16+ min ago (487+ words) Sen. Cory Booker has married his fianc" Alexis Lewis in Washington, DC, less than three months after announcing their engagement in an Instagram post. Only close family were present as the New Jersey Senator, 56, tied the knot on Saturday in an interfaith ceremony blessed by both a pastor and a rabbi " Lewis is Jewish and Booker Christian, according to the New York Times. The venue's location wasn't disclosed for privacy reasons. On Monday, the pair legally wed at the US District Court in Newark, where Booker rose to prominence as mayor " with their parents as witnesses. The couple celebrated afterward with Italian pastries and a vegan chocolate chip cookie dough cake to fit Booker's vegan diet. The pair were introduced in May 2024 by a mutual friend known for matchmaking, the Times reported. Ms Lewis, 38, who was living in LA at…...

24+ min ago (1126+ words) This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lisa La Valle, 64, who moved from New Jersey to Paris in 2018 and now lives in Brescia, Italy. La Valle retired in 2023, but still works part-time as an English teacher and is an author who writes about culture and the expat experience. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. I lived abroad for the first time at 24. I did my final university semester in Athens, Greece, and I loved it so much that I said, "I'm just going to stay" " and I did, for two years. I eventually moved back to the US and settled in New Jersey. I got married, had kids, started a career as an expat career coach, and spent many years working and traveling around the world. My ex-husband and I always dreamed of moving to…...

25+ min ago (275+ words) President Donald Trump's crypto czar, South African venture capitalist David Sacks, has pushed the Trump administration to enact several policies that have enriched his Silicon Valley friends " and potentially himself " driving a wedge in MAGA and "alarming" White House officials, The New York Times reported Sunday. "The tech bros are out of control," said Steve Bannon, Trump's former White House chief of staff and MAGA influencer, The Times reported. "They are leading the White House down the road to perdition with this ascendant technocratic oligarchy." Sacks is denoted as a special government employee in the Trump administration, meaning he isn't paid for his government work. Nevertheless, Sacks has made several recommendations that have paid off handsomely for Silicon Valley, and despite warnings from White House officials that some may pose national security risks. Sacks' work in the Trump administration has…...

26+ min ago (252+ words) Abby, all my feelings for my ex have come back, and he says he feels the same. We're different people now. We haven't taken it any further than talking and texting. I'm so confused. I don't know if I should end the relationship I'm in and give it another go with my ex, or leave it alone. " HOPELESS ROMANTIC IN TEXAS DEAR ABBY: While we were growing up, my father was abusive toward me and favored my younger sister. He said she was "too dumb to be successful," so he pushed me mercilessly (punishing me when I wasn't perfect) and mostly left her alone. As an adult, I finally found the strength to ask him to treat me right." DEAR ESTRANGED: You can try to get other family members who remember the dynamic between you and your father to vouch…...

26+ min ago (1065+ words) Aitana Lopez is an influencer who makes as much as $11,000 per month. She regularly globetrots between New York City and her home in Catalonia, Spain, promotes beauty brands, Black Friday, her favorite songs and posts plenty of thirst traps. Just don't expect to encounter her in the airport's first-class lounge. That's because despite her detailed backstory and natal chart, mapping the sky at the exact moment of her birth, the 27-year-old beauty is an AI creation. She's part of a new breed of digitally created avatars winning the battle for the public's attention, joined by the likes of chart topping "singers" Solomon Ray and Breaking Rust and "blonde bombshell" Mia Zelu, who stole the show at the Wimbledon tennis tournament " even though she wasn't physically there. "We used to do campaigns [with humans]," said Andrea Garcia, creative director at an…...

33+ min ago (952+ words) If you conked out on the couch Saturday night but then awakened to see wacko things in Auburn, Alabama, and Berkeley, California, deciding key chunks of the college football regular season, don't worry. You weren't hallucinating. If, at 11:36 p.m. Eastern time, you found yourself watching an SMU 52-yard field goal attempt rise through the California air and above the empty seats to determine who would reach the ACC championship game next weekend way over in Charlotte, you did not get "some bad liquor or something," as the eternal George Bailey once put it. And if somebody told you the kick staying wide right enabled the ACC title game to include a five-loss Duke, and that unranked Duke won a five-way tiebreaker for second place in the ACC at 6-2 alongside four ranked teams, the person telling you that is not a rascal....

45+ min ago (324+ words) Political observers and experts pounced on Saturday as a Republican lawmaker offered a stinging rejection of reported conduct by Donald Trump's administration. The Wall Street Journal's piece ahead of the weekend, Make Money Not War: Trump's Real Plan for Peace in Ukraine, claims that, "The Kremlin pitched the White House on peace through business. To Europe's dismay, the president and his envoy are on board." It caught the attention of Rep. Don Bacon, who recently issued an unrelated warning to Trump. Bacon chimed in on the report over the weekend. The lawmaker said, "WSJ today. Multi-billion $ business deals between Russian & American billionaires that forces Ukraine to give Russia more land, & make Ukraine a Russian vassal state. Greed trumps Ukrainian sovereignty. Churchill & Reagan are turning in their graves." Bacon's response brought in numerous high-profile replies of its own. Conservative pollster Sarah…...

48+ min ago (272+ words) This story is part of a series marking ChatGPT's third anniversary. Read Ian Bogost on how ChatGPT broke reality, or browse more AI coverage from The Atlantic. And people sure did use it'more than 1 million of them in the first five days. ChatGPT grew faster than any other consumer app in history. Today, it has 800 million weekly users. Numbers matter, but what is undeniable is that ChatGPT's success has quickly rewired parts of our society and economy. Now we are living in a world that ChatGPT helped build. [Read: Welcome to the slopverse] [From the December 2025 issue: The age of anti-social media is here] [Read: AI is a mass-delusion event] This list barely begins to capture the past three years'the enthusiasm for these machines, as well as the loathing and anxiety they inspire. Depending on a person's view, one might…...

48+ min ago (272+ words) This story is part of a series marking ChatGPT's third anniversary. Read Ian Bogost on how ChatGPT broke reality, or browse more AI coverage from The Atlantic. And people sure did use it'more than 1 million of them in the first five days. ChatGPT grew faster than any other consumer app in history. Today, it has 800 million weekly users. Numbers matter, but what is undeniable is that ChatGPT's success has quickly rewired parts of our society and economy. Now we are living in a world that ChatGPT helped build. [Read: Welcome to the slopverse] [From the December 2025 issue: The age of anti-social media is here] [Read: AI is a mass-delusion event] This list barely begins to capture the past three years'the enthusiasm for these machines, as well as the loathing and anxiety they inspire. Depending on a person's view, one might…...

57+ min ago (640+ words) A new Netflix mini-docuseries released this month turns its lens on an unusual part of military life: not the heat of battle, but the long, grinding calm that can precede it. The series "Marines" follows a handful of service members with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a roughly 2,000-member Marine contingent that deploys aboard a trio of Navy ships, floating sea bases that can be rapidly moved into global hotspots. The 31st MEU is based in Japan, home to one of the Corps" three major bases, with others in California and North Carolina. Marines go through intense training in preparation for such deployments, certifying for missions ranging from disaster response to amphibious assaults. The Netflix show centers on the planning behind a large-scale beach landing, a classic Marine Corps mission. If the exercise fails, the entire unit could lose its deployment certification....