Bipartisan Senate legislation highlights the growing strategic alignment between Moscow and its partners, underscoring the need to treat their coordination as a unified threat.
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At NIO’s design workshop in suburban Shanghai, engineers spread billets of clay onto an aluminum frame of a basic car. A robotic arm with a mechanized drill bit then carves a series of grooves into the clay corresponding to a designer’s sketch. The rough surface is then painstakingly smoothed with palette knives before aluminum foil is pasted on top. Finally, the sleek-looking metallic model is rolled into a sunlit courtyard where every curve and camber is scrutinized.
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“The artistry really happens with these guys putting color on, taking it off; putting more clay on, taking it off,” says Colin Phipps, senior director of NIO Shanghai Design, who previously worked 12 years for Cadillac. “This is a very labor-intensive process.”
It’s also an incongruously artisanal first step of a design methodology that is otherwise steeped in pushing technological boundaries. Since its founding in 2014, NIO has notched 9,800 global patents, most impressively popularizing battery-swapping technology that allows customers to change their drained battery for a fully charged one in just three minutes at over 3,000 swap stations across China and Europe.
NIO also produces the world’s longest-range electric-vehicle (EV) battery, capable of over 650 miles (1,000 km) on a single charge (Tesla’s record is 402 miles). It has the world’s only dual-display windshield—projecting data at two separate perspectives directly in the driver’s line of sight—and the first homologated drive-by-wire system, which guides the wheels without a physical steering shaft. NIO’s EP9 sports car was upon launch in 2016 the world’s fastest EV, breaching 194 m.p.h. and breaking records at Germany’s famous Nürburgring Nordschleife racing circuit. “Innovation creates value,” NIO CEO William Li tells TIME. “And innovation helps us survive amid fierce competition, be it in China or worldwide.”
NIO is just one of an alphabet soup of Chinese brands—from AION, BYD, and Clever, to Maxus, Neta, and Onvo, to Xpeng, Yangwang, and Zeekr—dominating the global EV market today.
It’s been a meteoric rise. In 2001, China had fewer than 10 million passenger vehicles for its 1.2 billion population. That’s just one vehicle for every 128 people, or a market penetration equivalent to America’s in 1911, three years after Henry Ford produced his first Model T. But by 2009, China was the largest car market in the world. From being a net car importer as recently as 2020, China today sends more vehicles overseas than any other nation; its passenger-car exports jumped nearly 20% in 2024 to 4.9 million. Meanwhile, imports of cars to China dropped from a peak of 1.24 million in 2017 to just 705,000 last year.
Chinese automakers are expected to account for a third of the global market by 2030, according to AlixPartners. When it comes to EVs, China already accounts for nearly two-thirds of global sales (62%). NIOs are currently sold in six European nations as well as Israel and the UAE. BYD, meanwhile, is now undisputedly the world’s top EV firm, present in over 70 countries and outselling Tesla globally for a second straight quarter. While Tesla delivered 336,681 vehicles worldwide for the January–March period, down 13% year-on-year, BYD delivered 416,388, up 38%.
Americans remain largely unaware of all this. Under President Biden, a tariff of 100% was slapped on Chinese EVs, and President Trump has added an additional 25% on all foreign cars. This has negative consequences for EV adoption in the self-styled spiritual home of the automobile—where half of Americans are interested in going electric, according to recent polls. It also impacts the global fight against climate change.
“Consumers in the U.S. could drive better cars, consume less gasoline, spend less on maintenance, and that would also be good for climate change,” says Paul Gong, head of China autos research at UBS Investment Bank. “There is a certain pity that because of tariff protectionism, and geopolitics, the world is not as green and not as prosperous.”
Still, some very real concerns lie behind import barriers. The U.S. and allies accuse China’s industrial policies of massive subsidies that cause overcapacity and crowd out competitors. Chinese government support to its EV industry cumulatively totaled $230.9 billion from 2009 to 2023, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan D.C. think tank. Last July, the E.U. also imposed a provisional antisubsidy tariff of up to 37.6% on Chinese EVs, prompting Beijing to hike tariffs on European pork and brandy in retaliation. In August, Canada hiked its import tariff on Chinese EVs to 100%.
