In the span of 240 pages, you learn everything you need to know about sisters Korede and Ayoola only to realize you didn’t know them as well as you thought. In sharp, sardonic prose, Braithwaite brings these two opposites to life. Ayoola is a bright, shiny, peppy young woman leaving a bloody trail of suitors behind her with Korede, her beleaguered older sister, left to clean up her little sister’s messes. But hard-working, responsible Korede has needs and desires too. I’m a sucker for books that explore relationships between sisters. Sisterhood can produce a bond both deep and divisive. Braithwaite plays this dynamic and stereotypes about the roles of older and younger sisters with dark, vicious humor and makes it fresh.

I also love when a writer successfully leads me to rooting for villains, or at least villainous motivations. Perspective on why people do terrible things doesn’t come easily for most of us but it can turn a familiar trope on its head (say, that of the underappreciated older sister and the doted-upon younger sister) in some fun and interesting ways. This book gave me the kind of wicked delight I felt watching that ridiculous ’90s black comedy, So I Married an Axe Murderer, but this book is the movie’s smarter, more sophisticated sister.

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I loved Boys Weekend, so I’m excited to pick up Mattie Lubchansky’s new trans horror graphic novel, Simplicity. The reviews say it “blends dystopian science fiction and folk horror,” which is definitely intriguing.

Sapphic gothic monster romance? Say no more! But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo has been on my TBR since it was announced, and this seems like the perfect time to read it. Right now, I’m midway through another sapphic monster romance, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, and I’m having a great time with it.

Graveneye by Sloane Leong and Anna Bowles is another queer horror graphic novel on my stack, this one about a sentient haunted house in the woods. Sold!

(Content warning: mention of suicide.) Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram looks like a fascinating horror novella about a gay man whose suicide plan is interrupted when he steps off the subway into a looping, unending station. Spatial horror is my achilles heel, so this is a must read for me.

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Fain, a prominent anti-Trump campaigner ahead of last year’s election, said that the levies could benefit workers and used remarkably similar language as the White House on how carmakers could onshore jobs.

“We have excess capacity” at manufacturing plants, Fain said, using near identical framing as the White House. “They could bring work back in very short order.”

“Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing, and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here, and, you know, invest in the American workers,” Fain said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

UAW President Shawn Fain said Sunday that auto tariffs could return work to America. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post

Trump’s stiff auto tariffs are set to take effect Wednesday and could trigger upheaval in the car industry.

Wednesday is also the advertised launch date for Trump’s 25% tariffs on other Canadian and Mexican goods and his “reciprocal” tariffs on other major trading partners such as the European Union and Japan.

About half of vehicles sold in the US are foreign-made, mostly in Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Germany.

Fain wasn’t entirely uncritical of his longtime political foe — emphasizing that he wants union membership to grow as a result of a potential influx of auto jobs.

President Trump has ordered sweeping 25% car tariffs set to take effect Wednesday. Getty Images

“It doesn’t do any good if they’re going to locate them in places and they’re not going to have the opportunity to have a union, you know. And so naturally, we have concerns,” the union boss said.

Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s 2025 challenger, were closely aligned with the UAW — going so far as to snub non-unionized Tesla from a promotional electric vehicle showcase on the White House lawn.

Fain, pictured with former President Joe Biden, is prominent Democratic supporter. REUTERS

Trump and Fain have exchanged insults publicly, with the president calling on auto-union members to oust Fain, who on Sunday offered critical words about other Trump actions, calling him “deplorable” for moving to strip federal workers of union eligibility.

The auto tariffs were announced last week, with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro stressing that they also would apply to car parts.

Canadian and Mexican car imports will be tariffed based on the percentage of parts that are US-made. If half of its parts are American, for example, the levy would be 12.5% rather than 25%.

“Half of the roughly 16 million cars, SUVs and light trucks Americans bought in 2024 were imports,” Navarro said last week. “Of the remaining 8 million units, more than half of these cars were assembled from foreign parts. So what that means is less than 25% of the cars sold in America contain US content on average. That stops right now with the Trump auto tariffs.”

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro also has cited excess US auto manufacturing capacity. AFP via Getty Images

The idea of a 25% tariff on cars was previously studied by the US International Trade Commission, which said in a report last year that “[a] new 25% tariff on U.S. imports from outside of North America would reduce vehicle imports by 73.9%, increase average prices of vehicles in the United States by 5.0%, and increase variable profits from domestic production by 5.2%”

That report did not assess the effect of tariffing Canadian and Mexican imports, meaning the impact may be even greater.

Trump has aggressively adopted tariffs during his second term after largely using the threat of tariffs during his first term to score trade reforms from other countries.

Earlier this month, Trump slapped an additional 25% tariff on China, citing fentanyl smuggling, and in Februar,y he imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, without exceptions for major importers that previously were in effect.

