could turn into projects stalling and deadlines being missed. Beyond the immediate, it could also mean the overall pace of technological advancement could slow down.The Tech Talent Shortage May Be ExacerbatedRelated:Tech talent shortages could worsen under the Trump Administrations policies.The sector already grapples with a limited pool of professionals in cutting-edge fields of AI, machine learning and cybersecurity, and reducing that pool won't help, says Emerald Oceans Wingate. It could also raise the salaries of the remaining workforce [because] there would be intense competition among the remaining talent that companies would be vying for, Wingate says. Salaries might skyrocket, and smaller companies could struggle to attract and retain the expertise they need. This scarcity could then discourage new startups, which in turn would dampen innovation and economic growth in the long run.Paul DeMott, chief technology officer at SEO and marketing agency Helium SEO says the potential problems are especially acute for technology firms that are already having trouble finding engineers who specialize in artificial intelligence, machine learning and software architecture.A mass exodus of thousands of trained workforce members will turn into an industry-wide breakdown which is not a temporary issue, says DeMott in an email interview. Years of specialized education stand between many roles and the workforce despite American educational systems not generating adequate numbers of qualified candidates.Related:Employee Morale May Degrade SignificantlyThe impact of mass deportations goes beyond the target individuals, with friends, family and employers also affected.Company morale will most likely drop if it's external policies that are forcing colleague departures. A mandated exit - for example - will only create more uncertainty and fear surrounding job security, says Emerald Oceans Wingate. In turn, this will impact trust, reduce collaboration and possibly decrease productivity. The remaining talent that stays may then look for a more stable environment - which is going to compound that loss.Employees may also disengage.In tech, the development of long-lasting connections remains a fundamental aspect that builds effective collaborations between workers, says Helium SEOs DeMott. Tasks become unattractive when employees feel their job position can be suddenly eliminated.Theres also the potential impact on company operations.US tech talent includes foreign-born professionals, particularly in engineering, product management and data science. If mass deportations impact this group, we could see enormous consequences, says Sam Wright, head of operations and partnerships at job search platform Huntr in an email interview.Related:The negative effects of labor force disruption are not limited to the United States. Withinternational collaboration the backbone of modern tech development, disruption could hinder progress in multinational projects and partnerships, says Emerald Oceans Wingate. For example, countries more welcoming to global talent may become new hubs for innovation, shifting the balance of tech leadership., Wingate says. On the flipside - domestic job opportunities may increase, but any skill gaps that local talent can't fill will also grow.Helium SEOs DeMott expects international technology industries to be rearranged on a worldwide scale.Foreign nations including Canada and Germany already welcome qualified workers through improved entry procedures so a hostile stance against talent at the US will cause major innovative industries to relocate globally, says DeMott. [Startups and enterprises] require diverse talent for maintaining their competitive market positions and if their talent pool reduces then the competitive advantage disappears.What Companies Are Doing About ItPreparedness is key. For example, Emerald Ocean engages with policymakers about workforce diversity and inclusion because it creates better policy outcomes. The company is also investing in employee development and support systems.Creating clear advancement paths and training programs usually strengthens team stability, for example, says Emerald Oceans Wingate. For larger organizations, partner with educational institutions. This approach often develops future talent pools while building community relationships. These strategies generally improve both employee retention and organizational resilience during policy changes.Helium SEO already operates with a fully decentralized workforce and international talent pool. DeMott says these mechanisms will rise in importance when immigration restrictions grow tougher.We will recruit employees whose talent exists in locations where they reside over posting job openings in our office. Policies based on supporting innovation should replace restrictive policies that make it challenging for skilled professionals to contribute, says DeMott. Tech leaders should both maintain active awareness of the situation while developing emergency protocols. You should openly share information with staff members who may get affected by the situation while examining available support solutions. Review your hiring strategy to determine whether you can increase remote work possibilities.Huntrs Wright says forward-thinking tech leaders are assessing their workforce composition, cross-training employees, and exploring remote or global hubs to mitigate risk.Some are providing legal resources or counseling to affected staff. Others are adapting their hiring strategies to tap into more flexible or fully remote talent pools beyond US borders, says Wright.The Bottom LineExecutive orders have the potential to disrupt tech departments across the US Organizational leaders who havent thought through the potential impacts need to do so now so theyre not making knee-jerk decisions that could make a challenging situation worse.Scenario planning is on the rise. Mass deportations and federal workforce reductions are two more reasons to take it seriously.About the AuthorLisa MorganFreelance WriterLisa Morgan is a freelance writer who covers business and IT strategy and emergingtechnology for InformationWeek. She has contributed articles, reports, and other types of content to many technology, business, and mainstream publications and sites including tech pubs, The Washington Post and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Frequent areas of coverage include AI, analytics, cloud, cybersecurity, mobility, software development, and emerging cultural issues affecting the C-suite.See more from Lisa MorganWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Concepts from cryptography can be applied to speeding up algorithmsImago/AlamyAdding a dash of encryption to key algorithms used in artificial intelligence models could surprisingly make them more efficient, thanks to a trick of mathematics.Cryptography normally involves scrambling messages to make them appear random to malicious onlookers while preserving their information by hiding a pattern in the randomness. This randomness can then be unlocked with the correct key.Now, Or Zamir at Tel Aviv University in Israel and Vinod Vaikuntanathan at the Massachusetts Institute of

