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.
Etched into the facade of the Internal Revenue Service’s headquarters, just above a trio of limestone arches, is a quote from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.
Cold-water bathing has a long history as a health hack. The ancient Greeks and Romans partook to treat fevers. Eighteenth-century mental institutions employed a tactic called the bain de surprise, suddenly dunking their patients in cold water to jolt them out of their depression or psychosis. (Some doctors aimed to wet only the head to cure “hot brain.
Answer here my questions three, and quizzing pride shall come to thee!
And by the way, I’m sure you know that most of our warm and fuzzy fairy tales originally had horrifying endings, but let’s run through a few of them: The little mermaid turns into sea foam, Sleeping Beauty awakens only during childbirth, and Snow White’s wicked stepmother has to dance in burning iron shoes until she dies.
So if you see a fairy godmother out there, do not engage.
Until tomorrow.
When the Stanford biologist and science writer Paul Ehrlich died last week at 93, the obituaries that followed were a fascinating exercise in editorial balance. As usual, most hesitated to speak too critically of the recently deceased. But they needed to point out why Ehrlich was famous in the first place: the many bold claims in The Population Bomb, his 1968 best-selling book about the impending crisis of overpopulation.
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here.
“I think of celebrities as the transient royalty of a democracy,” Thomas Griffith wrote in The Atlantic in 1975. “While reigning, they live like kings, with paid and unpaid courtiers to show them little attentions. But their powers and privileges last only during their flowering period.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee walked out of a closed-door briefing on the Epstein files with Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, less than an hour after it began Wednesday, after Bondi repeatedly declined to say whether she would comply with a subpoena requiring her to appear for a sworn deposition on April 14.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned a “new stage of war” has begun after Israel bombed Iran’s South Pars gas field — the largest known natural gas reserve in the world. This comes as the price of oil has spiked to $118 a barrel, a 60% jump since the U.S. and Iran attacked Iran on February 28.
Professor of Gulf studies Laleh Khalili lays out the global economic implications of the effective closing of one of the world’s “major choke points for oil,” the Strait of Hormuz.
In a major escalation in the war in the Middle East, Israel has bombed Iran’s South Pars gas field, the largest known natural gas reserve in the world, leading Iran to attack energy sites across the Gulf. Iranian American professor of international affairs Vali Nasr says that Iran is prepared for a much longer war than the U.S. and Israel anticipated.
It’s quietly reshaping Main Street medicine. Your wallet—and health—might suffer as a result.
Mitu Gulati explains how the pervasive use of boilerplate is creating a legal crisis.
Live Nation’s settlement with the Justice Department is a big step toward accountability—and cheaper ticket prices.
The McDonald’s CEO took the tiniest bite of their biggest burger—and the internet went wild.
As a result of the ruling, HHS has postponed a planned meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices this week.
More states are giving tax breaks to businesses that help employees sign up for Obamacare using an authority Trump created.
Current grants run out on April 1.
A conference in Washington this week showcases mainstream and alternative health practices, a teen beauty queen and scientists.
Clinics are pleading with Congress and HHS for answers amid “radio silence” about the imminent expiration of Title X funding.
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.
President Donald Trump has taken one risk after another that could have destabilized the American economy. Iran is the latest crisis to test U.S. economic resilience.
The president stopped in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old district to defend his economic record.
A brief swing through the farm state underscored administration fears about the midterms.
A jury in Texas has convicted eight people in the first federal anti-terror case since the Trump administration declared “antifa” a terror group. Nine defendants alleged to be members of an “antifa terror cell” stood trial on federal and state charges including rioting, using explosives and attempted murder. The charges stemmed from their attendance at an anti-ICE protest outside the Prairieland ICE jail on July 4, during which fireworks were set off and a police officer was shot and wounded.
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.
After ordering the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani killed in 2020, Donald Trump claimed that the military officer had been “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.
On March 10, the journalist Emanuel Fabian reported on a missile that had been launched from Iran. The warhead hit an open area outside Jerusalem, which Fabian confirmed by speaking with rescue services and reviewing footage of the explosion. He wrote a short post on The Times of Israel’s live blog and moved on.
Meanwhile, gamblers had wagered millions on the unfolding events of the conflict.
Today’s questions look back to a quarter century ago, as well as to what feels like a quarter century ago: 2024. Good luck!
And by the way, did you know that in addition to Democrats and Republicans (as well as their Federalist, Whig, and other predecessors), the Senate has held members of at least a dozen smaller parties throughout its history? These members generally caucused with the big dogs, but they retained their boutique identities.
