How to get federal disaster aid: FEMA is running out of money, but these strategies can help survivors of Hurricane Idalia and the Maui fires get aid faster

As questions loom over the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ability to fund disaster recovery efforts, people who lost homes to recent wildfires and storms are trying to make their way through the difficult process of securing financial aid.Residents in communities hit by Hurricane Idalia, the Maui fires or other recent disasters have a long, tough journey ahead. How well the initial disaster response meets their needs has far-reaching consequences for community resilience, especially for vulnerable residents, as we saw after Hurricanes Katrina and Maria.

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Boy Playing in Sandbox Finds 1,800-Year-Old Roman Coin

An 8-year-old boy named Bjarne was playing in a sandbox at his elementary school in Bremen, Germany, when he made a stunning discovery: a silver denarius—or Roman coin—minted 1,800 years ago. While the boy, now 9, made the find last year, officials announced it at a press event on August 11.“We are glad that Bjarne was so careful,” says Uta Halle, the Bremen state archaeologist, per a Google-translated statement. “[The discovery is] very special, because there have only been two comparable coin finds from the Roman Empire in the city of Bremen.”

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Trans students benefit from gender-inclusive classrooms, research shows - and so do the other students and science itself

Across the U.S., legislators are debating how and when sex and gender should be discussed in the classroom and beyond. Specifically, these bills are considering whether anything beyond male or female can be included in library books and lesson plans. These bills are part of a larger debate on how to define and regulate sex and gender, and there are no immediate answers that satisfy everyone.Many of the bills draw on science to make claims about sex and gender. For example, Florida House Bill 1069, which legislates pronoun use in schools, assumes that all of a person’s sex markers – listed as sex chromosomes, “naturally occurring” sex hormones and internal and external genitalia at birth – will align as female or male “based on the organization of the body … for a specific reproductive role.” The bill claims that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”

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This Week in Books: Could AI Ever Write Like Stephen King and Margaret Atwood?

Two authors respond to the revelation that their work is being used to train artificial intelligence.The precipitous arrival of artificial intelligence into our lives over the past year has provoked some very deep existential quandaries, such as: What is it that a human can do that a robot never could? When it comes to creativity and whether art is within the range of a machine’s capabilities, this question is not so academic. Authors in particular have found themselves blindsided and a little disturbed both by the quick advances the bots are making and by the realization that their own books have been used to train AI, essentially aiding in the education of their possible replacements. We recently turned to two giants of the literary world, Stephen King and Margaret Atwood, to see how it felt to discover that their work was being employed in ways even their fecund minds could never have dreamed up.

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Eight startling images of life under the Mafia

If you were a newspaper photographer working in Palermo at the height of the Sicilian Mafia's power, you had to get used to being woken up by telephone calls in the middle of the night. There's been a murder, your editor would tell you, before giving you an address so you could rush to the scene.More like this: - The most iconic photos of the American West - Photos that show landscapes few can see - Why 1960 was a turning point for Africa

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Hackers Target Telescopes, Forcing Them to Pause Operations

Two major telescopes in Hawaii and Chile and a handful of smaller observatories have been offline for weeks following an apparent cyberattackHackers have launched an apparent cyberattack on the computer systems of major space telescopes in both Chile and Hawaii, prompting them to temporarily shut down, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab).

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Lindokuhle Sobekwa's powerful personal journey as a photographer in South Africa

Lindokuhle Sobekwa has been awarded South Africa’s 2023 FNB Art Prize. He becomes the first artist using documentary photography as his primary medium to win the prestigious competition. Born in Katlehong in 1995, Sobekwa began learning photography skills in 2012, through the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme in Thokoza township, where his family had moved. He knew, as a young boy, that he thought in images, visualising what he experienced. Encountering cameras, he realised there was equipment – a small machine, a perforated roll of clear plastic, and a chemical reaction – able to externalise his thought processes.

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Ukraine war: the implications of Moscow moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus

Russia is reported to have deployed nuclear weapons in Belarus, a step that was much telegraphed earlier this year and recently confirmed by Poland. This move has caused concern in neighbouring countries and has affected security arrangements in Europe. Russia reportedly has the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal, with (as of 2023) 5,889 nuclear warheads compared to 5,244 deployed by the US. But size (or, more accurately, numbers of warheads) should not be important.