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. De-extinction scientists say these gene-edited woolly mice are a step towards woolly mammoths Theyre small, fluffy and kind of cute, but these mice represent a milestone in de-extinction efforts, according to their creators. The animals have undergone a series of genetic tweaks that give them woolly mammoth-like featuresand their creation may bring scientists a step closer to resurrecting the ancient, giant animals that roamed the tundra thousands of years ago. Scientists at Colossal have been working to de-extinct the woolly mammoth, since the company was launched four years ago.Now, her team has shown that they can create healthy animals that look the way the team wants them to lookand pave the way towards recreating a woolly mammoth-like elephant. Read the full story.Jessica Hamzelou Should we be moving data centers to space? Last week, the Florida-based company Lonestar Data Holdings launched a shoebox-size device carrying data from internet pioneer Vint Cerf and the government of Florida, among others, on board Intuitive Machines Athena lander. When its device lands on the moon later this week, the company will be the first to explicitly test out a question that has been on some technologists minds of late: Maybe its time to move data centers off Earth? After all, energy-guzzling data centers are springing up like mushrooms all over the world, devouring precious land, straining our power grids, consuming water, and emitting noise. Building facilities in orbit or on or near the moon might help ameliorate many of these issues. But for these data centers to succeed, they must be able to withstand harsh conditions in space, pull in enough solar energy to operate, and make economic sense. Read the full story.Tereza Pultarova At RightsCon in Taipei, activists reckon with a US retreat from promoting digital rights Eileen Guo Last week, I joined over 3,200 digital rights activists, tech policymakers, and researchers in Taipei at RightsCon, the worlds largest digital rights conference. Human rights conferences can be sobering, to say the least. But this years RightsCon, the 13th since the event began as the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference in 2011, felt especially urgent. This was primarily due to the shocking, rapid gutting of the US federal government by the Elon Muskled DOGE initiative, and the reverberations this would have around the world. At RightsCon, the cuts to USAID were top of mind: the agency is facing over 90% cuts to its budget under the Trump administration. But its not just funding cuts that will curtail digital rights globally. As various speakers highlighted throughout the conference, the United States government has gone from taking the leading role in supporting an open and safe internet to demonstrating how to dismantle it. Heres what speakers are seeing.Inside the Wild West of AI companionship James O'Donnell Last week, I made a troubling discovery about an AI companion site called Botify AI: It was hosting sexually charged conversations with underage celebrity bots. These bots took on characters meant to resemble, among others, Jenna Ortega as high schooler Wednesday Addams, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, and Millie Bobby Brown. I discovered these bots also offer to send hot photos and in some instances describe age-of-consent laws as arbitrary and meant to be broken. Botify AI removed these bots after I asked questions about them, but others remain. The company said it does have filters in place meant to prevent such underage character bots from being created, but that they dont always work. It highlights how, despite their soaring popularity, AI companionship sites mostly operate in a Wild West, with few laws or even basic rules governing them. Read the full story. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The Trump administration has paused military aid to Ukraine In a bid to pressure President Zelensky into peace talks with Russia. (WP $)+ US intelligence is the most crucial component in the package. (Economist $)+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraines drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)2 The US has imposed sweeping new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada Experts fear the new import tariffs will spark a bitter trade war. (CNN)+ China swiftly retaliated with its own broad tariffs on food imports. (NYT $)+ This tit-for-tat approach rarely ends well for anyone. (The Atlantic $)3 DOGEs credit card freeze is preventing government workers from doing their jobs The measure has stopped them purchasing vital equipment and basic supplies. (Wired $)+ A government shutdown could be imminent. (NY Mag $)+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? Its complex. (MIT Technology Review) 4 A measles outbreak is spreading across Texas For now, it appears to be relatively contained. (Vox)+ RFK Jr has failed to directly encourage parents to vaccinate their children. (NYT $)+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. (MIT Technology Review)5 Top scientists are pushing to expel Elon Musk from the Royal Society The UKs national science academy is concerned about how Musks cost-cutting measures will affect research. (FT $)6 Traders are becoming residents of this tropical island to skirt crypto-buying rules Without ever visiting the Republic of Palau. (404 Media)+ A war is brewing over cryptos regulatory future. (WSJ $)7 How a mysterious Shenzhen businessman build a vaping empireAnd paid little attention to global regulations along the way. (Bloomberg $) 8 Amazon is fed up of job seekers using AI in its interviews Anyone caught using unsanctioned AI tools will be removed from the process. (Insider $)9 How a failed Xbox accessory became a hit in the art world The Kinect motion-sensing camera is wildly popular among creatives. (The Guardian)10 Electric vehicles from BYD now come with an inbuilt drone launcher Its only available in China for now, though. (The Verge)+ The electric-vehicle maker has set its sights on expanding beyond China and into lucrative new territories. (MIT Technology Review) Quote of the day The big storyWelcome to Chula Vista, where police drones respond to 911 calls February 2023 In the skies above Chula Vista, California, where the police department runs a drone program, its not uncommon to see an unmanned aerial vehicle darting across the sky. Chula Vista is one of a dozen departments in the US that operate what are called drone-as-first-responder programs, where drones are dispatched by pilots, who are listening to live 911 calls, and often arrive first at the scenes of accidents, emergencies, and crimes, cameras in tow. But many argue that police forces adoption of drones is happening too quickly, without a well-informed public debate around privacy regulations, tactics, and limits. Theres also little evidence that drone policing reduces crime. Read the full story. Patrick Sisson We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + The Great Wall of China is still surprising us after all these years.+ Nickelodeons answer to Disneyland looks suitably unhinged.+ Its time to celebrate the life of James Harrison, one of the worlds most prolific blood donors whose generosity saved the lives of millions of babies.+ Lets take a look inside Tokyos ongoing love affair with Italian food.

