This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.
At the close of his RNC speech accepting his party’s nomination for vice president in July, then-Senator J. D. Vance lingered on the specific patch of earth where he hoped he would one day be buried.
Steak ‘n Shake said that locations across several states transitioned away from using seed oils in their fries.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been the public face of the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle many government agencies and slash the size of the federal workforce. On Wednesday, he attended Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, although he is not a Cabinet member.
Thousands gathered in Beirut Sunday to mourn the death of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. Under a ceasefire agreement, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon last week, but it continues to illegally occupy five locations in the country.
An unvaccinated child has died of measles, Texas officials announced Wednesday, the first death from measles in the United States in a decade. The child’s death in a hospital in Lubbock, in West Texas, comes as the largest measles outbreak in the state in over 30 years is now spreading to New Mexico. Since last month, 124 people have contracted the disease, most of them unvaccinated children.
When the government does it, it’s real censorship.
The Trump administration seems determined to alienate the EU.
Infomercials walked so influencers could run.
What Next: TBD’s Lizzie O’Leary unpacks the recent deletion of government data.
Even if every improper payment were caught, it wouldn’t provide a third of the savings the GOP needs.
GOP lawmakers expected to vote soon on slashing the insurance program for low-income people represent tens of millions reliant on it.
A federal judge cleared the move Friday after a two-week hold.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Supporters of climate, infrastructure, mortgage, tech, health, veterans’ and other projects expressed alarm as tens of thousands of programs appeared possibly at risk.
Joe Biden’s top economic adviser opens up on harrowing moments from her time in the White House, and what makes her nervous about the Trump agenda.
DAWN, a D.C.-based nonprofit organization that supports democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, is asking the International Criminal Court to investigate former President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for possible complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, citing the $17.9 billion worth of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel overseen by the Biden administration.
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.
Americans love to hate the IRS, that historically unpopular revenue-collection agency with its slow processes and fax machines and many, many forms.
The unanimous ruling overturns a decision by Texas U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee.
The thing about American newspaper opinion sections is this: Their owners get final say. If the man who signs the checks—it’s almost always a man—really wants to see his cocker spaniel run City Hall, you’ll probably see Our Choice: Fluffernutter for Mayor atop the editorial page. For generations, this has been one of the overriding perks of media ownership. If Jeff Bezos wanted to turn The Washington Post’s opinion section over to an AI-powered version of Alexa, he’d be within his rights.
With last year’s slow-roll Oppenheimer sweep, the leading Oscar contenders seemed to have sewn up their wins long before the ceremony began. This edition of the Academy Awards has been quite the compelling scramble by comparison, as half a dozen movies have gained and lost supposed front-runner status over the past few months.
The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk is entering its Apprentice era. Both men have the ambition to redefine how the modern world works—and both are jockeying for President Donald Trump’s blessing to accelerate their plans.
Altman’s company, OpenAI, as well as Musk’s ventures—which include SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI—all depend to some degree on federal dollars, permits, and regulatory support.
It is the misfortune of Jews that they so often find themselves the subject of obsessive fixation. By his own description, Pankaj Mishra is a lifelong obsessive. As a boy in India in the 1970s, the writer grew up in a Hindu-nationalist family that revered Jews, despite not knowing any. In that spirit, Mishra placed a portrait of the Israeli general Moshe Dayan, the hero of the Suez Crisis, on his bedroom wall.
When asked about the measles outbreak and death, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said “it’s not unusual, we have measles outbreaks every year.
We speak with Jose Saldaña, director of Release Aging People in Prison, about a wildcat strike by New York prison guards who claim limits on solitary confinement have made their work more dangerous.
We look at a rare victory for a death row prisoner before the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, three conservative justices joined with the three liberals to overturn the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip, who has spent nearly 30 years on Oklahoma death row and had exhausted all other appeals to stay his execution. The justices said Glossip was entitled to a new trial after errors in his original prosecution.