Trump has teased plans for tariffs on computer chips, copper, pharmaceuticals and other products — arguing it would boost the US economy, though critics say it could fuel inflation by making goods more expensive.

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For days, Attorney General Pam Bondi had talked about releasing the “Epstein files,” supposedly secret documents the federal government has on some of the powerful men who were in the orbit of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But the roughly 200 pages of documents that Ms. Bondi released on Thursday contained little new information pointing to wrongdoing by anyone other than Mr. Epstein, a registered sex offender who died in jail. The document dump largely consisted of flight logs for Mr. Epstein’s planes — long ago made public — and contact information for hundreds of associates, along with brief descriptions of items found at his residences.

The release was billed as a gesture ushering in a new era of transparency at the Justice Department. But the hyped first release of documents (which Ms. Bondi teased as “breaking news” in a Fox News appearance on Wednesday night) appeared to be mostly political theater. Its confusing daylong rollout even spun off a few new conspiracy theories among some Trump supporters, who view the Epstein investigation as a fountainhead for other conspiracies.

On Thursday afternoon, Ms. Bondi and Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I., offered a sneak preview of the documents to several conservative influencers, some of whom emerged from the West Wing waving chunky white binders with the label “The Epstein Files: Phase I.” One of them later called it an “interesting souvenir.”

But by midafternoon, the Justice Department had not posted the contents. And Ms. Bondi was drawing criticism on social media from those who had taken her at her word the night before. The conservative personality Glenn Beck posted on X: “The Epstein files are a total joke,” and asked, “Who is subverting POTUS?”

Ms. Bondi responded by promising more documents to come. Later, she said that a “source” in the F.B.I. field office in New York City had told her the bureau withheld “thousands” of previously unknown pages of Epstein-related documents and that she was determined to get them, according to a letter her spokesman provided to reporters.

The documents were released late on Thursday, along with a statement from Mr. Patel that said: “If there are gaps, we will find them. If records have been hidden, we will uncover them.”

Still, some Republicans in Congress took to X to voice displeasure with the information released by Ms. Bondi.

“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” wrote Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida.

Mr. Epstein, a college dropout and self-proclaimed financial whiz, killed himself in August 2019 — one month after his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Mr. Epstein is believed to have sexually abused more than 200 teenage girls and young women over three decades. During that time, he amassed a fortune worth $600 million and befriended some of the most powerful and famous people in the world.

Included in the documents, which were finally posted on Thursday night, was an entirely redacted list of 254 people described as masseuses.

Many of the boldface names associated with Mr. Epstein first came to light in 2015 when Gawker published his so-called black book of names, numbers and addresses.

That list includes the retail magnate Leslie Wexner, the private equity mogul Leon Black, the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the venture capitalist Reid Hoffman. All of those men have said they regretted their association with Mr. Epstein.

It has also long been known that President Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of Britain and celebrities including Kevin Spacey and Naomi Campbell were friendly with Mr. Epstein at one time, and some traveled on Mr. Epstein’s private planes, according to previously released flight logs, trial testimony and court filings.

The most notable flight log was a 118-page document produced during the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Mr. Epstein’s longtime associates and a former girlfriend. She was convicted in 2021 on charges that she aided Mr. Epstein in his sex-trafficking activities.

While Justice Department leaders claimed the papers released on Thursday were “declassified,” none of them had classification markings — or declassification markings.

The document release on Thursday was a moment that said much about the Trump administration. The two most powerful law enforcement officials in the country, Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel, who are responsible for overseeing vital national security and criminal investigations, chose to prioritize a long-concluded case to assuage conservative media and the obsessive core of Trump supporters who see the case as nefarious unfinished business.

For years, conspiracy theorists have believed there is a grand plot by the government to conceal not only the cause of Mr. Epstein’s death but the names of powerful men who also abused some of the victims, who included teenage girls and women.

On right-wing media platforms like Fox News and Mr. Trump’s own service, Truth Social, there long has been talk of an “Epstein client list” that details the names of men for whom Mr. Epstein procured women. But there has never been a reference to any “client list” in any of the civil litigation brought by victims.

Before joining the Trump administration, Ms. Bondi fueled some of that speculation herself by talking in media interviews about the government’s refusal to release Epstein documents.

The F.B.I. also has refused to release some documents requested by lawyers for victims and the news media. In October, the F.B.I. rejected a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The New York Times seeking a list of all items seized by federal agents when they searched Mr. Epstein’s residences in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands after his July 2019 arrest.

The documents released by Ms. Bondi may include partial descriptions of some of those items seized by federal agents. Under the heading “evidence list,” there are brief descriptions of items like “VHS tape,” “envelope containing 4 CDs” and “photo depicting two girls.”