Theyre small, fluffy, and kind of cute, but these mice represent a milestone in de-extinction efforts, according to their creators. The animals have undergone a series of genetic tweaks that give them features similar to those of woolly mammothsand their creation may bring scientists a step closer to resurrecting the giant animals that roamed the tundra thousands of years ago. Its a big deal, says Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal Biosciences, the company behind the work. Scientists at Colossal have been working to de-extinct the woolly mammoth since the company was launched four years ago. Now she and her colleagues have shown they can create healthy animals that look the way the team wants them to look, she says. The Colossal woolly mouse marks a watershed moment in our de-extinction mission, company cofounder Ben Lamm said in a statement. This success brings us a step closer to our goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth. Colossals researchers say their ultimate goal is not to re-create a woolly mammoth wholesale. Instead, the team is aiming for what they call functional de-extinctioncreating a mammoth-like elephant that can survive in something like the extinct animals habitat and potentially fulfill the role it played in that ecosystem. Shapiro and her colleagues hope that an Arctic-adapted elephant might make that ecosystem more resilient to climate change by helping to spread the seeds of plants, for example. But other experts take a more skeptical view. Even if they succeed in creating woolly mammoths, or something close to them, we cant be certain that the resulting animals will benefit the ecosystem, says Kevin Daly, a paleogeneticist at Trinity College Dublin. I think this is a very optimistic view of the potential ecological effects of mammoth reintroduction, even if everything goes to plan, he says. It would be hubristic to think we might have a complete grasp on what the introduction of a species such as the mammoth might do to an environment. Mice and mammoths Woolly mammoth DNA has been retrieved from freeze-dried remains of animals that are tens of thousands of years old. Shapiro and her colleagues plan to eventually make changes to the genomes of modern-day elephants to make them more closely resemble those ancient mammoth genomes, in the hope that the resulting animals will look and behave like their ancient counterparts. Before the team begins tinkering with elephants, Shapiro says, she wants to be confident that these kinds of edits work and are safe in mice. After all, Asian elephants, which are genetically related to woolly mammoths, are endangered. Elephants also have a gestation period of 22 months, which will make research slow and expensive. The gestation period of a mouse, on the other hand, is a mere 20 days, says Shapiro. It makes [research] a lot faster. There are other benefits to starting in mice. Scientists have been closely studying the genetics of these rodents for decades. Shapiro and her colleagues were able to look up genes that have already been linked to wavy, long, and light-colored fur, as well as lipid metabolism. They made a shortlist of such genes that were also present in woolly mammoths but not in elephants. The team identified 10 target genes in total. All were mouse genes but were thought to be linked to mammoth-like features. We cant just put a mammoth gene into a mouse, says Shapiro. Theres 200 million years of evolutionary divergence between them. Shapiro and her colleagues then carried out a set of experiments that used CRISPR and other gene-editing techniques to target these genes in groups of mice. In some cases, the team directly altered the genomes of mouse embryos before transferring them to surrogate mouse mothers. In other cases, they edited cells and injected the resulting edited cells into early-stage embryos before implanting them into other surrogates. In total, 34 pups were born with varying numbers of gene edits, depending on which approach was taken. All of them appear to be healthy, says Shapiro. She and her colleagues will publish their work at the preprint server bioRxiv, and it has not yet been peer-reviewed. COLOSSAL Its an important proof of concept for the reintroduction of extinct genetic variants in living [animal groups], says Linus Girdland Flink, a specialist in ancient DNA at the University of Aberdeen, who is not involved in the project but says he supports the idea of de-extinction. The mice are certainly woolly. But the team dont yet know if theyd be able to survive in the cold, harsh climates that woolly mammoths lived in. Over the next year, Shapiro and her colleagues plan to investigate whether the gene edits conferred anything other than cuteness, she says. The team will feed the mice different diets and expose them to various temperatures in the lab to see how they respond. Back from the brink Representatives of Colossal have said that they plan to create a woolly mammoth by 2027 or 2028. At the moment, the team is considering 85 genes of interest. Were still working to compile the ultimate list, says Shapiro. The resulting animal should have tusks, a big head, and strong neck muscles, she adds. Given the animals long gestation period, reaching a 2028 deadline would mean implanting an edited embryo into an elephant surrogate in the next year or so. Shapiro says that the team is on track to meet this target but adds that theres 22 months of biology thats really out of our control. That timeline is optimistic, to say the least. The target date has already been moved by a year, and the company had originally hoped to have resurrected the thylacine by 2025. Daly, who is not involved in the study, thinks the birth of a woolly mammoth is closer to a decade away. In any case, if the project is eventually successful, the resulting animal wont be 100% mammoth: it will be a new animal. And it is impossible to predict how it will behave and interact with its environment, says Daly. When you watch Jurassic Park, you see dinosaurs as we imagine they would have been, and how they might have interacted with each other in the past, he says. In reality, biology is incredibly complicated. An animals behavior is shaped by everything from the embryos environment and the microbes it encounters at birth to social interactions. All of those things are going to be missing for a de-extinct animal, says Daly. It is also difficult to predict how well respond to a woolly mammoth. Maybe we'll just treat them as [tourist attractions], and ruin any kind of ecological benefits that they might have, says Daly. Colossals director of species conservation told MIT Technology Review in 2022 that the company might eventually sell tickets to see its de-extinct animals. The team at Colossal is also working on projects to de-extinct the dodo as well as the thylacine. In addition, team members are interested in using biotech to help conservation of existing animals that are at risk of extinction. When a species dwindles, the genetic pool can shrink. This has been the fate of the pink pigeon, a genetic relative of the dodo that lives in Mauritius. The number of pink pigeons is thought to have shrunk to about 10 individuals twice in the last century. A lack of genetic diversity can leave a species prone to disease. Shapiro and her colleagues are looking for more genetic diversity in DNA from museum specimens. They hope to be able to edit diversity back into the genome of the modern-day birds. The Hawaiian honeycreeper is especially close to Shapiros heart. The honeycreepers are in danger of becoming extinct because we [humans] introduced avian malaria into their habitat, and they dont have a way to fight [it], she says. If we could come up with a way to help them to be resistant to avian malaria, then that will give them a chance at survival. Girdland Flink, of the University of Aberdeen, is more interested in pigs. Farmed pigs have also lost a lot of genetic diversity, he says. The genetic ancestry of modern pigs looks nothing like the genetic ancestry of the earliest domesticated pigs, he says. Pigs are vulnerable to plenty of viral strains and are considered to be viral incubators. Searching the genome of ancient pig remains for extinctand potentially beneficialgenetic variants might provide us with ways to make todays pigs more resilient to disease. The past is a resource that can be harnessed, he says.

