On Washington Wednesday: Democrats are negotiating the terms of power even before Election Day, while Sen. Slotkin wants a “deterrence message” sent to young people considering jobs with Trump. In Israel, voters face their first national election since October 7, with no official inquiry into the security failures. Plus: the painful rise of “no contact” families, smart refrigerators glitch out on their main job, and Janie B. Cheaney considers where we look for healing.
President Trump is pushing for more Russian diesel on the world market to help bring fuel prices down at home. But a former Treasury official worries Washington is giving up too much leverage. Fewer than one in five American workers say they find purpose in their jobs. WORLD’s Lauren Smyth talks with an economics professor who runs ultramarathons, a pastor, and a former Google engineer about finding meaning in work. Plus: Paris en flammes, the limits of homeschooling freedom overseas, picking winners, and a German snuff championship decided by two milligrams—and a cleanliness score.
Legal Docket: The Air Force keeps blowing up old explosives on Guam while environmentalists fight to get their complaint heard in court. On Moneybeat, David Bahnsen finds a celebrated contrarian joining the AI investment crowd he once warned against. And a little girl who caught polio after her fifth birthday spent the next seven decades relying on a machine to help her breathe—long after the rest of the world had moved on.
John Stonestreet remembers telling homeschooling families to take it easy on each other. Now two sisters who helped popularize a strict vision of biblical womanhood are admitting they got some things wrong. Marvel brings back an android who can't quite figure out who he is—or how to live with losing someone he loves. And a British pop star is still making mixtapes, rescuing songs you may have heard years ago without ever knowing their names.
A Hollywood merger leaves $80 billion in debt—and moviegoers may be the winners. Another film takes Facebook to task while overlooking some of the platform’s alleged harms to children. In Iran, a revolution’s former supporters are still fighting the regime it brought to power. Plus: Dennis Prager finds gratitude in memories of a life before paralysis, Democratic governors break with teachers’ unions, and a world-record pumpkin reigns for just seven days.
Washington wants cheaper fuel to ease the pain of war with Iran—even if it means easing pressure on Russia. Hunter Baker explains why Americans view the economic sacrifices differently. In Nicaragua, a ruling couple moves to keep the presidency in the family, while a small-town Illinois fire crew struggles to keep its ambulances running. Plus: a truckload of fries goes up in smoke, and Cal Thomas asks what happened to the American spirit that once turned big dreams into reality.
France spends heavily on schools, yet students still borrow chairs from neighboring classrooms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio goes to Greece to argue the West has forgotten what made it strong. A father whose son took his life after a sextortion scheme tells how the threats reached his family before they could bury him. Plus: Civil War whiskey bottles beneath the St. Lawrence, flamingos sheltering from a storm, and remembering Coach Mike Ditka—the man who could still make a 50-year-old football man feel like a kid again.
How far can a Colorado county’s lawsuit reach? Far enough to reshape national energy policy, oil companies warn. Also: David Bahnsen explains why the tech giants helping drive interest rates higher are still where investors go for shelter. Plus: a veteran of the Great War makes a little room for laughter, and Winnie-the-Pooh turns 100.
Consent is supposed to settle the question. But Katie McCoy says the disturbing allegations at Cornell University expose how much that leaves unanswered. On Culture Friday, a new women’s movement questions the ideal of independence, and a Canadian grandmother faces a heartbreaking decision about her own life. Plus: a gunman gets another shot at redemption, and the ancient gods still have their days.
A new school-choice law has even some of its opponents figuring out how to make it work. Washington reverses course on power-plant emissions, and those eerily well-timed ads on your phone may have an explanation more unsettling than mere eavesdropping. Plus: Mary Reichard asks Dennis Prager collaborator Joel Alperson where our sense of right and wrong comes from, a construction crew hires a kitten, and Daniel Suhr says the scariest thing about AI is losing the race.
