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Galaxies are spooky places.

Space itself is scary enough—dark, vast, cold, and empty—but galaxies have all manner of terrifying beasts lurking inside. Most of these astrophysical monsters are stars with various behavioral issues, such as explosive supernovae or ridiculously powerful (and tempestuous) magnetars. Getting too close to one of these stellar tantrums guarantees a very bad time.

On top of that, galaxies themselves can be terrifying. In a recent The Universe column, I wrote about particularly nasty cosmic nightmares called active galaxies. You see, all big galaxies have a supermassive black hole haunting their heart, and some of these black holes have billions of times the mass of the sun. If matter is falling into one of these black holes at a high rate, that infalling material heats up to frightening temperatures and blasts out high-energy radiation. This also drives intense winds of subatomic particles that flow away at high speed to wreak havoc around the galactic core. That’s all bad enough, but the spin of the black hole can also launch twin beams of matter called jets that can scream across space like death rays, cooking everything in their path for many thousands of light-years.

This doesn’t sound like a clement environment! After the article was published, I received quite a few inquiries from readers asking some unsettling questions: How dangerous is it to live in an active galaxy—and is the Milky Way one?

As usual, the answer is: it depends. The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, called Sgr A*, seems to be pretty sedate at present, but we don’t know just how active our galaxy was in its youth. We can see echoes of previous events around the galactic center, however, stretching away from the Milky Way’s heart are two immense bubbles of hot gas that are softly glowing with gamma rays. It’s unclear if these bubbles, called Fermi Bubbles, are blown by some wind of material from Sgr A* after a snack or if a burst of star formation created enough high-mass stars to expel winds that expand the gas.

And as for the more fundamental question of active galaxy hazards, this hasn’t been very well studied, but I did find a couple of papers that tackled it under limited circumstances. The results, not too surprisingly, show that the two most important factors are how powerful the active galaxy is and how far you are from it.

In extreme cases, even being outside the active galaxy will not keep you safe. A prime example of this is the galaxy pair 3C321, where a jet from one of the galaxies is slamming into the other about 20,000 light-years away. Being in the path of all that high-energy radiation must be rough, but the impact of the jet is also causing clouds of gas in the second galaxy to collapse, which triggers scads of star formation. That, in turn, means the creation of many high-mass stars, which explode as supernovae in just a few million years.

Opinions vary on how close a planet can be to an exploding star and survive, but a few hundred light-years is a conservative estimate. On a galactic scale, that’s very close, so on average, it’s unlikely to afflict any particular world. Then again, on galactic scales, a few million years is an instant, so all those jet-sparked supernovae would be detonating almost simultaneously—which can’t be good for any worlds in the general vicinity. I’d advise you stay away from jets.

What about the other effects? The wind of subatomic particles is a problem—two problems, really. One is that if the wind strikes a planet such as Earth, it can deposit energy in the atmosphere, heating it up. This causes the air to expand, making it more prone to be lost to space. The other is that when those particles hit the atmosphere, they can trigger a few different kinds of chemical reactions, including the creation of nitrogen oxides, major components of smog. This has several effects, but one of the most deleterious is that smog destroys ozone, a molecule composed of three oxygen atoms. Ozone absorbs energetic ultraviolet light from the host star that can otherwise reach the surface and be harmful to life.

In a paper published earlier this year in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team of astronomers modeled these two effects from an active galaxy. The researchers first assumed the galaxy had a black hole similar to our Milky Way’s Sgr A*, with a mass of four million suns. They then calculated the energy from the wind, finding that it could erode the atmosphere of an Earth-like world as far out as 1,300 light-years—or just deplete the planet’s ozone if it was within about 3,000 light-years. These might seem like worrisomely large distances, but the Milky Way is 60,000 light-years in radius, and our solar system is about 26,000 light-years out from the center, so we’re safe from nasty winds.

