If you thought Nippon Steel's bid to acquire U.S. Steel was dead in the water, think again. The merger was blocked by President Joe Biden last year, but President Donald Trump is in the White House now — and he may be a bit more flexible about the deal.

Trump has "welcomed Japanese investment in the technology sector," said Reuters. That's why he met Thursday with U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt ahead of a Friday summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House. During the presidential campaign, Trump said he was "totally against" the acquisition of the American company by a foreign firm. But Nippon Steel executives have been making the case that their proposal fits Trump's "America First" agenda. Takahiro Mori, Nippon Steel's vice chair, said he hopes the Trump-Ishiba meeting will "open the way for a deal."

What did the commentators say?

Trump "should let Nippon buy U.S. Steel," said Michael Schiffer at Just Security. The merger block was "one of the biggest policy disappointments of the Biden administration." But putting the two companies together is a "significant opportunity" to strengthen the West "against China in a critical national security area." The new president is often willing to "reopen, reconsider, and renegotiate deals," so the seemingly scuttled steel deal is an opportunity for Trump to do what he does best, Schiffer said: "A good deal for domestic manufacturing and national security is sitting right in front of him."

If not Trump, then perhaps the courts. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have "already taken legal action" to challenge Biden's decision, said Patrick Murphy at The Hill. They should succeed. Japan is a "key partner in countering China's growing influence," and strengthening economic ties with Tokyo "aligns fully with our broader Indo-Pacific strategy." Letting Biden's decision stand will "discourage foreign investment in American manufacturing" and ultimately force U.S. taxpayers to "bail out failing companies."

What next?

Trump's arrival in the White House gives Nippon Steel additional reason to complete the merger. The deal is a "key option for countering the impact of tariffs" the Trump administration is imposing on American trade partners, said Nikkei Asia. Trump's proposed tariffs would "significantly change the structure" of steel demand itself, Mori told reporters in an earnings call. One of the president's aims with tariffs is to protect American manufacturing, so "it's clearly better to be inside" the U.S., Mori said.

But Trump's inclinations are murky. He "regularly stated" his opposition to the merger before taking office, said Bloomberg. Since the inauguration, though, he and Vice President J.D. Vance have been "muted about the takeover." Mori, the Nippon Steel executive, is optimistic an agreement can be reached: "We are hoping that Trump gets the message, that this is the best deal and that opens pathways forward."

'The last days of American orange juice'

Yasmin Tayag at The Atlantic

As "orange availability slides, the era of orange juice ubiquity is rapidly coming to an end," says Yasmin Tayag. The "dwindling fruit supply is making orange juice harder, but not impossible, to produce." For the "juice industry, international oranges are more of a lifeline than a long-term fix," and "more poignant, orange juice itself is beginning to lose significance." In "many ways, the decline of orange juice represents the future of many staple foods."

Read more

'Sovereign wealth for politicians'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

A U.S. sovereign wealth fund "would take resources from the private economy, fund political boondoggles and mess with the business decisions of private companies," says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. These funds "typically enrich a country's rulers and their friends far more than citizens," and "corruption is a constant temptation." There is "also no need for such a U.S. fund since Congress already spends on roads and bridges, technology, research and development."

Read more

'Citi just became a magnet for ambitious working moms'

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

"Allowing employees to work from home is not some touchy-feely policy" for banking company Citigroup, says Beth Kowitt. It is "very likely the company will end up keeping working mothers who need and want the flexibility the most." Citi is "normalizing a mode of work that falls outside the bounds of what's considered typical or traditional, especially in the banking world," even calling it a "competitive advantage." Stereotypes have "always held back working mothers who have asked for anything other than the status quo."

Read more

'The real point of space exploration'

Shannon Stirone at Slate

While "most of us go about our days, immersed in the minutia of our lives, we remain very much a part of something bigger than ourselves, and even bigger than humanity," says Shannon Stirone. Our "modern era of space observation and exploration deepens our connection with the universe — and with each other." President Donald Trump "cannot take what makes NASA out of NASA by deleting websites or removing the words 'women' or 'diversity' or 'people of color.'"

Read more

Spiders are some of the most diverse creatures on Earth. While they can be frightening, most of them are harmless and skittish. However, some spiders are dangerous — or deadly. Several species have venom that is toxic to humans and can have long-lasting, even fatal, consequences. Here are some of the scariest spiders to look out for and steer clear of.

1. Brown recluse spider

The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is one of the only common spiders in the U.S. that is considered venomous — though their bite rarely, if ever, kills a person. Its venom "destroys the walls of blood vessels near the site of the bite, sometimes causing a large skin ulcer," said Britannica. These spiders can be identified by their pale brown color and eye pattern where six eyes are "arranged in three pairs in a semicircle pattern with a space between each pair," said the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES). The brown recluse likes to hide and hunt prey. It can bite out of self-defense and release a harmful cytotoxin. While usually the bite heals in approximately three weeks, in some cases it "produces a necrotic lesion, typically resulting in a flat or slightly sunken bluish patch with irregular edges, a pale center, and peripheral redness," which can take several months to heal, said ACES.

2. Funnel-web spider

There are several funnel-web spiders, but the most well-known is the Atrax robustus. These arachnids, found in Australia, are "large, black aggressive spider[s] with large powerful fangs," said the University of Melbourne. They can be incredibly dangerous. "The Sydney funnel-web spider can kill a toddler in about five minutes and a 5-year-old in about two hours," Rick Vetter, a retired research associate with the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside, said to Live Science. The venom from this spider can cause "numbness around the mouth and spasms of the tongue, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, acute gastric dilatation, profuse sweating, salivation, lacrimation [and] piloerection," said the University of Melbourne.

3. Black widow

When you think of a deadly spider, the black widow (Latrodectus genus) is likely the kind that springs to mind. Both male and female black widows are dangerous, but the female ones are famous for their easily identifiable shiny black exteriors and red bowtie patterns. The spiders are "formidable predators that feed on live insects, other spiders and arthropods, as well as on other members of their species," said the University of Tennessee. The bite of a black widow can be extremely toxic and may cause nausea, excess sweating, tremors, labored breathing, restlessness, increased blood pressure and fever. In the worst cases, it can lead to death. The name "black widow" comes from the female arachnid's tendency to eat the male after mating.

4. Brazilian wandering spiders

There are nine species of Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria genus), also called the "armed" or "banana" spider, and they have some of the most dangerous bites on Earth. These spiders can be a variety of colors but usually have yellow striped legs. "After a human is bitten by one of these spiders, they may experience initial symptoms such as severe burning pain at the site of the bite, sweating and goosebumps," arachnologist Jo-Anne Sewlal said to Live Science. "Within 30 minutes, symptoms become systemic and include high or low blood pressure, fast or a slow heart rate, nausea, abdominal cramping, hypothermia, vertigo, blurred vision, convulsions and excessive sweating associated with shock." A bite can be fatal in approximately 60 minutes without medical intervention.

5. Wolf spider

Wolf spiders (Lycosidae genus) are not deadly to humans but can still offer a painful bite. They can be identified by their eye arrangement, where "two large eyes gleam from the top of the head; two more large eyes peer out the front; and four smaller eyes form a row just above the spider's mouth," as well as by their "dark, mottled colors," said National Geographic. These arachnids are capable of living everywhere, making them very common. Wolf spiders are venomous, but the venom is not deadly to humans. In some cases, the venom can cause an allergic reaction.

Federal science agencies are at a crossroads in trying to comply with President Donald Trump's executive orders. As a result, the health of millions is potentially at risk.

Background

In a "head-snapping, blink-and-you'll-miss-it," two weeks, Trump issued executive orders recognizing only two genders and rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the federal government, said Science. Federal agencies, especially those focused on public health, have felt the heat and have had to "temporarily suspend new awards, review existing grants, block grantee access to funds already allocated and halt meetings of grant-review panels." They also retroactively "removed calls for proposals in specific areas, websites and access to public databases that deal with now off-limits topics."

The latest

One of the agencies most affected is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which removed thousands of website pages containing the words, "gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, biologically male, biologically female, he/she/they/them," and anything related to gender ideology and identity as a whole, said Reuters. This especially threatens access to information regarding sexually transmitted infections and reproductive health. However, pages not directly related to the orders were purged as well. For example, the "purge had also swept up vaccine information statements, which must be given to patients before they can be immunized; guidelines for contraception; and several pages on how race and racism affect health outcomes," said The New York Times. The CDC also recently released data showing that bird flu (H5N1) was spread between cats and humans, but it was promptly deleted.

Also affected is the National Science Foundation (NSF), which provides grants to research projects globally. Now, several funded projects are at a standstill. NSF staff have been "combing through thousands of active science research projects, alongside a list of keywords, to determine if they include activities that violate executive orders," said The Washington Post. According to an internal document, "NSF grants that are flagged for 'further action' because they don't comply with the executive orders could be subject to a range of additional steps, including modification to be in compliance or being terminated in part or whole."

