Ideas

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Photo of a surveillance camera overlooking a banner featuring a portrait of Ali Khamenei overlaid on green, white, and red stripes resembling the Iranian flag. — Babak / Middle East Images / AFP / Getty

This Joke Explains Iran Today

Dark humor is sometimes the most reliable weapon.

March 3, 2026

Illustration with a red-tinted photograph of Donald Trump with the top half of his head omitted, white smoke, and black and green horizontal stripes behind Trump — Illustration by Lucy Naland. Sources: Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu / Getty; Win McNamee / Getty.

A Very Stable War

J. D. Vance says this Middle East entanglement can’t be dumb—because Trump is smart.

March 3, 2026

A house on a hill that looks like a decline curve — Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic

The Disappearing American Mortgage

Young and working-class people aren’t getting on the property ladder anymore.

March 3, 2026

Sara packs up her New York life in July 2025. — Natalie Keyssar for The Atlantic

‘America Doesn’t Want My Children or Grandchildren’

The Cruz family spent years building a life in New York. Then the risks of staying became too great.

Caitlin Dickerson

March 3, 2026

Nathan Howard / Getty

Trump Opens the Pandora’s Box of Assassination

Killing anyone without a trial, let alone a foreign leader, involves a moral choice.

March 3, 2026

Photograph of a curved arm reaching through green and white curtains — Millennium Images / Gallery Stock

In Defense of Effeminate Boys

If anyone had suggested that I might really be a girl, I don’t know how I would have responded.

March 3, 2026

An up-close image of a suit, with a pin that reads "Chagos Islands Are British" on the blue lapel. — Elliott Franks / eyevine / Redux

The Fortress We Gave Away

America and Britain may be surrendering a crucial military base.

March 2, 2026

watercolor-style illustration of hand with painted nails and blue hospital ID bracelet on wrist being held by another hand on magenta background — Illustration by Ben Hickey

The Impossible Predicament of the Uninsured

My aunt couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. She ended up there anyway.

March 2, 2026

Photo-illustration with images of Donald Trump, George W. Bush, and George H. W. Bush against an abstract backdrop resembling an American flag. — Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic. Sources: Howard L. Sachs / CNP / Getty; Kenny Holston / Getty; United States Department of Defense.

Hubris Without Idealism

Donald Trump has embraced a warped version of the neoconservatism he once derided.

March 2, 2026

Tehran — Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu / Getty

America’s Invaluable Ally

Having sophisticated, creative, and bold partners that can operate at scale is invaluable to the United States.

March 1, 2026