This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

The first thing you need to know about the UK’s new prime minister is that he’s previously moonlighted as a DJ. 

Okay: probably not the first thing you needed to know. And sure: That DJ gig was for charity. 

But it still tells you a little something about Andy Burnham, who today became the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years. He’s widely seen as a pragmatic, affable, down-to-earth kind of guy — more Zohran Mamdani than Keir Starmer. 

As the long-time former mayor of Manchester, the UK’s second-largest city, Burnham won adoration for his focus on improving public transit and affordable housing. His vocal advocacy for England’s post-industrial cities even earned him the nickname “The King of the North.”

Burnham’s first speech as prime minister, delivered (without notes!) on Monday morning, doubled down on some of those populist themes — including the need to bring down Britain’s cost of living and address homelessness.

Political observers don’t expect Burnham’s policies to actually differ all that much from those of Starmer, his predecessor. (They’re both members of Britain’s center-left Labour Party.) And the fundamental relationship between the UK and US is also expected to stay much the same. 

Asked how he’d relate to President Donald Trump, Burnham said: “I like to think I’ve got some personality myself.” You can be the judge of that! There’s video of his 2022 DJ set.

Will Britain’s new PM reverse Brexit?

Here’s one place where Burnham does break from his predecessor: He wants Britain to rejoin the European Union in his lifetime. (Though he’s also promised not to relitigate Brexit.)

Call it a breturn or a brejoinder — it’s a tantalizing prospect for the majority of Britons, who now either have soured on their country’s 2016 vote to depart from the EU or never supported Brexit to begin with.

But undoing Britain’s break with Europe would be a monumental undertaking. First, the government would likely need a clear political mandate from British voters, either through a second referendum or a general election where a breturn figured heavily. 

Then the UK would have to negotiate its way back into the bloc…and convince all 27 member states to give it another go. Some could approve accession with parliamentary votes. But others, including France, could require national referendums of their own. 

“Countries have very different views of Britain,” one European observer told Vox last month. “There are those that still think that the EU is better off without Britain.”

One link for later

➨ Slow down time — or at least your subjective experience of it. Neuroscience research shows that both novelty and strong emotions seem to stretch time out a bit. 

Before you go…

• Did you know…that despite all the evidence to the contrary — license plates, hip-hop lyrics, etc. — a minority of American peaches are actually grown in the great state of Georgia? 
• Today’s trivia: Nahuatl is still spoken by millions of people today. But it was also the primary language of which former Mesoamerican civilization? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.)
• Friday’s trivia: On Friday, my colleague Dylan Scott asked you for a Russian name that means “holy.” That would be Oleg, as in Oleg Cassini — the Russian count turned designer who dressed Jackie Kennedy. 

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week that the Pentagon would begin testing the testosterone levels of all military members over the age of 30 as part of their regular, annual physical exams. And — if their levels are low — service members could choose to receive testosterone replacement therapy.

“It’s not about artificial enhancement,” Hegseth said. “It’s about restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.”

The High-T Department of War. pic.twitter.com/hlAUq3j2cD

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) July 15, 2026

It’s another example of the performative masculinity that has defined Hegseth’s time atop the US military. He has sought to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of “War,” preached a “warrior” ethos, rolled back DEI initiatives while blocking promotions for women, and taken an unusual interest in the beard-grooming standards of service members.

The testosterone obsession is just one of several ways that the military is having a Make America Healthy Again movement. Hegseth announced over the spring that service members would no longer be required to get an annual flu vaccine. (The military later reinstated the mandate for new recruits, after a major flu outbreak at a boot camp.) And also this week, he launched a new investigation into the Defense Department’s decision in 2021 to mandate the Covid-19 vaccine — shades of the efforts being made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Go a little deeper

The “T” trend is not just a fixation of Kennedy’s, who has said that he takes testosterone supplements, and Hegseth. More Americans of every age group are taking testosterone. By one count, prescriptions grew from 7.3 million in 2019 to more than 11 million in 2024.

So, is getting more people to take supplemental testosterone actually a good idea? Should everybody be screened, as Hegseth is suggesting for service members over 30?

The Endocrine Society said in a statement after Hegseth’s announcement that there was “insufficient evidence” to support testosterone-level screening for asymptomatic Americans. Previous research suggests that, if anything, testosterone is already overprescribed in the US; only 12 percent of men receiving a prescription had received appropriate diagnostic testing.