Following public backlash to the purges, some CDC pages were restored, but several continue to be unavailable and many restored pages have changes to them. "Across the country, folks like me are trying to catalog what is missing and what has changed in terms of what's back up," said Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and the dean of Yale University's School of Public Health, to NPR. Doctors for America, an advocacy group representing physicians, has filed a lawsuit against federal health agencies in response to the removal of websites and databases.

The reaction

Doctors and scientists have expressed concern about the state of health care. "We can't just erase or ignore certain populations when it comes to preventing, treating or researching infectious diseases such as HIV. I certainly hope this is not the intent of these orders," said Carl Schmid, the executive director of the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute, to Reuters. They have also called into question the legality of the purge. "It sounds incredible that this is compatible with the First Amendment. A constitutional right has been canceled," said Dr. Alfredo Morabia, the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Public Health. "How can the government decide what words a journal can use to describe a scientific reality? That reality needs to be named."

"This is completely unprecedented," Dr. Nirav R. Shah, a senior scholar at Stanford University and former commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, said to NPR. "We're actually dimming the lights on our ability to protect and preserve the health of all Americans."

What happened

Italian scientists said Thursday that it takes 32 minutes and two temperatures of water to achieve a perfectly boiled egg, given the different chemical compositions of the yolk and egg white, or albumen.

"The method not only optimizes egg texture and nutrients, but also holds promise for innovative culinary applications and materials treatment," the researchers reported in the journal Communications Engineering.

Who said what

The Italian scientists developed their "periodic cooking" method using fluid dynamics software and about 300 eggs. It "requires no special culinary skill or fancy gadgets," The New York Times said. But it does involve the egg "alternating between boiling and lukewarm water" — two minutes in a 212-degree bath, two minutes soaking at 86 degrees, repeated eight times total. The boiling water leaves "a well-cooked albumen without wasting the yolk," which reaches perfection in the average water temperature of 150 degrees, said Ernesto Di Maio, a materials scientist at the University of Naples, to the Times.

What next?

"It's probably brilliant — but who is the method for?" Deb Perelman, who runs the Smitten Kitchen blog, said to the Times. "For home cooking, there's always a necessary balance of perfect versus a reasonable effort." Perelman's "preferred foolproof method," the Times said, "involves a long ice bath after the egg is cooked."

What happened

A federal judge in Seattle Thursday issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship through executive action. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour's order extended indefinitely a temporary stay he issued two weeks ago and follows another preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in Maryland on Wednesday.

Who said what

"It has become ever more apparent" that for Trump, "the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals" and the Constitution "something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain," said Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee. But if the Trump administration "wants to change the exceptional American grant of birthright citizenship, it needs to amend the Constitution itself."

The near-identical rulings from Coughenour and U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland were a "back-to-back blow" to Trump's argument that "children born in the country to parents without legal status here should not automatically receive U.S. citizenship," despite the 14th amendment, NPR said.

What next?

A federal judge in Massachusetts hears a challenge to Trump's birthright order from 18 states Friday and a New Hampshire federal court will consider a challenge from the ACLU on Monday. The two current injunctions serve as "redundancies" that block the order "unless both courts are overruled or decide otherwise," The Seattle Times said. The Justice Department said it would appeal Coughenour's ruling.

What happened

A federal judge Thursday issued a temporary restraining order limiting access by Elon Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" to a Treasury Department payment system that contains personal and financial information of millions of Americans.

The agreement maintained access for two DOGE officials, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, but Elez later resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about a social media account that "advocated racism and eugenics."

Who said what

"Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool," the now-deleted X account reportedly tied to Elez posted in July, according to the Journal. In September the user wrote "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity" and "Normalize Indian hate." Elez, a 25-year old former SpaceX and X employee, and Krause gained access to the Treasury's central government payment system last weekend, and despite White House and Treasury claims, Elez "had the ability to rewrite the code of the payment system" until Wednesday, Wired said.

Thursday's restraining order, based on an agreement between labor unions and the Justice Department, prohibits Elez and Krause from sharing sensitive Treasury data outside the agency and limits their access to "read only." When DOGE moved in to Treasury, the goal was to gain full access to the system to cut off funding to USAID, The New York Times and other news organizations reported Thursday, citing emails and people familiar with the plan.

If a "DOGE technologist" like Elez was originally granted the "ability alter the code on these systems," Wired said, it would "in theory" give him — "and, by extension, Musk, President Donald Trump or other actors — the capability to, among other things, illegally cut off congressionally authorized payments to specific individuals or entities." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Wednesday that "our payment system is not being touched."

What next?

The Trump administration plans to cut USAID's workforce from more than 10,000 employees to about 292, according to multiple news organizations.

Find out how closely you've been paying attention to the latest news and other global events by putting your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week.

And don't forget, to get all the news that matters delivered to your inbox every day, sign up for our new daily digital editions: US readers can find out more here, and here if you're a reader in the UK.

1. Which Central American country has offered to house US inmates in its mega-prison complex?

• El Salvador
• Honduras
• Costa Rica
• Nicaragua

2. A second type of H5N1 bird flu has been found in which other animal?

• Cows
• Horses
• Pigs
• Sheep

3. Which global football star celebrated his 40th birthday?

• Lionel Messi
• Cristiano Ronaldo
• Luka Modric
• Robert Lewandowski

4. Growing amounts of microplastics have been found in which part of the human body?

• Heart
• Lungs
• Brain
• Skin

5. Beyoncé finally won Album of the Year at Sunday's Grammy Awards, after how many nominations in the category without a win?

• Four
• Five
• Seven
• Nine

6. Which Greek island was hit with a 5.2 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday?

• Crete
• Milos
• Mykonos
• Santorini

7. A new BBC drama centres around the sister of which literary figure?

• Virginia Woolf
• Jane Austen
• Emily Bronte
• Sylvia Plath

8. The NFL will be removing which phrase from the end zones in preparation for the Super Bowl on Sunday?

• "Equality for All"
• "In God We Trust"
• "No Justice, No Peace"
• "End Racism"

9. A rise in sales of what item has been attributed to the big-screen return of Bridget Jones?

• Cigarettes
• Granny knickers
• Chardonnay
• Turkey curry

10. Which country's government was forced to deny rumours it was planning to ban cats?

• Scotland
• Iceland
• Spain
• Ireland

1. El Salvador

President Nayib Bukele made the surprise offer on Monday, suggesting that El Salvador's infamous Cecot prison could be used to house US inmates. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the proposal – the constitutionality of which is dubious – was "extraordinary". For his part, Donald Trump said he would accept "in a heartbeat" if the relevant legalities could be resolved.

2. Cows

The US Department of Agriculture reported a second strain of H5N1 bird flu, D1.1, has infected dairy herds in Nevada, suggesting that cattle are more susceptible to the avian virus than previously believed. While human risk remains low, most of the 67 people diagnosed with bird flu in the US had worked with dairy or cattle.

3. Cristiano Ronaldo

Now playing for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo is still the highest-paid football player in the world (at a reported £3 million a week) as he enters his fifth decade. He may be over the hill for a professional, but he's far from out of the game. There is speculation he may make the cut for Portugal's World Cup squad next year.

4. Brain

A study published in Nature Medicine found a 50% increase in microplastics in autopsied brain samples from 52 individuals between 2016 and 2024. Liver and kidney samples from the same patients showed only a slight increase in the small amounts of microplastics.

5. Five

Beyoncé was already the most successful artist in Grammys history, but the Album of the Year gong had continually eluded her grasp – until last weekend's ceremony, when she finally scooped the prize for "Cowboy Carter". The win ends her unlucky streak of being the female artist with the most nominations without a win in the category.

6. Santorini

The popular tourist destination has been shaken by more than 200 tremors, prompting over 6,000 residents to evacuate since the quakes first began last week. As of Thursday, the Greek Civil Protection Ministry has declared a state of emergency on the island.

7. Jane Austen

The four-part drama "Miss Austen" follows Cassandra Austen, who made it her life's work to protect her sister Jane's legacy following her premature death at the age of 41. Unfortunately for future Austenites, that included perpetrating what has been called "the greatest act of literary vandalism in history" – destroying hundreds of Jane's letters.

8. "End Racism"

The NFL will replace the "End Racism" phrase with "Choose Love" on the field as the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in the upcoming Super Bowl. Additionally, Donald Trump will make history as the first sitting president to attend the event. The league said the decision to switch the message is not related to Trump attending the game.

9. Chardonnay

According to data from upmarket British retailer Waitrose, several brands of chardonnay have been enjoying a bump in sales ahead of the return of Renee Zellweger's beloved everywoman in "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy". Searches for recipes for leek and potato soup and turkey curry – both plot points in the first movie in the franchise – have also seen a spike.

10. Scotland

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney denied rumours about a potential cat ban after a report claimed the pets were a threat to local wildlife. The report proposed "containment" measures to minimise the issue, triggering a backlash from the public.

Kanye West and his wife Bianca Censori's appearance on the Grammys' red carpet was unexpected by all accounts. They had gatecrashed, said The Times' Caitlin Moran. His former glittering music career is not so glittering now, hence the no-invite status. But it was his wife, an architect and former model from Australia, that everyone was looking at.

