The toughest pain points awaiting Biden at the State of the Union
The president’s team thinks it’s had a historically successful first term, delivering victories on the economy, climate, drug pricing and more. But many Americans aren’t feeling it.
The president’s team thinks it’s had a historically successful first term, delivering victories on the economy, climate, drug pricing and more. But many Americans aren’t feeling it.
Policymakers were determined to avoid the mistakes of the Great Recession — and they succeeded. But now they are in a mood of “fear and introspection.
“You can’t blame the president when policies go wrong, and then say he’s not responsible if things are going right.
The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%, just above a half-century low.
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.
Donald Trump has built up his reputation as a rich guy. When he ended up unable to cover a massive bond, the courts threw him a lifeline, but just for now.
First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
The aftermath of the Baltimore bridge collapse
The Supreme Court is shaming itself.
Roughly 90 minutes of grappling over the abortion drug mifepristone produced some unusual and noteworthy moments.
You could see the Francis Scott Key Bridge from Fort McHenry, the pentagon-shaped keep that inspired the bridge’s namesake to write the verses that became our national anthem. You could see it from the pagoda in Patterson Park, another strangely geometric landmark from which I’ve cheered on teams at Baltimore’s annual kinetic-sculpture race. You could see it from the top of Johns Hopkins Hospital, the city’s biggest employer.
A decision, likely to come in June, would be a major victory for the FDA’s authority to regulate prescription drugs and for abortion-rights advocates who have sought to protect access to mifepristone.
The rapid collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early this morning touched off a frantic search for survivors—and gave Americans a frightening reminder of the fragility of the many systems that allow us to go about our lives.
A few days ago, I watched a video of myself talking in perfect Chinese. I’ve been studying the language on and off for only a few years, and I’m far from fluent. But there I was, pronouncing each character flawlessly in the correct tone, just as a native speaker would. Gone were my grammar mistakes and awkward pauses, replaced by a smooth and slightly alien-sounding voice. “My favorite food is sushi,” I said—wo zui xihuan de shiwu shi shousi—with no hint of excitement or joy.
We look at Donald Trump’s ongoing legal battles with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, who has been covering Trump since the 1980s. The next major case against Trump is his hush money trial, set to begin April 15, in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an extramarital affair quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign.
We speak with former top U.N. human rights official Craig Mokhiber after the Security Council voted Monday on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages. The United States abstained from the vote, allowing it to pass after nearly six months of obstructing similar efforts at the Security Council. Mokhiber, who resigned in October over the U.N.
Former U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to the United Nations Security Council’s resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which passed 14-0 on Monday after the United States declined to use its veto by abstaining from the vote. Corbyn calls the war and suffering in Gaza “a global disgrace” and says the ceasefire must be enforced. “It’s time to stand with the Palestinian people.
The British High Court in London has put the extradition of Julian Assange on hold until the United States provides assurances that he would get a fair trial in the U.S. without facing the death penalty. If those assurances are not met, Assange will be granted the right to a full appeal hearing. Speaking outside the court Tuesday, Stella Assange called for the Biden administration to “drop this shameful case” against her husband.
This is the first major reproductive-rights case to come before the court since the 2022 Dobbs ruling, which ended the federal right to abortion.
The adoption of artificial intelligence in health care is reviving the debate over medical malpractice reform — with a new twist.
Last month’s job growth was up from a revised gain of 229,000 jobs in January.
The president’s team thinks it’s had a historically successful first term, delivering victories on the economy, climate, drug pricing and more. But many Americans aren’t feeling it.
Policymakers were determined to avoid the mistakes of the Great Recession — and they succeeded. But now they are in a mood of “fear and introspection.
“You can’t blame the president when policies go wrong, and then say he’s not responsible if things are going right.
The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%, just above a half-century low.
In Mississippi, six former sheriff’s deputies have been sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison for raiding a home and torturing, shooting and sexually abusing two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, in January 2023. The six former deputies, all of whom are white, called themselves the “Goon Squad” and have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019. Two of the men attacked and tortured by the group subsequently died.
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.
Terrorists struck deep inside Russia on Friday, and the conspiracy theories are already spinning.
First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Donald Trump’s nine lives
What was NBC even thinking?
Social media is not what killed the web.
Donald Trump loves the musical Cats, and like the titular creatures, the former president seems to have nine lives. Today, in the face of yet another near-death financial experience, Trump got his latest reprieve. An appeals-court panel in New York State reduced the bond he must post in a civil fraud case from more than $464 million to just $175 million.
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Not long ago, the idea that a former president—or a major-party presidential nominee—would face serious legal jeopardy was nearly unthinkable. Today, merely keeping track of the many cases against Donald Trump requires a law degree, a great deal of attention, or both.
An old journalism axiom says that if everyone’s mad at you, you must be doing something right. Since NBC announced that it had hired Ronna McDaniel, the recently deposed chair of the Republican National Committee, as a paid contributor, everyone’s been mad. NBC executives are sure to be consoling themselves that they’re doing something right. It’s just hard to see what.
On Sunday, Meet the Press host Kristen Welker rightly raked McDaniel over her past election denialism.
Sudan is on track to become the world’s worst hunger crisis, according to the United Nations. For over a year, fighting between the Sudanese military and the rival Rapid Support Forces has disrupted the country, displacing over 8 million people who experience extreme hunger in the areas with the most intense fighting. The increasing demand comes as the U.N.’s appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan is less than 5% funded. Funding is also drying up in Chad, where some 1.
In Gaza, millions of Palestinians are starving after five months of U.S.-backed attacks by Israel, while Israel continues to prevent the delivery of essential provisions. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media, “This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity.” The head of the World Health Organization says children in Gaza are already dying of malnutrition.
ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 137. Authorities say gunmen opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall building during a sold-out rock concert and then set part of the venue on fire. More than 100 people were injured in the attack, and many remain in critical condition.
The parties’ scramble in the battleground state eight months ahead of the election is a model for how the issue is shaping competitive races nationwide.