A report says people in the United States bore 90 percent of the cost of President Trump’s tariffs in 2025. / CBS News

Another consequence: Foreign countries reduced their future reliance on a US “that has increasingly embraced protectionism.” / Bloomberg [$]

“The job market is cooked.” Gen Z explains why they feel side hustles are necessary. / The Guardian

The US drops to its lowest-ever score in a global corruption perception index. / DW

Reporting from Chad: “It feels like humanity has died in Sudan.” / The Times

The White House says it’s ending the ICE surge in Minnesota. However, thanks to wildly massive investment, ICE will continue operations even during a government shutdown. / CNBC, CNN

Anticipating the midterm elections, Anthropic donates $20 million to a Super PAC advocating for AI regulation, while OpenAI backs one that opposes safety efforts. / The Guardian, The New York Times [$]

This year may be the first in which AI becomes a named contributor on research papers. / Semafor

IBM plans to triple its entry-level hiring in the US this year—because it thinks AI will make employees more efficient. / TechCrunch

See also: A woman explains what it’s like when people create Grok-generated nudes of you on an OnlyFans account. / 404 Media

“Chinese companies are the main drivers in Africa’s green transition.” Africa’s solar capacity expanded 17% last year. / The Associated Press

Dozens of parks with playgrounds around New Orleans have unsafe lead levels. / Grist

Amid New York City’s affordability crisis, expensive specialty grocery stores bloom. / WSJ Magazine [$]

The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie is said to combine “two of the American public’s biggest obsessions,” i.e., celebrity and tragedy—or how about true crime and social media? / Vox

Some examples of languages that appear to show bias against left-handedness. / Mental Floss

From 2010: Examples of the phrase “somewhere a dog barked” in modern literature. / Slate

A round-up of quotations from various reactions to Wuthering Heights (the book, not the movie). “There is an old saying that those who eat toasted cheese at night will dream of Lucifer.” / The Common Reader

And now a brief chat with a new sustaining member, Melissa B.!

Melissa, thanks so much for supporting. When did you start reading? TODAY! Crazy, right?! The Field Notes newsletter today featured their beautiful Rooster edition and described the Tournament of Books, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of it or TMN before! I’m a heavy news consumer mourning the loss of the WaPost, so I was open to a new (to me!) source of well curated news. 

Wow, that’s incredible! Well, any particular reason you decided to support? I decided to support TMN because I was so impressed with what I saw just from today’s edition, and I believe we all need to do whatever we can to support the critical work being done right now to keep us all informed. Helping the TOB was the cherry on top! I’m so excited to follow along in March. 

Amazing all around. Thanks so much! Thanks for building such a great source of news—I’m late to the party, but happy to have found it. 😊

In the members area, unlocked links from Bloomberg, the New York Times, and WSJ Magazine ↓