Lowering a long, fur coat and turning to face the photographers, Censori revealed she was naked except for a "fully transparent mini dress, and no underwear," said The Guardian's Moira Donegan. She appeared completely nude.

'Nowhere to hide'

But this isn't about how much of her body a young woman revealed, said Moran. After all, the Grammys is often "a very titty, bummy event". The concern is that we can't be sure if Censori is really ok with it.

Since marrying West in 2023, she has rarely been seen without him, noted Donegan. She has shown form for fewer rather than more clothes, too. And the effect is "heightened by the proximity" of West, who is often clad in "too much clothing beside Censori's too little".

At the Grammys, Censori had "nowhere to hide" though. The practically non-existent dress gave her "no comfort or shelter". "'Make a scene,' West seems to be saying to her", said Moran. But the scene she makes is a depressing one and one, according to Page Six, that had them escorted from the building soon after.

'Sometimes things are what they look like'

At first glance, this is a woman "apparently brimming with body confidence", said Vogue's Raven Smith, but "there are concerns about this particular woman's silence: we've heard very little from Bianca during her Kanye tenure".

Indeed, said Donegan. "The exposure of Censori's body is contrasted with the enigma of her mind." Let's not jump to conclusions, though, said Smith. A woman can make "a zillion choices we wouldn't personally make ourselves and still not have that mean she's being coerced".

It would certainly play more easily on our mind to imagine Censori and West "partaking, together, in a critique of gender and celebrity", said Donegan. Seeing her as an artist allows us to view Censori as "something more hopeful and complicated than a victim of brutality", though she cautions, "sometimes things are what they look like".

Once called a "thug" by a former PM and leader of his own party, Peter Dutton is now the frontrunner to become the next leader of Australia.

Heading the main centre-right Liberal Party, the 54-year-old father of three has embraced the rhetoric and policies of Donald Trump in the hopes of ousting incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an election that must be held by 17 May.

From policeman to politician

Born in Brisbane in 1970, Dutton abandoned his business studies course at university to become a police officer, working in the National Crime Authority and Drug and Sex Offenders Squads, "with a focus on protecting women and children", according to his official website.

Elected to Parliament in 2001, he used his maiden speech to set out a worldview informed by his time spent in the Queensland force that, he said, had shown him the best and worst of society. "I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who, frankly, barely justify their existence in our sometimes over tolerant society".

He went on to serve in a series of ministerial posts in the Liberal governments of the 2010s including health, sport, home affairs and defence, where he compared Beijing's military build-up to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. As minister for immigration and border protection, he was responsible for using the military to intercept small boats carrying asylum seekers from Asia and infuriated New Zealanders by forcibly returning Kiwi-born criminals, a process he described as "taking the trash out".

"Dutton's time in government, the conservative media interviews, the constant dragging of progressive causes and those who promoted them, the combative statements and an unwillingness to compromise his positions, have painted a very strong image of who Dutton is and what he does with power," said Amy Remeikis, Guardian Australia's political reporter, in 2022 after he was elected Liberal leader.

Donald Trump meets Lord Voldemort

After an inauspicious start as leader of the opposition, Dutton has managed to revive his party's fortunes by leaning into his straight-talking "hard man" image and imitating Donald Trump, said The Times.

He has combined his long-standing hardline stance on asylum seekers with criticism of "woke" progressive causes such as DEI and indigenous rights. He has vowed to banish the Aboriginal flag from government press conferences, cut immigration and prohibit foreigners from buying houses, all policies that "appeal to those struggling with rising prices, sluggish wage growth and the 13 interest rate rises that have inflated mortgage repayments since Albanese came to power".

As they do with Trump, voters seem to appreciate his "bluntness", said the New York Times, with parallels between the two men "drawn by both supporters and critics". Dutton has, however, "drawn the line" at some of Trump's "language and priorities", resisting pressure to campaign on transgender issues, and indicating he would not consider withdrawing Australia from the Paris climate agreements.

For his critics, the comparisons don't stop there. In 2022, Labor's then education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek compared him to Lord Voldemort in a radio interview, adding "I think there will be a lot of children who have watched a lot of Harry Potter films who will be very frightened of what they are seeing on TV at night".

Plibersek later apologised and Dutton labelled the comments "unfortunate" but that they were "water off a duck's back", yet this has not stopped him being repeatedly confronted by members of the public making the same comparison, reported the Daily Mail Australia.

But it could well be Dutton who has the last laugh, with the latest polls suggesting he is now the "frontrunner" in the upcoming election and "the man most likely to be Australia's next prime minister", said The Times.

Anthony Scaramucci found a way to interpret Donald Trump's more controversial comments while serving briefly as White House communications director during the president's first term. "Take him seriously, but don't take him literally" was Scaramucci’s advice to journalists and the world at large.

That's a useful way to try to make sense of Trump's startling plan to "seize control of Gaza, raze what's left of it, remove its Palestinian inhabitants, and 'develop' it into the 'Riviera of the Middle East'", said The Nightly. But will we have to use it for the next four years as White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred?

What did the commentators say?

Trump's plan to "take over" and "own" Gaza is "not going to happen", said the BBC's Jeremy Bowen. Arab states reject it and, after its "catastrophic intervention in Iraq in 2003", an American return to the region would be "deeply unpopular in the US". So why worry? Because "Trump's remarks, however outlandish, will have consequences".

Of course Trump's plan should not be taken literally, said David Kaufman in The Telegraph. Instead we should "focus on the essence of his messaging", which is essentially that "it’s time for the Arab world to take responsibility for looking after people they profess to care about".

The whole farrago is another example of what The New York Times described as "one of the more peculiar aspects" of Trump's political appeal. A lot of his supporters "simply do not believe he will do many of the things he says he will". One businessman supporter said that Trump's recent call for "one really violent day" in which police would crack down on property crimes was "just a sound bite".

What next?

Seriously, not literally may be "a great analytical insight into how then-candidate Trump communicated with his supporters", said Jonah Goldberg in the Chicago Tribune. But "it is fairly ridiculous hogwash" as a manifesto for how to treat an actual president.

Fundamentally "what a president says matters" and "credibility is a finite resource", one that is easily depleted "when you think you'll never be held to account for what you blurt out".

Despite presenting himself as a champion of the U.S. military, and earning a majority of votes from veterans in all three of his campaigns for the White House according to polls, President Donald Trump has occasionally made controversial remarks about veterans, members of the military or America's involvement in overseas conflicts. Some of these statements were made on camera or in front of reporters, but others come from anonymous sources. Trump himself never served in the military, receiving an exemption during the Vietnam War after being diagnosed with bone spurs in his heels.

The most incendiary report about Trump's running commentary on the military was a September 3, 2020, investigation in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, including shocking second-hand reports about Trump's conduct from former advisors, including retired general and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Trump forcefully denied the veracity of Goldberg's reporting. "It is a disgraceful situation by a magazine that's a terrible magazine," said Trump to reporters. The Atlantic stood by its reporting. "I wouldn't publish anything that I didn't feel was sourced to the highest degree possible," said Goldberg in an interview with NPR.

On trans Americans serving in the US military

"Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual's sex conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life. A man's assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member." January 27, 2025.

On US military officials

"I don't want to tell you what I had to go through with these people. Some of the dumbest people I've ever met in my life." October 16, 2023.

"I wouldn't go to war with you people. You're a bunch of dopes and babies." July 20, 2017.

"You fucking generals. Why can't you be more like Hitler's generals?" 2017. Trump denies having made this remark.

On the burial of US Army private Vanessa Guillén

"It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!" December 4, 2020. Trump has denied having made the remark.

On the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and a half years

"Obamacare is a catastrophe, nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we would have had it done. But John McCain, for some reason, couldn't get his arm up." July 16, 2024.

"I was never a big fan of John McCain, disagreed with him on many things including ridiculous endless wars and the lack of success he had in dealing with the VA and our great Vets, but the lowering of our Nations American Flags, and the first class funeral he was given by our Country, had to be approved by me, as President, and I did so without hesitation or complaint. Quite the contrary, I felt it was well-deserved. I even sent Air Force One to bring his body, in casket, from Arizona to Washington. It was my honor to do so. Also, I never called John a loser and swear on whatever, or whoever, I was asked to swear on, that I never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES." September 4, 2020.

"We're not going to support that loser's funeral." August, 2018. Trump has denied having made this remark.

"He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you." July 18, 2015.

On lowering flags to half-mast after McCain's death

"What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser." August 2018. Trump has denied making this remark.

On recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor

"It's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. But the civilian version, it's actually much better because everyone that gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they're soldiers. They're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead." August 15th, 2024.

On not serving in the Vietnam War

"But, you know, during the Vietnam War, I got very lucky. I had a very high lottery number." November 9, 1995.

On concocting a fake injury to avoid service in Vietnam

"You think I'm stupid? I wasn't going to Vietnam." 2016.

On how his sexual promiscuity makes him braver than any soldier who served in Vietnam

"Getting the Congressional Medal of Honor, in actuality … it's Vietnam. It is very dangerous. So I'm very, very careful." May 7, 1998.

