The AI giants talk a big game about the future they’re building. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has previously written that AI could usher in a world so perfect that “many will be literally moved to tears”—a world pruned of disease, poverty, and illiberalism. “We’re now in the singularity,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said over the weekend on a podcast, and it will be “awesome for the world.
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here.
A New York City ferry terminal in the late 1860s: Commuters issue forth into Lower Manhattan’s maze of streets. They move in distinct waves through the morning. First come the working-class employees in their flannel shirts, off to jobs in factories and shops for little pay. Then around 7 a.m., the crowd shifts, and the clothing with it.
The case challenging Mehmet Oz’s “faithfulness to Congressional intent” will continue.
The Haitian community is bracing for mass deportations after the Supreme Court last month sided with the Trump administration to end TPS, or Temporary Protected Status, for over 300,000 Haitians as well as thousands of Syrians who fled violence in their home countries. According to an internal government document, the plans to round up and deport Haitian immigrants could start this week. President Trump has long expressed animus toward Haitians in the United States.
A coalition of social justice organizations is celebrating a recent decision by Citizens Bank to divest from private prison companies that operate immigration jails for the federal government. The financial institution has faced significant pressure from protesters for providing more than $2.5 billion in financing to CoreCivic and the GEO Group, which work directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Artificial intelligence tools are quickly advancing in sophistication and capabilities, raising alarm among researchers and industry figures who say the technology needs to be more tightly regulated. This comes as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, recently disclosed that one of its experimental AI agents went rogue and secretly hacked into the infrastructure of several other companies in what was supposed to be a controlled test.
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.
The rush to build more data centers is driving up electricity costs.
From Chipotle to Chopt, the cyclosporiasis outbreak is causing an implosion of sales—and an explosion of problems elsewhere.
It looks like Bending Spoons’ bet on nostalgia brands like AOL, Vimeo, and Evernote is playing off after its big IPO this week.
The health secretary had blocked the funding, accusing the group to which Congress had directed it of using outdated and dangerous vaccines.
Medicaid eligibility will soon hinge on how the government defines “medical frailty.
Bipartisan lawmakers are advancing bills that would require hospitals and insurers to disclose their prices.
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.
A man drove a minivan into a crowd of people near Berlin’s Pride celebrations on Saturday, killing one person and injuring 29 others. Authorities shot and killed the man during an operation on Sunday. The alleged suspect was identified as Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen. According to authorities, Ballout tried to join the Islamic State in 2025 and was released from prison in May after being jailed for preparing an attack.
The Health secretary said the group Congress had directed the money, to vaccinate children in poor countries, was using dangerous shots. The administration says it has secured reforms.
Buying a new smartphone comes with lots of decisions. iPhone Pro or iPhone Air? “Cosmic Orange” or “Deep Blue”? Now there’s a new consideration to add to the list: buy or rent? Yesterday, Apple announced a new monthly lease program, which will allow prospective buyers to rent new electronics such as iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, and Apple Watches via an agreement with Klarna, the same company that facilitates monthly payments for $4 polyester underthings on Shein.
My teenage daughter has a diary. It’s pink and, most important, has an elaborate lock on it. And if I could go back in time to 2020, I might send this exact sort of journal to Anthony Fauci. Every night, when he was finished sharing his thoughts about battling COVID, he could have locked it, scrambled the combination, and then buried it in his sock drawer, as I think my daughter does.
Sitting in front of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs today, Anthony Fauci twirled his pen. He huffed and straightened his shoulders. He glanced down at a set of papers. He muted and unmuted his microphone.
Lawmakers’ anger boiled as they questioned the former Covid czar.
Photographs by Nic Antaya
You won’t find a much harsher critic of the Democratic Party than the progressive trying to secure its nomination for Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. When I caught up with him last week in Ann Arbor, he was at a café holding an outdoor roundtable with young voters, many of them college students or recent graduates.
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In this week’s episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his reaction to President Trump’s latest round of tariffs and explains why he believes they are weakening America’s economy and its alliances.
We go to New Delhi for an update on India’s youth-led, anti-government “Cockroach” movement. After weeks of street protests against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the ruling BJP party, Pradhan tendered his resignation on Saturday. Now, however, protest leaders are accusing right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reneging on his promise to not take punitive action against demonstrators.
The United States is facing a number of major disease outbreaks, from foodborne cyclosporiasis to vaccine-preventable measles. We speak to the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Debra Houry. She resigned from her post one year ago in protest over political interference at the agency and the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law. Despite an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.