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.
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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.
Sidar Can Eren / Anadolu / Getty
A stork perches on its nest atop a power pole after returning for spring, in the Mazgirt district of Tunceli, Turkey, on March 18, 2026.Patrick Pleul / DPA / Getty
A robin, seen in Brandenburg, Germany, on March 8, 2026Patrick Pleul / DPA / Reuters
A goldeneye takes flight near Kersdorf, Germany.Chi Shiyong / VCG / Getty
Ring-necked pheasants play in the snow at Longfeng wetland nature reserve on March 8, 2026, in Daqing, Heilongjiang province, China.
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On this week’s episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts on President Trump’s dangerous disregarding of Congress’s powers of war-making and peacemaking. David argues that though Republicans have enabled the president’s dark impulses, Democrats in congress also seem happy to turn a blind eye to the Trump administration’s actions in Iran.
The Trump administration is escalating threats against news organizations, with President Trump suggesting outlets should face “treason” charges for disseminating false information. Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has also threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. This all comes as allies of President Trump consolidate their control over several major media outlets.
A top national security official resigned from the Trump administration Tuesday in response to the war on Iran. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Joe Kent, who served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, wrote in his resignation letter.
