Saturday Night Live loves to put a politician in front of a piano. Most famously, Kate McKinnon, playing Hillary Clinton, sat down in front of the keys and earnestly belted Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” following Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. It felt like a moment of contrition for the program that had invited Trump on as host during his campaign, to much criticism.
My ancestors ride wit me.
They twerk on the roof of the Uber
as I’m pulling up late to the party.
They gas me full tank and
yas me in the mirror
as I summon them out of me with
my mascara wands and glitter and
every time I draw my eyes on
Nana you encourage me
to keep my chin lifted upwards,
my eyes filling up with stars.I know I walk on
salt blood water tears.
I know the earth has been
beaten down and made gangsta
but sometimes, e hoas,
I just want to party.My ancestors ride wit me.
The best way to understand last week’s unusual debate between Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Ron DeSantis of Florida is to think of them less as representatives of different political parties than as ambassadors from different countries.Thursday night’s debate on Fox News probably won’t much change the arc of either man’s career.
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.The holiday season is upon us—but before you power through your to-do list, decompress with these seven stories, selected by our editors.
Photographs by Chase BarnesThree years ago, President E. Gordon Gee of West Virginia University had a terrific idea—a career capper. As he neared retirement, he would embrace the “academic transformation” of public higher education and streamline his university.For too long, as Gee told anyone who would listen, public universities had tried to be everything to everyone and keep up with elite private colleges.
Public health experts have said the pneumonia outbreak is linked to known diseases.
It’s more likely the bill is coming due for China’s prolonged Covid lockdown than a novel virus emerging.
People are being advised to wear masks.
Expiring Covid benefits and new limits on safety net programs threaten to hit Americans’ pocketbooks — especially among core parts of the Democratic electorate.
Top White House aides reviewed private polling showing Biden’s economic message falling flat and suggesting paths toward a turnaround.
Can Democrats overcome their college-campus branding and reclaim the working class?
The new strategy UAW President Shawn Fain announced Friday signaled the strike could start having broader implications for the economy.
Former U.S. secretary of state and national security adviser Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100. He leaves behind a legacy of American statecraft that brought war, covert intervention and mass atrocities to Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America. “Few people have had a hand in so much death and destruction,” says our guest, human rights attorney and war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody.
We speak with the mother of Hisham Awartani, one of the three 20-year-old Palestinian college students who were shot last weekend in Burlington, Vermont, in a suspected hate crime. Elizabeth Price traveled from her home in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to see her son, who is still hospitalized in Burlington. He was shot in the spine and, while in stable condition, now faces an immediate loss of mobility.
We look at a new report that reveals how Israel is using artificial intelligence to draw up targets in its military assault of Gaza. The report’s author, journalist Yuval Abraham, has found that the IDF’s increasing use of AI is partly a response to previous operations in Gaza when Israel quickly ran out of military targets, causing it to loosen its constraints on attacks that could kill civilians.
Henry Kissinger is dead at the age of 100. The former U.S. statesman served as national security adviser and secretary of state at the height of the Cold War and wielded influence over U.S. foreign policy for decades afterward. His actions led to massacres, coups and and even genocide, leaving a bloody legacy in Latin America, Southeast Asia and beyond. Once out of office, Kissinger continued until his death to advise U.S.
The disgraced congressman fired off a series of tweets promising to file ethics complaints against some of the House members who voted him out.
Muslim community leaders from several swing states are pledging to withdraw support for President Biden, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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 or watch full episodes here. On Wednesday, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger passed away at the age of 100.
House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry has yet to come up with evidence of wrongdoing.
Photographic evidence reveals that all U.S. presidents, lawmakers and even a 58-year-old former GOP House speaker use notes in meetings.
Haley, not the coup-attempting former president, would be the toughest opponent for Biden, recent polling shows.
Confession: The Beyoncé concert I attended this past summer was pretty good but not, as Oprah described it, “the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen.” Naturally, the expectations are high for any show by the most spectacular artist of my lifetime. Beyoncé’s previous solo arena tour, in 2016, made for a peak concertgoing experience: Even from the nosebleeds, she seemed huge, and impossibly important.
First came the concrete markers engraved in multiple languages. Naval aviators from the Philippines would spot them during surveillance flights in the mid-1990s and dispatch forces to remove them. Then came the huts—small, wooden structures teetering on stilts on uninhabited islands, fit maybe for fishermen to take shelter during storms. They looked innocuous enough, one of the pilots, Alberto Carlos, recalls thinking.
Edith Wharton’s unfinished 1938 novel, The Buccaneers, occupies much of its second half with the unhappy marriage of Annabel, an innocent American aesthete, and the Duke of Tintagel, a small, easily slighted man whose life’s passion is repairing clocks.
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.“When I decided to attend seminary … I told people it was to ‘find myself,’” Benjamin Perry wrote earlier this year. “That frame suggests that I yearned to forge a new identity and discover my future.
Why the law could be harder to repeal in 2025 than it was in 2017.
It’s more likely the bill is coming due for China’s prolonged Covid lockdown than a novel virus emerging.
People are being advised to wear masks.
Democrats and Republicans agree that the primary care system needs an overhaul. They’re encouraging nurses to do more and embracing virtual care.