June 3, 20258 min readWhite House Budget Plan Would Devastate U.S. Space ScienceScientists are rallying to reverse ruinous proposed cuts to both NASA and the National Science FoundationBy Nadia Drake edited by Lee BillingsFog shrouds the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this photograph from February 25, 2025. Gregg Newton/AFP via GettyLate last week the Trump Administration released its detailed budget request for fiscal year 2026 —a request that, if enacted, would be the equivalent of carpet-bombing the national scientific enterprise.“This is a profound, generational threat to scientific leadership in the United States,” says Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, a science advocacy group. “If implemented, it would fundamentally undermine and potentially devastate the most unique capabilities that the U.S. has built up over a half-century.”The Trump administration’s proposal, which still needs to be approved by Congress, is sure to ignite fierce resistance from scientists and senators alike. Among other agencies, the budget deals staggering blows to NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), which together fund the majority of U.S. research in astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science, heliophysics and Earth science —all space-related sciences that have typically mustered hearty bipartisan support.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The NSF supports ground-based astronomy, including such facilities as the Nobel Prize–winning gravitational-wave detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), globe-spanning arrays of radio telescopes, and cutting-edge observatories that stretch from Hawaii to the South Pole. The agency faces a lethal 57 percent reduction to its $9-billion budget, with deep cuts to every program except those in President Trump’s priority areas, which include artificial intelligence and quantum information science. NASA, which funds space-based observatories, faces a 25 percent reduction, dropping the agency’s $24.9-billion budget to $18.8 billion. The proposal beefs up efforts to send humans to the moon and to Mars, but the agency’s Science Mission Directorate —home to Mars rovers, the Voyager interstellar probes, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Hubble Space Telescope, and much more —is looking at a nearly 50 percent reduction, with dozens of missions canceled, turned off or operating on a starvation diet.“It’s an end-game scenario for science at NASA,” says Joel Parriott, director of external affairs and public policy at the American Astronomical Society. “It’s not just the facilities. You’re punching a generation-size hole, maybe a multigenerational hole, in the scientific and technical workforce. You don’t just Cryovac these people and pull them out when the money comes back. People are going to move on.”Adding to the chaos, on Saturday President Trump announced that billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman was no longer his pick for NASA administrator—just days before the Senate was set to confirm Isaacman’s nomination. Initial reports—which have now been disputed—explained the president’s decision as stemming from his discovery that Isaacman recently donated money to Democratic candidates. Regardless of the true reason, the decision leaves both NASA and the NSF, whose director abruptly resigned in April, with respective placeholder “acting” leaders at the top. That leadership vacuum significantly weakens the agencies’ ability to fight the proposed budget cuts and advocate for themselves. “What’s more inefficient than a rudderless agency without an empowered leadership?” Dreier asks.Actions versus WordsDuring his second administration, President Trump has repeatedly celebrated U.S. leadership in space. When he nominated Isaacman last December, Trump noted “NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration” and looked to a future of “groundbreaking achievements in space science, technology and exploration.” More recently, while celebrating Hubble’s 35th anniversary in April, Trump called the telescope “a symbol of America’s unmatched exploratory might” and declared that NASA would “continue to lead the way in fueling the pursuit of space discovery and exploration.” The administration’s budgetary actions speak louder than Trump’s words, however. Instead of ushering in a new golden age of space exploration—or even setting up the U.S. to stay atop the podium—the president’s budget “narrows down what the cosmos is to moon and Mars and pretty much nothing else,” Dreier says. “And the cosmos is a lot bigger, and there’s a lot more to learn out there.”Dreier notes that when corrected for inflation, the overall NASA budget would be the lowest it’s been since 1961. But in April of that year, the Soviet Union launched the first human into orbit, igniting a space race that swelled NASA’s budget and led to the Apollo program putting American astronauts on the moon. Today China’s rapidprogress and enormous ambitions in space would make the moment ripe for a 21st-century version of this competition, with the U.S. generously funding its own efforts to maintain pole position. Instead the White House’s budget would do the exact opposite.“The seesaw is sort of unbalanced,” says Tony Beasley, director of the NSF-funded National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). “On the one side, we’re saying, ‘Well, China’s kicking our ass, and we need to do something about that.’ But then we’re not going to give any money to anything that might actually do that.”How NASA will achieve a crewed return to the moon and send astronauts to Mars—goals that the agency now considers part of “winning the second space race”—while also maintaining its leadership in science is unclear.“This is Russ Vought’s budget,” Dreier says, referring to the director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an unelected bureaucrat who has been notorious for his efforts to reshape the U.S. government by weaponizing federal funding. “This isn’t even Trump’s budget. Trump’s budget would be good for space. This one undermines the president’s own claims and ambitions when it comes to space.”“Low Expectations” at the High FrontierRumors began swirling about the demise of NASA science in April, when a leaked OMB document described some of the proposed cuts and cancellations. Those included both the beleaguered, bloated Mars Sample Return (MSR) program and the on-time, on-budget Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the next astrophysics flagship mission.The top-line numbers in the more fleshed-out proposal are consistent with that document, and MSR would still be canceled. But Roman would be granted a stay of execution: rather than being zeroed out, it would be put on life support.