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Have you lost a friendship over a political disagreement lately? Ever avoided a social event because you know you’ll run into someone whose politics make your blood boil?
Welcome to disagreeing in America in 2026.
disagrees with civility for a living. She’s the sole liberal voice on cable’s number one news show, Fox News’ The Five, where she engages in daily verbal combat with four conservatives. She manages to keep her cool and her grace while doing it.
In her new book, * I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends,* she shares the strategies and hard-won lessons she’s learned from years of disagreeing for a living.
So I asked her for a crash course: How do you start a disagreement without alienating the other person from the jump? When does staying silent actually help? And how do women navigate the maddening reality that a forceful argument can quickly become a conversation about their tone, style or likability?
And then there’s the question underneath all of it: How do we disagree when we can’t even agree on what’s true?
You can buy the book here and find our conversation, with Jessica’s tips for getting through the fight, at the top of this email. If you’d prefer to read a transcript of our discussion, find that
In today’s newsletter: Higher inflation, higher rates. Trump’s mail-in-voting rules get returned to sender. The $38 billion war. The risks behind the news we see. Gaza politics roil Ed Sheeran’s tour. Trump’s Space Force uniform has an awkward backstory. And a forgotten part of female anatomy gets another look.
Rate This: The Federal Reserveraised interest ratesfor the first time since 2023, lifting its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 3.75–4%. It signalled another hike may come later this year. The decision was unanimous, despite Trump’s repeated calls for lower rates. The move, which was widely expected, isaimedat bringing down stubbornly high inflation. “The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said. But Warsh acknowledged that the Fedlacks controlover a major cause of inflation: higher energy prices due to the war with Iran. Both the bond and stock markets remainedrelatively unchangedafter the announcement.Delivered, For Now: The Supreme Courtblockedthe Trump administration fromimplementing restrictionson mail-in voting for the midterms. The unsigned ruling infuriated Trump but wascelebratedby Democrats and some Republicans. A half-dozen Republican secretaries of statehad askedthe Court to block the restrictions. But the rulingdid not resolvekey questions about the future of mail-in voting, including whether the restrictions could be implemented for the 2028 election.
Canada Cozies Up: The EUinvited Canadato become the 27-nation union’s first-ever “associated member.” Details are limited, but the move woulddeepen tiesas Canada and Europe seek to reduce dependence on the U.S. and China.Invoice: The war with Iran cost $38 billion through August 1, according to anew reportfrom the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It continues to cost $2 billion to $3 billion every month, or potentially more, depending on the intensity of the fighting. That figure doesn’t include indirect costs, such as repairs to damaged U.S. bases. The CBO warned it could take five years to replacemunitions spentin the conflict. It estimated thewar was responsiblefor more than 40% of inflation in the second quarter of 2026, and projected it will add 0.5 percentage pointsto inflationat the start of 2027.Lives Lost: A helicopter providing live news coverage of a fatal bus accident in Los Angelescrashed, killing both people on board and one pedestrian on the ground and sendingmultiple peopleto the hospital. We don’t usually report on this kind of news, but it’s a sobering reminder of the risks reporters take to keep us informed. You can read more about Eliana Moreno, an aerial journalist, and George Marciniw, the pilot,here.Held Hostage: The Kennedy Center’s boardabruptly closedthe main building, just hours after a federal judge once againblocked itfrom adding Trump’s name to the facade. The board cited unsafe conditions and claimed the Center was near bankruptcy. Trump said that unless an appeals court or the Supreme Court allows his name to appear on the building, he willcancel planned renovations. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), a member of the board, requested an emergency hearingchallenging the closure.
