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Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . A worsening pandemic may leave many Americans stripped of holiday comforts. Although an old TV show is no substitute for a hug from a loved one, perhaps some solace can be found in the familiar faces of beloved characters . I asked writers and editors from around our newsroom to share a nostalgic TV pick. TWIN PEAKS (NETFLIX) Twin Peaks , a disorienting mystery about the murder of a beloved high schooler, isn’t exactly built for bingeing. But the early-’90s cult phenomenon from David Lynch and Mark Frost remains an enthralling watch. Its masterpiece of a first season takes its time , challenging the viewer by slowly doling out reveals and creating a sense that everything and everyone—even the characters investigating the case—are just a little off . Come for the spooky scares, bu...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . THE ATLANTIC Joe Biden accrued a record-setting number of votes, proving that the Democratic Party’s coalition is the largest in the country. But that alignment could be tricky to maintain, writers on our politics team warn. The party’s truce is over. From our staff writer Elaine Godfrey: “For Democrats, this election was an exercise in setting aside differences in support of a broader goal: ending the reign of Donald Trump.” That’s done, and their civil war is back on. It could pose a problem for 2024. “The results already have Democratic strategists privately asking frank questions about whether any of the next generation of Democratic leaders … can sustain enough of the coalition that elected Biden to the White House without him on the ballot,” Ronald Brownstein writes. ...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . GO NAKAMURA / GETTY This pandemic never stopped being serious. But the situation just got more so. COVID-19 hospitalizations are up to an all-time high , and with them, fears that America’s hospitals could be overwhelmed. Unlike in the spring, the hot spots aren’t contained to a region, my colleagues at the COVID Tracking Project write: 17 states are reporting peaks. That could make it “harder to mobilize surges of frontline workers to areas where health-care systems are at risk of failure.” In better news, a vaccine looks more promising than ever. Until then, Americans must once again assume the role assigned to them in March: Taking precautions to alleviate the strain on the country’s health-care system. Here’s how to tell if socializing indoors is safe. “Perhaps the mos...

The United States is experiencing an unprecedented surge of hospitalizations across the country. Today, states reported that 61,964 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, more than at any other time in the pandemic. For context, there are now 40 percent more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than there were two weeks ago. Seventeen states are at their current peaks for hospitalizations today. According to local news reports, hospitals are already on the brink of being overwhelmed in I owa, Kansas , Minnesota , Missouri , Montana , North Dakota , Texas , Utah , and Wisconsin , and officials in many other states warn that their health-care systems will be dangerously stressed if cases continue to rise. [ Read: A dreadful new peak for the American pandemic ] The new hospitalization record underscores that we’ve entered the worst period for the pandemic since the original outbreak in the Northeast. Although the number of detected cases was much lower back then because of test shortage...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . GETTY / THE ATLANTIC Americans were still processing Joe Biden’s victory when more big news arrived: a breakthrough in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine, courtesy of the drugmaker Pfizer . We caught up with Sarah Zhang, a staff writer who’s covered the search for vaccines extensively , to unpack why she’s feeling good about this development—and how a Biden administration might handle the pandemic differently. The conversation that follows has been edited and condensed. Caroline Mimbs Nyce: You were surprisingly optimistic about yesterday’s Pfizer news. What excited you? Sarah Zhang: The fact that this vaccine might be over 90 percent effective was a lot better than most people expected. It was certainly a lot better than the minimum the FDA set, and a lot better than what man...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . MARK MAKELA / GETTY Donald Trump isn’t going away. A majority of Americans served the 45th president an electoral rebuke, denying him a second term in the White House. But don’t expect him to quietly recede from public life , our White House correspondent Peter Nicholas warns. Now as ever, Trump stands to profit from America’s divisions: There are hats to sell , and a mythology to spin. He may never concede his 2020 loss. Trump (and his family and Trump voters and Trumpism) will continue to haunt the GOP, and the nation. Trump’s forever campaign is just getting started. “Paradoxically, Trump’s loss may well increase the loyalty of his most ardent fans, who will be angry that he has been unfairly deprived of his rightful role,” Anne Applebaum warns. He’ll continue to seek ...

WILMINGTON, Del.—For half a century, across three presidential runs he made and three more he thought about making, Joe Biden had never won a single primary delegate before his South Carolina romp in February catapulted him to the Democratic nomination. But his strategy never changed. Biden won the White House the same way he won his first race, for New Castle County council in 1970: by being himself. He won while giving the same speeches, and telling literally the same stories, that he had for years. This time, what he was offering fit the moment. He won because he was a reaction to Trump, but also because he was a white guy who could connect with white guys even as his association with Barack Obama helped legitimize him with Black voters. He updated some of his policy positions to fit where his party had moved—and to respond to the pandemic. But he didn’t swing hard left, or hard right. He was established enough to not seem a revolutionary in a year of politics stretched between pol...

The difference between Biden headquarters tonight and Waiting for Godot is that Waiting for Godot had more action. Everyone is waiting for the obvious to happen. We’re by the stage around the corner from the Wilmington Westin. Red, white, and blue Jeeps and trucks—props—are still parked here, remnants of the Tuesday-night victory celebration that never happened. A giant American flag is blowing in the wind. Exhausted reporters are drooping near power outlets, recharging their phones. All day, the press corps has been saying out loud what the math has now made certain but the networks refuse to confirm: Donald Trump has lost. Superficially, at least, we’re waiting for the next president of the United States to give his victory speech. But Joe Biden is waiting to claim the presidency until the networks call the race. Biden and his aides would be particularly delighted if Fox News, the network most associated with Trump and his supporters, would validate Biden’s win—and begin the proc...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . GETTY / THE ATLANTIC Time froze. States stopped being called. For days, Joe Biden seemed perma-stuck on the precipice of victory. And the sitting president seemed to know it, delivering extraordinary and baseless claims about election fraud. Fox News faced a choice, and it chose Donald Trump—and his followers—over democracy . Americans scrolled and scrolled and scrolled , but the answers they sought remained out of reach. These are the dispatches from this strange election purgatory . This newsletter does not reach your inbox with the closure you seek. But perhaps it can help you make sense of this moment. Why wasn’t this election the Biden landslide the polls predicted? Annie Lowrey weighs five economic factors that spared the incumbent from a more lopsided loss. Trump ...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . BRETT CARLSEN / GETTY The presidential contest appears likely to drag on at least one more agonizing day. But the Oval Office wasn’t the only thing on the line this year. We explore three winners of this cycle. 1. Populism “ It will take more than unifying rhetoric to sway the more than 68 million Americans who cast their ballots for Trump this year,” Yasmeen Serhan reports. ( What is populism anyway? Earlier this year, Yasmeen argued that the definition has become murky.) 2. QAnon Two supporters of the conspiracy theory won seats in the House of Representatives. “QAnon is not just on the internet anymore; it’s in the U.S. Capitol,” our technology reporter Kaitlyn Tiffany writes. “ It is not just a conspiracy theory anymore; it’s a voting bloc. ” 3. Never Trumpers (and Quas...

Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here . The United States reported 103,087 cases of COVID-19 today, the highest single-day total on record, according to the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic . It marks the first time that the country—or any country in the world, for that matter—has documented more than 100,000 new cases in one day. At the same time, states reported that more than 52,000 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus, the highest level since early August. The number of people hospitalized nationwide is increasing faster in November than it did in October, and—over the past 10 days—their ranks have risen by about 1,000 people a day. The record officially marks what was already clear: As winter nears, the country’s third surge of infection is dangerously accelerating in almost every region of the country. This is the reality that the United States is facing, regardless of who will...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . GETTY The presidential contest isn’t resolved. But the 2020 election has already proved revealing. Keep reading for three things we’ve gleaned from the results so far. 1. This country remains deeply divided. “The clearest message of this week’s complicated election results is that the trench is deepening between red and blue America,” Ronald Brownstein writes. Meanwhile, George Packer argues that it’s time to face a bitter truth: “ We are two countries .” 2. The South has already changed. Jaime Harrison lost to Lindsey Graham. “But his campaign allowed Democrats to imagine what was possible in his home state; it reminded national leaders why they should not write off the region,” Adam Harris writes. 3. Polling is in crisis. “After two huge presidential flops, pollsters have l...

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox . Shutterstock / Getty / The Atlantic To put the Election Day frenzy aside, this bears repeating: This is not a normal election, and you should prepare yourself accordingly. We don’t know when races will be called. There’s a good chance that America wakes up tomorrow without the neat ending it seeks. To help guide you through what could be a chaotic night, here are five quick election-watching tips, courtesy of our Politics team ( read its essential full guide here ): Forget early exit polls. They have a habit of being unreliable. Keep your eye on Florida. If you’ve got the TV on, flip between cable networks ( with an eye toward Fox News ). Use Twitter cautiously (consider following our Politics editor’s list of key accounts and our Atlantic staff list ). Don’t for...