Missing Tennessee girl left in the woods by a man she met online, sheriff says

Survivors from the crash told ABC News that they heard and felt explosions outside the aircraft during the flight, after which the plane appeared to lose control.

Smokey Robinson and Ronald White wrote and produced the classic Motown melody "My Girl. It went on to become the first No.1 single for The Temptations.

A new study says outdoor security camera apps are among the biggest collectors of user data, including phone numbers, payment details and precise location.

High-profile figures ranging from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to rapper and model Amber Rose threw their support behind President-elect Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda this year.

A lot of the drama from 2024 can be traced to some of its annoying people and there are too many to list here. We get to make fun of the worst of them.

The American Culture Quiz is a weekly test of our unique national traits, trends, history and people. This time, test your knowledge of New Year’s novelties, highway history and musical milestones.

This is my third time honoring what I see as the year’s most important scientific and technological advances.In 2022, my theme was the principle of “twin ideas,” when similar inventions emerge around the same time. Just as Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both arguably conceived of the modern telephone in 1876 (and, by some accounts, on the same day!), the U.S. saw a cluster of achievements in generative AI, cancer treatment, and vaccinology.In 2023, my theme was the long road of progress. My top breakthrough was Casgevy, a gene-editing therapy for patients with sickle-cell anemia. The therapy built on decades of research on CRISPR, an immune defense system borrowed from the world of bacteria.[View: 2024 in photos: Wrapping up the year]This year, my theme is the subtler power of incremental improvement, which has also been a motif of technological progress. Although nothing invented in 2024 rivals the gosh-wow debut of ChatGPT or the discovery of GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, this year witnessed several advancements across medicine, space technology, and AI that extend our knowledge in consequential ways.An Ingenious Defense Against HIVAround the world, 40 million people live with HIV, and an estimated 630,000 people die of AIDS-related illness every year. The disease has no cure. But whereas patients in rich developed countries have access to medicine that keeps the virus at bay, many people in poor countries, where the disease is more widespread, do not.This year, scientists at the pharmaceutical company Gilead announced that a new injectable drug seems to provide exceptional protection from HIV for six months. In one clinical trial of South African and Ugandan girls and young women, the shot, which is called lenacapavir, reduced HIV infections by 100 percent in the intervention group. Another trial of people across several continents reported an efficacy rate of 96 percent. Clinical-trial results don’t get much more successful than that.This fall, Gilead agreed to let other companies sell cheap generic versions of the shot in poor countries. More controversially, the deal left out middle-income countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, which will have to pay more for access to the therapy.Lenacapavir works by targeting key “capsid proteins” that act as both sword and shield for HIV’s genetic material—protecting the virus’s RNA and allowing it to invade our cells. Lenacapavir stuns the proteins and disarms their sword-and-shield functions, which makes the HIV viral particles harmless. In naming lenacapavir its breakthrough of the year, the journal Science reported that the same technique could disrupt the proteins that protect countless other deadly viruses, including those that cause common colds or even once-in-a-generation pandemics. The ability to break down the structure and function of these viruses by targeting capsid proteins could help us cure even more diseases in the long run.The U.S. Enters the Age of Rocket-CatchingFor six decades, the U.S. has been pretty good at using propulsion technology to toss heavy objects into space. But catching them when they fall back to Earth? Not so much.Until this October, when a SpaceX booster plummeted from the sky at 22 times the speed of sound, hit the brakes, slowed down over the same tower that had launched it, and settled into its two giant mechanical arms for a high-tech hug. Sixty-six years after America blasted into the age of rocket-launching, it has finally entered the age of rocket-catching.[Read: The most powerful rocket in history had a good morning]So what is this rocket-pincer technology—nicknamed “chopsticks”—actually good for? SpaceX, founded and run by Elon Musk, has already cut the price of getting stuff into space by an order of magnitude. Making rockets fully reusable could cut that price “by another order of magnitude,” writes Eric Hand, a journalist with Science. Just about every aspect of a space-bound economy—running scientific experiments in our solar system, mining asteroids, manufacturing fiber optics and pharmaceuticals in microgravity conditions—runs up against the same basic economic bottleneck: Ejecting things out of our atmosphere is still very expensive. But cheap, large, and reusable rockets are the prerequisite for building any kind of world outside our own, whether it’s a small fleet of automated factories humming in low-orbit or, well, a multiplanetary civilization.A Quantum