Wild Feed

From hugs and handshakes to high fives and fist bumps, humans routinely use physical touch to comfort one another and reinforce social bonds. Now, new research suggests that our ape cousins behave in similar ways.

Semi-wild bonobos and chimpanzees hug, hold hands and pat each other during stressful situations. These friendly touches may help ease tension and potentially prevent conflicts from arising among group members, scientists report in a study published July 22 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

American manhood is a fragile and precarious thing, shattered by the slightest deviation from ever-shifting norms—eating the wrong taco, tasting tofu, not eating meat, or maybe eating too much meat. Or at least, that is what right-wing commentators have suggested by their attacks on the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas, James Talarico.

Archive link: https://archive.fo/20260728110903/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/masculinity-scam-manosphere-talarico/687999/

Despite the adage “seeing is believing,” what you see isn’t always what you get. Consider the viral dress photo of 2015 that split viewers into two camps: one who said the dress was white and gold and one who said it was black and blue. More than just a fun optical illusion, the phenomenon highlighted how multiple people can look at the same image or event and walk away with strikingly different interpretations. Such differences in perception can take on far greater weight when the stakes are high. To some viewers, police body camera footage can show blatant use of excessive force, while others watch the same clip and see an officer acting responsibly. Whose reality is the “real” one?

Archive link: https://archive.fo/20260726022444/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2581311-one-of-nasas-crucial-links-to-deep-space-is-at-risk-of-burning-down/

In a highly unusual move, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee voted against FDA staff’s own advice in a meeting on July 23 and 24, recommending that six peptides be added to a list that will allow certain specialty pharmacies to dispense them. Currently, those peptides are in a legal gray area. The committee voted against adding to the list one of the peptides being considered, emideltide.

SEATTLE (AP) — Police searched for a second suspect Monday after gunfire erupted at a crowded food festival beneath Seattle’s Space Needle, leaving three people dead and four others wounded, including a toddler. Another suspect was earlier arrested.

I work in the Art Department at HarperCollins, where I have a front-row seat to the conversations that shape how books appear in the world. What kind of cover art reads as “literary” versus “commercial,” what signals a “book club book,” what feels “serious” versus “friendly,” and increasingly, how to make a cover socially legible online. Covers today are expected not only to attract readers in bookstores, but to circulate fluidly through Instagram posts, TikToks, Substack photos, and carefully curated apartment interiors. Books are now asked to function simultaneously as texts and as lifestyle objects, and designers are now tasked with imagining multiple scales of reach simultaneously, from the bookstore table to the phone screen.

When I was youth services librarian at Campbell County (Wyo.) Public Library, I hired a magician as a summer reading performer. They happened to be transgender. That scheduled performance—and, as we found out later, the presence of materials at the library by and featuring LGBTQ+ authors and themes—led a group of residents to protest the library starting in 2021. They took out a billboard accusing the library of indoctrinating children, and Executive Director Terri Lesley was ultimately fired in 2023. (After Lesley sued, the county denied the removal was related to library materials but paid her $700,000 in a settlement.)

BERLIN (AP) — German investigators on Sunday hunted a man who allegedly drove a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival, killing one person and wounding many more, before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities believe was an Islamic extremist terror attack.

When we think about being present, we usually picture putting our phones away, slowing down, or practicing mindfulness. We imagine learning to quiet our thoughts and focus on the moment. But there’s another kind of presence that rarely gets discussed. It’s the kind that happens in our conversations. And it may be one of the overlooked reasons so many helpers, parents, leaders, and partners end conversations feeling emotionally drained.

A parasitic fungus that grows on caterpillars has been turned into a dress designed to be able to repair itself if damaged.

As a neuroscientist who studies raccoon and rats, I see the viral story of Jimothy the raccoon as a compelling tale of an animal overcoming disability and surviving in the wild.

