Buy Nothing Groups Seem to Offer Everything—Except a Chance to Get to Know Your Neighbors
The local online parent group, where I’d hoped to find new friends, was basically a random yard sale.
Today's Liberal News
The Complications Are Spreading Like Wildfire
It’s not just their reputations at stake; it’s their livelihoods.
There Was One Sign That We Had to Leave L.A. We Never Thought We’d See It.
The city’s gargantuan highways—normally an impediment and an eyesore—suddenly felt like a bulwark.
Some Self-Storage Operators Are Sounding the Alarm on Sneaky Policies Sweeping the Industry and Costing Consumers
Unsavory practices propped up by a small number of operators leave some customers feeling stuck.
Our Roads Aren’t Built for EVs. The New Orleans Terror Attack Proves It.
Most of the infrastructure that stops drivers from hitting people, buildings, and each other is designed for smaller, lighter cars.
Money Talks: How Multi-Level Marketing Companies Changed America
Jane Marie joins Emily to deep dive on MLMs, their origins, and their questionable business models.
Why Bourbon Street Was a Target
As a local, I avoid Bourbon Street—except on rare occasions, when there’s no place I’d rather be.
Surgeon general’s call for alcohol warning label likely to fall flat in Congress
Vivek Murthy says alcohol causes cancer, but the industry still has many friends on Capitol Hill.
The government can’t ensure artificial intelligence is safe. This man says he can.
Brian Anderson is ready to shape the future of AI in health care — if Donald Trump will let him.
WHO names likely source of ‘mystery disease’ in the Congo
A combination of viral respiratory infections, malaria and malnutrition has killed nearly 50 people in the African country.
Bird flu mutations raise fears of a broader outbreak
Experts warn of inadequate testing by the CDC, which maintains the risk to humans “remains low.
Is Aziz Ansari Sorry?
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Your Opinions on Her Wardrobe Are Probably Unwelcome
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
What Role Does HR Play in the #MeToo Era?
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Stephen Miran is Trump’s pick to lead Council of Economic Advisers
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.
Biden: Trump’s tax and tariffs plans are a ‘major mistake’
Five weeks after the election, the president took his sharpest swing at Trump’s policy plans.
Trump voters feel very differently about things now that he’s won, our new poll shows
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.
It’s Time to Evacuate. Wait, Never Mind.
Updated at 8:35 p.m. ET on January 10, 2025
In my neighborhood—a mobile-home park on the western side of Malibu—the power and gas have been out for days, and cell service is intermittent at best. If I drive to the right vantage points, I can see the Palisades Fire and Kenneth Fire—two of the five major fires blazing across Los Angeles—but they are still far away. My home is not in a mandatory evacuation zone or even a warning zone. It is, or is supposed to be, safe.
SCOTUS agrees to hear challenge to Obamacare’s preventive care coverage
The court will decide the fate of the insurance mandate later this year.
Rock On, Readers
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.
Last week, I pronounced unequivocal judgment—as I tend to do regarding many things—on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I think it’s a contrived and embarrassing idea driven by nostalgia and capitalism, and antithetical to the youthful rebelliousness that drives rock-and-roll music.
Elon Has Appointed Himself King of the World
Like any good entrepreneur who found early success in one market, Elon Musk is now starting to expand to others. Yesterday, Musk—the entrepreneur turned Donald Trump megadonor—hosted a livestream on X with Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right political party, Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD.
“Only the AfD can save Germany, end of story,” Musk said during the 70-minute conversation, endorsing the party ahead of the country’s elections next month.
The Consensus On Havana Syndrome Is Cracking
Two years ago, U.S. intelligence analysts concluded, in unusually emphatic language, that a mysterious and debilitating ailment known as “Havana syndrome” was not the handiwork of a foreign adversary wielding some kind of energy weapon. That long-awaited finding shattered an alternative theory embraced by American diplomats and intelligence officers, who said they had been victims of a deliberate, clandestine campaign by a U.S.
Is Anyone Shocked By Babygirl?
Not since Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut has a female movie star offered such an awkward portrayal of sex as Nicole Kidman in Babygirl. The movie is meant to be daring, a Last Tango in Paris for our time, but its essential premise would work in a Douglas Sirk production: A sexually frustrated, long-married woman accepts her fate until a stranger comes to town and puts everything at risk.
Biden Urged to Pardon Immigrant Rights Leader Ravi Ragbir, Who Could Soon Be Deported
Immigrant rights activists are urging the Biden administration to pardon longtime activist Ravi Ragbir, who has been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for potential detention and deportation since 2001. Ragbir has been subject to regular ICE check-ins for over two decades, each time facing the possibility of being taken into custody by the agency. “Once you go into that building, your family, your friends, your community don’t know if you’ll walk back out,” says Ragbir.
Jimmy Carter Championed Human Rights But Also Funded & Armed Indonesia’s Genocide in East Timor
We continue to reflect on Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy with history professor Brad Simpson. Despite presiding over an administration that stood out for its successful championing of human rights elsewhere in the world, “in Southeast Asia, Carter really continued the policies of the Nixon and Ford administration,” particularly in Indonesia, which was at the time occupying and carrying out a genocide in East Timor.
Camp David’s Failures: Why Jimmy Carter’s Opposition to Israeli Apartheid Wasn’t Enough to Secure Peace
The late President Jimmy Carter presided over a key landmark in the Arab-Israeli peace process, the 1979 Camp David Accords signed by Egypt and Israel. Carter’s lifelong interest in resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict is an analog for his complicated legacy in foreign policy and human rights.
“Sabotaged by His Own Democratic Party”: Ralph Nader on Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, has been laid to rest in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, following a state funeral held in Washington, D.C. “He was the last president to actively encourage participation and involvement in governmental processes by the progressive civil community,” remembers the celebrated civil society and consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
Climate Scientist Peter Kalmus Fled L.A. Fearing Wildfires. His Old Neighborhood Is Now a Hellscape
At least 10 people have died in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires as firefighters continue to battle multiple infernos in the area. Thousands of homes and other structures have been destroyed, and some 180,000 people are under evacuation orders.