The Maine Senate race is far from the first time that an American political party has had to choose between character and power.
In 2017, Alabama Republicans nominated a state supreme court judge named Roy Moore for U.S. Senate. A month before election day, The Washington Post published a report that when Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, he initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl.
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.
President Trump could be facing Republican pushback from soon-to-be former senators. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined last night to discuss the group known as the YOLO caucus, and more.
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.
For some people, an out-of-office message is a simple one-line email. For others, it’s an opportunity to make a grand statement about the relationship between work and life. In 2018, Marina Koren reported on the emailers who auto-delete all new messages while they’re on vacation.
Make America Healthy Again groups have endorsed only one candidate in a competitive congressional race.
As President Trump prepares to host UFC cage fights on the White House lawn to celebrate 250 years of American democracy and his own 80th birthday, viewers who dig displays of domination will be exhilarated. But why stop at blood sport?
The ratings could be higher if Trump added even more provocative spectacles. Have J. D.
Sir! I love you! Thank you for including me in this meeting to talk about all the wonderful things you’ve accomplished since January 2025. What a big, beautiful man you are. The greatest fellow in the whole world! You’re so alert. And you can walk! Wow!
When grown men see you, they weep, and they are right to do so. Look at those toes. Your hair looks great; it is the right amount.
Guest host Mary Childs explains why index funds are bending their rules and giving investors little choice but to opt into the AI boom.
The boondoggle at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is deeper than it looks.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez explains the administration’s First Amendment shakedown—and how ABC is fighting back.
The new EV from the iconic Italian sportscar maker is so underwhelming it had to be memed.
Employed at a National Institutes of Health lab in Montana, the two allegedly brought deactivated virus from the Republic of the Congo without a permit.
The health secretary appeared at a Wisconsin dairy farm with embattled Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
States dealing with budget shortfalls are facing tens of millions of dollars in new costs ahead of the federal Jan. 1 deadline.
The Trump administration has implemented some of the United States’ most stringent travel restrictions for infectious disease ever.
Tim Sheehy’s request comes after a monkey with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever bit a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
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.
“We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner,” Mark Carney said in a video address. “We can’t control the disruption coming from our neighbors.
The Trump administration five months ago launched an energy blockade against Cuba, coming on top of the over six-decade-long embargo, the longest in U.S. history. The expanded U.S. sanctions have exacerbated the island’s economic crisis, forcing Cubans to live with rolling blackouts, inflation and shortages of basic goods.
“The situation there is dire,” says Cuban American historian Ada Ferrer. “It has been for quite some time, and it’s gotten worse and worse over the last five months.
Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino led the Trump administration’s militarized immigration crackdowns in Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Bovino was eventually removed from his position in January after immigration agents under his command killed 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
We speak with Amanda Moore, a reporter who focuses on far-right extremism and state violence.
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.
On January 6, 2021, 19-year-old Elias Irizarry was among the members of a violent mob that broke into the U.S. Capitol and attempted to overturn the recent presidential election.
The following contains spoilers for the film Obsession.
The people now running CBS seem really determined to undermine the best thing going.
The billionaire is going to hate this—and there’s nothing he can do about it.
This week, the Roberts Court made clear that when it comes to drawing congressional districts, Black voters have no rights that anyone is bound to respect.
For years, Alabama, where a quarter of the population is Black, had defied federal court orders, including one reaffirmed by the Supreme Court itself in 2023, to create a second majority- or plurality-Black congressional district.
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How do you build a winning campaign for the era of AI? In the aftermath of the 2024 race, Democrats have been struggling to adapt to the new logic of the attention economy. On this episode of Galaxy Brain, Rob Flaherty, the deputy campaign manager for Kamala Harris’s campaign, joins Charlie Warzel to talk about what went wrong and how Democrats need to embrace a new theory of attention.
Updated at 4:20 p.m. ET on June 5, 2026
Elon Musk is about to set in motion a chain of events that will reshape the global financial order. For starters, when SpaceX formally goes public next week, he is all but guaranteed to become the world’s first trillionaire. His rocket company is targeting a valuation of $1.77 trillion, which would make it one of the 10 biggest companies in the world—bigger than Meta, Walmart, and, for that matter, Tesla.