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Where Things Stand

• Food stamps: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to continue paying for food stamps during the federal shutdown. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, aids roughly 42 million people and was set to run out of funds on Saturday without intervention. The judge ordered distribution of funds “as soon as possible.” Read more ›

• Boat strikes: Mexico said it had not found any survivors from U.S. military strikes on Monday off the Central and South American coasts that killed 14 people, days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that one person had survived the strikes. U.S. officials said the boats were smuggling drugs, and the Pentagon said that had it notified a nearby Mexican military boat and that Mexican officials had assumed responsibility for the rescue. Read more ›

• Air travel: Insufficient staffing at air traffic control facilities caused a second day of widespread delays, as several large airports reported service interruptions. The controllers’ union released a statement on Friday that effectively endorsed congressional Republicans’ approach to ending the shutdown.

A judge permanently bars Trump from requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.

A federal judge in Washington permanently barred the Trump administration on Friday from requiring proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms, a change dictated in an executive order President Trump signed in March.

The ruling definitively halted the effort to compel the Elections Assistance Commission, an independent body, to adopt nationwide changes to voting procedures at a time when the president has also called for requiring voter identification in elections and ending mail-in voting. For months, voting rights groups have warned that those changes, in tandem with the deployment of the national guard to the streets of Democratic-led cities, resembled steps of a voter-suppression strategy.

What is happening with SNAP benefits during the shutdown?

A federal judge told the Trump administration on Friday to continue funding for food stamps during the government shutdown, a legal victory for local officials and nonprofits that sought to spare roughly 42 million Americans from losing the benefits in a matter of days.

But it is unclear if or when food stamps will soon reach those who rely on them to purchase groceries. Here’s what we know about the status of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The White House put new limits on reporters’ access to the press secretary’s office.

The Trump administration on Friday took another step to micromanage the news-gathering activities of journalists who work from the White House, the latest move in a gradual crackdown that has broken with decades of precedent.

For generations, White House reporters have been allowed to roam freely from the press briefing room into a warren of offices in the West Wing, known as “Upper Press,” that houses the press secretary and other senior press aides. Journalists could ask impromptu questions of administration officials and, during breaking news, quickly obtain information for their audiences.

As pain from the shutdown grows, Trump attends to other matters.

American families are worried about losing food stamp benefits. Hundreds of thousands of federal government workers have no idea when they will next be paid. Several airports have been experiencing delays because of staffing shortages.

The pain of the government shutdown is growing more acute as it grinds toward the five-week mark, with Congress showing little movement toward a resolution. But President Trump has been attending to other matters.

Immigration agents clash with Chicago-area residents on Halloween.

Federal immigration agents fanned out across Chicago and its North Shore suburbs on Halloween, chasing suspects through front yards, driving S.U.V.s onto sidewalks, and using chemical agents during confrontations with furious residents.

Several people, including at least one woman who said that she was a U.S. citizen, were arrested after appearing to interfere with immigration operations. In Evanston, a suburb north of Chicago, Border Patrol agents detained at least one additional person after a car rear-ended the agents’ vehicle on Friday, according to the Evanston police.

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President Trump speaking to reporters as he arrived in Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday.Credit…Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times

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Inflammation has two faces. It can be short-lived, like the swelling after a twisted ankle or a two-day fever when you get a mild flu, both part of the healing process. Or it can be a longer-lasting and more damaging affliction—chronic, low-grade inflammation that lingers in the body for years without obvious symptoms, silently harming cells. A steady stream of studies has connected this type of chronic inflammation to many serious conditions, including Alzheimer’s, heart disease, some cancers, and autoimmune illnesses such as lupus.

These findings have begun to reframe how scientists think about disease and some of its causes. They’ve also created a booming market for supplements promising to lower chronic inflammation. These pills, capsules, and powders are projected to become a $33-billion industry by 2027, offering consumers a sense of control over a complex and confusing ailment. Although thousands of products claim to “support immunity” or “reduce inflammation,” most lack solid evidence.

Chronic inflammation is damaging because it involves immune system cells and proteins that typically fight short-term battles against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. But when these immune system components stay activated for years, they begin to hurt healthy cells and organs. They are intended to break down invading microbes, but over time their ongoing activity can harm blood vessels, for instance, by damaging normal cells that make up the vessels’ inner linings or promoting the growth of plaques. That can lead to clots that interrupt or cut off blood flow, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

We reviewed dozens of studies and spoke with researchers to find out whether any supplements demonstrate anti-inflammatory activity not just in laboratory animals and cultured cells but in human trials. Just three compounds, it turns out, have good evidence of effectiveness: omega-3 fatty acids, curcumin, and—in certain ailments—vitamin D.

