The crisis began quietly, on September 12, 2024. That was the day OpenAI announced a new sort of bot, known as a “reasoning model,” that was trained to complete challenging tasks that took long periods of time—the very sorts of science, math, and coding problems the AI industry had long prized. Google, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and the like raced to launch their own reasoning models.
Ander Gillenea / AFP / Getty
The sun’s corona glows as the moon completely blocks the sun during the totality phase of the total solar eclipse, as seen from San Asensio, La Rioja region, Spain, on August 12, 2026.Bernat Armangue / AP
Mario Garrido, a member of the “Los Taraos” amateur astrophotography group, waits to shoot a total solar eclipse, in Berlanga de Duero, Spain, on August 12, 2026.
Last night, Francesca Hong lost the race to be the Democratic candidate for governor of Wisconsin. This is great news for American democracy.
Sorry if that seems harsh—she certainly ran an energetic campaign and came close to winning the nomination—but Hong was a profoundly flawed candidate in an important race. Even the leaders of her own faction of the Democratic Party recognized it, and stayed away: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders apparently know a lemon when they see one.
From London, we revisit the Gaza Tribunal, an independent, nongovernmental inquiry into the United Kingdom’s complicity in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The tribunal, held nearly one year ago, was chaired by our three guests: former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Israeli professor of human rights law Neve Gordon and Palestinian legal scholar Shahd Hammouri. Their new book is titled The Gaza Tribunal: Britain’s Complicity in Genocide.
A live chat with Felix Salmon and Lee Buchheit hosted by the Library of Mistakes.
Leopold Aschenbrenner’s A.I.-focused portfolio was plummeting before Ken Griffin snapped up most of it.
Cyclosporiasis’ rebranding as “explosive diarrhea” has brought our collective attention to food safety concerns and the MAGA-cultivated Taylor Farms.
Beth Gardiner explains how we ended up holding the (plastic) bag for Big Oil’s wastefulness.
Jay Bhattacharya’s interview ended up similar in tone to the one with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week on CNN.
Several conservative states will require proof from people who say they’re too sick to work.
The parasite, which spreads via fresh produce and can cause explosive diarrhea, has sickened thousands of Americans in this summer’s record outbreak.
The Kentucky senator and nemesis of America’s Covid czar says he’s taking his case straight to the attorney general.
A DC court will hear a challenge to the cuts on Thursday.
Outward’s hosts sit down with the host and co-creator of When We All Get to Heaven.
The neighborhood changes, the church moves, people forget and remember “the AIDS years,” but AIDS isn’t over.
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
We continue our coverage from the Edinburgh International Festival, where acclaimed Brazilian actor and filmmaker Wagner Moura stars in the play A Trial — after An Enemy of the People. A sequel to the 1882 Henrik Ibsen play An Enemy of the People, A Trial — after An Enemy of the People interrogates themes of authoritarianism, misinformation and public judgement. It is directed by Brazil’s Christiane Jatahy.
“We in Brazil, we know what a dictatorship is.
Democracy Now! is broadcasting from Scotland at the Edinburgh International Festival, which features music, opera, theater and dance and is one of Europe’s biggest arts festivals. We are joined by the acclaimed Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, one of the most celebrated classical violinists in the world. She became the first woman and first Scottish artist to become director of the Edinburgh International Festival in 2022.
We speak with Keith LaMar, an artist, teacher and writer on death row in Ohio. LaMar, who has spent three decades in solitary confinement, was sentenced to death for the murder of five fellow prisoners during a 1993 prison uprising. He has always maintained his innocence. His trial was held in a remote Ohio community before an all-white jury. LaMar is one of three men on death row for whom Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued reprieves, pushing back their execution dates to 2030.
President Trump has been repeatedly stymied in his efforts to bring the Iran war to a close. Resuming a limited bombing campaign didn’t get it done. Neither did making apocalyptic threats to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization. Every time Trump touts a possible breakthrough in negotiations, the hard-liners in Tehran seem to delight in changing their terms and yanking away a possible deal.
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Over the past few days, the president has continued his crusade against one of the supposed vandals of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool.
For several months, I had been on the hunt for new T-shirts. I vaguely had a vision of what they should look like: not so different from my current T-shirts, except in some way elevated and, more urgent, free of stains or holes. Perhaps they could come in interesting colors? Ideally, they would not be made in sweatshops. There were many, many shirts that seemed to meet these criteria—and with a few clicks, they could be delivered to my doorstep, maybe even by tomorrow.
In her first argument as a lawyer before the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously quoted the abolitionist Sarah Grimké, who said, “I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” At some point, however, Ginsburg was encouraged to use an alternative to the term sex.
“I’m typing all these briefs and articles for you and the word sex, sex, sex is on every page,” her secretary at Columbia Law School told her.
The Atlantic Festival, back for the second year in New York City from September 17 to 19, is announcing new speakers including the legendary quarterback, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Colin Kaepernick, who will be interviewed by contributing writer Jemele Hill about his forthcoming memoir, The Perilous Fight.
We spend the hour with civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. In 2018, the organization opened the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, to tell the history of millions of enslaved Africans who were abducted and trafficked across the Atlantic to the Americas by European powers, and to chronicle the legacy of slavery, racism, lynchings and segregation in the United States.
A live chat with Felix Salmon and Lee Buchheit hosted by the Library of Mistakes.
