Section: The Atlantic (USA)
The Atlantic Daily: Water on Mars, United Nations in New York, Donald Trump on Taxes
What We’re Following: Buzz Aldrin Is Freaking Out Right Now Because NASA confirmed there is water on Mars. “Not just hunks of ice or evidence of ancient, dried-up oceans—but wet, trickling, salty droplets of water on Mars right now,” as Adrienne LaFrance perspectives, and share your own, here. Verbs Pumpkin spice lattes scorned, “Dismaland”...
Putin’s Syria Gambit
The last time Vladimir Putin addressed the U.N. General Assembly, there was no Islamic State, the Syrian civil war was years away, and Crimea was Ukrainian. Back then, in 2005, the Russian president spoke for five minutes. On Monday, he went on for about 20, starting with a defense of Russia’s role on the U.N.’s Security Council...
Obama, Putin, and Autumn in New York
Mindaugas Kulbis / AP Vladimir Putin really wants to talk to Barack Obama. Earlier this month, Moscow suggested Russian and U.S. military officials discuss Syria, where Russia recently increased its military presence. Now, the Russian president has asked to meet with his American counterpart while they’re both in New York next week for the...
Elton John’s Special Relationship With Russia
Elton John performs in the palace of Ekaterininskiy, the residence of the former Tzar, near St. Petersburg in 2001. (Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters) Among the more pressing international disputes of the week is the question of whether Vladimir Putin rang up Elton John. John’s Instagram post on the matter is pretty unambiguous—“Thank-you to...
Understanding Hitler’s Anti-Semitism
Georg Pahl / Wikimedia The evocative title of Timothy Snyder’s new book—Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning—is a reference to the fertile soil of Ukraine, where Adolf Hitler hoped to establish lebensraum, or “living space,” for the German race. And yet it could also be seen as an allusion to what Snyder argues is the...
How Donald Trump Helped Pass the Iran Deal He Opposes
Lucas Jackson / Reuters Next week, Donald Trump will join Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck and others at a rally denouncing the Iran deal. Which is ironic, because Trump is one big reason the deal will pass. Before Trump entered the campaign, foreign policy dominated the Republican presidential race. With Democrats less vulnerable on the economy, and the...
The Hardest Places in the World to Visit
Lido Beach in Mogadishu, Somalia (AMISOM Public Information / Flickr) Last summer, my Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca landed at Malabo International Airport in Equatorial Guinea, and I completed a 50-year mission: I had officially, and legally, visited every recognized country on earth. This means 196 countries: the 193 members of the...
A Tale of Two Legislative Chambers
Yui Mok / Reuters It’s been an exciting summer for fans of parliamentary reform in the Anglosphere. On July 26, a British tabloid published front-page photos of Lord John Sewel, a 69-year-old member of the House of Lords, wearing an orange bra and little else as he allegedly used cocaine with sex workers. He resigned from the Lords two days...
Russian Police Bust a Criminal Cheese Ring
Illegally imported packages of ham and cheese are seized at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Reuters) Russian police busted a criminal cheese gang and seized $30 million of contraband cheddar. Six people in Moscow have been arrested for smuggling in foreign rennet, an ingredient used for cheese production that’s banned under...
The Paradox of Time Capsules
Construction workers prepare to lower a time capsule in 2004, to be opened in 2104. (Danny Johnston / AP) Few consumer experiences deliver a pleasure as pure as breaking a freshness seal. From instant coffee to children’s vitamins, there’s something quasi-mystical about being the first encounter a vacuum. A similar fascination fuels...
