Operational Excellence, Strategic Incompetence
The president and his advisers are in the grip of “victory disease.”
Enrique Marcarian / Reuters 
Warner Bros.
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic The Economy’s Warning Light Is Flashing Yellow
A soft labor market, persistent inflation, a potential oil crisis—what could go wrong?
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic 
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic* ‘We Need to Do McCarthyism to the Tenth Power’
Conservative influencers are pushing for a return to the dark days of 1950s inquisitions.
Ibrahim Amro / AFP / Getty Something New Is Happening in Lebanon
For the first time, the country’s government is directly confronting a weakened Hezbollah.
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Illustration by The Atlantic The McDonald’s CEO’s Big Burger-Eating Mistake
If you’re going to eat on the internet, you’d better do it a certain way.
Mark Peterson / Redux Six Days of War, 10 Rationales
The administration has laid out a buffet of reasons for Operation Epic Fury—take your pick.
Illustration by Allison Zaucha Davis / The Atlantic* A Western That Goes Where Cormac McCarthy Wouldn’t
Álvaro Enrigue’s Now I Surrender scraps the simplistic binary of cowboys and Indians in favor of a wild, multifaceted war story.
Netflix What America’s Next Top Model Was Really Selling
The long-running reality series taught Millennials that beauty is work. We’re still recovering.
California’s Deadliest Avalanche Turned on One Choice
Why did a group of 15 skiers take a risky route on a dangerous day?
Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. What Kind of Man Was Anthony Bourdain?
He was so damaged, and yet he showed us so much of the world. (From 2022)
Alex Welsh / The New York Times / Redux Why Study History?
Civic education can help us to see that not all problems have solutions, to live with tentative answers, to accept compromise, to embrace responsibilities as well as rights—to understand that democracy is a way of living, not a settled destination. (From 1988)
The Atlantic The Simple Art of Murder
“Hemingway says somewhere that the good writer competes only with the dead. The good detective story writer … competes not only with all the unburied dead but with all the hosts of the living as well.” (From 1944)
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Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty the david frum show•Episode 49Trump’s War With Iran and a New Danger at Home
Tom Nichols on Donald Trump’s war with Iran, forgotten lessons from the Iraq War, and fears about the intentions of America’s leaders. Plus: Why Trump’s wartime powers could be extremely dangerous for American freedoms.
LIMITED SERIESAutocracy in America
There are authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States. To root them out, you have to know where to look.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. how to age up•Episode 6How to Age Up on a Warming Planet
Younger generations are having a hard time imagining their future.
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