CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz poured cold water on the significance of President Joe Biden declaring the Equal Rights Amendment the law of the land on Friday.

On Friday, Biden declared the ERA, the unratified, controversial amendment, the law of the land in a last-minute effort to score a victory before he leaves the White House.

However, the White House acknowledged that Biden’s announcement has no immediate force of law and merely reflects the president’s opinion. The National Archives also has no plans to formally add the ERA to the Constitution.

Saenz joined CNN anchor Pamela Brown following the issuance of Biden’s statement and noted that “legal precedent” surrounding the ERA “has not changed”:

This has been a long, winding road for the Equal Rights Amendment. It is President Biden’s belief, he said today that this is ratified, that it is the law of the land. But there are real questions about where this goes next. As you mentioned, the Equal Rights Amendment, which enshrines women’s rights, was passed in 1972, but it took decades to actually get the necessary states to ratify it. It requires for a constitutional amendment for three quarters of the states to sign on. And it wasn’t until 2020 when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify this amendment. But then that’s where part of this hits a snag. There was an initial deadline for ratification, which was passed. And then also there are some states who have since rescinded their ratification.

But President Biden is saying that he is siding with the American Bar Association’s analysis, which has determined that they have cleared all legal hurdles to make the Equal Rights Amendment a constitutional amendment. President Biden said it is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty, the Constitution and country. I affirm what I believe and what three fourths of the states have ratified. The 28th Amendment is the law of the land. But this is simply President Biden’s opinion. In order for this to actually be a constitutional amendment that would require the archivists of the US to go and publish this. And so far, the National Archives is saying that the legal precedent really hasn’t changed. They said the underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed, that there are established legal, judicial and procedural decisions. So they are not making any changes at this time. But certainly there will be a lot of questions about what this looks like going forward and whether legal challenges might ensue.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

A Florida jury found that CNN liable of defaming Navy veteran Zachary Young on Friday, and awarded him a total of $5 million in addition to finding that punitive damages were warranted against the network.

The verdict follows other high-stakes media defamation cases against Fox News, which agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion voting systems, and ABC, which agreed to give $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library.

In his lawsuit against the cable news network, Young sought damages over a November 2021 report in which CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt claimed that bad actors were reportedly running a black market and charging exorbitant fees to Afghans attempting to flee their country after the Taliban retook control of it earlier that year.

Segments about Marquardt’s report ran on both Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta’s shows. Young’s name and face featured in both segments; he was the only individual identified by Marquardt.

Young’s legal team has submitted that CNN published “lies” about his business extracting people from Afghanistan and cited internal communications — which revealed that employees had doubts about the integrity of Marquardt’s story, as well as that Marquardt had called Young a “mf*****” whom he hoped to “nail” and agreed with a producer that the veteran had a “punchable face” — as evidence that the aim of of the story was to “hurt” him.

“Clients and colleagues in the national security community simply cannot associate with anyone involved in ‘black markets’ or ‘exploitation,’” argued Young in his lawsuit. “Thus, despite their falsity, CNN’s defamatory comments have rendered Young permanently unemployable in the career he has trained his whole life for, have resulted in Young’s income plunging to nothing, and have caused Young to suffer millions of dollars in lost income.”

CNN has defended itself by arguing that part of the report were opinion, rather than assertions of fact, and by declaring that “At the time of its reporting, CNN knew little about Young’s financials, his model, or whether he’d successfully evacuated anyone because whenever anyone [including CNN] asked Young to explain his business, he obfuscated, behaved unprofessionally, lied, and hid.”

At closing arguments on Thursday, CNN lead counsel David Axelrod (not the Democratic political strategist and CNN commentator) asked jurors whether Young’s team had proved there was a “conspiracy” or CNN had been “trying to do their best.”

Meanwhile, Devin Freedman, a lawyer for Young, argued that “Zach’s ability to walk into a room with pride and being seen as a professional with integrity has been stripped away.”

“These are injuries that transcend monetary loss. They pierce the soul of who he is, who he was,” added Freedman.

The trial is now set to move on to phase two, during which the figure CNN owes in punitive damages will be determined.