BreakthroughIn December, Google announced that its new quantum computer, based on a chip called Willow, solved a math problem in five minutes that would take one of the fastest supercomputers roughly “10 septillion years” to crack. For context, 10 septillion years is the entire history of the universe—about 14 billion years—repeated several trillion times over. The achievement was so audacious that some people speculated that Google’s computer worked by borrowing computing power from parallel universes.If that paragraph caused a nauseous combination of wonder and bafflement, that feels about right. Quantum computers don’t make sense to most people, in part because they’ve been hyped up as the ultimate supercomputer. But as the science journalist Cleo Abram has explained, that’s a misnomer. You shouldn’t think of quantum computers as being bigger, faster, or smarter than the computers that run our day-to-day life. You should think of them as being fundamentally different.Traditional computers, such as your smartphone and laptop, process information as a parade of binary switches that flip between 1 and 0. Quantum computers use qubits, which harness quantum mechanics, the weird physics that governs particles smaller than atoms. A qubit can represent both a 1 and a 0 simultaneously, thanks to a property called superposition. As you add more qubits, the computational power grows exponentially, which theoretically allows quantum computers to solve problems of dizzying complexity.Qubits are finicky and prone to error. That’s one reason quantum computers are held in special containers refrigerated to almost 0 kelvin, a temperature colder than deep space. But Google’s chip, which connects 105 qubits, is among the first to show that the number of errors can decline as more qubits are added—a discovery that future quantum-computing teams can surely build on.Optimistically, quantum computers could help us understand the rules of subatomic activity, which undergird all physical reality. That could mean designing better electric batteries by allowing researchers to simulate the behavior of electrons in metals, or revolutionizing drug discovery by predicting interactions between our immune system and viruses at the tiniest level.But the possibilities aren’t all pretty. The U.S., China, and other countries are locked in a multibillion-dollar race toward quantum supremacy, in part because it’s broadly understood that a fully functioning quantum computer could also solve the sort of complex mathematical problems that form the basis of public-key cryptography. In other words, a working quantum computer could render null and void most internet encryption. Here again, the technological power to do more good tends to rise commensurately with the power to cause more chaos.Another Year of Generative-AI WizardryThis might just be the era when any plausible list of the year’s most important technological advances ends with the sentence Oh, and also, artificial-intelligence researchers did a bunch of crazy stuff.In just the past three months, a small study found that ChatGPT outperformed human physicians at solving medical case histories; several AI companies released a torrent of impressive video generators, including Google DeepMind’s Veo 2 and OpenAI’s Sora; Google announced an AI agent whose weather forecasts outperformed the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts—the “world leader in atmospheric prediction,” according to The New York Times; and OpenAI released a new “reasoning” system that blew away industry standards in coding and complex math problems. [Read: The generative-AI revolution may be a bubble]I continue to be interested in how the transformer technology behind large language models handles the most complex logic systems. With ChatGPT, researchers showed that an AI could master the grammar of language well enough to produce plausible sentences, code, and poetry. But the cosmos is filled with other languages—that is, other logical systems that obey a finite number of rules to produce predictable results. One example is DNA. After all, what is DNA if not a language? With a vocabulary based on just four letters, or nucleotides, our genetic code spells out how our proteins, cells, organs, and bodies should function, replicate, and evolve. If one LLM can master the logic of English and computer programming, perhaps another could master the grammar of DNA—allowing scientists to synthesize biology in laboratories the same way you or I could produce synthetic paragraphs on our personal computers.To that end, this year researchers at the Arc Institute, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley created Evo, a new AI model trained on 2.7 million genomes from microbes and viruses. Evo acts as a master linguist, learning the rules of DNA across billions of years of evolution to predict functions, analyze mutations, and even design new genetic sequences.What could scientists do with generative AI for biology? Think about CRISPR technology. Scientists use a special protein to cut a cell’s DNA, like a pair of molecular scissors, allowing researchers to make basic edits to the snipped genome. This year, Evo scientists designed a wholly original protein, unknown in nature, that could perform a similar gene-editing task. As Patrick Hsu, the core investigator at Arc Institute and an assistant professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley, said, just as tools like ChatGPT have “revolutionized how we work with text, audio, and video, these same creative capabilities can now be applied to life’s fundamental codes.”