2025-03-04T14:35:45Z Read in app Trump will pause military aid to Ukraine. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? President Donald Trump is pausing all military aid to Ukraine.The halting of aid affects all military equipment that has not reached Ukraine yet.The pause comes after Trump sparred with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday.President Donald Trump said that he would pause military aid to Ukraine, days after he clashed with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the Oval Office.A White House official told Business Insider in a written statement that: "The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution."Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general at the UK's Royal United Services Institute, said in a statement sent to BI that the decision was driven by Trump's view that Russia is willing to strike a peace deal, while Ukraine stands in the way."But there is no evidence that Russia would be prepared to accept a deal, and what that would be," he said, adding: "This decision will encourage Putin to ask for more including Ukrainian demilitarization and neutrality."Mark Cancian, a senior advisor on defense and security at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told BI the aid pause would effectively halve Ukraine's total equipment intake and severely weaken its ability to fight."That's very serious because even with all the aid they were receiving previously, they were barely hanging on," Cancian said."My guess is if US aid does not restart, then Ukrainians could hold out two to four months," Cancian added. "But by four months, I think their front lines will crack, and they'll have to make some sort of deal."Edward Hunter Christie, a former NATO official and a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told BI that Ukraine's most immediate concern is weaponry like interceptors for its Patriot batteries."We will see negative impacts soon," he said. "The question is how much."Minerals deal in the balanceDiscussions in the Oval Office escalated into a war of wordsDuring the televised meeting, Trump accused Zelenskyy of "gambling with World War III" and was being "disrespectful" to the US.Vance then accused Zelenskyy of not being grateful or thanking the US sufficiently for the military aid it had provided.The US has provided $65.9 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, per the State Department. Zelenskyy has, on multiple occasions, thanked the US for its help.Zelenskyy left the White House on Friday without signing a minerals deal with the US that had been under discussion. On Sunday, Zelenskyy said he remains "ready to sign" the agreement.Trump said in early February that he wanted Ukraine to give the US access to valuable minerals in exchange for continuing to aid its war efforts.On February 26, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said they'd agreed on a deal. Zelenskyy's visit to the White House was supposed to include a deal-signing ceremony in which the two leaders would cement the agreement.However, it did not turn out that way.In the meantime, European leaders have rallied around Zelenskyy and Ukraine.Keir Starmer, the UK's prime minister, welcomed Zelenskyy to 10 Downing Street on Saturday with an embrace and said that Ukraine has the UK's "full backing."

