Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Getty / The AtlanticAmerica’s political schisms are so profound that we risk a repeat of the 1850s, when the country was on the precipice of the Civil War.Two Atlantic writers warn that the 2020s could mark another dangerous decade for the American experiment.

Each installment of The Friendship Files features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.This week she talks with two men whose lives were altered by a chance encounter. When he was a teenager, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove heard Reverend William Barber II preach, and invited the Black pastor to speak at his majority-white, strongly Republican high school.

After the success of Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, some dismissively suggested that the poet explore themes other than “war, violence, queerness, and immigration,” Kat Chow reported in a 2019 Atlantic profile. But Vuong wasn’t done considering those topics. So he disregarded his critics and wrote a novel.

Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. During the first COVID-19 surge of the spring, the mantra was “Flatten the curve”—to buy time, using every tool available.Seven months later, it’s possible to measure what that time has bought: The death rate for COVID-19 has fallen dramatically.

If Donald Trump loses this election, maybe he’ll join The Village People. The 1970s band famous for leather chaps and questionable headdresses has become a wacky touchstone of this dour campaign season, and it’s thanks to the president. At his rallies, crowds have been warming up to “Macho Man,” The Village People’s 1976 single about having pride in a “big, thick mustache.

These days, it is rare that a piece of political news can make your jaw drop. But the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from Britain’s Labour Party lit up social media—and my phone—like a fireworks display.Until April, Corbyn was the leader of Britain’s main opposition party. (He stood down less than four months after leading Labour to a thumping general-election defeat last year.) The man who replaced him, former lawyer Keir Starmer, supported the punishment.

Giant waves in Portugal, continued wildfires in California, scenes from Fashion Week in Beijing, the final days of presidential campaigning in the U.S., protests in Chile and Poland, thousands of white flags for COVID-19 victims in the U.S., motocross racing in Sweden, and much more.