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The U.S. Government Is Trying to Stop an Upcoming Titanic Expedition

A company is planning a mission to recover artifacts, including the famed Marconi wireless telegraph, in 2024Who controls access to the wreck of the Titanic? That’s the question at the heart of a legal battle between the United States government and an expedition company hoping to retrieve more artifacts from the depths.

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Michael Oher, Mike Tyson and the question of whether you own your life story

What if you overcame a serious illness to go on to win an Olympic medal? Could a writer or filmmaker decide to tell your inspiring story without consulting you? Or do you “own” that story and control how it gets retold?Michael Oher, the former NFL player portrayed in the 2009 blockbuster “The Blind Side,” has sued Michael and Anne Leigh Tuohy, the suburban couple who took him into their home as a disadvantaged youth.

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Six Books to Read When You Want to Feel Closer to Others

Anytime I’ve felt adrift or lonely, literature has been a bridge leading me back to other people. When I moved to a new country after living in the same city for three decades, I sought out literary events to meet fellow artists. Back when I was a disillusioned law student, frustrated with the limitations of the curriculum, I convened a reading group that addressed the gaps in our education and breathed new meaning into my degree. Writing is an isolating and unpredictable line of work, so today, I consistently rely on the solidarity offered by others engaged in the same pursuit.Many of us are bombarded with cultural messages insisting that we must be self-sufficient. Books can help us resist that idea. They are also one of the most powerful tools we have for building connections with others. Reading allows us to learn about history, discover new thoughts, join with like-minded people, and reimagine the world from how it is into how it could be. (Partly because of that subversive potential, the freedom to read is also under threat.)

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RICO is often used to target the mob and cartels - but Trump and his associates aren't the first outside those worlds to face charges

It might seem odd to some that former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants, many of whom are lawyers and served as senior government officials, were charged with racketeering regarding their alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.Racketeering charges are complex but generally speak to dishonest business dealings. Many racketeering prosecutions involve lucrative criminal enterprises, such as illegal drug operations or the Mafia.

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Retailers Bet Wrong on America's Feelings About Stores

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.The Bass Pro Shops is bigger than you think it will be. This is true of all of the outdoorsy retailer’s locations, but it’s especially true of the one retrofitted into a 32-story metal pyramid on the banks of the Mississippi River. Located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, the mammoth structure once held an arena for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. Now it houses the largest Bass Pro Shops in the world, a hunting-, fishing-, and camping-gear store that has been merchandised with Disney-level production values and expanded to encompass a hotel with more than 100 rooms, a wild-game-themed outpost of the Wahlburgers restaurant chain, several enormous lake sturgeon swimming in shallow pools between departments, and at least three live alligators, among other things.

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'Only Murders in the Building'

The addition of the star to Only Murders in the Building has, unsurprisingly, made the show’s new season much more worth watching.Only Murders in the Building is easy to watch. Each season follows Charles (played by Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez), true-crime podcasters who solve murders in the Arconia, the titular building in which they live. Every episode mines comedy from the trio’s generational differences and explores how their unusual shared hobby bolsters their equally unusual friendship. The stakes are low, but the joke density is high, and the twists are always more fun than frightening.

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Special counsels, like the one leading the Justice Department's investigation of Hunter Biden, are intended to be independent - but they aren't entirely

On June 20, 2023, Hunter Biden, the second son of President Joe Biden, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors related to tax-related charges and the illegal possession of a firearm.On July 26, the plea agreement was challenged by the judge in the case. She wanted to know more about any immunity being offered, given that Hunter Biden is under several federal investigations.

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Five Million Bees Fall Off a Truck in Canada

Local beekeepers rushed to the scene to help collect as many of the disoriented insects as possibleCanadian beekeeper Mike Barber was helping his son get back to sleep Wednesday morning when he checked his phone and noticed he had ten missed calls from a local police officer, reports Michael Levenson for the New York Times.

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The Beverage Universe Keeps Expanding

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.In recent years, a massive selection of new drinks has popped up on the market, including a spate of alcoholic seltzers and a bunch of no-alcohol options. To discuss the state of beverages ahead of the long weekend, I convened a roundtable with our health and technology writers Amanda Mull, Ian Bogost, and Charlie Warzel.