On troops wounded in an Iranian retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Iraq

"I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things. But I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious." January 8, 2020.

On fallen soldiers at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery

"Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.

On the 1,800 US Marines who died at Belleau Wood in France during World War I

"Suckers." November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.

On US soldiers in World War I

"Who were the good guys in this war?" November 11, 2018. Trump denies having asked this question.

"I don't get it. What was in it for them?" November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.

On disabled veterans

"Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded." September 30, 2019.

"Look, I don't want any wounded guys in the parade. This doesn't look good for me." Summer 2017.

What can we learn from the Afghan women's cricket team? Can AI understand religion? And are we losing the war against rats? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

A podcast for curious, open-minded people, The Week Unwrapped delivers fresh perspectives on politics, culture, technology and business.

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The curator and art dealer picks five favourites. His latest, "Gilbert & George and the Communists", is an account of his travels with the duo in the USSR and China, and a sequel to his memoir "Bacon in Moscow".

A Hero of Our Times

Mikhail Lermontov, 1840

Our hero is a restless contradictory character, troubled by his unsuccessful search for romantic love. I'm fascinated by Lermontov's portrayal of a decadent 1840s society – he wrote it when he was 26 and died a year later after a duel. On my trip through the Caucasus in 1991, I paid homage at the site in Pyatigorsk.

The Way of a Transgressor

Negley Farson, 1936

I was travelling with the journalist Dan Farson – Francis Bacon had introduced us, and he came to Moscow and Shanghai with Gilbert & George. His father, Negley Farson, was the only Western journalist in Red Square when the Revolution was declared in 1917. Farson Snr's story is immortalised in "The Way of a Transgressor". We proudly completed his interrupted journey.

Put Out More Flags

Evelyn Waugh, 1942

We took a boat down the Volga River to Volgograd: a week's journey, but we were arrested at every port while they checked our papers. Evelyn Waugh's "Put Out More Flags" kept me sane; I laughed even while I was being poked in the stomach with a gun.

Bel-Ami

Guy de Maupassant, 1885

Also on the boat, I read "Bel-Ami" by Guy de Maupassant. It charts George Duroy's rise to fame in the world of newspapers in late 19th century Paris through his exploitation of wealthy and intelligent women. He's the ultimate anti-hero – charming, gracious and utterly without a moral compass. It depicted a life far from the crumbling USSR.

Mrs Jekyll

Emma Glass, 2024

I love 19th century literature and "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" was a particular favourite, so I was intrigued to read this contemporary retelling. It didn't disappoint: although entirely different from the original, it is as compelling and beautifully written.

"Artists have been fascinated by photography since the invention of the camera, but in the 1960s the combination of photos, film and mass reproduction spawned the media age," said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. "The real story of pop art, this compact but brilliant show suggests, is how painters responded to the secondhand nature of experience, the replacement of real life by mechanical images."

It is subtitled "Portraiture from Francis Bacon to Andy Warhol", but Bacon is an "outlier": most of the works are from the "plastic fantastic" age. "Icons of the 1960s float by like lonely astronauts": Yuri Gagarin smiling in Joe Tilson's "Gagarin, Star, Triangle" (1968); Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in the Bond film "Dr. No" in Colin Self's 1965 collage featuring a nuclear fallout shelter sign; Marilyn Monroe in publicity shots screenprinted by Richard Hamilton in "My Marilyn" (1965). Although it takes up just one room, this exhibition at Bath's Holburne Museum is a fresh and "fascinating rethink" of a much-mythologised artistic movement.

There's "barely a conventional portrait in sight" here, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. Indeed, this is less an exhibition about portraiture than "a portrait of an age". The first thing we see here is a 1956 Bacon painting, an "ectoplasmic smudge" of an image based on a photo of Velázquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X – a work he never actually saw in the flesh.

We then progress to the 1960s, when artists began to scrutinise the nature of celebrity itself. There are some great things here: Jann Haworth's "Mae West Dressing Table" (1965), a sculpture fashioned from fabric, lights and a mirror, is "a creepy shrine to a Hollywood sex symbol"; a "chin-stroking" 1967 self-portrait by Warhol sees the artist gazing out with "an impenetrably wry expression". The show's thesis is arguably a little obvious: that this was an age "obsessed with movie starlets and pop idols, space travel and Americana, which could be both tawdry and exultant", and which, "thanks to the spectre of nuclear apocalypse", was "shot through with unease". But there are certainly plenty of "charismatic" works to see here.

The premise "is hardly new", agreed Nancy Durrant in The Times, but the "good range of work" makes up for it. The earliest is a 1935 self-portrait by Walter Sickert, "based on a news snapshot of the (by then) famous artist". There's Peter Blake's 1965 portrait of David Hockney in Hollywood. And it's "great" to see Hamilton's classic pop art painting of Mick Jagger and the art dealer Robert Fraser, arriving at court to be tried on drugs charges. Based on a press photo, "Swingeing London '67" (1968-69) was "a comment on the establishment backlash" against a "new generation of high- profile upstarts". This is a thought-provoking show, even if it does "feel a little like a showreel for a bigger production".

The Holburne Museum, Bath. Until 5 May

"Like Alex Garland's 'Ex Machina' and Jonathan Glazer's 'Under the Skin', 'Companion' uses a juicy science-fiction premise – in this case, if we could hire robotic lovers, how might we treat them? – as the pretext for a dark parable about male manipulation and coercion of women," said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph.

Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is a "pretty, softly spoken" robot who has been programmed to provide companionship for her "midwit" boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid). Together, they head off to spend a weekend with friends at a remote lake house owned by a Russian tycoon (Rupert Friend), where Iris goes violently rogue. There is a "wonderful delicacy to Thatcher's performance, as the actress expertly toggles between uncanny and natural from moment to moment", and the film is a treat – "an unabashed whoop-out-loud romp: one of those films in which horrible things happen constantly to horrible people, as the moral arc of the universe bends itself around to kick the backsides of everyone involved".

"Clever, funny and exquisitely cast", this is a "slick modern thriller" that takes the viewer in "totally unexpected" directions, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. The violence ratchets up as the "grippingly paced story unfolds", but the film "also has insightful things to say about what it is to be human, our interaction with technology, and the nature of evil".

Companion is certainly "clever", said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times, and you probably won't be bored, "but clever is all it is: you will wish it had dared to play with real emotions, rather than just the preset sort. Even Ridley Scott's replicants seemed to dream of a life beyond their programming."

If you are selling items online as a small business owner, you may end up having to pay taxes on the amount you earn. But what if the selling you do is more informal, like a handful of postings on Poshmark after a closet cleanout or a pair of tickets on Stubhub for a concert you can no longer attend? Do you have to pay taxes on those things?

The answer really depends. But while you may not consider these profits to be your main source of income, you shouldn't assume they don't have to be reported come tax-time — even if you never encountered any issues in past tax seasons. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is now "cracking down on those who fail to report the added income" — and it "may know a lot more about your side hustle this tax season," said The Wall Street Journal.

When do you owe taxes on income from online sales?

"Anyone who earned more than $5,000 in 2024 selling tickets, musical instruments or other goods and services online should expect to get a 1099-K tax form," said the Journal. This form is how selling platforms "report online transactions to the IRS," and it "shows the total dollar amount of your online transactions for the year," said Experian.

The 2024 threshold for receiving a 1099-K is significantly lower than it used to be, as "online platforms such as StubHub, Etsy and eBay previously only had to send these forms to users who earned more than $20,000 in most cases," said the outlet. It will get even lower in coming years, dropping to "$2,500 for 2025 and $600 for 2026."

If you have any uncertainties, it may be worth hiring a tax professional to offer some guidance. Otherwise, you may end up on the hook for penalties.

Do the rules differ for businesses vs. hobby or occasional sellers?

There are certainly nuances in the tax treatment for full-on businesses as opposed to individuals who sell the occasional item online or who are hobby sellers, which is how the IRS will classify you "if you're not reselling items with the goal of making a profit," said TaxSlayer.

"If you get a 1099-K for something you sold for less than you originally paid, you wouldn't owe tax, but you would need to disclose it to the IRS," said the Journal. (Note that you also could not deduct the loss.) Meanwhile, "if you resell items regularly and for a profit, you'll need to report those earnings on Schedule C of your tax return," said TaxSlayer.

How are different types of online sales taxed?

The rate at which you are taxed will vary depending on what you are selling, and in some cases, how long you owned the item you sold.

"Income you make from a hobby is subject to income tax but not self-employment tax," said Experian. But if what you are selling is considered a collectible item — think comic books, trading cards or specialty sneakers — then you may end up paying capital gains tax. "If you owned the item for less than a year, you'll pay regular income tax on the gain," whereas "if you owned it for more than a year, you'll pay capital gains taxes, which are typically lower than your personal tax rate."

These categories are distinct from online businesses, which must pay "pay regular income taxes" on any profits, as well as self-employment taxes on business income, Experian added.

How should you report online sales on your taxes?

