The Atlantic

This Is the News From TikTok When young adults use the social-media outlet to keep up with current events, what kind of information are they getting?

More than a third of young adults trust TikTok for their news, Amogh Dimri writes. The app’s news watchers insist that they can decipher what’s going on in the world, “even if they have to extrapolate facts from memes”:

The rapid decline of American science has few precedents in history, argues @rossandersen.bsky.social. We are witnessing an unparalleled act of self-sabotage: https://theatln.tc/d40fABTK

The Iranian Revolution Was an Accident of History With the Islamic Republic under strain, a new book shows that its rise was mainly a stroke of bad luck.

With the Islamic Republic under strain, a new book argues that its rise was mainly a stroke of bad luck. @arashtehran.bsky.social on the Iranian Revolution as an accident of history:

As a Justice Department official, Emil Bove “behaved like someone who still believed that the president was his client,” Brendan Ballou argues. “Trump and his allies might come to regret appointing such a transparent partisan to the federal bench.” https://theatln.tc/yRqNOiw8

A Dispatch From the MAHA Future Featuring wearables, roadkill, and lots of astrology

“The year is 2029 and we are taking the New, Improved Presidential Fitness Test … If we don’t pass our Presidential Fitness Test, we’ll have to visit the Wellness Farm to pick turnips and be ‘reparented.’”

@petridishes.bsky.social’s dispatch from the future:

Israel’s Last Chance Flooding Gaza with food is the only way out of a crisis largely created by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

"Every image of a child with protruding ribs is both a human tragedy and a propaganda victory for Hamas—and proof of how a just war badly lost the plot," Franklin Foer argues.

Why the White House Backed Down From Its First Big Education Cuts Defunding popular programs can be as unwelcome in Trump country as it is in coastal cities.

Defunding popular programs can be as unwelcome in Trump country as it is in coastal cities, Toluse Olorunnipa argues.

Mrs. Dalloway’s Midlife Crisis Virginia Woolf’s wild run of creativity in her 40s included writing her masterpiece on the terrors and triumphs of middle age.

Virginia Woolf’s wild run of creativity in her 40s included writing her masterpiece on the terrors and triumphs of middle age, Hillary Kelly writes.

A Terrible Five Days for the Truth Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on reporting, statistics, and the historical record.

Donald Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on several kinds of truth—reporting, statistics, and the historical record, @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily.

The Mystery of the Strong Economy Has Finally Been Solved Turns out it wasn’t actually that strong.

Donald Trump announced new tariffs last week, “emboldened by the fact that the economy had remained strong until now despite economists’ warnings—a fact that turned out not to be a fact at all,” Rogé Karma writes.

Why the White House Backed Down From Its First Big Education Cuts Defunding popular programs can be as unwelcome in Trump country as it is in coastal cities.

“If the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly cut off the funding began as a trial balloon, it ended as a cautionary tale,” Toluse Olorunnipa writes:

What Is Evil? Explaining away even the most horrific acts of violence by saying some people are just wicked is understandable—but it won’t help us build a safer society.

Writing someone off as “evil” is an excuse to ignore the causes of human dysfunction, Amanda Knox writes. “That’s why I keep trying, even when I fail, to feel some degree of compassion for those labeled as ‘evil’”:

The WNBA Has a Good Problem on Its Hands Women’s basketball players are demanding higher pay. That’s what happens when business is booming.

"NBA owners have indeed spent a considerable amount of money to keep the league afloat," Jemele Hill writes of the WNBA. "But that spending wasn’t charity; it was an investment. And the investment is very clearly about to pay off":

A Terrible Five Days for the Truth Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on reporting, statistics, and the historical record.

Donald Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on several kinds of truth—reporting, statistics, and the historical record, @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily.

Trump’s Desperate Move to Quiet the Epstein Scandal The president tries to distract his followers with revisionist history about the Russia investigation.

The Trump administration’s claim of an Obama–era plot to make up that Russia had intervened in the 2016 election was “its latest and most comically desperate attempt to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” Jonathan Chait argues.

