On Monday night, someone placed a peculiar bet on the prediction market Kalshi. At 7:45 p.m. eastern time, a single trader put down nearly $100,000 on the claim that, by the end of December, the Trump administration will confirm that alien life or technology exists elsewhere in our universe. According to The Atlantic’s review of Kalshi’s trading data, about 35 minutes after this bet was executed, it was followed by another that was almost twice as large (possibly from the same person).

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.
Realizing that your brain is slowing down can be jarring. After the age of, say, 45, anyone might start forgetting names, misplacing items, or struggling to pay attention, and the onset of such symptoms can often prompt a visit to a doctor, if only to confirm a patient’s hunch that the passage of time is to blame.

The longest State of the Union in modern history is now over. Donald Trump held court in the House of Representatives and said little of substance, but substance wasn’t the point. This year, he intended to put on a show, with an array of guest stars and special appearances. He was happy, because he was playing the roles he clearly loves: game-show host, ringmaster, MC, beneficent granter of wishes—and, where the Democrats were concerned, a self-righteous inquisitor.

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.
When Donald Trump last addressed Congress, in March 2025, he was triumphant. He’d stormed back into the White House after surviving two assassination attempts, and his first 100 days in office were on track to be historically productive.

Updated with new questions at 3:05 p.m. ET on February 24, 2026.
If you put any stock in the ability of IQ tests to assess intelligence, we humans have spent the past century steadily getting smarter. (And if you don’t put any stock in them, well, we humans have steadily gotten better at IQ tests.)
Because IQ is a standardized measure, humankind’s average score still sits at 100—but this isn’t your granddaddy’s 100.

By mid-afternoon, the gray, windowless corridors of the Harry S. Truman Building, the headquarters of the State Department, feel less like the nerve center of the world’s most consequential foreign-policy institution and more like the catacombs for diplomacy. A disorienting and disheartening quiet has settled in, following last year’s sweeping cuts at State and its sister agency USAID.

Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP / Getty
A Ukrainian honor guard stands while a symbolic illumination entitled “Rays of Memory” is projected over the graves of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the war with Russia, at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, on February 23, 2026.Gleb Garanich / Reuters
A drone hits an apartment building during a Russian missile and drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 27, 2025.