Wiki News Live
Today:
The Trump Administration’s Favorite Tool for Criminalizing Dissent
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Federal officers wearing masks and bulletproof vests subdue a moped driver in the middle of a busy D.C. street. These videos capture the aggressive tactics of immigration officers under the second Trump administration. In each instance, following documented violence by federal officers toward protesters and immigrants, the Justice Department pressed charges—against the victim of that violence. I first started to notice the flood of Section 111 cases around the anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles early this past summer. But the Justice Department has charged prominent cases under Section 111 outside those epicenters, too.

Top Stories:
America Has a Baby-Formula Problem—Again
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Because Abbott produced about 40 percent of the U.S. supply of infant formula, the recall contributed to a monthslong nationwide shortage stemming partially from pandemic-related supply-chain issues. The medical literature documents only a few cases that have been tied to infant formula prior to the current outbreak. (Prior to the recall, ByHeart sold its powdered formula for about $1.75 an ounce; at Target, Abbott’s Similac Advance formula costs about $1.30 an ounce.) The spokesperson for ByHeart told me that all of the issues in the 2023 warning letter have been resolved. Whichever way the situation goes, it’s a reminder of how easily the baby-formula industry can crack, even when it’s supposed to be bulletproof.

World:
The Social Cost of Being a Morning Person
NEWS | 19 November 2025
This is partly because my morning hours have come to feel sacred: They’re the only portion of the day reserved for just my own needs—and for a parent, that kind of time is hard to find. I have become a person who gives the best of herself to the morning and offers only the dregs to the night. Perhaps the trade-off between morning productivity and evening social capacity is as inevitable for someone like me as gray hair and reading glasses. At first, I focused on survival—white-knuckling my way through the late hours, counting down until I could finally escape to bed. The balance, I suspect, isn’t about becoming less of a morning person, but about leaving space for connection even when it doesn’t align with my body’s clock.

Current Events:
What If ‘America First’ Appears to Work?
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Earlier this year, the president’s unconstrained “America First” approach seemed poised to drive the country off a cliff. Trump’s hardball tactics have gotten American allies to invest more in their militaries. Under Trump, the United States has embraced tariffs and is flirting with acquiring new territory through force. The United States needs to work closely with allies and partners, including the European Union, Japan, India, South Korea, and Australia, if it hopes to compete. If the United States bullies its teammates and views them as easy marks, they may pay out for a while, especially while they are dependent on America.

News Flash:
How to Cheat at Conversation
NEWS | 19 November 2025
But the main thing Cluely seems designed to “cheat” at is live conversation. So if cheating at conversation means using AI without anyone being able to tell, then for me, in these conversations, the tool worked. The odd thing about inventing a machine to help humans make conversation is that, Enfield told me, humans already are conversation machines—finely tuned ones, at that. Distraction is another thing that humans are sensitive to in conversation, Enfield told me. What makes using AI to “cheat” on conversation more troubling than doing math with a calculator, Enfield told me, is that in relationships, investment “is where authenticity comes from.

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Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 19 November 2025
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Latest:
Trump’s Epstein-Files Punt
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Donald Trump is not worried about the Jeffrey Epstein files. In changing course, however, Trump opens himself up to new political risks—and shows why he’s such a terrible political ally for House Republicans. They reportedly summoned Republican Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who supports the files’ release, to discuss her position. Until evidence of Trump’s connections to Epstein became harder to avoid, some people in the administration viewed the Epstein files as a useful political attack—something to wink at but not take seriously. Trump being Trump, and politics being politics, this is likely not the last word.

Breaking:
Tesla Wants to Build a Robot Army
NEWS | 19 November 2025
But the payout will happen only if certain targets are met—including Musk’s successful deployment of 1 million Optimus robots. The robot was unveiled in 2021, when Tesla held an “AI Day” event detailing its future plans. And although Tesla has developed it into an actual robot since then, it has still relied on human assistance to fulfill basic tasks, such as serving drinks. (There’s a reason the robot that Chipotle unveiled in 2023 could make only a burrito bowl or a salad, not a burrito.) Read: The American car industry can’t go on like thisStill, for Anderson, Behl, Tesla, and the others, the convergence between robotics and cars is already well under way.