However, to simply blame state subsidies for China’s mastery of EVs is reductive. Time and again, whether it’s smartphones, solar panels, or 5G, China is combining state support with economies of scale and a fiercely competitive domestic market to command transformative technology. Strong supply chains leverage high-quality, low-cost components to commercialize technology for market. And China’s ascendency in EVs provides a window into future tussles between the world’s top two economies over innovations set to power the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The risk for the U.S. is that these advantages will soon also allow China to dominate industries such as generative AI, quantum computing, and humanoid robotics. And EVs are front and center to those goals.
“These are much more than just battery-powered vehicles,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow focused on China business and economics at CSIS. “The technological shift involves a lot of data processing, more AI integrated into the system, and synergies that provide pathways to advance in other technologies.”
China’s rise didn’t initially make the West uncomfortable. Far from it. China’s peerless manufacturing efficiency reaped billions of dollars for U.S. firms. The fact that an ostensibly communist nation was trying its hand at capitalism was thought endearing, even quaint—not to mention proof that liberal economic theory had won the day. The country, after all, represented a giant and growing market for American industry.
Until China began to pull ahead. Though it welcomed McDonald’s and Starbucks and encouraged its brightest to hone their minds at Western universities, Beijing maintained a strict hold over the economy, while cannily acquiring foreign expertise. Today China accounts for 27.5% of all global auto sales, more than the next three countries—the U.S., India, and Japan—combined.
China’s government facilitated this rise by allowing foreign auto firms to enter the Chinese market only with a domestic partner, as well as what might be called resourceful harvesting of intellectual property. It was good old-fashioned protectionism—and for China, it worked. Chinese companies are poaching engineers and executives from storied European and American manufacturers while buying up foreign competitors wholesale. Ford sold Swedish firm Volvo to China’s Geely for $1.8 billion in 2010. In 2017, Geely also bought storied British sports-car firm Lotus.
“Ten or 15 years ago, products in China weren’t competitive globally, to put it mildly,” says Dan Balmer, Lotus president and CEO for Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. “But you could see the energy, the enthusiasm, the investment into the industry. So they’ve learned very well, and they’re now leading in many fields.” Lotus now retains a design and production facility in the U.K., but all its Eletre and Emeya EVs are made in Wuhan, best known as the epicenter of COVID-19, where a $1.1 billion plant opened in 2022 can turn out 150,000 vehicles a year.
“Before, people were coming to China just to have better access to the Chinese market,” says Frank Bournois, dean of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “Now you come to China to improve your processes. And AI is really pushing that forward.”
U.S. policymakers have a hard time squaring this new paradigm, as evidenced by Vice President J.D. Vance’s complaints to Fox News in early April that “we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” But whereas the first generation of Chinese entrepreneurs grew up poor and were happy to wring a livelihood from cheap imitations, today’s tech graduates were spared the privations of their parents and yearn for something more meaningful. “Before, Chinese were happy to copy others just so they wouldn’t go hungry,” says Grace Shao, a former Alibaba manager turned IT consultant who publishes the AI Proem newsletter. “Now they seek a sense of mission.”
While Washington attributes China’s recent successes to subsidies, that is only part of the story. When the Beijing central government pinpoints an industry to prioritize, city and provincial governments immediately offer incentives in the desperate race to seed a local champion. This flood of liquidity generates a bubble that artificially inflates values and encourages other big players to enter the market. But in 2020, the leading government-supported EV maker in China was Tesla, whose consumers received $325 million in tax rebates as well as $82 million in grants to construct its Shanghai Gigafactory. Meanwhile, at its peak in January 2021, NIO’s market cap was $96.57 billion, or double that of General Motors.
Competition between regions and manufacturers, however, is remorseless. In 2023, some 52,000 EV-related companies shut down in China. As the EV bubble burst, NIO’s worth has plunged to just $7.53 billion, despite shipping a record 221,970 cars last year. But those firms that emerged unscathed are lean and technologically agile, and infused with the necessary moxie to thrive. BYD, for one, employs more engineers than Tesla has total staff. In March, it unveiled an EV battery that can charge in just five minutes. “You cannot imagine such competition intensity in any other major market,” says Gong.
NIO’s factory in Anhui province is a case in point. It has an annual capacity of 300,000 units and can deliver entirely bespoke cars of 3.5 million specification combinations within 10 days. Ford may have pioneered the assembly line, but NIO has an assembly matrix six floors high and five wide, where individual chassis can be plucked in any direction. Once they’re grounded, AI-powered automated guided vehicles ferry each shell among 940 welding and riveting robots. Most impressively, ground was broken at the factory in April 2021 and mass production started just 17 months later—a timeline virtually unheard of in the U.S.
