“Football unites the world,” Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president, likes to say. But global tensions—and Infantino’s tendency to accommodate strongmen—have set the stage for a fraught World Cup instead, Chris Jones reports:

The Atlantic

Brad Lander's challenge to incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in NY-10, one of the nation's most progressive congressional districts, has brought out the fractures of the Democratic Party's left wing, reports @russellberman.

The Atlantic

AI-powered drone interceptors are part of a set of technological advances in Ukraine that “have changed the war with Russia, and maybe all wars, forever,” @anneapplebaum reports:

The Atlantic

Being alive at all is the most extraordinary stroke of good luck any of us will ever experience, the physicist Alan Lightman writes: “The question is: What are we to make of the fantastically improbable fact of our existence, our moment of life?”

The Atlantic

The white identitarians have more cultural and political power today than they did at any point in the past half century—and now that DEI and anti-racism are in retreat, they're moving on to a more ambitious goal, @thomaschattwill argues.

The Atlantic

As our nation turns 250, it’s worth asking what form patriotism should take, @GalBeckerman argues. A new book about American pride prompted him to ponder what it means to love an unfinished country:

The Atlantic

.@petridishes imagines a very not-panicked note from the Graham Platner campaign: : The Atlantic. Source: Joe Raedle / Getty.

The Atlantic

America really has two national anthems, Jake Lundberg writes, and only one of them provokes us to ponder our identity as a nation. He considers why “Battle Hymn of the Republic” endures as a sacred song:

The Atlantic

Finding a common history of the U.S. that is both unsparing and unifying has proved all but impossible in recent years. But some Americans are trying, @YAppelbaum writes.

The Atlantic

Lawyers for the Kennedy Center have ordered staff to remove all references to Trump from the institution’s signs, documents, and more, according to a memo obtained by Janay Kingsberry.

The Atlantic

The triumphal arch that Donald Trump wants to build across from the Lincoln Memorial would pervert the significance of a uniquely meaningful place, Sebastian Smee argues.

The Atlantic

The left has abandoned its long tradition of patriotism—and will need to rediscover it if it hopes to win over the country, @mkazin argues:

The Atlantic

The Founders could never have imagined America’s modern information environment—and the “question for our democracy is whether a system designed for the communications technologies of the 18th century can survive those of the 21st,” @JeffreyRosen argues.