Vox Politics

The Electoral College — our nation’s bizarre system that hands a few narrowly-divided states the privilege to choose our presidents — has been entrenched for two centuries. But a long-game effort from reformers, which has played out quietly in blue states across the country over the past 20 years, has gotten it surprisingly close to […]

In the early weeks of the Covid pandemic, in those days when public spaces emptied and hospitals filled up, I used to see this magazine cover from 2017 being passed around social media. The story was a familiar one to me, because I was the one who had written it: The posts were all versions […]

The California governor’s race isn’t just important for Californians. At a moment where the federal government is sabotaging American democracy from within, the question of how the leader of the union’s wealthiest and most populous state responds — and the ways they use their powers to challenge federal authority — has major implications for the country. […]

When the Trump administration began dismantling US foreign aid in January 2025, many global health experts feared that the consequences would be catastrophic, with models projecting thousands of deaths as a direct consequence of the cuts. Across nine countries, 3.4 million fewer people were tested for HIV in just the first half of 2025, according […]

Earlier this year, Yonatan Levi left his home country of Israel to observe the Hungarian election. Levi, a scholar at the center-left think tank Molad, had traveled with a group of parliamentarians and activists to study how opposition leader Péter Magyar was running a winning campaign against an authoritarian prime minister. This was, in their […]

Are the US and Iran on the verge of a full peace agreement — or a return to all-out war? On the one hand, President Donald Trump has told multiple reporters in recent days that Iran has effectively agreed to all US conditions and that talks are going well, with Vice President JD Vance set […]

The aorta of the global energy economy has been clogged for more than a month now.  The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway connecting the Gulf oil producers to global markets — has throttled worldwide energy production and driven up the prices of gasoline, diesel, fertilizer, plastics, and myriad other commodities.  […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a ceasefire, President Donald Trump said Thursday in a social media post. What’s happening? The ceasefire, which Trump said […]

After six weeks of fighting, Israel and Lebanon appear to be on the verge of a ceasefire.  President Donald Trump announced the 10-day pause, which he said would help “achieve PEACE” between the countries, in a social media post on Thursday. The ceasefire is set to take effect at 5 pm ET.  The agreement came […]

American and Iranian negotiators are reportedly getting closer to a deal that would end the weeks-long war between the nations, following the collapse of in-person talks in Islamabad last weekend. In his announcement Sunday, Vice President JD Vance initially sounded pretty hopeless about the whole thing, as you might expect of a man whose dreams had just been […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: After the US and Iran failed to reach a longer-term peace agreement over the weekend, President Donald Trump is trying something new: blockading the Strait […]

OpenAI wants to raise taxes on the rich, expand the welfare state, let workers decide how their employers use artificial intelligence, and give everyone a cut of the tech industry’s profits. Or so the company claims in a new vision statement. In that document, the AI titan argues that the government needs to enact sweeping […]

To celebrate the second Sunday of Easter, President Donald Trump appears to have decided that blasphemy might be the best option. Late Sunday evening, Trump posted a wordy attack of Pope Leo XIV on Truth Social, saying the first American-born leader of the Roman Catholic Church was “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” […]

This story was first featured in the Today, Explained newsletter. Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day. Sign up here. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) suspended his campaign for California governor on Sunday after a series of disturbing accusations of sexual misconduct. The scandal had drawn a fierce […]

Most American Catholics were probably not expecting to spend the first week of Easter trying to figure out whether their government was threatening to overthrow the first American-born pope. Yet a handful of news reports this week raised that very strange possibility. They landed just as both the Roman Catholic Church and right-wing Christian influencers […]

Even before the Trump administration went to war with Iran, it was talking differently about its approach to combat.  President Donald Trump relabeled the Department of Defense to something more in line with his values: the Department of War. His Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, promised to deliver on a philosophy of “maximum lethality.” For many […]

The heyday of the “high-skill” worker is ending. As corporations find new ways to replace labor with machines, more and more professionals are seeing their vaunted credentials lose their value. Many have been forced into menial jobs — while others cling to their prestigious positions only by accepting ever more exploitative terms of employment.  The […]

For months, America’s war with Iran has been slowly suffocating the global economy.  In March, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway that links the Persian Gulf’s oil reserves to global markets. As a result, energy prices steadily rose while stock markets and growth forecasts fell. Analysts started warning that, if the […]

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: Hi readers, big news broke just after yesterday’s newsletter went out: The US and Iran reached a temporary ceasefire agreement, averting President Donald Trump’s threats […]

The 25th Amendment is having a moment. According to a tally by NBC News, over 70 Democratic lawmakers called for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to invoke an obscure constitutional provision that would allow them to temporarily prevent Trump from acting as president, after Trump threatened to wipe out “a whole civilization” in Iran. (Trump has […]