COVER STORY
MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption
Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.
Superstock / Bridgeman Images 
Christine Kao / The Washington Post / Getty
Christine Kao / The Washington Post / Getty Why Does Donald Trump Hate This Sculpture?
The president wants the Smithsonian to add a colossal George Washington statue—and remove another work of abstract art in D.C.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Who Needs Regulation When Trump Is President?
The president is turning the charge of personalism into a promise.
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic The Biggest Obstacle to Universal Child Care: Babies
Infant care is incredibly expensive to provide. But one solution could reduce the burden on both states and parents.
Andrew Harnik / Getty
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic It’s All Fun and Games Until You Give AI Your Credit Card
AI personal assistants are now acting on people’s behalf in the real world—and all sorts of strange things are going wrong.
Illustration by The Atlantic Trump’s Secret Points System for Cabinet Members
Cabinet members were rewarded points and praise for appearing in congressional districts and states with competitive midterm elections.
Jason Henry / Bloomberg / Getty AI’s Code-Red Moment
Anthropic’s CEO warns that the makers of artificial intelligence “owe it to humanity to try” to slow down.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Shutterstock; Getty.
/media/img/mt/2026/09/2026_09_11_chatbt_mpg/original.gif)
The Atlantic Games
View all gamesBracket City
Solve nested clues to reveal a fun fact about this day in history.Play →Crossword
This mini puzzle gets a little more challenging every weekday.Play →Rabbithole
Go down a tunnel of trivia where each answer turns into the next question.Play →Lemony Snicket's Suspicious Incident in Dubious Park
Step into the role of detective and unravel an interactive murder mystery.Play →
Ernst Haas / Getty The Case for Moving Back to Your Hometown
I thought of home as a waiting room, the place I had to be until I could go somewhere else. Then I left, and missed it terribly. (From 2021)
Danna Singer for The Atlantic What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind
Revisit this Pulitzer Prize–winning 2021 story about grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning after 9/11.
Popperfoto / Getty 
Sepia Times / Universal Images Group / Getty Autumnal Tints
“A great many, who have spent their lives in cities, and have never chanced to come into the country at this season, have never seen this, the flower, or rather the ripe fruit, of the year.” (From 1862)
Magazine
past issuesEnjoy unlimited access to all of The Atlantic’s journalism, in the print edition and online.
Podcasts
see all
Roberto Schmidt / Getty radio atlantic•Episode 212Sarah Longwell’s Playbook for Defeating MAGA
The Bulwark publisher and author of How to Eat an Elephant on what voters want to hear
Barbara Johnston / Notre Dame the permanent questions•Episode 1What Is the Good Life?
The philosophy professor Meghan Sullivan doesn’t just want to teach her students about virtue; she wants to make them better human beings.
USC Dornsife Center the david frum show•Episode 74Inside the White House on 9/11
John McConnell on his memories of working in the White House on September 11, 2001. Plus: American Pastoral, by Philip Roth.
Illustration by The Atlantic 
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Simon Stock / Gallery Stock. how to touch grass•Episode 5What It Takes to Reclaim Your Attention Span
Jenny Odell, the author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time, has advice for fighting back against the forces of digital distraction.
Latest
see all
/media/img/mt/2026/09/2026_09_11_chatbt_mpg/original.gif)
Popular
see all
Scroll →
AI Watchdog
,,
Works Taken
Track the creative works that tech companies are using to train their large language models.
Search NowListen to award-winning podcasts and audio versions of our stories.
Explore Audio