“It’s a reprieve from outright termination, but it’s still a cut for functionally no reason,” Dreier says. “In some ways, [the budget] is slightly better than I was expecting. But I had very low expectations.”In the proposal, many of the deepest cuts would be made to NASA science, which would sink from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion. Earth science missions focused on carbon monitoring and climate change, as well as programs aimed at education and workforce diversity, would be effectively erased by the cuts. But a slew of high-profile planetary science projects would suffer, too, with cancellations proposed for two future Venus missions, the Juno mission that is currently surveilling Jupiter, the New Horizons mission that flew by Pluto and two Mars orbiters. (The Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan would survive, as would the flagship Europa Clipper spacecraft, which launched last October.) NASA’s international partnerships in planetary science fare poorly, too, as the budget rescinds the agency’s involvement with multiple European-led projects, including a Venus mission and Mars rover.The proposal is even worse for NASA astrophysics—the study of our cosmic home—which “really takes it to the chin,” Dreier says, with a roughly $1-billion drop to just $523 million. In the president’s proposal, only three big astrophysics missions would survive: the soon-to-launch Roman and the already-operational Hubble and JWST. The rest of NASA’s active astrophysics missions, which include the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), would be severely pared back or zeroed out. Additionally, the budget would nix NASA’s contributions to large European missions, such as a future space-based gravitational-wave observatory.“This is the most powerful fleet of missions in the history of the study of astrophysics from space,” says John O’Meara, chief scientist at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and co-chair of a recent senior review panel that evaluated NASA’s astrophysics missions. The report found that each reviewed mission “continues to be capable of producing important, impactful science.” This fleet, O’Meara adds, is more than the sum of its parts, with much of its power emerging from synergies among multiple telescopes that study the cosmos in many different types, or wavelengths, of light.By hollowing out NASA’s science to ruthlessly focus on crewed missions, the White House budget might be charitably viewed as seeking to rekindle a heroic age of spaceflight—with China’s burgeoning space program as the new archrival. But even for these supposedly high-priority initiatives, the proposed funding levels appear too anemic and meager to give the U.S. any competitive edge. For example, the budget directs about $1 billion to new technology investments to support crewed Mars missions while conservative estimates have projected that such voyages would cost hundreds of billions of dollars more.“It cedes U.S. leadership in space science at a time when other nations, particularly China, are increasing their ambitions,” Dreier says. “It completely flies in the face of the president’s own stated goals for American leadership in space.”Undermining the FoundationThe NSF’s situation, which one senior space scientist predicted would be “diabolical” when the NASA numbers leaked back in April, is also unsurprisingly dire. Unlike NASA, which is focused on space science and exploration, the NSF’s programs span the sweep of scientific disciplines, meaning that even small, isolated cuts—let alone the enormous ones that the budget has proposed—can have shockingly large effects on certain research domains.“Across the different parts of the NSF, the programs that are upvoted are the president’s strategic initiatives, but then everything else gets hit,” Beasley says.Several large-scale NSF-funded projects would escape more or less intact. Among these are the panoramic Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scheduled to unveil its first science images later this month, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope. The budget also moves the Giant Magellan Telescope, which would boast starlight-gathering mirrors totaling more than 25 meters across, into a final design phase. All three of those facilities take advantage of Chile’s pristine dark skies. Other large NSF-funded projects that would survive include the proposed Next Generation Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico and several facilities at the South Pole, such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.If this budget is enacted, however, NSF officials anticipate only funding a measly 7 percent of research proposals overall rather than 25 percent; the number of graduate research fellowships awarded would be cleaved in half, and postdoctoral fellowships in the physical sciences would drop to zero. NRAO’s Green Bank Observatory — home to the largest steerable single-dish radio telescope on the planet — would likely shut down. So would other, smaller observatories in Arizona and Chile. The Thirty Meter Telescope, a humongous, perennially embattled project with no clear site selection, would be canceled. And the budget proposes closing one of the two gravitational-wave detectors used by the LIGO collaboration—whose observations of colliding black holes earned the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics—even though both detectors need to be online for LIGO’s experiment to work. Even factoring in other operational detectors, such as Virgo in Europe and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan, shutting down half of LIGO would leave a gaping blind spot in humanity’s gravitational-wave view of the heavens.“The consequences of this budget are that key scientific priorities, on the ground and in space, will take at least a decade longer—or not be realized at all,” O’Meara says. “The universe is telling its story at all wavelengths. It doesn’t care what you build, but if you want to hear that story, you must build many things.”Dreier, Parriott and others are anticipating fierce battles on Capitol Hill. And already both Democratic and Republican legislators have issued statement signaling that they won’t support the budget request as is. “This sick joke of a budget is a nonstarter,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, in a recent statement. And in an earlier statement, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations, cautioned that “the President’s Budget Request is simply one step in the annual budget process.”The Trump administration has “thrown a huge punch here, and there will be a certain back-reaction, and we’ll end up in the middle somewhere,” Beasley says. “The mistake you can make right now is to assume that this represents finalized decisions and the future—because it doesn’t.”