Crucially, traditional auto manufacturers and China’s new energy companies approach the production process in reverse. Instead of focusing on the panels, axles, and bearings of a car, NIO first looks at the high-voltage architecture—batteries, power train, and so on—followed by the low-voltage, like digital compute. “Then we bolt the mechanical pieces around it,” says Jonathan Rayner, NIO’s vehicle-experience manager for its ET9, who joined the firm after 14 years at Jaguar Land Rover. “With today’s modern software and capabilities, what used to be the hard thing for the old companies is relatively easy.”
Putting software at the beating heart of production means modern EVs are unlike their gasoline-powered forebears. Even if you purchased a NIO, BYD, or Lotus a few years ago, the car’s brain is being regularly updated, much like your smartphone. This also means that the constantly honed AI-powered core technologies can be applied to many adjacent fields. “AI is a very important enabler for our vehicle products,” says Li, NIO’s CEO. “These technologies help us improve the product experience and overall competitiveness.”
Waiting outside an office building in Shanghai’s Pudong district, a white robotaxi produced by Pony.AI, a Guangzhou-based autonomous-vehicle firm, circles slowly around the entrance foyer before coming to a stop at my feet. Once I’m aboard, the self-driving system embarks on a 20-minute tour of the rain-soaked neighborhood, dodging delivery bikes, overtaking parked vans, and bravely fighting through oncoming traffic at stoplights. “Strategically, we definitely have the ambition to go global,” says James Peng, CEO of Pony.AI. “Because mobility needs are everywhere. Using technology to have a positive societal impact should be our ambition.”
Of course, the U.S. also has robotaxis. Alphabet-owned Waymo completed 4 million paid driverless ride-hailing trips in 2024 in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. But competition is scant. Amazon-backed Zoox secured the necessary permits to carry the public in Foster City, Calif., only last year. Tesla has claimed since 2016 to be about a year away from launching a robotaxi; CEO Elon Musk most recently said his Cybercab would be ready by 2027.
More notable are the players that have exited the space. Uber sold off its self-driving business in 2020 after a fatal collision. Ford abandoned its stake in its robotaxi developer Argo.AI two years later. In 2023, GM paused all its Cruise driverless operations, despite already plowing in $10 -billion, following collisions that led to the suspension of California licenses. (While a recent spate of self-driving crashes in China hasn’t diminished official support, the government on April 17 did ban the word autonomous from car ads.) By comparison, Pony.AI faces a crowded field. China also has Apollo Go, DiDi, AutoX, and WeRide—the latter already operates in 30 cities across nine countries—all clamoring for market share with express government backing. As of August 2024, Chinese public-security authorities had issued 16,000 test licenses for autonomous vehicles and 20,000 miles of roads nationwide had been opened for testing.
For Peng, the difference is that while licenses in China are harder to obtain at the outset, once permission is granted, the government will be fully supportive. “In the U.S., it’s easy to get a license,” he says. “But if you’re ever in an accident and it’s your fault, they will heavily penalize you.”
Rather than fostering its own domestic champions, the U.S. national strategy aims to slow down its key rival via stricter export controls. However, China is catching up. In semiconductors—a crucial industry in which the U.S. currently leads—Huawei’s Ascend 910C AI chip reportedly achieves up to 60% of performance in inference tasks compared with Nvidia’s latest H100. Whereas NIO’s earlier models contained four Nvidia chips, its latest ET9 instead has two designed in-house. “It’s precisely the shortage of semiconductors that is leading China to develop their own faster,” says Bournois.
The rush is also on to translate EV supremacy to other industries. Humanoid robots produced by Hangzhou-based Unitree caused a stir in households across China when they appeared, twirling decorative fans and dancing with other performers, at state broadcaster CCTV’s prestigious Lunar New Year Gala in January.
It was a stunning display of China’s booming robotics industry. Over 190,000 robotics-related companies were registered in China last year, with 44,000 more registered since the start of 2025, according to data company Qichacha. As with EVs and AI, Beijing has prioritized humanoid robots as “disruptive products.” In 2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued industrial-development guidance that outlined its goal of mass-producing humanoid robots by 2025 to build a globally competitive industrial ecosystem expected to reach $43 billion by 2035.
EVs are key. Roughly 70% of their components are interchangeable, which is why Chinese automakers including BYD, Xiaomi, Chery, GAC Motor, Huawei, SAIC, and Xpeng Motors are all entering the robotics market. At March’s National People’s Congress, China’s annual rubber-stamp parliament, XPeng chairman He Xiaopeng proposed supportive policies for humanoid robots to mirror those EVs enjoyed, arguing the industry has similar growth potential over the next five to 20 years.
China is also gaining ground in the so-called low-altitude economy—autonomous air taxis, drone delivery, and so on. Last March, China’s MIIT and civil-aviation and transport regulators released a six-year plan for the sector, exploring regulations for aerial tolls, pilot licenses, and establishing trial areas where early-stage eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) can fly around actual city environments. The 2025 NPC’s Government Work Report named the future industry among the state’s priorities. Once again, China’s EV industry provides the backbone. Early eVTOL pioneers include Ehang, Autoflight, XPeng, and AeroFugia, a subsidiary of Geely. “We have the basic infrastructure already ready for the low-altitude industry,” says Burt Gao, Aerofugia’s CEO and chief scientist. “Also, our supply chain is the same as for EVs.”
It is not all positive for China, of course. The nation faces myriad economic challenges, including deflation, local governments drowning in debt, poor consumer spending, plummeting real estate values, record youth unemployment, and a demographic time bomb. China’s regulatory framework and especially its draconian rules regarding data transfers are anathema to foreign partners. In September, the European Chamber of Commerce in China released a position paper that made over 1,000 recommendations for how to improve the business environment. Then there’s the as-yet-unknown effect of a trade war with the U.S., where China last year sent 14.7% of exports, worth $438.9 billion.
But as America walls itself off, China also has a golden opportunity to reset trade relations with the rest of the world. In mid-April, after Trump’s global tariff onslaught, President Xi Jinping embarked on a charm offensive in Southeast Asia, declaring that a trade war has “no winners” and that protectionism “leads nowhere.” Just as export controls have spurred domestic innovation, a U.S.-waged trade war only puts Chinese firms in a more favorable light. “The bar is low in terms of looking like a more reliable and constructive partner than the United States these days,” says Mazzocco of CSIS.
We have been here before. The U.K. became the world’s biggest economic superpower in the 18th and 19th centuries through its first-mover advantage in industrialization. But the U.S. adopted these technologies and, via its larger market and manufacturing capabilities, soon became the global leader in both innovations and their commercialization. The question is whether the U.S. can survive a trade war that threatens to drastically diminish its markets, while simultaneously undermining the development of core technologies by defunding universities and research institutions. China already produces twice as many highly cited AI-research publications as the U.S. According to a recent report from the D.C.-based Information Technology and Industry Foundation, China is near the lead of innovation or better in 6 out of 10 industries of the future. If EVs are any augury, America’s days at technology’s vanguard might be numbered.
“We believe the Chinese market has the best talent,” says Li. “Every year there are several million new science and technology graduates.” And they, like their government, are determined to seize the day.
This morning, CBS announced the full cast for the hotly anticipated 50th season of Survivor, set to air in early 2026. It’s a first for the show, which normally waits much longer to unveil the players; not even the Season 49 cast is public yet, technically. But that’s the nature of a modern all-returnees season, where early leaks are likely to reveal who’s in contention even before the cast flies out to Fiji. And while viewers are certainly frustrated with some unappealing inclusions and notable omissions—why are there so many New Era players without any contestants from the 20s?—there are definitely enough stars here to produce something reliably enjoyable and celebrate the best competition reality series ever.
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Here are the 24 cast members of Season 50 and what to know, or remember, about each of them as the long wait until next year marches on.
Read more: The 50 Most Influential Reality TV Seasons of All Time
Jenna Lewis Dougherty
Seasons: Borneo (1), All-Stars (8)
Placed: 8th, 3rd
It wouldn’t be right to celebrate 50 seasons of Survivor without bringing back someone from the very beginning, and Borneo’s youngest contestant is an unexpected but inspired choice. At the time a 22-year-old college student and single mom of two, Lewis Dougherty (then just Lewis) was an endearing motormouth, but her most memorable and emotional moment came when she lost out on a video message from her daughters for the first ever Loved Ones Challenge. Seeing her play again now, at 47 years old, will help bring the series full circle.
