Wiki News Live
Today:
What Happened to Rudy Giuliani?
NEWS | 25 May 2026
Rudy Giuliani always loved opera. Giuliani has lived an operatic life, full of highs and lows, and its final act has been a tragedy. But in the years before that defining moment, for all of the controversies, Giuliani accomplished something that too many people have already forgotten: He turned around New York City after decades of decline. Read: What Rudy Giuliani is really up toIn part, Giuliani was suffering from the “ex-mayor’s disease”—an addiction to attention after years of dominating headlines with daily press conferences. If there is a cautionary coda, it is this: Rudy Giuliani would have been an even greater man if he had tried harder to be a good man.

Top Stories:
Trump’s War Is Staggering to an Incoherent Defeat
NEWS | 25 May 2026
No one yet knows the details of the Iran deal that President Trump has been teasing on social media for the past day or so. Trump’s worried sycophants probably know that the details of an eventual agreement likely do not matter very much at this point. Not only is Trump incoherently staggering to defeat, he now risks signing on to an agreement that could be far worse than anything Obama negotiated with Iran a decade ago. Trump began this war assuming that all other issues—nuclear weapons, terrorism, Iran’s regional adventurism—would vanish when the regime was toppled. It will certify that the United States must accept a major strategic defeat in the Middle East.

World:
Why Trump Lost
NEWS | 25 May 2026
If Trump had quit while ahead, he could have banked his gains from last June as a solid if imperfect win. During military operations, Trump made clear that he sought a deal with the existing regime. Trump has been signaling since mid-March that he wants an end to the Iran war at almost any price. For all the damage the U.S. military inflicted on Iran, the Iranians seem to have gambled that they could outlast Trump. He made no case for an Iran war to the public and never sought approval by Congress.

Current Events:
How to Break Cuba
NEWS | 25 May 2026
Now the Trump administration has targeted those industries anew as part of its all-points campaign to overpower the post-Castro regime. For many months, the U.S. has enforced a blockade that stops Venezuelan and Mexican oil shipments from reaching Cuba. Both minerals are used in manufacturing, including of cellphones and car batteries, and both help explain why the Trump administration is eager to bring Cuba to heel, one way or another. The Trump administration blew up a Canadian company’s business in order to tighten the screws on the regime. But Cuba may be tempted to respond by offering shares in one of its crown jewels to an ally, or at least threatening to do so.

News Flash:
The Man Behind the Trump Administration’s Favorite Psychedelic
NEWS | 25 May 2026
When the headphones came off, Hubbard told me, he decided to ask Rogan for a favor: Would he contact the president about ibogaine? In addition to its potential to treat addiction, Hubbard believed ibogaine to be the ideal political candidate for state-funded psychedelics research in general. In 2025, he and Perry founded their nonprofit, Americans for Ibogaine, and successfully lobbied for Texas to pass a $50 million fund-matching bill for ibogaine research. Hubbard told me that his own politics are informed by his ancestors, who were coal miners from the mountains of Virginia, western North Carolina, and East Kentucky. The week after we met, he testified at the Ohio capitol in support of legislation to establish ibogaine research in the state.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 25 May 2026
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Latest:
The ‘Vibecession’ Is Over. The ‘Permacession’ Is Here.
NEWS | 25 May 2026
I have been covering the “vibecession” for a few years now, and I thought I mostly understood it. They’re doing so even though nearly every American who wants a job has one and the stock market is booming. We shouldn’t call it a vibecession anymore, I came to think. It’s a “permacession.” People have stopped believing that the economy can be good, and have lost the willingness to admit that they are doing well. Or they’re distressed about everything, and gas prices and inflation and the housing market are fuel for their dissatisfaction.

Breaking:
A Perfect Show That Doesn’t Make Sense
NEWS | 25 May 2026
Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. The sets make Disneyland look real, and the acting is the opposite of method. None of it made sense, until I realized that playing with the expectations of genre remains a great way to celebrate the timelessness of youth. (If you are curious for a place to start, look up Dekmantel Podcast, episode 267, with Djrum, circa 2020.) The masthead’s motto is perfect: “America’s only newspaper.”My favorite way of wasting time on my phone: “Wasting time” suggests agency, which I lack.