Longchamp has reintroduced its iconic SoHo flagship, unveiling a bold new chapter in its architectural and artistic journey. Nestled in the heart of downtown Manhattan, the La Maison Unique boutique has been transformed into a space that merges retail with an immersive cultural experience – offering more than shopping, but a deep dive into the brand’s design philosophy, legacy, and creative ambition. At the core of this reimagining is the rekindled collaboration between Longchamp and celebrated British designer Thomas Heatherwick. Nearly two decades after his original work on the space, Heatherwick returns to re-envision the site with a fresh narrative. The result is a compelling blend of artistry, innovation, and Parisian warmth, translated into architectural form. The redesign honors the bones of the original building while elevating its purpose. One of the most striking updates is the reinterpreted central staircase. Originally made of steel ribbons, it has been reborn in Longchamp’s signature green – a vibrant pathway of swooping planes that guides visitors up from the ground floor, like ascending a hill. The dramatic feature sets the tone for the boutique’s organic, flowing atmosphere. Above, the retail space has been crafted to feel less like a store and more like an upscale, lived-in loft. Round rugs in rich green tones spill from carpeted columns across warm wood floors, creating a dynamic interplay of texture and form. Vintage and bespoke furnishings – like a 1970s croissant sofa by Raphaël Raffel and sculptural works by David Nash – anchor the room with both history and originality. Longchamp’s ties to the art world are on full display throughout the store. The brand’s private collection, along with newly commissioned pieces, gives the space a gallery-like feel. Highlights include ceramics and sculptures from artists such as Dorothée Loriquet, Bobby Silverman, and Tanaka Tomomi. Their works echo Longchamp’s commitment to natural materials, tactile surfaces, and organic design. In a deliberate shift from traditional retail layout, the central area has been opened to encourage conversation. Instead of focusing solely on product display, the well-lit space invites guests to linger and connect, mirroring the rhythm of a Paris apartment transplanted to a New York context. The visual storytelling continues with intentional quirks: neon signage, hand-drawn graffiti by artist André, and archive objects that trace Longchamp’s early heritage as a maker of leather tobacco accessories and travel games. These nostalgic elements add to the space, providing a bridge between past and present. This revitalization is part of a larger movement within the brand to reshape the in-store experience. It reflects a shift in luxury retail – from transactional to experiential. By creating a space where design, storytelling, and sensory detail converge, Longchamp is championing a new kind of flagship – one rooted in memory and human connection. “Retail moves fast, but architecture should last. We wanted to create something bold and joyful, yet warm and timeless – an apartment-like space that invites people to stay,” Heatherwick Studio partner Neil Hubbard says. “From the swirling green rugs under green-carpeted columns to curved furniture that feels custom but lived-in, everything was designed to feel unified and human. Even the red brick walls downstairs, set to host rotating installations, help ground the space in SoHo’s industrial roots while creating room for surprise.”

J Allard, a former Microsoft executive and one of the minds behind the Zune, is leading a new team at Amazon, CNBC reports. Allard is officially the vice president of Amazon's ZeroOne, which, based on at least one Amazon job listing, is "a special projects team dedicated to inventing breakthrough consumer product categories." What ZeroOne is actually working on remains a bit mysterious, but CNBC was able to find another listing for a "Senior Applied Scientist" role that suggests the team will be "conceiving, designing, and bringing to market computer vision techniques for a new smart-home product." Computer vision is the umbrella term for technologies that allow computer systems to "understand" images and video — for example, the ability for a Ring Video Doorbell to identify when a package is on your door step. Depending on your taste in MP3 players, Allard's role in the creation of the Microsoft Zune could justifiably give you pause. Microsoft's failed MP3 player looked distinct, but was no match for the popularity of the iPod. The Zune was one of several interesting, if unsuccessful projects Allard led at Microsoft, including the Microsoft Kin, and the Courier, a book-style tablet that was later reimagined as the Surface Neo. Allard also co-created the original Xbox, arguably his biggest claim to fame at the company. ZeroOne will exist inside Amazon's larger devices and services division, which is led by Panos Panay, another Microsoft expat. Panay joined Amazon to lead the division in 2023, after several years overseeing the development of Surface hardware and Windows 11 at Microsoft. Since Panay joined the company, Amazon has launched a new lineup of Kindles and introduced Alexa+, its integration of generative AI into the well-known voice assistant. Hiring both Allard and Panay suggests Amazon plans to lean even harder into product development going forward.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-zunes-creator-is-leading-a-secretive-team-at-amazon-194136949.html?src=rss

Mozilla recently announced that it's shutting down the read-later app Pocket on July 8, 2025. If you're a fan like I was, now's the time to start looking at alternatives. You have until October 8 of this year to export your saves from Pocket, so get testing now to find the right read-later replacement for you.Use your browser's reading list feature Credit: Pranay Parab I'm a big fan of recommending simple tools, since you're more likely to use them. Browser-based reading lists definitely fall into that category. Both Chrome and Safari have built-in reading lists, which let you save articles for reading later. The Safari version saves articles for offline reading, but Chrome just loads the saved page. You can technically save articles for offline reading in Chrome, too, but the browser treats it like saving the entire webpage and stores it in files that you have to manage separately. That's a lot less convenient than just marking an article as read and deleting it off the device.Use the reading list in Safari by hitting the Share button and tapping Add to Reading List. To access saved articles on your iPhone, tap the bookmarks icon in Safari's tab bar, then the spectacles icon. In Safari for Mac, click the sidebar button next to the green button in the top-left corner of the browser's window, and select Reading List from the sidebar. To save articles offline by default on your iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Safari, scroll to the bottom, and enable Automatically Save Offline. On the Mac, this is under Safari menu > Settings > Advanced > Reading List.Google Chrome's reading list is under the three-dots menu > Bookmarks and Lists > Reading List on the desktop browser. On Android, tap the three-dots menu and select Star. In Chrome for iPhone, this option is located under the three-dots menu > Add to reading list.As convenient as browser-based reading lists are, they do lack a few features when compared with proper read-later apps, such as tagging, organizing articles by topic or creating custom folders.Instapaper: The closest alternative to Pocket Credit: Instapaper Like Pocket, Instapaper was first launched in the late 2000s, and the service is still around. It offers apps for Android, iPhone, and the web, and has a generous free tier that lets you save, organize, and sync unlimited articles. The free tier shows a few ads to fund the service, though. The premium subscription costs $6/month or $60/year, and it adds useful features such as full-text search, offline reading, and removes ads.The best paid features, though, are speed reading and the ability to send articles to your Kindle. Speed reading flashes one word at a time to help you read articles faster. The send-to-Kindle feature is also quite nice to have for long reads that you'd rather view on an e-ink display.GoodLinks: An excellent read-later app for Apple devices Credit: GoodLinks GoodLinks is a great read-later app for all your Apple devices. You can purchase it off the App Store for $10, which lets you access the app on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The app lets you highlight text in articles, color code your highlights, and makes it easy to find highlighted content, too. You can save articles for offline reading easily from any website, simply by using the share sheet. The app also recently added support for saving Bluesky threads, which is a nice touch. GoodLinks doesn't require you to create an account and it uses iCloud to sync your reading lists across devices.Note that the app gives you free feature updates for one year after initial purchase. After that, you can continue to use GoodLinks with the features you paid for. If you want additional features developed in the future, you can pay $5/year to access that. The app already has almost all the features you'd need, though, so this business model isn't going to lock out any essentials.Readwise Reader: The best read-later service for power users Credit: Readwise Some people want a read-later service that can host multiple types of content, including videos, text, social media posts, newsletters, and even entire books. Readwise Reader is designed for just that. It lets you highlight text in any text file, and even transcripts of YouTube videos, and syncs those highlights to all your devices. You can even send highlights to apps such as Obsidian or Notion. The app generates a "daily review" for you, too, which is a quick digest of your saved articles that can help you quickly go through important reads.The service also gives you an email address to subscribe to newsletters, and you can also use it to follow RSS feeds of the publications you love. Readwise Reader is an all-in-one app that offers a lot more than just a read-later service, which is great for power users, but it can be overwhelming for someone who just wants to save the occasional article for weekend reading. Readwise Reader has a 30-day free trial, after which it costs $10/month.Matter: For those who value newsletters above all else Credit: Matter Matter is a premium read-later app for the iPhone, iPad, and the web. While it has a free tier, almost all of its best features are in the paid subscription ($15/month or $80/year). This service also gives you an email address, which you can use to subscribe to newsletters and have them sent directly to Matter. I prefer this approach over having newsletters delivered to my already crowded email inbox, and Matter's choice of fonts and distraction-free reading experience make it even better. If you're a paying subscriber, Matter can also scan your Gmail inbox and automatically pick up newsletters from there. To get you started, this service has a curated list of articles for you to read, just like Pocket, which may appeal to some. Other useful read-later servicesThere are a few other useful read-later apps and services that you might want to check out. These aren't as well-rounded as the picks above, but they're worth checking out for specific use cases.Send to Kindle: Amazon offers many ways to easily send files to your Kindle, but the Chrome extension is probably the smoothest way to use your e-reader as a read-later device.Wallabag: This is an open-source read-later service that costs $12.5/year and lets you self-host the service, too. It has apps for Android and iPhone and native clients for Kindle and Kobo, so you can easily access saved articles.Flyleaf: This is one of the best new read-later apps for Apple devices, and its free tier offers all the basics. There is an optional paid subscription ($17/year) if you want tagging and custom color schemes.

Ivanka Trump has made it clear that she's done with politics. That hasn't stopped her and husband Jared Kushner from remaining an influential political couple.They have not formally reprised their roles as White House advisors in President Donald Trump's second administration, but they've remained present in Donald Trump's political orbit.While Ivanka Trump opted out of the 2024 campaign trail, she and Kushner still appeared at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump's victory party on election night, and the inauguration. Kushner also reportedly served as an informal advisor ahead of Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East in May, CNN reported.Ivanka Trump, who is Donald Trump's eldest daughter, converted to Judaism before marrying Kushner in 2009. They have three children: Arabella, Joseph, and Theodore.Here's a timeline of Ivanka Trump and Kushner's relationship. 2007: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner met at a networking lunch arranged by one of her longtime business partners. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in 2007. PAUL LAURIE/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Ivanka Trump and Kushner were both 25 at the time."They very innocently set us up thinking that our only interest in one another would be transactional," Ivanka Trump told Vogue in 2015. "Whenever we see them we're like, 'The best deal we ever made!'" 2008: Ivanka Trump and Kushner broke up because of religious differences. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in 2008. Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Kushner was raised in the modern Orthodox Jewish tradition, and it was important to his family for him to marry someone Jewish. Ivanka Trump's family is Presbyterian. 2008: Three months later, the couple rekindled their romance on Rupert Murdoch's yacht. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in 2008. David X Prutting/Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images In his memoir, "Breaking History," Kushner wrote that Murdoch's then-wife, Wendi Murdoch, was a mutual friend who invited them both on the yacht. May 2009: They attended the Met Gala together for the first time. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at the Met Gala. BILLY FARRELL/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images The theme of the Met Gala that year was "The Model As Muse." Ivanka Trump wore a gown by designer Brian Reyes. July 2009: Ivanka Trump completed her conversion to Judaism, and she and Kushner got engaged. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in 2009. Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Kushner proposed with a 5.22-carat cushion-cut diamond engagement ring.Ivanka Trump told New York Magazine that she and her fiancé were "very mellow.""We go to the park. We go biking together. We go to the 2nd Avenue Deli," she said. "We both live in this fancy world. But on a personal level, I don't think I could be with somebody — I know he couldn't be with somebody — who needed to be 'on' all the time." October 2009: Ivanka Trump and Kushner married at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump on their wedding day. Brian Marcus/Fred Marcus Photography via Getty Images The couple invited 500 guests, including celebrities like Barbara Walters, Regis Philbin, and Anna Wintour, as well as politicians such as Rudy Giuliani and Andrew Cuomo. July 2011: The couple welcomed their first child, Arabella. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner with Arabella Kushner. Robin Marchant/Getty Images "This morning @jaredkushner and I welcomed a beautiful and healthy little baby girl into the world," Ivanka announced on X, then Twitter. "We feel incredibly grateful and blessed. Thank you all for your support and well wishes!" October 2013: Ivanka Trump gave birth to their second child, Joseph. Ivanka Trump with Arabella Rose Kushner and Joseph Frederick Kushner in 2017. Alo Ceballos/GC Images He was named for Kushner's paternal grandfather Joseph and given the middle name Frederick after Donald Trump's father. March 2016: Kushner and Ivanka Trump welcomed their third child, Theodore, in the midst of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Ivanka Trump carried her son Theodore as she held hands with Joseph alongside Jared Kushner and daughter Arabella on the White House lawn. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images "I said, 'Ivanka, it would be great if you had your baby in Iowa.' I really want that to happen. I really want that to happen," Donald Trump told supporters in Iowa in January 2016.All three of the couple's children were born in New York City. May 2016: They attended the Met Gala two months after Ivanka Trump gave birth. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump attend the Met Gala. Kevin Mazur/WireImage Ivanka Trump wore a red Ralph Lauren Collection halter jumpsuit.On a 2017 episode of "The Late Late Show with James Corden," Anna Wintour said that she would never invite Donald Trump to another Met Gala. January 2017: Ivanka Trump and Kushner attended Donald Trump's inauguration and danced together at the Liberty Ball. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on Inauguration Day. Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images The Liberty Ball was the first of three inaugural balls that Donald Trump attended. January 2017: After the inauguration, Ivanka and Kushner relocated to a $5.5 million home in the Kalorama section of Washington, DC. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's house in Washington, DC. PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images Ivanka Trump and Kushner rented the 7,000-square-foot home from billionaire Andrónico Luksic for $15,000 a month, The Wall Street Journal reported. May 2017: They accompanied Donald Trump on his first overseas trip in office. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump with Pope Francis. Vatican Pool - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Kushner and Ivanka Trump both served as advisors to the president. For the first overseas trip of Donald Trump's presidency, they accompanied him to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, and summits in Brussels and Sicily. October 2019: The couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary with a lavish party at Camp David. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at a state dinner. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images All of the Trump and Kushner siblings were in attendance. A White House official told CNN that the couple was covering the cost of the party, but Donald Trump tweeted that the cost would be "totally paid for by me!" August 2020: Ivanka Trump spoke about moving their family to Washington, DC, at the Republican National Convention. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at the Republican National Convention. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images "When Jared and I moved with our three children to Washington, we didn't exactly know what we were in for," she said in her speech. "But our kids loved it from the start." December 2020: Ivanka Trump and Kushner reportedly bought a $32 million empty lot in Miami's "Billionaire Bunker." Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's plot of land in Indian Creek Village. The Jills Zeder Group; Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Page Six reported that the couple purchased a 1.8-acre waterfront lot owned by singer Julio Iglesias, Enrique Iglesias' father, in Indian Creek Village, Florida.The island where it sits has the nickname "Billionaire Bunker" thanks to its multitude of ultra-wealthy residents over the years, including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, supermodel Adriana Lima, and former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula. January 2021: They skipped Joe Biden's inauguration, flying with Donald Trump to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, instead. Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and their children prepared for Donald Trump's departure on Inauguration Day. ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration, breaking a long-standing norm in US democracy. While initial reports said that Ivanka Trump was planning to attend the inauguration, a White House official told People magazine that "Ivanka is not expected to attend the inauguration nor was she ever expected to." January 2021: The couple signed a lease for a luxury Miami Beach condo near their Indian Creek Village property. Arte Surfside. Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel Ivanka Trump and Kushner signed a lease for a "large, unfurnished unit" in the amenities-packed Arte Surfside condominium building in Surfside, Florida.Surfside, a beachside town just north of Miami Beach that's home to fewer than 6,000 people, is only a five-minute drive from Indian Creek Island, where they bought their $32 million empty lot. April 2021: Ivanka Trump and Kushner reportedly added a $24 million mansion in Indian Creek Village to their Florida real-estate profile. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on a walk in Florida. MEGA/GC Images The Real Deal reported that Ivanka and Kushner purchased another Indian Creek property — this time, a 8,510-square-foot mansion situated on a 1.3-acre estate. June 2021: Several outlets reported that the couple began to distance themselves from Donald Trump due to his fixation on conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner behind Donald Trump. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters CNN reported that Trump was prone to complain about the 2020 election and falsely claim it was "stolen" from him to anyone listening and that his "frustrations emerge in fits and starts — more likely when he is discussing his hopeful return to national politics."While Ivanka and Kushner had been living in their Miami Beach condo, not far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, they'd visited Trump less and less frequently and were absent from big events at Mar-a-Lago, CNN said.The New York Times also reported that Kushner wanted "to focus on writing his book and establishing a simpler relationship" with the former president. October 2021: Ivanka Trump and Kushner visited Israel's parliament for the inaugural event of the Abraham Accords Caucus. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Israel. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images The Abraham Accords, which Kushner helped broker in August 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.During their visit, Ivanka Trump and Kushner met with then-former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attended an event at the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem with former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. August 2022: Kushner released his memoir, "Breaking History," in which he wrote about their courtship. Jared Kushner. John Lamparski/Getty Images for Concordia Summit "In addition to being arrestingly beautiful, which I knew before we met, she was warm, funny, and brilliant," he wrote of getting to know Ivanka Trump. "She has a big heart and a tremendous zest for exploring new things."He also wrote that when he told Donald Trump that he was planning a surprise engagement, Trump "picked up the intercom and alerted Ivanka that she should expect an imminent proposal." November 2022: Kushner attended Donald Trump's 2024 campaign announcement without Ivanka Trump. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Jared Kushner, Eric Trump, and Lara Trump at Donald Trump's presidential campaign announcement. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Ivanka Trump released a statement explaining her absence from the event."I love my father very much," her statement read. "This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena." July 2024: Ivanka Trump and Kushner made a rare political appearance at the Republican National Convention. Donald Trump and Melania Trump onstage with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Ivanka Trump did not campaign for her father or give a speech as she had at past Republican National Conventions, but she and Jared Kushner joined Trump family members onstage after Donald Trump's remarks. November 2024: They joined members of the Trump family in Palm Beach, Florida, to celebrate Donald Trump's election victory.

