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With TikTok and DeepSeek, young people are forking over sensitive personal data to the Chinese government. We should be worried. Among Gen Z, theres a certain nihilism about Chinas access to American data. Some argue that they have nothing to hide. Others say that, if American billionaires can access their data, why not let China, too? When TikTok momentarily shut down, young people ran to RedNote, a Chinese alternative, as a not-very-veiled middle finger to the U.S. government. Chinas threat to our data security is difficult to comprehend. If they were accessing sensitive information, we wouldnt see it. And, for young people not yet in the workforce, their privacy concerns may be decades away. But we should take this threat seriously; China isnt some victimless entity to hand over your data to. Knowing that the worlds largest police state is collecting your data should make anyone nervous, James Lewis, a researcher at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, writes in an email. China’s laws say that any and all Chinese companies must turn over data if MSS asks for it and there is no appeal or refusal. The domestic capitalists versus the foreign autocrats Many Americans arent thrilled with who has access to their data already. Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has effectively taken a buzzsaw to the federal bureaucracy, holds gobs of sensitive user data through X. The same goes for Mark Zuckerberg and his portfolio at Meta. So why would we care about China having that data too? But theres a difference between domestic and foreign data ownership. The United States has a court system users can fight through if their data is misused. If China abuses your data, theres no recourse. Moreover, the Chinese government and America-based companies have completely different incentives. Musk and Zuckerberg have a lot of money, but Chinas rulers have a thousand times more, plus an army and nuclear weapons, Lewis writes. Theyre individuals, the [Chinese Communist Party] CCP is a huge institution that will do anything to maintain the Partys control. China has also committed dozens of documented human rights abuses. Bill Drexel, a fellow at the Center for New American Security, says it’s entirely possible the CCP is using American data to fuel their abuses of power. Shipping off our data to China helps “strengthen and augment” their “techno-authoritarian” governance, he argues. These companies are part of an ecosystem that is actively engaging in genocide, Drexel says. Yes, Facebook is not my favorite company, but it doesn’t have Uyghurs in labor camps. ‘Preventative’ data privacy Chinese ownership of American personal data feels like a victimless crime. Wed likely never see its usage, given how secretive China’s data collection process is. (Drexel says that experts are even wary of saying what they know, given how quickly the CCP can “patch” holes.) That means we dont even know if the abuse is happening at all. Much of the conversation around a TikTok ban covered how China could access American data, not that they are. But there are signs. Lewis says the CCP is addicted to collecting data, having done so through health insurance companies, airlines, travel agents, and federal offices since 2014. True, America has the Foreign Information Surveillance Act, which allows the government to collect foreign intelligence information through means such as electronic surveillance and physical searches. But, he writes, compared to the CCP’s operations, that law “looks like a chihuahua.” The greatest threat of China’s data abuse is pluralistic in nature; the fear, basically, is that the CCP can effectively mine the data of millions of Americans for value. But that’s not to say some individuals aren’t especially vulnerable. Those in military and intelligence roles are especially wary of Chinas data overreach, Drexel notes, but more working professionals should be cautious. Its conceivable that if you’re in a business role that has significant national competitiveness dimensions, they could use it there too, he says. China has been extremely effective at corporate espionage and IP theft. You can see this data coming into the service of that. That puts young people in an especially blind position. Most have yet to reach high-ranking military status or climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Why would China care about the data of a random high school student? But that teenager scrolling Red Note or treating DeepSeek like a therapist could enter a sensitive industry in the decades to come. Meanwhile, the CCP is building their leverage. Lewis calls data privacy preventative, trying to cut out foreign data abuse at the root. But Americans are notoriously bad at valuing forward-looking policy. Just look at climate change; while many Americans claim to care about the issue, it remains low on their priorities because it is so far away. But we should want to protect our future selvesespecially from the whims of a foreign competitor with which there is no legal fallback. Drexel puts it bluntly: The CCP isnt interested in you until they are.
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At a time when book bans are raging and the federal government is pushing back against DEI initiatives, there’s one place where diversity is thriving: children’s literature. Picture bookswhich cater to those under the age of 10are often children’s first introduction to poetry and art. And this year, there are many newly-published picture books that celebrate aspects of Black life in nuanced ways, portraying history, culture, and joy. Here are five of our favorites. ‘City Summer, Country Summer’ [Art: Courtesy of Kokila/Penguin Random House] By Kiese Laymon, illustrated by Alexis Franklin. (Kokila/Penguin Young Readers, ages 5-9.) Author Kiese Laymon is the author of Heavy: An American Memoir. In 2020, he wrote an article for the New York Times describing what how Black boys from New York would come down South to visit their grandparents during the summer months. He’s translated this narrative into a story about three Black boys who spend a summer together exploring the woods of Mississippi, under the watchful eye of their grandmother. Under the surface, you find a tale about how the Great Migration shaped the Black community, resulting in different subcultures in the North and South. But ultimately the story is about the tender bonds of friendship that Black boys create with one another, and how they turn to one other to express their joy, as well as their fear. ‘Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became A Writer’ [Art: Courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers] By Quartez Harris, illustrated by Gordon C James. (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, ages 7-10.) James Baldwin is remembered as a celebrated writer whose work offered Americans a powerful insight into the richness and complexity of Black American life. But few of us know about his childhood. Growing up in Harlem, he was known as a Jimmy, and the stepson of a Reverend who preached fiery sermons against racism. At fourteen, Jimmy decided to take to the pulpit, but chose to speak from a place of love. This pivotal moment informs the years to come, as Jimmy leaves home to become a writer. With lyrical language, the book shows Jimmy traveling to France and returning back to New York to write his first book, Go Tell It On The Mountain. ‘On Our Way! What a Day!’ [Art: Courtesy of Penguin Random House] By JaNay Brown-Wood, illustrated by Tamisha Anthony. (Nancy Paulsen/Penguin Young Readers, ages 4-6). This is a fun, colorful book that will delight young readers. Six grandkids wake up and get ready to go visit their grandmother on her birthday. But none of them have a gift. As they walk over as a grouplooking after one another along the waythey come across lots of little objects, from pine cones to pencils. But they’re not sure whether any of these things are good enough for Gram. This book is ultimately about the joy of having siblings, discovering treasures in the world around us, and enjoying a little bit of independence from grown-ups. The illustrations in this book are replete with little details that will keep children coming back to it again and again. ‘And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life’ [Art: Courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers] By Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Daniel Minter. (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; ages 4-8). This book is written as a poem that captures the beauty in Toni Morrison’s language. It depicts how she grew up in a small town in Ohio by the name of Chloe Ardelia, finding joy playing hopscotch in the playground and as the only Black girl at her school. It was at Howard University that she decided to take her fate into her own hands and change her name. We learn about how Morrison rose through the ranks of the all-white publishing world as an editor. And even though she have very little time as a single mother, she woke up a four in the morning to write her own stories. The words, and she was loved echoes in each page, reflecting how she took all the support her community gave her to create some of the greatest works of American literature. ‘Girls on the Rise’ [Art: Courtesy of Penguin Random House] By Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loveis Wise. (Viking Books for Young Readers, ages 4-8). The poet Amanda Gorman has a new picture book dedicated to girls, written in verse. It is a manifesto about how girls are strong and capable, but are unstoppable when they work together to bring about change. The book nods to history, as the illustrations explore everything from the achievements of everyone from Beyonce to the Williams sisters to Simone Biles. But it also hints at how women have had to fight for their rights, including reproductive freedom. Gorman first came to the world’s attention as the youngest poet to speak at a presidential inauguration four years ago, when President Biden entered office. As a new administration takes root with a much more regressive stance on women’s rights, this picture book could not come at a better time.
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When White Lotus first season debuted in 2021 and shot to near-instant acclaim, it was a sleeper hit for HBO. But now, four years later, HBO is well aware of just how enthusiastic White Lotuss fanbase has becomeand, to tap into the shows highly online viewership, its marketing team has decided to officially don their tin foil hats and fangirl right alongside the rest of us. White Lotus recently debuted its own TikTok page dedicated to stirring up conversation around the shows third season, which just debuted. Its the first time that the show itself will have a separate TikTok presence from HBOs broader account. White Lotuss marketing team is in a unique position, given that its joining TikTok after a culture of mining the show for meme fodder has already flourished organically on the app. (See: Jennifer Coolidges unforgettable delivery of the line, These gays, theyre trying to murder me being the soundtrack to dozens of mash-ups and even a few original songs.) @thewhitelotus Vacation doesn't always go the way you planned. #TheWhiteLotus #HBO #StreamOnMax original sound – The White Lotus As a result, the White Lotus TikTok account needs to offer something unique to stand out from the crowdand their strategy includes pulling back the curtain on behind-the-scenes anecdotes, fan theories, actor perspectives, and hidden details from the show. Its a move that taps into the growing culture of using TikTok as a site for exchanging detailed critical analyses of popular media. Especially in the White Lotus, when you see the craft that [director Mike White] puts into the details of everything, people want to dive in, says Pia Barlow, EVP of originals marketing at HBO and Max. Like, Oh, did you see that that statue was turned this way? Or, Did you catch that little aside that some character said that paid off later in the episode? It’s really a way for us to engage fans by tapping into memes and trends, but also theories and speculation. The new account currently hosts about 27,000 followers. Its most successful clips are digging into small anecdotes, like one video with 6.3 million views about how Jennifer Coolidge hated being on a boat in the shows second season, or an in-depth analysis of a confrontation scene in season 1 thats racked up 10.1 million views so far. [Photo: TikTok @theWhiteLotus] These kinds of videos feed fans appetite for close-reading beloved seriesespecially those with a mysterious plot linewithin a community of other viewers. A search for white lotus fan theories on TikTok produces dozens of results from the shows last season, digging into everything from the subtle motifs of background wallpaper to how certain plot points might mirror Homers The Odyssey. TikTok users have similarly used the platform to hash out ideas during recent seasons of Succession, Squid Game, and, currently, the second season of Apple TVs Severance. For TikTok in particular, it’s really about just being aware of whatever trends are happening in real timewhich, as you know, changes weekly, or even daily, Barlow says. So its about behaving like a fan. For White Lotuss marketing team, digging into the shows small nuances on TikTok is a pretty smart way to cosplay as a fan. As of yet, its unclear just how much the account will attempt to harness the meme culture thats bound to pop up around season threea move that might be harder to pull off, given that the new account is pretty late to the scene. And, to be honest, wed take a Gen Alpha teens fan edit of Jennifer Coolidge falling off of a boat over an in-house video from HBOs marketing team any day.
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Imagine turning your reading history into a treasure map. By feeding a list of your favorite books and movies to an AI assistant, you can uncover hidden patterns in what you love. From your subconscious attraction to unreliable narrators to your love for stories that begin at the end, you may be surprised by what an AI assistant can reveal. Building a personal taste atlas helps you understand your reading self better. It can also surface blind spots in your cultural diet and point you toward unexplored literary territories youre likely to love. Why analyze your preferences? This isnt just another recommendation engine. Netflix or Amazon may suggest what to watch or buy next based on viewing history, but a taste atlas goes much deeper. It analyzes themes, narrative structures, and emotional resonance across media formats. It can reveal connections between novels you adore and foreign films youve never heard of, or help you articulate why certain stories stick with you while others dont. You can tune the atlas by adjusting the info and examples you give it. You can customize the analysis with your prompts, asking for particular kinds of observations or recommendations. With AIs help, you can map out your own universe of awesome. As you scout out gaps in your reading or movie watching, you can discover authors and films that expand your horizons. Start by gathering your favorites You need to provide an AI assistant with a list of at least 10-15 titles that resonate with you for meaningful insights; 30+ is better. Here are the fastest ways to gather them. Physical books or DVDs: snap a photo of your bookshelf. AI can read the titles. Or write a list of titles on paper. AI assistants can read handwriting surprisingly well. Digital readers: refer to your Kindle library, your read shelf on Goodreads, listen history on Audible, timeline on Libby, or any doc or spreadsheet you maintain with your favorites. Streaming: Apps like Likewise, Sofa, Listy, Listium, Letterboxd, Trakt, and Reelgood let you compile lists of favorites. You can use those collections to train your AI assistant. Use your voice: If talking jogs your memory, use conversation mode in ChatGPT, Claude, Googles Gemini, or Microsofts CoPilot. Let the AI interview you about your favorite books or movies. Scan award lists: If you cant think of favorites, check a list of Oscar-winning movies or book awards for reminders of what youve enjoyed. Criteria: Consider titles you often revisit or recommend. Include recent favorites and older resonant ones. Give extra weight to those that provoked emotion, changed your perspective, or prompted action. Ideally, note not just the title but one or more aspects of a work that particularly resonated. Prompt AI to analyze your list Once you’ve compiled your list, use your preferred AI tool to uncover patterns in your literary tastes. Prompt the AI assistant for insights to advance your self-understanding. After that, ask it to help you discover more books/movies you’ll love. Start by writing a detailed prompt to elicit a thorough, subtle analysis of your taste in books or movies. Heres an example you can adopt or adapt: You are a perceptive literary critic and cultural analyst with deep knowledge of literature across genres and cultures. Carefully analyze the attached list of my favorite books for patterns. Think deeply about connections between titles and topics that might not be immediately apparent. Where you notice interesting patterns, explain your reasoning and cite specific examples. Please analyze this list of my favorite books. Create a detailed literary taste profile that identifies: Core Elements: Primary themes and topics Genre preferences and style patterns Narrative approaches and structure choices Character types and relationships Tone and emotional range Upload a file with your list or paste it. Which AI tool to use? ChatGPT 4o worked well for me in importing Google Docs and PDFs with my favorites. Its analysis and recommendations were nuanced and helpful. Limitation: Occasionally, it suggested authors who were already in my existing lists, despite being prompted not to. Claude Pro provided an excellent overview of the kinds of books Ive selected for the book group I facilitate over the past eight years. It helped identify gaps in our reading list and offered useful suggestions for future titles. Limitation: Some documents I tried to import, like my Readwise reading highlights, were too large to fit in a Claude Project I created for my taste atlas. Gemini 2.0 Experimental Advanced, Googles newest model, was an excellent voice partner in analyzing my current reading interests. Limitation: 2.0 couldnt yet import documents, but Gemini 1.5 could. It helpfully analyzed the Google Doc with my complete Readwise Highlights archive. Use either free or premium AI tools for this analysis. For long book lists or extensive highlights, use a pro model for nuanced analysis. Expand your taste horizons Once an AI tool has analyzed your book or movie preferences, prompt it to suggest new authors and titles. Ask about specific connections between the titles you liked and its recommendations, so you understand the rationale. Cultural leaps: Ask AI to identify authors who write like your favorites but in different languages or cultures. Whats missing? Try a prompt about negative space what authors, titles, topics or genres are missing from your favorites. What notable titles might stretch your literary horizons?
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For now, Priesters will have to stick to its famous pecans in Fort Payne, Alabama. But maybe not for long. Priesters Pecans, an Alabama staple, is one of more than half a dozen sites across the state slated to receive millions of dollars in federal funding to expand access to chargers for electric vehicles. Across the country, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law under then-President Joe Biden, is set to provide $5 billion to states for projects that expand the nations EV charging infrastructure. But in a Feb. 6 letter, a Trump administration official notified state directors of transportation that, effectively, they cant spend it. The Federal Highway Administration rescinded guidance on the funds, which had been allocated by Congress, and is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years, the letter said. Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved. POLITICO reported on Wednesday that a DOT spokesman said in an email that states were free to use a small portion of the fundingabout $400 millionbecause that was money the states had already obligated, or awarded to subcontractors. But that would still leave close to 90% of the funding up in the air. Even before the administration had issued its letter, some Republican-led states, including Alabama, had already announced pauses to their states implementation of the national EV charging program. In response to Unleashing American Energy, one of several Executive Orders that President Trump signed on January 20, 2025, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs has paused the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program as of January 28, 2025, the Alabama agency responsible for implementing NEVI posted on its website. In addition, for applications for funding that were originally due on March 17, 2025, ADECA has closed the application window until further notice. Despite the announcement by the Trump administration, however, legal experts and those familiar with the electric charging program at issue say the president does not have the power to permanently nix the NEVI program. NEVI funding was appropriated by Congress as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and it cannot be canceled by the executive branch, said Elizabeth Turnbull, director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Alliance for Transportation Electrification, a trade group for the electric vehicle industry. Its not clear that the secretary of transportation has the authority to revoke states NEVI plans, and its quite clear that the executive branch lacks the authority to withhold the funding for any sustained period. So, we expect recent executive branch actions to be successfully challenged in court. Even under the most aggressive arguments for a strong executive branch, the Supreme Court has stated clearly that the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate and legislate. Lawmakers, too, have weighed in on the legality of the Trump administrations NEVI directive, saying officials acted with blatant disregard for the law. In a letter to administration officials, Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works urged the Department of Transportation to retract its Feb. 6 letter and implement the law according to your responsibilities. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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