It felt like a science-fiction film, one Lebanese friend told me. At almost exactly the same moment—3:30 p.m. today—pagers exploded all over Lebanon, leaving hideous gashes and wounds on the heads, hands, and hips of their owners.
The significance of the attack quickly became clear: The pagers were being used by members of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant movement that has been fighting an undeclared war with Israel since October.
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With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the top of their ticket, the Democrats are feeling much more optimistic than they were earlier this summer about holding on to the White House. But lower down on the ticket, Democrats are struggling to keep their 51–49 lead in the Senate.
“I’m a proud crypto bro. You’re starting to become one of us, if not already,” Farokh Sarmad, a social-media influencer, said to former President Donald Trump during a livestream on X last night. According to the platform’s listener counter, more than 1 million people tuned in for the launch of World Liberty Financial, a new crypto project promoted by Trump and his family. The former president has been posting about it on social media for several weeks.
As Trump pitches himself as a “leader on IVF,” GOP senators dismiss the legislation as a Democratic stunt.
Today, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, one of the most popular social-media apps for teenage users, is announcing a new computer that you wear directly on your face. The latest in its Spectacles line of smart glasses, which the company has been working on for about a decade, shows you interactive imagery through its lenses, placing plants or imaginary pets or even a golf-putting range into the real world around you.
We speak with filmmaker Pamala Yates about her new documentary, Borderland: The Line Within, which explores the human impact of restrictive U.S. immigration policies and border militarization.
We speak with Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, author of the new book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, which examines the global rise of authoritarianism in the United States, Russia, Israel and beyond. He says attacks on education are a key part of the fascist toolkit to undermine democracy and pluralism.
Top United Nations human rights experts have condemned Western nations for supporting Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, urging the world to stop an unfolding genocide in Palestine. This comes as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, is accusing Israel in a new report of carrying out a deliberate starvation campaign in Gaza. “What we are witnessing in Gaza is the starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians.
Rumaan Alam’s novel, Entitlement, explores what happens when we enter the lives of the mega-rich.
Betches CEO Aleen Dreksler explains why it’s time to take women sports fans seriously.
Even host Jesse Watters seemed a little lost.
David Muir and Linsey Davis were ready.
A plan to expand access to the drug treatment is hung up on fears of a black market, despite bipartisan support.
The state lost millions in federal funding because it refused to offer patients a national hotline number for information about abortion.
While the risk of hospitalization and death is nowhere near what it was in 2021, there is still a danger, particularly for the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump want to provide relief, though they disagree on the details.
The former top U.S. infectious disease expert is expected to make a full recovery.
Biden is determined to convince a skeptical public that he strengthened the economy.
He was Trump’s policy whisperer to key voting blocs. Now, he’s fueling rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating cats and dogs.
Across the U.S. in November, voters will weigh proposals on election policies, minimum wage increases and marijuana legalization.
Trump arrived in New York amid growing concerns among some investors about his economic plans as Harris casts his agenda as a financially calamitous wishlist.
We speak with V, the playwright formerly known as Eve Ensler, about “How We Do Freedom: Rising Against Fascism,” a daylong educational event to be held at New York City’s Judson Memorial Church on Saturday. V is the founder of the global activist movements V-Day and One Billion Rising that is organizing the event. “The rise of fascism, from India to Italy, from Afghanistan to U.S., [is] the most pressing concern everywhere,” says V, who ties the crisis to growing loneliness and isolation.
A federal jury in Florida has found members of the pan-Africanist group African People’s Socialist Party guilty of conspiring with the Russian government to “sow discord” and “interfere” in U.S. elections. They face up to five years in federal prison. In a major victory for the activists, however, the jury acquitted them of the more serious charge of acting as foreign agents.
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.
Every American has the right to participate in public life without violence, and that includes Donald Trump. Personally, I think he probably belongs in jail, but that is a matter for the justice system.
Wood, I don’t think I need to work too hard to convince you, is a fairly amazing substance. It grows out of the ground and then becomes some of the most important things in the world: pencils, baseball bats, clogs, porch swings, campfires, crucifixes, tall shelves filled with books (which are also wood, if you squint a little). Solomon’s temple was wood; so was the Mayflower. So were Kane’s Rosebud and Prince’s guitar.
The post was sandwiched between a screed about capital-gains taxes and a video clip from a Donald Trump rally. Four words, all-caps: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Haters gonna hate (hate, hate, hate, hate), Taylor Swift has observed, and the claim has been validated, now, by an expert. Yesterday morning, Trump made his current feelings about Swift known on Truth Social—an extremely belated reaction, it would seem, to the pop star’s endorsement of Kamala Harris, issued last Tuesday evening.
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On September 4, two students and two teachers were killed in a school shooting in Georgia. Nine others were wounded. The Apalachee High School shooting scarcely ranks in the top 20 deadliest such incidents in U.S. history. Apalachee was just another American massacre, an unhappy “fact of life,” in the words of the Republican vice-presidential nominee, J. D. Vance.
The Power Broker leaves us ill-equipped to understand or confront the struggles that face the city today.
When Jean Smart stepped onto the Emmys stage last night to accept the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, the six-time Emmy winner took a cue from Deborah Vance, the veteran comedian she plays on Hacks. Almost immediately, Smart told a joke: “It’s very humbling, it really is. And I appreciate this, because I just don’t get enough attention.
