Caroline Mimbs Nyce

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.DOMINICK REUTER / GETTYWith the pandemic at a deadly peak, Americans learned that the president, still set on overturning the 2020 election results, went so far as to discuss martial law. His refusal to accept the outcome will leave a dangerous legacy.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.This holiday season, there is reason for hope: The development of vaccines means the end of this pandemic is in sight. But in the meantime, travel and social gatherings remain ill-advised, and many Americans are spending the final days of 2020 without the comfort of loved ones.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.JAN BUCHCZIKWith two weeks left in the year, the pull of home is especially strong for many Americans. But long before the first snowflakes fell, we knew this winter would be a difficult one. And now, with coronavirus cases setting records, gatherings are riskier than ever.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.ADAM MAIDAThe social web is broken.And not just a little, or just recently, argues my colleague Adrienne LaFrance, who has been writing about media and technology for more than 15 years. Central to that brokenness is the unprecedented scale—or megascale, as she calls it—of Facebook.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Ricardo TomásScience defeated the coronavirus, my colleague Ed Yong reports in our latest cover story
This spring, thousands of researchers paused their projects in order to study the deadly disease, COVID-izing their disciplines.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.KATIE MARTIN / THE ATLANTICWelcome to vaccine purgatory.“We’ve spent 2020 adjusting to a pandemic normal, and now a strange, new period is upon us,” my colleague Sarah Zhang, who covers vaccines, notes in her latest.Thus the waiting begins.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.KATIE MARTIN / THE ATLANTICWelcome to vaccine purgatory.“We’ve spent 2020 adjusting to a pandemic normal, and now a strange, new period is upon us,” my colleague Sarah Zhang, who covers vaccines, notes in her latest.Thus the waiting begins.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.KENT NISHIMURA / LOS ANGELES TIMES / GETTYConditions are continuing to deteriorate in America’s hospitals and long-term-care facilities. Still the holidays loom.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. The ATLANTIC43 days. President-elect Joe Biden takes office in a month and half. In the meantime, his transition team is working to staff the executive branch.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inboxWIN MCNAMEE / GETTYAmerica remains on the eve of a potential return to normalcy. This time, the country is nearing the formal procedural end to one of the year’s biggest dramas, the 2020 election.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inboxApple TV+U.S. hospitals are past their breaking point. It’s time to go home and lock yourself down, if you can. Below, we’ve compiled six suggestions for a weekend spent in isolation.Watch.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inboxGO NAKAMURA / GETTY / THE ATLANTICThis spring, we first met bad. This winter, we’re set to meet worse.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inboxCHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTYThe Trumpian vortex isn’t what it used to be. Weeks after Donald Trump’s defeat, the current is slowing: The president is commanding far less attention in his last weeks of office.That’s not, as my colleague David A.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. SIPHIWE SIBEKO / REUTERSThe vaccine news cycles are just beginning.More trial data are coming, our science reporter Sarah Zhang says in her latest. Expect future results that are “sometimes good, sometimes confusing, and sometimes disappointing.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inboxKATIE MARTIN / THE ATLANTICThis, but not that. Bars open, but not schools. Hygiene theater abounds.With coronavirus cases at the highest levels they’ve ever been, Americans are caught playing a life-or-death game of safety hopscotch. The rules may vary by household or region.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Flip to the last page of any Atlantic print magazine, and you’ll find a humble ode.The source of all this goodwill is James Parker, a lyrical writer (and poet) turned monthly gratitude correspondent. In honor of Thanksgiving, I asked James to write an original holiday-themed ode.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.A scary season looms; poems can steel the spirit, or offer a distraction. Our writers and editors offer nine selections for exactly those purposes. Store them in your heart’s cellar, and retrieve as needed.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.SHUTTERSTOCK / PAUL SPELLA / THE ATLANTICThis week brought another round of urgent pandemic updates, both catastrophic and spectacular. Our writers help you process the good and the bad.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Julia SellmannPrenatal testing gives expecting parents more information—and leaves them with complicated choices.In our new magazine cover story, science reporter Sarah Zhang looks at the case of Denmark, which established nationwide genetic testing for Down syndrome more than 15 years ago.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.JOHN MOORE / GETTYMore than 1,000 American hospitals report that they don’t have enough staff to manage the influx of coronavirus patients.That’s 22 percent of hospitals in the U.S..This frightening statistic, courtesy of my colleague Alexis C.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Jordan Casteel. Photo of painting: David SchulzeBarack Obama is somehow still hopeful.The former president acknowledges the very real threats to democracy in this moment. But he urges Americans to take the long view and, within the time they have, work to make things better.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.A worsening pandemic may leave many Americans stripped of holiday comforts. Although an old TV show is no substitute for a hug from a loved one, perhaps some solace can be found in the familiar faces of beloved characters.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. THE ATLANTICJoe Biden accrued a record-setting number of votes, proving that the Democratic Party’s coalition is the largest in the country. But that alignment could be tricky to maintain, writers on our politics team warn.
The party’s truce is over.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.GO NAKAMURA / GETTYThis pandemic never stopped being serious. But the situation just got more so.COVID-19 hospitalizations are up to an all-time high, and with them, fears that America’s hospitals could be overwhelmed.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.GETTY / THE ATLANTICAmericans were still processing Joe Biden’s victory when more big news arrived: a breakthrough in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine, courtesy of the drugmaker Pfizer.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.MARK MAKELA / GETTYDonald Trump isn’t going away. A majority of Americans served the 45th president an electoral rebuke, denying him a second term in the White House.But don’t expect him to quietly recede from public life, our White House correspondent Peter Nicholas warns.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERSThe election of Joe Biden marks the end of one process and the start of another.For four years, President Donald Trump aggravated the nation’s fissures for political gain.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.GETTY / THE ATLANTICTime froze. States stopped being called.For days, Joe Biden seemed perma-stuck on the precipice of victory. And the sitting president seemed to know it, delivering extraordinary and baseless claims about election fraud.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.BRETT CARLSEN / GETTYThe presidential contest appears likely to drag on at least one more agonizing day. But the Oval Office wasn’t the only thing on the line this year. We explore three winners of this cycle.1.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.GETTYThe presidential contest isn’t resolved. But the 2020 election has already proved revealing. Keep reading for three things we’ve gleaned from the results so far.1. This country remains deeply divided.