Testosterone levels indeed fall as men age, and there has been a general decline in testosterone among men today compared to men of the past. But what’s not clear is whether widespread testosterone testing and supplementation is the solution. 

For one, distinguishing between a natural decline in testosterone and a decline that warrants clinical intervention is the subject of ongoing debate among doctors. Low T can also be a sign of other chronic health conditions that it would be better to treat. If your T is dropping because of obesity, for example, it would be better to lose weight (or take a GLP-1 drug instead of a testosterone supplement). The evidence is mixed on how much taking T actually improves things like mood, energy, sexual performance — or military effectiveness — and taking too much testosterone could come with its own health risks.

The dialogue around T supplements is still evolving. Doctors used to worry that extra testosterone could cause cardiovascular problems, but more recent research has allayed those fears, leading  proponents in the Trump administration to call for more prescribing. But the evidence right now does not appear to support the widespread T testing and supplementation that the military’s new program would suggest.

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How to keep your cool on a bad day: As a parent of three children, I’m always on the lookout for better ways to manage my stress — and took heart in the four strategies suggested by Vox’s Allie Volpe in her piece this week. If we can take the time to acknowledge how we’re feeling and really reflect on what has led us to feel that way, we might be able to avoid a full-blown meltdown. That’s news you can really use.

Before you go…

• Did you know: Prediction markets correctly guess the winner of reality TV shows upward of 90 percent of the time? It’s a trend that raises questions about insiders using insider knowledge to make a buck — and risks ruining the fun of following these shows.
• Today’s trivia: What is a Russian name meaning “holy”? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in Monday’s edition.)
• Yesterday’s trivia: Yesterday, we asked you what animal can be as narrow as a few millimeters or as wide as 13 feet. That would be crabs, the various species of which can range from tiny and adorable to monstrously terrifying.

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

Canadian wildfire smoke is pouring over the US border today, blanketing much of the Northeast and Upper Midwest in fine particulate. 

When I went outside to water plants in Buffalo this morning, the air tasted like campfire and glowed with a faint amber haze. My colleague Zack Beauchamp, who lives in Ontario, said “the sky looked genuinely apocalyptic” in Toronto yesterday.

The heavy smoke comes from both the hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada and a meteorological phenomenon known as a “heat dome,” which traps hot, smoky air close to the earth. 

Those conditions are expected to linger through Saturday, exposing more than 115 million people to dangerously polluted air. Stay indoors, if possible. (AC and air purifiers can help maintain your indoor air quality.) And if you must go outside, wear an N95 mask and avoid strenuous activity. 

The pollution success story everyone forgets

Smoky, polluted summer weeks like this one still feel like outliers on the East Coast. But they were actually pretty common before the passage of the Clean Air Act 63 years ago. 

Pollution from cars, factories, and power plants had exploded in the boom years following World War II. Major US cities were routinely blanketed in falling ash, yellow smog, and a toxic “smaze” — that’s “smoke” + “haze” — that, during flare-ups, killed dozens of people. 

The Clean Air Act spurred early research into monitoring and control, however, and laid the groundwork for an ambitious federal regulatory system that set limits on polluters. Over the next 50 years, those efforts significantly slashed US air pollution and, according to some estimates, prevented hundreds of thousands of premature deaths. The effort was so successful, in fact, that many Americans no longer remember a time when cities like New York regularly looked like this. 

But the news here isn’t all good. After decades of progress, some air pollutants — like the fine particulate matter released by wildfires — have experienced year-to-year increases. And the politics of addressing climate change, which makes wildfires larger and more intense, are far thornier than the politics of cleaning up car tailpipes or smokestacks. 

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➨ Today is a great day to buy a produce brush. (Online, obviously. Don’t go outside for one!) Cyclosporiasis, the explosive-diarrhea parasite, continues to wreak havoc on America’s bowels. And the best way to reduce your risk is by washing raw fruits, vegetables, and herbs under running water.

Before you go…

• Did you know…that “pins and needles” numbness you sometimes feel in your limbs isn’t caused by a lack of blood flow? It’s probably related to nerve compression, and for most of us, it’s pretty normal. 
• Today’s trivia: What’s an animal that can be as narrow as a few millimeters or as wide as 13 feet? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.)
• Yesterday’s trivia: Yesterday we asked you to name a famous Indo-Caribbean wrap-style sandwich. That would be the roti, versions of which also exist in many Asian and African cooking traditions. 

