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Trump tells The Atlantic that Iranian leaders want to resume negotiations. Credit: Heather Diehl / Getty One day after launching strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and embroiled the region in war, President Trump told me this morning that the country’s new leadership wants to ta

Inside Anthropic’s Killer-Robot Dispute With the Pentagon

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New details on precisely where the lines were drawn Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Erin Schaff / The New York Times / Redux; Heather Diehl / Getty. Right up until the moment that Pete Hegseth moved to terminate the government’s relationship with the AI company Anthropic, its leaders bel

Why Khamenei Is Dead

4 hours ago

The best-planned defenses don’t count for much if the people you trust to run them are ready to sell you out. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Celebrating or calling for the deaths of others is wrong, and bad for the soul. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed yesterday by Isr

Trump Rolls the Iron Dice

15 hours ago

The uncertainties of Trump’s attack on Iran are enough to justify some queasy doubts. Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty No tears should flow for the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or for his associated butchers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij militia, and the rest o

‘The Worst-Case Outcome Is Complete Chaos’

18 hours ago

Killing the supreme leader was one thing. Ousting the regime will be another. Hugo Clarence Janody / Hans Lucas / Redux In the final hours before U.S. warplanes bombarded Iran today, President Trump wanted to go over the plan one last time. He called the top U.S. military commander in the Middl

The Death of Khamenei and the End of an Era

21 hours ago

His life’s work was to preserve a revolution that is heading for the ash heap. Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty “The essence of oligarchical rule,” George Orwell wrote in 1984, “is the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living.” For nearly f

Trump Has No Plan for the Iranian People

The mere act of bombing Iran will not by itself create a stable regime. Majid Saeedi / Getty The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without even an attempt to build public support. Above all, it has been launched without a coherent strategy for

Iran Goes to War Against the Arabs

Countries such as Saudi Arabia once wondered whether Tehran could be appeased and contained. Now they do not. Reuters During the past two years, Iran and Israel have traded missile and air strikes three times, and by now, war between them is old news. War between Iran and the Gulf Arab states o

The Fallout From the Epstein Files

Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein investigation, and more. Courtesy of Washington Week With The Atlantic The Department of Justice is facing scrutiny this week after it was revealed that records involving Preside

How to Create an Equal Household

And why making a fair split of chores actually stick is so hard Martin Barraud / Getty 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. How

The Paradox of Trump’s Iran Attack

When his fantasies unravel, Trump has a habit of abusing power to force his will upon an uncooperative world. Celal Gunes / Anadolu / Getty President Trump has launched a war that offers opportunities to the Middle East and threatens constitutional freedom at home. American service members are

Four Conditions Make Cash Transfers Save Lives

The success of other countries shows these programs can work in the United States. Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic Of all the ways that governments can try to help people, cash transfers can seem like one of the most straightforward. Their popularity has been growing: Over the pa

What $1 Million of Anti-Racist Leadership Training Buys You

The president of Wesleyan University objected to a recent Atlantic article—but didn’t criticize it on the merits. Illustration by The Atlantic Michael S. Roth, the longtime president of Wesleyan University, is an eloquent defender of the liberal arts and open inquiry. He is by turns a realist a

Wait—Laser Guns Are Real Now?

A staple of sci-fi and children’s entertainment is now being deployed by actual militaries in actual combat. Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. Source: Buyenlarge / Getty. The headlines lately have verged on science fiction. A few weeks ago, my colleague Simon Shuster reported

War With Iran Has Begun. Where Does It End?

Trump has launched combat operations despite little public support and widespread fears among allies. Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic* More than an hour after missiles began targeting top Iranian officials across downtown Tehran, President Trump for the first time described

The Epic Miscalculations of Trump and Khamenei

Hubris has distorted their strategic decisions. Chip Somodevilla / Getty; Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty “On the eve of each war at least one of the nations miscalculated its bargaining power,” wrote the historian Geoffrey Blainey in his book The Causes of War. “In that sense every war comes from a

Trump’s Enormous Gamble on Regime Change in Iran

A few paths to success, many to failure Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto / Getty The United States has gone to war against Iran. America has only one ally—Israel—in this operation (the Arab states of the Gulf, which fear the Iranian regime, are targets of Iran, but so far are not participating in t

What Can the Texas Primary Tell Us About Democrats?

Our reporter Elaine Godfrey on getting kicked out of a Jasmine Crockett rally Bob Daemmrich / The Texas Tribune / Bloomberg / Getty Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts This week, the Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey was covering a campaign rally

An End to U.S. Military Aid to Israel May Be Closer Than You Think

Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to walk away from U.S. assistance says a lot about the shifting dynamics. Evelyn Hockstein / Getty When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at Mar-a-Lago in late December, he had a surprise message for President Trump: Israel would begin weaning itsel

What Happens to Anthropic Now?

The Trump administration is severing all ties with the “woke” AI firm. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Artem Onoprienko / Getty. President Trump is terminating the government’s relationship with Anthropic, an AI company whose products, until recently, were used by Pentagon officials for c

Netflix Just Avoided a Huge Headache

The streamer saved more than money by giving up on Warner Bros. Discovery. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty When the news broke yesterday that Netflix had dropped out of the monthslong bidding war to control Warner Bros. Discovery—including its massive film library, range of TV networks, and new

‘Elaine From Atlantic … She Needs to Leave’

Representative Jasmine Crockett claimed I wasn’t kicked out of her rally. Here’s the audio. USA Today Network / Reuters This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. I was not expecting Representative Jasmine Crockett’s team to call me a “top-not

The Diplomats Who Carry Trump’s Grievances Abroad

Some of the president’s ambassadors keep getting into needless conflicts. Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty 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

How to Put Sex in a Novel

In a new book, intimate fantasies become a crucial vehicle for character development. Peter Dench / Getty This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. When did literary fiction get so prudish? my colleague Lily Meyer asked in

The Right Is Becoming What It Hates