What is good evidence? We looked for consistent results across several studies that scientists described as large and well designed. Many of the more convincing trials focus on biomarkers that researchers use to track inflammation in the body. These include C-reactive protein (CRP), a molecule produced by the liver when inflammation is active, and cytokines, which are chemical messengers such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), both secreted by immune and fat cells.

Still, interpreting these markers isn’t straightforward. “We don’t have a universally accepted or standardized measurement,” says Frank Hu, chair of the department of nutrition at Harvard University. And inflammation involves hundreds of different types of cells and many signaling pathways, adds Prakash Nagarkatti, director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Research Excellence in Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases at the University of South Carolina. This complexity makes it difficult to prove that any supplement works consistently.

The compounds that do show promise will not cure cancer or halt dementia. But they may help quiet the kind of underlying inflammation that has been tied to risks of illness.

Among the hundreds of supplements tested for their effects on human health, omega-3 fatty acids are supported by some of the most compelling evidence. And scientists understand why they work. Two of the main types of omega-3s are eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, better known as EPA and DHA. The body metabolizes them into signaling molecules that block the production of certain cytokines and disrupt the nuclear factor κB pathway, which governs the expression of genes tied to inflammation.

Multiple studies suggest that omega-3 supplements can reduce markers of chronic inflammation, Hu says, especially among people with underlying health conditions. A large, carefully controlled trial called VITAL (officially the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial), which followed more than 25,000 adults for about five years, found that omega-3 supplements slightly reduced CRP in people who rarely ate fish—fish is a natural omega-3 source, so these people were getting almost all their omega-3s from the supplements. The omega-3 supplements also were associated with a 40 percent reduction in heart attacks among those consuming the least fish. “The people who benefit the most from these supplements are people who start out with lower intake,” says JoAnn Manson, an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School who co-led the study.

Smaller trials have suggested that omega-3 supplementation can reduce certain markers of inflammation—TNF-α, IL-6, CRP, and IL-8—especially in people with conditions such as heart failure, Alzheimer’s, and kidney disease. One 2012 trial found that small amounts—about 1.25 or 2.5 grams per day—lowered IL-6 levels by 10 or 12 percent, respectively, over four months. A similar group got a placebo instead, and their IL-6 levels increased by 36 percent during that period.

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Republican U.S. Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana is facing backlash online after saying that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients who don’t have one month of groceries stockpiled should never receive the benefit again, and added, “because wow, stop smoking crack.”

Newsweek reached out to Higgins’ office via phone Thursday night for comment after hours and left a message.

Why It Matters

The fate of SNAP has become a critical flashpoint in the ongoing federal government shutdown, with nearly 42 million Americans facing potential interruptions in food assistance.

The benefits are expected to stop being issued on November 1, which has prompted Democratic Governor of New York Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency and calls for GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson to open Congress to vote on a bill to fund the program.

The controversy sheds light on broader policy and cultural battles over safety net programs, the federal budget and the use of political leverage in times of crisis.

What To Know

Taking to X on Thursday, Higgins, 64, said: “There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average. Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries. Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.”

The post sparked criticism online as Higgins was accused of playing into stereotypes and questioned about how much he spends on groceries.

Sarah Stogner, Republican district attorney for Texas’ 143rd Judicial District, reacted to Higgins on X Thursday, saying, “‘Stop smoking crack.’ Way to play to old stereotypes. How much do you spend annually on food? I bet you have no idea. When was the last time you personally did the grocery shopping for your family?”

What People Are Saying

Miranda Yaver, assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh, on Bluesky Thursday in reaction to Higgins’ comments: “Republicans: Stop eating processed foods. Make healthy choices: eat more fresh food. Also, Republicans: You’re irresponsible if you don’t have a month’s food supply on hand to live on when we can’t keep the government open. More context: Avg. SNAP benefit is $6.20/person/day. Not enough to live.”