Fire Sale: The Trump administration approved one of itslargest-ever salesof heavy munitions to Israel. The $2.8 billion package includestens of thousandsof 2,000-pound bombs, which can be used against underground and hardened targets but can cause widespread destruction. Concerns about using such powerful weaponsin densely populated Gazaprompted the Biden administration to pause shipment of these heavy bombs in 2024.The Cost of DOGE: The government spent $6.7 billion to encourage almost 140,000 federal employees to resign in 2025, according to anew reportfrom the Government Accountability Office. The cost was associated with DOGE’s deferred resignation program, which allowed federal employees to resign and receive full pay and benefits for up to nine months. The government has since made over 20,000 hires in the same types of roles as those lost through deferred resignation, according to aseparate report. Now that’s efficiency!
**Who Are You Talking To, Really?**OpenAI is sharing prompts users send to ChatGPT, including those with potentially sensitive or personal information, with human contractors, according to anew investigation by 404 Media. The practice is part of “Project Lily,” a program intended to improve ChatGPT’s responses, after lawsuits allege ChatGPT interactions contributed to multiple suicides. But this program presents a privacy risk for users, many of whom don’t expect their conversations to be read by other people. Other AI companies, including Google and Anthropic, also use human reviewers to help improve their models.If you use ChatGPT and want to opt out, you can disable the “improve model for everyone” setting.
Flash Point: Rapper Macklemorewas removedas an opening act on Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour after declaring “Free Palestine” onstage and performing a protest song in front of video showing destruction in Gaza. The tour’spromoter confirmedthat multiple venues refused to allow Macklemore to play. Some of the venues reportedly involved are operated by government entities, raisingpotential First Amendment issues. Macklemore claimed that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraftralliedvenue owners against him. Kraftconfirmed barring Macklemorefrom performing at Gillette Stadium, which he owns,citing boththe rapper’s recent comments and “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.” In 2014, Mackelmore, who is not Jewish,performed wearinga black wig, beard, and a giant hooked prosthetic nose, a combination that echoes an antisemitic Jewish caricature. Macklemore said any resemblance was unintentional. While on stage for Sheeran’s tour, Macklemore again denied antisemitic intent, telling Jewish fans that “criticism of Israel … in no way is criticism of you.” Sheeranrefused to take sidesand argued his fans don’t want to hear politics. But criticspointed outthat he previously performed to raise funds for Ukraine. All of Sheeran’s other supporting acts, including his backing band,dropped out of the tourin solidarity with Macklemore and in protest of what they called suppression of free speech.When a Warning Becomes a Uniform: Trumprecently posteda design mockup of a possible new uniform for the U.S. Space Force, the military branch responsible for U.S. operations in space. The design was inspired by the uniforms in the 1997 filmStarship Troopers. Here’s the part Trump left out: those uniforms were deliberately designed to evoke Nazi Germany. The film’s director, Paul Verhoeven, said he drew inspiration from the work ofLeni Riefenstahl, the Nazi propagandist whose films glorified Hitler’s regime, to deliver a warning about militarism and fascism. In response to Trump’s post Verhoevensaid the film’sstarship troopers “are fascists without knowing that they’re fascists. That’s the point.” It would appear the cautionary tale has become the mood board.
Reproducing Discoveries: A few years ago, developmental biologist Jennifer McKey was examining mouse ovaries whenshe noticeda strange, horseshoe-like structure. It didn’t appear to be in modern medical textbooks. So she dug through the literature, eventually finding a name: the rete ovarii. This small structure was first identified more than 150 years ago. Scientists couldn’t see what its purpose was. Instead of, you know, figuring it out — as was done with a similar structure in men — the rete ovarii was dismissed as useless andscrubbed from textbooks. Now, after its rediscovery, researchers like McKey are taking another look and improving our understanding of how the ovaries form and function. They found that the rete ovariiseems to activatewhen estrogen levels rise, secreting proteins into the ovary. “We think it is regulating the timing or rate of ovulation,”one scientist hypothesized. “So we could perhaps use it somehow to extend the female reproductive lifespan.” Not every scientist is convinced. But at the very least, this rediscovery illustrates how much more there is to learn about female anatomy — and how much research into it, and funding for that research, can make a difference.
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