The Atlantic

Pope Francis leaves behind a Church that is moving away from the faith he championed, Elizabeth Bruenig writes. Is the progressive Christianity that he represented doomed in the United States?

Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan is a reward for Russian aggression that would functionally destroy Ukraine, Tom Nichols argues. https://lnkd.in/gNbP9j9N “If Trump has his way, Washington will lift sanctions against Russia; both sides will accept a cease-fire in place (leaving Russian troops on newly conquered Ukrainian territory), and the United States will agree to recognize Crimea as part of Russia (leaving the Kremlin with full ownership of previously conquered territory),” Nichols writes. “For this, Ukraine gets basically nothing, except a vaporous security guarantee from an American president who has made clear his hostility to Ukraine and its leaders.” Ukraine would “limp away from the deal as a vulnerable rump state, shorn of some 20 percent of its territory and millions of its citizens,” Nichols continues. “It would cede control over its foreign policy by promising never to join NATO—an ironic Russian demand, given how starkly Putin’s invasion has reminded the world why alliances such as NATO must continue to exist. But NATO membership is a distant issue compared with the immediate problem: If Kyiv agrees to Trump’s proposal, whatever is left of the Ukrainian state will soon be an easy target for the Kremlin. Once the Russian economy recovers and Russia’s forces catch their breath, Putin will finish the job of conquering Ukraine with even greater vengeance and violence. Time and space are on Moscow’s side, and Trump intends to give Putin plenty of both.” “The Americans have threatened to walk away from the process if either side refuses Trump’s deal, but no one can believe that this is even a token attempt to pressure Moscow,” Nichols continues. The White House is aiming its rhetorical fire squarely at Volodymyr Zelensky, who for his part continues to insist on an “immediate, full, and unconditional cease-fire” before he agrees to further negotiations, a position Trump will likely use as a pretext for abandoning further talks. The Trump “peace” plan is no such thing, Nichols writes at the link in our bio. It is an instrument of surrender, and the Ukrainians are unlikely to accept it. 📸: Yehor Kryvoruchko / Global Images Ukraine / Getty

“I turned 82 last Bastille Day, and I cannot figure out how I got here,” a reader writes to James Parker. “I should be dead. I have emphysema, I’m basically immobile, and I no longer really go anywhere—I certainly don’t travel. Otherwise, I’m just fine!” In this week’s “Dear James” column, Parker takes the opportunity to salute—from his “gentle-ish tumulus of middle age”—all of his readers who are navigating their 70s, 80s, and 90s. “I very much appreciate this letter: the grit, the pith, the doom-tastic defiance,” Parker writes to one of these readers. “Obviously, you are not fine, but your spirit is strong, and—perhaps even more important—your sense of humor is intact.” Read more of Parker’s advice: https://lnkd.in/gxjAm9CP Have questions about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems? Write to James Parker at dearjames@theatlantic.com. ⁠

Why do novelists love to imagine great historical figures as detectives? Talya Zax on how these murder-solving characters let readers glimpse the minds of geniuses:

Would Joan Didion have wanted this? Lynn Steger Strong explores the publication of the late writer’s private letters. https://lnkd.in/eiXRBgzg “Notes to John” is 150 pages of posthumously published notes found among Didion’s keepsakes. The writings are virtually real-time accounts of sessions that Didion spent with her psychiatrist from December 1999 to January 2002. Addressed to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, the notes evidently represent an effort to order her thoughts on the page during a torturous time for the family. They focus mostly on the couple’s only child, Quintana, who died in 2005 at the age of 39 (less than two years after Dunne’s passing). Didion’s early works “established her reputation as a writer of great introspection held back by chilly reserve. But late in her life, Didion went straight into the emotional turmoil of loss with two books: ‘The Year of Magical Thinking,’ about Dunne’s sudden passing, and ‘Blue Nights,’ which she wrote after Quintana’s lingering illness and death,” Strong writes. “Despite the confessional turn … those late memoirs are works of both exposure and careful control; they withhold from the reader the undignified details of the husband’s death, the daughter’s decline, and the mother’s disorienting pain.” “The letters in ‘Notes to John’ comprise the raw material … These notes were written by a terrified mother grasping to make sense of her grown-up, slowly disintegrating child,” Strong writes. “More than direct, ‘Notes to John’ is naked, unadorned … Yet the book evades a set of larger questions: Why do we need to see writers (or anyone) at their most open and despairing to be convinced that they are also human? How does our understanding of the line between art and exploitation shift once the writer dies and can’t make choices for herself? Why do we feel the need to lay them bare when they can no longer speak for themselves?” “What we see of Didion in these pages is that, at least for three years, the sharp seer and brilliant stylist felt more desperate, less in control, in life than she ever did inside the books she published,” Strong continues. “I’m not sure why we need a new book to know that.” Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eiXRBgzg 🎨: Vivian Dehning. Source: John Bryson / Getty.

Tim Walz has been busy traveling from state to state for labor roundtables, townhall meetings, and impromptu roadside stops, reports Mark Leibovich. At the very least, Walz “feels itchy to help jump-start the second Donald Trump resistance”:

Buprenorphine can stop cravings for opioids, yet its uptake in the U.S. has stagnated. Ethan Brooks on how America is missing a chance to beat opioid addiction:

A newly reissued book documents the dreams of Germans living under Hitler, charting totalitarianism’s power over the subconscious. Gal Beckerman on what happens when Nazis enter your dreams:

Elon Musk is stepping away from politics and turning his attention back to Tesla. But his struggling car company doesn't have a clear path forward, writes Patrick George:

“For the second time in three years, the reckless leader of a major English-speaking power has played mind games with global bond investors and lost,” writes Paul Mason: https://lnkd.in/eBBv2BBB