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I love Kindle e-readers, and have been using them since the first Kindle Paperwhite came out in 2012. One thing I've been looking forward to since I first had one in my hands was the color version. It finally came out in November with the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which is on sale for $229.99 (originally $279.99), the lowest price it has been since its release according to price tracking tools. Here's what you can expect from the Colorsoft.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (32 GB)

$229.99 at Amazon

$279.99 Save $50.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$229.99 at Amazon

$279.99 Save $50.00

The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is exactly what it sounds like: a Kindle e-reader with color. It's essentially the same hardware and design as the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, with the same dimensions, weight, and 32GB of storage. It also has the same features, like the automatically adjusting front light, the IPX8 rating waterproof rating, wireless charging, and an ad-free lock screen that either shows the cover for the book you're reading, or generic wallpapers. The battery life is shorter than a Paperwhite, with eight weeks compared to 12, but still plenty for most people.

The seven-inch color E Ink display seems to be the industry standard 300 pixels per inch (ppi) for black-and-white content and 150ppi for color, according to PCMag's review. If you love reading comics, this is where the Colorsoft Signature Edition shines. The colors looks like printed newspaper quality, and there's a feature that provides a close-up of each comic panel so you can enjoy the art and read it without having to zoom in.

Although the screen doesn't get too bright (94 nits of brightness), the screen does a good job at deflecting glare. The auto light adjuster is nice if you're coming indoors and outdoors a lot. I personally love the warm and cool front-light settings, as I like to read at night and not stress my eyes before bed.

Considering it's only $29.99 more to upgrade from the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition to the color version, it makes it a great deal for anyone who needs a bit more color in their life.

If you've ever attempted making cacio e pepe at home and ended up with pasta coated in gritty cheese bits instead of a luscious sauce, know that you are not alone. That’s why I ran to the kitchen after reading that adding a smidge of corn starch (about ¾ of a teaspoon per serving) ensures a creamy, emulsified sauce every time. I’m happy to report that this tip is completely legit. And it requires barely any extra work!

Cacio e pepe, the much beloved, deceptively simple pasta dish featuring pecorino romano cheese and black pepper, is easy to make—on paper. Just stir grated cheese into some pasta and a bit of the starchy pasta water you used when boiling it, add some pepper, and behold your creamy, cheesy dinner.

But this simple procedure can produce mixed results—sometimes you’ll have perfect sauce, and other times, you'll wind up with a tragic bowl of noodles and cheese clumps surfing in water. Heartbreaking. It turns out this inconsistency has bothered a number of hungry food scientists too, and they’ve figured out that a bit of added cornstarch is the best foolproof hack to avoid it. So I decided to give it a whirl. 

What science tells us about cacio e pepe

The reason you can achieve a silky pasta sauce from nothing but aged cheese and pasta water is because of the starch that leaches into that very water. Unfortunately, this process is incredibly inconsistent, and will vary with your water to pasta ratio when boiling the noodles—and even then it's usually around 1% when 2% to 3% starch is needed to stabilize the sauce. 

They suggest making a small amount of cornstarch slurry, cooking it into a gel, and building your sauce with this starchy foundation to ensure you always have a consistent amount to make the sauce work. 

The cornstarch gel cooks into a translucent gel. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Before running the test, I feared the sauce might end up too cornstarch-heavy, like a white gravy instead of a cheese sauce, but I was actually rather pleased with the results. The small amount of gel blends right into the other ingredients and cornstarch carries no flavor of its own, so its presence is completely undetectable. The finished sauce is smooth and tastes fiercely of pecorino, as it should. Most importantly, no cheese curds developed. 

The cornstarch boosted sauce is tighter and silkier. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Cacio e pepe without the cornstarch gel can remain stubbornly watery, or worse, the cheese proteins curdle. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The directions are a little vague in the Popular Science article above, and there’s a step where they add the cheese and gelatinized starch to a blender. For me, the tiny amount of ingredients involved does not warrant a blender clean-up (that’s more trouble than it’s worth), so here’s what I did instead.

