Post Reports

As the 2024 campaign season approaches, an early favorite to clinch the Republican nomination for president, Ron DeSantis, is starting to lose his shine, just as he is about to officially enter the race.Read more:The 44-year-old governor of Florida became a national name by defending former president Donald Trump. But now they are in a power struggle. DeSantis plans to announce that he is running for president during a Twitter Spaces discussion with Elon Musk Wednesday evening. But the past few months have been challenging for the soon-to-be candidate. Trump has gone on the offensive, attacking DeSantis’s record, and donors are getting nervous. His support of a six-week abortion ban and a feud with Disney are also raising questions about his electability. Reporter Hannah Knowles discusses what we know about Gov. Ron DeSantis, his policies and his political strategy as he enters the race to become president.

Across the life span, the risk of death is higher for men and boys than women and girls. The longevity gap is the greatest it’s been in years. It’s a health crisis that’s largely silent because men are largely silent about their health. Read more:The crisis in men’s health goes beyond men not going to the doctor enough. Men are dying, on average, nearly six years sooner than women — and the numbers for men of color are even worse. Tara Parker-Pope is the editor of The Post’s “Well+Being” section. She joins guest host Chris Velazco to talk about why men are dying sooner than women, and what we can do about it.

Ever since the 2020 election, Arizona election official Bill Gates has struggled with PTSD. He’s one of many election workers who are still coping with the barrage of death threats and harassment they endured in the wake of former president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. As the country braces for another presidential election cycle, in which Trump is the Republican front-runner, Gates is coming forward with his story about the psychological toll disinformation about the last election has taken on him and other elections officials. Reporter Yvonne Wingett-Sanchez joins us to explain. Read more:Arizona official targeted by election deniers now struggles with PTSD

Today, a story about the uncharted legal territory of a new abortion law, and the consequences for families and doctors who end up in the middle.Read more:Nobody expected Baby Milo to live a long time. The unusual complications in his mother’s pregnancy tested the interpretation of Florida’s new abortion law. Earlier this year, Washington Post reporter Frances Stead Sellers shared the story of Deborah Dorbert, a woman who was carrying a pregnancy to term after being denied an abortion, despite the fetus having a rare fatal condition. Florida’s abortion ban includes an exception for fatal fetal abnormalities, but her doctors told her they could not act as long as the baby’s heart was beating.While that story went viral around the world, Debbie continued to do the best she could to prepare for delivering a child that wouldn’t survive even a few hours.Debbie and her husband Lee named their baby Milo. He lived for 99 minutes. 

A Title 42 border policy has expired. The public health measure allowed the U.S. to turn away many migrants and asylum seekers at the border because of the pandemic. But what does the end of the policy mean for migrants now?Read more:For many migrants hoping to enter the United States, a Title 42 border policy was a big boundary. It was a Donald Trump-era pandemic policy that made it easier for the administration to turn away migrants at the border. The policy expired May 11.On today’s “Post Reports,” immigration reporters Arelis Hernández and Nick Miroff talk about people at the border waiting to cross and the promises President Biden made that have soured.

Today on “Post Reports,” what could happen if the United States government fails to raise the debt limit by the deadline.Read more:Yesterday, President Biden met with congressional leadership to talk about the “X date”; that’s the date after which the Treasury projects the U.S. government would no longer be able to pay its bills. The “X date” is June 1, and if a deal isn’t struck by then, the United States would default on its debt.If the United States were to default, that could mean a variety of catastrophic economic consequences: millions of federal workers furloughed; Social Security and Medicare payments suspended; a stock market collapse; an economic recession.White House economics reporter Jeff Stein explains these “doomsday” scenarios and breaks down what could happen to the U.S. economy, and even the global economy, if a deal isn’t reached.

The Discord leaks keep sending shockwaves globally. This week, the slow drip of intelligence has the world’s attention on Ukraine and the Wagner Group. Also, we’ll learn more about Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old allegedly behind the leaks. Read more: While fighting for Russia in occupied Ukraine, the Wagner Group has taken heavy losses in the devastated city of Bakhmut. According to U.S. intelligence leaked on Discord, the mercenary army’s head, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, appeared to offer Ukrainian intelligence a deal: Withdraw from Bakhmut and we’ll tell you the position of Russian forces. National security reporter Shane Harris explains how the leaks have affected the Ukraine war, and he brings us his latest reporting on Jack Teixeira, the accused leaker, and his disturbing behavior, both on and offline.

A little more than a year ago, Elon Musk made a hostile takeover bid to buy Twitter. Today on “Post Reports,” we look back at a chaotic year for the platform and ask what we can learn from Musk’s handling of the company as he appoints a new CEO.Read more:Twitter has been dramatically transformed under Musk, and few — even among some in the billionaire’s corner — say the changes have been for the better. In recent weeks, government agencies, news organizations and powerful social media influencers have questioned the usefulness of the platform, with some major players publicly abandoning their accounts or telling users that they can’t rely on it for urgent information.Advertisers have fled in droves over Musk’s policy changes and erratic behavior on the site, causing advertising revenue to recently drop by as much as 75 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive internal information. Rounds of layoffs have left Twitter operating with a skeleton staff of 1,500 — an 80 percent reduction — and the platform is so riddled with bugs and glitches that the site goes down for hours at a time. Meanwhile, the company’s valuation has cratered, Musk has said, to less than half the $44 billion he paid when he bought the company roughly six months ago.Along with culture changes, Musk has reinvented the platform in ways that have confused users, who once knew Twitter as a widely admired news aggregator.As Musk appoints a new CEO and steps down, we look back at how he’s managed the company, the changes he’s made to the platform and how his reputation has shifted because of all this. 

Family bloggers share their lives, and their kids’ lives, online. But what happens when those kids grow up? New legislation is aiming to make sure children are protected and compensated if their parents make money off sharing their childhoods. Read more:Mommy bloggers have been around for more than two decades.. They share everything online, from struggles with postpartum depression to the highs and lows of having  toddlers. These blogs have been helpful for parents, but when content is focused on their kids, it can feel like a violation for them.Now, there’s legislation being put forth that might make it possible for children of family vloggers to get paid for their labor. Online culture columnist Taylor Lorenz talks with producer Jordan-Marie Smith about exactly how this might happen, and what to know about sharing any image of a kid on social media.

The potential conflicts of interest keep stacking up for the Supreme Court. Today we break down the recent reports about issues such as luxury vacations gifted to Clarence Thomas and the occupation of John Roberts’s wife. Read more:First, it was revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accepting luxury gifts from a Republican mega-donor. Then, Justice Neal Gorsuch sold his home to a lawyer whose cases appear in front of the Supreme Court. And now, Justice John Roberts is under scrutiny because his wife makes money as a legal recruiter, pairing lawyers up with law firms. In each of these cases, critics say the justices failed to appropriately disclose these financial gains. Journalist Robert Barnes walks us through the details of these conflict-of-interest cases, what the current disclosure requirements entail, and the options legal experts have posed for how to make a more ethical Supreme Court.