This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Some workers use their vacation out-of-office message to make a big statement about their relationship to their job. But it’s okay to simply say you’ll be away.
This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here.
Tech companies believe that generative AI can transform how we find information online, replacing traditional search engines with bots that synthesize knowledge into a more interactive format.
Donald Trump’s public events are a challenge for anyone who writes about him. His rallies and press conferences are rich sources of material, fountains of molten weirdness that blurp up stuff that would sink the career of any other politician. By the time they’re over, all of the attendees are covered in gloppy nonsense.
Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty
Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States crosses the finish line first, winning gold in the women’s 4x100m-relay final on a rainy day at Stade de France. Richardson ran the anchor leg of the relay, following legs by team members Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, and Gabby Thomas. Great Britain came in second place, and Germany won the bronze medal.
Previously:
August 8: British sport climber Molly Thompson-Smith hangs on by her fingertips.
Both the White House and the Harris campaign have envisioned the savings promised by the negotiations as playing a significant role in the run-up to November’s election.
Why more ultrawealthy people are making sure athletes get paid.
This summer, one question has been living rent-free in my head: Do I look like a giant dork? Faced with miserable heat and humidity, I have surrendered to JisuLife, the maker of a plastic sea-green neck fan that spurts cool air onto my face. Mine was $28.30; it’s rechargeable and looks absolutely ridiculous—like if Beats headphones had a baby with a travel pillow.
At one point, I put on my best summer clothes for a dinner out and then wrapped the device around my neck before leaving the house.
Press freedom groups are raising alarm after New York police arrested and charged videographer Samuel Seligson for allegedly filming pro-Palestinian activists hurling red paint at the homes of top officials of the Brooklyn Museum, part of a campaign by activists demanding the institution divest from Israel. Seligson faces eight counts of criminal mischief with a hate crime enhancement, which is a felony. Police also raided his home twice.
We speak with the co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, who briefly met with Vice President Kamala Harris this week as the Democratic presidential candidate is under pressure to define her platform on Palestine. Layla Elabed spoke with Harris before her rally in Michigan to press her on a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel. “I was very emotional in that brief exchange.
We go to Dhaka for an update as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is sworn in to lead Bangladesh’s caretaker government just days after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled the country amid a wave of student-led protests over inequality and corruption. Yunus is known as the “banker to the poor” and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work developing microloans that helped lift millions out of poverty.
Fortune 500 companies are not, uh, woke.
It has not become the currency of today, and it will not be the currency of tomorrow.
Independent experts gave a psychedelic treatment for PTSD a scathing review. Some in Congress want it approved anyway.
Advocates are seeking to block referendums in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Montana and South Dakota.
The position aligns with President Joe Biden but clashes with some abortion-rights activists championing her White House bid.
Parents’ stories about how their children were exploited and bullied online are resonating in Congress.
“We cannot win if people think we’re headed into a recession,” one Democratic National Committee member said.
Though hiring remains strong, voters blame President Joe Biden for persistent high prices.
The president has a compelling antimonopoly record. But he doesn’t always lean into it. And voters don’t really know of it. The debate could change that.
We remember our dear colleague Simin Minou Farkhondeh, who died August 5 after a battle with cancer. She was 61 years old. Farkhondeh was a lifelong educator, filmmaker and activist who served as Democracy Now!’s education director for 13 years, helping to bring lessons on media literacy and independent journalism to thousands of students.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Like so much else about American politics in the Trump era, the role of the vice president on the campaign trail has changed, and Tim Walz and J. D. Vance are adapting in very different ways.
He doesn’t have a 401(k) or IRA and doesn’t own any real estate.
Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty
Olympic sport climbing is divided into two medal events, speed and combined boulder and lead. In the lead format, athletes have six minutes to climb as high as they can, scaling a wall more than 15 meters high, without having seen the route beforehand. The steepest sections of the climb have a 42-degree reverse incline.
Tim Walz tells a compelling story. The vice-presidential candidate grew up working on a family farm. He’s a former high-school teacher and football coach. As governor of Minnesota, he passed laws lowering the cost of insulin and providing free school breakfast and lunch. He’s also been talking about something more intimate, though, in a way that few politicians do. Walz and his wife had their daughter, Hope, using in vitro fertilization.
So many different kinds of families exist because of IVF.
Imagine that you’re traveling for work this summer, somewhere far from home. The flight over is a little turbulent, but you’re excited to be away for a week or so. Then your return journey gets delayed. The airline puts you up in a nice hotel but can’t decide on a new departure date. Your employer booked the tickets, so you can’t do much about the situation. You start running out of clean clothes, and everyone back home starts wondering when you’re coming back.
Senior United Nations officials are calling on the international community for help in getting humanitarian aid into Sudan after a famine was declared in at least one part of the Darfur region following 15 months of war between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Officials say perhaps 26 million people are at risk from acute hunger, but Sudanese activist Marine Alneel warns that the true scope of the crisis could be much larger.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has published a major new report documenting how the Israeli prison system has become “a network of torture camps,” where physical, psychological and sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners is normalized and routine. The report, titled “Welcome to Hell,” collects the testimony of 55 Palestinians who were detained by Israeli authorities since October 7 and later released, almost all without charges. This comes as a group of U.N.
Thousands filled the streets across the United Kingdom this week in massive rallies against racism and Islamophobia, a show of unity to counter a recent surge in far-right violence. British police have arrested hundreds of right-wing rioters for carrying out a string of attacks in England and Northern Ireland targeting Muslims and migrants.