Foolproof Cacio e Pepe Recipe

Ingredients:

• ¾ teaspoon cornstarch

• 1 tablespoon water

• 1 ounce Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated

• 2 ounces spaghetti

• Cracked black pepper

1. To make the starch booster, combine the cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Stir them together until completely combined and add it to a medium-sized pan. Heat the pan over medium-low heat and stir with a rubber spatula until it gels. This happens quickly, it only takes about a minute. Let it cool while you boil the pasta.

2. Cook the pasta in boiling salty water according to the package directions. 

3. Add the grated cheese to the starch gel and mix them together a bit. Add the hot, freshly boiled pasta to the pan with a tablespoon or so of the cloudy pasta water and stir everything around over medium-low heat. The ingredients will combine to make a creamy sauce. Add more pasta water if you like a looser consistency. Garnish with plenty of black pepper and enjoy immediately. 

I love TikTok. As a grown-ass adult, this is not something I am proud of, nor will I share the total number of hours I’ve spent scrolling to fall asleep, pass the time or catch up on what Good Boy Ollie is doing. As Sunday gets nearer, with no word from the Supreme Court, I am feeling increasingly bereft. Everyone I know on TikTok is talking about the same thing: Where are we going next? 

While a lot of options have been bandied about, and new apps emerge almost daily, there are still few platforms that share the most common traits of TikTok. Here are a couple.

Red Note

If you love TikTok, opening Red Note will cause you to immediately relax—it looks remarkably similar. Well, first you have to go through a daunting sign-up process where you agree to who-knows-what in Chinese, and fumble through finding anyone you know. 

Credit: Amanda Blum

Pros: Red Note looks and feels a lot like the original recipe; if all you need for your fix is the ability to scroll through an endless feed of content, Red Note could legitimately fill your cup. There’s a “For You” tab, and you can like, follow and favorite, like you had previously.  There’s even an alternative to TikTok Shop. 

You will meet fascinating new people (many Red Note users seem eager to welcome Americans) and bonus: You might learn some Chinese. Creating posts is also quite similar to TikTok, where you can choose video or photo, add music, captions (subtitles), filters and have access to the same editing tools. 

Traditional hashtags aren't clickable, but if you can find the Chinese equivalent, it will work. Credit: Amanda Blum

Cons: There are no hashtags—when you see them in posts, they won’t work. There do seem to be Chinese hashtags, if you can figure out the Chinese equivalents. Otherwise, if that’s how you found content or “your people” on TikTok, you're out of luck, at least for now.  

Red Note doesn’t know you yet, so moving from TikTok—where serious users enjoy a highly curated feed—to Red Note is going to feel dissociative for a little bit, as it learns your likes. While you might find previous TikTok users on Red Note by searching for their usernames individually, remember, not everyone is affected by the ban—only Americans. Because international users have had no need to move from TikTok, you probably won’t find them. 

In the last week on Red Note, many users of content no one would consider controversial have been banned, after only a day or their first post. In particular, it seems a lot of content creators making queer content are being banned (and when signing up, your only options for gender are binary). Remember, Red Note comes with a lot of political baggage that TikTok doesn’t. 

It's entirely possible, too, that Red Note could one day be subject to a similar legal action as TikTok; that said, it took years for the current suit to proceed through the courts.

Gender choices are binary. Credit: Amanda Blum

Takeaway: My gut is that Red Note will figure out fast how to localize the app so Americans see it in English; from the time I logged in yesterday to today, I'd swear that they’ve added more TikTok-like functionality. While I was turned off initially, today I found myself wanting to invest a little time finding people I followed on TikTok and seeing what happens. I’m also, however, deeply curious about what I agreed to when I signed up. 

Instagram Reels

In many ways, Reels seems the obvious successor to TikTok, although it's different in how you interact with your audience. Reels are more like a longer Instagram Story than a TikTok.

Pros: You probably already know how to use Reels. It lacks some of the robust editing tools that TikTok has, but still has captions, filters, music and text. You can tag people and businesses, locations, and target specific audiences. Comments aren’t limited to a few sentences. Obviously, Instagram has the advantage of being in English, and uses hashtags to help people navigate.  