More than two dozen of Mr. Epstein’s victims have joined a lawsuit charging the F.B.I. with mishandling earlier investigations into his activities and ignoring complaints filed by victims.

Jordan Merson, whose law firm is handling that lawsuit, said that Ms. Bondi had taken a good first step and that he hoped this “will lead to her taking seriously the pain of the victims” who were suing the F.B.I.

Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.

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Last but not least, Torrey Peters, the best-selling author of Detransition, Baby, is back this year with a novel and a collection of stories exploring gender, sexuality, and more. First up, the titular novel Stag Dance tells the story of a group of lumberjacks who bring joy to their lonely nights by putting on dances. When some of the woodsmen volunteer to play women at the dances, secret desires are revealed. This collection always includes a sci-fi story set in the future where everyone chooses their own gender, a love story between two roommates at a Quaker boarding school, and a story of a Vegas weekend gone terribly wrong when a young crossdresser is forced to choose between a glamorous life of objectification or a less glitzy life of respect and sisterhood.

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Amazon workers voted overwhelmingly against a bid to unionize their North Carolina warehouse, the National Labor Relations Board said on Saturday, the latest setback in labor organizing efforts at the e-commerce giant.

Workers at the RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, outside of Raleigh, voted 2,447 to 829 against unionizing with Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, an upstart union founded by warehouse workers in 2022.

Organizers at the warehouse, which employs more than 4,000 people, sought starting wages of $30 an hour. The current pay range is about $18 to $24, Amazon said. The union also demanded longer lunch breaks and increased vacation time.

In a statement, leaders of CAUSE said the election outcome was the result of Amazon’s “relentless and illegal efforts to intimidate us.” They did not say whether they would challenge the outcome, but vowed to keep trying to organize.

Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman for Amazon, wrote: “We’re glad that our team in Garner was able to have their voices heard, and that they chose to keep a direct relationship with Amazon.”

Leading up to the election, the worker-led union filed charges with the labor relations board accusing Amazon of interfering with employees’ protected union activity. The company gave preferential treatment to workers who did not support the union, according to the charges filed by CAUSE. Amazon also unfairly fired the co-founder of the union one week before workers filed for a union election in December, CAUSE said in a filing.

Amazon denied any election interference. Employees have the choice of whether to join a union, and the company talks “openly, candidly and respectfully” about unionization, Ms. Hards said before the vote. She said the CAUSE co-founder had been fired for “repeated misconduct that included making derogatory and racist comments to his co-workers.”

Addressing demands voiced by the union, Ms. Hards said the company already offered safe workplaces, competitive pay, industry-leading benefits and consistent scheduling. The CAUSE union, she added, “has no experience representing workers or their interests.”

On top of what they characterized as resistance from the company, organizers at the warehouse faced an environment in the South that has historically been hostile to unions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in North Carolina last year was 2.4 percent, the lowest rate in the country and far below the national average of 9.9 percent.

Amazon has aggressively fended off union campaigns and stalled the bargaining process in multiple segments of its business, including warehouses, delivery operations and grocery stores.

In 2022, workers at a Staten Island warehouse in New York voted to form Amazon’s first union in the United States; it is now affiliated with the Teamsters union. Amazon has challenged the election outcome in court, and has refused to recognize the union or bargain with it. Delivery drivers, who work for third-party package delivery companies serving Amazon, have also mounted campaigns with the Teamsters.

The Trump administration’s moves at the labor relations board since the inauguration — including the replacement of the general counsel appointed in the Biden administration, who was considered friendly to labor — could further embolden employers to clamp down on organizing and refuse to bargain, labor law experts said.

Workers at a Philadelphia location of Whole Foods Market voted in January to affiliate with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, establishing the first union beachhead at the Amazon-owned grocery chain. In a filing with the labor board challenging the election, the company cited President Trump’s firing of a Democratic board member, which stripped the board of a quorum necessary to issue decisions.

In January, Amazon said that it was closing its warehouse and logistics operations in the Canadian province of Quebec, where unions had gained a foothold among some Amazon workers, and that it would lay off 1,700 employees.

The North Carolina election is not the first unsuccessful union bid among Amazon warehouse workers. In 2021, workers at a warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., voted against unionizing, but labor officials later ruled that Amazon had illegally influenced the election. Workers voted a second time in 2022, but the outcome was too close to call, prompting a labor judge to order a third election. That vote has yet to be held, and Amazon has denied wrongdoing.

“Ultimately, the biggest thing that we’re fighting for is dignity,” Italo Medelius-Marsano, a member of the CAUSE organizing committee who works at the RDU1 ship dock, said before the vote. “We’re making sure Amazon knows that we are human beings,” he said, citing the movement’s catch phrase: “I am not a robot.”

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