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.

Bloomberg’s Loren Grush explains how two astronauts got stuck on the International Space Station and astronaut Cady Coleman tells us why she is jealous of them.

Noel closes out her week in Chicago with a recap of Kamala Harris’s speech. Political strategist Mike Podhorzer looks ahead.

Around 50,000 migrants have poured into Chicago in the last two years. Some Chicagoans are furious. We talk to residents, clergy, and migrants on Chicago's South Side about an issue that may be Kamala Harris's biggest liability.

The Democrats call Black women the "backbone" of their party. We ask three Black women delegates in Chicago about making history, Gaza, and Black men voting for Trump.

The last two Democratic presidents took distinct approaches toward leading their party and the nation. New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait explains why he thinks Kamala Harris should embrace Barack Obama’s style of governance over Joe Biden’s.

When Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1968, it descended into riots in the street and chaos on the floor. Historian Rick Perlstein talks about whether 2024 risks a repeat.

But it doesn't have to. Myisha Battle, a sexologist and host of KCRW’s How's Your Sex Life?, tells us how to move beyond the apps.

Donald Trump keeps referencing the infamous fictional cannibal in his speeches. Intelligencer’s Margaret Hartmann attempts to explain why.

Bangladeshis are about to find out if a Nobel laureate can run their government better than a nepo baby.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are vying for Silicon Valley's support. Democrats typically get it. But Elon Musk threw his weight behind Trump in an interview last night on X. The Wall Street Journal's Emily Glazer examines a shift in the valley's values.

Students are returning to college campuses this month armed with generative AI tools. One professor who has banned them and one who has embraced them explain why.

Paris wanted this to be the greenest Olympics ever. We assess.

A clinical trial for MDMA-assisted therapy showed promising results. But participants who say they suffered afterward allege their experiences aren’t reflected in the data.

Disinformation after a knife attack in the UK transformed a local tragedy into nationwide upheaval. The Guardian's Robyn Vinter explains how it got to this point.

The governor of Minnesota is Kamala Harris’s running mate. Minnesota Public Radio’s Dana Ferguson and Vox’s Andrew Prokop explain the Democratic ticket.

Project 2025 and J.D. Vance have brought fringe policies to the presidential campaign. Democrats are using both to label the Republican ticket "weird." Shelby Talcott of Semafor and Eli Stokols from Politico explain how this messaging strikes voters.

Military veterans are unlikely collaborators with the psychedelic counterculture. The two groups’ efforts are being tested this month, when the FDA is poised to announce whether or not it’ll approve MDMA for PTSD.

In 1980s Berkeley, an eccentric chemist and his wife, a self-taught therapist, experimented with MDMA. Their work would kickstart a decades-long campaign to mainstream psychedelics as a therapeutic tool — one that’s coming to a head this month, with a decision due from the FDA.