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Today:
The Shutdown Is Over, but Its Damage Is Not
NEWS | 23 November 2025
But millions of Americans face effects from the shutdown that linger in ways that economists may struggle to capture. Infrastructure projects that the Trump administration canceled during the shutdown in an attempt to punish Democrats have cost thousands of good-paying jobs. Federal workers now back on the job are battling sinking morale and productivity from both the shutdown and months of steep cuts and instability. I heard similar sentiments from other federal employees I spoke with during and after the shutdown. “The damage caused by the Democrats with this reckless government shutdown cannot be forgotten,” she said.

Top Stories:
The Murky Plan That Ensures a Future War
NEWS | 23 November 2025
The 28-point peace plan that the United States and Russia want to impose on Ukraine and Europe is misnamed. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. The United States would recognize Russian rule over Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk—all of which are part of Ukraine. Why is the Trump White House pushing Ukraine to accept a Russian plan that paves the way for another war? This is no surprise: Putin has spoken of “several companies” positioning themselves to resume business ties between his country and the United States.

World:
The Intellectual and Moral Decline of the American Right
NEWS | 23 November 2025
The Heritage Foundation is as good an institution as any in which to study the intellectual and moral decline of the American right. “The institution came to organize itself around Trump’s person rather than any set of ideas he might usefully advance,” the conservative intellectual told me. In 2022, Trump hosted Fuentes and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Their ethos aligns with that of the Heritage Foundation: There are no enemies to the right. It may or may not be too late to salvage the American right and the Republican Party.

Current Events:
Why Donald Trump Seems Taken With Zohran Mamdani
NEWS | 23 November 2025
Today’s White House meeting between New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, and President Donald Trump suggests that maybe, just maybe, the U.S. government won’t go to war with its largest city. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said, peering at Mamdani. Michael Powell: Zohran Mamdani is about to confront realityMamdani can at times drop his smile and sound confrontational, as he did in his Election Night speech, slamming his vanquished opponent, Andrew Cuomo, and challenging Trump directly. Trump prides himself on being a dealmaker and is acutely sensitive to any claim that he has been taken. That never came; in fact, Trump went on to say that he would feel comfortable living in Mamdani’s New York.

News Flash:
Border Patrol’s Chaotic Week in North Carolina
NEWS | 23 November 2025
Last week, Leonardo Williams, the mayor of Durham, North Carolina, received a call from the office of Governor Josh Stein. In Durham, where I live, sightings of apparent CBP agents around Durham continued throughout Tuesday. Keeping local officials in the dark seems to be part of the Trump administration’s plan. Like them, the North Carolina governor and the mayors of Charlotte, Durham, and Raleigh are all Democrats. All Durham officials and residents can do is wait and see if it’s really over.

Sponsored:
SmartSync Data Sync App
SPONSORED | 23 November 2025
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:
Do Childhood Vaccines Cause Tornadoes?
NEWS | 23 November 2025
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already said that he believes in the affirmative: Vaccines do cause autism. We also can’t rule out the possibility that infant vaccines cause tornadoes or bad movies. In a New York Times interview yesterday, Kennedy acknowledged that studies had shown no link between thimerosal and autism. Are aluminum vaccines a cause of autism? So why do physicians keep insisting that vaccines don’t cause autism?

Breaking:
Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Smarter Than Einstein
NEWS | 23 November 2025
If I have provided you with any factoids in the course of Atlantic Trivia, I apologize, because a factoid, properly, is not a small, interesting fact. In the 1990s, William Safire suggested factlet for the small-but-true fact (and The Atlantic in 2012 agreed), though minifact is sometimes used. Find last week’s questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily. Then there’s the story the author himself sometimes told: that he plucked the name from a filing-cabinet drawer labeled O–Z. And if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a top-notch fact—send it my way at [email protected].