2025-03-04T14:31:48Z Read in app Cathy Scola/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? We asked chefs and bakers about their favorite air-fryer desserts to make. They suggested using an air fryer to make quick chocolate chip cookies or brownies.More complex desserts, like apple pie or cannoli shells, can also be easy to make in an air fryer.Air fryers are known for their ability to give savory food a satisfying crunch without excess oil, but the trendy appliance is also capable of whipping up quick and easy desserts. Business Insider spoke with professional chefs, bakers, and food writers to share their favorite classic desserts to prepare in the countertop appliance.Here are some sweet treats you probably didn't know you could make in an air fryer.Brownies are a quick and simple dessert to prepare in an air fryer. You may want to make a smaller batch of brownies in your air fryer. Getty Images Chris Riley, chef and founder of The Darling Kitchen, told BI that you can use an air fryer to make perfectly tender brownies."The air fryer is perfect for making a small batch of brownies without heating up the whole house with the oven," he said.Most air fryers are smaller than traditional ovens, so to make sure you don't end up with leftover mix, Riley suggested dividing your recipe in half or baking your batter in multiple smaller batches.You can make apple pie in record time. Consider using a silicone mini muffin tin in your air fryer. Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Air fryers are a great shortcut for making small fruit pies."This classic dessert can easily be prepared in an air fryer without having to turn on the oven. If you use ready-made pie crust, you can make this tasty treat in under half an hour," Riley told BI.To decrease the chances of your pie bubbling over, allow the sliced apples to rest in a bowl for 30 minutes, and drain the excess liquid before adding them to your pie crust.Nutella pastry rolls are a deliciously easy treat.Try different ways of rolling and twisting your dough. DigiPub/Getty Images Chef and author Maria Liberati told BI you can use hazelnut spread and store-bought pastry dough to create a quick and tasty dessert in an air fryer."Spread Nutella between two strips of puff-pastry dough, brush the top strip with milk and brown sugar, roll it up, and then bake in the air fryer for five minutes at 400 degrees," she said.If you're using a large sheet of premade pastry dough, be sure to cut an even number of strips so that each roll has a top and bottom layer.Chocolate chip cookies are one of the quickest air-fryer desserts.You can even add pumpkin or other mix-ins to your cookies. Edalin Photography/Shutterstock Chocolate chip cookies are another classic dessert you can easily make in an air fryer."Chocolate chip cookies bake in around five minutes in the air fryer," Riley told BI. "They get perfectly crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside."If you want to save even more time, use store-bought cookie dough or prepare a large batch ahead of time and bake individual cookies as needed.Air fryers can be ideal for making homemade cannoli shells.Cannoli shells can be packed with a range of tasty fillings. Photo by Cathy Scola/Getty Images Cannoli are Italian pastries made by filling tubes of fried dough with sweet ricotta cream. Fortunately, Riley said, the shells are easy to make in an air fryer."You can make cannoli shells in an air fryer with a lot less work than usual by using store-bought pie dough," he told BI. "No one will suspect that this exquisite dessert came right out of your air fryer."If you don't have cannoli tube forms, you can wrap your pastry dough around sturdy aluminum foil that's been shaped into cylinders.Banana bread may not take long to prepare in an air fryer. Try swirling your banana bread with Nutella, Rachel Hosie Jessica Randhawa, a chef and the writer of The Forked Spoon, told BI that an air fryer is a great way to get banana bread that's perfectly chewy on the outside and soft on the inside."Making banana bread is easy in an air fryer and the fast cooking time means that it can be enjoyed with your morning coffee, as an afternoon snack, or late-night dessert," she said.Use mini cake tins or Bundt pans to bake single portions of banana bread in the air fryer, and be sure to adjust your recipe and cooking time accordingly.Air-fried oatmeal cookies can come out perfectly chewy.Try adding raisins or chocolate chips to your cookies. Photo by Cathy Scola/Getty Images The dense, chewy texture of oatmeal cookies pairs perfectly with the crisping abilities of an air fryer."Oatmeal cookies cook great in an air fryer," Randhawa said. "They come out soft yet chewy and are even better when they're loaded with gooey chocolate chips and spices."This story was originally published in November 2020 and most recently updated on March 4, 2025.

Theres one group you wont find joining in the push to redeem alleged child-killer Casey Anthony, following her attempted image rehabilitation in the 2020s: the true crime fan community. As of March 2025, Anthony has joined TikTok in her capacity as a legal advocate, and the backlash is strong.Thats because despite Casey Anthony being found not guilty in 2011 of allegedly murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, conventional wisdom holds that she almost certainly was involved in Caylees disappearance and death. While the case against her unfolded as an avaricious media circus that portrayed Casey as a callous Orlando party girl, the actual evidence against her makes a strong argument that, in Casey Anthonys case, the media got it right.Casey Anthony did party while Caylee was missing. For 31 days in 2008, she behaved like any other 22-year-old without a care in the world without telling a single human being that her daughter had vanished. Thats just the tip of the iceberg.Casey Anthonys guilt is essentially settled fact among true crime fans. Her acquittal and the truly wild case that led up to it, from petty theft and hot bod contests to Zanny the Nanny has become firmly fixed in pop culture as an egregious example of the justice system failing.At least, it was until Caseys attempt to wrest control of the narrative. This began in 2022, with Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies, a three-part limited series (were loath to call it a documentary) released to Peacock, in which Casey blamed her daughters murder on her own father, George Anthony, expanding on claims of abuse she made at trial. These are unsubstantiated claims which he has consistently denied.In her new TikTok video, Anthony tells viewers she has been a legal advocate since 2011, and that its time I start to advocate for myselfand for my daughter. She also directs viewers to her new Substack, where she says they can start conversations with her. (Comments on her TikTok are currently off.) Its unclear how Anthony intends to carry out legal advocacy work, though her recent Substack posts mention the importance of presumed innocence and not rushing to judgment. She also wishes to discuss the importance of safeguarding her privacy, though its unclear how elevating her public profile will do that.Caseys behavior, then and now, makes a compelling argument that not every public scandal needs to be