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.
OpenAI’s CEO signed a letter in 2023 acknowledging that AI might cause human beings to go extinct. More recently, Anthropic’s CEO said that AI will “test us as a species.
General Chris “C. D.” Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan during the chaotic 2021 withdrawal. As the head of Army forces in Europe and Africa, he has helped bolster Ukraine in its fight to repel the Russian invasion. Now Donahue has become the latest casualty in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s purge of the military’s senior ranks.
Donahue’s abrupt departure, after just 18 months in his role, is another sign of the upheaval.
As far as I can tell, patient zero was a Swedish 24-year-old named Elsa Thora. “Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack?” she posted to X earlier this month, apparently hours after landing in Indianapolis for a monthlong World Cup trip. “EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP.” The post received 49,000 likes and propelled Thora to a very specific kind of fame.
Summer has begun—which is to say, wildfires in the West are chasing residents from their homes, the snowpack has dwindled to near-record lows in several states, drought is spreading, and temperatures are regularly exploring new heights. Yet America does not seem to be sweating climate change. You could call it “climate hushing,” as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and others do, or a “worry gap,” as one study has. Whatever you call it, America’s interest in talking about climate change is at an ebb.
The Atlantic is announcing the hires of three new staff writers: Ariel Sabar, who has contributed to The Atlantic as a freelancer since 2015, and Joshua Partlow and Sebastian Smee, both joining from The Washington Post.
Joshua will cover extreme weather and natural disasters. Ariel will focus on in-depth narrative reporting. Sebastian will write widely about visual art and its influence on modern life and culture.
A new report by CorpWatch titled ”MAGA Inc.” reveals which allies of President Trump are profiting off of the administration’s policies. Pratap Chatterjee, executive director of CorpWatch, says that prison companies and Big Tech companies have cashed out on policies of mass deportation. “The people that we think are profiting the most out of MAGA [are in] the business of deportation, the business of gathering data,” says Chatterjee.
Today is Election Day in New York, with a number of primary challengers hoping to unseat Democratic establishment politicians. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have a packed slate of 10 candidates across congressional, state Assembly and state Senate races. “People are really looking for something else other than these corporate Democrats,” says Liza Featherstone, author and columnist for Jacobin.
Acclaimed conservationist Mona Khalil was killed by an Israeli strike on her beachside home in the village of al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon. The 76-year-old spent more than 25 years working to protect endangered sea turtles, and her work helped turn a stretch of southern Lebanon’s coastline into one of the most important nesting sites for endangered sea turtles in the eastern Mediterranean.
Israel is continuing to attack Gaza despite the so-called ceasefire. Israeli strikes killed Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman with Al Jazeera, and at least six people, including two children, on Saturday. Wishah’s brother Mohammed, who also worked for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike this April. Israel has now killed over 260 journalists in Gaza, including at least 12 working for Al Jazeera, since October 2023.
Only Elon Musk and his memestock appeal could get serious investors to go along with a business plan that includes colonizing Mars…
Inflation is on the rise, but the Trump administration doesn’t seem concerned.
Is the industry screwed?
Brendan Greeley offers up the surprising origin story of our favorite currency.
In at least two battleground states, voters will decide in the midterms whether to protect a right to the procedure.
The State Department said the country had failed to address the president’s concerns about treatment of its white citizens.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health has a leading role in determining how gender-affirming care is provided.
The health secretary has visited four House districts with toss-up races in the last six weeks.
But inside the health department, workers say the dysfunction of the DOGE era persists.
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.
“Another Wasted Life.” That’s the name of a remarkable new song by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens. She released a video of the song on October 2 to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day. The song was inspired by Kalief Browder, a Bronx resident who died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 after being detained at Rikers Island jail for nearly three years, after being falsely accused at the age of 16 of stealing a backpack.
Soumaya Keynes and Chad P. Bown explain how the rulebook has changed.
Soumaya Keynes and Chad P. Bown explain how the rulebook has changed.
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.
President Trump spent the weekend trying to calm the waters in Washington and roil them in the Persian Gulf.
Let’s begin with the less serious of these two self-inflicted crises.
Updated at 7:26 p.m. ET on June 22, 2026
When President Trump summoned Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for lunch at the White House on August 28 of last year, Bunch’s advisers assumed that the end was near.
George Rose / Getty
Yosemite Valley, including Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Bridalveil Fall, and El Capitan, viewed from Tunnel View after a brief rainstorm cleared on March 27, 2025, in Yosemite National Park, CaliforniaGeorge Rose / Getty
Heavy rains arrived in Santa Barbara County wine country, filling the creeks and streams and turning the hillsides a vivid green as viewed on January 20, 2023, near Santa Ynez, California.
Updated at 11:54 a.m. ET on June 22, 2026
In the past decade, Britain has churned through leaders faster than the average fringe revolutionary sect. Earlier today, Keir Starmer became the sixth prime minister to announce his resignation since 2016. He managed just over 700 days in power.