Trending:
How Crypto Could Trigger the Next Financial Crisis
NEWS | 19 November 2025
In the 11 years they have been around, a number of stablecoin issuers have defaulted, erasing billions of dollars in holdings. The GENIUS Act forgoes inspections and subjects only the largest issuers—with more than $50 billion in holdings—to annual audits. Proponents of the GENIUS Act were also served by the general atmosphere of magical thinking that surrounds crypto currencies. This would mean treating stablecoin issuers as deposit takers, and requiring all U.S.-dollar stablecoin issuers that do business in the U.S. to pay insurance on their deposits. Stablecoin issuers should also be required to supplement their monthly disclosures with the same event-based disclosures required of banks.

This Just In:
Photos: India’s Polluted Skies
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Vipin Kumar / Hindustan Times / GettySmog fills the air in the early hours of the morning at Shanti Path in New Delhi, on November 16, 2025. The national capital continues to reel under a dense blanket of smog, with air quality plunging to “severe” levels.

Today:
A Generational Portrait That Actually Says Something New
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Flat Earth opens with an Adderall shortage in New York City, a consequence of supply-chain breakdowns and worsening relations with China. This mirrors the world of Flat Earth, where writers might critique the commodification of everyday life and work for corporations on the side. Indeed, money is everywhere in Flat Earth, especially in its relationships. Back in New York, Frances becomes the toast of the art world; her films are screened in galleries. They read like fiery tweets or diary entries, influenced by the men Avery dates and her general feeling that society is regressing.

Top Stories:
The Matcha Problem
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Manufacturers are taking advantage of the market’s lack of regulation and are selling ground-up green tea as matcha. There, they sold matcha using the language of utility and the logic of enterprise: Matcha, Poster told the cameras, evoked a venerable ritual, but more important, it was a “massive opportunity in the natural-energy-drink sector.” Poster had learned of matcha while trying to manage her ADHD and anxiety as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to its flagship product, an energy drink, the company sells canned matcha lattes, Nespresso-compatible matcha pods, and powdered, sometimes flavored matcha. And besides, Sorensen reminded me, much of the “matcha” flavor finding its way to the mass market isn’t actually matcha. Matcha plants require three to five years to mature.

World:
The ‘Easy Way’ to Crush the Mainstream Media
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Most of the administration’s efforts to manipulate the media up to that point had retained at least a patina of deniability. The left, in other words, got so used to controlling the media that it doesn’t even notice the bias. “One thing that CBS has agreed to do as part of this transaction is to bring more fact-based, objective, unbiased coverage to their newsrooms,” Carr told PBS. Two days after the offending monologue, Carr, in an interview with the right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, made his famous “the easy way or the hard way” comment. In the age of cable, social media, and streaming, broadcast TV is of course far less consequential than it once was.

Current Events:
SNL Has Its Black Mirror Moment
NEWS | 19 November 2025
One of the first sketches of the night had Ashley Padilla as an elderly woman whose grandchildren went to visit her in a retirement center. (This is a real service, and one that already served as the premise for an episode of Black Mirror.) A typical family tried to use AI as it was intended, only for havoc to ensue, upsetting Grandma in the process. The sketch didn’t crack five minutes, or directly attack any Silicon Valley executives, or even mention the technology’s human, societal, or environmental costs. While beating an easy joke to death is sometimes irresistible, the AI sketch demonstrated how less can be more.

News Flash:
Abecedarian With Sensodyne
NEWS | 19 November 2025
Beneath the pulped swell of wintercitrus or a sharp draw of winter air. Notdelicately, Dr. Wayne tested each molaretched through. Dr. Wayne advised softer bristles,kinder hand. Enamel, harder than bone—relentless bones of my fingers or the sortsome dogs won’t let go of. NowWayne and you and my starkX-rays know the truth: I’ve wanted wholeness,yes, and I’ve rasped at what was whole.