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Last July, a group of activists staged what they called a “noise demonstration” at ICE’s Prairieland Detention Facility, near Dallas. They shot off fireworks, damaged a surveillance camera, and vandalized government vehicles.
For one night, in the heart of deep-blue Washington, D.C., a fenced-off section of the National Mall became an oasis for members of the MAGA base. They had believed in President Trump from the beginning and carried him triumphantly back to power in 2024, and now they came to the grand opening of America’s 250th-birthday celebration in red-white-and-blue headbands, draped in flags, and sporting dangly blue AMERICA earrings.
So long, metaphor. We had a good run. Goodbye, “All the world’s a stage.” Farewell, “She’s a brick house.” See you later, the swamp (drained or undrained). Now we have a symbolic black hole in the middle of Washington, D.C., that is pulling all other symbols into its orbit and devouring them, one by one.
I am, of course, talking about the Reflecting Pool. That is what everyone is talking about, even and especially the president.
Democracy Now! speaks with science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow about AI and his latest book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence — Before It’s Too Late.
Doctorow comments on AI’s “bad unit economics” and the connection between automation and labor.
A group of anti-ICE protesters in Texas were sentenced to 30 to 100 years in jail on Tuesday, after federal prosecutors accused them of being an “antifa terror cell.” The activists attended a protest outside the Prairieland ICE jail in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4 of last year, during which fireworks were set off and a police officer was shot and wounded. All nine defendants were found guilty after being tried before a federal judge in Texas.
Thousands are feared dead in Venezuela after back-to-back powerful earthquakes struck the country Wednesday evening, collapsing buildings in the capital Caracas and surrounding areas. Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has declared a state of emergency as rescue workers frantically search for survivors in the rubble of “dozens” of collapsed buildings.
In the face of a financial quagmire, why not throw up a few glow sticks?
Soumaya Keynes and Chad P. Bown explain how the rulebook has changed.
Only Elon Musk and his memestock appeal could get serious investors to go along with a business plan that includes colonizing Mars…
Inflation is on the rise, but the Trump administration doesn’t seem concerned.
Is the industry screwed?
In at least two battleground states, voters will decide in the midterms whether to protect a right to the procedure.
The State Department said the country had failed to address the president’s concerns about treatment of its white citizens.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health has a leading role in determining how gender-affirming care is provided.
The health secretary has visited four House districts with toss-up races in the last six weeks.
Outward’s hosts sit down with the host and co-creator of When We All Get to Heaven.
The neighborhood changes, the church moves, people forget and remember “the AIDS years,” but AIDS isn’t over.
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
A new report by CorpWatch titled ”MAGA Inc.” reveals which allies of President Trump are profiting off of the administration’s policies. Pratap Chatterjee, executive director of CorpWatch, says that prison companies and Big Tech companies have cashed out on policies of mass deportation. “The people that we think are profiting the most out of MAGA [are in] the business of deportation, the business of gathering data,” says Chatterjee.
Most Americans seem to understand that the Fourth of July is about something bigger than ourselves. It is about celebrating our democracy and our role as citizens—as equals—in it. George Washington understood what that meant. In his last will and testament, he described himself as “a citizen of the United States, and lately president of the same.
Halfway through President Trump’s first term, as construction crews were busy installing hundreds of miles of barriers along the southern border, a puzzling edict came down from America’s aesthete in chief. Trump wanted the border wall painted black.
The president had already lost an argument about what his “big, beautiful wall” should look like. Trump envisioned a solid-concrete structure, like the one Israel has built through the West Bank. But U.S.
Almost everything in the Trump administration seems like an implausible pitch for a television show, containing so many oddball plot devices and weird twists that even the most creative showrunner would veto most of them.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
In an interview with The New York Times early this year, Donald Trump was asked, “Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage? Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to?” “Yeah, there is one thing,” he said. “My own morality. My own mind.
Bill Pulte has spent his first days as the acting director of national intelligence firing senior personnel. But according to the law, he’s not even eligible for the job he occupies.
On this matter, the act of Congress that created the position he now holds seems unambiguous: “The Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence shall act for, and exercise the powers of” the DNI when that position is vacant, as it is now. Not “may” serve. Shall.
Fans spend thousands planning once-in-a-lifetime trips to see their favorite teams—only for those plans to be spoiled by ticket resellers.
A new documentary explores a growing body of scientific research documenting the wide range of gender and sexual diversity found in the animal kingdom, from pregnant male seahorses to matriarchal monkey troops. Second Nature, directed by queer filmmaker Drew Denny, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page, who says he joined the project because “I was so moved by it and found it so affirming as a trans and queer person.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be the new kingmaker of New York City politics. In a sweeping affirmation of his affordability-focused agenda, all three congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani in a set of contested Democratic primary elections declared victory Tuesday night. Manhattan and the Bronx’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brooklyn’s Claire Valdez and Brad Lander were all joined on the campaign trail by the progressive NYC mayor in the weeks leading up to election night.
A wave of progressive candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won big in New York last night. DSA members Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated two Democratic Party establishment picks for Congress, Antonio Reynoso and five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat. Other DSA candidates, including Palestinian American Aber Kawas, running for New York state Senate, notched wins further downballot.