Cons: Instagram is Meta, and Meta is on the cusp of some big changes regarding moderation. Part of the beauty of TikTok was the exceptional moderation tools, which kept everyone behaving generally well. Complaints about the Instagram algorithm are endless and justified; you have very little control over what you see or who sees you, despite following accounts or asking not to see others. You’ll see a lot of ads. And everything about Instagram is about selling, boosting or pushing, which is a real turnoff to many creators. 

Reels doesn't seem to want to keep you in Reels—it routinely pushes you to regular Instagram. If you search by hashtag, you'll end up with a mix of posts and Reels (but not Stories).

Credit: Amanda Blum

Lastly, you can’t watch videos in 2x time on Reels, which feels downright insulting. 

Takeaway: It’s likely you’re already using Instagram Reels, in addition to TikTok, because many content creators bifurcate their social media accounts, using them for different purposes, with different audiences. If that’s the case, you might consider starting a new IG account to migrate your TikTok followers to. It certainly seems like most users are offering an Instagram account for followers, and many TikTokers have always kept an IG Reels account as a backup for their TikTok. You’re likely to find a similar audience, if less well-behaved, on Instagram Reels. 

YouTube Shorts

A lot of the big content creators are headed to YouTube and YouTube Shorts, and there’s good reason: money. If you monetize TikTok, Youtube is the most stable, predictable channel there is for similar income, and many of those large creators started on YouTube in longer-form video. Shorts ends up feeling like a rudimentary TikTok, with less curation and less ability to organize. Since almost everyone knows what YouTube classic offers (ads, sponsor lead-ins and uncurated comments), let’s talk about Shorts. 

Pros: YouTube isn’t going anywhere, ever. People know the platform, and they know what to expect from YouTube. You probably already have the app installed on your phone. Like Reels, the feed is mostly full of regurgitated TikToks, so it feels familiar. You can like a post (or dislike, which is a new and fun way to endure rejection), and subscribe to other users. You can also search by hashtag, and have the choice to watch Shorts or full-length videos.

Credit: Amanda Blum

Cons: Shorts are, at max, three minutes long, not longer as with TikTok and Reels. While there is a simple interface for making and uploading videos, it's overly simple. Unlike TikTok, you upload and process your Shorts video first and then edit it in the cloud, not locally on your phone to upload afterwards, which feels like a big commitment if you're not sure you're ready. There's no place to add captions, and while YouTube might add them via AI, they often contain errors. As with Instagram Reels, you have to watch Shorts at regular speed, even though you can speed up full-length videos.

There's a truly abhorrent lack of comment-moderation tools, or moderation, period. YouTube is (still) the Wild West, and for that reason, many find it unappealing. 

Takeaway: Shorts feels like a very different product than TikTok. Which is surprising, because classic Youtube generally incurs deeper and more loyal relationships between creators and watchers, where people are more tuned into specific creators than trends, hashtags or communities. Shorts, however, misses the mark on all of that. I suspect people who migrate back to YouTube will do so for long-form videos, not Shorts. 

The bottom line

It’s not so much that all American TikTok users are scattering to the wind. In the “this is the last video I’ll be making on TikTok” videos I’m consuming, users are posting links to all the platforms I named above, and one more: Bluesky. While Bluesky only allows you to post 60-second videos, it feels like a home base until the swarm figures out where to settle. 

Realistically, for a while, I think you’ll be seeing the same content across all three platforms while we wait it out and pray for TikTok to be brought back from the dead.  All three of these tools have the same portrait-orientation video, with the ability to remix and share, and add music. 

Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) grilled Trump Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi over the results of the 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden won.

President-elect Donald Trump has long insisted that he lost the 2020 election because it was either rigged or stolen, despite senior officials in his administration insisting that the claims were baseless and/or “bullshit.”

A Trump loyalist, Bondi served as Attorney General in Florida and replaced embattled nominee Matt Gaetz to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official under the 47 president. Bondi admitted during the hearing that Biden is the president and that she “accepts the results” but failed to confirm that Biden actually won the election.

The key moment of the exchange:

HIRONO: Who won the 2020 presidential election?

