The fight over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery is really a battle to decide who will control much of the news and entertainment Americans consume. So perhaps it’s no surprise that President Donald Trump is wading straight into the middle of the fray between Netflix and Paramount Skydance.

Trump’s assertion this week that he will play a role in deciding the winner of that battle tests the “boundaries of his power,” said The New York Times. Antitrust law does not “specify a personal role for presidents” to influence the merger oversight process “on a whim or for their own benefit.” Trump is thrusting himself into that process, however, forcing executives and shareholders in business sectors far beyond the media industry to “consider the risk” that the president will get involved.

What did the commentators say?
Paramount’s hostile bid against Netflix for Warner Bros. “could give Trump even more influence over U.S. media,” said The Conversation. A new conglomerate under the control of Trump ally Larry Ellison and his son, David Ellison, would “control a vast share of U.S. viewership.” Paramount already owns CBS News. Adding Warner-owned CNN to the mix would “concentrate oversight of two of the country’s most prominent newsrooms” under an owner with “strong ties to Trump.”

It’s “normal” for the federal government to scrutinize and even attempt to block a “mega-merger deal,” said Brian Stelter at CNN. But it’s not normal for a president to “openly opine about it or to say that he will be involved.” Trump’s involvement raises concerns about “favor-trading and corruption” and “could make the most earth-shattering Hollywood merger in years significantly more difficult to move forward.”

“Let Warner’s shareholders decide,” said The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Each bid should be “analyzed without political interference.” Trump’s involvement is not the “way capitalism is supposed to work,” but now businesses and shareholders are “at the mercy of Trump’s mood.”

What next?
The political battlefield over the company’s sale extends beyond the president. Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said in a letter that they may “try to block or unravel any acquisition by Paramount,” said Semafor. The company’s offer is backed by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. And that creates “foreign influence risks,” said the lawmakers.

There’s money to be made in the business of extending lifespans, and this so-called longevity economy has become a flourishing part of the financial system. While people have long been looking for ways to live longer, recent health advancements alongside shifting demographics mean people are investing in the longevity economy like never before.

How much money is in the longevity industry?
There are trillions of dollars flowing into the longevity economy. It has been growing at a steady rate every year and is expected to have a value of $27 trillion by 2030, and some analyses have the longevity economy possibly reaching this mark by 2026.

This is due to several factors, most notably a shift “toward health span — the years we spend in peak physical and mental condition,” said Entrepreneur. Customer demand also plays a large role, as by 2034 the U.S. will have “more people over 65 than 18,” and one in six people globally will be over 60 by 2030. 

What other factors make up this economy?
There may be more to the longevity economy than many people realize. As elders “live longer and healthier lives and continue to actively participate in the global economy, possibilities open to potentially turn longevity into an asset for society,” said BBC News. 

Demographics are also playing a large role. For the first time in history, the longevity economy includes “four generations of age 50 and older,” said the Los Angeles Daily News. 

But even though populations may be “aging in significant numbers, we can’t let the idea of ‘oldness’ and its implications stifle the way we think about economic opportunity,” Dr. Joseph Coughlin, the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, said to BBC News. Even though “millennial demands are linked to the rise of the on-demand economy, older adults benefit immensely from its convenience.” This has resulted in a slew of products and services surrounding the longevity economy. Also emerging is the invention of technologies like wearable aging clocks and other devices designed to keep you younger longer.

Three lionesses simultaneously roar in a photograph that’s a “highly commended” winner of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards. Other contest winners include a young gorilla cavorting through a forest clearing and a squirrel having a bad hair day.
Meline Ellwanger / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2025

A cookbook should swell your imagination and expand your kitchen confidence. Natasha Pickowicz’s “More Than Cake: 100 Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community” succeeds on all counts, supplying both inspiration and a grounding sense of the altruistic ways in which baking can bind.

Baking for good
Pickowicz is a longtime pastry chef turned writer who for years has harnessed her baking prowess to raise money for charitable organizations through bake sales. Baked goods are “part of my commitment to community building,” she said in the book’s introduction.

For example, Pickowicz devotes an entire chapter to “modern layer cakes” — shareable creations to encourage communing with either your loved ones or the people in your community. The chapter is formatted as a choose-your-own-adventure. Select a cake base, say, a black sesame chiffon cake, then a soak for that base, like maple and vanilla milk. Fill it with, for example, sweet and spicy hazelnuts and frost it with Italian espresso buttercream. There are 21 of these base items, so the permutations are nearly endless.

Flavor considered
The menagerie of layer cake foundations is simply the door leading to a wonderland under the pastry-kitchen stairs. Pickowicz’s carrot cake is striated with coconut flakes; she tops her pine nut sablé cookies with a smear of Taleggio cheese; she transmutes miso soup into a Danish; rose water and mezcal are conjoined in a caramel flan. Whether you are baking a cake for nibbling across a week yourself or blowing it out for a party, this book offers a solution for boundless occasions.