Colby Donaldson
Seasons: The Australian Outback (2), All-Stars (8), Heroes vs. Villains (20)
Placed: 2nd, 12th, 5th
The show’s first challenge beast and arguably its first “hero” almost eked out the win in his first go at the game, besting his on-and-off rival Jerri Manthey but losing to Tina Wesson. Subsequent appearances offered diminishing returns, especially during Heroes vs. Villains, where he went far but lacked the agency and much of the physical skill he once had. It remains to be seen whether he can adapt to today’s very different game—even in his third season, he couldn’t quite keep up with the strategic element—but it could be nice to see an old star, even if it’s difficult to avoid the feeling that Donaldson doesn’t belong on a season without Manthey.
Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick
Seasons: Palau (10), Guatemala (11), Heroes vs. Villains (20)
Placed: 7th, 2nd, 19th
LaGrossa Kendrick has stayed in the reality-TV space since her late-aughts Survivor outings, competing in The Traitors and Snake in the Grass. But not everyone remembers just how beloved she was in 2005 for her underdog arc on Palau—where she became the last surviving member of the infamously decimated Ulong tribe—perhaps because of her villainous turn on Guatemala and a near-immediate exit on Heroes vs. Villains. Could she recapture some of her old magic and showcase the resilience that once made her a legend?
Cirie Fields
Seasons: Panama (12), Micronesia (16), Heroes vs. Villains (20), Game Changers (34)
Placed: 4th, 3rd, 17th, 6th
Often considered the best Survivor player to never win, Fields is coming into the game with a massive target on her back, perhaps more than any other returnee—especially thanks to her more recent win on The Traitors and an already-filmed appearance on the upcoming Australia V The World season of Australian Survivor. Her lethal social game almost got her to the end on her first two seasons, but doomed her early in the third—and in Game Changers, she became the victim of “Advantage-geddon,” a shark-jumping moment when she went home despite nobody voting for her. That suggests a natural rationale for an opportunity at redemption, and in some ways she’d be the ideal winner—though it’s hard to picture people letting her anywhere near a Final Tribal Council. By now, Fields might be bigger than Survivor.
Ozzy Lusth
Seasons: Cook Islands (13), Micronesia (16), South Pacific (23), Game Changers (34)
Placed: 2nd, 9th, 4th, 12th
Where does Ozzy Lusth go from here? An undeniable icon of the game and early challenge beast, he just barely lost to the savvy Yul Kwon on his original season before getting memorably blindsided by his ally/showmance partner Amanda Kimmel at the midpoint of Micronesia. And another bold performance in South Pacific—where he requested to get voted out just to beat Redemption Island and reenter the game—certainly didn’t help downplay his well-established threat level. Lusth has relied primarily on his physical strength for all four of his stints on the show, but it’s difficult to know if he’s capable of truly evolving his social maneuvering.
Benjamin “Coach” Wade
Seasons: Tocantins (18), Heroes vs. Villains (20), South Pacific (23)
Placed: 5th, 12th, 2nd
The self-described “Dragon Slayer” is easily one of the strangest and most unique characters to appear on Survivor, maybe on reality TV overall: a quirky and spiritual guy with a penchant for telling tall tales (or are they true stories about a fascinating life?). On South Pacific, his bizarre but effective cult-leader persona earned him a place at the end, though his inability to own his manipulations lost him the game. Fourteen years later, is Coach back with any more self-awareness, and how will he cope without immediate access to power? Either way, it should be a whole lot of fun to watch.
Aubry Bracco
Seasons: Kaôh Rōng (32), Game Changers (34), Edge of Extinction (38)
Placed: 2nd, 5th, 16th
Many still believe Bracco deserved the win in Kaôh Rōng, though her significant personal journey from anxious introvert to strategic powerhouse didn’t translate to a strong social game or convincing argument at Final Tribal Council. Bracco’s later performances on Game Changers and Edge of Extinction were under-edited and underwhelming, respectively, so Season 50 may be her last real chance to set the record straight on her capabilities.
Chrissy Hofbeck
Season: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers (35)
Placed: 2nd
Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers was arguably one of the dullest seasons in the show’s run, remembered mainly for the official introduction of the Final 4 fire-making challenge and Ben Driebergen’s resulting win. At least Hofbeck played her heart out, tying a female record by winning four Immunity Challenges in a season and making it to the end—though the jury didn’t respect her social game. Few of the players in these mid-thirties seasons ever got a second chance to play, so this shot is long overdue.
