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Has anyone described the fear of dying more vividly than the 19th-century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy in The Death of Ivan Ilyich? In that novella, published in 1886, the protagonist lives the conventional, prosperous life of a Russian bourgeois.
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.
Raging wildfires continue to scorch communities across the Los Angeles area, killing at least five people, displacing about 100,000 more and destroying thousands of structures. With firefighters unable to contain much of the blaze, the toll is expected to rise. The wildfires that started Tuesday caught much of the city by surprise, quickly growing into one of the worst fire disasters in Los Angeles history.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced major changes to what content is allowed on his company’s social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, scrapping the system of independent fact-checkers in favor of “community notes” from volunteer users. Zuckerberg also loosened moderation rules around offensive speech, which will allow hateful content targeting women, LGBTQ people and other groups.
Most of the infrastructure that stops drivers from hitting people, buildings, and each other is designed for smaller, lighter cars.
Jane Marie joins Emily to deep dive on MLMs, their origins, and their questionable business models.
As a local, I avoid Bourbon Street—except on rare occasions, when there’s no place I’d rather be.
I thought getting paid once a month would make it much harder to manage our money.
Vivek Murthy says alcohol causes cancer, but the industry still has many friends on Capitol Hill.
Brian Anderson is ready to shape the future of AI in health care — if Donald Trump will let him.
A combination of viral respiratory infections, malaria and malnutrition has killed nearly 50 people in the African country.
Experts warn of inadequate testing by the CDC, which maintains the risk to humans “remains low.
The billionaire and his company needed Speaker Mike Johnson’s help to stop legislation that would have regulated social media for the first time.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Miran has called for a sweeping overhaul of the Fed to ensure greater political control over the central bank, including giving the president the power to fire board members at will.
Five weeks after the election, the president took his sharpest swing at Trump’s policy plans.
A pair of POLITICO|Morning Consult polls, one conducted in the final days of the election and the other conducted after Trump won, show how public opinion has changed.
On Abbott Elementary, celebrity sightings are as common as a back-to-school flu outbreak or drama with the PTA. The show’s Season 2 premiere kicked off with the spunky second-grade teacher Janine Teagues (played by Quinta Brunson) trying to surprise Abbott students with an appearance from “the only celebrity that matters”: Gritty, the internet-famous mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers.
We knew to expect winds. When they came on Tuesday morning, sounding like a tsunami crashing over my family’s home in western Malibu, the utility company shut off our power. We knew the chance of fire was high.
I had arrived home for the holidays in early December, and had already been greeted by the Franklin Fire, which had burned the hills black. Now, when my dad and I went in search of electricity, a great plume of smoke was rising above those burned hills.
Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would end fact-checking on its platform. In the process, a partnership with the network of third parties that has provided review and ratings of viral misinformation since 2016 will be terminated. To some observers, this news suggested that the company was abandoning the very idea of truth, and opening its gates to lies, perversions, and deception. But this is wrong: Those gates were never really closed.
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Americans are spending more and more time alone. Some are lonely. But many people—young men in particular—are actively choosing to spend much of their time in isolation, in front of screens.
Yesterday morning, donning his new signature fit—gold chain, oversize T-shirt, surfer hair—Mark Zuckerberg announced that his social-media platforms are getting a makeover. His aggrievement was palpable: For years, Zuckerberg said, “governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.” No longer. Meta is abolishing its third-party fact-checking program, starting in the U.S.; loosening its content filters; and bringing political content back to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
Unsavory practices propped up by a small number of operators leave some customers feeling stuck.
Eleven Yemeni men imprisoned without charge or trial at the Guantánamo Bay detention center for more than two decades have just been released to Oman to restart their lives. This latest transfer brings the total number of men detained at Guantánamo down to 15.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he is stepping down as leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, following rising discontent over his leadership and growing dissent within his government. Trudeau had served as Canada’s prime minister since 2015. His resignation comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to annex Canada.
Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern calls on President Biden to pardon environmental activist Steven Donziger, who has been targeted for years by oil and gas giant Chevron. Donziger sued Chevron on behalf of farmers and Indigenous peoples who suffered the adverse health effects of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I visited Ecuador. I saw what Chevron did. It is disgusting” and “grotesque,” says McGovern. “Donziger stood up for these people who had no voice.
