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.
“Keep your voice down.”
“That’s enough of you.”
“Be nice; don’t be threatening.”
“There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
“Quiet, piggy.
Updated with new questions at 4:50 p.m. ET on November 18, 2025.
If I have provided you with any factoids in the course of Atlantic Trivia, I apologize, because a factoid, properly, is not a small, interesting fact. A factoid is a piece of information that looks like a fact but is untrue. Norman Mailer popularized the term in 1973, very intentionally giving it the suffix -oid. Is a humanoid not a creature whose appearance suggests humanity but whose nature belies it? Thus is it with factoid.
It is believed that in the fourth century, European followers of the still-newish religion called Christianity first formally observed the period in December leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ. They called it “the advent,” from the Latin word for “approach” or “arrival,” and it was a somber time, one for preparation and contemplation. In the sixth century, Pope Gregory composed many of the texts still associated with the advent, at least as it is practiced by Catholics.
The videos have become commonplace. Federal officers wearing masks and bulletproof vests subdue a moped driver in the middle of a busy D.C. street. A 70-year-old protester in Chicago is pushed to the ground by an armed Border Patrol agent holding a riot gun. In Los Angeles, an agent shoves away a demonstrator.
These videos capture the aggressive tactics of immigration officers under the second Trump administration. But they share something else, too.
As Democracy Now! broadcasts from the COP30 U.N. climate summit, we speak with Kumi Naidoo, the longtime South African human rights and environmental justice activist who is president of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. He discusses U.S. absence from climate talks, Gaza, and wealthy countries refusing to take accountability for the climate crisis. “We’re not asking the rich nations for a charity here. We are asking them to pay their climate debt.
We speak with one of the Indigenous leaders at the U.N. climate summit in Belém for the climate negotiations, in greater numbers than ever before, taking center stage at COP30. They are calling “to end the persecution of our land defenders,” says Diana Chávez, member of the Pastaza Kichwa Nation, with Pakkiru, an Indigenous organization based in Ecuador’s Amazon. “We’re fighting to keep our territories.
As we broadcast from the United Nations climate summit in Belém, we look at Brazil’s contradictory climate policies. The Lula government has reduced deforestation in the Amazon while also approving oil drilling near the Amazon. “Many parts of the Amazon are now reaching a tipping point, so a point of no return,” says Ilan Zugman, Brazilian climate activist and 350.org’s regional head for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Three years ago, America was in the midst of an infant-formula crisis. Abbott, one of the world’s biggest formula producers, had issued a nationwide recall after two children who consumed its products died of Cronobacter, a bacterial infection that can lead to complications such as meningitis. Because Abbott produced about 40 percent of the U.S. supply of infant formula, the recall contributed to a monthslong nationwide shortage stemming partially from pandemic-related supply-chain issues.
It defines the American experience like no other. People are no longer buying.
There are only a few short weeks left until Obamacare subsidies expire and enrollees start paying much higher premiums.
Under Armour’s Steph Curry disaster just hit the ultimate low.
FHFA director Bill Pulte convinced Trump to back 50-year mortgages and no one else thinks it’s a good idea.
Anna Sale and Felix Salmon discuss the tricky waters of dealing with aging parents. Plus – how to stay on top of your own cognitive decline.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman joins Elizabeth Spiers to discuss her new book The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid.
The streaming wars have never been pettier.
Insurance companies challenged GOP orthodoxy on Obamacare. It’s not going well.
The 20 state Affordable Care Act exchanges are prepared for a straightforward extension, but that appears doubtful.
Inside Democrats’ effort to attack RFK Jr.’s vaccine moves without angering his base.
The health secretary said White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was a friend of his MAHA movement and that his aide, Stefanie Spear, is a Trump loyalist.
A celebrity contracts HIV, the world finally pays attention to AIDS, and Jim Mitulski preaches to a community tired of people dying from it.
When a lesbian minister is physically assaulted, the church is galvanized. When it happens again, the city is galvanized.
A gay minister seeks healing with his family and his queer kin, even as he knows he’ll soon die from AIDS.
AIDS helps forge an unlikely friendship between two San Francisco churches from very different neighborhoods with very different views on sexuality.
Two queer religion geeks move to San Francisco. And Easter communion gets real in the age of AIDS.
Democrats running on cost-of-living anxieties outperformed Republicans in Tuesday’s elections by greater-than-expected margins. The president chalked it up to partisan lies.
A recent poll found a majority of Americans feel they’re spending more on groceries than they did a year ago.
The Republican nominee has promised tax cuts and economic growth, but the numbers are fuzzy.
Trump’s strength with Republicans on the economy could prove to be a boon for the GOP.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is less than two months away from taking office in New York City. Mamdani’s history-making campaign, grounded in community organizing, propelled the little-known Assembly-member to victory. Candidate Mamdani famously began the campaign polling at just 1% and overcame the intense scrutiny, Islamaphobic attacks, criticism for his support for Palestinian rights, and more.
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.
Donald Trump is not worried about the Jeffrey Epstein files. Please don’t put in the newspaper that he is worried.