Aerial view of house

“T hink of this as a travel piece,” she might have written. “Imagine it in Sunset magazine: ‘Five Great California Stops Along the Joan Didion Trail.’ ” Or think of this as what it really is: a road trip of magical thinking. I had known that Didion’s Parkinson’s was advancing; seven or eight months earlier, someone had told me that she was vanishing; someone else had told me that for the past two years, she hadn’t been able to speak. I didn’t want her to die. My sense of myself is in many ways wrapped up in the 40 essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album . I don’t know how many times I’ve read Democracy . “Call me the author,” she writes in that novel. “Let the reader be introduced to Joan Didion.” There are people who admire Joan Didion, and people who enjoy reading Joan Didion, and people who think Joan Didion is overrated. But then there are the rest of us. People who can’t really explain how those first two collections hit us, or why we … [Read more...] about Chasing Joan Didion

Tomorrow, Congress will hold a public hearing on the issue of UFOs—or as the government officials prefer to call them, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). You will be able to watch the House Intelligence Committee's subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation hearing live, with the session commencing at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday. If you would like to watch the public hearing, the House Intelligence YouTube channel is providing a live stream of the event, which can be viewed below. After the open portion of the hearting, the subcommittee will hold a closed, classified briefing on the matter. The hearing will be chaired by Indiana Representative André Carson and feature testimony from two top defense officials: Scott Bray , the deputy director of naval intelligence, and Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security. "The American people expect and deserve their leaders in government and intelligence to … [Read more...] about When U.S. Congress UFO hearing is happening and how to watch

I first heard about the U.S. Congress hearing on UFOs the day the news of it broke in early May 2022. The first hearing of its kind in 50 years, on May 17 the House Intelligence Committee's subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation will discuss unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), or UFOs to the rest of us. I knew there were rumors that it may one day happen, but I had thought we were another year out from that, given current world events and the political climate. But it sure was exciting to finally see such an important issue wind up on the calendar of U.S. Congress. I first became interested in the topic of UFOs back when I was a teenager. After seeing all sorts of stories in the news, I thought I would seek out government and military documents. I was 15, and thought perhaps I could get some answers, even though I knew there would be some level of obfuscation. As I fought for previously classified records under the Freedom of Information … [Read more...] about “I uncover hidden UFO files. Congress is finally listening”

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic , Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. “T hink of this as a travel piece,” she might have written. “Imagine it in Sunset magazine: ‘Five Great California Stops Along the Joan Didion Trail.’ ” Or think of this as what it really is: a road trip of magical thinking. I had known that Didion’s Parkinson’s was advancing; seven or eight months earlier, someone had told me that she was vanishing; someone else had told me that for the past two years, she hadn’t been able to speak. I didn’t want her to die. My sense of myself is in many ways wrapped up in the 40 essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album . I don’t know how many times I’ve read Democracy . “Call me the author,” she writes in that novel. “Let the reader be introduced to Joan Didion.” There are people who admire Joan Didion, and people who … [Read more...] about Joan Didion’s Magic Trick

Coverage on this live blog has ended, please click here for the latest updates. The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet sank Thursday after Ukraine claimed to have launched a successful missile attack on it, forcing the crew to evacuate. The Russian defense ministry said the Moskva warship had been "seriously damaged" and blamed the incident on a fire. U.S. and other Western officials could not confirm the cause of the fire. The loss of the ship could prove a significant setback in the Russian forces' efforts in Ukraine's south and east, where a fierce battle for Mariupol is ongoing. The head of the U.N. World Food Program offered a grim assessment of the situation in the city, saying people are being “starved to death” and predicting that the country’s humanitarian crisis will worsen as Russia intensifies its assault in the coming weeks. The International Red Cross says it’s rolling out its largest-ever cash assistance program to help more than 2 million people in … [Read more...] about Russian warship sinks in Black Sea