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Today:
How America Got So Sick
NEWS | 22 February 2026
In January 2025, a hospital in West Texas began reporting that children were coming in sick with measles. As of this writing, the outbreak is still ongoing, and America is in danger of having its measles-elimination status revoked by the World Health Organization. America was moving toward modernity, but the risks people faced were of a different order than they are today. In America, where capitalist and individualist ethics have always predominated, public health nonetheless managed to carve out a large cooperative space. And yet, sometimes through the insistence of those same people that America live up to the tenets of public health, the system has come closer to the ideal.

Top Stories:
GLP-1 Envy Was Just the Beginning
NEWS | 22 February 2026
All you need is a way to order up health care the way they do. It asserted that America’s obesity epidemic is caused by “the system,” which keeps people sick by making health care unaffordable. The move is part of the DOJ’s wider plan to take “decisive steps” to restrict the marketing of compounded GLP-1s. The Obesity Society, a scientific organization, warns people not to use compounded GLP-1s, because they may not contain the appropriate active ingredients. Pew Research Center data released a few days ago show that 71 percent of Americans are worried about the cost of health care.

World:
The Real Winner of TrumpRx
NEWS | 22 February 2026
TrumpRx does make a compelling case that the president has mounted an extraordinary effort to stop pharmaceutical companies from ripping off Americans. The website offers discounts on some 40 drugs—the result of months of negotiations between drugmakers and the Trump administration. The big winners of yesterday’s announcement seem to be not patients, but drug companies. Of the top 10 best-selling prescription drugs in 2024, only one—Ozempic—is listed on TrumpRx. Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, told me in an email that only five companies’ drugs have been added to the TrumpRx website so far.

Current Events:
The Only Thing That Will Turn Measles Back
NEWS | 22 February 2026
Since measles vaccination became common among Americans, the logic of outbreaks has been simple: When vaccination rates fall, infections rapidly rise; when vaccination rates increase, cases abate. In 2026, the U.S. is facing the possibility of more and bigger measles outbreaks, as federal leaders have actively shrunk vaccine access, dismissed vaccine experts, and sowed doubts about vaccine benefits. Last year, as measles ignited in West Texas, some experts wondered whether attitudes about the MMR vaccine might shift once the virus killed someone. But when vaccine uptake has wavered in the past, governments have been key to buoying those levels again. The Trump administration is testing how much resilience American vaccination rates have in the absence of federal support, and the answer emerging for measles so far is: not enough.

News Flash:
The Logical End Point of ‘America First’ Foreign Aid
NEWS | 22 February 2026
Inconveniently, the United States had recently canceled about $12 million worth of annual foreign aid benefiting Tibetan-exile communities as part of the implosion of USAID. Foreign aid has always, to varying degrees, been a political project, meant to accrue soft power by forwarding America’s vision for itself and winning over people abroad. Some of the foreign aid disbursed in the second half of last year appears to have been straightforwardly treated as a bargaining chip. Are there critical mineral rights that we would like to discuss?” Foreign aid might lubricate that conversation too. The United States’ new approach to foreign aid brings the nation in line with authoritarian countries that have historically prioritized strategy over charity.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 22 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:
How to Age Up
NEWS | 22 February 2026
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Breaking:
The Atlantic
NEWS | 22 February 2026
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Trending:
Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: Cross Jump
NEWS | 22 February 2026
Cameron Spencer / GettyYouri Duplessis-Kergomard of Team France leads Oliver Davies of Team Great Britain, Terence Tchiknavorian of Team France, and Melvin Tchiknavorian of Team France in the men’s ski cross 1/8 finals on Day 15 of the 2026 Winter Olympic games, at Livigno Air Park, on February 21, 2026. Previously:

This Just In:
What to Expect from Trump’s State of the Union Address
NEWS | 22 February 2026
On Tuesday, President Trump will deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to examine what to expect from the president’s speech as his poll numbers fall, and more. The economy is one subject that is expected to feature heavily in Trump’s upcoming address. Joining guest moderator Vivian Salama, a staff writer at The Atlantic, to discuss this and more: Baker; Eugene Daniels, a senior Washington correspondent and co-host of The Weekend on MSNOW; Lisa Desjardins, a congressional correspondent for PBS News Hour; Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker. Watch the full episode here.

Today:
What Would War With Iran Look Like?
NEWS | 22 February 2026
I asked current and former defense officials to help me project what a war intended to achieve these four desired outcomes might look like. Eliminating those weapons, as well as other elements of Iran’s defense, could be another possible goal of any upcoming campaign. Of all the targets in Iran that Trump has mentioned, he has talked of Iran’s nuclear program the most. (After the June strikes, Iran fired some missiles at a U.S. base, but they did not do much damage.) “I think we should come off the idea that we are going to ever obliterate the nuclear program.

Top Stories:
How the Supreme Court Spared America
NEWS | 22 February 2026
First and foremost, tariffs impose taxes that are paid by Americans, and thus they are not purely a matter of foreign policy. But Gorsuch, in his concurring opinion, made a strong argument that the president’s claim to almost unlimited tariff authority would violate nondelegation. Since first imposing the Liberation Day tariffs, Trump has repeatedly suspended and reimposed various elements of them. If allowed to stand, the IEEPA tariffs would have created much greater opportunities for such corruption. Yesterday’s decision signals that a majority of the Court is seriously skeptical of claims of sweeping executive tariff authority.

World:
The Dire Meaning of Gallup’s Announcement
NEWS | 22 February 2026
Gallup’s most recent presidential-approval poll, in December, had Trump at 36 percent—well below the RealClearPolitics poll average of 42 percent. Assuming the worst is often prudent, but Gallup’s own explanation—citing changes in the company’s business strategy—makes a sad commercial sense. The poll’s methods were misleading but earned countless headlines nonetheless. When Gallup’s methods show Trump six points lower than the polling consensus, does that reveal something about Trump? The Gallup poll once seemed to be nothing less than the voice of the people.

Current Events:
Books for the Busy Person
NEWS | 22 February 2026
But reading in short chunks doesn’t have to mean a shallow experience: Some works even benefit from those constraints. Today’s newsletter rounds up our writers’ suggestions for what to read when you don’t have much time—or much focus—to spare. Books for the Busy PersonSeven Books to Read When You Have No Time to ReadBy Bekah WaalkesThese titles are worth picking up, even if you have only a moment to spare. How Gen Z came to see books as a waste of time : Young people might be responding to a cultural message: Reading just isn’t that important, Rose Horowitch wrote in the Books Briefing newsletter in 2024. Young people might be responding to a cultural message: Reading just isn’t that important, Rose Horowitch wrote in the Books Briefing newsletter in 2024.

News Flash:
The Most American Form of Theater
NEWS | 22 February 2026
From the earliest days of this nation’s founding, debate has made for a distinctly American type of theater, an art that shapes both civic life and public entertainment. But in recent years, as American political debates have turned ever more into exhibits of vicious, mudslinging opposition rather than genuine ideological engagement, theater makers have gradually started to ask more pointed questions about the mixed legacy of this patriotic form. Hence Kramer/Fauci, the latest installment in the director Daniel Fish’s ongoing effort to find a new layer of meaning in great American texts. But it is a great American text all the same: an example of the kind of productive, open-minded disagreement responsible for much of what has made this country remarkable. He’s also helping establish a template for the kind of poisonous interchange that has since become so dominant in American discourse.