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Donald Trump is preparing to visit the Middle East after helping broker what could be a historic peace agreement between Israel and Hamas that would end the war in Gaza.

Russia has a new way to surveil its citizens: a “super app.” Made by the Russian tech company VK, the app is called Max, and as of September 1, it’s required on every new phone sold in Russia. Max enables users to send messages, talk with one another, share files, and transfer money to and from Russian banks.

Some people steal valor. President Donald Trump steals machismo. Notice how he constantly positions himself alongside athletes, most especially mixed-martial-arts combatants and professional wrestlers. Like those purveyors of the “hammer fist” and the “rear naked choke,” Trump styles himself as an “Ultimate Fighter,” a crotch-kicker in chief who will stop at little to force his opponents to submit.

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Regret, my colleague Julie Beck wrote in 2016, is “the emotional price we pay for free will.” If we were just pawns tossed around on the chessboard of life, she explains, there’d be nothing to regret.

This past July, I bought eggplants at the farmers’ market, intending to make my grandmother’s signature maqlubeh: the cinnamon-and-allspice-scented rice dish layered with fried eggplants and chicken, cooked in a pot, then flipped onto a serving platter, forming a golden dome. Before I had the chance to peel the eggplants, stripe by stripe, and drop them into hot oil, a WhatsApp message came in from my mother—a single, waving-hand emoji at an unusual hour. I knew immediately what it meant.