Mike White
Season: David vs. Goliath (37)
Placed: 2nd
Easily the name on this list with the most recognition outside of Survivor circles, actor-writer Mike White was already famous from School of Rock during his subtle but delightful appearance on the fan-favorite season David vs. Goliath in 2018. But he’s almost a household name these days, known most recently as the auteur behind The White Lotus. (He even gives cameos to several of his old Survivor castmates each season.) Beyond his smart eye for strategy and strong social game, it should be thrilling to see a celebrity of his caliber on the show again.
Angelina Keeley
Season: David vs. Goliath (37)
Placed: 3rd
“Natalie, can I have your jacket?” Anyone who has watched David vs. Goliath remembers this question, spoken by the eventual second runner-up and directed toward the woman she just voted out. Keeley is an all-time Survivor character guaranteed to bounce interestingly off practically any cast member, lovably un-self-aware to the viewers and irritatingly so to her fellow contestants. This casting is another no-brainer, no matter the likelihood of Keeley improving on her zero-vote-finalist record.
Christian Hubicki
Season: David vs. Goliath (37)
Placed: 7th
The New Era of Survivor may be replete with nerds and superfans, but few can compete with the star power of this widely loved robotics scientist, a long-desired returnee. At the merge on his first season, Hubicki was already becoming a significant strategic and social force, pulling off several big moves and making strong connections with castaways like Nick Wilson and especially Gabby Pascuzzi. He could stand a good chance of going even further on Season 50, now that he’s surrounded by other big threats.
Rick Devens
Season: Edge of Extinction (38)
Placed: 4th
Devens got taken out only four votes into Edge of Extinction, but thanks to the season’s central twist, he eventually got to return to the game and become the biggest threat (or, to some, the biggest nuisance), setting the record for most Hidden Immunity Idol possessions in a season. With his continued involvement in the Survivor community—he became the first co-host of the podcast On Fire with Jeff Probst—Devens has long been expected to return for a second shot, though he’s certainly not one of the most essential picks here.
Jonathan Young
Season: 42
Placed: 4th
Young was a Hulk on a season dominated by shrimps, standing out from sheer size and physical dominance alone. His somewhat condescending attitude and strong-male-solidarity angle eventually grated on some of his tribemates, though, and he lost at Final 4 fire-making. As one of the first true challenge beasts of the New Era, Young isn’t quite an out-of-left-field choice, but he’s also far from a modern icon.
Emily Flippen
Season: 45
Placed: 7th
Flippen started off on the wrong foot with the perpetually losing Lulu tribe on 45, where she wasn’t a great social fit at first. But her ally Kaleb Gebrewold helped her adjust her game and show her humanity (and humility) a bit more, enabling her to make it pretty far. It’ll be interesting to see if she takes a similar under-the-radar approach in 50 or if she re-emerges from her shell to make some bold plays—the latter would be more fun.
Dee Valladares
Season: 45
Placed: 1st
Bringing back two winners may be an odd choice, especially given they’re both from the New Era, but Valladares could have more to offer. She played a dominant physical, social, and strategic game in 45, leading the Reba Four alliance and dictating many or most of the post-merge votes, but she rarely had to fight back or pull off many tricky maneuvers. She might have to play a bit more craftily in 50, where she’s around more people willing to go hard.
Quintavius “Q” Burdette
Season: 46
Placed: 6th
On his season, Q was an unmistakable highlight of the New Era, a force of pure chaos and male ego with control issues and a confusing style of playing the game. (He asked his tribemates to vote him out two separate times.) But those flaws—and the bizarre charm that sometimes broke through—made him great TV. Should we expect him to pull off a win in Season 50? Highly doubtful. But will he add to the entertainment factor? Definitely.
Charlie Davis
Season: 46
Placed: 2nd
If Q was the hurricane blowing through Survivor 46, Davis was a source of calm geniality at the center, constantly quoting Taylor Swift songs while obscuring his careful, clever gameplay. Many viewers believe he deserved the win at Final Tribal Council, but thanks to some juicy vengeance from the longtime ally he betrayed, Maria Shrime Gonzalez, he narrowly lost. Now he’s a natural choice to bring back; in fact, his threat level might appear lower among these bigger personalities than it would alongside all New Era players.
