This can't be about drugs. Trump just pardoned Hernandez. It can't be about democracy. Trump is often all for autocrats. But we do know some things: it worked; it's surely illegal; and it doesn't seem like there's much of a plan for tomorrow. www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

At least 4 pieces, including mine, are up about the VZ thing at The Atlantic website: www.theatlantic.com

"The military operation in Venezuela is a warning that Trump’s imperial ambitions are growing. He’s building himself a triumphal arch in Washington. He craves gaudy acts to justify his monument to himself." www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

"In 2026, as ever, only Congress can stop endless wars of choice. And if Trump faces no consequences for this one, he may well start another." www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

"The real question isn’t whether this action was legal; it is what to do about its illegality. Ignoring the law and the people’s will in this fashion is a high crime." www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Wow. What a lede by @radiofreetom.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

“The comic aspect of the Kennedy Center threat is that Trump has little leverage over artists. He can fire a general who refuses to organize a parade for him, but he can’t make Lin-Manuel Miranda put Hamilton in the Kennedy Center.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

A cartoon for today: www.newyorker.com/gallery/new-...

Words to live by today—and every day.

The judge who dismissed the DOJ's classified docs case against Trump could soon oversee trials of people the president has targeted ... www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Such an important point about how political discourse works today. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

A classic cartoon: www.newyorker.com/gallery/sant...

Yikes. This quote is brutal. “'The reason he’s hanging on is because Trump wants a weak speaker,' a House Republican told us. 'He wants a speaker that essentially functions like a staff member, which is what Mike Johnson does.'” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

It looks like Trump has a tell when he's lying. If he says something is 92%, it’s probably a fib. www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Trump looks a lot weaker than he did a few months ago. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

"If even a fraction of the allegations are true, the U.S. is complicit in sadistic acts that our own laws forbid." One thing for certain: what the Venezuelans went through at CECOT was horrific. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

"When presented with the simplest moral test, Vance failed." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

My last story of the year: an update on the woman who fell in love with ChatGPT. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...

"The reason so many of yesterday’s free-speech champions transitioned so easily into today’s pro-Trump censors is that their definition of free speech never included the right of others to talk back." @adamserwer.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

"The crisis of democracy is a crisis of information—citizens make bad decisions, in part, because they are starved of the facts. And it can get worse." The world is not outraged enough that Trump is using his power to force CBS and CNN to mold to his views. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

"'I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,' she wrote." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

“Anti-Semitism among foreign-born Americans, like anti-Semitism among other Americans, is certainly real. I’ve reported on it. But the notion that it is somehow the prime driver of American anti-Semitism does not add up—literally.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Even for Trump, last night’s rant was unhinged. He didn’t project confidence or authority—he projected fear. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Trump's new National Security Strategy: The enemy is not Chinese communism, Russian autocracy, or Islamic extremism. It is European liberal democracy. @anneapplebaum.bsky.social on an alarming document. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Yes, Trump is becoming crueler—and it’ll probably get worse. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

This is the scariest chart you’ll see today.

A lovely review of The Running Ground in PressReader: www.pressreader.com/canada/canad....

"American anti-Semitism is not primarily a partisan phenomenon, as it is often framed in popular discourse, but a generational one." By @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Really fun to talk to @nxthompson.bsky.social about his new book; this was part of our "Outside In" series where we bring in speakers/writers/thinkers/artists to present to Microsoft employees. Here is just a snip of the 30 minutes. www.linkedin.com/posts/fxshaw...

The 'Almost Constantly' line is rather terrifying.

Amazing. Dan Bongino—the FBI’s No. 2 in charge—fully admits to lying when he was on TV and says he will do it again once he’s done in government. But for now, you should trust him. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Forgetting key details about big news. Falling asleep in meetings. A narrowing schedule. Bruises, bandages, and a weird MRI. @dgraham.bsky.social asks if Trump is losing the physical capability to be president? www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Mackenzie Scott’s combination of generosity and humility is truly remarkable. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A distressing chart. As our government sues media companies, and threatens to take away their broadcast licenses for airing critical programs, the US has now dropped to 57th in the world in press freedom. Maybe next year we can catch Romania and Sierra Leone. gijn.org/stories/glob...

No @radiofreetom.bsky.social does not have respect for Hegseth's sniveling and deceptive response to the Inspector General investigating #signalgate. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

The Future of Life Institute has a new report on AI safety and ... all the big AI companies do terribly. These companies talk a lot about safety and mitigating risk, but they've deprioritized it in a headlong race to AGI and all that comes with it.

Yes, the Pentagon's top watchdog confirms that the info Pete Hegseth sent to national-security officials and Jeffrey Goldberg in Signalgate was, in fact, classified. And, yes, his messages could have endangered U.S. forces. www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

This is a brilliant profile of Josh Shapiro. You can't stop reading, and it explains so well why so many people love the governor's ability to connect and to solve problems---and why he drives so many others absolutely crazy. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

"You can call for American-troop withdrawal for 20 years, and you won’t be politically or strategically wrong. But you need to be ready to take it on the chin when the inevitable happens: girls being forced into child marriage and forbidden to go to school." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"Everyone around Trump, and everything he is seeing on TV and on his phone, is telling him that he’s right. But poll after poll suggests that Americans believe Trump is now getting it wrong and has lost focus on what got him elected." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

A.I. companies took our content and used it to build businesses worth billions. Then they said it’s impossible to compensate us. Bill Gross saw this injustice and decided to do something about it. Produced by Atlantic Re:think, The Atlantic's creative marketing studio, in collaboration with PwC.

What people were most thankful for in the aftermath of World War II: Peace Health Family Three things that transcend time and circumstance.

A.I. companies shouldn't just share revenue with publishers because it would be the right thing to do. They should do it because it would be good business. Produced by Atlantic Re:think, The Atlantic's creative marketing studio, in collaboration with PwC.

“Hegseth’s tenure so far has featured a series of appalling security lapses and janky public performances that call into question not only his character but his emotional stability” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

What Trump is doing with the DOJ is horrifying. But his recent failures to prosecute his enemies have uncovered something encouraging: the judicial system is working. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

“There are a lot of reasons I run,” @nxthompson.bsky.social writes. “I like to remember that I’m still alive, and that I survived my cancer. But really I run because of my father.” Running “reminds me of my father, and gives me a way to avoid becoming my father.”

"In the decade since he became the singular influence on American politics, he has completely and thoroughly dispensed with concepts of shame, of decency, of equality.” The brilliant Sophie Gilbert on how Trump has normalized open contempt for women: www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Is A.I. making the world less equal? Navrina Singh says the gap between A.I. haves and have-nots is widening, which could lead to devastating outcomes if we don't act soon. Produced by Atlantic Re:think, The Atlantic's creative marketing studio, in collaboration with PwC.

"My son knows that I am a writer and that I write about our planet. Since I’ve been sick, I remind him a lot, so that he will know that I was not just a sick person." Tatiana Schlossberg's heartbreaking essay about a terminal diagnosis at 34. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

This is deeply concerning: After decades of steady progress, math scores are back to where they were in the 1970s. How did this happen? One theory: Smart phones have shredded students’ attention spans and AI has made them complacent. Why learn math when they can just use AI instead? buff.ly/dGpxhjK