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Black Bears Move Into Abandoned Canada Town Evacuated Due to Wildfires

Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, has been largely empty for the last two weeks amid Canada’s worst fire season on recordHungry black bears have moved into a deserted town in northern Canada after human residents evacuated because of encroaching wildfires.

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A Time Capsule Opened Live on Stage Was Empty. Later, Treasures Emerged From the Silt

For nearly 200 years, a statue at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, sheltered a secret: a mysterious time capsule concealed inside its marble base.Workers stumbled across the box during recent renovations. It measured about one cubic foot—and it was sealed shut. Attempts to X-ray its contents were “inconclusive,” according to the academy, which announced the discovery last month.

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The Supreme Court Justices Are Just Like Anyone Else

What do some Supreme Court justices and physicians have in common? Both take gifts from those who stand to profit from their decisions, and both mistakenly think they can’t be swayed by those gifts.Gifts are not only tokens of regard; they are the grease and the glue that help maintain a relationship. That’s not always unhealthy, but it’s important to note that gifts create obligation. The indebtedness of the recipient to the giver is a social norm in all cultures, and a basic principle of human interaction—something the French sociologist Marcel Mauss wrote about in his classic essay The Gift.

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Photos of the Week:

Scenes from the the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, a sunflower maze in England, a performance at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, wildfires in Greece and Italy, damage from Hurricane Idalia in Florida, a mid-river football match in England, a marching-band competition in Texas, and much more Jonay Ravelo and his horse Nivaria observe the rising full moon from a mountain in Mogán, in Gran Canaria, Spain, on August 31, 2023. #

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New analysis suggests human ancestors nearly died out

Multiple lines of evidence indicate that modern humans evolved within the last 200,000 years and spread out of Africa starting about 60,000 years ago. Before that, however, the details get a bit complicated. We're still arguing about which ancestral population might have given rise to our lineage. Somewhere about 600,000 years ago, that lineage split off Neanderthals and Denisovans, and both of those lineages later interbred with modern humans after some of them left Africa.

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How to Tap the Full Potential of Telemedicine

Telemedicine visits in the United States have fallen sharply since April 2020, but the end of the pandemic should not spell the end of telemedicine. It can play a valuable role in the delivery of health care. The key to tapping its potential is to bring many elements of the clinic to the patient. An array of new technologies and services is making that possible.

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America Needs Hunting More Than It Knows

For many Americans, this coming weekend brings the start of hunting season. Although states allow the hunting of some game species in late summer, the calendar really opens with dove season. Nearly a million Americans will hunt doves this fall, and many, if not most, of them will do so this weekend.Hunting is a mostly solitary activity, but dove shoots are social events. Men, women, and children across America will space themselves out around sunflower fields, sitting on upturned five-gallon buckets, waiting for gray migratory birds to arrive looking for water and food in the early mornings and late evenings. I am headed to South Texas in a few weeks to open the dove season there with friends I hunt with each year.

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Ferrari review: Adam Driver's latest is 'stuck in the slow lane'

Adam Driver played an Italian industrialist with a resentful wife in House of Gucci as recently as 2021, but he does the same thing again in Ferrari, the first film in eight years to be directed by Michael Mann. This time it's Penélope Cruz rather than Lady Gaga who co-stars as his fiery other half, but the two films have much in common, not least the international cast delivering English dialogue in a variety of Italian accents that probably should have been confined to a Super Mario Bros movie. Maybe Driver felt that, with his surname, he had no choice but to play Enzo Ferrari, racing champion-turned car manufacturer.More like this: - Oppenheimer is 'a flat-out masterpiece' - Is Tom Cruise the last action hero? - The film that captured actors' AI fears

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Peruvian writers tell of a future rooted in the past and contemporary societal issues

The Aymara people of the Andean Highlands speak of “qhipa pacha,” a phrase that refers to the future as a direction one walks to backward. They believe in looking to the past as a way to understand what may come next.Last year, 13 Peruvian writers launched the Qhipa Pacha Collective, a literary initiative which “aims to recover the memory of our original peoples to build possible worlds.” These writers imagine futures that reflect Peruvian ideas and concerns about their past and present.

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