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On August 3, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to states and higher-education leaders with instructions to, as McMahon put it, “describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service—commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.
The Atlantic has hired Jessica Goldstein as senior vice president of events, who will work in partnership with managing director for events Evan Smith to lead and produce the magazine’s robust live programs nationwide. She begins with The Atlantic in early September.
Jessica has spent her career telling stories through reporting and creating live experiences that resonate far beyond the stage.
Lintao Zhang / Getty
A humanoid robot waves a flag during the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China, on August 22, 2026.Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty
Robots parade on a track during the opening ceremony of the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on August 22, 2026.Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty
Robots play drums during an opening-ceremony performance on August 22, 2026.
Progressive California state lawmaker Aisha Wahab made history last week in a special election that will make her the first Afghan American in Congress. Wahab overcame a flood of attack ads from pro-Israel groups to beat her Democratic rival, Melissa Hernandez, in a race to replace disgraced Congressmember Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Progressive state Representative Angie Nixon pulled off a stunning victory in Florida last week, defeating the establishment-backed centrist candidate Alexander Vindman to win the state’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Vindman, a former Army intelligence officer who testified during Trump’s first impeachment trial, raised more than 16 times as much campaign money as Nixon.
The Montreal City Council is set to debate a controversial motion Monday calling on the Canadian city to suspend all institutional ties with the Israeli government. Avi Lewis, a leading Jewish Canadian politician and head of the progressive New Democratic Party, says it’s a reflection of widespread outrage among Canadians over Israel’s actions across the Middle East.
Pro-Israel forces “are on the defensive now,” says Lewis.
The U.S.-Canada trade war is deepening after talks collapsed without a deal on Friday. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the Trump administration of issuing demands that would compromise Canada’s sovereignty and undermine key industries. On Saturday, the United States slapped 50% tariffs on around $20 billion worth of imports from Canada, and Carney announced retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. products set to go into effect on September 8.
People will fly 16 hours to try it—and leave true converts.
RIP to one of air travel’s most cursed features.
Yale researcher Martha Gimble explains The Budget Lab’s research into early childhood education and care policies.
The Trump administration is axing a bipartisan anti-corruption law that would require shell companies to disclose their beneficiaries.
America’s favorite new sweet treat is a glaring recession indicator.
Blue and red states say accepting federal help to expand access to drugs like Wegovy for America’s poorest patients is too much of a drain on their budgets.
Surging costs and plummeting insurance coverage could give Ohio Democrats their best chance in years to win back power.
The health secretary toured the heartland this week while Trump nominated a loyal aide to lead one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agencies.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy has already signaled her vaccine policy work may cost her his vote.
U.S.-Canada trade talks collapsed last night. Punitive Trump tariffs will now go into effect. Canada will reciprocate with retaliatory tariffs of its own.
The story may not be over. Donald Trump is notorious for issuing threats, then reversing them. Wars are on, off, on again, off again, then on a third time—but only as a “little detour.” This is not an administration that thinks even one move ahead. But without a supersized Trump TACO, the U.S.-Canada impasse likely won’t resolve soon.
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.
Haley Van Erem, a former career attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has filed a complaint claiming the Trump administration task force charged with investigating antisemitism pushed universities into massive settlements despite turning up little to no evidence of anti-Jewish discrimination on campus.
Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American man who lives in Ohio, traveled to the occupied West Bank on Monday to help relatives defend their family home in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus. Israeli settlers have surrounded the home, which Ridi owns, for more than a week. Settlers have besieged several Palestinian houses in the village, trapping people inside and cutting off water and electricity in some cases.
“I’m not getting no protection here. I still fear for my life.
Israel’s military on Wednesday admitted that its soldiers opened fire in January 2024 on a car trying to flee Gaza City following Israel’s evacuation orders. The car was carrying 5-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab and six of her relatives. They were all killed, as were Palestine Red Crescent Society medics dispatched to rescue them.
James Muldoon is a sociologist who writes about the changing nature of human-technology relationships. Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Our Relationships investigates how people form emotional attachments with large language models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I.
The head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was asked three times to clarify claims made by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
I tally the dead. I tally today’s dead. I seek a tally of the dead or seek
yesterday’s dead. I try to count them, the dead. Reports tell me there are,
today, more dead. I announce the dead—the house is quiet. I try to
count. I seek numbers. I provide numbers. I wake trying. I cover
myself in numbers, trying to keep still.
I seek some stillness beyond the dead—I try to just manage. I tally the dead,
each pair of lungs, I wander through numbers, the daffodils nevertheless
fly up.
The sight of military troops patrolling in a peaceful American city would once have been strange, if not outright alarming. But since last August, when Donald Trump first deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., residents have become accustomed to seeing men and women in camouflage military fatigues on duty throughout the city and its public-transit system. Sometimes, they trail federal officers from agencies such as the FBI and U.S.
