How the Trump administration's deal with the Taliban—"a concession without any clear precedent in US history"—and Biden's adherence to it sabotaged the Afghanistan withdrawal. / Foreign Affairs

In a vaguely worded decision, the Supreme Court upholds a Texas judge's demand that the Biden administration reinstate Trump's Remain in Mexico policy—within the week. / Vox

"Authoritarian inflation would be less successful if Western democratic models were still as attractive as they once were." / Foreign Policy

Considering Richard Brautigan's "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" against our imminent AI era. / Allpoetry, WIRED

AI-generated images of plants in the style of classic botanical watercolors, by Jonathan Whitaker. / EasyZoom

"How do you tell a machine to listen the way a human does?" Philip Glass hears the results of an AI trained on his music. / @auderdy

Please don't let this be fake: A teenager has become friends with a bumblebee, after rescuing it earlier this month. / Cornwall Live

"This seems to be the playbook for some big gas companies." Mexico's two biggest liquid oxygen suppliers are spreading misinformation. / The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

We need your support. Please take five minutes to find out why, and consider becoming a Sustaining Member today! / TMN Membership

Is a feral cat responsible for the Orioles losing 18 games in a row? "If baseball history is any indication: absolutely." / The Long Game

How a signed "Donda" vest made it from one of Kanye's listening parties in Atlanta to a collector in New York. / GQ

Tote bags bring new environmental dilemmas. Case in point: To offset production impacts, one bag must be used daily for 54 years. / The New York Times

A map of the number of natural waterfalls in each US state. / Reddit

YouTube has removed the harp-distortion video, citing "child endangerment," for some unfathomable reason. / Boing Boing

"Is it disco? Is it rock? Does it even matter?" On the enduring appeal of Stevie Nicks's "Edge of Seventeen." / BBC

Photos of modern—and highly symmetrical—European church interiors, by Thibaud Poirier. / Colossal