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President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet this week in a highly anticipated sit down as the U.N. summit continues in New York.
This conference comes amid stark warnings over AI safety, U.S.-China trade anxiety, and the ongoing war in Iran.
What‘s on the agenda and what do each of these superpowers want?
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No two words defined President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign more than “America first.”
The name of this country has been at the center of President Trump’s rhetoric. But his administration’s approach to foreign policy tells a different story. The Trump administration has done everything from leveraging tariffs, to canceling visas, to sanctioning foreign leaders trying to influence elections abroad for personal gain.
In her new Atlantic essay, “Empire of Grift,” Anne Applebaum outlines in painstaking detail the ways Trump and his allies are only ‘America first’ in talk while lining their pockets in practice.
In this installment of our weekly democracy series, “If You Can Keep It,” we discuss how the president is deploying the tools of U.S. diplomacy to make the world safer for corruption and authoritarianism.
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This week the nation woke up to the potential danger of runaway tech — that AI is behaving in ways its creators don’t intend and can’t control. And that we might be as little as six months to a year away from AI being capable of acting on its own.
The midterm election is coming. Prices are high. And a new Congressional Budget Office report out this week says the main reason for relentless inflation is the Iran war.
And President Donald Trump has made mail-in-voting a major part of his campaign to sow doubt in the voting process. But on Monday, the Supreme Court blocked his executive order to change how mail-in ballots are sent to voters across the country.
And, in global news, this week, Yemeni Houthis militia members seized the Red Sea port of Mokha and several islands inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping passage.
Reporting from The Washington Post revealed the details of a $2.8 billion arms package the Trump administration will send to Israel. The sale includes 2,000-pound bombs, the largest single sale of the controversial munition in recent years.
And next week, is the U.N. General Assembly will stage its annual meeting in New York.Then, Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Washington for a much-anticipated meeting with President Donald Trump.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Between 2020 and 2025, nearly 200 women have died from ectopic pregnancies. That’s almost double the number of deaths in the previous six years.
Ectopic pregnancies happen when an embryo implants outside the uterus and can’t develop properly. If left untreated, the embryo can rupture, causing deadly bleeding. The treatment for ectopic pregnancies – which are almost never viable – is termination. But since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, terminating a pregnancy has become more complicated in states with abortion restrictions.
We sit down to talk about a new investigation from ProPublica that explores the role these state abortion bans could be playing in the rise in deaths related to ectopic pregnancies.
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Last week, a researcher at the artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced his resignation on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Jacob Coxon wrote that his former company — along with Open AI, where he also recently worked — are acting irresponsibly and “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
That post went viral — it’s now been viewed nearly 200 million times. Then, on Saturday, Anthropic’s own CEO, Dario Amodei, published an essay calling on the entire industry to deliberately slow down. He also shared some ideas about how to do it. The head of Open AI, Sam Altman, replied by saying, “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier.”
Should we slow down AI innovation — and is that even possible? What’s at risk if we don’t?
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The administration is expanding its third-country deportation campaign.
Since President Donald Trump took office last year, more than 25,000 people have been sent to over 29 countries they’re not from. That includes places like Liberia, Guatemala, South Sudan, Guyana, Ghana, and Honduras.
Now, more than 30 countries have agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. What does that mean for the people sent to a place they’ve never been? And for the relationship between accepting countries and the U.S.?
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At least a billion dollars of untraceable cash is flowing into this year’s midterm elections.
That’s according to an analysis by The New York Times from late last month. These funds – referred to as dark money by campaign finance experts – are coming from super PACs, non-profits, and wealthy donors.
Tracing exactly how much dark money is flowing through campaigns is difficult. Money spent to hire influencers online, direct mail campaigns, and employ door knockers isn’t always publicly disclosed as campaign spending.
In this edition of “If you Can Keep it,” we tackle the role of dark money in our midterm elections.
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Despite President Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity, Republicans are betting on him big ahead of this year’s midterms. The partystaged a first midterm convention in Dallas, Texas this week.
Following renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, the price of crude oil has risen to over $100 per barrel, meaning American drivers are in for more pain at the pump.
And this week New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release of a public portal allowing access to records relating to 9/11.
And, in global news, a new book alleges that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was warned of the Hamas offensive,just days before the October 7, 2023 attack.
This week, President Donald Trump announced he would institute bans on some Canadian goods, including dairy products, alcohol, and motorcycles.
And the far-right AfD German political party made historic gains in a state election this week.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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The Lindsay Clancy murder trial captivated the American public for weeks.
Prosecutors charged Clancy with murdering her three children. They say she then tried to take her own life and that her injuries left her paralyzed from the waist down. Clancy’s lawyers say she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and should not be held criminally responsible. But prosecutors say she planned the deaths.
After seven days of deliberation, the jury remained deadlocked and the case ended in a mistrial.
The trial has divided the nation and sparked conversations over about maternal mental health, raising questions over gaps in care for parents after giving birth. About one in five expecting or postpartum women in the U.S. experience mental health disorders. And according to a 2025 study, overall maternal mental health has dramatically dropped in the past seven years, with only 25 percent of moms reporting excellent mental health.
What do we know – and don’t know – about maternal mental health care? And how can our systems be bolstered to help those who need it most after giving birth?
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or thinking of harming yourself, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by phone and text. The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is also available 24/7. You can text, call or chat at 1-833-TLC-MAMA. The Postpartum Support International also offers a helpline at 1-800-944-4773 or you can visit postpartum.net.
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The way we work has changed dramatically over the last decade. Using AI is quickly becoming the norm in many workplaces when, just a few years ago, it felt closer to science fiction. And the hybrid work model that began during the pandemic has made remote work much more common.
We’ve also seen shifts around what it means to be an “essential worker.” It’s a term that emerged during the pandemic, but has largely fallen out of our vocabulary. This category included nurses and doctors, government workers, those in transportation, food and agriculture, water, and waste management.
But there’s a different name for a growing segment of the work population that includes those we once deemed essential — the “disposable” worker. Unlike their “essential” counterparts, the disposable workforce isn’t defined by the services they offer, but by the weakening contract between them and their employers.
In honor of Labor Day week, we discuss what it means to be disposable in today’s labor market — and what happens when people abandon traditional work arrangements altogether.
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