The Week Magazine August 22, 2025

‘We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” the venture capitalist Peter Thiel famously—or infamously, depending on your viewpoint—said of the disappointments of technology. It so happens that recent days have brought plentiful news of the flying-car variety. The U.S. announced plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon (see Technology, p.20). A maker of actual flying cars announced a deal to take over the routes of a helicopter service. The prime minister of Sweden got dinged for consulting with AI on foreign policy (see Best Columns: Europe, p.15), a story that two years ago would have seemed like pure science fiction. And this is just a week’s haul. Each of these stories rests on a series of spectacular advances. Nuclear power is on the cusp of an…

What happened National Guard troops and federal agents were deployed on the streets of Washington, D.C., this week, after President Trump placed the district’s police under federal control to tame a city he said had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of violent youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.” In an often-rambling 78-minute press conference—in which Trump also discussed “oceanfront property” in Ukraine and White House renovations—the president said some 500 federal law enforcement officers from numerous agencies had been “surged” into the capital and that 800 Guard officers had been called up to assist. Trump made the announcement just days after former top DOGE staffer Edward Coristine, 19, was brutally beaten during an alleged carjacking in the city; two 15-year-olds were arrested in connection with…

The Trump administration is drawing up plans for a National Guard strike force that would respond to “unrest” in U.S. cities, said Alex Horton and David Ovalle in The Washington Post. Internal documents detail plans for a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force,” made up of 600 troops split between military bases in Alabama and Arizona. They would be on standby and ready to “deploy in as little as one hour,” according to the documents, which “contain extensive discussion about the potential societal implications” of such a program. With his Guard deployments in Los Angeles and now Washington, Trump is inching toward “what seems to be his desired outcome,” said Aaron Blake in CNN.com: “a fuller militarization of the homeland.” It’s the exact scenario numerous top generals and military officials…

What happened Israel bombarded Gaza from the air this week in preparation for a planned offensive to take over Gaza City, even as international condemnation mounted over starvation spreading in the Palestinian enclave. Israel’s cabinet approved the plan, which would see Israeli troops enter Gaza City by Oct. 7—the anniversary of the start of the war—and evacuate the 1 million civilians there. “We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “First, from combat zones, and also from the strip if they want.” Israeli media reported that Israel was in talks with other countries to potentially resettle some Palestinians. Israeli forces currently control 75% of the Gaza Strip, and its 2 million Palestinians are squeezed into tents and shanties along a coastal corridor…

■ When his wife, Carol, was hospitalized 30 miles away, Chad Trainor nearly closed their Hudson, Wis., bistro. He didn’t expect that their 30 employees, nearly all ages 14 to 18, would step in and keep the business running for eight months. The teens prepped food at dawn, covered shifts, managed bills, and concocted daily specials. Though Carol died in May, Trainor’s close ties with the teens have sustained the restaurant. “I love them like they’re my own kids,” Trainor said. “Without them, the restaurant would not exist.” ■ In July, thousands of people trudged through Virginia’s marshes to watch the wild ponies of Assateague Island swim across a narrow channel to Chincoteague. July was the 100th anniversary of the annual drive, when the Saltwater Cowboys, a volunteer fire company,…

In hindsight, handing the reins of American public health to a “wholly unqualified anti-vaccine nutter” may have been a mistake, said Rex Huppke in USA Today. Taking a break from his campaigns to promote the recuperative powers of sunshine, raw milk, and beef tallow, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week that he’s canceling 22 contracts, worth a combined $500 million, for research into mRNA vaccines. First deployed during the pandemic by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, mRNA shots instruct the body to produce a fragment of a virus, which then sparks an immune response within the body. That technology saved millions of lives and could soon yield treatments for diseases from malaria to type 1 diabetes and cancer. Explaining his decision, Kennedy said mRNA vaccines are…