Jimothy, the unique-looking raccoon living in Seattle, became an internet celebrity over the course of a week in July 2026, thanks to a viral Instagram post that has amassed millions of views and thousands of comments cheering for the proverbial underdog. Jimothy has even been honored with a city proclamation.

No paywall: https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2581280-earth-is-heating-up-faster-than-at-any-time-in-its-history/

The number of measles cases in the U.S. has surpassed the record-breaking tally for all of 2025, with five more months of 2026 still to come.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logged 2,318 cases of measles as of Thursday, according to an agency update on Friday.

The nation had 2,289 cases in 2025, the worst year for measles in more than three decades. Now, 2026 has easily become the U.S.’s worst year for measles since 1991, as major outbreaks in South Carolina, Utah and Arizona have sickened hundreds and smaller clusters of cases sparked in other states.

Much has been written about the devastating impacts the U.S. foreign aid cuts have had on the millions of people the funding once helped. Far less is known about the impacts on the helpers themselves.

In impoverished Nepal, where a conservative culture leaves openly transgender people with few legal job options, the impact on aid workers’ lives was particularly crushing. Starving and scared, Lama and around 100 other LGBTQ+ aid workers left jobless by the funding cuts have turned to sex work to survive, walking the streets alongside the very people they once fought so hard to help.

Archive link: https://archive.vn/kgISm

A gender gap has long persisted in religious identity. Historically, data has widely, and with remarkable consistency, shown women being more religious than men. But that appears to be changing when it comes to Gen Z.

Daniel Siad's body was found on Monday evening at his home in Colombes, near Paris, the Nanterre public prosecutor's office confirmed on Wednesday, corroborating a report by Le Parisien.

Under investigation in France, Siad was one of several French men accused of aiding the convicted sex offender to traffic and abuse women.

He had not yet been questioned by investigators, and had denied the allegations, saying he wanted to be heard and give his version of events.

India’s youth-led “cockroach movement” was born just over two months ago as a satirical online campaign. But it has quickly swelled into a formidable real-world political force, bringing tens of thousands of protesters into the streets in the country’s capital in recent days to call for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and reforms to India’s troubled education system.

The segregation cell, the jail's antiseptic name for solitary confinement, was about four feet by four feet. Beige brick, a red steel door, a six-inch window of scratched plexiglass that looked out on nothing. No horizon. No depth. For a man in the full grip of mania, it was close to unbearable. The air felt thin. My mind ricocheted off the walls.

Whatever is happening in our country is deeply disturbing. Every time I see people being beaten up or being silenced for merely raising their voices, it boils my blood.

For days, I had been speaking up online against what I believe is injustice. But I realise that posting on social media is not enough, and I wanted to be there in person.

I found out about a protest being organised at Shivaji Park in Mumbai's Dadar on 21 July. The night before, it was very hard for me to sleep. I was restless—and just wanted to be there the next morning. At the same time, we were hearing that the protest didn’t have permission, and anyone attending should be prepared for possible consequences.

Archive link: https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/dsa-socialist-leftist-takeover/687989/

ChatGPT maker OpenAI says it is still investigating the “unprecedented cyber incident” that led its artificial intelligence systems to break out of a testing environment and hack into another AI company.

OpenAI said Tuesday two of its most capable AI models were responsible for the cyberattack targeting AI startup Hugging Face. The incident is stirring debates over the need for stronger AI guardrails and the extent to which AI agents are capable of acting on their own.

Archive link: https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2580285-everything-from-cells-to-stars-to-particles-exists-on-the-edge-of-chaos/

NEW DELHI (AP) — Supporters of India’s youth-led Cockroach movement demanding educational reforms and government accountability refused to leave their New Delhi protest site Tuesday, a day after their thousands-strong march toward Parliament drew police tear gas, beatings and a new wave of sympathy from across the country.

The movement, now attracting professionals and families beyond students, represents a rare public challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s government, reviving criticism over its handling of dissent and use of force to respond to protests.