Deal  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Hisense U6 Smart Fire TVs are at their lowest prices ever Fiza Ali Neowin @Fiza_Aliii · May 31, 2025 14:48 EDT Ahead of Father's Day, Hisense is offering five variants of the U6 Series Smart Fire TV (2025 model) at their all-time low prices. The U6 Series offers a 4K UHD (3,840×2,160) resolution while its backlight system comprises approximately 1,000 mini-LEDs arranged in a Full Array Local Dimming configuration. Colour reproduction is achieved through QLED quantum-dot technology, enabling the display to render over one billion colours. Furthermore, the panel supports a wide colour gamut, which results in more accurate renditions of natural hues. A Total HDR Solution ensures compatibility with multiple HDR formats, including Dolby Vision IQ, HDR 10 + Adaptive, HDR 10, HDR 10 + Gaming, and HLG. At the core of the U6 Series is the Hi-View AI Engine, a chipset that handles advanced picture processing tasks. These include an AI-powered 4K Upscaler, AI Smooth Motion, and AI Sports Mode. Collectively, these features ensure that fine details are reproduced with greater clarity. For gaming, the TV offers Game Mode Pro, which supports a native 144Hz refresh rate and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) ranging from 48Hz to 144Hz. An on-screen Game Bar allows users to toggle VRR settings, monitor input lag, and access gaming presets directly. Connectivity options include four HDMI ports (two HDMI 2.1 and two HDMI 2.0), one of which supports eARC via HDMI 1, two USB ports (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0), an Ethernet (LAN) port and an optical digital audio output. Moreover, wireless connectivity comprises Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The U6 Series runs on the Fire TV platform with Alexa built in, granting access to a library of streaming apps and voice control functionality. Audio is enhanced by Dolby Atmos, and the unit features a 2.1-channel surround-sound configuration. Additional capabilities include noise-reduction processing, closed caption support, a sleep timer, and parental control functions. 55" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $528.99 (Amazon US) 34% off 65" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $698.99 (Amazon US) 30% off 75" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $898.99 (Amazon US) 31% off 85" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $1,299.99 (Amazon US) 35% off 100" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $2,599.99 (Amazon US) This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Seven days It's basically good in all possible ways I guess you could say I "yearn for the mines" now Jim Norman, Staff Writer The weather is looking good this weekend and next week promises a lot of gaming, so I'm planning to take it easy on the playtime front. Old Skies has got me back on a point-and-click hit, and I have some train journeys to make, so I might crack out Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars on GBA to keep me going through the inevitable delays and jam-packed services. But otherwise, a bit of sun, a bit of BBQ, and a bit of constantly checking my bank account for confirmation that my Switch 2 payment has finally been taken. Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer I’m still tinkering with The Hundred Line here and there, but I must admit that with the Switch 2 mere days away at this point, I’m spending a bit less time gaming in general at the moment; just to give myself a bit of breathing space before the avalanche hits. I read a lot though, so at the moment, I’ve got two books on the go: Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park (via a stunning Folio Society edition I bought a while back) and The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn on my Kindle. I find a nice combination of fiction and non-fiction is the way to go most of the time! Have a good one, folks. Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube814kWatch on YouTube Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor It really happened last weekend: Closure for a story that was left unfinished a decade ago. Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is most certainly one of my desert island games, and the possibility of a proper sequel is just too sweet to ignore. After all, Monolith has been quietly working on something these past years, right? My physical Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Battle Destiny Remastered copy arrived, and since I never owned the game on Vita, this is all-new content for yours truly. Other physical copies arriving include the amazing Star Overdrive and the SEGA Dreamcast-fuelled extravaganza known as Capcom Fighting Collection 2. This could very well be the best Capcom compilation yet, my arcade stick will surely see a lot of action this weekend. My game of the week is… the waiting game! For these past few weeks, and to ensure that all goes smoothly on the 5th, I have executed my plan to the letter. The new TV is hooked up and ready for the arrival of the Switch 2. If my next week’s entry is just me pasting “Mario Kart World!!!” repeatedly, you will know it all worked out. Alana Hagues, Deputy Editor I caved in. I have Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time ready to… steal my time. The Switch 2 version launching next week pushed me over the edge. Confession: I never played the 3DS game, so this will be my first taste of Fantasy Life, which honestly sounds like a combination of things made specifically for me. The other thing Fantasy Life will steal time from (probably) is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which I’ve just started and I’m having a blast. If the weather is nice where you are, get out there, because next weekend, many of us will have a Switch 2 in hand, and sunshine is the last thing we’ll want. Enjoy! Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube814kWatch on YouTube Kate Gray, Contributor I'm playing Fantasy Life i like my life depends on it. Which, in a way, it does. Because it's about Lives. Do you get it? DO YOU? DO YOUUUU???? On the opposite end of the cheerful/morose spectrum, I finished Expedition 33, but it's such a delightful game that I don't want to leave. Luckily, there's TONS of post-ending content to mop up like a greedy little child licking gravy off the plate, and a New Game+, although that's a significant investment when I have so many other games to play. However, I know that all the dialogue and scenes that baffled me in my first playthrough (and there are many) will gain new and horrifying meaning in a second playthrough, plus I'll get to keep all my hard-earned Pictos... ...but I really should get around to playing Hundred Line. Uchikoshi and Kodaka? Zero Escape and Danganronpa? It's a wonder I haven't played it yet. I love a murder game! Gavin Lane, Editor This time next week, Mario Kart World will be old news and we'll be bleary-eyed and knee-deep in Knockout Tours. So, before the excitement of a new console launch, I'm looking to chill the beans way, way down. As I have over the past few weeks, I'll be hitting 51 Clubhouse Games with the kids once more (I never realised how long games of Ludo could last), but I also intend to finally tuck into to Thank Goodness You're Here, a game I don't think the 4K output of the Switch 2 will improve. Have a great one, everyone - we'll speak again when the next generation has arrived. Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube814kWatch on YouTube That's what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Let us know in the following poll which games you're planning on booting up over the next couple of days. What are you playing this weekend (31st May/1st Jun)? (43 votes) Related Games See Also

