All posts tagged: new stories

Russia’s tragedy, Putin’s humiliation – The Atlantic

Russia’s tragedy, Putin’s humiliation – The Atlantic

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. Terrorists struck deep inside Russia on Friday, and the conspiracy theories are already spinning. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Three Realities If you are trying to figure out who attacked a Russian rock concert and why they slaughtered and wounded dozens of people, your confusion is understandable. In an era when social media spews chaff and deception during every crisis, some fairly straightforward issues get obscured in all the drama. As we untangle the ghastly attack just outside of Moscow, bear in mind three realities about politics in Russia. First, some terrorist groups have a long-standing hatred of the Russians, and mass-casualty attacks in Russia’s cities are not new. Americans, scarred by 9/11, often think that they are the prime target of Islamist extremists, but over the past two decades, Russia has endured more mass-casualty …

The Books Briefing: Choosing America’s Greatest Novels

The Books Briefing: Choosing America’s Greatest Novels

The Atlantic assembled a list of 136 works of fiction that we consider to be the most significant of the past 100 years. James Paterson / N-Photo Magazine / Future / Getty March 15, 2024, 12:35 PM ET This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. The idea of a settled canon, one that towers Mount Rushmore–like above us, is boring. I’ll admit that some books and authors, after enough centuries have passed and their influence seems without question, should have their names etched in stone (although even The Iliad and Shakespeare can occasionally stir up a fight). But our sense of which novels matter most is otherwise always fluid—what was once tasteful is now tedious; a colorful character now just seems offensive. The process of thinking through what speaks to us today, and what will likely speak to readers a century from today, is much more exciting than staring up at those established greats: You’re making a wager. My colleagues …

Could a TikTok ban actually happen?

Could a TikTok ban actually happen?

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. Efforts to crack down on TikTok are picking up momentum in Congress. What was once a Trump-led effort boosted by Republicans has since become a bipartisan priority for lawmakers hoping to look tough on China in an election year. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic: New Momentum Efforts to ban TikTok in the United States—or at least to attempt to force the Chinese-founded company ByteDance to divest TikTok—have recently picked up momentum. What once seemed like a quixotic, Trumpian endeavor has now shaped into a congressional bill that a bipartisan House committee voted unanimously to advance last week. The bill’s pointed provisions, which will most likely be brought to a broader House vote this week, refer to TikTok by name and would force other large apps owned by foreign adversaries to sell to a domestic owner …

Biden’s candy-bar crusade – The Atlantic

Biden’s candy-bar crusade – The Atlantic

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. In his State of the Union address last night, President Joe Biden took on a new symbolic foe: shrinkflation. In attacking the practice, he’s trying to signal that he’s aligned with the common American against corporate greed—even if it’s not clear what he can actually do about the problem. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Snack-Food Foes Sesame Street characters have had their fuzzy fingers on the pulse of American life lately. First, Elmo triggered an avalanche of despair when he asked on X how everyone was doing. Then his castmate the Cookie Monster proclaimed earlier this week, “Me hate shrinkflation!” In his punchy, confrontational State of the Union speech last night, Biden conveyed a similar feeling. After outlining his accomplishments and his plans for the economy, the president denounced the way snack-food makers have been …

The Books Briefing: What to Read Ahead of the Oscars

The Books Briefing: What to Read Ahead of the Oscars

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. As the 96th Oscars approach, I’ve been thinking about how closely intertwined Hollywood and the literary world are. Arguably, publishing’s biggest contribution to the movies today is providing an intellectual-property source for new projects. Lots of films in the running for statues, such as Oppenheimer, American Fiction, The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, and Killers of the Flower Moon, are adapted from books. And for as long as we’ve had movie stars and blockbusters, we’ve had tell-alls and journalistic exposés of their foibles and triumphs. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic’s books section: This week, Fran Hoepfner recommended seven books that dig into how the film industry really works—titles such as Julia Phillips’s dishy New Hollywood classic, You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, and two excellent (if very different) memoirs from the actors Viola Davis and Eartha Kitt. As Hoepfner writes, Davis’s prose is as clear as a …

America’s false virus equivalence – The Atlantic

America’s false virus equivalence – The Atlantic

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. This month marks four years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. My colleague Katherine J. Wu recently published an article about what is driving the U.S. government to frame COVID-19 as being flu-like—and the problems with that approach. I called Katherine to discuss the false equivalence of the diseases, and how America missed out on a chance to normalize protections against respiratory illness. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic: Not the Flu Lora Kelley: To what extent is COVID-19 being treated like the flu right now? Katherine J. Wu: In a lot of ways, this comparison has been present on public, private, and political levels since the first days of the pandemic. In 2020, some well-intentioned people were saying that, at least in some ways, you could expect COVID to behave like a lot of …

How anti-Semitism threatens American democracy

How anti-Semitism threatens American democracy

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. In our April cover story, my colleague Franklin Foer explores how anti-Semitism on both the right and the left threatens to end a period of unprecedented safety and prosperity for American Jews—and the liberal order they helped establish. Frank and I chatted last week about the past and future of anti-Semitism, and about some lesser-understood moments in American Jewish history. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic: What Liberalism Did Isabel Fattal: You write that “part of the reason I failed to appreciate the extent of the anti-Semitism on the left is that I assumed its criticisms of the Israeli government were, at bottom, a harsher version of my own.” How did October 7 change this thinking for you? Franklin Foer: For a long time, I didn’t actually think that anti-Semitism was an American problem. And then …

The Books Briefing: A Memoir Shouldn’t Boss You Around

The Books Briefing: A Memoir Shouldn’t Boss You Around

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. The temptation for a writer to turn their memoir into a self-help book must be strong. The author has looked back at her life, her choices, her blunders, her triumphs. And through this process of retrospection, she might see lessons learned that apply not just to her, but really, to everyone. This is a big mistake, writes Lily Meyer, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, in her assessment of This American Ex-Wife, Lyz Lenz’s new book about her divorce. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic’s Books section: What memoir needs to succeed is “specificity and perspective,” Meyer writes. Lenz, instead, has written what one of the book’s blurbs correctly calls a “memoir-meets-manifesto” that extrapolates a society-wide conclusion from her own experience. Because her marriage needed to end, she seems to suggest, everyone’s marriage needs to end—taking what was her own hardship, which Meyer says she writes about well, and generalizing …

Trump delivers another autocratic tirade

Trump delivers another autocratic tirade

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. Donald Trump unleashed a flood of delusions and fascistic threats at CPAC this weekend in a speech to an audience that included actual neo-Nazis, a story overshadowed by the South Carolina GOP primary and his completely predictable defeat of the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Dreaming of Judgment Day You have likely heard about this weekend’s Republican primary contest in South Carolina. Donald Trump stomped on the state’s former governor (and his own former UN ambassador) Nikki Haley and cruised to a 20-point win. Trump’s victory was no surprise, and the race was called practically nanoseconds after the polls closed. Hours of granular coverage were devoted to the whole business anyway, and analysts and pundits are now trying to figure out whether Haley winning just a shade under 40 percent …