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.
For much of ICE’s 22-year history, the agency aimed to operate with relative discretion: Officers handled administrative tasks and carried out deportations in what they thought of as targeted campaigns.
Is anti-Semitism in American political discourse actually just a carefully cultivated deception? Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X revealed the location of every account on the site, and the results were eye-opening. Viral MAGA influencers ranting about “my tax dollars” funding foreign wars were exposed as Pakistani or Russian. Thirst traps of attractive Israeli soldiers turned out to be run by Indians. Heartbreaking stories of Gazan suffering were found to be posted from Europe.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth apparently thinks that Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona is in the wrong job. Kelly was one of six Democratic legislators who released a video reminding the officers and enlisted people of the U.S. military that they are bound by their oaths to disobey illegal orders.
Updated with new questions at 2:45 p.m. ET on November 25, 2025.
A seminal mid-century paper by the psychologist George Miller asserted that the human brain can hold seven items in short-term memory, give or take a couple. A person can chunk—that is, group items together in sensible, memorable units—to get a bit more bang, but modern psychologists think the species can handle only about four of those.
Heather Haddon joins Emily Peck to discuss the current challenges and trends she’s reported on in the fast food industry.
We recently spoke to Brazilian environmental activist Angela Mendes, the daughter of Amazonian forest defender and labor leader Chico Mendes, who was assassinated by ranchers in December 1988. She discussed her father’s legacy and her ongoing work to protect the Amazon rainforest from encroachment by ranching and mining industries.
As the Trump administration escalates pressure on Venezuela, U.S. military activity across the Caribbean continues to grow. The U.S. has deployed more than 15,000 troops to the region and carried out airstrikes on over 20 boats, killing at least 83 people in operations the White House has justified, without providing evidence, as targeting drug traffickers.
While much of the recent interest in Jeffrey Epstein has focused on the late sexual predator’s relationship with President Donald Trump, his emails also reveal his close relationships with other powerful figures from the worlds of politics, finance, academia and beyond.
Larry Summers’ appalling emails to Jeffrey Epstein aren’t the only reason not to like the guy.
From affairs with big-name politicians to a MySpace-era pop song, the journalist’s comeback attempt is hitting a few bumps along the way.
It defines the American experience like no other. People are no longer buying.
GOP lawmakers knew subsidies were expiring and premiums would spike, but no clear, conservative alternative emerged.
The HHS secretary said in an interview he ordered the CDC’s website to acknowledge gaps in studies on vaccines and autism.
Commissioner Marty Makary is pushing back on the demand, officials told POLITICO, in the latest development to roil the agency
Workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told POLITICO that they’re grappling with lack of communication from the top, leadership vacancies and stalled progress – and the worry that they’ll soon again be fired. HHS disputes their concerns.
It’s a perilous combination for 165 million people with employer-sponsored health insurance. Premiums are rising, while yearly pay raises shrink.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
A celebrity contracts HIV, the world finally pays attention to AIDS, and Jim Mitulski preaches to a community tired of people dying from it.
When a lesbian minister is physically assaulted, the church is galvanized. When it happens again, the city is galvanized.
A gay minister seeks healing with his family and his queer kin, even as he knows he’ll soon die from AIDS.
AIDS helps forge an unlikely friendship between two San Francisco churches from very different neighborhoods with very different views on sexuality.
Democrats running on cost-of-living anxieties outperformed Republicans in Tuesday’s elections by greater-than-expected margins. The president chalked it up to partisan lies.
A recent poll found a majority of Americans feel they’re spending more on groceries than they did a year ago.
The Republican nominee has promised tax cuts and economic growth, but the numbers are fuzzy.
Trump’s strength with Republicans on the economy could prove to be a boon for the GOP.
Nations are struggling to reach a final text agreement at the COP30 U.N. climate summit in Belém, Brazil. Decisions are made by consensus at COPs, requiring consent among 192 countries, and the biggest fight over the draft text is the exclusion of a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. Reportedly Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and India are among those that rejected the roadmap. But more than 30 countries are saying they will not accept a final deal without one.
Thousands of Amazonian land defenders, both Indigenous peoples and their allies, have traveled to the COP30 U.N. climate conference in Belém, Brazil. On Friday night, an Indigenous-led march arrived at the perimeter of the COP’s “Blue Zone,” a secure area accessible only to those bearing official summit credentials. The group stormed security, kicking down a door before the United Nations police contained the protest.
Yes, it’s true—DOGE “doesn’t exist” anymore. But we would never dream of letting it evaporate without an exit interview. DOGE: It’s your turn to send us a pointless, time-consuming email explaining what exactly it was that you did here.
Dear America,
How to begin to recount our monumental achievements? Never have so few done so much to so many.
A few highlights …
We were willing to be vulnerable.
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.
In his new memoir, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania shows little love for his current job, but he’s even more dismissive of his previous gig: serving as lieutenant governor. It was, he writes, “the easiest job in all of America, with few mandated duties.
President Donald Trump may be stretching executive power to its outermost bounds, but in one very significant area he is simply not getting his way: criminal prosecutions. In many cases—such as those of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, charges against whom were thrown out by a federal judge in Virginia today—the basic, ground-level machinery of the criminal-justice system has thwarted the administration.