Again, this depends on the nature of your online selling activities. Just a hobby seller or only making a sale every so often? In this case, "you'll file a personal tax return and report your profit and loss on Schedule 1 (Form 1040) Additional Income and Adjustments to Income," said TaxSlayer. If you have "capital gains, you'll need to file Form 8949 and Schedule D."

For more official online sellers regularly raking in earnings, "your sales must be reported on your business tax return or on Schedule C of your personal tax return," said TaxSlayer.

This week's question: Houston's mayor says that "drug-addicted rats" are scarfing piles of seized marijuana and magic mushrooms stored at the city's police headquarters. If a TV network were to make a reality show about the Houston Police Department's battle with these drug-chomping rodents, what would it be titled?

Click here to see the results of last week's contest: Trillionaire tome

How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.com. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, please type "Rat police" in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Feb. 11. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page of the Feb. 21 issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on Feb. 14. In the case of identical or similar entries, the first one received gets credit. All entries become property of The Week.

The winner gets a one-year subscription to The Week.

The internet offers endless exciting opportunities for children to satisfy their natural curiosity, explore interests, find entertainment and discover new things. It’s a world at their fingertips — a TV, a textbook and a treasure trove.

However, not everything on the internet is appropriate for children. It’s easy for them to access unsuitable content or fall victim to fake news, misinformation and increasingly sophisticated scams. Educating ourselves and our children about the risks and benefits of

Luckily there are plenty of organisations and events offering expert help. One of them is Safer Internet Day on 11 February. This annual celebration of online safety aims to support young people to have a healthy and positive online life. This year it is raising awareness of online scams, including how to spot them and what support is available.

The Week Junior and The Week Junior Science+Nature have partnered with online safety experts Childnet and MediaSmart to share some of their advice so you can help your child to stay safe online. It includes:

• Advice from ChildNet on how to have a conversation with your child about online safely
• An article from Science+Nature on deepfakes - what they are, and how to spot them
• Guidance from Media Smart on how to keep your children safe from scammers
• Signposting and recommendations for further reading and resources

Complete the form below to get your free resource now.

We know keeping up with the online world can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone. Our free, expert-backed resource makes it easy to protect your child online. This resource will:

• Share clear, easy-to-follow practical tips to help you navigate online safety with ease.
• Show you how to spot the red flags and teach your child critical thinking skills for safer internet use.
• Give expert guidance on how to talk to your child about online safely in an open, honest, and age-appropriate way.
• Encourage healthy online habits for the whole family.

There is perhaps no clandestine institution on Earth more storied than the CIA, but over the past three weeks, the agency's goals have shifted significantly as President Donald Trump continues his unprecedented efforts to reshape the federal government. Less than a month into the Trump administration, the Central Intelligence Agency finds itself in the president's rapidly changing crosshairs, joining the many federal programs that have offered employees legally dubious buyout offers. As Trump, who has long railed against a supposed "deep state" of nebulous law enforcement and national security interests, casts his attention toward the CIA, experts are left wondering what the world's premier spy enterprise might look like should the president realize his vision.

Infusing the agency with 'renewed energy'

The buyout offers are a "signal to those who oppose Trump's agenda to find work elsewhere," said The Wall Street Journal. The goal is to "bring the agency in line with President Trump's priorities, including targeting drug cartels," and to have a workforce suited to the agency's "new goals, which also include Trump's trade war and undermining China." More broadly, Trump's vision for the agency is to have a "greater focus on the Western Hemisphere."

The buyouts and renewed focus on CIA priorities are part of a "holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy," a CIA spokesperson said to CBS News. The goal is to "provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission." The decision to include the CIA in Trump's broader federal buyout initiative appears to have come from newly installed Director John Ratcliffe — a longtime Trump loyalist — who "personally decided he also wanted the CIA to be involved," CNN said. However, one source said to the outlet, the effort may be "far less sweeping" than for agencies "not considered to be doing national security work." For instance, "some employees," such as those "handling high-priority tasks," would "not be eligible for the offer," said NBC News.

'Radical, unplanned and self-contradictory'

The CIA's overarching mission of protecting U.S. interests "requires depth of thought, strategy and long-term planning," said The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Trump's plan to remake the agency exhibits "none of those qualities," and is instead "reactive, poorly designed and likely to achieve the opposite of its stated goal." Already there is "panic within the broader national security community," said NPR. Experts are worrying about the possibility that "years of experience, talent and secrets could soon be heading out the door." It's still unclear whether other intelligence agencies would "follow suit with a buyout offer," said the Journal.

Crucially, none of the Trump administration's planned reforms "freeze the actual new and emerging threats" eager to "pounce on any perception of polarization or additional vulnerabilities," said the Robert Lansing Institute for Global Threats and Democratic Studies. It is "entirely possible," then, that a host of American adversaries "stand to benefit the most" from a pivot from "reasonable, dedicated, thoughtful and necessary reform and review toward a radical, unplanned and self-contradictory near-elimination of the intelligence agencies in their conventional sense."

Just in time for Valentine's Day, a roster of television shows about deception, betrayal, healthcare and the vulgarity of wealth. February TV includes the return of an HBO darling, a whimsical adult animation, the tale of an influencer-con artist and a vibrant nature docuseries. Everyone's definition of romance is different, after all.

'Common Side Effects'

The animated comedic thriller is not a genre you see every day. This show from creators Joe Bennett ("Scavengers Reign") and Steve Hely ("Veep," "The Office") is about a scientist who discovers a rare mushroom with unprecedented healing power. He is soon pursued by members of the DEA and U.S. insurance companies, who do not want news of the miracle plant to spoil their profits. The "most refreshing" part of this series — which delves into the corruption of Big Pharma and America's failing healthcare system — is that, despite its deadpan nature, it "manages to tell a pointed, conspiracist story without cynicism or despair," said The New York Times. (Feb. 2, Adult Swim and Max)

'Apple Cider Vinegar'

Australian influencer Belle Gibson was an early practitioner of anti-science wellness advice. She amassed fans by "falsely claiming to have mitigated multiple cancer pathologies via a range of dietary tricks and alternative medicines," said The Guardian, and eventually launched an empire surrounding her all-natural lifestyle. There was just one problem: Gibson never actually had cancer. Her wild story is fictionalized in "Apple Cider Vinegar," a Netflix drama starring Kaitlyn Dever, "who portrays Gibson as corrupted and parasitical but also desperately needy and in denial about the true gravity and consequences of her actions." (Feb. 6, Netflix)

'Yellowjackets'

This mystery-thriller series deals in two timelines: One set in the Canadian wilderness where a high school girls' soccer team is stranded after a plane crash, and the other set in New Jersey following the present-day lives of the crash's survivors. The adult versions of the girls are played by powerhouse actors Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis, all back for this third season.

The series' first season was shocking, boasting acts of cannibalism and troubling pagan rituals; season two revealed "how the characters remain warped by their teenage traumas and betrayals," said The New York Times. (Who blames them?) God only knows what season three will bring. (Feb. 14, Paramount+)

'The White Lotus'

Each season of Mike White's dark comedy series "The White Lotus" features a new cast and a new exotic locale for the titular resort — but certain themes carry over. Rich people behaving badly, disgruntled blue collar employees, the inability of wealth and excess to elicit lasting happiness. The third season is set in Thailand and stars Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Parker Posey and Natasha Rothwell. (You may remember Rothwell as the neglected spa manager who befriended Jennifer Coolidge in season one.) "The first season we highlighted money and then the second season is sex," White said to Vulture. The third season will be a "kind of satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality." (Feb. 16, Max)

'The Americas'

The team behind the BBC's seminal nature docuseries, "Planet Earth," has set their sights on the Americas — 8,700 miles in total, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The series is narrated by Tom Hanks. "We asked ourselves, who is the American version of David Attenborough?" said Toby Gorman, the president of Universal Television Alternative Studio, to The Hollywood Reporter. "We agreed internally there was a list of one." "The Americas" took five years to shoot and the resulting 10 episodes cover "The Atlantic Coast," "Mexico," "The Wild West," "The Amazon," "The Frozen North," "The Gulf Coast," "The Andes," "The Caribbean," "The West Coast" and "Patagonia." (Feb. 23, NBC)

'Greenland is not for sale. And it never will be.'

Aqqaluk Lynge and Gitte Seeberg at The New York Times

Greenlanders "aren't interested in their country being sold or letting the fate of their nation be decided by others seeking profit or promoting their own narrow interests," say Aqqaluk Lynge and Gitte Seeberg. They have "no desire to trade hundreds of years of Danish rule for American rule." Greenlanders want to "chart the course of their country's development, and have been doing just that since self-rule was established 16 years ago," and "friends don't threaten friends."

Read more

'REDD+ is a game changer for Ghana'

Nallice Afrakoma, Daniel Amponsah and Divine Odonko at Newsweek

REDD+ deforestation reduction programs "offer communities like ours a path to mitigate climate change while channeling finance to support sustainable development in our communities," say Nallice Afrakoma, Daniel Amponsah and Divine Odonko. The "forest provides us with essential resources, including food, a stable climate, and ensuring water availability" in Africa. Programs to "reduce deforestation offer a powerful tool to halt and reverse deforestation trends and secure a sustainable income for forest peoples."

Read more

'Trump and Musk should gut USAID. America needs to fix our own house first.'

Nicole Russell at USA Today

People "who voted for Trump are glad to see him make good on his promise to continue to strip federal agencies of excessive spending, particularly through an entity focused solely on foreign aid," says Nicole Russell. The "taxpayer dollars that fund USAID are better suited to remain with the taxpayer." Gutting "USAID might sound heinous, inhumane or just purely selfish." But "billions of taxpayer dollars are going toward organizations around the world that are intentionally or unintentionally wasting it."

Read more

'The United States needs an iron dome'

Matthew Kroenig at Foreign Policy

A "U.S. homeland missile defense system is both technically possible and necessary to defend the country from 21st-century threats," says Matthew Kroenig. The "current system is designed for ballistic missiles and not a wider range of 21st-century threats, which now includes conventional and nuclear-armed cruise and hypersonic missiles." This "approach of simply leaving the U.S. homeland vulnerable to adversary strategic attack has not led to stability." Washington "needs to take action to protect itself and to restore strategic deterrence."

Read more

The Trump administration's closing of the U.S. Agency for International Development could lead to an increase in humanitarian crises around the world. USAID provided humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries, which means its shuttering could hamper American "efforts to alleviate poverty, disease and humanitarian need," said the Congressional Research Service.

Elon Musk, the head of President Donald Trump's DOGE task force, has announced plans to keep USAID closed permanently, claiming without evidence that it is a "criminal organization" and a "radical-left political psy op"; Trump himself has also ordered all foreign aid to be suspended for 90 days. Critics say this could lead to increased disease, hunger and poverty across the globe.

What did the commentators say?

Trump's decision to suspend aid is "deepening humanitarian crises and putting an untold number of lives at risk, according to front-line aid workers and civilians who rely on American-funded programs," said Katharine Houreld and Rachel Chason at The Washington Post. The "policies of the Trump administration are already having profound consequences for some of the world's most vulnerable people," as soup kitchens "can no longer feed the hungry" and "first responders are unable to reach the dead and wounded."

Many "chaotic scenes were seen in scores of countries as aid organizations warned of the risk of escalating disease and famine," said The Guardian. Access to health care was reportedly blocked, including the $607.5 million in aid allocated for family planning. At least "several thousand women and girls are likely to die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth as a direct result of Trump's order," the outlet said, citing analysis from the Guttmacher Institute.

USAID also assists thousands of people who have low access to water. The program has "projects focused on water security, in Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India and dozens of other nations," said Lauren Kent at CNN. These program cuts are not "warnings of what's to come, but examples of what aid workers say is the fallout of the Trump administration's freeze."

Undermining the "access of people around the world to food and water and medicine is not going to make America more secure," said Evan Thomas, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder, to CNN. Thomas also said that the ending of humanitarian aid could allow terrorist groups, like Kenya's al-Shabaab, to flourish. When "people don't have water, when their livestock die, they become very stressed, and there are militias that are willing to take advantage of that stress and recruit for their own aims."

What next?

Despite the culling of USAID, there was "supposed to be a way to get aid through, but there are layers of problems," said NBC News. Countries and humanitarian organizations can apply for waivers to continue receiving "lifesaving" aid, but the "process to apply for a humanitarian waiver is new and mired in confusion and delays." For many of these groups, it is "not clear how the administration is defining 'lifesaving' aid that can continue despite the freeze, or whether the holdups in releasing funds are intentional."

Food resources are also waiver-eligible, but as with other areas, many problems are being reported. Amid the growing concern, politicians, including Republicans, have called for parts of the aid to resume. They are urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to "distribute the $340 million in American-grown food currently stalled in U.S. ports to reach those in need," said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) on X. As of now, the freeze remains in place.

What happened

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that a second type of H5N1 bird flu had infected U.S. dairy herds, suggesting that cattle are more susceptible to the avian virus than previously believed and putting dairy workers at greater risk.

Who said what

The new H5N1 version, known as D1.1, was found in dairy cattle in Nevada and is different than the B3.13 type that has spread to more than 950 herds in 16 states over the past year, starting in Texas. The D1.1 infection was discovered by testing raw milk under a USDA dairy surveillance project launched last year.

"I always thought one bird-to-cow transmission was a very rare event," said Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, said to The New York Times. That it happened twice is "a little bit of a 'wow' to me." Most of the 67 people diagnosed with bird flu in the U.S. had mild symptoms and had worked with dairy or cattle, but the one known death was an elderly man infected with D1.1 after contact with wild and backyard birds.

What next?

"There does not appear to be an immediate change to human risk," already considered low for the general public, The Washington Post said. But it's important for federal officials to be vigilant and transparent about a virus that could "make Covid seem like a walk in the park," said Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist.

What happened

President Donald Trump Wednesday signed an executive order seeking to bar transgender girls and women from competing in women's sports. The order directs the federal government to withhold funding from schools that do not comply with his administration's new interpretation of Title IX, the law that bars sex discrimination in schools.

Who said what

"The war on women's sports is over," Trump said at a White House signing ceremony. The directive was "widely expected," The New York Times said. "The Trump campaign spent nearly 20% of its overall ad budget on transgender attack ads," and he had already issued a flurry of orders "aimed at least in part at transgender Americans." Enforcement of the new decree relies on the Education Department, which Trump is reportedly taking steps to dismantle.

Along with using federal funds as a cudgel, The Washington Post said, Trump's order "seeks to use the bully pulpit to persuade sports associations governing nonscholastic sports to adopt similar rules," including the International Olympic Committee. The IOC and NCAA currently allow the governing bodies of individual sports to set rules on transgender athletes.

What next?

Local school districts "have ranged widely in their responses" to Trump's attacks on transgender students, "from acquiescence to defiance," the Post said, but overall they are "working to understand what the shifting legal and political landscape means for them." Legal challenges to Trump's order are widely expected.

What happened

Members of Elon Musk's secretive "Department of Government Efficiency" have been granted access to "systems and technology" at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency said Wednesday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that DOGE had "gotten access to key payment and contracting systems." Musk and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also said DOGE had agreed to "upgrade" the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control system.

Thousands of people gathered in cities and outside capitols across the U.S. Wednesday to protest Musk's rapid takeover of the federal government and President Donald Trump's early flurry of executive orders.

Who said what

DOGE is "going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system," Duffy said on X. Musk replied that his team would "aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system." The details were "murky" on what role DOGE would play, Politico said, or which "upgrades" they would attempt on the aging and "complex web of software, hardware, facilities and people that keep planes from crashing into each other."

CMS is a "highly politically and economically sensitive agency," the "nerve center of much of the nation's complex health care economy," the Journal said. But a person familiar with DOGE's work at the agency said its access was "read only" and "that, to their knowledge, Musk’s allies hadn’t yet been given access to databases that include identifiable personal health information of Medicare or Medicaid enrollees." DOGE operatives met with the Labor Department Wednesday, "seeking access to sensitive data," The Washington Post said.

What next?

Musk's efforts are "part of a massive government restructuring by Trump, who has fired and sidelined hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists," Reuters said. "Multiple government officials have already privately warned" that some DOGE actions "appear to be illegal," the Post said. But "critics have struggled to keep up" with the onslaught and "the Republicans who control Congress have largely applauded its work" and dismissed Democrats' "protests that an unelected billionaire should not be able to dismantle the bureaucracy without lawmakers' consent."

Keir Starmer's invitation to dinner in Brussels this week was "a big moment", said The Guardian, marking the first informal UK-EU summit since Brexit.

Five years after leaving the bloc, Labour is "far more sympathetic" to Europe than its Conservative predecessors, and closer EU ties could be the key to reviving the UK's "sluggish" economic growth.

But on the world stage Starmer is walking a "tricky tightrope" between Brussels and Washington. Donald Trump has threatened the EU with tariffs after imposing them on China at the weekend.

What did the commentators say?

There has been an ongoing "good vibes schtick" between the UK and the EU, and the UK and the US, said the BBC's Chris Mason. But Starmer, a former Remain campaigner, now has "choices – or dilemmas" – on whether to lean towards Brussels or Washington. The PM insists it's not an "either/or", but under a "Brexit-loving, EU-hating" Trump, "something is likely to have to give".

Starmer is using his reputation for "ruthless pragmatism" to make "steady (if slow) progress in forging a genuinely new relationship with Europe", said The Independent.

The emerging "Starmer reset" is about offering "defence for trade", framing the UK not as a "demandeur" of Brexit renegotiation but as a partner in a security-driven EU-UK relationship. Encouragingly, Europe seems "receptive".

Yet there remains a "plodding cautiousness" in Starmer's approach; he should be "bolder", said The Economist. He still clings to Labour's red lines: no single market, no customs union and no free movement, when he could "gain the upper hand by reframing Britain's EU debate in terms of hard geopolitical interest".

But with Europe facing political and economic challenges, "why would Sir Keir handcuff the UK to a failing bloc?", asked The Telegraph. It is UK interests that "should matter most".

What next?

