Lavanya Ramanathan

Nov 28, 2024 | vox.com | Lavanya Ramanathan |Izzie Ramirez

Since the 1980s, Black Friday has signified the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Stores offered almost-impossible “doorbuster” deals on TVs and hand blenders, shoppers rose before dawn to wait in line to get them, violence ensued, and the tinsel-covered period when retailers finally operated “in the black” began in earnest. It’s probably for the best, then, that Black Friday is not what it was even 20 years ago.

Nov 4, 2024 | vox.com | Lavanya Ramanathan |Melinda Fakuade

Good morning, and welcome to election week! Tens of millions of people have already cast their ballots early, with tens of millions more bound for the polls tomorrow as Americans decide whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be the next US president.

Nov 4, 2024 | vox.com | Lavanya Ramanathan

In July, New York City Mayor Eric Adams convened police officials and media to proudly announce that the city had made terrific progress in its much-publicized crackdown on illegal marijuana shops. Unlicensed shops had sprung up in empty retail storefronts with jaw-dropping speed after New York state legalized marijuana in 2021.

Oct 25, 2024 | vox.com | Lavanya Ramanathan |Whizy Kim

It’s not an overstatement to say that Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is former President Donald Trump’s biggest fanboy — and patron — in the 2024 election. He’s literally, and comically, leaping at Trump’s side at rallies. He’s tweeting (including, frequently, dog whistles and misinformation). And to the dismay of some, he has let Trump tweet, too.

Oct 10, 2024 | vox.com | Benji Jones |Lavanya Ramanathan

After churning across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, Milton made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, around 8:30 pm Wednesday as a powerful Category 3 hurricane with up to 120 mile-per-hour winds. The storm — and the many tornadoes it spawned — tore the roofs off of homes and a major baseball stadium and left more than 3 million people without power across the peninsula. Several fatalities have been reported so far.