Hello, and happy New Year!
In our last correspondence, I announced that I was leaving TIME. In this one, I can finally share why: This week, I joined Reuters as its new digital features editor. As the title suggests, this new role will involve conceptualizing and editing new features for the Reuters website, which went behind a paywall last year. After spending nearly a decade writing and reporting for American magazines, I’m very excited to be taking on this new challenge with the world’s largest international news agency and its roughly 2,500 journalists across the globe.
As this next chapter will involve more editing than writing, the “What I’ve Written” part of these correspondences will probably be more sparse. However, I will continue to share the best things I’ve read and perhaps even bulk out the “What I’m thinking about” section. If you have any feedback on what you’d like to see more from our correspondences going forward, hit ‘reply’ and let me know!
I’ll have more to share on the kinds of stories I’ll be working on soon. Until then, watch this space—and, if you feel so inclined, subscribe to Reuters for as little as £1 ($1) a week. In a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on community notes over fact checkers, trusted news sources are more important than ever.
What I’ve read
Americans are spending more time alone than ever before—the consequences of which are spelled out so masterfully, and depressingly, in The Atlantic’s latest cover story
Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with psychologists, political scientists, sociologists, and technologists about America’s anti-social streak. Although the particulars of these conversations differed, a theme emerged: The individual preference for solitude, scaled up across society and exercised repeatedly over time, is rewiring America’s civic and psychic identity. And the consequences are far-reaching—for our happiness, our communities, our politics, and even our understanding of reality.
This analysis on how Democrats ceded the anti-war lane to Republicans—and how they can win it back
When Joe Biden took office in 2021, I never imagined I would write this, but by the end of his presidency he will have done more damage to the so-called “rules-based order” than Trump did. Fifteen months and counting of support for Israel’s horrific assault on Gaza has violated virtually every international norm on the protections of civilians in war and left America’s moral credibility in tatters. Biden showed that international law is little more than a cudgel to be used against our enemies while being treated as optional for our friends.
This heart-wrenching essay on the Palisades Fire from a seventh-generation Californian:
My ancestors came to California before it was even a state; we have lived through decades of Santa Ana winds coming in off the desert and shaking our houses so powerfully, we lose sleep. But my brother and I also used to stand outside our childhood home, our backs to the wind, and toss stones into a nearby canyon, laughing as the Santa Anas carried them farther than we could ever throw. The winds are part of life here, and one that I’ve always, probably foolishly, loved.
What I’m thinking about
My home state of California, where wildfires are wreaking havoc on large swathes of Los Angeles. To call these fires the most destructive in LA’s history, which they are, doesn’t seem to capture just how devastating this crisis has been for the city and its people, who face horrifying blazes that are being propelled ever forward by hurricane force winds.
Although I’m a NorCal native, I went to college in Los Angeles—a city that I’ll always be grateful for, and one that many dear friends call home. If you’d like to support the emergency response and those being affected, the Los Angeles Times has a helpful guide.
Until next time,
Yasmeen