relitigated, nor does every headline-grabbing criminal case need to be perpetually thrust again and again into the public eye. Unfortunately, the death of Caylee Anthony is just one of several high-profile true crime cases that have recently been dragged once again into the spotlight, despite being previously considered resolved. And while some of those cases scream injustice and beg for renewed attention, others like this one seem to be less about truth-seeking and more about finding new ways to profit and exploit the popularity of older true crime cases.Casey Anthonys behavior was infamously bizarreCasey Anthony is a proven liar. Her narrative of her own story is untrustworthy. She was found guilty at trial of providing false information to law enforcement.Casey had a long pattern of lying, beginning with years of constructing elaborate lies about her progress through high school, and later about her nonexistent job and even her pregnancy with Caylee a backstory she shares with multiple convicted killers who all eventually murdered members of their family. Rather unusually, however, Caseys parents, according to her brother Lees testimony at her trial, had a history of enabling and playing along with their daughters lies rather than holding her to account for them. By 2008, per contemporaneous media reports as well as court documents, 22-year-old Casey was still living on and off with her parents, George and Cindy, in Orlando, while habitually engaging in petty theft from her family and friends. She sought to convince everyone that she had spent the past several years working as an event coordinator for Universal Studios.In the days after June 16, 2008, 2-year-old Caylee went missing. For the next 31 days, Casey, who was staying with her boyfriend at the time, told no one about her daughters disappearance. Instead, she gave conflicting statements about where she was sometimes saying she was staying with a friend, other times claiming she was staying with a nanny and took no action to locate her. In early July, she got a back tattoo reading bella vita, or beautiful life. Multiple friends would later testify at trial that, during that month, Casey seemed upbeat, normal, and happy.Oh, my god, I am such a good liar, one witness recalled Casey laughing.During this month, Casey had been refusing to communicate with her parents, and most concerningly refusing to give them a straight answer about where Caylee was. On July 15, 2008, she finally returned home and on that day, her parents placed a series of 911 calls. The first was an attempt to report the family car Casey had taken and abandoned as missing, hopeful leverage to get her to tell them where Caylee was; the last came after theyd gotten their answer: Casey told her parents that Caylees nanny had stolen the little girl and that Casey had been trying unsuccessfully to locate her daughter, on her own, for the past month. Hearing this, a frantic and audibly panicked Cindy Anthony placed the now infamous call to the police. This call jump-started the investigation into one of the most infamous modern true crime cases infamous both because of Casey Anthonys bizarre behavior and because no one knows, still, what happened to Caylee Anthony. The case of Caylee Anthony began with elaborate, outrageous lies, and then kept goingFrom the time of her mothers 911 call until her trial three years later when her story changed completely Casey insisted to police and everyone else that Caylee had been abducted. Casey claimed she knew who had Caylee: A woman named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez whod been Caylees nanny for the last two years. She had met Zanny the Nanny, she told police, through a co-worker of hers at Universal Studios; Zanny had once been his childs nanny as well. But Casey didnt work at Universal. Not only that, the male colleague she named hadnt worked for Universal in six years, had never heard of a nanny named Zanny, and didnt even have kids. As for Zanny herself? She didnt exist. When the police managed to track down a Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez on the other side of Orlando, she had no idea who the Anthonys were. But Casey was so committed to this lie that she confidently took investigators to Universal Studios headquarters, got staff to buzz her in, and led them around the office building while she looked for, apparently, a convincing open room that she could try to claim as her office. When she failed to find one, she abruptly gave up in mid-stride, turned around, and confessed to lying about working there. She continued to insist, however, that Zanny the Nanny was real. What we do know is that Caylee most likely died by homicide. In August 2008, an eagle-eyed meter reader named Roy Kronk spotted and reported what he believed could be human remains in a wooded area; Caylee was finally located and identified there in December 2008. While no cause of death could be determined due to the extent of decomposition, her lower jaw was found with duct tape attached, which led the prosecution to argue at trial that she had likely died by suffocation, with duct tape as the murder weapon.Meanwhile, Casey, in jail awaiting trial initially on charges of child neglect, later upgraded to first-degree murder, was far more interested in getting her boyfriends phone number on a family call than discussing what had happened with her daughter. When her best friend began crying over Caylee, Casey responded with a contemptuous, Oh, my god. By contrast, the case was a huge emotional strain on Caseys family; in January 2009, George Anthony attempted suicide, which would later be used against him by Caseys defense at her trial.Even ignoring all of Caseys confirmed suspicious behavior, the other circumstantial evidence against her was strong. Casey had claimed that her daughter was abducted far from the Anthony home, but Caylees body was found with a Winnie-the-Pooh blanket that matched the theme of her room, and she was wrapped in a canvas laundry bag identified as part of a set belonging to the Anthony household. The location of the remains was just a quarter-mile from the house.The day the police were summoned to investigate Caylees disappearance, Cindy Anthony told the 911 operator that the trunk of Caseys car smelled like it had held a dead body, and cadaver dogs brought to the scene immediately alerted upon the trunk. Forensic analysis found shockingly high levels of chloroform in the trunk; someone accessing the Anthonys computer also did a Google search for chloroform and spent time browsing the results. On the last day that Caylee was seen alive, June 16, 2008, someone in the Anthony home did a Google search for fool-proof suffication [sic], then appeared to read an article that discussed murder by poison and suffocation by smothering. Casey Anthonys trial took place in 2011, and it was a media juggernaut: A reported 40 million viewers worldwide tuned into at least some of the trial coverage as it unfolded, with millions viewing the verdict live. Millions also tuned in to Nancy Graces nightly repetition of Tot Mom! to scathingly refer to Caseys case.At trial, Caseys defense team dropped the Zanny the Nanny story and instead claimed that Caylee had accidentally drowned in the Anthonys pool and that George had helped