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Less than two weeks before October 7, 2023, Egypt’s top spy flew to Israel to deliver a dire warning: Hamas appeared to be mobilizing for a major attack. According to officials who spoke with the Atlantic staff writer Vivian Salama, Cairo’s intelligence chief recommended that the Israeli government offer economic concessions to Hamas in order to avert conflict.
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
When, exactly, does middle age begin and end? This past summer, my colleague Julie Beck tried to figure it out. Public opinion didn’t exactly offer a consensus: “In one survey, the median response put middle age as lasting from 40 to 60,” Beck writes.
Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington, D.C., this week for a state visit.
Donald Trump’s second term represents a new, bolder version of the “imperial presidency” that many feared half a century ago. Trump prefers a maximalist approach to presidential power. And the Supreme Court, by granting presidents immunity from most prosecution and subduing what were once thought of as independent agencies, has lent him some support.
The cryptocurrency has become a sort of emotional tether for a specific type of lost boy. I went to Las Vegas to learn why.
The director of the Ford Foundation’s mission investments program explains why assuming you can’t make a positive impact AND a profit is a big mistake.
The life of billionaire investor Leon Black, the private-equity behemoth he helped build, and his unfortunate friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Williamsburg’s gentrifiers are being gentrified.
Health Department nominees are distancing themselves from their prospective boss and President Trump by endorsing vaccination.
The White House halted a planned executive order that would have put control over NIH research grants in the hands of political appointees
The upcoming Make America Healthy Again Summit is brought to you by companies with business before the Health Department.
The move came after the NIH director refused Trump’s request to cut Harvard grants in an Oval Office meeting.
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.
The Louisiana Republican’s comments come as both Democrats and Republicans have been forced to find ways to address the backlash against data centers.
The new Fed chair will have the spotlight at the central bank’s high-profile conference in Jackson Hole. He should use it.
Vice President JD Vance’s visit marked his second to Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in four months.
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.
Last week, the White House announced the withdrawal of Lance Schroyer, President Trump’s nominee to direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
When Israel’s leaders gathered in Jerusalem on September 26, 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the surprise assault by Syria and Egypt as a cautionary tale, one of missed intelligence warnings and self-delusion. “We do not underestimate any threat,” he said.
Roughly two hours before Netanyahu took the stage, a chartered Cessna jet linked to Egypt’s intelligence service had touched down at Ben Gurion Airport, about 30 miles away.
To Catch a Predator may have presented a simulation of reality, but it was just convincing enough for viewers. The show’s objective was to apprehend people suspected of child sex abuse—which it did by staging sting operations.
If they win in November, Democrats want to roll back Trump’s megabill, expand access to care, and win over the Make America Healthy Again movement.
The moment I knew Resident Evil had me was the ammo check. The protagonist of the director Zach Cregger’s new film is a civilian, a medical courier named Bryan (played by Austin Abrams) who’s been tasked with driving a special package over to nearby Raccoon City in the snow. Quickly enough, strange things start to happen: He almost runs over a woman who seems to be sick with a mysterious virus; as the situation disintegrates, he finds himself fending her off with a dead police officer’s pistol.
Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk don’t agree on much. Each started their AI company—Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI, respectively—out of spite at competitors’ greed and recklessness; each is certain that he alone can be entrusted to build superintelligence safely.
We speak with journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed, whose new book, Crossing the Red Line, looks at how President Joe Biden and top figures in his administration supported Israel’s brutal war in Gaza despite the soaring death toll and growing alarm over widespread war crimes committed by the Israeli military.
At the United Nations this week, President Trump repeated his attacks on the International Criminal Court and urged other nations to pull out of the global tribunal.
