Often when a former cast member returns to host Saturday Night Live, they trot out their greatest hits. And, sure, when Kristen Wiig took the stage for the fifth time last night, she did return to one of her favorite characters: cranky Aunt Linda, who never seems to understand the point of the movie she’s reviewing (unless that movie is Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie). But Wiig largely did new material, proving how unmatched she is at breathing life into kooky, unexpected characters.

In early March 2022, I spent two weeks hiding in a basement in my village near Kyiv as Russian soldiers prowled outside. In the months that followed, knowledge of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine spread rapidly across the world. I could not believe that the international community would tolerate such atrocities and fail to intervene. I never imagined that, two years later, I would be in Washington, D.C., having to implore members of the U.S. Congress not to betray Ukraine.

Until recently, in all of human history, the number of true cyborgs stood at about 70. Ian Burkhart has kept a count because he was one of them—a person whose brain has been connected directly to a computer.
Burkhart had become quadriplegic in a swimming accident after a wave ran him into a sandbar and injured his spine. He was later able to receive an implant from a research study, which allowed him to temporarily regain some movement in one hand.

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Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Rogé Karma, a staff writer who has written about the secretive industry devouring the U.S.

No one in law enforcement should be caught off guard if trouble breaks out before, during, or after the November presidential election, because Donald Trump keeps talking as if addressing differences through violence is a normal part of the American political process.

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One week ago, Beyoncé released a sprawling 27-track album, the second in a promised trilogy. In the days since, it has dominated conversations about country music in America.

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President Joe Biden put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on notice in their first call since Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers in Gaza. In a sharp shift, Biden told Netanyahu he wants to see an immediate cease-fire and warned that future U.S.

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Gary Shteyngart spent seven nights (or, as he calls them, seven “agonizing” nights) on the Icon of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship that’s ever sailed. In our May 2024 issue, he writes about what he found there.

This article was originally published by High Country News.
In the summer of 2022, several researchers with USDA Wildlife Services held their breath as a drone pilot flew a large drone, equipped with a camera, toward a wolf standing in a pasture in southwestern Oregon. The team members, watching from a distance, expected the wolf to freeze or run away the minute the whirring rotors approached it. But to their disbelief, it did neither.

The opening months of 2024 have posed a question: How many different people can the Rock be at once? There he goes, taking the stage at the Oscars, grinning and gleaming on The Tonight Show: Movie-Star Rock. Here he is, joining the board of the WWE’s corporate owner, appearing on CNBC: Mogul Rock. (That one wears glasses!) Here he comes, this weekend, making his much-hyped return to Wrestlemania. He’ll climb back into the ring, stomping and slapping: Well, that’s just the Rock.