I’ve been reading ebooks on Kindles for close to 15 years now, swapping them out every so often when newer and better versions come out. Throughout that time, I’ve tried all sorts of Kindle cases to protect my precious. But it wasn’t until last year that my reading experience got leveled up in an entirely new way with one simple $15 buy. I’m talking about a Kindle case with a built-in elastic hand strap. Yes, yes, I know—it sounds unremarkable. Trust me, I was skeptical of it for a long time myself. But once I gave it a try, suddenly all of my “reading yoga” became a lot easier. No matter what weird position I ended up in, I could still grip my Kindle and read comfortable. Gabriela Vatu / Foundry Sometimes I put my whole hand through the strap, other times I just hook a finger through it. Either way, it works. The beauty of this case’s design is that the strap goes straight down the middle, so I can use either left or right hand without issue. I’ve seen other cases where the strap is off to one side, but I like the flexibility in switching hands when I want to. Honestly, of the many Kindle cases I’ve tried over the years, they mainly focus on protecting the screen than maximizing my comfort as a reader. And guess who ends up dropping her Kindle on her face more often than she’d like to admit? Me, that’s who. The built-in hand strap seems like a small thing, but the impact has been huge for me. Okay, so why not use a clip-on elastic hand strap that you can put on and take off on demand? How is a case with a built-in strap better? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an example of one such grip belt that I’ve used with my Kindle before: Gabriela Vatu / Foundry These are actually pretty great! You can position them however you want, whether diagonally across the device or down the middle. But in order for the straps to stay in place, they need tension, right? What I noticed is that when I put my hand through it, the hooks press into the sides of my Kindle, and even though they’re only plastic, they caused marks and imprints—not acceptable to me, especially with a pristine device. I also want to mention that there are Kindle cases with built-in kickstands AND hand straps, but I don’t like them for two reasons. First, the kickstand usually adds extra weight and that’s more of a net-negative to my reading comfort. Second, the kickstand usually pushes the strap to one side or the other, whereas I prefer my strap down the middle. So, I think I’ve found my ideal Kindle case—and it only cost me $15 on Amazon. It’s one of the best Kindle upgrades I’ve ever made, and it has transformed my reading comfort more than I ever expected. If holding your Kindle while you read is a pain, try out this case! Buy this Kindle case on Amazon

The iPad is unquestionably a strong product. It rakes in around 10% of Apple’s overall revenue and has more than twice the market share of Samsung, its closest competitor. However, the market it helped create has shifted dramatically these last few years, and Apple hasn’t kept up. Not a Kindle Part of the iPad’s original spiel was that it was a general-purpose device that, while far superior to Amazon’s dinky Kindle for reading, also sat between the iPhone and the Mac for general consumption and productivity. You love your iPhone, you love your Mac, so… yeah. iPad. Go! As the iPad lineup expanded outward and upward with its many variants and generations, combined with multiple iterations and combinations of accessories, it set itself even further apart from the dinky Kindle and every other basic tablet out there. The thing is, as the gap between them widened, a new product category quietly moved in. Once niche and clunky, the e-ink tablet has matured into something that Apple shouldn’t be ignoring anymore. Not an iPad It is very true that when they first came out, e-ink tablets were awful, especially the color e-ink ones, which soon followed. Color precision sucked. Color depth sucked. Image quality sucked. The list went on. Photo: Andrew Liszewski/Gizmodo And it didn’t help that the hardware usually looked cheap, coming from Chinese companies that most people probably had never heard of. And they were expensive. Which is to say, they cost pretty much the same as an iPad. But that’s no longer the case. I mean, devices like the reMarkable Paper Pro, the BOOX Note, the XPPen Magic Note Pad and many others are still expensive, but they have stopped being purported as bizarro iPads and have turned into their own, proper product category. Ironically, this has made them quite appealing for iPad users who feel caught in the paradox of having to fight a system that needs to get more capable just so that they can accomplish simpler tasks. In the end, this comes down to the fact that there is a reason why products like the reMarkable tablets keep making waves and many of us keep hearing about them. If you had never heard about them, suffice it to say that people are interested in them. Not all people, by any means. But perhaps more than, say… the iPad mini? If you haven’t seen Michael Burkhardt’s excellent comparison between the iPad Air and the reMarkable Paper Pro, you really should. And here’s the twist: some of these new devices don’t even use e-ink at all (which, for all intents and purposes, is a proprietary technology by E Ink). There’s a growing class of tablets that use traditional displays, but offer modes that mimic the visual and functional constraints of e-ink. In other words, they behave like e-ink tablets without being held back by e-ink’s shortcomings, while still being conceptually different from what it would mean for Apple to just slap an “ink mode” onto the iPad. No one’s buying a reMarkable to run Final Cut Pro. That much is obvious. But that is also kind of the point. These devices don’t pretend to be alternative full-blown computers. They lean into being focused, distraction-free, and delightfully single-purpose. Meanwhile, the iPad keeps bolting on Mac-but-not-quite features like Stage Manager, but every step in that direction also highlights how stiff it still is. Are there people who live by the iPad and have absolutely no idea or earthly way to possibly comprehend what I am babbling on about? Yes. But even they have to agree that they are an increasingly rarer breed. That’s where the iPad Ink comes in. Not an e-ink notepad. Not a souped-up e-reader. Not an iPad clone with fewer apps. An actual, proper new product category, much like the one Apple is reportedly developing for the home. A purpose-built, ultra-low-distraction device with stylus support, thought from the ground up with productivity in mind. And perhaps featuring an on-device small language model to help out with productivity tasks. That’d be neat. Is Apple ever going to make one of those? Probably not. But while it keeps side-engineering the iPad around its idea of what work should look like, more and more people seem to be turning to the ever-growing list of reMarkable-like products for, you know, work. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Titans of industry cannot come to terms. Despite the literal gap between them being a matter of feet—maybe 30 or so by my count—when their two locomotives come to a standstill in a tunnel with miles of track in either direction, Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro, tyrannical, avuncular) is unable to bridge the final inches with Leland and Reagan (Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston, stone-faced). It’s an odd situation that becomes odder still when all parties realize the fate of their multimillion-dollar venture must now come down to a game of chance: and this one a bet on whether a Middle Eastern prince (Riz Ahmed) can sink a granny shot from below his knees while playing basketball’s ugly, redheaded step-cousin, HORSE.  It was at this exact moment I realized Wes Anderson had returned to full, magnificently daffy form. As easily the prodigal Texan’s best film in over a decade, The Phoenician Scheme rekindles much of the mirth that informed so many of Anderson’s early films. It is also the first instance one has had any narrative propulsion or tension since his last masterpiece, The Grand Budapest Hotel. While I would hesitate to place such lofty titles onto Phoenician, rest assured that it’s a balmy good time at the cinema where longtime fans get to again spend an evening with impeccably dressed cheats, droll scoundrels, and other variants on the unseemly father figure. Take del Toro’s Korda for instance. He begins the film by surviving what is jointly his sixth plane crash and assassination attempt. (The industrialist’s pilots fare less happily from his habit of falling out of the sky.) He isn’t sure who wants to kill him, but he seems confident it’s probably justified. Of his nine children, eight prepubescent boys live at home with him where their resentments already border on the homicidal. And the other offspring, a daughter he never really knew, wants nothing to do with him, even after he promises to bequeath her his entire fortune “on a trial basis.” Indeed, despite being a novitiate nun, Liesl (Mia Threapleton) has a tough time with forgiveness, especially when it comes to a would-be patriarch or patron. She does agree to at least get to know the old man, though, after he decides to gallivant around the world in a bid to save his empire (hence the aforementioned HORSE of fate). Rather boldly they even board plane after plane, alongside Korda’s ineffectual Swedish nanny-turned-attendant, Bjorn (a chipper Michael Cera doing an accent about three clicks south of the Muppets’ Chef). Together they meet a starry ensemble of walk-on cameos and eccentric business partners, my favorite of which is a preternaturally giddy Jeffrey Wright. Yet always operating beneath the surface is another tale of resentments between bad parents and their adult children. That plus a kooky murder mystery where Zsa-Zsa somehow keeps avoiding being the dead body. From the name of the protagonist alone, Anderson seems intent to signal to audiences with any degree of film knowledge that he is playing once more in the sandbox of his influences. It is hard to imagine a cineaste like Anderson, for example, hearing the moniker “Korda” and not thinking of anti-fascist Hungarian refugee-turned-British filmmaker, Alexander Korda, who directed aesthetic classics like The Thief of Baghdad (1940) and That Hamilton Woman (1941). Furthermore, Anderson pulls just as much from Korda contemporaries like fellow Hungarian ex-pat Michael Curtiz, particularly when Korda and Lisel wind up at a nightclub owned by Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric). And yes, another movie about traveling nannies and a precocious Liesl is alluded to as well. But the reason The Phoenician Scheme works so much better than Anderson’s last several movies is that while the filmmaker is visibly delighting in his references and what are almost assuredly private jokes between himself and co-writer Roman Coppola, the director also is avoiding the trap of becoming distracted by the aesthetics. Phoenician is still a beautifully designed world of straight lines and adroit square compositions, courtesy of cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, where nothing feels natural. Not even the sun or tree vines discovered after Korda, Liesl, and Bjorn become lost in a jungle have any reality about them. But the simple pleasure of observing visual confections is not the be-all end unto itself that it previously was. The travelogue nature of the plot, in which a father and daughter go on an odyssey of unconventional boardroom meetings that include assassins, freedom fighters, and organized crime bigwigs, provides a skeletal structure where Anderson can graft on his increasing preference for narrative vignettes, but there is an emotional spine as well between Korda and Liesl that makes both the jokes and the pathos ebullient. Del Toro has never seemed bigger or more unshackled than as Zsa-zsa. Like most Anderson protagonists, Korda rarely speaks above a polite monotone, but his double-breasted confidence and adventurism provides del Toro with a refreshingly uninhibited floorspace. It also pairs nicely when bantering with Threapleton, a real discovery of a young talent who plays a nun with conviction, even as the twinge of curling judgment on her smile suggests she may never see Heaven. But then she dryly must channel the patience of Job when dodging the advances of a tipsy Bjorn (again, Cera is having too much fun) and the would-be buy-offs of an absentee father. The terrain of an unhappy adult and their aging parent is terrain Anderson has walked many times, but there’s a renewed vigor in his step in The Phoenician Scheme, perhaps because it is the first time he has crossed this territory where he is closer in age to the latter than the former. There is empathy for all parties, though, and new tricks to his whimsy, such as his elegant compositions repeatedly being shattered in close-ups where the camera is assaulted by various subjects filled with so much rage that they literally assail the fourth wall. The Phoenician Scheme is simply a lovely work from an artist with a fresh spring in his step. If you already count yourself among his admirers, it’s a return to form with moments of divine inspiration (just wait until you see who he cast as God). For the rest, it may not cause conversion, but it’s certainly worth sharing some communion wine over. The Phoenician Scheme premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18. It opens in limited release on May 30 and wide on June 6. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!