Trending:
I Am Begging You to Read Terry Pratchett
NEWS | 25 May 2026
Will we ever live to see a successful screen adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel? But I worry that the persistent unfilmability of most of Pratchett’s work will mean that he fades out of public consciousness. The literary novelist A. S. Byatt once suggested that all 12-year-olds should be issued a Pratchett book to get them into the habit of reading. Whenever someone asks me to recommend an author to read on a long flight, I suggest Pratchett. In the book, Death learns that if children stop believing in the Hogfather, their version of Father Christmas, then the world will end.

This Just In:
AI-Writing Scandals Are Getting Very Confusing
NEWS | 25 May 2026
One response has been to call for a redoubling of efforts to root out AI writing and reinforce the stigma against it. A growing number of professional writers, following the lead of software developers, openly profess to incorporating AI tools into their workflows. Or consider that The New York Times, which has endured a spate of AI writing scandals, maintains two different standards. If nothing else, the pileup of scandals should force us to think more precisely about what it is we fear from AI writing. On the contrary, the problem seems to be that AI tools are getting too good, at least superficially, and that people are placing too much faith in them.

Today:
Hegseth’s Leadership of the U.S. Military
NEWS | 25 May 2026
Last night on Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to examine Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s role and influence in the Trump administration, and what his leadership may reveal about how he’s trying to reshape the U.S. military. Over time, there has been “a tradition where defense secretaries attempt to minimize their overtly partisan behavior,” Missy Ryan, a staff writer at The Atlantic, said last night. “Because they are the safeguards of America’s sons and daughters, they try to, in the name of national security, act more as a nonpartisan actor.” But Hegseth, she argued, “has totally discarded that tradition, and we’re seeing him lean into his role as a partisan fighter.”Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Helene Cooper, a national-security correspondent at The New York Times; Jonathan Karl, the chief Washington correspondent at ABC News; Ryan; Vivian Salama, a staff writer at The Atlantic. Watch the full episode here.

Top Stories:
Putin Can No Longer Hide His Catastrophe
NEWS | 25 May 2026
In this spirit, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried for more than four years to protect the population of Moscow from the consequences of his invasion of Ukraine. But Putin can no longer lull Muscovites into thinking that his war does not involve them. The narrative that Putin has constructed—about a mere “special military operation” that need not trouble Russia’s elites or middle class—is now unraveling completely. In the counterstrike on Moscow, Ukrainian systems undeniably hit a range of strategic targets: an electronics-component factory, oil infrastructure, and other facilities. Even without American help, Ukraine appears to be getting stronger and, more and more, is shaping the war in its own favor.

World:
The Meanest Tradition in Entertainment
NEWS | 25 May 2026
Although Larry’s publicist insists that the roast is a Hollywood rite of passage, the episode humorously illustrates how the industry has sapped all of the romance out of the showbiz tradition. I thought about this episode while watching Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart, in which multiple comedians and celebrities gathered to poke fun at the actor-comedian. Unlike Larry, Hart seemed to take the canned insults in stride by hamming up his feigned outrage and ostensibly genuine laughter for nearly three hours. After falling off the air for a few years, the tradition was revived for 2024’s The Roast of Tom Brady, Netflix’s first-ever live roast special, featuring Brady, the former Patriots quarterback. Ironically, one of the most memorable roast moments in the tradition’s history came from a subversion of these faux-cruel expectations.

Current Events:
Don’t Put Too Much Pressure on Your Summer Vacation
NEWS | 25 May 2026
With summer around the corner, now’s the time when many families begin imagining the version of themselves they want to be for just a few months. There is no single right way to spend summer as a family. Today’s newsletter explores stories about summer travel and the strange expectations attached to family vacations. How to Have Your Most Fulfilling Vacation EverBy Arthur C. BrooksTurning your leisure into learning offers the happiest holiday experience of all. To really take a break, try vigorous exercise, Richard A. Friedman argued in 2022To really take a break, try vigorous exercise, Richard A. Friedman argued in 2022 On failing the family vacation: “How I got dumped, went on a cruise, and embraced radical self-acceptance,” Kim Brooks wrote in 2024.

News Flash:
The Bad Beer That’s an Incredible Beverage
NEWS | 25 May 2026
For years, I wrote off his wisdom as the curmudgeonly philosophy of a man too stubborn to join the Craft Beer Revolution. The problem with craft beer is how easily it can make you, as my dad says, “get in trouble.” One double IPA is not enough, but two is one-half too many. Miller Lite is not a great beer. Miller Lite is a bad beer but an incredible beverage. That leaves Miller Lite: humble, measured, available from sea to shining sea in cans, canisters, and bottles, in kegs and on tap.