Over the past week, I’ve been stuck in much more traffic than usual here in Berkeley, as thousands of families have come to town for graduation. Every crosswalk around campus has been filled with proud parents trailing behind their children, who are eager to show off their favorite boba spot or noodle place or the souvenir stores where they can buy sweatshirts and hats. Yesterday, while driving my nine-year-old daughter to soccer practice, we once again got caught in one of these celebratory migrations, which prompted her to ask why there was always so much fuss over what amounted to the end of the school year.

“Well, it’s a big deal for them. They’re adults now,” I said.

“I thought you became an adult when you were eighteen,” she said.

“Yes, but, like, this is when you go get a job and enter the world,” I said, a bit haltingly.

“Oh, O.K.,” she said, sounding unconvinced. Then she asked if we could go to Shake Shack after practice, and I told her that it would be too crowded with all the graduates and their families, which, in turn, made her conclude that graduation was stupid.

She has plenty of reasons to be skeptical. For the past three weeks, I’ve been writing about whether this daughter of mine will even be attending college at all—or, if advances in artificial intelligence, the wave of anti-establishment populism in the country, and a sharp shift in demographics might mean that a lot of children her age will be doing something else when they graduate from high school. This series of columns, to date, includes a survey of the most probable outcomes for students, a speculative but entertaining account of what the A.I.-altered future of higher education might look like, and a deeper study of the “enrollment cliff” facing colleges across the country. Hopefully, the series will give you some guidance on whether you should keep shoving money in those 529s or maybe save up for something else entirely.

The sisters Malak and Zahra Abboud were at their aunt’s house in Beirut on the afternoon of April 8th, taking refuge there after escaping their home town of Anqoun. It was the first day of a ceasefire between Iran, Israel, and the United States—which also included Lebanon—and the city felt optimistic and calm for the first time in weeks. “Then, around 2:15 P.M., some fifty Israeli warplanes launched a ferocious ten-minute barrage of strikes on more than a hundred sites across the country,” Rania Abouzeid writes. “It was the deadliest day of the war.” Abouzeid reports on the aftermath of the attack, and on the Abboud family’s long and heartbreaking search for Zahra in the rubble of the strike. Read or listen to the story »

• As OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s valuations soar, Silicon Valley outsiders are rushing to secure a small slice however they can—including through sketchy investments.

• In a recent speech, Justice Clarence Thomas made clear that he views progressives, past and present, as anti-American, Ruth Marcus reports.

• The most-clicked story in yesterday’s newsletter reviewed a new book of “goofy, esoteric, and avant-garde” writing exercises.

• A book: Marie Arana, the author of “LatinoLand,” recommends “Seven Empty Houses,” by Samanta Schweblin, for its “weird, perverse energy.”

• A play: “Well, I’ll Let You Go,” written by the actor Bubba Weiler, is about a retired schoolteacher who is unmoored by grief.

• An art show: In “People of the 20th Century,” the photographer August Sander captures the fading epoch of prewar Germany.

• Today’s Crossword Puzzle: Chinese leader visited by Nixon in 1972—three letters.

• Shuffalo: Can you make a longer word with each new letter?

• Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.

“Hang on—it’s Colbert’s last episode.”

Cartoon by Sam Hurt

See more cartoons »

P.S. Cher just turned eighty. Look back at a lifetime of her outfits designed by the renowned costumer Bob Mackie, who first met the pop diva in 1967. Standouts include her “classic Sonny and Cher look” with bell-bottom pants, fur vests, and long hair, as well as an iconic “nude” dress, which appeared on a 1975 cover of Time. “Nothing intimidated her,” Mackie said, “Anything I put on her, she went, ‘Oh, that’s fun.’ It never occurred to her to wear anything ordinary.”

Jessie Li contributed to today’s edition.