BONDI: Joe Biden is the president

HIRONO: You cannot say who won the 2020 electon

BONDI: (silence)

HIRONO: It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact

As CNN’s Marshall Cohen assessed on social media, “AG nominee Pam Bondi on 2020 election: “I accept the results,” but won’t say the words, “Trump lost.” Brazenly lied when she said “there was a peaceful transition of power.” But sidestepped a chance to endorse Trump’s language calling Capitol rioters “hostages” and “patriots.”

Watch above via Fox News.

With TikTok on the verge of disappearing from the U.S., users who look to the app for cleaning inspiration are turning to other mediums like Instagram and YouTube. Don't forget the OG source for streaming entertainment: television! If your laundry is piling up or you have dishes stacked in the sink, you might feel like you have too much to do to relax in front of the boob tube, but TV has long provided some of the best cleaning inspiration around. It could well be that the key to your tidying motivation is streaming some straight-up organizational content. Just as with home renovations, there are loads of great shows about cleaning that can inspire and motivate.

Get Organized With the Home Edit

Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin bring their Home Edit to your home by bringing it to celebrities’ homes—and filming it. They help celebs like Reese Witherspoon and Khloe Kardashian organize their homes with their signature approach to form and function and their focus on color-coordinating. You can stream Get Organized With the Home Edit on Netflix.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Swedish Death Cleaning is a growing trend centered around preparing your home for your eventual demise. As macabre as that may sound, it's been cropping up more and more in books and now even on TV. An organizer, designer, and psychologist from Sweden help Americans sort out their homes and lives, offering tips for you to do it yourself along the way. You can stream this show on Peacock.

Queer Eye

Since its triumphant relaunch in 2018, Queer Eye has delighted audiences over eight seasons with expert-driven makeovers that span from home to personal style. For home inspo, watch design expert Bobby Berk's (and new interior guru Jeremiah Brent's) renovations, which can get you in the mood to turn your own space into something magical. Stream Queer Eye on Netflix.

Hot Mess House

Organizing expert Cas Aarssen is the mind behind some of the cleaning techniques I use every day. She's big on the belief that each person’s own organizational style should be embraced, so whether you prefer your stuff hidden or organized visually where you can see it, she has custom tips. She shares those with families on her Discovery+ show and features a variety of homes and room types, so whether you’re a visual organizer with a cramped office or a parent who favors an out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach in the playroom, there’s inspiration for you here. Stream Hot Mess House on Discovery+.

Tidying Up With Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo, creator of the famous KonMari method, takes a light, optimistic approach to organizing and decluttering. If something doesn’t spark joy, you toss it. If it does, you keep it. Her sweet but firm personality and focus on happiness might be just the encouragement you need to tackle that junk drawer. Stream this show on Netflix.

Worn Stories

If you have a hard time letting go of belongings, you’re not alone. It might just help you to see the value other people assign to their clothes, which is what Worn Stories provides. It doesn’t necessarily have tips for decluttering, but it can help you contextualize your own habits and decide what’s really worth keeping after all. Stream Worn Stories on Netflix.

The Minimalists: Less Is Now

Another documentary that offers helpful insight is The Minimalists: Less Is Now. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus advocate for a challenge—throw one thing out on the first day, two things the next day, and on and on for a full month—and speak to other people whose lives have been meaningfully changed by embracing minimalism. Maybe you’ll join them in shrugging off many of your material possessions for good. (I am a big fan of the Minimalists and regularly include their decluttering techniques when writing about my favorites.) You can stream this documentary on Netflix.

Hoarders

This show, which has been around for ages, focuses on people whose homes have been completely overtaken by hoarded clutter. That may not describe your situation, but the therapists and organizers who intervene on Hoarders share helpful tips, and the stories of perseverance are inspiring. You can stream Hoarders on Prime Video, Hulu, and Apple TV.

Stay Here

In this under-the-radar Netflix show from 2018, designer Genevieve Gorder and real estate pro Peter Lorimer counsel property owners on maximizing the potential of their short-term rental spaces. You can absorb a little business know-how while also getting tips on cleaning and decorating your own home to make it the most appealing it can be. Fantasize about making your space so welcoming and tidy that strangers would pay to stay there, then luxuriate in the fact that you get to enjoy it instead. You can stream Stay Here on Netflix.