Author Kristine Rudolph, also on Bluesky Thursday: “Tell us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house without telling us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house.”

Bruno Pereira, New Jersey Libertarian Party chair, on X Thursday: “During COVID, I was spending $200 a week for baby formula. That’s over $10,000 a year. So what the hell are you talking about $4200, as if it is alot? When was the last time you went grocery shopping? Completely and absolutely out of touch. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Tim Lambert, editor-in-chief of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, on Bluesky Thursday: “That is about $80 a week.”

What Happens Next

Amid mounting criticism, the future of SNAP remains uncertain as legal and political battles continue. The Keep SNAP Funded Act, introduced by Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, proposes Congress appropriate funds to continue benefits during shutdowns.

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Republican U.S. Representative Clay Higgins is pictured at a budget hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2024. (Photo by JULIA NIKHINSON/AFP via Getty Images)

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When The New Yorker’s David Kirkpatrick set out to determine just how much Donald Trump and his family have profited from his time as president, experts told him the exact figures were unknowable. So Kirkpatrick crunched the numbers himself, and the scale he reported is staggering: Since entering the White House in 2017, Kirkpatrick says the Trump family has reportedly reaped an astonishing $3.4 billion.

According to Kirkpatrick’s new report in The New Yorker, the profits stretch across the entire Trump family network. Much of this wealth would have been unimaginable without the presidency. A $2 billion Saudi investment flowed into Jared Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, while Emirati and Qatari investors contributed billions more, as recently as last year. (Kushner has denied that investments in his company represent a conflict of interest.)

As Kirkpatrick notes, after doing the math, it’s reasonable to assume that Kushner could personally pocket between half and two-thirds of Affinity’s fees over the next 10 years.

There’s also the luxury jet given to the president by the emir of Qatar, which Trump has said will be donated to his presidential library after he leaves office, and at least five separate crypto ventures marketed with Trump’s name and political brand. But that’s just scratching the surface.

Start with Mar-a-Lago. Once a $100,000 club, Trump began sharply raising the initiation fee after the 2016 election. Kirkpatrick notes that, as of last fall, it was set to increase to a whopping $1 million. Kirkpatrick estimates Mar-a-Lago alone generated at least $125 million in additional profits directly tied to Trump’s political rise.

Then there’s Trump merch. He’s the first presidential candidate to run a private online store funneling supporters’ money straight into his pocket. Kirkpatrick reported that nearly $28 million has flowed in from MAGA hats, sneakers, picture books and even that infamous “God Bless the USA” Bible.

Don’t forget all those legal bills. Under U.S. law, campaign funds can’t cover a candidate’s personal expenses — but political action committees can. According to Kirkpatrick, Trump found a loophole by using PACs as his own personal piggy bank for funding his lawyers. By Kirkpatrick’s estimate, more than $100 million in supporter contributions have gone to defending Trump against lawsuits and criminal charges.

When you add up the money from Mar-a-Lago, merch and money spent for legal fees by PACs, Trump has reportedly raked in about $253 million — and that’s before you count the foreign money. From Kushner’s money from the Saudis, to steady business from gulf monarchies and foreign governments such as Vietnam, Trump’s businesses have become influence pipelines for despots and states eager to win him over.

“The claims that this President has profited from his time in office are absolutely absurd,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to The New Yorker. Leavitt said Trump had actually sacrificed “hundreds of millions of dollars” by choosing to serve as president and not work on his businesses full time.

It’s a fundamental rewiring of what public service means. Once upon a time, Americans worried about politicians being bought. Under Trump, the most powerful office in the country is up for sale.

But it doesn’t stop at self-enrichment. As The Wall Street Journal reported, Trump is reshaping the U.S. economy into something that looks like “state capitalism with American characteristics.” Like in China, it’s a system where the state — or in this case, Trump — rewards friends and punishes enemies.

The president has steered billion-dollar deals, pushed out CEOs and, as the Journal points out, extracted $1.5 trillion in investment pledges from Japan, the European Union and South Korea, which he claims he will personally direct, though no legal mechanism for doing so appears to exist.

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