Today’s Big Story

China’s New Digital ID

It gives Beijing greater control over online activity and further raising concerns about surveillance and censorship

China has long mastered what was once considered impossible: Completely controlling the internet within its borders. Today, Beijing will take another step toward centralizing its power over the web, introducing a government-run digital ID system that will enable it to even more closely censor and surveil the country’s 1 billion internet users.

The country has enforced a “real-name registration” system for over a decade, meaning that Chinese internet companies almost always know the true identity of users who are, say, ordering a dress online, leaving a social media comment or playing a video game. But with this new centralized ID system, the Chinese government will take over the process. Users who submit a trove of personal information—including scans of their faces—will receive a unique code to access online accounts.

According the Washington Post, this means that companies, like social media site Weibo or online shopping behemoth Alibaba, will no longer be able to see the personal information of their users with digital IDs—but Chinese authorities will be able to see the real identity behind online accounts across a range of sites. It aims to “protect citizens’ identity information, and support the healthy and orderly development of the digital economy,” according to the published rules. Experts, however, have raised concerns that the new policy will further erode already limited freedom of expression by forcing internet users to relinquish even more control to the state.

Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, the country has further tightened its grip on the digital space through an army of censors. Deployed around the clock, they remove posts, suspend accounts and help authorities identify critics, quashing any sign of dissent before it can gain traction.

Jeremy Daum, senior fellow at the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center, told TIME Chinese people may be more wary of such a system following the use of health codes, an online identification system China used during the pandemic to record and control citizens’ movement in order to contain the virus. But he said the regulation (currently) appears to be focused on privacy, not content.

Supreme Court Clears Way for Dismantling of Education Department

Trump will move ahead with plans to carry out mass layoffs that were blocked by a federal judge

A divided Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to fire more than half of the Department of Education’s workforce—mass terminations that, in Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s words, are “the first step on the road to a total shutdown” of the entire department. The justices lifted a temporary lower-court ruling that prevented officials from slashing jobs and shifting some of department’s functions to the states and other agencies as litigation over the cuts plays out in the lower courts. Which means, technically, the Court’s decision is temporary.

As is common with cases decided on the emergency docket, the majority did not explain its rationale for the decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent that was joined by the court’s two other liberals, labeling the ruling “indefensible” and a major expansion of presidential power. “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” Sotomayor wrote.

Vox says the Court’s decision is “the biggest victory of Trump’s second term” and is “particularly unnerving” because it suggests that President Donald Trump is allowed to “impound” federal spending—unilaterally refusing to spend money or to continue federal programs that are mandated by an act of Congress. While this case does not explicitly authorize impoundment, it allows the Trump administration to fire so many federal workers, in so many key roles, that the practical effect is to cancel entire federal programs.

Has UCLA Found a Balding Cure?

Scientists develop a topical cream that regrows hair in just one week

Hair loss is a problem more common than you may realize. About 85% of men and 33% of women will suffer from hair loss at some point. That's what makes a new breakthrough so exciting. Researchers have made a big stride toward curing baldness in men. While transplants and popular drugs like Rogaine and Propecia have long helped, UCLA scientists have discovered something that might be even more efficient—PP405.

The compound was developed by regenerative medicine researchers at UCLA and has since been licensed to biotech startup Pelage Pharmaceuticals. Unlike traditional treatments such as minoxidil or finasteride, which either slow the loss or bulk up thinning strands, PP405 targets the root cause of hair loss: the inactivity of hair follicle stem cells.

The molecule is “isolated and applied to a protein in the follicle stem cells that keeps the cells dormant,” the UCLA team wrote. “This inhibits the protein, and the stem cells are moved to awaken.” According to UCLA, lab work on the molecule “has been going on for almost a decade.” The university says the first human trials in 2023 led to the discovery that “application of PP405 as a topical medicine onto the scalp at bedtime for a week produced promising results.”

The Gen Z Stare

TikTok zoomers and millennials are bickering over facial expressions

Is it me, or does TikTok love to argue? In any case, the latest spat is over the so-called Gen Z stare. The look in question—a blank stare of someone in a service job who is handling frustrating requests from a customer—unleashed a torrent of intergenerational debates.

But they are probably just staring at their phones, with blank and expressionless faces. That’s right, the “Gen Z stare” has become the rare social-media sensation that turns the mirror back on Gen Zers, instead of vice versa, something like the inversion of the “millennial pause.” You may recognize it if you’ve had an unsettling experience with a barista while trying to order a coffee, or if you were discussing an assignment with a colleague and weren’t sure if they were understanding you, because without saying anything they just stared back at you.

Depending on who you ask, the stare either means the zoomer in question thinks you're a total moron—or that kids today don't have social skills. But some young people are saying that they just don't like small talk. Kate Lindsay, a millennial, who wrote about the stare on her Substack, Embedded, “Millennials think Gen Z are rude, and Gen Z thinks millennials are stupid.” But this time, millennials have the upper hand, in Lindsay’s estimation. Because the younger generations are fighting among themselves—over something that may or may not be real.

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