his daughter cover up the death. Her defense attorney, Jose Baez, dropped the bombshell accusation that Casey had been abused by her father, implying that this explained her string of lies and her willingness to protect him.Again, there was no evidence for this accusation. But Baez also brought in skilled rebuttal arguments, like that of forensic expert Werner Spitz, to undercut the prosecutions case. Spitz, for example, argued that the autopsy was poorly conducted and that there was reasonable doubt about the manner of death. In the end, the jury agreed; despite most of them feeling as though Casey did something wrong, they voted to acquit an outcome that shocked the world and reportedly shocked even the judge. She was, however, found guilty of lying to police.Following the trial, Casey seemed to carry on living just as she always had; tabloids intermittently reported sightings of her partying, while she grew estranged from her parents, especially her father, and from her brother. I dont give a shit about what anyone thinks about me, she told the Associated Press in a 2017 interview. I never will. Im okay with myself; I sleep pretty good at night.Casey Anthony is probably still lying but does the true crime machine care?By 2022, however, Casey Anthony apparently did care what we think. The Peacock series, which focuses on Casey and her defense, was all about trying to shift the narrative toward a Me Too story of lifelong sexual assault and abuse. Once again, her story has changed: She now blamed her estranged father entirely, claiming not only that George Anthony abused her throughout her childhood, but that he also killed Caylee and then intimidated Casey into covering it up. It was a hard sell. Reports surfaced in 2021 that Casey Anthony had created a TikTok account and had been posting videos claiming to miss Caylee. It didnt last long. Years later however, some TikTok users have embraced the idea of her innocence, including some viewers like Rosie ODonnell in 2022. While they garnered plenty of attention, though, they were firmly in the minority. Reviews of the Peacock series dripped with disdain and revulsion for the entire project: Heres the Guardian:The show doesnt just make the case for Anthonys innocence all over again. Parts of it play like a dating show sizzle reel, complete with shots of Anthony garbed in athleisure wear snapping nature photos while out for long walks in the wild as if were not all watching because her kid was found dead in a wood. Fortunately, anyone wanting to do a deep dive into the still-unsolved murder of Caylee Anthony can find plenty of other, more thorough documentaries out there. Oxygens The Case of: Caylee Anthony, which features analysis from famed criminologist Laura Richards and retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente, is a quality pick. If a podcast is more your vibe, I would also recommend the coverage of the ladies of RedHanded, who did a two-part look at the case. However, the issue with the documentary wasnt that people didnt know anything about Casey Anthony; it was more about the cyclical nature of modern media production. Were all too familiar with the way Hollywood prefers to invest in reviving old IP and classic franchises rather than banking on something new. That mentality found its way into the ever-lucrative true crime genre, as well. After all, you just cant magically will a huge, eye-popping true crime story into existence, much less manipulate it into becoming a massive phenomenon, like that of the Watts family, Gabby Petito, or the macabre Murdaugh murders. These cases certainly warrant the attention they receive, but they also compel us to return to them, again and again. Perhaps, in 2022, after hundreds of books, podcasts, movies, and documentaries about Jeffrey Dahmer, you might have expected Netflixs new docudrama to be just one more version of a tired story. Instead, Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was a hit for Netflix, swiftly becoming the second-biggest English-language release in Netflix history and rapidly clocking over a billion streaming views worldwide. Production studios know theres a hunger for this kind of recycled true crime content. And when the original trial drew viewer ratings like Casey Anthonys did, perhaps thats all the motivation needed to revisit a case. Case in point: the Menendez brothers, whose case has gained renewed public support following a wave of new media attention and a splashy Netflix drama.But theres a difference between Anthonys case and most other recent popular true crime revivals. No one was trying to proclaim innocence for Dahmer or Ted Bundy in their recent revisitations, even if both series did come under fire for being too centered around the killer. Anthonys acquittal complicates the facts, to be sure, but any series that allows her to tell her own version of events unchallenged is ethically irresponsible at a bare minimum. (The prosecution refused to participate in the series.) Whats more, theres arguably zero utility served by rehashing Anthonys case: She was acquitted. Theres no urgent need to get courts to reevaluate her plight. One could argue she deserves a new hearing in the court of public opinion, but if you believe Casey Anthony is innocent, youve already validated her.From one perspective, its easy to see why Anthony attempted to reframe her narrative in the waning moments of Me Too. It is, perhaps, the most hospitable cultural climate for her to receive a hearing on her version of events especially her claims of abuse. Over the last few years, reexamining the lives of women maligned by the media, from Marcia Clark to Britney Spears, has become something of a cultural touchstone, often to positive effect. Its a trend that started to see diminishing returns, however how much more did we learn, for instance, about Pamela Anderson from Pam & Tommy? Placing Anthony in this same frame seems to assume some level of cultural misunderstanding at the time. But even new information about potential abuse doesnt change the overwhelming likelihood that she played a primary role in what happened to Caylee.Casey Anthony isnt the only suspected killer to benefit from this treatment, however. Take convicted double-murderer Scott Peterson. Peterson, like Anthony, also wove an elaborate web of lies around his pregnant wife Lacis disappearance. Unlike Anthony, however, Scott Peterson was found guilty of killing his wife and their unborn son; while his conviction was up for appeal on a technicality (improper jury selection), there was no assertion of actual innocence by his defense team. In December 2022, that appeal was denied.Yet the siren call to revisit even cases like Petersons, which seem open and shut, has proven hard to resist. A pair of 2016 and 2017 documentaries advocating for Petersons innocence led to a growing chorus of supporters. Famous podcasters like the Crime Junkie hosts and more recently justice advocate Rabia Chaudry have asserted his innocence so strongly that they have infuriated many members of the true crime community. This division between true crime fan factions may also reflect something of the exponential growth of the true crime community, which had long been a grassroots movement until Serial exploded on the podcasting scene in 2014. Since