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

If I had a nickel for every time President Donald Trump backtracked or changed course on Iran, I’d have…well, at least enough money for a gallon of $3.89 gas.

Trump has threatened attacks and postponed them. He’s praised Iran’s leaders in one breath and panned them as “scum” in the next. The latest about-face played out Tuesday morning, when Trump canceled a controversial, short-lived plan to charge fees on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway at the heart of this whole mess.

It’s incredibly easy to get lost in all the back-and-forth. (Even as I write this, the United States is still sanctioning Iranian oil sales, preventing ships from docking at Iranian ports, and bombarding the country with missile strikes.) But if you zoom out far enough, a clear narrative does emerge: Whatever the war might’ve been about in the beginning, it’s now very clearly a strait-up tug-of-war for control of the Strait of Hormuz. 

The strait is the world’s most important energy chokepoint: A fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes through it. And now that Iran has shown it can shut down that traffic, whoever controls the strait will gain both a major potential revenue source and a powerful economic weapon.

These waterways run the world 

The Strait of Hormuz is what’s known as a maritime chokepoint: a narrow waterway that handles an outsized share of global trade. Your daily life is almost definitely filled with and fueled by goods that pass through these channels. But you may never have occasion to consciously think about them until something — like a war or a stuck container ship — gets in the way. Here are a few of the other heavyweights (click to see a larger version here): 

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➨ Health trackers offer a ton of data. And much of it is only good for raising your stress! Instead of obsessing over metrics like your daily resting heart rate or HRV, focus on the long-term trends. And don’t forget to pay attention to how you actually feel, as opposed to deferring to what your wearable says.

Before you go…

• Did you know…that singing with a group of other people raises your oxytocin levels? This experiment was conducted in a choir rehearsal, but I’m personally and self-servingly gonna assume it applies to karaoke, as well.
• Today’s trivia: Caribbean and Indian cooking traditions combined to yield what delicious wrap-style sandwich? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.)
• Yesterday’s trivia: Yesterday we asked you for the bizarre human nickname that San Franciscans give their heavy summer fog. That would be Karl, a reference to the 2003 film Big Fish. The gag started on social media.

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

Two fatalities, a surge in arrests, large protests in the streets — the past two weeks of US immigration news have given me flashbacks to January. 

But this time, something’s different. Or at least appears to be different. This time, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally shot two men during traffic stops…the agency ordered most traffic stops to temporarily cease. 

The directive is a far cry from the denials and smears ICE lobbed last winter, after agents killed two American protesters in Minneapolis. At the time, administration officials went so far as to baselessly claim the victims were “domestic terrorists.”

The circumstances of these new shootings are different, though early reports from eyewitnesses have raised similar alarms. Yesterday, agents shot and killed a Colombian man — identified as 26-year-old Johan Sebastian Guerrero — after he exited a home they’d been surveilling. Guerrero was reportedly not the target of the surveillance.

Days earlier in Texas, ICE agents fatally shot another man, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, as he drove three fellow construction workers to a Houston job site. DHS claimed Araujo tried to ram the officers’ vehicle. But the other men in Araujo’s van said the agents never even identified themselves as law enforcement.

How Trump remade ICE

The fatal shootings in Maine and Texas underscore an important reality: President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign might’ve faded from the headlines, but it never actually went away.

In March 2026, the most recent month with complete data, ICE arrested nearly 30,000 people, according to Syracuse University research. And just this month, ICE arrested 10,000 people in a single five-day sprint — more detentions than the agency booked per month for long stretches of the Biden administration. 

The quiet persistence of the crackdown reflects Trump’s priorities: His desire to deport tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants hasn’t actually changed, even if the PR calculus has. 

But it also speaks to a profound administrative shift: ICE is a fundamentally different agency than it was under prior administrations.  

Consider ICE’s budget, for instance, which shot up eightfold between 2024 and 2025. ICE now receives more money than the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives…combined. 

For the first time in at least 20 years, ICE is also charged with entering communities to make proactive arrests, as opposed to merely picking up undocumented people detained on other charges by local or state police. That’s how we ended up with agents surveilling homes and making traffic stops in the first place. 

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➨ If you’ve never read The Odyssey, there’s no time like the present. Christopher Nolan’s movie of the same name comes out this week and seems destined to be a gigantic hit. Also, Vox’s Constance Grady says, it’s “funny, gripping, and sexy.” That’s not exactly my recollection from 11th-grade English, but I’m willing to give another translation a read!  