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.This was the year of Dune: Part Two, of the highest-grossing stadium tour of all time, of Wicked and Deadpool & Wolverine, of Beyoncé’s country-music album, of new works of fiction and nonfiction that proved genuinely surprising, of standout television (even amid an overload of mediocre reboots). Below, our writers and editors offer their picks for the best culture of the year.Best of the Year Illustration by Joanne Joo The Atlantic 10: The Books That Made Us Think the Most This YearBy Ann Hulbert, Boris Kachka, and Jane Yong Kim Each of our 10 [picks] is a triumph of alchemy, deriving insight from fresh combinations of dismay and delight, tragedy and comedy, mourning and hope … The feature that distinguishes all of these titles—or any book worth cherishing—is the surprising experience of reading them. Illustration by Joanne Joo The 10 Best Movies of 2024By David Sims Hollywood seems to be shifting away from the superhero industry, following decades of reliable box-office domination, but the next trend has not yet emerged. I’m heartened, though, by the broad swath of genres and storytelling approaches of my favorite movies this year, made by a mix of rising filmmakers and established figures. Illustration by Joanne Joo The 13 Best TV Shows of 2024By Sophie Gilbert, Hannah Giorgis, and Shirley Li Whether they transported us to another century or dropped us in the middle of a high-stakes work environment, these are the series that kept our hope for TV’s creative future alive. Illustration by Joanne Joo The 10 Best Albums of 2024By Spencer Kornhaber Pop stars and punks alike are … saying exactly what they feel, exactly how they want to say it. Although my top picks span a variety of genres, many of them have a similar spewing quality. They play like glorious run-on sentences, full of oversharing and id. Joanne Joo The 20 Best Podcasts of 2024By Marnie Shure This list represents the 20 best podcasts I heard this year, with a lean toward either new shows, or shows that have a renewed focus. Virtually all of them, even the most entertaining and quirky ones, suggested an underlying preoccupation with the power of narrative to shape our sense of reality. Here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic: 77 facts that blew our minds in 2024 The most memorable advice of the year Radio Atlantic: The joy of reading books in high school Essay Illustration by Allie Sullberg No One Has to Settle for Bad Pizza AnymoreBy Saahil Desai In pizza heaven, it is always 950 degrees. The temperature required to make an authentic Neapolitan pizza is stupidly, unbelievably hot—more blast furnace than broiler. My backyard pizza oven can get all the way there in just 15 minutes. Crank it to the max, and the Ooni Koda will gurgle up blue flames that bounce off the top of the dome. In 60 seconds, raw dough inflates into pillowy crust, cheese dissolves into the sauce, and a few simple ingredients become a full-fledged pizza. Violinists have the Stradivarius. Sneakerheads have the Air Jordan 1. Pizza degenerates like me have the Ooni. I got my first one three years ago and have since been on a singular, pointless quest to make the best pie possible. Read the full article.More in Culture Two different ways of understanding fatherhood Six books to read by the fire The Atlantic’s favorite images of the year The 20 best podcasts of 2024 The darkest movie of the year Bob Dylan broke rules. A Complete Unknown follows them. Trapped—and lavishly rewarded—for playing a part The agony of indulging in Squid Game again When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

Two men searching for Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, over Christmas week were found dead in the forest in the state of Washington after not coming home.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo prostate removal surgery on Sunday amid multiple conflicts across the Middle East.

