The Atlantic - LATEST

7 hours ago

The elections will be a test for the industry’s ability to translate money into political power. Mikala Compton / The Austin American-Statesman / 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, a

Another Top General Is Out at the Pentagon

7 hours ago

C. D. Donahue, the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan, is the latest in a long line of military departures. Karl B. DeBlaker / AP General Chris “C. D.” Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan during the chaotic 2021 withdrawal. As the head of Army forces in Europe and Afr

America’s Greatest Food Export

9 hours ago

Ranch dressing has become, deservedly or not, a face of the nation during the World Cup. As far as I can tell, patient zero was a Swedish 24-year-old named Elsa Thora. “Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack?” she posted to X earlier this month, apparently hours after landing in Indian

Is It Warm Out There?

12 hours ago

The planet is getting hotter. But America’s conversation about it has chilled. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Summer has begun—which is to say, wildfires in the West are chasing residents from their homes, the snowpack has dwindled to near-record lows in several states, drought is

America Desperately Needs More Sterile Screwworms

14 hours ago

Ranchers are waiting for hundreds of millions of sterile flies to be produced, or for a technological breakthrough. Fernando Llano / AP This time a year ago, experts were already predicting the return of flesh-eating screwworms to the United States: a matter of not if but when, Wayne Cockrell,

Americans Are in Denial About Elder Care

19 hours ago

Many assume that if they can afford paid help in older age, they won’t need to rely on kin. They’re wrong. Illustration by Hokyoung Kim This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. As far as growing old goes, the Dutch have it pretty good. The Ne

A Fancy Name for Junk Food

19 hours ago

Does the war on “ultra-processed foods” make any sense? Philotheus Nisch for The Atlantic Once again, Americans are in a panic over what we eat. More than two-thirds of those surveyed now regard the industrially produced, ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, that dominate the U.S. food supply as add

SpaceX Just Needs the Money

19 hours ago

What this year of humongous IPOs says about the tech industry Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic* This is the year of the giga-IPO. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace and artificial-intelligence company, raised a record $75 billion in capital when it went public earlier this month,

Atlantic Trivia: Pizza

20 hours ago

Test your knowledge—and read our stories for a little extra help. You know what goes well with pasta? Pizza. Sink your teeth into today’s Knowledge Lovers’ Supreme. Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily. If you think

America’s Big Mistake in Iran

20 hours ago

Aerial bombing alone can’t win a war. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Pictures From History / Getty. When the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February, their plan was simple: bomb Iran until either the Iranian public rose up and overthrew the government, or the existi

Trump Can’t Spin His Way Out of His Two Latest Crises

a day ago

He’s trying to defy the reality of a green Reflecting Pool and a lost war. Mandel Ngan / AFP / 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 h

First the Kennedy Center, Now the Smithsonian

a day ago

How long can the museum system’s leader, Lonnie Bunch, survive? Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Sources: Graeme Sloan / Sipa / Reuters; Getty. Updated at 7:26 p.m. ET on June 22, 2026 When President Trump summoned Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for

The Man Who Couldn’t Do It

Keir Starmer joins the growing list of prime ministers who failed to address the country’s troubles. Wiktor Szymanowicz / Future Publishing / Getty Updated at 11:54 a.m. ET on June 22, 2026 In the past decade, Britain has churned through leaders faster than the average fringe revolutionary

What Happened to Tony Carruthers Is Horrifying

Lethal injection was meant to be humane. The reality is bloody and brutal. Illustration by Alicia Tatone. Sources: Tennessee Department of Correction; Getty. Used needles clinked into the plastic medical-waste bin in the death chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Tony

What Will Happen to Birthright Citizenship?

The Supreme Court considers the Fourteenth Amendment. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Heather Diehl / Getty. Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts Who gets to be an American? It’s a simple question—one that was answered when Congress passed, and

What Will Happen to Birthright Citizenship?

The Hot New Place for Singles

Newsletter writers are playing cupid with their like-minded readers. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Last month in Los Angeles, John Fulton reported the following: Cafe Stella has not only reopened—it also might get a pool. Maru needs baristas for its Los Feliz location. The Salkin

Paradise Revisited

What Darwin saw in the Galápagos My first encounter with a Galápagos tortoise came when the driver of my taxi from the airport attempted a risky overtaking maneuver into the path of an oncoming bus. On the island of Santa Cruz, which is bisected by a single highway, this is a favorite sport: Th

Democrats’ Great Alaskan Hope

Mary Peltola, the Democrat most likely to win a red-state Senate seat this year, is largely unknown outside her home state. That’s not a coincidence. Kerry Tasker / Reuters The Democrat Mary Peltola has led in every public poll since she declared for the U.S. Senate election this year in Alaska

The Election System Wasn’t Built for This

The fight playing out in Maricopa County could be a harbinger of things to come. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Not so long ago, the Republicans who ran elections in one of the nation’s most important battlegrounds—Maricopa County, Arizona—largely got along. There were egos and qu

Atlantic Trivia: Pasta

Test your knowledge—and read our stories for a little extra help. It’s Monday, and you deserve questions all about pasta—alla pasta, for short. They come from a 1986 cover story headlined, well, “Pasta.” Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign

Imperfect Ghazal on Weightless Living

A poem Hannah Edelman / Connected Archives for my father My father’s hands flapped in a spiral of smoke—a weak light. What did I dream then, a child drenched in image? Sleek light, falling honeyed rivers, purpled fruit. What did I need to imagine my body, calm in migration? I wanted

I’d Rather Risk Cancer Than See AI Move This Fast

I’d benefit if AI cured cancer. And I still want AI progress to slow down. Illustration by Alicia Tatone. Source: Getty. On a fall afternoon 15 years ago, I met an idealistic researcher outside a Stanford coffee shop to discuss our shared dream: using AI to detect cancer. He had wiry hair, a pe

The Warrior-Witches of Ukraine’s Resistance

An underground intelligence network uses subterfuge and honey traps to direct drone strikes deep inside Russian-occupied territory. Illustration by Ann Kiernan For several months last year, a Ukrainian housewife, 35 and lonely in a marriage that had gone cold, traded WhatsApp messages with a Ch

J. D. Vance’s AI Doctrine