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Today:
What the Roberts Court Is Actually Trying to Accomplish
NEWS | 24 February 2026
By striking down President Trump’s tariffs, the Supreme Court has once again shown that it is no partisan instrument of Republican power. And almost half of the Court’s cases were unanimous. But in his first term, Trump had the lowest success rate at the Supreme Court of any president in at least a century. Too often, casual Court watchers think that the Supreme Court is deciding whether policy X is good policy. The Supreme Court didn’t decide in West Virginia v. EPA and Garland v. Cargill whether banning carbon emissions (under Biden) or banning bump stocks (under Trump), respectively, was constitutional.

Top Stories:
The Revenge of the Dummymander
NEWS | 24 February 2026
But partisan gerrymandering does have one ultimate weakness—a foe that doesn’t always win, but whose victories are especially satisfying. If you have never heard of a dummymander, this is probably a good time to learn the word. Dummymander is the term that the political scientists Bernard Grofman and Thomas L. Brunell coined for what happens when a gerrymander backfires, hurting the party that it was designed to help. But if they spread them too thin and Democrats have a good year, Republican candidates will become vulnerable. Whatever the results, any dummymander that emerges in 2026 might be short-lived.

World:
Today’s Atlantic Trivia: What Did the Polls Miss?
NEWS | 24 February 2026
(And if you don’t put any stock in them, well, we humans have steadily gotten better at IQ tests.) The reason could be that modern environments contain more interesting stimuli or that modern gasoline no longer contains lead. I haven’t seen anyone propose that trivia is to thank, but the growing popularity of quizzing tracks with the IQ trend line pretty well too. Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily. Rather, they write, the United States’ focus on the United States has forced former partners to seek—not always successfully—their own “strategic balance” with China.

Current Events:
America Doesn’t Need a Deal or a War With Iran
NEWS | 24 February 2026
The United States does not need a comprehensive deal with Iran now, and may be better off without one for the time being. The summer’s campaign also reset expectations about what the United States and Israel are willing to do. The United States does not need a comprehensive deal with Iran now. A comprehensive nuclear deal that requires Iran to abandon enrichment entirely would almost certainly involve sweeping sanctions relief. The United States now faces a choice, but it is not the one most often presented between a sweeping deal and a major war.

News Flash:
Young Men Aren’t the Only Ones Struggling
NEWS | 24 February 2026
The plight of young men has, for some years now, been a cause of public concern; recently the din of alarm bells seems louder than ever. Large shares of working-age men, especially young ones, are unemployed. Young men, as a population, are struggling more than they used to. But sometimes that point gets twisted into a different argument: that young men are struggling more than young women. At the symposium on young men last fall, I heard a lot of talk about how to reconnect men to traditional sources of discipline or community.

Sponsored:
SmartSync Data Sync App
SPONSORED | 24 February 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:
The Republican Party Has a Nazi Problem
NEWS | 24 February 2026
By this, I mean that some Republicans are deploying Nazi imagery and rhetoric, and espouse ideas associated with the Nazi Party during its rise to power in the early 1930s. But when even Laura Loomer—conspiracy theorist and ardent Trump supporter—says on social media that “the GOP has a Nazi problem,” then perhaps the GOP has a Nazi problem. Gingrich was eventually driven from the speakership; Buchanan left the Republican Party to run under the Reform Party, and then faded from public life. The Republican Party, as an institution, weakened over time, until it could be hijacked by an aspiring dictator. Racism and hate are now structural parts of the Republican Party, replacing consensus, compassion, and compromise.

Breaking:
April 2026 Issue
NEWS | 24 February 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.

Trending:
When Revolution Bloomed and Died in Damascus
NEWS | 24 February 2026
In July 2012, the gates of hell opened up in Damascus, and I learned something about what it means to be a revolutionary. I’d take the needles out of the fridge and wrap them in a towel that I’d left in the freezer overnight. Amer knew the material comfort I’d left behind to join the revolution. I told Amer he was poor because he was a failure. Amer was the reason I hadn’t left Damascus, although I was scared for him and for myself.

This Just In:
The Trump Administration Is Ending Aid That It Says Saves Lives
NEWS | 24 February 2026
The administration had already canceled the entire aid packages of two nations, Afghanistan and Yemen, where the State Department said terrorists were diverting resources. The State Department spokesperson, who did not provide their name, offered no further specifics when asked. In other cases, the State Department has restored or offered aid in exchange for desirable mineral rights, or as payment for agreeing to accept U.S. deportees. In March, Musk posted on X, “No one has died as result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding. But last month, the State Department said the grant would actually end in February.

Today:
Two Portraits of My Father in a Tree
NEWS | 24 February 2026
By footfall and rifle glint,rustle of hoofand pulp of blood,he led me deepwhere the gut-shot buckhad made its briary bed. Even from the shiningback of his scalp,I knew his face,shame-shadowedat his own poor aim,at the animal’s paingrown shadow-longwith the fall of dusk. Three times we nearedthe deer, and eachit heard our ragged breathand stood and lumberedbeyond sight. How good it felt,to toil awhile in sunfor the sightof a rippling valley. Even as he climbedthe white pineto search for somesign of home.

Top Stories:
Different Views of the Winter Olympics
NEWS | 24 February 2026
Ryan Pierse / GettyA vintage large-format camera, in combination with a mobile phone, was used to create this image of Team Denmark competing during the women’s round robin session between Team Denmark and Team USA at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on February 17, 2026. Images in this series were captured using vintage Graflex cameras, paying tribute to the type of camera that would have been used 70 years ago when Cortina previously hosted the games in 1956. In a modern twist, these cameras have been adapted to record images on smartphones, enabling live transmission of the content captured.

World:
MAGA’s Animal Nationalism
NEWS | 24 February 2026
Brooke Rollins, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Pam Bondi would be joining up to lead a new “strike force” aimed at puppy mills, dog-fighting rings, and unscrupulous animal research. Illiberal factions in Austria, Denmark, France, and Italy have all made a similar point of taking up the cause of animal welfare. But according to his research, which he co-produced with Belén Fernández-García, a professor at the University of Granada, other groups at the illiberal fringe are either disinterested in animal welfare or take positions in support of culturally specific forms of animal exploitation. In fact, a particularly ferocious form of animal nationalism emerged in the spring of 1933, very shortly after Hitler first established his dictatorship. Animal nationalism has, in practice, a marked tendency to self-negate.

Current Events:
Frederick Wiseman Always Made His Point
NEWS | 24 February 2026
Before he became a filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman was a professor who was in over his head. After the facility superintendent accepted his proposal to film at the hospital, Wiseman began filming, with permission from authorities. Wiseman thought that all documentaries were composed of choices—in focus, composition, and structure—that inevitably presented a point of view. Wiseman’s films often feature people speaking at length to various congregations, whether a church service or an informal assembly. Near the film’s end, Wiseman spends time with a “taxi tutor,” someone who teaches prospective cabbies how to pass their license test.

News Flash:
The Protein-Bar Delusion
NEWS | 24 February 2026
Protein bars have come a long way from the chalky monstrosities that lined shelves not long ago. Another one of my favorites, the Barebells caramel-cashew bar, tastes like a mash-up of a Twix and a Snickers. There are rocky-road protein bars, birthday-cake protein bars coated in sprinkles, and snickerdoodle-flavored protein bars. At this point, the line between protein bar and candy bar has never been blurrier. “Protein bars are candy bars in disguise,” Marion Nestle, an emeritus professor of nutrition at NYU, told me.