For Starmer, perhaps the best tactic is "to deny there is a choice to be made" between Trump and the EU, "pursue parallel trade talks, and delay these decisions as long as possible", said Ian Dunt for The i Paper.

"Trump is madness" and the PM's focus should be all about managing that madness. "It is not inspiring. Of course it isn’t. But it is probably the only viable avenue open to him."

Eric Tucker – the uncle of this book's author, Joe Tucker – was a labourer from Warrington, Lancashire.

A bachelor who spent decades living with his mother, he "cultivated a dishevelled look", said Houman Barekat in The Guardian: he wore a "faded bomber jacket held together by sticky tape" and used a rope to hold up his trousers. Although generally solitary, he could be sociable, and "enjoyed carousing in disreputable drinking dens".

And he harboured a secret. When he died, aged 84, in 2018, his nephew Joe, a screenwriter, discovered more than 500 paintings in the attic of his council house. Joe knew his uncle painted "in his spare time", but was still astonished by what he found. Eric's "vignettes of working-class life" – scenes from pubs (such as Two Smokers, pictured), theatres and nightclubs; portraits of pigeon fanciers, carnival workers and down-and-outs – struck Joe as evidence of a serious talent. In The Secret Painter, he "unpacks the eccentric life behind this remarkable story". The result is a "tenderly affectionate, witty and touching" memoir – and a "fitting tribute to its subject".

Joe's "fascinating portrait" of his uncle contains scenes that "will make you wince", said Miranda Green in the Financial Times. Eric's childhood was deprived and marked by bereavement. He had no formal art training, and in early adulthood suffered "upsetting" art-world rejections, which convinced him to put his paintings "out of sight", and to settle into poorly paid manual labour. Yet Joe also recounts the efforts the family made to win recognition for Eric's talent. After his death, they converted his "modest former home into a gallery for a weekend". Some small shows followed, at which many locals cried at seeing "their world celebrated". Eric's paintings are now highly sought after, giving "Joe and his family belated recognition for their enigmatic, brilliant relative".

Eric's paintings have been likened to those of L.S. Lowry, who was famed for his depictions of the industrial North, said Michael Bird in The Telegraph. The comparison, however, "rings false": Eric's "ruddy-cheeked working-class cast" are quite different from Lowry's "matchstick" figures. While he "certainly had a gift", it's harder to argue he had the kind of "intensely distinctive personal vision" possessed by some self-taught artists. Still, "The Secret Painter" is perhaps less about his art than it is about the "hidden life that expressed itself through its making". And, as such, it's a "wry yet moving account of how the creative imagination can flourish in the most inhospitable circumstances".

Two days after the shock resignation of her chancellor, Nigel Lawson, in 1989, "Margaret Thatcher sat down for what she thought would be a straightforward TV interview", said Dan Einav in the Financial Times. The man opposite her, Brian Walden, was a friend, but when the camera started rolling, the PM "found herself facing a tenacious interrogator rather than a sympathetic ally".

The interview is the subject of this two-part Channel 4 drama by James Graham, and starring Harriet Walter and Steve Coogan. A parable about "the perils of mixing personal and political life", it faithfully recreates the interview itself, but becomes rather "stilted and overwritten" elsewhere, "with a stagy feel [that] leaves you wondering whether it might have been more impactful as a play".

Walter is ten years older than Thatcher was at the time of the interview, which did bother me initially, said Carol Midgley in The Times. But with her demeanour, her haughty smile "and that voice", Walter "captures the essence of Thatcher possibly more than any other actress I've seen", without "the caricature, the handbags and the exaggerated deep voice that you see so often". Coogan, too, is superb: he gets Walden's "gentle rhotacism just right".

An "absorbing study of politics, class and conflicted loyalties", this drama is "worth your time", said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph. You may be left, as I was, nostalgic for an era in which "journalists were forensic but respectful, and politicians could do more than trot out spin-doctored soundbites".

Donald Trump has spoken out against the South African government's new land reform policies, accusing the country of embarking on "land grabs" against "certain classes of people".

South Africa-born Elon Musk, the US president's close ally, has also attacked the policy, referring to "openly racist ownership laws".

President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended South Africa's Expropriation Act, introduced in January, saying that it will "balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of the rights of property owners". Ramaphosa vehemently denied that the policy targets white landowners, as Trump had insinuated.

The US president threatened to cut off funding to South Africa until a "full investigation" is completed. The US committed "$440 million in assistance" in 2023, of which "$315 million was for HIV/AIDS", said Reuters.

What are Trump and Musk claiming?

Trump's claims "re-energise a far-right cause celebre" that the white minority in South Africa are being "marginalised" and "subjected to 'genocide'", said Sky News. Musk has previously accused left-wing party leaders of "openly pushing for genocide of white people".

While Trump's social media posts did not explicitly name the Expropriation Act or the "certain classes" being targeted, he suggested in conversation with reporters that the South African government was "confiscating land". He added: "And actually they're doing things that are perhaps far worse than that," said the BBC.

Trump's accusations come shortly after the "majority white-led civil rights organisation AfriForum said they would lobby for international support", claiming the new law does not "guarantee the protection of property rights", said The Africa Report.

What has the South African government said?

The South African government has vehemently denied it is making discriminatory land grabs. Ramaphosa said in a statement on X that the new law was not a "confiscation instrument" but a "constitutionally mandated legal process" that other countries, including the US, also use to ensure there is "access to land in an equitable and just manner".

Pretoria subsequently said it was "keen to engage diplomatically with the US" over "land reform policy" and that South Africa is "committed to its constitutional democracy", said Al Jazeera.

In contrast to Ramaphosa's "measured approach", Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe directly indicated that South Africa would "consider withholding its mineral exports to the US" if Trump withholds funding.

Does the policy target white South Africans?

The Expropriation Act makes no mention of race and there is no evidence that it is being used specifically to target white landowners. But the most recent census suggests that South Africa's 7% white population owns 70% of all "privately owned farmland in the country", said Al Jazeera. These "ongoing disparities in land ownership" are why the government has sought to find ways to create a "more equitable distribution of land", and why right-wing commentators claim the policy is racially targeted.

South African lawyer and land expert Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told Al Jazeera that claims the government wanted "Zimbabwe-style land grabs" were "plainly not the case", and that the "hysteria" and "misrepresentation" of the Expropriation Act were "mischievous".

Previous policies aimed at reducing the disparity of land ownership have "not been used effectively", said law professor Zsa-Zsa Temmers Boggenpoel on The Conversation. It remains to be seen whether the Expropriation Act is a "silver bullet to effect large-scale land reform".

"The opening is dazzling", said Sarah Crompton in What's On Stage. "A chant of Oedipus. A man trapped in a smoky shaft of light, unable to escape his destiny. A blackout and dancers emerge from the gloom, pulsing and writhing to the pounding soundtrack…" Then we catch our first glimpse of Oedipus (Rami Malek), dressed in a white suit and "raised on a gleaming stage".

Matthew Warchus and Hofesh Shechter's new production of Sophocles' family tragedy gets off to a "fabulous" start. But while there are "tantalising" flashes of "wonder" along the way, it struggles to sustain the "intensity" set out in those first few moments.

Touching down in the West End, in a "freak of scheduling", just a few months after Robert Icke's modern-dress version that reimagined the classic tragedy as a political thriller, Ella Hickson's "Oedipus" could hardly be more different, said David Jays in The Guardian.

Thebes "gasps with drought under a harsh red sun" and Oedipus "resolves to save his people" either by relocating to a city closer to water or by solving the mystery of who murdered King Laius two decades earlier. "Big mistake".

Dance becomes the "irresistible core" of the production. A soundtrack of "fervent chants and wild drums rattles the Old Vic's plasterwork" while Shechter's "spectacular" dancers "scrabble, shuffle or form a serpentine scrawl of bodies" as they desperately try to persuade the gods to end the drought.

Though the dancers feel "separated from the main action", they do successfully establish a feeling that a "debilitating religious fervour" has consumed Thebes in its "hour of need", said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out.

It's a "compelling" backdrop, but Malek's portrayal of Oedipus is "baffling": the Hollywood star turns the titular character into a "detached, drawling figure who may or may not care about the drought, but seems to be so off his gourd it's hard to tell".

The question of whether Malek can "actually act" has always lingered over this "most idiosyncratic of performers", said Claire Allfree in The Telegraph. After his "divisive" Oscar-winning turn as Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody", casting him was "quite a risk". Malek appears "almost entirely at sea" as Oedipus, his "curious tic-ridden delivery strangling almost every word at birth".

It's a "curiously stilted central performance", agreed Clive Davis in The Times, and I found Ella Hickson's script "lacking in poetic heft". But there are "deft touches" throughout: Christopher Shutt's sound design brings a "ghostly sheen" and Tom Visser's lighting adds "ritualistic intensity". "We can't help being drawn into a harsh, elemental world."

Indira Varma's portrayal of Jocasta (Oedipus' wife) is "characteristically intelligent, full of subtle thought and feeling", added Crompton in What's On Stage, and the supporting cast is "excellent". In all, while the production is filled with "good ideas and powerful images", it hovers on the surface of "Sophocles' profoundly questing play, never quite piercing to its dark heart".

