Maybe you heard about the epidemic of male loneliness. The term describes a potential increase in feelings of loneliness and social isolation experienced by men of all ages.

Last year, a Gallup poll found that twenty-five per cent of American men aged fifteen to thirty-four experienced loneliness “during a lot of the day yesterday” in 2023 and 2024, compared with eighteen per cent of American women. In a 2021 study from the Survey Center of American Life, just twenty-seven per cent of men reported having six or more close friends—a drop from 1990, when Gallup placed that percentage at fifty-five. In a meta-analysis of existing research, the American Institute of Boys and Men wrote that men, as compared with women, “are more likely to report specific feelings of disconnection, such as not belonging to any group or community or feeling their place in the world is not relevant.” But, the authors added, “there appears to be much more of a class gap (as measured by education level) than a gender gap.”

Guys aren’t just feeling lonely—they feel irrelevant and disconnected from community. And everywhere you look, at least in the media, you see men failing to bond: bemoaning their inability to pick up the phone (as talked about in the nonfiction work American Men), or mainlining “The Joe Rogan Experience” while grinding through solitary workouts.

The manosphere diagnosed male loneliness correctly, but Psychology Today says those personalities then sold the wrong cure. “Instead of a blueprint, it handed men a grievance. Instead of brotherhood, it offered resentment. Resentment scales. Brotherhood doesn't—not without effort. The platform profits from the anger. It has no stake in the healing.”

The New Yorker says the turn-of-the-century bromance, comedic fodder for Judd Apatow movies and network sitcoms like “Scrubs,” has reappeared in a more wistful, yearning key. Consider the shows “Task,” “The Pitt,” and the excellent “DTF St. Louis,” whose two central characters are flailing until they find each other. Floyd, played by David Harbour, helps Clark, played by Jason Bateman, spice up his love life. Clark offers financial support to Floyd, who is saddled with debt and unable to provide for his wife and stepson. Each man uses their bond to inch closer to his ideal self. “B.O.T.B.,” they exclaim during joint exercise sessions: “Bring out the best.” Yet the men are wrenched apart, and the culprit seems to be nothing less than a hostile world, one marked by material scarcity and insurmountable alienation. If only, these shows seem to say, men could reach across the distance separating them. If only they could better negotiate between gender norms and their own desire to connect. The fate of the country might depend on it.

The U.S. said it had launched a fresh wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday as President Donald Trump warned Tehran it “better behave”. The military said “Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels” moving through the Strait of Hormuz had been targeted.

Iran meanwhile said it had struck American military targets in the region, including in Bahrain and Kuwait, as a fifth day of renewed hostilities strained their preliminary deal to end the war. Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media Tehran had “no reason” to abide by the deal if it did not benefit from it. He added that negotiation, along with war, was part of Iran’s strategy of resistance as it engaged an “existential” conflict with the U.S.

The tit-for-tat attacks have intensified since Tehran said it was closing the strait on Saturday, once again risking the movement of maritime traffic through the vital waterway which carried about a fifth of global oil and gas supplies before the war. Oil prices have continued to tick up higher throughout the latest waves of escalation, with the price for Brent crude oil, the international standard, trading at above $85 a barrel on Wednesday – more than 15% higher than the price before the war, but still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the conflict.

Gmail is free, but you pay with your data. Proton Mail is different.

We don’t scan your messages. We don’t sell your behavior. We don’t follow you across the internet.

Proton Mail gives you full-featured, private email without surveillance or creepy profiling. It’s email that respects your time, your attention, and your boundaries.

Email doesn’t have to cost your privacy.

Ditch the Gmail data grab

Smoke from wildfires raging across northern Minnesota and western Ontario in Canada is forecast to drift into the lower levels of the atmosphere across the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic from Wednesday to Friday, likely creating unhealthy air quality conditions.

While smoke from the fires created hazy skies in parts of the East on Tuesday, conditions will deteriorate further through the end of the week as some of that smoke settles down toward the ground—with little wind to blow it away as a heat dome remains in force.

NBC News reports that high levels of fine particulate matter in the air from wildfire smoke may be unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children and people with heart or lung conditions. The particulates can cause shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness or fatigue, and aggravate heart and lung diseases and other chronic health issues. It’s been a particularly busy and deadly fire season in the U.S. About four dozen large fires are burning across 15 states, from Minnesota and North Carolina to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.