He also praised the grocery store chain as a “wonderful place to work.”

North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are under warnings, with much of the east of the country facing severe storms.

Jalen Brunson scored 55 Saturday, but Precious Achiuwa was responsible for the most exciting play of the 136-132 overtime victory.

The Post’s Erich Richter makes his picks and predictions for Week 17 of the NFL season.

Choose between President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris on Special Report with Bret Baier, and Donald Trump surprising McDonald’s customers at a drive-through.

New laws taking effect in the new year will affect Hollywood actors, social media stars, chatty motorists and more.

Jill and Marcy Clements have the perfect balance of independence and togetherness in their cohousing community.

KKs attention.

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People supporting immigrants wait in line to attend a session of the Los Angeles City Council which will consider a “sanctuary city” ordinance during a meeting at City Hall in Los Angeles, California, on November 19, 2024. | Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images<br> President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly clashed with Democratic cities and states that adopted policies offering “sanctuary” to undocumented immigrants during his first term. Now, both sides are gearing up for round two. During Trump’s first term, sanctuary cities refused to allow local law enforcement to share information with federal immigration agents or hand over immigrants in their custody. This time around, many are planning to do the same, even if doing so draws them into a fight with the second Trump administration. Trump’s so-called border czar Tom Homan, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a named contributor to its Project 2025 manifesto, has indicated the incoming administration plans to make sanctuary jurisdictions targets for “mass deportations.” Homan said recently he hopes that local law enforcement will cooperate with requests from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hand over undocumented immigrants already in their custody, especially when they pose a public safety threat. “What mayor or governor doesn’t want public safety threats out of their communities?” he told the Center Square. “Their No. 1 responsibility is to protect their communities. That’s exactly what we are going to do.” Most Democratic leaders, however, have made it clear that they will not accept federal government overreach on deportations and that they are preparing to challenge Trump’s immigration policies in court. “We’re not looking for a fight from the Trump administration, but if he attacks our progress, we’ll fight back,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Vox. “Immigrants are such a critical part of who we are … who we will be.” How Trump targeted sanctuary cities in his first term In his first term, Trump’s crackdown on sanctuary jurisdictions took two forms: attempting to withhold federal funding from them and challenging their policies in court. In 2017, the Trump administration sought to block sanctuary cities from receiving federal law enforcement grants. A number of Democratic state attorneys general sued, including on behalf of New York state and city, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Three appeals courts reached different conclusions on those legal challenges, setting up a US Supreme Court fight in 2020. After Trump lost the election that year, however, the Supreme Court dismissed the case at the request of the Biden administration. That left the underlying legal questions in the case unresolved. However, Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and director of its office at New York University School of Law, said that the Constitution’s 10th Amendment protecting states’ rights provides a strong defense for sanctuary cities and states going forward. “I don’t think the last word on this issue from the Supreme Court has been heard,” he said. “The 10th Amendment is the best defense that states and localities still have as to why they shouldn’t be penalized because they’re not fully cooperating with the federal government.” The Trump administration also challenged several California state laws in court, arguing the laws interfered with the administration’s federal immigration enforcement agenda and were unconstitutional. One of those laws was the “California Values Act,” signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2017. The law prevents state and local police and sheriffs from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in a number of ways: They cannot ask about an individual’s immigration status, arrest an individual on the basis of most immigration violations alone, share an individual’s personal information with federal immigration agents unless otherwise publicly available, hand someone in local police custody over to federal immigration agents (with some exceptions), and more. Another California law challenged by the Trump administration was the Immigrant Worker Protection Act, which barred businesses from sharing employee records with immigration agents absent a court order or a subpoena. It also required employers to provide notice of upcoming inspections of workers’ employment authorization documents, given that undocumented immigrants do not have valid ones. An appeals court ultimately upheld the Values Act but struck down the parts of the Immigrant Worker Protection Act prohibiting record-sharing. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the Trump administration’s appeal of that ruling at the time, meaning the ultimate constitutionality of the law remains unsettled. That means Trump could revive and expand the tactics he used to target sanctuary cities last time, and it’s not clear whether they would hold up in court, setting the stage for a new round of legal battles in the years to come. What Trump could do in his second term Trump is again preparing to punish sanctuary jurisdictions interfering with his immigration agenda. Homan suggested on a recent appearance on the talk show Dr. Phil that the incoming administration would go as far as to prosecute people who attempt to impede federal immigration enforcement. “If you knowingly conceal or harbor an illegal alien from a police officer, it is a felony. To impede a federal law enforcement officer is a felony, so don’t cross that line,” he said. “We will present these prosecutions, so you know, don’t test us!” Trump’s advisers are also reportedly discussing reviving and expanding his previous attempt to condition federal funding to Democratic cities on cooperation with federal immigration agents. While his first administration focused on law enforcement grants, some in his circle are hoping to tackle other streams of funding, too. There is a potentially wide range to consider as cities and states get federal money for everything from infrastructure to education. “Not an iota, not a cent of government spending, should go to subsidize this,” Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s pick to co-chair his new “Department of Government Efficiency,” told ABC last month. “Not to sanctuary cities, not to federal aid to people who are in this country illegally.” Trump would likely be limited in efforts to withhold funding by a 1974 law that restricts the president’s ability to cancel government spending unilaterally. If Trump were able to convince Congress to overturn that law or successfully challenges it in court, however, he would likely have more leeway to restrict funding to sanctuary cities without congressional approval. Trump is also reportedly looking to revoke agency policy preventing ICE arrests at sensitive locations, including schools and churches. He could do so unilaterally on his first day in office. How sanctuary cities and states are responding Many mayors and attorneys general in blue states have lined up in support of sanctuary policies heading into Trump’s second term. Bonta has already pledged to take the administration to court if it tries to withhold funding to sanctuary jurisdictions again. “It was an unconstitutional attempt to coerce California against its state’s rights,” he said. “If they attempt to do that again, we’ll bring them to court again, and we will argue that our 10th Amendment rights, our state’s rights, prevent such conditioning of grant funding to us.” Bonta also said that any attempt Trump makes to deport US citizens together with their undocumented family members — something the president-elect has floated — would be unconstitutional and that his mass deportation plan is bound to violate individuals’ due process rights. Most Democratic leaders have echoed Bonta’s statements, but there is one notable exception: New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has expressed willingness to work with the Trump administration on its deportation goals. Adams is reportedly considering working with the Trump administration to target “violent individuals.” He has insisted he would not go further than that, but immigrant rights groups have raised concerns that he might anyway, worried that the mayor will leave New York City’s half-a-million undocumented immigrants more vulnerable to deportation than they were last time Trump was president. “Mayor Adams has repeatedly demonized undocumented immigrants, from implying that they can be stripped of their right to due process to using them as scapegoats for his mismanagement of the City budget,” the group Make the Road NY said in a statement. Adams told Fox that his legal team will sit down with the president-elect’s to explore the possibility of an executive order that could override New York City’s sanctuary laws. Those laws currently place limits on information-sharing with federal immigration authorities and prevent the city from honoring requests from ICE to detain people. He also said that his administration is looking into exceptions to New York City law preventing any ICE officer from entering a city government building. That would potentially allow ICE to access the city jail on Rikers Island, as Homan has requested. Adams’s posture is a reflection of the changing politics of immigration among Democrats in recent years after apprehensions at the southern border reached record highs and many blue cities strained to absorb immigrants arriving on buses from border states. Under Biden, Democrats embraced a right-wing border security bill that represented a sharp turn from their emphasis on immigrants’ rights and contributions to the country. “This three and a half years of border arrivals left a long shadow on the immigration policy and politics of our country in a way not fully appreciated,” Chishti said. “To say that we should welcome every immigrant in our city is not where the center of gravity of the Democratic Party is today.” While other Democrats aren’t as vocal as Adams in supporting cooperation with the incoming Trump administration, others haven’t been as full-throated in their support of sanctuary policies. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, for instance, said last month that she did not know what would happen in the future to the city’s sanctuary policies, even though a spokesperson for her office told Vox that those policies remain in place for now. That tepid commitment suggests the ground may be shifting even outside of New York City.