At the Old Vic Theatre, London, until 29 March

Generational wounds may live in our genes. New research suggests that childhood trauma leads to a difference in the epigenetics of a sperm cell, which can impact a child's development and also be passed on by that child via epigenetic inheritance. According to the new study, a parent's particular experiences and behaviors may have a larger effect on future generations than previously assumed.

The past is present

The study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, specifically looked at the epigenetics of sperm cells from people who were exposed to high levels of stress during childhood. "Understanding inheritance through genes and DNA has been one of the most crucial elements of our understanding of biology," Dr. Jetro Tuulari, an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Turku in Finland and the author of the study, said to Live Science. "We are now doing research that questions whether or not we have a complete picture."

Epigenetics is the study of how cells control gene activity without changing the DNA sequence but instead altering "which genes can be switched on," said Live Science. Researchers here looked at two epigenetic markers: DNA methylation and small noncoding RNA. The findings showed a "different epigenetic profile compared with the sperm from men who reported less trauma," with the pattern holding "even after the researchers checked if the differences could be attributed to other factors, such as drinking or smoking behaviors." These results "provide further evidence that early life stress influences the paternal germline epigenome and supports a possible effect in modulating the development of the central nervous system of the next generation," the study said.

Generation after generation

While the study found epigenetic changes in the sperm cells of those who experienced distress as children, "the inheritance of these findings has not yet been proven, so further research is needed," University of Turku Professor Emeritus Hasse Karlsson, who worked on the study, said in a press release. "Next, we want to study childhood maltreatment, epigenome of sperm, and offspring characteristics together," added Tuulari in the press release. "Demonstrating epigenetic inheritance in humans would rewrite the rules of inheritance, which highlights the need for further research."

Scientists have long been interested in how the behavior and experiences of parents genetically affect their children, especially when it comes to the sperm cell. "There must be a huge component of the pathogenesis which is not simply explained by genetic predisposition," Raffaele Teperino, a physiologist and pharmacologist at Helmholtz Munich, said to The Scientist. For example, a 2024 study found that paternal diet and weight can affect their offspring's metabolic health — even if the offspring has a healthy diet.

Did voters choose President Donald Trump because they hoped he would cut spending on Medicaid, lifesaving cancer research, Head Start, and Meals on Wheels? That he would send ICE into schools to terrify immigrant children and citizen children alike? That he would throw into chaos every state and local agency and charity across America that gets federal funding? Of course not. All of these actions are lifted straight from the 900-page Heritage Foundation policy tome known as Project 2025, a plan to effectively destroy most of the federal government. Ahead of the election, Trump swore up and down that he had nothing to do with the document, didn't know who wrote it, and didn't agree with its radical contents. Once he won, though, he appointed many of its authors and contributors to agency and even Cabinet posts. And now, it's his entire governing agenda. Fooled you, America.

Go through Trump's blitz of executive orders, and you'll see that nearly every one was detailed in Project 2025. Nixing the new "diversity, equity, and inclusion" programs and offices created by the Biden administration is in there, and so is overturning many of America's precious civil rights protections dating back 60 years to the Johnson era — as Trump has also done. Sending the U.S. military to assist in immigration enforcement at the southern border is on the Project 2025 wish list, as is a halt to all intake of refugees. Pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organization, and a global pact to tax large multinational companies? Check, check, and check. Trump's shocking proposal to abolish FEMA is in line with the document. So is even his pettiest move of all, the revoking of security clearances and Secret Service protections for appointees who later criticized him, such as Gen. Mark Milley and former national security adviser John Bolton. Still, even the Heritage Foundation didn't dream of something as blatantly unconstitutional as abolishing birthright citizenship. I guess Trump has a few ideas of his own, after all.

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's offer on Monday to open his country's infamous Cecot mega-prison to American deportees of any nationality, including U.S. citizens currently jailed domestically for violent crimes, has raised eyebrows and red flags across the diplomatic community. The offer is part of the most "unprecedented, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world," said Secretary of State Marco Rubio to state-run Voice of America.

Befitting such an "unprecedented" offer, there are "obviously legalities involved," said Rubio at a press conference on Feb. 4. President Donald Trump said he would accept the offer "in a heartbeat" with the right legal justification. But as many legal experts note, that justification — to say nothing of logistic feasibility — might be more difficult to secure than Rubio and Trump's cautious enthusiasm suggests.

Per Bukele's offer, El Salvador would accept not only Trump administration deportees being returned to their country of origin, but those from anywhere in the world, which it would house for a "relatively low" fee that would go toward making the country's "entire prison system sustainable."

What did the commentators say?

"The U.S. government cannot legally deport U.S. citizens," state-run VOA said, although Bukele is "regarded as a key ally" in the United States' "regional efforts to address the migration crisis." While it is illegal for the federal government to deport citizens, "that's not the end of the story," said Fordham Law School Professor Jennifer Gordon to NBC News. "There's a second set of questions about whether the U.S. could transfer a U.S. citizen prisoner to another country to serve their sentence." Those questions include "constitutional concerns, especially regarding cruel and unusual punishment," said former U.S. Attorney John Fishwick. "Would El Salvador be considered an agent of the United States? What court would have jurisdiction over prisoner disputes?"

While domestic-born citizens "enjoy legal protection from deportation," those who gained citizenship through the naturalization process can lose those protections, such as in cases where they "used fraud to obtain the citizenship in the first place," said the BBC. Perhaps more germane to Trump's immediate deportation agenda, if the government found "you had gang ties and never disclosed them, they could use that as a reason to denaturalize you," immigration attorney Alex Cuic said to the outlet, although he and other experts interviewed by the BBC said they'd "never heard" of such a case.

Feasibility aside, the proposal may be less about imprisonment than each respective leader's amassment of power. No matter the "questions about the constitutionality and legality of this deal," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue research institute to The New York Times, Bukele's "absolute power in El Salvador" has in part inspired Trump's "moving in a similar direction in trying to reduce or eliminate any checks on his power."

What next?

It is "by no means clear" whether any U.S. citizens will be submitted to El Salvador's penal system, said the BBC. The country's "offer of friendship" is "unprecedented," per Rubio. That's a sign, said the BBC, that Bukele has "landed firmly in Trump's favor" despite the diplomatic uncertainty in the region over Trump's proposed tariffs. Ultimately, Rubio said during a press briefing in Costa Rica on Feb. 4, the administration will "have to make a decision" on Bukele's offer. Regardless of whether this specific offer is acted upon, "there's a lot of show and a lot of fear" in Bukele's administration, said Shifter, and that means we should "expect to see a lot more show" between the two administrations.

In an era of hyperstimulation, the Danish philosophy of hygge continues to present an alluring opportunity to melt into coziness and the comforts of home. For those looking to cultivate a sense of hygge (pronounced hoo-ga), here are a few tips for centering togetherness, relaxation and your own well-being.

Cultivate coziness

Hygge is all about atmosphere, which for many Danes means a bevy of candles and dim lighting. Cultivating a space to maximize your comfort level will be largely subjective, but at the core of this philosophy is playing up the cozy vibes, down to what you wear. "You can't be hygge in rigid denim, after all," Vogue said. The Danes even have a word for the clothing you put on in these instances: hyggebukser. It refers to "those pants that you would never wear outdoors but are so comfortable that they are probably secretly your favorite," Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen and the author of "The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets To Happy Living," said in her book.

When practicing hygge, it is "important to set a calm mood," said Vogue. That can mean lighting a couple of candles; in fact, "more candles are burned per capita in Denmark than anywhere else in Europe." The golden rule is "the dimmer the light, the more hygge," Wiking said.

Spend quality time with friends and family

Danish author Marie Tourell Soderberg lists "togetherness" as an essential ingredient of hygge in her book "Hygge: The Danish Art of Happiness." What you choose to do with your close friends can vary, as long as it elicits the kind of support and safety you feel when you let your guard down with loved ones. These get-togethers can happen at home or anywhere that is quiet. You and your tribe may want to "celebrate the small joys of life" or maybe "discuss deeper topics," per Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "It is an opportunity to unwind and take things slow."

While hygge is "frequently associated with consumer objects like candles and blankets," most Danes maintain that "practicing a hygge lifestyle doesn't necessarily equate to buying more," said Afar magazine. Outdoor activities like "bike rides, woodland walks and stargazing" are all considered "hyggelig," the adjective form of the word. If you are stuck indoors in bad weather, you can also embrace hygge by "brewing a hot cup of coffee and calling your friends and family to chat or starting to piece together a puzzle in the living room." As long as you focus on being present in the activity and with the people around you, the essence of hygge will be there.

Embrace doing nothing without guilt

It may seem self-indulgent to pursue the goal of hygge, and you may be left feeling guilty for your lack of productivity. But sometimes, doing nothing is precisely what you need. We are "not wasting time," psychologist Patricia Ramirez said to Vogue. We are "investing in our mental health because our brain needs that rest." If we do not prioritize rest, with the "excess of information and the hyperconnectivity in which we live," our brains can get "exhausted, like when we train more than we are used to and our muscles are stiff."