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Today:
Rock and Roll Faces the Inevitable
NEWS | 12 May 2026
The idea of a late style in rock and roll would have been unimaginable during the 1960s and early ’70s, the era that Windolf primarily recounts. When the Beatles arrived, rock and roll was in its youth. Windolf’s title implies that rock and roll is ever evolving, broadening its horizons as it grows in sophistication. “This was the birth of Rock,” Windolf writes, quoting the producer Joe Boyd on Dylan’s three-song electric set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. Late style represents neither a footnote nor an epilogue but rather—should an artist live long enough—a necessary point of evolution.

Top Stories:
What Happens When the Tradwife Dream Goes Wrong?
NEWS | 12 May 2026
Hannah Neeleman and her husband, Daniel, look like average beaming newlyweds, young parents fake-posing with margaritas and figuring things out. You can’t definitively argue that this turn toward an ultra-feminine, domestic-nostalgic, pacified depiction of womanhood has been driven by audience engagement. Feminist Substackers gleefully dissect tradwife pregnancy announcements and raw-milk misadventures. As Burke interweaves narratives from Natalie’s past and present, we slowly come to understand what’s happened to her. It’s telling a story first and foremost, throwing out clues and red herrings on the way to its ultimate reveal.

World:
Trump Isn’t Setting Vance or Rubio Up for the Future
NEWS | 12 May 2026
“If J. D. Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair last year. That Rubio has become a high-profile spokesperson for this conflict would seem to threaten rather than enhance his chances in 2028. Three out of four Republicans view Vance positively, versus two of three who view Rubio positively, according to Pew polling earlier this year. The Iran war will pose a challenge for Vance, Rubio, or any other administration official who mounts a run. (Interestingly, Rubio and Vance are latecomers to Trumpism compared with many GOP voters.)

Current Events:
‘That Day, We Realized the Russians Had Come to Kill Us’
NEWS | 12 May 2026
“That day, we realized the Russians had come to kill us” is how one theater survivor put it to me. “Imagine,” Olena told me later. Sashko didn’t notice the frantic people knocking into him. “I saw him standing in the middle of the room, his eyes wide open, completely motionless,” Olena told me. When he finally stood up and gathered himself, Olena told him, “This is Sashko, our neighbor.

News Flash:
China Believes America Will Flame Out
NEWS | 12 May 2026
In private conversations and public writings, China’s leaders and their advisers often describe America as “declining but dangerous”—a late-stage power prone to bursts of aggression in the hopes of arresting its slide. China is working to ensure that it depends less on the world—and that the world depends more on China. As both a major power and a country that still identifies with the developing world, China plainly sees itself as well placed to lead a new global order. This, Chinese leaders believe, would allow China to displace the U.S. at the center of a new map of practical partnerships. Whether this gamble pays off rests in no small part on what the United States does next.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 12 May 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Latest:
June 2026 Issue
NEWS | 12 May 2026
The Atlantic DailyGet our guide to the day’s biggest news and ideas, delivered to your inbox every weekday and Sunday mornings. See more newslettersEmail Address Sign UpYour newsletter subscriptions are subject to The Atlantic's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

Breaking:
Send the Frigates
NEWS | 12 May 2026
The United States would like its allies to provide frigates to escort oil tankers through this cleared passageway. Frigates, the equivalent of the destroyer escorts of World War II, are usually smaller than destroyers. Isaac Stanley-Becker: Europe without AmericaThere are other reasons for sending the frigates, however. Moreover, European and Asian nations have a greater interest in securing this strait than does the United States. Would it be dangerous to send in the frigates?

Trending:
Kash Patel’s Personalized Bourbon Stash
NEWS | 12 May 2026
(The FBI director has denied the allegations and filed a defamation suit against The Atlantic and me.) Surrounding the shield is a band of text featuring Patel’s director title and his favored spelling of his first name: Ka$h. Current and former agents also told me they were concerned by Patel’s gifts of personalized bourbon. Bottom right: A photo taken in an Olympic locker room and provided to The Atlantic shows another personalized Kash Patel bottle of bourbon. Yet the FBI Director apparently has the time to design logos, go to hockey games, sit for multi-hour podcast interviews.

This Just In:
I Remember America Before the Measles Vaccine
NEWS | 12 May 2026
I myself was blessed with exceptionally good health, but my friends, family, and community were regularly struck with childhood diseases. Neighborhoods were frozen in fear when maladies suddenly erupted: pool closures during polio epidemics, quarantines when mumps or measles raged. Whooping cough was often deadly for babies and toddlers but among the less debilitating of childhood diseases past for older children, thus the freedom to play while coughing. There was widespread fear of measles causing blindness, which had indeed happened to a young family acquaintance. Measles killed some 10,000 American children in the 1930s and ’40s—roughly 500 kids died every year.

Today:
People Who Don’t Like People Are Making All of Our Decisions
NEWS | 12 May 2026
In the beginning, God created Man and Man created cities. But in all of the ways I’ve imagined improving upon the modern taxi, eliminating drivers themselves has never crossed my mind. Driverless taxis are the next step toward tech’s hopes for broad adoption of driverless cars in general. Trade organizations such as the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, which advocates for “the safe and timely deployment of autonomous driving technology,” insist that driverless cars will save lives. And the robotic “passenger economy,” which includes driverless taxis and robot deliveries, could generate as much as $7 trillion by 2050.

Top Stories:
I Have Some Questions for the New Florida U.S. History Curriculum
NEWS | 12 May 2026
Florida continues to Florida. Dissatisfied with the AP U.S. History curriculum (too woke), the state is trying to provide—as Kellyanne Conway used to say—alternative facts. “All men are created” is actually a thing that happens in Genesis. 3) Were any women involved in U.S. history before the Seneca Falls Convention? On the one hand, it involved the federal government in the private business of the states.

World:
The Only Two Choices I’ve Ever Made
NEWS | 12 May 2026
The man I went to Italy with was the first new person I’d kissed in 15 years. His mother had a life that wasn’t his; his mother had cracked open and a woman had come out. But I’ve come to realize that I’ve really only chosen two things in my life: motherhood and divorce. People I know, people I don’t know. He thinks I’ve made some very poor choices.

Current Events:
What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat
NEWS | 12 May 2026
In 2018, I was a guest at Jeff Bezos’s Campfire retreat in Santa Barbara, California. Bezos had bought out the entire Biltmore resort for the weekend, as well as the beach club across the street. Only the movie stars and the billionaires didn’t ask: They had done this kind of thing before. Martin Baron: Where Jeff Bezos went wrong with The Washington PostThough we didn’t know it at the time, Bezos’s first marriage would be over a few weeks later. A few hours later, on the private plane home, a famous movie producer offered my wife a blanket.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 12 May 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here