Trending:
The President Is Losing Control of Himself
NEWS | 23 November 2025
But Donald Trump seems to have lost control over the one thing every person, and especially those with immense power, should always maintain control over: himself. Yesterday the president called for the arrest and execution of elected American officials for the crime—as he sees it—of fidelity to the Constitution. A group of Democratic legislators—all of them either military veterans or former national-security officials—may have helped to push the president over the edge. Many people who have publicly criticized the president have found themselves getting death threats from his most fervid followers. Despite Nixon’s famous 1977 assertion, things do not become legal just because the president wants to do them.

This Just In:
Pour One Out for Weed Seltzer
NEWS | 23 November 2025
My neighborhood liquor store has an entire cooler full of weed drinks, including a seltzer aptly named Bong Water, a can of which has 25 milligrams of THC. About five milligrams of that chemical, which is the main psychoactive component in marijuana, will make the occasional weed user feel a light buzz. A company selling a 40-gram cookie, for example, could add 100 milligrams of THC and still be under that limit. Sellers of THC-containing hemp products don’t have to follow the same rules. The new legislation doesn’t go into effect for a year, and already, the hemp industry is trying to persuade lawmakers to call off the crackdown.

Today:
Elon Musk Is Trying to Rewrite History
NEWS | 23 November 2025
We cannot say for sure if Elon Musk dialed up the flattery quotient on his chatbot, Grok, after the author Joyce Carol Oates publicly humiliated him this month. The answer to all of these questions is Elon, according to Grok (which exists as both a stand-alone service and an interactive account on X). Musk wields that power recklessly and brazenly, bending his platforms and tools to his own ends. If successful, Grok and Grokipedia will work in tandem to write and rewrite both real-time and historical information, apparently according to their creator’s beliefs. Yesterday, Musk appeared to break his toy.

Top Stories:
Two Genres That Aren’t So Different After All
NEWS | 23 November 2025
This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. I agree that stories can offer both excitement and introspection, and I wonder if those who believe in a sharp division between plotty and plotless novels might be doing themselves a disservice. Conversely, many stories that could be called plotless are hardly lacking in activity—smaller moments simply take on greater weight. A great work, however, paces out action to build suspense while making the stakes feel real within the characters’ minds. Illustration by Jérôme BerthierEight Plot-Heavy Books That Will Keep You Turning PagesBy M. L. RioSome readers enjoy plotless, heady fiction.

World:
Are Sports the Most Valuable Commodity in the World?
NEWS | 23 November 2025
Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube |Are sports the most valuable commodity in the world? Or it could be, you know, I’m here to talk about most recently—in the case of this weird thing I’m into now with Phil Mickelson, the golfer. And you know, that’s another experiment that I am enjoying, and is very different in that key way. Or, you know, you’re gonna have, like, the ticker where it’s got the, you know, the “bet” logo on it or whatever it is. And when you do that, I think you’re just changing what the product is.

Current Events:
Zelensky’s Blind Spot
NEWS | 23 November 2025
Corruption probes have on occasion targeted Zelensky’s administration, and he has often clashed with the agency behind the latest one, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). “It’s just infuriating,” a person close to one of the senators who spoke with Zelensky told me. “He didn’t want to just throw him away.”Corruption scandals have often provoked Zelensky’s sense of loyalty. “It’s gone to his head,” one of Zelensky’s close aides told me recently. In the eighth episode of the show’s second season, Zelensky’s character, the accidental president, struggles to persuade members of Parliament to pass tough laws against corruption.

News Flash:
The Old Guard Is Not Gone Yet
NEWS | 23 November 2025
Here’s yet another indication that Washington has been turned upside down in recent years: I saw Rachel Maddow at Dick Cheney’s funeral and didn’t give it a second thought. Every living vice president lined the front pews of the sanctuary, except the current one, J. D. Vance, who, like his boss, was not invited. “Dick Cheney wasn’t just my grandpa. “I’m pretty sure he’s the only person who ever had the title vice president turned rodeo grandpa,” she said. The fellow asked the soon-to-be vice president what he did for a living.