then, true crime has ballooned into a modernized media juggernaut, replete with docuseries, podcasts, and even fan conventions. Many of those fans are often criticized for treating true crime as an entertainment playground, much to the alarm of other true crime fans.The alarm is understandable, given how much we know about misinformation impacting popular opinion. Its also certainly the case that web sleuths love a good mystery. Often the facts in criminal cases are just vague enough to allow true crime fans to behave the way we increasingly see those in other fandoms behaving as they dig into the media they love: That is, they lose themselves in the details, spin elaborate theories of the situation, and emerge with complex narratives that fit what they want to believe while rejecting a rational view of all the facts. While this is exactly what wed prefer our justice system to avoid, the public has no obligation to examine the totality of evidence in a case. Thats why one-sided narratives like the Casey Anthony series are so concerning: They risk distorting the truth and misguiding the public. But with the arc of true crime bending toward recycling and rehashing settled cases and with the public eagerly lapping it up it seems unlikely theres anything we can do to prevent serial manipulators like Casey Anthony from taking advantage of the public hunger for more information on old cases. All we can do, it seems, is respond by repeating the facts and trust that one day, if only in the court of public opinion, justice will prevail.Update, March 4, 2025, 9:30 am ET: This story, originally published on December 13, 2022, has been updated to reflect Casey Anthony joining TikTok.See More:

Six weeks ago, President Donald Trump could credibly say that he and his agenda were popular. His boasts of popular support were backed by data: Half of the country approved of the job he was doing for most of his first month on the job, according to polling averages. And though the share of Americans who disapproved gradually increased, he still maintained a net positive rating.Thats over now.As Trump prepares to address a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, roughly even shares of the country approve and disapprove of his presidency. The share of Americans who view him positively continues to drop. And it doesnt seem likely that hell see a boost anytime soon.Presidents generally enjoy a honeymoon period during the first few weeks of their new administrations that period when a recently elected (or reelected) president is most popular and has the political capital to push for new legislation or policy. They typically get the benefit of the doubt from independents and some partisans from the opposition, while enjoying nearly universal approval from their own party.But that time, historically, has been short for Trump. His positive average approval rating lasted longer this year than it did in 2017, when the public turned on him within a month of being inaugurated.This Trump honeymoon lasted a little longer boosted by Trumps win of the popular vote and higher initial approval rating. And in both cases, he was starting from a pretty low point, meaning he had little room for error. For comparison, at this point during Joe Bidens presidency, Biden was near the peak of his popularity.How this unraveling happened is no great mystery: Views of the economy, and Trumps handling of it, have taken a negative turn, and Americans largely think that the president isnt giving enough attention to the issues that they care about. Paired with controversial policy positions, the perceived influence of Elon Musk, and a pretty small mandate to begin with, the publics turn against Trump is right on time.Taking a look at the most recent data paints a pretty clear picture. Americans, a majority of whom trusted Trump would be better for the economy and tackling inflation, are losing that trust.When asked if the national economy is getting better or getting worse, the trend is negative: More Americans say conditions are getting worse, per Gallup tracking data. Similarly, during Trumps first two months in office, the share of Americans who think the state of the economy is excellent or good has dropped from 26 percent to 20 percent.Similarly, a February Reuters/Ipsos survey found Americans think the countrys economy is off track, with majorities thinking that the cost of living is still too high, and only 39 percent of Americans approving of Trumps handling of the economy. A significantly larger share, 47 percent, disapprove. Trump also gets negative ratings for his handling of international trade, the job market, taxes, and inflation.Its a recurring theme over the last two weeks: The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows more Americans think Trump and his economic policies will change the economy for the worse (46 percent say so, compared to 42 percent who say they will change for the better). And an overwhelming share, nearly 60 percent of registered voters, think that grocery store prices are going to get more expensive over the next few months.That these economic perceptions are dragging Trump down now makes a lot of sense its something polls were warning about less than a month ago. In those surveys, Americans warned that they thought Trump was putting his focus in the wrong places, not working hard enough to provide economic relief and instead pushing to fulfill the most controversial parts of his vision for his second term.Americans have remained consistent on this front: A CNN poll released on Monday shows that 52 percent of Americans think Trump hasnt paid enough attention to the countrys most important problems. And CBS/YouGov polling gives some more specific details. Respondents thought Trump was focusing more on the border, reforming the federal workforce, and pushing for tariffs instead of tackling their highest priorities: lowering inflation and improving the economy in general.Americans are also torn over what Trump is focusing onAmericans think Trump is actually giving his attention to immigration and federal workforce cuts. The public is divided on that focus and wary of who is influencing Trump.The CBS/YouGov poll finds that Trumps reforms of the government are breaking through some 81 percent think hes making major changes but a plurality say that those changes are for the worse.Theyre divided over these staffing cuts, but they dont think Musk should have as much influence as he currently has over how these cuts are being conducted. More than half of Americans think Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have too much access to government data records, for example.His immigration policy, meanwhile, remains the most popular of his policy moves. But its not the issue they want him to prioritize the most right now. These results are pretty consistent with what the data has been saying over the last few weeks. A month of shock-and-awe governance has turned off many independent and moderate voters, the group of voters largely contributing to his majority approval going into this term. And so Trump seems to be repeating some of the mistakes of his predecessor: assuming a narrow victory is proof that the country wants to see massive change and disruption. That doesnt seem to be true.See More: