Free for ALL Friday
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
U.S. Sent Venezuelan Man With Political Asylum Case to El Salvador Mega Prison
Attorneys claim the U.S. sent an innocent asylum seeker to the El Salvadoran mega-prison with zero due process because his immigration paperwork was "riddled with mistakes" and the Department of Homeland Security mixed him up with somebody else. Is that true? I have no idea, but it doesn't seem the government does either -- which is the entire reason why we are supposed to have due process rights in this country.
The government ... use[d] someone else’s last name in several parts of the document, identifie[d] him with female pronouns, and use[d] two different unique identification numbers … raising questions about the reliability of Trump officials’ accusations against him.
After [his lawyer] pointed out the mistakes and argued there is no evidence Reyes Mota was a Tren de Aragua member, the judge asked whether the government had made a mistake.
Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said this was not a hearing to analyze evidence but that they would look into it. However, there are no more hearings for the foreseeable future.
Reyes Mota’s family also provided … government documents showing that Reyes Mota did not have any criminal record in Venezuela, and photos that show he does not have any tattoos. Immigration authorities have used the presence of tattoos to hold migrants on suspicions of being gang members.
The Conservative Women’s Magazine With Big Ambitions, and Sex Tips for Wives
The ‘Evie’ reader can work. She can be a mom. It’s her choice. It’s just not feminism.
“Does Brittany look oppressed to you?” Gabriel Hugoboom asked, gesturing toward his wife.
Mrs. Hugoboom did not. The model, clad in thigh-high black boots, was perched on a cream-colored couch in the couple’s new apartment, poking fun at her critics.
As editor in chief of Evie, a women’s publication opposed to what she calls “modern” feminism, Mrs. Hugoboom has been accused of participating in her own subjugation and undermining women’s rights, claims she finds ridiculous and unfair.
“There are all these people that are so triggered and angry that we exist,” she said. Those seeking left-wing views had other publications to read, she added: “Why can’t there be one that offers women an alternative?”
Meet the Homeowners Who Have Had Enough of Their Covid Relocation Dreams
The pandemic inspired people across the country to seek more space or a dream destination. It didn’t always work out.
Five years ago this month, Rebecca Goldberg Brodsky and her husband, Mitchell Brodsky, were working from home in a roughly 750-square-foot Brooklyn apartment with a baby, a toddler, and thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, no child care.
By September 2020, they—along with people all over the country—had decided to leave their home in search of more space. They sold their two-bedroom Bay Ridge co-op for $450,000 and moved to an expansive three-floor townhouse with a playroom in Princeton, N.J., a college town they liked for its restaurants and medical facilities.
But things didn’t go as planned. Even in a place she called “idyllic,” Rebecca couldn’t stop looking online at Brooklyn apartments. A year later, the couple reversed course, trading Princeton for a smaller condo back in Brooklyn.
“We lived a beautiful, sheltered life there for a year,” said Rebecca. “The cicadas were always singing. I definitely cried when I left, but I was also like, ‘I have to get out. I just do.’”
It’s a familiar story for those who lived through the pandemic. When professionals across the country were sent home from their offices, many took the opportunity to relocate, choosing places they had dreamed of living or where they could afford more space. Five years later, however, many have moved again, either returning to their original locations or starting from scratch.
That $20 Burrito You Order From DoorDash Could Now Cost You $70
I don’t think many of our readers are actually buying DoorDash on installment like this. But maybe our kids are? Maybe they need this?
You almost certainly shouldn't buy a delivery burrito using a buy now, pay later plan. If you're considering using a Klarna financing plan to DoorDash your Chipotle order, maybe take a beat.
With all the DoorDash fees, plus the tip — and, yes, you should tip — that little treat is going to run you quite a bit more than you bargained for. Splitting the cost up into four payments may make you feel better about your little indulgence — and may even encourage you to add on a second little treat. But there are some potential downsides.
By the end of it all, your $20 burrito could wind up costing closer to $70.
I don't mean to be judgmental. If you really insist on paying for food delivery on a payment plan, you can. In fact, DoorDash and Klarna are betting you will.
Last week, the delivery platform Doordash and the soon-to-IPO payment company Klarna announced a partnership through which customers will be able to buy now, pay later on food orders.
On the one hand, it's a free country, and anyone is welcome to pay for a burrito taxi in $10 installments over a month and a half. On the other hand, this scenario might involve more risk than reward for consumers, many of whom are already drowning in debt.
"It certainly doesn't seem like a positive development except for Klarna and maybe DoorDash," said Robert Lawless, a law professor at the University of Illinois who specializes in consumer finance. "I just don't think it's an advisable way to be paying for your DoorDash."
Greenlanders Unite to Fend Off the U.S. as Trump Seeks Control of the Arctic Island
Flat out: I'm sharing this article for the photography, which is pretty stunning. But it's also a chance to see how people live in Greenland, and why the U.S. (or Trump) might want it.
Lisa Sólrun Christiansen gets up at 4 a.m. most days and gets to work knitting thick wool sweaters coveted by buyers around the world for their warmth and colorful patterns celebrating Greenland’s traditional Inuit culture.
Her morning routine includes a quick check of the news, but these days the ritual shatters her peace because of all the stories about U.S. President Donald Trump’s designs on her homeland.
“I get overwhelmed,’’ Christiansen said earlier this month as she looked out to sea, where impossibly blue icebergs floated just offshore.
Greenland, part of Denmark since 1721, has been moving toward independence for decades. It’s a goal most Greenlanders support, though they differ on when and how that should happen. They don’t want to trade Denmark for an American overlord.
Gen Z is Falling in Love With the Charm and 'Cringe' of Millennials
Across TikTok, thousands of people have posted videos romanticizing things that are typically associated with millennial culture.
Not too long ago, if you asked Derek Deng, 22, to describe millennials, the Gen Z term “cheugy” — outdated or uncool — may have come to mind.
But in recent months, the Brooklyn resident said he’s been overcome by a different emotion when thinking about the generation that came before him: nostalgia.
“That millennial era of like, BuzzFeed quizzes and … mustaches, nerdcore and … hipsters, is very much, like, delightfully cringe, but in a very wholesome way,” said Deng, whose video about his love of millennial culture on TikTok was viewed thousands of times on TikTok.
Many Gen Zers — typically defined as those ages 12-27 — have expressed similar feelings of longing for the era they never got to experience as adults. Across TikTok, hundreds of people have posted videos celebrating things that are typically associated with millennial culture, including Tumblr, skinny jeans, upbeat music, Barack Obama and, maybe most prominently, HBO’s TV series “Girls.”
We Asked 5 AI Helpers to Write Tough Emails. One Was a Clear Winner.
A panel of communications experts helped us test how well artificial intelligence tools ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek and Gemini write emails.
There are lots of AI helpers out there now. But only one can write emails as well as you.
To figure out which artificial intelligence assistant is worth your time and money, I set up an old-fashioned bake-off. I asked five bots to draft five kinds of difficult work and personal emails. Then I brought together a blue-ribbon panel of communications experts to judge all the emails — blind.
To see whether the bot emails were distinguishable from human ones, I also had the judges score emails written by me.
One hundred fifty email evaluations later, one AI did outperform this human. But the judges also thought one of the most popular AIs right now sounded so robotic, you might want to avoid it.
I asked perplexity to list all the major volcanoes in the history of the world. It listed only a few dozen which was very disappointing. There must be hundreds. As everything becomes more digitalized, including humans, A/i will be making your decisions for you. You will get only the information it deems you deserve. So much for creativity.
A/i will control your home, your car, your job, your consumption and pretty much your entire life. I haven't used any food delivery services in decades and if I want something, I will go out and get it.
When I click on the Washington Post link to read the article about the AI emails, it forces me to create an account which I don’t want to do. Can someone tell me which AI performed the best in that task? Thank you.