The Atlantic

Over the course of five months, Caitlin Dickerson traveled three times to the Darién Gap and met some of the people willing to risk treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to make the 70-mile journey from Colombia into Panama. https://lnkd.in/ezmNCpVB “What I saw in the jungle confirmed the pattern that has played out elsewhere: The harder migration is, the more cartels and other dangerous groups will profit, and the more migrants will die,” Dickerson writes. On one of the routes, “the foliage closed in from all sides, making the path hard to discern. We stepped over jaguar tracks and passed a Bothrops, the deadliest viper in South America, coiled around a branch near our ankles. In a ravine, we saw what looked like the scene of a person’s bad fall: a tennis shoe, a skull, and the bones of a leg with a bandage wrapped around the knee like a tourniquet.” Cartels that control the routes and profit from the migrants have guides and porters who take videos on the first day of walking—when people are still able to conjure a smile. The United Nations has stationed migration officials at bus stations and other checkpoints along the way to the Darién Gap, but their efforts to warn people of the dangers have been largely ineffective. “People come with tunnel vision, like, ‘I must get to the United States,’” Cristian Camilo Moreno García, a UN migration official based in northern Colombia, told Dickerson. “Turning back is not an option.” In a few places, migrants can stop to restock. On the sides of houses in Bajo Chiquito—a crucial reception point for people who make it out of the Darién Gap—Dickerson saw “Missing” flyers displaying the photograph of a 9-year-old Vietnamese boy. Dickerson later contacted his mother. She had lost hold of her son while they were crossing a river and still didn’t know what had happened to him. She continues to write to Dickerson. “What do you believe about my son?” she asked recently. “I’m always waiting for news of my baby.” Read our September cover story: https://lnkd.in/ezmNCpVB ??: Lynsey Addario

A long stretch of treating science like it matters, for America and for presidential politics, has reached its end, writes Daniel Engber.

"Trump will go into the election as a convicted felon, but one whose punishment has not yet been decided," Quinta Jurecic writes. "For this, Americans can blame the Supreme Court."

The former president will believe anything—even wild rumors about immigrants killing and eating pets—as long as it’s cruel, politically expedient, and on TV, Adam Serwer writes.

"Two years after my service on the select committee, I am still haunted by what I heard in the interviews and depositions I conducted with my team, which brought me face-to-face with Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other extremists," Jacob Glick writes:

Life can feel too busy for us to see our friends. But there are ways to “pursue friendships that mold themselves to your particular stage in life,” Isabel Fattal writes in The Wonder Reader: https://lnkd.in/eD2F3nRN Last week, Olga Khazan wrote that the loneliness crisis in America is more complicated than meets the eye. It’s not exactly that Americans don’t have friends, but that they’re not seeing the friends they do have: “The typical American, it seems, texts a bunch of people ‘We should get together!’ before watching TikTok alone on the couch and then passing out.” This reading list explores how to move beyond “We should get together!” and the post-rescheduling thrill, and pursue friendships. Read more at the link, and sign up for the newsletter, a guide by Fattal to new and classic Atlantic stories, published every Saturday.?

Legislators must reject the flawed arguments that social-media companies and tech lobbyists make in their efforts to block regulation, Zach Rausch, Jonathan Haidt, and Lennon Torres write. The reality is clear: Social media is harming vulnerable young people.

Tech is redefining our societal and economic structures. Hear from U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on how the future of mobility could drastically change the way people and goods move around the world; Wharton’s Ethan Mollick on the impact of AI on the future of work, creativity, and beyond; and more.

Everyone is acting as though Kamala Harris won the debate, Hanna Rosin says. How much will that affect the race—if at all? On "Radio Atlantic," Rosin, Elaine Godfrey, and Mark Leibovich discuss a dramatic night, and if it will have long-term significance:

John Stuart Mill, the great philosopher of liberty and liberalism, spent his life searching for the true sources of happiness. His writing suggests five rules that can help you achieve happiness in your own life, Arthur Brooks writes: