Updated on January 1, 2025, at 2:43 p.m. ET
Despite the devastating terror attack that killed at least 10 people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day, it seemed at first as though the Sugar Bowl college-football playoff game would continue tonight in the city’s Superdome, less than two miles from the carnage. This afternoon, officials announced they would postpone the game for at least 24 hours.
In California, even the worst
of us is forgiven: flooding roads
lead to freeway superbloom, birds
make nests out of all our trash.
And despite drought, jacarandas
spike purple in July, their roots
cracking the concrete. Once, I
tripped under one, tore the skin
off my knees. And at last removed
the leftover scars of childhood.
My father fell once outside
the dirtiest apartment I lived
in that overlooked the freeway
on a street where no one walked.
We speak with The Nation’s Chris Lehmann about President-elect Donald Trump’s escalating attacks on the press and how major media figures and institutions are “capitulating preemptively” to the pressure. ABC News recently settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library, despite experts saying the case was easily winnable.
We continue to discuss the new HBO Original film Surveilled and explore the film’s investigation of high-tech spyware firms with journalist Ronan Farrow and director Matthew O’Neill. We focus on the influence of the Israeli military in the development of some of the most widely used versions of these surveillance technologies, which in many cases are first tested on Palestinians and used to enforce Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and on the potential expansion of domestic U.S.
Is that a spy in your pocket? In a holiday special we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O’Neill about Surveilled, their new HBO documentary looking at how high-tech surveillance spyware is threatening democracy across the globe. As part of the reporting for the documentary, Farrow traveled to Israel for a rare interview with a former employee of NSO Group, the Israeli software company that makes Pegasus.
Only one historic site bears the name of America’s 22nd and 24th president—and it’s no Monticello.
The Grover Cleveland Presidential Library and Museum occupies a one-story building in Caldwell, New Jersey, behind the house where its namesake spent the first few years of his life. The museum is the size of a small living room. A Dunkin’ sits across the street.
The site befits Cleveland’s legacy.
The humble white tee shows us just how much fast fashion has affected our relationship to clothing.
The economy expert joins to talk us through tariffs, Biden’s economic legacy, and more.
The story behind the Swedish start-up’s ambitious rise and massive downfall
If you ask a Bogotáno where they learned to ride a bike, they all have the same answer.
A combination of viral respiratory infections, malaria and malnutrition has killed nearly 50 people in the African country.
Experts warn of inadequate testing by the CDC, which maintains the risk to humans “remains low.
The billionaire and his company needed Speaker Mike Johnson’s help to stop legislation that would have regulated social media for the first time.
The move, welcomed by conservative organizations, leaves in place a Trump rule allowing more employers to opt out of providing coverage.
Republican lawmakers are looking past Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views as they consider his nomination to lead HHS.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Miran has called for a sweeping overhaul of the Fed to ensure greater political control over the central bank, including giving the president the power to fire board members at will.
Five weeks after the election, the president took his sharpest swing at Trump’s policy plans.
A pair of POLITICO|Morning Consult polls, one conducted in the final days of the election and the other conducted after Trump won, show how public opinion has changed.
The final paid messages: Economy, culture wars and character.
Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at 100 years old. The 39th president served a single, tumultuous term in the White House from 1977 to 1981. As we begin our look at his life and legacy, we hear Carter’s own words in a Democracy Now! interview discussing his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter criticized Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and argued Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Territories were the main barrier to peace.
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I have two names, but only one exists on paper. When I was born, my parents put my name down as Stephanie, inspired by the Full House character.
Editor’s Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you? Are you beset by existential worries? Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers’ questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com.
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Dear James,
I’m a 73-old-woman who has been dating a man of the same age.
International outrage is growing over Israel’s abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp, who was detained after Israeli forces raided and shut down the last major hospital in northern Gaza last week. A new United Nations report finds that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip have “pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse.
The Atlantic is announcing the hires of political reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, who will both become staff writers in mid-January.