Tiffany Nicole Ervin
Season: 46
Placed: 8th
Though Ervin made it to merge with a Hidden Immunity Idol and solid allies, she’s a bit random to bring back for a big anniversary season. Still, it should be amusing to watch her interact again with Q, the bane of her existence all through her pre- and post-merge.
Genevieve Mushaluk
Season: 47
Placed: 5th
Mushaluk arguably played the biggest and most exciting game of Season 47, orchestrating the blindsides of tribemates like Kishan Patel and Sol Yi. But what also made her compelling was her stated disinterest in getting close to people, a decision she later regretted when her ally Teeny Chirichillo lost trust. Will Mushaluk spend more time on her social game this time around? And will she put her talent for big moves to use again, or shrink into the shadows?
Kyle Fraser
Season: 48
Placed: 1st
This one is weird. We watched Fraser win $1 million just a week ago, so it’s hard to get too excited about seeing him again already. But at least he was a deserving winner, delicately balancing his “secret” alliance with Kamilla Karthigesu and his loyalty to Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson all the way to the end. With both Karthigesu and Hunter also returning for Season 50, it remains to be seen whether Fraser will try to distance himself and play a new game or stick with his proven allies.
Joe Hunter
Season: 48
Placed: 3rd
Another tough sell. The most recent second runner-up definitely has his fans in the Survivor community, and his incredibly tight bond with Erickson (whom he helped through multiple autistic episodes) was occasionally quite moving. But many viewers found his loyalty-first approach and overly heroic edit eyeroll-worthy, especially when the rest of the cast refused to turn on him and let him walk to Final Tribal Council. He also has a good chance of making it to the halfway point this time around—he’s a physical asset to any pre-merge tribe—but whether we want to see that happen is another story.
Kamilla Karthigesu
Season: 48
Placed: 4th
Of anyone on Season 48, Karthigesu is easily the most deserving of another shot. Her tight personal and strategic bond with Fraser was the heart of the season, and she gave plenty of funny and engaging confessionals, but the tribe dynamic—with Hunter and Erickson ruling at the top and the majority afraid to make a move—didn’t allow her to reach full star potential. It could be fascinating to see her play a more independent game with more room to maneuver, although casting Fraser and Hunter again may interfere with that.
Mystery Players
Season: 49
The likely identities of these two contestants from the upcoming fall season are already known based on rampant speculation and leaks, but nothing has been officially shared by CBS yet. Even if the players’ names are confirmed soon, we’ll know next to nothing about their personalities or how they played the game until the fall, though they must leave a strong impression based on their inclusion on this season. Season 49 and 50 are filming back to back, so these two will be particularly undernourished out there.
MANHATTAN—A parade of keffiyeh-clad students descended on Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday to face formal arraignment for their roles in a violent takeover of Columbia University’s Butler Library. Their lawyer accused Israel of “genocide,” asked the court to consider dismissal, and ultimately secured adjournments for procedural documents that will delay the cases for more than a month.
A total of 56 defendants were arraigned at the courthouse, with a few joined by their nervous parents. Among the defendants present were Ramona Sarsgaard, the nepo baby daughter of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard. Dima Aboukasm—whom Mayor Eric Adams once hailed as a peace activist—also had her day in court. They were represented by Matthew W. Daloisio, the same attorney who represented those arrested for storming Columbia’s Hamilton Hall in 2024.
Daloisio defended his clients’ conduct, saying they “set up a teach-in in a library.” He asked the court “to consider dismissal in the interest of justice” before requesting and receiving an “adjournment for supporting depositions” from Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which requires law enforcement to produce documents “signing off on the criminal allegations [and] saying the charges are true,” local defense attorney Jason Goldman told the Washington Free Beacon. Goldman speculated that Daloisio “wants this adjournment to see in fact whether Bragg’s office upholds the arrests and moves the case forward in a criminal prosecution.”
“It’s a good strategy” meant to “avoid the public scrutiny” and “see if they can get the case dismissed,” Goldman said. “Bragg dropped charges in 2024, and I think he’ll do it again.”
Goldman was referring to Bragg’s decision to dismiss dozens of cases for the Columbia rabble rousers who stormed Hamilton Hall during a similar explosion of campus violence last spring. The decision earned him widespread criticism from Jewish and good-government groups at the time.
Rioters in the more recent Butler Library melee injured two security officers and distributed pro-Hamas literature to students who had been studying quietly for final exams, resulting in 81 arrests. Some of the defendants were testy as they paraded into court.
“You are a loser, go away,” one said. “Piece of shit,” a second added later. A frazzled mom of one of the arrestees, meanwhile, told the Free Beacon: “I’ve been waiting here an hour and you’re not going in before me.”
Most of the defendants wore masks and other articles of clothing in support of Hamas. Their appearance created a circus-like atmosphere in the courthouse as more run-of-the-mill arrestees in handcuffs walked past with bemusement.
On several occasions the New York Police Department asked the Free Beacon not to engage with any of the defendants.
“Please don’t do anything uppity around them. All it takes is one fart for them to fly off the handle,” said one cop.
One prominent defendant, ex-Bloomberg journalist Jason Kao, was not there. His arraignment is scheduled for July 23 along with 20 other defendants, the Manhattan DA’s office said.
All of the student miscreants were charged with third-degree trespassing and arraigned on desk appearance tickets. Many of the defendants treated the charges with open contempt in the courtroom, using the time to text with friends, write in journals, and read. The Assassination of Lumumba and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of The Earth were among several titles on display.
Some used the court appearance to vogue hot NYC looks. Nadia Schwingle appeared in court with high top boots, a designer bag, and an haute couture keffiyeh.
Though Bragg did not immediately drop the charges, Goldman, the New York City defense attorney, argued that the defendants will eventually walk free.
“They’re going to resolve in dismissal or something very close to it. I don’t think these people will be left with criminal records. I just don’t think these charges will be pressed aggressively,” he said.
“For the same reason it was dismissed last time, Bragg doesn’t think this is worth criminal prosecution in the same way other cases are.”
One of the students, Dalia Darazim, had her charges dismissed on a technicality after she was sent a desk appearance ticket which incorrectly instructed her to appear in Staten Island.
The post Dismiss Our Cases, Keffiyeh-Clad Columbia Radicals Tell NYC Court appeared first on .
(NewsNation) — Chinese students with ties to their country’s Communist Party or “studying in critical fields” will have their visas revoked, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media Wednesday.
Rubio’s statement on X comes as the Trump administration is engaged in a trade war with China and as the president has discussed capping the number of international students allowed to study at U.S. universities.
“The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio said.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — President Donald Trump’s recent wave of pardons is drawing national attention and sparking fresh debate.
Among the latest to receive clemency are reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted for bank fraud, and several individuals jailed for their roles in the January 6 Capitol riot.
On Tuesday, Trump personally called the Chrisleys’ children to inform them their parents would be released. The couple’s daughter had endorsed Trump during last year’s Republican National Convention.
“I heard they’re terrific,” the president said of the family.
Meanwhile, Trump has confirmed he is considering pardons for Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox — two men found guilty in 2022 of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
At the time, authorities said the plan was an attempt to incite civil war in the lead-up to the election. Trump expressed doubts about the verdict, calling it “somewhat of a railroad job” and adding, “it’s been brought to my attention.”
Since his return to office, Trump has issued dozens of pardons, including for people convicted in connection to the January 6 Capitol attack. The decision has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, who accuse the president of abusing his clemency powers.
One particularly controversial pardon was for Virginia Sheriff Scott Jenkins. A jury convicted Jenkins last year of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes, and he was sentenced to ten years in March.
Trump defended the move, saying Jenkins was a victim of what he called an “overzealous Biden Department of Justice.”
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia called the pardon “a slap in the face.”
Gov. Whitmer has made two public appearances alongside President Trump since his return to the White House. Her office has not responded to a request for comment.
Although more people were implicated in the Whitmer kidnapping plot, only Croft and Fox received federal sentences, which makes them eligible for presidential pardons. Trump has not indicated when a final decision on their cases will be made.
In a statement, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said, “I’m deeply disturbed President Trump is considering pardoning the men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Governor Whitmer. I would want anyone who tried to hurt the president, or worse, tried to assassinate him, to be held accountable. Those who tried to harm the governor must be held accountable as well, not released to do further harm to her or anyone else.”
As Trump continues to wield his pardon powers, critics argue it’s part of a broader effort to reward political allies and undermine institutions. Supporters claim he is correcting what they see as political overreach by the previous administration.
