Donald Trump pushed the Conservative Party of Canada down the political stairs. Yesterday, on Canada’s election day, he tossed a farewell bucket of slop after the tumbling Conservatives, with a final Truth Social post urging Canadians to see their choice as a verdict on him personally. As Trump gleefully confided in an interview with The Atlantic posted that same day, he knew perfectly well that the overwhelming majority of Canadians hate him.
Editor’s Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you? Are you beset by existential worries? Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers’ questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com.
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Dear James,
Why, even when reading a book that I’m thoroughly enjoying, do I always seem to want to finish it?
Dear Reader,
This is a fascinating question.
American liberals in search of hope can look to the Canadian election. Just five months ago, the country’s incumbent Liberal Party appeared headed for an epic defeat. It trailed the Conservative Party by 25 percentage points, and its leader, then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, had an approval rating of just 22 percent. Forecasters predicted that the Liberals would win 35 seats in the country’s 343-seat Parliament, compared with 236 for the Conservatives.
Russia was in demographic decline long before the war in Ukraine. Now it’s in free fall.
Since 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russians have died or suffered critical injuries in Ukraine. The result: According to one demographer, Russians may have had fewer children from January to March 2025 than in any three-month period over the past 200 years. As of 2023, the country’s fertility rate—1.
The award-winning Palestinian American journalist and author Sarah Aziza has released a new book, The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders, in which she examines her recovery from an eating disorder from which she nearly died in 2019, linking it to the generational trauma experienced as part of her Palestinian family’s history of exile. Aziza was born in the U.S. as a daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees.
Organizers across the United States are planning a massive day of May Day protests against the Trump administration. Organizers say that they have broad support from groups targeted by the administration, including immigrants, federal workers and more. “Instead of attacking only one community … they are attacking everybody at the same time, and that enabled us to gather a really broad coalition,” says Jorge Mújica, strategic organizer for Arise Chicago.
The industry seems to be moving away from Hollywood in search of cheaper labor.
I think I’ve figured out a major part of the problem.
Your gadgets might have gotten pricier. Your stocks might have tanked. But Wilbur Ross says it’s all a part of the plan.
President Donald Trump is under pressure to decide how widely available anti-obesity drugs should be and whether Medicare should cover them.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expanded his authority well beyond the bounds of a traditional health secretary.
People in and out of government told POLITICO that they fear the cuts will lead to major backsliding on understanding firefighters’ health risks.
The industry is struggling to find its voice as Trump and RFK Jr. rage against it.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Trump’s winning issue is becoming one of his biggest liabilities as multiple polls this week reveal growing disapproval numbers on the economy.
The president is foreshadowing deals with multiple trading partners in an apparent effort to quell economic anxiety and prove his tariff plan is working.
Recent polls showed Americans were wary of tariffs, even before the president launched his plan to realign the global trade order.
The president’s sweeping tariff plan has thrown markets into chaos and risks sparking a global trade war.
He also said he isn’t worried about stock market turbulence, following the worst week in the market in two years.
We speak with two brothers who are fighting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI over its massive data center in Memphis, Tennessee, used to run its chatbot Grok. The facility is next to historically Black neighborhoods and is powered by 35 pollution-spewing methane gas turbines the company is using without legal permits. Musk says he wants to continue expanding the project.
There’s a legendary bit of movie-nerd lore that sums up Hollywood’s shift away from using intricate little puppets. During preproduction on Jurassic Park, the stop-motion artist Phil Tippett was working to create animatronic dinosaurs—and then a visual-effects demo helped convince Steven Spielberg that CGI was ready to handle the assignment. After watching the digitally created reptiles himself, Tippett exclaimed, “I think I’m extinct,” a paraphrase of which made it into the script.
“This rollout has been nothing short of disastrous,” one council member said.
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In The Atlantic’s June 2025 cover story, staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer report deeply into the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Editor’s Note: Read The Atlantic’s related cover story, “‘I Run the Country and the World.’”
On Thursday, April 24, I joined my colleagues Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer in the White House to interview President Donald Trump. The story behind this meeting is a strange one, told in their new Atlantic cover story, which you can read here.
Ashley and Michael had been seeking an Oval Office meeting for some time.