What’s Really Behind the Cult of Labubu The border between childhood and adulthood keeps getting fuzzier and fuzzier.

There’s a reason that adults are carrying Labubus everywhere from the club to the office. Valerie Trapp reports:

Trump’s Rule for National Parks: Only Mention the Good American History Tour guides might need to undertake some creative rebranding of American history.

Trump’s rule for national-park tour guides: mention only the good parts of American history. @petridishes.bsky.social's guide for how to rebrand America's past:

The Pentagon’s New Isolationism An already insular Defense Department is sealing itself off from outside thinkers.

Under a new policy on conferences, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon “could end up cutting itself off from thinkers and ideas beyond the building, or at least those with which the administration disagrees,” Nancy A. Youssef argues:

A Democrat for the Trump Era Jasmine Crockett is testing out the coarse style of politics that the GOP has embraced.

Democratic voters have said they want a fighter, and now they might have one in Jasmine Crockett, @elainegodfrey.bsky.social writes. She spoke with Crockett about testing out the coarse style of politics that the GOP has embraced.

A Terrible Five Days for the Truth Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on reporting, statistics, and the historical record.

Donald Trump’s latest moves represent an assault on several kinds of truth—reporting, statistics, and the historical record, @dgraham.bsky.social argues in The Atlantic Daily.

The siblings of one of Jeffrey Epstein's most prominent accusers said they were shocked when Donald Trump said Epstein “stole her” from Mar-a-Lago—and asked that Trump share whatever else he knows, Sarah Fitzpatrick reports. https://theatln.tc/pzkiNd61

‘We’re Trying to Do the Best We Can Before We Die’ The people caring for others in Gaza are hungry too.

Aid workers caring for the hungry in Gaza are themselves going without food. Claire Porter Robbins on a starvation crisis that has not spared the helpers:

The Culture Changed. Marc Maron Stayed the Same. The comedian’s style is still confrontational and opinionated—but now, his subjects are different.

Marc Maron’s new special, “Panicked,” features the comic at his most controlled, Vikram Murthi writes. But even if Maron’s temperament has softened over time, his perspective—and the way he manages his emotions—has remained remarkably consistent.

How the Muppets Helped Me Grieve After my dad got sick, his collaborations with Jim Henson kept me afloat.

When her father got sick, Sophie Brickman turned to the Muppets. “I had no grand plan,” she writes, but “simply gravitated toward their fluffiness and goofiness as an antidote to grief. I sensed—rightly, it turned out—that they’d help keep me afloat.”

Donald Trump Shoots the Messenger Classic authoritarian move: When reality doesn’t go your way, deny reality.

Trump's move to fire the government’s statisticians over bad jobs numbers won’t make voters any happier with the economy, Jonathan Chait argues.

Public pools could be a simple solution to ever-warming temperatures, Eve Andrews reports. Why are they so neglected? https://theatln.tc/be4W7e5Z

📸: H. Armstrong Roberts / ClassicStock / Getty

Trump’s Rule for National Parks: Only Mention the Good American History Tour guides might need to undertake some creative rebranding of American history.

Trump’s rule for national-park tour guides: mention only the good parts of American history. @petridishes.bsky.social's guide for how to rebrand America's past:

The Pentagon’s New Isolationism An already insular Defense Department is sealing itself off from outside thinkers.

Under a new policy on conferences, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon “could end up cutting itself off from thinkers and ideas beyond the building, or at least those with which the administration disagrees,” Nancy A. Youssef argues:

Israel’s Last Chance Flooding Gaza with food is the only way out of a crisis largely created by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

"Every image of a child with protruding ribs is both a human tragedy and a propaganda victory for Hamas—and proof of how a just war badly lost the plot," Franklin Foer argues.

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world.

“Because so many parents restrict their ability to socialize in the real world on their own, kids resort to the one thing that allows them to hang out with no adults hovering: their phones.”

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