Before you go…

• Did you know…that the name of the popular cosmetic drug “Botox” comes from the Latin word for sausage? The bacteria that the drug is made from, Clostridium botulinum, was discovered in Germany in the early 1800s after it caused an outbreak of food poisoning in people who ate spoiled sausages. 
• Today’s trivia: What’s the bizarre human nickname that San Franciscans give their heavy summer fog? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.)
• Yesterday’s trivia: Yesterday we asked you the name of the third US vice president. That would be Aaron Burr, sir — who is, of course, far more (in)famous for shooting Alexander Hamilton.

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

Hi, friends, and good afternoon — I’m delighted to be coming to you, for the very first time, at this far more civilized and adequately caffeinated hour. 

As I previewed here on Friday, Today, Explained has undergone a little makeover: We’re now shipping this newsletter on weekday afternoons. And we’ve tweaked the format to make it more useful, entertaining and elucidating, with a renewed focus on exploring the fascinating, big ideas and hidden forces that drive the news cycle. 

Every afternoon, my pal Cameron or I will catch you up on the two to three big stories you need to know to feel grounded and informed about the day. Then we’ll go deeper on one thread from one story: a fascinating bit of related science, an economic concept that might change the way you think, or the little-known context behind a pop culture fad that suddenly and surprisingly explains everything. 

My goal here isn’t to help you “keep up” with the news — as if the news were some terrible, never-ending treadmill you could fly off the back of — but to find better, smarter, more durable ways to think about the fast-moving infopocalypse that is our inescapable reality now.

Speaking of inescapable realities: What better place to start, really, than with an…unexpected death? South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham died on Saturday of likely complications from heart disease, shortly after traveling from Ukraine back to the US.

Graham was 71 years old, and — at the risk of sounding ever-so-slightly macabre — no one had the late senator on their Congressional death watch bingo card. A number of other high-profile national politicians are in visibly poor health: Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, for instance, who on Sunday finally explained that his mysterious, weeks-long hospitalization followed a minor fall. Or President Donald Trump himself, who often appears in public with visible bruising on his hands, and who is maybe/probably receiving a high-powered, experimental obesity drug to treat pulmonary hypertension. 

The White House strenuously disclaims all speculation about Trump’s health, of course. But in America’s so-called gerontocracy, health problems are something of an occupational hazard.

How Congress got so old

You’re not imagining it: Congress has never been this old. In January 2025, the median age for a sitting US senator was 64.7 — up more than a decade from 40 years ago.

The simplest explanation is basic demographics: America is getting older as a whole. 

But there’s also another, more troubling reason for Congress’s demographic shift. Over the past century, growing political polarization and partisan gerrymandering have made congressional elections far less competitive. 

As a result, many races are essentially decided by the primaries, where older, incumbent candidates have huge advantages: More voters recognize their names and more donors contribute to their reelection funds, for instance. Despite some high-profile upsets — like the recent triumph of political newcomer Melat Kiros in Colorado — only a handful of incumbents lose their primaries each cycle. 

Critics have floated a number of interesting remedies, including term and age limits for federal lawmakers. Lots of Americans say they’d support those types of reforms. But the problem with the gerontocracy isn’t actually lawmakers’ ages — after all, older people benefit from a lifetime of accrued experience! — but the sense that voters don’t really have the opportunity to elect younger candidates, even if that’s their preference.

Changing that would require sweeping structural reforms that help newcomers challenge incumbent politicians and that make it more possible for either party to win a given district. Unfortunately, that’s not at all the direction the US is moving in.

One link for later

➨ Keeping up with friends is hard. A weekly photo dump can help. Vox’s Allie Volpe observes this little digital ritual in her own group chat. Every Friday, her friends share a handful of casual, lo-fi photos from the preceding week to keep up with the small stuff in each other’s lives. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s actually in keeping with recent research about the most effective ways to nurture friendships online.

Before you go…

• Did you know…that axolotls, those adorable smiling amphibians, can regrow limbs, spinal cords, and even portions of their brains? It’s made them particularly popular in laboratory studies. 
• Today’s trivia: What’s the name of the American politician and businessman, recently portrayed (but not necessarily spotlighted) in a hit Broadway musical, who served as the third vice president of the United States? (You can find this and other brain puzzles in Vox’s daily crossword. Look for the answer in tomorrow’s edition.
• Something to watch: The Vox podcast Unexplainable is now on Netflix! You can catch new episodes there every Monday (and still listen every Monday and Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts).