Tanks, rockets, missiles, and the death of Hassan Nasrallah. Israel is asserting itself as the most powerful player in the Middle East.

Vox’s Christian Paz and Miles Bryan head to Philadelphia and Lancaster to see what the Harris and Trump campaigns are doing to win the state.

Amazon is the latest high-profile company to mandate in-person work five days a week. Today, Explained heads to Miami, where many people are back in the office, to see how they feel about it.

Today, Explained flies to Portugal to find out how the dust has settled on the pandemic-era quest for better living and working conditions.

Microsoft needs so much energy for its AI data centers that it’s helping to reboot Three Mile Island, the site of the US’s worst nuclear accident. Evan Halper of the Washington Post explains.

It looks a lot like all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. Semafor’s Sarah Dadouch has the latest from Beirut and CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh explains Israel's strategy.

A partisan election board in Georgia has been trying to change the rules around voting and election certification. It's giving 2020. In the first episode of our battleground state series, we go to Georgia to learn how election guardrails will protect the vote.

Country music is cool again!!!!! Billboard's Melinda Newman explains.

Conservatives have started claiming hot girls as a culture war victory. Vox's Constance Grady explains why.

Educators and politicians across the nation are banning cellphones in classrooms. Today, Explained’s Miles Bryan visits a school in Philadelphia to find out how kids feel about it.

The Federal Reserve is set to make its first interest rate cut since the pandemic ended. Marketplace's Kimberly Adams explains how the move could impact the US economy and politics.

No, Haitian immigrants aren’t eating anyone’s pets. USA Today-Ohio’s Erin Glynn and the Verge’s Gaby Del Valle explain why Republicans are talking about it anyway.

This week Apple announced its first AI iPhone with features that will make it even easier to edit your photos. But manipulating reality worries photojournalists like Fred Ritchin, who says these advancements pose a lot of ethical questions.

Once the world's largest corporation, the now-struggling US Steel wants to sell itself to Japan's Nippon Steel. The United Steelworkers oppose the deal, and President Biden is backing the union. The Washington Post's David Lynch explains how the steel giant's future became an election-year issue.

A conservative and a liberal wrangle over how the Harris-Trump debate should have gone.

One of the most significant parts of Pope Francis’s Asia tour might be a country he isn’t visiting: China, home to 10 million Catholics, with whom the Vatican has long dreamed of strengthening ties.

The arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov by French authorities is part of a broader shift away from the free speech absolutism long championed by Big Tech. The Washington Post’s Will Oremus explains.

Vox’s Benji Jones takes us diving in a coral reef to learn how scientists are trying to save them.

American sanctions can destroy a country’s economy. The unintended consequences are massive in places like Venezuela and Syria. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post explains why the US is so committed to a mistake.

Donald Trump hasn’t yet figured out how to run a disciplined campaign against Kamala Harris. In the meantime, he’s leaning into the weird.

The story of Army specialist Austin Valley highlights a crisis the US military can’t seem to solve: More service members die by suicide than in combat. A veteran psychologist told Congress what to do about it, and today he tells us.

For the first time, a woman is playing on the US wheelchair rugby team at the Paralympics. It’s a sign of progress in the complicated arena of co-ed sports.

The two are on the brink of starting a regional war. An analyst and a negotiator say without a ceasefire in Gaza, the Middle East could spin out of control.

A meme of a Minion being crucified went viral on TikTok in a very unusual way. Today, Explained’s Laura Bullard investigated and connected the dots all the way to the 2024 election.

Vox’s Adam Clark Estes explains why that might be a good thing.