Welcome to the May issue of The Highlight

Roughly a 12 months in the past, the federal government started dispatching funds of a whole lot of {dollars} a month, no strings hooked up, to a broad swath of American dad and mom. A response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the expanded youngster tax credit score had a right away and hanging impact on the financial safety of tens of millions of kids, briefly lifting them out of poverty — till, that’s, the funds stopped late final 12 months.

The abrupt finish of America’s profitable experiment to assist households and youngsters is simply one of many nationwide conversations we’re exploring on this month’s difficulty of the Spotlight.

Some of the urgent tales of our day is the way forward for authorized abortion; the leaked Supreme Courtroom draft opinion this month has left many People considering the autumn of Roe v. Wade and the efficient finish of abortion in roughly half of US states. Consultants say medicine abortion will turn into the best choice for these wishing to finish their pregnancies within the early weeks, within the privateness of their houses, generally with out ever visiting a clinic — making pregnant folks each affected person and supplier. All of those developments, writes Anna North in our cowl story, are making a schism inside the anti-abortion motion, with a brand new, extra radical guard making ready for the following battles simply because the motion attains one in every of its largest victories ever.

For hundreds of years, butterfly collectors — also called lepidopterists — have pursued their quarries with a normal set of apparatus: vials of alcohol, cyanide bricks, steel pins, jars, a butterfly web. Now, as scientists are starting to doc what seems to be an alarming charge of insect demise, many are questioning that technique. Is it merely time to reap the benefits of technological developments and pin down butterflies with binoculars and cameras, as an alternative?

Herbalism has a protracted historical past within the Appalachians, and right now, regardless of the rising reputation of plant dietary supplements in American medication cupboards — suppose: echinacea, ginseng and St. John’s wort — those that develop and forage native herbs in Appalachia are dealing with the tip of an period. We dispatched a reporter to the forests of Kentucky to study extra about herbalism and the way overharvesting and inhabitants declines are threatening this long-held apply.

And at last, we have a look at the rise of the emo muscle boys of our largest films and TV reveals. From John Cena to Jason Momoa to Dave Bautista, this new trio of cumbersome himbo mates embraces our rising understanding that males can cry, too. So does this new wave of anhedonic Adonises symbolize a considerable break from the previous?

Séan Alonzo Harris for Vox

The profound impact of giving American families a little more cash

Six months of funds lifted tens of millions of kids out of poverty. Then they stopped.

By Marin Cogan

Amanda Northrop/Vox

To kill or not to kill: Butterflying during the “insect apocalypse”

Is it nonetheless moral to gather butterflies for science?

By Joanna Thompson

Beth Hoeckel for Vox/Getty Photos

The rise of the sadboi big man

From John Cena to Jason Momoa, our most muscular film stars are more and more our most weak, too.

By Emily St. James

Stacy Kranitz for Vox

In Appalachia, a race to preserve the practice of plant healing

At the same time as ginseng, St. John’s wort, and different herbs develop in reputation, the area is struggling to maintain its age-old apply of herbalism alive for a brand new technology.

By Alex Schechter

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name/Getty Photos

The anti-abortion movement is about to win. Even they aren’t ready for what comes next.

The post-Roe panorama will appear like nothing earlier than.

By Anna North