Post sports betting writer Dylan Svoboda is in his first season in the NFL Bettor’s Guide.

2024 was packed with surprises: from Olympic scandals to royals in crises, roasted Tom Brady to record-setting Mets salaries, Moo Deng to the "Hawk Tuah" girl. Test your memory of it all.

NY Post readers discuss what President-elect Donald Trump’s energy policy may look like in his second term.

Americans are eagerly awaiting to see how President-elect Donald Trump will change DEI policies, programs and statutes.

The U.S. has been targeting Houthi facilities in Yemen and has long carried out military activities in the country.

A passenger plane burst into flames Sunday after it skidded off a runway at a South Korean airport.

Nice and mild tomorrow before another chance or rain on New Year’s Eve.

Some Republican senators' concerns led to major food delivery service companies revising their protocols. Others believe it won't make a difference.

Daniel Penny's prosecution is causing reasonable people to think twice before helping a fellow straphanger, making the subways even more dangerous — despite Hochul’s absurd rhetoric.

The Washington Commanders meet the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night. Here’s everything you need to know for game day.

A News12 anchor claims she had a psychotic break and was put on suicide watch after months of being "gaslit" by supervisors.

Readers complain of a lack of enforcement of no-riding rules on beach bike paths, which they say e-bike cyclists routinely flout.

There’s no single variable to explain the Commanders’ flip from 4-13 to 10-5, but Dan Quinn’s team is together and of one mind with a trip to the playoffs in sight.

This past year was dominated by a presidential race unlike any other. With Trump set to retake the White House, columnists Anita Chabria and Mark Z. Barabak puzzle out the past 12 months and put 2025 in perspective.

In California, Texas and around the globe, habitat is increasingly scarce for humans and nonhumans. It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.

How in touch with the owners of blue-collar businesses are the elites who decry California's liberal policies?

Rams defensive backs Ahkello Witherspoon and Kamren Kinchens came through again, this time with late interceptions to preserve a victory over the Cardinals.

In a Dec. 24 lawsuit, the founder of a publicity firm that represented actor Justin Baldoni effectively outed herself as the source of texts. She disavows involvement.

When someone is out of work but has plenty of savings, they may be eligible to apply for public assistance programs. But is it ethical to do so?

Cinematic box office started slow in 2024, but picked up speed in summer and blossomed in fall. But with revenues still down compared with pre-pandemic times, what's to come?

Under the “Stop Campus Hazing Act,” most higher education institutions will be required to publicly report hazing incidents and begin prevention programs.

'The message of Christmas seems to be that God will save us, and yet here we are,' says a reader. He offers Buddhism as an empowering alternative.

In iOS 18.2 and later, Apple&apos;s Mail app enhances email management by automatically sorting messages into distinct categories to help find emails faster.

Americans of all stripes say LGBTQ+ loved ones have positively influenced their lives, and that community solidarity and queer triumphs of the past provide hope at a difficult time politically.

All the unprecedented hostile efforts to end Donald Trump may only have made him stronger — and more empathetic when seen as a target of increasingly fanatical enemies.

Shirin Galili has shared a combination of techniques designed to help parents teach their kids without raising their voices.

Brace for a MAGA civil war, mayhem courtesy of Elon Musk and Democrats with more leverage than the Nov. 5 election might have led you to believe.